Chapter 9 third quarter

Zhong Shiheng was unlucky, because he left the west when he had just won the title of Zhongjiajun in the Northwest, and he was not able to enjoy the glory of becoming a general like Di Qing, but he was lucky, fortunately he There are several good sons who took over his command whip in the northwest and firmly planted the banner of the Zhongjia Army in the northwest. Zhong Shiheng's three sons, Zhong Gu, Zhong Dian, and Zhong Er, had never left the land of Northwest China, and they were called "Three Kinds of Northwest" at that time. The ideal of the eldest son Zhong Gu was not to be an outstanding general when he was young, but he yearned for the hermit life that his uncle Zhong Fang lived in Zhongnan Mountain before his development. Xiao Yinjun".

After Zhong Shiheng's death, Zhong Gu gave up his ideals and devoted himself to the Northwest, becoming a member of the Zhong Family General. At first he served as Tianxing Wei, and later served as Yuanzhou, Ningzhou, Zhenrongjun, Yanzhou, and Xi Military and political chiefs of states and other places.His greatest political achievement was the construction of Zhenrong City during his tenure, and he and his younger brother Zongjian attacked the Qiang people in Huanzhou. The second son, Zhongzhen, also knew Huanzhou and Zhenrong successively, and attacked the Qiang people together with his brother Zhonggui.

The youngest son, Zhong Er, is the leader of the second generation of Zhong Family Army. After Zhong Shiheng died, his masterpiece, Qingjian City, was handed over to Zhong Er. Zhong Er is destined not to be a law-abiding person, and he is not satisfied with living his life under the glory of his parents. He wanted the military circles of the Northern Song Dynasty to remember the name Zhong Er, not just because he was the son of the famous general Zhong Shiheng. In the fourth year of Zhiping (1067 A.D.), the sixth emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Shenzong Zhao Xu, ascended the throne. This young emperor full of ideals and passion only had four words in his mind - rich country and strong army.

Obviously, he didn't want to follow the path of his father's and grandparents', exchanging money for peace with Khitan and party members and Yan Cimei. The young emperor needs to do a lot of things, he needs encouragement and confidence. At this time, Zhong Jing gave him a city, Suizhou occupied by Xixia people. The conquest of Suizhou can be described as full of twists and turns. In the fourth year of Zhiping, Zhong Er, who was guarding Qingjian City, welcomed an unexpected guest, Yishan, the younger brother of Wei Mingshan, the guard of Suizhou City in Xixia. Yishan said that the leader of the Western Xia Dynasty, Liangjue, was sickly, and that the country was dominated by Empress Liang, and my brother didn't want to do anything for Liangjue and that old woman anymore, and he wanted to surrender to the people of Song Dynasty.

Although this was somewhat similar to the three idiots sent by the Yeli Brothers to feign surrender more than 20 years ago, Zhong Er made the correct judgment based on his intuition and experience, and gave Yishan a lot of money to return to Suizhou City to do mobilization work. At the same time, the situation was reported to the court as soon as possible. The response from the above was very indifferent, from his immediate superior, Yanzhou Zhizhou Lu Shen, to those important officials in the court, they were not interested in Xuzhou City.Lu Shen said that if Wei Mingshan really wanted to surrender, he would lead his troops to fight with the compatriots in the country (really treating others as pigs), otherwise he would bring his troops back, who knows if he really surrendered or pretended to surrender, Suizhou City may be A trap set by party members.Lu Shen was well aware of Zhong Er's temperament, and repeatedly advised Zhong Er not to act rashly on orders that were not above him.Wen Yanbo, Sima Guang and others strongly opposed it. Sima Guang said that if the party members from the west did not come to cause trouble, we would be Amitabha. How could we take the initiative to provoke trouble?With the side affairs together, the military generals in the frontier fortress will benefit, not the country itself. The empire does not want to have another military general who joins the cabinet to pay homage to the prime minister.

All the opposing voices paled in front of the new emperor Zhao Xu. This plan became the military topic that attracted Zhao Xu the most in the four years of Zhiping. Wei famous mountain.Those old guys in the court objected, so they would not go through them. From Zhong Er to Shaanxi Transit Department Xue Xiang to Emperor Shenzong himself, the three formed a single-line connection. With the strong support of the emperor, Zhong Er began to boldly implement his surrender plan. But after waiting for a long time to see the "good news" from Yishan, although Wei Mingshan has lowered his mind, he is still undecided.

As the current situation changed, Zhong Jing decided not to wait any longer. He made a bold decision: to surprise Suizhou and make an emergency landing on Weiming Mountain. Wei Mingshan did not expect that the Northern Song Dynasty would suddenly launch an attack, and Yishan and other people who were bribed served as internal support, so the military operation went smoothly.Wei Mingshan did not resist, and surrendered to the Song people.Zhong Er received three hundred leaders, fifteen thousand households, more than ten thousand soldiers, and more than one hundred thousand livestock, which shocked the government and the public for a while.

