The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

A few days later, the news from Xizuo overjoyed Daxia's monarchs and ministers. It was the guy named Su Jin who was guarding Weizhou. As a result, Li Yuanhao was naturally ecstatic.

"There was no one left in the Song Dynasty. The frontier town was so important that an unknown young man was sent to guard it. Isn't this nonsense? Zhao Zhen is in a daze. I dare to say that the Song Kingdom will perish in Zhao Zhen's hands." ,Hahaha."

Facing Li Yuanhao's ecstasy, there were not many ministers who agreed, and everyone didn't dare to sing against it casually. They just thought in their hearts: "A nameless young man? I'm afraid that's not the case. You must know that this person is a living eater. Losing the [-] elite cavalry of the Jianing Army, and taking Prince Ningming prisoner, it’s okay to say he’s unknown, but it’s unrealistic to say he’s still young, he should be a little fox with seven holes in his heart.”

Naturally, Li Yuanhao didn't blindly push the big picture. He didn't rely on bragging about what he is today. The reason why he was very happy was to give everyone a kind of confidence. At the same time, compared to Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, this Su Jin was indeed It's a soft persimmon. If it is said that the outcome of this battle against Han Qi or Fan Zhongyan is five or five, after facing this Su Jin, the odds of winning are much greater.

On the tenth day of the seventh month, Li Yuanhao issued an edict ordering the Jianing Army, Baotai Army, and Shenmeng Army in the left and right sides to gather in Huizhou. It is inevitable to gather all the main forces from the east and west roads, and at the same time, he personally came to Huizhou City to serve as the coach, appointed Li Jiqian as the commander of the vanguard army, and led 15 cavalry as the vanguard; The left and right armies commanded [-] cavalrymen to advance on both wings, and he himself led the remaining [-] cavalrymen as the central army to supervise the battle from the rear; Zhang Yuan followed the army as the chief adviser, and a large number of civil and military officials came with the army, offering advice and contributions. All in all, he vowed to take Weizhou in one fell swoop and give the Song Dynasty a blow.

This assembly took more than 20 days. The most important thing is that the collection of supplies and supplies is a big problem. The daily consumption of food and fodder by so many troops is a huge number. The consumption of food when there is no war on weekdays It is two different concepts from food consumption during wartime. When there is no war, the soldiers eat twice a day, one dry and one thin, which is enough to support them. In wartime, they must eat and drink enough to nourish their strength, and horses cannot be dealt with with forage. They are all fine materials, and the food and grass that people eat and chew on horses is enough to make people disturbed.

What's more, Daxia is now in a difficult period. The war has destroyed production, and the grain in the treasury has bottomed out, so there is no way to mobilize so much grain and grass; in the end, Yuan Hao has to go to the extreme, and everyone who has grain in the household has to hand over half of it. Borrowing from the imperial court, those who do not borrow will be punished as collaborating with the enemy; this method of borrowing things is probably unprecedented, and even so, it has caused several civil uprisings and chopped off hundreds of heads. The grain and grass are gathered together.

On the first day of August, 15 Xia troops began to feint with great fanfare along the Xiangdong Road Huanqing Fuyan line, while a part of the Jianing Army of Youzhou dispatched ahead of schedule, and began to attack Zhao'an, Fenglin, and Xinzhai in front of Yanzhou Mansion on Yanyan Road. At the same time, it took only one day for Li Jiqian's vanguard army to appear fifty miles north of Xiqing Prefecture in Yanzhou, and was exposed to the Qing Dynasty. Under the eyes and ears of state scouts.

All of a sudden, the situation in Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Huanzhou and Mulangzhai, Zhao'an, Fenglin, Dalangbao and other places on the two roads of Yanyan and Huanqing suddenly became tense. ; Even Fan Zhongyan didn't expect that the Xixia army would choose to attack the East Road, which made all the plans discussed in Weizhou, Su Jin, Han Qi and others all come to nothing.

However, Fan Zhongyan is not afraid. The East Road has [-] soldiers and horses on hand, and there are intertwined fortresses and villages as buffer bridgeheads. Easy, but the West Thieves are coming fiercely, so we can't take it lightly.

