Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 402 0397 [Golden State is a Paradise]

He Ji's cries and roars alarmed the nearby officers and soldiers, who all came to check the situation.

Seeing the hanging noose, the officers and soldiers felt very strange.

There was no mutiny to force him, he could surrender at any time to survive, why did he suddenly think about committing suicide?
There are a few officers who can read and write. When they saw the message on the tree trunk, they hurriedly said it to the people next to them.

The soldiers from Tokyo also said that the old general was the emperor's personal guard general.

Some people disdain it, some people respect it, but they don't speak anymore.

He Ji fastened his father's belt again, and after tidying up his appearance, he personally carried the body on his back and led thousands of officers and soldiers to surrender—there were originally more than 1 people, but most of them had fled by now, and he himself surrendered in groups up.

Zhang Guangdao personally received the prisoners, and when he saw the strangle marks on He Guan's neck, he thought he was strangled to death by soldiers.

Hearing that He Ji was the son of the deceased, he became more and more confused, and asked the other surrendered soldiers to find out what happened.

Xu Ning said in a low voice: "This old general He is very famous in Tokyo. It is rumored that he was a Wu Jinshi. He once shot an arrow through the armor of the Xixia cavalry, pierced through the chest and then shot the cavalry behind him. He was so powerful in the three armies. , the people in Tokyo know it, and the emperor personally received it.”

Stories will always get more and more outrageous, and there are many legends about He Guan's shooting.

He Guan did not participate in the expedition against Liao at all, but it was said that he shot stones with three arrows to scare off the Liao army, entrusting a kind of expectation of the people in Tokyo.

Zhang Guangdao asked: "Did anyone do evil for the court?"

Xu Ning shook his head and said, "I haven't heard of it, I don't know very well. All of his subordinates are imperial guards, and he doesn't deal with ordinary people."

Zhang Guangdao was surprised: "The emperor also sent the head of the guards to lead the army?"

"It's probably because he has suffered too many defeats, so the faint king doesn't trust Tong Guan very much." Xu Ning guessed.

Zhang Guangdao sighed: "Poor old hero, if he insisted on dying for that stupid king, it would be great if he took refuge in my Dalang."

He Ji put his father's body away, took off his saber, took off his armor, knelt down and said, "General, please treat the surrendered soldiers well. Most of them are town soldiers and peasants from Dengxiang and other prefectures. Temporary recruitment has not caused any harm to your department." What a kill."

Zhang Guangdao said: "You don't need to worry about this, the rebel army will definitely not kill the good and pretend to be meritorious. Do you know Tong Guan's arrangement?"

He Ji remained silent, he did not want to betray his allies.

Zhang Guangdao didn't bother to ask any more, because He Ji didn't say anything, but the other prisoners were willing to.

Sure enough, when Zhang Guangdao identified the officers among the captives and asked them for information, he spat out the bamboo tubes like beans.

"Tong Guan sits in Xiangyang, where there are three thousand victorious troops."

"Xin Xingzong and Xin Qizong each led some Shengjie troops to attack Xunyang and Pingli respectively."

"From Yunxiang to here, four food stations have been set up along the way. The general will send people to kill them!"

"There is a large grain station at the mouth of Wuling River (Duhekou), where all the grain and grass brought in from Jingxi South Road are piled up there before being transported out."

"..."

Zhang Guangdao was all smiles when he heard it, and asked the army to record it, and then summarized it himself.

These captives can't be kept for nothing, they are temporarily escorted to various counties in Jinzhou, and let them log, mine, build roads, and dredge rivers.

After the war is over, they will be released after screening.

It is impossible to release them directly, which requires the use of a large number of ships.

Of course, he would not intentionally torture him to death, because Jingxi South Road is vast and sparsely populated, and it must be developed after the rebels defeat it.Most of the captives in front of them are from Southwest Jinglu Road, and they will be released to farm next year.

He Ji has a special status and was specially escorted to Jinzhou City for custody.

He asked to burn his father's body to leave the ashes, Zhang Guangdao agreed without hesitation, and distributed them to several captives for help.

