Fenghou

Chapter 1121
The reason why Chen Qing realized that the court would definitely form a navy was because he saw the passiveness of the court without a navy. Because without a navy, the court would not only lose Jingnan Road, but also lose Jingbei Road.

Chen Qing saw this in advance, but he believed that the court would realize it sooner or later.

The civil servants of the imperial court may not think of it for a while, but it does not mean that everyone cannot think of it.

This morning, Emperor Zhao Gou received three letters from the Privy Council at the same time. One letter was from Liu Ziyu, the prefect of Zhenjiang, which strongly demanded that the court build a large number of ships. To solve the imbalance of the imperial court's income and expenditure, he pointed out in the report that even Chen Qing, who is far away in the northwest, knows to conduct overseas trade for profit, but the imperial court, which controls most of the coastal ports, has not moved for a long time, which makes people really puzzled.

The second is to build ships and build a navy. If a strong navy is not built, the entire Yangtze River will be dominated by the Western Army.

Liu Ziyu was deeply touched. The large ships of more than [-] shi docked at the Yangtze River Wharf in Zhenjiang were almost all merchant ships of the Western Army, which was so shocking.

The second letter was written by Han Shizhong. Although he is at home, he has always paid attention to the current situation. He can see through it better than anyone else. They are inherently weak on horseback, and their combat effectiveness on land is far from that of the Jin soldiers and the Western army. opponent.

In fact, they defeated the Jin soldiers several times by relying on their superiority in water warfare, but since the imperial court recaptured a large area of ​​land south of the Huaihe River, they gradually gave up the defense of the Yangtze River and the navy. The boats are gone, and now there are only a bunch of Baishi sentry boats left on the Yangtze River.

Of course, Han Shizhong also understood the difficulties of the imperial court, financial difficulties, and lack of money to build new ships, but even if new ships could not be built, old ships could be refurbished and used.

However, Han Shizhong found that almost all the sealed old warships were gone, and they were secretly sold, saying that they were sold to merchants, but what the merchants wanted the warships made Han Shizhong have to doubt that all the old warships were sold by Chen Qing. Bought it in the name of a merchant and sent it to Sichuan Road for refurbishment, so the Western Army has a large number of warships.

Now is not the time to pursue responsibility, Han Shizhong just once again called on the court to attach importance to the navy and build a powerful navy as soon as possible.

The third letter was the most important, and it was Zhang Jun's letter. He first told the emperor the unfortunate news that Tang Huai, the general guarding Xiangyang, rebelled and surrendered directly to the Western Army. The [-] Western Army had taken over Xiangyang City. General Zhang Xian led a part of the army to escape the Han River, but the simple pontoon bridge they built was immediately destroyed by the Western Army Navy.

In his letter, Zhang Jun denounced the imperial court for not having a navy. He led an army of [-] to Xiangyang for the first time, but he could not cross the Han River. As for him watching the Western Army enter Xiangyang City helplessly, there was nothing he could do.

Emperor Zhao Gou was extremely shocked by Zhang Jun's letter. He was not shocked that Zhang Jun could not pass the Han River. In fact, Zhang Jun's [-] troops could not pass the Han River. In fact, he hoped that Zhao Gou was stunned and decided to launch a military strike. , Take back Jiangling City.

But when his decree was issued, he regretted it a little. Once the imperial army and the Western army turned against each other, it would not only be as simple as Jiangling's gains and losses. Chen Qing would probably proclaim himself emperor, and then he would no longer be taboo to seize the imperial court's large area. Land, Jinghu North Road, Jiangnan West Road, Huaixi Road, Huainan Road, etc.

Now what shocked and frightened him finally happened, and Xiangyang City fell into Chen Qing's hands.

For a whole hour, Zhao Gou's brain was thinking about one thing, Chen Qing occupied Xiangyang, would he use the opportunity to sweep the entire Jingbei Road under the pretext of starting a war?
At this time, Zhao Gou's silence was interrupted by the eunuch's report, "Your Majesty, Xu Xiangguo asks to see you!"

Zhao Gou nodded, "Acclaim him an audience!"

Not long after, Xu Xiantu quickly walked into the imperial study, bowed and said, "See Your Majesty!"

Zhao Gou sighed and said, "Xu Aiqing, now my head hurts!"

