Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 579 Choice
The emperor went on a tour to the west to pray for the empress dowager.

On this trip, the Empress Dowager, the Emperor, the Empress, the Second Prime Minister Wei Liangchen, the Vice-Minister of State Affairs Zhang Jun, and the Vice Minister of War and Acting Director of the Academy of Scholars Shen Xuzhong accompanied him.

The commander-in-chief of the Imperial Dragon Guard, Mo Long, led the troops in front of the palace as the internal guard, while Zhao Mi and Luo Ke Di led the elite troops of the Imperial Guard Cavalry and the Imperial Guard Infantry.

All the soldiers and horses totaled 30,000 people.

When Emperor Zhenzong first offered sacrifices to the gods at Mount Tai, he brought with him 15,000 elite imperial guards.

The distance from Chengdu to Lintao is much farther than that from Mount Tai to Youzhou.

However, considering that the current situation between Song and Xia is more tense than the situation between Song and Liao during Zhenzong's Fengshan ceremony, for the sake of safety, double the number of troops was dispatched.

The regent, Prince of Jin, Zhao Ju, led all the civil and military officials in the court to escort the emperor out of the city with great fanfare.

On the Imperial Street, many people were watching this rare scene.

In the crowd, Luo Cheng'an looked up at the emperor's procession slowly leaving the city, he heaved a sigh of relief, and said to Yan Qingyu beside him: "According to the pace, Xiaoying has already reached the vicinity of Luoyang, right?"

Yan Qingyu nodded and whispered, "Almost. The emperor set out late and traveled slowly. She can buy enough time for the country to change accordingly."

Luo Cheng'an looked around cautiously, turned around and walked away, saying to Yan Qingyu who was following closely behind him: "As long as the emperor is in the southwest, the border restrictions will be ten times stricter. We must not only wait for the opportunity, but also the time. During this period, be cautious and do not reveal your true identity."

"Uncle Luo, don't worry."

After a pause, Yan Qingyu said, "I'm just wondering, why does the Prime Minister insist on having Yang Yuan alive? And why can't he even be injured? If not for this, we could have taken action a long time ago, but now we are hesitant."

Luo Chengan smiled faintly and said, "You and I are just following orders, why are there so many whys? Let's go back, the clinic should be open."

Zhao Yu saw the emperor off and stopped at Shili Pavilion. The two brothers, one in the carriage and the other under the horse, looked into each other's eyes, and exchanged thousands of words.

The curtain of the sedan chair was slowly lowered, and the imperial carriage slowly moved westward.

Zhao Yu led the civil and military officials to bow to the ground. When he slowly straightened up, he watched the soldiers marching past him. Zhao Yu whispered to the eunuch who was waiting beside him, "Secretly tell the three judicial officials to go to the Prince of Jin's palace and wait."

All the officials got up two hours earlier than the emperor left the city, and only then did they complete all the tedious tasks.

Now that the emperor has finally left, everyone is exhausted. After all, most officials who can reach this position are old.

The military generals are fine, they practice martial arts every day and have good physiques.

Among the civil servants, perhaps only the Vice-Minister Tang Situi is still energetic. After all, he is not yet forty years old.

It is said that Yang Yuan rose to prominence at an incredible speed, but Tang Situi was also a man of great luck.

He was a Jinshi in the 15th year of Shaoxing. In less than ten years, he was promoted to Vice Minister of Rites and then to Academician of Duanming Palace.

The downfall of the treacherous prime ministers Qin Wanliang implicated a large number of officials, some of whom retired or were exiled, leaving many vacancies. He was naturally promoted to be the ruler.

Yang Yuan just passed the imperial examination last year. If he stays in each position for two or three years and keeps moving up, he may not be able to reach the level of Tang Situi within ten years.

Wu Shu, Zhu Zhuo and Zhang Fangxun, the three big men in the legal field, are all quite old. Zhu Zhuo is already in his seventies.

