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

Chapter 226 Returning Home Is Like Living in a Foreign Land

"Name?"

"Liang Yuaner."

"Official position."

"The fourth of the Wuxing Army, Meng'an, marches to Mouke."

"You don't have any injuries on your body. Aren't you Jin soldiers all incredibly brave? As a centurion, if you can't fight to the death, you should at least fight hard, right? Could it be that you're here to join us?"

Wang Shijie wrote and drew on the document.

He was very busy today. He had just stayed in the camp where the signing troops were temporarily gathered for a short while, and then he hurried to interrogate the prisoners of war.

Liang Yuan'er was chained to a wooden post. Hearing this, he smirked at the guards and said, "Young Master, I have something important to discuss with your Flying Tiger General. It's a secret, and I can't reveal it in public."

Wang Shijie looked Liang Yuan'er up and down and asked, "Are you pretending to surrender and trying to assassinate the commander?"

Liang Yuaner gave a bitter laugh and twisted his body, causing the iron chains to rattle. "If I had the ability to break free from the chains right now, I wouldn't even bother pretending to surrender. I could just kick down the gate of your camp."

Wang Shijie thought about it and agreed. "First, tell me what you can say. I'm warning you, I'm easy to talk to now, but others may not be. We have a general named Shen Longzi in our army who is an expert at skinning people alive. Do you understand what I mean?"

Liang Yuaner nodded repeatedly.

But before the new round of questioning began, a soldier came in and said that Chen Wenben wanted to see him.

"Why are you here again? What's the matter?" Wang Shijie muttered, then walked out of the tent.

Chen Wenben seemed to know what Wang Shijie was thinking and said directly, "It's not that I want to bother you, Young Master, but I have some official business that the Commander-in-Chief has ordered me to do."

As he spoke, Chen Wenben pulled Zhu Changshui to his side again and said, "This hero from Zhushui Village wants to know about the situation in Yishui County. I heard that there are several Jin thieves here, so I want to come and ask."

Wang Shijie frowned: "Is this in accordance with the rules?"

Chen Wenben leaned forward and whispered into Wang Shijie's ear, "The Commander-in-Chief wants to use these people, but volunteering and recruiting are two different things. We need to let them see the style of the Jin bandits, then compare it to our Loyalty Army, and then make their own choice."

Wang Shijie suddenly realized, and the look in his eyes when he looked at Zhu Changshui was different.

However, his next thought returned to his family.

If there was any chance of survival, the Wang family would have nothing better to do than to join a lone army to attack the vast Jin Kingdom.

Didn’t the Jin Dynasty not even allow the powerful to survive?
The Loyal Army now has so many heroes joining it. The abilities of Wei Sheng and Liu Huai are one aspect, but the benevolent policies of the Jin Kingdom are the most important factor.

Both directions went to belong to yes.

Since things had come to this, Wang Shijie naturally had no objection. He just instructed: "This man has been honest and answered all the questions. Brother Zhu, please control your temper and don't hurt him."

Zhu Changshui's eyes flushed red as he nodded heavily: "I know."

After that, Wang Shijie led the two inside, sat down at the table again, and picked up the brush: "Liang Yuan'er, just tell me what I ask you later. If you feel you shouldn't say anything, you can save it for the commander. How about that?"

Liang Yuaner hesitated for a moment, then nodded again: "Yes!"

Zhu Changshui couldn't wait to ask, "What's the situation in Yishui County now?"

Liang Yuaner looked at Zhu Changshui curiously: "What else can we do? Ten thousand regular troops stationed in one county, what else can we do? What else can we expect?"

Zhu Changshui stumbled back two steps and was about to say something else when Wang Shijie tapped the inkstone with his brush: "If you want to talk, just talk. Speak nicely."

Liang Yuaner chuckled. "I just think this brother's question is unreasonable. Hasn't he seen the ravages of war in Shandong? The people were enslaved and conscripted, and their property, food, and women were looted. The entire county was emptied."

Zhu Changshui's face turned pale: "What about Zhu Tianshou?"

Liang Yuan'er scoffed, "Immortalized in the county seat. Tsk, if he hadn't cooperated so well and knelt so quickly, the Wuxing Army might still be wasting time in Yishui County." Wang Shijie interjected, "Didn't Zhu Tianshou already defect to your Jin army? Why is he imprisoned again? How could you have fallen for such a crude counter-espionage scheme a few days ago?"

Liang Yuaner shook his head: "How is that possible? This has nothing to do with whether Zhu Tianshou surrenders or not. Zhujiazhuang is a fat sheep, and Wuxing Army is a hungry wolf. What reason does the wolf have to eat the sheep?

