The Humiliation of Jingkang
Zhao Heng instigated the rebellion of Yelu Yudu, a senior general of the Liao Dynasty, which led to the second large-scale southward march of the Jin army in August of the first year of the Jing Kang period, with a total of 100,000 troops, heading straight for Bian Jing.
Zhao Heng and his ministers again discussed ceding territory in exchange for peace. Meanwhile, the four newly appointed governors were leading their troops to support the emperor. Following the advice of his ministers, Zhao Heng disbanded the troops.
At this time, the Jin army had successfully crossed the Yellow River, and the 130,000 Song troops stationed on the south bank of the Yellow River fled.
The Jin army successfully crossed the natural barrier on which the Song court relied for its safety without losing a single soldier.
Zhao Gou was originally sent by Zhao Heng to negotiate with the Jin army. On the way, he encountered Zong Ze, who stopped him and said, "The Jin army is not here to rob us this time, but to destroy our Song Dynasty. It is futile to negotiate now. It is better to prepare our troops for battle."
Zhao Gou thought what he said made sense, so he followed Zong Ze's advice and decided not to go to the Jin camp.
At this time, Zhao Gou was in Cizhou. When the people of Cizhou learned that Zhao Gou, Wang Yun and his party were going to the Jin camp to discuss the cession of Hebei, they were completely furious and rushed forward to beat Wang Yun to death.
Zhao Gou watched Wang Yun being beaten to death and was terrified. From then on, a huge shadow was left in his heart. He no longer dared to trust the people and regarded them as barbaric and brutal mobs.
After the Jin army crossed the Yellow River and showed their fangs completely, the Song court realized that the Jin army was not coming to rob this time, so it ordered the troops that had just withdrawn to return immediately. Faced with the Song court's trick of "playing tricks with the princes by setting off beacons", the troops were unwilling to come again.
At this time, a lot of troops had gathered around Zhao Gou, and Zhao Heng immediately ordered Zhao Gou to be the "Grand Marshal of the Army of the World" to rush to the capital.
Zhao Gou thought to himself: My dear brother the Emperor, I am not a fool. How can I let you fool me every time? The army that came to support the king has hundreds of thousands of people, and you asked them to withdraw. I only have tens of thousands of people. How can I defeat the fierce and brave Jin people?
Zong Ze also suggested that Zhao Gou go to the capital to support the king.
Zhao Gou looked coldly at Zong Ze, who had just rescued him, and said unhappily: "If you want to go, lead the troops there." After that, he led the large army south.
Zong Ze sighed inwardly. He knew that this was like hitting a rock with an egg, but in keeping with his duty as a subject, he still mobilized 10,000 men to ride towards the capital.
Unexpectedly, when he arrived, Zhao Heng had already opened the city and surrendered, so he had to go back the same way to chase Zhao Gou.
Zhao Gou led everyone to move to Daming Prefecture, and then to Dongping Prefecture to avoid the enemy's attack.
Wanyan Zongmou arrived outside the city of Bianjing. Due to limited military strength, he was unable to occupy the entire Bianjing. Once they went deep into the city, the tens of thousands of Jin soldiers would soon be overwhelmed by the millions of people in Bianjing.
So he pretended to attack the city in order to intimidate the central government of the Song Dynasty, and proposed to withdraw the troops on the side of justice so that the emperor of the Song Dynasty would speak out.
As soon as Zhao Heng left the city, he was detained in the Jin camp by Wanyan Zongmou, who used the emperor as a threat and continued to demand gold and silver from the Song court.
After the last plunder by the Jin people, the Song court was unable to pay the Jin army. Wanyan Zongmou was furious and demanded 1,500 young girls. Zhao Heng had no choice but to do as he was told and ordered the eunuchs in the palace to select all the palace maids, put them on the list and send them to the Jin camp.
There was a moment of panic in the palace, and many strong-willed women did not want to go to Jinzhai to suffer humiliation, so some hanged themselves, and some jumped into the river. That night, more than 30 people jumped into the Fengchi in the palace and drowned.
The Song court finally managed to collect 300,000 taels of gold, 6 million taels of silver, and 1 million pieces of silk to send to Jinzhai.
When Wanyan Zongmou saw that the money was not enough, he became furious and gave each imperial princess one thousand gold ingots, each princess of the royal family five hundred gold ingots, each princess of the clan two hundred gold ingots, each wife of the royal family five hundred gold and silver ingots, each wife of the clan two hundred silver ingots, and each daughter of a noble family one hundred silver ingots to be sent to Jinzhai.
He then sent people to Bian Jing, demanding that all the royal family members of the Song Dynasty, including the retired Emperor Zhao Ji, be taken away.
The Jin people took Zhao Ji, Zhao Heng and his son, as well as members of the royal family, concubines, children, 3,000 looted girls, and gold and silver all the way north. They heard a lot of cries of grief along the way. Many people were killed or injured on the way north, and only 600 people were left when they arrived in the Jin Kingdom.
After heading north, the royal princesses, concubines, and palace maids became slaves and prostitutes and were subjected to humiliation by the Jin people.
The occupied land was filled with smoke and devastation. The displaced refugees whimpered and wailed in famine and fear, and often collapsed on their way south, becoming a new skeleton among the starving people, and then buried by the wind and sand.
The Northern Song Dynasty was declared extinct at this point.
The Song Dynasty royal family was captured by the Jin people and taken north, and the only survivor was Zhao Gou.
On the first day of May in the second year of the Jing Kang period, Zhao Gou succeeded to the throne smoothly in Yingtian Prefecture, changed the reign title to "Jian Yan", and established the Southern Song Dynasty.
After Zhao Gou ascended the throne, the Jin people did not expect that there were still some fish that had escaped the net. In February of the third year of Jianyan, the Jin army went south to attack the Song Dynasty for the third time.
The war was raging, and the people were wailing. The Jin army burned, killed, and looted all the way south. In almost the blink of an eye, the war spread along Bianjing to the banks of the Yangtze River. Most of the vast northwestern territory of the Song Dynasty fell under the cruel and bloody hordes of the Jin people.
Their iron hooves crisscrossed the vast land of the Song Dynasty as if they were entering an uninhabited area, devouring the cities that had not yet been conquered. Wherever they went, they were like a swarm of locusts, leaving behind only devastation.
When the defenders of most cities heard that Zhao Gou had fled south, they also fled.
Zhao Gou fled south by boat across the river. The 6,000 Jin troops chasing Zhao Gou arrived in Yangzhou. The 100,000 imperial soldiers near Yangzhou were leaderless and also fled madly. Hundreds of thousands of panicked people in Yangzhou were displaced and fled south in the war and massacre. Among the 100,000 people who fled to the Yangtze River, tens of thousands were massacred by the Jin army, or driven into the Yangtze River and drowned, and tens of thousands were taken to the north and enslaved.
The Jin army looted the unmanned Yangzhou and set the city on fire. The fire burned fiercely and spread to the entire city with the help of the wind. The royal palaces, treasuries, government offices, shops, and residential houses were all engulfed in flames and reduced to ashes.
The once prosperous streets and alleys were burned into ruins. The Jin people also looted houses, abducted women, killed people and robbed them, causing the people to be displaced and separated from their families. The cries were deafening, and the entire Yangzhou city suddenly collapsed like a mountain collapsing. There were terrible charred corpses lying everywhere, like a hell on earth.
The prosperous and wealthy city of Yangzhou suddenly became a ruin, full of desolation and bleakness. The Twenty-Four Bridges were still there, the waves were rippling, and the cold moon was silent.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
