Xianxia version of Water Margin

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After receiving the news from Shi Xiu that Hangzhou had been captured, Zhao Gou had been captured, and all the royal family members, clan members, and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty had been beheaded, Jiang Hongfei ordered the Yuan army, which had been prepared long ago, to move east immediately.

On January 15, Jiang Hongfei personally led the main force of the Yuan army across the Huai River.

On the 20th, the Yuan army's left vanguard Lin Chong and Zhang Jun broke through Dasheng Pass, and all the Song garrison soldiers fled. The Yuan army's right vanguard Guan Sheng and Liu Guangshi led the army to attack the most dangerous Hutou Pass, and first fought with the Song army in Shawo. Deputy Governor Deng Fei defeated the Song army and then defeated the Song soldiers guarding the pass.

On the 21st, Jiang Hongfei arrived in Huangpi.

On the 30th, Jiang Hongfei led his army to the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Liu Bao, who was then the deputy envoy of the Southern Song Dynasty along the Yangtze River, was originally a general under Zhang Jun. As Zhang Jun was wanted by Jiang Hongfei, he was reused by Zhao Gou and was responsible for guarding the vital Yangtze River. However, he was arrogant and mean, cruel and ungrateful. He did not get along with several local officials. He only knew how to make money, and his subordinates' combat effectiveness was greatly reduced. The local people hated him. When the Yuan army arrived, the fishermen donated their fishing boats to help the army and served as guides.

On the first day of February, Jiang Hongfei ordered General Yang Zhi to lead the front army to cross the Yangtze River.

On the third day of February, Jiang Hongfei climbed Xianglu Mountain in the north of the Yangtze River and overlooked the Yangtze River. He saw Wu Lake in the north of the Yangtze River, Yangluo Fort was built on the east bank of the lake, and Huhuangchuan was on the south bank. The Song army used large boats to block the crossing of the river, with 100,000 soldiers and 2,000 warships, and lined up in the river. The land and water formation was strict. The Yuan army immediately sent troops to seize two large boats and prepared boats overnight, intending to seize the stronghold of Yangluo Fort and force a crossing of the Yangtze River.

On the morning of the fourth day, it was dark and windy, and the generals thought it was impossible to cross the river. Jiang Hongfei refused to obey and ordered to raise the flags and beat the drums, and divide the troops into three routes to advance simultaneously.

The brave general Li Kui led hundreds of death-defying soldiers to attack, and beat the drums in the dim light to advance rapidly, reaching the south bank. The troops also competed to cross the river. The Song army fought back and was defeated in three battles.

The general of the Yuan navy, Ruan Xiaowu, and his subordinate Li Bao led the army to fight on the north bank in light boats, captured 20 large Song ships, captured 200 people, and beheaded the Song general Liu Weifu. The general of the navy, Zhang Shun, and his subordinate Wang Dingliu, led the elite troops to fight the Song army in the middle of the river. There were 17 battles, more than 1,000 Song ships were captured, and many Song soldiers were killed and drowned. The Song army was defeated in all three routes, and the Yangluo Fort defense line also suffered repeated failures. The Yuan army quickly crossed the river.

Jiang Hongfei was overjoyed when he heard the news. He ordered the whole army to besiege Ezhou City. At the same time, he sent a part of the army led by Zhang Qing and Sun Li to attack Jiangxi. He also sent troops to Lu Zhishen and Shi Jin's army who were detoured to Hunan.

After crossing the river, Jiang Hongfei camped in Huhuangzhou and ordered that "if any soldier enters a civilian's house without permission, he will be punished according to military law, and all prisoners will be released."

On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Jiang Hongfei sent people to Echeng to persuade him.

When the messenger reached the east gate, the Song army rained arrows.

Jiang Hongfei knew that the Song army was prepared, so he led his army to surround Ezhou on the ninth day of the first lunar month.

Because Zhao Gou sent Zhang Jun to take over the army under Tong Guan, his current military strength is the strongest among the Song generals. Later, Zhang Jun raised the banner of "serving the king and eliminating rebellion" and received the imperial edict of Zhao Gou appointing him as the envoy of Jiang, Zhejiang and Huainan. At present, Zhang Jun is the highest military commander of the Song army.

With Zhao Gou's life or death unknown, Zhang Jun led the remnants of the Song army and was actively resisting the attack of the Yuan army. At the same time, Zhang Jun himself was also leading a large army to attack Hangzhou City in an attempt to rescue Zhao Gou and the small Southern Song Dynasty.

