After the war, we need to reward people for their merits, take inventory of our assets, reorganize our troops, summarize lessons, and decide on the next response strategy... Some things cannot be rushed, and some things cannot be delayed.

Among these, the most obvious and urgent things are rewards and reorganization.

Needless to say, reorganization is imperative. For example, it is imperative to fully reorganize the Tokyo Resident Office into the Imperial Camp system. Even after Zong Ze's death, this matter has become Zhao Jiu's top priority. He must handle this matter properly and decently. However, this matter will inevitably infringe on the interests of a lot of people, and it is the most substantial and serious issue at present.

As for the reward, it is the prerequisite for reorganization and even a series of things to come.

Although it was unlikely, Emperor Zhao definitely did not want to end up like Zhong Shizhong... Just because there were not enough silver bowls for rewards, the soldiers "became angry and dispersed", and then Zhong Shizhong was immediately defeated and killed.

To this end, as early as when the Song army surrounded Luoyang, Zhao Jiu issued an imperial decree, requiring Xiangyang and Nanyang to use all the surplus money in the treasury and a considerable amount of stored grain for military use. Then, when the war was over and news came from Hebei that more than half of the Jin army had dispersed on the spot and the rest had gone to Yanjing, Zhao Jiu immediately gathered the army and officers and prepared to reward them according to their merits.

These things are natural, except that the place of Heyin is a bit unlucky.

Heyin is located at the junction of Zhengzhou and Mengzhou, and is an important town on the south bank of the Yellow River. Not only is it adjacent to the Bianhe River and the Yellow River, it is also located at the center of Han Shizhong's previous deployment of defenses on the Yellow River. This location, in terms of transportation, is indeed convenient for the gathering of military generals, bureaucrats, and troops from Nanyang, Dongjing, and Xijing.

However, although it is convenient, this area became famous all over the world because of Erzhu Rong's "Heyin Incident"... More than 2,000 princes and ministers of the Northern Wei Dynasty were massacred. The history books clearly stated that "under Heyin, the ground was covered with corpses."

The ministers who rushed here from Nanyang and Xiangyang certainly did not suspect that Emperor Zhao was going to carry out a massacre, but they could not help but wonder if Emperor Zhao had ulterior motives or hints. Because at this time, Emperor Zhao's series of actions after escaping from Nanyang had already been revealed. Whether it was deceiving all the ministers in Nanyang and Xiangyang when he escaped that day, or killing Du Chong with an axe when he seized the military power in Yanling, or personally leading the army to fight, these ministers felt a little uneasy.

However, when they heard that Emperor Zhao had returned to the old capital and presented Zong Liushou with the poem "Qing Yu'an", these people somewhat relaxed... because these two things were done in a way that showed the behavior of a wise ruler.

In fact, it is no wonder that these people are so nervous and sensitive, because there is another irrefutable fact that as this battle ended in a way that was completely beyond everyone's expectations, looking back at the outcome of the Battle of Yanling of Emperor Zhao, although these people were suspicious, they had no intention or courage to resist from the beginning... In the words of Yan Xiaozhong when he was seeing off the officials going north, the officials' journey to the north this time seemed to be like "King Xiang defeated the Qin army and summoned the princes and generals. When they entered the gate, all of them knelt before him and no one dared to look up."

Of course, this inappropriate remark was severely criticized by the two Lu Xianggongs, because the government and the public are one, while King Xiang and the princes have their own agenda, how can they be the same? How can the governor of Nanyang Prefecture say such disunited words?

So Yan Xiaozhong shut up.

No matter how the people below imagined and how they schemed, in late February, as the troops and generals gradually gathered, the ministers and officials from Nanyang and Xiangyang also rushed to Zhengzhou. Emperor Zhao did not hesitate and immediately set out from Tokyo, raising the dragon flag and heading towards Heyin.

Along the way, more and more soldiers and horses coming from the east gathered along the way, and more and more generals followed. The rest of the people from the west and south also galloped their horses. The leading bureaucrats, ministers and generals arrived in Heyin first to wait for the emperor.

On February 23rd, Zhao Jiu arrived in Heyin.

Up to this point, Heyin had gathered 70,000 to 80,000 troops and dozens of commanders. Above the commanders were generals such as Han Shizhong, Li Yanxian, Zhang Jun, Wang Yan, Yue Fei, Wang De, and Lu Xing.

In addition, the four ministers Lu Haowen, Lu Yihao, Xu Jingheng, and Wang Boyan, as well as the Chief Censor, the heads of the six ministries, the Hanlin academicians, the provincial government, the Privy Council, the Censorate, and the Tokyo Garrison also arrived.

Even the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Imperial Guard, led by Yang Yi Zhong and Feng Yi, escorted Madam Wu to the scene, and Han Shizhong's Madam Liang also came along.

The civil and military officials gathered together. Not to mention that some of them were originally heading in the direction of the imperial carriage, on this morning, the civil and military officials in Heyin, led by four ministers, gathered together and went out of the city along the Bian River to welcome him...but because the emperor had issued an order earlier, they only went two or three miles out of the city and did not go far to welcome him.

Thanks to this, Han Shizhong even had time to set up a thatched hut here and make some arrangements.

At noon, Liu Yan, the deputy commander of the imperial guards, led the cavalry to arrive first, and then the dragon banner appeared in the distance. Then, the chief escort Lan Gui personally arrived here and delivered a message, saying that the civil and military officials were exempted from the formalities when they met on the roadside today, and the formalities would be performed at the banquet tomorrow. The elders, civil officials above the rank of chief officer of the six ministries, and military officers above the rank of commander could all sit down and wait... After everyone sat down according to their seniority, the slightly old dragon banner arrived in front of them in a moment, escorted by the personal soldiers of Wang Yan and Zhang Jun.

The dragon flag was raised, and generals Zhang Jun and Wang Yan, wearing armor and holding sharp weapons, led the officers from various departments to come out first. Then, Emperor Zhao, wearing a cowhide belt and a bright yellow imperial review uniform (a tattered piece of clothing that was searched out from the Tokyo Imperial City, convenient for riding), rode out on his horse. Behind him came the ministers who had accompanied him before, as well as the Tokyo Garrison's deputy governor Quan Bangyan, the judges and prosecutors, and a group of people.

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