Fenghou

Chen Qing secretly praised Zhang Miao for understanding his intentions thoroughly. Officials from all over the world were willing to surrender to him and attach themselves to him because he could protect their vital interests. If he had to investigate corrupt criminals all day long, who would support him?

"Director Zhang is right. That's what he means. The investigation is limited to Luo Wenqing's gang. The investigation of corruption is not the purpose, but a deterrent. If you dare to collude with the enemy and fight against Jingzhao, you will be ruined."

Chapter 744 Sneak Attack

Chen Qing only stayed in Fengxiang County for two days, and then went north to Linyou County for inspection. He was warmly welcomed by the people in Linyou County, which made Chen Qing feel like returning to his hometown.

Chen Qing also met with the family members of the fallen soldiers, and announced at the same time that the families of the [-] Linyou County soldiers were rewarded with [-] mu of land for each family and exempted from tax for life. Promising, he inherited his father's behest, studied for a few years, abandoned literature and started martial arts, and practiced martial arts with Xu Ning.

Liu Chengzhi told Chen Qing that he didn't want to stay in his hometown, but wanted to soar in a wider world. Chen Qing praised his ambition, and then wrote him a letter of recommendation, asking him to lead fifty soldiers from the village to Jingzhaoba The barracks approached Lu Gui and made them a member of the Huben army.

At dusk, it began to rain lightly. Chen Qing held up an umbrella and took Yu Ying for a walk in the small streets in the county.

Clean stone roads, mottled ancient walls, and small shops in small streets made Chen Qing seem to have returned to the winter seven years ago, and reminded him of his previous life. Scenes of dusty pictures flowed through his mind again. The feeling of hometown is so strong, and Chen Qing doesn't know why he feels this way in Linyou County. Is this the place where he was born in his previous life?

Before he knew it, there was a trace of tears in the corner of Chen Qing's eyes.

Yu Ying snuggled close to her husband's arms, feeling the tranquility of this moment, her tenderness was like water, and she subtly felt a trace of affection in her husband's heart, a kind of nostalgia and remembrance of the past.

"Husband, shall we buy a house here?" Yu Ying's voice was very low, and it was the first time she called out the title of husband.

"The house?"

Chen Qing nodded, this little lady is very smart, she even understood her own heart, but her appearance is still a bit small.

"Do you know what Linyou County was most famous in the Sui and Tang Dynasties?"

"I do not know!"

"During the Sui Dynasty, there was a famous palace here called Renshou Palace. Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty escaped the summer heat here, but he also died here later."

"Where is the palace?"

Chen Qing pointed to the misty foothills of Fenghuang Mountain in the north, and said with a smile: "On the mountain, it has become a pile of rocks now."

"But the officials are here in the cultivation palace, others will say that your husband is rebellious!" Yu Ying only lasted 2 minutes to call her husband's courage.

Chen Qing smiled lightly: "It's just a name, just call it the Villa."

Chen Qing hugged her waist and asked with a smile, "Why don't you call me Husband?"

Yu Ying sighed softly, "I'm afraid Madam will be unhappy if I get used to it."

Chen Qing also knows that his wife attaches great importance to titles, her husband is her title, the other three sisters can only be called officials, and Zhao Qiaoyun is no exception, once Zhao Qiaoyun slipped in front of Lu Xiu and called her husband, which provoked Lu Xiu for several days Unhappy, the relationship between the two was not restored until Zhao Qiaoyun changed his name.

Addressing her is the minimum respect for a wife, so Chen Qing doesn't force it.

Chen Qing smiled and whispered in her ear: "You like to call me Husband, so you can call me as much as you like at night!"

Yu Ying's pretty face blushed, and she nodded joyfully.

……

Chen Qing stayed in Linyou County for three days before leaving for Jingzhao.

In Yanzhou, a cavalry team composed of two thousand Jurchens ran quickly in the night. All of these cavalrymen were wearing black armor and were tall and burly. They were the famous black armored cavalry army. Pulling out speed is Wanyan Nianhan's right-hand man.

A few years ago, it was the same captain who led three thousand black armored cavalry troops to attack the hinterland of the south of the Yangtze River at a high speed, defeated twenty thousand Song troops in Huzhou, and forced the emperor Zhao Gou to board the ship again and flee for his life.

