The twenty-fifth day of the winter lunar month, Jiangnan, Hangzhou.
Jiangnan Road transfer envoy Lu Boran was tied up and pushed to the ground. In front of him was Tong Mu, the prefect of Hangzhou, with a warm smile. Before today, Lu Boran would never have thought that this young prefect, who was usually gentle and well-spoken, would suddenly fall out with him and take down all the hundreds of trusted soldiers he brought with him.
You must know that he only came to see Tong Mu today to ask why the government suddenly ordered the blockade of both land and water, causing a delay for several days in this year's tax money and food that he was eager to transport to Tokyo. But he didn't want to be trapped in a trap. As soon as he entered the gate of Defu Yamen, he was quickly disarmed and captured by hundreds of people ambushing inside, without even the slightest resistance.
It wasn't until he regained his composure that Lu Boran shouted loudly: "Prefect Tong, what do you mean? I am the third-rank transfer envoy of the imperial court. Are you going to rebel?"
To his surprise, Tong Mu nodded immediately and said, "You are right, I want to rebel."
"You... you're crazy..." Lu Boran's eyes widened, fear and confusion instantly occupied his entire mind, and he didn't know what to say.
Tong Mu walked up to him with a smile, and said with some regret: "In the past two years, as colleagues, I also know that you, Lu Boran, are a good official. You have never used power for personal gain. You are even more conscientious in doing things. You and I are on the same page. However, After all, you were sent by the imperial court to keep an eye on Jiangnan's money and food, and what I have to do next is to cut off all the roads from Jiangnan to Tokyo, so I can only wrong you."
"You...you really want to rebel? Don't forget, Fang La's defeat is just around the corner!" Lu Boran immediately shouted loudly, making a last-ditch effort.
But Tong Mu smiled disdainfully: "You, a person who has only been an official in Tokyo for a few years, are you qualified to talk to me about the Fang La Rebellion? But one thing I can tell you is that I have never thought of using a corner of Jiangnan to fight against it. The imperial court, in fact, I am only launching this campaign to cooperate with those who are revolting in the north. Cutting off the money and food transported to Tokyo is just the beginning. Next, our Jiangnan army will go north along the waterway and take Tokyo directly!"
"You... why is this?"
"It seems that your news is indeed too late. I still don't know that as early as last month, General Sun Tusun, the Marquis of Northern Yue, was on the side of the Qing Dynasty. He had led his army southward to get rid of the traitors and took Tokyo directly. Maybe he would be able to fight with him soon. We will meet up at Bianliang City." Tong Mu revealed this fact with a smile, then waved his hand and ordered people to take Lu Boran, who was already stunned, down. After all, this person did not do any evil in Jiangnan, so he did not kill him, but just took the trouble.
In fact, at the same time that Lu Boran was detained, many officials in Hangzhou were also captured. They all have one thing in common, that is, they are all people who have been deliberately arranged by the imperial court to come to Hangzhou in the past two years, trying to wrest local military and financial power from Tong Mu and other Sun Tu party members.
But after all, Sun Tu had not been away from Jiangnan for long, and his influence was still there. Moreover, there was a large army stationed here by General Song Jiang and Dong Ping more than half a year ago. Coupled with Tong Mu's skill, it was naturally impossible for the officials to have the slightest chance.
So compared to Shandong, here we have won a lot of
The impact caused by the officials was smaller and faster. In just one day, all the relevant people were put in jail. By dawn the next day, Tong Mu had led Lu Junyi, Shi Wengong and other generals loyal to Sun Tu to summon soldiers and horses in the city, and preached the rallying slogans that Sun Tu had sent early in the morning about the Qing emperor's side and the self-strengthening of the army.
As soon as this slogan came out, it immediately won a burst of cheers from all the soldiers. It was almost not used for mobilization. The generals of all the armies have stepped forward to ask for battle. They hope that all the soldiers and horses in Jiangnan will immediately cooperate with General Sun to go north and march to Bianliang, Tokyo. .
Seeing this, Tong Mu was naturally overjoyed. He waved his hand without hesitation and said: "I have exactly what I want. Therefore, I have given my order to prepare the whole army for three days and set off early on the 29th! Qing Jun is on his side and kills the traitor. Show off my power as a warrior!"
When the soldiers and horses of Hangzhou City began to prepare to set off northward, other cities in the south of the Yangtze River also responded and followed up. Just like Hangzhou, the cities in the south of the Yangtze River had made arrangements before. At this moment, almost all the military power and other things were taken into the hands of their own people in the blink of an eye. Then they all raised their troops and moved north together with the main force in Hangzhou. Go ahead.
When the twelfth lunar month entered, the entire Jiangnan area not only completely cut off the supply of money and food to Tokyo, but also raised 150,000 troops, claiming to be an army of 300,000, and went straight to Tokyo to kill in such a mighty manner.
