Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In the war in the north, even Xixia was involved.

First, five thousand Xixia elite soldiers helped the Liao Kingdom defend Xijing (Datong). As a result, only halfway through, the Emperor of Liao ran away, and the Xijing garrison surrendered to the Jin people.

These five thousand Xixia soldiers and horses had no choice but to go to the grassland and follow the Liao emperor.

Then, Xixia general Li Liangfu personally led 30,000 troops to rescue the Lord of Liao, and ran into the Jin soldiers of Wanyan Lou's room on the grassland.

In order to chase the Emperor of Liao, the Jin army ran away long ago.

Li Liangfu first killed two hundred golden cavalry, and then ambushed another two hundred golden cavalry. Several hundred Jin cavalry were completely wiped out, leaving only the golden leader Atuhan to escape alone.

Li Liangfu took advantage of the victory to attack, but Wanyan Lou's family pursued the Lord of Liao too far, and he only had a thousand cavalry under his command.

Just these one thousand Jurchen cavalry launched a surprise attack on 30,000 Xixia troops. After hastily engaging the enemy, Li Liangfu took the initiative to retreat and set up camp across the river for defense.

Wanyan Loushi left 200 cavalry to defend the mountain pass, led 800 cavalry to cross the river and circle back, and then charged against the 30,000 Xixia army.

The Jurchen cavalry suffered heavy casualties and overlapping to cover their retreat.

Thousands of Xixia cavalry pursued, but were defeated many times by hundreds of Jurchen cavalry. Every time the Xixia cavalry retreated, they pursued again with more troops and brought more and more Xixia infantry out of the camp.

In a daze, the Xixia army was led into a narrow battlefield.

The two hundred Jurchen cavalry who had been stationed here for a long time, together with the hundreds of friendly troops who had lured the enemy back, launched a surprise attack on the more than 20,000 Xixia troops at the same time.

Due to the narrow terrain, the Xixia troops were unable to deploy. They were killed by less than a thousand Jurchen cavalry, and the entire army was defeated on the spot.

The Xixia army suffered over 10,000 casualties and withdrew from the Liao-Jin battlefield in despair.

…

Xiongzhou.

Yang Keshi knelt in front of the tent to plead guilty. Tong Guan was so angry that he wanted to kill someone on the spot.

Guo Yaoshi, the surrendered general of the Liao Kingdom, offered his advice to bypass the main force of the Liao army and attack Yanjing with light cavalry.

The strategy has been successful, and the Song army has entered Yanjing City.

However, Yang Keshi, Gao Shixuan and other generals, instead of appeasing the people, ordered the killing of all Khitan and Xi people in the city.

It was originally just a massacre of foreigners, but the discipline of the Song army was so bad that it turned into indiscriminate robbery.

Not to mention the looting, before the city was completely captured, the Song army rushed into restaurants and houses to drink and vent their anger.

Not to mention other atrocities committed by drunken soldiers.

The angry people of Yanjing were forced to resist and started street fighting with the Song army. Liao general Xiao Qian also led 3,000 cavalry to return for reinforcements.

More than 18,000 Song troops were attacked from both inside and outside. They couldn't run away. After three days and nights of hard fighting, only Guo Yaoshi and Yang Keshi escaped with hundreds of remaining soldiers.

Tong Guan had enough reasons to be angry. The one who regained Yanjing could be crowned king, and the prince who had eaten it was gone!

There was no need for the imperial court to order the deployment of troops, Tong Guan himself had to withdraw his troops.

The 300,000-strong army that defeated the Liao Dynasty now has less than 80,000 left, including Hebei rural soldiers. Moreover, there was very little food and baggage left, and most of it was lost in the rout.

Not all of the disappearing troops were killed, most of them were scattered in the wilderness. Some fled back to their hometowns, some fell into disgrace and became bandits, and some joined the Hebei Uprising Army.

"Mr. Chu, the imperial court has sent an urgent order!"

"bring here."

Tong Guan read the official document carefully, feeling worried and happy at the same time.

The worry is that there is not enough food, grass, ordnance, and the troops will have to slowly raise funds when they return to the court.

