Chapter 80 During the peace talks

The reason why Zhao Gou seized the military power of the three generals so eagerly, is there no other reason besides his instinctive fear of generals?The reader must understand that there are of course other reasons for this. "Emperor Zhongxing Two Dynasties" records a passage of Zhao Gou himself who is very proud: "Since Shaoxing, there have been two people who have ruled the country: if the gold wants to fight, divide the towns of Jianghuai and assign generals; if the gold wants to make peace, recruit generals The power of the generals should be returned to the imperial court. The scale is established, the defense is strengthened, and the self-manipulation is compared with the conclusion." From this passage, it is not difficult to see that the reason for the intensive "returning the power of the generals to the imperial court" is because Jin The people agreed to make peace.

As early as the end of the Yingchang War, the war madman Wushu has been sending out messages of peace talks. What caused the commander-in-chief who was the most vocal in the Jin Kingdom to change his original intention and became keen on peace talks?Ten years of peace in one battle!The dialectical relationship between war and peace is revealed in one sentence! After several tough battles in Shunchang, Yancheng, and Yingchang, brother Wushu was beaten to the point of being beaten to the bone, and he was convinced. Now that the strategic situation of the Song and Jin parties has undergone a fundamental reversal, and it is difficult to win by force, and Zhao Gou is so eager for peace talks, let's make peace talks. Maybe the peace talks will get more lucrative things than those obtained on the battlefield.

In September of this year (the 11th year of Shaoxing, 1141), he adjusted his thinking of invading the Song Dynasty and wrote a letter himself, asking the Song envoy Mo Jiang and Han Shu, who had been detained in the Kingdom of Jin for a year and a half, to bring back Zhao Gou. This means that the peace talks between Song and Jin have shifted from the stage of mutual exploration to the stage of substantive operation. In the letter, Wu Shu hit back and accused Zhao Gou of breaking the peace treaty signed between the two countries in the eighth year of Shaoxing (1138). Zhao Gou smiled when he read Wu Shu's complaint in the letter.

He replied with an extremely humble letter, saying: "Yes, yes, I was wrong, I deserve to die, it is a great honor to receive a letter from you, the fourth prince. The last time the emperor granted the land of Henan, It's a pity that I was shallow and thoughtful, and I was careless in handling things, which led to a misunderstanding between the two countries and the resumption of the war. Alas, this matter is all my fault, my fault, and now every time I think about it, I feel ashamed and ashamed Regret. Going to the country to go on a long journey, we were terrified and didn't know what to do. You, the fourth prince, were merciful and let Mo Jiang and Han Shu go. It can be seen that you still don't have the heart to abandon us, and we are even more ashamed. From now on, I will definitely obey the instructions and obey them."

Zhao Gou's useless self-defeating made Wu Shu more courageous and imposing, and wrote back: "If you really reflect on what happened before, then this time you should send a highly respected official to come. talk." This was clearly an initiative to invite peace. Zhao Gou was elated, and wrote another letter, saying that he would obey the fourth prince's "Jun instructions", and then sent "first-rank officials" Wei Liangchen and Wang Gongliang to "report to discuss envoys" In the name of Wushu, begging Wushu not to use force, everything is easy to discuss.

Wu Shu laughed out loud, swiped his pen, and wrote back threateningly: "Wei Liangchen's letter has been received. I read that you are thoughtful and thoughtful, and you can lose yourself before the lawsuit. I specifically asked our lord for instructions and agreed to agree with you." You discuss peace. Now that Jiangnan has been in decline for a long time, if we don’t get the land of Huainan as our front and back, I’m afraid it will be difficult to survive, and Wei Liangchen repeatedly kowtowed and begged for it. It’s pitiful. We will use the Huai River as the boundary and divide the north and the south. However, the Tang and Deng prefectures in the west belong to the Huaibei area according to the geographical division and are not included in the division. As for Wei Liangchen's request for an annual tribute of 250,000 taels of silver and 250,000 bolts of silk, we also agreed , I’ll give you another chance this time.”

