Bo Jiao and Kong Pei walked north with their large troops, and Hong Tao and his guard stayed. More than 20 canal flat-bottomed boats began to gather together, and the side of the boat was lined up next to the side of the boat, blocking the entire river channel. The boats were firmly fixed with cables, and then a few large wooden stakes were smashed into the river bank, and the ships on both sides were tied to the wooden stakes. In this way, a huge floating bridge composed of ships was formed on the south side of the dark dam, which was four rows wide.

When the soldiers on the boat were busy building the floating bridge, Hong Tao was not idle either. He arranged the only 200 soldiers left in his hand to camp at the same time on both sides of the river bank, and deliberately laid the camps sparsely, with neither fence nor trenches, and they were not like marching camps at all, but more like a group of travelers, even worse than a caravan.

After the camp was set up, it was almost noon. Except for dozens of soldiers who were still watching the preparation camp digging the dark dam, the rest of the soldiers went to the shore to build pots and cook. Not only did they eat, they also had to drink, eat meat and drink wine in big bowls, do whatever they were lazy, and do whatever they were busy. They kept struggling until after two o'clock in the afternoon, and then they stopped. They should go back to the tent to sleep and run back to the boat to rest. There were no more than ten soldiers standing guard on the entire fleet and excavation site.

Hong Tao felt very accurate. Their whereabouts were always under the surveillance of others. Since the team set out from Kaifeng City, they have been targeted. They are not alone, but a group of people.

The local tycoons around Daming Mansion were very uncomfortable with the arrival of Hong Tao's imperial army. They could tolerate the oppression of the Jin people and obey the orders of the Mongols, but they would never be so tolerant of the Song Dynasty. The reason was very simple. They felt that the Song Dynasty was still the original soft-boy. Although they beat the Mongols away, it was because the strength of the Mongols was greatly weakened after the civil strife. Even so, they still fought for several years before they withdrew.

Submission to such an imperial court is not in the interests of the northern tycoons. Why pay taxes and food? It is not for protection. Since it is protection, we have to find a stronger backer. Both the Jin and Mongolians have this condition, and the performance of the Song Dynasty court is not convincing.

The reason why these northern tyrants agreed to surrender to the Song Dynasty court was actually just perfunctory and had no intention of actually paying money and food for the Song Dynasty court. Moreover, they felt that the Song Dynasty court was not able to manage the north well, and they were not able to rule the north for a long time. Maybe one day the Mongols will come back. Instead of re-entering the Mongols, it is better not to rush to choose sides now. We don’t rely on the Song Dynasty, and the Mongols will not collude with each other. It’s good to live your own life.

In fact, many areas north of the Yellow River had already entered a state of autonomy after the Mongols retreated, but it was not stated clearly. The local tyrants were very powerful here. Even during the Mongols' rule, they also negotiated terms with the Mongols and obtained the power of partial autonomy. When the Song Dynasty court advanced northern expedition, these local tyrants adopted a neutral attitude, neither providing help to the Mongols nor supporting the Song Dynasty's Northern Expedition Army. Being able to do this is enough to say that they have a certain amount of armed forces themselves, at least they can protect themselves.

Now Hong Tao's army entered their territory under the banner of the Song Dynasty court, and did not seek their opinions in advance, and did not even say hello. This behavior deeply hurt the fragile and sensitive hearts of the local tyrants. Before Hong Tao's army arrived in Kaifeng, these northern tyrants had already received a tip and began to pay attention to this army that was walking, fighting and killing. Since Hong Tao left Kaifeng City and continued to go north along the canal, the local tyrants with Daming Mansion as the center could no longer sit still, and ran to Daming Mansion together to discuss how to deal with it.

In fact, this is also a misunderstanding caused by the two sides' lack of understanding. If Hong Tao could lower his attitude and find someone from Kaifeng City to contact and contact these northern tyrants in advance, it would be fine if he wanted to take a road through the Hebei region. The local tyrants were unwilling to fight with the imperial army, which was meaningless. From another perspective, if these local tyrants could stretch their ears, learn more about the many changes that have occurred in the Song Dynasty, and care more about the new policies of the Song Dynasty court, they would not easily make up their minds to give this imperial army a serious warning, and by the way, they would also warn the Song Dynasty court not to stretch their claws too far.

To put it bluntly, Hong Tao had an irreconcilable conflict with these northern tyrants. In Hong Tao's plan, there was no specific opinion on the northern tyrants, and he didn't care about this area yet. However, his way of doing things was completely opposite to the previous Song Dynasty court. He never considered who to be delighted to, which was not in line with his habit. It was impossible for an emperor who had never encountered an enemy in the east and west to create two largest countries in the world, and took the initiative to bow to a certain force.

From the comprehensive evaluation of Hong Tao's experience, personality, and ability, he really has no need for this. Looking at the world, only the Jinhe Empire is qualified to negotiate equally with him. Note that it is equal negotiation. As long as the Jinhe Empire has the slightest meaning of overwhelming people with power, Hong Tao would rather not be able to make the Jinhe Empire and his son taste what pain it means. Under this thinking mode, a group of northern tycoons are just a group of stray dogs in Hong Tao's eyes, and looking at it once is a waste of emotion.

