Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Even though the Jin Kingdom did not win the Southern Expedition, as in history, after the death of Chi Duhe (Ashebo Jilie), its regime was essentially divided into three.

Emperor Wu begged for money and was further ignored!

The three imperial courts of the Jin Kingdom were -

The inner court, located near Harbin, was headed by Wanyan Xieye and Wanyan Zongqian's uncle and nephew.

The leader of the Eastern Court, the Privy Council of Yanshan (Beijing), was Wanyan Zongwang.

The leader of the Western Court, namely the Yunzhong (Datong) Privy Council, was Wanyan Zonghan.

Because Wanyan Zonghan was too powerful, the Inner Court and the Eastern Court were strong allies, and the three parties were in a delicate balance.

Wu Qimai sometimes struggled and sometimes lay flat, and his life was not bad. After all, the inner court still had to issue decrees in the name of his emperor.

Who put him in an unfair position?

Before the Jurchen rebellion, the leaders of each tribe were called "Bo Jin". Along with the conquests and mergers, the joint leader of several tribes was named "Du Bo Jin".

After Aguda became powerful, in order to show his authority, he named himself "Du Bo Ji Lie". He also came up with a bunch of titles such as Guolun Bojilie, Zhuban Bojilie, Amaibaojilie, etc.

The highest authority of the Jin Kingdom became the "Bojilie Congress", which can be understood as the meeting of noble ministers for discussion.

Although Aguda has not determined his successor, according to the Bojilie ranking at that time and the Jurchen tribe's tradition, Wanyan Zonghan should succeed to the throne of emperor.

But Wu Qimai took advantage of the absence of Wanyan Zonghan and the absence of three of Wu Dabo Jilie, and relied on the ancestral nobles to force the yellow robe on him.

Eaters are short-tongued and take advantage of others softly.

Wu Qimai must give enough rewards politically to his descendants. Gradually, the Jin Dynasty court was controlled by this group of people, and this group of people extended their tentacles from the court to local governments and the army through Wanyan Zongwang and Han forces.

The migration of people to Yunzhong and Yanshan was nominally to digest the Liao's homeland and weaken the power of the Xi people and Bohai people, but in reality it was a means for several major factions to alienate the emperor.

In detail, the situation is more complicated.

The emperor and the inner court had conflicts with each other but had to cooperate. The inner court relied on Wanyan Zongwang to compete with Wanyan Zonghan. Wanyan Zongwang not only wanted to rely on the righteousness of the inner court, but also wanted to get rid of the inner court and move toward independence. At some point, he had to cooperate with Wanyan Zonghan.

In such a bizarre split situation, the Jin Kingdom can still be united in dealing with the outside world.

…

Yanjing.

The boss here is naturally Wanyan Zongwang, but the second-in-command is Liu Yanzong, a surrendered general of the Liao Kingdom.

Xi people, Han people, and Bohai people are all willing to listen to Liu Yanzong's orders!

"The attack on the seaside salt fields should be from Shandong's cross-sea enemies," Wanyan Zongwang asked. "If we divide our forces to defend several major salt fields, we will inevitably be passive everywhere. The Ming army can choose any place from the sea to plunder. Do you two have any ideas?" "

Liu Yanzong said: "You should train as a navy master."

Shi Liai reminded: "Hainbin County is not the jurisdiction of the Yanshan Privy Council."

Liu Yanzong was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said: "Indeed."

Both of them are currently loyal to Wanyan Zongwang, rather than to the Jin court.

Their intention was obvious, that is, to use the Ming army's attack on the salt field as an excuse to demand military and political jurisdiction from Huacheng (Dalian) to Haiyang (Qinhuangdao).

Shi Liai said: "The number of southern barbarians who crossed the sea was not large. They were just plundering along the coast and did not have the strength to capture the city. Since Lang Jun has received the letter asking for help, he can send an army there, but there is no need to be too anxious."

"Will the imperial court agree?" Wanyan Zongwang asked doubtfully.

Shi Liai said: "Maybe I will agree."

He properly respected himself as a bandit and did not take cross-sea raids seriously.

Wu Qimai was already very old, and Wanyan Zongwang wanted to increase his strength as soon as possible so that he would have the opportunity to compete with Wanyan Zonghan for the throne in the future.

