Chapter 123 Worry
Yue Fei was ordered to go to war just after the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 16. As soon as he entered the northern Dongping Prefecture, he ran into Zhang Rong's numerous defeated troops. Naturally, he was surprised and suspicious. However, despite his surprise and suspicion, Yue Pengju still commanded with confidence. He immediately ordered his troops to seize Pingyin City on the south bank of the Jishui River, and at the same time, he quickly sent troops to gather the defeated soldiers and gather military information.
Of course, after all, they had fought together and were standard neighbors, so the relationship between the two families was pretty good. Therefore, there was no need for Yue Fei to deliberately gather them together. The defeated troops of Zhang Rong's army would automatically gather towards Pingyin City with a big flag with the word "Yue" on it.
Among them, of course, there were also high-ranking generals of Zhang Rong’s army, or leaders of Liangshanpo, with whom he had had dealings in the past.
"Calm down!"
After a moment, Zhang Xian, the deputy commander of the central army, who was heading northeast to gather the defeated troops, led a man to Yue Fei who was standing outside the city gate. "Commander Li Kui is here..."
Yue Fei, who was squinting his eyes and looking towards the road to the north, was cheered up when he heard this.
You should know that Yue Fei was very strict in military discipline. After he was appointed as the pacification envoy and had a foothold in a state and an army, his troops quickly expanded to 14,000 to 15,000. If it were someone else, he would have had more than a dozen commanders under him, but under Yue Fei's command, except for himself, there were still only two commanders... One was Wang Gui, who usually guarded Jizhou City, and the other was Fu Xuan, who was usually stationed in Dingtao City of Guangji Army... Both were officially appointed by the court.
Going down further, they were only at the commander level, and the appointment process was extremely strict. Even confidants like Tang Huai and Zhang Xian could not become a real commander.
Relatively speaking, "others", namely Zhang Rong of Liangshanpo, still followed the style of the underworld, but they could not help but give rewards indiscriminately. Many leaders, even those who managed ships and raised pigs, had the title of commander... If Zhang Suo had not sent someone to warn them later, he might have come up with 108 commanders.
Yue Fei was slightly encouraged at this moment, not because of anything else, but because Li Kui, the commander-in-chief, who was born in Yizhou, became a military bandit and followed others to rule Mizhou after the chaos, was defeated by Li Cheng who had a sword fight in the hall that day, and finally wandered and surrendered to Zhang Rong. Li Kui was a rare steady and meticulous person under Zhang Rong's command, and also a serious military leader. With his words, he could know some details.
"Yue Zhenfu!" The skilled general named Li Kui came to Yue Fei with a dusty face, bowed in dismay, and reported the two most important military information without waiting for Yue Fei to dismount. "The Jin people are coming, and Kong Yanzhou rebelled on the battlefield..."
Even though Yue Fei had guessed it, his face changed slightly when he heard these two sentences. He then reined in his horse and asked, "Are you sure it's the Jin people? Why didn't they make any noise before?"
"It must be the Jin people." Li Kui stood up, his fair face was covered with blood and dust, but he quickly told what he had seen. "Although they are dressed as soldiers from Jinan Prefecture, their riding skills and archery skills are not fake... Yesterday afternoon, Liu Yu's eldest son Liu Lin personally covered the front of the battle formation, and the four or five thousand soldiers behind them suddenly mounted their horses and raised the flag of Wan Hu Ali who came to Jingdong last year. As soon as they rushed forward, they knew they were Jurchens! The hateful thief Kong Yanzhou must have heard Liu Yu's words in advance and deliberately fell behind. When he saw our battle formation collapsed, he immediately turned against them and joined them in the attack... As for how they came, it is still unclear at the moment, but nine out of ten times they should have pretended to be refugees from Hebei."
"He must have pretended to be a refugee from Hebei." One of the generals behind him immediately expressed his agreement.
"Yes, didn't they say at the beginning of the month that the Jin people didn't have time to cross the river, so they supported Liu Yu and his son with four or five thousand war horses? It was for this reason that Prime Minister Zhang (Zhang Suo) made up his mind to attack Jinan. And now the Jin people have disguised themselves, which shows that the men and horses were separated, the war horses came first, and then the soldiers pretended to be refugees..." Others thought of the previous military intelligence.
"I just don't know why Kong Yanzhou wants to ruin the reputation of us Xiangzhou people? When I saw him gaining momentum before, I thought this bastard had changed his nature! Today, it seems that he is still the same scoundrel as he was back then in his hometown of Xiangzhou!" Zhang Xian, who has always been a lively person, cursed loudly.
Yue Fei narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he was thinking about something, but did not say much.
Although Kong Yanzhou was born as a local soldier in Jingdong, he was from Hebei Province, just like Li Cheng who had fought against Yue Fei. He committed a crime and was forced to flee to the south to join the army. Moreover, as Zhang Xian revealed in his indignation, Kong Yanzhou's hometown was none other than Xiangzhou, so many people in Yue Fei's army knew him. In addition, his station in Yanzhou was a little to the north, so many Xiangzhou refugees also joined him.
What's more, due to this hometown relationship, Yue Fei's great reputation and early rise, and Kong Yanzhou's military management skills, as well as the fact that the two sides' jurisdictions were close, the latter was once known as "Little Yue Fei"... It is said that Zhang Suo's use of this person was also related to this reason.
"Mr. Yue, what should we do now?" Seeing that Yue Fei didn't say anything, Li Kui couldn't help but get anxious no matter how meticulous he was.
"Stay in Pingyin for now." Yue Fei finally spoke after coming to his senses. "Gather as many troops as possible and make good preparations to prevent the Jin army from taking advantage of the victory to attack. The key is to quickly find Zhang Zhenfu (Zhang Rong)..."
Now that Yue Fei had spoken, the people around him breathed a sigh of relief as if they had found a backbone, and then took action on their own.
And then, everything went smoothly within a day. Not only did the defeated soldiers gather together, but the enemy did not pursue them. Moreover, by evening, even Zhang Rong received accurate information that he had been shot in the thigh by the Jin people. He did not dare to take the small road easily, and could only be pushed along the secret ditch beside the Jishui River, stopping and starting.
Yue Fei did not dare to delay, so he asked Tang Huai to guard the city, and he personally led Zhang Xian and Li Kui to lead the Ta Bai Army to meet them overnight. However, after seeing Zhang Rong, he was unwilling to enter the city.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
