I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 91 This is a minister seeking good reputation and bringing bad things to the king!
"Who is so bold! How dare you kill Zhu Jie without authorization? Zhu Jie is a favorite of the emperor and the head of the Yingfeng Bureau!"

When Tong Guan heard the news, his first reaction was to be shocked.

Although Zhu Zhen's official position was far lower than his, and Fang La's rebellion was bound to cause Zhu Zhen to fall out of favor, killing people directly was still beyond Tong Guan's imagination.

However, although he was angry, he had a thought in his subconscious that he himself could not believe:

Who on earth did this? Why have I never heard of any official in the court being so bold as to do this?

Fortunately, his attendant quickly resolved his suspicions: "...it was Zhao Zicheng, the acting magistrate of Suzhou, who murdered him. He had previously petitioned the government to abolish the Yingfeng Bureau and the Huashi Gang, and was subsequently imprisoned by Zhu Jie."

Tong Guan suddenly realized, "So it was him! This is not surprising. He and Zhu Zhen are probably at war to the death. But I didn't expect this man to be so audacious and dare to do such a thing. It seems he is really... a coward!"

Tong Guan snorted coldly and teased, but suddenly felt that his wording was a little ridiculous.

He vaguely recalled the story of Liu Xuande praising Zhao Zilong for his courage in a Pinghua opera. Now it was his turn to praise Zhao Zilong for his courage. The two names were similar, except for the last character. This young royal family member had become quite famous recently.

How should I deal with this audacious guy? The government seems to have been paying attention to him for a long time, so I'd better not jump to conclusions.

Thinking of this, Tong Guan didn't want to waste any more time thinking about it, so he casually asked his attendant: "What did Song Zhaonian say? He didn't just write about the incident itself, did he?"

He decided to first listen to the opinions of the Liangzhe Road Judicial Department on this incident and refer to them.

"What Song Tixing meant was that he did exceed his authority, but it was excusable." Please explain carefully.

Tong Guan listened, tapping his knuckles rhythmically on the armrest of the couch. He thought for a moment, "Has anyone else mentioned this? Find them all!"

The personal attendant immediately helped to screen the documents, and soon found several. Tong Guan took a rough look and found that most of them were pleadings for Zhao Zicheng. He had an idea in his mind, but did not want to make a decision immediately, so he ordered that he was tired today and would not discuss official business for the time being, and would discuss it in detail tomorrow.

The people around him were very tactful and did not dare to bother Tong Guan any further. Tong Guan took a short nap until the evening, when he had recovered a lot of energy and decided to go for a walk in Zhenjiang City.

Tong Guan, with his status, certainly wouldn't go incognito, but he didn't want to bother either, so he ordered two carriages to be taken with him, without ceremonial guards, just to take a look around. When his attendants asked him about his itinerary, he said he was just going to the naval camp on the riverside to take a look and get a feel for the Zhenjiang River Defense Army's combat readiness.

"It will take at least half a month for the main force of the imperial court to arrive in Jiangnan. Even if they arrive exhausted, they will be too exhausted to immediately engage in battle. If we want to contain Fang La, we must first rely on the Western Army's light cavalry and cooperate with the local infantry and navy in Jiangnan. When the time comes, let the incoming reinforcements exchange positions with the local garrisons. Let the local garrisons take the lead first to contain and delay Fang La, and then let the main force of the Western Army clean up the mess!"

Tong Guan patiently explained his plan to his attendants, who all praised the Grand Marshal for his maturity in statecraft and profound knowledge of military strategy.

Tong Guan's carriage, without any formalities, left the city to visit the Zhenjiang Jiangfang Army camp. He brought some of his generals with him, and only revealed his identity when he was stopped by someone who wanted to check his identity. This ensured that he could pass through without any obstruction and prevented the local generals from getting the news too early.

However, Tong Guan's inspection was destined to reveal nothing. The Zhenjiang officers and soldiers all knew that Tong Guan was coming, and they had been in very good condition for the past few days, so they deliberately acted in a good mood. So even if Tong Guan went on a private visit, he would only see the troops in high spirits and high fighting spirit, even if he had to pretend.

