Zongze is already seventy. At this age, let alone a general who goes into battle, even a pampered nobleman, it is already very difficult for him.
People who are over seventy years old are called ancient rare diseases, which have been rare since ancient times.
Zongze was able to do his best for the Song Dynasty. He stood up in times of crisis and rushed to the battlefield alone.
Sitting firmly in the center during the chaos, all the stigmas fell on him. For the sake of the Song Dynasty and for the people, Zongze could speak out with no regrets.
Before this expedition, he had arranged everything very well, including the defense of Kaifeng, the deployment of troops and horses, the care of grain and baggage, and so on.
The only thing Zongze has not arranged is his own family affairs. He has no family.
His wife passed away very early, with no concubines, no remarriage, and only one son. Now he has taken him to the battlefield, rushing to the forefront of the Song Dynasty, ready to fight to the end at any time.
Zongze, who had a son at an old age, perhaps the only one who felt a little guilty was this son.
However, he still didn't make any arrangements for him. Zongze, who already felt that he was about to die soon, left a suicide note for Zhao Huan, which was now placed in front of him.
"The old minister is old and weak. He should have spent his whole life in the mountains and forests, lonely in the mountains and fields. Thanks to Your Majesty for not giving up, by appointing the old minister on the battlefield, he can finally serve his family and country and bring peace to the world.
It's a pity that the old minister is old and can no longer fight on the battlefield for His Majesty and fight in the world.
It's a pity that the old minister is guilty of death.
Now that the old minister is dying, I have a few words to tell His Majesty, hoping that Your Majesty will grant your permission.
Although Hebei has been corrupted, it is still the land of our Song Dynasty. If we cannot regain our homeland at this time, we cannot prevent the people from returning. We must not let Hebei repeat the past events of Yanyun and destroy the loyalty of the people.
Although it is difficult for the court, the people's hearts are the most important. I hope that your majesty will let it go and not hurt the people's hearts.
There are many rebellions in the world. This is the fault of the late emperor and not His Majesty. Your Majesty is willing to shoulder this important task. This is the bravery of the world.
However, you should not belittle yourself, nor should you..."
There is a blood stain here. It seems that Zongze could no longer hold on. Zhao Huan carefully identified it and still couldn't see the content clearly.
Later, he was advised to be kind to the soldiers and their families, to the common people, to the ministers with meritorious service, etc.
Zongze is an old man, an old man with outstanding talents but not in his time. He should have a brighter future.
"Chen Dong, please go to Kaifeng in person to announce my decree."
"I obey."
Today, Chen Dong is no longer a simple imperial student. He is now the Jiangnan Inspector, or Jiangnan Yushi.
He led more than a hundred imperial students under his command to travel around the south of the Yangtze River, inspecting officials and generals in various places, and visiting the sufferings of the people. He was subordinate to Zhao Huan himself and was not appointed by anyone.
It can be said that they are two major supervisory departments, one overt and one covert, with the Imperial City Division.
That is, Zhao Huan, that is, Jiangnan has been cleaned up by Yue Fei, and there are still large armies stationed everywhere.
If it had been before, Chen Dong would have gone to the hinterland of Jiangnan, and his and the heads of the imperial students around him would have been hung on the flagpole of a certain cottage.
After receiving the order, Chen Dong immediately went to Kaifeng and posthumously promoted Zongze to the positions of bachelor of Guanwen Palace, doctor of Tongyi and general.
At the same time, his posthumous title was designated Zhongwu and he was named King Jing. Zongze was the first person in the Song Dynasty's counterattack led by Zhao Huan and the first person among the thirteen kings of the Song Dynasty in the future.
It's not that Zhao Huan didn't want to reward Zongze before. After the first war, he had already planned many rewards. He even appointed Zongze as a general, and he also had all the soldiers and horses in the world. Marshals and princes.
However, in the end, this decree was abandoned. It was not abandoned by others, but Zongze requested the order to be abandoned.
He wrote to Zhao Huan, "The old minister is old and has few days left to live. If he is in charge of the Central Plains, when that day comes, he can entrust his lieutenants to stabilize the place. If he is in the court, who can take his place?"
Peng Ju is still young, Shi Zhongyong is too brave, Liu Qi is too young, the old is too old, and the young is not mature enough, so be cautious. "
It was this memorial that canceled Zhao Huan's reward, and finally chose to let him sit in the Central Plains. Day and night, he could look at the frontier, his hometown in Hebei, and the changes in the Song Dynasty every day.
Now even Zhao Huan doesn't know whether he let this old man leave with regret.
Zongze's death did not cause much commotion due to his early planning, but Yang Weizhong as his replacement was not the best candidate.
He is just an excessive person.
Yang Weizhong was born in the fifth year of Xining, Shenzong of the Song Dynasty. In other words, he is about to be sixty now. After so many years of fighting on the battlefield, he is no longer the arrogant young man who fought against the Jin Dynasty and attacked Xia Dynasty.
In as short as more than a year or as long as three years, Yang Weizhong will come to an end. The real person who wants to replace Zongze will be Zhang Jun, while Yue Fei will recruit troops in Jiangnan and wait for the opportunity.
Zongze's death prompted Liu Yu and Duchong to immediately send out troops, not caring about the rule that the deceased was the most important, and directly wanted to take advantage of the chaos of the Song army to break through the original defense line and support Li Cheng's Jiangnan army.
After receiving the news, Jin Wushu immediately stepped up his pace and joined forces with Wanyan Talan to directly attack Chuzhou, and also wanted to completely take over the six counties of Han and Xiang.
General Liu Guangshi under Jin Wushu personally led the troops as the vanguard, and Wanyan Talan and Jin Wushu supported the Chinese army. This army suddenly caused the Jianghuai area that had just calmed down to be in flames again.
