Song Dynasty

Chapter 111 The Enemy That Came Out Suddenly

Hearing what Fang Worong said, and looking at the surrounding terrain, Yan Yuemeng secretly groaned in his heart.

This ghost place is full of bare loess everywhere, and it can be said that there is no grass growing.Standing on the ground and looking up, you can see everything in a radius of more than 20 miles, and there is nowhere to hide.

If you meet a thief today, how can you escape.

He said: "Brother Fang is right. There is no way to run, so I can only walk slowly to maintain my strength. I hope I can reach the county seat as soon as possible."

What Fang Rong said next made Yan Yuemeng's heart sink to the bottom: "I'm afraid I won't be able to reach the county today. These thieves have followed us for such a long way. Obviously they are aiming at the money in the back. purpose, and will not give up."

Yan Yuemeng shouted nervously: "Brother Fang, if that's the case, what should I do?"

Fang Worong snorted, and patted the scabbard on his waist: "If those thieves don't open their eyes, maybe they will have a fight with them."

"How many thieves, that's ten, ten!"

Fang Worong said: "Brother Yan, don't be afraid, I still have some strength, so I may not be able to suffer."

Strength, can you win with strength alone?Yan Yuemeng was even more afraid, but what else could he say in this situation?

He who has always been sneaky and slippery even took the initiative to take the pannier on Fang Worong's back at this time, so he had to save some strength for Brother Fang.Now, Yan Yuemeng can only pin all his hopes on Fang Worong.

Because of the strong fear in his heart, he walked about two miles, carrying a hundred catties of copper coins on his back, and Yan Yuemeng was so tired that he was about to die.

He glanced at Fang Worong who was clearing the way ahead, this monkey jumped up and down with a simple knife, how could he not know how tired he was!

Yan Yuemeng finally couldn't take it anymore, sat down on the ground, panting: "Take a break."

Fang Worong turned around and said with a smile: "Brother Yan, you took the initiative to carry this basket, no wonder I."

As soon as the words fell, suddenly, a group of people jumped out from the dry ditch next to them, forming a semicircle.Waving the weapon in his hand, he slowly approached with a grim smile.

It can be seen that these people are regular soldiers who have been trained, and they occupied the favorable terrain from the very beginning, vaguely forming a siege to Yan and Fang.

"Ah, thief, no, no, no...it's the Jurchen Tartars!" Yan Yuemeng, who had just sat down, uttered a sharp scream, jumped up like an electric shock, and was then strangled by the straps of the pannier on his back and fell to the ground , Huang Chengcheng's copper coins were scattered all over the ground.

Yes, it was the Jurchen Tartars. As a native of Yingtianfu, Nanjing was ransacked several times by the Jin army during the Jingkang year and later when Zongze stayed in Tokyo.How could Yan Yuemeng, who was affected by the flames of war and destroyed his family, not recognize them.

I saw that the ten thieves had all shaved their heads, revealing their bald blue scalps, and there were a few braids like rat tails knotted behind their heads. Who is it if they are not Jurchens?
Intense fear instantly occupied his mind, like a nightmare, Yan Yuemeng felt that he couldn't even move a finger.

Seeing the copper coins all over the floor, Jurchen's eyes lit up, and suddenly she uttered a strange cry and rushed forward: "Money, money, mine, mine!"

It was at this moment that their strict formation also dispersed.

Say it is late, then soon.Suddenly, Fang Worong yelled violently: "Dog tartar!" The long simple knife in his hand drew a flash of light like lightning, and instantly cut the throat of a spearman.

Without waiting for human blood to mark it, the long knife in his hand turned again, and slashed directly on the forehead of another archer. With a "puchi", red, white and white liquid sprayed into the air.

"Zhiniang thief, dare to steal my money, dare to steal my money! How do you tell me to explain to Du Tong?" He yelled sharply, slashing forward with the knife in his hand.

Suddenly, two people were hacked to death, and they were archers and spearmen again.The other eight Jurchens only had a short-handed saber in their hands. The so-called one inch is long and one inch is strong, one inch is short, and one inch is dangerous.

It was only at this time that Yan Yuemeng came back to his senses, and stared forward with wide eyes in surprise.

Fang Worong is just a scholar and doesn't know the slightest bit of martial arts.But relying on his great strength and bravery, he slashed unreasonably and forced the remaining eight Tartars to jump around on the ground, with fear on their faces.

He, he, he...why is he so powerful?

In a blink of an eye, another Jurchen Tartar was cut in the shoulder by him, and the knife in his hand fell to the ground in pain.

