The king and his minister exchanged a few words, which was considered as the end of their "greetings", and then they slowly walked into the hall together.
At this time, Zhao Jiu finally sensed the weakness of the other person's body and determined that he was probably just in a state of last breath. Because when he supported this person who had traveled around the world for ten years when he was young and was famous for his strong body and rough words and deeds, he could hardly feel the weight of his hands.
However, the more this happened, the more cautious Zhao Jiu became... because at this time, 'Grandpa Zong' was actually 'invincible' to him, an official.
In fact, it was not just Zhao Jiu. People like Hu Yin, the Chief Censor who was known as half-prime minister, Lin Jingmo, the internal confidant of the government officials, and Lan Gui, the chief escort of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, all became cautious after seeing the scene just now and understanding the connection. People like Wanqi Xie, Wang Shan, Guo Zhongxun, etc. were even a little terrified.
But no matter what, now that they were here, they had no choice but to look at each other and then carefully enter the hall.
"Why are you all so careful?" Zong Ze sat down in the first seat on the left hand with the help of Zhao Guanjia, and called his son to serve him. Seeing Zhao Guanjia sitting down, but the others did not dare to move, he could not help but laugh again. "Do you think I am not treating you well enough? Today is just a private banquet, don't be restrained just because the emperor is here."
The government has no constraints!
Hu Yin and others became more and more helpless, but they had no choice but to sit down. And then, since the prime minister had spoken publicly, they did not dare to follow the rules of public banquets and rank the guests according to their official positions. Instead, they followed the customs of private banquets in the officialdom in previous years and arranged the seats according to their seniority and background. In the end, the four Jinshi candidates, Guo Zhongxun, Lin Jingmo, and Hu Yin, sat on the left according to their seniority, while Lan Gui, Wanqi Xie, Liu Yan, Wang Shan and a bunch of other people carefully sat opposite.
The banquet was very crude, the wine was not good, and there were not many dishes. Of course, everyone was so nervous that they had no mood to enjoy it.
"I heard that the official Yanling won the battle?"
As expected, after everyone was seated, they reluctantly ate some dishes, but before the wine was poured, Zong Ze, who had just said that it was a private banquet, started asking questions again.
"Let the garrison commander know that Yanling was indeed victorious." Guo Zhongxun, who was standing beside him, was invigorated this and quickly spoke up. "More than a dozen Meng'an were completely wiped out, Wanhu Pucha Hubalu was also killed, the enemy in Zhongmu retreated, and Wanyan Talan..."
"I'm asking the emperor." Zong Ze tried hard to turn his head and look at his prosecutor, who just lowered his head and dared not speak after being looked at by him.
"That's true." Zhao Jiu was straightforward. "But this battle was forced into a desperate situation, and we had no choice but to fight for our lives. Since it was a desperate move, the cause is not worthy of praise, and the result is still unknown."
"Let's not talk about the cause for now, but the result is still worth talking about." Under the candlelight in the room, Zong Ze squinted his eyes and looked at Emperor Zhao carefully, then shook his head slowly. "Song and Jin have been fighting for five years, with few victories and many defeats. Every victory is worthy of praise, let alone such a big victory? In my opinion, after Changsha is recovered, the Wuhe area will return to the hands of the royal army, and the Jin army will be separated from the north and the south. This situation has already come to life..."
"I beg to differ." Zhao Jiu also shook his head. "The Jin army has more than 200,000 households in the east and west, and the whole country probably has 300,000 people. A dozen or so Meng An are not enough to shake the overall situation. Moreover, the final outcome of this battle still depends on the situation of Han Shizhong and Yue Fei in the next few days."
"Then what does it mean to have a result?" Zong Ze lowered his head and thought for a moment, then asked again with a serious expression.
"In fact, in my opinion, regardless of victory or defeat, the only priority is to force the Jin army across the Yellow River as soon as possible." Zhao Jiu was still straightforward. "Just try not to delay the spring farming in Henan..."
"That's true." Zong Ze leaned on his son's arm, thinking. "Your Majesty is the Son of Heaven, so you should be looking at things from a higher perspective... But after all, it's a great victory for the Royal Army, so it can't be faked. Besides, Han Shizhong and Yue Fei are both talented generals, so I think the overall situation will not be delayed... Let's drink a cup of victory and congratulate the Royal Army."
Everyone in the hall breathed a sigh of relief, and then quickly raised their glasses. Even Zong Ze himself reluctantly took a sip from the glass his son raised.
