At this time, it is the hottest time in the land of Sanshan. There are no clouds in the sky and the sun is like fire. The scorching sun in June (lunar calendar) emits light and heat. It shines unobstructed among the deep valleys of mountains and forests in northern Shanxi, and the sun is shining directly. The steam is steaming, making people feel like they are in the middle of a stove. However, no matter how hot the weather was, it still didn't warm the hearts of the soldiers of Tiance's army who had just left Xinkou Village and were marching along the Hutuo River towards Yanmen Mountain.
In this mountainous area in northern Shanxi, a long gray-purple dragon composed of countless strong men marching in formation was rolling forward. In the Song Dynasty, military academy uniforms were mostly purple. If the color faded or was not dyed well, it would appear gray-purple.
In front of this long gray-purple dragon, there were thousands of knights wearing crimson crotch shirts, and they also formed a relatively neat four columns, surrounded by a white general's tooth flag and a fiery red flag with " The banner with five big black characters "Tiance General" marched forward in a mighty manner.
And under this flag of recognition of "General Tiance" is none other than "Mad King" Zhao Kai. Since arriving in Taiyuan, Zhao Kai has changed his recognition flag. He no longer uses the recognition flag of "Yun Wang Zhao Kai", but uses the "Tiance General" flag.
At the same time, Zhao Kai began to gradually promote the reorganization and reorganization of the troops in Hedong, and expanded the Tiance Army to tens of thousands of people.
When Zhao Kai marched towards the Pingding Army before, although the main force of the eight thousand knights (including mounted infantry) he led came from the original Tiance Army, they also included the best from other armies. In fact, it is a "condensed" army, everyone has a horse, there are many knights, and the ratio of generals to majors is extremely high. He almost brought along more than 80% of his warriors who were capable of fighting.
After arriving at Zhending Mansion, Liu Kai and Liu Ziyu and their son joined Zhao Kai's team with 2,000 elite Zhending Army soldiers (mainly equipment soldiers). After arriving at the Pingding Army, they absorbed another 2,000 people from Taiwei Ji Yi. (Lieutenant Ji also expanded his army in Pingding Military City, with about five to six thousand people, and the rest went to Zhending Mansion and Dingzhou). After entering Taiyuan, he naturally took over the army from Zhang Xiaochun and Wang Zhen. There were more than 10,000 people (the elite of which were 3,000 victorious soldiers). Later, Zhao Kai recruited heroes from Hedong and transferred more than 10,000 new soldiers from Xiangzhou.
By early June, Zhao Kai's army in Hedong had reached 60,000!
These 60,000 people are now combined into the new Tiance Army. An army of 60,000 is certainly too much, so the Tiance Army was divided into six groups: Tiance's Front Army, Tiance's Rear Army, Tiance's Left Army, Tiance's Middle Army, Tiance's Right Army, and Tiance's Royal Tent Army. Each army has more than 10,000 soldiers.
The establishment of these six armies has also been standardized, and they have all become a combined force of infantry, cavalry, workers, and supplies - only a mixture of infantry, cavalry, workers, and supplies can stand alone!
Otherwise, the troops that have concentrated a large number of knights can certainly fight, but wouldn't the remaining armies become "cheerleaders"?
Moreover, the troops that have concentrated elite soldiers can fight, but they can't help but be consumed!
If Wanyan Zonghan hadn't been frightened by the reputation of the "800,000 Forbidden Army" and the "lost contact with the East Route Army" and was willing to sacrifice the lives of five thousand real women to fight Zhao Kai, Zhao Kai would have lost!
Not even the Mad King himself would dare to play that kind of life-threatening strategy by concentrating elites for a second time.
So after taking control of Taiyuan, Zhao Kai began to discuss with Wang Zhen, Han Shizhong, Yelu Yujian, Liu Yan, Yang Weizhong, Chen Ji and others about reorganizing the army - the reason for discussing with them certainly made sense. .
Among these six people, Chen Jiben was Sima, who was in charge of such things. Moreover, he was a Jinshi, had killed people with Zhao Kai, and was Zhao Kai's confidant Yuan Cong... When Zhao Kai wears the yellow robe, he will be either Dazai or Yuan Shu!
Therefore, it is quite useful for him to talk to those military leaders who have been restrained by civil and military methods for half their lives - in the process of reorganizing the army, some people will inevitably lose their military power!
Chen Ji has to step forward to settle this matter... Qianli becoming an official is just for money! How about exchanging military power for a magistrate or magistrate?
Still want to make progress?
No problem, just arrange a good match next to the king!
Have a son to raise?
Okay, I will serve as the "leader" for the king, and the future will be bright!
In short, a series of behind-the-scenes transactions were all handled by Chen Ji.
Wang Zhen, the original deputy general manager of the army and horses in Hedong, was named the commander of the right capital by Zhao Kai. Like He Guan, he became a "great god" who did not directly lead the troops. However, his son Wang Xun had a good relationship with Zhao Kai. In the early years, I also worked in the Imperial City Division, so I didn't have to worry about not having soldiers.
Yelu Yujian, Liu Yan, and Yang Weizhong were respectively assigned as military counselors, new army commanders (responsible for recruiting and training new soldiers), and racecourse commanders (responsible for establishing and managing racecourses). In fact, they no longer led troops.
The Khitan (actually there are also Han and Xi people) soldiers brought by Yu Jian and the Yandi Han soldiers brought by Liu Yan and Guo Tiannu are now divided between Liu Bosattva and Dong Jingang.
