Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Jin general Atuhan led several hundred cavalry south and soon ran into Ming scouts.

The two sides did not immediately take action, but instead maintained a distance and stood in a standoff, since the two countries were currently in a state of truce.

A moment later, Atuhan stepped forward and shouted, "I am Atuhan, the garrison commander of Gubeikou of the Great Jin Dynasty. Quickly summon your commander to speak with me!"

The Ming scouts had already sent men back to report the news.

Yue Fei quickly rode over: "I am the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty here. Everything south of the Great Wall at Gubeikou belongs to the Ming Dynasty."

Why did you lead your troops across the border?

"Does this mean they want to start a war with the Ming Dynasty?"

Atuhan retorted, "Why did you build your cities so close together?"

Yue Fei said, "This is Ming territory, why can't we build a city here?"

"On the contrary, it was you who led your troops across the border without cause."

"If we do not return quickly, it will be tantamount to starting a war with the Ming Dynasty!"

Atuhan was speechless, because Yue Fei's words made sense.

Moreover, in order to guard against the Ming Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty took the lead in repairing and fortifying Gubeikou.

If the Jin dynasty could build cities, the Ming dynasty certainly could too.

But the Ming Dynasty built a city right in front of the Jin Dynasty, and the fortress was already right under Atuhan's nose.

Are we just going to ignore everything?

Yue Fei shouted righteously and forcefully, "Retreat immediately!"

After saying this, Yue Fei took down his bow and arrows, and his cavalrymen also drew their bows.

Atuhan hesitated for a few moments, then said with frustration, "Go back!"

After galloping for more than ten steps, Atuhan stopped and looked back.

If war breaks out in the future, he must capture the fortified cities ahead; otherwise, heading south directly would be extremely dangerous.

Youzhou had a small population to begin with, so the Ming Dynasty could easily have adopted a scorched-earth policy. For the Jin army to rely solely on looting grain to fight was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Yue Fei also returned with his cavalry, and he and Wang Yan were under immense pressure.

If another major battle breaks out, the main force of the Jin army will definitely come from Gubeikou and Xifengkou.

In order to open up the vital passage, the Jurchens might have launched an attack with tens of thousands of troops, and the hastily built fortresses would hardly have been able to withstand it.

Don't bring up cement; without road transport, that stuff can only be fired locally.

This place is sparsely populated, where would we find extra manpower to mine soil and burn cement?

"General Yue, a thousand Shenji Battalion soldiers are coming to reinforce with the grain transport. I heard that eighteen cannons will be added later!" A light cavalryman galloped over.

Upon hearing this, Yue Fei was overjoyed and spurred his horse toward the fortified city construction site.

The Shenji Battalion has been equipped with flintlock muskets and expanded to 12,000 men.

This year, it was officially renamed the Shenji Army, and a portion of it is training in Yanjing.

Chapter 3382 Yue Wumu

Yue Fei also participated in the drills last year, mainly to familiarize himself with the new chariot formation.

He communicated and discussed with generals such as Wu Jie, and through continuous deduction and practice, they finally created a "mother-child plum blossom formation".

It's actually a hollow formation of cars of varying sizes.

With sufficient long-range firepower, the redundant parts of the old-style vehicle formations can be discarded.

The central army formed a large hollow formation, while the four corners formed four smaller hollow formations.

Each side of the hollow formation is made up of connected chariots, allowing ranged and melee troops to fight using these chariots.

Laborers and supplies can be moved to the hollow array for protection.

The cavalry units were also inside the hollow formation, ready to attack at any time.

No matter which direction the enemy attacks from, the five hollow formations can withstand them.

If the enemy tries to attack the central army, they will be met with crossfire.

The different formations can also support each other.

The infantry and cavalry can coordinate their formations and can also be transformed into other attack formations.

However, it requires a high level of command ability from the general and a high level of training from the soldiers.

If you are a mediocre general leading ordinary soldiers, you can simply set up the plum blossom formation.

……

On the south bank of the Yalu River, lies Baoding.

Zhe Yanzhi personally took a boat to observe along the river. The inland river vessel he was on was built in Baozhou last year and the year before, and the timber came from the mountainous area on the south bank of the Yalu River.

Baozhou Shipyard was established four years ago.

Currently, only inland waterway vessels can be built for navigation on the Yalu River.

Further expansion is planned, with the ultimate goal of building ocean-going vessels.

The shipyard's craftsmen all came from the Yangtze River region and Zhejiang Province, and land was allocated according to their craftsmanship level.

The highest-ranking craftsmen can obtain 120 acres of fertile land in Baozhou.

Bring a family member along and you'll get an extra 20 mu of land; even children can get land.

When the Jin army raided Goryeo last time, they relocated all the Balhae people, resulting in a sparsely populated area around Baozhou.

The problem here is that there is a shortage of people, not land. The real headache is that after the land is allocated, there are not enough tenant farmers to cultivate it.

Fortunately, people from the Bohai ethnic group continued to flee to the area.

These newly arrived Bohai people were also entitled to receive land.

However, the acreage was limited, and there were also tenant farming duties, so they had to help the soldiers and craftsmen cultivate the land.

