Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 624 Sudden Change
Kou Heiyi escaped from Shuyang City under the cover of night.

Shuyang City is called a city, but in fact it is just a town.

Although the terrain here is dangerous, there are no tall city walls. With Kou Heiyi's skills, it is still easy for him to escape.

After running for more than ten miles in one breath, Kou Heiyi finally got rid of the pursuers.

The Song army in the town was going to reinforce Lintao City. At this time, they only thought he was a Xixia scout. Although they could not catch up with him, they did not care much.
After all, the Xixia's Lintao garrison could guess the fact that reinforcements were coming even without checking.

Kou Heiyi lay down on the grass. The road was already quite cool at night, but he was still sweating profusely from running.

Kou Heiyi took a breath and was about to find a small river, but suddenly he jumped up on the spot like a civet cat and quickly moved to the side.

With a "swish", a knife with a long and narrow sharp blade stabbed the place where he had just been lying.

Immediately afterwards, the knife flashed and slashed towards him again.

Kou Heiyi immediately drew his sword to block, and the two fought for seven or eight rounds before each of them dodged and jumped away.

Yue Peiying was furious and asked, "Why did you sneak attack me?"

Kou Heiyi sneered, "What are the people from Yipintang doing in front of the two armies? Are you still trying to deceive me?"

Yue Peiying was stunned and asked, "Do you think I'm fake?"

"good."

"Go on!" Yue Peiying raised her hand and a badge flew towards Kou Heiyi.

After she sneaked into the Song Dynasty, she buried the "Yipintang" identity certificate somewhere. Now she returned to Western Xia and took it out when she passed by the original place.

Kou Heiyi took it in his hand, looked at it in the moonlight, and touched the patterns on it.

Yue Peiying sneered: "Do you want me to use a fire stick to let you see clearly?"

Kou Heiyi suddenly put his long sword aside, knelt on one knee, raised his waist badge with both hands, and said respectfully: "I am in an enemy country, I dare not be careless, I just bumped into you, please forgive me."

"Hmph!" Yue Peiying swaggered forward and reached for the badge.

Kou Heiyi suddenly leaned back, shook his wrist and threw the badge in his hand into a hidden weapon, shooting towards Yue Peiying's face.

Kou Heiyi reached out to the side and picked up his knife.

As soon as he picked up the knife, he chopped towards Yue Peiying's feet.

Unexpectedly, Yue Peiying seemed to have been prepared. She moved to the side, grabbed her badge, and stabbed Kou Heiyi's throat with the knife in her hand.

This knife was stabbed out just before Kou Heiyi leaned back.

It turned out that she also had the intention to kill someone. If Kou Heiyi had not had bad intentions and had thrown out his badge in time and leaned back, he would have been stabbed in the throat by her.

"Dangdangdangdang..."

Sparks flew, the two men fought for several rounds, and then jumped away.

Kou Heiyi laughed and said, "Girl, you have such a cruel heart. You have no mercy on a handsome man like me."

Yue Peiying asked coldly: "Who are you?"

"A scout in the Lintao army."

"fart!"

"Look, they didn't say anything, but you forced them to say it. They said it, but you didn't believe it..."

Kou Heiyi smiled and said as he slowly backed away: "I believe you are not a spy from the Song Dynasty.

However, I have a heavy responsibility and it is not convenient for me to have more contact with you, young lady. I will take my leave now."

"You stop!"

Kou Heiyi stopped and said with a smile: "I can't kill you, and you can't kill me. I want to leave, but you won't let me.

This is the territory of the Song people, are you sure you want to continue to tangle with me?"

Yue Peiying thought about it, stood still angrily, and said with gritted teeth: "I will remember you, don't let me see you again. Otherwise, the next time I see you, I will kill you with my own hands."

"I'm so scared~"

Kou Heiyi said with a grin, "Then I will definitely try my best to stay away from you when I hear your name. But I don't know your name yet."

Yue Peiying said viciously: "I am your eldest mother!"

The "Big Mom" ​​she refers to is her grandmother.

Kou Heiyi looked her up and down, then laughed and said, "Tsk, then my daddy is really lucky!"

After saying that, Kou Heiyi turned and left.

Yue Peiying was stunned for a moment before she realized that she seemed to have been taken advantage of again.

On the Longyou Road, in the wilderness, there was an angry shout: "Little thief, if I see you again, I will kill you!"

