“Your Majesty! Battle report from the front! Our army is annihilated, the Chancellor…..the Chancellor died in battle…..Now the troops of the Southern King are marching towards Dadu…..” The soldier knelt in the middle of the court hall.

The entire imperial court broke out in an uproar.

The emperor’s vision went dark and he clutched at his chest, almost falling down.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

The eunuch next to him hurriedly supported him, and the civil and military officials all looked terrified.

Hama was also dazed at this time.

Standing in the position closest to the emperor, both his hands and feet went cold, and his whole body became stiff. He never thought that Wang Baobao would lose, nor had he imagined that Wang Baobao would die. The way he saw it, this was a battle that was sure to be won.

Whether it was the news delivered by his goddaughter or the news heard by the spies, it all showed signs that Hanyang was just a paper tiger.

But now…..

Hama trembled all over.

At this time, an official stood up and said: “Your Majesty! There are very few troops left at the court, so we should act decisively! We can retreat to Luanjing, that way we can guarantee the survival of our Great Yuan! One day we will regain our strength and regain Dadu.”

The emperor took a few breaths.

Xuexue suddenly said: “No! Back then, how could we surrender the Central Plains that Xue Chan Khan conquered with so much hardship? What is your intention? Wang Baobao is not worthy of the sacred grace, but naturally there are other generals who can turn the tide!”

“Your Majesty, we musn’t retreat!”

Hama glanced at his younger brother.

He took a deep breath and took a step out from the line, “Your Majesty, this official believes that…..the best policy is to retreat to Luanjing.”

Xuexue’s eyes widened, and he looked at his brother in disbelief.

The emperor grabbed the armrest of his throne. He looked around and asked, “What do you all think?”

The courtiers knelt down one after another, with their foreheads touching the ground.

The emperor waved his hand in exhaustion: “Move the capital.”

Most cities without troops to guard it were just fat pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

On the road, Xuexue hurried to catch up with Hama. He was born with a mouth that stuck out, a chin like that of an ape’s and was thin in stature. Many people say that he is not worthy of his name. Without a good elder brother, he would not be able to reach his current position in this life. Xuexue did not like to hear such words. He didn’t feel like he was inferior to his elder brother. He chased after Hama and asked breathlessly: “Brother, why didn’t you help me speak? Leaving to Luanjing, that is too far away from the Central Plains!”

“Back then, when the Song Dynasty was weak, it still took more than 20 years. Song people place importance on the literati and even so it took that long to conquer, and now retreating to Luanjing, in the future…..”

Hama: “Do you think I don’t know?”

Xuexue didn’t speak, but looked at Hama.

Hama sneered: “My position as the Head of the Palace Secretariat, you, the Senior Imperial Censor, are only useful in front of His Majesty. What is the use of the two of us while being trapped in Dadu? How many people in the court want us to die? Staying in Dadu, the courtiers will put pressure on His Majesty to kill me even if he didn’t want to. Going to Luanjing will give us a chance to find a path of survival.”

Xuexue: “Brother, that is impossible. Most of the people in the court belong to our side.”

Hama: “If we can give them benefits, they are our people, if we can’t give them benefits, we are their stumbling block.”

“Xuexue, the brain is for use, not for viewing.”

“Go back and pack up your things, the valuable things that can be exchanged for gold and silver should be exchanged as soon as possible, don’t bring too many things, so as not to have trouble on the road.” Hama made one last warning before he mounted his horse on the side of the official road, and galloped back to his manor with a crack of his whip.

Leaving Xuexue standing alone.

Xuexue raised his head to look at the sky. It was now April, but why did he feel that it was still cold?

When did the Yuan Dynasty begin to decline?

Their ancestors sacrificed so much before they managed to conquer the Central Plains, but it took only a few years before they were driven out again.

Xuexue wiped his face.

And then also mounted his horse.

