The rise of the prince

Chapter 585 Pharmacist Guo's Worry + Surprise Attack

On the edge of Lugou, the two armies set up camps and set up shields on the river bank. They have been facing each other for several days.

The soldiers on both sides set up baffles across the river, refused to horses, and continued to attack each other with bows and crossbows, shouting and cursing, causing very limited casualties.

After five days of confrontation, Jingguo's former army had more than a dozen wounded, except for the fact that there was no difference, and so did the Liao Kingdom on the other side.

This kind of confrontation actually made the soldiers loose. Guo Yaoshi was a little worried about this, because he gradually realized that Jingguo's army was not as elite as he imagined. army.

Today's Jing Jun seems to be more disciplined, and his fighting spirit is not high. Among other things, the formation is loose when marching, and many people talk and laugh lightly.

And after a few days of confrontation, at noon, when the sun was hot, groups of threes and fours retreated from the riverside baffle, and went to lie down and sit under the tree next to them, lax and lazy.

Guo Yaoshi felt that something was wrong in his eyes, but he was a surrendered general, so some things were hard to say.

I can only think in my heart, after all, there are so many people, they only have six or seven thousand vanguard elites here, plus continuous fortification along the way, dividing troops to guard each pass, and blocking all roads leading to Nanjing to open the way for the follow-up army.The follow-up Chinese army plus the West Route Army totaled more than [-], not counting the East Route Army heading north.

Now there are about [-] elite forwards confronting Liao.

Ten years ago, the army brought by Zhong Daoyu was far from so many. At that time, he was in his prime and wanted to make contributions, but he didn't expect to be swept away by Zhong Daoyu's army all the way and almost lost his life. He still remembers it fresh.

Compared with ten years ago, Jing Jun now seems to be more lifeless, loose and powerless.

Of course, he was just worried, and he couldn't say it out. He was a surrendered general, and if he talked too much, he would be disgusted and hated.
The bridge on Lugou has been demolished. If you want to cross Lugou, you have to cross the river or find a boat, but the water in Lugou River is not deep, and there are no boats around, so you can drag across the river. , so Lugou became a boundary, Jing Jun didn't dare to cross it for a while, and it was even more impossible for Liao Jun to come over.

In the afternoon, he led the crowd to the hillside north of Lugou, looking across the river at the opposite fruit forest.

The fruit forest is not big, but it is far away from the fortified area of ​​the Liao army, and the weeds in the south spread all the way to the river.

"200 people is already the limit, so most of them need to cross the river from further north." Guo Yaoshi said to Tong Guan, Yang Hu, and Yang Jianye beside him. Easy, but far from the city gates, so there are few fortifications."

Yang Jianye said: "We don't wear armor, we cross the river at night, no matter how far we go, we won't go anywhere."

Guo Yaoshi nodded. It is true that the tiger father has no dogs. Although Yang Jianye is the son of Yang Hongzhao, he is not spoiled and spoiled.

At the head of the city of Nanjing, Yelu Dun covered the sun with his hands and looked at the densely packed Jing army camp in the distance.

His face was pale and his body was flimsy. He was accompanied by his beautiful little queen and a tall general of the Liao Kingdom. The current Liao Xingjun Jiedu Envoy, Yeluvi, belonged to the royal family of the Liao Kingdom, but his blood was sparse.

"What are they doing? Why aren't they attacking the city?" The young Emperor Yeludun asked nervously, holding the top of the city, his tone was anxious and anxious, and he held the bricks of the city tightly with both hands.

"Your Majesty, those are just the forwards of Jingguo. They are waiting for the follow-up main force." Yelubi took a step forward and explained: "As soon as the main army arrives, they will start attacking the city."

"What! Those, those are just forwards!" Yelu Dun was a little dizzy, almost unable to stand still, and his little queen hurriedly supported him.

"Let's talk to the people of Jingguo. They can give them whatever they want, how much money they want, and how much treasure they want. Can't we just let them withdraw their troops?" Yelu Dun looked at Yeluvi and said expectantly. Forced crazy, I haven't slept well these days, and there are riots in the city from time to time.