The emperor was marching forward, and his legs began to ached before the troops behind him had even finished marching. He had no choice but to call his personal servant over and ask him to kneel down behind him, using his back as a chair, so that he could barely hold on.

After the King of Jin ordered everyone to return to the government office, Zhu Zhuo hurriedly asked his servant to support him and called the carriage that was accompanying him from afar to come closer.

Zhu Zhuo climbed into the car, took off his official boots and socks, and placed his aching feet directly on the cool floor. He had just breathed a sigh of relief when someone came outside the car and gently knocked on the car.

Zhu Zhuo lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and saw a young eunuch standing outside. He bowed and said, "The king invites the second prime minister to the Prince of Jin's mansion for a talk."

"Ugh!"

Zhu Zhuo sighed, waved his hand, lowered the curtain of the sedan chair, and weakly ordered: "Go to Prince Jin's Mansion."

Then he curled up and lay sideways on the seat, taking advantage of the time to return to the city to take a short rest.

The old man really wants to retire, but he has submitted his resignation to the government twice before, but the government has repeatedly tried to keep him.

Now he is an old man in his seventies, but he still cannot go home to retire. He feels helpless.

……

"Recently, the government has implemented a series of measures to clean up bad governance, and the implementation process is satisfactory."

In the Prince of Jin's mansion, Zhao Qu invited the three judicial officials to take a seat, served them tea, and then went straight to the point without even a word of courtesy.

Since he was a child, he had never thought about becoming an emperor, although there were far more people who wanted him to be emperor than those who supported his elder brother Zhao Yuan.

Therefore, although he was extremely intelligent, he was too lazy to study the minds of emperors, nor did he need to put on an "unfathomable" appearance to control his subordinates.

"If you want to implement a new policy, you must start with rectifying the administration of officials. If you want to rectify the administration of officials, you must start with cleaning up corruption."

Zhao Yu looked at the leaders of the Censorate, the Supreme Court, and the Ministry of Justice: "Just like Zhang Mi, this person is morally corrupt, lawless, and has committed many evil deeds. He should have been discovered long ago.

This person was originally a lackey of Qin Hui, attached to the Qin family and protected by them. Since the current emperor ascended the throne, he has been entangled in domestic and foreign affairs and various other affairs, and has never taken the time to clean up these treacherous remnants. "

Zhao Yu picked up the tea but did not drink it. Instead, he emphasized, "It seems that the remnants of Qin Hui are far from being completely eliminated. I wonder how many have slipped through the net!

The court's implementation of the new policy depends on the various government offices. If the various government offices want to successfully implement the new policy, you will have to clean up the parasites and root out the trouble.

The Censorate should start by cleaning up the remnants of Qin Hui and investigating corruption, and clean up the court. The Censorate should investigate whoever should be investigated, no matter how high the official is.

The Dali Temple should sentence according to the "Imperial Song Dynasty Criminal Code", and impose heavy sentences and execute them quickly. The Ministry of Justice should review the sentences quickly and execute the sentences quickly. After the emperor returns to the capital, a grand military parade will be held.

By then, I hope that all those standing in the court will be well-dressed and have no beasts!"

The three judicial officials all knew that although His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin did things a little unprincipled, he was actually sensible in his actions despite his unbridled and unruly behavior.

Gathering the three of them today and saying these words was definitely not a sudden impulse on the part of Prince Jin. I'm afraid the emperor had already made arrangements before leaving the capital.

When the emperor goes on a tour, who is the minister accompanying him?

The second prime minister was Wei Liangchen, the vice-chancellor was Zhang Jun, and the assistant minister of the Ministry of War and acting director of the Academy of Scholars was Shen Xuzhong.

These three...

Now thinking about their usual stance and behavior, it was obvious that they were people the government wanted to protect, and they didn't want them to be implicated, so they took them away.

So, among the ministers who remained, which ones were the ones that the emperor had asked the Prince of Jin to sharpen his sword and target?
For a moment, they didn't think it through, but they felt a chill in their hearts.

