When the news of the annihilation of the Southern Expeditionary Army under the leadership of the emperor himself reached the capital, it immediately caused a major earthquake comparable to a landslide and a ground crack.

The entire capital, from the princes and nobles, to the common people, couldn't believe that this was true.

However, with more and more bad news coming from the front, people finally had to believe that the Southern Expeditionary Army was really defeated, and the defeat was extremely miserable, and it could be said that there was no place to bury.

It is said that the army was blocked by the Hu people in the mountain road of Wudao Pavilion and could not move, and then the Hu people began to burn the mountain on a large scale, and set up a large number of ambushes at the top and foot of the mountain to hunt down and kill the soldiers and generals who climbed up.

Countless soldiers were either burned alive by the fire or smoked, or died under the bows and arrows of the Hu people while climbing.

It is said that the fire burned for more than 10 days, and burned all the mountains near Godojei to the ground.

Under such a fire, even the bronze people would be burned, not to mention the ordinary soldiers and generals of flesh and blood.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Southern Expedition army were burned alive by the Hu people, and there was not a single one in ten thousand who could escape.

It's miserable, it's so miserable!

It was the first time since the founding of the Great Wei Dynasty that such a tragic defeat had occurred.

Not only that, it is said that the Hu people also arrested the emperor.

and threatened the emperor's life, demanding that the imperial court cede the entire southern region and pay 10 million taels of silver in exchange for the emperor's return to the court.

It is unheard of that the king of a dignified country became a prisoner of the Hu people, and was also threatened by the Hu people to pay for the silver.

Originally, such important news would not be easily leaked, and it was impossible for it to spread throughout the capital in such a short period of time.

The reason why it spread so quickly is mainly because it was seized by the government for several months, and it seems that the "Seeking Truth" that has completely disappeared suddenly revived.

"Seeking Truth" not only announced the news of the defeat of the Wei army, but also after the emperor was captured alive by the Hu people, the Hu people sent a letter of state, demanding that the land be ceded and the silver was exchanged for the emperor's return to the dynasty, and a series of inside information were also clearly explained, making it difficult to distinguish the true from the false.

This one-page mysterious tabloid flowed to the entire territory of Great Wei through various channels, allowing more and more people to know the truth of the matter.

By the time the government wanted to ban the newspaper vigorously, it was already too late.

Not only did the people of the whole capital know about it, but people from other places also knew the news one after another.

Including many scholars, public opinion in Dawei was in an uproar, and almost everyone was talking about this matter, and there was a sense of crisis that the country was about to fall.

At this time, above the court, there was a death-like pressure and silence.

Almost no one dared to speak nonsense, not only officials, but even Zhao Yan'an, the blessed king who replaced the Shuntian Emperor in charge of the country, did not dare to speak out casually like a quail.

Everyone is afraid that once they say the wrong thing, they will be targeted by An Guogong, who has just recovered from a serious illness and is full of murderous energy.

This time, An Guogong is really sick, not acting.

After receiving the news of the annihilation of the Southern Expeditionary Army and the death of his eldest son Xie Yukun, An Guogong fainted on the spot because of his anger.

After recuperating for more than ten days, An Guogong, who was already in his sixties, finally returned to court with his sick body.

The first thing he did after going to court was to thoroughly investigate the entire military headquarters and investigate the leakage of the southern defense map.

As for how the army of the Southern Expedition was defeated, the battle report sent from the front line has been explained very clearly, it was precisely because of the ambush of the Hu people that the whole army was trapped in Wudao Pavilion and could not get out, and was finally burned alive by the Hu people.

The key to this battle lies in how the Hu people, who were ambushed at the entrance of the Wudao Pavilion, avoided the guards and outposts in various places, gathered from all over the place to go around behind the army, and then carried out a sneak attack.

It is still possible to say that a small number of Hu people used the night march to avoid a few guard posts and outposts, but it is simply a fantasy for the Hu army, which is tens of thousands of people, to avoid all of them without being discovered.

