Zhao Jiu's heart was slightly moved: "How is the battle going?"
"The Jin army saw that thousands of righteous soldiers were not allowed to enter the city in broad daylight, and the people on the city walls were guarding the city walls tightly, so they became quite arrogant and even mocked us across the river. Now we are caught off guard and have fewer people, so we are temporarily shaken. I am afraid they are faking it."
"How did Zhai Chong react?" Emperor Zhao asked again.
"It happened suddenly, and I was hesitant!"
"What was Huyan Tong's reaction when you came up from the city?" Zhao Jiu continued to ask.
"General Huyan is obviously tempted to do something, but he dares not act rashly because he has the responsibility to defend the city." The one who answered Zhao Jiu was Wang Yuan. It can be seen that this person has been very active recently.
Zhao Jiu pondered for a moment and was about to speak when Lu Haowen, who had hurried in from outside, spoke as soon as he stepped into the door: "Hu Yantong cannot go out, and the city defense cannot be changed for a moment! Your Majesty, we discussed it repeatedly last night and we all think this is the bottom line! We must not send troops recklessly and ruin the overall stability!"
Zhao Jiu had no expression on his face and nodded slowly: "I agree with you!"
Everyone was stunned, as if they were unable to react for a moment. But when they came to their senses, they all felt relieved.
"Therefore, we cannot move Hu Yantong's troops. Instead, we should urge Zhai Chong to use his troops to cross the river and defeat the 500 cavalrymen who have already wavered!" Zhao Jiu continued slowly.
Lu Haowen and others looked at each other and felt that this statement seemed to be correct.
"But the incident happened suddenly, and the situation is unclear. Zhai Chong and the other rebels are all from wealthy families, so they naturally like to preserve their strength. So they are hesitant and indecisive... Then at this time, someone must go down and urge Zhai Chong to fight!" Emperor Zhao continued to respond slowly by the candlelight. "Don't you think so?"
At this time, Wang Boyan also hurried over, and all the ministers were present. From the four ministers onwards, everyone looked around, still speechless, and nodded one after another... Only Zhang Jun wanted to say something but stopped himself, but after meeting Emperor Zhao's gaze, he finally chose to remain silent.
"However, Scholar Lin went out of the city as a hostage as a Yutang Scholar, and Magistrate Yan followed him as an old friend. I even gave him the position of a commander before, but he still didn't move. What should I do?" Zhao Jiu withdrew his gaze from Zhang Deyuan and continued to look around and ask.
"There's nothing we can do about this," sighed Wang Boyan, the last and oldest person to arrive. "This is the nature of the so-called righteous army. They have no hatred or grudge against the Jin people. They just saw that the Xingda army was full and the Jin people would leave sooner or later, so they came here to fight for their own lives."
"That's right." Xu Jingheng finally spoke up. "These people seem honest, but they won't do anything unless it's for the benefit of the people. For the sake of the military capital, they don't even care about their own children and nephews. How could they be urged by Master Lin and Prefect Yan?"
"That's true, so only if I go out of the city myself can I force him to send out his army." Zhao Jiu nodded casually, then turned to Feng Yi who was standing by and gave him an order. "Bring my red robe, my hat, and the golden belt!"
Feng Yi was stunned for a moment, glanced at the ministers and important officials in the hall, and then walked away.
The hall was silent for a while. It was obvious that many people did not react for a while. But after they realized what was happening, they felt it was ridiculous.
"What kind of joke is this, Government?!" Xu Jingheng almost jumped up.
"How could I be joking?" Zhao Jiu replied calmly. "Isn't the truth obvious?"
"What you said before is true, but what about the safety of the emperor?" Xu Xianggong was furious. After questioning Zhao Jiu, he turned his head to look at the flustered Lu Haowen and Wang Boyan. "Is this how you treat your husband in Shouzhou?!"
"Mr. Xu, please be patient." Zhao Jiu quickly raised his hand to stop him. "I am not deliberately taking risks, but I just realized that this trip is actually not dangerous at all. It is completely different from the day when Xiacai was forced to go because of the urgent situation!"
Xu Jingheng laughed in anger: "Although I was not on the city wall during the day, I also know what people are saying. It is clear that even the rebels are not allowed to enter the city, so how can we let the emperor leave the city?"
"Because if the rebels enter the city, there will be risks, but if I leave the city, there will be no danger..." Zhao Jiu said this calmly, pointing to Wang Yuan and Liu Ziyu. "Lord Wang, Lord Liu, do you remember the real reason why you refused to allow the rebels to enter the city at noon today? Was it because Zhai Chong and Prefect Yan were unreliable? It was just that the timing was sensitive, and there were other troops outside the city besides Zhai Chong, so we didn't have time to identify them. Is that right?"
Liu Ziyu and Wang Yuan looked at each other and spoke, their hearts moved slightly, as if they were thinking about something.
But before the two of them could speak, Emperor Zhao suddenly stood up, put on his clothes and calmly faced the ministers in the hall: "To be honest with you, I felt something was wrong during the day, and I just figured it out... The reason why the rebels were not allowed to enter the city was because the timing was too sensitive. With the involvement of the Jin army outside, once there were a small group of bad people in the rebel army, they would collude with the Jin people and attack from both inside and outside. If the city gates were opened, the city would be in danger of overturning. Once the city was overturned, I and you would naturally be like eggs in an overturned nest... In other words, the danger of the rebels entering the city has always been only the obstruction to the defense of Ruyang City, not me! No one would think of assassinating the king, and Zhai Chong and Yan Zhizhou would not do so! In fact, think about it, if someone really felt that these two people were untrustworthy from the bottom of their hearts, they should have driven them to other cities to station in the afternoon before the Jin army arrived. Why did they leave them to rely on in front of the city? Isn't it because I think Yan Zhizhou and Zhai Chong are still reliable and available?!"
After these words were spoken, many people fell silent. Even Xu Jingheng was slightly startled. His previous indignation disappeared, and he turned to look at Yan Xiaozhong, who was short but had a straight back, along with the others.
"In short, if Zhai Chong is reliable, then I would like to ask if I can just go down to the city and sit at his central army headquarters for an hour to urge him to send troops to defeat Yelu Ma Wu, who only has 500 cavalrymen. What's the harm?" Zhao Jiu said this and finally smiled. "If it doesn't work, we can come back... and once Yelu Ma Wu is defeated, without the involvement of the Jin army, we can completely rush to let Zhai Chong lead the reliable elite troops into the city before Wanyan Yinshu arrives, and then send the rest of the troops to the surrounding cities for settlement. Only then will it be truly foolproof. Gentlemen, what do you think, is my analysis correct?"
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