Zhao Guanjia kept his word. After Li Qiong, Wu Lin and others took the prisoners and some soldiers and horses respectively and retreated in great strides. After Li Yanxian also returned to Taiyuan, the official Zhao family started to move down the Hutuo River with the accompanying soldiers and horses.

, heading to Hejian Mansion.

Along the way, we visited Dingzhou, Qizhou, and Shenzhou, appeased local areas, inspected spring plowing, buried corpses, and appointed and removed officials.

And in the process of Zhao Guan's family's eastward advance, as the prisoners moved south one after another, a large number of troops withdrew, and at the same time Yue Fei's troops moved forward to the old Song and Liao border, and the impact of this battle finally broke out without any hindrance.

Feedback to Zhao Jiu, the most obvious symptom is that he kept receiving congratulatory messages along the way.

"Destroy the enemy in one battle and bring peace to the universe!"

These were the words spoken by Mao Shuo, the newly surrendered governor of Dingzhou, when he paid homage to the emperor. His desire for progress was most vividly demonstrated through the word "universe".

"Slaughtering millions of people like this will last forever."

This is a sentence in an essay written by a famous scholar from Qizhou. It is the original text by a scholar from Da Su who commented on the Battle of Kunyang. It not only quoted scriptures, but also secretly compared the Zhao Guan family to Guangwu and used it as a model for the ZTE. It can be said to be of excellent quality.

However, Zhao Jiu was really very inexperienced. Among the seven or eight people who were familiar with writing, he and Han Shizhong did not know that this sentence was a double allusion. As a result, they not only failed to understand the profound meaning of the sentence, but also pointed it out in a very real way.

Lu only killed 30,000 to 40,000 people in the first battle and captured 70,000 to 80,000 people. Apparently, he wanted to maintain his pragmatic character.

However, Wan Qixi probably knew the character of Zhao Guan's family, so the confession he received when he came to Hejian seemed a bit unpretentious, and Zhao Jiu particularly liked one of the lines.

As the saying goes:

"In the Battle of Huolu, my emperor shocked the world, and the cause of Zhongxing was determined from now on!"

Of course, these things, as well as the oncoming expressions of gratitude from Master Tian of Fengxiang County, cannot cover up the increasingly embarrassing and uneasy posture of Zhao Guan's family... The reason couldn't be simpler, Zhao Jiu walked all the way

Now that everything is in order in the rear, the people, especially in the big cities in the Central Plains and further south, have gradually put aside their doubts and are quite encouraging. Cities like Tokyo are gradually getting excited. However,

At the same time, the back-up plan that Zhao Guanjia had previously pretended to be clever has never been revealed. In front of Yanjing, the Jin State deployed its defenses intensively, and the garrison troops outside the Great Wall and the local conscripts gathered non-stop. The panic was panic.

There were even rebellions, but there was never that feeling of collapse that was beyond control.

With no choice, when they arrived at Hejian Fucheng, in order not to delay the military progress, the Zhao Guan family could only put aside the person who had a thousand-mile insight and directly issued the order.

"Logically speaking, I shouldn't interfere with your use of troops." Zhao Jiu pointed at Han Shizhong. "But this time is really different... This time you go over, and if the Jin army shows a flaw, you will eat these new troops of the Jin people."

It's okay to attack, but there's no need to rush into Yanjing. And if the Jin army doesn't reveal any major flaws, although you have the right to deploy the tribes north of Hejian and the two rivers, you should advance more cautiously, press on three sides, and make camp step by step...

Yanjing will attack sooner or later, but there is no rush... Do you understand what I mean?"

What can’t be understood about this?

Encircle without attacking, apply all the pressure, cooperate with the backhand of some officials to seize the outside of the wall, wait for the enemy to be in a dilemma, just collapse... The only serious problem is that after the deer is captured, the army will be arrogant.

The anger must be even worse, and there are a few high-ranking generals like Wang Sheng who missed the opportunity to fight and receive rewards. He, the first person in the army, needs to come out to strictly restrain them to avoid a wave battle and capsize in the last ditch of the province.

Of course, in addition to this, he also wanted to fulfill his previous promise and deliver the honor of capturing Yanjing to the hands of his Hedong generals headed by Han Liangchen.

Therefore, Han Shizhong had no extra words and almost handed it over.

As soon as Han Shizhong left with the generals in the army, the Zhao Guan family continued to make arrangements, but formally established the line in Hejian Mansion. Lu Yihao and Wu Jie stayed in Hejian City to take over the civil and military affairs behind the Hebei front line, and the central part of Tianshi took charge of Hejian.

