Volume 4 Chapter 35 Preface
The battle of Tuling was successful, but not complete.
On the second day, Yue Fei sent Zhang Xian's troops to cross the river and join forces with Fu Xuan to pursue Li Dunren, the .
However, Li Dunren's case was not that troublesome.
The reason why this man fled eastward in desperation, even sinking the ferry and harming his neighbors, was because he was counting on a natural barrier called Gushi Cave at the junction of Xingguo and Yudu counties. There was a mountain stronghold in front of the Gushi Cave, and behind the stronghold was a cave. The other three sides were cliffs, with only one way in and out. At the same time, there was enough space and water in the cave to station troops.
According to Li Dunren's idea, it was impossible to defeat Yue Fei's powerful army, but the enemy was destined not to stay for long, so as long as they stayed in the cave for a while, they would have their own reasons in the future... Therefore, as early as after Yue Fei broke through the Five Ridges and entered Guangdong for the first time, Li Dunren prepared a retreat in Qianzhou. He chose Gushi Cave early, and then communicated with and bribed the Miao village in front of Gushi Cave many times, and transported a large amount of rice and grain supplies into it.
To use his original words to the messengers sent by Zhang Xian and Fu Xuan: "With such a natural barrier, if the government troops can break through the mountain stronghold, what regrets will there be in death?"
In other words, if he was really conquered, he would deserve to die and he would accept it!
However, is there any natural barrier in the world that is truly impregnable?
Although the leaders of the Miao village on the mountain, the three Miao girls of the Liao family, were very trustworthy, and Sister Liao even said the famous phrase "Except for those who fly here", in the overall situation, there was no point in resisting stubbornly.
On the first day, Fu Xuan, Zhang Xian and others tried a battle, but naturally they achieved nothing.
On the second day, Fu Xuan and Zhang Xian's troops went out in full force, divided into more than a dozen teams, and besieged the stronghold from three sides with plenty of ladders. They climbed up all the short parts of the cliffs at the same time, but retreated when they encountered danger. They took turns to move forward. It was more of a consumption of arrows, stone balls and other supplies in the stronghold than an attack.
On the third day, Fu Xuan's troops continued to feint, but Zhang Xian suddenly sent Yang Zaixing, who had been incorporated into his own army, and Guo Jin. The former led some newly reorganized Miao soldiers, and the latter led Zhang Xian's personal guards. Both of them wore double-layer iron armor and climbed up the cliff from the side and rear of the mountain stronghold where the view was dangerous but narrow, and unexpectedly won the battle.
Li Dunren and the three Liao sisters were all beheaded, which meant they "died without regrets". Their followers also surrendered. From beginning to end, Yue Fei did not "fly over" in person.
In fact, in the past few days Yue Fei has been reorganizing the more than 100,000 surrendered bandits in Xingguo County on the other side of Pingjiang.
Dealing with the leaders of the four hundred heroes was only the first step. Next, the front army of the imperial camp repatriated and resettled more than 40,000 elderly, weak, women and children, pardoned more than 30,000 able-bodied men who were forced to flee, and sent some troops to escort tens of thousands of captives headed by Li Dongtian to various places in the surrounding areas. Only a small number of people such as Peng Tieda and Yang Zaixing, along with a group of selected soldiers, were directly appointed and given official positions.
After receiving the news that Li Dunren was executed, Yue Fei, in accordance with the previous agreement with Jiangxi Governor Liu Hongdao, asked Fu Xuan to lead 5,000 troops to deal with the aftermath in Xingguo County. At the same time, he personally gathered the troops and urged them to march north.
On the Dragon Boat Festival in May, Yue Fei entered Jizhou for the third time, preparing to follow the original division of the Privy Council and go north along the Gan River, preparing to return north as soon as possible. This time, the army was in high spirits, without any fatigue from months of fighting. Even Yue Fei himself was somewhat complacent. He even wrote an inscription in person at the official post station when passing through Fuzhou.
The book says:
"Yue Fei, the commander of the front army of the imperial camp, was ordered to fight against the bandits. He went from Dongting Lake to Guiling Mountain and wiped out their nests, bringing peace to Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Xiangxi. I feel sad that the two emperors were hunting in the desert, and the world was in turmoil. The shame of Jingkang has not yet been avenged, so I swear to be loyal and filial. Thanks to the power of the country and the wise emperor, one day we will wipe out the barbarians and return to our homeland, and relieve the emperor of his worries at night. This is my ambition. But how can a group of bees and ants be enough to achieve this?"
