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

Chapter 800: The State Has Raised an Army for Over a Century

Liu Huai was not actually holding a military council this time, because he gave no room for the generals to speak before issuing the orders directly.

"Send military envoys, the more the better. Send them from Xuzhou, Suzhou, Pizhou, Sizhou, and even Yizhou. All the troops that can be contacted and have already been dispatched should come to Qixian."

Liu Huai continued talking, pointing to a stack of documents just written by his staff officers beside him, and said, "Let's set off now, without stopping for a moment!"

After the military staff took away a stack of documents, Liu Huai continued to issue orders: "Do not march this afternoon. The whole army should rest well. We will prepare food at the third watch tomorrow and set off at the fourth watch. I want to be at the gates of Qixian City within a day!"

Zhang Baiyu and the others were stunned upon hearing this, and then became horrified.

This means that the army will have to travel a hundred miles in a single day to reach the city of Qixian and join the battle, using exhausted troops to launch a surprise attack on the main Jin army force.

Although theoretically this is not impossible, as there are similar battles recorded in historical texts.

Huo Qubing's campaign across the grasslands, Li Jing's surprise attack on the Turkic royal court on a snowy night, and Sima Yi's raid on Liaodong—all these involved deploying troops at lightning speed before the enemy could react, thus defeating them in one fell swoop.

However, the reason why these battles were recorded in history books by historians throughout the ages is because the events were extremely difficult.

The right timing, location, and people are all indispensable, and a lot of luck is also needed to succeed; it is a matter of winning amidst danger.

But as I said before, Liu Huai is here to issue military orders, not to listen to the opinions of his generals: "Huyan Nanxian!"

"The general is here!"

"I order you to lead your personal guards to cover the rear of the entire army, and gather up any stragglers along the way. You can be slow, but you must bring them as far as possible to Qixian!"

"As ordered!"

"Zhang Baiyu".

"exist!"

"You are the general of the central army, in command of all troops, advancing along the Huan River without stopping for a moment!"

"promise!"

"Guan Chongyan!"

"exist!"

"I will give you five hundred armored cavalry. After crossing the Huan River, you will advance along the riverbank alongside our main force. You are granted full autonomy!"

"promise!"

"In this battle, I will be the vanguard!" Liu Huai drew his sword and slammed it into the ground. "Qixian is in danger, my father is in danger, and as his son, I have no choice but to risk my life for him!"

Xin Qiji and the others, who had originally wanted to offer some advice, fell silent upon hearing this and could only loudly agree before returning to their camps to prepare.

That afternoon, Wei Chang returned to Linhuan, bringing with him letters of surrender written by Shi Ju and several generals of Chenzhou Army, which further boosted the morale of the Han army.

In particular, Shi Ju's promise to blockade Chenzhou, cut off the Jin army's retreat, and seize the opportunity to cross the river and attack the Pusan ​​Zhongyi camp gave the generals a glimpse of the possibility of pacifying the Central Plains in one battle.

Of course, as the military and political leader, Liu Huai maintained a cautious attitude towards the development of the situation.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: no one's guarantee counts; only your own word matters!
Shi Ju's words sound nice, but only heaven knows what he will actually do.

But it doesn't matter anymore, because what follows is the time for soldiers to clash and die. When both sides engage in battle, they will all be exhausted. It will just be a matter of which side can hold on the longest.

As evening fell, at the same time Lu You arrived at the Song army's Xia Cai camp, the military envoy dispatched by Liu Huai also arrived near Fuli and met Zhou Xinglie and the brother and sister Wei Jiao and Wei Rujun, who had just arrived.

"The eldest son has arrived in Linhuan. He has ordered that the entire army march on to Qixian tomorrow! All troops, please proceed!"

The military envoy arrived at the commander's tent, briefly recounting Liu Huai's military orders while taking out a token and documents from his pocket and handing them to Zhou Xinglie.

However, Zhou Xinglie handed the document over to Wei Jiao, allowing Wei Sheng's biological son to take over the military order.

This is also a matter of course.

