In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 573 Difficult Choice
As his cousin, Lu Wenxin was originally going to serve as a commander-in-chief in other places. The two brothers couldn't stay together, right?
But Zhao Yu strongly recommended it, and Emperor Zhao Yurui agreed.

During the Southern Song Dynasty, Meng Gong and several of his brothers were generals. Later, court officials repeatedly reminded Song Lizong that brothers could not serve as generals together, and Song Lizong also began to guard against Meng Gong.

The same is true for Meng Gong now. He has eight or nine brothers, and they are either civil officials or military generals. His son Meng Zhijing is also a general.

Zhao and Rui are equally brave in using it.

When Lu Wenxin said this today, there was another layer of connection involved.

Zhao Xie's wife, Li, was the youngest daughter of Emperor Li. Emperor Li's other eldest daughter married Lu Shikui, the son of Lu Wende, in her early years through the introduction of Zhao Yurui.

At that time, Zhao Yurui had just seized power not long ago. In order to consolidate their own positions and steady the hearts of their subordinates, they kept arranging marriages for them.

The eldest daughter of civil official Li Huang married the eldest son of Lu Wende.

With this relationship, Zhao Xie is now considered a relative to both Lu Wende and Lu Wenxin.

He also has to call Lu Wenxin uncle.

So Lu Wenxin was more casual in front of him and could even ride in the same carriage with him.

The Lu family has historically been a major military leader in the Southern Song Dynasty, and it still is today.

Lu Wende had nine sons in total, and also had several brothers and nephews, including Lu Wenhuan, who are now beginning to govern their respective regions.

The Lu family is wealthy and powerful. After following Zhao and Rui for more than 20 years, the Lu family's descendants are spread all over the Song Dynasty, and are on par with Meng Gong's side.

Several other military leaders, such as Wang Jian, Liu Zheng and others, did not have such many children in their families and were not as good as them.

Zhao Xie and Lu Wende are relatives, so whether Lu Wende is willing or not, he has to stand on Zhao Xie's side.

Zhao Xie knew that Meng Gong had been quite cautious in recent years.

Meng Gong had eight brothers and many children. The eight brothers had countless children, but whether marrying off their daughters or marrying their sons-in-law, they were very careful and tried not to have any relationship with the princes.

The Meng Gong family can be said to be the best military leader in the Song Dynasty. There are five or six people with the surname Meng in the Song Dynasty who are generals or above, and there are also several civil officials who are prefects or above.

This is a good thing, but also a bad thing. Once the emperor becomes suspicious one day, the entire family may be executed.

Meng Gong certainly knew that he couldn't be too high-profile, so when the Meng family got married, they would choose carefully, trying to choose ordinary people or businessmen.

Lu Wenxin said this, obviously for his own good.

If you want to conquer Goryeo, you have to marry someone from Goryeo.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Yu didn't even look closely at the beauties on both sides, and immediately said, "Let's go, and talk while we walk."

Lu Wenxin smiled knowingly and patted the carriage gently, and immediately the carriage outside started to drive forward.

"Pick a few military officers and generals, and let me choose them." Zhao Yu paused and said, "Appearance is not important, the key is virtue."

The key is that there are soldiers at home, Lu Wenxin smiled.

Goryeo's military officials were all hereditary, and the soldiers they kept at home were like the Ming Dynasty's servants.

Cui Hang's father ruled Goryeo for several generations. Wasn't it because his family had a large number of soldiers and horses that everyone had to obey him?

At this time, Lu Wenxin nodded secretly and still approved of Zhao Xie.

Emperor Zhao Yurui started out as a young man from the royal palace, and Zhao Xie had also been recruiting people in Far East City for many years.

However, the imperial court had restrictions on the personnel in the royal palace, so Zhao Xie certainly could not keep hundreds of young people in the palace like his father, Emperor Zhao Yurui, did in the past.

And that’s what Zhao Yurui did, so he definitely couldn’t do that.

