The Liao army marched south and the two saints competed to issue edicts, the states and counties along the Huai River and the Yangtze River were full of chaotic scenes in the world, the local officials were not only afraid of the northern capture of the soldiers, but also did not dare to offend either of the two Song emperors, they abandoned their posts and fled, in the midst of the rumors, the Zhenguo army camp temporarily stationed in Ezhou ushered in several uninvited guests.

"Lord Chen?" Chen Dong walked into the big tent, Yue Fei hurriedly got up to greet him, his face showed a look of surprise, and a layer of gloom was enveloped. At this time, Xijing was urging the new emperor to congratulate him, but the scholars of the Lishe Society were vigorously clamoring to continue to respect Zhao Ke as the king, and denounced Zhao Qi, Cai Jing and others as chaotic ministers and thieves. Before Chen Dong could speak, Yue Fei took out a scroll of holy decrees and handed it to him, and said in a deep voice: "This is Xijing's will. Chen Dong took a look, and the content was to seal Yue Fei as the envoy of the Zhenguo Army, and let him lead his troops to Xiangyang to join forces with Liu Yanqing to prevent the main force of the Liao army from moving south. When Chen Dong watched the will, Yue Fei also looked at him. His face was full of wind and dust, his eyes were bloodshot, and when he entered the Zhongjun tent, his feet were floating, and his legs were unconsciously in the shape of a loop, obviously this trip was not easy.

After reading the edict, Chen Dong was silent for a moment and asked, "The situation is turbulent, does the general have a plan?" ”

Yue Fei was slightly stunned, he thought for a moment, and muttered: "The Liao army is going south, and there are not many soldiers available in the southern prefectures and counties. If the southeast is eroded, and the land of wealth is in the hands of the enemy, then Jingxiang gathered many soldiers and horses, but he was defeated before the battle. Moreover, although the main force of the Liao army had conquered Bianliang, there were heavy troops in Luoyang in the west and Hedong in the north. Therefore, I would have thought that Liu Yanqing's tens of thousands of troops and horses were enough to garrison Xiangyang, and there was no need to transfer all the soldiers and horses from the southeast to Xiangyang. ”

Yue Fei was originally Wang Yan's confidant, but after the change of commander in the southeast, he refused to accept Liu Yanqing, and his subordinates were quite suppressed. After the Zhenguo Army and Liu Yanqing joined forces, they were weak and weak, and it was difficult to say whether they could be self-contained, so they went up to the commander Yue Fei, down to Wang Gui and Zhang Xian, and the generals were reluctant to go to Xiangyang to join forces. But if it is a matter of support, he still does not dare to express his attitude easily.

Chen Dong nodded, closed his will, and said in a deep voice, "When the official family is still in the palace, Bianliang is in danger, and he will edict the king of soldiers and horses in the world. I didn't expect that Cao Di in the Xijing camp and Liu Yanqing in the southeast camp, these two festival marshals could actually be teased and not entered, and sat back and watched the official family being bullied by the northern captives, and Bianliang fell. Now that the official family has not abdicated the throne by edict, they dare to set up another son of heaven, who is a chaotic minister and thief! He sighed and said in a low voice, "On the way here, I heard that Wu Angying and Xu Rubi did not kneel to the lord in Liaoying, and martyred righteousness. Chen is just a scholar, he has the intention to kill the thief, but he has no power to return to the sky. If General Yue wanted to serve Zhao Qi's thieves as the king, Chen would not be reluctant, and he should go to his death and follow Wu Angying, Xu Rubi, and other adults under the spring. If General Yue is willing to establish a banner of righteousness and respect the Son of Heaven instead of obeying the order, Chen is willing to run the southeast prefecture and county for the general. I don't dare to say anything else, there are thousands of people in the society, all over the prefectures and counties of the world, the inside is for the shogunate, the outside is the eyes and ears of the general, for the general to show the world with righteousness, for the general to recruit troops and horses, for the general to donate food and salary, and many complicated and inconvenient things, we are willing to bear it. ”

