You have truly caused me great suffering!

The original name of the Xiang Army in Hedong Road was: Xiaojie Zhuangqiang Army.

This name was established during the reign of Emperor Jinzong and has been used ever since.

At that time, the Liao people posed a great threat, so a large number of local militia were established in various routes in Hebei and Hedong to defend their homelands.

The imperial court intended to use the local people to defend their homeland, serving as an auxiliary force to the imperial guards used in field battles.

After the Treaty of Chanyuan was signed, the Song and Liao dynasties went from being mortal enemies to becoming brotherly nations.

What's funny is that both countries have kept their promises and at least a major war hasn't broken out.

As a result, the local militia on the Song-Liao border, like those in the interior, became increasingly incompetent and eventually ceased to be considered an army altogether.

From the imperial court to local authorities, there was almost no involvement or concern for decades.

The number of people and reserves under each battalion, and whether it was simply a shell of its former self, were all basically a mess.

Even if a military officer position is vacant, it often remains unfilled for more than a decade.

The imperial court's intention was clear: to let these local militias naturally disappear.

Now, Hedong has suddenly been replenished with nearly 20,000 soldiers, regaining the title of Xiaojie Strong Army. Taiyuan Prefecture has also filled the vacancies in its officials, with Liu Jizu personally taking on the position of Defense Commissioner, eager to make his mark.

The first task was to reorganize the military post stations of the eight armies and fourteen prefectures in Hedong.

Taiyuan Prefecture was in good financial condition, and it was easy to recruit laborers. They cooperated with the Guangyuantang merchant caravan to build inns, taverns, wharves, horse and carriage shops, small-scale mule and horse markets, and distribution centers for local and mountain products near the military post station.
Each prefecture and county was responsible for distributing market permits, sending tax inspectors to collect taxes, and setting up patrol offices to manage public order.

These things can be effective immediately and quickly become large-scale.

It can only be said that the land of the Song Dynasty was actually full of vitality. Once it got rid of Bianliang, that big vampire, it was able to prosper very quickly.

Bianliang (Kaifeng) is too greedy. Seven or eight out of ten of the wealth of the provinces east of the Yellow River is taken away by Bianliang, making it inevitable that they will live a very tight life.

Nowadays, not only are the roads between Taiyuan and Yingzhou repaired, but the military post stations are also quite well-established.

Chen Shao led his men on this new route, starting from Taiyuan and heading directly to the northern foothills of the Wutai Mountains.

They settled in the Lingwu Army camp, located northwest of Daixian County, the seat of Daizhou, on the south bank of the Hutuo River.

After the Song Dynasty pacified the Northern Han, it set up a garrison here. At its peak, the garrison here had more than 30,000 infantry and cavalry, with cavalry accounting for about half of them.

This military camp, relying on the Wutai Mountains, served as the rear guard for important fortresses and passes such as Yanmen, Tudeng, and Ruyue in the surrounding area.

Setting up camp here allows for attacks on the flanks and rear of Wuzhou and Shuozhou, while also providing cover for the vital passage along the Hutuo River, through the Wutai Mountains, and deep into the Hedong Road.

The reason why people from Hedong were willing to follow Chen Shao was simply because they couldn't resist the sense of security he provided.

With defenses deployed layer by layer at Yunnei, Yingzhou, and Wutaishan, no one could easily break through.

The heartland of Hedong, including Taiyuan, felt no threat of war at all.

Looking at the dire situation in the neighboring areas of Hebei, this feeling becomes even more pronounced in comparison.

Chen Shao was very satisfied with the trip; the new road had been built with great care.

I didn't experience much of a bumpy ride on my journey, and the tire tracks were already quite fixed.

Pack horses and mules traveled in an endless stream, transporting various supplies to the front lines.

Having fought so many battles over the years, Chen Shao is now somewhat of an expert, knowing that in modern warfare, transportation and troop deployment are almost entirely carried out by waterways.

One reason is that the daily drinking water requirement for people and horses is enormous; without water, they cannot move an inch.

Secondly, if waterways have sufficient width and depth, transporting supplies is a hundred times more convenient than land transport. A single waterway used for transferring supplies could support a fully equipped army of tens of thousands for a deep offensive campaign.

In fact, Chen Shao did not know that throughout history, whether in China or the West, most of the influential major battles took place around waterways.

"This place is the shield of Hedong. If we hold this position, Hedong will be safe and sound." Chen Shao said to Wu Lin, "The loss of Weizhou is not your fault. Train your troops well here. I will have a great use for your battalion after the New Year!"

