I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 122 Yue Fei defeats Qin Ming in one move
Two days later, on the banks of the Ji River at the border of Jinan Prefecture and Qingzhou.

Several hundred fairly elite government cavalrymen have already assembled here.

Guan Sheng received Zhao Zicheng's order a day earlier, instructing him to lead all his cavalry into Qingzhou to search and probe, and to ascertain the movements of Song Jiang's main cavalry and infantry forces.

Guan Sheng obeyed Zhao Zicheng's orders without hesitation, and immediately mustered his troops and marched eastward along the south bank of the Ji River.

He also knew that Zhao Zicheng valued Yue Fei, the newly recruited captain, highly, so he appointed Yue Fei's unit as the vanguard, leading fifty cavalrymen to clear the way for the rest of the army. After a day of searching and marching, they finally entered Qingzhou territory.

At this moment, Yue Fei was riding a warhorse that Zhao Zicheng had bestowed upon him, which Zhao Zicheng and Yang Zhi had taken with them two years earlier when they left Tokyo to return to their posts in Jiangnan.

At that time, Zhao Zicheng was rewarded for his meritorious service in protecting the Huashi Gang. Later, he helped people in the Jiangzuojian (Imperial Workshop) by coming up with some "ingenious and ingenious" ideas, which earned him the appreciation of the "Hidden Prime Minister" Liang Shicheng, who then rewarded him with several fine horses as tokens of his appreciation.

Zhao Zicheng once gave one horse to Yang Zhi, and later gave another to Lin Chong.

Because Lu Da was too fat and heavy, Zhao Zicheng brought back a fine horse that couldn't carry him, so he didn't give it to him, while Guan Sheng had his own fine horse.

So Zhao Zicheng gave the extra horse to Yue Fei this time.

Riding his finest warhorse, Yue Fei was filled with excitement, for the time had finally come to fight and earn merit.

Besides riding a fine horse, Yue Fei was also equipped with excellent gear, which Zhao Zicheng had given him special care of.

The weapon he held was a new type of double-hook spear made of high-quality wrought iron and repeatedly and meticulously cold-forged with a water-powered hammer. The double hooks were relatively long and narrow, and the hook blades did not extend very far to the sides, but they were also sharpened at both ends, making it more streamlined than ordinary double-hook spears.

This type of gun increases the difficulty of hooking enemies with its double-sided blades, but it also enhances the gun's maneuverability. As long as the user's marksmanship is accurate enough, they can maximize its advantages and minimize its disadvantages, making it purely beneficial.

Yue Fei's armor was also of excellent quality, cold-forged blue-green armor with warts, and he wore a phoenix-winged helmet. A precious carved bow with a power of three stones hung on his saddle. The auxiliary soldiers accompanying him also carried a crossbow with a power of eight stones, as well as a sufficient amount of bow and crossbow bolts.

Yue Fei was born with superhuman strength. Back in his hometown, he had already tried drawing a three-stone bow and wielding an eight-stone crossbow in battle.

The so-called "stepping on the crossbow" means standing on the crossbow with both legs, using the weight of the body to increase the thrust of holding the crossbow, while simultaneously pulling the string upwards with both arms to tighten it.

Because the strength of both arms is concentrated on the bowstring, the pulling force is naturally more than double that of a bow held in one hand and the string pulled in the other.

However, this type of weapon requires the use of both hands and feet, and can only be used in foot combat, or even while seated. It is completely unusable when riding on horseback.

Equipped with such superior gear, Yue Fei led fifty cavalrymen as the vanguard of the main army, first passing through Zou County in Qingzhou, where they encountered no resistance from Song Jiang's rebel forces. After resting for a night in Zou County, they continued eastward the next day, quickly approaching Linzi, the capital of Qingzhou.

"It seems that Song Jiang has indeed led his main force eastward by water, just as Lord Zhao said. Bandits are just bandits; they don't even dare to defend a large city like Linzi."

Yue Fei thought to himself.

It wasn't until he reached a point less than twenty li from Linzi City that he unexpectedly encountered a group of unidentified scouts—it seemed their cavalry reconnaissance network wasn't very dense. Perhaps the search area extended beyond twenty li, but on the vast Qingzhou Plain, scouts from both sides wouldn't immediately meet upon entering their sentry range.

