Duan Huaixian acted very decisively, and as soon as he returned to Lumei City, he ordered Wang Tongdeng and Zhao Xingde to return to China.

Zhao Xingde went to say goodbye to Li Yong, only then he and Liu Zhiyuan had already led the caravan to set off, leaving only a letter, telling Zhao Xingde to contact through the Fuhai Xing Post Station, if the caravan was successful, the military would hand over the profits due to the soldiers to Zhao Xingde through the Fuhai ticket number. Li Yong also said that the scale of the caravan trafficking treasure goods would become larger and larger, and persuaded Zhao Xingde to use the silver money he earned as capital to invest it again, and cooperate with Chen Dong to spread the treasure goods business in the Great Song Dynasty. Zhao Xingde showed Li Yong's letter to Captain Duan and the other sergeants, and the sergeants also had great hopes.

On the day he left, in order to avoid trouble, Duan Huaixian only brought three marching horses to see him off, and later the merchants of the Xia Kingdom in Lumei City complained to Chen Xizhai about why they didn't let everyone see them off. When Crown Prince John Komnenos learned of this, he breathed a sigh of relief. After receiving assurances from the Xia envoys Chen Xizhai and Duan Huaixian, he soon devoted all his energy to the struggle to consolidate the position of crown prince. Because of her mother's difficult situation, Natalia Komnenos distanced herself from Manshuer. However, it is said that the envoy of the Rus' king Moose was already on his way, and the mother and daughter often quarreled over this.

In addition to the more than 60 people who participated in the coercion of the crown prince of Lumei, more than 30 family sergeants who returned to China in rotation according to the imperial decree were also rotated. Zhao Xingde and the others left the Golden Horn Bay by sea boat, sailed to Haixi Port, and stayed at Zhenxi Fort for several days, waiting for the Xia caravan to return to the river together. This time, there were many more sergeants stationed in the west fort than when the Chengying battalion came three years ago. Although he was a centurion, Zhao Xingde also had to share a room with Du Fujiao and Liu Zheng.

Although the room is narrow, one window faces the Black Sea, and the sea breeze blows day and night, and the white birds fly outside the window, which is also refreshing. Overlooking the harbor of Hercynian from the window, three large ships are moored under the tower of Zhenxi Fort, and sergeants and sailors are carefully attaching several huge iron barrel guns to the foredeck of the ships. A team of sergeants drove twenty horses to push the winch, and the pulleys that wound the iron cables made a gurgling sound, and Zhao Xingde was really worried that the weight of thousands of catties would break the axles. When the cannon was hoisted two feet higher than the foredeck of the ship, the officers gave the order, and the sergeants shouted loudly, grabbed the halters of the animals, and stopped pushing the winch. The craftsman pulled the mechanism, and the cast-iron claws buckled the ratchet, making a loud noise, and the instantaneous momentum made the winch tremble slightly, and then it remained motionless, and steadily suspended the cannon in the air.

Another group of sergeants, shirtless and bare-chested, shouted trumpets with the officers and carefully pushed the boom. The sweat of the sergeants dripped to the ground in large pieces, as if with a burning smell. The boom rotated slowly, the iron cables from which the guns were hung straightened and fluttered slightly in the air, and the heavy copper cannons gradually moved over the sea ships.

When the position of the barrel cannon was roughly aligned with the gun emplacements that had been placed on the foredeck, the iron cable was slowly lowered. On the foredeck of the ship, another group of sergeants and sailors, with their hands held high, grabbed the ropes tied around the barrel gun body, and pulled the direction together under the command of the officer. Until finally, the slamming of thousands of pounds of artillery happened to be placed on the gun carriage, and the sea ship and the sergeants and sailors on the dock burst into a huge cheer.

"Good!" Zhao Xingde secretly praised, with a smile on his face, he hadn't seen this scene for a long time. He took a deep breath of the air mixed with the smell of rusty iron, oil, and sweat, and was in a particularly pleasant mood.

