Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In "The Complete Biography of Yue", the Yue family army has dozens of fierce generals.

Among these people, there are less than twenty people whose history can be traced.

Gao Chong, Tang Huai, Lu Wenlong and other top warriors were all fictionalized by later novelists.

Nowadays, there are only three generals under Yue Fei's command, namely: Wang Gui, Xu Qing, and Ji Qian (the prototype of Ji Qing).

Instead, it was brothers Zhai Xing and Zhai Jin, who had four generals under their command: Niu Gao, Dong Xian, Zhao Yun and Liang Xing.

Dong Xian was originally a subordinate of the Zhai brothers, Niu Gao was the captain of the civilian husband transporting grain to Shanxi, and Zhao Yun and Liang Xing were the leaders of the anti-Jin rebels in Shanxi. The Zhai brothers organized and trained the new army in Shanxi last year and incorporated all these people into the army.

During the previous battle in Shanxi, Zhang Guangdao sent the Zhai brothers back to Shouyang to save Guo Pharmacist. Niu, Dong, Zhao, and Liang participated in the raid on Wanyan Zonghan's Dongda Camp.

Zhang Xian joined the Ming army in Sichuan and was transferred first to Shanxi and then to Hebei. Now he is serving as a general under Guan Sheng.

Brothers Zhang Yong and Zhang Li are based on Zhang Bofen and Zhang Zhongxiong. Now they are both under Han Shizhong. However, they wanted to become civil servants and planned to take the imperial examination after the war - the brothers had passed the examination in the Song Dynasty.

In the battle just now, Meng Bangjie led his troops to surrender, but they were under Li Shifu's command.

Li Shifu fought bravely and was highly appreciated by Zongze. Zongze asked him to organize and train soldiers to make up the army to 3,000 men, and Meng Bangjie was recruited.

After this great victory in the foggy weather, the morale of the Zhaozhou defenders became even higher, and even the people in the city were no longer afraid.

On the contrary, Wanyan Zongwang was a little confused, and he could not figure out the reality of the Zhaozhou defenders at all. Moreover, a large number of craftsmen and civilians were separated, which seriously affected the subsequent siege operations.

"Marshal, the city is in emergency. The city towers and arrow towers were all destroyed by the Ming army's artillery!"

"Deploy another four thousand Khitan soldiers to defend the city."

Wanyan Zongwang's choice to move the battlefield was indeed more proactive than before. He successfully divided the Ming army's forces, but he was able to send infantry to reinforce Gaocheng within one day while besieging Zhaozhou. If he sent cavalry there, it even only took half a day.

These four thousand Khitan soldiers were transferred to Gao City, so the defenders in the city would have 8,000 Jin soldiers (Jurchens, Khitans, and Xi people) and 6,000 Hebei bandits who had been ordered to be safe.

Fourteen thousand soldiers defended the city and were ready to fight outside the city. Wanyan Zongwang did not believe that the Ming army could capture it.

Another day later, Wanyan's mother mobilized the Jin soldiers from the middle battlefield, and Wanyan Zongwang's troops were even stronger.

After understanding the situation, Wanyan's mother said: "The marshal mobilized the main force to besiege Zhaozhou and forced the Ming army (Guan Sheng, Yue Fei, Li Qiong) on ​​the bank of Qianshui to rush back to Zhaozhou and Ningjin. The Ming army was It is divided into three, and Zhaozhou is not easy to capture, so we can leave a small number of elite cavalry to contain the Ming army that attacks Zhaozhou and Ningjin, while the main force of our army will go to Gaocheng to fight against Prince Zhu!"

In the previous battlefield, four rivers formed a rectangular area. The four sides of the rectangle were under the control of the Ming army, while the Jin soldiers only had the upper left corner of the rectangle called Guocheng.

Wanyan Zongwang transferred his troops and controlled one side of the rectangle, gaining more advantages in tactics and strategy.

Wanyan Zongwang thought carefully and said: "Let the craftsmen and civilians build multiple pontoons in Benshui first. In this way, our army of more than 20,000 cavalry can travel between Zhaozhou and Gaocheng calmly. Wherever you want to attack, just attack Wherever we hit, the infantry of the Ming army will be exhausted!"

Wanyanzhao's mother led eight thousand cavalry and led the craftsmen and civilians to the northern section of Benshui. They used the cavalry to protect the craftsmen and quickly build a pontoon bridge.

However, Ju Ming did not send troops to interfere with Jin Bing's pontoon operations.

He begins to attack the city!

…

Ju Ming's troops were strong, including 3,000 heavy armored infantry, 6,314 musketeers, 9,000 Kuizhou elites, 9,000 Hanzhong elites, more than 7,000 Hebei Eight-Character Army, 5,000 Shaanxi cavalry, more than 5,000 various logistics units, and various iron cannons. 210 doors.

