Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

Since the school in Lijiazhai was established, Zhao Yingluo has become the most respected person in the entire village. These ordinary people never imagined that one day their children would be able to enter the school. In their eyes, as long as they learn cultural knowledge, their children's fate will change, and they will no longer have to toil in the fields like their fathers.

Zhao Yingluo arrived at Li Zhen's house and happened to run into Widow Zhang, who had come to report on the canteen's malfunctions. Upon seeing Zhao Yingluo, she immediately pulled Wang Changdao out of the house.

Widow Zhang said with a smile, "Chief, we won't disturb you any longer. Have a good chat."

After saying that, he gently pushed Zhao Yingluo into the room and thoughtfully closed the door.

Li Zhen smiled and said, "It's you. How is it? Is there anything the school is lacking? Tell me and I'll find a way to make up for it."

Seeing that Zhao Yingluo was a little reserved, Li Zhen put his arm around her shoulder and pressed her into a chair. Then he secretly took out a bottle of cola from his spatial storage, opened it, and handed it to Zhao Yingluo.

Zhao Yingluo took a small sip and suddenly found the dark tea to be sweet and delicious, as if gas was rushing out of her mouth.

Zhao Yingluo couldn't help but whisper, "What kind of tea is this? It tastes so good!"

Li Zhen pulled over a stool and sat down right next to Zhao Yingluo.

"This is cola. Don't let your background as someone from the palace fool you; you've definitely never had this before."

As he spoke, he opened a bottle for himself. In the increasingly hot weather, taking a sip of Coke was incredibly refreshing.

This was the first time Zhao Yingluo had seen Li Zhen up close, and she found him to be extremely handsome, with a high nose bridge and a firm chin. Coupled with an indescribable charisma about him, Zhao Yingluo was instantly captivated.

At first, Li Zhen didn't notice anything unusual. After waiting for a while, he saw that Zhao Yingluo was staring at him without changing her posture. Even a fool would know that something was definitely going on.

Li Zhen: Could this little girl have taken a liking to me?

"Hmm, I'm saying, Yingluo, even though your brother Li Zhen is quite handsome, you can't look at him like that."

Upon hearing Li Zhen's words, Zhao Yingluo realized that she had lost her composure. She hurriedly got up and tried to escape from the room, but she didn't notice that her skirt was caught on the stool. In addition, she got up a little too suddenly and lost her balance, falling to the ground.

"oops!"

Li Zhen, who was standing nearby, quickly pulled Zhao Yingluo into his arms, preventing her from falling directly to the ground.

Just as the two were embracing, Yue Peng suddenly opened the tightly closed door.

Yue Peng was taken aback at first, then closed the door again with a blank expression, saying as he left, "You guys continue, I didn't see anything."

So Zhao Yingluo ran out of the house in a panic. Passersby looked at Zhao Yingluo, whose face was flushed, and wondered what had happened. Only the Zhang widow and her husband squatted not far away and watched this scene.

Wang Changdao whispered, "Old woman, do you think we should help the chief? This progress is too slow. Unlike when you and I were together, we got everything done right away."

Widow Zhang pinched Wang Changdao hard: "You damned bastard, I was blind back then, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to climb into my bed. But you're right, I'll go ask Princess Zhao later, and if she's willing, we'll strike while the iron is hot and let them get things done."

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Inside Tangyin City, a senior official from Anyang City brought bad news to Magistrate Cui: Wanyan Cong, the Jin general guarding Daming Prefecture, was requisitioning large quantities of grain to deal with the Song army's harassment in Huainan East Road. Although the Song Dynasty was currently leaderless, many local generals were rallying various forces to continuously attack the Jin army. In order to consolidate his current territory, Wanyan Cong decided to collect grain and soldiers from various places.

Upon hearing the news, Wang Feng, the wealthy landowner, smiled and said to his brother-in-law, Magistrate Cui, "Brother-in-law, don't the Jurchens want grain? Why not use them to eliminate Li Family Village? That way, not only will the Jurchens get the grain, but we will also be rid of our biggest threat."

Cui Yu said with some worry, "I wouldn't take a small Li Family Village seriously, but the family power behind that Young Master Li is not to be underestimated. Although the Great Jin Kingdom controls half of the Song Kingdom's land now, no one can say for sure what the future holds."

Wang Feng said somewhat irritably, "So what if they are powerful families in Jiangling? When the Jin army marches south, those so-called powerful families will be no threat at all. Even the Song emperor is in the hands of the Jin now, so what are we afraid of?"

According to the grain store manager, Li Zhen sold a lot of grain, and it was all high-quality grain. Putting aside how much gold he had, the countless grains alone were tempting enough.

Ultimately, Cui Yu could not resist the temptation of profit, and with his brother-in-law constantly encouraging him, he decided to personally go to Anyang City, hoping that the Jin general would send an army to destroy Li Family Village.

Although the Jin army had already escorted Emperor Huizong and his son to the Jin capital (Yanjing), large numbers of Jin soldiers continued their slow southward advance, occupying areas such as Jingzhao Prefecture, Nanjing Prefecture, and Shandong Prefecture. The Jin army in Daming Prefecture was considered a second-rate garrison. Even so, the Jin soldiers were generally far more powerful than the Song soldiers, easily taking over a small village like Lijiazhai.

The next day, a group of about 100 Jin soldiers arrived at the outskirts of Lijiazhai. As they were a garrison, the Jin soldiers were all infantry except for the general leading the group who rode a warhorse.

By this time, Li Zhen already knew that the Jin army was coming, because sentries had been deployed in various places at the foot of the mountain to prevent the enemy from launching a sudden attack on the mountain stronghold.

Li Zhen stood on the stockade wall, looking down at the Jin soldiers. He had thirty soldiers under his command, who, after a period of training, were barely able to fight the Jin soldiers.

Cui Yu straightened his official robes and went straight to the outside of the village, shouting loudly, "Listen up, people of Li Family Village! The government troops are here to collect grain. Open the gates and let us in, or we will wipe out your little mountain village!"

Li Zhen waved his hand coldly at Yue Peng, and a sharp arrow flew towards Cui Yu, striking Cui Yu in the chest in the blink of an eye.

Cui Yu stared at his chest in disbelief. He thought that no matter how bold these people were, they wouldn't dare to attack officials, because killing an official was tantamount to rebellion.

The compound bow was very powerful; the wolf-tooth arrow pierced Cui Yu's back, and he fell to the ground, struggling for a short while before becoming still.

At this moment, the Jin general knew that the people inside were not easy to deal with. It was not difficult to tell from the arrow just now that there were people in the enemy army. The Jin general ordered all soldiers to form a battle formation and prepare to launch a strong attack on Li Family Village.

A dozen or so Jin archers quickly assembled, took out their powerful bows from their backs, and began to string them. Bowstrings used at this time were mostly made of a mixture of animal sinews, and to avoid damaging the elasticity of the bowstring, they were usually only strung close to the moment of battle.

The Jin soldiers originally thought that Li Family Village wouldn't make a move, so they weren't prepared. They didn't expect the enemy to attack so fiercely right from the start, killing a county magistrate. And this was a county magistrate, a ninth-rank official!