The emperor is biased and wants to kill me, but you chickened out when the army is at the city gates

The Great City of the Jurchen Kingdom.

The news of Tu Lanjun's defeat spread throughout the city in less than a quarter of an hour.

The Jurchen emperor Fuchahar was furious and questioned him on the spot in the main hall.

Grand Preceptor Gurna dared not shirk responsibility and took the initiative to say, "Your Majesty, this defeat was entirely due to my misjudgment."

"If I hadn't mistakenly trusted the Great Qi Allied Forces, which led to my forced retreat, our army would not have suffered such heavy losses."

Upon hearing this, the Jurchen emperor remained silent, his sharp gaze sweeping over Tu Lan.

"Your Majesty, the biggest reason for this defeat lies with me, not with the Imperial Advisor."

"Your humble servant is willing to bear all responsibility for this defeat."

Upon hearing this, Gulna was somewhat moved and anxiously tried to explain further, but the Jurchen emperor roared in fury:

"You two idiots, still don't you understand why you lost?"

Gulna and Tulan were instantly stunned by the scolding, exchanging bewildered glances, not understanding the Jurchen emperor's meaning.

The Jurchen emperor was furious and threw a letter at the two men: "Read it yourselves!"

Tu Lan quickly picked it up from the ground and then scanned it rapidly.

Upon seeing this, he seemed to freeze in place, unresponsive to Gulna's calls.

Left with no other option, Gourner could only snatch the letter and read it himself.

Then, his eyes suddenly snapped open, and his face turned deathly pale.

His eyes were filled with disbelief. He stared blankly at the Jurchen emperor, opening his mouth several times, but couldn't utter a single word.

"puff!"

In that instant, Gulna coughed up a mouthful of blood and slowly fainted in the hall.

The Jurchen emperor frowned slightly, but did not rush to order someone to help the dignified Grand Preceptor up or send him away. Instead, he continued to question him coldly: "Tu Lan, do you know your mistake?"

Tu Lan gave a bitter laugh and knelt down with a thud: "Your humble servant knows his crime."

The letter we just heard came from the Great Qi Empire. It angrily denounced the Jurchen Kingdom for breaking its promises, which led to the failure of the plan.

Only now did Tu Lan finally come to her senses. Da Qi was determined to join forces with the Jurchens to eliminate Qin Xuan. However, Qin Xuan's divisive tactics led Tu Lan to believe that this was a conspiracy by Da Qi, causing her to turn against Da Qi and miss the best opportunity to eliminate Qin Xuan.

“Your Majesty, this Prince Qin Xuan of Chu is truly intelligent and brave, possessing unparalleled talent. Given the situation at the time, although our Tu Lan army fell into the trap, it was something we had no choice but to accept,” the Minister of War suddenly stepped forward and said with certainty.

No sooner had he finished speaking than another military officer chimed in, "The Minister of War is right. If any of these military officers were in General Tu Lan's position at the time, they would not have been able to see through Qin Xuan's scheme!"

Upon hearing this, all the civil and military officials in the court looked at each other in bewilderment.

Qin Xuan's strategy was truly extraordinary, beyond the reach of ordinary people, let alone anyone who dared to boast that they could break the deadlock and defeat Qin Xuan.

From that moment on, the entire Jurchen Kingdom regarded Qin Xuan as a powerful enemy, a god of war, and dared not underestimate him in the slightest.

"Tu Lan, can you hear what the officials are saying? If you don't rein in your arrogance, I will surely behead you next time."

The Jurchen emperor's voice was full of authority, but Tu Lan was filled with gratitude, knowing that this was her last chance.

"Go back and reflect on your mistakes in seclusion for a month, and your salary will be deducted for a year," the Jurchen emperor said in a deep voice.

Tu Lan kowtowed heavily to the ground, his hands and shoulders prostrating himself: "Your subject thanks Your Majesty for your great kindness!"

On the other hand, Sun Wei, also a defeated general, was clearly not as fortunate as Tu Lan.

Before he could even return to the capital, having just settled in Tianshan City, an imperial edict from the capital arrived.

“Sun Wei, the commander of the allied forces, has mismanaged the army and disrupted morale. He is hereby removed from his position as commander of the allied forces and escorted to the capital to await further judgment.”

