Song Gexing

Chapter 67 Court Debate Sima Guang

"Meet the Emperor!"

"Get up, what's going on? You're going to kill me!"

"Dad is fine. It's just a small matter. Bao Qing has rushed to the scene to deal with it and will report back soon."

"It's okay...it's really okay?"

Zhao Zhen breathed a sigh of relief and immediately asked worriedly.

After Zhao Fang waved his hands and kicked his feet to show that he was not injured, he looked at the military attaché of Sanya: "The ambusher used a double-bow crossbow and hundreds of crossbows. How these things were leaked out needs to be thoroughly investigated by the Imperial Army."

"what!"

The ministers were initially relieved when he said everything was fine, but his words immediately caused an uproar throughout the court. Privy Councilor Jia Changchao trembled all over, and the faces of the eight chief officials of the three yamen turned green.

Zhao Zhen exclaimed, stood up and ran down from the throne, took Zhao Fang's hand and inspected it constantly.

Zhao Fang smiled bitterly and said: "Dad, I am fine, but the soldiers who protected my son suffered heavy casualties."

As he spoke, he quickly added: "We captured all the assassins and took them to the Imperial City Department. No one slipped through the net."

"Why not send him to the Ministry of Criminal Justice Prison?"

Someone just started to question, and Zhao Fang immediately replied: "You dare to surround and kill the prince in Bianjing, do you think the Ministry of Punishment can try him?"

"Why not..."

After the man opened his mouth to refute half of a sentence, he immediately realized what he meant. He opened his mouth and swallowed the rest of the words, and the atmosphere suddenly became depressed.

"How brave!"

Zhao Zhen also understood now that these people were not from the Song Dynasty, or they were not people who served the Song Dynasty, and their bodies trembled slightly.

"Daddy can now understand that people do not harm tigers, but tigers can harm people's hearts. It is inevitable to rule the world with civilized people, but we must not relax our military preparedness."

Zhao Fang made up his mind not to wait any longer this time. He originally wanted to take it slow, but he was angered and wanted to rectify the army.

But as soon as these words came out, someone said, "What does King Wei mean?"

Looking in the direction where the voice came from, he saw that it was Sima Guang from the Reform Party. He said with a chuckle, "The master said: Repay a grievance with virtue, how can you repay a virtue? Repay a grievance with a straight line! Yi said: A gentleman strives for self-improvement. Dare I ask you what is self-improvement? How to retaliate directly?"

"Does the King of Wei want to start a war?"

"No! What Xiao Wang means is to strengthen the army and prepare for war. Only with the force to intimidate all parties can we deter those who do not follow the rules."

"We have an imperial army of 80 in the Song Dynasty. How can we not be strong soldiers?"

"A soldier who doesn't know the general is called a strong soldier if the general doesn't know the soldiers? Are you telling a joke or are you the joke yourself?"

Faced with Sima Guang's aggressiveness, Zhao Fang immediately became angry. Although this guy was also a supporter of the Qingli New Deal, he was a stubborn peace advocate.

No, this guy doesn't actually support any reform movement. He just has a very good relationship with the Qingli New Deal ministers and they appreciate each other so he doesn't object.

Otherwise, he is definitely one of the opposition. This has something to do with his personal temperament. He is a person who upholds the ancestral system through and through.

Historically, after Shenzong's death, it was he who returned the Xixia territory that the soldiers had spent decades and suffered countless casualties to conquer, on the grounds that the war would cease.

It's a big joke. You must know that Xixia at that time was unable to resist the Song Dynasty. The Song army conquered the Hengshan Mountains and occupied all the commanding heights. Xixia could only defend at this time and had no ability to counterattack.

This is the same as our army occupying Lang Son in later generations. There is a flat plain going down, and the opponent has no danger to defend, so he can only be beaten and cannot fight back. "King Wei, don't forget why we, the Song Dynasty, suppressed military generals. The chaos in the Tang Dynasty's feudal towns is not far away!"

