Chapter Thirty-Two: A Beautiful Difference

  Suizhou City is located on the north bank of the Huai River, and it has always been a place where the Song and Jin dynasties fought and vied for control. Whenever the two countries clashed, they would capture a large number of prisoners. As a result, the city's prison was also built to be particularly large, and it could hold over a thousand people without any problem.

  After Yue Yun led his army to capture the city of Xuzhou, he naturally released all the Han people in prison and then locked up the surrendered Jin soldiers.

  The prison was very dark and damp. Hundreds of captives locked in the prison were nervous, fearing that they would be killed by the Song army after all, they also knew that the Han people often hated traitors more than their enemies.

  Just then the prison gate opened and Song Jun yelled at the entrance: "Everyone get out! Stand in the courtyard outside the prison, it's time to decide your life or death!"

  The prisoners were nervously driven to the courtyard outside the prison, only to see that the walls were lined with archers, each bow and crossbow aimed at them with cold glinting arrows. At every exit, there were heavily armed infantrymen standing guard, holding shields in their left hands and guns in their right.

  "Are you going to kill us all today?" The captives began to panic!

  "Silence!" At this moment, a tall and handsome young general in white uniform stood out and shouted loudly.

  The captives stopped their clamor and listened quietly to what the young general in white had to say.

  "As Han people, you went to surrender to the Jurchen Tartars. It's really a shame for us Han people! I originally intended to behead all of you! But considering that you are after all my Han people, and seeing our Great Song official army arrive, you immediately surrendered, which is still somewhat forgivable!"

  That white-robed young general glanced at the crowd of captives in the courtyard and continued: "Now, I'll give you two options. The first is to be a loyal slave of the Jurchen-led Jin Dynasty, to dedicate your life to the Jin! The second is to become a vanguard soldier for the Great Song stationed in Xuzhou, to help the Song defend this city! Which path do you want to choose?"

  Is this still a choice? As long as it's not someone with brain problems, they'll choose the second option. Choosing the first one is clearly suicidal! These people are unwilling to be loyal to their own ethnic group, the Great Song Dynasty, how can they have the determination to die for the Jurchen-led Jin Dynasty?

  All the captives unanimously expressed their desire to take the second path and become Song soldiers.

  Among them, a middle-aged man stepped forward with a humble face and said in a loud voice: "We are willing to choose the second way - to be the vanguard of the Great Song! In fact, we have long had the intention to surrender, but unfortunately, there was no one to introduce us. Now that General has shown us a clear path, we will definitely die for the general! We must help the Great Song defend this Suzhou city, and if the Jin thieves come to attack, we will fight to the death, wrapped in horse leather, and vow not to surrender..."

  What he said was quite generous and stirring, but his head was a bit too short, which weakened the momentum.

  This white-robed young general was Yue Yun. He took a closer look at the man and saw that he was about forty years old, with a pointed mouth and a monkey-like face, sporting two wisps of whiskers. Although his voice was loud and clear, he was actually quite short.

  "Who are you? Report your name to this general!" Yuen Yun said with a faint smile.

  "My name is Liu Zhēn Yuán, originally under the Jin bandits as a captain... Ah, I made a mistake, originally in the Great Jin... Ah, no, I mean, what is your surname and great name, General?" asked Liu Zhēn Yuán cautiously.

  Yue Yun said coldly: "General Zhang Li! Liu Zhenyuan, for now I will let you atone for your crimes by making achievements. You will be the Commander-in-Chief of Great Song, leading these rebels who have surrendered!"

  "Oh! So it's General Zhang after all! I didn't know you had arrived, General. I'm truly ashamed... I've long heard that your archery and martial arts skills are superb..." Liu Zhenyuan immediately began to flatter him profusely, but in his heart he was puzzled - wasn't Zhang Li the eldest son of Zhang Jun? When did Zhang Jun become bold enough to launch a surprise attack on the Jin State?

  "Alright! No need to say more nonsense, hurry up and bring your people to catch the thief for me..." After that, Yue Yun handed a list to Liu Zhenyuan.

  Liu Zhenyuan took a look and found that all the names on the list were from wealthy families in the city.

  "General Zhang, this..." Liu Zhenyuan said with a difficult expression. These people usually didn't give these officers less tribute.

  "These people have been in close contact with the gold thief, go and catch them for me first, and interrogate them thoroughly!" Yuke Yun said with an unquestionable tone, without paying any attention to him.

  "Liu Zhēn Yuán could only reluctantly agree to follow the general's orders..." Then, he took those who had just changed from the Jin army to the Song army, but were still wearing Jin army uniforms, and went to catch people according to the list.

  However, he thought it was not a difficult task on the way, but rather a beautiful difference. He had often fabricated crimes and framed wealthy households for colluding with enemy troops to extort money, only that time it was framing the city's wealthy households for colluding with the Song army.

