Song Dynasty

Chapter 29 Angel
Seeing An Niang and Yue Yun back into the warehouse, Wang Shen felt more at ease.

He straightened his clothes, straightened his chest suddenly, and exuded a powerful aura from top to bottom.His face was filled with indignation and sternness, he pointed at Li Cheng, and yelled with all his strength: "Li Cheng, this is Zhang Deyuan, Zhang Xianggong, a member of the secret academy of the Song Zhishu, and Wang Shen, who is an envoy who was sent by you earlier!" The Lin'an Privy Council is willing to be recruited by the imperial court to serve the government...A certain official appointed an angel to personally carry out the imperial decree, and has a letter from Zhang Xiang, who came to contact Erbu to discuss the resettlement...Li Cheng, you actually led the army Plagiarizing Sizhou, slaughtering our soldiers and civilians in the Great Song Dynasty, what is your intention... Is this your sincerity in wanting to be recruited?"

"Ah!" Not only the cavalry under Li Cheng, but even the soldiers of the supply battalion made a slight commotion.

Lu Can, Gu Lie and others looked at Wang Shen with incredulous eyes.Although Wang Shen's words just now were vague, everyone understood them.

It probably meant that he, Wang Shen, was an envoy sent by the imperial court, holding an imperial edict written by the official Zhao Gou, and was instructed by the secret envoy of Zhang Deyuan, to come and issue an edict to recruit Li Cheng.

The so-called Zhang Deyuan is Zhang Jun, who is now the actual political and military host of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou's chief steward and backbone.His opinions can directly affect the emperor's decision, and his power is unparalleled for a while.

Unexpectedly, this strange Wang Shen, who was also a prisoner of the supply camp in Pingyuan Town, would have such a big background. For a moment, everyone couldn't believe their eyes.

After a while, the whole scene quietened down, and all eyes fell on Wang Shen.

Only far away, there were still earth-shattering shouts to kill, the Jinan army had collapsed, and Li Cheng's heavy cavalry were frantically chasing the rout.

After a while, Li Chengcai smiled and murmured: "Sincerity, sincerity, before you are recruited, you are officers and soldiers, and I am a bandit. If you kill me, I will kill you. No one is polite. Let's not talk about recruiting, I will Let me ask you, where is Zhang Cong? It doesn’t matter whether you recruit him or not, my Mr. Zhang needs someone’s help, so you can’t rest assured until you find him?”

"Don't know?" Wang Shen spread his hands.

"What, I don't know?" Li Cheng shouted angrily.

"I got lost. He and I received an imperial decree from Jiangnan and crossed the river to look for the king of heaven. But we didn't want to meet Li Yu's army on the way. Not only did my entourage run away, but even Mr. Zhang Cong didn't know what happened. In desperation, Wang Shen had no choice but to shave his hair, pretend to be a businessman, and came to Pingyuan Town temporarily. He was about to send people to visit Mr. Zhang, but he didn't want the Jinan Army Brigade to attack. So as not to make another trip to Sizhou."

Wang Shen wanted to casually say that Zhang Cong had been killed by the bandits, but Li Cheng seemed to value that Zhang Cong very much, if he said he was dead, he might really anger the other party, so he just talked nonsense.

In fact, what he said just now was all made up, and he didn't know if he could fool Li Cheng.

At the moment when Li Cheng's horse was about to stab An Niang, Wang Shen's mind flashed the words he had read in the history books before: "Jianyan three years in leap and August, Li Cheng sent people to go to , was recruited, did not reply, and turned back."

"Li Cheng was in Sizhou, and he declared that he was willing to return to the imperial court...he wanted to send people to follow him, but the army was afraid and did not dare to do it. There is Zhang Cong, a soldier in Ansu, who has a little discernment in language and a little knowledge of books. Ou Xiaoci....Then the generals and assistants of all the armies held Cong to go. Cheng then ordered Cong. Cong was also willing to go and walk, with the appearance of being recruited, and followed the envoys....Cong then returned to recruit with the words Cheng, before reaching Sizhou, Cheng has turned back..."

This text is recorded in "Golden History", which roughly means that in August of the third year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Cheng's army was short of food and captured Sizhou. After getting supplements, he was afraid of revenge in the Southern Song Dynasty and planned to send people to the emperor to go there. Accept recruitment.

He had already been recruited once before, and he didn't have the slightest psychological obstacle to surrender again this time.

It's just that after this rebellion, he plundered all the way and killed a lot, causing anger and resentment, and no one knew what the court's attitude was.No one dared to be the envoy, because they were afraid that if the court turned against him, their own envoy's life would be in jeopardy.

There is an official named Zhang Cong in Li Cheng's army, who is from the Ansu Army, that is, from Xushui County, Hebei Province.After Hebei was captured by the Jurchens, he retreated to the south of the Yellow River with Li Cheng.

This person can speak eloquently and write good words, a typical elegant person.So the whole army recommended him to be this envoy. Facts have proved that this person is quite capable.

However, Zhang Cong had just crossed the Yangtze River with the imperial envoy and the imperial decree, and Li Chengcheng had already rebelled again before he arrived in Sizhou.

What happened next is not recorded in the history books.

It is estimated that Zhang Cong saw that the situation was wrong, and he himself was a traditional scholar-bureaucrat. He felt that it would be too shameful to go to Li Chengjun to serve as a thief, so he simply stayed in Jiangnan.

According to Wang Shen's calculation based on the time, Zhang Cong should be in the Yangzhou area at this moment, and he has not met Li Cheng yet.For the sake of myself, for the survival of An Niang and these 200 soldiers, it is better to pretend to be an envoy of the imperial court and deceive Li Cheng.

"Zhang Cong is separated from you. Hey, I hope Mr. Zhang is fine." Li Cheng showed a worried look on his face: "Then, take a look at the imperial decree."

Seeing that what Wang Shen said was so thorough, he also believed it.

Today's war in the Central Plains is chaotic. First, after Zongze's illness on the left-behind division in Tokyo, the new left-behind Du Chong was brutal and incompetent, which aroused resentment from the army.As a result, Hebei tycoons such as Wang Shan, Zhang Yong, Cao Cheng and others who had previously joined the left behind division raised troops to attack Kaifeng indiscriminately.Du Chong was defeated and led the army to retreat south.

Then Li Yu attacked Chuzhou and confronted Liu Guangshi's Huaixi Army for a long time.

That's all, the Jurchens in Hebei have a tendency to go south.

Although Li Chengjun was fierce, his troops were too few, and the army was short of money and food. After occupying Sizhou, they could finally survive this winter safely.However, Sizhou is the hub from the north to the south, and if it is not good, it will be engulfed in the flames of war.

Among the troops of the left-behind division in Tokyo who went south, although Du Chong was incapable of killing the three armies, the troops under him were all elite soldiers and strong generals, which were not so easy to deal with.Sizhou blocked their southward footsteps, and would inevitably become the target of Kaifeng's desperate attack.

Sizhou has fertile land and a large population. It is a place to raise soldiers. Li Cheng will never give it up to others.

But when the Song army went south, even if Li Tianwang had the confidence to defeat the invading enemy, it might hurt his vitality.

As long as they are recruited, they are a family, and Sizhou doesn't have to hand it over.You walk your Yangguan road, I sit on my Diaoyutai, the army is safe and the people are happy, isn't it beautiful?

Wang Shen: "General Li, wait a moment, I will go into the warehouse to get the imperial decree."

After that, he ran towards the warehouse.

A cavalryman wanted to step forward to stop him, but Li Cheng waved his hand, his eyes full of pride: "No, I can't run away."

(End of this chapter)