Chapter 690: Clinging to Survive

The power of an individual is too small in the face of the tide of the times.

There are only a handful of people who can control the tide of the times and show their personal style in the turbulent times.

And these people are all at the top of this era.

Zhou Shuguang knew that he was not.

He carefully hid himself and just wanted to live his own small life with his family and fellow villagers.

Of course, in an era like this, even if you want to live your own life quietly, you still need some capital.

There is no situation where if you don’t offend someone, they won’t offend you.

Weakness is the original sin. Not to mention the government, even the local ruffians will rush to bully you!

Therefore, Zhoujiapu has grown into a force unknowingly in these years.

Before the war, Zhoujiapu could only be regarded as a local rich man, but now, they are really powerful.

Over the years, the fort wall has become taller and taller, and more and more people are living on it, so naturally there are more and more forts.

No one paid attention to him before.

Because he did not rebel.

On the contrary, he behaved very meekly.

If you want food, he will raise it; if you want money, he will give you money.

Anyone who is not blind can understand Zhou Jiabao's attitude.

Don't push such a person into a hurry.

If you are really anxious, the rabbit will bite you.

And at this time, Zhou Jiabao was no longer a rabbit, but a real wolf dog.

Of course, no matter how ferocious a wolfdog is, it is still just a dog.

When the real golden-haired lion comes over, the wolf dog has no other choice but to obey.

So Zhou Shuguang could only bring his Baoding to Tokyo.

Because the eyes of the strong golden-haired lion Yeluzhen and the colorful tiger Yelulongxu have already been cast on them.

Now that it has been fattened and strong, of course it will be put to great use now.

In the past, I didn't touch you, firstly, to show docility, and secondly, on a land that has been ravaged, some people are still needed to farm the land with peace of mind.

If no one cultivates the land, no crops will grow from the soil.

And local powerful people like the Zhou family and the Sun family still play a considerable role in stabilizing the local area and developing the economy.

But now, they need to put in more effort.

Weakening the powerful powers in these places is also one of Yeluzhen's plans.

Otherwise, they will be beaten to death at the front, their strength will be weakened, and in the end, they may be manipulated by the powerful in these places. This is not something Yeluzhen can tolerate.

Therefore, the first step is to let these powerful powers weaken first.

People who farm don't need such a strong fortress.

Zhou Shuguang, the master of the Zhou family fort, who has been able to come all the way to this day, is certainly not stupid. He can guess what fate will await him next. When fighting against the Song army in the south, there is no doubt that people like him must be the vanguard.

He had no choice.

Rejection means death.

The Liao people won't talk to you.

They only ask obedience or death.

Therefore, if he wants to survive, Zhou Shuguang must make himself stronger.

Strong and elite.

Let the people who can make the decision think that a team like theirs can be of greater use at critical times, so that they will not be casually thrown out and sacrificed without a penny.

So the first step was to open the door wide and accept the bandits who came to seek refuge.

The second step is naturally to organize the three thousand people he brought to Tokyo into a strong army that can be commanded like an arm.

In this damn era, everyone is racking their brains to survive.

On the school field, the soldiers were training.

There is no need to worry too much about the two thousand burgins. In the past few years, under his careful training, they have advanced and retreated in an orderly manner. However, those new members who have joined are used to being lazy and do not care about strictness.

His military orders were a bit acclimated to the local environment and a lot of thorns in the side.

But now this is the army, not the Zhou Family Fort, and I am now the commander, not the Lord of the Zhou Fort, so it is naturally much easier to deal with the assassin head.

As soon as the knife was lifted and the head dropped, everything became quiet.

Zhou Shuguang now needs an army that can enforce orders and prohibitions. Of course, he also needs an army that is decisive in killing and hungry for blood.

Then, the original Baoding and these bandits who are about to be tamed are a perfect combination.

"Brother!" Zhou Shuqiang walked over quickly. Seeing the angry look on his face, Zhou Shuguang knew that things were not going well.

"They are unwilling to allocate weapons and armor to us?" Zhou Shuguang asked, "This has been agreed upon before."

"It's not that I won't give it, but it's that there's a first-come, first-served basis. You have to line up one by one. There are only so many things. Is it possible that we in Zhoujiabao are so big-hearted that we can divide them as soon as we come?" Zhou Shuqiang imitated the man in charge of the ordnance in annoyance.

