Chapter 19 Zong Ze is getting old

In December of the first year of Jianyan (1127), in order to completely destroy the Southern Song Dynasty under reconstruction, the Jin people once again divided their troops into three groups and invaded southward: Nianhan, the left deputy marshal, was in charge of leading the Central Route Army from Yunzhong (now Datong, Shanxi), Crossed the Taihang Mountains, crossed the river from Heyang (now Mengzhou, Henan) and arrived in Henan; the right deputy marshal Eriduo and Wushu were in charge of leading the East Route Army from Yanshan Mansion, crossed the river from Cangzhou, and attacked Shandong; He led the West Route Army, crossed the river from the south of Shanxi Province, and attacked the Guanzhong area via Tongzhou (now Dali, Shaanxi).

Among the three-way army, the main force is Nianhan's middle-way army, and the main target is still Tokyo. Nianhan crossed the Yellow River and went south from Luoyang to attack the Han River Basin. He conquered Ruzhou (now Linru, Henan), Dengzhou (now Dengxian, Henan), Xiangyang (now Xiangyang, Hubei), and Junzhou (now Hubei, Hubei). Junxian), Fangzhou (now Fangxian, Hubei), Tangzhou (now Tanghe, Henan), Caizhou (now Runan, Henan), Chenzhou (now Huaiyang County, Henan), Yingchangfu (now Xuchang, Henan) and other large Some state capitals. On the 15th day of the first lunar month in the second year of Jianyan (1128), the forwards of Jin Bing invaded Zhengzhou to the east and arrived at Baisha Town outside Tokyo.

The distance between Baisha Town and Tokyo is only a few tens of miles. When the news came, the inside and outside of Tokyo were inexplicably terrified.All the generals went to Zongze's mansion together to ask him about the countermeasures. Zongze was playing Go with his friends, calmly, and said with a smile: "Everyone, don't be nervous, the Jin people are killing themselves." "In the eyes of the situation, in the heart of the strategy, walk slowly and calmly." (Zong Ze's poem "Early Hair") Since Zongze entered Tokyo, he "built the city, ruled the buildings and sculls", "united with all the armies and militias available" to guard the capital, built more than 1,200 decisive chariots, and built 24 war chariots according to the terrain. There is a camp outside the city, and the scales along the river are called Lianzhu, which is called Lianzhu village, with tens of thousands of troops.Within 72 miles of Linhe in Gyeonggi, 16 county militia groups were placed to guard separately. Moats were dug outside the county towns, more than ten feet deep, and antlers were planted in Hanoi.

At night, Zong Ze "selected thousands of elites" and attacked Baisha Town at night, and the Jinren's forward team was defeated. On the second day of February, when Nianhan heard that the forward had been defeated, he was furious and sent troops to rush towards Tokyo.When the soldiers arrived in Huazhou, they sent a Jin general surnamed Shi with a letter to Tokyo City to surrender to Zongze. Zong Ze asked the soldiers to put down the ropes and let the general Jin go up to the top of the wall. What was written in the letter?Seeing that General Jin handed over the letter, everyone involuntarily approached Zongze, wanting to know the surrender conditions stated in the letter.

Unexpectedly, Zong Ze took the letter, didn't even read it, fell to the ground, pointed at him and cursed: "I was ordered to defend the city, but I swear to defend the city to the death. You are a general, and you don't dare to fight on the battlefield!" Start a life-and-death contest with me, write this kind of childish private words to lure me, how bold! Come on, push out and kill me, the leader of the city." Zong Ze's act of destroying the book and beheading the emissary greatly inspired the soldiers of the capital. From the 10th day of February, the two sides launched rounds of fierce offensive and defensive battles in Huazhou and Tangzhou. On the 17th day of February, Nianhan's spirit was completely frustrated and he had to retreat in despair.

