Fenghou

Chapter 1201 Reasons
[This chapter is missing, I will change the order tomorrow]

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In the palace, Emperor Zhao Gou listened to Xu Xiantu's report while lying on his sickbed.

Xu Xiantu knelt on the ground and cried: "Haizhou was defeated. As the envoy of Huaibei, I have an unshirkable responsibility. It is my incompetence that has dragged down your majesty and affected your reputation. All the responsibilities rest with me. Bear it, let His Majesty dispose of it, I will never complain!"

Zhao Gou watched Xu Xiantu silently. Of course he knew the reason for the disastrous defeat. It was easy to punish Xu Xiantu. He just dismissed him because he didn't understand military affairs and was ineffective in command.

But Zhao Gou didn't want to dismiss Xu Xiantu. Xu Xiantu was his confidant, someone who could really do things for him, unlike Zhu Shengfei, who did more than fail.

He originally wanted Xu Xiantu to take the responsibility, but now he didn't want to.

After a moment of silence, Zhao Gou slowly said: "I have never understood the real reason for this defeat, can Mr. Xu tell me?"

Xu Xiantu was taken aback, what did the Son of Heaven mean by this?
Let yourself find the real responsibility for the defeat of the army. Could it be that the emperor doesn't want himself to bear this responsibility?

He thought for a while and said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I also think that the strategy of attacking Haizhou is not wrong. If you don't capture Haizhou and go north to Yizhou, you will be cut off by the enemy in Haizhou, and the logistics and food will be cut off. If the enemy attack from north to south again, our army will die! Therefore, taking Haizhou is an inevitable strategy, but we may have made mistakes in the details."

"What mistake did you make in detail?"

"Your Majesty, our information is wrong."

Zhao Gou regained his energy immediately. If he made a mistake from the beginning, no matter how wise his decision-making later was, it would not be able to change the defeat.

"Where is the information wrong?"

"Your Majesty, we may face more than [-] golden soldiers, and it may be [-]. It's just that the golden soldiers concealed the real number, which caused our intelligence to be wrong, sent too few troops, and their strength was far inferior to the opponent. defeat."

"How do you know that the opponent has more than [-] troops?"

"Your Majesty, I have talked with Han Shizhong. He said that there are [-] Jin soldiers on Donghai Island. In addition, when the Western Army took the opportunity to capture Haizhou, they also captured nearly [-] people. This is already [-] people." In addition, when the Song army retreated, they were chased by the Jurchen cavalry. There were at least [-] troops. This should be the army that went south from Yizhou. This number exceeded [-] troops. This is obviously a mistake in our intelligence. If we had known that the other side had hidden their forces, we would not have just sent one hundred thousand troops northward, this is what the humble official said, and it was wrong from the very beginning."

"What does Ai Qing mean to say that the real reason for our defeat was lack of preparation?"

"Exactly!"

Xu Xiantu said calmly: "According to what I know, the Western Army has been preparing for the attack on Shandong Road for nearly two years. Counting from the year before last when Bianliang was captured and the Jin soldiers retreated eastward, it has been exactly two years since they launched the attack. Offensive, food and supplies, soldier training, all kinds of intelligence, the Yellow River navy, etc. are all prepared before sending out troops, so they can seize Donghai Island in one fell swoop, and then they will come out to take advantage of the situation when we and the Jinbing are both defeated. State, Your Majesty, if we are well-prepared, we won’t have a supporting army.”

Zhao Gou also sighed and said, "I am responsible for this matter. I shouldn't be too eager for the Northern Expedition!"

Unknowingly, the two reached a consensus that the defeat had nothing to do with command, but lack of preparation. Almost all temples were responsible, and that was the responsibility of the imperial court.

Xu Xiantu said again: "Yesterday Hu Yun came to look for Weichen, and he conveyed to Weichen a message from King Yong, saying that when the Western Army intercepted the Jin soldiers, they rescued our [-] captured soldiers. Chen Qing asked Weichen to go north and lead the captured soldiers back Come back, if we are sincere enough, he can even give us Haizhou."

