I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 120 Meeting Song Jiang
After learning about Yue Fei's "learning progress" that day, Zhao Zicheng did not give Yue Fei any heavy tasks in the following days, but only asked him to adapt to the military organization and get used to command and dispatch as soon as possible.

Yue Fei had previously led dozens of men to suppress bandits in his hometown, but he had never led a regular army before, so he certainly lacked experience in this area.

The great battle with Song Jiang was imminent, and the date Zhao Zicheng agreed to Zhang Shuye's attack was drawing ever closer, leaving no time for Yue Fei to slowly mature.

Yue Fei was grateful for Zhao Fujun's recognition and kindness, and he worked even harder every day.

On his first day as a captain, he arrived at his unit. Of the fifty cavalrymen in the unit, apart from the seven or eight who had come with Yue Fei, the other forty or so were almost all resentful.

A cavalry captain is responsible for leading five squad leaders, and each squad leader is in charge of ten riders.

At least four of Yue Fei's squad leaders were not convinced by him.

Two of them were quite senior, having served under Guan Sheng for many years, and it was thought that they would be promoted to fill the vacancies this time.

Then a young man who was only nineteen years old came along and directly stole their "luck," turning the two team leaders who originally didn't get along into a united front against a common enemy.

After Yue Fei joined the army, some people immediately started making sarcastic remarks, both openly and secretly.

Yue Fei knew he didn't need to compete with these people, but he also knew that competition was the fastest way to subdue them and build up their fighting strength.

In the military, might makes right, especially among junior officers below the rank of commander. There's no need for fancy tricks. As long as you're skilled in martial arts, brute force can overcome any technique, and that's enough to subdue your subordinates.

So Yue Fei made his point clear and straightforward: I don't necessarily want to be the captain of this team. It's just that the Prefect took the initiative to ask for a duel, and I fought the Prefect to a draw. So the Prefect appointed me as such. If you're not satisfied, come and fight! As long as I can win, I will go to the Prefect and ask to resign and let someone with better martial arts skills take over as captain.

Since the new head of the city had already made his point clear, the crowd was too lazy to play dirty tricks anymore, and those who were dissatisfied simply went for it.

The result was, of course, without any suspense. The two teams whose luck had been intercepted went on stage one after the other. The first one, caught off guard, was instantly defeated and knocked to the ground by Yue Fei in one move.

The second one was startled and became fully alert, carefully making his move, but he only managed to withstand two more moves before being knocked down.

Yue Fei was too lazy to waste any more time, so he told the remaining two who were not satisfied to come at him together, and the two who had already been knocked down could also be ganged up on if they still wanted to fight.

In the end, Yue Fei fought four opponents alone. This time, it took him some effort, and it took him dozens of moves to defeat all the leaders one by one.

Of course, no serious injuries were caused; it was all just poking and prodding with wooden spear shafts, and everyone was wearing armor. There were only some bruises from the force of blunt force impacts.

Within half a day, Yue Fei's fifty cavalrymen submitted to his leadership.

Subsequently, Yue Fei continued to learn and practice, combining his previous knowledge of military strategy with his experience in leading cavalry. When encountering specific problems, he humbly sought advice from the captains he had just defeated. Within a few days, he had a general grasp of the cavalry's advance and retreat commands and daily operations.

Then Yue Fei proceeded steadily and methodically, seeking advice from other colleagues who were also captains, or asking Guan Sheng for guidance, gradually adjusting the integration of the cavalry unit with the battalion-level command system.

This way, once he gets to the battlefield, he will know how to follow Guan Sheng's orders and how to cooperate with friendly forces.

To learn the entire command system and coordination, even someone with exceptional talent would likely need at least one or two months.

But Yue Fei clearly didn't have that much time left.

Because Zhao Zicheng left Jinan Prefecture only three or four days after Yue Fei enlisted, he had to return to Laizhou to coordinate the operations of the Eastern Route Army. In Jinan Prefecture, only Guan Sheng, who was directly in charge of the Western Route Army, remained, leaving Yue Fei with one less person to consult.

Seven or eight days later, the one-month deadline given to Zhao Zicheng by Zhang Shuye was almost up. Zhao Zicheng was preparing his troops in Laizhou and was finally ready to take action against Song Jiang.

Song Jiang, who was in Qingzhou, was not one to simply sit idly by and wait to be beaten.

Song Jiang lingered in Qingzhou for a long time, partly because the river bandits themselves lacked foresight. On the other hand, he saw that there was still a lot of money and grain that could be plundered in Qingzhou, and if he moved hastily, he wouldn't have time to transport it all. So he was reluctant to leave and wanted to enjoy a better life for a while longer, while also transporting more things back to his stronghold.

However, during his stay, Song Jiang remained highly vigilant, with scouts and sentries deployed far to the borders of Qingzhou, Laizhou, and Jinan Prefecture. He kept a close eye on the movements of the Laizhou and Jinan garrison troops, and would immediately report any unusual activity by the government forces.

