Simulates history, but Chongzhen is the Divine Emperor at the beginning

Chapter 308 Supporting the New Emperor
"Should we fight or make peace?"

Sitting alone in the quiet room of the Grand Tutor's mansion, you fell into deep thought...

Before your arrival, although the Jin and Song dynasties were in a state of division and confrontation, as can be seen from the two failed branches of the conflict, this division could not actually last long.

[Because under normal circumstances, Zhao Gou's divine power would eventually run out. So once his divine power was exhausted, the Jin Dynasty in the north could easily crush the Southern Song Dynasty and unify the country. From then on, both the north and south would serve the Wanyan family as slaves for eternity.]

While being treated like a slave is unpleasant, at least there's some unity at this point; other things are another matter...

But things are different now.

[Since you seized power from the Jin dynasty, you have humbly submitted to the Southern Song dynasty. While this has prevented Zhao Gou from attacking you, it has also greatly satisfied Zhao Gou's desires, thus granting Him considerable divine power!]

[If this continues, the Southern Song Dynasty, which should have eventually run out of power and faded away, has been prolonged by you.]

In other words, as long as your strategy of surrendering to the Song Dynasty remains unchanged, the Southern Song Dynasty can continue to exist indefinitely, thus making it impossible for the Jin Dynasty to unify the Southern Song Dynasty again...

This is the greatest harm of negotiating peace!

[But what if the Southern Song Dynasty turns on you and attacks if you refuse to negotiate peace? The initiative is entirely in their hands; it's not something you can simply decide to do just because you say you won't negotiate.]

[Faced with Zhao Gou's threat of a northern expedition, without the protection of the Jin emperor's authority, you are nothing but a weakling. Zhao Gou can attack you however he wants; your life or death is entirely in his hands... The only reason he isn't attacking you now is because you can still provide him with gold coins (divine power)!]

What? The Embroidered Uniform Guard?

【No way! The Embroidered Uniform Guard might have been surprisingly effective in the Jin Dynasty, but if used in the Southern Song Dynasty, it would be completely useless... Even if you were possessed by your father back then, you couldn't overcome His overwhelming power. Do you really expect the Embroidered Uniform Guard to defeat the god-like Zhao Gou?】

Basically, it can be said that the Embroidered Uniform Guard can only be used for internal defense, and is completely ineffective in external offensive operations...

In other words, once you turn against Zhao Gou, you'll be left with no choice but to rely on the Embroidered Uniform Guard for passive defense against the Song army's northern expedition, just like Jin Wuzhu did before... But the problem is, Jin Wuzhu's Jin army has inexhaustible resources. He doesn't need to train troops or accumulate divine power; he can simply use his authority to control ordinary Jin people to resist the Song army's northern expedition!

[Anyway, once they encounter the Song people, even ordinary Jin soldiers can mutate into enhanced troops capable of fighting the Song army's elite forces head-on... In this way, the Song army will definitely not be able to outlast the Jin soldiers.]

【But you are different. Although your Embroidered Uniform Guard is no less capable than the elite Song army, and may even be stronger, training it requires a huge investment!】

[First, there's the issue of manpower. The men you've found suitable for the Embroidered Uniform Guard are either ordinary Mongols or members of the Wanyan clan with special bloodlines. In short, there aren't many...]

Secondly, there's the training time and resources. Every member of the Embroidered Uniform Guard needs in-depth instruction using class ideology. You need to teach them well, and they need to learn effectively, so they are all highly qualified personnel... Moreover, in addition to theoretical instruction, you also need to provide them with a large number of class enemies as training resources, and the training time has to be calculated in years...

[With such stringent requirements and such exorbitant costs, you'd be treating them like treasures, how could you possibly use them to wage a war of attrition against the Southern Song's million-strong army?]

Therefore, you would absolutely not use the Embroidered Uniform Guard to resist the Northern Expeditionary Song army unless absolutely necessary...

In conclusion, your best option is to maintain the status quo of the North-South division; otherwise, if you lose face, don't blame Zhao Gou for making things more dignified for you!

