Chapter 61 first quarter

The progress of the two groups of Jin soldiers who invaded for the first time was very different.The East Route Army annexed Yanshan Mountain in one go, recruited Guo Yaoshi, and the momentum was like a broken bamboo. And the West Route Army went smoothly at the beginning, even occupying the three states that were handed over to the Song people before: Shuozhou, Wuzhou, and Daizhou.These three prefectures were basically garrisoned by the newly established Yisheng Army. The soldiers were all local Han people who had been displaced by the war and were recruited by the Song Dynasty.However, due to the large number of people, the imperial court's military supplies could not provide enough rice and food.One can imagine the discipline of the Han people who did not receive wages. In addition, there were many conflicts with the original Song army generals. When the Jin invaded, the Han people in the three states mutinied. City, Sanzhou easily fell into the hands of the West Road Golden Army.

On December 18th of the seventh year of Xuanhe, the West Road Golden Army arrived in Taiyuan City and stopped their footsteps. Taiyuan, known as Jinyang in ancient times, is located in the center of the Shanxi Plateau, straddling the hinterland of the Jinzhong Basin, with the Taihang Mountains as a natural barrier, blocking the North China Plain, and the Yellow River in the southwest as a belt, connecting Longxi, Guanzhong and the vast Central Plains, looking back from the Central Plains , the mountains are so high that they rise from the ground, and the mountains and rivers inside and outside are as solid as gold.There are also Shiling Pass, Tianmen Pass, Mengshan Mountain, Niangziguan and Crouching Tiger Mountain, which are surrounded by Guanshan Mountains, forming a natural barrier that is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and can be accessed. Gu Zuyu, a military geographer in the Ming Dynasty, once praised Taiyuan's geographical situation as " Hold the back of the world and choke its throat."

Because of its geographical location, Taiyuan City has become the most difficult fortified city in Chinese history. At the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the Zhi, Wei, and Han families besieged the Zhao family's Jinyang City for three years. In the end, the Zhao family joined forces with Wei and Han to flood the Zhi family, establishing the political structure of the three families in one fell swoop. In the Western Jin Dynasty, the Five Hus invaded and the Sima Dynasty fell apart. Liu Kun raised thousands of people to build and defend Jinyang against the Huns. He also staged a legendary story of Hu Jia rescuing the isolated city.

As the birthplace of the Li Tang Dynasty, during the Anshi Rebellion, Li Guangbi led more than 10,000 defenders to defend Taiyuan, resisting the impact of Shi Siming's 100,000 troops, and finally wiped out more than 70,000 enemies. The key turning point of the Anshi Rebellion was saved, and the Tang Empire was saved from the brink of extinction. As for the Zhao Dynasty, it has tasted the strength of Taiyuan City since the beginning of the dynasty.The Northern Han Dynasty was barren and poor, and its national strength was weak. However, with only one strong city in Taiyuan, it resisted the attacks of the three dynasties of Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, and Northern Song many times, and held on for 19 years.Especially after the Zhao brothers established the Northern Song Dynasty, they conquered Taiyuan four times, all of which ended in failure. The mighty Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin could only look at the prosperity of Taiyuan City, and finally ended his somewhat regretful life in the sound of candle shadows and axes. .

After Zhao Guangyi fulfilled his elder brother's long-cherished wish to pacify the Northern Han Dynasty and conquer Taiyuan, he disliked the city very much, thinking that its "dragon energy" was too strong, which was not a good thing for his empire's foundation, so he did a very wicked thing Half a month after conquering Taiyuan City, he sent troops to burn Taiyuan City, destroying the ancient city of Jinyang with a radius of forty miles.Afterwards, Zhao Guangyi didn't think it was enough. After the fire was extinguished, Jinshui and Fenshui flooded Jinyang, completely turning this historic city into ruins.

After Zhao Guangyi destroyed Gujin Yangcheng, he ordered General Pan Mei to build a new Taiyuan City on the east bank of the Fen River, thirty-five miles away from Gujin Yangcheng. In order to suppress the "Dragon Qi" of Longcheng by lowering Taiyuan's political status, not only that, when the new Taiyuan City was built, Zhao Guangyi also changed the layout of the streets into "T-shaped streets" (meaning to pull out the dragon's head) with ulterior motives. ). In Zhao Guangyi's view, the tenacity and tenacity of the city of Taiyuan and its soldiers and civilians are inconsistent with the overall temperament of his empire. Starting from the entire imperial strategy of "strong stems and weak branches" and "guarding the inside and leaving the outside", they did not There is no need for such a tough city.

He didn't know that a hundred years later, the fate of his own empire would also need to be saved by the soldiers and civilians of this city. When the Jin army approached the Taiyuan city, there were not many troops in Taiyuan city. When Tong Guan left, Wang Ting left 3,000 victorious troops. In addition, the local defenders in Taiyuan Prefecture had only 10,000 soldiers and horses, while the Jin army had 60,000 troops. army. But no matter how many soldiers and horses the Jurchens have and how rich the siege methods are, Taiyuan City has become an iron fortress that cannot be conquered.

Wanyan Zonghan (Nianhan) was desperate. He saw Wanyan Zongwang (Han Libu), the coach of the East Road Army, cross the Yellow River and fight until Kaifeng, but he couldn't pass the barrier of Taiyuan City. The strategy of the East and West armies besieging Kaifeng has come to naught, and Wanyan Zonghan can only sit and watch the performance of the East Army Wanyan Zongwang.