In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Gyeonggi Road, Kaifeng Prefecture, Bianliang City, Tokyo.

In early June, around midnight, inside a large mansion, under a pavilion in the backyard.

Wang Shilong took advantage of the dark and windy night to enter this mansion.

It would be too ostentatious to come in during the day, and now there are spies from the Imperial City Division all over the city. Once discovered, it may be risky.

It's much safer in the middle of the night. If you enter through the side entrance of a remote alley, as long as you disguise yourself well and look around for no one on both sides of the alley, no one will notice unless someone is specifically watching you.

There is a large cherry blossom tree next to the pavilion. The blooming season of cherry blossoms has long passed at this time. A few green leaves have fallen from the corridor. A middle-aged man in his forties or close to fifty is sitting cross-legged majestically. Corridor.

Wang Shilong came over, bowed his hands and said, "Big"

"alright."

The middle-aged man hid in the darkness, waved his hand and said: "No need to be polite, you can sit down too."

"yes."

Wang Shilong was sitting next to him, sitting cross-legged like him.

"How's the situation?"

the man asked.

"They've sent out assassins."

"Do you think they might succeed?"

"There's little hope."

"Why?"

"I heard that Zhao Jun was guarded by local officials and the Imperial City Department along the way, so he had almost no chance to make a move."

"But they had to go."

"Yeah, actually I thought they would report me."

"Haha, the merit of reporting you is not enough to make up for the bad things they did, unless it is that matter."

"That's probably why we lured them to attack the envoy first."

Wang Shilong smiled.

Lure them into attacking the imperial envoys, and even if Ma Zhengju and the others report it, the worst possible outcome will be Wang Shilong's death.

The question is, can Ma Zhengju and the others really be given a lighter sentence for reporting?

There must be a reason for Wang Shilong's special selection of a few of them to deceive them.

First of all, the bad things they did were more serious, and they were all punishable by death. And it was not just them, but there were so many disciples below. How could they save so many people just by reporting Wang Shilong?

Secondly, and most importantly, Zhao Jun's reputation was so widely spread that they didn't dare to bet on whether Zhao Jun would choose to spare them after seeing what they did.

Zhao Jun himself is not afraid of powerful people. Even in the civil service group, he will kill as many as deputy prime ministers. There are even Zhao Zhen's "old people from the vassal residence" among them.

He didn’t even give Zhao Zhen face, let alone others.

Therefore, when the risk was death anyway, and even if Wang Shilong was reported, they might not be saved, it was better to take a chance.

Unless that's the case, it's a different story.

"I think the news of the failed attack on the envoys must have frightened them."

The middle-aged man said.

"This matter is a capital crime for the Yi people, so it must be so."

"Well, you continue to inquire about the news. Once there is news, tell them immediately to increase their panic."

"yes."

"When the time comes, we must urge them and let them participate in this matter. Yang Huaimin of the Yang family and Deng Baoji, nephew of the Ma family, are all serving as deputy chiefs of the inner guard in the palace."

"yes."

"Success or failure depends on this."

"The villain understands."

Wang Shilong raised his head and looked at the man in front of him, cupped his hands and said, "Da Zongzheng, that villain will leave first."

"Go ahead."

The man also raised his head.

Just as the dark clouds dispersed, the bright moonlight fell on him, revealing Zhao Yunrang's face.

Wang Shilong bowed and left.

He has no choice.

Zhao Jun had a grudge to fire him before.

Now the imperial court is going to take action against the noble generals again. The illegal things they have done will definitely not lead to death penalty.

And just when he felt desperate, someone stepped forward to help him plan a plan to make him rich.

If he succeeds and the country changes dynasties, then he will also become the minister of the dragon.

For the sake of wealth, one can only take risks.

After Wang Shilong left, Zhao Yunrang narrowed his eyes and looked at the sky.

He also had no choice.

Zhao Zhen ascended the throne at the age of thirteen and was childless for fourteen years.

As a result, in the fourth year of Jingyou's reign, the healthy eldest son Zhao Fang was suddenly born, and his son Zhao Zongshi was sent out of the palace.

