The snowflakes grew larger, and the sky grew darker. Below and above the mountain, lights were still shining brightly. Zhao Jiu returned to Beiluan, but his mind was far from calm. This was not just because it was his first New Year in this era, and he inevitably felt sentimental; nor was it because of Lü Haowen's advice just now, which made him realize that his control over all aspects, even if it was just the Huainan Grand Camp, was only superficial and temporary...

More importantly, Zhao Jiu was still worried about the somewhat silent city of Xiacai to the north.

One must know that the New Year was a momentous occasion for everyone living on this land. Even the Jin army generally celebrated it. From the excellent vantage point of Beiluan on the summit of Mount Bagong, one could vaguely perceive the Jin army's camp also decorated with lanterns and holding banquets. However, the vast city of Xiacai, although brightly lit, was eerily quiet at this time.

Such a situation could only indicate that the morale of the people there, including Zhang Jun, the Grand Commandant himself, had sunk to an extreme. One could almost imagine that the arrival of the festival at this time brought Xiacai not an opportunity to catch its breath, but rather catalyzed their despair in the face of their desperate situation.

"Your Majesty!"

As it was his duty, Yang Yizhong, seeing that the Zhao Emperor had been sitting under the dragon banner for a long time, with snowflakes already beginning to accumulate on his shoulders, could not help but step forward to remind him. "It is late, and the wind and snow are heavy here. It would be better to return earlier."

"Can we send something to Xiacai City?" Zhao Jiu asked, standing with his hands behind his back, without even turning his head.

"It is certainly impossible." Yang Yizhong answered without hesitation, naturally having thought about this question long ago, so he blurted out almost immediately. "This subject knows that Your Majesty is worried about the morale of the soldiers in Xiacai, but the inner crossing has been burned. At this time, sending supplies to comfort the army would not even provide a place to dock the ships."

"If not sending a large amount of wealth, but simply sending an envoy to comfort the army?" Zhao Jiu pressed on.

"A single ship is of course not a problem. During the day, there were also patrol soldiers who sent Your Majesty's and the ministers' edicts of consolation." Yang Yizhong sighed. "But that's all. The soldiers in the city are vaguely unstable, and the ships dare not approach. In this situation, if a proper envoy is sent, I fear it will be counterproductive..."

"Are you saying he will suffer the same fate as Zhao Yuanzhen?" Zhao Jiu casually mentioned a person, namely Zhao Ding, who had gone to cross the river to deliver the edict before the great fire that day, and disappeared after the fire broke out. It was only yesterday that it was confirmed that he had been detained in Xiacai City by the angry soldiers of Zhang Jun's department, and was now being 'protected' by Grand Commandant Zhang.

"Yes! If another envoy is detained in the army, it will only increase instability in Xiacai City. Moreover, in such..."

"Moreover, in such a situation, no one among the civil and military officials in the temporary capital is willing to cross the river, and from a broader perspective, it is not worth futilely sacrificing their lives for this matter?"

"Yes." Yang Yizhong answered immediately, then paused for a moment before gritting his teeth and saying, "But this subject can go. This subject originally came from Grand Commandant Zhang's army and is familiar with the people there. They will not detain this subject. On the contrary, this subject can persuade Grand Commandant Zhang to settle down and perhaps even bring back Zhao Yushi (Imperial Censor Zhao)."

"Then go!" Zhao Jiu looked up at the snowflakes constantly flying and falling into the fire basin beside him, and directly gave the order. "Take advantage of the darkness, take my golden token, and then issue a military order yourself, take a team of people pretending to patrol the river, take a small boat, and secretly cross the river to the inner crossing on the opposite side."

Yang Yizhong nodded repeatedly and hurried away, but then returned: "Does Your Majesty have any words to give to Grand Commandant Zhang?"

"No! Just comfort him in person!" Zhao Jiu hesitated, then suddenly shook his head. "Come to my tent to retrieve the golden token after you are ready."

