"Yes!" Yue Fei answered with a bow. "In fact, after Huang Zuo led his troops to attack other water forts that day, I knew that the battle was already won. It was only a matter of time. The only thing I was worried about was whether Yang Yao would escape to the wild island in the lake and revive in the future."

Zhang Jun nodded repeatedly, then sighed, and opened his mouth to continue to cover up his embarrassment: "So, Pengju has been delaying again and again, from winter to spring, and then to now, in order to deliberately show weakness to the enemy, and at the same time to avoid disturbing Huang Zuo?"

Yue Fei nodded, then shook his head: "It is necessary to show weakness to the enemy, and it is also inevitable to prevent disturbing Huang Zuo, but the reason why I have not launched the attack until today is mainly to avoid delaying the spring plowing..."

"What?" Zhang Jun was stunned and ridiculous again.

However, this time, while he felt that the other party's words were absurd to a certain extreme, he also felt a little guilty and short of breath.

Zhang Jun left Beijing this time because many local officials impeached Yue Fei, which triggered a political uproar. Among the reasons for these impeachments and oppositions, the biggest one was that Yue Fei delayed the deployment of troops, which delayed the spring ploughing... This was a very fatal issue for both public and private reasons, and it was also the moral basis for Zhang Jun to be so righteous in front of Yue Fei and repeatedly scolded a general in public.

Just now, Zhang Jun already knew that Yue Fei did not advance at a very fast speed because there was indeed a huge military risk, and he actually had no complaints in his heart. He was just making small talk to avoid being too embarrassed.

However, the other party now told him that the reason why he had delayed the advance was not only due to military needs, but also because he did not want to delay the spring plowing.

What is this?

"I won't hide it from you, Prime Minister."

The weather was fine, the lakeside was covered with lush grass and birds were singing, and the blue water was refreshing. Yue Fei took a glance at the spring scenery before continuing to explain. "As for Huang Zuo, I was already confident at the beginning of this year. From a military perspective, I could have used troops at the beginning of the year to end this battle. But the spring in the south of the Yangtze River came very quickly. It was at that time that spring plowing began in various parts of Hunan and around Dongting Lake. The government was plowing, and the rebels were also plowing. Moreover, because the rebels were divided into rich and poor and the land was divided, the scale and area of ​​spring plowing in various places west of Hunan seemed to be more prosperous than in the government area... This was a rare sight in the chaos."

Zhang Jun stood on his horse and turned from the lake to his back. It was then that the prime minister of the empire noticed for the first time that the lakeside was lush with crops and endless paddy fields. Although no one came out to take care of them because of the marching army, after the spring rain, it was a natural spectacle.

Looking more closely, they saw that the troops in front of the imperial camp were obviously marching carefully. All of them were marching along the lakeside and on the ridges of the fields, and no one dared to step on the young crops, which made them even more shocked.

"In fact, how could I not know the difficulties faced by the local officials? The rebellion has lasted for half a year, the population has fled, the wasteland is seriously abandoned, and tens of thousands of troops are stationed here, making it difficult for the local supply. It is normal for the local officials to have grievances. But I think that the people in the Hubei government's jurisdiction are the people, and the people in the Hunan Huxi rebels' jurisdiction will sooner or later become the people of the Song Dynasty. The spring plowing in the government's jurisdiction in the north cannot be delayed, and the spring plowing in the rebels' jurisdiction in the south should not be delayed either."

Yue Fei talked non-stop today, and his conversations with Zhang Jun exceeded the total in the past few days. It can be seen that he was still somewhat depressed about the impeachments and accusations.

"If I had used the army at that time, the central and local officials, as well as the people of Hubei, would probably be happy. But what about the people in the west of Hunan? Would they really dare to come out to plant rice when the two armies were fighting? By then, I would have abandoned this place, taken the military merit and left. Who would care if they became hired laborers or even continued to be lake bandits in the future? That's why I delayed a little, determined to wait until after the spring plowing and planting, and before the spring flood to make the result, but I didn't expect that the prime minister had already gone south... I hope the prime minister will forgive me for this matter."

Zhang Jun's face turned red on his horse. He wanted to get off the horse several times to hold the man's hands and praise him as "a pillar of the country" and "it is a blessing for the emperor and the country to have such a general". However, he thought of the confident words of Ma Shen and Xi Yi before, and of how he had repeatedly rebuked the people in front of him, and he wished he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. How could he do such a thing?

The troops continued to advance. That evening, the vanguard reported that someone had escaped from Yuanjiang City, saying that Yang Yao had entered Yuanjiang County, and asked Zhong Xiang and his son to go with him on a boat into the lake to take shelter for a while, but they refused.

However, this information was no longer important, because at this point, even if Yang Yao and Zhong Xiang and his son tried to leave the city, they would only be intercepted by the Song army that was desperately trying to catch up with the city and Dongting Lake.

Moreover, Yue Fei knew from the beginning that the water forts next to the lake and the cities that were not next to the lake were a matter of life and death for the rebels. The water forts connected to the big lake were what the government troops feared the most, while the cities were something that the government troops could take away at any time. He also knew that the two groups of leaders, Yang Yao and Zhong Xiang and his son, were a matter of life and death for the rebels. Yang Yao was the real leader who stood out in the rebellion, while the latter was only a spiritual leader.

However, this know-it-all commander pretended to be ignorant and just drove the rebels to their death.

In fact, the rebels were not without a way out. After Yang Yao was defeated in broad daylight, he didn't care about Zhong Xiang and his son or any city. He just dived into the lake. Even gods couldn't capture him. If he couldn't be captured in one day, the rebellion would be temporarily quelled. In the future, with this man's prestige and ability, he would surely be able to rise again relying on his strong witchcraft foundation and the local people's hearts.

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