Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

More than 20,000 Japanese troops fled across the mountains and plains.

The Ming army's pursuit route was mainly in the valley. Especially the Ming cavalry ran very fast and intercepted large areas of fleeing warriors.

But more peasants and soldiers fled towards the mountains. They wore shabby cloth clothes and straw sandals, threw away their bamboo guns and went into the woods everywhere. Although each of them is thin and small, they are like monkeys entering the mountains. The Ming army wearing medium-sized armor cannot catch up.

Zhu Shouyi led the cavalry to rush through the broken troops. When he saw a gorgeous armored warrior in front of him, he immediately accelerated and gave chase.

Dajiang Kuangyi was frightened and quickly urged his horses.

But the little pony was carrying a heavy armor and couldn't run fast at all. Zhu Shouyi caught up and knocked it off the horse's back.

"It's tied up, it's worth a lot of ransom!" Zhu Shouyi shouted.

The two horses behind him reined in their horses and stopped. They held Dajiang Kuangyi down and took the rope.

This guy's ancestor was Emperor Kanmu's maternal ancestor, and he was from the same lineage as the Sugawara clan.

Most of the children of the Oe family were famous for their tribute examinations. They produced several singing immortals and even had a semi-monopoly on the imperial examinations in the Edo period. In recent decades, branches of the family have begun to follow the path of the Wu family, and this time they actually participated in the war.

When the two cavalrymen were tying up Dajiang Kuangyi, they were startled by the guy's makeup.

He is clearly a warrior in armor, but he wears powder and trims his eyebrows, and wears the same makeup as a woman.

The following Ming infantry caught up and took over the prisoners from the cavalry. The two cavalry continued to chase them on horseback.

They ran for several miles, frightening many peasants and soldiers to surrender along the way. When they saw Zhu Shouyi again, they had captured two more armored warriors.

Money!

Every armored warrior means a high ransom.

Immediately afterwards, I picked up Ping Zhongmori's flag. Not only was there the commander's flag, but also a flag embroidered with the Taira clan emblem, and even Taira Takaramori's helmet was found on the ground.

The antlers of this helmet are too long, which makes it look very cool at ordinary times, but it seems to be quite a hindrance when escaping. It is probably that Taira Takaramori threw it away voluntarily when he was chased.

Unfortunately, due to the obstruction of many defeated troops, Heizhong Mori finally escaped.

From the morning pursuit to the evening, Ming soldiers escorted the prisoners back one after another.

A total of 12 armored warriors were captured, 674 other warriors were captured, and 8,211 peasants and soldiers were captured.

There were even armored warriors who fell off their horses and were trampled to death by the fleeing peasant soldiers...

In addition, a large amount of enemy supplies and food were captured!

…

Although Taira Takaramori escaped, he was injured by an arrow and ran all the way. He fell into a coma the night he escaped.

Fortunately, he was hit by a chisel-tipped armor-piercing arrow. There was no barb on the arrow, so the wound was relatively easy to treat.

The armored warrior who was lucky enough to escape found it difficult to find his party, so he could only rely on his noble status to gather the defeated troops. A few days later, they actually blocked the exits of two valleys and gathered thousands of troops one after another.

However, the military structure was basically disrupted.

Under normal circumstances, Taira Tadamori commanded the great-armored samurai, and the great-armored samurai commanded the Langdang samurai. Warriors at all levels also have peasant soldiers brought from their hometowns. Layers of management, layers of command, forming a decent army.

Although four to five thousand troops have been gathered now, the soldiers do not know the generals and the generals do not know the soldiers. It is difficult to evacuate in an orderly manner, let alone fight back.

The commander of the army, Ping Zhongmori, had a fever and fell into coma again, so the armored warriors could only discuss retreat.

Their army supplies were all gone and they quickly returned to the nearest army supply transfer station. After obtaining the food, he was still unhappy, so he went so far as to plunder, rob and retreat to the seaside, and probably stationed himself near Hiroshima in later generations.

