Fenghou

In the ruins of the barracks, Yang Hua led a group of soldiers to dig out food, oil, salt, dried meat, and many weapons that had been buried in the ground.

At noon, Zheng Ping came back, and Zhao Xiaoyi stayed in the county to continue to inquire about information.

"General, it's snowing heavily. There are no soldiers on the city towers. Even the soldiers guarding the city gates are hiding in the lee of the city and burning fires to keep warm. It is said that the Jurchen soldiers and the Han army patrolled all day at the beginning. Less money, it snowed yesterday, they were nowhere to be seen, they all hid in the barracks to gamble, eat and drink, if the heavy snow doesn’t stop tonight, it’s a chance to seize the county seat.”

"Is the number of soldiers the same as Yang Dazhi said?"

Zheng Ping nodded, "That's right, 100 Jurchen soldiers and 400 Han soldiers, led by a Jurchen centurion!"

"Where is their barracks?" Yang Yuanqing asked.

"In the southwest corner of the county is the original Town God's Temple. Dozens of felt tents were built. The Han army and the Jurchens lived together. There used to be a small military camp. The Jurchens thought the conditions there were too poor, and the small military camp had been occupied by refugees. It's full."

Chen Qing picked up a branch and drew a county town on the snow. He drew a circle on the southwest corner and asked, "I want to know, is this southwest corner directly against the city wall?"

"Yes! The south and west sides are against the city wall."

Chen Qing walked to the edge of the woods with his hands behind his hands, looking at the gray sky, the snow was falling more and more, without any sign of stopping.

He turned his head and said to the crowd: "Take Linyou County tonight!"

……

As night fell, the snow fell harder and harder, and people could not be seen clearly from dozens of steps away. The thick snow had reached the thighs. At midnight, Chen Qing led more than two hundred men to the outside of Linyou County.

At this time, the moat was completely frozen, and the soldiers accidentally discovered a rope, which fell from the top of the city and almost condensed into an icicle.

He was wearing a thick sheepskin jacket, still shivering from the cold.

"General, the city... there is no one at the top of the city, it's just... almost freezing to death."

A soldier handed Zhao Xiaoyi a wine gourd, and he took a few sips to warm up his body, and continued: "There are no soldiers under the city, and even the watchmen in the city can't be seen, and they are completely asleep."

Chen Qing squinted at the city wall. Although the wind and snow covered his sight, he still saw small black dots hanging on the city wall.

That was the heads of his subordinates. More than 200 soldiers who died in battle for the country were beheaded by the Jurchen for public display. Chen Qing slowly clenched his fists.

"action!"

Chen Qing gritted his teeth and burst out two words. Yang Yuanqing immediately led the soldiers to climb the ropes to the city, and then threw down a few long ropes, and the soldiers quickly climbed to the top of the city one by one.

The snow on the top of the city was also knee-deep, and the visibility was extremely low. The gray sky was full of snow, and it was impossible to see anything thirty steps away. The only way to judge whether there were soldiers lighting a fire to keep warm was by the lack of fire.

Such bad weather made the defense of the city meaningless.

Chen Qing led the soldiers to the southwestern corner of the city quickly. There seemed to be an open space below. There were several big lanterns in the sky. The lights reflected the snow, and the shadow of the tent could be vaguely seen at the edge of the lantern's peripheral light.

This is the Town God's Temple, which is where the Jinbing camped.

There is a bonfire below, and several people can be seen gathering around the bonfire to enjoy the fire. They should be patrolling sentries.

"Be careful not to slip through the net!"

Chen Qing gave a warning, Yang Hua nodded, and went down to the city with a dozen soldiers.

Not long after, there were a few muffled groans from both sides of the bonfire, and the patrolling sentry was eliminated.

The soldiers went down to the city with the help of ropes, and quickly assembled under the city.

Chen Qing said to the four heads: "According to the plan we made before, each is responsible for one piece. Remember, try to cut off the head with one knife, and the strike must be ruthless and fast, so that no one will be left alive."

"Follow the order!"

Each of the four leaders rushed away with their subordinates.

Chen Qing led more than a dozen of his men to a large tent. The felt tent was made of sheepskin, and there were two leather curtains. The ropes were fastened from the inside to prevent the cold wind from entering, and it was very warm.

