In early April, early summer, in Wende Hall, the first grand court meeting after the emperor returned to Tokyo was in chaos.

This confusion comes mainly from three sources:

One reason is that due to the lack of money and grain transportation from the southeast, many things that should have been done smoothly are difficult to carry out, and everyone can't help complaining.

In another place, there was chaos in Guanzhong. With no way to counterattack in northern Shaanxi, the debate on how to deal with Qu Duan, Wang Xie, and Wang Shu had reached an extreme point...

Wang Shu was a pro-war civil official with no problem in his stance. He was the absolute leader of the civil officials before Yuwen Xuzhong entered Guanzhong, and was also the representative of the Song Dynasty there. This time, he personally led the army to fight against the Jin army, but was defeated miserably, losing his army and territory.

Wang Xie was a bandit or a rebel. He had fled when he heard the news before, but this time he obeyed the order and went to fight. He was defeated, and after the defeat he actually fled all the way from northern Shaanxi to Fengxiang. It was obvious that he was a useless person who could not do anything good but was more likely to cause trouble. However, this useless person was still obedient on the surface.

As for Qu Duan, he is the most controversial person. His arrogance and domineering have become a consensus of the entire court. In this battle, he first refused the call of his official superior Wang Shu on the grounds that he would definitely lose, and then did not participate in the war at all. However, after the defeat of Wang Shu's army and the annihilation of Wang Xie, he maintained the defense line on his own and limited the offensive of the Jin army to northern Shaanxi, preventing Wanyan Loushi from taking advantage of the situation to expand the results of the battle, and finally waiting for Talan from the Central Plains to leave for the north... In other words, it now seems that he is the one who has grasped the truth and is misunderstood by everyone.

Under such circumstances, it is no wonder that everyone was arguing endlessly about how to deal with these three people.

The first two events were okay and were more or less objective. But what really caused the situation to get out of control was undoubtedly the violent reaction of the civil and military officials to Liu Yu's enthronement.

But in comparison, Emperor Zhao, who was sitting on the throne, was too indifferent.

To be honest, looking at the ministers in the palace who knew his attitude but were still indignant, Emperor Zhao didn't know when his mind started to wander. He just kept thinking, what was going on in the current situation?

The question is actually very simple. Why didn't we feel so powerless when we were in such a difficult situation in Nanyang? Why did we feel so powerless now when we risked our lives to win a victory and made the country at least look like a country on the surface, but we feel that things have become a mess?

But from another perspective, I have been the Emperor of Zhao Song for nearly two years without realizing it. From wanting to run away and jump into a well to commit suicide to "return to the throne" in the beginning to now doubting that I can't control the situation, I can only say that time is really a butcher's knife.

But when you think about it, not to mention compared with Nanyang, just compared with two years ago, what is the difference between the current situation?

How much worse could it be?

At that time, the Zhao Song court was basically just a small court in exile, and the danger of national destruction was imminent.

At that time, I was a useless person who knew nothing and could only pretend to be a woodcarver and look for Li Gang... Of course, I am not much better now... but I have made progress.

But in a nutshell, some things, whether it is the so-called "old events in Hebei" or personal issues like Concubine Pan, since they were "admitted" in front of Zong Ze that day, there is no need to cover them up... What should be faced should be faced in general, and some things also need to be resolved.

"Your Majesty!"

Zhu Shengfei, the newly appointed Minister of Rites, who was strongly recommended by Lu Yihao, spoke for a long time, but there was no response from Emperor Zhao for half a day. In this regard, the good-tempered Zhu Shengfei did not say anything, but it aroused the dissatisfaction of Xu Jingheng, the Prime Minister. "The Minister of the Court is talking to His Majesty!"

"I am guilty." Zhao Jiu, who looked like a sculpture today, finally spoke.

Xu Jingheng was stunned on the spot, and then he became embarrassed: "That's not what I meant..."

"What's that saying?" Zhao Jiu continued. "If I am guilty, then the others are not guilty? If the others are guilty, then the guilt lies with me alone?"

"If I am guilty, I cannot blame the people. If the people are guilty, the fault lies with me... from The Analects of Confucius. Yao said." Xu Jingheng, as a Confucian master, instinctively corrected Emperor Zhao, but then he quickly realized that although the emperor had refused to attend the imperial lecture for a long time, now was definitely not the time to give a lecture. Not only that, the emperor suddenly said this, which made people nervous. "But the meaning is the same. Gong is my own meaning, the emperor does not need to care... and what we just talked about was just how to refute Liu Ni and set the record straight. How does it involve the emperor's guilt?"

"It's good that you didn't make a fool of yourself." Zhao Jiu had no expression on his face and spoke calmly, which made the officials in the front of the hall who had followed the emperor for at least half a year or at most two years feel inexplicably panicked. "However, I am talking about the traitor Liu... He has issued a proclamation, and we are just criticizing him in this hall, what's the point?"

"That's exactly what I meant." Someone behind him obviously didn't realize the atmosphere was not right and couldn't help but interrupt. "To deal with Liu Ni, we should use a large army to annihilate him. After capturing him alive, we should punish him according to the law. Only then can we set things right. What's the point of just a few words?"

"That's not what I meant." Zhao Jiu raised his voice slightly, but his tone remained calm. "I thought that since Liu Yu had issued a letter of denunciation, pointing out my various faults that day, why don't I issue a self-criticism edict to take the initiative to clarify and set the record straight?"

Lu Yihao was not there, and it was the first "regular court" in Tokyo city in almost many years. There were many people, and everyone had a strong desire to perform, so order was inevitably out of control for a while.

Amid the noise, some people knelt down hastily to apologize, some were terrified, and some hurriedly refuted... Even Xu Jingheng was stunned for a moment. He stood there, very much suspecting that Emperor Zhao was still angry with him because of the previous incident and wanted to use this kind of thing to embarrass the officials here.

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