I'm afraid things won't be peaceful next.

Zhao Yu gave some secret instructions and then ordered someone to escort the three judicial officials out of the palace.

Of course, corruption must be dealt with, but it is not the main contradiction that the court urgently needs to resolve.

If the water is too clear, there will be no fish. If you don't rub any sand in your eyes, you can still catch Yang Yuan.

Not all those who once attached themselves to Qin Hui were treacherous ministers, nor were they all mediocre ministers.

Those who had stayed under the Qin family only for self-protection and due to circumstances did not necessarily need to be cleared out.

Many of them are actually very capable and would be of great use if they were kept.

Now, under the pretext of cleaning up the remnants of Qin Hui and the reason of investigating corruption, the main targets are the conservatives, appeasers and capitulationists.

The intensity of the attacks against these three factions with different positions is also different.

The capitulationists must be resolutely eliminated, the appeasers cannot occupy important positions, and the conservatives must be both won over and beaten.

The situation here is too complicated.

For example, there are those who advocate war and those who advocate peace. There are three types of peace advocates: strategic peace advocates, tactical peace advocates, and opportunistic peace advocates.

Among the war faction, there are strategic war advocates, tactical war advocates, and also opportunists who seek to attract attention and regard it as a shortcut to advancement.

Even among those in the same faction, there are small factions with different interests.

The Three Laws Officers are just like a knife that cuts through the Gordian knot. Where to cut and which thread to cut depends on the person who holds the knife.

The Goose King felt overwhelmed just thinking about it.

He suddenly felt that letting his elder brother go to the southwest to hide and letting him play the villain was simply asking for trouble.

……

After seeing the emperor off, Tang Shitui did not return to the yamen, but went straight back to his own residence on the pretext of feeling unwell.

Recently, Tang Situi has been in a bad mood.

From the time he passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi, in less than ten years he rose rapidly to prominence like a rocket, and his career was so smooth that he was simply a man of luck.

This also made him, who was less than 40 years old, develop an arrogant and contemptuous character.

But a few days ago, in the Golden Palace, when discussing whether to restore the "Imperial Song Criminal Code" as the ancestral system and debating the existence of the oath monument, he was publicly confronted by Yang Yuan, a Censor-in-Chief, which made Tang Shitui somewhat embarrassed.

In fact, when Zhao Gou passed away and the new emperor just ascended the throne, he was still very cautious.

Because his career had been smooth sailing before, it was largely due to the protection and support of Qin Hui.

During the imperial examination, Tang Situi ranked first in the Boxue Hongci category, which impressed Qin Hui, who was "eager to recruit talented people", and he extended an olive branch to him.

Qin Hui also tried to recruit the top scholar Zhang Xiaoxiang in this way, but Zhang Xiaoxiang did not accept it. Tang Situi's choice was to accept it.

Therefore, as a person whom Qin Hui highly valued, he began to be trained as a key figure.

Qin Hui pretended to be seriously ill and retreated to advance. During the more than half a year when he did not attend court, in order to make the play more convincing, he invited Tang Situi and another official he had trained to his house. Qin Hui gave each of them a thousand taels of gold, as if to entrust his affairs after his death.

It seems that he will really die soon.

At the time, the two officials made completely different choices.

Another official chose to accept it, thinking that this was a way to show his loyalty to the Prime Minister of Qin.

However, Tang Shitui chose to refuse.

With tears in his eyes, he begged Qin Hui to revoke his decision. He said that if he accepted the gift, it would be tantamount to hoping for Prime Minister Qin's early death, so he would never dare to accept it.

This time, his choice was right again.

After Qin Hui's downfall, many officials were implicated and demoted, but Tang Situi was safe and sound because of this incident and even made a step forward.

His refusal to accept Qin Hui's gift was interpreted as his attempt to draw a clear line between himself and Qin Hui.