This time, Ba Lisu once again carried out the secret mission assigned to him by Wanyan Nianhan, the target has been locked, and the time is tonight.

At this time, a small river appeared in front of him. The river was very shallow. For the cavalry, they could directly wade across the river. Pulling out the speed, he raised his hand and said, "Stop!"

As expected of being well-trained, the black-armored iron cavalry reined in their horses one after another. At this time, a small boat came from the upper reaches of the river. On board was a boatman and a man in black. They pulled out their horses and shouted: "Password!"

"The moon is dark and the wind is high!"

The man in black said the command, took out a command arrow from his arms, and held it high.

Ba Lisu nodded and asked, "Where is the fleet?"

"It has already departed from Fushi County and will arrive soon."

Pulling out the speed, he immediately turned back and said: "Take the iron chain and go to the other side!"

The Jurchen cavalry immediately blew up dozens of sheepskin rafts, paddled to the opposite bank, tied the iron chain to a big tree, and pulled up an iron chain to block the river. Dozens of leather rafts were hidden on both sides of the bank.

About an hour later, a flotilla of flat-bottomed cargo ships sailed forward, there were nearly a hundred ships, and the rafts lying in ambush on both sides came out and boarded the big ship. Hundreds of Jurchen soldiers jumped on the flotilla to guard the The soldiers of the Song Army were woken up and got up one after another to fight the Jurchen soldiers, but they were no match for the Jurchen cavalry. In just a moment, more than a hundred soldiers of the Song Army were killed, and the remaining dozen jumped into the water to escape.

The Jurchen soldiers didn't chase after them, but forced the boatman to land with a knife. There were iron chains in front of them, and there were demonic Jurchen soldiers on board. The boatman had no choice but to pull the boat to the shore.

The Jurchen soldiers ambushing on the shore boarded the boat one after another to check. Not long after, a commander reported to Ba Lisu: "I report to Commander Wan, the information is true. It is full of kerosene, and each ship has hundreds of barrels." Kerosene."

Ba Lisu nodded in satisfaction, at this moment, another commander stepped forward and said, "Commander Wan, since you're here, why don't you go into the city to loot."

Ba Lisu glared at him, "You think this is Jiangnan, you can grab it casually? Fushi County has [-] soldiers, but the city can't be taken, and the fire oil is lost. It's no wonder the commander didn't peel your skin!"

The commander-in-chief was too frightened to make a sound, and Ba Lisu shouted: "Take the fleet and set off!"

The iron chains were put away, and the fleet continued to set off under the escort of the Jurchen soldiers, and the cavalry followed on the shore.

At this time, several cavalrymen threw a bag of silver to the man in black, "This is 2000 taels of silver. We Jurchens always keep our word."

"Thank you! Thank you!"

When the fleet was far away, the man in black stabbed the boatman to death with a sword, pulled out a horse from the woods, and rode away with the silver.

It wasn't until dawn the next day that Fushi County got the news that the fleet was intercepted by the Jurchen cavalry, and the guard Wang Zhen led his troops to the scene of the accident, only to find more than a hundred corpses of soldiers from the Song Army, and the fleet and kerosene were gone. trace.

……

Five days later, Chen Qing's fleet arrived at Jingzhao Mansion. Jiang Yanxian and Guan Shigu went outside the city to welcome Chen Qing back.

Chen Qing asked his own soldiers to escort Yu Ying back to the mansion, and he got into the large carriage. The two of them were in a hurry to find him, so something big must have happened.

Guan Shigu sighed and said, "Just the night before yesterday, news came from Yanzhou that a Jurchen cavalry raided Yanzhou and took away [-] barrels of kerosene that were going to Jingzhao."

Chen Qing's face darkened, the news came too suddenly.

"What about Fushi County?"

"The other party did not go to Fushi County, and it was more than 100 miles away from the county seat. According to the surviving soldiers, the other party stopped the fleet with iron chains and captured the entire fleet."

"There are traitors in the fleet?"

