Chapter 223 The Court Wants to Talk About a Truce
More than a month ago, Fu Cha Mingliang was buried in the Yangtze River. When the court learned the news, the whole court was shocked.

Because the main force in Shaanxi was still in the territory, Hubei had just mobilized its troops, and even the Governor Chang Lin of Yunnan and Guizhou had been captured, and the military force was not large and could not be relied upon at all.

In other words, Chen Gu's secession of Sichuan is a foregone conclusion, and with just a few hundred men under his command, he has become increasingly powerful in just over half a year, and has the strength to occupy the entire Sichuan. Now that he has occupied Sichuan, I am afraid that the entire world is in danger of being overthrown.

After reading the military report, Jiaqing did not hold Fu Cha Mingliang responsible for arbitrarily transferring troops to Chongqing, which led to the annihilation of the entire army.

After all, when Chen Gu set out with an army of more than 20,000, he had already formed a siege against Fu Cha Mingliang. With the combat effectiveness of Chen Gu's army, Fu Cha Mingliang's more than 20,000 troops could not defend Langzhong at all, and retreating to Guangyuan was not an option either. However, he could retreat to Hanzhong and continue to defend because of the steepness of the Shu Road.

But doing so would only retain an additional 20,000 troops, which would be of no use to the current situation.

Now that Song Jun has entered Hanzhong, he has still stopped the rebels in Sichuan.

Although the area between Sichuan and Shaanxi is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it is also not easy to break through.

Therefore, Fu Cha Mingliang's strategic goal of taking Chongqing was not wrong. It was a pity that the enemy army was too strong, so Fu Cha Mingliang ultimately failed.

Afterwards, Woshubu retreated to Fengjie but also failed to hold out and was forced to the Yichang front line, where he stabilized the front line only with the support of the imperial commissioner Zhang Jiaqinggui.

Moreover, they were only barely maintaining the situation. Zhang Jiaqinggui had only arrived in Hubei not long ago and had not had time to gather all the military forces in Hubei. They could only fight while mobilizing more troops as soon as possible.

At this point the war became a fuel-fuel war.

But the ratio of casualties on both sides made Zhang Jiaqinggui worried, because even if the imperial court defended the city, the ratio of casualties was still dozens to one, and sometimes even reached a terrifying one hundred to one.

If the rebel army had not continued its large-scale siege, the imperial court would have never been able to hold on. As for why the rebel army did not continue its large-scale siege, Zhang Jiaqinggui did not know, but it would certainly be good to have more time to prepare.

It’s not that Yunhua didn’t want to continue conquering cities, but his strength didn’t allow it. Firstly, the troops he brought were not many, and secondly, the ammunition was not enough. Finally, after taking Yichang, the strategic goal had been achieved.

What Chen Gu meant was that the Huaxia tribe currently did not have the strength to unify the world, and even if it could conquer it, it did not have the ability to govern, so the pace of the attack had to be slowed down.

It is a good opportunity to solve some internal problems. It will be enough to just hold on to Yichang.

After occupying Yichang, Sichuan gained the advantage of being able to attack or defend, and the thousand-mile Three Gorges provided sufficient strategic depth.

Compared to fighting along the river, it would be more cost-effective to take Guizhou first. After all, there are not many prefectures and counties in Guizhou, and it does not take many officials to manage it well. As for those states, departments and other places where ethnic minorities live, they can be allowed to govern themselves.

Just conquer Guizhou and you can get the various mineral deposits there.

Therefore, even after Chen Gu sent reinforcements to Yunhua, Yunhua did not continue to fight outside, but instead sent out new recruits to fight in the field with the scouts of the imperial court, attack cities from time to time, and besiege and attack reinforcements. The purpose was just to train the troops.

But the imperial court didn't know that such a high casualty ratio made Zhang Jiaqinggui extremely uncomfortable. It was always difficult to replenish the troops on the front line. As a result, let alone counterattack, even defense was difficult.

In desperation, Zhang Jiaqinggui submitted a memorial to Jiaqing, asking Jiaqing whether he wanted to talk to Chen Gu and call for a temporary truce. It was just a temporary truce, not to persuade Chen Gu to surrender or something.

After all, Chen Gu now controls Sichuan, and it may not be so easy to persuade him to surrender, and Jiaqing cannot afford such a high price.

After Jiaqing learned about the situation on the front line, he somewhat wanted to temporarily cease fire, because Woshubu's military report made it clear that the enemy's armaments were too powerful, and the imperial court would suffer great losses if they continued to fight.

Everything else would be fine, but the rebel army actually has a powerful weapon like the mother-and-child cannon that has been sealed up. Now, if we want to increase the strength of the imperial army, we must improve the level of armaments, or at least take out the mother-and-child cannon.

However, replacing armaments takes time, and the high-pressure stance that Chen Gu adopted against the imperial court made Zhang Jiaqinggui feel that Chen Gu would strike back at any time. It was hard to say what would happen in other places, but Hubei might not be able to wait until the imperial court replaced its armaments.

But if Hubei is occupied by the rebel army again, it will threaten Hunan and the Jiangnan region. If these two places become battlefields, I am afraid that eating in the capital will become a problem.

Not to mention the threats to Hunan and Jiangnan, as long as the enemy army blocked the canal, the capital would immediately be in chaos.

So Jiaqing had to put forward a plan for peace talks and a truce. After discussions with the Grand Council and a group of important officials, it was felt that they could try to negotiate a truce.

But a truce requires the consent of both parties after all. Now the situation is favorable to Chen Gu. What should the court do to impress Chen Gu and make him agree to a truce?
Some people suggested making Chen Gu the King of Sichuan or something like that. Anyway, Chen Gu already had actual control over the entire Sichuan.

However, this proposal was rejected by Jiaqing. If he was crowned a king, all the provinces in the world would be in chaos.

We need to negotiate a truce, but we must not show weakness, especially we must not let the people of the world see the weakness of the court. It is best to conduct the talks in secret. This is the prerequisite.

To this end, the imperial court could make certain concessions, such as gold, silver, beautiful women and other insignificant things.

After the tone was set, the next step was to select the envoy. It would be best if Zhu Gui volunteered to go to Sichuan in person. This really moved Jiaqing. After all, his teacher was already over 60 years old, and it was not easy for him to travel thousands of miles and take the risk in person.

So Jiaqing told Zhu Gui to ensure his own safety and to agree to some conditions from Chen Gu to escape if necessary. After all, Chen Gu had a bad reputation and had a history of arresting Liu Qing.

As Jiaqing's teacher, Zhu Gui naturally could not arrive so quickly. In order to delay Chen Gu, this was the first wave of envoys who rushed to Sichuan on fast horses.

Upon learning that an imperial envoy was coming to Sichuan, Chen Gu was somewhat curious.

"Then please come in!" Chen Gu ordered.

No matter what, since the court has sent an envoy, we have to listen to what they say.

What surprised Chen Gu was that four of the five envoys sent by the court were foreigners.

"Zhang Liangcai, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Rites, Gao Linyuan, Yan Shimo, Wang Ya'gebo, and De Tianci, the heads of the Ministry of Rites, have met with the leader of the Huaxia Department."

(End of this chapter)