More than ten thousand gold thieves came to the fort again!
This kind of thing has happened many times since Kaifeng was besieged. The four forts outside Kaifeng, including Ruisheng, Qingcheng, Qionglin, and Yichun, were attacked by Jin soldiers from time to time.
Although the Jin soldiers' attacks were all tentative, the number of troops dispatched was only a few hundred. However, the generals of the Song Army and the civil servants who guarded the Fourth Fortress deliberately overreported the number of enemies in order to gain more credit for themselves and to obtain more rewards for their subordinates. At the beginning, I applied for two to three thousand, and then I applied for more and more. In early February, I even applied for twenty or thirty thousand!
As a result, this false report of the enemy's situation angered Li Gang, the personal expedition camp envoy, who called the four fort guards and supervisors to severely criticize him. So the people below had to restrain themselves, but they still had to make false reports, but they didn't dare to report tens of thousands, the upper limit was ten thousand.
Therefore, whenever there are gold thieves harassing us in the past two days, there will always be more than ten thousand. When they heard about "more than ten thousand gold thieves", the father, son, monarch and ministers in the Chongzheng Palace were not panicked. Not only were they not panicked, but they were also eager to try.
Although Kaifeng Mansion is now surrounded by gold thieves, the victory rate between the Song Army and the gold thieves is as high as 100%!
Therefore, when the four fortresses of Ruisheng, Qingcheng, Qionglin, and Yichun were attacked by more than ten thousand gold thieves, the matter of leading troops out of the city to support them was seen as an opportunity by everyone in the Chongzheng Hall.
Since it is an opportunity to get promoted, make a fortune and become famous, of course everyone has to compete for it.
"Your Majesty, as a minister of the Privy Council, Cai You is responsible for military and state machinery, military preparations, border defense, and military affairs. Today, the thieves have arrived at the capital, and I should go out to supervise the formation. Please allow me to supervise five thousand elite troops to help. Ruisheng City.”
The first one to stand up and ask for a fight was actually Cai You, the Privy Councilor! There were more than ten thousand gold thieves, but he was willing to supervise five thousand troops to go out of the city to fight. If Zhao Kai of Daming Mansion learns of this, he will definitely be shocked - it turns out that the most talented person in the Song Dynasty is not Zhao Kai, but Cai You and Cai Ju'an!
He dared to use 5,000 Kaifeng Imperial Guards to go out of the city to fight 10,000 gold thieves. Zhao Kai didn't even dare to think about this!
"Your Majesty, Yu Wenxuzhong, the deputy envoy of the camp, is also willing to supervise five thousand warriors who dare to fight out of the city to support Ruisheng Fort." Someone immediately stood up to "steal business" with Cai You, "I am the deputy envoy of the camp, and the military governor is going to fight. It’s the duty.”
Zhao Ji glanced at the man. He was a white, fat civil servant with a graceful bearing. His name was Yu Wenxuzhong. He was originally from Zhongshushe and was considered an "old party" figure in the court (although Huizong was basically the new party in power during his reign, but in the Song Dynasty) The imperial art emphasizes the mixing of different opinions, so the old party will not be completely eliminated). Because he was close to the prince's teacher Yu Wenxuzhong, when he set up the personal expedition camp, he was promoted to bachelor of Zizheng Palace by Li Gang and served as deputy envoy of the expedition camp.
Now Zhao Ji had to choose one of the two talented men from the Song Dynasty, Cai You and Yu Wenxuzhong, to fight against the "more than ten thousand golden soldiers". He looked left and right, weighing it over and over in his mind.
Although Cai You is "one of our own", his reputation among Kaifeng people is very bad, and he cannot be relied on to appease the three Yamen soldiers and Kaifeng Minzhuang.
Although Yu Wenxuzhong was close to the prince, he did not participate in the "persuasion to retreat" in the twelfth month of last year. Moreover, he was responsible for pacifying the Minzhuang Rebel Army in his own camp. He had a high reputation among the people of Kaifeng and was considered a loyal minister of the Song Dynasty. .....
After weighing the situation, Zhao Ji smiled and said to Cai You: "The privy minister's responsibility is to take charge of the overall situation. It is better for the deputy envoy to conduct military operations to supervise the war."
Then he asked Yuwen Xuzhong, "Xuzhong, you are a civil servant. You can only supervise the formation, but cannot go into battle to kill thieves. Who do you want to use as your general?"
After all, the Song Dynasty used civil society to control military affairs. Even if the army came to the city, this line could not be changed!
If anyone changes his ways and uses civility to control military affairs, he will be revolutionizing the Song Dynasty. Because this question of using civil servants to control military officers is not just a question of whether civil servants have a higher status or military generals have a higher status, but the wealth distribution mechanism of the entire country... It is not how the court's taxes are divided, but how the wealth of the entire country is divided!
