The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 372 The Expedition Begins

The next morning, Fu Songqing woke up rubbing his back.

Yesterday's drill training, though simple, was physically demanding.

Fu Songqing was so tired that he ate several extra bowls of food for dinner.

One has to admire how well the soldiers of the Northern Song Dynasty ate; they had plenty of rice and meat.

Hearing the captain's shouts from outside again, Fu Songqing groaned in despair: "Oh no, training is starting again today, my back..."

Just then, the curtain was lifted, the captain walked in, dragged him off the bed, ordered him to get dressed as quickly as possible, and then dragged him out of the barracks.

Outside on the training ground, their team of one hundred soldiers were all in position.

Everyone else had already lined up, so Fu Songqing had no choice but to hurry into the queue with a bitter face and stand in his place.

Then the entire hundred-man squad mobilized and joined with nine other hundred-man squads, becoming a huge thousand-man squad. Then several more thousand-man squads joined from the side, making it a five-thousand-man army... arrayed on the great training ground.

Fu Songqing realized that this didn't seem like training; it was more like going into battle.

This startled him greatly, and he hurriedly asked the captain, "Captain, are we about to go on an expedition?"

“Speaking in the ranks will result in forty strokes of the cane.” The captain said, “Make a note of it for now, and we’ll do the beatings after the parade at the parade ground.”

Fu Songqing: "!!!"

This frightened him so much that he dared not speak, and he pondered in his heart what method he could use to escape these forty blows so as not to lose face.

The next instant, he saw Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi.

The two walked hand in hand onto the platform in the parade ground. Yue Wenxuan's gaze swept over the soldiers, lingering briefly for 0.32 seconds on Fu Songqing's position before moving on...

Gong Erniangzi, who was standing nearby, then spoke up: "Listen up, everyone! We're about to go to war."

The entire scene was eerily quiet; no one responded, no one cheered, and no one lamented. The Northern Song army was eerily silent.

Only Fu Songqing couldn't help but shout again: "Who are you going to attack? Are you going to attack the Southern Song? You can't do this, we just agreed to negotiate peace yesterday."

“Speaking in the ranks will get you tied up and beaten forty times,” Gong Erniangzi replied.

Fu Songqing: "..."

This is really embarrassing; in the blink of an eye, I've accumulated eighty hits.

Fortunately, Lady Gong Er was not one to keep things mysterious, and immediately announced to all the soldiers: "Yesterday, our Northern Song Dynasty made peace with the Southern Song Dynasty. There will be no fighting in the Huaidong region for the time being. Zhang Jun and Liu Guangshi have also been transferred to deal with the pseudo-Qi Kingdom. Therefore, our army no longer needs to be stationed in Chuzhou, and it is time to find trouble for the pseudo-Qi Kingdom."

Fu Songqing only realized upon hearing this that the Northern Song Dynasty was also going to send troops to deal with the puppet Qi regime.

call!
Thank goodness, thank goodness it's not attacking my Southern Song Dynasty.

Oh dear, I shouldn't have spoken so hastily; I could have saved forty slaps.

Gong Erniangzi continued, "Our target is Sizhou, west of Chuzhou! Since the Jin invaders caused trouble once, Sizhou has been in a state of anarchy. The puppet army of the pseudo-Qi Kingdom, mountain bandits, outlaws, and local gentry forces are fighting each other in Sizhou. We didn't have the extra strength to deal with it before, but now that Chuzhou is stable and the Southern Song has temporarily made peace with our Northern Song, we should free up our hands to deal with the bandits and outlaws in Sizhou and save the whole of Sizhou."

This time, Fu Songqing was smarter; he kept quiet and only observed his surroundings.

In the Southern Song army, if an officer spoke like this, there would always be some sycophants below who would say a few words like "Good," "Yes, sir," "Beat them up," "Recapture Sizhou," and "Promote our national prestige."

But the Northern Song army remained completely silent, and no one responded to Gong Erniangzi's words.

Even Peng Yin wasn't getting any support. Fu Songqing was shocked: It seems like the effect of being beaten forty times in one go! For example, I don't dare to speak now.

Gong Erniangzi continued, "Now we will begin distributing weapons, ammunition, and military rations. You will have some more time to prepare. We will depart promptly in two hours. Dismissed!"

As soon as she said "dismissed," someone in the ranks immediately spoke up: "Hahaha, another battle is about to begin. I'm going to make a name for myself this time."

"Save your breath. You think you can do the work? I'll be the one who gets the credit."

“Wake up, all of you. What merit can you gain from attacking Sizhou? There are no strong enemies in Sizhou at all.” A more knowledgeable soldier laughed from the side: “Sizhou is just a flat plain. Nobody can expect to gain any merit here.”

"Huh?" the soldier who spoke earlier said, "When can we go and fight the Jin Kingdom? Fighting the Jin Kingdom will definitely bring great merit."

"What's the rush! This is the Jin Kingdom's final main course! We need to finish our appetizers before we tackle the main course."

"Hahaha!"

The army erupted in cheers.

Fu Songqing thought to himself: Are these soldiers not afraid of battle?
Just then, his captain walked over, grabbed Fu Songqing, and dragged him to the side of the training ground.

Fu Songqing thought he was going to be tied up and beaten eighty times, which scared him so much that his face turned half green.

However, the captain, having received Yue Wenxuan's assistance, knew that Fu Songqing's exile was merely a minor tactic, not a genuine attempt to train this civil official as a soldier. Therefore, he wouldn't actually beat him. Instead, he dragged him aside and reprimanded him, saying, "You spoke twice in formation. You should have received eighty lashes now, but after that, you'll be bedridden for at least three days, making you unable to participate in this expedition. So, these eighty lashes will be temporarily withheld until Sizhou is pacified, at which point they will be paid."

Fu Songqing asked anxiously, "Is there any way to avoid being beaten?"

The captain laughed: "Make amends for your service! You can avoid being flogged by doing good deeds."

Fu Songqing thought to himself: Then I must make a contribution.

The captain said, "Come with me, we're going to collect weapons, ammunition, rations, and all sorts of marching supplies."

Fu Songqing quickly followed.

The captain led a few men to the battalion commander, who had already taken the military supplies for his battalion. He divided them into several large baskets, which contained the supplies for the hundred men.

Fu Songqing and several comrades carried the supplies back to a corner of the training ground.

Each person was given three days' worth of rations, which were not carried by Fu Songqing himself, but by the "food carriers" in the team.

There were eight cooks in the hundred-man team, each carrying a large bag of grain, which was quite tiring. Fu Songqing secretly rejoiced that he was not a cook.

Next, weapons and ammunition will be distributed.

Each person was given a smoothbore musket, plus twenty rounds of ammunition.

Fu Songqing couldn't understand what it was, but he saw his teammates happily carrying their muskets, carefully putting the bullets into cloth bags, and hanging them on their waists.

"What...what is this?" Fu Songqing was completely bewildered.

"This is a musket, your weapon," the captain said. "You've only been in the army for two days and haven't even received any musket training before you're going to war, so it's not your fault that you don't know how to use it. I'll teach you during the march."

Fu Songqing: "???"

He was completely forced into this role, becoming a glorious musketeer without any prior knowledge, following the troops, carrying his gun, and forming a long, single-file line towards Sizhou.

(End of this chapter)