Sima Chun personally welcomed Lu Gang into the study and told his wife: "No matter who comes, I will tell you that I have already gone to bed. If you have anything to do, we will talk about it tomorrow. Wei Tong is no exception!"
Mrs. Liu heard her husband talk about Lu Gang. She knew that the consequences of leaking the secret would be serious, so she immediately went to make arrangements.
Sima Chun asked Lu Gang to sit down, and Mrs. Liu personally brought hot tea, closed the door and went out.
Lu Gang smiled and said, "Mr. Sima, have you ever returned to your hometown to visit?"
"I've always wanted to go, but I just didn't have the time."
"Go and take a look when you have time! His Highness King Yong has been recuperating and recuperating all over the world. All places are slowly recovering. It is estimated that the prosperity before the invasion of the Jin soldiers will be restored in ten years."
"Yes, His Highness King Yong's low taxes are popular among the people, but I don't quite understand how low taxes can support an army of 500,000 to 600,000 people?"
"This is a good question. Many people have asked me this question. It is actually very simple. It can be explained in one point. Why was the tax burden so high in the Southern Song Dynasty? It was because there was too little land to pay taxes. Only a small amount of land was taxed. In order to support the government,
The court and the army could only desperately raise taxes on the land that paid taxes. The idea is that all land in the Yong Kingdom must pay taxes, and official land and military fields are no exception. If there is more land that pays taxes, low taxes can naturally be adopted.
This is the key to King Yong's ability to conquer the world step by step."
"I see, it's true!"
Lu Gang added: "Now that the general trend of the world has been decided, only Lin'an Prefecture is left in the Song Dynasty, which cannot last long. Why does Mr. Sima want to serve Wei Tong at this last moment?"
Sima Chun smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I have no choice. If I don't agree, the whole family will suffer, and I have to bite the bullet and do things for him!"
"But Mr. Sima can choose!"
Lu Gang pointed to the two tea cups and said calmly: "This is His Highness King Yong, and that is Wei Tong. Sima can choose one of the two."
"Can I choose?"
Lu Gang smiled and said: "Maybe Mr. Sima didn't have a choice before, but now he does. If you choose His Highness King Yong, you can have two choices. The first one is that you help His Highness King Yong, and we will give you a sum of money."
Very generous money. The second one is that you join His Highness King Yong. I will recommend you as the Xinxiang County Magistrate in the future. Of course, Mr. Sima can continue to choose Wei Tong. Just pretend that I have not been here tonight. How about it? I will give it to Mr. Sima.
Give it three days to think about it.”
Of course Sima Chun is not a fool. This is the most important opportunity in his life. How could he not seize this opportunity? He said without hesitation: "No need to think about it. It is my honor to serve His Highness King Yong!"
"good!"
Lu Gang took out a job recommendation letter and said with a smile: "When the imperial officials go to Beijing, they must go through me first. I will write a job recommendation letter. This is also my right. You can simply fill it out."
Sima Chun looked at it, including his name, age, place of origin, imperial examination status, family situation, etc. He immediately took up a pen and filled in all the places that needed to be filled in.
Lu Gang took the pen, looked at it, and wrote his recommendation below, 'Recommend him to be the magistrate of Xinxiang County!' He signed his name and stamped the official seal of the Special Envoy Office.
Lu Gang smiled and said: "If nothing else happens, you will take your family to the Jingzhao Civil Affairs Bureau next month to report. It should not be a big problem. I have three recommendation quotas every year, and you happen to be the third one this year."
Sima Chun was excited and quickly stood up and saluted, "Thank you, Special Envoy Lu, for the recommendation!"
Lu Gang took out another twenty taels of silver and said with a smile: "This is also a rule. Every official who goes to Jingzhao has it. There are troubles on the way, and you are no exception."
Sima Chun nodded, accepted the money, and asked, "What should I do?"
Lu Gang smiled slightly and said, "Did Liu Qi disobey Wei Tong's order?"
"Exactly! He despised Wei Tong from the bottom of his heart and opposed him at every step. Wei Tong was very embarrassed on the first day. He wanted to kill him but didn't dare. He asked me to find a way to deal with Liu Qi."
