Chapter 1 The Quitting

Ma Kuo came and went in a hurry, regarding national affairs as his sole concern, which truly gave Zhao Jiu a sense of shock.

However, in the end, he did not stop him from turning back, because feelings are feelings, and as an official, one always has to do things... If he were truly mired in emotion, when faced with the simultaneous occurrence of the Three Great Cases, this Zhao official would not have stopped at merely slashing Zhao Ji's congratulatory message to shreds with a knife. Where would he have found the time to inspect the army and meet with Ma Kuo?

Even further, five or six years of governance experience had indeed tempered this ordinary engineering student into something more.

For example, Zhao Jiu actually quite disliked Li Guang and Ma Shen, but reason constantly told him that Li Guang was actually qualified in the specific position of Vice Censor-in-Chief. His role was to play the nitpicker, and Ma Shen, even if he harbored sectarian views, was a better player, hiding his spearhead within his own job duties... From the perspective of a department head in the Ministry of Justice, this person was undoubtedly qualified.

Moreover, he had indeed contributed to maintaining stability in Hubei before.

In addition, there were the issues of Lu Bentzhong and Ren Baozhong, two newly promoted close officials. Frankly, Zhao Jiu knew their flaws. One was incompetent, fully befitting the identity of the eldest son of a family with four generations of high officials; the other was immoral, also fully befitting the setting of a minority ethnic military clan leader from a remote small country.

These two people, if it were Zhao Jiu five years ago, he definitely... definitely wouldn't have been able to tell which one was incompetent and which one was immoral. If it were the Zhao official of three years ago, he probably wouldn't have given these two people a chance to get close from the start.

However, the current official somewhat understood that incompetence and immorality didn't mean uselessness.

At a time when meritorious officials and royalty were facing widespread suppression, Lu Bentzhong's identity naturally had a certain political influence. In addition, given the Lu family's special status in Yuanyou studies and their relatively good reputation, it was fine to put him on a pedestal and keep him around as a harmless companion.

Similarly, Ren Baozhong, that bald old man, not to mention his rich military and political experience, his status as an elder of a major Tangut clan in Hengshan was enough to give him a chance to survive in the center of power.

Of course, everything had to have a balance... More recently, even the deceased Yang Zheng was very useful, but he was still beheaded. Liu Guangshi was also quite useful, but he was bled dry like a chicken... Everything had to have a limit, and even more so a bottom line. People were the same.

Back to the present, although Ma Kuo had left, he had left behind a clear message. This man, who perhaps understood the Jurchens best and had the most say in the Northern Expedition, put forward a clear concept—that once the balance of offense and defense shifted, if they wanted to defeat the Jurchens in the Two Rivers region, they needed no less than 300,000 troops.

Zhao Jiu certainly acknowledged this serious reminder, or warning. However, what the Zhao official acknowledged was the general principle, that after the shift in offense and defense, the Song army's current strength, which could barely maintain the Yellow River confrontation, was insufficient, and there had to be a significant improvement, otherwise it was very likely that all their efforts would be in vain.

And this obvious improvement in combat strength was most directly manifested in the increase from 200,000 to 300,000.

In reality, of course, it could be quantity, but it could also be quality, or favorable timing and terrain, or even a breakthrough in weapon technology.

From another perspective, Zhao Jiu had already begun to prepare for similar things. For example, as the finances improved year by year, and with Qu Duan's Imperial Cavalry Army unable to recruit enough soldiers, at the end of the year before last and the beginning of last year, he had already implicitly allowed Yue Fei's department to slightly expand its forces after pacifying Jingxiang. Moreover, the Imperial Vanguard Army's organization had already broken through the original framework of 35,000 early last year, reaching the 40,000 mark.

As for Han Shizhong's department, Wu Jie's department, Qu Duan's department, and Wang De's department, after this campaign against Western Xia, they were allowed to retain more than 10,000 elite surrendered Tangut soldiers they had accumulated. In fact, each department had taken action to break through the original limit. The overall organization of the Imperial Army had actually crossed the 200,000 mark after the Western Xia campaign.

In a word, no matter what, a consensus had already been reached, that the combat strength of the field army must have a qualitative improvement.