……

Today's Tubo has split into many large and small tribes, and has been harassed by Western Xia, so the relationship between the two sides is relatively tense.

However, the Xixia troops that raided the city were too fast, and the Tubo side was unable to organize an effective resistance in time.

In addition, they acted quickly and passed through the borders without stopping, so the local Tibetan governments lost the motivation to resist and attack them.

If you want to attack Chengdu from Tubo, there are two main routes. One route is to go through Nanzhao and attack Bashu from Dali Kingdom.

But this approach is not feasible for the current Xixia.

Because Dali was pro-Song, its mobilization capabilities were far beyond the reach of the already fragmented Tubo.

There are gullies and mountains everywhere, making it difficult to deploy large forces. People who are familiar with the local roads will have a clear advantage in jungle warfare.

This is also the reason why even powerful nations like the Tang Dynasty and Tubo did not destroy this tiny country, but instead tried to win it over. The cost of conquering it was too high.

Another route is to go directly down from the western Sichuan Plateau to the Sichuan Basin through the mountain passages of the Hengduan Mountains.

There are only two main routes, but there are actually more than eleven specific roads.

There are four main routes into western Sichuan through Yunnan.

There are at least seven mountain roads that lead directly to western Sichuan.

However, the Kang region has majestic mountains and numerous valleys, and many places do not even have place names, so it is difficult to find a specific description of the ancient roads that were passed through in the records seen in later generations.

To cross these roads, in addition to the fact that the roads themselves are difficult and dangerous, the most important thing is to gain the support of the Qiang tribes in western Sichuan who have lived here for generations.

The so-called mobility is a joke in front of the Hengduan Mountains. No one can maneuver it.

To pass through here, crossing the mountains and rivers is not the most difficult thing. The most difficult thing is to get the permission of the Qiang people in western Sichuan.

Western Xia was founded by the Dangxiang Qiang, who were originally from the same branch of the ancient Qiang and were of the same ethnic group as the Qiang people in western Sichuan.

In order to carry out this surprise attack, the Western Xia Kingdom spared no expense in bribing the leaders of the various Western Qiang tribes, which led to this perfect operation.

Even though they had made sufficient preparations and had the help of the local Western Qiang tribe to guide them and provide them with supplies, they were still in a state of disarray when they appeared in western Sichuan.

Of the three thousand elite cavalry, more than three hundred were killed in non-combat situations.

However, the sudden appearance of such an armed force still made the Song army in western Sichuan very nervous.

Since such a group of people has appeared, are there more troops following behind?
Originally, there were no large troops stationed in these areas, and many of the troops had been transferred to the northern front.

Especially because the emperor was in Chengdu, a large number of troops rushed to the northern front to prevent the Jin and Xixia people from taking any step beyond the line.

In this situation, even if troops were temporarily withdrawn, they would obviously not be able to keep up with the speed of the Xixia troops marching towards Chengdu.

For safety reasons, the best option is to let the officials leave here as soon as possible.

Therefore, even though this sudden Western Xia army had not yet reached Chengdu, local civil and military officials and accompanying ministers had already advised the emperor to leave.

When Zhao Yuan heard that Western Xia soldiers appeared in western Sichuan, he suddenly became excited.

If he personally led the army to fight and won a great victory, it would be a great military achievement for the emperor.

However, for the Western Army, the emperor's presence would become their biggest obstacle and would seriously affect their operations.

For local officials and the court officials who accompanied the emperor, the emperor had no shortage of martial arts skills, but if there was any delay, it would be a catastrophe that would shake the world.

Whether it was a defeat or putting the emperor in danger, or even just having the emperor besieged in Chengdu for a day, the consequences would be too serious.

This deal is not worthwhile at all.

Therefore, the civil and military officials made bitter and tearful appeals, and even cried and tried to plead their case to the death. Wei Liangchen was so anxious that he wanted to hang himself.

At heart, Zhao Yuan was an emperor who respected his ministers and was good at accepting frank advice.

In particular, the ministers finally found a breakthrough point: "Does the emperor want to put the empress dowager in danger?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the emperor was defeated on the spot, so he agreed and returned to Lin'an.

For Western Xia, when this army suddenly appeared in the hinterland of western Sichuan, its strategic goal had been achieved.

A "decapitation operation" to surprise attack the Emperor of Song Dynasty?

