Zhang Jackal wants to kill Ma Qiu, and he has enough reasons. After all, although Ma Qiu is only a lone husband, he is the absolute henchman of the Lord Shi Hu, even if he makes a big mistake, he should be punished by the Lord.

Once Zhang Jackal's behavior is known to Shi Hu, you can imagine what kind of anger it will cause the lord. If there is not enough return, Zhang Jackal will naturally not take such a big risk. What's more, he not only intercepted and killed Ma Qiu, but also concealed such an important military situation as the loss of Xiangguo.

After careful analysis, Zhang Jackal's main purpose is to delay the time when the lord learns of the fall of Xiangguo, at least until the New Year celebration in the middle of the country to let the lord know about it.

This so-called New Year's celebration is not just a flashy ceremony, especially Zhang Jackal has been accompanying Shi Hu for more than a few years, and he knows more clearly what kind of intention Shi Hu will achieve through this celebration.

Moved to Xindu last year, the situation in the country was unbearable, the people's hearts collapsed, and they were in ruins, so that the enthronement ceremony of the Lord was hastily completed, and there was no solemn and majestic ceremony to match it at all, which also made many people in the country even not know that the Lord was no longer the Great Zhao Heavenly King, but the real Emperor His Majesty.

Now that the affairs of Xindu have come to an end for the time being, there should be a matching ceremony to announce to the world. This is not just a false ceremony, if the lord is still only the king of the Great Zhao, in the concept of the people of the time, it will be weaker than the emperor of the southern Jin State, if the name is not right, it is not good, when the fortune of the country is in danger, a little difference in the name falls in the hearts of the people of the world, it will breed many miscellaneous thoughts.

In addition, Zhang Jackal knows better that this long-planned ceremony is not only to make up for the coronation ceremony of His Majesty the Emperor, but also a real sealing ceremony.

At present, the southern country is approaching step by step, and the hearts of the people in the country are almost disintegrating, and it is imperative to award officials and rewards to the ministers in the country to stabilize the hearts of the upper echelons of the country. On this basis, Shi Hu also planned to go further, not only by awarding vain officials, but also by truly splitting the soil and sealing it, and awarding the remaining population and territory under the current state of the country to a cadre of important ministers.

In other words, Shi Hu also knew that the current national situation was no longer enough to support him to become a true ninety-five honor, and he was forced to make major concessions due to reality, and wanted to be the leader of the princes' alliance, so as to encircle and consolidate the hearts of the people in the country.

This is definitely an extremely difficult decision for the fierce Shi Hu. But today, he had no better choice.

Indeed, there are still hundreds of thousands of people wearing armor in the current country. But these exaggerated words can probably only intimidate the ignorant people, and how can those who really know the army be deceived by this.

In the past year or so, Zhang Jackal has always followed the side of the Lord Shihu, and naturally has a more comprehensive and specific understanding of the power that the country currently has.

Not to mention anything else, the 12th Army that has been reorganized inside and outside Xindu in the past year alone is actually just a spectacle. Although through the continuous conscription and expulsion of people from all over the world to gather in this realm, perhaps hundreds of thousands of Ding Zhuang soldiers have really gathered around Xindu at present, but the real army is not just as simple as farmers reorganizing and covering their armor.

What's more, at present, the country simply cannot come up with enough ordnance to arm hundreds of thousands of troops, and as for the most basic food and grass provisions, it is already on the verge of danger.

If it weren't for this, the Lord would not have issued such a strict prohibition at the beginning of last year, although this prohibition also had the implication of taking the opportunity to eradicate hidden forces, but more importantly, the country's current grain reserves could no longer contain the slightest waste.

In the past few years, Hebei has always been unstable, and there is hardly a day in the country that there is no war, and the lord has been roaming the army all the year round, and he has hardly asked about the cultivation of the people.

Originally, there were Jin clans headed by the Taiyuan Guo clan to raise supplies to replenish the army, but after the fall of Xiangguo, in order to suppress and deter these Hebei clans who were accustomed to swaying from end to end, Taiyuan Guo, as the representative portal of these clans, was first slaughtered and suppressed.

After the suppression of the power of the Hebei clan, it meant that the supply and replenishment channels that the country had previously relied on were cut off. After that, the replenishment of materials was to directly plunder the people's wealth under the cover of moving the capital. The army dispersed directly out of the suburbs, plundered the population and money and grain of the surrounding counties, and collected them for military use.

Through such means, the country has indeed raised millions of grains in a short period of time. But this method of fishing with all its might is not destined to last, and even the most ferocious and disrespectful of the royal law must admit that this direct means of plunder is the practice of robbers and bandits, and should not be the method of a king to govern the country.

