Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 452 This journey is bumpy

When they saw that Pushan Zhongyi’s throat had been cut, his family members immediately struggled excitedly.

They stared at Kong Yanzhou, roaring and crying, wishing they could pounce on him and eat his flesh alive.

Kong Yanzhou didn't care about it at all. His knife cut Pushan Zhongyi's throat steadily, and blood sprayed all over his hand.

After just a moment, Pushan Zhongyi's body stopped shaking, and Kong Yanzhou let go of his hand.

Pushan Zhongyi fell down and lay in the water in front of Kong Yanzhou.

The lake water was surging, and the area around Pushan Zhongyi's body was covered in blood.

Kong Yanzhou slowly opened his arms, holding the blood-stained dagger in his hands, with blood still dripping.

Kong Yanzhou shouted, "I would like to offer the head of my servant San Zhongyi as a token of my surrender. Is Your Majesty willing to accept it?"

Wanyan Dari was stunned by Kong Yanzhou's behavior. He came to his senses after hearing him ask again.

Wanyan Darui said in surprise: "If I can get General Kong's help, I won't have to worry about not accomplishing my great cause.

Hahahaha, the general is here to surrender, what a blessing, what a blessing..."

Kong Yanzhou's slightly shrugged shoulders suddenly relaxed.

He kicked away Pushan Zhongyi's body and waded to the shore.

……

"Yutu Island" is very close to the land and the water depth here is limited, so a curved bridge was built between the land and "Yutu Island".

After Wanyan Darui's close associates who stayed in the government office raided the rear residence and kidnapped Pushan Zhongyi's relatives, they set fire to the government office, and then rushed here and crossed the bridge to the "Jade Rabbit Island".

Their crossbows were also seized when they set fire to the government office.

In the name of entertaining the Song envoys today, Wanyan Luti and Wanyan Dari will be arrested on the ship.

Pushan Zhongyi had issued a ban on Daming Lake in advance, and now there were no other ships on the lake except the burning pleasure boat.

In this case, "Yutu Island" becomes the nearest escape place.

All those who jumped into the water to escape swam here.

Wanyan Luti's subordinates all had swimming equipment tied to their bodies, so they were the first to land on the "Jade Rabbit Island".

They were now waiting for the opportunity, armed with powerful crossbows, guarding the water's edge.

When they saw that the people swimming towards them were neither their own nor the Song people, they would compete in archery to see who could shoot the most accurately, and would use the survivors who swam towards them desperately and finally found a glimmer of hope as targets for the competition.

At this time, there are several types of people on the island:

Wanyan Luti and his trusted guards.

Wanyan Dari’s troops had just arrived from Jinan government office.

The family of Pushan Zhongyi.

And... Kong Yanzhou.

Pushan Zhongyi's family was being guarded not far away.

Wanyan Darui had no intention of killing them.

Regardless of his character, Kong Yanzhou is indeed a rare and brave general.

The reason why he was crowned king by Wanyan Liang was not just because he kept asking for battles and catered to Wanyan Liang's wishes.

He really made great military achievements for the Jin Dynasty.

When the Jin people invaded the Central Plains, he led them to attack cities and seize land everywhere.

After the Song Dynasty moved south, he led his troops to conduct guerrilla warfare everywhere and wiped out the Song Dynasty's rebel forces.

Now that he can join his army, it is extremely important for Wanyan Darui, who has just started his war in a hurry and is weak in strength.

However, before Kong Yanzhou fought to the death with the imperial troops and completely broke with Wanyan Liang, Pushan Zhongyi's family was the rope that Wanyan Dari used to tie Kong Yanzhou to his chariot.

Wanyan Darui would certainly not let this rope break.

There was another group of people on "Yutu Island", they were the envoys from the State of Song.

They were ordered to come to the Jin Kingdom for negotiations.

But now they have fallen into the hands of the Jin rebels.

However, these rebels wanted to negotiate peace with the Song Dynasty more than the Jin Emperor Wanyan Liang.

