In the autumn of the sixth year of the reign of Duke Luding, the great Sicheng Le Qi of the Song Kingdom was very worried considering that Zhong Ji had offended the Jin people at the meeting of Diquan (the first year of Lu Ding), and that the Song people had not seen the Marquis of Jin for several years. He said to Song Jinggong: "Among the princes, only the Song State is the most loyal to serve the Jin State, and now all the countries have shown a tendency to be betrayed by the Jin State, and the Jin people are very helpless. If our country does not send envoys to Xinjiang, the regret of the Jin people will be even greater. You know, when people are irritable, it is very easy to lose their temper with those close to them; Song was closest to Jin, hoping that Song would not become the target of the alliance leader's anger. ”

Song Jinggong nodded yes, and said that he would inform the other secretaries of the matter as soon as possible and determine the candidate for the envoy.

After Le Qi went home, he told the old man Chen Yin about it, and Chen Yin said: "Shi Yan is greedy and arrogant, and the office is torn apart. The doctors were definitely unwilling to send an envoy to the Jin Kingdom, and the burden of the envoy had to fall on the master in the end. ”

Le Qi said: "How is it possible? In charge of diplomacy are the left and right divisions, and my position is low, and it is impossible for the monarch to send an envoy. ”

A few days later, Song Jinggong summoned Le Qi and said: "The widow has communicated with the ministers, but they don't support it. Now there are only few people in the court who agree with the master's idea, so I have to ask the master to make a hard trip! ”

Le Qi returned home sullenly and told Chen Yin the depressing news. Chen Yin said: "The future is dangerous, the master should set off after the son!" One is to prevent the unexpected, and the other is to show the monarch the master's determination to move forward! ”

The next day, Le Qi took his son Le Qi (meaning toilet and pigsty, God knows how Le Qi gave his son such an unclean name) to see Song Jinggong and said: "If the minister encounters an accident outside, please ask the monarch to be the queen." After speaking, he couldn't help but shed two lines of tears.

Song Jinggong didn't understand why he made an ordinary visit like a parting from life and death. Song Jinggong was not very happy, but he still shed a lot of tears with him.

In late August, Le Qi led a large delegation to visit the Jin State, and in order to show his attention to the envoys of the Song State, the Duke of Jin Ding specially sent Zhao Ying to meet him. In that era when the powerful ministers of the nations were competing to make friends, it was undoubtedly a rare beauty to welcome foreign envoys.

According to the diplomatic etiquette of the time, Zhao Ying should wait for Le Qi to enter the Jin Kingdom, and then guide the delegation into Xinjiang. In this process, the two are not allowed to have in-depth contact except for ceremonial meetings, so as to show their reverence for the monarch.

But in order to make his enthusiasm look more earnest in Le Qi, Zhao Ying actually went to meet him abroad. In front of the weak monarch and the strong minister, Le Qi abandoned Zhou Li and chose to befriend the latter.

The two hit it off at first sight and drank a big meal on the cotton. During the banquet, Zhao Ying gave Le Qi a precious sword, and Le Qi gave the other party sixty boxwood shields. After the end of the game, Le Qi was in a very comfortable mood, and began to feel that Chen Yin's worries were purely unnecessary. He hummed a little song and returned to the station, and said to Chen Yin, "Master, you can rest assured!" With the Zhao family here, who in the Jin Kingdom dares to touch a single hair of my hair? ”

Chen Yin shook his head and said, "The master is wrong!" This is where the woe begins! In the past, Le's was dominated by Fan's, but now Zhao's is dominated by Zhao's, and he gave him a big gift. Fan Ying is extremely jealous, how can he give up? I'm afraid the master will never be able to return to the Song Kingdom! But if the master dies in the Jin Kingdom, the Le family will prosper in the Song Kingdom. ”

After the news of the meeting between the two on Mianshang reached Xinjiang, Shi Ying was really angry and jealous. Shi Ying originally planned to consolidate the alliance between Fan and Le after meeting Le Qi, but he didn't expect to be preempted by Zhao Ying. In Shi Ying's view, Zhao Ying is undoubtedly robbing his interests and digging his footing, his heart is despicable and shameless, "everyone gets it"! What's even more hateful is Le Qi, that broken wall is not strong at all, and it will fall down as soon as it is dug up!

"Zhao Ying harmed me, I will repay it!" Shi Ying said angrily: "As for that Le Qi, what is the use of such an unbearable person? ”

But Shi Ying didn't dare to attack Zhao Ying directly after all, so he had to make a fuss about Le Qi. He entered the palace to see Jin Dinggong and said: "Le Qi sent an envoy to our country on the order of Song Gong, which is a major event related to the safety of the two countries. However, Le Qi blasphemed the monarch's life, used public power for personal gain, and even entertained the doctor (Zhao Ying) without authorization before meeting the prince. He was not loyal to the Duke of Song, but also did not respect the prince, but committed the crime of great disrespect. The prince must hold him accountable for his crimes! ”

Jin Dinggong said: "Everything depends on the master. ”

At this time, Zhao Ying and Le Qi had already entered the outskirts of the city. Shi Ying summoned Zhao Ying into the city in the name of Jin Dinggong, but asked Le Qi to temporarily live in a post house outside the city.

