The reason why Cai Jing participated in the rise and fall of the royal prince was that he discovered that Emperor Huizong did not like the crown prince Zhao Huan. Cai Jing discovered that Emperor Huizong actually liked the third son Zhao Kai.
The third son of Emperor Huizong, Zhao Kai, was simply a "little Huizong". He had the same hobbies and interests as Emperor Huizong. He liked whatever Huizong liked. There seemed to be a tendency for the young to outperform the old.
Zhao Kai was the third son of Huizong, and he had a prince, so the throne had nothing to do with him. However, the third prince just wanted that throne and tried every means to get it. In order to get the throne, Zhao Kai secretly made friends with Cai Jing, Wang Fu, Gao Qiu, Li Bangyan, Geng Nanzhong, Zhang Bangchang and other treacherous ministers and traitors. He wanted these treacherous ministers and traitors to give advice to Emperor Huizong in order to achieve the goal of surrender. Emperor Huizong deposed Prince Zhao Huan and made him the crown prince.
Who dares to do such a thing? No matter how bad those treacherous ministers and thieves are, they are nothing more than taking bribes and bending the law to gain personal benefits. Let them take risks to interfere with the succession of the throne, and lend them a hundred courages. They neither dare nor are willing. After all, Zhao Huan is the eldest son. , the legitimate son, is the ironclad heir to the throne. Before Emperor Huizong showed his intention to depose the emperor, the traitor and treacherous man did not dare to bring it up.
Zhao Kai was at ease in the court and knew the affairs of the court like the back of his hand. Zhao Kai knew very well that although his father Huizong was disgusted with Cai Jing, he also attached great importance to Cai Jing's opinions. Cai Jing was a person whom his father could not see and couldn't stay away from. Sometimes Cai Jing would appear more objective when he said something. . Therefore, Zhao Kai went to Cai Jing's house, said this in a roundabout way, and implored Cai Jing to take action on this matter.
After Cai Jing heard this, he was shocked. He thought, this game is not as simple as being dismissed from office and demoted. He might be beheaded. If things don't work well, even if he is not beheaded by Emperor Huizong, the future prince will be After ascending to the throne, I'm afraid he will have to take revenge, and he will inevitably be stabbed in the neck. Therefore, after Zhao Kai proposed this idea, Cai Jing was really frightened and directly rejected Zhao Kai's request. However, Cai Jing is a traitorous official after all, and he always has a speculative mentality.
Cai Jing knew Emperor Huizong very well. He was a man who loved great achievements, listened to good words, and had soft ears. He had no principled stance and was very emotional on many things. When he was happy, he deposed the prince and established the third prince as the prince. It's not impossible. So, Cai Jing had the idea of speculating again, and he was taking a chance, thinking that if Zhao Kai came to power in the future, although I was older, I might be able to serve as prime minister for the fifth time because of my contribution to Zhao Kai!
Because of this speculative mentality, Cai Jing gave Zhao Kai an idea and asked him to take the scientific examination and get the top score. In this way, your outstanding talent will be discovered and recognized by Emperor Huizong. If you wink in private, you will win. It is not impossible for the Holy One to inherit the great position.
After receiving Cai Jing's advice, Zhao Kai was overjoyed and took the imperial examination that year, and he actually got the "No. 1 Scholar".
Originally, the imperial court had a clear rule that the children of the royal family were not allowed to take the imperial examination. The purpose was to prevent them from competing with the people for profit. After all, the children of the royal family all grew up with a silver spoon in their mouths. After they were born, they were already equipped with power, money and wealth. In this case, they did not need to take the imperial examination.
However, other members of the royal family were not interested, but Zhao Kai was quite interested. He wanted to take an imperial examination, not only to test his talents and abilities, but also to let his father discover and value him, and to see if he could do what Taishi Cai said in the future. , just get lucky, inherit the throne, and enjoy the pleasure of ruling the world. Therefore, Zhao Kai changed his name to "Zhao Xiaotian" and took part in the imperial examination.
It is said that Zhao Kai is indeed talented. In the imperial examination, his thinking was quick, his articles were wonderful and hearty, and his pen swept thousands of troops, which was amazing.
After the exam, Zhao Kai reported the matter to his father, saying that he took the imperial examination under the pseudonym 'Zhao Xiaotian' and wanted to see how many points the examiner could give him without knowing his true identity. Zhao Kai said: "Father, this is just for fun and does not compete for the top spot in the imperial court."
Huizong replied: "We have a lot of talented people in the Song Dynasty. If you want to be the number one scholar, just become the number one scholar?"
Logically speaking, if the prince had pulled such a prank, if it were any other emperor, most of them would have scolded him and had his papers revoked. However, Huizong Zhao Ji was an emperor who liked novel things. After hearing what Zhao Kai said, he not only did not blame Zhao Kai, but actually thought it was very interesting. He just said Zhao Kai's words lightly and readily agreed. .
Song Huizong also wanted to see how many points his son could score.
A few days later, after the officials of the Ministry of Rites reviewed the papers, Song Huizong issued a special order not to publish the results yet, but to send all the candidates' papers to me for me to take a look at first. As a result, Song Huizong opened the paper and was overjoyed, because the first one with the pseudonym 'Zhao Xiaotian' was actually the test paper of his son Zhao Kai. In other words, 'Zhao Xiaotian', also known as Zhao Kai, is the number one scholar in this subject!
