Chapter 35 8. Bing is expensive and fast, Li Hengda defeated Wen Tianxiang

At the beginning of 1276, after Boyan's soldiers occupied Lin'an without bloodshed, they collected all the archives and albums of the Song Dynasty, antiques, jewelry, and all the forbidden items of the court, and escorted the Queen Mother, Emperor Song Gong, and senior officials of the clan to the north to "enter" Kublai Khan.After King Yi and King Guang escaped from Lin'an, thanks to the protection of the commander Zhang Quan, they went to Wenzhou, and then Lu Xiufu, Chen Yizhong, Zhang Shijie and others also arrived one after another. Discuss with everyone that a country cannot be without a king for a day, so in the summer and June of 1276 AD, they supported Yi Wang Zhao Shi as emperor, changed Yuan Jingyan, added the emperor's younger brother Zhao Bing as Wei Wang, and promoted Fuzhou to Fu'an Mansion; With Chen Yizhong as the prime minister and privy envoy, he supervised all the troops and horses; Zhang Shijie was the privy envoy;Before long, Wen Tianxiang arrived in various places, ordered to pay homage to Prime Minister You and Privy Envoy, and supervised all the troops and horses.All the people came up with plans and suggestions, and issued an edict to all parts of the country, "calling on all roads to be loyal and righteous, and reward the royal family together" in order to revive.

Of course, Kublai Khan would not tolerate the continued existence of a regime under the banner of the Southern Song Dynasty, so he decided to kill this government-in-exile in its infancy, and this task fell on Zhang Hongfan's shoulders.Kublai Khan dispatched two Mongolian armies under his command, and awarded him the title of "Marshal of the Mongolian Han Army". This was an unconventional measure for the Yuan Dynasty, which had a relatively strict hierarchical system at that time. Zhang Hongfan naturally understood, so he asked the emperor to send a trusted Mongol to serve as the marshal on the grounds that "the Han people have never commanded the Mongolian army".

But Kublai Khan said emotionally: "Your Zhang family has devoted themselves to my Yuan Empire. Since your father, Ansu Gong Zhang Rou, defeated Wuxian, conquered Bianjing, and Zhenqi County since he surrendered to our dynasty. A little bit of Henan has made great contributions to our Great Yuan Empire. In my mind, you Zhang family members are more trustworthy than the Mongols. The most important thing in using soldiers is single-mindedness, and you can know their temperament when using generals. I will use you today Remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty, I just hope that you will be as diligent as your father, and I will be relieved."

Of course Kublai Khan knew that Boyan was fighting several Khanates in Mobei at this time, and he couldn't get out; the other Mongolian generals were either reckless or murderous.More importantly, Kublai Khan understood that to deal with the Han people and fight in the Han land, one can only use the strategies and tactics of the Han people. Zhang Hongfan was greatly moved by these heartfelt words, and he expressed that he must repay the emperor's trust with all his heart.Kublai Khan was overjoyed and ordered to reward him with brocade clothes, jade belts and other valuables.But Zhang Hongfan knew that although Kublai Khan thought so, outside the imperial court, those tough and rough Mongolian generals would not accept this. Down?Therefore, the clever Zhang Hongfan did not accept these rewards, but asked for the sword and armor suitable for battle.This matter made Kublai Khan greatly appreciate his warrior's mood.Immediately ordered the left and right: display the best sword and armor in the arsenal in the hall, and let Zhang Hongfan choose freely.After choosing the sword and armor, Kublai Khan told him solemnly: "This sword is your deputy. If you don't obey the order, you can use this sword to execute him." Zhang Hongfan realized that what he held in his hand was a real sword. The "Shangfang Sword".Before leaving, Zhang Hongfan recommended Li Heng, a descendant of the Xixia King, to be his deputy commander.Kublai Khan also agreed to this request.A Southern Expeditionary Army composed of a mixture of Mongolian and Han, with a total of 20,000 people on land and water, went south in separate ways.

Besides, after Wen Tianxiang escaped by chance, he traveled all the way until he arrived in Fuzhou.When his health improved, Wen Tianxiang proposed to return to Wenzhou to organize a boat division, and recover the two Zhejiang provinces from Haidao.But although Chen Yizhong was timid, he was afraid that Wen Tianxiang, who was his equal, would make meritorious service, so he pushed Wen Tianxiang aside and wanted to rely on Zhang Shijie's power to recover the two Zhejiang provinces to cover up his previous crime of abandoning the capital and fleeing for his life, so he deliberately disagreed with him. Instead, let him go to Jianzhou (now Nanping, Fujian) to open a mansion and recruit soldiers.