Therefore, Yang Yuan knew very well that their lives were not in danger. On the contrary, they would be treated as honored guests by Wanyan Darui.

It was because of the conversation between Yang Yuan and Kou Heiyi at the banquet that Wanyan Dari and Wanyan Luti made up their minds to take action first, thus escaping death.

Moreover, as long as Wanyan Darui is not stupid, he will think of using this delegation to establish contact with the Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Wanyan Darui and Wanyan Luti were quite polite to them.

Wanyan Darui smiled and said, "Master Yang, Deputy Envoy Kou, please take your people away for a while. We need to discuss something."

Yang Yuan looked at the dozen or so guards holding crossbows behind Wanyan Darui, agreed tactfully, and walked away with Kou Heiyi, Fei Yuye and others.

This is an open space by the water, with no shelter on all sides.

There were a total of nine people on board the Song Dynasty delegation, and all nine are now on board, with a casualty rate of zero, which made Yang Yuan feel somewhat relieved.

They sat down on the wild grass on the shore.

After struggling all the way out of the water, they were really tired.

Especially Kanon and Kona, their legs are probably cramping.

So Yang Yuan sat cross-legged, held Hua Yin's ankles, lifted her legs onto his knees, and started massaging her.

Hua Yin let out a soft cry, and her body naturally fell into Xiaonai's arms. She looked at Yang Yuan sweetly. At this moment, she felt that all the hard work was worth it.

Yu Jiguang, Chen Lixing and Mao Shaofan all opened their eyes wide in surprise when they saw this.

Until now, they didn't know that the two Song soldiers were women.

Kou Heiyi had already noticed some clues a long time ago, but didn’t their speed room also stuff a fat Yuye into the team?

See through, don’t say through.

Da Chu was originally sitting on the left side of Yang Yuan. When he saw Yang Yuan being so "considerate to his subordinates", he suddenly felt uneasy.

He hesitated for a moment, then quietly moved his butt and rubbed behind Yu Jiguang.

Fei Yuye looked at Yang Yuan in surprise. She didn't expect that Yang Yuan would rub Hua Yin's legs in front of so many people.

Besides being surprised, she couldn't help but look at Yang Yuan in a different light.

There are not many men like this in this era.

When Yu Jiguang heard Hua Yin's feminine cry, he quickly understood something, but he did not dwell on this issue.

Everyone is in danger of life and death now, so who has the time to care about this issue?

Yu Jiguang asked: "Yang Jianzhou, these Jin people rebelled against their court, how do you think they will treat us?"

Yang Yuan was silent for a moment, then shook his head and chuckled, "I will let it go, and I won't let it go."

"Huh? Yang Jianzhou, what do you mean?" Da Chu stared in confusion.

Kou Heiyi explained: "They won't harm your life or mine. But, they won't let us go either."

Da Chu exclaimed: "Then won't we become their hostages?"

Chen Lixing rolled his eyes at him and sneered, "Hostage? You don't deserve it! Ah, Yang Jianzhou, I'm not talking about you."

Yang Yuan smiled and said, "We are envoys from the Song State who came here for peace talks at the invitation of the Jin State.

If something happens to us in Jin, Jin will give Song an explanation."

Kou Heiyi said: "Yes, even if Wanyan Liang doesn't care what the Song Kingdom thinks or does, for the sake of his reputation as the Emperor of the Great Jin, he will do everything he can to ensure our safety."

Yang Yuan said: "Wanyan Dari and his men launched the war hastily and without any preparation.

At this time, they would cherish any power they could win over.

Don't they want to contact the Song Dynasty through us, strive to join forces with the Song Dynasty, and attack Wanyan Liang from both sides?"

Kou Heiyi nodded slightly, but a hint of worry arose in his heart.

He warned Wanyan Darui and Wanyan Luti in order to create trouble for Wanyan Liang, preventing him from successfully completing the centralization of power and completely controlling the Jin Dynasty.

