At the beginning of May, Sun Tu sent the good news of pacifying the Liangshan thieves to Jingshi, and in early June, Fang Qian was ordered to come to Qingzhou and told Sun Tu about the reward and dispatch order of the imperial court. However, it was not until mid-July that the imperial court officially allocated the relevant rewards in place, and all the generals who came down from Sun Tu were rewarded, which can be regarded as a full camp.

But this also reflects how low the efficiency of the Great Song Dynasty is now, and it has been more than two months before the official positions and money, grain, silk and other things that should be given are sent to the hands of meritorious officials. It is precisely because of this performance of the imperial court that Sun Tu boldly guessed that there was no need to move the soldiers and horses under his command within this year, after all, it was much more difficult to mobilize tens of thousands of troops to send the grain and grass to the south of the Yangtze River than to send money and grain to Qingzhou, and it would not be possible to do it in half a year.

At the beginning of August, a military order was sent to Qingzhou again, ordering Sun Tu to immediately send troops to Jiangnan, and the relevant grain and grass baggage will be sent to his army within half a month!

And the reason why the imperial court will make such a change is precisely because Jiangnan Nanla suddenly became the emperor in Hangzhou on July 27, and named the country Wu, Jianyuan Yongle!

When this astonishing news came out, the world was in turmoil, and the monarchs and ministers of the court were even more furious, and even Zhao Ji, the emperor of literature and art, who had never paid much attention to government affairs, was furious because of it, and immediately ordered the Jiangnan officials and troops to send troops to quell the chaos, and at the same time ordered the troops to be sent to all parts of the country to quell the thieves, which naturally included Sun Tu in Shandong.

This matter has indeed touched the bottom line of the imperial court. Because the establishment of political power and the proclamation of the emperor are completely different concepts from ordinary rebellions, the threat to the imperial court is already a hundred times greater than the rebellion that disturbs half of the south of the Yangtze River, and it is the top priority that the monarchs and ministers of the court need to deal with at the first time. Because once Fang La's Wu State really gained a firm foothold in the land south of the Yangtze River, it would be tantamount to giving the Great Song Dynasty another powerful enemy country, and compared to the Western Xia, which was established only a few decades ago, Jiangnan was the real wealth of the Great Song Dynasty, and it was impossible to lose.

Moreover, since ancient times, the Chinese nation has paid attention to the righteousness of the name, before Fang La was only a thief, so his strength could not expand rapidly, but once he openly claimed that the emperor rebelled, the situation was very different. Those Jiangnan people who were full of resentment towards the Great Song Dynasty because of the Huashi Gang and heavy taxes immediately found the strength to work, not only the people of Liangzhejiang Road, where they were entrenched, joined one after another, but also the nearby Jiangnan Road, and many people abandoned their homes and careers and rushed to Hangzhou and other places to join the Wu regime.

Under such momentum, Fang La's Wu regime developed rapidly, and expanded westward, attacking important prefecture cities such as Shexian on Jiangnan Road, and even had troops pointing directly at the imperial court's posture in Suzhou, the last important town in the south of the Yangtze River.

Frightened, Zhu Mian, who had been preparing Huashigang for the emperor in Suzhou, planned to use this to atone for his crimes, fled in a hurry, and quickly fled to Jinling before stopping, which could be regarded as giving up the entire Jiangnan Road.

When this news was transmitted back to the imperial court, it once again caused an uproar in the Manchu Dynasty, and then some of the Manchu courtiers who did not take Fang La's anti-army as a matter of their sons acted quickly at this time, and one after another wills and orders were issued everywhere, and the wording became more and more severe.

In fact, after knowing that Fang La actually dared to establish a country and claim the title of emperor, the officials and generals of Qingzhou were also surprised, and some people who were interested in the court also asked Sun Tu for war several times, hoping that everyone could lead the troops to the south as soon as possible. The representative figure of this is naturally Song Jiang and Song Gongming, who had just returned to the imperial court, and the official was named the prefect of a certain place, and he wanted to serve the imperial court.

In the past few days, this loyal minister of the Great Song Dynasty, who was the leader of the anti-thieves a few months ago, had persuaded Sun Tu to send troops as soon as possible several times. And today, he brought up the old matter again, and asked for the southern expedition when Sun Tu convened his generals to discuss the matter, and mentioned: "If the ruler feels that the whole territory is a bit risky to leave Lu, the lower officials are willing to lead a group to rush there first to protect the peace in the south of the Yangtze River." ”

Sun Tu looked at Song Jiang with an anxious face, and only after a while did he say lightly: "The matter is serious, if it is not perfect, I will not send troops easily." Anyway, I have to wait until all the soldiers and horses under my command are well trained before I can leave. Brother Gongming, I can understand that your heart is towards the court, but I hope you will be calm and not impatient. ”

"But ......" Song Jiang was still waiting to be persuaded again, but Wu Yong beside him gently pulled down his sleeves and stopped his words, and then he found that not only Sun Tu, but also many generals around him looked at him with strange eyes, and finally stopped saying more in his heart.

