"I want to summon back Chancellor Li!"

That noon, upon returning to the temporary palace, Zhao Jiu told Grand Eunuch Kang Li that he wanted to see the two chief ministers of the Eastern and Western Secretariats, and Wang Yuan, the commander of the Imperial Guard. His attitude was so firm that it was astonishing. Furthermore, with the accompanying dozens of Loyal Heart Team cavalrymen, Kang Li, caught off guard, could only agree in public.

And as soon as he met the two chief ministers in the main hall of the inner palace, this Lord Zhao dropped a bombshell!

It was truly teasing the autumn rain, because after sunrise, the sky gradually darkened, and by the time it was late morning, the first autumn rain of the first year of Jianyan had begun to fall above the Mingdao Palace.

"Your... your... Minister..."

Grand Councilor Wang Boyan was a little better, but the proper Chancellor Huang Qianshan couldn't utter a complete sentence for a long time, and it was unclear whether it was due to his inherent incompetence or some other reason.

"Your Majesty!" Kang Li couldn't bear to watch any longer. Taking advantage of the fact that this was the inner palace rather than the formal court, he spoke out to help, regardless of his position. "Chancellor Li has just been dismissed. How can decrees be changed so quickly?"

"That's right." Chancellor Huang also reacted and immediately spoke out in opposition. "Please let Your Majesty know, there is no such precedent in this dynasty!"

"What precedents are you talking about when the country is being destroyed?" Zhao Jiu, sitting in a chair with a stern face and still slightly damp clothes, retorted immediately before the other party could finish speaking. "Chancellor Li has only been dismissed, not removed from office for a crime. Is there any law that prohibits recalling him?"

Autumn rain drizzled, and Huang Qianshan, who was nearly fifty years old, was covered in sweat: "Your Majesty, I..."

"Your Majesty," Kang Li once again interjected to assist. "Your Majesty fell into a well before and doesn't remember many things. I'm afraid you don't know that in Nanjing (Shangqiu), over Chancellor Li's matter, one remonstrating official and two imperial students died... Remonstrating Official Song Qiyu was killed by Chancellor Li in defiance of the world's opinion simply because he criticized Chancellor Li for armchair strategizing and useless tactics, violating the great taboo of the world not killing scholar-officials; the two imperial students supported Chancellor Li, but publicly falsely accused Your Majesty of private misconduct in order to support Chancellor Li... Please let Your Majesty know, the reason why Your Majesty abandoned this person before was not only because this person wanted to go to Nanyang, but also because this person was overbearing, wielding power and bestowing favors arbitrarily, treating Your Majesty like a child!"

Treating someone like a child meant looking down on them… And after hearing this sentence, Zhao Jiu truly believed it, because the truth might really be like this. Otherwise, with the earth-shattering merit Li Gang had in helping Zhao Gou rebuild the central government in just a month, such a violent conflict could not have arisen so quickly, causing a political struggle that led to the deaths of remonstrating officials and imperial students, and resulted in Li Gang's dismissal, less than three months after Zhao Gou ascended the throne.

And the reason why Li Gang treated Zhao Jiu like a child was self-evident.

One was that this body was indeed young, and the civil officials of the Song Dynasty had always liked to deceive the Zhao emperors. It could be considered a traditional skill of the experienced and prestigious ministers in the Zhao Song court; the other was that, perhaps, these ministers with anti-Jin views had seen through the Zhao family's cowardice and incompetence in the face of the Jin after experiencing the Jingkang Incident. They knew the fear in the hearts of each Zhao emperor and had to use moral blackmail and blatant lies to deal with the situation.

But they had forgotten that the Song emperors and the vast majority of Song scholar-officials were always incompetent in external struggles but experts in internal strife. This led Zhao Jiu to discover upon crossing over that three of the anti-Jin paragons with names in history textbooks, Chen Dong, had been killed by him, Li Gang had been driven away by him, and Zong Ze had been abandoned by him.

Based on these things alone, the original owner of this body must have had something going on.

"Is that so?"

