Song Dynasty

Chapter 183
In the fourth year of Jianyan in the Song Dynasty, the situation in the world was still in chaos, and it seemed that the deep night seemed to have no end in sight.

Since the two armies of the Jurchen invaded last autumn, they swept across the Huanghuai area in just two months, and the Central Plains completely fell to the enemy.It can be said that the Jin army has mobilized all the mobile forces at hand this time, intending to capture Zhao Gou, the emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, and destroy China.

First, Wan Yanchang of the West Route Army crossed the river in Huangzhou after taking Shouchun and Luzhou, and went all the way to Hongzhou to capture the Queen Mother Yulong; then Wanyan Zongbi's East Route Army attacked Jinling, and then relied on this big city to send troops to Lin'an.

It's a pity that because of the birth of Wang Shen, one thousand soldiers from the Sizhou Military Region should have defeated Yeluma Wu who had crossed the river, beheaded the deputy commander of the East Route Army, Wanyan Balisu, and burned all the Jurchen boats crossing the river. Forcibly defending Jiankang City.

Frustrated, Wushu had no choice but to go east along the river and cross the river from Yangzhou to Zhenjiang.

Han Shizhong, who was guarding Zhenjiang, was defeated, and the Jurchen army was able to cross the river.

After crossing the Yangtze River, the Jurchens marched along the Grand Canal by water and land to Lin'an, the temporary capital of the Southern Song Dynasty's small court.

In the first month of the fourth year of Jianyan, Zhao Gou abandoned Lin'an and fled south. On January [-], Lin'an Mansion fell.

Afterwards, Wushu led his army in hot pursuit, breaking through the prefectures of Hangzhou, Xiu, Chang, Ming, Yue, and Pingjiang, as if entering a land without people.

Zhao Gou nearly fell into the enemy's hands several times, and even boarded a ship and floated on the ocean at the most critical time.

Seeing that there was no way to capture Zhao Gou, and Wu Shu was delayed in Jiankang for a few days, the weather gradually became hotter.Jurchen couldn't bear the heat in the south, so Wanyan Zongbi led his army to burn Lin'an City to the north.Before the trip, the troops plundered and plundered. Because they were full of loot and luggage, they could not travel by land, so they took Xiuzhou, Pingjiang, and Changzhou along the canal.

At the same time, the Jurchen West Route Army pursued the Empress Dowager Longyou to Jiangxi. After occupying most of the state troops in Jiangxi, they moved troops to attack Hunan.In the first month, the Jin people surrounded Tanzhou, which is later known as Changsha, Hunan.Hunan Shuai Chen Xiang Ziyan and his clan Zhao Yuzhi led the crowd to defend.On the second day of February, the city was broken, and Xiang Zixu led the officials to flee, and Zhao Yuzhi committed suicide.Jin Bing plundered Tanzhou for six days and returned north after massacring the city.Tanzhou is the southernmost big city captured since the Jin people invaded.

On this occasion, Jurchen's unprecedented military operation finally came to an end, and it was called "searching mountains and seas to capture Zhao Gou" in history.

On the way back to the north of the Wushu East Route Army, the Jin army arrived at Zhenjiang and was blocked by Han Shizhong, the envoy of Western Zhejiang.

Han Shizhong was originally stationed in Qinglong Town and Jiangwan area of ​​Xiuzhou. Hearing that Wushu had gone to Pingjiang, he moved to Zhenjiang to wait.

When Jin Bing arrived, Han Shizhong garrisoned Jiaoshan Temple with 8000 people.Wushu wanted to cross the river, so he sent envoys to ask questions and make an appointment for a battle.The two armies fought for dozens of rounds, Han Shizhong's wife, Liang's family, beat the drums to help out, and the Jin soldiers were finally unable to cross the river.

The rivers and water networks in the south of the Yangtze River are criss-crossed. Although the Jurchens are strong, their combat effectiveness is greatly limited by the terrain. Ten percent of their strength can't exert [-] percent, and they are blocked by the Song army.

In desperation, Wushu sent an envoy to Han Shizhong again, saying that he was willing to return the property and population captured in the south of the Yangtze River, and presented some good war horses as a gift.After being rejected by Han Shizhong, the helpless Wushu had no choice but to lead his troops westward along the south bank of the Yangtze River. Shizhong led his ships along the north bank of the river, and fought and left, and finally blocked the Jin soldiers in Huangtiandang.

