At the beginning of the second year of Baoyuan, in February 1039 AD, Li Yuanhao, the ruler of Western Xia, divided his troops into two groups to attack the Song Dynasty.
On one route, Yeli Yuqi led about 40,000 people to feint an attack on Jingyuan Road, while on the other route, he personally led about 80,000 people to attack Huanqing Road.
During this battle, Wang Yan, the governor of Jingyuan Road, ordered Ge Huaimin, the deputy chief of Jingyuan Road, Gao Jixuan, the commander of Jingyuan Road, and others to resist the enemy separately and block the enemy outside the Zhenrong Army.
It happened that Huanzhou deployed Zhong Shiheng to lead troops to rescue. In the small-scale battle, the Western Xia army and the Song army won and lost alternately. When Zhong Shiheng's army arrived, Yeli Yuqi was forced to withdraw the Zhenrong Army, shrink his forces and retreat.
Zhong Shiheng cut off the Xixia army's retreat and, along with Ge Huaimin and Gao Jixuan, attacked Yeli Yuqi. Fierce battles broke out between the two sides in Huaide, Shimen, Ning'an, and Tiandu, resulting in thousands of casualties for the Dangxiang army, which retreated to Douling (affiliated to Tongxin County, Wuzhong City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region).
In addition to the brave fighting of generals such as Zhong Shiheng, Ge Huaimin, and Gao Jixuan, this battle also saw the emergence of many powerful middle and lower-level officers, such as He Bin, commander of the Deshun Army, Wu Ying, inspector of Huanzhou, and Wang Gui, the governor of Jingzhou.
Among them, Wang Gui was a fierce general. He charged into the enemy camp alone as if he was in an empty space, beheaded several enemy generals and more than 30 enemy cavalrymen. He only brought more than ten followers with him, and chased the more than 400 cavalrymen of the Western Xia, making his power known in the northwest.
Meanwhile, the Western Xia bandits were also successfully defeated along the Huanqing Road. Yuan Hao's attempt to break through the Kaoluo Village and block the Yanzhou reinforcements was thwarted. Zhang Kang's reinforcements rushed in and severely attacked the Western Xia bandits with firearms, killing over 10,000 of them and injuring over half of the Western Xia bandits attacking Kaoluo Village.
If Li Yuanhao had not run fast, and if he had not had 30,000 reserve troops behind him who came to support him in time, I am afraid that even Li Yuanhao himself would have died in this battle.
Yeli Wangrong, who attacked Jintang City, also suffered a bad result. Teng Zongliang, the transport envoy and commander of Huanqing Road, ordered Cao Cong, the general manager of the cavalry and infantry of Huanqing Road, and Zhao Zhen, the deputy general manager, to lead 30,000 infantry and cavalry to come to the rescue, and cooperated with Lu Deqin to give Yeli Wangrong a heavy blow.
Together with the support of the Song army from other states, the Western Xia army of more than 100,000 was quickly pincer attack, surrounded and defeated by the three routes of the Song army of about 300,000.
Especially after Li Yuanhao's defeat, the Western Xia army fled in panic and escaped back to the outside of the Great Wall.
According to statistics after the battle, the Song army defeated the Western Xia army at the cost of only two or three thousand casualties, causing nearly 20,000 deaths and countless injuries. It can be said that it was a great victory.
After the war, Fan Zhongyan counted the casualties, calculated the merits, and quickly divided the battle report into two parts, one sent to Bianliang and the other sent to Sichuan.
At this time, Zhao Jun was still in Chengdu Prefecture. In fact, he had almost completed his investigation of the grassroots level. According to his investigation, in various states of the Song Dynasty, an average of more than 70% of the land was concentrated in the hands of landlords and wealthy households, and about 7% of the population occupied 85% of the land. The gap between the rich and the poor was very large.
The Song Dynasty was the dynasty with the most serious land annexation in history. Other dynasties often only experienced this in their late stages, but the Song Dynasty had very serious land annexation from its founding to its demise, even though the Renzong Dynasty was only more than 70 years away from the founding of the country.
So much so that the "Continued Zizhi Zhitongjian Changbian" recorded the land annexation situation during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song Dynasty. It can be summarized in one sentence: "The rich have fields as far as the eye can see, while the poor have no place to stand."
You should know that during the Republic of China period, when the great man investigated the rural areas of Hunan, only 65% of the land was concentrated in the hands of landlords and wealthy households, and 8% of the people owned 70% of the land. From this we can see that land annexation in the Song Dynasty was even more serious than in the Republic of China.
In addition, the land management system is a typical feudal management method. The land in the southern region is basically managed by landlords, gentry, wealthy households, local elites, and clans. The hired farmers and poor farmers under their rule often have about 70% of their income taken away as rent. Some landlords and wealthy households only take 50%, and they are considered conscientious landlords.
This is better than the Republic of China, where the rate was over 80%.
The problem was that high-yield crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn had been introduced during the Republic of China period. Even if the main grain was taken away, poor farmers could still barely survive by growing some sweet potatoes on the scraps from the fields.
But the Song Dynasty did not have these crops and could only survive on rice and wheat. The remaining 30% of income was not enough to feed them, and they were often starving and emaciated.
Once there is a famine, there will be large numbers of people dying.
So it is really a miracle that the Song Dynasty survived. With such serious land annexation and so many rebellions, it was not destroyed by internal uprisings but was destroyed by external enemies.
It can be seen that its tax system and the three redundancies are both deadly poison and life-saving medicine.
"well"
At the Hanzhou government office in Chengdu Prefecture, Zhao Jun, who was investigating the local situation, sat at the desk with a brush in his hand, writing something. Suddenly, he stopped and couldn't help sighing.
This is the study in the backyard of the yamen. Whenever Zhao Jun arrives at a place, if he encounters corrupt officials, he will deal with them and occupy their public housing.
If you meet a good official, just squeeze in with him, since the government office is big anyway.
There was no one else in the room. He Tan, the governor of Hanzhou, was a good official and a relatively upright person. He did not flatter Zhao Jun as much. Even if Zhao Jun came, he would do what he usually did, unlike Yang Gao, who followed Zhao Jun around all the time.
The study door was open. It was March, springtime, with flowers blooming. The warm sun shone down, illuminating the floor. Outside the window stood a large tree with lush branches and leaves, casting dappled sunlight.
Zhao Jun turned his head and looked out the window. His research work and records were already complete. Continuing the research would only be a waste of more time.
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