Chapter 141: Divergence (Part 2)

Lü Haowen did not receive the support he deserved, which left him flustered. However, the hall was filled with the elite of the Great Song court, and there were always those who understood.

For instance, the young Academician Lin, who had not spoken in court for a long time.

This Hanlin Academician had lost his desire to express himself on these matters for various reasons since the Xiangyang incident, but he understood clearly what was going on.

To put it bluntly, with the crisis in Nanyang temporarily relieved, whether His Majesty stayed in Nanyang or went to Xiangyang no longer seemed a matter of life and death or national destiny, but rather presented an ambiguous situation. Under these circumstances, everyone could set aside national righteousness and discuss the issue from their personal standpoints.

Overall, roughly half of the central officials stationed in Nanyang were unwilling to have the honor and political capital brought by this battle diluted and shared equally by their colleagues in Xiangyang... They felt that the first fifteen days of holding out under immense pressure were their sacrifice, and the victory was their contribution.

Why should His Majesty go to Xiangyang when Nanyang had been defended?

Why should they be the ones who used tokens to get hot water and lived in shared quarters, only to have the credit for this campaign split fifty-fifty, with the political resources they should have monopolized being taken by others?

And to be honest, these civil officials in the hall were being subtle. If you let Wang De and Fu Qing, who had repeatedly fought bloody battles under the city walls last month and performed excellently, speak their minds, they probably wouldn't say a thing—they'd just want to secretly kill the messenger from Xiangyang so His Majesty never saw the message! Only someone like Xin Yongzong, a pampered young master, would seize the chance to curse loudly, mocking Zhang Jing and Qiao Zhongfu, asking what kind of people they were to dare come and steal credit at a time like this.

Of course, if it were to go to his two older brothers, that would be acceptable.

Think carefully: it was only because Lü Haowen, as the Chief Councilor, had no room for promotion and was determined to be a paper-paster in the court, with no need for military merit or seniority, that he momentarily lost his bearings and failed to grasp everyone's intent.

As for the specific defections of original supporters, like Li Ruopu and Li Guang, they had concrete reasons:

Among them, Hanlin Academician Li Ruopu was the younger brother of Li Ruoshui. He had agreed earlier for the sake of the greater good, but since there was no immediate conflict of interest now, given his stance, he would never take the initiative to suggest His Majesty retreat.

As for Li Guang, after communications were restored, news from the southeast that had accumulated came from south of Xiangyang, giving a rough picture of the situation there... It turned out that the prolonged rebellion in the southeast was directly linked to Li Gang!

To elaborate, after Wang Yi's rebellion, Li Boji, while suppressing it, worried that the generals of the Rear Imperial Guard Army had close ties with Wang Yi, so he temporarily replaced the commander. He selected an old general who had been living in retirement in the southeast for decades, Wang Shunchen, the Military Governor of Yueyang Army, to serve as the frontline commander and oversee the Jiangning campaign.

However, Wang Shunchen, in his youth, was indeed a famous general of the Western Army with extraordinary battlefield performances, but that was decades ago. Later, his daughter married the Retired Emperor Daojun, becoming one of the two Imperial Consorts Wang (both were taken north), which allowed him to rise to Military Governor and enjoy wealth and honor... In short, after decades of living in comfort in the prosperous Jiangnan region, what qualifications did he have left to be a general? Who would obey him?

In fact, the reason for the second rebellion was that rumors spread in the army that Li Gang, Lord Li, looked down on young generals and wanted to replace them all with old ones, using the appointment of Yang, the old Grand Commandant, as the commander in Yangzhou to protect the Empress Dowager, and Wang Shunchen as the frontline commander in Jiangnan, as a pretext for a purge... Consequently, the pacification army mutinied midway under a group of mid-level officers, and Wang Shunchen could only flee back to Yangzhou in disgrace under the escort of Xin Yanzong.

Under such circumstances, Li Guang was a man of his word—how could he dare to defy the will of so many colleagues in Nanyang and create enemies for Lord Li Gong for no reason?

What could be said?

This kind of thing had nothing to do with morality and caused no real harm; it was basically human nature. However, for the young Academician Lin, who had just withdrawn his gaze from Li Guang, he felt a vague, indescribable sense of annoyance... because it was meaningless.

Moreover, the young Academician Lin was certain that His Majesty Zhao also found it annoying, but he had no choice but to face these things.

"What the Councilor said is somewhat outdated." Amid the silence, the one who could so easily oppose Lord Lü was naturally another Lord Lü. Lü Yihao clasped his hands and spoke without blinking. "Times have changed. Not to mention anything else, the situation in Dongjing and Huaixi is still unclear. If the front line remains deadlocked, having His Majesty in Nanyang can at least somewhat reassure the troops at the front, can it not?"