If the patrol scouts are sparse, it is entirely possible that the enemy will have infiltrated more than ten miles before they run into them.

Yue Fei couldn't directly confirm the enemy's identity, since Qingzhou hadn't been completely captured before, and there might still be scattered government troops active there. To avoid accidentally hitting friendly forces, Yue Fei shouted warnings and demanded that the enemy reveal their identities before charging forward.

The other party turned and ran away immediately, and Yue Fei no longer doubted him, so he ordered his men to charge.

Both sides were cavalry, and the enemy had no intention of turning back to engage in battle; they only wanted to escape back to Linzi City to report the news.

Unexpectedly, Yue Fei's horse was fast, and the fine horse that Zhao Zicheng had given him was particularly swift, quickly closing the distance between them.

The other cavalrymen under Yue Fei's command rode ordinary warhorses, which could not keep up with the speed of the captain and were left far behind.

Seeing that the two sides had closed to within seventy or eighty paces, Yue Fei drew his bow and arrow on his galloping horse, firmly planted his feet on the ground, slightly lifted his waist and hips off the saddle, and exerted force with the up-and-down movement of the warhorse. When the horse's back rose, he lowered his waist, and when the horse's back fell, he straightened his waist, always ensuring that his upper body did not rise and fall relative to the ground.

After regaining his footing, he spotted the enemy cavalry and, with a quick, sweeping motion, fired an arrow straight ahead, striking the back of an enemy officer clad in iron armor.

The powerful arrow shot from the Three Stones Bow pierced straight through the fish-scale armor, causing the opponent to let out a miserable howl and immediately fall off his horse.

Yue Fei's arrow was shot after he had been aiming for a long time, thanks to his excellent balance and cushioning ability on horseback. This allowed him to carefully select high-value targets, and he immediately aimed at the officer.

After one officer fell from his horse, the remaining Liangshan scouts became even more panicked. For a moment, no one looked back to see the pursuing troops, assuming that all the government troops' scouts had caught up so quickly.

So the Liangshan scouts spurred their horses on, pushing them to gallop even faster, trying to widen the distance again. Some scouts even started throwing things away to lighten their load.

Yue Fei was unwilling to give up, and without even taking a good look, he fired a series of arrows, shooting down four or five more riders.

The accuracy of rapid firing while galloping on horseback was obviously reduced. Even with Yue Fei's extraordinary talent, his accuracy was only 40%, and he could only shoot whoever he could, no longer picking and choosing to kill officers.

Yue Fei learned his spear and staff skills from Chen Guang of his own county, while his archery skills were learned from Zhou Tong of Zhen Ding Prefecture. In many later historical novels, Chen Guang and Zhou Tong were combined to simplify the characters.

Seeing that their desperate escape would only result in them being shot repeatedly, the Liangshan scouts became desperate and started acting rashly. Some of the bolder ones couldn't resist turning back to take a closer look, wondering what kind of ferocious enemy they were facing.

When they turned around, they immediately discovered that only Yue Fei was closely following behind, closing in to within fifty paces. Behind him were dozens of government scouts, who were actually far behind, at least a hundred paces away, forming a long, serpentine formation.

Upon seeing this, the junior officers immediately realized the same thing and, without prior agreement, shouted out their orders:
"There's only one enemy general chasing us! We must charge back, swarm him, and kill this villain before we can escape!"

"Otherwise, he'll shoot us all one by one!"

Since continuing to run will only result in being targeted by arrows and dying anyway, why bother running?
Of course, you have to take advantage of the pursuers getting separated and kill the fastest and most threatening pursuer! Only then can you retreat safely!

Even the dozens of Liangshan scouts couldn't achieve complete unity of command, but at least half of them gradually obeyed the order and sporadically turned their horses towards Yue Fei. However, more than ten riders still fled in disarray, not looking back, clearly terrified.

When Yue Fei saw the enemy turn around and charge, he felt a little nervous, but he was more pleased than alarmed.

It would be impossible for Yue Fei to be completely calm, after all, this was his first time commanding a cavalry unit in actual combat, and he could only muster his energy and do his best.