"There must be a traitor, but it doesn't have to be the fleet. It might also be a spy in Fushi County. The king of the county has a very clear purpose, which is to rob fire oil."

Chen Qing was really annoyed, this was a big loophole, and he was caught by the other party.

"Go back to the official office first!"

Chapter 745 Timing

Back in his official room, Chen Qing spread out a map of the northern part of Shaanxi Road, and found the place where the fleet was hijacked, where the Xiaoqing River poured into Yanshui.

"What else was found at the scene?"

"A small boat and an old boatman stabbed to death were also found."

Chen Qing pointed at the mouth of the Yanshui River again with his pen and said, "There should be a sentry tower here to monitor the other side of the Yellow River."

Guan Shigu sighed, "The sentry tower has been attacked, and all twenty sentries have been killed."

"What news about the surviving soldiers? About this sneak attack army."

"About [-] cavalry, all wearing black armor, are very fierce, and the humble officials think they are the elite black armored cavalry of Wan Yan's personal soldiers."

"About this black armored cavalry, what else can General Guan tell me?" Chen Qing asked again.

"I just heard that there are about 5000 black-armored cavalrymen, and they were selected by Wanyan Nianhan from the [-] Hezhameng'an army. The leader is called Balisu..."

"and many more!"

Chen Qing interrupted Guan Shigu, "Isn't Ba Lisu the younger brother of Yin Keshu? He should be in Taiyuan now, right! How did he become Wanyan Nianhan's confidant general?"

"Back to the king of the county, Ba Lisu means strong man in Donghu dialect. Many people call him Ba Lisu. Yin Keshu's younger brother is called Wanyan Balisu. Nianhan's confidant general Ba Lisu's surname is Pucha. His name is Pucha Balisu, or Pucha Batu, and he is generally called Batu inside."

"Is this person very powerful?"

Guan Shigu nodded, "It is definitely not an ordinary person to become the captain of the black armored cavalry. A few years ago, he led [-] cavalry across the Yangtze River, from Wuhu to Lin'an, and successively defeated Tian Shizhong and Tian Shizhong in Huzhou. Liu Kai's [-] troops forced the Son of Heaven to go to sea, and [-] came back with looting, and it is said that not a single soldier was injured."

"Crap!"

Chen Qing snorted coldly, "In a fierce battle with [-] Song troops, how could it be possible that not a single soldier was injured? Especially Liu Kai's army is not a weak force."

"The lowly position also feels a little strange. It should be Wanyan Nianhan's propaganda to the outside world that no one was hurt. However, the county king should not underestimate the enemy no matter what."

Chen Qing said coldly, "I didn't underestimate the enemy, but I just dared to snatch my [-] barrels of kerosene from Yanzhou. I really want to meet this person."

At this time, Engage reported at the door, "The King of Neiwei is here!"

"Let him in!"

Not long after, Wang Hao hurried in, knelt down on one knee and saluted, "See the king!"

"Wang Tongzhi, I have a task for you. You can go by yourself or hand it over to your subordinates. Our [-] barrels of fire oil were robbed by the Jurchen along with the boats in Yanzhou. There must be internal responses. I am very worried about the skin. There are Jurchen internal agents ambushing in Shi County, and the internal and external forces will seize Fushi County, and your internal guards must dig out this spy who betrayed the news of the fleet in the shortest possible time."

"Understood, let's go to Yanzhou today."

"No rush, make arrangements at home and leave early tomorrow morning."

"Humble post obeys orders!"

……

At this time, Jiang Yanxian, who had been silent all this time, said: "Due to the current situation in Hedong, I suggest that the county king adjust the strategy of Hedong."

Chen Qing's Hedong strategy was formulated after returning from Xixia last year. The coach was Wanyan Yinkeshu. He was planning to send 15 troops to attack Hedong Road from north to south. Now the situation has changed. Not only Wanyan Nianhan led an army of [-] troops into Hedong, forcibly seized the command power, and Chen Qing also captured Shanzhou, so it is completely possible to send troops to Hedong from the east of Zhongtiao. In this way, the original plan is not suitable for the situation.

Chen Qing nodded, "I understand Chang Shi's meaning. 15 troops are indeed not enough, at least 25 troops are needed, but I still plan to attack on the third front. Now I am waiting for news from Datong Mansion."