Drawing the Huai River as the boundary is several thousand miles longer than drawing the Yellow River as the boundary during the last peace negotiation. Wu Shu made it clear that he was asking for a lot of money, waiting for Zhao Gou to sit on the ground and pay back the money. Zhao Gou was eager to ask for peace, and had no intention of negotiating, so he agreed, and took the initiative to write an "Oath Form" of resolute surrender. Generation after generation, keep the minister's duty to the Dajin Empire, if you violate this alliance, you will be struck by lightning, and you will die."

He Zhu and Cao Xun, members of the Privy Council who signed the letter, were sent to "thank you and enter the "Oath" envoy and deputy" to pay homage to Wushu. It can be seen that Zhao Gou has begun to devote himself to this peace negotiation at all costs. According to Cha Yan, an official in charge of the court documents of the Southern Song Dynasty, it was later revealed that the Jin people tore up the eight-year alliance in Shaoxing and launched a unilateral war. Shu was afraid of Yue Fei's bravery, so he wrote a letter to Qin Hui, specifically explaining that he must kill Yue Fei first and then negotiate peace. ("The captives rebelled against the Henan alliance, and Yue Fei went deep into it. Hinoki was private to the Jinren, and persuaded his teacher to go to work. The Jinren said that Hinoki said: You will make peace every day, and Yue Fei is the map of Hebei, and you must kill my son-in-law. Yue Fei must be killed, and then we can make peace.") This is the origin of the confusing "Wushu legacy" in history.

Wushu knew clearly that Yue Fei, as a banner of anti-golden war, was determined, brave and good at fighting. Although he was dismissed and laid off, he was still a huge threat.Hong Hao, the envoy of the Song Dynasty who was detained in the Kingdom of Jin, once wrote to Zhao Gou: "Fei is the only thing that the Jin people fear, and they are called by their fathers." It is enough to strengthen the country without commanding soldiers." Sooner or later, I want to get rid of it and then quickly. Qin Hui fully agrees with Wushu's peace negotiation conditions. He has always believed that "you can't fly to death, and if you end up in a peace negotiation, you will be in trouble."

In order for the peace talks to succeed, Yue Fei was doomed. When many historical materials in the early Southern Song Dynasty were destroyed by Qin Hui, Qin Hui and his son, the letter written by Wu Shu to Qin Hui has been lost. So, did it ever exist?For thousands of years, there have been different opinions. Mr. Deng Guangming, a famous historian, believed that the reason why this letter could not be found out was that it was only a message dictated by Wushu to Wei Liangchen, an envoy of the Southern Song Dynasty, and sent by Wei Liangchen to the court of the Southern Song Dynasty. It was not an entity recorded on paper with pen and ink. letter.The basis for this is that in the correspondence between Wu Shu and Qin Hui, there was a statement that "there are things that cannot be fully explained, and they will be dictated one by one, but your Excellency will explain them in detail".

