Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1100 The Threat From Khitan

The eyes of the 300 special brigade soldiers are all bright. A soldier who does not want to be a general is not a good soldier, but these [-] soldiers are the best soldiers in the world.

"During this process, the only help that our Xiangfu Kingdom can provide you is to provide you with some weapons on a regular basis. Of course, this has to be hidden from the eyes and ears of the Song and Liao courts. However, the Ministry of Security will I will provide you with some help. Everyone, I wish you good luck." Ye Chen finally said.

Three hundred of the best fighters solemnly saluted Ye Chen, turned around and walked out.

That night, these specially trained excellent soldiers who took off the uniforms of the special brigade were arranged to quietly leave the station, leave the country of Xiangfu, and rush to their respective destinations.

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The troubled times of the Song Dynasty became more and more obvious. Although the Song Dynasty sent troops to suppress the bandits, it must always be on guard against the Xiangfu Kingdom and the Song Dynasty.Therefore, the Northwest Frontier Army, the Northern Camp, and the Forbidden Army of the Capital, the elite soldiers of the three parties did not dare to mobilize. As a result, the suppression of bandits was unfavorable, and the three-way banditry continued unabated.There has even been a phenomenon that the bandits defeated the Song army, conquered the county town, killed officials, and robbed rich families.

The monarch and ministers of the Song Dynasty were shocked, thinking that Xiangfu Kingdom was disturbed by more than 200 million refugees and had no time to send troops to invade, so they ordered the Northwest Frontier Army Dangjin to send a large army to suppress the bandits. Acting cautiously, only mobilized [-] elite soldiers to suppress the bandits, wiped out many bandits, and greatly dealt a blow to the arrogance of the bandits on Yongxing Army Road, but did not eliminate the main force of the bandits, but drove them from the northwest to Hebei East Road and Hebei west road.

The rogues who fled into Hebei two roads ushered in great development. First, several groups of rogues were forced to form an alliance under the attack of the Northwest Frontier Army, collectively known as the Thirteen Great Kings.This alliance is very loose, and each department is basically fighting independently, but it also shows that the rogues are beginning to tend to unite.The thirteen kings fled around, active in the two roads of Hebei, and tended to develop to the south of the Yellow River.The destructive power of these people is not weaker than that of the Liao Kingdom in the past. Wherever they go, they are like locusts passing through the country, greatly destroying the local society and production, and they have really become the confidant of the Song Dynasty court.

During this process, Zhao Zan, the northern battalion, wanted to guard against Liao's iron cavalry on the one hand, but on the other hand, he did not receive the imperial troop dispatch document and Zhao Dezhao's order, so he never sent troops.Although the anti-rogue army and Xiang army in various prefectures and counties have also achieved some results, the eradicated rogue bandits have not grown as fast as the rogue bandits.

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Kaifeng, Chongzheng Hall.

Zhao Dezhao was sitting on the imperial couch, his eyes were bloodshot, he was sick and lacked energy.

Zhao Dezhao's physique was not good at first. In the past year, first Wu and Wuyue were established successively, and then two southern expeditions ended without any problems. Since the end of summer and autumn this year, drought and locust disasters have spread to three regions, killing 500 million people. After the disaster, the trend of rogue bandits became bigger and bigger, and even spread to the entire north of the Yellow River.Although Zhao Dezhao is fatuous and incompetent, he still has a lot of self-motivation to be a good emperor. However, he is not capable enough, so he can only worry too much and have a restless diet, which makes his current complexion even more pale. Blue, and the cheeks are sunken.

"Li Aiqing!" After the minister's performance was over, Li Mingxuan was left alone in the hall as usual. Zhao Dezhao looked at the prime minister whom he now relied on as a pillar, and said numbly, "Tomorrow's prayer for rain, I have to trouble the prime minister." gone."

Li Mingxuan held the wat and bowed in salute: "Your Majesty is sympathetic to the drought and has lost food and sheltered the palace. I sincerely appreciate this. Dare I not do my best?"

Zhao Dezhao sighed,

He was already tired of hearing and talking about such common clichés.For more than two months, he has reduced his meals, lived in a side hall, and prayed day and night, which is not insincere.However, the area affected by the disaster in the world is expanding day by day, and there are more and more rogues. He always thought that the people became rogues because of lack of food, and the lack of food was due to severe drought. At the same time as the bandits, the main task is to pray for rain.In the past few days, in order to pray for rain, he fasted and bathed again, and each meal only had two plates of seasonal vegetables, which were simple porridge and side dishes.All the meaty things are exempted, and of course there is no possibility of drinking.But he worked so hard, the sunlight outside the hall was still so glaring, and the situation north of the Yellow River was still getting worse day by day.

Zhao Dezhao looked at the white and glaring ground outside the hall, and couldn't help squinting his eyes: "Li Aiqing, three roads are suffering from severe drought, many roads are affected by locust plagues, people are displaced, and bandits appear one after another throughout the entire north of the Yellow River. It is because I have not cultivated morality and government, and lost love to heaven. I want to pardon the world, but I don't know if I can do it?"

Li Mingxuan replied: "Your Majesty is wise."

At this time, a deputy envoy of the Privy Council came in and knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, there is an urgent report from Hebei that Xiao Mu, the deputy envoy of the Privy Council of the Liao Kingdom, is sitting in the Datong Mansion in Xijing, and sent an envoy to the Song Dynasty to falsely accuse our country of repairing the city and invading Shuo, Ying, and Wei. Within the territory of the three prefectures, and with bad intentions, they demanded that our country stop building city walls, renegotiate the border between the two countries, compensate for the loss of 100 million taels of silver, 500 million guan of money, and 50 bolts of silk, and threatened to station [-] troops in the three border states. If you don't grant it, you're ruining the peace agreement, and the Liao army will take it on its own."