The Battle of Weizhou was actually a failure; Wu Lin failed to capture it.

However, Chen Shao did not blame him. Wanyan Zonghan was a formidable enemy, and his proud and fierce soldiers were no weak forces either.

It's not that easy to break through.

Wu Lin felt very guilty because the Dingnan Army had been invincible since it set out from Nuanquan Peak, but it had stopped with him.

Moreover, Qu Duan cursed him in various occasions every day, so it was inevitable that the news would reach his ears.

Qu Duan's behavior actually alarmed Wu Jie, who secretly sent someone to plead with him to be more lenient.

Who knew that Qu Duan completely disregarded Wu Jie, criticizing him along with him, and even publicized that Wu Jie had sent someone to plead for his brother.

This forced Wu Jie to personally write a letter to Chen Shao explaining the situation and requesting punishment.

Chen Shao sent someone to reprimand Qu Duan, telling him not to offend people everywhere and undermine the unity of the Dingnan Army.

The two sat in the camp, and Wu Lin nodded and said, "What the commander said is correct. As long as we station a large number of troops here, it will be difficult for the Jurchen Tartars to cross the Wutai Mountains and penetrate into the Hedong Road."

The Khitans made peace with the Song Dynasty precisely because they couldn't conquer this area. Unable to break through here, their southward advance required a detour through the Ninghua, Kelan, or even Huoshan armies to the west. Those areas were desolate, with little looting, and the people were fiercely independent. The local garrisons, such as the Zhe family of Fuzhou and the Yang family of Huoshan, were hereditary local generals—both insignificant and difficult to deal with.

Wu Lin tried his best to demonstrate his strategic acumen to Chen Shao, fearing that Chen Shao might really think he was a fool.

After being criticized for so long, Wu Lin really started to doubt himself, so he has been working hard to study military strategy during this period.

In fact, Wu Lin is very talented and capable. Chen Shao knew that even if he sent Qu Duan, Qu Duan would not be able to conquer Weizhou.

Often, the outcome of a war is predetermined from the very beginning; truly exciting and dramatic battles are the exceptions in history.

"If the Jurchen Tartars come again this time, they will most likely advance from two directions. Zongwang has not received the peace treaty and reparations from the Song court, but he has not launched an attack. This shows that the Jin state has reached a consensus and wants to take down our tough nut first."

Chen Shao nodded, thinking to himself how Zong Han had so easily conquered Taiyuan in history.

When he first invaded the Song Dynasty in the south, he encountered virtually no resistance before reaching Taiyuan.

Chen Shao was unaware that, a century after the Treaty of Chanyuan between the Song and Liao dynasties, the Daizhou military camp had fallen into ruin.

The elite troops stationed there were either transferred away or their positions were filled by vacancies. The stored military rations and equipment were either reassigned elsewhere or simply disappeared from the accounts without explanation.

During the tense war against Liaodong, half of the military resources occupied by Hedong Road were used by other routes in Hebei.

The Daizhou camp was originally a continuous stretch of military barracks, with beacon fires visible in the distance, tens of thousands of troops, and sentries moving back and forth. It has always been guarded by famous generals and elite soldiers.

After the peace treaty was negotiated with the Liao people, the once massive Daizhou camp was left in ruins: the walls collapsed, the barracks were abandoned, the beacon towers fell down, and the moats were leveled.

It has completely lost the ability to assemble large numbers of soldiers.

From the Xuanhe era onwards, before Wu Lin led the Lingwu army north, the Hedong Circuit of the Song Dynasty was completely unprepared.

It's just that Yelü Yanxi didn't have much ambition to expand the territory; otherwise, if he had really sent troops south, Hedong would have been ravaged.

In actual history, when Tong Guan campaigned against the Liao, he only attacked the area around Yanjing.

Of the hundreds of thousands of troops, not a single soldier advanced towards the prefectures within the Yunnei region. After Yanjing was captured by the Jurchens, the Liao people in the prefectures within the Yunnei region collapsed on their own, and the Jurchen army did not directly advance into the prefectures within the Yunnei region, but merely nominally returned them to the Song Dynasty.

Even so, the Song Dynasty never sent a single official or soldier to exercise its rule over the various prefectures in Yunnei. As a result, such an important place as Yingzhou was actually in the hands of a powerful figure like Meng Nuan, who only had two or three thousand men.

