Nanqing River has always been the third largest river on Shandong Road, second only to the Yellow River and Jishui. It has a wide river channel and gentle water flow. It has always been an important waterway in Shandong Road.
That morning, a small passenger ship of 500 stone sailed from the south. There were three boatmen, a boatman and two apprentices. The guests were two young men, one tall and one short, both wearing warrior uniforms and carrying swords on their backs.
, at first glance, he looks like a wandering knight.
There are so-called martial arts sects in any dynasty, which are basically monasteries and Taoist temples. However, Jianghu sects like the Huashan sect, which are purely focused on martial arts training, generally do not exist. The reason is also very simple. The Shaolin sect, the Wudang sect, and the Quanzhen sect exist.
Is it because of faith? Why does the Huashan Sect exist?
However, there are many industries that rely on martial arts to make a living in major counties. The main ones are martial arts schools, which take over security, escort, escort and other businesses. A large number of low-level warriors also rely on martial arts schools to earn a living.
In addition to martial arts schools, there are also many freelancers with martial arts skills. They go around and travel around behind Jian's back. They seem to have nothing to do, but in fact they are not. They either rely on the powerful and become the guards or thugs in their houses.
Either they are assassins, who receive high rewards, assassinate their employer's enemies, change their names after killing people, and wander around the world. However, the most common samurai profession is bounty hunter, who looks for targets based on various bounties, and usually uses the leader to collect the bounty.
, not only official bounties, but as long as there are bounties, they will be there.
To go a bit further, these two warriors are not rangers. They are scouts of the Western Army. The taller one is called Huang Dong, who is the deputy commander of the scouts. The year before last, he shot and killed the Jinbing general Zhe Ke at the top of Luoyang City.
After asking for help, Chen Qing was promoted to the head of the scout headquarters. He then went deep into Shandong Road to investigate the military situation and made many meritorious deeds. At the beginning of the year, he was promoted to deputy commander by Yang Zaixing.
Although Huang Dong is from Guanzhong, he can speak with a Laizhou accent and is very agile. He spent the last year on Shandong Road gathering information without being discovered by Jin Bing.
This time he was ordered to inquire about the Jin Kingdom's navy. Several of his subordinates dressed up, three of them pretended to be boatmen, and Huang Dong and another subordinate pretended to be boat passengers. They were obviously the same group, but they pretended to be two identities.
The boatman's surname is Han, he is the chief of the scouts. He looks to be over forty years old, but is actually only thirty years old. He just looks old.
Han Dutou shook his oar and said with a smile: "Commander, the Liangshan River is too big, with a radius of hundreds of miles. It is not possible to find enemy warships in a short while. I suggest you find a fishing village nearby and start from the fishermen."
Ask around, maybe they know where the Jin Bing warship is hidden?"
Huang Dong nodded, "I have the same intention, but let's walk around Liangshan Park first. If we can't find it, we can go to the east coast of Jeju. There are many fishing villages there, and we should be able to get clues."
Not long after, their ship sailed into Liangshan Water Park, which was located between Jeju and Yunzhou. In the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it was called Juye Ze or Oh Ye Ze. Because the northernmost mountain was called Liangshan, it was called Liangshan Lake in the Song Dynasty. During the Xuanhe Period
, Song Jiang and other thirty-six people gathered here to revolt, leading to a "Water Margin", which became famous for later generations.
The boat sailed into Liangshan Lake. It started to rain lightly and the lake was completely white. The boat tried to walk along the shore. In the afternoon, a small fishing village appeared in front of it, surrounded by lush reed ponds.
"There's an old man over there!"
With keen eyesight, one of his men spotted a fishing boat moored by the reed pond, and an old man was sitting on the fishing boat sorting the fishing nets.
"Go up and ask!"
The ship came up to meet him, and Huang Dong clasped his fists at the bow: "Ask the old man about it!"
The old man glanced at them and said with a smile: "You want to know where Jin Bing is? Right!"
Everyone looked at each other in shock. This old man was so awesome! He could actually see through them at a glance.
Huang Dong looked confused and said: "How does the old man know?"
"Aren't you hiding from the golden soldiers and catching the strong men?"
