In the evening, the sky above the Nine Wood Ridge was changing. In the distant mountains, the lush forest was being swallowed by the darkness. When the birds flew out of the forest, Chong Lin stood on the mountain path and turned around.
The Nine Wood Ridge was still the same. It was a small mountain, barren and dangerous. There were a few houses and an inn. They were all new residences for the refugees. Chong Lin and his wife, Xu Jinhua, had been living here for more than a year. Usually, there were no big events. However, in the past few days, the number of people who happened to pass by them increased.
"Someone is coming."
Chong Lin said in a low voice when he returned to the inn. There were already two families in the main hall of the inn. Neither of them were very well-off. Their clothes were old and patched, but because they had a family to take care of, they came to this inn to buy food and hot water. Fortunately, the couple who ran the inn didn't charge too much money and food. As soon as Lin Chong finished speaking, the two families fell silent, their expressions filled with vigilance.
"Don't light the lamps." Chong Lin said in a low voice and walked to a small room on the side. In the room on the side, his wife, Xu Jinhua, was packing her luggage. There were many things on the bed. After Chong Lin told her about the people coming, she was a little flustered. "Are, are we leaving now?"
"No need. I'll go take a look." He turned around and picked up the wooden stick that had obviously not been used for a long time. It was also a little crooked. Then, he picked up a knife and handed it to his wife. "You have to be careful …" He looked outside and gestured.
"I know, I know... They don't look like bad people. They even have a child."
Xu Jinhua took the knife and put it aside. Chong Lin could tell that the two families outside were not bad people. He nodded and left with the stick. Before he left, he looked back at his wife's belly — Xu Jinhua was already pregnant at this time.
The sky gradually darkened. He went to the other houses on the Nine Wood Ridge and knocked on their doors. He told the people who were still there not to light their lamps. Then, he crossed the road and walked forward. Arriving at a corner of a mountain rock and looking ahead, a group of people came out one after another from the mountain where there was almost no good path to take. There were about twenty or so deserters, carrying torches, swords and spears, walking forward listlessly.
Voices could be heard occasionally. It was nothing more than going somewhere, finding a place to rest, and so on and so forth.
Lin Chong did not know how the battle was going at the front, but from the words of the refugees who had passed by in the past two days, he knew that a battle had already broken out. The hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had fled were not a small number, and he did not know if there would be new troops from the Imperial Court going up to meet them — but even if they did, they would definitely not be able to defeat them.
After the Jurchens invaded the south for the second time, roving bandits rose to the north of the Yellow River. Each of them led tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people. Compared to Shandong's Liangshan period, their momentum was unbelievably vast. Moreover, after the imperial court's rule was weakened, they could only be appeased and not suppressed. Thus, the existence of many mountain peaks became justifiable. Lin Chong lived in this small mountain range, and only occasionally went to the nearby villages with his wife. He also learned the names of many people:
The great bandit Wang Shan, who claimed to have 700,000 men and horses, "Hornless Ox" Yang Jin, "Prince Jin" Tian Hu, "Eight Word Army" Wang Yan, Wang Zaixing, Li Gui, Wang Dalang, and the heroes of Five Horse Mountain. As for the smaller mountain peaks, there were countless. Even his former brother Shi Jin, now under the name of Red Peak Mountain's "Eight-Armed Dragon King", had once again gathered people to rise up and fight against the Jin.
And these twenty or so people who had luckily escaped from the battlefield were planning to go all the way south to seek refuge with Prince Jin, Tian Hu — this was not because they were deserters who wanted to avoid punishment, but because Tian Hu's territory was mostly in the mountains, and the terrain was dangerous. Even if the Jurchens went south, they would first use soft tactics to appease them. As long as this Tiger King did not get hot-headed and act recklessly, they would be able to live a good life for a period of time.
Thinking back to the time when they were in Bianliang, it was still a good life of singing and dancing. It was just that in recent years, the situation had become more and more chaotic, and people could no longer see clearly. But Lin Chong's heart had long become numb. Whether it was lamenting about the chaotic situation or gloating about the world, he could no longer feel anything.
Hearing these people's words and seeing them walk straight ahead, Lin Chong only stealthily turned back after confirming that they would not go to the Nine Wood Ridge.
His wife packed up their things. There were some things in the inn that could not be taken away. At this time, Lin Chong had already dragged them to the forest in the mountains and buried them. The night passed without any mishaps. The next morning, Xu Jinhua got up and steamed cornbread. She prepared some dry rations, and the two of them set off with the other two families in the inn — they were all going to the south of the Yangtze River to take refuge. It was said that there would not be a war there.
