Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 316: Riding the Clouds to and from the Past

November 3rd, Zaojiao Forest, Yangzhou.

Behind a forest, Jia Hezhong, commander of the Song army, felt an itch on his forehead. He reached out and touched it, only to find that it was covered with sweat.

"What a tragic death!" Jia Hezhong cursed himself inwardly.

It's already winter, and he's sweating profusely before the battle even begins. Doesn't this mean that Jia Hezhong has no roots at all and is afraid of death?

However, when Jia Hezhong raised his head and looked around at the hundreds of archers under his command, he found that they also looked panicked, but he immediately put his heart back in his stomach.

It’s not that I, Old Jia, am cowardly, but the situation is too bad.

Huaixi is completely destroyed. I heard that Hezhou on the Yangtze River has been captured by the Jin army.

The troops in Huaixi either died, fled, or surrendered.

Anyone who was still alive had basically been driven south of the river.

If Wanyan Liang had not seen the opportunity to completely annihilate Liu Qi's army in Huaidong, he might have built a pontoon bridge from Caishiji and marched into Jiangnan.

Of course, if it were the Song Dynasty court, they might be grateful for Wanyan Liang's decision. The hinterland of Jiangnan was not in danger of being ravaged by the Jin army, which was considered a suspended sentence.

But as a member of the retreating Huaidong army, Jia Hezhong could not be happy no matter what.

If they did not retreat to the riverside, the Huaidong army might really be attacked by the Jin army in a pincer attack and be surrounded in one fell swoop.

As a dumpling filling, Jia Hezhong thought this was pretty shitty.

Of course, retreat does not mean running away in a swarm. It also requires layers of blocking and even counterattacks.

In this way, Jia Hezhong led his archers and crossbowmen, together with another commander Wu Chao, to set up an ambush in a forest that the Jin army would inevitably pass through to fight for Guazhou Ferry.

Jia Hezhong looked at the official road that crossed the forest, and then looked at the west side of the official road.

Over there, Wu Chao's five hundred archers were already ready in position. I guess that guy was just like him at this moment, with no saliva in his mouth and sweat on his forehead.

Thinking of this, Jia Hezhong gave himself some suggestions and used a set of spiritual victory methods, and he felt much better.

How many heroes are there in this world?
Aren’t most people ordinary people who get afraid, cry, and feel pessimistic?

However, when Jia Hezhong saw the 104 Song army soldiers who were already lined up in the battle array, and Yuan Qi who was at the front of the formation, holding a grass stem in his mouth and leaning on a machete, looking heroic, he began to feel depressed again.

Because this guy is really a hero.

Although Yuan Qi was only a small commander, his act of daring to lead his own troops to face the main cavalry of the Jin Dynasty reminded Jia Hezhong all the time that he was a coward who was afraid of fighting.

Jia Hezhong even had some dark thoughts. Since Yuan Qi dared to act like a hero here, he would just let him die here. He only needed to provide support a little slower. Could Yuan Qi's hundred soldiers really repel the army of thousands?

However, all those thoughts vanished with the approaching rumbling of horse hooves.

The Jin army's cavalry had already appeared on the official road. Some of the cavalry turned back to report, while some of the cavalry gathered together and galloped back and forth on the official road to harass Yuan Qi's armored troops.

"Bah!" Yuan Qi spat out the grass stem, laughed sinisterly, then loosened the hemp knife that was stuck in the ground, took out the hard bow from his waist, and shot three arrows in a row. Three Jin army cavalrymen fell off their horses immediately.

"Raise your shields! Meet the enemy!" An officer shouted orders in the armored formation.

The swords, shields and spears moved forward in coordination, forming a small Queyue formation. More than thirty heavily armored archers kept shooting arrows in the gaps between the armored soldiers.

It can be seen that these people were the elite of the Song army, carefully selected brave soldiers with strong bows and accurate arrows. The Jin army cavalry could not gain any advantage at all and soon retreated in panic, leaving behind more than ten corpses.

However, no one in the Song army relaxed, because the rumbling sound of horses' hooves was getting louder and louder, and various drums and horns sounded together. At least a thousand cavalrymen were already charging towards them.

