Fenghou

Of course, Zhu Shengfei was also considering his own retreat. In fact, he and Chen Qing did not have any deep hatred. When he served as the Xuanfu envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi, he basically didn't care about Chen Qing, who was still the envoy of the Qinzhou system at that time. He was not like Qin Hui when he was prime minister. Targeting the Western Army like that everywhere, he is more of a kind and muddy existence.

Especially when Chen Qing visited Lin'an, Zhu Shengfei had been in charge of negotiating with Chen Qing and got along well, helping the emperor and Chen Qing to reach an agreement, and he was the one who played around with Wei Tong in the case of Wei Tong being kidnapped by Chen Qing, making Wei Tong pay for it. Big ransom.

Now Zhu Shengfei began to think about his future. Of course he would not be so stupid as to bind himself with Queen Mother Wei, but he found that even if he went back to his hometown to provide for the elderly, Chen Qing had to agree.

These few days he was really a little anxious, so Lu Gang's visit made him like a drowning man grabbing a log, so he hurriedly invited Lu Gang to his study.

"Zhu Xianggong should know the purpose of my coming here at this time!"

"Yes!" Zhu Shengfei said awkwardly.

"Then let's be honest! If Mr. Zhu still wants to go back to his hometown to enjoy his life, or if he wants your son to continue serving as the county magistrate in Yanzhou, then he has to do something. Mr. Zhu should understand what I mean!"

Zhu Shengfei nodded, "What does Your Highness want me to do?"

"His Royal Highness King Yong hopes that Empress Dowager Wei will be enthroned as emperor, Wei Hao, the son of Wei Tong, will be crowned as crown prince, and the dynasty will be changed. I hope that Mr. Zhu will facilitate these as soon as possible."

How could Zhu Shengfei not understand Yongwang Chen Qing's intention to let the Song Dynasty be destroyed by Webster's hands, he sighed and said: "Actually, I don't need to persuade her, she is already imperative."

"But you can think about it for her. I hope you can persuade her to do three things."

"Which three things?"

"First, suggest that she follow Wu Zetian's example and set up a new Plum Blossom Guard, and kill all dissidents who oppose her ascension to the throne, except Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun can be placed under house arrest, but he cannot be killed.

Second, cut the weeds and eradicate the roots, and killed the few remaining Zhao clans in Lin'an City.

Third, I can tell you that once she ascends the throne, Yang Yizhong will definitely rebel. At present, Yang Yizhong is already suspecting that she assassinated the emperor, so she must kill Yang Yizhong. "

Zhu Shengfei nodded, "I can persuade her, how about the negotiation?"

Lu Gang shook his head, "We won't negotiate until she ascends the throne. You have to keep her stable. She not only has Lin'an, but also Lingnan. She can go to Lingnan and continue to be the empress."

Zhu Shengfei was taken aback, "Are you really going to let her go to Lingnan?"

Lu Gang said lightly: "I've said it before, it's just to stabilize her, everything is for her to ascend the throne smoothly!"

"I understand!"

Lu Gang stood up and put a letter on the table, "This is a handwritten letter from His Royal Highness King Yong, you can take a look!"

The first thousand and 450 chapters and seven killings

Zhu Shengfei's greatest strength is his knowledge of current affairs. He read Chen Qing's letter, and he went to the palace overnight to meet the Queen Mother.

Empress Dowager Wei used to pay attention to health preservation and went to bed very early, but now she has a lot of thoughts and has to deal with various court affairs, so she can't fall asleep until very late.

At this time, Empress Dowager Wei was considering Liu Qi's betrayal and surrender. Of course, she didn't think it was her brother's fault.

A general who surrendered as soon as he met him without any engagement with the enemy is definitely not loyal. If such a person stays by his side, he will only be a disaster. This is to let him run away, but it is cheaper for him.

Empress Dowager Wei was worried about Yang Yizhong at this time. She knew that Yang Yizhong's loyalty to the emperor and Song Dynasty was an advantage in the past, but now it is probably the last thing she wants to see.

