Zhao Jiu has no interest in whipping an old man in the middle of the night. He really doesn't have that problem.

When Hebule, who was covered in sweat and smelled of corpses, arrived at the Yamen Hall of the Zhending Mansion, the official did not perform any performance art such as asking someone to temporarily wash the footbath. He just looked tired.

Sitting there silently.

However, after Hebule knelt down on the ground in the ring of soldiers, and after the respectful and serious greeting was over, Zhao Jiu fell asleep directly in his seat... In the silent night, the whimpering all over the city yesterday had long disappeared.

There was no sound, except for the slight snoring of Zhao Guan's family, which was particularly clear in the back hall.

Hebule lay motionless on the ground, and the soldiers around him stood still. However, in front of Zhao Guan's house, Liu Yan, the imperial commander, and Shao Chengzhang, the chamberlain's provincial guard, looked at each other, but they had no choice but to stand still.

I don't know how long I waited, but it was already dark and my legs were completely numb before I suddenly heard a rustling sound, and then some movement.

After a while, I heard the voice I had heard several times before:

"Aren't you okay? I wasn't trying to embarrass you just now."

"Xiao Wang knows." Hebule still didn't raise his head, and his tone seemed a little difficult. This was not only because his Chinese outside the Great Wall was difficult, but also because he had been kneeling for too long and had not slept all night, making his whole body stiff.

"If the officials were pretending to be asleep, there's no reason to pretend for so long. It's because Xiao Wang came at a bad time and disturbed the officials' rest..."

"You should go and have a rest too!" Zhao Jiu wiped his face and continued. "Let's talk about things after you have had enough rest. Your mind will be clear... Today I am not as free as the previous two days, and I have to do some things.

.”

With that said, the official stood up, turned around from Hebule, and walked straight out of the back hall. As for Hebule, as the footsteps behind him receded, he suddenly fell from a kneeling position to a side paralysis.

.

No matter what, Hebule finally got a chance to rest. Not only that, when he woke up, someone led him to have a simple and sufficient lunch breakfast, and even took a bath and changed.

He had taken off his clothes... By the time he walked out of Zhending City with several Mongolian princes from the Red Heart Team to meet Zhao Song's family outside the city, it was obviously already afternoon.

Compared with last night, the smell of corpses in Zhending City was greatly reduced at this moment, and there was already a constant flow of civil and military officials, leaders of various ethnic groups, generals and soldiers, auxiliary soldiers and civilians, plus a few merchants and civilians, rushing in and out one after another.

Like flow.

The heritage displayed by just one important military town dwarfs all the tribes in the entire Mongolian Plateau. And because of the trade exchanges in the past few years, Hebul has long known that with the size of China, such a large

The town does not have hundreds, but probably dozens.

After walking out of the city, Hebule saw many familiar people - in the open space to the north of the city, there was a large typical Mongolian camp, surrounded by carts, patched yurts scattered around, livestock gathered in the middle, and many other people

The familiar Mongolian headmen from the central and western regions were coming and going from the camp gate with their light cavalry, constantly coming in and out.

Some of these people were neatly equipped, riding on horses, and leading one or more teams of light cavalry at the edge of the camp to shout military orders to the Song officers, as if they were preparing to go or had just completed military duties; some were dressed in casual clothes and were leading war horses.

, taking some loot with him, he stopped at a Song people's shop on the roadside, gesticulating, preparing to exchange iron pots, needles and threads, and cloth; and the scene that shocked Hebule the most was when he turned around this camp that was obviously a Mongolian camp.

After turning a corner, we could clearly see that the open space in front of the central tent behind the camp was almost filled with loot!

Countless armors, gold, silver, copper ingots, iron ingots, silks, and furs were piled naked in the open space, while a group of nobles from various Mongolian tribes who had already changed into armor were arguing there with red faces...

If it weren't for the fact that there were civil servants and soldiers of the Song Dynasty next to these things, I'm afraid these people would have fought on the spot.

