Chapter 12 Stormy Tokyo City

In the first year of Jingkang (1126), inside and outside the city of Tokyo, there were many swords and guns, and the banners were vibrating. In November, the two armies of Jin and Bing had surrounded the city of Tokyo. Zhao Heng repeated his old tricks and prepared to pay money to sell the country and seek peace. Who should I send to convey my intention of seeking peace to Wulibu? After much deliberation, Zhao Heng finally entrusted this "glorious" mission to his ninth younger brother Kang Wang Zhaogou. Zhao Gou, courtesy name Deji, was the ninth son of Zhao Ji, Emperor Huizong of Song Dynasty.

Although Zhao Gou is an expensive prince, his blood is very "humble"-his mother, Wei Shi, was once a maidservant in the home of Su Song, the prime minister of the Zhezong Dynasty. Perhaps because of his humble background, Zhao Gou had high demands on himself at a young age. It is said in history that he "learned and memorized, and read more than a thousand words every day", and he was good at calligraphy. Lu You called him, "Understand the Eight Laws wonderfully, and pay attention to the ancient elegance." Tao Zongyi of the Ming Dynasty said: "Gao Zong is good at truth, practice, and cursive script. God favors his ability, and all of them are wonderful." "Five buckets", hold two bags of rice with both arms horizontally every day, each weighing a dendrobium (about 110 catties), "walking hundreds of steps, everyone is shocked".It can be seen that he is very eager to stand out among the many brothers and attract the attention of his father.

For the first time when the Jin soldiers besieged Tokyo, Zhao Heng proposed to send a prince to the Jinying to negotiate a peace. Zhao Gou, who was determined to get out of the position, "advance more and more, please do it generously", behaved very actively, and patted his chest to the emperor's brother. Said, "If the imperial court has advantages, it will not care about a prince", which moved Zhao Heng to tears. Because of this, now Zhao Heng thought of him again, and entrusted him with the important task of seeking peace from the Jinren. Zhao Heng didn't know at all that Zhao Gou was actually a coward and a coward. The last time he acted like a hero on a whim and in a daze, when he arrived at Jinying, he was quickly frightened by the murderous aura inside and returned to his original shape. He was scared out of his wits by Jin Bing.

It turns out that it is not easy to be a hero, whoever loves to be the next time should go! After escaping from Jinying, Zhao Gou was so regretful that his intestines were green. This time, Zhao Heng appointed him as the "envoy of peace" to go to Jinying for the second time. The situation became more and more urgent, Zhao Heng stern words, and repeated urging, as a last resort, Zhao Gou reluctantly left Tokyo, accompanied by Wang Yun, a scholar of Yihe Zizhengdian, Geng Yanxi from Zhongshushe, and the governor of Kangwangfu. Kang Lu et al. This time, Zhao Gou "has been ordered to make peace, and has made a plan to hide", and he is already ready to escape.Facing difficulties and dangers, he came up with a unique strategy: playing missing.A stream of smoke slipped to Xiangzhou.

Zhao Gou disappeared, and Zhao Heng's fantasy of betraying the country and seeking peace was completely shattered. He had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight against the Jinren. But the Jinren did enough homework this time, the military situation in Tokyo became more and more urgent, and King Qin had fewer and fewer troops. Zhao Heng was helpless, and in desperation, he had no choice but to forgive Zhao Gou for running away, and pinned his hope of saving himself on Zhao Gou.He ordered people to leave the city with a secret letter of wax pills, found Zhao Gou, appointed him as the general of the world's soldiers and horses, and asked him to quickly assemble and incorporate troops from Hebei and Hedong to aid Tokyo.

Zhao Gou was quite surprised: instead of being blamed for running away, he became the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses!Run away this time and earn a lot of money! ——Of course, this Generalissimo of Soldiers and Horses is not allowed to go to battle, those jobs are done by his subordinates. Relying on this wax pill secret letter, Zhao Gou quickly recruited a large group of men to fight for him.Among them are Chen Cui, the prefect of Zhongshan, Zongze, the magistrate of Cizhou (now Cixian County, Handan, Hebei), and Liu Hao, Yue Fei's boss. At the beginning of December, when Tokyo was in an emergency, Zhao Gou ordered Liu Hao to lead the army first, claiming that his army would arrive later. Driving into Junzhou (now northwest of Junxian County, Henan Province), but received news that Zhao Gou and Wang Boyan arrived at Daming Mansion (now east of Daming County, Hebei Province) from Xiangzhou via Linzhang.