With a complicated mood, Zhao Jiu forcibly put on a stern face and swept his gaze across the five key officials in the room, who were also the five obstacles he had been facing since he crossed over… He saw Grand Eunuch Kang Li of the Palace Secretariat looking anxious and uneasy; Chancellor Huang Qianshan looking surprised and flustered; Grand Councilor Wang Boyan remaining silent; Imperial Guard Commander Wang Yuan looking left and right; only Yang Yizhong, Yang Zhengfu, remained expressionless, standing upright to the side with his saber.

Of course, Yang Yizhong, as the only person in the room with a saber, had just completed his defection, and together with Liu Yan, who was waiting outside the palace, they were precisely the greatest confidence that this Lord Zhao had decided to abandon the recently popular cautious route and instead go for a bold move.

"That's exactly the case!" Kang Li hurriedly replied again, and stomped his foot heavily on the ground, regardless of everything.

At this moment, the two chief ministers and one commander also woke up one after another, and all bowed their heads in agreement, appearing to be a solid bloc. What was absurd was that the reason why these people had been able to form a single entity was precisely because they had all been confidants of Zhao Gou before.

"Then let's just forget about summoning Chancellor Li for now!" Zhao Jiu looked coldly for a long time, and then suddenly smiled again. "I want to summon back Deputy Commander Zong… Zong Ze, the defender of Hebei, is the Deputy Commander of the Marshal's Office. His merit in supporting me is no less than yours, and he is also someone I have always been close to and respected. He is in Dongjing, and we are in Bozhou, only three hundred li apart. He can arrive here in ten days. What do you think?"

Kang Li and the others changed color again—Zong Ze, on the surface, came from the same Grand Marshal's Office as them, but that old man was even more stubborn and difficult than Li Gang. If he really came, wouldn't there be another bloody storm?

But at this time, they could not use the previous reasons to prevaricate, and some of the intentions displayed by this emperor in today's raid had truly made these important ministers of the temporary palace feel frightened.

"Your Majesty!" Kang Li changed his address once again. "Deputy Commander Zong is in Dongjing, a position of great importance, and he cannot be summoned easily. Please let Your Majesty know, the Jin soldiers have crossed the river again and are attacking the Sisui Pass! If we summon Defender Zong at this time, wouldn't Dongjing be wide open?"

"Then why don't I go to Dongjing with you to see him?" Zhao Jiu pressed on again.

Kang Li was completely horrified and could only turn around for help.

Wang Boyan, who was already nearly sixty years old, could not avoid it and finally spoke helplessly: "How can we allow the Supreme Being to fall into a desperate situation again? Your Majesty… I know the Privy Council and have always known about military intelligence. Since the Jingkang Incident, the population of Dongjing has been scattered, and it is truly an empty city. The surrounding military is weak, and there is constant famine. There are only millions of defeated soldiers, refugees, and bandits, looting without restraint. Moreover, it directly faces the main force of the Jin army. It is really not good to go there at this time."

"Then what do you say should be done?" Zhao Jiu sneered again and again. "You repeatedly urge me to go south to Huaidian and Yangzhou, but if there is no proper arrangement behind us, how can we easily go south? If we do, not to mention Hebei and Hedong, wouldn't the people of the Central Plains think that I and you are abandoning them? What will we say if something happens then? You also know that I lost my composure when I fell into the well, so some stories should only be listened to as news… I heard a guardsman say the other day that during the Jingkang Incident, when I was an envoy to the Jin, I let the deputy envoy go first. When he reached Xiangzhou, the people of Hebei, hearing that he was going to negotiate peace, directly beat that innocent deputy envoy to death in the street… Is there such a thing?"

"Yes, there is." The wind and rain outside the palace were heavy, and after a long silence in the palace, Wang Boyan reluctantly spoke. "Wang Jizhi was beaten to death on the road by the people of Xiangzhou because he requested peace with the north."

"Aren't you afraid of being beaten to death?" Zhao Jiu asked softly, as if asking the key officials of the temporary palace what they had eaten for breakfast.

