Lü Haowen didn't get the support he expected, which made him very flustered. However, the court was full of elites of The Filature of the Song, and there were always sensible people.

For example, the Academician Lin, who hadn't spoken in court for a long time.

After the Xiangyang incident, this Hanlin Academician had lost the desire to express his opinion on these matters for various reasons, but he was very clear about what was going on.

To put it bluntly, now that the crisis in Nanyang had been temporarily resolved, whether the Emperor stayed in Nanyang or went to Xiangyang no longer seemed to be a matter of life and death or the future of the country, but rather presented an ambiguous situation. In this case, everyone could put aside national righteousness and discuss the issue from a personal standpoint.

In general, it seemed that the half of the central officials who stayed in Nanyang were unwilling to have the honor and political capital brought by this battle diluted and shared by their colleagues in Xiangyang... They felt that their perseverance under tremendous pressure in the first fifteen days was all their effort, and the victory was all their contribution.

Why should the Emperor go to Xiangyang after Nanyang was defended?

Why were they the ones who took the waist tags to get hot water and lived in collective rooms before, but the credit for this battle was to be divided in half, and the political resources that should have been exclusively occupied by their part of the people were to be taken away by others?

Moreover, to be honest, it was only that the civil officials in the court were being subtle. If Wang De and Fu Qing, who had repeatedly participated in the bloody battles under the city last month and performed well, were to speak, they would most likely not say anything, only thinking about secretly killing the messengers from Xiangyang, so that the Emperor would not see them! Only Xin Yongzong, a pampered son of a powerful family, would take the opportunity to burst into curses, mocking what Zhang Jing and Qiao Zhongfu were, and daring to come and grab credit at this time?

Of course, if they were to go to his two brothers, it would be acceptable.

On closer inspection, it was only that Lü Haowen, as Prime Minister, had nothing to gain from promotion and was wholeheartedly trying to be a mender of the court, and had no need for any military achievements or qualifications, so he was confused for a while and didn't understand what everyone meant.

As for the specific reasons why his original supporters turned against him, such as Li Ruopu and Li Guang, they also had their specific reasons:

Among them, Hanlin Academician Li Ruopu was the younger brother of Li Ruoshui. He had agreed at the time for the sake of the overall situation, but now that there was no conflict of interest, from his standpoint, he would never take the initiative to ask the Emperor to retreat.

As for Li Guang, after the communication was restored, news from the southeast area that had been accumulated before was transmitted from the south of Xiangyang, which made people roughly understand the situation in the southeast... It turned out that the prolonged rebellion in the southeast was directly related to Li Gang!

It is said that after Wang Yi rebelled, Li Boji, in order to quell the rebellion, was worried that the generals of the Imperial Guard's rear army were closely related to Wang Yi, so he temporarily replaced the generals. He took an old general who had been living in seclusion in the southeast for decades, Wang Shunchen, the military commissioner of Yueyang, to serve as the commander-in-chief of the front line and command the Jiangning battle.

However, Wang Shunchen was naturally a famous general of the Western Army when he was young, and had extraordinary performances on the battlefield, but that was all decades ago. Later, his daughter married the Daoist Emperor, becoming one of the two imperial concubines Wang (both were taken into captivity in the north), and he was able to be promoted to military commissioner and enjoy wealth... In short, this person had lived in ease and comfort in the so-called rich land of Jiangnan for decades, where did he still have half a bit of the qualities of a general? Who could服 him?

In fact, the reason why the second rebellion broke out at that time was because there were rumors in the army that the Imperial Guard's rear army, with Commander Yang the Old Marshal as the commander of Yangzhou to protect the Empress Dowager, and Wang Shunchen as the commander-in-chief of the Jiangnan front line, was because Li Gang, the Prime Minister Li, couldn't stand young generals, and wanted to use old men as generals to take the opportunity to purge, and so on... As a result, the rebel army mutinied halfway under the leadership of a group of backbone officers, and Wang Shunchen could only flee back to Yangzhou in embarrassment under the escort of Xin Yanzong.

So in this situation, Li Guang was a man of his word, how dare he stand up and go against the wishes of so many colleagues in Nanyang, and make enemies for Prime Minister Li for nothing?

How to say it?

This kind of thing has nothing to do with morality, and there is no real harm. It is basically human nature. However, for Academician Lin, who had just withdrawn his gaze from Li Guang, there was always a vague sense of boredom in it... because it was meaningless.

Moreover, Academician Lin was sure that Zhao Emperor was also bored, but he had to face these things.