Having said that, after Ma Kuo left, Zhao Jiu, having obtained the answer he wanted from this trip, also left Heyin, but still did not return to the capital. Instead, under the gaze of eyes within the capital that were as tense as could be, he continued to inspect along the river, passing by Tokyo City, Yuangwu, Yangwu, Suanzao, Zuocheng, Shaoxing... It could only be said that this Zhao official seemed to be single-mindedly inspecting the river defenses and observing the troops.

Moreover, compared to his caution in Zhang Rong's army before, and compared to stopping at high-level military officers and seriously deficient and corrupt matters during inspections in previous years, this time, when inspecting Li Qiong's department, Zhao Jiu clearly adopted a more severe and direct approach.

A large number of mid- and low-level military officers were directly convicted and expelled for the bad habit of exploiting soldiers and the borderline behavior of encroaching on soldiers' fields. A mere 10,000-odd troops actually had hundreds of people punished in five locations, more than 30 of whom were directly beheaded.

This made countless officers below Li Qiong panic for a time, thinking that this official had come specifically for them. Fortunately, the Zhao official had built up the prestige he should have over the past five or six years, and no one dared to repeat the previous desperation tactics and directly defect.

After inspecting Li Qiong's department, the Zhao official did not follow the suggestions from within Tokyo City and return to the capital. Instead, in the increasingly cold winter, he directly crossed Shaoxing and continued eastward, entering the Henan section of Kaide Prefecture.

From here, he actually set foot in the defense area of Yue Fei's Imperial Vanguard Army.

Yue Fei had just returned not long ago and was currently far away in Qizhou. Zhao Jiu did not specifically notify him, and was actually coming with a hint of cautious attitude. He also wanted to see with his own eyes just how good the discipline of Yue Fei's department, which was generally acknowledged to be outstanding, really was, and how powerful the legendary Yue Family Army was... It must be known that this was Zhao Jiu's first time inspecting the Imperial Vanguard Army, or rather, the Yue Family Army.

But after actually going through it, to be honest, Zhao Jiu only had four words to describe his feeling, which was: unremarkable.

By unremarkable, he meant that he didn't see any completely eye-catching, era-breaking obvious features... There was no specific military equipment or machinery. From the perspective of equipping elite troops, the Yue Family Army didn't seem to be as flashy as Han Shizhong's elite core troops. There was no outstanding military appearance with orderly formations. Not to mention comparing it to the parade formations of later generations, just in terms of being physically strong and robust, they were clearly not as good as the Imperial Guards or even Wang De's personal troops. By the same token, the officers in the army did not have the simplicity of being one with the soldiers. The officers of the Yue Family Army were well-paid, and it was common for them to buy property in the garrison area. This was even somewhat inferior to the harmonious performance of the grassroots soldiers in Zhang Rong's department.

But conversely, this official couldn't find any flaws either... There was no phenomenon of exploiting soldiers; there was no obvious problem of empty pay; of course there were vacancies among the soldiers, but they were all openly marked on the documents, who had taken leave, who had just chosen to withdraw from the army due to injury or other reasons; of course not everyone wore armor, only seven or eight out of ten, and some archers and logistics soldiers couldn't get armor, but that was because the court only distributed that many sets of armor.

The rest of the army practiced once every three days and drilled once every ten days, and how many days they ate meat was also done according to regulations.

Everything was so unremarkable, everything was so clear, the combat personnel were called out, clear at a glance, the logistics accounts were picked out, also clear at a glance.

Frankly, Zhao Jiu was a little disappointed.

But among the accompanying personnel, not to mention Lu Bentzhong and Fan Zongyin, Wang Yan, Liu Hongdao, and Ren Baozhong seemed extremely astonished. Moreover, as the imperial carriage advanced eastward and the more garrison points of the Imperial Vanguard Army were inspected, this astonishment became more and more pronounced. In the end, these officials, who could be considered knowledgeable about military affairs, simply fell into a state of disbelief.

Even Zhao Jiu gradually tasted something.

Or rather, he had tasted something from the beginning, but because he had held unrealistic ideas at the beginning, he had not shown it—in the feudal era, an army with a number as large as forty or fifty thousand that could maintain this unremarkableness across the board was itself a miracle.

It must be known that this was forty or fifty thousand people!

The increase in the number of troops would inevitably lead to management chaos and a decline in average combat strength. This was common sense. At this time, maintaining the height of the lower limit of troop combat strength was particularly important.

Yue Pengju was undoubtedly a marshal of large-scale troop management and combat, and may even be the only one of his kind in the present era.

