Volume 1 Chapter 20: Question
The dangers in troubled times are always inexplicable and confusing, just like Han Shizhong's rebellion this time. It was indeed absurd, but the danger did exist, because it is natural for human beings to do anything without constraints.
In fact, theoretically speaking, this is not the first time that our Emperor Zhao has encountered a similar incident. Previously, when he was in the imperial court, some people from the Red Heart Team misunderstood his words and thought that the Jin army had arrived, so they planned to capture him as a stepping stone to return to Liaodong.
On the other hand, this could not be the last time. According to the style of China's professional military after the Tang Dynasty, there would be countless similar incidents recorded in history books until the end of the Song Dynasty, and perhaps even until the end of the Ming Dynasty.
However, this false alarm was also special... Because after being forced into a corner, Zhao Jiu, who was willing to give it his all, gained not only an unprecedented sense of security, nor did he begin to have some inexplicable confidence. The key was that other people's views of this Emperor Zhao also underwent some subtle changes.
"Mr. Li is ill. Is he really unable to take on the job?"
Under the personal protection of Han Shizhong, at noon on the fifth day of November, Zhao Jiufu, wearing a cowhide belt, had just arrived outside Shunchang Prefecture (now Yingzhou City, later Fuyang) when he heard the report from Shangshu Youcheng Lu Haowen.
However, like everyone else, Emperor Zhao was neither too surprised nor overly worried.
The reason for this is that everyone knows the cause of Li Gang's illness before, and the deepening of his illness is expected. Moreover, Li Gang is only 45 years old this year, and he is usually strong and energetic. In addition, he has come to Shunchang City, a big city with no shortage of medicine, so he can be properly taken care of. Therefore, he does not need to worry too much about the probability of cold.
However, apart from this, one thing that everyone knew was that although Li Gang was outstanding in administration and was a good hand at managing the affairs of state, he was careless and violent in his actions and no one knew how many people he had offended. No one knew how many people were eager to see him take a break so that everyone could catch their breath.
Besides, isn't there an official here who has put down a rebellion with a hundred cavalrymen and tied up the military power with a belt? Everyone is not without a backbone.
Back to the present, Han Shizhong, with seven or eight thousand soldiers, of course could not lead the troops into the city. He went outside the city to arrange defenses and set up camps. Zhao Jiu, surrounded by civil and military officials, entered Shunchang Prefecture. When he brought all the officials back from visiting Li Gang and settled down, it was already evening.
However, when the official had just taken his seat in the government hall, ready to explain what had happened and to communicate, Wang Boyan, co-director of the Privy Council, stepped forward cautiously... It turned out that Shunchang Prefecture (Fuyang) was an important town on the Huai River, connecting the two Huai Rivers and a thoroughfare by land and water. Therefore, information from all sides had been gathered here in just three to five days. After all, Wang Boyan was the head of the Privy Council here, so he dared not fail to report it.
"In five days, Jinan Prefecture (formerly Qizhou, now the area around Jinan) was gone?" Zhao Jiu was dumbfounded. "I have also seen the map. Jinan Prefecture is so big, and it is also the capital of Jingdong East Road. Jinan City is also a world-famous city with a large population. How could it be gone in five days? It would take the Jin army five days to run over there, right?"
"Good instructor, I know." Wang Boyan's words became more cautious. "I know that Jinan Prefecture Liu Yu surrendered Jinan to the Jin Dynasty. Guan Sheng, the original garrison commander of Jinan Prefecture, wanted to go out of the city and set up camps to resist the enemy, but was poisoned by Liu Yu. This happened more than ten days ago..."
Zhao Jiu was confused for a moment, as if thinking about something.
Of course, he would think about it. First of all, the name Guan Sheng was too familiar. Secondly, Liu Yu also had a vague impression at this time, probably like a well-known traitor. At this time, these vague information overlapped together, and Zhao Jiu roughly understood in his heart that this should be a cutscene and a plot killing... He was seven or eight hundred miles away and had never intervened in Shandong affairs. The butterfly effect should not have spread over, so naturally there was nothing he could do.
However, Emperor Zhao was wrong. He certainly didn't know that this incident was actually caused by him, or the real large-scale butterfly effect, which had already started from the time he stayed in Bozhou and swept across the whole world!
