Wanyan Wuqimai's cousin, Wanyan Talan, who was also Jin Wushu's uncle, led an army of 50,000 and was named as the deputy commander of Nianhan. Aguda's fourth son, who was Jin Wushu himself, also led an army of 50,000 and was named as the vanguard of Nianhan. The two of them combined had a total of 100,000 troops. In fact, they re-formed the Eastern Army, which was intended to take the two routes of Jingdong, which means the Shandong area in later generations.

Back to the present, the Jin army mobilized 200,000 troops across the country and marched south, with cavalry running wildly. Among them, the first to attack were naturally the Nianhan tribe, which was originally in Hebei and Hedong areas. The first to bear the brunt were not Deputy Marshal Zong Zezong, who felt that Sishui Pass was tight, nor the defenders in Luoyang and Shanzhou, but a detachment of the Song State that had just won a great victory in Hebei.

The leader of this army was called Wang Yan, with the military rank of commander-in-chief. He had a force of 7,000 men and under him was a commander named Yue Fei, who was 24 years old and from Xiangzhou, Hebei. He was born with supernatural powers and was the bravest of the three armies.

The reason why Yue Fei came to this point was naturally related to Li Gang.

Yue Pengju was a military officer in Nanjing (Shangqiu) in the past. He heard that the three treacherous ministers Li Gang, Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan were all holding their own opinions, some wanting to go to Nanyang, some wanting to go to Yangzhou, and that they were all abandoning the people of Hebei and fleeing south. As an exile from Hebei, he was naturally dissatisfied, so he wrote to the new emperor, asking him to get rid of the three treacherous ministers, mobilize all six armies to cross the river, set up a temporary residence in his hometown of Xiangzhou, fight against the Jin army, and recover Hebei.

However, Li Gang and the other two were in power, so how could they tolerate such nonsense? They simply dismissed this small military official and expelled him from the army.

But Yue Fei was determined to fight against the Jin army, so he was not discouraged. He took a few close brothers with him, crossed the river and went back to his hometown, ready to fight against the Jin army on his own.

Unexpectedly, when Yue Pengju just reached the river and prepared to cross the river, he met Zhang Suo, the recruiting envoy of Hebei West Road promoted by Li Gang, who was recruiting soldiers. Yue Fei was able to meet Zhang Suo in person through the recommendation of an old friend, Zhao Jiuling, who worked as an official under the recruiting envoy. Zhang Suo, a direct descendant of Li Gang, was very impressed with Yue Pengju. Within a few days, he promoted this commoner all the way... In just over a month, he was first "served in front of the tent", then "borrowed as a commoner to repair the military", and then promoted to commander, and finally, promoted to commander!

Poor Han Shizhong next door joined the army at the age of 18, beheaded the son-in-law of the emperor, captured Fang La, fought against the Liao Kingdom, and defended Hebei. It took him a full 20 years before he managed to catch up with Zhao Laojiu and became a commander. In comparison, although Yue Pengju's official position is a bit empty, his official career was really like a cheat.

In short, when the envoy gathered 7,000 soldiers and horses here, Yue Fei became one of the main generals of this army as the commander, and then crossed the river to the north with the commander-in-chief Wang Yan! They immediately won a victory in Xinxiang, Hebei, and successfully recovered this important town!

But at this time, the treacherous prime minister Li Gang was dismissed, and Zhang Suo's envoy to the western route of Hebei was also dismissed. When the 7,000-man army was in a panic and hurried to find Zong Ze to establish administrative relations, suddenly, in early winter, the Jin army from the north surged up, and there were no less than fifty Jin cavalry generals with independent flags around. It was when Nianhan's tribe wanted to go south to attack Shanluo, but heard that Xinxiang had fallen, so they ordered the main force to take advantage of the situation to surround it.

Faced with such a predicament, the army was naturally doomed to be defeated. Led by Wang Yan, the entire army broke out in a panic, fighting and retreating, towards Taihang Mountains.

Among the eleven generals of Wang Yan's army, only Yue Fei's army was the most capable and daring to fight. Yue Fei himself was also recognized in the army as a brave man who could not match ten thousand men, so he was arranged to be the rear guard, resulting in heavy losses.

When they arrived at the foot of Taihang Mountain, Yue Fei captured a general alive with a beheading tactic from the Jin army, and secondly, the cavalry was not good at marching into mountainous areas, so they just went with the flow and gave up the pursuit... But the fighting situation eased a little, and Yue Fei thought that Wang Yan had watched him die without helping him when he was covering his retreat, which led to the deaths of his men. He even felt resentful and had some other ideas, so he simply built a camp by himself and did not go to meet up with Wang Yan.

At this time, the situation was already critical. Wang Yan had only eleven generals under his command. Two of them died, two escaped, three surrendered, and of the remaining four, one, Yue Fei, was unwilling to obey orders. How could this be tolerated?

Therefore, Wang Yan, the commander-in-chief, repeatedly ordered Yue Fei to bring his troops over, otherwise he would be subject to military court. After several failures, Wang Yan simply issued an ultimatum, saying that if Yue Fei did not move his camp to the main force, he would publicly write to the deputy marshal of the Eastern Capital, so that all the heroes in Hebei would know that there was a Yue Fei in Xiangzhou who was a deserter who did not obey orders!

However, the one who responded to Wang Yan was still not the remaining troops of Yue Fei's headquarters, but Yue Fei himself, the commander, who came on horseback to pay a visit to the mountain.

"Did you really come here alone?"

In the camp built in the Shimen Valley of Xinxiang, in the big tent in the middle, the commander-in-chief Wang Yan, who looked a little tired recently, looked up in surprise.

Wang Yan, the prince, will be 40 after the Chinese New Year, 16 years older than Yue Fei. When he was young, he took part in the imperial examination and was personally selected by the Taoist Emperor as a waiter for his outstanding martial arts talent. Then he transferred to the Western Army and served under Zhong Shidao. He participated in many battles with the Western Xia and made many contributions. Later, the Jin invaded the south and Hedong fell. As a Shangdang man, he had no choice but to join the army in Bianliang. When Bianliang fell, he saw Zhang Suo organizing the crossing river troops, so he joined the army again. As soon as he joined the army, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief and became the commander of the army.

Such a person, whether in terms of identity, status, fame, current official position, or importance in the mind of Zong Ze, the governor of Tokyo, is undoubtedly far superior to Yue Fei, who is almost like a minor general under his command.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!