Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Runzhou (Zhenjiang).

Li Bao looked through the list of confiscated supplies sent from Hangzhou and asked, "There hasn't been any major chaos in the counties and counties along the way, right?"

The officer in charge of delivering the documents said: "Hangzhou, Xiuzhou, Suzhou, and Changzhou are all in good order. Although there was some trouble in Wuxi, it was nothing serious. Over there in Wujiang County..."

"What happened to Wujiang County?" Li Bao asked.

The officer said: "There were remnants of the Manichaeans in Wujiang County who were revolting. I don't know why they did not surrender to the Ming Dynasty. Instead, they used the banner of Fangla. These Manichaeans were killing evil gentry in the countryside. Magistrate Guo personally went to appease them, but he almost died. They killed them and besieged the county town. Commander Ji, who was stationed in Suzhou, led 300 troops to rescue quickly and finally defeated these rebels. However, several of their leaders escaped and are still being hunted everywhere."

"Fucking Manichaeism again!" Li Bao said with a headache.

He was also afraid of being held accountable by Ju Ming, so he brought with him this time, in addition to 6,000 direct descendants of Kuizhou, 1,000 heavily armored guards.

As for the thousand sand people recruited on Chongming Island, Li Bao was always tied to his side and did not dare to let these recruits run around.

He advanced so quickly that he could only separate a small number of his direct descendants to garrison the cities along the way. The county seat was taken over by accompanying civilian officials, who maintained public order with local archers and soldiers.

The reason why the big food merchant was able to get the goods back was because Li Bao gave special instructions to maintain order at the port and resume maritime trade there as soon as possible.

The maritime merchants in Kanpu Town were of great use to Li Bao, so he sent 500 direct descendants of Kuizhou to take over, stressing repeatedly that nothing could go wrong.

"General, there are eight thousand rebels from Yixing County who have come to surrender. They are now waiting for deployment outside Changzhou City. They started an uprising two months ago, and Cai You, who later killed Zhu Meng, recruited them."

"Let them come to Runzhou immediately. They must not loot and cause trouble along the way, and order Changzhou officials to give them some military rations."

Of course, the military rations were forcibly bought from wealthy households. Li Bao didn't bring much food, but the money to buy it was more than enough. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty brought a lot of goods from Tokyo and exploited them in the southeast. Now they are all under Li Bao's control. Check it.

After handling the military affairs, Mo Di, the governor of Runzhou, was brought.

In order to consolidate its rule, the small southeastern court of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty promoted a large number of local scholars from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

This Mo Di is a famous person in Jiangnan. The Mo family belongs to a prominent family in Yixing. His father, Mo Junchen, has a good relationship with Su Shi.

"Meet the general!" Mo Di bowed respectfully.

Li Bao asked: "Fu Moqing, the prefect of Jiangning, are you familiar with this person?"

Mo Di said: "Fu Moqing comes from the Fu family in Yuezhou (Shaoxing). He once served as the Minister of Rites in Tokyo. He was demoted to the magistrate because he offended Wang Fu. His younger brother Fu Songqing was a Jinshi in the same discipline as the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty. He offended Lin Lingsu. He was demoted to the county magistrate, and resigned in anger and has lived in seclusion ever since. Both brothers are honest and upright people. If it were not for the purpose of winning over the southeastern gentry, Zhao Ji would not let Fu Moqing be the prefect of Jiangning."

"Jiangning City is high and deep, so it is really difficult to capture," Li Bao said. "Write a letter and say that the Ming Emperor and the Crown Prince are benevolent and righteous, and will not be as exploitative as the foolish emperor Zhao Ji. I led troops to the southeast, but there was no He sent troops to plunder, and asked him to be the agent to open the gate of Jiangning. If he couldn't open the gate, he set fire to the city and caused chaos."

"Everything depends on the general's orders." How dare Mo Di disobey?

…

The person in charge of the Yangtze River defense line is the eunuch Liang Shicheng, and Tong Guan is still suppressing bandits in Fujian.

