Xianxia version of Water Margin

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There is a certain reason why the Jurchens in history could dominate this period.

The Jurchens, especially those in the early Jin Dynasty, were indeed something.

Let’s not talk about others, but the group of Jurchens headed by Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Zongwang who caused the Jingkang Shame were indeed extraordinary.

Such a group of greedy, cunning, and lonely robbers would not do nothing honestly even if they did not invade the south.

The key point is that in the early Jin Dynasty, or more precisely, during this period after Wanyan Wuqimai ascended the throne, the special political environment within the Jin Dynasty made it impossible for robbers such as Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Zongwang not to cause trouble.

After Wanyan Wuqimai ascended the throne, the political forces of the Jin Dynasty were mainly divided into two factions: the royalist faction and the military merit group.

The royalist faction was a group of people headed by Wanyan Zongpan, the eldest son of Wanyan Wuqimai, and its main body was the Jin Taizong line.

The political proposition of this faction was mainly to maintain the authority of Emperor Wanyan Wuqimai.

After Wanyan Wuqimai ascended the throne, his main political proposition was to change the voting system to a centralized system.

In other words, Wanyan Wuqimai's political wish was to no longer implement the alliance system where everyone voted on major events, but the monarchy system where the emperor had the final say.

In other words, Wanyan Wuqimai no longer wanted to be a CEO, but wanted to be a real emperor like the emperor of the Central Plains.

However, because Wanyan Wuqimai and the royalists had no military merits, they could not suppress the military merit group at all, and it was even more difficult to implement the reforms that Wanyan Wuqimai wanted.

The military merit group of the Jin Dynasty was divided into: the Jurchen aristocratic group, and the Jin Taizu line.

The Jurchen aristocratic group was a group of Jurchen nobles headed by Wanyan Zonghan who followed Wanyan Aguda to build the country.

This group of people firmly opposed Wanyan Wuqimai's reforms.

At the beginning, when Wanyan Aguda started his business, these people were all original shareholders who brought capital into the company.

Now the company has grown.

Wanyan Wuqimai, who inherited the position of CEO from Wanyan Aguda, actually wanted to swallow up the shares of these original shareholders and turn all the companies into Wanyan Wuqimai's own, so that these original shareholders would become employees.

How could this be possible?

Original shareholders such as Wanyan Zonghan naturally firmly opposed Wanyan Wuqimai's robbery.

After the death of Wanyan Aguda and Wanyan Aguda's eldest son Wanyan Zongjun, the line of Jin Taizu was headed by Wanyan Aguda's eldest son Wanyan Zonggan, the second son Wanyan Zongwang, and the third son Wanyan Zongfu.

——Many of Wanyan Aguda's sons had military merits, among which Wanyan Zongwang and Wanyan Zongfu were the most recommended, and Wanyan Zonggan is now the prime minister of Jin (equivalent to the prime minister of Jin). In other words, Jin Taizu's line is very powerful both politically and militarily.

If Jin Taizu's faction turned to the royalists, they would definitely be able to suppress the Jurchen noble group and allow Wanyan Wuqimai to complete the reforms he wanted.

But this would not be good for Jin Taizu's faction, so Jin Taizu's faction does not agree to the reforms at present.

But maintaining the rule of the Jin royal family and clan is also beneficial to Jin Taizu's faction, so Jin Taizu's faction has been preventing the Jurchen noble group from becoming bigger.

In short, Jin Taizu's faction has been playing the game of smoothing things over.

The three political forces in the Jin Kingdom fought and compromised with each other, and gradually maintained a balance.

However, during this period, some things that had a great impact on the Jin Kingdom also happened.

One of them was that the military merit group insisted on launching a war against foreign countries despite the opposition of the royalists, hoping to gain self-reliance.

When the Jin Kingdom launched a war, the first target was definitely the Yuan Empire. After all, Jiang Hongfei killed a large number of Jin’s royal family, clan members, and nobles, and robbed a large number of Jin’s royal daughters, clan members, and noble daughters. Even the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Aguda, died of depression to a large extent because of his defeat at the hands of Jiang Hongfei.

In short, the Jin Kingdom had every reason to go to war with the Yuan Empire.

In fact, since the founding of the Yuan Empire, the Jin people have been harassing the borders of the Yuan Empire.

However, Jiang Hongfei used Chen Ke, Wang Bin, Zhan Du, Li Yanxian, and Zhao Li to guard the borders, and provided Chen Ke and others with sufficient troops, strategic materials, and sufficient trust and support, allowing them to fight against the Jin Empire with all their might.

On the other hand, since the Jin people failed to annex the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, the Three Prefectures of Pingluanying, and the northern region of the Zhao Song Dynasty as in history, they did not have the blessing of talents and financial resources from the Yanyun region and the Zhao Song Dynasty, which greatly restricted the development of the Jin Kingdom.

As the situation changed, the Jin people could not do anything to the border of the Yuan Empire.

If it continued like this, the Jin people would not be a concern. After Jiang Hongfei completely annexed the Zhao Song Dynasty, he would turn around and slowly deal with the Jin people.

