Fenghou

In the room, Empress Dowager Wei stared coldly at the teacup on the table, and said to herself: "If you don't believe me, I can't deal with you!"

For the first time, Zhao Gou withstood the pressure of Empress Dowager Wei and fulfilled his promise. In the afternoon, Zhao Gou issued a decree, commending Chen Qing for exterminating Yang Yao's water bandits. .

In addition, Chen Qing's officers and men all received rewards.

Chapter 3 and Five

As night fell, a gorgeous carriage drove into the Qin Mansion. It was the mistress Wang who had returned from the palace.

Mrs. Wang was helped out of the carriage by two personal maids, and one of the maids stepped forward to salute: "Madam, master is waiting in the study!"

"I see, is my nephew here today?"

"Report to Madam, Wang Yanei did not come."

Mrs. Wang took off her outer cloak, and then went to her husband's inner study.

Qin Hui was already waiting for his wife at the door of the study. Since Wang Shi became the queen mother's confidant, Wang's status in front of her husband had improved significantly. Qin Hui was very caring and considerate to her, and basically she could satisfy her requests.

"Ma'am, it's hard work. It's cold outside. Come in and have a drink of hot tea!"

Mrs. Wang went into the room and sat down, complaining a little: "I asked Boer to come here today, but this kid is so ignorant that he didn't come."

In the past, it was Qin Hui who scolded Wang Bo for being useless, but now it was the other way around, and it was Qin Hui's turn to excuse him.

"After all, he is an adult, and there will be more things to do. There must be some delays. Speaking of Bo'er, I have already taken care of his affairs for him. He only needs to go to Taixue to study for another year. I can recommend him. The post of master bookkeeper."

Wang took a sip of tea and said lightly: "Don't bother your husband, the queen mother promised to let him be the Yuezhou branch envoy of the Yantie Supervisor, and he will be named as a member of the sixth department."

Qin Hui was startled. Wailang, a member of the sixth department, was in charge of the sixth rank, and Wang Bo was nothing. He was sealed as a sixth rank all at once, and he was also a vacancy in the Yuezhou Salt and Iron Supervision. This would definitely be watched.

Qin Hui has now replaced Lu Yihao as the Right Prime Minister, and has great power, but he is still relatively cautious. After all, his foundation in the court is too shallow, and he can't do something like Wang Bo's appointment as a sixth-rank official. If you violate the court rules, you will be outraged.

He couldn't help but secretly complained about his wife's short-sightedness, but he couldn't say it outright. After all, this was what the Queen Mother wanted. He had to talk to Wang Bo's father about this matter, and let them decline it.

Qin Hui stopped mentioning this matter, Wang glanced at her husband, and said: "The queen mother is very unhappy today, she is very disappointed with the official family, the person she hates the most is going to be promoted to the Duke, the queen mother did not dissuade her husband The officials are also deeply dissatisfied!"

Qin Hui smiled wryly and said: "Why am I willing to see this result? I am not a royal family. I was made a Duke at the age of [-]. It is estimated that there will be an uproar in the court tomorrow, but I have no choice. This is a public promise from the government. He You must fulfill your promise, otherwise, what is your nonsense?"

"The queen mother asked you to think of a way. For example, Chen Qing is not the coach. How about transferring this to the coach?"

Qin Hui's face sank, "Don't say such stupid things. If Li Gang is promoted to the third rank, the Jurchens will have to peel my skin. Do you think I didn't expect that? I would rather give Chen Qing the third rank than give it to me. Li Gang, if Li Gang gains power again, I will become an abandoned son of the Kingdom of Jin. Without the support of the Kingdom of Jin, I can become the Right Minister? What do you think Wan Yanchang is going to do in Lin'an?"

"Isn't Wan Yanchang going to Lin'an for negotiation?"

"negotiation?"

