In winter, Qilu and Hedong are stable and quiet. The cold winter has extinguished all people's fighting spirit. But this does not mean that Jinghu and Jiangnan are the same.

The time that Zhao Ji has spent these days is like walking on a deep muddy road, step by step, moving forward with difficulty, the more difficult it is to walk with his two feet, and the deeper he becomes. New troubles, new misfortunes, new shocks awaited him. Often one affliction has not yet passed, and the second affliction comes again, sometimes even several afflictions come at the same time.

Why is this the case?

Zhao Ji asked loudly.

Just last year, he was still thinking about the Northern Expedition to Yanyun and mixing with the Han land. But at this time of the year, he just wanted to close his ears and let the news go away, so that the bad news could not reach his ears.

Dongting Lake has another bell, and in a short period of time, it has broken more than ten states and counties on Jinghu South Road, which is very difficult to govern.

Zhao Ji just wanted to wail. He couldn't understand how his splendid country and prosperous world had become stormy in the blink of an eye. So he is fundamentally the material to be the emperor.

After the New Year's Festival this year, although the siege of Xiangyang Mansion in Jinghu was fortunately lifted, it was followed by continuous defeats, which greatly frustrated his hope of "a new year and a new atmosphere". The defeat in Jiangnan and the defeat around Dongting Lake occurred almost simultaneously. He originally hoped that Liang Fangping could temporarily stabilize the defeat in Jiangnan, so that the imperial court would have time to transfer soldiers and horses from the Western Army, but who expected that Liang Fangping would bring him a big defeat just after the Chinese New Year.

Suzhou was lost.

Around the same time, bad news came from Dongting Lake. Dingli Zhenfu envoy and Dingzhou Cheng Changyu was defeated. Residents of 19 counties in Ding, Li, Tan, Yue, and Chen (now Lixian, Changsha, Yueyang, and Yuanling, Hunan) responded.

In this way, Zhao Ji had just finished his first New Year in Luoyang, Xijing, and he was hit twice. In addition, he also got a report, saying that Liangshan Bo Song Jiangbu broke the famous city on Huainan West Road, which was very rampant, and he heard that he would have to cross the Yangtze River to contact Fang La, and he was currently training water masters in Chaohu Lake.

Jiangnan is the lifeblood of Zhao and Song's money and grain, and after the historical Song Huizong heard about the uprising in the south of Jiangnan, he dealt with it decisively and dispatched troops very quickly. In only half a year, more than 30 people, including Fang La, his wife Shao Shi, his son Fang Bo (the second prince), and Prime Minister Fang Fei, were arrested and executed.

But now in this time and space, Fang La, who had an incident on August 15 last year, has been four or five months now, and he is still alive and kicking, and his strength is still expanding.

No way. Zhao Song's military strength was used in the battle in the land of Qilu, where is there any surplus troops for Jiangnan?

Zhao Ji's only way was to order the local governments of Huainan and Jiangnan to organize their own people to resist the thieves. At the same time, Liu Menglong, the commander of the Jinling Naval Division, was appointed as the defense envoy along the river, and resolutely cut off the direct contact between the Liangshan bandits and Fang La.

Then the edict abolished the white land, banned the goods, increased the tax on the field, added the price of wine, took vinegar interest, and increased the discount of rice in Hebei. The people wept too.

But even if Zhao Ji was in a state of anxiety, one of his eyes was still looking at Qilu tightly. There was no agreement between Song Qi. Liang Shanbo has also been recruiting soldiers.

……

Dizhou, the northernmost state under Lu Qian's rule. Because of the cowardice of the Song army in Hebei, Dizhou led troops south in the Song River, and after being unoccupied for more than half a month, it was reclassified under Lu Qian's rule.

Now, the Taishou of Dizhou is Cheng Wanli, and Lu Qian's matching soldier and horse envoy is also Cheng Wanli's old acquaintance - Zhou Bin.

The luck of this guy is really good, and in the decisive battle that day, Cheng Wanli and his two sons were taken prisoner. But Zhou Bin escaped again. ran to Puzhou City like this, and after arriving in Puzhou, Zhou Bin didn't escape, he didn't want to run anymore.

In fact, he understands in his heart that without Cheng Wanli, he will be reclassified into the official army, and he may be used more as cannon fodder.

In this way, Zhou Bin surrendered to Liangshan. But he has no merit, no bravery, and it is difficult for Lu Qian to promote him. What's more, Zhou Bin also came to himself when he lost his heart by the Yellow River, and the friendship back then has long since been consumed. originally wanted to throw him to serve under Zhai Jin, who stayed in Qidi in exchange for his eldest brother Zhai Xing returning to Heluo.

Essentially, it's a two-sided bet. If it weren't for the fact that he Zhai Jin was really sincere above his head, Lu Qian wouldn't be so easy to speak.

And at this time, the problem of Dizhou was placed in front of Lu Qian, and in this way, the old partners of Cheng Wanli and Zhou Bin converged again. It's just that the two of them have added a power word in front of their official titles. The right is the generation.

Zhou Bin ran through Wudi, Deping, and Shanghe counties in five days, and sure enough, as reported by the county officials, he saw a lot of ragged people along the way, fleeing south in twos and threes.

There was no disaster in Hebei this year, and there were bumper harvests in many places. However, the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger. With Tong Guan in the Daimyo Mansion, can the people of Hebei still do well?

Tong Guan died and asked for money and food, otherwise what would he use to recruit troops and horses?

