In the late winter morning, Guo Ning crossed the still restless Hezhong Mansion.
Hezhongfu is the ancient Puban, which was once the capital of Emperor Shun. This place controls the most important ferry of the Yellow River, and is also the key to the east and west parallel to Tongguan. For thousands of years, the rise and fall of this city have been closely related to the Yellow River.
It is related to wars. Emperor Qin, Emperor Gaozu, and even Wei Wu and Sui Wen all drove their troops through here, leaving behind countless military battle deeds. At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Li Yuan crossed the river from the east of the river, and also made an emergency landing here, and he was able to attack Cao Jin Xiaomo of the imperial court in one fell swoop.
Entering the pass.
Just as the water of the Yellow River is unpredictable, the wars between people and between political powers started at the end of Qingping, and they shook the world at every turn, affecting the lives and deaths of hundreds of millions of people.
If we look at the local chronicles of Hezhong Prefecture, we can see that the history of this city is always full of twists and turns, which is disturbing. Just like what happened in the city in the past few days.
Fortunately, all chaos will eventually settle down. Wanyan Congtan has his paranoia, but he is not a person who wantonly harms the people.
Once Wanyan Congtan's plan succeeds, the Mongolian army will be able to sweep across Hebei. The main force of the Zhou Dynasty's heavy troops returning from the north will inevitably be intercepted by the Mongols. With it, most of the Central Plains will turn into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. He is the main driving force.
As a veteran on the battlefield, it is impossible for him not to have thought about such a prospect, and he must have been mentally prepared for it. However, he made many arrangements, but they did not include burning, killing, looting and creating unrest as has been common for rebels since ancient times.
That set.
Whether you call him hypocritical or stubborn, he is a man after all.
Therefore, Guo Ning left all relevant matters to Monk Wanyan Chen and let the Jurchens resolve their differences by themselves. He continued westward with peace of mind and rode across the Pujin Bridge at noon.
The Pujin Bridge was built in the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty. Before that, the Pujin Bridge, as a traffic artery, was only a temporary bamboo cable pontoon bridge, which was not durable. Especially the bamboo cables connecting boats were damaged every year, causing transportation problems on both sides of the strait.
Obstruction occurred. In the Tang Dynasty, the capital was Chang'an, Taiyuan was the northern capital, and Luoyang was the eastern capital. The communication between these three political and economic centers was inseparable from Pujin Ferry, let alone the rich output in the river, Hedong and other places behind Pujin Ferry.
Therefore, the imperial court used a quarter of the national production of iron to cast eight iron oxen, which were placed on both sides of Pujin Ferry. The iron oxen tied the iron cables, and the iron cables connected the boats, and the boats fixed the pontoons. This became the
Wonders of the world.
When the Mongolian army invaded for the first time, a partial division led by Mongolian prince Jochi and Chagatai invaded the river and burned the pontoon bridge. In fact, by this time, Guanzhong had been in decline for hundreds of years, and the status of Pujin Ferry as a transportation hub had been extremely weakened.
The pontoon bridge is dispensable and is in dilapidated condition. Therefore, after the pontoon bridge was destroyed, no one proposed to repair it.
It wasn't until Wanyan came out of Zhenhezhong Mansion from Tan that he tried to restore the bridge to its original appearance. But so far, they were still stuck in the drawing survey and preliminary preparations, and did not go to the step of recasting the iron cables. The ferry only uses fiber rope relays to connect dozens of bridges.
Boats, let’s make do with them for the time being.
Guo Ning was able to cross the river with his horse, thanks to the power of nature that froze the Yellow River, forming a solid whole with the wide river channel and the pontoon. The soldiers who crossed the river in advance found thatch and spread it on the ice to prevent the horses' hooves from slipping. Many soldiers
So I just walked across the river on the ice instead of stumbling on the pontoon.
When Guo Ning crossed the river, hundreds of cavalry from the front team had already formed a huge warning circle on the other side.
On the opposite bank of Hezhong Prefecture is Tongzhou. In the former Song Dynasty, this place was under the jurisdiction of the Dingguo Jiedu Envoy of Feng Yi County. It was continued unchanged after the founding of the Jin Dynasty. It has always been an important place to the north of Jingzhao Prefecture.
Shayuan Town, where the Eastern and Western Wei Dynasties fought with overwhelming armies, was located in Tongzhou. After the founding of the Jin Dynasty, Shayuan Town was one of the important horse farms of Qunmu Station, and the round-shaped cocoon-eared sheep that paid tribute to the imperial court were famous.
When the Jin Kingdom suddenly rose, the famous general Wanyan Loushi reached the middle of the river. The Song army blocked the west bank of the river and refused to stop him. Wanyan Loushi crossed the river on ice from Hancheng. This Hancheng was also in the north of Tongzhou. Wanyan Loushi passed by.
After the river, they captured Tongzhou, Tongguan, and Chang'an that month, destroying the Song army's deployment in Sichuan and Shaanxi. Taking this as a lesson, the Jin Dynasty often used Tongzhou Dingguojun Jiedushi to concurrently serve as Tongzhi Jingzhaofu, forming the capital.
