Yelusheng, the envoy of the Liao Kingdom, was driven out like an animal by the sergeants in charge of the palace. Zhong Shidao, who was sitting on one side, felt that something was wrong, so he got up and left his seat, came to the middle of the tent, looked at Tong Guan and bowed, and said : "Your Majesty, your Majesty, the Liao Kingdom has a vast territory and a strong military. Although it was invaded by the Jurchens, in my opinion, it still has the ability to protect itself. A few days ago, our army fought a war with the Liao Army and failed to achieve its strategic purpose. It is enough It shows that the strength of the Liao army is still there. Now, since the Liao Kingdom has sent envoys to ask for friendship, this is also an opportunity. We might as well stop the army and restore peace with the Liao. When the time is ripe, it will not be too late to attack the Liao again."
Zhong Shidao has always pinned his hope on the mutual consumption between Liao and Jin. When the Liao army has no resistance, he will attack again to regain the territory of the Sixteenth State of Yanyun. Now he is fighting against the Liao Kingdom, which has indeed helped the Jurchens. The busyness of the Jurchens allowed the Jurchens to accumulate enough energy. By then something would change, and trouble would come.
However, uniting with Jin to destroy Liao was a major political policy determined by the imperial court, and Tong Guan tried his best to promote it. Now to persuade Tong Guan to give up alliance with Jin and jointly conquer Liao is undoubtedly seeking skin from a tiger and is not feasible. Sure enough, after Zhong Shidao said the above words, Tong Guan became angry and cursed Zhong Shidao: "I followed the imperial court's order to join forces with Jin to destroy the Liao Kingdom. Why did you repeatedly persuade me to make peace with the Liao Dynasty?! You Are you from the Song Dynasty or from the Liao Dynasty? What is the deal between you and the Liao people? What kind of evil intentions do you have?!"
"Your Highness, the Privy Councilor. In this battle, I took the lead, charged into the battle, and fought for dozens of rounds with Guo Yaoshi, the commander of the ever-victorious army of the Liao State. If my subordinate Wang Jin hadn't saved me, I would have lost my life. What kind of deal could I have done with the Liao State? ? I ordered the soldiers to build huge stiles all night long and fought tooth and nail against the Liao army on the battlefield. What kind of evil intentions could I be hiding? Could it be that I was hoping that the Liao army would win and that the Liao army would take the life of the last general?!"
Tong Guan was speechless by Zhong Shidao.
Cai You, the supervisor sitting on the side, was speechless when he saw Tong Guan being contradicted by Master Zhong, so he accused Master Zhong and said: "Old Zhong! What do you mean by saying this to Privy Council Tong? Is it possible that you want to disobey? Isn't it an imperial edict? Before the war, you feared the Khitans like tigers and advocated peace; during the war, you took the initiative to provoke and killed innocent people indiscriminately, causing the imperial court's campaign to conquer Liao to fail. You must bear this responsibility."
"Supervising the army, that's not the case." Zhong Shidao defended: "The reason for advocating peace before the war is because we don't know the strength of the Khitan troops, so we should treat it with caution; when encountering an ambush during the battle, we will naturally kill the enemy bravely, and it is not an active provocation. , killing innocent people indiscriminately. The imperial court's ineffectiveness in fighting this time was due to wrong guidelines. The mistake was blind optimism before the war, underestimating the enemy during the war and being war-weary, and panicking after the war..."
"Stop quibbling!" Before Zhong Shidao could finish his words, Cai You shouted sternly: "Are Privy Tong and the Imperial Army inferior to you?! Are you the marshal or Privy Tong the marshal? You have repeatedly interfered with the military expedition against Liao. Action, refusal to carry out orders, misleading the public with monstrous words, and shaking the morale of the army are unforgivable crimes. Regarding the failure of this battle, our supervisory army will report the truth to the Holy One and hold you responsible for cultivating the teachings of a teacher."
Zhong Shidao was naturally unconvinced by Cai You's accusation, and protested: "As Cai Jianjun said, Privy Council Tong is the marshal of the Northern Expedition army, and you are the supervisor of the Northern Expedition army. For the failure of the Northern Expedition, it is not the marshal or the one who should bear the responsibility. The supervisor is actually me, a general who charges into battle?"
