Chapter 55 second quarter

The three prefectures of Pingzhou (Lulong County, Hebei Province), Yingzhou (Changli County, Hebei Province), and Luanzhou (Luan County, Hebei Province) have always been the biggest controversy in the Song-Jin alliance peace talks. At the beginning, the people of the Northern Song Dynasty asked to unite with the Kingdom of Jin to attack the Liao Dynasty. At first, they demanded that Pingzhou, Yingzhou, and Luanzhou also belong to the Youyun area and should belong to the people of the Song Dynasty. The Jurchen refused straight away, saying that the three states had already belonged to Pingzhou Road and could not be given to Song people.

Later, when the two countries officially reached an alliance agreement, the three prefectures of Ping, Ying, and Luan were not included in the Youyun area, but were placed under the scope of the Song people. However, the people of the Northern Song Dynasty could not even win Yanjing. After the Jurchens "helped" the Song people take Yanjing, the sixteen prefectures had shrunk to six prefectures, not to mention Ping, Ying, and Luanzhou. The Song people did not give up, and repeatedly proposed to give the Jurchens more old coins to buy back Ping, Ying, and Luan, but the Jurchens did not agree.

The Jurchens in Pingzhou refused to give it to the Song people, but they never settled down. One Zhang Jue became a nail-biter there. Zhang Jue was a native of Yifeng, Pingzhou, and a Jinshi of the Liao Kingdom. When the Jin people invaded the Liao territory, he served as the deputy envoy of the Liao Xingjun (Yelü Dashi's deputy) and knew Pingzhou.When Yelu Dashi and others supported Yeluchun as emperor, he had 50,000 troops in Pingzhou, but Zhang Jue chose to defend himself with troops and wait and see the situation, instead of obeying Yeluchun's orders. Later, when the Jin soldiers entered Yan, Aguda sent someone to recruit Zhang Jue. Zhang Jue apparently agreed to surrender to the Jin people, but secretly he still accepted the Yan people's refugees and actively expanded his army to prepare for war.

The Jin people were going to use troops to attack Pingzhou, but Kang Gongbi, a surrendered minister of the Liao Kingdom, said that fighting would make Zhang Jue, who had no objection, rebel. He took the initiative to invite Ying to go to Pingzhou to find out the truth.The man came back after visiting Pingzhou, patted his chest and assured him that Zhang Jue was sincere in offering money.The Jurchens temporarily gave up their plan to attack Zhang Jue, renamed Pingzhou Nanjing, and named it as a left-behind matter under the Pingzhang Division of the Middle School of the Test. The army turned around to pursue Emperor Tianzuo, and temporarily did not deal with Zhang Jue, a hot potato.

When Jin Bing left, Zhang Jue became more courageous. He killed the former Liao Prime Minister Zuo Qigong (who had surrendered Jin) and others who came to take over Pingzhou, and openly opposed Jin. But Pingzhou is small, and Zhang Jue knew that with his own troops, he would definitely not be able to survive the Jin army in the future, so he thought of asking for help from the Song Dynasty and showing the Song people that he might bring Pingzhou and the army with him at any time. Fifty thousand troops defected to the Song people. After recovering Yanjing, great changes took place in the political arena of the empire.

Although Tong Guan was crowned king because of his achievements in recovering Youyun, in fact Zhao Ji was extremely dissatisfied with the performance of the Northwest King and his army in the Northern Affairs. After returning to Beijing, another eunuch Tan Zhen replaced him as the Hebei, Hedong, Yanshan Fulu Xuan Fu envoy, and Cai You replaced him as a privy envoy (it is also a kind of demotion to the deputy envoy Xiao Cai). Knowing that he was out of power, Tong Guan took the initiative to apply for retirement to his boss several times. Zhao Ji changed the name of the recovered Youyun Prefecture to Yanshan Mansion.At first, Wang Fu recommended his arch-rival Cai You to serve as the appeasement envoy of Yanshanfu Road. Xiao Cai knew that this was a mess and refused to let it go, so he recommended Wang Anzhong as the appeasement envoy of Yanshan Road.Zhao Ji agreed with Cai You's recommendation, and at the same time appointed Zhan Du as Xuanfu envoy, and Guo Yaoshi as Changsheng army Jiedu envoy.The three formed the main leadership team of Yanshan Road, but in fact, Guo Yaoshi controlled tens of thousands of ever-victorious troops, and all the military and political power of Yanshan Road was under his control.

Zhang Jue's flirtatious glances at Northern Song Dynasty, but whether he could accept or not, became Zhao Ji's troubles again. Zhao Liangsi, who has been to the Kingdom of Jin many times and has some knowledge of the military strength of the Kingdom of Jin, is the most resolute opponent.Zhao Liangsi said that Pingzhou was not within the scope of the Song-Jin agreement. If the Northern Song Dynasty accepted Zhang Jue's surrender rashly, the Jin State might break the agreement and go to war with the Song people. From Xuanfu envoy Tan Zhen to the two local officials on Yanshan Road, Wang Anzhong and Zhan Du, both agreed to accept Pingzhou. They believed that if Pingzhou was not accepted, Zhang Jue's forces would unite with the former Liao and Xiao cadres and Emperor Tianzuo in the west. , will pose a great threat to Yanshan Mansion, on the contrary, if Pingzhou can be won, even if the Jin people's soldiers suppress the border, the Changsheng Army on Yanshan Mansion Road and Zhang Jue's Pingzhou 100,000 army (false report) can also withstand the Jurchens attack.

