They couldn't speak.
Or to be more specific, their words at this time could not have any influence on the central government officials, their actions could not bring much tax to the court, and even when the number of troops in the imperial camp had been fixed and the imperial army had difficulty crossing the river in a short period of time, they could not even provide soldiers and sacrifices for the troops.
It's not that no one from the two rivers escaped, but those who escaped were only a minority compared to the native people south of the Yellow River. If they had fled to the south of the Yangtze River that day, the combined number of refugees from the Central Plains and Hebei would still be somewhat weak, but it would not be as bad as it is now.
"Your Majesty." Li Guang thought for a moment and suggested seriously, "Why not sign a peace treaty for three to five years? Then we can march north again?"
"That's ridiculous." The previous heart-to-heart talk had worked, and Zhao Ding responded directly without Zhao Jiu's reply. "Once peace is negotiated, people's morale will be weakened. And we still want peace now, not to mention that people will want peace in three to five years. By then, I'm afraid everyone in the court will want peace!"
"If someone does this at that time, I will spit in his face!" Li Guang quickly looked at Zhao Ding in a serious tone.
"Li Zhongcheng spit in his own face, but what if he can't save the people's hearts and minds?" Zhang Jun on the side also responded coldly. "Can Li Zhongcheng spit to death tens of millions of people?! In my opinion, if the situation can't be saved, even if Li Zhongcheng hits his head against the Wende Hall to prove his innocence, it will be unforgivable! What's more, once peace is negotiated, not to mention that the people of Henan will seek stability, just how will the people of the two rivers win? Zhongcheng wants tens of millions of people in the two rivers to be willing to be slaves of the Jin people for another three to five years just because of his empty words?"
Li Guang was furious, but he had no words to say. He could only bow to Zhao Jiu and said, "Your Majesty, although I am from the southeast, I have no selfish motives. I am just thinking about the return of the two emperors to the north, and the several counties in the east of Beijing. Originally, it would cost countless money and millions of lives to get them back. Now, it is obvious that I can get them with just one word, but I still refuse directly. How can I explain to the people of the world? Moreover, even if we want to march north, we have no war horses and no money. How can we rush to do it? What about a temporary peace for three years?"
"National hatred, family feuds, and the righteousness of the Spring and Autumn Period cannot be compromised in the slightest." Chen Gui also interjected in a low voice to express his stance.
Liu Ji also nodded.
Li Guang was very anxious for a moment, but then he looked at Lu Haowen... How could he not know that most of the six people these times were the emperor's confidants, and few of them were willing to disobey the emperor? It might also be that Lu Haowen had an outstanding status and was not worried about the position of prime minister, so he might be able to say something fair.
However, Lu Haowen met Li Guang's gaze and asked an unexpected question: "Li Zhongcheng and former Prime Minister Li Boxi are close friends. Do you know what he means?"
Li Guang was backed into a corner, but he could no longer hide his feelings. He simply raised his head and said, "Mr. Li did have correspondence with me. He said long ago that a little peace talk is feasible."
Everyone frowned.
However, Li Guang did not lie... Li Gang and Li Boji, the former war leaders, did support peace talks at this time. Moreover, it was not that Li Gang suddenly became weak in the knees, but that he had always held the attitude and opinion. After all, as early as the beginning of Jianyan, when Li Gang first took office in Nanjing, he clearly put forward his own opinion, that is, to do what one can - "to defend, then to fight, to fight, then to make peace."
He never gave up 'and'.
The reason why we had to insist on "fighting" at that time was because the situation had reached its most powerless point. Once we were unable to fight, it would be tantamount to surrender.
However, his inner thinking of being able to "defend", "fight" and "make peace" has never changed, and it also represents the true thoughts of most "pro-war" non-surrender bureaucrats.
In fact, this was also an important reason why he was easily defeated by Huang Qianshan - Li Gang's "peace" behind his advocacy of war caused a subtle estrangement between him and Zong Ze, who believed in "fighting to the end", and thus they were unable to truly join forces to control the court. This included the fact that Zong Ze did not provide any assistance when Li Gang was dismissed from his position as prime minister, and the two sides had different slogans on how to build the capital, which led to their being defeated by each other.
"Okay, I know that most people want to negotiate peace, and most of them are sincere and well-intentioned." At this moment, it was Emperor Zhao who suddenly interrupted. "And I won't hide it from you. In the past two days in the palace, I have been thinking about it. I feel that since I came to Mingdao Palace, I have been through many life and death situations, but none of them are as helpless as now... I was so helpless that I wanted to abandon Tokyo and take only the front army of the Imperial Camp and a part of the Imperial Camp led by Li Qiong, that is, the Imperial Camp troops who are mostly Hebei survivors, to Bagong Mountain to become bandits and start over. What else can we do? Should we send the Imperial Camp soldiers who are from Hebei refugees to the streets to assassinate? Whoever talks about peace will be killed?"
"Your Excellency's words are too harsh..." Lu Haowen and others responded helplessly.
"Let's not talk about this anymore... I want to ask you, if I am really determined to go to Bagua Mountain, will the six of you follow me?" Zhao Jiu asked suddenly without changing his expression.
Several people thought that the official was going to continue speaking angrily and were going to respond perfunctorily, but before they could open their mouths, they all became alert in their hearts and became serious.
"Prime Minister Lu." Zhao Jiu urged.
"Your Majesty..." Lü Haowen, who was the first to be hit, was stunned for a long time, but could only smile bitterly. "Your Majesty's words were very clear in my house that day. I have wasted half of my life, and the little achievements and fame I have are all gained by following your Majesty in the past four or five years. If your Majesty really wants to become a bandit, I can only become a chief clerk in a mountain stronghold."
"Of course I am willing to follow the emperor!" Zhang Jun expressed his opinion before Zhao Ding.
Zhao Ding looked at Zhang Jun helplessly, and then turned to Emperor Zhao sincerely: "Your Majesty, I have received great kindness from you. In four years, I have risen from a scholar in Kaifeng Prefecture to the prime minister of the capital province. There are thousands of reasons why you would abandon me. How could I abandon you?"
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