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

Chapter 9 I only hope to see you one day when I succeed

"What's wrong?" Seeing Liu Huai staring at him, Li Tieqiang twisted his shoulders uncomfortably.

Liu Huai shook his head. "It's alright. Didn't Chief Geng start the rebellion in Dongshan? How did you get to Lianshui?"

Although Li Tieqiang was surprised that Liu Huai knew so much about the situation in the north, he didn't care. He just nodded and said, "Brother Liu, please know that we came to the south to gather information and contact the Song Dynasty for support."

Liu Huai chuckled, "It's useless. In the entire Huainan region, from Liu Qi and Wang Quan to the ordinary soldiers, the only one who dares to fight, wants to fight, and is able to fight is my father, Wei Sheng and Wei Yanwei."

Li Tieqiang's eyes lit up. "I wonder what your father's official position is?"

Liu Huai paused for a moment, then looked at Wei Chang.

Wei Chang knew his elder brother had a brain injury and might have forgotten some things, so he quickly took over the conversation: "Father used to be a general in the Chuzhou army. Half a year ago, because he insisted on sending troops, he offended the old man Lan Shiji, the Chuzhou governor, and was expelled from the army. Now he is just a commoner."

After hearing these words, not only Li Tieqiang was immediately exhausted, but even Liu Huai was a little stunned.

I originally thought that Wei Sheng was at least a grassroots military officer commanding five or six hundred people, but now he is a commoner. What the hell is going on?

In history, Wei Sheng should have gone north in anger this year to recapture Haizhou. How could a commoner lead an army to fight?

Li Tieqiang was also discouraged. He wanted to say, "Are you kidding me?", but he felt that if a fight really broke out, he would just be beaten, so he simply skipped the topic.

"The Song Dynasty... Does the Song Dynasty really have no intention of a northern expedition? Are we going to hand over such a vast territory, with so many Han people, to the Jin thieves to ravage?"

"Of course there are those who want to reclaim their homeland." Liu Huai spread his hands and explained, "But those who are idle are idle, those who are unjustly killed are unjustly killed. The officials at the top want to live in peace, so what can others do?"

Liu Huai spoke calmly, but these remarks directed at the emperor made the other three turn pale.

"How could this be... How could this be? This world, doesn't this world belong to their Zhao family?" Xin Wenyuan, who had been silent all this time, seemed in disbelief, his voice trembling.

Liu Huai sneered immediately: "Haven't you heard about the twelve golden medals?"

How could I not have heard of it? It has only been twenty years since the grand yet failed Northern Expedition.

At that time, the northern men responded in unison, but were sold to the Jin Kingdom by the Southern Song Dynasty court, and almost all the northern heroes were slaughtered.

However, what Li Tieqiang and others did not know was that in the following decades, the Southern Song court repeatedly let down the northern Han people, which finally made the northern Han heroes completely give up. In the end, Kublai Khan relied on these Han hereditary princes to seize the position of Khan and destroy the Southern Song Dynasty.

Of course, that was a hundred years later.

"If that's the case, then we can't rely on anyone else, right?" Li Tieqiang finally became completely dejected.

Liu Huai raised his eyebrows: "How many people did Chief Geng gather?"

"It's okay to tell Brother Liu." Li Tieqiang sighed. "When I went south, Chief Geng had already established himself in Tai'an and gathered about 30,000 people. However, most of them are old and weak. There are less than 10,000 young and strong people who are ready to fight."

"That's enough to hold out for a while." Taking advantage of the increasingly bright morning light, Liu Huai traced a map on the sand with his hand. "Wanyan Liang is on a southern expedition, so Shandong must be empty. As long as you don't reach Bianliang, there won't be a large army to encircle and suppress you."

"However, this doesn't mean the rebels can rest easy. First, although Tai'an is backed by Mount Tai, it's an isolated city that can only be defended. Yuncheng in Dongping Prefecture is the real key. Not only is it close to Liangshan Lake, it can be attacked or defended, but more importantly, it can connect to Hebei, and can echo with the rebels in Hebei. You can give it a try. If it fails, then go south to Yizhou and cut off the Yishui channel."

