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

Chapter 375 Loyalty and Righteousness in the Lake

On November 17, Guan Chongyan and others arrived at Gaotou Village.

The village here is not difficult to find. Many people living near Chaohu Lake are fishermen. In order to make it easier for merchants to collect their catches, there are small road signs at the intersections. In addition, the crazy man explained it so clearly last night, so after arriving near Chaohu Lake, we quickly found this relatively large village.

Although it is called a village, it can actually be considered a relatively large market. Therefore, even though this place was looted by the rebel army, there are still some people here, but most of them are the elderly and the weak, and no one knows where the young and strong have hidden.

Therefore, a fat man who ran a restaurant with a wine flag stood out among them like a crane among chickens.

What was even more natural was that Guan Chongyan and three other strong men riding tall horses into the village instantly attracted everyone's attention.

The elderly and weak who were still wandering on the streets ran back to their homes and closed the doors.

Guan Chongyan looked the portly man up and down, and the portly man also looked the other three up. Even facing three obviously elite knights, he remained calm and unfazed. He shook off his large rag and put on a smile, "Sir, would you like to stop by or stay the night?"

Li Jihu said loudly: "Bring up all the good wine and meat, and a room for us."

The fat man still had a smile on his face: "There is no good wine, no good meat, and the only upper house was burned down by the thieves."

Li Jihu laughed. "Are you here just to tease me? Besides, who says there's no good meat? Isn't your fat body perfect for the pot?"

The fat man patted his belly and reached out to grab a huge knife from the door frame behind him: "This body of flesh of mine is used to block swords and guns in the battle. Now I can't serve you warriors with wine. I hope you will forgive me."

Although the tone was polite, the meaning behind the words was not polite at all.

How dare you open a store in a place like this to investigate the surrounding military intelligence? You have to have some skills, right?

Guan Chongyan waved his hand to interrupt the nonsense that Li Jihu was about to blurt out, and said straight to the point: "We are here to see your manager. We have an important business to discuss."

"The manager is out."

"I'm talking about the one who's really in charge." Guan Chongyan replied solemnly, "Tell Yang Chun or Liang Zichu that they're from Jiangnan."

The smile on the fat man's face disappeared, and he quickly became serious and stretched out his big hand: "Do you have a token?"

Guan Chongyan patted his chest and said, "There are letters from the Chaohu navy and military orders from the military advisors, but I can't show them to you. I have to ask your supervisor to check them. As for the token..."

As he spoke, Guan Chongyan took out a copper waist badge from his bosom and said, "I am Guan Chongyan, the commander of the Flying Tiger Army, affiliated with the Shandong Jingnan Army. I'm sure you haven't heard of me."

The fat man took the badge, looked at it carefully, muttered something, and then looked up hesitantly again.

Although he was also a brave soldier, he had never heard of the imperial court having an army like the Shandong Jingnan Army.

Guan Chongyan finally lost his patience when he saw this. "You are such an ignorant man! Did the three of us cross the border to come here just to tease you? Besides, even if the Song army retreated to Chaohu Lake is small, they wouldn't be afraid of the three of us, right?"

The fat man thought about it for a moment and realized that this was indeed the case. He took off a whistle from his waist, took the dropped knife and brought the three people to the lake. He put the whistle in his mouth and blew it hard twice.

Soon after, a whistle sounded in response from the dry reed marsh by Chaohu Lake. After the two sides exchanged a few words with the whistle, peace returned.

"My name is Fan Shanshuo, the fifth child in my family. I wonder what your names are?"

Except for Guan Chongyan who had just introduced his name, the other two also introduced themselves.

"Li Jihu."

"Cao Dache."

"Are you all from Shandong?" Seeing that the two did not want to talk any more, Fan Shanshuo asked Guan Chongyan again, "How did you get from Shandong to Jiangnan, and why do you speak with a Huaidong accent?"

"It's a long story."

"Then let's make a long story short."

Guan Chongyan didn't want to answer, but seeing that Fatty Fan was persistent, he briefly recounted the Northern Expedition that started from Lianshui.

Even so, Guan Chongyan had just finished telling the story of the Northern Expedition when the person who was waiting in the lake came to the shore from the reed marsh in a small boat.

Then not only Fatty Fan, but even Guan Chongyan himself was in a trance.

Have you been through so much along the way?
Fatty Fan was even more surprised. He was not an ordinary soldier without any knowledge, otherwise he would not be put in charge of Chaohu's external liaison station.

Therefore, he knew what it meant to march north alone, defeat the various Jin armies, and sweep across several states in Shandong.

If this guy is not lying, the army that has recovered the most territory since the Southern Expedition, apart from Yue Fei and Yue Pengju, is this Northern Expedition Army.

"The boat is small, so please leave your horses here. We'll have others take care of them." Seeing the boat arrive, Fatty Fan didn't ask any more questions, but simply waved his hand and said, "Please."

The three men had their eyes covered with black cloth and sat on the boat waiting quietly. Soon they heard voices rising in their ears.

After the boat docked, a few more people spoke a few words and led the three people onto the dock. After the blindfold was removed, Guan Chongyan looked around and found that this was probably a mountaintop, and there seemed to be a small island in the center of the lake. The island was not large, only four miles from east to west and five miles from north to south. However, the terrain was dangerous, and being in the middle of the lake, it was indeed easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Soon, the three were taken to a hastily built camp on the mountain and entered a simple tent.

Two people are already waiting here.

