Li Kaipeng told Ouyang Xuan in the letter that among the rewards awarded by the imperial court for the Sichuan army's defeat of the Mongolian army again in Jiading, only Ouyang Xuan was promoted to Yongkang Zhijun. Yu Xing, his son and Cao Zhizhou were not promoted, but were promoted by two ranks. change. The official position system in the Southern Song Dynasty was very complicated, and the overall system was based on the separation of officials, positions, and dispatches. The grades of officials are divided into real officials and virtual officials. A virtual official literally means a false position. It is an official title in name only, but the actual situation has nothing to do with the official title. Yu Xing and Cao Zhizhou were not promoted in their positions this time, and they were not even promoted in their posts. They were only raised by two levels. You must know that in Yu Xing's official report of merit, the ranking of his father and son's merits is still above Ouyang Xuan.
The reasons why the court commended him in this way are complicated. On the one hand, Meng Ge personally led an army to attack Shu. The situation in central Sichuan was critical, and a victory was urgently needed to boost morale. Although Meizhou was lost in the Battle of Jiading, it still defeated the Mongolian army and was still rewarded with promotion. Due to the fault of losing the city, Yu Xing and his son were naturally unable to be promoted. They could only choose the person who had the most merit among Ouyang Xuan and Cao Zhizhou. Cao Zhizhou also had connections with high-ranking officials in the court, but Yu Xing ranked his contribution last. In addition, Li Kaipeng spent money on many high-ranking officials in the court, and there were more people who supported Pili's military exploits. More importantly, Lu Wende in Chongqing and Jia Sidao in Jinghu also wrote letters to speak favorably for Ouyang Xuan. These two leading ministers on the front line had a very important voice, so Ouyang Xuan's promotion seemed logical.
Another reason that cannot be put on the table is the court's balancing act. A senior official in the court got drunk and quietly told Li Kaipeng that the promotion of Ouyang Xuan was also to restrain Yu Xing and prevent his family from becoming dominant and not obeying the court's orders. Since ancient times, Sichuan has been prone to separatist forces due to its rich natural resources and difficult terrain. In order to prevent this situation, in addition to using civil power to control military power, the imperial court also used the "large and small prime minister" system, that is, to support powerful deputy ministers to balance the power of the principal officers. After Pu Zezhi was appointed as the Sichuan Zhizhi envoy and also knew the Chongqing Prefecture, he soon promoted Yu Xing to Sichuan Zhizhi Deputy Envoy and also knew the Jiading Prefecture, which was to contain him. The imperial court also used and guarded against Yu Xing. It hoped to rely on him to defend western Sichuan but did not want his family to dominate. Since Yazhou's strength was far inferior to that of Jiading, promoting Ouyang Xuan to Yongkang Zhijun would not only make him grateful to the court, but also allow Jiading, Yongkang, and Yazhou to check each other and form a check and balance on Yu Xing.
Of course, according to Yu Xing, Ouyang Xuan's promotion to Yongkang Zhijun is a completely different version. In his letter to Ouyang Xuan, he first praised Ouyang Xuan greatly, and then changed the subject and attributed the credit to himself. It was precisely because of his keen eye for recognizing talents and strongly recommending them, even more powerfully than his son Yu Dazhong, that the emperor issued an edict to commend Ouyang Xuan. He also believes that Ouyang Xuan is not an ungrateful person, and everyone in Pili will "drink water without forgetting the man who dug the well." After reading the letter, Ouyang Xuan had already guessed what Yu Xing was going to do. The Yu Xing father and son were extremely greedy. Most of their interactions with the Perak Army were under Ji's control. The few times they lowered their status, they all wanted to gain benefits from the Perak Army. They were extremely purposeful.
Sure enough, at the end of the letter, Yu Xing ordered the Perak Army to send troops to attack the Mongols, but his tone was very gentle and even sounded like a request. It turned out that along with the official document from the imperial court commending his father and son, there was also an official document from Lu Wende ordering Jiading Prefecture to send troops south to Chongqing Prefecture. Due to repeated defeats, Pu Zezhi was dismissed from the post of Sichuan envoy in March. At this time, Sichuan's top official had been replaced by Lu Wende. At the same time that Pu Zezhi was dismissed, Lu Wende was appointed as the military governor of Baokang, the deputy envoy of Sichuan Zhizhi, and the governor of Chongqing Prefecture. In April, he was also in charge of Sichuan's financial affairs. He not only commanded the military and political power of Sichuan, but also won the highest honor of a military general in the Song Dynasty - the title of Jiedushi. Only due to the delay in information, the Pili Army only received official news at this time. Yu Xing was afraid that when he led his army to Chongqing Prefecture, the Mongolian army would take the opportunity to attack Jiading. Therefore, he hoped that the Perak Army would send troops to attack to contain the Mongolian army in the direction of Chengdu.
