Chapter 1: The Awakening of Shin Wang...
That night, Zhao Jun held a bonfire feast for the envoys of various righteous armies who would go their separate ways the next day. In a mountain ridge in Taihang Mountain, the envoys of various righteous armies held wine and ate meat dishes, while the attendants of the envoys and the soldiers of Xinfeng's army also had meat in their meals.
On several bonfires, each with a sheep skewered on it, and in huge pots, there were many donkeys that had been skinned. Zhao Song had always attached great importance to the breeding of donkeys, horses and cattle, and he raised a large number of them. But this is not to say that his breeding was for the sake of gluttony, these donkeys, horses and cattle were all precious and could not be eaten casually. Horses were used for battle, cows and donkeys could be used for farming and grinding grain.
This time, the cauldron is boiling with several old donkeys. Zhao Xun would not kill young or strong donkeys for his appetite. The donkey skin can be peeled off and used to make glue. Donkey hide gelatin is a kind of medicinal tonic that can actually strengthen yang!
In the future Qing dynasty, donkey-hide gelatin medicine will be very popular. In the TV series "Da Zhai Men", after Bai Qi Ye was driven out of the house, he became rich by making gelatin, and with this achievement, he returned home and became the head of the White family. From this, we can see how valuable donkey hide is.
The taste of donkey meat is extremely good. As the saying goes, dragon meat in heaven and donkey meat on earth. At the same time, there is also a soup made from donkey bones and sheep bones, which has become a staple food for Zhao's army, these soups are great for supplementing calcium.
Zhao Ju took this opportunity to let his subordinates have meat to eat and calcium supplements. With a good body, intense training, and the courage to fight to the death, they could become good soldiers!
In Yangzhou, in a tall mansion, Zhao Gou sat silently on the couch, not sleeping. The inner servants stood straight one by one to guard his safety.
The incense smoke in the four-sided censer was faint, and the thick fragrant mist made Zhao Gou's figure seem vague and intangible.
Zhao Gou was worried at this time, and he didn't know whether his edict would be successful in dispersing and eliminating the righteous army. Nor did he know if the Jin soldiers would withdraw their troops as promised verbally.
He has just appointed the cruel and murderous former prefect of Zangzhou, Du Chong, to take over as the defender of Dongjing. In order to satisfy the demands of the Jin State and also to prevent the righteous army from posing a great threat to his own throne, Zhao Gou ordered him to kill and expel all the "bandits" who had been recruited by Zong Ze in the past.
Zhao Gou ordered Du Chong to no longer recognize the troops that were originally compiled by the Zhongyi militia, and not to issue them with grain or salary. As for the Northern Expedition, it was just a shout. It was only a slogan to win people's hearts, to drive out the Jin army and recover the country. For him, it was purely something that would never be implemented.
What a cruel thing Jin soldiers are! His own infertile body and the swollen chrysanthemum made him deeply feel the brutality of the Jin army and his own cowardly heart. It would be best if Huizong and Qinzong were both dead, and he could avenge the shame he suffered when he was in the Jin army. As for the life or death of his other brothers and sisters, he didn't care at all. The only thing he worried about was his mother, Wei Shi. As a son, Zhao Gou felt an unprecedented strong sense of guilt.
"Ah——!" Zhao Gou suddenly let out a loud roar, and the eunuchs all rushed over. "Your Majesty! Long live the Emperor!" The eunuchs thought that Zhao Gou had fallen ill.
Zhao Gou shouted and let his heart calm down a lot. "Nothing! Everyone go back!" The eunuchs then returned to their original positions.
Everything is unbearable to look back on, Zhao Gou did not want to think about it, but could not help thinking. Thinking of the late Zong Ze, Zhao Gou was actually a little sad. It was that Topping Liang Yu Zhu who persuaded himself not to enter the Jin army camp for the second time, lest he be detained by the Jin army.
At first, he was ordered to go to the Jin camp to seek peace, and he was forced by imperial order to re-enter the terrifying Jin army camp. However, at that time, the governor of Hebei's Cizhou, Zong Ze, advised him against it, and he was afraid to enter the Jin army camp, so he didn't go.
It was this old general who saved himself once, making himself the only one to escape from the Zhao royal family and also becoming the emperor. It was for this reason that, in addition to not being able to resist the Jin without Zong Ze, Zhao Gou tolerated Zong Ze's repeated disobedience of his orders to disband the righteous army and repeatedly allowed him to go to the front lines, even blaming himself in memorials.
The young monarch couldn't fall asleep in the evening breeze of a sweltering summer, and was unable to extricate himself from his tangled thoughts.
