The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

All within a hundred paces of the northern wall of Seoul have been occupied by the Liao people. The retreat of the Song army gave Yelu Hongji and others great confidence. Not being ruthless is their greatest weakness, and this will cost them dearly today.

Yelu Hongji was standing on the high wall of the imperial city, and several generals around him were waiting for his order. Yelu Hongji carefully looked at the situation below, pointed to a road to the east and said, "Let the common people come from where?" Breakthrough, the terrain is open and can accommodate more people, once the tall buildings behind are occupied, bed crossbows can also be erected to become enemy buildings in the city, effectively killing the Song army."

Yelu Kanrong said: "His Royal Highness, we can make a feint attack from the west first, and after attracting their attention, we can drive the people to attack the defense line on the east. Push back from the middle, but this may accidentally injure the people."

"We can't control that much anymore, we can't turn back, remember, we would rather the people die, but also preserve the strength of the soldiers, and the supervising army should be driven from the rear, as long as the people mutiny or flee back, we must kill them mercilessly , otherwise it would be a mess."

Yelu Kanrong looked at Yelu Hongji with complicated eyes, and found that the prince's eyes were extremely fanatical, and his breathing was a little uneven. Although the prince was only 17 years old, Yelu Kanrong no longer dared to judge him by his age.

"The general will obey, and the general will make arrangements for this." Yelu Kanrong gritted his teeth and said, he, like the prince, can only go one way to the dark, and today's behavior of driving the people to death can only use one result to obtain the final forgiveness, That is to keep the capital.

Yelu Hongji didn't notice Yelu Kanrong's complex expression, his attention was attracted by the huge commotion in front of the two armies, the low-pitched horn sounded suddenly, it was the horn blown by the Song army, Yelu Hongji's heart trembled : Is the Song army going to launch an attack recklessly?

A dozen horses galloped out of the Song army column on South Street, followed by three carriages. An officer sat on a horse in the front of the team. His shiny silver armor and purple cloak looked particularly eye-catching, and the distance was too far away. I can't see the face clearly.

I saw the man waved his hand, and a follower took out a barrel-shaped thing from behind and covered his mouth and began to shout: "The Liao people on the opposite side listen, I, the great general Su Jin of the Great Song Dynasty, has something to say to you The coach said, please report quickly."

The cylindrical thing seems to have a special power, and it can send the sound far away to the city wall hundreds of steps away; Yelu Hongji frowned, not knowing what the Song people were going to do; not long after, someone came The announcement said that the people of Song Dynasty invited the prince to go to talk, Yelu Hongji thought for a while and said: "Let's go and have a look."

The people around said: "Your Highness, be careful that this is a trick of the Song people, beware of the Song people's backstabbing and hurting people."

Yelu Hongji waved his hands and said: "Definitely not, the generals of the Song Army are not afraid of backstabbing, what His Highness is afraid of, if you don't go, you will lose your morale and lead the way."

After all, he got off the city wall and rode on his horse to gallop away. The guards hurriedly followed and surrounded them, ready to block the arrows with their bodies.

Su Jin saw dozens of horses galloping forward from the Liao army from a distance, and knew that it was the Liao army leader who was coming, so he rode up to meet the enemy, reined in his horse and stood still a hundred paces away from the enemy's formation, and after a while the Liao cavalry team came to the front , probably because he saw himself standing alone, and there was also a red horse slowly approaching from among the enemy troops.

"Su Jin, the Great General of the Great Song Township, is being polite." Su Jin said.

Yelu Hongji returned the salute and said coldly: "The King of Daliaoyan, Chief Minister of Zhongcheng, and the eldest son of the emperor, Yelu Hongji, are very polite."

Su Jin was stunned, the young man in front of him was Yelu Hongji, the future emperor of Liao Kingdom in history, but that was the history before his arrival, it is hard to say whether this young man can become emperor now.

"It turns out to be the eldest prince, who has admired his name for a long time, and he is indeed a dragon and phoenix among men." Su Jin has been in the officialdom for a long time, so he can't help but like to be polite.

Yelu Hongji slapped him mercilessly: "I didn't come here to be polite to you. The people of the Song Dynasty are treacherous, you and I are dead. If you have something to say, there is no need to say empty words."

Su Jin laughed loudly and said: "Well said, happy! There is no politeness between Song and Liao, the prince is right."

"Finally, what do you want to tell me? Did you come here to beg for mercy seeing that you were about to lose today? This prince can tell you that everyone in Song Dynasty can be spared, but you, Su Jin, can't."

"Haha, it turns out that you people from Liao regard Su Jin so differently, I should be thankful; but what the prince said is the opposite. I am not here to ask for forgiveness, but to persuade you to surrender. The general situation of your Liao country is gone, you still follow the will of heaven and submit to me If the court is good, it will save lives, and I, Song Dynasty, will not be as narrow-minded as you Liao people, I promise that I will not embarrass you, and I will even give you the title of king and a piece of fief, so that you will have no worries for the rest of your life."

"Shut up, you don't know your death is imminent, can't you see what's going on today? The people in my imperial city are passionate and everyone is united in the same hatred. Don't think that you have an army of [-] in your hands, and it will only take a moment to be wiped out in front of my hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians. .”

