Zhao Kuangyin sat calmly on the dragon throne that symbolized supreme power, but he muttered to himself, “Damn it, I’m used to sitting on a comfortable office chair, but now this hard, cold dragon throne really makes me feel uncomfortable and uncomfortable all over!”

As he thought about it, he twisted his body unconsciously a few times.

The ministers standing below were all dumbfounded and looked at each other, no one dared to speak easily.

The entire court fell into deathly silence. The atmosphere was so heavy that even the sound of a needle dropping to the ground could be heard clearly.

The silence did not last long.

After a while, a brave minister finally couldn’t hold back his anger, stepped forward, pointed at Zhao Kuangyin and shouted: “You daring lunatic, do you know how honorable the seat you are sitting on is? How dare you act so recklessly!”

Then, several other ministers joined in and shouted angrily, “Get off the throne immediately! Don’t defile this sacred place!”

Some even warned him with a look of deep sorrow: “I kindly advise you that although the emperor is not in the palace for the time being, troops from all over the world are rushing here to support him. If you still have a little self-awareness, you should leave here immediately to avoid getting killed. Otherwise, when the emperor returns, he will definitely kill your entire family and exterminate all nine clans!”

For a moment, all the ministers launched fierce attacks and accusations against Zhao Kuangyin one after another like a string of cannonballs.

Faced with the attacks from all ministers, Zhao Kuangyin remained calm and composed.

His sharp hawk-like eyes slowly swept over everyone present, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly, revealing a sneer of contempt.

Old Zhao slapped the armrest, stood up, held his head high, and shouted in a loud voice like a bell: “Shut up! I will not beat around the bush with you today. I am the Taizu Emperor Zhao Kuangyin who founded the Song Dynasty! This dragon throne originally belongs to me, and it is only natural for me to sit here!”

As soon as these words were spoken, it was like a thunderclap exploding in the court. The originally noisy civil and military officials in the court were stunned for a moment, each of them standing still like a wooden chicken, with an expression of disbelief on their faces.

No wonder the minister had such an expression. What Old Zhao said was really shocking and unbelievable to the extreme.

Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was a famous and renowned figure. How could the ministers in the court not know him?

The founding emperor of the Song Dynasty.

At this point in time, nearly two hundred years have passed since the founding of the Song Dynasty, and the throne has been passed down for several generations.

“You ignorant man! Even if you want to impersonate someone else, you should at least find an identity that is a little more reliable!” a minister roared angrily.

“Humph, if you lie and say you are the emperor’s uncle or something like that, maybe people might believe you a little, but you actually dared to call yourself the ancestor of this dynasty. This is simply an act of lawlessness and rebellion. According to the law, you should be executed in public!” Another minister scolded sternly.

“Everyone knows that our extremely noble Emperor Taizu has passed away many years ago!” Another minister echoed.

“You bold lunatic, confess the truth quickly! Who are you? How dare you impersonate our emperor Taizu? What evil intentions do you have?” Many ministers asked indignantly.

Faced with this group of emotional and eloquent ministers, Old Zhao remained calm and did not take their rebukes to heart at all.

If he were in such a situation, he would probably just curse in his heart and consider himself kind.

Why would I bother with these people?

Old Zhao waved his hand calmly and shouted, “Someone, bring him up to me!”

As soon as he finished speaking, several fully armed soldiers were seen escorting a man with a bruised face, a swollen nose and crooked eyes to the center of the hall.

All the ministers present quickly turned their eyes to the man who was being escorted here.

Although his face appeared swollen and deformed from the beating, after a closer look, everyone could still vaguely recognize his true appearance.

In an instant, the originally noisy court became silent, and the faces of the ministers changed suddenly, as if they had seen something extremely terrifying.

“Your Majesty, is it really you?” A civil official stared at the person in front of him with wide eyes, his voice trembling with excitement.

“Your Majesty, are you swollen?” Another civil official stepped forward, his concern evident in his words.

“How dare you be so rude to our emperor! I will fight you to the death today!” Another old civil official was so angry that he blew his beard and glared, rolled up his sleeves and rushed towards Lao Zhao.