A Jin Dynasty with highly unified power was a huge threat to the Song Dynasty and also to the Western Xia Dynasty.

However, Kou Heiyi is now a little worried. Is the fire in the Jin Kingdom's backyard burning too fiercely?
If Liaodong was in chaos and the Song Dynasty took advantage of the situation to raise an army, would it be possible to destroy the Jin Dynasty? Or recover the Central Plains?
If that were the case, Western Xia would have to face the powerful enemy of Song again.

The Jin Dynasty and Western Xia have always been allies, since the moment the Jin Dynasty was founded.

They huddled together for warmth, grew together, fought against the Liao Kingdom, and then fought against the Song Kingdom together.

Support each other politically and advance and retreat together militarily...

Big Brother Jin and Little Brother Xia have never had a quarrel until now.

Of course, this does not affect the two countries secretly sending people to spy on each other and be wary of each other.

The Western Xia would not be naive enough to believe that the Jin Dynasty was selflessly friendly to the Western Xia.

After all, it was only because the Jin Kingdom had a fierce tiger on its side that it showed favor to the Western Xia.

But the relationship between Song and Xia has never been friendly.

Since the establishment of the Western Xia Kingdom, it has been at war with the Song Dynasty.

Until the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the Song Dynasty was still using military force against Western Xia.

If the two countries were no longer bordering each other, Western Xia would definitely regard Song as its strongest enemy.

Kou Heiyi was very clear about one thing: no matter whether it was the Jin Kingdom or the Song Kingdom, whichever of them had the time would want to swallow up Western Xia.

"I have to think of a way to control the fire. We can't let the fire in the Jin people's back garden get too big!"

Kou Heiyi thought secretly.

……

Wanyan Darui, Wanyan Luti and Kong Yanzhou quickly discussed the next plan of action.

Kong Yanzhou transferred 5,000 soldiers and horses into Jinan City to plunder the wealthy families and collect their property!
Wanyan Luti led the reinforcement troops from Liaocheng to collect food and vehicles and horses, and made preparations for the move to Dengzhou.

Wanyan Dari was responsible for arranging people to go to Yanjing. He took the opportunity to enter Yanjing before the news spread and notified the dignitaries who had come to Beijing for peace talks to flee back to Liaodong immediately.

Kong Yanzhou's family was also in Yanjing, so naturally someone had to be informed and allowed to escape to Liaodong.

At the same time, Wanyan Dari was also responsible for contacting the local dignitaries and celebrities in Jinan as soon as possible and trying to bring them to the north.

Wanyan Dari and Wanyan Luti's families in Liaocheng and Tai'an also need to make arrangements to cross the sea to the north together.

Those who rushed to Jinan City to support them were all capable warriors from their family.

There are many elderly, weak, women and children at home, so of course we have to send someone to arrange for them to rush to Dengzhou immediately.

There is also the mysterious "Six Thousand Society". If time permits, Wanyan Darui also wants to get in touch with them. It would be best if he could win them over.

Wanyan Darui, Wanyan Luti and Kong Yanzhou have very different perspectives. Although Wanyan Darui assigned lucrative tasks to Wanyan Luti and Kong Yanzhou, what he did was what a superior should consider.

Without what he did, what Wanyan Luti and Kong Yanzhou did would be nothing more than the acts of bandits.

Just as the three parties came up with an idea, Wanyan Luti's followers came to report:
The followers and servants of their two major families have already arrived at the city of Jinan and are confronting Kong Yanzhou's troops.

Upon hearing this, Wanyan Darui immediately ordered Wanyan Luti and Kong Yanzhou to rush out of the city and lead their troops into the city.

Before the city of Jinan fell into his control, he used this "Jade Rabbit Island" as a temporary command base.

With the departure of Wanyan Luti and Kong Yanzhou, Jinan soon fell into chaos.