Yeluwei shook his head: "Your Majesty, I have already talked to someone. Jingguo doesn't want anything but the city of Nanjing, and we." He hesitated for a moment, and said solemnly: "Your Majesty, the Jin army has broken through the Datong Mansion. Mr. Gan brought more than a hundred people back last night and entered the city in the middle of the night. The Jin army has already arrived at Juyongguan, and the banner of the Jin army Juyongguan can already be seen in the west of the city. So we can give anything, but we can’t give it to Nanjing, or "

"Your Majesty, only the city of Nanjing is left in the Great Liao Kingdom." Yeluwei said solemnly.

After finishing speaking, the young emperor, Tongtian and Tiansheng Daliao Khan, the commander-in-chief of the world's soldiers and horses, couldn't hold on any longer, he squatted down slowly, and sat on the ground with his buttocks. There were only dark and cold city bricks under his buttocks.

"Go, hurry up and get Yelu Dashi back, I want to see him, I want to see him."

Yeluwei bowed his head and said: "Your Majesty, the Jin people broke through Juyong Pass yesterday, and Yelu Dashi was stationed there. There are only a thousand soldiers under him, and no one has returned until today."

Yelu Dun didn't speak, stood up holding his little queen's hand, and said with empty eyes: "The city defense is all handed over to the general, take me back to the palace."

Yeluvi watched his Khan leave, until his back disappeared into the city, the corners of his mouth turned up.

Juyongguan was indeed breached by the Jinmen. Standing on the top of the city wall in the west of the city, you can already see the Jinren banners on Juyongguan and the camps on the rolling hills from a distance. Hexi section.

They had to cross the river to return to Nanjing. As long as they crossed the river, they would be intercepted and killed by the people he arranged on the other side of the river, and their bodies would be thrown into the river.

From yesterday to today, more than a dozen people have been killed. If Yelu Dashi comes back, is Yeluvi still the Jiedushi of the Liaoxing Army?

Obviously it can't be again, the Liao Xingjun was brought out by Yelu Dashi, and at this moment, in times of crisis, the little emperor also remembered Yelu Dashi who was driven away by him at the beginning.
He managed to find an opportunity to take over Liao Xingjun, and it was impossible to send him back no matter what.

Thinking about it, he told the defenders to keep an eye on the people of Jingguo, and then prepared to go back to the mansion in the city. He had never been such a big official, lived in such a big stockade, and finally had the opportunity, who would want to sleep on the top of the city? .

Jingjun outside the city couldn't scare him at all.

In the middle of the night, the stars are sparse under the night sky.

Guo Yaoshi tightened the knife around his waist, beside him was his good brother Zhang Linghui, and he also brought along nineteen of the most powerful brothers in the Changsheng Army.

In the darkness in the distance, the majestic Nanjing City Wall weighed heavily on their hearts.

He looked at the fruit forest in the distance on the left, and he couldn’t see anything in the darkness. He kept comforting himself that there were two brothers there. Only in this way would his heartbeat slow down and his hands would stop shaking.

"You all pretend to be tired later, it's best not to talk." He whispered as he walked.

Everyone nodded, their bodies were wet, they had just soaked in the river, and now the night wind blew, and it was terribly cold.

two hundred steps.
one hundred steps
fifty steps.
Soon, they had arrived at the city gate.

"Stop! Who are you!" came the Khitan voice from the top of the wall, the torches were lit, and three or four soldiers on the top of the wall raised their bows and aimed at them.

"My own people! My own people!" Guo Yaoshi quickly raised his hand and responded loudly in Khitan, and the voice could be heard far away in the darkness.

Hearing that they were speaking in Khitan, the people at the top of the city relaxed a little, and threw down a torch for them to hold it up to illuminate themselves.

Guo Yaoshi did as he did, and then explained to the guards at the top of the city, "I am Guo Yaoshi, the commander of Zhuozhou's Ever-Victorious Army. There are too many people in Jingguo. We were defeated and the army scattered. Come and join Khan!"

The defenders at the top of the city followed the firelight and saw that they were all wet and embarrassed, so they believed it a little.

