New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

As Yue Fei had predicted, the Jin army, terrified of being defeated, dared not set up camp outside Guangling City any longer. As soon as it was dawn, Wanyan Xie ordered the camp to be broken up and retreated to Gaoyou City.

Although the city walls of Gaoyou were not particularly high, they were still enough to keep Tang Qian's Song army out. With his ragtag bunch, it wouldn't be a problem for him to stand on the city walls and throw bombs down. As for attacking the city, Wanyan Xie was confident that the two sides would only need one round to rout those local militia.

They came with high morale, but left dejected. Looking at this defeated army with no spirit left, Wanyan Xieye's face was so gloomy that it could drip water. He thought he would try to boost morale after returning to Gaoyou, but how could Yue Fei let him leave so easily?

The distance between Guangling and Gaoyou is 150 li. Even if Wanyan Xie ordered a forced march, it would be impossible to cover this distance in a single day.

Whenever the Jin army needed to camp overnight in the wild, it presented Yue Fei with an excellent opportunity to lead his troops to raid the camp.

For Wanyan Xieye and his remaining troops, this was destined to be another sleepless night.

That night, Yue Fei launched four raids, two of which directly penetrated the camp. The exhausted Jin army was unable to organize an effective defense. They barely made it to dawn, but the headcount caused their commander, Wanyan Xie, to cough up blood and faint once again.

After another continuous forced march, the remaining Jin army finally caught a glimpse of Gaoyou City.

The moment the Jin army stationed in the city opened the city gates, thousands of soldiers wept with joy. The past few days under the walls of Guangling City had been a nightmare they could hardly bear to recall. Their safe return to Gaoyou was a journey that had been fraught with peril.

It's a miracle that I'm still alive.

When the Jin army entered the city, the Song army following behind could not continue to advance, but their mission was not yet over.

Bypassing the city from the outside, Yue Fei led two thousand cavalrymen northward, intending to block the official road between Chuzhou and Yangzhou and attack the Jin army's supply train coming from Xuzhou.

As a message sent back to the Jin Dynasty via an urgent courier, news spread quickly that Wanyan Xieye's 50,000-strong Eastern Route Army had suffered repeated defeats at the gates of Guangling City, causing an uproar throughout the Jin court and the country.

As the Grand Marshal of the Wanyan clan, the royal family of the Jin Dynasty, who had won every battle since the uprising, Wanyan Xie also made great contributions to the establishment of the Jin Dynasty. He commanded the key battles that destroyed the Liao and Song Dynasties and never suffered a defeat. He can be called the mainstay of the Jin Dynasty.

Who would have thought that the giant sailboat, which had withstood raging storms and towering waves, would capsize in the small ditch of Guangling? And its opponent was a mere boy not even old enough to be considered a man.

This young man was a hostage held in Youzhou by the Jin Dynasty just six months ago.

This is simply unbelievable.

Although no one believed it, the battle report written by Wanyan Xieye himself could not possibly be fake. The fact was that the Jin Dynasty had indeed been defeated, defeated by an unknown young man from the Song Dynasty.

In the council hall of the Great Jin Palace in Liaoyang, Wanyan Wuqimai, upon receiving the battle report, seemed to have aged several years overnight. He threw the memorial in his hand onto the table in front of him, rubbed his slightly throbbing forehead, and asked in a weak voice, "Does anyone have any good strategies to defeat the enemy?"

After a long silence and a series of glances, one of the civil and military officials standing in the hall finally stepped forward: "Your Majesty need not worry. The Grand Marshal is a brilliant strategist and should have already devised a plan to capture Guangling. However, I have another plan to win hearts and minds. I wonder if Your Majesty thinks it is feasible?"

Wanyan Wuqimai immediately perked up: "Tell me about it."

If Tang Qian were present at this moment, he would immediately recognize that the person who offered advice to the Jin emperor was none other than XZ, the former head of the Song Dynasty's delegation to Youzhou and the Vice Minister of War.

After a moment of contemplation, XZ lowered his head to organize his words, then bowed to the emperor: "Tang Qian, the lord of Guangling City of the Great Song Dynasty, has pledged his life to the Seventh Princess of the Great Jin Dynasty. This is now a fait accompli. Whether Your Majesty acknowledges it or not, he is the consort of the Great Jin Dynasty. Your Majesty can make a move on this and grant him a title, so that Tang Qian will surrender voluntarily. This is one strategy."

Wanyan Wuqimai glanced at the other man, thinking, "Listen to what this old man is saying! He knows that the Seventh Princess Wanyan Xi is his taboo. When he learned that his daughter had betrayed the Great Jin, he said that he would consider her dead. Now he plans to use Wanyan Xi's status as a princess to recruit Tang Qian? Isn't this just slapping himself in the face?"

"Guolun Hulubojilie made it very clear in his letter that he had already said this to Tang Qian, but the other party was completely unmoved. Even my rebellious son Wanyan Xi has no intention of returning. Do you expect me to shamelessly beg them? Where is the dignity of my Great Jin?"

"If the Seventh Princess is unwilling to return to the court, we can use Tang Qian's father, Tang Huan, as a hostage to threaten her. The Song Dynasty values ​​propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame. As a son, Tang Qian will never remain indifferent when his father's life is threatened. As long as we can disrupt the enemy's morale, our army's attack on the city will naturally be twice as effective."

These words made Wanyan Wuqimai reach out and touch his chin, which was covered with a thick beard: "Where is Tang Huan? Bring him to me."

After Tang Huan was escorted to the Jin Kingdom, he did not follow the two Song emperors to Wuguo City. Instead, he was detained in Liaoyang as a prisoner. When the emperor said he wanted to see him, the imperial guards immediately went to the Ministry of Justice prison and brought him over.

After a quick wash and tidying up, the prisoner Tang Huan finally regained some of his former spirit and swaggered into the palace. He planned to point at Wanyan Wuqimai's nose, hurl a string of curses, and then smash his head against the main hall and die.

Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered the council hall and before he could even speak, Wanyan Wuqimai, who was sitting on the dragon throne, immediately came to greet him.

The very first sentence he uttered left Tang Huan frozen in place, unsure of what to do.

"You have some nerve, treating my daughter's in-laws like this." Wanyan Wuqimai faced Tang Huan with a very ugly smile. "Now that your son has married my daughter, we are family. How can you possibly imprison Minister Tang?"

Upon hearing this, Tang Huan was taken aback at first, then laughed heartily: "My son actually took the Jin princess as his concubine? This is truly a wonderful thing. I am more than satisfied to hear this news before I die."

Tang Huan knew that Tang Qian and Zhao Yingluo were to marry by imperial decree. Now that his son had married Wanyan Xi, wasn't that tantamount to taking a concubine?

Although the Song Dynasty suffered repeated defeats on the battlefield, what Tang Qian did truly brought honor to the men of the Song Dynasty.

It must be said that Tang Qian did a great job, at least enough to make him, as the father, stand tall in front of the Jin emperor.