Chapter 62 three

Prime Minister Jia Sidao was defeated again and again, and was finally demoted to Longzhou, Guangdong by the Empress Dowager Xie Daoqing who was listening to the government behind the curtain.On the way, he was killed by the minister in charge of escorting him again. The news reached Lin'an, and Li Tingzhi, the envoy of the Lianghuai system and political counselor, hurriedly released Hao Jing, who had been detained for 14 years. In the second year of Zhongtong, Guoxin envoy Hao Jing led thirty-six envoys to the Song Dynasty to discuss with Emperor Lizong about the implementation of the "Ezhou Alliance". A secret agreement was signed, and then the Mongolian side withdrew the army according to the agreement. However, his conspiracy to lie about the victory to the court was revealed, and he arrested Hao Jing and his party on the way and put them in prison.This level is fourteen years.During the period, although Kublai Khan sent several envoys to negotiate with Song, Jia Sidao did not allow them to meet Lizong. Instead, he insisted that he had never seen the envoy of Hao Guo, and that the envoy of Hao Guo must have encountered bandits on the road. Robbery, so that no one can be seen alive, and no corpse can be seen dead.Later, Jia Sidao simply ordered that envoys from the Yuan Dynasty were not allowed to enter the territory of the Song Dynasty.

In this way, Hao Jing and his party spent the most precious fourteen years of their lives in prison.Among the thirty-six envoys who were detained in different prisons with him, two-thirds have died in prison due to various reasons. A thick milky fog hung in the air, covering trees, mountains, and fields.Zhenzhou City is hidden in the mist, like a girl wearing tulle. "National Messenger, Hanlin Servant Bachelor, I congratulate you!" At the sound of the iron gate, Li Tingzhi, the envoy of the Lianghuai System and Political Counselor, wiped his sweat and walked into the low, stuffy cell. "Jailman, quickly change the room for Mr. Hao. From this time today, the country messenger and his party will be treated as envoys of the two countries, and there will be a special person in charge of daily living and travel!"

"Yes." The jailer said obediently, while clearing away Hao Jing's books, pens, paper and ink spread on the bed, he said as if showing merit, "Over the years, I have been with Mr. Hao day and night and got to know him very well. I didn't dare to treat him badly. He never treats me as an outsider, paper, pen and ink, I have always waited on him. Isn't that right, Mr. Hao?" The jailer's surname is Wang, his real name is Chengzhi, and his nickname is Shitou. Everyone calls him Wang Shitou.He became a jailer at the age of fifteen, and he endured for forty years before he finally got the title of a nine-rank jailer.Although he talks a lot on weekdays, he treats people quite honestly.

Hao Jing nodded: "Yes, you are not free to work, it is not easy to achieve this step. If you hadn't bought pen, ink and paper for me, how could I have written hundreds of thousands of words and hundreds of volumes of manuscripts? I really should thank you very much." During the fourteen years of his imprisonment, Hao Jing described all his life's learning and ambitions in his pen. "Master Li, if you give me a favor, let Warden Wang follow me and help me keep the manuscript." "It's a trivial matter, and it's up to you!" Li Tingzhi readily agreed.

Wang Shitou was overjoyed and almost burst into tears.He can speak well on weekdays, but now he can't say a word. He just desperately fanned Li Tingzhi and Hao Jing, and didn't care whether he was sweating profusely. Li Tingzhi led Hao Jing to the back garden of a luxuriously decorated private mansion, and walked back and forth. The garden is full of willows, Chinese toon trees, tea trees, iron trees, etc., and a thousand-year-old locust tree has luxuriant branches and roots. "Mr. Hao, you and I might as well talk about it here." Li Tingzhi pointed to the stone chair by the lake and said, "This place is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the fragrance of flowers is pleasant. A sentimental sentiment."