"I'll open the door for you, move quickly, come in quickly." One of the defenders said.

Pharmacist Guo breathed a sigh of relief.

At this moment, the guard next to him suddenly grabbed the one who was going to open the door, "What are you doing, first go and inform the general to take a look."

Guo Yaoshi's heart tightened, he subconsciously grasped the handle of the knife, and let it go quickly, the enemy is at the head of the city, what should we do?
At the head of Juyongguan, and on the hillsides on both sides, the lights were bright, and the Jurchens were eating meat and drinking, happily enjoying the booty they robbed from Xijing, and of course there were women.Once these women survived the slaughter, they were trophies of the warriors and could be taken home as slaves or as wives.

The army of the Kingdom of Jin did not cross the Juyong Pass. They were watching to see how the people of Jingguo would attack Nanjing and the strength of the people of Jingguo.

In the next few days, even the Emperor Wanyan of the Kingdom of Jin came to Juyongguan to inspect the front line in person.

The intelligence was placed on Li Xingzhou's desk, and the spies of the Privy Council were naturally incapable of crossing the city of Nanjing to investigate information further north.

The information about the north of Nanjing was sent by businessmen who did business with the palace. They would not be rejected by anyone, and the Jin army was looking forward to their supplies.

The more war-torn the place, the more valuable things are, and they can even be multiplied several times, dozens of times. It depends on whether you have the guts to earn it.
Li Xingzhou hissed when he saw the information. The Datong Mansion was first captured by the Jin people, and because of the hatred and anger accumulated during the siege, the army did not obey the emperor's policy of treating the people well, and directly burned, killed and looted. More than 10 innocent civilians of the defenders in the city died.

He had never seen the hellish scene of so many people dying, but just thinking about it sent shivers down the spine.

But this is not a big deal in such an era. If the Mongolian iron hoof sweeps across, there will only be more deaths, and not tens of thousands, but millions.I just don't know what the current situation of the Mongolian tribes is.

Without the suppression of the Liao Kingdom, the Jin Kingdom is not interested in the grasslands. This is a great opportunity for the Mongolian tribes to rise without any constraints.

The Jin people originated in Liaodong. They are famous for fishing and hunting, and they are quite different from nomads. Therefore, they prefer fertile land and the Central Plains compared to grasslands, and they have a stronger family concept.

The nomadic people’s characteristic of no fixed place will cause their lives to be full of new things and uncertainties, so the concept of home is further weakened. For example, wives can rob others, as long as you have the ability to rob, then it is reasonable , a method that everyone agrees with, of course, we must be prepared to deal with revenge. When material is scarce, it often happens that children are exchanged for meat.

Many people think that the grassland is a place of material satisfaction and wealth, but it is often the opposite. The grassland is not suitable for planting, only for grazing, and the ecosystem is very fragile. If it is not suitable for planting, it means that there is no stable food source. A fragile ecosystem means that It is very easy to desertify, leading to material scarcity.

Therefore, most of the time, nomads live in no fixed place, their average life expectancy is very short, and they are full of unpredictable survival crises.

Therefore, the Jurchen and Xi people of the Liaodong generation, the Qiang people of Xixia, and the Khitan people in the southern and central part of the Liao Kingdom all tended to the Central Plains culture, while the nomadic people further north were able to maintain their cultural independence.

Later generations of the Kingdom of Jin worshiped Confucius and Mencius after occupying the Central Plains, and their clothes and cultural relics were similar to China, saying that they were the orthodox Chinese, and the Southern Song Dynasty was a barbarian.

Xia Guo believed in Buddhism, respected Confucius and Mencius, and even the imperial palace was built after the Daming Palace of the Tang Dynasty. Moreover, during the Anshi Rebellion, the Qiang people, the ancestors of Xixia, almost immediately raised the whole family to help the Tang Dynasty regain Chang'an at any cost, which shows their respect for the Tang Dynasty. favorite.

In fact, Xixia also proposed to be a vassal to Song at first, probably thinking that Song, which was unified after Tang, would be like the original Tang Dynasty. As a result, Song Taizong refused forcefully, sent troops to attack Xia, and was beaten out of Shi.