At this time, Ping Zhongsheng finally woke up. After asking about the specific situation, he almost spit out a mouthful of old blood and fainted again.

He boasted that he had read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu and understood the art of war. Therefore, we chose to camp in the valley and build strongholds in the mountains on both sides. After occupying the battlefield, we waited for Yuan Weiyi to outflank the retreat and attack from both sides.

Such a great tactical arrangement, how come the whole army was defeated in a daze?

Ping Zhongsheng was lying on the hospital bed and asked: "Does any of you know what kind of weapon the Ming army is that can spit fire and smoke?"

The warriors were silent.

A warrior suddenly said: "Maybe you can ask the people from Tang Dynasty who came here."

In Zhejiang and Fujian areas, there are maritime merchants who have been trading with Japan for a long time. However, this trade was monopolized by the Emperor of France or the Emperor, and the Emperor, relatives, and powerful men were not allowed to get involved.

There are also sporadic Chinese who, for various reasons, stayed in Japan to marry and settle down.

This kind of Chinese immigrants are still called "people who came to Tang Dynasty".

In the weakest years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Chinese immigrants were even called "Fanke" and "Fanren" by the Japanese.

There were even Japanese merchants who beat Chinese merchants to death in Zhejiang, only to be sent back to Japan by Southern Song officials. Even the always obedient Champa people, because the Qiongzhou government did not sell horses, directly plundered Hainan Island to vent their anger.

Ping Zhongmeng thought about it and had to lead the remaining soldiers to retreat.

When he returned to Bizen Country, where Taira Takaramori was posted, he found that Minamoto no Yoshi, who had also been defeated, had led his remnants to rob farmers and merchants.

Taira Taira was furious. He didn't care if Minamoto was robbing him elsewhere, but he was a Bizen guard, and this was his territory!

Ping Zhongsheng sent troops to capture Yuan Weiyi, and the two brothers and sisters returned to Ping'an Capital smoothly.

Emperor Toba had received the news of the defeat in advance, and he was anxious and overwhelmed.

When he heard that the two commanders had returned to the court, Emperor Toba hurriedly summoned him and asked, "How did you lose?"

Yuan Weiyi was the first to answer: "I led the troops to Shijian Kingdom and camped in the mountains for the night. Countless Ming troops came out from the dark mountains and forests. They set fires everywhere, and there were ghosts and monsters in the mountains to help. The army under my command quickly collapsed."

Emperor Toba asked in surprise: "In the dark mountains, can the Ming army fight at night?"

"If your Majesty doesn't believe it, you can ask the warriors who escaped." Yuan Weiyi said.

Emperor Toba looked at Taira Takaramori again: "What about you?"

Ping Zhongsheng said: "I camped in a valley and divided my troops to occupy the mountains on both sides. I planned to confront the Ming army. I waited for Yuan Weiyi to lead his troops to block the retreat, and then besieged the Ming army from all sides."

Emperor Toba nodded and commented: "This is an excellent strategy."

Ping Zhongsheng said: "In order to prevent the morale from falling, I led the troops out of the camp to call for battle. I and the adopted son of the Ming Dynasty Crown Prince rode in front of the formation and shot at each other. The minister's bow and arrow could not break the enemy's armor. But the enemy's bow and arrow could penetrate the enemy's armor. The great armor of the minister."

Emperor Toba said in shock: "The Taira clan's armor was also shot through?"

Ping Zhongsheng took off his upper body clothes, revealing the bandaged wound: "I was hit by an arrow and was unconscious for several days."

Emperor Toba sighed: "You are also a brave man."

Ping Zhongsheng said: "After I was hit by an arrow, I evacuated. The Lang Party warriors stepped forward to help me, intending to fight the Lang Party of the Ming Dynasty general. The Lang Party warriors on the opposite side suddenly raised some long sticks. Those long sticks can spit fire and then emit thick smoke. , the sound was like thunder and thunder. Still more than ten steps away, all of my men were killed in battle."