Lu Gang smiled and said: "Soon Liu Qiong will lead the army north to the Qiantang River. Liu Qi and Liu Qiong are cousins. Do you understand what I mean?"
Sima Chun thought for a while and said: "What Special Envoy Lu means is to send Liu Qi to lead his army to Qiantang River to stop the attack."
"Exactly!"
Lu Gang whispered a few words to Sima Chun again, and Sima Chun nodded repeatedly, "Do I understand what the special envoy meant?"
Lu Gang left, and Sima Chun paced back and forth in the room with excitement. Entering an official career had been his wish for many years. He had no chance with Zhu Shengfei, but he didn't expect that it would come true with His Highness King Yong, and he would return home in glory. What should he do?
Can you not be excited?
At this time, the wife walked in and said with a smile: "How come your husband is so excited?"
"How can I not be excited? Look at this!"
Sima Chun showed the recommendation form to his wife. Mrs. Liu was surprised and said: "I actually recommended my husband to be an official, and he is also the magistrate of Xinxiang County. Is it true?"
"It is estimated that our family will go to Jingzhao next month. I never thought that when I, Sima Chun, would be thirty-eight years old, I would finally become an official."
"Husband, could this be intentional?"
"Won't!"
Sima Chun knew what his wife wanted to say, so he interrupted her with a smile, "He is not an ordinary person. He is the eldest brother of Princess Yong and the future head of the Lu family. He will not ruin his reputation and credibility. Let's talk about such a small thing.
The county magistrate is nothing to him, it's just a seventh grade pass, he has the right to recommend it, the key is that I have to play a role."
"I think your last sentence is right. Your husband must play an important role, and the county magistrate is your reward."
"yes!"
Sima Chun nodded and sighed: "It's not easy to get the position of county magistrate. I have to think about it carefully!"
The next morning, as soon as Sima Chun arrived at the Marshal's Mansion, Wei Tong sent someone to look for him.
Sima Chun hurriedly came to the handsome hall and saw that Wei Tong's face was full of anger. The ground was full of fragments of the inkstone. He must have been angry just now. Sima Chun quickly gave his entourage a wink and asked him to clean up the fragments of the inkstone.
"Who made the Marshal angry again?"
"Who else could it be?"
Wei Tong said angrily: "It's not that traitor Liu Qi. I ordered his troops to repair the city wall by the West Lake immediately, but he said that his army was not hard labor and asked me to find someone else. He simply didn't give me any face and made it impossible for me to come down."
Taiwan, you hate me to death!"
Speaking of which, Wei Tong had a hard time wearing a suit of armor. He was so thin, like a hemp pole, and wearing the armor seemed to be hanging on his body. He was indescribably funny and did not have the slightest bit of power and domineering that a military commander should have. In fact, he was a civil servant.
, he didn’t need to wear armor, but he wanted to look like a marshal, and ended up looking different.
Sima Chun said coldly: "Yesterday the Marshal asked me to go back and think about how to deal with him. I thought about it for a long time, and there is only one way!"
Wei Tong perked up and asked quickly: "What can we do?"
"Liu Qi has a lot of seniority in the army. If the marshal kills him, it will definitely cause widespread dissatisfaction in the army, and may even cause disease. I think the best way is to kill him with a borrowed knife!"
"You mean, let others kill him?"
Sima Chun nodded, "Kill him with the help of the Western Army, and hand over the generals who are loyal to him to the Western Army to kill him."
"Let me think about it!" Wei Tong didn't have the courage, he was a little hesitant.
Sima Chun continued to encourage: "Marshal, the troops are better than the numbers. If you get rid of Liu Qi's 30,000 men, the marshal can truly become the unwavering commander. I estimate that the crisis will be resolved through negotiation in the end. The marshal has capital in his hands.
You can definitely ask for more benefits at that time, and if Liu Qi is here, he will definitely share some of the marshal's benefits."
Wei Tong was finally persuaded, and he made up his mind, "I will listen to the military advisor, when is the best time?"
"We have to be patient and wait for the opportunity!"
