Song Dynasty

Chapter 61 Gathering the Crowd ([-])

It is already the beginning of October in the third year of Jianyan, and autumn is coming to an end.Winter in the south of the Yangtze River is coming, and the autumn rain is still falling, not too much, and the whole world is shrouded in this steaming water.

The icy river wind hit, and the robe on his body was instantly soaked in the air-conditioning, making people feel cold all over his body.

This is still the end of autumn, if it were changed to mid-winter, I don't know how cold it will be.

Wang Shen shook his head, and tightened his clothes: It was simply a magical attack. As a northerner, I have experienced more than ten degrees below zero, and I couldn't bear it.

At this time, he missed the stove, hot tea and the noodle soup made by An Niang very much.

But it's the end of the world. Over the past month, who knows what I've been through?
It wasn't that long to cross the Huaihe River to Jiangpu, but the Jurchen came so fast, it was as fast as the wind and thunder.Jin Bing used their commander-in-chief Wushu as an arrow, and fought from Chuzhou to the south bank of the Yangtze River in one breath without sleep, but he was ahead of him and Lao Guo.

There was no other way, so Wang Shen had no choice but to ride horses with Lao Guo around Tianchang, Chuzhou, and Sizhou, and even went as far as Luzhou, which is the area around Hefei in later generations.

There was no way, the Jurchens had already seized various intersections, and sent scouts to encircle and suppress the retreating Song army.Especially after Wushu's infantry group caught up, the situation became even more difficult, and it seemed like the Japanese devils of later generations would encircle them with an iron wall.

The Jurchens are not familiar with water, and the Jiankang left-behind division adopted the tactics of clearing the field with a strong wall and brought all the ships in the north of the river back to the south bank.The Jin army could not go any further, so they had to stay on the north bank.

There were more and more of them, and in an instant, the entire north of the Yangtze River was full of tall and fierce northern foreigners with shaved money and rat-tail hairstyles.In this way, Wang Shen also had a difficult journey.

During this month, he spent almost all of his time in battles with the Jurchens' small group of reconnaissance cavalry.At most one day, he even fought three encounters. The armor on his body had already been cut to pieces by the sword, and his body was also scarred.

If it were someone else, he would have already collapsed mentally, but fortunately, he has a strong mind, which has been tempered now.

The main reason why he walked slowly was that there were more than 500 brothers who went south with him. Since they were taken in, they had to be brought to Jiankang without stopping.

Thinking of this, he looked up and looked ahead.

I saw that in the hazy river rain, groups of soldiers in ragged clothes and wounded all over their bodies carried their weapons and bowed their heads and boarded the boats that came to pick up Wang Shen one after another.

This time Gu Lie brought fifteen boats over, he never expected that there would be so many people around Wang Shen.With a wry smile, he said: "Commander Wang, after receiving Lao Guo's letter, Lu Can hired sailors everywhere, and even spent money to buy off the people in the left-behind department, so that so many boats were allowed to cross the river. Now, the Jurchens have beaten When you go to the riverside, there is an order from the stay-at-home commander, and you are not allowed to cross the river. If you have more than a dozen boatloads of belongings, it’s fine. There are so many people, and it’s not worth taking such a big risk! Besides, you got so many tickets all at once. Mouth, you need to eat and drink, no matter how you look at it, it is a loss-making business."

"Is it a loss-making business? I don't think so." Wang Shen couldn't help being cold, stomped his feet lightly, and said, "The golden army is overwhelming, no matter how much money you have, no soldiers, if you don't rise up to resist, In the end, not only money and things belong to others, but even you will become their slaves. Only people, only talents are the most precious wealth in this world."

Yes, the most important reason why he walked so slowly along the way was that there were too many people around him.In fact, if there were only him and Lao Guo, the two of them could easily break through the encirclement of the Jurchens and escape to the Yangtze River early.

Originally, Wang Shen also planned in this way, and he didn't have anything to worry about going to Jiankang.But on the first day of crossing the Huaihe River, he encountered a group of rout soldiers withdrawn from Suzhou, with a total of about 23 people.The officers of this group had already left them and fled alone. When they saw Wang Shen, they came up and asked how to get to Jiankang Mansion.

After knowing that Wang Shen was the commander of the battalion, the 23 people followed, and they couldn't get rid of them no matter how hard they tried.No way, Wang Shen could only take them in and let the soldiers join his supply camp.

Everyone has the mentality of following the crowd. Seeing that Wang Shen and the others had a lot of people, ruffians kept joining them along the way.The composition is also very complicated. There are troops left behind in Kaifeng who did not have time to withdraw from Jinling, there are Xiang troops from various places, rural soldiers from local bow and arrow clubs, and young and strong farmers.There were more and more people, reaching as many as a thousand, which gave Wang Shen the illusion of a strong army.

At this time, Wang Shen suddenly had a thought: the supply camp now has about a hundred people, and the civilian husbands are only in the early two hundred.In fact, the power in my hands is still very meager, and I can't do anything at all.

If you want to do something good, you have to gather people.

As a so-called "successful person" in modern society, after traveling to the Song Dynasty, if he is only satisfied with living, how can he be willing?Unlike ordinary people in this era, he has ambitions.

I once stood on the top of the mountain and saw the beautiful scenery, so I don't want to be mediocre anymore.