Not to mention anything else, if he, Zhao official, could have this level of ability and make the 200,000-strong Imperial Army all look like this unremarkable, then he would dare to cross the river and give it a try now.

But in reality, he, Zhao Jiu, could not do this. Otherwise, he would not have been forced to come out and inspect the river in the dead of winter.

In this way, after witnessing the unremarkableness of the Yue Family Army, the Zhao official continued eastward, from Kaide to Puzhou, and then to Dongping Prefecture. During this time, he even made a special trip to see the already frozen Liangshan Marsh,慰问 the local fishermen, and displayed the Zhao Song official's stance of君民一家亲 (the ruler and the people are one family).

Towards the beginning of the twelfth month, seeing that the weather was getting colder and colder, Zhao Jiu once again sent Liu Hongdao back to Tokyo to make arrangements, but he finally entered Qizhou and arrived at the famous Jinan Prefecture.

Yue Fei and Wan Qixie came out of the city to welcome him fifty *li* away. The ruler and his subjects met, but as always, there were not many extra words to be had. Even Wang Yan, after serving as an Pacification Commissioner and going through this trip, was somewhat shocked, but he just kept a straight face and did not cause trouble in front of the emperor or in private.

The inspection of Jinan Prefecture was also unremarkable, nothing more than the fact that there were more elite troops of the Imperial Vanguard Army here. Zhao Jiu was even more familiar with these elite troops, so he did not bother to investigate too much. The only thing worth mentioning was that this official finally met the legendary Yue's mother and exchanged some tips on raising children with her.

He probably stayed in Jinan for no more than four or five days. The Zhao official continued eastward to inspect, and Yue Fei also led Zhang Xian's Beiwei Army to accompany and escort the Zhao official eastward, following the Ji River to Zizhou. Zizhou was still under the garrison of Yue Fei's department, but Qingzhou further east was the garrison of Zhang Jun's Imperial Right Army.

However, it was only after entering Zizhou, before reaching Qingzhou, that an accident finally occurred—hundreds of armored soldiers suddenly came to meet them, blocking the ceremonial guard outside the garrison point of the Imperial Vanguard Army outside Gaoyuan City, requesting an audience.

The incident happened suddenly, and everyone was cautious. Fortunately, this place was outside the military camp, and there were enough accompanying personnel. Several hundred people requesting an audience in this way was unlikely to be a mutiny or anything like that. So, unlike the nervousness of others, Zhao Jiu maintained his composure, entered the Gaoyuan military camp with Wang Yan, Yue Fei, and others, and then summoned the leader of these soldiers.

But unexpectedly, the person who came was not looking for Zhao Jiu, but claimed to be looking for Yue Fei. In fact, when this person came to the hall and heard that it was the official in person, he simply lost his composure and was temporarily afraid to speak, only kowtowing.

At this time, the accompanying civil and military officials became nervous again. Zhao Jiu finally turned his probing gaze to Yue Pengju.

"Your Majesty."

How could Yue Fei not know the root of the matter? It was just that the matter was a little awkward. But now that things had come to this, he couldn't help but stand up and explain as soon as possible. "This person, I do recognize him. He was a surrendered general I recruited when I was pacifying Zhong Xiang and Yang Mo in Jingxiang. His name is Guo Tai. Later, I placed him here as a deputy commander, leading three hundred regular soldiers. But this person, about a few months ago, when I was still in Guanxi, he had already asked to resign. He is not considered my subordinate..."

"I know the name Guo Tai, he surrendered with Huang Zuo... But what do you mean by resign?"

Zhao Jiu immediately frowned, and instantly noticed something was wrong. "A deputy commander with three hundred local soldiers under his command, resigning while the commander-in-chief is away, what for? And looking at the way he looks today, those three hundred soldiers left with him, and they still have armor and weapons... Wang Gui was in charge of matters in Jinan at that time, right? Three hundred surrendered soldiers, and they were just allowed to leave like that?"

Yue Fei was temporarily embarrassed. Wang Yan, Ren Baozhong and others also remained silent at this time, because these people with rich military experience had already guessed what was going on.

"What's going on?" In the silence, Zhao Jiu blurted out a question, but almost at the same time, his heart moved slightly, and he also realized something.

