At this time, Zhao Huan didn't know what had happened. He just thought that Zhang Shuye had died. He felt a little guilty in his heart, but it was just a little bit and it was fleeting, because no matter how loyal Zhang Shuye was, he could not help but feel guilty.
He is just a minister, and all he cares about is what happened to him in the Jin camp in the past few days and the helplessness and grievance of being forced to surrender.
Everyone from Zhao Huan on down was crestfallen along the way, and Zhao Huan was even more depressed. There was always a thought lingering in his mind, that is, Xu Zizhen once told him that he could sit on the throne for a long, long time.
"My dear brother, could it be that this trip is my destiny?" He murmured to himself as he looked at the ceiling of the carriage, thinking of the white eyes and ridicule he received in Jinying, and of the pot of cold and hard-as-stone steamed buns and the fishy-smelling steamed buns.
Water, the more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became, and finally two lines of tears fell down.
The convoy finally returned to Bianjing. The Jin soldiers outside the city had already dispersed and were stationed in the surrounding countryside. Zhao Huan saw the majestic Nanxun Gate from a distance, and a feeling of going home emerged spontaneously. He was always warm at home.
There will no longer be the nightmare-like things of the past few days.
A large crowd of people outside the city gate were the hundreds of officials in the court and the people in Bianjing City. When they saw Zhao Huan's chariot coming from a distance, they all fell to the ground and shouted for the Holy Master, but it was very difficult.
Soon, this cry was mixed with many cries, and the cries seemed to be contagious. At first, there were only a few people, but gradually there were more and more people, and eventually there was a whole cry outside the city.
Zhao Huan felt warm in his heart when he saw those many people. Even though the Song Dynasty had lost so much, and even the Jin people had attacked outside the capital, the people still loved him very much. Thinking of this, he couldn't hold back his tears.
, rolling down.
But when he heard the monstrous cries of the people, the grievances he had been holding in his heart suddenly burst out, and finally he couldn't help it anymore and burst into tears. At this time, he just wanted to vent his depression to his heart's content, what a saint.
Majesty and royal manners are all ignored.
Zhao Huan's cry immediately made the officials accompanying him also cry. They also endured it for a few days. Now that Zhao Huan has let go, they don't have to worry anymore.
Starting from Nanxun Gate, both sides of the entire imperial street were filled with people. People were crying on the roadside, and Zhao Huan was crying in the car. For a time, there was a gloom and mist, and the sound of crying in Bianjing City was loud.
Zhao Huan cried all the way to the palace. A group of concubines greeted him at the gate of the palace, and they all cried uncontrollably. The city had already received news of everything Zhao Huan suffered during his mission to Jinying, including those extraordinary days.
The treatment of people, including the outstanding literary talent, is why the people cry so bitterly.
In the eyes of the people, it was not Zhao Huan's fault that the Song Dynasty ended up like this. After all, he only succeeded to the throne for a few days. What's more, this time he actually spent ten thousand gold to go to the enemy camp for peace talks. This courage was worthy of the people.
Love.
But in the following days, people all over Bianjing and even the whole world discovered that they were wrong.
Zhao Huan returned to the palace and had not even sat down in his chair. Suddenly, he saw a eunuch hurriedly came to report that the golden envoy had arrived. Zhao Huan was so frightened that the ginseng soup fell from his hand, and his whole body went limp and almost fell to the ground.
"Why are you chasing me? And...what's the matter?"
I saw a golden envoy who had not announced his arrival, strode in, and arrogantly took out a golden scroll from his arms with his nostrils raised to the sky.
"Emperor of the Song Dynasty, why don't you accept the decree quickly?"
Zhao Huan still dared to care about what he had not announced. He quickly got off the throne, straightened his clothes and invited the golden man to his superiors. Then he bowed respectfully and said, "Your Majesty, Zhao Huan, respectfully listen to the holy teachings."
This is Zhao Huan's imperial study. Among the hundreds of officials standing on both sides, there were loyal and upright officials who wanted to scold and get angry. However, seeing Zhao Huan acting like this, they all looked at each other and sighed secretly and stood aside.
The golden man swaggered up to the top and stood there, with his back facing north and facing south. He held the "Imperial Edict" in his hand and read it loudly. It was okay at first, but the more he read, the more Zhao Huan's face became uglier.
There were no fancy words in the imperial edict. It simply said, "Since the Zhao family has surrendered to me, it should contribute funds to reward the army." It was followed by a series of numbers that made everyone present stunned.
"Ten million ingots of gold, twenty million ingots of silver, ten million pieces of silk, and two hundred thousand mules and horses..."
Zhao Huan fell to the ground, his eyes wide open. These were simply astronomical figures. One ingot of gold was worth five taels, and one ingot of silver was worth ten taels. But now the entire Song Dynasty court had even one million taels of silver in its treasury.
Not out.
Finally, someone among the officials became angry, and three people jumped out one after another, yelling: "Shameless gold thief, I will fight with you!"
The golden man didn't panic, he just stood there with his arms folded and sneered: "No? Then my army will go into the city to get it by ourselves."
"Back off!" Zhao Huan came to his senses at the critical moment, shouted back the three people, and then forced a smile on his face and said to the golden man, "Your Majesty, please calm down and bear with me...Rong Chen, please prepare for a while, I will be there soon."
Hand it over."
The golden man glanced at everyone with disdain and sneered: "Please do something urgent, don't make me lose my patience." After saying that, he still walked out swaggeringly.
"Officials!" As soon as the Jin man left, more than a dozen ministers came out and knelt down in front of Zhao Huan, crying, "Jin people are greedy by nature and ask for too much. The officials must not agree!"
Zhao Huan weakly fell back on the chair and said with a wry smile: "I never wanted to agree, but...but the Jin army is still outside the city, and they are plotting against the people, so I have no choice but to agree to him." After saying this, without waiting for anyone to speak again, he stretched out his hand.
Pointing at one person, he said, "Mei Qing, I order you to be the official in charge of ceremony. You must collect the funds to reward the army within five days without any mistakes."
A civil servant at the front of the crowd was stunned for a moment.
…
At this time, in the Xu family of Yingtian Mansion, a group of female relatives were gathering in the hall, and sitting in front of them was an old man with gray hair, holding his beard and getting angry, but it was Lord Yong who had not been seen for a while.
"I'm about to enter the city, why are you bringing me back at this juncture?"
Gao Pujun was beside him and said softly: "Father, there is chaos in Bianjing City now. It is for your own good to ask you to come back."
Master Yong said angrily: "You also know about chaos? Since you know about chaos, you still take me...ah, no, that's forced. Needless to say, this was the idea of that little bastard Xu Zizhen, right?"
Gao Pujun lowered his head and said nothing, which was regarded as acquiescence.
Master Yong became more and more angry, jumped up and cursed: "But where is this little bastard? Who can tell me?"
The girls looked at each other in confusion. Who knew where Xu Zizhen had gone? Such a big man just disappeared after saying no. It has been more than half a month and no one has seen him once.
"You don't want to say that, right? OK, I've brought thousands of elite soldiers all over the city to look for him. I don't believe he can hide underground!" Master Yong said angrily and walked out.
At this moment, someone outside the door suddenly said with a smile: "Master Yong, are you looking for me all over the world? Could it be that you have a son again and want to treat me to a full moon wine?"