Chapter 40: Made a Fortune!

  When Di Lie led Fang Hong and others back to the main battlefield, they saw nearly a thousand brave young men who had been gathered and organized by Yang Zhe, Zuo Kai, A Shi, Zhi He and others, forming a neat formation. Seeing Di Lie surrounded by the crowd with his majestic appearance, as well as the enemy general's head on Fang Hong's long spear tip, they suddenly erupted in cheers and excitement.

  Di Lie slowly drew his sword and stabbed it towards the rising sun: "We... won!"

  "Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" The thunderous applause of a thousand people was like the sound of waves crashing against the shore. Then, under Fang Hong's lead, all the cavalry dismounted, removed their helmets, and knelt on one knee, bowing their heads to that majestic figure. Yang Zhechong, Zuo Kai, and others led nearly a thousand infantrymen, who spontaneously threw down their spears and shields, and knelt to pay homage to Di Lie.

  Di Lie raised his curved blade high and swung it down, the blade's edge rippling with golden light, as if cutting off the crimson sun in one stroke.

  When Di Lie led the army back to the Jin army's east camp, he saw that all along the way, the grateful Song captives knelt down one after another, and the survivors who had narrowly escaped death did not hesitate to offer their gratitude to this amazing "Your Highness" who had saved them from suffering.

  However, not everyone knows how to repay kindness. Di Lie later found out that those Song royal family members, such as Prince Bo, Prince Xin, Jin Kang, Ping Yuan, He Yi, and Yong Ning, the four kings of the counties, as well as more than a dozen sons and younger brothers of the imperial clan, actually seized more than ten horses and fled through the East Camp Gate when the Golden Army's iron cavalry charged into battle and the Righteous People's Army was in danger.

  Di Lie's face was gloomy, and after a while, he coldly snorted: "Fine, let them run away. Otherwise, these royal uncles will eventually become a trouble."

  Yang Zheshang said in a low voice: "There are still more than 2,000 imperial clansmen..."

  Di Lie waved his hand impatiently: "Let's not mention those who have been defeated five times. And, you'd better remember that no matter what their previous identities were, now they only have one common name - my spoils of war."

  "Amitabha." A Buddhist chant came from behind, and the monk named Zhihe furrowed his brow and said, "If that's the case, then what's the difference between Your Highness' actions and those of Jinwu?"

  "Of course it's different." Di Lie glared at the bold monk, "I let them live and work for me; while Jin Ze only needs them to work, but doesn't care if they can survive or not. That's the difference!"

  The monk fearlessly stared back at Di Lie and said in a loud voice, "So it turns out that Your Highness's act of saving people did not come from a compassionate heart."

  Di Lie didn't bother to argue with the monk about Zen, he still had a lot of things to attend to, and casually said something that left everyone including the monk bewildered: "Even if it's a heroic act, there's still a reward fund for it, isn't there?"

  It's Ah Su who muttered impatiently: "These are all spoils of war taken from the Jin people, originally meant to be controlled by their owners. What reason is there to give them up for nothing? If it were on the grasslands, heh heh, this group of fools would either become slaves or skulls."

  Di Lie sighed in his heart, this was perhaps the difference between the nomadic and farming nations' concepts, and also one of the roots of the weakness of the Great Song and the strength of the Jin. In this medieval era, from east to west, civilization was being destroyed by barbarism everywhere. If he wanted to resist the Jin people and win, maybe he had to be even more barbaric than them.

  The battle is over, but the crisis has not been lifted. In Xiangzhou City, more than ten miles south of the Wen River, there are still troops of unknown strength stationed in the Jin army. The vanguard of more than a thousand elite cavalry sent out by Guxin before may also return at any time. Once they are attacked from both north and south, Di Lie's newly formed army will be annihilated without a doubt.

  According to the intelligence provided by Fang Hong, Zuo Kai and others, there should be no more than 1,000 Jurchen soldiers in Xiangzhou City, with fewer than one hundred being true Jurchens. With only a little over a thousand horses, defending a city as large as Xiangzhou is still somewhat insufficient, so the possibility of taking the initiative to attack is not great. Of course, on the premise that our own strengths and weaknesses cannot be known by the enemy, and even more so, the enemy must not know about the destruction of Geng Jing's army, otherwise these arrogant Jurchens will go crazy.

  In addition, the vanguard of the thousand cavalry had already gone out more than 100 miles, but every two days, they would send someone back to contact and report, and listen to instructions. And just yesterday, they had just contacted once, that is to say, they had two days' time to run.

  Time, now what is most needed is time!

  Di Lie dispatched men to guard each gate, while urgently mobilizing young and strong men to collect mules, horses, and carts. They loaded the various supplies stored in the Jin camp onto the vehicles for transport. After receiving a report from the cavalry regiment that they had found over ten small boats hidden by the Jin soldiers along the river, he immediately assembled all the craftsmen among the captives and gave them a death order: before nightfall, using the collected small boats, build a floating bridge on the Wan River.

  A string of tasks were assigned, and in the end, there were still over a thousand idle Zhao clan members, including children and women.

  Di Lie waved his hand: "We can't go on an empty stomach, and it's just right that these dead horses aren't wasted. Let's cook them all. If we can't finish eating, pack some for the road, from here to Mangren Mountain, it'll probably take a day or two. Also, these corpses need to be dealt with, tonight, most likely still have to stay here for a night..."

  Pitifully, those aristocratic young masters who usually only knew how to indulge in leisure activities were now forced to take on the tasks of butchering and burying corpses. There was also a portion of noble aristocrats who refused to accept this humiliating order. Although they had submitted to the brutal might of the Jin people, they looked down upon those so-called "righteous warriors" who had once been fellow captives. The young and vigorous "righteous warriors", who had just switched roles only a short while ago, also clearly lacked the courage to use force against these "gentlemen", and could only repeatedly ask Di Lie for instructions.

  Di Lie didn't hold back, saying casually: "Tell them that anyone who doesn't want to work can forget about eating. If they still don't want to do anything, then send them all to one side and when it's time for dinner, let them stand there with their eyes wide open."

  In the Jin army's large camp, which was about five miles in circumference, after several fierce battles and countless explosions, the corpses of war horses were scattered all over the ground. Roughly estimating, there were no less than three hundred dead horses. Yang Zhe looked at this scene with a pained expression, his mouth agape. If these horses were still alive, they would be enough to equip an entire cavalry regiment! As one of the scarce military supplies of the Song Dynasty, this was something that couldn't be bought even with money! What a pity!

  But in Zuo's view, this small Yang is also too greedy. Although there are not many dead horses, the captured war horses are more numerous. At present, a rough count has already exceeded 800. In addition to mules, cattle and sheep that cannot be counted, the grain, beans, leather, cloth, porcelain, gold and silver, knives, guns, armor and other goods piled up like mountains have been loaded onto nearly a thousand large carts.

  Ever since he saw this dazzling array of spoils, Zuo Kai has been trembling until now - this is the accumulated wealth of the great Song Dynasty for over a hundred years! Perhaps only one percent, but enough to make an army of 10,000 people idle and enjoy a year.

  Di Lie was equally unable to conceal his excitement, this time, unlike the last time when they broke through the Golden Army's camp and defeated Boru and Sari. Last time, they only scared off the enemy army and ended up with only a portion of the grain and supplies that the enemy couldn't take away, at most just picking up some scraps. But this time, they truly annihilated the enemy army, taking over all the spoils of war from the Golden Army's first route northward retreat, the amount and value of which far exceeded the last time, not to mention also gaining an entire army and many people.

  After all, the most profitable thing is still war profiteering!