Looking back at the shabby inn on the Nine Wood Ridge, the husband and wife were both reluctant to leave. Of course, it was not a good place, but they had almost gotten used to it.
Along the way, they talked about life in the south. At noon, they met another family of refugees. In the afternoon, when they got on the official road, there were even more people. There were families, oxen, horses, and carriages. It was bustling with activity. There were also soldiers mixed in with the crowd, fiercely marching forward.
Xu Jinhua, who was pregnant, did not walk very fast. At noon, she separated from the two families. In the afternoon, she remembered that she did not take away a piece of jewelry that she liked on the ridge. After looking for it for a while, she became absent-minded. Lin Chong helped her search for it for a while before he found it in her bag. The jewelry was only made from a beautiful polished stone. Even though Xu Jinhua had found it, she was not too happy.
Occasionally, there would be government officials walking through the crowd. Every time this happened, Xu Jinhua would hold Lin Chong's arm tighter and pull his body closer to her. Although the tattoo on Lin Chong's face had been broken by the knife marks, if one really suspected it, they would still be able to see some clues.
That evening, the husband and wife rested on a hillside. They squatted on the dirt slope, chewing on the already cold cornbread. They looked at the refugees that filled the mountains and the roads. Their eyes were somewhat blank. At some point, Xu Jinhua opened her mouth and said, "Actually, if we go to the south, there is no one we can go to."
Lin Chong did not say anything.
"There are so many people going to the south. Without land and food, how can we feed them? If we go there, we will have to beg..."
The woman's eyes became more and more frightened. Lin Chong took a bite of cornbread and said, "It's good for the child..."
"There are also so many people left in the north. Even if the Female Enlightened Master comes to kill them, there is no need to kill all the people on the mountain."
Lin Chong was silent for a while and said, "If we want to hide... of course, we can, but..."
"I am pregnant with the child. If we go this far, I don't know if we can protect the child. I... I don't want to leave the Nine Wood Ridge. I don't want to leave the store. "
Xu Jinhua touched the scar on Lin Chong's face. Lin Chong stuffed the cornbread into his mouth. After a long time, he reached out and hugged the woman beside him.
"Then let's go back," he said. "Then let's not go..."
The two of them blended into the crowd of refugees, passing each other insignificant warmth. In the end, they decided not to go.
When the Female Enlightened Master went south, some people chose to stay, and some chose to leave. There were also many people whose lives had already changed in the past few days. On the east side of the river, under the command of the great bandit Wang Shan, there were already 700,000 soldiers. Chariots numbered in the tens of thousands. Under the command of the "Hornless Bull" Yang Jin, there were 300,000 soldiers. "Prince Jin" Tian Hu claimed to have 500,000 soldiers. The "Eight Character Army" had 180,000, and the heroes of the Five Horse Mountain had more than 200,000. Adding all these people together, there was a majestic force of nearly two million people. In addition, the numerous armies of the imperial court, in their frantic expansion and resistance, had already expanded north of the Yellow River to more than a million people. However, the north of the Yellow River was originally the territory of these armies. Just by looking at the fact that they could not even suppress the soaring number of "volunteer armies" after their continuous expansion, one could easily understand a simple truth.
But that was of no use.
People were only seeking survival in their own way.
And a small number of people were also doing what they should do in their own ways.
In Bianliang, an old official named Zong Ze, who had been mobilized in the face of danger, was doing his best. In the half a year since taking on the mission, he had pacified the order around Bianliang and reconstructed the defensive line near Bianliang. At the same time, he did his best to recruit the various volunteer armies north of the Yellow River and gave them titles.
However, when the Female Enlightened Master really came south, the pressure coming from these "volunteer armies" was also constantly increasing. Wang Shan, Yang Jin, Tian Hu, Wang Zaixing, Li Gui, and other leaders of the armies all gathered here and asked the imperial court for a large amount of provisions, armaments, and even real recognized territories, titles, and titles. Just like the reason why Guo Jing took the initiative to open the city gate of Bianliang, the swindlers themselves were the most clear-headed. As leaders, they knew better than anyone else how much power the hundreds of thousands of troops under their command had. Many of them wanted to fight the Female Enlightened Master, but it was meaningless to go there like this.
Faced with this helpless and powerless situation, Zong Ze comforted these forces every day. At the same time, he kept sending letters to the Yingtian Office, hoping that Zhou Yong could return to Bianliang to hold the fort and strengthen the morale of the volunteer army.