……

Lin Wei, the newly appointed deputy envoy of Jinan militia, protected a group of panicked officials and hurriedly fled into Sihengzha Village.

Lin Wei is the new official taking office today, so of course he has to summon his subordinates to meet him.

Although he was not an official, it was not easy for him to hold a grand ceremony of "pailing the yamen".

However, the position of Tuanlianshi was of low authority and was related to military power, so the post had always been concurrently held by the Yin of Jinan.

However, the Yin of Jinan was in charge of too many affairs, and many of his positions were just nominal. The person who actually managed the militia was the deputy envoy of the militia.

In response, the Jinan Prefecture militia did not dare to neglect Lin Wei, the newly appointed deputy envoy.

Lin Wei rushed to the militia camp and was reviewing the troops on the parade ground when he saw thick smoke billowing from the direction of the Jinan government office, like a black dragon in the sky.

There's a fire!

Seeing that the fire started near the government office, Lin Wei did not dare to delay.

His soldiers were gathering on the parade ground. Lin Wei immediately led his men to the place where the smoke was rising.

Lin Wei thought: It would be best if the government office caught fire, then I, Lin, would have just taken office and made a new contribution!

When he led his men to the place, he saw that his wish had come true: the government office was indeed on fire.

However, it seemed like it was too late to save them because the fire was too big.

It doesn’t matter if we don’t have time to put out the fire, as long as we can rescue Lord Pushan Zhongyi’s family, it will still be a great achievement!
But he soon discovered that it was too late to save the people.

There were many corpses in the back house, most of them were slaves and servants.

Lin Wei searched out a few surviving servants and asked them, only then did he find out that the sudden changes in the government office were all the work of Wanyan Dari!
Wanyan Darui's followers originally lived in a guest house at the back of the government office. They suddenly set the guest house on fire, rushed into the back of the office with knives, hacked to death a group of slaves, and tied up the family of Lord Pushan Zhongyi.

Then they set fires everywhere, and then had a fight with the officials and runners from the front yamen who came to put out the fire.

After killing several officials and yamen runners, they loaded the family of Master Pushan Zhongyi into a cart and went away without knowing where.

Lin Wei was just about to lead his men to chase in the direction indicated by the servant when the government officials who had been killed and scattered came back to the government office with a detachment of Jurchen soldiers.

There were not many Jurchen soldiers in this group, only about forty or fifty of them.

The Jurchen population was limited, and there were never many real Jurchen soldiers.

When the later Qing Dynasty had an army of one million, there were only 200,000 Eight Banners soldiers and more than 600,000 Green Camp soldiers.

What remains are a bunch of local security forces with almost no combat effectiveness, which together barely make up a million-strong army.

This was the situation after they had ruled the Central Plains for nearly two hundred years and their population had grown dramatically.

When they first entered the Pass, even though they were a nation where every citizen was a soldier, they only had a maximum of 100,000 soldiers.

At this time in the Jin Dynasty, there were even fewer serious Jurchen soldiers, most of whom were stationed in the Yanjing area and were directly controlled by Wanyan Liang.

The Jurchen troops in Shangjing were unable to be replenished because many powerful people were unwilling to move south.

As a result, the number of Jurchen soldiers scattered across the vast Central Plains could be counted on one hand, and those stationed in various places were basically "Qianjun", that is, Han soldiers.

The militia of more than a thousand men led by Lin Wei were also signed troops.

The government officials who had just been killed by Wanyan Dari's troops hurriedly gathered dozens of Jurchen soldiers and rushed back to the government office, where they ran into Lin Wei.

After the two explained the situation, Wang Tongzhi praised Lin Wei for his loyalty.

Now with Lin Wei's more than a thousand men, Wang Tongzhi became even bolder.

So Wang Tongzhi personally took command and led them to chase the convoy that kidnapped Pushan Zhongyi's family.

They asked along the way and gradually tracked down to the vicinity of Daming Lake.

At this moment, on the long street ahead, there were sudden shouts and neighs of horses, and a team of cavalry came like a whirlwind.