However, as everyone put down their cups, the next moment, as the clan minister continued to speak, everyone became nervous again:
"Your Majesty, Du Chong was a great minister, why was he killed by your own hands in the hall?"
"His son Du Yan personally reported to the Prime Minister that Du Chong and Talai agreed not to fight, which violated the previous edict of Bagong Mountain..." Zhao Jiu had already replied concisely, but at this point, he sighed. "In fact, even if it is based on this, it is still possible to kill him or not. However, if he is not killed, firstly, I cannot properly obtain the military power and intimidate the commanders of the Tokyo garrison to ask for an immediate dispatch of troops; secondly, I will not be at peace!"
"The emperor is really frank today." Zong Ze couldn't help but smile.
"I dare not be disrespectful to my superior, Lord Prime Minister." Zhao Jiu bowed calmly.
"In this case, I am still curious about one thing...Why can't the emperor settle this matter?" Zong Ze smiled.
"We fled from Nanyang to Yanling to gather troops, and suffered heavy casualties along the way." Zhao Jiu answered patiently.
"I don't believe it." Zong Ze suddenly shook his head.
"Why?"
"In the past in Hebei, the emperor didn't even take care of his own father, brother, mother and sister. How could he sympathize with and care about ordinary soldiers?" Zong Ze's tone was still flat, but there was a hint of awe in his words.
If anyone else in the hall had a heart disease, they would have had a heart attack on the spot and died even faster than Mr. Zong. But even if they were not sick, many people wanted to cover their ears immediately. As for Hu Yin, who always had his own opinions and expressed them without restraint, he could hardly bear it at this moment.
But Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment, and then followed the "no worries when a man is about to die" clan minister and made a shocking statement:
"Why cry for a family instead of a stranger? The world is in turmoil due to the wars, and the number of casualties is in the hundreds of millions... As the emperor, I must talk about filial piety in front of outsiders, but I don't have the time to care about a family. I should be thinking about military equipment, food, money, and silk, and taking care of the soldiers and the city, so that the world can be peaceful as soon as possible. There is no need to talk about anything else."
After these words were spoken, the first person to react was the Chief Censor Hu Yin. He immediately stood up from behind his desk, his face flushed, and wanted to speak, but he didn't know what to say for a moment and could only stand there in a daze.
Zong Ze and Emperor Zhao looked back at this person, but they didn't take it seriously. Instead, they continued to chat with each other, as if they were just goingssiping:
"When I was in Hebei, I never saw the government thinking about peace in the world."
"Let's not talk about the falling into the well, just put yourself in my shoes. When I was in Hebei, did I ever think that I would become an official?"
"That makes sense, but it only applies to the period before the two emperors went north. After the two emperors went north, why did the emperor so hastily abandon the people of Hebei and cross the river to ascend the throne? And after ascending the throne, why did he abandon all the arrangements in Hebei?"
"I think it was because I was young at that time, and was bewitched by Huang Qianshan, Kang Lu and others, and I had no prejudice in my heart. I was depressed for a while and lost my faith. This is also a fact... Although I have forgotten such things, it was indeed my fault." Zhao Jiu said slowly.
Zong Ze fell silent after hearing the latter part of the sentence. After a long while, he said with a sigh, "I, an old minister, will not care about the words of forgetting the past after falling into a well, but Your Majesty was too frank today. Do you think that I am a dying man?"
"I speak from the bottom of my heart." Zhao Jiu remained calm.
"What the emperor said today actually makes sense, but I'm sorry I don't believe it." Zong Ze shook his head slowly.
The atmosphere in the hall froze again, and the others sitting there were completely helpless.
In fact, it doesn't matter who is smart or stupid here, everyone knows what's going on. The emperor, who now has a very firm stance against the Jin Dynasty, has a hurdle to overcome with Zong Xianggong, who is also a model of anti-Jin. No matter what, Emperor Zhao cannot explain his abandonment of the two rivers around the middle of the first year of Jianyan, and he cannot make up for it at all.
You said you were fighting against the Jin, but who was it that abandoned the two rivers and rushed to ascend the throne?
You said that you won a great victory and killed more than a dozen Meng'an, more than 10,000 people. May I ask if there are 20 to 30 million people in the two rivers?
You say how hard your work is and how difficult it is. May I ask if there is anyone like Mr. Zong Ze who, with nothing, risked his life to maintain the old capital and resist the invasion?
And the most important point is that if it were any other person, Emperor Zhao would still be able to appease them by saying "wait for the future" or sighing "let's wait and see"... But Prime Minister Zong is over seventy years old and terminally ill. He is about to die. How can he let him wait for the future or wait and see?