Hebule knew very well that the Zhao Guan family asked him to come out from this road just to see this scene for himself, and also for these Mongolian leaders to see him... As he walked along the way, he was certainly looking at these people, but these people

He also noticed that he was surrounded by the Imperial Guard...but even though they knew this, neither of them could look away.

Everyone in the Ximengu tribe knew that Hebule Khan came to see Zhao Guan's family alone to plead guilty, and Hebule confirmed two undoubted facts from what he had seen and heard before - first of all, of course, this battle was really

It was an unprecedented victory, and the Jurchens really collapsed in one battle; secondly, the Zhao and Song officials did have clear rewards and punishments.

If either of them were missing, it would be impossible for the Mongolians to take away so many trophies.

However, after witnessing this scene, Hebule breathed a sigh of relief for some unknown reason.

After passing through the camp area in the north of the city and crossing an open space where corpses were being buried (this should be the source of the smell of corpses last night), Hebule finally came to the bank of a large river, and saw here that he didn't dare to look up and see clearly last night.

The last Zhao Song official family... The latter was dressed in plain clothes and was sitting by the river. In addition to being surrounded by soldiers, there were countless civil and military people gathered around him. At this moment, someone was reporting something.

It can be seen that what this official said this morning is not false.

In fact, Hebu Le was still not summoned and could only be held on one side like a prisoner, waiting for the summons.

"So by the side of Beishui (a semi-artificial and semi-natural river running from north to south connecting the Hutuo River and the Hulu River), although you swept away many Jin troops, you only captured Wulin Da Taiyu's ten thousand households?" Zhao Jiu thought thoughtfully.

"Yes." A Song general in front of Zhao Guanjia responded respectfully, but it turned out to be Zhang Zhongfu, a commander of the imperial cavalry. "So that the officials will know that when Deputy Liu captured Wu Lin and answered Taiyu, this

He had already changed into ordinary clothes, but he had lived in Yanjing for many years and was not good at running when being driven. This was seen through... It can be seen that the other generals of the defeated army had long given up their positions as leaders and escaped one by one.

, I’m afraid it will be extremely difficult to catch him in a hurry... Do the officials want to see this person?"

"It's gone, just cut it down." Zhao Guanjia, who was sitting by the river, blurted out.

Zhang Zhongfu was surprised and quickly responded.

But before he could turn around and give instructions, Zhao Guanjia in the seat continued: "Let me draw up a few decrees..."

As soon as these words came out, several close officials and scribes immediately stepped forward to listen. They were prepared to listen to the order before formally drafting it.

"The first one is for Liu Qi. Tell Liu Qi to continue to lead the army eastward and pursue him relentlessly. He must join forces with Yue Fei and Zhang Rong to prevent the Jin army from retreating to the north. Don't pay much attention to anything else."

After saying this, Zhao Jiu paused for a moment, and then a close minister repeated it. Then seeing that Zhao Guanjia did not add anything, he retreated slightly and went to the shade of a tree not far away to draft the decree.

"The second... is for Liu Qi and all the chasing officers. Tell them, I don't want generals, only soldiers... At this time, capturing more Jin soldiers is the first priority. Don't be blinded by military achievements. What?

General, any fourth prince can move to the back! If you let me know that someone made the Jin army break up and return north in order to pursue the general, I will have to deal with it!"

As soon as these words came out, not to mention that some civil servants repeated the words and prepared to draft an edict, Zhang Zhongfu's face turned pale... It was obvious that Zhao Guan's family had captured ten thousand households of the imperial cavalry and hurriedly sent troops to escort them away.

I came back very dissatisfied.

"The last one... I remember that I have pardoned Liu Xi's crime, so I am looking for a border military prefecture on Ningxia Road and let him transfer to a real job." Zhao Jiu hurriedly finished the last decree, waved his hand to reject Zhang Zhongfu, and then called for people again.

."Wu Jie!"

Wu Da heard this and hurried forward: "I'm here."

"Has the withdrawal sequence been drawn up?" Zhao Guanjia seemed a little aggressive in his words.