Jurchen had never fought such a useless battle since they started their army, and they were almost collapsed by the water network and heat in the south of the Yangtze River.

Relying on the navy, Han Shizhong ate Wushu to death.Ordinarily, if you continue to fight according to this tactic, you should be able to achieve good results.

Huang Tiandang was a backwater port, and the Jin army broke through the siege many times, but none of them worked.Later, when I heard that there was an old road of the Old Stork River that could lead to the Qinhuai River, I sent an army to dig it, and opened dozens of miles of canals overnight.Relying on this method, he finally escaped from Huang Tiandang, plundered ships along the river, and fought fiercely with Han Shizhong.

Like the Huang Tiandang battle in real history, Han Shizhong was defeated, and his 8000 troops were defeated, so he had to retreat to Zhenjiang. In this way, Wushu was able to return to the north.

Relying on Huang Tiandang's battle, Han Shizhong earned a great reputation and became a rising star in the military circles of the Southern Song Dynasty.Although in fact Han Liangchen suffered a disastrous defeat in this battle, he also gained some small gains, which can be regarded as a little comfort to the people of the country.

The war in the south of the Yangtze River subsided, and Zhao Gou finally took a breath and was able to gain a foothold in Lin'an.

However, at this time, the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River were already in ruins under the ravages of the Jurchens. Local thieves were rampant, the central government's orders were ineffective, and civil strife was out of control.

At the same time, Henan has completely fallen.The national humiliation of Jingkang, the two emperors were captured, and the land north of Henan was all Jinyou. Jin stationed heavy troops in Suizhou and Luoyang. Only Tokyo and several cities in Kinki were still controlled by the Song Dynasty, but they were short of food for a long time and the traffic was cut off.Nie Yuan, the leader of the Hebei Army of the Kingdom of Jin, and others often traded food with the Song soldiers defending the city. After a long time, they became familiar with each other, and the Song soldiers relaxed their vigilance.

Just in February of this year, Nie Yuan led the crowd to the city at night and set fire to the city towers. Shangguan Wu and Zhao Lun, who stayed behind in Tokyo, fled, and Tokyo fell.Shangguan Wu went to Tangzhou and was killed by Dong Ping, and even the four capitals of the Northern Song Dynasty fell into the hands of Jinren.

As for the Guanzhong area, the current situation has become so bad that it cannot be worsened.

Shanzhou is the strategic passage from the Central Plains to Guanzhong. If you want to destroy China, you should take this place first.In December of the first year of Jianyan, the Jin army attacked the Song Dynasty in three ways. Wanyan Loushi's troops crossed the river from Tongzhou from Shanxi, and captured Tongzhou, Huazhou and Tongguan.

In the spring of the following year, Li Yanxian, Lieutenant Shihao, regained Shanzhou with a plan, and the imperial court ordered him to be the prefect and comfort envoy.Scholars and people from Kaifeng, Luoyang and other places rushed to return, and the 5000 volunteers from the Shaoxing Department of Xiezhou also listened to Li Yanxian's restraint, and the army was greatly boosted.Li Yanxian was actively preparing for the war in Shanzhou, repairing the city and clearing the trenches, sharpening equipment, accumulating food, and boosting morale. His people were strong and usable.

In the autumn of the third year of Jianyan, Jin once again raised troops to attack Song.

In December, the Jin army's Wanyan Loushi department besieged Shanzhou with all its strength, intending to go down to Shanzhou first and then move westward together.Li Yanxian decided to stick to it.From the first day of the first lunar month of this year, Wanyan Loushi stepped up his offensive and divided the Jin army into ten teams. One team attacked every day and took turns to attack, using various attack tools such as goose carts, flyovers, trains, and rushing carts.

The soldiers and civilians in the city fought bravely and fought more than [-] times with the Jin soldiers.

Li Yanxian shared weal and woe with the army and the people. The food in the city was exhausted, and the soldiers boiled beans for food. He only drank bean juice for himself.

The Jin army lured them to surrender with wealth, and Li Yanxian beheaded their envoys.In the middle of the first lunar month, there were more Jin soldiers, but Song reinforcements did not arrive.Li Yanxian was martyred after being injured, and 51 people including Chen Sidao died with him, and none of them surrendered.Shanzhou fell.

