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

As night fell, the moonlight over Lijiazhai was gently caressed by a thin layer of mist, making it appear exceptionally hazy and mysterious.

Yue Peng, a capable general in the stronghold, was now fully armored and leading an elite force of soldiers, silently traversing the dark mountain forest. Their steps were light, like cheetahs in the night, as they quietly approached the disorganized camp of the refugees.

At this moment, the refugee camp was completely silent, broken only by the occasional murmurs in their sleep and the low growls of wild beasts in the distance.

However, these poor souls, suffering from chronic malnutrition, generally succumbed to night blindness. Their eyes seemed veiled by a thick curtain in the darkness, making it difficult for them to detect any danger. Under this invisible cover, Yue Peng's team approached like ghosts, encountering almost no resistance.

In contrast, the soldiers of Li Family Village have recently enjoyed a significant improvement in their lives. Not only is their salt supply plentiful, but they also have at least one meal a day containing meat—a luxury they could never have dreamed of before. These delicacies have not only nourished their bodies but have also miraculously dispelled the shadow of their night blindness. Their eyes now gleam with a cheetah-like light in the darkness, allowing them to clearly perceive every movement around them, giving them almost supernatural powers in the darkness.

At Yue Peng's command, the warriors of Li Family Village surged into the refugee camp like a raging torrent. Their movements were swift and coordinated, each strike precise and deadly, demonstrating exceptional combat skills and teamwork.

The refugees, caught off guard by this sudden attack, could only scream in terror as they scattered and fled, only to be quickly engulfed by the soldiers of Li Family Village.

For Lijiazhai, this night was a testament to victory and glory; but for the displaced refugees, it was an unforgettable nightmare.

The raging fire burned all night, causing heavy losses to the refugee camp. A tally at dawn showed that the death toll from the previous night alone exceeded five thousand. Most of these deaths were caused by friendly fire or trampling; the actual number killed by Yue Peng was less than a thousand.

The next day, the leader of the Zoroastrian cult, Fang Bucun, ordered his army to continue attacking Li Family Village to avenge the previous night's raid on their camp.

Unlike yesterday's noisy and chaotic offensive, today, with no one under their command, Li Fang quietly dispatched an elite force, like a sharp blade in the night, silently slicing through the tranquility of the morning.

They were clad in tough leather armor, every texture seemingly telling of the warriors' resilience and indomitable spirit. In their hands, they gripped various finely forged weapons, their cold gleam reflecting on their resolute and unyielding faces.

There was no pre-battle clamor or pointless verbal provocation, only the deep-seated belief and determination that drove them forward step by step.

As they approached the mountain stronghold, within arm's reach and a hundred meters away, suddenly, countless fireworks streaked across the night sky above the stronghold walls, raining down with fierce force, landing precisely on the charging ranks, instantly bursting into brilliant yet deadly sparks, tearing the air of the battlefield to shreds.

Although Li Zhen did not possess the earth-shattering ballista, a defensive weapon capable of shaking the era, he skillfully deployed hundreds of composite bows like dragons poised to pounce. At his command, a volley of arrows was unleashed, cutting through the wind and weaving into an impenetrable net that covered the entire path of the charge.

As the vanguard of refugee soldiers gradually exhausted their strength and courage beneath the city walls, like the receding tide, the true Zoroastrian elite forces, like cheetahs lurking in the night, finally revealed their sharp fangs.

The leader, with agile movements, flicked his wrist, and the grappling hook, like a serpent emerging from its hole, precisely hooked onto a gap in the city wall. Then, relying on extraordinary strength and skill, they firmly established themselves on the wall, as if bridging the sky and the earth. Below, their companions provided cover with a dense array of crossbows, arrows raining down, weaving an invisible safety net for the climbing warriors. This not only suppressed the defenders on the wall but also created an excellent opportunity for the subsequent ascent.

Just as Yue Ying was about to peek out to see what was happening below, a crossbow bolt flew straight at his face. If he hadn't dodged in time, he probably would have been dead today.

The other soldiers weren't so lucky; they fell off the stockade wall one by one like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, and once they fell, there was basically no chance of survival.

More than a dozen Zoroastrian soldiers had already stormed the stockade walls and were fighting with the soldiers of Li Family Village with their weapons. Upon seeing this, Yue Peng immediately ordered his men to bring up swords and shields to meet the enemy, while he himself took a double-barreled shotgun and kept shooting at the enemy.

Seeing that his men had already stormed the stockade walls, Fang Bucun excitedly ordered the remaining soldiers to launch a general attack. Whether they could take down Li Family Village depended on this battle.

