Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

South Hamgyong Province in later Korea was the Jurchen territory of Haolandian.

More than 20 years ago, the Wanyan tribe's Jurchen tribes rose to prominence, and all the Haolandian Jurchen tribes joined them one after another.

The King of Goryeo (Wang Gou's grandfather) was furious and sent troops to conquer the Jurchens in Haolandian.

Well... Goryeo was defeated, and they relied on lobbying and bribery to get a truce with the Jurchens.

When Wang Gou's father succeeded to the throne and received support from the Liao Kingdom, he sent troops again to attack the Jurchens in Haolandian.

In this battle, Goryeo won a complete victory, seized the Jurchen land of Haolandian, and built nine cities including Xianzhou, Yingzhou, Xiongzhou, and Jizhou. (That is, the nine northeastern cities.)

Then Goryeo was in civil strife and was forced to withdraw its troops and return home to quell the rebellion. Only then did Wanyan Wuyashu lead his troops to recapture Haolandian.

By the way, the Jurchens also picked up the nine cities built by Goryeo for free...

This incident was regarded as a great shame and humiliation by the Goryeo kings and ministers. They had clearly expanded their territory, but their victory turned into defeat due to civil strife, and the Jurchen army counterattacked and entered the country.

There are still nine cities there that they built with great effort and money!

Now, Wang Gou and the Xijing faction announced the Northern Expedition, and immediately gained support from the Xijing clan, border generals, local small clans, and middle- and low-level officials.

"Public opinion is turning towards the Northern Expedition and it can no longer be suppressed." Li Zhidi sighed.

This man was the nephew of the eradicated powerful official Li Ziqian. One powerful official fell and two concubines were deposed, but the Li family still stood firm.

Jin Fuyi said sadly: "As long as the front line is defeated, Your Majesty will be safe."

Ren Yuanhou, the head of the state, was shocked and said: "This... this is not good."

Jin Fushi, the leader of the Kaijing faction, said: "The nobles of Xijing have joined forces with the border warriors. If this battle is won, not only will the nobles of Xijing be difficult to suppress, but those warriors will also be arrogant and domineering. At such a critical moment, extraordinary measures must be used!"

What are extraordinary measures?

Betray the frontline troops.

Internally, he delayed the transportation of grain and grass; externally, he provided intelligence to the Kingdom of Jin.

Back then, Wang Gou's father defeated the Jurchens, opened up territory and built nine cities in the Northeast. The king's prestige surpassed that of all the nobles.

The nobles of Goryeo also played this trick, first provoking civil strife and then asking the front line to withdraw their troops to quell the rebellion. At the same time, he passed the news to the Jurchens, allowed the Jurchens to fight back and invade the Goryeo territory, and then proposed to return the newly occupied land.

They even went so far as to kill the general who had defeated the Jurchens for provoking a border provocation!

"You won't take action against His Majesty, will you?" Ren Yuanhou is the head of the state. He does not care about his son-in-law, but cares about his identity as the state's heir.

Jin Fushi said: "The eldest son of the king is almost one year old and should be made the crown prince!"

Ren Yuanhou no longer objects. It doesn't matter whether his son-in-law dies or not, as long as he can ensure his grandson's succession.

Of course, it would be best if the son-in-law did not die.

After all, the grandson is not yet one year old, so if he dies, he will lose a lot of money.

After thinking about it, Ren Yuanhou added: "Your Majesty is still too young. If the front line is defeated, you will have learned a lesson. When the time comes, you can let your Majesty study more, and I will marry another daughter to your Majesty."

This is a proposal to put the king under house arrest and then have more children to ensure that the next king will still be the grandson of the Ren family.

Jin Fushi nodded and said: "This veteran is the one who upholds the country's words."

Both parties make a deal.

Li Zhidi came over and interjected: "The Ming Dynasty is so powerful that we cannot ignore it."

Kim Bu-sik's clan is descended from the Silla royal family.

His father and Pu Yinliang went to the Song Dynasty as envoys, and their poems were published in Tokyo, which earned Goryeo the reputation of "Little China".

Jin Fushi himself was also familiar with Confucian classics and emotionally longed for China.

However, the statement that Goryeo completely surrendered to the Jin Kingdom was written by Jin Fushi himself. He was able to securely rank first among the ministers in Goryeo, and he also had the support of the Jin Kingdom.

The Kingdom of Jin can support itself, why can’t the Kingdom of Ming?

Jin Fushi smiled and said: "Prepare the ships and envoys. Once the front line is defeated, we will invite His Majesty back to the capital. Then let the envoys cross the sea immediately, present the credentials to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, and request the Ming Dynasty to confer the king and send troops to rescue Goryeo!"

