The Ruisi Hall of Bianliang Palace seems to always be filled with a gloomy and decadent atmosphere.
Behind the ornately carved imperial table sat the sad-faced Emperor Zhao Huan of the Song Dynasty.
This is a young man of 26 or 27 years old. Although he has inherited the upright and handsome appearance of Song Huizong, he does not have the vigor and vigor that young people should have. His face is green and his lips are white, his eyes are dull, and he wears a crimson robe. His body is thin and dry, with no momentum at all. To sum it up in one sentence, he is "not like a human being." Even worse than his artist father.
In general, Emperor Qinzong Zhao Huan, who had only been on the throne for only a year, was not a decisive person. He was born in a deep palace and grew up with women's hands. All he has learned in his life is either poetry, songs or moral articles. He seems to be a talented and elegant man, but his judgment on the general trend of the world and his tactics in the turmoil are only at the level of a layman - but at the beginning of his accession to the throne, he caught up with this man who has not been seen in a century. The war is in turmoil!
——It feels a bit like letting Hu Shi sit in Chiang Kai-shek's position to lead the war of resistance and deal with the fierce attack of the Japanese invaders and the betrayal of his own people...
In fact, so many bad news happened in the first year of Jingkang - the ferocious and fierce Jurchen cavalry, the useless army officers and soldiers who were defeated in many battles, the unruly ministers and scholars, the emperor who jumped out to cause trouble from time to time, and those who had no good intentions. The younger brothers have tortured this fragile literary emperor to the point of going crazy, and they just want to stop there, see no one, and don't care about anything... However, this emperor still has to sit down.
Therefore, he still had to brace himself and work hard to cope with the current war situation, which was getting worse day by day.
——Since the autumn of last year, the Jinlu cavalry, which was raging in the north as if they were in uninhabited territory, became the biggest nightmare for the monarchs and ministers of the Song Dynasty.
In October last year, the Jin army went south to the Central Plains for the first time. At that time, the Liao rebel general Guo Yaoshi and others who were guarding Youzhou and other places defected again and defected to the Jin army to attack the Song Dynasty. Immediately afterwards, the Jurchen cavalry swept through Hebei, and with their strong mobility and attack power, they quickly destroyed the Song people's defenses on the front line, and deployed the Song army's military forces east of the Taihang Mountains and north of the Yellow River to form an organizational structure. mass annihilation.
In just two months, from Hebei to Shandong, there was smoke and thunder everywhere. The entire front line collapsed, leaving only the lonely city of Taiyuan still struggling to hold on. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, an artist known for his calligraphy and painting, was so frightened that he actually abdicated to Song Qinzong and fled south to Jianghuai to avoid disaster. Immediately afterwards, before the procrastinating Song Dynasty court had time to think of a countermeasure, Jin soldiers appeared outside Bianliang City. It is conceivable that these Bianliang people, who had enjoyed a peaceful and comfortable life for hundreds of years, saw the aliens. How frightened and helpless you will feel when the army suddenly appears at the door of your home.
Fortunately, seeing the emperor in danger was the best time for his ministers to show their loyalty. So an army of supporting kings rushed to Bianliang in a mighty manner, and they seemed to work together to drive away the Tartars. Unfortunately, the results were not satisfactory. In the first defense battle of Bianliang, the Song Dynasty court took out With all their capital, the Western Army, the Forbidden Army, and the Rebel Army went into battle together. There were more than 600,000 Song troops in total to rescue Bianliang. However, they were all defeated by a mere 60,000 Jin soldiers on the battlefield within a radius of 200 kilometers with Bianliang as the center. They were either maimed or defeated... In the end, Song Qinzong was completely disappointed with the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty official army and had to search for it. He bribed the Jin soldiers with property and begged them to retreat, so they barely survived the disaster in the early spring of the first year of Jingkang.
Next, the Song Dynasty court, which had barely regained its composure, still had some of the arrogance of the Celestial Empire. Instead of surrendering, like a gambler with red eyes after losing, it used all the military power that the entire country could muster. They rushed into the battlefield--deployed Zhongshi Dao, Yao Gu, and Zhongshi from the northwest to aid the front lines in Hedong and Hebei, betting all their money on hand, and started a more fierce battle for Taiyuan.
It is a pity that the newly appointed Emperor is still waiting for one disastrous defeat after another.
