But no matter what, about four o'clock in the morning, Emperor Zhao finally led the main force of the imperial guard out of Nanyang City through a secret door in the east of the city, and entered the big camp in the east, where he met Wang De and Zhang Jing in the dark.
Besides, Zhang Jing was ordered by Xu Jingheng, Wang Boyan, Liu Ji and others to come here to meet Emperor Zhao who was heading south to Xiangyang. In fact, considering the past, this was the original plan of the Privy Council. In addition, he had no contact with the disputes in the city, so he didn't have anything extra to say.
Even his preparations here were very thorough.
But unfortunately, Zhang Jing had no extra words, but Emperor Zhao did:
"The ones who have worked the hardest on this matter today are Wang Qing and Zhang Qing."
Wang De and Zhang Jing quickly knelt down together and said they dared not.
"Is the floating bridge ready?" Zhao Jiu continued.
"We built three large floating bridges on the Baihe River to the south early on when the ice was floating. There will be no mistakes due to the melting of ice and snow..." Zhang Jing said seriously.
"What about the east? You marched here from the southeast and moved your camp there. You should have made corresponding preparations, right?" In the dark night, Zhao Jiu stared at Zhang Jing and asked seriously, with white air coming out of his mouth filling the night sky.
"There is a floating bridge, but it is relatively small. As the ice is about to melt, we built a simple floating bridge to facilitate the transportation of remaining wood from the old camp." Zhang Jing answered quickly.
"That's enough."
"But Your Majesty, please forgive me for being frank, but it will be a waste of time to go from the east. Moreover, if the Jin army has an ambush, it must be the one we saw this evening, and it must be waiting in the northeast... Perhaps Your Majesty wants to send out a decoy force?" Zhang Jing wanted to refute, but he realized it halfway.
"That's right." Zhao Jiu sighed, and stepped forward to help Wang De and Zhang Jing, who were still waiting, up. "Generals, I just said that you two are the ones who have worked the hardest today... because I want you to work together to lead the army south as quickly as possible... and after your entire army crosses the Baihe River, the 10,000 cavalrymen of the Jin army left outside the Baihe River will surely attack with all their strength. At that time, please retreat here as quickly as possible, and if you can't gain a foothold here, enter the city directly."
Wang De and Zhang Jing were confused for a moment, while Wanqi Xie, who was carrying a package, was so confused that he couldn't help but tidy up the package on his back... This formed a sharp contrast with the silence of Yang Yizhong, Hu Yin, Lin Jingmo, Lan Gui, and Liu Yan.
Of course, the silence of these five people was completely different. Yang Yizhong seemed to know from the beginning what the official would do and what he was going to do, but he just carried out the execution in silence. In addition to that, he also had a hint of supervision and scrutiny on the second general and the people around him.
Liu Yan was quite simple. He had made up his mind when he parted ways with Guo Yaoshi before Jingkang, and there was no reason to change his mind. After Jingkang, he was even more determined, and he had no hesitation even if he was going to die.
Lin Jingmo received less information today, so he instinctively began to think about things and analyze the situation;
As a eunuch, Lan Gui was destined to follow Emperor Zhao, so there was nothing he could do.
Hu Yin was still confused and angry about Emperor Zhao's sudden decision to move south.
"Is the emperor trying to lure the enemy?" After a moment, Zhang Jing looked at him in confusion.
"The emperor is not going to Xiangyang?" Wang De was also at a loss for a moment.
"We will go to Xiangyang, but we must also lure the enemy." Zhao Jiu answered calmly. "However, it is you who are going to lure the enemy. I will use more than 10,000 of you to act as a decoy for me, to lure out the Jin army's ambush on the other side of the river, to cover the 800 Red Heart Team to escort me across the river from the east, and then... to the south! Anyway, thank you two for your hard work today, and Commander Yang, he will also lead the Imperial Guard to follow you to act as a decoy!"
Under the firelight in the camp, Yang Yizhong remained silent, just staring at Wang De and Zhang Jing without saying a word. It was hard to tell whether he was happy or angry. Wang De and Zhang Jing, whose hands were held by Emperor Zhao, looked at each other, but they had no time to think about it. They could only grit their teeth and bow their heads: "Yes!"
Behind him, Hu Yin, who had once thought that the emperor was going to change his mind, was disappointed again, but Wanqi Xie had fallen silent along with the others - as a bold guess popped up in his mind, his heart beat faster.
It was the fourth watch, late winter and early spring, the sun had not risen and the sky was still dark, but the Song army had already begun to move.
PS: Still 25k left
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