One Piece of Song Dynasty

If you read it carefully, you will find that many contents in Chen Dong's memorial are not consistent with the facts, and there are many fallacies. For example: Song Huizong went south because he was kidnapped by Tong Guan and others; Cai Jing and others wanted to control the southeastern region; Liang Shicheng stayed in the court to serve as Cai Jing and Tong Guan's internal correspondent; Tong Guan and Cai Jing colluded with the Jin people to split China; Cai Jing, Wang Fu, Zhu Meng, Li Yan are friends who have been together for many years, and so on.

The main target of Chen Dong's memorial is Liang Shicheng. In fact, many of the accusations against Liang Shicheng are based on rumors, hearsay, or even subjective conjecture. However, Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty still accepted Chen Dong's suggestion. For the crime of Liang Shicheng becoming a friend of Wang Fu, he issued an edict and demoted him to the deputy envoy of Changhua Army Jiedu, and sent envoys to escort him out of Quemen on the same day. When he left the city and reached Bajiao Town, Liang Shicheng was hanged and was reported to the outside world to have hanged himself.

Regarding the death of Liang Shicheng, the Zhongxing legacy has another theory: Chen Dongshu's memorial was not implemented in time, and Yao Pingzhong was defeated, followed by the beating of eunuchs and imperial students, and then demoted Shicheng and resettled him in Xunzhou . Before he could do it, the teacher realized that it was inevitable and committed suicide.

On the same day that Chen Dong submitted a letter recommending the execution of Liang Shicheng, Zhang Shuye also submitted a memorial requesting that troops be sent to intercept the Jin people. He wrote once on the th of the first lunar month, but received no reply. He believes that if peace talks are agreed to now, the Jin people will make many unreasonable demands. "If you let him go now, he will come back later, so he has the intention of underestimating China." He asked the emperor for permission to lead his elite cavalry to intercept the Jin people. At the same time, he ordered the border towns in Hebei to send troops to cut off the Jin people's return.

Zhang Shuye liked to talk about military affairs when he was young. When he grew up, he became an official with Zuyin and served as the official secretary of Lanzhou and joined the army. He first showed his military talent while guarding the border. Later, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty granted him a Jinshi background and an official rank of Minister of Rites. Later, as a waiting person in Huiyou Pavilion, he went to Haizhou to serve as magistrate. In February of the third year of Xuanhe, he defeated the Song Jiang uprising army in Haizhou in one fell swoop, and became famous for this. In October last year, he led troops to quell the bandits in Jingdong. After returning from the army, he rested due to illness. After the invasion of the Jin people, he felt that he had "received the country's favor in this life". At this time of national crisis, he should not "stay here to support his illness" and "it would be better to work hard to cure the disease", so he wrote a letter "begging for help from all the generals to pursue Hu". horse".

Song Qinzong did not comment on Zhang Shuye's request and suggestions. Song Qinzong has now pinned all his hopes on Yao Pingzhong. Song Qinzong felt that if Yao Pingzhong went to rob the camp on the night of the first day of February, he would succeed immediately and capture the second prince alive.

On the first day of February, the weather was fine. As usual, Li Zhe and Zheng Wangzhi left Tokyo city with several ox carts carrying many treasures such as pearls, jade, rhinoceros horns, and ivory. After they arrived at the Jin camp, they unloaded the treasures from the bullock carts and placed them on the field, waiting for the Jin people to come and bid.

After a while, Taishi Yeluzhong came to meet him and said: "Prince Langjun ordered me to deliver the goods."

Li Zhe then took out a number of notes from his sleeve and handed them to Yelu Zhong. Yeluzhong looked at it and said, "Sit down, Privy Councilor, and I will make arrangements with the minister."

Yeluzhong said, and ordered a large leather mattress to be spread on the field, and they sat on the ground. At this time, Zong Wang sent someone to say that he could let Li Shui return to the city first, leaving Zheng Wangzhi to be responsible for the delivery. Then, six or seven returned court officials came over, and they carried boxes of treasures such as pearls, jade, rhinoceros horns, and ivory to Yeluzhong and Zheng Wangzhi.

Yeluzhong said to Zheng Wangzhi: "Prince Lang Junjiao estimates the price piece by piece."

Zheng Wangzhi said with a confused look on his face: "These are rare treasures. You have never seen them. How can you estimate their value?"