For no reason, Yang Yizhong felt a panic in his heart, but he could only respond.

After Yang Yizhong left, Zhao Jiu returned to his tent and summoned Lan Gui, the chief eunuch of the inner palace. He first asked the latter to bring the golden token, and then asked him to personally help him put on armor... Lan Gui wore a bitter face throughout the process, but he dared not offer any advice.

A moment later, Yang Yizhong returned to the imperial tent and saw Zhao Jiu dressed as an ordinary palace guard, carrying a food box. He was not surprised, but only sighed in his heart.

It is said that, like Lan Gui, after the incident with Liu Guangshi and the deserters from the Western Army, no one in the Huainan Grand Camp dared to openly resist Zhao Jiu's willful behavior on the surface. In fact, not to mention a military general and a eunuch, even a proper prime minister like Chancellor Lü, the second most important figure in the temporary capital, could only say a few vague words of advice when drunk, right?

However, this matter was after all of great importance. Although Yang Yizhong did not dare to directly advise against it, he deliberately slowed his pace along the way, and when he arrived at the riverbank dock, he even used the excuse of dismissing idlers to delay, refusing to set sail for a long time... Zhao Jiu did not say a word about this, but allowed him to perform, until the Imperial Censor Zhang Jun received the news from Lan Gui amidst the snowflakes and arrived at the dock in a disheveled state.

"Your... Your Majesty, what on earth is this for?"

Zhang Jun came to the dock and saw Zhao Jiu calmly boarding the boat in front of him. He could no longer hold back. He rushed forward, grabbed the food box in the other's hand, and asked almost in tears.

"I made two mistakes." Zhao Jiu said, with one foot inside the boat and one foot on the side of the boat, then sighed softly. "First, I thought it would be Chancellor Lü who came; second, I thought you, Deyuan, would directly offer advice, but you actually asked such a question, which caught me off guard."

"This subject stopped Chancellor Lü." Zhang Jun forced himself to answer. "As things stand now, with Your Majesty's authority in this temporary capital, if you insist on having your way, no one can stop you from doing anything. And this subject, as the Imperial Censor, whose duty it is to advise the emperor and the prime minister, volunteered to come here. As for this question today, this subject has been thinking about it for the past few days. There is no right or wrong in things, but there must be trade-offs. So this subject is asking on behalf of all those who do not understand Your Majesty, why do you have to do this?"

"I really don't know..."

"Then this subject will ask more clearly." Snowflakes fell, and the fire basin at the dock flickered. Zhang Jun, standing on the wooden planks of the dock, had no intention of letting go. "Why must Your Majesty personally kill Liu Guangshi? Why must you personally deal with the deserters? Why, when the situation is already so unbearable and Xiacai has no chance of recovery, must Your Majesty still hold firm on the Huai River? What is the meaning of all this? And this time, why must Your Majesty personally risk going to the other side? Does Your Majesty not know that once Zhang Jun has malicious intentions, or he cannot restrain his subordinates, the country will be in danger of collapse? And all the things that have happened before, and all the things that will happen in the future, why must Your Majesty insist on having your way?"

"I still don't know." Zhao Jiu shook his head again upon hearing this. "Deyuan, I know you mean well, and you are sincere, but how can there be answers to some things?"

Zhang Jun shook his head without saying a word, and had no intention of letting go, clearly dissatisfied with this answer... In fact, since this Imperial Censor had mustered the courage to come here, it would not do if he could not give him an explanation.

"However, I can also understand Deyuan..." Zhao Jiu saw the other party in this state and smiled instead. "These days you always use Guangwu to encourage me. And speaking of Guangwu, on the day before the Battle of Kunyang, everyone said to abandon Kunyang, but only Guangwu insisted that it was impossible, and then he took only thirteen people out of the city to seek reinforcements. Presumably, at that time, some people would ask, 'General, why must you insist on having your way?' In fact, I also want to ask Deyuan, you are knowledgeable, tell me, why did Guangwu insist on having his way at that time? According to the situation at that time, wouldn't it be better to retreat to Xiangyang? Why was he unwilling to retreat?"

