The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 181 This Letter is True

Zhao Gou's rapid progress became the biggest miracle in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty.

The Jin army pushed the "speed as the wind" in Sun Tzu's Art of War to the extreme, and launched a "deep raid tactic" that ranks among the top in the past 5,000 years of history, but they could not catch up with the speed of Zhao Gou's southern hunting.

On the third day of February, the Jin army arrived in Yangzhou.

But they immediately knew that Zhao Gou had abandoned Yangzhou and fled. Just by looking at the few small soldiers and generals guarding the city walls of Yangzhou, they knew that Zhao Gou was definitely not in the city.

The Jin army generals decisively abandoned Yangzhou and did not waste any time here. They went around the city and continued to chase south.

That night, the Jin army chased to Guazhou (now Guazhou Town).

But when the Jin army arrived at the river, they saw Zhao Gou had just boarded the boat. When they saw the Jin cavalry, the boat immediately rowed desperately and reached the middle of the river in the blink of an eye.

Jin Wushu, a brave general of the Jin Dynasty, stood by the river, looking at the boats in the middle of the river with a melancholy look on his face.

The Yangtze River is nothing compared to the small rivers and streams we encountered along the way.

The Jin army could no longer cross the river and pursue the enemy as easily as before, and could only sigh at the sight of the river.

From then on, the Jin army's plan to capture Zhao Gou completely failed.

The Fourth Song-Jin War ended here in stages.

This war created two miracles. One was the miracle of the Jin army's 2000-mile long-distance and deep attack, and the other was the miracle that Zhao Gou ran so fast that even the Jin army could only breathe his exhaust.

Later, even General MacArthur commented: "When Zhao Gou was escaping, a comet happened to pass by the Earth, but the comet ran away and broke its legs, but it could not catch up with Zhao Gou's speed."
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The temporary residence of Song Gaozong Zhao Gou is now a huge tower ship.

Although the Jin army was close at hand, Zhao Gou was no longer panicked.

He had even walked up to the bow and made an indecent gesture towards Jin Wushu on the riverbank, spouting a few words: "Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!"

After the competition, I felt victorious mentally and my mood improved a little.

I returned to the cabin and sat down, my emotions gradually calmed down.

After finally catching up with him in Guazhou, the Minister of Personnel, Lü Yihao, and the Vice Minister of Rites, Zhang Jun, walked in together and bowed respectfully. "Your Majesty, a messenger sent by the Governor of Dengzhou has been waiting to report urgent military information to you... It's time for you to meet him."

Zhao Gou's forehead was blocked: "Dengzhou?"

In his impression, a place like Dengzhou should have fallen into the hands of the Jin army long ago. What's the point of sending someone to deliver a message now?
Zhang Jun, the Minister of Rites, actually had a look of joy on his face. The messenger said, "Deng and Lai Prefectures are still in the hands of the Song Dynasty. A prince is in charge there, rallying the righteous army and resisting the offensive of the Jin bandits."

Zhao Gou was really shocked: "Ah? There's a prince here? Who?"

Zhang Jun: "It's your seventeenth brother and Wang Zhaoye."

A blank slate immediately flashed through Zhao Gou's mind...

His understanding of his Seventeenth Brother was a blank slate. They had never lived together, nor did they interact on a regular basis. When they met, they would just exchange a greeting, a nod, and a laugh, and then it was over. He wasn't even as close as the eunuch Kang Lu who was by his side. He couldn't even remember what his Seventeenth Brother looked like; even his facial features were vague. He only knew that he looked a bit like his father... Zhao Gou: "Is your Seventeenth Brother in Deng and Lai Prefectures?"

Zhang Jun vividly repeated the story the messenger had told him. Of course, the messenger's story was not as outlandish as the popular tale. There was no such nonsense as slaughtering hundreds of thousands of Jin troops and killing dozens of generals with spears. Instead, it said that he and Wang Zhaoye faked their own death and escaped, sailing out to sea. Due to strong winds and waves, they encountered a shipwreck and drifted to Laizhou, where they organized an army to resist the Jin army and were now basically stable.

Zhang Jun, though not very capable, was a staunch advocate of war. He was perhaps only slightly better than Shi Kefa of the late Ming Dynasty: a man of limited ability but a strong sense of responsibility and firm political stance.

After talking with the messenger, he was very happy, so he actively relayed the messenger's story to Zhao Gou. He was beaming with joy while speaking, and seemed quite happy.

Zhao Gou was infected by his emotions, and his brows relaxed slightly. He hurriedly said, "Send the messenger in quickly."

After a while, the messenger came in.

This messenger was lucky because he had been following Zhao Gou's rear guard team closely and said he wanted to report urgent military information, so the guards did not drive him away. When it came to boarding the ship, he actually got on the ship with the guards.

He was panicked for a while on the boat. He thought he would have to wait until he arrived in Jiangning to see Zhao Gou, but he unexpectedly ran into Zhang Jun who was strolling around. After telling Zhang Jun about the matter, this pro-war minister ran happily to help him find the emperor.

The messenger felt it was worth it to see the emperor once in his life. With trembling hands, he presented a letter: "Your Majesty, this... this is... a letter written to you by the prince himself..."

Zhao Gou nodded, and the eunuch next to him took the letter, checked it, and then handed it to him.

When Zhao Gou unfolded the letter, his expression became uncertain.

Zhang Jun saw his strange expression and thought there was something wrong with the letter, so he quickly asked, "Sir, is this letter fake?"

"Fake? It's not fake!" Zhao Gou immediately shook his head and said, "This is real. This letter is from my seventeenth brother, Zhao Zai. There's no mistake about it."

When he said this, his tone was firm, but he was sneering in his heart.

This was the second time he had received such a letter.

The first letter he received was from Wumashan in Hebei. The writer was his eighteenth brother, Prince Xin Zhao Zhen. At that time, he was not sure whether the letter was real, because his eighteenth brother was also a blank slate in his impression, and he could not even remember what he looked like.

But he thought carefully, why should I doubt the authenticity of this letter?
The bigger the rebels in Wumashan make trouble, the better. The more they make trouble, the more they can tie down the Jin army and give me some breathing space. Why should I push down the rebels' flag?
So, last time, Zhao Gou seriously determined that the letter was written by his eighteenth brother.

Of course it’s the same this time!

No matter whether you, Zhao Zai, are real or fake, just make trouble in Deng and Lai states. The more violent the better. Anyway, I have no desire for that piece of land. I will just let you become a thorn in the flesh of the Jin Kingdom.

Thinking of this, Zhao Gou's expression unexpectedly took on a hint of majesty. "Seventeenth brother, you did a great job! You actually managed to escape from Wuguo City and organize an army in Deng and Lai provinces to resist the Jin bandits. You are truly a role model! His story should be widely spread among our soldiers so that everyone can learn from him."

Zhang Jun also spoke up, "Your Majesty, since Deng and Lai Prefectures are likely to be able to hold off the Jin army, we might as well send a force north by boat, land on the Jiaodong Peninsula, and assist His Majesty in resisting the Jin bandits. We could even proactively attack and harass the Jin bandits' rear, perhaps opening up the situation and recovering the lost territory in Shandong."

When the messenger heard this, he was overjoyed and thought to himself: With the emperor praising us so much and Lord Zhang speaking for us, the court will definitely send reinforcements to help Deng and Lai states fight against the Jin army.

(End of this chapter)