Meishan Su family, Su Yun is the most virtuous

Chapter 300 The beloved returns!

Su Yun received the news of Zhao Xu's death when he was leading the Jingsai Army to fight outside. That night, he went up to the top of the mountain alone and sat there all night.

The autumn moon in the northwest is cold and clear.

Su Yun thought a lot.

He recalled his encounter with Zhao Xu in the past. It was only out of curiosity that he wanted to meet this legendary official of the Song Dynasty. He did not expect that after the meeting, his destiny would be directly changed.

Zhao Xu was his own most loyal fan of books. He had a deep love for his own Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He strongly supported his own "Collected Commentaries on the Mencius" and "Collected Commentaries on the Four Books", and promoted his works in the Imperial College and throughout the country.

When he took part in the imperial examination, he did not hesitate to let the prefect at that time leak the test questions to him, which later helped him to become the top three scorers in the examination.

Since he entered the official career, Zhao Xu's kindness to him has been profound.

Although it seemed that it was his father-in-law Zhang Dun who spoke for him every time, in fact, it was the emperor Zhao Xu who had the final say. The reason why he was able to rise to the top was not just because of his own achievements. Haha, there were many people who were able to make achievements in history, but was each of them treated fairly?

And the reason he was able to realize his ambitions in Fuyan Road was because of the support of the Song Dynasty officials.

But now this person is dead.

Died on the eve of dawn.

Not only did I lose an elder who had high expectations of me, I also lost my most solid support!

What comes next is difficult.

The reason why Su Yun wanted to use rock salt to force Western Xia to take action was to take advantage of the fact that Zhao Xu could still hold on for a year or two and quickly break the backbone of Western Xia. Before Song Zhezong grew up, Western Xia would not be able to cause any trouble.

Unexpectedly, Li Changzuo and Lu Huiqing were so incompetent that one lost the Battle of Mingtangchuan and the other even lost Yanzhou.

Some people would like to ask, why did Su Yunming, knowing the importance of Yanzhou, still ask others to do it?

Haha, this is equivalent to asking Zhuge Liang, you know that Jieting is important, why don’t you go to guard Jieting yourself?
It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s that I can’t.

Su Yun had to go back to lead the Fuyan Road Army and serve as the main force to encircle and suppress the Western Xia army. This was actually the most difficult task.

In fact, after Su Yun returned to Fuyan Road, he almost fought against 70% of the Western Xia troops with his own strength. If the Huanqing Road Army and the Hedong Road Army had been more powerful, the situation would not have deteriorated to this extent!

And Zhao Xu would not have become so anxious and anxious over the deteriorating war situation that he died several months earlier!

Su Yun sat alone on the hilltop all night, and the next day he joined in the encirclement and suppression of the Western Xia army.

The Western Xia army seemed to have fallen into its final madness. In recent days, the attacks on the Fuyan Road army have become more and more frenzied. Su Yun led the Jingsai army to move around constantly, making the Western Xia army dare not be so unscrupulous.

However, news of dramatic changes in the court came one after another. The New Law Party was almost completely driven out of the court, and news of Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang, Han Zhen, Fan Chunren and others returning to the court came one by one.

The remarks of Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang and others on the war in the northwest were also passed on. However, Su Yun remained as determined as ever. He led the Jingsai Army to attack the Western Xia Army every day, intimidating them and driving them away, as if he had never heard of the bad news.

Su Yun watched the Fuyan Road Imperial Guards grow every day. The things he taught on a daily basis were quickly mastered in the war. Not only the Jingsai Army, but also the Fuyan Road Imperial Guards infantry made rapid progress, especially in field combat, they were extremely brave!

During these days, they have been fighting with the Western Xia army. If the Fuyan Road army has more people, they will win the battle easily. If the number of people on both sides is similar, then the Fuyan Road army will definitely win. And if the enemy is twice as many as itself, the Fuyan Road army can still fight bravely and wait for reinforcements without fleeing.

It can be said that at this point, the Fuyan Road Army is completely different from other armies of the Song Dynasty, or in other words, the Fuyan Road Imperial Guards have become one of the most powerful armies in the world.

This is also the reason why Su Yun was able to resist the nearly 200,000 troops of Western Xia with more than 10,000 Jingsai troops and nearly 30,000 imperial guards, plus other garrison troops with average combat effectiveness.

Of course, this required the dense fortresses along the Fuyan Road, but using tens of thousands of troops to resist an army of 200,000, even when the left and right wings of the Fuyan Road army were threatened, was unimaginable in the past.

Su Yun was also sighing privately. The Fuyan Road Imperial Guards had just grown up and he might be leaving soon. Whether he could maintain it in the future, or not be disbanded, would depend on God's will.

Su Yun's judgment of the situation was correct. Soon, the imperial envoy arrived and immediately dismissed Su Yun from his post as the governor, but still kept Su Yun's dignity and did not remove Su Yun's official position as a Hanlin scholar. He just asked Su Yun to return to Beijing that day. As for the position of governor of Fuyan Road, Zhang Yu was appointed as the leader.

Su Yun breathed a sigh of relief. At least there were still some sensible people in the court. If even Zhang Qie was transferred away at this time, the Fuyan Road would definitely collapse, which would be a real trouble.