However, the division of North and South is a terrible outcome that you absolutely cannot tolerate...

For a moment, you found yourself in a stalemate.

【"what to do?"】

You murmured to yourself, seemingly asking yourself, and also seemingly asking your father...

[The Prime Minister pondered for a moment, then slowly said, "If you insist on abandoning your policy of remaining in one corner and choosing to unify the North and South, then you might as well support a new Jin emperor, a puppet emperor who is completely obedient to you..."] [Hmm?]

Your father's suggestion made you pause in surprise: supporting the emperor? It does seem... quite reasonable...

The last Golden Emperor was over a decade ago. He had long since lost his mind in your confinement, ultimately succumbing to chaos, his entire life's karma twisted and rendered invisible.

Today, no one remembers His name or where He came from. In fact, most people, except for you, have forgotten His ascension to the throne. They don't even remember that the Jin Kingdom once had such an emperor...

[It's truly lamentable that a dignified emperor could pass away so easily.]

Since He returned to chaos, you have not installed a new Jin emperor, because the Jin emperor was born with a "kingly aura," and a true god of this level is very likely to break free from your control and then carry out a righteous purge against you, this traitor... To be on the safe side, even though you know that the "power" bestowed by the Jin emperor can help you resist the military threat from the Southern Song Dynasty, you still did not seek trouble for yourself.

Therefore, the Jin Dynasty had effectively been practicing a "constitutional monarchy" for over a decade...

Now, however, the Prime Minister has brought this matter up again, which forces you to seriously consider its rationale.

After much deliberation, you finally decided to follow your father's suggestion and risk supporting a new emperor of the Jin Dynasty!

[Once you have a Jin emperor to provide you with "power," you can be as tough on the Song Dynasty as Wuzhu, thus rendering the Southern Song Dynasty largely unable to threaten you militarily... At the same time, you can change your policy of surrender, depriving Zhao Gou of a major source of revenue, and thereby gaining the initiative in the Song-Jin strategic conflict!]

Although the risk of being betrayed is high, there's no time to worry about that right now...

【…】

In the 238th year of the Shaoxing era, seeing the Jin dynasty's rise to power, you grew increasingly dissatisfied with the Southern Song dynasty's attitude, and thus conceived the idea of ​​changing the "Song attacking, Jin defending" dynamic.

[So, in the same year, you first discussed the matter with your elder brother, Wanyan Kang, the current patriarch of the Wanyan family. Then, you carefully selected a well-behaved, sensible, and obedient junior member from the Wanyan family and proposed to enthrone him as the new emperor of the Jin Dynasty!]

When this young man heard that he could become emperor, he was so excited that tears welled up in his eyes: "I want to be emperor so badly!"

Although he was only lucid for less than a year after becoming emperor, he was still an emperor!

As for giving you important positions and bestowing upon you "power"... the junior repeatedly patted his chest and swore various oaths: I will definitely serve the Grand Tutor like a slave! A mere puppet, I know what I'm doing!

Seeing this, you were quite satisfied with his attitude, and so the matter was settled...

In the 239th year of the Shaoxing reign of the Song Dynasty, Grand Tutor Zhou Jinu of the Jin Dynasty offered sacrifices at the Jin ancestral temple and personally continued the incense offerings for the emperors!

That year, the Grand Tutor led the officials in enthroning a new emperor, and the Jin dynasty's imperial throne, which had been vacant for more than ten years, finally welcomed its master again!

After enthroning the new emperor, feeling reassured by the newfound power, you issued an order to the Southern Song Dynasty: From this day forward, the Jin Dynasty shall sever all unequal treaties, and the Jin and Song Dynasties shall be equal!

No! It wasn't equality; it was the Jin dynasty's dominance over the Southern Song!

That year, you remotely bestowed upon the Song emperor the title of "King of the Great Jin Song," signifying a complete break with the Jin dynasty!

The news immediately caused a great stir...

……

(End of this chapter)