A war of aggression with loud noises and little rain has finally come to an end. In just a few months when Zongze "repeatedly dispatched troops to defeat the enemy" in Tokyo, Wang Yan had gathered tens of thousands of troops in Taihang Mountain. In April of this year, Wang Yanda ruled the army, and made an appointment with Zongze to launch a large-scale northern expedition in June, and declared that he would personally take charge of recovering Taiyuan. Zong Ze carefully analyzed the enemy's situation and thought that "the enemy's strength is too weak to enter the army", so he separately contacted the militiamen in the villages and water villages of various roads, agreed on the date of dispatching troops, and then gave Zhao Gou a form to report the plan of advancing troops in detail, and encouraged Zhao Goudao : "The two hijacked emperors have a chance to go home, and Henan and Hebei can be recovered. Your Majesty, your contribution to rejuvenating the Great Song Dynasty is greater than that of King Zhou Xuan. Please issue an edict to return to Tokyo as soon as possible, so as to stabilize the hearts of the people in the world. Veteran Willing to risk the enemy's flint and arrows, and take the lead." ("The second sage has a time to return to Luan, and the two rivers can be safely connected. Your Majesty's contribution to rejuvenation far exceeds that of Zhou Xuanzhi. May your Majesty send back the edict of Luan as soon as possible, so that It is the heart of the world. The minister should bow down and risk the stone, and be the first of the generals.")

It's a pity that such a letter full of loyalty and pride spread to Nanjing, and Huang Qianshan and his like were "frustrated from it" and persuaded Zhao Gou not to pay too much attention to it. Zong Ze still persevered in submitting a form to Zhao Gou. The content of the form was various, such as encouraging, encouraging, motivating, appealing, admonishing, pleading, or begging...but there was only one theme: request Zhao Gou returned to Tokyo. In the twenty-first memorial, Zong Ze actually wrote: "The walls of the capital city have been strengthened, the towers and oars have been repaired, the Longhao has been dredged, the equipment has been fully prepared, the gates have been lined up, and the battle formations have been completed." It has been studied, and the popularity has become brave. The Bian River, Cai River, and Wuzhang River have all flowed through to meet the general movement. The enemies in Shaanxi, Jingdong, Huatai, and Jingluo North have all been concealed, defeated, and fled..."

Before and after, Zong Ze made a total of twenty-four times to invite the emperor to return to Beijing, and his words were very sharp, but they all fell like mud and cows, and there was no response. Zhao Gou disassembled Zongze's memorabilia, and together with Huang Qianshan and others, commented, "Everyone laughed like crazy", made fun of Zongze's mental disorder, and talked in his sleep in broad daylight. Finally, Zong Ze fell ill. Zong Ze looked up to the sky and sighed in the sick bed: "I can't stretch my will!" He became sick from worry and anger, a malignant sore grew on his back, and he was gradually bedridden.

The generals took turns visiting the house, and Zong Ze said angrily, "I didn't have any serious illness at first, but because of the dust of the Second Emperor, my anger was getting worse. As long as you can wipe out powerful enemies for me and take back my homeland, I will die without regret! ("I have been dusted by the two emperors, and my anger has accumulated to this point. If you can wipe out the enemy, I will die without hatred.") When everyone heard this, they all shed tears and replied one after another: "We will serve the country with all our loyalty." ("Don't dare to try our best!")

When the crowd dispersed, Zong Ze said to his family: "Oh, I will never get better from this illness. Du Fu's poem, "Death before leaving the teacher, will make the hero burst into tears." This is exactly the portrayal of my heart now. !" On the night of the first day of July in the second year of Jianyan (1128), "the wind and rain were dark and dark, which was different from ordinary days."Zong Ze's condition deteriorated, "he didn't have a single word for home", he repeatedly called "cross the river", vomited blood and died. When the news of the death came out, "everyone mourned for it, and there were no virtuous and foolish people in the government and the public, and they all cried out for each other."As the most admired young general by Zongze, Yue Fei was undoubtedly the most distressed one.