Batch after batch of prisoners were kicked out by the escorting officers so that the prisoners would lose their organization.

After dealing with most of the prisoners, Zhang Guangdao was finally relieved.

For those captured soldiers, the good ones were replaced by soldiers, and the bad ones were used to arm the civilians.

Zhang Guangdao left a small number of soldiers to garrison Fuyang Town together with civilian husbands, and continued to escort the prisoners in batches, and he personally led the main force to sail eastward.

Since Xin Xingzong didn't dare to come again, Zhang Guangdao must of course kill him!

The riverside grain stations along the way were all empty, and even the soldiers and grain were transported away by Xin Xingzong.

Zhang Guangdao docked in Wufeng Township, Yunyang District in later generations, where there is a large area of ​​riverside flat land, which is suitable for military and grain depots.

According to the confessions of the captives, the Wuling River Estuary further forward is the military capital transfer hub for officers and soldiers.

Wulingshui is Duhe River, the largest tributary of the Han River.

Going south along the river, you can go directly to Zhushan County, which is Shangyong City in the Three Kingdoms period.

But he said that He Ji took his father's ashes and was escorted to Jinzhou together with many officers.Those in charge of escorting them were all temporarily armed civilian husbands.

My attitude is definitely not very good, and I can't take a boat, and I have to carry the rations on my own. I am often beaten with sticks along the way, and if I walk slowly, I will be beaten.

He Ji received better treatment, because Zhang Guangdao ordered him to take care of him, and even chatted with the escort officer during the rest.

"I heard that Jinzhou is barren and mountainous, so it can support many soldiers?" He Ji asked.

The escort officer smiled and said, "Jinzhou doesn't have much grain, but there is a lot of gold, and they all went to Xiangyang to buy grain. Since it was received last autumn and the beginning of spring, grain has been transported over."

He Ji was quite speechless, but at the same time felt resentful. He worked his life to fight, but some officials sold food to the bandits.

In fact, in the continuous mountainous area, Jinzhou is not too poor, but rich.This is called the Ankang Basin, and its food production is second only to the Hanzhong Basin, although this "second only" is a bit much...

He Ji asked again: "Mr. Zhu really doesn't charge exorbitant taxes?"

The escort officer replied: "I also collect some. I heard from the old man in the family that the tax is about the same as Zhezong's years."

"That's good too." He Ji sighed.

He had studied in the Imperial College, and his father planned to train him to take the imperial examination.

He Ji prefers bow, horse, spear and stick. Although he studies hard, he is still far away from Jinshi.

Even so, it can be called both civil and military.

His father used to be in charge of the Infantry Division, which was a lucrative position, and many honorable children came to fawn on him.

He Ji is often invited by nobles, not only to spend in romantic places, but also to attend some literary meetings with arty style.

He Ji has read all of Ju Ming's poems.

He likes Ju Ming's writing very much. "Zhi An Shu" scolds freely, and "Song of Righteousness" is written with full of vigor.He even secretly collected the banned book "University Chapters and Sentences", and read Zhu Ming's "Discussing the Du Fu Zhao Jixi".

Who doesn't hate the faint king and treacherous officials?

In the past two years, Song Huizong reused the eunuch Li Yan to set up the troubled place in Xicheng.Even some mid-level and low-level officers of the Imperial Army had their family properties watched by the eunuchs. They had to pay both taxes and land rent, which was tantamount to paying double taxes to the court.

Once a subordinate officer ran to He Guan and cried.

He Guan went to Li Yan to discuss an explanation, and the two sides broke up after a quarrel.

At that time, He Ji thought, how can ordinary people endure the exploitation of the officers of the imperial army?

Sure enough, this year when he led his troops to the expedition, what he saw along the way was full of devastation, which reminded He Ji again of Zhu Ming's call to arms.

He Ji asked his father in private: "Thieves and bandits have sprung up all over the place, and the court is hard to wipe out. Can the Great Song Dynasty be saved?"

He Guan only said: "The salary of eating the king is a matter of being loyal to the king."