This set of rhetoric has been told by others before, but he thinks that Ping Zhongmori is making up the story.

Emperor Toba was also suspicious: "A stick that can spit out fire, smoke and thunder?"

"Yes, many samurai and ashigaru saw it," Taira Takaramori said. "Just because they saw it, they all ran away in fear, thinking that the other side was full of monsters. The Ming army took the opportunity to pursue them, and our army fled one after another. In the end, the whole army Collapse and defeat.”

Emperor Toba felt that this was particularly outrageous, and summoned those samurai who were lucky enough to escape.

Whether they were armored warriors or warriors of other levels, they all said similar words. Ping Zhongmori's description is the simplest, and some warriors even said that they saw demons emerging from the Ming army's sticks.

Emperor Toba was dumbfounded when he heard this. Minamoto no Yoshi suddenly reacted and shouted: "No wonder the enemy can fight at night in the mountains. They are indeed a party of monsters. I only brought a few thousand soldiers and horses, but I didn't bring any magicians with me. How can we stop these demonic armies?”

It’s not that our army is incompetent, but the enemy has Gundam!

Therefore, this was not a fault of war, and the two generals in charge were not responsible.

Emperor Toba heard that what they said was evil, and sent a private confidant to quietly question the peasant soldiers who had escaped.

As a result, the answers from the peasants and soldiers were even more outrageous, and the battle had turned into a battle between gods and demons.

Emperor Toba had no choice but to believe it and summoned Abe Seimei's descendant Abe Yasunari alone.

The messy rumors have already caused a stir in Heianjing.

Abe Yasunari had asked around for a long time and replied: "Your Majesty, the Tang army may have a shikigami, which is a shikigami with similar power to the Jianyu Thunder God. When the two armies are fighting, the shikigami calls for thunder and lightning, so Our army was defeated."

The God of Thunder is the product of the combination of Chinese Buddhist and Taoist beliefs and the Japanese God of Wind and Thunder, and is also regarded as the clan protector of the Fujiwara family.

Emperor Toba asked: "How to defeat the opponent?"

Abe Yasunari said: "Perhaps, the only way is to ask the Fujiwara family to invite Takemi Raijin to fight!"

Emperor Toba hurriedly called his father-in-law.

Fujiwara Tadashi was confused when he heard that Takemikan Raijin was indeed the protector of the Fujiwara clan, but they only knew how to worship him, but they didn't know how to invite him to fight.

Fujiwara Tadashi said: "Your Majesty, the Fujiwara clan worships the Thunder God, and the Thunder God protects the Fujiwara clan. How to ask the Thunder God to fight, the Fujiwara clan does not know, maybe only Onmyoji can do it. What does Master Abe need, the Fujiwara clan We will cooperate fully.”

Emperor Toba looked at Abe Yasunari.

Abe Yasunari bit the bullet and said: "Takeyu Raijin is a great god with supreme power. I can only give it a bold try, but I may not be able to invite him."

"Then go and try." Emperor Toba said.

These guys retreated, and Emperor Toba summoned the minister of government and the northern samurai. Knowing that there is no enough food to send troops, even if he takes Jianyu Lei Shen to fight, he can only wait until next year.

In desperation, Emperor Toba sent a diplomatic envoy across the sea to Mingzhou (Ningbo), intending to go to Kaifeng to talk things over.

Rumors and legends are rife in the Gyeonggi region of Japan.

Many samurai and peasant soldiers who escaped used their imaginations to tell more and more outrageous stories about the battle.

The Ming soldiers of Shijian Kingdom all turned into monsters, feeding on the hearts and minds of boys and girls...

(I took advantage of the Spring Festival holiday to take my son on a trip during the off-season. There was only one update in the past two days.)