Taking advantage of the head-on collision, Yue Fei fired a barrage of arrows, killing several riders in quick succession, bringing his total kill count to five. Then, he inserted his precious carved bow, grabbed the cold-forged iron double-hooked spear hanging on his saddle, and charged straight into the fray.

A bit of cold light arrived first, and then the gun came out like a dragon.

One of the Liangshan scouts leading the charge was stabbed in the throat by Yue Fei's spear and fell dead from his horse without uttering a sound.

Then Yue Fei's spear flew, his swift thrusts like a snake spitting its tongue, and he felled several more men in succession.

The snake coils seven times, maneuvering cunningly, stabbing, sweeping, sticking, turning, dragging, and locking.

Every move and stance is ingeniously varied, yet clean and efficient.

Upon reflection, one would realize that "although this move seems to have many variations, it is the cleanest and optimal solution in that situation."

The cavalry following behind Yue Fei were originally less than a hundred paces behind him. After Yue Fei killed several people and deterred the Liangshan scouts from their counterattack, his men quickly approached, which finally became the last straw that broke the camel's back for the Liangshan scouts.

Several Liangshan scouts threw down their weapons in terror, covered their heads, and roared for surrender: "We are willing to surrender! We were originally Qingzhou cavalry! We were coerced into surrendering to the bandits by Qin Ming and Huang Xin!"

This statement quickly triggered a chain reaction of surrenders. More than a dozen cavalrymen who had been government troops just over a month ago immediately defected back to the government forces, begging for leniency.

On the battlefield, Yue Fei could not take it too seriously. He immediately expressed his forgiveness verbally and forced most of the enemy cavalry to surrender on the spot.

A few loyal veterans of Liangshan remained stubborn, but Yue Fei showed no mercy and quickly surrounded and killed them, thus completely controlling the situation.

After bringing the situation under control, Yue Fei confiscated all the enemy's horses and briefly checked the identities of the surrendered soldiers.

Those who could be confirmed to be local Qingzhou government troops who had been coerced should be temporarily reinstated to lead the way. Those who were from Liangshan should be disarmed and bound, and dealt with after the battle.

During the investigation, Yue Fei also questioned, "Since you are a veteran of Qingzhou and were coerced into joining the rebels, why did you not immediately abandon the darkness and join the light when you saw the government troops coming, but instead resisted to this extent!"

A Qingzhou cavalry captain honestly replied, "It's not that we didn't want to surrender immediately, but after Qin Ming and Huang Xin defected to the enemy, Song Jiang installed other officers to manage us. All the officers above the rank of captain have been replaced by people from Liangshan, so there's no one in charge."

Yue Fei thought it made sense, so he used his cold-forged iron double-hooked spear to poke at the corpse of the enemy officer he had previously killed with an arrow to the back:

"So, this person is the leader that Song Jiang planted?"

The surrendered Qingzhou soldier leader immediately confessed: "General, you have a good eye. This man's bandit nickname is Little Tyrant Zhou Tong. He was originally a bandit from Peach Blossom Mountain in Qingzhou. He was greedy and lecherous and had ruined many respectable women. When Song Jiang attacked Qingzhou, the bandits from Qingfeng Mountain, Peach Blossom Mountain, and Erlong Mountain in this prefecture responded together. After Song Jiang killed Prefect Murong, he distributed these bandit leaders with positions."

Upon learning that Zhou Tong was a notorious petty thief who habitually slept with other men's wives and daughters, Yue Fei drew his sword, cut off Zhou Tong's head, and gave it to his men to wrap in hemp cloth, to be reported as a victory after the battle. After dealing with this group of Liangshan cavalry, Yue Fei continued straight towards Linzi.

They didn't encounter any decent leaders along the way. Although they did encounter two more groups of cavalry, each with a size of more than ten men, they knew they were no match for them and had no way to escape, so they surrendered immediately after a brief encounter.

Only when Linzi City came into view did Yue Fei notice that the city's garrison immediately closed the city gates upon seeing him.

Yue Fei rushed to the city gates and first looked at the flags on the city walls. Sure enough, there were flags bearing the characters Qin and Huang. He had also heard Guan Sheng report on the enemy situation before the battle, so he knew that the main force left behind were Qin Ming and Huang Xin, former military officers from the prefecture who had recently surrendered to Song Jiang.

