Volume 2 Chapter 3 Dragon Snake
Before the Huaixi thief Ding Jin was found to have committed suicide with a knife while going to the toilet, the Palace Attendant Censor Hu Yin Hu Mingzhong had many identities. For example, he was one of the youngest civil officials in the court, well-educated, of clean origin, and had a bright future. For another example, he was also the most ardent anti-Jin faction in the court, always like to propose the most radical anti-Jin plans at the most inappropriate times. For another example, he was also a close friend and younger brother of Zhang Jun and Zhao Ding, and was considered to be the glue between the two upstarts who were now estranged.
Even if Emperor Zhao appointed this person, to be fair, it was more or less because of his prominent political stance... Just think about it, when someone tried to soften the anti-Jin stance and tried to save the country in a roundabout way, he was brought out, and it was about welcoming back the two saints, crossing the river to the north, and the principles of the emperor and the father. Who could resist? Who dared to speak?
To put it bluntly, he was just a tool and someone else's political appendage, at most a potential stock.
However, after Ding Jin was buried in a random pit, the name Hu Yin no longer needed to be explained by others or certain positions. Hu Mingzhong became famous overnight, and Xu Jingheng, the former Chief Censor and current Prime Minister of the Eastern Palace, praised him as a "true censor" at the time.
Even the emperor, who was well aware of the situation, after hesitating and dodging the ridicule, arrived at Zhugao Town the next day and officially issued a series of decrees:
First, Zhang Jun's purple robe was stripped off, and he was changed from Chief Censor to Trial Chief Censor, making this man who might be the closest to the youngest prime minister of the Song Dynasty three points further away from that position;
Second, Hu Yin officially replaced Zhang Jun, who was responsible for cleaning up the disturbances caused by Han Shizhong's troops along the way and taking charge of military discipline;
Third, through the above two events, he officially admitted the mistakes of Emperor Zhao, admitted that he was too lenient to some meritorious officials and ignored the court system, and used this to warn the emperor and his people to be cautious and not arrogant...
After the decree was issued, everyone knew that Hu Yin's impeachment yesterday had already produced real results.
But that was not all. After the emperor continued his journey westward for two days and arrived at the Huai River just north of Dingcheng, the capital of Guangzhou, where he gathered with the three generals Miao Fu, Liu Zhengyan and Liu Yan and met Yuwen Xu Zhong, Emperor Zhao formally summoned all four ministers, two from the east and two from the west, to discuss the issue of selecting talents to serve in the court.
Following the advice of the four ministers, Emperor Zhao made some minor revisions and eventually issued a series of new decrees... However, he used the excuse of "current difficulties and national crisis" to require all localities to recommend talents regardless of their background.
Among them, each military prefecture in Guanxi, Southeast, Jingxiang, Jingdong, and Bashu will recommend one civil and one military officer, plus a person of integrity who has made special contributions in the national crisis; and the local garrison commanders and governors are allowed to recommend an additional ten people; because Lianghuai and Jingxi are close to the imperial court, they are specially allowed to recommend one person of integrity in each county in addition to the military prefectures.
This so-called man of integrity was naturally the one that Emperor Zhao cared about most, "one who could resist the Jin army", and was also his private cargo that he had forced in.
After these people arrived at the auxiliary capital of Nanyang, they would be divided into civil and military personnel for a small test and training to supplement the talents of the auxiliary capital. Of course, Zhao Jiu was not capable of correcting the huge problem of the division of civil and military personnel.
In addition, Emperor Zhao issued another decree, giving Li Gang the same convenient personnel power as Zong Ze on the front line, allowing Prime Minister Li to temporarily appoint high-ranking officials who are vacant in the southeast, and only needs to report and discuss afterwards... However, correspondingly, Li Gang's confidant Lin Qi was transferred from the Ministry of Personnel to the Ministry of Revenue.
Back to the present, after this incident, Censor Hu's reputation was once again elevated among the people. Everyone knew that the profound meaning of the impeachment made by this censor that day had been achieved, and this person already had the ability to promote major political affairs.
