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

Chapter 99: Clear Orders and Rewards and Punishments

After Liu Huai inspected the camp, he came to the central military tent.

At this time, a group of high-ranking members of the Loyalty Army had gathered in the central military tent.

Not only Wei Sheng, Lu You, Wei Chang, Shi Qilang, and Zhang Baiyu, but even Wang Shilong, who had made great contributions along the way, and Zhang Xiaoyi, who had just arrived from Qushan with food and reinforcements, had already taken their seats.

Among them, Zhang Xiaoyi was still wearing armor and smelled of sweat and horse manure. One could tell without even looking at him that he had just come from a long journey.

He was drinking from a cowhide bag. When he saw Liu Huai looking at him, he quickly raised the bag and said, "It's not wine. It's just water with cornel powder, dried sour berries, and salt. If you don't believe me, try it."

Liu Huai said angrily, "What does it have to do with me whether it's alcohol or not? It's just that one day you, Zhang Xiaoyi, got drunk and didn't even know your brain was gone."

Zhang Xiaoyi smiled awkwardly.

He used to add dogwood powder to wine to refresh himself, but wine is something that becomes more and more addictive for people who love to drink, and they can easily drink too much without paying attention.

When Zhang Xiaoyi led the right army of the loyal and righteous army to the bank of the Shu River yesterday, Liu Huai went to greet them and lead the way. It was already evening when he arrived at Zhang Xiaoyi's camp.

Then Liu Huai discovered that except for the badge being checked at the entrance of the camp, he was able to reach Zhang Xiaoyi's tent without any hindrance.

Liu Huai smelled the alcohol on the other person and watched him sleeping soundly without saying a word. He walked up to Zhang Xiaoyi, took off his seal, threw it to Li Xiu, the deputy commander of the right army, and asked him to return it to Zhang Xiaoyi at noon tomorrow.

Afterwards, Liu Huai returned to his own army with a gloomy face amid Li Xiu's panic.

When Zhang Xiaoyi woke up the next day, he immediately broke out in a sweat when he found that the seal was missing. However, Li Xiu was the third most important figure during the Haizhou Uprising and was Zhang Xiaoyi's closest person, so Zhang Xiaoyi did not worry for too long.

But when Li Xiu returned the seal and told Zhang Xiaoyi everything that happened last night, Zhang Xiaoyi immediately fell into a greater panic than Li Xiu had the night before.

This is not to say that Liu Huai would do anything to Zhang Xiaoyi. Zhang Xiaoyi's identity as an orphan of the Donghai Uprising is a great support. As long as the Northern Expedition Army is still resisting the Jin Dynasty and relies on Haizhou as its base, it must recognize the legitimacy of the Donghai Uprising and treat Zhang Xiaoyi well.

But then again, being a mascot is a good treatment, being a people-friendly official is a good treatment, and being a general is an even better treatment. What if Wei Sheng and Liu Huai both feel that Zhang Xiaoyi is useless and just let him be a rich and idle man?
Needless to say, Marshal Wei Sheng, the founder of the Loyal Army and the initiator of the Northern Expedition, and even Liu Huai's prestige gradually grew.

You must know that Liu Huai, Liu Dalang, led the vanguard army and set out from Lianshui. He defeated the enemy troops and killed the generals along the way as if he was in an empty land. Now he is almost reaching Linyi. Although it cannot be said that he "chopped down the six prefectures of Shandong with swords and trampled on both sides of the Yellow River with horses", it is enough to be regarded as a powerful force in some parts of Shandong.

How could a poor fellow like Zhang Xiaoyi dare to mess around with them? How could he not be terrified when faced with direct criticism from Liu Huai?
Therefore, on the morning of the next day, the right army led by Zhang Xiaoyi hurriedly broke camp and came to the central army. He himself did not even have time to wipe his face before going to the central army tent to pay his respects.

Wei Sheng was not ambiguous and directly reprimanded Zhang Xiaoyi and sentenced him to 30 military sticks, a serious offense. However, since he needed someone else, he would just record the 30 military sticks for the time being. If he made meritorious contributions, he could make up for the offense. If he still had any offenses, he would count them and punish them.

When Liu Huai returned from searching for the camp, Wei Sheng finally started talking about business while stroking the map on the table.

