"My lord, the madam just sent a letter saying there's an urgent matter!"
As Han Mo, Han Shizhong, and their group were engrossed in discussion, a attendant quietly ran in from outside and whispered into Han Mo's ear.
"An urgent matter?"
Upon hearing this, Han Mo couldn't help but frown. He then reached out and took the letter handed to him.
"You all continue talking, I need to step out for a moment!"
"Yes!"
After bidding farewell to Li Yueyang and the others, Han Mo, holding the envelope, walked onto the corridor outside the house.
"Go tell Master Li that I have some matters to attend to and must leave first. Once they've reached a conclusion, have someone inform me!"
After reading the contents of the letter, Han Mo directly instructed the attendant behind him, and then hurried outside.
"Return to the mansion!"
Half an hour later, Han Mo returned home in a flurry.
"Is the news in this letter reliable?"
Back in his room, after closing the doors and windows, Han Mo lowered his voice again and asked Zhe Yourong.
"The news came from my father. Although my father wasn't personally on the battlefield, judging by the current situation, this news is more likely than not to be true. You are..."
As Zhe Yourong spoke, she looked at Han Mo with some curiosity.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to confirm the truth of this news. You should rest, I still have some things to do..."
Taking a deep breath, Han Mo said nothing more. He merely pushed open the door and returned to his study.
Only after closing all the doors and windows of the study did Han Mo slump into the chair.
The letter he held in his hand fell to the ground.
The new emperor of Liao, Yelü Chun, who had only ascended the throne for ten days, was dead...
Guo Yaoshi took the opportunity to surrender, not only himself but also the Yizhou garrison commander Gao Feng, who surrendered to the Great Song.
Under normal circumstances, this should have been good news, as the Great Song Dynasty had once again gained the upper hand on the battlefield.
However, for Han Mo, this was undoubtedly a bolt from the blue.
He had been struggling for so long, yet the thing that was bound to happen had happened.
Although Han Mo couldn't remember exactly how many months Yelü Chun had been emperor, he remembered that Guo Yaoshi and Gao Feng surrendered to the Northern Song in the fourth year of Xuanhe.
And the 8,000 Changsheng Army led by Guo Yaoshi was one of the direct culprits of the Jingkang Incident!
The predecessor of the Changsheng Army was called the Yuanjun, a special unit originally formed by Liao to seek revenge.
All the soldiers in this unit were from the Liaodong region, and their families were essentially held captive by the Jurchens, serving as slaves.
In the eyes of the Liao elites, these people should have had no choice but to fight to the death when facing the Jurchens.
However, reality often defied expectations. This Yuanjun not only failed to exhibit their expected combat capabilities but also staged a rebellion in the second year of Xuanhe.
It was during that rebellion that Guo Yaoshi, as the commander of the Yuanjun, did not join them in rebelling. Instead, he, along with Liao troops drawn from various places by the Liao high command, suppressed his own comrades.
Because of this incident, after the Yuanjun was later divided into four, Guo Yaoshi also became one of these four great commanders.
This time, with the Song and Jin allied to destroy Liao, Guo Yaoshi's troops were conscripted to the front line at Zhuozhou.
Although Han Mo didn't know why this fellow suddenly surrendered, the death of Yelü Chun and Guo Yaoshi's surrender both proclaimed the same thing to Han Mo.
History had truly accelerated, and all the timelines he remembered seemed to have been invalidated at once.
According to the original history, shortly after Guo Yaoshi's surrender, the Song army would suffer another major defeat.
It was precisely the recently surrendered Guo Yaoshi who preserved the last vestiges of the Song army's dignity.
However, after the great battle, to commend the merits of the Changsheng Army, they were stationed at all the strategic passes and checkpoints near Yanjing.
As a result, when the Jurchens marched south later, Guo Yaoshi surrendered, and these men promptly opened the city gates to welcome the Jurchen soldiers into the city.
This led to the Song army's utter defeat before they could even react.
By the time the Song army recovered, the Jurchens had already completely blockaded Bianliang.
The Shame of Jingkang thus began...
Looking at the thin letter lying on the ground, Han Mo suddenly felt a deep sense of dread.
His mind was a complete blank.
The world seemed to have descended into utter chaos, and he, a butterfly who had transmigrated from later generations, had now become the source of all this disorder.
"Hoo—"
After sitting in a daze for over an hour, Han Mo finally let out a long sigh of relief.
"Someone!"
"My lord, what are your orders?"
Hearing Han Mo's voice, an attendant outside the door pushed open the door and walked in.
"Send a message via carrier pigeon to Jiang Yan. I don't care if he breaks people out of prison or commits arson and murder. Within fifteen days, I want to see Lü Ying and Yue Fei appear in Mingzhou City!"
"Yes!"
Gritting his teeth fiercely, Han Mo finally made up his mind.
No matter what he planned to do in the future, he needed a powerful army at this moment.
Time waits for no one, and he no longer had the luxury of waiting.
He had originally thought he would have at least another four to five years, but now it seemed he might only have one to two years at most.
If he wanted to build a strong force, this was his last chance.
Training troops, quelling unrest, and guarding against rebels – these were his best excuses for now. If the Fang La rebellion were completely put down, it would be much harder for him to do anything later.
"Teacher, teacher, I hope you can be a little smoother this time..."
After the attendant left, Han Mo pushed open the window again, looking far into the southeast.
Judging by the time, Shao Bowen and the others should have already begun preparing to set sail.
How much grain they could procure this time directly affected Han Mo's subsequent plans.
"Brother, this is the result of our discussion. However, the cost of building such a warship will likely be tens of thousands more than the previous ones..."
As dusk fell, Han Shizhong finally arrived at Han Mo's study with a long wooden box.
"This is the exterior model?"
Taking another deep breath, Han Mo finally managed to calm himself down.