Take this incident for example. In fact, if Zhao Jiu had not called Li Gang back, but fled all the way south to Yangzhou, then this famous traitor might have to wait until next year to take office in the already ruined Jinan and surrender there. But now, because Emperor Zhao had been stationed in Bozhou for a long time and waited there for Li Gang to come back and make drastic changes to the government, Liu Yu, the chief judge who escaped from Hebei, did not even have time to travel around Jianghuai and took office in Jinan Prefecture ahead of schedule.
But it doesn't matter. Under the overall situation, there are many civil servants like Liu Yu who are frightened by the Jin army and hate the ruling party when they hear that they will take office on the bank of the Yellow River! And to be honest, Jinan Prefecture will bear the brunt of the attack. The main force of the 100,000 Jin army will go south. Even if they can really hold out for a while, they can only delay for a few days, or force the Jin army to divide its troops and besiege the city.
What else?
Does Zhao Jiu still have troops to rescue? If Liu Guangshi can stabilize the south side of Mount Tai, he will be thankful.
On the other hand, as high-ranking officials, Liu Yu and his people probably knew the strengths and weaknesses of the Central Plains. In addition, they were spineless and had evil natures, so they became traitors without any pressure.
"Behind Jinan Prefecture is Zibo Prefecture (now the area of Zibo, Shandong Province), right?" After Zhao Jiu 'understood' it, he was not too surprised, nor did he talk too much about it. In the eyes of the civil and military officials, this was naturally quite generous. "Who is the governor of Zibo Prefecture?"
"Reporting to the emperor, it is Zhao Mingcheng." Shangshu Youcheng Lü Haowen replied immediately. Since the deputy prime minister knew that Zhao Jiu had forgotten a lot of people, he took the initiative to say a few more words. "Zhao Mingcheng, courtesy name Defu, is the third son of the former prime minister Zhao Ting. He was previously framed by the traitor Cai Jing and stayed in Qingzhou for more than ten years. He was recruited a few years ago and served in Qingzhou and Zibo. This time, he was appointed by Prime Minister Li..."
Zhao Jiu heard this and suddenly shook his head and laughed: "Of course I know this, he is the husband of Yi An Jushi! This man should not surrender to the Jin Dynasty, right?"
"Of course not!" Lu Haowen replied very quickly. "How could the son of a prime minister surrender to the Jin Dynasty? Only a scoundrel like Liu Yu from Hebei would cause such a disaster!"
"That's good." Zhao Jiu sighed, and then spoke clearly. "We are still blocked by the road here. When the Huaixi bandits are defeated and Li Xianggong wakes up, the generals and prime ministers will discuss the future... The most urgent thing is to find out the situation of the battle in Caizhou and Guangzhou."
After these words were spoken, all the civil and military officials present here actually breathed a sigh of relief... To be honest, people's mentality is really strange. When Li Gang was in power, everyone always felt that he was too violent and impatient, and hoped that the emperor would come out to stir up trouble. But when Li Gang fell ill and the emperor temporarily took charge of the situation, everyone remembered the emperor's previous words such as "can we have a fight?", but they were worried that the emperor would go crazy, and instead hoped to continue Li Gang's original route.
But no matter what, let's not talk about what the civil and military officials here think, nor about their panic and sensation after they later learned about the "Prince's" words, the emperor came back and convened this court meeting, and after he stated that he would not change the roadmap without authorization, the exiled court of the Song Dynasty finally had a few days of peace.
However, this kind of peace and security was only superficial, a temporary stability under the collapse of the overall situation…In the next few days, as Liu Zhengyan's battle in the southwest was at a disadvantage, or the Huaixi bandit Ding Jin knew that his troops were weak and he joined forces to defend the city, Liu Zhengyan was helpless for a while; plus, Li Gang's illness came and went like a mountain, and although his condition was stable, he was still unable to come out to preside over the situation…The stability here in Shunchang Prefecture became more and more ridiculous, and restlessness permeated the entire city.
On November 13, another piece of news came - a few days ago, Zhao Mingcheng, the son of the prime minister, the husband of Yi An Jushi, and the prefect of Zibo, although he did not surrender to the Jin, chose to abandon the city and flee like many civil servants of the Song Dynasty in recent years. He also took thousands of local troops of Zibo to the neighboring Qingzhou, and Zibo fell on the 8th.