The only explanation is that the deployment map of the entire southern region has been obtained by the Hu people, and then the Hu people used the deployment map to bypass all the guards and outposts to carry out an accurate ambush.

The extremely confidential military drawings such as the deployment drawings have always been stored in the Ministry of War, and only the Ministry of War has the right to access them.

Now that such a major event has happened, of course An Guogong must thoroughly investigate the military department.

For a while, all the officials of the Ministry of War, including Lord Shang Shumin of the Ministry of War, even the subordinates in charge of cleaning and cleaning, were not spared, and all of them were taken to the Detective Office for interrogation.

Some suspicious officials have even begun to be tortured, and they have been tortured to death by the people of the Arrest Office, shouting that they have been wronged.

In addition to thoroughly investigating the military department, An Guogong also ordered the local government to search for and arrest people related to the "Qiuzhen Bao" on a large scale, and confiscate all the "Qiuzhen Bao" scattered among the people, and those who concealed it and failed to hand it over were all beheaded.

This is for the internal side, and externally, An Guogong issued an order to the local health offices, ordering them to rush to the southern region as quickly as possible to deploy defenses.

and ordered local governments to start a large number of conscriptions, as long as they are young and strong, they must be forced to enlist, even the only son in the family will not be spared.

At the same time, he ordered the provincial ordnance bureaus of all provinces throughout the country to manufacture ordnance in large quantities, and there should be no mistakes.

After this series of decrees was issued, the household department quickly couldn't stand it, because the treasury ran out of money.

It's not acting and crying poor, it's really having no money.

Before Emperor Shuntian led hundreds of thousands of people to drive a personal expedition, this person ate horses and fed, and the money, silver, grain and grass spent every day were mountains of gold and silver.

Fortunately, the past few years have been smooth, and the sea trade has gained a lot, which can barely support this southern expedition.

But even so, the state treasury is already very tight, and there is a tendency to eat more than enough food.

Now An Guogong has to transfer troops from various guards, recruit a large number of troops in various places, and manufacture a large number of ordnance, all of which are money.

Even if the household department does not pay the pensions of hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers, it is difficult to cope with so many expenses.

An Guogong also knew that the treasury was indeed out of money, and if it continued like this, the entire treasury would completely collapse.

So he made a decision that almost all emperors would make when they ran out of money: raise taxes.

In addition to the positive taxes such as land endowment, poll tax and average silver, An Guogong added a new tax called "Pinghu tax", which means to tax the Pingding Hu people.

At least the specific amount that should be collected will be decided by the household department after it has been calculated. But it will certainly not be lower than the field endowment, otherwise it will not be able to maintain many expenditures of the state treasury.

As soon as this order was issued, many officials did not dare to speak out against it, although they felt that it was inappropriate.

Because the current An Guogong is so terrible, almost murderous, who dares to touch his moldy head at this time.

After promulgating this series of decrees, An Guogong immediately put forward an even more astonishing decision: to elect the Fu King Zhao Zhuoan to the throne as the emperor, replacing the Shuntian Emperor who had been "killed in battle" as the new emperor of the Great Wei.

As soon as these words came out, the Manchu Dynasty was shocked.

When did the emperor die in battle? Isn't he still in the hands of the Hu people?

However, An Guogong said with a heartfelt voice: The emperor has indeed died, and the conditions proposed by Hu Ren are just for the empty gloves of the white wolf, which is absolutely not credible. Since the emperor has died and left no heirs, he should be succeeded by King Fu, who oversees the country.

Since these words were said by An Guogong, who leaned towards the government and the opposition, naturally no one in the court dared to raise objections.

So in the strange atmosphere of the different expressions of the officials and the surprise of King Fu himself, the king of a country was replaced lightly.

As for the specific day of the enthronement ceremony, it is necessary to wait for the "state funeral" of Emperor Shuntian to end, and then the Qin Tianjian will calculate the appropriate auspicious day for the king.