At this time, the dream of two generations of Zhao Yun's family to be emperor was completely shattered.

So what can be done to salvage the situation?

Only Zhao Zhen, Zhao Fang, and Zhao Jun died together!

Zhao Yunrang looked at the sky and murmured to himself: "Zhao Heng, this is what your family owes me!"

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In late June, the first batch of personnel who set out to check military status in various places had achieved results and reported to the Constitutional Yuan.

Those who reported back so quickly were basically from the surrounding roads, including the Tokyo Camp in Kaifeng Prefecture.

For other remote places, it is estimated to take less than half a year.

Early in the morning on the 24th, Zhao Jun started his day's work after holding a regular meeting with everyone.

As the people in power of a huge empire, the prime ministers can be said to have a lot of affairs on their hands. They not only arrange future affairs, but also review memorials from various places and check the work status of various departments.

This has greatly increased the work tasks of the Constitutional Yuan. Fortunately, the Constitutional Yuan has expanded now. There are twelve prime ministers and about thirty departments. Each person is responsible for an average of two to three, so they can probably handle it well.

It started to rain moderately today, and the raindrops fell pattering outside, hitting the eaves, the windowsills, and the leaves of the banyan trees outside the house, making a crackling sound.

Two chubby cats walked into the house along the wooden corridor. They first came in to hide from the rain, shook their bodies, and then walked back and forth in the house. They were not afraid of people. Their yellow eyes scanned around and finally stared at Lv Yijian's table. They jumped up and squatted beside the small porcelain plate.

Lv Yijian, Wang Zeng and other old men were already in their sixties or seventies.

At this time in history, they were almost covered with grass on their graves. They were able to hang on to their lives because they were not like in history, where they were demoted and transferred to various places to be governors and ran around, and they had antibiotics to treat their illnesses.

As long as it was not a terminal illness, common inflammations, including pneumonia and other diseases, basically would not kill people.

However, after getting old, their appetite became very poor. They could only eat a little bit on weekdays. They ate small meals more often, and put some small snacks such as cakes and meat jerky on the table.

The cat slaves in the palace were always allowed to be kept to catch mice. They were pampered everywhere and had long been spoiled. They stretched out their claws to grab a piece of meat jerky, but instead of biting it and hiding in a safe place to eat it, they swaggered over and ate it on the plate.

"Damn it!"

Zhao Jun had just finished reading the first batch of official documents sent by the imperial envoys today, and he felt very angry. He was about to slam the table and stand up. When he looked up, he saw two cat slaves on the table next to him looking at him.

They lay on the plate with their front paws still holding the meat jerky, but their heads looked towards Zhao Jun, with big doubts in their small eyes.

Seeing this, Zhao Jun had to put down his hand that was about to slam the table and swallow his original anger.

"Swoosh!"

The two fat guys each bit a piece of meat jerky, jumped off the table, and slipped away through the side door.

Several prime ministers working nearby looked over.

Yan Shu stopped reviewing and asked, "What's wrong, Hanlong?"

"The imperial guards in Jingji Road and Kaifeng have been checked out. This is the note just sent by the Ministry of War. These people are really amazing."

Zhao Jun threw the official document in his hand on the table.

The military registration is handled by the Ministry of War, so normal non-emergency reports are first submitted to the Ministry of War and then submitted to the Political System Institute.

Fu Bi has been sorting out and summarizing the things he has collected over the past few days.

After Zhao Jun finished reading it today, his nose was almost crooked.

Wang Zeng waved to the clerks next to him, signaling them to go out first.

After everyone left, everyone gathered around.

Lü Yijian took the official document, flipped it open and read a few pages casually, and then passed it to many prime ministers to read.

Li Di frowned and said, "Why do these generals do so many dirty things?"

"Not only generals, but also ordinary generals."

"But they still do the most."

"Good guy, taking so many vacancies, aren't you afraid that they will be starved to death?"

"This is still considered a small amount. Look at this. They resold our Song Dynasty's weapons and equipment to Xixia."

