Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

Emperor Huizong of Song and other members of the Zhao clan had already been escorted to Wuguo City. Because of his excellent calligraphy skills, Emperor Huizong was directly appointed by the Jin emperor as his calligraphy and painting secretary, while his wives and children became playthings of the Jin people.

As the ninth son of Emperor Huizong of Song and the younger brother of Emperor Qinzong of Song, Zhao Gou began a life of exile after the Jingkang Incident. He fled to Nanjing Yingtianfu (present-day Shangqiu, Henan), Yangzhou, Jiankang (present-day Nanjing), Hangzhou and other places to avoid the pursuit of the Jin army.

On June 12, 1127, Zhao Gou ascended the throne in Nanjing Yingtianfu (present-day Shangqiu, Henan), changed the era name to Jianyan, and established the Southern Song Dynasty, becoming its founding emperor. This act marked the formal establishment of the Southern Song regime, and Zhao Gou began his reign.

With the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, countless resistance groups against the Jin Dynasty in the north joined Zhao Gou, giving him a wealth of capable generals who played a crucial role in the subsequent battles against the Jin army. Among them, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong were the most famous. If the pro-peace faction hadn't later gained the upper hand in the Southern Song court, it's uncertain who would have destroyed the Jin Dynasty.

At this moment, Li Zhen had no time to contact his brother-in-law Zhao Gou, because his Li Family Village was in trouble.

Because a large number of people defected to Lijiazhai, the surrounding landlords and gentry were left without labor. They reported the situation to the local government. In addition, Wanyan Cong sent troops to find the people who had eliminated their hundred-man squad, so it was easy for them to target Lijiazhai.

The reason was simple: only Li Family Village within a hundred miles had the capability. Three hundred fully armed Jin soldiers marched towards Li Family Village, causing immense suffering to the villages along the way. Grain and various supplies were looted, and women of any attractiveness were repeatedly raped. The entire Daming Prefecture was filled with resentment, but the local officials, who claimed to be benevolent rulers, turned a blind eye, as if nothing had happened.

These three hundred Jin soldiers were different from the previous hundred-man unit. Almost all of them were veterans who had experienced battle, and their combat strength was extremely formidable. The leader was Sun Xin, a Jin general and a hero of the Battle of Bianjing.

Sun Xin, mounted on his horse, gazed at Li Family Village not far away and ordered his men: "Send out scouts to gather intelligence on the enemy. Everyone set up camp at the foot of the mountain and starve these bandits out."

The Jin soldiers were able to flexibly adjust their tactics on the battlefield according to the enemy situation and terrain. They were adept at using the mobility of cavalry to carry out rapid raids and flanking maneuvers, while also being able to coordinate with infantry to form a powerful fighting force.

Of these 300 soldiers, 100 were cavalry. The Jin dynasty cavalry was one of its main military branches, well-equipped and fiercely fought. The Jin dynasty had acquired a large number of warhorses from the Mongolian Plateau and the Western Xia, at its peak possessing as many as 470,000 horses. This gave the Jin cavalry extremely high mobility and striking power on the battlefield.

However, Li Family Stronghold was built on high ground, and the uphill attack rendered the cavalry ineffective. Sun Xin's strategy was to first use infantry to breach the stronghold, allowing the inhabitants to escape, and then use cavalry to pursue and kill them. This tactic was a common method used by the Jin army, and they had used it to conquer countless rebel strongholds.

Looking down at the neighing warhorses and the countless Jin soldiers moving back and forth in the forest, Li Zhen frowned. He had originally planned to develop his strength quietly and confront the Jin army head-on once he had reached a certain level of power, but things had not gone as planned.

Li Zhen sighed: "Since we're here, let's fight. I refuse to believe that a modern person like me, with the added resources from my space, can't defeat these golden men."

He turned to Yue Peng and instructed him, "The Jurchens shouldn't attack us tonight. In a little while, you take a group of men, along with composite bows and fire starters, and set fire to their camp after they go to sleep."

Then he led Wang Changdao to the warehouse where the explosives were stored. The explosives inside were ones he had just taken out of his spatial storage. If he had taken them out beforehand, some fool might have accidentally stumbled upon them and caused quite a stir.

Li Zhen: "Wang Changdao, later you take your spearmen and plant these explosives outside the branch camps in advance. Tomorrow when the Jin army attacks the city, they will probably attack those two branch camps first. Be careful when planting them, these things cannot be exposed to fire."

After making these arrangements, Li Zhen was still uneasy, so he went alone to the two branch villages ahead. Besides checking the defenses on the village walls, he also took out a large number of fireworks from his storage space in the warehouse. Even without the support of firearms, these fireworks would be enough to give the Jin soldiers a hard time.

That night, after darkness fell, just as the Jin soldiers were entering their tents to prepare for sleep, countless rockets rained down from the sky onto the tents and haystacks, instantly igniting towering flames.

Sun Xin lifted the tent flap and came out: "Where did that rocket come from?"

A Jin general reported: "General, they should be on a mountain about 500 paces away. I estimate that the enemy is using a Shenbi bow, and only the Song army has a Shenbi bow that can reach this attack range."

Sun Xin ordered: "Send out one hundred men to clear out those archers, the remaining one hundred to form a defensive formation, and the other one hundred to put out the fire immediately."

After firing four or five rounds of fire arrows, Yue Peng immediately led his archers towards the mountain stronghold. By the time the Jin soldiers arrived, there was no sign of the enemy in the woods. They searched the area but found nothing, and had no choice but to return to their camp.

The Jin soldiers spent most of the night extinguishing the fire, which destroyed a quarter of the tents. As a result, many Jin soldiers had to sleep on the ground under the open sky that night. However, this was quite normal for the Jin army, which was accustomed to open field battles, and it was summer, so the night wasn't particularly cold.

The next day was overcast, the sky was gloomy, and dark clouds covered the sky, obscuring the last rays of sunlight and draping the vast earth in a suffocating aura.

With Sun Xin's command, the thunderous sound of Jin soldiers' iron hooves came from afar, like the roar of the gates of hell opening, shaking every inch of the land and every defending soldier in Li Family Village. This was the first time they had faced the Jin army on such a large scale, and it would be a lie to say they weren't nervous. However, the common people of this era were also very courageous.

In their hearts, their leader provided them with food, drink, and lodging, and they had long since entrusted their lives to Li Zhen. They would not hesitate to charge through mountains of knives and seas of fire, let alone fight against the Jin soldiers.

Lijiazhai is built against the mountain, and its stone walls gleam coldly in the moonlight, like ancient warriors guarding this land, silent and steadfast.

Torches snaked along the stockade walls like coiled dragons, illuminating the soldiers' resolute faces and piercing eyes. They gripped their weapons tightly, ready for battle, vowing to defend this free land and the people behind them to the death.

With a deafening sound of a war drum, the Jin army's offensive surged in like a tidal wave.

Arrows rained down like locusts, tearing through the night sky and whistling with death as they densely struck the mountain stronghold.