To defend the surrounding areas, I actually took a few close ministers and half of the Ban Zhi, plus Hu Yin, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, to go up the Yellow River.

He arrived in Jingcheng on February 27 and met Zhang Rong, King of Lu.

The monarch and his ministers had not seen each other for a long time, and they were chatting by the river. The atmosphere was much more relaxed than before. However, even Zhang Rong was not exempt from vulgarity. He was quite uneasy and grateful for the title of king, and it took Zhao Jiu a lot of effort to calm him down.

And Zhang Rong was not idle. He stayed here to wait for Zhao Guan's family. After meeting the emperor, he set off again the next day, urging the navy to continue down the river, enter Cangzhou, and participate in the Yan invasion.

Went to Beijing Strategy.

Besides, it would be ridiculous for Zhao Jiu to survey the hydrology of the Yellow River at this time. Even if the Yellow River is to be repaired now, it would not be his turn as an amateur to survey... The essence of the trip to the river is to meet with the Hebei Front Army and then supervise the generals.

The meaning of enterprising Yanjing.

Therefore, as soon as Zhang Rong left, the official's family became completely peaceful.

However, it may be that because he had just met Zhang Rong, the official was so bored that he suddenly remembered that he seemed to have delayed it for a long time, and then he actually started to write by the river.

"I'm assuming...but why not "Water Margin"?"

On the bank of the Yellow River on the last day of February, the spring breeze stirred people's hearts. In the evening, Hu Yin, who came out from Jingcheng to pick up the driver, took the manuscript from Zhao Guan's family on the river embankment.

It’s a little strange. “Is “Journey to the West Conquering Demons Miscellaneous Notes” also good?”

"What do "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West Conquering the Demons" have to do with me?" Zhao Jiu said with certainty. "Hu Shangshu is a knowledgeable short story written casually, so why not read it?"

Hu Yin resisted some impulse and frowned to look at it seriously. However, at first glance, he didn't know where to complain. Only when he saw the end, he finally sighed and roughly understood what Zhao Guanjia meant.

It turns out that this short story is called "Jade Guanyin", which is a popular novel style recently. It is said that the upper part is based on the legends of the Tang Dynasty, and the lower part is based on the vernacular writing of "Water Margin" and "Miscellaneous Notes on Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" that a certain official refused to admit.

, the kind that in reality echoes the increasingly prosperous and complex drama performances nowadays.

Nowadays, imperial students in Tokyo like to write this kind of notebooks and exchange them with monks and Taoist priests for pocket money.

The plot is also very popular.

She is nothing more than a little girl from a family of framers. She was smart and beautiful, but because of her poverty, she was sold to a certain prince in Chang'an as a maid long ago.

This can be considered a standard popular start.

But who knew that this official would actually come up with a counter-trick, and wrote next that the prince was a vulgar and heroic man, and because the girl's family did things properly and cleanly, and there happened to be a jade craftsman in the house who was good at craftsmanship and honest, he wanted to marry him.

.Who would have thought that the little girl’s family was naturally stubborn and wanted a good marriage, just because they didn’t know what the jade craftsman’s character was at the beginning, and there was also a prince’s pro-army leader who fell in love with the little girl’s family, so he interfered and slandered the jade craftsman.

, so the little girl didn’t want to live or die, and the prince simply gave up on the matter and didn’t bother to ask anything.

However, as they got along day by day, the girl's family discovered day by day that the jade craftsman was not only really skilled, but also had a good temperament, good appearance, and an honest man. This was exactly the kind of good marriage they wanted, so they finally came back and came.

The two fell in love for a long time, and the jade craftsman also made a jade Guanyin out of jade corners as a token of love and prepared to elope.

As a result, the matter was discovered by the prince's pro-army leader, who became jealous and reported it directly to the prince.

After the prince heard that his marriage proposal was rejected, the two of them secretly made love and planned to elope. He thought he had been deprived of face, so he became furious. After taking him down on the spot, he first gave the jade craftsman to his wife, and then gave the little girl his staff.

He died because of the blame and threw himself into the Wei River. However, the little girl's parents were just a family of paper makers. When they heard that the prince was furious and their daughter died tragically, they were frightened and threw themselves into the Wei River.

Finally, after three years of separation, the leader of the soldiers followed the prince to Tokyo. On the way, he was shocked to find the young girl and the jade craftsman in a small town by the Yellow River. The two were actually married and had opened a shop in the town.

Not only that, but the little girl’s parents are also there.

This incident alarmed the prince, who personally led his troops to get it. A bucket of Yellow River water was poured over it, and the little girl revealed her true form. She was indeed a ghost, but before she died, she took the jade worker with her and they went to the underworld together and became a ghost.

couple.

