Chapter 54 second quarter

That night, Zhao Liangsi, Ma Kuo and others returned to their tents to rest. With the arrival of the victory, an obscene and extravagant life style that once poisoned the Khitan nobles is gradually invading the life of the Jurchen nobles.Aguda keenly saw this phenomenon, fully understood its harmfulness, and tried to resist and extinguish it.After the army arrived in Fengsheng Prefecture, the first military order he personally issued was that wherever the army went, from the emperor himself down, the clan, generals, and various ministries should move to Liqin, Meng'an, Mouk, and the soldiers were only allowed to Live in tents, not allowed to occupy public and private houses.

This military order was strictly enforced. In fact, Fengsheng Prefecture was originally a remote and small state. After a war, there were not many official and residential buildings left.Therefore, as the distinguished guests of the Jurchens, the envoys of the Song Dynasty who deserved special care had no choice but to stay in the tent at this time. Zhao Liangsi drank a few more bowls of wine—the dishes and bowls used by the Jurchens during their marches and banquets were all made of ash, a specialty of their hometown, and they were extra large, and a bowl could hold more than half a catty of wine.Coupled with this amazing news, I can't help but feel a little elated.He chanted so well that he couldn't find a pen and paper in his account for a while.Just read it casually:

Ma Kuo may not be much better at writing poetry than Zhao Liangsi, but he is quite experienced in military and diplomatic changes.Although he also felt a little drunk at the moment, and was also encouraged by the news, he was out of the tent, and after the new wind blew, his mind immediately cooled down.He clearly remembered that when he was in Yanjing at the end of May, the well-mannered Empress Xiao personally made an appointment with him to "belong to the Great Dynasty" and congratulated him on "exploring the Li to get the Pearl".At that time, he was full of enthusiasm, thinking that Yanjing was at his fingertips, and the whole Liao Dynasty was about to be settled.Unexpectedly, the front line was defeated, and the dream suddenly came to naught.Tonight it was Aguda who personally revealed the news of my division entering Yan, and brother Liu Qi was there as a military counselor there, so it seems that the matter is absolutely true.But who can guarantee that the situation will not change?In addition, the Jinren have always been untrustworthy and have ulterior motives. Even if he talked about Yunzhou and the land behind the mountain tonight, A Guda changed his color. return it to me?

This is not the only thing to worry about. According to Wushi and Salumu, Aguda has been busy inspecting the military situation and deploying the military for more than ten days.According to the agreement at sea, the Jin army divided the labor to deal with the remnant enemies of Emperor Tianzuo, and the Song army divided the labor to recover the land of Yan and Yun.so far.Nianhan's army seemed to be sent to deal with Emperor Tianzuo, but so many of Aguda's relatives and generals did not follow Nianhan westward to hunt down Emperor Tianzuo, but stayed in Fengsheng Prefecture not far from Juyongguan. In and out of the city, there are endless camps, and the army is in the clouds, what is the intention?The military situation he inspected and the military he deployed were aimed at dealing with Emperor Tianzuo?To deal with Empress Xiao?Or deal with our army?This is worth pondering.

Although Ma Kuo had worked with Zhao Liangsi for many years and gave him a very high evaluation of his ability, he had never overcome his double traitor in his heart—betrayed the Han nationality, defected to the Khitan people, and later betrayed the Khitan people's country. A sense of contempt for seeking one's own wealth.Based on Ma Kuo's account, Zhao Liangsi didn't get a plus from a minus, but minus one plus minus one equals minus two.Especially because he clings to Tong Guan and flatters the imperial court, and only seeks quick profit.Disregarding the far-reaching achievements, the contempt for him increased.

Now when he heard the poems he recited, Ma Kuo felt disgusted and thought to himself; you Zhao Longtu, when you were on the front line, you insisted that our army was powerless to capture Yanjing, and you tried your best to persuade Tong Guan and the imperial beggar Nuzhen to do it for you. This act of losing power and humiliating the country.Now that I hear a little bit of wind, I get carried away before the matter is clear. It can be seen that I am a "little tool" with uncertain opinions and repeated opinions.Officials listen to the arguments of such people, and the state affairs are safe and undefeated!

Ma Kuo is a man with sharp edges and corners, and he felt something, so he recited a poem tit for tat: Zhao Liangsi was a very clever man, as soon as he heard Ma Kuo's poems, he knew that he meant satire.He, Zhao Liangsi, was born in a famous family in Yandi, he was different from the lonely generation.Later, he became a hero who knew the current affairs, came and went from time to time, and did not go out of the way, and devoted himself to the Song Dynasty.Once the time comes, he will become the No. 1 celebrity under Tong Guan, who is so popular under the government, and his double status as a red horn makes him more magnanimous. A little bit of opposition to Ma Kuo, he is tolerable.Now he smiled and said:

"This is Zichong's unfounded worry. Don't you see how grand the Jin people have treated me these two days. Could it be that after our army captured Yanjing, they will still have side effects, and really cook us two?" Zhao Liangsi was still drunk, said these two sentences, took off his clothes, fell asleep, and soon snored loudly. Ma Kuo slept on several layers of thick wolf fur mattresses, and his body was covered with several layers of thick wool felt, making him very warm.But he only felt that there was a cold air that didn't come from the body but from the spirit, and went straight to his bones.Coupled with the interference of Zhao Liangsi's snoring, he could not sleep for a long time.