Yue Fei disregarded his lowly status, rode his horse to within two hundred paces of the city, and ordered his cavalry to join him in shouting urging the city to surrender:
"Qin Ming! You are a military officer of the imperial court, why are you so stubborn! Back then, Song Jiang coerced you all, and you were forced into a corner, which was understandable. Now that Song Jiang is afraid of being intercepted by Lord Zhao and dares not continue north, it is clear that he has no future. If you abandon the darkness and return to the light, at least you will have a future!"
Lord Zhao is courteous to the virtuous and wise, and his discerning judgment is far superior to that of Murong Yanda. Lord Zhao would never wrong you! While you still possess Linzi City, surrender now and you can use this as a merit to secure forgiveness. If you delay, it will be too late!

Yue Fei shouted several times, but seeing that there were few people on the city wall, they gradually lost their fear. Before long, a burly man with bristling hair and a dignified-looking deputy general actually climbed the city wall and looked down at Yue Fei and his party.

The leading general, his beard and hair bristling, roared like thunder, "Who are you! How dare you bring such a small force to provoke us? Do you think Liangshan has no one to rely on? Where is Guan Sheng? How dare he look down on us like this!"

Yue Fei: "General Guan will arrive soon! I am Yue Fei, the vanguard commander under General Guan! All matters under heaven are governed by reason, what does it have to do with rank or title! You must be Qin Ming, the former military commander of this prefecture, right? You should be able to see that half of the dozens of riders under my command are former court troops whom I have subdued along the way! They have all abandoned the darkness and turned to the light!"

As Yue Fei spoke, he gestured with his double-hooked spears, indicating that Qin Ming should look in that direction. Sure enough, there were more than twenty riders there, all of whom Yue Fei had recruited along the way.

Qin Ming didn't initially harbor any ill will towards Yue Fei, mainly because he didn't recognize the young man at all. However, upon seeing a troop of cavalry following Yue Fei's side and rear, and recognizing their uniforms as those of former Liangshan soldiers who had rejoined the Liangshan army, Qin Ming immediately felt humiliated.

Qin Ming, hot-tempered and intolerant of humiliation, immediately roared, "You ignorant fool! How dare you be so arrogant as a mere captain! Don't try to talk to me about the righteousness of the imperial court! It was the imperial court that wronged me first! Murong Yanda killed my entire family, so naturally I will skin him alive and tear him to pieces to vent my hatred! Brother Song helped me avenge my great grudge, so I will help him fight!"

Qin Ming's words were rather convoluted, but fortunately Yue Fei was a meticulous man who had studied military strategy for many years and knew the importance of knowing oneself and one's enemy.

Before this battle, Yue Fei had humbly consulted Guan Sheng and also learned about the local bandits and former government generals in Qingzhou through various channels.

So he immediately launched a targeted attack on Qin Ming, saying, "Qin Ming! You disloyal and unfilial fool! You can say you're clear about right and wrong and want to settle scores quickly! But why did Murong Yanda kill your whole family back then? Wasn't it because Song Jiang devised a plan to impersonate you and slaughter innocent people in Qingzhou, causing Murong Yanda to admit his mistake and kill your whole family to hold him accountable!"
Now you've killed Murong Yanda, yet you willingly serve as Song Jiang's dog. You only hate the knife that killed, but not the mastermind behind it all! When you die, what face will you have to face your parents, wife, and children in the afterlife? To be a dog for someone who plotted to kill your entire family and cut off your escape route! The people of Qingzhou have long despised you!

Qin Ming was known for his fiery temper. If Guan Sheng had led five or six hundred elite cavalrymen to hurl insults at him outside the city, he might have hesitated. But Yue Fei had only brought a few dozen riders and was an unknown junior. Yet, he was publicly criticizing Qin Ming in front of both armies, and what's more, every word he uttered was logically sound. How could Qin Ming possibly tolerate this?
As the saying goes, lies don't hurt, but the truth is the sharpest knife. Yue Fei's tirade enraged Qin Ming precisely because everything Yue Fei said was true.

