Xianxia version of Water Margin

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Although the dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River tried their best to prevent Jiang Hongfei from leading his army to advance eastward and buy time for Zhang Jun to break through Hangzhou City to rescue Zhao Gou and the heads of the Southern Song Dynasty's small court, Jiang Hongfei still moved forward steadily and smoothly. They captured Jiangning Prefecture and Zhenjiang. At the same time, other Yuan armies also successively captured Hongzhou, Jizhou, Fuzhou, Junzhou, Tanzhou and other places, and began to bypass Fangla's territory and encircle Hangzhou.

At the same time, Jiang Hongfei also arranged for capable officials to eradicate the high-ranking officials, wealthy families, gentry and noble families, cancel debts, distribute land and grain, restore the social order destroyed by the war, and provide relief to the victims...

Faced with such a severe situation, Zhang Jun, who was ambitious but not talented, suddenly had an idea and planned to organize a decisive battle outside Hangzhou. He wanted to defeat the main force of the Dayuan Army in one fell swoop, kill the chickens as a warning to the monkeys, and then use the victory to threaten Shi Xiu, Sun Jing, and others. Shi Bao and others let go of Zhao Gou and the heads of the Southern Song Dynasty's small court.

Zhang Jun's unrealistic and impetuous ideas met with widespread opposition.

Tongpan Wangshang presented Zhang Jun with two strategies, "Nursing Prestige" and "Being Prudent", and advised Zhang Jun not to act rashly.

Zhang Jun smiled and refused to accept it.

Zhang Jun held a military meeting to solicit the generals' opinions on the duel.

Qu Duan said: "The plains and wilderness are conducive to the enemy's cavalry charge, but our army does not have many cavalry. If we fight rashly, we will be restrained by the enemy. Moreover, the Yuan Dynasty was founded not long ago and its vigor is at its peak. It is difficult for our army to compete with them." . Our army should train its troops and maintain its current territory before we can talk about a decisive battle. "

Guo Zhongxun said: "There are many rivers in the south of the Yangtze River, which is conducive to our army's formation and defense. Although the enemy is brave and has heavy armor and cavalry, they cannot exert their mobility in areas with dense rivers. We rely on the dangers of the rivers to guard Guanfu Even if the enemy invades heavily, it is absolutely impossible to fight for this land!”

The topography of the Jiangnan region is characterized by hills, plains and lots of water.

Although the Dayuan Army has now crossed the Yangtze River, the Huzhou area is still under the control of Zhang Jun and others.

The area of ​​Huzhou is located between Tianmu Mountain and Taihu Lake. It is surrounded by mountains and hills to the west and south, and water towns and plains to the east and north. It is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

The cavalry of the Song Army is not as good as that of the Yuan Army, but relying on such terrain will offset the advantage of the Yuan Army's cavalry.

Therefore, Guo Zhongxun's opinion of "relying on the danger of the river and guarding the Guanfu area" is very insightful.

However, most of Zhang Jun's civilian staff either did not understand military affairs or had their own evil intentions. They all believed that Qu Duan's opinions were too slow and that Guo Zhongxun's opinions were too cowardly.

Most of the generals were already considering their options, so they remained silent.

Liu Ziyu, who consulted on military affairs, agreed with Guo Zhongxun's opinion, argued with reason, and resolutely opposed a decisive battle with the Yuan army in the near future.

Zhang Jun couldn't help but became anxious, and cut off Liu Ziyu's words sternly, saying: "Don't I know this? I saw that the situation in the Song Dynasty was critical, so I had to hold a decisive battle!"

The military meeting broke up unhappy.

After the meeting, Zhang Jun came to Liu Ziyu and reiterated his intention to hold a decisive battle, saying: "The Yuan army will arrive soon. If we don't fight, the Song Dynasty will die. If this is the case, then we will become the leader of the Song Dynasty." Sinner! In this situation, we should raise our troops and fight against the enemy."

