Outlaws of the Marsh

Chapter 815 Birth of an Empire (Please Subscribe!)
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As far as Li Yan, who was half a soldier and horse, and the invincible Chinese army, Song Jun was really not the strongest opponent Li Yan and the Chinese army had ever fought, not even in the top three.

But this period of time was actually the period of time that Li Yan was most worried about.

Why is this?

This period of time is really too important.

Yes.

Li Yan had been enthroned as emperor three years ago, and could stand on his own even longer.

But before that, Li Yan actually only occupied a small area of ​​the inherent territory of the Han people, and he was not considered a truly unified emperor at all.

And if Dazhong annexed all the land of the Southern Song Dynasty, plus Li Yan's successive captures of Yanyun, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, half of the Indochina Peninsula, Luozhu Kingdom and other places, then Li Yan can become a real unification The emperor of the empire, Dazhong can barely compare with the Han and Tang dynasties.

Moreover, before that, the territory of Dazhong was divided, and only when the Southern Song Dynasty was annexed, the territory of Dazhong could form a unified territory.

In addition, only with the backing of the fertile southern region, the Shaanxi region with the best military resources, and the Shu region rich in food, can the Dazhong Empire established by Li Yan truly have an engine and be able to cope with any wind and rain.

In the autumn of the third year of Datong, the Pingnan Army led by Yue Fei captured most of the southeast region owned by the Southern Song Dynasty, and merged it into the territory of Dazhong.

but--

Not all the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty in the southeast region was annexed by Dazhong - Li Chengyi's army and Zhong Xiangyi's army also took this opportunity to annex a lot of territory and complete further growth.

At present, the two groups of rebels, Li Cheng and Zhong Xiang, occupy the south bank of the Jingjiang River in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, spanning Yueyang, Miluo, Xiangyin, Wangcheng, Yiyang, Yuanjiang, Hanshou, Changde, Jinmen, Anxiang and Nantun, with ten One state, 120 counties (in fact, most of Hunan in later generations, plus a small part of Hubei, plus a part of Jiangxi), Li Chengyi's army grew to nearly 26, Zhong Xiangyi's army grew to 40, two The total number of soldiers and horses of the Huoyi Army totaled more than [-], occupying Dongting Lake as the center, forming two stubborn forces, and these two stubborn forces are likely to merge.

And these two groups of rebels are actually the next strategic goal of Yue Feiping and the Southern Army.

but--

Although Li Cheng and Zhong Xiang established two kingdoms within a country in the center of the southeast region.

But Li Yan was not worried about the two groups of rebels, Li Cheng and Zhong Xiang.

Over the past 2000 years, there have been countless "peasant uprisings" in Chinese history, but few of them succeeded.

For example, there was the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang Uprising in the Qin Dynasty, the Yellow Turban Uprising in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Huangchao Uprising in the Tang Dynasty, the Fangla Uprising in the Song Dynasty, the Li Zicheng Uprising in the Ming Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Hong Xiuquan Uprising in the Qing Dynasty, and so on.

Whether a peasant uprising is ultimately successful or not has a lot to do with the strength of its opponents.

Specifically speaking, is this dynasty hated by the majority of scholars and the people of the whole country?

If a dynasty is hated by the majority of scholars and the people of the whole country, then it is possible for this dynasty to be destroyed or even overthrown by the lowest peasant uprising, otherwise it is absolutely impossible.

So why is the success rate of peasant uprisings so low?

Many people, sum it up as a limitation of the farmer.

For example, peasants have not received systematic education, even do not know a single character, and are not armed with advanced culture;
For example, once the leader of the peasant uprising had a little success, he was addicted to pleasure, not thinking about making progress, and committed suicide;

For example, if you don’t have enough strategic vision, you can be rich if you are small;
For example, peasant uprisings are usually forced by the government and the people against the people, without long-term goals;

and many more……

According to the public opinion, it is nothing more than a few, not enough experience, not enough knowledge, just thinking about having food to live on, and not thinking about making progress when there is food to eat, arrogance and extravagance.

In fact, to put it bluntly, most of the peasant uprisings broke out because of the unfair distribution of wealth. Therefore, after winning the victory, they were naturally greedy for pleasure, arrogant and complacent, and fought for power. As a result, the peasant uprising naturally failed.

In addition, during the vast majority of peasant uprisings, the only way for the insurgents to be supplied was to plunder, and the way to fight was to flee, and they were easily recruited by other more famous and stronger troops, because they were more likely to have meat to eat , and in the long run, there is no perfect development strategy at all.

Throughout history, only Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang and Li Yan were the ones who succeeded in the peasant uprising.

Liu Bang was able to succeed in the uprising. In fact, he must first thank Zhang Liang. It was Zhang Liang who advised Liu Bang on the national level and improved Liu Bang's situation.

Zhu Yuanzhang was able to succeed in the uprising, thanks to Zhu Sheng, who proposed for Zhu Yuanzhang the overall strategic policy of "building walls high, accumulating grain widely, and slowly becoming king".

