As the emperor, Zhao Gou still had the right to decide on many things. He was not a puppet who did not hold imperial power.
Without his nod, the Northern Expedition would not have been possible.
His opinions could reverse the military situation of the Southern Song Dynasty court to a considerable extent. This was his power as the emperor, so he could still carry out the Northern Expedition as long as he wanted.
It's just that he has too many worries and timidity, so he is destined to be unable to do such a thing.
He raised some of his doubts with the ministers.
For example, whether Zhao Kaishan can hold on, whether Zhao Kaishan will become a new threat to the Southern Song Dynasty after he holds on, etc.
For these questions, the main war faction is destined to be unable to answer him or resolve his doubts.
Regarding these issues, the Peace Party is undoubtedly the favorite.
Tang Situi strongly agreed with Zhao Gou's doubts and felt that it made sense.
"Zhao Kaishan is from the north and has not been exposed to the teachings of the Song Dynasty since he was a child. Whether he has the Song Dynasty in his heart is still a matter of debate. If he is just a person with evil intentions, if the Song Dynasty supports him, wouldn't it be a disaster?
The threat from the Kingdom of Jin is already very serious. The imperial court on the border spends a lot of military expenditures every year. If an additional expenditure not only fails to gain support but also becomes a threat, what should we do? So this is an absolute must! "
Chen Kangbo felt very ridiculous about this.
"You gave up such a good opportunity for such unreasonable suspicion? Mr. Tang, are you the Prime Minister of the Song Dynasty or the Prime Minister Zhongliang of the Great Jin Dynasty? Can you say this?
Why isn’t Zhao Kaishan a hero? How could it become a threat to the Song Dynasty? The Song Dynasty treated him with sincerity. Faced with the threat from the Kingdom of Jin, could he still turn around and confront the Song Dynasty? "
Tang Sihui's expression changed and he became furious.
"Chen Kangbo! Don't go too far!"
"How can we make decisions on military and state affairs based on baseless suspicions? What does this have to do with what happened with Yue Fei back then..."
The atmosphere of the entire meeting hall suddenly took a turn for the worse.
Not to mention Chen Chengzhi and Wang Lun, even Tang Situi was panicked by these words and quickly looked at Zhao Gou.
Sure enough, Zhao Gou's face was so dark that he could drip with water.
Chen Kangbo realized that he had said something wrong, so he swallowed the following words forcibly, swallowed again, and apologized to Zhao Gou.
"Your Majesty, I made a mistake."
Zhao Gou was silent for a long time and looked at Chen Kangbo for a long time before finally speaking.
"It doesn't matter, what happened back then is in the past, let it be in the past."
With that said, Zhao Gou waved his hand again, sighed and said: "I'm tired, let's just stop here today, let's talk about this later."
After saying that, Zhao Gou stood up and left directly.
Tang Sidui breathed a sigh of relief, gave Chen Kangbo a hard look, snorted, and walked away.
Shen Gai glanced at Chen Kangbo silently, shook his head, and left silently.
Chen Chengzhi and Wang Lun looked at each other, sighed slightly, and left one after another.
In the end, only Chen Kangbo was left. He stood there stunned for a long time, sighed up to the sky, and slowly left.
On the way out of the palace, Chen Kangbo looked up at the sky.
Today is a nice sunny day.
The sun was warm on his body, sweeping away the chill in the spring morning and evening, and even made him feel a little hot. He felt that he could take off the thick clothes he wore when he went out in the morning.
His wife at home was always nagging him, thinking that he was wearing too few clothes, and telling him things like spring covering up and autumn freezing, which made him helpless and forced to wear such thick clothes.
Thinking like this, he suddenly felt sad again.
He felt hot here. How did the people living in their homeland of the Central Plains endure the brutal rule of the Jin Kingdom, and how did they endure the miserable life?
Are they longing for Master Wang to rescue them and bring them liberation?
Chen Kangbo felt painful every time he thought of this.
When will this bright sunshine shine on the long-lost Central Plains homeland?
Chen Kangbo has always been unwilling to admit that the Song Dynasty actually had no plans to restore the Central Plains, whether military, economic or political. However, countless facts told him that what he had been unwilling to admit was actually true.
The Song Dynasty is really not ready to change back to its original appearance, or to put it further - the Song Dynasty is not ready to change back to its original appearance.