Liu Ziyu did not dare to force Zhang Jun's opinion, but he knew that in the imperial edict given to Zhang Jun by Zhao Gou, he had warned Zhang Jun: "The army of the Song Dynasty is declining. Judging from the situation, we must not make a big move after five years."

So Liu Ziyu brought out Zhao Gou to dissuade Zhang Jun: "Don't you remember the emperor's decree? The Song army must have been trained for five years."

But Zhang Jun was still stubborn and retorted: "You can't be rigid in everything. Imagine that if we don't fight hard, we will be cannibalized by the Yuan army. What will we do when we are overwhelmed? What will the Song Dynasty do? Can the soldiers of the Song army still listen to me? Order?"

Liu Ziyu did not dare to say anything more.

The decision to hold a decisive battle with the Yuan army outside Hangzhou was decided by Zhang Jun alone.

It can be seen from Zhang Jun's combat intention that his decisive battle was purely for political purposes, and it is difficult to say that it has military value.

Since Qu Duan always insisted on his own opinions and firmly opposed a decisive battle, Zhang Jun forced him to hand over his military power and kept him as a staff officer in the Xuanfu Disposal Department.

Although Guo Zhongxun was not in favor of holding a decisive battle in his heart, because Zhang Jun was determined to fight, he no longer opposed it on the surface. He sided with the wrong Zhang Jun against his will, and won Zhang Jun's appreciation and loyalty with his absolute obedience. trust.

After some days, someone slandered Zhang Junjin and said bad things, which aroused Zhang Jun's suspicion.

Therefore, Zhang Jun cleared up Qu Duan's previous crime of annexing other Song armies by force, demoted Qu Duan, and settled him in Mingzhou. Soon after, he demoted Qu Duan to the deputy envoy of Haizhou Tuanlian.

Zhang Zhongfu and Li Yanqi were also punished at the same time because they were Qu Duan's confidants.

After purging the senior officers of the Jingyuan Army, Zhang Jun appointed his cronies to take over Qu Duan's men.

Zhang Jun planned to hold a decisive battle in the near future, but he changed generals before the battle, which must be said to have violated a military taboo.

It was heard that Zhang Jun wanted to hold a decisive battle and decide the outcome in one battle.

This situation is very consistent with Jiang Hongfei's intention to eliminate the remaining forces of the Zhao and Song Dynasties in one fell swoop through a decisive battle.

Therefore, Jiang Hongfei, with Liu Huiniang as the commander-in-chief, mobilized various Yuan armies to advance towards Hangzhou, preparing for a decisive battle with Zhang Jun.

Because Zhang Jun concentrated on shrinking his troops to fight the Yuan army under the walls of Hangzhou, the Yuan army came over the dangerous areas of Taihu Lake and Tianmu Mountain with ease.

The Yuan army mobilized very quickly.

In early March, the Yuan army arrived in the Deqing-Chongde area.

Here, Zhang Jun made two major mistakes.

One is that Qu Duan once sent someone to advise Zhang Jun: "The enemy is coming fiercely. We should now defend their territory, support each other, and look for opportunities to move."

Although Qu Duan was arrogant, he was born in a general family and had rich practical experience. His opinion was very correct.

However, at this moment, Zhang Jun had gathered all the remnants of the Zhao Song Dynasty, a total of nearly 500,000, and 70,000 cavalry.

This is an unprecedentedly large corps;

In addition, the logistics supplies are sufficient and the transportation is fully guaranteed;

These fostered Zhang Jun's mood of underestimating the enemy. He did not listen to Qu Duan's opinions, but instead appointed Liu Xi as the commander-in-chief and ordered to prepare for a decisive battle with the Yuan army.

The second major mistake Zhang Jun made was that he was determined to fight a decisive battle, but missed the opportunity.

To be fair, the strength of the Song army at this moment was not weaker than the Yuan army brought by Jiang Hongfei.

——Even if the 150,000 troops in Hangzhou are added, the Yuan army participating in this battle is less than 350,000.