The gust of wind and rain outside the palace came suddenly and went suddenly, and the inner palace of Mingdao Palace was also momentarily swaying. The key officials in this temporary palace were clearly stunned by this wave of Zhao Emperor's sudden attack.

After looking at each other, the few people helplessly had Chancellor Huang Qianshan brace himself and open his mouth: "Then what does Your Majesty think should be done?"

"Issue a clear decree, allowing civil and military officials in the temporary palace, regardless of their rank, to submit written opinions and discuss the defense of the Central Plains." Zhao Jiu finally grasped a trace of initiative for the first time, and seemed to finally expose his ultimate goal. "I want to see what the civil and military officials in the court really think."

Several high officials were disheveled and embarrassed. After looking at each other, they finally bowed their heads and accepted the order.

And Lord Zhao didn't fuss too much and went straight to the back to rest… After a night of tossing and turning, he actually didn't rest properly.

Not to mention how refreshed Zhao Jiu felt after this wave of recklessness, on the other side, the five key officials of the temporary palace turned out of the inner palace, each with their own destination, but after a quarter of an hour, they reunited in a certain厢房 in the middle palace of Mingdao Palace under the organization of Kang Li.

This place was temporarily occupied by the Privy Council, and according to the Song Dynasty system, confidential documents were exchanged between the inner and outer parts in this Privy Council. Therefore, after something happened to the Son of Heaven before, it had become a common meeting place for the five people (sometimes Yang Yizhong didn't come).

"Grand Eunuch Kang, what's wrong with His Majesty?"

Outside the 厢房, the rain was pouring. Huang Qianshan, who was just fifty years old this year, showed the most panic. He was also the most distraught in the palace just now.

Of course, Zhao Jiu might not understand, but these people understood Chancellor Huang's thoughts very well… It must be known that whether it was Li Gang or Zong Ze, what they directly threatened was his position, but more importantly, this Chancellor Huang and Chancellor Li Gang's previous struggles had been bloody!

Therefore, once Lord Zhao's mind changed, this Huang Qianshan would definitely not simply lose his position, and he might have to take a trip to Hainan Island.

Kang Li said nothing, but stared at Yang Yizhong.

Yang Yizhong, who had always been properly attentive, understood and immediately bowed respectfully to answer, but he reported the events of last night and the emperor's itinerary to the several high officials in detail without any concealment, only omitting the matter of his defection this morning. Finally, he added a sentence of speculation:

"His Majesty was probably touched by what happened last night and thought that the people of the north all did not want to go south. He was afraid that such things would happen again on the road if no arrangements were made."

"The reasoning makes sense." Commander Wang Yuan breathed a slight sigh of relief. "Human nature is such. Grand Eunuch Kang still needs to persuade His Majesty more."

"It would be fine if there was a reason, but this is only the surface." Kang Li did not relax at all when he heard this, but his face became even more gloomy. "The key is still that fall into the well. After waking up, His Majesty suddenly didn't recognize you and me, and his behavior was strange, as if he had become a different person..."

"Grand Eunuch Kang, be careful!" Grand Councilor Wang Boyan immediately interrupted him with a solemn expression. "The Emperor is the Emperor. We can't say that he is not the Emperor just because he suffered an injury and forgot some people and things."

"That's right." Wang Yuan also quickly expressed his agreement. "Just say one thing, if the one in the inner palace is not the Emperor, then where is the Emperor? And hundreds of civil and military officials in the temporary palace and hundreds of millions of people in the world only recognize this Emperor... He speaks clearly and moves freely, so he is the Emperor! If a few of us say that he is not the Emperor, I'm afraid that when military leaders like Zhang Jun come back, they will want to purge the court!"

"Of course, I understand this principle!" Kang Li could still maintain etiquette towards the two chief ministers, but he was impatient with Wang Yuan, who came from a military background, even though the latter was the dignified Commander of the Imperial Guard and the actual military commander of the current small court. "I am a eunuch, and I need the Emperor in the inner palace more than you do! Without this Emperor, you would only lose your power and position, but what am I? Even if you are demoted, you will all go to Hainan Island, but I will have to go to Shamen Island! But the Emperor's mind has changed since he fell into the well, and his mind has been confused by something. Now he actually wants to stay in the Central Plains to resist the Jin, but that is the truth."

