Song Gexing

Chapter 295 Xining 16 Years

"I would like to ask the officials of the Song Dynasty to take note of the good relationship between our fathers and ancestors. If my nephew cannot hold the throne, the officials please accept the Nanjing Road and protect me, the Yelu family."

Zhao Fang did not expect this to be the condition proposed by Yelu Hongben. He was startled and looked at him suspiciously. After a while, he said: "Aren't you accepting the Nanjing Road to help you fight for the throne of the Yelu family?"

"Accept the Nanjing Road, and I would like to be a minister of the Song Dynasty."

Yelu Hongben's decisive answer not only stunned Zhao Fang, but also Han Qi and others did not understand.

Seeing everyone's suspicious looks, Yelu Hongben smiled bitterly and said: "It's not that I don't want to maintain the glory of my ancestors, but that I know it myself. I am not capable. I can shepherd and guard one side because of the trust of the emperor. If the emperor is gone, I will definitely protect him." If we don’t live in Xijin Mansion, the Yelu family’s bloodline will probably be wiped out by then, and no one will want to leave the Khitan royal family behind, leaving hidden dangers.”

Han Qi and others may not be able to sympathize with this, but Zhao Fang can. In history, when the Zhao and Song Dynasties fell, the descendants of the Zhao family were almost extinct.

In addition to jumping into the sea to die for his country, more than [-] people were killed by Pu Shougeng in Quanzhou. This is also the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang exterminated all the Pu family after establishing the Ming Dynasty.

The Pu family in Quanzhou was the only family in history that was ordered by the emperor that the men should be slaves for generations and the women should be prostitutes for generations, and no one was allowed to redeem their bodies.

If the Liao Kingdom was destroyed, it would be difficult for others to say, but the Yelu family would definitely be exterminated, so Zhao Fang agreed to Yelu Hongben's request after thinking about it for a while.

In the 16th year of Xining, the beginning of the year was not going well. This year was the first month of Run. The consequences of last year's severe drought in Hebei Province in the previous first month were revealed this year, and the court was busy with disaster relief.

In the next first month, Zeng Gongliang passed away. Although it had nothing to do with national affairs, the death of Gu Mingyuanxun, a veteran of the two dynasties, still had a certain impact on the court.

Zeng Gongliang loved recommending people, and he had the air of an elder. Although the old man was stingy with money, he was a good person.

Wang Anshi was his favorite from the beginning, and he was promoted by him many times when he was young. After his death, most of the ministers in the court went to pay their respects, which naturally had some impact on his work.

And Zhao Fang couldn't object yet. His father even went to the Zeng Mansion in person, so he still dared to say anything.

Besides, Zeng Gongliang and Ding Du compiled a military book "Martial Classics General Essentials" that was very important in the Song Dynasty and even in later generations.

Don't underestimate the military books of the Song Dynasty. "Wu Jing Zong Yao" should be said to be the best summary military book before the appearance of Qi Jiguang's "Jixiao New Book".

It not only expounds military theories, but also summarizes the military technology of the Song Dynasty in detail, and has detailed descriptions and diagrams of weapons and equipment in the Song Renzong era.

He left behind diagrams and manufacturing methods of firearms for future generations, and also provided detailed introductions to various defensive buildings, including as many as thirteen types of crossbows.

Among them, there are seven types of bed crossbows, all of which have detailed descriptions of the manufacturing process. If the divine arm bow had appeared earlier, it would not have been lost to future generations, because it would definitely be included in it.

Moreover, "Wu Jing Zong Yao" is the first officially compiled military book in Chinese history and is of great historical value. Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Ji Xiao" was written in imitation of this book.

Of course, Zeng Gongliang was at odds with Han Qi. He was stingy and loved to collect money. Not everyone was dissatisfied. Liu Zhi, an official in the Ministry of Rites, objected to his posthumous title of Zhongxian.

Zhao Fang also felt that the ministers' suggestion was inappropriate, so he changed it to Xuan Jing, and was even complained a few times by Zhao Zhen.

A few days later, Duke Pu Zhao Zongyi also passed away. Zhao Zongshi's brother went to another one, and Zhao Fang called his brothers into the palace again to teach them a lesson.