Because the war at the front was intense, the generals had no way to come back to say goodbye to Su Yun. Su Yun explained the matter to Zhang Qie, and then handed over the Jingsai Army to Zhe Keshi and Wang Shunchen, then resigned from his post and followed the imperial envoy back to Bianliang.

Su Yun felt that as long as he was on the road, it would be snowing heavily.

When he went from Bian Jing to Huangzhou, the road was blocked by ice and snow. Later, when he went from Bian Jing to the northwest, it was also snowing heavily. When he was rushing back to Bian Jing from the northwest, the first heavy snow of the seventh year of Yuanfeng arrived unexpectedly.

At this moment, Su Yun suddenly remembered a poem, "Song of the White Snow to Send Judge Wu Back to the Capital" written by Cen Shen, a frontier poet in the Tang Dynasty.

Su Yun chewed over the meaning of the poem, and when he thought of the last two lines [I saw you off at the east gate of Luntai, and the Tianshan Road was covered with snow when you left. As the road twisted around the mountain, I could no longer see you, and only your horse's footprints were left on the snow.], Su Yun suddenly burst into tears.

At this moment, he thought of Zhao Xu, Zhang Qie, Wang Shunchen, Xu Jin, Zhe Keshi, Qi Keyong, Zheng Nian'an, Qi Ying, Huo Yong... Some of them have already passed away, and he doesn't know whether he will see some of them again in this lifetime.

……

The Spring Festival in the eighth year of Yuanfeng was not grand, because it was the first New Year after the death of Song Shenzong Zhao Xu. Therefore, the government did not hold any New Year celebrations, and the people were not allowed to hold grand celebrations, but Bianliang was still bustling.

Although there were no firecrackers or red decorations on the streets, the bustling flow of people instantly activated Su Yun's memories of the city of Bianjing.

The weather in Bianjing was also cold, but Su Yun felt very warm in it, because there was so much life here. It was rich and abundant in resources. Although people looked tired, they also had high self-confidence.

At this time, the people in the northwest were in distress, suffering from the pain of losing their loved ones and children, and living in fear of losing their lives at any moment, which formed a sharp contrast with the people in Bianliang at that time.

Bianjing was bustling, but when Su Yun returned, it felt deserted.

After arriving in Bian Jing, the imperial envoy told Su Yun to just go home. He did not tell Su Yun that the Empress Dowager Gao or the Emperor had summoned Su Yun, nor did he say anything else. He just told Su Yun that he could rest at home for a few days.

After that, the court seemed to have forgotten about Su Yun. He was neither summoned nor appointed. But he also was not held accountable or impeached. It was as if he had been forgotten by the court.

Su Yun could naturally understand the reason behind this.

Empress Dowager Gao, Sima Guang and others believed that they were of the same faction as Zhang Dun and Cai Que. They hated those who supported the new laws and the war, and therefore were harsh on themselves.

But fortunately, his uncles Su Zhe and Su Shi were from the old party. They might want to punish him, but for the sake of the two Su brothers' face, they would not punish him for the time being. However, it was impossible for them to use him either.

Therefore, this is how the current situation came about.

However, Su Yun was not disappointed about this. He was just a little disheartened. This disheartenment was not because the court did not employ him, but because of the failure in the northwest.

He was almost able to break the backbone of Western Xia and completely lay the seeds for its destruction, but he failed at the last moment and caused Zhao Xu to die several months early!

Su Yun had actually long been aware that it was extremely difficult to get things done in the Song Dynasty, so he had never thought about entering the official career from the beginning, and even tried to avoid it, but he still underestimated the difficulty.

He had already exhausted all his efforts for this final battle. He first started with the salt war to force Western Xia to raise an army hastily, and then led 3,000 Jingsai troops deep into Xia territory, made a large detour, surrounded and attacked the reinforcements, transferred the Yanzhou garrison, and then occupied Yanzhou, cutting off the passage between the Western Xia army and Xingqing Prefecture.

Then he handed Yanzhou over to the Huanqing Road army to garrison, and returned to Fuyan Road. With the strength of Fuyan Road, he attracted 200,000 Western Xia troops, allowing the Hedong Road army and the Huanqing Road army to attack the Western Xia army from both wings.

If these two armies were more reliable, not so radical, and not trying to take credit for themselves, and just slowly consumed the enemy's strength, the Western Xia army would eventually collapse. They would have no choice but to retreat, and then the three armies could pursue them all the way and at least annihilate half of the Western Xia army. In this way, the backbone of the Western Xia would be broken!
It can be said that he had made sufficient preparations. He fried the pancakes and served them on the table. He was even afraid that the people eating them would get burned, so he let them cool down a little. But even so, they still choked while eating!
Su Yun was somewhat disheartened. Since the imperial court ignored him, he just lay down with peace of mind.

His mentality now is somewhat similar to the saying: A moment of initiative in exchange for a lifetime of autism.

Fortunately, his wife Zhang Ruo is at home.

Originally, Zhang Dun wanted to ask Zhang Ruo to go with him when he went to Ruzhou, but Zhang Ruo refused, saying that Su Yun would be very disappointed if he returned to Beijing alone.

(End of this chapter)