To be fair, the plot of this story is pretty good, and it is considered to be the best among popular novels on the market. Especially the contrast in the personalities of the four characters is very clear... the young girl is stubborn and beautiful; the jade craftsman is honest and responsible; and the leader of the soldiers

He has a cruel mouth and a narrow heart; the prince has a fiery temperament and regards human life and marriage as nothing.

But these are not the reasons why Hu Shangshu lost his voice. To put it bluntly, Hu Shangshu has seen a lot of things. What does this mean? In order to stabilize the people in the rear, he went all out in the Northern Expedition, and he killed all the sons of Zhao Xianggong’s family.

Marriage, forced matchmaking... What really left Hu Yin speechless was that this prince was originally titled Prince of Yan'an in Chang'an, but when he went to Tokyo three years later, he was simply promoted to King of Qin based on military merit.

Considering Han Liangchen's usually strong and brutal style towards his subordinates, as well as his previous experience of being full of all kinds of evils, we can almost directly say that this prince is Han Shizhong.

"The officials have good intentions." After a long while, Hu Yin just sighed. "This is for fear that King Qin will not be able to protect him in the future..."

"Isn't this what Hu Shangshu reminded me?" Zhao Jiu said indifferently. "I have already thought about it. If I want to write it, I will write a series, one for each of the eighteen kings, and write it according to their characters... Han Shizhong is hot-tempered and strong, Zhang Jun

He is just greedy for money, Zhang Rong is an indulgent brother... Yang Yizhong has it all, but he pays too much attention to his family's reputation... Anyway, in the end, he will end up doing evil things without disgust, just a thought, an oversight, and a temperament exposed.

, causing the common people and civilians to have their families destroyed and causing tragedy in the world."

"Since ancient times, the powerful have done evil here, and the officials want to warn their subordinates, so of course there is no harm." Hu Yin looked at Yang Yizhong, who looked confused and frightened, and asked seriously. "But what did Yue Fei write?"

"Having been too harsh on family members and descendants has led to tragic disasters?" Zhao Jiu, who was sitting behind a few cases, was thoughtful. "We can't think of him as the only one who doesn't write when all the other seventeen people have done so? Isn't this just inviting trouble for him?"

"That's true." Hu Yin thought for a moment, nodded simply, but then shook his head. "Generally speaking, I agree with this point, but is it too early to write this at this time? Could it be that someone is trying to seal the deal?

Did fighting for credit during the king’s reign lead to trouble?”

"That's not the case." Zhao Jiu shook his head in reply. "I just feel that it would be ridiculous for me to endure this situation as I did for the past ten years... To properly measure the emperor and his ministers, it is better to be a bad person and use bad words early."

Speak out first."

"That's fine." Hu Yin expressed his agreement without hesitation.

At this point, Yang Yizhong, one of the eighteen kings beside Zhao Guan, became completely uneasy. Seeing that the conversation was about to end, he almost made a statement to apologize first.

Unexpectedly, after Hu Yin glanced at Yang Yizhong, he couldn't help but continue to ask: "Guan family, there is really no need to compete for merit this time? How come I seem to have heard some things mentioned by others? Let's see the final result of being crowned king.

, seems to have some confirmation?”

"Someone is fighting for the throne." Zhao Jiu was silent for a moment, and finally stood up, pinched his beard, turned to the river, and turned his back to Hu Yin to admit the matter. "But it's not that straightforward. It was all from the previous few days.

Let a few people fight for the position...it's still decent."

Hu Mingzhong's expression remained unchanged, and he understood clearly.

You must know that after the Battle of Huolu, the one whose real prestige greatly increased, or in other words, the one who gained the greatest prestige and power, was none other than the Zhao Guan family who was so poor and bored that he was hiding by the Yellow River writing novels.

The other generals are really not worth mentioning compared with this one. There is no way to say that their merits cannot be rewarded. There is only the reality that the official power is getting stronger and more powerful.

So it is completely conceivable that before the announcement of the throne, facing the Zhao official family with a distinctive personality, it is indeed difficult for that kind of low-level drama of competing for power and position to appear... No one dares to joke about their own future and results. However, it happened that

Human desires are endless, and it is impossible not to fight, so in the end, it is nothing more than fighting in another way.

For example, use the power of the collective and the top of the mountain to fight and make exchanges. If you don't fight, let your subordinates fight for you, and let your superiors and colleagues fight for you.

This method of competing for merit effectively avoids the Zhao family's ill feelings toward the person involved. It mainly highlights one person who can use the tiger's skin as a banner, form a gang, and give each other a good reputation.
To be continued...