Xianxia version of Water Margin

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In the eyes of outsiders, Jiang Hongfei captured the city of Hangzhou in one battle and it was very easy to win.

This is not the case.

In fact, what outsiders don't know is that Jiang Hongfei won this battle very thrillingly.

You must know that the battle to capture Hangzhou City was one of the few battles that Jiang Hongfei had fought since he established the Liangshan Army, in which a small number defeated a large number.

At the beginning of the war, all the troops under Jiang Hongfei's command totaled less than 20,000 troops.

The garrison of Hangzhou consisted of more than 50,000 troops.

Sun Tzu's Art of War says: "If the enemy is ten, it is to surround it, if it is five, it is to attack it. If it is doubled, it is to fight. If the enemy is divided, it can be divided. If it is small, it can be defended. If it is weak, it can be avoided."

In other words, if we are ten times the enemy, we will encircle and annihilate them; if we are five times the enemy, we will attack; if we are twice the enemy, we will work hard to defeat the enemy; if we are evenly matched, we will try to disperse and defeat them. If your troops are weaker than the enemy, avoid fighting.

According to Sun Tzu's Art of War, Jiang Hongfei should not attack the city because this is purely playing with fire.

Fortunately, Jiang Hongfei's Qiankun bracelet contained hundreds of hot air balloons, which first scared away many defenders on the walls of Hangzhou.

Later, Jiang Hongfei and Wu Jiao took action together, using a wide range of magic to assist the battle. In addition, Ma Qijun was a rare elite cavalry among the Liangshan Army. The Zhennan Second Army and the Zhennan Third Army were also willing to fight hard, and they barely defeated the people in Hangzhou City. garrison.

Let's put it this way, if the war situation had not been critical, Jiang Hongfei would not have thrown all his women up the city wall to join the battle, and even went to fight himself.

Moreover, don't think that there are no Qi refining masters among the defenders of Hangzhou City.

Not really.

During this battle, a very brave and superb Qi practitioner appeared in the city of Hangzhou. His strength was definitely not inferior to that of Du Bo, Lu Junyi, Sun An, and Shi Wengong, because Gao Liang was no match for him.

Later, it was Jiang Hongfei who took action personally and captured this top-notch Qi practitioner.

This superb qi-refining master's surname was Yao, his given name was Xing, and his given name was Shuxing. He was from Xincheng County, Lin'an Prefecture. He came to Hangzhou to find a way out, and was forcibly recruited into the brave army by Hangzhou officials.

In other words, Yao Xing is actually just the lowest Song Jun.

But this lowest Song army almost wiped out all of Jiang Hongfei's women, and then prevented Jiang Hongfei and the others from attacking Hangzhou City.

Therefore, it is really difficult to say many things. Jiang Hongfei's ability to conquer Hangzhou was not only due to his years of accumulation, but also due to luck.

As soon as the city of Hangzhou was captured, Jiang Hongfei arranged for Gaoliang and others to protect the grain and grass.

Jiang Hongfei clearly remembered that one of the reasons why Fangla's uprising failed was that Fangla's rebel army later ran out of food and could not defend the strong city of Hangzhou, so it had to withdraw from Hangzhou, leading to failure.

Therefore, to a certain extent, food is related to the outcome of this war.

Then, Jiang Hongfei ordered Shi Bao to divide his troops into various ports and seize all ships. No matter whose ships they were, any ships that dared to resist would be shot to death.

Not long after, Gaoliang sent Qiongying back to report that when they arrived at the granary, there were more than a dozen people transporting kerosene to the granary - they were actually planning to burn all the millions of stone official grain on fire.

Gao Liang and the others arrested all these guys who were harming others and not benefiting themselves. After interrogation, they learned that it was Zhao Ting, the prefect of Hangzhou, who ordered them to do this.

These people were pouring beans out of bamboo tubes, and Zhao Ting also sent a few people to burn the armory, fire work, and gunpowder work.

However, Gaoliang has already sent Chen Liqing and Su Sanniang to Bingjiaku to work with fire and gunpowder.

Jiang Hongfei in Bingjiaku was not worried, but the fire and gunpowder operations were too dangerous, so Jiang Hongfei immediately arranged for someone to replace Su Sanniang and the others.