Wanyan's mother, who was supervising the construction of the pontoon bridge, learned that Zhu Ming's entire army was dispatched and immediately knew that a siege would break out.

He sent people back to report to Wanyan Zongwang, and led eight thousand Jin Kingdom cavalry by himself, and began to patrol the outer battlefields looking for opportunities.

Li Yanxian led his cavalry to always cover the advance of the infantry, and the musketeers also lined up to defend against the enemy. There were more than 40,000 troops in the army, and in front of Wanyan Jian's mother and Salihe, a large chariot formation was built in the southwest and south of Gaocheng.

The siege speed was extremely slow. The army set out in the morning, pushing artillery and siege equipment, and it was not until noon that the formation was set up.

Wanyan Zongwang even led the vanguard to the battlefield!

"Is the Ming army going to attack the city, or is it going to fight a decisive battle outside the city?" Wanyan Zongwang didn't understand.

Wanyan's mother said: "No matter what Prince Zhu wants to do, it will be beneficial to us anyway. We can attack the enemy from both sides with the defenders!"

Wanyan Zongwang said: "It can't be seen clearly here. I will go to the city to check the enemy's situation personally."

Wanyan Zongwang took a boat to the northwest of Gaocheng and quickly climbed up the southern city wall.

The towers on the south city wall and the nearby arrow towers have all been destroyed by Ming army artillery.

"Greetings to the marshal!" Saliho stepped forward to greet him.

Wanyan Zongwang asked: "How is the morale of the defenders?"

Salihe said: "The morale is not bad, but the Ming army's artillery is powerful, and the noise of the daily shelling is annoying. The arrow towers on the south and east city walls are all gone, and our army can only shoot arrows standing on the city wall."

Wanyan Zongwang did not ask any more questions, but carefully observed the movements of the Ming army outside the city.

It was already past noon, and the Ming army, relying on their chariot formation, was actually digging trenches and building barriers to prevent the Jin cavalry from charging into the formation from the sides and rear!

According to this amount of work, we will definitely not attack the city today.

Wanyan Zongwang said to the messenger: "Tell Wanyan Cha's mother to send cavalry around to the east to explore the reality of Prince Zhu's camp."

In the middle of the afternoon, the Jin cavalry completed their investigation and came to report: "Prince Zhu's previous camp is empty. He has not brought any civilians to attack the city. There is still excess food, grass and baggage. They should all have withdrawn into Gucheng (Jinzhou City). ."

Drum City is thirty miles east of Guocheng. It is full of grain and grass and is defended by 6,000 Hebei rural soldiers recruited by Wang Yan.

Wanyan Zongwang was extremely surprised and furious at the same time.

Ju Ming's behavior looked down upon the Jin soldiers. After completing the preparations for the siege, he directly moved the main camp to the outside of the city. He was completely building a fortress close to his face. Moreover, they didn't bring much food, only ten days' worth at most. It seemed that they were sure to break the city within ten days.

Wanyan's mother also climbed onto the city wall, observed and said, "Should we immediately launch an attack from all directions while the Ming army's fortress has not yet been built, or should we wait until they have exhausted their strength and morale by attacking the city before attacking?"

"Let them attack the city, mobilize all the main forces of our army, surround the Ming army here, and not allow the Ming army to transport a grain of rations here," Wanyan Zongwang said, "If the Zhaozhou defenders dare to come to rescue, Just eat those reinforcements first, and I will surround Prince Zhu here to death!"

Prince Zhu was too bullying and didn't take Jin Bing seriously at all. Wanyan Zongwang felt that he was being ignored.

Ju Ming held up the telescope and could clearly see Wanyan Zongwang talking.

Wanyan Zongwang built many pontoons on the sleeping water in an attempt to create a fast passage connecting the two battlefields. This move made Ju Ming no longer want to bear it.

If he endured it any longer, the initiative on the battlefield would be taken away by the Jin soldiers.

…

Guan Sheng received Zhu Ming's personal letter and found out that the main force of the Jin soldiers had gone to Gaocheng, so he led his troops to Zhaozhou that night.

Zongze read Ju Ming's autographed letter and was dumbfounded and said: "Why is the prince so dangerous? If he cannot quickly attack Gao City, or is defeated by Jin soldiers during the attack, the entire Hebei war situation will be ruined!"

When the autographed letter was circulated to the generals, Li Shifu exclaimed: "Your Highness is too crazy to fight."

Guan Sheng said: "Your Highness has heavy armor and firearms. As long as the military rations are not exhausted, he is certainly not afraid of the golden soldiers."