To be fair, everyone knows that Emperor Zhao has done a very good job this time. Even dating back to the battle on Huai River, he had done things that were too satisfactory. But unfortunately, when facing Zong Ze, what he did... was probably not good enough!
This is a dead end.
Compared with this crux, the words that were not spoken by both sides but were so explicit that they frightened Hu Yin, were of no significance between the two people in the hall - you said that you were the key to the anti-Jin cause, but wasn't the invasion of the Jin people caused by you, the Zhao family?
In response to this, Emperor Zhao said, please don’t take the trouble caused by those people to blame me since I was just a child at that time.
And Zong Ze really didn't care much about this matter.
"I feel that what the emperor said today was half true and half false." In the silence, Zong Rulin finally sighed again. "I really don't know how much of it is to comfort this old minister who is about to die?"
"All of them are sincere." Zhao Jiu seemed to have already thought about his attitude and words to Zong Ze, because he did not hesitate at all. "Since I was in Mingdao Palace in Bozhou, I have made up my mind to fight against the Jin and recover the lost territory. But I also know that among all the people in the world, only Prime Minister Zong can no longer believe me, and I have no way to explain..."
Many people felt slightly moved.
Zong Ze still seemed unmoved. After a pause, he asked further, "Your Majesty, I have been guarding Tokyo alone for more than a year. Can I say that I have done my best to turn the tide?"
“It’s natural.”
"And dying in office today can be considered a dedication, right?"
“It’s inevitable.”
"Then there won't be any bad things said about me in history books in the future, right?"
"good."
"And the emperor is also a man who knows how to act... I'm afraid he knows that I have nothing to fear today."
"I understand." Zhao Jiu suddenly laughed. "Unless I recover my territory and prove my innocence in the future, everyone in the world will believe whatever you say today."
"That's why the emperor is so polite today..."
"If I am not sincere, wouldn't it be better for me to hide in Yanling for a few days, wait for you to leave, and then come here?" Zhao Jiu also made it clear.
Zong Ze was silent for a moment, but still shook his head slowly: "In fact, I am just holding on and waiting for the emperor. As long as the emperor doesn't come, I will not die."
"I know, that's why I'm here today." Zhao Jiu also became serious.
"Why does this sound like you are urging me to die?" Zong Ze sneered again.
"My husband, would you still be superstitious about this at this moment?" Zhao Jiu also smiled bitterly.
"Your Majesty, do you know that I had a bad reputation when I was young..."
“I’ve heard a little bit about it.”
Furthermore, if it weren’t for the Jingkang Incident, Zong Ze’s reputation in history would not have been good, because in the thirty years of his official career before the Jingkang Incident, this future anti-Jin leader and national hero had two very bizarre political labels on him, one was vulgar, and the other was a traitor…
The former is not mentioned, it is just a personal habit. If we observe it from the perspective of a national hero, he is naturally outspoken and has a heroic character. The key is the latter.
When Zong Ze took the imperial examination, he started by speaking up for the treacherous official Cai Que. In the end, he got the lowest rank and his career was ruined. The reason why he was able to become a judge later was because of the promotion and care of another treacherous official Lu Huiqing...
Therefore, if he really succeeded in retiring at the age of sixty, and then died of illness in the martial arts world or lived a leisurely life in the countryside, he would just be a remnant of a traitor in the corner of a history book. Even if he was allowed to appear in a time-travel novel and be fantasized about, he would probably be portrayed as a villain, and might even be exiled to Lingnan to satisfy the readers.
However, after all the hardships, who could have imagined that when faced with the destruction of his country, it would be such an old man with a very bad image who would stand up, save the country from ruin, and devote his life to the cause until his death?
"Then this old minister won't be shy about anything..." Zong Ze continued to talk slowly.
"That's why I came here." Zhao Jiu said seriously. "If you have any request, I will definitely agree to it."
"Just three things." Zong Ze sighed slightly.
Everyone held their breath.
“My son does not have any talent, but he is my son after all, so he always has selfish motives. The reason why I have not appointed him to an official position is not because I want to show off, but because I have controlled all the people in the Tokyo Garrison. If I appoint him to an official position early and give him a status, I am afraid he will have other thoughts... I hope the emperor will deal with it properly after my death.” Zong Rulin pointed at his son beside him and said, the latter could not hold back and burst into tears on the spot when he heard it.
