Chapter 542: Yan People Return to Jin

Hebei, Hebei!

Fang Xuanling's words can be said to have completely broken up Du Mu's words, causing the civil and military officials of Zhenguan to bow their heads in thought.

Li Shimin looked back and carefully examined the map of China that he had seen countless times.

The mountains are like sickles, the rivers are like folding fans, the land is flat like a mirror, and the sea is wide like a plate.

This is a vast land that has been neglected by all dynasties.

And on this detailed map, Guanzhong, which is praised as "surrounded by mountains and rivers, fertile fields for thousands of miles, and the world's most beautiful scenery", is less than one-tenth the size of Hebei.

Li Shimin still remembers the words he used to persuade his father after the Jinyang uprising.

"Heroes in Guanzhong have risen together, and it is unknown where to go. If they march west with drums and take it, it will be like taking something out of a bag!"

This view is definitely not wrong, but current affairs will change after a hundred years of peace.

The An-Shi Rebellion dealt a heavy blow to the Tang Dynasty. Li Shimin seemed to see a thin scholar raising his arms and shouting to his descendants:

"If Hebei is lost to the Tang Dynasty, it is like a person who loses pearls and can still survive; if Hebei is lost to the Tang Dynasty, it is like a person who loses his legs and can no longer be called a country!"

More than two hundred years later, a farmer who rose from humble beginnings also raised his arms and shouted to the emperor who fled south to ask for a northern expedition.

This young man was determined to connect the leg of Hebei for his Song Dynasty.

Cross the river and march north!

Finally, Li Shimin sighed again:

"It is a pity that a hero is humiliated by a mediocre king!"

[Yue Fei has always had great ambitions, and after he became an adult, he happened to encounter the Song and Jin sides to conclude a maritime alliance. Attacking Liao and taking Yan was the main theme of this period.

So, joining the army became a matter of course.

It should be noted that General Yue's first battle in the army was quite dazzling.

Thanks to the well-developed system of selecting soldiers in the Northern Song Dynasty, Yue Fei stood out with his outstanding physical fitness and the spearmanship and archery skills he learned from his hometown apprenticeship, and successfully became the head of a team of 30 people and became a junior officer.

After reporting to his superiors that he had led 200 people to quell the banditry in his hometown, Yue Fei was already excited and wanted to achieve an unprecedented achievement.

But unfortunately, the Northern Song Dynasty soon dealt a heavy blow to Yue Fei.

Just as Yue Fei rushed to the battlefield with his troops, Yang Keshi, a veteran general of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Guo Yaoshi, a three-surnamed slave who surrendered to the Northern Liao Dynasty, led 3,000 people to attack Yanjing at night, taking advantage of the empty defense of Yanjing and easily entering Yanjing.

When things developed to this point, the second campaign of the Northern Song Dynasty to conquer Liao and Yan could be said to be smooth beyond everyone's expectations, but the situation soon took a sharp turn for the worse.

The first thing the Northern Song army did that night after entering Yanjing was to massacre the Khitans and Xi people in the city.

"Han people all climbed the battlements, pointed out the Khitans, Xi and other families, killed tens of thousands of people, and blood flowed in the streets."

Besides, before conquering the Northern Liao Palace, the Song army had already exposed its ugly side in Yanjing:

"Drinking, looting property, and indulged in debauchery."

The poor military discipline of the Song army caused the battle in Yanjing to become stalemate. The Khitans who fought desperately in the city successfully dragged the Liao generals to come back for help, and finally joined forces to attack from both inside and outside, causing the Song army to be completely annihilated. Only the commander Guo Yaoshi, Ya Yang Keshi and others "only escaped with their lives" and successfully escaped.

The destruction of the Yanjing surprise army was just the beginning. Liu Guangshi, who was stationed in Zhuozhou and commanded the vanguard army, saw Guo Yaoshi and others fleeing back miserably, and mistakenly thought that the main force of the Liao army was attacking, so he burned the baggage and tents without authorization and retreated.

This retreat and burning sent a wrong signal to the rear army. Tens of thousands of troops saw only the flames in front of them but no orders from friendly troops. Some of them took the initiative to retreat while others chose to wait for military orders, which eventually caused tens of thousands of people to be in chaos, and eventually led to "trampling each other" and many casualties.

Seeing this, the Liao army chased after them and defeated the Song army at the Baigou River, with "unknown number of casualties".