"When I hear it, I feel the bone hairs are cold," although it is an adjective, it is also a realistic sentence. "Easy to take the royal family forever", this poem blurted out, but it was a mean word to hurt Zhao Liangsi.If you want to reflect deeply, according to his current thinking logic, I am afraid that it may not be sincere.His thoughts had been fluctuating a lot of late, and he was often thinking of some disturbing measures of this bureaucracy which were doing bad things and which would at last shake his own foundation.This is a bold idea that goes beyond the rules, but Ma Kuo can find countless examples to prove this idea.For example, in the first battle against Liao Dynasty, Tong Guan issued the absurd order that officers and soldiers should not cross the river to kill thieves according to his three strategies of the imperial pen, which bound his hands and feet and finally caused a rout.Another example is that when the Second Liao War began, when the command headquarters was reorganized, he rejected all the expected divisions, and the incompetent Liu Yanqing was chosen by him to be the commander of the capital, which became the leader of many generals in the army. of renunciation.Another example is the battle of envoy gold, he Ma Kuo made a heartfelt statement, listing the interests, hoping to understand the officials and give up the idea of ​​begging soldiers.The officials just listened to the words of Tong Guan and Zhao Liangsi, and sent the two of them to beg for teachers, causing endless disasters in the future.

In Ma Kuo's heart, it is best not to think about all this, but facts are facts, and it is impossible to avoid them.Now he is painfully aware of the fact that the official himself is the enemy of his share of the foundation. If he did not take the lead in consciously demolishing it, at least he allowed those traitors to demolish it, and he turned a blind eye to it. It would be fine if the only thing corrupted by the official family was the private property of his Zhao family.Nothing like the private property of his Zhao family, which has now become a country of thousands of miles in the Song Dynasty, and it has also become a foothold for tens of thousands of ordinary people to rely on for their lives.With this country, the common people can only live a life of hardship and precarity.If this country is lost, then millions of ordinary people will not be able to achieve those hard-working and precarious days, so they have to become the continuation of the bones he saw outside Weizhou yesterday.

Among the bones he saw scattered in and around the village yesterday, he was particularly impressed, and what shocked him most were two skeletons lying crookedly on the pit bed.Judging from the position and size of the skeleton, it is likely that the mother who was hugging her little daughter and breastfeeding was hacked to death by a group of golden soldiers rushing in, including the mother and her daughter, before she could leave the pit bed.Thinking about it now, Ma Kuo seemed to still hear their screams and see them dying and struggling on the pit bed. For "country", Ma Kuo has only one original concept, which is understood from the composition of the word "country". The soldiers guarding the national borders protect the people to live and work in peace and contentment on the land.Officials and the government are to lead the soldiers to perform the above-mentioned functions correctly and effectively.If they do the opposite, let the enemy invade the territory, and make hundreds or tens of millions of ordinary people suffer the fate of the mother and daughter outside the city of Weizhou, then this is a dereliction of duty official and a dereliction of duty government up.Ma Kuo's understanding of the concept of the country is the primitive prototype of all patriotism. What Ma Kuo now sees clearly is that no matter whether the army entering Yan is successful or not, a war between Song and Jin cannot be avoided. It is just a matter of time.Today A Guda showed off his 320-step mace arrow at the shooting ground, which was clearly a warning of armed forces and a threat of strength.Once the war breaks out, will the omnipotent and wise officials be able to take on the functions mentioned above?Officials are good at wielding his seven-inch elephant Guanlang brush to write wild cursive and lean body thousand-character prose, and draw feathers, flowers and birds, and figure pictures.What Ma Kuo was afraid of was that the official's seven-inch elephant Guan Langhao pen obviously couldn't stop A Gu's three hundred and twenty-step mace arrow. This is the crux of the problem. Ma Kuo was an official of the feudal court. He loved the landowner class and was loyal to the king of the feudal dynasty.The two interrelated concepts of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism have long been firmly attached to him.Only recently did he realize that the two unified concepts of loyalty to the monarch and patriotism may be separated under certain circumstances. "May you work together to cook your body and speech, and the royal family will be safe forever" is not what he said sincerely. It is in line with his current thinking to change it to "it's easy to get the country and the world forever". But this new thinking was only the beginning. He was afraid of the personal opinion he was beginning to form about the officialdom.He didn't even dare to stay too long in that restricted area of ​​thinking, just like an intruder who once realized that his accidental intrusion has constituted a criminal act, he hastily withdraws from it. Ma Kuo was a brave man. He had never been afraid of anything. In war, he was fearless in front of powerful opponents such as Yelu Dashi and others.But when faced with thousands of years of traditional consciousness and wanted to challenge it, he suddenly felt awe-inspiring.It is the awe-inspiring feeling that must be felt in the alternation of the old and the new, the latter still dominant, the former only in its infancy.This is the possible ideology of a person who is responsible for himself and others. The night in the barracks was not quiet. While he was awake, he heard the sharp whistling of the new wind outside the tent, mixed with Hu'er Zha Ye's yelling, the well-proportioned sound of fighting, and the neighing of Huma, and he remembered that he was outside the territory.He was carrying the heavy responsibility of the emperor, carrying a heavy burden, and came here alone. He was surrounded by Hu Qi, and he wanted to use his words to win the battle between respect and respect.He had thought of disrespect to officials just now, which was really close to "rebellion and injustice".

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