Qin Huai sneered, "Isn't it okay to send an envoy to the negotiations? Do you still need a high-ranking Jurchen like Wan Yanchang to personally risk Lin'an? You don't understand this kind of high-level political struggle. Wan Yanchang's coming to An is a gesture in itself. I am reminding the officials that the Kingdom of Jin is preparing to reconcile with the Song Dynasty in the southeast direction. Now the anti-gold faction in Zhizhengtang is too strong, which is not conducive to this kind of reconciliation. The officials understand the message he conveyed, so there is Lu Yihao. Dismiss."

"Then what does this have to do with your husband?"

"Wan Yanchang came here to support me, understand? Back then, Wan Yanchang had reached a secret agreement with the officials, and I would serve as a political adviser, laying a wedge between the Song and Jin Dynasties. Otherwise, I would be such a baseless person." A petty official with no qualifications, who just came back from the Kingdom of Jin, is suspicious of an official, will he use me?"

"I'm confused, are the officials anti-gold or peacemakers?"

Qin Hui said coldly: "His face is anti-gold, but in his heart he is negotiating peace. His face is for the world to see, and the truth is in his bones. There is also the Queen Mother, who also came back with a mission. She was sent by the Kingdom of Jin Lu Yihao's resignation from the supervisory official family has a lot to do with her, I'm afraid that she is too selfish and can't tell which is more important, she wants to kill Chen Qing wholeheartedly, but I don't know that Li Gang is the real problem."

"So that's the case, then I'll tell the Queen Mother that Li Gang cannot be considered!"

"There's no need to talk about it. The government's decree has already been made. I just want to catch Chen Qing in the future, and I'll tell the Queen Mother in time."

"Then I also want to tell the queen mother that my husband will help her with all my strength, and I can't let her resent him."

Qin Hui nodded, it is indeed a terrible thing to be resentfully targeted by an old woman in the deep palace.

……

The recruitment of new recruits in Jiangling Mansion is in full swing, and they are recruiting and training at the same time.

Chen Qing was in charge of the capital, and the army he could command was about 1 people. This was the military salary and food and grass provided by the court, but a little more was fine, for example, some logistics soldiers were needed, such as cooks, grooms, military doctors, craftsmen, Clerical and so on.

Generally, this kind of logistics soldiers cannot exceed 1% of the total force, so under normal circumstances, the maximum number of people that can be commanded by one commander cannot exceed [-].

Of course, it is not impossible to recruit more soldiers if it is necessary for combat, but the imperial court will not bear the military salary, food and grass, and has to solve it by itself.

This leads to the biggest problem in the Southern Song Dynasty, the private army.

Because of the need to fight against gold, the imperial court relaxed the over-recruitment of all independent troops. It can be said to turn a blind eye. For example, Zhang Jun's Zhang Jiajun, Han Shizhong's Han Jiajun, Liu Guangshi's Liu Jiajun, Yue Fei have appeared The Yue family army of Wu Jie, the Wu family army of Wu Jie, the Liu family army of Liu Kai, etc., the actual army each of them commanded has greatly exceeded their own strength limit, and the court also acquiesced.

The spoils obtained from victorious battles also belong to themselves, and the court does not pursue them. After all, they need to support the army.

However, not every Duguan can get the opportunity to lead the army independently. This needs to be approved by the emperor. Qu Duan, Liu Ziyu, Wang Yan, Wu Lin, and Fu Xuan did not get this opportunity.

Kong Yanzhou already had his own private army, but he still could not get the approval of the emperor, so he surrendered to the puppet Qi army in order to protect his own private army.

As a matter of fact, Chen Qing's army already had a rudimentary form of the Chen family's army, and the biggest feature was already in place. His army followed him, and when he was transferred to Huguang, the army also followed him to Huguang.

However, Wang Yan's eight-character army failed to form the Wang family army. He was transferred away, and his army was handed over to Fu Xuan and Chen Qing.

This is also the fundamental reason why Zhao Gou rewarded Chen Qing but not Li Gang in the Battle of Dongting Lake. Chen Qing's army was actually independent and not under Li Gang's jurisdiction.

