The process of resisting the Jurchen's fourth southward invasion lasted for two years. In the first half, forces in Jin and Shandong put up admirable fights against the Jin army. In the latter half, the wars in Jiangnan and the Southwest drew the attention of most people. However, the Central Plains, north of the Yangtze River and south of the Yellow River, naturally had its own share of ups and downs.

In the first half of Jianshuo 10, Xuzhou briefly became the Jurchen's last obstacle before launching their major attack on Jiangnan. The cause and effect of this battlefield extended to the actions of various parties before the war began. At that time, the Huaxia Army took action, kidnapping Liu Yu, the puppet emperor of the pseudo-Qi dynasty, in Bianliang. They then pinned the blame for Liu Yu's defection on the Wu dynasty. Prince Junwu secretly contacted Li Anmao, the prefect of Xuzhou, requesting assistance from the Huaxia Army with large amounts of money and supplies, thus dragging the Huaxia Army to the forefront of the war.

The seemingly mutual buck-passing actions were actually aimed at resisting the Jurchens. In response to Junwu's move, Ning Yi ordered Liu Chengzong to lead his 8,000 men to Xuzhou to assist in the defection and defend the city. When the Jurchen East Route Army arrived in Xuzhou in Jianshuo 10, Liu Chengzong led his own troops and Li Anmao's 50,000 troops, holding the city for three months before breaking through to the north. Because Zong Fu and Zong Bi were not determined to launch a major battle here, the war did not escalate to a particularly tragic level.

They could fight side by side while defending the city together, but when it came to breaking through and relocating, things had to be separated. Li Anmao, the prefect of Xuzhou, originally belonged to Liu Yu and was loyal to the Wu dynasty. At the beginning of the war, he requested the Huaxia Army to send troops for the sake of the overall situation. Now that Xuzhou had fallen, his natural thought was to lead his troops back to Jiangnan.

This was not a major issue in itself. The Huaxia Army valued quality over quantity and did not covet his 50,000 miscellaneous soldiers. However, before the battle with the Jurchens, the two sides had been together in Xuzhou City for half a year. In order to prevent these troops from holding them back, propaganda, infiltration, and reorganization had to be carried out. By the time they withdrew from Xuzhou, after seeing the Huaxia Army's combat power, some of the middle and lower-level officers of the Li faction had already planned to join the Huaxia Army after more than half a year of infiltration. As a result, as the withdrawal progressed, Li Anmao was directly deprived of his power, and the 50,000-plus men changed their allegiance to the Black Flag overnight.

After the initial reorganization in Xuzhou, due to the critical situation in Shandong, Liu Chengzong and others moved north to support Zhu Biao, Wang Shanyue and others in Liangshan. However, due to the Jurchen East Route Army's plundering and sweeping during their southward advance, Shandong was filled with starving people. Although Liu Chengzong had troops, he lacked supplies. The supplies on Liangshan were also extremely scarce. In the end, he managed to borrow a batch of grain and supplies from Jin through Zhuji to support Liu Chengzong's thousands of men across the Yellow River to confront Wanyan Chang.

The tens of thousands of newly reorganized Li faction troops had to stay on the south bank of the Yellow River and fend for themselves.

To lead this army in subsequent reorganization and survival, Liu Chengzong left behind a leadership team of more than 20 people specializing in political work and organization, led by Zou Xu, the deputy chief of staff of the division. He was one of the outstanding young officers in the Huaxia Army, who had emerged during the war against Western Xia. He was later taught and cultivated by Ning Yi. Although he still served as the deputy chief of staff at the division level, he was efficient and already had the ability to stand alone…

……

"Zou Xu, I have a deep impression of this person." A night breeze blew through the military camp outside Hanzhong City, and Qin Shaoqian said, "He is one of the most successful of your early disciples. His name is quite upright, and his actions are very similar to yours. After the Western Xia campaign, when the Jurchens came to demonstrate and brought the head of Shopkeeper Lu, he was one of the main people who received them, and he was neither humble nor arrogant. You said at the time that this person was capable."