Unexpectedly, after the Jin people saw that they could not develop to the south, they changed to the east and west, that is, they changed to the direction of Goryeo and the grassland area.

Wanyan Zongwang was indeed one of the culprits of the Jingkang Shame. Seeing that the Yuan Empire could not be defeated, he thought it was because of his lack of military strength, so he set his sights on the old rival of the Jurchen tribe, Goryeo.

In July of the first year of Goryeo Shouchang, Wang Xi accepted the "abdication" of his nephew Wang Yu and became Goryeo Sukjong.

Because Wang Xi's position was not legitimate and people's hearts were unstable, Goryeo's domestic political situation was turbulent. Goryeo ministers and some pro-Goryeo Helandian chiefs were adding fuel to the fire. Wang Xi provoked a war with the Wanyan Jurchens for Helandian.

The war lasted for six years, and ended with Helandian belonging to the Wanyan Jurchens.

Through the war with Goryeo, the Jurchens defended their ancestral territory, curbed Goryeo's momentum of expansion to the north, promoted the union of the Jurchen tribes, and accelerated the process of the Wanyan Jurchens unifying the tribes. The Wanyan Jurchens then dared to conquer the Liao Dynasty, which was still regarded as a great power at that time, and finally established the current Jin Dynasty.

Because of that war, Goryeo lost all its vassal states and its national prestige plummeted. Since then, its policy of advancing northward, which had been actively promoted since its founding, was finally frustrated, which led to the dictatorship of the aristocratic families, frequent internal conflicts in the ruling group, and turbulent domestic situation.

More importantly, two years ago, Goryeo Ruizong was seriously ill and passed the throne to the 14-year-old crown prince Wang Kai before his death. His grandfather Li Ziqian followed Wang Kai to the Chongguang Hall and became Goryeo Renzong.

Wang Kai was too young when he ascended the throne. His uncles were quite eager to follow in the footsteps of their father, King Sukjong of Goryeo. Lee Ziqian took advantage of the opportunity to help Wang Kai ascend the throne to seize power.

Originally, King Sukjong of Goryeo seized the throne by suppressing the rebellion of Lee Ziyi. The Inju Lee family, which had been married to the Goryeo royal family for three generations, was restricted, and Lee Ziqian and others were forced to lie dormant.

However, as King Ruizong of Goryeo took Lee Ziqian's eldest and second daughters as concubines, and his second daughter gave birth to Wang Kai for King Ruizong of Goryeo, the Lee family revived and its power expanded again.

After Wang Kai ascended the throne, he conferred Lee Ziqian as a meritorious official who assisted in the peacekeeping of the society, the guardian of the Grand Master, the Minister of the Central Secretariat, and the Marquis of Shaocheng. In October of the same year, he was conferred the title of Duke of Hanyang.

Moreover, Lee Ziqian married his third and fourth daughters (that is, Wang Kai's third and fourth aunts) to Wang Kai.

In this way, Li Ziqian was not only Wang Kai's grandfather, but also Wang Kai's father-in-law, and the Grand Tutor of Goryeo. He also served as the head of three provinces, judge of officials, and the Ministry of War. He opened a palace and built a palace, and his power was overwhelming.

Later, Li Ziqian used the excuse that Han Anren, Wen Gongmei and others were plotting to support Daifang Gong Wang Yu, and purged a group of opponents, thereby consolidating his power.

This made Wang Kai personally pass on the imperial edict outside the Qiande Hall. All officials first went to the palace to congratulate, and then went to Li Ziqian's house to congratulate. The etiquette was comparable to that of the Goryeo king, and his birthday was called "Renshou Festival" like that of the emperor.

It can be said that Li Ziqian has reached the highest position among the ministers.

But even so, Li Ziqian was not satisfied. Seeing that his power was so great, how could he be willing to let Wang Kai continue to be the Goryeo king?

So, Li Ziqian wanted to kill Wang Kai and replace him.

In fact, Li Ziqian had poisoned Wang Kai several times, wanting to poison Wang Kai and then usurp the throne.

Unfortunately, a daughter who is married off cannot live forever.

Wang Kai's third and fourth aunts saw that their father wanted to poison their husband, so they quickly stopped him and saved Wang Kai's life.

It is no exaggeration to say that the fight between Wang Kai and Li Ziqian has reached a fever pitch.

If, as in history, the Jin people focused their strategy on the richer Zhao Song Dynasty and wanted to develop towards the richer south, the Goryeo Dynasty could still survive in such a situation, and the Wang Kai monarch and ministers and the foreign relatives group led by Li Ziqian could still slowly fight internally.

But now Jiang Hongfei has blocked all the passages for the Jin people to go south, forcing the Jin people to find another way.

Wanyan Zongwang set his sights on Goryeo.

At the beginning of the year, when Jiang Hongfei was attacking the Song Dynasty, Wanyan Zongwang launched an aggressive war against Goryeo on the pretext that "the envoys sent by Goryeo to the Jin Kingdom to propose marriage only brought letters of credence, but did not bring a surrender letter, and did not pay tribute to the Jin Kingdom."

At that time, Goryeo was in a state of internal strife, and no one thought that the Jin people would suddenly attack Goryeo.

