The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 480 Vicious
Using force is definitely not a good idea!
Qin Hui, a man who preferred underhanded tactics to force, quickly said, "Young Master Yue, the group of heroes you brought could easily kill one or two people, but this is Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. If they were to commit murder, arson, or assassination of government officials here, it would likely damage the reputation of the Seventeenth Prince."

Yue Wenxuan nodded: "Don't worry, I don't plan to start by shouting for war! I still hope to get Han Shizhong and Yue Fei into my hands without bloodshed."

In the bowl?

Qin Hui was startled when he heard this. He thought to himself: Young Master Yue wants to eat Han Shizhong and Yue Fei? Is it that terrible? Oh dear! I heard that Yue Fei and Han Shizhong both met with Young Master Yue at Tongbai Mountain. They must have said some disrespectful things to him when they met, which angered him.

Thinking of this, Qin Hui's sweat poured down his face in eight drops.

He quickly replied, "Young Master Yue, rest assured, I will do everything in my power to eliminate Han Shizhong and Yue Fei without you having to lift a finger."

Yue Wenxuan grinned, revealing two rows of white teeth: "I don't want to die, I want to live!"

Qin Hui immediately misunderstood, thinking: "To put him alive into a bowl and eat him? How terrifying! Luckily, I am Young Master Yue's subordinate. If I were his enemy, that would be too terrible."

"Young Master Yue, watch how I devise my plan."

Qin Hui was terrified and dared not delay for even a moment. He quickly summoned his cronies for a meeting, while having Yue Wenxuan hide behind a screen to listen to their meeting and show his loyalty.

Yue Wenxuan sat behind the screen for a while, then heard footsteps outside. A large group of Qin Hui's henchmen walked in, including Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun was in the eye of the storm at this moment, looking dejected. He entered the room and sat down in front of the screen, separated from Yue Wenxuan by only a thin screen curtain.

Once all his cronies had arrived, Qin Hui spoke: "Gentlemen! Now that the Jin Kingdom has taken the initiative to request peace talks, Your Majesty is weak and has immediately sided with the peace faction, causing the pro-war faction to lose power. In particular, the military generals who hold heavy troops are the targets that Your Majesty is eager to eliminate."

As he said this, he couldn't help but glance at Zhang Jun: "General Zhang, don't resist to the end. Take the initiative to hand over all your military power and lay low for a while. I might be able to save your life."

Zhang Jun looked aggrieved: "I don't know how I got lumped into the war faction. It's a real injustice."

Qin Hui chuckled inwardly, but said aloud, "Who told you to resist the Northern Song in Huaidong, win many battles, and successfully force the Northern Song to negotiate peace with our Southern Song? If you're not a proponent of war, then who is?"

Zhang Jun: "!!!"

These battles were all staged by Yue Gongzi's men and me! I'm so innocent!

But he couldn't say it out loud, so he could only keep his dissatisfaction to himself.

Faced with the current situation beyond his control, Zhang Jun could only sigh and say, "I understand. I will resign from my post tomorrow and hand over all military power. I beg Prime Minister Qin to spare my life."

Qin Hui: "There is one more thing that needs to be handled by General Zhang."

Zhang Jun: "?" Qin Hui said: "Please use some money, General Zhang, to bribe Hu Wen, the official in charge of finances in Han Shizhong's army, and have Hu Wen report that Han Shizhong's loyal general Geng Zhu is spreading dangerous remarks in the army, intending to 'start an uprising'."

Zhang Jun was startled: "You want to frame him for treason? Such a serious crime?"

Qin Hui said, "Han Shizhong saved the emperor during the Miao-Liu mutiny and made great contributions at Huangtiandang. He has saved the emperor's life twice. Unless it is a crime of treason, he cannot be brought down. If you take the initiative to deal with Han Shizhong, it will further show that you are not a pro-war faction, and the emperor will definitely spare your life."

Zhang Jun thought about it carefully, gritted his teeth, and said, "Okay, I'll do it!"

Qin Hui continued, "By the way, before we accuse Han Shizhong of treason, we must first strip him of his military power. Otherwise, if he hears that he has committed the serious crime of treason, wouldn't he immediately raise an army in rebellion? Does anyone have a good plan to strip him of his military power?"

One of the henchmen stepped forward and said, "Why don't we advise the Emperor to promote Han Shizhong to the position of Privy Councilor? Although the Privy Councilor is the highest-ranking military official, he is actually a civil official. Once Han Shizhong becomes the Privy Councilor, we can legitimately transfer the soldiers around him. Once he has no troops under his command, we can then accuse him of treason and take him down in one fell swoop."

Hearing this from behind the screen, Yue Wenxuan couldn't help but shake his head inwardly: What a bunch of rotten people!

Another henchman said, "Lord Qin, we can actually drag Yue Fei into this as well. Right now, Yue Fei doesn't know that we're going to deal with him too. We can recall Yue Fei and have him take charge of Han Shizhong's base in Zhenjiang to prevent Han Shizhong from rebelling. Afterwards, we can accuse Yue Fei of recklessly mobilizing troops so close to Lin'an, implying that he's planning to attack Lin'an and rebel."

Qin Hui: "This plan is brilliant! Let Yue Fei suppress Han Shizhong. Just thinking about it makes me happy, hahaha."

One of his henchmen said, "Once Han Shizhong falls, we'll deal with Yue Fei. By then, Yue Fei will be all alone and will only face certain death."

Qin Hui: "Now let's talk about how to deal with Yue Fei?"

One of the henchmen said, "We can also use the method of bribery. Wang Gui, a general under Yue Fei, is resentful because he was punished by Yue Fei. We can use this man. We can bribe him with a lot of money and have him falsely accuse Zhang Xian of treason and implicate Yue Fei's son Yue Yun as well. As long as Zhang Xian and Yue Yun are caught, Yue Fei will naturally be implicated."

Another henchman said, "We can use Yue Fei's previous statements about 'going straight to Huanglongfu' and 'welcoming back the two emperors' to misinterpret them as 'disloyalty to the emperor,' saying that he wanted to establish a new emperor, which is no different from treason."

Another person said, "We can pick any battle that Yue Fei won but did not pursue the Jin army. We can say that he deliberately 'lingered and did not advance' during the battle, and did not pursue the Jin army to expand the victory, because he was arrogant and did not obey the court's orders."

The remonstrating official Wan Qixie stepped forward and said, "All of yours are minor skirmishes. The real heavy blow should be to say that Yue Fei's 'military power is too great and he is too domineering to be controlled,' and that he is plotting a coup to support Zhao Bocong. This is the real killer move."

Everyone applauded in unison: "Lord Wan's plan is brilliant, truly brilliant!"

Yue Wenxuan, listening from behind the screen, was furious. He knew Qin Hui was doing things for him, but he really wanted to take out a machine gun, stick it out from behind the screen, and mow down everyone outside. What kind of trash were these people?

Fine, I'll just have to put up with it!
Once all the loyal ministers and generals are in my hands, and the Northern and Southern Song dynasties are unified, it won't be too late to deal with you. Right now, I need to use you to do some shameless things that I really can't do myself.

(End of this chapter)