Chapter 634: Ma Yi has a backup plan
Unexpectedly, the emperor boarded the official ship back to Chengdu early the next morning.
Someone from the Shunfeng District of Xuzhou reported to Wu Yuqi: As soon as Zhao Ruilan came ashore, she started to speak nonsense, talking about the privileges of the emperor, princess and the royal family of the previous dynasty, and wanted to kill the soldiers who sent her back. She was so arrogant and arrogant. In the evening, Mr. Zhao took Zhao Ruilan to the beggar chicken restaurant by the Jinsha River for dinner. This woman also complained that our court had no officials to accompany her, and she had no etiquette at all, and was too slow to her.
Shunfengchu analyzed that Mr. Zhao was probably unable to convince his capricious daughter, so he boarded the ship back to Chengdu early in the morning.
Wu Yuqi basically figured it out. It must be that Zhao Ruilan still wanted to live a life like a princess, so she pretended to be confused and acted like a spoiled child to get privileges.
The Song Dynasty had perished long ago since the fall of Lin'an. Since its founding, the New Song Dynasty court has been promoting a republic in newspapers and tabloids. There is no emperor, and all privileges of the royal family have been abolished. It is impossible that she had not heard of this since she was mixing with Mongolian princes and nobles.
If that’s the case, why does this girl still act like a princess after she came back?
She is absolutely the same as the Queen Mother, still obsessed with restoration and taking back what belongs to the royal family.
As expected, the emperor didn't want Zhao Ruilan to have fun in Xuzhou anymore and asked her to board the ship and return to Chengdu. The empress dowager was upset and complained that the emperor didn't keep his word and said he would take Lan'er to Xinshi to take the train, but he changed his mind and didn't love Lan'er anymore.
The emperor glared at the empress dowager and told her to stay out of it and not lead Lan'er astray.
Zhao Ruilan even ran to help the empress dowager up and acted coquettishly, saying that she loved her grandmother the most and wanted to have a good chat with her grandmother. The old and the young quickly became .
In the state of Song in the southeast of the South China Sea, the false emperor Zhao Bing is already dying.
When this guy saw that the naval warships of the united small countries in Southeast Asia were blocking the sky, he had to encourage his soldiers to overthrow them before he could gain a foothold in Song Dynasty.
Therefore, Zhao Bing ignored the Queen's dissuasion and the ministers' advice, and boarded the treasure ship to lead the army in person. The last navy of the Song Dynasty in the South China Sea and the Nanyang Allied Forces fought a desperate battle in a bay thirty miles outside the Song Island.
The Nanyang coalition had many ships, and at the beginning of the battle, three fleets of arrow formations rushed forward. The two sides quickly fought from morning to sunset, and the next day they fought until the afternoon. Both the Song army and the Nanyang coalition suffered heavy losses. Because the emperor personally supervised the battle, the Song army had fewer warships than the coalition, but they had more ships and higher morale, and they fought to the death. After both sides were exhausted, the coalition took the initiative to withdraw from the battlefield.
However, Zhao Bing's treasure ship was severely damaged, and he was hit in the chest by the flying ship wood. He spurted out blood on the spot and was seriously injured.
The leader of the Nanyang coalition, Lord Ma Yi, was surprised at the strength of the Song army when he saw that they still could not win despite such a large army. How could the emperor of the Song Dynasty, who was as frightened as a stray dog, occupy a large island with such a small number of troops, resist the navies of so many island countries in Nanyang?
He admired the power of the Emperor of Middle-earth from the bottom of his heart.
Not long ago, the Zhenla commander mobilized fifty ships to provoke the escort fleet of the New Song Dynasty, but three warships were sunk from a distance. Even the coalition's command ship was sunk. This was also the reason why the coalition's attack on the Song army on Song Island failed. Their morale had long been declining.
In the eyes of Lord Ma Yi, both the Great Song and the New Song were the imperial courts of the Central Plains. They both had the word "Song" in their names, so they were definitely related. Lord Ma Yi was worried that the Song army on the Song Island could not be eliminated in a short time, and if the navy of the New Song went south to support them, they would be in danger.
This guy heard from maritime trade merchants that the warships and cargo ships of the New Song Dynasty were densely packed in the major ports, with countless sails stretching from the sky to the ground.
The spies who stayed in the New Song Kingdom also reported that the New Song Kingdom had a large population, vast land, abundant resources, and gold and silver everywhere, making it very rich. The New Song Kingdom had already repelled the powerful enemy in the north, and he had to leave himself a way out.
This guy immediately summoned the chief envoy of the Ministry of Rites and quietly arranged the arrangements for the diplomatic mission to the New Song Kingdom.
On Lusong Island north of Mayi, Zhao Bing's luck was not so good.
This guy was a lonely man guarding a small island as an emperor, and he had to lead the army in person to expand the territory. Although this battle temporarily stabilized the situation, it was evenly matched and no one was decided. Or it could be said that he was already losing, because the Nanyang coalition had backup, while Zhao Bing could only rely on the island to fight.
The guy was hit hard, and the pain in his chest made him numb. He thought he was doomed to die, and he was filled with grief. He coughed and spit out two large mouthfuls of blood, then called the queen and two sons to come up and tell him about his funeral.
Outside the palace, the commander-in-chief of the navy and the deputy commander Zheng Qilang were already glaring with anger and on the verge of a fight. The guards on both sides held the scabbard in their left hands and the hilt in their right hands, ready to attack at any time.
At this time, the attendants in the palace shouted: The commander-in-chief of the Xuanshui Division is here to see you.
The commander-in-chief looked at Zheng Qilang triumphantly, then walked towards the palace with his personal guards with his head held high.
Zheng Qilang thought that the fake emperor was about to die, and he must make arrangements for his funeral. He had risked his life for Zhao Bing and made great contributions, but in the end, Zhao Bing still trusted a bunch of good-for-nothings.
