Although the two Jin Kingdoms in the east and west are not at odds with each other, they are inextricably linked.
Since last year, Guo Ning's power has become stronger and stronger, and his posture as a powerful official has become more and more full. The Jurchens in Zhongdu, Hebei and other places were inevitably frightened when they saw this. When the emperor died tragically, the imperial court was righteous and preached the marshal's unspeakable loyalty; but the Jurchens from all over the country were not fools, and they started to flee south one after another.
In particular, the management of Zeng De Pu San An Zhen in Hebei East Road Prefecture is the place where Meng An Mo Ke organization is relatively complete. Li Ting, who was in charge of this area, did not acknowledge the existence of the local Jurchens at all. Although he forcibly broke up many people's attempts to unite, it would inevitably intensify the local Meng'an's agitation for conspiracy.
Guo Ning didn't particularly mind this kind of escape situation, and even sent a message to Li Ting, who was busy sharpening his sword, asking him to show his favor. According to Yousi's statistics, in just six months, about 300,000 to 400,000 Jurchens fled with their families from Zhongdu, Hebei and other places to Damingfu, Xingzhou and Xiangzhou, and then a considerable number of them crossed the river south and gathered there. Around Kaifeng.
These are all members of Daijin’s clan and country, and they can do this because of their loyalty to Daijin. From any angle, the Kaifeng court could not treat them harshly. Instead, it spent a lot of money to settle them. And these people include many officials, their relatives, friends, and old disciples, who still live in the area controlled by the Zhongdu court.
After the second half of last year, with the retreat of the Mongols, social order in the Central Plains and Hebei gradually stabilized, and the collapsed road traffic began to recover. There are fewer refugees everywhere, and pedestrians don’t have to worry about being slaughtered and made into human breasts by them on the way; in the mountain villages and water villages where people gather to protect themselves, the leaders have also been given official positions by Zhou Guogong, and they have begun to consider taking their subordinates back to their hometowns to continue. Farming is the occupation.
As a result, it is difficult to interrupt personnel exchanges on the thousands-mile-long border between the east and west. Now that travel is convenient, the Jurchens who fled south began to call their friends, which triggered another wave of inescapable escape.
Fortunately, at that time, Sui Wang Wanyan Shouxu ascended the throne and established his own business. He recruited heroes from all over the world, and the expenses were already huge. At this time, there were hundreds of thousands of Jurchens in Nantou, and Kaifeng could not afford to supply them. Moreover, although the Kaifeng court claimed to have inherited the imperial order of the Jin Dynasty, the people who held the power in the court were Han officials such as Tian Zhuo and Hou Zhi. They may not be happy with the influx of large numbers of Jurchen nobles into the court and disrupting the original balance. The scale of this trend is far less than before.
Even so, there have never been fewer Jurchens fleeing south, and the more Jurchens arriving in the south, the stronger the Kaifeng court's ability to find out the inside story of Zhongdu.
Even if Guo Ning used the excuse to eliminate many suspicious elements, the effect would be limited after all.
The Dinghaijun regime has always tried to fully inherit Daikin's operations in the southern steppe and northeastern hinterland. This is a military and political requirement, and it is also a necessary economic guarantee. To win over the countless foreign races in the northeastern hinterland, he couldn't always shout and kill the Jurchens.
The Liao and Jin Dynasties had ruled the north for hundreds of years, and many of the Ding navy were Hu'er or people with Hu'er ancestry. It was impossible for Guo Ning to issue an order to kill the Hu'er and single out the Jurchens and kill them.
As a result, Zhongdu's military and political intelligence was rarely considered secret in Kaifeng.
Guo Ning restored the boundary trenches and forts behind Monan Mountain, moved soldiers and civilians to farm, and recruited rebel tribes on the grassland. His efforts could not be hidden from Kaifeng.
He recruited Jurchen warlords on Beijing Road and the northeastern mainland, and continued to use financial resources to bribe many chiefs and commanders, which could not be concealed from Kaifeng.
With Zhigu Village on Zhongdu Road as the center, he mobilized a large number of civilians to build a Bafu, named it Tianjin, and tried to expand maritime interests based on this. This still cannot be hidden from Kaifeng.
To some extent, these inside stories continued to spread, and even prompted the Kaifeng court to go south to plunder.
After all, the world knows how brave and powerful the Ding Navy is. If Guo Ning, with two to three hundred thousand men and horses, is looking at him eagerly, eager to conquer the east and west, and dominate the world, the Kaifeng court will not only dare not act rashly, but will also have to do its best to strengthen the army from Datong Prefecture to Daming Prefecture. Military state defense.
But as so much news continued to come in and was summarized in the Kaifeng Center, everyone saw clearly:
After the entire north was swept away by the Mongols, it was already in a mess. Since Guo Ning took over this mess, he had to struggle to maintain it.
