Chapter 148 Summoning

Historically, Du Chong defended Tokyo for a year, the same length as Zong Ze. For this reason, even though he broke the dike of the Yellow River and forced more than half of his troops to rebel, Yue Fei still followed him loyally and the exiled court kept promoting him to higher positions.

In a word, failure and incompetence are not a crime these days, otherwise the whole court would be killed. And for frontline officials like Du Chong, failure is never a reason to punish them, and a sentence of "If you can do it, you can do it" is enough to shut up everyone in the central government.

Even after Zhao Jiu came here, he successively dealt with Liu Guangshi, Ding Jin and Fan Qiong. The official reason he gave was not defeat or something like that, but rather not fighting or avoiding fighting.

What’s more, these three are all military men, not civil officials of proper origin…Are civil officials and military generals the same thing?

In fact, even for Fan Zhixu, a "model" of absurdity and harm to the country, Zhao Jiu did not dare to risk breaking with the civil officials and kill him directly.

Because this killing meant that many of the things he had worked so hard to build would be wasted.

When Du Chong's letter was delivered, the central government was shocked. After a discussion in the palace, some people thought that Du Chong might be afraid of fighting. In fact, many people thought of this. Some people, including Emperor Zhao, thought of a possibility - Du Chong was so afraid of fighting that he lied to Nanyang!

However, this is just a guess. If it were true, Du Chong would sooner or later suffer the same fate as Fan Zhixu, because this incident has caused panic across the board in Nanyang, and it is likely to lead to more serious consequences for Han Shizhong, making the situation very bad.

But even so, these few people were helpless because they were afraid to act rashly at this time... Besides, it was just a guess, and more than 80% of people believed Du Chong's report.

There is no need to worry in the short term, but soon there will be big problems on the Yanling-Changshe battlefield, which will lead to a complete disaster in the long run. This has become a consensus in Nanyang.

For a time, not to mention that the people of Nanyang were in a panic, according to Yang Yi Zhong's report, bad rumors spread immediately after the discussion in the palace that afternoon... saying that Han Shizhong's previous defeat and Du Chong's predicament today were all caused by the reckless advance of those in power. If they had only defended the cities from the beginning, although there would have been necessary losses, the overall situation would not have been put in danger.

There is no need to say more about who is in power.

This was in stark contrast to the almost fantastic artillery victory in the previous half month, which had brought great prestige to Emperor Zhao and Lu Yihao.

"Is it accurate?"

On the evening of the day when the news came, Zhao Jiu, who was sitting in the old woods full of wooden stakes between the harem and the front hall, was in a state of panic. Suddenly, he received news that added fuel to the fire.

"It is absolutely correct." Yang Yizhong bowed his head in the corridor. "You can go up to the city to see it."

Zhao Jiu stood up from the wooden stake without saying a word, and followed Yang Yizhong out of the palace to the North City, which was less than three miles away. There were countless officials accompanying them along the way, so there was no need to say more.

When they reached the top of the city, everyone could see what was going on at a glance in the setting sun. Thousands of Jurchen cavalry were gathering openly under the setting sun, and then galloping out of the camp in a shocking scene. They continued to march northeast.

"Are the Jin people withdrawing?" Hu Yin, who came with them, was confused.

"No." Liu Ziyu, the chief secretary of the Privy Council, breathed a sigh of relief and said through gritted teeth, "They are going to support Wanyan Talan, or at least they are deliberately pretending to support Talan."

"What do you mean?" Hu Yin looked at him warily.

"Nothing else." Liu Ziyu glanced at Hu Yin and answered sternly. "Even if Talai was asking for help, it would not have arrived today. The information received today can only be that Deputy Du stayed behind in Yanling and refused to come out. So, it could be a strategy to lure the enemy."

"How can reinforcements lure the enemy?" Hu Yin was still puzzled.

"It's to lure the troops in Nanyang! Or to lure the emperor!" Liu Ziyu was furious. "It's not to lure Yanling! If the people in the city really think that the Jin army has lost a million households and the troops are scarce, and then try to counterattack here, or take the opportunity to send the emperor to Xiangyang, they will definitely be overwhelmed by this army of ten thousand cavalry!"

Hu Yin lowered his head and thought for a while, then glanced at the expressionless Zhao Guanjia, and still couldn't help but continue to ask Liu Ziyu: "Liu Canjun still didn't say, why didn't the Jin army withdraw?"

Liu Ziyu was stunned, but felt a temporary pain at the back of his head, so he simply ignored the other person.

"What do you think?" At this moment, Zhao Jiu suddenly turned around and looked at Yang Yizhong.

"I think what General Liu said makes sense." Military affairs were his responsibility, so Yang Yizhong naturally did not shy away from them, but immediately reported them. "As the first month of the year begins, the weather gradually warms up, and the river ice gradually melts. However, the water network around Nanyang is dense... Among them, although the surface ice of a large river like the Baihe River has not cracked, only a few places are passable, which is not enough for a large group of armored cavalry. The Jin army sent a 10,000-horse force to the northeast at this time, which can not only lure the enemy, but also take the opportunity to deploy troops outside the Baihe River in advance to prevent our army from seizing this opportunity and suddenly crossing the river with infantry, and then using the river as a barrier to calmly move south."

Zhao Jiu nodded slowly... He knew what Yang Yizhong meant. The one who was using the river to block the southward advance was not the "infantry", but him, Emperor Zhao.

In fact, with the arrival of Du Chong's note, the discussion started in the morning and lasted until the afternoon. This was because many civil officials realized that the overall situation was worrying and again suggested that Zhao Jiu go south to Xiangyang to be on the safe side. They had a fierce debate and confrontation with many people who still insisted on the Nanyang faction.

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