Zhong Shidao also wanted to say how he had dissuaded and advised Privy Tong since the war started; but Cai You could not allow Zhong Shidao to speak, and shouted loudly: "Old Zhong! You are a general who has been on the road. You only know one, but not the other." , but you are using strong words to make sense, it is really unreasonable! Don’t say it again."
The first level of officialdom crushes people to death. Teacher Zhong had no choice but to shut up and stop talking.
In fact, during the Northern Expedition to Khitan, Cai You was appointed by Emperor Huizong as the supervisor of the army. His main responsibility was to supervise Tong Guan and was fully responsible for all civil affairs. He was not allowed to interfere with the military. However, Cai You and Tong Guan had a very good relationship. At this time, instead of supervising Tong Guan's strategic mistakes, he blamed the failure on Zhongshi Dao.
Tong Guan is also a man who is accustomed to fighting. He knows very well why this battle failed. The reason is that he despises the Khitan too much and does not allow the soldiers to take the initiative to attack, nor does he allow the soldiers to go on a killing spree in the hope of peaceful recovery. Yanjing, as a result, the Song army neither dared to take the initiative to attack during the battle, nor dared to fight back bravely against the attacking enemy, so it suffered a defeat in the first battle.
The Song army failed in its first battle with the Liao Kingdom, which made Tong Guan very angry. During this expedition, there was a military parade and swearing-in at the East Campus. Emperor Huizong was present in person, and he also gave an impassioned speech, vowing to defeat the Khitan and regain the homeland of the Sixteenth State of Yanyun. Now, after losing the first battle, Tong Guan was naturally unwilling to accept it. Then he ordered Master Zhong to say: "What Cai Jianjun said is absolutely true. At the moment of the war, I will not hold you responsible for now. After the meeting is over, you will quickly return to the front army to restrain Yang Keshi before marching. You must capture Yan." Beijing!"
Master Zhong said: "Your Majesty, the Privy Council has lost the first battle. The morale of the army is shaken and morale is low. Moreover, the Liao army has been fully prepared. Guo Yaoshi has also come from Zhuozhou to help. If we attack again at this time, it may be difficult to be effective."
"Practice the master!" Tong Guan was furious and roared: "Execute the commander's order! Otherwise, military law will be dealt with!"
Teacher Zhong had no choice but to retreat to his seat.
Tong Guanyou looked around at the other generals and asked, "What else do the generals have to say?"
Yang Keshi wanted to report the actual situation on the battlefield and admonish Tong Guan to march cautiously, but when he saw his immediate superior, Zhong Shidao, being scolded by Tong Guan, he knew that if he continued to admonish him, he would be scolded by Tong Guan until blood spurted from his head, so he He tolerated it and did not raise his different opinions again.
After the meeting, Zhong Shidao and Yang Keshi left the Chinese army's tent, returned to the front army, discussed the battle plan, and then led their troops to fight against the Liao army.
As a result, just as Zhong Shidao said, the Liao army was fully prepared. With the help of Gao Yaoshi's Ever Victorious Army from Zhuozhou, the Eastern Route Army led by Zhong Shidao and Yang Keshi attacked Baigou for several consecutive times. Each time, they were defeated and pursued by the Liao army. They suffered heavy losses and had to retreat to Xiongzhou.
When Xin Xingzong and Wang Zhen of the West Route Army attacked Liangxiang, they were also defeated by the Liao Army and staggered back.
Seeing that the battle with the Liao army could not be won, Tong Guan was extremely anxious and didn't know what to do. At this time, Tong Guan received an imperial edict from Emperor Huizong, ordering him to return to Beijing with Cai You to discuss relevant matters. Tong Guan was relieved after receiving the imperial edict from Emperor Huizong. He hurriedly packed up his bags, led a thousand imperial guards, and returned south to Beijing. When returning to the capital, Tong Guan remembered what Zhong Shidao had said about Wang Jin saving his life, so he ordered Zhong Shidao to ask Wang Jin to report and escort him and Cai You back to the capital.