Of course, Chen Qing promised to let Haizhou just make a gesture, even if he gave Zhao Gou for free, he would not want it again, not to mention showing enough sincerity, Zhao Gou doesn't have much sincerity now, but there are still [-] Song in the place This really surprised and delighted Zhao Gou.

Of course Zhao Gou was pleasantly surprised. If you add the [-] men who returned from the defeat, and the [-] more men who were recruited one after another, then they have [-] troops. Of the more than [-] wounded soldiers who returned to the rear, they were actually killed only more than [-] people, more than half of them.

One is called annihilation and fiasco of the whole army, and the other is called withdrawal of troops due to excessive casualties. The meanings are completely different.

Although he was a bit self-deceiving, Zhao Gou finally found a reason to get rid of the shame. He sat up and asked anxiously, "When does Chen Qing ask you to lead someone?"

"anytime!"

"Then Aiqing will go north immediately and bring back [-] troops, and I will give him the north of Haizhou and Huaihe River." Zhao Gou said generously.

This condition is indeed too 'sincere', thanks to him being able to say it.

Xu Xiantu smiled wryly and said: "I will go first. During the negotiation process, I will send pigeon letters to report to His Majesty for instructions!"

"Yes!" Zhao Gou readily agreed.

Xu Xiantu took a few officials and a hundred guards and set off by boat that day.
The day after Xu Xiantu's departure, Hu Yun and Zheng Tongquan also came to Pingjiang Mansion. Hu Yun came to visit Liu's family and Gao Qiu under the order of King Yong. The members of Song Xinghui were all the targets that Chen Qing wanted to win over.

Zheng Tongquan is for the cabinet shop. He had already talked with the Qian family two days ago. Coincidentally, several major families in Jiangnan are also planning to jointly establish Jiangnan cabinet shop. Zheng Tongquan has a background in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and he is the target of the Jiangnan family. The two hit it off immediately, and Zheng Tongquan paid [-] yuan to join Jiangnan Cabinet Workshop.

But to Zheng Tongquan's disappointment, the other party only gave him [-]% of the shares, which was far from the [-]% of Zheng Tongquan's own request.

The fact that Zheng Tongquan wanted [-]% was not because he wanted to dominate the family, but because there were also [-]% members of King Yong, who were under the trusteeship of the Zheng family. In fact, the Zheng family only had [-]% members.

Arriving at Gusu City by boat, and then heading west again, Zheng Tongquan said in surprise, "I've been in Lin'an for so many years, and it's the first time I've heard of Song Xinghui, but I knew it when you mentioned Fengle Tower, I knew It was built by a partnership of more than a dozen dignitaries, and the representative is Shi Guangping. I also approached Shi Guangping and wanted to vote for some members. Shi Guangping said that I was not a member of them and refused. It turned out that the members he mentioned were Song Xinghui, so the Huyan family should be too! "

Hu Yun nodded, "The Liu family, the Cao family, the Xiang family, the Shi family, the Huyan family, the Gao family, these are all, but now they have internal conflicts. The Shi family and the Xiang family have taken refuge in the emperor and have been reused. They are afraid of other families. He was also highly valued, so he spent a lot of money to buy people around the emperor, and kept slandering in the ears of the emperor, which caused the emperor to be very indifferent to the members of the Song Xinghui in Pingjiang Mansion, and almost sent troops to arrest Gao Qiu. Later, because of Xu Xiantu's persuasion, he arrested The matter of arrest is over."

"Does the special envoy think they want to set up a counter shop?" Zheng Tongquan asked worriedly.

Hu Yun smiled slightly, "It depends on how you talk."

While speaking, the boat arrived at a mansion surrounded by rivers, this is the Liu family's Baiyun Villa.

(End of this chapter)