"Use this thing to kill pirates, enough for those guys to drink a pot." Wang Tongdeng casually flipped through a military newspaper, which said that because pirates harassed merchant ships, the military government was ready to come and completely liquidate them. Du Fujiao pursed his lips and sighed, "It seems that the teachers are going to be cut down and eradicated." When the water is clear, there will be no fish, and it will be difficult for them to make a fortune in the future. After Zhao Xingde left, Ming Hongdu elected Jian Cheng as the temporary centurion, and Duan Huaixian also reported to the military government, and after the sergeant was replenished, the new centurion was promoted.

Zhao Xingde carefully looked at the barrel and caliber of the iron barrel cannon. "It's clearly a siege artillery." He secretly said that how could he use this thing to fight pirates. He shook his head slightly, but didn't point it out. Since it is written in the military newspaper, there is naturally a reason for writing it this way. But I heard Wang Tongdeng shouting: "How can this be true! ”

"What's going on?" Zhao Xingde doubted.

He pointed out the news in a military newspaper to Zhao Xingde.

Zhao Xingde frowned and took it, and when he looked at it, he couldn't help but be angry. It turned out that since Yelu Dashi rebelled in Youzhou, the Liao Emperor Yelu Yanxi had sent all the soldiers and horses in the northern courtyard, and the elite of the leather room army from the palace was the Chinese army, preparing for the southern expedition. First pacify Youzhou, and then aid Huanglong Mansion in the north. Although Yelu Dashi's troops were weak, he widely recruited the men and horses of the Khitan tribe, intending to fight Yelu Yanxi to the death. In order to win the hearts of the people, Yelu Dashi called for the restoration of the old Khitan system, and actually set up a military state in Nanjing Daoguang, and forcibly organized the Han people who were originally governed by the Han county system into slave households. The so-called casting slave households is to turn the Han people, who were originally governed by the Liao court, into slaves belonging to various Khitan tribes. Yelu Dashi and according to the number of tribal troops, every Khitan warrior in the expedition, are rewarded to the Han people as slaves and corresponding land, although recorded in the name of the tribal warrior, the actual income is owned by the tribal leader. And in exchange for Yelu Dashi's command of the Khitan tribal army. Yelu Dashi temporarily divided the recruited tribal warriors into five classes, the most courageous could exchange 100 slaves for the tribe, and the ordinary ones only exchanged 5 slaves. Yelu Dashi announced that those who fought bravely and bravely in the Khitan tribe could be knighted, and the maximum number of slaves rewarded could be as high as 10,000 households.

Although Yelu Dashi recruited a large number of Khitan soldiers and got the tribal leaders to agree to his reorganization, it caused many Han households in Nanjing Province to be displaced and even destroyed. In the past, although the governance of the Liao State was tyrannical, there was still a bit of royal law, and after these Han people were assigned to the tribe's surrender to the military state, life and death were dominated by the Khitan tribe, and the transportation to the slightly worse ones was worse than the slaves under the original system.

"His grandmother's, the Khitan dog thief is so lawful, aren't you afraid of the Han rebellion?" Wang Tongdeng scolded, "He divided all the households under the tribe, asked for no people, asked for food without food, and fought for the world." He stretched out his hand and slapped the general's newspaper on the table, shouting: "Why did Anbei and Andong military division not send troops to the east and destroy this dog thief!" ”

Zhao Xingde pondered for a moment and muttered: "This Yelu Dashi is a hero, and it is impossible to tolerate being set up by the tribal leader. In my opinion, he is temporarily tolerant, just to seize the Khitan tribes and send soldiers to fight for him. These tribal leaders, for the sake of immediate interests, send the tribal soldiers to his command, sooner or later they will have to reap the consequences. ”

"In this way, does the Han'er of Nanjing Dao still have a chance of life?" There was a hint of compassion in Du Chuijiao's eyes.

