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

Chapter 578 The true strength of the rebel army is hard to fathom.

Zhang Baiyu's sarcasm was not malicious, but it also showed the difference between a pure soldier and a faction leader.

Despite Liu Huai's tendency to personally lead his guards into battle, he was incapable of thinking from a purely military perspective.

Take, for example, the matter of Li Chengen, the prefect of Pizhou. Liu Huai had already set up a large camp there and stationed there for more than 20 days. Why didn't Li Chengen come to contact him earlier?

If it's because he's being closely watched and can't leave, then why not send a trusted confidant to make initial contact?
When things come to a head, how can one not be suspicious if they make empty promises about serving the country?
Even with his doubts, Liu Huai could not turn Li Chengen away; instead, he had to give him a grand welcome.

This is what is known as "spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones".

Li Chengen was not appointed as the prefect of Pizhou by the Jin Dynasty. The previous prefect of Pizhou, along with several county magistrates, was besieged and wiped out by Wei Sheng in Xiapi City.

Among them were several traitors who harmed the people. After Wei Sheng publicly tried them, he executed them in a righteous manner, and they were all killed. Their heads were dried up on the walls of Xiapi.

Li Chengen, the prefectural judge of Pizhou, was one of the few people who still had a conscience. Wei Sheng did not make things difficult for him, but only gave him a warning before releasing him.

When Tu Danzhen returned from Lianghuai and passed through Pizhou, he sent military envoys to investigate. Upon discovering that the only highest-ranking official in the entire prefecture was Li Chengen, he immediately appointed him as the acting prefect of Pizhou and ordered him to procure provisions for the army.

Li Chengen showed no joy at the prospect of promotion and wealth. Pizhou was under the military pressure of Yizhou, and his colleagues were watching him from the city walls. It would be a miracle if he were happy.

On the other hand, he was indeed an official with some conscience. Although he had some reservations about General Wei Sheng distributing grain to the people, he did not forcibly take the grain back. As a result, he was constantly scolded by the officers sent by Tu Danzhen.

However, at the same time, Li Chengen genuinely did not want to join the Shandong rebels.

He was a well-read man, and there was no precedent in history for a rebellion to succeed. We cannot simply regard Liu Huai as Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, just because he was surnamed Liu and raised the banner of "Han".

In Li Chengen's view, although the Shandong rebels were rampant at this time, it was because neither the Song nor the Jin dynasties had the time to deal with them.

Once the two countries emerge from the shadow of the great war, both the yin and yang forces will attack together, and the Shandong rebel army, this makeshift organization, will be utterly destroyed sooner or later.

Originally, Li Chengen was waiting for the Jin army in Xuzhou to start moving so that he could immediately take his family and flee to the Central Plains, away from the troubles in Shandong.

However, some powerful families in Xuzhou somehow learned that the newly appointed prefect of Pizhou might be connected with the Loyal Army. More than a hundred young rascals from Xuzhou went south, bringing the able-bodied men from their families, and stormed into the prefectural government to capture Li Chengen, asking him to help make connections.

In feudal times, this behavior would have been considered a blatant rebellion, but given the current chaotic situation in the Central Plains, no one cares about such trivial matters anymore.

Left with no other choice, Li Chengen could only accompany these unruly youths to the Aishan camp to pay their respects to Liu Huai.

"So, it seems that Prefect Li has no intention of joining our army?"

After hearing the whole story, Liu Huai asked Li Chengen curiously, "You just said it so plainly, aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

Li Chengen smiled wryly and said, "Commander-in-Chief, what I said is indeed the truth. After years of official service, I was already tired of it, and now, at this age, I have experienced life and death again, so I am truly weary."

Moreover, given the benevolence of the Commander-in-Chief and Duke Wei, there was truly no reason to kill someone who refused to submit.

With that, Li Chengen turned to the leader of the group of hooligans: "Cheng Erlang, I have brought you here as promised. Can you spare my life?"

Although he was called Cheng Erlang, this guy's appearance was really too mature. He had dark skin, a full beard, and was big and burly, giving him the look of a middle-aged man.

Cheng Erlang chuckled a few times, then bowed to Li Chengen and said, "We came in haste and had no choice but to resort to this tactic. We hope you will forgive us, sir."

Li Chengen sighed, "Cheng Erlang, I know you're all desperate to get ahead, but getting ahead means risking your lives, it means losing your lives."

At this point, Li Chengen was speechless. After glancing at the expressionless Liu Huai, he sighed again, cupped his hands, and said, "Commander-in-Chief, now that you have brought the person here, could you spare my life?"

Liu Huai nodded and said, "Of course we can let Prefect Li leave, but we ask that you stay in the army for a few days and return to Xiapi with my army. After that, you are free to leave or stay as you please."

Li Chengen was about to say something when he saw Liu Huai still waving to his guards. He shook his head and smiled bitterly, "Although I am the prefect of Pizhou, I do not have much prestige. If you, Commander-in-Chief, want to rely on my old face to open the gates of Xiapi, you will be disappointed."

Liu Huai had already lost interest in this person and simply nodded perfunctorily: "Let's wait and see."

After Li Chengen left, Liu Huai said to the group of hooligans in a friendly manner, "Gentlemen, I still don't know your names or where you live."

The five delinquents exchanged glances, and the burly man called Cheng Erlang spoke first: "My name is Cheng Feng, and I come from the Cheng family of Pengcheng. My family runs a business along the upper and lower reaches of the Si River."

"My name is Jiang Mingyi, and my family runs an ironware business."

"My name is Mengtang, and I am from Feng County. My family runs a business that involves welcoming and seeing off guests."

"My name is Li Zhongqing. I have some business dealings on the river in Dangshan."

