choke element

Chapter 1042 The Future (Part )

Wanyan Congtan glanced at the clepsydra in the courtyard and calculated the time.

Then he looked to the other side of the aisle and exchanged a glance with Yila Pu'a, who was also fully armed and wearing light leather armor.

After exchanging glances, the two men each tightened their weapons and walked toward the back of the hall.

It was already late at night, and most people in the mansion were resting. There were slight snoring sounds coming from several dormitories, from the clerks who were on duty at night. A window was blown open by the wind, and Wanyan Congtan looked into the room and saw a young clerk lying on the table, half of his face was stained with ink, and he was sleeping in a strange posture.

The wind was so strong that the windows creaked. Wanyan Congtan carefully closed them and continued forward.

After passing through several halls, Wanyan Congtan and Yila Pu'a gradually had more and more subordinates behind them. They entered through the main door and side door that had been opened beforehand, and none of them had torches, marching in the dark.

Wanyan Congtan and Yila Pu'a remained calm throughout the entire time, but in the moonlight one could see that most of their subordinates had bloodthirsty looks on their faces, like wild beasts that would erupt at any time.

"We are relying on these guys?"

Yila Pu'a whispered. He was full of distrust towards the subordinates behind him.

"We can't help it. We are short of manpower now, and even fewer reliable ones... we can only use these guys." Wanyan Congtan looked ahead, not stopping: "These guys are useless in a serious fight, but stupidity has its advantages. They are just right for doing dirty work."

Yila Pu'a twitched the corner of his mouth and stopped talking.

These people were the scattered nomadic tribesmen Wanyan Congtan had recruited from the west bank of the Yellow River since last year. These tribes had complex origins and had long been struggling between the three giants of Mongolia, Jin, and Xixia. Occasionally, outstanding figures would try to unify them, but they would soon be attacked by external forces and fall apart.

Although Wanyan Congtan was appointed as the Jiedushi of the National Defense Army, he was labeled as a remnant of the previous dynasty and could not command the local Han army as he wished. There were a few people in the local area who were willing to flatter their superiors, but he suspected that there were spies under Xu Jin or Li Yun among them.

Even among his old subordinates who surrendered with him, he only used the most core few.

The reason why Yila Pu'a was trusted was because his family had served the Jin Dynasty faithfully for hundreds of years. As early as ten years ago, Yila Pu'a was the commander of the personal guards directly under the Sui King, wearing a golden talisman. He was a trusted confidant of the Sui King who could be trusted with his life, and he was also one of the few Jin generals who persisted in fighting to the end.

Another Kaifeng defender, Jia Gu Ze, was originally a Han Chinese. So although Wanyan Congtan wanted to recruit him as a subordinate and pretended to trust him, he was actually just a cover. This time, they were going to do something big, so Jia Gu Ze was naturally excluded.

As for the others, Wanyan Congtan had been in the army since he was young, so he naturally understood the minds of warriors very well.

It cannot be said that warriors lack loyalty. But they are a group of people who are ready to fight for their lives at any time. Once their heads are chopped off, all the high-sounding words they sang in their lives will be meaningless. Therefore, they will not be as shy as scholars who sit in a safe place and discuss philosophy. They must be practical.

Their loyalty is usually based on only one premise, that is, whether the big shots above them can bring a good life to them and their families.

To take a step back, if the situation is really difficult, it's okay to live a just-so life.

If this is not the case, even the most loyal warrior will immediately become a passerby.

As a general, Wanyan Congtan was very kind to his soldiers. He used his wealth to help poor families of soldiers more than once. But the court gave too little, and Wanyan Congtan's wealth was just a drop in the bucket. When the Mongols invaded, the soldiers just fled in panic, and some of them turned into vicious traitors.

Wanyan Congtan heard that Guo Ning faced the same situation back then.

In the defeat after the battle of Yehuling, Guo Ning, a natural warrior, almost single-handedly repelled the Mongols' pursuit more than a dozen times and saved the lives of countless defeated soldiers. At that time, many people vowed to live and die with Guo Ning. As a result, after half a year of hard life in Tangluo, the defeated soldiers wanted to rob and eat, so they dispersed without stopping. The remaining people also joined forces inside and outside to try to kill their savior in order to curry favor with outsiders.

Because of this experience, Guo Ning always treated his subordinates with both leniency and severity, using both open and covert tactics. As his power continued to grow, the benefits he gave his subordinates also continued to grow, but he was by no means blindly lenient and benevolent. The knife in his hand that cut off the rotten meat was always sharpened to a sharp edge, and he was not afraid to use it.

Among the people who often stand by his side, some are not in the sequence of the Imperial Guards and are more mysterious than those in the Registrar's Office; some have various military officer titles but are not under the jurisdiction of the appropriate superiors.

Wanyan Congtan knew that those were the people Guo Ning used to monitor and even eliminate traitors. Every time he saw those men with a sinister aura, he felt daunted.

Even the Emperor of the Great Zhou had to tread on thin ice when dealing with his subordinates, let alone Wanyan Congtan?