Soon after, Hua Baoyan came to report that they had rescued the armor warehouse, which contained a large number of armors, as well as a huge amount of iron bars, horns, hides, tendons, sheepskins, arrow shafts, feathers and other strategic materials. Su Sanniang also came back to report that they rescued Huo Zuo and Gunpowder Zuo.

Jiang Hongfei ordered a city-wide search for Zhao Ting. Once caught, he would be executed directly. In addition, Zhao Ting's house was directly ransacked without a public trial. All the men in his family were beheaded, and all the women were turned into convicts and sent back to Shuibo Liangshan for redistribution.

About an hour later, Shi Bao came back in person to report that they not only intercepted a large number of ships in Hangzhou Port, but also intercepted 3,000 ships in the canal, with 6 million shi of autumn grain on them! ! !

The canal connected Kaifeng Prefecture and the two Zhejiang Roads. The Zhao and Song Dynasties regarded this artery connecting the north and the south as a large suction vessel, continuously sucking the blood and sweat of the people of the two Zhejiang provinces.

According to historical records, the Liangzhe Road transports more than 6 million pounds of rice and wheat to Kaifeng Prefecture every year. In addition, more than 4 million pieces of money and goods are provided, as well as various miscellaneous taxes and the transportation of aristocrats and bureaucrats. , too many to count.

It is precisely because of this that the people of Zhejiang and Zhejiang have been oppressed into extreme poverty, which is in sharp contrast to the beautiful and rich Jiangnan: "Wu salt is better than snow", but the coastal farmers eat nothing; in the land of plenty, the poor and weak households eat chaff. Satisfy hunger!

What Shi Bao intercepted should be the 600 shi of autumn grain from Liangzhe Road that was just harvested this year and shipped to Kaifeng Prefecture!

Some people may want to ask, did the Zhao and Song Dynasties have so many ships?

have!

The Zhao and Song Dynasties built thousands of ships of various types every year.

Because the Zhao and Song dynasties established their capital in Kaifeng, a large number of waterships were needed every year to carry grain and other goods from the southeast.

Therefore, the Zhao and Song Dynasties established shipbuilding yards in many places, especially Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Mingzhou, Wenzhou and Hangzhou on the southeast coast, which formed important bases for manufacturing sea-going ships. There were not only official shipbuilding yards, but also many private ones. Shipyard.

Someone has counted:

From the time Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty reached the end of his reign, the various states built 3,337 ships per year.

The Zhao and Song Dynasties also had regulations on the number of shipbuilding in various places. For example, in the fifth year of Emperor Zong Yuanyou of the Song Dynasty, he stipulated that Wenzhou, Mingzhou and other places should build a quota of 600 ships per year. In the last years of Song Zhenzong's reign, the annual output of ships was 2,916, among which Jiangxi Road Qianzhou (later renamed Ganzhou, just below Jiangzhou) and Jizhou accounted for 1,130 ships, with the largest proportion.

It is not difficult to see from this that there are a large number of ships in the southeast.

However, since the Zhao and Song Dynasty's biggest demand for ships at present was Gang Yun, the ships they built were mainly Gang ships.

——This ship can travel in coastal areas (that is, close to the shore), but cannot travel across seas and oceans.

After learning the good news, Jiang Hongfei was overjoyed and immediately sent Shi Xiu to contact Li Jun and asked Li Jun to lead the Third and Fourth Water Armies and all the ships in Shuibo Liangshan to Hangzhou Port to receive the loot.

Soon after, Lu Zhishen, Pang Wanchun, Liang Jin and others took control of Hangzhou City. Jiang Hongfei asked Lu Zhishen to send people to replace Gao Liang, Chen Liqing and others.

Gao Liang came back and reported to Jiang Hongfei: "There are about four million stones of official grain in the granary in Hangzhou."

When Chen Liqing came back, she brought with her a clerk from Bingjiaku.

The clerk said as if he were counting treasures: "There are 5,523 pieces of paper armor, 2,335 pieces of leather armor, 876 pieces of iron armor, and 13,000 pieces of various weapons in the armor library. Twenty bows, one thousand one hundred and thirty-three crossbows, and the rest of the armor are equipped on the soldiers and brave men who defend the city..."

According to the figures reported by this clerk, the number of finished armors in Hangzhou is not only incomparable to Daming Prefecture, but also to Kaide Prefecture. However, iron bars, horns, cowhide, tendon, sheepskin, and arrowheads are all incomparable. However, the quantity of strategic materials such as weapons and feathers is more than that of Daming Prefecture and Kaide Prefecture combined.

