Xianxia version of Water Margin

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"The country is in trouble, and the monarch is worried about the humiliation. If I can get the job done, I have no right to refuse. However, if we go deep into the Yuan court, I am afraid that something unexpected will happen, and there is no return date. You should go back and say goodbye to your parents and wives. We will go here together at five o'clock tomorrow morning."

Wang Yun, Geng Yanxi (Geng Nanzhong's only son), Gao Shize, as well as Lan Gui, Kang Lu, Li Yu, the officials of the east end of the Dujian, Yang Gongshu, the official of the west end of the inner court, Han Gongyi, the internal guest Xiuwulang, and other people who went with Zhao Gou to meet Jiang Hongfei to seek peace, all came to the Kangwang Mansion to meet Zhao Gou. Zhao Gou encouraged everyone and then let them go home to say goodbye to their relatives.

It should be said that Zhao Gou and his people went to the Yuan army to negotiate peace at this time, and they were actually prepared to die.

At the same time, Zhao Huan called Geng Nanzhong and said to him: "King Kang asked your son to be an official, and he went without saying goodbye. I am very pleased with him."

Geng Nanzhong replied: "How dare I say no when the country is in trouble?"

As he spoke, Geng Nanzhong's tears flowed unconsciously.

Geng Nanzhong left the inner hall. On the way, a eunuch suddenly ran to him and handed him an imperial pen, which read: "Geng Yanxi will report back as soon as possible."

Geng Nanzhong looked at the imperial pen and pondered for a while, then turned back to the inner hall and reported to Zhao Huan: "King Kang is on a mission for the country. I am lucky to be able to serve as an envoy. If I were to be sent back alone, how would I face him?"

Zhao Huan was very moved, so he withdrew the imperial pen and issued an order to appoint Geng Yanxi as a direct scholar of Longtu Pavilion, and gave him a lot of rewards.

It is worth mentioning that in order to commend Zhao Gou for his quality and spirit of relieving worries for the country and not fearing life and death, Zhao Huan promoted Zhao Gou's mother, Longde Palace Wanrong Wei, to the virtuous concubine, and Zhao Gou to the governor of Anguo and Anwu.

Soon, Zhao Gou led Wang Yun and others to leave Bianliang City and head north.

At this time, many Yuan troops were already rushing to the capital area.

Moreover, Jiang Hongfei had already issued a strict order that if he met the royal family and clan members of the Zhao Song Dynasty, no matter who they were, they would be arrested.

But I don’t know if there was really a god protecting Zhao Gou in the dark. Zhao Gou and his group did not encounter a wave of Yuan troops along the way.

In the evening of the same day, Zhao Gou and his group arrived in Changyuan.

Zhao Gou and his group planned to set out from Changyuan the next morning, arrive in Huazhou before dark, and then cross the Yellow River to meet Jiang Hongfei.

When Wang Boyan, who was stationed in Weicheng County, learned that Zhao Gou was going to negotiate peace, he immediately led his troops to meet him and protect him into the city.

The people in Weicheng wore basins and burned incense, blocking the road to celebrate, and they all hoped that Zhao Gou could stay in Weicheng overnight.

Wang Boyan reported the wishes of the people of Weicheng to Zhao Gou and arranged for Zhao Gou to stay in the county government.

Then, Wang Boyan said to Zhao Gou: "The Great Yuan Emperor crossed the river yesterday from Li Gu, Wei County, Daming Prefecture. I am afraid that he can't catch up. I hope that the king will stay here for a while to discuss national affairs."

King Kang said: "I dare not stop halfway after being ordered."

Wang Yun, Geng Yanxi, Gao Shize and others also said: "Go as fast as possible. Even if the Great Yuan Emperor has crossed the river, we can catch up. We will leave early tomorrow morning."

What Zhao Gou and others didn't know was that Jiang Hongfei heard that Zhao Gou came to negotiate peace, so he specially sent a team to pick up Zhao Gou, wanting to catch Zhao Gou in his own hands.

But the people sent by Jiang Hongfei didn't expect that Wang Boyan would take Zhao Gou to Weicheng halfway, and then pass by Zhao Gou and his party.

It can't be said that no one in the Zhao Song Dynasty dared to fight against the Great Yuan Army.

After Zhe Yanzhi evacuated Huazhou, Huazhou Zhizhou Zong Ze recruited some defeated soldiers to defend the city.

Jiang Hongfei knew that Zong Ze was a hard bone and not easy to chew.

