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

Chapter 374: The prosperity and decline of the people are the suffering of the people

Let’s not discuss whether Liu Huai’s strategy is correct or not.

But one of his inferences was absolutely correct.

The Jin army had only 70,000 regular troops that invaded Lianghuai. In the era of cold weapons, this number of troops was simply not enough to completely wipe out Lianghuai of the Song Dynasty. They could only occupy the main roads and cities.

As for the defeated Song army, some surrendered and became puppet troops, some occupied villages and towns and acted as protectors and looters, some occupied the mountains and became kings, and of course, the indispensable ones began to organize heroes to fight against the Jin army on the spot.

In general, Huaixi was in a chaotic situation at that time. Although the Jin army was powerful, it could not suppress everything. If Wanyan Liang wanted to restore the order of the two Huai regions, he not only needed a strong army, but also a complete administrative team.

The saying "It is difficult to conquer the world, but even more difficult to rule it" is exactly this truth.

As one of the first fifteen people to cross the river for reconnaissance, Guan Chongyan was entrusted with a heavy responsibility.

The situation in Lianghuai was so chaotic that there was no record in history books about who was resisting the Jin at that time, but Liu Huai got a piece of news from the Chaohu navy.

After Wang Quan and all the other officials fled, Hefei's defender Yang Chun led his troops to fight alone, but was ultimately defeated and had to retreat to Chaohu Lake to protect himself.

Although the Chaohu navy received the order to burn the ships and retreat, a commander named Liang Zichu left the team in anger and fought against the Jin army in the Chaohu water fort.

Chaohu Lake is located between Hefei and Dongguan, close to Chao County, and is the key point of the logistics and supply route for the 30,000 Jin troops.

Therefore, Guan Chongyan and two Flying Tiger Army knights named Li Jihu and Cao Dache went to Chaohu to contact the righteous men who were still fighting against the Jin Dynasty.

The three knights were all from Lianghuai, so there was no dialect barrier. After all, they were from the same hometown. After the three knights displayed their military prowess, the bandits all over the place did not dare to make things difficult for them.

Guan Chongyan originally wanted to take the shortest route, which was to go north along the Yuxi River, pass through Dongguan and then go to Chaohu.

But after asking around, I found out that the East Gate had been occupied by the Jin army, and they strictly controlled the passage of pedestrians.

Dongguan is also a very famous pass in history. It was the front line of the confrontation between Wei and Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. Zhuge Ke once built Dongguan and Xiguan on both sides of Ruxu River... which is now the Yuxi River, relying on Qibao Mountain and Ruxu Mountain, and built a levee and floating bridge on the Yuxi River to fight against the Wei army.

Ding Feng fought the Battle of Dongxing on a snowy night in order to rescue Dongguan which was besieged by the Wei army.

Over the past thousand years, mountains and rivers have shifted, and by now, the water of Yuxi River has become different from that during the Three Kingdoms period. To be more precise, the river channel is more to the west, the West Gate has been washed away and collapsed, and the river channel is close to Qibao Mountain. People can no longer pass through the area west of Yuxi River.

Dongguan is even more dangerous as it is backed by Rushu Mountain in the east and Yuxi River in the west.

After realizing that it was too difficult to smuggle across the river, Guan Chongyan simply changed direction and headed west from Hanshan County, along the foot of Baochan Mountain. After another arduous trek, he finally arrived near Chao County.

The road from Hanshan County to Chao County is not a flat road, but a hilly area. Together with the Baochan Mountain on the north, Taihu Mountain on the south, and Yinping Mountain on the west, they are all remnants of the Dabie Mountains.

Of course, if it were not for the terrain that was difficult for a large army to pass through, the Wei and Wu states of the Three Kingdoms period would not have used this place as the front line of battle, and the Chu state in the Spring and Autumn period would not have established Zhaoguan to separate Wu and Chu.

The result was that just as Taihang Mountain became a refuge for the people of Hebei and Jin during the Jingkang Incident, this place naturally became a place for the people of Huaixi to avoid war.

As Guan Chongyan and his two companions drove their horses across the hills, a constant stream of people who had been in the mountains for some time wanted to follow them out, hoping to find a place to continue living before they ran out of food.

However, Guan Chongyan came here to gather information after all. He required quick movement and came and went like the wind. It was impossible for him to bring so many people with him. He could only harden his heart and drive them away.

"Ugh."

On the night of November 16th, at the foot of Gushan Mountain, eight miles east of Chao County, the usually taciturn Guan Chongyan sighed and said, "Do you think there is any way to resettle these people?"

Li Jihu and Cao Dache looked at each other, and after a long time, they shook their heads.

The few of them were silent for a while, and Li Jihu finally said with difficulty: "Brother Guan Qi, if you ask me, Lianghuai has been occupied by the Jin bandits and it has become such a mess, even if the three of us have great abilities, we can't save a few people.

It would be better to find out the news as soon as possible and lead the army to drive away the Jin thieves. This is the real way to save the situation."

Guan Chongyan looked at the campfire and shook his head. "Of course I understand this principle. I just have sympathy. Tell me, if the commander-in-chief were here, would there be any solution?"

Cao Da Che also shook his head: "General Du is also a human being. When faced with a choice, he can only sacrifice the small to protect the big."