"Your Majesty, no matter how muddleheaded we are, it is impossible for us to really allow three hundred regular soldiers from Jingxiang to leave the army without authorization in Jingdong, taking their armor and weapons with them," Yue Fei was forced into a corner and finally told the truth. "According to Wang Gui, at that time, there was a document transferred from Zhang, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Right Army, which was considered a lateral transfer."

Zhao Jiu finally chuckled and sat up straight. Then, he asked Guo Tai, who was kneeling there below, afraid to raise his head, "Guo Tai, I'm asking you, what did Zhang Jun promise you? A house or a beautiful concubine, or perhaps a promotion of two ranks?"

"He didn't promise anything!" Guo Tai still dared not raise his head, only kowtowing. "With Your Majesty in front of me, I wouldn't dare to tell a single lie!"

"Then why did you go?!" Zhao Jiu finally frowned.

"Because the Yue Family Army here has too many restrictions!" Guo Tai quickly explained. "Not allowed to do this, not allowed to do that, practicing once every three days, training once every ten days, it's too hard... Then Zizhou is next to the Zhang Family Army, and I became familiar with the people of the Zhang Family Army. I knew it was easier over there, so I wanted to go!"

Zhao Jiu was expressionless, but he already believed it. Looking at the several people around him with military experience, they all had an "as expected" look... In fact, this kind of thing was very common in the army in the feudal era. Even after the establishment of the Imperial Army system, it was still often seen, even in the past two years, and the scale was still very large at that time.

But in the past two years, as the situation has gotten better and better, and the authority of the central government has gradually risen, these things have become less common. It is more like the current situation, a few hundred people changing their allegiance. Under the circumstances that each side's military pay has a fixed quota, it does not involve a real increase or decrease in troops, and the commanders of both sides are embarrassed to report it to the top because of face.

Of course, believing is believing, but there are still doubts, just like knowing is knowing, but always feeling uncomfortable when seeing similar situations is the same principle.

"Then why did you come back today?" Ren Baozhong saw that the official's face had not changed for a long time and realized something, so he took the lead to come out and question.

Perhaps because the southerners could not understand the northwestern accent, or for other reasons, after being questioned, this person only lowered his head and did not speak.

On the other side, Yue Fei was also gradually becoming annoyed - it was only natural to be angry when encountering this kind of thing, especially since this guy did not know the proper etiquette and kept talking about the Yue Family Army and Zhang Family Army in front of the official, adding to his trouble for no reason.

"Is it because he knows that Grand Commandant Yue has made great contributions this time and has become a Three-Garrison Regional Commander, ranking second among the commanders-in-chief, while the Zhang Family Army has been defeated, and he has realized that the Yue Family Army has a bright future?" Seeing the official picking up his teacup and drinking, Wang Yan knew that the official was also angry, and finally could not help but take the opportunity to stab his old subordinate Yue Fei.

Yue Fei was completely exasperated. He was really somewhat restrained, especially when facing Wang Yan, and in front of the emperor. He simply stood up and sternly reprimanded Guo Tai, "Guo Tai, with the Emperor in front of you, and Military Commissioner Wang in presence, what can you possibly hide?!"

Hearing this, Guo Tai finally raised his head, but with a difficult expression, "To let the Commisioner know, it's not that I don't want to say it, it's just embarrassing to say... It would be fine if only a few Commissioners were here, but how could I be so embarrassing in front of the Emperor?"

"If you don't say it again, it won't be a matter of embarrassment!" Yue Fei narrowed his eyes directly. "Are you really not afraid of military law?!"

"To let Your Majesty and all the Grand Commandants know, this matter has nothing to do with the future or victory or defeat."

Under the coercion of Yue Fei, Guo Tai finally couldn't hold on and told the truth with his head lowered. "I went to Zhang's army, and life was indeed easier there, but for those of us at that level, the military equipment was still sufficient, but the military pay was only 80%..."

Zhao Jiu, who was drinking tea with his head lowered, suddenly raised his head, startling everyone into solemnity.

"Losing 20% of the pay, it won't be obvious for a regular soldier for a month or two, but it's a little less than ten strings of coins a year." Guo Tai, with his head lowered, did not notice the abnormality above, but continued to explain. "The younger ones send it back home, and after a few months, their mothers ask their uncles to write letters to scold them, asking if they have learned bad habits? The older ones bring their wives to the local area, and when they send the money back, their wives also make trouble at home, asking if they are keeping someone outside? Two hundred out of three hundred brothers have unrest at home, and if there is unrest, they have to ask me for an explanation. The brothers around me are all from the same family and the same village. We really couldn't hold on, and then yesterday we heard from the old brothers in the army that Grand Commandant Yue's four-character banner would be passing by today, so we came early to wait, just hoping that the Grand Commandant would forgive us and allow us to return... How could we have thought that there wouldn't be anyone wearing red and green, and the Emperor would suddenly come? If we had known this, I would have died in Qingzhou rather than come and lose face."

