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

Just as Li Zhen was busy allocating and distributing various supplies at the county government office, a yamen runner came in to report that a scholar-looking man among the refugees wanted to see him.

After receiving Li Zhen's permission, the middle-aged scholar was brought in.

Li Zhen sized up the man and found that, apart from his worn-out clothes, he was actually quite well-dressed.

The middle-aged scholar spoke first: "This humble man has come to greet Your Excellency, the magistrate. I am grateful for your medicine that saved my life; otherwise, I would be a rotting corpse in the mud outside the city right now."

Li Zhen: "Bad? May I ask where you are from, sir?"

The man replied with a smirk, “My surname is quite rare. My family was originally from Jinan Prefecture, but due to the chaos of war, we had to move here. I was hoping to seek refuge with a friend in Anyang City, but I encountered a plague on the way. Fortunately, you extended a helping hand, sir, otherwise I would not be here today. I have come to pay my respects to you today, firstly to express my gratitude, and secondly to see if I can do anything to help you.”

Li Zhen smiled. It turned out that the other party was looking for a job. He happened to be short-staffed, but he had to test them first.

"Mr. Bad Guy, how capable are you?"

Bu Liang calmly replied, "I have been raised at home since childhood and can read and write. I also have some knowledge of arithmetic. My father was a general in the Song state and is very familiar with military books and troop deployment, but I have not had the opportunity to put them into practice yet."

Li Zhen: "Why don't you stay by my side and be my advisor for now? We'll see where there are openings and then arrange something for you."

I gladly accepted Li Zhen's poor arrangement. We were all meeting for the first time, so why should he trust me? As long as I achieve more in the future, I believe I will definitely be given an important position.

Prefect Zhang Cheng of Anyang was extremely busy, just as Li Zhen had guessed, Anyang had also been infected by the plague. Fortunately, Li Zhen sent Guo the Divine Physician's apprentices with medicine; otherwise, more than half of Anyang's population would have died.

Zhang Cheng adopted Li Zhen's method of resettling refugees, digging earthen shacks outside the city to house them. Although there wasn't much food in the city, Zhang Cheng still ordered people to cook thin porridge every day. Although they weren't full, they didn't starve to death.

Inside the city, Guo the Divine Physician's apprentices led the doctors to treat those infected with the plague. Except for the severely infected, those with mild or moderate symptoms were basically cured after taking the medicine.

Because of the battle between the Song and Jin dynasties in Puyang, the Jin army suffered heavy losses. The Jin general, Wanyan Cong, transferred all 20,000 troops from Anyang to Puyang for reinforcement. As a result, the vast city of Anyang was left to rely on only two or three hundred constables to maintain order, leading to frequent thefts and robberies, causing great distress to the city's residents.

Out of desperation, Zhang Cheng wanted to borrow a group of soldiers from Li Zhen to help maintain order in Anyang. Li Zhen, of course, disagreed. He said that giving him food and medicine was already very generous, and besides, he didn't have many soldiers and had to guard against the possibility of war at any time.

------

Suddenly, heavy snow began to fall again, and the gloomy sky seemed to press down, giving anyone who looked up a strong sense of oppression.

Fang Bucun was leading a group of soldiers on patrol around Lijiazhai. During this time, refugees would approach from time to time, but they were all discovered and driven away in time.

Under normal circumstances, Lijiazhai might have taken in these refugees, but now that the plague has broken out, no one dares to contact people outside the village, fearing that they might bring the plague into the village.

As a soldier walked, he complained, "Damn it, what kind of weather is this? It had to snow while I was on patrol."

Fang Bucun turned around and glared at the soldier: "Fang the Cripple, stop complaining, you're wearing thick cotton clothes and you're not cold, what are you yelling about!"

The soldier, seeing Fang Bucun scolding him, wasn't angry; instead, he happily ran over.

"Master, when will we be able to establish our own power? It was so much more fun when we were fighting alongside you. It's nothing like now, where we're stuck in this shabby village patrolling all day, with so many rules to follow."

"Peng!"

The soldier was kicked into a snowdrift, and Fang Bucun pointed at him and started cursing.

"You little brat, do you want to live or do we? We finally have a chance to rest here, and you're always talking too much. Do you even know where you are? You dare to say anything. If your father and I weren't cousins, I would have chopped you up long ago."

At this moment, several soldiers nearby stepped forward to dissuade them. Most of the soldiers in this group were originally Zoroastrians and were very familiar with each other.

Just then, a sharp-eyed soldier pointed down the mountain and asked, "Look what's that?"

Because the snow was still falling, visibility was poor. Seeing this, Fang Bucun immediately took out the binoculars that Li Zhenfa had given him and kept adjusting the viewing distance to observe.

"Oh no! It's the Jurchen soldiers!"

"Hurry back to the inner village and report to Chief Yue Peng."

More than two thousand Jin soldiers were marching towards Lijiazhai in the wind and snow. Leading them were a few refugees who had been driven away a few days ago. They were wearing thin clothes and shivering in the cold wind.

After being driven away by the soldiers of Lijiazhai a few days ago, they headed east, only to encounter this group of Jin soldiers on the way. After being tortured, they revealed the location of Lijiazhai and said that Lijiazhai had abundant supplies and more food than they could eat.

These two thousand Jin soldiers had just retreated from the battlefield. They were no good at fighting the Song army, but they could easily plunder a village and bully the local people.

"Snapped!"

A whip lashed out at the leader of the refugees, eliciting a wail of pain.

"Damn it, how much further? Hurry up in this cold weather, I'm freezing to death."

After walking for about half an hour, we finally saw the tall stockade wall, or rather, the city wall. The thickness and height of the Li Family Stockade wall were considerably greater than those of Tangyin City. It was probably only comparable to Anyang City. Without professional siege equipment, a direct assault would be utterly impossible.

Upon reaching the gate of Lijiazhai, a Jin soldier stood below and shouted loudly, "Listen up, you inside! Open the gate immediately and let us in to rest. If you're late, you'll lose your heads!"

Upon receiving the news, Yue Peng rushed over and replied to those below: "Sir, our village is too small to accommodate so many of you. You should hurry and find a larger city to rest. The snow is falling heavier and heavier, and if you delay any longer, it will be difficult for you to descend the mountain."

Seeing that the enemy wouldn't open the gate, the leading Jin soldier gestured to the archers, and a sharp arrow flew towards Yue Peng.

Yue Ying, standing nearby, grabbed a shield and swiftly deflected the arrow for his brother.

Yue Ying cursed, "Damn it, you're asking for it!"

After saying that, he threw away his shield, raised his semi-automatic rifle, and aimed it at the Jin soldier who had just shot the arrow.

"Bah!"

A bullet struck the Jin soldier precisely in the forehead, a sight that terrified the Jin soldiers and the lieutenant beside him, who retreated hastily.