In the palace, Emperor Zhao Gou was lying on the sick bed and listened to Xu Xiantu's report.
Xu Xiantu knelt on the ground and cried: "Haizhou was defeated. As the envoy to Huaibei, Weichen has an unshirkable responsibility. It is Weichen's incompetence that has dragged down His Majesty and affected His Majesty's reputation. All responsibilities fall on Weichen."
Take the responsibility and let your majesty do whatever you want, and I will have no complaints at all!"
Zhao Gou watched Xu Xiantu silently. Of course he knew the reason for the disastrous defeat. It would be easy to punish Xu Xiantu. He could just remove him from the position because he did not understand military affairs and was incompetent in command.
But Zhao Gou did not want to remove Xu Xiantu. Xu Xiantu was his confidant and the person who could really do things for him, unlike Zhu Shengfei, who failed more than succeeded.
He originally wanted Xu Xiantu to take responsibility, but at this moment, he didn't want to anymore.
After a moment of silence, Zhao Gou said slowly: "I have never quite understood the real reason for this defeat. Can Mr. Xu tell me?"
Xu Xiantu was startled, what did the emperor mean by this?
Let yourself find the real responsibility for the defeat. Could it be said that the emperor does not want himself to bear this responsibility?
He thought for a while and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I also believe that the strategy of attacking Haizhou is not wrong. If we do not capture Haizhou and head northward to Yizhou, we will inevitably be cut off by the enemy in Haizhou, and our logistics and food supplies will be cut off.
If the enemy forces continue to attack from the north and south, our army will stop! So taking Haizhou is an inevitable strategy, but we may have made mistakes in the details."
"What mistakes were made in the details?"
"Your Majesty, our information is wrong."
Zhao Gou suddenly became energetic. If he was wrong from the beginning, no matter how wise he made the decision later, he would not be able to change the situation.
"Where is the information wrong?"
"Your Majesty, the Jin soldiers we may face are not more than 50,000, but probably 100,000. It's just that the Jin soldiers concealed the true number, which caused our intelligence to be wrong. We sent too few troops, and their strength was far inferior to the opponent's.
defeat."
"How do you know that the other side has more than 50,000 troops?"
"Your Majesty, I have talked with Han Shizhong. He said that there were 15,000 Jin soldiers on Donghai Island. In addition, when the Western Army took the opportunity to seize Haizhou, they also captured nearly 20,000 people. This makes the total number 85,000.
In addition, when the Song army retreated, they were also pursued by Jurchen cavalry. There were at least 20,000 people. This should be the army going south from Yizhou. This exceeded the 100,000 army. This is obviously because our intelligence was wrong.
If we had known that the other side was hiding its troops, we would not have just sent a hundred thousand troops northward. This is what I said, and it was wrong from the beginning."
"Ai Qing means that the real reason for our defeat was lack of preparation?"
"Exactly!"
Xu Xiantu said calmly: "As far as Wei Chen knows, the Western Army has been preparing for nearly two years to attack Shandong Road. Counting from the time they captured Bianliang the year before last and the Jin soldiers withdrew eastward, it has been exactly two years now before they launched their attack.
The offensive, food supplies, soldier training, all kinds of intelligence, the Yellow River navy, etc. were all prepared before sending out troops, so they could seize the East China Sea Island in one fell swoop. After we and the Jin soldiers were both injured, they came out to take advantage and took the opportunity to seize the sea.
Your Majesty, if we are fully prepared, we won’t even have an army to respond.”
Zhao Gou also sighed and said: "I am responsible for this matter. I shouldn't be too eager for the Northern Expedition and be too eager to achieve success!"
The two of them unknowingly reached a consensus that the defeat had nothing to do with command, but lack of preparation. Almost all the ministries and temples were responsible, and that was the responsibility of the imperial court.
Xu Xiantu added: "Yesterday Hu Yun came to Weichen. He conveyed a message from King Yong to Weichen, saying that the Western Army rescued 20,000 of our captured soldiers when they intercepted the Jin soldiers. Chen Qing asked Weichen to go north and lead the captured soldiers.
