Chapter 305: Burning

After the Chinese New Year, the dragon flag of the Zhao Song government suddenly headed westward into the pass, which immediately shocked the whole world.

You must know that before this, the Song Dynasty already had two complete army groups in Guanzhong, namely the Imperial Camp Left Army led by Han Shizhong and the Imperial Camp Rear Army led by Wu Jie. The two armies had a total of 60,000 people... Of course, even if Han Shizhong might still have some legacy issues with the number of troops, after Zhao Jiu directly intervened at the level of commander, it would gradually be impossible for the difference to be too big.

Fifty to sixty thousand troops are enough to properly deal with the situation in Guanzhong from a defense perspective. If we add the elite troops of the front, middle and cavalry of the imperial camp brought by Zhao Jiu this time, the Zhao Song army in Guanzhong area actually has eighty to ninety thousand troops. On the surface, it has exceeded 100,000. If we take into account Li Yanxian's troops between Guan and Luo, the number of 100,000 is definitely more than the actual number.

A real force of 100,000 people, plus the civilian laborers for transportation and the auxiliary troops who would be recruited immediately once the war broke out, was a typical pattern of "an army of hundreds of thousands" in the feudal era... In other words, in an era when transportation, communication, and the number of troops participating in the war were limited, the field troops stockpiled by the Song Dynasty in the Guanzhong region were absolutely capable of launching a decisive battle.

As for the dragon banner of the Zhao Song emperor, the actual situation that many famous generals of the Song Dynasty, including Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, Li Yanxian, Wu Jie, and Qu Duan, poured into Guanzhong, which further increased this possibility and made no one dare to neglect it.

As a result, the Jin army began to mobilize on a large scale. The troops in Daming Prefecture turned to the banks of the Yellow River, and the troops in Hedong immediately pressed south to Hezhong Prefecture. Only the Jurchen troops in Longde Prefecture remained silent. This was because this position was inherently delicate and they could completely wait and see what happened before making any further moves.

At the same time, in a hurry and for the convenience of command, the Fourth Prince of Jin, King of Wei Wanyan Wushu and his third brother King of Jin Wanyan Erlido had to temporarily exchange the command of their respective troops... The Fourth Prince Wanyan Wushu, who came to do ideological and political work, officially took over the battlefields of Hedong and Hexi, that is, the command of the Western Route Army; at the same time, the Third Prince Wanyan Erlido also rode out of Yanjing and went straight to Damingfu to take charge.

That’s not all. Wanyan Xiyin, the deputy prime minister of the Jin Dynasty’s capital province, also immediately went to Zhending Prefecture, an important city in North China, to take charge of logistics.

For a time, only the Crown Prince, King of Liao Wanyan Ouben and Qin Huizhi, who actually had no say at this time, remained in Yanjing.

Then, the Jin army's express messengers began to travel frequently between important towns such as Yanjing, Zhending, Taiyuan, Daming Prefecture, Longde Prefecture, Xijing (Datong), Yan'an Prefecture, Daning County, and Hezhong Prefecture, and the top leaders of the Jin army were actually exchanging opinions and initiating discussions on the situation in this way.

At this time, the Jurchens had to face an absolute, core problem.

To be fair, the Jurchens were not afraid of war. They would not lose their courage to fight because of the previous defeats. Moreover, their military strength and combat effectiveness were still undoubtedly superior. But a serious question was whether to cross the river to fight? Especially since the Zhao Song officials had made it clear that they were heading for Yan'an and the mountainous areas around Hengshan in Western Xia behind Yan'an.

It should be noted that the Song and Jin armies had been at war for seven or eight years. Apart from conventional battles and non-combat casualties, the two biggest pain points for the Jurchens came from the Yanling counterattack and the Yaoshan battle. The former caused the Eastern Army to lose more than a dozen Meng'an troops, and the latter caused the simultaneous collapse of four Wanhu troops on the Eastern and Western routes of the Jin Army, resulting in an actual loss of about 20,000 troops.

For the Jurchens, who owned the entire North China and the entire Liao territory, the number of troops could be easily wiped out and the organization could be easily rebuilt, but what was the price to pay for this? Of course, the upper limit of combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

To be honest, the Jurchens were a bit flustered. Although they responded very efficiently and appropriately, in fact the top leaders were not prepared for any battle, and the middle and grassroots officers and soldiers were unwilling to cross the river to fight in a disadvantaged battlefield and repeat possible failure... At the same time, with the arrival of spring, the Yellow River began to flood. It can be imagined that after the flood, the initiative of the lower half of the Yellow River will be controlled by the Song navy. This means that a new battlefield will be opened up in the lower reaches of the Yellow River where the Song army is short of manpower, making it impossible for the Song army to take care of both ends. This self-evident assumption quickly fell through.

In other words, the Song army carefully chose the time and was clearly well prepared.

The Jin army was certainly in a panic, and the Xixia people were even worse off... Because of traffic delays, information was in a backlog for them.

Two months ago, Li Ganshun, the ruler of Western Xia, received a private ridicule from the Zhao Song official. After thinking about it, he thought it might be a test for him to blockade Hengshan and control the foreign cavalry... Therefore, Li Ganshun first spent three or five days to calm down (after all, he was a man in the top ten of the East Asian power list), and discussed the response method with the civil and military officials at home. After some hesitation, he finally decided to grit his teeth and pretend to be a coward. Half a month after receiving the letter, he sent a reply to the Song Dynasty admitting his cowardice.

Of course, it is impossible to give the foreign cavalry, it is impossible to smash the stele, and it is impossible to erase the "Lingzhi Song Fu"... Let alone the former being an aid to the enemy, even the latter is a symbol of Li Ganshun's civil governance and an important witness to his establishment of Sinology as the main line. Moreover, as a king who has been on the throne for nearly fifty years and is almost fifty years old, he cannot afford to lose face in the country... He just told Emperor Zhao and the Song people that he had buried him. Anyway, it is impossible for the Song people to come to Xingqing Mansion to witness it with their own eyes, right?

There is no need to say much about what happened next. After the letter was sent out, the Jurchens came to him and vaguely proposed to give him land or something... Originally, Li Ganshun was dancing on two eggs. He left the Great Jin some time ago to find the Great Song just for the sake of gesture. Now the Jurchens said that they would recognize Nianhan's promise to give land. Li Ganshun was naturally happy to return to the warm embrace of the Great Jin.

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