This was the biggest compensation Chen Qing received from being transferred to Huguang from the Western Army. The imperial court recognized his independent capital, and Chen Qing agreed to come to Huguang.

This right of independence is too important to him, without it, he can only fight against Zhu Shengfei, otherwise Zhu Shengfei has the right to take away Chen Qing's army and send him to Bashu for training. It is a kind of compensation for being suppressed by Zhu Shengfei for the reason.

At the beginning of the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, in order not to be destroyed by the Jurchens, they adopted this compromise attitude towards the warlords, but once the Song army negotiated peace, the emperor Zhao Gou and the court began to quickly withdraw military power. The most serious incident , that is, Fengboting Yuefei was killed.

Yue Fei was killed for many reasons, one of which was that he refused to obey the edict at the last moment. Emperor Zhao Gou felt that Yue Fei's army was out of control, and worried that Yue Fei would support himself in the Central Plains.

The topic is far away, so turn around.

At present, Chen Qing's army has a total of 5000 people, 5000 cavalry and [-] infantry, and another [-] water troops were lent to him by Li Gang and not owned by him. The actual strength is [-].

At present, the strength of the Song army is far less than that of the puppet Qi army, and the situation is very unfavorable. The imperial court approved Li Gang to recruit another [-] troops. After the quota was broken down, Chen Qing got the quota of [-] troops.

Chen Qing still has [-] prisoners of Yang Yao's elite army who were not handed over to Li Gang. Ten warships rushed to Xiangyang and cooperated with Niu Gao to block the Han River.

In the past few days, Chen Qing recruited [-] recruits in Jiangling, and there were a lot of recruits, not only the children of Jiangling Mansion, but also the people of the counties and counties around Dongting Lake thanked Chen Qing for not disturbing the people, and sent their children to join the army.

In just three days, Chen Qing's newly recruited army reached 300 people.

Today was the last day of recruiting new recruits. At the recruiting point of the Yangtze River Wharf in Jiangling County, a recruiter that Chen Qing could never have imagined came.

Chapter 3 and six new generals

In the afternoon, Hu Yanyun, who was in charge of recruiting recruits along the Yangtze River, sent news that a general with high martial arts skills had come to join the army. Chen Qing immediately rushed to the Yangtze River with dozens of soldiers.

When he came to the Yangtze River, Hu Yanyun clasped his fists and said, "A young man in white came to apply for the army, but he refused to get off the boat, saying that he would only apply if there was someone who was better than him, otherwise he would go elsewhere by boat."

"Has anyone gone up and competed?"

"Lu Gui went up and had a fight. The two were similar in strength, but Lu Gui was not good at martial arts, so he was defeated. Later, General Xiao Liu couldn't help but also went up, and unfortunately lost."

Chen Qing was a little surprised. Lu Gui's martial arts skills were average, but he was powerful, second only to Niu Gao among the generals in the army, and he beat the entire army with a long-handled copper hammer weighing [-] jin.

And General Xiao Liu is Liu Qiong, who received the true biography of his uncle Liu Ziyu. He has superb archery skills and superb marksmanship, second only to Yang Zaixing.

Chen Qing was very interested, so he walked quickly to the pier, and saw a man wearing a white warrior uniform standing on the prow of a three thousand stone ship. The man was about 25 or 1.9 years old, [-] meters tall, with With a wide back and a wide back, he looks extremely majestic. He is carrying a golden gun with a tiger head made of iron. It looks like it weighs at least forty to fifty kilograms. This person has a long face, thin and dark skin, and a pair of fierce tiger eyes. .

Yang Zaixing, the number one under Chen Qing, led the recruits to Longshan for training, and he will not be back until tomorrow. Another fierce general, Niu Gao, blocked the Han River in Xiangyang. Liu Qiong, who is slightly stronger, has been defeated, so Liu Cui will not be an opponent.