It was obvious that Yue Pengju really felt a little bit overwhelmed.
But there is no way, this battle was fought so beautifully.
From the perspective of this era, the mountains, miasma, Miao villages, and countless bandits who have taken root in the local area and caused trouble for many years are simply an unsolvable problem. Even at the beginning, few people who knew the situation had absolute confidence in this crackdown... This is because the Qian bandits are not a thing of the past few years. It just happened to encounter the Jingkang Change and the subsequent war, so the scale of the rebellion has become larger. As early as the so-called prosperous times before, the Qian bandits were a special term, a chronic disease in the south.
The imperial court at that time could only suppress this rebellion in the mountainous area.
However, Yue Fei won the battle so easily.
This battle was, of course, essentially a rebellion to suppress bandits. Compared with the battle against the Jin people, it had a lot of the flavor of the regular season versus playoffs in the later NBA. But the problem is that 13 points in 35 seconds is still more worthy of bragging than the runner-up.
This battle is probably the same.
Back to the present, Yue Pengju, full of pride, led the main force of the army along the Gan River all the way northward. At first, the local officials in Jiangxi along the river could hardly believe it, but when they saw countless prisoners being settled in various farming and mining sites in Jiangxi, and the main force of the government army showing off their might, with flags fluttering in an orderly manner, and as the troops gathered from the settled prisoners gradually merged, the size of the army became increasingly large... they dared not disbelieve it.
It can only be said that as the news from the south caught up with the army's marching speed, the attitudes of the officials along the way changed three times a day.
However, it was too late to change. Within the borders, the army was marching down the river at a very fast speed. Moreover, Yue Fei had some problems with the Jiangxi officialdom because of the previous matter of Fuzhou prefect, so he was too lazy to deal with it. He simply did not stop and went straight north... By mid-May, the front army of the imperial camp had passed Poyang Lake and entered the territory of Jiangzhou, which belonged to the Jiangnan East Road. At this time, Yue Fei had just stayed in Jiangzhou for a while, waiting for the military supplies from Jiangxi and Jiangdong before continuing to march north.
It was at this time that Yue Pengju finally learned about the Tokyo peace talks.
Moreover, he already knew everything he should and shouldn't know.
This is not to say that the people in the front army of the Imperial Camp in Tokyo City who were responsible for copying the court bulletins would know of his return so quickly and send the summary of the news over, but that during this period, the dispute over war and peace in the court became increasingly fierce, and had clearly gone beyond the scope of ordinary discussion. Not only had the situation become tense in the central government, it had even spread to the southeast region... And don't forget that in Jiangnan, there are Li Gang and Lu Yihao, two heavyweight players and opponents with clear positions. The two of them had already set up their carriages and horses in the southeast and started an open debate.
Yue Fei was sitting in Jiangzhou. With his current status, how could he possibly avoid these messages?
Speaking of which, as the governor of Liangzhe Road, Lü Yihao had great power and responsibilities, rich experience, and he had always been able to control his subordinates. Therefore, no one in the surrounding officials dared not to advocate war. Almost all prefectures, states, armies, and prisons wrote to Bianliang, asking the government to stick to its own views, not to listen to the words of villains, and not to negotiate peace on its own... It was not possible to not say this, because Jinglü would never hold a grudge overnight.
Even Li Gang, who once served as a prime minister and is now the spiritual leader of a major faction in the court, suffered directly.
Li Gang wanted to follow the procedure at first, so he wrote a letter to express his agreement with peace talks. However, unexpectedly, as soon as the memorial was made public, Lu Yihao, as his superior, publicly rebuked him!
This official document, which was sent almost everywhere in Liangzhe, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Lianghuai, enumerated the various mistakes made by Li Boji since the siege of Taiyuan, such as "not knowing how to fight and sacrificing hundreds of thousands of the country's brave men, causing the fall of the two rivers and the Jingkang Incident", "not knowing people and losing the east of Jingdong and destroying Guanzhong", "being a prime minister and pushing Huai Shang to the emperor", "being a regent and causing unrest in the southeast", and even publicly scolding people for "the loss of the royal heir". Some people should have taken the three-foot white silk to prove their innocence, but they lingered on, hiding in the south of the Yangtze River, remotely controlling their cronies and playing power games. They are extremely shameless!
