First, five thousand Xixia elite soldiers helped the Liao Kingdom defend Xijing (Datong). However, only halfway through, the Liao Emperor ran away, and the Xijing garrison surrendered to the Jin people.
These five thousand Xixia soldiers and horses could only go back to the grassland and follow the Liao emperor.
Then, Xixia general Li Liangfu personally led 30,000 troops to rescue the Lord of Liao, and ran into the Jin soldiers from Wanyan Lou's house on the grassland.
In pursuit of the Emperor of Liao, the Jin army had long since run away.
Li Liangfu first killed two hundred Jin cavalry, and then ambushed another two hundred Jin cavalry. The hundreds of Jin cavalry were completely wiped out, leaving only the golden leader Atuhan to escape alone.
Li Liangfu took advantage of the victory to attack, but Wanyan Lou's family pursued the Lord of Liao too far, and he only had a thousand cavalry under his command.
These one thousand Jurchen cavalry actually launched a surprise attack on 30,000 Xixia troops. In a hurry to engage the enemy, Li Liangfu took the initiative to retreat and set up camp across the river for defense.
Wanyan Loushi left 200 cavalry to defend the mountain pass, led 800 cavalry to cross the river and circle back, and then charged against the 30,000 Xixia army.
The Jurchen cavalry suffered heavy casualties and overlapping to cover their retreat.
Thousands of Xixia cavalry pursued, but were defeated many times by hundreds of Jurchen cavalry. Every time the Xixia cavalry retreated, they pursued again with more troops and brought more and more Xixia infantry out of the camp.
Confused, the Xixia army was led into a narrow battlefield.
The two hundred Jurchen cavalry who had been stationed here for a long time, together with the hundreds of friendly troops who had lured the enemy back, launched a surprise attack on the more than 20,000 Xixia troops at the same time.
Due to the narrow terrain, the Xixia troops were unable to deploy. They were killed by less than a thousand Jurchen cavalry, and the entire army was defeated on the spot.
The Xixia army suffered over 10,000 casualties and withdrew from the Liao-Jin battlefield in despair.
…
Xiongzhou.
Yang Keshi knelt in front of the tent to plead guilty. Tong Guan was so angry that he wanted to kill someone on the spot.
Guo Yaoshi, the surrendered general of the Liao Kingdom, offered his advice to bypass the main force of the Liao army and attack Yanjing with light cavalry.
The strategy has been successful, and the Song army has entered Yanjing City.
However, Yang Keshi, Gao Shixuan and other generals, instead of appeasing the people, ordered the killing of all the Khitan people in the city.
It was originally just a massacre of foreigners, but the discipline of the Song army was so bad that it turned into indiscriminate looting.
Not to mention the plundering, before the city was completely captured, the Song army rushed into restaurants and drank alcohol in private houses.
Not to mention other atrocities committed by drunken soldiers.
The angry people of Yanjing were forced to resist and started street fighting with the Song army. Liao general Xiao Qian also led 3,000 cavalry to return for reinforcements.
More than 18,000 Song troops were attacked from both inside and outside. They could not run away. They fought hard for three days and nights. Only Guo Yaoshi and Yang Keshi escaped with hundreds of remaining soldiers.
Tong Guan had enough reasons to be angry. The one who regained Yanjing could be crowned king, and the prince who had eaten it would be gone!
There was no need for the imperial court to order the deployment of troops. Tong Guan had to withdraw his troops by himself.
Of the 300,000-strong army that conquered the Liao Dynasty, there are now less than 80,000 left, including Hebei rural soldiers. Moreover, there is not much food, grass and baggage left, and most of it was lost in the rout.
Not all of the disappeared troops were killed, most of them dispersed in the wilderness. Some fled back to their hometowns, some fell into disgrace and became bandits, and some joined the Hebei Uprising Army.
"Mr. Chu, the imperial court has sent an urgent order!"
"bring here."
Tong Guan read the official document carefully, feeling worried and happy at the same time.
The worry is that there is not enough food, grass, ordnance, and the troops will have to slowly raise funds when they return to the court.