At this moment, the whole line was shocked, and some people began to persuade Emperor Zhao to take the opportunity to change the route from Shunchang Prefecture to the southeast and go to Yangzhou!
Of course, this person encountered the first manual operation since Zhao Jiu came out of the well... Wasn't he going to the south? Just in time to go to Qiongzhou to wait for Mr. Huang!
However, on November 15, just two days later, not long after the urging of Liu Zhengyan was issued, another piece of bad news came:
By the way, Liu , was a good man. Instead of surrendering or running away, he gathered the fleeing soldiers from Jinan Prefecture and Zibo Prefecture, as well as the local troops of Qingzhou, and gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. He handed them over to the command of Zheng Zongmeng, the general of the prefecture. Zheng Zongmeng was not a coward either. He took the initiative to lead his troops to the border of Qingzhou and Zibo Prefecture, and took advantage of the geographical location to engage in a field battle with the main force of the Jin army!
As a result, he was defeated in one battle by Jin Wushu, who had five thousand households!
At this point, the official power of the Song Dynasty in Jingdong East Road was basically lost, and the entire Jingdong East Road could be declared to have completely fallen.
Here, he was so shocked that he was speechless for a whole day . Later, news came that Zhang Kan, the magistrate of Qingzhou, died for his country, and Liu Hongdao and Zhao Mingcheng fled south together, but no one paid any attention... Because the whole imperial court was in chaos, there was an endless stream of memorials requesting Emperor Zhao to immediately set off for the southeast; there were also a few suggesting to set up a defense line along the Huai River; impeaching Liu Zhengyan for incompetence and asking Han Shizhong to replace him was a necessary phrase in almost all memorials.
In the midst of this chaos, in the afternoon, several important officials of the central government who had gathered intelligence on the appearance of Nianhan's main force in Luoyang and Shanzhou, led by Shangshu Youcheng Lu Haowen, came back from a collective visit to Li Gang. They immediately went to pay a visit to the emperor and prepare to convene an emergency meeting of the Council of State... But then they were shocked to find that Emperor Zhao had actually abandoned the civil and military officials in the city at this critical moment and secretly left the city to go to Han Shizhong's military camp on the banks of the Yingshui River.
" Why wear a jade belt?" Zhao Jiu stood on the river bank for a long time, and finally waited for Han Shizhong who came hurriedly. As soon as he turned around and spoke, Yang Yi felt a little sour in his heart.
"How can I really carry such a valuable treasure with me every day?" Han Shizhong, who had just stepped onto the embankment, bowed hastily and grinned, but this time he stood straight. "I'll leave it in the camp for my wife to keep!"
"As long as it doesn't delay you from going into battle, you should wear this kind of thing every day to show off to others." Zhao Jiu didn't care. "What's the point of keeping it?"
Han Shizhong nodded repeatedly... He thought so too. If some people are jealous, then so be it. Wouldn't it be meaningless if they weren't jealous?
" Let's not talk about this," Zhao Jiu turned around and took the opportunity to change the subject, but he became serious. "Does Liangchen know what I came to you to ask privately?"
"I know!" Han Shizhong raised his hand and pointed to the sky, saying directly, "Your Majesty, give me ten days. If I fail to defeat Ding Jin, I will bring my head to you!"
"What's Ding Jin?" Zhao Jiu shook his head with his hands behind his back. "No matter how incompetent Liu Zhengyan is, he will only be a few more days..."
"That official..." Han Shizhong was a scoundrel, but not a fool. Almost instantly he thought of some rumors he had heard in recent days, and then he came to his senses a little.
"Good minister, I am forced into a corner again. Tell me the truth." Zhao Jiu gritted his teeth and took two steps forward, shook Han Shizhong's hand, and asked a question that had been in his mind for a long time. "In this situation, can't the Jin people really fight them face to face?"
Han Shizhong's hands were held, and he wanted to speak several times, but stopped several times... How could he not know the debate in Shunchang City, how could he not know the current situation? How could he not know that his words might contribute to the direction of the situation?
But after an unknown amount of time, this famous general whom Zhao Jiu relied on finally responded formally and seriously: "Good instructor, you know that the Central Plains is a vast land with hundreds of thousands of Jin cavalry. It is really difficult for us to fight..."
Zhao Jiu was depressed for a moment.