Zhao Ying did not have any suspicions, and immediately entered the palace to return to the Duke of Jin Ding. Shi Ying announced the arrest warrant for Le Qi in the name of Jin Dinggong in the presence of the Manchu ministers. Zhao Ying was beaten on the head, although he knew who beat him, he couldn't say what he was suffering from.

The festival between Fan and Zhao began with the "Luan Rebellion". In order to eliminate the rebel forces of the Luan clan, Shi Ying led his army to attack Quwo City. After he drove out all the Luan clansmen and henchmen, he created a lot of tragedies. Zhao Wu served as the commander of the Zhongjun at that time, and his status was second only to Shikuo. Zhao Wu really couldn't bear that he continued to commit violence against the Quwo people, so he complained to Shi Kuo about Shi Ying. Since Zhao Wu had already been designated as the successor of the next Chinese general, Shi Kuo did not dare to take the matter lightly: he not only stopped the massacre in time, but also severely taught Shi Yan a lesson.

Since then, Shi Ying has developed an irreparable resentment towards the Zhao family.

The Fan family grabbed a huge amount of profits from the destruction of the Luan clan, and Shi Kuo was an official and "managed well", so he left a huge family business for his son. Shi Ying's business ability is better than blue: all kinds of interests related to the Jin Kingdom, there is no one who does not interfere in plucking hair. By the time he was a general of the Chinese army, the Fan family had developed into the most "rich and unkind" family in the Jin Kingdom.

And Zhao Wu and his successor Zhao Chengdu maintained the unique integrity of Zhao Yuan and Zhao Dun, so the strength of the Zhao family has never developed much. Zhao Cheng died young, and Zhao Ying was still a young man who had just finished the crown ceremony when he ascended the throne.

At that time, Dong Anyu, who was already an old minister of the third Zhao family, persuaded Zhao Ying: "The world is always changing, but the five generations of the Zhao family are still honest and consistent, and they still abide by the Zhou etiquette in this society where the monarch is willing to fall and the state politics comes out of the family. The doctors of the world are changing their original loyalty, and our lord should also consider change; Otherwise, not only will you leave a reputation of 'foolish loyalty', but you will also not be able to keep your family. ”

At that time, the young Zhao Ying's mind was full of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith" and the "nine mantras" instilled in him by Uncle Zi, and he couldn't listen to the old master who had experienced several turmoil and had a deep understanding of social changes.

But then an incident of extermination completely changed Zhao's attitude.

Chapter 654: The Difficulty of Le Qi (3)

It turns out that Yang Yu and Qi Wu have always been famous for abiding by Zhou etiquette, and Zhao Ying especially respects the two and regards them as life mentors. However, due to the civil strife in the Qi family, the Bank of China clan took the opportunity to stretch out a black hand, and the two major families were wiped out overnight. Zhao Ying was shocked, and couldn't help but start worrying about the future of the family.

Zhao Ying went to see Dong Anyu in despair and asked him how to change. Dong Anyu said: "Qi Guo Chen and Lu Guo Ji can serve as role models for masters. ”

Since then, Zhao has completely changed his worldview, from an ultra-conservative to an ultra-radical and a utilitarian through and through. After studying the practices of the rebels and thieves of the nations, he said: "Those people are too outdated, and in my opinion they are still too conservative. I will not imitate them, but let others follow my example. ”

At that time, population was still a scarce resource and was the object of contention among major powers. The Zhao clan's Zongyi Jinyang (near present-day Taiyuan, Shanxi) has been a mixed place for many years, and the surrounding area is sparsely populated and poorly populated.

In order to obtain a large number of laborers, Zhao Ying tried his best. In addition to war plunder, he also expanded the size of the leased land. It turned out that the area of one mu in the Jin Kingdom at that time was about 100 steps by 200 steps; Zhao Ying stipulated that each mu was 120 steps multiplied by 240 steps, which exceeded the metric system of the Jin State by more than 40%. People (both nationals and foreigners) leased a large amount of land from him, but they paid the same amount of taxes as they did elsewhere, so the people returned to him like a tide.

You know, "making weights and measures" is one of the supreme powers of the state. Zhao Ying's blatant change of the mu system specification is to regard his own mining as a country within a country (although many secretaries have expanded the mu system specification, but they are not as radical as Zhao Ying).

