Chapter 288 Gods and Buddhas

In early autumn, Yue Fei, the commander-in-chief of the front army of the Imperial Camp, together with his deputy commander-in-chief Wang Gui and deputy commander-in-chief Tian Shizhong of the right army of the Imperial Camp, defeated the main force of the Pseudo-Qi between Zibo River and Longshui River.

In this battle, more than 20,000 enemies surrendered and more than 8,000 war horses were captured. Even Li Cheng, the Grand Commander of the Pseudo-Qi Army, was killed by Guo Jin, a general under Zhang Xian, the commander of Yue Fei's army.

Two days later, the main force of the Imperial Camp's front army marched rapidly into Zhangqiu again, completely turning the battle situation in Jingdong upside down.

It was truly earth-shaking. One must know that this time, Li Cheng came out with not only his own family wealth, but almost all the manpower of the Pseudo-Qi... Poor Liu Yu plundered a lot in Jinan Prefecture, but the main force he had accumulated before was sold out by Li Cheng in Dongping Prefecture. This time, he finally managed to accumulate some war horses and soldiers, but they were thrown to Li Cheng by the Jin army's Wanhu Elubu, and then they were sold out again.

Therefore, after this battle, the troops of the Pseudo-Qi were basically wiped out, except for the pirate group of Li Qi in Dengzhou, who was not sure whether they were suppressed by Zhang Jun or not.

Without basic field military power, how can a regime, even a pseudo-regime, survive?

Not only that, as Yue Fei advanced to Zhangqiu, he also connected with the area originally controlled by the front army of the imperial camp, that is, Yanzhou and Dongping Prefecture... It was basically like a knife stabbing into the abdomen and coming out from the neck. In a moment, the once powerful Pseudo-Qi was reduced to only Jinan Prefecture.

At this point, anyone with a little military knowledge could see that Qi was doomed unless the Jin army crossed the river in large numbers to provide support.

However, after Yue Fei approached Zhangqiu and learned that the peace talks had completely failed, he stopped here on his own initiative as Li Cheng had expected. Then he contacted Lu Xing in Nanjing (now Shangqiu), Li Qiong who came to support Dongping and others, and kept dispatching troops to encircle Jinan on three sides. At the same time, he took the initiative to write a letter to Tokyo, proposing to keep the troops in place for the time being to lure the Jin people to cross the river for help.

Emperor Zhao and the ministers were excited and immediately agreed to the plan. They sent Qu Duan to lead the imperial cavalry to provide support.

Of course, to be fair, everyone can think that the Jin people are unlikely to come to support, but everyone still can't help but want to try it... because this plan is too tempting.

A look at the map shows that the entire Jingdong East Road is south of the Yellow River, and Licheng, the capital of Jinan Prefecture, is, as the name suggests, south of the Jishui River. Once the Jin army came to help, they would need to cross the Yellow River and the Jishui River in succession during the flood season, which would almost throw their troops into an encirclement with no retreat.

Even without coming to Licheng, if the Jin people dared to cross the Yellow River to support the retreat of the people in Jinan Prefecture, they would pay a heavy price - the Jishui River, which is almost parallel to the Yellow River, is also one of the four great rivers in the world, but because of the human control of the Yellow River for many years, the narrowest part between the two rivers is only 20 to 30 miles, and the widest part is only more than 100 miles.

As for this kind of place, Jiang Ziya had something to say. He felt that this was a typical "death place" for cavalry.

In the next few days, it was proved that the Jin people had no interest in fighting across the two rivers after the loss of the main force of the Qi Dynasty. Just when Yue Fei's memorial was delivered, the emperor and his ministers in Dongjing City were extremely excited, and Li Qiong had not yet made arrangements with Yue Fei... the veteran general of the Jin army, Wanhu Elubu, who was stationed in Licheng at this time, made a prompt decision, plundered some gold and silver in the city, and then took a group of Qi officials with him and crossed the Jishui River directly to the north.

Before leaving, Erlubu, knowing that the peace talks had failed, did not forget to set fire to the city. However, as soon as the Jin army left the city and crossed the river, the great monks of Lingjiu Temple immediately came out to organize the fire, and then gathered the defeated troops, took over the city defense, and went to Zhangqiu to find the government troops. At this time, Zhang Jun was still fighting pirates in Dengzhou, and Qu Duan was still on his way on his iron elephant.

Moreover, as people who could have enough food to eat and receive a certain level of cultural education in that era, there must be an average level of monks. We cannot deny this objective fact just because Fan Zhixu became a monk named Zong Yin... For example, Liu Wenshun, the commander of Yue Fei's army, was actually a monk from Lingjiu Temple in Jinan. He then organized troops to defend the king during the Jing Kang period, and traveled to Jingdong and Kaifeng, and was surrendered by Zong Ze, which led to all the things that happened later.

The reason why Lingjiu Temple was able to become an internal supporter of the government army at an early stage was also because of this relationship.

In fact, since the Jingkang Incident, the world has been in disorder and heroes have emerged. Among the group of people who generally raised the banner of the loyal army at the beginning and then flowed into various channels in the end, the local tyrants, religious figures, thieves, and government troops were the mainstream.

What’s interesting is that local tyrants and religious figures are generally stable and have regional characteristics. As long as the government and the army put pressure on them, they will quickly accept official changes. On the contrary, bandits and government troops are extremely mobile, and the final division results are the most complicated.

Of course, no matter what, in the autumn of the fifth year of Jianyan, with the suppression of the rebellion in the south and the return of the two emperors to the south, the two major powers gradually formed a confrontation along the Yellow River in the north, marked by Li Cheng's death in Longshui and Liu Yu and others being abducted by E'lubu and taken north. It can basically be said that all the so-called heroes who had taken advantage of the situation before have disappeared.

The era when one was a bandit in the morning, a commander in the evening, a transport envoy for one year, and a prime minister for three years is completely gone forever.

Back to the present, Elubu decisively withdrew, and the siege without fighting came to an end. Yue Fei could only send cavalry to easily capture Licheng, while personally leading the main force to cross the Jishui River to sweep the Huangji Passage, occupy the city and guard the ferry.

Then, he submitted a memorial to the court again, formally announcing the demise of the Qi Dynasty... At this time, Qu Duan was still on his way on horseback.

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