Unlike people in this era, Wang Shen did not have the slightest loyalty to the Southern Song Dynasty.He already has an idea for the way to go in the future.

First of all, temporarily borrow the stage of the commander of the supply battalion, and take up a half-job, and then pull the troops out to do it alone, and take the road that Yue Fei once walked.

The scale of the future Jiankang battle is unprecedented, and the supply battalion is too weak. In this big battle, it will easily be wiped out. There are more than 100 people. If you encounter Jin Bing, there will be no charge. The most important thing now is to get the number of troops.

During the Jurchen invasion to the south this time, there were routs and refugees everywhere in Jiangbei, so it was very easy to recruit troops.Among them, there are even many people who have rich combat experience and are able to fight.

Of course, whether you can win against the golden soldiers is another matter.

It took less than a day for more than 1000 people to gather before Wang Shen encountered a group of Jurchen scouts.

Immediately, the army blew up the nest, and more than 1000 horses were chased and beaten by five Jurchens. At night, only a hundred remained.It made Wang Shen annoyed and depressed at the same time.

If there are no more people, just keep recruiting.

Through this battle, he deeply realized that the current Song people suffered from serious fear of gold, especially those soldiers of the regular army, who lost the courage to fight when they saw the enemy's bald money rat-tailed heads.

There are less than [-] golden people, and they are invincible. From this sentence, we can see how afraid everyone is of Jurchen.

After being taught a lesson, Wang Shen suddenly realized that those old soldiers were unreliable at all.If you want to master an army that dares to fight with Jurchen on the battlefield, you have to train from scratch.

Next, Wang Shen focused on recruiting farmers who seemed honest and honest.Just as Qi Jiguang later recruited soldiers in the southeast: those who are fair-skinned, quick-moving, and have no scruples when they see the government are not wanted.Because these people are slippery guys in the city, they are unreliable at critical moments, they will slip away, and they will drag other people along with them.In case of being caught by the boss, they have enough eloquence to blame others.The so-called mouse droppings spoil a pot of soup.In the army, this kind of person will not only be unable to fight, but will also play a role in disintegrating the morale of the army.Therefore, rather than indiscriminate, resolutely get rid of this kind of person.What they want are those honest and honest people in the country who are black, big, thick, and have solid flesh.Such talents are good at commanding and capable of fighting.

To recruit rout soldiers, you have to pay them. If the money is less, they will not do it.Seeing that you are a rich official, maybe you will have evil intentions and want to rob a fortune.And recruiting this kind of refugees is much easier than recruiting rout soldiers. Throwing out a pancake can gather a lot.

Soon, Wang Shen recruited thousands of troops.As for the armor and staff, it is also easy, just spend money to buy it for the rout soldiers.Anyway, the Song army who had withdrawn would throw away their armor and weapons in order to walk easily. Now that they can exchange some money, why not do it.

In this way, Wang Shen spent more than a month recruiting soldiers and horses while avoiding the encirclement and suppression of the Jurchen.The troops also scattered and gathered, and now there are only about five hundred people left.

These 100 soldiers were not badly equipped. There were more than [-] armors, of which about [-] were good armors.There are two hundred pairs of knives and shields, and everyone else basically has a spear.They were all honest farmers, and whenever they were ordered by their superiors, they would do it silently, rather like a regular army.

Of course, this alone is not enough, and strict training is required to become a qualified soldier.

Fortunately, we have already arrived in Jiankang. According to real historical records, there is still one month before the Jurchens will cross the river, and there is time to practice them.Looking at the boat with soldiers, Wang Shen could only fly across the river with his wings.I know my own affairs best. After all, I have just started in the military, and training so many people requires a large number of basic officers, and I have to leave it to Gu Lie and the others.

After saying this, Wang Shen then smiled at Gu Lie: "Gu Dutou, our battalion should be full of 500 people. Now I have not only filled the gap, but also have [-] more people. You Dutou finally It's worthy of the name, isn't it good? At least it won't work, you will be satisfied if you have to be a polished commander, look at the soldiers I recruited?"

Gu Lie: "These soldiers are tall and honest, and they are good soldiers. However, they are far from the standard of our Western Army's elite back then."

Wang Shen: "So, I want to hand over all these soldiers to you to train with the methods of the Western Army back then. You will be the head coach, Gu Lie. Are you interested? When the troops are trained, I will let you choose them first. .”

After all, Gu Lie is an old man of the Western Army. He has served in the army since he was born, and the blood of the Sanqin soldiers is surging in his bones.As soon as I thought that I would be able to make up for the gap in the capital, I immediately became excited: "Let's just say that, I can train the troops, but the best soldiers must be given priority to fill in my sword and shield soldiers. This sword and shield soldier On the battlefield, you have to be at the forefront to hold your ground, and you need first-class warriors."

Wang Shen nodded again and again: "Okay, okay, that's the deal."

Gu Lie showed joy on his face: "Thank you Commander, but..."

"But what?"

"However, the army has increased so many people all of a sudden, and food and clothing are a headache. We are under the control of the left-behind division now, but they don't have a penny for the military salary. In the past month, the brothers have relied on the original The rewards in Pingyuan Town lead a life. Those bastards only know how to drink and make money to have fun all day long, and they have already used up all the money in their pockets. Seeing that they are going to be hungry, Lu Can's hair is turning white with worry."

(End of this chapter)