Cars rattled, horses rustled, and pedestrians carried bows and arrows at their waists.
The mother-in-law and the wife see each other off, but Xianyang Bridge is nowhere to be seen.
He held his clothes, stamped his feet, and blocked the road to cry, and his cry went up to the sky.
In other words, the tragedy of the war that Zhao Jiu had envisioned for a long time finally appeared naked in front of his eyes for the first time, but it was probably caused by him himself.
It should be noted that Shouzhou straddles the Huaihe River, and the twin cities of Xiacai and Shouchun, the richest among them, are far apart from each other across the river. The two cities are closely connected by docks, roads, and markets, and they can even stand on a sunny day.
From Bagong Mountain south of the Huaihe River, you can see the spectacular scenery of the two cities at the same time.
Therefore, when the local scholars and people in Huaibei heard that the Jin people were coming, they naturally would not feel any incomprehension or discomfort with fleeing to Huainan.
But, so to speak, Ding Zhuang needs to stay and defend the city, but the property must be taken away, and the food must be handed over. The most devastating thing is that the military situation is too urgent... According to Liu Guangshi
, all six military states in the southern part of Mount Tai under his leadership were attacked, so the nearest northern Xuzhou to the Huaihe River was only four hundred miles away. The distance of four hundred miles, with the Jin people's courage to fight and fearlessness of hard work shown in the past few years, feared that
Within five or six days, an organized and combat-effective vanguard of the Jin Army will arrive.
Of course, it could be July or August, but who dares to gamble in this case?
Especially now that it’s the New Year’s Eve!
As a result, the extremely insecure people in northern Shouzhou, the tense river transportation, and the frightened Zhang Junbu who were unstable in civil and military affairs and greedy, led to a chaos that was almost inevitable. And in the chaos
, the undiscipline of the Song Dynasty's army, the arrogance and selfishness of the officials, and the fear and anger of the people were in turn amplified, causing everyone to fall into a state of restlessness and disorder...
In a word, the war has not yet come, and the disasters it will cause have already begun.
“All the official residences and houses were burned to the ground, leaving no trace of bottles, jars or doors intact... Men, women, old and children are dying day by day. In quite a few towns, no one is alive, and the stench of corpses can be heard for hundreds of miles.”
Let's say that on the evening of the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month, outside the east gate of Xiacai City, two unarmored village warriors were fighting openly. Some of the injured people even had their stomachs cut open, and their intestines flowed all over the ground, but they were killed by the cold ground.
Frozen, it seemed that he could not survive. On the upper floor of the city gate, seeing the Zhao officials beside them staring at the city, their faces getting more and more ugly, Zhang Jun, the censor Zhongcheng, suddenly spoke.
"What is this?" Zhao Jiu turned around and asked coldly.
"In the first year of Jingkang, after the Jin people went south for the first time, Li Ruoshui, who was Dr. Taichang at the time, went to Hebei as an envoy to persuade the Jin people to return north and told them about the front line when he came back." Zhang Jun lowered his head and responded. "Guan family, these
At best, the matter is just a matter of public security. Once the golden men and cavalry come, it will be a common act to massacre the city and burn the town. Although the officials are benevolent and see the matter in person, there is no harm in taking care of it, but the overall situation is imminent.
At that time, the officials came forward to rectify the matter with the imperial team, but it turned out to be a small gain at the expense of a big one."
Zhao Jiu breathed a sigh of relief and tried hard not to look at what was going on downstairs... He knew what Zhang Deyuan meant. In addition to explaining the following conflict, this was undoubtedly his personal censor Zhongcheng who originally wanted to persuade him, the Zhao official family.
Crossing the river as soon as possible to calm people's hearts is what everyone has been advising these days. However, Zhao Jiu was too lazy to respond to his confidant, because it was not that he was not prepared to cross the river, but that he was grievances and wanted to work hard until the end.
Leave for a moment to reassure people.
They all want to appease people's hearts, but what Zhang Jun and others talk about is to appease the people's hearts among civil and military officials and Huainan scholar-bureaucrats, while Zhao Jiu is thinking about the people's hearts among the people who are crossing Shouzhou southward. The two sides' thoughts do not seem to be consistent.
Contradictory, but completely different.
It can only be said that these days, because the official family is becoming more and more needlessly stubborn, even if the people who stay in the industry are all official confidants or good old people, yes-men and the like, the differences between the monarch and his ministers are becoming increasingly clear.
.
And a moment later, when the atmosphere on the city gate became more and more solemn, and Yang Yizhong couldn't help but go down to deal with it. Perhaps knowing that Zhao Jiu was nearby, Tian Shizhong, the general of the Chinese army under Zhang Jun, Zhang Taiwei, still
He hurried over, captured two soldiers under the city gate, and killed four or five people in a row as a warning. He also killed the almost hopelessly injured person, and then asked for the reason before he personally brought him to the city.
