"The person the King of Wei hates is Xiang Xian, not others..."

Seven days later, in the Manlu Hall of the Daliang Palace, Wei Wang Zhao Run stood at the window and opened the letter that the "pseudo-Song" Prime Minister Xiang Chen wrote before his death. The look on his face was quite complicated.

This letter was sent by Shen Yu, who was in the Huling navy, over several days and nights.

On the same day, Xiang Dian sent his confidants to deliver the letter to Huling Water Village of the Wei Army on the other side of Weishan Lake. After being discovered by the patrolling Wei soldiers, they immediately made their intention clear.

Afterwards, after Shen Yu got the letter, he glanced at it out of surprise - after all, he couldn't just send Xiang Ding's letter to Daliang - and found out that the letter seemed to be from Xiang Ding. After writing the last letter, he immediately stopped reading carefully and sent someone to deliver the letter to Daliang day and night, and delivered it to Zhao Hongrun.

Zhao Hongrun took a few steps slowly by the window. Zhao Hongrun read it very slowly, probably because the beginning of this final letter had a strong sense of sadness.

After a long time of burning incense and reading the letter twice, Zhao Hongrun finally raised his head, put his hands behind his back, and looked out the window.

After a long while, he sighed deeply.

The main idea of ​​Xiang Xuan's last letter is that he took all the blame for the crime, expressed his surrender to the Wei State, and begged Wei King Zhao Run to forgive the Song people and not to implicate the Song people for his sins. His words were sincere and condescending, as if The strong man was forced to bend his knees, which made people sigh with regret.

"What a pity..."

Zhao Hongrun murmured to himself.

The "pity" he said was, on the one hand, due to the weakness of the Puppet Song Dynasty or the Beibo Army and their inability to resist fighting. It was clear that he had premeditatedly prepared to use the Beibo Army to train the Huling Navy Army in preparation for future confrontation with Chu, a potential powerful enemy. While making preparations, he did not expect that the Song Dynasty, which was at the end of its rope, surrendered before the Wei State could exert its strength, so that all his previous plans were in vain.

On the other hand, it was a pity for him to have loyal ministers like Xiang Dian.

To be fair, Zhao Hongrun did not hate Xiang Xiang, even though Xiang Xiang had always been hostile to Wei's interests.

Xiang Xuan is a Song Dynasty person, a hero of the Song Dynasty, and the youngest son of the scholar-bureaucrat Xiang Ju. His stance is firmly that of the Song Dynasty. Everything he does is based on the interests of the Song Dynasty. Such an enemy deserves respect. of.

Similarly, there is Han Wangran. He and Zhao Run are enemies, but they are also close friends - but the difference in their respective positions puts them in an enemy relationship.

Otherwise, they might become true friends.

However, compared to Han Wangran, the relationship between Zhao Run and Xiang Shen is even shallower. It seems that they have only heard of each other, but based on today's letter, Zhao Run can firmly believe that Xiang Shen is indeed a worthy person. Dear enemy!

In fact, if Xiang Ding was willing to surrender, Zhao Run might not use the leader of the Northern Bo Army, but Xiang Ding chose to die as a Song official rather than live as a Wei official. There was no words to express this in the letter, but Zhao Run knew very well that since such a loyal minister had sent this letter, he would never lick his face and continue to live in the world.

And this is the reason why Zhao Run immediately promoted Xiang Qian to the rank of "respectable enemy".

Of course, if Xiang Ding was really willing to surrender to Wei, then Zhao Run would not respect him and would feel sorry for Xiang Ding's death.

So, this is really a very contradictory thing.

Holding Xiang Xuan's letter, Zhao Hongrun stood by the window for a moment with his hands behind his back, then left the Ganlu Hall and walked towards the Chui Gong Hall.

When he arrived at the inner hall of Chui Gong Hall, the ministers who were still dealing with government affairs in the hall were all surprised. They watched Zhao Hongrun walk into the hall intently. They were so shocked that they forgot to say anything to His Majesty the King at the first moment.

salute.

"Huh? Why did your Majesty come to Chui Gong Hall today?"

"Based on the day, today is a day when His Majesty is lazy... no, he is ill."

"Could it be that His Majesty has finally made up his mind to get rid of his bad habit of laziness?"