If he becomes the throne himself, this Yang Yizhong is very likely to become the most dangerous person.

At this time, an eunuch reported at the door, "Queen Mother, Mr. Zhu has something urgent to see you!"

"this late!"

Empress Dowager Wei thought for a while, but still ordered: "Acclaim him an audience!"

Not long after, Zhu Shengfei hurried in, bowed and saluted, "See the Queen Mother!"

"Zhu Xianggong, what do you need to see Ai's family so late?"

"Humble job just got a piece of news..."

Zhu Shengfei stopped abruptly, looked at the court ladies on both sides, Empress Dowager Wei said with a smile: "Just say it, they are all Aijia's confidantes!"

"Queen, Yang Yizhong is secretly contacting the royal family in the city."

"what?"

Empress Dowager Wei's face suddenly turned cold, "Is this news accurate?"

"Reporting to the Queen Mother, it is basically accurate."

"What does he want to do? Want to launch a coup and overthrow Aijia?"

Empress Dowager Wei was very sensitive. She immediately guessed Yang Yizhong's intentions. He also knew that he wanted to ascend the throne, so he secretly contacted the royal family, launched a coup to overthrow him, and then established the royal family as emperor and extended Zhao Song Sheji.

Zhu Shengfei didn't just talk about it. This was the information Lu Gang told him. Wei Yanzong, who was monitoring Yang Yizhong, did find out that he was secretly in contact with the royal family.

Empress Dowager Wei said with murderous intent in her eyes: "This person must be killed, but how to kill him, does Zhu Xiangguo have a way?"

Zhu Shengfei pondered for a moment and said: "I feel that he also knows that the Queen Mother is going to kill him. He is very vigilant now and may launch a mutiny at any time. He cannot be killed in a conventional way, but must be assassinated."

"Is there a chance? Will he hide in the barracks all the time?"

"Queen, if he wants to contact the royal family, he will definitely have a chance. I can discuss with Wei Zhiyuan, select a group of soldiers with high martial arts skills from his army, assassinate him in the street, and then shift the responsibility to those dignitaries , the Queen Mother will give him a new title, posthumously title him as a county king or something, to appease his subordinates."

Empress Dowager Wei is a woman after all, and she has no experience in such big matters. She nodded and said, "Let me leave this matter to Mr. Zhu. I will give Mr. Zhu a hundred thousand coins to reward the dead!"

"Thank you Queen Mother!"

Zhu Shengfei smiled wryly and said: "Don't worry, Queen Mother, this minister is also for his own safety. If he commits a coup, he will definitely kill this minister!"

……

Zhu Shengfei immediately found Sima Chun to meet Wei Tong together, and Sima Chun also received a letter from Lu Gang asking him to cooperate with Zhu Shengfei's actions.

The assassination of Yang Yizhong was a plan formulated by Lu Gang, and it was the internal guards brought by Zhong Huan. These internal guards have been arranged into the army by Sima Chun.

Wei Tong saw the Queen Mother's will, and he didn't know what to do, especially he didn't want to participate in such a dangerous thing. Since the Queen Mother asked Zhu Shengfei, he should do it himself, and let Zhu Shengfei do the rest.

Immediately entrusted the selection of soldiers to Sima Chun, and Sima Chun took his token to select assassins with high martial arts skills.

……

Empress Dowager Wei's ambition to usurp the throne was Sima Zhao's heart, everyone knew it, and Yang Yizhong certainly saw it. He was extremely anxious, especially after Liu Qi surrendered to the Western Army, and Han Shizhong completely lay down again, regardless of any other matters.

He is the only one who is truly capable of safeguarding the Great Song State. Yang Yizhong has an elite army of [-]. With these [-] elite soldiers, he can launch a mutiny and force the Queen Mother to make the Zhao family emperor.

But Yang Yizhong is cautious by nature. He knows that this matter is not trivial, and he must be well-prepared before he can do it. This is also a weakness of Yang Yizhong.