He was happy because he could make atonement with his meritorious service. He really couldn't defeat the Liao army. Could it be that he couldn't defeat the Zhu thieves' rebels? A bunch of generals were blamed for the failure of the expedition against Liao, especially those who died in battle. If he leads his troops to defeat the Zhu thieves, he will be able to offset all his sins, and maybe he will be promoted to a noble rank by then.

Thirty thousand troops from the north of Hebei were left to defend various cities on the border, while Tong Guan led an army of fifty thousand to flee.

Tens of thousands of Song army officers and soldiers all looked sad.

Many people were empty-handed, not even their armor, and had already been abandoned in the rout.

Deserters continued to appear along the way. Firstly, there was not enough food for the soldiers at the bottom to eat; secondly, they were full of resentment and did not want to fight for the court anymore.

The generals had no control at all, because they needed to replenish food and grass, so they could only allow their troops to plunder places.

Many sergeants who went to the countryside to collect food fled quickly and turned to join the local bandits, or they took over the mountains and became kings themselves.

The people of Hebei, who had been exploited and plundered many times, were robbed again by these officers and soldiers. Everywhere officers and soldiers arrive, bandits will appear after they leave. The people who could no longer survive gathered together to rob wealthy households, and even rushed into the county to kill officials and rebel.

"Brother, let's go back to Shandong too. Don't work for the imperial court anymore!" Wu Song suggested.

Shi Bin also said: "It is better to go back and be a thief and be happy than to stay in the army and suffer."

Li Kui said: "The officers and soldiers have nothing to fear. When we return to Shandong this time, we will simply raise the flag to rebel."

All the brothers encouraged him one after another, and Song Jiang's expression became more ferocious, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Let's leave now and never return to the camp!"

In history, the direct reason why Song Jiang surrendered, rebelled and was killed was that he was deprived of military honors.

Moreover, the general who took away Song Jiang's military merit and the general who took away Han Shizhong's military merit were both Tong Guan's confidant and favorite general Xin Xingzong.

At that time, more than half of Song Jiang's troops suffered casualties, and they made great achievements in the attack on Hangzhou, but in the end they got nothing. Coupled with being insulted by the general, how could he endure it? It will be so counterproductive when I go back.

In this time and space, although Song Jiang was not taken to fight Fangla, Song Jiang was taken to Hebei to conquer Liao.

There was no decent battle, and most of the brothers under his command lost most of their lives. Wu Jialiang, Li Hai, Gongsun Sheng, Zhang Shun and others were all separated in the rout, and so far no one is alive or dead.

But it is said that Song Jiang took hundreds of remnant soldiers, took advantage of the opportunity to go to the countryside to collect food, looted and fled back to Qizhou (Jinan).

Hearing that Zhang Shuye, an old acquaintance, was working as a prefect in Qizhou, Song Jiang was so frightened that he ran away and went to Zizhou next door with oil on his soles.

Because he was too close to Zhang Shuye, Song Jiang did not dare to rebel directly. He robbed wealthy households along the way and headed south, and his troops quickly expanded to thousands.

Fleeing all the way to Yanzhou, Song Jiang made a surprise attack on the city and captured it effortlessly.

"Brother, I caught a government spy who was sneaking around outside the state government office and found a lot of things on him." Dai Zong escorted a beggar over.

Song Jiang could recognize a few big characters, but not many characters. He asked his subordinates to identify them, and finally understood the content of the message.

Song Jiang asked: "What is your name?"

The beggar knew he couldn't pretend anymore, so he stood tall and said: "My name is Ding Yong, and I was given the courtesy name Wen Shuai by Mr. Zhu."

Song Jiang asked again: "But Mr. Zhu who was the governor of Puzhou?"

Ding Yong replied: "That is Zhu Dalang, and Mr. Zhu is Zhu Dalang's father."

Song Jiang said: "I used to go to Puzhou to rob, and I heard that Zhu Dalang was a good official. I never thought that good officials have rebelled these days, but why did you come to Shandong?"

Ding Yong said: "Post messages along the way to inquire about military information."

Song Jiang asked again: "Do you do a lot of detailed work like this?"

Ding Yong was bragging and said: "Xiangong Zhu sent hundreds of people like me to all walks of life across the country, and they are all literate!"

