One Piece of Song Dynasty

Seeing that the Jin army's offensive was so unstoppable, the Song army on the city was even more frightened and did not dare to approach. Seeing that the situation was critical, He Li, Sun Fu, Wang Zonglio and others all went down to the city one after another.

Wang Zonglio led the imperial guards to run and shouted loudly to the citizens gathered below the city: "People, hurry up to the city and I will go to Dauchi to rescue you."

Zhang Shuye shouted that he had been tricked by Guo Jing. In a hurry, he rushed into battle to fight, but was wounded by an arrow from the Jin soldiers. His two sons hurriedly stepped forward and carried him down the city.

At this time, Jin soldiers came one after another to board the city, but all the Song officers and soldiers on the city were scattered. "They all abandoned their armor and threw their troops, scrambling to escape first."

Guo Zhongxun, the bodyguard of the Ma Army who was responsible for guarding the south wall of the city gate, led his troops to climb the city wall after closing the Xuanhua Gate. Suddenly, arrows rained down from the golden soldiers on the city wall. In the end, he was unable to climb the city, so he retreated into the inner city.

Due to the vastness of the capital, the scouts in each defense area were unfamiliar with each other, and information could not be communicated in a timely manner. Therefore, rumors spread during the chaos and could not be suppressed. The defenders of Nanxun Gate wanted to escape from the city, so they lied and said: "Fan Tongzhi dedicated Dailou Gate." Nanxun Gate is the south gate of the outer city, and Dailou Gate is the west gate of Nanxun Gate. The defenders of Caomen wanted to go down to the city and escape, so they lied and said: "Liu Taiwei offered Fengqiu Gate." Caomen is the gate on the east wall of the outer city, and Fengqiu Gate is the gate on the north wall of the outer city.

When the citizens and soldiers heard about it, they all "made false claims." As a result, the soldiers abandoned their armor and turned against each other, wandering the roads; the citizens ran around without knowing where they were going. People were panicked and everyone was in danger. The city of Tokyo suddenly fell into extreme chaos, as if the end of the world was coming.

After capturing Xuanhua Gate, the Jin army continued to attack Tongjin Gate, that is, Dongshui Gate, along the city wall eastward. The buildings and oars along the way were all set on fire by the Jin soldiers. The flames spread across the sky, illuminating the whole city in red.

At this time, heavy snow is still falling, which has not stopped for more than days. The wind swirled and roared, like the sound of thunder.

The officers and soldiers of the Song Army guarding Dongshui Gate saw that the fire was spreading rapidly with the help of strong winds. They had no intention of fighting, so they all abandoned the city and fled for their lives. There was only one person who refused to escape, namely the chamberlain Huang Jingchen.

Huang Jingchen, as the envoy of the Baode Army, was assigned by Emperor Qinzong of the Song Dynasty to supervise the east wall. Now that the east wall was lost and the soldiers were in retreat, he looked at the majestic palace in the city and couldn't help crying. He knew that he could not save the country, so he threw himself into the fire and died.

Huang Jingchen was an old eunuch who was active in the Huizong era of Song Dynasty and had a close relationship with Tong Guan. The eunuchs in the Huizong era of Song Dynasty were extremely generous in bathing in the emperor's favor. However, this is the only person who can die to serve the country in this national crisis.

Among the Song troops defending the city, two commanders refused to abandon the city and fled. They fought bravely and fought to the death, and finally sacrificed their lives for the country and died on the city wall. One of them is called He Qingyan and the other is Chen Keli. There were many officials and generals guarding the four walls of the capital, but these two were the only ones who could die to serve the country at the most critical moment.

Taking the south wall as an example, the promotion officials are Li Zhuo, Guo Zhongxun, and Qiao Shizhong, and they are all controlled by Wang Qiong and Yao Youzhong. The leaders are Gao Chi, Fan Qiong, He Qingyan, Chen Keli, Shi Kebao, and Li Xi. In addition, there are no less than dozens of commanders and commanders. Each commander has thirty or forty envoys and thirty or forty utility officers.

