New Year’s Eve has just passed, and the fourth year of Jingyou’s New Year has arrived.
Although the beginning of spring is around the New Year, the temperature has not yet warmed up. The north wind from Hebei still makes the air slightly chilly.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, the Council of Political Affairs issued an edict signed by the emperor and approved by the Council of Political Affairs, summoning Fan Yong, the Shaanxi Transport Commissioner, to be the governor of Henan, and ordering Fan Zhongyan, the acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, to be the Shaanxi Governor, in charge of military and civil affairs in Guanzhong.
In addition, he ordered Wang Deyong, the secretary of the Privy Council, to be the chief general and transferred 20,000 elite soldiers from the imperial guards stationed in the capital to march to the northwest and garrison at the border.
According to current intelligence, Li Yuanhao's forces were definitely more than 150,000, but at least 200,000. The Song army, however, only had about 200,000 troops stationed at the northwestern border, spread across six routes and four lines, covering dozens of cities, making their mobility very limited.
Under such circumstances, the Song army could only mobilize tens of thousands of soldiers and horses for each battle. Therefore, the Battle of Sanchuankou, the Battle of Haoshuichuan, and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai were not large-scale battles in history.
The Song army at Sanchuankou had more than 10,000 infantry and cavalry. In the Battle of Haoshuichuan, Ren Fu's army was less than 20,000, and in the Battle of Dingchuanzhai, it was only 9,000.
On the other hand, although Li Yuanhao's total strength was slightly smaller than that of the Song army, because he took the initiative to attack and his cavalry was highly mobile, each time he dispatched a force of up to 100,000 people. He always used the advantage of superior numbers to defeat the enemy, launched surprise attacks and encircled and annihilated the enemy, and achieved three major victories.
Therefore, Wang Deyong only brought 20,000 imperial guards, which was obviously not enough to support the war.
But there's nothing I can do.
There are a large number of imperial guards stationed there, so it is not difficult to allocate 100,000 people there. The difficulty lies in adding more than 100,000 troops to the northwest. The logistical pressure will be very great, and the lack of food in the border areas will add a heavy burden to the national treasury.
Therefore, since Li Yuanhao will not be crowned emperor until next year and the war will not officially begin until the year after, it would be better to send Fan Zhongyan and Wang Deyong first.
During this time, Fan Zhongyan was able to reorganize the military and civil affairs of the northwest, build water conservancy facilities, and store grain in the rear. At the same time, he built fortresses in Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Weizhou, and other places, and took every step carefully to block the enemy from entering the country.
These places are the areas of Yan'an in Shaanxi, Qingyang in Gansu, and Guyuan in Ningxia in later generations. They are the northwest barrier of the Song Dynasty, and are also the places where the Song Dynasty will face the Battle of Sanchuankou, the Battle of Haoshuichuan, and the Battle of Dingchuanzhai in the future.
As long as we hold these places, the war can be expected.
On January 8th, the fourth year of the Jingyou reign, following the imperial edict, the Privy Council urgently dispatched 20,000 elite troops from the Jingji Road to the west of Bianliang City. Two days later, Fan Zhongyan and Wang Deyong officially set out to garrison the border.
Zhao Zhen originally wanted to personally escort them out of the city, but Lu Yijian, Wang Zeng and others dissuaded him and did not allow Zhao Zhen to go out in person.
The main concern was that the Xixia and Liao spies in the city would get to know the information.
Because under normal circumstances, rotation of border troops is a common thing, but if the emperor goes to see him off, it means that this operation is very important. It is obviously irrational to go out of the city in person when he knows that the other side has spies in the city.
This would make Li Yuanhao and Yelu Zongzhen alert, thinking that the Song Dynasty might make major moves on the border, leading to unexpected situations and causing unnecessary trouble.
So in this situation, Zhao Zhen could only regretfully not go and asked Zhao Jun to reward the army and send them out of the city.
On January 8th, Zhao Jun brought the delicious food and drinks given by the emperor into the military camp. He also personally arranged personnel to distribute the 50 strings of cash as a reward to each soldier, and gave them a day off so that they could arrange their affairs.
On January 10th, the army regrouped. Some soldiers spent the money on wine and women, some left it to their families, and some simply took the money with them and secretly vowed to go home and get married after their border defense was over.
At least these soldiers did not know that the future war was about to begin, and they thought that it was just a normal rotation between the imperial guards stationed in Gyeonggi Road and the border troops, just like in previous years.
Twenty thousand troops assembled outside the West City, with all kinds of baggage, food, and carriages ready. The government also hired 30,000 civilian laborers, but the pay was low, as they would only be sent to the Western Capital of the Song Dynasty, Luoyang. Luoyang would then organize personnel to send them to Tongzhou.
By relaying the goods from station to station, the laborers from various places only needed to travel 300 to 400 miles, and the round trip would take more than ten days. The government could save a certain amount of money, and the laborers could use less manpower and prepare for the upcoming spring plowing.
Early in the morning of the tenth day, just as the sky was getting light, Zhao Jun's carriage slowly left Wansheng Gate and arrived at the western suburbs of Bianliang.
The western suburbs are a wilderness with farmlands, mountains, forests, villages and rivers. The water of the Bian River flows slowly outside the city and pours into Tokyo. On the wide official road along the river, it is endless, as if there are no soldiers at the edge.
Fan Zhongyan and Wang Deyong were riding on horseback, and the middle and lower-level officers below were scolding and directing the soldiers to form up. Since they had never formed a line before, Wang Deyong had to arrange their marching positions and rearrange the formation first, otherwise there would be chaos.
Before the sun rose, Zhao Jun, Lü Yijian, and Wang Zeng's convoy slowly drove in. Lü Yijian had to come this time because it was Lü Yijian who recommended Fan Zhongyan, and it was also to eliminate the influence of Fan Zhongyan's appearance on the official map.
At this moment, Zhao Jun got off the carriage. With the help of the gray light between the sky and the earth, he saw the army formation in the distance which was still in a slightly chaotic state, and he couldn't help but frowned.
"Greetings to the Magistrate and the Associate Magistrate!"
Fan Zhongyan and Wang Deyong rode their horses over to greet them, then dismounted and bowed to them.
Zhao Jun nodded slightly and said, "No need to be so polite, both of you."
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