The key is that Jiang Hongfei was anxious to surround Bianliang City.

Therefore, Jiang Hongfei ordered the army heading south to bypass Huazhou City and go directly to the capital area, which made Huazhou City still under the control of the Zhao Song Dynasty.

Zong Ze had also received news that Zhao Gou was going to Jiang Hongfei to negotiate peace, and he personally led the officials of Huazhou to meet Zhao Gou six or seven miles away from Huazhou City.

After Zhao Gou came, Zong Ze said to Zhao Gou: "Now that the Yuan Dynasty has invaded our Song Dynasty, what is the point of negotiating peace? Please don't do it! Please stay and resist the Yuan Dynasty invasion together!"

Wang Yun disagreed with Zong Ze's proposal and insisted on following Zhao Huan's order to go north to Jiang Hongfei to negotiate peace, hoping to avoid the fall of the Zhao Song Dynasty through peace talks.

When the people of Huazhou heard about this, they cursed Wang Yun on the road and shouted: "Wang Yun is a spy. He must want to offer you to the Yuan Dynasty. Don't do it, it's better to raise an army!"

Zong Ze also disliked Wang Yun. He once wrote a memorial to Zhao Huan saying: "Wang Yun has traveled to the Yuan Dynasty many times and is familiar with the Yuan Dynasty. I am afraid that he will seek profits for the Yuan Dynasty and thus betray the Song Dynasty. Don't be fooled."

Zhao Huan didn't know why he showed Wang Yun Zong Ze's memorial.

Therefore, after meeting Zong Ze this time, Wang Yun ridiculed Zong Ze for bragging and said that he had gathered 15,000 troops, but now he has less than a fraction of them.

Zong Ze firmly believed that it was meaningless to negotiate peace with the Yuan Empire at this time. In addition, he had a bad impression of Wang Yun, who advocated peace, so he spread the news that "Wang Yun is indeed a spy. Tomorrow he will take the prince to the Yuan Empire to ask for merit and reward."

The people of Huazhou were furious when they heard about it, so they rushed forward and beat Wang Yun to death. The imperial edict that Wang Yun carried with him was also lost.

Even Geng Yanxi and Gao Shize were almost beaten to death by the people of Huazhou.

Then, the people of Huazhou rushed forward again and surrounded Zhao Gou, saying: "Your Majesty, you can't go north. There are Yuan troops 50 or 60 miles away from the north gate. Shangshu Wang is a spy and has just been killed."

Zhao Gou was shocked when he saw this scene and never dared to mention going north to negotiate peace again.

However, Zhao Gou began to fear the "ruthless" Zong Ze and the brutality of the "mob" under his rule, and even felt uneasy.

Geng Yanxi and Gao Shize also felt that Huazhou was too unsafe, and suggested that Zhao Gou return to Weicheng controlled by Wang Boyan, report the truth to the court, and then wait in Weicheng.

The proposals of Geng Yanxi and Gao Shize hit Zhao Gou's mind.

Coincidentally, at this time, Wang Boyan sent someone to deliver a wax letter, telling Zhao Gou that Jiang Hongfei was looking for him, asking him to return to Weicheng as soon as possible and make a long-term plan.

So Zhao Gou and his party secretly escaped from Huazhou overnight.

Not long after Zhao Gou and his party left Huazhou, Liu Hao and two thousand Song soldiers sent by Wang Boyan met Zhao Gou.

At this time, Zhao Gou and his party felt safe.

What made Zhao Gou burst into tears was that although it was late at night, Wang Boyan was still wearing military uniforms, carrying a 鐐鞼 on his shoulders, and led a thousand personal soldiers to meet Zhao Gou in the suburbs.

Zhao Gou was very moved. With tears in his eyes, he said, "When I see the emperor in the future, I will first recommend Mr. Wang to be the Jingzhao Yin."

From then on, Wang Boyan began to be appreciated and valued by Zhao Gou.

When it was almost dawn, Zhao Gou and his party had arrived in Weicheng safely.

But Zong Ze was unaware of this.

Soon after Zhao Gou and his party arrived in Weicheng, the Yuan army entered the capital area in an all-round way, and Zhao Gou's contact with the Zhao Song court was temporarily interrupted...

...

Jiang Hongfei wanted to catch Zhao Gou and eliminate the trouble forever.

But Zhao Gou was too insignificant compared to the royal family and clan of the Zhao Song Dynasty in Bianliang City.

Moreover, the Zhao Song Dynasty had not perished after all, and its rule was still deeply supported by the nobles, wealthy families, and gentry.

