Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 2: The Long Road Ahead

This man saw with his own eyes that Liu Huai was beaten to death with sticks, so when he heard Liu Huai talking, he was not happy but frightened, and crawled backwards using his hands and feet.

After a while, the man saw Liu Huai just lying on the ground gasping for breath, and he crawled back carefully.

He first timidly glanced at the braided warrior at the door, then approached Liu Huai and put his finger to his nose: "Brother, you... why aren't you dead?"

"I don't know, maybe the King of Hell won't accept me."

Liu Huai slapped the other person's hand away and looked at him in the dim light of the fire.

This man was only sixteen years old, with a childish face and a body that had not yet fully grown. He had a square face and thick eyebrows, just like an ordinary farm boy.

Perhaps due to the remaining memories of the original owner of the body, although the person in front of him had a face covered with snot and tears, Liu Huai still felt a sense of familiarity.

It's just cordial.

Liu Huai couldn't remember who this person was in his messy head.

"I got hit hard on the head and I'm a little amnesiac... I'm a bit lost." Liu Huai pointed to his head and whispered, "Who are you? Who am I? And where are we now?"

Seeing the other person curl his lips and feel like crying again, Liu Huai quickly reached out and grabbed his shoulders: "Speak slowly, speak simply."

"Brother, you are Liu Huai Liu Po Hu, I am Wei Chang Wei Chang Feng, our father-in-law is Wei Gong Hui Sheng, and you are the father-in-law's adopted son. You... you don't remember anything at all?"

When Liu Huai heard the name Wei Sheng, he felt excited again.

This was not only because of the original body's reaction, but more importantly, Wei Sheng was the second generation of fierce generals after the Song Dynasty moved south. He was a brave general who started from scratch, rose from the ranks, and fought with swords and guns.

How fierce is this guy?
When later generations summarized the famous generals of the Southern Song Dynasty, in addition to the four generals of the Restoration, they also listed the ten generals who crossed the South, namely Liu Qi, Yue Fei, Li Xianzhong, Wei Sheng, Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, Yu Yunwen, Zhang Zigai, Zhang Zongyan, and Wu Jie.

Regardless of whether this list is accurate or not, the fact that he is on the list and listed alongside great generals like Yue Fei, who are famous throughout the universe, speaks volumes.

Although Wei Sheng died in battle early in the original timeline, Liu Huai believed that with his understanding of history, he would be able to help Wei Sheng avoid these pitfalls.

In order to keep this great backer, and relying on the identity of Wei Sheng's adopted son, Liu Huai was considered a yamen official.

But then he remembered something and hurriedly grabbed Wei Chang by the collar and said, "What year is this? 1161... No, the st year of Shaoxing?"

"This year is the thirty-first year of Shaoxing... It's the tenth day of the seventh month. We were ordered by our father to disguise ourselves as salt smugglers and come to Lianshui to investigate military intelligence, but we were caught by the Jin thieves..."

Wei Chang knew Liu Huai had probably forgotten everything, so he quickly leaned over to his ear and spilled the beans, "We originally wanted to take advantage of the Jin thieves' laxity to escape tonight, but those filthy bastards caught above weren't very discreet and let us slip away. Damn it... Big Brother, you should have just listened to me and let them fend for themselves!"

Liu Huai felt disappointed when he heard half of it.

The first act of the "Biography of Xin Qiji" he was about to perform was the Shandong Uprising that took place in the 31st year of Shaoxing.

In this year, Wanyan Liang, the Jin ruler, led his army to invade the south, but a fire broke out in his backyard, and Jin Shizong Wanyan Yong ascended to the throne. Wanyan Liang was anxious to cross the river, but was blocked by Yu Yunwen and Li Xianzhong at Caishiji, where he was beaten and then killed by his subordinates in Guazhou.

Although the ending was a good one, during the war, the Jin Dynasty exploited the people under its rule to the bone, and the word "people were living in dire straits" is definitely not an adjective.

