Chapter 585: Defending Hezhong Mansion
After the Autumn Festival, Uncle Tan went to work as usual.
"I heard your niece is back? Is she the niece who married Magistrate Song?"
Uncle Tan glanced at the man who spoke and said calmly, "Yes, she is preparing to divorce Song Zhizhou. As her uncle, of course I have to support her."
The judge from the Dali Temple who happened to walk in asked curiously, "I remember that your third wife was determined to marry Prefect Song. Why did she suddenly want to divorce?"
Uncle Tan deliberately said loudly: "If you don't share the same ideals, you can't make plans together. Although my Sanniang is a woman, she also understands the principles of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism."
The judge of Dali Temple turned his back and rolled his eyes.
After being colleagues for so many years, who doesn’t know each other?
Wasn't it that the secret of the government sending Song Shoujie to lead the navy to Hezhong County was leaked?
The judge of the Dali Temple muttered quietly: "During the morning court session the day before yesterday, Master Tong was reprimanded by the emperor and walked out in anger. Today, Master Tong directly took sick leave and did not come to the court session. Alas, another storm."
"What are they arguing about?"
The judge of the Dali Temple said: "It's all because of Song Shoujie! Song Shoujie went to Guangde Prefecture and hoped that Guangde Prefecture would prepare grain for the 50,000-man navy to go north. The governor of Guangde refused and wrote a letter to the emperor asking him to issue a clear order before he would be willing to take the grain."
The judge of the Dali Temple believed that there was nothing wrong with the Guangde governor's actions.
Although everyone knows that the grain is for Song Shoujie, but there is no clear way to transfer it. So shouldn't the governor be responsible for the deficit of the grain?
The judge of the Dali Temple said sympathetically: "The emperor was furious when he received the memorial and wanted to punish the governor of Guangde Prefecture, but was stopped by Imperial Tutor Tong. Imperial Tutor Tong said that the governor acted according to the rules and did not make any mistakes. The emperor accused Imperial Tutor Tong of forming a clique and disrupting the government because the governor of Guangde Prefecture was Imperial Tutor Tong's man."
Uncle Tan stood firmly on the side of the government: "Things have their priorities. Gu Nanxi is aggressive, and Song Shoujie is leading his troops to defend Hezhong County. As the rear area, we should strongly support him."
As soon as these words came out, all the officials in the room fell silent.
In fact, no one wants to fight, especially with Yun Guogong Gu Nanxi.
However, the government first detained Su Dalang and then secretly sent troops to gather in Hezhong County. Obviously, the situation was becoming increasingly tense and war seemed imminent.
At this time, the Dali Temple Minister came in and spoke a fair word for Grand Tutor Tong.
"If the emperor had secretly mobilized the army before the disaster, Grand Tutor Tong would have definitely agreed with both hands and feet. But now droughts, floods, earthquakes, and civil unrest have occurred one after another. Duke Yun originally wanted to stop the war, but the emperor still pointed the finger at her. It was really unwise."
Uncle Tan was a little unconvinced, but he didn't dare to argue openly, so he could only whisper: "If we really compare, the strength of Duke Yun is far inferior to that of the emperor. The emperor just wants to take down Duke Yun first, and then concentrate on dealing with the disasters in various places, so that Duke Yun won't take the opportunity to cause chaos."
That makes sense.
The strength of the Duke of Yun was already greatly weakened. She took over Shuozhou in a fit of rage, and is now at the end of her strength. If she is given another chance to recuperate, she will become a serious threat in the future!
It would be better to kill her while she is sick!
The officials of the Dali Temple were discussing the matter.
"Song Shoujie's family is well-educated. He has cleaned up all the bandits in Jinghu North Road. If he is sent to Hezhong County, he will definitely be able to stop Duke Yun."
"That's right. There are a total of six counties in Hezhong County. Pingyang County is just a low-ranking county. Its allegiance to Duke Yun will not have any impact on the overall situation."
"I remember that the governor of Hezhong County once wrote a memorial discussing the strategy of how to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. He was quite popular with the emperor, so he was promoted to governor. Even if he is not good at fighting on the battlefield, with his military vision, he will definitely be able to cooperate well with Lord Song Shoujie!"
"Of course, with so many counties and thousands of households, it will take several months to push forward one thread after another. Haha, we will definitely have a good New Year this year."
"I wonder what the government will give us this year? Will the government reduce the rewards for disaster relief?"
"Who knows this? By the way, Mr. Temple Minister, when the government offered sacrifices to the God of the Land and Grain yesterday, did you see any unusual phenomena?"
Everyone turned their eyes to the Dali Temple Minister.
Every autumn, the emperor would go to the altar and symbolically plow the land. The community god was the god of land, and the millet god was the god of grain.
The government offered sacrifices to the god of the land and grain in order to bless the entire Zhou Dynasty with a good harvest and peace for the people.
The heads of the three provinces, six ministries, nine temples and five ministries would follow the emperor to farm.
The Supreme Court Justice said: "There was no sign of anything strange. The emperor hurried back to the palace before the land was fully plowed. In the end, it was Grand Tutor Tong and Lord Li who led the civil and military officials to finish plowing the land."
They went to offer sacrifices to the god of grain just to have a good omen, but they didn't expect that the emperor ran away before they even finished plowing the land!
This year has already been plagued by natural disasters, and with this incident, all civil and military officials are cast under a shadow of fear, fearing that next year will be even more difficult than this year.
Everyone was very curious. On such an important day yesterday, why did the official run away halfway through the sacrifice?
The news didn't come out until everyone was about to get off work today.
"What?! Four out of the six counties in Hezhong County surrendered?! Now only Hezhong Prefecture and Suining County are left struggling to hold on?!"
"How is this possible?! They didn't move a single soldier?!"
This sounds like fake news!
Lord Song Shoujie is still staying in Guangde Prefecture, and most of Hezhong County has fallen into the hands of Yunguo Palace!
Someone who was well-informed said, "I heard that Duke Yun only sent a few envoys and persuaded Xingye County and Xin'an County!"
"What kind of messenger can defeat millions of troops alone!"
"I don't know about that. There is news that the emperor once issued a secret decree to the Xin'an County Magistrate, Lord Lu, asking him to cooperate with Lord Song Shoujie's actions."
Oh my god, this is even more weird!
Isn't this a slap on the face of the government?
The emperor's secret decree is not as powerful as an envoy from Duke Yun. How embarrassing!
The man continued to talk: "After Xin'an County surrendered to Duke Yun, Duke Yun led a thousand Yunzhou cavalrymen to Taihe County overnight. Taihe County didn't even last a night before opening the city gates and inviting Duke Yun to enter the city."
Everyone's scalp went numb. If Duke Yun was a little thick-skinned, he could announce to the public that the city gates were wide open to welcome the army of justice, in order to show how popular Duke Yun was!
No wonder the government didn’t even offer sacrifices yesterday. This is indeed a big deal!
No one dared to discuss any more and went home quietly. At the morning court the next day, no one dared to ask for leave, except Grand Tutor Tong.
The young emperor sat on the dragon throne with an angry look on his face, gloomily staring at the civil and military officials below.
"Order the governor and judge of Hezhong County to defend Hezhong Prefecture and wait for Song Shoujie's reinforcements! Order Song Shoujie to lead his troops to advance at full speed to support Hezhong Prefecture! Order the governor of Guangde Prefecture to ensure food and fodder for Song Shoujie's army at all costs!"
"Yes, sir!"
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