He Ji asked again: "The forbidden army is being exploited, how can we make them loyal to the emperor?"

He Guan couldn't answer, so he could only sigh.

He Ji wanted to ask again, but He Guan suddenly ordered: "I have received too much kindness from the king, so I should do my duty faithfully. Your military position is based on your ability to test martial arts. If..."

If anything, He Guan didn't say anything, but He Ji knew it.

Da Song's boat was about to sink, and his father wanted him to find an opportunity to change it.

The premise is that the father must die!
A few days later, after entering the Ankang Basin, He Ji observed the countryside carefully.

Although affected by the war, the countryside is inevitably depressed, but the basic order of agricultural production is still there.

Jinzhou also belongs to Southwest Jinglu Road, and is even more barren than the Nanxiang Basin.However, under the management of Zhu's father and son, the land here was full of crops, but the fertile Nanxiang Basin was abandoned everywhere.

Not to mention the Nanxiang Basin, Kaifeng Mansion has begun to be abandoned!

The peasants in Xicheng were so squeezed that they couldn't breathe, and no matter how much grain they collected, it was not enough to pay taxes.Rich households can still rely on years of savings to survive, while small landlords and self-cultivating farmers can only abandon their fields and flee.

In Xiangyi (Suixian) and Taikang under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Prefecture, sporadic thieves appeared last year, and they became stronger this year.

When He Ji went out with the army, Tong Guan sent a partial division to Taikang to suppress the bandits in order to ensure the rear.The thieves did not dare to fight, so they fled to Qiao County, and Tong Guan didn't bother to take care of them anymore.

Encountering a large group of refugees on the way, Tong Guan selected the young and strong as soldiers, distributed them some simple weapons at random, and dispersed the rest of the elderly, weak, women and children.

He Ji still remembers the scene of those refugees crying and wailing.

Comparing the two, the Golden State in front of you seems like a paradise.

Even though Zhu's father and son are also collecting heavy taxes, the tax amount is similar to that of Zhezong Dynasty, but it can indeed be called a paradise!
Alas, I am afraid that Da Song is really hopeless.

……

"Teacher, please defeat the Jie army, otherwise the Jinzhou battlefield will be hopeless!" Xin Xingzong left his troops at the mouth of Wuling River, and went straight to Xiangyang by boat for help.

Tong Guan said angrily: "Why did your tens of thousands of troops suffer defeat?"

Xin Xingzong made an excuse and said: "It is said that there are 3 troops, but the number of civilians and navy troops is [-]. The remaining more than [-] soldiers are unusable for the imperial army, and the Xiang army is unusable. Qi. Bandit bandits have a magic weapon like a cannon cart, which can throw iron balls five miles away. I also led troops to attack the bandit castle, and hundreds of people fled after being hit by the iron ball of the magic weapon a few times."

"Nonsense, where did you get the magic weapon?" Tong Guan didn't believe it at all.

Xin Xingzong said: "There is a magic weapon, and all the soldiers in the army can testify. I can't make up such a story alone."

Tong Guan asked, "What about irrigation?"

Xin Xingzong said: "He Guan blamed me for not knowing how to fight. He insisted on snatching the military power and taking all the soldiers from the village. When the troops were withdrawing, he didn't come to rescue him. He just sat and watched me being defeated by the bandits. At this time, he was still in the town of Fuyang. , I don’t know if they have defected to the enemy.”

"This He Guan is disobedient in the capital, and he is disobedient on the battlefield. We will impeach him after we return to Beijing!"

Tong Guan knew that Xin Xingzong was lying, but gave him an excuse to impeach He Guan.

The emperor no longer trusted him and was afraid that he would lose again, so he sent He Guan to join the army.

In Tong Guan's view, He Guan took away his military power, and this kind of person must be dealt with severely!

Xin Xingzong cried and begged: "Please ask the grand master to let the Shengjie army join the battle, otherwise I really have no soldiers to use."

"Let's go there ourselves!"

Tong Guan couldn't sit still in Xiangyang.

(End of this chapter)