……

One day in early October, just as Song Jiang had finished gathering the autumn grain from several counties in Qingzhou, a piece of bad news reached Linzi County, the seat of Qingzhou.

The messenger was Dai Zong, who had fought alongside Song Jiang in Jiangzhou before Song Jiang joined Liangshan.

This is a scientific world, and the idea of ​​a superhuman ability to travel a thousand miles a day on foot is obviously impossible. At most, Dai Zong was just a scout officer with slightly better endurance than a marathon runner.

"Brother Gongming, the Ruan brothers' scout fleet discovered today that the government navy is crossing the sea from Laizhou and heading straight for Lijin County on the north bank of the Ji River estuary from the northeast. Our brothers who stayed behind to collect taxes and provisions were ambushed by the government army. Except for a few who managed to escape in time, the rest were all wiped out!"

At that time, Song Jiang was in the yamen left by the former prefect of Qingzhou, Murong Yanda, calculating money and grain with his strategist Wu Jialiang and tallying the latest looted profits. Upon hearing the bad news, he was so shocked that he collapsed onto a stool.

“Brother Jialiang, what should we do? We have been negligent. How could the imperial navy in the east not stay close to the coast and sail directly from the open sea to Lijin County at the mouth of the Ji River? Why don’t you brothers know that such a means of navigation exists?”

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the technology for direct sea crossings already existed, but it was still impossible to achieve such precise direct navigation to a specific location.

For example, the sea route from China to Japan, during the Tang Dynasty, required strictly following the coastline to Silla (which became Goryeo during the Song Dynasty), and then circling around. Only the short section from the Shandong Peninsula to the Ongjin Peninsula on the west side of the Korean Peninsula, and the Tsushima Strait from the Korean Peninsula to Japan, allowed for direct sea crossings. By the Song Dynasty, it was generally possible to sail directly from Mingzhou (Ningbo) towards Japan, but the course was often inaccurate, veering towards Tamna Island (Jeju Island), Busan, or Tsushima Island, requiring a second course adjustment.

Without Zhao Zicheng's improvements to navigation techniques over the past few months, especially in measurement and positioning, the Laizhou navy could have bypassed the Qingzhou coast and reached the Bohai coast north of the Ji River. However, they wouldn't have been able to do it accurately the first time. They would have accumulated errors of tens of miles or more, then had to reconfirm their position and make minor adjustments along the coastline to make up for the discrepancy.

Once the government troops and navy need to make up for the error a second time, they will inevitably be discovered by the navy of the Ruan brothers of Liangshan. This will give Song Jiang more time to react and allow the small groups of people who were scouting and plundering in Lijin County to retreat in advance.

However, Zhao Zi claimed that the improved measurement technology of the Dengzhou and Laizhou naval forces was at least an order of magnitude more accurate than before, and that it could automatically aim and navigate across hundreds of miles.

The Ruan brothers, being generals from Liangshan, were navigating uncharted waters and lacked knowledge of the latest maritime technologies. This is why they were outmaneuvered and given a rude awakening right from the start.

The Liangshan army suffered hundreds, even thousands, of casualties right from the start, along with many more newly recruited rebel soldiers—although not all of these lost soldiers were killed by the government troops. In fact, only a small portion were killed or wounded; the rest were caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the government troops and surrendered immediately.

Song Jiang sighed deeply while looking at the map, and then voiced his concerns. Wu Jialiang, standing beside him, also looked grave, having considered the matter for a long time before offering his suggestion:

"Brother, there's no need to worry too much. Such a minor defeat won't cripple our army. However, the Laizhou army's actions clearly indicate that they intend to cut off our army's waterway northward along the Bohai coast."

It's clear that Emperor Zhao and those corrupt officials in the court are worried that we will lead our troops to surrender to Liaodong.

Song Jiang: "So what should we do next? We can't just stay here in Qingzhou and keep delaying, can we? Qingzhou is flat, and although the enemy forces around us are not large and do not threaten us now, the court will pay more attention to us in the future and send more imperial guards. We won't be able to stay here any longer."

Especially since I've heard that Tong Guan just finished fighting Fang La in the first half of the year and was transferred north in the autumn to prepare for the campaign against Liao next year. If we linger, before Tong Guan attacks Liao, he can easily turn east and wipe us out with a single move.”

History is not fiction, after all. The current Song Jiang is very realistic. He knows very well that if he has such limited strength and attracts a full-scale attack from someone like Tong Guan, he will definitely be killed instantly.

He lived a life of leisure in the relatively prosperous Pingyuan Prefecture, provided that the imperial court could not mobilize the main force of the Imperial Guards; otherwise, he would have to flee at the first sign of trouble.

Wu Jialiang thought for a moment and then listed all the strategies that he thought were feasible for Song Jiang: "Since we have no choice but to leave, there are only a few routes: the government troops have blocked our sea route north along the coast, but if our army chooses to break through on land, we are still quite confident that we can break through the encirclement."

