In history, Du Chong guarded Tokyo for a year, as long as Zong Ze. For this reason, even if he broke the Yellow River embankment and forced more than half of his troops to rebel, Yue Fei still followed him loyally, and the exiled court always promoted the title.

In a word, failure and incompetence these days are never a sin, otherwise the entire court would be killed. For front-line officials like Du Chong, failure is never a reason to deal with it. A sentence "You can do it, you can go" can make everyone in the center shut up.

Even after Zhao Jiu came here, he dealt with Liu Guangshi, Ding Jin and Fan Qiong in succession. The official reasons given by him were not to be defeated or something, but not to fight and avoid the war.

What's more, these three people are still military men, not serious civil officials... Are civil officials and military generals the same thing?

In fact, even for Fan Zhixu's absurd and misleading "model" that made the country misleading, Zhao Jiu did not dare to risk breaking with the civil officials and directly killed him.

Because this killing meant that many things he had worked hard to create at that time were going to waste.

Let’s talk about it, as Du Chong’s letter was sent, the center was shocked first, and then after a discussion in the palace, it was not that no one thought that it might be that Du Chong was afraid of the war. In fact, many people could think of this. There were even a very small number of people, including the Zhao Guan family, who had thought of a possibility that Du Chong was afraid of the war to the extreme, so he publicly lied to Nanyang!

However, this is just a guess. If so, Du Chong and Fan Zhixu will end sooner or later, because this incident has caused panic in Nanyang, and it is likely to further lead to more serious consequences for Han Shizhong, and the situation is greatly damaged.

But even so, these few people were helpless because they were afraid of being attacked at this time... Besides, it was a guess, and now more than 80% of people believe Du Chong's report.

There is no worries in the short term, but soon there will be big problems in the battlefield of Yanling-Changshe, which will lead to a major deterioration in the long run. This has become a consensus among the whole country in Nanyang.

For a moment, let alone the people in Nanyang were panicked. According to Yang Yizhong's return, bad rumors immediately spread after the discussion in the palace in the afternoon of the same day... It was said that it was the previous defeat of Han Shizhong and Du Chong's difficulties today, all the people in power were rash. If they only defended the city from the beginning, although there were necessary losses, the overall situation would not be put into danger.

There is no need to say more about who is the ruler.

This is in sharp contrast to the almost dreamy cannon battle that defeated the powerful power of the Later Zhao official family and Lu Yihao in the past half month.

“Is it correct?”

On the evening of the day when the news came, Zhao Jiu, who was sitting in the old woodland full of wooden stakes between the harem and the front hall, suddenly received another news that was adding fuel to the fire.

"It's correct." Yang Yizhong bowed his head and said to him under the corridor. "The official family can go to the city to see."

Zhao Jiu did not say a word, immediately stood up from the wooden stake and followed Yang Yizhong out of the palace to the north city, which was less than three miles away. There were countless officials along the way, so there was no need to say much.

When we arrived at the city wall, everyone could see what was going on at a glance. Under the sunset, thousands of Jurchen cavalry were gathering openly, and then ran out of the camp in a shocking scene. Continuously, heading towards the northeast.

"Is the Jin people withdrawing their troops?" Hu Yin, who accompanied him, was confused.

"No." Liu Ziyu, the Privy Council, gave a muffled breath and gritted his teeth and said, "This is to support Wanyan Talan, at least it is deliberately trying to support Talan."

"What do you mean?" Hu Yin was alert to the opposite.

"Nothing." Liu Ziyu glanced at Hu Yin and replied seriously. "Even if he was asking for help, it was impossible for him to arrive today. The message he arrived today was that Deputy Du Liushu was unable to guard the situation in Yanling, so it was impossible to say that it was a strategy to lure the enemy."

"How can reinforcements lure the enemy instead?" Hu Yin was still puzzled.

"It's to lure the soldiers here in Nanyang! Or to lure the officials!" Liu Ziyu was furious. "It's not to lure Yanling! If the city really thinks that the Jin army has left a ten thousand households with few troops, and then try to counterattack here, or take the opportunity to send the officials to Xiangyang, they will inevitably be knocked down by this army of ten thousand cavalry!"

Hu Yin lowered his head and thought for a moment, then looked at Zhao Guanjia, who was expressionless, and couldn't help but continue to ask Liu Ziyu: "Liu Shenjun still didn't say that, why didn't the Jin people withdraw their troops?"