Zhao Huan urgently ordered Yue Fei to return to the army, give up the attack on Dongting Lake, and let Yang Yao continue to toss.
After receiving the order, Yue Fei didn't say much nonsense and immediately transferred his troops and horses, leaving Wang Gui and Yao Zheng to garrison many state capitals in Jiangnan. Zhao Huan appointed Zhao Ye as the dispatcher in Jiangnan.
Zhu Shengfei and Lu Yihao were transferred from Luoyang, Fan Zongyin was transferred from Ezhou, and veteran Zhang Shou and others were transferred to the south of the Yangtze River, and they joined forces with Huang Cong, the magistrate of Lizhou, Ye She, the magistrate of Liyang County, Qian Jing, the magistrate of Taoyuan County, Wu Rifang, the magistrate of Jingmen, and others to rebuild the structure Jiangnan officialdom system.
These people can be regarded as good ministers and famous officials, especially Zhu Shengfei, Lu Yihao, Fan Zongyin, and Zhang Shou, who have served as prime ministers and assistants in history.
And they are all from Huairou's lineage. Letting them calm down and appease the people of Jiangnan is the fastest way to restore Jiangnan.
Zhao Huan appeased the people in the south of the Yangtze River, and Yue Fei had directly sent troops to Chuzhou to directly engage Jin Wushu.
Although Liu Guangshi's reputation as the "Four Generals of ZTE" is a bit false, this guy still has talents, especially in the terrain of Jianghuai, which is very beneficial to his fighting style.
On September 20th, the Yue family army marched towards the Jianghuai area and ran into Liu Guangshi and others who had already invaded Chengzhou.
Yue Fei did not give himself too much time, nor did he give the other party a chance to react. He immediately led his troops in person, and Dong Xian commanded his elite scouts, the Tabai Army, to directly investigate the battlefield situation.
Then with Niu Gao as the vanguard, Xu Qing as the support, Zhang Xian as the rear, and himself as the middle army, the army rushed to Chengzhou to fight the enemy, and they adopted a decisive battle style.
Liu Guangshi originally thought that Yue Fei was now weak, and with their continuous campaigns, the Song court's logistical supplies were almost exhausted and collapsed.
Yue Fei would find a way to test first, and then wait for the allocation of food and supplies again. He never thought that Yue Fei would dare to do the opposite, when he was extremely short of food and supplies.
He actually started a quick battle, with three battles and three victories in one month. He killed the Jin Army general Gao Taibao and captured the Jurchen generals Azhuli Borjin, Baidali and Pusuli alive.
The Bohai general Li Yong, the Khitan general Mao Maoke, and the three Xiren surrendered generals Wang Ge, Hezhu, and Liu Ge were also beheaded by Niu Gao and Xu Qing in the battle formation.
As for the Han generals under Jin Wushu, they suffered heavy losses. Li Yanshou, Zhao Yueyi, Zhang Da, Li Xingmen, Hou Xiaoxing, and Jie De were directly killed.
Ma Da, Cao Heier, and Yang Si'er were captured alive, and then sent to Jiangnan to be delivered to Zhao Huan, but in the end they were killed directly and on the spot.
I don’t blame you for surrendering, I don’t tell you that you can still fight back.
This is Zhao Huan's rule.
As for the number of people who were seriously injured and died, Liu Guangshi also understood after a battle that this general of the Song Dynasty was different from the past, and was far beyond his ability to resist.
But as the saying goes, it is difficult for two fists to defeat four hands. Yue Fei is extremely brave, but the problem of logistical equipment eventually arises. Zhao Huan tried his best to mobilize him in Jiangnan, but he could not make up for this huge loophole.
Coupled with the fact that the brigade was alone and without help, and the numbers were too disparate, it was ultimately defeated by Jin Wushu's overwhelming force and unable to break the siege of Chuzhou. Chuzhou City was captured by the Jin army on September 25th.
After that, Yue Fei had no choice but to retreat, but Jin Wushu immediately gathered troops again. This time he directly claimed that 200,000 troops would invade Yue Fei's defense area, Tongzhou and Taizhou.
After Yue Fei fought to the death and suffered heavy losses in the end, due to difficulties in supplying supplies, Taizhou was undefeated, so he abandoned Taizhou City and withdrew to Chaixu Town in Taixing County to cover the southward retreat of the people.
In the end, the two sides fought fiercely at Nanbatang. The Yue family army that had just started this battle was almost beaten to collapse.
Zhang Xian was seriously injured, Niu Gao was unconscious, Xu Qing was snatched back by Dong Xian desperately, and even Yue Fei was shot three times, with blood flowing everywhere.
In five days, the people from Taizhou, Tongzhou and other Jianghuai areas successfully evacuated, and the Jin people were repulsed by Yue Fei again. But in the end, Yue Fei couldn't even claim a tragic victory.
The Yue family army had run out of food supplies and was unable to support the army alone. Finally, amid Yue Fei's roar, they crossed the river and retreated, temporarily abandoning the Jianghuai area and retreating to Jiangyin.
And he took all the responsibility for this matter on himself.
This was Yue Fei's first failure. When Zhao Huan knew the news, he smashed all the tableware in front of him and almost ordered Liu Yanqing's ancestral grave to be dug.
After receiving this news, Luoyang had no choice but to choose the last resort, which was to divert supplies from various armies at the expense of giving up part of the defense of the capital.
A batch of heavy supplies of food and supplies was urgently gathered and sent to Jiangyin by Pharmacist Guo himself.
This is not to let Yue Fei counterattack, but to fear that he will collapse directly.
But it was precisely because of this incident that a huge crisis occurred in Luoyang.