But it would be different if you married a Goryeo military official.

The Goryeo military officials all had private soldiers and death squads. For example, Choi Hang's father had tens of thousands of private soldiers who were extremely elite.

These private soldiers can be used at critical moments.

Especially now that Zhao Yan rules Goryeo.

"I want to move the temporary Yanwang Palace from Haisanwei to Kaijing." Zhao Xi then said, "Haisanwei is too cold and harsh. The princess is pregnant, so she should stay here to recuperate."

"Your Majesty will definitely agree." Lu Wenxin said with a smile.

A few days after Zhao Xie entered Kaifeng, Lu Wenxin chose Song Wei, the daughter of Song Jiru, the great general of Goryeo.

Song Jiru was a trusted general of the Cui family. He was famous in history for killing the famous Goryeo general Kim Kyung-sun.

In 1249, after Choi Hang came to power, he exiled Kim Kyung-sun to Baengnyeong Island because he was jealous of Kim Kyung-sun's prestige in the army. Two years later, he was still worried, so he sent Song Gil-ru to the island and drowned Kim Kyung-sun.

Now that the Song army was forcing Goryeo to surrender, the first thing Lu Wenxin did when he entered the city was to divide up all of Cui's private soldiers.

Some of them were directly incorporated into the Song army, trained and allocated land by the Song army, some immigrated with their families, some became miners, and some were sent to become civilians.

Song Jiru has been in the military for many years and has a lot of connections and prestige.

After Zhao Xie married his daughter, he released Song Jiru and appointed him as the deputy general of the army stationed in Kaijing, making him a general in command again.

In April, Goryeo wrote a letter to Lin'an, explaining to Emperor Zhao Yurui the arrangements and distributions in Goryeo.

Soon Emperor Zhao Yurui replied that those who had Korean military generals remaining in office were not allowed to have private soldiers.

According to the regulations of the Song army, there were no personal soldiers below the battalion commander.

The battalion commander is at the general level and has ten personal soldiers.

From the rank of general to the rank of commander, each has fifty personal soldiers.

The commander-in-chief and governor-general level had a personal guard of a hundred people.

Personal soldiers are the source of private soldiers. Zhao Yurui did this to control the large number of private soldiers under his generals.

In May, Zhao Xie married the daughter of Song Jiru. He was the first prince of the Song Dynasty to marry a concubine.

Emperor Zhao Yurui also sent people to give some gifts.
-
June of the seventeenth year of Yuanzhen.

Li Tingzhi was riding on a high place, watching the endless stream of Song troops passing by him. He looked into the distance with a solemn expression.

At this time he was in the Delhi Sultanate.

In the 12th year of Yuanzhen, Zhao Yurui launched a war against Annan and Champa, and also made plans for the future.

The Song army was divided into three routes: the northern army was led by Zhang Jue and deputy general Liu Yuan, the southern army was led by Wang Anjie and deputy general Meng Zhiying, and the three army leaders Li Tingzhi and deputy general Cao Shixiong. They mobilized tens of thousands of troops and after about a year, they pacified these countries.

Then he started to attack Siam, Angkor and other countries.

In the 15th year of Yuanzhen, the Song army underwent rest and rotation.

Some Song generals, including Meng Zhiying, went to Hanzhou, Java and other places.

Li Tingzhi, Wang Anjie and Zhang Jue, one stayed in Bengal, one in Annan, and one in Central Asia, mainly to rest and rotate their troops.

Not long after, the Song army established the Annan Province, the Benga Province, and the Southern Tai Province, and transferred Yu Jie as the governor of the three provinces.

The sixteenth year of Yuanzhen.

Meng Gong sent troops from the Central Asian province, marching from north to south.

Li Tingzhi sent troops from Bengal, heading from east to west.

In the original strategy a few years ago, Zhao Yurui planned to divide the troops into three groups, and one group would be sent from Borneo Province.