Wang Zengyu, a well-known historian and master of Song history research, not only believed that this letter had appeared, but also speculated that it appeared in the middle of July in the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140). Knowing that it would be difficult to win on the frontal battlefield, he wrote such a letter and sent it secretly to the traitor Qin Hui. It should be said that this speculation is quite reliable. Last year (the tenth year of Shaoxing, 1140), Zhao Gou urgently asked Yue Fei to be a teacher in Zhuxian Town, and he indirectly got the word that Wushu intended to negotiate with Qin Hui. When Yue Fei came back from Zhuxian Town, he took the initiative to plead with Zhao Gou to remove his military power, because Zhao Gou was not yet sure that the peace agreement could be reached. And I have a request to say goodbye." In March of the eleventh year of Shaoxing (1141), as soon as Wushu withdrew from Huaixi, Zhao Gou used violence against Liu Qi, and then he dismissed the military power of the three generals intensively. Obviously, Zhao Gou had already ceased fighting with both sides through Qin Hui. With full grasp, and mastered the specific "Xi Ge period". Since Wushu intends to negotiate a peace, he must start to solve the problem of "the generals have too much power".Of course, taking back the military power and negotiating peace with Jin are complementary. Only when the peace is successfully negotiated can the military power of the generals be recovered. Conversely, only the military power of the generals can be recovered to ensure the smooth progress of the peace negotiation. Wang Fuzhi said in "Song Lun": "Gao Zongzhi is eager to make peace by dismantling military power; while juniper is eager to make peace because he wants to strengthen the peace negotiation, he must dissolve the soldiers of the generals; However, Qin Hui was more eager than Zhao Gou to seize the military power of the generals. He "struggled for peace talks, fearing that the generals would be difficult to control, and wanted to take all his military power."Yue Fei, Han Shizhong and others have always opposed the Song-Jin peace talks. If they and their staff are not fundamentally destroyed, the peace talks will be difficult to reach; even if they are reached, there is no guarantee that they will not be destroyed by them in the future.Therefore, he repeatedly told Zhao Gou "Chengjian secretly played, thinking that the armies only know that there are generals, but they don't know that there is an emperor, and that they are domineering and cute, so we must worry about it." During that period of frequent communication between Yihe envoys.What Zhao Gou is most passionate about is "the trend of Mi and Hui plotting to cut tails." The two stick together every day to discuss the issue of taking back military power. After the action of withdrawing troops and seizing power was over, Zhao Gou refused to allow Yue Fei to return home because once Yue Fei left the stage prematurely, there would be no chance to place charges on him, and the play would not be able to continue, and Wushu would not be able to continue. If there is no way to explain, the peace negotiation will not succeed. Zhao Gou received the first official letter written to him by Wu Shu in September of this year (the eleventh year of Shaoxing, 1141).As the schedule of the peace talks continued to advance, Yue Fei became more and more dangerous. In addition to killing Yue Fei to facilitate the peace, Zhao Gou also had his own selfish motives. Wang Fuzhi said: "Gaozong punished Miao and Liu, and he was worried." Zhao Gou believed that the threat from domestic generals was more serious than the threat from the Jin people, and "the exile was worse than foreign aggression", so he couldn't wait. Inheriting the ancestral family law, he joined forces with the bureaucratic group to collect military power from the military.But in order to further deter the warriors and keep them firmly in the palm of his hand, he always wanted to kill the chicken for the monkey to see. Yue Fei was eager to fight against the gold, asked for more troops, proposed to establish a reserve, etc., all of which touched Zhao Gou's nerves without exception.And Yue Fei's military training and respect for corporals also made him suspicious.Therefore, although Yue Fei has repeatedly stated that he wants to retire after success, once he "restores the land of two rivers to the Han family" and spends the rest of the year studying scriptures and discussing Buddhism in Lushan Mountain Temple, from Zhao Gou's point of view, this is impossible. Who can go beyond the Three Realms and not be in the Five Elements? At the same time, during the anti-golden process, Yue Fei repeatedly made military exploits, was highly respected, managed the army strictly, and committed no crimes. He was not only loved and supported by the soldiers of the Yue family army, but also respected by the people.Zhao Gou was worried that Yue Fei would take advantage of the power of the master, and his doubts about Yue Fei became more and more serious. After all, what Zhao Gou hated the most was Yue Fei's outstanding ability and prestige.This is called great achievements and great success, and high virtue and ruin! Yue Fei's talent in both civil and military affairs, his character of benevolence and righteousness, his illustrious military exploits, and his prestige of self-denial and dedication to public service cannot be seen in the ruling class of an autocratic regime at all. Just as Zhu Xi said: "Yue Fei is relatively sparse, Gaozong was jealous of him, so he was punished by Qin, and Han Shizhong broke his courage!" Compared with other generals, Yue Fei has no family background, less personal qualifications, and has been fighting abroad for a long time. , He has little contact with the ministers of the DPRK and China, has a shallow foundation, and has no network of relationships. Based on the above points, Yue Fei is undoubtedly the most suitable candidate for surgery! Killing a Yue Fei would not only facilitate a peace negotiation, but also fully demonstrate the majesty of the imperial power, deter and warn other generals, so that they can only prostrate themselves in front of themselves and "follow themselves for self-sufficiency", why not do it? ! As soon as the news of Yue Fei's summoning came out, "the people are restless day and night", it seems that an undercurrent is surging, and a major earthquake is about to come. Indeed, with Yue Fei's prestige and reputation in the country at this time, if he really instigated the Yue family army as Wang Jun falsely accused, his explosive power could still shake mountains! So, what kind of performance would Yue Fei have when he heard the news?