Finally, a man whose clothes were obviously tattered, but whose physique was the most robust and whose eyes were the sharpest, said loudly, "I am Zhao Baiying. My ancestor was the former Governor of Xuzhou, whose given name was Zhao Li!"

Good heavens, Liu Huai thought to himself.

These five people are all talented individuals. Although Cheng Feng and Jiang Mingyi are both in legitimate businesses, one runs a river transport business like He Boqiu and He Sanye, while the other controls a highly profitable ironware business. Neither of them is easy to imagine.

Meng Tang and Li Zhongqing are even more extraordinary; they practically have the word 'underworld' written all over their faces.

All the welcoming and sending-off ceremonies, all the trading on the river, were either organized by urban gangs or by the canal gangs and bandits.

As for Zhao Baiying, he didn't say what his family did, but his grandfather was Zhao Li, a general who fought against the Jin dynasty during the Jianyan era.

Zhao Li's hometown was Xuzhou. He traveled south and died in battle when the Jin army attacked Chuzhou. Although his family suffered heavy casualties in the Jin retaliation, some of them survived in the local area.

Zhao Baiying is the descendant of Zhao Li.

Although most of these people were older than Liu Huai, Liu Huai still patted each of them on the shoulder, comforted them warmly, and made many promises.

Only after the guests and hosts had enjoyed themselves to the fullest did they begin to get down to business.

"Commander, we have come here to make contact with the rebel army and launch an uprising."

Cheng Feng spoke sincerely, but his expression was somewhat excited, and even his full beard trembled, as if he had used all his strength to say those words: "We are willing to use all our family's wealth to recruit soldiers in order to resist the Jin!"

Liu Huai nodded and said in a gentle tone, "Cheng Erlang, please don't think I'm being blunt. I just want to ask one question: the Jin bandits have been in Shandong for quite some time now, and that scoundrel Tu Danzhen has been in Xuzhou for just as long. Why are they only now trying to rebel against the Jin?"

Cheng Feng's face was somewhat grim: "I'm not afraid of being laughed at by the Commander-in-Chief, but for people like us with families and businesses, it's really difficult to do something that could cost us our lives. There are just many people in our families who are holding us back."

Having too many bottles and jars and being reluctant to smash them is an inherent flaw of the landlord class.

"But the Jin invaders are really going too far. Not only did they forcibly requisition my family's merchant ships, but they also forcibly conscripted my family's boatmen and sailors into laborers!"

At this point, Cheng Feng gritted her teeth, her eyes wide with fury, and slammed her fist hard on the barely usable table.

Liu Huai suddenly realized.

It turned out that the Jin army had broken their bottles and jars.

Seeing that the others were equally indignant, Liu Huai nodded. It seemed that they were not the only ones who had been hit by the iron hammer of the Jin Dynasty's feudalism.

"So how do you guys plan to start this uprising? Are you going to open the city gates as soon as the army arrives and let our army rush into Pengcheng?"

Cheng Feng immediately chuckled: "Commander-in-Chief, you are joking. The Jin bandits are powerful and have made Pengcheng impenetrable. All the city gates and water gates are guarded by elite troops. We can fight among ourselves in the martial world, but how can we possibly fight against a proper army?"

"You must know that the Jin invaders have left a full 20,000 regular troops to guard Pengcheng..."

"Stop!" Liu Huai finally lost his composure. Even Liang Su, who had been quietly watching Liu Huai win over powerful figures, stood up and looked at Cheng Feng.

"How many troops did you say the Jin invaders left in Pengcheng?" Liu Huai asked sternly. "Do you have any evidence?"

Cheng Feng didn't know why Liu Huai was suddenly so serious. His heart skipped a beat, and his tone became somewhat unsteady: "It is indeed 20,000 troops... Commander-in-Chief, the Jin army has many warhorses, and 80% of the Jin army's martial arts skills are in the cavalry. This cannot be faked."

We are all from the area surrounding Xuzhou, so we can roughly estimate the amount of grain transported. The grain transported along the Nanqing River (also a tributary of the Yellow River) to Jizhou was less than half the amount left in Pengcheng.

Liu Huai narrowed his eyes.

Regardless of whether Cheng Feng lied or not, the key question is: if what Cheng Feng said is true, and only 10,000 of the 30,000 Jin Kingdom regular army were dispatched, while the remaining 20,000 were still on standby in Pengcheng, what were they planning to do?
What are the strategic objectives?
Is Heshi Lieliangbi really so arrogant that he thinks he can pacify Dongping Prefecture with 10,000 men?

You should know that there is a Jizhou between Dongping Prefecture and Xuzhou, which is four or five hundred li away. They are already out of the range of cavalry support, and the front and rear are disconnected. How can you fight a war like this?

Unless... unless Heshi Lieliangbi is confident that he can take down Dongping Prefecture with 10,000 men.

But what were his 20,000 men doing in Pengcheng?
Are they preparing to open up a whole new world for Bianliang?
Are you preparing to send a big gift to the Loyal Army?

We're going to show the Song army, who might come to our aid, why the flowers are so red.

Of course, this is assuming Cheng Feng and the others tell the truth. If these five people are all spies, then what kind of tricks is He Shi Lie Liang Bi up to?

Liang Su coughed softly, waking Liu Huai from his thoughts.

He quickly realized that he shouldn't lose his composure in front of the newly surrendered people, so he immediately smiled and said, "Do you guys have any other military intelligence? If you can help me capture Xuzhou in the future, I will not be stingy with rewards or official titles."

The five people, who had been somewhat hesitant, suddenly became excited, as if they were drinking ice-cold plum juice on a hot summer day.

They took such a great risk, kidnapping the prefect of Pizhou and traveling such a long distance, just for this one promise?

(End of this chapter)