"The king of the county just needs to understand what I mean, especially this time Wanyan Nianhan took away [-] barrels of kerosene, which is obviously a key defense against our attack, and the king of the county must have corresponding countermeasures."

Chen Qing sighed slightly, "That's right, the robbery of Yanzhou Huoyou has had a far-reaching impact. We have indeed underestimated the enemy recently, knowing that the shipping risks are high, and wisely, the enemy army has changed their coaches, but they still refuse to accept it." It is my responsibility to change to camels for transportation.”

"If the county king decides to prepare for a third-line attack, he should start preparing."

Zhou Kuan added: "At present, we have enough money and food, which is enough to support us in the Battle of Hedong for a long time."

Chen Qing said to everyone: "Actually, I have already arranged it, and I am still waiting for a suitable time."

Everyone looked at each other, Jiang Yanxian asked: "I don't know what the timing of the county king is?"

Chen Qing smiled lightly, "Hedong is Wanyanchang's territory, and it was forcibly occupied by Wanyan Nianhan. How can Wanyanchang let it go? I'll see if the [-] Hezhameng'an army in Hebei goes north. If Hezhameng'an If the army goes north, then Wanyanchang will lose completely, and Wanyan Yinkeshu and Wanyan Balisu will also be transferred away, but if Wanyan Nianhan refuses to give up Hezha Meng'an Army, then the infighting in Hedong will be It will explode, and it is very likely that Wan Yanchang will go to Hedong, and at this time, the time is ripe for me to send troops."

"But what if Wanyan Nianhan gives up Hezha Meng'an Army?" Guan Shigu asked.

"Then I'll wait another year or two. If Wanyan Nianhan is cornered by the Emperor of Jin, he will definitely take the initiative to attack Shaanxi Road and use war to resolve his own crisis."

Speaking of this, Chen Qing concluded to everyone: "In a word, our Eastern Expedition must be in line with the internal struggle of the Jin Dynasty, so as to obtain the greatest benefits from their internal struggle, so what we have to do now is to strengthen intelligence , intelligence, intelligence!"

……

Five days later, Wang Hao personally led [-] elite inner guard soldiers to Yanzhou.

Wang Zhen, commander of Yanzhou, was a 26-year-old general under Niu Gao's department. His father was Wang Yan, the well-known commander of the Eight-Character Army. Following Chen Qing in Fushi, he was assigned to Niu Gao's command, and was promoted step by step from the head of the capital to the commander.

In the Yamen of Yanzhou Prefecture, Wang Zhen, Zhizhou Liu Yi, and Fushi County Zhixian Li Jinyang discussed with Wang Hao the tasks assigned by the county king.

Wang Zhen took the lead and said: "Actually, we are also looking for various possible leaks, but judging from the situation we have so far, it should not be the work of the boatman."

"Why wasn't the boatman doing it?"

Liu Yi sighed and said, "The 34 boatmen are all dead. They were all killed with their hands tied behind their backs. None of them survived."

Wang Hao nodded. In this case, it really has nothing to do with the boatman.

"So how many people know the time of departure and the details of the cargo? Have you checked them?"

Wang Zhendao: "The launch of the ship is a matter for the military. The plan was drawn up a month ago. Strictly speaking, there are only seven people who know about it. But in fact, this is not the case. There should be many people who know about it."

"Why do you say that?" Wang Hao asked.

Liu Yi smiled wryly and said: "Because there is only one material transported from Yanzhou, that is kerosene. There are many people who know the time of departure. The state government and county government know it, and the stewards on the wharf also know it. It means that this is not a secret, this is actually something that everyone knows."

"So you don't have a clue yet?"

All three were silent, they really couldn't find any clues.

Wang Hao thought for a while and said, "I heard that there is still a boat with an old boatman who was stabbed to death. Who is this old boatman? Have you found his family?"

"The old boatman's name is Liu Er. He lives in Fushi County. He has no wife and no children. He is single. The boat was rented by Liu Er."

Wang Hao thought about it, and the only clue was this Liu Er. He got up and said, "Take me to this Liu Er's house to see!"