Chapter 11: The Bright Sun Shines (Continued)

The winter mountains of northern China were slightly cold. Yue Fei, his heart stifled with frustration, rode alone away from Wang Yan's mountain stronghold. Before long, he turned into a mountain pass, and the cold wind that hit his face calmed him down considerably.

To be sure, Yue Fei was undoubtedly an extremely gifted man.

Born into a traditional northern peasant family, with both elder brothers failing to reach adulthood, he himself was blessed with innate divine strength, as if some immortal or demon had descended to earth. Once he took up martial arts, he improved by leaps and bounds, quickly becoming the peerless warrior he was today—a general unmatched among ten thousand, no less!

Consider this: Zhao Jiu could draw a bow of one hundred and fifty jin and could already boast of being both civil and martial. But Yue Fei could draw a three-hundred-jin bow from the start, and a waist-mounted crossbow of eight hundred jin!

Not only that. Though he focused on martial training in his youth and still found time to help his parents with farm work, only occasionally learning to read and write, he made astonishing progress in that area as well. At twenty, he was kicked out of his post as a bowman in Xiangzhou for causing trouble while drunk, yet by twenty-four, he could write a thousand-character memorial to the court... Being able to write a thousand-character memorial in those days was no small feat!

And a few years later, he could compose poetry of that caliber—needless to say.

Beyond all this, the most crucial thing was that, facing the nation's instability, this young man's character and temperament had also been maturing at a rapid pace... In his youth, his temper had been far more irritable and stubborn than it was now. But as he experienced one event after another, he was no longer what he once was.

It was like the present moment. Yue Pengju, resting his lance and letting his horse stand still, stared absently at the Taihang Mountains. In his heart, he vaguely understood that both he and Wang Yan were somewhat off today.

Wang Yan's character had originally been just like his own former self—stubborn, self-regarding, seeing things in black and white, possessing both a warrior's boldness and flaws, as well as the pedantic air and narrow views of a scholar who had read a few books. Yet today, the man had chosen tolerance and magnanimity. Why, he could not fathom.

By the same token, Yue Fei asked himself if he was truly someone good at learning and correcting his mistakes. Though one's nature was hard to change, after a specific incident, he rarely let himself repeat the same error... Take his impeachment of Li Gang, for instance. From the time Yue Pengju left the temporary court until he arrived here, he had already come to understand just how precious a chancellor like Li Gang was! And after crossing the river this time, he had vaguely awakened to the fact that to resist the Jin, one must consider the larger picture, gather strength from the rear, and then cross the river northward with a grand, righteous army to truly restore Hebei!

In fact, this was the root cause of his strategic conflict with Wang Yan and the reason for his questioning of Wang Yan today—guerrilla warfare in the mountains was not impossible, but it could never truly defeat the Jin iron cavalry!

What Yue Fei wanted was to reclaim our rivers and mountains!

Yet, when it came down to it, he had still lost his composure, still been unable to contain his resentment, still let too many personal emotions creep in!

However, unlike Wang Yan's inexplicable abnormality, the reason for Yue Fei's own abnormality had already been bluntly stated by Wang Yan—this was Xinxiang, and ahead lay Xiangzhou!

In fact, Yue Fei had even been to this mountain area before. Tangyin was in southern Xiangzhou, and this mountain area was north of Xinxiang, barely over a hundred li away. And a hundred li away, his old mother, his wife, and his eldest son Yue Yun, born right after he married at sixteen, were all there. Yet now, for years, there had been no word from them—alive or dead, unknown.

With his hometown ahead, yet trapped in such a dire situation, no wonder that Colonel Wang pitied him!

But returning to the present, Yue Fei had to make a choice—with the Jin army heavily deployed outside, should he still try to head toward Xiangzhou?

"Elder Brother!"

Just as Yue Fei sat on his horse, expressionless, his mismatched eyes surveying the towering Taihang Mountains while turmoil churned in his heart, suddenly two riders appeared from the mountain pass. The one in the lead, upon spotting Yue Fei's figure, called out to him from afar.

