Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

Hutuo River is one of the largest rivers in Hebei.

If you don’t count the Yellow River, it is number one!

The two armies each occupied half of this river. The Ming army controlled the middle battlefield section, and the Jin army controlled the east and west battlefield sections.

Zhu Ming led the army to move, relying on the Hutuo River for water transportation.

Of course, soldiers mainly walked, and all kinds of baggage were shipped and transported.

The first place Zhu Ming arrived was Gucheng (Jinzhou City). This city was located on the south bank of the Hutuo River and was not conducive to Jin soldiers' operations, so it was abandoned directly by Wanyan Zongwang.

As early as half a month ago, the Gucheng County Magistrate of the Puppet Song Dynasty had surrendered to Zongze.

Next is Gaocheng, which is located at the intersection of Hutuo River and Benshui River. It faces water on both sides and is very suitable for holding on. It is the military bridgehead of Zhending Prefecture.

Generals such as Guan Sheng, Yue Fei, and Li Qiong led the Zhaozhou Ming Army to the north and stationed themselves on the east bank of Qianshui. The main camp was set up in the southwest of Gaocheng.

Ju Ming led the main force to the west and camped in the northeast of Guocheng.

The two Ming armies were only more than thirty miles apart, sandwiching the enemy forces in Gaocheng.

After Ju Ming set up camp, he immediately contacted Guan Sheng and Yue Fei.

Yue Fei personally brought two hundred horses to see him, and also brought a scholar from Gaocheng named Dong Yu.

"Meet His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Yue Fei stood with his back straight, his left hand pressing the handle of the sword at his waist, and his right hand raised in a military salute.

Judging from the appearance alone, Ju Ming felt a little disappointed.

The famous Yue Wumu is only 1.7 meters tall, and he is not burly in stature. He is not as strong as many of Ju Ming's generals.

Of course, the appearance is negligible.

Ju Ming even had a little excitement hidden inside, but he didn't show it. He took Yue Fei's hand and said, "I heard that you are very strict in managing the army and you are a good general in the world!"

Yue Fei said: "The people of Hebei have been severely tortured by the Jin people. The king's army should strengthen military discipline. Otherwise, how are they different from those barbarians of the Jin country?"

"Not bad." Zhu Ming smiled and nodded.

Yue Fei pointed to the scholars beside him and said: "This is Dong Yu, the son of the Dong family in Gaocheng. His uncle Dong Ti is the Minister of Rites in the Puppet Song Dynasty."

Dong Yu quickly knelt down and said: "Zi Yu, the great Ming Dynasty scholar, pays homage to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

Zhu Ming helped him personally: "No need to be formal."

The Dong family of Gaocheng moved to Gaocheng during the Five Dynasties. Different branches became high-ranking officials in the Jin and Yuan dynasties.

One is the branch of Dong Shizhong of the Jin Dynasty, whose official rank was the prime minister of the Jin Dynasty.

The second is Dong Wenbing's branch of the Yuan Dynasty. There were a lot of Wanhu, Taishi, and Taiwei. Dong Wenbing himself was responsible for forming a Han bodyguard army for Kublai Khan.

In the previous chapter, Wanyan Zongwang established a puppet emperor, and the city of Guocheng happened to be under the rule of the puppet emperor.

Ma Liu, the Dong family in Guocheng, surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, and Dong Ti, who was a Jinshi in the Song Dynasty, was reused as the central official of the puppet court.

This time Liu Yu seized the power of the court and did not dare to do anything to Dong Ti. Instead, he promoted him to be the Minister of Rites. Because the location of Gaocheng is too important, and the Dong family is the most prominent family in Gaocheng.

While Dong Ti was working as a dog for the Kingdom of Jin, he secretly contacted Zong Ze. They didn't care about the justice of the family and the country, they just wanted to keep their own family.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince," Dong Yu quickly explained the situation, "there was chaos in the puppet dynasty a few days ago. Liu Yu impeached Huang Qianshan for collaborating with the enemy and imprisoned dozens of people from Huang Qianshan's party. Now the puppet dynasty is in panic, and there are many people who are interested in me, the Ming Dynasty. Although my uncle is the Minister of Rites of the puppet dynasty, he always wants to return to the Ming Dynasty. I, the Dong family in Guocheng, are willing to fight to the death for the Ming Dynasty!"