"What a plan!" Everyone clapped their hands and praised.

He first colluded with the Jin people to cripple the king's army, then placed the king under house arrest and established the crown prince, then overthrew the Xijing faction and the martial arts group, and finally surrendered to the Ming Dynasty to gain the support of the Celestial Dynasty.

Once successful, Goryeo will be the world of the nobles who founded the capital!

These guys learned the Song Dynasty party struggle thoroughly, but they regarded the national interests as nothing.

The King of Goryeo is still gathering troops to collect food, and messengers from Goryeo have gone to the Kingdom of Jin to inform the Jin people to mobilize their troops quickly. It is best to set up an ambush and annihilate the Goryeo army.

At the same time, Jin Fushi wrote his letter of credence and sent envoys to wait at the port, waiting for the time to come to join the Ming Dynasty.

The Kaijing faction is a bunch of insects, how much better is the Xijing faction?

Monk Miaoqing and Zheng Zhichang deliberately exaggerated the results of the Ming army and lied that there were very few Jurchen elites left, just to encourage the king to send troops. Historically, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin Kingdom. They actually told the king that the Song army had won a great victory, and planned to take advantage of the opportunity of the Jin Kingdom to destroy the Song Dynasty to launch a Northern Expedition.

In May of the third year of Hongwu, the Goryeo Kingdom raised 18,000 troops. Before the food and grass could be collected, they marched by land and water to the Jin Kingdom's Haolan Road.

Wang Gou is confident and sure of victory.

My father sent troops more than ten years ago, and he was able to defeat the Jurchens, expand their territory, and build nine cities in the Northeast. Why can't a son do it?

He also didn't want to think about the fact that the people Goryeo defeated back then were just lazy Jurchens who didn't have much leather and armor. Even the Jurchens of Wanyan Department had insufficient armor at that time. How could they compare with the powerful Jurchen soldiers now?

Wang Gou insisted on leading the troops to the front line in person. Monk Miaoqing was afraid of an accident and repeatedly advised him not to take risks.

So Wang Gou stopped at Yuanshan, waiting for news of the victory of the generals.

To be honest, if the Kaijing faction did not report the news to the Jin Kingdom, Goryeo might not have really won the war at the beginning of the Northern Expedition.

Because the Jurchen tribes in these places are weak, and a large number of troops were sent to the south last year, how can they defend against the lack of troops?

Zhao Kuang, a warrior sent by Xijing, was appointed by Wang Gou as the general in charge of the army. He led the land and water army directly to Xianzhou (Xianxing).

In Xianzhou City, Xiemao Ali had been waiting for several days.

There were only 18,000 Korean soldiers. After receiving the news, Xiemao Ali came back with only 200 Xiaoqi and 800 Qingqi.

A thousand gold cavalrymen are enough to win the battle!

By the way, the main population of the Jurchen tribes on Haolan Road is the Bohai tribe, while the Jurchen tribe accounts for a minority.

A large number of Bohai people could not bear the brutal rule of the Liao Kingdom and fled here to survive. They gradually integrated with the local Jurchens. In addition to farming and hunting, they were also good at fishing and piracy.

These people drove offshore fishing boats and often plundered the eastern coast of Goryeo, and even crossed the sea to plunder Japan.

Historically, the main force of the Jin soldiers who defeated the Song Dynasty navy in Liangshanbo was the Jurchens of Haolan Road (also the Bohai soldiers here). The Jin soldiers who were defeated by Han Shizhong in Huangtiandang were also dominated by the Jin soldiers at Haolanlu.

They are the troops most familiar with water warfare in the entire Jin Kingdom - after all, they are pirates.

Due to the Denglai Ming army crossing the sea to raid from time to time, the Jin Kingdom is now also building a naval force. Before Xie Mao Ali was sent to the Yalu River Estuary to train troops. He rushed back to Xianzhou from the mouth of the Yalu River.

There are mostly mountainous areas near Xianzhou, but 150 miles to the southwest are all low and gentle coastal plains and hills.

Most of these coastal plains belong to Goryeo territory and are often plundered by Jurchen pirates. The local gentry and common people supported the King of Goryeo's Northern Expedition, and all of them enthusiastically served as soldiers or as food transporters.

Military spirit is available!

Zhao Kuang sent five hundred cavalry as the vanguard and soon arrived outside Xianzhou City.

But I saw that there was no defense here, there were not many soldiers guarding the city, and there were Jurchen people fleeing into the mountains along the way.