Under the planning of two Han wise men, Wanyan Zongwang slowly sent out an army of only two to three thousand elite troops to Jinzhou to assist in the defense.

They sat back and watched the Denglai Ming army plunder everywhere, delaying rescue every time they got news, forcing the Jin court to give more power.

So, what is the Jin Emperor Wu Qimai doing?

Make history!

Compile the history of the country from the Jurchen tribe period to Wu Qimai's accession to the throne, and use the history to establish the legitimacy of his throne.

Does this trick work?

It works!

In history, Wanyan Zonghan annexed the troops of Wanyan Zongwang and Liu Yanzong, and completely controlled the military and political power in the homeland of the Liao Kingdom. He even dared to reprimand the emperor for illegally using the treasury.

But after the emperor died, Wanyan Zonghan was unable to succeed to the throne.

Because a group of people from the Shizu lineage were already powerful, and they used the national history compiled by Wu Qibuy to occupy the great cause, they forced Wanyan Zonghan to give up the idea of ​​becoming emperor.

Of course, both sides were wary of each other, and no one could please anyone, so in the end they set up another puppet.

…

The Jin Dynasty court in Harbin was too far away, and Wanyan Zongwang in Yanjing had to respect himself as a bandit. The Ming army in Denglai looted and looted three salt fields for a month, but they did not encounter any decent resistance.

Those bastards got it easier!

This time, he really took action. Zhao Li brought thousands of infantrymen over, and they all landed at Lushunkou.

At this time, there was no name for Lushun, but it was generally called Iron Mountain. There were iron ores there, and occasionally gold could be found there.

Before Xia Yuqing got off the boat, he saw beacon smoke burning ahead.

It was the "Beacon Tower of the Great Wall Zhendong Haikou" and it was put into use. In order to fight against the Bohai Kingdom, the Liao Kingdom built a Great Wall here that stretched for more than 70 miles (from the northeast of Lushunkou to Dalian Bay).

Beacon towers one after another lit up thick smoke, but there were not many soldiers available for mobilization.

After destroying the Bohai Kingdom, the Liao Kingdom successively immigrated hundreds of thousands of people to the Liaodong Peninsula. However, chaos, famine and wars at the end of the Liao Dynasty led to a sharp decline in population, which can even be described as "not even one out of ten".

In later generations, the entire Dalian area now has less than 10,000 households.

The Jurchen army is not large in number and is all stationed in Huacheng County (Jinzhou) and Huacheng Pass (Dalian Bay). There is also a Hue camp next to Fuzhou. The defenders in the rest of the places were all erratic Han troops and Bohai navy.

"Bombardment!"

The six large ships brought back by Xue Daoguang have all been equipped with iron cannons and fired at the Great Wall Beacon Tower at Lushunkou.

Xia Yuqing, who had been promoted to the rank of captain, led his soldiers and followed the Denglai soldiers to the shore.

There are no saltworks here, just the Great Wall and villages.

There were only a dozen Han soldiers stationed on the Great Wall near the beacon tower, and they fled immediately after being bombarded. They ran along the Great Wall towards the beacon tower further east, which was still fifty miles away from Huacheng Pass where the Jurchen soldiers were stationed.

Zhao Li and Song Jiang led their troops and quickly occupied the beacon tower and rushed forward along the Great Wall.

After capturing three beacon towers and more than 20 miles of the Great Wall, the Denglai soldiers finally stopped charging. Panting from exhaustion, they relied on the fortifications of the Great Wall, waiting for the enemy thirty miles away to gather troops to attack.

Xia Yuqing's army on Salmon Island followed the Great Wall that had been occupied by friendly forces and searched for local residents on both sides of the Great Wall.

As long as all the people are taken away, the defenders here will not be able to collect food on the spot. From now on, they can only transport food and grass from Huacheng (Jinzhou).

On the seaside and in the valley, fires broke out one after another. It was soldiers from Salmon Island burning down houses.

"Third brother, there is a big village over there!"

"Go over and have a look."

There is a small river at the eastern foot of Tieshan Mountain, and Xia Yuqing discovered a village along the river.

But all the villagers ran away, and judging from the condition of the houses, one-third of the houses were abandoned, probably due to the chaos of the late Liao Dynasty.

