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

Chapter 832 The Rain Clears on the Second Day of the Second Month

Even with the military messengers relaying the message at breakneck speed, the document, sent on the 25th of the first lunar month, arrived in Jinan Prefecture on the 2nd of the second lunar month.

This day also marks the beginning of spring plowing in a broader sense.

There are all sorts of blessing ceremonies throughout the country. In some places, children need to have their heads shaved again, which is called "Dragon Raises Its Head".
In some places, ash is used to form the shape of a dragon, which is called "guiding the dragon back".
In other places, they make special sheet-like noodles called "eating dragon scales".

In short, the Dragon King was extremely busy that day.

Regardless of the custom, people ultimately want to use this method to pray for favorable weather, abundant harvests, freedom from illness and disaster, and good health and happiness in the coming year.

In this era, feudal superstitious activities were a must, as they were a means of uniting people's hearts and minds.

However, as a time traveler, Liu Huai had received a materialistic education since childhood. Even though time travel was not materialistic at all, it did not stop Liu Huai from trying to incorporate something more practical into the custom of the Dragon Raising its Head on the second day of the second lunar month.

So what is most important for spring plowing?

It's water, of course!

Therefore, Liu Huai slapped his forehead and simply chose a ditch that was almost completely dug, and led the high-ranking officials to dig out the last section to divert water for irrigation.

They didn't care that the light rain had just stopped and the soil was damp.

As the saying goes, knowing is easy but doing is hard. These important figures were not without their expertise in mundane affairs. They meticulously distributed money and grain on a daily basis and accurately calculated the construction period for the laborers, making the northern land flourish.

However, when they were actually asked to do the actual digging of ditches, they made quite a few fools of themselves.

Needless to say, those civil officials who were already close to fifty years old were exhausted, and many fierce generals who could fight on the battlefield for half a day without feeling tired were already completely worn out after digging with hoes and shovels for an hour.

This wasn't about cheating or being cunning; rather, the way one exerts force in the heat of battle is completely different from digging earth. As a result, the small canal, which was originally calculated to be completed in two quarters of an hour with a large number of people, has been dragging on for nearly an hour and is still not finished.

The local magistrate was already drenched in sweat.

Of course, Liu Huai and his colleagues were used to all sorts of unexpected events that might occur during their work.

But then again, we can't just give up because of unforeseen circumstances, can we? We should overcome all difficulties and see things through to the end.

Liu Huai simply let the older civil officials rest aside, while the strong and healthy carried earth baskets back and forth to transport soil. He, along with a group of military officers, took off their shirts, rolled up their trousers, and dug trenches with all their might in the chilly spring breeze.

Shi Ju, who had just arrived in Jinan to report on his duties, hadn't even had a couple of cups of tea before this happened. He couldn't help but sit on his earthen basket, patting his knees, and complain to his junior apprentice Liang Su: "What on earth has the eldest son gone mad about?"

Liang Su was helping Hu Yananxian fill his basket with soil when he heard this. He rolled his eyes and said, "Is this something a subject should say? Be careful these arrogant soldiers don't hear you and they'll chop you up."

While digging, Hu Yananxian chuckled and said, "Gentlemen, please don't make snide remarks. Our Han army has its own system, and there's never been a case of beheading someone for uttering a few complaints."

The three of them spoke in unison, which made several people around them burst into laughter.

This relates to a case that just happened in Dongjin.

Because Dongjin suffered such a crushing defeat last year, not only did it lose a large number of its manpower, but it also lost many strategic locations. Even the Left Deputy Marshal Heshilie Zhining, the Right Deputy Marshal Wanyan Mouyan, and the Left Chancellor Heshilie Liangbi never returned.

This is tantamount to the complete purging of the highest leaders in the government and military; it would be a miracle if Dongjin did not experience political turmoil.

Even more critically, the Han army on the Liaodong Peninsula was like a dagger pressed against the heart of the Jin Dynasty, only two hundred li away from Liaoyang Prefecture, the core of Jin's rule in Liaodong.

Given such dire circumstances, it would be abnormal if Wanyan Yong had not been impacted by political turmoil.

Even with the established system of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou still had to abdicate and become the retired emperor after Wanyan Liang's invasion of the south. How much more so for the Jin Dynasty, where coups were as easy as drinking water?

Of course, because coups were as common as drinking water, the Jin dynasty's bureaucratic system naturally had a complete set of procedures for dealing with them.

The Jin dynasty court, which made killing at the drop of a hat a basic principle of political struggle, naturally had to resort to bloodshed in its response as well.

The starting point of this political upheaval in the Jin Dynasty was Liu Zhan, the mentor of both Xin Qiji and Dang Huaiying.

Liu Zhan's status in the Jin Kingdom was rather awkward. He was a great Confucian scholar of his time, but he was the kind of old scholar who spent his life studying classics and searching for phrases, and he did not have the talent to save the world and bring peace to the people.

Liu Zhan was also self-aware, so after achieving academic success, he opened many schools to teach the classics. Even after passing the imperial examination, he only served as a compiler in the history bureau.

It's like the Jin dynasty spending a fortune to buy horse bones as a facade.

Logically speaking, even if the Jin Dynasty was poor, it wouldn't lack a bowl of rice from such an auspicious creature, but the key issue is that Liu Zhan's ability to teach students in this world is too formidable.

Xin Qiji goes without saying, and Dang Huaiying was also in charge of confidential documents in the Han Army's General Staff at this time, making him the fourth-in-command in the General Staff.