Suddenly, a rapid footsteps startled him. Turning around, he saw one of his own attendants who had been sent on an errand rushing in and instantly kneeling down beside his bed.
Zhao Gou's heart skipped a beat, had the Jin State breached their agreement and sent troops? The panting eunuch said: "Your Majesty, something has gone terribly wrong. A messenger from the Butterfly Department rushed to report that the envoy team sent to deliver the imperial edict to Prince Zong of the Jin State was ambushed at the border between Wo State and Ji State. It is said that the ambushers were a group of bandits, but these bandits were well-equipped and highly skilled in martial arts. They slaughtered everyone in the envoy team, sparing only Huang Weiting and the deputy envoy, who are now both in the hands of the Jin people. However, Huang Weiting did not fare well either, his eyes, tongue, and ears were destroyed, and his tendons were severed, a cruel act that ultimately led to his death due to the hot weather causing his wounds to fester. It is said that the Jin State is currently investigating which of their troops robbed our envoy team. According to the deputy envoy's message, the other side's people are extremely rough and barbaric, it is likely that they were Jin soldiers..."
"Alright! Don't say anymore!" Zhao Gou thought of digging out his eyes, tongue and ears, cutting off all the tendons in his hands and feet, and couldn't help but secretly feel afraid. At this time, Wei Bo, the inner attendant responsible for Zhao Gou's safety, asked: "How many people are on the other side? How is my junior brother? What about the hundred warriors he brought?"
The eunuch who reported the news said: "I also learned from the vice envoy's letter to the Butterfly Department that the enemy had 130 troops, including 100 infantry and 30 cavalry. Moreover, there was a fierce general who could fight against thousands of people alone. Your younger brother, Flash Sword Guest Zhuge Hou, was cut off his arm in a very short time, about one or two wills, and then almost instantly killed by the enemy's fierce general. One hundred warriors and several hundred soldiers were all killed without a single survivor... The enemy's 130 men did not suffer any casualties..."
Wei Bo was secretly shocked and also silently regretful that his master had lost one of his best disciples, and he himself had lost a close brother. He knew his brother's kung fu skills, although not as good as his own, were still excellent. If his brother could be killed in such a short time, what about him?
Zhao Gou was even more shocked after hearing the news. He didn't care about Zhuge Hou's death, but what he cared about was that a group of 130 people could kill his hundreds of elite soldiers and martial arts masters, which was simply too exaggerated.
Only the Jin State has such a powerful army, and the Jin State's army is invincible in the world. It must be that some of the Jin soldiers knew that they had sent an edict to Zhao Chen, sending him treasures, silk, and salt grains, and pretended to be bandits who robbed them. It seems that this time he is destined to eat bitter melon, and someone needs to be sent again to deliver the edict.
However, this time Zhao Gou did not bring out any treasures to avoid being intercepted by the greedy Jurchen people. He directly dispatched twenty light cavalry warriors and one eunuch official to go to Zhending to deliver the imperial edict to Xining Wang once again.
Outside the city of Xindu, Hebei Province. Under the cover of night, a group of cavalrymen were advancing with difficulty on the rugged mountain path, and after traveling for ten miles, they entered a dense forest near the outskirts of Xindu City, Hebei Province. At this time, Zhao Bangjie ordered them to rest and recover their strength first, otherwise they would not be able to fight this battle.
Their army has arrived at Xindu City in Jizhou, but as for how to attack the new city, Zhao Bangjie still hasn't come up with a plan.
Jizhou City was guarded by Han Chinese troops who had surrendered from the Jin army. In the past, there were thousands of garrison troops here. However, as Xining's army grew larger and larger, the city's defenses began to strengthen. But after all, this place is not on the front line. According to everyone's speculation, although the Golden State may have replaced its garrison troops, the elite Jin army stationed inside should not have changed in number.
Ten thousand people attacking one or two thousand, indeed there is no suspense. But the problem is that the attacker cannot deploy in the narrow street terrain, and there are no siege engines, you want to quickly capture a city guarded by one or two thousand people, it's really at a loss, with no strategy to resort to.
Bai Zhangfei was originally named Bai Dahan. He was a small leader of the original righteous army, and when Zhao Yun led the righteous army to move west from Wumashan, he defected to Xiwang's righteous army.
At this time, he was ordered to rush to Xindu City to investigate military information. It was midsummer at this moment, the weather was hot and sultry, and it was indeed a busy time for merchants and travelers. Although the Jin army was barbaric, they also knew that their materials were scarce, so in order to facilitate some pro-Jin merchants who smuggled private goods from the south to do business, they were quite lenient with them.
