Chapter 82: Opening a Trade Agreement with Gold
The distance was at least fifty meters. Zhao Yulin used the Eight Steps to Chase the Cicada Kung Fu and ran forward recklessly, with only Monk Chen in his eyes.
He saw Chen Heshang chopping down with his knife, and Yang Xingyun blocked it with his snake spear, but was held down tightly by him. The knife was about to chop down Yang Xingyun's shoulder inch by inch. Zhao Yulin fired three shots in succession, hitting Chen Heshang's head, neck and chest respectively.
Monk Chen was shot immediately, his energy leaked out, and blood gushed out of his neck.
Yang Xingyun took the opportunity to fight back, and he lifted up Chen Heshang's sword and stabbed him to death with a spear. Chen Heshang was then trampled by the galloping horses.
Fan Zheng shouted in the loudspeaker that Chen Heshang was dead. Chen Heshang was killed. The Jin army's front line immediately began to waver.
Han Yongchao mobilized all his troops and the entire army fought back, saving the blood-covered Lei Manzi.
The Jin soldiers' line quickly collapsed and they fled backwards, dragging their flags with them.
Li Yunqing from the First Column arrived with 5,000 soldiers and immediately joined the pursuit of the Jin soldiers.
When Zhao Yulin ran to the foot of Shiquan City, he saw that the flag of the Shenwei Army had been replaced on the city wall. The Jin soldiers who had fled to the city gate were in chaos, and they raised their hands and became prisoners when they were attacked from both sides.
When Zhao Yulin entered Shiquan City, Lai Chuanfang reported to him: He saw that in the morning, the only people coming and going were messengers and wounded soldiers from the Jin army, so he attacked. He first killed the messenger, and then pretended to be a wounded soldier to trick the city gate open. Shiquan was easily taken.
Zhao Yulin laughed and ordered his troops to continue advancing and recapture Jinzhou.
Li Yunqing and Lai Chuanfang each led 5,000 troops to set out immediately. Zhao Yulin said that they wanted to catch him off guard, otherwise it would be troublesome to attack the city by force.
Wu Yuqi wrote to report that another 3,000 people had arrived from Yibin. This was really timely relief. Zhao Yulin was very happy. He went to visit Lei Manzi and Yang Xingyun and told them that we had new reinforcements.
Yang Xingyun said with a bit of regret that he really wanted to continue rushing forward, but unfortunately he was injured.
Lei Manzi said weakly that this battle was a great success and he killed many people.
Zhao Yulin told them that defeating Chen Heshang's attack was a great achievement, so what other earth-shattering things did he want to do?
Yang Xingyun immediately said that Monk Chen was killed by the young master and it had nothing to do with him.
Zhao Yulin said that this secret must not be leaked, it was he who killed him, don't tell anyone, this is an order. Anyone who can fight Chen Heshang is a true hero of our Shenwei Army, not to mention that we defeated his people and army in one fell swoop.
Five days later, Zhao Yulin entered Pingli County, and the fallen Jinzhou returned to the hands of the Song people. He ordered the immediate repair of the pass to prevent the Jin people from counterattacking.
This battle allowed the Shenwei Army to face off against the Jin soldiers for the first time, gaining valuable combat experience. Another important gain was the capture of nearly 3,000 war horses and a large amount of heavy armor, which made the brothers of the Shenwei Army ecstatic.
The brothers in charge of reconnaissance, messaging and special operations all replaced their short-legged Mahu horses and Dali horses and rode tall and big horses to show off.
Zhao Yulin had not received the news that Qingyeyuan had been relieved, so he ordered Gao Jin to lead 2,000 cavalrymen to set out immediately to reinforce the west. He led the team along the old route that Wu Jie had taken to rescue Raofeng Pass, and rushed to Xianren Pass in one day and one night. He learned that Cao Youwen had passed by yesterday and the Mongolian army had not retreated yet.
Zhao Yulin asked his brothers to dismount, rest and prepare for battle. He told Gao Jin that we have not fought with the Mongolian army yet, but the bandits coming down from the grassland are skilled in riding and shooting, so we will not compete with them in this, but just use the super arm strength of the Shenbi crossbow to make long-distance projections like we killed the Jin people in front of Raofeng Pass to serve as a deterrent.