"What the Prime Minister said is a bit outdated." In the silence, the one who could easily oppose Prime Minister Lü was naturally another Prime Minister Lü. Lü Yihao clasped his hands together, without even blinking his eyes. "This is one time, that is another. Not to mention anything else, the situation in Tokyo and Huaixi is still unclear. If the front line is still in stalemate, the Emperor in Nanyang can always reassure the people on the front line, right?"

Lü Haowen was stunned when he heard this, but then smiled awkwardly: "I was too anxious, let's wait until the situation is clear."

Unexpectedly, Lü Yihao did not pursue the attack, but nodded slightly: "That's what I mean, let's wait until the situation is clear before discussing this matter!"

The two prime ministers reached an agreement and forcibly shelved the matter. The Emperor didn't say anything, and the hall fell silent again. They then spoke about city defense, supplies, and merits, and then dispersed.

However, this kind of delay was destined not to last long. Just a few days later, as the Jin army intentionally or unintentionally further relaxed the communication between the city of Nanyang and the outside world, Zhao Emperor finally learned the front-line military situation that he had been waiting for for a long time, from all sides, east, west, north, and south.

But to tell the truth... the situation was not good, or it was very bad.

First of all, although the several cities between the five rivers (Yingshui, Weishui, Yishui, Shangshui, and Rushui) were under siege, that is to say, the Jin army besieging the cities was not large, but in the previous half month, one of them had fallen - Wuyang, the smallest city, was broken by the Jin army's myriarch Puchahua Balu. The defending general Li Bao, nicknamed "Sick Guan Suo," tried to break through after the city was breached, and his life and death were unknown. Some said that he had died for his country, while others said that he had escaped to the Yexian area of Ruzhou and became a mountain bandit.

But no matter what, of those six or seven cities, two had already been lost, and Wanyan Talhai's forces there had not suffered much attrition. In other words, every time a city was lost, the pressure on the remaining cities would further increase, and then become more dangerous... It would be no harm to say that it was precarious there.

What's more, there was also the most important Han Shizhong in Changshe, who even had difficulty communicating.

In addition, Xin Xingzong of Wuguan also timely sent the war situation about Guanzhong that he had accumulated in his hands, which was even more bad news.

Jinning Army, which had become a dead end, was also captured, which was expected. However, what made it particularly difficult to let go was that when the defending official Xu Huiyan was escorted to Wanyan Loushi's army and subjected to cruel torture, the reason given was actually disrespect to the surrendered general Zhe Keqiu!

At the same time, although Qu Duan expressed his obedience to Yuwen Xuzhong's envoys on the surface, he still refused to obey the military orders of his superior Wang Xie after sending troops. The two sides kept sending documents to Yuwen Xuzhong to file lawsuits, one saying that the other refused to obey orders, and the other saying that the other was incompetent and misled the country, regardless of the fact that Wanyan Loushi used his troops steadily and quickly, and had now occupied the three prefectures, one prefecture, and one military district of northern Shaanxi, and had freed his hands without any worries!

Of course, it wasn't all bad news. Li Yanxian of Shaanzhou sent someone through Wuguan to report, roughly meaning that if the main force of the Jin army's western route army did not go to Shaanzhou next, he could give up the newly recovered territory in Hebei and try to lead some of the Hebei rebels and Shaanzhou troops to support other places.

Finally, there was the most important city of Tokyo. Compared to the clear military situation in other places, this deadly main battlefield had some unclear meaning.

First of all, Tokyo did not turn from danger to safety because of the Jin army's strategic shift. This was mainly because the Jin army strangled three strategic points - Ali and Elubu were in Nanjing; Wanyan Zonghan personally sat in Daming Prefecture and remotely controlled the myriarch Danghai to continue besieging Huazhou; and Wanyan Talhai did not forget to divide a main myriarch to hold down Zhongmu.

Zhongmu was west of Tokyo, Nanjing was southeast of Tokyo, and Daming Prefecture and Huazhou were north of Tokyo. Surrounded on three sides, Tokyo was still unable to move.

But there was no major progress either.

So it was true that it was in a stalemate there.

However, the real trouble and problem in Tokyo was not in the gains and losses of these cities.

It is said that not long after the start of the war, a rumor spread on the front line - saying that Zong Ze, the defender of Tokyo, was already at the end of his rope, old and dying, so the Tokyo garrison's army, which had been relied on as the main force and whose core strength should not be less than 100,000, had lost its command and fought on its own, so that it was beaten to pieces by Wanyan Wushu and quickly lost cities and land.

But recently, this news had become more and more confusing... Some people said with certainty that it was a rumor, while others said that Zong Ze had indeed died, or at least was terminally ill and unable to command the troops.