What is Zhao Gou doing? Everyone was surprised. In fact, rescuing Tokyo was just a smokescreen thrown by Zhao Gou. His real intention was to leave Kaide (now Puyang County, Henan Province) from Daming Mansion and escape to the south. Liu Hao felt that he was weak, so he had to withdraw from Junzhou, go to Daming Mansion, and follow Zhao Gou. When Liu Hao arrived in Daming, Zhao Gou and Wang Boyan had already gone to Jeju (now Juye County, Shandong) via Dongping Mansion (now Dongping County, Shandong), leaving only the deputy marshal Zongze who came from Cizhou. Zongze and Zhao Gou disagreed and insisted on sending troops to rescue Tokyo. Zhao Gou had no choice but to allocate 10,000 troops to Zongze's free dispatch. Liu Hao became Zongze's subordinate when he arrived in Daming, and Yue Fei became Zongze's subordinate because of this. Ze's general.

It was the first time the Jin people went south to attack Tokyo, and Zhao Heng had considered sending Zong Ze to the Jin camp to negotiate a peace. Zong Ze resignedly obeyed, and went home and told his family: "I will not survive this trip." ("It is possible to survive.") Everyone was stunned, and asked him why he made such a remark, Zongze explained: "I will go to the peace talks, reprimand the Jin people for breaking the contract first, and order them to retreat within a time limit, as long as they can accept it; if not, I naturally can't humiliate the emperor, then There is only one death to repay the country." ("The enemy can repent and retreat from the teacher to be good, otherwise he can humiliate the king's life by submitting to the North Court.")

This word reached Zhao Heng's ears, and Zhao Heng was startled and frightened, fearing that this stubborn old man would disrupt the peace agreement, he quickly canceled his mission to Jinying and appointed him as the prefect of Cizhou. The land of Heshuo was under the front of the Jinren's iron cavalry, and Cizhou was no exception. The officials who were assigned to Cizhou before all tried their best to shirk their excuses and refused to go. Although Zong Ze was a scholar who had never used a sword in his life, he had no fear in the face of a national calamity. He said solemnly, "I receive a national salary. Now that the country is in trouble, I must not escape." ) got on his horse, took a dozen old soldiers and servants, and headed resolutely.

Cizhou was ravaged under the iron hooves of the Jin people, "the people fled, and the money was empty." As soon as Zongze arrived, he "repaired the city wall, dredged the Huangchi, repaired the equipment, and recruited volunteers", making preparations for a long-term garrison.He wrote to Zhao Heng, saying: "The five states of Xing, Ming, Ci, Zhao, and Xiang each have 20,000 elite soldiers. If the enemy attacks one state, the other four states will respond accordingly. It can be said that each state has ten soldiers. The fighting power of ten thousand people." Zhao Heng praised his bravery and promoted him to be the chief of the Hebei Volunteer Capital.