Lü Haowen was taken aback, then gave an awkward smile: "I was too hasty. Let's wait until the situation is clearer to discuss this."

Unexpectedly, Lü Yihao did not press the attack but instead nodded slightly: "Exactly my thought. Let's wait until the situation is clearer to discuss this!"

The two Councilors reached an agreement, forcibly shelving the matter. His Majesty said nothing, and the hall fell silent again. They discussed a few things about city defense, supplies, and merits before adjourning.

However, this delay was destined not to last long. Just a few days later, as the Jin army intentionally or unintentionally further relaxed communications into Nanyang from outside the city, His Majesty Zhao finally obtained the frontline military intelligence he had been waiting for—from all sides, east, south, west, and north.

But to be honest... the situation was not good, or rather, it could be said to be very bad.

First, among the few cities between the five rivers (Yingshui, Weishui, Yishui, Shangshui, Rushui), although they were under scattered sieges—meaning the besieging Jin forces were not numerous—one had fallen in the past half-month: the smallest city, Wuyang, was breached by Jin Wanhu Pucha Gulu. The defending general, Li Bao, nicknamed the Sick Guan Suo, attempted to break out after the city fell, and his fate is unknown. Some say he died for the country, others say he fled to Yexian in Ruzhou and became a bandit.

Regardless, of those six or seven cities, two have now been lost, while the forces of Wanyan Talan there have suffered little attrition. In other words, with each city lost, the pressure on the remaining ones increases, making them more dangerous... It is not an exaggeration to say that the situation there is precarious.

Moreover, there is the most important figure, Han Shizhong, in Changshe, where communication is nearly impossible.

Besides that, Xin Xingzong at Wuguan also timely sent the accumulated battle reports from Guanxi, which were a heap of bad news.

The Jinning Army, already a dead end, had also fallen, which was expected. But what was particularly hard to accept was that the defending official, Xu Huiyan, was sent to Wanyan Loushi's camp and executed in a cruel manner, with the given reason being disrespect to the surrendered general, Zhe Keqiu!

At the same time, although Qu Duan outwardly expressed obedience to Yuwen Xuzhong's envoy, after deploying his troops, he still refused to obey the military orders of his superior, Wang Xie. The two kept sending documents to Yuwen Xuzhong, filing complaints—one accusing the other of disobeying orders, the other accusing the first of incompetence and harming the country—completely ignoring that Wanyan Loushi was using steady yet swift tactics, having already occupied three prefectures, one superior prefecture, and one army in northern Shaanxi, and had freed his hands with no further worries!

Of course, there was some good news. Li Yanxian of Shanzhou sent a message via Wuguan, roughly stating that if the main force of the Jin Western Route Army did not next move toward Shanzhou, he could abandon the newly recovered territories north of the Yellow River and try to lead some of the Hebei volunteer armies and Shanzhou troops to support other areas.

Finally, the most important was Dongjing. Compared to the clear military intelligence from other places, this critical main battlefield had an ambiguous quality.

First, Dongjing had not turned from danger to safety due to the strategic shift of the main Jin forces. This was mainly because the Jin army had seized three strategic points: Ali and Ebulu at Nanjing; Wanyan Zonghan personally stationed at Great Ming Prefecture, remotely commanding Wanfu Danghai to continue besieging Huazhou; and Wanyan Talan had not forgotten to detach a main Wanhu to hold Zhongmou.

Zhongmou was west of Dongjing, Nanjing was southeast of Dongjing, and Great Ming Prefecture and Huazhou were north of Dongjing. Trapped on three sides, Dongjing remained unable to move.

However, there had been no major progress either.

So, it was true to say that the situation there was deadlocked.

The real trouble and problems in Dongjing, however, were not about the gain or loss of these cities.

To elaborate, shortly after the war began, a rumor spread at the front—that the Dongjing Defender, Zong Ze, had already exhausted his strength, was old and near death. As a result, the Dongjing Defender's Army, which had been relied upon as the main force with a core strength of no less than 100,000, had lost its command and was fighting independently, leading to a crushing defeat by Wanyan Wushu and the rapid loss of cities and territory.

Recently, this news had become increasingly murky... Some were certain it was a rumor, while others said Zong Ze had indeed died, or at least was critically ill and unable to command troops.