Meet Zhao Jiu.
It turned out that one of these two rural warriors came from Shunchang Prefecture. Because it had been organized by Zhang Jun earlier, it was responsible for guarding a small ferry outside the east gate. However, in the process of guarding, it blackmailed a team of local fleeing soldiers.
, and they didn’t arrange a ferry. As it happened, by chance, there were locals and acquaintances in the extorted team who were patrolling nearby, so they went to cry... Two groups of people came to the open space outside the city gate to discuss, and they started fighting if they couldn't agree with each other.
stand up.
Hearing this, Zhao Jiu felt helpless on the one hand, but on the other hand, he felt increasingly unhappy... It's not that he couldn't understand what happened downstairs at the city gate, or that he couldn't understand the limitations of this era, but understanding is understanding, a soul from that era,
Still, I feel emotionally ridiculous and disappointed with this kind of fight between armies.
In fact, after these days of suffering, except for one Zhao Ding who took the initiative to return from Huainan because he organized the people to set up a transit camp in Bagong Mountain opposite, and gradually showed extremely sophisticated bureaucratic methods, which made Zhao Guan's family feel a little more comfortable, the whole process was smooth.
There was no information that could make him raise his eyebrows.
"Official!"
Just as it was getting late, Zhao Jiu encouraged Tian Shizhong a little and was about to turn back. Suddenly, Zhang Jun and Lieutenant Zhang came to the city gate tower in person to ask for a meeting, and as soon as they met, he dropped a few bloody heads on his head.
The people at the level prostrated themselves, and their words were quite heavy. "We really can't delay it any longer! I would like to ask the officials to sort things out now. We must set off from the inner ferry in the city tonight and go to Huainan!"
"Is there any news?" Zhao Jiu breathed out hard, trying to calm down.
"Yes!" Zhang Jun replied seriously. "Forward military information, most of Liu Taiwei has arrived at Guoshui. They should be crossing the river at this time. They will be here tomorrow or the day after tomorrow..."
"What are you doing here?" Zhao Guanjia frowned for a moment. "Didn't we let him cross the river from Haozhou (Fengyang, Bengbu area)?"
"They should be pursued closely by the Jin." Zhang Jun's expression became more solemn. "Our army's sentries could see clearly that there were indeed traces of the Jin army on the east bank of the Whirlpool... In fact, the Jin's traces were only found at this time.
, it’s already a little late.”
Zhao Jiu was immediately speechless and could only nod with all his strength.
In this way, the Zhao Guan family had no room for change. That night, Zhi Wenwu and Zhang Taiwei discussed it clearly... The Guan family and Xing crossed the Huaihe River at night, and first went to the opposite Bagong Mountain for temporary resettlement. Wang Yuan, the governor of the capital, was appointed as the general manager of the water.
Take control of the ships to ensure that both sides of the strait continue to be unobstructed; whether it is local people who have not yet crossed the river or fugitives, even when Liu Guangshi's troops arrive, they all enter the city first, and then transport and mobilize from the lower Cai Linhuai River protected by the city wall;
Outside the ferry, all other ferries and ships outside the city were burned together to prevent them from being used by the Jin people.
Zhao Jiu did not participate in these discussions, and even when he crossed the river that night, he seemed confused.
"Official!"
Before boarding the ship, Lieutenant Zhang Jun took the initiative to kneel down to Zhao Guan's house for the second time. "I have a word."
"Speaking of it." Despite all the unsatisfactory results, Zhang Jun's performance in Shouzhou has maintained the bottom line of a soldier. It is really difficult for Zhao Jiu to have any unnecessary evil thoughts towards him, and it is also difficult not to take him seriously.
treat his speech.
"Officials, the enemy is now strong and it is advisable to cross south. Therefore, after crossing the Huaihe River, we ask the officials to make some preparations and then go south again, occupying the river for danger, and then practice military and political affairs, calm people's hearts, and wait for the country's situation to be settled before any big move.
Late at night." On the ferry, there was a mess. Zhang Jun knelt down regardless of everything and spoke sincerely. "This is my sincere words! Only at this time will the official family not think that I am a cowardly person and ask for an official.
Think about it carefully."
On the ferry, Zhao Jiu looked at this person intently... If he remembered correctly, this should be the first time he heard someone risking the disdain of the world and publicly proposing a plan to cross the river for safety. In the past, let alone Zhao Jiu
Jiu, even those peace advocates and capitulation factions who usually desire this in their hearts have to stand up and scold Zhang Junan first, and then give Zhang Junan a protective reason that a warrior does not know moral principles, and then discuss the feasibility.
However, today, with this situation and this situation, it is really difficult for Zhao Jiu to refute it.
"I see."
In fact, Zhao Jiu was silent for half a day, but that was all he could say.