"It seems that the Jurchen Tartars are not doing well?" Fang Worong laughed loudly, and shouted: "Brother Yan, help me, let's clean up these people together!"

"Hey... good..." Yan Yuemeng responded subconsciously, but his body was so soft, how could he stand up.

Seeing Fang Worong calling for help, the enemy who was injured just now yelled: "Defeated, defeated!" Turned around and ran away.

Someone started, and the other people who had been terrified by Fang Worong uttered a cry at the same time, and followed a cloud of smoke, turning their heads and fleeing in a hurry.

"I want to be afraid, it's not so easy. You want to steal my money, mother-in-law!" Fang Worong roared again and again, but refused to stop.

A group of people chased after each other, and in a blink of an eye they bypassed the mountain bay in front of them, and could no longer see them.

"Brother Fang, Brother Fang... come back, come back..." Yan Yuemeng shouted loudly, and he heard crying in his voice.

In front of him, the two corpses were bleeding, and the smell of fishy smell was floating in the wind.Buzzing flies came out of nowhere and kept landing on the enemy.

Those two people stared at Yan Yuemeng with black and white eyes, their eyes were full of confusion, as if they were asking: Why did I die?

The strong fear still came in waves like a tide, making Yan Rimeng stiff, and he just sat on the ground numbly, staring at the two dead men.

He didn't know how long it took before he regained consciousness, stood up in a panic, randomly picked up the copper coins on the ground and put them into the basket.While pretending, he shouted: "There are tartars, there are tartars, I want to go home, I want to go home...Brother Fang, brother Fang, why haven't you come back?"

A voice came: "Brother Yan is right, we have to go home."

It was Fang Worong.

Yan Yuemeng suddenly turned around, and tears welled up: "Brother Fang, you are back... what?"

However, Fang Worong was covered in blood, and he was still holding the simple knife in his hand, and it was resting on the neck of a Jurchen whose five fingers on his right hand had been cut off.

Brother Fang not only repelled so many enemies, but also brought back a prisoner.

Yan Yue and Meng Huan cried out with joy: "Brother Fang, you've been away for so long, I thought you wouldn't be able to come back."

"Brother Yan said something unfavorable. I don't care about ten thieves." As he spoke, Fang Worong kicked the prisoner's ass and shouted: "Put on your back and walk this way."

Seeing that the direction he pointed was the way he came here, Yan Yuemeng was taken aback: "Brother Fang, aren't you going to Macheng?"

Fang Worong said with a sullen face, "I won't go to Macheng anymore, that county town has already been taken by bandits, we have to escort the prisoners back as soon as possible to report to the Wang Junshi, the military situation is like a fire, we can't delay for a moment."

"Ma...Macheng is lost...how...what?"

Fang Worong nodded: "Yes, I lost it, now it's full of bandits."

Hearing that he could go home, Yan Yuemeng came back to his senses: "Okay, let's go right away. Brother Fang, I didn't expect you, a scholar, to have such martial arts. You really are the legendary ten-man enemy. Admire, admire. ! In my opinion, this Jurchen Tartar is not very good either!"

Fang Wo said angrily: "What Jurchen Tartars, they are a group of rogues, straight mother thieves, they have coaxed us."

Yan said to Meng: "Not the Jurchens?"

"Let's go!" Fang Worong slapped the prisoner with the face of the simple knife: "Tell us who are you?"

The prisoner had five fingers broken, and the pain was severe. In addition to the fear in his heart, his body trembled palely: "Returning to the two grandfathers, the younger one is a soldier under Kong Yanzhou's command. Grandpa, please forgive me, please forgive me!"

"Kong Yanzhou, is it Kong Yanzhou, the commander who betrayed the left-behind division in Tokyo?" After asking this sentence, seeing the prisoner nodding, Yan Yuemeng was curious: "What's the matter with your hair?"

The prisoner cried: "Grandpa, Grandpa, General Kong said that the Jurchens are really vicious, so he told us to shave our heads so that the Tartars would treat them as our own and avoid being beaten by others. Also, we pretended to be the Jurchens and killed them all the way." , when others saw us, we were so frightened that we took over many states and counties without any effort. Grandpa, please forgive me, I am just a pawn... ah!"

Before he could finish speaking, Yan Yuemeng twitched his ears and scolded angrily: "Your parents, you are a good Han man, but you are dressed as a barbarian, and you don't even want your ancestors? Damn thief, from the battle dust in Xiaoguan, Hehuang cuts off the foreign spring. The Haner speaks the Huer language, but scolds the Han people at the top of the city."

