The reason why Chen Qing realized that the imperial court would definitely form a naval army was because he saw how passive the imperial court would be without a naval army. Without a naval army, the imperial court would not only lose the Jinghu South Road, but also lose the Jinghu North Road.
Chen Qing saw this in advance, but he believed that the court would realize it sooner or later.
The civil servants of the imperial court may not have thought of it at the moment, but that doesn't mean that everyone can't think of it.
That morning, the Emperor Zhao Gou received three petitions from the Privy Council at the same time. One was from Liu Ziyu, the prefect of Zhenjiang, strongly requesting the court to build a large number of ships. The first was to build sea-going ships to go to Nanyang and do business in Dashi in order to obtain huge profits.
In order to solve the imbalance in the income and expenditure of the imperial court, he pointed out in the report that even Chen Qing, who was far away in the northwest, knew about overseas trade for profit, but the imperial court, which controlled most of the coastal ports, had yet to make any move, which was really puzzling.
The second is to build ships and establish a naval force. If a strong naval force is not established, the entire Yangtze River will be dominated by the Western Army.
Liu Ziyu was deeply touched by the fact that almost all of the large ships of more than 3,000 stone docked at the Yangtze River Wharf in Zhenjiang were merchant ships of the Western Army. It was so shocking.
The second petition was from Han Shizhong. Although he was idle at home, he always paid attention to the current situation. He could see more clearly than anyone else. They were inherently deficient in war horses, and their combat effectiveness on land was far inferior to that of the Jin soldiers and the Western armies.
opponent.
In fact, their several victories over the Jin soldiers relied on their superiority in water warfare. However, since the imperial court recaptured the large area of land south of the Huaihe River, it gradually gave up the defense of the Yangtze River and the navy.
There are no ships left, and now there are only a bunch of hundred-stone sentry ships left on the Yangtze River.
Of course, Han Shizhong also understood the difficulties of the imperial court. It was financially difficult and could not afford to build new ships. But even if new ships could not be built, the old ships could be renovated and used.
But Han Shizhong discovered that almost all the old warships in storage were gone and had been secretly sold. They said they were sold to businessmen. But what the businessmen wanted the warships for made Han Shizhong have to suspect that all the old warships were sold by Chen Qing.
They were bought in the name of a merchant and sent to Sichuan Road for renovation, so the Western Army had a large number of warships.
Now is not the time to hold people accountable. Han Shizhong just once again called on the court to pay attention to the navy and build a powerful navy as soon as possible.
The third petition was the most important, and it was Zhang Jun's petition. He first told the emperor a sad news. Tang Huai, the general guarding Xiangyang, rebelled and surrendered directly to the Western Army. Thirty thousand Western troops had taken over Xiangyang City, and another
Although part of the army led by General Zhang Xian escaped the Han River, the simple pontoon bridge they built was immediately destroyed by the Western navy.
Zhang Jun denounced the imperial court for not having a naval force in his petition. He led an army of 100,000 people to Xiangyang as soon as possible, but could not cross the Han River. The Western Army's navy completely blocked the Han River and destroyed the pontoon bridges he built time and time again.
As for him, he watched helplessly as the Western Army entered Xiangyang City, but was unable to do anything.
Zhang Jun's petition shocked Emperor Zhao Gou. He was not shocked that Zhang Jun could not cross the Han River, but that Zhang Jun's 100,000-strong army could not cross the Han River. This was actually what he had hoped for. Zhao Gou was so angry that he decided to launch a military strike.
, recapture Jiangling City.
But after his decree was issued, he felt a little regretful. Once the imperial army and the Western Army turned against each other, it would not only be as simple as Jiangling's gain or loss. Chen Qing would probably proclaim himself emperor, and then he would no longer be afraid to seize large areas of the imperial court.
Land, Jinghu North Road, Jiangnan West Road, Huaixi Road, Huainan Road, etc.
Now what shocked and frightened him finally happened, Xiangyang City fell into Chen Qing's hands.
For a whole hour, Zhao Gou was thinking about one thing. If Chen Qing occupied Xiangyang, would he use the opportunity to start a war and sweep across the entire Jinghu North Road?
At this time, Zhao Gou's silence was interrupted by the eunuch's report, "Your Majesty, Xiangguo Xu wants to see you!"
Zhao Gou nodded, "Announce his appearance!"
Not long after, Xu Xiantu walked quickly into the imperial study, bowed and said: "See your majesty!"
