Chapter 123: Dispatch Troops

The Zhao sovereign has made a fool of himself!

He had the Bureau of Military Affairs moved to the Yushan camp early on, had the two lords of the Secretariat split the Secretariat in two between Nanyang and Xiangyang, and even took personal command of the army, putting on a show of being both under great threat and quite decisive.

In fact, on the very first day he entered the camp, he openly said things like "it won't be much longer" in front of everyone in the barracks.

Yet the Jin didn't show up at all in the entire seventh month. By the eighth month, troop movements and city defenses were complete all over Henan. Even Li Yanxian's unit, in the most dangerous position, had received two shipments of weapons and gunpowder from Nanyang, and still no main Jin force had crossed the river... In the daze, not only the Nanyang officials, but even the frontline generals and the Zhao sovereign himself thought the Jin weren't coming. Some even said that imperial edict was nothing but a highly effective strategic deception.

Then, at the beginning of the eighth month, news finally arrived, confirming that the Jin Emperor's edict was indeed effective, but it also made the Zhao sovereign and the entire Nanyang central government look foolish.

It turned out the Jin army hadn't failed to act immediately. They had taken decisive action in the first ten days of the seventh month, but from that point on, they encountered fierce counterattacks from the Hebei volunteer armies... And unlike the thriving situation in Nanyang, because the Jin considered Hebei their heartland, they had been moving large numbers of Jin Meng'an and Mouke units there since last year. When Jin nobles arrived in Hebei, they naturally seized fertile land, livestock, and people. Combined with the aftermath of last year's war, Hebei was essentially in economic collapse, with people displaced and resistance constant.

As for this southern campaign of two hundred thousand Jin troops, it was the first large-scale, formal, and spontaneous levy and plunder of Hebei by the newly settled Meng'an and Mouke units. The Jin's backward system and brutal customs doomed this levy to be savage and destructive.

You have to understand, the Han people aren't two-legged sheep. Even a two-legged sheep would cry out, kick, and bite before the knife falls, right?

So the Jin army's initial work of gathering forces fell into difficulty, and the Hebei volunteer armies grew stronger again... In fact, if the Zhao sovereign had enough revolutionary awareness and knowledge, he should have realized this from the sudden appearance of the Hedong Red Turban Army that came to join the two Zhais.

But regardless, it wasn't just the corrupt Song ruling class that ignored the people's power; the Jin paid a bloody price for it too... After determining the general route of advance, Nianhan himself led a small force south from Yanjing to take command at Great Ming Prefecture, but ran into a volunteer army on the way, was nearly captured, and fled back to Yanjing in disgrace, only heading south again with a larger force.

By mid-seventh month, when the Jin forces from beyond the Pass and Youyan had assembled, not only had the Meng'an and Mouke units from all over Hebei arrived, but three Hebei prefectures and cities had already been lost!

With no other choice, the Jin's Third Prince, Wanyan Eliduo, as the "military garrison commander" of Yanjing, had to first take the assembled troops from beyond the Pass and Youyan and launch a sweeping campaign from north to south, which, though part of the original plan, turned out to be unexpectedly difficult.

It wasn't until the last ten days of the seventh month that they finally managed to defeat, with great difficulty, the Wuma Mountain volunteer army, numbering as many as two hundred thousand, led by the so-called Deputy Commander of All Armies Under Heaven, Prince Xin Zhao Zhen, in the area of Zhending Prefecture in Hebei, not far from Yanjing at all.

However, I wonder if anyone still remembers someone's instructions on the Huai River, the words about "not seeking field battles or reckless battles, but preserving strength to respond in the future"... Anyway, Eliduo didn't catch any Prince Xin afterwards, nor did he see the actual leader of Wuma Mountain, their old friend of the Great Jin, the so-called Great Song Northern Circuit Chief Commander, Ma Kuo, Ma Zichong.

In fact, just three days later, news of Ma Kuo and Prince Xin came again from the northern foothills of the Taihang Mountains west of Zhending. Countless scattered troops and defeated generals heard the news and followed them into the Taihang Mountains, their momentum instantly restored. That previous battle seemed more like a necessary cover for a strategic withdrawal than an actual engagement.

The Jin army, which had just won a great victory, was disheartened by this... For the cavalry from Liaodong and Youyan, fighting on open plains was one thing; chasing through mountain gullies was another.

In fact, the Jin commanders argued again. Some suggested splitting forces to block the northern Taihang and continue south to deal with the Eight-Character Army; others suggested abandoning everything, ignoring the Song volunteer armies in the mountains, sweeping the plains, and then marching out immediately; and of course, some suggested offering amnesty... The Jin's actual commander, the Third Prince Wanyan Eliduo, was caught in a dilemma. When an unexpected autumn rain arrived, the situation was completely delayed.

