Although the emperor of the Jin Kingdom had decided to abolish the puppet Qi Kingdom, Liu Yu did not realize this. He still actively assembled an army of 300,000 troops, ordered the prince Liu Lin to be the general marshal of the southern expedition, and ordered Li Cheng and Liu Yi to be the left and right deputy generals.
, cooperated with the Jin soldiers to attack the Song Dynasty, and at the same time increased taxes on the people of the puppet Qi state by 30% to raise military expenses.
Just ten days after Han Qixian went south, Wanyan Wushu's 100,000 Jurchen army and Liu Lin's 300,000 army began to march south to attack the Jianghuai Song army.
At this time, fierce disputes also occurred within the Song Dynasty. Korean companies arrived in Lin'an first and clearly demanded that the armistice agreement should be bounded by the Yangtze River, otherwise the Emperor of Jin would not recognize the armistice agreement.
Han Qixian's request immediately caused an uproar in the Song Dynasty court. The gold was sent and important prisoners of war were returned. In the end, the emperor of the Jin Dynasty actually refused to recognize the armistice agreement. Everyone in the court realized that they had been tricked by the Jin Dynasty.
The emperor Zhao Gou was so angry that he slapped the table and cursed: "Do I raise wine bags and rice bags? Will the other party fool me about this kind of thing? What is the use of Zhang Shao? He is the Minister of the Ministry of Etiquette. If I were him, I would have dealt with it long ago.
Things have gone away, why are you still staying in the court?"
Qin Hui quickly advised: "Your Majesty, calm down, things are not that simple."
"Then what did you say happened? Can you give me an explanation?"
"Your Majesty, Wan Yanchang signed an armistice agreement before, and both sides immediately implemented it. There was no problem, so why can't it work this time? Weichen estimates that this is related to the power struggle within the Jin Kingdom. Someone must use this matter to
After causing trouble for Wan Yanchang and forcing Wan Yanchang to give up his position as prime minister, the Emperor of Jin decided not to sign the armistice agreement and use the armistice border to cause trouble in order to mediate the struggle between the two factions."
Zhao Gou walked a few steps with his hands behind his back: "I don't care about their internal struggles. I only care about the present. What should I do now? Should I sign the armistice agreement or not? I don't want to withdraw from Jianghuai?"
Zhang Jun next to him said: "Your Majesty, it is impossible to negotiate any results. Neither side can make concessions. The only way to find out is on the battlefield. Your Majesty, now only the middle line of the three lines of defense is weak, which will become a breakthrough point for the enemy. Weichen suggested,
With Zhang Jun as the marshal of the middle route, he will command Wu Jie, Wang De, and Li Qiong to build the defense line in the middle of the Huaihe River."
Qin Hui knew full well that Zhang Jun was giving Yue Fei eye drops. The imperial court had compromised before and allowed Yue Fei to continue to control the Wu Jie of the Central Army. Now that Zhang Jun was promoted to command the Central Army, it would be equivalent to abolishing part of Yue Fei's military power.
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The emperor obviously did not realize this, and Qin Hui was also happy to see the success. He nodded, "Wei Chen approves Xianggong Zhang's plan!"
"What about the supervisors?"
Zhang Jun continued: "Wei Chen recommended Lu Zhi, the Minister of War, to be the supervisor of the army."
"I'm ready."
Zhao Gou said anxiously: "What does Zhang Xiangguo think the chances of winning this time are?"
"Your Majesty, this time the Jin Kingdom and the Puppet Qi are joining forces to go south. I think it is not a big problem to deal with the Puppet Qi. It is rare that we will face a hundred thousand Jurchen army. But fortunately, we can only defend but not attack. As long as we hold on to the front line of the Huaihe River, we will win.
It doesn’t matter whether we stop fighting or not.”
The monarch and his ministers discussed for a while, Qin Hui retired, and Zhao Gou left Zhang Jun behind.
Zhao Gou thought for a moment and asked, "How is the situation over there on Jinghu South Road?"
Jinghu South Road was also a headache for Zhao Gou. Chen Qing actually sent troops to suppress the bandits without the consent of the court, which made Zhao Gou angry and helpless. He was even more worried that Chen Qing wanted to occupy Jinghu South Road again.
?
Zhang Jun said quickly: "I am just about to report to Your Majesty. Zhe Yanzhi sent news from Jiangling that the largest group of bandits has been eliminated, and the sporadic bandits are almost gone. Chen Qing's army is training local militia groups.
Let the people voluntarily suppress the bandits. Now Chen Qing's army has withdrawn part of it, and the remaining troops are helping the people with spring plowing. They have transported a large amount of rice seeds and cattle, and also transported 200,000 shi of grain to provide relief to the victims, so that they can persevere.
Harvest in summer."
"This is Zhe Yanzhi trying to say good things for Chen Qing's army!" Zhao Gou said dissatisfied.
"Your Majesty, in fact, the local magistrates of the states on Jinghu South Road also said so. Wei Chen feels that Chen Qing may have encountered certain internal pressure before sending troops, but if he wants to occupy Jing Hu South Road, Wei Chen thinks it is unlikely.
