Du Chong, whose political image had always been excellent, actually showed some signs of war-weariness, which couldn't help but surprise Yue Fei.

But upon further reflection, which civil official didn't show signs of war-weariness these days, except for Zong Ze? Even Li Gang advocated for stabilizing the situation first before launching a counterattack. Moreover, Du Chong had fled from Daming Prefecture, so his timidity was understandable.

Of course, most importantly, after Zong Ze fell ill, Yue Pengju (Yue Fei's courtesy name) had almost single-handedly supported a large part of the situation. He had calmly navigated the chaos of war preparations in Tokyo, Wang Yan's impetuousness, and the banditry of the ten commanders, clearly demonstrating that he was psychologically prepared to do his best to mend the crumbling Tokyo Garrison Command in order to resist the Jin.

As for Du Chong, given his status and position, Yue Fei couldn't say much as long as he didn't surrender to the Jin... as long as he didn't mess things up.

In fact, Du Chong stood there for a while, thinking it over and over, and could only order Yue Fei and Li Qiong to organize the troops and surviving supplies and provisions, preparing to head south to join the ten commanders.

Since his actions didn't interfere, Yue Fei had nothing more to say, and quickly bowed before going out with Li Qiong to get busy.

Without mentioning the thoughts of Yue Fei and Li Qiong at this moment, under the overall situation, Du Chong had no choice but to send troops. However, after seeing off the two trusted generals from Xiang Prefecture, he sat in the back hall of the Kaifeng government office, sighing repeatedly.

At this time, only the officer in charge of the household affairs, his son Du Yan, was qualified to come forward and inquire.

In fact, after the Jingkang Incident, Du Yan was seeing his father again after a long separation, and he was also quite puzzled.

"Father."

Du Yan carefully offered a cup of tea before standing up and attending to his father, cautiously asking, "The Emperor has appointed Father as the Deputy Commander, clearly intending to entrust the 100,000 troops of the Tokyo Garrison Command and the entire Henan situation to you. Why are you unhappy instead?"

Du Chong wasn't just unhappy, but rather sorrowful and annoyed, but his son couldn't say it directly.

However, in front of his only flesh and blood, Du Chong didn't pretend any longer. He swallowed a sip of warm tea, still looking displeased: "What's there to be happy about? The situation is so bad, the Emperor and the officials in Nanyang only know how to engage in armchair strategies in their strongholds, yet they want me to lead troops into battle. Isn't this putting your father on the fire to roast?"

"But... there are discussions in the Privy Council, and your son has heard some of them," Du Yan quickly replied. "They say that if there are no troops to rescue from the outside, then there is no city that must be defended from the inside... Back then, the determination to defend Nanyang and Tokyo, as well as the various officials in Wuhe, relied on Han Shizhong's troops maneuvering outside. And Han Shizhong was ambushed while trying to rescue Tokyo. Now that Han Shizhong is trapped in Changshe, we must try to gather an army to rescue him."

"You recite military strategy well, but it's just theoretical," Du Chong sneered. "You said it yourself, Han Shizhong was defeated because he was ambushed. So the 'rescuing troops' that Nanyang thought were foolproof are nothing more than that. How can my 'rescuing troops' be useful?"

"Is Father afraid of being defeated?" Du Yan immediately realized. "That's a force of 80,000!"

"It would be strange if we weren't defeated!" Du Chong slammed the teacup heavily on the table in front of him, his face contorted. "What 80,000 troops? A bunch of disloyal, defeated soldiers, plus 20,000 bandits who escaped from the Taihang Mountains. Only Yue Fei and Li Qiong's troops are somewhat usable... But Talan has a full four *wanhu* of cavalry! What can we use to fight them?! How can we fight them?! The Western Army and the Tokyo Imperial Guards, hundreds of thousands of main force soldiers, were devoured alive by the Jin army of tens of thousands under the city of Taiyuan. Why would I be able to fight two-to-one here?! Nanyang is sending me to my death!"

Du Yan was immediately frightened and didn't dare to speak. Father and son were silent for a while.

After a long time, seeing his father's breathing gradually calming down, Du Yan thought for a moment, sighed inwardly, and then reluctantly said, "Your son understands Father's difficulties, but everyone is struggling during national crises... After all, the Emperor has promoted Father all the way to this position. We, as subjects, should be grateful for the Emperor's grace, shouldn't we?"