"You were asked to guard Runzhou, why did you abandon the city and flee without firing an arrow?" Liang Shicheng angrily scolded the man kneeling on the ground.

The man's name was Gai Qiong, but he was a eunuch in military uniform. He argued with a mournful face: "Father, I have been guarding the other side of the Yangtze River, but I don't want the thieves to come from behind..."

"Nonsense!" Liang Shicheng became more and more angry. "The traitors are still in Danyang, sixty or seventy miles away from Qian. You led your troops to flee to Jiangning. How could they suddenly come out from behind you?"

Gai Qiong said: "My food route has been cut off."

There was a war in the mainland, and the food route was cut off...

But it can be regarded as an excuse. Runzhou's military rations do rely on the Jiangnan Canal to be transported, and Li Bao already controls the Jiangnan Canal.

Liang Shicheng was too lazy to talk to this good-for-nothing adopted son. He turned around and asked, "For the current plan, how should we deal with it?"

When Liang Shicheng escaped, he also recruited more than a hundred sergeants in Tokyo, mainly to protect his property.

Except for the eunuch's godson, the leaders under his command were all selected from the "bodyguards" who fled south.

In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of his bodyguards, Liang Shicheng specially selected the descendants of generals of the Western Army.

For example, the Zhang Zongyan in front of him, his father was Zhang Ji, the general of Jingyuan Road. Because his father died in the battle, Zhang Zongyan became a military attache in Enyin, which was like working in the capital for free.

This man has a good appearance, a burly figure, and a well-rounded speech. Liang Shicheng picked him up at first sight when he was selecting someone, and he is now the number one general under his command.

Zhang Zongyan said: "The bandit soldiers are besieging Taiping Prefecture, and Runzhou to the east has been lost. If the troops under Taiwei (Liang Shicheng) can fight, they should divide their troops to defend Jiangning, use the main force to rescue Taiping Prefecture, and then turn around to fight the enemy who is alone in the attack. Fight. But..."

"But what? Say what you have to say!" Liang Shicheng said angrily.

Zhang Zongyan bit the bullet and said: "However, most of Jiangning's soldiers are local troops. If the main force can still defend the city, it can still defend the city. Once the main force rushes to help Taiping and the enemy army reaches Jiangning City, the army will definitely be disorganized and collapse at the first touch."

Liang Shicheng said: "Suggest a feasible method."

Zhang Zongyan said: "Either the entire army is trapped in Jiangning and waits to be attacked by the enemy from east to west. Or we can immediately abandon Jiangning and retreat south, march urgently to Qingxi and Muzhou, and then enter Jiangxi via Quzhou to join the army in Jiangxi. The first method , if you stay trapped in an isolated city for a long time, you will definitely fail. The latter method may cause the soldiers to flee in large numbers during the march, because they are from Jiangdong and do not want to go far away from their hometown to Jiangxi."

Liang Shicheng said anxiously: "No matter how you choose, there is no good result?"

Zhang Zongyan said: "If you are trapped in Jiangning, you will be captured. If you move to Jiangxi, you can avoid being caught by the traitors."

"Let me think about it, you guys can go down." Liang Shicheng waved his hand.

Liang Shicheng did not dare to surrender because his reputation was too bad and he would be killed to vent the public's anger.

But Song Huizong didn't know whether he was alive or dead, so how could he persist as a eunuch?

Until this time, Liang Shicheng didn't know how many soldiers Li Bao had, and the troops in his own hands were too bad. He can still defend by relying on the Yangtze River, but how can he fight when Li Bao comes from behind?

But it was said that Zhang Zongyan walked out of the side door and rode across two streets. Suddenly someone shouted: "Brother Zhang, please take a step to speak."

Zhang Zongyan handed the horse to his personal attendant, followed the man into an alley, and then came to a house.

There are three people waiting in the room, all of them are Liang Shicheng's "bodyguards" who fled south and have now been promoted to generals.

