The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 483 Only by killing Fei can we...

Li Gang gritted his teeth and made up his mind: "Fine, I'll go to the Northern Song Dynasty, but let me make this clear first: I am only loyal to the Seventeenth Prince, not to you, Yue Wenxuan. I'm going to help the Seventeenth Prince escape your control. If you send me to the Northern Song Dynasty, you're just making trouble for yourself."

Yue Wenxuan smiled and said, "Very well, then let's invite Prime Minister Li to go to the Northern Song Dynasty to deal with me."

Since Li Gang had made up his mind, he didn't waste any more words and immediately arranged for his servants to secretly move his clansmen. He couldn't just leave for the Northern Song Dynasty; he had to move all his relatives with him, otherwise the consequences would be dire, and many people would lose their heads.

Yue Wenxuan was secretly pleased: Very good! The toughest nut has been cracked.

If you start by picking the toughest bones to chew, the others will be much easier to chew.

Alright, now it's up to Han Shizhong!
Meanwhile, in the Imperial Palace of Lin'an.

Standing before Zhao Gou was a special envoy from the Jin Dynasty.

The special envoy was arrogant and haughty, but Zhao Gou didn't dare to get angry at all. He listened to the special envoy list the terms of the peace negotiations like a grandson.

The Jin envoy said, "Our Great Jin Kingdom has the following conditions. If you can accept all of them, then we can talk about peace. If you do not accept even one of them, then there is no point in talking, and we will continue to fight."

Without a second thought, Zhao Gou quickly replied, "We mustn't fight! Special Envoy, please make your demands."

The Jin envoy sneered inwardly, picked up the paper he had prepared beforehand, and read aloud: "Article 1: The Southern Song Dynasty shall submit to the Jin Dynasty, and the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty shall accept the Jin Dynasty's investiture ('hereditary vassal state'). Of course, we will continue to invest you as the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, and will not invest anyone else. You can rest assured about this."

Since it's me who's being honored, not someone else, then there's no problem. Moreover, the matter of the investiture can be kept secret from the common people, so there won't be any issues with public opinion. Zhao Gou quickly replied, "This clause is acceptable."

The Jin envoy continued, "Secondly: the boundary from the Huai River to Dasanguan Pass shall be the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty, which shall cede Tangzhou, Dengzhou, and parts of Shangzhou and Qinzhou to the Jin Dynasty."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Gou hesitated slightly, not because he was reluctant to give up the land, but because Dengzhou was currently Yue Fei's garrison, and the last Battle of Nanyang had been fought there. To hand over the land, Yue Fei would have to withdraw his troops.

Yue Fei was a tough nut to crack; he might not be willing to retreat.

If it were when he valued Yue Fei highly, he would certainly have been unwilling to force Yue Fei to withdraw his troops, but after the matter of choosing the heir apparent, Yue Fei had already lost the emperor's favor...

Zhao Gou considered for several seconds before slowly saying, "This one can also be agreed to."

The Jin envoy was secretly pleased and then said, "The third clause: The Southern Song Dynasty shall pay the Jin Dynasty 25 taels of silver and 25 bolts of silk annually, which shall be called 'annual tribute'."

This is very simple. Zhao Gou had no psychological burden at all. He just needed to levy taxes on the people, right? It wasn't difficult at all! Let the people suffer a little, and I can save my life.

He quickly replied, "I can agree to this one."

(PS: In real history, there was a fourth point: the Jin dynasty released Emperor Huizong's coffin and Empress Dowager Wei, and the Southern Song dynasty repatriated the Jin dynasty's surrendered officials. However, in this book, due to the butterfly effect, the timeline is only at the beginning of 1135, and Emperor Huizong still had half a year before his death, so this point is omitted.)
All three terms have been agreed upon!

The Jin envoy was very satisfied, and Zhao Gou was also very satisfied.

Just then, the Jin envoy suddenly pulled out another letter: "This is a letter personally written by my Jin Grand Marshal, Jin Wuzhu. It is a private request made by the Marshal and is not included in the official letter! Hehehe, because it is inconvenient for you to include this in the official letter. You can read it yourself."

