Chapter 42: The Country is Already Lost, Where is Home?

  "Old Zhou led over a hundred workers to run away? When did this happen?" As soon as he came back, he received such bad news, which made Di Lie extremely angry. If it weren't for the consideration of the new recruits and Zhang Rong's guest army's face, he would have kicked Lu Lao'er, who was kneeling in front of him, flying away.

  Lu Lao Er cried with a sad face: "It was three days ago, that old killer Zhou De Wang stirred up the Liu brothers and a group of anxious craftsmen. He said the Jurchen people had already withdrawn from Bianjing, we innocent craftsmen can't be left behind... uh, now that the capital is back in our Song people's hands, everyone can go home... Leader, I, Lu Lao Er, didn't follow them on a wild goose chase..."

  "Ashura's fierce voice came: 'Bastard! Call His Highness!'"

  "Yes, yes, Your Highness... really has nothing to do with me!" Lu Lao Er didn't know how their leader had gone out for a spin and suddenly became "Your Highness". Anyway, it's all the same, what's most important now is not to be dragged down by that old scoundrel Zhou Lao Han.

  "Don't want to be a fugitive, want to be a good citizen? Good, law-abiding citizens are great. Di Lie's mood also slowly calmed down, with nearly two thousand craftsmen under his command, losing over a hundred was no big deal. Since these people felt it was hard to leave their hometown, returning wasn't impossible, but this behavior of leaving without notice would somewhat damage the family's reputation, and most importantly..."

  "What about Ah Keh? Has he run away with his uncle?"

  Lu Lao'er flipped his cow-like eyes, thought for a moment, and nodded: "That little rabbit can indeed recite... The lord's kindness, I didn't want to leave, but couldn't resist being dragged away by that old killer, his uncle..."

  "What?!". Di Lie was furious.

  Hou Fangjing, who had been silent all along, suddenly stood up and confessed: "This is a strange thing. At the time when many craftsmen were making noise, I did not stop it immediately, and Yang Feng, the leader of the Yang family, was also patrolling outside, so..."

  "Alright, since it's happened, the priority is to think of a solution. How did you handle it?" Di Lie suppressed his anger. After he left, Hou Fangjing and Yang Fen managed the village carefully, and there were no major incidents. They had no achievements but also hard work, so he couldn't bear to blame them severely.

  Hou Fangjing said cautiously: "Yang Touling has already received the news halfway and is chasing after them, they must capture all the escaped people..."

  Di Lie shook his head and sighed softly, "Since they want to go home so badly, let them go. Although we are not the bandits they imagined... never mind, a forced melon is not sweet... I don't care about others, but Ajie must be brought back!" By the end of his sentence, his tone had turned severe.

  In this world, there are only two people who can fully grasp the best formula for gunpowder and have skilled experience in making explosives. One is Di Lie himself, and the other is Aji. In a certain sense, Aji is a high-precision scientist who has mastered the method of making powerful weapons that will bring great harm if it falls into the hands of an enemy country. Fortunately, apart from Di Lie, there is no second person who understands Aji's true value.

  So, Aggie must come back!

  Hou Fangjing didn't know this, although he felt a bit depressed in his heart, and didn't know what was so valuable about this unremarkable little craftsman, but still respectfully replied: "Your Highness can rest assured, the scouts have already reported back that Yang Touling has been pursued to the banks of the Yellow River. The Yellow River has thawed at this time, and there is only one golden bridge that can be crossed. As long as Zhou Dewang and other craftsmen step onto this bridge, they will definitely be intercepted..."

  Just then, a commotion broke out outside the makeshift conference hall, and soon a guard came back with a joyful expression to report: "The Great Yang has returned, and... he's also brought back the escaped prisoner!"

  Yang Fen, covered in dust and dirt, looked exhausted with a disheveled beard. It was clear that he had been through a tough time recently. Behind him followed dozens of fleeing craftsmen, including Zhou Dewang. Almost every craftsman had bruises on their faces, tattered clothes, and some even had visible bloodstains from being flogged, indicating they had suffered greatly.

