Song Dynasty: Yuan Dynasty, you didn't expect this, did you? I'm still alive.

Zhejiang was taken over even faster than Fujian.

It wasn't that the Song army was too good at fighting; it was that Zhejiang was too optimistic.

Fujian at least put on a show of resistance for a while—although they spent most of their time harvesting rice, which delayed their surrender.

Zhejiang doesn't even bother to put on a show.

After all, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast.

The Song army's malicious distribution of grain was undoubtedly rotten to the core, and news of it had already reached Zhejiang.

As soon as Song's transport ships appeared in Hangzhou Bay, the compradors on the shore had already lined up at the dock.

The leader, surnamed Wang, was from Shaoxing. He had been in the business of selling Song Dynasty goods for ten years, and his warehouse contained more Song Dynasty cloth than the official warehouse of Songjiang Prefecture.

He was dressed in a brand-new silk robe and held a small flag with four large characters written on it: "The royal army has worked hard."

Cui Du stood at the bow of the boat and saw the flag through his binoculars.

He put down his telescope and said to the clerk beside him, "There's no need to fight in Zhejiang."

The clerk asked why, and Cui Du replied, "They've even prepared the banners."

Zhejiang really doesn't need to fight.

In Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Shaoxing, and Ningbo—wherever the Song army went—the city gates were always open.

It wasn't breached; it was opened from the inside.

The people who opened the city gates were a mixed bag: there were compradors, chamber of commerce presidents, local gentry who had been satiated by Song goods, and a few county magistrates who owed money to Song merchants and were afraid of being chased for debts.

The most outrageous one is Ningbo.

When the prefect of Ningbo heard that the Song army had arrived, he went to the dock to greet them. When he arrived, he found that he was too late. There were already three groups of people standing on the dock: the local chamber of commerce, the compradors from Shaoxing next door, and a group of gentry representatives who had spontaneously organized themselves.

The four groups of people looked at each other, and the atmosphere became extremely awkward.

There were, of course, sporadic acts of resistance.

A commander surnamed Fang, with about two hundred men under his command, set up his troops on a small hill outside Jiaxing City, declaring that he would "fight the Song invaders to the death."

The Song army sent a thousand men over.

The officer had a loudspeaker set up at the bottom of the slope—not for fighting, but for shouting—"Brothers up the slope, lay down your weapons and come down to get flour!"

There was a moment of silence on the slope.

Commander Fang drew his sword and shouted, "Don't listen to the Song bandits' instigation—"

Before he could finish speaking, a commotion arose behind him.

He looked back and saw that more than half of his two hundred men had already run away, and the rest were hesitating, their hesitation clearly directed towards the pile of flour at the bottom of the slope.

Fang Qianhu stood on the empty hillside, holding his knife. The wind blew, swirling up a few withered leaves that landed on his shoulder.

The officer shouted again, "Commander Fang, would you like to take a bag too?"

Fang Qianhu stuck his knife into the ground and strode down the hillside.

He was the first in line when it came time to get the flour.

He wanted to bankrupt the Song army to repay the emperor's kindness.

The actual fighting time added up to less than an hour.

The rest of the time was spent distributing grain, allocating land, and registering records.

Cui Du traveled from Fujian all the way to Zhejiang. Wherever he went, he would set up a table and call the officers of the garrison to a meeting. The content was always the same: select 30% to be auxiliary soldiers, and the remaining 70% to farm, with one-fifteenth tax paid.

But what truly accelerated the Song army's advance was not the enthusiasm of the Zhejiang merchants, nor the defection of the garrison soldiers, but a small matter that the people of Zhejiang suddenly discovered.

The incident occurred outside Jiaxing city.

The Song army's grain transport teams carried flour from the dock to the main camp. The convoy stretched for two miles, consisting of mule and horse carts. The wheels left half a foot deep marks on the muddy road.

A local farmer pushing a cart squatted by the roadside and watched all morning.

At noon, he finally couldn't hold back any longer and grabbed a passing Song soldier, asking, "Sir, where are you taking this flour?"

