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

Chapter 366: Iron Cavalry Gallops Like Thunder

The "Heza" in "Heza Meng'an" means close, and therefore, Heza Meng'an is also called Qinguan Meng'an, which in Chinese means the personal guard.

At the beginning of the Jin Dynasty, the only person qualified to establish Hezhameng'an was Wanyan Aguda himself. On the one hand, it was because the Jurchen population was small, and on the other hand, such an army built by gathering the elite of the entire army could never be handed over to other people's hands.

After the Jin Dynasty conquered the Liao Dynasty, the growth of territory and population enabled the Jin Dynasty to begin to transform from a tribe to a country. The redistribution of political power gradually led to the division of political factions within the country.

There are no factions in the country, and there are all kinds of strange things, which is understandable. However, when the Jin Dynasty was first founded, it was not completely sinicized, and it relied only on its elite army. Therefore, the division of political power was directly reflected in the command of the army.

Politics requires compromise. Even Wanyan Aguda cannot make decisions on all issues without giving in.

This led to the emergence of three more Heza Meng'ans, who respectively belonged to Wanyan Nianhan, the commander-in-chief of the Western Army and representative of the distant branch of the Wanyan clan; Wanyan Wuqimai, the second emperor of the Jin Dynasty; and Wanyan Zongmou, the second son of Wanyan Aguda and the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Army.

Each of these four Hezhameng'an units had a designated strength of 3,000 men, all elite soldiers selected from the 200,000 households of the Jin Dynasty's founding. They wore not only full body armor but also full sets of horse armor. When fully dressed, they resembled the mighty Iron Pagoda.

This armored cavalry made numerous military achievements in campaigns across the country, and acted as sharp knives and bone-crushing hammers in battles against the Liao, Goryeo, Song, and Mongols, specializing in cutting tough meat and chopping hard bones.

Of course, Hezhameng'an will also receive the best treatment. They will be the first to pick the spoils, they will be the first to be promoted, and they will get the fattest piece of meat when it is distributed.

In wartime, this system would certainly be fine.

But in normal times, Hezhameng'an is one of the people who corrupts the fastest.

By the time Wanyan Wushu came to power, Hezhameng'an had completely fallen into depravity. After carefully counting the troops, Wanyan Wushu was shocked by this pile of garbage. He took ruthless measures to clean up the mess and re-selected and re-established Hezhameng'an.

Then in the battle of Yancheng, Hezha Meng'an was killed head-on by Yue Fei and his entire army was wiped out.

This battle made Wanyan Wuzhu terrified and he was directly pushed from the pro-war faction to the pro-peace faction.

If the Song Dynasty had not recalled Yue Fei with twelve golden medals, and Wanyan Wushu had not mustered up the courage to fight a beautiful political battle, the Jurchens would have returned to Wuguo City to accompany Zhao Ji's grave.

Later, Jin Xizong Wanyan Tan wanted to rebuild Hezhameng'an, but Wanyan Wuzhu had died at that time and Wanyan Tan was in a semi-mental collapse stage, so he did not go.

Many Jin ministers also thought that since there was no war in the world, there was no need to expend huge manpower and material resources to build such an elite force.

But Wanyan Liang was no ordinary man. After he killed the emperor and established himself as the emperor, he had always set unifying the world as his ultimate goal. How could he give up this elite army that had played a brilliant role in the founding of the Jin Dynasty?

After wiping out domestic opposition forces and various old and young people, Wanyan Liang began to select warriors and reorganize Heza Meng'an.

This was certainly not smooth sailing. After much effort, Wanyan Liang only managed to gather 10,000 men, which he then organized into three Hezhameng'an units.

This is the origin of the three elite troops: the Purple Velvet Army, the Red Velvet Army, and the Fine Velvet Army.

It can be said that at this time, Heza Meng'an had nothing to do with the founding Iron Buddha except for the same name.

Now the Purple Velvet Army and the Fine Velvet Army have been handed over to Pushan Zhongyi to help him attack Xiangfan. The only people surrounding Wanyan Liang are Heza Meng'an, who have 3,000 people from the Red Velvet Army, led by the Palace Inspector Da Huaizhong.

The thousand-man team that rushed towards Wujiang County was led by a general named Wanyan Qige, who was only 22 years old this year. He was famous for his bravery in the army and was also a trusted and beloved general that Wanyan Liang had promoted.

Of course, although Wanyan Qige became one of the three great marching commanders of the Red Velvet Army at a young age, it was not the reason why he was recorded in history books.

According to history, Wanyan Qige would have a son thirty years later, when he was in his fifties. His son was named Wanyan Yi, with the courtesy name Liangzuo.

Wanyan Yi has another more widely known name, Wanyan Chen Heshang.

That’s all a story for the future. At least for now, Wanyan Qige has a strong army under his command, and he is aggressive and invincible.

In his opinion, with such a powerful army at hand, no matter how many troops there are in front of him, he can just push forward.

A group of Song Dynasty navy soldiers gave them some support when they were on the river, but now that they are on land, who will treat them as a dish?