Zhao Ji was a little moved, but still not sure, so he sent Tong Guan to investigate Yanshan Road again to see the current military strength of Guo Yaoshi in Yanshan. Tong Guan reported back from his investigation that Guo Yaoshi's ever-victorious army was very effective, and there was no problem in defending Yanshan Mansion. At this time, Zhao Minxiu, the former Liao vassal of Kang Yandian and a scholar of the Taiyi Palace, gave a memorial to Zhao Ji, saying that he had stayed in Pingzhou for a long time, and that the strategic location here was very important. If you want to protect Yanshan, you must win Pingzhou.

Zhao Minxiu's original name was Li Chuneng, and his father was Li Yan, the prime minister of the Liao Kingdom. After joining the Northern Song Dynasty, he was very appreciated by Zhao Ji, and he was given the surname Zhao.Zhao Minxiu has a good relationship with Wang Fu and Cai You, and both Wang and Cai support him in accepting Pingzhou's remarks. Zhao Ji's head became hot, and he forgot the disastrous military defeat of Song Jungang, and decided to accept Zhang Jue's surrender, and ordered Jianping Prefecture to be the Taining Army, with Zhang Jue as the Jiedu envoy, and Pingzhou hereditary.

When the people of the Song Dynasty were making small moves on Yanshanfu Road, major events also happened in the Kingdom of Jin. The leader of the Jurchens, the founding emperor Wanyan Aguda, died of a serious illness and died in the army. The Jurchens elected his younger brother Wanyan Wu to beg for succession The position is for Jin Taizong. For the younger and more passionate Wanyan Wu Qimai, the remnant Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao Kingdom could no longer satisfy his appetite, and the southerners who were wealthy but with low combat effectiveness were the next prey of the new emperor. They just need an excuse.

This excuse is Zhang Jue in Pingzhou. In April of the sixth year of Xuanhe (1124 A.D.), the general of the Jin Army and his mother led two thousand troops to pass through Pingzhou. Hearing that Zhang Jue was about to rebel, he stationed troops in Yingzhou and prepared to question Zhang Juexing.Zhang Jue took the initiative to lead his troops to attack, and his mother was defeated by Zhang Jue, so he led his troops to retreat to Yingzhou, and said cruelly that it is hot now, and I will settle the score with you in autumn. In the remaining half a year, the monarchs and ministers of the Northern Song Dynasty repeatedly considered whether to accept Zhang Jue in Pingzhou. When they made up their minds, the autumn that Hemu said came. In November of the sixth year of Xuanhe, the new emperor Wu Qimai sent Yan Zongwang (Han Libu) to attack Pingzhou, and the army approached Pingzhou.Wanyan Zongwang received a report from the spies that Zhang Jue led Pingzhou officials out of the city to meet the envoys of the Northern Song Dynasty in the suburbs, and formally surrendered to the Song people. Wanyan Zongwang would not miss such a good opportunity. He sent a thousand soldiers to attack and kill Zhang Jue who was in the suburbs.Zhang Jue was caught off guard by being killed, and was cut off from the way back to Pingzhou by the Jin army, so he ran to Yanshan Mansion in embarrassment to join Guo Yaoshi. The Jin army quickly occupied Yingzhou and besieged Pingzhou. Although the tens of thousands of soldiers in Pingzhou City did not have a leader, they still had a certain fighting capacity. Under the leadership of general Zhang Chungu, they resisted for half a year. After the battle against Zhang Jue, Yan Zongwang fought very well. More importantly, he got the edict to recruit Zhang Jue written by Zhao Ji from Zhang Qi, Zhang Jue's younger brother. The Jurchens questioned the people of the Song Dynasty, saying what do you mean? As soon as our old emperor left, you made small moves behind the back of the new emperor who had just ascended the throne. People in the Northern Song Dynasty failed to eat mutton, but instead caused a lot of trouble, and had no determination to turn against the Jurchen, so they could only lower their posture to be careful. At this time, the Jurchen didn't want to completely turn against the Song people. First, Pingzhou had not been conquered, and second, Emperor Tianzuo was still in the west.The Jurchens said that it is fine for me not to pursue the Zhang Jue incident. There are two conditions. One is to send Zhang Jue's head; It can be concluded that you have to provide the food and grass for the army. Zhao Ji agreed to the second request of the Jurchens and sent food to the Jurchens.With money and food from the people of the Song Dynasty, the always brave Jurchens who fought in Pingzhou began to slow down their work. It took half a year to beat them down, earning a lot of money and food from the people of the Northern Song Dynasty. But Zhao Ji didn't want to give Zhang Jue's head at first, and ordered Wang Anzhong not to hand it over. The Jurchen was in a hurry, but the superior refused to let him go. Wang Anzhong played a trick, found a man who looked exactly like Zhang Jue, beheaded and sent it to the Jurchen. It's a pity that the Jurchens are not so easy to fool. They quickly sent back the head and said it was a fake. The real Zhang Jue was hidden in Wang Xuanfu's armor storehouse. If you don't hand over Zhang Jue's head, we have no choice but to bring our own troops to fetch it. . Wang Anzhong believed that the only way to do this was to sacrifice Zhang Jue. He sent a secret letter to Zhao Ji to ask the emperor to agree to the Jurchen's request. Zhao Ji had to sacrifice Liao Chen who surrendered to Song Dynasty again. After receiving the imperial decree, Wang Anzhong arrested Zhang Jue and read Zhang Jue's "crime".Zhang Jue yelled, saying that my crime was that I believed you bastards. Wang Anzhong ordered Zhang Jue to be strangled to death, beheaded and sent to the Jin soldiers who besieged Pingzhou.The golden man hung Zhang Jue's head in front of the camp for a long time. Zhang Jue's death completely broke a person's heart. Pharmacist Guo.