choke element

Chapter 1011: Use of Length (Part )

Having said this, Shi Miyuan looked up and saw Xuan Zeng's face was distracted.

With Xuan Zeng's knowledge, qualifications and status, he has always been regarded by outsiders as an important strategist of the Shi Party. In recent years, Shi Xiang's power has been growing stronger and stronger. Xuan Zeng should have become more and more capable in front of Shi Xiang and understand Shi Xiang's intentions more and more.

But in recent years, the interests of the Shi Party have increasingly come from the sea, so countless subordinates have been staring at the benefits like flies staring at the smell of fish, year after year. For example, Xuan Zhan, who was specially ordered to deal with the outsiders of the Great Zhou, spent most of the year either in Qingyuan Prefecture or at sea.

Perhaps he had been looking out for too long and had seen too many storms and waves, so it was difficult for him to retract his attention and focus on the delicate judgment in Lin'an Prefecture. So much so that when Shi Miyuan really wanted to discuss important matters with him, he seemed to be unable to react in time.

Once the Mongols and the powerful northern enemies start fighting, the Song Dynasty will have so much to do! I, Shi Miyuan, will have so much to do!
At this time, why bother about the dead people in Shukou? Don't you understand the basic priorities?
Shi Miyuan frowned slightly, but he had something to tell Xuan Zeng, his confidant, so he patiently explained:
"Since Wu Xi was executed, there has been unrest in Shukou. An Bing, who succeeded him, also wanted to secede from the bottom of his heart. After An Bing left office, rebellions broke out one after another in Sichuan and Shu, especially when the two thieves Zhang Fu and Mo Jian killed officials and rebelled. Soldiers from at least six military states responded in large numbers, and the people of more than ten military states were shaken and corrupt. It is clear that the military and civilians in Shu are trying to force the court to welcome An Bing back and continue to carve out a territory in Sichuan and Shu for themselves. As a result, Dong Juyi has been hindered in everything he does in Sichuan for two years, and he has been pretending to obey but secretly disobeying everything!"

Shi Miyuan patted the armrest of the couch and said coldly: "Dong Juyi is a bit too obsessed with making money. Later, Nie Zishu went to Sichuan to replace him. He thought he was far away from me and didn't care about the importance of his work. But these local people in Sichuan are not loyal to the court. They are like abscesses in the human body that cannot be cured. If we don't cut them off with a sharp knife in time, are we going to wait for them to get worse and endanger lives? Even if the Mongols don't take action, the court will sooner or later use the axe to suppress them severely!"

After all, the document was short on words, and Xuan Zhan didn't know what exactly happened, so it was not easy for him to use this as an excuse to argue with the prime minister. But deep down, he felt that there was something wrong with this situation, so he argued again:
"The Mongols are a foreign race after all! If we let them do this, it would be like opening the door to the enemy, allowing the Tartar army to easily spy on the three passes and five states that have been managed by Shukou for a hundred years. This would be..."

"so what!"

Shi Miyuan was a little impatient. He raised his voice slightly and said, "The Mongols and the Zhou Kingdom are mortal enemies! The two are still in their infancy, and a fight will inevitably lead to bloodshed. This is very good for us! You know, what we are worried about is never the Mongols!"

Xuan Zhen took a breath and asked tentatively, "Does the Prime Minister intend to be hostile to the northerners?"

When asking this question, as long as Prime Minister Shi showed the slightest agreement, even just a slight nod, Xuan Zeng would have dared to conclude that Prime Minister Shi had gone crazy.

On the surface, the Song Dynasty regarded itself as the orthodox, with Lin'an as its capital; the Northern Expedition to recover the Central Plains was the righteous cause and foundation of the Song Dynasty, and no opposition was allowed. But the reality was that since the migration to the south, the Song Dynasty had not gained any benefits from war. Moreover, any move to put war into practice would inevitably affect the interests of many parties and ultimately bring tragic consequences.

The imperial court did not want to see war, because war would inevitably increase the status of military men, leading to the loss of balance in the stable interior of the Song Dynasty. The people did not want to see war, because war was accompanied by bloodshed and extortion, which the people who were used to a comfortable life could not bear. The army itself did not want to fight, because the soldiers of the Song Dynasty generally only fought for a meal, so how could they rush to die for a half-starved meal?
As for all the people in Shi Xiang's party, they were the biggest beneficiaries of the North-South trade in recent years. Every year, the wealth that could be passed on to future generations was growing rapidly. Who would be willing to interrupt such a good life?
There are only two kinds of people in the Song Dynasty who would jump up and down and talk about war. One is the students who have read too much, and the other is the people who stand behind them to stir up trouble. Those people who clamor for war are not for the war itself, but for Shi Xiang, who wants to seize power. If the two families really fight, Xuan Zeng doesn't believe they dare to go to the battlefield.