Chen Qing suddenly found that, apart from himself, no one seemed to be able to suppress this person's arrogance, and his subordinates were still a little less capable.

Chen Qing stretched out his hand, "Bring my weapon!"

Liu Qiong was ashamed, and she was really unwilling to say: "Let the humble one try again! Just now, the humble one underestimated the enemy."

Chen Qing shook his head, "If you lose, you lose. It doesn't matter. Others will say that we can't afford to lose!"

A personal soldier stepped forward carrying Chen Qing's Fang Tian painted halberd. Chen Qing took it, got off his horse, and walked towards the boat step by step.

The young man looked at Chen Qing's Fang Tian painting a halberd, and solemnly clasped his fists and said, "Is the general Chen Dutong?"

Chen Qing nodded, "I heard that you are highly skilled in martial arts, and Chen Moute is here to learn from you!"

"Okay! Then I'll make a fool of myself!"

The man twisted his body, and the spear in his hand pierced Chen Qing's face like a snake, cleanly and extremely fast.

Chen Qing is very knowledgeable, this spear is very powerful, and he is on the same level as Yang Zaixing.

"Good come!"

Chen Qing waved his halberd and said, "Dang! Swinging the tip of the spear with great precision, he took two steps back, Fang Tian swung his halberd, stabbing at the young man like a storm.

The man was flying in the air like a leaf. No matter how fierce Chen Qing's halberd was, he was always rolling back and forth on the tip of the halberd, but he couldn't do it if he wanted to fight back.

Chen Qing Fang Tian's painting halberd had no intention of stopping at all. He attacked hundreds of moves in one breath, overwhelming the man. The main reason was that the strong force made it difficult for him to parry. live.

The generals and soldiers below were fascinated by it. It was the first time they had seen such a powerful martial art. He was able to attack hundreds of moves in a row, and his moves were extremely fierce. I am afraid that few people in the world can do it.

Suddenly, Chen Qing yelled, a series of slashing in his hands, he retracted the long halberd, and the murderous aura dissipated in an instant, and stood calmly a foot away, looking at the young man with a smile, he had shown mercy just now, he believed Men also know it well.

The young man blushed, put down his spear, knelt down on one knee and cupped his fists and said, "I've heard for a long time that Chen Dutong is outstanding in martial arts, and he is brave enough to conquer the world. I am convinced by my humble job!"

"Are you General Song too?"

"The humble job is Liu Guangshi's humble general Gao Ding, who is here to join Dutong!"

Chen Qing was overjoyed immediately, Gao Ding was the prototype of the fierce general Gao Chong, Hu Yantong introduced to him, the descendant of Gao Huaide, with superb marksmanship and extremely high martial arts, served as the commander in Liu Guangshi's army.

Liu Guangshi was defeated in Yangzhou, and the [-] troops were wiped out. Chen Qing was worried about Gao Ding's whereabouts, but he didn't expect him to come to join him.

"General Gao, please stand up!"

Chen Qing quickly helped him up, Gao Ding took out a letter from his arms, "This is a letter from Huyantong to Dutong!"

This is of course Hu Yantong's recommendation letter. Gao Ding is a general's son, and he has always been arrogant. He wanted to meet Chen Qing for a while, but he refused to show the recommendation letter. Unexpectedly, Chen Qing made 120 moves in one go. There was no room for him to fight back, so he was finally convinced!

Of course, Gao Chong's martial arts in "Shuo Yue" is too heaven-defying. Gao Ding has not yet reached that level, but he has already been hailed as the number one general.

Back in Bianliang, there was a legend about the Five Tiger Generals, referring to Cao De, Wang Yun, Pan Ning, Hu Yantong, and Gao Ding. After the five generals, Gao Ding was the youngest, only seventeen or eighteen years old, but his martial arts was the most powerful.

The second is Pan Ning, the general with two guns, who also has the courage to be undeserved.

Among them, Cao De is a descendant of Cao Bin and also the commander of Liu Guangshi. He had contacts with Chen Qing in Lin'an. After Liu Guangshi's defeat in Yangzhou, Cao De's whereabouts are temporarily unknown.

