Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 167 The Enemy and Ours Are Clearly Distinguished

Let’s not talk about what tricks the Tianping Army can come up with.

At this time, the army had already been assembled and set out for the war, and Meng Tian, who was guarding the country in Pingyin County, Dongping Prefecture, was also caught in a dilemma.

There were several letters in front of him, including official military orders stamped with the seals of the Privy Council and the Ministry of War; there were also personal letters from his old boss Pucha Shijie; and there were even private words from Wanyan Zhengjia, the deputy chief of the navy, who was completely unrelated to him.

There are many contradictions among them.

All three letters asked the Wuxing Army to recapture Yizhou and Haizhou as soon as possible.

The Privy Council and the Ministry of War meant: You must be humble and not sacrifice all of your nearly 10,000 Wuxing troops.

Wanyan Zhengjia meant: You have to wait for more than ten days until the navy is ready. I will go from Mizhou and you from Juzhou, and we will advance south together to drive these bandits into the Huai River.

However, Pucha Shijie, Wanyan Liang's trusted and beloved general, conveyed Wanyan Liang's meaning: no matter what, no matter what the cost, Yizhou must be captured and the Yishui channel must be opened before September 10th.

Then Pucha Shijie privately analyzed the situation with Meng Tian in the letter, telling about the general situation of the world and implicitly mentioning the differences between Wanyan Liang and Hesheli Liangbi. The meaning was also very clear.

Meng Tian, you are a guard from a different background. Your ancestors were all Jurchens who couldn't even read. Why are you showing off your power here? Isn't it because of your Majesty's support?

Your greatest identity is not the commander-in-chief of the Wuxing Army, but a retainer of the emperor!

Wanyan Liang and Hesheli Liangbi have differences, which are matters between important people. But if the grand strategy is forced to change due to your dereliction of duty as the guardian of the country, can you bear it?
We must do this at all costs, even if all the Wuxing Army is killed, we must take Yizhou back before September 10th!
After reading these three letters, Meng Tian, the state guardian, immediately became confused.

As can be seen from the name of Meng Tian, the guardian of the country, this guy is a typical Hanized Jurchen.

As early as the time of Meng Tian, the founding father of the country, this family was still the Jurchens living north of the Hu River, and did not even have their own written language. After their uncles conquered the Liao and Song dynasties and achieved a certain level of meritorious service, they named their subsequent sons and nephews using Chinese characters based on the pronunciation of their names.

Therefore, the little kid who was less than ten years old at that time had such a mighty and domineering name as Meng Tian Zhenguo.

Of course, the Jurchens are also divided into classes. If your surname is not Wanyan, don’t even think about calling yourself Zhenguo. Even if your name is Long Aotian, it won’t work. You still have to farm the land.

But Meng Tian was lucky. His uncle was Wanyan Zonggan's personal guard, so he became Wanyan Liang's personal guard early on. Originally, this was just a job to make a living, but who would have thought that Meng Tian's ancestors would be buried in the graves of the country, and he would actually follow Wanyan Liang to kill the emperor and establish himself, thus entering Wanyan Liang's favor.

Since ancient times, following the emperor has been the greatest merit. In addition, in order to seize power, Wanyan Liang wielded the butcher knife against the important ministers and veteran generals of the royal family, so Meng Tian was quickly promoted to the position of commander-in-chief of the Wuxing Army at the age of forty.

Of course, even with Meng Tian's promotion speed, he still couldn't compare to his old boss Pucha Shijie.

At this time, Pucha Shijie was already the Defense Commissioner of Zhengzhou and the Deputy General Manager of the Wujie Army.

Although the deputy general manager of the Wujie Army seems to be a deputy position, its value is much higher than that of the commander-in-chief of the Wuxing Army.

As the saying goes, when you stretch out your hand, your fingers are of different lengths. The same is true for the 32nd Army formed by the Jin Dynasty with the whole country's strength and 250,000 households.

The Wujie Army was an elite force second only to Hezhameng'an, and was directly under the command of Wanyan Liang's central army. There was not even a permanent general manager, and the deputy general manager was the top commander.

According to the military system of the Jin Dynasty, the general manager could command the surrounding armies. So as long as Wanyan Liang was willing, he could promote Pucha Shijie to the general manager and let him command the army independently. Pucha Shijie could almost instantly gather the surrounding armies of tens of thousands of households, forming a large army and influencing the war situation in dozens of states and counties.

How could Meng Tian, the guardian of the country, ignore the warning given by such a person in such a serious tone?
Not to mention that Pucha Shijie conveyed Wanyan Liang's intention.

However, the other two parties are not easy to deal with either.

There is no need to say much about Hesheli Liangbi, the head of the Privy Council. On the other side, Wanyan Zhengjia and Su Baoheng, the commander-in-chief of the navy and the Minister of Works standing behind him, are no pushovers either.

