However, Yuwen Xuzhong, the envoy who was half the owner of this place and had been delivering messages on behalf of the emperor for several days, was stopped by Yang Yizhong when he was about to leave... The others saw this and quickened their pace to leave, as they did not want to overhear the conversation between the prime minister and the emperor's confidants... Of course, Yang Yizhong's stopping Yuwen Xuzhong was just a trivial matter.

"The number in the daily report is wrong?" Yuwen Xuzhong was puzzled for a moment. "The messengers gathered and handed it to the emperor in person. We saw it with our own eyes. Even the messenger from Huaidong Zhang Boying came. The emperor even specifically asked about Qu Duan's loss of information. How could it be wrong?"

Yang Yizhong was stunned for a moment, and he laughed while holding a few newspapers in his hand: "Maybe one copy was dropped, or someone took one away. It doesn't matter, I'll look for it tomorrow..."

Seeing this, Yuwen Xianggong smiled again: "The message has been verified. In fact, as long as it is not from Hu Mingzhong, Han Taiwei, and Li Taiwei, it doesn't matter if someone just took a copy and forgot to return it... It won't affect the military intelligence."

Yang Yizhong nodded repeatedly, saluted, and then walked out of the back hall carefully holding the newspaper in his hand. As soon as he left the back hall, he saw Emperor Zhao and his attendant Liu Yan waiting in the slightly dark backyard corridor.

What’s interesting is that Yang Yizhong didn’t show any surprise at all.

"Yang Qing, tell me, if we want to fight in the field, how many people are needed to trap the 50,000 people in Loushi?" Zhao Jiu put his hands behind his back. "Tell the truth."

"One hundred thousand!" In the twilight, Yang Yizhong raised his head and said sternly. "Even if we take into account the backup force that the emperor has prepared, we still need one hundred thousand! Otherwise, we can't contain them... Your Majesty, Lou Shi's trip is obviously well calculated. Even if Zhang Yunshi has done his best and brought 20,000 more soldiers, with northern Shaanxi in ruins and the two generals Han and Li holding back Hedong, our forces are still insufficient."

Zhao Jiu sighed softly...How could he not know?

Wang De and Wang Yan have a total of 40,000 troops. There are more than 30,000 soldiers and horses from Jingzhao, Xihe, Qinfeng, and Xingyuan Prefectures gathered here in Jingzhao. By drawing on the best troops from various departments, he has assembled an 'elite collection' of five or six thousand people along the way. Together with the imperial guards, there are barely 80,000 people. Even if there are still some soldiers and horses left in the three routes of northern Shaanxi, that is, Yanfu Road, Jingyuan Road, and Huanqing Road, it is really less than 100,000!

Not to mention, this is just paper talk, a theoretical ratio of troops and horses.

Of course, Zhao Jiu, who had fought in two battles, knew very well that if he was really determined to fight a war of annihilation, he could let Han Shizhong abandon the Jin army in Hedong before the battle and buy time for reinforcements... But this was too idealistic, and he was just a gambler.

"Please forgive me for speaking frankly." In silence, Yang Yizhong raised his head, his eyes shining slightly in the darkness. "Your Majesty, Liu Chengzhi's words are from the bottom of his heart, and he is serving the public wholeheartedly, unless Your Majesty has other information..."

Zhao Jiu nodded: "Of course I know that what Liu Ziyu said is absolutely right, but today is not a sudden whim of mine... Yue Peng mentioned in his report that he intends to cross the river and leave Xiangzhou in the early next month to connect with Ma Kuo and involve the Jin army in Hedong! And since I have already granted him the power to do so, there is no reason to stop him."

"It may have miraculous effects." Yang Yizhong suddenly realized, but soon shook his head again. "But sir, this can only be a temporary distraction. As long as Hedong and Damingfu send troops to attack, General Yue will be doomed to be unable to stay in Hebei. And it is unknown how many people can be involved."

"I know," Zhao Jiu replied calmly. "It's just that I couldn't help it for a moment..."

After saying that, Zhao Jiu turned around and held a daily newspaper in his hands behind his back. It was indeed the one that Yang Yizhong had not found, and also the one that Yue Fei had found. However, this official had no intention of handing the newspaper over to Yang Yizhong. Instead, he held the newspaper and walked away into the twilight.

Yang Yizhong wanted to speak, but gave up in the end.

PS: Thanks to camelyexs for the cuteness... This is the 79th one.

I'm still alive... I won't say anything more... I still have to make sure to write 150,000 words this month.