[Lightscreen]
[In fact, the correspondence between Yue Fei and Zhao Gou basically ran through the entire course of the Fourth Northern Expedition.
According to historical records, the number of personal imperial edicts that Zhao Gou sent to Yue Fei before and after amounted to "several hundred."
Although most of them have been lost, some of the memorials and exchanges from the final period before Yue Fei's forced withdrawal were preserved.
On the eighteenth, Yue Fei was still opposing the order to withdraw, believing that "the balance of strength has been revealed, and success is already within reach." On the nineteenth, he submitted Zhang Xian's report of victory at Linying. On the twentieth, he reported to Zhao Gou that he had punished an official who had fled in battle.
The twenty-first was especially complicated.
That morning, Yue Fei defeated Jin Wushu's resistance at Zhuxian Town. In high spirits, he said to his subordinates, "This time, we will slaughter the Jin until Huanglong Prefecture, and then drink to our hearts' content with you all." At the same time, he also received an envoy from Han Chang within the army to discuss terms of surrender.
But within less than half a day, Yue Fei received several sternly worded imperial edicts from Zhao Gou, all demanding that he withdraw his army.
From the records such as "Respectfully obeying the repeatedly issued imperial instructions," it is not hard to see that Zhao Gou most likely used threats of demotion or even removal from office to force Yue Fei to retreat. This is what later history recorded as "receiving twelve golden command plaques in one day."
Whether the so-called scholars under Jin Wushu truly existed or were fictional is unclear, but the saying "since ancient times, there has never been a case where powerful ministers were inside the court while a great general could achieve success outside" accurately revealed Yue Fei's predicament.
Facing Zhao Gou's threats, he had no other choice. Even though he clearly knew that "ten years of effort would be ruined in a single day," he could only choose to withdraw.
When the people of Kaifeng heard the news, they blocked Yue Fei's army and wept, saying that the Jin troops already knew that we would welcome the general with food and drink. Now that the general is leaving, where is our road to survival?
Yue Fei had no choice but to take out the imperial edict with tears in his eyes and show it to the people, explaining, "I cannot remain on my own authority." Thus, outside Kaifeng Prefecture, the sound of crying shook the heavens.
Three days later, when the army withdrew to Caizhou, an examination graduate knelt before Yue Fei without stopping, crying and pleading. He said that we have fallen under occupation for nearly twelve years. Hearing that the general was leading the army north, we counted the days in hope. Now that our homeland is gradually being recovered, we believed our native land would finally return to China. Why would the general abandon a victory that is so close at hand?
Yue Fei could only take out the order to withdraw once again. Inside and outside the government offices, the crying broke out again. In the end, he had no choice but to stay in Caizhou for an additional five days to relocate the local population to Xiangyang and Hanyang.
After the Yue Family Army withdrew, Jin Wushu was the first to raise his head again. He first suppressed and reorganized his forces to "recover lost territory," and then dispatched men north to suppress various volunteer armies and restore contact with Yanjing.
Thus, the Fourth Northern Expedition failed just short of success.]
[Server Chat Log]
Crownless: Victory at Yancheng, victory at Linying, victory at Yingchang, victory at Zhuxian... all defeated by twelve gold plates.
IronMandate: Zhao Gou is selfish to the core. He's like Zhu Qizhen of the Ming, he knew Yu Qian was innocent but killed him anyway because he didn't care about the people, only his own security. History's moral floor was lowered significantly by him.
SteelOath: Zhao Gou wasn't stupid; he was just extremely selfish. He saw Yue Fei as a potential Liu Yu, a general who wins too much and then comes home to overthrow the Emperor. Zhao Gou didn't need a Yue Fei; he needed someone to physically wake up his brain.
Li Shimin: "What a tragedy, great ambitions left unfulfilled."
Liu Bei: "A tragedy indeed, the people of Henan and Hebei fall back into the tiger's mouth."
Zhao Kuangyin (Comment): "Tragic..."
SpamNerd: "Zhao Da, stop talking. You're the one who started the trend of 'stripping military power over a cup of wine'!"]