The next moment, the flag representing the general manager of the marching army appeared in the sight of the Song army.

On one side is written "Wu'an" and on the other side is written "Wu Rui".

The two smaller flags had the general's surname written on them.

They are 'Gao' and 'Han' respectively.

"Gao Jingshan and Han Tang." An officer beside Jia Hezhong exclaimed in surprise, "They are actually two big fish."

Jia Hezhong patted the officer's head and then muttered softly, "Come on, let's see whether this net can kill the fish or the fish can break free from the net."

The main force of the Jin army gradually appeared at the end of the official road, but the cavalrymen were like a forest but did not charge into the battle line immediately.

Under the command of two marching commanders, hundreds of armored cavalry dismounted their horses and marched forward in formation. They were not arrogant at all and wanted to use infantry combat to defeat the Song army in formation.

The Song-Jin Zaojiaolin Battle officially began.
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"Gao Jingshan? Han Tang? Haha, they are all old acquaintances."

Liu Qi leaned on a soft couch in the Guazhou Ferry camp, looked at the documents in his hands, and sighed.

Guazhou Ferry was originally just a ferry crossing, probably just a town regulation. The city wall was not made of rammed earth, but just wooden railings, which also served to prevent tax evasion.

Liu Qi was a veteran general, so he was naturally well prepared. As the saying goes, one should think about defeat before thinking about victory. As early as when the Song and Jin dynasties were about to go to war, he sent his troops to build a camp at Guazhou Ferry.

In ancient times, the method of river defense was to place two cities on either side of a river. However, nothing is absolute in the world. Because the river is too wide, the Southern Dynasties in history often abandoned the towns north of the river and focused on protecting the south of the river.

The reason is very simple. Jiankang, south of the Yangtze River, which is Nanjing in later generations, is the strongest city in the world and is enough to serve as a defensive fulcrum for the army in the south of the Yangtze River.

Jiankang was once a peninsula surrounded by water on three sides. The waters to the southwest and northeast were narrow and guarded by fortresses such as Baixia City and Shitou City. The northwest waters faced directly onto a mountain, making landing difficult. The only road bridge to the southeast was protected by Zhongshan Mountain and the Qinhuai River.

In the past, Jiankang was almost impossible to capture by attacking from water or land alone. It was necessary to attack from both land and water to pose a sufficient threat to Jiankang.

To put it in a more concise way, this terrain is similar to that of Constantinople.

But the point is, this is all in the past.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, Jiankang's geography underwent drastic changes.

First, the Yangtze River moved westward, and then the old course of the Yangtze River and the Qinhuai River became narrower.

The Qinhuai River used to be hundreds of meters wide, but by the Northern Song Dynasty, it had narrowed dramatically to thirty or forty meters.

What is more crucial is that Xuanwu Lake on the northeast side of Jiankang was directly surrounded by Wang Anshi who drained the lake to make farmland.

This also made Jiankang City extremely unsafe in terms of military geography.

Abandoning the various towns in northern Jiangnan during the Northern and Southern Dynasties was almost tantamount to self-destruction by the time of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Liu Qi had to establish a new defense system to replace the fortified city of Jiankang.

That is the Guazhou Ferry-Yangtze River-Zhenjiang Prefecture defense system.

Liu Qi built the camp at Guazhou Ferry extremely strong and was determined to hold on to the end.

In order to show his determination to fight to the death, Liu Qi even brought his wife, children and grandchildren to Guazhou Ferry. If Guazhou Ferry was broken, their entire family would be killed along with more than 40,000 main troops of the Song army in Lianghuai.

This is naturally a morale-boosting move, but not everyone understands it.

For example, Ye Yiwen, who was sitting on another soft couch at this moment, was like this. This person was a war advocate and had even opposed Qin Hui when Qin Hui was at the peak of his power as a Tongpan.

After Qin Hui's death, Ye Yiwen was promoted to the position of Palace Censor and began to participate in clearing out the remaining forces of Qin Hui. At this time, he had already been promoted to the position of Co-Director of the Privy Council, and in theory was the highest commander of all military forces in the Song Dynasty.