Liu Ziyu was stunned, but felt a temporary pain in the back of his head, so he simply ignored the other party.

"What do you think?" At this moment, Zhao Jiu suddenly turned around and looked at Yang Yizhong.

"I think what Liu Ganjun said is reasonable." The military situation is in place, so Yang Yizhong naturally did not have any way to avoid it, but immediately reported it. "In the first month, the weather is getting warmer, the river ice gradually melts, and the water network is dense around Nanyang... Among them, although the surface ice layer of a large river like Baihe is not hunted, there are only a few places that can pass through, which is not enough to pass through the large armoured cavalry. At this time, the Jin army divided a group of ten thousand cavalry and went northeast, which not only could tempt the enemy, but also took the opportunity to arrange the troops outside the Baihe River first, in order to prevent our army from seizing this fighter jet, suddenly the infantry crossed the river, and calmly moved south by blocking the river."

Zhao Jiu nodded slowly... He knew what Yang Yizhong meant. The so-called "infantry" who was blocking the river and headed south calmly was not the "infantry" but the Zhao Guan family.

In fact, with Du Chong's letters coming, the reason why he kept talking until the afternoon was that many civil officials realized that the overall situation was worrying, and re-suggested Zhao Jiu to go south to Xiangyang to make a fuss, and had a fierce debate and confrontation with many people who still insisted on the Nanyang faction.

Back in front of him, even Liu Ziyu and Yang Yizhong just said that this army that suddenly chose to leave the Jin army camp might be a temptation to attract the enemy, but did not deny that the other party might really support Wanyan Talan.

Then it can be imagined that the Nanyang Sect and the Xiangyang Sect will inevitably continue to conflict due to the two main possibilities of this incident.

At the same time, the authority of the Zhao Guanjia and Lu Shuxiang has been declining.

"Official family."

Sure enough, Li Guang, the censor of the Palace, who followed him, could instinctively move forward and spoke earnestly. "I don't know about military affairs, but I think it's better to go to Xiangyang for a long time... Once I go to Xiangyang, the strength of Nanyang and the inevitable victory of Xiangyang can make the Jin people confused."

"How can you abandon Nanyang and leave?" Hu Yin was furious.

"Why do you want to abandon Nanyang City to be strong and profitable?" Li Guang was not afraid of his nominal immediate boss.

"If you go to Nanyang, who will guarantee the safety of the government?" Liu Ziyu actually stood in a unified position with Hu Yin. "Who can take it as ten thousand cavalry attacked?"

"Let Wang De, who was already in the east of the city, lead his headquarters to escort with Zhang Jing, and there will be 10,000 elite imperial camp troops, and Xin Qizong (Erxin), who was stationed in Rang County (Qianzhou Prefecture), came to pick him up, so there will be 16,700 troops. This military power, coupled with Wang Yasha's bravery, the river network along the way is densely distributed and sluggish, which can ensure peace in the official family." The speaker was Fan Zongyin, a comrade-in-arms recently found by Li Guang and Li Ruopu, and was the backbone of the Xiangyang faction during the debate in the palace today.

"Fan Sheren!" Liu Ziyu was angry and broke the rules after hearing this. "I am from Dengcheng, Xiangyang! Of course, if you want the official family to go to Xiangyang, you are so eager to let the official family stay in Xiangyang to build the capital, right?!"

"Am I selfish?!" Fan Zongyin was also furious. "When the weather is hot, the Jin army will withdraw, and the officials can return to Nanyang... But you, Liu, the army, entrust all the military counselors of the Privy Council to you. When the matter is at the moment, what do you have to say? Why did Han Shizhong fall into vain? Are there any omissions in the matter of Wang Yan, Ma Gao, and Yue Fei?! Moreover, before the war, the entire army was useless to wait for nearly a month, and then underestimated the enemy, so that Zhang Zizheng was attacked and died. This matter..."

“How is this happening?”

"Does this matter have nothing to do with your deliberate ignoring the Wumashan Rebel Army?" Fan Zongyin, who was only thirty years old, was also forced to do so. "Do you think we don't know, who was the stubborn and imprisoned in Zhending Mansion that day?"

Liu Ziyu had a split headache: "If I say so, will I have selfish thoughts?"

