The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 391 Returning the Envoys
September, 1132 AD, the second year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty, and the tenth year of Tianhui in the Jin Dynasty.

Yue Wenxuan possessed the body of "Shagen" and led a construction team towards the pass of Qingyang Town in Sizhou.

This "Sha Gen" is the same "Sha Gen" from the movie "A World Without Thieves," a typical modern migrant worker.

Yue Wenxuan asked Cai Xinzi to make a Shagen figurine. When he put it in the sand table, he found that Shagen could do quite a lot of things, such as mixing cement, stacking bricks, and plastering walls. Basically, Shagen could do all the work that ordinary migrant workers could do.

Such a person would be perfect for leading an ancient construction team.

So they sent Shagen to lead a construction and transportation team, carrying a large quantity of cement produced by Chuzhou Cement Plant No. 1, to Qingyang Town to provide support.

The transport team was very large, with hundreds of horse-drawn carriages, each carrying more than a thousand kilograms of cement.

When the large convoy arrived in Qingyang Town, it gave Fu Songqing quite a fright.

Fu Songqing couldn't help but ask, "Why transport sand all the way here?"

Yue Wenxuan laughed: "The last time Kong Yanzhou dared to attack our pass, it was because the pass was not strong enough. This time we brought cement to reinforce the pass. But you are right, it is indeed not appropriate to transport this stuff over long distances, and cement is not suitable for long-distance transportation. Once we have more ball mills, we will build a cement plant in Sizhou as well."

Fu Songqing: "This is called cement?"

Yue Wenxuan: "You'll understand once you see its effects."

Fu Songqing is now a curious child, and he is very curious about all the "new gadgets" in the Northern Song Dynasty. Of course, he has to see the results. He didn't even stay in the government office. He took a large group of his subordinates and followed the construction team.

The construction team left Qingyang Town and continued northwest. Before long, they arrived at the pass where Zhang Wei (Zhang Wazi) was stationed.

By this time, the passes had already been built, but the walls were mostly made of wood, and the forts were made of mud and stones, so they were hardly sturdy.

Zhang Wei, who is stationed here, is also under considerable pressure!
Because Kong Yanzhou had been eyeing this place covetously and had made several attempts to attack, hoping to take advantage of the fact that the main force of the Northern Song army was in Shouchun to seize back Sizhou.

Zhang Wei only had a thousand soldiers, and he had to spread them out to take care of several passes. He was on tenterhooks every day.

Seeing a huge construction crew suddenly arrive, I was a little confused: "What are they doing?"

Yue Wenxuan walked over with a smile: "My name is Shagen. I was sent by Young Master Yue to help the general reinforce the pass."

Zhang Wei was overjoyed.

Fu Songqing urged from the side, "Stop chatting, let's skip a hundred million words, I'm eager to see how this mud is used."

So, Yue Wenxuan began to take on apprentices.

Modern migrant workers are all all-rounders on construction sites. With a wave of their hand, they can order the construction team to immediately dig up river sand, first "wash" the sand to remove the mud, then add cement and mix it...

Fu Songqing looked completely bewildered, not quite understanding.

However, the result he was so eager to see was nowhere to be seen. Yue Wenxuan told him that the finished product needed to sit for several days until the concrete hardened before the effect could be observed. Fu Songqing deflated instantly, like a punctured balloon.

Fu Songqing: "Then I'll come back in a few days..."

Just as he was about to leave, he suddenly heard the sentry shout, "A strange group is coming from the northwest!"

Everyone exclaimed "Eh!" in unison and climbed to higher ground to look northwest. They saw a small squad of cavalry from the pseudo-Qi state escorting a small troop, swaggering towards the pass.

Zhang Wei: "What audacity! A small cavalry squad, only about ten men, dares to swagger towards us? Aren't they afraid of getting shot?"

Fu Songqing said, "It looks like they're here to talk. Don't fire."

Yue Wenxuan also said, "Let's hear what they have to say first."

So the musketeers set up their muskets but didn't fire, only making a threatening gesture.

When the small cavalry unit was about a hundred meters away from the pass, they shouted, "Don't attack! We've come to return your Song envoys!"

"Return the Song envoy?" Everyone was bewildered: "What envoy?"

From the small group being escorted by cavalry, a man dressed as a servant emerged and shouted towards the pass: "My master is Wang Lun, the envoy of the Great Song Dynasty. He was sent as an envoy to the Jin Dynasty in the first year of Jianyan. He was detained by the Jin Dynasty for more than five years and has finally been able to return home today!"

"Huh?" Upon hearing this, Fu Songqing's "empathy" instantly surged.

Fu Songqing was also an envoy! After being slandered by Qin Hui, he was ordered to come to the Northern Song Dynasty as an envoy. However, upon arrival, he was exiled to the army and then detained in the Northern Song Dynasty as an official. Although he now understands that Yue Wenxuan "exiled" him to the army so that he could experience the battlefield, and he has now been restored to his status as a civil official, he still cannot return to his country.

So when he heard that the other party was an envoy from the Song Dynasty who had been detained by the Jin Dynasty for more than five years, he almost burst into tears: "Quickly, quickly open the gate and welcome Lord Wang back to the country."

At this moment, Yue Wenxuan was thinking: Wang Lun? The Wang Lun who fought Wang Lun? That's impossible! It should just be a coincidence of names.

The cavalry of the pseudo-Qi state outside began to retreat...

Wang Lun and his entourage walked forward and soon arrived outside the closed gate.

With a wave of his hand, Zhang Wei summoned a large number of melee soldiers to form an ambush at the entrance, and raised all the powerful bows and crossbows before opening the gate and letting Wang Lun and his group in.

Wang Lun and his group raised their hands to indicate that they had no weapons. Zhang Wei and the others carefully checked them before they relaxed their guard.

As soon as Zhang Wei announced the relaxation of vigilance, Fu Songqing rushed forward and grabbed Wang Lun's arm: "Lord Wang, you have really suffered these years. You spent five and a half years in the Jin Kingdom. I don't know how difficult it must have been for you."

Wang Lun didn't know who this guy was, but seeing his tearful and moved appearance, he felt that he was a good person, so he quickly replied, "I have failed the imperial court's mission... May I ask who this gentleman is?"

Fu Songqing quickly introduced himself: "My name is Fu Songqing! I once served as the envoy to Huaidong, and later as the peace envoy to the Northern Song Dynasty. Now I am being held captive by the Northern Song Dynasty and can only do some odd jobs here."

Wang Lun: "!"

His first reaction was to scold Fu Songqing for serving as an official in the Northern Song Dynasty, but he stopped himself from saying it.

Wang Lun's experience was far from simple. He personally witnessed the Jingkang Incident, and when Bianjing (Kaifeng) fell, Emperor Qinzong defended the Xuande Gate, and Wang Lun even went to help. He experienced several changes of imperial power within a short period of one or two years. After his ninth sister, Zhao Gou, ascended the throne, Wang Lun was sent as an envoy to the Jin Dynasty and was detained there for five and a half years. During these five and a half years, he secretly met with Emperors Huizong and Qinzong.

Would someone like him care whether the Ninth Prince or the Seventeenth Prince ascends the throne?

For him, the Song Dynasty had many emperors, so what difference did loyalty to any one of them make to the Song Dynasty? As long as he didn't serve as an official for the Jin Dynasty, there wouldn't be any problems.

(End of this chapter)