This impossible goal was not in Xixia's plan at all.

However, this group of troops was still trying hard to attack Chengdu, thereby attracting the Western Army of the Song Dynasty to follow suit.

……

The border incident in western Sichuan broke out, but Lin'an remained peaceful.

For Yuye, last night's experience was extremely exciting and unforgettable for her.

In fact, she is a woman who likes adventure and excitement.

That kind of conventional and ordinary interactions could hardly impress her.

Therefore, the scene of stars and falling cherries on that summer night had such a great impact on her.

Therefore, her experience in the silence and darkness in the underground palace of Leifeng Tower made her so unable to extricate herself.

Li Shishi's bold move also infected her, making her go from being shy and uneasy to being eager to make a move, then half-hearted, and finally unwilling to give in.

When she woke up in the morning, she and Yang Yuan were sleeping side by side. Shishi's hand reached out from the other side and intertwined their arms.

Although Fei Yuye still felt a little embarrassed, she could not help but recall the past night. The only regret she felt was that she was a little restrained and did not perform well last night.

Thinking in her mind, she gently pulled her hand back and touched her cheek carefully.

She saw with her own eyes the changes in Li Shishi's appearance, so she believed in what Li Shishi said.

The last time she came out of the underground palace of Leifeng Pagoda and returned to the "Moshanghua" embroidery workshop, she looked at herself carefully in the mirror.

Although she was not very old and her body functions would not undergo as drastic changes as Li Shishi's, she could clearly feel that she was indeed somewhat different from before.

So, as my sexual life increases, will my appearance remain youthful? Will it become more beautiful?
She thought about it, but was too shy to get up and look in the mirror. Yang Yuan and Li Shishi were still sleeping soundly, but Fei Yuye didn't notice the slightly curved corners of Madam Li's lips.

"I know that those who are able to show it in their bones are called flirtatious, and those who are not able to show it in their bones are called reserved and coquettish. This little bitch likes this."

Li Shishi thought secretly.

Perhaps, the more powerful a woman is, the more she likes being unusual.

Shishi, who is as charming as a fairy, feels an evil pleasure in dragging others to do bad things together.

……

In the "Banjing Hall", early in the morning, the Jin envoy Diwu Bingji made a solemn request to the Song people. He wanted to meet with the Regent of the Song Dynasty and hand over an important letter in person.

Upon hearing this, the "Deputy Receiving Envoy" did not dare to delay and immediately sent someone to prepare the carriage. At the same time, he sent someone to notify the "Receiving Envoy". Then, both of them accompanied the Jin envoys to the Song Dynasty Imperial Palace.

Prince of Jin Zhao Qu was woken up early in the morning and rushed to the palace in a bad mood.

He summoned all the prime ministers and councillors to the Council of State to receive the letter from the envoys of the Kingdom of Jin.

The diplomatic envoys between the two countries were entrusted with numerous diplomatic missions.

Such as ceremonial greetings, negotiations, memorial services, gift giving, spying, fulfillment of "peace talks", notification of important matters, etc.

The fifth Bingji was originally an envoy sent to the Song Dynasty to celebrate the New Year.

As a result, Zhao Gou died before he returned to the country.

Therefore, the fifth Bingji did not go back, and the Kingdom of Jin sent people to deliver two more letters to him.

He took out one copy first, and he became the "mourning envoy" of the Jin Kingdom.

When Zhao Yuan ascended the throne, he took out another one and became the "envoy of congratulations."

Later, Yang Yuan went north, the donkey hoof rebelled, and the Jin Dynasty split...

The fifth patient stayed in the Song Dynasty and became a "negotiator" to mediate all matters.

Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that the State of Song intended to detain him as a hostage.

If our envoys really cannot return, then your Jin envoys don't have to return either.

When Yang Yuan returned from the North, the situation in the Jin Kingdom had changed dramatically, and the diplomatic relations between the Song and Jin countries also needed to change.

Therefore, the Fifth Patient has once again transformed himself into the "envoy of establishing diplomatic relations" for the two countries to establish new diplomatic relations.

After doing this time and again, this guy became a regular visitor to "Banjingguan".

In the Purple Palace, Zhao Yu hid under the imperial throne and met with the Fifth Patient together with a group of ministers.

The fifth patient was filled with righteous indignation and passionately listed the seven sins of the Song Dynasty.