"That's not true," Zhao Xingde said slowly, "This is the internal distribution of spoils among their Khitans, people are swordsmen, and they make fish and meat, how good can the end be?" There was a look of pain in his eyes. Outside the window, there was another huge cheer, and another cannon weighing thousands of pounds was placed on the ship.

In the Linquan Palace in Dunhuang, Shi Cui Chunyou, the head of the Protectorate Mansion, said: "The Protector Mansion is holding each other, and there is no decision yet. Most of the lieutenants thought that the attack on Rus' was imminent, and that no more battles could be fought until the end of this battle. And the Liao people are so perverse and insult our Chinese well-dressed people, Kang Deming strongly advocated sending troops to conquer the Liao State. Yang Ren thought that the alliance in the northern part of the desert was a big trouble, and when it was not in its fledgling, the cavalry of the Andong Military Division went out of the fortress, and the Anbei Military Division launched the Yinhu cavalry to extinguish it with all its might, so as not to be left behind. Yu Zangyun advocated taking advantage of the Liao people's contention to seize Yunzhou first, and then wait and see. Each of the three lieutenants also has supporters. ”

Cui Chunyou, the head of the Protector Mansion, is only responsible for the management and daily operation of the Protector Mansion. When making decisions on major national affairs, more than 400 school captains had their own opinions, among which Kang Deming, Yang Ren, and Yu Zangyun were the most prominent. The styles of the three are very different. The so-called benevolent see benevolence, wise men see wisdom, Liu Yi once said, Kang Deming is Confucianism, Yang Ren is Mojia, and Yu Zangyun is Legalism.

"Your Majesty," Liu Yi said in a deep voice, "If you want to take advantage of Liao's internal turmoil and destroy his country in one fell swoop, the Song State will inevitably take advantage of the fire." Successively fought with the Liao and Song armies, and our dynasty will come out with the whole army, which will take a long time. In the opinion of the ministers, before the west is decided, the eastern battlefield should be small and weak and stubborn. When the matter in the west is over, we will concentrate our military forces again and plan it in one fell swoop. However, the alliance of the northern tribes of the desert was unprecedented, and although Haidu Khan's power was still small, his ambitions were very great, and he threatened to unify all the tribes of the steppe and let the whole world be his pasture. ”

Chen Xuan's expression moved slightly, and then turned to contemplation. In his own heart, even if he temporarily stopped the long-prepared Rus Campaign, he wanted to take this opportunity to destroy the Liao State in one fell swoop, but judging from the prophecy recorded in the ancestors' notes, the Jurchen and the northern Mobei tribe were the real enemies, and the Great Song Dynasty in the account was greedy for profit, which led to the Jurchen sitting on the throne. "A lesson from the past" made Chen Xuan have to be extra cautious in the matter of cutting Liao.

After a long time, Chen Xuan said slowly: "Since there is still a dispute in the Protectorate Mansion, you can let the Anbei Military Division prepare first, and when the Battle of Rus is over, then ask the General's Mansion and the Protectorate Mansion to discuss the conquest of Haidu Khan." He paused for a moment and said, "As for the turmoil in Liao, observing its movements, we must not let the Jurchens in Liaodong become a trend." ”

Liu Yi was slightly stunned, he used to patrol the border in Mobei all the year round, so he was particularly sensitive to the alliance of the Mobei tribe, thinking that it would be a big disaster for the country in the future. Your Majesty doesn't know why, in addition to the tense dragon and tiger battle in the Liao Kingdom, he paid special attention to the Jurchen tribe that had just risen?

At this time, in the vast Mobei grassland, a group of Khitan cavalry closely guarded a messenger galloping. Suddenly, there were several clear sounds in the sky, and the messenger looked up to see several rare white eagles hovering high in the sky. This kind of bird of prey because of its peculiar coat color, is often the northern desert tribe to the chief's tribute, the Khitan envoy's face was happy, immediately shouted, with the cavalry towards the place where the eagle group rose and fell.