Chapter 118 The real purpose
"I understand. Thank you, Your Highness!" Gu Tingye said gratefully.
"Why are you being so polite to me?" Zhao Xing waved his hand and said, "Sanshui, go open it and see what Li Ge sent."
"Yes!"
Sanshui went forward and opened the gifts, only to find that they were filled with some old mountain ginseng, some gemstones of various colors, and some precious leather.
"It's quite generous."
Although Zhao Xing didn't know how to identify the age of ginseng, judging from its size and appearance, it was rare even in the palace.
"Zhong Huai, take two ginsengs and go back to nourish your grandfather." Zhao Xing said.
"Thank you, Your Highness, for your reward." Gu Tingye expressed his gratitude.
……
After that meeting, Zhao Xing never saw Li Ge again as he was always busy with the imperial examination.
March 16th is the day when the imperial examination begins. It is already March 12th, and there are only four days left.
Since the inception of the imperial examination system in ancient times, cheating in the examination has never ceased.
In order to prevent this phenomenon, successive dynasties have continuously improved their anti-fraud systems.
First, the names are covered to prevent the examiners from determining the identity of the respondents through handwriting. After the answer sheets are collected, someone will transcribe them and send the transcribed answer sheets to the examiners for marking.
The entire process is under very strict supervision.
However, every policy has its own countermeasure.
No matter how strict the protective measures are, loopholes will still be found.
As the chief examiner, Zhao Xing would be disgraced if cheating was revealed in the examination he was supervising.
Therefore, he naturally could not just sit there and do nothing. Not only did he report to his father and transfer guards from the Eastern Palace to take over the defense of the Imperial Examination Hall during the imperial examination, he also combined the cheating schemes he knew to set up a set of strict preventive measures.
Zhao Xing carefully reviewed his arrangements and breathed a sigh of relief when he found no omissions.
"Your Highness, Mr. Sheng requests to see you." A eunuch walked into the hall and bowed.
"Let him in." Zhao Xing said.
After a while, Sheng Wei came in, greeted him and said, "Your Highness, Li Ge can't wait any longer and wants to see Your Highness."
"Haha, I thought he was very patient. Bring him here. I will meet him in the East Palace this time." Zhao Xing said.
Several days had passed since the last meeting, but Li Ge could bear it and went out for fun every day with Sheng Wei's company.
In the afternoon, Zhao Xing met Li Ge in the East Palace Hall.
Li Ge had some doubts about Zhao Xing's identity before, but now he was completely relieved.
"It has been several days. I wonder what Your Highness thinks?" Li Ge asked after paying his respects.
"I am in charge of supervising this imperial examination, and I have a lot of things to do, so I am sorry for neglecting you. I have already reported your proposal to my father, but he said that Song and Liao have a brotherly alliance, and the Song Dynasty is a country of etiquette and cannot violate the alliance. I want to wait until the imperial examination is over before persuading my father." Zhao Xing said with regret.
Li Ge was a little anxious when he heard this: "I am in Liao, but I am also a Han Chinese. The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are Han territory. If we miss this God-given opportunity, I am afraid it will be hard to find it again in the future."
"Oh?" Zhao Xing said in surprise, "So your heart is in Cao's camp and your heart is in Han? If so, why don't you stay in the Song Dynasty and serve me? I will definitely not treat you unfairly."
"Your Highness, although I am loyal to the Song Dynasty, my family is in the Liao Kingdom and I cannot bear to leave them. But if Your Highness trusts me, I can provide you with some information." Li Ge said sincerely.
"Haha, that's what I want. Could you tell me the real purpose of coming to Song Dynasty this time?" Zhao Xing asked.
"Your Highness wants to know, I will tell you everything I know." Li Ge said, "The person behind me is Yelu Chongyuan, the Grand Marshal of the Liao Army. The late emperor once promised to pass the throne to him, but in the end he broke his promise and passed the throne to his own son. Yelu Chongyuan was naturally unwilling to accept this and wanted to launch a mutiny to take back the throne and get the help of the Song Dynasty."
"So the rumors are true?" Zhao Xing was shocked and said, "So this is really a godsend?"
