Just when Zhao Kai led his "Caotai Court" and tens of thousands of troops, Dai Xiao set out to take a detour to Shaanxi to regain Kaifeng Mansion. His good brother Zhao Huan was busy with two things. One was to ascend the throne in Yingtian Mansion - Zhao Huan didn't know that he had been "drowned", nor did he know that his father, Zhao Ji, had passed the edict to Zhao Ji before he died. Kai becomes the emperor.
So after running away to Yingtian Mansion, he "reluctantly" ascended the throne of the Song Dynasty official family in tears with the support of the officials.
This is great, one Song Dynasty and two emperors, but I don’t know how it will end!
The second major event for Zhao Huan was to bring back Zhao Ji's body.
He still has to be buried in front of Zhao Jifeng!
Although I still don’t know where to bury it? But the corpse must be brought back. In addition, there are several brothers who also need to be redeemed... The eldest brother is the father!
Once Zhao Ji died, he had to be a good father. How could he watch his brothers suffer at the hands of the gold thief?
So ten days before Zhao Kai sent troops, that is, on June 15th, Zhao Ji finally arrived at Yingtian Mansion in Nanjing, Song Dynasty, which he had been dreaming about for more than half a year... He was lying in a spacious , comfortable, luxurious wooden box, pulled all the way from Huazhou where the Jin soldiers were entrenched.
With him were five princes from the Song Dynasty, including Zhao Shu and Zhao Qi, as well as a delegation headed by Zhang Bangchang who went to Huazhou to welcome back Zhao Jizi Palace.
A group of people came wearing sackcloth and mourning, crying and supporting the spirits. When they entered Yingtianfu City, the fortified Song Dynasty Nanjing City had also turned into a white city, with white flags and flags planted everywhere, and the originally brightly colored buildings on the streets and alleys were also draped with white flags. Covered with white linen. Pedestrians coming and going also put on plain clothes. The officers and soldiers in the city all wore white clothes outside their official uniforms.
Zhao Huan, who had just ascended the throne with the support of his ministers, and a group of princes and princes of the Song Dynasty (in addition to Zhao Ji's son, there were also King Zhao Maru of Yan and King Zhao Si of Yue), all wore heavy filial piety.
The entire city has been immersed in grief and fear these days - in addition to grief, of course there is also the fear of gold thieves!
How could it not be fearful?
Although the main force of the gold thieves has begun to move north, they have not gone away. There are still many soldiers and horses stationed at Huazhou, Sanshan Floating Bridge and Liyang, three dangerous places that are closely together - among them, Liyang is north of the Yellow River and Huazhou. The state is to the south of the Yellow River, and the Sanshan Floating Bridge is on the Yellow River.
The golden thief controls these three places, and also controls a large section of the 10,000-year-old new embankment. He can tear down the Yellow River embankment and release water at any time!
Although the flood could not destroy Yingtianfu City, it could still turn the outside of Yingtianfu City into a marshland. In the 10th year of Xining, the flood flooded all the way to Xuzhou, and of course it also washed away the surrounding areas of Yingtianfu City. !
Of course, the gold thief now wants to deal with Zhao Huanjun and his ministers in Yingtian City. There is no need to release the water at all. They send eight thousand soldiers here. Zhao Huanjun and his ministers are not allowed to scare them away?
These days, Zhao Huan is still living on that big dragon boat on the excuse that the palace in Yingtianfu City is too dilapidated!
"Crunch, crunch, crunch... dong dong dong..."
On June 25th, amidst the sounds of sawing wood and hammering and carpentry, Zhao Huan was summoning Li Gang, who had just arrived from Liangshanbo!
The sound of sawing wood and banging came from the ongoing "Dragon Boat Renovation Project". Zhao Huan was in danger on the dragon boat that day and was almost shot or burned to death by Jin Bing with a rocket. So after escaping to Yingtianfu City, he immediately ordered the dragon boat to be modified!
The dragon boat must be resistant to fire and arrows, and it must have the ability to fight back - it must be equipped with crossbows, cannons, etc., so that when the gold thieves come over, it can at least fight back.
In addition, the target was a big but useless faucet that had to be dismantled. There were also a bunch of miscellaneous decorations on the ship. All that could be dismantled were dismantled to reduce weight - fireproof shields were installed and then painted with mud. A lot of weight has to be added to the hull. If some weight is not reduced elsewhere, the boat will easily capsize!
Because the workload was large and the construction period was tight, work had to be started day and night. Even if Zhao Huan was in the cabin, he still had to work outside!
Moreover, on the Bianhe Canal that passes through Tiancheng, there are many canals and official ships with people living on them! Almost every boat was full of people.
Those who live on these boats are not just ordinary people who have no money to rent, but also many rich bureaucrats and clan nobles who have escaped from Kaifeng City. They also do not go to the shore to find houses... They say they are afraid of it. Li Gang knew very well what he actually meant by disturbing the people.
But he still has to continue to say things that no one wants to hear in the Dragon Boat Court!
"Your Majesty, your first visit to the Ninth Five-Year Plan is the time when the world is waiting for you. You should cheer up your spirit, refresh your politics, and reorganize your army. Then you can recover Tokyo to the west, expel the bandits to the north, and avenge the hatred of the late Emperor who died in battle. How can you do this? Living on the water day and night, ready to flee at any time?"
