Tang Dynasty Mingyue Song Dynasty Pass

Chapter 825 The Northern Expedition Begins

There are many rains in the Qingming season, and pedestrians on the road want to break their souls.

During the Qingming Festival in the south of the Yangtze River, mist and rain are like a veil, covering this gentle land.

Outside the city gate, a man wearing a straw raincoat staggered on the road to ancestor worship, while on the river, boats shuttled back and forth, and the sound of oars interweaved a vivid picture of the Jiangnan water town.

Su Chen chose this Qingming Festival to hold a grand ceremony to worship the heavens in the fields outside the city. It was called a ceremony to worship the heavens and the river gods, but it actually had a deeper meaning, which was to pray for the army that was about to march north.

The most important affairs of a country are sacrifice and war! Sacrifice to pray for God's blessing, and war to defend the country.

Su Chen, dressed in solemn sacrificial robes, led the generals of the three armies and stood on the altar with a solemn expression.

The incense smoke curled up, and the firelight in front of the altar reflected his resolute face, and also reflected the desire for the strength of the Wu State and the expectation of making achievements in the future in everyone's hearts.

In the vast land of China, Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are integrated. Confucianism is a worldly way, with theories of self-cultivation, governing the country and pacifying the world. Taoism emphasizes inaction, and Buddhism emphasizes selflessness. To a certain extent, Taoism and Buddhism both have religious elements, and can communicate with destiny, metaphysics, and gods. Therefore, offering sacrifices to heaven and earth and receiving blessings are memories in the hearts of almost every Chinese, and they are also effective to a certain extent.

Even though Su Chen is a soul from the 21st century, in addition to believing in natural sciences and theories, he is also very interested in Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Chinese studies. He believes in cause and effect, and also believes in some theories and beliefs of Buddhism and Taoism. Therefore, he also hopes to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth and receive blessings.

After all, the Song Dynasty was the destiny of the country. History books record that Zhao Kuangyin would unify the north and the south, but there is no such person as Su Chen in history books.

Now Su Chen wants to raise an army to fight Zhao Kuangyin and attack the Northern Song Dynasty. Even if he has the confidence to fight, he also has to consider the general trend and direction of world history. Between man and destiny, who can take the lead?

In other words, the history of this world, whether it recognizes Zhao Kuangyin or Su Chen, involves a struggle for destiny and national destiny, which is by no means a trivial matter, nor is it as simple as a simple war.

Those who are righteous will have many supporters, while those who are unrighteous will have few. It seems that the competition is about national strength, financial resources and military power, but in fact it is more of a competition of blessings and virtues. Those who are foolish and unrighteous, those who do not have great ambitions and those who do not have the name of justice will find it difficult to occupy the main success and position in major historical events.

Su Chen knew all this very well, so when he was offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, he also made his own aspirations. He was not greedy for pleasure, fame, wealth, power or love, but to benefit the people of this era. He would treat everyone equally, whether they were from the north or the south, he would benefit them and treat them as his own countrymen, so that the people could live a good life, start a democracy, and let the people live with thoughts, conduct and quality, and would not be overly oppressed or overly exploited.

With this ambition, Su Chen's mind became clear. He felt that only if he had great righteousness in his heart and a heart as vast as the mountains and rivers, this matter would have a chance of success!
Three days later, Su Chen quietly issued a military order, ordering Lin Renzhao and Pan Chongche to lead their troops and set off quietly.

This order was not publicized widely, but was concealed under the guise of a dramatic training exercise. Therefore, most soldiers were kept in the dark and thought it was just another routine training exercise. They never imagined that this was actually the prelude to an imminent Northern Expedition.

When the warships were about to dock, the commanders of each army took out the heavy military orders from their arms and read them out solemnly.

Lin Renzhao stood at the bow, holding the military order in his hand, his eyes as sharp as torches. He said to the deputy commander, the chief military officer, the chief military officer and other military officers who had gathered around him, in a steady and firm voice: "According to General Su's order, our army will land on the shore of Taizhou immediately and attack Taizhou City and its surrounding counties in Jiangbei with a thunderous force. This is the first step in our great Northern Expedition!"

