Xu Qing's stealthy arrival late at night triggered a crisis, though not a critical one... It wasn't considered critical because if Yue Fei had simply abandoned his efforts to gather the people around Pingyin and instead concentrated his forces to meet the enemy head-on, he would have had the city and its troops as an advantage. Even if Kong Yanzhou and Liu Lin had come with their entire armies, they would have suffered heavy losses.

However, Yue Fei's thoughts were on Jizhou behind him, and even on the situation in Nanjing and Dongjing. He had no intention of dealing with Kong Yanzhou and Liu Yu. Furthermore, in his eyes, the military threat posed by Xu Qing was insignificant compared to the safety of the people of Pingyin.

At noon, the two sides met on the north bank of the Ji River, ten miles north of the city. Yue Fei boldly led only fifteen hundred soldiers to form a line in the open fields, while Xu Qing had three thousand troops. However, the latter had arrived overnight, and their formation was inevitably disorganized.

As soon as they met and settled, Tang Huai reined in his horse behind Yue Fei and whispered his suggestion: "Brother, I know what's on your mind, but right now it seems that Xu Qing's troops are exhausted and restless. Why not quickly launch an attack and take advantage of the enemy's instability to win a swift victory? Then we can deal with this Xu Qing after capturing him."

Yue Fei turned to look at his sworn brother, shook his head slightly, and then gestured forward with his chin.

Although Tang Huai was rejected, he didn't mind. Instead, he raised his spear and rode forward, shouting remotely in front of the formation: "Xu Erlang! My Pacification Commissioner invites you to come forward and speak!"

After a moment of commotion, Xu Qing indeed rode out alone. Seeing this, Tang Huai felt relieved and reined his horse back to the formation to control the troops. Yue Fei also rode forward alone.

"Pacification Commissioner Yue."

Xu Qing was about thirty years old. Perhaps due to the overnight journey, his eyes were bloodshot and he looked extremely tired. Upon seeing Yue Fei, he could only force a remote bow, but his voice was slightly hoarse.

"Brother Xu." Yue Fei rode to face him, returned the greeting, then narrowed his eyes slightly, but didn't return the bow. Instead, he gripped the iron spear in his hand.

Seeing this, Xu Qing could only sigh and continue to bow: "Pacification Commissioner Yue, back then I led several thousand brothers from Hebei. You wrote to me, inviting me to Jizhou. But I thought there were plenty of talents under your command. It's better to be a head of a chicken than the tail of an ox, so I accepted Kong Yanzhou's offer and went to Yanzhou. But I never expected this day to come… Pacification Commissioner Yue, Kong Yanzhou has believed Liu Yu's lies, saying that the Jin are going to make Liu Yu the emperor and Liu Lin the crown prince. And Liu Yu and his son promised him the title of Grand Marshal, and in turn, promised me the title of Deputy Marshal. But your brother here came from Hebei and really doesn't want to serve the Jin. Now that I'm in dire straits, I come to seek refuge, hoping you'll take me in!"

After saying that, the man bowed again on horseback, seemingly sincere.

However, upon hearing this, Yue Fei merely rolled his eyes at the man, neither answering nor nodding.

Xu Qing was about to speak again, but Yue Pengju suddenly thrust his spear towards the other man's neck, startling Xu Qing to roll off his horse immediately to avoid it. When he got up, he was covered in cold sweat… It turned out that Yue Fei's spear had deflected an arrow, and that arrow had come from behind Xu Qing.

Not only that, but as the arrow came and Xu Qing fell off his horse, Xu Qing's troops in the distance instantly stirred. Then dozens of riders swarmed forward. Seeing this, Xu Qing quickly tried to get back on his horse, only to find that his warhorse had been startled and ran away. His heart turned cold… He knew that his actions today had blocked someone's path, and if he didn't handle it properly, he might not only fail to regain military power but also lose his life.

"Is that the one with the red headscarf?" Just then, Yue Fei remained still, simply pointing his spear at the dozens of riders who were about to arrive.

Hearing Yue Fei's question, Xu Qing understood and quickly replied on the ground: "That's him!"

As soon as Xu Qing uttered the word "that," Yue Pengju's expression turned stern. He slung his spear across his back, took up his bow, and ignoring the dozens of riders who were about to charge at him, he calmly nocked an arrow and shot it forward.

Before Xu Qing could see the situation clearly, Tang Huai led dozens of riders to rush forward, and someone even offered his horse to him… By the time he remounted, he was shocked to find that the deputy general who had ambushed him, wearing a red headscarf, had already fallen from his horse, and the dozens of charging riders were in disarray, not daring to move rashly.

Yue Fei turned back and nodded slightly. How could Xu Qing dare to waste such an opportunity? He immediately spurred his horse forward, bypassed the bewildered riders, and shouted loudly to his trusted generals, rushing straight into the army.

In a flash, the two armies merged, captured the deputy general and his confidants, and quelled a potential uprising.

After this incident, Xu Qing was filled with fear, trepidation, gratitude, and indebtedness towards Yue Fei. His defection became a natural progression. As for Kong Yanzhou, he did send out pursuit forces… In fact, that was where the deputy general got his courage to act evilly… But after the pursuing soldiers heard from afar that Xu Qing had joined Yue Fei and entered Pingyin City, they were intimidated by the reputations of Yue Fei and Xu Qing and dared not approach.

