One Piece of Song Dynasty

Then, Zong Wang sent people to Zhang Linghui's home to search for weapons, which frightened him so much that he spent every day in fear.

At this time, Wang Yun, the envoy of the Song Dynasty, came to Yanjing and conveyed Song Qinzong's proposal to Zong Wang: Since the soldiers and civilians of the three towns were unwilling to hand over the land, could they use the taxes of the three towns instead. Zong Wang believes that this is a major matter and cannot be decided by himself alone. So, on April , Zong Wang and Liu Yanzong came to Yunzhong to discuss the matter with Zong Han.

Zong Han was very happy to see Zong Wang and was very enthusiastic. He held a banquet and said he would celebrate for three days. Zong Han knew that Zong Wang liked playing polo the most, so he ordered the Han soldiers to play polo to promote drinking.

Pharmacist Guo and his family also came to Yunzhong with Zong Wang, but Zong Han was very cold to him. There are rumors that as soon as Medicine Master Guo arrived in Yunzhong, he was detained by Zong Han in Bodian. Zong Han always looked down upon people like "Three Family Slaves".

Later, when Zong Han was handling the Yu Jian rebellion case, he suspected that Guo Yaoshi was involved in the premeditation and arrested him and imprisoned him. Later, it was found that there was no solid evidence and he was exempted.

Pharmacist Guo was rich, with countless cattle and horses, and thousands of slaves. Zong Han was very worried about this and said: "Wealth can move people." So he ordered all of them to be confiscated and "imprisoned Yaoshi Guo back to the realm of Jurchens".

Although Zong Wang had reached an armistice agreement with the Song Dynasty on behalf of the Jin Dynasty and withdrew the East Route Army from the Song Dynasty, the West Route Jin Army still refused to withdraw from the Hedong area, and Taiyuan City was still surrounded by the Jin Army. middle. The generals commanding the West Route Army were Yin Shuke and Lou Shi. They had a clear division of labor. One was responsible for siege and the other was responsible for reinforcements.

Lou Shi found out that there were two main Song troops who came to rescue Taiyuan: one was Yao Gu's troops in the direction of Longde Prefecture, and the other was Zhang Hao's troops in the direction of Fenzhou. The Lou family attaches great importance to the direction of Fenzhou, because Zhang Hao is the son of Zhang Xiaochun, the prefect of Taiyuan.

On April , Huang Di, the Song Dynasty's military envoy on Yanyan Road who was stationed in Shangxian Village in the northeast of Fenzhou, received a report from the detective cavalry: Jin cavalry was found operating in Xia'an Village, thirty miles away. . That night, Huang Di, the commander-in-chief of the capital, issued an order to the nearby Shaanxi troops: start cooking, prepare for battle.

Soon, the sentry reported that the gold man had arrived nearby and was active. Huang Di sent an order to all armies: No troops should be sent out and each should defend its own stronghold.

Early the next morning, about a thousand armored cavalry arrived in front of Huang Dijunzhai. They were sent by Lou Shi from Taiyuan City. They stood in front of the stronghold and observed the Song army's camp for a long time. At that time, the Song Army had a total of nine military strongholds stationed in the Shangxian Village area, all located on Beigang, several miles apart. The Song army all followed Huang Di's order, closed the gates of the village tightly, and did not go out to fight.

Later, another large group of Jin cavalry arrived, and they quickly divided into nine groups. In addition, a part was separated and stopped three to five miles away from the military stronghold. This was probably a reserve force. The first armored cavalry to arrive had already left, heading straight to Fenzhou to guard the path of the Song army's reinforcements. The nine groups of cavalry were the main attacking force of the Jin Army. They quickly dispersed and rushed towards a military stronghold of the Song Army.

Huang Di's military camp was attacked first. Huang Di immediately sent three teams of divine arm bows out of the stronghold to shoot at the Jin army on the high hill. The Jin army did not retreat and immediately launched a counterattack. The two armies shot at each other for a while, and someone reported to Huang Di that the arrows had been used up.