A prince actually ranked first in the country. This is amazing. Surprised, Huizong called Zhao Kai's teachers to let everyone take a look at this article by Zhuang Yuan Lang. The teachers took a look at it and said that this article was good and that it should be the top candidate.
Song Huizong laughed loudly and said: "Guess, who wrote this article?" The teachers looked puzzled and asked: "Isn't it the article written by Zhao Xiaotian?" Song Huizong shook his head and said: "No, this is written by the third prince. article." After that, he told the story about the third prince Zhao Kai taking the exam under the pseudonym 'Zhao Xiaotian'.
When the teachers heard this, they realized that the third prince actually got the first prize in the examination. He was really very capable. They immediately congratulated the emperor and invited him to go home, saying: Congratulations, Your Majesty, the Third Prince's articles have become unique in the world. The old people are incapable of teaching the Third Prince. Please allow us to go home and retire. Huizong smiled and said: "No teacher can be asked to go home and retire. The third prince has such abilities because of the good teaching of all the teachers. I will greatly praise you." Then he gave Zhao Kai's teachers a lot of money. . Naturally, Zhao Kai's teachers were all happy and went away happily.
Although the third prince Zhao Kai got the first prize in the imperial examination, according to convention, he could not take part in the imperial examination. Therefore, Emperor Huizong reluctantly canceled Zhao Kai's results and promoted the second place winner to the top pick. For Emperor Huizong, it didn't matter whether his son was the number one scholar, as long as it could be proved that his son's level was the number one scholar. There are dozens of princes in their family, and there is no shortage of one number one scholar. It’s better to let someone else take over as the top pick.
Although he did not let his son become the number one scholar, Emperor Huizong fell in love with Zhao Kai through this incident. From then on, the father and son followed each other at banquets and banquets, and there were various rewards. Zhao Kai seemed to have become the Eight Wise King back then. In addition, in order to favor the third prince, Song Huizong also awarded him an important official position: the Imperial City Sidu Zhi.
This appointment is extraordinary. The Imperial City Department is the department that manages the security of the Imperial City. The officers and soldiers in this department are the emperor's personal guards. They are the emperor's safety and the emperor's last line of defense. It can be seen that the emperor's appointment of Zhao Kai as the capital of the imperial city is a bit like "a drunkard's intention is not to drink".
This move by Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty set off a war in the imperial palace to seize the heir. The relationship between Zhao Kai and the prince immediately became subtle. Under this situation, Zhao Kai stepped up his actions and walked too frequently among ministers such as Cai Jing, Wang Fu, Li Bangyan, Geng Nanzhong, Zhang Bangchang, etc. For a time, all the people in front of Huizong were praising the third prince Zhao Kai, as if Zhao Kai is the best heir to the throne.
Under the clamor of the gang of treacherous ministers and traitors, Zhao Kai came from behind and became a strong contender for the throne.
Unexpectedly, at this time, the Jin Kingdom crossed the Yellow River and forced into Bianjing.
If the Jin soldiers had not crossed the Yellow River and forced their way into Bianjing; if there was peace in the world, it is hard to say to whom Huizong would pass the throne to in the future. But now that the Jin soldiers are approaching the city, Emperor Huizong has already expressed his intention to abdicate. The throne can only belong to the crown prince Zhao Huan, not the third prince Zhao Kai. Only the abdication of the throne to the crown prince is justified. If the crown prince is bypassed and the throne is passed to the third son Zhao Kai, under the current circumstances, it will only cause greater chaos. Besides, Huizong at this time was only considering his personal comfort and was no longer interested in passing the throne to that prince. It was obviously impossible for Zhao Kai to get the throne.
This situation makes Cai Jing worried. Before that, he was leaning toward Zhao Kai's succession. He often spoke favorably of Zhao Kai in front of Emperor Huizong, and was also very cold towards the crown prince Zhao Huan. Naturally, Zhao Huan was very aware of these situations.
Now, all kinds of sorrows have fallen on Cai Jing. Emperor Huizong is about to abdicate, and sees that the big tree he is leaning on can no longer be relied upon; the crown prince is about to succeed, and he was very cold to the crown prince in the past, and he is afraid that he will be liquidated; the Jin soldiers force Lin Bianjing to fall, and they will be together for the rest of their lives. How can the looted gold and silver treasures be transported back home? These things make Cai Jing worried.
Cai Jing was sitting on the sedan, thinking about his thoughts, when he heard the sedan chair officer yelling: "The grand master has returned to his home, the people, soldiers and civilians should avoid it! Stupid! Old man who tells fortunes, avoid it!"
Cai Jing suddenly got excited and thought, it's time for a fortune telling. What should I do next? Cai Jing then opened the curtains and ordered the Yamen servant: "Invite the fortune teller."
The officer brought the fortune teller to the sedan chair.
Cai Jing looked at the fortune teller from the sedan chair. He seemed to be in his eighties and almost ninety. He was trembling with age and seemed to be unsteady on his feet. Cai Jing felt that the fortune teller looked familiar, and when he took a closer look, he couldn't help but be surprised.