Each big tent has more than 100 square meters. Ten Jurchen soldiers live in one tent, while 30 Han soldiers live in one big tent. The treatment is very different.

What Chen Qing led the soldiers to break into was a large tent of Jurchen soldiers.

It was cold outside, but warm inside the tent. The Jurchen soldiers were all asleep. In the big tent, the lights of knives flickered, blood splashed everywhere, and there was not even a muffled cry. In just ten seconds, ten Jurchen soldiers were already sound asleep. The bodies were separated.

Chen Qing led his men to turn around and leave without hesitation, and went to another big tent. At this time, screams continued, coming from the direction of the Han army tent, but there was silence again for a while.

There was another group of young women wailing loudly, and the soldiers found the young women who had been kidnapped in the main hall of the Town God's Temple.

At four o'clock, the barracks was completely quiet...

All 200 gold soldiers were killed, and more than 120 women were rescued at the same time, a large amount of money, food, soldiers, armor, and [-] horses were seized.

But this is only the beginning.

……

The sky is getting brighter, and the snow is starting to decrease. There are still sparse snowflakes falling, but there is no heavy snow before.

Pedestrians appeared on the street, and many vegetable farmers rushed to the city in donkey carts, and people who were eager to buy vegetables and rice also came from all directions.

Many people accidentally discovered that the heads of the soldiers of the Song Army hanging above the city gate had turned into the heads of Jurchens, with shaved hair and pigtails, fierce appearance and very distinctive characteristics.

Not only that, but the soldiers guarding the gate were also different. The former soldiers of the Song Army returned, and soon, a banner of the Song Army's Tuanlong was flying over the city.

The common people began to cheer uncontrollably. They scrambled to run in the city, shouting, "The Song army is back! The Song army is back!"

More and more people ran out of their homes to the street and started beating gongs and drums, and the whole county was about to boil.

Li Boliang, the county magistrate, had just left his house and was standing on the steps to get into a carriage to go to the county government office. Suddenly, he saw a group of people running up, shouting, "The soldiers of Song Dynasty have returned, and the Jurchens are all dead."

Li Boliang was like thunder, he stood still for a moment, then suddenly yelled, turned around and ran towards the house, while running, he shouted in a crying voice: "My lady, pack up your clothes and run for your life!"

Chapter 26 Anmin

Li Boliang couldn't escape in the end. He was dragged to Chen Qing by soldiers of the Song Army, and he was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground.

"General, I can't help it. The Jurchens are too ruthless. Song people are like pigs and dogs in their eyes. I also want to protect the people, but I can't!"

When the Jin soldiers retreated, they burned, killed and looted all the way. More than 3000 people were killed, hundreds of young women were taken away, and countless families were destroyed.

Chen Qing stared at him and said coldly: "As long as you are a little bit bloody, you will abandon your official position and leave, instead of bowing your knees in front of the Jin people, and constantly betraying the interests of the people in order to please the Jin people. How much harm have you done in the past nine days? Don't you think about it yourself?"

"I was forced, General, the shopkeeper who sells animal food betrayed you, and I killed him in the end. I... I also have credit for it!"

Chen Qing stepped forward and stared at his fat face and said, "Do you know why I must kill you? Because I know very well that you will betray me!"

Li Boliang hurriedly waved his hands, "I won't, I assure you, I will never betray the general!"

Chen Qing shook his head, his eyes became cruel, "My principle is that I would rather kill by mistake than let it go, and besides...you deserve to die!"

Chen Qing stood up, waved his hand, "Push it out, chop!"

"General, please forgive me! Please forgive me!"

Li Boliang was dragged out, crying and shouting all the way, and finally was beheaded by soldiers of the Song Army on the ground, and his head was hung on the county government office. Countless people still came to smash his head with stones, hating him to the bone.

These days, Li Boliang led a group of Han soldiers to search for young women from house to house, offering them to the Jurchen soldiers to spoil, and these women were continued to be raped by the Han soldiers, and finally hanged themselves and jumped into a well, half of them died.

As for the scrapping of pigs and sheep, there are countless, and there is still more than a month before the New Year, and he almost snatches all the meat that the people prepare for the New Year, and dedicates it to the golden soldiers for squandering.

