In late September of the third year of the Jin Dynasty, the Khitan army, which had been planning for a long time, finally broke through Zijingguan Pass under the guidance of Du Chongwei and Li Shouzhen. They passed through Ma Pass, Gu Pass, Huangyu Pass, and headed straight for Ye.
All.
Although Jing Yanguang was a great scholar of the time and had great ambitions, it was all written on paper. In fact, he knew nothing about military tactics. In addition, Du Chongwei and Li Shouzhen, who had always had high prestige in the Jin army, turned against each other this time.
Facing each other, most of the pass guards surrendered without fighting.
Jing Yanguang, who was single-handedly supported by Haorantang and wanted to control the power of the military town, escaped the fastest. He even ignored the life and death of the frontline soldiers and entrusted all military affairs in Yedu to the deputy general and cavalry commander Wang Shenqi.
He fled all the way to Kaifeng, claiming to be ill. He neither dared to return to the front line nor visited Luoyang, the capital of Kyoto.
Fortunately, the veteran general Fu Yanqing made careful arrangements in advance and saw through the Khitan army's trick. He left the two armies to guard Cangzhou. He personally led the 25,000 troops of the Tenth Army to Yedu and stationed ten miles east of Yedu City, and with the troops west of Yedu City.
The Khitan garrisoned the camp, forming a confrontation.
This time, the Khitan leader Yelu Deguang personally raised 50,000 troops, which was claimed to be 200,000 to the outside world, and invaded the Central Plains. Li Shouzhen, the surrendered general of the Jin Dynasty, heard that Fu Yanqing had arrived with reinforcements. He was embarrassed and stationed troops in Xingzhou.
Du Chongwei got Yelv Deguang's promise to support him as the Lord of the Central Plains, so he worked harder and more, and personally provided more than 40,000 troops and horses for his troops, stationed in the west of Yedu City, beside the Khitan camp.
The Khitan army was mostly cavalry, good at field battles but not good at attacking cities. In order to gain Khitan support, Du Chongwei ordered his troops to attack Yedu.
Fu Yanqing, who was experienced in battle formations, came to support and ordered 10,000 cavalry to clear the way, followed by 15,000 infantry. When he arrived ten miles east of Yedu City, he set up camp and joined forces with the Khitan army and the Yedu garrison.
Form a triangle formation.
Yedu originally had a garrison of 10,000 troops, plus more than 10,000 remnant troops brought back by Jing Yanguang when he was defeated, so the force was weaker than the Khitan army.
However, the capital city of Ye was high and dangerous, and surrounded by endless valleys and slopes, which was not conducive to cavalry operations. At the same time, Fu Yanqing needed reinforcements to help, and the two armies were at a stalemate for a while.
Urgent reports were sent to Luoyang, Kyoto like snowflakes. Shi Chonggui had never believed that his uncle Du Chongwei had defected to the Khitan. This time, when the actual military report was delivered to him, he was furious but also frightened.
The Jin Dynasty originally relied on the help of the Khitan Kingdom to establish its country, and the Khitan army knew better than anyone else. At the same time, Shi Chonggui knew better than anyone else that since the Khitan emperor brought the Khitan army to help him in order to conquer the world, the Khitan seems to have
After understanding the mentality of the separatists in the Central Plains, I began to use this as a ploy to gain investment from some separatists with ulterior motives.
To be honest, when he heard in Kyoto that Du Chongwei had led the Khitan cavalry straight to Kyoto, he already believed that the rumors from outside were true and that Du Chongwei really planned to imitate the great ancestor and become the grand emperor of the Khitan.
Both the government and the public were discussing and panicking.
Many well-educated merchants from wealthy families heard that the battle in the north was defeated and the 80,000-strong army led by Jing Yanguang was defeated. Panic spread like a plague.
Maybe ordinary people still don't feel that once the war spreads to Kyoto, they will just slap their butts and continue to flee.
But those wealthy gentry with big families and big businesses don't have much courage to give up their family business and move their entire family. But if they don't escape, the Khitan army is notorious for its ferocity, and these Khitan people are really ferocious. They often break into a city and then
To plunder on a large scale.
Regardless of their national strength or military strength, they are not yet capable of taking over the Central Plains and unifying the world, so they simply plundered the Central Plains' supplies and then left the mess to the emperor who supported them.