"Yes..." Wu Da said bravely. "Simon Gu will withdraw first, and then the central army, left army, and rear army of the imperial camp will each be reduced by half..."

"We can't just cut it in half." Zhao Jiu became a little impatient. "The treasury here is definitely very full, but most of it is armor or weapons, gold, silver, money, and silk. They can be used as rewards, but there is a lot of grass and little food... leaving so much

Why are we fighting? Wasting food or delaying spring plowing? We need to reduce it more."

Wu Jie did not dare to speak out for a while.

"Distribute the reward as soon as possible, and then withdraw it after you distribute it." Zhao Jiu took a deep breath when he saw this, and then slowed down his tone and said. "It is enough to leave only 70,000 to 80,000 infantry and cavalry here, including those from Taiyuan and Datong.

The remaining troops, as well as Wang Sheng's 10,000 troops... Yue Fei's troops must also be withdrawn appropriately. It is enough to leave 50,000 or 60,000... Then we must arrange for the civilians who are too late to return, and auxiliary troops to do spring plowing and replanting in the area.

."

"Here." Wu Da breathed a sigh of relief.

"And..." Zhao Jiu hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke seriously. "After the cleanup and rest here are completed, and after the Hejian rendezvous, we will advance to the battle of Yanjing. Let the good ministers be the commanders, and Jin Qing and Shaoyan be the assistants... let

Yue Fei and Tian Shizhong will be his successors. If the Jin people are still stubborn after Yanjing advances, just let Yue Pengju be the commander and go out to fight... How about that?"

Han Shizhong and Li Yanxian, who had remained silent, also came out to say yes.

Let us say that this is the real key to the issue of troop withdrawal.

First of all, the troops must be withdrawn. The main force of the Jin Army has been eliminated. It is really a waste to maintain such a huge field attack group. Only by withdrawing troops and reducing the logistical pressure can we continue to move north, maintain the offensive, and advance towards Yanjing.

But the question is, who will be asked to attack Yanjing, and who will withdraw the troops and return to their base?

From the perspective of military convenience, there is no doubt that the Hebei Front Army of Yue Fei, Zhang Rong, Tian Shizhong and others should be allowed to gather the imperial cavalry that pursued the past, as well as the Khitan and Mongolians to move north from Hejian.

.

But this also means that most of the imperial camp's central army, rear army, and left army will have to withdraw.

So why?

These troops in Hedong suffered heavy casualties in the Huolu War and made outstanding achievements. One battle could determine the world. Why should they, who had made greater achievements, go back directly and let the Imperial Army and the Right Army pick the fruit of Yanjing?

Shouldn’t the Hedong Front Army get the lion’s share of the gold, silver, merits, and honors in Yanjing?

Therefore, Zhao Jiu must consider the military morale of the Hedong Front Army that has just made great achievements. Han Shizhong, Li Yanxian, and Wu Jie also need to consider the opinions of their subordinates and prevent their subordinates from being wronged.

However, as an official, Zhao Jiu cannot only consider this point. He also has to consider food issues, political issues, and military discipline issues... Therefore, he came up with this compromise plan with Xini, and made it before

The Mongolian army, which had the worst general discipline, withdrew first.

It can only be said that after the great victory, the road seems to be smooth, but without delay there are new problems along the way.

Fortunately, after this battle, the authority of Zhao Guan's family is obviously stronger. As long as he can ensure rewards and punishments, no one can openly oppose his opinions.

Turning back to the front, after laying out his compromised plan and getting approval from the commanders, Zhao Guanjia looked a little tired, but he still pointed to Hebule immediately, causing everyone to look over.

There is no doubt that this is another troublesome matter.

"Xiao Wang pays homage to the officials."

Hebule knelt down on the ground far away. "Let the officials wait for a long time."

"Get up." Zhao Jiu's tone was calm and his face was calm. "I asked you to wait for a long time."

Hebule stood up immediately, and then said nothing... There were some things that both parties already knew by heart, and those words were all they said, but their attitudes must be corrected.

"Stand over a few steps." Zhao Guanjia continued to order.
To be continued...