——In order to attract the main force of the Song army and completely eliminate the Zhao Song Dynasty as soon as possible, Shi Xiu, Sun Jing, Shi Bao and others blocked the fact that Zhao Gou and other major figures of the Southern Song Dynasty had all been sent to Yuan Dadu, so that Zhang Jun and other Song army soldiers mistakenly believed that Zhao Gou and others were still in Hangzhou City.

Since most of the Song army was concentrated under the city of Hangzhou, Ezhou only had Zhang Yan, the governor of the state affairs, in charge, and the military force was very empty, and the defense suddenly became critical.

On the 11th, Jiang Hongfei climbed the Yayun Pavilion in the northeast of the city, stood on a high building to observe the military situation in the city, and saw that the city was sending troops, so he sent troops to fight and captured two Song soldiers. Later, he sent a general to bring the Song surrendered people to the city to persuade them to surrender. Zhang Yan killed the surrendered people and sent troops to attack, but was defeated again.

Zhang Yan then used a delaying tactic, pretending to surrender, to persuade the Yuan army to retreat eastward.

Jiang Hongfei took advantage of the situation and retreated. Zhang Yan fell into the trap and took the opportunity to leave the city, wanting to burn down the houses around the city and make the defense of Ezhou city one.

At this time, Jiang Hongfei sent Luan Tingyu to lead the cavalry to fight. Zhang Yan's troops were insufficient, and he underestimated the enemy. He was ambushed by the Yuan army at Wulipo near Ezhou City and was defeated. Zhang Yan himself was also killed in the battle at Wulipo.

The Yuan army then captured Ezhou City.

Zhang Jun was shocked to hear that Ezhou was broken and the Yuan army was advancing eastward rapidly!

On the other hand, Zhang Jun was very anxious because he had been attacking Hangzhou for a long time.

On this day, Zhang Jun, Qu Duan and others led their troops to the north gate of Hangzhou to challenge the enemy. Shi Bao took a meteor hammer and mounted his horse, holding a wind-breaking knife in his hand, opened the city gate and came out to meet the enemy.

In the Song army, Qu Duan asked Liu Xiliang to fight.

After receiving the order, Liu Xiliang went out to fight with Shi Bao.

The two fought for more than 20 rounds, and Shi Bao turned his horse back and left. Liu Xiliang hurriedly reined in his horse and returned to his camp.

Qu Duan asked: "Why didn't you chase him?"

Liu Xiliang said: "As the commander-in-chief, Shi Bao went to the battle in person, and he must want to kill me to boost morale. As soon as we fought, I knew that his strength was above mine, but he dragged his sword and ran away. He must have a plan."

Wang Zeren on the side said: "Shi Bao is used to using meteor hammers, turning back to pretend to lose, and letting people go deep into important places. Over the years, I don't know how many people have been defeated by him in this way. We must be on guard."

Qu Duan knew that these were all excuses. The actual situation was that the Zhao Song Dynasty had only a small corner of the country left, and now even this temporary capital was taken by the Yuan army. Who can't see that the Zhao Song Dynasty is going to end? How can they fight hard for the Zhao Song Dynasty?

Zhang Jun was grateful to Qu Duan for his recognition.

At the beginning, soon after Qu Duan cooperated with Zhang Jun and Wang Yuan to seize Tong Guan's troops, Zhang Jun built an altar and appointed Qu Duan as the mighty general, the Jianghuai Observation Envoy, the commander of the Liangzhe and Shaanxi Xuanfu Disposal Envoy, and the governor of Suzhou.

Zhang Jun was still grateful to Qu Duan.

At the beginning, in order to grow stronger, Qu Duan annexed a lot of Song troops by force. The Southern Song Dynasty court was very shocked and suspected that Qu Duan had the intention of rebellion, so he appointed him as the promotion officer of the Imperial Camp Envoy, and wanted to use this as an excuse to transfer him to the Grand Marshal's Mansion.

Qu Duan was naturally unwilling and did not dare to go to the Grand Marshal's Mansion.

This made the situation worse.

The ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty court talked about it, saying that Qu Duan would definitely rebel.

Zhang Jun was very calm about this matter. He even guaranteed the lives of his family of 100 people to guarantee that Qu Duan would not rebel against the Southern Song Dynasty court.

For this reason, the Southern Song Dynasty court revoked the order to transfer Qu Duan to the Grand Marshal's Mansion.

Qu Duan was very grateful to Zhang Jun for this.