So, isn't it best if the two families maintain peace?

Why did the Prime Minister insist on lending the road to the Mongols? Even if there was no such road, wouldn't the Mongols and the Great Zhou have fought to the death? The Great Zhou rose up on the corpses of the Mongols, and the two families would have been fighting to the death long ago. The Prime Minister secretly instructed people to lend the road to the Mongols, which was simply unnecessary. And if the Great Song intervened... God has mercy on me, no one wants to fight this war, and it can't be fought at all!
Xuan Zhan really didn't want to see the peaceful momentum between the two families interrupted, and he didn't want the one who interrupted it to be Shi Xiang himself. After all, everyone supported Shi Xiang, not the dead ghost Han Tuozhou! If Shi Xiang insisted on going that way, it would mean the collapse of the entire political landscape!

No, no, it's impossible. From a historical perspective, he would never do such a ridiculous thing!

In the blink of an eye, countless thoughts flashed through Xuan Zhuang's mind. He suddenly noticed that Shi Miyuan was silent for a long time, and a little worry gradually appeared in his eyes.

Could it be that……

Xuan Zhen froze for a moment, lowered his voice and asked again: "The Crown Prince's health..."

Shi Miyuan nodded imperceptibly: "It's getting worse day by day. It's very bad. The chances of surviving this winter are no more than 30%."

It turned out to be the case.

Shi Miyuan staged a coup to kill the former prime minister Han Tuozhou, and replaced him as the only powerful prime minister. During this process, his biggest allies were the empress and the crown prince in the palace. However, the crown prince had been weak and sick since childhood. Although he was nominally granted the power to participate in politics by the emperor, he actually stayed away from the East Palace for years, and there were reports of his serious illness from time to time.

At the same time, although the emperor never took power, he intentionally or unintentionally elevated the status of Prince Yi's heir, as if he was going to use him to replace the crown prince. Prince Yi's heir himself thus had a certain influence, and he increasingly raised the banner and stood in opposition to Shi.

Reorganizing the army and recovering the lost territory in the Central Plains is the most useful banner.

Interestingly, because the people who controlled the Central Plains were no longer the foreign races that ate raw meat and drank blood, many people who shouted slogans of justice became much bolder. Perhaps they thought that the foreign races would only chop people with machetes, while the northern Han people actually took the majesty of the Zhao Song government seriously.

Everyone in the Shi Party understood that this idea was extremely stupid.

Not to mention now, during the Jingkang period, the Yanyun people no longer cared about the Song Dynasty. And the Central Plains people who turned to the Song Dynasty afterwards received disappointing rewards.

For a hundred years, no one has been able to clearly determine whether it is right or wrong. For any proposition, supporters can give a hundred reasons, opponents can give a thousand, and then supporters can respond with ten thousand. It seems that each argument is well-cited and well-written, but in fact, it is all a mess.

"In fact, after the Song Dynasty moved south, it rarely used military force to advance. The generals during the Jianyan period were so powerful, but they often failed in battles, with countless casualties. There were even cases where tens of thousands of elite soldiers defected to the north... What was their use? In the end, the stable situation of southerners returning to the south and northerners returning to the north was not achieved because Qin Zhongxian Gong humbled himself and sought peace, but also used his maneuvers within the Jin Dynasty? Therefore, the problems of the Song Dynasty have never been in the outside world, but in the inside; the key to solving the problems of the Song Dynasty is not outsiders, but those idiots inside who only talk big but ignore the difficulties of maintaining the country!"

When Shi Miyuan said this, Xuan Zeng understood.

He immediately said, "In the past few years, we have had to let certain people talk big. They have already formed a trend, constantly involving powerful officials. As for Zhen Dexiu, Wei Liaoweng and others, they also shouted about training troops and selecting generals, which was very rampant. In the past, we could have slowly divided and adjusted such trends. But because the crown prince is seriously ill, once the officials involved in the trend are combined with the emperor's intention to re-establish the crown prince..."

Xuan Zhen gritted his teeth and said, "Prime Minister, the truth may be revealed at any time!"

In the past few years, Shi Miyuan and his followers have gained huge economic benefits, and their political power has expanded to a previously unimaginable extent. Everyone, including Shi Miyuan, will never allow power to fall into the hands of others.

Moreover, Shi Miyuan himself came to power through a coup. His methods of suppressing political opponents were so brutal and cruel that only Qin Zhongxian, the official, could be compared with him. As his subordinate, Xuan Zeng understood this more and could not accept his own failure.