A leader of the refugees excitedly brandished his steel knife and shouted, "Charge! If we break in, the women and food will all be ours!"

"Bah!"

A bullet accurately blew him in the head. Li Zhen opened the loading port of the shotgun, skillfully took out a bullet from the ammunition belt, and reloaded it.

Seeing more and more refugee soldiers gathering below the stockade wall, Li Zhen shouted at Wang Changdao, "Old Wang, throw down the gasoline cans, throw them all down!"

Wang Changdao responded and then led his men to throw down white plastic buckets one by one. Some of them hit the refugee soldiers and exploded instantly.

"What is this? Why does it smell so strange?"

Li Zhen led his personal guards, each armed with a hunting rifle, and fired a burst of shots at the gasoline barrels below the stockade wall.

"Boom! Boom!..."

Beneath the stockade walls, the already exhausted and displaced group of refugees was instantly engulfed by merciless flames, transforming into a sea of ​​fire intertwined with despair and wailing. Flames soared into the sky like blooming evil flowers, dyeing the night sky crimson and ruthlessly robbing countless lives of their last vestige of warmth.

The raging flames, like a ravenous beast, licked every inch of the land, devouring all human figures and leaving only twisted, struggling silhouettes, faintly visible in the firelight, telling tales of unspeakable pain and struggle.

Li Zhen was manipulating a drone to observe the situation on the battlefield when he suddenly spotted Fang Bucun in a yellow robe in the crowd. He then controlled the drone to fly over to him.

"A monster! They have a monster!"

"Protect the leader immediately!"

The drone hovered above Fang Bucun's head, and Li Zhen used the loudspeaker on it to speak to him.

"You must be Fang Bucun of the Zoroastrian Church. I am Li Zhen of the Sanqing Sect. We have always kept to ourselves, so why are you attacking us? I advise you to leave my territory immediately, or I will make sure you don't leave alive. Others may not know, but I know your Zoroastrian Church's little tricks. Keep your men to deal with the Jurchens, don't waste them here."

Fang Bucun stared palely at the drone above his head. Anyone who could use such magic was definitely not an ordinary person. Compared to his own petty tricks of deceiving people in the martial arts world, the Sanqing Sect was the real masters.

He stammered to his trembling subordinates, "Retreat! Retreat immediately! We've encountered a master!"

In fact, even without Fang Bucun's order, the soldiers at the front would have already been desperately fleeing to the rear, because at this moment the steel gate of Lijiazhai was opened, and Yue Ying was driving the tractor and starting to maneuver skillfully.

After this battle, Fang Bucun's refugee force was reduced to just over 70,000. He glanced back at the direction of Li Family Village, then turned and walked eastward without looking back.

They couldn't go north, because the Jin troops were gathering there, and it was their territory. To the south, a large number of Jin troops were fighting the Song army, and if they turned against them, the refugees alone wouldn't be able to stop the Jin army. To the west were the Taihang Mountains, which were safe, but the 70,000 refugees still needed to be fed. So, only the east was left as a viable option.

As Zhang Cheng, the magistrate of Tangyin County, watched the retreating refugees, he felt as if he were in a dream.

"They retreated already? Brother Li, what kind of magic did you use to make them retreat on their own?"

Li Zhen found a fan somewhere and waved it as he said, "I have a brilliant plan, Brother Zhang. The refugees have retreated. How about I send a team to escort you back to Tangyin City tomorrow?"

Actually, Zhang Cheng came to Li Zhen to talk about this matter, but he didn't expect that Li Zhen would bring it up on his own initiative.

Zhang Cheng, shamelessly, said, "Brother Li, look, Tangyin City has just been looted by refugees. Could you lend me some grain to help appease the villagers? But don't worry, it's just a loan. I'll pay you back after the summer grain harvest is delivered next year."

Li Zhen glanced at Zhang Cheng and Manager Sun standing beside him, and said with a smile, "Brother Zhang, don't worry, I'll send someone to deliver three thousand catties of grain to you tomorrow. Use it first, and I'll send more when you need more."

Then he said to Manager Sun, "The grain stores in the city still need to be open. Let Brother Zhang take his men back to the city to sort things out. Once things are stable, I will transport all kinds of grains there. I estimate that this wave of refugees will definitely impact many grain stores on Damingfu Road. This is the perfect time for us to make great strides."

Manager Sun stammered, "Most of my businesses were left in the city when I fled, and I estimate that there's not much left now. This capital might not be enough."

Li Zhen waved his hand dismissively: "We've known each other for so long, do you think I don't trust you? Consider the grain my investment, and we'll split the profits when we sell it. I can supply as much grain as you need in the future. We must take advantage of this gap to dominate the market on Damingfu Road."