Come back, if we are sincere enough, he can even give us Haizhou."
Of course, Chen Qing's promise to Haizhou was just a gesture. Even if he gave it to Zhao Gou for free, he would not ask for it again, not to mention showing enough sincerity. Zhao Gou doesn't have much sincerity now, but there are still 20,000 Song Dynasties in the place.
This really surprised and delighted Zhao Gou.
Of course Zhao Gou was pleasantly surprised. If you add the 6,000 people who returned from defeat, and the more than 4,000 people who were gathered later, then they would have an army of 30,000. First of all, they would get rid of the scandal of the entire army being destroyed, and then consider sending troops to attack the city.
Of the more than 10,000 wounded soldiers who returned to the rear, only over 50,000 of them were actually killed in action, more than half of whom were killed in action.
One is called a total army annihilation and a disastrous defeat, the other is called withdrawal due to excessive casualties, the meanings are completely different.
Although he was a bit self-deceiving, Zhao Gou finally found a reason to get rid of his shame. He sat up and asked anxiously: "When did Chen Qing ask you to pick him up?"
"anytime!"
"Then please go north immediately and bring back 20,000 troops. I will leave Haizhou and the north of the Huaihe River to him." Zhao Gou said generously.
This condition was indeed so 'sincere' that he was lucky enough to say it.
Xu Xiantu smiled bitterly and said: "Wei Chen will go first. During the negotiation process, Wei Chen will always send dove letters to report to His Majesty for instructions!"
"Okay!" Zhao Gou agreed happily.
Xu Xiantu set out by boat that day with several officials and hundreds of escorting soldiers.
The day after Xu Xiantu set off, Hu Yun and Zheng Tongquan also came to Pingjiang Mansion. Hu Yun came to visit the Liu family and Gao Qiu on the order of King Yong. The members of Song Xinghui were all the people Chen Qing wanted to win over.
Zheng Tongquan came for the cabinet shop. He had already talked with the Qian family two days ago. It was a coincidence that several big families in Jiangnan were also planning to jointly establish Jiangnan cabinet shop. Zheng Tongquan had a Sichuan and Shaanxi background and was the target of the Jiangnan aristocratic families.
The two sides hit it off immediately, and Zheng Tongquan paid 200,000 yuan to join Jiangnan Cabinetry.
However, what disappointed Zheng Tongquan was that the other party only gave him a 10% share, which was far from the 50% share that Zheng Tongquan himself requested.
Zheng Tongquan wanted 50% of the family, not because he wanted to dominate the family, but because there were also 20% of King Yong's family members, which were managed by the Zheng family. The Zheng family actually only had 30% of the members.
Arriving at Gusu City by boat, Zheng Tongquan then sailed westward. Zheng Tongquan was surprised and said: "I have stayed in Lin'an for so many years, and this is the first time I heard about Song Xinghui. But I knew it as soon as you mentioned Fengle Tower. I knew it."
It was built jointly by more than a dozen powerful people, and the representative is Shi Guangping. I also approached Shi Guangping, and I wanted to be a part of it, but Shi Guangping said I was not one of their members and refused. It turned out that the member he mentioned was Song Xinghui, and the Huyan family should be the same!
"
Hu Yun nodded, "Liu family, Cao family, Xiang family, Shi family, Huyan family, Gao family, these are all, but they have internal conflicts now. Shi family and Xiang family have surrendered to the emperor and gained important positions. They are afraid of other families."
He was also highly regarded, so he spent a lot of money to bribe the people around the emperor, and kept slandering the emperor's ears. As a result, the emperor had a very cold attitude towards the Song Xinghui members in Pingjiang Prefecture, and almost sent troops to arrest Gao Qiu. Later, because of Xu Xiantu's persuasion, he was arrested.
The arrest will be settled."
"Does the special envoy think they want to open a cabinet shop?" Zheng Tongquan asked worriedly.
Hu Yun smiled slightly and said, "It depends on how well you talk."
While he was talking, the boat arrived at a mansion surrounded by a river. This was the Liu family's Baiyun Villa.