In the second year after the destruction of the Yangyu and Qi clans, Zhao Ying and Zhong Xingyin published the first written law of the Jin State (some believe that the mastermind behind this action was Shi Ying, and his purpose was to attack the Chinese general Wei Shu, because Wei Shu was an out-and-out royalist), and in the name of the law, the power to make weights and measures was granted to the state secretary (and so on, and a lot of content that damaged the monarchy), thus systematically depriving the monarch of some powers. No wonder Confucius gritted his teeth with hatred for Erqing after hearing about it.

Zhao Ying also decided to build Jinyang into an impregnable fortress, and he appointed Yin Duo, a thoughtful, rigorous, loyal and upright minister, as the governor of Jinyang. Before Yin Duo took office, he asked Zhao Ying: "Does the master want to use Jinyang as a source of taxes or a last place of refuge?" ”

Zhao said: "A place of refuge. ”

After Yin Duo took office, he lowered the taxes of the Jinyang people, and strengthened the Jinyang city wall and palace city. He put bronze on the outside of the pillars in the palace, making them look gorgeous and extravagant. Many accused him of extravagance and wastefulness and blatantly violated Zhao Ying's orders. But he smiled and said, "When you start fighting, you will understand." Yin Duo also built several granaries and collected a large number of bamboo, wood, and pu poles (which could be used to make arrow shafts).

Some of Zhao Ying's enumerated actions caused a strong reaction from Shi Ying, and he began to exclude and suppress Zhao Ying on various occasions, creating contradictions between the doctors and Zhao Ying.

After Le Qi was detained, Zhao Ying's image and confidence were hit. Zhao Ying's young position is low, and his power is not as good as the other party; He had to endure humiliation and accumulate strength in secret.

Shi Ying didn't care what kind of bad consequences his actions would bring to the Jin Kingdom, and just willfully used this incident to suppress Zhao Ying.

Song Jinggong did not expect that the people of the Jin Kingdom would respond to his kindness with such vicious means—as if they didn't care about this precious loyalty—and suddenly fell into a state of confusion.

Chen Yin soon returned to Shangqiu and reported the incident to Lehui. Le Wei was greatly flustered and was ready to ask Song Jinggong to come forward to help him rescue his father. Chen Yin said, "Impossible." The ministers had all refused to accept the mission to the Jin Kingdom before, and now it was even more impossible for them to carry out this laborious task. Doing so will only make things more difficult for the monarch. ”

Le Wei knew that what Chen Yin said was correct, but he couldn't stop making a request to Song Jinggong because it was "impossible". He changed into a coarse linen robe, draped his hair loosely, and crawled from the palace gate to Song Jingcheng's bedroom while crying uncharacteristically.

Song Jinggong was very sympathetic to Le Wei, and shed a lot of tears with him, and at the same time he did feel particularly embarrassed - but he did not call the ministers because he felt embarrassed.

Seeing Song Jinggong, Right Master Le Daxin said: "It's not that the minister doesn't want to save Dr. Le, but this matter is categorically impossible!" The reason for Fan's detention of Dr. Le was not because of Dr. Le's rudeness, but because of his power struggle with Zhao Ying. The Fan family is in power, so he has the ability to detain Dr. Le. If he heeded the minister's request and released Dr. Le, Dr. Le would inevitably help Zhao Ying deal with Fan Ying, so wouldn't he admit that he had done wrong, admit his failure, and send an ally to Zhao Ying? That's why the minister said it was not feasible. ”

The reasons for the resignation of the other ministers were similar to those of Le Daxin. They all think that it is better to take a cold approach to the matter, once Le Qi loses the value of being used, the problem will naturally be solved.

As a result, no one expected that Le Qi's "use value" would be so great and last so long that there was no sign of his release after two years of captivity. During this time, he was held without any charges or trial, and was held in this way without explanation. During the process, Chen Yin has been back and forth with Jin and Song, taking care of Le Qi while transmitting news.

Shi Ying's idea was actually very simple, he thought that Zhao Ying would come to see him in private and intercede for Le Qi in a low voice; Then he could wave his hand generously and say, "Ah, Le Qi's loyalty is really nothing compared to his petty selfishness, with the master asking for him, what kind of problem can't be solved?" Just let it all pass! I will ask the prince to release him. "In this way, the crisis of diplomacy and infighting will be perfectly resolved.

This is a solution that everyone except Zhao Ying is happy with. But his wishful thinking was too simple, and Zhao Ying's temperament was as strong and unacceptable as his great-grandfather Zhao Shuo. He once asked Han Buxin and Wei Manduo for help, and both of them said that they could not help, and both persuaded him to go directly to Shi Ying. Of course, Zhao Ying knew that it was the most direct and effective solution, but he always refused to meet the villain.

The incident caused great damage to the relations between the Jin and Song dynasties, and also greatly damaged the image of the Jin state in the hearts of the allies. Some people even compared Shi Ying to the sac tile of the Jin State, asserting that the Jin State would inevitably suffer a heavy blow from foreign enemies like the Chu State; The reputation of the martingale at home and abroad is also getting more and more stinky.