Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In the late Northern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou was still a seaside city.

At this time, the Qiantang River Estuary was in the shape of a straight trumpet, and the river course did not become meandering due to sedimentation at the estuary.

Some of the places that belong to land in the future are now a sea; some of the places that belong to the sea in the future are now land.

Cereals from Suzhou and Zhenjiang, fuel, oil, fish and livestock, and forest products from Ming, Yan, Qu, Hui and other states. There are also timber and mountain treasures from southwestern Zhejiang, seafood from the coast of eastern Zhejiang, and precious textiles such as Hu silk, Yue silk, and Wuluo... All the above goods are gathered towards Hangzhou!

Due to the busy inland river transportation, Hangzhou can no longer accommodate too many sea-going ships, so the real sea trade port has been moved to Kanpu Town in the southwest of Haiyan County.

Although it is just a town, it has many government agencies and a large number of officials.

There are civilian town supervisors, military attachés and town generals, some who are responsible for salt tax, and some who are responsible for customs duties. There are even troops stationed there, as well as offshore patrol ships.

The salt tax and customs duties here have become the financial lifeline of the small southeastern court!

Not long after the Qiantang tide passed, more and more ships came from the south. They all docked near Kanpu Town and spent several months unloading, selling, buying, and repairing their ships, waiting for the winter winds and ocean currents to arrive before transporting goods south.

Businessmen from Dashi, Jiluo, Eunpo, Champa, Boni, Mayit, Srivijaya... and other places are negotiating business with local tooth shops.

They sold goods through Guanya and purchased goods through Guanya.

A large number of offshore boats arrived from the direction of Hangzhou, transporting inland goods to Kanpu Town, and also transported goods unloaded from seagoing ships to Hangzhou.

Cao Yu leaned on the chair and yawned. He was the bodyguard who fled south with Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty. As a descendant of the Cao family and a close servant of Song Huizong, he was naturally able to be reused and was assigned to be a general in Kanpu Town.

The official position is not big, but there is a lot of money!

As for the supervisor of Kanpu Town, he is Cai You's distant nephew Cai Yanchen.

More than a dozen ships came from the north, and the pilots were old masters from Haimen. They knew how to avoid the Qiantang tide every August and knew when to come with the least wind and waves.

When ships sail into Hangzhou Bay, small ships approach them to guide them where to dock and undergo inspection.

This kind of small ship is called the Four-Scull Sea Falcon, with a hull length of only more than ten meters.

Li Bao had already put on his armor and said to the captain: "Rush over and reach the outside of Hangzhou!"

The ship flew a semaphore, and the ships behind it lined up to follow.

"Stop, stop!"

"Dang-dang-dang!"

"Just dock at Kanpu Town. You are not allowed to go to Hangzhou. There is no room at the port over there!"

The soldiers on the patrol ship beat the gongs and shouted loudly.

They didn't think much about it, thinking that these merchant ships didn't understand the rules and wanted to sail directly to Hangzhou for trade.

Seeing more than a dozen ships still ramming, the soldiers in Kanpu Town finally realized something was wrong and began to call out to the warships parked in the port.

The reaction of those warships was very slow. They were probably used to being lazy, and they would be in a hurry when something happened.

Most of the warships that came slowly were eight-oared warships, with a hull length of about 25 to 6 meters. Two two-masted multi-oared boats also came, which were smaller in size but larger than the previous four-oar sea falcons.

Li Bao's ships were all sea-going, and there was not even a serious warship.

A thousand heavily armored guards were all sitting cross-legged in the cabin. They are not used to taking sea ships. After training in Haimen for a month, the result now is that they don't get seasick.

What's more, wearing heavy armor makes it inconvenient to move.

Thousands of Kuizhou soldiers wearing medium armor came to the deck one after another.

There were nearly a thousand miscellaneous soldiers, dressed in commoners and carrying swords, ready to fight at any time.

These miscellaneous soldiers are all from Chongming Island.

Of course there is no Chongming Island at this time, but there are nearly ten sandbanks of various sizes. There were small people named Yao, Liu, Zhu, Zhang, Chen and others who moved to the sandbank to cultivate land one after another. They were derogatoryly called "sand people".

Because the area of ​​​​the sandbank is not large, the food is not enough to survive, so they usually have to go fishing, and occasionally they appear as bandits robbing ships.

He lived in poverty, had a ferocious temperament, and was not afraid of death. He was attracted by Li Bao at a glance. After simple training, he brought him to attack Hangzhou.

Seeing the warships coming from Kanpu Town, Li Bao ordered: "Hoist the flag of the Ming Dynasty, and each ship will look for an opportunity to fire."

Li Bao had no musketeers, and all the muskets were at the northwest border. Therefore, during the public security street fighting, he suffered heavy casualties when facing the desperate Chu army.