Yue Fei said: "The prince used himself as bait to contain the main force of the Jin soldiers. With Wanyan Zongwang mobilizing so many Jin soldiers, our army's east and middle roads should be able to progress smoothly, and they may have captured Hejian Mansion. ”

Zongze shook his head and sighed: "The Jin people have different ideas from us. They don't care about the city at all. Even if the entire Hebei is lost, the Jin people don't care. As long as they eat the prince's main force, they can fight back no matter how many cities they have."

Ju Ming wanted to open up the situation everywhere, using himself as bait to attract more Jin soldiers for a decisive battle, so that Deng Chun, Han Shizhong, Li Gong, Yang Zaixing and others could quickly attack the city and seize territory.

Wanyan Zongwang just wanted to eat Ju Ming's main force, and would rather throw away all those cities.

In the current situation, both sides get what they need, and it can be said that they hit it off.

Meng Bangjie, who had just surrendered, said: "In the city of Zhending Mansion, most of the Han troops from Hebei are stationed. The Khitan soldiers and Bohai soldiers combined are only two or three thousand. Why not take advantage of the main force of the Jin soldiers who besieged Zhaozhou to move and attack Zhen Ding by surprise?" Certainly?"

Zongze said worriedly: "Zhending Fucheng is very important. Will Wanyan Zongwang secretly retain more elites?"

Meng Bangjie said: "The elites of the Jin Kingdom only have tens of thousands in total. They have to defend Zhending, Luan City, Gao City, and besiege His Highness the Crown Prince. Where can we have extra troops?"

"But Zhending City is more difficult to defeat than Zhaozhou. Even if there are only two or three thousand gold soldiers stationed there, it will be difficult for us to capture it by attacking." Zongze said.

But Yue Fei said: "You can achieve true determination!"

Yue Fei asked Meng Bangjie again: "How many Hebei Han troops are in Zhending City?"

"Five or six thousand, maybe seven or eight thousand," Meng Bangjie said, "They are all the cronies of the traitor Liu Yu. I have been stationed in Zhending City for half a month. The people in the city are panicked, and many soldiers are unwilling to fight. Liu Yu He has a very bad reputation. He is a good hand at waging party disputes, but he is a mess in running the army and the people. The trusted generals under his command also follow the same example, eating empty pay and drinking the blood of soldiers, and everyone from officers to soldiers is dissatisfied. "

Yue Fei said: "If we only need two thousand horses to attack Zhending, and if we carry too many torches at night, there will be chaos in the city."

Guan Sheng said: "Your military order of not demolishing houses due to freezing to death can't be ignored this time. When our army rushes outside Zhending City, we should burn down a large number of people's houses in Fuguo. A fire and chaos outside the city is more effective than raising more torches. When we arrive, When I shouted again that Wanyan Zongwang was dead, I don’t know how many officials and soldiers in the city took the opportunity to return to justice!"

Yue Fei didn't refute, so he acquiesced.

Just when Yue Fei and others were discussing the surprise attack, the Ming Army's Eastern Route Army was already overwhelming.

Because Wanyan Zongwang took away the elite Jin soldiers on the east route, the remaining Han army in Hebei collapsed at the first touch.

Li Cheng led his troops to attack Leshou. While filling in the moat, an officer from the city came out with a letter, saying that he was willing to use fire as a signal to help seize the city.

Han Shizhong led troops to attack Qingzhou. He personally led dozens of people to climb up the city at night. Thousands of Han troops in the city collapsed from fear. Even if a large number of Han troops surrendered, a few stubborn people did not dare to fight and fled north to become bandits.

Deng Chun captured Beilin Town and Yongning Town, and waited for Li Cheng and Han Shizhong to bring their troops to join them. Together, the three of them besieged Hejian Fucheng.

As soon as the army arrived outside the city, officers joined forces and killed the guard to open the city.

The Eastern Route Army then marched westward and attacked Yongning Military City together with Li Gong, Cao Cheng, and Yang Zaixing.

There are two thousand Bohai navy defending here. The Han troops in Hebei dare not surrender immediately. However, as long as the moat is filled in and the attack begins, most of the Han troops defending the city will defect.

It was not that Wanyan Zongwang was too stupid, which caused the Ming army to quickly attack the city, but that he had too few troops at his disposal.

From Youzhou to Liaodong and then to southern Liaoning, it went through more than ten years of war, during which there were many uprisings, rebellions, suppressions, and massacres. The Jin Kingdom's population resources were extremely tight, and the territory of the puppet Song Dynasty was difficult to digest. They even issued an order to shave their hair and change their clothes to force people to think.

They are all in such a terrible state, and they are divided into east and west due to internal strife. The two armies of the Jin Kingdom have almost no cooperation at all. How dare they invade the south in such a serious situation.

If Wanyan Zongwang doesn't concentrate his forces for a decisive battle, what other choice does he have?