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

Chapter 14: Flowers Should Bloom Beside the Battlefield
Liu Huai turned and saw a woman about 28 years old, dressed in a red gown with her sleeves rolled up high, revealing a white arm. Her hair was pinned up on top of her head with a wooden hairpin, with only a few strands hanging down to her wheat-colored neck.

Although the woman was not stunningly beautiful, she had bright eyes and pearly teeth, and was graceful. At this moment, she was holding the wine flag with her head held high and her chest puffed out, and she actually looked quite fit and healthy.

Seeing this, Wei Sheng just smiled and said, "Xiaojun, are you here to pick up my father or Huai'er?"

The woman blushed, her eyes turned to Liu Huai, and then she said righteously: "Can't I pick you two up?"

As she spoke, the woman called Xiaojun waved behind her, and a burly man in shorts ran over, bowed to the two men on the horse, and handed over two lotus leaf bags.

"These are some hot meat buns, Daddy, big brother, you guys can fill your stomachs first." The woman smiled and stuffed two lotus leaf buns into the other's arms.

"Thank you, little sister." Liu Huai knew that the woman was Wei Sheng's youngest daughter, but he couldn't even remember her name for a moment, so he could only smile and nod politely.

The woman just held the wine banner in one hand, held Liu Huai's big hand which was still stained with blood in the other hand, and smiled with her head raised.

Liu Huai was a little embarrassed, but he couldn't pull his hand back. He could only act like an actor and smile foolishly at the woman.

"Xiaojun, Xiaojun!" Wei Sheng called out twice. Seeing that the woman didn't respond, he raised his voice and said, "Wei Rujun!"

"Hey... hey, I'm here!" The woman called Wei Rujun came back to her senses, her face flushed.

Wei Sheng had a helpless expression on his face. He shook his head and said, "Xiaojun, deliver those letters I gave you earlier. Then, sell the tavern at the dock and take the money to go to my uncle in Lin'an. I've already made arrangements with him."

Even though Wei Rujun knew his father's decisiveness, his eyes were still wide open and he immediately became panicked.

"Daddy..." As Wei Sheng's daughter, Wei Rujun naturally knew what her father had been doing over the years... or what he was preparing to do. However, when the time came, she was still panicked.

But it's not her fault.

Not to mention that my father and brother were covered in blood this time, ready to gather people and resolutely head north. Even if it was just an ordinary journey, in this day and age, one should be prepared to be separated by vast distances and never see each other again in this life.

"Silly girl, why are you standing there? Hurry up!" Wei Sheng got down from his horse, picked a grass stem from Wei Rujun's head, then rubbed her head and asked with some amusement.

Wei Rujun puffed out her cheeks, turned around, used a wine flag to push the crowd away, and strode away. But after taking two steps, she hurriedly turned back and saw that her father and brother had already ridden away. She couldn't help but stamp her feet again, "Dad, big brother! Come home early for dinner!"

Wei Sheng didn't even turn his head, but just waved his hand.

But Liu Huai couldn't bear it any longer, and turned his upper body while holding the saddle: "Don't think too much, little sister, we will be back soon."

It was not until this moment that Wei Rujun smiled again.

After eating two delicious meat buns, Liu Huai finally felt better. Then he and his adoptive father rode their horses along the official road towards Chuzhou City.

Chuzhou was the front line of the confrontation between Song and Jin. Once the war broke out, the enemy they faced was not from the north, but from the northwest.

The original Si River, now the Yellow River, rolls down from the northwest, merges into the Huai River fifty miles west of Chuzhou City, and rushes into the sea.

If you head northwest along the river from the confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River, you will reach Xuzhou hundreds of miles upstream.

It is the Xuzhou where "there have been more than 50 large-scale wars throughout the dynasties, and the right and wrong are difficult to judge."

Xuzhou has a dense water network, is well-connected, and has a dense population. It is easy to recruit soldiers and civilians, but it is also easy to defend and difficult to attack. Therefore, both the Southern and Northern Dynasties regarded this place as a key city among key cities.

This is both a military and political tradition and a natural result of geography and hydrology.