Ning Yi nodded: "A number of outstanding people came out of the Xiaocang River group back then, but today, not many are left. Many of them unfortunately sacrificed on the battlefield. Now Chen Tian has the highest position. He and Qu Zhengyan are partners, serving as chiefs of staff. Below Chen Tian is Zou Xu. He is very capable and has long been a candidate for chief of staff or even division commander. Because he was taught by me, I intentionally delayed his promotion in this regard. He should be clear about these things, so this time in Xuzhou, Liu Chengzong gave him this opportunity to stand alone… I was also a little negligent…”

Qin Shaoqian nodded and looked at the intelligence that Ning Yi had given him again.

Zou Xu took over this force of nearly 50,000 troops in the autumn of Jianshuo 10. This was almost two years ago.

……

From any point of view, the reorganization and resettlement of these tens of thousands of troops originally under Li Anmao was not an easy task.

First of all, after the establishment of the pseudo-Qi, Xuzhou was already the territory of Liu Yu of the pseudo-Qi. The establishment of the puppet regime was originally a predatory act against the Central Plains. Li Anmao was loyal to the Wu dynasty. When the time came, he sought to rebel, but the so-called army under his command was originally a pseudo-army with no combat effectiveness. After the rebellion, in order to expand its combat effectiveness, the means adopted were to wantonly plunder young and strong men, filling the ranks with incompetent people. Its combat effectiveness may be only slightly better than the Han army in the later stage of the Southwest War.

Liu Chengzong led 8,000 men to defend Xuzhou with him. In order to be safe, he had to seize the command and control rights – although Li Anmao was passionate, he was always loyal to the Wu dynasty.

After defending Xuzhou for three months, his intention was to nail everyone to Xuzhou and defend it to the last soldier, in order to minimize the pressure on the Jiangnan defense line. Liu Chengzong could not accompany him. He directly knocked Li Anmao unconscious during a meeting and then seized power and transferred the troops.

In this way, although the transfer of upper-level command was completed, within this ragtag army, there was not enough psychological preparation for disrupting the entire army's ecosystem and carrying out a thorough reorganization. After Liu Chengzong and others decided to go north, what was left for Zou Xu's working group was a force without sufficient food, without combat effectiveness, and even without sufficient cohesion. The number of people on paper was close to 50,000, but in reality, it was just a ticking time bomb that could explode at any time.

Of course, in the environment at that time, no force in the world had a "easy" survival space.

The Jin region had experienced turmoil after the death of Tian Hu and the betrayal of Liao Yiren, and Lou Shuwan and others also hid in the mountains and struggled to survive.

Zhu Biao and Wang Shanyue experienced the tragic rescue of Daming Prefecture, suffering heavy casualties. Countless companions were captured and massacred. After Liangshan was besieged, it was surrounded by four sides with no food, and people were starving.

In Jiangnan, the Jurchen East Route Army was knocking on the door, and destruction was imminent.

In the Southwest, the main force of the Huaxia Army also had to face the threat of the strongest army in the world led by Zong Han and Xi Yin.

This army could only be thrown away like an abandoned child. Even at that time, Ning Yi did not have too optimistic expectations for the future of these 50,000 people. He made some suggestions to Zou Xu's working group, which was thousands of miles away, and also gave them the greatest freedom. In such circumstances, Zou Xu struggled to reorganize the army.

On the one hand, for more than a year, Zou Xu contacted local landlords and powerful families, adopting a method of uniting with one and attacking another, using war to support war, and trying to obtain external resources to maintain their own survival.

On the other hand, without the support of the main force of the Huaxia Army led by Liu Chengzong, he made huge adjustments and reductions to the army. First, some people were eliminated through combat, and some people were lost during the long-distance transfer. Then, there was a proactive disarmament, maintaining the core combat strength at a scale of more than 20,000 people. In addition, after two splits in the middle, by the winter of Jianshuo 11, this army had traveled thousands of miles, was scarred all over, and had taken root near Funiu Mountain in southwestern Luoyang.

Zou Xu's leadership ability was undoubtedly demonstrated in achieving such results. At that time, the war in Jiangnan had ended, and the Southwest War was about to begin. Although this army used war to support war and produced some elites, its overall strength was still much worse than that of the Jurchen West Route Army. Moreover, it had been fighting continuously for the past year, lacked supplies, and had already been damaged. In the end, Ning Yi did not intend to put it into combat, but instead ordered it to recuperate and prepare it as a key force for capturing Luoyang, Bianliang and other places in the future.

