choke element

Chapter 508

Not to mention the Ding Navy who simply camped neatly.

The missions of the Song Dynasty were forced to sail at night, which was much more troublesome and dangerous than during the day.In order for the ships to move forward and backward one after another, the guides were yelling, the sailors who steered the sails and the rudder were rushing on the boards, and the strong men outside were also shouting one after another.

Even so, the side or bottom of the ship scraped the mud at the bottom of the channel from time to time, and the whole ship suddenly stopped like a frightened animal, and then continued to move its huge body forward with the efforts of many people.

Under such circumstances, Ding Wei and Hou Zhongxin couldn't rest in the cabin.

The two simply stood at the bow of the ship, watching the subordinates rushing about, and also watching the cavalry of the Golden Army marching along the bank of Lushui, holding pine torches and following the fleet.The golden cavalry's gray eyes occasionally turned to the fleet, and the two immediately looked further away, looking at the rows of black men and horses that looked like silhouettes.

"These are the cavalry of the Jin army." Ding Tao said: "During the Kaixi period, the Jin people used half of the world's full strength to march south, driving the Yi army as the vanguard. There were [-] soldiers, and they were called Xiaoqi. This generation is indeed elite. ,only……"

"It's just that, are you a little aggressive?"

"That's right..." Ding Can thought, "The strength of the Jurchens must have been horribly weakened. Their country was attacked by foreign troops, and the elite cavalry who dared to leave the city were another group of foreigners. What about the Jurchen's own Meng'an Mouke army? Not to mention, Ding Haijun came across the sea as a foreign soldier from Shandong... but there are only a few thousand people, and the Jurchens dare not allow their generation to enter Beijing? In the capital, what is the emptiness like?"

"Also, think about it, bachelor, the one who leads the front of the Ding Navy is just a governor. In order to stop him, the central capital sent two to three thousand cavalry. What are the Jurchens afraid of? This kind of thing only needs a paper edict, no, a random military order is enough!"

Hou Zhongxin said enthusiastically: "The Ding Navy must have some special features, but the imperial court is completely unaware of their situation. If the return journey is by sea, bachelor, we have to find a way to go deep into Shandong and find out the details of the Ding Navy!" "

Ding Yan smiled with his beard: "It is indeed necessary. However, the first thing to do is to take advantage of the panic of the captives and the central capital, and severely promote the prestige of my Song Dynasty!"

Hou Zhongxin bowed and bowed: "It is inevitable for the scholar to make a splash in the Central Plains and promote the ambition of Yan and Song Dynasties!"

Ding Yan laughed out loud.

Hou Zhongxin followed closely: "However, I have urgent matters to do right now..."

Ding Tang understood immediately.He smiled and said repeatedly: "Yes, yes. We should share these things together, haha! Let me think about it... I will pay you five pennies! I also brought a few jars of good wine with me on this trip, so you should too. stop!"

Hou Zhongxin, the deputy envoy, has a heavy task in the mission.

Just as Ding Xuan is a bachelor who was given a purple gold fish bag, he will definitely be promoted again after returning home. Such a noble person will not care about complicated affairs.The other officials in the Sanjie people are too low in status to make decisions.

Therefore, the mission's trip, including contacting maritime merchants, hiring a fleet, and recruiting strong men to follow, was all handled by Hou Zhongxin.

Hou Zhongxin was from Sichuan, and he was an official in the court for only two years. He actually knew nothing about the land routes in Huainan and Huaibei, and the sea routes in Shandong.

Therefore, for the matter of contacting the maritime merchants, he asked Jia She, Jia Jichuan, the son of a family friend whose surname Jia he knew when he was an official in Sichuan, and who is now serving as the prime minister of Wan'an County.

Jia She is quite good at running the family business and has a good vision in this area.Therefore, for Hou Zhongxin, he contacted a Song Guoming Zhou Dagang with the surname Zhang to come forward and arrange the fleet.

The outline leader surnamed Zhang is a descendant of a rich family of poets and books. He even brought Mr. Zhou, the accountant, and Mr. Zhao, the leader of the guards, to do things very reliably. Try to make some money from the sea.

The strong man who moved with the ship did not exist from the beginning.When the fleet was replenishing water in Wandu Village, Haizhou, it was almost besieged by the rest of the Red Coat Army. It happened that another group of stragglers from the Golden Army were nearby, and they dispersed the rest of the Red Coat Army.

