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

Chapter 716 The Song Dynasty Traitors and the Jurchens are All formidable Enemies (Part 2)
After Du Wuji inspected the town again, it was almost midnight. He dragged his tired body back to his tent, took off his shawl and skirt armor, and slept on the bed in his iron-clad tunic.

But he was destined not to have a peaceful night's sleep.

Just an hour after he had slept, as the drizzle intensified, someone rushed into the tent and pushed Du Wuji, saying, "Boss Du, something terrible has happened!"

Du Wuji shook his head, feeling dizzy from lack of sleep and exhaustion: "What happened?"

"Guo Taichu..." The man swallowed hard. "Guo Taichu is dead."

"what?"

Now, Du Wuji was wide awake. Without even putting on his armor properly, he donned a raincoat and led more than ten armored soldiers of the enforcement team to set off quickly.

Before even reaching Guo Taichu's camp, Du Wuji saw Shi Ju and quickly went forward to greet him.

Shi Ju didn't say anything, but simply held up an oil-paper umbrella and, while riding his horse, beckoned Du Wuji to follow.

"Du Dalang, before tonight, had Guo Taichu had any conflicts with anyone else?"

After thinking for a moment, Du Wuji said, "Yes, but they are all trivial matters, and... and they were caused by arguing with the Jurchen soldiers."

Shi Ju nodded and then went to the large tent where Guo Taichu was staying.

Outside the main tent, several people were tightly bound and slumped on the muddy ground, begging for mercy.

"You are supposed to be personal guards, yet you didn't see anything! What use are you?!" a Han officer shouted. "If you can't give me a straight answer today, you'll all be killed!"

Du Wuji pushed aside the onlookers and pulled Shi Ju's horse reins to walk inside.

Guo Taichu was a marching general in the Wujie Army, and in principle, it had nothing to do with the Chenzhou Army. However, he was a mid-to-high-ranking officer in the Jin Army, and his sudden and inexplicable death naturally caused a small-scale sensation.

Therefore, many officers of the Chenzhou army gathered here to inquire about the situation and whisper among themselves.

Seeing that Guo Taichu's deputy general seemed about to start torturing the guards in public, Shi Ju immediately shouted, "Guo Qingzhi, stop!"

Upon hearing this, the Wujie Army general named Guo Qingzhi frowned and turned around. When he saw Shi Ju through a cluster of torches, his expression immediately changed from anger to joy, and then to sorrow.

Guo Qingzhi trudged through the mud and water towards Shi Ju. When he got close, he knelt down and crawled a few steps, then grabbed Shi Ju's horse leg and cried out, "Lord Shi, my brother was only involved in a fight with Pu Chaping, and he sent men to assassinate him. Lord Shi, you must do us justice!"

Upon hearing this, the Han generals present seemed about to make a fuss, when Shi Ju kicked Guo Qingzhi to the ground: "You scoundrel, do you have any witnesses or evidence? If you do, I will naturally uphold justice for you; if not, I will punish you for a serious crime that alarms the army!"

As he spoke, Shi Ju looked around, seemingly not at Guo Qingzhi, but rather to intimidate the group of Han generals who were about to make a fuss.

After rolling around in the mud twice, Guo Qingzhi finally stood up and said angrily, "Lord Shi, my brother is a kind man. Apart from Pu Chaping, who else has the guts and ability to storm the army's main tent, kill people, and then disappear without a trace?!"

Du Wuji didn't want to listen to Guo Qingzhi's ramblings, so he loosened the reins and strode into the tent.

Because of the rain, the area outside the tent was muddy and messy, making it impossible to see anything. However, once inside the large tent, which was in such a state of disarray, some things could no longer be concealed.

Although this tent was set up temporarily, it was still a large tent for a marching army, so it was not very small, about the size of a tent for twenty people.

Guo Taichu's headless corpse lay in the very center of the tent.

The tent contained only three beds, a small table made of stacked boxes, and a few stools.

Behind the tent, there was a large opening, as if someone had bypassed the guards at the front of the tent and launched a surprise attack from behind, tearing open the tent and rushing in.

