Volume 1 Chapter 37: Snow Crossing (Part 2)
It was late at night on New Year's Eve. I don't know whether it was the first or second year of Jianyan, the fifth or sixth year of Tianhui. In short, as the snowflakes fell, more than one person got drunk.
"It's boring in the army, I want to cross the river and take a look!"
In the central military tent of the Jin army, the Jin army commander Wanyan Zongbing, commonly known as the Fourth Prince Jin Wushu, who had his legs crossed on the table, suddenly threw the golden wine bowl in his hand onto the hard ground.
The originally steaming military tent suddenly became quiet. The officers and soldiers in the tent looked at each other and frowned.
Moreover, as far as crossing the river was concerned, Jin Wushu was clearly risking his life, because the section of the Huaihe River in Shouzhou was clearly controlled by the Song army... Thanks to the hasty clearing of the countryside before, a large number of ships were concentrated on the south bank, and the ferry crossings on the north bank were generally burned down. The Jin army did not have many ships at all, let alone organize a large-scale crossing of the river. After the failure of the hasty reconnaissance that day, the Song army had even begun to boldly patrol the river with ferries in the past few days.
If they encountered several Song army boats in the river in the middle of the night, no matter how good the Fourth Prince's horsemanship and martial arts were, he would only be able to sink to the river to feed the ducks.
In comparison, someone crossed the river so righteously, as if it was a farewell of life and death. The only risk came from the instability of Xiacai City... Because there was no risk in terms of crossing the river and entering the city. Xiacai City had a ferry to Linhuai. Although the ferry was burned, the waterway could lead directly to the inside of the city wall, and it was impossible to encounter the Jin people.
However, it is obvious that the Jin people's thinking was completely different from that of the Song people.
"Is the Fourth Prince planning to attack the city?" After a pause, a rough-looking Jurchen Meng'an (also known as a captain of a thousand men) asked the question first.
"Puluhun is right." Jin Wushu raised his head and wiped his beard. "You have all seen the reconnaissance in the past few days. This Xiacai City is a first-class important city. We did not come south to fight this kind of war this time. We just want to capture the new emperor of Zhao Song... We should not touch it if we can avoid it!"
"Fourth Prince, yesterday someone in the city escaped from the west and was captured by us. He told us that the people in the city were afraid and unstable." Another person spoke up. He was a short man with fair complexion. His name was Ali. He was also a typical Jin army general, the so-called Meng'an (thousand-man leader) and Mouke (centurion leader) system. "Why can't we just besiege the city and force Zhang Jun to surrender? If Xiacai surrenders, then Emperor Zhao Song will abandon the north bank and run away, right?"
"You also said that if Xiacai surrendered, the Emperor of Zhao Song would run away, then wouldn't our efforts be in vain?" Seeing that it was Ali who spoke, Wuzhu turned over and sat up, and looked at him seriously with a smell of alcohol. "And if we attack the city first, Xiacai City has the inner ferry to Linhuai. Although it is said to have been burned, it is still connected to Huainan. The Emperor of Song is stationed in the northern ridge of Bagong Mountain, and the Jinwu banner is hanging high. People in the city can see it at a glance... With the Emperor of Song there, the morale of the city may be able to be supported!"
"No matter what the Fourth Prince says!" Ali also threw the wine bowl in his hand to the ground. "Let me be frank, I would rather send the army to attack the city first, and if that fails, I would rather use cannons to destroy the city than let my life be endangered because the commander got drunk and drowned in the Huai River!"
When these words were spoken, all the Han soldiers in the tent were frightened, but Jin Wushu laughed with his head raised, and some other Jin army officers also laughed. Only Ali was still angry, and another captain, Elubu, also looked a little unhappy... It turned out that the Jin army had strict military discipline and even had a famous military rule that if a superior officer died in battle, his direct subordinate officers must be beheaded in public regardless of the reason!
Therefore, in every battle, as long as an officer personally charged in the front, his troops would also fight to the death and never waver.
And this, of course, was the real reason why Ali was so angry. He was not afraid of Jin Wushu going to the battlefield. What was the point of going to the battlefield? In Aguda's time, which nobleman of the Jin army was not trained in mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Even the name Ali had a history... Ali was changed from the three characters Alixi, and Alixi meant the name of the lowest deputy soldier when the Jurchens were still in the tribal system and carried out small-scale looting.
In other words, Ali climbed up step by step from a humble Alixi. How much better than Jin Wushu who was a teenager and killed eight people in battle?
