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

Chapter 172 Officials and thieves do not fight for more

As long as we capture Linyi City, we can cut off the Yishui channel. This is not an empty statement.

This does not mean that with Linyi we can build a dam to cut off the river, but these days inland merchant ships are basically powered by wind.

There are also waterwheels, but they are relatively rare. After all, merchants in every era are similar. They will save as much labor costs as possible. Asking them to hire a group of people to row the boat is really a bit too much to ask.

This kind of merchant ship needs a large number of trackers when there is no wind or when it needs to go upstream.

With Linyi City as a support point, troops could be dispatched in all directions to control the docks and trackers, making it difficult for grain ships to pass.

If you're a little ruthless, you can even perform some fancy moves like "Iron Lock Across the River".

Where do the trackers come from?

This requires relying on the traditional skills of the feudal era.

corvee labor.

Of course, the methods of conscripting labor service were different in different dynasties and places, but generally speaking, the core idea was the same, that is, the people worked for the government for free.

This kind of thing is really difficult to avoid. Even the loyal and righteous army that raised the banner of saving the people was prepared to fight in the winter after the autumn harvest while mobilizing corvee labor to reclaim land and repair water conservancy projects.

Of course, there are still differences. The Loyal Army adopted the route of work-for-relief, and tried to organize laborers nearby so that they would not be far away from home, and could eat less food at home and burn less firewood at home.

Moreover, the reclaimed fields and repaired water conservancy facilities are ultimately beneficial to the people themselves.

But the Jin Kingdom didn't care about this. They just gave an order, and no matter whether it was autumn harvest or spring plowing, all of you had to do labor service and go to the Yishui River to pull the tow boats.

Autumn harvest? What autumn harvest?
The country is about to fight a big war, and you are still thinking about your little bit of food. Aren't you being sensible?
In theory, the government was supposed to provide food for laborers. Of course, theory is theory, and practice is practice. Given the strength of the Jin Dynasty's grassroots organizations, it was a bit unrealistic to expect to distribute food to the laborers intact.

This amount of food was not much to begin with, and after being exploited at every level, only a little was left when it was distributed to specific officials.

In line with the principle of not letting the laborers worry about the amount of food, the officials waved their hands, intercepted all the food, and ordered the laborers to bring their own dry food to work.

In this situation, it is impossible not to escape and die.

But it doesn’t matter. There is not much else in the north, and there are as many Han people as needed who were abandoned by the Zhao Song government.

This kind of corvee labor that did not treat people as human beings naturally caused a large number of farmers on both sides of Yishui to flee, so the Yizhou officials included the powerful people on both sides of Yishui in the scope of conscription.

Of course, everyone saw the consequences. During the autumn harvest, the farmers became alienated from the owner.

Zhangjiazhuang collapsed two days after Wei Sheng took action. It was not because Zhang Chou was incompetent.

He was able to mobilize troops to launch an offensive even when being severely beaten by Wei Sheng and the Jin government, which was absolutely worthy of the conscience of heaven and earth.

When Liu Huai led the cavalry forward, Guan Chongyan had already completely wiped out the Jin military forces and killed the group of Jin soldiers who were not sure whether they were officials or archers and local soldiers, and they fled in all directions.

A team of nearly a hundred trackers had all stood still. They had dull eyes, ragged clothes, and were skinny, like walking corpses.

The people on the boat seemed a bit panicked, running back and forth, shouting loudly, trying to get away from the river bank, but they couldn't untie the ropes for a while, and they were jumping up and down in panic. Liu Huai pointed to the merchant ship 20 or 30 steps from the shore. Ten knights who had already removed their armor and were familiar with water jumped directly into the water and swam towards the merchant ship.

A dozen knights on the shore snatched the ropes from the trackers, tied them to their saddles, and pulled with all their might.

With the concerted efforts of both sides, soon the soldiers of the Loyal Army climbed onto the side of the boat. It seemed that some people on the boat wanted to resist. Shouting and fighting sounds suddenly rang out, but then stopped abruptly, replaced by the cries of the wounded.

Soon, a soldier with blood on his body climbed onto the wheelhouse, drove the captain back to the deck, and waved to the shore.

Seeing that the canal boat had begun to slowly approach the shore, Liu Huai stopped paying attention and turned back to the group of powerful people: "Hurry up and look for people from our own farm. Qi Shisan, get out the big pot, draw water, light a fire, put in some dry food, and cook some porridge."

In fact, he didn't need to explain it, because he had encountered several such canal boats before, and the solution was similar. The only difference was that at first, they gave the boatmen pancakes directly, which caused several boatmen to die of overeating. Later, they had to boil the pancakes in water, cook them into a paste, and then distribute them to the boatmen.

Zhang Chou had already dismounted and was moving forward, searching for the people from his own village among the group of boatmen who had collapsed on the ground. However, these people basically had a lot of loose beards and hair, and were very thin. After searching for a long time, he didn't find a single one.

"Big... Big Brother... Master... Master, is that you? Are you here to save... save me?"

A tracker who was closer to the front was originally lying on the ground, but when he looked up and saw Zhang Chou, his whole body trembled. He rolled and crawled to stand up, but because he was too weak, he could only crawl over and grab Zhang Chou's legs. For a moment, tears flowed like rain, and he sobbed uncontrollably.

"You..." Zhang Chou quickly squatted down, staring at the man in front of him who looked to be about forty years old. He was so confused that he couldn't recognize him for a long time. "You are Zhang Pingshui from my third uncle's family. Where are your father and uncle?"

If Zhang Chou remembered correctly, Zhang Pingshui was only sixteen years old this year. How could he have such wrinkles on his face and gray hair?
"They're all dead..." Zhang Pingshui clutched Zhang Chou's calf and burst into tears. For a moment, he couldn't even tell the cause of his father and uncle's death. He could only bang his head on the ground: "They're all dead..."

Zhang Chou suddenly began to breathe heavily.

He always believed that he was the protector of Zhuangzi and the farmers. Even though such things had happened before, he always comforted himself by thinking that if it weren't for his careful protection, the entire Zhuangzi might have been destroyed.

After leaving his identity as the owner of the manor, Zhang Chou re-examined his past actions, but was surprised to find that he was actually an accomplice of the thieves in killing the farmers.

Was I a thief before?

After realizing this fact, Zhang Chou felt almost crumbling.

However, the three views of a Yishui hero were being drastically reshaped. Liu Huai moved a stool, sat on it with a big horse and a golden sword, rubbed it with a melon hammer, and let the knights of the Loyal Army pull the five captives in front of him.

He Boqiu stood by with his hand knife, like an attendant.

Liu Huai first frowned and glanced at the pretentious Old He, then turned his gaze to the five people in front of him: "We are the Loyal Army, coming to the North to fight against the Jin thieves. Therefore, we are enemies, not friends. Do you five understand?"

A sturdy Jurchen woman with braided hair roared upon hearing this: "You thief...ah..."

Before he could finish his words, he was hit in the face by a hammer. His head tilted up at a dangerous angle, and the big teeth in his half-open mouth flew out in a fan shape, and he fell headfirst to the ground.

Liu Huai wiped the hammer head with one person's clothes: "You four, understand now."

The remaining four people nodded like chicks pecking at rice.

"Well, I'll ask, and you answer."

(End of this chapter)