This is of course nonsense... According to this statement, the whole world was ruined by Li Gang, so what did the two saints and the surrender faction in Jing Kang do?
However, Li Gang was furious, but he could not explain the issue of the royal heir clearly and had no way to defend himself. He had no choice but to swallow his anger and turn to the people. He discussed the matter with influential scholars in the folk many times through writing letters, holding tea parties and poetry gatherings in order to refute Lu Yihao.
However, people were discussing the matter in various places, but it was obvious that more people supported peace talks... Even Lü Yihao, who had previously advocated increasing taxes in the southeast and Jingxiang in order to advocate war, ended up being labeled a "stubborn prime minister" among the people. When Yue Fei stayed in Jiangzhou for a while, he heard many nursery rhymes and essays mocking and insulting Lü Yihao.
He even heard with his own ears that some common people called the iron-necked free-range rooster they raised "Lü Jinglüe" and sold it for only three hundred coins. After it was shredded and drained, it was only three hundred and fifty coins, which was much cheaper than the ones in the north. The soldiers in the front line of the imperial camp were paid in full. For example, Guo Jin bought one and ate it with a ladle.
Of course, even so, Yue Fei didn't want to get involved.
Because even Li Gang and his people never claimed to be in favor of peace. They believed in "defending first and then attacking", calling themselves the defense faction or the slow-down faction. The original intention was to rest for a few years before heading north... This was obviously the result of both sides adjusting their positions after the debate.
Even though Yue Fei's inclination was self-evident, he didn't know how to refute this statement, so he just waited for the supplies to arrive and then hurried back to the north.
Of course, the military supplies did not have to wait long. The supplies from Jiangdong were delivered first, and soon the supplies from Jiangxi were delivered as well... However, along with the 20,000 shi of rice and 100,000 strings of money raised by Jiangxi, Liu Hongdao himself, the governor of Jiangxi, also arrived.
Liu Hongdao was a general who had chased after the governor. No matter what unpleasant things had happened in Jiangxi before, Yue Fei would certainly not neglect him. He was always simple-minded and quickly asked local officials to find a famous restaurant outside the city, which was Xunyangjiang Zhengku (an official store recognized as having the qualifications to brew its own wine), and the location of Xunyang Tower named by Su Dongpo. Then he personally hosted a banquet to entertain him.
Both sides were top officials, so there would not be any verbal mistakes. After three rounds of drinks, Liu Hongdao made some compliments and praises on Qianzhou's suppression of the rebellion, but he took the initiative to mention another matter.
It was nothing else but the problem with the previous colleague who was the governor of Fuzhou. Liu Jinglüe meant that he hoped Yue Jiedu could be properly resettled, and it would be best to set up a logistics and military farm in Jiangxi and let this person be in charge.
Of course, it is the government that is angry, and Jiangxi will certainly not make things difficult for everyone and will make sure the matter is handled properly.
The governor came in person to speak with such a humble attitude, and it was within his authority and responsibility, so what could Yue Fei say? He readily agreed.
After talking about this, both parties seemed to be very happy and drank two more cups of wine.
However, after two cups, Liu Hongdao suddenly stood up, took Yue Fei's wrist, and said that they wanted to go up to the top attic together to enjoy the magnificent scenery of the river.
The civil and military officials around knew that the two senior officials had something to say, so they all tactfully stopped talking in their seats, and then allowed the two senior officials to leave the crowd and go up one floor to look into the distance.
To be fair, it was summer, and the view from the upper floor was clear and unobstructed. The scenery outside the Xunyang Tower was of course excellent... The carved eaves reflected the sun, and the painted buildings were like flying clouds. The green railings were low to the windows, and the green curtains were high above the windows. To tire out drunken eyes, lean against the blue sky with thousands of clouds and mountains; to seduce the poetic soul, turn over the misty water of the river with auspicious snow. At the Baiping ferry, you can hear the fisherman's gong; at the Hongli beach, you can see the fisherman rowing.
Although both of them had something on their mind, they stared at each other for a long time before coming to their senses. As the saying goes, the scenery can open people's hearts, and now they are more open about it.
"Does Jiedu Yue know about the recent major events in the court?" Liu Hongdao said with his hands behind his back facing the wind.
"Is it about peace talks?"
"good."
"Then may I ask, as a local commander, do you advocate war or peace?" Yue Fei said with his hands folded behind his back.
