Qiu Yizi turned to Zheng Chao and said, "Your Majesty, if this is the case, the matter of the emperor leading the army in person is settled. Mr. Lin is drafting a declaration of war. Once the declaration of war is sent to Zheng Xin and the time for the decisive battle is agreed upon, Your Majesty will set out to fight the traitor Zheng Xin."
Qiu Yizhi's words were almost like an order, which was undoubtedly a question and disregard for the supreme emperor and imperial power. But now the emperor Zheng Qi had neither the energy to resist nor the strength to refuse, so he could only bow his head and whisper: "I... I know..."
Whether the emperor was willing or not was really unimportant to Qiu Yizi. He sneered and bowed to the emperor: "In that case, I will go down to prepare for the final battle. In the next few days, please take good care of your health. If your health is not good, I will have to trouble you to go to the battle in person. I will not bear it."
Qiu Yizi's words blocked the emperor's way of making excuses on the grounds of serious illness, making the emperor and the empress dowager even more at a loss as to how to respond.
So Qiu Yizi laughed, bowed to the two nominal emperors, turned around and led Zhao Chengxiao, Yuchi Jiming and eleven personal soldiers out of the "Lizheng Palace".
The declaration of war drafted by Lin Shuhan was delivered to Zheng Xin within a few days.
The declaration of war was written in the name of the regent rather than the emperor, and it began with Qiu Yizhi listing Zheng Xin's crimes - some of which were confirmed, some were exaggerated, and some were fabricated and forced upon him. Zheng Xin was quite magnanimous, knowing that it was necessary to show off his verbal skills before the two armies went to war. If he sent troops to attack Qiu Yizhi, he would have made the same argument, so he just read it and didn't take it to heart.
After a few harsh words, Qiu Yi agreed to have a decisive battle with Zheng Xin, and the outcome of this battle would determine the fate of the world.
A decisive battle must be fought, but the schedule, location, and troop strength are all extremely important, especially since Zheng Xin and Qiu Yi are separated by the surging Yangtze River.
The most important thing is the location of the decisive battle. If it is in Jiangnan, how should Qiu Yizhi's army in Jiangbei cross the Yangtze River? If it is in Jiangbei, how can Zheng Xin's army in Jiangnan cross the natural moat? Moreover, even if these troops, along with food and supplies, can be transported across the Yangtze River, they will still have to face an opponent who is well rested and waiting for them to tire. The opponent is likely to take advantage of the opportunity when they are not yet firmly established to "attack the enemy halfway across the river", so that they can have a great advantage from the beginning of the battle.
With such doubt, Zheng Xin continued reading, and sure enough, he saw that Qiu Yizi had agreed in the letter of challenge that the decisive battle would take place at the border of Xuzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province on the north bank of the Yangtze River.
Seeing this, Zheng Xin couldn't help but curse inwardly: "What a cunning Qiu Yizi, knowing that your troops are smaller and weaker than mine, you came up with this method to trick me. How can I let you do what you want?"
He then read on and saw that Qiu Yi was willing to give up three miles of land along the river in Xuzhou, so that Zheng Xin could land and set up his troops before a decisive battle. If Zheng Xin didn't believe it, he could send a small force to investigate first. If there was any violation of the promise, he would rather give up Luoyang City.
"Give up Luoyang City without a fight", Zheng Xin would not believe it, but sending someone to Jiangbei to take a look would be a good choice - if Qiu Yizi could really keep his promise, then he could take advantage of the situation and lead the army across the river to fight a decisive battle; if it was Qiu Yizi's strategy, then the losses would be just some scattered soldiers and horses.
The declaration of war was followed by the following passage: The world has been at war for a long time and the people have no rest. Right and wrong are determined by Heaven. Those who follow the way of Heaven will be helped by Heaven, and those who are immoral will be disdained by Heaven. It would be better to decide the outcome on the battlefield to show the rightful ownership of the world.
These words really touched Zheng Xin's heart.
Zheng Xin was originally instigated by Tianzun Sect Leader Wen Honghui, and half-heartedly committed the shameful act of killing the king and his teacher. He knew that what he did was a bad thing against heaven, and he was already very guilty. And he killed Lingnan King Zheng Gui and his son, imprisoned Heluo King Zheng Hua, his second brother Zheng Sen, and Left General Wei Hu, which were actually the manifestation of this mentality. But Qiu Yizi's words clearly reversed the logic - whoever can win this decisive battle is a "heavenly way" and will become an orthodox defender of the way without a doubt - as long as he can defeat Qiu Yizi on the battlefield, all the filth on his body can be washed away.
This was too much of a temptation for Zheng Xin, who wanted to inherit the orthodoxy of the Han Dynasty. So he stirred the cinnabar in the inkstone vigorously, licked the evenly distributed cinnabar on a new brush, and wrote on the letter of challenge issued by Qiu Yi: "Approved, a decisive battle will be held in Xuzhou, Shandong Province. Those who betray their faith will be punished by heaven and earth."
Having said that, Zheng Xin has always known Qiu Yizi's temper and has seen his cunning tricks when leading troops in battle many times. He is really afraid that he will break his promise at the last minute and kill him by surprise.
Therefore, when Zheng Xin sent someone to return the declaration of war to Jiangbei, he indeed selected a General of the Central Army named Tang Jianlong and led 3,000 elite soldiers to Jiangbei together.
