But Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment, and then followed the "no worries when a man is about to die" clan minister and made a shocking statement:

"Why cry for a family instead of a stranger? The world is in turmoil due to the wars, and the number of casualties is in the hundreds of millions... As the emperor, I must talk about filial piety in front of outsiders, but I don't have the time to care about a family. I should be thinking about military equipment, food, money, and silk, and taking care of the soldiers and the city, so that the world can be peaceful as soon as possible. There is no need to talk about anything else."

After these words were spoken, the first person to react was the Chief Censor Hu Yin. He immediately stood up from behind his desk, his face flushed, and wanted to speak, but he didn't know what to say for a moment and could only stand there in a daze.

Zong Ze and Emperor Zhao looked back at this person, but they didn't take it seriously. Instead, they continued to chat with each other, as if they were just goingssiping:

"When I was in Hebei, I never saw the government thinking about peace in the world."

"Let's not talk about the falling into the well, just put yourself in my shoes. When I was in Hebei, did I ever think that I would become an official?"

"That makes sense, but it only applies to the period before the two emperors went north. After the two emperors went north, why did the emperor so hastily abandon the people of Hebei and cross the river to ascend the throne? And after ascending the throne, why did he abandon all the arrangements in Hebei?"

"I think it was because I was young at that time, and was bewitched by Huang Qianshan, Kang Lu and others, and I had no prejudice in my heart. I was depressed for a while and lost my faith. This is also a fact... Although I have forgotten such things, it was indeed my fault." Zhao Jiu said slowly.

Zong Ze fell silent after hearing the latter part of the sentence. After a long while, he said with a sigh, "I, an old minister, will not care about the words of forgetting the past after falling into a well, but Your Majesty was too frank today. Do you think that I am a dying man?"

"I speak from the bottom of my heart." Zhao Jiu remained calm.

"What the emperor said today actually makes sense, but I'm sorry I don't believe it." Zong Ze shook his head slowly.

The atmosphere in the hall froze again, and the others sitting there were completely helpless.

In fact, it doesn't matter who is smart or stupid here, everyone knows what's going on. The emperor, who now has a very firm stance against the Jin Dynasty, has a hurdle to overcome with Zong Xianggong, who is also a model of anti-Jin. No matter what, Emperor Zhao cannot explain his abandonment of the two rivers around the middle of the first year of Jianyan, and he cannot make up for it at all.

You said you were fighting against the Jin, but who was it that abandoned the two rivers and rushed to ascend the throne?

You said that you won a great victory and killed more than a dozen Meng'an, more than 10,000 people. May I ask if there are 20 to 30 million people in the two rivers?

You say how hard your work is and how difficult it is. May I ask if there is anyone like Mr. Zong Ze who, with nothing, risked his life to maintain the old capital and resist the invasion?

And the most important point is that if it were any other person, Emperor Zhao would still be able to appease them by saying "wait for the future" or sighing "let's wait and see"... But Prime Minister Zong is over seventy years old and terminally ill. He is about to die. How can he let him wait for the future or wait and see?

To be fair, everyone knows that Emperor Zhao has done a very good job this time. Even dating back to the battle on Huai River, he had done things that were too satisfactory. But unfortunately, when facing Zong Ze, what he did... was probably not good enough!

This is a dead end.

Compared with this crux, the words that were not spoken by both sides but were so explicit that they frightened Hu Yin, were of no significance between the two people in the hall - you said that you were the key to the anti-Jin cause, but wasn't the invasion of the Jin people caused by you, the Zhao family?

In response to this, Emperor Zhao said, please don’t take the trouble caused by those people to blame me since I was just a child at that time.

And Zong Ze really didn't care much about this matter.

"I feel that what the emperor said today was half true and half false." In the silence, Zong Rulin finally sighed again. "I really don't know how much of it is to comfort this old minister who is about to die?"

"All of them are sincere." Zhao Jiu seemed to have already thought about his attitude and words to Zong Ze, because he did not hesitate at all. "Since I was in Mingdao Palace in Bozhou, I have made up my mind to fight against the Jin and recover the lost territory. But I also know that among all the people in the world, only Prime Minister Zong can no longer believe me, and I have no way to explain..."

Many people felt slightly moved.

Zong Ze still seemed unmoved. After a pause, he asked further, "Your Majesty, I have been guarding Tokyo alone for more than a year. Can I say that I have done my best to turn the tide?"

“It’s natural.”

"And dying in office today can be considered a dedication, right?"

“It’s inevitable.”

"Then there won't be any bad things said about me in history books in the future, right?"

"good."

"And the emperor is also a man who knows how to act... I'm afraid he knows that I have nothing to fear today."

"I understand." Zhao Jiu suddenly laughed. "Unless I recover my territory and prove my innocence in the future, everyone in the world will believe whatever you say today."

"That's why the emperor is so polite today..."

"If I am not sincere, wouldn't it be better for me to hide in Yanling for a few days, wait for you to leave, and then come here?" Zhao Jiu also made it clear.

Zong Ze was silent for a moment, but still shook his head slowly: "In fact, I am just holding on and waiting for the emperor. As long as the emperor doesn't come, I will not die."

"I know, that's why I'm here today." Zhao Jiu also became serious.

"Why does this sound like you are urging me to die?" Zong Ze sneered again.

"My husband, would you still be superstitious about this at this moment?" Zhao Jiu also smiled bitterly.

"Your Majesty, do you know that I had a bad reputation when I was young..."

“I’ve heard a little bit about it.”

Furthermore, if it weren’t for the Jingkang Incident, Zong Ze’s reputation in history would not have been good, because in the thirty years of his official career before the Jingkang Incident, this future anti-Jin leader and national hero had two very bizarre political labels on him, one was vulgar, and the other was a traitor…

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!