my wonderful zoo

Chapter 186 Zhao Gou
May [-]st, Daming Mansion.

Since the Jin army had been trapped in Fengqiu, Zhao Gou saw an opportunity and took the opportunity to advance westward from Yunzhou and recapture Daming Mansion in Beijing.

Zong Ze also led troops from Cizhou to Daming Mansion, and together with Wang Boyan, Huang Qianshan, Wang Yuan and other Song officials supported Kang Wang Zhao Gou as emperor and changed Yuan Jianyan.

In the evening, Zhao Gou hosted a banquet with several important ministers to discuss the way forward.

"Officials, the city of Kaifeng is now in a state of tug-of-war between three parties. We can seize this opportunity and lead the army to Kaifeng to clean up the mess and reorganize the country." Zongze, as Zuopushe (Prime Minister Zuo), was the highest present at the scene. The civil servant first expressed his opinion: "And the official family also needs a big victory to establish your throne."

Since the war with the Jin Kingdom, Zongze has always won more victories than lost against the Jin army. He is very rare among the officials of the Song Dynasty, so he is very confident when he says this.

In his opinion, Zhao Gou had been hiding on the periphery of the Battle of Kaifeng. After the two emperors were killed one after another, he was directly proclaimed (in fact, self-proclaimed) as emperor, which was somewhat unfair.

Fortunately, Zhao Gou had been fighting Wanyan Zongbi (Jin Wushu) of the Jin Kingdom on both sides of Jingdong. He had some achievements, and he had many elite soldiers, so he could accomplish this task of snatching the throne from his nephew.

"Two emperors were killed one after another. The princes who stayed in Kaifeng were not only young but also controlled by the rebels. King Kang is the most suitable candidate to inherit the throne." Wang Boyan, the favored minister, seized on the loopholes in Zongze's words and launched a direct attack: "The Song Dynasty is at its peak. At this time of crisis, only King Kang can turn the tide, and no one is more suitable than the official family, so how could there be any fundamental problems?"

"That is, the most important thing now is to protect the inner court from being threatened by the Jin people or the rebel army, so the most important thing now is to move the inner court to a safe place, and then reorganize the army to clean up the country." The speaker was Huang Qianshan, and Wang Boyan and Wang Boyan sang together and persuaded Zhao Gou to flee south first to save his life, and then pursue other plans.

To be honest, there is no problem in keeping the green hills and not worrying about running out of firewood.

But Zongze's suggestion is more in line with Zhao Gou's current actual situation.

In the current state of the Song Dynasty, if the inner court moved south, it would be equivalent to giving up a large area of ​​​​Hebei.

"Absolutely not. Now Kaifeng has gathered a large number of King Qin's troops, and there are a large number of anti-Jin rebels in Hebei, plus various Jin armies. If we move south, the north will inevitably be in chaos and completely out of the control of the imperial court. By then If you want to come back, it will be extremely difficult." Zongze still insisted on his opinion.

Wang Yuan stood silently in the audience. In fact, he supported Zongze from the bottom of his heart. However, his promotion to the governor of the capital, commanding the Song army of Shilong and Shenwei, all depended on Zhao Gou's trust and promotion.

With his identity and status, he is an absolute close minister. He cannot have his own opinions. Zhao Gou's opinions are his opinions, and he only needs to implement them.

After several rounds of debate, both the war and retreat sides expressed similar opinions. No new arguments were put forward, and they gradually stopped and waited for Zhao Gou to make a decision.

"I wonder what Kaifeng's situation is now?" Zhao Gou asked.

"An army from Guangzhou occupied Kaifeng City. The general's surname was Chen Mingxun. King Qin's army was roughly divided into two parts. Most of them surrounded Kaifeng City, and a small part blocked the Jin army's way back north." Zongze replied.

"Why did King Qin's army in Kaifeng City not go all out to encircle and suppress the Jin army, but instead stayed there?" Zhao Gou asked.

