Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 955 Feint to the East, Attack in the West

"Lin'an is about to descend into chaos."

"There won't be any major chaos." Luo Huaiyan, clad in heavy armor, gazed at the snowflakes outside the door and said calmly, "Zhao Gou is no useless person. He must have already secured some key positions. The Imperial City Guard is, after all, quite capable."

After Luo Huaiyan finished speaking, he put on his helmet and covered his face with an iron mask: "Old Su, after I leave, you'll have to hold things up for a while, but don't worry, I'll be back soon!"

Su Kuan could only nod emphatically.

From this day forward, the Embroidered Uniform Guard's strength in Lin'an will suffer a heavy loss.

This has nothing to do with how many people die, but rather because working behind enemy lines is all about secrecy. If someone makes even the slightest mistake, it's very likely that a whole group of people will be uncovered by following the clues.

With so many Imperial Guards mobilized today, it's not just that they themselves need to withdraw from Lin'an City; all the people associated with them must also flee as soon as possible.

Otherwise, the Imperial City Guard will come knocking on our door sooner or later!

But there was nothing that could be done about it; the Han army had no choice but to respond to Zhao Gou's provocations with concrete actions.

Luo Huaiyan strode out of the courtyard and lit a firework.

Red fireworks exploded in the gloomy sky, and then about fifty riders emerged from the surrounding courtyards and converged at the street corner.

"go!"

Luo Huaiyan raised his lance and pointed it forward: "I will seek justice for the Prince of Han!"

"kill!"

Even in the northern battlefield, fifty Flying Tiger Army soldiers were a force capable of changing the course of a local battle, let alone in the long-peaceful Jiangnan region.
The Song soldiers guarding the crossroads were already lax, and after being soaked by light snow all night, they were even more listless. When faced with the armored cavalry that suddenly charged out, their first reaction was almost all of them to turn around and run away.

However, some Song generals were quite loyal to their duties and spread the news that there were enemy troops in the city.

However, it was of no use.

If a hedgehog that seems so far away suddenly appears in your crotch, anyone would be flustered.

Moreover, there were still those loyal to Zhao Shen causing trouble in the city. They had already stormed into the outer city of the palace and were engaged in fierce fighting with the Imperial Guards.

At this time, Yang Yizhong was also quite overwhelmed, feeling the shortage of manpower.

Some of the Imperial City Guard's personnel had already gone to Jiankang, and others had followed Zhao Huaide to investigate the source of the leaflets, so they were simply unable to spare any manpower for the time being.

Therefore, after the explosion at Deshou Palace, he could only mobilize the yamen runners of Lin'an Prefecture in Zhao Gou's name to protect Deshou Palace.

Meanwhile, the garrison troops in the city were in complete disarray, and small-scale civil wars even broke out in some places.

For this reason, Yang Yizhong dared not send his last force to attack immediately after the palace gates were breached.

"Your Majesty! You must not leave the palace now!"

Yang Yizhong sincerely said to Zhao Gou: "In the palace, there are high walls and arrow towers, as well as granaries and armories. Our army has two thousand elite soldiers who have entered the palace, which is enough to protect Your Majesty's safety."

But if they leave the palace, where can they go to defend themselves? Even Deoksugung Palace doesn't have that much military equipment.

Despite Zhao Gou's imposing demeanor when he launched the coup, he was already somewhat panicked at this point.

This is the common problem of these bullies who are tough on their own. They are cruel inside and tolerant outside. They show off their power to those who do not fight back. But once someone picks up a knife and fights for them, their courage disappears like a snowball in spring.

Although Yang Yizhong's military abilities were average, he had been on the battlefield and fought against the Jin army, so he maintained a certain degree of composure.

Zhao Gou swallowed hard, forcing himself to calm down: "Zhengfu, what do you think we should do now?"

Yang Yizhong glanced at Shi Hao: "I urge Prime Minister Shi to go to the Hall of State Affairs immediately to take charge of the situation. I will mobilize two hundred armored soldiers to escort you. Make sure no one is involved in any rebellion."

Shi Hao immediately became furious: "I told you yesterday to stop them all and just put them under house arrest in the palace, but you wouldn't listen. What's the use of sending me to the Council of State now? Anyone who wants to get things done can stamp ten thousand official seals in one night!"

Yang Yizhong's expression remained unchanged, while Zhao Gou's expression was rather unpleasant.

Coups and restorations cannot be rehearsed, nor can they be redone. Even though Zhao Gou's group grasped the key points and delivered a fatal blow, there were still many oversights.

For example, regarding the court officials, Zhao Gou believed that since they had already shouted "Long live the Emperor!" and bowed their heads in submission, there would be no major mistakes.

After all, Zhao Shen should be under house arrest in the palace at this time, and the Right Chancellor Chen Junqing was not qualified enough. His promotion that day was purely due to Shi Hao's own foolishness. Yu Yunwen was fighting on the front lines, and indeed needed such an unambitious deputy to suppress the situation in the court.

Zhao Gou was both powerful and influential; who could possibly stir up trouble?
But the very next day, someone showed Zhao Gou the facts: not only were there many, but there were quite a few!
More importantly, due to the suddenness of the event and the involvement of several forces, no one knew whether the large number of centrists had wavered.

Even those officials from Jiangnan who sided with Zhao Gou were questionable in their ability to maintain their stance when faced with the threat of violence.

