The Jurchens think about the problem relatively simply. A one-on-one battle is a one-on-one battle. If you win, you will return to the city. If you lose, you will hand over the bet. They will not consider the risks too deeply.
But Chen Qing may not be willing to challenge the opponent in a duel. He discovered the opportunity here. As long as Wanyan Wushu cannot return to the city, the army in the city will inevitably abandon the city and retreat.
This is not a matter of the general dying in battle and the deputy general taking over. Wanyan Wushu is not the general, he is the monarch. If the monarch retreats, the whole army will inevitably collapse.
The 110,000-strong army retreated eastward in panic, including 30,000 Tiefutu Jurchen soldiers. Tiefutu refers to the heavily armored cavalry. It takes an hour just to put on the armor. There is no time to don the heavy armor now, and put on the heavy armor.
, the army could not retreat far.
The 30,000 Tiefutu soldiers did not even carry armor, so they retreated with light troops, leaving their heavy armor in the military camp.
One hundred thousand Western cavalry chased them one after another, and the Jin army was defeated. Jurchen cavalry and Donghu cavalry fought hard to escape. Unfortunately, 50,000 Xiu cavalry were overtaken by the Western cavalry, killing them with corpses all over the field and rivers of blood. The soldiers
Kneel down and beg for mercy.
At this time, Chen Qing issued an order that the Han soldiers could accept the surrender and pursued and killed the Jurchen soldiers and Donghu soldiers with all their strength.
To the north of Licheng County is the wide Jishui River. Why is it called Jinan? It means south of Jishui. Tens of thousands of Jurchen and Donghu cavalry ran along the south bank of Jishui. More than 100,000 Western cavalry were in hot pursuit. There were constant attacks of gold.
The soldiers were shot and fell from their horses, and there were dead bodies all along the way.
Fan Gong had already begun to prepare for evacuation. He arranged the evacuation pontoon bridge in Laohekou Town, eighty miles away from Licheng County. The other pontoon bridges were set on fire by Western Army scouts. Only the pontoon bridge in Laohekou Town was guarded by the army.
At the same time, it was relatively hidden and was not discovered by the Western Army scouts.
At this time, the Jurchen cavalry who rushed to the pontoon first was not the main force retreating from the city, but Wanyan Wushu and more than a thousand personal guard cavalry. Wanyan Wushu was chased by Yue Yun's cavalry. He also knew that escaping further south would inevitably be a disaster.
There was a dead end, and he had to flee north to have a chance of survival.
He ordered two thousand cavalry to fight to the death to resist the pursuers, and he took more than a thousand bodyguard cavalry to escape to Laohekou Town in the north. He was lucky, the pontoon bridge was still there, Wanyan Wushu escaped across the pontoon bridge, and could only see the distance.
The overwhelming army fled, and his men shouted: "It's our cavalry!"
At this time, a fleet of boats also arrived on the river. It was the Jiaolong Camp led by Ruan De. There were fifty vehicles and boats in total, sailing rapidly in the middle of the river.
Farther away is the yellow dust that blocks out the sky and the sun, and more than 100,000 cavalrymen of the Western Army are chasing after them.
The speed of the vehicles and ships was still a little slower than that of the cavalry. The first batch of thousands of Jurchen cavalry took the lead in fleeing to the bridge, led by Wanyan Wushu's eldest son Wanyan Heng, including counselor Fan Gong, chief minister Zhao Yuan, Wanyan Zongxian, Wanyan Di
Gu Nai, Chi Zhanhui and other Jurchen generals.
When Wanyan Wushu saw his son, he was overjoyed and shouted: "Hurry across the bridge!"
The cavalrymen urged their horses to rush towards the other side. Just as the first batch of more than 6,000 cavalrymen rushed over, the Western fleet arrived. The first three colliding ships slammed into the pontoon bridge. "Boom!" There was a loud noise, and the pontoon bridge was destroyed.
It crashed into two pieces, and the boats behind poured oil on it and set it on fire, and the pontoon suddenly turned into a sea of flames.
The more than 10,000 Jurchen cavalry behind them could not get through. They shouted at the shore. Thousands of Jurchen soldiers abandoned their horses and swam to the other side holding their sheepskin bags. How could it be so easy to swim across the three-mile-wide Jishui River?
In particular, there were Western warships in the Jishui River. The Western soldiers shot arrows through the skin bags. Without the skin bags, the Jurchen soldiers, wearing heavy armor, could only sink into the water. All three thousand Jurchen soldiers drowned in the Jishui River.
One person can swim to the other side.
The tens of thousands of cavalry on the bank were unable to cross the river, so they had to continue running eastward. In just a moment, more than 100,000 Western cavalry arrived. The dust was flying, the momentum was majestic, and the sound of horse hooves was like the sky and the earth cracking.
Wanyan Wushu knew that the situation was over and the whole army would not be spared. He had no choice but to sigh and fled to the Yellow River in the north with more than 7,000 cavalry. After two days of running, more than 7,000 Jurchen cavalry escaped across the Yellow River from Dongguang County, Jingzhou.
This is also the retreat route deployed by Fan Gong. It is not far from the seaside.
Tens of thousands of Jurchen and Donghu cavalry were eventually overtaken by 100,000 Western troops in Jiyang County, 150 miles away. In front of them were rolling mountains and hills, and 20,000 cavalry led by Liu Qiong blocked the way.
The 50,000 Jurchen cavalry and Donghu cavalry had no way to escape. Under the leadership of the veteran general Puluhun, they turned their horses and fought to the death with the more than 100,000 Western troops who were chasing them. However, the strength of the two sides was greatly disparity, and the morale of the Jin soldiers was low.