“If your Majesty insults me, I will die. This general will fight you to the death!”

At the same time, the military commanders present all showed anger on their faces, and without hesitation, they showed their gleaming weapons and shouted in unison: “Protect the emperor!”

The momentum is so huge that it is frightening.

However, facing the surging momentum of the crowd, Lao Zhao remained calm and didn’t even raise his eyelids.

Just as those civil officials and military generals were about to rush to him, dozens of soldiers from the Wanchao coalition forces wearing armor and holding spears rushed forward like a gust of wind, forming a solid human wall in an instant, blocking everyone outside.

The generals present wanted to rush forward, relying on their own martial arts.

Xiang Yu and Lu Bu stood up at this time.

The two men held Fang Tian Hua Ji in their hands and instantly gave the warriors present an acceleration backwards.

If the two men had not held back, there would have been several more corpses by now.

“Amazing!”

“Let’s go together, rescue His Majesty, and kill the traitors!”

At this moment, a loud “bang” was heard suddenly, like a thunderclap out of the blue, which was particularly eye-catching and harsh in the originally noisy hall.

In an instant, the entire hall seemed to be cast under a spell. Even the civil and military officials who had never seen a gun felt terrified.

The hall fell into deathly silence; one could hear a pin drop.

Old Zhao snorted coldly, swept his eyes coldly across the crowd, and said in a deep voice: “Whether I am Zhao Kuangyin or not, you will naturally know in the future.

Do you know why I am here today?

Humph, it’s because you guys have been servile to the Jin people that the backbone of our Song Dynasty has been bent!

What’s even more abominable is that the incompetent ruler, coupled with a bunch of good-for-nothings like you, caused our Song Dynasty to suffer the greatest humiliation in history – the Jingkang Shame!”

After hearing this, all the ministers present were puzzled.

The ministers present thought to themselves that the previous defeat in the war with the Jin people had to cede territory and pay compensation in order to seek peace, which was indeed a kind of surrender to the Jin people, but it seemed a bit far-fetched to say that the backbone of the Song Dynasty was bent because of this. Moreover, the ministers in the court were simply in a fog about the so-called “Jingkang Shame”. They were all at a loss and had no idea what the cause and effect were.

If it was just because of a defeat and the need to pay compensation to various places, it would indeed be a shameful thing, but to insist that it was the greatest shame of the Song Dynasty would be a bit of an exaggeration.

After all, ceding territory and paying compensation had happened before.

Everyone has long been accustomed to this, and it can be said that this method has more or less bought the Song Dynasty some brief peace.

Old Zhu walked up to Old Zhao and said, “No point in talking any more! Even if you try your best to explain, those people have not experienced it themselves, so how can they easily believe that you are Old Zhao? We do have some relevant records about this place.

Among these people who are able to stand here right now, which one of them doesn’t have some problems!
Those officials who were truly honest and incorruptible and had real talent and knowledge were probably squeezed out of the court long ago and ended up in some unknown remote corner!
We’ll review it for you first. During this period, you can also take this opportunity to think carefully about how to implement reforms in the future so that the Song Dynasty can regain its vitality.”

After hearing this, Old Zhao nodded slightly to show his agreement, but a hint of hesitation appeared on his face. He said hesitantly: “Well… you do have a point. But if we take them all away, wouldn’t the court be deserted?”

“Hey, Brother Zhao, are you still dreaming of keeping all these people here? I, Zhu, have always been efficient, not so many twists and turns. Let me be frank. According to the rules we set, it would be good if there are only a handful of people left here! I’ll make a list for you later. The ministers above are all well-known and praised figures in history books. You should quickly find them to enrich the court.”

Zhu Ming grinned and continued, “You should learn from Emperor Jing of Han and Emperor Wu of Han in this regard. Facing an empty court, the father and son still ate and drank as usual, and even had the leisure to play mahjong for a while.”

“Okay, let’s do as you say. I still have a lot of things waiting for me to do over there. If I can finish things here earlier, I can go back earlier.” Lao Zhao thought it made sense.

Nowadays, efficiency is the key.