Because of this, whether marching south or north, regardless of whether Xuzhou was in hand or not, it was a hurdle that no one could avoid. Anyone with a bit of strategic vision understood this principle, and Han Shizhong naturally understood it in the fifth year of Shaoxing... that is, twenty-six years ago.

At that time, Yue Fei led his troops to pacify Xiangfan and fought desperately to plug the big hole in the central defense line. Han Shizhong, who was the envoy of Huaidong Road and had an office in Chuzhou, was naturally not idle either.

He first expanded the city defenses of Chuzhou and Shanyang, covering the upper half of the canal tightly, and then sent troops to march north along the Huai River.

However, this place was too close to the core of the Qi Dynasty. After Wanyan Wushu realized it, he quickly sent a large army south.

Han Shizhong, who was besieging Pizhou, was outnumbered and outmatched. Furthermore, Zhang Jun, one of the so-called Four Generals of the Restoration, was acting remarkably, and he remained unmoved, refusing to support his allies even when they were in trouble. Han Shizhong had no choice but to return south with regret.

Wanyan Wushu did not pursue him, but only supervised Liu Yu to improve the defense line of Xuzhou.

From then on, the Southern Song Dynasty basically lost the opportunity to march north from the Huanghuai area, and this failure was also regarded as a lifelong regret by Han Shizhong.

Since attacking was unsuccessful, the only option was to defend. Shanyang, the capital of Chuzhou, was the garrison of Han Shizhong's Shenwu Left Army... or the Han family army, so the city's defenses were naturally built like an iron barrel.

At the very least, when Liu Huai drove his horse around a hill and saw Shanyang City, he sighed in his heart, what a majestic city it is.

Shanyang City is located on the north bank of the Huai River and on the east bank of the Grand Canal. Its rammed earth walls, wrapped in bluestone, are three meters high and are awe-inspiring.

There are several military cities standing on several hills around, but they have been in disrepair for many years and many of the city walls and watchtowers have collapsed.

Looking east, across a canal, you can see a small town in the distance. Although it is not connected to Chuzhou City, it also stands on both sides of the river.

From Liu Huai's shallow strategic vision, Shanyang City's defense system was impregnable. As long as there were 20,000 elite soldiers stationed here, no matter how many people came from the Jin Kingdom, they would not be afraid.

Wei Sheng had no plans to take his son to tour Chuzhou. After scolding a few lazy soldiers at the city gate, he still put on his helmet and armor and rode his horse straight to the provincial government office.

It was almost noon, the hottest time of the year, and Liu Huai was already regretting not tearing off a piece of rag to make a burqa. The two tiers of armor he wore had been exposed to the sun for so long that they were already burning hot. The shorts beneath his armor were soaked with sweat, and the mingled smell of blood and earth created an eerie, unpleasant aroma.

Although Wei Sheng wasn't as shabby as Liu Huai, he was also sweating through his heavy armor and feeling hot all over. But he didn't care. He arrived in front of the government office, dismounted, and threw the reins to the gatekeeper.

Liu Huai followed suit, dismounted his horse, and threw away the reins. However, he was still stunned when he saw Wei Sheng unsheathe the long sword from the saddle and put it on his back.

Should the next plot be to ask Lord Lan whether he wants to eat wontons or knife-cut noodles?

Or maybe a scene where a common man gets angry and blood splatters everywhere?

Use this trick against a state's military governor? Force him to send troops?

Is it reliable? !

However, Liu Huai changed his mind and realized that such a thing might not be possible in the Han, Tang, Yuan and Ming dynasties, but it might be possible in the Song Dynasty.

Thinking of this, Liu Huai pulled out a machete from the side of his horse with a grim smile, shook off the blood on the upper half of it, and looked at the several officials in front of him with a hungry wolf's eyes.

The guards at the gate of the prefectural government were stunned. The two men stepped back a few steps, holding onto the iron ruler at their waists. A clerk on the steps behind them simply threw down the documents and scrambled into the government office.

"Oh no! Commander Wei is here to kill people!"

(End of this chapter)