Now, he is the first person in power, and above him are only Shen Gai and Wei Liangchen.

These two people are very old, and everyone knows that perhaps within three or two years, he will become the prime minister or even the premier.

By that time, he might just be forty years old.

Age is also an important political asset.

Therefore, many officials who wanted to find a strong thigh to cling to came to him.

His influence and power in the court are now no less than those of Shen Gai and Wei Liangchen, who are now in their twilight years.

But even in this situation, Yang Yuan, a mere Censor-in-Chief, actually dared to challenge him in public.

Yang Yuan was only a dozen years younger than him. He originally depended on the powerful Prime Minister Qin. Behind Yang Yuan was the Prince of Jin, who had no interest in government affairs but had great influence on the emperor.

There is some similarity in the speed and style of their promotion.

For this reason, Tang Shitui had already developed a bit of hostility towards Yang Yuan.

However, the status of the two people is very different. As the deputy prime minister in power, he has no reason to take the initiative to target a small shrimp.

But now Xiao Xiami took the initiative to challenge him.

People often say that a prime minister has a broad mind. Tang Situi thought that he was definitely quite magnanimous. However, if someone else disobeyed him, he could just laugh it off, but not Yang Yuan.

If others disobey him, it is like an ant trying to shake a tree; he won't bother with it.

But Yang Yuan really made him feel threatened.

He needs to think carefully about what to do next.

He has to start keeping an eye on Yang Yuan now. Since Yang Yuan loves to be in the limelight and likes to do things to attract attention in order to please his superiors, there will always be times when he makes mistakes.

He would watch closely and wait for Yang Yuan to make a mistake before taking action.

For this kind of person, it's best not to take action, but if you do take action, it must be a fatal blow, knocking him to the ground completely and making him never to get up, so as to eliminate the trouble forever.

Otherwise, how could he know whether Yang Yuan would climb up to the position of prime minister after he became prime minister and become his lifelong enemy?
Since our paths are different, we must eliminate the disaster before it happens.

Another matter troubled him even more and he couldn't make a decision.

He now faces another important choice.

When Emperor Gaozong was alive, and even after the new emperor ascended the throne, he always stood firmly on the peace side.

This has nothing to do with Qin Hui. He was highly valued by Qin Hui because of his allegiance and stance.

But his position was not to please Qin Hui, but his own opinion.

In his opinion, it is an indisputable fact that the Song Dynasty is weaker than the Jin Dynasty.

Under such circumstances, the Song Dynasty should take protecting the territory and the people as its national policy and pursue a strategy of peace and appeasement with foreign countries.

In his opinion, starting a war easily is a very dangerous thing.

Although the world situation has changed dramatically in less than a year, he does not think that the Song Dynasty has the qualifications to become radical.

Although the Jin Dynasty was divided, it still possessed a far larger territory than the Song Dynasty after the split, and the pattern of the Jin Dynasty being strong and the Song Dynasty being weak did not change because of this.

What actual help did Goryeo and Xinjin's closeness to and submission to the Song Dynasty bring to the Song Dynasty?

What's more, the Jin Kingdom also ceded Lintao to Western Xia, which enabled Western Xia and the Song Dynasty to be bordered again.

Once Western Xia borders the Song Dynasty, it will become a serious threat.

The Song Dynasty was unable to do anything to the Western Xia at the beginning, but now that only half of the country is left, can it deal with the Western Xia?
What nonsense!

Therefore, he felt that his choice was not wrong. The Song Dynasty should keep a low profile, watch the changes in the situation, and not easily get involved in chaos.

Although he had long known that Emperor Zhao Yuan had a strong personality and had been tough on the Jin Kingdom before he ascended the throne, he was not too excessive.

Tang Situi felt that once Zhao Yuan actually ascended the throne and saw clearly the internal and external troubles, and with the advice and assistance of Prime Minister Shen, Prime Minister Wei and other experienced and wise ministers, he would become mature and steady.