The more Yue Fei listened, the more his brows furrowed. Since Zhao Qi became emperor, the gentry of the Lishe near Ezhou have jointly petitioned to express their feelings. The bad deeds of Cao Di, Cai Jing, Zhao Qi and others were compiled into ballads and flowed around, and even the people in the market knew that Cao Di, Cai Jing, Zhao Qi and others sold the real Son of Heaven to the Khitans for personal gain. The words of the scholars and the common people were very intense, which made Yue Fei very hesitant after receiving Zhao Qi's edict. Not long ago, Zhao Ke promoted him to three levels in a row, and the Henghai Xiang Army was also promoted to the forbidden army of the Zhenguo Army, and the length of grace was rare in this dynasty. Now that the official family is embarrassed by the northern captives, he is still alive, and there is no edict to abdicate and pass on the throne, so he has changed to serve others as kings, and he has become a subordinate despised by the people of the world.

Although Chen Dong's official position is only that of the prefect of Guangzhou and the secretary of the city, his colleagues are all over the world. Especially after the Liao army invaded the south and the state and county officials abandoned their posts one after another, the gentry were barely maintaining themselves in many places. However, if there is chaos today, compared with the scholars and scholars, only those who are strong and strong have to support the Son of Heaven. The three major camps of Xijing, Southeast and Hedong have all supported Zhao Qi, the king of Jing, as the emperor, and it can be said that almost all the forbidden troops will fight Zhao Qi, which is the trend of the times. The Zhenguo Army, which was adapted from the Henghai Xiang Army, has only more than 20,000 personnel, of which only 8,000 are capable of fighting in Ezhou, and the strength is very different. Although Yue Fei is loyal, he is not only a reckless man with the courage of a horseman, and this disparity between strength and weakness is so great that he has to think twice.

After testing each other, both of them were full of worries, and they both quieted down and muttered. The candles in the tent burned, illuminating Yue Fei's hesitant expression clearly. Chen Dong sighed secretly in his heart, and said in his heart, even Yue Pengju is like this, but I am afraid that the other generals have already submitted their ministers to Zhao Qi. Is it true that the thief of the hook will punish the thief of the country? Is the world in the hands of traitors?

After waiting quietly for a long time, Yue Fei suddenly sighed: "The Holy Lord is waiting to fly as a national soldier, and Fei should also be repaid by a national soldier." He made a decision, so he no longer hesitated, and said to Chen Dong: "The Liao army is in a hurry to move south, I want to build a large camp in Ezhou, and send Wang Gui and Zhang Xian to collect Jianghuai soldiers and horses to the east to help the southeast prefecture and county to resist the Liao army." Most of these generals are northerners, and they are not very familiar with the southeast, and they hope that Lord Chen will help. ”

Chen Dong immediately said: "Chen is duty-bound! He hesitated for a moment, and said in a consultative tone, "In the name of the eastward advance of the Zhenguo Army?" "According to the imperial court system, each garrison of the forbidden army has a defense area. It is not trivial to go out of the defense area without permission, and even collect other troops and horses as Yue Fei said. Therefore, Chen Dong calculated in his heart, if he wanted to be justified, he must first create a wide range of momentum. Since Cai Jing and other traitors are coerced in Southeast Prefecture and County to support the usurpation of the throne by the national thief Zhao Qi, it is useful to respect the name of Zhengshuo's crusade against the usurpation and opposition to the party.

"Lord Chen doesn't have to worry," Yue Fei's face was a little complicated, and he said in a deep voice, "There will be His Majesty's will. After saying that, he took out a holy decree from his bosom and handed it to Chen Dong along with the gold plate wrapped in it. Chen Dong hesitantly took it and looked at it, and was immediately overjoyed. It was actually the holy decree of Zhao Ke's imperial pen, Feng Yuefei was the envoy of the Zhenguo Army and the chief of soldiers and horses in the south of Xiangyang, urging the Zhenguo Army to march on the same road and march as soon as possible with the holy driver of the southern hunt. At the same time, let Yue Fei control the soldiers and horses of the states and counties south of Xiangyang, and the army of King Qin encountered along the way went north with the Zhenguo army to meet the holy car. It can be seen that this holy decree was written in a hurry, and the wording is quite vague, and it is not clear which states and counties are south of Xiangyang. In a narrow sense, it refers to the area of Jinghu South Road and Jinghu North Road, and in a broad sense, the southeast prefecture and county are also within the south of Xiangyang.