Since ancient times, maintaining a mess has consumed huge political and economic resources. What's more, when Guo Ning first took power, he regarded many things as simple. He not only maintained it, but also seemed to be trying his best to mend and repair it, hoping to restore people's livelihood and lay the foundation of the new dynasty.
Not to mention anything else, just the management of Tianjin Mansion and the restoration of the Monan Defense Line are almost a bottomless pit. The results of King Hailing spending all his wealth to build the Central Capital, and the past events of Emperor Zhangzong exhausting the country's manpower and material resources for the boundary trench, are still vivid in his mind. How much financial resources does Guo Ning have to do this?
The important ministers of the Kaifeng court have calculated accounts for Guo Ning many times. They are very sure that if Guo Ning wants to find new financial resources, he can only start at sea, and starting at sea requires huge investment. Balance the account.
Furthermore, the officials were convinced that under this situation, there was no possibility of Ding Haijun taking any major action in a short period of time.
So, what if there is only an offensive of 10,000 or 20,000 troops?
Genghis Khan was defeated miserably in a head-on confrontation with Guo Ning's tens of thousands of elites. There were many veteran generals in Kaifeng, but no one felt that they were better at fighting than Genghis Khan.
However, the navy had previously dispatched 10,000 troops to Shandong in an attempt to intimidate the Southern Dynasties. In the end, the thunder was loud and the rain was light. They attacked a small Baoying County town for three days without success, so they had no choice but to retreat in anger!
This shows that the wealth accumulated by the Ding Navy has been greatly consumed. Their food is not enough to support long-term operations, and a large number of elite soldiers have been dispersed into the newly formed army, causing the army's combat effectiveness to decline.
In contrast, Kaifeng's control area includes mountains and rivers in the north, the important town of Damingfu in the south, and a series of solid military strongholds along the Yellow River such as Weizhou, Huazhou, and Caozhou. Since the small force under Guo Ning's command couldn't do anything to the weak Song Dynasty, they couldn't do anything to Da Jin.
This is a rare opportunity for the Kaifeng court, and it is also an opportunity that must be seized.
It's not that they are going to attack Shandong and Hebei. After all, Ding Haijun is fierce. Even if they are not enough to attack, they are more than enough to defend. Even if the Kaifeng court wants to commit suicide, it will not do this. The way they thought of was to take advantage of Guo Ning's busy rectification of internal government affairs to send troops south.
If you go south, you can plunder, and use the plunder to maintain the new army of the Thirteenth Captain.
By going south, you can train your troops. By fighting with the Song people, you can take the opportunity to adjust the general candidates for the two unified military departments in Shaanxi and Henan, and then test whether your own military revitalization is effective.
Going south can force the Song Dynasty to hand over the annual coins, and even give the Kaifeng court the capital to continue to organize the army and develop military skills!
Nowadays, the world is divided into three parts, and the military force of the Southern Dynasty is the weakest. This plan of the Kaifeng court was almost their inevitable choice, and it cannot be said to be unreasonable.
Even if there is some risk involved, it is necessary to strive for unification.
If you don't dare to take any risks and just sit in Kaifeng as a watchdog, then there is really no need to establish a separate Dajin court. It is better to surrender directly to Guo Ning.
Because the soldiers of the Thirteen Captains were gathered in Kaifeng and were closely organized and trained; the Jin army in Kaifeng suddenly went south, and the Song people were not prepared in advance, let alone Zhongdu, which was far away.
But the Kaifeng court did not expect that the Song Dynasty was indeed weak, but it still had the ability to protect itself. They did not expect that Guo Ning's infiltration into Song State was very smooth, so he learned about the movements of the Jin Army in Kaifeng earlier than Song State's arrival in Lin'an; and Guo Ning had more resources at his disposal than those in Kaifeng. The whole court imagined more.
Marshal's Mansion in Zhongdu.
Xu Ding, who had been busy in Tianjin Mansion for several months, entered Fengyi Gate, then turned into the Marshal's Mansion, and went straight to see Yelu Chucai.
He stepped back and said in a low voice: "No wonder Tianjin Prefecture always feels that the supply of grain and fodder is insufficient! We spent a lot of money to buy merchants in the Huainan direction, and then opened up the route for smuggling grain through the canal... But the grain shipped from there It has not reached the north at all, nor has it reached Dengzhou or Laizhou!"
He took two steps closer and lowered his voice: "I personally went to read the copies of the books of the left and right departments! The records of Qushan Port in Haizhou clearly contain these grains... Where did they go?"
Yelu Chucai looked up from the pile of documents and laughed.
Yidu Privy Council.
Wanyan Chenghui came here once in a while, so he approached Du Shisheng by a familiar route: "Mr. Jinzhi, we haven't seen Master Huifeng for a while, right? The Duke of Guo passed through Yidu at the beginning of the month, but he didn't come out to greet him. You Do you know where he went?"
Du Shisheng pretended to be dumbfounded: "Yes, yes, I haven't seen him for a while. Where has he gone?"