"Prime Minister Shi, please don't lose your composure," Yang Yizhong said calmly. "Now that you have been promoted to Left Prime Minister, how can you stay in the palace forever? You should go and take charge of the Council of State Affairs and control the power of reward, punishment, and demotion. Otherwise, how can you be a prime minister?" Shi Hao was slightly taken aback, then suddenly calmed down and didn't say anything. He just bowed to Zhao Gou.

Zhao Gou immediately understood: "Minister Shi, please make the trip. I will give you the royal command and the imperial edict, and you will decide all rewards and punishments!"

"As you command." Shi Hao immediately agreed, but then hesitated: "Then the Privy Councilor..."

Zhao Gou immediately replied, "As for Wang Che, I will naturally explain it to him. After all, he is my old minister, and he will naturally have some understanding with him."

Shi Hao finally felt relieved, bowed, and left.

After Shi Hao left, in front of his most trusted confidant, Zhao Gou finally lost his composure even more: "Zhengfu, Lin'an cannot be thrown into chaos."

Yang Yizhong said solemnly, "Your Majesty, rest assured, Lin'an will not be in chaos. I have already dispatched military envoys with proper military orders to the Youyi Army, the Right Army Cavalry and Infantry Division, and the Weiyi Battalion to mobilize troops."

"I will immediately lead my troops to defeat the few rebels who have breached the outer city. If we hold out a little longer, reinforcements from all over will arrive one after another! Your Majesty, as long as we can stabilize the Council of State, those who are causing trouble will ultimately only be a small minority!"

Now, it is Zhao Shen's side that is playing all its cards and fighting to the death, while Zhao Gou's side was simply caught off guard. As long as the prime minister is not involved in the rebellion, it will be enough to easily quell the chaos.

The key now is to not lose your composure. If Zhao Gou were to flee across the sea like he did when the Jin state invaded before, then there would truly be no hope of saving him.

Fortunately, it wasn't the Jin army that was attacking, so Zhao Gou was able to maintain his position.

"In that case, I will watch right here and see Zhengfu defeat the enemy!"

Yang Yizhong loudly agreed, and then personally led more than a thousand Song soldiers to quell the rebellion.

Around the same time, the commanders of the various armies within the city also finally made their own decisions, leading their troops to the outside of the palace to act as they saw fit.

To put it bluntly, it's about whoever wins and who gets siding with them.

If Long Dayuan and others could really rescue Zhao Shen, they wouldn't mind being loyal ministers who came to the emperor's aid; but if Zhao Gou could easily quell the rebellion, they would be even more willing to act as ministers who restored order and restored the dynasty.

Upon seeing so many armored soldiers pouring out of the palace and launching a siege against the rebels under Yang Yizhong's command, the soldiers who had been observing lost all other thoughts and immediately launched a fierce attack on the rebels.

When it comes to battlefield awareness, within a radius of several miles, Cheng Tianpeng dares to say he's second to none, not even Yang Yizhong, who is no match for the Flying Tiger Army heroes who fought their way out of the north.

Therefore, when Cheng Tianpeng saw the commotion of the Song army outside the palace, he knew that this probing attack had failed.

He whistled and, as planned, ordered his twenty-odd knights to leave along the edge of the palace. But as he turned his horse around, he hesitated for a moment, then turned to Long Dayuan and Zhang Shuo and shouted, "This is no good! Let's go!"

Long Dayuan was nearly insane, wildly hacking and slashing while shouting, "Give me back my government! Give me back my government!"

Cheng Tianpeng simply shook his head slightly and immediately rode away.

A moment later, taking advantage of the chaos, more than twenty riders broke out of the battle and retreated north along the Vermilion Bird Avenue.

As luck would have it, Cheng Tianpeng ran into Shi Hao and his group just as he was about to arrive at the Political Affairs Hall.

To avoid the chaos of battle in the imperial city, Shi Hao did not dare to leave through the He Ning Gate in the north. Instead, he detoured to the Dong Hua Gate in the east, passed through the Si Fang Guan, and went through Shu Ping Fang before finally returning to Zhu Que Avenue.

Although Cheng Tianpeng did not know that the mastermind behind the coup was among this group of Song soldiers, he still remembered Luo Huaiyan's military orders and immediately led the Flying Tiger Knights to charge at the more than two hundred Song soldiers.

The Song army had no idea that they would encounter such a fierce and valiant armored cavalry force here. In addition, the Jiangnan Imperial Guards had been living in peace and comfort for many years and had no time to react to the armored cavalry rushing towards them. The front-line armored soldiers even turned and ran, and the entire formation quickly collapsed.

"You Nan people! With such fighting strength, you dare to plot against my King of Han! You're courting death!"

Cheng Tianpeng swung his spear, slashing left and right, like herding sheep, driving the Song soldiers away in all directions.

Shi Hao stood in the middle of the line. He originally wanted to run away, but after only two steps, he was pushed to the ground.

A pair of large feet stepped directly on his thighs as they ran past.

Driven by his survival instinct, Shi Hao rolled to the side a few times and ended up in the ditch beside the road.

Although the dirty water was cold and smelly, Shi Hao dared not move at all and could only endure it until the sound of horses' hooves faded into the distance before he struggled to climb onto the street.

"Lord Shi! Lord Shi!"

A Song general rushed over and quickly took off his robe to wrap Shi Hao up.

Before Shi Hao could even utter a few words of reprimand, he saw several plumes of smoke rising from the direction of the Hall of State Affairs.

Shi Hao's gaze froze, and he muttered to himself, "Damn it! Damn it! This traitor Liu is going to..."

(End of this chapter)