  Di Lie was originally dissatisfied with these craftsmen who had abruptly left and disrupted the entire mountain stronghold, but now looking at their pitiful appearance, especially Old Man Zhou's worried face, his temples' fluttering white hair, and his shriveled thin body. His anger unknowingly transformed into sympathy, shaking his head and letting out a long sigh. Afterwards, his gaze shifted to Yang Feng, suppressing his discontent: "Big Brother Yang, you didn't spare any effort in chasing them back, this is good. However... it's best to hand them over to me for punishment..."

  Before Yang Feng could respond, Old Zhou had already fallen to his knees with a thud, tears streaming down his face: "It's not your fault, Great Leader Yang! It's this old man who has lost his mind! Not only did I let dozens of fellow craftsmen fall into the hands of the Golden Crows, but even my own nephew..."

  Di Lie was shocked and suddenly stood up: "What did you say? How is it related to Jin Yu? What's wrong with Aji?"

  Yang Feng took a step forward and said with courtesy: "This matter... is better left for subordinates to discuss..."

  At that time, Zhou Laohan instigated a group of homesick craftsmen to escape secretly. Since the place was only over 200 miles away from Bianjing and they had just passed by a few days ago, they naturally didn't worry about taking a wrong turn, so it took less than two days to arrive at the Yellow River. However, unlike Hou Fangjing's estimate, the craftsmen who had just escaped from the Jurchen people's clutches were still frightened and dared not walk on the Yellow River Bridge. Instead, they used their superb skills and sufficient manpower to build a wooden boat in one day and night, braving the danger of the Yellow River flood, crossing the river and escaping back to Bianjing City.

  Just as the group of craftsmen were hugging each other, crying and wailing against the city wall, overjoyed to have returned home safely, they were captured by a group of Song soldiers who rushed out of the city. After it was clear that they were craftsmen who had escaped from the Jin army's prisoner-of-war camp, without saying another word, they were tied up in strings. Led by a captain and thirty infantrymen, they were escorted to pursue the rear of the Jin army, intending to "return" all these escapees.

  Old Zhou could hardly believe his ears and only managed to ask half a sentence: "Are we Song people......"

  The words were cut off by a slap on the ear: "There is no more Song Dynasty, where did these Song people come from? We are now the Great Chu State - the brother state of the Great Jin State! The nobles of the Great Jin State have not beheaded you slaves of a fallen nation, it is already a great blessing, and yet you dare to escape? If I weren't afraid of offending the nobles of the Great Jin State, I would chop you up now and feed you to the dogs!"

  When the workers were tied together with thick ropes like a string of ants and driven away, beaten and kicked, Old Zhou looked back at the once-majestic Song Dynasty capital city where his home was located, his lips trembling, two lines of turbid tears falling to the ground...

  This so-called "Great Chu State" was just a puppet regime established by the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty, with Zhang Bangchang as its figurehead, intending to use Han people to rule over other Han people and reap the benefits. The "Great Chu" state was established in early March, but by mid-April, the Jin army had just left Bianjing, and a group of captives escaped back. In such circumstances, even if Zhang Bangchang had ten times more courage, he would still not dare to take them in. Moreover, these escapees were not even members of the imperial family or high-ranking officials, but merely a group of artisans who were inferior to ordinary civilians - who would risk offending the Jin people for the sake of a group of artisans?

  Relying on the identity of "friendly troops", the escort officers and soldiers of the Great Chu State swaggered through the Yellow River Bridge. However, what they did not expect was that soon after crossing the bridge, they were attacked by a group of "friendly troops" - the Golden Army cavalry.

  Those thirty-odd soldiers were all scared out of their wits by the Jin people, and as soon as they saw those figures wearing fur hats and rushing towards them, they were frightened to death, scattering in all directions like a flock of ducks being chased.

  They all knelt down and kowtowed, their voices trembling: "Spare our lives... we are the Great Chu Army, we are friendly forces... please spare our lives..."

  At this moment, a burly man with a curly beard galloped over on horseback, muttered a sentence in Jurchen, and with one thrust of his long spear, pinned the head of that great Chu State alive to the ground.

  His last thought before dying was: "Damn it, I should have learned another foreign language..."

  The remaining soldiers who were driven away in all directions saw their superior officer lying dead, and they were all shocked and cried out. And the unbelievable scene that followed made them open their mouths wide with astonishment.