Sima Guang also became angry and started to accuse directly.

Zhao Fang sneered and said: "If there were no Huangchao men, how could there be chaos in the feudal town!"

"Isn't it the Anshi Rebellion?"

"You still dare to talk about the Anshi Rebellion. If Li Linfu hadn't disrupted the government, would An Lushan have been able to cause chaos?"

"you!"

"What am I, you argue, you can't tell the truth. Is it the generals who are messing with the country, or the civil servants who are messing with the country? The history books are full of black and white words. Don't take quotes out of context. That's what Confucians do."

Sima Guang was dumbfounded. All the evidence he presented was refuted, and it was well-founded. If the Tang Dynasty did not have that beast like Huang Chao, there would be no separate vassal towns in the future. This is something everyone knows.

After all, the demise of the Tang Dynasty was not caused by military generals. It was the corruption of the imperial court and corrupt officials everywhere, which caused the people to live in dire straits, and they were instigated to rebel.

A riot swept across the country, destroying everything they looked at. As long as the common people stuttered, not so many people would participate.

The military commander just added a little more force from behind, causing the already shaky Tang Dynasty to collapse.

"Well, the assassination of the king has indeed made me, the Song Dynasty, lose face. A strong army is indeed necessary, not to conquer anyone, but to deter thieves. However, this matter is of general concern. Let's have a charter first. We will conduct a thorough investigation now. The matter of bows and crossbows is the big deal.”

Prime Minister Yan Shu couldn't sit still. No matter he won or lost, this argument would be a sensation tomorrow, and he would have another headache by then.

Zhao Fang also understood that this was not a matter of words. To change the military system, at least there must be an effective method, otherwise it would be empty talk.

Nodding his head and telling his father to go back to the throne in a low voice, Zhao Zhen stood beside him, he was dumbfounded to hear their argument, and only reacted after being reminded by him.

Sima Guang was not reconciled, but Zhao Fang didn't talk anymore, and it would be boring for him to make a fuss, so he had to retreat silently, frowning and thinking hard about countermeasures.

It was impossible for him to slander Zhao Fang. He could do it by criticizing Zhao Fang, but he couldn't do anything else.

Or because of his temperament, Sima Guang was absolutely loyal to the emperor, and his moral character was unquestionable. Regardless of his merits and demerits in his life, in terms of character, he was truly the best in the two Song Dynasties.

Confucian scholars in the Song Dynasty once listed him as one of the three sages of Confucianism, Confucius, Mencius and Sima Guang. Such praise is extremely high.

You may call him pedantic or stubborn, but he did follow the Confucian way of a gentleman, being upright and not deceiving the dark room.

He was also a very self-disciplined person. He had no children in his life but did not take concubines. His wife was anxious and had no children, so she bought him a beauty and hid herself out, but he still stayed calm and sent her away.

On this point, few men in the world can do it. It's a mistake that all men can make. To him, it's bullshit. He has to drag others with him if he's not careful.

You must know that in ancient times, a childless man could divorce his wife, but he just stayed with his old wife until he grew old, and did not touch any other women.

Of course, he did not die in the end and adopted his brother's son Sima Kang as his adopted son. Like him, he was also a humble gentleman.

Two days later, Cao Quan handed over the interrogation materials and suggested: "All the Khitan and Dangxiang prisoners among the prisoners should be killed in time and secretly. The remaining ones are the Song people who surrendered to the enemy and can be used to question Liao and Xixia. "

Renzong hesitated and said: "If we kill them, how can the communicators in the army find out?"

Cao Quan replied: "The only people who can communicate with the army are the Song people. The Khitan people and the Dangxiang people have too obvious goals and they will never dare to contact the Forbidden Army."

This is very reasonable. Although there are Khitan and Dangxiang people who look exactly like Song people, they grew up in different environments, and some details cannot be hidden.

Spies in this era did not have the mature mechanism as in later generations. They were raised from a young age and were usually selected from adults, so it was easy to reveal their secrets.

(End of this chapter)