After he finished speaking, the generals were stunned at first, as if they were caught off guard by the sudden good news. After a long while, they came back to their senses, with surprise and joy flashing in their eyes.

"Are we really going to march north?" someone whispered in disbelief, his tone full of excitement and anticipation.

"We are finally going to go to war with the Song Dynasty!" Another man clenched his fists, his eyes flashing with fighting spirit.
Lin Renzhao nodded, his brows revealing an unquestionable majesty, and he said in a deep voice: "That's right! This so-called 'actual combat training' is actually a trick to deceive the heavens and the seas, so that the Song army can relax their vigilance and mistakenly think that we are just ordinary training, and thus be careless in defense. In this way, our army can take advantage of their unpreparedness and use the posture of a surprise force to quickly seize Taizhou, just like a hurricane and rainstorm, sweeping across the land north of the Yangtze River, and forming a confrontation with the Song army!"

"Then our army of tens of thousands is alone and deep in the enemy's territory, while the Song army has hundreds of thousands of troops stationed in the north. With such a huge disparity in strength, how can we fight against them?" A general raised his doubts with a worried look on his face. Upon hearing this, Lin Renzhao smiled faintly, with a glimmer of wisdom in his eyes: "We are not fighting alone. There are reinforcements in the west and the middle. We will advance on three fronts and raise the banner of the Northern Expedition together. Our Eastern Army only needs to focus on the Taizhou line, along the coast of the East China Sea, first take Taizhou, then go south to Tongzhou, and north to Chuzhou. Controlling these three states is our strategic goal. The three armies support each other and coordinate with each other. Although the Song army is large, it may not be able to stop our Northern Expedition!"

After saying this, Lin Renzhao's eyes swept over the generals one by one. His eyes were filled with both firm belief and infinite desire for victory.

After listening to Lin Renzhao's analysis and explanation, the generals immediately understood. They already knew the mission of this expedition and had a detailed combat plan. It was not a rash northern expedition, so their concerns were reduced.

After all, they all knew that Su Chen had always wanted to launch a Northern Expedition, but he had said that it would be launched in a few years. Unexpectedly, this time it was launched ahead of schedule. Not only did the Song army not know about it, even they themselves were kept in the dark.

"Since it is General Su's military order and has been planned in detail, then we have no doubts and will complete this mission together with Lin Jianjun."

"That's right. We have waited for too long, and finally the opportunity to march north has come!"

All the soldiers were very excited. They never thought that the opportunity to achieve great things was right before their eyes.

"All officers, listen up! Land at dawn and attack the ferry crossing at Coast Town!"

"Understood sir!" All the soldiers stood up and clasped their fists. The leaves on their armor rustled and their momentum was as strong as a rainbow.

.........

Similarly, this scene also happened in Dangtu and Caishiji in the west.

Pan Chongche brought together some generals from the Southern Han, Southern Tang, and new generals from the Wu Kingdom and put them under his command. After three years of training, Pan Chongche's ability to lead troops was recognized and supported by the soldiers in the army, and therefore his prestige also increased a lot.

The title of the best general of Southern Han is not false, he has real talent and knowledge.

Pan Chongche led 50,000 troops and, in the name of training, sent people to prepare boats and pontoon bridges in advance. At the appointed time, he gave the order to launch an attack.

Under the cover of night, on the vast river, hundreds of ships suddenly started a battle to cross the river.

Ten thousand elite soldiers landed first and attacked Hezhou on the opposite side!
At dawn, the army suddenly launched an attack under the cover of darkness and fog, catching the Song army off guard.

Soon, tens of thousands of people landed, first tore through the Song army's defense line, captured several garrison camps and towns, and then marched towards Hezhou City.

"Kill!"

The Wu army started out fiercely and unstoppably. They captured Hezhou within three days and began to attack other counties and towns within Hezhou, in order to encircle and suppress the Song army soldiers and control the town government officials.

After launching attacks from the east and west, Su Chen led an army of 200,000 in the center and officially started the Northern Expedition.