Fan Zongyin was about to speak, when suddenly, Zhao Guanjia, who was still wearing a red robe in the morning, had no expression on his face, stretched out his elbows with both hands, held the cowhide belt in his waist, walked directly between the two of them, and then went downstairs without saying a word.

Two groups of people in the city immediately became unstable, but they each tried their best to stop the sound and disperse.

When he returned to the palace, Zhao Guan’s family did not discuss it anymore, but instead directly had a meal and then rested in the harem.

Only the person was obviously upset and under great pressure. Seeing this, Wu Yu wanted to take the initiative to comfort him. But she was limited and didn't know the root of the matter. After all, she could only say that the ministers in the city were all virtuous people, and the officials should open up their own ways of speaking. If there are any problems, they would discuss with these people...

Little did they know that the Zhao official family was half worried about the situation, but half was forced by these "virtuous people".

How can such comfort be useful?

Fortunately, Wu Yu also saw Zhao Jiu becoming more impatient, and after saying what he should say, he stopped talking...

That night, I was speechless. When I slept until the second day of the morning, suddenly, someone took the initiative to slap the door and woke the official family up! The last time I slap the door, Lu Yihao made a private comment.

Zhao Jiu got up in a daze and allowed Lan Gui and Feng Yi to enter. However, the two said it was Yang Yizhong, Chen Gui and Lu Hao asked for a meeting, and they couldn't help but be confused.

Let’s talk about it, Yang Yizhong and Liu Yan took turns to take over Liang Hongyu’s palace ban in the evening, and Lu Haowen and Lu Yihao also took turns to rest and guard the front hall side room. Tonight it was Yang Yizhong and Lu Haowen on duty. No matter what happened, they would definitely need the hands of the two of them, so they could not be called “seeking for a visit”. But it was a bit strange that Chen Gui, who was responsible for the city defense, came at this time.

Could it be that the Jin army attacked outside the city at night?

Didn't hear any movement?

Or something went wrong with the city defense?

However, this kind of random thoughts was soon over. Chen Gui, Yang Yizhong, and Lu Haowen were not real seekers. The one who really wanted to see Zhao Guan family was a young official who left Nanyang for more than ten days, Du Chong's second son Du Yan.

He came over on a fast horse overnight, so he naturally would start to alarm Chen Gui.

"Official family!"

After asking for only guards to accompany him, Du Yan, who was covered in a mess in the corridor behind the hall, leaned over and bowed down. Under Yang Yizhong's gaze behind him, he said a shocking word to the Zhao Guanjia. "My father and I will communicate with the right deputy marshal of the Jin people, Talai... Let's make an appointment without fighting!"

After these words were expressed, Yang Yizhong, who was originally careful and cautious, was stunned first, but Du Yan also lay on the cold ground as if he was deflated and said nothing.

But unexpectedly, the Zhao Guan family did not have any expression changes. If they had to say it in detail, they were somewhat relieved. In fact, Zhao Jiu suddenly had an inexplicable subtle mentality similar to the time before the war, and remembered his own thoughts before the war - the big waves were rushing to the sky, mud and sand were all over the sand.

The weather was still cold and the air solidified for half a quarter of an hour, Zhao Jiu asked without expression: "So, Yue Fei, Wang Yan and Ma Gao have no objection?"

"No." Du Yan replied on the ground. "Although Wang Yan and Yue Fei didn't even talk in private, the three of them did not make any mistakes in military affairs. Before I discovered this, Niu Gao and Li Bao arrived, they also planned with the three generals and the Yanling garrison Li Qiong to persuade my father to send troops..."

Lieutenant General Yang Yi focused his attention on Zhao Guan's family almost strangely, because Zhao Jiu's expression still did not change at this time. Compared to Du Chong's enemies, this incident seemed to make him feel even more inexplicably nervous.

Zhao Jiu nodded and asked again: "Which route did you come from? Have you ever met the Jin army? How long have you been away?"

"I dare not walk from the north road. I took a detour from Caizhou, walked Xiping, cross Zhongyang Mountain, and crossed Dushuishi Bridge to Nanyang... This is the road where Yelu Mawu rushed to Ruyang in the past... I did not see the Jin army along the way. As for it, it took time..." Du Yan clearly thought about it. "I saw my father submitting to Nanyang, saying that the three generals attacked each other and the three armies were unstable. I have never measured the specific time!"

