New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

Upon hearing that the Left Chancellor Li Gang was requesting an audience outside the palace, Zhao Gou's expression turned extremely unpleasant.

Since ascending the throne, Zhao Gou had been wavering between defending Tokyo and withdrawing from the Central Plains. Although Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan had been advising him to submit to the Jin Dynasty in order to seek temporary stability in the Central Plains, they were also making preparations for both possibilities. If things went wrong, in order to preserve the Zhao family line, being forced to move south would be an unavoidable situation.

However, Li Gang, a pro-war advocate who was reinstated, proposed to hold Tokyo, arguing that "if we keep retreating, our Great Song Dynasty will be nothing but a shell of its former self."

Zhao Gou has always been timid and fearful of trouble. Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to watch the Jin army break through the city and remain inactive when his elder brother Zhao Huan ordered him to send troops to aid Tokyo. In addition, since his current throne was hard-won, he had even less intention to confront the Jin army.

Deep down, Zhao Gou naturally had long preferred to flee to the south and live a peaceful life in a remote corner of the country.

However, Zong Ze did indeed have a group of fierce and capable generals under his command. After several months of fighting, they had routed the retreating Jin army.

The battle report said that a young general, riding a white horse and wielding a silver spear, pursued the Jin army for dozens of miles, engaging in thirteen battles with them, and each battle brought back a report of victory.

Such a gratifying victory boosted Zhao Gou's confidence to the point of overflowing. He thought that if he could take this opportunity to recover the lost territories of his father and brother, it would leave a strong mark on the history books in the future, which would be a wonderful thing.

The news brought by Tang Qian, who had just returned from the Jin Kingdom, finally shook Zhao Gou to his core. The Jin army had retreated to the border, not because they were afraid of the Song army, but because they were sending prisoners of war back to the rear while regrouping their forces and launching a third southward campaign.

Even if Zong Ze's Cizhou army is highly capable, can they really withstand the Jin army's iron cavalry? If Hebei falls, he, the newly enthroned emperor, will have to follow in the footsteps of his father, Emperor Huizong, and his elder brother, Emperor Huan, and reunite with them in the Jin Kingdom.

With this in mind, Zhao Gou did not hesitate at all this time and immediately issued an edict to prepare for the relocation of the capital to the south.

The emperor was determined to flee, and even if the Left Chancellor Li Gang knelt outside the palace until half of his body went numb, it was to no avail.

"The Emperor's words are law, and his decrees cannot be easily changed. Your Highness should return as soon as possible and command the Imperial Guards to march south; that is the most important thing."

Zhao Gou refused to see him, and Li Gang planned to remonstrate to the death, but he couldn't even enter the main hall where the emperor was. The anger that had been building up in his heart immediately surged to the top of his head. Although he was a scholar-general, he also had a ruthless streak. He suddenly stood up, grabbed the eunuch who was delivering the imperial edict by the collar with one hand, and drew the long sword from his waist with the other, holding it to the other's neck: "It is precisely because Your Majesty has cowardly rats like you around, that my Great Song Dynasty has been eroded to such an extent."

Terrified by Li Gang's roar, the eunuch delivering the imperial decree nearly wet himself: "**Don't be impulsive. There's a cause for every grievance, and a debtor for every debt. The Emperor's decree to retreat south has nothing to do with us. It was all instigated by the Imperial Son-in-Law, Commandant Tang Qian."

"Tang Qian? Is he the son of Tang Huan, the Vice Minister of Revenue?"

Upon receiving the eunuch's affirmative reply, Li Gang suddenly sneered, "That day, this lad risked his life to bring back news of the Jin army's invasion of Song from Youzhou. I thought he was a loyal and righteous man, but now it seems he's just a shameless scoundrel. Where is Tang Qian? I want to ask him what his true intentions were in advising the Emperor to move south!"

Having ascertained where he was going, Li Gang, carrying his gleaming longsword, was about to confront Tang Qian. Before the eunuch delivering the decree could even catch his breath, the Emperor suddenly stopped and turned around again.

He pulled a letter from his bosom and tossed it to the imperial eunuch: "Present this letter to His Majesty. This is the heartfelt voice of tens of thousands of soldiers on the front lines. I urge His Majesty to consider this carefully before acting."

The eunuch who was delivering the decree dared not disobey, so he had no choice but to hold the letter in both hands and run into the palace.

Upon hearing that Li Gang had left, Zhao Gou's previously uneasy mood finally calmed down. He did not want to rely on this stubborn old man who dared to criticize Zhao Huan as a tyrant in court. However, looking at the capable people around him, it was only this Minister Li, who had defended the capital city of Kaifeng to the death, who could deter all the villains inside and outside the court. It was precisely because of Li Gang's protection that Zhao Gou was able to sit firmly on the throne.

As a result, Zhao Gou impatiently opened the letter in the eunuch's hand. The handwriting was strong and powerful, obviously written by a military general. The contents of the letter made the new emperor Zhao Gou furious.

"Your Majesty has ascended the throne, and the nation has a ruler. This is sufficient to plan the campaign against the enemy. However, the loyalist armies are gathering daily, and the enemy believes that we are inherently weak. We should take advantage of their complacency to attack them. Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan are incapable of fulfilling Your Majesty's wishes to restore the Central Plains. They are escorting the imperial carriage further south, and I fear they are insufficient to secure the hopes of the Central Plains. I urge Your Majesty to take advantage of the enemy's weakened position and personally lead the six armies north across the river. This will inspire the soldiers, and the Central Plains can be recovered."

"Who presented this letter?"

Zhao Gou's question startled the eunuch beside him: "Yue Fei, the Martial Wing Gentleman."

"Is that Yue Pengju who won thirteen consecutive battles against the Jin army?" Upon receiving confirmation from the eunuch, Zhao Gou suddenly snorted coldly, "He's just a mere 44th-rank military officer. Does he think he can presume to discuss state affairs just because he has some military merits? He's utterly outrageous."

Picking up the vermilion brush on his desk, Zhao Gou wrote eight large red characters on the letter without hesitation: "This humble subject has overstepped his bounds and said things that are not appropriate for him."

After folding the letter and putting it back into the envelope, Zhao Gou turned to the eunuch who was delivering the decree and said, "Tell Zong Ze to remove Yue Fei from his military post and military register, expel him from the army, and never employ him again."

Meanwhile, in another pavilion, Tang Qian was chatting with Zhao Yingluo and Wanyan Xi. Both of them felt that now that they had entered Song territory, it was really inappropriate to still call the Seventh Princess by her real name.

Wanyan Xi also believed that since she had followed Tang Qian out of Youzhou, she had already betrayed the Great Jin Dynasty, and therefore was no longer qualified to use the surname Wanyan. Changing her name was like restarting her life.

"A name is given by one's parents and should not be changed. As for the surname, how about removing the character 'Wan' and keeping only 'Yan'? What does the princess think?"

“Yan Xi?” Zhao Yingluo repeated it several times. “Red face and green hair, Xi Shui like a beautiful woman, this name does suit the princess’s temperament.”

Although Wan Yanxi only had a vague understanding of the two idioms Zhao Yingluo blurted out, she felt that it shouldn't be anything bad. Wasn't Tang Qian also praising Zhao Yingluo for her quick wit?

"Alright, from today onwards, Yan Xi will be my name. Please don't call me by the wrong name again."

"It is indeed a good name, but you, Prince Consort, only know how to indulge in romance and pleasure all day long, and you do not know how to be loyal to the country. Aren't you worried about how you will face your old father in the afterlife?"