In fact, many generals of the Jin army who were not from the Wanyan clan, even including the generals of the Wanyan clan, had names with strong military connotations, and one could tell their approximate origins just by hearing them.
Back to the present, the problem is that Ali, who was born in Alixi, can accept defeat and death on the battlefield, but cannot accept the innocent involvement caused by his drunken superior.
To put it bluntly, if Jin Wushu jumped into the Huai River tonight, it would be fine for others, but he would have to die in vain; and if he fell into the water and was captured, it would be even more ridiculous, and the entire army might have to retreat... In fact, this was the fundamental reason why Yue Fei was able to escape after capturing the enemy's main general on the edge of Taihang Mountain, and why Wang De was able to kill all the people on a boat on the banks of the Huai River.
"Don't worry, General Ali." Jin Wushu said a few words of comfort after laughing. "Today is New Year's Eve, and the other side is also lighting lanterns and feasting. Why would they send boats to patrol the river at this time? Even if there is a patrol, I will take a few Han people to deal with it... Besides, I will not go ashore. I am not drunk and making trouble. I really want to see the strength of the camp on the other side in the river, to see if the Emperor of Song is there? What is the morale on the other side? And see if the Huai River can be crossed directly by floating horses? Or can a floating bridge be built?"
At this point, seeing that Alixi wanted to say , Jin Wushu sneered, got up and went out of the tent, as if he was preparing to cross the snow at night and observe the enemy camp with the drunkenness... Alixi and Erlubu on the opposite side looked at each other, but they were helpless and could only drink and eat meat.
It is said that Jin Wushu left the Jin army camp without greeting anyone. He led three or five personal guards and rode to the north bank of the Huai River. He found the few small boats of the Jin army and called over a dozen Han soldiers from Hebei who could row boats. He then took a small boat and crossed the river in the snow.
The boat turned a little to the west and when it reached the middle of the river, under the reflection of the lights on both sides, it could vaguely see the hazy figure of another Han army ship on the south bank at a distance of more than a hundred steps. However, this ship was still heading northwest, as if heading for Xiacai City, and did not pay any attention to the boat that was deliberately speaking Chinese. The river was weak, and Jin Wushu was too lazy to pay attention to the other party's messenger, so the two sides passed each other directly.
However, after this boat trip, Jin Wushu never encountered any Han army ships again. He then sailed his boat east and west at will, holding a wine jug in the middle of the Huai River and carefully observing the military situation on both sides.
However, the more Jin Wushu observed, the more he felt embarrassed... Not to mention the solidity and completeness of Xiacai City, he had already known all about it in the past few days. And the Bagua Mountain across the river to the southeast of Xiacai City was also a dangerous mountain with a solid camp!
Not only that, if you look closely now, this Bagong Mountain is just a part of a whole mountain range (Xiashi Mountain), or an independent extension. This mountain (Xiashi Mountain) blocks the north and south of the Huaihe River. The terrain is dangerous. Xiacai is located in the north and Shouchun is located in the south. The Feishui River in the north and south merges into the Huaihe River at the foot of the mountain. The terrain is really complicated. Speaking of Bagong Mountain alone, the reason why this mountain is famous is that it is located between the main roads in this complex terrain. If you want to cross the river from here, the two regular and wide roads are under the cover of Bagong Mountain on both sides, but the Song army has built fortifications here early!
Jin Wushu is Aguda's fourth son, and he is only twenty-five or twenty-six this year. So on the one hand, he participated in most of the major wars during the rise of the Jin Dynasty as a mid-level or lower-level officer, and he has the unique roughness, barbarity, brutality and cunning of Jurchen professional soldiers. On the other hand, the Jin Dynasty has been established for thirteen years. As a prince of the right age, he was exposed to the most advanced culture of the era at an early age, received a considerable degree of cultural education, and broadened his horizons in the wars in the south and the north...
Today he came to Hezhong in the snow. On the one hand, as the commander-in-chief, he had to find a way out of the current situation, so he had to fulfill his duties as a military commander and come to investigate the situation in person, just like his father who was almost dying of illness but still had to go to the Juyongguan front line to inspect; on the other hand, he had complicated thoughts deep in his heart. He looked down on the vulgarity of those old Jurchen generals and the affectation of the Liao and Song surrendered people, so he wanted to escape.
It was snowing heavily. Jin Wushu entered the Huai River in a small boat. He looked at the mountains, the river and the sky and sighed. At first he was looking at the military deployments carefully, but at the end, after drinking half a pot of wine, he actually forgot his real purpose and stood in the river in a daze.