After Wen Tianxiang came to Jianzhou, he established the Dudu Mansion and raised the banner of righteousness.As the news spread, the old subordinates who joined him in the army came one after another and defected to Wen Tianxiang's command.They plan to use this as a starting point to counterattack Jiangxi and regain lost ground; then use Jiangxi as a base to attack the Yuan army northward. In May 1277, Wen Tianxiang led an army northward from Meizhou, Guangdong, and began the operation to recover Jiangxi.The rebel army fought all the way, fought desperately with the Yuan army defenders, and soon conquered Huichang, Yudu, Xingguo and other places.Yongfeng, Jishui, Fuzhou, Yichun and other places responded in groups and organized rebel troops to fight against Yuan Dynasty, and got in touch with Wen Tianxiang, willing to obey the dispatch and fight against Yuan Dynasty together.The anti-Yuan struggle in Jiangxi was raging like a prairie fire, and Wen Tianxiang became the soul of anti-Yuan forces everywhere.

After Zhang Hongfan accepted Kublai Khan's appointment, he traveled day and night to the south of the Yangtze River. They wanted to put out the fire before it could burn. In the camp of the Marshal of the Mongol Han Army, Zhang Hongfan and the generals discussed the strategy of conquest. Li Hengdao: "It's easy to crusade against these people! They are a mob without special training, so if we charge with our cavalry, they will naturally break up." Zhang Hongzheng is a vanguard officer who had experience in direct combat with the Song army. He said: "The Song army is not strong in combat, but they can run faster than horses. Therefore, the key to annihilating them is to catch their tails. We have to be like hunters stalking their prey, and once bitten, we must chase them to the end without giving them any respite."

Zhang Hongfan also understood that the small imperial court in exile was basically the "masterpiece" of a few ministers who slipped through the net. A Chen Yizhong was similar to Jia Sidao.All of them have the shadow of the defeat of the Southern Song Dynasty, and they have already become frightened birds. Therefore, once they encounter a strong attack from the Mongolian army, they must flee for their lives first.Therefore, the new situation requires a new style of play.In this battle, we must emphasize the word "fast"!Thinking of this, he stood up and said solemnly: "The emperor sent two Mongolian armies this time, with the determination to win, that is, to wipe out the small imperial court in exile as soon as possible! Therefore, our operations should also be carried out in accordance with this purpose." He glanced at the full account of the generals, and continued: " Therefore, our general strategic principle for this battle is: fast interspersed and concealed. For this reason, our army should be divided into two groups. Marshal Li Heng led the attack on Jiangxi together with the vanguard officer Zhang Hongzheng."

Zhang Hongfan turned his attention to Li Heng, and said to him earnestly: "This time Jiangxi is chasing, you must give up your luggage, lightly equip your troops, advance at double speed, and attack when the enemy is unprepared. Once the opportunity is delayed, let Wen Tianxiang and the others took a breather, collected the remnants, and responded from all over the country. I am afraid that our army will not be so easy to deal with them. They know that my conquest army has returned to the north, and most of them are thousands of miles away from Jiangnan. They will not believe us The action is so fast, so we will definitely not seriously prepare for the war. This provides conditions for our strike. I hope you must seize this point and make a fuss. , Only in this way can we defeat the enemy in one fell swoop and win in one battle.”

After the arrangements were made, Zhang Hongfan led the navy to attack Fujian by sea, and drove the exiled small courts of the Southern Song Dynasty to the sea several times. Li Heng's troops who attacked Jiangxi divided into four groups, and launched a surprise attack on Wen Tianxiang's rebel army at the same time.Li Heng led an army of fine riders, and unexpectedly attacked Wen Tianxiang who was in Xingguo.Wen Tianxiang didn't expect Li Heng to kill him so soon, and he was caught off guard. In addition, the militiamen had no combat experience, so they used infantry to block the cavalry.After several battles, most of the tens of thousands of troops have been defeated.Xingguo's Governor's Mansion was short of troops, so Wen Tianxiang had to lead them back.Li Heng followed closely behind, Wen Tianxiang fought and retreated, Zhang Bian, Liu Zhu and other generals all died heroically, and the Dufu army was almost wiped out.