However, when the Song army attacked Annan and other places, they found that too many soldiers were needed for actual fighting, because Song's weapons were ahead of their time. Instead, after conquering various places, they needed a lot of soldiers to garrison and occupy them.

The Delhi Sultanate had a large territory and a large population, and therefore needed more troops.

In the end, Zhao and Rui changed their plan to send troops in two routes. Meng Gong of the northern army led 20,000 men with Zhang Jue as the vanguard, and Liu Yuan followed with 50,000 Song troops to occupy and garrison various cities.

Li Tingzhi of the Eastern Army sent Cao Shixiong with 20,000 troops to advance first, while he himself led 80,000 Song troops to occupy the city. This battle mobilized 170,000 Song troops, which was a rare large-scale battle after Zhao and Rui came to power.

Of course, there were only 40,000 people actually fighting in the front, and the others were responsible for garrisoning in the back.

The attack on the Delhi Sultanate was planned in the 12th year of Yuanzhen, but was not officially launched until the 16th year.

Among the 170,000 Song troops, there were over 100,000 people from various ethnic groups such as Annan, Angkor, Bengal, and Persia.

It can be considered a joint force, but most of their troops have been trained by the Song army for more than a year and are quite elite.

So at this time Li Tingzhi was leading an army of 80,000 into the Delhi Sultanate.

Among his 80,000 troops, 50,000 were foreigners, and they all used cold weapons. There were only 30,000 real Song troops, and they all used flintlock rifles.

It is not his turn to use the new Type 15 rifle yet.

They fought from east to west, and found that the Delhi Sultanate was just as the Emperor had said, difficult to defeat.

Why do you say that?
The Delhi Sultanate still had many small countries, all of which were authorized and given caliphate robes by the Abbasid Caliph. Once recognized, they had the right to manage the country.

In 1236, Sultan Iltutmish of the Delhi Sultanate died, and the Sultanate became more chaotic, with the various small kings dissatisfied with each other.

Because it was not a great unification, there were princes in various places. When the Song army came in, the resistance in various places was quite fierce. They were not fighting for the Delhi Sultanate, but for their own territory.

Li Tingzhi moved from east to west and successively defeated the Sena Kingdom and the Donggangjia Kingdom.

By June of the seventeenth year of Yuanzhen, after about a year, his eastern army had finally reached the third Zhangdela Kingdom.

At that time, there were twelve or thirteen small kingdoms within the Delhi Sultanate.

The Song army had been fighting for nearly a year, and the Eastern Army had only conquered two, while the Northern Army was still in the territory of the first kingdom of Balamala.

The Song army was invincible in field battles and was also very good at attacking cities, but after the troops were stationed there, the locals resisted everywhere, and the Song army put out fires everywhere.

Like now, Li Tingzhi's vanguard Cao Shixiong continues to fight forward, while Li Tingzhi's army is preparing to enter Jila City.

A scout has returned to report that there is no one on the streets of the city, and most people have kept their doors shut and are not coming out.

Another group of local people were collecting the bodies of the defenders in the city, and ignoring the Song army's dissuasion, they asked Li Tingzhi what to do?
Li Tingzhi frowned, also having a headache and not knowing what to do.

The locals had their own ideas. After the Song army entered the city, fires sometimes broke out and burned their temples, causing many riots.

His Majesty the Emperor wants people, how can I bear to do that?

It turned out that Li Tingzhi was worrying about whether to suppress the movement violently.

Zhangdela and Balamala are not far away from each other. The scout messenger of Zhang Jue of the Northern Army found Li Tingzhi a few days ago.

Zhang Jue's scouts came with a team of more than sixty people. When they set out, there were two hundred riders and four hundred horses. They ran more than a thousand miles and were attacked many times in the process. In the end, only more than sixty people were left.

Zhang Jue sent so many people here, through the enemy-controlled area, and went through so much trouble to find Li Tingzhi. There must be something wrong.

