One Piece of Song Dynasty

Huang Qianshan shook his head and sneered: "When the Second Emperor was here, thieves were already on the rise in Hebei. After the Jin army broke through the capital, many states, prefectures and counties failed to defend it. The rebel troops trampled on them. The people could not protect themselves and were forced to rise up. Zongze recruited this More than a million thieves are just bandits. They are called loyal and righteous. How can we really rely on them to save the country?"

Zhao Gou was still deep in thought when Wu Shaofen suddenly smelled a strange smell: "Where did such heavy smoke come from?"

Everyone looked up and saw thick smoke billowing outside the temple, followed by flames. Shaofen drew out her weapon alertly and jumped out of the door. Everyone was shocked, coughing constantly due to the smoke, and looked at each other in bewilderment. Shaofen ran back: "Your Majesty, the Huainan thief Li Min was just taken into custody by Zhang Jun, and he collaborated with General Zhang Yu to rebel."

"The inexhaustible rebels are using the name of King Qin to bring trouble to the bandits." Zhao Gou was furious and directed his anger at Zongze, who was far away in Tokyo. "Order Zongze to send Li Cheng, Zhang Yong, Cao Cheng, Wang Shan and other troops were dismissed on the spot."

"I obey the order, Your Majesty, leave quickly." Huang Qianshan was choked by the fireworks and coughed. Wu Shaofen took Zhao Gou out: "There are rebels on the east, west and north sides. Your Majesty, go south quickly."

Zhao Gou stopped in surprise: "Go south and cross the Huaihe River."

"There is only one way to cross the river south." Zhang Jun covered his mouth and nose and looked at the map. Zhao Gou held on to the door frame with a solemn expression: "If you retreat across the Huaihe River, you will really withdraw from the Central Plains."

"The Huaihe River must be crossed. Your Majesty, let's go." Wu Shaofen reached out to pull Zhao Gou.

That night, the Nandu fleet filled the Huaihe River in an endless stream. The lights on the ships were shining like fireflies, and all the bows were facing the east. Maybe there was the last glimmer of hope there.

After walking another three hundred miles eastward, Zhao Gou and his party disembarked from the boat and took the land route, arriving in front of the gate of Baoying County in the evening. The officers and soldiers of Langui and Yuyingsi, as well as the Baoying County magistrate and civil and military officials who were standing in front of the battle had been waiting in front of the city gate for a long time. Seeing that Zhao Gou had no guard of honor and only a yellow umbrella behind him, they all said "Long live" and knelt down to receive him. Sun Qi, the general of the rear army of the Royal Camp Division, pressed his sword, stood at the city gate with his soldiers and shouted loudly: "The general will welcome your majesty into the city."

Just as Zhao Gou was about to lift his horse forward, Wu Shaofen suddenly felt a gust of wind blowing, and her hair stood on end. She shivered and looked at Sun Qi suspiciously: "Your Majesty, wait a minute, isn't the general Sun Qi from the rear? You are not the rear?" Why did you run to the front of the team?"

Sun Qi's eyelids twitched, and he immediately drew his sword and led his men to rush towards Zhao Gou: "Capture Zhao Gou"

"Sun Qi has rebelled." Only then did Wu Zhan, the commander of the Chinese army accompanying the team, react and hurriedly stepped forward with his sword, and Shaofen led the officers and soldiers of the Royal Camp Division to fight against Sun Qi's rebels. Soon enough, more than a dozen rebels had already rushed to Zhao Gou's horse with their swords raised. Kang Lu, Lan Gui and other eunuchs drew their swords and guarded Zhao Gou closely. Zhao Gou quickly took off the precious eagle bow on his horse, bent the bow and set an arrow, and shot down several rebels in the front. More rebels came up again. Zhao Gou went to touch arrows again, but the arrow pot was empty. He couldn't help but look up to the sky in despair and scream: "Am I, Zhao Gou, going to die in Baoying County today?"

Before he finished speaking, a group of troops came from a distance, and the one at the front was Han Shizhong. Han Shizhong rushed over and joined the battle group. Zhao Gou was surprised and happy. When Wu Shaofen saw the reinforcements arriving, he shouted and swung his sword to kill Sun Qi. When the rebels saw that their general was killed in battle, they could not help but flee. The people of Nandu stepped forward one after another and beat up the wounded rebels.