Sometimes being cautious is reassuring, but sometimes being too cautious is a fatal weakness. Like launching a mutiny, if you think too much about it, you will lose opportunities and be more likely to be backlashed by the opponent.

At night, Yang Yizhong came out from Zhao Zicheng's mansion. Zhao Zicheng was the father of Zhao Bocong, a famous literati, but he was more fond of drinking, especially suspected by the emperor Zhao Gou.

Yang Yizhong didn't consider him, but wanted to make his eldest son, the son of Zhao Bogui, the new emperor. This is where Empress Dowager Wei's ambitions were revealed, and it was also what made Yang Yizhong the most resentful. Obviously there was a suitable heir to the throne. She turned a blind eye.

Yang Yizhong's contact with the royal family was extremely concealed. He had very few guards, only a dozen or so, and there were too many guards, so it was easy to be discovered.

When he walked to the street, he suddenly shot countless arrows from both sides, with powerful force, they aimed directly at Yang Yizhong and his men.

It was so sudden that Yang Yizhong and his soldiers were caught off guard, and were shot by arrows one after another. Yang Yizhong was hit by three arrows in a row, and the horse fell down. Knowing that something was wrong, Yang Yizhong drew his sword and fought Unexpectedly, hundreds of soldiers were killed. Everyone held spears, cooperated tacitly, and were highly skilled in martial arts. In just a moment, several surviving soldiers were killed. Yang Yizhong only resisted two or three moves, and was killed by a dozen soldiers. The spear pierced the body and died tragically on the spot.

The assassins dropped the evidence, naturally to avenge Xiang Jia and Xiang Kui, Xiang Kui was indeed killed by Yang Yizhong.

The next day, Queen Mother Wei was furious when she heard the news, and ordered Dali Temple and the county government to investigate the murderer. At the same time, she stayed in court for three days to mourn for Yang Yizhong. middle.

All this was done to appease Yang Yizhong's [-] subordinates, and at the same time to get rid of himself.

After killing Yang Yizhong, no one really wanted to mutiny, but another serious consequence appeared.That is, the morale of the army is completely slackened.

The concrete manifestation of the lack of morale in the army is the emergence of a large-scale fleeing wave, especially in Yang Yizhong's army. The soldiers had long wanted to surrender to the Western Army. Willing to work hard again, the general even fled with his soldiers.

Yang Yizhong's three confidant generals, Li Da, Pei Datong, and Yang Zhi each led [-] troops from their headquarters to leave the city from Yuhangmen in the northern city, and went to Huzhou to surrender to the Western Army.

Nearly [-] soldiers escaped overnight, almost all of Yang Yizhong's army fled.

The Empress Dowager Wei scolded Wei Tong for not being able to control the army. As a last resort, she ordered the soldiers' salaries to be increased from three to six per month, which barely stopped the fleeing tide.

But at this time, there were only 7000 troops left in her hands, and she was completely unable to withstand the offensive of the Western Army. However, Queen Mother Wei was not worried that the Western Army would attack Lin'an. She knew that Chen Qing supported her ascension to the throne.

Three days later, the Empress Dowager Wei decreed to officially change the Yuan Dynasty to the Wei Dynasty. She stepped on the throne of the dragon chair and became the Emperor of Heavenly Mandate of Heaven.

The news came too suddenly, and Empress Dowager Wei's usurpation was too hasty. Everyone was unprepared, and there was an uproar in Lin'an, but at this moment, the ministers suddenly discovered that more than a dozen members of the Zhao family in Lin'an had disappeared without a trace. no trace.

The first thousand and 450 eight chapters hint

In the big tent, Chen Qing listened to the report from Zuo Botang, Lu Gang's deputy.

"His Royal Highness, all civil and military personnel of the Manchu dynasty did not attend the Empress Dowager Wei's enthronement ceremony under the pretext of being ill. Only thirty or so ministers and a dozen generals went to the ceremony, but several ministers went, and the resignation letters were piled up on the desk of the prime minister Qin Hui. Special envoy Lu did not attend the ceremony, but envoys from the Kingdom of Jin attended the enthronement ceremony of Empress Dowager Wei, and 10,000+ people went to watch the excitement, beating gongs and drums, and it was lively and festive.”