When the Xixia people heard that Suizhou had fallen, they sent 40,000 troops to seize it, but they were all beaten back by Zhong Er. Soon, Zhong Er built a strong city in Suizhou. The recovery of Suizhou made Zhao Xu overjoyed, which further strengthened his strategy of governing the country by making the country rich and the army strong.In terms of the overall strategy for Xixia, Zhao Xu accepted the two strategic policies for Xixia and Xixia proposed by Zhong Er, Xue Xiang, Wang Shao and others, and changed from passive defense to active attack. Such a plan to surrender to Suizhou became a key turning point in the history of Song and Xia warfare.

In the sixth year of Xining (AD 1073), Song Shenzong sent General Wang Shao to the Xihe area to recover the six prefectures of Xihe in one fell swoop, realizing the strategic goal of opening Xihe. In the fourth year of Yuanfeng (AD 1081), Bingchang, the ruler of Xixia, was imprisoned by the Queen Mother Liang, and the country was in chaos. After more than ten years of reforms, the economic and military strength of the Northern Song Empire gradually increased. It's time to settle accounts with the Xixia people, so they sent 300,000 troops to attack Xia on a large scale. The Western Expeditionary Army was divided into five groups. Zhong Er, who was then the Deputy Envoy of Fuyan Jinglue Appeasement, was the commander of the second army and led a total of 93,000 soldiers of 54,000 Fuyan Army and 39,000 Forbidden Army.

Yuanfeng's Western Expedition was massive, but it failed to achieve the result that Zhao Xu wanted to solve the Northwest frontier crisis in one fell swoop. Later generations mentioned that this war was also described as the disastrous defeat of the Northern Song Dynasty. Compared with the futile efforts of the other armies, Zhong Er's performance was amazing. The Zhong family army set out from Suide and won the first battle, beheading thousands of Xia soldiers.Then Zhong Er went straight to Mizhi City, where he besieged but did not attack. He has been waiting, waiting for reinforcements from the Xixia people.