After redeeming Yan and Yun, the Song Dynasty finally remembered Yunzhong Prefecture, and then came the abstract matter again. They handed over the Yan region to Guo Yaoshi, and then sent Wang Bing to lead a part of the Shengjie Army to garrison Taiyuan as a precaution. The various prefectures in Yunnei still did not send troops to garrison them, as if sending troops would lead to their death, which was completely baffling.

How abstract is this arrangement?

In other words, the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, which were finally reclaimed, were handed over to Guo Yaoshi, a treacherous and fickle man, without any capable generals stationed there.

The reason was simply that Guo Yaoshi went to Bianliang, performed for Emperor Huizong, presented rare treasures from the Liao Dynasty, and bribed key officials.

Thus, the Song emperor and his ministers handed over the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun entirely to a general from an enemy state who had just surrendered.

When Zonghan marched south, Guo Yaoshi surrendered to the Jin Dynasty. The Jurchen western army easily penetrated deep into the territory, crossed the Wutai Mountains, plundered various places, and besieged Taiyuan.

The Jingkang Incident was indeed tragic, but upon closer examination, it becomes clear that the incompetent emperor and muddle-headed officials were entirely deserving of the suffering they endured.

It was just a pity for the people of the north, who suffered such a great calamity along with them. At this time, the Daizhou camp, which had been abandoned for decades, was finally bustling with activity once again.

The well-trained supply train and the people of Yunnei Prefecture, burdened with deep-seated grievances, worked with reckless abandon.

In autumn and winter, they would dig trenches, take soil to build fortified walls, rebuild military barracks and houses, and establish beacon towers.

Chen Shao's heart was at ease upon seeing the large camp of this size.

No matter how much strength the Jurchen Tartars have gathered, they can forget about breaking through from their side. This defensive line is impregnable and heavily fortified; they cannot possibly breach it.

He was already in an invincible position. The only concern was that the two Jurchen forces, after joining forces, would not attack from his side, but instead march south from Hebei.

At that time, the battle lines will be stretched infinitely long, and the terrain will not be as advantageous as it is now.

On the other hand, if they really did head south from Hebei, we could then legitimately conquer Hebei.

If these Tartars were to break through Bianliang like in history, I might be able to use the credit for reclaiming the two emperors to become Cao Cao in one step.

Today, the Jiangnan and Bashu regions have no rivals like Sun Quan and Liu Bei.
With several pieces already in place, Chen Shao was already impatient for the war to reignite next year.

He had many things he wanted to do, even after sweeping these barbaric Tartars into the dustbin of history.

Having come all this way, we can't just focus on fighting. We must do what we can to contribute something meaningful to this land, so that our trip won't be in vain.
-
The officials in Taiyuan are truly motivated.

Chen Shao only stayed at the Daizhou camp for seven or eight days, and many changes occurred on his way back to Taiyuan.

It's no exaggeration to say that things are changing rapidly.

This can be seen as a retaliatory development after being drained of resources by Bianliang for decades.

Chen Shao returned to Taiyuan, and it was already dark.

He habitually went to Zhong Lingxi's room, preparing to do his best for the sake of his legitimate son.

After a quick bath, just as he was about to embrace his young wife and make love, Zhong Lingxi sighed deeply, quite disappointed.

Chen Shao reprimanded him sternly, "Marital harmony is a fundamental principle. If you keep making excuses, you should be drowned in a pig cage!"

Zhong Lingxi said aggrievedly, "There's something unusual about my body."

"what happened?"

"My period hasn't come yet, it used to be very regular."

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Chen Shao's mind. He quickly asked her about the time last month, and after calculating, it had been almost forty days... He looked his young wife up and down, and seeing that she was lively and energetic and showed no signs of endocrine disorders, he exclaimed with delight, "Could it be that you're pregnant!"

"Pregnant with what?" Zhong Lingxi stared wide-eyed.

"Of course it's a child." Chen Shao reached out to touch her lower abdomen, but Zhong Lingxi was ticklish and giggled as she dodged away.

Upon hearing this, Zhong Lingxi stared blankly, reached out to touch her lower abdomen, and then said, "No, I didn't feel a baby."

"It's only been a few days, at most a month, how could you possibly touch it?" Chen Shao felt a special kind of joy. To be honest, having an heir was a huge burden for him.

This is different from the pressure from parents to have children in a previous life.

In my past life, when I encountered parents who were pressuring me to have children, the comments section would often be filled with the sarcastic remark: "Press me, press me, press me! Is your family on the throne or something?"