The people in the 厢房 were immediately speechless.

There was no way, this matter was too troublesome. How good was the Emperor before? How did he become like this after accidentally falling into a well? There was no way to post a notice in front of the main hall of Mingdao Palace and ask the civil and military officials of the temporary palace to anonymously answer it.

Little did they know that while Zhao Jiu, the Emperor, felt suffocated these days, these few people felt like the sky was falling!

"Then what does Grand Eunuch Kang think we should do?" After a long silence, Chancellor Huang Qianshan勉力 adjusted his emotions and spoke again, but he still unconsciously regarded Kang Li as the main consultant.

"I also know the severity of the situation." Kang Li gave the bottom line of his response after a little thought. "But no matter what, we have to find a way to get through the present and then safely lead the Emperor to Yangzhou. Once we get to Yangzhou, thousands of miles away, we don't have to worry about the Jin army, and the Emperor will naturally not care about the words of these thieves who want to resist the Jin all day long... At that time, we will serve the Emperor well and let him live a stable and happy life, and then everything will naturally disappear."

"But how should we get through the present?" Huang Qianshan was still uneasy. "We can't stop the Emperor's requests. We can't bear the crime of isolating the inner and outer parts of the palace. At that time, without the Emperor's doing anything, the Hanlin and censors in the temporary palace will be able to send us to Hainan Island."

"This matter is straightforward." Kang Li said solemnly. "First, we have to let the Emperor know that most of the civil and military officials in the temporary palace still want to go to Yangzhou. Those traitors in the Loyal Heart Team are just a few barbarians from Liaodi and cannot explain the people's hearts; second, we have to make the Emperor remember and understand that people like Li Gang and Zong Ze are far less intimate than you and me..."

"The former is easy to say. The Emperor has rarely asked about politics since he was injured, and most of the memorials pass through you and me. This time, the Emperor wants to broaden the channels of speech. We will have to put in a lot of effort, carefully instruct those who might talk nonsense, and then carefully examine them in this Privy Council." Huang Qianshan also became serious. "But the latter..."

"Doesn't Chancellor Huang understand the latter?" Kang Li sneered endlessly. "How did you kill Chen Dong and drive away Li Gang in Nanjing more than a month ago? The Emperor has forgotten the old things, and have you forgotten them too?"

Huang Qianshan was speechless for a moment, but he understood.

It is said that everyone makes mistakes; it is also said that three men make a tiger, and Zeng Shen killed someone.

Since ancient times, villains in the power center have used the advantage of controlling the information channels around the monarch to present certain things that the monarch cares about most or hates most after figuring out the monarch's personality, and then some people will naturally be unlucky... This kind of thing has existed since ancient times, and will inevitably exist in the future.

Of course, as important figures in the Secretariat and the inner court, and coupled with the Emperor's recent impatience with the five people in this 厢房, they certainly cannot come forward to do some things themselves.

"Choose a good candidate!"

Kang Li reminded the Song Dynasty Chancellor in the room again, and then turned around and left with his hands folded. Yang Yizhong did not dare to neglect and actually followed him out, and personally held up a paper umbrella with his noble status to shield the Grand Eunuch of the Song Dynasty's Palace Secretariat from the wind and rain.

The remaining three people in the room looked at each other and said nothing.

ps: Thank you to the new alliance leaders I will go to move the train station, 20180516032105948, Sky Mirror 1900, as well as 微茫0930, 吃嘎巴菜, 少你了, 醉一剑, 危笑忘, 一碗泡面啊, 清丶微 and so on... They are all old friends of Fu Han who came to support, I am very grateful.

In the middle of the night, I pressed Xiao Jiu's head to kowtow in front of the screen, one reward, one kowtow, no less.