On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, it was snowing outside. Wu Jie was eating mutton soup and pancakes in the central army tent north of Taiyuan City, while Zhao Jiu was sitting at the top with an expressionless face, watching Wu Jie eat mutton soup and pancakes.
That's how interesting it is.
This not only means that Emperor Zhao is lamenting that everyone can bring him surprises and unexpected things, but more importantly, he finds that in a complex system, a person who seems to have mastered everything can actually master very limited things... This feeling has begun in the autumn of the first year of Jianyan, and until the upcoming tenth year of Jianyan, it seems that it has never changed.
This has nothing to do with his prestige or his achievements, because there are always strange things at work between people. Changes in the external situation never seem to bring about any unified changes. A big good change always has some bad effects, and some bad things always seem to have acceptable reasons and processes behind them.
While Zhao Jiu's mind was wandering, Wu Jie had already finished three bowls of mutton soup and pancakes, then stood up and respectfully thanked Emperor Zhao... This gratitude should be a very simple and sincere expression, because there is nothing more comfortable than having a full and warm meal after a few days of forced march in the cold winter without having to report or think about other things.
Let alone other things, only Wu Jie's predecessor, the Zhao Song official who was generally compared to Emperor Guangwu, could think of asking someone to serve hot food. In the past, not to mention Qu Duan, any superior, even Wu Jie's father who was old but not old at heart, would not be so attentive.
"How did Wu Qing come so quickly?"
Zhao Jiu came to his senses and raised his hand to stop the other party from bowing. He then went straight to the point with a blank expression, and pointed at the table in front of the other party. "Take it away, and bring me a bowl of soup."
"So that the emperor knows, the main reason is that Wanyan Salihe closed the city and refused to come out." Wu Jie sat back in his original position according to the emperor's signal and responded carefully. "So, after I crossed the river from Wubaozhai and lured the garrison commander of Lishi, the capital of Shizhou, to surrender, I found that the road ahead was smooth, so I divided my troops into 5,000 each, with the commander Guan Shigu as the supervisor, and went to the north of Lanzhou Loufan City and the south of Shipenzhai to resist. Then I only led 5,000 combat troops and 15,000 Dangxiang auxiliary troops to cross the mountain lightly... As for the rest of my subordinates, there is still a main force of 20,000 combat troops, led by Deputy Commander Guo Hao, who set out from the three states outside the river, and entered Shuozhou from Baode Army to suppress the southern route of Datong, while Yelu Yudu and Huerzahusi should leave Yunnei from Yinshan and suppress the northern route of Datong... In addition, my brother Wu Lin supervised the remaining subordinates of Shangyuying's rear army and 30,000 Dangxiang auxiliary troops to take charge of the logistics of the transportation of Shaanxi Road and Ningxia Road outside the river."
These were all planned, except that Wanyan Sali's fear of fighting became a very interesting breakthrough point, allowing Wu Jie to calmly pass through the undefended Jurchen defense zone.
As expected, Zhao Jiu nodded and immediately stopped caring about it. He just continued to ask, "That being said, why did you have to come so quickly? Isn't it too hard?"
At this time, the mutton soup was served again. Wu Jie took the opportunity to bow slightly in front of the table and said, "Serving the country and being loyal to the king is natural for a minister or a general."
Unexpectedly, faced with such a matter-of-fact answer, Emperor Zhao fell silent instead, so that the originally empty tent became quiet for a moment, and the originally proper conversation between the emperor and his subjects also stopped instantly. For a moment, only the noisy movement outside the tent seemed particularly clear.
This also made Wu Jie, who was always good at accommodating, a little panicked... It had been five years since Yaoshan, and now the Northern Expedition had reached the city of Taiyuan. The prestige of this official was undoubtedly growing, to the point that no one in the world was qualified to confront him... No one thought that the young emperor of Jin or Yelu Dashi, or the two remaining ruling princes of Jin were qualified to be on an equal footing with this official. This was not a matter of national strength, but the young emperor of Jin plus the two ruling princes, plus a group of Jurchen households, might be the one who had the final say.
After a long time, Emperor Zhao, who had no one in the world qualified to resist him, finally spoke, but he was the first to sigh: "Wu Qing, am I not scary when I look like this?"
Wu Jie was at a loss for what to do and didn't know how to respond. He could only glance inside the tent, but apart from a few guards, there was not a single close minister in the tent. The newly promoted and active iron-faced guard Shao Chengzhang was not there, and even Yang Yi Zhong was not there.
It also made Wu Dutong even more nervous.
"Actually, I won't hide it from you." Zhao Jiu sighed more and more when he saw this, as if he was apologizing or explaining. "Since the Northern Expedition, I seem to have everything planned out and have done my best, but I am increasingly anxious inside, fearing that I will lose a battle or have insufficient logistics, which will make me a laughing stock in the world... Therefore, my thoughts gradually become complicated, and I am suspicious... When I saw you coming so quickly today, my first reaction was that you, Wu Jinqing, are just like Han Liangchen, Li Shaoyan, Qu Shiyin and others, fearing that you will not get military merit, so you are desperate... This seems a bit suspicious."
Wu Jie was stunned for a moment, but then he was relieved: "Isn't it unusual for the emperor to have such a thought? You know, everyone in the world knows that this Northern Expedition is to determine the situation in the world, who doesn't want to make an unprecedented contribution? And even if we, the ministers, don't have such thoughts, how can we resist the push and push of our subordinates?"
"Yes." Zhao Jiu seemed to be thinking. "Like Qu Duan before, he was forced by his subordinates to come and ask for a fight even though he knew it was impossible. I had no choice but to give him a whip so that he would give an explanation to those people in the Imperial Camp Cavalry."
Wu Jie hesitated for a moment after hearing this, but after looking at the official in front of him, he responded carefully: "If it were someone else, it would be fine, but I know the truth about General Qu... He used to claim to be a genius in the world, but he almost fell into ruin. It was all thanks to your generosity. I shouldn't have disobeyed you again, but the Imperial Cavalry did have some opinions..."
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