How could what Wanyan Congtan, the governor, could give be compared with that of the emperor of the Great Zhou? Not to mention Wanyan Congtan, even though King Sui was so generous to others, he could not stop the Jurchens from surrendering in batches!

Wanyan Congtan witnessed the embarrassment at that time. He then tried his best to expand his influence to the west of the Yellow River, gathered a group of subordinates again, and secretly trained them. These people could not be compared with the regular army, but at this moment they were enough to disrupt and kill.

It would have been difficult to gather other people in such a short time.

According to the news that reached Hezhong Prefecture three days ago, the imperial court realized at least ten days ago that the beacon fires everywhere in the northern border were a trick, and immediately withdrew the troops sent out of the border. This reaction speed was faster than Wanyan Congtan expected, so he guessed that the fourth prince Tuolei's commotion in the Central Plains might not be able to scare Guo Ning for too long.

He doesn't have much time left, so he has to hurry.

So far, countless people think that Guo Ning is an evil tiger, but many of those who always refer to him as an evil tiger only see Guo Ning's brave and strong side. They say that when he was starting out, he dared to break through the encirclement of the Mongolian pursuers with just dozens of people, and dared to charge around in Zhongdu with just a dozen riders; they say that as his status became higher and higher, he still liked to personally lead his troops on long-distance raids, deep into enemy territory, and treated his own life as a joke. He was simply extremely vicious.

Wanyan Congtan knew that the most terrifying thing about Guo Ning was his resolute and decisive style, and he never hesitated. From the beginning to the end, this man faced many difficulties, but he relied on his extremely fast reaction to break through. The art of war said that the greatest harm in the use of troops is hesitation, and the disaster of the three armies begins with suspicion. Guo Ning understood this and used it well.

The Mongolian plan was linked together, and if it was against other enemies, they would be able to crush them to pieces with the pressure of cascading waves. But Wanyan Congtan always believed that with Guo Ning's agility and cunning, it was possible to cut off a link in advance.

War is a dangerous business and one that involves lots of blood. You can never be too cautious.

"I have made arrangements in advance along the military roads east of Hedong Prefecture, Jiezhou and Jiangzhou. Even if there are changes in the local area, the news will not be leaked within two days. What we need to do now is to catch all the judges, associate governors, and market officials of Hezhong Prefecture. Then we can issue documents in their names to open the checkpoints along the way, and at the same time concentrate supplies to meet the needs of the Mongolian Khan to cross the river..."

When Wanyan Congtan said this, he and Yila Pu'aju both stopped.

The two men stood still in front of a moon gate, and their subordinates came up quietly behind them. Some held up two wooden ladders, some carried long wooden blocks in preparation for a collision, and some drew their bows and arrows and stood by.

"There is not much military force in the government office. There are more than a dozen guards stationed behind this door. Our current strength is enough. We must break in quickly and violently and kill them all in one go."

Yila Pu'a nodded, but did not act rashly, and waited there.

A moment later, more than a dozen men wearing iron helmets and heavy armor came up from behind. The armor was heavy, but the men's steps were very light, and it was obvious that they were excellent in martial arts. In order to avoid the armor from colliding, the men moved very cautiously and were very careful not to let the heavy swords and long axes in their hands hit anything.

This operation must be done quietly, and no news must be leaked beforehand. Wanyan Congtan himself could only smuggle a few hundred foreigners into the city, but Yila Pu'a was able to mobilize soldiers to defeat the enemy, which shows that he had made great efforts in preparation beforehand. They had already controlled most of the city, and there was almost no movement during the process. Many of the raids and seizures of key points were also done by Yila Pu'a and his men.

Compared with them, Wanyan Congtan even felt that the fierce foreigners under his command were not good enough. He had reminded them countless times to strictly obey orders and not to act without authorization. But now, when he glanced at the dark courtyard, he felt that there were several of them missing.

In all likelihood, they had left the group without permission and gone to some courtyard to collect their belongings. Wanyan Congtan could already imagine their ugly appearance, grabbing gold and silver with both hands in ecstasy, and throwing the bloody knife aside.

Fortunately, no noise was made, which was a stroke of luck.

Thinking of this, Wanyan Congtan's face showed disgust. He lowered his voice and said, "After killing all the guards, you can deal with those officials. Although I have gathered several important officials together in advance, I cannot guarantee that they have the seals and tokens with them. So, after forcing them, don't kill them easily. We should force them to cooperate. If they don't comply, we will kill them as a warning to others."

"I know I know."

Yila Pu'a said this and raised his hand to indicate.

The winter night was dark, and the group did not use torches, so the vision was inevitably blurred. The commander gave orders by hand gestures, and the movements had to be large and conspicuous.

Wanyan Congtan held his breath, waiting for Yila Pu'a to swing his hand and chop down, and then he gave the order. But at this moment, the moon gate that they used as a breakthrough point opened, and a man with a ferocious smile stood proudly behind the door: "You guys are a little late, you made me wait."

This guy looks familiar...

Isn't this Monk Wanyan Chen? Wasn't he chosen by the Great Zhou Emperor to be the commander of the imperial guards in Zhongdu? How could he...

In an instant, Wanyan Congtan's body seemed to be frozen, unable to move, and a chill rose from the back of his neck.