Although half of the imperial cavalry had already set out, the camp in Beimang Mountain was still working all night... because everyone knew that Emperor Zhao would cross the river tomorrow, and this also meant that, except for a few defensive troops, most of the people in this camp would follow him, cross the Yellow River, and go to Hedong on the other side of the river.

It's just a matter of one day earlier or later.

Since they had to cross the river, they had to risk their lives on this journey, so many people tossed and turned, unable to sleep that night.

However, this does not seem to include Emperor Zhao. Early the next morning, Emperor Zhao changed into a light armor, covered with a cotton military uniform, and walked out holding a sword, obviously in high spirits.

Under Prime Minister Lu and President Wang, there were Fan Zongyin, Ren Baozhong, Yu Yunwen, Mei Li, and the top 100 men in the southeast 'for consultation' as the civil officials, Yang Yi Zhong, Liu Yan, and the generals of the imperial camp's central army and cavalry as the military officials, and the imperial guards surrounding them.

But this group of people did not rush to board the ship, but first came to the rammed earth platform in the camp, and asked Scholar Fan to read the manifesto, with the assistance of Prime Minister Lu. Emperor Zhao personally offered sacrifices to Zong Ze, Wang Boyan, Zhang Shuye, Zhang Suo, Liu Qian and other important ministers who had died in the battle, to make an announcement.

After that, Emperor Zhao wanted to speak, but for some reason, he was unusually calm. He snatched the manifesto with his own hands, burned it in public, then turned around and went on board the ship himself.

The dragon banner and the two black and white yaks immediately followed, swarming around.

Zhao Guanjia, Lu Yihao and Wang Yan boarded three large ships separately. Zhao Guanjia was in the middle with a dragon flag on board, while Lu Yihao was on the left with a captured white ox flag on board, and Wang Yan was on the right with a black ox flag on board.

The close ministers, the "consultants", and the guards were also divided into three parts.

There were also the troops of Wang De, Zhang Jing and Qiao Zhongfu in the imperial camp surrounding them, some of them went ahead and some followed behind. Instead, the group led by Qu Duan and Xiahou Yuan, who were the most anxious before, fell behind.

Of course, there was a reason for this arrangement - the area of ​​Mengzhou and Huaizhou opposite Luoyang was the southern gateway to Longde Prefecture, where the Jin army stationed its troops, and it was also the eastern exit of Chenguanxing.

Previously, the Song army had intended to land here directly and attack the Jin army at Chenguanxing. Unfortunately, considering the number of Jin troops in Longde Prefecture, in order to prevent being surrounded just after landing, the conservative Zhao emperor in Luoyang naturally rejected this idea.

However, now that Emperor Zhao has crossed the river to the north, the Jin army at Chenguanxing should be about to withdraw from here. It would be necessary to separate a part of the Eight Character Army, which is familiar with the local terrain, and advance along Chenguanxing to meet up with part of the Henan Song army here. At that time, it would block Chenguanxing at the same time and further protect Luoyang in winter.

This task fell on Fu Qing, Fan Yihong and Meng De, but Qu Duan and Liu Qi needed to lead the cavalry to stay and provide them with cover to ensure that the three of them could meet up and establish a good defense line before they could go to Hedong to gather the main force.

Of course, now is not the time to talk about the scattered arrangements of these side roads. It is just that since Emperor Zhao hurriedly boarded the boat and went upstream along the river, he finally did not have to pretend to be calm and composed as before. All kinds of thoughts came to his mind at once.

However, at this moment, he still had no intention of shouting about crossing the river, but instead began to think directly about the things in the north.

For example, before the battle, he was worried that Han Shizhong would lack the will to fight and hoped that he could cheer up. As it turned out, this guy did cheer up, but the sight of a dignified prince and marshal charging directly into the front made Zhao Jiu a little scared.

When we get to the place, we must give strict warnings.

And there is Li Yanxian.

Before the war, Zhao Jiu undoubtedly had great expectations for this general who was expected to be second in command in the country. However, his recklessness directly led to his troops suffering the heaviest losses since the war began. In addition, some of his troops, both good and bad, lost control in the north of Tieling Pass and even engaged in looting and fighting with the rebel army.

This was something Zhao Jiu particularly could not accept.

Taking into account that Li Yanxian had been defending Shanzhou for nine years, Zhao Jiu was not prepared to blame the other side for his reckless advance, but was prepared to severely deal with the military's disciplinary violations in Guanbei... To punish the criminals and punish the people without harming even a hair, is this how it is done?

What was the Northern Expedition for?

Even Ma Kuo and Wu Jie, to be honest, both performed beyond Emperor Zhao's expectations, it's just that one was good and the other was bad.

Zhao Jiu was of course prepared to execute Guo Zhen, a man under Wu Jie who had some impression of him, but he was hesitant about rewarding Ma Kuo... He really wanted to give Ma Kuo a big banner, but Wu Jie, who had a higher status and more military achievements, did not have one. It would be inappropriate to give it to Ma Kuo without Wu Jie at this time.

However, what is really important is not the specific ideas for dealing with these things, but that these things made Zhao Jiu realize directly that these generals and ministers he relied on were by no means gods. They would all have emotional fluctuations and might make mistakes. He must follow the reminders of Lu Yihao and Wang Yan, use the authority of the emperor to integrate them, form a temple calculation, and then use the temple calculation to replace the individual fights of these generals and ministers.

Han Shizhong's outstanding performance and Ma Kuo's diligence should have been directed to the decisive battle. Wu Jie's mistakes in personnel selection and Li Yanxian's reckless pursuit of merit should have been eliminated and covered up from the beginning.

That’s about it: play to your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.

When he thought of this, Zhao Jiufu thought of those two people again... Brother Liang and Zhang Heng. He had known these two people for a long time, but he inexplicably had some liking for the daring and aggressive Brother Liang, and had a little doubt about Zhang Heng.

But what is the result?

Although Brother Liang was daring and his unit was powerful, according to Ma Kuo's memorial, he was too daring. When he heard that the Northern Expedition had begun and Yue Fei was appointed as the Marshal of Hebei Road, he actually abandoned Ma Kuo's constraints and went to Daming Prefecture to look for his old master. As a result, he met Wan Hu of Elubu, a veteran general of the Jin army, and was defeated miserably.

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