Chen Qing couldn't help laughing. The solemn enthronement ceremony turned into a lively and festive one, which was quite interesting. Of course, it was a matter of principle that Lu Gang did not attend the ceremony. Even the special envoy's office had to be evacuated from Lin'an, leaving only the "Beijing News" as a temporary contact point.

However, since he is supporting Empress Dowager Wei's ascension to the throne, some gestures still need to be done. Chen Qing ordered the army to withdraw northward and westward, the North Route Army retreated to Pingjiang Mansion, the West Route Army retreated to Huizhou, and the South Route Army retreated to Taizhou. At the same time, the garrison was greatly reduced. , to reduce the level of generals in the garrison, the North Route Army was reduced to 4, led by Li Fuxing, the governor of the capital, and the West Route Army and the South Route Army were reduced to 3, led by Wang Duo and Hu Yantong, the governor of the capital, that is, surrounded by [-] troops Lin'an Prefecture.

But this is only to relieve the pressure on Empress Dowager Wei, it does not mean that Huzhou, Jiaxing Mansion, Shaoxing Mansion and other places are given to her. The western army will not hesitate to send troops to wipe out the borders of the government.

After arranging the army, Chen Qing immediately went to inspect the states in the south of the Yangtze River to appease the officials, cut taxes and taxes, and let the people recuperate.

In the imperial study room, Zhu Shengfei reported Chen Qing's attitude of support to Empress Wei. Empress Wei was relieved by the large-scale withdrawal and reduction of the Western Army, but she was very annoyed by the principle of the Western Army's withdrawal and not giving up land. After thinking for a while, he said, "It doesn't matter if the army doesn't go in, we don't have so many troops to station, but our envoys are going to Lingnan, so we must keep the flow open, and what's the matter if the special envoy withdraws?"

Zhu Shengfei hastily said: "Weichen has already told the other party that they want to keep the Lingnan Passage open, and they agreed without hesitation. Besides, the withdrawal of the special envoy is only superficial, and the actual newspaper office is in charge of communication. As far as weichen knows, Lu Gang is still there. Inside the newspaper."

"What hypocrisy!" Empress Wei scolded.

"One more thing, I need to remind His Majesty!"

"what's up?"

"We need to establish an internal army led by His Majesty as soon as possible, so that if someone wants to secretly collude against His Majesty, we can find out and suppress it in time!"

"You mean Plum Blossom Guard?"

Empress Wei was a little hesitant, Meihuawei's reputation was too bad, and she was worried that it would arouse public anger again.

"Your Majesty, villains are needed at any time, just like Wu Zetian needed Zhou Xing and Lai Junchen. Your Majesty can establish a small number of internal guards, set rules for them, take advantage of surveillance, and avoid the shortcomings of evil. The key is We need an army like that."

Empress Wei nodded, "I will arrange it as soon as possible!"

……

At noon, the "Beijing News" reappeared on the streets of Lin'an. The headline on the front page of the newspaper was the news that His Royal Highness King Yong was inspecting Huzhou. He promised a group of old farmers a three-year tax exemption. King Yong also announced that all the unowned land in the south of the Yangtze River would be taken over by the government. , with a very low rent to the farmers to rent and grow, and the income subsidizes various government expenses.

In fact, everyone knows that the so-called unowned land is the land of the rich and powerful, that is to say, most of the good land in the south of the Yangtze River has been obtained by the government, and farmers can rent it for a long time at a very cheap land rent. When it comes to land rent, [-]% of the annual grain harvest is really cheap compared to the [-]% of the land rent of the rich and powerful.

At the end of the report, the officials who accompanied His Royal Highness King Yong on the inspection were mentioned, Huzhou Inspector Wang Suian, Chief History Liu Ji, and Wucheng County Magistrate Zhang Guangwen. The seemingly ordinary report actually hides many mysteries, but the most important point is , His Royal Highness King Yong is in the south of the Yangtze River.