"It's only two and a half days." Zhao Jiu sighed. "Don't go back to your residence. I'll ask Commander Yang to find you a secluded residence immediately. When the matter is settled, I will arrange for you to be a magistrate in Bashu..."

I don’t know if I realized something, but Du Yan suddenly cried: “Thank you for the grace of the official family… my father… my father… my father… my father… my father…”

"Go down!" Zhao Jiu sighed rare.

Du Yanxin was like a knife, but he kowtowed and left with Yang Yizhong.

After a while, seeing Yang Yizhong and Du Yan leave, the Zhao Guan family stagnated for a moment before turning back to the hall. However, when he took his seat, facing Lu Haowen, Chen Gui's nervous treatment was waiting for more than a quarter of an hour without saying anything.

Just when Chen Gui was getting increasingly unbearable, Yang Yizhong turned back, and the Zhao Guanjia, who had been thinking for a long time, finally slowly spoke again: "Summoning the Deputy Envoy of the Privy Council, Liu Ziyu, and the editor of the Privy Council, Hu Hongxiu; summoning the Censor Li Guang, Hanlin Scholar Li Ruopu, and the Chief Secretary Fan Zongyin; summoning the Censor Central Chief Hu Yin, Hanlin Scholar Lin Jingmo, the Deputy Chief of the Imperial Front Class Liu Yan, and the Deputy Chief of the Privy Council, Wanqie, the Deputy Chief of the Privy Council; summoning the Quanzhi Yan Xiaozhong, Nanyang Prefecture, Wang De, the Chief of the Four Walls Defense Envoy of Nanyang, Fu Qing, the Chief of the Commander Xin Yongzong... Be careful and let them not disturb too many people."

Although the order of the convening list is very strange, basically the team of key figures who can completely determine military and national affairs is still in place.

Yang Yizhong, who knew the inside story, dared not neglect and acted immediately, while Lu Haowen and Chen Gui became more and more serious, because this meant that Du Yan would inevitably bring great news.

Let’s talk about Yan Xiaozhong, who was in charge of the treasury, and the three generals lived far away, especially Wang De, who was just outside the city wall of Dongcheng... But the other major officials were in the palace and gathered quickly. While Yan Xiaozhong, Wang De and others had not arrived, they naturally couldn’t help but talk about it... They didn’t even know Du Yan’s arrival.

Let’s talk about it, when the Zhao Guan family saw these people so noisy, they were bored and sighed, but they remembered something that they were becoming more and more confused these days. These people were picked up separately, not to mention that they were all wise men, at least they had available, but why do they always cause chaos when they got together?

And why is it not as useful as imagined in terms of overall results?

However, the closer it is to such a critical moment, the less likely it is to be kidnapped by emotions. Zhao Jiu took a long time to take a deep breath, but suddenly got up, regardless of whether he was turning back, the palace was a little stunned for a moment, but it continued to become noisy... No one could control the official family. God knows whether he would go back to the harem to drink water or to take up his sleep.

But in fact, Zhao Jiu did not go to the harem as these people wanted, but came to the place between the harem and the front hall.

There was originally a small forest and a corridor in this place. The forest was filled with wild pigeons, so that you could always hear the sound of gurgling when working in the hall. After Nanyang began to prepare for the war, all the trees here were cut down, serving as materials and fuel, but a pile of wooden stakes were left behind.

The Zhao Guan family just turned out of the back hall and came directly to the wooden stake in the middle of this woodless forest. They sat down with their hands, and could still hear the movements and stills of the front hall.

Lan Gui, Feng Yi and Liu Yan followed the situation and saw that the official family came here again, but they were familiar with each other. Lan Gui turned back to the front hall, and Feng Yi and Liu Yan stood in the corridor. As Yan Xiaozhong, Wang De and others finally arrived, when Lan Gui turned back to ask for instructions again, the Zhao official family had already blew the cold wind there for a while.

"I will not go to the front hall anymore, so I will summon you here." Zhao Jiu looked up and said to him. "When I send my order, I will not make noise in the hall when I summon my ministers here."

Lan Gui bowed his head and said yes, but asked with the opportunity: "Why do you dare to ask the official family, who will summon first?"

"Summon Liu Yan first!" Zhao Jiu replied in response. "Official Lan, you and Feng Yi will go out together to wait together."

Lan Feng and the other two looked at each other, but lowered their heads together, turned around and left, leaving only Liu Yan who was caught off guard.
To be continued...