When he said the words to liquidate them all, Tian Guizi's tone was very firm.
It can be seen that he really thinks so.
Regardless of whether they are honest or corrupt officials, whether they are war-fighting or peace-promoting officials, whether they sympathize with the people at the bottom or not, as long as they are not fellow travelers, they must be liquidated and no one will be left alive.
Su Yonglin supports this. After the overthrow of the Southern Song Dynasty, there must be a clean and thorough liquidation. Failure to liquidate is not enough to establish a new system and a new future.
But Su Yonglin did not think that there was only one Xin Qiji among Confucian students in the world.
Because a considerable number of those outstanding people who brought China back from the brink of collapse and gave it hope for rebirth also received a more rigid Confucian ideological education.
But they can still awaken.
When they see purgatory on earth, when they reach the crossroads of history, when they come into contact with new ideas, there will be a force pushing them to decide whether to accept change and move towards new life, or to follow the old era and completely was buried.
There are always people who will doubt the old era and the old system, but at the beginning they had no guiding ideology, did not know how to act, were unable to awaken, were limited by traditional thinking, and could not transcend it.
And once they have a guiding ideology that transcends everything else...
Xin Qiji was reborn, Zhao Yucheng was reborn, and thousands of Fuxing members were reborn.
Su Yonglin still behaves somewhat like an idealist, such as his expectations for the future and moving forward without hesitation.
Although his methods are very harsh and decisive, he believes that without idealists and idealism, the real world will only continue to degenerate and sink into the abyss from which it is impossible to extricate itself.
It is precisely because of the struggles of those idealists who seem so ridiculous that they are not accepted by the real world that this supposedly fallen world will have a glimmer of hope.
Just like when Su Yonglin saw that faint, almost invisible light of hope in the fog.
The current Ming Dynasty is a country of hope cast by the light of ideals. In this country of hope, there should be ideals and hopes, not just cold liquidation.
Tian Qizi reflects Su Yonglin's deepest heart's coldness and cruelty towards his enemies, and with Tian Qizi, Su Yonglin's own ideals can shine brightly.
Of course, Su Yonglin can see hope, but Zhao Min can only see despair.
Su Yonglin's many requests and suggestions for negotiations soon arrived at Lin'an City via alternate water and land transportation, and were handed over to frontline generals and secretaries such as Zhou Zhi and Zhou Zhixue.
After reading Su Yonglin's description of the instructions and fundamental purpose of this negotiation, they unified their understanding and informed the Southern Song Dynasty of the relevant requirements and terms, allowing them to discuss it for a while, and then come to the Ming army camp to negotiate after the discussion was completed.
After seeing the many terms of the surrender conditions required by the Ming army, Zhao Min's eyes darkened and he almost fainted.
After he finally calmed down his emotions, he could hardly bear the anger in his heart, and almost immediately ordered the city's defenders to attack and fight the Ming army to the death.
Even if we want war compensation, we still need coins.
Even if they want annual coins, they still have to cede the land.
Even if they want to cede territory, they actually want the Emperor of the Song Dynasty to surrender to the Ming Dynasty!
Promise!
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! It is absolutely impossible for me to surrender! It is impossible to cede territory! The entire Huainan East Road? Impossible! The Ming Dynasty is just wishful thinking! Wishful thinking!!!"
Zhao Min yelled at the meeting of the prime ministers and assistant ministers, banged the table, smashed the benches, and broke several tea bowls. The eunuchs in the palace were frightened and trembled for fear of being implicated in the emperor's anger.
Tang Sidui and Shen Gai, who had not reacted much before, did not dare to speak. They did not know how to maintain their stance on this matter so as not to be settled by the Emperor Qiu.
Anyway, they certainly don't dare to say that they want the emperor to agree to all Ming Dynasty's requests, especially to surrender to the Ming Empire, even though they really want to promote peace.
Similarly, Shi Hao felt that he could not accept all the four major requirements of the Ming Dynasty.
Compensation and annual coins were the conditions that Shi Hao found acceptable.
Although it was difficult for him to accept the cession of territory, if the Ming Dynasty did not have many demands, it was not impossible to negotiate. In order to exchange for peace and give the Southern Song Dynasty a chance to breathe, it was not impossible.
But the lion of the Ming Dynasty opened his mouth and wanted the entire eight state capitals on Huainan East Road with a population of 800,000. This felt a bit like treating the Southern Song Dynasty as a pig and slaughtering it. It was too much.
