"Liu Heima's father and son began to contact the northern soldiers of the Jin and Song countries a long time ago." In the face of the old and shrewd new envoys, Li Bingying naturally had nothing to hide: "The Mongols are very lax in the management of the northern land, basically as long as they can pay the tribute on time, they will go out with the army in wartime, and all the northern parts will be handed over to these ten thousand households to take care of." The powerful and powerful households in various places basically sent people to contact Song Jin's generals in case of emergency. ”

"These are the common sense of the generals." Zhao Kui stared at Li Bing and said, "Say something useful!" ”

Li Bingying was stunned by his shining eyes, and said in a trembling voice: "For example, Xia Quan and Chang Jin of De'an, and Fan Yongji of Junzhou have all agreed with Liu Wanhu in advance, and they will surrender as soon as the army arrives."

Zhao Kui nodded, and said sharply: "You don't need to explain which of the Jinghu Army has connections with the north now, even if you say it, I won't listen, but you won't see the sun tomorrow again, understand?" ”

He asked again, "Do you have a way to contact Fan Yongji and Chang Jin now?" ”

Li Bingying naturally knew that this was not to let him go, but to let him confess the way to contact his boss, these are the core secrets of spies, and they are secrets that would rather be decapitated than revealed.

"It's not for you to say how to contact Liu Heima." Zhao Kui waved his hand impatiently: "As long as you find a way to hand me two letters." Tell them that as long as they can learn their way back and return to righteousness, the court will not blame them for the past and still use them. ”

"With all due respect, with the current situation between the Mongols and the Great Song Dynasty, everyone knows which side to choose." Although Li Bingying was a prisoner, he couldn't help but be sarcastic.

Zhao Kui responded lightly: "It seems that Your Excellency must have chosen the right side." ”

Li Bing was choked by him, and then kept silent.

"In front of Shatou City, the Mongolian army has already tasted the power of General Zhu. Before the next autumn, there will be tens of thousands of bamboo generals to equip the various cities of Jinghu, and at that time, it will not be the Mongols who will suffer the most, but Fan Yongji and Chang Jin, the newly attached military horses. If they knew that it was powerful, it would have been better to surrender earlier. ”

Half of what he said was a bluff, and half of it was the feeling of the officers and soldiers who had personally visited the battle of Shatou City, and the power of General Zhu's roar, which they described very vividly.

"If you can get a sharp weapon like this, why worry about Jinghu being uneasy!" Although Zhao Kui didn't fully believe their words, after personally inspecting them, he had to admit that this weapon was much superior to the firearms used by the Song Dynasty army in the past.

The only problem is that the right to manufacture such sharp weapons is completely in the hands of Zheng Yunming. Zheng Yunming refused to let go, so that the plan of 10,000 bamboo generals to equip the Jinghu army could only come to naught. So when Zheng Yunming came to visit, he publicly raised the matter.

"General Bamboo's design drawings and delicate gunpowder preparation methods have been handed over to the Governor's Office and quickly submitted to the Privy Council, and large-scale production should be seen soon after. As for the present, it is undoubtedly more convenient to purchase the products of Gangneung Workshop. Zheng Yunming's answer was neither humble nor arrogant, of course, this is equivalent to a soft nail. Zheng Yunming must also show his position after the newly arrived envoy dismounts Ma Liwei, otherwise Jing Ejun's status in front of Zhao Kui will be reduced.

Zhao Kui just slowly raised his eyelids and glanced at Zheng Yunming under the seat, it was impossible for him to force his subordinates to the army with the highest loyalty to the imperial court.

"In that case, it is enough for the craftsmen in Gangneung to manufacture it, and the manufacturing and procurement department will do it."

Zheng Yunming breathed a sigh of relief, and said: "The last general has a little doubt about the art of war, I don't know what his opinion is?" "Talking about how to solve the problem of Mongolian land and water flanking tactics, I told Zhao Kui the original.

Zhao Kui couldn't help but raise the corners of his mouth, although he had already ruled over 10,000 people, Zheng Yunming still retained the figure of the prince who was thirsty for knowledge and kept asking questions. It had been a long time since he had seriously discussed the art of war with his men.

"The Hu people have cavalry archers, and we have big war ships." He stretched out a finger: "The essence of fighting a war is to concentrate all your strength on your strongest part, and then use this advantage to crush the opponent." ”

"Ships loaded with ballistas and conceals approached the shore, and then fired ballista arrows farther away than the Mongols to disrupt their formation. This is the only way that works at the moment. Zhao Kui said: "But the cost is very high." ”

Zheng Yunming has also considered this method, but it is also affected by economic pressure. In order to build a warship to suppress the shore with water fire, it is necessary to have sophisticated shipborne artillery.