Chen Qing not only killed Li Boliang, the county magistrate, but also the county lieutenant Min Wu and Li Boliang's aide, Du Jing.

Wei Qing was born in Jingzhao Wei's family, but he was a concubine. In the sixth year of Xuanhe Jinshi, he was awarded the post of chief bookkeeper of Baoji County. In the third year of Jianyan, Wanyan Loushi led an army into Guanzhong, and captured Jingzhao Mansion and Fengxiang successively. Mansion, Wei Qing fled to Linyou County with his wife, children and mother who abandoned his official position and opened a private school to support his family.

This time it was Wei Qing who took the initiative to help Chen Qing rebuild order in the county. He has lived in Linyou County for more than a year and knows the situation in Linyou County very well.

In the county government office, Wei Qing poured Chen Qing a cup of hot tea.

"Commander, the most urgent task now is to solve the food and housing problems of the people, especially the refugees. The refugees living on the street were all buried by the heavy snow. More than 70 people died of freezing last night, and many families have no food."

"What good advice do you have?"

"In fact, the method is very simple. It is to prepare money and food. At present, the county warehouse has 760 shi of grain and 350 copper coins. There is still a long way to go. We have to raise money and food from other channels."

"I can understand the need for food, why do you need to raise money?" Chen Qing asked in confusion.

"Commander, the best way to solve the housing problem for refugees is to help them rent a house to live in. In fact, many people in the county have vacant rooms, but they just don't want to give them up for nothing.

Rent is very cheap now, you can rent a house with only [-] Wen copper coins a month, and you can rent a house for a year and a half with regular money, but most refugees can’t afford even [-] Wen coins, so they can only sleep on the street, so Money must be raised by the government. "

Chen Qing thought for a while and said: "The army still has more than 2000 taels of silver, all of which were seized from Jin Bing. If they copy the houses of Li Boliang and Min Wu, they may get thousands of taels of silver, which should be solved. The rent is not enough!"

Wei Qing was overjoyed, silver is a hard currency, one tael of silver can be exchanged for five pennies, "Commander, silver alone is enough!"

"But I can only give you half of the silver, and I will keep half for recruiting soldiers. Instead, I can confiscate all the property of Li Boliang and Min Wu, including grain. The grain in Li Boliang's warehouse exceeds five hundred shi. He is in the county There is also a small farm, and I guess there is money and grain hidden there."

Wei Qing suddenly remembered something, slapped the table and said: "The commander is right, he had forcibly confiscated three thousand shi of grain before, saying that it was for the Jinbing army, but in the end the Jinbing only consumed two or three hundred shi, and the rest of the grain was in the where it goes?

I asked the county official, the grain in the county warehouse has never been touched, so I am sure that most of the remaining grain must have been embezzled by him and Min Wu. "

Chen Qing said coldly: "As long as the food is still there, even if you dig three feet into the ground, you have to dig it out!"

……

The army began to move, and searched the homes of Li Boliang and Min Wu, as well as Li Boliang's farm of several hundred mu outside the city. Zheng Ping, the head of the capital, led [-] cavalry to search.

At the same time, at the county gate, the young and strong who applied for the Song Army formed a long line.

Chen Qing came to the gate of the city on horseback, and heard Yang Yuanqing shouting from a distance: "Join our army, don't think about serving as a soldier with food and salary. On the battlefield, everyone thinks things through."

Some of the young men who lined up left, but most of the young men still did not leave.

At this time, a tall and strong young man clasped his fists and said: "In Xialugui, a native of Weinan County, Huazhou, was originally a corporal commander of the Jingyuan Army. After Fuping was defeated, I fled back home. Unexpectedly, my parents and wife All my sons were killed by Jin soldiers, and my house was burned to the ground. I want to avenge my family with all my heart, and I implore the general to accept it!"

Chen Qing and Yang Yuanqing had discussed that the recruitment of recruits this time would give priority to scattered soldiers, especially the soldiers of the Western Army were generally well-trained and very good at fighting. Chen Qing was the battalion commander appointed by Zhang Jun himself, and he was specially given a staff of 1000 men. As long as the strength reaches 1000 people, their room for maneuver is much greater.

