Chapter 10 Shoot yourself in the foot

In the second year of Xuanhe (1120), Song and Jin officially signed the so-called "Sea Alliance". According to the covenant, Song should send troops to the north in 1121 to attack the Liao Kingdom with the Jin people, but until 1122, the Song army still did not see any movement. Hey, what's going on here?The golden man was puzzled. The reason is actually very simple, Song's backyard caught fire. In the year when the covenant was signed, Fangla riots broke out in the south of the Yangtze River. Zhao Ji was forced to send his troops to Muzhou (now Jiande, Zhejiang). This time, most of the elite troops in the country were mobilized. It is said to be an army of two million. It is mainly composed of the border defense forces who have been fighting Xixia for many years on the Northwest battlefield. , so the court is full of confidence and determined to win.

The army marched northward in mighty force. When they arrived at Gaoyang Pass, Tong Guan, who led the troops this time, ordered the people to "lower the yellow list and the flag, expressing the intention of punishing the people and punishing crimes", and said: "If there are any heroes who can offer Yanjing, they will be granted Jiedu envoys." job." Under the intimidation of the Song army, the ever-victorious army stationed in Zhuozhou and Yizhou of the Liao Kingdom actually offered up the land of the two states and surrendered without a fight. The Ever-Victorious Army was the only remaining elite force after many battles between Liao and Jin. When they surrendered, the militiamen who stayed in Yanjing were newly recruited by the Liao Lord. They were all made up of hungry people near Yanjing, and they were pure mobs.This is another great news for Song Jun.

The situation does not seem to be generally good, but very good.It seems that there is only one step away from success. Zhao Ji was very excited, and kept sending people to urge the army to move quickly, striving to regain Yanjing as soon as possible. However, the dream is full and the reality is very skinny. The combat effectiveness of the Song army was really weak. In the battle of Yanjing, hundreds of thousands of people were defeated by five thousand Liao soldiers, and "soldiers trampled on the dead for more than a hundred miles." Regarding the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army, it has always been criticized by later generations.

There are many reasons for this, but one thing is recognized by everyone, that is, Taizu Zhao Kuangyin witnessed the rebellion of the Wufu of the Five Dynasties, and when the country was established, it implemented the policy of governing the country by using literature to control military affairs.He felt that when literati were in power, at most they were greedy for a little money, and when generals were in power, if they were a little careless, mutiny would occur and national security would be endangered, so he "released military power with a glass of wine." Removing the military power of generals can indeed effectively eliminate the phenomenon of power disputes and regime changes in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, but over time, the disadvantages of this measure have gradually become prominent.The status of generals is not high, and the literati are usually the supreme commanders when fighting. The literati don’t know soldiers, so they will command indiscriminately when fighting, but the generals will fight desperately in front of the two armies. If they win, the credit is the commander. If he is defeated, his life will be lost, which seriously hurts the enthusiasm of the military commander.

In addition, for two hundred years, the soldiers of the Song Dynasty and the Liao people had not achieved any great results in the war, and they were more or less psychologically timid. Someone shouted on the battlefield: "The soldiers of the Liao Dynasty are here!" The shadow deep in his heart was suddenly magnified, and in fear, he let go of his big feet and ran back for his life. In the fight for survival in the animal world, a tiger can chase dozens or even hundreds of bison and run away. This is not because the strength of more than a hundred bison is not as strong as that tiger, but because the bison is stronger than the tiger. With their innate mindset, when facing tigers, they only think of running for their lives, and have no thought of confrontation at all.

The Song army's fear of the Liao army is also similar to that of the bison. The Song army suffered heavy casualties, all military supplies were lost, and its vitality was severely injured, and it was no longer able to fight the Liao army. What to do next? Zhao Ji actually decided: invite Jin Guo to fight Yanjing. At this time, the Jin soldiers had already captured the Zhongjing and Xijing of the Liao Kingdom in accordance with the covenant. The troops were stationed along the Songting Pass (now moved to Xifengkou in the northwest) and Gubeikou, watching the fire from the other side, and watching the Song army fulfill the agreement to capture Yanjing.

After receiving Zhao Ji's request for help, Wanyan Aguda was very angry and funny. What was so angry was that the time for the Song Army's dispatch of troops had been delayed by a full three years and eight months compared to the time agreed in the agreement!The funny thing is that Song Jun is all made of glass, which will shatter when touched, and is vulnerable to a single blow. In spite of contempt, Wanyan Aguda gathered his troops and passed Juyongguan all the way, heading straight for Yanjing. Facing the mighty soldiers of the Jin Kingdom, the monarchs and ministers of the Liao Kingdom struggled a little, and then surrendered from the city.

So far, Song and Jin's plan to destroy Liao has been accomplished, and the two sides returned to the negotiating table to share the spoils. The Jin people accused the Song Dynasty of failing to dispatch troops on time, and at the same time accused the Song army of failing to capture Yanjing and refused to fulfill the distribution plan in the contract. After several months of hard work by Ma Zhi and his party, Jin finally came up with a new distribution plan: Ping, Luan, and Ying prefectures did not belong to the land ceded by Shi Jingtang at the beginning, so they were not included in the return, and Xijing could not be returned. The seven prefectures of Yan, Ji, Tan, Jing, Shun, Zhuo, and Yi in the east of the Taihang Mountains can be handed over to the Song Dynasty, but the land will not be returned to the people. Not only will Jin take away all the population of Yan, but every year the Song Dynasty has to go to the Jin Dynasty. Pay a land use tax of one million taels, 200,000 taels of year-old coins and 200,000 bolts of silk and satin as stipulated in the contract, and the labor fee for Jin Bangsong to conquer Yanjing must also be converted into 200,000 shi of grain and paid in one go.

Zhao Ji, who suffered from "big head syndrome", felt that as long as he regained Yanjing, it would be a miracle, and he promised without blinking his eyes. The seven prefectures that the Jin Kingdom promised to return were actually only five prefectures, because Zhuozhou and Yizhou were donated by the ever-victorious army of the Liao State as early as the previous year.On the day of the delivery of the five states, the Jin army took away all the gold and silver treasures, books and classics, and all the residents of Yandi, leaving an empty city for Song Dynasty. Zhao Ji didn't take it seriously, and declared an amnesty for the whole country, the whole country carnival, and made meritorious officials, among which Ma Zhi was awarded the title of Bachelor of Jinkang Palace.He also ordered people to engrave the "Fuyanyun Monument" on Longevity Mountain to show off his achievements.