However, regardless of how Censor Hu's reputation was growing in the imperial court, or how the imperial court was experiencing a new atmosphere, Emperor Zhao still had to continue his journey west.
At the end of February, the emperor arrived at Guangshan Mountain, the westernmost part of the Huaihe River in Guangzhou. Because the Huaihe River ahead was too shallow and narrow, he officially abandoned his boats and headed for Caizhou on the north bank... At this time, bad news came from the south, that Jianzhou (Jian in Fujian) had a mutiny. Emperor Zhao did not dare to neglect this and immediately appointed Miao Fu and Liu Zhengyan as the commander-in-chief and deputy commander-in-chief of the rear army of the imperial camp, and led the troops to the southeast, assisting Li Gang in maintaining law and order in the southeast in the name of protecting the empress dowager.
After the two generals left, within a day or two, as they had just entered the interior of Caizhou, Han Shizhong and Wang De, who were leading the way on both sides, began to encounter various armed forces and started a large-scale battle. The imperial guard had to enter Ruyang, the capital of Caizhou, which had been captured by the Jin army before, on the first day of March, and then use it as a base to recruit the rebels and wait for Wang De and Han Shizhong to attack from all sides to eliminate the rebels in order to open up a so-called turning point.
It was at this time that the Emperor received a series of accurate information from the rebel army and the envoys sent by Zong Ze, saying that the large-scale southward advance of the Jin army last winter, just as the Eastern Army led by Talai and Wuzhu basically swept through the two routes of Jingdong like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, the Western Army remotely controlled by Nianhan also caused extremely serious consequences in the west.
Although this had been anticipated, and even before Bagong Mountain, many uncertain news had been received, but after hearing these messages, and thinking about the rebels and bandits all over Caizhou, everyone in the line was shocked and serious, and no longer had the relaxed attitude they had before:
The Western Capital Luoyang was broken, looted and burned by the Jin army.
Chang'an, which was previously considered the best choice for the secondary capital, fell early, but this was because after being besieged for more than ten days, it encountered an earthquake and betrayal at the same time... The one who defected was none other than Fu Liang, one of the two generals appointed by Li Gang in Nanjing (Shangqiu) that day, the former deputy envoy of Hedong.
This man led hundreds of elite troops to seize the city and surrender to the Jin Dynasty. He was the biggest culprit in the fall of Chang'an City.
It's ridiculous that Emperor Zhao had previously pardoned him and tried to find him, and was even worried that he had already died at the hands of the fleeing soldiers. However, he didn't know that this man had already hidden in Guanzhong and became a blatant traitor.
After Chang'an was captured, almost all of the officials including Tang Zhong, the direct scholar of Tianzhang Pavilion and the governor of Jingzhao Prefecture, as well as the deputy envoy of Shaanxi Transportation, the chief judge, the judge, and the clerks died for their country.
Later, after Henan Yin Sun Zhaoyuan fled south from Luoyang to Caizhou, he saw that the mountains and plains were full of defeated soldiers. He wanted to recruit and use them, but he scolded the defeated soldiers for depriving the people of their food and clothing and bringing disaster to the local area. As a result, he was killed by angry defeated soldiers under the city of Ruyang. The corpse was found in a wild forest by Emperor Zhao, and it was infested with maggots.
At this time, the atmosphere in the imperial court had been thoroughly rectified, but two days later, with the arrival of a man in coarse cloth hurriedly brought in by Han Shizhong, no one below Emperor Zhao could sit in peace anymore.
The man who came was Yan Xiaozhong, the prefect of Tangzhou, which is west of Caizhou and east of Dengzhou where Nanyang is located. And he actually escaped from the Jin army!
Regardless of how they escaped, Yan Xiaozhong reported a piece of news that caught everyone off guard - the Jin army commander Ni Chuhe was still looting in Nanyang!
It turned out that just after the Palace Attendant Censor Ma Shen took Zhang Suo to leave Xiangyang and Nanyang to go to the imperial court to meet Emperor Zhao, the Jin army launched a large-scale invasion to the south. After the Jin army's western army broke through Luoyang, it specially sent a force of about 10,000 people led by a Wanhu to the south, and successively conquered Ruzhou and Caizhou... The imperial court knew about this, because this Wanhu had stayed in Caizhou for a long time, and it seemed that he was going to respond to Wanyan Wushu in the east in Huaixi.