Previously, scouts learned that there were not many government troops in Jinan Prefecture, and most of them were local militia and infantry who could only defend the city. The military commander of Jinan Prefecture was a coward, and it was said that there was only one cavalry commander, Guan Sheng, who was quite capable, but Jinan Prefecture only had a few hundred cavalry at most. It was impossible for them to stop our tens of thousands of people from breaking through.

However, there's a downside to traveling north by land: one might ultimately be forced to surrender to the Liao, which could lead to a lifetime of hardship, a ruined reputation, and the possibility of being used as a sacrifice by the Liao, eventually being pushed to the front lines against the imperial court.

Song Jiang immediately rejected the idea: "That's absolutely not going to happen! If we surrender to the Liao, our reputation will be ruined for life! Although we act on behalf of Heaven, it's only because corrupt officials are rampant. If we betray the court and the Han people, we'll truly become traitors."

Wu Jialiang: "We don't necessarily have to become traitors. At worst, we can escape to the Song-Liao border and try to send envoys to make contact, attempting to sow discord between Qi and Chu. If the Liao people pressure us too much, we can ask the court to grant us amnesty and threaten the court that 'if the court does not grant us a decent amnesty, we will surrender to Liao,' but we don't necessarily have to surrender."

If the court pushes us too hard, we can threaten them with 'If they keep pushing us, we'll surrender to Liao,' making them hesitate to act rashly.

According to Wu Jialiang's second version of events, becoming a traitor was merely a pretext for threats, and he had no intention of actually carrying it out. However, Song Jiang still felt this was too far-fetched and unacceptable.

Wu Jialiang could only offer an even better alternative:

"Since we can't break through to the north, we can only choose to return to Liangshan, but I'm afraid we'll be surrounded and killed sooner or later. After Tong Guanteng takes action, even if we can't break through the water marsh, he can prevent our army from getting money and food from outside."

The last option is to advance eastward along the coast. Now the government forces are afraid that we will go north along the Bohai coast to surrender to Liaodong, so they have concentrated the naval forces of Dengzhou and Laizhou in the north, thus leaving the direction of the Dengzhou and Laizhou naval forces undefended.

If our army advances rapidly eastward by land and sea, we can break through the land route directly, plundering and collecting civilian ships along the way. If we cannot break through by land, we can proceed by sea along the coast. The Dengzhou-Laizhou mountainous region has many waterways, allowing us considerable time to maneuver. Later, if we have enough ships, we can use Shamen Island as a springboard to Liaodong, or round the easternmost tip of the Shandong Peninsula and head south to find an island to settle on, eyeing the wealthy lands of Jiangdong.

Wu Jialiang's last few words clearly indicated his intention to become a pirate. After all, the troops in the marshland were already skilled swimmers, and the distance from lake to sea wasn't that great. It was just that the name "pirate" sounded too unpleasant, so he didn't explicitly state his intentions.

After much deliberation, Song Jiang realized that if the Dengzhou and Laizhou naval forces had remained in the east, he certainly wouldn't have dared to venture eastward into the lion's den. But now that they had voluntarily circled north, opening up a path for him to defect to the Liao, the east was wide open... perhaps there really was an opportunity.

"In that case, let's give it a try. Fortunately, we've managed to acquire quite a few ships from the Qingzhou government troops recently, otherwise we really wouldn't be able to take this risky step."

Song Jiang finally made the decision and decided to proceed with this plan.

The Liangshan army also sprang into action, and the previously scattered troops began to rapidly regroup. They split into two groups, one by water and the other by land, and moved eastward.

Song Jiang thought this was a safe approach, because it was still unknown whether the government troops in the east had weaker land or water defenses. It was safest to keep a backup plan on both sides and then act according to the situation, picking the weakest link.

Of course, in order to prevent the government troops from Jinan Prefecture in the east from taking advantage of the situation, Song Jiang also had to leave a rearguard force to guard Linzi, the capital of Qingzhou. Of course, Song Jiang was not the kind of person to abandon his brothers, and the rearguard force would eventually have to run away anyway. So, after weighing the options, Song Jiang chose to leave a cavalry force behind.

Cavalry can march much faster than infantry over short distances. The main infantry force retreats first, while the cavalry covers the rear to delay the pursuers. Once the infantry has retreated far enough, the cavalry catches up with the main force and marches together. This has been a military practice for thousands of years.

As for the cavalry general who would stay behind to cover the rear, after much deliberation, Song Jiang chose Qin Ming and Huang Xin, who had previously served as military officers in Qingzhou.

These men were originally subordinates of the murdered Prefect Murong Yanda, and had turned against him from within their own ranks. They were very familiar with the situation in Qingzhou. Leaving Qin Ming and Huang Xin behind was essentially letting the local strongmen guard the city.

Before leaving, Song Jiang gave Qin Ming a final instruction: "It all depends on Brother Qin to delay him for a few days. I heard that Guan Sheng, the commander of the cavalry in Jinan Prefecture, is also a fierce and valiant general. Brother Qin, you must hold him off for a few days to cover the main force of the naval and infantry troops as they retreat further east. Then you can abandon Linzi and catch up with them."

(End of this chapter)