There was a string of hoof prints on the ground, suggesting that the attackers had driven their horses straight in.

Guo Taichu stayed in this large tent with two personal guards. The two guards seemed to have been killed by heavy weapons while they were conscious, and they had huge wounds on their bodies.

Guo Taichu, on the other hand, was nailed to his bed with a single shot.

The invading enemy seemed quite composed, even contemplating cutting off Guo Taichu's head and throwing it aside.

After taking a general look around the crime scene, Du Wuji had a clear idea of ​​what was going on.

Guo Qingzhi is right. Who could so easily kill a marching warrior in the middle of a large army with a surprise attack?!

Recalling his conversation with Guo Taichu a few hours earlier, Du Wuji's face gradually turned ashen.

“You guys, find two clever ones to chase after them through this breach and look for hoof prints.”

"You two, go and see where Guo Taichu has stationed his patrol troops. Why aren't they on guard?!"

"All three of you, come with me."

Du Wuji tightened his raincoat, feeling as if a flood of coldness was enveloping him, even though it was summer.

However, just as Du Wuji stepped out of the main tent, he saw that there seemed to be another argument at Shi Ju's place. Upon closer inspection, he realized that Pu Cha Shijie had arrived with several Jurchen officers. Du Wuji's heart tightened, and he quickly stepped forward, gripping his sword.

He didn't even know why he made that subconscious movement.

Upon getting closer, Du Wuji realized that most of the heated words were spoken by the Han general and the Jurchen general, while Shi Ju and Pucha Shijie remained calm.

Pucha Shijie slowly said, "Lord Shi, this is a family matter of my Wujie Army. I hope you will not interfere." Before Shi Ju could speak, Guo Qingzhi anxiously said, "Lord Shi, this is both a military matter and a matter of state. How can you so easily abandon it?!"

Guo Qingzhi was truly afraid, especially now that Guo Taichu's death was shrouded in mystery, and the prime suspect was Pu Chaping.

He worried that if Shi Ju really abandoned him, he wouldn't live to see dawn.

Pucha Shijie was taken aback when his subordinates dared to speak ill of him at such a time, and then anger rose in his heart.

But Guo Qingzhi had already gone all out, so he simply dragged more people into the mess: "Old Lu, Lu Henian, what do you have to say?"

Lu Henian was the other one of the two Han Chinese Meng'an soldiers dispatched by Wujie Army this time.

He stared blankly into the tent, equally frightened, until Guo Qingzhi called out twice before he finally came to his senses.

Lu Henian stared blankly at Pucha Shijie, as if suddenly realizing something, and quickly cupped his hands and said, "General, what Guo Qingzhi said makes some sense. This time, the armies are united. With such a big incident happening to the Wujie Army, how could Minister Shi, as the Prime Minister of the State, not be present?"

As he spoke, Lu Henian unconsciously took two steps toward Shi Ju, though it was a rainy night and his small movements were not clearly visible. However, Lu Henian's movement vaguely conjured up a scene of Han Chinese and Jurchens facing off.

The proportion of troops deployed this time clearly shows that the Jurchens were at a significant disadvantage.

The Han generals here were naturally disproportionate to the Jurchen generals, and the scene truly resembled the Han generals surrounding and killing the Jurchen generals.

Seeing this, it goes without saying that Pucha Shijie was both shocked and furious. The soldiers who had come with Pucha Shijie, including the Meng'an and Mouke, were equally horrified and stood guard with their swords at the ready.

Just as the atmosphere had become tense, Shi Ju slowly said, "Chief Steward Pu Cha, now that Guo Taichu has died, Guo Qingzhi says that Pu Chaping was responsible. How will Chief Steward Pu Cha deal with this?"

Upon hearing this, Pucha Shijie's mind went blank, and he immediately turned to Pucha Ping: "Ping, what do you want to say?"

Pu Chaping retorted proudly: "It is true that I had a dispute with that scoundrel Guo Taichu today, and it is also true that several people were injured or killed in the fight. But Guo Qingzhi wants to use this incident to say that I am the murderer of Guo Taichu, which is simply absurd."