Wu Yong analyzed that the main reason for this situation is that although the southeast is rich in products, there has been no war in the southeast for a long time, so there is no need to store soldiers and armor. Strategic materials are just a centralized place. When they are concentrated, they will be sent Go to Bianliang City in Tokyo and make it into armor.

Unsaid, Jiang Hongfei wants all these good things.

It is worth mentioning that the people who were brought by Jiang Hongfei to conduct public trials were all dispersed along the way.

Therefore, here in Hangzhou, Jiang Hongfei has to personally go to battle to hold a public trial.

When the matter was urgent, Jiang Hongfei did not maintain his identity and postponed the matter of doing justice for heaven.

After Zhao Ting was accused of wanting to kill everyone in Hangzhou, Jiang Hongfei personally presided over the public trial after beheading Zhao Ting on a cross street in Hangzhou, starting with Chen Jian, the political envoy, and Zhao Yue, the integrity envoy.

At the same time, Jiang Hongfei sent a message to Shuibo Liangshan, asking Wang Lun to send Lin Ren and others to him to share his worries.

But this far water cannot quench the near thirst.

After a tiring day, when Jiang Hongfei posted a list to recruit talents, he deliberately raised the treatment of those literati and lowered the threshold a bit, hoping that those unsuccessful Zhao Song officials and imperial students, even if they were only proficient in writing, would , can come and vote for yourself.

It may be that the redundant officials in the Zhao and Song dynasties prevented a large number of literati with political ambitions from having such opportunities.

It may also be that the Zhao and Song Dynasties recruited too many imperial students, but there were not so many positions to arrange these imperial students.

It is also possible that Jiang Hongfei asked Wu to write a recruitment essay that impressed some literati.

Perhaps some scholars guessed Jiang Hongfei's heel and knew that joining Jiang Hongfei could be of use.

In short, not long after Jiang Hongfei's recruitment list was released, dozens of literati came to vote for Jiang Hongfei.

What Jiang Hongfei never expected was that General Lu was among them.

During the Fang La Uprising, two people gave Fang La good advice that was related to the success or failure of the Fang La Uprising.

One of them is Chen Houtong.

The other one is General Lu.

General Lu suggested to Fang La: "Act directly to Jinling. Since we have spread the message to all the southeastern counties and counties, collect their taxes, we must first establish the foundation. Xu will propose a plan to capture it, which can be a century-old undertaking."

General Lu believed that since the Zhao and Song Dynasty had lost its economic lifeline in the southeast, it must go all out to regain it. He suggested that Fang La immediately seize Jinling and control the natural dangers of the Yangtze River in order to consolidate the southeast.

But Fang La, who was short-sighted and self-willed, did not adopt General Lu's advice, but instead attacked in separate directions on his own initiative.

Specifically:

Go all the way north and attack Xiuzhou;

Go all the way south and attack the area south of Muzhou - after conquering Chuzhou, this route is divided into three routes: attack Yuezhou in the east; attack Wenzhou in the south; and attack Xinzhou on Jiangnan East Road in the west.

Fang La personally led the army to stay in Hangzhou.

In other words, Fang La separated his troops and only used a partial force to fight slowly north.

Of course, Fang La also had his own reasons.

In Fang La's view, given the slow and slow work efficiency of the Zhao and Song Dynasties, it would be quick to send out a large army after half a year, so he could capture all of the southeast first, and then calmly move north, relying on the human and financial resources of the entire southeast to follow Zhao The Song Dynasty fought slowly.

But Fang La never expected that at that time in Daming Mansion in Beijing, there would be hundreds of thousands of elite Song troops ready to go.

in short.

After the Fang La rebel army was divided, the rebel army attacking south won a series of victories, successively conquering Wuzhou, Quzhou, Chuzhou and the counties in these states.

Although the Fang La Rebel Army seemed to have achieved many victories, the Song Army in various states and counties and the landlord armed forces in various places resisted vigorously, seriously slowing down the progress of the Fang La Rebel Army.

This resulted in the Fang La Rebel Army being dispersed after conquering three states. At the same time, Yuezhou, Wenzhou and Xinzhou were far apart. The attacking Fang La Rebel Army could not take care of each other. The city defenses in each state were quite strong. Therefore, the rebel army was not only unable to quickly conquer these areas. area, and was held back by the local Song army and landlord armed forces.

