This Song Jiang looks to be in his 50s, with a short build, dark skin, stocky and strong, with a gray beard, and looks very loyal.
Unlike the capitulationist Song Jiang in "Water Margin" who was eager to recruit troops after going to Liangshan, this "real Song Jiang" is not so addicted to officialdom. The Song Dynasty court recruited him twice before pulling him into the system, and it was only after he failed to transform into a pirate... Although the "bo pirates" and "pirates" in Liangshanbo are both water pirates, the ones on the sea How can the storm and danger be compared to that of Liangshanbo? Hai Shang is also better than Gang Shang who passed by Liangshanbo!
Moreover, Song Jiang also met Zhang Shuye, a military general pretending to be a civil servant. He beat him so hard that half of his brothers were lost, so he had to surrender.
However, after Song Jiang granted him the favor, he was not framed by treacherous ministers like Taishi Cai and Lieutenant Gao, nor was he used as cannon fodder by the Western Army in Square La... These water thieves were nothing more than petty thieves in the eyes of the treacherous ministers. Fish and shrimp, it doesn’t matter.
And Fang La was just a fish belly in the eyes of the Western Army generals. They arrived at the front line in Hangzhou in February of the third year of Xuanhe, and in April they captured Fang La's family. It's so easy to fight, so why do you need cannon fodder?
Although Song Jiang and others also participated in the Battle of Square La, they were responsible for the water sports that the Western Army's landlubbers couldn't do. They did not fight any serious battles. They also followed the Western Army and robbed a lot of property, making them all rich. .
After getting rich, most of these people retreated and returned to Liangshanbo to become local snakes.
Unexpectedly, after just a few years of being a local snake, a gold thief from Lao Shizi came to rob Liangshan! This is really intolerable to my uncle, but not tolerable to my aunt either!
Now that Song Jiang was taking the lead, a group of high-ranking officials and good people started shouting. Even Sister Ximen, who was flirting with Zhao Kai just now, also started shouting for beating and killing.
Zhao Kai coughed, and the hall gradually became quiet again. The official who called himself "The Commander-in-Chief Zhao Bupo" smiled and said with a confident look, "There is a tall man outside Yuncheng." The embankment is backed by a big mooring, you can advance to defend, retreat to escape... How can a mere two to thirty thousand gold thieves stand up to me? Since you are all willing to kill thieves for the country, let's fight this battle together. So that the golden thieves will know how powerful my heroic man of the Song Dynasty is. If you can make a contribution, I will definitely report it to the emperor of tomorrow and ask for merit for you!"
The good officials in Liangshan all realized that this "Prince Commander Zhao Bupo" was no longer a mortal... Those who are in the Ximen family's mansion today include Jeju, Dongpingfu, Puzhou, Guangjijun, Yanzhou and other places. The guardians and magistrates, they are all dignified civil servants! Not to mention a "palace commander", even if Gao Qiu and Taiwei came in person, they could still act like civil servants.
But what about now?
Everyone is an official with their tail between their legs... Could this Zhao Bupo be a prince of the Song Dynasty?
Thinking of this, all the good officials in Liangshan stood up, crossed their hands and saluted Zhao Kai, and said in unison: "We are willing to follow the Taiwei to kill thieves and perform meritorious service! But if you are ordered, no one dares to disobey!"
...
Contrary to Zhao Kai's expectation, the situation of the Battle of Yuncheng turned sharply at the beginning!
Just when Zhao Kai was preparing to repeat the victory of the Three Mountains Floating Bridge relying on the favorable terrain of Yuncheng, he suddenly discovered that there were more gold thieves... about one hundred thousand more than expected!
The number of enemies that the scouts had previously identified was 20,000 to 30,000, but in the early morning of the 18th day of the first lunar month, the number of gold thieves who appeared outside Zhanggong Embankment in Yuncheng was endless, at least 120,000 to 30,000. This is too much! It was much more than what Zhao Kai had at his disposal, including the camp troops, soldiers and rebels from various states, the people of Yuncheng, and the heroes of Liangshanbo combined.
