"After the emperor killed Liu Guangshi and Ding Jin, he was afraid and began to prepare himself a little. He also recruited some soldiers locally, but not too much. All together, there were only 15,000 soldiers..." Wang Boyan continued to preach seriously. "But the emperor should not forget that Wanyan Yinshu left in a hurry because of the matter in Shanzhou. He only brought back the Wanhu he brought from Taiyuan. As a result, many defeated soldiers in the west of Beijing who surrendered to the Jin people in Dengzhou had nowhere to go. And the emperor's imperial camp army pressed on again, so they had to follow the example of Zhao Zongyin and go to Xiangyang."

Zhao Jiu nodded slightly, but calmly: "In that case, we can defeat them in one fell swoop, saving us from wasting time. However, Wang Xianggong said in this letter that we can still deal with Fan Qiong in a righteous manner. What does that mean? Do we still need to persuade him to surrender now?"

"How could this be?" Wang Boyan laughed. "This guy watched Wanyan Yinshu run rampant in the west of Beijing before, and he refused to come even when the emperor summoned him for the last time. It's obvious that he can't be kept... But the emperor knows that Fan Qiong can't tolerate him, so he is determined to be a traitor, but the soldiers and officers under him may not want to follow him. These people are nominal subjects of the emperor and soldiers of the court. Before the emperor didn't come and Fan Qiong didn't show his rebellious intentions, these people could still be safe. Now that the emperor has led a large army to Nanyang, how can they be safe and not worry about the future?"

Zhao Jiu nodded again... In fact, not to mention Fan Qiong's subordinates, even Fan Qiong himself, who knew that he could not be tolerated by the central government, was timid and did not dare to make up his mind to really rebel. This can be seen from the fact that in the previous year, countless taxes and goods from Bashu were transferred from the Yangtze River to the Han River, through Xiangyang to Nanyang, but this person did not dare to cut off the transportation.

"So, I have two plans." Wang Boyan bowed and said again, but he became serious again. "First, please ask the emperor to issue an order to designate Fan Qiong as the leader of the traitors and publicly offer a reward for his arrest, and at the same time pardon all the innocent people below Fan Qiong and allow them to bring their own troops and equipment to the imperial camp to report; second, please take advantage of the geographical advantages of Nanyang and Xiangyang, send people south, and spread rumors in Xiangzhou, saying that several of Fan Qiong's main generals all want to kill him to serve Nanyang..."

Zhao Jiu suddenly laughed: "This is a strategy of driving a tiger to devour a wolf, it must be effective. Mr. Wang was laughing before, why didn't he laugh when he talked about this?"

"Reporting to the emperor." Wang Boyan became more serious. "This is a military strategy. As the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, I have no choice but to do it. However, a moral person should not be proud of such a sinister strategy."

Zhao Jiu smiled and asked again: "Then I have already said that I want to personally lead the army to the south. Does this count as me taking charge of a dirty matter as the emperor?"

Wang Boyan was embarrassed for a moment, but could only force himself to explain: "The government is using justice to punish the rebels, which is in line with the great principles."

Zhao Jiuqing knew what was going on. It was nothing more than that no one felt any psychological pressure when facing someone like Fan Qiong. If they really had to face the Jin people, as there were only 500 of them last time, this group of people would absolutely find it difficult to agree.

However, Emperor Zhao was too lazy to say more. He just put down the note that coincided with Liu Ziyu's strategy and gave a solemn order: "This is the most urgent matter among all matters. We should roughly follow this plan and issue an order to implement it immediately... There is only one thing. Those who are under the control of Fan Qiong and wait and see can be pardoned, but those who surrender to the Jin Dynasty and the monk Zong Yin must not be pardoned! In addition, Nanyang must make good logistical preparations, and Ma Shen of Jinghu North Road behind Xiangyang must also be contacted as soon as possible. Once Xiangyang is shaken, I will personally lead the army and quickly send troops to pacify this beast!"

From Lu Haowen to Yan Xiaozhong, all the relevant people were shocked and were about to step out to respond.

However, amid the increasingly obvious grumbling, Xiao Lin, a scholar, took the lead and said, "Your Majesty, I would like to go to Xiangzhou first and personally carry out this strategy of driving the tiger to devour the wolf on your behalf!"

Zhao Jiu looked at the indomitable Xiao Lin, secretly admiring him, but nodded slightly: "Just as Mr. Lin said."

After saying this, Lady Zhao, who had to remain a widow because of the internal strife among the bureaucrats, simply stood up without waiting for everyone to bow and went into the harem to play with the wild pigeons.

For a moment, everyone in the palace could only look at each other awkwardly - what was the big deal about finding a few wives for a single official? But in the end, it turned out like this, arousing everyone's suspicion, while at the same time benefiting those who already had wives and concubines, what was going on?

No wonder the government is angry.

PS: Good night everyone…