This year, the sixty-eight-year-old Zong Ze's hair and beard were all white. Yue Fei, who was training soldiers in Daming, was summoned here from the moment the Female Enlightened Master went south to work for him. Yue Fei knew that the old man was very efficient in pacifying the order in Bianliang, but the old man could do nothing about the volunteer army in the north. He could give titles, but it was impossible to allocate enough provisions for a million people. The old man was at most a little famous as an official, but compared to Qin Siyuan and the others in the past, the old man couldn't even support ten thousand people, let alone a million.
However, although it seemed useless in Yue Fei's eyes, the old man still did it decisively, and even a little violently. He promised Wang Shan and the others that there would be a turn for the better, and kept sending letters to the Yingtian Office. It was not until one time when Zong Ze privately summoned him to give an order that Yue Fei asked.
"A million people in the north, even if they have enough provisions, I'm afraid they can't fight or escape when they encounter the Female Enlightened Master. The old man seems to have pinned his hope on them … Even if His Majesty is still in Bianliang, what good will it do?"
The old man glanced at him. Recently, he was a little hot-tempered, and said directly, "Then tell me, if we encounter the Female Enlightened Master, how can we fight?"
Yue Fei was stunned and wanted to speak, but the white-haired and white-bearded old man waved his hand. "How can I not know that these million people can't fight? However, in this world, how many people dare to say that they can fight the Female Enlightened Master? I'm not sure how to defeat the Female Enlightened Master, but I know that if there is a possibility of defeating the Female Enlightened Master, the whole Wu dynasty must have the determination to fight to the death! His Majesty is still in Bianliang because of this determination. His Majesty has this determination, millions of people dare to fight with the Female Enlightened Master. If they dare to fight with the Female Enlightened Master, it is possible for a group of heroes to kill their way out of millions of people and find a way to defeat the Female Enlightened Master! If they can't do this, then they will really die a hundred times! "
"I just see this and do what I can."
Yue Fei was silent for a long time, and then he cupped his hands and left. At this moment, he seemed to see an old man he had seen before, doing something that only had a slim chance of success in the surging torrent of the world. And his master, Zhou Dong, was actually like this.
It wasn't that doing this would succeed, but if you wanted to succeed, you had to do this.
Yingtian Mansion.
Fierce discussions took place in the Throne Room every day, but Zong Ze's memorial had long been suppressed among the many memorials. Even Li Gang, who was a hardline advocate of war, didn't agree with Zong Ze's proposal to keep the Emperor back to Bianliang.
The ruined city that had been trampled by the Female Enlightened Master really shouldn't go back.
"… The real thing is the internal affairs of the Jin people!"
"… Although the Jin army was almost invincible after Aguda's incident, now the internal affairs of the Jin Kingdom are no longer a monolithic block. According to the merchants in the north, since a few years ago, the Jin court has two Privy Councils, East and West. Wanyan Zongwang is in charge of the military affairs in the east, and Wanyan Zonghan is in charge of the court in the west. It is said that within the Jin Kingdom, only the court in the east is under Wu Qimai's control. As for Wanyan Zonghan, he has always had a rebellious heart. As early as the first time Zonghan went south, there were rumors that Zongwang urged Zonghan, but Zonghan stayed put at Taiyuan … "
"… Until last year, the Privy Councilor of the Eastern Privy Council, Liu Yanzong, died of illness, and Wanyan Zongwang also became seriously ill due to many years of war. The Jurchen Eastern Privy Council is only in name, and Wanyan Zonghan is now on par with Wu Qimai. This time, the reason why the Jurchen came south is partly to fight for power. In the east, Wanyan Zongfu, Zong Bi, and the other princes want to establish their authority, and Zonghan has no choice but to cooperate. However, he used Wanyan Loushi to conquer the west, and it is said that he also wants to pacify the north of the Yellow River, which proves his intention. He wants to expand his private territory … "
"… From what I can see, there are a lot of ways to sow discord in the middle. I can imagine!"
The officials in the imperial court were clamoring and expressing their own opinions. Apart from military affairs, the scholars could only provide the political wisdom and wisdom accumulated over thousands of years. Not long after, the old scholar from Chenzhou, Hong Xi, invited himself to go to the Jurchen Prince Zong Fu's army to explain the pros and cons to stop the army. Everyone in the court praised him for his righteousness.
Prince Kang, Zhou Yong, originally did not have much knowledge, so he let them do what they wanted. He spent every day in the harem with his new concubine. Not long after, the news spread, and the scholar Ouyang Che put up posters in the city to denounce him …
It was a quiet season in Little Cang River. With the departure of spring and the arrival of summer, the valley had already stopped frequent contact with the outside world. Only the spies sent out would occasionally bring back news from the outside world. In the summer of the second year of Jianshuo, the whole world was pale.
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