Considering the strong fighting power of the golden thieves, even if Zhao Kai's army could rely on Yuncheng's favorable terrain to fight defensive battles, it would not be possible to defeat so many golden thieves.
So in this battle, Zhao Kai...oh, it should be Gao Qiu, Gao Taiwei and the palace commander Zhao Bupo who are going to lose the battle.
Standing at the highest point of Yuncheng County, Zhao Kai looked down at the enemies that "Gao Taiwei and Zhao Bupo" could not defeat at all, his face was ashen.
The two golden soldiers' recognition flags erected three to five miles away were embroidered with the Chinese characters "Jurchen". Zhao Kai's slave Guo Tiannv recognized this kind of writing and had already gone to identify it. So Zhao Kai now knows that the owners of these two flags are the two commanders of the Golden Thieves' East Route Army, Wanyan Yanmu, the commander of the Nanjing Road Army, and Wanyan Wenli, the "second prince" of the supervisory army.
Along with these two identification flags, there were 120,000 to 30,000 gold thieves who were camping in the west and north of Yuncheng, and five other gold thieves' identification flags for ten thousand households.
"Master, I have clearly identified the slaves. In addition to Yanmu and Onlibu, the golden thieves who are now outside Yuncheng include Wanyan Wushu, Wanyan Talan, Yelu Mawu, Han Chang, Liu Yanzong." At this time, Guo Tiannu had already walked around the Zhanggong Dam outside Yuncheng City, taking a clear look at the several ten thousand household identification flags on the gold thieves' position outside the dam. Now she returned to the top of the city to ask Zhao Kai reported.
"How many thousands of households are there in the Golden Thief's East Route Army?" Zhao Kai asked, "How many of them have arrived in Yuncheng?"
"Eight," Guo Tiannu replied, "They are Wanyan Yanmu, Wanyan Youlibu, Wanyan Wushu, Wanyan Talan, Yelu Mawu, Han Chang, Liu Yanzong and... Guo Pharmacists. However, the Jin Thieves’ Ten Thousand Households are not full of members. For example, the Changsheng Army’s Ten Thousand Households actually only have 8,000 households. Han Chang’s Liaodong Han’er Army’s Ten Thousand Households and Liu Yanzong’s Nanjing Road Han’er Army’s Ten Thousand Households are also not full. Yelu Mawu The number of Khitan households is only more than 5,000, and the real numbers of the other four Jurchen households are between six and seven thousand. However, these eight thousand households have not yet exhausted their strength, so the regular soldiers of the Golden Thieves' East Route Army The number is only more than 50,000. Now, deducting the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses from the Changsheng Army and the soldiers and horses left behind in Qingfeng, Guancheng, Chaocheng, Nanle, Neihuang and other places, there should be 40,000 regular soldiers from Chaoshang. Yuncheng, plus Ali Xi's auxiliary troops, the total number should be about 120,000."
Hearing the number reported by Guo Tiannu, Zhao Kai couldn't help but sigh... He originally thought that the population of the Han people was dozens of times larger than that of the Jurchens, so the number of the Song army should be greater than that of the Jin soldiers. Much more. The reason why there was the shame of Jingkang in history was mainly because Zhao Ji and Zhao Huan were too cowardly, plus civil servants loved money, and military generals were afraid of death. I never thought that the number of the Song army was actually smaller than that of the Jin soldiers!
There may be a lot of them on the books, and even more if you include those "rebels" who number hundreds of thousands at every turn... But in fact, the number of Song troops who can be used is not as many as the Jin soldiers who can go into battle. of.
At least in the current eighth year of Xuanhe, the actual number of forbidden troops that the Song army can fight is definitely less than the Jin people's regular soldiers plus Ali Xi plus various servant troops.
