After hearing Zhang Suo's words, Zhu Lian just sighed: "When things have reached this point, Li Gang has not forgotten the king. It is really not easy..."
Zhang Suo just sighed and said nothing.
If he could bring Li Gang's words to Zhu Lian, he would have done his best. What should he do next? To be honest, he had no idea.
Zhu Lian saw that he was silent and his eyes were wandering. He scanned the hall and saw a group of ministers and clan members with their heads lowered and silent. He already knew it in his heart - none of these people wanted to wade into this muddy water, because they also Not sure what Zhao Kai was thinking?
This official of the Song Dynasty seems to have forgotten to issue an edict to remove Zhao Huan from the throne and from his various posts, and he did not say that he would offer a reward for his arrest... Could it be that he wanted to kill his dear brother quietly?
It's better not to get involved in this matter, lest flattery slaps you on the horse's feet and ends up in the end!
Zhu Lian smiled and said: "I will protect the king from the officials, but there is no need to close the city gate to avoid affecting the livelihood of the people."
Zhang was stunned when he heard this, and thought to himself: How can we stop Zhao Kai if we don't close the city gate?
But he won't talk about this problem... He can help Li Gang with the message, which is already worthy of Zhao Huan.
"Sister-in-law, how can we resist Third Brother with the city gate open?"
Just because Zhang doesn't ask doesn't mean others don't ask. The person who asked the question was a pink and tender boy, about twelve or thirteen years old, with red lips and white teeth, delicate eyebrows and a long body.
This young man's name is Zhao Xiang, the thirty-second son of Zhao Ji. He was only three years old when the war was declared, and he was granted the title of Duke of South Korea.
Originally, he should be attending classes in the Imperial College at this moment, but now is a special period, and the Imperial College has suspended classes, so he followed a few older brothers as a tail and was taken to the main hall of Kunning Palace.
Zhu Lian looked at his brother-in-law, who was younger than his eldest son, and said with a smile: "I hope that Uncle Thirty-two will know that your sister-in-law has also read military books and knows that there are thirty-six strategies, and I can also use the empty city strategy... ..As long as my empty city plan is used, your third brother will not dare to enter Jinling City even if he has millions of soldiers."
Prime Minister Zhao looked unconvinced, "Sister-in-law, please stop lying. Now that things have come to a point, the third brother will definitely capture Jinling. Even if there are really 100,000 troops in Jinling City, we can't scare him. What's the use of an empty city strategy?"
Zhu Lian smiled and did not explain any more to the child. Instead, he turned his attention to the three brothers, King Jing Zhao Qi, King Ji Zhao Xu, and King Yi Zhao Chu.
"Sixth uncle, seventh uncle, eighth uncle," Zhu Lian said, "please three of you go to meet the third brother and ask him to stay temporarily in Xiyuan at the foot of Niushou Mountain...No Entering Jinling City, he also asked his army not to enter the city for the time being."
"Sister-in-law, I'm afraid this won't work!"
"Sister-in-law, third brother won't listen to us..."
"Sister-in-law, third brother is here with an army of one million people!"
How could King Jing Zhao Qi, King Ji Zhao Xu, and King Yi Zhao Chu be willing to take on this ridiculous task? Not to mention that the relationship between Zhao Kai and Zhu Lian is innocent, even if there is something scandalous between them, Zhao Kai will not refuse to enter Jinling City because of Zhu Lian's words!
Zhu Lian smiled and said: "As long as you tell Third Brother about the empty situation in Wu Guofu and Fengzhuang Treasury, Third Brother will not enter Jinling City for the time being... Because once he enters the city, he will have to pay for it." The million-strong army below is being rewarded. If each person is given one or twenty guan, they have to spend one or two million!"
Zhao Kai is actually "crowd-funding the war"... His "million-strong army" does not take a penny from him, but they bring their own dry food (dry food on the way up), their own horses and equipment, and some even The government soldiers were prepared and came to help him fight the war. These "free money" soldiers are actually small shareholders in this southeast war.
If Zhao Kai defeats Li, they will be unlucky... But now that they have won a complete victory, Zhao Kai will not get a satisfactory reward from his subordinates!
If Zhao Kai can't come up with the money, then he has to allow the people below to rob him... Now Zhao Kai has ordered a ban on robbing money, and he has also declared that Qiu will not commit any crimes, and he also wants to protect the private land of the gentry and merchants in the southeast.
In this case, he needs a lot of money or silk and cloth, which can be used as money to reward the three armies.
"Sister-in-law," Zhao Qi frowned, "Ten or twenty million is not a small number..."
"Yes," Zhao Xu said, "Can we get so much money?"
Zhao Yan frowned and said, "If we can't get it out, I'm afraid that Third Brother's soldiers will come into the city to exact payment..."
When Zhao Kai's army invaded Shandong, they arrested Zhao Gou's officials and tortured them severely. They squeezed out more than 10 million yuan and ruined their reputation...
Zhu Lian was quite confident - he knew from one look that it was so big, so there must be a lot of material.
She smiled and said, "You three go and tell Third Brother to wait at Niushou Mountain Palace... I will go and talk to him about the money issue."
You should make it clear to him that King Wu's territory originally received more than 50 million yuan a year. If he still wants to receive this amount, he will wait in Niushou Mountain! If he wants to rob...it is possible to get 10 million at one time, but not anymore! "
King Jing Zhao Qi, King Ji Zhao Xu, and King Yi Zhao Yan knew that Zhu Lian was not lying. The financial resources of the southeast were in industry and commerce, and in maritime trade... If they grabbed it violently, the losses would be huge. For many years to come. In China, a two-thirds reduction in income is common.