The only bright spot in this battle was that the 32-year-old Western Army general Han Shizhong led more than 50 cavalry to break through the formation at Hutuo River, beheaded the general, seized the flag, and broke the battle spirit of more than 2,000 Liao cavalry, leaving the last bit of face for the Song army.

Considering that Han Shizhong had done something like riding alone into the battle and beheading the Xixia military supervisor and the son-in-law to disperse the enemy army when fighting Xixia, it was not too outrageous for more than 50 people to ride on the face and seize the flag to break through.

But all this happened was too exciting for Yue Fei, who was new to the battlefield.

The prepared swords and spears were not used, and the well-maintained bows were not pulled. This young general retreated with the army in a daze. Before he could react, the Northern Song Dynasty's expedition to Liao and Yan ended in a farce.

Shortly after the withdrawal, a letter from his father who died of illness was sent to the army, and Yue Fei simply chose to return home to mourn.

For the Northern Song Dynasty, the two expeditions to Liao and Yan ended in failure. In the end, Song Huizong and other monarchs and ministers had no choice but to choose to "redeem" Yanjing from the Jin people who destroyed the Liao Kingdom with money and goods to save the face of the court.

The Jin people were not stupid. What they sold to the Northern Song Dynasty were the six states of Yanyun that had been plundered and Yanjing, which was almost an empty city, and watched Huizong's performance.

Huizong did not disappoint the expectations of the Jin people. He first showed his magnanimity in the court and exempted Yanjing from taxes for several years, but soon the corruption of Yanjing's finances forced him to find a way.

In this regard, Huizong could only say that he went back to his old ways. He first seized the land of the people in Youzhou, and after passing it over himself, he gave the remaining land to Guo Yaoshi and other Liao surrendered generals for distribution.

Then, the Song Dynasty's salt permit system was implemented in Youzhou, which doubled the price of salt. After that, the officials sent here from the south made a move, and the price of salt increased nearly tenfold.

The simple two-handed operation made the people in Youzhou area miserable. As a result, when the Jin army was difficult to conquer again, the Jin people only ordered three slaves named Guo Yaoshi and others to return all their houses and land to their original owners and stabilize the salt price, and successfully made the "Yan people return to their hearts".

At the same time, under the operation of Huizong's court, Hebei Province added another miscellaneous tax called "Yan money" to subsidize the finances of Youzhou area.

The result is not surprising: Youzhou did not get the subsidy, Hebei's finances became more corrupt, and Yue Fei, who had already slipped into a tenant farmer, could not make a living. This year, there was a record of borrowing grain from the landlord.

In the same year, the number of thieves in Hebei, where people were living in misery, skyrocketed, and some even bullied Yue Fei at his doorstep.

After killing a group of thieves, Yue Fei made a decision with a look of disappointment:

Otherwise, join the regular army to see if he can keep the world peaceful? 】

〖Zhang Fei: Is this Song general a fool?

Hey, look at what you said, Uncle Zhang San. If the Northern Song Dynasty could hold out a bit, it wouldn't be completely helpless.

The people of Youzhou had some illusions about the Song Dynasty in the early days. For example, they did help the Song army at Gaoliang River, but later...

Whoever extorts less and pays less taxes is a wise ruler!

In fact, it is not difficult to find out from history that Hebei has been alienated from the Central Plains for many years? Li Yuan killed Dou Jiande and Hebei rebelled. Er Feng attacked Liaodong and Hebei suffered. Wu Zetian came to power and allowed Khitan to invade Hebei. Not to mention the Anshi Rebellion. From this point of view, Zhao Da insisted on recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. The vision was quite advanced.

You can even calculate it in the past. Guangshen's three expeditions to Goguryeo also made Hebei suffer a lot. The Guanzhong nobles oppressed Hebei for a long time. It is no wonder that the people of Hebei supported Dou Jiande, a native of the country, at the end of the Sui Dynasty.

Zhao Kuangyin: The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun must be returned to the Song Dynasty to make the country intact!

Don't be ridiculous, buddy... How can the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun be complete? At least Jiaozhou should be included.

Jiaozhou is not complete either. The sea is open. Let's take Iju Island and Ryukyu as well.

It's not too much to take back the Western Regions, right?

Zhao Da should think about how to deal with his brother first. 〗