In February of the ninth year of the Jingkang era, 10,000 cavalrymen from the Yanyun war zone were deployed on the southern front of the Jin state, and war clouds loomed over the Yanshan Mountains and Nanjing, the capital of the Jin state.
Within just two months, the Song Dynasty mobilized a total of 800,000 regular troops.
In the original three northern towns, another 600,000 laborers were mobilized.
The Northwest Theater Command deployed as many as 200,000 troops and mobilized more than 400,000 civilian laborers.
The number of troops deployed on the Goryeo front was as high as 100,000, and 250,000 civilian laborers were organized in Goryeo.
The entire area north of the Yellow River in the Great Song Dynasty was like a steel giant. Under the emperor's will, every part of the giant began to operate, allowing the giant to take earth-shattering steps.
Every day, information from the front lines reached Tokyo, including details of troop deployment, food and supplies transport, personnel status, and military equipment deployment.
Moreover, in order to stabilize the livelihood of the people in the north, the imperial court had already launched an unprecedented grain requisition in the south more than a month ago.
That year, the first generation of highways in the Song Dynasty was almost completely completed.
Five major highways connected major cities from Lingnan and Southwest China to the south of the Yangtze River.
The plank roads, waterways, and ferry crossings in the southwest have also undergone comprehensive construction in recent years under the new policies of the imperial court.
As infrastructure sprang up like mushrooms after rain, it transformed the economic structure of the south.
The unprecedented increase in transportation capacity surprised the ministers, who found themselves much more composed in the face of a sudden war.
In the three years leading up to the Jingkang Incident, the emperor's bloody suppression across the country also initially established a system for communication from top to bottom.
In January of the ninth year of the Jingkang era, the imperial court decided to launch a northern expedition against the Jin dynasty. The Political Propaganda Department began mobilizing the entire country, with a large number of people working on propaganda in almost every prefecture, county, and village.
This is a just war, a war to spread the king's rule, and to let the glory of the Celestial Empire shine on Liaodong.
In February of the ninth year of the Jingkang era, an unprecedented frenzy swept through the prefectures and counties south of the Yangtze River.
In March, the season when peach blossoms bloom, the craze spread to Lingnan and even Jiaozhou.
In the region north of the Yellow River, the level of pro-war sentiment has risen to an unprecedented level.
The Song Dynasty held an extremely complex attitude towards the Jin Dynasty.
That area was once part of the Liao Dynasty, but during the early Tang Dynasty, it was a territory controlled by the Han Chinese.
When the Liao Dynasty conquered Yan and Yun, it coveted the Central Plains and invaded the south more than once. It can be said that the people of the Central Plains hated the barbarians to the north the most.
Many of these people have ancestors who were involved in the wars against the Khitan and the Jin Dynasty for generations, and they have deep-seated hatred for each other.
Upon hearing that the imperial court intended to launch a northern expedition, they were so excited that they couldn't sleep at night, and many even organized merchant groups to donate grain to the army.
Everywhere along the roadside, you could see carriages heading north. Some people were saying goodbye to their beloved girls, while others were telling their underage sons: "If your father doesn't come back, you'll have to take good care of this family from now on!"
In early March, Imperial Marshal Zhong Shidao arrived at the Yanyun War Zone. Yao Gu, the Deputy Military Commissioner of the Yanyun War Zone, personally led his elite troops to welcome the Marshal thirty miles south of Youzhou Prefecture.
The gleaming armor shone brightly in the sunlight.
Thirty thousand strong and robust Song Dynasty soldiers stood tall and straight, their eyes resolute, lined up neatly on both sides to welcome the eighty-four-year-old Zhong Shidao.
Zhong Shidao was dressed in red robes and clad in blue armor. Although his hair and beard were already white and he was old and frail, he stood upright like a pine tree, giving people a sense of stability and solidity like Mount Tai.
Wherever he went, all the soldiers looked at him with reverence.
The old marshal was already in his twilight years, yet he personally donned his armor. When the soldiers in the Yan-Yun war zone heard that the marshal would be there in person, everyone was quite agitated.
After welcoming Zhong Shidao into the Yanyun war zone, the Northern Expedition Marshal's Office was established.
In the Northwest War Zone, Yue Fei was appointed commander of the left wing army, and Wang Bing, the military commissioner of Goryeo, was appointed commander of the right wing army.
Yue Fei advanced from the west, Wang Bing attacked the Jin state's eastern front, and the Yan-Yun war zone moved north from the central route.
Zhao Huan announced to the world: Whoever is the first to conquer Shangjing City, I will bestow upon him the title of King of Liao!
By late March, the Jin Dynasty had completed the mobilization of its army, and an unprecedented mobilization had taken place within the country.
With Wanyan Zonghan as commander, the Jin state deployed 200,000 elite troops on the eastern and western fronts respectively, and 300,000 troops in the south.
Wanyan Dan, who had just ascended the throne, mobilized almost all of the existing Jin army.
The total number of regular troops deployed by both sides was 1.3 million.
This isn't like in movies or TV shows where they just find some extras, snap a single shot, and call it a day.
One million to one hundred thousand troops were arrayed on the border between the two sides. If a drone were to film them, it would show banners stretching to the horizon, swords and spears like a forest, and a sea of people surging about.
If everyone stomps their feet at the same time, the earth will tremble.
The massive Song-Jin war, recorded in the history books of this era, broke out under such hasty circumstances.
A fast horse galloped across the grassland, and it was easy to tell from its clothing that it was a member of the Imperial Guard.
Soon, Situ Heng came into view of Yue Fei's military camp.
Under the blue sky and white clouds, the endless camps rose and fell like waves of the sea.
Yue Fei was extremely strict in disciplining his troops; even during rest breaks on marches, the arrangement of all the tents was meticulously planned.
The entire army was in a state of rest, yet constantly doubling its strength.
Soldiers were drilling ahead. Situ Heng glanced over and saw that the neat square formations looked as if they had been cut out with a ruler and a knife.
Every soldier's stride was the same size, and the height and amplitude of their thrusts were exactly the same, as if they were copied from one person.
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