"Secondly, since ancient times, the worries of righteous armies have always been within, not without. I'm not saying that you should be suspicious of each other, but at the very least, the leaders should protect their lives and not lose their heads in a muddle."

Li Tieqiang pinched his chin and looked at the crude map on the ground, memorizing it in his mind: "And then?"

"Then we just have to wait. Wait for Wanyan Liang's army to be defeated, and for us father and son to launch a northern expedition to connect the north and the south." Liu Huai saw what Li Tieqiang was about to say and simply waved his hand. "I'm not trying to belittle you, but even if Chief Geng is accepted as the leader by the Shandong and Hebei rebel forces, who else do you think he can command besides his own troops? Who among the other rebel leaders will hand over their military power? Without strict discipline, it will be difficult to win a decisive battle in the field or capture a strong city."

Li Tieqiang swallowed his saliva. Although he felt that Liu Huai had the tendency to become a big liar, he could not find any room for rebuttal. He could only sigh that scholars were full of flowery ideas, while feeling a little confused.

"The Jin thieves have twenty-five battle-hardened military commanders. Can the Song Dynasty really survive this time?"

"I'm sure we'll make it through this."

Although no one knows what twenty-five thousand households are, even modern people who are not well-versed in history should know about the Caishiji Victory. Moreover, in order to participate in the performance of "Xin Qiji", Liu Huai also studied this history intensively and talked about it with confidence.

"Honestly, if Wanyan Liang had concentrated his forces and launched a decisive attack on Xiangfan, I'd have thought the Song Dynasty would be in danger. But he chose to focus on attacking the densely networked Huaibei region. Isn't that a self-defeating move? Even if the Song army was useless, what good would it do if he conquered Huaibei? His forces are already worn out. Could they possibly destroy the Song Dynasty in one fell swoop? He might even be surrounded and annihilated by the Yangtze River!"

"In addition, the worry about the Jin bandits is also internal rather than external. The Jin Kingdom originated from the Baishan and Heishui regions and was controlled by tribes. Now that Wanyan Liang wants to become the emperor of the Central Plains, he will definitely offend a large number of old nobles. When he has a large army and wins victory after victory, naturally no one dares to disobey him. But once Wanyan Liang fails on the battlefield, chaos will inevitably break out in the country, and Wanyan Liang will have difficulty saving his life. Isn't this how Fu Jian died during the Southern and Northern Dynasties?" Li Tieqiang nodded immediately.

According to the Shandong rebels' intelligence, the Jin army's southern expedition was divided into three routes: the western route attacked Sichuan, the central route attacked Xiangfan, and the eastern route attacked Lianghuai.

Although he didn't know which route was the main force, he knew that Wanyan Liang could stay in Bianliang all the time!
What he didn't know was that the Jin army was not divided into three routes, but four. The navy trained by Jin's Minister of War Su Baoheng was ready to attack Lin'an as soon as the war broke out, and capture Zhao Gou and take him to Wuguo City to guard his father's grave.

"But Brother Liu, didn't you just say that the Song Dynasty has no intention of launching a northern expedition? Even if your father has the courage of a king, how can a few people recover the thousands of miles of north?" Li Tieqiang thought for a moment and asked in confusion.

"My adoptive father has been building up his power in Lianghuai for twenty years. He has his own way." Liu Huai said confidently.

As for what the method was, Liu Huai really didn't know, so he could only pretend to be mysterious to scare Li Tieqiang.

Historically, Wei Sheng recruited 300 brave men in Chuzhou, then captured Lianshui, and marched north to Haizhou as if he were in an empty land. Then, he used Haizhou as a base, killed the defeated generals, connected the north and the south, and joined forces with the Shandong rebel army.

