"who?"
Ding Yan also rushed out of the cabin. He was a man of letters, with noble sentiments and great eloquence. However, he had experienced military service for the first time and was not used to facing such emergencies.
At this time, his face turned completely pale, and his feet were pedaling on the ship's plank: "The Mongolian army is coming again? Didn't the Shandong people stop them? These Qiu Ba are useless!"
Hou Zhongxin pulled Ding Yan hard: "Bachelor, these are not Mongols!"
"What?"
"The Dinghai navy is stationed every day, and the surrounding area must be heavily guarded, with sentries from far and near. Unless the Mongolian army uses a large force of thousands of people, how can anyone break into the vicinity of the camp? Even if the so-called elite black army arrived the day before yesterday, they would immediately They have been expelled. Don’t worry, bachelor, I think these people are the Zhongdu Jin Army who came to rescue us!"
"Oh?" Ding Yan looked at the other side suspiciously, and sure enough he saw that although the two sides were tensely confronting each other, they were not really fighting.
He relaxed slightly and said in a deep voice: "That can't be ignored... After all, there have been many wars along the way... Who knows what the Jurchens have in mind!"
At this point, he pointed to one of his followers: "Go and get my lost bow!"
When the Song and Jin Dynasties received each other's envoys, there was a part called the "Archery Banquet". At the banquet, the two parties competed in archery skills to demonstrate their national prestige. In recent decades, as the Jurchens' military preparedness weakened, Song envoys had the upper hand in every bow-shooting feast.
This time when the Song Dynasty came to envoy, the deputy envoy Hou Zhongxin was certainly an experienced martial artist, and Ding Yan not only wrote colorful articles, but also had the skills to shoot arrows with a hundred steps, and he was already ready to humiliate the Jurchens again at the archery banquet.
I followed him and took the bow in a moment.
Although it is a light bow and light arrows, Ding Yan feels more courageous with the weapon in his hand. He looked around and saw that his soldiers and strong men were all holding sharp swords and guarding the convoy. He immediately shouted and asked: "Who is going to ask about the situation on the other side? We have to find out!"
In this kind of matter, Hou Zhongxin did his duty and bowed: "Bachelor, I'll go."
Holding the feet of his robe, he hurried back to the small boat he had come on, urging the boatman to punt quickly.
As the boat swayed away from the shore, Ding Yan was shouting orders from behind, asking the soldiers and strong men to cheer up and be on full alert. A governor and two commanders who were in charge of leading the troops in the envoy team also showed off their energy in front of Ding Zhan and kept shouting.
After an envoy leaves the border, he can be promoted as usual, and the principal and deputy envoys have the right to appoint subordinate officials. Therefore, the entourage was nominally selected by the Privy Council from the three Yamen and the Imperial City Department, but in fact most of them were the envoy's personal personnel, specifically to facilitate the issuance of promotion coupons in the future.
These governors and commanders are all close to Ding Yan, so they naturally showed bravery at this moment. On the contrary, the 200 strong men Hou Zhongxin recruited at the border only guarded the fleet silently, and their strictness was like a strong army.
Hou Zhongxin turned around on the boat and shook his head quietly.
No matter how powerful he is now, he can't compare to the panic he looked just now. Whether you have seen mountains of corpses and seas of blood, whether you have fought in vicious battles cannot be hidden from the experts. These soldiers have been enjoying the blessings for a long time, and their military quality is far worse than that of the strong men, let alone the elites of the Ding Navy.
The water rose and fell, and the boat creaked away from the west bank, bypassing the swaying reeds, and reached the other shore in a blink of an eye.
Hou Zhongxin jumped onto the military ship that was docked on the shore, and then stepped on the long plank of the ship's side that was draped on the shore, and walked all the way into the inside of the camp where the two sides were facing each other.
The soldiers of Ding Haijun had obviously received their orders, and no one stopped them.
Almost everyone in the cavalry team lined up with wild geese wings wore iron armor and fine iron helmets, and their horses were all magnificent. Looking at the faces of the knights, you can see that they are either Jurchen warriors with gold rings in their earlobes, or they are Yi people or Chi army knights who have their heads shaved and braided in imitation of Jurchen customs.
In front of the cavalry, a general with a leopard head and eyes and a beard was glaring fiercely at Chen Ran. Standing side by side with him, reining in the horse, was a tall, thin man with broad shoulders, serving as the imperial attendant of Jin Guojin. color.
Fengyu from the Internal Affairs Bureau?
It has long been heard that since the emperor of the Jin Dynasty came to the throne, he often used the personal bureau to control the military and political affairs of foreign countries. Did the man in front of me come here on the orders of the Emperor of Jin?
Hou Zhongxin stopped and stood on the side of the two opposing parties.
The tall and lanky man immediately noticed Hou Zhongxin, his eyes swept over his rolled-up futou, Southern Dynasty-style official uniform and raccoon sleeves, and then he smiled and nodded slightly.