In the end, Xixia still surrendered to Song Dynasty, but as the suzerain country, Song Dynasty had to "reward" Xixia a large sum of money every year. Zhao Guangyi wanted to prove that he was better than his elder brother Zhao Kuangyin, and Zhao Kuangyin, who was both civil and military, died young. More than [-]% of the possibilities are inseparable from his good brother.

Li Xingzhou couldn't help laughing. This is somewhat similar to the relationship between Jing Guo and Xia Guo today. It seems that Xia Guo is a vassal, but in fact they are the ones who are taking advantage.

The development history of China, or the Huaxia cultural circle, is very strange. It went from closed to open, and then turned back and reversed.

To put it simply, starting from the Han Dynasty, it was a conquest by force, and it was the first to open up.

The territory of the Han Dynasty was not the largest, but many people don’t know that the peak period of the Western Han Dynasty was the period with the largest number of vassal states in Chinese history, with as many as 50. Basically, the places where people were known at that time were all affiliated to the Han Dynasty.

Moreover, this kind of vassal is not the vassal of the Song Dynasty who gives people money, but asks others to give money. The more arrogant Han envoys killed other people's kings in the big tent, and threatened the leaders of various tribes sitting below, " Don't move, and the Han army will come if you move." As a result, no one dared to move.

Because of the force deterrence and cultural self-confidence of "one Han against five Hu", the big Han has become more and more open and tolerant of the surrounding famous people, and the fusion of famous and ethnic groups has begun since then.

And in the Tang Dynasty, going a step further, the opening up of the Han Dynasty was based on oppression, relying on powerful force to oppress.

The Tang Dynasty was completely different. There was force deterrence, but it was not as domineering as the Han Dynasty. It was further open, economically, culturally, and even politically, allowing people other than Han people to enter the court.

For example, the famous "Shence Army" may not be imagined by many people. It is composed of foreigners living in Chang'an.

At first, when the Tang Dynasty was prosperous, missions from various countries came to Chang'an to pay respects to the Emperor Tang. There were Arabs, Tibetans, Turks, Qiangs, etc., all of whom were paid by the Tang Dynasty.

They were arranged to live in Chang'an. At this time, Chang'an also accommodated many businessmen and travelers from various countries.

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty had no money. Li Mi wanted to dismiss the envoys from these countries and let them return to China, but they refused to leave. The Tang Dynasty wanted to stay in the Tang Dynasty no matter what.

So Li Mi recruited these people to form the Shence Army, which became the defense force of the Tang Empire.

At the end of the Tang Dynasty, when the world was in chaos, more than 12 foreigners died fighting to defend the Tang Dynasty on the Guangzhou battlefield. Among them were Muslims, Jews, and Christians. They all died fighting to defend the Tang Dynasty. Maybe they have different beliefs, but they agree on the fact that they like the lobby. This is the opening of Datang.

In the Song Dynasty, it became more and more open. Although the Song Dynasty loves to give gifts, it has made great efforts on the equality of people. It not only abolished slaves by officials (there are still some localities), but also allowed merchants and craftsmen to participate in the imperial examination. Nearly half of the officials in the Song Dynasty came from low-level families, and high-ranking officials from poor families There are countless more, much better than the Tang Dynasty. The copper coins minted in the Song Dynasty have become the common currency for settlement in many surrounding countries, just like the US dollar in later generations.

All of this seemed to be very beautiful, but after that, history suddenly turned a corner. The Yuan Dynasty was not stable, the time was too short, and the regime was unstable.

From the Ming Dynasty, the country began to be closed to the outside world, and it became more and more serious in the Qing Dynasty.
With a sudden turning point, the Han, Tang, and Song became more and more open, and the Yuan, Ming, and Qing became more and more closed.

They are all progressive, the front ones become more and more open each day, and the back ones become more closed each day.

Even Li Xingzhou hisses every time he thinks about it. Why did history suddenly turn a corner?What exactly is the key point.

If he doesn't want to understand these things, Jing Guo will follow in his footsteps.

(End of this chapter)