Now, Chen Shao might actually have it.
He immediately summoned Li Shishi to take Huanhuan's pulse.

Zhong Lingxi, in a daze, sat in the chair, watching Chen Shao rub his hands together and pace back and forth on the floor several times, looking very expectant.

His eyes shone brightly, as if burning with passion. He was fed up with the anxiety about the unknown future. When one had military and political power and was fully established, choosing an heir was always a major problem.

The impact of this event was unimaginable to later generations, and Chen Shao only gradually accepted it after arriving.

In this position, I have no private matters; all my private matters are public affairs.

After a while, Li Shishi and Zhe Shi came into the room together. She glanced at Chen Shao, but before she could say anything, she sat down at a table, placed a cloth pillow on it, and said, "Huanhuan, come here quickly, I'll take your pulse and I'll know."

Zhong Lingxi said "oh" and sat down opposite her, reaching out to lift her long sleeve and revealing her wrist on the cloth pillow.

Li Shishi gently placed her fingertips on her pulse, and then calmed down.

The maids around them stood holding their breath, watching them with expectant expressions.

After a long while, Li Shishi released her wrist, revealed a smile, and said, "Congratulations, my lord, Huanhuan is really pregnant!"

"There can't be any mistake, right?" Chen Shao asked, suppressing his excitement.

Li Shishi smiled gently and said, "We can find a doctor to try again. If he can also diagnose it, then it should be correct."

"Alright, alright, Cui Die, go tell the guards to find a doctor."

Zhong Lingxi walked blankly to Zhe Shi, tugged at her sleeve, and asked pitifully, "Childbirth must be very painful, right?"

"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt." Zhe Shi pulled her into his arms and comforted her with a smile.

"Whether it hurts or not, that's something for ten months from now. Why are you thinking so far ahead? Right now, you need to take good care of yourself." After Chen Shao finished speaking, he thought about her age and realized that it was indeed a bit dangerous, so he said, "Find a female doctor to stay at the mansion. That way, if anything happens, there will be someone to take care of you."

Li Shishi said, "We don't really need female doctors. It would be better to find some experienced maids. The maids are not good enough."

Chen Shao nodded, and by then everyone else had heard the news and came over to offer their congratulations.

Before long, the doctor arrived. Chen Shao led Zhong Lingxi into the guest room so the doctor could take her pulse.

After taking the pulse, the most famous doctor in Taiyuan stood up, bowed, and said, "Congratulations, General! Congratulations, Madam!"

"Is it a man or a woman?" Chen Shao regretted asking as soon as he finished. Sure enough, the doctor looked embarrassed and said, "This old man has no way of knowing."

Chen Shao chuckled inwardly, thinking that this doctor probably thought he was a fool for asking such a question.

"These days, I've had to trouble you to make several trips to retrieve it."

The doctor quickly replied, "It is my honor."

"There's one more thing, and this must not be revealed to outsiders," Chen Shao said solemnly.

The doctor quickly stated that he would not reveal a single word, not even to his closest relatives.

This is no joke.

The Zhong family's daughter is pregnant with Chen Shao's child; it's entirely possible that someone might deliberately try to sabotage the pregnancy.

Because if this child were a boy, his birth would affect the state of the world.

Back in Zhong Lingxi's room, all the concubines had arrived. Li Yumei warmly approached Zhong Lingxi, asking about her well-being as if they were childhood friends.

Chen Shao chuckled inwardly. This little girl was really shrewd; she had become familiar with the mistress in just over a month.

Zhong Lingxi also liked her very much and secretly whispered to her. Her worried yet expectant little face was very cute.

Li Shishi brought over a cup of tea and said with a smile, "My lord, you are now completely satisfied."

"I don't know," Chen Shao said, taking the tea. "This year I'll be able to stay up all night with Shishi."

Li Shishi blushed, feeling a warm glow in her heart. She whispered, "Shishi also wants to have a child for my husband."

Chen Shao blinked. "I'll come see you tonight."

Li Shishi nodded, then turned around happily and saw Chun Tao eavesdropping, her eyes still moving.

She immediately knew what her sister was up to; her almond-shaped eyes widened, and her pretty face turned frosty.

Chun Tao was startled, and quickly took her sister's arm with a smile, saying, "I'll sleep with Huan Huan tonight. We just agreed. She's a little scared, so let's comfort her together."

"Who asked you?" Li Shishi said with a satisfied smile, "Don't talk too late, let her get some rest." (End of Chapter)