All the ministers in the court were holding brushes in their hands and looking at Zhao Hongrun with surprised expressions, even the ink dripping from the tip of the brush was unknown.

Among them, Du You, the chief minister of the inner court, the Minister of Rites, was the most surprised. I saw that this veteran's face was rosy for no reason, his eyes were shining, and even his shoulders were trembling slightly, as if he was waiting for the majesty in front of him to apologize for his previous tiredness.

He was too lazy to repent, so he immediately left his seat, knelt on the ground, and shouted excitedly, "Your Majesty is wise."

However, under the gaze of all the ministers in the inner court, Zhao Hongrun just walked to the Dragon Case. After looking around at the ministers who seemed to be dumbfounded, he didn't realize why there was such a dead silence, and said in a deep voice: "

Xiang Ding is dead."

"..."

『???』

When the ministers in the inner court heard this, they said, "You look at me, I look at you," but they didn't react for a while.

After about a few breaths, Jie Ziyu reacted the fastest. Hearing this, he asked tentatively: "Xiang Ding? But Xiang Ding, the prime minister of the Puppet Song Dynasty and the leader of the Beibo Army?"

"Exactly!" Zhao Hongrun nodded, handed the letter in his hand to Gao He, the great eunuch behind him, and asked him to circulate the letter to the ministers. At the same time, he said: "Xiang Xiang is dead, I, the Wei Dynasty, treat Song County

Strategies also need to be changed."

"I see……"

"I asked why your Majesty appeared in this Chui Gong Hall today when he should have taken care of himself."

After looking at each other calmly, Xijie, Wen Qi, Li Liang, Xu Guan, Lin Yuyang, Yu Ziqi and others nodded secretly in their hearts and suddenly realized.

Although it is a bit strange to say this, the ministers still admire the principle of the majesty in front of them: laziness is laziness, but if it involves important matters, there is no ambiguity. No, even though he is "ill", he still insists on moving forward.

Come to Chui Gong Hall to tell them about this matter, and take the initiative to mention the issue of changing the strategy towards the Song Dynasty.

At this time, the veteran minister Du You, the Chief Minister of the Inner Dynasty and the Minister of Rites, had also calmed down. After taking a deep look at Zhao Run, a self-deprecating smile appeared on his face, and he shook his head slightly, vaguely still.

After hearing a few murmured sentences such as "I'm so stupid", the whole person looked a little listless.

However, when everyone was discussing their strategy for dealing with Song County, the old minister immediately cheered up. After seeing Xiang Ding's last letter, he said happily: "Xiang Ding took the initiative to take on all the sins and apologized for them with death, and now he has gone to the north.

The Bo army is leaderless and is no longer a threat to our great Wei..."

Having said this, he paused and frowned slightly. Maybe he suddenly remembered something: the Beibo Army was no longer a threat to his Wei State.

Not big.

Jie Ziyu saw the embarrassment of the old minister Du You, took over the conversation, and cleverly added: "Master Du is absolutely right. Xiang You is the pillar of the people of Song County. Now, this person is on his deathbed."

surrendered before

I, the Wei Dynasty, this will greatly help the court to win over people's hearts, but..." He paused and said with a bit of a wry smile: "Previously, the court slandered him as a "great good evil" and a "thieves who are disrupting the country." This is

…”

Including Zhao Run, everyone in the hall nodded slightly.

They all understood what Jie Ziu meant: Xiang Xiang was already dead anyway, and it was no big deal to flatter the dead. What's more, under the current circumstances, they elevated Xiang Xiang and praised Xiang Xiang's character, which was conducive to integrating the people of Song County.

But how to operate the specific operation requires long-term planning. We can't let the Wei court slap itself in the face, right? - After all, some time ago, the Wei court branded Xiang Ding as "a careerist who secretly plotted evil in the name of restoring the Song Dynasty." This will happen

It was too sudden for Er to suddenly change his attitude and praise Xiang Xiang.

At this time, Wen Qi was seen holding the letter in his left hand, flicking the paper with the fingers of his right hand, and said with a chuckle: "How about we start from the "grief and anger" in Xiang Dian's heart? ... I wonder if your majesty and your lords are paying attention.