The term "profession" is also very excessive.
The Southern Song Dynasty had just come out of the humiliation of surrendering to the Jin Kingdom, and now it was about to go back to the same place. This was a serious blow to the national character of the Southern Song Dynasty and the personality of the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty.
They couldn't accept it.
After Zhao Hao and Shi Hao clarified the highest acceptable conditions in the Southern Song Dynasty, Shi Hao decided to send envoys to the Ming army camp again.
The day after receiving the note from the Ming Army, Shi Hao once again came to the Ming Army camp to negotiate with the Mingnan Expeditionary Command led by Zhou Zhi and Zhou Zhixue.
"The Song Dynasty has already understood the requirements of the Northern Dynasty. His Majesty the Emperor of the Song Dynasty is not happy with the many demands of the Northern Dynasty. He made four demands in a row. The Northern Dynasty has too much appetite."
This time Shi Hao came up and fired at Su Yonglin's four demands.
Zhou Zhixue was tit for tat.
"When General Xin went south, he only asked for annual coins, but the Southern Dynasty did not agree. The Ming Dynasty had no choice but to decide to go to war. If you want to be wrong, it is also the fault of the Southern Dynasty. What the Ming Dynasty needs now are the gains from victory. There is no problem. All four items must be agreed to, otherwise peace negotiations will be impossible.”
Shi Hao was not willing to be outdone.
"The Northern Dynasty asked the Song Dynasty for annual coins for no reason. Is it the right decision?"
Zhou Zhixue sneered.
"That was to renovate the Yellow River, and the complete collapse of the Yellow River was caused by the Southern Dynasty... Xianggong Shi, let's not discuss this issue any more. Let's continue with our original agenda!"
Seeing that Shi Hao seemed to want to debate the Yellow River issue, Zhou Zhixue immediately interrupted Shi Hao's spellcasting.
Shi Hao's spellcasting was interrupted and his face was full of displeasure, but as the representative of the defeated side, he could not refute the victor's request.
So formal negotiations began.
The formal process must seek common ground while reserving differences, so the two sides first negotiate on the issue of war reparations.
There is no problem with the compensation of 6.2 million yuan, and it has been recognized by the Emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, so the first of the four demands has been recognized by both parties and is acceptable.
Then there is the second item. The Ming Dynasty requires the Southern Song Dynasty to provide annual coins worth equivalent to 300,000 taels of silver and 300,000 bolts of silk every year, and deliver them to the border areas of both sides every year.
Regarding this request, Shi Hao thought it was too difficult for the Southern Song Dynasty.
"The war has severely damaged the Song Dynasty. The six million and two million guan money has already injured the Song Dynasty. We also need 300,000 taels of silver and 300,000 bolts of silk. This is really too heavy for the Song Dynasty. It’s almost unaffordable. Does the Northern Dynasty want to watch the Song Dynasty fall apart?”
Zhou Zhixue had no intention of giving in.
"Back then, you gave Jin Guo so many coins and I didn't see you fall apart."
"That's different!"
"Why is it different? Didn't the Jin Kingdom only ask the Southern Dynasty to pay the coins after they went south to plunder and destroy? The Southern Dynasty did not pay them the year before last? Moreover, the Ming army did not burn, kill or loot when they went south. They strictly restrained military discipline and treated the people of the Southern Dynasties. Without aggression other than war, wouldn’t it be much better than the Kingdom of Jin?”
Zhou Zhixue's words left Shi Hao suddenly speechless.
Indeed, what Zhou Zhixue said is very reasonable. If we say that the damage caused by the Jin Kingdom to the Southern Song Dynasty, it must be far greater than the damage caused by the Ming army now.
Not to mention that the Jin army burned, killed, and looted all the way south. Not only did they demand annual coins and war indemnities, but they also robbed countless people and went north together to become slaves.
In contrast, the Ming army strictly enforced military discipline. In addition to war, they did not cause more damage to the Southern Song Dynasty. They did not burn houses, rob people, or destroy fields.
Along the way south, the people in the areas captured by the Ming army were not harmed. On the contrary, there were Ming troops maintaining order and ensuring their daily lives and the normal operation of the city.
It seemed as if their marching and fighting were really just to achieve strategic goals. The army was very obedient, to an incredible degree, and would do whatever they were told.
Is there such an army in the world?