"I don't know either." Liu Hongdao sighed and spread his hands on the Xunyang Tower. "I am from Qingzhou. I was hastily appointed as a deputy minister of the Ministry of Personnel during the Jingkang period. Then, I almost fled back home when the Jin army marched south. As a result, Li Gang, the prime minister, appointed me as the governor of Qingzhou regardless of the precedent. I became the governor of my hometown..." At this point, Liu Hongdao paused and then sneered. "I remember that you wrote a letter saying that Li Boxi was a traitor. Of course, this was biased. But now, people all over the world say that your impeachment with Li Yanxian is not false. At least that guy doesn't know how to fight."
Yue Fei smiled awkwardly, which was a rare moment... Who didn't have some embarrassing experiences when they were young?
"But in my opinion, although some of what Lü Jinglue said was unpleasant, it was also honest. That is, Li Boji not only did not know how to fight, but also did not know how to judge people." Liu Hongdao looked at the river bank with more emotion. "At that time, Hebei sent two people. Zhang Suo was a man of honor, but Fu Liang was the main culprit who sold out Chang'an City; Jingdong sent three people. Liu Yu is now a pseudo-emperor, and Zhao Mingcheng and I, who were appointed at the same time, are recognized as a pair of wastes... Zhao Mingcheng fled without fighting, and I was defeated in one battle. I could only abandon my home and the city and flee alone. I was not more decent than Zhao Mingcheng. Therefore, if you ask me whether I advocate fighting or not, of course I advocate fighting, because I regard the departure of Qingzhou that day as the greatest regret of my life, and I always want to avenge my previous shame."
Yue Fei nodded heavily, obviously feeling the same way, but he also heard that the other party had not finished speaking.
"But I met the emperor on Bagong Mountain and was assigned to Jiangxi. For four years, I first helped to clean up the bandits who had transformed into the loyalist army along the Yangtze River, then helped to deal with the military riots in the southeast, and then helped Jingxiang to besiege Zhong Xiang and Yang Mo. Now I am trying my best to assist you, Yue Jiedu, to clean up the Qian bandits." Liu Hongdao smiled bitterly again. "Year after year, Jiangnan West Road is a poor place, but it has never stopped paying corvée. What's more, the Qian bandits themselves occupied 30% of the world in Jiangxi and harassed half of Jiangxi... Seeing the people's livelihood declining and the officials suffering, I gradually couldn't shout out those grand words, otherwise I would be disliked. Moreover, let's be fair, Jiangxi is poor, so there are more corvée, but the southeast is a little richer, so don't they also increase the money? Jingxiang is a little more abundant, so don't they also increase the grain? And Bashu, for the battle of Yaoshan, even paid two years of money and grain in advance! The rise and fall are all the suffering of the people!"
Yue Fei felt more and more empathetic, and thinking about his experience of going south, the complacency that had risen up in his heart due to the success of the battle and Liu Hongdao's personal pursuit disappeared in an instant.
"Of course, the south is suffering, but aren't tens of millions of people in Lianghe, Jingdong, and northern Shaanxi suffering? Can we tolerate the humiliation of Jingkang? Not fighting will not convince people. Moreover, if it were me, I would lose tens of thousands of lives in the battle of Qingzhou. Even if the Jin people took back the five counties of Jingdong, I would never tolerate it..." Liu Hongdao finally said seriously. "Jiedu Yue, I came upstairs to talk about this matter with you, just to tell you that both sides have their reasons and arguments, and both have their own difficulties. In the end, it depends on the decision of the government and the court. As ministers, you and I can write letters to express our opinions, but we should not do unnecessary things without authorization. Especially you, you have won easily this time, and you are going to lead tens of thousands of troops back to the front line of Jingdong with almost no losses. At this time, you should be more cautious, especially for the reputation of the government... Do you know what I mean?"
Yue Pengju finally came to his senses, but he still found it absurd: "Liu Jinglue thought Yue Fei was a military officer who disobeyed military orders and took the initiative to provoke trouble, or was he worried that most of the front troops in the imperial camp were from Hebei, and would do something improper when they returned to the shores of Tokyo?"
Liu Hongdao shook his head and said nothing.
Yue Fei was a little drunk and felt suffocated, so he wanted to explain, but a breeze from the river blew outside the building, which sobered him up but made him feel bored again... It was not that he did not want to argue, but he knew that it was difficult to gain trust between the civil and military officials. More importantly, he had experienced a lot since the beginning of the war, and he knew that although the civil officials had gone too far in oppressing the military officials, the military officials were still the ones who crossed the bottom line in the troubled times.