Ju Ming looked touched and sighed: "There is Gu Zhong in Hebei, and he is talking about the Dong family."

Dong Yu became even more excited after hearing this.

With the words of Prince Zhu, the Dong family in Guocheng will not be liquidated.

Ju Ming asked: "In addition to serving as a civil servant in the puppet dynasty, what other generals did Dong have?"

Dong Yu said: "My cousin Dong Huan was originally the guard general of Shun'an Army, with three thousand soldiers under his command. Last month he was transferred to Hejian Prefecture to assist the Jin soldiers there to defend the city. My uncle Dong Jian , formerly a general of the Ansu Army, with 500 soldiers under his command, was transferred to Yongning Military City last month."

Ju Ming said: "You write to them immediately, and I will have someone wait for an opportunity to contact Juyi."

Dong Yu was a little embarrassed and said: "You don't have to worry about it, Prince. I can send a servant to contact you, otherwise the news will be easily leaked in advance."

Ju Ming suddenly frowned: "Is it possible that until now, the Dong family is still thinking about the head and the rat?"

"Don't you dare!" Dong Yu was so frightened that he quickly knelt down.

"Then just write a letter." Zhu Ming smiled kindly again.

Dong Yu could only bite the bullet and write letters to his cousins ​​and clan uncles, asking them to look for opportunities to defect before the battle.

Bai Sheng put away the two letters and left with Dong Yu.

After this guy left, Ju Ming asked, "Pengju, what do you think of the Dong family?"

Yue Fei replied: "We are all people who are greedy for life and afraid of death. They will help whoever gains power. But the manuscript city is extremely important, and we must rely on the power of the Dong family."

"Where are the other wealthy families in Guocheng?" Ju Ming asked again.

Yue Fei said: "It's almost the same. On the one hand, he took refuge with the Jin people and on the other hand, he contacted the Ming Dynasty. Gaocheng is close to Zhaozhou. The real righteous men there have long fled south with their families. Among the last generals, there are soldiers from Gaocheng."

Regardless of whether they were greedy for life or afraid of death, the gentry who stayed behind did indeed have their hearts set on the Ming Dynasty, because the rule of the Jin people was too cruel.

Generally speaking, when encountering an enemy army approaching, rural gentry would hide in the city or flee with their families to a safe place.

When the gentry in the countryside around Gaocheng learned that Prince Zhu was coming with troops to kill him, they neither hid in the city nor fled north. On the day Ju Ming arrived, gentry people came to see him one after another, and even brought wine and food to reward the army.

This is what the history books say, when the people eat pots of slurry to welcome the king.

There are even gentlemen with half-long hairstyle hidden under their hats. Last year, they were afraid of the golden man, so they actually shaved off their hair to change their clothes. From then on, they must wear hats to cover up their ugliness when going out.

Ju Ming did not blame them, he personally met them all, spoke kindly to them, and praised them for their loyalty.

The gentry were so moved that they shed tears on the spot. He was worthy of being the prince of Zhengshuo of the Celestial Dynasty. His extraordinary bearing made people feel like a spring breeze. How could those barbarians of the Jin Kingdom compare with him?

…

The outskirts of Guocheng.

Li Yanxian led thousands of Shaanxi cavalry, together with the cavalry troops formed by Yue Fei and Li Qiong, to cover the entire battlefield.

Salihe, a fierce general of the Jin Kingdom, only had 2,000 cavalry in his hands and was suppressed to the point where he could not leave the city.

"Go to the Yongning Army and ask the marshal for reinforcements!" Salihe was extremely aggrieved.

This guy is the nephew of Po Luhuo. Po Luhuo led the troops to Wanyan Zonghan, but Salihe led the troops to Wanyan Zongwang.

Because Salihe belongs to the noble family of the ancestors, he is the adopted son of Jin Shizu Xilibo!

This person later gained great power and became the Zuo Prime Minister and Zuo Marshal of the Jin Kingdom, but he was eventually killed by Wan Yanliang, the "famous general of the Southern Song Dynasty".

