Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 551 The Death of Zhang Jue (please subscribe!)
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After Zhang Jue fled to Yanjing, he took refuge in Guo Yaoshi and changed his name to "Zhao Xiucai".

After the victory in Fengshan, Zhao Ji recruited Guo Yaoshi to Beijing, rewarded houses, rewarded money, rewarded beauties, and so on.

Guo Yaoshi relied on his military exploits and the emperor's favor, so he got carried away and indulged in arrogance.

Nominally, Wang Anzhong is the highest official in Yanshan Mansion, and Guo Yaoshi is Wang Anzhong's deputy.

But in reality, Wang Anzhong couldn't get his hands on the Changsheng Army at all, and even many government orders required Guo Yaoshi's nod to count.

Wang Anzhong was a literati with a weak character, he dared not and could not subdue Guo Yaoshi, he only knew what to say, and he wrote to the court to provide as much as possible for all the military supplies such as weapons, armor and staff that Guo Yaoshi wanted.

In order to raise more military expenses and meet his personal interests, Guo Yaoshi sent his subordinates to sell boats and other businesses in various states in the Song Dynasty to earn money.

At the same time, Guo Yaoshi also summoned some skilled craftsmen from the Liao Kingdom who served Emperor Tianzuo back then to make various ingenious and precious things such as jade belts and manaos, which were used to make friends with dignitaries in the court and eunuchs in the palace.

Today, the Changsheng Army has 30 people, and the Liangliang Township soldiers claim to have [-] people, all of whom are under the command of Guo Yaoshi.

However, what is puzzling is that Guo Yaoshi and his subordinates still did not change their left lapels at this time, that is, they still wore Liao costumes instead of Song costumes.

Many people compare Guo Yaoshi with An Lushan in private, thinking that he is a very dangerous person.

Regarding Zhang Jue's seeking refuge, Guo Yaoshi took care of everything and did not discuss with Wang Anzhong and Zhan Du at all. No, it should be said that Guo Yaoshi did not take Wang Anzhong and Zhan Du seriously at all.

What Guo Yaoshi did aroused Zhan Du's dissatisfaction.

Zhan Du is not as weak as Wang Anzhong. He has a relatively strong personality, and he can't understand Guo Yaoshi's various actions.

Zhan Du is nominally the military director of Yanjing, but the Song Army stationed in Yanjing has only 9000 troops, which is really incomparable with the Ever Victorious Army.

If Zhan Du wants to fully control the military power, he must subdue Guo Yaoshi.

But how could Yaoshi Guo be subject to Zhan Du?
The relationship between the two became increasingly hostile.

Zhan Du and Guo Yaoshi both knew Yanshan Mansion, and they were both Wang Anzhong's deputy, but the court did not clarify who was the first deputy, and the two had a fierce dispute over this.

Guo Yaoshi believes that in Zhao Ji's imperial edict, he has the title of "Jieyue", and his power position should be higher than that of Zhan Du.

Zhan Du believes that the order of ranking on Zhao Ji's imperial pen is the order of power position, his name is at the front, and Guo Yaoshi's name is at the back, which shows that his power position should be higher than that of Guo Yaoshi.

Neither of them could convince the other, and the conflict became more and more acute.

Wang Anzhong couldn't reconcile, so he had to write to the court, asking Zhao Ji to solve it.

Zhao Ji felt that Guo Yaoshi and Changsheng Army were inseparable from guarding Yanjing, so he issued an edict to exchange Zhan Du with Cai Jing, the prefect of Hejian Prefecture.

Cai Jing is a civil servant with a calm personality and an open mind. After coming to Yanjing, he treated Guo Yaoshi frankly.

Guo Yaoshi also respected Cai Jing very much, and restrained his domineering aura.

As a result, the disunity of the leading group in Yanshan Prefecture was resolved to a certain extent.

However, the military power of the Ever Victorious Army has always been firmly in the hands of Guo Yaoshi.

……

Pingzhou City was besieged for many days, but the governor Zhang Dungu still refused to open the city and surrender.

Wanyan Zongwang was furious, so he dispatched an army of [-] to storm Pingzhou City.

It was not until the ammunition and food in Pingzhou City ran out that Zhang Dungu and others surrendered.

After the Jin army occupied Pingzhou, Wanyan Zongwang comforted Zhang Dungu and others, and pardoned their crimes.

But the people of Pingzhou didn't accept Wanyan Zongwang's favor at all. Taking advantage of Wanyan Zongwang's return to Beijing, Zhang Dungu and others killed Wanyan Zongwang's people who stayed in Pingzhou and rebelled again, regaining Pingzhou City.

After Wanyan Zongwang came back, he was furious and ordered Wanyan's mother to lead an army to attack the city.

Soon, Wanyan's mother again conquered Pingzhou.

Zhang Dungu and others were killed.

Wanyan's mother returned to her original post because of her meritorious service.

The people of Pingzhou were very tenacious. When the Jin army broke through the city, thousands of people from the state refused to surrender and escaped from Pingzhou city.

The fierce resistance and unyielding spirit of the Pingzhou people made Wanyan Zongwang realize that simply using force to conquer is not enough. If the Kingdom of Jin wants to get this land, it must change.

Wanyan Wu Qimai had great trust in Wanyan Zongwang, and once issued an edict saying, "The affairs of Pingzhou are related to the commander-in-chief of the Bai army, and must not be conveyed to the court." This provided a political basis for Wanyan Zongwang to try to change his ruling strategy in Pingzhou.

Under Liao's proposal to demote officials, Wanyan Zongwang mainly adopted two reforms in Pingzhou: one was to learn from Liao's southern official system and use Han officials to manage local affairs.The second is to organize the imperial examination in Pingzhou.