A fierce internal split broke out in January this year. The original working group, which had only eight members left, engaged in a confrontation. It is said that a small-scale "rebellion" broke out, which was then forcefully suppressed by Zou Xu. Two members of the working group, along with dozens of soldiers, fled with injuries. Fang Chengye, who had returned from the north, was receiving orders to go to the vicinity of Luoyang to understand the situation and contacted Zhuji to initiate an investigation procedure.

At that time, the Southwest War was in full swing, and Ning Yi was constantly gathering strength to prepare for the early stage of the subsequent Wangyuan Bridge battle. He naturally could not judge the changes that had occurred near Funiu Mountain for a while, so he could only order the external personnel who still had spare capacity to conduct a verification according to the procedure while keeping it as confidential as possible. The entire investigation process was verified in many ways, and it was not until the end of April that it was finalized.

The investigation results showed that the Huaxia Army force entrenched in Funiu Mountain at this time had completely transformed into Zou Xu's one-man show - this was not the biggest problem. The real problem was that Zou Xu had been controlled by material desires and hedonistic emotions in the past year. He had killed landlords and seized their wives and concubines near Ruzhou. After arriving in Funiu Mountain, he colluded with and relied on Yin Zong, the prefect of Luoyang, and accepted a large number of supplies and even women sent by him.

According to the detailed investigation results from all parties, after arriving in Funiu Mountain, the local gentry prepared several villas for Zou Xu in nearby county towns. Zou Xu seemed normal in the army, but he often went to the city to enjoy himself. These things were initially only vaguely noticed. Since Zou Xu's army management was fairly strict, no one dared to say anything rashly. By January this year, when the Southwest war situation was tight and the news of the fall of Huangming County came, the other members of the working group believed that they could no longer sit idly by and watch the development of the war. Since they had taken a breather, they should make further plans. The two sides finally launched an attack at the meeting, confronting each other tit-for-tat.

Zou Xu himself was capable and powerful. How could the other members of the working group be fuel-efficient lamps? The two sides made things clear, and the working group began to impeach Zou Xu's problems. Of the eight people at that time, only two were on Zou Xu's side. So Zou Xu launched an attack. Of the five people who confronted him, three were killed, and hundreds of Huaxia Army soldiers died in this infighting.

After Fang Chengye and others intervened, Zou Xu once tried to wipe out all the people who knew the truth. After the possibility was shattered, he finally gave up. He had a meeting with Fang Chengye and others, and then kicked them out, without making any more excuses. Fang Chengye then sent back a message, and Ning Yi finally knew that such a terrible betrayal had broken out in the north while such a fierce battle was taking place in the Southwest.

……

"What I have with me is just a summary." The patrolling soldiers in front came over and saluted Ning Yi and Qin Shaoqian. Ning Yi returned the salute and then said, "Fang Chengye's investigation in that area is relatively detailed. After Zou Xu took control of the 50,000 troops, since Liu Chengzong's troops had left, he did not have the bargaining chip to suppress them forcefully. Within the army, he could only rely on power checks and balances and infighting to divide the original middle-level generals in order to maintain the working group's command. In terms of means, he actually did quite well."

"Externally, he understands that he does not have the advantage of popular support, so he always unites with one group of gentry forces to attack another; the fighting is constant, so he can maintain external pressure and maintain relative internal stability; and in such battles, dividing and streamlining the troops is actually similar to the methods adopted by the Jin Kingdom. If he treats the 50,000 miscellaneous soldiers equally, it would be difficult for a working group of more than 20 people to maintain stable power. So he draws circles, defines closeness and estrangement, and adjusts them layer by layer, dividing the army into three, six, and nine grades. In the end, although only more than 10,000 core troops are left, the combat power of the entire army has far exceeded the past 50,000 people. If such planning ability is used on the right path, it can achieve great things."

Ning Yi said here, Qin Shaoqian smiled and said, "In some ways, it is really like you got your mantle."