Yang Yuanqing nodded and asked, "Can you know how to ride a horse and shoot an arrow?"

"The humble can ride a horse and walk with a bow!"

It is true that most soldiers of the Western Army can ride horses. Yang Yuanqing pointed to the stone lock on the ground, "Raise it above your head with both hands and lift it three times!"

Lu Gui stepped forward and grabbed the sixty-jin stone lock, shouted, and lifted it high above his head, three times in a row.

A sixty-jin stone lock can be lifted by a strong man. The main test here is whether there is any injury on the body.

"You have been hired, go to the tent to register!"

Lu Gui was overjoyed, he clasped his fists in a salute, and went to register in the big tent at the back.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing saw Chen Qing and asked Yang Hua to replace him. He smiled and walked forward, "I thought the commander was in the county government office!"

Chen Qing got off his horse and gave the reins to Zhao Xiaoyi who was behind him. He said with a smile, "Leave all the miscellaneous matters to Lord Wei. I am more concerned about recruiting troops. How is the situation?"

"It's not bad. More than [-] people have been recruited since morning. They are basically stragglers. Fortunately, there are so many refugees. There are not many stragglers in Linyou County alone."

"Have you paid An's family?"

Yang Yuanqing nodded, "According to the command of the commander, each person will be given three taels of silver, and let them settle down at home."

Three taels of silver is not a small amount of money. After Jingkang, in order to flee south, rich and wealthy merchants sold their real estate and land, and exchanged a large amount of gold and silver, which caused the price of gold and silver to skyrocket. At the peak, one tael of silver could be exchanged for more than a dozen coins. However, one tael of silver can still be exchanged for five Guanxuan and copper coins.

The banknotes issued during the Xuanhe period have become waste paper, and the iron coins issued on Shaanxi Road have also depreciated sharply. One penny of copper coins can be exchanged for five pennies of iron coins, so that many shops do not accept iron coins, only copper coins.

Three taels of silver can be exchanged for fifteen copper coins, [-] Wen, which is enough for ordinary people to spend a few years. This is also Chen Qing's philosophy all along. Only by treating his subordinates generously can they fight bloody battles with the enemy at critical moments.

At this time, Yang Yuanqing thought of something, and said to Chen Qing: "In the matter of recruitment in the morning, several recruits mentioned that there is an archery hall in the county. I heard that the owner of the hall is an instructor of the Imperial Army who specializes in archery."

Later, Zhao Xiaoyi blurted out, "Xu Shenqiang!"

"You know?" Chen Qing looked back at him.

Zhao Xiaoyi scratched his head. He didn't dare to intervene casually when the general was talking. He was embarrassed and said, "In fact, everyone in Linyou County knows that Xu Shenqiang is the instructor of the 80 Imperial Army in Tokyo. After Jingkang, he returned home and opened an archery gym. By the way , Liu Wu also learned the step bow in his archery."

Chen Qing couldn't help laughing, "Tokyo's 80 Imperial Army coach", a very bluffing name.

"What's his name?"

"It's called Xu Ning!"

Chen Qing was taken aback. In "Water Margin", there is a golden spear general named Xu Ning. Is it related to this person?

However, the golden gun general Xu Ning in "Water Margin" was killed when he conquered Fang La. Could this sharp gun Xu Ning be the prototype of the golden gun general Xu Ning?

But in any case, if he wants to practice riding and archery, it is best to have a famous teacher to guide him.

Chen Qing was quite interested, so he smiled slightly and said, "Then go and have a look!"

Chapter 27 Sharpshooter

The Arrow House is located in the north of the city, covering an area of ​​about three acres. There is a long and narrow archery field. Although the Song Dynasty generally emphasized civility over martial arts for a hundred years, after Jingkang, the mountain of national ruin and family destruction was on everyone's head. the choice of each family.

Don't talk about defending your home and country, just want to keep your own life, and even run faster than others when danger comes, just want to have a little bit of strength to protect your family in troubled times, and no longer be reduced to golden soldiers or thieves. of pigs and sheep.

Various martial arts gyms, sword and gun gyms, and archery halls have sprung up rapidly in major cities north of the Yangtze River, and Xu's Archery Hall was also born in the bloody wind.