As a result, Wanyan Zongwang led only 50,000 troops, and rushed across the border with his third brother Wanyan Zongfu, fourth brother Jin Wushu, and others, and attacked Goryeo, and then marched straight into Goryeo.

I will not go into details about the process.

In just less than two months, the Jin army took advantage of Goryeo's unpreparedness and attacked Goryeo's capital Kaijing City, and defeated Goryeo's two armies and six guards.

Moreover, Wanyan Zongwang and others also recruited a lot of Goryeo's defeated troops and organized them into five Meng'an, whose strength suddenly reached more than 100,000.

Seeing such a powerful Jin army approaching the city, Wang Kai and Li Ziqian could no longer care about the internal struggle, and hurriedly negotiated peace with the Jin Kingdom regardless of everything.

As a result, Goryeo was extorted a large number of women and wealth by the Jin people.

To put it in a more vivid way, Wanyan Zongwang almost replicated the first time in history that the Jin people surrounded the city of Tokyo Bianliang.

The difference is that after that, Wang Kai and Li Ziqian did not choose to fight or provoke the Jin army like Zhao Huan, the idiot. Instead, they chose to give full play to their survival instinct of the fence-sitters of the Goryeo people and unswervingly recognized the Jin Kingdom as their suzerain.

In Li Ziqian's words, "The Jin Kingdom was a small country in the past, serving Liao and us. Now it has risen suddenly, with a strong government and a strong army, and is getting stronger day by day. It is also adjacent to our border, so we have to serve it. Moreover, it is a small matter to serve a big matter. The way of the previous kings is to send envoys to ask for favors first."

Li Ziqian said so, and Wang Kai, who was at a disadvantage, had to issue an order to pay tribute to the Jin Kingdom.

-- Moreover, because this was Li Ziqian's proposal, Wang Kai could still push the responsibility to Li Ziqian in the future, and let Li Ziqian take the blame and bear the responsibility.

Goryeo's quick admission of defeat prevented the Jin people from invading Goryeo for the second time, and thus prevented the "Jing Kang Shame" from happening in Goryeo.

However, this is also based on the premise that Goryeo is willing to lend another 100,000 troops to the Jin Kingdom.

That is to say, during the period when Jiang Hongfei attacked Song, Wanyan Zongwang grew to the point where he had more than 200,000 troops.

And this was not the biggest outbreak of the Jin Dynasty.

During the period when Wanyan Zongwang developed eastward, Wanyan Zonghan, another culprit of the Jingkang Shame in history, chose to develop westward.

The territory of the Liao Dynasty was not limited to the current occupied by the Jin Dynasty and the Yuan Empire.

During the heyday of the Liao Dynasty, the territory extended to the Ergun River and the Greater Khingan Range in the north and the Altai Mountains in the west.

In other words, the Yuan Empire only seized the southern part of the Liao Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty only seized the northeastern part of the Liao Dynasty. There was still a vast territory of the Liao Dynasty to the north and west.

In history, Yelu Dashi occupied this territory, marched westward, and established the Western Liao Dynasty.

After failing to develop southward, Wanyan Zonghan set his sights on this land.

Wanyan Zonghan heard from the Liao people who surrendered to the Jin Dynasty that Khatun City had never been involved in the war and had been developing for more than 200 years, and had hundreds of thousands of spiritual horses.

Wanyan Zonghan felt that as long as he got these hundreds of thousands of spiritual horses, he could sweep the world, including the Yuan Empire, and achieve supreme achievements.

On the other hand, because Jiang Hongfei had incorporated Yelu Dashi and the Liao people who originally founded the Western Liao Dynasty, this land was leaderless, and the grassland tribes living on it fought on their own. How could they resist the invasion of the elite Jin people led by Wanyan Zonghan?

The process is not repeated.

Just say that Wanyan Zonghan led his 50,000 troops all the way north, across the desert, to Khatun City, and then defeated the small Northern Liao regime entrenched there (that is, the remnant Liao regime established by Yelu Yali), and seized the hundreds of thousands of war horses.

Not only that, Wanyan Zonghan also led his men to conquer the Liao people in seven military states, including Weiwu, Chongde, Huifan, Xin, Dalin, Zihe, and Tuo, and eighteen tribes, including Dahuangshiwei, Dila, Wangjila, Chachila, Yexi, Bigude, Nila, Dalaguai, Damili, Mierji, Hezhu, Uguli, Zubu, Pusuwan, Tanggu, Humusi, Xidi, and Jiuerbi.

Each of these small forces is not big, but they are numerous.

After Wanyan Zonghan incorporated these small forces, he had nearly 200,000 soldiers and horses.

As a result, in terms of strength, Wanyan Zonghan's strength was still above Wanyan Zongwang.

In other words, the Jin Dynasty grew stronger in another way.

Now, Wanyan Zonghan and Wanyan Zongwang led their respective armies of 200,000 to the border of the Yuan Dynasty again, wanting to avenge their previous shame.

After hearing the news, Jiang Hongfei returned to Yanjing Yuandadu from Tokyo Bianliang City, ready to personally deal with the invasion of the Jin Kingdom...

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