The fleet quickly approached the city of Posuru, and Zheyanzhi could even see the expression on the face of the city's defenders through his telescope.

The enemy general was furious, but dared not order the arrows to be fired.

Firstly, the distance was too far for archery to be effective, and secondly, the enemy general dared not provoke a war.

The angrier the Jin people became, the happier Zhe Yanzhi was.

The Ming fleet continued upstream, while the Jin soldiers stationed on Jiangxin Island followed along the shore, watching the Ming fleet sail further east.

After passing Jiangxinzhou and the fork in the Aihe River, the north bank of the Yalu River suddenly becomes steep.

"Fire blasts along the river!" Zhe Yanzhi ordered.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The fleet would fire a cannon every two or three miles to hear the sound.

Of course, it wasn't meant for the Jin soldiers to hear.

Soon, people began to emerge from the towering mountains.

They were all Bohai people who lived among the Jurchens in the mountains.

Their ancestors, unable to bear the exploitation of the Liao Dynasty, fled into the mountains and banded together with the Jurchens for warmth, bringing them farming and textile techniques.

Now that the Jin Dynasty is facing a food shortage, these Bohai people have become targets of exploitation.

"Ashore!"

"Be careful and alert."

Several ships sailed to both banks to pick up the people who wanted to surrender to the Ming dynasty.

Not the north bank, but both banks.

Goryeo only occupied a tiny piece of land at the mouth of the Yalu River, and that was only given to them by the Jin Dynasty.

The rest of the area was entirely Jin territory on both sides of the Yalu River.

Strictly speaking, Zhe Yanzhi's fleet could be considered an armed invasion.

Because the river belonged to the Jin state, the mountains on both sides also belonged to the Jin state.

Zhe Yanzhi has already received orders from the imperial court. Don't worry about anything else, just go ahead and cause as much trouble as you can on the Yalu River.

It took most of the day for the Ming fleet to pick up more than 400 people, and then they swaggered back to Baozhou.

Upon disembarking from the boat, Zhe Yanzhi laughed loudly at the city wall: "Quickly send people out to properly settle the people!"

A young official named Li Yu rode out of the city to greet him: "General Zhe, more than three hundred people surrendered to the Ming Dynasty yesterday in the mountains to the east."

"Our spies from Bohai worked; they pulled out an entire village."

Zhe Yanzhi laughed and said, "The land along the river is fertile, and the Ming Dynasty will also distribute land to it."

"The land in the mountains is barren, and the Jurchens also exploit it."

“As long as they’re not stupid, they’ll naturally know which way to go.”

The entire Baozhou is being rapidly assimilated by the Ming Dynasty.

This area was originally Liao territory, then became Jin territory, and was incorporated into Goryeo less than ten years ago.

Furthermore, the population is mainly of the Bohai ethnic group, and the common language is Northern Chinese. Even the Koreans here can speak a few words of Chinese.

Now, they are increasing the number of Han soldiers and artisans, and are also continuing to recruit Bohai people who have fled from the Jin Dynasty.

What is Goryeo to the people of Baozhou?

They only recognize the Ming Dynasty!

Yelü Yudu was also in Baozhou, but his son was sent to the Kaifeng Military Academy.

"Our Ming ships have repeatedly sailed into the Jin territory. I wonder how long these Jin people can endure this." Yelü Yudu arrived at the port.

Chapter 3383 Conscription of Laborers

Zhe Yanzhi laughed and said, "Who cares how long they endure? Just keep a close watch on the beacon towers everywhere."

"Our population here is growing so much that we have enough people to conscript laborers when we go to war."

Yelü Yudu said, "I heard that General Zhao Li used military rations to buy Goryeo slaves in Pyongyang, and then gave the Goryeo slaves names and land."

"His population is growing very fast, should we go and buy some too?"

"It can be transported by sea."

Zhe Yanzhi said, "We can buy some Korean women. There are more men than women in Baozhou, and this will cause trouble in the long run."

“Women are more expensive than men,” Yelü Yudu said.

Zhe Yanzhi said, "There is no shortage of food now."

The King of Goryeo was still under house arrest, and the powerful and wealthy gave him several concubines.

This king has become a breeding machine; once his sons reach adulthood, his life or death will be irrelevant.

Meanwhile, the nobles who controlled the Goryeo kingdom were obsessed with the silks, satins, wines and delicacies brought from the Ming Dynasty, and did not hesitate to capture commoners from the lower classes and sell them as slaves.

Of course, the powerful and wealthy also did some things, such as pleading with the Ming emperor to stop paying military rations to the Ming garrison.

Zhao Yuan has officially agreed to no longer demand grain from Goryeo.

In exchange for this, the Goryeo ministers shut up and stopped demanding Pyongyang and the land to the north, and had to tacitly allow the Ming Dynasty to occupy those territories.

……

A few days after Zhao Yuan ascended the throne, Ma Kuo set off with the Mongol envoys.

They first traveled through Shaanxi, and then took a route through Western Xia to reach the southern grasslands.

Ma Kuo brought with him a pile of gold and bronze seals, as well as many blank imperial edicts of investiture.

That area belongs to the Jin Kingdom, so we must proceed with extreme caution.