Zhang Jun was slightly stunned.

"Speaking of Wang Mang, I also want to ask, Wang Mang was a Confucian model for half his life, so why did he go against the tide in the second half of his life?"

"Why did Fucha let Goujian go? Why was Goujian able to destroy Wu after eighteen years?"

"Why was Qin able to have six generations of wise rulers, moving forward step by step, and swallowing up the world? And why did it perish in the second generation?"

"Why did the Chu official throw himself into the river? Although Chu had only three households, why was it said that whoever destroys Qin must be Chu?"

Zhang Jun had already gradually lost his composure, and even Yang Yizhong behind Zhao Jiu was stunned.

"And there is also Emperor Zhaolie, whom Prime Minister Li used to encourage me. When Liu Xuande fled Dangyang on that day, his wife and children were scattered, and his own life was also in danger. Why did he have to bring the people across the river?" Zhao Jiu continued to ask seriously, with a hint of awe in his voice. "Why did Zhuge Wuhou futilely make six expeditions to Qishan?"

Hearing this, Zhang Jun, thinking of the story that night, almost lost the strength in his hand.

"And why did Zhang Xun have to defend Suiyang to the death? Why was Xiang Yu unwilling to cross the Yangtze River even to die?! Even Wanyan Aguda, why did he have to rebel against Liao?"

Having said this, Zhao Jiu easily removed the other party's hand from the food box. "Deyuan still doesn't understand? Do you think I've been doing these things for no reason these days? Have I not privately asked myself why I must insist on having my way? And what I'm asking you today is only a small part of my wild thoughts. You may not know about Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar; talking about Zhu Yuanzhang and Napoleon is even more absurd... But no matter how much I think about it, no matter how much I ask, I still don't know why! I can only comfort myself that things have been done, why ask so much?"

After speaking, Zhao Jiu, dressed as a palace guard, finally sat on the boat with the food box and was about to order Yang Yizhong to quickly set sail, but he suddenly remembered something, and then continued to ask Zhang Jun, who was standing on the wooden dock:

"By the way, last time in Xiacai City, what happened to Li Ruoshui that Deyuan told me about later? You also know that I really can't remember many things."

"He died." Zhang Jun answered blankly, almost blurting it out. "He was captured during the Jingkang Incident. When the Two Emperors were humiliated in the Jin camp, he cursed the Jin people. Nianhan had his tongue cut off. Unable to curse with his mouth, he glared angrily and pointed with his hand. His eyes were gouged out and his hands were cut off. In the end, he was executed by dismemberment..."

"You see, that's it." Zhao Jiu sighed slightly. "Li Ruoshui was an envoy to the Jin kingdom in his early years. From what you said that day, he knew better than anyone the barbarity of the Jin people, but why did he still have to scold them?"

Zhang Jun could no longer bear it and knelt in the snow on the wooden pier beside the boat, then grabbed the boat's side and burst into tears: "Your Majesty, this subject begs to go to Xiacai on behalf of Your Majesty!"

"If you could do it, I wouldn't say so much." Zhao Jiu waved his hand helplessly. "But in this situation, only I can appease Grand Commandant Zhang! If you really care, return to the imperial camp and control the situation for me. Try to keep it a secret, and it would be best if it is not discovered until I return."

Having said this, Zhao Jiu brushed away Zhang Jun's already exhausted hands and told Yang Yizhong to start the boat quickly, and Yang Yizhong no longer dared to hesitate. In a moment, snow filled the sky. On New Year's Eve, the Zhao Song Emperor, in all his glory, actually crossed the Huai River northward in a light boat in the snow.

ps: Good night everyone... That's all.