Then, they set out in formation and trotted all the way to Qingyeyuan. The two sides were fighting. The Shenwei Army blew a loud charge, and two thousand cavalrymen stomped on the ground, making a loud noise like heavy rain.
Zhao Yulin and Gao Jin rushed to the front and immediately shot arrows when they were within a hundred meters of the enemy formation, then galloped away on horseback. In this way, the two thousand cavalrymen circled and attacked non-stop, creating the impression that a large army was coming to support them.
The Mongolian army's attack immediately slowed down. When they saw that the team rushing from the south had clear banners and fierce offensive, they immediately adjusted their military strength for defense.
Seeing the reinforcements coming, the morale of the Qingyeyuan camp was boosted, and they immediately set off to fight. The Mongolian army finally showed signs of weakness and called off the battle. The Song army took advantage of the victory to pursue the rear of the Mongolian army, and the siege of Qingyeyuan was finally lifted.
When Cao You heard that Zhao Yulin was coming with two thousand cavalrymen, he was surprised and asked him how he got the cavalrymen.
Was it sent from Yibin?
Not at all, they are all tall and strong.
Zhao Yulin said that in the great victory at Raofeng Pass, the Shenwei Army defeated the Jin army and recaptured Jinzhou, seizing more than 2,000 horses.
The three Cao brothers were stunned, and Cao Youwen gave Zhao Yulin a thumbs up.
He said goodbye to Cao Youwen and entered the central army tent to report the battle of Raofeng Pass and the recovery of Jinzhou. Gui Ruyuan was overjoyed and kept saying it was great.
Zhao Yulin excused himself and left Jinzhou on the pretext that it was still dangerous, and led his troops back to Yangzhou. As soon as he returned to the yard, he fell asleep.
He felt a hand touching his face in a daze. Only Wu Yuqi could do that kind of intimate touch. He continued to pretend to be asleep, but Wu Yuqi noticed that he blinked and his facial muscles moved. She immediately pinched his face and said, "Pretend, I told you to pretend."
Zhao Yulin turned over and pressed her down, and the two kissed for a long time again after two years...
The next day, Zhao Yulin was basking in the sun in the yard when Gao Jin came to him and told him that he suffered the most in the battle of Raofeng Pass. He was guarding the Duimeng Rock and only killed less than three hundred Jin soldiers. Although his entire team was wiped out, he suffered a huge loss compared to his brothers.
Zhao Yulin said that his purpose was to intercept this enemy, which was a great achievement. Wu Yuqi brought him some tea, and Gao Jin immediately took it and thanked Wu.
Zhao Yulin said he would give him a task and asked Gao Jin to supervise it personally. He must bury all the bodies on the battlefield, whether they were enemy or friendly, and they must be cleaned up and buried properly. He also had to sprinkle a layer of lime on the surface.
Gao Jin knew what he meant, which was to carry out disinfection to prevent the spread of the plague. He drank two cups of tea, then said goodbye and went back to work.
Gao Jia came to see him cheerfully, and Zhao Yulin immediately asked the maid to serve tea, but Wu Yuqi brought it herself. The old man jokingly said that Mr. Zhao was handsome and his wife was also very beautiful.
Wu Yuqi's pretty face turned red, and she trotted to a place with downwind to work.
Gao Jia said that Raofeng Pass was a great victory and Jinzhou was returned. I have already reported it to the Lin'an government. This time, my brother killed Chen Heshang, a fierce general of the Jin Kingdom. The government will be very happy. My brother has done a great deed.
Zhao Yulin smiled and said, "Thank you for your good words. Don't let the court negotiate peace in the end and ask for his head to sacrifice to the heroes of the Jin Kingdom. That would be a blessing."
Gao Jia was stunned and asked his brother in surprise why he said that.
Zhao Yulin said that the Zhao , and everyone knew it, but it was just not brought to the table and discussed.
Gao Jia was silent and started to drink tea.