Huang Di then sent three more teams of divine arm bows out of the stronghold and continued to shoot at Gaogang. But they were only halfway out when the Jin army's iron hooves rushed straight to the gate. The defenders in the stronghold could not resist and fled in all directions, abandoning all their armor and military supplies. Countless officers, soldiers, civilians, and people transporting food in the village died.

Soon, the other villages were also defeated by the Jin army, and the remnants of the Song army retreated towards Fenzhou.

Recently, the imperial court has been receiving urgent reports from Taiyuan, saying that Taiyuan is no longer able to support itself and will soon fall if the imperial court does not rescue it. Song Qinzong was very anxious after hearing this. Under the advice of Li Gang, the Privy Councilor who knew him, and Xu Han, who also knew the Privy Council. They quickly moved northward from Longde Mansion and Fenzhou. The three armies worked together to relieve the siege of Taiyuan. Yao Gu and Zhang Hao attacked from the front, while Zhong Shizhong attacked from the side.

After receiving the order, more than soldiers from the Zhong Division joined the Shengjie Army in Hebei. They set out from Zhending, Hebei, passed through Tianchang Town in Jingxing, Hebei, crossed the Taihang Mountains, and headed west, first entering the Pingding Army in Shanxi. Then the army continued to advance westward and soon recovered Shouyang and Yuci counties. After marching for hundreds of miles, I never saw a single golden man. Zhong Shizhong thought that when the Jin people learned that the army had arrived, they all fled.

In fact, the Jin people judged at that time that the Song troops rescuing Taiyuan mainly came from Fenzhou in the southwest and Longde Prefecture in the south, so the blocking forces were mainly deployed in these two directions, while no troops were deployed in the east Hebei direction. Now, the Hebei Song Army suddenly left the Pingding Army and headed west to Taiyuan, which greatly exceeded the Jin people's expectations. In this regard, the Jin army was quite panicked, thinking that this Song army simply fell from the sky. Lou Shi, who was responsible for the reinforcements, was also shocked and hurriedly sent his son Wanyan Huonv to lead the troops to stop the attack.

Zhong Division has led his troops to Yuci, which is known as the "South Gate of Taiyuan" and is only more than kilometers away from Taiyuan. It can be said that if the troops advance a little further, they can reach the gates of Taiyuan City. However, Zhongshi saw that Yao Gu and Zhang Hao's troops had not arrived yet and were still far away. He was worried that he would go deep alone, lack of support, or encounter unexpected events, so he led his army back to Zhending, Hebei.

The sudden advance to the east of Hedong by the Zhongshi Division did have the effect of taking them by surprise and taking them off guard. If the seed masters dared to rush to Taiyuan at that time, cooperate with Zhang Xiaochun and Wang Xunli in Taiyuan City, and launch an attack on Yin Shu Ke, even if they cannot relieve the siege immediately, they will also attract the troops deployed by Lou Shi in the directions of Longde Mansion and Fenzhou. The Jin army returned to support Taiyuan. From this, Yao Gu and Zhang Hao can speed up their advance, and Taiyuan may be able to relieve the siege. In doing so, the troops in the division may have to pay a greater price, but it may achieve an overall victory.

However, due to the imperial court's lack of an overall strategic battle plan in the military, although the total military strength seemed to be large, each army below was fighting independently, and there was no effective coordination and cooperation among the armies, resulting in a situation of fragmentation, with inevitable consequences. They were defeated one by one by the Jin army.

The purpose of withdrawing troops from Zhongshi back to Zhending was to wait for the arrival of Yao Gu and Zhang Hao's armies, and then rescue Taiyuan together. Perhaps he felt that it would be difficult to break the siege of Taiyuan with one army.

At this time, as the weather was getting hotter, Zong Han had returned to Yunzhong to escape the heat. He secretly ordered the soldiers around Taiyuan to disperse and graze nearby. After the Song Dynasty intelligence personnel discovered this situation, they immediately reported it.

Based on this judgment, the imperial court judged that the Jin Army on the West Route was likely to withdraw its troops across the board. Therefore, I am very dissatisfied with the decision of the Zhongshi Division to retreat under such circumstances.