"Speaking privately, he was indeed a bit like me earlier, first of all, his appearance, he is very handsome, right?" Ning Yi said, and both of them laughed, "Then there is his way of doing things. The earlier group of people first considered doing things, and the methods taught were very radical, some even unscrupulous. But Zou Xu's actions are not only effective, but also very generous and relatively sophisticated in many aspects. This is what I admire."

Ning Yi paused: "Moreover, personally, resources were scarce earlier, and Zou Xu could endure hardship, but at the same time, he knew how to enjoy himself in hardship. Under limited resources, how could he get something delicious? In harmless situations, he values ​​his appetite... This is actually very similar to me. Now that I think about it, this is a weakness of mine."

Qin Shaoqian said: "When there is nothing to eat, it is normal to be hungry. In the future, when the world is better, I don't think these things are anything..." He was also a playboy from a prosperous age, and he had already enjoyed what he should have enjoyed in his early years, so he didn't think there was anything wrong at this time.

Ning Yi sighed slightly, then patted him on the shoulder, and didn't say anything more about it.

"The Central Plains area is indeed very barren, but there are always people who can survive. Zou Xu has been uniting and attacking, contacting some large families and landlords frequently. Last autumn in Ruzhou should be considered a turning point. A concubine of a family, who should have been the daughter of an official family, the two people hooked up with each other, and then they were exposed on the spot. Zou Xu may have been handling this kind of personal matter for the first time. At that time, he killed the whole family and then put a title on them, sigh..."

"Then to Luoyang... In fact, the few families and households that are still alive in the Central Plains have now been weakened to the extreme in terms of combat power. They are just some local tyrants and some gangs of bandits. Zou Xu led this Huaxia Army to survive in that area. Although they fought back and forth, their reputation has always been good. He pulls one side to attack another, and never attacks his own boss. So for these people, paying Zou Xu protection fees is not too uncomfortable in such a war-torn situation..."

Qin Shaoqian smiled: "Instead of paying protection fees to others, why not pull people over and turn them into their own people?"

Ning Yi nodded: "That's right, the Ruzhou incident is now difficult to investigate, and it is difficult to say clearly whether it was Yin Zong, the prefect of Luoyang, and others who took the initiative to corrupt Zou Xu, or Zou Xu naturally took this step. But in general, Zou Xu has already shown his cards to Fang Chengye. He will not accept returning to the Huaxia Army and then accepting trial. Then he can only be determined to unite with some impoverished households in the Central Plains to become a mountain king. Zou Xu himself is capable in managing the army, and he is also very clear about the Huaxia Army's internal rules, rewards and punishments, and various matters. If Yin Zong and others continue to transfuse blood, and he is not emptied, he may indeed become a... weakened version of the Huaxia Army in the next few years..."

"...What are you going to do?"

"Now, it is impossible to forgive him." Ning Yi shook his head, "If I hadn't thrown Tang Minjie to the Jin Kingdom, I would really like to throw him to Funiu Mountain to have a contest with Zou Xu. Now... I will give it to Fang Chengye first to explore the surrounding situation. If it can be properly resolved, of course, it will be the best. If not, in a few years, we will sweep him away together. This world is too big, and there are already many people who have come to join in the fun anyway."

The two walked along the military camp, Qin Shaoqian nodded, and thought for a long time: "I understand now why you were so worried earlier."

"A year's time, without watching, what should be corrupted has been corrupted... In the next few years, this will be the most serious problem we face."

"Got it... Class, meeting."

"Comrade Shaoqian... your awareness is a bit high..."

The galaxy spread in the night sky, and the two people in the military camp talked and laughed. Although they were talking about serious things that even determined the future of the entire world, they would occasionally put their arms around each other's shoulders.

The Hanshui River flowed to the south of the military camp. A great battle that shocked the world has stopped. On the land of China, which stretches for thousands of miles, countless people are still listening to the wind. The subsequent impact is about to set off waves among the people. These waves will converge into huge waves, washing away everything they affect.

Fourteen years have passed since the first southward invasion of the Jurchens. The whole world is fragmented, and countless city walls have changed all kinds of flags. At this moment, new changes are about to begin.