"Furthermore, the allied forces cannot be without a commander for even a day. Therefore, an imperial edict has been issued to grant Liu Zhizhong the position of commander-in-chief, and he shall temporarily remain in Tianshan City."

One imperial edict and two orders left Sun Wei completely stunned.

“I was wronged. The one who really disrupted morale was Liu Zhizhong, not me.”

"I have a military supervisor who can testify that from beginning to end, all I wanted was to win this battle!"

Sun Wei panicked and tried her best to argue loudly.

The eunuch in charge of delivering the imperial decree just gave a sinister smile: "General Sun, you should save these words for His Majesty. I don't understand your fighting and killing."

Having said that, he ignored Sun Wei, who was already acting like a madman, and approached Liu Zhizhong with a smile, saying ingratiatingly, "General Liu, oh no, I should say Commander Liu, please accept this imperial edict!"

Liu Zhizhong laughed heartily, respectfully accepted the gift with both hands, and then secretly slipped two silver notes to the other party.

The eunuch delivering the decree immediately laughed and whispered, "When we came, His Highness the Third Prince instructed us to pass on a message to you: be sure to guard Tianshan City with peace of mind."

"Your humble servant obeys the decree." Liu Zhi was overjoyed.

On his way back to Tianshan City, he secretly sent someone to deliver a message, blaming Sun Wei for all the reasons for the defeat, and then relayed it to the Third Prince Qin Zhen.

By the time Sun Wei submitted his memorial, it was already too late.

"Liu Zhizhong, you'll die a horrible death! It was clearly you..."

Sun Wei was furious and couldn't help but step forward to attack.

But at this moment he was no longer the commander. Liu Zhizhong was not afraid at all. He just coldly shouted, "Come on, why don't you put this prisoner into the prison cart and send him to the capital?"

In the courtyard, the former Qingyun Army soldiers hesitated and looked at each other in bewilderment.

But Liu Zhizhong had no patience for that. He immediately grinned and said, "If you don't make a move, I will punish you all equally."

Upon hearing this, the Qingyun Army dared not delay any longer and immediately took Sun Wei away.

Beining City.

Ten days have passed since the war began, and the entire city of Beining has finally returned to its original peaceful state.

In this great battle, the Shence Army suffered more than 20,000 dead, more than 18,000 wounded, and another 10,000 civilians died while temporarily participating in the battle.

Such losses are undoubtedly huge for the Shence Army. After all, the Shence Army had already lost 20,000 men before, and now another 20,000 have been lost. In fact, these Shence Army veterans are only left with about 60,000 men.

Fortunately, new recruits are being continuously brought in these past two days, and it is believed that the Shence Army will soon surpass 100,000 in number.

However, to restore their original combat strength, they still need to train hard day and night.

In the council hall of the Beining City government office, all of Qin Xuan's generals had arrived.

Zhao Luoying was the first to speak: "Beining City has temporarily recovered, but all industries in the city are still waiting to be revitalized, especially the food supply, which remains critical."

Beining City is located in the cold north, where not only is fertile land scarce, but the population is also sparse.

Without a sufficient population, enough wasteland cannot be cultivated, leading to a vicious cycle.

Every year at this time, if there is no war, Beining City will buy grain to get by.

However, given the current situation, neither the Jurchen Kingdom nor the Great Qi Empire can sell grain to Beining City anymore.

"Food is of utmost importance, and I will handle this matter personally."

The food and warm clothing brought by the monkeys have been stored in the warehouse, but this is only a temporary measure.

Although the situation was urgent, Qin Xuan seemed to have already made up his mind, and calmly asked, "What about the other situations?"

“I have been studying local gazetteers and visiting some places these past few days. I have discovered that there are not only coal mines in Beining City, but also other metal deposits waiting to be discovered.”

"Although we cannot buy grain locally at present, if we go a little further north, we can trade with Khanate, Goryeo, and even the Xiongnu."

"Therefore, I believe that we should quickly form caravans, protect them with the Shence Army, and then expedite trade."

"As for the city, we should speed up the reclamation of wasteland to prepare for next year's spring planting. At the same time, we should send people to explore those mineral deposits, hoping that they will be of some use to Beining City."

Zhuge Xuan had clearly done in-depth research, which is why he spoke so logically and systematically.

Qin Xuan nodded and said, "In that case, the strategist should hurry up and assign tasks. As for the reclamation and mining, I will personally take charge of them."