Chapter 61: Unexpected News
On April 22, more than 10,000 people and livestock from the Liangshan stronghold set out with nearly 5,000 carts, while also carrying ten days' worth of rations on their backs and horses. Under the protection of the three hundred cavalry led by Fang Hong (after returning to Liangshan, they recruited over two hundred more cavalrymen, totaling five hundred cavalrymen; although there were surplus warhorses, unfortunately, there were few people who knew how to ride), as well as Yang Zongbao and Shi Wengong's 1,500 infantrymen (the infantry already had a force of 2,000), they departed on schedule.
Due to the sheer amount of goods, 5,000 large vehicles could not be loaded at all. Jian Niu, Lu Zi, and horses were needed to pull carts and could not carry heavy loads. Helplessly, they had to migrate in two batches. The first batch focused on transferring population, grain, silk, gold, silver, jewels, armor, medicine (various herbs and minerals) and salt tea, and other essential living necessities.
Only a portion of the grain and leather, a large number of arrows, copper and iron materials, and wine were left behind. After the first batch of migrants arrived at their destination, the vehicles would be emptied and then return to transport the remaining supplies. These supplies were guarded by Yang Feng's 200 cavalrymen and Zuo Kui's 500 infantrymen in the stockade. At this time, the Fangshan stockade had no civilians, only 700 well-equipped soldiers, as well as a mountain of supplies, transforming an ordinary stockade into a military one.
From the migration of the main troops to the personnel arrangement of the left-behind officials, it can be seen that Di Lie has spent some thought on this.
The military commanders in charge of the migration of the main force were Yang Zhechong, Fang Hong, Shi Zhi and Fu Zhi. The civil affairs were handled by Hou Fangjing. The garrison troops left behind were led by Yang Feng as the chief and Zuo Kai as the deputy.
Among them, Yang Jia brothers and Hou Fangjing were all people who had gone through hardships together before Di Lie's rise to power, and in terms of loyalty, they should be considered relatively reliable. As for the others like Fang Hong, Zuo Kai, Shi Zhi and so on, although they also performed well, after all, they had not been together for long, and it was impossible to let them dominate the army. It's worth noting that Di Lie's family business is equivalent to the annual taxes of a province in the Song Dynasty. This piece of meat is too fat, too tempting, and Di Lie has to be careful about this.
Dilie, who had arranged everything, did not follow the migration team. He had more important things to do. The day before yesterday, on April 21st, Dilie led Art, Zhang Rong and other Liangshan brothers, as well as Guan Zhongyong and over a dozen Taixing righteous army members, to set out in advance.
According to Di Lie's official statement, he would first go to pay his respects to Liu Dazhai and discuss the matter of merging their troops. If everything went smoothly, once all the arrangements were made and the main force arrived, Guan Zhongyong and others thought this was reasonable and accompanied him on the trip. However, Di Lie's true intention in his heart was that he did not want Guan Zhongyong and others to see his entire family fortune, lest they would make excessive demands later on and put him at a disadvantage.
Di Lie's party originally planned to follow the Jin army's northern return route, passing through Tangyin, Xiangzhou, Cizhou, Handan, then from Xingzhou to Zhaozhou, bypassing Luan City and heading west, passing through Bao Duozhai and Jian'gong, finally arriving at Tianpingzhai.
Thanks to the guidance of Taihangyijun, a group of veteran pathfinders, and the fact that a large number of Jin troops had just passed through this route, the area was thoroughly swept clean. Within a hundred miles, there were no signs of human habitation, and for a short period, almost no one dared to travel. As a result, Di Lie and his party arrived in Handan very smoothly five days later.
Seven days ago, the Jin army's four routes had all converged in Handan. At this time, the main commander of the Jin army, Wanyan Zongwang, also realized the disadvantages of dividing his troops into multiple routes. Previously, because of the large number of soldiers crossing the Yellow River, it was congested. In order to let the army return north as soon as possible and thinking that there would be no obstacles on the way, they divided their troops into six routes.
Now, for some unknown reason, the two armies have been defeated, not to mention the loss of soldiers and generals, but also a large number of supplies and population. Zong Wang had no choice but to change his strategy, gathering the remaining four armies into one. As a result, the total number of troops exceeded 70,000, plus nearly 200,000 prisoners, the massive crowd and the huge amount of supplies transportation, which must have caused the slow speed of the march.
However, at this time, Zong Wang's heart was thinking of safety first. With such a big array, if that ghost-like man dared to come and provoke the tiger again, he wouldn't mind letting the other side taste the flavor of being surrounded by 700,000 iron cavalry.