"The enemy is shooting books into the city!"

"No one is allowed to open and read them. Collect them all and burn them... Wait, show them to me before burning them."

Groups of Ming cavalry, led by Yue Fei, Li Qiong, and Li Yanxian, fired letters into the manuscript city.

Jin soldiers rode horses back and forth in the city, and looked around on the city walls. If they found letters, they immediately confiscated them, and those who opened and read them without permission were shot to death.

A Bohai scribe was reading a letter to Salihe at the moment: "These letters say that the Dong family, the Lu family, the Li family, the Zhang family, and the Pang family in Gaocheng... have all defected to the Ming Dynasty. They also said many bad things about me, Dajin. , let the Han people in the city rebel against the Jin as an internal response. Also let the Han troops stationed in Gao City switch sides and surrender. If there are officers and soldiers who switch sides, they will be forgiven for their past mistakes, and they will be rewarded heavily in the future when their merits are judged."

Salihe called his herald: "Call the troops, Hebei Han troops are not allowed to approach the city gates, archery towers, grain depots and other important military areas. They are only allowed to defend the city walls. The Hebei Han troops at each city wall must be arranged on both sides. I, Jin Guoerlang, supervise. If the soldiers patrolling the city at night find someone violating the curfew, they will sit in a row for the soldiers and ten households for the people, and all of them will be beheaded for justice!"

The war has just begun, and the city is already in turmoil.

The curfew time has been advanced to a quarter past two o'clock, that is, people in the city are not allowed to leave their homes before six o'clock in the evening.

The Han army in Hebei was obviously a city defense force, but it was closely monitored by troops sent by Salihe.

The war has reached this point, and the Han army in Hebei has become a burden!

Salihe still felt unstable, so he sent troops to guard the prominent people in the city in the county government. He also told their families that if there was a fire or other accident in the city, Jin Bing would not carefully trace who did it, but would kill all those in the county government office.

All kinds of measures were extremely severe, but some people still opened and read the letters privately.

After Ju Ming set up camp, he sent troops to cover the civilians in filling the moat. While filling the moat, he continued to shoot books into the city. There were always a few letters that were not confiscated by the Jin soldiers.

More siege equipment was dismantled into parts and shipped continuously from Xinhe Town.

Zongze was responsible for the logistics of the West Route Army, including the construction of siege equipment. Xinhe Town gathered a large number of craftsmen and was also an important grain transfer station.

Within the manuscript city.

Before the curfew, the defense was changed, and a Hebei Han army left the city wall and silently returned to the military camp in the city.

The leader of this Han army was Zhang Di, who was historically a Hebei giant. He gathered hundreds of thousands of people in Mingzhou to rebel, and was finally suppressed by Liu Guangshi's troops.

Because Ju Ming raised troops in Sichuan, he restrained the Song Dynasty's military strength. Although Zhang Di in this time and space was also suppressed by the court, he did not face Liu Guangshi. He faked his death and escaped into the Taihang Mountains with his remaining troops.

They first rebelled against the Song Dynasty, and then against the Jin Dynasty. When they couldn't continue the fight, they were recruited by the puppet court.

"Brother, where is the letter I saw during the day?" General Zhang Hao asked in a low voice.

Zhang Di said: "I've eaten it."

"That's good, I won't be found out by the Jin soldiers," Zhang Hao asked, "What's in the letter?"

Zhang Di said: "If we turn against the Jin, we will not be held accountable for our past crimes, and we can still get heavy rewards for our meritorious service."

Zhang Hao said: "After hiding in the Taihang Mountains for two years and being recruited by the Zhending court for more than a year, the brothers all want to return to their hometown in Mingzhou. Why not look for an opportunity to rebel against the Jin Dynasty? I heard that a new court in the south has been restored. Life is good. Yue Fei is also very benevolent and righteous, and he does no wrong to the people."

"I also want to go home," Zhang Di said, "These Jin soldiers don't regard us as human beings. They want us to defend the city day and night. I think we will be defeated sooner or later. But the old brother is dead." Duo, we can no longer act recklessly, we must find a good opportunity to kill those golden soldiers!"

Zhang Hao said: "We all listen to my elder brother, my brothers have long wanted to rebel!"