It was heard that tens of thousands of Song troops of Zou Fen's tribe were stationed in Yongfeng, so Wen Tianxiang retreated in the direction of Yongfeng with the defeated troops.As a result, halfway through the journey, they encountered Zou Fen's troops who had been defeated by the Yuan army and fled. Fleeing to Fangshiling (now southeast of Ji'an, Jiangxi), Song General Gong Xin asked to lead a small number of soldiers to the rear to cover Wen Tianxiang's retreat.With their backs against the forest, they first lit a bonfire in the forest, and then used the terrain to deal with Li Heng and others.Li Heng was afraid of an ambush, so he ordered gold to withdraw his troops.After a long time, seeing the silence behind the mountain, Li Heng dared to lead Yuan soldiers to enter with a shout.As a result, he saw Gong Xin sitting on a boulder, and only a dozen or so remnant soldiers stood around him, glaring at the Yuan army.Li Heng hurriedly shot the arrows, and the arrows rained densely. Gong Xin and the others stood still, hit by the arrows like hedgehogs, and they would not be servants until they died. Wen Tianxiang fled to Kongkeng (still in Ji'an), and asked the soldiers to cut down trees, split them into "antlers", and buried them on the valley passage.The Yuan army tracked to the empty pit on horseback, but was blocked by "antlers" and could not enter the valley.Wen Tianxiang quickly organized a breakout.Seeing that the situation was not good, the Yuan army launched a fire attack. As a result, the mountains were filled with smoke, and they could not see each other unless they were close.Fearing that Wen Tianxiang would escape, the Yuan army hurriedly ordered a search of the mountain. They found several people running up the mountain carrying a sedan chair, so they quickly chased after them.The Yuan army stopped the sedan chair driver and asked sharply, "Who is in the sedan chair?" At this time, the person in the sedan chair said, "Wen Tianxiang, the Prime Minister of the Great Song Dynasty, is here. If you want to kill, you will follow you." A young man with an imposing manner.The Yuan army swarmed forward and tied up the people in the sedan chair in a hurry.The Yuan army shouted loudly: "Wen Tianxiang has been caught! Wen Tianxiang has been caught!" The Yuan army generals saw that the man they had captured was very handsome, so they decided that it was Wen Tianxiang, so they stopped the search and went to ask Marshal Li Heng for credit.When they arrived at the barracks, a general who had seen Wen Tianxiang saw at a glance that it was a fake.It turned out that Zhao Shishang, the counselor of the Dudu Mansion, saw that the situation was critical, so he used this method to plan to retreat the Yuan army, and Wen Tianxiang was able to organize the rebel army to take the opportunity to break through.Yuan Jun became furious and cut off his head with a knife.Even so, Wen Tianxiang's own wife and children were captured by the Yuan army and sent to Dadu by Li Heng.On the way, Wen Tianxiang's two sons were both tortured and died of illness in the Tao. In June 1278, Wen Tianxiang's rebel army fought and retreated until they retreated to Haifeng County in Guangdong.At this time, the little emperor Zhao Shi, who was in Shigangzhou, died of illness at the age of eleven due to running around and being frightened.All the ministers supported Wei Wang Zhao Bing as emperor, who was eight years old at the time.Wen Tianxiang heard that the new emperor came to the throne, and nearly 100,000 troops were escorting by the sea of ​​Zhuhai. He wanted to meet the new emperor, and discussed with the escorting general Zhang Shijie and others how to preserve his strength and make a comeback.However, the officials who escorted him were afraid of attracting the Yuan army's attack, so they did not allow Wen Tianxiang to meet the new emperor.He went to contact the anti-Yuan forces in Guangzhou, but also failed. Therefore, Wen Tianxiang wanted to go back to his hometown of Jiangxi, continue to recruit troops, and regroup. On the one hand, he hoped to strengthen his strength and regain lost ground. Make Zhang Shijie and the others less stressed. At the end of 1278, Wen Tianxiang led his troops to march north from Haifeng to Jiangxi. At this time, Li Heng was annoyed at the wrong capture of Wen Tianxiang last time, and he was leading more than 10,000 people to Guangdong, looking for Wen Tianxiang's trace.Suddenly it was reported that someone knew Wen Tianxiang's whereabouts. Li Heng was overjoyed and summoned him immediately. It was the pirate Chen Yi who came.It turned out that they separated one side and harmed the common people. They were defeated by Wen Tianxiang and beheaded the other leader, but missed the bandit leader Chen Yi.Hearing that the Yuan army was inquiring about Wen Tianxiang's whereabouts, they came to inform him, hoping to get a reward. As soon as Li Heng heard that Wen Tianxiang was in Haifeng, he immediately killed the villain who caused harm to one party, and then he and