Zhao Huan was furious after hearing this. If you, the camp envoy, didn't know how to fight, would I and the late emperor be like this?
The late emperor was quite fierce. The imperial commander personally fled... No, the imperial commander personally conquered. What was the result? They put it in a wooden box and brought it back, and they didn't know where to bury it!
Thinking of this, Zhao Huan winked at his teacher Geng Nanzhong, the Privy Councilor.
Geng Nanzhong caught Zhao Huan's look, coughed, and said with a straight face: "Li Gang, how can you talk to officials like this?"
Li Gang was beaten by Geng Nanzhong, and then he remembered that Zhao Huan was now an official of the Song Dynasty. He quickly saluted Zhao Huan and said, "Your Majesty, when I think of the death of the late emperor, I can't help myself, and I made unreasonable remarks. Please punish me. "
Punishment? Zhao Huanxin said: Your sin is too great... What does it mean to say nothing? You have almost defeated the imperial court's army of more than 200,000 people! The reason why my father wanted to escape personally was because of you! Your sins are so irredeemable!
Zhao Huan thought so in his heart, but he did not dare to really punish Li Gang.
Because after Li Gang was defeated at Wannian Xinti, he went to Liangshan with the three brothers Zhongshi Dao, Zhongshizhong, and Zhongshi Min! They were not there to do justice for Heaven, but to use Liangshanbo as a stronghold to gather the defeated troops. Not only did they collect defeated soldiers, but they also collected volunteers from Jingdong East Road, Jingdong East Road, and Hebei East Road.
After more than a month of hard work, Li Gang, Zhong Shidao, Zhong Shizhong, and Zhong Shimin finally gathered an army of 40,000 to 50,000 troops.
This means having soldiers in hand and not being afraid of guilt!
And now the Song Dynasty not only has the official Zhao Huan, but also Zhao Kai who is not known to have proclaimed himself emperor (Zhao Huan does not know)!
Now that Zhao Huan dared to punish Li Gang, Zhong Shidao, Zhong Shizhong, and Zhong Shimin were afraid, so they most likely defected to Zhao Kai...
"Xiangong Li's words are serious," Zhao Huan now has no strength, so he can only coax Li Gang, "Why don't I want to regain Tokyo and avenge the late emperor? I live on the boat not to escape south, but to expedition north!"
Going to Jiangnan for the Northern Expedition?
Li Gang was not stupid. Of course he understood what Zhao Huan was thinking, so he said: "Actually, your Majesty does not need to rush to the Northern Expedition... as long as he does not leave the Central Plains!"
Zhao Huan remained silent.
Li Gang added: "If the imperial court leaves the Central Plains... but King Yun does not leave, what will the people of the Central Plains think?"
Zhao Huan frowned and looked at Li Gang, "Li Qing, don't worry, I will never leave the Central Plains no matter what... But I can't wait for the gold thief to catch him in Yingtian Mansion! So I still want to Move east."
"I wonder where your Majesty wants to go?" Li Gang asked.
"How is Chuzhou?" Zhao Huan asked tentatively.
"Chuzhou is south of the Huaihe River and is not considered a land in the Central Plains!"
"Then... let's go to Xuzhou!" Zhao Huan gave in another half step, with a serious look on his face, "Xuzhou is the capital of the overlord of Chu. Xiang Yu used it as a basis to destroy the violent Qin! I will also use it as a basis. Use this as a basis to resist the huge amount of money!”
Li Gang sighed: "Then please stop at Xuzhou and stop going south."
"Okay, then I will make a detour to Xuzhou for the Northern Expedition!" Zhao Huan breathed a sigh of relief and thought of his good brother Zhao Kai again. He summoned Li Gang to deal with Zhao Kai.
"Li Qing," Zhao Huan said, "Li Lu, the Hebei East Road pacification envoy, came to visit a few days ago and said that Damingfu's city defenses were empty, and that the Xiongzhou, Qingzhou, Bazhou, Xin'an Army and other places under his rule had recently experienced large-scale attacks. They are gold thieves... So I want Li Qing to send a large army to support the name, and to proclaim Jingdong East Road and Hebei East Road."
Li Gang frowned slightly, why didn't he understand Zhao Huan's thoughts? This is to seize Zhao Kai's territory!
But if this happens, I'm afraid Zhao Kai will be forced to rebel!
If Zhao Kai rebels, he will inevitably seize Luoyang southward and advance to Kaifeng. If Kaifeng is taken by him, the imperial court will be passive.
Thinking of this, Li Gang did not immediately accept the assignment, but asked Zhao Huan: "Your Majesty, is the court prepared on Jingxi Road?"
Zhao Huan nodded, "We have already gone to Yuwenxuzhong to propagate the west of the capital... There are tens of thousands of soldiers in Heyin, Xingyang, and Xingze, and they are also controlled by Yuwenxuzhong. There should be no serious problems."
Li Gang breathed out and said to Zhao Huan: "With Yu Wenxuzhong sitting in the west of Jing, it will be no big deal... Hebei East Road and Jingdong East Road will be handed over to me! I will not let thieves cross Jishui if I am here." Please take one step forward, Your Majesty, please rest assured and settle down in Xuzhou."