As for the success of Li Yanneng's uprising, we must thank the Chinese for thousands of years of accumulation.

Regardless of whether it was Li Cheng or Zhong Xiang, the uprising troops they led were all typical peasant uprisings, and they could not be compared with Liu Bang, Zhu Yuanzhang, and Li Yan at all.

Let me talk about Li Cheng first.

Li Cheng was the first archer in the Song Dynasty, and was promoted to Huainan many times to recruit envoys. Later, he gathered people as robbers, plundered Jiangnan with money, and grew stronger little by little through the Sino-Song War.

The reason why Li Cheng's group of rebels were able to stand out from the many rebels and recruited a large number of other rebels was because Li Cheng was brave and powerful, and his orders were very strict. Look at it, even if you don't hold a rain gear, you can get wet freely.

In other words, Li Cheng's success depends on his personal charm.

However, although Li Cheng's style of conduct has the style of a famous general, he does not have the style of an emperor. His structure is too small. I only know how to grab and grab, and then run around.

How could such a group of people be able to fight against the increasingly powerful Dazhong Empire?
Let's talk about Zhong Xiang again.

At the beginning of the uprising, Zhong Xiang really put forward the political program of "the law divides the rich and the poor into the noble and the humble, which is not a good law. I practice the law and treat the rich and the poor as equals." Such a political program.

But after the power grew, Zhong Xiang and his core subordinate Yang Yao and others gradually betrayed the purpose of "equaling the rich and the poor, equaling the rich and the poor". The soldiers under his command and the people under his rule were in poverty.

How can Zhong Xiang and the others last long in this way?
Therefore, when Li Yan learned that Yue Fei had conquered most of the territory in the southeast of the Southern Song Dynasty, only the part occupied by Li Cheng and Zhong Xiang had not yet belonged to Dazhong, he had already arranged for the territory he had acquired Li Yan, an official, temporarily turned his attention away from the southeast region, and then turned his attention to the Sichuan and Shaanxi regions.

in fact--

Even if the Southern Song Dynasty completely lost Shaanxi and the gate of Shu was opened by the Chinese army, the Song army could still have some room for maneuver. After all, Shu is notoriously easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is rich in food and grass. The key is, Although the Song Army suffered a major defeat, it actually still had 10,000+ troops.

But at this moment, Zhang Jun made another wrong decision.

Regardless of his own fault, Zhang Jun shifted all the responsibility for the defeat to Liu Xi, who was in command, and Zhao Zhe, who was the first to flee. The victim beheaded for questioning.

The most important thing is that Zhang Jun also disbanded the broken army that they had collected with great difficulty, and let them divide into different places.

This is undoubtedly a stupid trick.

You must know that at this time, although the Beishan system was broken by the Chinese army, the Song army can actually concentrate its forces to guard Liupanshan and retain the vast area west of Liupanshan.

If the Song Army did this, then their strategic depth would not become so narrow, and therefore there would still be a chance of a comeback.

But Zhang Jun didn't choose that.

But then again, Zhang Jun also had his reasons for making such a choice—the Song army lost all of its food and grass in this big defeat. Without the support of food and grass, Zhang Jun actually had no other good solution other than disbanding the army. .

Just at this time, the news of the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty came, and along with this news came the surrender order jointly issued by Zhao Gou and Queen Mother Pan.

At the same time, Wu Jie also led an army into Shu.

One side is the fact that the Southern Song Dynasty perished.

On the other side, the fierce soldiers of the Chinese army all over the mountains and plains came to kill them in a big way.

In addition, there are also excuses for surrender given by Zhao Gou and Queen Mother Pan.

The most important thing is that the Dazhong regime established by Li Yan is a Han regime. It is neither brutal nor tyrannical. On the contrary, it is very popular with the people. In short, Dazhong has nothing difficult to accept.

Therefore, wherever the Chinese army passed, a large number of soldiers of the Song army chose to walk out of the pass and surrender.

As a result, as soon as the Chinese army entered Shu, it was like a broken bamboo.

In just a few months, the Chinese army reached Xingzhou.

After losing Shaanxi, Zhang Jun fled to Sichuan. In Xingzhou, he re-hanged the signboard of Sichuan-Shaanxi Xuanfu Disposal Commissioner. Then Zhang Jun made the decision to guard Shukou and protect Sichuan. He went deep into the army and mourned everywhere. He asked about the wounded, made self-reflection, and selected outstanding officers for important positions. He wanted to use this to stabilize the army and give the Southern Song Dynasty a sigh of relief.

Unexpectedly, Wu Jie reached Xingzhou in just a few months.

Zhang Jun wanted to continue fleeing westward to Langzhou, and then continue to resist.

But at this moment, something happened.

After the Sichuan-Shaanxi Xuanfu Disposal Division retreated to Xingzhou, Zhang Jun remembered the Qu Duan who was demoted, and felt very guilty!
However, Zhang Jun did not want to admit that it was wrong to derogate Qu Duan at the beginning, but took the method of indirectly affirming Qu Duan's contribution, announcing: "In the battle of Fuping, the Jingyuan army contributed the most; after retreating, gather first; Both are handsome and well-trained."