I have a lot of things to do and don’t have time to waste here.

Old Zhu waved his hand generously, and in an instant, hundreds of majestic Jinyiwei dressed in brocade clothes appeared in the hall like ghosts.

“Take them all away! No mistakes!”

After just a few minutes, the court, which was originally a little crowded and noisy, suddenly became deserted and empty.

Old Zhu slowly put down the pen in his hand.

Pick up the rice paper with your name written on it.

“We don’t know whether what is recorded in those history books is true or false, but no matter what, according to the descriptions in the history books of our Ming Dynasty, these people are all capable and principled officials. You can employ them for the time being, and then conduct a thorough investigation in the future to see whether the actual situation is consistent with what is written in the history books.”

Zhu Ming took a quick glance at the list in front of him and found that he had no impression of most of the names on it.

However, one of the names was very familiar.

“I won’t say much else. There won’t be any problem with Yue Fei!”

Zhu Ming said firmly.

Old Zhao at the side nodded repeatedly, expressing his agreement: “I know this. My eldest brother mentioned it before when we all got together. It’s not just Yue Fei, there are several others. My son explained them clearly at that time.”

Zhao Dezhao replaced Wanyan Gou, and the time difference between the two eras was not much.

Old Zhao immediately set about finding out the specific current locations of all the officials on the list.

The sound of horse hooves resounded through the sky, and dozens of horses galloped out of the palace like arrows, raising clouds of dust and galloping away all the way.

In the somewhat deserted hall, Old Zhao slowly lowered his head and his eyes fell on Song Qinzong who was lying on the ground.

Song Qinzong Zhao Huan looked so miserable, which made the anger in Zhao’s heart burn even more fiercely.

The more he watched, the angrier he became. Finally, he couldn’t help but swing his fist hard, hitting Song Qinzong several times in a row.

He shouted angrily, “Zhao Huan, Zhao Huan, from now on, you are expelled from the Zhao family and your surname is changed to Wanyan! Come on, quickly send Wanyan Huan to the Jin people!”

Zhu Ming quietly stared at Zhao Huan’s figure as he walked further and further away and finally disappeared from his sight: “In my opinion, this time when he goes to the Kingdom of Jin, he should not suffer the great humiliation as recorded in history. Maybe he can even get a very good hospitality!”

Old Zhao, who was standing by, couldn’t help but look suspicious after hearing this. He shook his head and said, “I’m afraid this is unlikely, right?”

Zhu Ming smiled lightly and explained confidently: “The current situation is completely different from that in history!

The Jin people marched south to attack the Song Dynasty, but were completely defeated and all were captured.

After Wanyan Sheng learned the news, he would definitely thoroughly investigate the whole story to find out what caused their disastrous defeat.

Naturally, he would also know about the earth-shaking changes that had taken place in the Song Dynasty.

I also know that Wanyan Huan was deposed by us.

Then, Wanyan Sheng and Wanyan Huan had a common enemy.

According to common sense, even if Wanyan Sheng could not show great enthusiasm, he would definitely not humiliate Wanyan Huan.

Wanyan Huan was once the emperor of the Song Dynasty, and he still had a certain degree of prestige and influence in the territory of the Song Dynasty.

For Wanyan Sheng, if he can make good use of this, it will undoubtedly bring huge benefits.

Who knows, Wanyan Sheng might even treat Wanyan Huan as a guest of honor and do his best to help him regain the throne!

Of course, it would be impossible to succeed without us here.

However, in later history books, it is estimated that there was also an overseas student in the Song Dynasty.”

Old Zhao frowned.

I was so angry at Wanyan Huan that I couldn’t think at all.

Now think about it, what Zhu Ming said is indeed very likely to happen.

He raised his eyebrows and said, “So, if I give him to the Jin people, I will let him enjoy a good life?”

“High probability.”

“You wish! Someone come quickly and bring Wanyan Huan back to me!” Old Zhao shouted, “Cede territory and pay compensation, split the Song Dynasty into the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty, and then create the Jingkang Shame. Now you still want to enjoy yourself? Dream on!” (End of this chapter)