Soon, with the northward advance of the Song army and the urgent increase of military forces by the Jin army in the city of Jiangzhou on the other side of the Fen River, there was no doubt that the confrontation was pushed out of the Hezhong Basin (Yuncheng Basin).

It's just a thin line between them. Once this line is given up, the fall of Hedong City is basically a matter of time.

At noon, Han Shizhong returned to Tieling Pass. After raising his own banner again, he summarized the military situation with great enthusiasm. On the one hand, he wrote a military report to Emperor Zhao in person, reporting the military situation from all directions, and taking the opportunity to show off his achievements and make complaints. On the other hand, he did not delay in announcing the victory report directly. At the same time, he communicated with Wu Jie and sternly questioned Guo Zhen about the relevant matters.

Putting aside the fact that Wu Jie was in a passive position and Li Yanxian was suffering again, let's just say that when the documents and victory reports were passed to the south, the situation in Henan was not so easy.

The reason was simple. After three years of peace, the sudden imposition of large-scale labor and mobilization for the Northern Expedition would have caused many problems. Moreover, with the fermentation and spread of the problems over the past half month, the full mobilization in the Central Plains and Kansai regions was finally launched, which triggered unprecedented chaos.

This was of course expected, because the hasty mobilization along the Yellow River had caused so many problems before, let alone the current situation of national mobilization?

To give a simple example, let’s talk about the monk Dahui who came from the southeast.

This autumn, this fellow collected grain from Jingshan Temple and, as previously agreed, personally brought a few monks from the temple to deliver the grain. However, when he arrived at Kaifeng Prefecture, he encountered a war in the north. He delivered the grain to the warehouse outside Tokyo City as agreed, but unexpectedly, the officials of the Ministry of Works here refused to accept the grain. Instead, they used the words on the document to force the monk to deliver the grain to the imperial cavalry originally stationed outside Tokyo City.

That is Luoyang.

Moreover, there is a one-month deadline, and anyone who disobeys the order will be beheaded.

That being said, anyone can wake up and realize that they have encountered lazy and evil governance, and have been oppressed by evil officials, assigned the task of transporting military rations, and been forced to conscript able-bodied men.

However, the monk was really wealthy. Although he realized his mistake immediately, he saw that many monks and merchants from the southeast who came to deliver grain were oppressed like this. He did not say that he recognized Zhang Jiuchen, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, nor did he say that he was an old acquaintance of your Zhang Shuxiang's mother.

This is not to say that these evil officials should be indulged, nor is it that the monk is thin-skinned and embarrassed to ask for help, but that Monk Dahui knows very well that such things are simply unavoidable. Zhang Jiuchen and Zhang Jun's face can save him and several monks from Jingshan Temple from suffering, but it cannot prevent this large-scale disguised labor assignment.

Rather than letting the common people bear this sin, it is better for the monks of Jingshan Temple who have no worries about food and clothing to do it... Didn't the abbot say so? After all, the temple has sesame oil for enema and three dou and three liters of rice grains for exchanging scriptures.

So, he said nothing and took a few monks with him to escort the temple's food to Luoyang.

But this journey is ten times more tiring than the previous boat ride along the canal.

Because at this time, the entire Central Plains was mobilized. The supplies in Luoyang were piled up like mountains, but it was difficult to transport them through the river to the front line. So the roads were full of soldiers and laborers. Not only were the roads blocked, but food was hard to find and prices were soaring. There were no vegetarian dishes in the stores, and even if there were, the prices were outrageous... And if they just wanted to work harder and eat the new rice they brought from home, they were afraid that there would not be enough food when they got to the destination and they would not be able to complete the mission.

If he was really killed by some rude military school, it would be impossible for Zhang Shuxiang's mother and Zhang Jiuchen to fly over to rescue him, right?

Fortunately, Monk Dahui was a man of insight. When he saw the seriousness of the blockage at Sishui Pass, he immediately called some people who had come from the southeast, formed a team, and turned south together, going from Shaolin Temple via Gaoshi to Luoyang... In this way, although the journey was much longer, at least they could still buy some pancakes and steamed buns with sauce and carry them with them as dry food.

However, even so, Monk Dahui encountered many things that are worth recording and some that are not worth mentioning.

The arrogance of grassroots evil officials who take advantage of their power to bully others, the fear of the common people about the future of war, and the cunning of merchants, monks and Taoists are not as bad as in "Three Officials" and "Three Farewells", but the atmosphere is indeed bad.

The depressed atmosphere among the people caused by the hasty outbreak of war, coupled with the confusing information right after the war broke out and the empty official announcements in the court newspapers, further fueled some rumors among the people... Today it said Yue Fei was defeated, tomorrow it said Han Shizhong won but was injured, the day after tomorrow it said a certain assistant minister took the opportunity to embezzle a lot of money and grain, a certain commander robbed a beautiful young lady from an official family in Hedong, and the day after tomorrow it said that the temperature in Hedong suddenly dropped and winter clothes could not be delivered, and many civilians froze to death on the other side of the river.

Monk Dahui could of course see that a lot of this was nonsense, but everyone was working so hard and had grievances, and he was completely clueless about the situation on the other side of the river. Even if he wanted to explain and comfort them, he really didn't know how...and this personal helplessness made the monk himself gradually depressed.

However, no matter what, after more than 20 days of torture, on October 17, Monk Dahui and his Jingshan Temple support transport team finally arrived at Mangshan, where they met the Imperial Cavalry troops, entered the civilian camp of the Imperial Cavalry, successfully handed over the military rations, and put an end to the matter.

On that day, the great monk, who was about to return to the southeast, saw Han Shizhong's courier rushing in to the Mangshan camp to announce the victory, as well as the related documents that were subsequently posted.

"Master, what does this mean?"

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