Zhao Ji thought carefully for a moment and said, "Well, let Zhao Liangsi go."
Gao Qiu was overjoyed after hearing this, thinking that the matter had finally been accomplished.
It turned out that when Ma Zhi came to the Song Dynasty, he only thought that he could quickly unite with the Jin people and regain the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. Who knew that no one in the court was worried about this, and he was very depressed. In these years, he
He constantly bribed the officials, hoping to get them to help him propose to the emperor to join forces with the Jin Dynasty to destroy the Liao Dynasty. Gao Qiu was the current Taiwei, so he was naturally the target of his bribery.
Gao Qiu, on the other hand, has his own "principles" in how he handles things. After accepting bribes from others, he will usually get things done for others.
After the court dismissed that day, Gao Qiu returned to the Taiwei Mansion and immediately ordered his men to invite Ma Zhi over.
Ma Zhi has a long beard and looks majestic and powerful. He is now a bachelor of Longtuge appointed by the imperial court. This official position is just a false title and does not have any real power. He cannot even meet the emperor.
"Master Gao, what's the matter?" Ma Zhi asked.
He was very surprised. Gao Qiu had been avoiding him after accepting his bribe some time ago. Ma Zhi had long wanted to ask Gao Qiu to see how things were going. Today Gao Qiu took the initiative to find him. Could it be that
Is the matter done?
"Master Zhao, I have already done what you asked me to do for you." Gao Qiu laughed loudly.
"You mean... about sending troops to the Liao Kingdom?" Ma Zhi said with joy on his face and in disbelief.
"Yes! But before sending troops to the Liao Kingdom, we still need to unite with the Jin people. I have recommended you to Your Majesty to send you as an envoy to the Jin Kingdom. I wonder if you can handle this matter well?" Gao Qiu said.
"Don't worry, Mr. Gao, there is absolutely no problem! Even if it means risking my life, I will do this well!" Ma Zhi said with excitement.
He has been working hard to regain Yanyun all his life, and now he finally sees hope. The excitement in his heart is indescribable. His sense of mission to complete this matter is beyond the imagination of ordinary people. In order to complete this matter, he has left his family behind.
Sheye came to the Song Dynasty from the Liao Kingdom, and now he is willing to give up his life, of course, the premise is that he can regain Yanyun.
"Very good, very good. His Majesty will summon you tomorrow. When His Majesty asks questions, you must answer them well," Gao Qiu said.
"This is natural! I want to thank Master Gao again!" Ma Zhi said with a grateful face.
"Haha, this is nothing." Gao Qiu was very proud. Every time he accepted a bribe, what he enjoyed most was the expressions of gratitude and tears from others after the transaction. After saying this, he wanted to leave Ma Zhi to eat.
, but Ma Zhi did not dare to eat at the same table with him, so he said goodbye and left immediately.
Early the next morning, Zhao Ji summoned Ma Zhi as expected.
Ma Zhi stood below, quietly looking at the emperor, and found that the emperor seemed different from before. When he first came to the Song Dynasty, Zhao Ji had received him, and at that time, he was given the surname "Zhao". He remembered that time
The emperor is quite handsome and his expression is very kind. But now when I see the emperor again, I find that the emperor's entire face has become "thinner", and he speaks like a mother-in-law, with some unclear words. The emperor's expression seems to have changed.
Very gloomy, like a poisonous snake.
"Strange, why did the emperor become like this?" Ma Zhi secretly pondered this question. Of course, he didn't know that all the teeth in Zhao Ji's mouth had been polished off by Wu Dong, and Zhao Ji had been castrated, so his temperament changed drastically.
It also feels very gloomy.
At this time, Zhao Ji spoke and said: "Zhao Liangsi, are the Jin people really as powerful as you say? Together with the Jin people, can we really regain the Sixteenth Prefecture of Yanyun?"