At this time, the bearded general said to Chen Ran in a deep voice: "I know you! You were a sergeant in Fuzhou Jiehao in your early years. Later, you followed Guo Ning and set fire to make trouble at Zhangyi Gate in Zhongdu. Later, Guo Ning fought in Zhongdu. You I followed him all the way. Now that Guo Ning has become the envoy of Shandong Province, you have been promoted to the position of military commander, right?"
"That's right!"
Chen Ran said proudly: "Although I am not talented, I am familiar with the inside and outside of Daxing Mansion in Zhongdu. Therefore, I was looked after by my family's envoy and was given the responsibility of raising troops first to serve the king. Why, is there anyone in Zhongdu who doubts us? Do you think the navy is good at fighting? Although we are just a small vanguard sent by Ambassador Guo, we have also taken many enemy heads along the way. If the general is interested, you may wish to come with me to check it out."
The bearded general had a look of iron on his face and ignored him.
After a long while, he said: "The suspicion in Zhongdu is not whether you are good at fighting or not. In short, I have brought Marshal Gao Qi's warrant. Chen Qianha, you and the soldiers and horses you brought do not need to go any further. It's north. The marshal has ordered the navy to guard Zhigu Village and supervise the transportation of money and grain. Other than that, especially in Zhongdu, there are people in charge, so you don't need to worry about it!"
As soon as these words came out, the Dinghai navy officers who gathered around Chen Ran all showed dissatisfaction.
Chen Ran sneered a few times, raised his riding whip, and pointed at the bearded general: "We are not allowed to enter Zhongdu? Is this an order from Shuhu Gaoqi? My envoy will be here in a moment. Do you think Shuhu Gaoqi is worthy or dares? Don’t dare to issue this order to my family!”
"Asshole!"
The beard general was furious and put his hand on the hilt of the knife at his waist: "How dare you even say the name of Marshal Gao Qi even though you are a mere commander! How bold! You are seeking death!"
"Seeking death? Calling Shuhu Gaoqi's name means you are seeking death? Do you have the nerve to use this accusation to scare people?"
Chen Ran laughed. Amid laughter, he looked back at the knight beside him: "Let's not mention Shuhu Gaoqi for now. Do you know the identities of these two men who came to deliver the order with such force?"
The knight joked: "Please give me some advice."
"These two people, one is Wanyan Lin, the right-wing commander of the Zhongdu Armed Guards, and the other is Wanyan Xielie, the envoy of the Imperial Attendant Bureau next to the emperor."
"Oh? Is the official position very high? Is it good at intimidating people?"
Chen Ran also looked at the two men: "I don't know about this, I just remember that our army killed Hu Shahu's troops in Zhongdu that day, and killed more than one commander in chief like mowing grass; as for the people from the Internal Affairs Bureau... there were very few of them. Contact, but I heard a while ago that there seemed to be a close servant serving the emperor or something, who wanted to go south to Shandong by sea ship, but was caught in a storm and died."
When these words came out, Wanyan Lin and Wanyan Xielie were both angry.
The cavalry at the back were all the emperor's front-line military guards who had been reorganized in the past year, and they could not tolerate the nonsense of a mere commander from Shandong. Without waiting for Wanyan Lin to issue an order, hundreds of fine cavalry were all posing and drawing their swords. The sound of the sword being drawn echoed through the formation.
Wanyanlin glanced at the cavalry behind him and felt more courageous.
He is Shuhu Gaoqi's old subordinate and confidant, and he knows a lot of inside information.
The two of them came here, saying that they were following the order of Shu Hu Gao Qi, but in fact it was the emperor's wish. It's just that the emperor didn't want to break up with Ding Haijun directly and wanted to leave some room for mediation.
In fact, it was precisely because everyone in the Dinghai navy was so unscrupulous in their anti-thief behavior that the emperor did not want them to enter Zhongdu!
Yesterday, when the emperor heard that Ding Haijun's front troops had arrived at Zhigu Village, he jumped up in the Da'an Hall on the spot.
What good things can these grass bandits do when they arrive in Zhongdu? They also held hostage the envoys of the Southern Song Dynasty? His heart can be killed! I think they don’t want to be king, but they want to enter Zhongdu City and cause trouble!
Guo Ning would kill people without blinking an eye whenever something didn't go his way. That day, his apprentice Shan Laoer led him into the city, but how many people died in the end? What did he do when he arrived in Shandong? Don’t you all know? Or do you know it and pretend not to know?
His subordinates want to enter Zhongdu under the banner of King Qin? dream!
Find a way to stop them! Just let them stay in Zhigu Village! Zhongdu City is mine! In this city, wind can enter and rain can enter. Only Guo Ning's subordinates and the brave warriors of Ding Haijun are not allowed to enter!
The emperor's exact words were extremely rude. As a minister, why don't you know how to share your worries? Marshal Shuhu Gaoqi immediately dispatched the elite Chi army cavalry out of the city and arrived day and night.
The mission of this trip was to intercept the navy's soldiers and horses, and to bring back the envoys of the Southern Song Dynasty. If that doesn't work, we can even drive back the Southern Dynasty envoys and Ding Haijun's soldiers and horses!
