The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

It snowed heavily all night, and at dawn, the entire Linhuang Mansion was covered in silver.

The soldiers of the Song Dynasty approached the city, causing the little prince Yelu Hongji who stayed in the capital to panic. The Shang father Zhang Jian who stayed in the capital hurriedly called the Beijing Wenwu to discuss the strategy of defending against the enemy. Zhang Jian was more panicked than everyone else because he knew this. Su Jin, who led the army, was the mastermind of the battle of Helan Mountain in Liaoxia two years ago. The scene of that disastrous defeat is still vivid in his mind.

Empress Renyi, Yelu Hongji, Zhang Jian, and hundreds of civil and military officials lined up in the hall of the west building of the imperial capital, discussing how to defend against the Song army's siege, taking stock of the possessions in the capital, and going to the inspection department of the capital. The 6 accompanying troops have all followed Xingzong to the southern battlefield. The only ones in charge of guarding the palace city are the [-] Great Palace Tent Army from the Shangjing Left Guard Division, and the tribal soldiers transferred from the Northeast Command Division and the Tokyo Command Command Division And [-] retinue soldiers, plus Shangjing Gyeonggi Prefecture soldiers, the total number does not exceed [-].

The Northeast Command Army Division and the Tokyo Command Army Division had originally transferred 20 troops to defend Shangjing, but Yelu Zhongyuan ordered 15 of them to join forces to destroy Su Jin's army, so that the entire capital was so large that There are only [-] defenders.

"Uncle Huang is really outrageous. He transferred all the troops from Shangjing, but what? The army of the Song Dynasty is still approaching the city. I really don't know what his intentions are." Yelu Hongji's immature voice carried a murderous look.

Everyone could hear that the little prince had something to say, but no one dared to speak up. It is better not to intervene in this matter. The emperor appointed Chongyuan as the emperor's younger brother, which means that the future throne will be passed on to Yelu Chongyuan. The prince's Yelu Hongji naturally has thoughts in his mind, but now is not the time to fight for this, the most important thing is to keep Shangjing.

Empress Renyi did come out to speak: "My son, don't be unreasonable. The Song army outside the city only has 20, which is far from the rumored [-]. It can be seen that the Song people must have divided their troops. His Royal Highness is encircling and suppressing them." It must be another Song army, don't panic now, I have enough food and grass in the capital, and the city defense is strong, I just need to hold on for a few days, and the emperor's younger brother will surely lead his troops back to help after hearing the news."

Zhang Jian nodded and said: "The Queen's analysis is that the emperor's younger brother may be on his way back for help, and what is to be discussed now is the city defense. The defense of [-] defenders should not be a problem, but the Song army has increased its combat power recently. It is still necessary to be extremely cautious when using troops cunningly."

"My lord Shangfu, your worries are unfounded." Yelu Kanrong, deputy envoy of the Privy Council of the North Court, said, "The scouts came to report that the Song army outside the city came from the north on light cavalry, and they did not carry any siege weapons with them. There are not many equipment, food and grass, and this heavy snowfall will be a disaster for the Song people. In my opinion, within three days, the Song people will surely collapse. How did Song soldiers experience the severe cold in our northern country?"

Everyone nodded and said: "Master Yelu said that, despite the arrogance of the Song people in the past few months, in the face of the cold winter, they may all become soft-legged crabs."

"Yes, they entered our Daliao to fight in summer, and now it's severe winter. I'm afraid they don't even have cotton clothes. We don't even need to fight them, they will collapse themselves."

"..."

Zhang Jian remained silent, thinking: I hope what you say is true, but if you know what kind of ruthless character Su Jin is facing, you will be more careful in your words and deeds.

Empress Renyi saw that Zhang Jian seemed to be worried, so she asked: "Father Shang can say it clearly if he has something to say. My lord, please consider it carefully."

Zhang Jian bowed with his arms crossed and said, "Your Majesty, the adults are right. The situation is indeed favorable to me, but the Song Army outside the city is not an ordinary Song Army. The person who leads this defender is Su Jin. He was the instigator of the Battle of Helan Mountain back then, and it was he who single-handedly led to the disastrous defeat of my Daliao. The great battle of that year is still in front of my eyes, and I am deeply impressed by the experience of the battle; It was also this Su Jin who disrupted the matter of Song Guo talking about increasing coins, and you must have not forgotten that matter."

"It turned out to be him, this cunning thief, who was responsible for the treachery of the people of Song Dynasty. It's good that he came to your door. This time, we will settle the old and new accounts together." Yelu Kanrong said angrily.

