Wanyan Zongwang asked, "What good strategies do you all have?"

Wanyan Chamu said, "General, isn't the Song emperor arrogant? Let's not go to that broken city for now. When his reinforcements come, we'll kill them one by one! I don't believe that damned little emperor won't back down!"

Guo Yaoshi said, "General, I believe we should quickly head north and take the opportunity to occupy Hejian and Zhongshan. If news of the emperor personally defending the city reaches Hebei, the Song army's morale will surely be greatly boosted, and our army will have to pay a heavy price to take those two important towns!"

"You're talking nonsense!" Wanyan Chamu roared. "Guo Yaoshi, you're getting a sense of accomplishment from surrendering, aren't you? My Great Jin army is not afraid of those weak cowards from the Song Dynasty. What's a Zhong Shidao compared to that!"

After being publicly rebuked by Wanyan Chamu, Pharmacist Guo was humiliated and the doctor dared not utter another word.

Wanyan Zongwang said, "Mother, didn't I tell you not to speak to General Guo like that!"

Wanyan Chamu stood silently to the side, while Wanyan Zongwang looked at Dong Cai and asked, "Mr. Dong, what are your thoughts?"

"General, as the ancients said, war depends on the right time, the right place, and the right people. The Song army has all of these, while our army only has the right people. Therefore, it is not advisable to fight again."

"Are we going to retreat?" Wanyan Zongwang was unwilling to give up. He had come all this way and did not want to leave empty-handed.

"Of course not, we're going to negotiate peace."

Wanyan Zongwang said, "Won't we gain anything from negotiating peace now?"

"We can use the Song Dynasty officials to push this matter forward."

Guo Yaoshi sarcastically remarked, "The Song emperor has issued a gag order; anyone who dares to discuss peace will be executed!"

"But this time we brought it up ourselves, which gave the court officials a pretext to criticize us."