Wanyan Zhengjia was the son of Wanyan Aguda's younger brother, Wanyan Wudubu. His younger brother, Wanyan Heshou, had just died heroically for his country during the Khitan Saba Uprising, refusing to surrender.

If history had developed as it originally did, the Wanyan Zheng family would have been defeated when Li Bao raided Tang Island and would have committed suicide by drowning.

Wanyan Chenghui, the son of the Wanyan Zheng family, defended Zhongdu during the final years of the Jin Dynasty, facing the Mongol Khan Temujin. He then committed suicide by poisoning after the city fell. It can be said that this family was full of loyal and brave men, shedding their last drop of blood for the Jin Dynasty.

How could Meng Tian, the guardian of the country, ignore the opinions of such a person?
What's more, as a Han minister, Su Baoheng was able to make the royal general Wanyan Zhengjia obey him obediently. How could he be a good person?

The pressure from three sides made Meng Tian, the guardian of the country, lose his balance in an instant.

Of course, according to the tradition of the Jurchens, a military meeting should be held at this time, with him as the commander-in-chief, and the ten marching men-in-chief should express their opinions, establish their determination, and then work together.

Coincidentally, the Wuxing Army didn’t have much else, but it had a lot of Jurchens.

What is extremely nonsensical is that, precisely because the Wuxing Army was mainly composed of Jurchens, and the Jurchens at that time had long since fallen, their combat effectiveness was only in the middle among the 32 armies. This can be said to be a very black humor.

After the ten marching soldiers of the Wuxing Army arrived, Meng Tian, the governor of the country, spoke: "You are all aware of the military order from the Privy Council. I have just received a strict order from the court, asking us to recapture Yizhou before September 10th.

The guy from Wanyan Zheng's family gave me a message, asking me to wait for more than ten days. The navy will attack Haizhou from Mizhou, and the Wuxing army will attack Yizhou from Juzhou. We will use both methods to wipe out the bandits in one fell swoop.

What do you think we should do?"

There was a moment of silence before Wuxing Army's top general, Tu Shanzhang, spoke up and asked, "September 10th? That's a bit too tight. Can you give us some extra time?"

Meng Tian, the governor of the state, did not share the private letter he had received with his subordinates. He simply waved his hand and said, "The time was set by His Majesty and the ministers, and we have no say in it. I can only tell you that if we still fail to capture Yizhou after this time, our future and even our lives will be in jeopardy."

Now, I just want to ask when should we send out our troops? Should we ally with the navy?"

Tu Danzhang was somewhat speechless and cast his gaze towards a scholar beside him: "Ayu, you have a lot of ideas, tell me."

Wen Dunhunyu scooped up the tea with his hands and wrote on the table in front of him. After a long while, he asked, "Commander-in-Chief, has the navy received any official decree or military order from the Privy Council to allow them to march south?"

Meng Tian Zhenguo thought for a moment and said, "It seems not."

Wen Dunhunyu nodded and said, "That's right. This must be the enemy approaching, and the navy took the initiative to protect themselves."

Meng Tian Zhenguo continued to look back: "I don't care what they think, I just want to ask, what should the Wuxing Army do?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the others started talking at once.

"Time is so urgent, we should go directly east through Yanzhou and attack Yizhou from Feixian."

"The road is damn difficult to travel, and we have to cross the Jun River to attack Linyi. It's a thankless task."

"Why did this damn job fall on our heads?"

"We have to hurry up, so we can still make it in time to conquer Song. Otherwise, we won't be able to eat hot shit by then."

"Over here in Dongping Prefecture... the bandits are gathering at Liangshan Marsh again. Once our Wuxing Army leaves, can the prefect and his men really suppress them?"

Amid the clamor, the Third General of the Wuxing Army, the Marching Meng'an Wendun Hunyu, knocked on the table and said, "If you ask me, we cannot disobey the military orders issued simultaneously by His Majesty and the Privy Council. But these bandits in Yizhou are indeed different."

"General, others may not know Pushan Damo's abilities, but those of us who have been around Haizhou know him. He was dealt with like melons and vegetables. This thief is no ordinary thief."

Seeing the impatience on Meng Tian's face, Wendun Hunyu quickly concluded: "We should go to Juzhou and help Wanyan Zijin stabilize the situation. Linyi and Shuyang are already lost, so Yishui County upstream of the Yishui River and Ju County upstream of the Shu River must not be lost. Then we can reorganize our army and see what tricks the navy has to play.

By September 1st, no matter how powerful the navy is, the Wuxing army will march south along the Yi River. Down the river, who can stop me?

Meng Tian, the state's guardian, slammed the table. "Ayu, what you said is fair and sound advice. Let's follow your plan, Tu Shanzhang. You lead your cavalry as the vanguard, and the entire army marches eastward!"

(End of this chapter)