Han Shizhong chased for a while and reported back that the rebels had all been captured and killed, and asked Zhao Gou to go into the city to rest. At this moment, Zhao Gou made a profound and important decision: "That's it, continue going south."

Zhao Gou led the soldiers and civilians of the southern crossing to clear the way across the mountains, build bridges when encountering water, support the old and the young, and slowly march southward, passing Gaoyou, Taizhou, Jiangdu and other places along the way. As we travel further south, the accents of the people along the way gradually change from the Central Plains dialect to the Jianghuai dialect. The further south you go, the greener the scenery becomes and the greener it becomes. The further south we go, the denser the river network becomes, and the more criss-crossing the harbor branches become. Every river, every boat, and every road is filled with an endless stream of soldiers and civilians crossing south. The further south we go, the more densely populated the Nandu soldiers and civilians on the cobweb-like waterways and land routes become, more and more concentrated, and more and more powerful. The further south you go, the closer the people of Nandu are to safety and hope, and the farther they are from the Central Plains.

In the autumn of the first year of Jianyan, the powerful Jin State took advantage of the unstable foothold of the Southern Song Dynasty to launch its first large-scale attack on the infant Southern Song Dynasty, and quickly captured the vast north reaching Qingzhou in the east and Gansu in the west. Zhao Gou first retreated to Nanyang, the second to Suzhou, the third to Sizhou, crossed the Huaihe River and then retreated to Chuzhou, but he was unable to gain a foothold and was forced to lead Central Plains people to cross south to Yangzhou. If we had to draw a clear map of the South Crossing route, the arrow of the South Crossing would first point from Shangqiu, Henan Province to Nanyang in the southwest, then almost return to Bozhou along the original route, then turn eastward via Suzhou, Lingbi, and Sizhou to cross the Huaihe River, and then pass through Chuzhou, and then winding down to Yangzhou, the whole journey is miles. After many twists and turns, many dangers, and an arduous long journey, the third spectacular population migration in Chinese history since the Western Jin Dynasty and the Anshi Rebellion was finally completed.

The significance of Jianyan's journey to the south was that it moved China's political and economic center from the Central Plains to the southeast, continued Chinese culture for more than three thousand years, created the splendid Southern Song Dynasty civilization, and allowed this pattern to continue until later generations.

However, the peaceful and prosperous Yangzhou is not the end of the journey to the south, but only the beginning.

Under the gate of Yangzhou city, Zhao Gou met Lu Yihao, the minister of Hubu and the prefect of Yangzhou, who had been a close friend for a long time. Lu Yihao, a native of Shandong, is in his fifties, has a big face and a majestic appearance. He has been an official for many years and is experienced. He is not only talented in civil and military affairs, but also a genius in financial management. But in view of the lessons learned from cooperating with Li Gang, Zhao Gou is far less enthusiastic about Lu Yihao than he is about Li Gang.

Lu Yihao and the Yangzhou defenders, surrounded by Zhao Gou, Wu Shaofen, Zhao Ding, Zhang Jun, Zhu Shengfei, Huang Qianshan and other civil and military officials, had just passed through the Yangzhou city gate on horseback. They came from behind to report that Han Shizhong had just surrendered the rebel Zhang Yu and the Huainan bandits. Li Min asked Zhao Gou to ascend the city and accept his surrender. When Zhao Gou first arrived in Yangzhou, he felt that the leader was doing a good job and nodded and praised General Han. Everyone climbed up the city wall along the horse path, dismounted and looked down at the city. They saw Han Shizhong escorting Zhang Yu and Li Min's dark team of prisoners, who had also arrived at the city. Han Shizhong showed off his power on the horse and shouted to the prisoners of war: "Take off your armor and accept the surrender."

Although the generals shouted loudly, the prisoners were frightened and refused to disarm. Several of Huainan thief Li Min's subordinates looked at each other quietly holding daggers and daggers in their waists, and the atmosphere was on the verge of breaking out. Wu Shaofen watched carefully from the city wall, Li Min and Zhang Yu, the two chief offenders who caused the Nandu soldiers and civilians to suffer so much. Suddenly, she had a premonition that something was wrong. She frowned and reminded Zhao Gou: "I'm afraid there will be repeated attacks on the bandits."