He said that if the Shenwei Army wanted to keep Jinzhou, it had to continue to expand its army. Money to maintain the army became a big problem, and it was also necessary to build passes. He asked Gao Jia to carefully plan the taxation of Jinzhou, intending to open trade with Mongolia and the Jin people to make a living.
Gao Jia said that the trade needs approval from the imperial court, and there are not many goods to sell here, so what should we do?
He didn't care about all that and said that the country was about to collapse, so why bother considering all those rules and regulations? He wanted to use military ships to transport the goods from Yibin and then trade with the Jin people via the Han River.
Zhao Yulin told him that the Jin Dynasty had only a few years left, so why not take this opportunity to earn some of their silver to subsidize military expenses? Wait for the Mongolian army to rob them.
That would be aiding and abetting the evil.
He suggested to Gao Jia that they should publish a newspaper. He talked about the Cuiping Morning News. The prefect said that he knew that Yibin's newspapers were well run and people from all over the country were reading them.
He suggested to Gao Jia that he should publish a "Hanshui Morning News" to tell the news stories of Hanzhong and the classics of Neo-Confucianism. Zhao Yulin especially introduced the role of newspaper advertising to him, telling him that the benefits were huge, which not only promoted the prosperity of commerce and trade, but also increased income, killing two birds with one stone.
Zhao Yulin said that the Shenwei Army was going to build an academy in Yangzhou to train talents for Hanzhong. The newspaper would be under the jurisdiction of the prefecture government, so wouldn't the academy be able to host it? What do you think?
Gao Zhizhou listened and thought that the Shenwei Army cared about the people's livelihood. He was very happy and said that this was very good, very good.
Zhao Yulin didn't care whether he was healthy or had kidney problems, as long as he agreed to let him do it. He then asked Wu Yuqi to send a message to Yibin to send someone over.
In the Jin Dynasty palace, the emperor learned that Chen Heshang had died in battle, and he yelled and cursed, and burst into tears. This emperor was completely an actor-level thing. After his performance, he wanted to send troops to Jinzhou to avenge Chen Heshang.
Someone in the hall immediately tried to persuade them, saying that Mongolia was eyeing them covetously in the north and that they should form an alliance with the Song Dynasty in the south to slaughter Mongolian horses. They had originally sent troops because they saw Mongolia attacking the Song Dynasty and Jinzhou changing its defense, and they thought there was an opportunity to take advantage of it.
It would be inappropriate to continue fighting now. The North will surely launch an attack once they know we have lost the pillar of our country.
The emperor was helpless. He slammed the dragon throne loudly and continued to discuss with his ministers how to guard against the Mongolian army in the north.
There were some who were happy while others were sad. The imperial palace in Lin'an was filled with joy.
At the beginning, the emperor received a series of alarms: the Mongols were invading, the Jin people were invading, and the soldiers were outnumbered and struggled to resist.
Now we are receiving good news one after another, including the great victory at Raofeng Pass, the recovery of Jinzhou, the great victory at Qingyeyuan, the retreat of the Mongolian army, and the good news and memorials coming in like snowflakes.
The emperor was very happy and said yes, the imperial envoy who came to visit the troops could go directly to Hanzhong via the Han River.
He issued an imperial decree to dismiss the court.
Shi Xiang's group of people immediately tried to get over it. Some said that Zhao Yulin was so young but he was already being rewarded so many times. How would he be rewarded if he made more contributions in the future?
Some said that he was just lucky and succeeded because Monk Chen was napping. This could not be considered a merit, as the Jin Kingdom only sent out 30,000 soldiers.
Prime Minister Shi nodded and said that this imperial edict needed to be carefully considered.
Looking back at the Battle of Raofeng Pass, Zhao Yulin felt that it was unexpected. It must be that the Jin army was careless. The Jin army thought that the Song army had changed its defense and the new army came from Yibin. They were not familiar with the situation and were not used to the local climate. They were definitely weak. In addition, the Mongolian army was the main force, which dispersed the Song army. It was easy to deal with it by sending Chen Heshang, a fierce general.
