Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 117: The Tianping Army Should Create Peace (End)
At night, Liu Huai and his two followers crossed the Anzi River and rested in Xin Qiji's army on the east bank.

Guan Chongyan and Guan Qilang still had stern expressions on their faces, silently fetching water to clean their knives. But Luo Huaiyan was still a teenager, with a lively mind. After holding it in for a while, he finally couldn't help but ask.

"Big Brother, what you just said to Xin Qiji and Li Tieqiang, are you trying to stir up internal strife within the Tianping Army?"

Liu Huai laughed out loud, rolled up the document in his hand, and patted Luo Huaiyan's head gently: "You are smart, kid, but you often fall into cunning ways when encountering things."

Luo Huaiyan rubbed his head: "Isn't it? Boy, I always thought it was Dalangjun who was instigating Generals Xin and Li to seize power."

Liu Huai smiled and shook his head, but immediately replied with a sigh: "I really feel that the Tianping Army has reached a certain level of chaos. If this continues, once the external pressure from the Jin bandits is gone, there will soon be a fight among the top leaders, or even betrayal to the Jin."

Liu Huai pointed at himself and said, "We all know that the Jin thieves will definitely march south to attack the Song Dynasty. At that time, external forces will be the least, and the Tianping Army will soon be in big trouble. At that time, it will be a huge blow to the anti-Jin situation in Shandong."

Luo Huaiyan nodded, but quickly became nervous again: "Lord, since you said that the Jin Kingdom would march south, why can't the Tianping Army take advantage of the foreign forces to rectify their internal affairs?"

Liu Huai looked up at the ceiling of the tent and said, "It will be too late by then. If we can't accomplish this now while we're still united, how can we accomplish it in the future when people's hearts are divided?"

This is exactly what happened in history. When the Jin army was defeated at Cai Shi and the country was in chaos, the Tianping army could have taken the opportunity to expand its sphere of influence, but it immediately fell into civil strife, and even suffered such vicious incidents as the main general assassinating the commander and defecting to the enemy.

Although Liu Huai deduced the cause based on the result, thanks to his usual insight into strategy and tactics, what he said was convincing enough to convince others. At least it was no problem to fool this young man.

At this moment, Guan Chongyan, who was wiping his knife nearby, spoke in a hoarse voice, "Luo Erlang, the commander's words actually have another meaning. He wants the Tianping Army to quickly rectify their internal affairs and stop abusing the civilians. Humph, if I wasn't afraid of delaying important matters, I would have killed that Pingshan Hu today."

Liu Huai clutched the document in silence for a moment, then thought of the little girl he had just visited. After a moment's pause, he angrily said, "If even great things can only be accomplished by tolerating people like this, then these great things cannot be considered honorable and righteous. Guan Qilang, at the latest, after we capture Yizhou and our Zhongyi Army joins forces with the Tianping Army, I will find a way to kill this man."

After making such harsh remarks, Liu Huai felt helpless again.

He came to contact the Tianping Army to achieve cooperation, but Yizhou had not been captured yet, and he began to think about killing the friendly generals who were theoretically comrades in the anti-Jin war. It has to be said that this was quite black humor.

But let me be frank: later revolutions would also see a large number of lumpen proletarians mixed in! Is it surprising that in medieval peasant uprisings there were a few bandit and brigand leaders?
What bicycle do you want?!
You must know that there is also a bandit leader named Li Xiu in the Loyal Army. He has even been promoted to the deputy commander of the right army!
But then again, who is born a thief? Isn't it the world that forces people to become thieves? But once they become thieves, those who persevere like Li Xiu are extremely rare. The vast majority become morally corrupt bastards who deserve to be cut into pieces.

This brings us back to the old saying.

The peasants were cunning and cruel, but it was the samurai who made them that way.

After his thoughts wandered for a long time, Liu Huai saw that the other two had fallen asleep. He reached out and extinguished the oil lamp, sighing in his heart.

I don’t know if I can set off smoothly tomorrow.

I don’t know if everything is going well with my father.
-
Regardless of whether everything goes well for the Loyal Army.

The Tianping Army has encountered such a big mess today, how could they possibly set off tomorrow?
It dragged on for another whole day, until the early morning of August 9th, when the Tianping Army officially set out again and stumbled on the road.

We had to set off because we were running out of food.

More than a hundred miles away in the southeast, another series of events triggered by food was about to begin.

Inside the Loyal Army's tent, Wei Sheng said to Lu You in a serious tone, "Mr. Lu, it's going to rain. We need to make some preparations."