There is no way, Jiang Hongfei has to allocate a lot of troops to keep an eye on Fang La's more than one million righteous troops to prevent him from making trouble or taking advantage of the situation.

Although the Yuan army has gathered in the Deqing-Chongde area, the central army led by Jiang Hongfei has not arrived yet. Moreover, the Yuan army has come from a long distance and the soldiers are tired, while the Song army is waiting for the opportunity to tire out, which has a clear advantage.

Therefore, the generals of the Song army suggested to Zhang Jun that they should take advantage of the favorable terrain around Hangzhou and launch an attack immediately while the Yuan army has not yet completed its assembly.

But Zhang Jun pretended to be cautious and denied this correct suggestion.

According to Zhang Jun's deployment, the Song army gathered under the city of Hangzhou and put on a grand battle formation.

To be honest, the city of Hangzhou is not an ideal place for a decisive battle. The terrain here is flat, easy to attack and difficult to defend, and there is also the uncertain factor of the 100,000 troops led by Shi Bao.

As long as they retreated a few dozen miles to the north or west, the Song army could set up their battle array against the mountain.

After looking at the terrain, Guo Zhongxun opposed setting up their battle array under the city of Hangzhou, saying: "The army moves with advantage. Now the terrain is unfavorable. Why fight? We should move to a high place to set up our battle array to curb the charge of the enemy cavalry."

However, most Song generals disagreed with Guo Zhongxun's opinion, believing that there was a big river in front of the Song army, which was enough to limit the impact of the Yuan cavalry.

Guo Zhongxun's suggestion was rejected.

First Zhang Jun made a mistake, and now most Song generals made mistakes.

This series of mistakes doomed the Song army to failure.

Not long after, Jiang Hongfei led the central army of the Yuan army to the battlefield. After the Yuan army was fully prepared, it took the initiative to attack the Song army.

Liu Huiniang led the Iron Buddha Left Army, the Iron Buddha Right Army, and other armored heavy cavalry to lead the battle.

In this battle, the Yuan army dispatched hundreds of Qi-refining masters who could materialize flying bridges.

Hundreds of flying bridges appeared out of thin air, spanning the river. The river that blocked the Yuan army immediately became useless.

The Yuan army easily crossed the river that Zhang Jun and others relied on to block the Yuan army's impact force, and then more than 10,000 armored heavy cavalry rushed towards the Song army.

The Song army did not expect that the Yuan army would cross the river so easily, and they were caught off guard by the Yuan army.

More than 10,000 armored heavy cavalry rushed into the Song army at full speed, whistling and heading straight to the front of the Song army camp.

So, the Yuan and Song sides launched a fierce battle of hand-to-hand combat.

In fact, the Song army that Zhang Jun was in front of was very strong, and Zhang Jun's confidants also led the soldiers to fight.

But the problem was that the Song army that Zhang Jun placed on the right wing was Qu Duan's troops.

Before the war, Zhang Jun had just seized Qu Duan's military power, and Zhang Zhongfu and Li Yanqi were punished, which had already caused dissatisfaction among Qu Duan's men.

Especially when the situation of the Yuan Empire and the Zhao Song Dynasty was so different.

Today, even these Song army soldiers who don't know much about politics feel that the Zhao Song Dynasty has no chance. This world must belong to Jiang Hongfei and the Yuan Empire.

What's more, Shi Xiu has sent people to instigate Qu Duan's men.

Qu Duan's confidants Zhang Zhongyan and Zhao Bin agreed to surrender to the Yuan Empire and even agreed to turn against the enemy in the battle.

In short.

The Yuan and Song armies fought fiercely until the afternoon, and the Yuan army deployed the battlefield reserve to attack Zhao Zhe's Huanqing Army.

Zhao Zhe was originally the criminal justice supervisor of Liangzhe Road. He and Zhang Jun had fought against Ye Nong in the southeast. When Zhang Jun received Tong Guan's troops, he admired his talents and specially selected him.

Later, Zhang Jun sent him to replace Wang Si as the governor of Huanqing Road.