Sun Tu didn't pay attention to him anymore, but looked at Qi Desheng and Dong Ping: "How is the training of my soldiers and horses now?" Especially the new recruits who have recently joined the army, are they slacking off in their training? ”

"Metropolitan Supervisor ......" Dong Ping first shouted, then came back to his senses, and hurriedly changed his words: "Back to the jurisdiction, since the pacification of Liangshanbo, the lieutenant generals of our army dare not slack off in their daily drills. Although there is still a big gap with the original elite of the Qingzhou Army, it has also changed its lazy appearance in the past, especially the thousands of men and horses collected from Liangshan, which have made rapid progress and have surpassed the ordinary state army. ”

"Well, that's very good. These elites are the foundation of our service to the country and kill the enemy, and we must not be negligent in the slightest, let alone abandon my entire plan because some people are eager to make meritorious contributions. Although Sun Tu did not name Song Jiang, the meaning of beating him in his words was quite clear, which also made Song Jiang feel even more worried in his heart, and he didn't dare to raise his head.

He really lost his sense of proportion when he spoke in a hurry just now, and he actually wanted Sun Tu to give him troops, what is this? Do you want to wrest military power from Sun Tu? Even Qi Desheng and other cronies and subordinates who had been following Sun Tu all the way did not dare to have such an idea, let alone him, a person who had just recently defected. Especially in his words, he wanted to get the original Liangshan soldiers and horses again, which made Sun Tu's taboo even more violent.

So after this meeting, Wu Yong, who came to no one's place, couldn't help but sigh: "Brother, you are too impatient, and actually saying such things in public will inevitably make Sun Chan suspicious of you." ”

"I'm also worried about the world, that Fang La is so bold that he openly claims to be the emperor and the country, so anti-thief, everyone is really punished! But Sun Chan's jurisdiction is good, the court has repeatedly ordered and urged, but he is still as immobile as a mountain, is this still what a court official should be? Song Jiang said with a frown.

"Brother, haven't you understood Sun Chan's mind to this day? How much of everything he did was for strengthening his own strength, and how much was for the court? I'm afraid that the former accounts for eighty or ninety percent, so even if Fang La's claim to the emperor does have a great calamity to the Great Song Dynasty, it is impossible for him to send troops to the south before he thinks the time is ripe. Wu Yong saw it much more thoroughly than Song Jiang, and immediately pointed out the key to the problem.

Song Jiang had actually noticed Sun Tu's selfishness a long time ago, but he had always denied it in his heart, and now when he heard it, the melancholy on his face became more and more vigorous: "This Sun Tu's courage is too great, as an official of the imperial court, he still has such thoughts, is he really not afraid of being blamed by the imperial court and taking away his official position?" ”

"Brother, do you think that with his prestige and military power in this place now, can anyone in the court really come here to seize power?" Wu Yong sighed lightly: "But to be honest, I can't even see through what this person's plans are." ”

"Then do you think he will send troops to Jiangnan this time?"

"This ......" Song Jiang asked, which really made Wu Yong hesitate, if Sun Tu really had a disobedient heart, it should be the best opportunity to openly raise troops at this time. Once it forms a north-south echo trend with Fangla in the south of the Yangtze River, it will inevitably make the chaos of the Great Song Dynasty out of control, and the world will really be chaotic at that time.

However, Wu Yong obviously underestimated Sun Tu's personality and ambitions, although he was ambitious, he would not do such a thing as taking advantage of the fire. It's not that he has any loyalty to the Great Song Dynasty, but he doesn't want to become a sinner in history.

Because Sun Tu knew very well that for the Great Song Dynasty, the biggest threat was the state established by the nomads from the north, and the Liao State and the Jin State were the most terrible enemies. Once he also follows the incident and disturbs the entire Central Plains, it will only be the Liaojin and Jin countries that will benefit, and then they will take advantage of the situation to invade the Central Plains, and the Han family will fall into the hands of the Hu people - he doesn't want to see the tragic situation of Wuhu chaos appear again in the Central Plains.

Therefore, Sun Tu's idea this time is very right, and he must go to Jiangnan to quell the Fangla Rebellion, but before that, he must be fully prepared. In addition to the grain and grass that the imperial court had promised and the continuous training of the soldiers and horses under his command, he was more concerned about the topography and landform of the south of the Yangtze River and all kinds of first-hand intelligence information on Fang La's strength.

As the saying goes, knowing oneself and knowing that the other is invincible, in fact, as early as after agreeing to Fang Qian's expedition, Sun Tu had already sent the capable people in the scout camp to Jiangnan to investigate the relevant news. He had already made the decision that he would not send troops lightly until those spies sent specific information.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the first batch of scouts finally returned, and after integrating relevant intelligence and learning that several official troops had suffered defeats in Jiangnan, Sun Tu finally announced that he would send troops.

At this time, it was only four months since he pacified the Liangshan Bo thief, and it was only three months since he married Hu Rong, and Ya'er, who was pregnant, was already bulging high at this time. It's just that this time, Sun Tu, as a husband and father, couldn't be by her side and watch her first child come into this world.