Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

The Kingdom of Jin was very busy and could not spare a large number of troops for the time being to attack Goryeo, who was stabbing him in the back.

Let's go back four months before the defeat of Goryeo.

Yalu River Estuary.

"Boom boom boom boom..."

More than a dozen Daming naval warships aimed at the Jin Kingdom warships one mile away and bombarded them wildly.

These Jin warships belong to Posu Road. Usually, he mainly cruises in the Yalu River. His mission is to guard against Goryeo and eliminate pirates along the way.

The ruling center of Posu Road is Jiulian Town in Dandong City.

Half of the Jin soldiers garrisoned here were transferred to Huacheng County (Jinzhou) to guard against Yelu Yujian and Zhao Li's troops.

"Come up to the side and seize the ship!"

Wuyan Puluhun shouted hoarsely, he was the most adept general in water warfare in the Jin Kingdom, and he came from Haelan Road, which was attacked by Goryeo.

More than thirty small Jin Kingdom warships rushed towards the Ming Dynasty ships with oars and sails.

"Boom boom boom!"

There was another shelling, and four Jin warships were hit.

Three sank quickly and one was about to sink.

The Jin sailors were frightened by the beating, but Wuyan Puluhun still ordered the charge, so they could only move forward bravely.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Ming warships gradually sailed away from the mouth of the Yalu River. When the cannonballs were almost fully loaded, they began to turn the hulls and conduct broadside shelling.

This time three Jin warships were destroyed, and the Jin navy was almost desperate.

Even if they rushed to engage in a boarding battle, it would be difficult for them to climb onto the taller Ming warship, not to mention that they would be beaten all the time during the charge.

"Deputy Commander, withdraw, we can't fight!" the generals under his command begged.

Wuyan Puluhun stared blankly at the sea ahead. He used to be a Jurchen fisherman and pirate.

He came and went freely along the coasts of Goryeo and Japan. He had never fought such a naval battle. The artillery on the Ming warships was too stupid.

"withdraw!"

Wuyan Puluhun was forced to order a retreat, several miles upstream of the Yalu River.

Yingxuan has been transferred from Dongting Lake to serve as Li Bao's deputy.

He led several medium-sized ships, rushed out from behind Li Bao's large ship, and gradually moved towards the dock at the mouth of the Yalu River.

There was the Jin Kingdom's maritime ship manufacturing base. Although it couldn't build any large ships, Li Bao still came to sabotage it after getting the information.

As for the information provider, of course it is Gao Li!

When Li Bao decided to send troops, Monk Miaoqing had not even left Tokyo, and it was impossible to instigate the King of Goryeo to go north.

It was purely because the place where the Jin Kingdom's ships were built was too close to Baozhou City in Goryeo. They were worried that after the Jin Kingdom built a large number of warships, it would seriously threaten the security of Baozhou, so they took the initiative to provide the Ming Dynasty with the specific location of the shipyard.

"put!"

The reciprocating artillery on the medium-sized sea-going ship threw incendiary bombs at the dock, and then fired a salvo of rockets at the dock.

A raging fire quickly broke out, and most of the remaining coastal shipyards in the Jin Kingdom were burned down in this fire.

The Korean defenders on the south bank of the Yalu River had already heard the commotion and came across the river to watch the excitement. The worse the Jin soldiers are beaten, the happier they will be, otherwise they will be on tenterhooks all day long.

It was not until the Ming Navy left that the Jin Navy dared to come back and fight the fire with the Jin soldiers stationed at the dock.

They are almost burned, and saving them is in vain.

The Ming Navy quickly returned to Lushunkou, and when passing by Dalian Bay, they fired a few cannons at the Jin Kingdom city to hear the sound.

On the same day, Li Bao resupplied at Lushunkou and returned to Juehua Island the next day.

Compared with the general decline of the Liaoxi Corridor, the population of Juehua Island is actually larger than that of the Liao Dynasty.

