Those scum in the south, when the Jurchen invaders marched south, you didn't come to the emperor's aid, but now you want to purge the court of corrupt officials for the sake of my ancestral temples and the state?

All scumbags have one thing in common: they don't know they're scumbags. They're usually extremely confident in themselves, so confident that they're on top of the world, only to fall down one day and be a dead dog.

Take the Guangde Army in Jiangnan East Road, for example. It's really unbelievable. They're just a little bit south of the Yangtze River, and at the beginning of this year, they didn't reach Tokyo to defend the emperor for various reasons.

Seven years ago, they were utterly defeated by Fang La and his band of peasant bandits.

With such poor military quality, where do those idiots in Jiangnan East Road get the confidence to go against me? If it weren't for the sake of my people, I would have already wiped you out!

Zhao Huan is really impatient now. Han Shizhong is using the excuse of pirates in the southeast to advance his army into Hangzhou. What if they clash with Jiangning Prefecture on the way...?

How wonderful that would be!

I enjoy seeing people recklessly court death.

The Privy Council's recent military and political reforms have encountered resistance, and I was just wondering how to start reducing the military. You've handed me the knife; you really won't learn your lesson unless you kill someone!

No sooner had Qian Mu left than the imperial court issued new policies for the southeast, and the news of these policies spread like wildfire to Hangzhou.

Decrees to reduce commercial taxes in places such as Jiangnan Road, Jinghu Road, Chengdu Prefecture Road, and Kuizhou Road were also quickly issued, and for a time, the south of the Song Dynasty was in turmoil.

Meanwhile, the Censorate and the Imperial City Guard brought Qian Mu to Hangzhou. Instead of immediately launching an investigation, the Censorate and the Imperial City Guard went into hiding in Hangzhou.

According to reports, the Guangde Army of Jiangnan East Road has transferred an entire corps to garrison outside Hangzhou. It would be suicidal for the Censorate and the Imperial City Guard to go to Hangzhou now.

At the Jiangning Prefecture Transport Commissioner's Office, Transport Commissioner Shen Tu Xin received an imperial decree ordering him to return to the capital to serve as Vice Minister of War.

Li Xiuxuan, the commander of the Guangde Army, rushed to the transport commissioner's office. Before he even entered the door, he heard Li Xiuxuan's rough voice: "Congratulations to Shentu Shangguan on his appointment as Vice Minister of War. From now on, you will enter the central government of the Western Prefecture."

Shen Tu Xin was playing the zither in the backyard at this moment. This transport commissioner had a hobby of playing the zither, and he liked to invite a group of men to play the zither with him. After they finished playing, the group did nothing else but listen to their flattery.

If you hadn't met Shen Tu Xin, you might have imagined him from his name to be a burly butcher who always volunteered to personally slaughter pigs, because his pig-slaughtering skills were so impressive that people had a lot of confidence in him.

But if I met this person, I wouldn't think that way.

Shen Tu Xin's idol was Ji Kang. He often dressed himself up as a famous scholar from the Wei and Jin dynasties and invited a large number of literati to his mansion to listen to his music.

After hearing this, anyone who didn't say a few nice words would be dragged out and beaten to death in public by the guards of his government office.

I heard they even beat the shit out of you!

The reason he was killed was because this guy had such a low level of appreciation for art; he was such a damn waste of food to be alive.

As soon as Li Xiuxuan entered, he saw scholars and literati in flowing robes sitting all over the backyard, listening intently to Shen Tu Xin playing the zither with complete absorption. Each of them had an indescribable twitch on their face and a self-absorbed enjoyment.

Li Xiuxuan, being a boorish man, had no idea about such things and immediately shouted, "Shentu Shangguan, you're about to become the Vice Minister of War, what's the point of playing the zither!"

Shen Tu Xin suddenly stopped playing the zither, and the music abruptly ceased. Everyone around him opened their eyes in shock and immediately began to praise him.

One of them exclaimed, “Wow! That’s wonderful! This is the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard. After listening to it, I feel a warm current flowing through my body, nourishing every inch of my skin. Ah…”

“That’s right. I seem to see a fairy under the moonlight, as if she were a light cloud veiling the moon, or a snowflake drifting in the wind. It’s truly wonderful. Shen Tu Shangguan is truly a fairy of the zither descended to earth.”

Another person, suppressing the urge to vomit, said: "I felt as if I had found the true meaning of life in Shen Tu Shangguan's music, and I saw white clouds coming from the east and riding cranes to the west..."

"..."

Li Xiuxuan said, "Damn it! This dog emperor is trying to mess with me now! Shen Tu Xin, we agreed to rebel together, and you're still here playing the zither! Get out! If you don't get out, I'll chop you all to pieces!"

After Li Xiuxuan finished speaking, he drew his knife and swung it with his usual speed. The young man closest to him screamed as his neck was slit open and he immediately fell to the ground, clutching his neck and convulsing.

Upon seeing this, everyone was so frightened that they immediately scurried away.

Li Xiuxuan said, "Damn it! It was just a habitual action. I didn't mean to kill you. Are you dead or not? Huh? You're not dead. You're still grabbing my boot. Die!"

Shen Tu Xin opened his eyes from his self-absorption, annoyed that Li Xiuxuan had interrupted him: "Don't try to rub it in. This dog emperor is trying to trick me into going to Tokyo. If I go, I'll be cut into at least two thousand pieces if not three thousand!"

"So what do we do now? Damn it, those merchants are suddenly turning against us, saying they're out of money and can't pay the soldiers. Damn it, I'm going to chop them all up and feed them to the dogs. If they don't pay, I'll just rob them!"

Shen Tu Xin took a deep breath: "Shut up, kill them all, then who will dare to play with us?"

"So what do we do now?"

Despite his elegant name, Li Xiuxuan was nothing but a pile of shit in his head. His principle was: if they wouldn't give it to him, he'd take it; if he couldn't take it, he'd kill them. There was nothing that couldn't be solved with violence.

Now that the emperor wants to downsize the Guangde Army, he'll be the first to be dismissed, which is why he's gotten involved with Shentu Xin. He knows he's got too much brain dust in him and can't handle this situation at all, so he has no choice but to listen to Shentu Xin, or he'll end up like the imperial guards of the Central Plains.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!