"Mr. Lu, please tell me about our military situation first."

Lu You nodded. "Since we launched our forces from Qushan, we've been victorious. Besides taking Shuyang County, we've captured 25 villages and 17 towns, ferry ports, markets, and marketplaces. Twenty-three men were killed in action, 175 were wounded, and another 131 are in need of rehabilitation from various causes, such as heatstroke and falls." "In addition, we've stationed 623 soldiers at key transportation routes and strategic locations." Lu You tapped the map a few times, then glanced around at the men in the tent. "Even so, our numbers have actually increased thanks to our continued capture of cities and strongholds, as well as the recruitment of surrendered soldiers and volunteers. The front army has a total of 2,140 men, and the central army has 2,750. The right army, according to the roster, has 1,721 men, but they haven't been counted yet. As for their combat effectiveness, a scholar like me wouldn't know."

Wei Sheng nodded and turned to Liu Huai: "How is the morale of the army?"

Liu Huai bowed and replied, "The wounded soldiers in the wounded battalion are being well taken care of, and morale is good. Letters from home have been arriving one after another today, many of which say that their families have been allocated land. Everyone in the army is excited, and morale has skyrocketed. My second brother and younger sister are doing a great job."

Lu You was silent for a moment, seemingly contemplating the potential impact of the land division. After a moment, he pointed to the map and continued, "The food and fodder brought by the Right Army has not yet been inspected and stored. Based on current military rations, it should last for another twenty days. However, this food was captured along the way, and there's no dedicated logistics route. Now our army is stranded here, and it's very dangerous."

After Lu You finished speaking, he looked a little sad.

The place he was referring to was between Yishui and Shuhe Rivers, where the Loyal Army was stationed.

The Shuhe River and the Yishui River run north-south for dozens of miles, running side by side, with a distance of about forty miles between them. The loyal and righteous army is camping on the west bank of the Shuhe River at this time. Forty miles west of the camp is the center of Yizhou, the hub of the Yishui Channel, and Linyi City, the most important commercial and military node in the southern part of Shandong East Road.

There, the largest tributary of Yishui, Junhe River, meets Yishui River, forming a "Y" shape. Linyi City is just north of the "Y" intersection and is surrounded by rivers on the east, west and south, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The plain between Yishui and Shuhe River is not flat either. Due to the abundant water resources, there are a large number of agricultural facilities here, especially irrigation ditches that crisscross each other. Now that the autumn harvest is approaching, the ditches are dry, and they are simply natural trenches.

The vigorous agricultural activities brought about a large population, and the large population formed the most common militarized manors in Shandong.

To be honest, they had seen many such loyal and righteous armies along the way, but they had never seen a scene where five villages were the core and more than a dozen large and small villages were connected together and echoed each other.

At this time, the Jin people - at least the governor of Yizhou in the Jin Dynasty also reacted and began to coordinate planning and wartime preparations.

Over the past two days, there have been small-scale clashes between the Loyalty Army and the Jin Army, with both sides suffering casualties. What surprised Liu Huai the most was that the enemy troops were not inferior in terms of fighting spirit and combat experience.

At least that's the case when there are small-scale conflicts.

Liu Huai smiled and said, "Mr. Lu, our army is not stuck here, but we are a little tired and need some rest. Finding ways to defeat the enemy during the rest period is like preparing dishes when cooking. When the time comes, we can have a table full of food. This way, neither side will be delayed."

"As for why we can't send a large-scale army to attack the five villages in front of us now, firstly, the casualties may be very high, and secondly, because..." At this point, Liu Huai couldn't help but smile bitterly: "Because it's the autumn harvest, we can't stop the people from harvesting the crops.

In fact, the quickest, most brutal, and least-casualty method right now is to burn all the crops here. At the very least, we can mobilize the civilians to harvest the crops ourselves for military rations. But isn't the Loyal Army marching north to punish the people and punish the criminals? It's okay to be brutal against the Meng'an and Mouke households, but how can we do this to the Han people?

The public security notices have been posted, and we should always keep our word."

Lu You nodded, but then he had another question: "Da Lang, I still don't understand one thing. How come we were so successful before, but we've been frustrated here?"

Liu Huai was about to answer when Wei Sheng said, "Da Lang, I know this matter very well."

(End of this chapter)