Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 75

"Digging the river?" Wang Yan's face twitched slightly, "I'm afraid it will not only flood the Liao army outside the city, but also turn the river around into a swamp country." Since then, there have been millions of people living and multiplying. Every spring and summer, the government will organize people to reinforce the embankment to prevent floods. This year, because of the entry of Liao soldiers, no one is on duty on the embankment in spring.

"In my lord's opinion, if you didn't use water as a soldier, why would you retreat from the enemy?" He Xuan slightly smiled, lifted the teacup gently, took a sip, and frowned slightly unnoticed.

"My army in Hejian is willing to use the strong city to exhaust the Liao army. When the imperial army launches a northern expedition, three routes will attack the Liao army and win the game." Wang Yan said in a deep voice.The national policy of the Song Dynasty has always been to make border guards more than enough to defend, but not enough to attack.Yang Yanqing planned to counterattack the Liao army when he came up, so he was a little impatient.

With such an expression on his face, He Xuan said with a faint smile: "Master Wang, you know that there are more than one hundred thousand Liao troops who invaded, why only tens of thousands are under Hejian City, and the rest are gone?"

Wang Yan's heart sank slightly, and he continued, "Why?"

"These Liao troops are now all over the countryside of Hebei, and even captured the county towns, and plundered the population. The strong men, women, and even the youngest sons were forcibly taken to the Northern Dynasty and sold as slaves. If our army moves slower For a month, I'm afraid that the people in Hebei will not save one out of ten." He Xuan said slowly, with a slightly sad expression on his face.

The imperial court has gathered more than [-] reinforcements in the Daming Mansion, but Lord Liu Yanqing seems to have some concerns about the formation in Hebei, and has been teasing him, sitting back and watching the people of Hebei being taken away by the Liao people.Tong Guanzai did not mention this situation in his military report to the imperial court, but when the Khitan entered the bandits, they raided the grasslands and plundered the countryside, and the princes in the court took it for granted, and did not expect that the Liao people invaded this time and almost killed the people of Hebei. All the vitality that had been accumulated was wiped out.

"Why is China stronger than the barbarians? It also wins people. There are no people left, so what is the use of the land? What is the country to rely on?" Yang Yanqing submitted to the imperial court, requesting the imperial army to expel the Liao people quickly, but was rejected by the imperial court. Overwhelmed by the opinion that the safety of Bianjing is the most important, Liu Yanqing is still waiting for more reinforcements to arrive at the Daming Mansion, is still coordinating the generals, integrating the armies, and is still waiting for the canal to mobilize supplies and grass. The importance of food and grass first is still constantly fighting with Tong Guan in the memorial, and both sides vaguely mentioned the prince who supervised the army.

"General Yang is even more worried. If the Liao army plunders Hebei this time too smoothly, it may stimulate the greed of the Hu people even more, and they will continue to invade the border. Therefore, the plan of digging the river is also a last resort." He Xuan said with a face. 'Se' was slightly dejected, and the east camp dispatched [-] elites to come east quickly, and they did everything they could.In the past, when the Liao people invaded the country, they raided grass valleys and plundered the countryside, mostly for the purpose of obtaining military supplies.And what the Liao soldiers did this time was to deliberately exhaust the people's power of the Great Song Dynasty in Hebei.

After much consideration, Wang Yan agreed to Yang Yanqing's plan.Because Zhao Xingde is a Confucian student of Taixue, he has a close relationship with Chao Zhongqing, until the end, he did not reveal the slightest rumor to Zhao Xingde. .

When it came time to distribute rewards and military pay, the soldiers of the Fire Gun Camp unexpectedly received undeserved military pay.Zhao Xingde didn't understand the rules in the army, from the battalion commander to the capital, he complained to the old superior in private, but Wang Yan only condoned him.He gave Zhao Xingde a lot of convenience in training the Fire Gun Camp earlier, but now he is a little worried that he will make it difficult for him to manage the Fire Gun Camp, after all, no one can bear to let go of authority.Unexpectedly, a scholar is a scholar. In addition to being a strong force prohibited by orders on the school grounds, the commanders of each battalion in private have been walking up and down, contacting the old chief, hoping to be transferred back to his original post.Wang Yan also planned that when the war came to an end, Zhao Xingde would return to Bianjing and divide the six battalions of firecrackers into each army to deal with the heavy armored cavalry of the Liao people.

After the great victory, the Hejian armies unexpectedly strengthened the foundation of the city wall and blocked every possible loophole such as the city gate. Zhao Xingde was quite surprised, until one day at dawn, there was a sudden commotion outside, and some people were faintly shouting, "Let's go!" Flood!" "The embankment has collapsed!"

Zhao Xingde stood up with his clothes on, went up to the top of the city and looked out, only to see that the outside of Hejian City had turned into a country of swamp.Pieces of ice floes were still floating in the icy cold river, and the muddy water was full of sundries from the Liao army's camp. From time to time, horses and soldiers could be seen struggling to save their lives in the flood, and from time to time drifted past corpses, some of the Liao soldiers, But more of them are poorly clothed people.Zhao Xingde watched the scene below the city silently, as if his heart had been hit hard by a hammer.

"In order to force the Liao soldiers back, we had to dig the embankment." Han Shizhong said in a low voice.As soon as the river receded, the remaining Liao cavalry could no longer fight the Song army in the mud.