The emperor was assisted by the eunuch and returned to his palace. His health had not been good for a long time. In his early years he had overindulged in the harem, so now his physique appeared strong on the outside but was weak in reality. After taking alchemical pills, it only became worse day after day. But after all, he had a stubborn will to live, and couldn’t die that easily.

The eunuchs in the palace were now mostly Han. Since Pu Buhua, the palace became reluctant to use Goryeo eunuchs. (TN: favored eunuch of the third empress of Yuan Shun who was also from Goryeo) 

In the early days, there were not many eunuchs in the palace, but Kublai followed the Han system, and eunuchs slowly took power. At that time, most of the eunuchs came from Goryeo and Burma, as were the concubines in the harem. After the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, all the kings of Goryeo were the son-in-laws of the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty.

“Is there no one from Goryeo this year to come pay tribute?” The emperor asked.

His personal eunuch knelt on the ground with weakened legs, and said in a frightened manner: “Should…..should be that something has delayed them.”

The emperor let out an “Oh” and didn’t ask any more questions.

When the previous emperor was still alive, the small countries around them offered tributes year after year, wishing nothing more than to be a dog at their feet, and even the most trivial cases and conflicts required Yuan to settle for them. At that time, the previous emperor laughed and said that the small countries have weak rulers, too inferior to show in public.

Now that the situation in the Yuan Dynasty was not looking so good, they all did not bother to come anymore. It was the nature of people to curry favor with the powerful, and it was the same between countries.

Even though they say going back to the grassland is no big deal.

But after being the master of the Central Plains, who really wanted to go back?

The emperor lay down, but the eunuch could not rest. He had to stay by the emperor’s side. In case the emperor was thirsty or hungry, he had to wait on him.

The days in the palace were difficult, but as the days passed, it was still bearable.

The people of Dadu were thinking about withdrawing to Luanjing.

Lin Yuan was not prepared to give them a chance to withdraw, because Lin Yuan knew that once they had a chance to establish the Northern Yuan, they would be difficult to fight. In history, Emperor Yuan Shun retreated to Luanjing and was recorded as the Northern Yuan, allowing the Great Yuan Dynasty to continue to last for more than two decades.

Only when the Yuan Dynasty really fell could he gather the hearts of the Mongols.

Except for the Mongols who settled in the Central Plains, the Mongols outside the Pass still practiced a slave system.

At this time, there were four major tribes in Mongolia besides the Yuan Dynasty.

The Korbi, Chahar, Khalkha, and Oirat tribes.

So Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Baisong, and Li Congrong marched almost day and night, and they didn’t have many opportunities to rest.

Lin Yuan stayed in Hanyang.

He was thinking about the Zhu Yuanzhang in history. After he established the Ming Dynasty, in order to prevent the Mongols from coming back, he used a carrot and stick policy on the Mongolian tribes. The victory of Lan Yu (TN: military general and politician of the Ming Dynasty) and others made the Mongolian tribes east of the Greater Xing’an Mountains lose their barriers and eventually be annexed to the Ming imperial court.

Zhu Yuanzhang also established Duoyan Sanwei (Mongolian mercenaries), which was mainly composed of Uriankhai, Ongniud and Uziyet.

But Mongolia did not support the Great Ming.

To be precise, there were still two regimes, the Mongolian regime and the Great Ming regime.

What Lin Yuan wanted was a great ethnic integration, and have the so-called “barbarians” also become part of the common people.

But his thinking was obviously hard to get support.

After all, it was different from modern times. Modern people’s thinking and concepts came to ve after many years. People look at their compatriots in the unit of the nation rather than the unit of the ethnicity, and this nation referred to the country, and all those who had citizenship in the country were compatriots.

But at this time, people were divided into ethnic groups and they distinguished themselves based on ancestors.

Don’t mention the Han accepting the Mongols.

It was also difficult for Mongolians to accept the Han.

Fortunately, the Mongols who migrated to the Central Plains earlier had experienced a lot of sinicization after two or three generations.