The auxiliary soldier wiped his sweat and said, "The main camp ahead is still about twenty li away."

The farmer looked at the soldier covered in sweat, thought for a moment, and then made a decision that would change the course of Zhejiang's aid to the Song Dynasty.

He unloaded two bundles of firewood from his own wheelbarrow, pushed it next to the grain transport team, and said, "I'll help you push one of your carts."

The auxiliary soldier was stunned for a moment.

Before he could react, the farmer had already hoisted a bag of flour onto the cart.

"It's free," the farmer said, then paused and added, "You gave us eggs last time."

The news spread in just half a day.

The next morning, when the grain transport team set off, there were already more than a dozen wheelbarrows parked by the roadside.

On the third day, there were hundreds of vehicles.

On the fourth day, on the official road from Jiaxing to Hangzhou, the Song army's grain transport convoys were mixed with local farmers pushing wheelbarrows. Mule carts and wheelbarrows walked side by side. The Song soldiers wore red uniforms, while the farmers wore patched tunics. From a distance, it was impossible to tell who were soldiers and who were civilians.

The Song army would certainly not let the people work for nothing.

Cui Du issued an order: all those who assist in transporting grain shall be paid daily, with the standard set by the same as that of servants and auxiliary soldiers.

A Shaoxing farmer who had pushed a cart for five days said something to his fellow villagers after receiving his wages that later became a saying that spread throughout Zhejiang: "Pushing carts for the Song army earns more than farming for a year."

The news spread to the next village, and then from the next village to the next.

Later, some people would come from villages more than ten miles away before dawn, pushing wheelbarrows and queuing up for work.

Some who arrived late found that all the work for the day had already been taken, and they squatted by the roadside with disappointed faces, waiting to see if there would be another convoy.

When the auxiliary soldiers of the Song army passing by the grain transport team saw a row of farmers squatting down, their expressions were very complicated.

He turned to his companion and said, "I never imagined in my life that pushing a cart could be so competitive."

The scene was quite spectacular.

On the official road, mule carts and wheelbarrows were crowded together, and the shouts of drivers, the creaking of wheels, and the farmers calling to each other in Shaoxing dialect all blended together.

A Song Dynasty clerk stood by the roadside watching for a long time. When he returned, he wrote in his diary: "The people of Zhejiang are enthusiastically transporting grain, causing traffic jams. When asked why, they said: 'There are rewards.' This is truly the virtue of the royal army, and also the virtue of our great Song Dynasty's purse."

When Cui Du received the transportation reports compiled from various sources, he discovered a figure that left him speechless for a long time: within Zhejiang, the Song army's grain transportation speed was almost twice as fast as expected.

Meanwhile, transportation costs have decreased by nearly 40%.

"The victory in Zhejiang was achieved by the people of the Ming Dynasty pushing carts."

. . .

Upon receiving news of the fall of Zhejiang and Fujian, Zhu Di and his ministers fell silent.

They had expected these two places to fall, but they never imagined they would fall in this way.

They really offer no resistance at all.

At least put on an act and show your loyalty to the emperor and your patriotism.

These local officials are so incompetent.

Chen Ying, who was usually the most vocal, had now fallen silent, and now he saw everyone as a spy for the Song Dynasty.

Wouldn't all these colleagues surrender as soon as the Song army arrived in Yingtian Prefecture?

Just then, Zhu Di burst into laughter.

"The Song army commander is truly a fame-seeking opportunist. If he continues to distribute grain like this, no matter how abundant the Song Dynasty's treasury is, how long can it last, and how many regions can it sustain?"

"This shows how short-sighted they are."

By this time, Zhu Di had mobilized almost all his troops, with a total of 500,000 soldiers gathered in Yingtian Prefecture.

He ordered Zhu Gaoxu to lead cavalry to provide support outside the city, while he himself guarded Yingtian Prefecture, forming a pincer movement.

The odds of winning this battle are already 50%.