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

Chapter 492: Using Food as a Knife is Still a Thief

The speed at which things changed was beyond anyone's imagination.

When Liu Huai's handwritten order was just carried out of the camp by a fast horse, the main force of the Jingnan army in Haozhou had already begun to act.

The cause of the incident was that a scout team discovered traces of a grain cart and then sent soldiers to report back. When a captain led his troops to arrive, the three scouts had disappeared.

Although there were traces of concealment, there were still experts in the army who were good at tracking. They followed the traces and soon found a manor in the mountains.

The captain went to knock on the door, but was shot back by a hail of arrows, saying that this was the manor of the Chen family of Dingyuan and no one was allowed to enter.

The captain was furious, but he knew that such a large manor was beyond his control alone, so he could only stay at the mountain pass and send military envoys to report back.

Yang Kang, who was summoning the elders in the state to discuss the matter, did not dare to neglect it after hearing about it, and directly took several members of the Chen family to the manor.

Then there was no news.

Even Lu You was confused.

Yang Kang hasn't even been stripped of his post as Deputy Transport Commissioner of Huainan yet! How dare Chen, the man who controls the city, even deprive him of his post as Transport Commissioner?!
Want to rebel?
Xin Qiji personally led his personal guards to the manor to rebuke him, but was stopped. A letter was even shot down on the wall of the manor, which was no different from a small city, saying that he wanted to have a chat with Lu You.

The Chen family in Huaixi has been passing down poetry and literature from generation to generation, and they do not recognize any northerner with the surname Xin.

So, not only do you want to detain Yang Kang, you also want to lure Lu You in and detain him?!

Xin Qiji was now completely impatient and instantly furious. Regardless of the fact that it was night, he led his troops to attack.

The Chen family's farmers were only capable of fighting against various bandits, but they were not capable of fighting against a legitimate army. Soon, armored soldiers climbed up the courtyard wall and opened the gate of the manor from the inside.

Only after capturing a few of the leaders did Xin Qiji understand what these bastards were doing.

Landlords and powerful families like this often have manors in the mountains. When the Jin army arrived, the Chen family fled to the manor in the mountains to take shelter.

After the Jin army was defeated and began to withdraw its forces, they began to take advantage of their local advantages and took advantage of the chaos to run away with all the food in Dingyuan County.

It’s not that the Chen family is so wealthy and powerful that they need to feed many mouths, but that the Song State did not suppress mergers and acquisitions, and there would definitely not be enough food after every major disaster. Controlling food was the beginning of a new round of mergers and acquisitions by landlords and powerful people.

When the middle-class families run out of food, the feast begins.

If that were the case, after Xin Qiji and Lu You had performed a duet the day before and Yang Kang began to take the lead, even if Chen was still very rampant, he would have to give face to the transport envoy and spit out most of the grain, so that things would not have escalated to this extent.

However, the slaves and farmers who were guarding the only way to the manor through the mountains were used to being domineering. When the three Jingnan Army scouts followed the tracks of the cart along the mountain road, more than a dozen farmers shot at them with crossbows without saying a word.

Three unarmored scouts died instantly.

When there is a murder case, things become difficult.

At first, the old man at the helm of the Chen family didn't care about killing three soldiers. At most, he would go to apologize in person. But he soon found out the origin of the Jingnan Army and immediately realized that there was going to be big trouble.

The Chen family is not afraid of a situation where you are in me and I am in you. We are all prominent figures in the Song Dynasty. How could we turn against each other just because of three lives?
At that time, there will naturally be people in high positions of power who will persuade the army to put the overall situation first and tolerate each other for the sake of the country.

But this is not the case with foreign militaries.

They had no connection to the Song State, and all they had was a comradeship. They could turn against each other at will, even if they slaughtered a family of local tyrants and evil gentry. Could the court really let such meritorious generals be disheartened over such a trivial matter?
At that time, there will naturally be people in high positions and powers who will persuade the Chen family to put the overall situation first and tolerate each other for the sake of the country.

For the Song State, this is not a matter of right or wrong, but an inevitable choice based on different united front values.

This is the reason why Wu Jie, who was arrogant and domineering and threatened to kill all the transport envoys, could safely serve as the Grand Marshal; while Yue Fei, who was respectful throughout his life and was controlled by the central government, could only die tragically in Fengbo Pavilion.

When Yang Kang arrived at Chen's manor and saw the corpses of the three scouts, he also felt numb and immediately had the urge to bow and say goodbye.

I can’t do anything about it. If you have the guts, just wait to die.