Song Jiang asked: "We are all rebels. Why did Mr. Zhu say in his statement that Fang La and I are a disaster?"

Ding Yong said: "My husband-in-law and his husband never robbed the people. Every time they captured a city, they appeased the people and severely punished the troublemakers. Regardless of the gentry, merchants, or common people, they all admired my husband-in-law very much. , send the money and food to the labor force yourself."

"I don't believe it, you must be telling lies." Song Jiang laughed.

Ding Yong said: "Believe it or not."

Of course Song Jiang didn't believe it, but that didn't stop him from doing things under the banner of the Zhu family and his son.

His reputation in Shandong is really bad, like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouts to beat him. It didn't matter to be a bandit in the past, but now I have to occupy the city and become a sitting bandit. I have to change my appearance to do things well.

Song Jiang said: "Since you are literate, you can stay and serve as my military advisor."

Ding Yong couldn't refuse.

Song Jiang asked his subordinates to copy the memorial and spread it in the counties of Yanzhou. He claimed that he was a general under Zhu Guoxiang, the Sichuan Gorge Economic Envoy, and the governor of Shandong was in charge of Song Jiang.

If Zhu Guoxiang, Zhu Ming and his son knew about it, they would probably be disgusted to death.

Although Song Jiang tried his best to restrain the troops and was much more restrained than before, it was not much better. The young men of Yanzhou City were forcibly recruited as soldiers, and the wealthy households were forced to give money and food. They claimed that the wealthy households contributed voluntarily.

Then he quickly sent troops to occupy Rencheng (Jining) and Gong County (Ningyang), and then fought back to Liangshanbo to recruit fishermen to build a navy.

In Shandong and Hebei, Song Jiang was not the only one to rebel.

All in all, the number of thieves and bandits was estimated to be no less than 50,000. Many of them were soldiers who escaped from the battlefield of the Liao Dynasty. They each occupied the mountains and became kings, recruited local refugees as soldiers, and robbed while farming.

The few thieves who received the petition, like Song Jiang, acted under the banner of the Zhu family and his son.

This caused Hebei and Shandong to be filled with red thieves and generals.

Chen Ziyi returned to Tokyo with the army, and received news halfway that his old friend Ju Ming had rebelled.

Chen Ziyi was a little numb to this. He had lost his soul in Hebei.

This kind of despair is a common phenomenon in the military.

The Song army fought five major battles with the Liao army, and was defeated in five battles and depleted their morale. At the end of the battle, the generals ran away when they saw the Liao army. The generals could not restrain the soldiers at all.

The backbones of the Western Army and the Forbidden Army have been broken!

Besides, Tong Guan arrived in Tokyo and blamed the generals entirely. As expected, he was not punished by the emperor, but was only scolded in person.

In order to cover up the defeat and save the emperor's face, the imperial court declared a great victory in conquering the Liao Dynasty and rewarded Tong Guan with an official position.

At the same time, he also ordered to commend all the soldiers in the army.

There are many officers and soldiers who have been promoted, but for small soldiers, these are all empty. I can't get a penny of the reward promised by the court, I owe it first.

Due to financial difficulties, food and pay continued to be in arrears, and they did not even receive normal military pay.

It was already the twelfth lunar month of winter, the sky was covered with heavy snow, and all kinds of heating supplies were in short supply. Not only do we have to starve, but we also have to suffer from the cold. I heard that after the spring begins, we will go to exterminate the red thieves.

Chen Ziyi was also promoted, and dozens of cavalry under his command were incorporated into Xin Qizong's army in Xiongzhou, which was the Shengjie Army.

The Shengjie Army is an elite pro-army force created by Tong Guan. Three of the five Xin brothers are generals of the Shengjie Army.

Chen Ziyi made great achievements in the southeast, but gained nothing.

This year's battle in Hebei was a complete mess, but he was inexplicably promoted to command the cavalry of the Victory Army.

On paper, he could command five hundred cavalry, but he lacked horses and knights, so he only had more than one hundred and seventy men.

This is a common phenomenon. All troops are not well organized and must be reorganized before they can be mobilized to fight.