Five thousand Jinwu guards patrolling the city came from all directions. They beat gongs and used barrels and basins to fetch water from the river to put out the fire.
The people were unwilling to put out the fire at the Jinguo Pavilion, but the soldiers had to.
But the fire was so powerful that even if the soldiers fought hard to put out the fire, they could only stop the fire from spreading outwards, but they could not extinguish the fire in the mansion.
At this time, Wan Yanchang suddenly discovered a novel thing. Each of more than a dozen ox carts carried a large cabinet. There were soldiers standing on the cabinet, holding copper pipes and spraying water into the house.
"This is."
Wan Yanchang suddenly remembered the fire attack weapon of the Western Army. Isn't it this?
He stepped forward and asked, "What is this?"
A general bowed and replied: "This was originally a fire cabinet for the army, but there was no kerosene in the south of the Yangtze River, so it was made to spray water to extinguish fires."
"So this is the fierce oil fire cabinet!"
Wan Yanchang stroked the wooden cabinet and felt deeply in his heart. If the Jin Kingdom had obtained it earlier and had occupied northern Shaanxi and had kerosene, why would they worry that Chen Qing would not be destroyed?
In fact, Wan Yanchang had forgotten that although they did not have a fire cabinet at the beginning, they used skin bags to spray fire oil at the top of the city. It could spray more than ten feet away, but they still could not capture Ganquan Fort and later Chengji County.
.
At this time, one of his subordinates whispered: "Marshal, the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty is here."
When Wan Yanchang turned around, he saw Li Guang coming on horseback with a dozen officials.
The Jinguo Pavilion is very close to Ouchi. You can reach the Jinguo Pavilion just across the Royal Street. The raging fire in the Jinguo Pavilion also alarmed the Ouchi official office. The chief official on duty tonight is Li Guang. This is the court practice. Every night
There must be a prime minister or a bachelor on duty in the palace to deal with emergencies that occur at night.
Li Guang was also alarmed by the fire. He heard that there was a fire in the Jinguo Pavilion and rushed over with more than a dozen officials.
"Is Wanyan Xiangguo okay?" Li Guang waved and shouted.
Wanyanchang still held the title of Prime Minister of the Jin Kingdom, but had no real power. He succeeded Wanyan Nianhan and controlled Hebei, south of Yanshan, north of the Yellow River, east of the Taihang Mountains, and all the way to the Yellow Sea. Wanyanchang controlled large areas of land.
, his official official position was as the manager of the Xingtai Prefecture, Hebei Road Shangshu, and the marshal of the Zuo Road Military Capital. His status in the Jin Kingdom was quite high.
Li Guang stepped forward and said: "I was worried all the way, but when I saw that Wanyan Xiangguo was safe and sound, I finally felt relieved."
Wan Yanchang nodded, "I actually alarmed Xianggong Li. Thank you Xianggong Li for your concern."
Li Guang looked at the fire and asked, "Why did it suddenly catch fire?"
Wan Yanchang said calmly: "We don't know the cause of the fire. I guess some people were angry during the day and used the Jinguo Pavilion to vent their anger!"
"I wonder how many casualties there are?" Li Guang asked again.
"We just counted that 32 people are missing. They are probably all in danger."
The thirty-two people Wan Yanchang mentioned did not include the thirty-five warriors led by Li Qingzhou. If the government counts the number of dead tomorrow, there will not be so many corpses, which will make people suspicious.
Li Guang looked solemn and said quickly: "I will order Lin'an Mansion to solve the case as soon as possible and give your country an explanation."
Wan Yanchang waved his hand and said: "It is no longer important whether the case is solved or not. What is important is that the two parties negotiate quickly. Someone is watching me, Wan Yanchang. If I don't leave quickly, my life will be lost in Lin'an."
"Okay! Tomorrow morning, I will convey Prime Minister Wanyan's request to the emperor."
At this time, a follower ran up and said a few words to Li Guang. Li Guang nodded and said to Wanyanchang: "We have set up a tent in the school field next to it. Please take Wanyan Xiangguo to take him to rest first!
"
"Okay! I still have a lot of burns on my hands and they need treatment, so Mr. Li has to worry about it."
Wan Yanchang waved his hand, "Let's go!"
He led hundreds of people toward the large campus a hundred steps away.
It was getting brighter, and the fire was finally put out. Most of it had been burned, but the wall was intact. There were ruins everywhere inside, and the bricks and soil were still burning hot. The soldiers kept pouring water on the ruins to cool down, and waves of smoke rose up.