Without looking or asking, Yue Fei knew it was Zhang Xian, the most lively of his sworn brothers. He could even guess that behind Zhang Xian would inevitably be Tang Huai, cold-faced but warm-hearted, taciturn and silent.

Zhang Xian, Tang Huai, and Wang Gui, who was surely holding things together back at the camp, were Yue Fei's closest sworn brothers. They all came from Tangyin County, a hundred li to the north. In their youth, they had studied horseback archery and martial arts together under their master Zhou Tong. After growing up, starting as local bowmen, they had drifted from place to place, always supporting each other, never abandoning one another.

They were called his right and left arms, but in truth, they were brothers.

"Elder Brother!" Zhang Xian rode up close, still visibly tense. "That Colonel Wang has a bad temper. He didn't make things hard for you, did he?"

"No," Yue Fei turned back and said with a smile. "On the contrary, he granted us a document, allowing us to lead our troops wherever we wish."

"How could he be so easy to deal with?" Even the perpetually cold-faced Tang Huai was startled.

"We all thought that Colonel Wang was going to harm you, Elder Brother!" Zhang Xian was even more animated. "If that's the case, doesn't that mean we can head home? When do we set out? After we pick up Auntie, Sister-in-law, and our relatives, do we come back or not?"

"Let Elder Brother speak first," Tang Huai said, casting a cold eye to rein in Zhang Xian. "This isn't that simple. Ahead, the Jin troops are thick on the ground, all cavalry. And we have only seven or eight hundred men, three hundred of whom are just the mountain bandits under that newly surrendered Ji Qing. How can they be of any use?"

"It's not just a matter of them being unusable," Yue Fei said, making no attempt to hide anything in front of his own brothers. "The key is that these men are all good fellows willing to resist the Jin. Putting myself in their shoes, how could I send them north on the road just for the selfish desires of us few brothers?"

"What selfish desires are these?" Zhang Xian immediately grew anxious. "Isn't going to Tangyin also resisting the Jin? If you put it that way, then that Zhao Jiu tricked us brothers and over seven thousand other good men across the river, then abandoned us. He made us win a battle only to end up in this mess. Doesn't that mean all seven thousand of us were sent here to die for his selfish desires?"

Tang Huai instinctively wanted to scold Zhang Xian, but the words caught in his throat, and he too felt reluctant. "Elder Brother, ahead is Tangyin after all! Your Yue Yun is already eight years old. Don't let him see you and not even recognize you!"

"I'm just hesitating," Yue Fei confessed honestly from his horse. "The key is that Colonel Wang's earlier proclamation to all the prefectures made the Jin think we were the main force. Right now, there are simply too many Jin troops to the north..."

Tang Huai immediately nodded. This was exactly what he had been thinking... Didn't he also want to go home? But his mature nature made him more concerned about whether they could actually make it.

"As for you, you blockhead," Yue Fei said, glancing sideways at Zhang Xian with a much more serious expression. "Are we the same as that Zhao Jiu? Zhao Jiu has his selfish motives, but his selfish motives can mobilize the public will of the realm. Only by relying on that selfish motive of his can we possibly drive out the Jin and return home in peace! Don't talk such nonsense again."

Zhang Xian felt aggrieved... After all, the talk of Zhao Jiu's selfish motives was a phrase his Elder Brother Yue had coined after leaving the temporary court, just like that treacherous chancellor Li Gang. But as always, before long, his Elder Brother Yue would come up with another set of reasoning to refute his own words, and he, as the younger brother, could not argue back.

Of course, Zhang Xian only felt aggrieved in his heart. He dared not talk any more nonsense in front of Yue Fei and Tang Huai.

So, with the three brothers gathered together and having a general understanding of the situation, they said no more. They turned out of the mountain pass together, met up with a squad of seven or eight personal guard cavalry waiting outside, and headed back to their camp (Ji Qing's bandit lair), which was also nestled in a mountain hollow.

The winter days were cold, and the mountain paths were difficult to traverse. There were even scattered Jin cavalry scouts along the way. Yue Fei and his men had a hard journey and only returned to the camp of a few hundred men by evening.