However, due to the sudden outbreak of war, there were relatively few merchants traveling south and north. Bai Zhangfei disguised himself as a hunter, quietly carrying several hunting-killed mountain pigs, white rabbits, etc., and spent some money to enter the city.
Bai Zhangfei knew that he could only gather information in the taverns where the Jin army officers and soldiers often went, so after selling his hunting spoils in the tavern, he began to drink inside.
In the Jin army, no one was allowed to drink. Only officers were allowed to drink, and in the wine shops that the Jin army often visited, there were only a few guarding military officers. When they were drunk and hot-headed, they spoke without reserve, inadvertently revealing an important message. Tomorrow, a large convoy of supplies would pass through Xindu, transporting grain and materials for the main force of the Jin army, which was preparing to move towards Yangzhou in the south and the occupied area of King Xian in the north.
Bai Zhangfei immediately rushed back with the news and told Zhao Bangjie in the dense forest. Zhao was overjoyed when he heard it, and hastily summoned Wang Jin and Xiao Deli to discuss the matter. This was truly heaven's assistance, not only sending countless supplies, but also bringing an opportunity to capture the enemy's mail.
Three people consulted and decided to pretend to be mountain bandits, robbing a luggage convoy on the mountain road near Xindu, making it seem like they were evenly matched.
This batch of grain and fodder for cattle, horses, sheep and other livestock is enough to feed tens of thousands of Jin army for more than a dozen days, which is very important. The Jin army in Xindu City will definitely come to rescue. First, lure the Jin army out of the city, and then the righteous army can take advantage of the situation to capture Xindu.
At dawn, the first, third and fifth battalions of Longwu's cavalry marched swiftly and lay in ambush on both sides of the mountain road. In the morning, the Jin army's baggage train appeared, with thousands of large carts, several thousand horses carrying supplies, as well as tens of thousands of cattle, sheep and goats, and tens of thousands of porters and laborers. A huge baggage train stretched for miles.
The Jin army's logistics convoy was so large that it seemed like several hundred thousand people couldn't finish eating in over a dozen days. However, thinking carefully about it is also normal, the journey from north to south is long and distant, and consumption on the road is relatively high. In addition, the garrisoned troops in various places consume and replenish supplies, so the logistics convoy is not only for supplying the frontline army, but the entire team is naturally very large.
Upon seeing the massive baggage train, Wang Jin immediately ordered the 1st Camp Dragon Wolf Riders to cut off the rear route of the baggage train, not allowing them to escape. Not a single soldier or civilian was allowed to flee, nor even a single head of livestock. The news of the Righteous Army's occupation of Xindu could be delayed for one more moment, which would allow the Righteous Army to have more time to construct their defensive formation. It would also give the supporting troops more time to arrive.
The third and fifth battalions of the Dragon Wolf Cavalry deployed on both sides of the mountain path to encircle and annihilate the Jin army soldiers escorting the baggage carts. The second and fourth battalions of the Dragon Wolf Cavalry, as well as the fourth and fifth battalions of the Black Dragon Army's War Horse Cavalry, waited for orders. Once the reinforcements from Xindu City arrived, they would all be deployed.
Xiao Deli led the Black Dragon Army, War Rider Army's First, Second and Third Battalions, three thousand elite cavalrymen, lying in ambush near Xindu City, ready to seize the city at any time.
The dragon wolf riding warriors of the first camp, like arrows leaving a bowstring, quickly cut off the retreat route of the baggage train. Wang Jin then immediately commanded two thousand cavalrymen to attack forward along both sides of the mountain path. The two thousand cavalrymen charged out from the mountains and forests with a loud whooshing sound.
"Kill! Kill!" "Kill...!" "Kill!" In the midst of shouting, the huge baggage train of the Jin army was thrown into confusion. Since there were no large rebel forces around, only two thousand Jin cavalrymen were escorting such a massive baggage train.
Twenty thousand golden soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians stared blankly at the righteous army that was killing its way over, and for a moment they couldn't react. They were surrounded by the righteous army. Countless civilians were immediately captured by the one thousand dragon wolf riders who had arrived to kill them. Many people were still like in a dream after being caught, not knowing who the enemy was.
A batch of Jin army swiftly broke through the siege and rushed towards Xindu, while the righteous army intentionally let go of a batch of Jurchen cavalry at the front of the baggage train.
These fleeing golden soldiers escaped to Xindu at the fastest speed, and this batch of grain and fodder was crucial. The garrison in Xindu didn't think twice and immediately swarmed out of the pass.