On April 23, the Jin army of 70,000 men escorted 200,000 captives and countless spoils of war out of Handan City. The grand army stretched for hundreds of miles, heading north.
When Di Lie and his company arrived at the outskirts of Handan City, the Jin army had already left for three days.
Di Lie discussed with the others and decided to temporarily stop and rest for a few days. Otherwise, at this speed, they would be able to catch up with the Jin army in no more than a few days - after all, the Jin army had basically become a baggage train, escorting so many people, livestock, and tens of thousands of large carts, and it was already very good if they could walk 30 or 40 miles a day.
Di Lie didn't have the mind to steal camps at this time. His current idea was surprisingly consistent with Wanyan Zongwang's: it was to safely deliver each of their battle results to their destination, and everything else was secondary.
Di Lie is now waiting for the end of this big move, and then catch up with Jin Jun, follow closely, and see if there is an opportunity to rescue people. Anyway, Jin Jun's marching speed is hindered by heavy loads, it's easy to catch up. It's just that at this time, Jin Jun's power is unprecedentedly strong, not to mention snatching food from a tiger's mouth, even wanting to mix into the Jin camp again to rescue one or two people out is extremely difficult.
But no matter how difficult it is, I have to try. Those two people are too important. One can control the Zhao Song royal family and a large number of officials; while the other has mastered the core secrets of his own military industry.
Just as Di Lie and his party were resting in a deserted temple outside Handan City, Guan Zhongyong and Gao Liang arrived together, suggesting that they send a few brothers ahead to return to the mountain stronghold, find the Big Innkeeper, communicate with him first, understand his attitude and decision, which would be more stable. The two repeatedly stated that Liu Dazhu was an open-minded and honest person, and this matter could succeed eight or nine out of ten times.
Di Lie naturally had no reason to object, and agreed on the spot. Thus, led by Gao Huan, five of the Taihang brothers set off northwards with sufficient dry rations and ten ingots of gold as gifts.
Three days later, after receiving news from the scouts sent by Yang Chaozong, the migrating troops had safely arrived in Cizhou. Di Lie and his party then continued northward with peace of mind.
Di Lie felt more at ease as he traveled further north. Due to the Jin people's rapid destruction of the Song Dynasty, their own country was not fully prepared for the military and political takeover of the Song territory; in other words, although they had conquered the land, there were only a small number of troops from their own country, or even no troops at all, and they could only rely on the weak new auxiliary army to garrison. Moreover, when the Jin army attacked the Song Dynasty, they adopted a "frog jump" tactic, taking over prefectures along the way, if possible, and bypassing them if not. This led many county officials to abandon their cities due to fear of the Jin army's massacres, and the citizens also fled in droves.
Di Lie and others traveled all the way, except for a few state capitals and large cities such as Xiangzhou, Cizhou, Handan, Xingzhou, etc., where there were only a small number of Jin army (mostly servants, with very few Jurchen people) and some new auxiliary armies that had surrendered to the Jin, the rest of the counties and towns, such as Weixian, Tangyin, Fuyang, Linwan, Shahe, Neiqiu, Licheng, etc., were basically empty cities.
In this situation, it is very beneficial to Di Lie's large-scale migration of tens of thousands of people. At least in terms of safety and secrecy, there will be no major problems. Of course, Di Lie also knew that this situation would not last long. Once the Jin army withdrew northward, these empty counties would change from being deserted to being highly sought after. The Song army would fight for them, the Yi army would fight for them, bandits would fight for them, and later the pseudo-Qi would also fight for them. At that time, these several states would become a large battlefield and a quagmire, and whoever gets stuck in it will find it difficult to pull their feet out.
At that time, even if a small merchant team passed by, it was estimated that they would be exploited to the point of bankruptcy, and in severe cases, they would lose everything, including their lives, and be swallowed up by various forces along the way, leaving no bones behind.
But this is at least a month later, when Di Lie's relocation plan has been completed long ago, and no matter how noisy this place is, it will not affect him. It has to be said that Di Lie really chose the best time.
On May 2nd, when Di Lie and his party arrived at the county seat of Baiyang in the northeast of Lincheng, they unexpectedly met Gao Liang and his party who were rushing back and forth.
As soon as he saw Guan Zhongyong, he rolled off his horse and burst into loud wails, sobbing uncontrollably as he reported a terrible disaster:
Chairman Mao is dead!