"Ridiculous!" Zhao Xingde's face was as cold as ice and snow, "How can Master Zhi do this?" "But it's useful." Han Shizhong sighed, and said in a deep voice, "A general cannot have the kindness of a woman."

Zhao Xingde's face was ashen, but he felt that he had no effective reason to persuade Han Shizhong, and he didn't argue with him. He just walked along the top of the city to check the water situation silently. It's a dim.Liu Mazi looked at the muddy river water with mournful eyes, he couldn't imagine what would happen to his wife who hadn't escaped into the city, even if she hadn't been taken captive by the Liao people, how the woman would survive in the flood.

"Gods and Buddhas bless, my house must not be flooded, Tian Qi, the house is gone!" Zhu Juren stared blankly at the dilapidated roof that occasionally floated by.Tenant Wang Shisan was a little numb. He was like a living dead, he had already lost everything. The arrival of the flood just wiped the ground cleaner.

When passing by a city wall, he saw three or five people carrying sand and stones crying relative to each other, Zhao Xingde walked over with his head down as if he was a sinner who had committed a heinous crime, not daring to stay.In the following days, for some reason, Zhao Xingde deliberately avoided meeting with Wang Yan. He calmed down and sorted out the deeds of the soldiers who fought against the enemy since Hejian defended the city, and wrote a new book, printed it out to teach The military soldiers were literate, and Wang Yan's governing yamen also provided a sum of money to sponsor him.

After the river receded, the Liao soldiers could no longer besiege the city, so Wang Yan sent generals to lead the troops out of the city to patrol the enemy and invite them to fight. The armies took turns to dispatch, but Zhao Xingde had no chance to lead the troops out of the city.Han Shizhong discovered that during this period of time, the commanding yamen frequently replaced officers above the battalion commander and above, and most of those who were replaced were confidantes of the commanding adults who had the words "swear to guard the river" tattooed on their foreheads.After realizing it, Han Shizhong went to Wang Yan to report the military situation alone, but he never tattooed his face. Since he was promoted from a soldier to an officer, he swore an oath that he would never tattoo anything on his body again.

Yang Yanqing was indeed a well-known general in the world. With only [-] reinforcements and the strategy of replacing troops with water, the Liao soldiers could no longer gain a foothold in Hebei.Xiao Da, the commander of the Liao Army who was not familiar with the water conditions, left the huge iron barrels, cannons and other supplies in a panic. The handsome and elite cavalry retreated to the higher-lying Gaoyang Pass. Most of the Han army camp and the people who were forced to follow the army were left behind .This battle turned the world around and the victory of recovering most of Hebei in one fell swoop made Yang Yanqing famous all over the world, forcing Hebei to line up so Liu Yanqing had to advance troops, and offered to attack Gaoyang Pass with the main forces of the two Song armies in Zhending Hejian. Even attacked the territory of Liao.Hejian's previous battle to destroy the five Liao army artillery fortresses was far from comparable, and Zhao Xingde's little contribution to the firecracker battalion was like fireflies compared to moonlight.

Not long after the Liao army retreated, Tong Guan, an adult in the deployment of the Hebei camp, returned to Hejian. His sea boat had been watching the progress of the battle, but when he came back this time, he found that the situation was different from the past.When Han Shizhong, Bi Sheng, and Feng Mei, the three former generals of the Zhenbei Army, met each other, they had vaguely embarrassed expressions on their faces, until Wang Yan coughed and said in a deep voice, "Come and see Master Dubu soon." The three of them bowed and saluted as if they had received an amnesty, but in their words, there was no longer the atmosphere of willingness to die for the adults.

Tong Guan was self-defeating. His recommendation, Yang Yanqing's praise, and the great victory in Hebei made the official Zhao You favor Wang Yan who was sticking to Hejian. , Shen Yun did not let go of the opportunity to extend the power of the Imperial City Division to the army. With the help of several parties, His Majesty agreed with Wang Yan to continue to serve as the commander of the Hejian army. It is said that the reward of the Emperor's Sword is also on the way.

The situation in Hebei has become that Liu Yanqing, the platoon envoy of Hebei, is stationed in Daming, Yang Yanqing of the Hedong camp is stationed in Zhending, Wang Yan's troops are stationed in Hejian, and the original Hebei camp is deployed with Tong Guan. There are more than two hundred soldiers and horses of the first army in the north of the town, and there is no direct army.Tong Guan knew that the officials still did not forgive him for losing the Hebei camp, so he asked the prime minister Cai Jing for help, and at the same time he kept writing military newspapers and submitting them to the palace in an attempt to win back the officials.

The situation of the three-legged confrontation lasted all summer, and there were also dark tides in the Hejian army. Zhao Xingde stayed out of the matter, but he was the most carefree person. He kept sharing his writings and the insights he gained from marching and fighting with the people in the Neo-Confucian Society. Communicating with each other is also a pleasure, the subordinate soldiers gradually got used to his personality, knowing that he will leave Hejian soon, they feel a little reluctant to part with him.

It was June, and the heat was unbearable. After the flood, the civilian army was plagued by disease. On this day, Wang Yan summoned Zhao Xingde to control the yamen, and showed him the documents of the Privy Council.

"Great talent Yuan Zhi, I wanted you to stay here to help me manage Hebei, but the court needs a pillar like you even more. It is said that Master Yang Shi of the Guozijian Jijiu and Qin Hui, the imperial censor, played to the emperor together, and transferred you back. Beijing." Wang Yan's face was cloudy and cloudy, as if he was a little regretful and a little guilty.