Zhao Dezhao stood up abruptly, staggered and almost fell to the ground, his face was already pale.

"Aiqing, how...how should we deal with this?" Zhao Dezhao was completely at a loss.

"It's just sending envoy Xu to argue with reason." After Li Mingxuan was shocked, he quickly calmed down.

Li Mingxuan's composure allowed Zhao Dezhao to regain his composure, and said, "What if Khitan sends troops?"

Li Mingxuan patiently said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, the 20 troops in the northern camp led by Zhao Zan are all elites. In addition, I have more than [-] troops in the Hebei City Defense Army and the Xiang Army. And Zhao Zan is my Great Song Emperor. It is not so easy for the Khitan army to go south for the veteran veterans left behind. What's more, although the Khitan is not afraid of our Great Song Dynasty, it is extremely afraid of the nine armies of the Xiangfu Kingdom, and Ye Chen and the Khitan Queen Mother Xiao are also deadly enemies. Ye Chen It is no secret that the Khitan wants to conquer the world and unify the nations. Although Khitan wants to take advantage of the internal troubles in the Great Song Dynasty and occupy our Guannan and Daibei regions, if they have made up their minds to send troops south, I think it is possible Very little sex."

Zhao Dezhao's expression softened a little, and he said, "It's just that the Liao people are plunderers by nature, so it's not impossible to send troops south to raid Caogu."

Li Mingxuan shook his head and sighed in his heart. He originally wanted to be a celebrity, but unfortunately his lord was so muddy that he couldn't support the wall. He couldn't stand the setbacks and ups and downs. When he was under a lot of pressure, he would only panic.If there was one-tenth of the emperor Taizu, he wouldn't be so panicked.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty, as long as the Khitans don't go south in a big way, Zhao Zan will definitely be able to stop the Khitan tribal army from attacking Caogu's stragglers." Li Mingxuan could only patiently give Zhao Dezhao as much confidence or comfort as possible, so that he would not panic and affect To the entire court, and even the entire Song Kingdom.

How could Zhao Dezhao not be afraid? Ye Chen is certainly terrifying, but the Khitan people are also a nightmare for the Han people.Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, how many invasions have written the horror of the Khitan cavalry into the nightmares of the Han people.Although the first emperor conquered the Northern Han Dynasty six years ago and repelled the reinforcements from the Liao Kingdom, the Khitans have never taken advantage of the confrontation between the two countries with the strength of the Song Kingdom, but the times of the Song Kingdom and Emperor Taizu are very different now. same.

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Yukou, Yijin and Xiongxian, the three passes in Hebei, are the junction of Song and Liao.

It is said to be a pass, but in fact there is no dangerous pass, no critical pass, and there is no danger to rely on. They are three fortified cities built on the plain.It was built in the late Tang Dynasty to prevent the invasion of Khitan cavalry after the fall of Yanshan.However, Sanguan was quickly captured by the Khitans until Zhou Shizong Chai Rong sent troops to recover it.

But the location of Sanguan is just a piece of saline-alkali land caused by the flooding of the Yellow River. Therefore, after the founding of the Song Dynasty, there was a large army, and the Khitan cavalry could still go deep into the Song Dynasty at will.After all, the border between Song State and Liao State is too long, and it is impossible for Song State to have so many troops guarding all the roads that the Liao army can enter.

Daizhou is an important frontier defense prefecture on the East Road of the Great Song Dynasty. It is north of the ancient Great Wall line of Yanmen Mountain. From east to west, Pingxing Village, Meihui Village, Magu Village, Yixingye Village, Tianshi Village, Ruyue Village, Hugu Village, Yanmen Village, Xijing Village, Tudeng Village, Yangwu Village, and Louban Village were built. Zhai and other dozens of military strongholds, together with Zhending Mansion in the east and Ninghua Army, Kelan Army, Volcano Army, Baode Army, and Fengzhou in the west, they built a strategic plan against Xijing Road and Xiangfu State Mansion in Liao Kingdom. An important border defense line in Yinzhou.

If Daizhou falls, the Liao people can march from two roads, one is from Shuozhou to Yuanping and attack Xinzhou, the other is from Weizhou to enter Daizhou, and then pass through Xinzhou to reach Jinyang Prefecture. Once Jinyang Prefecture falls If you go south, you can directly attack Luoyang, the capital of the Song Dynasty in Xijing and Henan; if you go east, you can immediately disintegrate the defense line of Zhending Prefecture, and at the same time threaten the Beijing Daming Prefecture of the Song Dynasty on the north bank of the Yellow River, so that the invading army from Nanjing Road in Liao Kingdom can go south smoothly. , In this way, Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty, was directly exposed to the Liao army.

Because Daizhou has such an important strategic location, as many as 1 people have been stationed here for a long time in the Northern Camp of the State of Song.In addition, there are [-] troops in the forbidden army, Xiang soldiers, and township soldiers in Daizhou. In addition, the fierceness of the folk customs in Daizhou should not be insulted lightly.When Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was still alive, that is, during the three years when Ye Chen was still in the Song Kingdom, the Song Kingdom was on the border of Daizhou, repairing fortresses, and building additional military strongholds. Shang Liao was unstable internally, and its own strength could not actually support a war against the whole country of Song Dynasty. Therefore, it was a fact that it endured for a long time and waited for the opportunity.

(End of this chapter)