This not only solved the current various military expenses, but also obtained a large amount of tribute from the emperor every year.
The city of Luoyang fell into panic, and as a representative of the literati, Haoran Hall also felt a suffocating atmosphere.
Feng Dao has been suppressed by the court in recent years. He excused himself from illness and left some affairs to his eldest grandson Feng Haoyu. In fact, he was expressing his dissatisfaction with the court and his intention to train the successor of the Feng family.
But when faced with such a major event, Feng Dao was worried and personally summoned Murong Wei, Luo Lian and Huang Shiquan, three people from Haorantang who were now deputy prime ministers in the Jin Dynasty, to discuss it secretly.
The Great Jin Dynasty relied on the great ancestor Shi Jingtang to cede the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to the Khitan, and attracted the help of the Khitan cavalry to establish the empire. Therefore, when the power structure was established, on the basis of the Chongzheng Yuan and the Privy Council, a separate Northern Political Department was established.
Dedicated to establishing good relations with Khitan every year.
The Chongzhengyuan envoy is headed by the left prime minister, who is in charge of the political affairs of the DPRK. There are two deputy envoys, who are also headed by two deputy prime ministers, who assist the envoy. The Privy Council also has one envoy and two deputy envoys, who are in charge of the DPRK.
In terms of military affairs, the power is equivalent to that of the right prime minister and deputy prime minister.
The establishment of the Northern Political Department was based on the responsibility of being in charge of delivering tribute to Khitan every year. However, in recent years, it has replaced the original responsibilities of the Ministry of Household Affairs. It is not only responsible for the annual tribute to Khitan, but also is in charge of the national finance.
In this way, the original six ministries actually became the executive department. Any policies of the imperial court were passed to the six ministries for implementation after passing the resolutions of the two chambers and one department.
Murong Wei is the deputy envoy of the Chongzheng Yuan, Luo Lian is the deputy envoy of the Privy Council, and Huang Shiquan is the deputy envoy of the Northern Affairs Department. The three of them are all very important figures in the Jin Dynasty. In fact, whether it is political affairs, military affairs, or finance, they all
Have a say.
Feng Dao was originally the official envoy of the Chongzheng Yuan, but last year he was dismissed by Shi Chonggui on the grounds that he was old and should go home to take care of himself. The real reason is probably clear to everyone. Over the years, no matter which regime has decided
In the Central Plains, Feng Daodu shamelessly took the lead in welcoming Li, and with his success in welcoming Li, he firmly controlled the political affairs of the court.
In addition, Feng Dao has been arbitrarily appointing disciples from Haoran Hall to serve in politics in recent years. He not only controlled Chongzhengyuan, but also intervened in the Privy Council and the Northern Political Bureau, which were always under the personal control of the royal family.
Shi Chonggui was afraid of Feng Dao, so he found an excuse to kick him away from the court and prepared to clean up the officials of Haorantang in the two houses and one department.
Unfortunately, Haorantang's affairs have always been secretive. Even Shi Chonggui himself found it difficult to figure out who were Haorantang's disciples and who were not Haorantang's disciples.
Jing Yanguang, who led the Northern Expedition on behalf of the Jin Dynasty, had always been one of the most vehement opponents of Feng Dao in the court. At the beginning of the year, he was promoted to Privy Councilor by Shi Chonggui, in charge of the military affairs of the Jin Dynasty.
Jing Yanguang was very eloquent, and he also had real talents and practical knowledge. He always encouraged Shi Chonggui to use troops against the Khitan to wash away the shame of the great ancestor.
Shi Chonggui was a military general and had little insight into political affairs. In addition, after nearly ten years of management, the Jin Dynasty had a prosperous military. In the past two years, it had achieved several small victories against the Khitan, so he heard from Jing Yan.
On Guang's suggestion, starting from the beginning of the year, the imperial army was mobilized on a large scale, soldiers and horses from various towns were recruited, and troops were sent north to prepare for the Northern Expedition.
At first, his uncle Du Chongwei was recruited as an envoy to the northern camp and raised troops for the Northern Expedition. At the beginning of the Northern Expedition, the morale of the Jin army was as high as a rainbow, and everyone in the army wanted to wash away their shame and recapture the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun from the Khitan.