.""What internal pressure?"
"Your Majesty, he has stayed in Jingzhou, and part of his army is from Jinghu South Road. These soldiers and generals from Jinghu South Road must have put pressure on him, asking him to send troops. In addition, this is also a good opportunity for him to gain fame."
Zhao Gou only cares about whether Chen Qing will occupy Jinghu South Road. As long as Chen Qing finally withdraws his troops, Chen Qing will gain some reputation and so on, and he can tolerate it.
"You want Zheyanzhi to figure out what Chen Qing's true intention is? Should he withdraw his troops in the end? What should we do if he refuses to withdraw his troops? We must prepare a response plan first."
"Wei Chen understands!"
Zhao Gou walked a few steps with his hands behind his back and said: "We are fighting the Jin soldiers during this period. We must stabilize Chen Qing and not let him take advantage of the situation and occupy Jinghu South Road. What are his loose officials?"
"Reporting to Your Majesty, his civil officer is Dr. Jin Ziguanglu. There is no military officer for the time being. His rank has reached Taiwei."
"Didn't he write a memorial saying that he did not want to accept the title of Taiwei, but asked me to make him a military official? I will make him a general of the state and ask him to withdraw his troops from Jinghu South Road as much as possible!"
"I obey the order!"
That night, the emperor Zhao Gou issued an edict, changing the title of Zhang Jun to the Huaixi Provincial Envoy, and appointed him as the marshal of the military capital of the Central Route, with jurisdiction over the three capitals of Wu Jie, Wang De, and Li Qiong. He commanded 200,000 troops to defend the front line of the Huaihe River.
Together with Yue Fei on the western front, Han Shizhong on the eastern front, and Liu Qi on the rear, they formed a four-corner situation and jointly defended against the large-scale southward attack by the Jin soldiers and the puppet Qi army.
At the same time, Zhao Gou appointed Lu Zhi, the Minister of War, as the supervisor of the army, appointed Prime Minister Zhang Jun as the commander-in-chief of all the armies and horses, and the Governor-General deployed an army of 500,000 troops to defend the Huaihe River line.
The boats on the Yangtze River were like fish, and tens of thousands of small boats carried grain, copper coins, and military supplies and soldiers in a mighty way north. Since the money and grain were escorted to Lin'an on Guangnan Road and Fujian Road, the financial pressure on the imperial court was greatly relieved, and the imperial court had the financial resources to fight this war.
A battle to defend the Jianghuai River.
On the Yangtze River, a two-thousand-stone ship was sailing slowly. The wind on the river was very strong, and the big flag on the ship was blowing. There was a huge Chinese character "Zhang" written on the big flag.
This large ship was Zhang Jun's ship. He had been ordered to go from Lin'an to Shouzhou. His Central Route Army Marshal's Office was located in Xiacai County, Shouzhou, and the main army was also stationed there.
Zhang Jun stood on the bow of the boat with his hands behind his back, looking very gloomy. Frankly speaking, he was very dissatisfied with the emperor's appointment arrangements this time. All three of his subordinates were in charge, and none of them were his confidants. Needless to say, Wu Jie was the Western leader.
The army had always been marginalized, and Zhang Jun was very unfavorable to him. It was only because of the continuous recommendation of Yue Fei and Han Shizhong that he was activated. He had 50,000 troops under his command.
As for Wang De and Li Qiong, they were originally Liu Guangshi's generals. They were reused by the Governor Zhang Jun because of their surrender to Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun recognized Wang De more, being practical and steady, so Zhang Jun only gave him 30,000 troops. He There are no complaints. This kind of hard-working old scalper subordinates are all liked by the leaders, and Zhang Jun is no exception.
But Zhang Jun really didn't like Li Qiong. He was like a debt collector, besieging him all day long and asking for money. He was picky about where the troops were stationed. He sometimes thought that Lu'an County was a mountainous area, and sometimes he thought that Dingyuan County was not prosperous enough. Just say that the conditions are too low and you should not surrender.
In order to appease him, Zhang Jun gave him 50,000 troops, which was more than Wang De's army, but he was still not satisfied because Wang De was the commander-in-chief and he was only the deputy commander-in-chief, so he was full of resentment towards everyone.
These three were all selected, and Zhang Jun was only satisfied with Wang De. He did not like the other two, and he wanted to replace them with his confidants.
"Brother, it's windy outside, come inside the cabin and sit down!" Brother Zhang Bao shouted from inside the cabin.
Zhang Jun also felt a little cold. He nodded and turned back to the cabin.
After returning to the cabin and sitting down, Zhang Bao pointed to Yang Cui'an next to him and said, "Mr. Yang has an idea that I think is good. Brother, you might as well listen to it."
Yang Chui'an was originally Liu Guangshi's counselor. After Liu Guangshi was sent to Lingnan, Yang Chui'an turned to Zhang Jun. Yang Chui'an was good at conspiracy, which Zhang Jun liked better, so he used Yang Chui'an as his counselor and staff, and he was quite fond of him. trust.
Zhang Jun nodded, "Mr. Yang, do you have any good ideas?"