Volume 1 Chapter 9: New Situation
In late September, when the wind was howling, Zhao Jiu had a dream in the back hall of Mingdao Palace. He dreamed that he could travel back and forth between this era and nine hundred years later through the well, so he began to change his career and become a middleman official. In the modern era, he enjoyed the technological life and unlimited historical data, while in the Song Dynasty, he enjoyed the desire for power and the reputation of the Holy Emperor.
However, suddenly one day, Jin Wushu led 100,000 cavalrymen to the south. As the road was flat, they approached Bozhou in just a few days. Emperor Zhao could not leave this well, so he used the slogan of resisting Jin in the Central Plains and was unwilling to go south. As a result, more than 10,000 people in the imperial camp were surrounded by 100,000 Jin cavalrymen on the plains.
Next, these civil and military officials of the Song Dynasty surrendered one after another, and handed over the supplies brought by Emperor Zhao to Jin Wushu for nothing. He was forced to jump into the well and escape. Back to modern times, when we open the history books, we only see that the Song Dynasty fell to Zhao Jiu. Therefore, he had great ambitions but little talent, and finally jumped into the well and died. He was given the title of the Well Emperor by the Jin people, which made him a laughing stock for thousands of years.
Zhao Jiu woke up in the early morning with sweat all over his head, but he just raised his head and sighed softly, then carefully lifted the quilt and got up, so as not to wake up Concubine Pan beside him.
Several young eunuchs came forward and, at Zhao Jiu's signal, skillfully helped the emperor dress and tie up a leather belt for archery and horse riding. When Emperor Zhao came out of the door, he saw that it was Liu Yan on duty outside, so he didn't say much, but just nodded slightly, and the latter understood what he meant.
Soon, dozens of Liaodong cavalrymen escorted Emperor Zhao on his journey, and joined Yang Yizhong and several other riders who had caught up with them, and then they headed north under the dim light in the east.
In this period, with Yang Yizhong's betrayal and Zhang Jun's rise to prominence, Huang Qianshan and Kang Lu's small group, which had no foundation at all, or whose foundation was originally his, Emperor Zhao's, collapsed overnight:
Kang Lu was executed on the spot for speaking ill of others in the palace;
Huang Qianshan was dismissed from his post as prime minister, left his post in the Academy of Scholars, and was appointed to manage the Dongxiao Palace in Hangzhou, and moved to Lizhou.
However, apart from the two core members, the Prime Minister Wang Boyan was promoted highly and then gently put down, from the head of the Privy Council to the co-head of the Privy Council, because of the fear that people's hearts would be shaken if both the East and West Prime Ministers were dismissed in one day; in addition to this, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Camp Wang Yuan was also pardoned after he specifically went to Zhao Jiu to cry and complain.
To put it bluntly, Zhao Jiu didn't dare to clear out the court.
After this, the current situation in the court was that before Li Gang had time to return, Shangshu Youcheng (Deputy Prime Minister) Lu Haowen actually held the position of Prime Minister of the East Palace;
Wang Boyan still controls the Western Palace Privy Council;
The commander-in-chief of the imperial camp was still Wang Yuan;
Zhang Jun was promoted to the position of Chief Censor, in charge of the Imperial Censorate;
Lan Gui, another chief guard of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, hurried back from Bozhou City, but Zhao Jiu almost absurdly handed over half of the Ministry of Internal Affairs' duties to Yang Yizhong, and the two of them jointly led the Red Heart Team. Liu Yan basically replaced the guard duties;
In addition, Zhao Jiu, with the recommendation of Lu Haowen, Zhang Jun, Yang Yizhong and others, promoted a large number of close attendants such as Hanlin, Zhongshu Sheren, and Gemen Zhihou, and issued a document to summon a group of old officials who were unemployed at home, calling them to the imperial court in the name of library positions to provide advice on governance... This complex group is actually the so-called traditional secretarial team of the Zhao Song official family.
All of these, together with the six ministries that gained some real power after the Yuanfeng reform, constitute the actual core power department of the present day.
However, these alone are not enough, otherwise Zhao Jiu would not have fallen into the current dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat, and he would not be so anxious that he would worry in his dreams at night, and he would not have to ride a horse to relax every morning.
There are three problems, and these three problems are very clear just by looking at the personnel above.