The reason why Wei Jiao and Wei Rujun rushed from Yizhou to Suzhou with only a few soldiers after receiving Wei Sheng's letter was to establish a strategic foothold.

To put it more plainly, after Wei Jiao arrives here, he will be able to make some decisions that Zhou Xinglie would find difficult to make, and command some people who are above Zhou Xinglie in rank.

Wei Jiao read the document quickly, then gritted his teeth and said, "It is my brother's military order. My brother has come all the way from Hebei, and my father is in grave danger in Qixian. As his son and brother, how can I spare my life?"

"Pass on my order: tell the two thousand-plus garrison troops in Fuli to stop making arrangements and come over tonight to join my army. We will march on Qixian at dawn tomorrow!"

Upon seeing that some local military officers from Fuli wanted to offer advice, Wei Jiao immediately waved his sleeve and said, "I know what you want to say. It's nothing more than that the local soldiers are useless and unable to fight the Jin invaders to the death on the ground."

"Now I tell you all, tomorrow I will personally lead the army at the forefront, carrying the great banner. If the army is routed, I will die before them!"

"Don't forget, you all belong to my father and brothers. If my father and brothers perish, how can Shandong survive? You'll be living hand to mouth, forced to sell your children, and chaos will be imminent!"

When Wei Jiao finished speaking, he was shouting with all his might, and the others just nodded and agreed.

Only Zhou Xinglie gritted his teeth and agreed: "That's right. The governance of Shandong depends on Duke Wei and the eldest son. If these two are lost, chaos will break out. Now is the time to risk everything!"

Seeing that the two important figures had already made their decision, the rest of them, no matter how hesitant or fearful, could only grit their teeth and go for it. Then again, what Wei Jiao said did indeed make sense.

If the political core formed by Wei Sheng and Liu Huai were to collapse simultaneously, the people of Shandong, leaderless, would either scatter or defect to the Song and Jin dynasties.

It's just a bunch of peasant rich people; which of the Song and Jin dynasties could tolerate that?

After the civil and military officials had gone back to prepare, Wei Rujun, dressed in a light chainmail, immediately said loudly, "Tomorrow I will join the army."

Wei Jiao wanted to stop it, but when he thought about the catastrophic consequences of losing this battle, he nodded in agreement.

Not to mention that the Wei siblings each held firm to their beliefs and got busy.

Xia Cai.

After arriving at the Song army camp, Lu You had Cao Dache carry his own flag high, and under the guidance of a Song army commander, they made their way unimpeded to the commander's tent.

"Wait a minute..."

An officer tried to stop him, but Lu You, in a fit of rage, kicked him away: "Get out!"

After barging straight into the commander's tent where a military meeting was being held, Lu You first looked around with a ferocious expression, his hand on the sword at his waist, before turning his gaze to Yu Yunwen, who was sitting at the head of the table.

He stared intently into Yu Yunwen's eyes and slowly said, "In case you haven't met me before, let me introduce myself. I am Lu You, the Pacification Commissioner of Shandong and its two circuits. I have traveled all the way from Suzhou to have a conversation with you, Lord Yu!"

The command tent was completely silent. Yu Yunwen stared intently at Lu You, remaining silent for a long time.

Just then, whether Shao Hongyuan saw an opportunity to shine or simply misjudged the situation, he stood up and rebuked, "Lord Lu, this is a military discussion within the Lianghuai army, not in Shandong... Ah!"

Before Shao Hongyuan could finish speaking, a flying silver cup struck him on the head, drawing blood.

Lu You shook the water off his hands, still furious, and kicked over the table beside him. Pointing at Shao Hongyuan, he shouted, "I've traveled a hundred miles to get here today to speak with Prime Minister Yu face to face. Who do you think you are?! A defeated general, do you dare to spout nonsense in front of this old man?"

Lu You's rebuke was merciless, and soon some of the Huaixi army generals stood up and reached for their waists.

However, just as these veteran soldiers made a move, Yang Chun stood up, scolded them, and chased them out of the command tent.

