However, Emperor Zhao rarely felt that life was boring today, because he was eating melons with several of his husbands in the sunset. Moreover, this time they were not eating the common crisp melons on the streets, but watermelons that made Emperor Zhao extremely happy.

We haven't seen each other for so many years, how could he not be happy?

You must know that watermelon was introduced to China hundreds or thousands of years ago, but perhaps because the variety has not been improved, it has always been a luxury grown in places with plenty of sunshine in the Western Regions.

However, it was during this era, when the Song and Jin dynasties coexisted, that large watermelons with green skin and red flesh, which were suitable for widespread cultivation in the Central Plains and Jiangnan, finally appeared, and were almost the same as those in later generations.

Moreover, it was after the situation between Song and Jin stabilized that this kind of watermelon began to become widely popular and became a necessity for Chinese people to cool off in the summer.

The exact origin of this breed improvement that is enough to merit sainthood is not clear at all, but it was most likely bred in the Yanyun area by the Liao people who controlled the Western Regions during the Liao Dynasty.

Of course, back to the present, this kind of watermelon is not yet popular enough for everyone to eat. It is still a luxury that only people in the north and the west can enjoy. The watermelon that Emperor Zhao ate today was brought from Hebei by Gao Jingshan, an envoy from the Jin Dynasty.

There were three in total. Perhaps in order to keep them fresh, one was not cooked yet. There were two left, one big and one small. The small one was given to Concubine Pan and the two little princesses, but Emperor Zhao did not give the big one to Madam Wu. Instead, he summoned several husbands and the Chief Censor to come to the palace to eat the melons.

Three ministers, a Chief Censor, the so-called ministers of the outer court, and then an attendant scholar Xiao Lin, a Liu Yan, a chief escort Lan Gui, the so-called confidants of the inner court, plus an official, eight grown men eating a melon, just to try something new.

"Has Gao Jingshan been sent away?"

In the pavilion beside the pond, which had been cleaned up relatively cleanly, Zhao Jiu took the lead in eating the melon, asked someone to carefully collect the seeds, and personally wrapped them with a small cloth, then stood up and took the lead in washing his hands in the copper basin beside him, which was quite comfortable. However, after sitting down, after all, several husbands were there, so they couldn't help but talk about some trivial matters of state affairs.

"Don't worry, your Majesty. I have already sent him away." Prime Minister Wang Boyan quickly replied. "According to your Majesty's request, I sent him two dead rabbits that I killed myself as a return gift."

Zhao Jiu nodded slightly.

Li Guang, the Imperial Censor, could not help but frown: "I don't know what these Jin people are thinking. They actually came from Daming Prefecture to mediate the war between the Song Dynasty and the Pseudo-Qi Dynasty... The Song Dynasty and the Pseudo-Qi Dynasty are irreconcilable. Don't they know that they set up the Pseudo-Qi Dynasty?"

"They are not really here to mediate." Zhao Jiu laughed. "They are not really here because of the order from Beijing. They must have seen Li Kui and Li Bao's large army crossing the river in Daming Prefecture, and they knew it was not good, so they took the initiative to come here to tell me that it would be fine if we won in Dongping this time, but if we march to Jinan, although they are unwilling, they have no choice but to lead the main force to fight in the summer."

Several people present nodded, but Li Guang was slightly embarrassed.

By the way, Yue Fei was not a bad person. When he sent out his troops that day, he calculated the time well, and he also asked Li Kui, Li Bao and others who took a detour from the west of Liangshanpo to send official notices to Tokyo, Nanjing and other places to report his plan.

In other words, the imperial court at least knew at this time that Yue Fei was about to encircle Dongping Prefecture.

It was just that due to the speed of information dissemination, we didn't know that the encirclement had been completed, nor the various incidents that followed quickly, let alone the decisive battle today.

In any case, since the military plan had been delivered and was already in the second half of the implementation period, it was somewhat embarrassing to point out that the front army of the imperial camp did not move at Wenshui that day, and then use this as an excuse to impeach Yue Fei for his incompetence.

Therefore, the debate among the officers, which Emperor Zhao had been looking forward to, just started and disappeared in half a day.

"Your Majesty," Lu Haowen saw that Li Guang was a little embarrassed, but he took the initiative to speak in the pavilion to ease the atmosphere. "Then what does your Majesty mean? Are you going to send troops to Jinan?"

"I don't think so!" Zhao Jiu said indifferently. "It's still the same as before. In everything, we should accumulate strength first. After all, no one knows what the new round of invasion by the Jin people will look like after the autumn. We should not waste too much energy on the Pseudo-Qi... So when Dongping Prefecture faces the Pseudo-Qi, we should still be fast, accurate and ruthless. It's like shooting an arrow. If you hit it, it's a hit. If you miss it, it's a miss. Don't fight too long, and don't get stuck in the quagmire."

"I think so too." Lu Haowen nodded quickly. "Our food, fodder and money are still very tight. There are complaints in the southeast and Jingxiang. The government has opened a special examination and sent people to reward Prime Minister Zhong. It's only now that we are somewhat relieved. We can't get involved in it and waste people's hearts in vain..."

"Not only that." Zhao Jiu took over the conversation and sneered. "Gao Jingshan hurriedly brought three watermelons this time. Although he anticipated the setback in the war in Dongping Prefecture and did not want to expand the dispute in the summer, he might have intended to provoke us. He secretly hoped that we could send troops to Jinan to fight Liu Yu, who would have to defend desperately."

"That's true." Xu Jingheng and Xu Xianggong also twirled their beards. "The government might as well send a gold medal to the front line to give Yue Pengju some reminders."

Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment, and always felt that something was wrong, but after thinking about it, he nodded: "Okay."

“It’s more than that.”

Wang Boyan also continued to remind him. "The Privy Council has already discussed that after this battle, compared with Jinan, a more important thing is to recover Yanzhou, and the most critical thing is to deal with Zhang Rong of Dongping Prefecture... Why don't you first send a gold medal to Yue Fei to stop fighting, and then send another gold medal to ask him to bring Zhang Rong to Tokyo to see you after the battle? In my opinion, if Zhang Rong is willing to come to see you, he is a man who can be used and saved!"

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