Emperor Renzong of the Great Song Dynasty

In the official system of the Song Dynasty, the privy envoy was the official with the highest military power, but most of them were held by literati to prevent military generals from monopolizing power.

Zhao Yiyi doesn't quite agree with this approach. It's the most accident-prone configuration where laymen direct experts, let alone important matters related to the national economy and people's livelihood.

In addition, in order to suppress the martial ethos handed down from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Song Dynasty deliberately depreciated the value of warriors. As a result, scholars in the Song Dynasty neither practiced martial arts nor studied military art, and were not proficient in leading soldiers in battle, let alone being proficient.

However, when it came to the battlefield, it was these literati who held the highest decision-making power. This cannot be blamed for the incompetence of the Song Dynasty in foreign wars.

How is it possible for a group of literati who grew up reading sage books to command thousands of troops and expect to drive out the Tartars and defend the country.

That is to say, in the Southern Song Dynasty, the ruling class slightly relaxed the restrictions on warriors because they were beaten stupid by the Jin Dynasty.

But Yue Fei should be killed or killed, so the urine nature of the entire Song Dynasty was consistent from beginning to end.

I would rather be beaten in the Yellow River by foreign enemies than give the generals a little autonomy.

Ning Yu Youbang, not with domestic slaves, is so principled, a little bit.

Kou Zhun prided himself on being "a general and a prime minister" all his life, thinking that he was an all-rounder in both civil and military affairs, and he had to grasp both hands and be tough with both hands.But looking at the entire Song Dynasty, there are too few talents like this, and one hand may not be enough to count, but two hands must be enough.

It is unrealistic to expect a few more literati who are good at commanding troops under this social atmosphere. It is better to expect Khitan to repent and wish to return to the king.

There is still a long way to go to completely change the weak situation of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Yiyi can only treat the symptoms first and then the root cause, and overcome the hurdle of this year's Khitan invasion.

I don't know where Kou Zhun led the [-] forbidden troops.

Kou Zhun led an army of [-] troops and was about to reach the border.

In order to prevent the relationship between the army and the people, the army of the Song Dynasty frequently changed defenses, and all soldiers from all over the country had to be replaced every three years. Therefore, the army of the Song Dynasty, especially the relatively strong Forbidden Army, may not be very good at fighting. , but it is very good at migration.

The government and people along the way have long been used to the army passing by their homes every few years, and the step-by-step process of collecting supplies to supplement the army rations is a little numb. In some places, they don’t even know that this army is going to fight until the army leaves. Some wonder why this army didn't go to Wasi in the city to find some girls to have fun when they passed by.

It was under such circumstances that Kou Zhun led the team to Hejian Mansion.

Hejian Mansion is near the border, not far from Nanjing in the Khitan and Liao Kingdom.

If the Liao Kingdom goes south, the first stop must be Hejian Mansion.

If you occupy the Hejian Mansion, you can not only use it as a bridgehead to capture the entire territory of the Song Dynasty, but also go east to the Yellow River, and go upstream to Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

There is no natural danger near Bianliang, and there is a Yellow River flowing through it. The upper part of the Yellow River cannot be covered, so anyone can row a small boat and go straight to the capital.

No wonder the emperor of the Song Dynasty wanted to move the capital from the beginning of the war, and when he was not fighting, he wanted to build the city wall for the capital.

It's just insecure.

Later, the mouth of the Yellow River moved northward several times. The emperor of the Song Dynasty was afraid that the mouth of the sea would eventually be moved to the territory of the Liao Kingdom. Use human intervention to migrate the mouth of the Yellow River.

I don't know if the mouth of the sea was moved or not. Anyway, the lower reaches of the Yellow River were flooded because of this, directly destroying half of Hebei and drowning countless civilians.

Hejian Prefecture has Yingzhou under its jurisdiction, and Kou Zhun garrisoned in Yingzhou, and ordered the city to take over all military and civilian affairs.

Kou Zhun was the prime minister in the court, and he was appointed as a privy envoy when he sent troops abroad, so his rank is not low.

Seeing him coming, the governor of Yingzhou let him out of the mansion without saying a word, and respectfully invited Mr. Xiang to enter the city to take over Yingzhou.

On the first day Kou Zhun arrived in Yingzhou, he ordered people to select people with sharp eyes and ears as scouts to watch along the border day and night, and to report back to the city when he saw the Liao army coming.

I also looked through the household registration in the state capital, and clearly remembered the counties under the jurisdiction of Yingzhou and the villages under the jurisdiction of each county.

There are city walls and moats in prefectures and counties, and it will take a lot of effort for the Liao army to break through.

Villages rarely have fortifications as strong and complete as prefectures and counties. Most of them are towers and towers built by villagers spontaneously. Once the army arrives, it will not last long at all.

The Liao army relied on robbing these unarmed villages to replenish food, grass and supplies, and to besiege the city under the state capital.

What Kou Zhun has to do is to station a large army in the state capital and wait for it, while mobilizing the villagers to fortify the walls and clear the fields, and organize the young and strong and the Liao army to fight guerrillas.