Do you really want to let go of such a God-given opportunity?
A great situation that is almost comparable to when Yue Fei went all the way to Kaifeng is right in front of us. A great strategic opportunity is right in front of us. If we can seize it, why worry about the Central Plains not being able to recover?
Cooperating with the Liberation Army's 100,000 troops to attack Nanjing Road, a two-pronged attack will definitely achieve victory, and even restore the old capital and return to Kaifeng.
How significant would that be?
However, no one from the emperor to the ministers seemed to have such a plan.
They just want to live and die drunkenly in this gentle town day after day, year after year, until the end of their lives. They don't care at all about the common people in their homeland, and they don't do anything about their dire straits.
Chen Kangbo suddenly felt that his breathing was a little difficult.
The dull atmosphere made the air around him condense, and he was even a little breathless.
After Chen Chengzhi and Wang Lun returned to the Privy Council, they formulated several plans in response to Zhao Kaishan's secret letter, including the plan to send troops to support the restoration of Kaifeng Mansion and directly incorporate Zhao Kaishan.
This plan was designed in the most detail, and all the data were fully demonstrated. It even included detailed statistics on how much it would cost and what would be obtained in the end. Even if there were any glitches in the execution, they would be minor glitches and would not affect the overall situation.
This is a suggestion that Chen Chengzhi gathered his capable men and worked for several nights before coming up with it.
But after this proposal was handed in, there was no news as if it had disappeared into the sea.
Therefore, the Southern Song Dynasty did not make any statement on Zhao Kaishan's attack on Kaifeng Mansion from beginning to end.
When Zhao Kaishan stormed Kaifeng Mansion, the Southern Song Dynasty stood still and watched without any sign of wanting to support him.
There was not even a symbolic military preparation for war, everything was business as usual.
While Zhao Kaishan and Kong Yanzhou were leading the troops in a series of battles east of Kaifeng, Su Yonglin's army reorganization process entered the stage of fighting instead of training.
Su Yonglin began to launch the Eastern Expedition, sending troops from the Zhending Mansion area to launch the final attack on Hejian Mansion.
Between the first month and February, Su Yonglin reorganized the entire Hebei military force, and then also politically straightened out the entire order at the upper and lower levels.
He promoted all the powerful landlords who participated in the rebellion to serve as governors of various states and counties, and temporarily set up his administrative center in Wuji County, where he dealt with military and political issues in the entire Hebei region, as well as some economic issues.
During this period, the whole of Hebei was in turmoil.
A large number of Han, Khitan and Xi forces launched a full-scale counterattack and expulsion of the Jurchens, expelling many Jin government forces in areas where Su Yonglin did not attack, replacing them, and then came together to Wuji County to recognize the master.
Su Yonglin received them in Wuji County, granted them military positions as commanders of independent battalions under the corps and corresponding political positions, and roped them in to work for him.
Therefore, in addition to the defense lines of the six northern states, only the Hejian Prefecture area in Hebei still had the influence of the Jin Kingdom.
A large number of Jurchens who had taken refuge gathered here and were unable to return north, so they were still trapped in the isolated city.
A large number of landowner armed forces controlled all the passages from the southeast, northwest and northwest of Hejian Prefecture, directly locking the city of Hejian Prefecture.
Although they were unable to capture Hejian Fucheng, Hejian Fucheng basically lost the possibility of contact with the outside world and was trapped to death.
The people in the city did not want to sit back and take advantage of the situation. They organized forces to go out of the city to fight back many times, but the effect was not very good.
Although they successfully killed some weak landlords and built some fortifications outside the city, they were unable to open the road from Hejian Fucheng to Xiongzhou and continued to be trapped.
What made them even more desperate was that Jin Ting never tried to rescue them once and never sent troops again.
At present, the people in the city have reached their last moments, and food and military supplies have reached their limit. Almost everything that is usable and edible in the city has been wiped out. To put it harshly, even the rats have been eaten.
Su Yonglin happened to be almost ready to reorganize his army at this time, so he took the main force of the reorganized corps to launch a practical drill.
Under the guidance of many key veterans, the new soldiers marched forward bravely and relied on their strength to destroy all the fortifications set up by the Jin soldiers outside the city in a short period of time.
Then came a massive siege battle.