This Tang Jianlong was recruited by Zheng Xin in Shanxi and Shaanxi Province. Apart from the roughness of a Northwestern man, he also possessed a rare intelligence and cleverness. He also looked very upright and heroic, so Zheng Xin made him his confidant. Today he could finally be put to use, so he went ahead to Jiangbei to investigate the situation.
Tang Jianlong was very reluctant, but because Zheng Xin had been very kind to him, he had no choice but to bite the bullet and take his 3,000 men and horses, divided into five newly built large ships, and head towards Jiangbei.
In fact, compared to Tang Jianlong, who is unfamiliar with the terrain of Jiangnan and the landscape of Shandong, Zheng Xin has another person under his command who is more suitable for the task of going north to investigate the situation.
This person was none other than General Zhang Long, who had been highly valued under the late Emperor Zheng Rong. He was in charge of the army's southward march when the rebellion in the Lingnan Palace was suppressed. He was very familiar with the situation in both the south and north of the Yangtze River, and had a very close relationship with Zheng Xin. This time, Zheng Xin had a complete break with Qiu Yizi, and Zhang Long also stood on Zheng Xin's side.
However, Zhang Long held too high an official position and had too much power, and Zheng Xin himself felt guilty - he even imprisoned the Left General Wei Hu, who came to question him - and he was not completely sure that he could subdue Zhang Long, a general whose qualifications were only slightly inferior to Wei Hu, and he did not dare to send him alone to Jiangbei to carry out such an important mission.
Therefore, Tang Jianlong, who had no idea about the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, could only come to the north bank of the Yangtze River with an uneasy heart and in the dark.
However, what surprised Tang Jianlong was that what greeted him was not the murderous gazes of the Northern Army, but a hospitality so warm that he even felt a little embarrassed.
As soon as he led his troops down from the ferry, they were greeted by a special person from the Northern Army and taken to a neatly built camp to settle down. Another general who was described as quite majestic and imposing came to contact him.
This military general was none other than Zhao Chengxiao, who was sent by Qiu Yizi in advance.
Zhao Chengxiao came here on Qiu Yizhi's orders. In addition to being relaxed on the outside and tight on the inside to do a good job of defense along the river, he also secretly shouldered other important tasks. Therefore, he was very polite to Tang Jianlong. After saying a few good words when they met, he asked, "General Tang, I heard that you came here to deliver Zheng Xin's declaration of war. I wonder if you are staying with me?"
Tang Jianlong had heard of Zhao Chengxiao's reputation a long time ago. Seeing him coming to greet him personally, he was a little flattered. He hurriedly returned the greeting and said, "Such an important item will naturally stay with me. I am just about to hand it over to General Zhao to bring it to the court and deliver it to the Regent Qiu."
"That's good, that's good." Zhao Chengxiao said, "But this item is too important, I dare not accept it, it should be handed over to Lord Qiu by General Tang himself, and then presented to His Majesty."
Tang Jianlong was shocked when he heard this, thinking that Zhao Chengxiao wanted him to go to Beijing to meet Qiu Yizhi with the letter of war. But he heard Zhao Chengxiao said, "I heard the news from the rear that Mr. Qiu is rushing to the Yangtze River and will arrive in two or three days. How about General Tang staying here for a few days and handing it to him in person when Mr. Qiu comes?"
Tang Jianlong was assigned the task of gathering intelligence on Qiu Yizi, and he was more than satisfied with this arrangement. He readily agreed, "Okay, okay. It's all up to General Zhao." He bowed as he spoke, fearing that Zhao Chengxiao would go back on his word.
After sending Zhao Chengxiao away, Tang Jianlong did not dare to relax at all. He quickly ordered the troops to withdraw from the camp and checked the camp provided by the Northern Army again and again. After confirming that there were no abnormalities in the camp, he ordered the troops to re-station. He also ordered the army to be divided into three shifts, and the three shifts took turns to rest and sleep. Even the food, rice, vegetables and meat used for food were brought from the south.
After a peaceful night, Zhao Chengxiao came to visit again, but he came to invite Tang Jianlong to check out the location of the decisive battle.
This was also an important task for Tang Jianlong to go north. He could not refuse Zhao Chengxiao's invitation for both emotional and rational reasons and for both public and private reasons. However, now they were on the enemy's territory after all. Tang Jianlong was afraid of any accidents, so he called up a thousand soldiers and horses to follow him.
Zhao Chengxiao was very confident. He took only seven or eight followers with him and led Tang Jianlong north on horseback.
The group of people were moving at a fairly fast pace, but after walking for nearly an hour, they found themselves in a vast plain with no undulations at all.
Tang Jianlong was puzzled and asked, "General Zhao, you know I'm from the northwest. This is my first time in the east of the Han Dynasty. It's said that the east is a land of fish and rice, but how come I didn't expect it to be as desolate as the Loess Plateau in the northwest? There's not even a single family here?"
Zhao Chengxiao replied: "Lord Qiu and Zheng Xin have agreed to retreat three miles away from the battlefield. Lord Qiu has ordered the nearby residents and farmers to temporarily move away and properly resettle them. After the war, they will return to their hometowns."
Tang Jianlong frowned and said, "I am also a farmer. Isn't this going to leave the land barren? If we miss the farming season for a while, we will miss the whole year!"
Zhao Chengxiao smiled and said, "General Tang is from a peasant family, and so am I. Lord Qiu has already thought of this. The total number of farmers who have been relocated here is only about 3,000 households, less than 15,000 people, and the government will pay for their support first. After the winter this year, we will give them seeds and grain, and exempt them from taxes for three years. This way, I think they will be able to recover. General Tang, do you think this is appropriate?"