At this time, they were traveling west and arrived at Caizhou. Because there were no Jin troops in Caizhou, they thought he had withdrawn his troops back to Taiyuan!
In fact, at this moment, according to the continuous information from Zong Ze, Zhang Suo and Zhang Jun, at least the Eastern Army of the Jin Army had a clear intention to withdraw its troops in Jingdong. The Jin Army garrisons in Qingzhou and Weizhou in the corners had already gone to Hebei. There were even rumors that Liu Yu, a surrendered minister of Jinan Prefecture, had wailed and begged Talai to leave some of the Jin Army stationed there.
But no one expected that the Jin Army's Western Route would still be so rampant.
"Good instructor, my family knows."
The short Yan Xiaozhong bowed and made a statement in the hall of Ruyang government office. "Ni Chuhe went south after conquering Xijing in December last year. He was dispatched for the emperor and the imperial court. The official military order he received from Wanyan Loushi seemed to be to conquer Dengzhou and take Nanyang. On the contrary, he came to Caizhou on his own after hearing that the emperor was in Huaishang!"
In the lobby, many smart people, including Emperor Zhao, realized it almost instantly, and then were shocked - yes, this is right!
You know, at that time, our Emperor Zhao was preparing to go to Nanyang with Li Gang, Li Xianggong! The Western Route Army of the Jin Army, whether it was Nianhan or Loushi, could not fail to notice this matter, so after quickly breaking through Xijing Luoyang, they naturally had the intention of waiting for the rabbit.
And if there had been no trouble that day, and if the emperor and his people had really come to Nanyang happily, with the emperor's combat power at that time, wouldn't they have been wiped out by Wanhu?
Thinking of this, many people in the tent turned pale, and even Emperor Zhao suddenly remembered the corpse with a bulging belly - could it be that the Huaixi thief Ding Jin was the hero who saved the Song Dynasty? !
Is this another major injustice case created by Emperor Zhao himself after Liu Guangshi?
"Your Majesty." After a moment's hesitation, Yan Xiaozhong took the time to speak cautiously. "I had originally planned to defend Tangzhou and wait for death, but Tangzhou was small and old, and the Jin army could easily dig down the city walls, and I was powerless. Also, because I was short, dark-faced and ugly, like a dwarf, and when I was captured, I was wearing coarse cloth and carrying soil on the city wall, so the Jin army did not take me seriously and still made me a laborer carrying soil with the army. That's why I had the opportunity to escape and come to see you... Your Majesty, my appearance is special, and there must have been laborers recruited by the Jin army who had seen me. Once you ask them, you will know the truth. I have never lost my integrity!"
"There is no doubt about Lord Yan's loyalty. Just stay with the emperor and I will make any appointments after the enemy retreats." Zhao Jiu nodded quickly to comfort him.
Of course I need comfort!
Scholar Kobayashi, who was attending nearby, secretly laughed at Yan Xiaozhong for being too cautious.
Just think about it. According to the current intelligence, the senior officials in the western part of Beijing who were close to the Jin army have basically died or surrendered. Having a prefect who dares to defend the city and walk hundreds of miles to report the news is already a rare role model of a civil official. How could the emperor possibly care about your experience of being captured, Yan Xiaozhong?
However, is there any benefit for Governor Yan to be like this?
"But Mr. Yan," just as Xiaolin was thinking about it, Emperor Zhao continued to ask, "You escaped from Ni Chuhe's army, do you know what the situation in Dengzhou is like?"
"Fortunately, the emperor came quickly. Liu Ji, the transport commissioner of the southwest of Beijing and the direct scholar of Longtu Pavilion, is still here... Fan Zhixu, the scholar of Guanwen Hall and the governor of Dengzhou, is also here." Yan Xiaozhong blurted out again. "But I don't know when these two will be gone."
"What does this mean?" Zhao Jiu was confused when he heard the other party's words. "Has the Jin army's offensive been decided?"