There are no other enemies in the vicinity except for mountain bandits, and although the Xinyang Righteous Army is very close to them, they would not be unaware of a large-scale invasion. What they did not expect was that the cavalry of the Xinyang Righteous Army had already arrived at the foot of Xindu City under the cover of night, taking the mountain road through the dense forest.
The defenders estimated that some of the mountain bandits were starving to death and didn't care about life or death, they robbed whatever they saw. This was an important heavy cart team of the Jin army, and they dared to rob it, purely seeking death.
The garrison of Xin Du had increased to two thousand men, one thousand cavalry and one thousand infantry. They sent out fifteen hundred men to rush out of the city, galloping for several miles, but suddenly stopped after turning a mountain ridge.
On the mountain path ahead, rows of cavalrymen from the Righteous Army were galloping towards them, and those large flags told them that this was the Xing Wang Righteous Army.
How is this possible? Didn't Wang's army occupy Wo State? How did they suddenly appear in Ji State? Did they grow wings and fly here? But now the Jin army generals didn't have time to think about this problem, there were too many enemy soldiers, who were coming down the mountain path with great momentum, they were no match for them. Now they couldn't care less about food and grass, their own names would soon be gone, it was better to retreat back to Xin and die defending it.
The Jin army, led by their generals, turned around and ran. When they reached the vicinity of Xindu, they were immediately stunned. Under the city of Xindu, there was another row of righteous army cavalry soldiers, lined up in front of the city, blocking their retreat route. Raising their heads again, the Jin army let out a startled cry. The golden great banner of the Jin army on the city tower was falling from the sky, and the red great flag of the Xindu Righteous Army was rapidly rising, dancing wildly in the wind.
"Kill!" War horses galloped, weapons flew. The outnumbered Jin soldiers were quickly annihilated by the heroic lion-like volunteer cavalry. Most of the Jin soldiers were either killed or surrendered, only a few hundred escaped.
In battle, it's almost impossible to prevent the enemy from escaping at all. Zhao Bangjie quickly gathered his troops and supplies, defended Xindu City, and waited for King Xin of Zhao to lead a large army to support him.
For Zhao Bangjie, all of this was too incredible. The righteous army not only easily took down Xindu, but also captured a large amount of grain and supplies. Launching a surprise attack on Xindu from the mountain road in Wozhou was indeed unexpected, and they won with one blow. Such a strategy, who else could have thought of it besides Zhao Chen? Zhao Bangjie couldn't help but feel proud of his son-in-law.
Prince Xīn, they had already known through their channels that Emperor Gaozong of Song might be a eunuch or injured below the waist and was unable to have children. In any case, Prince Xīn would be the first choice for the position of heir apparent.
So in the future, his own daughter may become a princess, and he will also be considered a royal relative. For his own future, for the glory of the family, Zhao Bangjie can now say that all his bets are on Xinfeng Zhao Chen. Go all out to fight against the Golden Army.
Remote raid, taking down Xindu, was within the expectations of Zhao Bangjie and others. However, they unexpectedly intercepted a large baggage train of the Jin army, capturing a large amount of grain, fodder, and livestock. With these supplies and weapons, combined with the tens of thousands of troops from the Kingdom of Xin arriving here, defending Xindu would be absolutely no problem.
At this time, the main generals of the Jin army received a decree from Emperor Taizong of Jin. Learning that Xing Wang Zhao Kuang had been attacking and plundering in Hedong and Hebei, he had become a force to be reckoned with. Of course, Emperor Taizong would not willingly lower his proud head, abandon his own dignity, and allow the former slaves and captives to occupy the land he had already occupied.
He wants to save his own face. As the current situation stands, as long as he quickly surrounds and annihilates the rebel army, kills Zhao Kun and a group of rebels, he can free up his hands, gather his forces, continue southward to attack Song Dynasty's Gaozong Emperor Zhao Gou, and occupy the entire realm.
He personally issued an edict to the various commanders on the front lines, ordering them to change their established strategy and urging them to launch a new attack immediately. The wording of his edict was unusually severe.
Yan Yong, Wanyan Zongfu, Wanyan Chang and Wanyan Zongbi of the Eastern Route, Wanyan Lou Shi of the Western Route, Pu Jiasou who left Shouyang due to military urgency and rushed to the front line, Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Xiyin of the Central Route, as well as Wanyan Taoluan who defended Shouyang to the death, all received the emperor's edict. If the various armies still drag their feet and do not exert themselves, he will severely punish them without pardon.
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