On the morning of the next day, Emperor Zhao Gou held a small court meeting in the side hall of Daqing Palace. The small court meeting was attended by the prime minister and important officials. Compared with the large court meeting, the small court meeting was more pragmatic and focused on solving problems.
The Great Court is more of a retreat and is just a formality. Nothing can be settled at the Great Court meeting. Things announced at the Great Court meeting have actually been decided long ago and are just for the ministers to witness.
Zhang Jun just came back from Luzhou yesterday. On the one hand, he was doing his annual work report, and on the other hand, he was here to ask for money, food and materials.
As soon as he entered the hall, Zhang Jun grabbed the weapons supervisor Liu Qiren and said, "Liu supervisor, I came back this time to ask for something from you?"
Liu Qiren was startled and waved his hands quickly: "Don't come to me. I just sent you 300 ships of military supplies last year. Ambassador Xuanfu should ask for money and food! That is your real purpose."
Zhang Jun laughed twice and said: "I also need money and food, and I also need supplies. The supplies you gave me last year did not include firearms. I was right!"
"Didn't you say that the imperial court's firearms are all rubbish and useless?"
"The imperial court's firearms are indeed rubbish. The Western Army's iron fire mines have come out. You still can't handle the wooden fire mines. It's not rubbish. But I want firearms for training. I got information that the Jin soldiers are equipped with a large number of powder barrels.
, it’s full of poisonous nails, and my soldiers don’t know how to defend against it, so I need a lot of firearms for training.”
"I remember you still have more than 50,000 firearms in stock! Are they all used up so quickly?" Liu Qiren asked doubtfully.
"What do you think? I have an army of nearly 200,000, but I have no bottom when it comes to training. The 50,000 firearms will be used up after a few rounds of training. Give me another 50,000 firearms."
Liu Qiren shook his head like a rattle, "No, there are only 20,000 firearms in the warehouse and hundreds of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder."
"Then give it all to me, and I'll find a craftsman to make the powder keg myself."
Liu Qiren still shook his head, "I can't give it all to you. I have to leave some for other armies. I'll give you half at most."
"Half is fine. It's needed urgently for military training. You can send a boat to Dangtu County Pier tomorrow and my men will receive it there."
"Tomorrow? What are you in a hurry for?"
"How can you not be anxious? You will be anxious when the golden soldiers come."
At this time, a guard shouted, "Your Majesty is here!"
Zhang Jun quickly stood up and returned to his seat, not forgetting to turn around and add, "It's agreed, we'll ship it tomorrow!"
Liu Qiren looked at his back and cursed in a low voice, "The hardest to get something, the fastest to escape from a fight, bah!"
The emperor Zhao Gou sat down on the dragon couch, and everyone stood up and saluted, "See you, Your Majesty!"
Zhao Gou took a look and asked Qin Hui: "Qin Xianggong, are you all here?"
"Your Majesty, everyone is here!"
Zhao Gou waved his hands and said with a smile: "Dear ladies, please take a seat!"
Everyone sat down one after another, and Zhao Gou said slowly: "Today I am mainly talking to you dear friends about Chen Qing's dispatch of troops to the Central Plains and our response strategy. I know very well that the people in the Central Plains have many complaints against the imperial court. They have been watching the king's army south for a year.
Another year has passed, but the court has always let them down, and I feel deeply sorry, but the Jin soldiers are like wolves, and it is already very difficult for us to resist the Jin soldiers' southward invasion. It's not that we don't want to go north, it's just that we are unable to do so."
Zhao Gou made an opening statement, and finally gave an explanation citing his lack of strength. The ministers needed to give a perfect explanation for the emperor's ambition but insufficient strength.
Qin Hui, as the right prime minister, stood up and said: "Your Majesty, there is no need to apologize. In fact, we have gone to the north several times. Wang Heng even led his army to the outskirts of Bianliang. How can we say that we did not go to the north and did not care about the lives of the people in the Central Plains?"
And Chen Qing has never set foot in the Central Plains. When he went out for the first time, he promoted them as the saviors of the people in the Central Plains. So what are our previous expeditions? This is not fair, Your Majesty. We sent troops in a low-key manner to really save the people, but Chen Qing has not yet sent troops.
, he started to spread the word, and he was actually trying to gain fame, which is disgraceful."
Immediately afterwards, Left Prime Minister Zhu Shengfei also stood up and said: "Qin Xianggong is right. We don't need to pay attention to the other party's propaganda. Whether we can recover the Central Plains depends on the final result. The Central Plains is not an empty house. We can occupy it as we want."
As expected of a prime minister, a bunch of reasons were found for no reason. Qin Hui didn't care about the results, only looked at the process, and emphasized the court's attitude towards the recovery of the Central Plains. It can be said that he suffered repeated defeats and repeated defeats. The court's attitude was better than that of Chen Qing.