The key point was that Zhao Gou was only the only royal family of Zhao Guangyi's branch who was stranded outside. In fact, there were still many people in Zhao Kuangyin's branch who were stranded outside. In other words, even if there was no Zhao Gou, those who were loyal to the Zhao Song Dynasty would still establish someone else to fight against the Yuan Empire.

If those loyal to the Zhao Song Dynasty had appointed a wise and powerful person instead of Zhao Gou, who was a coward, it might have brought more trouble to Jiang Hongfei in destroying the Zhao Song Dynasty.

Therefore, for Jiang Hongfei, it would be good to catch Zhao Gou, but if he really couldn't catch Zhao Gou, Jiang Hongfei would not force it too much.

At present, the most urgent task is that Jiang Hongfei must first eliminate the main force of the Zhao Song Dynasty, that is, the royal family and clan of the Zhao Song Dynasty in the city of Tokyo Bianliang and those who are loyal to the Zhao Song Dynasty.

On April 16, Hua Rong's troops, Lin Chong's troops, Yang Zhi's troops, Shi Jin's troops, and Tang Bin's troops, led by Xu Guanzhong, arrived outside the city of Bianliang.

The Yuan army was at the gate of Bianliang.

Xu Guanzhong and others did not immediately launch an attack on the city, but went straight to the northwest suburbs of Bianliang City, seized a place called Moutuogang, and set up camp there.

Moutuogang was the Tiansijian, or horse breeding prison, of the Zhao Song Dynasty, and a place where the Zhao Song Dynasty raised horses.

There were more than 20,000 spirit horses raised here, and the grain and fodder in the warehouse were piled up like mountains.

Moreover, Moutuogang was steep and surrounded by water on three sides, like a sandbar, and backed by Wuze Pond as a barrier. It was easy to defend but difficult to attack.

The Yuan army occupied Moutuogang, which could not only replenish the spirit horses of the Yuan army, but also obtain a lot of grain and fodder.

That's right.

Seizing Moutuogang was a strategic plan that Jiang Hongfei and his ministers had already formulated.

Seeing that the Yuan army was approaching the city, all the gates in Bianliang City were closed, and the whole city was under martial law. The soldiers guarding the city were waiting in their respective positions.

Outside the city, within a radius of hundreds of miles, many people fled their homes, not wanting to be involved in this war.

Of course, there were also many people who knew Jiang Hongfei's style of action and took the initiative to report, wanting to help the Yuan army destroy the evil Zhao Song Dynasty.

It is worth mentioning that Liang Fangping had escaped alone and ran back to Bianliang City from Junzhou without stopping. He was afraid of being punished by military law and did not dare to enter the city, so he gathered the retreating scattered soldiers outside the city and stationed them in the area of ​​the west wall of the outer city.

And He Guan first retreated to Sishui Pass.

When the Yuan army chased to Sishui, He Guan's men and horses were frightened and fled again.

He Guan had no choice but to lead the remaining troops back to Bianliang City.

He Guan entered the city to request an audience and wanted to report to Zhao Huan about Liang Fangping's escape.

However, because the Zhao Song court was in chaos at the time, it had no time to investigate the loss of the Yellow River. Zhao Huan had no time to see He Guan, but only ordered He Guan to control the western corner of Bianliang City.

Afterwards, Zhe Yanzhi and Li Hui also led some of the defeated soldiers to retreat back to Bianliang City.

Zhao Huan also did not hold Zhe Yanzhi and Li Hui responsible, but asked them to lead their troops to defend the city.

Zhao Huan ordered the baojia, soldiers, civilians, monks, Taoists, etc. to all climb the city walls to guard Bianliang City.

Zhao Huan also ordered the Zhao Song court to stop all other government affairs and all departments to actively prepare for the war.

Until this time, Zhao Huan had not given up the so-called peace talks and still had certain illusions about the truce, imagining that Jiang Hongfei would be merciful and take the little reputation and a few melons and dates he gave him to withdraw his troops. Therefore, just before the full closure of the city, he ordered Geng Nanzhong and Nie Chang to set off immediately in the name of messengers to the country of peace, and go to the Yuan army to meet Jiang Hongfei to seek peace.

In addition, Zhao Huan urgently summoned the four military commanders he had set up before, namely the north, west, south and east defense zones, namely Zhao Ye, the commander of the north, Wang Xiang, the commander of the west, Zhang Shuye, the commander of the south, and Hu Zhiru, the commander of the east, to immediately lead their troops to come and rescue the king.

