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

Chapter 277 Loyalty is known only in the heart

"General, the Wucheng Army has subsided."

"Whatever, whether I kill the poisonous insects in my stomach or spit them out, they will no longer harm my body, which is a good thing."

Xu Wen stood up and bowed, then hesitated and said, "I just don't know if the commander-in-chief can revoke his order and stop the massacre during the war. I'm afraid it will cause a mutiny in the army."

Su Baoheng laughed and said, "That list, General Xu? Zhang Liang, please take it out and let the general have a look."

Zhang Liang walked around the center of the messy tent and stopped in front of Zeng Ji who was pinned to the ground. He then stepped forward again and handed the "list" to Xu Wen.

Xu Wen frowned and looked at it. It said: Two cents of angelica, three cents of licorice...

Su Baoheng smiled and said, "General Xu, there has never been any list. I have been feeling a bit depressed these days, and this piece of paper is just the prescription I wrote for myself."

Xu Wen was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and shook his head: "The General is cunning and has deceived all of us. However, is the General satisfied with this result?"

Su Baoheng poured himself a cup of tea and sighed, "How can I possibly be satisfied? It's Zhang Liang's fault, too. Why didn't you stop Huyan Nanxian? Such a good young man has gone astray. What can we do? And it's even putting General Xu in danger."

If General Xu hadn't gone to gather the troops himself, wouldn't everyone in the general's tent have been killed?"

Amidst the angry and mixed looks from those around him, Zhang Liang knelt and said, "What the General said is true. When Wanyan Salihe was killed and implicated, you saved the lives of my entire family. I swore to be my father, but now I've disobeyed and let Brother Huyan go. This is unfilial."

Zhang Liang kowtowed to Xu Wen again, "General Manager Xu selected me from humble beginnings simply because my second uncle was a personal guard of his and has looked after my family since I was a child. Yet, I secretly defected to the Commander-in-Chief without saying a word to him. This is disloyalty."

Zhang Liang kowtowed again and said, "Brother Huyan was always so sincere to us and always had our best interests at heart, yet I betrayed him. This is unjust."

"To turn the tables on our brothers and to drag our men down an unknown path is unkind."

Hearing this, Su Baoheng, who had been calm and composed since entering the tent, suddenly changed his expression. He stood up and shouted to his guards, "Stop him!"

Before the guards could react, they heard Zhang Liang's final words: "How can such a disloyal, unfilial, unkind, and unrighteous person have the dignity to live in this world!"

After Zhang Liang finished speaking, he pulled out a sharp wrist-cutting knife from his cowhide wrist guard and thrust it fiercely into his heart. Then he twisted his body with all his might and immediately fell to the ground. After twitching twice, he was silent again.

"Ugh……"

There was silence in the tent for a moment, and everyone looked at each other in shock.

After a while, Su Baoheng slumped in the main seat and sighed.

Xu Wenru was struck by lightning and burst into tears again.

He originally thought that the Wucheng Army had actually split, with some members being won over by Su Baoheng and others wanting to rebel against the Jin Dynasty. To avoid civil war, he stepped in to expel Hu Yannanxian.

But at this moment, it seems that even Zhang Liang, who stood most firmly on Su Baoheng's side, was only willing to die to repay the other party's kindness.

Wu Chengjun and Su Baoheng, or rather, the Jin Dynasty court behind Su Baoheng, are completely at odds with each other!
It's a pity that Xu Wen has been fighting with others all his life, but he was frightened at the critical moment and actually appeared as a villain, standing up for Su Baoheng in front of the entire army, stabilizing the Wucheng Army at the cost of damaging his own prestige. After the incident, he found out that the entire army had turned against him?
But there was no point in saying more at this point. The leaders had already been taken away by Huyan Nanxian, and the rest were relatively stable people. They might also be dissatisfied with the status quo, but without a leader and no one to connect them, they were powerless and could only obey Su Baoheng's command.

Thinking of this, Xu Wen glared at Su Baoheng again. This old fox came to Wucheng Army alone this time, and attacked an entire army alone. His target was never anyone else, but him, Xu Wen!
Looking at Zhang Liang's corpse, Su Baoheng sighed for a long time, then sat up straight and said, "I am not here to cause rebellion, but to quell it. Your Majesty has entrusted me with the navy, giving me full authority to handle the matter. This matter ends with me. There will be no retribution or reporting to the higher authorities. You will all perform your duties and stay in your proper positions. Those who have made contributions will be rewarded, and those who have made mistakes will not be punished."