Three days later, Xixia soldiers arrived, with 80,000 cavalry, and the formation was very scary. The most intense war with the largest number of participants in the history of the Song and Xia Wars was waged under the city of Mizhi.As a result, Zhong's army defeated Xia's army in Mizhi Village, beheaded 8,000 soldiers, and conquered Mizhi Village. Afterwards, the Zhong family's army was like a broken bamboo, and successively conquered Yinzhou, Xiazhou, Shizhou, Yanzhou and other places. Zhong Jiajun's footsteps finally stopped in Yanzhou. Why stop?Isn't Lingzhou the goal of the Fifth Route Army's westward expedition? First, the progress of the Zhong family army was too fast, and the other armies could not keep up with his pace; second, he was only attacking from the side. Zhongzheng - a eunuch.The main task is not for him to complete. There are many things outside the battlefield that cannot be decided. Although no Xixia troops dared to fight against Zhong's army, Zhong Er waited in Yanzhou for his real enemies of this western expedition-the severe cold in the northwest and the lack of food supplies. In the end, the army was defeated in the face of severe cold and famine.First of all, the more than 30,000 forbidden troops who were not directly descended could not stand the hunger and cold and fled and collapsed, so they had no choice but to return to the army. The Western Expeditionary Army was defeated, but the Zhongjia Army was not defeated. Zhao Xu didn't need to be greatly stimulated by the results of Yuanfeng's Western Expedition. Although he failed to pacify Xixia in one fell swoop, through this battle, the kinder Second Route Army regained the Yin, Xia, and Shi states in one fell swoop, and half of the Hengshan area returned. It was owned by the Song people, and the Zhong family army could not find any opponents in the northwest, which completely eliminated the Song people's fear of the Xixia people and dealt a serious blow to the Xixia people. In the early years of the Shenzong Dynasty, the two major strategies of opening the Xihe River and capturing Hengshan were basically realized. The next thing to do is how to consolidate these two bases. Regarding the management of the Hengshan area, Zhong Er put forward his own ideas to Zhao Xu. He believed that fortresses should be built in strategic locations in Xiazhou, Wuyan, Xingzhou, and Yanzhou to gradually erode the Xixia people. Zhao Xu was very interested in this suggestion. Since he couldn't eat a fat man like Xixia in one bite, it is undoubtedly the best choice to eat away gradually. The emperor sent a special person to inspect the northwest. That person was called Xu Xi. After Xu Xi went back for inspection, the imperial court quickly approved the project of building a military fortress in the Hengshan area in the northwest.But after getting the approval letter for the project construction, Zhong Er thought his eyes were blurred—his original suggestion was to build forts and villages in Xiazhou, Wuyan, Xingzhou and other places, but why did he suddenly turn into only building a large frontier Yongle City? up? Xu Xi said that it would be too troublesome to build many cities, so it is better to build a large fort in Yonglechuan at the junction of Yin, Xia, and Youzhou, and become the base of Hengshan Northern Song Army. Zhong Jing said that Yonglechuan cannot be selected as the site for construction, because there is no water source here. Xu Xi said that it is not easy, there is water nearby. When a soldier of sorts met a scholar (in fact, Xu Xi was not a scientific researcher, and there were many civil servants in the Northern Song Dynasty, I don’t know how such a character popped up beside Emperor Shenzong), he couldn’t explain it clearly. His protest was invalid, so he turned his eyes. It was placed on Shen Kuo, who was then the appeasement envoy of Jinglue on Yanyan Road-the number one scientific expert in the Northern Song Dynasty who knew astronomy and geography at the top. He would not be ignorant of the fatal injuries of the construction of the Yonglechuan Fort, especially the water source. But Shen Kuo remained silent. Numerous facts have proved that this scientific giant is just a political villain and dwarf.In the face of power, the only thing he will do is to remain silent, and he will only do one thing when he opens his mouth - to stab people in the back (comrade Su Dongpo has a deep understanding of this). The project was in full swing, and one hundred thousand civilians completed this huge project in only 30 days.After the project was completed, the Xixia people also came. The 300,000 army besieged 30,000 Yanyan troops and 100,000 civilians in Yongle City, cutting off the water source. Li Xian and Shen Kuo sent troops to relieve the siege, but the death of thirst in the city was far more than that of the battle.Xu Xi died in battle, the city was destroyed, and the Xixia people massacred the city. None of the 130,000 soldiers and civilians of Yongle City was spared. What are you doing now?Since the construction of Yongle City, he has always maintained a non-violent and non-cooperative attitude towards Xu Shen and others, and was sent by Xu Xi to guard Yanzhou.According to historical records, after Zhao Xu received the news that Yongle City was besieged, he urgently ordered all the armies in the northwest to rush to rescue Yongle City, but Zhong Er, who was very close to Yongle City, refused to carry out the order. Can Zhong Er still execute military orders?Most of the main force of his family army was taken away by Xu and Chen to defend Yongle City. Only a few old and weak soldiers were left in Yanzhou City. The support only meant that Yanzhou City became a snack for the party members.Zhong Er is a born realist. He would rather be punished by the court than be in the hands of the party. So the only thing he can do is to watch the Yanyan Legion, which his father and son painstakingly managed, be wiped out in Yongle City from the Yanzhou City Tower. . The defeat of Yongle City hit Shenzong Emperor Zhao Xu far more than Yuanfeng's Western Expedition. His dream of a rich country and a strong army was shattered, and he became depressed and tired of military affairs. Of course, Zhao Xu still had to deal with the people involved in the defeat of Yongle, Shen Kuo was relegated to the deputy training envoy of the Junzhou regiment, and the kind who refused to carry out the rescue mission. The valet told him calmly that Zhong Er was dead. How did you die?Of course it was mad. Chong Er's death method is not unique. Di Qing, his father's close comrade-in-arms and the number one general in the Northern Song Dynasty, also died in this way. According to historical records, it is called gangrene hair (but one is a mustache with gangrene, and the other is a back soldier with gangrene). And Zhong Er lived eight years longer than Di Qing - fifty-seven years old. Zhong Er's record in the Northwest was not inferior to that of his father, but later history books did not speak highly of him. A key assessment was that he was "good at making borderline quarrels."As for the few northwest frontier towns he had worked so hard to earn, Zhezong came to power not long after his death, and the Yuanyou party members headed by Sima Guang gained power, so they returned Mizhi and other villages to the friendly Xixia people ( The result was that the flattery was not patted on the horse's leg, and he was beaten up several times by the party members in those years). Zhong Puzi inherited his father's career and was also active in the Northwest battlefield. Together with Guo Cheng, he commanded the most brilliant victory over Xixia at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty - the Battle of Pingxia. Northwest was killed in the battle. The leaders of the third-generation Zhong family army are two nephews of Zhong Er, Zhong Shidao and Zhong Shizhong. In "Water Margin", it is said that the relationship between Lao Zhong Jinglue and Xiao Zhong Jinglue is a father-son relationship, which is a big mistake.Only Zhong Er and Zhong Shidao, Zhong Shizhong, Zhong Er, and Zhong Shidao, and Zhong Shizhong have done business strategy. They are uncles and nephews, not father and son, and Zhong Er did not live to the Xuanhe period.At that time, the old Zhong Jinglue should refer to Zhong Shidao, who had served as the conciliator of Jingyuan Road Jinglue;Lao Xiaozhong and Jinglue are brothers. Later, the Jin people invaded, and the two brothers became the giant pillars of the Northern Song Empire, dedicating their last blood to save the empire (see the following article for details on the way of cultivating the master and the deeds of the cultivating master). The Chong family managed the Northwest for the Northern Song Dynasty for three generations, and made great achievements in battle. As the soul and banner of the Northwest Army of the Northern Song Dynasty, it has long been transformed into a legend that the Northern Song Dynasty is not old.