Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2271 Zhao Changfeng Returns to Power for the Second Time, Using Iron-Blooded Methods to Eliminate His Ministers

The fall of Chen County completely severed the connection between Li Jilong's and Gao Huaide's forces, preventing them from communicating with each other.

Meanwhile, under Chen Pingping's scheme, those remaining people in the Song Dynasty who had long-term dealings with Luo Wang, such as Cai Jing and Tong Guan, were also "accidentally" discovered by the Imperial City Guard after they destroyed one of Luo Wang's hideouts.

After discovering this information, the Imperial City Guard immediately reported it to Wang Renzhan, one of the two heads of the Imperial City Guard.

Even Wang Renzhan, a powerful figure in the Zhao Song dynasty, was shocked upon seeing these documents.

Besides Tong Guan and Cai Jing, Du Chong, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, Zhu Mian, Li Yan, Qin Hui... among these people were many important officials in the court.

Du Chong and Qin Hui, for example, were both high-ranking officials in the central government.

Du Chong, in particular, was the Minister of Revenue during the Song Dynasty.

How could Wang Renzhan not be shocked to learn that so many important figures had been secretly dealing with the Great Han Net for years?

In fact, this matter was not even something he could decide.

He immediately sent the message in two parts: one to Zhao Kuangyin, who was currently in Yangxi Road, and the other to Zhao Kuangyi and Zhao Pu, who were stationed in the rear after Zhao Kuangyin went to the front line.

Chen Pingping deliberately orchestrated the discovery of this document by the Imperial City Guard, but of course, it wasn't for any good purpose!
Chen Pingping did all this in order to shake the foundations of the Song Dynasty.

From the very beginning of its rule, the Song Dynasty implemented a policy of governing the country together with the scholar-officials.

Therefore, it received strong support from a group of powerful families and a large number of scholars.

Furthermore, through its policy of governing the country together with scholar-officials, the Song dynasty won over three powerful clans, represented by the Sima family of Guanzhong, the Xu family of Hexi, and the Ximen family.

Furthermore, Xu Qing, the eldest daughter of the Xu family, was even Wang Yu's concubine.

Bai Ruolan's mother was also born into the Xu family, one of the six great families.

During the Song Dynasty, under the policy of governing the country together with the scholar-officials, as long as you served as an official in the Song court and became a member of the scholar-official class, you were considered a member of the scholar-official class.

Even for the most serious crimes, non-fatal punishments such as exile and caning were often used.

In fact, Zhao Kuangyin once publicly stated in front of his civil and military officials that he would not kill scholar-officials, and even jokingly said that he would make it an ancestral precept.

Chen Pingping designed this information to be obtained by the Imperial City Guard in order to see if the Song Dynasty would break its promise of not killing scholar-officials under these circumstances.

After all, once something like this happens, it will happen again. Once a breach is made, it will only be broken through again and again.

So, if the Song Dynasty were to break through this barrier, how would other Song officials and powerful families within its borders react?
But if the Song Dynasty did not dare to break this barrier, wouldn't that be tantamount to giving Song Dynasty officials the audacity to act recklessly?
If these scholar-officials suspected of treason weren't killed, what wouldn't they dare to do after that?

Therefore, this was Chen Pingping's true purpose.

At the same time, since Chen Pingping took the initiative to arrange for the Imperial City Division to obtain this information, the list on this information was naturally selected by Chen Pingping.

Du Chong, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, Zhu Mian, Li Yan, and Qin Hui were all civil officials of the Song Dynasty, and some were even eunuchs. Although some held high positions, none of them controlled military power. Chen Pingping had chosen these people who would be unable to provide the most direct assistance to the Han Dynasty in the upcoming battles.

Similar to Tong Guan in the military, he was immediately used by Chen Pingping.

The discovery of this document by the Imperial City Guard also caused a great uproar in the rear of the Zhao Song Dynasty.

Although Du Chong, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, Zhu Mian, Li Yan, Qin Hui, and others were immediately apprehended, how to deal with this situation became a major headache for Zhao Kuangyi and Zhao Pu.

After all, before Zhao Kuangyin marched south to Yangxi Road to be the first to repel the Eight-Nation Alliance, he entrusted all matters, large and small, within the court to Zhao Kuangyi and Zhao Pu, so that the two of them could make decisions together.

Zhao Kuangyi, the war god of the donkey cart, may be ridiculed for his military prowess, but he was quite adept at politics.

Therefore, Zhao Kuangyi and Zhao Pu immediately realized the political crisis behind it.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that this was wartime, these people would have been involved in treason, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to sentence them to death.

After all, if it weren't wartime, even if some problems arose, they would have enough time to deal with them.

Unfortunately, this is a state of war, and although colluding with the enemy has violated principles and crossed their bottom line, it is still a serious matter.

However, even so, executing these people would still directly break Zhao Kuangyin's original promise to govern the country with the scholar-officials and not kill them.

After all, everyone is in a different position, and therefore their interests are different.

Although these people violated the principles of the Zhao clan, whether or not to kill them would subtly affect the fundamental interests of the scholar-officials.

Zhao Kuangyi and Zhao Pu could not expect those scholar-officials to disregard their own interests and consider issues entirely from the perspective of the court.

Therefore, this matter still puts them in a difficult position.

Furthermore, when Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Pu were hesitating, Zhao Changfeng, the retired emperor, somehow got wind of this news and, having lived in seclusion behind the scenes for many years, once again stepped into the limelight.

Like Ma Qianli, Zhao Changfeng only wanted to build a family that would last for a thousand years; he never had any ambition to become a king or emperor.

He got to where he is today entirely because he was forced into it by Zhao Kuangyin.

Therefore, not long after the Zhenxi Army officially rebelled against Cangzhou, exhausted, they gradually handed over their power to Zhao Kuangyin.

On the day the Song Dynasty was established, many of the Zhao family's closest relatives were slaughtered. From that day on, Zhao Changfeng, utterly disheartened, began his retirement.

If it weren't for the Han army's attack this time, and the terrible incident that occurred during that period, he wouldn't have been so easily alarmed.

Furthermore, after Zhao Changfeng returned to the forefront, he immediately issued an order in his capacity as the retired emperor to execute Du Chong, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, Zhu Mian, Li Yan, Qin Hui, and a group of others.

However, Zhao Changfeng always kept a backup plan, only offending them personally and not their families.

Only Cai Jing, who had already committed treason, along with his sons Cai Shu, Cai You, Cai Jie, Cai Zi, and Cai Xing, and the entire Cai family, were implicated and punished.