After a speech, there was still silence in the hall. At this time, even Guo Tai noticed something was wrong, and became even more terrified.

"Let them stay!" After a long pause, Zhao Jiu suddenly picked up the porcelain cup again to break the silence, which was considered an imperial edict, settling this seemingly absurd matter. "It can also be regarded as proof of Pengju's strict military discipline and personal integrity... Let them stay!"

Yue Fei quickly stood up and responded, while Guo Tai was overjoyed and kowtowed repeatedly.

A moment later, Guo Tai left the military camp hall. This small matter was considered over, but the hall seemed somewhat depressed. Almost everyone was trying to guess the Zhao official's thoughts.

But soon there was no need to guess. Zhao Jiu just sat in the slightly depressed hall for a while, then directly smiled and gave instructions:

"Pengju, don't go back to Jinan, and don't follow me to Qingzhou. Just wait here, understand?"

Yue Fei was slightly stunned, and then quickly bowed his head and said yes.

After that, this official actually did not inspect the local troops in Gaoyuan. Instead, he directly got up and left the military camp, startling the accompanying ceremonial guard, who had just rested for a while, to hurriedly get up and continue to follow this official southeast... Judging from this, this official only made a brief appearance here in Gaoyuan, and was going directly to Qingzhou.

The accompanying civil and military officials were all silent.

It was not until the evening of that day, when they were about to cross the Shi River, that Wang Yan, the highest-ranking official among them, could no longer hold back... Of course, it was also possible that he was recommended by the accompanying close officials... He came forward to advise: "Your Majesty, why not wait until tomorrow morning to cross the river!"

"What difference does it make whether we cross now or tomorrow morning?" Zhao Jiu, riding on his horse, smiled in response.

"Why not send an envoy ahead to inform Grand Commandant Zhang first?" Fan Zongyin, a Hanlin academician, also quickly stepped forward to plead.

"It's not like we're going to some enemy territory!" Zhao Jiu still smiled in response. "Am I supposed to inform everyone just to travel on my own territory?"

"Your Majesty, we have few soldiers," Liu Yan, who was usually taciturn, also couldn't help but step forward. "Why not have Military Commissioner Yue send the troops from Gaoyuan to escort Your Majesty for a while..."

"This is even more ridiculous. In this country, in an area with a dense concentration of Imperial Army troops, do I have to be on guard against anyone?" Zhao Jiu was still all smiles.

At this time, even Ren Baozhong, whose identity was somewhat awkward, and Lu Bentzhong, who was somewhat confused, could no longer wait. They all stepped forward to prepare to advise.

But Zhao Jiu had obviously made up his mind. He immediately waved his hand, directly breaking the layer of window paper: "You're all overthinking it... What happened between me and Grand Commandant Zhang, it isn't as serious as you think. After he held on even in that dire situation at Xiacai City, I regarded him as a confidant. Now I'm going to see him, and I naturally have words from the bottom of my heart to exchange. Where can you all interject?"

Only then did the people dare not advise him.

Zhao Jiu did not hesitate. He took the lead, mounted the bridge and crossed the river, and spent the night on the opposite bank.

The next day, the Zhao official left behind the infantry and most of the civil officials, gathered 700 cavalry, and sped southeast. After arriving in Linzi in the morning and resting for a while, after causing chaos in Linzi City, he left Wang Yan, Ren Baozhong and some of the Imperial Guards to linger in the military camp here, and then left with only Liu Yan, whom he trusted the most, leading 500 cavalry.

Towards the evening, they finally arrived in Yidu, the capital of Qingzhou. This was where Zhang Jun and his Imperial Right Army headquarters were stationed. It was not until this time that Zhao Jiu ordered the ceremonial guard to be raised, releasing the dragon banner that had been put away and the black and white ox banners.

The soldiers stationed in Qingzhou were of course the old core troops of Zhang Jun's Imperial Right Army, the so-called Imperial old soldiers. They were no strangers to the Zhao official, they were even more familiar with the dragon banner, and the black and white ox banners had been widely publicized in the *dibao* (official gazette).