"Grateful for what?!" Du Chong originally picked up the teacup to drink again, but upon hearing this, he simply sneered and threw the teacup out. "I ask you, you've been in this ruined capital of Tokyo for many days now. Tell me yourself, what is the Tokyo Garrison Command?!"

Du Yan hesitated, but before his son could speak, Du Chong answered himself:

"The Tokyo Garrison Command is basically a combination of the Tang Dynasty's feudal warlords and the Beggar Army of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. The reason it's not a feudal warlord or a Beggar Army is simply because there's a garrison commander with a proper background holding it down for the court. Now that Commander Zong has suddenly fallen ill, the court naturally wants someone with a proper background to reassure them, and those military thieves and bandits want someone from Hebei with experience in this area to feel at ease. May I ask, who else is available besides your father? Quan Bangyan? Quan Bangyan would be good, but isn't he locked up in Hua Prefecture?"

Du Yan was momentarily dazed.

"Even if Quan Bangyan wasn't trapped, according to his resume – a Hebei native, a defending official, abandoned the city and fled to Tokyo – what's the difference between him and me?" Du Chong continued to rant. "May I ask, with the same resume, his qualifications, age, and rank are all inferior to mine. Could the Tokyo Garrison Command be pushed onto him?! So the Emperor's grace is all fake. Your father was originally arranged here by the court as a patch-up man, and Quan Bangyan is here to do the follow-up patching for your father... The officials in the court know it clearly! Whether that Emperor understands it or not, where is there any Emperor's grace?"

Du Yan repeatedly shook his head: "Since we're talking about Deputy Commander Quan (Quan Bangyan), your son will be presumptuous. He's also extremely struggling in Hua Prefecture, but he hasn't shown any signs of discouragement or avoiding battle. What your son means is, no matter what..."

"I already said, you don't understand anything," Du Chong suddenly looked exhausted. "Is defending a city the same as field battles? The former just requires you to sit still and wait for success or failure, without having to spend any effort. The latter requires you to make decisions in the wilderness and go to your death!"

Du Yan was completely speechless, yet extremely anxious: "Father... is there really no way?"

"There's definitely no way for field battles," Du Chong shook his head and sighed, seemingly without any confidence. "Actually, if I had been allowed to take control of the overall situation earlier, taking advantage of the autumn floods before the Jin troops crossed the river, breaching the Yellow River dike might have negated the Jin cavalry's advantage. But now that the main force of the Jin army is already in Henan and the Yellow River is freezing, what chance is there?"

"Breach the dike?" Du Yan was stunned. "What about the floods..."

"What about the floods?" Du Chong sneered. "Which of those righteous armies doesn't abuse the people? Just because they've been recruited, they become government troops, and then get promoted and ennobled. As long as they can deal with the Jin, what does it matter if some ordinary people die? Besides, can floods be compared to human disasters? If the Jin army can't move south, hundreds of thousands fewer people will die! Moreover, Henan is already a wasteland."

Du Yan certainly didn't know anything about hydrology. He didn't know that the Yellow River was just a watershed in the lower reaches and didn't have its own large water system. Therefore, if the dike was breached towards Henan, it could invade the Huai River system, causing the Yellow River to seize the Huai and enter the sea, completely changing the downstream hydrology. Therefore, when he heard his father's remarks, recalling the terrible massacres he had seen on the road, he was speechless and even thought it made sense.

In fact, even from the perspective of later generations, Du Chong's breaching of the dike in another timeline did lead to the Yellow River gradually seizing the Huai and entering the sea. But he only had a small share of the responsibility. According to hydrological research, the real cause of the Yellow River's complete seizure of the Huai was in the late Jin dynasty when the Jin state allowed the Yellow River to flood, breaching at Yangwu. That time, the Yellow River completely seized the Huai and entered the main channel of the Huai River, becoming unstoppable, eventually forming the concept of the Yellow River flood zone.

However, even that breach at Yangwu by Emperor Zhangzong of Jin only accounted for four parts of the responsibility for the entire hydrological change.