The assigned doctor said in a sinister tone, "Brother, one day I will cut out this doctor's tongue."

"It's none of his business!" Zhou Shuguang shook his head and said, "It was King Zhao who sent someone to look for me a few days ago, but I sent him away. King Zhao is holding a grudge and deliberately trying to tease me!"

"We are here to serve the Supreme Emperor, not him!" Zhou Shuqiang whispered. "But brother, let's not talk about anything else, we really need armor! We also have too few things like divine arm bows.

!”

In the past, swords, guns, swords and halberds were easy to make in Zhoujia Fort. Even the blacksmith shop in the fort could make them, but armor was impossible to get. After searching the entire Zhoujia Fort, I could only find three or four pairs of armor.

That's all.

As for things like the Divine Arm Bow, I only got dozens of them through years of trickery and trickery. They are like treasures, and I usually don't want to use them at all.

But in the past, we had no armor to defend the fort, so we could barely use it by tying a few wooden boards to our bodies. But in the future, everyone will go to the battlefield. Without armor, how can we fight?

A warrior with armor and a warrior without armor are completely different concepts.

"Be ourselves first!" Zhou Shuguang said calmly: "The real master in Tokyo is not King Zhao."

There are two kings in Tokyo now.

Zhao Suo, the king of Song Dynasty, nominally controls the kings of Zhao, Jin and Qi, but now he is still a short-term king. He is surrounded by a group of Qing guest officials. He is very good at talking and talking. Now he is desperately trying to win over Zhou Shuguang.

Such a powerful general.

Zhao Wang Quzhen, one of the powerful factions in Tokyo, must have been under his control around Kaifeng all these years, and he still has nearly 30,000 soldiers and horses controlling most of Tokyo. And around Gyeonggi, he promoted his confidants

There are many more.

But the person who really holds the power to speak here is not Qu Zhen.

In the past, this person was Xiao Bo.

But Xiao Bo and his five thousand Liao cavalry were killed by the Jiangning garrison led by Han Zong, and their heads were built into Jingguan.

So now this person is called Yelu Chengcai, the Liao Kingdom's observer envoy in Tokyo, who has just taken office.

Along with him, Yelu Chengcai, who stationed in Tokyo, there were a total of 10,000 Liao cavalry.

"After half a month, the troops gathered in Tokyo will have a martial arts performance!" Zhou Shuguang said: "This is our opportunity to perform. Whether we have armor or good weapons is secondary, but our energy and spirit must be

Give me a chance to type it out. This Yelu Chengcai is a person. I heard that he was plucked from the slaves by the Empress Dowager Chengtian. He rose from a slave to an observer in ten years, and his ability is quite powerful."

"As long as you let him take notice, you can get rid of Qu Zhen's threat." Zhou Shuqiang was delighted.

"I have prepared a generous gift. You can send it to the observer later."

"Ah, doesn't it mean that you just have to be energetic in front of him? Is this person a man of merit and only uses his talents?"

"This man also likes gold and silver." Zhou Shuguang said: "If we take a two-pronged approach, we will be safe!"

Yelv Chengcai's appearance is really not that good.

He is very short, which is rare among the generally tall Khitan people. With his short stature and face full of scars, he is really a man who can stop a child from crying at night.

This person was discovered by the Empress Dowager Chengtian at a young age. Although he had not read many books, he was extremely smart and his talents were as if they were given by heaven. The Empress Dowager once lamented that if such a person really went to study, maybe he would

The spirit of the idea is also destroyed.

And as people like Yelu Longxu and Yelu Chengcai were successively sent to Hebei and Henan to hold important positions, we can see the determination of Empress Dowager Chengtian to launch another southern expedition.

The Empress Dowager Chengtian was still a little uneasy about Yelu Longxu, so she asked her confidant Yelu Chengcai to come to Tokyo as an observer. Firstly, she was to assist Yelu Longxu in coordinating some preparations before the Southern Expedition. Secondly,

Keep an eye on Yelu Longxu to prevent this imperialist from playing any tricks.

Yelu Longxu, a man of two hundred pounds, at least has a clever son of one hundred, seventy-eight pounds. When it comes to intrigues, even Yelu Zhen is willing to be defeated.