"Your Majesty, I did not criticize my colleagues without permission!" Yan Xiaozhong gritted his teeth and said angrily. "I am also a useless person who knows nothing about military affairs. I was captured alive by the Jin army, but at least I know how to defend the city and know that it takes strength to carry soil to defend the city. I have never thought of using monks and boys as soldiers! I also didn't build the 'Great Wall' to the height of my shoulders!"
Zhao Jiu instinctively thought of the legendary story of the so-called "Six Dings and Six Jias" when he heard this, but he panicked and immediately looked at the men sitting beside him: "Who is this talking about?"
The four men who were sitting stood up almost at the same time after hearing this, and then Lü Haowen looked at each other awkwardly: "Good instructor, you know that the person that Fan Xueshi relies on most in military affairs is a monk named Zongyin. During the Jingkang period, Fan Xueshi was the commander of the Western Army and led 160,000 troops to support Tokyo. He specially selected a team of monk soldiers, named the 'Zunsheng Army', and another team of boy soldiers, named the 'Jingsheng Army'. He also built the 'Great Wall' in Tongguan to connect to Longmen..."
"And how badly did they lose?" Zhao Jiu figured out what was going on halfway through, but interrupted the other party directly.
"It was defeated by Wanyan Loushi's elite cavalry of 10,000." After experiencing the battle of Shouzhou, Lv Haowen and these people probably felt that some of the previous things were too absurd, and they quickly bowed their heads after saying this. "Mr. Fan also lost his position as the envoy of Shaanxi and was transferred to Dengzhou."
"The Song Dynasty has survived until today, thanks to the blessing of gods and Buddhas." Emperor Zhao sneered. "If I had really come to Nanyang that day, I would have killed this man with my own hands even if it meant the destruction of the country... Liu Guangshi was really wronged!"
Hearing this, all the civil and military officials in the hall lowered their heads in silence. Even the short-statured Prefect Yan was at a loss for what to do and quickly bowed his head.
"In that case, it must be too late to rescue Dengzhou?" Zhao Jiu came back to his senses and continued to ask Yan Xiaozhong.
"That's not the case." Yan Xiaozhong quickly replied. "Your Majesty, please allow me to report that Liu Longtu, the transport envoy, is loyal and devoted. During the Jingkang period, he went to Tokyo alone to fight against the danger. When he came back, he received the imperial decree to tidy up Nanyang to prepare for the emperor's attack. He has been working hard to maintain it until today... Liu Longtu may not know military skills like me, but he will never be as absurd as Master Fan, and he will not easily abandon the city and leave."
Zhao Jiu's heart was lifted, but he quickly asked again: "Do you know the strength of that Jin army commander?"
"Five Jurchen Meng'an, two Khitan Meng'an, one Xi Meng'an, one Northern Han Meng'an, and one Bohai Meng'an, but it seems that because of the damage in the previous Taiyuan battle, there are only 50 to 60 Moukes in total!" Yan Xiaozhong immediately responded. "That's 5,000 to 6,000 main forces! The rest are all surrendered soldiers from the Western Army as a supplement. Only he fought in Xijing (Luoyang), Ruzhou, Caizhou, and Tangzhou, and many rebel troops surrendered to him recently!"
Upon hearing this number, there was silence in the hall for a moment, from Zhao Jiu and the other four ministers, to the censors below the Chief Censor Zhang Jun... In short, except for the more cunning scholar Kobayashi, almost all the important officials who came from the east instinctively and tacitly exchanged glances, and then a bold idea arose in their hearts at the same time... It was obvious that after the battle of Shouzhou, at least everyone's mentality was completely different from that of the officials in the west of Beijing.
Of course, after all, there were only 10,000 households plus a bunch of surrendered soldiers. After thinking about it, Emperor Zhao still felt a little guilty, so he asked again in a serious tone: "Mr. Yan, let's not talk about Fan Qiong in Xiangyang in the south. Are there any soldiers and horses available in Caizhou, Tangzhou, Ruzhou, and Dengzhou?"