Civil officials will not skin people, nor will they massacre people in their own city.
Of course, without mentioning Yue Fei's complicated thoughts, let's just talk about why the military generals of the Song Dynasty were always cruel to their own people, and the civil officials of the Song Dynasty were always on guard against military generals rather than foreign aggression. This was the fundamental reason why this country collapsed a few years ago... Such a big country, with hundreds of millions of people, such a developed economy and technology, its strength is more than several times that of the Jin people, but because of the ancestral family rules of defending the inside, all the strength was used to deal with their own people. How could it have room to deal with outsiders?
Previously, Zhao Jiu was yelling in Tokyo, asking why the Western Xia could not be pacified in a hundred years. Zhao Ding and his people put forward a very convincing proposal, clearly explaining the causes and consequences of the founding of the Western Xia. It was roughly that the affairs of the Western Xia were passed down from the Five Dynasties and the late Tang Dynasty, so the Song Dynasty could not be blamed. It seemed very reasonable... but was it really true that the Western Xia could not be pacified?
No matter how many strong foundations Western Xia had, or how excellent its geographical conditions were, the power balance between the Song Dynasty and Western Xia was unmistakable. It is impossible to say that it was reasonable for them to fall into the current situation, right?
If we follow these theories, how could the First Emperor of Qin use the remaining power of the six previous emperors to swallow up the six kingdoms with stronger foundations? How could Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty directly destroy the Turks in just a few years?
Even more, how did the Jin Kingdom cause the Jingkang Rebellion?
To put it bluntly, the truth exists no matter how you look at it, it just depends on how you choose.
As for Yue Pengju, it was impossible for him to think of this. He just felt helpless and absurd instinctively after experiencing many things - they were obviously comrades with almost the same experiences, and their attitudes towards the Northern Expedition and the people in the South were almost the same, but because they were civil and military officials respectively, one had to catch up with the other in a hurry to beat him up, and coupled with the previous incident of the Fuzhou prefect, how absurd was this?
But you have to admit that the other party's behavior is essentially a well-intentioned and responsible act, which is even more ridiculous.
Now that the two had talked it out and Yue Fei had endured it, they went back downstairs to continue the banquet.
However, just when he sat down again, Yue Fei suddenly realized that Liu Hongdao's last sentence "considering the emperor's reputation" might have another meaning, but it was difficult to say it out loud...that was the problem of the Two Saints. The other party was not only worried that he, Yue Pengju, would deliberately let his troops sabotage the peace talks, but also worried that he, the emperor's confidant and beloved, would use means such as killing the Two Saints to prevent the peace talks!
Not to mention that this argument was even more absurd, Yue Fei, who was no longer a timid person from Wu, quickly figured out a more serious political issue among the people present - that is, this peace negotiation was not just a simple peace negotiation, nor was it just about the court being divided again. The key was that the officials who had always been truly loyal to the Song Dynasty would probably face a real big trouble.
This trouble was precisely the issue of the two emperors' return to the south, which could not be avoided during the peace talks.
You must know that the Second Saint was the father of the entire Song Dynasty, even if he had a very bad reputation among the people, his righteousness was there. The reason why the peace talks could be so open and aboveboard was because of the Second Saint's reputation and the benefits of the five counties in Jingdong, which made it impossible for the emperor and most of the people who advocated war to refute. But at the same time, whether it was the people or the court, after the emperor had been hinting, discussing, and refuting for many years, how could everyone not know the emperor's true attitude towards the Second Saint?
To be fair, Yue Fei did not think that the return of the two saints could shake the emperor's throne... When the emperor controlled almost all the military power, such a thing was almost unimaginable; he also did not think that the emperor would use Zhang Rong or his own hands to kill the two saints on the road... It was also almost unimaginable that an emperor who had been on the throne for less than five years would semi-publicly kill his father and brother; but there was no doubt that the return of the two saints would force the emperor to face an unprecedented test of political ethics!
After Yaoshan, the emperor's various actions clearly showed that he was going to start a new business. At this time, the two emperors returned to the south, and it was the Jin people who sent them back, which undoubtedly put Emperor Zhao in a dilemma of political stance... Emperor Taishang Daojun was back, so would he still do the "eliminating the accumulated evils"? If he did, would he be suspected of forcing his father and brother?
If we think about it more, the reason why some people support peace talks may not be out of the desire to recuperate, but they may also have the evil intention of using the two saints to control the government!