As long as he survived the first few days and the Liao army ran out of food and grass, they would naturally retreat, and he would be able to return to Beijing to receive the reward.

Hejian Prefecture is located in the north, and the harvest season is later than that of the southern state capital.

Suzhou and Hangzhou in the south have finished the autumn harvest and are preparing to escort the tax and grain to Beijing. The grain in Yingzhou is still not harvested in the farmland.

If you don't hurry up to harvest the grain, when the Liao army arrives, the fields will be trampled and the crops will be burned, and Yingzhou's harvest this year will be in vain again.

This is the purpose of the Liao army. As long as production is disrupted at the border for years, the strength of the border cities can be weakened, making them unable to fight against the Liao state.

In addition to wasting food, you can also loot some along the way and use it as rations for the Liao army.

But they couldn't take away that much food at all, even if they coerced civilians to serve as servants, they could only take away a small part.

So they always spoil more than they steal, just for disgusting people.

The border towns are also good at dealing with the Khitans. While organizing the militia to monitor the Khitan’s movements, they go to the fields to grab the harvest. After the harvest, they should dig cellars and hide in the mountains. food.

It can be considered that the people have gained valuable experience in fighting the enemy in the struggle.

But these experiences are far from enough to deal with Khitan. After all, it is a village and a town to deal with a country's excellent regular army.

Therefore, the spontaneous actions of the border people against the enemy are basically more losses than losses, and they will still be robbed of a lot of things by Khitan every year.

The appearance of Kou Zhun brought hope to the people of Yingzhou.

The people of Yingzhou knew who Kou Zhun was.

More than ten years ago, the empress dowager of the Liao Kingdom personally marched against the invaders, and immediately arrived at the city of Yingzhou.

The people of Yingzhou have not forgotten the fear of being almost captured.

But Kou Zhun appeared with the emperor.

Since the appearance of Kou Zhun, he has stabilized the hearts of the army and the people, beheaded the Khitan enemy chieftain, and forced the Liao army to retreat.

The Chanyuan Alliance had mixed reputations among the scholar-bureaucrats, and some people who had a bad relationship with Kou Zhun belittled it to nothing.

But the common people don't know what an alliance under the city is, and they don't know what humiliating the country is.

After more than ten years, the Khitan invaded again, and the young and strong back then are now old.

But their son is young.

As soon as they heard that Kou Gong planned to organize the militia and the Khitan to fight guerrilla warfare, these people immediately sent their sons to Kou Zhun.

This is the will of the people.

Kou Zhun did not please the scholar-officials, but he was quite prestigious among the people.

This is also the reason why Zhao Yiyi chose Kou Zhun as the commander-in-chief of this fight against Khitan.

The ruling class of the Song Dynasty was already rotten to the bone. The scholar-officials could not save the Song State, only the people themselves could save the Song State.

And Kou Zhun was the one who connected the scholar-bureaucrats with the common people at this time.

He is the most suitable, apart from him, probably no other person can be found.

Kou Zhun not only has experience in elevating the emperor, but also has experience in fighting Khitan.

He repelled the Khitan invasion once in Yingzhou, and now that he has the art of war bestowed by God, it is not impossible to repel the second time.

He spent three days persuading the elders in each village to organize the young and strong to harvest grain, and organized the stronger women and children into patrol teams, and immediately reported to the strong men in the fields whenever there was trouble.

After the grain was harvested, he organized this group of strong men to collect the grain into the cellar—the cellars are all ready-made, and there is no need to dig this one.

After the grain in the field was collected and stored, Kou Zhun mobilized most of the strong men from all the villages to organize militia training. Before organizing the patrol team, the women and children moved all the grain and valuables in their homes to the cellar.

When the Liao army arrived, everyone hid in the cellar. What the Liao army guard saw was a barren village with no wheat stalks left.

After making all the preparations, the frontier scouts finally came to report that Khitan had entered the country.

Kou Zhun ordered scouts to quickly notify the villages and towns to prepare for the battle, and he sat firmly in the Chinese army, ready to fight.

Success or failure is here.

There was a centurion in the Khitan army, surnamed Yelu, who was a descendant of Yelu Abaoji, Emperor Taizong of the Liao Kingdom.

He is in his thirties this year, and he has gone south to thresh grain and hay more than ten times.

Going south around the autumn harvest every year is the most exciting time for him.

Not only can you rob the food and slaves of the Song Dynasty, but you can also accumulate military merits.

Although the native soldiers in the border town of Song Dynasty were powerful, they still trembled under the iron hooves of Daliao.

not to mention……

He looked at the most majestic and luxurious yellow tent in the middle of the army——

What's more, this time is different from any other time.

This time, they have the emperor's personal conquest.

This time, they had more cavalry than ever, and they were better prepared than ever.

He understood that going south this time would never come back after grabbing some food and women like in previous years.

This time, they were going further south.

Across Baigou, across the Yellow River, until the capital of the Song Dynasty - Kaifeng Mansion.

It will definitely be possible, Daliao's iron hooves will definitely trample on the capital of Song State.

This trip to the south will definitely complete the unfinished business of the Queen Mother more than ten years ago, unify the north and the south, and conquer the Song Kingdom.

Will.