Moreover, the number of millions of grains and grass seems to be huge, but compared to the huge scale of the military and civilians gathered inside and outside the current Xindu, it is also tantamount to a drop in the bucket. Especially with the experience of the disaster in the southern county, the people in various realms in northern Hebei are already in danger, and there are even many rural heroes who directly resist the law enforcement of the army, which also makes it more and more difficult to supplement later.

As for the so-called army build-up inside and outside Xindu, as far as Zhang Jackal knows, although the six armies are nominally 20,000 troops each, in fact the average number of soldiers capable of fighting is even less than 2,000! Even the six inner armies of Gongwei Xindu City, which was personally commanded by Shi Hu, were not fully established, and the Chinese army with the largest number of troops could reach more than 7,000 people.

In other words, the so-called Twelve Armies inside and outside the country are nothing more than a self-deceptive deception. Even if the country really has enough troops and ordnance to be armed, it will not be able to support such a large army for a long time.

In particular, the previous means of moving the capital and people were too violent, so that all the production of the people between the Xiangguo and the Xindu realm was completely stopped, and after arriving in Xindu, there was no record of organizing the people to resume cultivation and reclamation.

If there are no more major variables, there will definitely be a widespread famine in the middle of the country next spring, and then there will be no need to talk about maintaining a large number of armed forces, but I am afraid that even those living people gathered outside the city will have to flee from a large famine!

In the face of such a prospective situation, Shi Hu had no choice at all, and assigned the land and population to his subordinates, in order to reduce the pressure and counterattack he was under, which was already one of Shi Hu's few choices. And the so-called commanders of the 12 armies inside and outside, if nothing else, will become a veritable prince after the New Year's ceremony.

Because of this, although Zhang Jackal knew what kind of goods the so-called Twelfth Army was, he still worked hard to win a seat. Their Zhang family itself has a large number of private soldiers and righteous servants, once they obtain the qualification of ripping the soil and truly have their own fiefdom, their power will have a qualitative increase!

It is precisely because of this prospect expectation that Zhang Jackal can still stay at the status quo and not rebound when the Lord has already shown obvious vigilance and defense against him.

Of course, his attitude can be regarded as a kind of self-preservation, after all, there are many people who know the intentions of the Lord, once Zhang Jackal is too fierce to oppose the suppression of the Lord against him and affect the formation of the subsequent new order, he will become the common enemy of all the powerful ministers in the country!

The fact that the earth was torn and the princes were lined up seemed to weaken Shi Hu's authority as a king to a certain extent, but in fact it was an excellent strategy to solve the current predicament of the state and save the country's situation.

On the one hand, the generals have their own fiefdoms, so they are no longer simply loyal to the Lord, even if they want to protect their feudal power from being damaged, they must resist the attack of the Jin army without fear of death.

Shi Hu is no longer just a simple human master for them, but also an ally closely related to them, once the Jin State falls, according to the Jin State's always strong style, it will never accept and maintain the existence of this order.

On the other hand, the strength of the north and the south has been clearly visible, and many of the Jin people's clans and powerful people may have secretly planned to take refuge in the Jin state. Now, if they are given a large number of conferrals, they will not only be restrained, but also increase the danger and burden they need to face if they join the enemy.

You are in Ye Xianliu, so you can naturally pat your ass and sit on the side of the Jin Kingdom, relaxed and happy, but if you become a high-ranking official of the Minister of the Jin Kingdom, you will naturally become the object of those generals of the Jin State to kill and invite merit.

It is precisely because of this offensive that the real powerful ministers of the state today are unwilling to see accidents happen and interrupt the progress of the New Year's ceremony. The reason why Zhang Jackal was able to completely intercept the military situation in the west was that the details were indispensable to the secret cooperation of these people.

Such an act may seem to be a disregard for the major affairs of the military state, but if it is only delayed for a period of time, there will be no serious consequences.

After all, the fall of Xiangguo is already a fact, and according to the strong combat effectiveness displayed by the Jin army, it is almost a dream to counterattack and recapture Xiangguo in a short time, and no one will be willing to be ordered to stay away from the core of Xindu and go to the dangerous place of Xiangguo at the critical moment when the new order is about to come out.

And now is the worst season of winter, full of wind and snow, even if the Jin army conquers Xiangguo, it is difficult to continue to advance to Xindu based on this result in this winter. Therefore, the fall of Xiangguo in the short term will not have an actual bad impact on the situation in Xindu.

Concealing the military situation of Xiangguo is the consensus of the ministers. And the reason why Zhang Jackal is willing to come forward is that he has a bigger plan, not only to stop at the qualification he will obtain at the New Year's ceremony.

The division of the New Year's ceremony is only a combing and balancing of the current situation in the country, and it will not achieve an increase in the overall national strength in the short term. Even if each family obtains the actual fiefdom and population, the original danger still exists, and if they can't suppress the Jin army's offensive, everything they will have will be just a void painting.