"I've already told you, you know nothing." Du Chong suddenly showed signs of exhaustion. "Are defending a city and fighting in the field the same thing? In the former, you just sit back and wait for success or failure, why waste your energy? In the latter, you have to go out into the field to make decisions and die!"
Du Yan was completely speechless, yet extremely anxious: "Daddy... is there really no way?"
"Field battle is impossible." Du Chong shook his head and sighed, as if he had no confidence at all. "In fact, if I had been in control of the situation earlier, I could have taken advantage of the autumn flood and the Jin soldiers had not yet crossed the river to break the Yellow River levee, and perhaps I could have eliminated the Jin cavalry. But now the main force of the Jin army is already in Henan, and the Yellow River is frozen, so what chance do I have?"
"The dam broke?" Du Yan was stunned. "What about the flood..."
"What about the flood?" Du Chong sneered. "All those rebel armies were cruel to the people. Just because they were recruited, they became government troops and were promoted to higher positions. As long as they could defeat the Jin people, the death of ordinary people was nothing. Besides, how can floods be compared to man-made disasters? If the Jin army could not move south, a million people would be saved! Besides, Henan was originally a wasteland."
Du Yan certainly didn't know anything about hydrology, and didn't know that the Yellow River in the lower reaches was just a watershed, and didn't have its own large river system. So once the river bank was damaged in the direction of Henan, it would invade the Huaihe River system, causing the Yellow River to take over the Huaihe River and flow into the sea, completely changing the downstream hydrology. Therefore, when he heard his father's remarks and thought of the tragic massacre he saw on the road, he was speechless for a while, and even thought it made sense.
In fact, even from the perspective of later generations, the breach of the dike by Du Chong in another time and space did lead to the Yellow River gradually taking over the Huai River and entering the sea, but this person was only partially responsible. Because according to hydrological research, the real cause of the Yellow River's complete taking over the Huai River and entering the sea was the late Jin Dynasty, when the Jin Dynasty allowed the Yellow River to flood and burst at Yangwu. That was when the Yellow River completely took over the Huai River and entered the main channel of the Huai River, and from then on, it was out of control, so that from then on, the concept of the Yellow River flooding area was completely formed.
However, even when Jin Zhangzong breached the Yangwu Dam, he could only be held four-tenths responsible for the entire hydrological change.
Because, another fact that cannot be ignored is that before Du Chong and Jin Zhangzong, the Yellow River had burst its dikes, but they were all repaired and cleared in time. However, between Du Chong and Jin Zhangzong, the Song and Jin countries used the Huai River as the boundary, and there were years of war and instability, which led to the gradual disuse of water conservancy projects along the Yellow River and Huai River.
This is also a realistic reason that we have to face.
Moreover, if they really wanted to exonerate themselves, both Du Chong and Jin Zhangzong could have been done so, because it was impossible for these two people to have such sufficient knowledge of water conservancy, and it was impossible for them to predict that the bursting of the Yellow River would cause such serious hydrological changes.
Then, using this as an excuse, if the case goes to an international court, one can also plead ignorance and reduce the sentence by a few years on the grounds of intermittent mental problems.
Then, we have to condemn these two people from a moral level. One took the initiative, and the other was lamentable. Both of them disregarded the lives of the people between the Yellow River and the Huai River. The only thing to lament is that during this period of time, the lives of the so-called people were probably the least valuable things in the world.
However, if you think about it this way, after another eight or nine hundred years, when the dam burst, I really don’t know what happened. You can’t say that person had no historical experience, right?
Coming back to the present, Du Chong lamented that his excellent strategy had missed the right time and the right opportunity, and then he continued to sigh:
"Actually, I am not disobeying the emperor's order. If I had, why would I have asked Generals Yue and Li to prepare for the dispatch of troops? I am just angry at the emperor and the officials in Nanyang. Since the Jin army has crossed the river and headed south, we should just defend the city. Why are they sitting in the city and trying to pressure me with moral principles? Today, in front of you, I have nothing to hide. In my opinion, the Song Dynasty is hopeless! We can only take one step at a time!"
Du Yan stood there in silence.
As for Du Chong, he wanted to continue venting, but when he looked back at his son's attitude, he knew that the other party had not been in his presence for many years and did not completely believe him. He suddenly became discouraged and simply got up and left.
As soon as Du Chong left, Du Yan felt relieved, as if he had escaped from something.
Just like this, no matter what, Du Chong, who was full of pessimism, ended up making things worse. He originally wanted to use the Eight Character Army to delay the dispatch of troops, but unexpectedly, Wang Yan received the document and it arrived so quickly, and he was completely helpless and had to send troops.
In fact, at this time, almost everyone on both the Song and Jin sides was caught off guard by the sudden southward march of the 20,000 Eight Character Army, but they also looked down on it. Then they didn't notice that these 20,000 troops who had been fighting with the Jin Army for years had in fact played a subtle role in the strategic balance in Henan Province.
On the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month, after Yue Fei had arranged for Generals Tang Huai, Zhang Xian and Xu Qing to each lead an army totaling 10,000 to guard the city of Dongjing, Du Chong was helpless. He first joined forces with Wang Yan's 20,000 Eight-Character Army, and then directly led more than 40,000 troops southward.
However, the troops of Yue Fei, Li Qiong and Wang Yan were well disciplined and marched very quickly without stopping. Yelu Ma Wu from Zhongmu came to spy on them but did not dare to take any action, which really disappointed Deputy Governor Du. Therefore, within two days, the troops arrived at Weishi, an important town in the southwest of Kaifeng City.
Besides, Yushi is a big city, and it is only eighty miles away from Tokyo, one hundred miles away from Changsha, thirty miles away from Zhujiaqu Town where Han Shizhong was defeated that day, fifty miles away from Yanling, the frontline city controlled by the Song army, and fifty miles away from Fugu area where the ten commanders gathered... It is really a good and reliable place.
Therefore, Deputy Governor Du did not dare to delay. On the one hand, he gave up the original plan to go south to Yanling to gather the ten commanders, and sternly asked the ten commanders to gather here. On the other hand, he hurriedly sent a document to Nanyang by express horse, saying that he was going to go south to Yanling immediately after gathering the ten commanders. In fact, he was planning to stop at this good place.
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