"The navy here in Zhenjiang seems quite capable. At least the military discipline is quite strict. The problem of empty payroll is less serious than I thought. Just counting the number of people can make up the number. The tents, cooking smoke, and stoves of each battalion are all genuine."

Tong Guan also knew that his subordinates would deliberately cover up the situation in case of surprise inspections from higher-ups, so he secretly observed some details. His final conclusion was that the troops under Liang Xin, the commander of the Zhenjiang wing army, at least appeared to have sufficient numbers and were well-equipped.

Tong Guan had an idea in his mind: If the situation is urgent and a troop must be sent south immediately to reinforce Suzhou, Hangzhou and other places, then he should let the Jiang Defense Army of Zhenjiang Prefecture go south!
Considering that the local troops in Zhenjiang have no cavalry at all, they can select one or two battalions of the Western Army cavalry and assign them to go south together to serve as scouts, and even to pursue and intercept when necessary.

It was not Tong Guan's responsibility to worry about which battalions to select. He would instruct Liu Yanqing, the veteran of the Western Army who came with him this time, to make the arrangements himself.

Tong Guan had been secretly visiting the military camp until the soldiers had eaten dinner. He also counted the stoves and the smoke from the cooking stoves to check the number of people who had not received any salary. So when he finished all this, it was already late and Tong Guan felt hungry.

He did not want to show up in the military camp and have the generals treat him to a meal, so he insisted on returning to where he was staying.

On the way back to the city, when the carriage passed by the prosperous area of ​​Zhenjiang, Tong Guan, who was hungry, suddenly smelled the aroma of fried noodles.

Tong Guan lived a life of luxury, and normally he would never even glance at such street food. But today was a special day. He happened to have missed his meal due to his inspection, and out of boredom, he ordered the car to stop.

"Go and see."

The attendants immediately obeyed and soon returned with several packets of fried pastries wrapped in calamus leaves. The carriage then slowly started moving again.

Tong Guan, sitting in the car, picked up a piece of pastry from between the calamus leaves. It was a pastry made by pinching two dough sticks together and deep-frying them. A line was cut in the middle of each stick, so it actually looked like it had four petals. Tong Guan was puzzled by the shape of the pastry, so he took a bite and then picked up another pastry from the calamus bag to examine it more closely.

The snack felt crispy, fluffy and full of oily aroma. The hungry Tong Guan was very satisfied with the taste.

He had just tasted the flavor and was about to nod in approval when he suddenly noticed that the pastry in his other hand was actually two human figures made of dough.

Because the dough becomes fluffy after frying, Tong Guan naturally could not recognize the swollen appearance of the dough figures, but when he saw the long knife wounds on the stomachs of the two dough figures, he quickly realized that this was an act of cursing and venting anger.

The knife marks on the two dough sticks just now are definitely a simplification of the knife marks on the belly of this dough figure. It can be seen how much the person who fries the dough figure hates the person being fried, and wants to be stabbed first and then fried.

"Who is so perverse that he would openly curse and retaliate against a personal grudge in the street?" Tong Guan did not want to bother to find out the truth, but he also sneered at such behavior and was a little curious.

But soon, as the carriage continued to move forward, Tong Guan smelled a similar aroma of oil several times. He couldn't help but lift the curtain to observe with his own eyes, and found that there were quite a few similar fried noodle stalls, with one every few meters along the road.

"Isn't this the work of one or two people? Why on earth?" Tong Guan's curiosity was completely aroused. He ordered the car to stop again and asked his attendants to find out clearly.

This time, the result came quickly: "General, the people say this thing is called fried noodles. It came from Suzhou last month. They also say it has become popular in Zhejiang and Zhejiang. Originally, it was just to satisfy the cravings of people who couldn't eat 'pork noodle meat'."

"Pork face meat? Humph, that must be Zhu Jie's meat! A commoner, out of anger and revenge, dare not address the important official of the court by name, and so he searches his flesh like this."

Tong Guan immediately knew what was going on, but besides being disdainful, he was also very shocked in his heart.

