"Do you recognize me?" Zhao Jiu turned to Wang De and pointed his finger at the tip of his nose.
"I recognize you!" Wang De answered blankly. "I have seen you in Hebei and Nanjing."
"That's not what I meant..." Zhao Jiu laughed in relief. "I'm asking you, who am I?"
Wang De became more and more confused: "The government is naturally the government!"
"Who has higher authority, the emperor or the general?" Zhao Jiu continued to ask with a smile amid the rough voices of Yang Yizhong behind him and Lu Haowen, Zhang Jun and others beside him.
"Of course the emperor is more powerful!" Wang De said, but couldn't help but add, "But emperor, Liu Taiwei really has no intention of rebellion, he is just timid and easily gets into trouble..."
Zhao Jiu nodded, seemingly unconcerned. "It's good that Wang Qing knows that I am older than the Grand Commandant... I have another question for you. When Wang Qing was stationed in Xuzhou before, did he encounter the Jin army before the retreat, or after the retreat? What was the approximate number of the main force of the Jin army behind him? Was it 100,000, or 20,000 or 30,000?"
At the end of his words, Zhao Jiu almost gritted his teeth, and the several civil and military officials standing around were all stunned. Even Yang Yizhong and Wang Yuan, who were kneeling, looked up in shock. Without waiting for Wang De to reply, Liu Guangshi on the ground suddenly kowtowed repeatedly.
Zhao Jiu saw this scene and couldn't help laughing in his heart, but he simply raised his hand to signal: "Wang Qing, you don't have to answer. Go and invite Commander Fu."
The whole place was in silence, and after Wang De left the throne in a daze, he hurried to the tent and brought Fu Qing, who was also in full armor... Fu Qing was no match for a rough man like Wang De, or it could be said that Wang De was probably the only one in the tent who was a confused idiot, otherwise he would not have been startled by Emperor Zhao's explicit words and made the armor plates ring.
But then again, Commander Fu, being dragged by this bastard, didn't have to think twice and just followed him to the emperor to pay his respects.
"Fu Qing is a new surrender, and all he wants is fame, fortune and power... right?" When facing Fu Qing, Zhao Jiu changed his rhetoric.
"minister……"
"You don't have to answer, just listen!" Zhao Jiu said in the armchair. "It is said that Liu Taiwei and his son are good at caring for their soldiers. To be fair, I can't do that. But I am at my wits' end and can still control Liu Taiwei, which shows that my capital is still thicker than that of the Liu family... Since Fu Qing is doing business, why not sell yourself to me instead of selling yourself to the Liu family? I can give you what he can give you, and I can also give you what he can't give you!"
"I will die for your sake!" Liu Guangshi could no longer bear it and suddenly shouted. "Your Majesty! I really have no other intentions!"
"I know you didn't!" Zhao Jiu said from a distance. "Otherwise you should have spoken up to stop me when I called Wang De over."
Liu Guangshi felt half of his body go limp in an instant, and he just fell to the ground and said, "It's enough for the emperor to know me! If you take away my military power this time, I will never say anything!"
"Please help me hold General Liu's hands." Zhao Jiu ignored them and turned back to look at Fu Qing and Wang De.
Wang De was stunned for a moment and obviously hesitated, but Fu Qing quickly jumped out, and just before Liu Guangshi was about to stand up, he pushed the man with his legs from behind, and then easily took him down by handcuffing his hands behind his back.
Liu Guangshi was restrained and could only shout: "Your Majesty! I have no intention of treason! Please forgive me!"
Now it was Wang De's turn to be frightened, but after a while, under the gaze of the official, this brave general nicknamed Wang Yasha finally stepped forward hesitantly and took Liu Guangshi's already limp hand from Fu Qing.
Seeing this, Zhao Jiu finally stood up, turned his head and looked around, and then took a shiny steel knife from Yang Yizhong who was still kneeling.
Liu Guangshi became more and more frightened, and tears streamed down his cheeks. He also started to talk nonsense: "Your Majesty! Please let your Majesty know! My behavior this time is indeed a serious crime, but I was trying to figure out your intentions! I have always known that your Majesty wanted to go to Jiangnan, and when I saw your decree that I could leave, I thought it was your hint, so I fabricated the 100,000 Jin troops..."
"I believe in you, Mr. Liu." Zhao Jiu came over with a knife in hand, without stopping. "But I changed my mind a long time ago and don't want to go to Jiangnan anymore!"
"I really don't know whether the emperor is going to fight with Zhang and Han for real, and I really have no intention of treason..." Liu Guangshi continued to defend himself, but suddenly he saw the shadow of a knife reflecting on his head, and he could no longer make a sound.
"Your Majesty!" At the critical moment, Lü Haowen and Zhang Jun looked at each other, and then they stepped out together. Then Prime Minister Lü spoke hurriedly. "Since things have come to this, why not take away his military power and deal with it calmly? How can your Majesty personally draw a knife to kill a dignified general? Where is the national system?"
"Your Majesty." Zhang Jun also bowed his head and advised carefully. "I also think that Liu Guangshi should die, but the situation is dangerous now, and the danger of national destruction is not an empty talk. Your Majesty should put the overall situation first and not easily lose people's hearts."
Zhao Jiu had no time to pay attention to these people, because he had been wielding a knife behind the armored Liu Guangshi for a long time, but he still didn't know how to start. Helpless, the official could only turn around and ask the know-it-all Yang Sheren: "Zhengfu, how should we start now?"
Yang Yizhong had already been stunned. When he was suddenly asked, he blurted out: "Have you ever seen a chicken being killed? Can we kill it like a chicken now..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Yizhong regretted it... Firstly, he really shouldn't get involved in such matters; secondly, he suddenly realized that the official had never seen what it looked like to kill a chicken.
However, after hearing this, Emperor Zhao no longer hesitated. He just leaned over, grabbed the helmet tassel of Liu Guangshi, who was already frightened and out of control, with his left hand, and took the knife with his right hand to cut the exposed Adam's apple of the other party... The movement was so skillful, as if he had really killed a chicken before.
After one strike of the knife, there was no more sound in the curtain.
Wang De and Fu Qing loosened their hands, looked at each other, and stood there in silence. Only Liu Guangshi was holding his throat and thrashing on the ground, making some noise, and his struggle looked like that of a chicken with its throat cut.
Emperor Zhao held the bloodstained steel knife in his hand and watched for a while. When the person on the ground stopped moving and he felt relaxed all over, he threw away the steel knife and turned around to answer his prime minister and the chief censor loudly:
"I would rather perish my country than kill this man with my own hands!"
PS: I would like to wish everyone a happy New Year in advance. It's a bit embarrassing that Fu Xuan and Fu Qing were confused. It has been corrected. The one who appeared is Fu Qing. Both of them were subordinates of Yue Fei in history, but there is clear evidence that Fu Qing had been under the command of Liu Guangshi earlier.
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