Fang Worong continued to slash the face with the knife, and scolded: "I said, why are you dressed in such shabby clothes, and you haven't been beaten? It turns out that you are a pair of dogs. I can't wait to hack you to death. Go, go!"

After finishing speaking, he raised the Pudao again, chopped off the heads of the two corpses on the ground one by one, and tied them around his waist dripping with blood.

************************************************** *
The wind swept across the open and unobstructed valley like a wild animal pouncing on its prey.A large cloud of dust was blown up by the wind and filled the air. Huang Huhu couldn't see clearly in front of him.

The new Macheng magistrate, Zheng Sen, was walking on the mountain road profusely with sweat. It had been a day and a night since he came out of the county, but he hadn't seen many people.

Yesterday, Huangzhou envoy Si Youling came over, saying that the army was short of food, and ordered the Macheng county government to collect the food and grass needed for 1000 people in the shortest possible time.

General Wang's order is simply embarrassing. The northern counties of Huangzhou are mostly mountainous areas with few people and barren land. After being looted by the Jurchens and bandits, not to mention the local poverty, the population also fled.Now it is the spring plowing season, not to mention here, even outside the county seat, there are large tracts of land that are barren.

If you want to levy food, you have to rely on big households.Since the Song Dynasty, there has been a tradition that the imperial power does not descend to the county, which means that the rule and government orders of the imperial court can only go down to the county level, and as for local governance, it can only rely on the gentry.

When he was in Weizhou before, he worked as a county clerk in the yamen for more than ten years and joined the army. He was naturally clear about such things and knew what to do.

So, he took a group of people from the county government and went to the countryside to contact the big households in Macheng to see if he could advance some money from them and deduct it when the summer tax came.

Huangzhou was in a state of anarchy before, and Sizhou Junyi town is an outsider to put it bluntly, and the big households don't really buy it.In this troubled time, the king's banner is changed at the top of the city. If you collect taxes today, you may be scared by other troops tomorrow.At that time, the new owner of Macheng will have to accept it again, no matter how big the family business is, it can't stand this kind of trouble!
As a result, big households from all over the country formed strongholds to protect themselves, and regarded the county government as nothing.

After a busy day in the countryside, Zheng Sen talked dry, threatened and lured him, and finally gathered some food and fodder, which was an account to the defense envoy.However, this is not enough.

He decided to walk two more places today.

As a magistrate of a county, Zheng Sen set an example, so he had to straighten his back naturally when walking on the road.

But his followers were already exhausted, all of them were in pain, and they were staggering here and there.Along the way, I really complained.

A gentleman complained: "Master, we followed you all the way from Weizhou to Jiankang, and now we are coming to Huangzhou again. The reason why everyone stayed together is because we are all blood relatives. Master, you have eaten a lot in the past two years." After so much suffering, I managed to find a position as a county magistrate, and I should enjoy some happiness. Now, I don’t see a penny of money and salary, and I took us all day to drill valleys. If I had known this, I might as well have stayed in the Being your deputy commander of the battalion who doesn't care about anything in the army is quite a pleasure. When we were in Weizhou, how did the county officials become officials? Let's see how you are now."

Listening to him, everyone else laughed.

That's right, this Zheng Sen is the Deputy Commander Zheng who brought the letter back to the barracks for Du Shu on the day the Jiankang Defense War began.

After Wang Shen led his troops to guard Huangzhou, a group of Weizhou officials who were paid by the army also came with their families and mouths.

The defense envoys of the king did not treat them badly. According to their abilities and referring to their previous duties, they were all arranged to be civil affairs officials in the localities.With Du Shu and his team around, Wang Shen easily established a government organization.Without this group of people, everything would have to start from scratch, who knows what would happen to Qi and Huang prefectures.He also secretly rejoiced that he had thought ahead, that everything can be done if it is forewarned, and it will be abandoned if it is not forewarned.

Hearing what the entourage said, Zheng Sen also smiled, and scolded: "It seems that you just want to enjoy happiness after following me. The prefects and county magistrates in Weizhou used to enjoy happiness. What happened. When the Jurchens arrived, they died. The name is destroyed. Wang Daosi treated me kindly, and naturally he will repay it with sincerity. I can understand this man's defense. Although he is an invincible warrior, he can speak elegantly and treat others generously. Once the Qi and Huang government affairs Straighten things out, we will definitely not treat us badly. Before we do things, before asking for treatment from others, we must first ask ourselves what we have done for General Wang? If we just paid for our salary and did nothing, as before, would we not be ashamed?"

