When the news of the Jin army's massive invasion reached the capital, the entire court was thrown into chaos.
Tong Guan abandoned his army and fled back to the capital from Taiyuan.
Emperor Zhao Ji was so frightened that he convulsed, which modern medicine explains as a stroke.
When he woke up, the first thing he thought of was not to organize the Song army to resist, but to escape.
Of course, you still have to make some arrangements before escaping.
He immediately appointed Crown Prince Zhao Huan as the governor of Kaifeng.
He had a very clever plan. While he was still the emperor, he left Crown Prince Zhao Huan in Kaifeng to guard the city, calling him "Regent". To put it bluntly, he wanted the crown prince to be a scapegoat.
The prince was not stupid. He refused to obey and was even said to have fainted from crying several times.
Li Gang, the Junior Minister of Rites, entered the palace and advised, "Your Majesty, you wish to leave the capital. It is not possible to let the Crown Prince govern. For the sake of the country, the only option is to abdicate."
After much deliberation, Zhao Ji agreed to Li Gang's suggestion.
That night, he ordered people to carry Crown Prince Zhao Huan to the palace and wrap him in the imperial robe. He was forced to become the emperor even if he didn't want to.
Zhao Huan fell to the ground, crying bitterly, and firmly refused to be the emperor. Finally, his eyes rolled back and he fainted from crying.
Zhao Ji had no choice but to summon Zhao Huan's Eastern Palace official Geng Nanzhong into the palace and ask him to persuade Zhao Huan.
On the second day, Zhao Huan still refused to obey.
However, his arms were no match for his thighs, and he finally gave in.
When Zhao Huan first summoned the prime minister and other officials to the Gong Hall, "the sun had five colors, with red and yellow hues on its rims, and two suns rubbed against each other for a long time."
After Zhao Huan ascended the throne, he honored Emperor Daojun Zhao Ji as the Supreme Emperor and issued a general amnesty.
On the first day of January, the reign was changed to Jing Kang.
During this period, apart from going to the city to visit Ding Dusai and Li Shishi, Zhang Shixun was busy strengthening his farm.
One day, Zhang Shixun was inspecting the village and was about to go back when he saw several people on horseback galloping towards Zhang Xiaozhuang in the distance. When they got closer, he recognized that the leader was Gao Yanei.
Gao Yanei shouted from a distance: "Brother, you are so free and easy."
Zhang Shixun was slightly surprised. "Yanei, you are the chief military officer. Why didn't you go south with the First Army?"
Gao Yanei reined in his horse and said with a playful smile, "I was no longer the chief officer of the First Army three days ago."
"Resigned?"
"I was transferred to the Ministry of War and got a sinecure, hehe!"
"No need to ask, it must be General Gao who doesn't want you to leave the capital, so he quickly transferred you out of the First Army, right?"
"Brother, you guessed right." Gao Yanei got off the horse and handed the reins to Gao Wu who was accompanying him.
Zhang Shixun shook his head and said, "Let's go and talk inside the village."
Taking Gao Yanei back to his house, Gao Yanei walked around the yard and said enviously: "Brother, your house is well built. Can you help me build one later?"
Zhang Shixun ignored him and asked, "The Jin soldiers are about to attack the city. Why are you here with me instead of staying in the city?"
"The city isn't safe, so I've come with my family to seek refuge with my brother... Oh! My three wives are following behind. They're riding in sedan chairs, so they're moving slowly. I came here first."
"What?" Zhang Shixun was surprised. "Yanei, you are not kidding me, are you?"
"I'm not kidding. I really came to you."
"Get lost!" Zhang Shixun was immediately annoyed. "My temple is too small to accommodate a great god like you... Yanei, you'd better give up this idea as soon as possible and go back to where you came from."
"Don't!" Gao Yanei bowed and kowtowed, then smiled apologetically, "I'm not particular. Just find me two thatched huts. Once we're through this war, you don't have to chase me away. I'll leave on my own."
Zhang Shixun patiently advised, "I don't have any spare thatched huts for you to stay in. Yanei, you'd better go back to the city... Don't worry, even if the Jin soldiers reach the capital this time, they will be safe and sound and will not break through."
Gao Yanei: "I won't go back, even if you kill me."
Zhang Shixun's face darkened. "My house is empty, only the doghouse is left."
"A doghouse is fine too. I told you, it's not particular."
Depend on!
Faced with such a shameless person, Zhang Shixun had no way to deal with him.
It would be a lie to say that there were no vacant houses. This time when he rebuilt Zhang Xiaozhuang, he expanded the original village by more than two times. The original villagers lived in the west of the village, and the east was kept as a reserve. He specially built dozens of houses, which are now empty.
Gao Yanei's family arrived, traveling on more than a dozen mule carts.
In addition to Gao Yanei's three wives, there were more than 20 people following him, including maids, cooks, servants, bodyguards...
Zhang Shixun looked at the large group of people and said to Gao Yanei, "Looking at this scene, you plan to stay here forever."
"Hehe! My dad specifically told me to follow you closely from now on before he left."
"Why?"
"My father said that you are a star from heaven who has come down to earth. As long as I follow you, no matter how big the problem is, I can turn misfortune into good fortune and turn disaster into blessing."
Zhang Shixun smiled bitterly, thinking that Gao Qiu was sure to defeat him.
I have to admit that old ginger is still spicy.
He led Gao Yanei to the east side of the village, pointed to a row of thatched houses and said, "Yanei, you can live here."
Gao Yanei looked at the rows of houses and asked curiously, "Brother, why did you build so many houses?"
Zhang Shixun said unhappily, "Raising pigs."
"Brother, you scolded me."
"Yanei, when you come to me, keep your curiosity to yourself and don't ask any questions."
"Oh!" Gao Yanei nodded obediently.
He knew Zhang Shixun too well, so it was pointless to ask questions that he shouldn't have asked.
"After you have settled your family, come and tell me what has happened in the capital these days." Zhang Shixun gave instructions and turned back.
After Gao Yanei settled his family, he happily came to Zhang Shixun's house.
Zhang Shixun had cooked a pot of pork and vermicelli stew, filled a large bowl, and was about to start eating when he saw Gao Yanei coming. He said, "There's more in the pot in the kitchen. Go get some."
The people of the Song Dynasty raised pigs, and most of the pig pens were connected to toilets. Therefore, the rich called pork "dirty meat" and generally did not eat pork. Only the poor ate it.
After Zhang Shixun and Wang Dong arrived in the Song Dynasty, they also refused to eat pork for fear of contracting parasitic diseases.
Wang Dong was a greedy person. After the wine-making workshop was built, he raised a few pigs in the backyard. He fed them with wine dregs and leftovers from home, so they would definitely not be infected with parasites.
Today is the third day of the first lunar month. Because of the invasion of the Jin army, almost no one is in the mood to celebrate the New Year, but Zhang Shixun and his friend are still doing everything as usual.
A few days ago, Wang Dong started slaughtering pigs and sheep and preparing food for the New Year.
Zhang Shixun originally wanted to bring Ding Dusai over to celebrate the New Year together, but was stopped by Ding's father, who scolded Zhang Shixun and said, "My daughter is not married yet, why should she spend the New Year with you? Get out of here!"
Zhang Shixun had no choice but to return home in disgrace and spend the New Year alone.
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