The Happy Life of Small Officials in Northern Song Dynasty

(Thanks to book friend bobby75222 for the reward)

The Northwest Qinfeng and Yongxingjun Roads were originally barren and desolate lands, with a total of less than 12 households and less than one million people in the two roads. Normally, apart from the people who originally lived here, only the imperial court The soldiers and horses and merchants stationed there went.

The population is small, the self-sufficiency of output is still insufficient, and the annual drought and famine have actually become the key relief objects of the Song Dynasty; The only barrier, if it wasn't for the fear of bearing the stigma of being invaded by the ancestors, someone in the DPRK and China would have proposed to give up this place that doesn't shit.

However, since Li Yuanhao, a party member in the first year of Baoyuan, broke away from the Song Dynasty and established himself in the Yuan Dynasty, and changed the name of the Yuan Dynasty to "Yan Zuo", and the name of the founding of the country was "Da Xia", the Qin Feng and Yongxing Army suddenly became very lively.In the first year of Song Renzong Baoyuan, Li Yuanhao, who established himself as the emperor of Daxia, wrote a letter to inform the Song Dynasty court, hoping that they would admit this fact, which immediately aroused great indignation from the Song Dynasty court. Hao Guanjue, and offered a reward for his capture.

Since then, the Song-Xia War broke out in an all-round way; so soldiers and horses gathered, cities and fortresses sprang up, and in just over three years, dozens of military fortresses were built along the frontier fortress, and the frontier garrison also changed from the original five. More than 15 people gradually increased to nearly [-] people. In this land, some people made great military exploits and became famous, some people lost their reputation in Maicheng, and more ordinary people and soldiers died here, spilling their blood on this land. on a barren land.

Generally speaking, the Song Dynasty suffered a lot of losses in the three-year war, regardless of the small defeats. In the battle of Sanchuankou and Haoshuichuan in the second year of Baoyuan and the second year of Kangding, the Song Dynasty suffered a big loss. .In the two wars, the Northwest Army suffered more than 150 casualties and nearly [-] generals, which can be described as a great shame.

But the death of the army is not the main loss. The real loss is the people plundered by the thieves, the damaged city and the goods robbed. The loss of the army is nothing compared to that of the people. In one year, there were 3 people and hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep who were looted by the bandits.

The direct victims of the war are the common people. The common people who had already struggled to make ends meet had no choice but to give up their land. In order to prevent the border residents from flowing into the interior and making troubles, the imperial court issued a strict order prohibiting the common people from retreating. The army builds cities, builds villages, paves roads and builds bridges; although this is inhumane, at least the people can get paid from labor and can barely make ends meet.

After entering the second year of Qingli, the proposal of Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi was approved by the court. Instead of head-to-head fighting strategy, it changed to a strategy of defending and counterattacking with strong walls and clearing the field. The large-scale battle between the soldiers eased the situation slightly.

Li Yuanhao sent troops to harass several times, but all the villages were ghost villages with empty houses, and all the people hid in the forts with their belongings. The situation on both sides is gradually balanced.

At this point in the war, the two sides are fighting internally. No one dares to relax, and no one is willing to give in. They are secretly panting for opportunities to bite each other.

Although there were no major battles during this period, small battles continued one after another. The most invigorating ones were the several small-scale battles commanded by Yanzhou Commander Di Qing. Under his command, the Song Army successively conquered Jintang City, Youzhou In other places, tens of thousands of Xixia food and grass were burned, and countless tents, weapons and materials were seized. They also looted more than [-] heads of livestock. Fort Langzhu, nails were inserted into the key points of the front line.

Fan Zhongyan's strategy of defending and counterattacking with strong walls and clearing the field has received mixed reviews in the court. Some people ridiculed Fan Zhongyan for losing the backbone of the Song Dynasty and becoming a turtle; His arrogance was suppressed.

A black cat and a white cat, if it catches mice, it is a good cat. The improvement of the battle situation naturally makes these voices of opposition gradually disappear. In Han Qi's words, "Fan Xiwen's move is to avoid the enemy's sharp edge and make the heroic cavalry of the western bandits useless." The place of martial arts is a wise move. '.

This is a good point. The most ferocious part of the Western Xia army is their iron cavalry. It is precisely to attack the enemy's strengths with one's own shortcomings, and a disastrous defeat is inevitable; after holding on to the city wall, the strong city wall prevented the cavalry from advancing, and the main force of the Song army was archers, who were condescending and supplemented by Long-distance weapons such as bed crossbows naturally made the Xixia army helpless.

The Xixia army is dominated by cavalry, and they never use siege equipment such as catapults. At most, they are whirlwind cannons carried on the back of camels. It was launched by manpower, so the distance of the stones thrown was limited, and the power was so small that it was negligible to the Song army. Soldiers would occasionally be smashed to death, but the city wall was almost undamaged. It was not of much benefit to the battle situation. Many were shot and killed by Song Jun's condescending bed crossbow.