A general named Li Sanfu stood up and spoke first: "Our fathers and brothers have all died for the country, and the kindness of the Song Dynasty court has been repaid. Liang Shicheng chose us to escort him south, just to protect his own money. Promotion We are generals because he controls the army. Even if we don’t mention this kind of personal favor, how much infamy will we bear by following him?"

Another general named Chen Tong also said: "The emperor has disappeared, what else are we going to fight for? Simply tie up Liang Shicheng and dedicate Jiangning to the soldiers of tomorrow!"

"Yes, Emperor Zhu will definitely rule the world, and we will not have to sacrifice our lives for the foolish emperor."

"Brother Zhang, you are the most powerful general in the army and have the highest position. You must make up your mind quickly."

"..."

Zhang Zongyan was hesitant and didn't know how to make a decision.

The military attache Enyin, who was paid for free, also had levels and could be promoted. The highest level was Jiedushi (honorary position). When Zhang Zongyan was in Tokyo, he was only on loan in the third shift, the lowest level. With the price of food in Kaifeng at the time, his salary could not support himself.

It was Liang Shicheng who selected him, asked him to escort the treasure south, and promoted him to a general.

No matter how bad Liang Shicheng's reputation was, Zhang Zongyan was kind to him.

Zhang Zongyan has no outstanding achievements in history, but he can be regarded as one of the "Top Ten Famous Generals of Southern Crossing" by the official. There is naturally a reason for this.

First of all, he is a qualified general, quite law-abiding.

Secondly, he is handsome, tall, good at dealing with people, and does not conflict with anyone.

Finally, this guy is very loyal and never backstabs. He will save friendly troops when he can.

Zhang Zongyan really couldn't do anything to his benefactor Liang Shicheng.

After thinking about it, Zhang Zongyan said: "How about a mutiny, collect the army, and then expel Liang Taiwei and let him escape on his own?"

Everyone present looked at each other, then winked at each other, and agreed readily.

Zhang Zongyan also treated his soldiers well. He secretly summoned his generals and said that he planned to rebel and sacrifice the city. Those generals immediately expressed their support.

Liang Shicheng finally made up his mind to abandon the city and escape, leading his troops to flee all the way to Jiangxi.

This guy had a lot of property in Hangzhou, which he had saved for decades in Tokyo, and all of it had been confiscated by Li Bao. Jiang Ning's wealth was only tens of thousands of dollars, which he had accumulated in the past six months. He arranged for his godson and his confidants to escort them.

The rest of the troops were also gathered together, intending to rob all the grain shops and granaries inside and outside the city and escape.

Just as Liang Shicheng led his troops out of the city, Zhang Zongyan suddenly appeared at the city gate and said loudly: "Lieutenant, you'd better leave your belongings and leave with only a few followers."

Liang Shicheng was furious: "Are you still going to rebel?"

Before Zhang Zongyan could reply, Li Sanfu led his troops and rushed out from another street: "Brother Zhang, don't say anything. We need to capture this person first."

Troops also appeared behind Liang Shicheng.

Surrounded on three sides, Liang Shicheng's soldiers were so frightened that they collapsed and ran away before the fight started.

Chen Tong galloped over on horseback, caught up with Liang Shicheng who was fleeing, shot him off his horse, and then shot him again in the throat.

Zhang Zongyan was shocked and angry, and asked: "Didn't you say let him live?"

Chen Tong chuckled: "The gun is so easy to use, I really can't hold it back."

The notorious eunuch Liang Shicheng died on the street like this. The corpse was lying on its back with an extremely frightened expression and blood pouring from its throat.

There was a mutiny here, and someone in the city immediately took advantage of the chaos to cause trouble.

It was nothing more than local ruffians who knew that the army was about to leave, and quickly caused trouble and robbed property before the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers arrived.

Zhang Zongyan glanced at the corpse and said to his soldiers: "Take it immediately to the countryside and bury it. The more remote the better, the better. Don't let anyone know where it is buried." He turned to the generals and said: "Follow me. To suppress those who cause trouble, Governor Fu please immediately post a notice to calm the people!"