First of all, finance.
Moreover, although the Yuanfeng Reform returned the financial power to the Ministry of Revenue, which was then directly under the prime minister, the Ministry of Revenue was simply like a cook without rice in the current situation. To put it bluntly, the real source of funds still depended on the deportations from the Yangtze River Basin. To be specific, Liang Yangzu, who was the editor of Jiying Palace, the attendant of Huiyou Pavilion, the prefect of Yangzhou, the transport envoy of Jianghuai and other routes, and the person in charge of tea and salt affairs in the southeast, needed to send the financial resources from the southeast.
This important official who took in the remnants of the Western Army, including Zhang Jun, Yang Yizhong, Miao Fu, and Tian Shizhong, and who almost saved Emperor Zhao's life, was actually the God of Wealth of the entire exiled small court. But at this time, he had probably just arrived in Jiangnan...
In a word, there is still no big money to really do anything here!
Beyond that, there is the army.
After fully coming into contact with the government, Zhao Jiu was basically certain that, with the Western Army's road blocked, he now had the Imperial Camp plus the troops of Zong Ze, the governor of Tokyo. The commanders of the Imperial Camp were basically suppressing bandits in the two routes of Jingdong (Shandong area) and the two routes of Huainan (Lianghuai area). In fact, less than half of the bandits had been suppressed at this time, and it might require a rotation and rest before the bandits in various places could be almost dealt with.
In other words, there is currently no large-scale army that can truly fight here!
In fact, this is the fundamental reason why Zhao Jiu did not deal with Wang Yuan and Wang Boyan. In the current situation, they have no control over the military power at all. The troops are in the hands of various military leaders, and Zhao Jiu can communicate directly with these military leaders, big and small.
Apart from having no soldiers and no money, what made Zhao Jiu feel most overwhelmed, or what really made Zhao Jiu so worried these days, was Grandpa Zong Zezong, the person he had been looking forward to the most!
There was no other reason. Grandpa Zong really didn't take him seriously and treated him like a naughty kid.
First of all, when Zhao Jiu first issued an edict to go to Tokyo to find Zong Ze to be the Privy Councilor, Zong Ze accepted the position of Privy Councilor but was not willing to come to Bozhou to see Zhao Jiu at all. The reason was naturally that the war in Tokyo was critical, because Jin soldiers had already appeared at Sishui Pass and the war was very intense.
Then, Zhao Jiu continued to send messengers to tell Zong Ze that Huang Qianshan was dismissed from his post and that he had re-employed Li Gang. So Grandpa Zong immediately wrote back, explaining the difficult situation around Tokyo and bluntly stating that Tokyo was suffering from famine, and then asked for soldiers, money, and food... Zhao Jiu could certainly understand this, and although he naturally had no soldiers, he still had a little bit of money and food in stock, so he almost tightened his belt and tried his best to support Grandpa Zong. He even scraped the gold powder off Daozu Jin's body and melted it and sent it over!
Then, after about seven or eight days, Li Gang had just returned to the Huaixi area, but he encountered a rebel named Ding Jin who had just emerged from the Huaixi area and blocked his way. So Prime Minister Li sent a document remotely, stating his political program first, and asked the governor to prepare everything here, and wait for the governor to arrive before going to Nanyang with him... Unexpectedly, this document attracted the attention of Grandpa Zong because it was delivered by a detour. The latter immediately sent a document to the governor, saying that the grain price in Tokyo had calmed down a lot, and he now had a million troops, which was enough to resist the enemy, so the governor should not go to Nanyang, but go directly back to the old capital!
This is simply too absurd. Not to mention that they needed soldiers and food just now and said that there was a famine in Tokyo, and the next thing they said was that the food prices in Tokyo had stabilized. The key is the million-strong army... There were definitely a million refugees in Tokyo, but a million-strong army is too much of a joke!
At this time, Zhao Jiu really felt the helplessness of being looked down upon, and this helplessness was probably even more serious than what Zhao Gou felt before. After all, if he was like the previous Zhao Gou, who was only thinking about fleeing south, he would have ignored these words and ran to Yangzhou. The key point was that Zhao Jiu vaguely understood Zong Ze's thoughts!