Shi Ju coldly said, "Pu Chaping, why did you quarrel with Guo Taichu today? Do you have an explanation?"

Faced with an inquiry from a proper prime minister, even though the other party was Han Chinese, Pu Chaping did not dare to be negligent: "This humble general occupied a few houses, and that scoundrel Guo Taichu wanted to take them. This humble general refused to give them to him, and that's how the trouble started."

Although there were some discrepancies between what Guo Taichu had said, Shi Ju did not want to pursue the matter further at this moment: "General Pucha, did I already issue a military order today not to disturb the people? Yet your generals have forcibly occupied civilian houses. What do you have to say about that?"

Du Wuji was listening intently in the corner when his trusted confidant, whom he had just sent out, strode back and reported in a low voice.

"Behind that tent, less than a mile further on, is the location of Puchaping's Meng'an. Following the hoofprints, we found a lone horse, seemingly abandoned on the road after its reins were broken. We checked the rump print, and it is indeed the Third Meng'an's. Should we bring it here now?"

Du Wuji's eye twitched: "Not in a hurry."

At this moment, another person arrived: "Boss Du, I questioned the patrolmen, and at first they denied it, but under interrogation and intimidation, they told the truth. When they arrived, they only saw a shadow in the distance, but it was definitely the gourd helmet of the Great Jin Dynasty, no doubt about it."

Du Wuji felt a chill run down his spine.

But the man continued, "Also, when we were patrolling outside the camp, there was a courtyard near Pu Chaping's place. It smelled strongly of blood. We climbed over the wall and found at least fifty corpses piled up there, men, women, and children, all hacked and stabbed. Little Lu found this on one of the corpses..."

As he spoke, the man pulled out half an arrow shaft from his pocket.

After Du Wuji took it, he examined it carefully by the light of the torch.

It turned out to be a traditional heavy arrow from the Jin Dynasty.

At this moment, Pu Chaping's rebuttal came through the rain: "Why is Master Shi slandering people's innocence out of thin air? The houses I occupied were all empty. If you don't believe me, Master Shi can send someone to investigate."

"Hmph, it was clearly that scoundrel Guo Taichu who stirred up trouble for no reason, but now he's making it seem like I'm the one bullying men and women, while he's the righteous hero with pure intentions. How utterly absurd!"

Du Wuji felt nauseous as he looked at Pu Chaping.

The reason this guy was arguing about the cause of his conflict with Guo Taichu wasn't because the matter was really that important, but because he was saying: Guo Taichu was clearly looking for trouble, and even if he were to kill someone, the chances of him killing me were much higher than the chances of me killing him.

Thinking of this, Du Wuji finally lost his patience, squeezed through the crowd to Shi Ju's side, and whispered what he knew to him.

However, Shi Ju simply nodded, and then said something to Pu Cha Shijie that left Du Wuji dumbfounded: "Chief Steward Pu Cha, I believe this must be the work of Song traitors' spies. What do you think?"

Pucha Shijie glared at Pucha Ping before slowly saying, "That's exactly right."

After hesitating for a moment, Pucha Shijie said to Shi Ju, "How about the sixth and eighth Han army warriors move together with Minister Shi's Chenzhou army?"

Shi Ju nodded: "That's fine too."

After the two important figures decided to smooth things over with a few words, they both scolded their subordinates to return to camp, and the death of Guo Taichu was glossed over as if a dog had died on the roadside.

Let's not even talk about how Pucha Shijie flew into a rage at Pucha Ping.

Wearing a straw raincoat, Du Wuji stood in the shadows with his enforcement team, staring blankly as Guo Qingzhi wept as he collected Guo Taichu's body. His mind was in turmoil.

However, amidst this chaos, Du Wuji felt a strange sense of grief and indignation welling up within him.

Did this result actually confirm what Guo Taichu said: that the Jurchens and the Song rebels were mortal enemies?
Could it be... could it be that even Master Shi is not someone the Han people can rely on?
(End of this chapter)