One said that he saw with his own eyes that the emperor made the pancakes himself, another said that he saw with his own eyes that the emperor chopped the meat filling himself, and some said that they saw Emperor Zhao tied a cloth around his waist to cover the grease, and personally cut the pancakes and stuffed the fillings in... It seemed that they didn't care that Emperor Zhao was just helping to cook!

By the afternoon, no one knew how the news spread, but before dinner had even started, word had already spread inside and outside Taiyuan city and in various camps within dozens of miles. It was said that Emperor Zhao had teamed up with a great wizard to invent a kind of roasted bread to feast the entire army, and that the roasted bread tasted so good, it was almost like dragon meat from heaven!

"We haven't even started eating yet, how can you tell it tastes so good? It tastes like dragon meat... Who has ever eaten dragon meat? I only know that horse meat is too coarse! Not as good as donkey meat, and not as smooth and tender as dog meat!"

Outside the south gate of Taiyuan City, just north of the main army camp, in a thatched shed beside the road that provided hot water, Wang Yan was furious when he heard the news. "Besides, there are dozens of miles of camps, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians, and there are 137 cooking camps alone. Is the emperor like the Monkey King in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" and has the ability to clone himself? I'm afraid the few pots the emperor cooks are not enough to even keep the shifts."

There were only four people in the shed, including Han Shizhong who had just returned from writing, and the four generals Li Yanxian, Ma Kuo and Wang Yan. No outsiders, even the commanding officers and personal instructors were allowed to approach. When they heard Wang Yan's words, the other three just sat in the shed in silence.

After a long while, Wang Yan could no longer bear it and gritted his teeth and said, "The emperor is avoiding us like this, is he afraid that we will ask for a fight?"

"What else could it be?" Han Shizhong touched his wrist and laughed.

"Isn't this a sign of fear of fighting?" Wang Yan suddenly became angry.

"Of course I am afraid of fighting." Li Yanxian responded calmly. "But this fear is not fear of the enemy, but fear of my own shortcomings... Because once we go east, there will be a decisive battle in nine out of ten cases, and this northern expedition must be thoroughly resolved... It is human nature to want to be more cautious at this time."

"Yes, it would be a joke to say that the emperor is afraid of the enemy's strength." Han Liangchen remained calm. "Since the Huai River, the emperor has never been afraid of difficulties or enemies. Now he is just playing it safe. He should be waiting for Yue Fei's army to push up and the Jin army's morale will be difficult to maintain before joining forces to attack."

"But can we avoid this?" Wang Yan was still a little angry. "At this time, if we leave Jingxing and head east, the Jurchens have not yet gotten rid of the panic of the fall of Taiyuan and Daming. In order to survive, we can only bite the bullet and fight. If we win the battle, we will have enough to sweep the old land of the country after the war. Maybe we can save enough military rations after the withdrawal of the army and leave an elite force of 30,000 to 50,000 to go straight to Yanjing... But if we delay and play it safe, and have to wait for Yue Fei to come, even if we win, we will not have enough logistics by then, and we don’t know how many cities and territories we can capture."

Everyone nodded.

Besides, Wang Yan and Yue Fei had a personal grudge that was difficult to resolve. Even the emperor and the government could not mediate. Everyone knew about this, so it was normal for them not to wait any longer. Actually, not to mention Wang Yan’s unwillingness to wait for Yue Fei to join the battle, how could Han Shizhong and Li Yanxian be willing to wait? Even Wu Jie, who went north to Datong to deal with the Mongols, was in Quduan, Longde Prefecture in the southeast. There were also Wang De, Li Qiong, and Wang Sheng. As a result, among the nearly 200,000 troops in Hedong, who was willing to wait for Yue Fei?

That is Ma Kuo. He had no desire for war at this time, but given the atmosphere around him, how could he possibly offend his colleagues for such a thing?

In addition, the more important point is that, putting aside party background and personal grudges, what Wang Yan said makes sense.

After all, Yue Fei's main force was in Daming Prefecture, and they were all infantry battalions. Facing the main force of the Jin army of more than 100,000, they could not leave their defenses and march forward in large numbers. That would be a waste of time. Therefore, they could only attack cities and strongholds layer by layer and advance northward. Although it was safe to advance in this way and then fight a decisive battle, it was a delay, and the opportunity for war would be lost. Secondly, with hundreds of thousands of troops and civilians here, how could they be calculated if they were consumed like water?

To put it bluntly, if we really wait until the water level of the Yellow River is high, Yue Fei, Zhang Rong, and Tian Shizhong will advance both by land and water to Hejian, and then form a so-called double-sided situation with Hedong to attack Zhending... Even if we win for sure, will the logistics and food supplies be able to support the troops to continue to move north to attack Yanjing?

Of course, waiting for Yue Fei has its advantages, while advancing eastward immediately without waiting for Yue Fei also has its own arguments. However, no one in Hedong would agree to wait for Yue Fei, but the decision-making power lies only in the hands of Emperor Zhao.

"After all, it's the Lantern Festival." Seeing that everyone agreed, Han Shizhong, as the leader of the group and the nominal marshal, had to express his position. "After today... tomorrow morning, let's go to see the emperor together."

Although the other people had different attitudes, they could only nod at this time.

Just like that, while Emperor Zhao was making fire, several generals began to drink tea out of boredom... preparing to wait for the next batch of fire.

However, just as several generals were drinking tea and waiting for the fire to start, a loyal cavalryman with a hanging bell suddenly came up to report.

"What's the matter? Is there an order from the emperor?" Han Shizhong stood up and asked without hesitation.

"No." Laiqi dismounted and bowed. "Reporting to the prince, the imperial cavalry reported that the commander Zhang Zhongfu was defeated by the Jin cavalry in Shexian County in front of Fukou Pass... Qu Dutong and he jointly wrote a letter to apologize. The emperor heard the news in the kitchen camp, so he asked us to pass it on to the governors."

Having said that, the loyal rider ignored the four generals' changed expressions and walked straight forward to hand over a document. He then turned around, took a basket from his horse, placed a dozen steaming hot roasted meats on the table, then turned around, mounted his horse and left.

As soon as the other party left, Han Shizhong ignored the fire and opened the document to read it first, but after just a few glances, he smashed the document on the table and became furious: "Compared with Zhang Zhongfu, Wang Sheng is considered to have a good reputation in Pingxing Village!"

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!