The reason why Zong Ze lied to Zhao Jiu so openly and fooled Zhao Jiu so much was that he was afraid that Zhao Jiu would run away again! And once Zhao Jiu started to escape again this time, as long as he ran to Yangzhou on the Yangtze River, even if he didn't cross the river, what Grandpa Zong said in his memorial would come true - the Central Plains and the people of Hebei were there. Once they gave up, it would take more than ten years and hundreds of thousands of troops to take it back!
And precisely because he understood Zong Ze's painstaking efforts, Zhao Jiu could not ignore the other party's intentions. But the problem was, if he really went to Tokyo as Zong Ze wanted, it would definitely be a dead end, right?
Although Zhao Jiu did not understand the historical details, in history, Jin Wushu chased Zhao Gou all the way, searching the mountains and seas, and only exhausted his strength when he attacked the south of the Yangtze River. On the way back, he still defeated Han Shizhong's main force and successfully returned north. This shows that the main direction of the next wave of Jin army's attack would be where Zhao Jiu was, and Jin Wushu's main force was actually targeting Emperor Zhao himself!
In this situation, even if Grandpa Zong has defended Tokyo for several years like a pillar in history, which is a miracle, but once I go there and attract Jin Wushu's 100,000 main forces to Tokyo, if I really use that million-strong army to resist, I'm afraid I will be wiped out, right?
However, what is even more frustrating is that when Zhao Jiu told Zong Ze about his concerns about the third southward march of the main force of the Jin army, Grandpa Zong did not believe it at all. According to Grandpa Zong, the Grand Marshal and Second Prince of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Wulibu, are dead, and the three people in the Jin army, Nianhan, Talai, and Wuzhu, will inevitably fight for power. In the short term, no one can be the commander-in-chief to lead the main force south. Please don't worry... By the way, Grandpa Zong also updated the data. There are now two million troops in Tokyo!
This is the most helpless thing for Emperor Zhao - it would be fine if he didn't have the power temporarily, but after he drove away the treacherous ministers, the loyal ministers actually didn't believe him!
Especially, Li Gang has been proven to be a prime minister but not a general, and although Zong Ze is not good at leading troops into battle, he is one of the most outstanding generals of this era and the biggest reliance he had thought of before!
The sun rises in the east. Zhao Jiu stands by the Wo River, looking northwest. If it weren't for the fact that Tokyo is a place where it would be difficult to get out once you enter, he really wants to ride a horse to Tokyo and show his heart to Zong Ze... and by the way, see if Yue Pengju, whom he is obsessed with, is there.
Of course, with Grandpa Zong’s attitude, Zhao Jiu became less and less confident about what the 24-year-old Yue Pengju could do.
"It's getting light, Your Majesty. Let's go back as soon as possible, otherwise people will be uneasy." Seeing Zhao Jiu looking at the ancient capital again, Liu Yan was moved but he did not forget his duty, so he took the initiative to step forward to persuade him.
"Let's go." Zhao Jiu glanced towards the northwest again, finally sighed softly, and then turned around to go down the embankment.
He knew that Zong Ze's correspondence would probably stop in the next few days, because Li Gang would soon take a detour from Huaixi to Bozhou, and then this Prime Minister Li would preside over the transfer of the imperial court to Nanyang, and might even further enter Guanzhong from Nanyang... In this environment, Zong Ze would not be able to compete with Li Gang, the banner of the pro-war faction, otherwise he would not have submitted letters so repeatedly before Li Gang returned.
But if we ignore Zong Ze and listen to the arrangements of other ministers, and retreat a few steps to a strategic location, be it Guanzhong, Jingxiang, or Yangzhou, and quietly accumulate strength, farm and train soldiers, as long as we don't make mistakes, it seems that we can win by just changing a dog. The only thing is that we will have to wait for more than ten years and hundreds of thousands of soldiers will die!
As the saying goes, fame and glory are reduced to dust at the age of thirty... In history, when Yue Peng won the twelve gold medals, he must have been at least thirty-five years old, right? That means it was at least twelve years later.
It is said that the knights had just got down the embankment and mounted their horses, when unexpectedly a goshawk suddenly flew across the sky, gliding from the southeast to the northwest, attracting the knights to look .
Zhao Jiu also looked back in surprise, feeling doubtful and suspicious, but ultimately at a loss as to what to do.