In addition, the Song army implemented a recruitment system, so a soldier is a person... maybe half (there are vacancies, occupations, old and weak). The Kingdom of Jin implemented the military household system in which all citizens were soldiers. One soldier was actually a member of one household. Of course, there cannot be only one person in this military household. It would be too miserable for a one-person household. Usually, there are always several men under a military household who can be mobilized.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty, which fought for numbers and mobilization, and relied on recruiting troops to fight, was not as good as the Jin Dynasty, which relied on its people and military households to fight...
Moreover, the already large number of golden soldiers are even more mobile!
The Jurchens originally raised a large number of horses, and the quality of the Jurchen horses was still higher than the Khitan horses. In the process of destroying the Liao Kingdom, the Jin people also seized the Liao Kingdom's military horse farm and seized hundreds of thousands of military horses. In addition, the Jurchen military households who participated in the war also plundered a large number of horses.
Therefore, the invading Jurchen East Route Army now has greater mobility and can quickly assemble and dispatch troops.
Therefore, on the local battlefield of Yuncheng, Zhao Kai's military disadvantage was even greater.
"How many of us are there?"
Zhao Kai's question was addressed to Han Shizhong, the commander of the Liangshan Camp. Zhao Kai now divided the personal expedition camp into four camps: Kaifeng Camp, Sanshan Camp, Guangwushan Camp, and Liangshan Camp. Among them, the Kaifeng camp was presided over by three camp envoys: Li Gang, Yu Wencuizhong and Zhang Shuye. He Guan, the envoy and commander of the three mountain camps, presided over it. The Guangwu Mountain Camp was presided over by two camp envoys, Yu Wenxuzhong and Zhongshi Dao, who had just arrived. And Zhao Kai wanted to hand over the Liangshan Camp to Han Shizhong and He Li.
"Reporting to your Majesty," Han Shizhong, who was standing on the top of the city with Zhao Kai, replied, crossing his hands, "Currently, there are more than 15,000 Mabu soldiers under the jurisdiction of the Liangshan camp, and the local people in Yuncheng have already After counting, there were more than 5,000 people in total.
In addition, Song Jiang, Chao Gai and other local officials also said that they could mobilize 150 large boats from Liangshan Park... If necessary, they could take His Majesty up to Liangshan for temporary refuge. "
Liangshan is located to the north of Liangshanbo, close to Shouzhang County of Dongping Prefecture. It is actually an island, consisting of eight peaks and seven branches, with a radius of about ten miles. It can indeed be operated as an anti-gold stronghold.
But it takes time to run Liangshan!
Liangshan is now just a den of thieves, with little infrastructure and no food reserves for tens of thousands of troops to hold on for a long time.
Moreover, the local gangsters in Liangshanbo are not Zhao Kai and Han Shizhong, but Song Jiang, Chao Gai, Sister Ximen... If they want to leave, their family members will leave first. Only when their family members go to Liangshan and are in the hands of Han Shizhong can Han Shizhong stand firm on Liangshan!
Thinking of this, Zhao Kai waved his hands and said: "I won't leave... let the people go first, I will stay and fight the gold thief fiercely!"
...
"There is actually a dike... Lieutenant Gao Qiu really knows how to choose a place!"
At the same time, on the Jin Army side, Wanyan Zongwang also climbed to a high place and was observing the terrain of Yuncheng accompanied by Wanyan Zongbi and Yelu Mawu.
Yelu Mawu smiled and said: "Second Prince, this dike is the key to the success or failure of Yuncheng... As long as we take down the dike, Yuncheng will be a turtle in the urn, and we won't be able to escape by water!"
Wanyan Zongbi also said: "Second brother, we can also capture the four counties of Shouzhang, Xucheng, Zhongdu and Juye around Liangshanbo, and then capture Hecai Town by the Wuzhang River. If Gao Qiu wants to escape back to Kaifeng The mansion is no longer good. If Zhao Kai is reluctant to leave Gao Qiu, he will send troops from Kaifeng Mansion and the south bank of the Yellow River to rescue him. We can defeat the enemy in the field!"