Seeing that Yue Fei was safe, the officers and soldiers of his own unit, who had long been won over by this commander's superb martial skills and strict military discipline, all breathed a sigh of relief, silently counting their blessings. When they learned that Colonel Wang had not pursued the matter and had instead given them a free hand, the entire camp erupted in joy.

However, the matter was not over. That evening, under the thin mountain mist, Yue Fei had just entered his tent and had not yet had time to eat some hot food when Wang Gui, the brother Yue Fei trusted and relied upon most, the most capable and highest-ranking among them, suddenly re-entered the tent, clearly having confidential matters to discuss in private.

"That Jin general Elder Brother captured, to save his own skin, voluntarily revealed many secrets," Wang Gui said in a low voice.

"Counting from the first year of Jingkang, this is the first time I've seen such a cowardly Jin general," Yue Fei put down his rice bowl, momentarily stunned. His mismatched eyes widened, whether in contempt for the Jin general or disbelief in his own brother's words was unclear.

"He's not a proper Jin general," Wang Gui replied with a cold sneer. "Though he looks like a Tartar, he's actually a Liao Tartar. And Elder Brother, don't you know the nature of those Liao Tartars?"

Yue Fei laughed along with him.

To be sure, these brothers had extensive military experience. In their early years, Zhang Xian was too young to join, but Wang Gui and Tang Huai had enlisted with him in the "Dare-to-Fight" corps established for the campaign against the Liao. They had served as soldiers under the famous minister Liu Ge and had indeed seen many Liao officers and soldiers. They knew those men were dispirited and stagnant, no different from the Great Song at that time. It was only now, with a new master, that they had perked up again.

"Then it can be trusted. Tell me about it," Yue Fei picked up his rice bowl again, signaling Wang Gui to speak in detail.

"Two things!" Wang Gui continued in a low voice. "First, this Jin army's southern campaign is not a chance encounter. It's a full-scale army moving south, divided into an eastern and a western route..."

Yue Fei was slightly startled, then took a mouthful of rice.

"He was clear about the western side. It's led by Nianhan as the Grand Marshal, with a total of ten wanhu and a hundred thousand troops. Below them are a hundred Battalion Commander and hundreds upon thousands of cavalry commanders. They're said to be attacking Shanzhou and Luoyang, sweeping through Hedong, and even aiming to take Guanzhong... He wasn't clear about the eastern side. He only knew it was roughly comparable, meant to sweep through Great Ming Prefecture in Hebei, then attack Qingzhou, and might even go for the temporary court at Nanjing!"

"How many troops are on that side?" Yue Fei, who had no idea that the Zhao Jiu had already fled south and then stopped, could no longer swallow his food. He put down his bowl directly and asked seriously.

"At least as many, if not more," Wang Gui replied solemnly. "Because although there's no marshal on that side, there are eleven wanhu! The leading vanguard and the deputy commander holding the rear are the old Jin emperor Aguda's own sons and cousins."

The early winter was cold, but Yue Fei rarely felt a stifling heat in his chest. It took great effort to digest this information before he spoke again: "What about the second thing? What does it say?"

"The second thing is that Colonel Wang's earlier pride and his proclamation to the prefectures of Hebei and Hedong did cause some panic among the Jin, making them think it was a proper army. So the Jin forces here received orders to behead Colonel Wang before heading south..." For some reason, under the faint candlelight in the tent, Wang Gui stood to one side in his armor, exhaling breath that formed white mist, as if he had another meaning.

"That's a good thing."

Yue Fei stared at his brother's face, thought for a moment, and then realized it. He also relaxed considerably. "The Jin's strength lies in their cavalry. In these mountains, they can't maneuver at all. And Colonel Wang is in these mountains. His success or failure doesn't depend on the disparity in troop numbers, but on whether he can control the hearts of the people in the mountains... And he's also tying down a considerable number of troops for Garrison Commander Zong and for Shanzhou and Luoyang!"