How many despicable and shameless things did Song Jiang do to lure Qin Ming to join the Liangshan bandits? He impersonated Qin Ming to murder innocent people, lured the authorities into a false identity, and then killed Qin Ming's entire family. Is this something a human being would do?
"You bastard! Don't run! I'll make your head into a chamber pot!" Qin Ming immediately grabbed his spiked club and went down from the city wall, gathering a large group of cavalry to open the city gate and charge out to fight.

Deputy General Huang Xin tried his best to stop him: "Brother, you must not act rashly! Brother Song told us to stay in Linzi to cover the rear and delay the pursuing troops for several days, so that we can quickly retreat and catch up with the main force. Now we just need to hold the line and not cause any complications!"

Brother Song left only cavalry here because he values ​​our swiftness, not to send us into a desperate battle!

But Qin Ming's temper had already flared up: "He wouldn't have insulted you like that! Of course you can tolerate it! Get out of the way!"

As Qin Ming spoke, he swung his mace, shoved Huang Xin aside, and immediately shouted for the door to be opened. He then led hundreds of cavalrymen out.

"Yue Fei, you little brat, prepare to die!" Qin Ming charged out of Linzi City, brandishing his spiked club and heading straight for Yue Fei.

Yue Fei hadn't expected his insults to be so effective. He had only intended to test the waters and demoralize the enemy to gauge their strength.

Unexpectedly, a few casual basic attacks caused the opponent to immediately use their ultimate skill, and they recklessly charged out without regard for anything else.

Seeing Qin Ming charging ahead and somewhat separated from the main enemy cavalry force behind him, Yue Fei was quite excited and eager to try his luck.

Yue Fei swung his double-hooked spear back and calmly shouted, "The enemy's forces are too strong; we cannot linger in battle. You all retreat first, and I will cover your retreat!"

The scouts immediately obeyed the order and turned their horses around to prepare to create distance.

Instead of retreating, Yue Fei advanced alone, spurring his horse to meet Qin Ming head-on.

Seeing the government cavalry retreating one after another, with only Yue Fei coming forward, Qin Ming became even more furious. He spurred his warhorse to its limit and swung his spiked club at Yue Fei again.

Seeing his fierce momentum, Yue Fei became incredibly calm.

His martial arts skills are characterized by calmness and sharpness, and he also possesses astonishing strength. A few days ago, he sparred with Zhao Zicheng for a few days and benefited greatly from it as well.

Because Yue Fei was still in the foundational stage of martial arts training and was very young, Zhao Zicheng did not teach him any "Mani Transformation Technique" or "using their own methods against them" at that time, nor did he have the time.

However, during the few days of sparring, Zhao Zicheng still explained to Yue Fei some of the basic techniques he had summarized, such as using the opponent's force against them and using minimal force to deflect a great weight, as well as the techniques of using double hook spears to lock the enemy's weapon and guide the enemy's moves.

After Zhao Zicheng left, Yue Fei felt that those skills were quite exquisite and valuable, so he practiced them diligently every day, and it has been almost half a month now.

Although Yue Fei's skills in using the opponent's force against them and deflecting their attacks were less than one-tenth of Zhao Zicheng's, they were still enough to significantly enhance Yue Fei's martial arts skills.

In other words, at this moment, Yue Fei also showed some restraint in his style towards those enemies who relied on brute force to achieve miracles.

Qin Ming's spiked club came crashing down with the force of wind and thunder. Unlike other spear masters who would block it with their spears held horizontally, Yue Fei countered Qin Ming's attack by thrusting his spear forward.

A hint of confusion flashed in Qin Ming's eyes, followed by contempt.

A direct confrontation? That's suicidal! The mace only needs to be slightly tilted to one side to use the huge difference in weight between the weapons to swing the shaft far away! The mace's momentum won't be slowed down much, and then it can twist back and smash down, and Yue Fei will be dead without a doubt!

When a long polearm clashes head-on with a horizontal block, the amount of force it can block depends primarily on the strength of the person blocking.

However, if the parry is used instead of a horizontal block, the parryer has very little room to exert his strength and has to rely more on the momentum of the swing before the weapons clash.