"With our easily broken weapons and equipment, how can they sell them at a high price?"

"There are always good ones. The good weapons and equipment are sold, and the bad ones are left to our soldiers. Fortunately, we have firearms, otherwise the last war with Liaoxia would not have been ruined?"

"They dare to sell grenades! The cloth issued by the court to the soldiers is also withheld by them. In the past, it was only the ragged clothes of the wing troops, but now the imperial guards..."

"This is even more outrageous. Killing the remaining personnel and falsely claiming resettlement and burial expenses is really abominable!"

Several prime ministers trembled after reading it.

In fact, the prime ministers still care about the remaining personnel very much.

Because many people don't know that in addition to taking care of their lives, the Song Dynasty also arranged other jobs for those disabled people who were over 60 years old.

Most of them would be arranged to be the guards of honor, slaves, servants, grooms, sedan chair bearers, etc. of the court dignitaries.

Especially after becoming the prime minister, most of the servants in the family were such leftovers. Although they were a little old, they were still very diligent and quick at work, so the prime ministers took good care of these slaves.

As a result, I never expected that there would be such a horrible thing in the army. Even if it happened very rarely, it also represented the dereliction of duty of the court, and this was only what was found out, and there was no telling how many more that had not been found out.

"Let's have a meeting!"

Zhao Jun looked around, then stood up and walked towards the meeting room.

He originally thought it was just a matter of eating empty salaries.

As a result, the more he checked, the more worried he became.

Eating empty salaries, beating and scolding soldiers, and deceiving superiors and subordinates in the army were only minor matters.

They even dared to sell military equipment, cloth, horses, and food.

Even people died.

You really don't know until you check, and you'll be shocked when you check.

The entire army of the Song Dynasty is almost rotten from top to bottom. Except for the elite troops trained by Lao Fan in the northwest, there are few good ones.

This means that the only soldiers who can fight in the entire Song Dynasty are the 200,000 or so soldiers trained by Lao Fan in the northwest.

The rest are about one million people registered.

Among them, there are more than 600 imperial army camps and more than 200 wing army camps in Jingji Road and Kaifeng Prefecture, with more than 400,000 people, and the shortage has reached 90,000.

This is the capital of the Song Dynasty, Bianliang.

It's even worse in the local areas.

It's not an exaggeration to calculate that the shortage is one-third or even one-half.

I'm afraid that among the more than one million people on the list, there are actually about 700,000.

I really don't know what kind of star-studded moment will be brought to Zhao Jun after the nationwide investigation is completed.

"If I had known that the imperial army of the Song Dynasty would be transformed into wing army and enslaved, I would have seen it today."

After Zhao Jun entered the conference room, he could no longer suppress his anger in his first sentence: "The army of the Song Dynasty is really rotten to the core. How can we fight like this?"

"Historically, three defeats in three battles are not without reason."

He continued: "Originally, the salary of the Xiang Army was very low. It was only 500 cash a month. They were given two shi of rice and a little salt, and they had to support a family. They are greedy for even this little money. Are they crazy? ?”

“It’s really unexpected.”

Lu Yijian also smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Every year, the imperial court distributes a sufficient salary, but here it is actually like this."

"Killing people and pretending to claim it actually started as early as the Taizu period."

Zhao Jun frowned and said: "You have never paid attention to the shortcomings of the Song Dynasty for so long. You are still a prime minister."

Everyone didn't dare to say anything after being scolded, they just lowered their heads and remained silent.

joke.

The military power of the Song Dynasty has always been in the hands of the emperor.

It was the emperor's connivance that the generals and nobles were brought up like this. As civil servants, what they had to do was to help the emperor control the generals. How could they dare to interfere with military power.

"alright."

Wang Zeng said: "Hanlong, you should also understand the affairs of the Song Dynasty. It was impossible for us to intervene in the affairs of the army before. Even the Privy Council did not have the power to check the status of soldiers and make noise."

"Cough cough cough."

Zhao Jun glanced at everyone, coughed twice and said, "That's still your problem. The government has a lot of things to do every day, won't you remind me? Okay, let's talk about business first."