Because this is the holy land of Buddhism in the Liao Kingdom, many nobles of the Jin Kingdom also believe in Buddhism and did not kill people on the island. Many survivors of the Liao Kingdom quietly fled to the island, either becoming monks or working as tenants for the monks.

Li Bao captured this island last year and transported nearly 2,000 monks to Shandong and handed them over to the prefect of Denglai for disposal.

Dalonggong Temple became Li Bao's military camp.

Li Bao sat down in the abbot's room, took off his hat and threw it away: "I'll leave this to you, I want to go back to Tokyo immediately."

Yingxuan cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Congratulations to Brother Li on your promotion to a noble rank."

"It's easy to say, if you fight more battles, you will also get a title." Li Bao was in a very good mood. He would definitely be promoted to Duke this time when he went back.

Yingxuan shook his head and sighed: "Well, the Jin Kingdom moved its people and banned the sea. How can there be any wars?"

Juehua Island used to be called Taohua Island. Since the name was changed, the Xingcheng area in later generations was renamed Taohua Island Town.

Last year, Taohua Island Town was looted by Li Bao, and the Kingdom of Jin moved away the remaining residents.

The nearest city became the coastal county fifty miles away. In addition, all the coastal residents of the county were moved further north, and not a single once bustling salt field was left (the seaside salt field was looted once by Zhao Li and Li Bao).

"The prince said that the four seas are vast. Are you afraid that there will be no battles when you command the navy?"

Li Bao patted Yingxuan on the shoulder, walked out of the abbot's room, and ran around inside and outside the temple.

After Li Bao threw nearly two thousand monks on the island to Shandong, all the properties of Dalonggong Temple were confiscated. Juehua Island and several nearby small islands were all allocated land on the spot and obtained land deeds issued by Denglai Prefecture in Shandong Province.

These survivors of the Liao Kingdom, who owned land in a daze, immediately regarded themselves as citizens of the Ming Dynasty!

In addition to land, there are also many treasures in Dalonggong Temple.

Because this is the center of Buddhism in the Liao Kingdom, the abbots of Dalonggong Temple in the past dynasties were all canonized as national teachers by the emperors of the Liao Kingdom. After the Jin Kingdom came to kill them, the Jurchen nobles also received rewards, and they were all stored in the temple and were picked up by Li Bao.

The value of those treasures alone was enough to fully pay the Ming army on Juehua Island for several years.

The snow has not yet melted, but the square outside Dalonggong Temple is already bustling with activity.

This used to be a place where Buddhist rituals were held, and nobles from the Liao Kingdom often gathered here. It is now used for training by Ming army soldiers. If the soldiers are on holiday, the people on the island are also allowed to come and take a walk.

The military drama troupe came here before the Spring Festival.

First we went to Lushun to perform condolences, and then we went to Juehua Island.

The soldiers have watched several performances, and today they are open to the public. The residents of the island brought their families to watch the fun.

The sound of "dong-dong-dang-dang" kept ringing, and the play performed on the stage at this time was "Lao Gu Qian Da", which was very famous in both Song and Liao countries.

"Gu" is the name of a character in dramas from the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. In the Song Dynasty, they were mainly officials. In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, businessmen began to appear.

"Da" is a corruption of "Sister", which later evolved into "Dan", which is the Dan role in Qing Dynasty operas.

The roles of Mo, Jing, and Chou have also been formed at this time.

"good!"

The residents of the island cheered loudly. It seemed that the drama had reached its climax.

This Zaju Opera Troupe was newly established last year and is mainly composed of actors from Hebei. Ju Ming asked people to save several scripts, which mainly exposed the cruelty of the Jin people's rule and at the same time reflected the benevolence and righteousness of the Ming Dynasty.

But every performance will begin with a traditional repertoire so that the audience can concentrate.

The common people watch dramas, and Li Bao watches the common people.