Su Jin shook his head and sighed: "The prince likes to put gold on his face. What hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians? What is the same hatred? You regard the people as worthless, but say so high-sounding, this is the biggest mistake of you Liao people. The people are human, and the people will treat you as human beings? To put it bluntly, if you drive these unarmed people to stop, even if you drive all the people from the Liao Kingdom, they will only be sent to die. I advise you to be more sober."

Yelu Hongji spat several times and shouted: "Since this is the case, why bother talking, let's go to war immediately."

Su Jin said: "Of course we will fight. I just want to tell you one thing. There are a few people who want to meet you. After you meet, we can start a war."

Yelu Hongji frowned and said, "Who wants to see me? What kind of tricks are you playing?"

Su Jin raised his right hand and waved it. The three black carriages followed by the guards fifty steps behind him caught up a few steps, lifted the curtain of the carriage, and invited a few people from inside.

Yelu Hongji didn't look at it, but when he saw it, he became dizzy and almost fell off the horse. Three women came out of the first carriage. Yelu Hongji was very familiar with them. They were his mother, Empress Renyi and The two beloved concubines of the father and emperor, the children who came out of the second car were his younger brother and two younger sisters, and the old men who got out of the third car were Shangfu Zhang Jian and several Veteran; Yelu Hongji understood everything, the car of the queen who was sent out of the city overnight to avoid disaster was robbed by the Song army.

"You... are despicable and shameless!" Yelu Hongji's face turned purple.

"I admit it, but so what?" Su Jin smiled.

From far away came the cries of the queen and the princes and princesses: "Prince, save me."

"Brother, help me."

Yelu Hongji rolled off the saddle and knelt down on the ground, kowtowed to Empress Renyi and cried, "Mother, mother, the child is not filial."

Zhang Jian panted and shouted: "Your Highness, don't be threatened by the people of Song Dynasty. The country and society are more important than everything else." An old tooth flies far away.

"Old thing, not being honest, calling grandpa to buy you horse dung." Ma Han scolded.

"I only want to die, I only want to die." Zhang Jian covered his face and yelled.

Ma Han waved his hands and said, "Brothers, give him something delicious." Several guards grabbed horse dung on the snow and grabbed Zhang Jian's hair and stuffed it into his mouth. Zhang Jian swallowed several mouthfuls, out of breath Gong Xin fainted on the ground.

"Thief, how can you insult my important official of Daliao?" Yelu Hongji's eyes were burning with anger.

Su Jin spread his hands and said: "No way, my subordinates are all rough people, and it is inconvenient for me to reprimand you when the army is fighting outside; Prince, have you considered it? If you don't surrender, I don't know what my subordinates will do to your mother. Do something more, but several generals have asked me for rewards."

"If you dare to humiliate my mother, I will not live with you."

"Don't gnash your teeth like that. It's all up to you. As long as you surrender immediately, I will let you go immediately and give you the best care. No one dares to touch you."

"Don't even think about it." Yelu Hongji was in chaos, his mother, step-brother and younger sister were captured, how could he fight today?Is it really possible to surrender?No, once you surrender, everything will be over. The Song people may not kill themselves, but how is that different from being dead?

Yelu Hongji's thoughts turned, and he slowly got scared from the snow, patted the muddy water on his body, and said in a hoarse voice: "General Su, this matter is too important, how about allowing me to discuss it with my subordinates? In addition, I have This is an unfeeling request, I hope you can agree, you bring my queen mother and younger siblings here, I will have a few words with them, I will order the guards to stay away from a hundred paces, and you can also send someone to watch closely, I will never Willing to save lives."

Su Jin thought for a while and said, "Forget it, I promised you, so it doesn't matter if we just meet."

Su Jin ordered people to escort Empress Renyi, a little prince and two little princesses to Yelu Hongji, and the guards stepped back twenty steps, bowed their bows and set up arrows to stand ready.

Yelu Hongji stepped forward slowly, hugging Empress Renyi and crying, Empress Renyi cried: "My lord, what should I do, you have to save your mother and your younger brothers and sisters."

Yelu Hongji cried bitterly for a few times, and said softly: "Queen, my son will naturally save you, not only you, but also our Daliao Kingdom. You can't lose the capital, and you can't surrender. You have no choice for today's matter. I will forgive the child."

Empress Renyi didn't understand Yelu Hongji's words, she said in astonishment with tears in her eyes: "My son...you..."

Yelu Hongji reached out his hand and pulled out the scimitar inlaid with gold jewels from his waist. The cold light on the tip of the knife made Queen Renyi's eyes hurt. Suddenly, she understood what Yelu Hongji was going to do.

"Huang'er, Huang'er." Empress Renyi shouted hurriedly and stepped back.

"My mother... my son is not filial, my son can't let you be humiliated, my mother can go with peace of mind..." Yelu Hongji grabbed Empress Renyi's arm, gritted his teeth and stabbed with the knife, a stream of blood spurted out, splashing Yelu Hongji's head. Face.

The three underage princes and little princesses screamed in fright and ran away; Su Jin woke up and exclaimed loudly: "No, I fell for Yelu Hongji's trick."

He didn't have time to react, but he saw Yelu Hongji quickly catching up, his sword was like the wind, and he chopped down his younger brother and two younger sisters neatly in the snow.