These are the reasons for the Shandong Uprising, but that’s a story for another time.

Most importantly, during that year, Wei Sheng was only a low-ranking officer. Liu Huai's dream of becoming a high-ranking official was instantly shattered.

No wonder even though Wei Chang is Wei Sheng’s biological son, he still has to come as a spy to gather information.

“Those few people…”

Liu Huai was about to ask again, but he heard a clanging sound, which was extremely obvious in the quiet night.

He quickly held Wei Chang down and they both crawled on the ground, not daring to move.

The braided warrior was also awakened. He looked down and found that the sword he was holding had fallen to the ground.

He glanced back and saw that Qian Jun was still lying obediently on the ground. He shook his head, put the knife aside, and fell asleep again.

After waiting for a while, Liu Huai finally breathed a sigh of relief and whispered into Wei Chang's ear, "We can't wait any longer. If we can't escape tonight, we'll both be dead tomorrow!"

Although the general named Zhang Yu just said that only the main culprit of the desertion of the army would be executed, only an idiot with a serious mental problem would believe him.

The reason for delaying now is simply that it is difficult to deal with the situation at night. Once the day breaks, how could the Jin army not turn the army upside down, find all the troublemakers and punish them according to law?

By then, not only Liu Huai, the man who has come back from the dead, will be unable to escape, but Wei Chang will definitely not be able to escape either!
"There's no way to escape..." Wei Chang said with a miserable expression. "The three hundred regular Jin soldiers have set up camp all around us. They have horses and dogs. If anyone steps out of the camp, they'll be spotted immediately. We already tried that once at nightfall..."

Liu Huai lay on his back for a while, trying to sort out his messy thoughts in vain. After waiting for his strength to recover a little, he struggled to stand up, pulled Wei Chang and walked into the darkness beside the wooden fence.

"I... I have an idea..." Liu Huai muttered, holding his ribs.

Although the pain throughout his body gradually subsided as Liu Huai gained control of his body, he still felt a dull ache here, as if his ribs had been slightly injured. Wei Chang had originally thought his elder brother was enduring the pain, but when Liu Huai didn't say anything for a while, he couldn't help but whisper, "Brother, what can you do?"

Liu Huai was silent for a long time, and finally spoke with difficulty: "What do you think will be the final fate of these conscripted soldiers?"

"What's the outcome?" Wei Chang looked back at the soldiers lying in a heap on the open ground, then back at Liu Huai with a strange look. "What's the outcome for being caught? You'll die of exhaustion as a laborer, catch a cold and die, get whipped to death by the Jin bandits' regular soldiers for committing some crime, starve to death because your superiors withhold food and fodder, or be killed on the front lines in wartime. You can't escape death. What's there to say?"

Liu Huai was stunned: "Is there no way out for signing a military contract?"

"Yes, there are. The brave and strong are picked to serve in the regular army, while the sick and weak are simply thrown to the roadside to fend for themselves. Some will survive." Wei Chang explained patiently, "But the key is, why would the Jin thieves pity the lives of Han people? You must know that the North lacks everything, but Han people."

Liu Huai was stunned again. He looked at the more than a thousand soldiers lying on the open ground without even straw. Then he looked up at the sky and sighed.

"Achang, come with me to get a torch... Let's set fire to the camp..."

After saying that, Liu Huai crouched down again and walked towards the gate, with Wei Chang following closely behind him.

As he got closer to the Jin army, Liu Huai's steps became slower and slower. In the end, he was almost at the gate, only two meters away from the braided warrior, before he took a torch from the door and handed it to Wei Chang behind him.

However, at this moment, perhaps due to the flickering firelight or the sound of feet rubbing against the sand, the braided-haired warrior suddenly opened his eyes.

Wei Chang, who had been staring at this man, was shocked, but before he could make any move, Liu Huai suddenly pounced on him and covered the braided warrior's mouth and nose with his big hands.