In the early days of the Jin Dynasty, the imperial examinations were not held in Shangjing, nor regularly, but were held in various places according to actual needs, so there were so-called "Shen (Shen) State List", "Pingzhou List", "Dingzhou List" and "Dingzhou List". List" and so on.

Since this kind of imperial examination is under the supervision of the military commander, it is a temporary decision, and there is no procedure or system. Especially for the candidates, it is mandatory, and the effect must be discounted.

But in any case, the series of policies that Wanyan Zongwang tried to implement in Pingzhou were quite popular, so the Jinren soon gained a firm foothold in Pingzhou, Yingzhou, and Luanzhou.

After Yan Zongwang occupied Ping, Ying, and Luan prefectures, he learned that Zhang Jue had fled to Yanjing and was hiding in the Changsheng Army, so he sent someone to Yanshan Mansion with official documents to ask Wang Anzhong for Zhang Jue, If I don’t see you today, if you walk in the Southern Dynasty, you should return it to me.”

Wang Anzhong hurriedly went to the court to ask for instructions on how to deal with it?
Zhao Ji issued a secret edict, asking Wang Anzhong to hide Zhang Jue and not hand it over to the Jinren, saying that he didn't know where Zhang Jue was.

Wang Anzhong told the people sent by Wanyan Zongwang according to Zhao Ji's instructions.

Wanyan Zongwang was not so easy to fool, he didn't believe Wang Anzhong's words, so he sent someone to continue asking for it, and his attitude was very tough.

Wang Anzhong couldn't bear it anymore, so he had to ask Zhao Ji again for instructions.

Zhao Ji played a clever trick and asked Wang Anzhong to kill a man who looked like Zhang Jue and send it to Jin Jun to calm the situation.

The head of Zhang Jue's substitute was quickly sent to Pingzhou, and Wanyan Zong hoped that someone who knew Zhang Jue could identify it.

When those people saw it, they recognized that this Zhang Jue was a fake.

Wanyan Zongwang was furious, and immediately sent someone to Yanjing again, and said to Wang Anzhong in stern words: "This is not Zhang Jue. Zhang Jue hid himself in Wang Xuanfu's Jiazhan Treasury. If you don't give it to me, I will give it to you." Soldiers take it on their own."

At this time, the [-] Jin army that attacked Pingzhou was still in Pingzhou, and the Jin army occupied Pingzhou Road. If they wanted to attack Yanjing, they could do it easily.

Wang Anzhong was very worried that the Jin army would launch a war, so he hurriedly said: "We must not send, for fear of launching troops."

Zhao Ji was a little apprehensive, so he urgently summoned Wang Fu, Cai You, Liang Shicheng and others for consultation.

At this time, Tong Guan had been neglected. He obeyed the order and went home to recuperate.

After discussion, Zhao Ji and others thought that it would be impossible not to kill Zhang Jue, so they ordered Wang Anzhong to execute Zhang Jue and give his head to the Jinren to calm the matter.

After Wang Anzhong received the secret decree, he sent someone to bring Zhang Jue to the Xuanfu Division, counted his mistakes against him, and forced him to execute him.

Zhang Jueyu was not inferior and died.

After Zhang Jue was hanged, Wang Anzhong had his head stained with mercury and sent to Pingzhou by letter to Wanyan Zongwang.

At the same time, Wang Anzhong also sent Zhang Jue's two sons to Pingzhou and handed them over to Wanyan Zongwang.

After the news spread, General Yan Zhijiang and the Changsheng Army all wept.

Guo Yaoshi openly said indignantly to people: "If the Jin people want Zhang Jue, the imperial court will give it to him. If they want a pharmacist, will they do it? If they want a pharmacist, what can they do?"

Zhang Linghui and other generals were also very chilled towards the Song Dynasty, and even gritted their teeth with hatred.

From then on, all the surrendered generals and the Changsheng army began to have second thoughts about Song State.

Seeing this, Wang Anzhong was very frightened. He wrote to the court, requesting to be removed from his post in Yanshan Mansion and transferred back to the capital, but Zhao Ji did not agree.

The Zhang Jue incident was a turning point in history.

From then on, the Jin people began to resent the Song State, thinking that the Song State did not keep promises and broke the covenant, and they had the intention of revenge. They once threatened: "China and Daliao have sworn for a long time. Once it is destroyed, what will happen to me! Let's make an alliance Forget it, lure Zhang Jue to destroy my ceremonies, etc., so that I will not be able to establish a country, so I have to take Chinese legal objects and ceremonies to establish my country."

Regrettably, the decision makers of the Song State did not fully understand the resentment and revenge psychology of the Jin people, nor did they arouse great attention and vigilance.

After solving Zhang Jue, Wanyan Zongwang sent people to Yanjing many times to ask for the return of the Yan people.

Wang Anzhong replied: "After they were released by Zhang Jue, they scattered in all directions. Now they don't know where they live, and they can't tell who is the rich family in Yandi. They can't be returned at all."

Knowing that Wang Anzhong was telling the truth, Wanyan Zongwang still sent envoys to Yanjing four times to ask for it repeatedly.

How did Wang Anzhong and other Yanshan government officials know that the real purpose of the envoys from the Jin Dynasty in Yanjing was to spy on the military situation and the warehouse situation, so as to prepare for the war in the future.

Not long after, Wanyan Zongwang sent someone to Yandi to write secret letters to order the civil and military officials of the former Liao Kingdom to join the Jin Kingdom. He promised: "If those who return to the Jin Kingdom, the former superior officials will be appointed with three qualifications."

Many former Liao officials in Yan who hated Song for not serving Song or not being used by Song, crossed the border to join Jin after seeing the edict of Jin.

These people later played a very important role in the Kingdom of Jin.

……

(End of this chapter)