After the Southern Song Dynasty learned of the large-scale mobilization of the Ming army on the border and the unusual military movements of Haizhou in late February, it was basically certain that the Ming army was preparing to use force.
The news spread back to Lin'an, and the officials of the Southern Song Dynasty were greatly shocked. A group of people chased the prime ministers and ministers and asked frantically what was going on in the previous negotiations, how did the Southern Song Dynasty reject them, and why did they end up in a war? On?
Who wants to fight?
Don't even want to!
Since the fall of the Jin Kingdom, I don’t know how many officials have been longing for peace, praising peace, and thinking about living in harmony with the Ming Kingdom. Hello, me, everyone. It is best to never have another war.
But things went against expectations. Less than a year after the peace, the Ming army began to mobilize on a large scale. The dark clouds of war were approaching the Southern Song Dynasty, and everyone was faced with the terrifying threat of war again.
Not to mention the ministers who originally advocated compromise and negotiating with the Ming Dynasty to solve the problem, even the officials who had been dazzled by the momentary courage began to fear, began to regret, and began to feel that this issue would not lead to war. the point.
Most of the officials who experienced the continuous wars back then are still in the court. Their stance is weak and they have never been military hardliners. They were soft on the Jin Kingdom at the beginning, but now they cannot raise their heads against the military threat of the Ming Kingdom. .
Zaifu's team was under tremendous political pressure and gradually could not resist, so they had no choice but to seek help from Zhao Gou.
But Zhao Gou also fell into a huge panic at this time.
His previous toughness seemed to him like a ghost.
He himself didn't know why he was so tough all of a sudden and decided to fight Ming Guo.
It seemed like a change happened overnight.
From the moment he learned about the large-scale mobilization of the Ming army until he got up the next morning, Zhao Gou suddenly fell into a huge panic. He didn't know what he was thinking before and how he made such a stupid decision. .
He hurriedly called Zaifu's team to discuss the latest situation with them and asked if there were any remedial measures.
The ministers finally saw the familiar emperor.
But seeing the familiar emperor now, is there any use?
The Ming army's actions have already begun. Can they still stop the Ming army's actions at this time?
How much does that cost?
The Ming Dynasty will definitely open its mouth and seek benefits arbitrarily, and the Southern Song Dynasty will be very uncomfortable.
However, the question Zhao Gou asked was just like this.
"Although the matter has reached this point, after all, the war has not started yet. If we continue to negotiate now, there is still the possibility of stopping the war. The country of Ming Dynasty is not stable. If a truce is possible, they must be willing to cease the war, don't you think?"
Looking at Zhao Gou's hopeful eyes, Zhou Linzhi, who had previously escorted Xin Qiji out of the country, suddenly remembered his last conversation with Xin Qiji.
"If you don't negotiate when you can, then when the army comes, you won't have any bargaining power at all."
Such sounds echoed in his ears, making him very uncomfortable.
So he stood up.
"Your Majesty, we did not agree to Ming's request during the previous negotiations. Now that Ming is ready to use force, if we continue to negotiate, it will only make Ming think that the Song Dynasty is afraid of Ming's force, and they will definitely raise their demands.
It used to be 250,000 taels of silver and 250,000 bolts of silk. Now it may be more, even 300,000 or 350,000. It will be raised to a level that the Song Dynasty will never be able to bear. Your Majesty, please be careful. . "
The little hope that Zhao Gou had just soared disappeared without a trace.
"how so……"
He leaned back in his chair, his face full of regret and disbelief.
He obviously hates war, so how come he suddenly has the determination to start a war?
Zhao Gou himself felt that he was unreasonable.
But there was nothing he could do. At this point, he was shocked to find that if he did not fight this battle, he would face a situation that he could not bear. If he did not fight and begged for surrender from the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty would inevitably raise the price, and he could not refuse.
If you pay, it will inevitably increase the domestic economic burden. Then there will be complaints from top to bottom, and the subjects will be angry. Someone needs to stand up and take responsibility and bear the public anger.
Who could that person be?
Zhao Gou couldn't imagine it.
Then the only option is to fight. If you win, it will be good, and everything will be fine. But if you lose...