But this is the fundamental reason why Hong Tao cannot become a qualified politician, and it also violates all the principles he advocates for interests. He cannot get rid of the willfulness, and a qualified politician cannot be influenced by emotions. There is no such word "happiness and unhappiness" in the mind of politicians. There is only "appropriate and unhappy" in their minds. As long as they get the interests, they will naturally be happy. Of course, they will be unhappy if they can't get them. All emotions are determined by the amount of interests.

According to a mature politician's understanding, this matter could have been handled well and very smoothly. I sent people to the north to appease these local tyrants, and then touched their details, and even gave them some sweetness first. As long as they can temporarily recognize the leadership of the new government, everything will be easy.

Then, use the many internal conflicts between these tyrants, whether they are tempted or threatened, or bribed, and divide them from the tyrants, so that they can fight in the middle. After the new government is freed up, they will use some empty positions to transfer the leaders of these tyrants from the local area, gradually undermining the control of the local tyrants. Finally, the troops are overwhelmed and clean up the forces of the tyrants who are already divided and have ulterior motives one by one. The entire north will return to the embrace of the central government without spending much energy.

Hong Tao didn't understand this truth, but he just couldn't convince himself to do it in the most reasonable way. The reason was not entirely because of his personality, his contempt for the northern nobles and his serious demand for time. He didn't have so much time to lie with these people, nor did he care whether the people here would be destroyed by war. In his eyes, no matter what the reasons were for, the people here were no longer considered to be from the Song Dynasty, and they did not have a sense of national and national identity.

In dealing with such a region, Hong Tao felt that it was no different from dealing with foreigners. If you obey, keep it. If you don’t obey, you should be eliminated directly. Since they did not regard themselves as Song people, the Song people would not be too sad because of their own massacre. Whether during the Jin Dynasty or the Mongols, the Han people in the north were one of the main forces to help the evildoers. They could be cruel to their compatriots. Why should they be kind to them? This does not conform to the principle of fair trade. Therefore, Hong Tao crossed the Yellow River with the mentality of a conqueror, and since he crossed this river, he had never considered who he wanted to look at. If he didn’t agree, let’s take it out. Are you used to being conquered, then I will satisfy you!

"Sir God, it seems that we can't sleep well tonight. From the afternoon, the sentry found some unidentified cavalry on the east and west sides, southwest and southeast directions. They were not too close and always wandering two or three kilometers away from us. According to my experience, these are the sudden scouts of the large army. Their main force will not be too far from here. Maybe they have been in place long ago and have been waiting for our large army to go far before launching. I think they are likely to launch a sneak attack after the sun sets, and come together from at least three directions. How many people do you think they will have? Do you need to push our position forward 200 meters. I am afraid that the other party will have long-range weapons. If they rely solely on fortifications built on the river bank, they will be sufficient to defend, but they will lose the ability to counterattack." During dinner, Hong Tao's guard captain came over and reported the information he collected in the past half day in a low voice, and put forward his own professional suggestions.

"You are too proud of the combat effectiveness of these Imperial Army. I haven't told you yet. They are not professional soldiers. Maybe a month ago they were workers in factories, farmers in farmlands or employees in offices. Although they enter the army every once in a while, they still have some gaps compared to you, which are mainly reflected in their psychology. In addition, their weapons and equipment are not as good as ours. The rifled guns are still equipped with front-mounted fire speeds, which are all made up for by the number of people. Now we have only more than 300 people in total, and we have to draw out our hands to watch over the people in the reserve camp. Only more than 200 people can be put into battle, and then divided into two lines of defense, and one side is

There are more than a hundred people left. With such a handful, if they are all our army, no matter how many enemies they encounter, I will not doubt at all. But now it is not possible. The hundred brothers under your command are their backing. If they are tight, they have to reinforce there. This is also the reason why I have to tie the ships together and make them into a floating bridge. It is prepared for you. Tell our people that you should aim and then shoot, don’t shoot outside the range, and mortars and grenades must greet the places where the enemy is most. Our snipers are the same. Let them aim at the enemy and the more neatly dressed people, and focus on where there are more flags. This night is not easy, don’t be careless."

Hong Tao is not as optimistic as the captain of the guard. He and Kong Pei spoke lightly at the beginning, as if he had done something, no matter how many enemies he came, they would immediately be wiped out. That was giving them a pill of peace of mind, and they would not leave without saying that. But in terms of actual problems, Hong Tao did not think that his small army could have an absolute advantage. The rich people are the local emperors here, and they have been in charge of this for hundreds of years and have dealt with the Jin people and Mongolia. They will definitely not be as weak as those bandits on the road.

If they really plan to attack this team that holds the banner of the Song Dynasty court, they will not show any mercy. They must do their best to strive to kill with one blow. From this we can judge that if they don’t come, they will have to come. As long as they dare to come, the number of people will definitely be small. Maybe they have joined forces with local forces in the nearby radius of hundreds of miles. Maybe they have some heavy weapons left by the Mongols back then, such as stone trenchers, Mongolian artillery, etc., and maybe even muskets are there. After all, the Mongols began to equip muskets like the New Army of the Song Dynasty. Even if they were all front-mounted smoothbore guns, it was also guns.
Chapter completed!