Facing the accusations from later generations, Zhao Kuangyin could only remain silent. But watching a northern expedition that had been winning all the way and singing songs of victory suddenly come to a halt, even he found it hard to breathe smoothly.
When he was in a bad mood, he decided to vent it.
Zhao Kuangyin curled his lips and gestured to the eunuch.
"Convey my verbal order to the Prince of Jin. The Prince of Jin has improper conduct. Have him beaten with one hundred strokes and ordered to reflect on his actions."
Liu Han naturally had no place to speak here. Zhao Pu thought it over and felt that one hundred strokes should be unlikely to beat someone to death, so he simply let Zhao Kuangyin have his way.
After all, since the founding of the Song, the Song Penal Code had stipulated the method of converting strokes. One hundred strokes actually meant twenty strokes to the buttocks. Death was still far away.
Seeing that no one raised objections, a perceptive eunuch immediately hurried out of the hall to convey the order to the imperial guards to carry it out on the Prince of Jin.
After slightly dealing with this troubling matter, Zhao Kuangyin sighed.
"With such a fierce general, yet with no one to support him and constantly suffering suspicion, the fall of the Southern Song is truly no surprise at all."
By this point, Zhao Pu had also roughly figured out the shameless nature of this collateral descendant and formed a guess.
"This Zhao Gou… could it be that he will wrongfully kill Yue Fei and then proceed to negotiate peace again?"
"Absolutely impossible!" Liu Han was so shocked by this speculation that he took two steps back.
For a moment, he even suppressed his doubts about the names of Tang Taizong and Emperor Zhaolie floating on the light screen, and instead felt that the emperor's guess was far too absurd.
"Yue Fei has won battle after battle. The military and civilians of Henan and Hebei must all be eagerly awaiting the Fifth Northern Expedition to return them to Song."
"Moreover, even if Yue Fei violated some command authority, he absolutely does not deserve death. A military officer being sentenced to death because of victory is something unheard of in ancient times. Why would Your Majesty speculate like this?"
Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Pu both fell silent.
For a moment, they did not know how to tell Liu Han that the Zhu Qizhen mentioned for comparison was a later Ming dynasty ruler whose incompetence was truly beyond words.
Especially since the later generations had already clearly explained Yu Qian's fate, it was only natural to make such a guess.
Zhao Pu hesitated, then chose to speak frankly.
"Liu Fengyu does not know. Previously, this light screen has occasionally mentioned Zhao Gou. Later generations consider him one of the rare incompetent and vile rulers in the historical record."
"At the beginning of this Fourth Northern Expedition, it was Jin Wushu who broke the Tianjuan peace agreement and invaded south. Although Yue Fei won repeatedly, the time was no more than two months. Zhao Gou stayed in the rear, and most likely still clung to a policy of seeking peace."
"At this time, Qin Hui, whom the Jin supported, was still in power as chancellor. Yue Fei had already offended Zhao Gou. How could this possibly end well?"
This analysis caused Liu Han to fall silent. In the end, he shook his head and said with difficulty.
"If such a loyal minister still ends up spilling blood in a wrongful prison, then Hebei and Henan will surely lose heart. From then on, throughout the rest of this Later Song dynasty, it will be difficult to speak of northern expeditions again."
Liu Han thought of his hometown Cangzhou, and then of the Jin coming and going at will. For a moment, the words he spoke carried a feeling of blood and tears.
But in the end, what he received was Zhao Pu's cold, humorless sneer.
"What Liu Fengyu says, Zhao Gou does not care about at all, nor about the anti-Jin generals of the Song."
Liu Han was stunned.
Hearing the contempt in Chancellor Zhao's voice, yet from his angle he also saw a trace of pain on Zhao Pu's face.
He then remembered that Chancellor Zhao was originally from Youzhou and later moved his entire family to Luoyang. Among the people who blocked Yue Fei's army and cried, there might well have been descendants of Chancellor Zhao.
In the end, Liu Han let out a soft sigh and said nothing more.