This wasn't a threat, but rather a standard entrustment of the orphan to one's care. After hearing this, most of the people who were a little nervous before felt relieved, and as Zong Ying shed tears, they seemed a little sad... After all, it was an old minister who was entrusting the orphan to one's care.
However, Zhao Jiu was obviously stunned. It was not only because he did not receive the expected challenge, but also because he heard some other meanings in Zong Ze's words.
"Your Majesty, please don't disbelieve me." Seeing this, Zong Ze raised his hand and pointed at a person at the opposite table. "Wang Shan, come out and tell the emperor about your favorite saying when you were drunk, 'The rich and the poor, the noble and the humble'..."
Upon hearing this, Wang Shan hurriedly stood up and kowtowed to Zhao Jiu and Zong Ze. It was unknown whether he was frightened or sad after seeing Zong Ze's attitude today, but when he raised his head again, he was crying and said nothing.
"I have heard what you said before, and I agree with you." Zhao Jiu came to his senses, but he sat upright and responded with a serious face. "In this chaotic world, it is indeed time to redefine the rich and the poor, the noble and the humble... But Wang Qing, there are two ways to redefine the noble and the poor. One is to rebel against loyalty and righteousness, to fall into depravity, to create chaos, to demand without limit, and then to cause trouble in vain; the other is to follow the general trend, like Prime Minister Zong, who is determined to rule the country with one heart, which is the way to settle the chaos and bring peace to the people, and to gain fame... Prime Minister Zong specifically pointed you out today, not to flatter you, but to let me take care of you in the future. It is for your own good, you must understand."
Wang Shan walked in directly from outside the city without taking off his armor. He could only kowtow to the two men repeatedly in the hall.
Zong Ze, however, became a little impatient when he saw this. He just waved his hand and continued to speak to the emperor: "You are smart, just wake up... Then the second thing is about the Tokyo garrison. I hope that the emperor will properly place them in consideration of their contributions to the country."
"This is inevitable." Zhao Jiu responded immediately.
In fact, Zhao Jiu came to his senses at the beginning. Zong Ze was not concerned about his son's official position at all. The first thing that this Prime Minister Zong mentioned was to use his son's affairs to remind Zhao Jiu that the people in the Tokyo Liaison Office were all from military and bandit backgrounds, and the Zhao family had lost the hearts of the people in the two rivers before. The identity of an official family did not have as strong a cohesive force on these people as the rest of the official army, so a certain level of high pressure and majesty must be maintained, and even a certain purge must be carried out, otherwise they could really cause trouble!
But even with Zong Ze's identity, he couldn't say such words. He could only point at his son and Wang Shan who was in front of him and make a hint.
The second thing was to remind Emperor Zhao that although pressure was pressure, it was ultimately an important force in the fight against the Jin army. It could be restrained, adjusted, gathered, and cleansed, but it could never be abandoned.
Back to the present, he explained the matter so straightforwardly, Zong Ze laughed: "Today, you said that you are taking advantage of your age and being aggressive, but it seems that you and the emperor are in tune with each other."
Zhao Jiu finally tried to smile again, but then became solemn again. He had a vague premonition of something.
"But I still have to be a bad guy!" Zong Rulin put away his smile and sighed again. "The emperor promised me one last thing, and today I can fulfill my wish... I, your old minister, would like to ask the emperor to swear an oath in public to recover the two rivers!"
Everyone in the hall fell into complete silence; even Wanqi Xie felt that Zong Ze had gone too far.
"How do you swear?" Zhao Jiu was stunned by the unexpected answer, but he still responded smoothly.
"You are the emperor, and I can only swear by heaven."
"Since you are the Son of Heaven, and you swear by heaven, will heaven's will be biased? What's more, heaven's will is uncertain. I am the master of all people, so why not swear by the people?" Without waiting for others to interrupt, Zhao Jiu cooperated properly.
"Okay." This time it was Mr. Zong's turn to be a little stunned.
Upon hearing this, Zhao Jiu immediately sat still and raised his hand to the sky: "If I cannot restore the two rivers, annihilate the Jin Kingdom, plow up all its fields, sweep away all its caves, and unify all the rivers and mountains in the world, then I will have no desire to live and no intact body when I die."
"The official's words are too serious!"
The emperor swore an oath, and almost everyone except Zong Ze knelt down together. When Guo Zhongxun, Wanqi Xie and others heard the oath, they panicked and tried to persuade the emperor to do something. But the same thing went, since Emperor Zhao and Prime Minister Zong were speaking here, what could they do?
"You are young and beautiful, and I have no desire to live." After hearing the oath, Zong Ze laughed at him, but then asked seriously. "But why did he die without a complete body?"