1. Secretly aid the New Jin and cause the Jin Dynasty to split.

2. Falsely accuse a group of criminals who forged the fake meeting notes as being sent by the Jin Kingdom to damage the reputation of the Jin Kingdom.

3. So far, they have not been willing to fully resume the trade between the two countries.

4. Employ treacherous and corrupt officials to create tension between the two countries.

5. The surge in prices caused the Jin State to suffer heavy losses in its trade with the Song State.

6. Gather troops to conquer new territories and use military force against Jin’s ally, Daxia.

7. Secretly send people to monitor the envoys’ residence and restrict their movements.

After the Fifth Bingji finished speaking, he immediately presented the letter from the Kingdom of Jin, announcing that the Kingdom of Jin and the Song Dynasty had officially severed diplomatic relations and became enemy countries from that day on.

Afterwards, the Fifth Patient proposed that he and the delegation return to China immediately and asked the Song Dynasty to send someone to escort them.

Although the Jin Dynasty claimed to be the orthodox Han Chinese, it was obviously the Song Dynasty that did more things that were orthodox to the Han Chinese.

Zhao Ju did not make things difficult for the envoy. Detaining an envoy would be of little use and would also waste food. So he asked the Privy Council to expel the Jin envoy from the Song Dynasty.

Within three days, news of attacks on various places along the border began to be reported to the court one after another.

The scale of the Jin army's attack was not large. Although they occupied some cities in the surprise attack, they did not capture many key passes.

For example, Fancheng was lost as expected, but Xiangyang and several cities around it were still firmly in the hands of the Song Dynasty. There was still a great chance of retaking the captured cities.

The Huai River and the Yangtze River are very important to the Song Dynasty. To defend the Yangtze River, one must defend the Huai River. Therefore, it is necessary to immediately organize a counterattack while the Jin army is unstable.

The situation was urgent and there was no time to ask the emperor for instructions. Zhao Ju discussed with the prime ministers and ministers of the six ministries, and issued military orders to the troops in the east and west of the Huai River, in order to fight as a defense and to protect the Huai River and the Yangtze River.

Large numbers of troops began to gather in Qinghekou, Yangzhou, Shouchun, Guangzhou and other places, preparing to launch an autumn offensive to recapture all lost territories in one fell swoop.

At the same time, Zhao Qu urgently dispatched envoys by speedboat to Xinjin to inform Song and Jin of the situation.

As long as Xinjin is not stupid, he will not miss this good opportunity.

As long as they make trouble behind the Jin Kingdom, they can relieve a lot of pressure from the Song Dynasty.

Fortunately, the Censorate has already made the decision to end the attack, consolidate the results of the battle, and digest the fruits of victory.

Otherwise, if the Censorate continued its efforts and launched an attack on other conservative forces, the Jin army would launch a large-scale attack on the Song Dynasty, and this internal struggle would have to stop immediately.

In that case, an action abandoned halfway would have serious consequences for the Censorate, and it might even be used by political opponents to force the court to impose sanctions on the Censorate.

Even so, in view of the tense state affairs and busy affairs, not only did Tang Shitui return to the Council of State, but Minister Tan, who had taken a long sick leave, also returned to the Ministry of Personnel "with illness".

The cleanup and adjustment being carried out by the Ministry of Personnel was also temporarily halted.

Now all internal conflicts should be put aside and all efforts should be made to prepare for the war in Lianghuai.

Yang Yuan originally wanted to arrange for Yuye, Bei'er, Jixiang and others to get married in the next few days, but he put it on hold because of this matter.

In early August, the Song Dynasty's gold-level express courier arrived in Lin'an three times a day, informing the emperor that he was on his way back to Lin'an.

Along with this news, there was also news that Western Xia troops had appeared in western Sichuan and almost posed a threat to Chengdu.

Although the emperor did not meet the Western Xia troops, and if he insisted on not leaving, the Western Army would certainly return to defend Chengdu with all its strength, and the sudden Western Xia troops might not have a chance to reach the city of Chengdu.

But for Lin'an, the few lines of text in the military intelligence report could not explain the situation in western Sichuan clearly.

For a time, rumors spread throughout Lin'an City, and the spies sent by the Jin Kingdom to the Song Dynasty began to post "posters" everywhere.

The Jin Kingdom and Western Xia joined forces to besiege the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty officials were trapped in Chengdu City.