Of course, Ye Yiwen was competent as a local official and his political strategy was also remarkable, but he had only one shortcoming, which was that he knew nothing about military affairs.

One of them knows about the Privy Council but knows nothing about military affairs.

This appointment can only be said to be very characteristic of the Song Dynasty.

Of course, if Ye Yiwen, a pro-war faction, was proficient in all aspects of civil and military affairs, he would definitely not survive the twenty years of Shaoxing, and would have been killed by Zhao Gou and Qin Hui long ago.

This is not conjecture.

They are both civil servants who advocate war.

Zhao Ding, who was an honest official and a strong politician, died.

Zhang Jun, who is good at everything but not very good at anything, has survived.

I have to say it's quite black humor.

This was the political trend in Shaoxing thirty years ago.

However, the affairs of the world are not vulgar novels or online games. There will never be any passionate background music, nor will there be strange phenomena such as the rising sun and the changing color of the sky and the earth. There will only be sudden events one after another, like the waves in a surging river, pushing the people in the river forward.

Whether Ye Yiwen is willing or not, as the co-director of the Privy Council, he will have to face the stormy waves after twenty years of compromise.

"Who are these two people?" Ye Yi asked Liu Qi sincerely.

Facing his superior's question, Liu Qi didn't dare to neglect it. "Gao Jingshan is from Bohai. He rose to prominence during Wanyan Aguda's expedition against Liao. He later became a general in the Jin thieves' Eastern Route Army. He participated in two sieges of Tokyo. He also played a role in the Jingkang Incident. As for Han Tang..."

At this point, Liu Qi began to cough violently, his face turning pale. After a moment, he continued, "Han Tang is not well-known, but his father is Han Chang, the general of the Jin thieves' Eastern Route Army and a close confidant of Wanyan Wushu."

Ye Yiwen immediately realized: "Is it this person? The one who fought in the Battle of Fuping..."

Liu Qi nodded. "It's Han Chang, the one I shot blind in Fuping. I never expected that after thirty years, I would meet the son of an old friend here. It's fate."

Ye Yiwen's beard trembled slightly. Only then did he suddenly realize that the main force of the Jin army was only a dozen miles away from him. He broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

However, he was, after all, a pro-war advocate who had been calling for war against the Jin Kingdom for decades. His character was ingrained in him. After forcibly controlling his rapidly beating heart, he calmly asked, "Can Zaojiaolin win?"

Liu Qi nodded, looking at the retreating army. "We don't really need a big victory at Zaojiaolin. A small victory to hold back the Jin army's vanguard, preventing the main force from being pursued, and boosting morale will be enough. Therefore, I'm sending out elite soldiers and brave generals, with plenty of warhorses. With Commander Liu Si supporting them, nothing serious will happen."

At this point, Liu Qi paused, looked at Ye Yi and asked, "Mr. Ye, you have a heavy responsibility and are the pillar of the country. You should put yourself first and not stay on the front lines for long. I will arrange a boat to cross the river later. Please return to Zhenjiang Prefecture and sit down while I defeat the bandits."

Ye Yiwen nodded seriously: "Military tactics are not my forte, that is where the strategic planning comes in. I can only guarantee that the army will not be short of any necessary funds."

After making their statement, both of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Needless to say, Ye Yiwen and Liu Qi also felt a little relaxed from the bottom of their hearts.

Ever since the Battle of Fuping, Liu Qi has been really afraid of these high-ranking civil servants who have no military prestige and no military experience.

If they start giving blind orders, even gods won't be able to save us.

However, just as Liu Qi and Ye Yiwen were about to exchange a few pleasantries and flatter each other, a military envoy suddenly rode his horse into the camp at full speed and came directly to the watchtower where the two high-ranking officials were. He just verified the badge and ran over quickly.

"Report, Zhenzhou City has fallen, and the financial patron Wanyan Liang has arrived in person!"

Liu Qi was shocked when he heard this. He wanted to say something, but he started coughing violently and was unable to speak for a while.