In March, the Yao people in Chenzhou, Hunan rebelled and almost captured the city of Chenzhou. When the news spread to Bianjing, Zhao Fang cursed angrily.

The Song Dynasty now has a strong army and strong horses, and its frontier army and navy have continuously expanded its territory. However, the city was almost destroyed by the rebels internally. This was a huge shame.Angry, Zhao Fang ordered the governor of Hunan to personally go to Chenzhou to quell the rebellion, and to investigate the reasons for the Yao people's rebellion and whether the government was forcing the people to rebel.

The letter of incrimination from Xie Lin, the magistrate of Chenzhou, arrived a few days later. Only then did Zhao Fang realize that the reason for the rebellion was not so great, but the hard life of the Yao people.

At this time, the Yao people were still called Man Yi. Because their living habits were very different from those of the Han people, many people moved to places with convenient transportation and lived together with the Han people.

Because of the isolation and lack of living materials, there were several ambitious leaders among this generation of Chenzhou Yao, which led to the rebellion.

Zhao Fang then ordered to dispatch [-] Changsha forbidden troops to assist the local army in Chenzhou and the governor of Hunan. After the rebellion was over, Chenzhou Yao was forcibly relocated.

Zhao Fangjue still needs to continue to investigate whether there is any problem with Chenzhou officials. He cannot be completely trusted just because of Xie Lin's memorial.

But this matter has just begun. A major corruption case occurred in Bianjing City, involving one-third of the officials in Dali Temple. This made Zhao Fang very angry.

It turns out that this happened several years ago, and it was brought up for retrial this year. At the beginning, three people in Xiangzhou were sentenced to death for committing crimes, and they had been killed for several years.

But last year, the Ministry of Punishment discovered the Xiangzhou case during a routine inspection of old files. Zhang Gu Zhou Qing believed that the punishment in this case was too severe and that the two accomplices should not be sentenced to death.

Therefore, Zhou Qing approached his superiors to raise an objection. After the matter was submitted to the cabinet by the Ministry of Punishment, it was sent to Dali Temple for retrial.

In fact, the three criminals in this case deserved to die, but Chen Anmin, the Xiangzhou observation judge who sentenced him at the time, was just worried.

But if you're worried, just worry. He went to bribe the officials of Dali Temple in a daze. Now he was discovered. The yellow mud falling off his crotch was either shit or shit.

Dali Temple is the highest court after the restructuring of the Song Dynasty. If the officials here are corrupt, will the people still have a way to survive?

If the people who enforced justice were not unfair, the unjust cases would have become a catalyst for the Song Dynasty to lose people's support. How could Zhao Fang tolerate this kind of thing.

If other officials were corrupt, he wouldn't be so angry. After all, everyone has a different moral level. As long as the harm is not too great, he would just let the Ministry of Punishment handle it.

But this time he was angry, and directly ordered a thorough investigation, and sent Wang Zhongzheng, who had not long returned to Beijing, to personally go to Dali Temple to sit in charge, and jointly with the Kaifeng Prefecture Yushitai Third Division to review.

Now Chen Anmin panicked and went to his nephew Wen Jifu for help. If something happened to his uncle, his nephew could not be ignored. Wenjifu had to go to his father-in-law, Wu Chong, the Minister of Civil Affairs.

Wen Jifu is Wen Yanbo's son, and the relationship here is complicated. Wen Yanbo's disciples have old friends, and Wu Chong has many old friends.

Now Zhao Fang became even more angry. He directly summoned Wen Yanbo, who had already served as an official, into the palace and threw him a lot of memorials for him to read.

Lao Wen was so angry and ashamed that he beat his son when he got home, but he was so angry that he fell ill.

This made the ministers dare not intercede any more. Huang Lu, the censor of Zuoqiandu, who presided over the retrial, arrested seventeen officials under the instruction of Wang Zhongzheng, who was supervising.

After the case was over, Zhao Fang received the detailed materials and couldn't help but be confused by Chen Anmin's tricks. It was clear that there was no big problem with his verdict, so why bother to deal with it.

(End of this chapter)