Originally, the braided warrior was sleeping leaning against a wooden railing. Suddenly, Liu Huai pressed him down with all his strength while he was half asleep. This caused his bald head to rub against the wooden railing violently, leaving a blood mark, and then he fell heavily on the sandy ground.

Liu Huai was originally taller and longer than the Jin soldier, so although the Jin soldier struggled hard, he could only stir up a cloud of dust on the spot, and his whole body was pressed down by Liu Huai.

After a few seconds, the braided warrior's eyes were bloodshot and he struggled with all his strength. After failing to pry Liu Huai's hands apart, he punched Liu Huai's ribs hard.

Liu Huai groaned, and while enduring the piercing pain, he growled at Wei Chang, "Knife..."

Wei Chang quickly threw down the torch and went to pick up the braided warrior's sword, but Liu Huai's growl seemed to remind the braided warrior, and he simply gave up struggling, allowing Liu Huai to press his facial bones until they creaked, while his right hand quickly reached for his waist.

Liu Huai was naturally not idle either. After the other party's struggle weakened a little, he bent down and kneeled, and slammed his knees hard into the crotch of the braided warrior.

The braided-haired warrior had just pulled out the sharp knife from his waist when he suffered a serious blow in the crotch. He immediately let out a low cry of pain from his nose, and tears quickly flowed all over his face. He could not hold the sharp knife in his hand at all, and it fell to the side of him.

Liu Huai continued to press the other's mouth and nose with one hand, while grabbing the sharp knife with the other hand and stabbing it fiercely into the neck of the braided warrior.

The braided-haired warrior's bloodshot eyes widened to the limit, a hoarse sound came from his throat, and his struggle became weaker and weaker.

Blood gushed out from the punctured carotid artery, quickly staining Liu Huai's hands and lapel red.

Liu Huai gasped heavily at first, but when he saw the braided warrior's eyes that were still open, he was stunned for a moment, then he used his hands and feet to crawl back a few steps, and fell to the ground to retch.

Liu Huai is not a rookie who cannot stand the sight of blood. As a martial artist, he has experienced all kinds of bloody injuries, but falls, knife wounds, and explosion injuries are all accidents. How could he have the experience of killing someone with a knife himself?

In close combat, enduring the slippery blood and the enemy's struggle to forcibly kill the opponent puts too much mental pressure on a novice on the battlefield.

Everything just happened so fast that Wei Chang just drew out his knife when he saw that his elder brother had already finished off the Jin army, so he just hurried forward and dragged the Jin army's corpse to the shadows on the side.

"Brother, what's wrong?" After finishing everything, Wei Chang bent down and came to Liu Huai.

He thought Liu Huai's injury had relapsed, and never considered that it was because he had killed someone with his own hands. In Wei Chang's impression, Liu Huai always went up first in every battle, and stabbing a few Jin thieves to death was no big deal.

There was nothing in Liu Huai's stomach, and he just vomited a few mouthfuls of acid water before stopping the urge to vomit.

"Hurry up..." He pushed Wei Chang, then suppressed his nausea and pulled the sharp knife from the Jin army's throat: "The Jin thieves' sentry has been attacked, and they can't hide it for long... Go find the stable, there's hay there..."

Wei Chang also nodded hurriedly.

The two had just taken two steps when they heard a faint voice coming from above their heads.

"Put me down... I'll help you..."

Liu Huai looked up and saw a short and strong man with his hands tied behind his back and hanging in the middle of the gate. He was shaking his body and struggling to ask Liu Huai for help.

"Don't bother with these bastards." Wei Chang gritted his teeth and whispered, "We don't owe these Shandong thieves anything."

The short and stocky man weakly retorted, "We are also heroes who fought against the Jin in Shandong. Since we have a bond of friendship, why can't you save us again?!"

When Liu Huai heard this, he felt something in his heart: "Achang, put them all down."

As he said that, he used the sharp knife to cut the rope. With a few dull thuds, the seven Shandong strong men fell to the ground like sacks.

(End of this chapter)