Zhang Jun set this tone in order not to hurt his own face but also to re-appoint Qu Duan.

At first, Zhang Jun planned to appoint Qu Duan as Dr. Zuo Wu and live in Xingzhou so that he could be appointed at any time.

But later, because Qu Duan was too self-willed and offended too many people in the past, after seeing Zhang Jun's intention to reuse Qu Duan, many people spoke ill of Qu Duan to Zhang Jun to prevent Qu Duan from making a comeback Some people even said to Zhang Jun: "The revival of Qu Duan will definitely be detrimental to Mr. Zhang." Zhang Jun was so frightened that he gave up the idea of ​​using Qu Duan.

Seeing that Qu Duan was so unpopular and had many enemies, it was indeed difficult to maintain the internal unity of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Xuanfu Disposal Commissioner, so Zhang Jun prepared not to revoke the punishment on Qu Duan, not to use Qu Duan, but not to punish Qu Duan any more.

For Zhang Jun, this was originally the best solution, and for Qu Duan, it was also a better ending.

However, the case of Qu Duan has become more and more complicated as its social influence has expanded. On the one hand, the scholars in Sichuan desperately appealed for Qu Duan, saying that if Qu Duan had been in command, they would not have lost the battle of Fuping. However, it will not make the situation on the Sichuan-Shanxi line so bad; on the other hand, the fear of Quduan's resurgent forces forced Zhang Jun to severely punish Quduan; Recently, its interior needs to be unified.

Therefore, Zhang Jun decided to kill Qu Duan!
Zhang Jun called his staff to discuss this issue.

At the meeting, Wu Yu didn't say a word at first, but later, seeing that Zhang Jun couldn't make up his mind to convict Qu Duan, he wrote the four words "Qu Duan's conspiracy" on the palm of his hand, showed Zhang Jun, and forced Zhang Jun to convict Qu Duan. Qu Duan was ordered to be arrested for treason.

And Qu Duan once wrote a poem, in which there is a sentence "not to go to Guanzhong for a career, but to go boating on the river", which clearly accused Zhao Gou of not thinking about making progress, which is really treasonous.

As a result, Qu Duan was imprisoned in Gongzhou Prison by Zhang Jun.

Zhang Jun also specially ordered Kang Sui, a general who had a grudge against Qu Duan, to serve as a prison in Kuizhou to try Qu Duan's case, and ordered Kang Sui to kill Qu Duan in prison to eliminate future troubles.

According to Zhang Jun and others' wishes, Kang Sui first sent prison officers to try to get close to Qu Duan, and deceived Qu Duan's trust.

Afterwards, the prison officer deceived Qu Duan again and asked Qu Duan to write down the symptoms in his own hand, falsely claiming that this could be used as an excuse to apply for Qu Duan's release from prison.

After Kang Sui got the symptoms, he tortured Qu Duan immediately, intending to kill Qu Duan in prison, and then used the symptoms as evidence to falsely claim that Qu Duan died of illness in prison.

Kang Sui was extremely cruel to Qu Duan—Kang Sui ordered the prison officials to tie up Qu Duan, gag him, and roast Qu Duan with fire. Qu Duan wanted water, but Kang Sui gave Qu Duan strong wine. If you can't help but drink that strong wine, you will bleed to death from your seven orifices.

But just when Qu Duan couldn't bear it and was about to drink the strong wine, Zhao Bin, the original Qu Duan's confidant, took advantage of the fact that the Chinese army hit Xingzhou and everything was messy, so he led people into Gongzhou Prison, and he was rescued. Qu Duan, who was tortured so badly.

Encountering such a drastic change, Qu Duan was terribly disappointed with the Southern Song Dynasty, and even more hated Zhang Jun and others for plotting against him, so he summoned his troops to fight back to Xingzhou, and captured Zhang Jun and his staff who were fleeing westward on the way.

Qu Duan ordered people to behead Zhang Jun and others, and then threw Zhang Jun and others' heads at Wu Jie.

By the way, Kang Sui and the prison officials who roasted Qu Duan were all killed by Zhao Bin in the same way.

Since then, most of the Shu land has been occupied by the Chinese army, and only a small part of the area is still stubbornly resisting under the leadership of some people who were brainwashed by the Song Dynasty.

but--

These resistance forces, one in the east and one in the west, are fighting independently, without a unified command, and without a unified spiritual support.

At this moment, Li Yan's heart was finally relieved.

Dazhong became a great empire comparable to the Han and Tang Dynasties, and it was basically a certainty.

At this time, the Western Xia Mission, the Dali Mission, the missions of some tribes on the Mongolian grasslands, the missions of the countries on the Indochina Peninsula, the missions of the Western Heaven countries, and even the missions of some countries in the Arab region The missions came to Dazhong Chaohe one after another, and a huge empire that was feared by all the neighbors was born...

……

……

PS: This is a two-in-one chapter, so that's it for today.

(End of this chapter)