The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 366 Get Him Down

Yue Wenxuan gleaned some insights into the thoughts of the pro-war ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty from Fu Songqing.

He considered the Northern Song Dynasty as part of the Song Dynasty!

However, they regarded the officials of the Northern Song Dynasty as "traitors and villains".

This is a very good view! It is very beneficial to the unification of the two Song dynasties.

With this in mind, when the Northern Song Dynasty attacked, they would certainly encounter much less resistance than when the Jin Dynasty attacked.

After passing Yangzhou, the merchant ship entered the Yangtze River. On the river, they encountered another toll collector who demanded money. After crossing the river, they arrived at Zhenjiang and were charged another toll. Then, they passed through Changzhou, Wuxi, Suzhou, Jiaxing, and so on. They were charged a toll every time they passed an important city.

At first, Yue Wenxuan thought it wouldn't matter to pay some tolls, but as he paid them along the way, he was shocked. He never expected the Song Dynasty to be so abnormal. It was really too difficult for a merchant to travel there.

He helped the Jiang family do the math and was surprised to find that the Jiang family's shipment of cotton cloth would fetch at least double the price in Hangzhou compared to selling it in Chuzhou; otherwise, they would have difficulty even breaking even.

In other words, even if the imperial court exempted goods from taxes, the toll fees along the way were equivalent to collecting 50% of the goods as taxes... and these taxes were ultimately borne entirely by ordinary people.

Jing Ke secretly slipped off the Jiang family's merchant ship, asking for directions as he headed towards Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.

At that time, Lin'an was the site of what later became Lin'an District of Hangzhou City.

Extremely bustling!

During the Chongning era of the Song Dynasty, Hangzhou's population had reached 20 households (note: households, not population). Later, when Lin'an became the capital, even more people flocked in, leading to a period when there wasn't enough food to go around.

Although there is no formal census, the population here may have reached 100 million, and the textile, printing, brewing, and papermaking industries are relatively developed.

Following Jing Ke's perspective, Yue Wenxuan looked east and west, and what he saw seemed to be a scene of peace and prosperity... Judging from this city alone, one might think that the Song Dynasty was powerful and influential, benefiting all corners of the world.

No wonder most of the civil officials here are more interested in peace than war!

These are all bad habits that come from being rich.

But the country is rich while the people are poor.

Take cotton cloth as an example. The price of it doubled when it was transported from Chuzhou to Hangzhou, and the difference was taken by the imperial court as a "transportation fee." When ordinary people bought anything, it was equivalent to paying 50% tax to the imperial court, which was simply outrageous.

As soon as Jing Ke entered Lin'an, he began to inquire about Qin Hui's residence.

It wasn't hard to find out. As soon as Qin Hui returned to China, he took out the story he had made up beforehand and told it to Zhao Gou. He told the story of how he seized the sword, cut down the Jin soldiers, seized the ship, and bribed the boatmen to row for him. Zhao Gou was overjoyed and immediately promoted Qin Hui to Minister of Rites.

Moreover, this position of Minister of Rites was clearly just a stepping stone; Zhao Gou was obviously determined to promote Qin Hui to the position of prime minister.

There are many opportunists in the court who, seeing Qin Hui gain favor, flocked to him.

He had only been back in China for a few months when a large group of officials had gathered around him, forming what appeared to be a separate faction.

Jing Ke inquired along the way and soon arrived at the Qin Minister's residence. The gatekeepers, who had risen in rank, now looked down on everyone and didn't give visitors a friendly look. When they saw a woman dressed as a martial arts heroine, they didn't even want to acknowledge her.

Yue Wenxuan temporarily took over Jing Ke's body and said, "Please inform them that an old friend has come to visit."

The gatekeeper snorted and said, "Not just any Tom, Dick, or Harry is qualified to see our Minister."

Yue Wenxuan chuckled: "Just say you met him at sea, a friend who can sail like he's flying. If he doesn't come out to greet me, the consequences will be severe."

The gatekeeper, sensing the threat in his tone and hearing that Qin Hui was to come out to greet her, was startled. What kind of woman was this? Daring to threaten our Minister? Didn't she know that the Minister was now a favorite of the Emperor?
The gatekeeper got a little scared and stopped pretending, so he quickly went in to announce the news.

Sure enough, as soon as he told Qin Hui that he had met him at sea, Qin Hui jumped up and said, "Quickly go out and greet him."

The security guard was terrified. Luckily, I came in and announced it. If I had blocked that woman and kept acting tough, I might have been in serious trouble.

Qin Hui personally came out to greet her, even bringing along his two trusted subordinates, Weng Shun and Gao Yigong. Upon seeing Jing Ke, they immediately put on a fawning expression, smiling obsequiously: "Please come in, heroine. I was unaware of your arrival and have failed to greet you properly. Please forgive me. If you come again, please let me know in advance, and I will definitely come out of the city to welcome you ten miles away."

Yue Wenxuan chuckled inwardly: He didn't even know Jing Ke's identity, yet he referred to himself as "this humble official."

This reminded Yue Wenxuan of a certain humiliating era...

First-class foreigners, second-class officials, even a dog from a powerful country, are all higher-ranking than officials in the Celestial Empire.

Qin Hui welcomed Yue Wenxuan into the mansion, dismissed everyone around him, and did not allow any servants to attend to him. Only Weng Shun and Gao Yigong accompanied him. Only then did he ask, "What are your instructions, Young Master Yue?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "I am here on the orders of the young master to ask Lord Qin how the unification of the two Song dynasties you promised to promote is progressing. If there is no progress, don't blame our Northern Song's firearms army for crossing the river and attacking us."

Qin Hui was startled and quickly said, "Don't fight, don't fight. Fighting would be a waste of manpower and resources, which is not a good thing. After returning to Lin'an, my position is not yet stable. I am currently trying to win the trust of His Majesty... cough... the false emperor Zhao Gou. It is not appropriate to start promoting the unification of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties at this time. After my position is stable, I will start to unite with the ministers in the court to promote the abdication of the false emperor."

Yue Wenxuan: "Oh, I see. Okay, I accept this explanation."

Qin Hui breathed a sigh of relief.

Yue Wenxuan changed the subject and asked, "Do you know that Fu Songqing has been transferred to be the Imperial Envoy of Huaidong?"

Qin Hui: "Of course I know. I'm keeping a close eye on things in Huaidong."

Yue Wenxuan: "As soon as Fu Songqing arrived in Huaidong, he started keeping an eye on Zhang Jun and Liu Guangshi, urging them to send troops to attack our Northern Song. We didn't care; those two good-for-nothings, we could easily defeat them with firearms. But considering that they were also leading troops of our Great Song, we couldn't bear to see our own people killing each other, so we didn't take action against them. But Fu Songqing's antics are really infuriating."

Qin Hui immediately understood: "This humble official understands. Please rest assured, heroine. Tomorrow... no... immediately I will arrange for someone to deal with Fu Songqing."

Yue Wenxuan grunted through his nose to indicate that he understood.

Qin Hui, the Minister of Rites, showed no anger at being so disrespected by a female envoy. Instead, he appeared extremely submissive and immediately turned to Weng Shun and Gao Yigong, saying, "Quickly contact Fan Zongyin, Li Hui, Wang Ciweng, Wan Qixie, He Zhu, Luo Ruji, and others, and ask them to come over for a chat. Let's discuss a way to get Fu Songqing removed from office."

(End of this chapter)