He also asked, Li Tingzhi, whether this should be suppressed violently or not.

The commander-in-chief of the Northern Army was Meng Gong, and Zhang Jue sent someone to ask, which was actually Meng Gong's idea.

Li Tingzhi immediately understood that Meng Gong wanted to collude with him.

Either we kill together or we don’t kill together.

This is definitely not something you can do alone.

If one of the Northern Army and the Eastern Army kills the other and does not kill the other, it is hard to say who will suffer in the future.

Meng Gong represents the traditional school, and Li Tingzhi represents the emerging school.

Li Tingzhi went to school since he was a child, and all the courses he studied were determined by Emperor Zhao Yurui.

Li Tingzhi is now considering the emperor's intentions and thinking about what the emperor had said before.

The emperor wanted a large population and resources, saying that the Delhi Sultanate had a large population and was very fertile, which could be used for digging rivers and mining in the future.

But now local riots continue and the resistance is fierce. It is not safe for the Song army stationed in various places, so we must take strong measures.

To kill or not?

Zhang Jue's scouts were still waiting for his reply.

"Report." Someone came forward and reported: "Report to the commander, our vanguard has entered Jila City, and Commander Yan is waiting for you."

What are you waiting for me to do?

Li Tingzhi smiled bitterly: "Got it, let's go."

He quickly moved forward with a group of cavalry.

The road was full of Song troops, and a large group of Song troops were on the way. This time, all the Song troops coming in were cavalry, or had horses with them.

The infantry also had horses, but during normal marches, everyone led the horses and tried not to sit on them to save the use of carriages.

Li Tingzhi rode at full speed and quickly arrived at Jila City with 500 cavalrymen.

From a distance, one could see fire and smoke everywhere in the city. The Song army had just captured the city and were entering the city one after another.

When he arrived at the east city gate, the vanguard commander rushed to meet him.

"Commander, these people are crazy, damn it, they are all sick." Yan Yan cursed.

Li Tingzhi didn't say anything and followed Yan Jing forward.

After entering the city, there were indeed few people on the streets, and almost all the windows and doors were closed.

But this is not the point. Yan Yan took him to a place on East Street.

There is a temple-like building here, with many local people gathered inside and outside the door.

There were a large number of Song troops a hundred steps away from the periphery. When Li Tingzhi arrived, someone introduced them to him.

There were several thousand local people in the courtyard, all kneeling on the ground and kowtow to someone in the middle, but that person was already dead.

It is said that he was hit by a stray arrow during the battle to defend the city.

The majority of the several thousand people are faithful believers.

A small number of defeated soldiers fled in, and the Song army wanted to chase them, but they would not let them in.

They also let women and young children lead the way, and when the Song army approached, they threw stones at them.

Because there was no order from their superiors, the Song army did not dare to take action and could only wait outside.

Li Tingzhi's Eastern Army had a total of 100,000 troops, divided into the vanguard and the main force.

The vanguard was mainly used for fighting, and was almost entirely composed of elite Song troops, each armed with a flintlock rifle and artillery, and followed by three thousand civilian laborers.

The main force led by Li Tingzhi himself was mainly his main force to defend the city after Cao Shixiong captured it. Generally, about one thousand people were assigned to each city.

The territory of the Delhi Sultanate is too large, and his 80,000 troops are not enough, so he has to transfer more troops.

Among his 80,000 troops, there were less than 20,000 real Han people, and even fewer Song troops with more than five years of service.

After defeating Siam, he rested and rotated his troops.

The vast majority of my subordinates now are new recruits who have just served in the military for two years.

Then there were new soldiers from other ethnic groups and countries conquered by the Song army.

Therefore, Li Tingzhi's subordinates had never experienced these things and did not dare to act rashly.

After listening to this, Li Tingzhi knew that he finally had to make a decision. If he didn't make a decision, every city would be like this in the future, with the locals letting women and children block the way. Would the Song army still continue to fight?
(End of this chapter)