What is this scenario? Why did Emperor Huizong recall Tong Guan and Cai You?
It turned out that before this, based on the development of the war situation, Cai You had written a memorial to Emperor Huizong, ordering it to be sent by horseback, eight hundred miles hastily, and the report reached the imperial court in the capital.
Cai You's memorial strongly emphasized that because the Liao Kingdom had lost Tokyo, Shangjing, and Zhongjing, it now attached great importance to the defense of Nanjing, assembled superior forces, and tried its best to defend Youzhou. However, the war progress was unfavorable and our army suffered heavy losses. Currently, the two sides are in a stalemate.
In the memorial, Cai You did not put all the responsibility on Zhong Shidao and other generals, but only briefly mentioned Zhong Shidao's fault. The reason was not that Cai You did not want to put all the responsibility on Zhong Shidao and others, but because it was not clearly stated in the memorial.
Cai You knew Emperor Huizong very well and knew that Emperor Huizong was a smart man. If he said too much in his memorial, Emperor Huizong would think about it over and over again and find flaws in it. What Cai You wanted was that when reporting the situation face to face, he could give an explanation based on the emperor's doubts; this was not possible with a written report. Only then did he make the decision. After returning to the court, he would report it to the Holy Emperor face to face. At that time, he would shake his tight tongue and put all the responsibilities on Zhongshi Dao, and let Zhongshi Dao take charge of the Northern Expedition. The scapegoat for failure.
Emperor Huizong received a letter from Cai You and learned that the battle on the front line was unfavorable. The army was blocked by the Liao army and suffered heavy losses. He was greatly frightened. He immediately ordered Tong Guan and Cai You to suspend the expedition against Liao and handed over the army to the commander-in-chief Wang Zhen. The two returned to the DPRK in advance to discuss relevant matters.
Tong Guan and Cai You received Huizong's imperial edict and hurriedly summoned the generals to arrange the next military affairs.
After hearing the order, the generals hurriedly came to the Chinese army's tent.
Tong Guan sat on the commander's seat, looked at the standing generals and said: "The Holy One has decreed that this commander and the supervisors return to the capital to discuss matters. After the commander and the supervisors return to Beijing, military affairs will be reported to the king. The general manager, Yang Keshi, is the second in command, and all other generals must obey orders and must not disobey them."
Wang Zhen, Yang Keshi, Zhong Shidao and other generals replied loudly: "I will obey the commander's order!"
Tong Guan looked at Zhongshi Dao again and said: "Old Zhong! You are a veteran general and have extensive experience. During the period when the commander and the supervisors left the front line, the army was mainly for defense and was not allowed to take the initiative to attack. Please assist the king more. Manager, don’t be too troublesome.”
First, Tong Guan was worried that after he left, if there was a suitable fighter opportunity, Zhong Shidao encouraged Wang Zhen to attack, and if Youzhou City was really captured, the credit would belong to Wang Zhen and Zhong Shidao, and it would have nothing to do with him. Secondly, Tong Guan was thinking about asking Zhongshi Dao to ask his general Wang Jin!
After hearing what Tong Guan said, Master Zhongdao replied loudly: "I will obey the order!"
As soon as Master Zhong finished his answer, Tong Guan said with a smile: "Old Zhong, can you lend me your general Wang Jin?"
Zhong Shidao was startled when he heard this, and then replied: "All the generals in the army obey the commander's orders. Privy Tong only has to make arrangements."
Tong Guan laughed and said repeatedly: "Okay! Okay! Okay! Quickly order Xin Zongxing, Wang Jin, and Liu Guangshi to return to the capital with me and be responsible for the safety of me and the supervisory troops."
Wang Zhen, Zhong Shidao, Yang Keshi and other generals replied loudly: "I will obey the commander's orders!"
The next day, Tong Guan and Cai You returned to the capital with more than a thousand forbidden troops, escorted by generals such as Xin Zongxing, Liu Guangshi, and Wang Jin.
The Song army's first attack on the Liao Dynasty failed.
At this time, Jia Shizhong, Yinzhi, Jinxia, and Tiexia came out of Damingfu and headed towards Yanjing, rushing all the way back to the outskirts of Yanjing.