King Jing Zhao Qi said: "Sister-in-law, I will go out of the city with seventh brother and eighth brother to meet third brother right away!"
Ji Wang Zhao Xu added: "Sister-in-law... it's not good for the three of us to leave empty-handed!"
Zhu Lian smiled and said: "I won't let you leave empty-handed... We have prepared millions of goods."
Yiwang Zhao Chu then said: "Sister-in-law, Bachelor Yuwen has been idle at home for several years. Why don't we let him follow us to welcome the third brother?"
In the Southern Dynasties, Yu Wenxu, who represented the interests of Zhao Kai, was promoted to Guan Guan as a bachelor of Guan Wen Palace a few years ago... almost as a result of retirement.
Zhu Lian said: "Okay, let the three uncles go and invite him to go with them."
"Sister-in-law, I want to go too." The little kid Zhao Kai still admires his third brother... He has heard a lot about Zhao Kai's heroic deeds!
Zhu Lian waved his hand and said with a smile: "Then let's go together... Let's go quickly!"
The three princes of the Zhao family and a duke did not waste any time, and immediately withdrew from the imperial city, went to gather the servants, and then found Yu Wenxuzhong, and went out of the city to meet the third brother together.
Seeing the four people leaving together, Zhu Lian said to Zhang Suo again: "Zhang Longtu, have you decided? Should you surrender in Jinling City or Pingjiang Mansion?"
Zhang Suo frowned deeply and seemed to have been thinking about this problem.
"Empress, I am going to Pingjiang Mansion..." Zhang Suo said, "Is it possible that I want to invite the king back?"
What he actually meant was to "tie up" Zhao Huan and invite him back...
"There is no need to invite the king back," Zhu Lian shook his head, "but you have to take charge of Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou, Huzhou, Pingjiang Prefecture, and Xiuzhou! These two prefectures and three prefectures plus Jinling, Jiangdu, and Hangzhou, Mingzhou, and Yuezhou are now the richest places in the world... Isn't it just for these territories that the officials came south?"
Zhang Suo understood immediately!
Zhao Kai raised his troops and came here not to kill Zhao Huan, but to get money from the southeast... Since it was for money, could Zhenjiang Prefecture, Changzhou Prefecture, Huzhou Prefecture, Pingjiang Prefecture, and Xiuzhou Prefecture "take them all?" "It's very important.
Therefore, as long as Zhang Suo can control these five prefectures and avoid chaos, then the previous confrontation with Zhao Kai in Tongling will not matter at all.
Zhang Suo was overjoyed and immediately saluted Zhu Lian and said, "I know this and will lead my troops out of the city immediately!"
"Wait a minute..." Zhu Lian said, "Zhang Longtu, do you know where Li Yuanshu and his soldiers are?"
Zhang Suo replied: "It should be in Xuanzhou... That day, I led the troops to go first, and Li Yuanshu led the cavalry to the rear and picked up the stragglers. He told his ministers that if the main road along the river was cut off, He pushed into Xuanzhou and took a detour back to Jinling."
Zhu Lian nodded, and then said to Zhao Ji's eleventh son, King Qi Zhao Mo: "Uncle Eleven, take Prince Taiping to Xuanzhou to find Li Yuanshu. If you can find him, you and Li Yuanshu will go to Jiangnan West Road with Prince Taiping. "
King Taiping is the king of Taiping County, named Zhao Jin, and is the second son of Zhao Huan. Zhu Lian arranged for him to go to Jiangnan West Road, of course, hoping that he would become king in Jiangxi in the future.
In addition, she asked Zhang Suo to take over the state capitals of Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Huzhou, Pingjiang, and Xiuzhou to arrange for Zhao Huan's third son, Zhao Xun, and the son she had just given birth to for Zhao Huan.
...
While Zhu Lian was busy arranging the empty city plan and several sons (including his concubine), Zhao Kai was still far away in Tongling - his four armies, as well as a large amount of equipment, baggage, and civilians, could not just cross the river. Crossing the river. After working hard for several days, two pontoon bridges were built on the Yangtze River and all hundreds of thousands of people were able to cross the Yangtze River.
However, before the entire army completed crossing the river, Zhao Kai had already sent Li Shifu to lead the Second Army, which was the first to cross the river, to advance eastward along the Yangtze River.
And just when he was about to lead the entire army that had completed crossing the river and march towards Jinling Mansion, the news that Yue Fei had captured Jiangdu and Zhao Huan had crossed the river was delivered.
"Hahaha..." Zhao Kaixing in Tongling City heard the laughter of the officials of the Song Dynasty, "Zhao Huan ran away... Now the southeast roads can be decided by propaganda." , the city of Jinling is also in my pocket."
"The official family," Yu Yunwen, who was following Zhao Kai, reminded at this time, "King Wu is still King Wu, and he still has no less than 200,000 elite soldiers... as well as troops from Guangdong, Guangxi, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Territory! How should the court deal with him? Should he issue an edict to remove him from his official position and offer a reward for his arrest? If the officials care about brotherhood, they should also issue an edict to transfer him to Lingnan. Only in this way can the court be justified. Take the seven sacred lands in the southeast!"
Zhao Kai smiled when he heard this and said: "Let me think about what you said... wait until I get to Jinling before making plans!"
In fact, he didn't want to think about it, but wanted to go to Jinling to discuss it with his sister-in-law Zhu Lian... Of course, he had to listen to his sister-in-law's opinion on how to deal with his eldest brother.
