Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 594 Victory without victory and defeat without defeat (subscribe!)
...

In order to understand the situation of the Jin army, Zhong Shidao sent someone to invite Shen Guan to the Xuanfu Division.

After Shen Guan arrived at the Xuanfu Division, he said to Zhong Shidao: "If there were thousands of people guarding the bank of the Yellow River, how could the Jin soldiers reach the capital?"

Zhong Shidao also feels incredible about this, but the matter has come to this point, and it is meaningless to care about these.

Zhong Shidao carefully asked about the situation of the Jin army, and then consulted Shen Guan about the characteristics of Hebei's topography and where to intercept the Jin army.

Shen Guan said what he said to Li Gang before to Master Zhong again.

After hearing what Shen Guan said, Yao Pingzhong led his troops to approach the camp of the Jin army, forcing the rangers of the Jin army not to go out to loot.

really!

The Jin soldiers were all very nervous, hiding in the camp and not daring to move out.

Zhong Shidao made up his mind and began to plan a counterattack.

Li Gang supports the plan of cultivating the way of teachers.

Soon, at the imperial meeting, the main military faction represented by Li Gang and Zhong Shidao clearly gained the upper hand, and received strong support from Zhao Huan.

The meeting even preliminarily determined the date for sending troops to attack the Jin army, and made corresponding military deployments.

However, the Zhuhe faction represented by Li Bangyan is still pushy against the use of troops.

They thought that sending troops to attack the Jin people was a very risky act. Once they failed, all previous peace talks efforts would be in vain, and the country would also face the danger of loss.

Zhao Huan was very clear about the differences between generals and ministers.

But Zhao Huan didn't think there was any problem, just like his attitude had changed.

Due to the lack of military strength in the past, he naturally had to adopt the suggestions of Li Bangyan and others to negotiate a peace.

But now, more than 20 King Qin's soldiers have come, several times more than the Jinren, especially the famous general of the Western Army Zhong Shidao has come to him, of course he wants to regain the dignity he lost before, hoping to expel the Jinren by force.

In good conscience, Zhao Huan's change did not violate human nature and basic logic.

But the problem is that Zhao Huan's transformation is a little too fast, and the turn is a little too big.

From blindly seeking peace before, Zhao Huan quickly turned into blindly fighting, and even hoped to fight the Jin army immediately.

Zhao Huan sent his servants five times in one day to urge Zhong Shidao to ask Zhong Shidao to consider whether it is possible to send troops as soon as possible?

Zhong Shidao is very calm and steady, he refuses to send troops hastily, he wants to wait for Yao Gu to lead the western army to arrive according to the plan before attacking the Jinren, and he does not agree to attack in advance.

Zhao Huan was a little disappointed by Zhong Shidao's performance, so Zhao Huan pinned his hopes on Yao Pingzhong, the governor of the capital.

Yao Pingzhong is very brave and good at fighting, and he has always tried to express himself.

But from the previous Tong Guan to the current teacher, Yao Pingzhong was suppressed and prevented from expressing himself.

Now, Yao Pingzhong finally has the opportunity to express himself.

Yao Pingzhong said to Zhao Huan: "The soldiers are willing to fight quickly, but now they have not fought for a long time, and they are all complaining."

Zhao Huan said: "Chong Xuanfu does not agree to go to war immediately."

Yao Pingzhong immediately said: "The minister is willing to lead the troops to knock on the Jinying camp at night, capture Wolibu (Wanyan Zongwang) alive, and return to King Kang."

Zhao Huan was overjoyed when he heard the words, and immediately promised Yao Pingzhong: "If it succeeds, I will give you a Yue."

If you want to say, rob the camp, you should hurry up.

But Zhao Huanfei asked the sorcerer Chu Tianjue to calculate the date of the robbery.

As a result, after Chutian calculated, he said that the day of victory would be Dingyou of February three days later (that is, the first day of February).

In three days, the day lily was cold, and it took such a long time, how could it not leak the news?
But Zhao Huan didn't think so, he felt that Song Jun would be able to win in one blow, and then he would be able to avenge his shame and become a great emperor like Qin Huang Han Wu.

Zhao Huan not only asked Yao Pingzhong to attack Jinying, but after Yao Pingzhong sent troops, he asked Li Gang to send troops to help.

Li Gang said that there was no prior discussion, and the soldiers and horses were not prepared, so it was not appropriate to rush to send troops.

Zhao Huan refused to listen, and even sent three waves of servants to urge Li Gang to send troops.