However, after easily resolving the matter of Xu Qing's surrender, Yue Pengju led his troops to escort the civilians from the northern part of Dongping Prefecture in an orderly retreat southward. After two days, they arrived at Yunzhou City (the capital of Dongping Prefecture, which was originally named Yunzhou). There, they met Zhang Rong, who had come from the Shui Po Liang Shan to meet them. They received the bad news they had expected – Dingtao, the capital of his subordinate Guangji Army, had fallen.

Unfortunately, Dingtao was where Grand Commandant Yang had gathered heroes from all walks of life for the Heroes' Assembly, and it was also where Yue Fei and Zhang Rong had met. However, that city was located to the west and north of the Ji River and Liangshan Marsh, right on the path of the Jin cavalry's southward advance… And the garrison commander, Fu Xuan, had only led a thousand or so men to garrison the city due to the expedition.

In fact, when the Jin army quickly moved southwest along the north and east sides of the Ji River, Yue Fei noticed it in Pingyin at the first moment. However, because of the large Liangshan Marsh in between, there was no time to send a fast horse ahead of the enemy to deliver the message. Therefore, the entire army had expected the fall of Dingtao.

On the other hand, because it concerned the safety of the other party's base, Zhang Rong did not keep them any longer. He simply took over the people they were escorting, sent military equipment from the city as a gesture of thanks, and reaffirmed the affiliation of Li Kui and others. He directly reiterated their titles, handed over these foreign generals who had lost faith in him to Yue Fei, and actively urged the other party to lead the newly recruited generals south immediately to clean up the situation.

However, Yue Fei left the people of Dongping Prefecture behind and led his troops south at top speed. Only half a day later, he received a piece of terrible news – after the Jin army broke through Dingtao, they immediately crossed the river. However, after crossing the river, they did not attack the undefended Jizhou, but continued straight south!

In other words, the situation that Yue Fei was most worried about had occurred. The Jin had planned this carefully, with stealthy crossings and divided forces, all to catch the Song off guard, deliver a "black tiger digs out the heart" attack, and immediately eliminate Zhang Suo, the Pacification Commissioner of Nanjing (Shangqiu)!

And then, as Yue Fei led his troops into Jizhou, bad news kept pouring in.

For example, Fu Xuan, who had escaped at the cost of his life, brought news that the Jin army that had broken through Dingtao numbered no less than ten thousand. He had personally seen two Jin cavalry forces of five to six thousand each join forces under the city on that day… One came from the northeast along the Ji River, which was the army led by the Wanhu Ali; and the other army, bearing the banner of Wanhu Elubu, wore ordinary armor and came from the northwest wilderness. It was unknown whether they came from Puzhou or Huazhou.

The Jurchen are not to be feared if they are less than ten thousand, but are invincible if they are more than ten thousand!

Of course, this saying was undoubtedly absurd to Yue Fei, who had extensive experience in fighting the Jin. He had joined the army specifically to deal with the Jurchen and had fought for four or five years, knowing full well that the Jurchen were also human and could die. Moreover, since becoming Pacification Commissioner, he had always thought that in just two or three years, he could train ten thousand infantrymen who could face the Jin's ten thousand iron cavalry in open battle…

However, back to the present, Yue Pengju knew very well that his troops had only been formed for less than half a year and might not be able to fight the Jurchen head-on. Furthermore, Zhang Suo's Nanjing only had a weak force of fifteen thousand on paper, but actually only twelve or thirteen thousand.

It was truly a weak force. Of the twelve or thirteen thousand troops, four or five thousand were surrendered bandits, five or six thousand were newly recruited soldiers brought from Shou Chun, and only one or two thousand were so-called elite Western Army troops, but they were still led by the same Xin Daozong (the Third Xin), who was like a young master.

According to Yue Fei's thinking, if there were only five or six thousand enemies, and Xin Daozong could be vigilant in defending the city, they might be able to wait for him and Grand Commandant Zhang Jun to come to their aid. But with more than ten thousand Jurchen soldiers, unless Yue Fei could fly his troops over there… or even flying over might not work, because Nanjing might have already fallen and his benefactor, Zhang Suo, might already be in mortal danger.

At this point, Yue Fei, with a glimmer of hope in his heart, simply passed by Jizhou City without entering. He abandoned his supplies, leaving Wang Gui to collect them, while he led his troops quickly southwest.

However, as he led his troops to the border between Danzhou and Jizhou, waves of routed soldiers and fleeing civilians from Yingtian Prefecture (where Nanjing was located) and Danzhou brought the definite news to Pacification Commissioner Yue – Xin Daozong had hastily engaged the enemy and died in battle, and Zhang Suo, because of his misjudgment, had been taken advantage of by the enemy. Filled with shame, he had chosen to immolate himself in the Nanjing palace.

This event dealt Yue Pengju an unprecedented blow, because Zhang Suo's kindness to him was on par with that of Zong Ze. For Yue Fei, who had lost his father at the age of nineteen, these two men were like father figures to him.

One cannot be angry and raise troops, especially when the enemy's situation is unclear?

Yue Fei had understood this principle back in Xiangzhou, so helplessly, the Pacification Commissioner of Jizhou could only carefully defend, retreat back into Jizhou, and then rely on the He River to the southwest of Jizhou to carefully deploy defenses. He sent a messenger southeast, to Zhang Jun, the Grand Commandant, the only friendly army with sufficient strength on the side of Jizhou, which was surrounded on three sides, to request instructions.

However, bad things always seem to come in clusters. Just as the defense line had been stabilized, a huge internal conflict erupted within the Yue Family Army!

ps: I encountered something today... I'll post one chapter first... Everyone go to bed early, I'll code and add to it soon.