"I was thinking, if I really met Lord Ma on the battlefield, remembering our old friendship from Liaodong, I'd pretend not to see him and let him go, just capture that so-called Prince Xin. Who would have thought that such a kind lord in the old days would become so cunning now?" Inside Zhending Prefecture city, in the main hall of a nearly empty large mansion, only two men were sitting opposite each other, drinking. The Jin's Third Prince, Wanyan Eliduo, looked at the wine and meat before him, listening to the autumn rain in the courtyard, and found it all tasteless. "Little Fourth, you were young then. Do you still remember him?"

"How could I not?"

Wanyan Wushu sat with half his buttocks raised, squinting towards the doorway. Outside the wide-open gate, because of the raging autumn rain, no one was about. Even some trusted guards were allowed to take shelter in the porch and drink. "I still remember that day he shot an arrow, and our father turned to Nianhan and said, if there was even one young Song official in a hundred who was a match for this Ma Kuo, we would have to strictly keep the treaty..."

"We underestimated him back then," Wanyan Eliduo sighed softly. "Although they were just a rabble, they only suffered from a lack of weapons, warhorses, and experience. The hundred thousand or so men were real enough... Saying Ma Zichong is one in ten thousand, that's about right, isn't it?"

"Whether he's one in ten thousand or not is meaningless. It all depends on the circumstances and the fate of the nation."

Wanyan Wushu crossed his legs, putting his weight on half his buttocks, twitched his mouth, and said dismissively. "Back then, we were in a barren land. Although we had won two battles, we only had a few thousand elite troops. We couldn't even fully unite the Jurchen core, and the Liao state was still far off. What was there to say about the Song? Back then, we had to be generous in our view of the Song... because they had a million-strong army, and we only had ten thousand. So if they had just one in a hundred, we naturally wouldn't dare to have any ideas. But after destroying Liao, we also had two or three hundred thousand troops. Looking at the Song's million-strong army again, we felt that as long as the Song didn't produce one Jurchen-level hero for every five men, we could attack."

Wanyan Eliduo listened carefully, then nodded slightly: "I know what you're trying to say in your heart, Little Fourth... You want to say that now the Song's Imperial Army in Henan plus the Eastern Capital has at most two hundred thousand men. As long as they don't produce one man comparable to our good Jurchen warriors for every two or three men, we can run rampant. So don't waste time in Hebei; hurry south is the right thing. And if we delay too long, once the Song's troops south of the River are fully prepared, it will easily cause trouble... That's what you mean, right?"

"Third Brother understands my thoughts." Wanyan Wushu raised his cup in response, nodding seriously.

Wanyan Eliduo also raised his cup to his own younger brother, and they each drank it all in one gulp.

"Wushu, although I know your desire to go south is selfish, I don't think your reasoning is wrong," Wanyan Eliduo put down his cup and took the opportunity to raise the current dilemma. "But what about Hebei now? Aren't we going to pursue Ma Kuo? Not deal with the Eight-Character Army to the south? Nianhan is waiting in Great Ming Prefecture! And Hebei is the foundation our Great Jin has established. The Emperor and Yanjing are watching Hebei very closely. As for the Central Plains and Jiangnan, it seems they will still be divided off as vassal states."

"Third Brother, you have it backwards," Wanyan Wushu sneered. "I ask you, why should the Central Plains and Jiangnan be divided off as vassal states?"

"Probably for two reasons," Eliduo frowned slightly and raised his cup. "One is that we Jurchens are not suited to the southern climate. Just in the Central Plains, when the weather gets hot, we lose our will to fight. Let alone what people say about the Southern Song having a territory of ten thousand li to the south, where it's even hotter. The other..."

"The other is that there are too many Song people, and they resist fiercely," Wushu sneered even more. "After all, we only have one hundred and twenty thousand core elite. Counting the surrendered forces from the Liao territories and the surrendered troops from Hebei, at most three hundred thousand. This force can barely suppress Hebei, let alone talk about the Central Plains and Jiangnan. Besides, those one hundred and twenty thousand 'core' troops are dying one by one now and must be used on the cutting edge. It's like this Wuma Mountain affair. We all know that Prince Xin is a fake, and Ma Kuo is the real backbone of Wuma Mountain. But Third Brother, you still wanted to let Ma Kuo go after the battle. Why? Isn't it because you know that without this Prince Xin, Ma Kuo can't stir up much trouble? And as for this so-called Prince Xin, even if he's a fake, as long as the Song Emperor in the south recognizes him, he can still stir people's hearts."

Eliduo narrowed his eyes slightly. Of course, he knew what his younger brother meant. Wanyan Wushu said no more. The two brothers just stared at the rain in the courtyard in silence.

"Still the same words, I know you're being selfish, Little Fourth, but I can't refute you," Eliduo sighed after who knows how long. "You're right. Only by killing that Song Emperor in the south can there be peace under heaven..."

