Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 584: The road ahead is clear, you can come quickly
Hearing that there was an imperial edict from Emperor Zhezong, Zhao Mu immediately opened it to check. However, after reading the imperial edict, Zhao Mu's excited expression suddenly dropped.

"This imperial edict is indeed in the tone of His Majesty, but the handwriting is that of Prince Duan!" Zhao Mu knew that it must be Zhao Ji who held Zhezong hostage and forced him to dictate.

Zhao Mu was furious when he thought about how seriously ill Zhezong was and how that bastard Zhao Ji wanted him to waste his energy writing this crappy imperial edict to persuade him to surrender.

But just as Zhao Mu was about to tear up this damn imperial edict with his hands, he discovered the hidden meaning in the edict.

Zhao Mu glanced at the imperial edict from the side and saw that the words on it read together meant "There is no obstacle ahead, no need to hesitate, you can come soon."

Seeing these twelve words, Zhao Mu widened his eyes in disbelief.

This was the message that Zhezong specifically conveyed to Zhao Mu.

Zhezong knew that Zhao Ji was the best calligrapher. Whenever he wrote or practiced calligraphy, not only was his writing very neat, but his parallelism was also very neat. Therefore, he deliberately used this method to send a message to Zhao Mu.

It turns out that Zhezong's arrangements were not limited to Zhao Mu's old subordinates on the Song-Qi border. In Hangu, Luoyang, and Hulao, Zhezong also arranged a lot of his own people for Zhao Mu.

The generals of several of the passes were from the Qian, Chai, and Huyan families. This was also a backup plan left by Zhezong. In case his imperial seal and military token were not sent out, but the imperial seal was in Zhao Mu's hands, Zhao Ji would not be able to transfer his official position in a short period of time. Zhao Mu could still march straight in.

As for Zhao Mu's old subordinates, Zhezong's original intention was not only to strengthen Zhao Mu's strength, but also to give Zhao Mu more troops and horses so that he could resist the Liao Kingdom that took advantage of the situation.

Zhezong had received a warning from Fang La before, that is, be careful of the Liao Kingdom's tricks. In addition to the various "rumors" in the court in the past two years, Zhezong also keenly realized that the Liao Kingdom might be the driving force behind this.

The most likely target of the Liao Kingdom was the relatively small Qi Kingdom, so Zhezong made these preparations in advance.

But when faced with Zhao Mu occupying Jingzhao Prefecture, he stopped moving forward. Zhezong also planned to take the opportunity to give Zhao Mu a hint. That is, don't hesitate, and before Zhao Ji makes any small moves, immediately march troops to surround Bianjing and end this battle.

Zhezong had been unable to utter a single word for a long time, and he was calculating the layout and content of the imperial edict in his mind. He had to pass the message to Zhao Mu, but he couldn't let Zhao Ji see any clues.

Zhao Mu looked at the hidden meaning in the imperial edict and then laughed out loud.

Seeing Zhao Mu was furious just now, but burst into laughter the next moment, Chai Wen couldn't help but sweat that he had just wiped off, and he didn't know whether Zhao Mu was madly angry about the imperial edict, or madly happy.

Chai Wen asked at this time: "I wonder what your majesty thinks? Prince Duan is willing to be the emperor with your majesty and share the throne. Now the land that the Qi army has obtained is also acceptable."

But before Chai Wen finished speaking, Zhao Mu put away the imperial edict and said, "Okay. Brother-in-law, you have worked hard this time. Go down and rest first. Come! Send Prince Chai back to the inn to rest."

As he spoke, the guard came in, and Chai Wen had no choice but to leave.

Zhao Mu looked at the hidden letter that Zhezong had left for him. After confirming it, he ordered the guards, "Go and inform the generals who are still here and summon them to the palace. I want to discuss important matters with them."

"Yes!" After receiving Zhao Mu's order, the messenger beat the drum to gather the generals. After a while, all the generals who were still around Zhao Mu came to him. Zhao Mu then began to lay out his battle plan. This time the battle plan was also very simple, that is, to gather all the cavalry and continue to attack Bianjing with him immediately. Except for the infantry stationed at the passes of various states, all the rest followed closely. Everyone advanced in three directions and finally met outside the city of Bianjing.

Upon hearing Zhao Mu's crazy plan, all the generals present fell silent.

One of the generals said, "Your Majesty, the Liao army is approaching. The outcome of the battle in Qi is still unknown, so the most urgent task now is to protect the land we currently occupy. If we advance eastward at this time, if Qi is lost, we will be surrounded by the Liao army and the false emperor."

Zhao Mu said, "The Liao people are strong on the outside but weak on the inside. Taiwei Wang and General Wang Jin have already led their troops to help. I believe the Queen has also asked the Western Xia Kingdom to send troops to support them. Now our top priority is to continue to advance eastward, break through Bianjing as quickly as possible, and capture the false emperor alive."

Another general continued, "But as far as I know, the false emperor has deployed at least 80,000 troops in Xijing and Dongjing. Although our troops have an advantage, most of them are sent to resist the Liao Kingdom and garrison in various places. If we divide our troops now, once..."

Zhao Mu said, "Nothing will happen. I will personally lead the elite cavalry to clear the way for you, and you will lead the infantry to follow as soon as possible."

Seeing Zhao Mu's solemn promise, the generals, although still having some doubts, all obeyed his orders.

After all, this was not the first time that Zhao Mu had come up with such an incredible tactical plan. Since the conquest of Liao, Zhao Mu had led them to victory after victory. As long as Zhao Mu personally participated in the battle, it basically ended in victory. Naturally, everyone trusted Zhao Mu at the moment.

In the next few days, the generals acted according to the plan made by Zhao Mu.

But the result of the battle was beyond everyone's expectations. The Song army stationed in Hangu, Xijing, and Hulao and the local generals did not put up any decent resistance.

Although not all the troops surrendered wherever they went, Zhao Mu's troops were able to seize the pass and the stronghold after deploying their troops and making several tentative attacks. Although the defense of Luoyang was strong, Zhao Mu ignored it and only sent a small number of troops to surround it. He continued to lead his elite cavalry towards Bianjing City.

Because of Zhezong's arrangement and Zhao Mu's fast speed, plus the fact that the two armies used the same flag, by the time the vanguard troops sent by Zhao Mu arrived near Bianjing, Zhao Ji had not yet reacted.

Zhao Ji was reassured by Yelu Yanxiu and Prince Consort Wang.

During this period, he was completely at ease.

On this day, Zhao Ji was inviting his son-in-law Wang, Gao Qiu and other like-minded ministers to watch the singing and dancing in the palace. Just when he was listening to the wonderful part, he saw the eunuch hurriedly running up and shouting: "Your Majesty! Something bad has happened! The scouts have reported that the rebels of Qi have already attacked Tokyo! Now they have already attacked Zhuxian Town, 50 miles away. Our army is unable to resist, so I came to ask for help."

Hearing this, Zhao Ji was so frightened that he couldn't even hold the wine glass in his hand. He said, "What? How could this be? The rebels were in Jingzhao Prefecture a few days ago. How could they get to Zhuxian Town? Could they have flown here?"

The eunuch who was reporting on the matter didn't know how to respond when he heard this.

Zhao Ji looked at Prince Consort Wang and asked, "Grand Master! What is going on? Didn't you promise me solemnly before? Princess Yelu also said that if the Liao army attacked Qi, the King of Qi would send troops to help. How come you are here now?"

(End of this chapter)