A returning official quietly walked up to Zheng Wangzhi and said, "The estimate is a good intention. The minister might as well give a high estimate."

After hearing this, Zheng Wangzhi understood something, so he estimated the price of each item one by one. The total price of all the treasures was finally one million yuan.

After the valuation was over, Yeluzhong got up and reported the results to Zong Wang. After a while, he came back and said with a smile: "The prince is very happy and sent word to the minister to see you tomorrow. The prince also said that for a small amount of gold and silver, at this price, I will give it a discount, and I will do it as a favor." "

Zheng Wangzhi felt very relieved. He felt that his mission had finally been fulfilled. Because it was getting late, Zheng Wangzhi stayed that night and stayed in Jinying. He lived with Kang Wang Zhao Gou and Shao Zai Zhang Bangchang.

Late at night on the first day of February, there was no moonlight and the night was dark. According to the scheduled plan, Commander Yao Pingzhong and General Yang Kesheng led seven thousand Song army generals to quietly set out to rob the Jin army's stronghold in Moutuogang.

Yao Pingzhong ordered Wang Tong to take command of the vanguard army, and Wang Tong led men who dared to die directly to Jin camp. However, the two strongholds that were robbed were all empty, and by the third stronghold, "the thieves were fully prepared to wait for them." It turned out that the Jin people were on guard for a long time. They "emptied their stronghold and laid out iron kite soldiers to hide the officers and soldiers."

The "Iron Kites" were originally a heavily armored cavalry unit founded by Li Yuanhao of the Western Xia Dynasty. They had extremely strong combat effectiveness. Here they refer to the main cavalry force of the Jin Army.

Wang Tong and the death squads were immediately surrounded by the Jin army. They fought desperately to wait for reinforcements. However, most of the supporting troops fell into the deep ditch next to the stronghold, including men and horses. General Chen Kai of the Western Army was killed in the battle. Wang Tong looked back at his army and saw that half of them were seriously injured. The Jin Army cavalry was pouring in from the north and south, attacking from both sides. The king was informed that he was outnumbered, so he abandoned his bow and arrows and led cavalry to break out.

After Wang Tong saw Yao Pingzhong, Yao Pingzhong ordered him to lead his troops to mount their horses and rush west. At this time, the Jin Army's cavalry chased them and scattered the Song Army's center. The Jin army pursued the Song army until they reached Banqiao before starting to retreat. Yao Pingzhong returned in defeat, while Yang Kesheng was unfortunately captured.

That night, Zong Wang personally interrogated Yang Kesheng. He asked: "The two countries have made peace, why come to rob the stronghold again?"

Yang Kesheng replied: "We can win because the king's troops arrive in the capital. The three armies want to fight, so we can win. It is not the intention of the court."

Zong Wang didn't believe it and wanted to attack the city together. Yang Kesheng took out a memorial from his arms and showed it to Zong Wang. Zong Wang believed this, so he was furious and ordered Yang Kesheng to be killed. Yang Kesheng was the brother of Yang Keshi, the brave general of Shaanxi.

That night, Song Qinzong didn't sleep. Before the night was over, he learned that Yao Pingzhong had fought with the Jin soldiers, so he hurriedly issued an edict, ordering Li Gang to send troops to support and respond.

At that time, Li Gang "gave him a leave of absence due to his illness and was working in the army while lying down". In the middle of the night, I suddenly received a handwritten letter from the envoy of Song Qin's sect: "Pingzhong has taken action and achieved great success. You can send the soldiers of the camp out of Fengqiu to respond."

Li Gang immediately wrote a reply to Zha Zi and refused because he was ill. He also said that he had not made an appointment in advance and that his troops and horses had not been prepared, so it would be difficult to send troops to respond.

Song Qinzong was very anxious after the review. "In an instant, three envoys arrived" and ordered Li Gang to send troops immediately. Li Gang had no choice but to order the officers and men of the front, rear, left, right, and middle armies to assemble urgently. At dawn, Zhang Lu, the commander of the front army, Shi Jun, the commander of the right army, Xin Kangzong, the commander of the middle army, Liu Dian, the commander of the left army, Wang Shigu, the commander of the rear army, and Fan Qiong, the commander of the Ganzhan army, all assembled, and they led their troops Exit the city from Fengqiu Gate and advance towards Banjing Hall and Tiansi Prison.