Those were Kong Yanzhou's soldiers, who always maintained their bandit style and rushed over yelling.

The other side had a large number of troops and they were all cavalry. They defeated Wang Tongzhi's troops in just one encounter.

Fortunately, Kong Yanzhou's soldiers are now focused on robbing the wealthy, stealing their gold, silver and women.

Although there were many officials among the enemies ahead, no one was willing to fight with them.

One had no intention of fighting, and the other wanted to escape, so the one who had no intention of fighting entered the city smoothly, and the one who wanted to escape also left the city smoothly.

After hastily gathering the remaining soldiers, Wang Tongzhi, a civil servant, was a little at a loss.

He now understood that what happened in the government office was not some personal grudge between Wanyan Dari and Lord Pushan Zhongyi, but a clear-cut rebellion.

The cavalry that just rushed into the city was flying under the banner of Kong Yanzhou. It was obvious that Kong Yanzhou also participated in Wanyan Dari's rebellion.

There are chaotic soldiers everywhere in the city, how should they deal with it?
At this time, Deputy Commander Lin stepped forward and suggested that they flee to Sihengzha Village to observe the situation.

"My Lords, Mr. Xin is a retired official and a representative of the gentry. He will definitely take you in.

I think we should go to Sihengzha Village first and make plans later."

So Lin Wei led a group of officials who were in dishevel and looked embarrassed into Sihengzha Village.

When Xin Zan heard the news, he was very surprised.

He hurried to the hall and saw Wang Xijie, the co-magistrate of Jinan Prefecture, Qi Yunyang, the Shaoyin, as well as more than a dozen officials of all ranks, including the chancellor, the chief clerk, and the lieutenant, standing there in a daze.

Xin Zan hurried forward to greet them and asked them some questions.

They couldn't explain exactly what had happened, they only knew that Wanyan Dari had rebelled and Kong Yanzhou had also rebelled.

Seeing that he could not get any information out of them, Xin Zan called Muramasa over and gave him some instructions.

In a short while, Sihengzha Village sent out several spies to the city to gather information.

At the same time, the sounds of gongs and clappers rang out in various places in the village.

Shandong has always had a strong martial spirit, and the fact that the people of Sihengzha Village secretly sold illegal salt was even more martial.

Nearly a thousand strong men in the village quickly gathered together, holding swords and spears, and set up obstacles and defenses on various important roads in Sihengzha Village.

Lin Wei also sent out the eight or nine hundred militiamen he brought to Sihengzha Village to cooperate with the young men in the village in setting up defenses.

The two groups of troops working together totaled two thousand people, which was more than enough to defend a village.

Wang Tongzhi, Qi Shaoyin and others felt relieved after seeing this.

Xin Zan was entertaining these officials from Jinan Prefecture in the front hall, and Fei Tianlu later learned the news of the shocking changes in the city.

Fei Tianlu had just agreed with his daughter last night that he would hide in the Xin family first, and wait for his daughter and Yang Yuan to discuss and come up with a safe plan, and then let him blend into the envoy team and go to Yanjing together.

I didn't expect such a sudden change to happen in just one night.

Kong Yanzhou rebelled. Kong Yanzhou was originally the envoy of the State of Jin. The delegation of the State of Song was under his control. No one knew what the current situation of the delegation of the State of Song was.

Fei Tianlu was worried and was about to go into the city to find out the news.

Xin Qiji could not persuade him, so he said, "Then I will accompany you into the city."

Fei Tianlu hurriedly stopped him and said, "No, there is chaos and war right now, and Sihengzha Village has taken in many officials. I don't know if the rebels will come to kill us. Little brother, are you sure you can leave your father alone in the mansion?

Besides, you are a big shot in Jinan, and many people know you. I am afraid it will be inconvenient for you to stay with me."

Xin Qiji thought so too. The city was in chaos now, and it was hard to tell the enemy from the enemy. He was worried about leaving his grandfather.