"That's right. If the Song Dynasty could send troops at a critical moment to contain the Liao army, Yelu Chongyuan would be very likely to succeed. By then, the soldiers defending the city would be in a panic, and the Song Dynasty would surely be able to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun in one fell swoop." Li Ge said. Zhao Xing's eyes lit up when he heard this, but soon dimmed. He sighed and said, "It's a pity that I am not in power now, and my father doesn't listen to me. He is determined to accumulate strength and attack Xixia."
"Attack Xixia?" Li Ge was stunned, with a hint of joy in his eyes, and asked, "Why attack Xixia?"
"Before Xixia declared independence, my father sent troops to attack, but he was defeated and lost face. Naturally, he had to destroy Xixia to wash away the shame." Zhao Xing shook his head.
"Your Highness, can't you persuade His Majesty? This opportunity is really rare." Li Ge said.
"I know this, but my father is determined to do this." Zhao Xing sighed and said, "Don't worry, I will continue to persuade you later. Just stay in Bianjing and wait."
"Your Highness, I can't stay in Bian Jing for long, otherwise Yelu Chongyuan will suspect me." Li Ge shook his head.
"But if you fail to accomplish your mission and just go back like this, won't it be just as dangerous?" Zhao Xing asked worriedly.
"This requires your Highness's help." Li Ge said with a smile.
"What can I do to help you?" Zhao Xing asked doubtfully.
"This time I came here not only to ask Your Highness to persuade His Majesty to send troops to help at the critical moment, but also to buy more royal liquids to bring back. As long as Your Highness sells me more royal liquids, I will be able to report back." Li Ge said.
Zhao Xing sneered in his heart when he heard this, but said, "You also know that the Song Dynasty is short of horses. Can you persuade Yelu Chongyuan to trade with war horses?"
Although he agreed to trade in other ways and sold some wine to Li Ge over the years, he was always very strict about the quantity.
Scarcity makes things valuable. If the quantity is too large, Yelu Chongyuan is not stupid, so he naturally would not trade with him at such a high price.
Secondly, he was worried that if such transactions became too frequent, Yelu Chongyuan would no longer be willing to trade his war horses.
"Your Highness should also know that the Liao Kingdom has strict restrictions on the number of war horses flowing into the Song Dynasty. Yelu Chongyuan is plotting something big at the moment and is extremely cautious, fearing that he would be caught. He would not agree to it." Li Ge shook his head.
Zhao Xing was somewhat reluctant when he heard this, and Li Ge hurriedly tried to persuade him, saying that if he could accomplish this, he would be able to win Yelu Chongyuan's trust and would be able to provide Zhao Xing with better information.
Zhao Xing pretended to be moved and finally agreed.
Let Li Ge and Sheng Wei connect, and contact Sheng Wei directly if there is any news.
After expressing his loyalty, Li Ge followed Sheng Wei.
"How credible do you think his words are?" Zhao Xing asked.
"I think that apart from Yelu Chongyuan's desire to rebel, the rest are not credible. I can now almost confirm that he is more of a test, and Yelu Chongyuan does not want the Song Dynasty to really send troops." Gu Tingye said.
"That's right, I thought so too. It seems that Yelu Chongyuan did not intend to launch a mutiny, but wanted to seize power through a similar assassination method." Zhao Xing said.
He didn't believe Li Ge's loyalty at all. If Li Ge really wanted to be loyal to him, he should at least provide some useful information to prove his importance.
At the same time, they will also put forward some conditions to fight for their own interests.
However, he did not do any of these, which was obviously abnormal.
Li Ge's so-called loyalty was more like a trick to trick him into finding a way to get the Song Dynasty to send troops.
Zhao Xing thought so at first, but soon realized something was wrong.
If this was really Li Ge's purpose, then there would be no way he would leave such an obvious flaw.
Therefore, Zhao Xing guessed that Li Ge did this to make sure whether the Song Dynasty would really not send troops.
The subsequent conversation also confirmed this point. Although Li Ge acted as if he really wanted the Song Dynasty to send troops, apart from saying that this was a godsend opportunity, he did not say anything more tempting.
If Yelu Chongyuan really wanted the Song Dynasty to send troops, he could have offered some cities to lure the Song Dynasty.
He said that he had people in a certain city, and when the Song Dynasty sent troops, he would open the city gates to let the Song army in.
Yet none of these.
(End of this chapter)