Of course, Yue Fei's thoughts were inevitably influenced by his military mentality, and he thought the government was a little too simple. In addition, he was not a good drinker, so after a few drinks, he inevitably had narrow-minded thoughts...
But no matter what, in Xunyang Tower, Yue Fei felt something was wrong the more he thought about it, especially when he thought about how he had been in the army, and everything had been a hurdle for him. He had been frustrated before, but things had gone smoothly since then. He had long believed that this official was the country's hero, and that he was on the right path to return home...but he had never expected to encounter such a disaster. Thinking of the dilemma, with his character, he certainly would not shed tears, let alone stamp his feet and go crazy. Instead, he turned around with a lot of thoughts in his mind:
"Shopkeeper, bring me some pen and ink!"
The shop owner had been serving for a long time personally, and upon hearing this, he almost immediately put the prepared writing brush and ink on a small table and brought it over himself, and then hurriedly unfolded the white wall on one side of the banquet that was specially used for writing poems.
Liu Hongdao felt embarrassed when he saw this… His level of humanities was a bit poor, and he knew that he was not as good as Yue Fei. If this was an inscription or a poem, what should he do?
However, Yue Fei smeared some ink on the table and wrote something movingly, neither a poem nor a lyric, just another inscription.
So-called:
"In the past, the Central Plains was in turmoil, and the Jin bandits marched freely as if they were in an empty land. Their generals were incompetent, and they were not as strong as the Great Wall. Fortunately, we had a sage king who worked hard on the Huai River, established a foothold in Nanyang, restored the old capital, and won a decisive victory at Yaoshan. Although he did not travel as far as Yanyun to destroy the bandits' nest, he was still the backbone of the country and the righteousness of the world.
I, Yue Fei, started from Xiangzhou and joined the army. I fought in more than 200 battles in eight years. In the first four years, I suffered repeated defeats, including the loss of Yanyun, Taiyuan, Daming, and Jingdong. In the last four years, I led a lone army to revive Jingdong, and won the battles of Sishui, Jizhou, Yanling, and Dongping. What I regret is that I could not prevent the Jin thieves from returning after crossing the Yellow River.
I have heard that the court has proposed to rest the troops and rest the soldiers, so as to prepare for the enemy. I think this is absurd! If the court is considerate and grants weapons and armor to make them complete, I will go deep into the enemy's court, tie up the enemy leader and kill him in front of the horse, slaughter all the barbarians, welcome the two emperors back to the capital, take the old land and register it again. Why negotiate peace and ask for people and land, putting you in a dilemma? Once this intention is made, the heaven and earth know it, and those who know me know it! In the summer of the fifth year of Jianyan , Yue Fei of Hebei wrote in Xunyang Tower. "
After writing some, Yue Fei took advantage of the drunkenness to call Bi Jin, his personal editor, to come forward and fetch a standard note. He changed the format a little, copied a copy, sealed it directly, and asked Bi Jin to send it to the capital through the secret channel.
Liu Hongdao sat aside, wanting to say something several times, but he stared at the short inscription for several times and could not utter a word. In the end, he could only sit and watch the other party do it.
In this way, Yue Fei took advantage of his drunkenness to write a note. After waking up, although he felt that he was a bit rash, as the saying goes, the arrow has already left the string, so there is no need to think too much... and he will lead his troops north again the next day.
As a result, when he arrived in Jiangbei, just passed Shuzhou, transferred to Wuwei Army, entered Luzhou, and was about to go north to cross the Huai River from Bagua Mountain, he received an imperial edict sent by express horse... Not only did the edict not contain any rewards for his hard work in suppressing the rebellion in the south, but it also ordered him not to return to Nanjing or Jeju after crossing the Huai River, but to go to Xuzhou to meet Zhang Jun, the commander-in-chief of the right army of the imperial camp.
The hot summer of May passed just like that, and in early June, when Yue Fei led his troops to Xuzhou and met Zhang Jun, over in the direction of Tokyo, with the repeated arrival of messengers from the Yanjing area, the Jin Dynasty's plenipotentiary envoy Wulin Dazanmo agreed to all the conditions of the Zhao Song court.
Although there was a messy episode in which the Jin people once wanted annual tribute, in fact, the prospect of the Jin Kingdom handing over the captives of the Jingkang Incident and the five counties in Jingdong in exchange for a formal cessation of hostilities between the two sides had already become clear.
