Su Mingzhe captured Dadu in mid-May and restored the Central Plains in early June.
It was at the end of July that the news spread back to Jiangnan.
When Shi Songzhi heard the news, he thought for a moment and turned pale with fright. He quickly entered the palace to see the Queen Mother and said with a horrified expression:
"The Queen Mother, something serious has happened!"
"Prime Minister, is it Zhao Guiqian who's calling?"
Now there are two queen mothers in Lin'an Song court, one is Empress Zhao Yun, the younger emperor's legitimate mother Xie Daoqing, and the other is the younger emperor Zhao Chun's biological mother Tang An'an.
The two women share the throne of Queen Mother and serve as regent behind the curtain.
Seeing the prime minister's frightened expression, Xie Daoqing thought that Zhao Guiqian's troops were approaching the city.
"It's not Zhao Guiqian!"
Shi Songzhi suddenly stuttered and said with a twisted expression:
"It's King Lu. King Lu has captured Dadu!"
"Isn't it a good thing to capture Dadu?"
Tang Anan's heart suddenly skipped a beat when he saw Shi Songzhi's expression:
"Could it be that... King Lu has proclaimed himself emperor?"
"That's not true."
Shi Songzhi shook his head quickly, but his expression was still bitter:
"My dear, after King Lu captured Dadu, he did not report his merits to the court... This kind of behavior is no different from proclaiming himself emperor!"
"As long as you don't become emperor!"
Tang Anan doesn't care about that much.
In her heart, her son Zhao Chun is Su Mingzhe's son.
No matter how arrogant and arrogant Su Mingzhe is, there is no need to rebel against his son, right?
Shi Songzhi didn't understand what Tang Anan was thinking. As the prime minister, he thought it was necessary to remind him:
"Empress, even if King Lu does not proclaim himself emperor now, there is no guarantee that he will not proclaim himself emperor in the future!"
"Don't worry, the Ai family believes that King Lu is loyal to the court!"
No matter how much Shi Songzhi tried to sow discord between Tang Anan and Su Mingzhe, he would not change his mind.
Xie Daoqing also nodded in agreement and said:
"When the late emperor was here, he praised King Lu many times, and the Ai family also believed in King Lu. Prime Minister, there is no need to worry unfounded!"
Seeing that the two queen mothers had great trust in Su Mingzhe, Shi Songzhi felt bitter in his heart, but he did not dare to say anything more:
"Since both empresses trust His Royal Highness Prince Lu, I guess it's because I have the heart of a villain to judge the heart of a gentleman!"
…
Tang Anan returned to her palace and thought about it. Although she didn't believe that Su Mingzhe would rebel, she thought of the old story of "yellow robe", so she still waved to her personal maids Minglan and Yuhe:
"You two go to Dadu, meet King Lu, and give me a message!"
"Empress, do you want us to go see King Lu?"
The two maids were both a little timid:
"Can King Lu see us?"
"Why not see you?"
Tang An'an saw the two women looking worried and couldn't help but hummed:
"As the saying goes, a couple's kindness lasts for a night, and a couple's kindness for a hundred days is as deep as the ocean. Your relationship with him is deeper than the ocean, how can he not see you?"
Hearing Tang Anan's words, the two women blushed:
"I wonder, Madam, what message do you want us to spread?"
"It's not a message..."
Tang Anan hesitated for a moment, then pulled out a small, locked rosewood dressing box from under the mattress and handed it to the two maids:
"You two don't need to say anything, just give this to him!"
…
The two maids Minglan and Yuhe rushed to Dadu with their dressing boxes under the protection of a group of forbidden troops, but they did not see Su Mingzhe.
In June, Su Mingzhe asked Guo Jing to lead the Northern Expeditionary Army to sweep through Shangjing, Tokyo, Beijing and Xianping Road in the old Golden Kingdom.
He asked Yang Guo to take charge of Jingdong Road, and asked Huang Rong to take his place in Dadu.
And he himself began to patrol various roads in the Central Plains.
When the two maids arrived in Dadu, it was already September.