"Lord Li, I was imprisoned by the Song Dynasty for fourteen years. During this period, I lived in prison like a year. I wrote hundreds of thousands of words to negotiate with the Song court. Unexpectedly, all of them disappeared and there was no news. Song is so rude, shameless, and immoral!" "Mr. Hao, calm down. This was done by the Prime Minister Jia Sidao alone, and I can't do anything to help. In fact, according to Prime Minister Jia's words, he wanted to execute Mr. ten years ago. I just gave up. You and I are the ministers of the two dynasties, each is the master, and today we have the chance to sit down and have a long talk. I hope that you will not hesitate to enlighten me: Why did the Yuan and Song Dynasties start? Can it be avoided?"

Hao Jing leaned on the railing and looked into the distance, but he saw willows whirling on the shore of the lake, the mist was like smoke, and the breeze was blowing, and the lake was rippling layer by layer. "Actually, Emperor Kublai Khan would also declare war on Song for safety reasons." Hao Jing said solemnly, "Like all other Chinese emperors, although Emperor Song was partial to Jiangnan, he still regarded himself as orthodox and yearned for it all the time. Unify China, at least restore its territory in the Northern Song Dynasty. Although your current military and political strength is not enough to pose a threat to our dynasty, it cannot be ruled out that once it recovers, it will first consider recovering those northern Chinese territories occupied by Mongolia. In view of the above reasons, Emperor Kublai Khan will of course choose to conquer you before you are strong. In this sense, the war between Song and Yuan is inevitable, and there is no room for reconciliation."

Hao Jing's gaze crossed the lake and turned to the far north. "Another reason that doesn't need to be avoided is: Song's developed economy, fertile land, and large population resources are all needed by the north. The north is inland, with a cold climate, and its agricultural development is not as good as that of the south. However, the Song land is rich in fish and rice. It is another driving force for Yuan to destroy Song." Li Tingzhi stood beside Hao Jing, his eyes fell on the roof of a monastery in front of him.There, a few homing pigeons flew and landed leisurely.

"I don't know if Mr. Hao has thought about it. If the Yuan Dynasty wants to conquer the Song Dynasty, it will not be easy. There are many obstacles in the process. First, the Mongolian cavalry who used to ride horses all over the world are not familiar with the southern climate and hot climate. Second, your horses They cannot adapt to the high temperature quickly, and they cannot get fodder as easily on the southern farmland as they do on the grasslands. Furthermore, in order to deal with the southern water army, the Yuan court needs to build ships, recruit water troops, and be proficient in water warfare. On land , but also to besiege cities and towns with large populations, abundant food and fodder reserves, and well-defended towns, all of which require strong economic strength as the backing.”

Hao Jing did not deny Li Tingzhi's analysis and judgment. In fact, this was a question he often pondered over. He only reminded Li Tingzhi: "You are right, but the Song Dynasty is by no means as prosperous as it appears on the surface. Take Lin'an as an example, Lin'an The government has luxurious shops, teahouses and theaters, as well as an ever-increasing number of redundant officials, redundant officials and a huge army, I am afraid I don’t need to say what this means, Lord Li knows it well.” "Yes," Li Tingzhi sighed, "it means that we need to continuously increase taxes and continuously strengthen maritime trade, and appoint maritime trade supervisors in important port cities to promote city ships and hire merchants to supervise national monopoly. But Mr. Hao, everything has advantages and disadvantages. With the prosperity of maritime commerce, our dynasty needs to build a navy that can go to sea to fight against the harassment of pirate ships. It also promotes large ships equipped with sophisticated rockets, firearms and artillery. Isn't this an important branch of military force, one of the obstacles that the Yuan Dynasty will inevitably encounter in future military operations?"

"Even so, Song's army and militia totaled no less than two million people, didn't they keep retreating steadily, losing cities and land?" "Mr. Hao, your words seem to be a bit too absolute. In order to save lives, I want to send the country's messenger back to the North Kingdom, but I don't know if I can persuade the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty to stop the flag and drums, and the two sides will stop fighting?" Li Tingzhi took out a printed white linen paper from his bosom and handed it to Hao Jing, "This is the edict issued by Emperor Kublai Khan for the Southern Expedition recently." Hao Jing received the imperial edict and read it with mixed feelings. Since Emperor Taizu, he has communicated with Song envoys.In the reign of Emperor Xianzong (Meng Ge), I was ordered to make a southern expedition as a vassal, and Bi Jia Sidao sent Song Jing back to me, please stop the soldiers and stop the people.After I ascended the throne, I recalled the words, and ordered Hao Jing and others to follow the book, as a means of life; .After the fall of Xiangyang, Ji Song repented of the misfortune, or started the current plan, but was obsessed with obsession, and had no heart, so the teacher who questioned the sinner had no choice but to do so.Now I send you and others to advance by land and water, and announce it far and wide, so that Xian knows that innocent people have nothing to do with them at first.Soldiers are not allowed to kill and plunder recklessly, those who go against the enemy and follow suit, and those who make extraordinary achievements, will be rewarded in the ranks; "After Kublai Khan issued an edict, the situation was clear and aggressive. My lord, with the common people in the world in mind, implored Mr. Yuan to go out of the mountain and persuade the Yuan Emperor to stop the army, or across the river as a boundary, or pay money and silk at the age of age, or present a woman as a minister. decide." "The arrow is on the string, and we have to shoot it. I am afraid that any thought of carelessness at this time will be in vain. Since Jia Sidao's dictatorship in the Song Dynasty, under the power of Jia Sidao, all officials have either joined forces with him, or kept silent, or sent out to remote areas, or They were brutally slaughtered, the state affairs are in dire straits, and the people are full of grievances. My lord destroys the Song Dynasty, and aims to unify the whole country. Li Tingzhi was speechless, but secretly sighed. To welcome Hao Jing and his party back, Kublai Khan held a state banquet in the Daming Hall to wash them away.Hao Jing left the capital as a young man in high spirits. When he was released from prison, he was already gray-haired and sick.When the monarch and his ministers met, they all shed tears of emotion. Song's most unreasonable detention this time only restricted Hao Jing's personal freedom, but could not restrict his free thinking.With his tenacious will and astonishing perseverance, this tough guy with strong bones finished writing "Continued Han Shu", "Yi Chunqiu Biography", "Tai Chi Performance", "Yuan Gu Lu", "Yu Heng" in prison. "Zhen Guan" and "Tong Jian Calligraphy", when he was released from prison and returned to China, these six works became his heaviest "luggage" and the most precious wealth. After Zhen Jin got the manuscripts, he kept them all. He didn't delay for a moment, and ordered the bookstore affiliated to the country to print the six books into volumes as quickly as possible. Hao Jing only lived in the capital for half a month. He missed his elderly mother and decided to go back to Shanxi to visit relatives. Kublai Khan sent guards to escort him.She hadn't seen her son face to face for fourteen years, and when her mother saw him burst into tears, she wept with joy.It was only then that Hao Jing learned that for the past fourteen years, Zhenjin had been taking care of his whole family, especially his mother, with the consent of his father Khan.Zhen Jin originally planned to bring Hao's mother and Hao Jing's family to live in the capital, but the old man couldn't leave his accustomed hometown and refused to go there. Zhen Jin had to send people to visit them often.Four years ago, the old man had a serious illness, and it was Zhenjin who sent Wang Zhuo to treat the old man, so that the old man was out of danger... Mother Hao passed away peacefully with a grateful heart on the seventeenth day after her son returned home, at the age of eighty-four.Seeing off his mother, Hao Jing felt both sad and relaxed. He knew that he could not last long. He did not want his mother to endure the pain of parting with her son after finally looking forward to her son. Instead of doing that, it is better to watch the old man leave contentedly. world. Only two months after Hao's mother passed away, Hao Jing, who was extremely weak, was also bedridden.Life passed by quietly, and his greatest joy was seeing the six books of his that had been sent by the real gold sent by Kuaiqi, which had already been published. When he was dying, Hao Jing exhausted his last strength and said to the messenger: "Prince please, sorry!"