The older man was tall and strong, with a square mouth, big ears, a broad face and a heavy chin. He looked particularly masculine, but his face was as pale as gold paper, as if he had just suffered a serious illness.

The young man had fair skin and a slender body, which was considered relatively thin in the army, but with long arms and legs, he looked like a fierce water warrior.

As soon as they met, the young man spoke coldly: "You said there was a letter, was it written by Sheng Xin? Does he have the nerve to give me military orders?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Guan Chongyan knew who this person was.

It was Liang Zichu, the commander of the Chaohu navy who disobeyed Sheng Xin's order to burn the ships, left in anger, and started to resist the Jin army on the spot.

The other person must be Yang Chun, Xiuwu Lang, the military commander stationed in Luzhou, and the theoretically acting governor of Luzhou affairs.

Guan Chongyan anticipated this question and pulled out a letter and military orders from his pocket. He cupped his hands and said, "The letter was written by Liu Bin, the deputy commander of the Chaohu navy, and the military order was issued by Yu Yunwen, the secretary of the Central Secretariat and military advisor to Zhenjiang Prefecture."

Liang Zichu sneered and held out his hand: "Did Sheng Xin escape too far, to Lingnan? Or did he feel too embarrassed to write to me?"

Guan Chongyan said solemnly, "When we captured the Caishi floating bridge a few days ago, General Sheng led the troops and broke the bridge alone. He died in battle on the island in the middle of the Caishi River."

Liang Zichu's outstretched hand trembled slightly. After taking the letter from Liu Bin, he quickly opened it and read it quickly. His face turned pale.

After handing the general's order and the letter to Yang Chun, who was sitting in the main seat, Liang Zichu finally stamped his feet in anger: "Second Master Sheng, you are a fool, your head is full of donkey hair, you have never listened to me once! Why…"

After just a few curses, the man burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably.

After all, he was his superior in the army and his brother in private. Liang Zichu certainly felt disgusted with Sheng Xin's escape without fighting. However, when he heard that the other party died in battle and was still the hero he used to be, Liang Zichu felt a little relieved, but he also felt a surge of grief for a while.

Yang Chun took the military order, opened the envelope and read it carefully, then raised his head to look at Guan Chongyan, and the sound was like the friction of iron.

"Brother Guan, I won't waste my words." Yang Chun waved the military order in his hand and said in a hoarse voice, "We are in such a miserable state now. First of all, it is Wang Quan who is responsible. Then it is those big turbans who abandoned Luzhou and fled. Now there is another big turban who wants to make us fight to the death. How can I believe it?"

At this point, Yang Chun smiled and said, "You said you wanted to cheer up and fight back, and you even took down the Jin thieves in Cai Shi. That's really impressive, but how can you prove it? How can we know that this isn't just another cowardly, ignorant turban trying to give orders?"

Guan Chongyan waved his hand, and Li Jihu untied a small package he was carrying and took out a large flag and several badges wrapped in it.

The badge was presented to Yang Chun, and the big flag was held in Guan Chongyan's hand, unfolded personally, and displayed in front of Yang Chun and Liang Zichu.

This large flag is made of fine materials and is gorgeously decorated. It is embroidered with a Saker Falcon spreading its wings as if about to fly. It is indeed a Meng'an flag.

There are arrow holes, blood stains, dust and even traces of fire on this flag, which makes it clear at a glance that this flag has experienced more than one tough battle.

"Our Shandong Northern Expeditionary Army has over a dozen banners like this, including the banner of a general." Guan Chongyan sneered, "So? Is that enough to prove our identities?"

Yang Chun first looked at the badge in his hand, then looked at Meng'an's flag and narrowed his eyes.

Liang Zichu wiped away his tears and was about to go forward to carefully check the big flag, but suddenly remembered that since the war began, the Song army in Lianghuai had never completely destroyed a thousand-man Jin army, so naturally they had never seized a flag. Even if they wanted to check it, there was no way, and they suddenly felt a little embarrassed.

Yang Chun directly stopped Liang Zichu's behavior: "Don't check it, it must be true."

As he spoke, Yang Chun laughed at himself: "Those big-headed men in the court, why would they bother to fake it to fool us, the hard-working people? These ignorant soldiers can only mobilize troops on their own whims."

"Brother Guan," Yang Chunfu said to Guan Chongyan, "The military order only states that we should strive to resist the Jin and recapture Chao County. This is just a rough outline. I see that you are no ordinary person. Who is your commander? What is the Shandong Northern Expedition Army? If you were to come from Shandong to Jiangnan to participate in the war in Lianghuai, what would your plan be? Tell us now."

Liang Zichu looked at Yang Chun in surprise. He couldn't understand why this guy was full of complaints just now, but now wanted to listen to the other party's plan.

Yang Chun’s idea is very simple.

Yu Yunwen was a secretary of the Central Secretariat, a civil servant among civil servants, and he knew nothing about battle formations. The battle that destroyed the Jin army's Meng'an must have been commanded by this group of Shandong rebels.

Since such heroes have come to contact us, even if the two sides fail to reach an agreement in the end, there will always be some meaningful statements.

It wouldn't be like a military order, forcing me to lead a group of defeated soldiers to capture Chao County.

Why don’t you just tell me to go back to Hefei along the Feishui River?

Is this Yu Sheren capable?

Guan Chongyan breathed a long sigh of relief and said solemnly, "Our army is the Jingnan Army. The commander-in-chief is called Liu Huai, and everyone in the army calls him Flying Tiger!"

(End of this chapter)