Zhao Zhe was a civil servant and was not an expert in leading troops to fight. When the battle was fierce, he left the team without authorization and did not supervise the battle in front of the army.

Therefore, the Huanqing army was overwhelmed by the Yuan army at once, causing the other camps of the Song army to have no time to reinforce.

Once the Huanqing army collapsed, the soldiers fled, affecting the entire battle situation.

Other armies also collapsed one after another.

Seeing this, Liu Hui Niang sent a signal to Qu Duan's men to let them take action.

Seeing that the Yuan Empire finally let them take action, Qu Duan's men immediately turned against the Song army and killed them.

At the same time, Liu Hui Niang ordered all the Yuan cavalry to press forward.

I saw that the overwhelming cavalry rushed towards the Song army.

Shi Bao also saw the opportunity and led the Yuan army in Hangzhou to fight out of the city.

The defeat was like a landslide.

Faced with such a situation, the Song army was defeated.

What’s more troublesome is that before the war, Zhang Jun only thought about victory and not defeat. Therefore, once he was defeated, he was at a loss and didn’t know how to clean up the mess.

In addition, most of the Song army was infantry, while the Yuan army had nearly 200,000 cavalry.

As a result, the Song army was defeated.

At this point, Jiang Hongfei’s unification was a foregone conclusion, and the Zhao Song Dynasty certainly had no chance at all.

Large numbers of Song troops surrendered.

Only a small part of them went to Fang La.

Seeing this, Zhang Jun committed suicide on the bank of the Qiantang River to apologize.

Jiang Hongfei was welcomed into Hangzhou by Shi Xiu, Sun Jing, Shi Bao and others.

During this period, in order to completely unify thoughts and defend Hangzhou City with one heart, Sun Jing carried forward the tradition of the Yuan Empire, conducted public trials, and eliminated the ruling foundation of the Zhao Song Dynasty, that is, the nobles, wealthy families, and gentry families. He exempted all the soldiers and civilians in Hangzhou from debt, distributed land and grain, and even distributed women to the meritorious soldiers, so that all the remaining people in Hangzhou became loyal guardians of the Yuan Empire.

It is precisely because of this that Shi Bao was able to lead the soldiers and civilians in Hangzhou City and hold on until now.

Now, Jiang Hongfei moved into Hangzhou City, and everyone lined the streets to welcome him and cheered warmly.

Jiang Hongfei issued an imperial decree announcing that the Zhao Song Dynasty had completely become history, a general amnesty was granted, and the southeast region was exempted from tax for three years to allow the people to recuperate.

In addition, Jiang Hongfei issued an imperial decree to allow all parts of the Yuan Empire to transport 5 million stones of grain to Jiangnan to help Jiangnan, which had suffered ten years of war, so that this place could restore its former prosperity as soon as possible.

At the same time, Jiang Hongfei sent people to announce everywhere: the Zhao Song Dynasty was destroyed, and all those who originally belonged to the Zhao Song Dynasty, whether soldiers, civilians, or officials, would be forgiven as long as they surrendered. If they resisted stubbornly, they would be killed without mercy.

Under Jiang Hongfei's highest instructions, more than 400,000 Song soldiers surrendered one after another.

Jiang Hongfei sent officials from the Ministry of War to eliminate the old and weak among the more than 400,000 Song soldiers, and according to their wishes, they would return to their hometowns or stay in Jiangnan, and distribute food and land to them so that they could become good citizens again.

Those Song soldiers who did not want to serve in the army again were also handled in the same way.

In the end, Jiang Hongfei got another 180,000 elite soldiers.

Jiang Hongfei arranged for the Ministry of War and relevant departments to conduct political education and retrain these 180,000 elite soldiers, and then disperse them and incorporate them into various Yuan armies.

At the same time, Jiang Hongfei and a group of ministers of the Yuan Empire also focused their attention on the Yongle Dynasty that occupied the western Zhejiang area.

Now, only the small area occupied by Fang La remains, and Jiang Hongfei has completed the great unification...

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