Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

In the minds of Annan's soldiers, Du Yingwu was already somewhat of a "god of war".

In the first battle, Annan faced the siege of the four countries, and all the other generals were defeated. Only Du Yingwu defeated the Champa and Zhenla coalition forces.

In the second battle, the barbarians from Wendan (Vientiane, Laos) invaded, and Du Yingwu led his army to kill the generals and captured them.

In the third battle, the mountain tigers invaded. All the generals returned without success, but Du Yingwu was the only one who defeated the mountain tigers.

These three wars took place within just a few years, and Du Yingwu quickly accumulated extremely high prestige in the military.

And his father is Li Changjie's nephew.

Li Changjie was the last Annan God of War, who defeated all surrounding countries and even led troops to invade Guangxi.

In addition, during the past 20 to 30 years, Annan has favored culture and suppressed military force, disbanded the army, and reduced military pay, which has led to resentment among soldiers across the country. After Du Yingwu's coup, although he did not order the expansion of the army, he restored military pay and benefits, which suddenly gained military morale.

"Why did you want to participate in the conspiracy?" Du Yingwu asked.

Su Xiancheng was not killed because he was a Taifu and his official position was so high that the Imperial Army did not dare to touch him.

Su Xiancheng sighed: "If I don't go, they will rebel against the Forbidden Army."

Du Yingwu sneered: "Forbidden Army soldiers, how can they instigate rebellion with their empty words?"

"If you lure them with wealth, threaten them with the Ming army, and rebuke them with great righteousness, some of the Forbidden Army generals will definitely be instigated to rebel," Su Xiancheng said. "These people are not keeping secrets and will definitely leak the news. When the time comes, the Forbidden Army will kill each other and let the Ming Dynasty The army slaughtered fish and meat. A few years ago, nearly 100,000 people were taken captive in Thang Long Mansion. Although the former emperor ordered the people to move to Beijing, they have only recovered to 40, 50, 000 or 50,000 people. Do you want to be robbed by the Ming army again? Mansion?”

Su Xiancheng didn't want to get rid of Du Yingwu because he was afraid of forcing the other party to jump over the wall.

Su Xiancheng's idea was very clear, which was to prevent Du Yingwu from directly usurping the throne, and at the same time manage the country well, and wait until the little emperor grew up to take charge.

Historically, it was this king who moderated the situation, and Du Yingwu never overturned the table.

Even after the young emperor came of age, the ministers dismissed Du Yingwu from office. It was Empress Dowager Li who repeatedly begged for mercy and was reinstated.

Of course, Du Yingwu, who was reinstated, would definitely not give up.

He compiled a series of charges, killing eight people, maiming five people, exiled more than 30 people, and dismissed more than 60 people, including a prince, two marquises and a prince consort.

He also carried out high-pressure rule: eunuchs were not allowed to enter the palace without authorization. King Annan had to obtain his consent if he wanted to see the eunuch. Courtiers were not allowed to associate with clan nobles. In the palace, officials went to and from court, and no more than three but less than ten people were allowed to gather and talk... This is what you call a powerful official. Du Yingwu was driven crazy by the civil servants.

Now, before the little emperor could grow up, the Ming army suddenly came and broke the delicate balance.

Annan's civil servants wanted to use the Ming army to eradicate the powerful minister, so they would naturally force the powerful minister to take action first!

Du Yingwu said: "If you don't want to kill me, I will kill you. What do you think I should do?"

Su Xiancheng said: "Release the families of the killed officials, and then send people to negotiate with the Ming army."

"Do you think I'm a fool?" Du Yingwu sneered: "If I release the family members of those rebellious ministers, they will lead the Ming army into the city!"

Not all the family members of those killed were in Thang Long Palace, but several key figures were, including the consort Yang Siming.

In addition, the conspiracy was carried out at Wu Dai's home.