Zhao Gou was greatly surprised: During negotiations between the two countries, he made a private request? And it wasn't convenient to include it in the official letter? What kind of nonsense was this?

He took the letter, unfolded it carefully, and looked at it closely.

The letter contained only six words: "Kill Fei, then peace may be achieved." "Screw!" Zhao Gou gasped, taking a deep breath of West Lake Vinegar Fish. "What...what kind of strange request is this?"

The Jin envoy chuckled and said, "Just as the words suggest, your country must kill Yue Fei before we can negotiate peace. Otherwise, the previous three conditions will all be null and void. If this demand were written into the official letter, it would not look good for your Southern Song Dynasty, so the Marshal thoughtfully did not include it in the letter. We are very considerate of your Southern Song Dynasty."

Zhao Gou: "..."

Jin Shi: "How is it?"

Zhao Gou gritted his teeth: "Fine, I can agree to this one too."

Jin was overjoyed and walked out with an arrogant laugh.

After he had walked away, Zhao Gou said with a dark face, "Summon Qin Hui."

Soon, Qin Hui arrived!
The emperor and his minister were locked in a small, dark room.

Zhao Gou then said in a low voice, "There is something that should not be known to the world. I only trust Minister Qin and need your advice."

Qin Hui lowered his voice: "Your Majesty, I am willing to relieve your worries."

Zhao Gou then took out Jin Wuzhu's letter and said in a low voice, "This is the most important condition in Jin's peace negotiations: Fei must be killed before peace can be made."

Qin Hui was overjoyed when he saw this: Young Master Yue wanted to devour Yue Fei and Han Shizhong alive. I was trying to fabricate charges against them for treason, but I was really afraid that if these charges were too outrageous, the Emperor would not approve. Unexpectedly, someone provided a pillow when I was sleepy. Jin Wuzhu is a divine helper.

No, I can't rush to show it!

Qin Hui thought to himself: If I rush to show that I want to kill Yue Fei, the Emperor will become suspicious of me. At this time, I have to do the opposite, and the Emperor will feel more at ease letting me kill Yue Fei.

Thinking of this, Qin Hui immediately changed his expression and said in a low voice, "Your Majesty, the more the Jurchens want to kill Yue Fei, the more Yue Fei can threaten them. If we agree, wouldn't we be destroying our own Great Wall?"

Zhao Gou said in a low voice, "You are still the most loyal and upright one. Even at a time like this, you still prioritize the overall situation and actually speak up for Yue Fei. Humph! Last time, it was you who reminded me that Yue Fei holds a large army and has also gotten involved in the matter of choosing the heir apparent. He supports Zhao Bocong as the heir apparent. Now he has a large and well-equipped army. If he suddenly attacks Lin'an and forces me to abdicate in favor of Zhao Boqiong, what can I do?"

Qin Hui feigned surprise: "Oh dear, this is just a hypothetical scenario... he might not actually do it."

Zhao Gou said, "Even if Jin Wuzhu hadn't made this request, I would have stripped him of his military power. Now that Jin Wuzhu has included this request in the peace terms, of course we must agree to it."

Qin Hui then pretended to be convinced: "Your Majesty is right. I was just not thinking things through and almost ruined Your Majesty's important matter."

Zhao Gou: "Killing meritorious officials in order to seek peace cannot be made public. Therefore, I can only entrust this matter to you to do in secret. You can come up with some strange reasons. I grant you permission to act as you see fit."

Qin Hui: "Yue Fei is not fighting alone. All the civil and military officials who advocate war are in cahoots with him. To take him down, we need to take down a large number of people."

Zhao Gou: "Get rid of everything that hinders the peace talks. I don't want any unnecessary complications."

Qin Hui: "Your humble servant obeys the decree."

When Qin Hui walked out of the dark room, he was radiating a sense of dynamism, and his steps were incredibly light. He just wanted to laugh out loud three times: Hahaha!
(End of this chapter)