The Emperor of the Song Dynasty was shot in one eye and was in critical condition.

Rumors are spreading everywhere, and it is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Soon after, there were rumors that the person who instigated the emperor to go to Chengdu to pray for the empress dowager was the current regent.

The regent is intentionally putting the emperor in danger in order to seize the throne.

The Regent Prince of Jin conspired with the Kingdom of Jin and Western Xia to concoct this conspiracy against the Song Dynasty.

All these things have caused the rumors to grow more and more intense.

The court officials who had participated in the imperial meeting naturally knew that Prince Jin had given up the throne that was within his grasp to his eldest brother.

But the public does not know this news.

No high-ranking official in the imperial court would leave the palace and brag: "The emperor should have been Zhao Qu, but he gave it to Zhao Yuan."

Therefore, this rumor is still very misleading.

The Goose King likes to take the blame, and this time he really took a lot of blame.

Because the Jin people spread fake Huizi, prices soared, and the coming of war further promoted the rise in prices.

When all these results emerged, the emperor was not in Lin'an.

Many people don’t know about these things, nor do they understand the cause and effect relationship between them.

They only knew that these disturbances occurred during the time when the emperor was away from Lin'an.

The court cut down on redundancy and severely punished corruption, which caused dissatisfaction among many officials.

Previously, Zhao Que punished some officials with thunder-like means and quickly suppressed this chaos.

Now that the military is tense, those officials who have been patient for a long time are bound to stir up trouble.

They don't need to be too blatant, they just need to pretend to obey and deliberately be lazy in their work. With just a little bit of trickery, you won't have any solid evidence to catch them, but the negative impact they have caused has already appeared.

As a result, public criticism of the regent became increasingly intense.

However, the Censorate must not jump out at this time to investigate and prosecute court officials and engage in tit-for-tat confrontation.

But... it's always possible to keep calm and collect evidence, right?
Such a big move can only be announced by the Chief Censor, but under the current situation, Zhu Zhuo also feels that no action should be taken for the time being.

In desperation, Yang Yuan found an excuse and said in front of more than a hundred censors at the meeting of the Censorate, "You can have fun now, we will make a list tomorrow."

The four big bosses Zhu Zhuo, Tan Yan, Wang Chenkun and Yang Wenjing just pretended to be deaf and dumb, but the censors understood what they meant. In silence, they stared at those officials who were "jumping happily".

Just by staring and staring, as he collected more and more intelligence, Yang Yuan gradually realized that something was wrong.

Many times, the "posters" posted by Jin spies on the streets, the ongoing war on the front, and the "fanning the flames" of some Song officials vaguely echoed each other.

Once or twice it can be called a coincidence, but so many times it is hard to say it is just a coincidence.

But... had the Jin people infiltrated to this extent? They had bribed so many Song officials? And they were spread across the court and the local areas, belonging to different government offices?

Yang Yuan firmly refused to believe this, but he had a feeling that there was an invisible big hand behind the scenes that was making all this happen.

It used the military operations of the Jin Kingdom and the Western Xia to put pressure on the Song Dynasty, used this pressure to create chaos, and used the chaos to discredit the regent, the Prince of Jin...

What is its purpose?
Soon, the Imperial City Department and the Machine Speed ​​Room also discovered many strange things and began to investigate.

Perhaps they have not yet realized the connection between these current events, and only think that with the coming of war, the economic chaos, and the instability of people's hearts, someone has taken the opportunity to stir up trouble.

The purpose of this kind of turmoil is to launch a counterattack against the changes in national policies and many reforms.

Because once domestic, foreign and military affairs are in chaos, or even if a major defeat occurs, it will prove that all previous changes were wrong.

The voice that had been suppressed will burst out again, and with greater force.

It will force all current changes to be reversed exactly and return to "normal".

Yang Yuan did not think that there might be other reasons at this time. He also believed that this was a counterattack launched by the parties whose interests were affected by the reform.

But how to break the deadlock?

Fight a battle!
And we must win.

Zhao Ju once again convened a "convenient hall meeting". After some discussion, the Zhongshu Sheren drafted the edict, the Zhongshu Province used the seal, the Menxia Province used the seal, the Shangshu Province promulgated it, and the Privy Council sent troops. The battle for the Song Dynasty to retake the lost cities in Lianghuai was launched in full swing!

(End of this chapter)