Wang Gui nodded repeatedly: "Elder Brother is right. That's exactly what I was thinking! Besides, I've been thinking privately all day today. Colonel Wang has become a target. That has nothing to do with us brothers. Staying here is useless. And Colonel Wang isn't just tying down troops for Garrison Commander Zong... Elder Brother, why can't we take advantage of the Jin main force heading south, while the Jin forces here are busy surrounding Colonel Wang, to circle around from the outside and return to Xiangzhou?!"

Yue Fei's heart stirred. He was pleasantly surprised for a moment and opened his mouth to agree. But the words reached his throat, and for some reason, he could not utter them.

Wang Gui was inwardly surprised at this, but like the other two, he had always been deferential to this "Elder Brother," who was the same age as him, so he dared not say more.

The two brothers stood and sat in silence for a full incense stick's time. Only then did Yue Pengju speak slowly, in the tone he used for issuing orders in the army:

"We can't take this advantage to go to Xiangzhou! We need to hurry back to Henan, tell Garrison Commander Zong about this, and help him defend Dongjing!"

"Elder Brother?!"

Wang Gui was stunned for a long time before he finally understood the other's command, yet he found it difficult to comprehend. "It's not like we've done anything wrong. The Jin people were going to come south anyway, and Colonel Wang was just putting on a show that ended up drawing the main Jin force nearby. Why can't I take advantage of this?"

"It's not about whether you can take this advantage." Yue Fei fixed his gaze on Wang Gui, his injured eye twitching again as he spoke with utmost seriousness. "It's about understanding the principle..."

"What principle is there that says you don't go home when home is right in front of you?" Wang Gui was completely worked up and out of control.

Yue Fei's heart was a jumble of emotions, but he forcibly suppressed his feelings and earnestly explained to Wang Gui, the second-in-command in the army:

"Brother, going home can mean truly going home or falsely going home! If we go back now, we might reach home, but we certainly won't be able to stay. In three or five days, or three or five months, we'll still be driven out by the Jin like chickens and dogs, and then our fellow villagers will be slaughtered by the Jin in a massacre... Are you willing to have that happen?"

Upon hearing these words, Wang Gui thought of the displacements of the past two years and instantly burst into tears, but in the end he understood the principle and forced himself to answer: "Of course not!"

"So if we real men want to go home, we have to truly go home!" Yue Fei stood up, placed his hand on the other's shoulder, and said. "But to truly go home, there's only one path: we have to drive the Jin out completely, and even go so far as to fight our way into their homes! But to truly drive the Jin away, you've seen and heard it yourself—we need a proper Imperial Army that can go head-to-head with a Jin army of a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand! And to have such an army, the Great Song must not fall, and His Majesty must be safe! Otherwise, we won't even have a place to find weapons! So if we want to go home right now, we can only go south instead! Zhang Xian is a bastard who definitely won't understand this principle, but you and Tang Huai absolutely must understand it, no matter what. Otherwise, I, Yue Fei, will truly have no right-hand men left!"

Wang Gui was already convinced in his heart, but he just felt a tightness in his chest. Hearing these words now, he forced back the sting in his nose, agreed with Yue Fei, and promised to help him restrain the troops, crossing the river southward immediately before the Jin could fully advance south.

Once Wang Gui left the tent, Yue Pengju sat alone in the tent, mechanically picking up his bowl and putting a mouthful of rice into his mouth. This young general, just like Wang Gui, felt a sting in his nose and tears streamed down. He quickly wiped them away, tilted his head back, and forced himself to hold them in.

At night, the mountain wind howled. For some reason, Yue Fei, who could no longer clearly remember his son's face, suddenly thought of the words Wang Yan had said to him during the day... The heavens shine bright! The heavens shine bright!

But how difficult it was?!

PS: Yesterday's chapter was a bit rough. Begging for mercy in light of yesterday's big chapter. Let me adjust on Friday night. No update tonight. Hope the big shots will forgive me.

Also, a book recommendation—"The Bandit's Path of the Great Song," a new book by a fellow big shot, set in the same period... 40,000 words recommending 160,000... If you think this one is too immature, you can give it a try.