The Song Dynasty had a system where civil officials were valued more than military officials. Although it was no longer the era of the Northern Song Dynasty where prime ministers commanded military generals like dogs, these military generals were still naturally inferior to prime ministers with military achievements.

Especially since there are two officers in the command tent who are knowledgeable in military affairs.

After silencing everyone with a few words, Lu You stared intently at Yu Yunwen, waiting for his response.

"Lord Lu, what do you have to say?" After a moment of silence, Yu Yunwen finally asked, "Is it because military supplies are insufficient?"

In order to maintain morale, Yu Yunwen only mentioned in the military council that the Jin army had divided its troops to go to Suzhou, but did not mention the source of the intelligence or the actual situation of the military in Suzhou.

In fact, time was too tight, and Yu Yunwen couldn't care less about anything else. He could only focus on attacking the Pusan ​​Zhongyi camp and couldn't worry about Suzhou for several days.

Lu You was unaware that Wei Chang had only delivered the military intelligence the day before. He assumed that Yu Yunwen had already received the report from Wei Sheng's military envoy, but had remained inactive. Now, he was even more furious at being given such perfunctory words.

"Minister Yu, stop playing dumb with me!" Lu You's hand was already on his sword as he loudly retorted, "I only have one question for you now: Qixian is in imminent danger, are you going to send troops or not?!"

Yu Yunwen finally changed color: "What if I send troops? What if I don't? Lu Wuguan, do you also have a big iron mace in your hand, wanting to smash me to death and seize the military tally?"

Although few understood the witty banter between the two intellectuals, the tense atmosphere between them was undeniable.

While the generals in the tent were in a state of panic, they also felt that they had gained new insights.

Could it be that we will witness the two gentlemen fighting each other in the army today?

At this moment, Lu You really wanted to learn from Zhu Hai, but Yu Yunwen's tone softened instead: "Lord Lu, you are not ignorant of military affairs. The Jin bandits have more than 20,000 regular troops in front of us. How can I divide my forces? And now is the perfect opportunity to annihilate them. How can we retreat?"

Lu You glanced around at the people in the tent again, then laughed angrily: "Then why aren't you fighting? What are you waiting here for? To wait for the Jin invaders to collapse on their own?"

At this point, Li Xianzong was also somewhat indignant and wanted to get up to answer, but Yu Yunwen interrupted him again: "So that Prime Minister Lu may know that Liu Dalang has already turned the Henan Han army against the Jin invaders."

But these Han soldiers haven't contacted me, so we can't arrange a meeting. Now that Lord Lu has arrived, could you perhaps travel to the west bank of the Fei River again in Liu Dalang's name?

Lu You stood there, sword in hand, stunned. He hadn't expected that Liu Huai, far away in Hebei, would persuade the Han Chinese army in Henan to surrender. But then he thought that Liu Huai and Shi Ju had corresponded frequently in the past, which might have been the cause that had been planted then. Now that they were fighting and their blades were sharp, the cause was finally bearing fruit.

Lu You was not worried at all that Yu Yunwen was using someone else to do his dirty work.

The saying goes, "a fox borrows the tiger's might." Lu You had a real tiger standing behind him. Even if he made a wasted trip, he was 70% confident of returning safely. If Shi Ju wasn't out of his mind, he wouldn't have been used as a tool by Yu Yunwen.

Since the Northern Expedition, there have been many dangers, and he has faced death several times. Does Lu You not even dare to take such a risk?

Lu You merely snorted coldly, then turned and left, supporting his sword. Only when he reached the tent entrance did he turn back and chuckle: "Minister Yu, this Northern Expedition to kill the rebels will either rely on the Shandong righteous army or on the Jin army's defection. Let me ask you all one more question."

As he spoke, Lu You drew his sword and pointed it at the generals in the tent: "What are you all good for? Has the country raised an army for a hundred years and produced nothing but good-for-nothings?"

Having said that, Lu You turned and left without paying attention to the changed expressions on everyone's faces.

(End of this chapter)