That is to say, the question of whether the wealth in the world should be used to support scribes or warriors!
Hearing Zhao Kai's question, the ten Sanyaguanjun in Chongzheng Hall all puffed up their chests. In the Northern Song Dynasty, there were not three positions, but eleven, that could be called the three yamen's military positions, namely the chief and deputy commanders of the three yamen and the Du Yuhou, as well as the two commanders of the four compartments of the upper and fourth armies. Now the commander in front of the palace, Gao Qiu, is ill and at home. The remaining ten military officers, led by Liu Yanqing, the commander of the guards and horsemen, are all obeying orders in the Chongzheng Palace!
Yu Wenxuzhong had already made his opinion and said to Zhao Ji confidently: "Your Majesty, I would like to ask Liu Yanqing, the commander of the guards and horsemen, to go out of the city to retreat from the enemy."
Liu Yanqing was the leader of the Liu family, one of the three major generals of the Western Army (Liu, Yao, and Zhong). He had surrendered to Tong Guan earlier and was entrusted with important tasks during Xuanhe's Northern Expedition. However, after a series of changes such as Xuanhe's repeated defeats in the Northern Expedition, his subsequent demotion, and subsequent revolt, he and Tong Guan are no longer in the same group.
Moreover, Liu Yanqing did not come to Kaifeng Mansion empty-handed. He also had more than 10,000 Western troops on hand. Although these Western armies suffered repeated defeats during the Xuanhe Northern Expedition, they were still much stronger than the Sanya soldiers in Kaifeng. At least the cavalry can ride horses, the archers can shoot arrows, and the spearmen can really put on infantry armor and fight in melee.
In today's Kaifeng City, only Tong Guan's thousands of victorious troops can compare with them.
Out of caution and at the same time to keep a certain distance from the prince Zhao Huan, Yu Wenxuzhong smartly chose Liu Yanqing - there are many people in Kaifeng Mansion who support the prince, but there are no hard-core besties. several. After all, Zhao Ji is only 45 years old, and the prince's prestige was greatly damaged by Zhao Kai before. It is hard to say whether he will be able to ascend the throne in the future!
Zhao Ji was of course satisfied with Yu Wenxuzhong's choice. He nodded and said to Liu Yanqing: "Liu Yanqing, I want you to mobilize 5,000 Qin soldiers to fight with Yu Wenxuzhong!"
Liu Yanqing was no longer timid at this time. His wrinkled black face was full of loyalty and bravery. He saluted Zhao Ji and said loudly: "Your Majesty, don't worry. Although there are more than ten thousand thieves, I only need five." A thousand soldiers are enough to repel the enemy!"
Zhao Ji smiled and said: "I will wait for your good news at Chongzheng Hall!"
...
"Report..."
A deliberately prolonged voice reached the ears of Wanyan Zongbi, who was frowning at the rain of arrows coming from the sky.
Zongbi's Jurchen name is "Wushu", and he is the fourth son of Wanyan Aguda. He is two or three years younger than Wanyan Zongwang, and he looks much more powerful. He has a thick beard, a high nose bridge, and bright eyes. God, he looks quite fierce. In fact, this guy is indeed very ferocious. In the war with the Liao Kingdom, he had a record of killing eight people and capturing five alive in one battle, which is quite a ferocious reputation.
But now he is marching ten thousand households of the East Route Army under Zong Wang, and is the third most powerful figure after Wanyan Yanmu and Wanyan Zongwang. So this time Wanyan Zongwang ordered him to lead more than ten thousand elite troops to approach Ruisheng City outside Kaifeng Mansion, demonstrate to the Song people, and send envoy Cai Songnian into the city to carry out a "fraudulent peace" plan.
But Wu Shu encountered an unexpected trouble at the foot of Ruisheng City. The Song army guarding the city kept firing arrows without waiting for Wu Shu's men to approach! Although these arrowheads couldn't reach Wushu's army at all - they were too far away to shoot anywhere. But the Song Dynasty people would use the Eight Ox Crossbow to shoot out several crossbows from time to time. How could Pan Songnian get close?
Just when Wu Shu was in trouble, the cavalry he sent out to guard suddenly came to report.
"Reporting to the Fourth Prince, the Jingyang Gate of Kaifeng Mansion suddenly opened wide, and about five or six thousand people on foot came out, heading towards Ruisheng City!"
Jin Wushu was stunned, then looked back at the cavalry, "Did you see clearly? There are really only five or six thousand people?"
"Back to the Fourth Prince, I have seen it clearly. There are indeed only five or six thousand people!"
Jin Wushu stroked his big beard and nodded gently: "With five or six thousand people, we can defeat our ten thousand golden soldiers. You are so talented! I must go to a certain family to meet them for a while!"