As a result, although the Fangla Rebel Army conquered 52 counties in six prefectures and achieved a great victory, due to the dispersion of their forces, the Fangla Rebel Army in the north was unable to attack due to insufficient strength and other reasons. They could not reach the Yangtze River in time and relied on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River. Defense, the rebels heading south were unable to return for reinforcements, and then Fang La's rebels could only watch helplessly as the Song army calmly crossed the river and entered the two Zhejiang areas.

Judging from this result, General Lu's strategic vision is very precise.

Later, due to lack of mental preparation for defense and retreat, Fang La insisted on conducting a long-term passive defense in the isolated and helpless city of Hangzhou when the Song Dynasty pressed heavily on the territory.

Seeing this, General Lu advocated an immediate withdrawal from Hangzhou.

But Fang La just couldn't bear to part with Hangzhou, which he won through a bloody battle.

As a result, Fang La missed the best opportunity for strategic transfer, which in turn led to Fang La being annihilated.

What's even more rare is that after the main force of Fang La's rebel army was wiped out by the Song army, General Lu continued to lead the rebel army to fight the Song army to the end.

This shows that General Lu is definitely not the kind of person who would surrender to the Zhao and Song Dynasty. Jiang Hongfei can use it with confidence and boldness, and even let General Lu help him guard his home.

After General Lu joined Jiang Hongfei, he gave Jiang Hongfei some advice: "Act directly to Jinling, and since we have spread the message to all the southeastern prefectures and counties to collect their taxes, we must first establish the foundation, and Xu will propose a plan to capture it, which can be a legacy for a hundred generations."

After hearing Lu Jiangxian's strategy, Jiang Hongfei was really embarrassed.

In fact, Jiang Hongfei's initial strategic goal has been achieved.

Next, Jiang Hongfei actually waited for the people he had left in the areas he conquered along the road to transport the seized goods to Hangzhou, and then Li Jun and the others transported half of the wealth in the southeast back to Shuibo Liangshan.

At the same time, wait for Fang La and others to come to Hangzhou, hand over Hangzhou to Fang La and others, and then let Fang Baihua and others continue to fight south, triggering all the war in the southeast, and finally occupy Fujian and defend it by danger, watching the Song army go south to fight with Fang La's rebels. .

At that time, Jiang Hongfei would lead the Liangshan Army to capture Shandong and Hebei, and use them as the basis to compete with other heroes in the Central Plains.

In other words, Jiang Hongfei did not want to fight further north.

However, if Jiang Hongfei does not fight north now, it will easily arouse others' suspicion, which may ruin his own plan.

Secondly, General Lu offered a good idea. If he did not adopt it, it would easily damage the enthusiasm of this good minister. The key point is that it is not easy for Jiang Hongfei to tell General Lu that he is not here to liberate the southeast. If Jiang Hongfei says so, those who follow Jiang Hongfei will People who liberated the southeast might run to Fang La. After all, Fang La was the one who really wanted to liberate the southeast.

Thirdly, at this very moment, Shi Sheng from Suzhou sent a message to Jiang Hongfei, saying that his city was ready to be dedicated to the city. As soon as Jiang Hongfei and his army arrived, Suzhou, which was second only to Hangzhou in terms of wealth, would belong to Jiang Hongfei.

Fourthly, Suzhou is Zhu Meng's hometown. By capturing Zhu Meng, it can be said that the uprising has achieved a staged victory.

Jiang Hongfei discussed it with Liu Huiniang and Wu Yong. The three of them all felt that it would take a month to get to Hangzhou with Fang La and the others at their slowest speed. It would be better to go higher up and earn more for Shuibo Liangshan. The capital of the world should also leave more territory for Fang La and the others, which will increase the strategic space of Fang La and the others, so that they will not be wiped out by the Song army in three strikes, five divided by two, and they will not be able to hold back the elite of the Song army for the sake of water and Liangshan. effect.

Therefore, Jiang Hongfei left Lu Zhishen, Wu Yong, General Lu and others to lead the Zhennan First Army to stay in Hangzhou and continue to fight for heaven, while Jiang Hongfei and Fang Baihua led Ma Qijun, Zhennan Second Army, and Zhennan Third Army to go north...

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