Li Gang had no choice but to order the army to assemble urgently.

At dawn, the former commander Zhang Tuan, the right commander Shi Jun, the central commander Xin Kangzong, the left commander Liu Dian, the rear commander Wang Shigu, and the daredevil commander Fan Qiong all assembled. The army left the city from Fengqiu Gate and marched towards Banjing Hall and Tiansi Supervisor.

But at this time, Yao Pingzhong had failed to rob the camp, and Yao Pingzhong had left his troops and fled alone.

turn out to be--

Yao Pingzhong ordered his general Wang Tong to lead the vanguard army, and took the lead to rob the camp.

Wang Tong took the order, and then led [-] soldiers who dared to fight to the Jinying.

However, Wang Tong even robbed the two strongholds, and when he arrived at the third stronghold, thousands of cavalry from the Jin army suddenly rushed out!
These thousands of iron cavalry are all the elite of the Golden Army, and they arrived suddenly!

Wang Tong and the Death Squad were immediately surrounded by the Jin army!

They fought desperately, waiting for reinforcements.

however--

Most of the reinforcements fell into the deep ditch next to the village with their horses and men, and the general of the Western Army Chen Kai died in battle.

Wang Tong saw that he was half seriously injured, and the cavalry of the Jin Army was coming from the north and the south, and was about to form a front and rear attack, so he could only lead [-] cavalry to break out.

After Wang Tong saw Yao Pingzhong, Yao Pingzhong ordered him to lead the crowd on horseback and run westward.

At this time, the cavalry of the Jin Army had chased after them and dispersed the middle army of the Song Army.

Song Jun's defeated army immediately ran back.

However, the Jin army kept chasing the Song army, and did not start to retreat until Banqiao.

Yao Pingzhong was defeated and fled, and Yao Pingzhong's deputy Yang Kesheng was unfortunately captured.

That night, Wanyan Zongwang personally interrogated Yang Kesheng, saying: "The two countries have reached peace, and they came to rob the village again, why?"

Yang Kesheng replied: "It is not the intention of the imperial court to win the victory rate since the king's soldiers arrived in the capital, and the three armies wanted to fight."

Yang Kesheng took all the responsibility on himself, no matter how much Yan Zongwang pressed him, he would not change his words.

Wanyan Zongwang was furious and ordered Yang Kesheng to be killed.

Yang Kesheng, the brother of Shaanxi brave general Yang Keshi, died heroically because of this.

At this time, another part of the Jin army chased to Mutianpo and met the army led by Li Gang.

The Jin army concentrated its forces and launched a fierce charge against the Song army's middle army.

Seeing this, Li Gang ordered to fight back with a divine arm bow.

The Song Army and the Jin Army fought fiercely on Mutianpo.

The fighting was fierce, with casualties on both sides.

In the end, the Jin army was defeated and retreated.

In order to prevent the Jin army from fighting again, Li Gang and all the troops of the Xingying Division stayed outside the city.

Regarding Yao Ping's attack on Jinying at Zhongye, Zhao Huan thought it would be a success, and he was looking forward to the good news of a complete victory in the morning.

However, in the early morning of the next day, Li Bangyan and other leaders and other people played together and said: "The Western soldiers who worked hard for the king's division and the soldiers who personally conscripted the battalion were wiped out by the enemy, and there are no survivors."

Zhao Huan was shocked when he heard the news, and hastily issued an edict ordering all troops not to enter!

Immediately afterwards, Zhao Huan pushed all the responsibilities to Yao Pingzhong and Xijun, and wrote a letter to Wanyan Zongwang himself, saying that Yao Pingzhongming would be arrested and punished, and gave Wanyan Zongwang a lot of treasures, hoping to continue the peace talks with the Jin army.

Li Bangyan and other advocates of peace believe that these measures are not enough to show the sincerity of the peace talks with practical actions. They should call Li Yan to hold the letter of credence to cede the territory for peace, and present maps and oaths to order Lu Yundi went to cut Taiyuan, Qin Hui went to cut Hejian, and Cheng Yu went to cut Zhongshan.

Zhao Huan agreed with Li Bangyan and others, and asked Yuwen Xuzhong to explain to the Jin people that Yao Pingzhong and others were good at using soldiers and armor, and they missed the peace talks several times, and sent envoys to deliver the land of the three passes.

Zhao Huan, ministers in charge and other parties concerned all gathered in the capital hall for a meeting.