Therefore, as soon as the ceremonial guard appeared, Tian Shizhong's department, stationed outside Qingzhou City, ordered all soldiers not to leave the camp without orders in a panic, and gathered several commanders to rush to chase the banners.

When Tian Shizhong got closer and saw that it was indeed the Imperial Guards and the Zhao official, he was completely terrified, but he could only kowtow and greet them by the side of the road.

"Where is Bo Ying?"

At this time, Zhao Jiu still looked relaxed. "Commander Tian, lead the way, don't disturb the people."

Tian Shizhong was even more at a loss, but at this time he dared not say anything extra. He simply followed orders and led the way to Zhang Jun's residence. As a result, he first met Zhang Zigai, the commander of the Imperial Vanguard Army who had taken leave to see his uncle and had been in the Imperial Guards, and then met Zhang Jun himself, who had rushed out to welcome him. But the ruler and his subjects only exchanged a casual salute by the side of the road, and then the Zhao official said the same thing, only letting them lead the way to Zhang's residence.

The Zhang family's residence occupied a very large area, and was obviously the old residence of a local dignitary, which Zhang Jun had obtained during the chaos of war... There was nothing to say about this kind of thing... Zhao Jiu entered the hall grandly and sat down directly. Zhang Boying, leading Tian Shizhong, Zhang Zigai and other military officials, naturally knelt down one after another and saluted again in the hall.

This time, the Zhao official was not in a hurry to let these people get up. He just smiled and said in the hall: "How is it, Bo Ying? Did I scare you this time? Are you as surprised as you were in Xiacai City that day?"

Zhang Jun raised his head from the ground and smiled bitterly for a moment: "Your Majesty came in the middle of the night at that time, and went straight into my bedroom. It's different after all."

"Is that so?" Zhao Jiu smiled meaningfully.

"But I'm still scared," Zhang Jun quickly lowered his head again. "Your Majesty... is it because I angered Your Majesty in the matter of Zhang Zongyan?"

"Not angry," Zhao Jiu thought for a while and responded seriously. "I'm really not angry, or rather, not angry to that extent... Bo Ying, think about it, if I were really angry, I would have had your son-in-law and your nephew, one holding down your left hand and one holding down your right hand, by the side of the road. Why would I have come all the way into your house and smiled and talked to you about the old days of Xiacai?"

The hall was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

"Prepare a banquet!" Zhao Jiu thought for a while again and suddenly gave instructions. "Last time I didn't get to eat the banquet at your house, and today is the twelfth lunar month, I rushed hundreds of *li* at great pains. I'm really hungry, and I want to taste the freshness of the New Year's dishes in the Qilu region... Don't call anyone else, don't even call the local officials, just the four or five of us, set up a banquet in the hall and have a good chat."

"I respectfully obey the decree!" Zhang Jun was relieved.

Although it was said to be a banquet, everyone knew that it was nonsense to try to set up the kind of running banquet that Zhang Jun had in the capital in a hurry, especially since it was the winter month, and even green vegetables were rare.

However, it was still Zhang Jun's residence after all. There were always things like soy sauce meat with ginger, pickled green vegetables, fresh seafood, and local beef, mutton, pork, chicken, duck, and goose, so it could be considered abundant.

Not to mention that the accompanying cavalry had a rare feast outside, just saying that there was only one table of five people in the main hall. Zhang Jun carefully arranged everything and personally toasted a few times. Seeing that the Emperor did not refuse anyone, he finally tentatively opened the topic again:

"Did Your Majesty not bring any attendants?"

Zhao Jiu hurriedly swallowed a meatball and raised his hand to indicate: "I brought a few, but it's useless to bring them here for this meeting between me and Commander Zhang, so I left them all behind."

Zhang Jun smiled wryly: "Your Majesty is considerate of his subjects, and I am extremely grateful."

"Tell me the truth about Zhang Zongyan's matter, did you know about it before?" Zhao Jiu suddenly turned his head and asked.

ps: Thanks to the eighth *meng* of the boss May Be Future, thanks to the *shangmeng* of classmate In the Original Seven Seas, this is the 151st *meng* of this book!

Then continue to sacrifice the new book, the new book by boss Ni Baifo, "I Really Only Have One Wife", a single female lead harem novel, on the shelves on the 1st!