Guan Chongyan: "I'm not saying that we shouldn't sacrifice the young to save the elders, but I'm saying that the General will always find a way to save the abandoned young ones, instead of being helpless like us."

Li Jihu was about to speak when he heard a slight rustling sound behind him. He immediately drew his bow and arrow, turned around and pointed behind him: "Who? Get out!"

Cao Dache put on his round shield, picked up his sword, stood up and took a step back, hiding himself in the darkness and waiting for an opportunity to act.

"Don't hide anymore." Guan Chongyan also stood up: "You coming out is one thing, but me dragging you out is another!"

"My dear men, please don't... don't do anything. I... I just want to borrow the campfire. My father and I want to warm ourselves up." As he spoke, a skinny man with disheveled hair and a tightly wrapped baby in his arms walked out from the darkness. His eyes were evasive and his expression was dazed, like a walking corpse.

Li Jihu did not put down the bow and arrow, but just loosened the bowstring slightly.

Guan Chongyan stood still until Cao Dache appeared from behind the man and shook his head before he said, "Meeting is fate. Come here."

After that, they sat back down by the campfire. The skinny man, holding the swaddling clothes, bowed and nodded all the way, smiled and thanked them, and also sat down by the campfire.

With outsiders around, Guan Chongyan and others did not continue talking about the war, but instead talked about family matters.

Although the winter in Huainan is not as cold as that in the north, it is still unbearable in the wilderness. Even though Guan Chongyan and others camped in a sheltered place, the ubiquitous coldness was constantly infecting people's bodies, as if trying to pull out their souls.

Fortunately, there is a bonfire to dispel the winter chill.

The skinny man listened on the side, moving his butt slightly to get as close to the fire as possible. At the same time, he shook the swaddling clothes to comfort the baby. After a while, he carefully took out a dry biscuit of which the original color could not be seen from his arms, bit off a small piece, chewed it twice in his mouth, and lowered his head to feed the porridge to the baby in the swaddling clothes.

After spitting out all the food in his mouth, the skinny man chuckled a few times.

Guan Chongyan sighed, took out a pancake from his arms and threw it to the skinny man.

"Thank you, my dear." The skinny man was flattered and nodded and bowed again.

Guan Chongyan frowned: "After all, this isn't a solution. Is there any other way out?"

The skinny man said, "Yes, yes. Tomorrow I'm going to Gaotou Village on the edge of Chaohu Lake, four miles north of the county seat. That's where my father-in-law lives. He has three strong sons and two fishing boats, which is enough for us to hide for a while."

Guan Chongyan poked the bonfire and said, "It's not easy to deal with so many gold thieves."

The skinny man shuddered when he heard the word "Jin thieves" and looked around warily, as if he was afraid that the Jin army would suddenly rush out. Then he whispered, "I heard that Gaotou Village is the territory of Daliangzhu. Daliangzhu has a water fort in Chaohu Lake, and the Jin thieves can't defeat him."

"Big beam? Is that Liang Zichu?"

"I dare not address you by your name." The skinny man waved his hand quickly. "Da Liangzhu was raised by my wife. He's eight feet tall and eight feet around the waist. He's a first-rate hero. If my wife says something nice for me, maybe Da Liangzhu will let me live in peace and cultivate a few acres of land, so I can live comfortably."

At this point, a hopeful look appeared on the skinny man's face, which made Guan Chongyan feel a little strange.

However, this strange feeling was quickly dispelled by the information spoken by the skinny man.

Combined with the fragments of information I heard before, Liang Zichu, the commander of the Chaohu navy, is indeed still fighting guerrilla warfare in Chaohu. It is possible that Gaotou Village is one of Liang Zichu's external contact points.

They chatted for a few more moments, then felt sleepy again. After leaving someone to keep watch, Guan Chongyan leaned against a big tree and fell asleep.

"Hehehe...my wife..."

"hey-hey……"

The skinny man also fell asleep with the swaddling clothes in his arms, but occasionally he talked in his sleep or muttered something in his sleep.

In the early morning of the next day, the bonfire gradually went out. Guan Chongyan and the other three stretched their bodies and prepared to mount their horses to leave, but they found that the skinny man was still holding the swaddling clothes and did not move.

Guan Chongyan stepped forward and patted the skinny man's shoulder, which was cold and stiff. He then put his fingers under his collar to the neck and felt a chill.

The skinny man died quietly last night.

Guan Chongyan shook his head. Li Jihu sighed and took the swaddling clothes from Guan Chongyan's arms.

Although he was mentally prepared, Li Jihu was still stunned when he saw the rotten body of the baby in the cradle.

"His child didn't die last night, but died a long time ago." Guan Chongyan shook his head upon seeing this: "And he has been crazy for a long time."

Li Jihu was stunned for a moment, put the swaddling clothes back into the skinny man's arms, and was speechless for a while.

"Should we dig a grave and bury him..."

Cao Dache hesitated to speak, but was interrupted by Guan Chongyan: "This is truly useless work. The dead are gone, let's hurry up and work for the living."

After saying that, he picked up his weapon and mounted his horse: "Let's go to Gaotou Village first."

(End of this chapter)