The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 376 Reassembling the Mandarin Duck Formation

Sizhou was easily captured by the Northern Song Dynasty.

When the Song army entered the city, the people who came to greet them burst into tears.

Fu Songqing, a traditional scholar, naturally empathized with the suffering of the people and almost wrote a poem to depict their misery.

As he was preparing, he saw Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi already mingling with the common people in the crowd in the distance. The two important figures completely disregarded their status and were showing concern for the ordinary people, even pulling their parents along.

Fu Songqing was taken aback: It was one thing for this person to act in front of low-ranking soldiers, but he actually acted in front of ordinary people too?
However, he immediately thought of what Yue Wenxuan had told him last time: if high-ranking officials in the Southern Song Dynasty wouldn't even put on an act, then what was the point?

Seeing that the army was relatively free and that the soldiers were not required to form ranks, Fu Songqing mingled with the crowd and pushed forward. He quickly squeezed his way to Yue Wenxuan and Gong Erniangzi and secretly listened to their conversation.

Yue Wenxuan was speaking to a local gentryman when he asked, "How has Sizhou been doing these past few years?"

The local gentry, with tears in his eyes, said, "It's terrible! The Jurchen invaders came and drove away the Song... cough... Southern Song army here. Then they replaced them with troops from the puppet Qi regime to defend the city. After a while, the Southern Song sent troops to attack, but they couldn't defeat the puppet Qi and retreated again..."

Yue Wenxuan: "I'm not talking about things on the battlefield, I just want to ask how you are doing?"

Upon hearing this question, the local gentry and the surrounding villagers all wept: "It's so bitter! Farming is impossible. There's war every few days, and the army tramples through the fields, so the crops don't even grow big. Merchants don't dare to come either; we can't buy many things, and we don't have the money to buy them. Most of the local craftsmen have been captured by the Jurchens and the puppet Qi regime; we can't even find someone who knows how to make wooden buckets..."

Fu Songqing was also shocked when he heard this. Didn't this mean that agriculture, commerce, handicrafts and the like had completely collapsed? How could the people here survive?
The people wept, saying, "More than half of the people of Sizhou are dead."

Yue Wenxuan's face was grave: "Don't worry, everyone. Our Northern Song Dynasty is back now. Our Northern Song Dynasty is not like the cowardly Southern Song Dynasty. We are not afraid of the pseudo-Qi Kingdom, or even the Jin Kingdom. We will protect you all, and we will also take care of your lives. I have already given orders to have grain transported from Chuzhou. Just tighten your belts for a few more days, and once our grain transport team arrives, life will get better."

The people were overjoyed upon hearing this, and cheers rose and fell.

Just then, a local gentry came out with a worried look on his face: "Sir, the grain transported from Chuzhou must have been transported by waterway through Hongze Lake, right? The grain will pass by the foot of Liushan Mountain when it is transported through Hongze Lake to our Sizhou City. There is a group of bandits entrenched on Liushan Mountain... I'm afraid they will come out to rob the grain. Please be careful."

Yue Wenxuan: "Oh? Liushan?"

After the Northern Song army landed on the east bank of Hongze Lake, it seems they passed by a place called Liushan. However, when the 5,000-strong Northern Song army passed by, there was no reaction on Liushan, making people think it was a barren mountain.

It's obvious that the bandits wouldn't dare provoke a large army, but if the grain transport team wasn't escorted by a large army, the bandits would very likely cause trouble.

Yue Wenxuan nodded: "This intelligence is very useful, hmm! How many bandits are there?"

The local gentry replied respectfully, "About three hundred people."

Yue Wenxuan glanced around, his gaze sweeping over the faces of his junior officers: "Who is willing to go to Liushan to suppress the bandits?"

“Me, me, me, me!”

Several captains raised their hands, and Fu Songqing noticed that the captain of his own 100-man musketeer squad had also raised his hand.

Yue Wenxuan said, "Suppressing bandits is not the same as a decisive battle on the plains. Bandits will take advantage of the mountainous terrain, making them very difficult to deal with. You should think carefully before you volunteer." "Uh!" The new captains were a little hesitant.

After considering for a few seconds, Fu Songqing's musket squad captain actually lowered his hand.

Fu Songqing was very anxious and quickly went to the captain's side, saying, "Captain, why did you put your hands down? This is a matter of great importance to the country and the people. How can we not be the first to act?"

The captain spread his hands and said, "We are the musket squad. There are no other types of soldiers in the squad. We are all smoothbore musket soldiers. We are not very good at fighting in complex terrain. If the bandits take advantage of the terrain to ambush us, we will be at a disadvantage in close combat. Take you for example. Are you good at close combat? I can tell just by looking at you that you can't even use a knife."

Fu Songqing: "..."

This is quite awkward.

Wanting to fight for the country and its people, but being powerless to even kill a chicken, what can be done?

Yue Wenxuan began to muster his troops. This time, the five thousand-strong army of the Northern Song Dynasty that went to Sizhou was divided into five thousand-man teams, which went to attack several targets at the same time. Therefore, there were only a little over a thousand soldiers in Sizhou City. It was impossible for them all to go to suppress the bandits. Only a few hundred people could be selected selectively.

Yue Wenxuan casually selected a few veteran teams. These were veterans who had followed Gong Er Niangzi since she started her rebellion. They were skilled in the Mandarin Duck Formation, which was perfect for suppressing bandits. These veterans had been promoted in later battles and had their own status, but now that they were going to suppress mountain bandits, they were reorganized into teams and the Mandarin Duck Formation they used at the beginning was restored.

The veterans picked up their familiar old weapons, hugged their old teammates, and laughed: "I never thought our Mandarin Duck Squad would be resurrected one day."

"Haha, I'm sorry to trouble you, Zheng Xiaoqi. You've already been promoted to the position of tank commander in a tank platoon, and now you have to come back to be our cook."

"No matter what promotion I get in the future, I'll always be a junior soldier in front of you all. I'm very happy to be able to reunite the old 'Mandarin Duck Formation'."

After setting up the Mandarin Duck Formation, Yue Wenxuan pointed to the musket team and said, "Musket team, select some musket soldiers to join the Mandarin Duck Formation and assign four musket soldiers to each formation."

The old-fashioned, low-end version of the Mandarin Duck Formation doesn't include musketeers, but there's also a high-end version. Adding four musketeers will create a new variation.

Yue Wenxuan said, "We need smart musketeers, the kind of smart people who can actively cooperate with the changes in the Mandarin Duck Formation even without prior training. You should carefully select them."

As soon as he made this request, the captain of the musket team turned his gaze to Fu Songqing: "You are a clever musket soldier."

"Huh?" Fu Songqing pointed to his nose, overjoyed: "I can go?"

Soon, the two musket team captains each selected some musketeers from their own hundred-man squads. They wanted those who were quick-witted and not rigid. Fu Songqing clearly met this requirement and was assigned to a mandarin duck formation.

This Mandarin Duck Formation consisted of twelve experienced veterans, with four additional young and beautiful fire-wielding soldiers.

Fu Songqing joined the new team with a lot of trepidation.

(End of this chapter)