The person who came from Tokyo was the former Minister of Rites Zhu Shengfei, and the local person who stood up to respond to Zhu Shengfei was another former Minister Liu Dazhong.

Zhu Shengfei was from Caizhou, and his hometown was located in the southeastern part of the west of Beijing, next to Huaidian. When Emperor Zhao executed a white horse to build Shaoxing, he resigned from his post and returned to his hometown, but he spent all day wandering around Rushui and Huaidian. Therefore, although Emperor Zhao did not pass by his side when he went south this time, he could be regarded as watching from afar.

When it was early winter before the New Year, Emperor Zhao convened a martial arts conference and publicly put forward strategies such as the land tax and other strategies, and directly implemented them in the southeast, he immediately paid attention to this matter. After discussing it with friends, neighbors and relatives in Lianghuai and western Beijing, he felt that this matter was inappropriate. At that time, many of his former colleagues and local scholars advised him to come out and argue with the emperor.

As a representative figure of the White Horse Incident, although this Minister Zhu was recommended by Lü Yihao, he had been living in Lianghuai with his steadiness after retirement, and he often said that someone was harming the country. Now that he was pushed to the limit, he naturally had to stand up. However, he understood that going directly to Hangzhou to find Emperor Zhao would only bring humiliation upon himself, so he simply took another approach and went to Tokyo to personally criticize Zhao Ding, Zhang Jun, Liu Ji, Chen Gui, and even Lü Haowen, the ministers in Beijing, and provoked discussions in the Imperial College.

It can be said that the momentum was very loud and it caused some troubles to the five people in Tokyo, but the problem was that this system of dividing the land tax by land was obviously aimed at the southeast, that is, Liangzhe and Jiangdong. It was estimated that before the Northern Expedition, it would at most be extended to Lianghuai, Jiangxi and Fujian. So what if Tokyo was so lively?

Thousands of miles away, it had no substantial impact on Emperor Zhao.

However, it was not known whether the officials in the capital were annoyed by him, or for some other reason, but after the court sent out New Year's greetings envoys, they suddenly temporarily entrusted this old minister as the Lantern Festival greetings envoy and asked him to meet Emperor Zhao and explain the rules.

This person had no choice but to go on the road, and then crossed the Yangtze River after the New Year. However, he did not rush to see Emperor Zhao, but took the initiative to slow down his journey and observe the situation. When he could no longer avoid it, he calculated the time and suddenly gathered the local officials in Huzhou on the twelfth day of the first lunar month. He made a public statement that this trip was necessary to persuade Emperor Zhao and so on... Then he brought these local people to call out Liu Dazhong, the former Minister of Personnel, who had been unemployed in his hometown in Huzhou and had not even opened the door throughout the winter.

Liu Dazhong had been about to endure it, but after all, like Zhu Shengfei, he was a representative of the so-called conservative faction, and his political attributes were firmly controlled by the White Horse Incident. When Zhu and his fellow villagers kicked the door and stabbed him in the waist, he had no choice but to express his position in public and followed Zhu Shengfei to pay respects to the emperor.

Finally, we managed to arrive in Hangzhou at noon on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival.

How to say it? Although Zhu Shengfei and Liu Dazhong came in a hurry, there were still members of the cabinet from Hangzhou, Huzhou, Xiuzhou, Yuezhou, Mingzhou, Muzhou and other surrounding prefectures and counties who arrived in time to watch the lanterns during the Lantern Festival and to pay their respects to the emperor. They arrived in time to support the two officials.

If you count, there are about one or two hundred people.

But this gamble is basically the last one.

Back to the present, the significance of the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month is self-evident in this era. It is the most joyful festival. As the actual capital of the southeast, Hangzhou has not seen wars and chaos for more than ten years since Fang La, so it is of course very lively. Moreover, compared with the big city of Bianliang in the north, although Hangzhou has a smaller population, it also has the West Lake to rely on. In addition, the temperature in the south is warm and there are many cities around it, so it naturally has a different flavor.

Not to mention that countless mountains of lanterns had been set up a few days in advance, and on the day of the Lantern Festival, even the dilapidated Leifeng Pagoda was topped by the imperial cavalry soldiers from Tokyo who worked together to raise a colorfully painted hot air balloon. In response to the countless local and surrounding officials who came to pay their respects and offer tributes, Emperor Zhao gave a banquet on Phoenix Mountain at noon. The two former chancellors Liu and Zhu also received the treatment they deserved and attended the banquet… But there was nothing extra about the banquet. Zhu Shengfei and Liu Dazhong didn’t even have time to speak. Right after the meal, Lu Yihao personally led the local officials of Hangzhou to invite Emperor Zhao to get off Phoenix Mountain and board a big boat on West Lake to cruise around the lake and have fun with the people.

So, in the afternoon, Emperor Zhao set out the ceremonial guard and led the people of Fenghuang Mountain to the north to Yongjin Gate, and then boarded the boat that had been waiting there.

Among them, Emperor Zhao, his close ministers, and more than a dozen attendants boarded a large flat-bottomed boat nicknamed the Big Oolong, and placed the world-famous Jinwu flag at the stern. Prime Minister Lu, Prime Minister Xu, and the two former chancellors Liu and Zhu also each had a boat. The boat that Prime Minister Lu and Xu took was nicknamed the Little Oolong, so there is no need to mention it further.

In addition, the local envoys and officials of the prefecture in Hangzhou, as well as members of the dukedoms of surrounding prefectures and counties, were also allocated ships according to their rank and region, and traveled together.

In fact, as the richest families in the prefectures and counties around Hangzhou in Liangzhe Road, which family of these officials did not have their own pleasure boats in West Lake? And which pleasure boats were not decorated with carved railings and jade, gold pendants and silver ornaments, and even incense and sweet fragrances? Aren't they better than these official boats with bare benches inside?

But then again, every household has a pleasure boat, but how many of them can board the official ship to accompany the emperor today?

There were too many people and it was the first time they did this, so everyone arrived at Yongjin Gate with the imperial carriage in the afternoon, but it was not until the sun set that they were able to board the ship.

But then, with the big Wulong in front and the small Wulong on the side and behind, dozens of official ships set out at the same time, following the Jinwu flag on the big Wulong's butt, and sailed out of the Yongjin Gate together, heading towards Su Causeway, which instantly set off the entire West Lake.

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