The hatred of the people in the south of the Yangtze River for Zhu Zhen had reached this level.

He had just arrived in Jiangnan, and this place was still the territory of Zhenjiang Prefecture, but people were already openly selling fried Zhu Zhen dough figurines on the streets, and there were quite a few vendors, so it was not an isolated incident.

If you go to Suzhou or Hangzhou, how many people would want to eat knife-cut and fried Zhu Jie?
Thinking of this, in order to quell the rebellion, Tong Guan's heart could not help but waver, and he no longer dared to consider severely punishing Zhao Zicheng.

"It seems we must report the truth about Jiangnan to the emperor, so he can clearly see the public opinion. At this critical juncture, if we openly and severely punish Zhao Zicheng for his crime of killing Zhu Jie without authorization, Fang La will probably become uncontrollable. We should wait until Fang La is eliminated before we act hastily."

Tong Guan thought so, feeling heavy-hearted. He had no desire to eat the dough figurines anymore. He only ate the plain fried dough stick without the figurines, then returned to his lodgings to eat something else. As for the dough figurines in the shape of Zhu Jie and his son, Tong Guan simply threw them away.

……

Tong Guan was tired that night and did not deal with military affairs anymore. He continued to handle affairs early the next morning.

His attendants also helped him sort out more documents to be processed, as well as one or two pieces of military intelligence that had just been delivered after General Tong fell asleep last night.

Tong Guan continued to read the reports from various states in the south of the Yangtze River. The first thing he saw was a previous report from Wei Xian, the governor of Huzhou, who claimed that the court's punishment of Zhu Jie was not severe enough and should be more severe in order to stabilize the people's hearts in the south of the Yangtze River.

Tong Guan glanced at it and threw it aside, too lazy to read such clichés.

The second letter, on the other hand, caught Tong Guan's full attention, because it was jointly signed by Suzhou prefect Zhao Lin, acting magistrate Zhao Zicheng, and militia commander Dong Chao. The letter said that the relevant situation had been reported to the court officials, but a copy was also "copied" to General Tong.

Tong Guan took a closer look and suddenly realized something. He felt a little regretful that he had not stayed up late to read it last night.

The book was written by Zhao Lin, the governor of Suzhou, and mentioned that "Zhu Jie had previously fled for fear of punishment because he was unwilling to accept the imperial edict, and was killed by the revenge of Taihu Lake bandits. In order to avoid boosting Fang La's morale during the war, the Suzhou government army annihilated the bandits, recovered Zhu Jie's body, and then decided to behead his body to win the hearts of the people and Anzhou County."

There's no need to go into the specifics; it was simply the same story Zhao Lin and Zhao Zi claimed they'd discussed. That story did have a few flaws, but since all three local commanders had said the same thing during the war, there was no way higher-ups could investigate.

"So there's such a hidden story here... So, Zhao Zicheng's arrogance and recklessness can be excused to a considerable degree, but complete innocence is impossible. He's truly disgraced the government!"
To kill Zhu Jie and appease the public's anger, the favor should have come from above. It was the emperor who wanted to kill Zhu Jie, so that the people would directly feel the emperor's favor. Who the hell is Zhao Zicheng? He only told the public that the emperor allowed him to do what he wanted, then turned around and killed Zhu Jie. Even though he only beheaded the corpse and didn't actually kill anyone, he still shifted the people's gratitude, which should have been owed to the emperor, onto himself!

This is a minister seeking fame while declaring blame on the emperor. It's simply... He's a member of the Zhao royal family, yet he's so ambitious. What on earth does he want to do? Before Fang La is pacified, it's difficult to take action against him. After he's pacified, the emperor will undoubtedly reward him openly but secretly make things difficult for him. Only by sending this fellow to a remote and evil military prefecture can we maintain the dignity of the emperor's unpredictable grace and power!

Tong Guan couldn't tell for a moment whether the other party had evil intentions or was just young and ignorant.

However, after he finished reading the next latest battle report, he immediately judged: This guy is really just young and ignorant!

(End of this chapter)