——In the fifth month, Yao Gu led his troops to Weisheng. Hearing that Nianhan's troops were approaching, everyone was shocked and collapsed, and there was a big earthquake in Hedong. During this period, the defense line built by the Song army along the Taihang Mountains completely collapsed. In August, the Hedong inspection envoy Zhang Hao fought with the Jin people in Wenshui and was defeated miserably. At the end of Ding Dynasty, Yili stopped attacking Guangxin Army and Baozhou, but failed, thus violating Zhending. Wushen, under the command of Zhang Sizheng and others, attacked the Jin people at night in Wenshui County and achieved a small victory. In Jiyou, Zhang Sizheng led his troops to resume the battle, but the division was defeated soon after. Tens of thousands of people died, and Sizheng rushed to Fenzhou. The commander of the capital, Zhe Keqiu, was defeated in Zixia Mountain. The people of Weisheng, Longde, Fen, Jin, Ze, and Jiang all crossed the river and ran southward, and all the prefectures and counties were empty. Taking advantage of the victory, the Jin people attacked Taiyuan again. In September, Taiyuan fell, the pacification envoy Zhang Xiaochun was captured, and the deputy governor of the capital, Wang Zhen, and the general judge Fang Ji were both killed. At this point, the situation on the battlefield in Hedong (modern Shanxi) completely collapsed, and the strategic situation faced by the Song Dynasty became even worse.
With the failure of the battle for Taiyuan and the destruction of hundreds of thousands of elite field troops, the imperial capital Bianliang was completely exposed to the attack arrows of the Jin army. In October, the Jin people fell into Fenzhou, and Zhang Kejian, the governor of the state, and Jia Dan, the military and horse supervisor, died in the battle. The Jin people immediately took advantage of the victory to capture Pingyang Mansion, and also captured important strongholds such as Weisheng, Longde, Zezhou, and Zhending. The Song Army's strategic maneuvering space was further oppressed. In November of the first year of Jingkang, the Jin army once again forcibly crossed the Yellow River. The 120,000 Song troops guarding the river were frightened by a war drum and all fled. At this point, the imperial capital Bianliang was once again surrounded, and the glorious Song Dynasty fell to the edge of life and death!
As a result, Emperor Zhao Huan of the Song Dynasty had to start a battle to defend the capital for the second time in his first year on the throne.
However, the situation faced by the Song army defending the city at this time was much worse than the situation in the last defense battle of Bianliang in Tokyo ten months ago.
——At this moment, all the counties in Hedong of the Song Dynasty have been surrendered or destroyed, and all are lost. There is only a group of stragglers left in Hebei. The Song army outside Bianliang hardly posed any threat to the Jin soldiers. The troops of King Qin from all directions were sent back without authorization by the treacherous ministers sent by Zhuhe, and Bianliang, Tokyo, became an isolated city!
Compared with the military defeat, the more fatal problem for the soldiers and people of the Song Dynasty was the devastating blow to their confidence.
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※
There is a saying in later generations: The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, which lasted for forty years, was essentially a psychological war. After the Soviets lost the confidence to defeat the United States from top to bottom, even though their army was still large and powerful , and it has been unable to prevent the country's internal collapse.
——In the same way, when the Song Dynasty monarchs, ministers, scholars and people faced the unprecedented bad news of being undefeated for one consecutive year, they were psychologically shadowed from top to bottom. After they completely lost confidence in defeating the Jin people, no matter how hard the capital Bianliang It is impregnable and this defensive battle is difficult to win.
Before the Jin army invaded, the citizens of Bianliang were quite proud - no matter what, the Song Dynasty was the most prosperous and civilized country in the world today. Bianliang is the most prosperous city in the world, and countless literary talents, poems and songs can be seen everywhere in the city... This huge psychological advantage at the level of civilization far exceeds the imagination of later generations. Just like the United States in the future will be called the lighthouse country.
Although the Han scholars and people in the heyday of the Han and Tang dynasties no longer had the super-confident self-confidence that they had when they looked down upon the world, the general mentality of people in the Song Dynasty was far from falling to that of the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. The level of sadness is probably more similar to the psychological state of the people of "old Europe" after World War II. They believe that not only were their ancestors once rich, but they are still the center of the world, and their national pride is not inferior.
But the problem is that the successive and unprecedented defeats during the Jingkang years made the residents of Bianliang, Tokyo, who used to think highly of themselves, shocked to discover that the seemingly behemoth Song Empire had actually long been turned into an embroidered pillow, which looked full of flowers on the outside. , but inside is just a bag of straw.
During the first Kaifeng defense battle, the people still believed that the Song Dynasty was defeated only because of the traitorous ministers in the court who harmed the country. However, with the replacement of old and new emperors, the monarch's power was not shown, and the government was in chaos. Only then was he beaten into disgrace by the Jin people, and was forced to sign an alliance under the city to cede territory and pay compensation.
In short, in the eyes of the Song people at that time, the Jurchen Tatars just seized the opportunity and took advantage. Although this battle was defeated, the Song Dynasty's national strength was still there, and its loyal ministers and good generals were still there. Once he cheers up, why does little Beinu care? With the strong national power of the Song Dynasty, even if Tong Guan, a traitor, led the army, he could achieve a brilliant victory in the campaign against Xixia. Now that the new king has sat on the throne, the situation in the court has initially stabilized, and there are loyal ministers and generals such as Li Gang, Wu Min, Zhong Shidao, etc. in the court, he will definitely be able to avenge his humiliation on the battlefield and rebuild the military power of the Song Dynasty.