As he said that, he turned to look at Lu Yijian and said, "Old Lutou, tell me how to deal with it."

"Those involved will be dealt with accordingly."

Lu Yijian raised his eyebrows and said: "Kill those who deserve to be killed, and exile those who deserve. We will never tolerate them."

"Oh, I'm so decisive this time."

Zhao Jun turned to look at Li Di, pointed at Lu Yijian and said mockingly: "Mr. Xiu, look, if it doesn't involve your own interests, you are willing to do it."

"That's what he is."

Li Di responded with a smile.

Lu Yijian had long been accustomed to Zhao Jun's cynicism towards him. The relationship between the two parties had always been vaguely hostile and vaguely cooperative. He just said calmly: "I just made a decision."

"Oh, I just wanted to give them a chance before, but I didn't expect that they would force me to do it after all."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said: "Mr. Fuzhu, please let your Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, and the Sentencing Court conduct a joint investigation this time. We will report it to the officials in the afternoon and arrest the people we have found so far. Then we will continue to dig deeper."

"Um."

Li Di nodded. He is the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment. Although the Ministry of Punishment is currently only the law maker, as the Prime Minister, he naturally has the power to take the lead in organizing the three-party trial.

Zhao Jun continued: "The country should unswervingly implement the three-redundant reform. Originally, I planned to start it in February this year, but these noble generals made it so that I am still delaying it. Since they are shameless, then No wonder we are.”

As he spoke, he added: "I make two demands regarding the issue of redundant troops this time. The first demand is that illegal and criminal elements must not be treated lightly and must be punished severely, so as to give the army a bright and sunny day. The second demand is that The requirement is to do a good job in dealing with the aftermath, including the families of the victims, the rectification of military discipline, and disarmament matters, and we must not slack off, do you hear me?”

"Um."

Everyone responded.

This is indeed a major matter, related to the policies to be implemented by the entire Constitutional Yuan.

"Okay, let's break up the meeting for now, Mr. Xiu."

Zhao Jun looked at Li Di and said, "I'll leave this matter to you. You can handle it today."

"I see."

Li Di nodded.

We are preparing to adjourn the meeting now.

Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

Zhao Jun looked towards the door.

A lower-level official from the Constitutional Yuan came in, raised his hand to Zhao Jun and said, "Zhi Yuan, Daming Prefecture is urgently needed."

"Eight hundred miles urgent? Is the Liao Kingdom calling?"

Zhao Jun was confused.

He took the official document from the official, opened it and glanced at it, and his face turned livid in an instant.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

When everyone saw that he looked unhappy, Fan Zhongyan hurriedly went up and asked, "Is it true that the Liao Kingdom is coming?"

If this happened, he was afraid he would take action.

However, Zhao Jun shook his head, closed the official document, and said in a deep voice: "The envoy sent by the Ministry of War was robbed and killed, and it was Wang Anshi!"

"Wang Anshi is dead?"

Everyone was shocked. They all knew that Wang Anshi was the later reformist prime minister.

"No, he found out."

Zhao Jun looked at the crowd with a serious face and said: "The other party is so desperate that they dare to rob and kill even the angels of the imperial court. It is simply lawless. It is no different from rebellion. I don't think there is any need to interrogate first and just arrest them directly." People, first control all the generals who may be involved."

"Maybe the generals involved are under control?"

Sheng Du wondered: "But it seems that not much has been discovered so far. Wouldn't it be bad to arrest people for no reason before there is evidence?"

"Evidence is needed to fight corruption, lists are needed to fight crime, and coordinates are needed to counter insurgency."

Zhao Jun said: "Go and report it to the officials immediately, and arrest him first!"

If the previous matter of feeding nobles and nobles was just corruption or evil forces, then now the robbery and murder of angels is tantamount to rebellion.

The nature of the matter was different, so everyone naturally realized the seriousness of the problem. They no longer dealt with state affairs first, but immediately went to the Central Palace to report the matter to Zhao Zhen.