And that military belt was the infantry commander of the Dianqian Army and the third most powerful person in the Annan Forbidden Army. He was dissatisfied that Du Yingwu was in charge of the Imperial Army alone and that he did not benefit from the coup. Instead, Du Yingwu had his military power removed.

How can we not eradicate these people?

Su Xiancheng asked: "How will you end up killing all the officials and their families?"

"It's hard to get off the tiger, it has to be like this," Du Yingwu said, "You go home and rest, no family members are allowed to go out at will. After the Ming Dynasty withdraws its troops, I will invite you out to be the Taifu."

Su Xiancheng was disheartened and was escorted home by the Imperial Guards to house arrest.

Du Yingwukong sat in the quiet room, with all kinds of feelings flooding into his heart.

He is only twenty-five years old!

It is inevitable to do things in a hurry, and the coup was too rough. And he suddenly disappeared. He stayed overnight in the palace unscrupulously, leaving too many excuses and excuses for others.

He went on two missions to the Ming Dynasty and knew how powerful the Ming Dynasty was.

He believed that as long as he did not usurp power, support a small emperor, and then send people to Luoyang to ask for the title of king, the Ming Emperor should be able to get off the donkey.

Unexpectedly, Ming Dynasty directly sent troops and used the name of his sister, Queen Mother Du!

Not only did Ming Dynasty send troops, Dali was also involved.

The local powerful faction Shen Li raised troops to clear the emperor's side. After being easily defeated by Du Yingwu, he actually fled all the way to Dali.

Shenli borrowed hundreds of elite soldiers from Dali, recruited barbarians on the northwest border of Annan, and captured Jidong (Gaoping Province) to directly attack Taiyuan.

At this moment, Shenli had breached Taiyuan City.

Then he changed his name to Zhao Zhizhi and claimed to be the illegitimate son of the previous king Li Renzong. He proclaimed himself "King Ping" and "Pingyuan General", and called on the Annan gentry to join forces to attack the Du thieves.

In other words, Du Yingwu was attacked on both sides at this time. To the east was the Ming army, and to the northwest was the Shenli rebels.

Suddenly, Du Yingwu opened his eyes, summoned several confidants and said: "Those rebels who were killed yesterday, all those whose families were in the capital were killed. The men were made slaves, and the women were given to the soldiers. Their family property and land were all distributed to the imperial army. "Sir!"

Not only was the Annan Forbidden Army allocated land, but the local army and generals who were urgently transferred also received large rewards.

In addition, Du Yingwu also promised that more soldiers would be given land after the war.

For a time, the morale of the Annan army was high.

Du Yingwu, who was only 25 years old, asked his cousin to lead the troops to guard the palace and the capital, and led 40,000 troops to fight the Ming army.

He had received news that the Ming army only had two or three thousand people, and the rest were local garrisons recruited in Annan.

Ten against one, even if they could not win a big victory, they could prevent the Ming army from attacking cities.

It was useless to run away and avoid fighting blindly. The Ming army had the righteousness of Queen Mother Du. If Du Yingwu gave up Thang Long Mansion, he would really become a rebel. Even if the Ming army withdrew its troops, it would establish a new king in Thang Long Mansion and re-establish a court.

…

"Your Highness, there was an enemy attack ahead, and we have defeated it. Beijiang Road City and Tiandu City are both heavily guarded!"

Zhu Kang got the news, not happy but happy.

Beijiang Road City and Tiandu City are on the north and south banks of the Longjiang River, respectively, less than 100 miles away from Thang Long Mansion.

The two cities strangle the Long River and are the eastern gate of Thang Long Prefecture.

If the defenders of the two cities are defeated, they can rush all the way and trample Thang Long Prefecture.

"Your Highness, I would like to ask for the main attack!" said an Annan general named Zeng Huai.

"We are also willing to fight to the death!"

Many Annan officials shouted.

They were all officials that Zhu Kang had conquered on the way, and they believed that Du Yingwu would definitely lose. Civil officials stayed in their posts to raise food and grass, while military officials led troops to follow Zhu Kang to fight.