The Jin people captured Zhending Mansion (now Zhengding County, Hebei Province) and planned to cross the Yellow River from Li Gu to capture Qingyuan Mansion in the south. However, they were worried that they would be attacked by Zongze from behind when they crossed the river, so they had to send thousands of cavalry before crossing the river. Attack Cizhou City. Zongze, who was nearly ancient, "climbed the city with armor", ordered the archers to shoot at the formation of the golden men with the bow of the gods, and then "opened the door and attacked", and harvested hundreds of heads. To reward the sergeant".Successfully shattered the Jin people's plan to cross the river from Li Gu. Zhao Gou built the Grand Marshal's Mansion in Xiangzhou, and Zong Ze responded to his order and rushed to the Daming Mansion to join him. However, Zhao Gou and Zongze disagreed, so he played a "golden cicada escape" in the Daming Mansion, allowing Zongze to go to Tokyo to serve as the king under his own banner, but he himself oiled the soles of his feet and led the main force of the army to escape to Dongping Mansion. "Saving people is like putting out a fire", Zong Ze had no time to argue with Zhao Gou, and immediately led the army to set off—from then on, Zong Ze was completely excluded from the Generalissimo Group. But it was also from this day that Zong Ze changed from a walk-on to a protagonist. In the first month of 1127, Zongze led his army into Kaide Mansion, and "all victories in thirteen battles". However, the situation in Tokyo at this time is not optimistic... As early as the leap November of 1126, the two armies of the Jin people had joined up as scheduled and attacked the city frantically. Although the Jin soldiers are attacking like a wave, Tokyo, as the capital of a country, has a tall and majestic city wall, which is extremely strong and will never fall down.After several months of fierce fighting, Jin Bing began to feel a little discouraged. However, Zhao Hengjun and his ministers failed to accurately grasp the subtle changes in the other party's emotions, and instead made a stupid decision-pin their hopes of retreating from the enemy on a man named Guo Jing. Guo Jing said that once he gathers 7,777 people and uses the "Liujia method", he will be able to capture the two chiefs of the Kingdom of Jin alive and wipe out all the golden soldiers and generals. Obviously, this bragging is big enough, it is simply a magic stick.But this magic stick is different from ordinary magic sticks.Ordinary magic sticks can at most fool aunts and aunts, and get a few vegetable money; Guo Dashen sticks are fooling emperors, generals, and military affairs. Thanks to Zhao Ji, Taoism is prevalent in the imperial court. Everyone believes in Guo Dashen's words. Zhao Heng named him Cheng Zhonglang, and then promoted him to Doctor Wu Yi. The privilege of recruiting soldiers allowed him to try to recruit 7,777 "Liujia Shenbing". The standard for a magic soldier is that those whose birthdays and horoscopes are in line with Liujia, regardless of ability or skill, regardless of height or disability.As a result, "the income is all floating in the market." The Jin people's offensive is getting more and more fierce. Guo Jing "talks and laughs freely", patted his chest and said: "When I choose a good day and send out three hundred soldiers, I can win a battle and drive the enemy to Yinshan before withdrawing." ("Choose a day to send 300 troops to bring peace, and attack until the Yinshan Mountains.") Under the fierce offensive of the Jin people, Zhao Heng repeatedly urged Guo Jing to retreat from the enemy, but Guo Jing was quite a general and remained unmoved. Unless it is extremely critical, my teacher will not come out.”) Finally came the date that Guo Jing said. On that day, there was a "big snowstorm". Guo Jing asked all the soldiers guarding the city to leave the top of the city and no peeping was allowed. Then he opened the Xuanhua Gate and went out of the city to meet the enemy. Guo Dashengun himself and Zhang Shuye, the head of the South Road who entered Jingqin King, sat on the tower to watch the battle. Seeing a group of soldiers with colorful clothes and strange shapes swarming out of the city, the Jin people immediately divided into four teams, screamed strangely, and swung their knives to kill them. It didn't take much effort, thousands of "Liujia Shenbing" were killed, and a few who survived fell into the moat and froze into popsicles after a while, and the soldiers guarding the city gate hurriedly closed the gate. Guo Jingqiang calmed down and said to Zhang Shuye who was next to him: "Don't worry, the manager. I will go down to the city to do the trick myself. I will definitely let the gold soldiers and gold generals be wiped out." After finishing speaking, he let the big rope go down to the city. When he got to the bottom of the city, he untied the rope, raised his head, made a face towards the city, and performed an escape technique. His legs ran fast, and the Taishang Laojun was in a hurry like a law.In the blink of an eye, he disappeared without a trace. Guo Jing slipped away, and there was no defense on the city. The Jin army set up a ladder and swarmed up the city. Soon the city of Tokyo was breached. Immediately, a large army of Jin soldiers rolled in, burning, killing and looting everywhere, raping women, and wantonly looting property. The formerly blooming Tokyo city was ravaged.