Sun Tu's two base areas in Jiangnan and Shandong, one in the south and one in the north, have raised troops to respond at the same time. At the same time, the news that Sun Tu led his army to defeat dozens of cities and swept through the whole of Hebei had spread to the whole world. The government and the public were suddenly shocked. A not difficult choice was placed in front of local officials from all over the Song Dynasty. , should we raise troops to serve the king, or should we pretend not to know about this and can only ask the rebels to kill them and surrender to Kaicheng
Obviously, with the current weak military strength in various parts of the Song Dynasty, even if those generals were not bewitched by Sun Tu's words "The officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty should strengthen themselves", it would be impossible to really block the oncoming hundreds of thousands of rebel troops. What's more, these civil servants have to worry that if they call the attendance king, the soldiers below will not respond, and there may even be a tragedy in which the following officers commit the crime and are killed by the military commanders. Therefore, they naturally could only pretend to be deaf and dumb, and did not dare to have any thoughts about King Qin.
The Song Dynasty may have no shortage of loyal ministers, but at least few of the civil servants sent to local areas dared to die for the country. What's more, Sun Tu was raising the banner of Qing Jun, and he didn't say that he really wanted to rebel. So these people just choose to deceive themselves and others and wait and see what happens.
There are also some corrupt officials who know that they are guilty of serious crimes. After learning that they are on the route of the rebel army, they immediately abandon their official positions and flee without any intention of resisting.
As a result, in just over ten days, various places in the north and south of the Song Dynasty had been lost one after another, and the changes in the imperial court had occurred in an instant. It seems that everything just depends on whether the Yellow River, which is regarded by everyone as a natural danger, can stop the more than 100,000 rebel troops marching south. All the burden has been placed on Zhang Shuye, who has been sticking to the south bank of the Yellow River.
In fact, in this world, in addition to countless officials and people in the Song Dynasty who are paying attention to the direction of this mutiny, there are also people outside the Song Dynasty who have made up their minds about this.
On the third day of the twelfth lunar month, the Xixia Kingdom suddenly sent troops eastward and tried to invade the Song Dynasty. However, half of the main force of the Western Army has returned to the border, and even some divisions are stationed there.
Among them, with the issuance of military orders one after another, the various gate cities on the western front have already reached the ultimate defense.
What was even more unexpected by the Xixia army was that in a subsequent small-scale head-on conflict, their proud heavy cavalry iron kite was actually entangled by the Song army's cavalry. The opponent's cavalry strength was not in Xixia Under the country. It turned out that as early as when Sun Tu led his troops back to the west, Sun Tu gave a large number of horses to the Western Army in order to make up for the loss of his troops.
These horses were all good horses captured from the Liao and Jin armies. They even surpassed the horses produced in the Hetao area, and the number reached 50,000. This time, the Xixia army was really caught off guard. In addition, the Song army also used firearms such as razor bullets and thunderbolt arrows, and they directly killed the five thousand Xixia elite soldiers without leaving a single piece of armor behind.
At this time, the Xixia Kingdom, which had just settled down from the domestic chaos, immediately gave up the idea of taking advantage of the opportunity to advance eastward, and could only retreat to its own country. Then, he sent envoys one after another to explain to the Song army that it was some treacherous ministers in the court who launched the attack on the Song Dynasty on their own initiative, and sent dozens of heads.
In this regard, Master Zhong naturally expressed his understanding and said that the Song Dynasty would never blame Xixia for this. The two sides were still a country of monarchs and ministers, and would not retaliate or start a war rashly. Of course, it is unknown whether his intention was to really not want to start another war, or whether he wanted to wait for the domestic situation to subside before sending troops to retaliate.
In addition to Xixia, the biggest trouble for the Song Dynasty was the Liao Kingdom.
Therefore, the pressure on Zhong Shidao and Yue Fei, who stayed behind in Youzhou, was really great. But soon, as Xiao Zuo reported back the changes in the Liao Kingdom, the old man, the young man, and the young man also relaxed.
However, a mutiny broke out in the Liao Kingdom at the same time. It was Yelu Dashi who suddenly took action and launched a surprise attack on Yelu Yanxi who wanted to accuse him. In just one battle, the Liao Emperor who had just returned to Beijing was killed. They managed to escape, but both sides suffered heavy casualties.
As Sun Tu had expected before, in order to cover up his mistakes, Yelu Yanxi naturally wanted to find someone to take the blame. Yelu Dashi and Yelu Xiongge, who had lost the entire Sixteenth Province of Youyun and lost their troops and generals, naturally became the targets of his blame.
As a result, Yelv Xiongge, who was more loyal, was directly forced to death, but Yelu Dashi did not submit. He even shouted the slogan that the defeat of the Liao Kingdom was all due to the Liao Emperor's stupidity, and then raised an army to resist almost simultaneously with Sun Tu. With his reputation and ability, he actually entered Shangjing City in just over a month, achieving a phased victory earlier than Sun Tu.
If Xiao Qian hadn't led his troops to take action in time, Yelu Yanxi, the Emperor of the Liao Dynasty, would have died. But this would be an even greater disaster for the Liao Kingdom. This confrontation between the two sides quickly tore the already weakened Liao Kingdom into two halves. In a short period of time, it would be difficult to separate them. A victory or defeat has come, which means that the Liao Kingdom may also be divided because of this.
Such changes have occurred in the Liao Kingdom, so it is natural that they can no longer be distracted. This also makes many soldiers guarding the front line in Youzhou breathe a sigh of relief. As a result, Yue Fei admired Sun Tu even more and became more confident in his march south: "General, I believe that even the danger of the Yellow River cannot stop your heroic feat of eradicating traitors for the country!"