After receiving the news from the vanguard, Zhao Kuang led his troops to advance quickly, planning to take advantage of the Jin Kingdom's unpreparedness and capture Xianzhou City by surprise.

The army was still seven miles away from the city, when suddenly three hundred Jin Kingdom Qingqi came to kill them.

Zhao Kuang first asked the cavalry to engage in the battle. The Jin cavalry fought and fled, while the Goryeo cavalry pursued bravely.

Just as you were chasing each other, two hundred brave cavalry and five hundred light cavalry from the Kingdom of Jin suddenly came out from the northwest mountainous area.

The Goryeo cavalry was cut through the waist and immediately collapsed and fled.

At this time, there were only more than 900 Jin cavalry left. They chased the fleeing Koryo cavalry and went straight towards the Koryo army.

In order to capture Xianzhou in one fell swoop, Zhao Kuang ordered the entire army to march quickly. A large number of soldiers did not wear armor and were carried on the march by livestock.

Facing the chasing Jin cavalry, Zhao Kuang shouted in panic: "Hurry up and form a formation!"

The Korean soldiers with nimble hands and feet quickly found their armor and put it on, but more people were in a hurry.

Moreover, Goryeo also had a large number of militiamen who had no fucking armor at all!

Four groups of Jin cavalry passed by at an angle, and the Koryo front army, which had barely formed a formation, was frightened into chaos.

Three more teams of golden cavalry came, pretending to charge with cavalry and shooting, and the formation of the Goryeo front army was in chaos.

Then six teams of golden cavalry rushed to kill, and the Goryeo front army collapsed.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Goryeo general Zhao Kuang immediately fled with his own soldiers. The Goryeo army collapsed and was chased for hundreds of miles by the Jin cavalry.

Zhao Kuang's negligence was not the main reason why the battle ended like this, nor was the fierceness of the Jin cavalry.

The real reason is that the nobles sent by Goryeo to open the capital leaked military information to the Kingdom of Jin!

As long as Goryeo takes Xianxing City by surprise, the rest will be all mountainous terrain, and it will be difficult for the Jin cavalry to use it no matter how powerful it is.

There were 18,000 men at the time of the expedition, and more than 20,000 civilians were recruited.

Counting the civilians, only two or three thousand people could escape back to Yuanshan alive.

Wang Gou looked at the remaining soldiers outside the city, his face turned pale and his whole body was shaking with fear.

In order to shirk responsibility, the general Zhao Kuang, who had escaped, complained first: "Your Majesty, the Jin soldiers are coming with thousands of cavalry, and our army cannot resist them. The intelligence is wrong. The elites of the Jin Kingdom are still alive, and they have not been annihilated by the Ming Dynasty." .”

"Nonsense!"

Monk Miaoqing was furious: "Even if the main force of the Jin army is still there, how can it be possible to deploy thousands of cavalry in Xianzhou? You must be exaggerating the enemy's situation!"

"Your Majesty, there are really thousands of horses!" Zhao Kuang knelt down and cried.

Monk Miaoqing sent people to inquire about the defeated soldiers, but there were different opinions. Some of the defeated soldiers said that there were tens of thousands of enemies, some said that there were thousands of enemies, and some even said that they did not see clearly, and they fled after the front troops collapsed.

Monk Miaoqing said to Wang Gou: "Your Majesty, there must be traitors in the country who are leaking secrets, and they are leaked by important officials in the court. Otherwise, it will take at least a month for our army to go to the north and the Jurchens to mobilize their troops to reach Xianzhou. How could they happen to be in Xianzhou?" The state set up an ambush?”

Wang Gou also felt that it was reasonable, and was so angry that he was trembling with anger at the insects in the court.

But Zhao Kuang, who was defeated, was ordered to lead his troops to defend Yuanshan City. Someone suddenly came looking for him at night.

The visitor was tied up with five flowers and brought to Zhao Kuang.

"Where did you come from as a spy?" Zhao Kuang asked.

The man smiled and asked, "General Zhao, is he willing to marry the Jin family?"

"Bang!"

Zhao Kuang slammed the table: "It turns out that the Jin family colluded with the Jurchens!"

The person asked again: "General, is he willing to marry the Jin family?"

Zhao Kuang became silent for a long time, then slowly raised his head: "Is she the daughter of the head of the Jin family?"

The man sneered and said: "The Jin family is a descendant of the Silla royal family. If a general can marry a daughter of a small clan of the Jin family, it is considered as a sign of the ancestral virtues. Why bother to ask for the daughter of the main clan of the Jin family?"

"What do you want me to do?" Zhao Kuang asked.

The man's smile became even more proud: "Qing Jun, eradicate the evil spirits around Your Majesty!"