But he didn't expect that after becoming emperor, Emperor Zhao would become more radical.

Originally, the peace faction occupied the most important voice in the court, and the emperor was alone and could still be suppressed by them.

Unexpectedly, this situation was broken: the military generals were given important positions and began to speak out with the support of the emperor, and the civil officials were divided, with some peace advocates turning to the pro-war position as the general situation in the world changed. The voices of the people also reached the emperor's ears directly, making him realize that he was not alone and that he was confident.

The emperor's current reputation is even higher than that of Emperor Gaozong, who single-handedly rebuilt half of the Southern Song Dynasty, forcing them to give in step by step.

Could it be that I am really wrong?
Should I make a new choice?

Tang Situi vaguely felt that the emperor's western tour was probably not just to pray for the empress dowager.

And he could take advantage of the emperor's absence to sort out his thoughts. If he needed to make a new choice, he could adjust to it while the emperor was away from the capital, and everything would be natural when the emperor returned.

Sitting in the sedan chair on the way home, Tang Situi was thinking seriously in the sedan chair.

But in his heart, he still believed that the Song Dynasty was weak and had numerous drawbacks. The government's intention to clean up redundant officials and reform the military and political affairs would probably be met with strong backlash.

Even if these new policies can be implemented, it will take at least ten to twenty years to be fully implemented and consolidated.

Will the new gold in that tiny place still exist after such a long time?
During this decade, will Western Xia and the Song Dynasty restart the war in the southwest, engaging in an endless tug-of-war that will continue to consume the national strength of the Song Dynasty?

He is now the first person in power and will definitely be appointed prime minister within three to five years. These things will happen during his tenure as prime minister and will become his responsibility.

He has now grown from a person sheltered by a towering tree to himself as a towering tree.

Therefore, he only has one chance to choose, and it will not be possible for him to change his position and camp at will in the future.

Otherwise, everyone, from top to bottom, will abandon him.

The choice this time is really difficult.

But...which major choice of his was not difficult?
When Qin Hui was at the peak of his power, his reputation among the people had fallen to the dust. He made the right choice.

When Qin Hui was about to die and the emperor intended to take the opportunity to regain power, he made the right choice again.

This time...

Could it be that Zhao Yuan was more capable of imperial strategy than Emperor Gaozong, or more shrewd than Qin Hui?

A disdainful smile appeared on Tang Shitui's lips.

When answering multiple-choice questions, he believed that he, the son of destiny who seemed to be blessed by God, would not lose.

The sedan chair returned to the Tang Mansion. As soon as it landed, the doorman came up to him and said respectfully, "Master, the Yan family from southern Fujian is here to look for their relatives."

Tang Situi was stunned. The Yan family in southern Fujian? There is still a Yan family in southern Fujian now? When did our Tang family have such a relative?

Tang Shitui asked curiously, "Where are the people?"

The doorman said, "Madam has invited him to the main hall for a reception."

"Oh?"

At this moment, Tang Shitui really felt that his family must have such a relative, otherwise the lady would not have invited him to the main hall to entertain him.

He nodded, got off the sedan chair, stepped over the threshold, and said, "Let me see which relative it is."

At this time, Yang Yuan, dressed in a jade-colored robe, had just stepped through the gate of Nanfeng Yuanwai Mansion in Huantan, Xiaoshan.

Behind him, followed slowly a pair of flawless beauties, Li Shishi and Fei Yuye.

Originally, this pair was in the relationship of godmother and adopted daughter, but Li Shishi now looked younger and younger, and standing together with Fei Yuye, they looked like a pair of sisters.

The same red lips and white teeth, the same charming smile, just like the autumn moon and spring flowers.

If there is a difference, it may be that the two have different styles, one is mellow like wine, and the other is clear like spring water.

Nan Fengchi stayed beside Yang Yuan, smiling bitterly in his heart, no wonder Madam Li had always been rude to me, it turned out that I was his concubine.

(End of this chapter)