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"Dongyi captured Wusongkou and blocked the river transportation. Taxes and food from the south can no longer be transported to the capital by water! How could it be like this? Is my country in danger!?"
In the main hall, Honglin's eyes were red and his expression was old and swollen. At this time, he could no longer hide his fear.
The two southern grain transport routes, river transport and sea transport, were blocked, and the capital in the north was basically choked.
Honglin miscalculated. He never expected that the situation would become so complicated. Isn't Dongyi in the north? When did you go south?
"What do you think we should do with the current situation?"
Facing Honglin's question, Baiguan already had the answer in his mind.
Need I say more? Since there is no way to defeat them, the only way is to negotiate peace with Dongyi.
After all, the Han army never closed the door to peace talks.
What's more, what Dajin currently has to face is not just the invasion of the Han army.
Last month, Ban Dingyuan persuaded Sealand to send troops to the border of Jin. Fifteen thousand Sealand soldiers, led by Luo Song, crossed the Sea of Sealand and launched a fierce attack on the border of Jin.
In addition, because of the poor performance of the Jin army, the anti-Jin forces in various parts of the north saw the incompetence of the Jin country and raised their troops to rebel. Among them, Wang Lin'er's army was the most powerful.
In addition, the long-term war and destruction have led to a sharp drop in fiscal revenue, and large-scale riots have occurred in many places in the Northland.
All in all, the Jin Kingdom had completely failed in this war with the Han Dynasty.
The cutoff of water transportation in the south was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Honglin also knew this, and knew that if the war continued, the prosperous age he had created would collapse, and he urgently needed an opportunity to negotiate peace with the Han army.
However, you cannot make this proposal by yourself, otherwise your reputation will be completely ruined, and you will even be nailed to the pillar of shame and be reviled by future generations.
Someone must tell me, and this person must be well-known among the officials.
There are currently many suitable candidates, the most suitable of whom are Li Shen and Zhang Gui.
Zhang Gui is a die-hard militant, and he will never allow the Jin Kingdom's interests to be lost.
Then only Left Prime Minister Li Shen is the most suitable.
However, Li Shen is not a fool. He knows the consequences of proposing peace talks, that is, his future will be ruined for the rest of his life, and even Honglin will blame it all on himself in the future, and end up being executed.
Therefore, even though he knew that Honglin was eager to negotiate, Li Shen pretended to be deaf and dumb this time and did not mention the matter of peace.
Seeing no one answered for a long time, Honglin couldn't help but said angrily: "What's wrong? Aren't you usually eloquent? Why are you pretending to be deaf and dumb now that the country is in crisis? What's the use of raising slaves like you!"
Seeing this, Prince Yunyan hurriedly came out and said: "Father, please calm down. I believe that the top priority is to quickly summon the troops of King Qin from all over the country to defend the capital and compete with Dongyi."
When Li Shen heard this, he couldn't help but close his eyes and tilt his head, and cursed in his heart: Is your brain flooded? How long has it been since you started talking nonsense like this to increase your presence? Isn't this making you feel uncomfortable?
Sure enough, after listening to Yunyan's suggestion, Honglin suddenly showed an expression that looked at a mentally retarded person and stared at Yunyan.
"Why did I give birth to such a worthless thing?"
With regret in his heart, Honglin just nodded and said: "King Qin's mentor? That's good. Then Prince, tell me, where can we recruit King Qin's mentor?"
Yun Yan was speechless for a moment.
He only talks about it and knows nothing about the actual operation.
"waste!"
Honglin cursed in his heart, then ignored him and turned to look at the ministers: "My dear friends, do you have any other good ideas? What should we do now?"
All the officials were silent.
At least 90% of the people present at this time yearned to negotiate with the Han army at the negotiation table.
But no one dared to say this, otherwise when the matter is resolved, they will be settled by Qiu Hou.
Seeing that there was still no answer, Honglin became furious: "You all boast of your own golden humerus. Now that the imperial court needs you and I need you, why doesn't anyone come up with suggestions?
I ask myself that I treat you well. At this time of national crisis, aren't you willing to show your loyalty to solve this trouble for me? ? "
As he spoke, he glanced at Li Shen.
Li Shen's heart trembled, knowing that he had no choice but to remain silent, so he could only bite the bullet and go out: "Your Majesty, I think that the only way to go is to make peace with Dongyi."
"Bold! Li Shen! Why do you say that you have no father and no king!"
As soon as he finished speaking, University Scholar Ji Yun immediately denounced Li Shen.
"In the hundreds of years since the founding of the Jin Dynasty, has there been any precedent for asking for peace from the barbarians!?"
Ji Yun stood impassionedly in the hall and refuted Li Shen.
"Your Majesty, this servant thinks that you must never ask for peace with Dongyi. Asking for peace would be disrespectful to the country. Your Majesty will be infamy for the ages."
Honglin was originally very happy that someone finally came forward to make this suggestion, but he didn't expect to be stopped by Ji Yun so quickly.
Who is Ji Yun? Scholars are just sour scholars. In addition to writing and writing, they just write and revise historical manuscripts, and they have far-fetched abilities.
But didn't expect that he would jump out to be "loyal to the emperor and patriotic" at this time?
Honglin was very angry, but he didn't want to get angry. If he refuted it, it would be true what he said and he would be infamy for the ages.
When Li Shen heard this, he sneered in his heart and said to himself: Ji Yun, you are really very scheming.
Li Shen knew Ji Yun better than Hong Lin. He often hung out in romantic places, and also hung out with a group of uninformed literati, whom he often recommended to Hong Lin as local officials.
The officials recommended by Ji Yun are indeed very honest, but they can only boast of their integrity. It can be said that they are all the same when it comes to local government governance.
The people recommended by Li Shen were indeed corrupt officials, but they were still capable of solving problems for the court.
This was also the reason why Honglin valued Li Shen more. It didn't matter whether an official was corrupt or not. What was important was that he could do good things for himself. As long as he was satisfied, even if he was extremely corrupt, he would still be an honest and good official in the heart of the emperor.
More importantly, Ji Yun's impassioned criticism of himself was really for the sake of the country?
Nonsense!
Since the war between the Han Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom, Ji Yun has always been a die-hard "capitulationist". More than once, he privately believed that the Han Dynasty was invincible and that peace talks were the best option.
How could such a person really want to resist the enemy?
This is just a hard-to-get trick played by Ji Yun.
His purpose in doing this was simply to draw a clear line between himself as a "surrender" and to portray himself as a good official who cares about the country and the people and has the courage to face powerful ministers.
What's more important is that he won't be settled by his wife, so he has made enough calculations.
"Your Majesty! Never surrender to Dongyi!"
After the impassioned performance, Ji Yun knelt down directly in front of Hong Lin and burst into tears.
"Your Majesty~~"
Other officials followed suit and knelt on the ground crying bitterly.
Li Shen was the only one standing in the palace, looking particularly lonely.