It can only be the people of Hebei who suffer so much.

But when he slipped around and returned to Huimin, Zhou Bin found that there were more people fleeing here. He had only been out for five days, and the city had changed dramatically.

Fortunately, a number of porridge shacks have been set up in the state capital, and although there are many refugees, they can be maintained without causing any trouble. Even the people of the city are safe, and no house is closed.

Zhou Bin went straight to the Taishou Mansion, and when he arrived at the Taishou Mansion, he was told by the officials in the mansion that Cheng Wanli was not there and was inspecting outside. Zhou Bin didn't have time, so he sat down and waited for him.

In this way, it was not until the time of the lamp that Zhou Bin finally waited for this tired old man of Qi.

He inspected the porridge sheds inside and outside the city, and did not return until dark. But no matter how tired he is, when he sees Zhou Bin, he also knows what the top priority is.

Assemble the army. Dizhou must have a large-scale army and horses, not a battalion of only 500 men now. According to the regular order issued by the Ministry of War, Dizhou needs to have four battalions of soldiers and horses. Here is the border state. Although their ordnance here is the last batch to be allocated. Who called the Hebei Song Army so soft.

According to the official system of King Qi, this soldier and horse need to be recruited and trained by the military department. It's just that how can the current military department take care of Dizhou, so that the money, food, and armor are allocated, and Dizhou is still self-reliant. On the day of the completion of the army, the military department will send people to inspect it. As long as he is qualified, he will be a member of the local garrison under Lu Qian.

The latter is the third-level military unit of the current Liangshan Army, after the regular army and the reserve army. And the duty, just listen to the name.

It can be said that the reserve army of the reserve army.

The birth of such an army caused a voice to sound in the army - the name of the reserve army was too ugly, and the reserve army was changed to a regular soldier. "The matter of building the army should not be urgent, recently I have inquired about Yidu one or two, and the test is very strict. Don't make mistakes in your busyness. ”

Zhou Bin nodded busily and explained the training plan in his stomach in detail. How dare he be negligent? This is arguably his last chance. Cheng Wanli looked at Zhou Bin's back and sighed, it was really unpredictable. Once upon a time, he was still a loyal minister of the Song court, and when he first saw Tong Guan, he was still devoted to the Song Dynasty, but now. Alas, don't mention it. He Cheng Wanli is such a person, he can't be so ruthless as Uncle Zhang. He almost hanged himself, what a fool.

Thinking of this mileage, he laughed out loud, he laughed at his cheap son-in-law who had never regarded himself as an old man.

It's really bad. Unknowingly, he brought back all the family members of the Zhang family, making Uncle Zhang's old stubbornness dumbfounded.

Burdened by family, burdened by family. Why not?

Zhou Bin rushed to the military camp in the north of the city, and the battalion commander Shi Wengong was already waiting in front of the camp gate. Zhou Bin was not arrogant to Shi Wengong at all. He knew that the person in front of him was an extraordinary person, and his martial arts were outstanding, and the reason why he ended up where he was today was simply ignorant of what he was doing. Speaking of which, it is also the same fate as himself.

And it is precisely because of the similarity of the fate of the two that Shi Wengong and Zhou Bin get along very well.

In Lu Qian's official system, there are soldiers and horses, but there are no deputy envoys. The deputy of the soldier and horse envoy is generally the first-ranking battalion commander in the army. In the past few days, Zhou Bin has been running around, and the camp can still be orderly, which is all due to Shi Wengong.

"The displaced people come from Hebei, and most of them are caused by the persecution of Tong Guan, and a recent visit to some of them Ding Zhuang all have a bitter hatred for Tong Guan and the Hebei government. Now that the ordnance has been transported, we can recruit young and strong people from among the homeless people, so that they can be used by us, and secondly, they will be transferred to Ding Zhuang, so that the homeless people will not cause trouble. Some people think that they don't even need money, and the homeless people are like clouds. ”

Zhou Bin listened to it and thought it was true.

And just as Shi Wengong said, with money, food, and a common object of 'hatred', the entire recruitment work in Dizhou went extremely smoothly.

If the five days before and after were insufficient, the shortfall of the three battalions was filled. Among them, the young and strong among the homeless people accounted for six or seven. The enthusiasm of the local people in Dizhou to join the army is still insufficient.

Early morning.

Shi Wengong looked at the first battalion of recruits gathered and couldn't help but shake his head. These people, both physically and energetically, were far from being comparable to the reserve army he led. Even when he was training soldiers in Zengtou City, those Zhuang Ke were stronger than these recruits.

Zhou Bin was already very satisfied. The body is weak and not afraid, some eat food, some eat meat, and soon become strong. As long as the spirit is full, this is the material for a good soldier.

This is much better than the brothers he had at the beginning.

Shi Wengong secretly pouted in his heart, comparing the Xiang Army with the Liangshan Army, which was insulting the Liangshan Army.

"Run, run, run for me. The ten fastest runners had meat to eat and wine to drink. Shi Wengong shouted loudly. Before the queue for training, run first, run out of breath, which is good for physical and mental health.

At the same time, Lu Qian was sleeping with Hu Sanniang in his arms.

It was also at this time that in the camp of Yidu Prison, there was a jingling of chains, and Hu Yanzhuo, Han Tao, Peng Xi, Zhang Qing, Ding Desun, Gong Wang, Xuanzan, Wen Da, Yang Wen, Xu Jing, Li Congji and others were invited out of the cell one by one. They don't have to stay here anymore.