To, the words used in Xiangqian’s letter are:

There is some anger, and there is a vague meaning of "death in silence" and "giving up on oneself". I think that something must have happened in the Pseudo-Song Dynasty that made Xiang Xiang feel desperate, and the cause of this despair did not come from me, the great Wei Dynasty.

, but within the pseudo-Song Dynasty..."

Among the ministers in the palace, Wen Qi was the best at poetry and poetry, and was very sensitive to the words and sentences between the lines.

After being reminded by him, Zhao Hongrun and other ministers carefully read the letter again. Sure enough, they gradually felt that Xiang Shen might indeed be in a state of agitation when he wrote this letter.

This also relieved Zhao Run from a confusion, because in his impression, Xiang Xiang was a very perseverant person. This was because after the Wei State defeated South Korea, Xiang Xiang still refused to surrender to the Wei State with the puppet Song Dynasty.

This can be seen from the fact that Wei Shan Lake still has to rely on its strategic location to block the Wei army.

On the same day, Zhao Hongrun called Gao Kuo and ordered him to investigate the matter thoroughly.

However, within two days, Zhao Run received another letter from Shen Yu. In the letter, Shen Yu pointed out the reason why Xiang Yu wrote the last letter to commit suicide - Song Zixin once wanted to abandon the country and run away because he was overwhelmed.

But he was accidentally intercepted by Tengcheng's guards.

Thinking about it, Shen Yu was also aware of Xiang Ding's death wish, and felt that Xiang Ding's death was a bit strange, so he sent someone to Tengcheng to inquire about it.

After reading Shen Yu's letter, Zhao Hongrun initially burst into laughter, laughing at Yu Zixin, the king of Song Dynasty, for abandoning his country and his subjects and running away, which was a disgrace to the royal family in the world.

Then, Zhao Hongrun felt a deep sense of regret in his heart, feeling deeply unworthy of Xiang Xuan's loyalty to the Song royal family.

In the inner court meeting held again in Chui Gong Hall, Zhao Run said with emotion: "Xiang Chen has fulfilled his duties and obligations as a minister of the Song Dynasty. There is no more loyal minister than him. He can be said to be the most benevolent and righteous. The Song Dynasty owes him a debt of gratitude."

It is the courageous monarch... who finally led him to such a miserable ending, which is really saddening."

The ministers in the inner court nodded in agreement with His Majesty's remarks. Then Lin Yuyang stroked his beard and said, "How about using this 'Zixin' as a scapegoat?"

The so-called scapegoat is to shift the responsibility for Xiang Ding's death to the irresponsible Song Zixin, in order to divert the hatred and grief caused by Xiang Ding's death among the Song people. As long as the court operates properly and praises Xiang Ding vigorously,

, discrediting Zixin can smoothly transfer the conflict to Zixin.

If the Wei court had been more ruthless and sacrificed Zixin in the end, maybe the Song people and the soldiers of the Beibo Army would still accept his favor from Wei.

Upon hearing this suggestion, all the ministers in the inner court nodded, saying that this was a good idea, but Zhao Hongrun remained silent and did not express his position.

Seeing this, all the ministers in the court looked at Zhao Run in confusion, but saw his majesty saying in a deep voice: "Perhaps Xiang Shen's death was probably because of Zixin, but Xiang Shen asked for my protection in his letter.

A descendant of the Song royal family, I respected him as a human being at that time, and I had already agreed in my heart, and...I was unwilling to go back on it."

After hearing this, all the ministers looked at each other with surprise and were also moved by it.

"Your Majesty is a benevolent king." Du You, the Minister of Rites, was the first to express his attitude.

As a minister of Wei, of course he cares about the interests of his country, but as the Minister of Rites, what he cares more about is the character of his country's monarch and prince.

The young monarch in front of him showed a character that made Du You extremely gratified, or in other words, a king's ability.

But...if Song Zixin is ‘forgiven’, who will take the blame?

Do you really want the imperial court to take the blame?

Just as the ministers were thinking hard, Zhao Run smiled and said: "Why do you need to think hard? Just think that I mistakenly looked at Xiang Ding in the past. Wen Qi, write a letter to commemorate Xiang Ding for me.
To be continued...