After three days, the news came that the Song army of the three routes was defeated, and the process was almost the same as the deduction of Zhao Ta and others, but the result was even more tragic...

In order for the Song army to complete the established strategic deployment for the rescue of Taiyuan, it required the three-way army to coordinate and advance rapidly. The requirements are not too high, but this is simply not possible, the three marshals all have opinions on this plan, and they are very unimpressed, so they deal with it passively in their respective occupied areas, and do not actively fight. At this time, the important minister Xu Han misheard the spy report and made the judgment that the Jin army would withdraw its troops on all fronts, and urged the troops to enter the division many times, and even blamed him for holding heavy troops but staying on the sidelines.

In the face of the negative attitude of the three-way reinforcements, the Privy Council envoy Li Gang and Tongzhi Xu Han were finally angry, such an arrogant general, if you don't rectify it, will it be okay? The three generals were severely reprimanded, and there were as many as six or seven documents sent to the army a day, which showed that they were really in a hurry! After receiving the application, everyone had to move, otherwise they would have to go to court. In the division, he led Qin Feng's army from Jingcheng, Hebei, Yao Gu, the envoy of Xihe, led the Xihe army, and Zhang Hao, the son of Zhang Xiaochun, led the Hedong army from Changzhi and Fenzhou to the north, and at the same time agreed that the two armies of Yao Gu and Zhang Hao would go their separate ways and meet near Taiyuan.

Under the urging of the Privy Council, under the persecution of the civil official group, and under the pressure of public opinion, the Northern Song Dynasty army that rescued Taiyuan marched in three directions. Li Gang and Xu Han, two scholars, commanded the battle, and ordered the elite soldiers of Shaanxi led by Yao Gu and the seed division to abandon the cities and dangers that could be defended, and even strictly ordered to abandon the baggage and grain and grass.

On 9 May, the advance of the central part of the division reached Shiqiao, which was twenty miles from Taiyuan, and the Chinese army reached the stone pit in Shouyang, because there was no resistance from the Jin army along the way. However, they arrived at the Pingding Army (now Yangquan City, Shanxi) and took advantage of the victory to occupy Shouyang and Yuci. There is already a serious shortage of food in the army? The fighters had only one spoonful of black beans per person per day, and their combat effectiveness was weakened. Morale is low.

The art of war is cloudy, and the city without help cannot be defended. At this time, Taiyuan has been besieged for almost half a year, the defenders have suffered heavy casualties, and they have no strength to break through and launch a counteroffensive, and it is difficult to pose a threat to the Jin army. And Ling Wanyan suddenly led a small infantry to entangle the main force of the Song army on the southern front, and Yu Qingyuan blocked Zhang Hao and Yao Gu. Disguise yourself as the main force to confuse the Song army, drag them down, and buy time for the main force to annihilate the enemy.

At the same time, Yinshu could concentrate the iron cavalry of the main force of the Jin Army, with Wanyan Lou as the commander to deal with the middle of the Song army division that was running from afar. They first engaged in a small force of troops, feinted defeat and retreated, and retreated one after another, so that the seed division made a miscalculation, believing that they had encountered only a sporadic defender of the Jin army, thus driving the troops to chase wildly. fell into the Jin army's plan to lure the enemy deeper.

At this time, the weakness of the central part of the division was exposed, and its troops were many infantry troops because of the lack of horses, and with the elongation of the battle line, the coordination ability of the whole army weakened, and the baggage could no longer keep up. The soldiers did not have enough to eat, which led to the discouragement of the army. And the early stage was so smooth that this battle-hardened veteran in the division committed the taboo of paralyzing carelessness and neglecting guard, when he received the scout's report that the Jin army was attacking Yuci. It was still thought that it was the scattered troops of the Jin army returning to the north, but unexpectedly, it was the main force of the Jin army that came to block it.

Wanyan Lou led the troops to attack quickly. Dividing the central part of the division, the Song army rushed to the battle. Three wins in five battles, hard work. Yao Gu should have killed quickly to rescue the seed division, but Yao Gu was not an excellent general, and at the same time he also had a lot of complaints about the decision-making of the imperial court.

When the middle of the seed division was forced to retreat to Kill Bear Ridge, it was once again besieged by the Jin army, and the Song army, which was short of military food and demoralized, was almost completely scattered. After defeating the central part of the division, the main force of the Jin army calmly returned to the division, defeating the Yao Gu division at Pantuo, east of Qi County, and the Zhang Hao division at Jiaocheng, and the Song court's first attempt to rescue Taiyuan failed in this way.

When the bad news of the defeat reached Tokyo, the imperial court was in an uproar, and Li Gang and Xu Han were taken aback. Li Gang said to Xu Han: "My generation of scholars does not know the art of war, and if he occupies the position of privy council, he will mislead the state affairs!" However, the big mistake has become irreparable, the most elite Western army of the Great Song Dynasty suffered heavy losses, and since then it has been in a slump, and their deeds have finally become a legend...

The failure to send aid to Taiyuan not only caused huge losses in troops, but also ceded the three towns to the DPRK and China, and the voice of peace talks with Kim rose again. However, the three towns of Taiyuan are the barrier of the Central Plains, if lost, the country is in danger, and after repeated arguments, Zhao Huan decided to aid Taiyuan again, mobilized more than 200,000 troops, and led troops to rescue Taiyuan with Liu Tao, Xie Qian, Zhe Yanzhi, Zhang Hao and others as generals.

