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

Tangyin is located between Anyang and Hebi. Although the county town is not large, it is a very important transportation hub and strategic location. At that time, transportation relied mainly on canals and land routes. If traveling north from the Taihang Mountains, Tangyin was an essential route.

After the Jin army captured Bianjing, the capital of the Song Dynasty, they looted the Zhao imperial family and the artisans in the city and began to evacuate northward to Zhongdu (Beijing). For safety reasons, the prisoner escort team was divided into two groups. The group escorting Emperor Huizong and many ministers traveled north from Taiyuan Prefecture, west of the Taihang Mountains, while the Zhao imperial family and the artisans traveled east of the Taihang Mountains, passing through Hebi and Anyang.

Emperor Huizong's daughter, Zhao Yingluo, was also among the group heading north. Zhao Yingluo was the nineteenth daughter of Emperor Huizong, Zhao Ji. She was seventeen years old this year. She had just been betrothed to Xiang Ziyi, but before she could marry him, the Jin army attacked Bianjing. She was abducted by the Jin people and taken north.

The weather was quite hot during the day. It was not yet summer, but the intense heat of the sun was already noticeable. Some of the older and weaker ministers and members of the royal family could not withstand the high intensity of the journey and the high temperature, and some of them collapsed from time to time.

The Jin soldiers showed no mercy to these former princes and nobles. If they found anyone slacking off, they would draw their scimitars and kill them. Besides the royal family and ministers, many ordinary people from Bianjing were also forced into the ranks. Once they reached the Jin Kingdom in the north, they would be assigned to Jin generals and soldiers to serve as their servants, tending their livestock and cultivating their land.

After several days of travel, Zhao Yingluo discovered that these Jurchen soldiers were utterly inhuman. During the day, they used whips and scimitars to drive and beat the people of Song at will, and at night they would take turns venting their lust on the women they had abducted. Almost every night, countless women were tortured to death. This scene was something she could never have imagined before.

Zhao Yingluo asked an old eunuch beside her in a low voice, "Eunuch Wang, where are we?"

The old eunuch quickly looked around, then whispered to Zhao Yingluo, "Princess Shunfu, please don't speak. If those Jin soldiers hear you, you'll be whipped without a chance."

Once they were sure no one was paying attention to them, the old eunuch whispered, "We just passed through Hebi. Judging from our journey, we may have to spend the night in Anyang. Princess, you must be careful when you get to the Jin Kingdom."

Along the way, countless Song soldiers and civilian righteous people organized armed forces to try to rescue the Zhao royal family who had been captured. However, the Jin army was powerful and its fighting strength was very strong, so the Song rescue efforts only started but did not come to fruition.

Moreover, the Jin army escorted prisoners northward in batches, and Zhao Yingluo's group was the second batch. Although she was beautiful and had been coveted by countless Jin soldiers, the Jin general Wanyan Zonghan had long taken a liking to Zhao Yingluo, which meant that they could only watch but dared not make a move, so they could only vent their desires on other women at night.

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Food is now plentiful in the mountain village. In the past few days, Li Zhen has also taken in people from several surrounding villages, and the entire mountain village now has a population of nearly one hundred. Among them, there are more than twenty able-bodied men, which has allowed Li Zhen to barely have his own armed force.

Li Zhen took out camouflage uniforms and liberation shoes from his spatial storage, and had the twenty-odd men put them on. Then he distributed steel pipes with welded iron tips and other knives to each of them, which directly improved the combat effectiveness of this ragtag army.

There were three hunters in the group who knew how to use bows and crossbows, but Li Zhen didn't have any bows or crossbows at the moment. He planned to take some valuable things back with him during this time, sell them, and then try to buy some more weapons and supplies.

After much thought, we can acquire Song Dynasty calligraphy, paintings, porcelain, and various furniture, but these are things that ordinary people don't have. It seems unlikely that we can attack the manor of a wealthy landlord with just our current group of twenty-odd people. For now, we can only develop in this sneaky way.

After the villagers had eaten their fill, they felt indebted to Li Zhen. Led by several experienced elders, they began repairing the mountain village, building walls out of wood and stone to defend against enemies. Li Zhen had initially wanted to stop them; he planned to buy some cement on his next trip back—it was convenient, labor-saving, and, most importantly, very sturdy. However, he knew that traveling back in time would mean bloodshed. Li Zhen glanced down at his newly scabbed wound and could only sigh helplessly, resigning himself to letting them do as they pleased.

Just as Li Zhen was watching his more than twenty men train, Corporal Wang Changdao ran over from outside the village with a panicked expression.

Wang Changdao: "Boss, something bad has happened. A lot of Jin soldiers and people tied up with ropes have come down from the mountain. It looks like they came from Bianjing."

Even if Li Zhen had a bad history, he knew about the humiliation of the Jingkang Incident. Upon hearing this, he immediately perked up.

"Quickly gather the men under my command and come down the mountain with me to take a look. The rest of you, defend the village."

Upon hearing this, everyone admired Li Zhen greatly, believing that he had gone down the mountain to rescue the prisoners. Little did they know that Li Zhen was thinking that the Jin soldiers had just looted Bianjing and must have a lot of valuable items. He could take advantage of this opportunity to launch another surprise attack on them, bring them back to the modern world, and exchange them for money.

Li Zhen's team, all dressed in camouflage and carrying long guns welded from steel pipes, quietly made their way to a secluded spot on the mountain path.

At this moment, a dozen or so Jin soldiers were seen escorting a group of people northward. The fifty or sixty people being escorted were separated, with both men and women having their hands tied with ropes, making it impossible for them to escape.

Zhao Yingluo happened to be in this group. Due to the long journey, her face was covered in sweat, and the palace maids tied with her were in the same state. Almost everyone's face was flushed, a sign that they were about to suffer from heatstroke.

The Jin soldier in charge of leading the group seemed to have noticed it too. He stopped walking when he saw the shade of trees on both sides of the mountain path.

"Everyone, take a break. It's too hot. We'll continue later."

After saying that, he ordered two soldiers to take water bags and go find water, while he sat down on a large rock to rest.

Looking down at the dozen or so Jin soldiers, Li Zhen wondered if he should take them on, otherwise when would he ever have enough money to return to the modern world? But he was also worried about the fighting strength of his own troops. After all, his side consisted of ordinary people. Although Wang Changdao and the others were local militia, only Wang Changdao had ever been on the battlefield; the rest had never even seen blood.

Soon the Jin soldiers who went out to find water returned. They handed the water bags filled with clean water to their leader, who opened the lid of the water bag and drank heartily.

Upon witnessing this scene, a craftsman in the nearby prisoner group opened his parched lips and pleaded, "Sir, please give us some water to drink, we are dying of thirst."

"Snapped!"

A Jin soldier lashed out with his whip at the man who had spoken: "Han dog, shut your mouth! It's not time for you to drink water yet."

The Jin soldier leader stopped the Jin soldiers who were about to attack: "Don't kill them. They are now slaves of our Jin Kingdom. If they die, I won't be able to explain it to the general when I go back."