Ma Zhi hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, the Jin people are extremely powerful. They have not been defeated since they started their army. Now the Jin people have occupied Tokyo in the Liao Kingdom and are not far from Shangjing in the Liao Kingdom. So, as long as they If we unite with the Jin people, we will definitely destroy the Liao people and recapture the sixteen states of Yanyun."
The five capitals of the Liao people were famous at that time, namely Linhuang Prefecture in Shangjing, which is now the Balinzuo Banner area in Inner Mongolia; Dading Prefecture in the middle capital, which is now Ningcheng County in Inner Mongolia; Liaoxi Prefecture in Tokyo, which is now Shenyang, Liaoning Province; and Nanjing. Analyze Jin Prefecture, now Beijing; Xijing Datong Prefecture, Shanxi Datong.
The territory of the Liao Kingdom is extremely vast. The five capitals are equivalent to five municipalities. The Liao people manage the entire Liao Kingdom through the five capitals. Now the Jin people have occupied Tokyo, which is equivalent to one-fifth of the territory of the Liao Kingdom. People occupy.
After hearing this, Song Huizong was not worried about whether the Jin man was too powerful at all. Instead, he burst out laughing, feeling very excited and said: "Is the Jin man so powerful? It's great. It seems that this alliance will destroy the Jin man." Liao is indeed a brilliant plan! Zhao Liangsi, you have made great achievements!"
Ma Zhi hurriedly said: "I don't dare."
He is also very happy now. The emperor has finally confirmed the plan of "alliance with Jin to destroy Liao". It seems that troops will be sent out soon, and Yan Yun will soon return to the embrace of the Han people. Yi Sheng's pursuit finally has hope, and for a while He actually felt that his eyes were wet and he couldn't control himself.
Song Huizong was proud for a while and then said: "Zhao Liangsi, I have prepared the imperial edict and the country. You take the imperial edict to the Jin Kingdom and read my imperial edict to the Jin people and ask them to cooperate with me. Destroyed the Liao Kingdom."
Although the Song Dynasty was not strong enough, Song Huizong still acted like a monarch from the heavenly dynasty, and directly treated the Jin people as his own vassals, without caring about how the Jin people would feel.
In the original history, the Jin people had conquered half of the Liao Kingdom, and Song Huizong still negotiated with the Jin people with a condescending attitude. This made Wanyan Aguda very dissatisfied and disgusted with Song Huizong.
But now, with Song Huizong's attitude, Zhao Liangsi naturally did not dare to correct Song Huizong. He accepted the imperial edict and said: "Your Majesty, the Kingdom of Jin is too far away. If you start by land, you don't know when you can reach the Kingdom of Jin. And one day There are many dangers on the road, and it is not a pity if a humble minister dies, but if the country falls into the hands of the Liao people according to the imperial decree, it will be terrible."
Song Huizong was stunned and said: "Then what do you think we should do?"
Ma Zhi said: "Wei Chen has been thinking about this matter for these years. We can start from Dengzhou Mansion, take a boat to the Kingdom of Jin, and negotiate with the Jin people."
Song Huizong nodded, suddenly laughed again, and said: "Yes, we can set off from the sea... From now on, we will have an alliance with the Jin people, which can be called the 'Sea Alliance'... Haha, hahahaha... Zhao Liangsi , you set out as soon as possible, I will take back the sixteen states of Yanyun as soon as possible and become the eternal sage."
In the original history, Ma Zhi set out along Dengzhou, headed to the Kingdom of Jin, met with Wanyan Aguda of the Kingdom of Jin, and made a "maritime alliance" with Wanyan Aguda. Now Ma Zhi still sets out along the original route, but But it was a year early.
******
The weather in early February of the lunar calendar has a hint of spring, the grass has sprouted, and the weather is not that cold anymore.
In this season, some young men and young ladies from wealthy families have gone out to roam, so as to relieve the depression of the winter.
But Ma Zhi has no such intention. Now he is leading more than 20 military masters, galloping on the road.