The Tongjun Department and the two Jiedushi Departments on Zhaofu Road are in an integrated state in terms of military deployment.
Such an important place should actually be firmly in the hands of the Zhou Dynasty. But in fact, this place has been out of control for a long time.
When Genghis Khan led his troops to invade the Central Plains for the second time, he sent general Sanmuhe Batulu to lead 10,000 cavalry across the Xia Kingdom to attack Guanshan. Sanmuhe Batuulu raided Jingzhao Prefecture, bloodbathed Chang'an, and only withdrew his troops after conquering Tongguan.
go back.
The Jingzhao Mansion suffered a heavy blow, and it should have been working hard to restore its strength, but then it encountered King Sui occupying Kaifeng and confronting the Dinghai Navy controlled by Guo Ning. In order to gather enough strength, King Sui continued to mobilize troops from various military states in Shaanxi.
and manpower and material resources. At the same time, they made a lot of promises to the increasingly active foreign officials in Guan and Shaanxi. By the time the Kaifeng regime finally fell, the situation in Guan and Shaanxi was already in chaos. There were hundreds of officials who abandoned their posts and fled, involving more than 20 people.
There is a military state. Not to mention that the Xia Kingdom is ready to take action, wanting to take a cut from the declining Jin Kingdom to make up for its losses from being repeatedly ravaged by the Mongolian army.
After Guo Ning destroyed the Kaifeng regime, he immediately appointed Li Ting to stay in Xijing and led his troops into Guanshan. However, Li Ting's energy was mainly focused on monitoring and confronting neighboring countries to the west and south.
Li Ting has always been ruffian and vindictive. Therefore, his relationship with the Jurchen generals was not good. Wanyan Congtan was very marginalized when he was under his command, and later had to take the initiative to ask for transfer. And because Wanyan Congtan
Sitting in Hezhong Prefecture, Li Ting often deliberately allowed chaos in Tongzhou to give him reason to reduce contacts with Hezhong.
Li Ting also attaches great importance to excluding the power of aliens from the control area, and for this reason, he often kills people to establish his authority. Such a style that only relies on executions and killings is difficult to win over partners or allies in Guanlong with complex ethnic groups. Even some
Some of the foreigners who originally intended to get close to the Zhou Dynasty became vaguely hostile to the imperial court because they accepted Li Ting's humiliation.
For example, Wang Shixian's distant relatives in Gongchang Mansion were descendants of the ancient Wang people, but they were deeply Chinese and actively wanted to serve the Zhou Dynasty. As a result, Li Ting was very cold to them and accused them several times of taking advantage of Wang Shixian.
The forces despised Xijing and stayed behind.
This was too much. Many scattered ancient Wang people were dissatisfied with Li Ting. When the Great Zhou Dynasty replaced the Jin Kingdom, Gongchang and other places in Xixia fell into the hands of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and they never returned to the hands of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Some officials in the Zhongdu court once criticized him for this. However, the friendship between Li Ting and Guo Ning was very deep and could not be shaken by the gossip in the court. Guo Ning's rise was rapid, and he lacked senior generals with sufficient qualifications and ability to go out of town.
Even though Li Ting has such shortcomings, he has no other better choice.
Until this time, the main force of the Mongolian army launched operations based on Xia Kingdom, and the chosen breakthrough point was in the defense area that Li Ting was responsible for. However, Li Ting seemed to be deaf and mute from beginning to end. He neither gave timely warning nor had any military skills.
No matter how you look at it, this is a serious dereliction of duty.
The military situation is urgent now, Guo Ning is running away, and probably no one in the court has thought of this. When the Gongun princes react, Li Ting will probably be guilty of seventeen or eight crimes, and will be disgraced.
But with Li Ting's character, he wouldn't care about this. His whole life, he has a moral character of not being convinced by anyone and not afraid of anyone. Even when facing Guo Ning, from time to time he would behave like the leader of the grass bandit village in Tangluo Village, Hebei Province.
.In his eyes, the officials in the court are probably worse than buzzing flies.
When Guo Ning galloped up the high slope on the west bank, all the nearby soldiers saluted, but only Li Ting rushed his horse to greet him, and complained repeatedly: "Why do I feel that you put me here in Guanlong?
Do you think you are deliberately selling your flaws to the Tatars? What do you think I am, Li Erlang of Zhongdu!"
There are no certainties in military affairs. As long as you try to change your vicious character with a little effort, it will become a flaw.
When Guo Ning was about to say this, he thought that Guanlong was barren, not as good as Hebei, the Central Plains and other places. There had been little progress in the past few years, all relying on Li Ting and others to support the situation. Li Ting had only been in Guanlong for two years, and he was in trouble.
He has lost weight and has wrinkles on his face. He only speaks in a loud voice, and still has the look of an evil boy in the capital city back then.
"The Tatars used all kinds of tricks, but in the end they just came to kill them. You, the one who sells flaws, also deserve credit! We have worked hard on this trip to completely eliminate or cripple the Mongolian army, which will be of great help to future development!"