However, Deputy Governor Du originally thought that the Ten Commanders would make trouble because of his change of mind, but unexpectedly, the messenger had probably not arrived in Nanyang yet. When the Ten Commanders received the urgent letter, they all said that since it was the military order from Du Dayin, they dared not disobey it. Then, under the leadership of Ma Gao, they gathered the remaining troops and took the initiative to march towards Weishi.
On the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, the fourth day after the expedition, not long after Nanyang received Du Chong's letter, Wei Shi had successfully joined forces and gathered a solid 80,000 troops at once!
Moreover, in order to give a good impression to Du Chong, the future governor, the commanders of the Tokyo Garrison Office, after some discussion, actually ordered Madam Yizhang Qingma to personally escort the grain and goods collected from Fugu to Weishi as a sign of obedience.
Du Chong never thought that he would have such prestige... The troops had arrived, and even the food, fodder, and money had been replenished. Documents had just been sent from Nanyang... Du Chong had no choice but to set off with his troops again the next day and headed for Yanling.
On the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, the remaining troops of the Tokyo Garrison and the troops of Yue Fei and Wang Yan all crossed the Wei River and gathered in Yanling. The troops set up camps for more than 20 miles with their backs to the frozen Wei River.
Yanling and Xuchang are forty miles apart, but there is no river blocking the two cities. In addition, the camps of both sides are naturally extended, so the actual distance is far less than the figure of forty miles. Scouts are often sent out early in the morning and march along the old road between the two cities to the front of the other camp, and return to the camp at noon, which is the last safe distance.
For a moment, the entire Henan battlefield was shaken, and almost everyone turned their attention here.
The Jin army had naturally deployed its troops and gathered as many troops as possible. However, after seeing the scale of the Song army camp, Wanyan Talan changed his strategy and took the initiative to send a letter to Wanyan Wushu for help, asking him to provide appropriate support of 10,000 households, which was obviously as if he was facing a great enemy.
On the other hand, as the huge army gathered and advanced, the Song army was also shocked and its morale gradually rose.
However, no one expected that Deputy Governor Du Chong had already made up his mind that he would not move no matter what, because he did not want to die in vain.
Of course, correspondingly, he still sent a note to Nanyang, saying that although the troops were nominally large, their morale was low, and there were very few armored men. They were already insufficient in combat effectiveness, and they had to divide their troops to block the enemy from Nanjing behind them to prevent being attacked from both sides, which was really difficult.
On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, Nanyang had just received the message and had no time to respond. The troops under Zhang Jun's command that were previously sent to the west to support were split into two. Tian Shizhong guarded Bozhou to respond to the enemy in Nanjing, while Liu Bao led a force of seven or eight thousand to Fugu, and then immediately sent letters to Yanling and Nanyang, taking on the task of isolating the enemy in Nanjing.
After receiving the document, Du Chong was overwhelmed and could only write a second letter, saying that the enemy situation was unclear and he was contacting the remaining soldiers in Ruzhou behind enemy lines to ensure safety.
But on the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, a troop of four to five thousand soldiers suddenly came from the west. They were none other than the commander of the Tokyo Liaison Office, Bing Guansuo Li Bao, who had escaped from Wuyang before, and a local commander from Ruzhou named Niu Gao... They had seen unusual movements of the Jin army on the western front, and after careful investigation, they learned that the government on the eastern front had sent a Du Dayin as the marshal, and had mobilized the entire Tokyo Liaison Office army to prepare to rescue General Han.
After confirming the military situation several times, Li Bao and Niu Gao, who were in Ruzhou and were preparing to work together to support Lu Xing in Xiangcheng, discussed and decided that saving Lu Xing might not save Han Shizhong, but saving Han Shizhong would definitely shake the overall situation and Lu Xing would be safe. So they took advantage of the Jin army's deployment of troops, the warmer weather in the past few days, the thinner river ice, and the opportunity to avoid cavalry in certain sections of the river, and ventured through the gaps in the enemy army and came to Yanling.
In addition to participating in the battle, the two generals also reported the deployment and troop strength of the Jin army that they saw along the way.
After listening to the report, the four generals Yue Fei, Wang Yan, Ma Gao and Li Qiong, who were in charge of daily military camp work, all felt that Li Bao and Niu Gao were trustworthy, had a clear understanding of the military situation, and could fight... At the very least, they could advance, or capture some weak points, and form a partial relief posture.
Therefore, the four generals made a rare joint petition to Du Chong, requesting that they be allowed to go into battle at an appropriate time.
This request was naturally rejected by Du Chong. Not only that, after this meeting, Du Chong felt that everyone in the world was against him, so he stopped pretending and simply hid in Yanling City, drinking wine and tea all day in the name of celebrating the New Year, and no longer met with the generals inside and outside the city. The only time he showed up was on the first day of the New Year, when he personally received Wanyan Talan's envoy, accepted the other party's gifts, and gave a return gift.
But to be honest, even until this time, people from top to bottom could still understand it. After all, it was the New Year, they were civil officials, and it was the ancestral family rules.
In fact, there were many civil servants who were more extreme than Du Chong during the Jingkang Incident. For example, during the second siege by the Jin army that directly led to the Jingkang Incident, according to the rules, a civil servant was assigned to "supervise" the four city walls. Li Zhuo, a close minister of Emperor Yuansheng and the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, was in charge of the South City, but he spent all day drinking and holding poetry meetings on the city walls, and actually watched the Jin army fill up the mile-long moat outside the Xuanhua Gate. In the end, Emperor Yuansheng (Song Qinzong) himself went up to the city walls and was stunned to discover this fact.
Compared to those people, Du Chong's current actions are nothing. Even his behavior of handing over the daily military affairs of the camp to Yue Fei, Wang Yan, and Ma Gao, and handing over the military affairs of Yanling City to Li Qiong, makes him seem very reliable.
As I said, not everyone is Zong Ze, and no one expects everyone to be Zong Ze.
But, so I say but.
After the Chinese New Year, for three days in a row, Deputy Governor Du did not change at all, and still stayed indoors, but strictly ordered everyone not to go out to fight. At this time, the whole army was in a panic... At this time, the whole army suddenly woke up. They all knew that Deputy Governor Du was a little afraid of fighting, but no one expected that he was afraid of fighting and stubborn to this extent.
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