……

The soldiers and horses on the east road were about to explode, and the city of Weizhou in the west was also a busy scene. After Li Chong, Wei Songhe, Pan Jiang and others arrived, the chaotic situation in the city finally changed. The one-year county magistrate is naturally a good hand in government affairs. In the name of Weizhou General Judgment, he and Wei Songhe jointly drafted a wartime announcement to strictly regulate the daily behavior of the people in the city to ensure internal chaos; he will also participate in the defense of the city. The common people made a more detailed division of labor, and at the same time selected more than [-] brave men to set up Weizhou Township Bravery, and distributed weapons and armor to enrich the city's defense strength.

Panjiang, on the other hand, made great efforts to clean up the soldiers deployed in Weizhou, beheaded nearly 200 soldiers who spread timid remarks in the army and violated military discipline without mercy, and replaced a large number of incompetent low-level generals. Then the Weizhou Xiangbing who had been scattered for a long time was cleaned up; for several days in a row, the violators were publicly punished with military law, which made the atmosphere in Weizhou city suddenly stagnant and tense. Be cautious.

Su Jin didn't stop them from doing this. To be honest, Su Jin had wanted to do this for a long time, but if someone did it for him, Su Jin would naturally wish for it. After all, it's better to do less killing, especially killing one's own people before the war, Pan Jiang If he is willing to take the blame for himself, then let him go. Anyway, he doesn't care about the slander of the soldiers and civilians, and Su Jin is also happy to have someone do it for him.

The effect of the purge is obvious. Su Jin was delighted to see that both the soldiers and the common people were more attentive to the affairs at hand, and no one was found stealing, raping, slipping, or sloppily grinding foreign workers. , although it is forced to do so under the pressure of fear, but for the upcoming war, this is definitely a good thing.

However, the development of the situation made Su Jin a little puzzled. At the beginning of August, after all the preparations were completed, the scouts suddenly sent news that the Xixia army was advancing eastward and had already approached Huanqing Road. The northern suburbs of Yanzhou in the east had already started fighting. The thieves are attacking the northern villages of Yanzhou. It seems that the army of western thieves is going to attack the East Road instead of Weizhou City.

Su Jin didn't quite believe it, so he even sent more than [-] scouts to investigate. The next day, the scouts reported exactly the same thing. The Xixia army was indeed confronting Fan Zhongyan on the east road, and the two sides were about to start a war. They made siege equipment locally, as if attacking Gyeongju and Huanzhou.

Su Jin was at a loss, and immediately called everyone in Weizhou city overnight to discuss countermeasures.

A huge candle was burning in the lobby of the government office; Jingtai, Pan Jiang, Li Chong, Wei Songhe, Wang Chao Mahan and others, as well as a dozen middle and senior generals deployed by them all attended the scene.

Su Jin reported to everyone what the scouts had inquired about, and finally said: "I was quite surprised by this incident. I never expected that the target of the western thieves would be the two roads of Yanyan and Huanqing, not my city of Weizhou. What do you think, what's wrong, what do you guys think?"

Everyone was also a little dumbfounded. They all held up their energy and wanted to fight the Xi thief. They didn't expect that the opponent in front of them disappeared before they could send out their fists. This feeling was both frustrating and embarrassing. Confuse.

"My lord Lu Shi, I also find it very strange. If it is said that Weizhou is naturally the weakest in terms of strength, isn't there a rumor that the western thief wants to avenge the capture of Prince Xia Ningming? Why did he suddenly transfer the hatred to Fan Shuai? Gone? It's really confusing."

After Jingtai came, he directly called Mr. Su Jinlu envoy. Naturally, he ignored the pronoun. Su Jin was a little embarrassed when he heard it at first, but after a long time, he accepted it with peace of mind.

"Are you saying that you also feel that something is wrong?" Su Jin asked.

"It's true, it's not normal." Jingtai said.

Su Jin took a deep breath and said, "It turns out that I'm not the only one who feels this way. It seems that I'm not worrying unnecessarily."

Su Jin looked at the other people. Li Chong and Wei Songhe had just arrived and had never been in a war. They probably didn't feel much about this matter. If Ge Huaimin was here, he could ask for his opinion.

When Su Jin was planning to skip Li Chong and others asking for Pan Jiang's opinion, Li Chong said Shi Shiran: "My lord, the lower officials have some opinions on this matter, do you want to listen?" Li Chong said solemnly.

Looking at his dark face, Su Jin suddenly realized that Li Chong is also a man who has read a lot of poetry and books. He has also read a lot of military books and history. It is to discuss this matter, and I will listen with all my ears.”