Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 709: First Meeting with Jin
Rui'an Prefecture in the northernmost part of Liangzhe Road became the border with Tongzhou in the southernmost part of Huainan East Road.

The two places are separated by the Yangtze River. Five days had passed when Lu Zhishen received Lu Junyi's letter. Another two days had passed since the spies were sent out to find out that the fog on the north side of Rui'an Prefecture had dissipated.

By the time Lu Junyi led his army to arrive, half a month had passed.

During this period, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song and the other six naturally did not do nothing.

As there was no pressure to defend the western border, the six men gathered their forces and, with [Taihu Jiao] Bu Qing and [Curly Tiger] Ni Yun as the vanguard, they were the first to sail from the sea into the Yangtze River.

First, they captured Chongming Town, and then sent infantry to attack Haimen. Because of the invasion of the Jin army, Zhao Gou, on the one hand, ordered all the generals to lead troops to resist under the advice of Zhang Jun, Yu Yunwen, Li Gang, Zong Ze, Zhao Ding and others who advocated war. On the other hand, he sent Qin Hui, Wang Boyan, Huang Qianshan and others who advocated peace to secretly negotiate peace.

The entire northern border of the Southern Song Dynasty was under the iron hoof of the Jin Kingdom. The government soldiers, the rebel army, the bandits, the pirates, and the Jin army were already in chaos. Tongzhou, located in a corner, was not the focus of defense.

When Lu Zhishen led a thousand soldiers and landed from the south side, the magistrate of Haimen County actually thought that they were imperial officials and soldiers heading north, so he led people out of the city to welcome them.

After taking Haimen County, Wu Song and his men also landed. Rui'an Prefecture only stationed 1,000 infantrymen in Le'an County, the northernmost part. Then, Yan Liu, the Tiger Claw, was left to lead 1,000 infantrymen to guard Haimen, and the remaining 3,000 infantrymen and 3,000 naval forces of Liang State went straight to Jinghai County and Lifeng Prison, 60 miles away.

Under the banner of "Zhao", these two places were taken without any effort.

Afterwards, the army stationed in Jinghai County, waiting for Lu Junyi to lead his troops to arrive.

Another reason why the two counties were so easily taken was that there were not many government troops in Tongzhou and Taizhou. Since the invasion of the Jin Kingdom, Jin generals such as Wanyan Chang and Ali Gua have defeated government troops in succession in the eastern route of Huainan.

Chuzhou had been captured by the Jin army, and the defending general Zhao Li was killed in the battle.

Zhang Rong and Jia Hu attacked the Jin army in the three lakes of Fanliang, Baima and Xinkai, which stretched for more than 300 miles between Gaoyou and Chuzhou, and won many victories. They were responded to by people from far and near, and their momentum grew day by day.

Apart from the Jin army, the most powerful force in the eastern route of Huainan is the Shandong volunteer army led by Zhang Rong and Jia Hu. Xue Qing, the defender of Gaoyou army, cannot support the army alone and has to form an alliance with Zhang Rong and Jia Hu to fight against the Jin army.

In the land battle, Zhang Rong and Jia Hu were also defeated by the Marshal's Left Inspector Wanyan Chang. After Zhao Li was killed in the battle, Zhang Rong's lone army was defeated, so he burned the stored food and grass and led his troops to retreat to Tongzhou and Taizhou.

Tongzhou was in the rear, Zhang Rong collected food and grass, and sent young men to Taizhou, so Tongzhou was empty. Naturally, it was easy to take it.

When Lu Zhishen captured Tongzhou, Zhang Rong set an ambush in Taizhou and defeated Ali's troops at Suotou Lake, thus curbing the Jin army's offensive.

Hearing that Tongzhou in the rear was occupied by Liang State, Zhang Rong did not dare to speak out. He secretly discussed with Jia Hu: "Brother, in the current situation, we are attacked from two sides. Although we have defeated the Jin Kingdom's navy, I am afraid that we will have a hard fight on land."

"Now that Tongzhou is occupied by Liang State, I am afraid that the men recruited from Tongzhou are not in a stable mood."