In Li Bao's eyes, the men here are sources of soldiers, and the women here can also farm. Counting the two nearby islands, there are nearly 3,000 residents, many of whom fled during the Liao-Jin War.

In addition to farming, they also fish, and their lives are basically self-sufficient.

Li Bao returned to Beijing this time to receive the reward and planned to ask the imperial court for armor. Get some for the residents of Juehua Island and some for the people in Lushun, and organize them into Baojia for training during the off-season, so that you can pick up weapons and fight when the situation arises.

He can raise at least 6,000 militiamen in two strongholds!

The western and southern Liaoning areas of the Jin Kingdom were depopulated, especially in Fuzhou. The cities were burned down and the people surrendered one after another.

As long as he gathers troops to attack Huacheng County and Huacheng Pass, and then asks the court to send 10,000 troops, Li Bao can lead the army directly to Liaoyang.

A few days later, two supply ships arrived at Juehua Island.

After unloading a lot of grain, salt, wine, vinegar and other items, and leaving with the salted fish on the island, Li Bao also arrived in Shandong on the return supply ship.

When staying at the Dengzhou Hotel, Li Bao inquired casually and found out that all the monks he had thrown back had been scattered and resettled to farm in Shandong. Only the abbot of Dairyugong Temple was left, taking the Buddhist treasures in the temple and following the officials to Tokyo.

Li Baoxing arrived in Jinan and met Deng Chun and Han Shizhong who were ready to go.

When the three met, Han Shizhong joked: "If Marquis Li doesn't come, General Deng and I will leave first."

Li Bao explained: "Before setting off, I went to fight another battle."

Han Shizhong said enviously: "Marquis Li is lucky and can always find battles to fight. Our journey last year was really boring. All we encountered were puppet troops, and we never fought a decent battle."

Li Bao smiled and said, "Can you please be transferred to the island to command the troops?"

"I have been transferred to Lin Mansion. Let's finish killing the gold thieves there first." Han Shizhong chuckled. He was a general of the Western Army, and now he has been transferred back to lead a Western Army, which can be regarded as a real feeling of pride.

Deng Chun asked: "What's going on in Liaodong of the Jin Kingdom?"

Li Bao said: "In western Liaoning, eastern Liaoning and southern Liaoning, the prefectures and counties of the Jin Kingdom are already sparsely populated. I led troops to stir things up, and Yelu Yu saw the survivors of the Liao Kingdom surrendering. Most of the prefectures and counties there have been abolished. I will wait for the return from Tokyo. When I come back, I will fight Huachengguan, anyway, I won’t let the Jin people live a stable life."

"Harvest the wheat before threshing it," Deng Chun reminded. "Shandong is already empty of grain and grass. Even the grain merchants can't get much grain before the new wheat is harvested."

"Think about it." Li Bao is from Shandong. Of course he knows how much the war in Hebei will affect the people's livelihood in Shandong.

The three of them took a boat to the Gyeonggi area. The closer they got to Tokyo, the more lively the cities and villages became.

This year, the fourth group of large families has been separated and relocated.

The wealthy families that had not yet been split up finally stopped taking chances and took the initiative to divide their families and analyze their assets one after another. After they sold their land and shops, they applied to the local government and then went to various counties in Hebei to buy land.

The governments of Hebei and Gyeonggi Province received official documents from Zhu Guoxiang and even launched property replacement services.

That is to say, the wealthy families in Gyeonggi used the fields of Kaifeng Prefecture to replace the fields of counties in Hebei. In this way, it can not only alleviate the land annexation situation in Kaifeng Prefecture, but also increase the scarcest resource in Hebei - population.

The land in the capital vacated by the wealthy families was first given to the soldiers who moved their household registration to Kaifeng, and the remaining half was given on credit to the landless farmers in the village.

In the entire Kaifeng Prefecture, basically all farmers have land.

Of course, it is not free distribution. Farmers buy land on credit at low prices and have to pay more grain every year to repay it in installments.

No matter what, everyone was very motivated and prosperous.