After seeing that the gate of Wujiang County was wide open and the Song army was lined up in the city, Wanyan Qige sneered, waved his hand, and ordered 500 cavalrymen to change horses and put on armor, and circle around the west of the city to surround the entire city.

Of the remaining 500 cavalry, 400 dismounted and fought on foot. Wanyan Qige personally led 100 cavalry to form a formation behind the infantry and directly pressed into the city from the front.

About 500 soldiers of the Dongting Lake Navy lined up in various streets and nodes of Wujiang County to resist, but several formations collapsed almost as soon as they started fighting.

It's no wonder the Song army wasn't brave. This newly formed Hezhameng'an was composed of the best warriors from the thirty-two armies of the Jin Empire. Furthermore, their military spirit had been nurtured during their campaigns with Wanyan Liang. With ample food and equipment, it would be strange if they couldn't easily defeat the similarly sized Song army. "Stop!"

After defeating another group of Song army soldiers, the officer of the Red Velvet Army shouted an order, asking the soldiers who wanted to pursue to stop immediately.

"List!"

Another higher-ranking officer gave the order, and the thirty armored soldiers, whose organization had been scattered, quickly and spontaneously formed a battle line, forming three rows of horizontal formations on the streets of the county town, with spears in front and swords and shields in the back.

Seeing that the Jin army stopped pursuing, a Song army officer shouted loudly to stop the deserters, as if he wanted to organize a counterattack, but another order was given from the Jin army.

"point!"

The more than 30 Jin soldiers, as if they had undergone thousands of drills, broke the military formation sideways. More than ten cavalrymen, each wearing half-body vests, suddenly rushed out from the middle and killed the Song soldiers.

The Song army officer was caught off guard and his helmet was smashed flat by a hammer. The dozen or so Song soldiers who had just gathered and wanted to turn around to fight were directly crushed by the cavalry.

Screams and the sound of bones breaking continued to ring out.

This scene was repeated in various places in the city. Originally, the Dongting Lake navy soldiers wanted to rely on the small-scale formations they had practiced in water battles and the complex terrain of the county to deal with the Jin army. But who would have thought that the Red Velvet Army was so elite that even if the strength of the Iron Cavalry could not be brought into play, the cavalry infantry alone was enough to almost defeat the Song army head-on.

When the armored soldiers of the Xirong Army lowered their spears and charged forward in unison while shouting slogans in unison, it was like an iron hedgehog charging towards them. If it were an ordinary Song army, they would have probably collapsed before the battle even started. The Dongting Lake Navy could persist in frontal combat, which meant they could be considered elite.

Wanyan Qige, sitting upright on his horse, thought so. Although the overwhelming victory of the war made him feel a little bored, he did not dare to relax. He kept his eyes and ears open and stood on his horse from time to time to observe the war.

Even though he knew that the Song army arrived in a hurry and could not have set an ambush, Wanyan Qige still felt that something seemed to be wrong.

This is not some special ability, but simply the battlefield intuition of an excellent general.

"Xiao Fang, take twenty riders and head north to support Yelu Feng. I will give you the right to decide for yourself."

After thinking silently for a moment and feeling that one of the Moukes was a little out of touch, Wanyan Qige quickly sent twenty cavalrymen to provide support.

Xiao Fang bowed in agreement, but before leaving, he said, "General, you only have a dozen or so riders left. Be careful."

Wanyan Qige waved his hand, telling Xiao Fang to quickly carry out the military order, and said, "Ten Hezhameng'an together are enough to laugh at the thousands of weak southerners. Go quickly."

Xiao Fang thought about it and felt that there was some truth to it.

Even in the streets and alleys, as long as Wanyan Qige didn't foolishly leave the group and go into a dead end, as a cavalryman, he could always run away if he couldn't win.

What's more, this is Heza Meng'an, how could he not be able to defeat him?
Wanyan Qige thought so, and with his large flag painted with a Qilin, he stepped over the corpses of the Song army and continued to press forward with more than a hundred armored soldiers.

However, just as the Jin army had just passed the county government office and arrived at a crossroads, and Wanyan Qige's thoughts had not yet disappeared, a horn suddenly sounded, and more than a hundred Song army soldiers hiding in various houses suddenly rushed out and surrounded the Jin army from three sides.

Hezhameng'an's reaction was no reaction.

They were not frightened at all, and did not even think that this was a big deal. They just drew their weapons and cooperated with two or three comrades around them to fight the invading Song army head-on.

Wanyan Qige sneered.

If the Song army only had this little trick up their sleeve, they would have been wiped out by Hezhameng'an.

Just as Wanyan Qige lowered his guard, he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves behind him. He felt as if he were being stared at by a white-browed tiger with hanging eyes. The hair on his back stood up and cold sweat instantly soaked the lining of his clothes.

The perception of danger made Wanyan Qige make the most correct choice immediately, turning his horse back to meet the enemy.

However, it was too late, a big hand had already reached in front of him.

"I am Liu Huai, a general of the Han Dynasty!" Wanyan Qige felt a tightness on his waist. Just as he was about to struggle, he heard a thunderous roar in his ears.

"Death to the golden thief!"

(End of this chapter)