At this time, the Mongolian army, under the personal command of Meng Ge Khan, was besieging Hezhou Diaoyu City. Lu Wende's task was to go up the Yangtze River and relieve the siege of Hezhou. At that time, the amphibious and land forces led by Niu Lin also garrisoned in Fuzhou under Meng Ge's order and built a pontoon bridge on the Yangtze River to prevent the reinforcements led by Lu Wende, Xiang Shibi and others from entering Shu. After dozens of days of stalemate, Lu Wende took advantage of the rising water and favorable wind to attack the pontoon bridge, repel Niulin, and open up the water channel to enter Chongqing. At present, he was preparing to lead more than a thousand warships up the Jialing River to reinforce Diaoyu City, so he ordered Luzhou, Xuzhou, and Jiading to send troops to jointly attack the Mongols.
An army without faith is ultimately a rabble. As the Thunderbolt Army continues to grow, there is an urgent need for common beliefs to unite people's hearts. Once Ouyang Xuan's slogan "Expel the Tartars and Strengthen China" was put forward, it not only won the support of the Perak Army, but also received widespread echo outside the Perak Army's jurisdiction. It was the wish of every Song Dynasty person to drive the Mongols out of the Central Plains and restore the Chinese attire. A large number of loyal generals such as Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, Meng Gong, and Yu Jie fought bloody battles for this purpose without risking their lives. The country is strong and the people can live a prosperous life, which is the ultimate goal pursued by every person with lofty ideals for thousands of years. Yu Xing went to support the war in Diaoyu City, which was obviously beneficial to the anti-Mongolian cause, and the Perak Army would fully support it.
Ouyang Xuan will support anything that is beneficial to the anti-Mongolian cause. Ouyang Xuan told the Jiading Prefecture messenger, asking him to tell Yu Xing that there will be a major flood in the Minjiang River in the next few days, so please be prepared for disaster prevention. When the flood recedes slightly, the Perak Army will use all its military strength to attack the Mongols. The envoy was doubtful about what he would believe, but when he saw that Ouyang Xuan's words were so serious that he didn't seem to be lying anymore, he believed them. This envoy came and went to the area under the jurisdiction of the Perak Army many times. He had long heard that Ouyang Xuan had the ability to predict the future, so he immediately returned with gifts.
Different from the money, silver and silk given to Yu Xing in the past, the gift given to Jiading Mansion this time is 500 old-fashioned grenades. At present, the production capacity of new grenades at Dayi Arsenal has not yet reached expectations, and the battles between Guankou Village and Jiangyuan City have consumed a lot, so that the Pili Army's inventory of new grenades is very small. Fortunately, the production of the two old engineering arsenals in Qianjiazhai and Liuliba was normal, so they gave the old grenades originally allocated to the second-line troops to the Jiading Army. Although the ignition method of this old-fashioned grenade is not as good as that of the new grenade, its performance still surpasses the Mongolian army's thundering thunder, and it can be regarded as a weapon to defeat the enemy in water battles.
The military and political joint meeting decided to divide the troops into two groups to attack the Mongolian army after the summer harvest was completed and the flood control army was prepared. According to the current progress, it only takes three days to harvest all the summer grain, and it will take another three days to move the people and materials in the low-lying areas to high places before blasting the widow's cliff. Since the formation of the barrier lake, the Pili Army has been carrying out small-scale blasting to release excess water to prevent early collapse of the embankment. Before Huang Dagen returned to Chongqing Mansion to take up the post of chief of staff, he had ordered people to prepare an astonishing amount of explosives and explosives, and also asked people in the valleys of Wei and Mao to start transferring property and materials in advance. Just waiting for a blast order, the monstrous flood caused by the dam break of the barrier lake will rush towards the irrigation plug along the Maowei Liangzhou Valley, and along the Jinma River directly down to Daojiang, Pengshan City, Meizhou, Jiading...