They agreed that under the current situation, the peace policy must be resolutely implemented without any wavering.

Zhong Shidao was also there, and he put forward different suggestions, saying: "The robbery of the stronghold has been made by mistake, but the military strategists also have surprises. It is also strange to send troops to attack it in separate ways tonight. If it is still invincible, then every night thousands of People harass him, and within ten days, the enemy flees. Victory and defeat are commonplace among military strategists, and when the ear of another blow is just in time, why are you so discouraged?"

Zhao Huan, Li Bangyan and other ministers refused to listen to Zhong Shidao's suggestion.

Not only that, but Li Bangyan and others also started to play, thinking that Li Gang and Zhong Shidao had failed to become teachers, so they could be formalized and asked to remove Li Gang and Zhong Shidao from their posts.

Zhao Huanzhun played, so he was dismissed from the post of Xuanfu Envoy of Zhong Shi Dao and changed to the post of Dayi Palace Envoy; dismissed Li Gang Shangshu Youcheng, personally recruited from the post of Camp Envoy, and ordered Cai Mao to replace him.

Zhao Huan knew better than anyone who arranged Yao Pingzhong's robbing camp, but someone had to take responsibility for the defeat of the robbing camp, so Li Gang and Zhong Shidao became scapegoats.

Li Bangyan and others thought this was not enough, so they wanted to tie up Li Gang and hand them over to the Jinren for disposal.

But for some reason, the Jin envoy didn't accept it. Instead, he said it was impossible, and thought it would be better for Da Song to deal with it by himself.

Li Gang learned that things had changed outside the city, so he immediately led the army into the city, and then went to meet Zhao Huan, wanting to discuss countermeasures with Zhao Huan.

But Zhao Huan refused to see him.

At this time, Li Gang knew that he had been dismissed, so he retreated to the bathroom courtyard and waited for Zhao Huan to surrender.

After Cai Mao replaced Li Gang as the battalion envoy, he immediately sent someone to count the losses. The result was that the battalion commander lost only a hundred men, and the loss was not as serious as Li Bangyan and others said. The remaining people and the other divisions of the Qin Kings did not have any losses because they did not send troops.

Obviously, Li Bangyan and other peace factions exaggerated the losses of the defeat. They wanted to use this to attack Li Gang and Zhong Shidao and other military forces who advocated war against the Jin people.

Political struggles have always been shameless and have no bottom line. This is not to blame Li Bangyan and the others for being ruthless. They dared to gamble on the future of the country for their own self-interest. It is only Zhao Huan who is fatuous and incompetent. As the highest decision-maker in the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Huan obviously lacked response With some insight, he can't see the truth of the matter at all, and he also lacks the decisiveness he should have, swinging back and forth between peace and war. A few days ago, he urged the kind teacher to send troops to attack the Jinren. But he also thinks that sending troops is a wrong choice, and that negotiating peace is the right way.

Cai Mao is also a member of the Zhuhe faction.

Therefore, after Cai Mao took office, he immediately ordered the army to withdraw into the city, leaving only Fan Qiong and Ma Zhong's troops outside the city.

Seeing this, the Jin army became rampant again, sending rangers around to show off their might.

Cai Mao also ordered that no resistance or counterattack be allowed.

Cai Mao's actions puzzled the generals of the Song Army. People privately believed that Cai Mao had two intentions and might have secretly surrendered to the Jin people.

The incident of the Song army robbing the camp aroused Wanyan Zongwang's high vigilance.

Wanyan Zongwang felt that the Song army came to rob the camp regardless of the safety of the hostages, which showed that the hostages were not important enough in the hearts of the Song people.

Moreover, judging from Zhao Gou's series of performances after he came to Jinying, he doesn't look like a prince.

Especially a few days ago, in order to test Zhao Gou's arrow skills, Wanyan Zongwang once shot an arrow with Zhao Gou, unexpectedly, Zhao Gou shot three arrows in a row and all hit the arrow.

This surprised Wanyan Zongwang and the Jinren!
Jin people generally believed: "Zhao Gou should be a son of a good general and official. He doesn't seem to be a prince. How can a prince be good at riding and shooting?"

Wanyan Zongwang then decided to send Zhao Gou back and take another prince as a hostage.

Zhao Huan had no choice but to ask Su Wang Zhao Shu to replace Zhao Gou. In addition, Zhao Huan also sent his only brother-in-law Cao Sheng as a hostage.

Wanyan Zongwang wanted Prime Minister Li Bangyan to come as a hostage.

