The Zhizheng Hall was filled with dozens of senior officials. When Li Yanqing walked into the lobby, the ministers stood up to welcome the Regent.

Li Yanqing smiled and waved his hand to sit down, "Please sit down with all colleagues."

The ministers sat down and Li Yanqing walked to the report table. This was specially set up to facilitate local officials to report their work to Zhizhengtang, which was somewhat similar to the podium in later generations.

Li Yanqing stood in front of the stage naturally and smiled at everyone, "Justice Gao asked me to tell you about the situation of the war and future plans. When I was in Jiaxing Prefecture, I read a Morning Post, which published the detailed process of the Hebei Battle, which was roughly the same, but some details were slightly different. For example, the newspaper said that the Hebei Jin soldiers were all in my careful calculations and could not escape from my palm. In fact, it was not the case. Like Wanyan Zongfu's 30,000 troops, it was too late to get the news. It was thanks to General Wu's strategy to lure them into Hejian City, so he was able to implement the fire plan. Looking back at the military report meeting of the Privy Council, everyone can take a look."

"Can you ask His Highness the Regent to talk about the subsequent war?" Fan Zhixu asked.

This is the issue that all officials are concerned about, and it is also the real reason why they sit here. As the court, they need to understand the next step of the army's actions. Li Yanqing had already made a comprehensive explanation in advance in the previous Northern Expedition. They all knew very well, so what after the Northern Expedition ended?

Li Yanqing understood everyone's thoughts, and he said calmly: "In fact, the Northern Expedition has not ended yet. The Song army is now besieging Yanshan Prefecture. Don't forget that Yanshan Prefecture was once incorporated into the Song Dynasty and was later taken away by the Jin soldiers. Only by taking down Yanshan Prefecture can our Northern Expedition mission be successfully concluded. As for whether we should continue to fight with the Jin soldiers next, on the one hand, it depends on whether the Jin soldiers counterattack, and on the other hand, it depends on our own national strength. But one thing is certain: we must carry out the most severe trade blockade and cannot allow the Jin Kingdom to obtain some strategic materials from the Song Dynasty."

"Does His Highness the Regent have any specific plans?"

Li Yanqing shook his head, "The specific plan has not been released yet. Now there is only one idea. But I can tell you clearly that my goal is to completely destroy the Jin Kingdom and eliminate the cancer and hidden dangers that are growing on our backs."

After pausing, Li Yanqing said again: "Don't think of the Jin Kingdom so terrible. Tell everyone that after so many years of war, the Jin Kingdom's national strength has been exhausted. It is now just a tribe of more than one million people, and its national strength is not even as strong as the Western Xia. How can it compete with our Song Dynasty's population? Once the Jin Kingdom's Daliang breaks, the entire Jin Kingdom will collapse quickly like a rotten house, which will make everyone stunned."

.............

Just the day after Li Yanqing returned, Zhizhengtang passed a resolution to raise military funds from the people of the world. The fundraising call was placed on the front page of the Morning Post. It also promised that donors who made significant contributions will not only be awarded to honorary officials, but will also be compensated for land or cattle and sheep in the future, and the minimum compensation standard was clarified. Anyone who donated money can reward one sheep, and those who donated five cents of money will be rewarded with one acre of land.

The court also ordered the establishment of donation sites in various prefectures and counties. The first call for fundraising was to explode Lin'an Prefecture. There were long queues in front of the twenty-three donation sites in Lin'an City. The people enthusiastically donated money, with the largest amount of 300 or 500 citations. Some wealthy businessmen and great merchants also generously donated money. Li Daqi, the owner of Baoyanzhai, donated 500,000 taels of silver, which caused a sensation in the whole city.

Even the officials donated money one after another. Li Yanqing led the way and donated 10,000 guan. Prime Minister Shi Zhizhe donated 5,000 guan. Gao Shen and Cao Yan also donated 5,000 guan. Zheng Wangzhi and Li Gang each donated 2,000 guan. Most of the other officials were less than 1,000 guan, hundreds of guan, and dozens of guan.

In just ten days, Lin'an City alone donated more than 10 million yuan of money. The Morning Post published a special issue of fundraising, publishing the top 500 donors.

At night, Li Yanqing sat in his study and slowly read the special issue of the Morning Post. There was actually a lot of useful information here, so it depends on how to dig it out.

At this time, his wife Cao Yun brought in a bowl of tea. Li Yanqing raised his eyebrows and asked, "How is Qing'er and her mother?"

Cao Yun nodded, "After all, they are mother and daughter, and they are connected by blood. Qing'er has already talked to her. I guess after giving birth, the two will be completely reconciled."

"Since that's the case, letting her mother move into the mansion. It's also very pitiful to live alone."