"This is ......" Chen Dongxian was surprised, and after a little thought, he thought about it and sighed, "Heaven's will is so." ”

The official family Nanjia was quite hasty, and there were only 5,000 forbidden soldiers and horses with him. When the official family was the prince, he had old grudges with Liu Yanqing, who was deployed in the southeast camp. Liu Yanqing was waiting in the north of Xiangyang with 70,000 elite soldiers in his hand, which was tantamount to a thorn in his back for Zhao Ke. Therefore, before he left Bianliang, he first issued a golden edict, ordering Yue Fei to speed up his journey north to protect the holy driver. Because Yue Fei's Zhenguo army only had 8,000 people, he put all the soldiers and horses south of Xiangyang under Yue Fei's command, and gathered tens of thousands of people as much as possible, so that he could match Liu Yanqing in terms of troops. As for whether these soldiers and horses were elite and where the food and salary needed for the northward march came from, Zhao Ke had no time to care about it before he fled in a hurry. After that, Zhao Ke was captured by the Liao army not far from Bianliang, but the golden plate was handed over in a hurry and the edict was still issued. Although arranging for Yue Fei to balance Liu Yanqing is meaningless, it is lost in the east corner and reaps Sangyu. This holy decree gave Yue Fei the name of collecting Jianghuai soldiers and horses, and even operating the southeast to welcome and return the holy car.

"Ben Jiang has just received this holy decree, and before he can announce it to the public, he got the news that the Holy Lord has been taken captive and King Jing has become independent." Yue Fei's face was a little gloomy and said, "What news can spread faster than a gold plate?" Naturally, it was the pigeon post that delivered the message. It is really hard to believe that they have the intention to put the official family in danger so quickly. He paused and sighed, "Although Yue only has 8,000 people in his hands, and Cao Di and Liu Yanqing combined, there are more than 200,000 people, but Your Majesty is waiting to fly as a national soldier, and I should repay him as a national soldier." Fei is willing to work together with Lord Chen. In time, Henan and Hebei will be recovered, the captives will be driven to the north, the traitors will be eliminated inside, and the saints will be welcomed back to Beijing. ”

In Ezhou, no one else knows about this Zhao Ke's holy decree. Once it is made public, the Zhenguo Army will immediately become a thorn in the eyes of Zhao Qi and others, and the southeast prefecture and county will also be forced to choose a side between the Zhenguo Army and Zhao Qi. However, since Yue Fei had made a decision, he was not afraid that the other party would attack him with the world's soldiers and horses. Chen Dong also thought so, if the name is not right, it is not good, and at this time, with the edict written by the official family, he must immediately take it out and compete with the traitorous party for the hearts of the people in the southeast.

The people of the Lishe have a reputation in the local area, but they have to fight against Zhao Qi's party, one has no name, and the other has no soldiers and horses. Since Yue Fei was ready to send his subordinates to collect Jianghuai people, Chen Dong asked him to send dozens, one or two hundred people, to hundreds of people to the powerful prefectures and counties of the Li Society, to help the Li Society scholars expel the officials who had defected to the puppet monarch and the false orders of the Khitan, and then the Li Society could nominate the gentry with local prestige to take charge of the prefectures and counties. In this regard, Chen Dong's consideration can be described as a rainy day. The holy decree in Yue Fei's hands was only to rectify the soldiers and horses, and since the Li Society accused the traitorous party of usurping the throne and expelling the false officials, it was impossible to appoint local officials without permission. As an expedient measure, we can only use the public election in Huangzhoushan to maintain the prefectures and counties first, and provide food and wages for the town and national army to govern the localities. Since the officials were elected by the gentry in various places, no matter how much the traitorous party attacked, it could not be said that Yue Chen and the others had the intention of usurping rebellion.