Those who said it was a rumor pointed out that Yue Fei, the Pacification Commissioner of Jizhou, had taken advantage of Wanyan Wushu's massive redeployment to successfully break through the enemy lines and enter Dongjing. Since entering Dongjing, he had been launching attacks on all fronts: fighting west against Yelu Ma Wu of Zhongmou, winning two out of three battles; supporting Huazhou to the north, rescuing the Deputy Defender of Dongjing and Defender of Huazhou, Quan Bangyan, from perilous situations multiple times; and to the southeast, coordinating military actions when Liu Bao and Tian Shizhong, generals under Zhang Jun, attempted to advance westward.

When Yue Fei entered Dongjing, he had only about 15,000 to 16,000 troops. The original Dongjing forces, after continuous fighting, numbered only around 10,000 to 20,000. For a force of 20,000 to 30,000 to execute such a comprehensive, coordinated response on a grand scale required a commander with strategic vision. Thus, many inferred that Zong Ze must still be alive, or at least had temporarily recovered his health.

As for those who said it was certain, their reasoning was straightforward: Zong Ze had always insisted on sharing hardships with his soldiers. In his seventies, since the Jingkang era, he had always worn coarse clothes on the battlefield, slept on straw with a pot as a pillow to boost morale. But this time, from beginning to end, he had not made a single public appearance to reassure the people.

In fact, according to intelligence, a large number of scattered and defeated troops from the Dongjing Defender's Army, about 30,000 to 40,000 under five or six commanders, had gathered in the southern part of Dongjing but remained inactive for a long time, further fueling this suspicion.

"No need to doubt."

To avoid the many people in the city, on this evening, seeing the overcast sky with signs of snow, His Majesty Zhao specifically summoned a few key ministers on the city wall. "Defender Zong must be ill, because I know Yue Fei's abilities. The one maintaining the situation in Dongjing now must be Yue Pengju himself."

The few summoned by His Majesty to the city wall included two Councilors, one Censor-in-Chief, one Minister of War, one Hanlin Academician, one Vice Prefect of Nanyang, plus the two generals Yang Yizhong and Liu Yan—only a handful. Upon hearing this, their faces changed almost simultaneously.

"What should be done?"

Without waiting for the subordinates to answer, His Majesty Zhao took the rare initiative to press further. His expression showed he was truly anxious. "Can an edict be sent out, appointing Yue Fei to oversee the Dongjing campaign?"

"Absolutely not!"

Lü Yihao, Lü Haowen, Hu Yin, Lin Jingmo, and Yan Xiaozhong almost spoke in unison.

"Why?" His Majesty Zhao frowned in panic.

"Your Majesty must not forget the matter in the southeast," Lü Yihao said without hesitation, his expression stern. "Not to mention that we still cannot know for sure whether Defender Zong is truly ill, even if Zong Ze can no longer lead the troops, there are other high-ranking officials in Dongjing. How can Yue Fei be made the commander? If we break protocol and suddenly put a man who has already been over-promoted and is only twenty-six or twenty-seven in charge of the Dongjing Defender's Army, with an edict of uncertain authenticity sent from Nanyang during wartime, I fear those 30,000 to 40,000 defeated troops in Dongjing would rebel outright!"

"Exactly!" Hu Yin also spoke up seriously. "Your Majesty, Yue Fei's appointment as Pacification Commissioner was recommended by me, but because of that, I know his background. So today, I must ask bluntly: Who is Yue Fei? What is his record? Why should he command the Dongjing Defender's Army? Who will trust him and obey him?"

His Majesty Zhao remained silent... because he knew these people were right. At this moment, apart from himself, Zhao Jiu, no one trusted or respected Yue Fei. Li Yanxian's actions that day were still fresh in everyone's mind, let alone the motley crew of the Dongjing Defender's Army.

So, Lü Yihao was not exaggerating. If the edict arrived, before Yue Fei could even take command, half of the remaining Dongjing Defender's Army would likely rebel.

But the problem was that His Majesty Zhao also knew full well that with all sides trapped in deadlock and stalemate, only Yue Fei and the still-considerable numbers of the Dongjing Defender's Army could break the deadlock... but only he knew this!

Wasn't this a paradox?

To break the deadlock, Yue Fei had to be used, but using Yue Fei in such an extraordinary way would most likely cause the entire situation to collapse directly!

In the silence, snowflakes suddenly began to fall. Zhao Jiu abruptly woke with a start and forced himself to ask again: "Then what do we do?"

PS: Stayed up all night, it was hard to concentrate at night, and I couldn't resist going to Bilibili to catch up on some anime, but I finally managed to write it out. So I still feel like I'm the most handsome guy on Zhichun Road.