Zhao Huan lied to Yan Zongwang that Li Bangyan was no longer the prime minister, and then promoted Zhang Bangchang to Taizai, that is, prime minister, and asked Zhang Bangchang to stay in Jinying as a hostage.

Saying that Li Bangyan is no longer the prime minister is actually not completely deceiving Yan Zongwang.

Li Bangyan and other peace parties were not worried about Yao Pingzhong's failure to rob the camp, but happy.

Because this just created an opportunity for them, and they could just take advantage of this to drive out Li Gang who opposed the peace negotiation.

After the conspiracy succeeded, they happily bought wine in the capital hall and celebrated publicly.

This aroused the anger of the people, especially the Tai students.

Tai students wrote letters one after another, asking Li Gang and Zhong Shidao to reuse.

This sound is getting louder and louder.

Later, tens of thousands of people gathered outside Xuande Gate unexpectedly.

It just so happened that all the officials retreated from the court, and the court officials came from Donghua Gate to Xuande Gate one after another.

When Li Bangyan walked to the door, someone suddenly recognized him, and everyone rushed up, accusing him and counting his crimes, and someone cursed loudly, "Li Bangyan, you are a prodigal son, how can you be a prime minister?"

Some people went straight to Li Bangyan and beat him, while others picked up rubble on the ground and threw them at Li Bangchan.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Bangyan turned his head and ran away.

Because he was good at playing football, Li Bangyan ran very fast and luckily took a dog's life.

People believed that there were treacherous ministers around Zhao Huan, who deceived the saints, so they dismissed Li Gang and Zhong Shidao who defended Bianliang City, so they were furious.

The servant Zhu Gongzhi Xuan Li Gang did not arrive on time.

Everyone was very angry, they immediately stepped forward, dragged Zhu Gongzhi off the horse, and cut him alive, cutting his flesh and bones, and breaking his limbs.

At this time, someone pretended that Zhao Huan had an edict: "Those who kill the ministers are not guilty."

Crazy people then beat the servants when they saw them.

Those who were beaten before and after included 37 people including Zhang Taiwei.

Not only were they beaten, but the common people scrambled to eat the meat of these servants.

More than a dozen servants were beaten to death.

People also dug out the livers and intestines of those dead servants, hung them on the top of the bamboo poles, and shouted to the people on the street: "This is a traitor!"

Obviously, at this time, whether it is citizens, soldiers, or Tai students, people's emotions have been out of control, and they have become more and more crazy. Some people even lost their reason, and some people took the opportunity to make trouble.

In this way, a patriotic student movement gradually evolved into a bloody riot that was very rare in the history of the Song Dynasty.

Seeing the situation like this, Zhao Huan quickly reinstated Li Gang and announced that Li Gang would come to see him as soon as possible.

After seeing Zhao Huan, Li Gang cried and begged to die.

Zhao Huan also cried aggrievedly, and immediately issued an order to restore Li Gang Shangshu Youcheng's position, and concurrently served as the envoy of Sibi Shoushi in the west of Beijing, and removed Cai Mao from his post.

Li Gang tried his best to refuse, but Zhao Huan refused, so Li Gang immediately went to the area from Donghuamen to Youyemen to appease the soldiers and civilians.

Li Gang will go.

When people saw Li Gang, they all shouted: "You Cheng is the master of the common people!"

Li Gang replied: "Gang is here, and he will ascend the city. The people are not enough to worry about, so please return to take care of the old and the young."

Seeing that Li Gang had indeed resumed his duties, everyone dispersed a little.

But there were still some people who refused to disperse, they shouted that they would not retreat until they saw Master Zhong.

Li Gang hurried back to report to Zhao Huan.

Zhao Huan then sent people to the Western Army outside the city to urge Zhong Shidao, and asked him to enter the city immediately to suppress him.

Soon, Zhong Shidao came by car.

Everyone went up and opened the curtain of the car to see that it was indeed a kind of teacher's way, so they shouted loudly: "Guo my father!"

People just retreated slowly.

When Li Bangyan saw that Zhao Huan had resumed the positions of Li Gang and Zhong Shidao, he felt bad, so he resigned from Zhao Huan, hoping to test Zhao Huan's attitude.

Zhao Huan did not approve Li Bangyan's official appointment, but only agreed to remove him from the position of prime minister and let him serve as a scholar of Guanwendian and an envoy of Taiyi Palace.