If the Southern Song Dynasty didn't have so many stupid teammates, so many surrenderists, and so many cowards, at least the southern part of Shandong should have been preserved.

Liu Huai had only read some history books. To say that he was only good at talking about war on paper was an exaggeration. How could he know what his cheap father did?

Seeing that Li Tieqiang was still hesitant, Liu Huai stood up and sighed, "Brother Li, the current situation is not about choosing the lesser of two evils, but about you having no choice. If you don't believe me, you can ask Chief Geng to wait and see if my adoptive father is the only one who is sending troops to the north, and if we are the only ones who care about our homeland in the north."

Li Tieqiang looked at Liu Huai steadily, and only nodded heavily when the red sun completely jumped out from the horizon.

Liu Huai secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"By the way, I have to trouble Third Brother Li with one more thing. Tell Xin Youan all these words."

Xin Wenyuan had been leaning against his horse, resting his eyes. Upon hearing this, he suddenly looked up and asked, "How did you know about my cousin?"

"The name of the Xin Party is known throughout the world."

Xin naturally refers to Xin Qiji, and Dang refers to Dang Huaiying. Both of them learned from Liu Zhan and had similar talents, so they were called Xin Dang.

However, Xin Wenyuan was still puzzled. No matter how famous his cousin was, it was just the limit for a young talent. It was just mutual praise within a small circle. How could it be so exaggerated as to be known by the whole world?

Not to mention the chaos in Shandong and Hebei, with countless rebel forces, large and small, separated by hundreds of miles, how did this Song man named Liu Huai know that the Xin family had spent all their wealth to start a rebellion? And how did he know that the Xin family had joined Geng Jing's rebel army?
Could it be that he can tell fortunes?
Xin Wenyuan was about to ask again, but Li Tieqiang beat him to the punch: "Don't worry, Brother Liu, I will definitely tell this to Brother Xin Wu."

After saying that, Li Tieqiang pulled Xin Wenyuan to his feet, bowed to Liu Huai and said, "Brother Liu, I've only just met you by chance, yet you've saved my life twice. I should repay you with my own death, but I have an important responsibility to fulfill, and my life isn't even my own..."

Liu Huai divided the dry food and dried meat he found in his saddlebag into two portions and handed one portion, along with all the wound medicine, to Li Tieqiang. He smiled and said, "I have always believed that comrades are more reliable than fellow soldiers. I risked my life to save you because you share the same aspirations as mine: to fight the Jin army and recover our homeland, not for any reward."

Li Tieqiang took the supplies and was moved, but he could not say anything and could only nod silently.

Several people got on their horses. Li Tieqiang was about to say some polite words to say goodbye, but he saw Liu Huai staring towards the east in a trance.

Li Tieqiang and others also followed his gaze.

It turned out that several people had been in the shade of the hillside. After getting on their horses, their vision broadened and they saw that the river formed by the confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River was extremely wide. It made a big "J"-shaped bend in the distance and spread out from south to north, like colorful satin falling on the green land.

At that time, the red sun was rising, and the sunlight was splashing everywhere, giving the river a golden color, and the waves were rolling like thousands of horses galloping.

The four of them stared into the distance in a daze, becoming somewhat mesmerized.

"This land is so beautiful!" After a long moment, Liu Huai sighed and said, "How can we leave such a beautiful land to those barbarians to destroy it? Third Brother Li, it's not easy for us to separate, traveling north and south. I hope we can meet again in the future."

Li Tieqiang nodded heavily, his honest round face full of determination: "I hope to see you in the future when I am rich and powerful."

Liu Huai nodded: "Brother Xin, please give my regards to Xin Youan."

Xin Wenyuan bowed in response.

After a while, Liu Huai watched the two figures gradually disappearing into the distance. He pulled Wei Chang's reins and took off a layer of armor, putting it on Wei Chang. "A Chang, do you know the way back? By the way, tell me what's going on with the 250,000 households of the Jin Kingdom?"

(End of this chapter)