But the Mongolians outside the Pass…..Lin Yuan himself was not sure.

Lin Yuan felt that he was just thinking wishful thoughts. Whether he could carry out his thoughts or not was another matter.

Choose a leader among the Mongolian tribes.

Moreover, so long as the slavery system of the Mongolian tribes was still there, trying to achieve ethnical integration waa simply a dream.

There were also the Jurchens; the Jurchens had once been glorious, but they were trampled under Mongolian iron hooves. In the past they had been pitiful, but now they were slowly growing strong.

Lin Yuan rubbed his forehead, and said to Yang Shaowei: “Send a letter to your shifu and ask him to come over.”

Yang Shaowei was taken aback for a while before he answered in affirmative.

Yang Shaowei walked out of the room and let out a sigh. Of course he respected and loved his shifu, but the South Bodhisattva would value him even more when his shifu was not there. After arriving in Hanyang, he had gained a lot of experience and had his own team of subordinates.

But when his shifu came, he would have to take a step back, and according to his shifu’s temper, he was afraid that it would be difficult for him to stand out again before the South Bodhisattva became emperor.

Moreover, in order to show that he still cherished the old officials, the South Bodhisattva would pass over his shifu to promote him.

However, the matter of proclaiming emperor was indeed on the agenda.

Yang Shaowei smiled, he must raise this matter before anyone else, and at that time his achievements would be the greatest then.

Even if he couldn’t go past his shifu in the future, he wouldn’t be too far behind.

He had to take up the seat first, otherwise with the people behind who also wanted to climb up, it would be difficult to say at that time.

Not mentioning others, but just the people under him, weren’t they all trying their best to find a chance to show their faces in front of the South Bodhisattva?

Bah, so long as he was still there, the grasshoppers below won’t be able to jump around as they like.

Want to use him as a springboard? Let me see if you have that ability.

Inside the Changshu government office.

After receiving the letter, Song Shizhao quickly ordered people to pack his belongings and set off to Hanyang.

Before, Lin Yuan went to Hanyang and left him in Changshu. From then on, he began to worry and be afraid.

Because he knew that Lin Yuan would definitely make his way from Hanyang to Dadu.

If Lin Yuan arrived at Dadu yet he was not by Lin Yuan’s side, his position would become unstable.

Since knowing that Hanyang had defeated Wang Baobao, he couldn’t sleep at night. After receiving the letter, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Now Wu Changqing could also take charge on his own, so leaving him in Changshu, Song Shizhao was not worried.

Gaoyou had Jiang Gui. Although Lin Yuan’s sworn brother was not very capable, fortunately he was a cautious character. He had never made any mistakes. There were also quite a few smart people around to assist him. Although they had their own ideas, they were unable to do anything bad.

Last year, Jiang Gui borrowed soldiers from Yang Zi’an.

Because of this, the invading enemy soldiers were repelled.

It was the people from Chuzhou who attacked. Now Sun Deya couldn’t sit still, he led a bad example climbing up to his position, so now the people at the bottom were also fighting constantly. After Jiang Gui beat him back, his vitality was greatly damaged.

When Song Shizhao learned that Jiang Gui’s borrowing of troops was only because he had a dream, he couldn’t help sighing at the other’s luck.

Humans, sometimes didn’t need to be smart, nor did they need to be too capable. For example, Jiang Gui, the smartest thing he had done in his life was to become a sworn brother of the South Bodhisattva. In addition, he was cautious and did not let others catch any weaknesses. At his post, he had not achieved many accomplishments, but he had never done anything bad either.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e bl mu se . c o m )

Now that he repelled the enemy, he now also had a great accomplishment to his name.

So long as Jiang Gui did not do anything stupid in the future, the wealth and prosperity of the future three generations of the Jiang family was guaranteed.

There were some people who strived hard for several generations, but they did not have such good luck.

How could people not be envious?

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