Water mist.
Yang Yizhong ordered the soldiers to clean up the ruins, and the charred corpses were rolled up on mats and carried out. Valuable items were also taken out. However, in the last few surviving small courtyards, there were Jurchen soldiers standing guard, and the Song army was not allowed to
Enter.
A total of eighteen corpses were found, mostly Jurchen soldiers. Five other maids survived by squatting in the pool, and nine others escaped by hiding in a small courtyard that was not burned.
At this time, a soldier came riding on horseback and whispered something into Yang Yizhong's ear. Yang Yizhong was really surprised to find more than thirty corpses on the West Lake cruise ship. What was going on?
He immediately ordered: "Have a look!"
He told the deputy general a few words, then got on his horse and galloped towards the West Lake with dozens of his men.
In the imperial study, Emperor Zhao Gou and several ministers were listening to Li Guang's detailed report on the fire in the Jinguo Pavilion.
Of course, Li Guang would not run out of Yan Chang's words. He himself also did a lot of investigations and interviews and got a lot of clues.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, Wan Yanchang told Wei Chen that the burning of the Jinguo Pavilion was done during the day by the imperial students and the common people to vent their anger, but according to the humble investigation, this is not the case!"
Li Guang paused for a moment, seeing that everyone was listening attentively, and continued: "Wei Chen visited a large number of people around, and they all said that at the fourth watch, many men in black surrounded the Jinguo Pavilion and sprayed them with black leather bags.
What, Wei Chen found remnants on the wall afterwards, these men in black must have sprayed fire oil."
"Fire oil!"
Everyone looked at each other and immediately thought of Chen Qing's army. Isn't the Western Army famous for its use of kerosene?
Li Guang understood what everyone was thinking, shook his head and said: "In fact, there are many armies that use kerosene. Yue Fei, Zhang Jun, and Han Shizhong all used kerosene in the war. Of course, Chen Qing's men are more suspected, but
There is no conclusive evidence that they did it."
Zhao Gou waved his hand and said, "Wan Yanchang doesn't want to pursue the case?"
"Exactly!"
Li Guang bowed and said: "Wei Chen can feel it. He said it was done by the imperial students and the common people. He obviously didn't mean what he said. Wei Chen thinks that he knew it well."
"Then, what will he say next? Zhao Gou asked.
"Wan Yanchang said he hoped to end the negotiations as soon as possible. He said Lin'an was not safe and wanted to leave as soon as possible."
Zhao Gou frowned and asked Zhu Shengfei, "What are you still talking about now?"
Zhu Shengfei bowed and said: "Last night, Wei Chen had contact with the other party's deputy envoy Xiao Yi. It seemed that he meant that if you really don't want to join forces to destroy the Sichuan-Shaanxi Army, don't force it. You can sign a five-year ceasefire agreement.
, allowing the people to recuperate and recuperate.”
"A five-year ceasefire is not bad. I completely agree, even if we reach an agreement."
"Weichen understands. Weichen will go and talk to them today. Your Majesty, the Jinguo Pavilion may need to be rebuilt."
Zhao Gou nodded, "Leave the matter of rebuilding the Jinguo Pavilion to Qin Xiangguo and discuss with them to see what their opinions are."
Qin Hui bowed and said, "I obey your order!"
At this time, the eunuch Kang Shun stepped forward and whispered a few words to Zhao Gou. Zhao Gou nodded and said, "Xianggong Li, please stay here. Let the other three Xianggongs go and get busy!"
Qin Hui and the others bowed and retreated. Only Li Guang was left in the imperial study. At this time, Kang Shun brought Yang Yizhong in. Li Guang understood in his heart that Yang Yizhong must have discovered something.
Yang Yizhong stepped forward and knelt down on one knee to salute, "I am here to see you, Your Majesty!"
"Yang Dutong doesn't need to be polite, get up and talk!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Yang Yizhong stood up and said: "Just an hour ago, Weichen received a report from the soldiers. They found a painting boat on the West Lake. The painting boat was full of corpses. I rushed there immediately, but the painting boat was full of corpses, all wearing clothes.
There are black warrior uniforms with arrows stuck in their bodies. Most of them were injured by the arrows, and some were pierced by sharper points. There are thirty-five of them in total."
"Who are these people, and who killed them?" Zhao Gou said in a somewhat annoyed tone.
Li Guang suddenly said: "They can't be Wan Yanchang's people, right?"