Lu You looked back at the bright sunshine outside the tent and asked in surprise, "Is it going to rain? How did the Marshal know?"

Wei Sheng pointed at himself and said, "I've been fighting in battle since I was a young man, and I have a lot of old wounds. When it rains and the weather changes, the wounds will swell and ache. This has worked every time."

Lu You nodded, and hurriedly memorized this kind of thing that would never be recorded in military books, but he said with some concern: "Marshal, are you okay?" Wei Sheng waved his hand: "It's okay, I've gotten used to it over the years."

Seeing that Lu You was still worried, Wei Sheng continued to comfort him: "Anyone who has been on the battlefield for a few times will be in the same state. It's nothing serious. Mr. Lu, how are our rain gear prepared?"

Lu You put aside his other thoughts and said, "We have the Shu River as a transportation route, and we have sufficient supplies. Not only rain gear, but we have even started preparing winter clothes."

"We still need to fight quickly and decisively. It would be unreasonable to drag it on until winter." Wei Sheng shook his head repeatedly, but saw Lu You looking out of the tent again with a serious expression.

"What is Mr. Lu thinking about?"

"I was wondering, if it rains, what will happen to the crops that haven't been harvested yet?" Lu You finished speaking, then quickly shook his head and smiled bitterly. "Marshal, I've been angry. I forgot that we are now divided into enemies and us for a fierce battle. The worse their harvest, the better for us."

Wei Sheng laughed heartily. "Mr. Lu is not a bookworm. This is the benevolence and righteousness of a scholar-official. I have already made a plan for this matter. It is better to say that this is the real reason why I came to discuss this with Mr. Lu."

Lu You restrained his expression and said, "Marshal, please speak."

Wei Sheng also became serious: "I thought that if we have some free time, we could let the idle laborers go to harvest the crops."

Lu You was stunned: "We'll cut it and use it as military rations?"

Wei Sheng shook his head. "That would do nothing except give us some extra rations, which we don't need right now. But it would be enough to make the surrounding farmers hate the Loyal Army. All our patience and restraint would have been in vain. To put it bluntly, if they wanted to seize the rations, I would have done it long ago. Why wait until now?"

Lu You frowned. "After harvesting the autumn crops, will we then give them to the farmers? While this is a way to win over the people, it's laborious and time-consuming. Will it really work? We've been restraining ourselves for so many days, all it did was to stop the farmers from hating the Loyal Army. Even if we help them harvest the crops now, we won't let a few farmers surrender."

Wei Sheng: "Mr. Lu, you're overthinking it. The outcome of world affairs will ultimately be decided on the battlefield. Even if some farmers are loyal to the Song Dynasty, how could they dare to risk their lives to join them?
What we are doing now is nothing more than quickly winning over the people after the victory, so as to ensure peace in the future."

Lu You felt that this statement was a little wrong. How could Wei Sheng know that he would definitely win?

But now was not the time to discuss this. Lu You thought of something else: "But if we send the civilians out, what if He Boqiu of Hejiazhuang sends troops to clean up the mess? Wouldn't that mean we're selling out the civilians?"

"No." Wei Sheng said with a half-smile: "Hejia Village is empty, they can only protect themselves and will not take the initiative to leave the village.

"The Loyal Army is fully prepared for battle. If Hejiazhuang is truly foolish enough to dare to come out and fight, we will capture Hejiazhuang in one fell swoop and break their interconnectedness. If other villages want to send troops to take advantage, humph! As many as come, we will eat as many as we can!"

Lu You was completely stunned when Wei Sheng said that Hejiazhuang was empty.

He finally confirmed that Marshal Wei had definitely not wasted time after the peace talks in Shaoxing, but had connected with many people in Shandong, so that he could actually know the strengths and weaknesses of one of the opposing generals during the war.

Lu You was stunned for a moment, then finally smiled bitterly and shook his head: "In that case, I have nothing to say. I just don't know, since He Boqiu is not here, where is he?"

Wei Sheng made a gesture to silence him. "I have just sent someone to inform Dalang about this matter. Mr. Lu, please wait for the result."

Although Lu You knew the principle that "if the ruler is not discreet, he will lose his ministers; if the ministers are not discreet, they will lose their lives; if several things are not discreet, harm will come to pass", he was still extremely curious and couldn't help but feel anxious.

　I will update 10,000 words today, and try to update 6,000 words every day in the future, maintaining two or three updates.

　　I, a code-wasting guy, bow to everyone.

　　Barley
　　
　
(End of this chapter)