He was very excited along the way. He wanted to come to the Kingdom of Jin immediately, negotiate with the Jin people, and then send troops to the Liao Kingdom to recover Yanyun.
"Everyone, hurry up! This time we have a heavy responsibility and we must handle this matter well!" Seeing that the people behind him were a little slow, Ma Zhi couldn't help but shouted.
The knights behind him hurriedly rode up to catch up with him. These knights kept cursing Ma Zhi, thinking that they were doing things for the officials, so why rush everyone so much. However, Ma Zhi was the chief, and they had to obey Ma Zhi's orders.
Not long after, Ma Zhi came to Dengzhou Prefecture and asked to see Tong Xiang, the prefect of Dengzhou.
"Master Zhao, what are you doing in Dengzhou?" Tong Xiang asked lazily when he saw Ma Zhi. His uncle was Tong Guan, and it was through Tong Guan that Ma Zhi proposed the plan of "alliance with Jin to destroy Liao", so Tong Xiang
My relationship with him is also good.
"To be honest, I came here on your Majesty's order this time," Ma Zhi said.
"Oh." Tong Xiang was surprised. So, Ma Zhi is actually an imperial envoy? When such an imperial envoy travels, he will definitely alarm the state capitals along the way. From Bianliang to Dengzhou, there are countless people.
The city, Tong Xiang will definitely know about it all the way here.
But now Ma Zhi has come to Dengzhou quietly, which is really strange.
"Master Zhao, what is going on?" Tong Xiang asked.
"This is a secret and cannot be told to others. Master Tong, all you need to do is prepare a big boat for me to cross the sea. I want to cross the sea to the north," Ma Zhi said.
Ma Zhi's matter this time was very confidential, so naturally he could not tell Tong Xiang, the prefect of Dengzhou. But when he did this, Tong Xiang was very dissatisfied.
What secret does Tong Xiang have? His uncle is Tong Guan. If he wants to know any secret, he can get it from the court.
At the moment, they were too lazy to pay attention to Ma Zhi. As for providing a "big ship to cross the sea" that Ma Zhi said, Tong Xiang had difficulty in doing so.
After being threatened by Liang Shanbo a few years ago, he is now equivalent to a puppet in Liangshan's hands. All docks and ports in Dengzhou are under the control of Liangshan. As for the sea ships, they are all under the management of Liangshan. Let him be given to Ma Zhi
He simply does not have the ability to prepare a ship.
"Master Tong? I wonder when the ship will be ready for me? This time I am on an imperial mission, so I must not delay it." Seeing Tong Xiang not speaking, Ma Zhi said anxiously.
Tong Xiang felt more and more unhappy, wondering what happened to Ma Zhi? Don't say he couldn't do it, even if he could do it, there was no need to be in such a hurry? How could there be any reason to be in such a hurry when working for the imperial court?
"Let me think about this matter carefully," Tong Xiang said.
"What are you thinking?! Master Tong, it is related to the national destiny of the Song Dynasty. You should prepare a ship for me now! Otherwise, don't blame me for being rude." Ma Zhi couldn't help but said coldly.
Tong Xiang was stunned. As Tong Guan's nephew, no one had ever spoken to him like this. At that moment, his face turned cold and he said, "Why are you so rude?"
Ma Zhi gritted his teeth and said, "If Mr. Tong doesn't prepare a ship for me immediately, I will report to Your Majesty that you intend to disobey the Holy Order and hinder the imperial envoy from carrying out his mission!"
Tong Xiang sneered and nodded, saying: "Okay, okay, I'll prepare a boat for you now!"
******
At that moment, Tong Xiang first sent his cronies to inform Ruan Xiaowu of Dengzhou Customs that an imperial envoy from the imperial court had arrived, and asked Ruan Xiaowu to capture the imperial envoy.
After receiving the report from Tong Xiang, Ruan Xiaowu was overjoyed, thinking that the Governor-General was about to arrive, and this "imperial envoy" could be a generous gift to Wu Dong.