Regarding this issue, Zongze was a little hard to explain for a while. He could guess some reasons, but this reason was too difficult to talk about. Speaking out would be a blow to his own position.

Those Qin Wangjun didn't go to fight against the gold, let the new official Zhao Gou lead the army to stand in the front?

How can there be such a reason.

However, as Zhao Gou asked this question, Zongze finally understood what Guan Jia was thinking.The officials let Zongze know his intentions by asking questions knowingly.

Both Wang Boyan and Huang Qianshan were extremely smart people, so they naturally reacted immediately. Wang Boyan, the servant on his right, spoke first and said: "Kaifeng is now a place of chaos. Before the Jin army was driven away, King Qin's army already had its own agenda. Chen Jiajun was originally a rebel, and they have not been recruited by the court yet. No one knows why they came to Kaifeng. I think that before the situation is clear, the officials must not go to Kaifeng, and they should move to Xiangyang first, where It is located inland, has sufficient personnel and food, and is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Once there, it is best for the officials to gather loyal troops from all walks of life to plan the Northern Expedition."

Wang Boyan did not say that his son Wang Si was killed by Chen Xun, so it was impossible for him to let Chen Jiajun enter the official's field of vision with a positive image.

"That's right, the current powerful Chen thief is actually in two places, head and tail. When the time comes, we can send troops from the interior to destroy Chen thief's base camp in Guangzhou, and then go north to destroy the remaining thief in Kaifeng." Arrived. Huang Qianshan said that Chen Jiajun had been demoted to Chen Thief.

Originally, the two of them planned to go to Yangzhou, but after getting to know Chen Jiajun, this important town on the riverside that was too close to the coast was abandoned.

For the same reason, Yingtianfu in Nanjing was also excluded because of its proximity to the Yellow River.

In the end, only Xiangyang, which is far inland, is more suitable.

"Okay, let's follow the instructions of your right servant and choose a day to inspect Xiangyang."

....
After Zongze's court meeting, he immediately returned to the camp and summoned his generals for a meeting.

"..., the official's decision has been made, and we cannot change it, but I do not plan to follow the inner court on the southern tour. Wang Yuan is enough to escort the imperial court. I plan to stay in Daming Mansion to fight against the Jin and give the official a root in Hebei. Nail, when the officials plan the Northern Expedition, Daming Mansion can be used as an outpost to avoid the pain of advancing step by step."

Zongze first briefly explained the results of the court discussion, and then explained his subsequent plans.

It can be said that Zhao Gou was heartbroken. Although his own ideas were invalidated, he still tried his best to help Zhao Gou reduce the difficulty of restoring the rivers and mountains, and at the same time guarded Zhao Gou's retreat for the southern tour.

"Ms. sir, could it be that the officials have been deceived by the Right Prime Minister and others? Do you want to persuade me? It's easy to go back, but it's too difficult to come back." Yue Fei was a little excited in the tent: "Besides, Hebei has tens of millions The people just ignore it? The Jin army is still raging in Hebei, and we just let it go?"

In the eyes of these simple military commanders, the official family was generally "great and upright", and wrong decisions were all due to the deception of his treacherous ministers. He did not believe that King Kang, who had been able to bravely "break into" the Jin camp before, would be so cowardly.

In his view, Kang Wang has always been at the forefront of the anti-golden war - Hebei.

"No need to persuade anymore, this is what the officials want. We just need to do our duty as ministers." Zongze knew very well that if King Kang was unwilling to go south, it would be useless even if Wang Boyan and others broke the news.

Similarly, since King Kang didn't want to stay in Hebei, it would be useless for Zong Ze to speak out.

"The most important thing right now is to contact the various rebels in Hebei and move the inner court south. The main force we can rely on next is these rebels..." Zongze began to assign tasks to the generals.

But Yue Fei's mood was no longer on the agenda, he planned to do a risky thing.

Enduring the anger in his heart, he returned to his camp, Yue Fei found a pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and began to write the memorial.

(End of this chapter)