Because another undeniable fact was that before Du Chong and Emperor Zhangzong of Jin, the Yellow River had breached its banks before, but it was always repaired and cleared in time. However, between Du Chong and Emperor Zhangzong, the Song and Jin dynasties used the Huai River as a boundary, and the years of war and peace made the water conservancy along the Yellow-Huai line increasingly desolate.

This was a realistic reason that could not be ignored.

Moreover, if one really wanted to absolve them of blame, both Du Chong and Emperor Zhangzong could be absolved, because neither of them could possibly have enough knowledge of water conservancy. They couldn't have foreseen that the breach of the Yellow River would lead to such a serious hydrological change.

So, using this as a reason in an international court, they could plead ignorance and invoke intermittent mental problems to reduce their sentences.

Then, from a moral perspective, condemn the two of them, one actively and one passively, for disregarding the lives of the people between the Yellow and Huai rivers... The only regrettable thing was that during that period, the lives of ordinary people were probably the cheapest thing in the world.

However, thinking about it this way, eight or nine hundred years later, that breach was really hard to explain. One couldn't say that that person had no historical experience, could one?

Back to the present, after Du Chong lamented that his excellent strategy had missed the opportune time and opportunity, he continued to sigh:

"Actually, your father isn't saying he's defying the imperial decree. If I were, why would I have let Yue and Li prepare for sending troops? It's just that I'm angry at the Emperor and the officials in Nanyang. Now that the Jin army has crossed the Yellow River and moved south, we should just focus on defending the city. Why are they sitting in the city and just using moral principles to pressure me? I have nothing to hide in front of you. In your father's opinion, this Great Song is beyond saving! We're just taking things one step at a time!"

Du Yan stood silently with his hands clasped.

As for Du Chong, he wanted to continue venting, but when he looked back at his son's expression, he knew that the other party didn't fully believe him because he hadn't been by his side for many years. Suddenly, he felt discouraged and simply got up and left.

As soon as Du Chong left, Du Yan felt relieved, as if he had avoided something.

In this way, regardless of how it was, Du Chong, filled with pessimism, made a clumsy move. He wanted to use the Eight-Character Army to delay sending troops, but he didn't expect Wang Yan to receive the letter and arrive so quickly, making it completely impossible. He had no choice but to send troops.

In fact, at this time, almost everyone in the Song and Jin armies was caught off guard by the sudden southward movement of the 20,000 Eight-Character Army. Yet they all somewhat underestimated them, and no one noticed that these troops, who had been fighting the Jin army for years, had in fact had a subtle effect on the strategic balance in the Henan area.

On the nineteenth day of the twelfth month, after Yue Fei arranged for Tang Huai, Zhang Xian, and Xu Qing to each lead troops, totaling 10,000, to carefully guard the city of Tokyo, Du Chong was finally helpless. First, he joined forces with Wang Yan's 20,000 Eight-Character Army, and then directly led more than 40,000 troops south.

Because Yue Fei, Li Qiong, and Wang Yan disciplined their troops properly, they marched extremely fast without stopping along the way. Yelu Mawu from Zhongmu came to spy on them, but didn't dare to attack, which really disappointed Deputy Commander Du. Therefore, in just two days, the troops arrived at Weishi, a key town southwest of Kaifeng.

Weishi was a large city, only eighty *li* from Tokyo, only a hundred *li* from Changshe, only thirty *li* from Zhujiaqu Town where Han Shizhong was defeated, only fifty *li* from Yanling, the front-line city controlled by the Song army, and only fifty *li* from Fugou, where the ten commanders were gathered... It was truly a reliable and safe place.

Therefore, Deputy Commander Du didn't dare to be negligent. On the one hand, he abandoned the original plan to go south to Yanling to join the ten commanders and sternly ordered the ten commanders to gather here. On the other hand, he quickly sent a letter to Nanyang, saying that he was preparing to gather the ten commanders and then immediately go south to Yanling. In reality, he was preparing to stop in this good place.

However, Deputy Commander Du thought that the ten commanders would argue with him because of his change of plans. Unexpectedly, the messenger hadn't even arrived in Nanyang when the ten commanders received the urgent letter. They unanimously stated that since it was the military order of Grand Administrator Du, they didn't dare to disobey. Then, led by Ma Gao, they mustered their remaining troops and took the initiative to come to Weishi.

