The Song Dynasty, Wan Yan Liang, and Wan Yan Yong were each preparing, waiting for an opportunity.

Time passes quickly.

In the blink of an eye, the following spring, the snow melted and the earth rejuvenated.

There was not much turmoil in the war for a few months, the entire Shandong East Road has returned to calm, last year active in Shandong more than 100,000 volunteers, nearly half of them attached to the Shandong Volunteers, after the festival made the Yamen tax exemption decree spread, most of the remaining rebels disbanded on the spot, returned to their hometowns, only a few remained to occupy the mountains as kings, but it has become a climate.

The moats of Yidu Mansion and Zizhou have been widened, reaching seven or eight zhang, the city defense has been strengthened, and the scale of the Shandong Righteous Army has also expanded, with more than 40,000 garrisons in the two cities, and the strength of the troops makes the Jin people dare not send troops easily.

There were 30,000 soldiers in Jinan Prefecture, and a small force of troops appeared in Zizhou, but they retreated on their own before they approached 30 miles below the city, and they never came to Zizhou again, but they left 5,000 defenders in Zhangqiu County, 80 miles west of Zizhou, to monitor the movements of the Zizhou rebels, and to prevent them from suddenly attacking Jinan Prefecture.

After several months of intensive training, coupled with the replacement of weapons and armor, the combat effectiveness of the entire Shandong Volunteer Army has been significantly improved.

Yao Chang and Luo Cong trained the soldiers of the Righteous Army in the East and West Prefectures to prepare for the capture of Jinan Mansion, and Shen Jin was not idle, since last year, he was the most stressed and busiest in the entire Shandong Righteous Army, because he was responsible for the food of the entire Righteous Army and some of the people.

Shandong East Road has long been a piece of erosion, the fields are barren, the vast majority of the people's grain storage was swept up when Yan Liang went south, last year there was a year of uprising, there were rebels everywhere, there are not many people to grow grain at ease, it can be said that there is not much grain in the whole Shandong.

In times of war, food is more useful than gold and silver, so after the gentry in various places donated a batch of grain, what they donated was gold, silver and copper coins, and Shen Jin was not short of money, he had millions in his hands, and all he lacked was food.

After taking Zizhou, Shen Jin went to Liaoyang, one wanted to inquire about the situation in Liaoyang, and the other was to get some cattle and sheep.

The food was not obtained, but Shen Jin met with Emperor Wanyan Yong of Liaoyang.

Wan Yanyong, who became the emperor, was different from the past, and the friendship in the past had faded in his eyes, and Shen Jin clearly felt that he was also extra careful when talking to him, answering questions and responding to requests.

After Yan Yong asked about the situation in the south, Shen Jin told him that the old emperor of the Song Dynasty had abdicated and the new emperor had ascended the throne, and he had not heard of any major moves, but he had heard that the main battle faction in the court of the Song Dynasty was preparing for war, and he might have to carry out a northern expedition to recapture their Bianjing and the Yellow River Valley.

These news are not much different from what he sent people to listen to, and asked about the chaotic army in the area ruled by Yan Liang, Shen Jin told him that Dengzhou, Mizhou, Yidu Mansion and other places in Shandong, which he often visits, have all been occupied by the righteous army, and the momentum is huge, it is estimated that it will not be long, and it is possible to attack Jinan Mansion, because the righteous army lacks food and clothing, and its combat effectiveness is not very high, whether it can capture Jinan Mansion is still a problem, if there is an accident, the righteous army scatters, it is also very possible.

He also told Yan Yong that he came to Liaoyang this time, in fact, he was entrusted by the Shandong Righteous Army to see if the emperor could help the righteous army to tide over the difficulties, once the righteous army passed the difficulties, he would definitely take Jinan Mansion and assist the emperor to defeat Wan Yan Liang!

As soon as he heard Shen Jin's identity, Wan Yanyong suddenly became interested, and hurriedly asked the details of the Shandong Righteous Army, who led it? How many people are there? What about armaments? How is the combat power?

Shen Jin told Yan Yong that there were two leaders of the Shandong Righteous Army, one was called Luo Cong and the other was Yao Chang, each with 40,000 righteous troops, but their weapons and equipment were not very good, and their combat effectiveness was low.

Hearing that there were nearly 100,000 people in the Shandong Righteous Army, Wan Yan Yong was immediately overjoyed, if he could use this force, Wan Yan Liang's army in Zhending Mansion and Hejian Mansion would form a north-south flank attack, and his army in Yanjing would not have a chance of winning.

So he immediately promised that as long as the Shandong Righteous Army could cooperate with the Yanjing Army to launch an attack on Wan Yan Liang's army, he could provide a part of the grain and grass of the Shandong Righteous Army, and after Yan Liang was completely defeated, if the Shandong Righteous Army was willing, he could attach himself to him, and he would supply all the grain and grass in the future, and it would naturally be indispensable for the Shandong Righteous Army to be knighted.

But this kind of promise was not what Shen Jin wanted, and he told Wan Yanyong that the Shandong Righteous Army now has nearly 100,000 people, and it is not only short of food, but also short of weapons and armor. Originally, their strength was three times that of the defenders of Jinan Mansion, and they wanted to attack Jinan Mansion, but the righteous army lacked weapons and armor, and their combat effectiveness was insufficient, so it was difficult to carry it out.

If the rebels had enough weapons and armor, they would definitely be able to capture Jinan Mansion within three months, and then enter Jinan, where they could threaten the Daimyo Mansion and Bianjing in the south and Zhending Mansion in the north.