Many big restaurants and big teahouses in Lin’an are closed, but it has given business opportunities to many small taverns and small teahouses. During this period of time, many major events have happened, and everyone wants to know the latest situation, so every small teahouse and tavern is full of customers .

In a small teahouse in Sanqiao, dozens of teahouses were discussing enthusiastically, basically discussing the content of today's "Beijing News".

"His Royal Highness Yong has actually come to the south of the Yangtze River. This is a major signal! Tell me, will His Royal Highness just wipe out the old witch and set foot on the Golden Palace?"

"Thinking too much, the old witch destroyed the Song Dynasty, which is a good thing! If King Yong destroys the old witch now, will the Song Dynasty be revived, so it will definitely not be destroyed now, and the old witch will definitely be rampant for a few more days. "

"In fact, the Song Dynasty can no longer be revived. There is no heir to the throne. The royal family on our side has been wiped out. The son of the former prince of Jingzhao changed his name and surname. Besides, King Yong worked hard to wipe out the Tartars and pacify the world. Finally, Let someone who is nothing be the emperor, not to mention the military officials, even ordinary people like us!"

"This is very true. There will be no more emperors of the Song Dynasty."

Everyone was discussing enthusiastically. A middle-aged man was sitting in the corner, listening to everyone without saying a word. This man was Liu Zilu, the supervisor of the craftsman. He had already submitted his resignation letter and was depressed. He was drinking tea in the teahouse. .

At this time, someone laughed and said, "You guys! You didn't understand the information in the newspaper at all."

Everyone asked, "What information, let's hear it?"

"A total of five major messages were conveyed. The first is that King Yong is here. Needless to say, everyone understands this. The second is land. It is not to distribute the land to the poor, but to collect it for the government. The third is the land rent. Rent is [-]% of land income. All rich peasants should change it quickly! If they don’t change it, they will have to farm their own land in the future. The fourth is to promote business. It is clearly proposed to reduce or exempt business tax and encourage business. The fifth is the most important and most hidden. Everyone See who is accompanying His Highness to inspect?"

Everyone read the newspapers one after another, and someone suddenly exclaimed, "I understand, I'm still the same official! Nothing has changed, only the official position has changed."

Liu Zilu's heart moved, and he quickly opened the newspaper to read carefully. He saw Wang Suian, governor of Huzhou, Liu Ji, magistrate of Wucheng County, and Zhang Guangwen, magistrate of Wucheng County. He was familiar with these officials. Nothing has changed, His Royal Highness King Yong has not changed a single official. "

At this time, the person just now laughed again: "Actually, there is a sixth hidden message. Let's see who wrote this article?"

He didn't pay attention to this, Liu Zilu hurriedly read the following article and signed it, it was actually Lu Gang, he immediately understood, this is indeed a major hint!Lu Gang is at the newspaper office.

Liu Zilu didn't hesitate anymore, he put away the newspaper, put some money on the table, and went directly to the newspaper office.

It was really inconvenient outside the city, so the newspaper office moved back, cleaned up the ruins and broken walls, built seven or eight big tents, and left an unburned building as a warehouse.

When Liu Zilu walked to the door, a porter stopped him, "Excuse me, what can I do?"

Liu Zilu took out his name card and handed it to the porter, "I'm looking for Special Envoy Lu, please give him my name card!"

The first thousand and 450 chapters nine harvest

Chen Qing was on patrol in Mingzhou at this time. He originally planned to patrol in Yuezhou, but when he got a message, he rushed to Mingzhou immediately. Mingzhou is now Ningbo. It was renamed Qingyuan Mansion in Southern Song Dynasty, but in Yongguo On the map, it is still called Mingzhou, just as Shaoxing Prefecture is still called Yuezhou.

The reason why Chen Qing came to Mingzhou was that he got the news that Liu Dajiang's fleet had returned from Nanyang and was currently anchored in Mingzhou.