"My lord, my lord, Liu Yu, is willing to be a loyal minister of the Song Dynasty, live as a minister of the Song Dynasty, and die as a ghost of the Song Dynasty!"
"I wish to be born as a minister of Song Dynasty and die as a ghost of Song Dynasty..."
Well, when I went out of the city to surrender to the enemy, I was determined to be a traitor. But outside the city, I met King Kang who recognized the thief as his father, but was loyal to the Song Dynasty. As a result, we had to shout together, "Live as a Song official, die as a Song ghost." "Yes. Liu Yu and his group of men are already dizzy now. Are they considered loyal ministers? Or are they traitors and traitors? Is this King Kang in front of me a good king? Or is he a bad king with ulterior motives?
Zhao Gou looked at Liu Yu, the "Loyal Minister of the Song Dynasty", and laughed, "Okay, okay... Since Liu Qing said so, I will trouble Liu Qing to go to Yangzhou to meet with the officials on my behalf. !”
Is this going to lead the way for the king?
Liu Yu did not get up. He knelt down and said to Zhao Gou: "Your Majesty, my subordinates are all infantry, and their number is not large. There are only more than ten thousand. I am afraid they are no match for Zhao... the officials. Your Majesty can Can't we send hundreds of golden heavenly soldiers to help?"
"What are you talking about?" Zhao Gou looked at Liu Yu, "The solitary king asked you to enter the court and have an audience with the emperor... He did not ask you to lead troops to seek the throne and usurp the throne!"
What?
The more Liu Yu listened, the more confused he became. What on earth did Zhao Gou want to do? Didn't he come here to seek the throne?
Zhao Gou looked serious and said: "The lonely king is not here to take the position of the emperor's younger brother, but to punish Zhao Kai for his disobedience!"
Liu Yu couldn't help it anymore and reminded Zhao Gou, "Your Majesty... Zhao Kai is in Luoyang!"
Zhao Gou nodded and said: "But the person who made Zhao Kai the emperor's brother is in Yangzhou! If Zhao Kai is not the emperor's brother, how can the lonely king attack him?"
Liu Yu was completely confused and couldn't figure out what Zhao Jifa was doing? So he asked again: "If the king is not the heir apparent, who can be the heir apparent?"
"The official family has sons," Zhao Gou said. "Of course, his son should be appointed as the heir apparent. How can he pass it on to his younger brother?"
Are you here because of Zhao Chen's reserve position? Liu Yu looked at the 22-year-old His Royal Highness King Kang of the Song Dynasty in front of him and thought: Zhao Chen is 11 years old this year... When the Queen was pregnant with him, His Highness King Kang was only 11 years old at most, right?
After much deliberation, Liu Yu still didn't understand what Zhao Gou wanted to do, and then asked: "I wonder what the king wants to be?"
Zhao Goudao said: "The solitary king's adoptive father, Emperor Dajin, has given the four military prefectures in Huaibei such as Xuzhou, Huaiyang Army, Suzhou, and Bozhou to the solitary king. The solitary king also wants Haizhou and Lianshui Army... .A total of four states and two armies, which are the fiefdoms of the lonely king. The lonely king also has the title of assisting the king of Chu, and a salary of 3 million guan a year.
In addition, not a single penny of the 3 million longevity coins should be given to the country!
As long as the officials agree to these conditions, King Gu and Shangguo can take care of the affairs of the north in the future for the Song Dynasty, and the world will be at peace. "
Of course, Zhao Gou's ultimate goal is to usurp the throne! Wu Qimai sent Wanyan Zongbi to protect him when he went south, so that he could eventually seize the throne of the Southern Song Dynasty.
But Zhao Gou did not have the strength to seize the throne. Even if the Kingdom of Jin fully assisted, Zhao Gou could still be the king of Jiangbei. It was impossible to cross the Yangtze River.
After all, the Southern Song Dynasty now has the world's largest navy, and Jinling, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, is so solid that it is impossible to attack it by surprise.
Therefore, Zhao Gou could only first target Zhao Kai who was far away in Luoyang, and then adopt a stance of supporting Zhao Chen and opposing Zhao Kai in order to win the support of Zhao Huan and the scholar-officials in the southeast... Become a big official first The king of Chu, the auxiliary state of the Song Dynasty, waited for the "seriously ill" Zhao Huan to die of illness, then sent troops from Huaibei to Jinling, first supported Zhao Chen as emperor for a few days, and finally found an opportunity to kill this kid, so that he could naturally become the emperor. The emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty!
...
When Liu Yu arrived in Yangzhou City with Zhao Gou's seal and a hundred followers...including Cai Songnian, who represented the Jin Kingdom, this Jiangbei city had been renamed Jiangdu, and it was regarded as the northern capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. !
Zhao Huan, an official of the Southern Song Dynasty, is now sitting in the big city among the three cities of Jiangdu, preparing for a decisive battle with the gold thieves who went south.
The capital of Jiangbei and Jinling, the capital of Jiangnan, which Zhao Huan regarded as a fortress against the Jin Dynasty, are actually somewhat similar. Not only are they both commercial cities and water transport hubs, but they are also multiple cities in one place.
Jinling now has a new city, an old city, Mufu Mountain City, Zhongshan City, and Xuanwu City, which are five cities in one place. Jiangdu has Baoyou City, Jiacheng City, and Jiangdu City, which are three cities in one place.
In addition, there is now a Guazhou Water City in Guazhoudu, which is not far from Jiangdu. If the big city of Jiangdu is not preserved, Zhao Huan can also take a special bronze armored boat out of the city and go south along the canal to Guazhoudu. Avoid temporarily.