In order to cooperate with this battle, Zhao Huan repeatedly issued edicts to recruit soldiers. Xu Churen suggested the implementation of horse politics and the detention of households to recruit village soldiers, and Zhao Huan adopted them. An edict was issued to persuade the people to use wealth to help the army and donate money and materials to the state to supplement the military. On May 25, he issued an edict to seek talents who knew how to learn martial arts. At the beginning of June, he issued an edict to supervise the imperial history and above in Beijing, and ordered the prefect army and officials above the jurisdiction of the Lu Fenling to raise brave command talents to enrich the military strength.

But there is an old saying: the country is easy to change, and the nature is difficult to change. Zhao Ta put on a resolute anti-Japanese war posture, but these measures are difficult to achieve in a short period of time, if the aid to Taiyuan is defeated again, the Jin army goes south again, and his throne will really be overturned. So he went to Geng Nanzhong to privately discuss the redemption of the three towns by paying taxes, but he still faced an obstacle, that is, Li Gang.

Zhao Huan became more and more dissatisfied with Li Gang, but he was a little afraid of him in his heart. As long as Li Gang participates in everything, he must act according to his opinions, otherwise he will either argue with reason in the court, or repeatedly argue in the upper chapter, or resign to force you to make concessions. As an emperor, sometimes he really can't suppress him, but he has to obey him everywhere. dismissed his official, and actually caused the students to write a book, almost stirring up a popular uprising. Zhao Huan felt that Li Gang relied on his merits and talents, and did not take the emperor's dignity in his eyes.

Geng Nanzhong turned out to be Zhao Huan's former minister of the East Palace, as the old saying goes, one person becomes a Taoist chicken dog ascends to heaven, after Zhao Huan ascended the throne, he also became a daughter-in-law for many years, and he was constantly promoted and entrusted with important tasks. But Geng Nanzhong's heart is still unbalanced, because Wu Min and Li Gang have also been promoted by leaps and bounds, and now they are above him. Especially Li Gang, who was promoted from Taichang Shaoqing of the fifth rank to the privy envoy of the first rank in two months.

Geng Nanzhong was indignant about this, and had been waiting for an opportunity to squeeze out Li Gang, he had been with the emperor for more than ten years, and immediately saw Zhao Huan's thoughts, the emperor did not dare to hope for aid to Taiyuan, but he wanted to negotiate peace and was worried that Li Gang would be in the imperial court, and he would inevitably resolutely oppose the proposal of ceding land and seeking peace. Then the time has come to attack Li Gang, and his method is similar to the trick of driving Zhao Ta out of Beijing back then - delegating power and promotion!

On this day, the deacons discussed in the court whether to continue to rescue Taiyuan or cut the land to negotiate peace, and Li Gang and Geng Nanzhong had a fierce argument in front of Zhao Huan. Geng Nanzhong suddenly said: "If you are determined not to abandon the three towns, you must relieve the siege of Taiyuan; If you want to solve the siege of Taiyuan, you have to Li Gang. Zhao Huan nodded and looked at Li Gang.

Li Gang hurriedly excused himself, saying that he was a scholar, but he didn't know how to fight. Previously, Tokyo was besieged, and the minister had to take care of the military for His Majesty, and now if the minister is the commander of the army, he may miss the state affairs. Zhao Huan said that since you can solve the siege of Tokyo, you must also be able to solve the siege of Taiyuan, and immediately appointed Li Gang to replace the seed master Dao as the Xuanfu envoy of Hedong and Hebei. After retiring from the dynasty, Li Gang said that he was ill, and he continued to ask for Zhishi, but Zhao Huan did not allow it. A Taiwanese official wrote to Zhao Huan that Li Gang could not leave the imperial court, and was severely reprimanded by Zhao Huan.

Li Gang's resignation was handed over more than a dozen copies in a row, but Zhao Huan still refused to allow it. He understands what's going on, but he also understands that there must be a field battle to rescue Taiyuan, and the field battle is different from defending the city, and it is necessary to arrange troops and make decisions in front of the enemy. If the siege of Taiyuan cannot be solved, and the troops will be defeated and the morale will be frustrated, the consequences will be unimaginable.

When the two sides were deadlocked, the emperor suddenly issued an edict ordering Yao Gu to immediately go north again to relieve the siege of Taiyuan. Zhao Huan's move is to force Li Gang into a corner - Taiyuan is in danger, rescue is urgent, you Li Gang refuses to be ordered, if Taiyuan is lost, you will not escape the serious crime of disaster to the country!

Li Gang fell into a dangerous dilemma, seeing that Li Gang was about to fall into Geng Nanzhong's trap, Xu Han hurriedly sent someone to secretly send a letter to Li Gang.

Du Post is a place name, west of Xianyang. During the Warring States period, Bai Qi, a famous general of Qin, was coveted by his ministers, which led to the suspicion of King Qin Zhao and was driven out of Chang'an. When Bai Qi traveled to Du You, he received an order to give death and was forced to commit suicide. Li Gang woke up suddenly when he saw these two words, and muttered to himself: "The merit is high and the Lord is shocked, how can it last long!" ”

Li Gang had no choice but to receive the order, but there were 20,000 soldiers hanging under the name of the Xuanfu Division, but there were several stalls, and only 12,000 people barely arrived in the account, and there were two armies that could not be managed by him, and Liu Tao, the deputy envoy of Xuanfu, did not listen to his dispatch at all. The start-up fee for the application point, Geng Nanzhong, who is in charge of the financial power, approved 200,000 yuan for 1 million. There was nothing, but the urging was very tight, let him send troops as soon as possible, apply for an extension, two words 'not allowed'!

Just when everyone was about to watch the joke, the court suddenly received the news that Zhao Ta, the prince of Yan, was appeased by the river and recruited 100,000 troops to aid Taiyuan. (To be continued......)