"Your Majesty is worried about Xiangzhou?"

Zhao Gou nodded helplessly, "I regret that Zhang Jun's army should not have gone to attack Jiangling. Chen Qing found an excuse to capture Xiangzhou and lose Xiangzhou. Where will his next goal be? Fangzhou, Suizhou , Fuzhou, Yingzhou, Jingmen Army, Guanghua Army and Hanyang Mansion?"

What Zhao Gou was talking about was Jingbei Road, and Xu Xiantu knew in his heart that once the Western Army captured Xiangzhou, Fangzhou, Guanghua Army and Jingmen Army would also be lost at the same time. These three places have been separated by Xiangzhou, leaving only Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou, and Hanyangfu are three prefectures and one prefecture. Even if the Western Army does not directly occupy them, they will definitely be controlled. Officials in the four places will definitely be at odds with the imperial court.

Although he knew it in his heart, Xu Xiantu couldn't tell the truth frankly. He wanted to stabilize the emperor and not let the emperor go from one extreme to another. Sometimes white lies were needed.

"Your Majesty, what I want to report has something to do with what His Majesty is worried about. I originally wanted to say that Wang Gui, the envoy of Xiangyang, has arrived in Lin'an."

Zhao Gou was taken aback, this was a bit unexpected, he thought Wang Gui would surrender to Chen Qing directly.

"What does he mean?"

"Your Majesty, he came to Beijing to report on his duties. This shows that he did not collude with Chen Qing. It was his subordinate Tang Huai who colluded with Chen Qing. As soon as he left, Tang Huai immediately surrendered to the Western Army and sacrificed Xiangyang."

Zhao Gou sighed, "Thousands of things come together, just ignore him, let him take a post in the Privy Council first, and then consider him after I have dealt with the troublesome things."

"Actually, I just want to tell Your Majesty that the situation is not that bad. Although Zhang Jun's army is overwhelming Jiangling, he is still relatively calm and did not seize the opportunity to seize Jingbei Road. Xiangzhou was not captured by Chen Qing, but by the guard Tang Huaixian. Xiangyang City, at this point, we are considering whether we can get Xiangyang City back through negotiations."

"Xu Aiqing thinks that Xiangyang City can still come back?" Zhao Goudu was noncommittal about this kind of negotiation proposal, how could he spit out the fat he swallowed?

"Your Majesty, the nature of sending troops to occupy and accepting the dedication of the city is still different. We can try to talk about it. If we really don't want to come back, we can at least keep Suizhou, Yingzhou, Fuzhou and Hanyang from being occupied by the Western Army. Wei Chen feels that as long as he is willing to negotiate, the situation on Jinghu North Road will be stabilized."

Zhao Gou walked to the window with his hands behind his back. After a long time, he sighed and said with grief: "This time, I was harmed by Mr. Qin. I really shouldn't have listened to his advice and wanted to take back the Jiangling Mansion. In the end, I couldn't steal it. Thanks to a lot of rice, Jingnan South Road is completely lost, and now it has become a negotiation on the ownership of Jingbei North Road, Qin Hui misunderstood me!"

Zhao Gou immediately issued an order: "Pass down my will, hold a military and political meeting in Ziwei Hall the day after tomorrow to discuss the establishment of a naval army, and notify Taifu Han to attend together!"

Wu Jie’s residence is just a dilapidated yard with an area of ​​only one mu. This is a rented house. In Lin’an, where every inch of land is expensive, the monthly rent for such a yard is ten yuan, and the rent is paid by his brother Wu Lin. .

Wu Jie was not an official in the capital, and the government house that was not enough for him was not his turn. He was dismissed when he returned to Lin'an, but he was only pardoned.

With Hu Yun's support, a coffin shed was set up in the yard, and the Wu family invited several monks to chant scriptures for salvation.

Hu Yun and Zheng Tongquan came to mourn Wu Jie together, and discussed with Wu's family about transporting the body back to his hometown. Zheng Tongquan was very generous and agreed that he would be responsible for the whole process and all expenses would be borne by him.

The two came to the courtyard of the Wu family, and there were still a dozen steps away from the courtyard gate, when they heard a fierce quarrel coming from the courtyard.

(End of this chapter)