"Reporting to the emperor, it is Zhao Mingcheng." Shangshu Youcheng Lü Haowen replied immediately. Since the deputy prime minister knew that Zhao Jiu had forgotten a lot of people, he took the initiative to say a few more words. "Zhao Mingcheng, courtesy name Defu, is the third son of the former prime minister Zhao Ting. He was previously framed by the traitor Cai Jing and stayed in Qingzhou for more than ten years. He was recruited a few years ago and served in Qingzhou and Zibo. This time, he was appointed by Prime Minister Li..."
Zhao Jiu heard this and suddenly shook his head and laughed: "Of course I know this, he is the husband of Yi An Jushi! This man should not surrender to the Jin Dynasty, right?"
"Of course not!" Lu Haowen replied very quickly. "How could the son of a prime minister surrender to the Jin Dynasty? Only a scoundrel like Liu Yu from Hebei would cause such a disaster!"
"That's good." Zhao Jiu sighed, and then spoke clearly. "We are still blocked by the road. When the Huaixi bandits are defeated and Li Xianggong wakes up, the generals and prime ministers will discuss the future... The most urgent thing is to find out the situation of the battle in Caizhou and Guangzhou."
After these words were spoken, all the civil and military officials present here actually breathed a sigh of relief... To be honest, people's mentality is really strange. When Li Gang was in power, everyone always felt that he was too violent and irritable, and hoped that the emperor would come out to stir up trouble. But when Li Gang fell ill and the emperor temporarily took charge of the situation, everyone remembered the emperor's previous words such as "can we have a fight?", but they were worried that the emperor would go crazy, and instead hoped to continue Li Gang's original route.
But no matter what, let's not talk about what the civil and military officials here think, nor about their panic and sensation after they later learned about the "Prince's" words, the emperor came back and convened this court meeting, and after he stated that he would not change the roadmap without authorization, the exiled court of the Song Dynasty finally had a few days of peace.
However, this kind of peace and security was only superficial, a temporary stability under the collapse of the overall situation…In the next few days, as Liu Zhengyan's battle in the southwest was at a disadvantage, or the Huaixi bandit Ding Jin knew that his troops were weak and he joined forces to defend the city, Liu Zhengyan was helpless for a while; plus, Li Gang's illness came and went like a mountain, and although his condition was stable, he was still unable to come out to preside over the situation…The stability here in Shunchang Prefecture became more and more ridiculous, and restlessness permeated the entire city.
On November 13, another piece of news came - a few days ago, Zhao Mingcheng, the son of the prime minister, the husband of Yi An Jushi, and the prefect of Zibo, although he did not surrender to the Jin, chose to abandon the city and flee like many civil servants of the Song Dynasty in recent years. He also took thousands of local troops of Zibo to the neighboring Qingzhou, and Zibo fell on the 8th.
At this moment, the whole line was shocked, and some people began to persuade Emperor Zhao to take the opportunity to change the route from Shunchang Prefecture to the southeast and go to Yangzhou!
Of course, this person encountered the first manual operation since Zhao Jiu came out of the well... Wasn't he going to the south? Just in time to go to Qiongzhou to wait for Mr. Huang!
However, on November 15, just two days later, not long after the urging of Liu Zhengyan was issued, another piece of bad news came:
By the way, Liu Hongdao, the prefect of Qingzhou, was a good man. Instead of surrendering or running away, he gathered the fleeing soldiers from Jinan Prefecture and Zibo Prefecture, as well as the local troops of Qingzhou, and gathered tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. He handed them over to the command of Zheng Zongmeng, a general of the prefecture. Zheng Zongmeng was not a coward either. He took the initiative to lead his troops to the border of Qingzhou and Zibo Prefecture, and took advantage of the geographical location to engage in a field battle with the main force of the Jin army!
As a result, he was defeated in one battle by Jin Wushu, who had five thousand households!
At this point, the official power of the Song Dynasty in Jingdong East Road was basically lost, and the entire Jingdong East Road could be declared to have completely fallen.
Here, he was so shocked that he was speechless for a whole day. Later, news came that Zhang Kan, the magistrate of Qingzhou, died for his country, and Liu Hongdao and Zhao Mingcheng fled south together, but no one paid any attention... Because the whole imperial court was in chaos, there was an endless stream of memorials requesting Emperor Zhao to immediately set off for the southeast; there were also a few suggesting to set up a defense line along the Huai River; impeaching Liu Zhengyan for incompetence and asking Han Shizhong to replace him was a necessary phrase in almost all memorials.
In the midst of this chaos, in the afternoon, several important officials of the central government who had gathered intelligence that Nianhan's main force had appeared in Luoyang and Shanzhou, led by Shangshu Youcheng Lu Haowen, came back from a collective visit to Li Gang. They immediately went to pay a visit to the emperor and prepare to convene an emergency meeting of the Council of State... But then they were shocked to find that Emperor Zhao had actually abandoned the civil and military officials in the city at this critical moment and secretly left the city to go to Han Shizhong's military camp on the banks of the Yingshui River.
"Why doesn't a good minister wear a jade belt?" Zhao Jiu stood on the river bank for a long time, and finally waited for Han Shizhong who came hurriedly. As soon as he turned around and spoke, Yang Yi felt a little sour in his heart.
"How can I really carry such a valuable treasure with me every day?" Han Shizhong, who had just stepped onto the embankment, bowed hastily and grinned, but this time he stood straight. "I'll leave it in the camp for my wife to keep!"
"As long as it doesn't delay you from going into battle, you should wear this kind of thing every day to show off to others." Zhao Jiu didn't care. "What's the point of keeping it?"
Han Shizhong nodded repeatedly... He thought so too. If some people are jealous, then so be it. Wouldn't it be meaningless if they weren't jealous?
"Let's not talk about this," Zhao Jiu turned around and took the opportunity to change the subject, but he became serious. "Does Liangchen know what I came to you to ask privately?"
"I know!" Han Shizhong pointed to the sky and said directly, "Your Majesty, give me ten days. If I fail to defeat Ding Jin, I will bring my head to you!"
"What's Ding Jin?" Zhao Jiu shook his head with his hands behind his back. "No matter how incompetent Liu Zhengyan is, he will only be a few more days..."
"That official..." Han Shizhong was a scoundrel, but not a fool. Almost instantly he thought of some rumors he had heard in recent days, and then he came to his senses a little.
"Good minister, I am forced into a corner again. Tell me the truth." Zhao Jiu gritted his teeth and took two steps forward, shook Han Shizhong's hand, and asked a question that had been in his mind for a long time. "In this situation, can't the Jin people fight them face to face?"
Han Shizhong's hands were held, and he wanted to speak several times, but stopped several times... How could he not know the debate in Shunchang City, how could he not know the current situation? How could he not know that his words might contribute to the direction of the situation?
But after an unknown amount of time, this famous general whom Zhao Jiu relied on finally responded formally and seriously: "Good instructor, you know that the Central Plains is a vast land with hundreds of thousands of Jin cavalry. It is really difficult for us to fight..."
Zhao Jiu was depressed for a moment.
PS:
First of all, I would like to thank the old leader who has become the new leader and the advanced construction boss. Then I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Finally, I will continue to recommend the book, the martial arts masterpiece "The Swordsman"!
Finally, I want to ask, why are people so happy at the end of the year? How can people like me live?
Finally, I would like to apologize. A book friend reminded me that Yingzhou was renamed Shunchang Prefecture in the late Northern Song Dynasty. I would like to make this correction.
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