The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 180 Zhao Gou's Southern Hunt
Yue Wenxuan said pretentiously, "Bring me the four treasures of the study. I want to write a letter to my brother."

The servant quickly brought the four treasures of the study.

Yue Wenxuan wrote it in front of the officials.

His body is just an empty shell, but he still has the basic "prince setting". He can read and write, and can write "classical Chinese" using the language habits of the Song Dynasty.

Perhaps he inherited the genes of Emperor Huizong of Song, his calligraphy skills are pretty good, and the words he wrote are readable and not shameful.

In a short while, a letter full of emotion and passion was written.

In the letter, he lamented that he had suffered inhuman torture in the Jin Kingdom, and had narrowly escaped death while drifting on the sea and being tortured by a storm. Now he could not go back by land, and had contracted a "disease that would kill him if he took a boat". He did not dare to take the sea route, so he had to be trapped in Denglai and Lai states. Fortunately, he was taken care of by local rebels and officials, so he was able to survive. He begged his brother, the emperor, to send troops to save his life.

All the officials present nodded after reading the letter, and they all thought it was well written. If this letter could be delivered, the government would surely send troops to help.

The prefect of Dengzhou put the letter away carefully and said: "I will arrange for a speedboat right away. When the emperor sees this letter, he will bring reinforcements to rescue the prince. Please rest assured, your highness."

After all, this was a matter of life and death, so the magistrate of Dengzhou was very concerned about it. After returning to Dengzhou Port, he immediately prepared a speedboat and asked his most trusted confidant to protect the letter and bravely cross the Pacific Ocean to seek help from Yangzhou.

Next, the officials began to look forward to the reinforcements that this letter would bring...

However, what they received was bad news one after another.

In the first month of the third year of Jianyan (1129 AD), the Jin general Wanyan Yinshu occupied Xuzhou.

After learning that Yangzhou was unprepared, Wanyan Zonghan personally led the main force to attack Song general Han Shizhong, while sending elite cavalry to disguise a surprise attack on Yangzhou.

On the 27th day of the first lunar month, a group of 5,000 Jurchen cavalry set out from Dongping, Shandong, and arrived at Linhuai (now in Si County, Anhui) on the bank of the Huai River.

At this time, the left prime minister Huang Qianshan and the right prime minister Wang Boyan still concealed military intelligence and suggested that Zhao Gou send Li Ye, Zhou Wang and others to the Jin camp to seek peace.

Under the pretext of peace talks, the Jin army ordered Zhao Gou not to leave Yangzhou. At the same time, they defeated the armies of Han Shizhong and Liu Guangshi and crossed the Huai River...

On the second day of February, the Jin army broke through Chuzhou and captured Tianchangjun...

Meanwhile, Song Gaozong Zhao Gou was in his temporary residence in Yangzhou, frowning as he watched the song and dance performance before him...

The singing girls and dancers all looked a little listless. There were many bad rumors circulating among the people, and everyone was wondering when the Jin thieves would come. The people had no desire to work, and even the singing girls and dancers were worried about their own fate.

Zhao Gou also looked listless. The many bad news he had received in recent days had severely affected his energy and spirit, making him feel a little weak and unable to muster any interest in anything...especially that kind of thing...

"Report!"

A guard ran in, his voice filled with fear: "About five thousand gold thieves have crossed the Huai River and breached Chuzhou City."

"What?" Zhao Gou was shocked.

The officials who were watching the opera and listening to the music with him were also very frightened.

The distance between Chuzhou City and Yangzhou is only two hundred miles.

With the speed of the Jin cavalry, a distance of two hundred miles seemed nothing; they charged at him instantly. Zhao Gou was so frightened that his soul flew away. He stopped watching the singing and dancing, leaped to his feet, and turned behind the screen. Outside, his expression remained calm, but once inside, his face was no longer controllable. It collapsed, his facial features becoming unruly and all acting independently. His eyebrows twitched wildly, his eyes widened, his nose struggled to draw air, his lips trembled, his ears briefly stopped working...

Zhao Gou shouted urgently to the eunuch Kang Lu, the eunuch in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Wang Yuan, the commander of the Imperial Camp, who were standing beside him: "Bring the horses! Move quickly! Move now."

Kang Lu was shocked. "Your Majesty, we can't just leave like that. It won't look good if word gets out. We need to find a reason to leave."

Zhao Gou didn't have time to think of a plausible excuse and shouted, "I heard that the Zhu Po Long in Jiangning is very ferocious, eating civilians alive and endangering the local area. We must go and eliminate this pest for the people. Quickly, send an order and tell them that I want to hunt the Zhu Po Long in the south."

Kang Lu thought: The government is panicking, and they've come up with this excuse. There's already a pig dragon in Yangzhou, so there's no need to hunt it in Jiangning. And even a jerk like me can tear a pig dragon apart with my bare hands, so how could it eat ordinary people alive? Forget it, I won't complain about the government at this point. Get out of here, or I'll be dead too.

As a result, the entire temporary camp became busy and everyone was preparing to run away.

When the soldiers under Wang Yuan, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Camp, heard they were going to Jiangning to deal with Zhu Polong, they all looked strange. But on closer thought, Zhu Polong's combat effectiveness was not important at all; escaping was the most important thing.

No matter what the reason is, let alone dealing with Zhu Polong, even if the government says that there are silkworms eating people in Jiangning, everyone has to believe it.

Zhao Gou was too lazy to even discuss it with his left and right prime ministers, nor did he arrange any "imperial ceremonial procession". He just rode a good horse, surrounded by a large group of guards and eunuchs, and galloped south.

As he ran, civil and military officials mounted their horses and chased after Zhao Gou.

The whole city was shaken, and the entire Yangzhou city was in chaos with people crying for their parents.

At this moment, the messenger sent by the governor of Dengzhou to ask for help had just entered the city.

As soon as I entered the city, I saw that the whole Yangzhou city looked like the end of the world, with horses galloping on the streets and people hiding in their houses trembling.

He didn't know what had happened. He asked for directions along the way and ran towards Zhao Gou's temporary residence. When he arrived at the door, he bumped into a group of eunuchs and guards who were escorting Zhao Gou's concubines out of the temporary residence and were also running south.

These people were either rich or noble, and usually they had a grand procession, but today they all kept a low profile and just walked with their heads down.

The Dengzhou messenger had no choice but to shout to the guards outside the team: "I am sent by the Dengzhou governor, and I have urgent military information to report..."

Guard: "Don't play anything now! The emperor is hunting in Jiangning to deal with Zhu Polong and restore peace in the area."

The Dengzhou messenger had lived in Shandong since childhood and didn't know what a pig dragon was. When he first heard the name, he thought it was a very ferocious monster, the kind that could stir up trouble. He couldn't help but be frightened, but he still said, "I'm reporting urgent military information."

"No matter how urgent the military situation is, is the threat of the Pig Dragon greater?" The guard was annoyed. "The Pig Dragon is almost eating up the people of Jiangning. To protect the people's safety, the government is extremely urgent. You wait for me, and we'll talk when we get to Jiangning."

Dengzhou Messenger: “…”

There was no room for discussion, so the Dengzhou messenger had no choice but to follow this group of idiots.

Zhao Gou took the lead and ran very fast. Even Zhao Gou's rear officials ran very fast. The two-legged people in the team all ran as fast as four legs. The Dengzhou messenger was able to be a messenger, so of course he had strong legs, but in order to keep up with this group of women, he had to use all his strength and ran until he was out of breath.

On the way, he saw eunuchs and court ladies running faster than him several times. He couldn't help but doubt his life and felt that he was not qualified to be a messenger.

(End of this chapter)