Even in the first half of the war, the Jin army achieved several commendable victories. But no one expected that when the war continued until August, Du Chongwei went crazy and surrendered to Khitan with 50,000 forbidden troops.
The whole army was in an uproar, and some ambitious people who wanted to regain the lost territory even cried bitterly while scolding Du Chongwei.
Du Chongwei's defection also led to Li Shouzhen, who commanded 40,000 troops, to defect to the Khitan.
Shi Chonggui was furious and frightened, so he urgently summoned Jing Yanguang to the palace for a secret discussion, and finally appointed Jing Yanguang as the recruiting envoy of the North Camp to recruit troops to defend against the enemy.
No one would have thought that Jing Yanguang, who had always played opposite to Feng Dao in the court, was actually a member of Haoran Hall. Jing Yanguang knew that he was inferior to Feng Dao in terms of reputation and strength, so he secretly found Haoran Hall, the head of Haoran Hall, overnight.
Young Master Yu, prayed to Haoran Hall to contact the governors of each town, and asked each town to send troops and food to go north to fight the enemy. This was how the last time, under the guise of Fengming Poetry Meeting, was actually a secret meeting of Qingyi staff from each town.
.
This time, Jing Yanguang was originally very ambitious. He led the last 30,000 imperial troops in Kyoto and the more than 50,000 town troops assembled in various towns to go north to defend the enemy. He thought that he could finally use what he had learned, achieve something, and escape in one fell swoop.
Haoran Hall.
But I didn't expect that these more than 80,000 soldiers, both good and bad, were so vulnerable that they were defeated as soon as they entered the battle.
"Jing Yanguang is so unbearable. His hard work has been wasted. How despicable! Sir, what should we do?" Luo Lian hit his left palm with his right fist, with a look of hatred on his face, but actually in his heart
But he was secretly happy.
After Jing Yanguang became the privy envoy, he suppressed him everywhere, making him, the deputy privy envoy, famous but not powerful, which really made him very angry. If Jing Yanguang was defeated this time, if he was sad, it would be better to say that he was gloating about his misfortune.
Needless to say, the imperial court will definitely hold Jing Yanguang accountable for his defeat and remove him from the post of Privy Council Envoy. As Deputy Privy Envoy, Luo was transferred from the local area to the Privy Council as Deputy Privy Envoy.
Lian is very likely to take over the post of Privy Councilor.
He must have asked this question because he wanted to test Feng Dao's tone. If Feng Dao did not support this matter, even if Emperor Jin intended to mention him as Privy Councilor, he might not be able to sit in that position.
The appointment of officials in the DPRK has always been jointly negotiated by the Chongzheng Yuan and the Jin Emperor. Although Wei Yingju, the envoy of the Chongzheng Yuan, was not born in Haoran Hall, he was very upright, but the two deputy envoys of Chongzheng Yuan were both born in Haoran Hall.
People in the hall.
In addition to Murong Wei, the deputy envoy of Chongzhengyuan, the other deputy envoy Gao Xiang is actually a disciple of Haorantang. However, because Gao Xiang was ordered to go north to inspect the area and has not yet returned to Kyoto, he was unable to attend this secret meeting.
Feng Dao was sitting in the Grand Master's chair, squinting his eyes and showing no expression on his wrinkled face. But Feng Haoyu sneered secretly, how could he not see Luo Lian's thoughts.
Luo Lianzhi was a man of great talent, even worse than Jing Yanguang. Now that Jing Yanguang was defeated, he did not first think about how to deal with the upcoming crisis, but he still thought about getting the support of his grandfather, climbing to the high position of Privy Council, and making Haoyu
The young master was very unhappy.
No wonder no imperial court has been able to last for long in these years. Everyone in the imperial court is thinking about how to climb to a high position, but few really want to contribute to the country. How can they support it?
"Zitong, what do you think?" Feng Dao tapped his finger on the Grand Master's chair and raised his eyes to look at Murong Wei.
Zitong is the name of Murong Wei, who was a disciple promoted by Feng Dao. He is only thirty-nine years old this year, but he actually looks about thirty.
"The building is about to collapse, students think we should prepare early." Murong Wei sighed and said helplessly.