But he had cannons in his hands, so he temporarily brought a few over and installed them on these merchant ships.

Cao Yu was taking a nap and was soon woken up by his own soldiers. When he learned that someone had broken through, he cursed and went out with a knife. When he arrived at the dock, two warships had already surrounded him, and the other warships were still in a mess and he didn't know what they were doing.

"act recklessly!"

Cao Yu's eyes were already shining at this time. There were more than ten ships on the sea, and they didn't know how much wealth they contained.

How dare you force the card to be charged? As long as this situation is intercepted, all the goods on the ship can be confiscated, and Cao Yu can take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune.

"What flag is that?" a sailor shouted.

Cao Yu took a closer look. Although they were far away, the flags were very large, and the sun and moon patterns were faintly visible.

"Fake...fake?"

Cao Yu's voice began to tremble. He had never seen the Ming Dynasty flag, but he could naturally associate it with the sun and moon pattern.

"boom!"

Because an eight-oared warship was too close, the Ming army finally fired a cannon, and the shells ripped open the side of the ship.

The sailors on the boat were so horrified that they quickly rolled their oars and ran away.

The captains of the Ming army also began to shoot arrows at the four-row sea falcon, shooting from a high position at close range, killing and wounding more than 20 people in an instant.

Most of the sailors in front of me are Hangzhou locals.

Not to mention that they have never fought in a war, not even their fathers have experienced war. When Fang La captured Hangzhou, these sailors fled directly by boat, and they waved flags and shouted throughout the counterattack.

How can a guy who has never seen blood dare to fight to the death?

The warships that were planning to surround them retreated one after another upon seeing this, allowing Li Bao to lead the fleet and sail to Hangzhou in a swaggering manner.

"What to do? What to do? What to do..." Cao Yu was already frightened.

Kanpu Town Supervisor Cai Yanchen came over after hearing the news and asked in panic: "What happened? But there are pirates coming to kill?"

Cao Yu pointed to the fleet of ships going away: "The Ming army is the army of the fake Ming Dynasty!"

"Light the beacon quickly and send a boat to report the news!" Cai Yanchen shouted.

From Hangzhou to Xiuzhou (Jiaxing), then to Suzhou and Wuxi, they are connected by canals, all the way to the Yangtze River.

There is also a canal in Haiyan County. It first passes through Yanguan County and is connected to the canal in Chang'an Town.

The boat rowed rapidly in the canal, and the piers near the salt field also lit up with smoke.

Wolf smoke continued to rise along the way. When Li Bao led his army across Zhe Mountain, smoke also billowed from Zhe Mountain.

The dock outside Hangzhou fell into chaos instantly.

They thought the pirates were coming and fled in panic. The soldiers guarding the city were so frightened that they closed the city gate.

"The official's house, the official's house, there are pirates plundering!"

"Defend the city, Xiang Ziming and lead the guards to guard it!"

They were just a group of pirates, but Song Huizong was not afraid. Since his hunting in the south, people in Hangzhou have rebelled.

Of course, after Xiang Minzhong, Xiang Ziming is now responsible for guarding Xingzai. He has three thousand imperial guards under his command, all of whom are from good families recruited from Hangzhou.

Li Bao ordered a group of soldiers to go to the dock to requisition ships and block the Qiantang River to prevent Song Huizong from escaping south.

Then he asked the miscellaneous soldiers to demolish the houses outside the city, clear obstacles for artillery fire, and collect wood to make siege equipment. Then he divided his troops and went around to the north, also requisitioning ships and blocking the Huantang River and Jiangnan Canal.

Including miscellaneous soldiers, Li Baolong had a total of more than 8,000 people, and he actually dared to divide his troops into three groups to besiege the city, completely ignoring the Hangzhou defenders!

The heavily armored guards carefully disembarked from the boat. Their feet were soft, and they finally felt stable when they touched the ground of the dock.

"It's not pirates, it's fake Ming who's here. Go and tell your Majesty quickly!" Xiang Ziming, who had just climbed onto the tower, shouted in horror.

When he was in Hangzhou, Li Yan rolled and crawled to Song Huizong: "Guan family, it's not good, there are soldiers of Zhu thieves outside the city!"

"Red Thief?"

Song Huizong didn't react for a moment, and then his face turned pale with fright. He took off his clothes and shouted: "Run away quickly!"

Except for those sent to suppress bandits, the main force of the small southeast court was all attracted to the Jingxiang battlefield. A large number of troops were stationed in Jiangzhou (Jiujiang) and Hukou, keeping an eye on the battle between the Ming Dynasty and the puppet Chu. They could send troops to help Zhong Xiang fight, or they could take the opportunity to attack the north bank of the Yangtze River.

As for the cities along the south bank of the Yangtze River, there are also many Xiang troops defending them.