  But then from another direction, a group of Jin soldiers emerged, apparently the Jin army's scouts, with only a dozen or so cavalrymen. However, this group of cavalry launched an attack on the previous batch of Jin soldiers as soon as they arrived. A flurry of swift and fierce arrows swept over, and after several of the previous batch of Jin soldiers fell, the remaining dozen or so cavalrymen hastily retreated in disarray. The later-arriving Jin army scouts wanted to pursue them, but were blocked by the scattered artisans and Chu soldiers who had broken free from their bonds, and ultimately could only watch as their "comrades" from the previous batch of Jin soldiers escaped.

  Zhou Dewang, the old man who had narrowly escaped with his life, and the other craftsmen took advantage of the chaos to flee wildly. Just as they turned over a mound of earth, they were shocked to find that they were surrounded by another group of Jin soldiers... and it was the same group of Jin soldiers who had been killed and forced to flee in disarray earlier.

  The crowd of people were all disappointed and sighed, lamenting that the heavens were playing tricks on them. At this time, those "golden men" pulled off their fur hats, revealing their true faces - it turned out to be Yang Feng and his Western Army companions!

  Yang Qiang and his scouts knew that the Jurchen-led Jin army was now too powerful, and that their reconnaissance work would be no match for even a small group of Jin soldiers, let alone a large contingent. Therefore, they all wore clothes they had obtained from the Jin soldiers they had ambushed at Baozhulou Village last time, disguising themselves as Jin soldiers to blend in. Indeed, with this "tiger skin" disguise, they managed to evade detection by Jin patrols several times. However, after a while, it was inevitable that they would arouse the suspicion of the Jin soldiers.

  This time they followed closely, but unfortunately were a step too slow and failed to intercept the workers. Just as they thought it was hopeless to pursue and were preparing to withdraw back to their stronghold, they unexpectedly discovered that the target of their pursuit had turned around and was being escorted back by a group of Chu soldiers.

  Yang Feng was even more ruthless towards these "fake soldiers" than he was to the Jin people, and he knew their combat strength. He immediately took advantage of this "tiger skin" to charge up and start a massacre, while taking advantage of the chaos to cut off the ropes binding the workers.

  Everything was going well, but then a group of real Golden Soldiers suddenly appeared out of nowhere, apparently having been eyeing these fake ones for a long time. They came on fiercely from the start. When Li Gui met Li Kui, the outcome was predictable; if it weren't for the chaotic scene, it could have ended in complete annihilation.

  Just because this group of Jin army scouts inserted a horizontal stick, Yang Feng's rescue plan was ruined, and only less than half of the workers, including Zhou Lao Han and Liu Jia brothers, were rescued. The other half of the workers, including Aji, were all captured by the Jin army and went north.

  After Yang Fen finished recounting the events from start to finish, an unusual silence fell over the meeting hall. No one spoke, there was only a heavy breathing and Zhou Lao Han's painful sobbing.

  After a long time, Di Lie let out a sigh and said: "I understand, you don't want to be bandits and you want to go home. I can understand that. However... someday you will realize - one, we are not bandits; two, you no longer have a home - the country is gone, how can there still be a home?"

  For a moment, the whole meeting shed was filled with only coarse and hoarse breathing sounds and painful faces.

  Fortunately, Di Lie had never considered himself a Song person, so the pain was not intense. He looked around and said in a low voice: "Arrange for scouts to keep an eye on those Northern-going Jin army scouts, see where they will take our people. As for the escaped craftsmen... wait until all the craftsmen are caught back, and then punish them together! That's it, everyone disperse."

  Zhou Lao Han bowed deeply and sobbed: "Lao Han thanks the leader on behalf of his nephew..."

  Then came Ah Su's discontented voice: "It's Your Highness! Your Highness! How many times must I say it..."

  Hou Fangjing was the last to leave the council chamber, gazing longingly in a southeasterly direction - towards the former capital of the great Song Dynasty. He let out a deep sigh and shook his head with a sorrowful tone: "We have no home... none of us have a home..."

  At that moment, the sunset stretched his shadow thin and long, making him look so lonely and desolate...

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