I was happy because I could make atonement for my sins. I really couldn't defeat the Liao army. Could it be that I couldn't defeat the Zhu Thieves' rebels? I blamed a bunch of generals for the failure of the expedition against Liao, especially those who died in the battle. I then led the troops to defeat the Zhu Thieves.
, any crime can be offset, and maybe he can even be promoted to a higher position in time.
Thirty thousand troops from the north of Hebei were left to defend various cities on the border, while Tong Guan led an army of fifty thousand to flee.
Tens of thousands of soldiers of the Song Army all looked sad.
Many people were empty-handed, not even their armor, and had already been abandoned in the rout.
Deserters continued to appear along the way. Firstly, there was not enough food and the soldiers at the bottom were not full. Secondly, they were full of resentment and did not want to fight for the court anymore.
The generals had no control at all, because they needed to replenish food and fodder, so they could only allow their troops to plunder places.
Many sergeants who went to the countryside to collect food fled quickly and turned to join the local bandits, or they took over the mountains and became kings themselves.
The people of Hebei, who had been exploited and plundered many times, were looted by these officers and soldiers again. Everywhere the officers and soldiers went, bandits would appear after they left. The people who could not survive gathered together to rob wealthy households, and even rushed into the county to kill officials and rebel.
"Brother, let's go back to Shandong and stop working for the imperial court!" Wu Song suggested.
Shi Bin also said: "It is better to go back and be a thief and be happy than to stay in the army and suffer."
Li Kui said: "The officers and soldiers have nothing to be afraid of. When we return to Shandong this time, we will simply raise the flag to rebel."
All the brothers encouraged him one after another, and Song Jiang's expression became more ferocious. He gritted his teeth and said, "I'm leaving now and will not return to the camp!"
In history, the direct reason why Song Jiang surrendered, rebelled and was killed was because he was deprived of military honors.
Moreover, the general who took away Song Jiang's military merit and the general who took away Han Shizhong's military merit were both Tong Guan's confidant and favorite general Xin Xingzong.
At that time, more than half of Song Jiang's troops suffered casualties. He made great contributions during the attack on Hangzhou, but ended up with nothing. In addition, he was bullied by the generals. How could he endure it? He turned against him when he returned.
In this time and space, although Song Jiang was not taken to fight Fangla, Song Jiang was taken to Hebei to conquer Liao.
There was no decent battle, and most of the brothers under his command were lost in confusion. Wu Jialiang, Li Hai, Gongsun Sheng, Zhang Shun and others were all separated in the rout. To this day, no one is alive or dead.
But it is said that Song Jiang took hundreds of remnant soldiers, took advantage of the opportunity to go to the countryside to collect food, looted and fled back to Qizhou (Jinan).
Hearing that Zhang Shuye, an old acquaintance, was working as a prefect in Qizhou, Song Jiang was so frightened that he ran away and went to Zizhou next door with oil on his soles.
Because he was too close to Zhang Shuye, Song Jiang did not dare to rebel directly. He robbed wealthy households along the way and headed south, and his troops quickly expanded to thousands of people.
Fleeing all the way to Yanzhou, Song Jiang made a surprise attack on the city and captured it effortlessly.
"Brother, I caught a government spy who was sneaking around outside the state government office and found a lot of things on him." Dai Zong escorted a beggar over.
Song Jiang could recognize a few big characters, but not many characters. He asked his subordinates to identify them, and finally understood the content of the message.
Song Jiang asked: "What is your name?"
The beggar knew that he couldn't pretend anymore, so he stood tall and said: "My name is Ding Yong, and I am gifted by Mr. Zhu with a handsome character."
Song Jiang asked again: "But Mr. Zhu who was the governor of Puzhou?"
Ding Yong replied: "That is Zhu Dalang, and Mr. Zhu is Zhu Dalang's father."
Song Jiang said: "I used to go to Puzhou to rob, and I heard that Zhu Dalang was a good official. I never thought that these days, good officials have rebelled, but why did you come to Shandong?"
Ding Yong said: "Post messages along the way to inquire about military information."
Song Jiang asked again: "Do you do a lot of meticulous work like this?"
Ding Yong boasted and said: "Xiangong Zhu sent hundreds of people like me to all walks of life across the country, and they are all literate!"