In April, the Jin army attacked Tongguan, occupied Sanyuan, Qianzhou, Binzhou and other places, stationed in Chang'an, and Guanzhong fell.

By this time, the entire northern part of the Song Dynasty had fallen into the hands of the Jin people, and the land area was only half of that of the year, and civil strife continued, which was simply precarious.

Considering that Guanzhong is a place that must be contested, if it is here, the Northern Expedition will be hopeless. As early as last year, Zhang Jun, deputy envoy of the Privy Council, saw that there was no hope of entering the Zhengshitang, so he proposed the idea of ​​managing Shaanxi and asked for an order to supervise the army in Guanzhong.

It's a pity that Wushu's invasion disrupted his arrangements. After the Jurchen withdrew to the north and the court was able to breathe, he went to play Zhao Gou again.

Zhao Gou also realized the seriousness of the problem, so he appointed Zhang Jun as the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and the prime minister of Shaanxi and Sichuan military affairs.

It was against this background that Zhang Jun left Lin'an and took a boat up the Yangtze River, intending to take charge of the overall situation in Shaanxi via Jingchu.

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"You want to see Zhang Deyuan in person?" Kong Yanzhou asked with a smile.

Lu Benzhong: "Naturally, the old man will report the Qi and Huang Zhan incidents and Wang Shen's expropriation and cruelty to the people after he came to Chu to truthfully report to Mr. Zhang. There is justice in the world. I want to see how long that scorpion can continue to be rampant?"

"Haha, haha!" Kong Yanzhou suddenly burst out laughing, the hall echoed endlessly from his laughter.

Suddenly, Lu Benzhong became a little afraid, and shrank back: "Why is the general laughing?"

Kong Yanzhou put away his laughter and suddenly asked, "Lv Benzhong, where is Zhang Deyuan now?"

"This, this... should have passed Jiangzhou, maybe Shuzhou."

Kong Yanzhou: "Hey, I'm afraid you don't know where he is now, but you come to make money from me and don't want to run away. Do you really think I, Kong, is a fool or a fool?"

"I, I, I..." Kong Yanzhou broke his mind, Lu Ben was terrified, and his body began to tremble violently: "General, general, you have to trust me!"

"Bang..." Kong Yanzhou kicked the chair, and Lu Benzhong jumped up like an electric shock.

Kong Yanzhou laughed and said with a sullen face: "Master Lu is amazingly talented and unparalleled in the country. There is still a place to rely on in defending Qichun, how can I be willing to let you go? However, my heart is for the imperial court, and the matter of recruiting security will have to be tested. Try. Didn’t you say that you and Zhang Deyuan have a good friendship? That’s good, you write a letter, I will send my confidants to sneak out of the city, take a boat down the river, and naturally meet Zhang Xiang, so I won’t bother you old man .”

"Yes, yes, General Cheng values ​​it, so I will stay and share weal and woe with you, so I will write a letter."

After receiving the letter from Lu Benzhong, Kong Yanzhou laughed triumphantly after taking a look at it; "Yes, yes, this letter is well written, if someone in the future really has the fortune you mentioned earlier, I will definitely not treat you badly. Give as much as the rich woman wants, haha!"

No matter how you look at it, Lu Benzhong's suggestion is the only way to get rid of the extremely dangerous situation in front of him, and it is also very clever.

Immediately, he felt relieved, feeling so happy for the first time in these two months.

Speaking of the Caibo woman, his lower abdomen suddenly felt hot, and he was surprised to find that he had not been close to women for almost ten days, and he couldn't bear it any longer.

Damn you, little thief Wang, for forcing me to be in such a mess, mother-in-law thief, grandpa wants to have a good time with the ten daughters of Yu today.

Otherwise, go back to the inner house to rest for two hours.

Forget it, forget it, those wives and concubines have been sleeping for so many years, and they have long since lost their interest, let's change to something new!It's just that the people in this city are all dead, even the young women who haven't died yet, after such a long day of hunger, they can't see even a skinny bone.

Hey, didn't someone once send three women to Mr. Lu?

Those three little ladies were born pretty well, especially that little peach, who was a ripe peach that would burst into water when pinched.

Thinking of this, Kong Yanzhou cast his eyes on Lu Benzhong, and said with a lewd smile, "Master Lu."

(End of this chapter)