However, the Chen clan members knelt down to stop Yang Kang, and brought out Chen Junqing, the Minister of the court, and forced Yang Kang to find a solution.

It wasn't that the Chen family was so bold as to detain the transport envoy, but rather that they sensed danger and didn't dare let this last straw slip away. Yang Kang was forced to bring Lu You out.

Lu You has the dual identities of the Song State and the Shandong Volunteer Army, so perhaps he can settle this matter.

This triggered Xin Qiji's stress response, and he led his troops to attack the manor.

After sorting out these things, Xin Qiji's attention was almost instantly attracted by the huge piles of grain in the manor, and he immediately stepped forward and tore open the mat with his sword.

Golden corn flowed out of the hole.

Xin Qiji grabbed a handful of millet, examined it carefully, then held the millet and walked to Yang Kang and the group of Chen clan members kneeling on the ground, and spread out his hands.

"Look, what is this?"

Yang Kang held his big belly. Seeing that all the Chen clan members were cowering in fear, he could only bite the bullet and say, "This is corn. It's food."

Xin Qiji shook his head, looked around at the Jingnan Army soldiers around him, and said loudly: "No, it's also the lives of the people in Lianghuai! They are the life-saving food for your fellow villagers, parents, wives and children!"

The soldiers of the Jingnan Army who came from Lianghuai were all furious, but because of military discipline they could not speak, so they could only stand straight, and the rustling sound of the armor plates rubbing against each other could be heard.

"What does this mean to you?" Xin Qiji spread his hands in front of several male members of the Chen family.

The leaders knelt on the ground, kowtowed heavily, and shouted for mercy.

"For you, this grain is just a means to rob you of money and land." Xin Qiji clenched his fists, letting the golden millet drip through his fingers. His expression became grim and murderous. "You and the Jin thieves are both killing people. The Jin thieves use knives, while you use grain. You are all thieves!"

Xin Qiji then turned to the military envoy beside him and said, "Report to Mr. Lu, I have found the food for the entire county, and I have also found the thieves in Dingyuan County!"

As if they sensed something, dozens of men with the surname Chen all fell to the ground, kowtowed, and begged for mercy loudly.

Yang Kang stepped forward and whispered, "Xin Wulang, I know you're furious, but we need to think things through carefully. If you kill people without reason, how will the people of the Song Dynasty view you? Do you really only want to be a crude warrior?"

At this moment, Xin Qiji no longer had the angry look he had before, but instead had a calm expression: "Ambassador Yang, I naturally understand the pros and cons of this matter."

Yang Kang reached out and grabbed Xin Qiji's arm, shaking his head and saying, "No, you don't understand. Since you have become a minister of the Song Dynasty, you must abide by the laws and rules of the Song Dynasty. At this point, can you still defect?"
If I were in the Song Dynasty and lost my dignity for the lives of these filthy bastards, wouldn't that be a loss of the greater for the smaller? You must know that killing Jin thieves is one thing, but killing Han civilians is another."

Xin Qiji remained unperturbed, but instead spoke of past events: "Ambassador Yang, when we were fighting in Shandong, the people we killed the most, besides the Jin bandits, were the local tyrants and evil gentry.

That day, I also used these words to ask Liu Dalangjun, why we are fighting against the Jin to save the Han Dynasty, but we are slaughtering these Han people? Isn't this going in the wrong direction?

As he spoke, Xin Qiji looked at Yang Kang with a half-smile: "Ambassador Yang, can you guess what the eldest son said at that time?"

Yang Kang's scalp felt a little numb.

Then, Xin Qiji’s words were heard faintly in the cold wind: “Da Langjun said that he was not killing Han people, but the root cause of the Han Dynasty’s decline and the division between the north and the south.

If we can't uproot this root, the righteous cause of our uprising will be in name only, and it will be difficult to convince the people! It will be even more difficult to bring peace to the world!"

As he spoke, Xin Qiji threw the millet in his hand heavily at the Chen clan members: "Now, get rid of these lesions for me!"

The soldiers drew their swords and stepped forward, kicking the men of the Chen family to the ground and beheading them one by one.

Amidst the increasingly strong smell of blood, Xin Qiji patted Yang Kang on the shoulder and smiled brightly: "I will hang these heads on the city wall. If anyone dares to bargain with Ambassador Yang again, you may as well bring them all to the city and let them have a closer look."

"You are such a lunatic." Yang Kang was trembling all over. He couldn't bear it any longer and pointed at Xin Qiji and cursed loudly.

However, Xin Qiji no longer cared about his current situation.

"A famine kills tens of millions of people. Compared to these lives, what does the Chen family of Dingyuan count for?"

(End of this chapter)