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, the fourth day of the campaign, Nanyang had just received Du Chong's dispatch when Weishi had successfully completed the rendezvous, gathering a real force of 80,000!

Moreover, in order to give Du Chong, the future Garrison Commander, a good impression, after some discussion, these commanders of the Tokyo Garrison Command simultaneously had Madam Ma, One Zhang Qing, personally escort the grain and wealth gathered in Fugou to Weishi as a sign of obedience.

Du Chong never expected to have such prestige... Since the troops had arrived and the grain and money had been replenished, and the letter had just been sent to Nanyang... Helplessly, Du Chong set out again with the troops on the second day, heading towards Yanling.

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, the remaining troops of the Tokyo Garrison Command and the troops of Yue Fei and Wang Yan all crossed the Wei River and gathered in Yanling. The troops had the frozen Wei River behind them, forming a camp stretching more than twenty *li*.

Yanling and Xuchang were forty *li* apart, but there were no rivers obstructing the two cities. And the natural extension of the camps reduced the actual distance to far less than forty *li*. Often, scouts were sent out early in the morning, following the old road between the two cities to the front of the other camp, and they could return to camp by noon. It was the last safe distance.

For a time, the entire Henan battlefield was shaken, and almost everyone focused their attention here.

The Jin army had naturally mobilized and dispatched troops long ago, gathering as many troops as possible. But after seeing the scale of the Song army camp with his own eyes, Wanyan Talan changed his strategy and actively sent a letter to Wanyan Wushu, requesting appropriate support of one *wanhu*, clearly treating them as a formidable enemy.

On the other side, the Song army was also stirring with the gathering and advance of the huge army, and morale was gradually rising.

However, no one expected that Du Chong, Deputy Commander Du, had already made up his mind that he would never move, because he didn't want to die in vain.

Of course, in response, he still sent a dispatch to Nanyang, saying that although there were many troops in name, morale was low, and very few were armored. Their combat power was insufficient. Moreover, they had to divide their troops to block the enemy from Nanjing behind them to prevent being caught in a pincer attack, which was truly difficult.

On the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Nanyang had just received the message and hadn't had time to respond when the troops under Zhang Jun, who were supporting the west, proactively split into two. Tian Shizhong guarded Bozhou to respond to the enemy in Nanjing, while Liu Bao led 7,000 to 8,000 hastily assembled troops to Fugou, and immediately sent letters to Yanling and Nanyang, claiming the task of isolating the enemy from Nanjing.

Du Chong, feeling a headache after receiving the documents, could only write again, saying that the enemy situation was unclear and he was contacting the remnants of the Ruzhou troops behind enemy lines to ensure everything was foolproof.

But on the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month, suddenly a force of 4,000 to 5,000 troops came from the west. They were Li Bao, a commander of the Tokyo Garrison Command known as the "Sick Guan Suo" who had escaped from Wuyang, and Niu Gao, a local commander from Ruzhou... They had seen unusual movements of the Jin army on the western front. After careful investigation, they learned that the Emperor had sent Grand Administrator Du as the commander-in-chief to the east, raising all the troops of the Tokyo Garrison Command to prepare to rescue Marshal Han.

After repeatedly confirming that the military situation was accurate, Li Bao and Niu Gao, who were in Ruzhou and originally preparing to jointly support Lü Qin in Xiangcheng, discussed and agreed that rescuing Lü Qin might not be able to save Han Shizhong, but rescuing Han Shizhong would definitely shake the overall situation, and Lü Qin would also be safer. So, they simply took advantage of the Jin army's troop movements, plus the weather warming up in the past few days and the river ice gradually thinning, creating opportunities to avoid cavalry in specific river sections, and risked crossing the enemy's gaps to reach Yanling.

In addition to joining the battle, the two generals also reported the Jin army's deployment and approximate troop strength along the way.

Yue Fei, Wang Yan, Ma Gao, and Li Qiong, who usually presided over the military camp's work, felt that Li Bao and Niu Gao were trustworthy after hearing the report, the military situation was clear, and they could fight... At the very least, they could advance or capture some weak points, forming a partial state of relief.