Chaos is far from being a match for the Western Army.
This desperate battle continued until the evening of that day. Both sides suffered heavy casualties, but no Jurchen cavalry surrendered. They fought until the last cavalry was left. The 52,000 Jurchen cavalry were wiped out by 150,000 Western troops. In the end, they had no choice but to surrender.
Opportunity, the Western Army did not accept the surrender and killed all the wounded and surrendering soldiers.
At this point, Wanyan Wushu's 130,000 troops, except for 7,000 who fled with Wanyan Wushu, the rest of the 120,000 troops were completely destroyed, and 42,000 people surrendered, almost all of whom were signed by Han people, including
General Li Cheng was also forced to dismount and surrender to the Western Army.
The remaining 30,000 Donghu cavalry and 40,000 Jurchen cavalry did not accept the surrender and were all killed, with no one left alive.
Chen Qing also learned a lesson. After the 30,000 Jurchen soldiers captured by Wanyan Zonghan in northern Shaanxi were exchanged by the Jin Kingdom, they all stayed in Hebei and continued to become the backbone of the army. This really annoyed Chen Qing. From then on, he no longer accepted
All the Jurchens and Donghu prisoners of war were killed to reduce the Donghu population so that they would eventually be unable to compete with the Central Plains.
However, the Jurchen cavalry fought tooth and nail in this battle, and the Western Army soldiers also suffered heavy casualties. More than 6,000 Western Army cavalrymen were killed and over 10,000 soldiers were injured.
The small number of troops left in the city were rural soldiers affiliated to Jinan Prefecture, about a thousand people, led by the prefect Zhang Shaoyan. Zhang Shaoyan was originally the general magistrate of Zizhou in the Northern Song Dynasty. He was a Jinshi during the Zhenghe period. He was smart, capable, and good at adapting to the common people.
Because of his good reputation, he was highly regarded by Wanyan Wushu and appointed him as the prefect of Jinan.
Zhang Shaoyan was astute and wise. When the Jin soldiers retreated in panic, he knew that the Jin soldiers were gone. To gain King Yong's recognition, he had to do something. Zhang Shaoyan immediately mobilized state soldiers to guard the warehouses and military camps to prevent the common people from taking advantage of the chaos.
Materials.
At the same time, state soldiers were sent to the streets to persuade the people to go home and calm the people's hearts. Although Licheng County was lost, there was no chaos at all and the streets and alleys were very quiet.
An hour later, Chen Qing personally led 20,000 Western troops into the city and took over the defense of Licheng County. Chen Qing saw that the city was very quiet, and the streets and alleys were neat and orderly, especially the warehouses and barracks and state soldiers were standing guard.
The prefect sent state soldiers to maintain order, which Chen Qing greatly appreciated.
Wanyan Wushu's warehouse is so important. Although the Puppet Qi State replaced the Northern Song Dynasty in the Central Plains, it does not mean that the Puppet Qi State took over the wealth of the Northern Song Dynasty. In addition to the wealth that was plundered and shipped to the Jin Kingdom, there was also a large amount of accumulated wealth.
It was occupied by Wanyan Nianhan, Wanyan Wushu and Wanyan Chang. Among them, Wanyan Nianhan had the most wealth and materials. When Wanyan Nianhan's army was destroyed in the attack on Shaanxi Road, the wealth and materials he left behind were
Wanyan Wushu and Wanyan Chang were divided.
After Chen Qing occupied Bianliang and Henan Road, he did not get much wealth. He only took part of it from the high-ranking officials of the puppet Qi Dynasty, but a large amount of property was transported to Shandong Road by Wanyan Wushu in advance.
Chen Qing also asked several shopkeepers to be brought in. They were all shopkeepers from nearby shops. They knelt down and saluted together, "I see His Highness King Yong!"
"Every shopkeeper, please get up!"
Several shopkeepers stood up, and Chen Qingxiao asked: "I want to ask you, how are the officials in Jinan Prefecture and Licheng County? Are they corrupt and perverting the law, preying on the common people?"
Several shopkeepers looked at each other and shook their heads together: "Zhifu Zhang and Zhiyang County are very good. They provide relief to hungry people, build charity homes, and do not force everyone to pay taxes. Everyone supports them. As a result, Magistrate Ma, who was appointed by the puppet Qi, is known as
Ma Yanluo, that's called evil, he used various tricks to steal money and prey on the common people. Later, I heard that he had embezzled 80,000 guan of military salary and 20,000 shi of military rations. When the Jurchens found out, Marshal Wanyan killed him in anger.
, and then changed to Magistrate Zhang and Magistrate Yang, it would be much better."
"Thank you all, please come back! Order will be restored soon and taxes will be reduced."
Several shopkeepers thanked them profusely. In fact, Chen Qing also knew that Wanyan Wushu was not very good at appointing officials. He paid great attention to the abilities of officials and hated corrupt officials. Most of the officials he appointed on Henan Road were retained in their posts.
On the contrary, almost all officials appointed by the puppet Qi were dismissed.
However, Chen Qing has his own rules. Whenever he goes to a big city, he must first find some merchants or wealthy families to ask about the reputation of local officials. If the reputation is good, he will continue to appoint them. If the reputation is not good, he will directly replace them.
The officials of Jinan Prefecture seemed to be pretty good. They took office less than two years ago and had a good reputation among the people. Chen Qing immediately asked the soldiers to bring the prefect to see him.
Not long after, the prefect Zhang Song was brought to see Chen Qing by soldiers.