Zhao Huan thought to himself, "Under social pressure, Li Gang has to be reactivated, but this does not mean that the national policy has returned to the track of the main war. There may be peace negotiations in the future, so Li Bangyan and others are still useful."

In this regard, although Zhao Huan didn't say it clearly, Li Bangyan already understood it.

Soon after Li Gang was reinstated, he went to the city wall to inspect the defense, condolences to the officers and soldiers, and boosted morale.

Li Gang's military order was exactly the opposite of Cai Mao's.

Cai Mao once ordered the soldiers: "The Jin people are close to the city and must not attack."

Some soldiers refused to obey the order, and when they found the golden man approaching, they fired and fired the bed crossbow.

As a result, these soldiers were all punished with sticks and beaten to pieces.

The soldiers of the Song army were very angry about this.

Li Gang declared clearly: "When you see the enemy coming, attack, and those who hit will be rewarded."

The soldiers of the Song Army were all rejoiced when they heard the news.

A few days later, the soldiers of the Song army violently fired unconscionable cannons outside the city, beating the golden men gathered outside Xianfeng Gate.

The Jinren all retreated in surprise, and there was no one in the blink of an eye.

It has been a month since the Jin army arrived outside the city of Tokyo. Although the city has not been broken, the war goal of ceding land and paying compensation has been achieved.

After receiving Zhao Huan's edict to cede the three towns and King Su's hostage in the army, Wanyan Zongwang decided to lead his troops north.

Although there is still a large amount of gold and silk in the Song Dynasty that has not been paid, Wanyan Zongwang thinks that he can't wait any longer.

Because according to the intelligence report, Li Gang and Zhong Shidao, who were the main battlers, have been reinstated, and the Song Army still has many soldiers of King Qin rushing to the capital, but they have less than 4 horses, and their food is almost exhausted.

Wanyan Zongwang felt that if the confrontation continued like this, they might not be able to leave.

Soon, Wanyan Zongwang sent Binmen envoy Han Guangyi into the palace to bid farewell, and delivered a court speech to Zhao Huan on his behalf.

Zhao Huan was overjoyed to see that the Jin people were about to withdraw their troops. He immediately dispatched Wang Shiyong, Shaoyin of the Kaifeng Prefecture, and others to the Jinying camp with gifts such as tea fruit, borneol, wine and medicine.

The East Road Jin Army soon began to formally withdraw from outside Bianliang City.

Knowing that, Zhong Shidao entered the palace and suggested to Song Qinzong: "The thief will not be equipped when he returns. Please invite the rivers and wait for them to cross halfway. You can attack them. After three battles, you can make no one. If you let them go, there will be disasters in the future." Measurement."

Coincidentally, Li Yan and other ministers of the lord and faction were by Zhao Huan's side.

They all advised Zhao Huan not to pursue him, otherwise his previous efforts would be wasted.

Zhao Huan believed in what Li Yan and others said, so he ordered not to pursue him.

As a veteran military strategist with rich practical experience, Zhong Shidao is keenly aware that if he loses this great opportunity to severely defeat the main force of the Jin army, there will be endless troubles in the future.

Zhong Shidao was so anxious that Zhao Huan refused to listen to his repeated advice. In addition, his health was not very good, which caused his anger to attack, and he fell ill all at once.

Not only Zhong Shidao, but also Zhang Shuye persuaded Zhao Huan to intercept the Jin army.

Zhang Shuye also went up to make a chapter and said that he would lead an army to intercept the Jin army.

But Zhao Huan ignored Zhang Shuye.

As a result, the Jin army left Da Song with countless treasures and the women they plundered so swaggeringly.

The retreat of the Jin army means that the first defense of Tokyo, which lasted more than a month, is finally over.

Some people believe that under the leadership of Li Gang, the Northern Song Dynasty finally won the victory of this defense battle.

In fact, there was no military victory or defeat in this defense battle. The Jin army failed to attack the city twice, and the Song army also failed to rob the camp once.

According to the battle situation, the two sides should be regarded as a draw.

but--

If it is based on the results of the battle.

The Jin people obtained a large amount of gold and silver treasures from the Song state, and kidnapped many Song women, but they only lost thousands of soldiers and horses. The key is to make the Song people frightened.

It can be described as a complete victory.

Therefore, in this battle, the Jin people won without victories, and the Song people lost without defeat...

……

……

PS: Big Bird tried his best, and shortened the extremely tortuous Jinren's first southward journey to the end of two chapters.

Big Bird will write back the protagonist in the next chapter.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!
(End of this chapter)