But something unexpected happened. The imperial court devoted all its military power to rescue Taiyuan three times. However, the more than 100,000 elite Western troops were actually annihilated by a young general named Yin Shu, a member of the Jin Army, who could divide them into 20,000 soldiers and horses! Zhongshi was killed in battle, Zhe Keqiu was defeated, Zhang was destroyed, Zhongshi Min was killed in battle, Yao Gu was defeated, Zhongshi Dao died of illness, and Li Gang, who was in charge of the military, was exiled - the Song Dynasty was completely defeated! The record has been so bleak that it is impossible to watch!
When the enemy came under their noses again, the once extremely confident Song people were shocked to discover that the seemingly powerful and prosperous Song Dynasty had actually fallen to the point of being bullied. It was not just a matter of killing a few traitorous ministers and appointing a few A problem that can be easily solved by a so-called "warrior faction".
No one knew what to do. Everyone was confused. An air of panic and despair hung over the city, as if the end of the world was coming.
——The prosperous Bianliang City in Tokyo is full of beacon smoke, and the streets are filled with rioting crowds... Countless people, dragging their families and families, are rushing towards the city gate crazily. He tried to leave the city that was about to be destroyed by the war before it was destroyed, but was blocked by the court's martial law order to close the city. He could only yell crazily and run back and forth between the city gates. Three shocks threw the whole city into chaos.
Faced with the Jin's troops coming to the city again, Emperor Zhao Huan's performance was not much better - sometimes he was extremely afraid of the Jin and wished he could move the capital immediately to avoid disaster, and sometimes he scorned the Jin and threatened to kill the Jin... the whole People seem to have schizophrenia and are no longer normal.
Psychologically speaking, he had always wanted to flee far away to avoid the front of the army, but if Zhao Huan really abandoned the ancestral temple and abandoned the city, it would be impossible - the families of the Banzhi Imperial Guards around him were all in Tokyo. If the emperor forces them to abandon their wives and children to escort them to break out of the siege, do you believe that the entire army will collapse immediately?
Amidst the dilemma of the emperor and the discord among the courtiers and gentry, Bianliang, the capital, soon crumbled under the fierce attack of the Jin army.
A cowardly emperor with no independent opinion and perseverance, in this chaotic world of war and war, is so sad, ridiculous and despicable.
In this desperate and helpless atmosphere, immortals like Guo Jing suddenly became popular in Bianliang City, and were regarded as life-saving straw by everyone including the emperor, who did not hesitate to reward and promote them. In this regard, many scholar-bureaucrats who claimed to be rationalists were very worried and wrote letters one after another to object: "... the disadvantages of using humble commoners as rulers, using witchcraft as advisors, and merchants as generals and assistants are almost insurmountable. Say. All the troops are leading troops to and from the city. It's like a child's play. The knowledgeable people are worried about the imperial court, but the stupid people think they have a plan. "It seems reasonable and reasonable.
It's a pity that they underestimated the subtleties of people's hearts after all - in the darkest time like this, people will instinctively grab anything at hand that can give them hope, even if it is just an illusory hope, up to the royal family Relatives of the country and ordinary people in the market are no exception.
——Despair, despair, either breaking out in despair, or becoming abnormal in despair: such as collectively turning into fanatical believers or something.
Therefore, Qinzong Emperor Zhao Huan still ignored the advice of those "loyal ministers" and placed most of his hopes on those immortal Taoism.
In real history, Guo Jing led the "Liujia Divine Soldiers" to fail in the attack, which eventually led to the fall of the capital and the "Shame of Jingkang". However, in this time and space that was forcibly distorted by the time travellers, Guo Jing's soul was changed. The Great Immortal of Jingguo gave His Majesty the Emperor an unexpected surprise.
"...The official family! The official family! So happy! So happy!"
A chamberlain suddenly stumbled into the hall and reported the good news to Zhao Huan, "...Zhenren Guo just set up an altar at Dongshui Gate to cast spells. First, he dispersed the wind and snow and prayed for sunny days, and then he turned out huge rocks to knock back the Jin army! God has blessed us, the Song Dynasty! The people are cheering!”
"... Are you serious about this?" Zhao Huan stood up from behind the imperial court and saw the ground outside the hall filled with golden sunlight.
——Although the battle situation on the city wall outside cannot be confirmed, the bright sunshine shining on the stone steps outside the palace cannot be faked!
As a result, the only trace of doubt in Zhao Huan's heart disappeared without a trace, and he only felt boundless joy filling his chest. "...Send the message quickly! Summon Zhenren Guo quickly! This Zhenren really has great supernatural powers. I want to ask him for magic!"