Chapter 88 Summoning (Part 2)

Ding Jin was not summoned, and when he came, he brought a large army with him, and he stayed in the market town without leaving. His suspicious mentality was particularly obvious. This was because he was born a bandit, and it was also a sequela of the government killing Liu Guangshi personally that day. It was also the first hurdle on the way west to Nanyang...

However, Emperor Zhao seemed to be unaware of these things and did not stop at all. He continued westward for another seven or eight miles before stopping to settle down. At this time, he was only thirty miles away from Zhugao Town where Ding Jin was stationed, which was already dangerous enough.

But that was not all. The next morning, the expedition continued by land and sea, heading west as usual. It even sent out the usual messengers to summon Ding Jin, as if it had not noticed Ding Jin's previous mistake.

Seeing this situation, the newly arrived civil and military officials below were naturally panicked, but the emperor and the senior officials and important figures above ignored them and could only tremble in fear and helplessness and continue to move westward with the emperor. In contrast, Ding Jin in Zhugao Town just ahead was also forced into a corner!

You have to know that people like Ding Jin exist in every dynasty. Some of them were born into military ruffians, and some were born into local wealthy families. When they saw the chaos in the world, or were tempted by the power vacuum in the local area, or read some messy historical novels, they developed some speculative ambitions. It really cannot be said that there is a problem with them... Especially during the Jingkang Rebellion, when the two emperors were hunted north and the entire Zhao Song royal family was almost wiped out. It was like the routine of "the building is about to collapse, and the dust is coming from all directions."

At that time, let alone people like Ding Jin, even many of the volunteers who originally came to support the king turned into bandits, not to mention those who were already thieves and found it difficult to get off the ship?

However, it was bad luck for these "heroes" who caused trouble during the Jingkang and Jianyan years. They were faced with a Song Dynasty that had died suddenly but survived through cardiac resuscitation, and a Jin Dynasty that was in a period of prosperity and expansion. This made it difficult for the so-called heroes to realize their "ambitions"... In this situation, it was Li Cheng who seemed more capable and knew how to waver in the tug-of-war between the Song and Jin dynasties.

Of course, that was also the truth that Li Cheng and the rebels and bandits in the eastern part of Jingdong Road realized after they were severely beaten by tens of thousands of regular troops led by Wanyan Wushu and Wanyan Talan in Linyi, with countless deaths.

Back to the present, Ding Jin's current state is that he is neither a soldier nor a bandit. He has failed once before in his attempt to do something big, so he has no courage. He wants to give up his ambition, but he is reluctant to do so because he has tasted the power. He has tens of thousands of hastily recruited defeated soldiers and civilians, and looted two or three large prefectures. If you say he has fighting capacity, he has fighting capacity, but if you say he has no fighting capacity, he is just a pile of loose sand.

What can he do?

To be fair, his life is much more difficult than Emperor Zhao's!

After all, Emperor Zhao is a man with the surname Zhao. Now that he is coming forward openly, this Huaixi bandit should either go to see Emperor Zhao obediently, or simply lead his troops and leave, or simply make up his mind and sacrifice his life for daring to dethrone the emperor!

Of course, the probability of the last choice is too low, otherwise Ding Jin wouldn't have been so hesitant until now.

"Listen carefully!"

On the south bank of the Huai River, the 800 Beiwei troops and the 1,200 Cuipian troops who secretly crossed the river and hid in the imperial camp last night were marching at the front of the queue under the banner of Commander Fu Qing, while Han Shizhong also wore his jade belt and rode his horse arrogantly under the big banner of Fu, looking around and giving orders one after another. "I have seen many thieves like Ding Jin. With the emperor's momentum and the current situation, when that 'Zi Yue' arrives in Zhugao Town, he will definitely be able to coax this Huaixi thief to the imperial court... By then, we don't need to remind Wang De. Old Jie, you lead the Cuipian troops to fool him here, and I will lead the Beiwei troops to Zhugao Town. Once we change the flags, we will go in and announce the decree to take over the entire army, kill the troublemakers, and capture those who are willing to surrender. This matter will be considered a success! There will be no chaos!"

"Then all the money, food and weapons that Ding Jin has saved will belong to us?"

“It’s natural.”

"If so, how much of Ding Jin's 30,000 troops can we get? If we take all the money and food, will the government give us less troops?"

"What are you thinking?" Han Shizhong raised his head even higher, his disdain evident in his words. "Among the 30,000 miscellaneous soldiers, are there 10,000 who are truly strong and useful? Just pick them out first. If Wang Yasha and the others want the rest, I will be happy to give them to them."

The two people who asked the questions were Cheng Min and Jie Yuan. The latter was already the commander of the Chu Pian Army because of his contribution that day, and the former was a close lieutenant of Han Shizhong in the Beiwei Army, so he did have a few things to say.

To be specific, it is said that Cheng Min has some relationship with the newly appointed pacification envoy Yue Fei, and Liu Ziyu, who was listed in the promotion list of Zhang Jun and Zhang Xiantai yesterday... This man was born in a brave warrior family in Hebei, and like Yue Fei, he was an old subordinate of Liu Ziyu's father Liu Qian, who died in the Jing Kang War. The three of them can barely be considered comrades.

It's just that at that time Liu Ziyu was not only a yamen official, but also, because of his military merit in defending Zhending, he was given an exceptional promotion to the rank of a fifth-rank civil official. He was so high up, while the other two were just privates.

As for the two soldiers Cheng Min and Yue Fei, their life experiences were not very different. They were both brave warriors from Hebei. Their families were broken up during the Jingkang Rebellion. They became grassroots officers during the Jianyan Rebellion. In the chaos, they were surrounded by a group of about 100 or 180 cavalrymen. However, Yue Fei entered the Grand Marshal's Office right after he came up, and immediately wrote a thousand-word letter to impeach Li Gang as soon as he arrived in Nanjing (Shangqiu), thus starting his legendary fate. Cheng Min was a step late. It was not until the second half of last year that he made up his mind to go south to join the imperial court, but he became a subordinate of Han Shizhong.

Just because of his outstanding martial arts and good temper, Han Shizhong looked up to him and he was soon promoted... Of course, he was just promoted, and compared with his old comrade-in-arms, or even his former younger brother Yue Fei, it was nothing more than that.

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