Although Qin Ming and Yue Fei did not understand physics and were unaware of the physical principle that "the magnitude of an object's inertia depends only on its mass, so heavy weapons have an inherent advantage in terms of inertia," their years of martial arts experience allowed them to naturally grasp this phenomenon and its application.

Qin Ming completely disregarded Yue Fei's counterattack, his mace still unabated in its momentum. Only when Yue Fei's spear shaft came piercing from the side of the mace did he swing his arm slightly to the side, trying to deflect Yue Fei's spear.

But in an instant, something unbelievable happened to Qin Ming.

It seemed as if there was a sticky force on the shaft of Yue Fei's spear. Even when Qin Ming shook and vibrated it, it remained stuck to Qin Ming's staff and could not be shaken off.

Just as Qin Ming was feeling extremely uncomfortable from exerting force, Yue Fei's spear suddenly retreated a short distance. One of the barbs on the side of the double-hooked iron spear hooked onto the mace shaft, and then it was pulled forcefully to the side and back.

Yue Fei's pulling motion was very short, almost a replica of the "inch force" he learned from sparring with Zhao Zicheng, a very short but fierce explosive force.

Qin Ming's spiked club already possessed a swift and powerful forward smashing force, easily exceeding a hundred jun (a unit of weight). However, this extremely brute force was pulled by Yue Fei's spear hook, accelerating it forcefully diagonally forward.

The blow seemed to grow stronger with each strike, but it deviated from its angle and ultimately only swept past Yue Fei a little over a foot away before missing its target.

Taking advantage of Qin Ming's momentary surprise and his lack of understanding of the characteristics of this unusual weapon, the hook-and-sickle spear/double hook spear, Yue Fei seized the opportunity to strike while the enemy was weakened. After a powerful backward pull and diagonal tug, he suddenly changed the direction of the double hook spear to a forward thrust.

Within a space of less than a foot, the ability to quickly exert force twice in opposite directions, "first forward and then backward," demonstrates a level of power control that is unparalleled in the world.

Qin Ming's weapon was blocked on the outside, and its inertia was too great to pull back, leaving him wide open.

In desperation, Qin Ming could only muster all his strength and violently raise his back hand holding the spiked club, attempting to use the back of the club to block Yue Fei's thunderous thrust.

Qin Ming, as expected of a battle-hardened general, managed to block the shot and avoid being pierced through the chest and throat by a steel spear.

However, the blocking effect of the mace's end was far from sufficient. In the end, Yue Fei's spear thrust was only slightly deflected before it pierced Qin Ming's shoulder with the arm holding the mace's end.

"Ugh—" Qin Ming let out a miserable howl. The gunshot wound to his shoulder caused him to lose all strength in his rear hand, and he could no longer hold onto the spiked club, which crashed to the ground with a clang.

Yue Fei did not go too far. After piercing the opponent's shoulder, he quickly withdrew his spear, swept it backhand, and knocked Qin Ming off his horse and captured him.

The hundreds of riders behind Qin Ming were dumbfounded.

Although Qin Tongzhi did charge a bit too fast, that was how he always did it in battle.

His cavalry never felt the need to follow Commander Qin too closely, and there had never been any accidents before.

Who would have thought that just because Qin Ming charged a few dozen steps faster than his soldiers, his men would be unable to come to his rescue in time?
Qin Ming couldn't even last that long. After only one exchange of blows, he was stabbed off his horse by the guy named Yue Fei!
Because of the distance, they couldn't see clearly whether Qin Ming had been captured or stabbed to death and his body had been retrieved.

Huang Xin, who was still inside the city, was also shocked and immediately ordered the city gates to be closed to prevent Yue Fei from taking advantage of the chaos to seize the city.

"Just who is this Yue Fei? Isn't he just a captain? I've never even heard of him, yet he managed to subdue Chief Steward Qin in one move?"

Little did Huang Xin know that Yue Fei had only recently crammed on some martial arts, and was particularly adept at countering enemies who could overcome all odds with sheer force. In addition, Yue Fei's innate superhuman strength far surpassed that of Zhao Zicheng, making the combination of the two even more terrifying.

With a single move, he killed Qin Ming. Who would dare to confront him head-on?
(End of this chapter)