Song Jiang asked: "We are all rebels. Why did Mr. Zhu say in his statement that Fang La and I are a disaster?"
Ding Yong said: "My husband and husband never plundered the people. Every time they captured a city, they calmed the people and severely punished the rebellious people. Regardless of the gentry, merchants, or common people, they all admired my husband very much.
, send the money and food to the labor force yourself."
"I don't believe it, you must be telling lies." Song Jiang laughed.
Ding Yong said: "Believe it or not."
Of course Song Jiang didn't believe it, but that didn't stop him from doing things in the name of the Zhu family and his son.
His reputation in Shandong is really bad, like a rat crossing the street, everyone shouts to beat him up. In the past, it didn't matter if he was a street bandit, but now he has to occupy the city and become a sitting bandit. He must change his appearance in order to do things well.
Song Jiang said: "Since you are literate, you can stay and serve as my military advisor."
Ding Yong couldn't refuse.
Song Jiang asked his subordinates to copy the memorial and spread it in the counties of Yanzhou. He claimed to be a general under Zhu Guoxiang, the Sichuan Gorge Economic Envoy, and Shandong Province controlled Song Jiang.
If Zhu Guoxiang, Zhu Ming and his son knew about it, they would probably be disgusted to death.
Although Song Jiang tried his best to restrain the troops and was much more restrained than before, it was not much better. He forced the young men of Yanzhou City to serve as soldiers, forced the rich households to give money and food, and claimed to the outside world that the rich households contributed voluntarily.
Then he quickly sent troops to occupy Rencheng (Jining) and Gong County (Ningyang), and then fought back to Liangshanbo to recruit fishermen to build a navy.
Song Jiang was not the only one to rebel in Shandong and Hebei.
All in all, the number of bandits was estimated to be no less than 50,000. Many of them were soldiers who had escaped from the battlefields of the Liao Dynasty. They each occupied the mountains as kings, recruited local refugees as soldiers, and robbed while farming.
The few thieves who received the petition, like Song Jiang, acted under the banner of the Zhu family and his son.
This caused Hebei and Shandong to be filled with red thieves and generals.
Chen Ziyi returned to Tokyo with the army, and received news halfway that his old friend Ju Ming had rebelled.
Chen Ziyi was a little numb to this. He had lost his soul in Hebei.
This kind of despair is a common phenomenon in the military.
The Song army fought five major battles with the Liao army, and was defeated in five battles. Their morale was completely exhausted. At the end of the battle, the Liao army ran away when they saw it, and the generals could not restrain the soldiers at all.
The backbones of the Western Army and the Forbidden Army have been broken!
Besides, Tong Guan arrived in Tokyo and blamed the generals entirely. As expected, he was not punished by the emperor, but was only scolded in person.
In order to cover up the defeat and save the emperor's face, the imperial court declared a great victory in conquering the Liao Dynasty and rewarded Tong Guan with an official position.
At the same time, he also ordered to commend all the soldiers in the army.
There are many officers and soldiers who have been promoted, but for the small soldiers, these are all empty. The reward promised by the court can not be received, and it is all owed first.
Due to financial difficulties, food and pay continued to be in arrears, and they did not even receive normal military pay.
It was already the twelfth lunar month of winter, with heavy snow falling in the sky, and all kinds of heating supplies were in short supply. Not only were we starving, but we were also suffering from the cold. I heard that after the beginning of spring, we would go to exterminate the red thief.
Chen Ziyi was also promoted, and dozens of cavalry under his command were incorporated into Xin Qizong's army in Xiongzhou, which was the Shengjie Army.
The Shengjie Army is an elite pro-army force created by Tong Guan. Three of the five Xin brothers are generals of the Shengjie Army.
Chen Ziyi made great achievements in the southeast, but gained nothing.
This year we fought in Hebei, and the whole process was a complete mess. Instead, we were inexplicably promoted to command the cavalry of the Victory Army.
On paper, he could command five hundred cavalry, but he lacked horses and knights, so he only had more than one hundred and seventy men.
This is a common phenomenon. All troops are not well organized and must be reorganized before they can be mobilized to fight.