These people originally planned to go south along the coast to live in Huainan East Road in Song Dynasty and Shanyang in Chuzhou. It was Hou Zhongxin who recruited them to serve on the ship because he saw that they were all very brave.

Although the group of strong men were rude and rude, they really worked hard and helped Hou Zhongxin a lot along the way.

Therefore, when the fleet replenished fresh water in the three private ports of Qushan, Haizhou, Jiaoxi, Mizhou, and Chengshan, Ninghaizhou, they successively recruited a few more people, and finally made up a scale of about [-] people.

These people are strength riders, but not trackers. Hou Zhongxin was really moved by being able to stand up and pull the line at this moment.

After all, he was an official of the Privy Council, and relying on his status on weekdays, he rarely dealt with these strong men directly.

For more than half a month before, the fleet had been at sea.Each of the twenty or thirty boats is separated by miles, scattered on the sea for a long time.So even if he wanted to, he couldn't go through one by one to condolences to so many strong men.

But at this time, Hou Zhongxin, as the employer, felt that he should come forward to boost morale.He also planned to use this group of people for Song Dynasty during the return journey and even in the future!

At the moment Hou Zhongxin took a bag containing money, followed by two men carrying wine jars and two men carrying food, they came down when the boat was approaching the shore, and hurried to the front of the line of strong men.

At this time, the Yi army cavalry who urged the most ruthless men had already rushed to the front impatiently.The serious Song soldiers in the mission also followed lazily around, and no one continued to urge them.

But the strong men on the shore still uttered heavy horns and tried their best to stretch their fibers.The rough ropes were deeply pulled into their shoulders, which showed that they had exhausted all their strength.Hou Zhongxin could see clearly that the movements of these men were quite different from the real trackers. They were all amateurs, they didn't know how to stretch at all, and they just wanted to do their best for the fleet!

The strength they sold has far exceeded the level promised when they collected the money before!Hou Zhongxin really didn't know they would work so hard.No wonder the sea trade route going north through Shandong has been so prosperous in the past few years. It must have something to do with the character of Shandong people, right?

It is said that the folk customs in Shandong are simple and honest, and it really lives up to its reputation!

If such a force can be used by the Song court, it will definitely be of great help. Even if the Song court does not use them, I, Hou Zhongxin, will find an opportunity to use them!
Hou Zhongxin strode to the front of the line of trackers, saw the two young people he was most familiar with at a glance, and immediately called out loudly: "Busy! Brother Xing! Let's take a rest first, drink some wine, and warm up! Everyone rest too! There is no need to hurry!"

Yu Mang'er, a native of Shandong, was still trying to pull, and the rope had torn the clothes off his shoulders, so he didn't seem to care.And Yu Xing, whose ancestors were said to be from Zhongdu, heard Hou Zhongxin's words, and immediately collapsed on the ground with his arms crossed: "Ah! Hou Xianggong, Hou Taiwei, I really can't do it!"

Hou Zhongxin laughed loudly, poured him a bowl of wine himself, and called out to the rest of the crowd: "Come, come, come and have some wine! This is the good wine and cakes that Xueshi Ding gave you, and I brought you some A chicken!"

Good officer!What a great deal!Give a chicken too!
Not to mention the contempt in the hearts of the strong men, the sound of spitting in their mouths was almost converging into a loud bang.

Naturally, these strong men are not ordinary strong men, but elite soldiers summoned from various departments of the Ding Navy by Guo Ning's special order a few days ago.

Everyone is already used to the good treatment of the navy, not to mention that most of them are selected experts who serve as grassroots officers in their respective departments?
Compared with their usual meals, it is indeed a bit shabby these days.But after landing, every move was under the supervision of Song people, so he had to put on an appearance of being extremely hardworking and willing to do it.

In just two or three days, several soldiers have secretly complained that they have lost weight.

It was rare that the official of the Song Dynasty gave a chicken, everyone was very happy, and looked at Hou Zhongxin with extra eager eyes.

Hou Zhongxin was very satisfied with the state of being stared at by everyone eagerly, so he personally grabbed the chicken leg and planned to tear the chicken apart and distribute it to everyone.

Behind him, a ship was slowly passing by.

There was a fat man on the bow holding a thick iron rod, and he was dozing off with his legs crossed.Smelling the aroma of chicken at this moment, the fat man suddenly opened his eyes, touched the short hair on his head that looked like steel needles, and shouted: "Give me the chicken ass!"

(End of this chapter)