"Because if I die, I will only die in a direct battle between Song and Jin wearing armor and holding a sharp weapon..." Zhao Jiu answered calmly. "And the armored corpses I saw a few days ago under Changsha City were mostly broken. It was a battle today. The armor of both armies was very good. Once a hand-to-hand fight, most of them would have to cut off their hands and feet first, and then pick off their helmets before they could die. It was rare to see intact corpses."
"I see, that makes me look petty." Zong Ze was stunned for a moment, then suddenly he felt relieved, and his whole body became a little limp. "I have always been rude, I hope your Excellency will forgive me."
"I have behaved badly in the past, and I am ashamed that I could be forgiven by just one word from you, sir." Zhao Jiu said earnestly.
"Let's drink!" Zong Ze tried to smile. "No matter what, I'm actually at a disadvantage today... maybe I can look forward to what will happen in the future."
Zhao Jiu quickly raised his glass.
For a while, there was toasting in the hall.
Not only that, halfway through drinking, Zong Ze was a little tipsy, but he insisted on going to the courtyard to admire the moon... Everyone knew that the weather was still cold, which was not good for his health, but on the one hand, it was a reasonable thing to admire the moon during the Ghost Festival, and on the other hand, everyone could see that this gentleman really couldn't hold on any longer. He had met the emperor today and his wish had come true, but he was afraid that the situation could deteriorate at any time, and there was no point in disobeying him at this time.
So, everyone carefully moved their seats to the courtyard and admired the moon together.
When they were drinking to their heart's content, Zong Xianggong first sighed at the moon, then smiled bitterly: "Today is a festive day with a full moon, and I meet the emperor again in the capital. I should have written a poem to express my feelings, but I am old and incompetent, and I can't even write a single poem..."
People around were sighing, and some were eager to try.
"No." Without waiting for everyone to react, Zong Ze looked at the moon again and shook his head. "I'm not good at this in my life. When I was young, I spent ten years traveling the world. I'm not a bookworm, so how can I write poetry? However, if I hadn't traveled for ten years and seen the beautiful mountains and rivers of the world, and known the magnificence of the mountains and rivers and the concentration of people, I wouldn't have been so angry about the peace proposal after the Jin people came south, and ended up dying without returning home..."
The people around naturally sighed and agreed.
Seeing this, Zhao Jiu, who was sitting in the hall, remained calm and drank as usual, but his heart was already in turmoil.
Moreover, since the moment he got to the hall, he had wanted to dismiss everyone several times, and then tell Zong Ze frankly that he was not the one who abandoned the two rivers, and that he would definitely do this and that. However, he suppressed this impulse several times, because this impulse was meaningless, and might even make the other party's heart, which had gradually calmed down, fall into fear and doubt... But when he heard these words, Zhao Jiu's heart was in turmoil again, and that impulse once again reached its peak.
After all, since traveling through time, among the people Zhao Jiu had come into contact with, most of the so-called high-ranking civil officials who advocated war were only doing so because of loyalty, Confucian classics, personal grudges, or because of institutional benefits. Very few people could give him a pure and natural sense of family and country like Zong Ruolin just did.
Seeing the magnificent mountains and rivers, he becomes proud and does not allow others to abuse him. Isn't this the way for an elite scholar to inspire the most simple patriotism?
However, if it were just this, Zhao Jiu would at most have just admired and respected this national hero whom he had just met, and he would not have lost his composure like this. The real reason why he had these multiple impulses was actually because of the other party's almost humble attitude today.
It's really low!
Perhaps only Zhao Jiu, who had been an official for more than a year, could notice this almost humble attitude. Others could only see that Zong Ruolin was taking advantage of his seniority and being aggressive.
The key lies in Zhao Jiu's status as an official... To put it bluntly, what is the meaning of swearing an oath for an emperor? What's more, it is an oath sworn in front of only a few people in the hall? And what real harm can those innocuous taunts do?
Not only that, what Zhao Jiu wanted here was the control of the Tokyo Garrison. Does the other party have any substantive excuses or threats?
No! The other party even took the initiative to hand over, okay?
It can be said that this Prime Minister has been dragging his feet until now. In the beginning, he was just waiting for the result from Yanling. After learning the news in the past two days, he was just thinking about whether he could meet with Emperor Zhao and make a symbolic handover in person to reduce trouble.
He didn't even ask, nor did he dare to ask, whether Emperor Zhao would return to Nanyang after receiving the troops and once the situation stabilized, and abandon Tokyo, which he had defended for more than a year?