Liu Bodhisattva is Liu Yan's disciple, so Liu Yan has not completely lost his military power.
Yang Weizhong's adopted son Kang Anguo (Yang Weizhong's real name was Kang Jiong) took charge of the army on his father's behalf and became a general.
Only Yeluyu saw that this surrendered general had truly lost his military power.
Although the four veteran generals Wang Zhen, Yelu Yujian, Liu Yan, and Yang Weizhong no longer directly lead troops, they have very rich military experience and are familiar with the military systems and tactics of the Song, Liao, Xixia, and even the Jin Kingdom, as well as various Infantry and cavalry tactics.
So a few of them and Chen Ji, who was very good at talking on paper, formed the staff group of Prime Minister Zhao Kai.
Han Shizhong is Zhao Kai's number one general. He is most familiar with the current situation of Zhao Kai's army. Of course, he also has to participate in such a big plan as reorganizing the army.
Under the joint planning of these six people, in June, Zhao Kai's Sixth Army of Tiance was finally compiled according to a new military system, and some days of training were also conducted... Elites don't dare to say it, but if you sharpen your guns in battle, you can show off even if you don't like it!
At least it looks similar!
Since it looks a bit like it, of course we have to send troops to scare people.
Instead of scaring the Jin people, the main force of the Jin people had already retreated from the ground in Hedong, leaving only a small number of the original Song Army troops who surrendered in the Battle of Hedong to guard Yanmen and Fanshi counties in Daizhou, and Zhao Kai. The confrontation is regarded as guarding the door for Jin soldiers to enter Hedong again.
When Zhao Kai first entered Taiyuan, he wanted to promote clearing the fields and inspect the land on the one hand, and reorganized and expanded the army on the other. He really had no spare power to attack Yanmen and Fanshi.
But now... the Qingtian inspection area has gradually entered the "deep water zone" - because some of the gentry and landlords who were driven away by the Jin soldiers have begun to return to Taiyuan and Fenzhou. Some of them wanted to take back the land, so they clashed with the field officers sent by Zhao Kai, and lives were lost in many places!
Those who were killed were either "consolation prize Jinshi" or their children. Behind each of them was a Shili family lineage. If the Song Dynasty was at peace, wouldn't the lawsuit be brought to the imperial court?
Now, of course, no one dares to go to Kaifeng Mansion to beat the drums, but there are still many filial sons who carry the corpse and the memorial tablet of Confucius to Taiyuan.
But Zhao Kai was unwilling and impossible to give in to them.
Because it is impossible for Zhao Kai to rely on the tax revenue from some states and counties in Hedong and Hebei to support his army - now he has 60,000 troops in Hedong and 30,000 troops in Hebei, for a total of 90,000 troops! This does not include the Song troops on the ground who were "contracted" by the state army.
With such a large army, the cost of food and supplies alone can reach several million yuan a year! If we still want to "fight with rewards", ten million a year is not too much - this is still the cost of fighting a home defense war. If we want to go on an overseas expedition, we have to include the huge expenditure of logistics and transportation, and the cost will be even higher. Several times is normal!
Therefore, the original approach of first "collecting taxes to make money", then "paying money to hire soldiers", and finally "giving rewards to fight" is simply unworkable for Zhao Kai!
If his military and political group wanted to survive, it had to seize the land from the scholar-bureaucrats and distribute it to the soldiers.
However, Zhao Kai has actually occupied millions of acres of land in Taiyuan and Fenzhou... so there is no need to get too bloody.
Therefore, after discussing with the generals and advisors below, the current "armed parade" of tens of thousands of people came into being.
Use "defeat the golden thief again" and "recover Daizhou" to shock people's hearts!
Yanmen and Fanshi did not have many Jin soldiers, and they were all "puppet troops". Of course, they did not dare to resist Zhao Kai's tens of thousands of troops.
So this battle is certain to be won!
But at this time, Zhao Kai looked worried and frowned slightly. Even when he heard tens of thousands of troops marching while singing "Man Jiang Hong" with high morale, he could not show even a trace of joy.
Because five days ago, that is, two days before sending troops to Yanmen, Zhao Kai received a secret report from the Xiangzhou Marshal's Office - he knew the news of the defeat of the "Wannian New Embankment"!
At the same time, there was also false news that gold thieves broke open the Yellow River embankment and flooded Kaifeng Mansion.
However, the northward march to Yanmen was already imminent, so Zhao Kai ordered the news to be blocked and sent troops according to the original plan.
And in the following five days... the situation became even more worrying, because there was no news from Kaifeng Mansion!
Could it be that Kaifeng Mansion was really washed away by the flood?
Just when Zhao Kai was uneasy, Chen Ji's voice suddenly sounded in his ears: "Your Majesty... someone from Taiyuan is here!"
From Taiyuan?
Zhao Kai suddenly woke up from his thoughts and heard the sound of rapid horse hooves coming closer and closer. He quickly looked back and saw a large group of knights galloping along the edge of the official road. The leader is a white-haired old man with dark skin and sparse beard...he is clearly Tong Guan!
"Tong Guan!" Zhao Kai lost his voice and said, "Recalling it, the Gu family seems to have seen Tong Guan! Have you seen him?"
Chen Ji rubbed his eyes, took a closer look, and his expression suddenly changed: "It's him, Grand Master Tong... Why did he come to Daizhou? Could it be..."
...
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