Jia Hu heard this and said, "Brother, we two did not want to surrender to the Jin army, so we started the war. Most of our men are warriors from Jingdong Road. It has been spread all over the world that the leader of Liang State is Zhao Zhen, the "Little Mengchang" of Liangshan Water Margin. We are from the same hometown as him."

"We are fighting on the front lines, and the food and weapons in the rear have never been fully allocated. We have to raise them all by ourselves. If we are not unwilling to surrender to the alien race, who would be willing to serve such a court? Why don't we surrender to the Liang Kingdom?"

Zhang Rong said: "Song is no match for Jin, and Liang, which is isolated in a corner, is probably no match either. It's just a matter of dying sooner or later." "Otherwise, brother may not know that Liang is now swallowing up Fujian Road, and Miao Fu was killed by Liangshan."

Zhang Rong still shook his head. "Brother, I know what happened in Fujian. The imperial court didn't have many troops deployed in Fujian. They were all the troops of the two rebel generals Miao and Liu, and they were scattered in all directions. Facing the imperial court troops and the Liang army at the same time, how could they not be defeated?"

"Brother, let's put other things aside. If Liang dares to fight Jin, are you willing to join them?"

Zhang Rong asked, "Brother, why do you insist on instigating me to go to Liang State?"

"To be honest, I have a relative named Jia Shan. When Liang State was not yet independent, he went to seek refuge with the great official. When I was in my hometown, he also wrote to me many times to recruit me. I lived a good life at that time, and my family was very comfortable, so I never went."

"In Liang State, there are many righteous men, the government is clean, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. When Liangshan Prefecture was expanding everywhere, I thought it could expand to Huaiyang Army. I never thought that the fog between the prefectures and counties would dissipate, and Liang State would actually break away."

"The Southern Song Dynasty world we live in now was full of bandits and pirates before the invasion of the Jin Dynasty. It was unstable everywhere. Otherwise, how could the two of us gather our troops to protect ourselves? If it weren't for the invasion of the Jin Dynasty, the two of us would have become bandits by now."

"Without Cai Jing and Gao Qiu, there are too many people like Huang Qianshan in the court. I am afraid that they will not have a good future. That is why I urged my brother to surrender to Liang State. If my brother is really unwilling, I will go anyway."

Zhang Rong frowned and sighed, "Brother, you have made your point clearly. I cannot stop you. But if I go to Liang State, can I convince it not to send troops to attack me?"

Jia Hu shook his head and said, "I can only try my best. However, Liang and Song are enemies, so I'm afraid they won't want to give up this opportunity."

Zhang Rong sighed, as if he had seen the end of Taizhou, either it would be annexed by Liang or occupied by Jin. The only reinforcements from the imperial court were led by Xue Qing, the garrison commander of Gaoyou Army, with only 3,000 soldiers and horses, which was not as good as his own.

"Brother, the Jin dog killed my family. If you want me to surrender to the Jin Kingdom, I will never do that. If you have a way, go to Tongzhou and make an agreement with the Liang Kingdom. If the Liang Kingdom is willing to be the enemy of the Jin Kingdom, I am also willing to surrender to the Liang Kingdom."

After hearing this, Jia Hu rode his horse to Jinghai County, Tongzhou.

After meeting Lu Zhishen and others, Jia Hu explained his purpose.

Wu Song heard this and laughed, "I thought it was nothing. If you're talking about this, I can tell you now that the Kingdom of Jin is not an ally of the Kingdom of Liang. If we meet them, we will naturally not hold back."

After hearing this, Jia Hu was overjoyed and said, "In this case, there will be no problem with Brother Zhang Rong."

General Shi Yong was left behind to garrison with a thousand soldiers, while Lu Zhishen and Wu Song led their troops into Taizhou.

They marched all the way to Xinghua and met up with Zhang Rong.

At this time, Zhang Rong was leading his troops to confront the Jin army. The morale of Zhang Rong's men was high because of the great victory in the naval battle. Jia Hu returned from Tongzhou with Lu Zhishen, Wu Song and 3,000 Liang soldiers, which made the rebels burst into cheers.

(End of this chapter)