The problem is that the Shi Party has created too many complicated connections in the past few years. If the heir of Prince Yi really wants to raise his arms, there are too many things to criticize about this huge system of sharing the spoils.

It would be fine if Prince Yi and his party were clamoring for a northern expedition, but when Prince Yi really became the crown prince and stepped into the limelight, his followers would certainly wave other banners and confront Prime Minister Shi head-on. By then, the trend would continue unabated, and all of Prime Minister Shi's followers would find it difficult to cope with it!
If that time really came, what would Shi Xiang do? He couldn't just follow the example of Qin Zhongxian Gong and rely on the power of the north to consolidate his own power.

impossible.

Duke Zhongxian of Qin was able to do this because the Jurchens in the north had no confidence in governing the Central Plains, so Wanyan Talan, who was in collusion with the Song Dynasty, conspired with Qin to seek peace between the north and the south. Now the Zhou Kingdom in the north... their emperor's surname is Guo, and the country's name is Da Zhou. This intention is obvious!

If the Song Dynasty's own formation is in disarray, is there any need to guess what the Zhou Dynasty will do?

"So, we can't go on like this. We can't give these people the chance to rush at me with knives, and we can't give them the chance to unfold the Du Kang map."

Shi Miyuan nodded heavily: "I will muddy the waters before the storm starts! If someone wants to fan the flames, I will light the fire in advance and force them to respond!"

"Now, Zhao Gui and that kid are hiding in the back, not allowing others to mention his name. This group of people dare not openly state their purpose, but just wave the banner of advocating war. In this case, I will act in advance and drive all his wings to the Jiangbei front..."

Shi Miyuan threw the quilt away and sneered several times: "Aren't you talking about war all the time? The Central Plains will soon be in chaos. Those who want to fight, get out of Lin'an, go to the border to defend, and see how others fight! Don't you like to brag about military training? Then take a look at the Mongolian army and the Zhou army with your own eyes, and figure out how to train the army and military training to withstand it! Don't you want to recover the Central Plains? The Central Plains is in chaos, and their chance has come, why not give it a try? Fight the Mongols or the Zhou people, it's up to them!"

Xuan Zeng listened to Shi Miyuan's words and felt that Prime Minister Shi was indeed the top figure in the political arena of the Song Dynasty.

The people behind Shi Xiang's political enemies were the heir of Prince Yi, and who was behind the heir of Prince Yi? It was obviously the emperor.

In fact, if we analyze it in detail, the crown prince's critical illness has lifted the emperor's long-standing concerns about the prime minister. At this moment, the situation is not a struggle between different political forces in the court, but a struggle between the extremely stretched prime minister's power and the imperial power that has finally waited for its chance.

This struggle is more than a life-and-death struggle. If there is any disadvantage, the family will be ruined!

Since Qin Zhongxian, there has not been a prime minister in the Song Dynasty who could suppress the emperor. However, facing such a difficult situation, Shi Xiang did not panic at all. His plans were beyond the expectations of ordinary people and almost foolproof. On the contrary, Xuan Zeng himself had a hard time keeping up with Shi Miyuan's thinking.

Xuan Zhan nodded hurriedly and said, "Since those people advocate war, they can only obey the pressure of the Privy Council and the Censors and go to the border military states to serve. Once they go, it will be difficult for them to escape. And the Prime Minister will have time to calmly deploy in Lin'an to deal with the changes!"

"I have already made plans for Lin'an, but it will take time. Therefore, the more chaos in the Central Plains, the better!"

Shi Miyuan said in a deep voice: "The longer the Mongols and Guo Ning fight, the better! If the two families kill each other and cause the people to flee, and the war on the border continues, that would be even better! If the Central Plains continues to be in chaos, the Privy Council and the Censors will be able to withstand the pressure and pin those people down on the border, so that they will no longer be able to control the affairs of the emperor!"

"So, what does the Prime Minister need me to do?"

"The Zhou Kingdom in the north has strong soldiers and horses, and it is said that they often beat the Mongols. Now that the Mongols are moving in full force, we must use their strengths and not make things difficult for ourselves. You must immediately go to the west of the capital to restrain Zhao Fang, and ask him and his men to clear the road, open the treasury, and give the Mongols a hand!"

"...as you command."

"Of course, don't be too revealing, you understand?"

"Just rest assured, sir."

Xuan Zhan bowed respectfully and backed out of the room. The subtle sound of footsteps and the friction of robes gradually disappeared. Shi Miyuan leaned on the couch and sat quietly for a while.

He didn't know when, his elegant and dignified face became more and more ferocious. Suddenly, he heard the wind blowing the window frame, and he turned his head sharply to look over there. It was late at night, and outside the heavy curtains, all he could see was thick black.