Those who said it was a rumor said that Yue Fei, the pacification commissioner of Jizhou, had taken advantage of Wanyan Wushu's strategic shift to successfully lead troops through the defense line and enter Tokyo. Since he entered Tokyo, he had been attacking on all sides, fighting against Yelü Ma Wu of Zhongmu in the west, winning two out of three battles; supporting Huazhou in the north, and rescuing Quan Bangyan, the deputy defender of Tokyo and the defender of Huazhou, from danger several times; and in the southeast, he also made military moves when Liu Bao and Tian Shizhong, the generals under Zhang Jun, tried to advance westward, so as to form a echo.

Yue Fei entered Tokyo with only 15,000 or 16,000 soldiers. Tokyo originally had only 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers after continuous battles, so to make this level of overall echo with 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers, it must be done by a commander with a sense of the big picture. Therefore, many people took the opportunity to infer that Zong Ze was still there, or at least had temporarily recovered his health.

As for those who said it was true, the reason was also very direct - Zong Ze was always particular about being with the soldiers. He was more than seventy years old, but since the Jingkang period, he had always worn rough clothes and personally went to the front line, sleeping on the ground to inspire morale. This time, from beginning to end, he had not publicly appeared to appease people's hearts.

In fact, according to intelligence, a large number of Tokyo garrison's defeated soldiers, about 30,000 or 40,000, with five or six commanders, were concentrated in the southern part of Tokyo at this time, but had not moved for a long time, which further fueled this suspicion.

"There's no need to doubt."

In order to avoid the many people in the city, on this evening, seeing that the weather was gloomy and there were faint signs of snow, Zhao Emperor specially summoned a few important ministers on the city wall. "Defender Zong must be ill, because I know Yue Fei's ability. The one who is maintaining the situation in Tokyo at this time must be Yue Pengju himself."

The few people who were called to the city wall by the Emperor, including the two prime ministers, a censor-in-chief, a minister of war, a Hanlin academician, a deputy magistrate of Nanyang, and the two generals Yang Yizhong and Liu Yan, only a few people, almost all changed their expressions at the same time when they heard this.

"What to do?"

Before the people below could answer, Zhao Emperor took the initiative to ask, which was rare. Looking at his appearance, he was obviously really anxious. "Can you send a decree to let Yue Fei take charge of the Tokyo war?"

"No!"

Lü Yihao, Lü Haowen, Hu Yin, Lin Jingmo, and Yan Xiaozhong almost spoke in unison, blurting out.

"Why?" Zhao Emperor frowned in panic for a moment.

"Your Majesty, don't forget the matter in the southeast." Lü Yihao took the lead and immediately replied seriously. "Not to mention that we still don't know whether Defender Zong is really ill, even if Zong Ze is really unable to lead the troops again, there are other high-ranking officials in Tokyo. How can we make Yue Fei the commander? If we break the rules at this time and suddenly make such a person who has already been promoted excessively, and is only twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, the commander of the Tokyo garrison, and it is a decree of unknown origin that came from Nanyang in the midst of the war, I am afraid that the 30,000 or 40,000 defeated soldiers in Tokyo will directly rebel!"

"That's right!" Hu Yin also solemnly advised. "Your Majesty, I recommended Yue Fei to serve as the pacification commissioner that day, but I also know his details because of this, so I want to ask a presumptuous question today, who is Yue Fei, what kind of resume does he have, and why should he command the Tokyo garrison? Who can believe him and obey him?"

Zhao Emperor remained silent... because he knew that these people were right. At present, except for him Zhao Jiu, no one believed in Yue Fei. Li Yanxian's actions that day were still in front of him, let alone a bunch of miscellaneous soldiers in the Tokyo garrison?

Therefore, Lü Yihao was not alarmist. If the decree really arrived, before Yue Fei could gain military power, half of the remaining soldiers of the Tokyo garrison would rebel.

But the problem was that Zhao Emperor also knew very well that in the midst of the stalemate and deadlock on all sides, only Yue Fei and the Tokyo garrison's remaining number of soldiers could break the situation... but only he himself knew!

Wouldn't this become a paradox?

If you want to break the situation, you must use Yue Fei, but if you use Yue Fei in an unconventional way, there is an 80% chance that you will directly cause the overall situation to collapse!

In the silence, snowflakes suddenly fell, and Zhao Emperor suddenly woke up and reluctantly asked again: "Then what should we do?"

ps: I stayed up all night, it's hard to concentrate at night, and I couldn't help but go to Bilibili to catch up on an anime, but I finally coded it out, so I still think I'm the prettiest boy on Zhichun Road.