At this time, Su Mingzhe was patrolling Nanjing Road.
…
The Nanjing Road of the Jin Kingdom was the Jingji Road, Jingbei North Road and other places of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were more than one million households and a population of three to four million.
Later, the Song people moved south and the Jin people occupied it. The two sides fought for hundreds of years here.
??????55.??????
The population here has disappeared in large numbers and disappeared.
The Jin Kingdom was unwilling to give up this vast and fertile land, so it moved millions of people from other places.
But more than ten years ago, the Tatars and the Southern Song Dynasty attacked the Jin Kingdom together.
Later, the Tatars and the Southern Song Dynasty started fighting here again.
This has resulted in the population of Nanjing Road falling again and again, and now the total is less than 300,000.
In just over a hundred years, this land has lost nearly four million people.
This is the real truth.
…
Although Nanjing Road has a small population, the burden is particularly heavy.
Some scholars commented that in the hinterland of the Central Plains, ‘one man plows, and a hundred people feed’!
The reason for this is naturally because "the soldiers pass by like a comb, and the bandits pass by like a grate."
Neither the Jin people, nor the Song people, nor the Tatars regarded the people here as their own family.
Every time I passed by, there was some looting.
Over time, people here began to flee continuously, eventually leading to a depopulation.
The imperial court could only continue to migrate people from other places.
…
This day is the Double Ninth Festival.
Su Mingzhe personally led the team to inspect the following counties and towns.
In addition to a thousand guards, he was accompanied by two girls, Wanyanping and Yeluyan.
Ever since Su Mingzhe took in six concubines in Dadu, Wanyanping was going crazy with jealousy before Xiao Longnu said anything.
After all, she is still a concubine who is not listed on the list.
In order to calm this girl down, Su Mingzhe had to give her a concubine position.
So far, Su Mingzhe had one main concubine and seven side concubines.
This time when Su Mingzhe visited the Central Plains, Wanyanping was afraid that the man would accept another woman, so she took Yeluyan, whom she had never met before, and followed him south.
The group of people were cruising until the afternoon when they suddenly saw a long river flowing. Yeluyan suddenly said excitedly:
"Your Majesty, this is the Huaihe River, and ahead is Tangzhou!"
A few years ago, when her eldest brother Yelujin was still the manager of Nanjing Road, Yeluyan followed her second brother Yelujin to visit this area.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, Tangzhou was under the southwestern Jing Road. In the Jin Kingdom, it was under the Nanjing Road.
The journey from here to Xiangyang is only three hundred miles, and since it is the origin of the Huaihe River, it is also considered a strategic location.
When the Jin Kingdom collapsed, it was originally captured by the generals of the Southern Song Dynasty, but it was soon captured by the Tatars.
Because after many wars, the population was only about 10,000 people, so the Tatars transferred Tangzhou to Nanyang Prefecture and became an important local town.
Visited Tangzhou.
In the evening, Su Mingzhe, at Yeluyan's strong invitation, took Wanyanping on a night tour of the Huaihe River.
Seeing two mermaids swimming back and forth in front of him, Su Mingzhe naturally wouldn't be honest.
After a while, the two mermaids could only rise and fall with the clear waves.
After the joy.
Wanyanping wanted to go back to rest, but was stopped by Yeluyan:
"Why are you going back so early? My lord, I heard that this is the origin of the Huaihe River. How about we go all the way upstream and see where the front end is?"
"OK!"
Su Mingzhe was originally not interested in tracing the source, but looking at the girl's innocent look and the alluring scenery of jade light, he couldn't help but agree.
Seeing that the man agreed, Wanyanping could only risk her life to accompany him.
The three of them swam and rested, and kept going upstream.
Not long after, a huge rock on the cliff more than ten feet high blocked the way.
Yeluyan thought this was the end.
Su Mingzhe's eyes suddenly flashed with joy, he put his arms around the two women's waists, tapped his toes on the river, and jumped over the boulder.
Behind the boulder, there were two young girls warming themselves by the fire. When they saw the three people falling from the sky, they were shocked: