Song Dynasty

Chapter 348 The Lobbyist
The wilderness outside Anlu City.

The mist rolled, and the four scouts led the horses and walked slowly in the field. They were the former military sentries, and they were on guard near the official road under Hu Yantong's order.

The weather was so cold that they put a thin blanket on the horse's back for fear that the horse would not be able to withstand it.But the people are a bit miserable, the Qingqi scouts don't have thick armor on their bodies, and in this kind of foggy weather, the cold is pervasive.In a short while, their helmets and thin leather armor were covered with dew.

Some people are complaining: "General Hu Yan is really, we are all in the rear here, and we are sent out. There are brother troops stationed in every major traffic road. Could it be that the thieves can fly over with their wings?"

Another person shouted: "Lao Qi, you can't be quiet, Zhiniang thief. You are the only one who keeps nagging all this way. We are scouts, and we are born to go out to patrol and reconnaissance. Even if we don't fight, we don't Want to come out? You don’t want to say it directly, go back and be an infantry.”

"Going back to be an infantryman, I'm not going to do it! It's great to be a scout, running outside all day, watching a lot of things. Being an infantryman, staying in the barracks all day to exhaust your strength, you must suffocate to death."

"Then what are you complaining about?"

The man said: "Am I complaining? I just find it strange. On weekdays, our security circle is only spread out for less than [-] miles, but it has doubled in size in the past few days. It doesn't seem to be meaningful. Yes, stay vigilant." That's good. But no matter how big this circle is, it will overlap with the patrol circle of the brothers' troops, which is a waste of energy... In this situation, it seems that we are guarding against our own people."

"Lao Qi, what nonsense are you talking about?"

Lao Qi scratched his head: "General Hu Yantong seems to be a little bit wrong these days, especially after Li Heng entered the barracks, don't you find it strange?"

"What's so strange?" asked another.

Lao Qi said: "In the past, General Hu Yantong always liked to go down to the army to patrol the camp, once in the morning, at noon and in the evening, and would lead the soldiers to train every day. But recently, he has been hiding in the big tent all day long and never comes out. Talking to military officials, don’t you know what the hell you’re doing?”

The scouts were stunned: "It seems...something is wrong."

Another person asked suspiciously: "By the way, isn't Li Heng and Li Xianggong always at odds with military envoys? Our troops don't like Li Heng, so why did Li Heng come to our barracks and stay here for so many days? "

"Who knows, how can we soldiers dare to ask about the big shots, just do what we have at hand."

At this moment, suddenly, the sound of horseshoes came from far away.

The scout leader's face changed, and he said in a low voice: "Someone is coming, just riding, early in the morning, it seems that something is wrong, can't it be a thief's spying horse? Go, go and have a look!"

The five people got on their horses at the same time, spread out in a semicircle, and slowly went up to them.

As scouts, he was the most proficient bow and horse in the army. After calculating the distance and seeing that it was almost the same, the five of them drew the bows in their hands at the same time and shouted: "Who are you, you are already surrounded by us. Get off your horse, or an arrow will shoot you to death!"

"Who are you?" The fog was so thick that I couldn't see clearly, only a dark figure in front of my eyes.

Lao Qi said coldly: "Grandpa is the scout under the command of General Hu Yantong of the Sizhou Army, get off the horse!" His feathered arrow has firmly locked on to the black shadow, and as long as the visitor has any abnormal behavior, he will shoot at it.

The man suddenly let out a pleasant surprise: "Have you arrived in Anlu yet? It's over, it's over! Don't shoot arrows, don't shoot arrows, I'm Du Shu, Zhiniang thief, are you going to scare me to death?"

"Ah, Judge Du!"

The leader of the scouts: "Put down the bow for me. Judge Du is back. God, the judge is back. Did the military envoy come back too?"

The scouts rode over in surprise, and it turned out to be Du Shu.

This Du Shu didn't know how long he drove, not only the two war horses he brought were sweating profusely, but he was also wet all over, with water dripping from his hair.

Everyone cheered and surrounded Du Shu and said, "The judge is back, heaven, where is the military envoy? Since he went to Hunan, we are looking forward to the stars and the moon, and today we can count him back."

Du Shu naturally wouldn't say that Wang Shen was gone, and he was leading the army to a decisive battle with the Jurchen cavalry in Yingzhou.

He only smiled and said: "The military envoy is behind. I think tomorrow and the day after tomorrow he will bring the main force back. How is the situation at home now?"

The scouts replied that everything was fine, and nothing happened, which made everyone feel uncomfortable.Now it's all right, with the military envoy here, we can be pulled out to fight a game.

Zhiniang thief, the thieves are coming from all directions, fighting everywhere, we don't have enough troops, we can only take a defensive position, we don't have to annoy anyone to death.

Then he asked Du Shu why he came back alone first, and why he was in such a hurry.

Du Shu naturally wouldn't tell them why, but only replied that he had an urgent military report, so he came to see Hu Yantong first.

He listened to everyone's words while walking for a long time, and he felt relieved: There is something to do about this, and this Hu Yantong really has a guilty conscience.

From what the scouts said, the soldiers below did not know about Hu Yantong's rebellion.As for the reasons, firstly, Huyantong had a guilty conscience, and secondly, Wang Shen's prestige was too high. If Huyantong declared rebellion, he might be afraid that the army's morale would be disturbed and there would be internal strife, and he might not be able to restrain him.

It seems that the soldiers of the former army are still loyal to Wang Daosi. At that time, if Hu Yantong reads Wang Shen's personal letter and arrests Li Heng, it will be fine if he finds himself lost.Otherwise, the old man can mobilize the soldiers below to take down Hu Yantong and his henchmen in one fell swoop.

Hu Yantong and his group of ghosts and monsters are not worth mentioning, Dao Si, look at Du Shu's methods today.

Thinking of this, Du Shu thought he had a plan, relaxed, and started talking and laughing with the scouts.

However, I don't know my own problems.

Du Shu is a good gentleman, with high eyesight but low hands, but he knows nothing about practical affairs.The reason why he was able to become the head of a group of civil servants was due to his personal charm. To put it bluntly, he was also a mascot.

He had a plan in mind, but he didn't arrange it in advance, instead he went to meet Hu Yantong with the scouts.

Later, when Wang Shen found out about this, he laughed angrily and said, "Join, Yuezhi, you are a gentleman. You shouldn't have done this, but I neglected it. In fact, your order On the contrary. You should mobilize the former soldiers first, and then send my letter to Hu Yantong to lobby him."

Under the leadership of five scouts, Du Shu entered the former army camp at dawn.

Everything in the big camp was as usual. After the soldiers finished firing, they were all pulled out to practice in the wild, and it was very hot.

Hu Yantong was watching things in the big tent. When he saw Du Shu, he was taken aback and stood up with a huff: "Judge Du, didn't you go to Jiankang? Later, you brought a letter back to Anlu saying that you went to Hunan. Why did you suddenly return to Anlu?" Alright, what about the military envoy?"

He felt guilty, and his voice trembled when he spoke.

He hurriedly asked Du Shu to sit down at the head.

After Du Shu sat down, he didn't rush to take out Wang Shen's letter, instead he reached out to accept the letter with the seal of the soldier talisman on the big case, and said with a smile: "The military envoy is coming with the main force now, and it is estimated that he will arrive in a day at most. He said, let me take charge of the former army first. Yes, Anlu is now surrounded by enemies, but what a group of clowns can do with the army. He has already figured out a strategy to retreat from the enemy, let me come and tell the former army to do a good job Prepare before the battle. Let’s raise the account, and call all the officers above the head of the capital, so as to convey the order of the military envoy.”

Seeing that Du Shu took the soldier seal letter as soon as he arrived, and said that he wanted the command of the former army, Hu Yantong's eyelids jumped: "The judge is in charge of my Jianghan civil affairs, and has never led soldiers. What can you do to the general?" Just say it."

"Why, are you afraid that laymen will command experts? General Huyan, I don't know if you have heard of a sentence. Please go to Lingyan Pavilion temporarily. If you are a scholar with thousands of households. Seeing you killing the enemy and making meritorious service in the battle, the old man also winks." It's very hot." Du Shu still said with a smile: "Is it necessary to tell you something? What if you don't want to listen?"

These words were already blunt, and Hu Yantong's face changed drastically: "Judge Du misunderstood, you are the boss of the last general, how dare I? However, the military envoy established a system, and I divided the civil and military divisions in the Song Dynasty. The army is not right. Ask civil affairs, civil affairs officials are not allowed to interfere in military affairs."

"Oh, the system of the Great Song Dynasty, so you don't have military envoys in your eyes, General Hu Yantong?" Du Shu asked leisurely.

"How dare I?"

Du Shu suddenly straightened his face, pointed at Huyantong and shouted: "Huyantong, don't forget your downfall in Jiankang's left-behind department. If you had a military envoy, would you be where you are today?"

Hu Yantong: "Hu Yantong will never forget the kindness of the military envoy."

"That's good. The military envoy now orders you to hand over the team to the old man. Do you want to disobey the order, or do you have other thoughts and want to be a traitor?"

Hu Yantong: "Don't dare."

"What else can you say besides saying you don't dare? In my opinion, you are very courageous to say no verbally!" Du Shu took out Wang Shen's handwritten letter from his sleeve and handed it over: "This It's an order from the military envoy, you have to read it yourself. General Hu Yantong, you have to read it carefully."

Hu Yantong took the letter and read it for a long time, but didn't say a word.

"It seems that General Hu Yan is really going to rebel, but I don't know how much benefit Li Heng promised you?" Du Shu cried out angrily.

Hu Yantong: "I, I, I, how can I be rebellious..."

Du Shu: "Then why did you treat Li Heng as your honored guest and even sign that confession? Hu Yantong, I've been thinking about it for three days and three nights, but I can't figure it out!"

Hu Yantong: "Things are not what the judge thought. Now Jianghan is in crisis, and the military envoys are far away in Hunan. We have no leader. We really need a competent person to preside over the big situation."

"What you're talking about is stupid. What's the reason, honestly?" Du Shu asked.

Hu Yantong held his head: "I don't know, I don't know..."

"I don't know what, it must be Li Heng's promise that once he wins the entire Jianghan, he will let you lead the entire Jinghu court army. You, I know best, want to restore the glory of the ancestors day and night, and glorify the lintel. I’m so confused.” Du Shu said more and more angrily: “Ingratitude, without military envoys, how can you have today?”

"I, I, I..." Du Shu's words were already crushing, and Hu Yantong really couldn't stand the temptation of Everbright Huyan's family.Moreover, after Wang Shen went to Hunan, Li Cheng suddenly killed him.Cao Cheng and Jurchen came again.Anlu is really in turmoil, and his confidence in keeping Anlu is also shaken.

But fundamentally, he is very grateful to Wang Shen, and he is also an upright person.Look at Wang Shen's handwritten letter, which is written with sincerity and sincerity.Not only did he not blame him, but he talked a lot about how the two of them got along in the past, and said that his trust in him would never change.

I was so ashamed that I couldn't speak anymore.

Seeing that Hu Yantong was blushing and silent, Du Shu immediately shouted to the guards outside the tent: "Come on, raise the tent, call all the officers, and give me a lecture!"

At this time, suddenly, Li Heng rushed in with a dozen soldiers and his staff, and laughed loudly: "Du Yuezhi, are you all right?"

Du Shu jumped up in shock: "Li Yanping, what are you doing?"

"What are you doing, what do you want to do when Du Shu came here?" Li Hengchao pointed behind him, and the scout named Lao Qi came up.

Li Hengdao: "I heard from Lao Qi that you came to the barracks early in the morning. I know that you, Du Yuezhi, come here for nothing, so come and have a look."

After that, his face darkened, and he ordered: "Take Du Shu for me, if there is any resistance, I will kill you without mercy!"

(End of this chapter)