Furthermore, the purpose of this trip is to gather information, not to fight in the battlefield, so the person gathering the information should be as inconspicuous as possible.

Xin Qiji said, "In that case, I will send someone who is familiar with the roads in the city to accompany you, uncle."

Fei Tianlu's injury had not yet fully healed, but he could still display 60% to 70% of his former fighting ability, so it was no problem for him to sneak into the city and gather some information.

Xin Qiji found a man who usually wandered around Jinan City and got along well with a group of city thugs and gangsters. It was most appropriate for him to lead Fei Tianlu to gather information.

On the "Jade Rabbit Island", after Kong Yanzhou and Wanyan Luti led their troops into the city respectively, Jinan City was temporarily in the hands of Wanyan Dari.

Wanyan Dari's brother Wanyan Dazhi led a group of people to "Jade Rabbit Island" to provide support.

Wanyan Darui and his brothers walked up to Yang Yuan and said with a smile: "Master Yang, our Wanyan family is having a family affair now, and you, Master Yang, are making fun of us."

Yang Yuan said: "This envoy is here on the orders of the Emperor of the Song Dynasty to negotiate peace with the Jin Kingdom.

Your Majesty, your family affairs have nothing to do with me. I just hope that you can let us continue to go north to Yanjing."

Yang Yuan knew that Wanyan Darui would never let them go, but his position had to be clear.

He was an envoy sent by imperial decree and could not change the negotiating partner on his own initiative.

Therefore, he must do his best to put on a good show.

Wanyan Darui said with a smile: "Master Yang, why are you so inflexible? Can Wanyan Liang still be the head of the Great Jin Kingdom?"

Yang Yuan said: "The mission this envoy has accepted is to have a meeting with His Majesty the Emperor of the Great Jin Kingdom."

Wanyan Darui said, "I plan to go to Liaodong by sea. Scholar Yang might as well go with me to see the scenery of Liaodong and wait until the weather is cooler before going to Yanjing. What do you think?"

Yang Yuan said solemnly: "I am ordered to go to Jin to meet the emperor of Jin.

This envoy is only meeting with the Emperor of Jin. What are you and I going to Liaodong for?"

When Wanyan Dazhi heard this, he became furious. He drew his sword from its sheath with a "clang" and put it on Yang Yuan's neck.

Seeing this, Hanane and Kona shook their wrists lightly, and two "shurikens" slipped out of their sleeves, ready to be used.

Wanyan Dazhi shouted, "How can you be so stupid and corrupt? My elder brother treated you with such courtesy, but you kept complaining. You ungrateful dog!"

Wanyan Dari gently pushed his knife away with his fingers and reprimanded him, "Dazhi, don't be rude to Scholar Yang."

Wanyan Darui said to Yang Yuan: "Wanyan Liang is very ambitious, and your country of Song is just courting disaster by negotiating with him.

It is precisely because I do not want to go to war with the State of Song that I have angered the tyrant monarch, and he wants to get rid of me, forcing me to rebel.

Scholar Yang, if you want to negotiate peace with the Song State, shouldn't you find the right person?"

Wanyan Dazhi sneered, "Yes, you look quite smart. You are praying for rain in the Fire God Temple. Aren't you afraid of praying to the wrong god?"

Yang Yuan said stubbornly: "I am an envoy of the Song Dynasty, and I am here to hold talks with the Emperor of the Jin Dynasty on the orders of the Emperor.

Yang has no other mission here, how can I act on my own!"

Wanyan Darui smiled and said, "Well, you just wait until I become the emperor of the Great Jin Kingdom, and then we can talk again."

Wanyan Darui turned and left, waved his hand casually, and said to Wanyan Dazhi: "Take them away, and be polite to Scholar Yang."

Wanyan Dazhi thrust the knife under the tip of Yang Yuan's nose and said politely, "Follow me, or I'll break your legs!"

(End of this chapter)