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

Chapter 80: A Ranger from Shandong

The affairs of the world are like the tide of a river rolling forward. After the war machines of the Song and Jin countries were fully launched, everyone was swept into the course of history, like a small boat in the huge waves, floating and sinking, without freedom.

It’s just that some people choose to go with the flow, while others swim hard towards the shore and try to change some things.

On July 25th, several minor incidents occurred in Shandong and Huaidong.

The first thing was that under the persuasion of Zhang Xiaoyi, Zhi Lehe, the magistrate of Donghai County, changed his flag and returned to the Song Dynasty.

The second thing was that someone in the court seemed to have remembered the hero of Desheng Lake and promoted Zhang Rong to the deputy governor of Huaidong. However, when the documents arrived in Chuzhou, they found that Zhang Rong had long disappeared, so they had to give up for the time being.

The third thing was that Xu Zongyan, the prefect of Chuzhou, who had been scolded by both Liu Huai and Li Xiu, went to meet Liu Qi in person. He used his sword as a pen to draw the terrain of mountains and rivers on the land, and persuaded Liu Qi with the Shanyang Lianshui defense line. Finally, Liu Qi sent the Palace Guard to support the right army commander Wang Gang to go to Chuzhou to prepare for war.

But Wang Gang did not enter Shanyang, but stationed in Baoying, sixty miles south of Shanyang.

Lan Shiji and Xu Zongyan could not help but feel greatly disappointed.

It can be said that the efforts of the Chuzhou people to improve the Lianshui Shanyang defense line, which was a huge responsibility, were completely aborted.

When the news came out, the people of Lianshui County immediately began to migrate south. In less than ten days, Lianshui became almost a deserted city.

At the same time, the Northern Expedition Army began a new round of expansion.

It is said that Haizhou has five counties, among which Qushan, Lianshui and Donghai counties have officially returned to the Song Dynasty. However, Shuyang to the west of Haizhou and Ganyu in the north are still ruled by the Jin Dynasty.

The geography of these two places is also very important.

Ganyu is located on the edge of the Shandong hills. There is the sea on the east side of the city and rolling hills on the west side. Although the terrain is not so dangerous that one man can block a thousand, it can still be considered a gate.

By blocking this opening, we can delay the enemy forces coming from the Shandong Peninsula.

Shuyang was even more important. The city was built along the Shu River. To the west was the Huai River, whose course had been taken over by the Yellow River. It was only 150 miles away from Xia Pi, an important town on the Huai River, and only a stone's throw away from Suzhou, Wei Sheng's hometown.

It can be said that as long as the Song army captured Shuyang and stationed troops there, once the Jin army marched south and attacked the two Huai regions along the Yellow River, the Loyal Army would have the ability to threaten the Jin army's logistics.

Of course, to take this place, we must be prepared for a head-on confrontation with the Jin army.

For this reason, even though Zhang Rong was really angry about Wei Sheng's sudden expansion of the army, he was stunned for a while when Wei Sheng decided to go to Shuyang and give Ganyu to the Dongping Army, and he never objected again.

Faced with the severe situation that is about to happen, the Loyal Army must quickly expand its strength, otherwise it may be defeated by the Jin Army in one blow.

The Loyal Army was still in the process of expanding at this time, as the autumn harvest was approaching. So even though Wei Sheng had made a name for himself, not as many people were willing to enlist as expected.

Of course, it is also possible that the Loyal Army has only been in power for a short time, and the most common landowners in Shandong have not yet made up their minds.

But for Liu Huai, this is also a good thing.

If powerful people like Zhujiazhuang and Hudiazhuang were to actively join the army, the military strength would increase greatly, but the composition of the Loyal Army would become extremely complex.

Therefore, after the front army expanded to 1,000 people and the central army expanded to 1,700 people, Wei Sheng left the left army commander Dong Cheng to guard Qushan, and the right army commander Zhang Xiaoyi to pacify Donghai County across the sea, and Luo Guzi came forward to organize grammar officials to ensure the autumn harvest.

The front army and the central army quickly set out and marched upstream along the Shu River towards Shuyang.

Liu Huai still commanded the vanguard army to lead the way in front of the main army.

Contrary to the secret worries of the other generals, even though Liu Huai and Wei Sheng argued fiercely over military and political matters, Wei Sheng still gave Liu Huai enough trust. Even from the deployment of troops and the allocation of military equipment, it could be seen that Wei Sheng doted on and even spoiled this adopted son.