It is inevitable to pay more unbearable sky-high war compensation and higher-priced coins. By that time, there will be even more complaints in the Song Dynasty, and someone needs to stand up and take responsibility for the defeat, otherwise people's strong dissatisfaction will swallow up the Zhao Dynasty. of.
What can we do! ! !
If I had known earlier, I would have agreed! Maybe we can talk about the price, suppress the price, let the Ming Dynasty make some concessions, and give out some old coins. No matter how you look at it, it will be better than the situation we are facing now!
Zhao Gou slumped in his chair with a grimace, his previous anger gone, only full-hearted regret.
Of course, his regrets were meaningless, because the Ming army was already ready and waiting to attack. If he didn't make any preparations, the situation would only get worse.
"What should we do now?"
Zhao Gou had no master and could only ask his trusted ministers.
Prime ministers, you looked at me and I looked at you. After much deliberation, Tang Sidui bravely stood up.
"Your Majesty, as things stand now, we can only make two preparations. One is to reorganize the army to prepare for emergencies. The other is to immediately send people north to the Ming Dynasty to make a final push to avoid a real war between the two armies."
Zhao Gou could only nod.
"Then you hurry up and make arrangements! Do you really have to wait for the Ming army to come over?!"
The prime ministers and assistants had no choice but to run out with a grimace to arrange the matter.
Arranging it is both easy and difficult.
First of all, they had to have one last negotiation with the Ming Dynasty and try their best to avoid war, so a group of people discussed who to send as envoys.
But Wang Lun was very sober.
"It's useless. If the Ming Dynasty couldn't see the armaments of the Song Dynasty, they wouldn't even accept a meeting with our envoys. They will only meet us if we rectify our armaments and prepare for a big war. Mention conditions.”
Tang Sidui and Shen Gai felt that what Wang Lun said was very reasonable, and they immediately ignored any political disputes and immediately asked the Privy Council to take the lead in rectifying armaments. They would never hold back.
Wang Lun let out a long sigh and thought to himself, how nice it would have been like this earlier?
There was no use sighing, Wang Lun acted quickly.
First of all, based on the intelligence of the Ming army's military movements in the direction of Haizhou, as a Privy Councilor, he sent an order to Liu Qi and Wang Quan, the leaders of the two military towns of Zhenjiang Prefecture and Jiankang Prefecture, asking them to quickly rectify their armaments and distribute ordnance. , train the army and be ready for war at any time.
Then he believed that the Ming army might also break through the Song Army's Yangtze River defense line from other directions, so Li Xianzhong in the Chizhou direction, as well as the Jinghu Theater and Sichuan Theater also needed to be reorganized a little. If the Ming Army wanted to move south in an all-round way, it would be bad. .
The third step is to send an order to the palace commander Zhao Mi, as well as Li Peng and Cheng Min, the heads of the Guards Ma Junsi and Guards Infantry Division, asking them to also start to reorganize the Lin'an Forbidden Army and conduct comprehensive drills.
No matter what happened in the past, at least now, give me full training. The war is just around the corner. If I don’t practice now, it will be too late!
After finishing the order of the infantry army, someone in the Privy Council raised the issue of the navy army.
"Lin'an offshore, if the Ming navy goes directly south to attack Lin'an from Suzhou Ocean, Lin'an will inevitably be in chaos."
Wang Lun immediately realized that this was also a very serious problem, so he immediately started to rectify the navy.
However, because the Song government did not pay much attention to maritime threats in the past, and its requirements for the navy were still to simply maintain and manage maritime order, and fight against pirates and private salt dealers, so the navy of the Southern Song Dynasty was still in a state of security warfare. It has not entered a real state of war.
And there is no reliable navy general who can command the entire army to prepare for battle.
Wang Lun was very anxious and immediately asked his subordinates to recommend reliable navy generals. After many recommendations, one name caught Wang Lun's attention.
Li Bao, a witness of the Four Great Generals of the ZTE era, was an antique-level general who once followed Yue Fei and Han Shizhong. It is said that he had some skills in dealing with the navy. However, after so many years of practicing martial arts in the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Bao was also forgotten in the corner.
Now there was finally a need, so Wang Lun immediately sent someone to find Li Bao and called Li Bao to the Privy Council for questioning.