Zhang Hongzheng went lightly, and immediately attacked Haifeng. It was raining heavily that day, the wind was cold and the road was slippery. Wen Tianxiang was leading the rebel army northward.After days of running around, the troops were very tired.In the afternoon, the sky was even darker and cloudy.Wen Tianxiang looked up at the sky, seeing that it was going to rain, he thought that the main force of the Yuan army was still by the sea, so he expected that we would not find our whereabouts so soon.So he ordered to build a meal, let the troops rest and continue on their way. The rebel army camped against the mountain, and the smoke from the cooking outside the camp was billowing, and several stove soldiers of the Song army were lighting a fire to cook.The flames under the stove were blazing, and the veteran who was burning the fire stared blankly and said nothing. A long wooden fire stick also caught fire because it had been left in the fire for too long.The old soldier pulled it out, knocked it a few times, and seeing that it couldn't be knocked out, he sighed and threw the whole thing in. Outside the camp, soldiers had already been lying all over the ground. Although the ground was wet, it was better than running around for days.Therefore, some people simply lay on the wet grass with their clothes on, and some chatted in small groups, just waiting for a quick and full meal. At this time, Zhang Hongzheng and Yan Qi led thousands of people, like a wild wolf that had found its way, hiding on the hilltop and watching the group of lambs waiting to be caught.dinner's ready!They ate on the ground, unaware that the danger was approaching step by step. Seeing that the time was ripe, Zhang Hongzheng stepped on his horse and ordered loudly: "Listen, the Song army is defenseless now. We divide into two groups and rush down the mountain to encircle first and then kill them, trying to capture Wen Tianxiang alive !" Before they could finish speaking, the crowd had leaped down the mountain, like a whirlwind, like a flood that burst a bank, sweeping across the entire camp of the rebel army in an instant. By the time the rebels discovered the Yuan army, it was already too late.It is impossible to break out of the encirclement again.They threw down their jobs in a hurry and wanted to draw their swords to stop them, but they were buried immediately by the huge momentum, and they had no power to fight back, and most of the rebels were killed. Seeing that there was no way out, Wen Tianxiang hurriedly took out the borneol he had always carried with him and committed suicide. However, due to the long-term storage, the effect of the medicine lost, and Wen Tianxiang failed to commit suicide.Song General Zou Yan was strong and strong, and before the Yuan soldiers approached him, he killed himself with a saber. Liu Zijun was also captured by another Yuan army nearby. He yelled loudly, claiming to be Wen Tianxiang, hoping to delay the troops, and wanted Wen Tianxiang to have a chance to escape again.As a result, the two Yuan armies arrested two "Wen Tianxiang" and "met each other on the road, each competing for authenticity", both insisting that they were "Wen Tianxiang".General Yuan summoned some prisoners of the Song army, questioned and killed them, and finally learned the real Wen Tianxiang they were trying to capture. Wen Tianxiang was escorted to Chaoyang to meet Zhang Hongfan.Yuan soldiers scolded and worshiped, but Wen Tianxiang was unyielding.Zhang Hongfan admired such a dignified man from the bottom of his heart, and exclaimed: "A true loyal man!" He personally stepped forward to untie Wen Tianxiang and treated him as a guest.Wen Tianxiang only wanted to die, but Zhang Hongfan refused.So he ordered people to arrest him on the military ship, eat and drink well, and guard him strictly. When Zhang Hongfan's fleet passed through Lingdingyang outside the Pearl River Estuary, Wen Tianxiang was moved by the scene and couldn't help feeling a lot of emotions. Thinking of his four-year struggle against the Yuan Dynasty and the great pain of the country's destruction and family destruction, Wen Tianxiang felt sad and wrote angrily. I wrote the poem "Crossing the Lingding Ocean", which is full of righteousness and righteousness through Changhong: After a hard encounter, there are few stars around. The mountains and rivers are broken and the wind is blowing, and the life experience is ups and downs and the rain beats the flats. Anxious beachheads say fear, and sigh alone in the ocean. Since ancient times, who has never died?Keep the loyal heart to reflect the history. Wen Tianxiang was defeated.This defeat, on the one hand, was due to the lack of preparation and training of the rebel army, which could not compete with the powerful Mongolian field troops; more importantly, Zhang Hongfan adopted a strategy of fast interspersed and unexpected, which caught Wen Tianxiang by surprise, and eventually led to the defeat.Bing is precious and fast, and it should be valued by people at any time.