This is almost humble.
Of course, compared with the hope of restoring the country, this seems to be worth everything - Emperor Zhao is sure that when Zong Ze sees him coming, he is not resentful, but extremely happy and excited.
But this kind of feeling was something that only the two of them could understand, but it came too late... and was destined to be subtle.
"Does the emperor have any poems?" In a trance, Zong Ze asked Emperor Zhao again. "Mr. Hu and Mr. Lin are both good at poetry..."
"How can I have that ability?" Zhao Jiu couldn't help but laugh, and instinctively wanted to refuse, but after he said it, he changed his words as if possessed by a ghost. "However, returning to the old place today, I feel a little emotional, and I have gained a little..."
The people below did not dare to be negligent. The people who had stayed in Tokyo and had gathered since the banquet was moved to the courtyard came forward to offer paper and pen, and then faced each other with lights on.
Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment, then looked up at the moonlight above his head, and then carefully used his Huang style calligraphy to write an inappropriate poem.
As the saying goes:
The east wind blows thousands of flowers into bloom at night.
The wind blows and the stars fall like rain.
The road is filled with the fragrance of BMW and carved carriages.
The phoenix flute sounds, the jade pot shines, and the fish and dragons dance all night.
Moth, snow willow, and golden threads.
The smile and fragrance fade away.
I searched for him everywhere.
When I look back suddenly, that person is there, in the dim light.
A poem called "Qing Yu'an" that was forced to be written during the Lantern Festival was finished. Some people in the audience who had an appreciation for literature were stunned. When it came to Zong Ze, he could not see it clearly, so he could only let Lin Jingmo come forward and recite it to him.
After hearing this, Zong Ze shook his head and smiled bitterly: "Tokyo's population is now less than 200,000, and there have been no lanterns for several years... But, it is a good word, and a wonderful word... Official?"
"I am here."
"This can't be an old poem by Yi An Jushi, right?"
"no."
"So the government is gradually remembering the story of Tokyo that day?"
"Yes." Zhao Jiu clasped his hands and sighed. "I remember it now... It is the story of that year, and it is deeply engraved in my mind now."
Zong Ze smiled and nodded repeatedly: "It's good for your Majesty to remember it, and it's good for your majesty to remember it forever... and with this poem as a foundation, I am already satisfied. Forgive me for my old age, please go back and rest."
"The lord who stays behind may leave now." Zhao Jiu's heart moved slightly, he immediately stood up with his hands put down, and led all the ministers to stand in silence.
Zong Ying, who had long been worried that his father might not be able to hold on, quickly helped his father up, and under the watchful eyes of everyone, he walked from the side of the hall to the backyard until he disappeared.
The next day, Emperor Zhao, who lived in the grand but desolate Tokyo Imperial City, learned two pieces of news.
In the early morning, Zong Ying entered the palace in mourning and informed Emperor Zhao that his father, Zong Ze, the Privy Councilor of the Song Dynasty, the Governor of Tokyo, and the Deputy Marshal of the Army, had died peacefully on his bed at night without a sound. He was seventy years old.
However, after the news spread outside the palace, a complete explanation emerged, saying that Zong Liushou had left behind a poem "For My Sons" before he died last night.
The poem says:
I know everything is empty after death, but I am sad that I cannot see the whole country united. When the king's army retakes Yanyun, don't forget to go home and offer sacrifices to your father.
After leaving the poem, he became confused and unclear until his death, when he had a moment of clarity. He shouted loudly, "Come across the river," and died after three cries.
In the city of Tokyo, from Emperor Zhao down, everyone shed tears when they heard this.
But this matter was already expected, so it can't be called a surprise.
At night, when the city of Tokyo was in mourning, Han Shizhong suddenly sent a messenger on horseback to report that Wanyan Talan had fled wildly, abandoned Zhengzhou, and crossed the Yellow River to the north.
Only Yelu Ma Wu was alone and at a loss. On that day, he ran into Han Shizhong's vanguard Li Qiong and other troops. The two sides fought. At first, the Jin army was in the lead, but when Han Shizhong arrived with most of the Song army, the situation was reversed. In the end, Yelu Ma Wu was defeated under the city of Zhengzhou, the capital of Zhengzhou. Then he could only rely on the advantage of cavalry to force his way out of the battlefield, but his foothold was unstable all the way. He didn't even dare to cross the river. In the end, he could only flee to Luoyang, the Western Capital, in the west.
This news is somewhat unexpected .