Mingzhou City has not been as lively as tonight for a long time.
Of course, the excitement belongs to some people, and many people have nothing.
This Qixin Temple was built during the Dazhong period of the Tang Dynasty, almost three hundred years ago.
In the eighth year of Zhenghe, Emperor Huizong was bewitched by the demon Taoist Lin Lingsu and converted many Buddhist temples into Taoist temples, so it was also called Wanshou Palace.
Of course, it has been changed back now and is still called Qixin Temple.
The emperor looked at the people in front of him. He was followed by both the imperial army and the monks who had just become the masters of this place.
In front of him, there were all famous merchants in Mingzhou City. Regardless of industry or size, there were four to five hundred people, all of whom were brought here by Zhao Mi.
These people lowered their heads and shrank, and no one knew what was going on.
I just saw many officials from Mingzhou City kneeling around them... If this group of people weren't wearing Song Dynasty military uniforms, they would have thought that the Jin people had invaded.
After the Imperial Guards from the Infantry Division brought in the last group of people, the Commander-in-Chief of Zhao bowed to the emperor and said:
"The officials are all here."
"Yes," Liu Bang nodded. At a glance, there were quite a lot of merchants in Mingzhou.
But compared with what was in the Book of Ten Thousand Peoples, it was really not much.
He looked at these people and asked loudly:
"Do you recognize me?"
This is a strange question to ask. You have already called yourself 'I', and there is no one in the world who doesn't recognize me.
It can't be that the emperor of the Jin Kingdom came to Mingzhou.
Seeing that no one answered the emperor, Zhao Mi pulled out his knife: "Are you deaf or mute? The officials are asking you questions!"
If it weren't for the imperial guards watching, many people would have collapsed on the ground. An older man kept bowing and saying:
"I know you. You are His Majesty the Emperor."
"Know?" Liu Bang looked at him suspiciously, "Why don't I know you?"
The old man burst into tears: "That means I don't know him."
"do not know?"
The emperor threw the scroll forward... It seemed that when he was hanging in the palace that day, the scroll rolled forward for a long time and finally stopped.
"I don't know, then why did you write this thing for me?"
When I wrote my name on this thing, everyone knew what was going on.
But Fan Tong was around at that time, who dared not to write?
Besides, everyone has written it and understands that the law does not punish the public. Who would have expected that the emperor would come over in person and ask about it.
The old man dared not speak any more, for fear that if he said anything wrong, he would make the emperor unhappy and lose his life.
"It's okay, public opinion is what I value most."
"If everyone advises me not to fight, of course I won't be able to fight."
"It's just that I'm afraid that someone will cheat, so I'm here to ask you personally, should we fight this battle or not?"
To be honest, their ancestors were all rooted in Mingzhou, and they had never heard of things going on in the north.
But no matter how miserable it was, it didn't happen to me after all. It was the Beiren who suffered the most, and it was your Zhao Guan family. What does it have to do with everyone else?
If this war really breaks out, how can the waterway from Mingzhou Port north to Goryeo and Japan still be accessible?
No one dared to speak, but for Liu Bang, the silence of this group of people had already given the answer.
He kindly grabbed the hand of the old man who just spoke, and the old man's whole body trembled with excitement:
"It's okay, it's okay. Everyone, please speak your mind. I'm here to hear the truth, so feel free to speak."
The emperor's kind appearance really fascinated some people.
The old man said tremblingly: "Your Majesty, do we really have to go back?"
"If we can really defeat the Jin people, ten thousand young people will support the Northern Expedition, but... we can't defeat them!"
"Since we can't beat him, it won't affect everyone's life, so why should we bother him..."
He spoke softer and quieter, just because the smile on the emperor's face gradually disappeared.
Liu Bang stepped back and said, "You all think so?"
Seeing that half of these people nodded, he sighed softly.
Turning to Zhao Mi, he asked: "How are those temples whose names are written on the paper?"
Zhao Duzhi understood: "All the officials have been changed tonight. Those who were originally there have had their certificates taken away on the spot. They will no longer be able to be monks in the future."
"Then you should mark it, so that I don't misunderstand a good person."
After Zhao Mi received the order, he took a pen on the spot and drew circles on the long piece of paper.
While painting, he said to himself: "Baoguo Temple, seventy-two people; Qingdao Temple, sixty-three people; Qixin Temple, two hundred and eighteen people..."
Every time a name was ticked, the heart of the businessman on the scene sank a little.
The emperor is... is he driving these masters out of Mingzhou?
"Old man, hey, old man, I'm calling you!"
Liu Bang squatted on the steps above and called out several times before waking up the absent-minded old man:
"What you said is partly right, but also partly wrong."
"You are not affected, but others are greatly affected."
"If you want to make a clear distinction between the north and the south of the Song Dynasty, you should know that the reason why you can live a good life here and say that you will be fine even if you don't go back is just because you are lucky and because the people in the north bear the burden for you. pass."
"If you don't believe it, I will send you to the Kingdom of Jin. See if you tell the Jin people that you are from the south. Will the Jin people let you live?"
"Northerners have lost their families, sons, daughters, parents, and wives. It's not because they are northerners that they deserve to suffer this. Do you understand this truth?"
"If the situation were changed now, and someone from the south was attacked, and the people from the north said the same thing as you, would you agree?"
Even if the old man had other ideas, he only dared to reply at this time: "Little old man understands, little old man understands, what the official said is..."
"Whether you really understand or pretend to understand, I will say it one last time."
As he spoke, he shouted loudly: "Zai Lu, write down every word for me, send it to all the state capitals, and ask them to post it and read it to everyone in the world!"
Then, he said: "Whether it's a southerner or a northerner, that's our own way of saying it, it doesn't matter."
"But externally, whether it's the Jin people or the Xia people, you only have one identity."
"That's the Han people... Han people!"
He originally wanted to say people from the Song Dynasty, but the face of Medicine Master Guo flashed in his mind, so he changed it to people from the Han Dynasty.
"Now that the Han people in the north have been bullied and have lost their homes, what should you do?"
Zhao Mi was the first to shout: "Revenge!"
Three thousand people from the Infantry Division also shouted together: "Revenge!"
The momentum was so great that it disturbed the dreams of many people.
"Now I'm asking you, are we still in peace?"
No one dares to talk about peace anymore, just like no one dared to talk about war back then.
"In this case, everyone wants to fight... then this Book of Ten Thousand People is fake."
"Fortunately, I know everyone's intentions and have not been deceived by traitors... In this case, everyone should write a new petition for war, write it and give it to your new prefect, and ask him to send it to Lin'an."
"But we have to agree, and we can't go back on our words, otherwise it won't just be as simple as being kicked out."
He waved his hand, and the imperial guards who climbed up to the pagoda of Qixin Temple saw clearly and threw Fan Tong's body down...
Seeing his body dangling, Liu Bang said to the monks:
"Just hang it here. If you still want to negotiate peace in the future, you can come and have a look, so that you can be prepared."
"It's really Amitabha, Amitabha..."
The emperor chanted the Buddha's name, and Zhao Mi took out a longer petition that had been written by various temples in Mingzhou.
Everyone paused and then rushed to write their names.
(End of chapter)