Zhao Gou sighed and said: "Xu Aiqing, my head hurts very much now!"
"Your Majesty, are you worried about Xiangzhou?"
Zhao Gou nodded helplessly, "I regret that I should not have sent Zhang Jun's army to attack Jiangling, allowing Chen Qing to find an excuse to capture Xiangzhou. If Xiangzhou is lost, where will his next target be? Fangzhou, Suizhou
, Fuzhou, Yingzhou, Jingmen Army, Guanghua Army and Hanyang Prefecture?"
Zhao Gou was talking about the Jinghu North Road. Xu Xiantu also knew in his heart that once the Western Army captured Xiangzhou, they would definitely lose Fangzhou, Guanghua Army and Jingmen Army at the same time. These three areas have been separated by Xiangzhou, leaving only
Even if the Western Army does not directly occupy Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou and Hanyang Prefecture, they will definitely be controlled, and the officials in the four places will definitely be separated from the imperial court.
Although he knew it in his heart, Xu Xiantu could not tell the truth frankly. He wanted to stabilize the emperor and not let the emperor go from one extreme to another. Sometimes white lies were needed.
"Your Majesty, what I want to report is actually related to what Your Majesty is worried about. I originally wanted to say that Wang Gui, the envoy of Xiangyang Zhizhi, has arrived in Lin'an."
Zhao Gou was startled. This was a bit beyond his expectation. He thought Wang Gui would directly surrender to Chen Qing.
"What does he mean?"
"Your Majesty, he went to Beijing to report on his duties. This shows that he did not collude with Chen Qing. The collusion with Chen Qing was his subordinate Tang Huai. As soon as he left, Tang Huai surrendered to the Western Army and gave Xiangyang."
Zhao Gou sighed, "There are so many things going on, let's ignore him for now and let him take a post in the Privy Council first, and then I will consider him after I finish handling the troublesome matters."
"Actually, the minister just wanted to tell Your Majesty that the situation was not that bad. Although Zhang Jun's army was overwhelming Jiangling, he was still relatively calm and did not take the opportunity to capture Jinghu North Road. Xiangzhou was not captured by Chen Qing, but by the guard Tang Huaixian.
Xiangyang City, at this point, Wei Chen is considering whether he can get Xiangyang City back through negotiation."
"Xu Aiqing thinks Xiangyang City can still be brought back?" Zhao Goudu was noncommittal about this kind of negotiation proposal. How could he spit out the fat he swallowed?
"Your Majesty, the nature of sending troops to occupy and accepting the city is still different. We can try to talk about it. If we really don't want to come back, we can at least keep Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou and Hanyang Prefecture from being occupied by the Western Army.
Wei Chen feels that as long as he is willing to negotiate, the situation on Jinghu North Road will be stable."
Zhao Gou walked to the window with his hands behind his hands. After a long time, he sighed deeply and said sadly: "This time I was harmed by Qin Xianggong. I really shouldn't have listened to his advice and thought about taking back Jiangling Mansion. In the end, I couldn't steal the chicken.
Thanks to a lot of rice, Jinghu South Road has been completely lost, and now it has become a matter of negotiating the ownership of Jinghu North Road. Qin Hui misunderstood me!"
Zhao Gou immediately ordered: "According to my decree, a military and political meeting will be held in Ziwei Palace the day after tomorrow to discuss the establishment of a naval force. Inform Taifu Han to attend as well!"
Wu Jie's residence is just a dilapidated courtyard with an area of only one acre. This is a rented house. In Lin'an, where land is at a premium, the monthly rent for such a courtyard costs ten guan, and his brother Wu Gao helps pay the rent.
.
Wu Jie was not a capital official, so he was not given the official residence he deserved. When he returned to Lin'an, he had been dismissed from his post and was only pardoned. As a civilian, he returned to the capital to recuperate, and the imperial court would not arrange a residence for him.
With Hu Yun's funding, a memorial tent was set up in the yard, and the Wu family invited several monks to chant sutras and achieve salvation.
Hu Yun and Zheng Tongquan came together to express their condolences to Wu Jie, and discussed with the Wu family about transporting the body back to their hometown. Zheng Tongquan was very generous and agreed that he would be fully responsible for the matter and bear all expenses.
The two arrived at the Wu family's courtyard. They were still more than ten steps away from the courtyard gate when they heard a fierce quarrel coming from the courtyard.