Most of the cavalry originally under Liu Huai had achieved meritorious service, becoming junior officers like squadron commanders during the expansion. Zhang Xiaoyi's troops also followed the commander to the right army. Only the thirty or so cavalry under Zhang Baiyu were left, lacking sufficient merit, and continued to awkwardly serve as the backbone of the cavalry. As for the over four hundred war horses and two hundred sets of heavy armor seized from Gao Wenfu and his son, Wei Sheng distributed them evenly among the five armies, assigning the cavalry from the center army to the vanguard army, and establishing a 200-man armored cavalry unit for Liu Huai.

In the fierce and dangerous battlefield of the Northern Expedition, Wei Sheng's move was tantamount to entrusting one-third of his life to Liu Huai.

Liu Huai was naturally well aware of this. In addition to the 200 armored cavalry, he also led 400 infantrymen, which was four divisions, plus 400 auxiliary troops. He was fully equipped with both armor and military equipment.

Of the thousand men, only about 60% were new recruits, a very low ratio even in the rapidly expanding Loyalty Army.

With such a ratio of new recruits, there shouldn't be any big problems marching along the Shu River without any harassment from the enemy.

However, even though Liu Huai had some mental preparation, he still underestimated the difficulty of the march.

It was just the beginning of autumn and the weather was still hot. In addition, we were marching along the Shuhe River. The sun was steaming the water, causing the moisture to rise. This made the heat even more stuffy, just like a sauna. Even if we sat still, we would soon sweat profusely.

This is what is called summer heat.

On the other hand, commanding a thousand infantry and cavalry is completely different from leading a hundred cavalry in terms of difficulty, especially when most of the thousand are new recruits.

After walking more than ten miles, not to mention those who deserted or pretended to be sick and were quickly dealt with, there were as many as fifty soldiers who suffered from heatstroke.

At the critical moment, it was Wei Sheng, who came from the Huaizuo Laoge, who played the role of a stabilizing force.

He asked the central army to transport a large amount of salt and dried sour plums, cook them into sour plum soup, and let the soldiers and auxiliary soldiers carry it with them in leather water bags. After drinking it, the symptoms of heatstroke could be relieved to a certain extent.

These dried sour plums and salt were obtained from the plundering of the treasury in Qushan. Wei Sheng also issued special orders for their purchase and storage.

Some people were puzzled at the time, but apart from a veteran military figure like Wei Sheng, who could have imagined that dried sour plums would one day become a military strategic resource?

"Wang Wulang, please don't criticize me. After all, your farmers have no experience in marching and fighting. This time, letting them serve as auxiliary troops is also a form of protection."

Liu Huai saw Wang Shilong, who was riding side by side with him, repeatedly looking back, and thought that he was worried about the Wang family farmers who were recruited as auxiliary soldiers this time, so he couldn't help but give him sincere advice.

Wang Shilong seemed to come back to his senses and shook his head quickly.

He was about twenty years old, with a handsome face and an upright posture. The two mustaches on his lips softened the hard lines on his face and added a touch of elegance.

However, his heavy shoulders and the sturdy arms revealed by his rolled-up sleeves were enough to demonstrate his impressive martial arts prowess.

If these were all, everyone would say that Wang Shilong and Wang Wulang are both talented in literature and martial arts.

It just so happened that this guy had a silk flower stuck in his ear and a thick layer of powder on his face, but his powder application skills were not good enough, and there was a big color difference between his face and neck, which was a bit funny.

In addition, as the sun rises and the weather gets hotter, people's foreheads sweat.

A gust of wind blew, and fine dust, sweat and powder met and mixed together on Wang Wulang's face, making his face look as yellow as if he had an acute illness.

In the original history, Wang Shilong later joined Geng Jing's rebel army and was a foreign vassal who obeyed orders but not proclamations. He led his troops to station in the northern part of Haizhou, mainly leading cavalry in battles in Ju County and Rizhao County.

Later, after Li Bao's great victory at Chenjia Island, Wang Shilong became a member of Li Bao's army.

Later, Zhang Anguo rebelled and killed Geng Jing. Xin Qiji led fifty cavalrymen to Jeju to seek revenge, among whom was Wang Shilong.

If Wei Sheng had not moved up the Northern Expedition by a month, Wang Shilong might have started a rebellion and formed an independent army during this month.

(End of this chapter)