The man was furious and immediately signaled to the guards around him. The captain of the guards shouted, "Kill!" He immediately led his brothers to the palace and killed anyone they saw. The men prepared behind Zheng Qilang suddenly jumped out and quickly killed the navy commander and all his guards, and killed their way to the depths of the palace.
After a short while, Zheng Qillang came out with a bloody sword, and his personal guards killed the false emperor Zhao Bing, the queen, the imperial concubines and the princes all.
This fellow publicly announced that it was the commander-in-chief who was plotting a rebellion and killing the king and usurping the throne. He, Zheng Qilang, led his troops to the king's defense, killed the commander-in-chief, and completely wiped out the rebellion.
While all the officials and generals were still in shock, Zheng Qillang had already begun to eliminate the confidants of the naval commander and quickly controlled the situation. The old and young people in the court cried loudly in front of the cold bodies of the false emperor and the empress and imperial concubines. They were at a loss. What should they do?
Zheng Qilang told the ministers with confidence: We cannot do without a backbone in the army right now. A powerful enemy is right before our eyes and we must unite to fight.
This guy hypocritically said that the emperor is gone, but the New Song Kingdom in the Central Plains is still there. We are all Song people, so we should naturally respect the New Song as the court. I dare to propose to change the Lu Song Kingdom to the Lu Song Governor's Office. I am not talented, but I am willing to serve as the temporary governor and lead the troops to fight against the Nanman, and I will die in pieces.
Damn it, this guy took the real power on Song Island into his own hands with just a few words.
All the ministers could see that this palace coup was definitely planned and executed by this guy, and they cursed Zheng Qilang's eight generations of ancestors in their hearts. Someone wanted to argue, but his colleague immediately pulled his sleeve and whispered to him, "Look carefully, the tip of the sword in Zheng Qilang's hand is still dripping with blood. If you don't want to die, shut up."
There were also some brave ones. The loyal ministers around the three little emperors knew that it was Zheng Qilang who directed this palace coup. They cursed the seven sons for rebellion and said that it was intolerable to heaven. They rushed forward crying and demanded that Zheng Qilang return their emperor to them.
Zheng Qillang was embarrassed to kill people in public when he saw that the beards of these pedantic scholars had all turned white.
He shook his head and said: Since the three gentlemen do not trust me, and they are all talented and well-educated people, I might as well go to Ma Yi to persuade Nanyang to cease fighting.
If it succeeds, I will leave it to the three old gentlemen to deal with it.
After saying that, he waved his hand, and immediately soldiers dragged the three old ministers out and put them on a small boat. Zheng Qilang smiled and told them to row the boat themselves to prevent others from accusing him of wanting to kill people to silence them.
The guy waved goodbye to the small boat with a smile and shouted: We will definitely reach Mayi Country by following the ocean current.
The generals and officials on the shore were terrified, thinking how could these three old guys, who could not row a boat and had no food supplies, go to Mayi? Maybe they would be fed to sharks in three or five days.
The three pedantic scholars were so frightened that they lay on the bottom of the boat and cursed the seven sons for being unfilial and inhumane. But their voices became smaller and smaller as the boat drifted further and further away.
In this way, Zheng Qillang successfully became the governor of the Song Dynasty and summoned all civil and military officials to discuss matters. The first thing he did was to promote Shi Lang to the position of chief commander of the navy.
He said: Although we have fewer people, we still occupy Lusong Island. We must unite closely to defeat the coalition forces of small countries in the south.
This guy found that although the Shenwei soldiers who followed Shi Lang hated him for surrendering to the false emperor Zhao Bing, they were not ambiguous at all when fighting the Nanyang coalition. Moreover, these brothers were upright and trusted by the navy soldiers. Several backbones also led the warships to attack, and the naval battle was very methodical. He promoted these people without hesitation.
This guy also organized the indigenous people on the island to guard the docks and ports.
After three consecutive blows of the axe, Zheng Qilang basically stabilized the situation. He called Shilang for a drink and said miserably: Now we are grasshoppers on the same rope. If we want to gain a foothold in Nanyang, we must completely defeat the Nanyang Coalition Forces.
This requires brothers to take action.
Shilang looked at him in confusion.
This guy explained in detail that Shi Lang should set off immediately and return to the New Song Kingdom to seek help. Without waiting for Shi Lang's consent, he had already arranged for his assistant and the ship, and sent Shi Lang out to sea in front of everyone, heading north to seek help from his motherland.
At the South Gate of Chengdu of the New Song Dynasty, the emperor got off the official ship with his family with a very bad look on his face. Zhao Ruilan, who was returning all the way, was stunned when he saw the luxurious and imposing South Gate Pier.
She climbed the steps to the dock. From the shore to the city gate, it was all paved with white marble. The surface of the stone was polished flat, and it looked like a calm lake in the sun. Qingsong Zhao Ruilan looked up at the city gate. The bright red flag on the tower was fluttering in the wind. The soldiers guarding the city were wearing green military caps, grass-green military uniforms, and armed belts around their waists, standing like green pines.
Zhao Ruilan asked his father in surprise: Are these our soldiers?
So majestic.
The deacon of the Ministry of Rites said proudly: These are the Shenwei Army specially organized by the Third Young Master to garrison the imperial capital. Only the garrison soldiers wear green military uniforms, while the other Shenwei Army soldiers are still wearing gray cloth clothes.
The old emperor nodded with emotion and said: I heard that the army is going to undergo major changes again. In the future, our empire’s army will be the most powerful army in the world.
Let’s go home.
Zhao Ruilan got into the carriage and looked around the streets with curiosity and delight. She marveled at the size and prosperity of Chengdu city and was extremely happy.