Zhenzhou City is a large city fifty miles west of Guazhou Ferry, built next to the Yangtze River. This city is not an important place, but it is a temporary stationing place for the Jiankang navy of the Song State.

If Wanyan Liang captured this place, these ships would either fall into the hands of the Jin army or be burned, and the naval advantage would be lost, and it would be unpredictable how to fight the next battle.

As if he knew what Liu Qi was about to ask, the military envoy quickly said, "General Manager Zhang has already withdrawn all the ships, saying they are returning to Jiankang. I'll be informing you first, and the actual apology will be delivered later."

Liu Qi immediately became furious.

Zhang Guang is really brave. What’s the difference between this and deserting the battlefield?
Besides, why go to Jiankang? After Zhenzhou fell, why not come to Zhenjiang Prefecture? Why not come to Guazhou Ferry? Are you afraid of fighting and going this far?

Without the Jiankang navy, relying solely on requisitioned civilian ships could ensure the transportation of personnel and supplies, but how could victory in naval battles be guaranteed?

But after Liu Qi got angry, he felt a deep sense of powerlessness again.

Although he was nominally the commander-in-chief of the Lianghuai Army, he had no power of life and death under the Song Dynasty system.

Others aside, could Liu Qi kill Wang Quan, who had ruined the situation to this point? Of course not.

The national system is here. No matter how you interpret it, Liu Qi's killing of Wang Quan means that Liu Qi wanted to unify the military power of Lianghuai.

Liu Qi could not touch this power at all, otherwise he would be dead. The person who actually had this status in theory was Ye Yiwen, the co-director of the Privy Council, who was right beside him.

But seeing Ye Yiwen heaving a long sigh of relief and happy that the Jiankang navy had escaped disaster, Liu Qi was speechless again.

It’s over. This guy still hasn’t figured out the strategic situation.

Instead of entrusting the life and death of the entire army to Ye Yiwen, Liu Qi might as well find a piece of tofu and kill himself.

Before Liu Qi could think of a countermeasure, several more riders rushed into the camp from the east.

When they got closer, Liu Qi saw that one of them was a military envoy, and the others were led by a scholar wearing an iron crotch jacket, and they were walking quickly.

"Report, the Jin navy, the Zhejiang navy, the Shandong Dongping army, the Shandong Jingnan army, and the Shandong Tianping army, entered the Yangtze River from the East China Sea and moved up the river from east to west. At this time, the Jin navy is only twenty miles away from Zhenjiang Prefecture."

Liu Qi was stunned: "What the hell?"

Liu Qi knew about the Jin navy and the Zhejiang navy, but where did the subsequent armies come from, and how did they go upstream from Haimen?
No, even if Liu Qi knew about the Jin navy and the Zhejiang navy, he didn't understand why these two armies would appear in such a place at this moment?

Moreover, it is obvious that these are not one army. Several armies are hostile to each other, so why are they rushing here together?
All kinds of thoughts flooded into the mind of this veteran at the same time, making his mind confused for a moment, and he didn't even know where to start asking.

Ye Yiwen suddenly interrupted.

He pointed at the middle-aged scholar behind the military envoy and said, "I recognize you. You are Lu You, Lu Wuguan. Aren't you the Sizhi of the Dali Temple? How did you come here?"

The middle-aged scholar was naturally Lu You.

He was sweating through his heavy clothes and panting heavily as he said, "Prime Minister Ye, General Liu, let's put this matter aside for now. I'm here to report that the Jin navy is marching south into the Yangtze River to assist the Jin army. Our Shandong righteous army is also marching south to provide fresh reinforcements."

Liu Qi's mind was in a mess, but he knew what the Shandong rebels meant. Just as he wanted Lu You to explain the whole story, Ye Yiwen started to interrupt him again.

"Lu Wuguan, there's something I don't understand." Ye Yiwen frowned as if he had encountered a huge problem: "How do you explain the three words 'fresh force'?"

As soon as these words were spoken, there was a moment of silence on the watchtower.

As the violent coughing sound started again, He Boqiu, who had been silent beside Lu You, couldn't help but let out a click of his tongue.

(End of this chapter)