The so-called bronze armored ship is a water warfare weapon specially built by Right Privy Councilor Li Gang for the possible defense battle of Yangzhou - it is a circle of copper wrapped around the decks of several large canal ships that can only sail in the canal. baffle, and a copper roof on the baffle amidships. In this way, the people hiding in the middle of the ship will be safe!
When Zhao Huan crossed from Guazhou to Jiangdu this time, he took a bronze-armored ship and arrived safely under the escort of 30,000 armored soldiers - he felt so safe!
The one place and three cities in Jiangdu were also repaired and repaired under the auspices of Zhang Shuye, the general manager of Huaidong and the two Huaihe Rivers (initially the general manager of Huaidong). The outer trenches, the sheep and horse walls, the inner trenches, the inner city, the horse face, the magpie platform, and the forts along the canal all the way to Guazhoudu were built. Everything that could be repaired was built - now the Southern Song Dynasty also learned it. Using straw bags and sandbags to build the castle (of course I learned how to do it, Zhao Kai had people import a large number of straw bags and sacks from the Southern Song Dynasty), so the cost of building the city was greatly reduced. The defenders from all over the Jianghuai River rushed to build the city and build forts to show their ability. achievements.
In addition to building cities and forts, Zhang Shuye also organized a large-scale baojia in Lianghuai and relaxed the control of paper armor, spears, and crossbows. He also ordered the local tyrants and evil gentry in Lianghuai to overhaul earthen forts in their hometowns (also using straw bags). , surrounded by sacks of soil). So what Cai Songnian and several other Dajin experts who followed Liu Yu south saw was a Huaidong with forts everywhere and fortifications everywhere!
What surprised them even more was the large group of armored soldiers who appeared in Jiangdu City carrying large crossbows and spears, or armored soldiers carrying shields and carrying long-handled swords and axes!
These soldiers... look very powerful!
The queues are neat, and the weapons and armor are all polished. They can still patrol the city in full armor... This shows that they have good physical strength and often train and clean their weapons. It is completely different from the Song army guarding Haizhou and Lianshui troops! It doesn’t look like the same army as the Song army they met during the Xuanhe years—it wasn’t originally! This new army of the Southern Song Dynasty was completely rebuilt!
Although the officers at the top and bottom are all laymen, they are very motivated and have no bad habits. They do not know how to occupy service, how to withhold service, and how to drink soldiers' blood. They didn't even know that soldiers' family members could live with the battalion... They had studied it and found that Zhao Kai's squad army did not bring their family members with them when they went to war. Only officers who served on the Long March could have their families with them. Camp family. The same goes for the Jurchens, there are no family members accompanying the army. Therefore, people like Zhao Mingcheng and Li Gang did not allow the sergeants below to bring their families to "check in as soldiers."
Since I don’t have any family members, I can practice hard 997 times! And after training so hard and without a family, of course you can't serve for a lifetime... So the New Army of the Southern Song Dynasty set an upper age limit for service. Ordinary soldiers worked until they were 30 years old (to save enough money to go home and marry a wife), Low-level officers (without Jinshi) work until the age of 35 (return to be local landlords), mid-level officers work until the age of 40 (then become civil servants to make money), only high-ranking officials such as privy councilors, stewards, and pacifiers are not subject to age restrictions.
In addition, the weapons and armor of the new army of the Southern Song Dynasty were improved by several grades compared to the previous Forbidden Army of the Northern Song Dynasty!
All their weapons are new, and no coal is used to make iron - this stuff is only available in the north, not the south!
Therefore, although their armor is hot-forged and the quality is not as good as Luoyang's cold-forged armor, the output is high enough and the quality is passable. Most suitable for "contract mercenaries" - cold-forged armor can be passed down to family members, so it is suitable for government soldiers. Hot-forged armor cannot be taken away by retired mercenaries, so don't expect it to be well maintained. You will have to buy a new one after ten or eight years, so the output cannot be too low.
And the large crossbows they use are also very sophisticated - this type of large crossbow is an improved version of the Divine Arm Bow, and is even more powerful than the Divine Arm Bow! Moreover, their crossbow arms all use high-quality buffalo horns, which are rare in the north. Only the paddy fields in the south require a large number of buffaloes.
After seeing the dense fortresses and excellent weapons in Huaidong, Liu Yu, Cai Songnian and others saw the sad-looking Zhao Huan in the Jiangdu Palace - could Zhao Huan not be worried? Zhao Kai has been so non-stop, and now there is Zhao Gou who wants to be the Nine Wise King!
The people who worried him more were not the two of them, but the left Privy Councilor Zhao Liangcheng and the civil servants training with Zhao Liangcheng... The more Zhao Kai thought about it on the way to Jiangdu, the more wrong he was getting!
What is the difference between today's left and right privy councilors and those in the past who all kept watch in front of the palace?
Except it's not martial arts, everything else is the same!
The current situation is that Zhao Kuangyin is a Jinshi... won't he wear a yellow robe if he wins the Jinshi? Nothing! Let alone being a Jinshi, what would happen if you were to become the No. 1 scholar? Didn’t Zhao Kai win? And Yelu Dashi, who ran away to Mobei, seems to have been hit too!
This scholar's command of soldiers seems to be as dangerous as a warrior's command of soldiers!
"The officials can't give Prince Kang and the gold thief so much money!"
"Officials, now Huaidong is fortified everywhere, Jiangdu is even more impregnable, and there are 100,000 new armored troops. If the gold thieves come, they can't do anything to us!"
"Yes, giving them 6 million for no reason will definitely chill the soldiers! Officials should think twice!"
Liu Yu and Cai Songnian just explained the conditions proposed by Zhao Gou, and a group of civilian officials leading the troops started shouting. Some of them mentioned that the soldiers were cold-hearted... Zhao Huan was so frightened when he heard these words. !
Why should the soldiers be so cold when they get so much money? What do they want to do?