Only then did everyone realize that this was what they had guessed. Huang Dong smiled and said: "We are afraid of encountering the Jin soldiers and navy, so we dare not go through the main waterway. It is best to know where the Jin soldiers are so that we can avoid them."
"
"You should walk along the east coast. The Jinbing Water Village is on the Liangshan side. It is easy to encounter it if you go west."
Huang Dong was overjoyed to have gotten clues to the Jinbing Water Village so quickly.
"Thank you, old man, let's turn around!"
The ship turned around and headed east again.
Night falls quietly, and a bay in the west of Liangshan is brightly lit, and the shore is covered with tents. It is difficult to find the Jinbing Water Village during the day, but at night, you can see it at a glance on the water far away.
At this time, the boat Huang Dong was riding in gradually approached the water village along the shore. The boat was hidden behind a large rock on the water. Huang Dong and two of his men got into the water silently and swam towards the water village.
Not long after, they approached the wooden fence on the outside of the water village. The wooden fences were so densely spaced that no one could get through, but they could see what was going on in the water village through the gaps.
The water surface in the water village is not large, and it is full of ships, but they are not warships, but converted civilian ships. They are all ships of less than a thousand stones, and the number is about three hundred.
Huang Dong secretly counted, there were about sixty thousand-stone warships, and the rest were sentry ships. Looking at the camp on the shore, plus logistical support, the navy only had three to four thousand people.
Huang Dong observed it for a while, and he probably had an idea.
"let's go!"
He made a gesture, dived into the water with his men, and swam toward his hiding place in the distance.
The Western Army has built three pontoon bridges on the Yellow River. The crossing point is in Xiao County, where the water is the gentlest and it is easy to build pontoon bridges.
It took two days for the 200,000 Song troops to cross the New Yellow River. On the east bank of the Yellow River, Liu Qiong led 20,000 troops to respond first, ensuring that the 200,000 troops could successfully cross the Yellow River.
Liu Qiong stepped forward to greet Chen Qing and said, "I am sorry to see you, Your Highness!"
Liu Qiong is one of Chen Qing's confidants. He is good at using surprise soldiers. He has a nickname in the army, called Fire Fox. He is said to be as cunning as a fox when he is calm, but when his temper comes, he is as violent as fire. This nickname was given to him by Chen Qing.
He started it.
Chen Qing smiled and nodded, "I will remember your great achievements in capturing Donghai Island and Haizhou this time. When you make another great contribution, I will promote you to the commander of the military capital!"
The promotion of generals includes rank officials and position officials. Rank officials are promoted by seniority, and they are promoted to one rank in three years. Position officials are promoted by merit. Before the metropolitan control, it was basically ten ranks to advance to one rank. A small meritorious service earned one rank.
There are two turns for merit, three turns for great merit, and five turns for extraordinary merit.
But when they reached the level of capital commander, they no longer looked at the situation. Instead, they were appointed by Chen Qing through a comprehensive assessment. Liu Qiong had been the capital commander three years ago. He wanted to be promoted to the military capital commander, but it was not that easy.
Now that King Yong personally promised it, Liu Qiong was immediately overjoyed and quickly bowed and said: "I sincerely ask Your Highness to give you a chance to humble yourself!"
Chen Qing smiled slightly and said: "The opportunity will come soon. You can report the situation to me and go back. Soon the court will meet with Xu Xiangguo to negotiate with me. Then you will have to send 20,000 Song troops to Yangzhou."
"I humbly obey orders!"
Liu Qiong briefly reported to Chen Qing the latest situation in Haizhou and Donghai Island, and then led an army of 20,000 people back to Haizhou.
After crossing the New Yellow River, 200,000 Western troops continued northward and arrived at Fengxian County in the evening of the same day. They immediately set up camp outside Fengxian County.
The reason why Chen Qing camped in Feng County was that a river flowed from Songcheng County to the Yellow River, and from the Yellow River eastward through Feng County and Pei County into the Nanqing River, so various logistics materials could be transported from Songcheng County to Feng County by water transportation.
There is another reason: Feng County is less than a hundred miles away from Jeju, and Wanyan Wushu stationed 50,000 troops in Rencheng County, Jeju.