The number of Annan troops under Zhu Kang's command has exceeded 5,000.

Of course, they are all a mob.

Zhu Kang encouraged these Annan generals and sent them away.

After the locals left, Xie Hong said, "Will our food supply be cut off if we go deep into the enemy's territory alone?"

Han Jing smiled and said, "If Du Yingwu is not stupid, he will definitely send troops to cut off our food supply and even capture our rear cities. We have few soldiers, only 3,000 elite soldiers, and it is impossible for us to take care of the rear. We can only make a concerted effort to capture Thang Long Prefecture!"

"Are you sure, General Han?" Xie Hong asked.

Han Jing said, "When I left Guangxi, General Yang Zaixing gave me several maps. Among them were the city wall maps of Beijiang Road City and Tiandu City. We also borrowed 20 naval guns from the navy, so it is not a problem to fight all the way to Thang Long Prefecture. If we can't capture it for a long time and there is not enough food and grass, we can only collect food on the spot."

Xie Hong said, "This time is not like the last time, General Yang could just rob and leave, but we have to govern Annan. Collecting food on the spot will inevitably cause public resentment, which is not conducive to future rule."

"How pedantic! If Thang Long Prefecture cannot be captured, how can we talk about future rule?" Han Jing retorted.

Han Jing also had character flaws. He didn't know how to get along well with civil officials.

This man was originally a wild man. He had read some books, but he had a hard time passing the examination for a scholar. When he was fighting guerrilla warfare with the Jin soldiers, he developed a bandit spirit and robbed rich families in Shanxi, otherwise his troops would have starved to death.

And he couldn't stand civil officials and was ruthless when he spoke.

Of course, Han Jing's three views were still very positive.

In history, he pacified the chaos in Fujian and Guangdong, which had been ravaged and riddled with holes. Han Jing was able to restore production in Lingnan and even cracked down on corrupt officials to protect the people. As a result, he offended all the local officials. After he was dismissed from office, the people took the initiative to build a shrine for him.

Xie Hong was choked by Han Jing for a few words, smiled and stopped talking, but felt a little uncomfortable.

Zhu Kang didn't know how to read people's expressions for the time being, and didn't understand that his subordinates might have a disagreement between civil and military. He thought that Han Jing had persuaded Xie Hong, so he decided: "Continue to march tomorrow!"

The next day, noon.

Zhu Kang led his army to the outside of Beijiang Road City, set up camp several miles away from the city, and waited for the next day to attack.

Du Yingwu personally guarded the city, kept his troops still, and waited for news.

When the Ming army set up artillery and was about to attack the city, several speedboats came from the rear, and several Annan civil and military officials reported in a panic: "Your Highness, the Du thief sent elite troops to attack, and the city... The city was lost. The food and grass stored in the city were also captured by the Du thief!"

Zhu Kang said: "Don't worry, there will be food soon. And the food and grass we brought with the army is enough to eat for twenty days, and it can last for more than a month if we save it."

Although he said so, the civil and military officials and soldiers of Annan fell into panic that they were about to run out of food.

"Boom boom boom!"

Twenty cannons removed from naval ships bombarded Beijiang Road City.

The terrifying momentum restored the morale of the Annan troops following the Ming army, thinking that this thing could bomb all the way to Thang Long Prefecture.

The Annan defenders in the city were bombarded and began to panic.

After three days of continuous bombardment, some cracks began to appear in the city wall, and it was estimated that it would collapse in a few days.

Du Yingwu felt that the morale of the army had plummeted, so he summoned his generals and said: "We just received news that our detachment successfully captured the city. The enemy's rear city was vulnerable, and our army has captured two cities in a row. Without the follow-up food and grass, the enemy's army will definitely be in chaos. We can't be trapped in the city any longer. While the enemy's morale is declining, we should go out of the city tomorrow and fight to the death!"