"Don't worry, husband! I will make arrangements."

Cao Yun put the tea on the table and saw her husband reading the fundraising report, he couldn't help but smile: "Everyone is talking about fundraising these days, and his ears are sounding calloused."

"Did the lady donate?"

"Go! If we don't donate, where did you get the 10,000 guan? Wasn't it just a few of us pieced together? Even A Lian donated his fifty guan money."

"Yeah! This child is sensible, has Pu'er donated it?"

"Of course he donated too, and he donated all his ten-point money. He is also very sensible!"

Li Yanqing smiled and patted her ass gently, "I'm afraid that my son won't get the praise!"

"That's of course!"

Cao Yun simply sat beside her husband like a spoiled person and read the newspaper with him, "I've read the list several times. Is this list interesting?"

"It's quite interesting. Look at the second place in the donation money. Quanzhou ship king Zheng Rongtai donated 100,000 taels of silver. I haven't heard of him for many years. It turns out that he is in Quanzhou."

"Husband knows him?"

"Of course I know him. When he was taking the exam, he sat next to me. I saw him cheating with my own eyes, and later he became my friend."

"I remembered it too."

Cao Yun hurriedly said, "When we got married, you said that a fat man Zheng gave him a bride price of 10,000 yuan. Was he him?"

"It's him!"

"When will he be invited to sit at home? He supports you so much."

"I want to treat him to a meal, let's go in a few days!"

"What else is there to be interesting?" Cao Yun asked again.

"There is another interesting thing. Among the top 500, I couldn't find a Zhao royal family. They seemed to be boycotting them collectively."

"Fujin donated 1,000 guan, and Jinnu donated 500 guan."

"They donate. Fujin donates money to me. Zhao Jinnu donates money to Cao Sheng, and there is nothing else. The 500th place donated 300 guan. Are they reluctant to donate 300 guan? Now it's Zhao Songjiangshan!"

Cao Yun thought for a while and said, "I think they don't want to donate, but they are afraid of you."

"Why do you say that?"

Cao Yun pointed to the person in front and said, "This Xing Qiliang donated 20,000 guan. He is Empress Xing's eldest brother. As far as I know, Empress Xing and Empress Zheng also donated 5,000 guan each, but their names are not on it, which means that Empress Xing gave the money to his brother and asked him to donate on his behalf. Then why does Empress Xing not donate in the name of the prince? The prince's donation is natural, and she refuses to do so. Isn't this just afraid of you?"

"It may not be because I am afraid of me, maybe it is because the Zhao royal family is boycotting it."

Cao Yun shook his head, "The last time the title was removed, the royal family had already collapsed. Where can there be any collective boycott?"

"What's going on?"

"I don't know very well, but I heard from my uncle that there were several princes who didn't want to give up their titles, but later everyone else gave up. They had no choice but to give up, but they hated the royal family who had voluntarily given up their titles before."

"This is interesting, but no matter what the reason is, there is no royal family on this list. In the hearts of the world, they will seriously break their trust."

"Isn't this what my husband hopes for?"

Cao Yun stood up and walked out with a smile. Li Yanqing was stunned. Could it be that his ambition was so obvious?

Li Yanqing stood silently in front of the window. He was still considering whether to use this donation incident to attack the Zhao royal family. He couldn't understand why the royal family was absent at such a critical moment. Even the foreign relatives tried hard to donate money to show goodwill to him, but none of the royal family appeared on the list. What did the people in the world think?

Once public opinion breaks out, it will have a fatal impact on the Zhao royal family. Even if it doesn’t care about its own dynasty, it still expects others to care about them?

Perhaps my wife is right, these royal families are afraid of donating money because they are afraid of themselves, but it can be seen that the Zhao royal family has become an A Dou who cannot be helped.

No one dared to stand up and donate money, and loudly declared that the royal family had not disappeared. They still care about the Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, there was no such person, and they all learned to protect themselves.

Li Yanqing sneered, saying that they were low-key and gave in, thinking that they could escape their whip?

Li Yanqing immediately wrote a letter asking his personal soldiers to run to his father.

............

In the next two days, the public opinion controversy caused by the list began to break out. The Morning Post severely criticized the royal family for being indifferent and selfish on the front page. When they were all donating money enthusiastically to support the soldiers on the front line, only one of the royal family, who was rich in the world, donated a mere hundred trump cards. Are they worthy of the soldiers who fought bloody on the battlefield and the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country?

The severe criticism of the Morning Post became the fuse for igniting public opinion. For a time, everyone in the world, including Lin'an Prefecture, was indignant and criticized the selfish and indifferent royal family.

This confrontation against the royal family lasted for nearly two months before public opinion slowly subsided.
Chapter completed!