"I'm really not being selfish," Wanyan Wushu downed a cup of wine, and his eyes instantly reddened. "They all say I'm pushing for the southern campaign out of personal vengeance. Eldest Brother thinks so, and Third Brother thinks so too... Especially you, Third Brother. This time, everyone got benefits except you. You clearly still hold a grudge against me, which is why you're dragging your feet on my suggestion. But I still say this: that Song Emperor in the south is no ordinary bird! People like Ma Kuo, when those two in Wuguocheng were in power, could only be locked up in the prison of Zhending Prefecture, waiting for us to remember old times and come to save him. But now, with a new emperor, a single edict gave two people titles on Wuma Mountain, and it's tied us up like this. Isn't that clear enough?"

Wanyan Eliduo wanted to speak but stopped.

"And what about this Hebei public order... Public order my ass?!" Wanyan Wushu grew even more indignant. "The root of Hebei's poor public order is in the south. Why did we go south last year? Wasn't it to clear the flanks, cut off communication between Hebei and the south, so Hebei could be at peace? How come today it's just my selfishness?!"

Eliduo sighed slightly: "I'm not blaming you entirely. With Second Brother gone, we brothers are the only ones holding the army together. It's really hard work dealing with Nianhan. I'm also afraid that if you go your own way and suffer a setback, others will push the blame onto you... You're now the Army Supervisor of the Grand Marshal's Office. It's not like last time when Da Lan was there to back you up."

"It doesn't matter. Just consider it pure selfishness on my part. I'm blinded by revenge. But is what I said wrong? Shouldn't we abandon these pots and pans and go south?" Wanyan Wushu grew even more agitated. "As long as we make a show of force in the south, build up momentum, what are Ma Kuo and the Eight-Character Army? As long as the Song Emperor tucks his tail and runs from Nanyang, watch and see if Hebei isn't stable. Chase him down, first cut down his dragon banner, then kill that Zhao brat. Not just Hebei, the whole world will be at peace! Maybe then I'll stay in the Central Plains and enjoy the splendid rivers and mountains, and never come back to anger you all!"

Eliduo knew that if they continued, a rift would form between the brothers. He could only grit his teeth in his heart and then spoke seriously: "You still want to go south immediately? Not care about Ma Kuo and the Eight-Character Army?"

"Correct."

"How do you plan to fight?"

"Third Brother isn't crossing the river, so you don't need to worry about it."

"I just need to hold Nianhan back for you, so the Western Route Army's reinforcements can march out in time?"

"Correct."

"Do you need me to put some pressure on Da Lan?"

"No need. That old bird wouldn't dare break his promise! If he dares to play tricks on me, I'll make him know the consequences."

Eliduo slowly nodded, then stood up and sighed: "Go on. I'll slowly gather the troops behind you and be your backup."

Wanyan Wushu had finally convinced his elder brother. Without a word, he stood up directly, enduring the intense pain of his wound in the rainy weather, and limped into the rain, not even taking an umbrella or calling for an attendant.

Eliduo watched his younger brother's retreating figure and frowned slightly. He always felt his brother was gradually slipping out of control, but it wasn't purely because of age, promotion, and power. Yet he couldn't quite articulate the reason.

In the first ten days of the eighth month, the autumn harvest on the south bank of the Yellow River was gradually completed, but there was still no news of the Jin. Not even intelligence of a major engagement with the main force of the Eight-Character Army in the northern Taihang had been sent back.

In the daze, the entire Song army, poised for battle on the south bank of the Yellow River, was about to become a joke.

At this time, the various theater commanders, who had already received clear authorization for 'autonomous decision-making' from Nanyang, also began to have other ideas.

On the eighth day of the eighth month, the Huai East Pacification Commissioner, Zhang Jun, launched a probing attack on Yizhou and won an initial victory. Or rather, the bandits entrenched in Yizhou chose to surrender voluntarily. But regardless, the crucial Yishui passage fell into Zhang Boying's hands, and he immediately sent a messenger to report the victory.

On the twelfth day of the eighth month, the Jingdong Two Circuits Pacification Commissioner, Zhang Suo, stationed at Nanjing Shangqiu, ordered his subordinate Zhenfu Commissioners Yue Fei, Zhang Rong, and Kong Yanzhou, a former local Song army officer who had occupied the Yanzhou area after last year's chaos, to join forces and push north, attempting to defeat Liu Yu and occupy Jinan Prefecture before the Jin arrived.

On the sixteenth day of the eighth month, just after the Mid-Autumn Festival, Yue Fei led ten thousand troops on the campaign as ordered.

However, on the eighteenth day of the eighth month, before even leaving the territory of Dongping Prefecture, which was under Zhang Rong's jurisdiction to the north, the Jizhou Zhenfu Commissioner Yue Fei ran head-on into countless routed troops from Zhang Rong's unit.