"The purpose of recruiting you is not to talk about the art of war," Zhao Kui brought the topic back on track: "It's to clean up the mess in Jinghu." ”

The Mongol invasion in the second year of Duanping caused heavy damage to the border areas of the Song Dynasty. Only the states and counties that were conquered and surrendered included Zaoyang, De'an, Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Junzhou, Fangzhou, etc. In addition, almost all the suburbs of the prefectures and counties north of the Yangtze River were ravaged by the Mongol light cavalry. All the crops were burned, the peasants were slaughtered, the ploughing tools were destroyed, and the farms were destroyed. The garrison of the civil and military generals were either killed or fled. Right now, the ruined state and county are deserted, and wild wolves and dogs occupy the houses. The homeless people wandered from place to place, and the little relief food that the Governor's Government had managed to raise could not support such a large number of displaced people.

This is the first thing Zhao Kui must do after taking office, and if he does not handle the endgame of Jinghu well, it may bring greater disasters.

"What does the system want me to do?" Zhao Kui is Zheng Qingzhi's old acquaintance, and Zheng Yunming's speech is not tactful. "Jing and Hubei should be the manager, and Jinghu is broken, and he has done his best."

"It's not the Jing'e Metropolitan Division," Zhao Kui said: "But as the Nanzhang County Order, I order you to accept 20,000 homeless households from the north, settle them in Nanzhang County, distribute cattle seeds, build cottages for them to live in, and seize the time to settle the lives of the homeless people and resume production, the Mongols will not leave us too much time." ”

As a county order, governing the officials and people of a county is one of the goals of scholars, but I didn't expect Zheng Yunming to go around in a big circle, and then returned to the road of governing the people.

Zhao Kui smiled approvingly and said, "It's not only me who is looking at you, but also all the ministers of Lin'an, and"

He silently pointed upward.

Zheng Yunming smiled and said, "Don't put too much pressure on me, I haven't officially used the imperial belt given by the official family." ”

"That's for the best." Zhao Kui said: "You can use haste to obey power in war, but you can't govern the people,"

"How to deal with these 20,000 homeless people will test your wisdom and ability more than you lead 5,000 earth dragon troops."

Zheng Yunming bowed down and agreed: "You don't have to worry about this, you have been familiar with the Master's scriptures for ten years, just for today." ”

It's easy to say, but when it comes to doing it, Zheng Yunming feels that the gains from the ten years of cold windows are useless in dealing with today's situation.

Twenty thousand families came from the north in a hurry, and in the panic they barely had time to take any food and goods with them. After a long journey, the desolate and hasty appearance is enough to make people cry without going into detail.

The ragged crowd walked slowly down the avenue, no one talking, no one shouting, except for the occasional cry or two. It's not that they don't suffer, it's that the pain is so much that it's numbing.

The old man is on a cane with a branch, the mother is carrying a hungry child who has no strength to cry, the middle-aged man is carrying the only little luggage, everyone is walking with the most strength, Nanzhang County is their only remaining hope, if this hope is lost, they will really become white bones in the ravine, or the corpse of the wild dog on the plain.

Zheng Yunming had seen too many of these tragic scenes in the suburbs of Xiangyang after the war, and he didn't want to see them again anyway.

"If you can save one, you will save one." He shouted to the 2,000 sergeants of Tulong and Zhenwu: "The grain purchased from Jiangnan will arrive immediately, and once it arrives, immediately open a porridge shed to give porridge, and don't delay for a moment!" ”

The Jing'e army quickly set up dozens of porridge fields on both sides of the official road, and the soldiers continued to transport grain from Xiangyang and Jingmen troops to here. The front of each porridge shed was crowded with hungry homeless people, and adults and children did not care to chew slowly, and sent the thin porridge into the empty belly sac in one go, although it could not be called hunger, but it also somewhat offset the pursuit of some hungry gods who searched their stomachs.

Among them, there were also some young and strong men, relying on some strength, to push away the old people and children in front of the porridge shed, and continued to ask for rice porridge.

A reckless man who looked a little fierce pushed an old woman to sit aside and shouted: "Old immortal, it's useless to give you porridge to drink, and you don't have a few days to live, so it's better to leave it to the young people to eat!" ”

Before he could turn around and snatch the porridge bowl, a large hand had already grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back, pulling him out of the crowd and slamming him to the ground.

Ren Xiongwei was furious, raised the stick in his hand, and was beaten indiscriminately, making the reckless man cry and beg for mercy.

Zheng Yunming walked up to the fallen old woman, bent down and gently helped her up, looking at her wrinkled and dusty face, he suddenly felt sour in his heart for some reason.

Zheng Xian gave the old man a bowl of gruel, and the old man hurriedly picked it up and drank the porridge in one go, without even wiping his mouth, he knelt on the ground with the empty bowl in his hand, and thanked Zheng Yunming.

The old man's family rushed over from the side of the road, and when they saw that the general of Jinghu was here, they also came to Luo Bai to thank him.

Zheng Yunming hurriedly ordered someone to help him, and asked the old woman's son, "Why didn't you bring a little food when you came out?" Let the old people starve like this? ”

The man bowed his head with shame: "The cavalry of the Tartars came too fast, and everyone had to flee for their lives." The grain was put in the cellar, and not a grain could be brought out. ”