"Reporting to the emperor, although the west of Beijing is in a mess, there are still brave men who dare to fight against the Jin army." Yan Xiaozhong's eyelids jumped, and he almost instantly understood what the emperor meant, and also understood the reason for the strange atmosphere in the hall just now, but he was three parts frightened, three parts shocked, three parts hopeful, and one part cautious. "Tangzhou is a small place with few people. We have tried our best, but in the northwest of Caizhou, there is a local tyrant named Zhai Chong. He is a distant relative of the two generals Da Zhai and Xiao Zhai in Xijing, and he is quite powerful. My family is placed in his house... Please give me a horse, and send an eunuch with a certificate of appointment back to Tangzhou, and I will definitely bring back 3,000 elite soldiers!"
When Zhao Jiu heard that they were the relatives of Big Zhai and Little Zhai, he instinctively believed them… You must know that the brothers Zhai Xing and Zhai Jin were the real support of Luoyang, the Western Capital, and they almost single-handedly persisted in resisting the Jin in Luoyang. Zhao Jiu also saw a lot of news about this family from various places. As for Emperor Zhao, he vaguely associated the origin of this family's rise with Zhujiazhuang and Zengtou City in Water Margin!
In other words, this family is simply the Song Dynasty version of a super powerful family, and they are a powerful family that rose to power by taking advantage of the chaos!
However, they are loyal and reliable in terms of their code of conduct, and they value national justice! Not long ago, the defense of Xijing was fought by the Zhai brothers alone, and the second son of the second brother Zhai Jin also died under the sword of the Jin people in the breakout battle.
Therefore, when ethnic conflict is the main core contradiction, the Zhai family is undoubtedly loyal to the emperor, patriotic and powerful!
"I don't know much about Ruzhou, but I heard about one thing in the Jin army." Just as Zhao Guanjia's mind drifted to the Water Margin, Yan Xiaozhong continued to narrate seriously. "There was a warrior named Niu Gao who took advantage of the Jin army's passage and rose up. He repeatedly fought against the Jin people and won. Now he has quite a lot of troops..."
Zhao Jiu was startled and almost didn't react... There was no way, after more than half a year, he finally caught someone he knew, and was a little caught off guard. Thinking about this trip to the West, I thought it was Journey to the West, but later found out it was Water Margin, but in the end it was Yue Fei's Biography.
"Your Majesty, I think we can make up our minds to fight this battle!" At this moment, Zhang Jun, the trial censor who had been staring at Emperor Zhao and wearing a red robe, suddenly stepped out. "This is not only because the imperial court must drive out the Jin army from Nanyang, but also because the west of the capital is in chaos and there are all kinds of people. The imperial court should take this opportunity to select the chaotic soldiers here, recruit the loyal and brave ones, and drive out the useless ones! It's a good way to kill two birds with one stone!"
Zhao Jiu nodded slowly. The four gentlemen around him looked at each other, unable to refute for a moment.
"If the emperor wants to wage this war, he must be careful about one thing." Seeing that no one spoke, Yan Xiaozhong had no choice but to remind carefully.
"What is it?"
"Good instructor, you know that there is a vital place at this time, that is Wuguan, and the guard is none other than the monk Zongyin in the staff of Master Fan..."
"Liu Yan!" Emperor Zhao turned his head and gave an order to someone beside him without waiting for him to finish. "I will give you a gold medal immediately. No matter how you lead your people to get around or get through, you must rush to Wuguan and seize the monk's military power before the battle!"
"Your Majesty!" Just then, Xiao Lin, a scholar, suddenly stepped out. "I am willing to go and persuade them as a close minister of the emperor!"
Zhao Jiu was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but feel relieved...
Of course I am relieved!
You have to know that Wuguan is hundreds of miles behind the enemy lines, separated by a main force of the Jin army of 10,000 households. It's not like going to Ruzhou to recruit Niu Gao or something like that, but this scholar Xiao Lin actually volunteered... There was Hu Yin in front and Lin Jingmo in the back, and even Zhang Jun didn't become depressed or retreat because of the blow just now. It can be seen that these young civil officials he promoted are not the same kind of people as Fan Zhixu!
What can I say? Thank God, it seems that the Song Dynasty can still be saved!