.
Zhu Shengfei, on the other hand, did not talk about the process, but only the results. You, Chen Qing, have not even scratched the surface of your recovery of the Central Plains. What are you bragging about here?
Zhao Gou was quite satisfied with the explanations given by the two. He glanced at Zhang Jun and said: "General Zhang, you have been confronting the Jin soldiers for a long time and are well aware of their situation. Do you think Chen Qing is capable of regaining the Central Plains? Tell me about your experience.
view."
Zhang Jun quickly bowed and said: "Your Majesty, I don't know Chen Qing's strength very well, but I know Wanyan Wushu's strength very well. Wanyan Wushu promotes elite military tactics and abandons the puppet Qi army.
Using the human sea tactic, he had a total of 250,000 troops in the Central Plains. If you include the 150,000 troops in Hebei, the Jin Kingdom actually had 400,000 troops on the Central Plains-Hebei line. Chen Qing's total military strength may not be as good as the Jin soldiers.
Second, Wanyan Wushu had 50,000 special troops, 20,000 cavalry horses and 30,000 iron pagodas. This was the most powerful cavalry and could basically sweep everything. Although Wanyan Wushu suffered a disastrous defeat in Sichuan and Shaanxi,
That's because they didn't have the opportunity to take advantage of the cavalry. The Central Plains is now a plain area, which is where the Jurchen cavalry can take advantage. To be honest, I am not optimistic about Chen Qingdong's expedition."
Zhao Gou nodded, "It seems that we still have to ask the general for military affairs. Although I don't want Chen Qing to fail, I don't want to see him so arrogant and arrogant, stepping on the shoulders of the imperial court to show his righteousness. Without the imperial court exhausting all food and supplies,
Fighting with Jin Bing and constantly weakening Jin Bing's strength, how can he have the chance now? We don't need to pay too much attention, it is more important to do our own things well. Ambassador Zhang Xuan, take this opportunity today to briefly report on last year.
What’s the situation with the Huaixi Army?”
"I humbly obey the order. Last year, the Huaixi Army fought 23 times against the Jin soldiers and the puppet Qi army on both sides of the Huaihe River. Among them, they won 13 times and lost ten times. They killed more than 46,000 enemies and suffered 20,000 casualties.
With more than 7,000 people, it should be said that we have the upper hand and firmly hold the front line of the Huaihe River."
Xu Xiantu secretly scolded Zhang Jun for being shameless. Zhang Jun's own army retreated south to the Yangtze River, and it was Yue Fei's army that crossed the border to attack the Jin soldiers. He at least attributed the ten victories of Yue Fei's army to himself, and shamelessly said that he would hold on tight
Was he the one who guarded the front line of the Huaihe River?
But the emperor liked to hear it. Zhao Gou waved his hand excitedly, "Xuanfu, please continue talking!"
At night, the romantic You Zhongwen came out of a brothel. His drunkenness made him stagger a little. He saw an ox cart parked opposite, so he waved, and the ox cart turned around and slowly came to a stop in front of him.
Down.
You Zhongwen got on the car and muttered, "Go to the Beijing News office!"
He leaned on the soft cushion, closed his eyes and rested. The oxcart rocked gently, and he fell asleep without realizing it.
I don't know how long it took, You Zhongwen suddenly woke up. He was horrified to find that he was being held down by two strong men. Just as he was about to ask questions, a ball of rags was stuffed into his mouth, causing him to scream, "Woo! Woo!"
Don't make a sound.
Then everything went dark, and a cloth bag covered his head. Soon his hands and feet were tied up, and he curled up on the ground, unable to move like a cooked prawn.
You Zhongwen whined and screamed, struggling desperately. His waist was suddenly kicked hard, and the pain was so deep that he did not dare to move.
"Get some sleep and we'll take you back to your hometown!"
Someone said something in his ear, and You Zhongwen was so frightened that he fainted. He interpreted returning to his hometown as going to the underworld.
More than ten days later, when You Zhongwen regained his freedom, he found that he was outside Yingtian City. He had indeed returned to his hometown, but the more than a thousand dollars he had worked so hard to save were still in Lin'an!
After waiting for ten days, Qin Hui still couldn't wait for his article. He sent someone to question You Zhongwen, but learned that You Zhongwen had gone back to his hometown to visit relatives. Of course Qin Hui knew that it was the Western Army intelligence spies who had done something, but he didn't
Dare to retaliate, since Chen Qing knew the details of his son Lin Yifei, he did not dare to use plotting methods against Chen Qing's people.
Even if he wanted to use it, he would definitely encourage others to do it.