Zhao Huan also urgently ordered Sun Zhaoyuan, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Water Resources, to go to Shaanxi to convey the imperial edict, and ordered Fan Zhixu, the governor of Yongxing Army Road, to lead the six generals of Shaanxi and urge the Shaanxi army to come to the capital to rescue the king.

The current generals of the six generals in Shaanxi are: Wang Si, the general of Huanqing, Wang Yi, the general of Xihe, Xi Gong, the general of Jingyuan, Zhao Dian, the general of Qinfeng, Zhang Shen, the general of Fuyan, and Fan Zhixu, the general of Yongxing Army.

These six armies are the most powerful troops in the Zhao Song Dynasty and are called the Western Army of the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Huan hoped that the Western Army of the Great Song Dynasty could arrive in the capital in time to rescue the king, just like the last time when Zhong Shidao led the army to rescue the king.

Finally, Zhao Huan sent people to the southeast to let Tong Guan send a group of people to the north to rescue the king.

Faced with the grim situation, Zhao Huan and a group of ministers of the Zhao Song Dynasty decided to implement regional defense of the four walls of Bianliang City, appointing the officials Sun Di to be responsible for the east wall, An Fu to be responsible for the west wall, Li Zhuo to be responsible for the south wall, and Shao Pu to be responsible for the north wall, with 30,000 people deployed on each wall. Wang Zongchu, the commander of the Palace Front Division, served as the commander-in-chief. He divided the 10,000 soldiers from the various camps in the capital into five armies as a reserve force for emergency rescue: the front army was stationed at Shuntian Gate, the left army and the central army were stationed at Wuyue Temple, led by Yao Youzhong; the right army was stationed at Shangqing Palace, and the rear army was stationed at Jingyang Gate, led by Xin Kangzong. The rest of the people were assigned to the four walls of the capital. Liang Fangping, He Guan, Zhe Yanzhi, Li Hui, Fan Qiong, Wang Qiong and others also led talented warriors to guard the four walls.

Zhao Huan ordered all the soldiers guarding the city to wear armor and go up to the city.

In order to strengthen the leadership, Zhao Huan also adjusted the ruling team of the Zhao Song court, appointing: Yushi Zhongcheng Cao Fu as the signing book, Chen Guoting as the Zhongshu Shilang, Feng Xie as Shangshu Zuocheng, and Sun Fu as Shangshu Youcheng. At the same time, the city defense command organization was also adjusted, setting up the deputy and lower positions of the capital defense envoy. Sun Fu, Shangshu Youcheng, was appointed as the defense envoy, Wang Zongchu, the commander of the palace, was appointed as the deputy defense envoy, Guo Zhongxun and Lu Yi were appointed as the supervisors of the defense department.

Tang Ke led the new ruling team to inspect the city and visited various city walls. After returning to the palace, they suggested to Zhao Huan that the leadership of the city defense must be strengthened.

So Zhao Huan ordered that one more supervisor be added to each city wall. The east wall was Xin Kangzong, the south wall was Gao Cai, the west wall was Zhang Hui, and the north wall was Liu Yan. Zhe Yanzhi was appointed as the supervisor of the four walls, and Liu Yu and He Guan were his deputies. For each city wall, a member of the royal family was assigned to serve as the co-promoter; for each city gate, a member of the royal family was assigned to open and close the city gate. In addition, suppression officers were assigned to the city gates, and the number of them was too numerous to count.

Worried about the lack of troops to defend the city, Zhao Huan and the ruling ministers decided after research to grant official positions to those who had participated in the military examination and performed well, and ordered them to defend the city; they also selected people with some martial arts skills in the capital and strategic people among the students of the Imperial College, a total of more than 100 people, and granted them acting official positions to defend the city.

After some research, Zhao Huan decided to temporarily recruit soldiers from the capital. The recruited soldiers were of different types, including strong and brave, useful, and brave, all of which were classified, organized and managed, and then assigned to each city wall.

An officer named Wang Jian wrote a letter to suggest setting up special forces. The court adopted his suggestion and appointed him as the commander. The recruited special forces were all led by He Li, the prefect of Kaifeng. The recruited loyal soldiers were all led by Sun Fu, the defender.

In addition, Wang Zongchu, the deputy garrison commander and the commander-in-chief, and Sun Fu, the garrison commander who was highly valued by Zhao Huan, also introduced a strange man to Zhao Huan.

This man was named Guo Jing...

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