It's not that Yuan Hao doesn't want to use heavy catapults to attack the city, but the situation doesn't allow him to do so. Firstly, it's expensive, and Xixia's national strength really can't afford it. Supporting war with war is his ultimate strategy, and the looted materials and property can make up for it. He consumes it so that the Xixia army will have the power to fight again. Otherwise, when the production of all the people in the Great Xia Kingdom has almost stopped, what will he use to fight?

The second is the problem of army configuration. The high-mobility tactics of the cavalry is already the housekeeping skill of the Xixia Army. Even the whirlwind cannon is installed on the back of a camel and follows the army like the wind; once equipped with a heavy catapult Without such heavy equipment, the entire army changed from being as fast as the wind to crawling like a turtle, which was equivalent to giving away the advantage.

All in all, the northwest frontier is now undergoing great changes amidst the calm, and thunder is brewing in the silent place, it is precisely because of the pattern of the two sides fighting wits and courage; although there is no major war, small-scale raids are raging everywhere in the frontier every day.

……

Su Jin and his entourage left Beijing on June 26. After the imperial court was robbed and robbed several times by a small group of cavalry from the western thieves who broke into the Song Dynasty, the food and payment sent to the northwest was also diverted. Transit, divided into two routes, and then send one route northward to Yanzhou and other places for distribution, and the other route continues westward along Yaozhou via Fengxiang to Qinzhou for use by the prefectures on Qinfeng Road.

However, most of this section of the official road passes through many mountains. One of the reasons for the defeat in the Battle of Haoshuichuan was that the official road at the foot of the Bison Mountain in Fengxiang was washed away and filled by mudflows, making it difficult to sustain the army. Rush to repair, but the war will not wait until you have repaired the road, so that the Song army was trapped without food, and it was one of the reasons for the defeat that they could only break through.

This time, the official of the third division to escort the grain and grass was a head of the Du branch named Wang Lang. This person had traveled back and forth between the northwest and the capital to transport grain, grass, weapons and supplies without any mistakes. This time Yan Shu appointed him to go with Su Jin on the same journey. , also means to use his experience to assist Su Jin to arrive safely.

The secret of Wang Lang not making mistakes is that he did not go from the nearest official road at all. Instead, he detoured through Jingxian Road, entered Lizhou Road, turned north, and arrived at Qinzhou Mansion directly. The state government led troops to escort the grain and grass back.

Wang Lang's route is the bow back, and the closest route is the bow string. In this way, the time on the road is more than doubled. The original baggage team arrived in about 35 days, but it would take at least [-] to [-] days to travel according to Wang Lang's route. Arrive in Qinzhou.

Wang Lang still adhered to the safe way. After leaving the capital, he suggested to Su Jin to follow this route. Su Jin refused him without thinking. Even if it is dangerous, half a month's arrival will be more than doubled at once, which undoubtedly greatly increases the danger.

And although it seems safe to take a long detour from the lower road, in fact, the enemy soldiers' road from Lizhou Road to Qinfeng Road to Qinzhou is still not safe; are Xixia soldiers fools?If he didn't get anything on the old road, wouldn't he try his luck on the official road south of Qinzhou?

Furthermore, the team escorted this time can be described as a luxurious lineup. Not only did they have their own five-hundred-horse guards, but also more than 1000 soldiers assigned by the court to escort food and grass, plus thousands of people transporting food. I am afraid that the small group of enemy troops will be frightened when they look at it from a distance, let alone step forward to stroke the tiger's beard.

"Master Su." Wang Lang rubbed his hands together and said, "I'm not afraid of [-], just in case, if this batch of supplies goes wrong, I can't bear the responsibility, it's better to be careful."

Su Jin smiled and said: "Lord Wang, I won't force you, or you can take the food team and weapons and supplies on the safe road, and I will take my own guards on the road, so that everyone doesn't have to worry about it, and you don't have to." I'm worried about food and grass supplies."

Wang Lang said in astonishment: "This... I'm afraid this is not good. Wouldn't it be an act of dividing the troops, and it would be even more insecure. Besides, the Lord of the Third Division strictly ordered that the low-level officials must follow Master Su all the way, how could the low-level officials dare to disobey orders."

Su Jin smiled and said, "Then I'll go up the road, will you follow?"

Wang Lang was extremely depressed. He heard that Master Su Jinsu didn't like to take the usual way. Today is indeed a real one. It is obviously impossible to go separately. The five hundred horses around Su Jin are the main force. The thief's cavalry was not an opponent at all, and cavalry against cavalry was a perfect match. If they lost this great protection, if they encountered enemy soldiers on the section of Qinfeng Road, they would have no power to fight back.

Wang Lang had no choice but to follow Su Jin to take risks, thinking to himself: "This kid is still young, a newborn calf is not afraid of tigers, and you have to suffer a big loss before you know that what I said is a golden word; but I hope Don't suffer this time, I don't want to make any mistakes this time."