Zhang Jiandao: "Because it is him, you must not be careless. I suggest that you recruit townships in the city to help defend the city. The biggest problem at present is that the south of Seoul is the weakest place to defend. Defensive measures, the city wall is nearly a foot shorter than the imperial city, if the Song army attacks Seoul, it may not be able to stop it, most of the troops will naturally be stationed in the imperial city, and the defense of Seoul can only rely on a small number of regular troops and recruited townspeople."

Empress Renyi frowned and nodded, "Father Shang is right. It's a good way to recruit the township to help. In addition, we have to send someone to the east to report to the emperor's younger brother and ask him to return to the defense quickly. The longer we hold on , the more beneficial it is to me.”

Everyone reached a consensus and immediately launched an action to recruit the township.

The northern imperial city of Linhuangfu is where the Khitan people live, and the southern Han city is where the Han people gather, and ethnicity determines status. The Han people are second-class citizens in the Liao Kingdom, and they are also under guard, so the city walls of Seoul are not in accordance with defense at all. It was built according to the standard of the city, and it is only two feet high, and there are no defensive facilities such as enemy towers and high stacks. Unexpectedly, it has become a hidden danger today.

……

The Song army camp was set up on the north slope of the city. Due to the need for light equipment, the army carried very little supplies, and seven or eight people were squeezed into one army tent. Even so, the severe cold still showed his strength on the first night of camping. Power, when I wake up in the morning, the dripping water turns into ice, and the soldiers' clothes, boots and armor are covered with ice, and the thin clothes can't stop the biting cold at all.

Su Jin knew that he couldn't delay any longer. Every day of delay would lead to a drop in morale, and the number of people who would freeze to death and suffer from frostbite would increase day by day. The only option now was to attack the city immediately.

However, the problem is obvious. There is no siege equipment. Second, the city wall of Linhuang Mansion is more than three feet high, the city defense is strong, and there are many arrow towers.

After waking up early, Su Jin led hundreds of cavalry and several generals to walk around Linhuang Mansion, looking for loopholes in the city. After returning at noon, Su Jin immediately held a pre-war meeting to discuss how to attack the city.

For the first time in the big tent, a fire oil basin was lit. Su Jin ordered people to take mud and build a model of Linhuang Mansion on the ground in the tent. Pan Jiang pinched dead branches and pointed at the model, and shared the results of his own inspection in the morning with everyone. Explain one by one.

"Everyone, please see that the capital of Liao is different from the city of my Great Song Dynasty. It is also divided into two parts. In my Great Song Dynasty, the inner and outer cities were built, while the Liao people connected two cities and shared a city wall in the middle. Let me call them the northern and southern parts. Judging from the height of the city wall and the tightness of the defense, it is obvious that the north city we are facing has a high and thick wall, with more than a hundred enemy towers on the city, and the defense is extremely tight; while the south city is not only only two feet high, but also loosely defended. Based on this, it can be inferred that the North City is where the Liao people’s imperial palace is located, and the South City is just a construction equivalent to the outer city of our Great Song City.”

A general said: "At the end of the day, a brother from the same family came here to do business. According to him, the northern city is called the imperial city, and the southern city is called Hancheng, which means that the Khitan and Han people separate the cities."

Su Jin nodded and said: "That's it. It seems that the Liao people are guarding against the Han people, but this shows that the weakness of Linhuang Mansion is in the southern city of Seoul. We can only start from Seoul."

Jing Tai said: "Commander, since the Liao people have arranged the situation in this way, I guess even if Seoul is broken, they may not be able to directly enter the imperial city. Taking Seoul is actually the same as not taking Linhuang Mansion."

Su Jin said: "That's true, but after capturing Seoul, the situation will be more beneficial to me. At least we have a foothold, so we won't be camping in the snow, and we can also search for a lot of useful materials in Seoul. It's better than It is better to suffer the cold in the wild with empty hands."

Everyone nodded and said: "That's true, it's very good as a foothold."

Su Jin smiled and said: "The downside is that taking Beicheng is equivalent to taking Shangjing, and taking Seoul does not mean that Shangjing has been defeated, and we have seen their weaknesses. How can they not know that Seoul is weak, but our defense is weak. There may still be a huge price to pay, so we have to weigh whether such a price is worth it; if it takes me tens of thousands of troops to capture Seoul, then I might as well go all-in on attacking the imperial city directly."

Jing Tai said: "What the commander-in-chief said is true, but we need to consider how to spend the least cost to capture Seoul and settle down."

Su Jin said: "Yes, this is our first priority."