"The county lord is really a man of virtue. I admire him." Everyone laughed and said, "It's nothing to suffer a little. From our point of view, Wang Daosi's ambition is not small, and Du Xianggong favors him. His future future is naturally small." No. It’s hard to say that two years will pass, and if you make contributions, you will start to build a government. At that time, the county lord will say that you will be promoted one more, and it is not a problem to be a magistrate.”

Zheng Sen, like the officials of this era, is ambitious at best, but a little ambitious at worst.Immediately he stroked his beard and smiled and said, "I worked in Sihu Ren for ten years before, so I must not hide the affairs of this place from me. If General Wang needs me in the future, I will naturally contribute. There are two more Zhuangzi who want to Let’s go, you don’t want to complain. Anyway, that place is close to the county seat, so I went there to urge money and food, and after eating, I can return to the city before dark.”

"Yes, yes, let's cheer up." Everyone nodded repeatedly.

It turns out that Macheng is a mountainous county, more than [-]% of the land in the territory is mountainous, and the remaining [-]% is plains.Before they knew it, everyone had already stepped out, and it was only a few steps away from the county seat.

At this time, suddenly a follower pointed in the direction of the county and screamed: "Xianzun, it's not good, there is something wrong with the county!"

Hearing his shout, everyone turned their heads to look at the same time.I saw that the strong wind had already blown away the dust in front of me, and on the distant horizon, the small Macheng County had been ablaze, and the black smoke rose straight, connecting the sky and the earth together.

"Travelers... the county town was attacked!" In an instant, Zheng Sen broke out in cold sweat all over his body.

He had just relieved the Macheng County Yamen for a few days, and there was not a single soldier stationed in the city except for a dozen or so government servants recruited temporarily.Moreover, most of the city walls of the county town have collapsed due to years of disrepair.If there are rogues coming to attack, it doesn't take much, just a few hundred locks can take it down.

The most terrible thing is that there are more than 1 catties of yellow rice that have just been confiscated in the city. Presumably these properties must have attracted the rogues.

Lost the city, lost the land, lost a lot of military supplies, how should I explain to Wang Daosi, will Chen Da let me go?Immediately, Zheng Sen wanted to die.

He stood there blankly, looking at the burning county town in the distance, and he had nothing to do.

Suddenly, there were countless black dots pushing forward in a straight line. Under the sun, the flashes of weapons were connected together. Counting, there were at least 300 people.Like a big net, covering the sky and covering the earth.

"what is this……"

It's the Bandit Army, for sure.

It's getting closer, it's getting closer, and they can already hear their shouts: "Hugh is going to leave Zheng Sen, Hugh is going to leave Zheng Sen!"

"Thief, thief, ah, county lord, go, go!" All the princes drew their weapons and surrounded Zheng Sen.

"I won't go, I won't go!" Zheng Sen yelled hoarsely.

"Hurry up, hurry up, it's too late if you don't leave. County Honor, you have to go to the defense envoy to report!"

Zheng Sen smiled wryly: "I can't go anymore, this place is too open, and you can see about ten miles away when you look up. Let's go ahead, and the thieves will chase after us. If we go on like this, sooner or later we will be caught up by them."

While speaking, the enemies got closer, and they could already see their bald scalps and the braids tied behind their heads.

Zheng Sen was puzzled: Jurchen, didn't the Jurchen cross the river to Hongzhou, why are they still staying in this mountain?
……

On February 16th in the fourth year of Jianyan, Macheng fell.Zheng Sen, the county magistrate, led a group of people from the county yamen to retreat to the south. After walking for three hours on the road, he was finally overtaken by Kong Yanzhou's former army.All [-] people in the same company died on the battlefield, and none of them survived.

At the same time, Kong Yanzhou's braided army launched an attack on all counties in Huangzhou at the same time.

By the 26th, Kong Yanzhou had captured the four counties of Luotian, Qishui, Guangji, and Qichun. The entire Qizhou fell, and even Macheng County in Huangzhou fell into his hands.

It wasn't until the 27th that Huangzhou's defense envoy Si Xingyuan was located in Huanggang City, where he figured out where the inexplicable enemy came from.

Originally, there was a Ba River between Huangzhou and Qizhou, but now Kong Yanzhou suddenly crossed the river and entered Macheng, condescending, and the situation suddenly became bad for the Sizhou army.

(End of this chapter)