  Suizhou City is located on the north bank of the Huai River, and many wealthy households in the city have business dealings with both the Song and Jin dynasties. It would be very easy to find evidence that they are in contact with people from the enemy side.

  Liu Zhenyuan measured others with his own heart and naturally thought more of it.

  He thought to himself: I'm going into these wealthy households to capture people, it's not possible that I'll return empty-handed, right? I should be able to take some gold, silver, and valuables while I'm at it. And General Zhang actually handed this wonderful task over to me, even appointing me as the commander-in-chief. He's probably not familiar with the locations of these wealthy households in the city, that's why he's handing over a good thing to me. He's probably too embarrassed to say it outright, but wants to use my hands to make a profit for himself. When the time comes, the money and valuables we seize will likely have to be handed over to him as well.

  He felt more and more that he was right, so he immediately shouted loudly to the soldiers around him: "Brothers, let's go looting!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, someone immediately expressed doubt: "Captain Liu, didn't General Zhang say to capture people? He didn't say anything about searching homes!"

  Liu Zhēn Yuán immediately slapped the man hard and shouted: "Don't randomly call out my position, I am now the Commander-in-Chief of the Great Song Dynasty. General Zhang suspects that these people are colluding with the enemy, how can we investigate the problem by just arresting a few people? We must search their homes! Otherwise, how can we find evidence of treason? You've done this kind of thing before, don't you understand how to handle it?"

  Next to him, a clever person shouted at that man: "Du Lao Si, you're so stubborn, don't cut off the financial path for your brothers! Fortunately, General Zhang is new here and not familiar with the place, so he gave this good job to us. If it's a few more days, after they figure out the situation in the city, will they still give us such a good thing? This opportunity won't come again!"

  Old Fourth Niu heard this and suddenly came to his senses, hastily opening his eyes wide with a smile: "Right! Right! I, Old Du, was confused!"

  When Liu Zhenyuan was enthusiastically leading his men to search for homes, Yue Yun had already made preparations to withdraw and gathered more than 1,000 cavalrymen at the east gate of Sui Prefecture.

  Yue Yun and Guan Ling, Niu Tong stood at the forefront of the team, waiting for the scout's message to arrive before starting their retreat.

  However, Guanling was still somewhat puzzled about what had just happened, and he quietly asked on horseback: "Brother Yue, why did you call Liu Zhensheng to capture the wealthy households in the city? Isn't this harming these common people?"

  "Haha, Guan Ling, you're thinking too simply! Xuzhou is just south of the Song Dynasty's Huai'an Prefecture, and the two places are only a few dozen miles apart. If these people were loyal to the Song Dynasty, crossing the Huai River would be an easy task, but they've been living in Jin State all along, and what's more, they're able to live a life of luxury under the Jin rulers. It's likely that they've long since considered themselves to be thoroughly Jin people. Since they have no intention of returning to the Song Dynasty, and are willing to be traitors, why should we treat them with courtesy? They're not those ordinary civilians who can't retreat south!" Yue Yun said with a smile.

  He had previously discussed the list of petitioners with Wang Tong and found that those who were unwilling to return south were mostly people who had relatives in Jin Guo or were married to nobles. These people included Chinese scholars and merchants, some of whom were quite famous. As for these people whose political stance had changed, they were naturally excluded from the list by Yue Yun.

  After having an experience, Yue Yun naturally guessed eight or nine out of ten about the background situation of these large households in Xuzhou.

  After hearing this, Guan Ling seemed to have understood, and he nodded slowly.

  Yue Yun smiled slightly and continued to explain: "Moreover, I pretended to be Zhang Jun's eldest son Zhang Li, also wanting the Jin army that came to rescue Suzhou to misunderstand that Zhang Jun had sent troops. If the Jin army in Chuzhou knew that our Song Dynasty's reinforcements had arrived, they might worry about being attacked from both inside and outside, and maybe they would even withdraw!"

  Guan Ling and Niu Tong suddenly realized, secretly marveling at how their brother-in-law's brain had become so clever.

  Just then, a fast horse ran from outside the city to the east gate.

  The horseman rushed to the front of the gathered crowd, including Yue Yun, and immediately dismounted, bowing his head to report: "Report to the young master! A large number of Jurchen troops were discovered 50 miles east of the city, estimated to be over 10,000, and are heading towards Zezhou!"

  "Haha! Wanyan Zongmin knows that we've taken over Suzhou, he must be anxious! They only took two days to rush over here, their speed is really fast!" Yue Yun smiled and said: "Now let's withdraw! Let the Jin army first settle down the order in Suzhou city!"

  Having said that, he waved his hand and said with great enthusiasm: "Brothers, let's go! To Chu State!"

  Over a thousand iron cavalry merged into a black torrent, rushing away like rolling waves.

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  It's finally the weekend! Everyone has worked hard for a week and can finally take a break. Wishing everyone a happy weekend!