Even in the Taihu area, Cai You led Zhu Meng's private troops to suppress bandits.

Only Hangzhou's troops were empty, with only 3,000 new imperial guards, and the rest were all local troops who were unable to fight.

Those new imperial guards are just trying to scare the people. How can they fight against the tiger and wolf divisions?

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty didn't even care about his concubines. He led a group of eunuchs to rush around, snatching the beggars' clothes and changing into them. His hair was disheveled and his face and hands were dirty, but he found that he could not leave the city because all the city walls were closed.

"Let Xiang Ziming open all the city gates, and then tell the people that the fake Ming thieves are going to massacre the city," Song Huizong was quite quick-witted and said to Li Yan, "You lead people to set fire everywhere, and when the fire breaks out in the city, you can take advantage of the chaos and escape! "

"boom!"

Just as they were setting fire, the soldiers had already cleared out several houses outside the moat, and several wrought iron field guns were dragged there to test the guns.

It did not hit the city wall, but hit the eaves of the city tower.

The soldiers guarding near the city gate were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they were anxious and planned to escape.

Xiang Ziming was waiting to appease the soldiers when he heard shouts coming from the city and houses in several streets were set on fire.

One of the guards exclaimed: "There are enemy troops in the city!"

The detailed work of the Ming army was of course the emperor.

Song Huizong sent people to set fire to the city, which frightened the soldiers guarding the city to death.

"Run away quickly. There is a trick in the city and we can't hold it anymore!" The Xiang army soldiers who were temporarily recruited to defend the city were the first to abandon the city wall and turn around to escape.

Li Yan ran out of breath for a long time, and finally found Xiang Ziming: "Open the city gate quickly, open the gates on all sides!"

Xiang Ziming yelled anxiously: "You can't open the city gate, otherwise you won't be able to fight. Careful work in the city can suppress it. Let the prefect of Hangzhou organize the people to put out the fire!"

Li Yan said: "The fire was set by the officials. Open the city gate quickly!"

"The official... the official set the fire?" Xiang Ziming was in disbelief and could not understand Song Huizong's mind.

The Ming troops outside the city came from the sea and were alone.

As long as Hangzhou holds on for ten days, the Jiang defense troops can come back to rescue. What the hell is the emperor himself taking the initiative to set on fire?

"Open the city gate quickly!" Li Yan shouted.

Xiang Ziming said angrily: "If we want to open the city gate, you go alone. Which soldier dares to stop us if we show our badges?"

Li Yan said: "We and the officials are all in disguise, how can we identify ourselves?"

While the two were talking, the city was already in chaos.

Fires were breaking out everywhere, but it was also because the eunuchs deliberately spread rumors that the fake Ming bandits would massacre the city if they came in.

A large number of people at the bottom are ignorant. They are easily incited and easily fall into panic collectively. People who have read a few of Ju Ming's essays don't quite believe this rumor, but these people are only a minority.

The news spread to ten and hundreds, and the news that the Ming army was going to massacre the city quickly spread to less than half of Hangzhou.

Countless people dragged their families and flocked to various city gates. The gatekeepers quickly fell into panic, and then the soldiers and civilians opened the city gates together.

Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, dressed as a beggar, was caught in a crowd of rioters. He was so crowded that he was separated from his eunuch, and he walked out of the northwest city gate in a daze.

There Li Bao divided his troops to guard the Huantang River. The people saw the Ming army driving boats to block the river, and the Ming army arrayed on the moat bridge. They immediately believed the rumors that the Ming army was going to massacre the city.

"Run away!"

"There are few soldiers here, rush over quickly!"

"Jump in the river, jump in the river and swim across!"

"..."

A large number of people tried to attack the bridge, and the Ming army guarding it could only use wolf mills, boring palladiums, and spears to stab wildly.

After twenty or thirty civilians were killed or injured, those behind did not dare to move forward and jumped into the moat one after another.

Song Huizong was also in the river and was squeezed out.

He can swim, but his water skills are not very good, and he can only do a few doggy style moves.

"Gululu~~"

Song Huizong held down someone's shoulders, and his head finally came out of the water, but his sleeves were quickly pulled away.

Fortunately, the beggar's clothes were shabby. When Song Huizong was pulled off, half of his sleeves were torn off. He quickly held down the shoulders of the person in front of him and lifted them up.

"What to do?"

The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty who were responsible for guarding the bridge looked at the dense crowd of people around them and no longer knew how to deal with it.

"The military order is to guard the bridge, don't worry about anything else!" the officer shouted sharply.

Guarding the bridge, countless people swam across the moat and fled frantically towards the suburbs.

Song Huizong drank a lot of water and finally swam to the other side of the river. He was unable to climb to the shore. He didn't dare to stop for a moment, and mingled with the crowd, running towards the northwest as hard as he could.