Besides these two most famous disciples, there were more than thirty other disciples who had a master-disciple relationship with Liu Zhan, distributed in the army and in local areas.

There is nothing we can do about this.

Liu Zhan was a great Confucian scholar who taught without discrimination, and coming from an official family, he was not short of money. Therefore, he himself couldn't count the number of his nominal disciples who studied or, more accurately, ate at his school. In those chaotic times, many people rose from humble beginnings to become officials. Among those with similar achievements, the educated naturally advanced much faster than the illiterate. Even the most unskilled of Liu Zhan's nominal disciples were still considered rare intellectuals among the uncultured crowd.

Having students all over the world is an honor for every teacher, but for the Jin Dynasty, it meant that only the most talented and virtuous were in power.

Liu Zhan educated a group of rebels; how could he be a good person?

Of course, the Jin Kingdom is in chaos right now, and nobody cares about what kind of old man he is.

Unfortunately, Liu Zhan's hometown was Bozhou.

This is Bozhou, which was previously captured by Xiao Zhongda in a surprise attack.

As one of the regions affected by the conscription order, although Liu Huai's swift southward advance and defeat of the Jin army meant that the conscripted troops from the rear did not actually reach the battlefield.

However, the petition order also caused real damage to the local areas.

Especially Bozhou, which served as a strategic transit point for Heshi Lieliangbi.

The fact that Xiao Zhongda dispersed the conscripted soldiers around Qiao County that day is undeniable.

This led to a sharp deterioration in public security in Bozhou during those months. Liu Zhan's family in Qiao County was attacked by what was unknown whether they were soldiers or bandits, resulting in more than half of them being killed or wounded.

From a historical perspective, it is only natural for the proletariat to take action against landlords and wealthy people. However, this did not prevent Liu Zhan from being filled with grief and indignation after learning of this news. He drank every day and cursed the Jin Dynasty court at every turn.

Normally, such pedantic behavior would go unnoticed, but isn't the Jin Dynasty court already turning into a powder keg?

In addition, Liu Zhanhao had many disciples, so naturally someone came forward to report him, and the Jin court took the opportunity to deal with him severely.

Wanyan Yong did not intend to kill Liu Zhan; he merely reprimanded him and deducted his salary for half a year.

However, Liu Zhan was already in a state of panic and made an unexpected decision.

He didn't even contact the Han army before running away.

Wanyan Yong was initially too preoccupied with his own problems to pay attention to this fellow. But who would have thought that when Liu Zhan and a few family members arrived at the Hutuo River, they encountered a patrol of Golden Cavalry.

Without saying a word or caring about any historian's writings, the Jin cavalry drew their swords and began to kill.

A scholar can't reason with a soldier; in the face of a knife, even the greatest Confucian scholar is powerless, and it's over in a matter of moments.

If it weren't for the Han army's cavalry sweeping through Hebei and rescuing him, Liu Zhan might have died on the banks of the Hutuo River.

Even so, Liu Zhan lost one son and two daughters, and the Liu family suffered another heavy blow.

This time, Liu Zhan remained remarkably clear-headed. After visiting Liu Huai, he immediately wrote a proclamation for Liu Huai entitled "Record of Crimes Against the Emperor".

As a renowned scholar from the north, he belittled Wanyan Yong to the point of worthlessness, and used his own experience to show that Wanyan Yong wanted to kill all the Han Chinese scholars and officials in the north, in order to call on the scholars and officials in the north to rebel together.

This proclamation shocked the Jin court and caused turmoil in the Han Chinese bureaucratic system.

Liu Zhan was a good-for-nothing who could accomplish nothing and only knew how to complain. If Wanyan Yong couldn't even tolerate someone like him, how could the rest of them survive?
In no time, news of the great Confucian scholar being punished for his words in the Jin Kingdom spread far and wide. Wanyan Yong felt as if mud had fallen on his crotch, and even if it wasn't excrement, it would still be excrement.

Shi Ju naturally knew about this, but he just looked at Hu Yananxian and laughed, "Well, you people deliberately set a trap for me, didn't you?"

Liang Su carried a basket of soil on his back: "Alright, stop resting, it won't take much time anyway."

Shi Ju could only rub his aching back, feeling somewhat regretful for having shown off.

However, looking at Liu Huai and the others, who were shirtless and sweating profusely, and then at the farmers gathered around, Shi Ju had to admit that it was much more appropriate to actually do the work firsthand than to create official documents based on imagination in the office.

This may be the true meaning of the phrase "practice yields true knowledge" in Zhu Xi's "On the Investigation of Things".

Shi Ju poured the soil from his basket into a ditch. Just as he was about to say something more to Liang Su, he saw more than ten shirtless men jump out of the excavated ditch.

"Welcome the water dragon!"

"Welcome the Water Dragon!"

As the last few baskets of soil and stones were dug out, the irrigation canal was completely cleared, and the sluice gate was opened. Clear water rushed out from the main channel of the canal and flowed into the nearly 100 acres of farmland along the newly dug ditch.

As the cheers gradually spread, Liu Huai wiped his forehead with his muddy hands and smiled at Zhang Baiyu beside him, saying, "The Dragon King is really busy today."

Just as Zhang Baiyu was about to agree, Shen Longzi personally rode over, dismounted, and without stopping, came to Liu Huai and presented him with a wooden box.

After opening the package, Liu Huai frowned and immediately said, "Have Mr. Shi and Mr. Liang come to my tent to discuss this."

(End of this chapter)