After searching for a while, no one was found, but an iron smelting workshop was found halfway up the mountain, and gold mining tools were picked up by the river.

"There is gold here!" the soldiers were delighted.

Although all the loot taken needs to be handed over and then distributed collectively. But the more valuable the loot turned over, the greater their military exploits.

Xia Yuqing hurriedly met with the other two chiefs for a meeting to determine the search direction, and soon found clues.

The people here fled with their money, grain and livestock, leaving footprints behind, and some even dropped their belongings in the rush.

More than thirty Salmon Island soldiers searched all the way into the mountains, but were ambushed.

The villagers held homemade swords and rushed towards the soldiers from both sides of the mountain road. However, they had no bows and arrows, and no armor.

"Formation, formation!"

When Xia Yuqing shouted, the soldiers were already approaching.

Completely beyond the villagers' expectations, the ambushed Salmon Island soldiers, facing an ambush several times their size, instead of being frightened and fleeing, they quickly formed formations with great calmness.

Having experienced the physical sense of "predation by the weak and the strong", they have long been accustomed to being ambushed, and it has become instinctive to quickly move closer and fight back.

The archers hid in the formation and shot arrows, the spearmen protected their teammates, and the strikers continued to push away the villagers who tried to rush into the formation.

After only a few minutes of fighting, more than 100 villagers were killed by more than 30 soldiers.

Dozens of prisoners were captured one after another, and Xia Yuqing asked, "Can you understand me?"

No one answered.

"Press his hands!" Xia Yuqing pointed at a prisoner.

With one slash, the tail finger was broken off.

Amidst the screams, Xia Yuqing asked again: "Can you understand what I am saying?"

Without waiting for the other party to reply, he struck with another knife.

The prisoner shouted in fear: "I can understand, I can understand!"

But it was too late, another ring finger was chopped off.

Under the guidance of these prisoners, Xia Yuqing quickly found the villagers' hiding place. But there was still no one, and they fled in such a hurry that they didn't have time to take away a lot of food.

"Chase!"

Half an hour later, they caught up with the villagers. Those people were driving livestock and carrying money and grain, but they couldn't move quickly.

"General, spare your life!" A middle-aged man led many villagers to kneel down.

Xia Yuqing said: "As long as you come back to Shandong with us honestly, you won't kill people indiscriminately."

"Yes, yes, you must be honest." The middle-aged man quickly expressed his stance.

There are actually four to five hundred people in this village, which is extremely rare in the sparsely populated Liaodong Peninsula.

Xia Yuqing asked carefully and found out that it was the iron ore or gold mine. They did not have to pay taxes, but they had to hand over a certain amount of pig iron and alluvial gold to the government every year.

After descending from the mountain, the soldiers began to set fire to houses everywhere.

The middle-aged man begged hard and actually took out a basket of books from a house.

Xia Yuqing said in surprise: "Have you ever read a book?"

The middle-aged man said: "To be honest, my ancestor was an official subordinate to the Queen of Xixia. At that time, the Queen of Xixia, dozens of officials, and thousands of common people were moved here by the Liao Kingdom and were scattered and resettled within a radius of a hundred miles. Because we miss our homeland, we all changed our surname to Xia."

"Is that your daughter?" Xia Yuqing pointed at a girl.

The middle-aged man said: "It's my little girl."

Xia Yuqing said: "My surname is also Xia, you should change it back to your ancestral surname."

Officers on Salmon Island can have priority in drawing lots to find wives.

Even if Xia Yuqing fails to draw this girl, he can still coordinate with the winner with the permission of the general. He prided himself on being a scholar and looked down on ordinary village women, but this woman suited his liking and was willing to give up a few months of military pay in exchange for her.

Xia Yuqing comforted his future father-in-law and said: "There are many gold and iron mines in Denglai. You all know how to smelt iron and pan for gold. You will not be mistreated when you go to Shandong. Women who are already married will not be separated from their husbands." "

"Thank you, General, for reminding me." The middle-aged man finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If the looting continues like this, even if Wanyan Zongwang defends with all his strength, it will be impossible to prevent him.

The Kingdom of Jin will probably order coastal residents to retreat, and no one will be allowed to live within ten miles of the sea...