It was for this reason that Qu Duan cooperated with Zhang Jun to seize Tong Guan's military power.

Later, after Zhang Jun replaced Tong Guan, he regarded Qu Duan as the main military pillar, and Qu Duan also changed his habit of relying on his talent and being difficult to control, actively supported Zhang Jun and obeyed Zhang Jun's command.

Thanks to the support of Qu Duan and others, Zhang Jun completely subdued the arrogant soldiers and generals under Tong Guan in a short period of time, and also changed the chaotic state of the Song army that was mutually hostile and unwilling to support each other, and completely incorporated the Song army into the rule of the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Zhang Jun, who had accomplished such a big thing, was newly vigorous and ambitious, thinking that he could turn the tide and help Zhao Gou recover the lost territory and restore the glory of the Zhao Song Dynasty.

But the reality was that the situation of the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty was getting worse and worse. Zhao Gou muddled along and was ordered to make peace, which was a plan to hide; he led his troops to guard the city, which was a way to protect himself. He could not bear to see his father and brother willing to be captured, "recognize the enemy as his father", and even changed his surname.

That's all.

The key is that the Zhao Song Dynasty only has this tiny piece of land left, but Zhao Gou has no ambition and only cares about his lower body, which makes his subordinates see no hope at all.

Besides, the Yuan Empire has conquered 70% of the territory of the Zhao Song Dynasty, and has also recovered the 19 states of Yanyunping that the Zhao Song Dynasty has never been able to recover, and is about to complete the great unification.

At this time, helping the Zhao Song Dynasty to resist the Yuan Empire is actually reversing history. The problem is that there is no benefit. The Zhao Song Dynasty can't even pay the military pay now.

Therefore, except for a few people like Zhang Jun who are still actively planning for the small Southern Song Dynasty, most of the Song army's soldiers are "having their own ulterior motives", including Qu Duan, who has begun to have other ideas.

Zhang Jun forced himself to calm down, organizing volunteers while ordering various military officials to march to help.

On the 28th, Zhang Jun sent troops from Jiangxi to immediately assist Zhongliu to enhance the ability to resist the attack of the Yuan army.

But at this time, Jiang Hongfei had already arrived in Jiangzhou with the Yuan army.

Back then, Jiang Hongfei had captured Jiangzhou. Here, Jiang Hongfei eliminated the nobles, wealthy families, and gentry of the Zhao Song Dynasty, exempted the people of Jiangzhou from debt, distributed land, and distributed grain, so that the people of Jiangzhou were liberated and lived a fairy-like life.

Later, because Jiang Hongfei chose to retreat strategically, he gave Jiangzhou to Fang La.

Fang La's adviser Chen Kutong's opinion was to let Fang La lead most of his troops to capture Xuanzhou, then go upstream along the Yangtze River to capture Shuzhou, Huangzhou, and Ezhou, and then go straight along the Han River to Xiangyang, which was occupied by Wang Qing at the time.

At the same time, Chen Kutong also proposed that it was important to capture Jinling, which was not heavily guarded by the Song army, which was equivalent to controlling the Yangtze River and was the key to stabilizing the southeast.

But Fang La, who had tasted success for the first time, lost his mind. He misjudged the situation and underestimated the strength of the Song army. He optimistically thought that he could occupy more counties before the Song army arrived. By then, the Song army would not be able to suppress the rebels at all. Moreover, he did not think that the Song army would go south so quickly.

So Fang La did not adopt Chen Kutong's suggestion. He just occupied Jiangzhou, which Jiang Hongfei gave him, and hurriedly seized the territory. In the end, Tong Guan led a large number of Song troops across the river, and Fang La lost the strategic initiative.

On the other hand, although Fang La had great ambitions and wanted to overthrow the dark rule of the corrupt Zhao Song Dynasty, the Manichaeism under his command was actually a violent organization. They lacked weapons and armor, so they incited each other with the theory of ghosts and gods, burned houses, plundered gold and silk children, and forced good people to join the army. Many people did not know how to fight at all, and they could not even recognize all the weapons. They followed the crowd to join the rebels when they heard the drums and shouts, and many were killed and injured in the subsequent battles.

But even so, Fang La still failed to keep Jiangzhou.

Jiangzhou was later taken away by Tong Guan.

Everyone knows the discipline of the Song army. Moreover, the Yuan Empire later captured Zhao Ji and Zhao Huan and occupied the Central Plains. The Zhao Song court could not provide military pay for Tong Guan and his Song army.