However, Yelu Chengcai is the kind of person who can find the real key in a mess. With him watching, there is no need to worry about Yelu Longxu.

At the same time, the two also had a division of labor. Yelu Chengcai's main attention was on the State of Zhao, while Yelu Longxu focused more energy on Liu Yu of the State of Qi.

On the Zhao side, whether it is Song King Zhao Suo or Zhao King Quzhen, they are all honest characters and easier to manipulate. However, Liu Yu of Qi State is not so obedient.

Yelu Chengcai accepted the five thousand taels of gold sent by Zhou Shuguang without any ceremony.

As a rising star in the officialdom, he really does not have much money, so whenever he can get money, he is not polite.

Therefore, he is still an out-and-out corrupt official.

If the Empress Dowager Chengtian hadn't been protecting him, he would have collapsed long ago because of this.

But he only collects money, and when he does things, he is never careless.

His credo is that you can receive money, but you may not be able to do things for you.

Unless you really have a few brushes.

Qu Zhen and Zhao Suo were quarreling with each other, so naturally Yelu Chengcai didn't bother to pay attention to them.

Deep down in his heart, he even prefers Qu Zhen.

Zhao Suo, you are just a mascot, but you still want to hold military power. This is a bit too much.

Just stay in the palace and sleep. When I need you, just pull you out, swim around twice, and shout a few times.

Why do you want military power?

Want to make a comeback?

Therefore, considering the problem of Zhou Shuguang's army, Yelu Chengcai was indeed prepared to accept money and not do anything.

However, after half a month of military exercises, Yelu Chengcai overturned his original decision.

Because Zhou Shuguang's army was really outstanding among the newly reorganized Han armies.

While many optimistic Liao generals believed that the Southern Expedition would be easy, Yelu Chengcai did not think so. The deaths of Xiao Bo and Yelu Dashu had proven the strength of the Southern Song army, and Lu Ben'an's defeat was even more disappointing.

Yelu Chengcai was vigilant. It was not wrong at all for the Queen Mother to have a strong fear of the Southern Song Dynasty. For such an opponent, it would be best for you to strangle him in his infancy.

The Daliao army alone is not enough.

The territory of Daliao was too vast, and there were too many places where troops were needed. Yelv Chengcai calculated for the Queen Mother that there would never be more than 200,000 people who could be deployed in the southern expedition.

Therefore, it is inevitable to allow vassal states such as Zhao and Qi to shoulder more military combat tasks in the future.

But judging from their performance in the early stage, I'm afraid they will be a little embarrassed when the time comes.

But Zhou Shuguang's army made his eyes light up.

Although the whole army did not have similar pieces of armor, and the weapons were really hard to handle, as soon as they appeared, the formation and the momentum immediately outshone the several teams with bright armor that had appeared before.

If you ask Yelu Chengcai to say it, the ones in the front can be regarded as being as good as a monkey at best.

"What's going on with this army?" He turned to look at Qu Zhen on one side: "After looking at it for a long time, we finally had a decent army, but it was in tatters like a beggar. When the governor left,

, it has been clearly stated that the old-style armors and weapons in the warehouse should be used to equip the reorganized army, could it be that you have embezzled all these things?"

"The observation envoys misunderstood. It's just that time is tight and we haven't had time to send it to them yet. We can all do it after the military exercise!" Qu Zhen smiled slightly, but she also regretted it in her heart. She should see this with her own eyes.

If he had known that they were like this, he would have pulled them over even if he was three points lower. Now that Yelu Chengcai is interested in him, he probably won't have anything to do with him anymore.

Yelu Chengcai nodded: "Go back and ask the generals of this army to come see me!"

After saying this, he stood up and said coldly to Zhao Suo who was sitting in the middle: "Don't be too tired, King Song. You are not in good health. It is better to rest more. Things like these that are related to the army.

Don't worry about it anymore. If you have any problems, it will be difficult for King Zhao and I to deal with you, right?"

Zhao Suo's face suddenly turned pale.

"Like the article you posted a few days ago to criticize the puppet emperor of Jiangning, you did a good job. The article calling on the literati and officials in Jiangnan to join forces to fight against the puppet king is now widely circulated in Jiangnan. It is enough for the King of Song to do these things well."

Looking at Zhao Suo who was sweating profusely, Yelu Chengcai snorted coldly and walked away.
Chapter completed!