Therefore, the four generals rarely jointly presented a memorial to Du Chong, requesting to fight at their discretion.

This request was naturally rejected by Du Chong. Not only that, after this meeting, Du Chong felt that everyone in the world was against him. He didn't even bother to pretend anymore, but simply hid in the city of Yanling. Under the pretext of celebrating the New Year, he spent his days drinking wine and tea, no longer meeting with the military generals inside and outside the city. The only time he showed his face was on the first day of the New Year, when he personally received the envoy of Wanyan Talan, accepted the other party's gifts, and presented return gifts.

But to be honest, even up to this point, everyone could still understand, after all, it was the New Year, he was a civil official, and it was the ancestral family law.

In the Jingkang Incident, there were many civil officials who were more excessive than Du Chong. For example, during the second siege of the Jin army that directly led to the Jingkang Incident, according to the rules, a civil official had to "oversee" each of the four city walls. Li Zhuo, a close official of Emperor Yuansheng (Emperor Qinzong of Song) and a drafter in the Chancellery, was responsible for the south city, but he spent his days drinking and holding poetry gatherings on the city wall, actually sitting idly by as the Jin army filled in a *li*-long moat outside Xuanhua Gate. It was only when Emperor Yuansheng (Emperor Qinzong of Song) himself went to the city wall that he was stunned to discover this fact.

So, compared to those people, Du Chong wasn't anything at the moment. In fact, his actions of handing over the daily military affairs of the camp to Yue Fei, Wang Yan, and Ma Gao, and the military affairs of the city of Yanling to Li Qiong, made him seem very reliable.

Again, not everyone is Zong Ze, and no one expects everyone to be Zong Ze.

But, that being said.

After the New Year, for three days in a row, this Deputy Commander Du didn't change at all, still shut up inside and strictly forbidding anyone from fighting. Now, the entire army was in a panic... And at this time, the entire army suddenly realized that they all knew that Deputy Commander Du was somewhat afraid of war, but no one expected him to be so afraid of war and obstinate at the same level.

On the fifth day of the first month of the third year of Jianyan, Yue Fei, together with Wang Yan, Ma Gao, and Li Qiong, with the help of Du Yan, broke into the city of Yanling where Du Chong lived, and all knelt down and wept, begging to fight, but to no effect.

On the seventh day of the first month, Nanyang, which had obviously been unable to bear it for a long time, also sent an imperial decree by fast horse, specifically asking Du Chong the reason. Deputy Commander Du then wrote a dispatch in reply, saying that Yue Fei, Wang Yan, and Ma Gao, the three generals under his command, had mutual hatred, which led to discord between the three armies. The three generals shirked responsibility to each other, and the three armies attacked each other constantly, almost treating friendly forces as enemy forces. He was forced to hide in the city of Yanling to prevent civil war.

At the same time, he emphasized that at this time, it was not impossible to force a battle, but once thrown lightly, the last batch of usable royal troops would repeat the story of Taiyuan and be completely buried. He asked Nanyang to be cautious.

On the ninth day of the first month of the third year of Jianyan, the news was transmitted to Nanyang by fast horse, and the entire court was shaken... Because, except for one person, almost everyone in Nanyang unconditionally chose to believe Du Chong.

Who else to believe besides Du Chong?

They couldn't possibly believe those three martial men, could they? Moreover, everyone in the world knew that Wang Yan and Yue Fei had a feud. Did they expect these martial men to be tolerant for the sake of the country and prioritize the overall situation?

In fact, even Emperor Zhao, who had some doubts about Du Chong, was somewhat panicked at this time, because even if he was willing to believe Yue Fei, and even firmly believed that Yue Fei would prioritize the overall situation and would never cause trouble at this time, no one could guarantee that Wang Yan and Ma Gao would be tolerant for the sake of the country, could they?

What if these two couldn't be restrained and attacked Yue Fei, inviting retaliation?

Hundreds of *li* apart, who knew what the situation was over there?

ps: Continue to promote the book as a sacrifice, *Apartment's Abnormal Opening Posture*, a derivative work of *iPartment*. Those who are interested can take a look.

After this chapter, there should be a task of 34k this month. I'll go to bed early tonight... Good night.