"General Xu, I have brought a great deal of gold and silver as a reward for the Wucheng Army's hard work over the past few days. From now on, the Shenfeng and Weizhen armies will attack the thief Zhang, and the Wucheng Army will have five days to rest and recuperate. How would you like this?"

This is grace.

With such a combination of kindness and force, it was difficult for the remaining 6,000 Wucheng troops to rebel again. Although it was difficult for the Wucheng troops to regain their combat effectiveness for a while, their foundation was still there. After a dozen days of reorganization and training, they could go to the battlefield again.

This gap of time was just enough for the Shenfeng and Weizhen armies to attack Zhang Rong without any hesitation. After all, this matter had dragged on for too long.

Wanyan Liang's order had already been issued. Regardless of the situation in Shandong, the navy had to move south quickly. The sea was turbulent, so Wanyan Liang did not set a deadline for the navy. But it couldn't be delayed for more than a month, wouldn't that be too unreasonable?

But on September 18, before the Jin navy organized another attack, Zhang Rong withdrew his troops under the nose of Su Baoheng at night and ran away.

Zhang Rong was no fool. When he saw that a part of Wu Cheng's army had inexplicably split off and was heading southwest without even taking their baggage, he immediately realized that something was wrong. When Huyan Nanxian sent someone to inform Zhang Rong of the whole story again, he immediately believed it and made a prompt decision. One part of the troops boarded the ship and traveled by water, while the other part abandoned Xinyang Town and retreated towards Rizhao City.

With Dong Cheng guaranteeing the Dongping Army's retreat, and with the Jin Kingdom's navy and cavalry being relatively small, nothing would go wrong anyway.

This was indeed the case. When the Shenfeng Army launched an attack the next day and easily captured Xinyang Town, Su Baoheng was still calm and composed, while the Wanyan Zheng family was almost furious.

Then, the Jin army discovered that the most disgusting thing about Zhang Rong was not that he withdrew his troops under their noses, but that the more than a thousand Dongping troops on Langya Mountain were still holding on.

The Jin navy tried to send people to persuade them to surrender. After all, Zhang Rong had abandoned your thousand men. You have become an isolated army. Why do you want to die for Zhang Rong?

But the person who tried to persuade them to surrender had just arrived at the gate of the stronghold and shouted twice when he was shot to death by a volley of arrows.

This group of Dongping soldiers didn't even want to talk, they were determined to fight the Jin army to the end.

This really annoyed the Jin army.

Given the terrain of Langya Mountain, if you want to attack, it is hard to say how many lives will be lost, but it is certain that it will take a long time.

Moreover, the morale of the Dongping army in the mountain stronghold was so high that it was possible that a large amount of food and grass had been stored on the mountain and wells had been dug, so it was not something that could be easily taken by siege.

At this point, even the Wanyan Zheng family had the intention to retreat. After all, there was still a saying that they could retreat the enemy. Defeating Zhang Rong and forcing him to retreat thousands of miles could be considered a virtuous victory, and retreating could not be considered as fearing the enemy.

But at this time, Su Baoheng made up his mind to give chase.

The reason is very simple. If the Dongping Army collapses, we can relax because a group of rabble cannot accomplish anything big.

However, the Dongping Army was able to hold its ground even after its 4,000-strong vanguard was defeated. Now, they retreated in unison, and the troops stationed at strategic locations maintained their morale despite facing an enemy force several times their size.

This is no longer just an ordinary peasant uprising.

It is hard to say whether ordinary Song troops can complete this tactical action!

Must hit hard!

If we don't find a way to hurt them now, and once the Jin navy leaves, won't the eastern Shandong route be immediately swept by these bandits?

It can be said that there were still loyal ministers in the Great Jin Dynasty. After explaining the whole matter to Wanyan Zhengjia, Punian Heda, Gao Shi and others, several general managers still agreed to the plan of hunting down the Dongping Army.

On the morning of September 19, the Shenfeng Army and the Weizhen Army, totaling 15,000 troops, continued to march south.

The Wucheng Army of more than 6,000 soldiers was organizing the army while besieging Langya Mountain. They did not seek to destroy the more than 1,000 Dongping troops on the mountain, but just wanted to keep an eye on them and prevent the Dongping troops from being cut off from their food supply.

(End of this chapter)