Oh yes, there is indeed a reason. I vaguely heard that Zhu Tianshou was closely related to the annihilation of the armored cavalry and Moukes of the First Meng'an. In such matters, it is better to kill the wrong person than to let him go.

"The reason we're keeping him alive now is simply to get him to cooperate with the signature collection. The Wuxing Army is just waiting to defeat the Zhongyi Army and then tear him into pieces!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Changshui laughed out loud, first a bitter smile, then a loud laugh, and finally he even laughed until tears came out.

Just when Wang Shijie was worried that this guy would laugh himself to death, Zhu Changshui's laughter stopped instantly.

He first bowed to Wang Shijie and expressed his gratitude, then said to Chen Wenben: "General Chen, I have asked all the questions. Let's report back to the commander."

Wang Shijie quickly grabbed Chen Wenben and said, "You can just take this guy back to the main camp. He has some secrets that can only be told to the commander."

Chen Wenben nodded, covered Liang Yuaner's eyes with a black cloth, blocked his ears, and then hurriedly left the mountain stronghold with the prisoner and Zhu Changshui and others.

Wang Shijie stayed at the side door of the camp for a while, but suddenly remembered Zhao Ba and others who were beaten with a stick. He tightened his clothes, took some medicine, and followed the example of Liu Huai and his fifth brother to apply medicine to these people.

On the other side, when the few people arrived at the main camp, the sun was setting. Chen Wenben held Liang Yuaner and waited on the side, while Zhu Changshui and others entered the tent one after another under the guidance of the soldiers.

Liu Huai was looking at something on the sand table when Zhu Changshui knelt down and bowed respectfully: "Sir Commander, please accept the respect of a sinner like me!"

Liu Huai ate his pancake and glanced at Zhu Changshui. He didn't even go forward to support him or pretend to be intimate with him. Instead, he said, "Do you understand now how big a mess Zhu San has made?"

"understood."

"Get up! What's the point of kneeling to me? You should kneel to the people of Yishui!"

"Yes." Zhu Changshui nodded heavily. "Master Commander, I ask for nothing more than a chance to redeem myself from my crimes and make meritorious contributions, so that I can die in peace."

Liu Huai nodded and said, "Well, take your boat, take those who are willing to go with you, and go north along the Yishui River to Yishui County to fight against the Jin army."

Zhu Changshui gritted his teeth and nodded, then asked again, "What exactly should we do? Does the Commander have any instructions?"

Liu Huai shook his head. "As long as you can resist the Jin army, you can do anything. If you have the confidence, you can go ashore and fight a decisive battle with the Wuxing army. However, I still suggest that you use your advantage on the water to do what you can, such as snatching back your fellow villagers, burning some of the Jin thieves' military rations, or even pretending to be a ghost to scare the Jin thieves at night. Anything is fine, as long as you feel you can face the heavens and the earth and your conscience.

Let me remind you again, that place is your hometown, and the people there are your fellow villagers. Don't be like Zhu San, you must be worthy of your fellow villagers and your hometown."

Zhu Changshui suddenly burst into tears for no apparent reason, then nodded heavily again and left.

Although Zhu Changshui's fleet had sailors ready, it was still a dangerous battle, so it was never too cautious.

During this day, Zhu Changshui selected a suitable ship, selected sailors, and prepared some weapons and equipment. It was not until the next night that he was able to set off.

The starry sky was bright. Zhu Changshui stood on the wheelhouse and took advantage of the night to lead four armed merchant ships and three hundred sailors from Yishui County out of the water fort. Then, he took advantage of the autumn wind and headed north.

Their families are all under the protection of the Loyal Army and have nothing to worry about.

Old Hu, who had previously declared his renunciation of Zhu Changshui, was also on the boat. He reached out and extinguished an oil lamp, tightened the ropes on the mast, and then looked at his old friend: "Zhu Twenty-Five, just in case you didn't know, Duan Wu regained consciousness last night and remembered me."

Zhu Changshui held the rudder and looked straight ahead, his expression unchanged, but his fingers were so tense that his knuckles turned a little white.

"Duan Wu talked a lot of nonsense to me last night. I thought he'd recovered." Old Hu said calmly, "When I woke up this morning, I saw he had hanged himself with his belt. Sigh... The Duan family is reunited... That's a good thing, too."

Zhu Changshui's expression remained unchanged as he muttered to himself, "I understand."

"I see."

The sound was so small that it quickly dissipated in the slightly drunken autumn breeze and the crashing waves of the Yishui River.

(End of this chapter)