Envoys and utilities are basically recruited on a temporary basis. The court pays on a daily basis. Envoys cost one hundred or one hundred per day, and utilities cost three hundred or five hundred. Most of these people are relatives or disciples of powerful people. They come to the city just to make money. There were even some court dignitaries and chamberlains who only showed up in name and were not present in person. However, when the rewards were distributed, their contributions were even twice as much as those of the soldiers. After returning from the war, when evaluating the level of merit, those who accompanied the envoys were rated as superior and received superior rewards, but those who really fought hard to fight first were not necessarily included. As for the injured soldiers, some were slightly injured and received heavy rewards, while others were seriously injured and received light rewards. There are even soldiers who were clearly killed in battle, but were treated as deceased because they had fled. The unfair distribution of rewards and numerous shortcomings directly caused the soldiers to be unwilling to sacrifice their lives. This may also be one of the reasons for the fall of the capital.

After the Jin army occupied Dongshui Gate, they immediately sent some Jin soldiers to garrison Liquan Temple inside the city gate. Although there were only a few hundred of them, the Song army collapsed and no one dared to come forward to fight with them.

The Song army did not dare to kill the enemy, but they did not hesitate to kill their own people. After the army was defeated, more than a hundred chamberlains and generals were killed in a short period of time. The envoys and soldiers trampled each other, and the number of the dead was unknown. There were also some defeated soldiers who took the opportunity to rob the people. They rushed to the houses in the lanes with weapons and armor, and forced the people to take out firewood, rice, wine and food for them to enjoy.

More defeated soldiers, together with the common people, ran from the south to the north of the city, shoulder to shoulder. At this time, all the gates of the inner city were closed, so they climbed to the old Song Gate, passed through the front gate and entered the inner city; some also chose to cross the river and escape. Some ministers and officials took their wives and children, put on coarse clothes, and hid in ordinary people's homes in the back alleys.

Although the Jin army had boarded the city, it did not descend. They continued to set fire to the city walls and burned towers, oars and other city defense facilities. The flames sometimes protrude in the strong wind and soar into the sky; sometimes they are blown to death and thick smoke billows. The most serious burning area was in the East Water Gate area in the southeast of the city.

At noon, Song Qinzong learned that Xuanhua Gate and Dongshui Gate had been lost one after another, and he cried loudly: "I regret that I didn't use Zhongshi Daoyan to end up like this."

Zhong Shidao made many suggestions to Song Qinzong, at least three of which were very important. First, when the Jin army retreated north in early spring, it was suggested to carry out a pincer attack when it was halfway across the Yellow River, severely damaging the arrogance of the Jin people and making them fear the Song Dynasty, otherwise they would be in trouble in the future. Second, after the Jin army withdrew northward, it was recommended to mobilize troops from Guanzhong, Hebei, and Hedong, concentrate superior forces, and fortify along the lines of Cang, Wei, Meng, and Hua to prevent the Jin from moving south again. Third, after the fall of Taiyuan, Song Qinzong was advised to evacuate Tokyo and go to Chang'an, Shaanxi to avoid the enemy's edge.

Regrettably, Song Qinzong did not adopt any of these three suggestions. Now, Song Qinzong regrets it. I don’t know which piece of advice he regrets about not listening to Master Zhong.

In the afternoon of that day, Jin envoy Liu Yan heard the noise outside the gate in Duting Posthouse. He didn't know what was going on outside, so he sent someone out to find out. After a while, the gatekeeper soldiers came in and reported: "The Jin soldiers and horses have boarded the city, and all the army squadrons have been defeated and returned. The Suzaku Gate has been closed just now."

Liu Yan was both happy and worried. He was happy that the army had indeed broken through the city within five days, but he was worried that he was now in danger. Just as he was thinking about what to do, suddenly, many people and soldiers rushed into the post house and stepped forward to catch him.

Liu Yan shouted loudly: "I am here to promote peace, just to protect you, don't kill me."

Neither the soldiers nor the people listened, and Liu Yan and others were killed on the spot.

One of Liu Yan's followers escaped the killing. He fled back to Jinying and reported the incident to Zong Wang and Zong Han.

Zong Wang commented: "At this time, the Song Dynasty has no orders, so we can't offend him."

Zong Han commented: "It is natural for a country to be destroyed and its people to be in chaos."

That night, the snow continued to fall, and the snow was several feet deep. The fire on the city wall stayed on all night and burned until dawn. Someone once climbed up to the Drum Tower of the University and looked around. He counted and saw that there were fires around the city.