There was no way. In order to protect the army, Tong Guan could only let his Song army soldiers burn, kill, loot, and even rape and plunder.

It is no exaggeration to say that since the Yuan army withdrew from Jiangzhou, the people here have been living in dire straits and living worse than dogs.

Therefore, when Jiang Hongfei led the Yuan army back, the people of Jiangzhou welcomed him with tears in their eyes.

Jiang Hongfei did not disappoint the people of Jiangzhou. As soon as he arrived in Jiangzhou, he left a special person to conduct a public trial, eliminate the dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry families in Jiangzhou, forgive debts, distribute land and food, and provide relief to the victims.

At the same time, Jiang Hongfei led the army to continue southward.

It is worth mentioning that Jiang Hongfei did not encounter resistance along the way.

The fact is just the opposite.

Not to mention that Zhang Jun actually sent a large number of Song troops to block the eastward advance of the Yuan army, and even the dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry families in various places spontaneously recruited troops to resist the Yuan army.

There is no way.

This is not a simple surrender that can be solved.

You must know that Jiang Hongfei has been eliminating dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry families along the way, and Jiang Hongfei wants to nationalize the land and then distribute it equally to the people, and restrict land annexation, not allowing individuals to own more than 200 acres of land.

These are all unsolvable contradictions, and the two sides are in a situation of life and death.

Therefore, these dignitaries, wealthy families, and gentry families have to stop Jiang Hongfei from occupying their territory even if it means destroying their families.

In other words, these high officials, wealthy families, and gentry families are not fighting for the Zhao Song Dynasty, but for themselves.

And don't think that these high officials, wealthy families, and gentry families are weak in combat.

This is a wrong understanding.

Zhujiazhuang and Zengtoushi in "Water Margin", Fengyunzhuang and Zhengyizhuang in "The Outlaws of the Marsh", Zhaojiacun and Toyota Town in "Mei's Water Margin" are all strong.

Do you think this is just an example?

Wrong.

This is actually the real situation in the Zhao Song Dynasty, and it is also a representative of the strength of the landlord class in the Zhao Song Dynasty.

In the Zhao Song Dynasty of this world, it is very common for landlords with thousands of acres of fertile land and many farmhands.

You must know that the land annexation in the Zhao Song Dynasty for nearly two hundred years has caused a shortage of land resources, a surge in the number of refugees, and the society has entered the era of refugee society.

It is very easy for refugees to become fugitives.

And once refugees embark on the path of fugitives, they naturally need the protection of powerful people.

On the other hand, the landlords of the Zhao Song Dynasty also needed private armed forces to protect their property.

The two sides hit it off, and then there were the owners and farmhands.

Therefore, examples of landlords colluding with fugitives were everywhere in the Zhao Song Dynasty, and they even formed gangs with the nature of underworld.

This happened more often in the south.

This was mainly because the military power of the Zhao Song Dynasty in the south was very weak.

The big families Deng and Fu in Jinxi County, Fuzhou, each had thousands of township soldiers, wearing red lacquered leather hats as their heads, called red heads, and were feared by people far and near. They were called Deng and Fu Ershe. The power of the parents and officials in Jiangxi was far less than that of these landlords, so they could only let them do whatever they wanted.

The landlords of the Zhao Song Dynasty not only had the habit of forming associations, but also had the habit of hoarding military equipment in their manors.

Moreover, these landlords and their families were generally strong.

In short, the landlords of the Zhao Song Dynasty were very strong.

For example, Wang Jing, a famous general in the early years of the Zhao Song Dynasty, used swords and guns to win the title of Jiedushi for himself.

There are also some civilian landlords who have achieved better results than the official army, such as Ma Shi of Linzi, Qingzhou. Before the Chanyuan Alliance, he actually led his farmhands to block the cavalry of the Liao Kingdom that entered Shandong.

There are also many masters among the farmhands of landlords.

In fact, before Yue Fei joined the army, he served as a farmhand in the Han family in Xiangzhou.

Now, it is mainly these landlord armed forces that are blocking the eastward advance of the Yuan army.

The key is that these landlord armed forces do not fight the Yuan army head-on, but fight guerrilla warfare with the Yuan army. The purpose is to delay the Yuan army and buy time for the Song army led by Zhang Jun to break through the city of Hangzhou.

However, the outcome of the Yuan-Song War is now clear. These landlord armed forces are just struggling to survive. At most, they can stop the Yuan army for a while, and it is impossible to stop the Yuan army all the time...

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