In the short time that Zongze served under Zongze's subordinates, Zongze's fierce ambition to regain Yandi, his strategy of connecting with Heshuo, his attitude of strictly governing the army, his benevolence to the people, and his strict self-discipline... all of them were branded in Yue Fei's heart. Made a deep imprint. So much so that in the next ten years of his career as an official, Zong Ze's shadow flashed in Yue Fei's behavior. After Zongze passed away, Zhao Gou ordered Beijing to stay behind, Hebei East Road Zhizhishe to serve as a privy direct bachelor, and served as Kaifeng Yin, Tokyo to stay behind, and stationed in Tokyo. Du Chong, courtesy name Gongmei, is a native of Anyang, Xiangzhou, and Yue Fei is half a fellow. "Happy to fame, cruel, easy to kill, but short of strategy." During the Jingkang period, he served as the magistrate of Cangzhou. Because of the southern invasion of the Jin people, thousands of Cangzhou people living in the former Liao Kingdom fled back to their hometowns from the north. Worried that these people would become the internal support of the Jin people, they "killed no one" and killed them all, leaving no one behind.It can be described as cruel and merciless, as poisonous as a snake and a scorpion. Du Chong was appointed as the left-behind in Tokyo this time because Zhao Gou believed that he had prestige and could be entrusted with important affairs. At the same time, Lu Yihao, Zhang Jun and others in the court also strongly recommended him. It's a pity that Du Chong "has no intention of recovering". When he arrived in Tokyo, many measures were taken against Zongze's way. Zong Ze stayed behind for Tokyo, summoned a group of bandits, gathered troops to store food, joined forces with righteous soldiers from all walks of life, and formed Yan Zhao heroes.However, Du Chong was "no long-term plan" and "cool and unplanned", and he "was useless" to the heroes of the two rivers who joined him. , "The soldiers under the city will return to be bandits." The prefectures and counties in the southwest of Tokyo were in chaos for a while, and bandits rose in droves, burning, killing, looting, and doing everything.Even Yang Jin, the "hornless bull" who served as the commander and defense envoy of Rongzhou, rebelled and led tens of thousands of soldiers under him to besiege Luoyang westward. It was said at the time: "If this lake is gone, the land of Tokyo cannot be defended. If Zongze is here, the robbers can be used as soldiers. If Du Chong uses it, all the soldiers will be robbers. We can know the world's affairs!" Although Du Chong's approach is different from Zongze's, there is one thing that he and Zongze are surprisingly consistent with. That is - appreciate Yue Fei like Zong Ze. He had already heard about Yue Fei's bravery, and he wholeheartedly wanted to take Yue Fei as his confidant and beloved general, and he did not hesitate to promise high officials and generous salary, and tried his best to buy him. But Yue Fei is not in Tokyo, he is in Luoyang under the order of Zongze. Luoyang, which was burnt and plundered by the Jin army, is basically devoid of people. The ordinary alleys of yesterday are full of bones, and the once prosperous streets are full of ruins.Because there were few soldiers and it was difficult to defend, Yue Fei pulled his team to Zhuludu in the east of Sishui County and set up camp, and repelled the Jin people's attack by surprise many times. Du Chong didn't care about the survival of Luoyang. With a warrant, he transferred Yue Fei back to Tokyo and promoted him to the highest rank of deputy envoys of the various divisions - Wu Gonglang. The Jin people heard that Zongze was dead, and went south again. Among them, Lou Shibojin attacked Shaanxi, Ni Chuhe stayed in Taiyuan, and Yeluyi stayed in Yunzhong.Nianhan led the main force in the southern expedition and gathered his troops in Liyangjin (now Liyang Town, Jun County, Henan Province). Nianhan came rapidly. In mid-October, he captured Chanzhou (now Puyang County, Henan), and led his troops to join forces with Eriduo at the foot of Puzhou (now north of Zhencheng, Shandong). In just one month, Kaide Mansion and Daming Fu, Xiangzhou, Dezhou (now Shandong Ling County), Zizhou (now Shandong Zibo City), Dongping Mansion (now Shandong Dongping County), Jinan Mansion and other important towns. When the news reached Tokyo, the whole court was shocked. Regardless of the dissuasion of Yue Fei and others, Du Chong frantically ordered Li Gudu in the southwest of Huazhou to open the embankment of the Yellow River, changing the course of the Yellow River, in order to stop the Jinren's cavalry. The river flooded, the turbid waves rolled, and the Yellow River changed its course to flow into the Huai River. The homes of the people on Jingdong Road became a vast ocean, and the wailing and crying of the people resounded through the world. Although the man-made floods temporarily stopped the progress of the Jinren, the atmosphere of terror created by Du Chong became more and more intense. In Tokyo, everyone is in danger.