The food was not available, and Shen Jin really wanted to ask for a batch of armor and weapons from Wan Yanyong.

The Shandong Righteous Army of nearly 100,000 people, although they successively seized a lot of weapons and armor from the arsenals of various prefectures and prefectures in Shandong, and transported a large number of weapons and materials from Qindao to Yidu Mansion from Qindao to the spoils of the Mizhou Naval Army, but the total number of righteous troops that could be equipped was less than 50,000, and nearly half of the righteous army under them had at most a weapon, and they were still wearing their own clothes, and the righteous army without armor had a lot of opinions about the Yamen of the Jiedu Envoy, and suspected that they treated the rebels differently.

Shen Jin was very worried about the outbreak of contradictions within the rebel army, if Jinan Mansion was not taken, the rebel army would fall apart because of internal contradictions, then their efforts and efforts in the past six months would be in vain.

Therefore, the problem of military armor, no matter when, must be solved for the righteous army.

In the end, Shen Jin asked for 5,000 sets of armor from Wan Yanyong, and the promise he needed to fulfill was that the Shandong rebels would capture Jinan Mansion within three months. Similarly, if the goal of capturing Jinan Mansion is achieved, Wan Yanyong will give the Shandong Righteous Army another 5,000 sets of armor, and will also provide them with some cattle and sheep.

Shen Jin returned to Yidu Mansion with 5,000 sets of armor, but the food problem could not be solved from the north, so he began to make up his mind to the south.

The coastal area of Huaidong south of Haizhou was not disturbed by the Jin people, and the world was peaceful for 20 years, accumulating a lot of wealth, and there was naturally not a small number of grains.

Shen Jin has a lot of money in his hands, and he has been engaged in Huiyi for a long time, and he is very familiar with the merchants in Shandong, and he also has some contact with the merchants in Huaidong, so he found a few big businessmen in Yidu City and gave them money to purchase grain from Huaidong.

As long as there is something, as long as you ask for money, you can buy as much as you want, and there is no shortage of food in the coastal areas of Huaidong, which have not suffered any attacks, what they lack is money, because although they have a lot of food, the imperial court does not allow them to sell it to the north privately.

But now that the world is in turmoil, many officials have fled, or they don't take care of things very much, and the most important thing is that the battle line has moved north from Chuzhou to Haizhou and Yizhou, and the border garrison has also been transferred, but the government has not kept up in time, so no one cares how much grain the people want to sell, and no one will ask.

There were garrisons everywhere, grain was procured everywhere, and whoever offered a reasonable price would sell the grain to whomever it wanted, and this was the freedom of the common people and the big gentry.

Shen Jin took a lot of money, and in a few months, he purchased more than 400,000 quintals of grain from Huaidong and eastern Zhejiang, transported Qindao and Yidu Mansion one by one by sea, and then distributed them to Zizhou to supply the rebels, and another part was lent to the prefectures and governments, so that the government could lend them to the people to help them survive the spring famine, and it would not be too late after the summer or autumn grain was harvested.

The food problem was solved with huge sums of money, and the morale of the entire Shandong Volunteer Army was strong, and even the training was even harder.

In fact, in troubled times, as long as you can eat enough, it is not a problem to work hard at all.

Therefore, nearly 100,000 Shandong rebels, after training for several months, quickly regarded Jinan Mansion as the next target to be captured.

Yidu Mansion, Jiedu makes the yamen, the left government and the right government discuss together.

"There is not much time left for us, and if we don't take Jinan Mansion, I'm afraid we won't be able to cooperate with Lord Yang's strategy, and we will be ruined to restore the big thing. Second brother, third brother, when do you think you can capture Jinan Mansion? Shen Jin was very anxious, the food, grass and ordnance were relatively sufficient, and the rebels had rested for several months, so it was time to move.

Luo Cong said: "Jinan Mansion is not very easy to fight, a hundred miles north of Zizhou is Binzhou, still in the hands of the Jinren, more than 10,000 garrisons, if our whole army goes out to fight Jinan, once the siege is unfavorable, under the city of Jinan and the defenders hold each other, the enemy army in Binzhou may take the opportunity to make trouble, before hitting Jinan, this problem must be solved first." ”

Yao Chang shook his head and said: "Although Binzhou has 10,000 garrisons, they are all ordinary people who have been put together temporarily, and they don't have much combat effectiveness, besides, they still lack food and clothing, it's okay to stay in the city, once they are released from the city, the 10,000 troops may be scattered in a day, so Binzhou is not afraid, don't worry about them." The real problem is that there are 30,000 defenders in Jinan Province and nearly 60,000 people in the city. ”

"There are many people in Jinan City, it is indeed a trouble, once the siege is urgent, there is a loss of troops, they can be requisitioned and extracted from the people at any time, which is equivalent to seventy or eighty thousand defenders in the city, even if we pour out, it is difficult to capture the city." Luo Cong nodded.

"Then you mean that Jinan will not fight?" Shen Jin's brows furrowed slightly.

"To fight is to fight, but not to attack. We might as well start from the counties of Jinan Prefecture, first take Zhangqiu, and then take Licheng, and strive to lure the defenders outside the city of Jinan, and annihilate them outside the city, so that the city of Jinan is an empty city, and then it will be at our fingertips. ”

"It is difficult to lure the defenders outside the city, I thought that after we took Jangqiu, we should go south from Jangqiu, go straight to Taean, and then cooperate with the Xuzhou and Suzhou armies to capture Jeju. As long as Jeju is taken, Shandong and Huaibei can also be connected. ”