Wang Yun is a descendant of Wang Shenqi, the famous founding general of the Song Dynasty, and Pan Ning is a descendant of Pan Mei, the famous founding general of the Song Dynasty. Both of them are currently serving as generals in the Imperial Guard.

Of course, Chen Qing hired Gao Ding and appointed him as the commander of the army directly under his control. Gao Ding was originally Liu Guangshi's general who controlled Li Qiong, and the official served as the deputy commander. Chen Qing directly turned him into a general.

Hu Yanyun stepped forward and apologized to Chen Qing: "I also knew General Gao back then, but his appearance changed too much, so I didn't recognize him just now. If Hu Yanlei was here, he must have known him."

Chen Qing said with a smile: "This is a trivial matter, don't worry about it, the recruitment of recruits ends here!"

Chen Qing returned to the county with Gao Ding. He was very concerned about the details of Liu Guangshi's defeat.

Gao Ding sighed and said: "Yangzhou's defeat is really a disgrace, our [-] army fought against [-] cavalry, originally we would not have lost, but Wanyan Nianhan dispatched [-] cavalry to go around and attack Liu Guangshi's commander, Liu Guangshi fled in panic , As a result, the entire army was defeated. The soldiers cried for their fathers and mothers, scrambling to escape, but were ruthlessly massacred by the Jurchen cavalry. It was too tragic. The battlefield was full of headless corpses.

Originally, there were still [-] remnant troops by the river, and they could have fought the Jin soldiers to the death, but Liu Guangshi was frightened, and took the lead in fleeing by boat, and the morale of the army completely collapsed.

General Cao De led the remaining thousands of troops to fight the enemy to the death. As a result, the puppet Qi army came from the east, and the Jurchen cavalry was in the north. They were saved only when they met a large ship that responded. "

"Is General Cao killed?"

"He led hundreds of people to break through to the north. It is estimated that there will be bad luck. We are all separated by the Jurchen cavalry and cannot be gathered together."

"Is it Liu Guangshi's responsibility for Yangzhou's defeat this time?"

Gao Ding nodded, "He is the main responsibility. Before, he was greedy for merit, and then he flinched and retreated."

Chen Qing said again: "But I have read his report. He put the responsibility for the defeat on the soldiers, saying that the Jurchen cavalry were killed, and the soldiers were frightened out of their wits. The whole army was defeated."

"Fucking stinky farts! It's just pointing at the deer as a horse, turning black and white. I admit that the soldiers are afraid of the golden soldier, but if he doesn't run away first, how can the whole army collapse?"

Chen Qing nodded, "He just reversed cause and effect."

"That's why I hate him so much. As a general under his command, sooner or later I will die of grievance." Gao Ding obviously hated Liu Guangshi to the extreme.

"I thought you would seek refuge with Yue Fei!" Chen Qing smiled faintly.

Gao Ding blushed, "To tell you the truth, Dutong, the humble officer originally joined Yue Dutong, but Yue Dutong persuaded me to go back to Liu Guangshi's barracks. He said that Liu Guangshi reorganized the army and was employing people. I will definitely be reused." , Hey! Yue Dutong doesn't want to offend Liu Guangshi because of me."

Chen Qing chuckled, "Yue Fei is more stable, unlike me, who is wild, as long as he has real skills, I welcome them all!"

Chapter 3 and Seven

It was just dawn, and it was also the quietest moment, when there was a faint sound of rumbling wooden wheels and oars on the Han River, and the soldiers stationed at the head of Xiangyang City on the south bank of the Han River heard this roar.

Xiangyang City is still two miles away from the Han River, but the sound of wooden oars can be clearly heard. After dawn, the soldiers can still see the huge fleet on the Han River.

The puppet Qi army was very helpless. They had already controlled Xiangyang, but the surface of the water had become the world of the Song army, leaving them helpless.