The ninth and fiftieth chapters have been grudges for a long time
Before dawn the next day, Guo Song led his army to continue setting off. They crossed the Fushui Floating Bridge and continued towards Chengdu. It only took two days for them to reach the city.
At the same time, Shang Dongzan also received information from spies that Guo Song personally led an army of 50,000 to 60,000 people and had arrived at Fushui, Mianzhou. Shang Dongzan immediately became nervous. He did not expect that it would be Jin King Guo Song personally leading the troops south.
It was not as simple as coming to rescue Bashu. Like himself, he also wanted to take the opportunity to annex Bashu.
Shang Dongzan already had plans to evacuate Chengdu, so he recruited civilians to carry supplies and food. However, he still held out a glimmer of hope. If Chang'an only sent 10,000 to 20,000 people to support, he could still cope with it and use strange tricks.
Ambush the opponent to protect the city of Chengdu.
But the opponent came with an army of 50,000 to 60,000 people, so the trick was not easy to work. But faced with the obvious comparison of strength, he had no choice but to retreat. Once the opponent invaded Chengdu and started a street battle with his army, he would
The whole army was destroyed.
That afternoon, Shang Dongzan received news again that the enemy's 10,000 forward cavalry had arrived fifty miles north of Chengdu. Shang Dongzan couldn't wait any longer. He immediately ordered the army to withdraw from Chengdu and Yazhou to retreat.
In order to appease the dissatisfaction of his subordinates, Shang Dongzan ordered the palace to be set on fire. In an instant, dozens of arson points were ignited by blazing fire, and hundreds of exquisite palaces and pavilions were engulfed in flames.
The Tubo army quickly evacuated Chengdu and headed south, accompanied by hundreds of carts loaded with pig iron. The Tubo army did not carry food in the past few days. They are not short of food at the moment, but they are short of pig iron, soldiers and armor, etc.
Strategic supplies, they forcibly conscripted civilians for these supplies.
At this time, Pei Xin and Yang Xuanying led 10,000 vanguard cavalry to the official road twenty miles away from Chengdu City. They saw thick smoke billowing over Chengdu City in the distance, as if a fire was burning within the city.
Pei Xin ordered the army to halt their advance and quickly assemble into combat formation. They patiently waited for news from the scouts.
"General, did the Tubo army set fire to evacuate?" Yang Xuanying asked.
Pei Xin nodded, "It is possible, but His Royal Highness the King of Jin has repeatedly warned that this Shang Dongzan is very cunning. There may be an ambush in front of him and he will light a fire to attract us. We must proceed with caution."
At this time, a group of scout cavalry rushed over, and the leading brigade commander clasped his fists and said: "Reporting to General Pei, the Tibetan army has definitely withdrawn southward, and there are no more enemy troops in the city!"
"Where did the fire start?" Pei Xin asked.
"It's the palace. It's been completely engulfed by fire. It can't be saved anymore."
Pei Xin nodded, "March!"
The 10,000 cavalrymen slowed down and continued to run towards Chengdu City. An hour later, the 10,000 cavalrymen arrived at the East City. At this time, the city gates were wide open, and many people fled in panic from the city. Huge flames and thick smoke brought
There was a great sense of oppression and fear. Although they were reluctant to leave their homes before, they now had to flee the city.
Pei Xin led his men directly into the city. When the army came outside the palace, they saw the entire palace in flames. The tongues of flames were more than ten feet high, looming in the billowing smoke. However, the palace was blocked by high walls, and there were wide walls between it and the residences.
streets and squares, the fire will not affect residential buildings.
The Jin army was unable to put out the fire, and watched helplessly as one palace after another collapsed and disappeared in the flames.
The fire burned for two days. When Guo Song led 50,000 troops to Chengdu, the fire was finally extinguished. A moderate rain followed, completely extinguishing the last few embers.
The army was stationed at the Shence Army camp outside the city. Guo Song entered the city accompanied by hundreds of soldiers. They came directly to the palace. At this time, the palace covering an area of 1,000 acres had been burned to a white ground, and everywhere
The ruins of the walls, the thick pillars that had been burnt to black charcoal, and the large and small palaces and pavilions were nothing but piles of rubble.
In the drizzle, the high temperature inside had disappeared, and many people were rummaging through the rubble, trying to find something valuable.
"Your Highness!" Yang Jun reminded Guo Song in a low voice.
When Guo Song turned around, he realized that there were countless people standing behind him. There were tens of thousands of people in the darkness. Many people did not hold umbrellas and were standing in the rain. Everyone was looking at him silently, their eyes full of sadness.
.
The three old men staggered forward and knelt down in front of Guo Song. Tens of thousands of people behind them followed suit and knelt down. Their emotions could no longer be controlled. I don't know who cried first, and there was a sudden burst of mourning.
The leader burst into tears and said, "We have been looking forward to His Highness King Jin every day, and you are finally here!"
Guo Song quickly helped the three old men up, feeling sad in his heart, and nodded silently: "I was late, and everyone suffered!"
He waved to everyone again and shouted with all his strength: "Fellow fellow villagers, since I, Guo Song, am here, I will no longer let you be exploited by the eunuchs. From today on, your hard days are over!"
More and more people came from all directions, and their cries gradually turned into cheers. Countless people raised their arms and shouted, "Long live! Long live His Royal Highness King Jin!"
The anger that had been pent up in their hearts was vented at this moment, and shouts of long live resounded throughout the sky.
.........
For several days, Guo and Song were in Chengdu and were not in a hurry to lead their troops south. There was no looting from Chengdu. Guo Song judged that Tubo's strategic intention was to annex Bashu, not to plunder. Tubo obviously wanted to use Yazhou as its base.
Di Lai competed with him for Bashu.
Beiya's granaries and material warehouses were burned down. Tens of thousands of stones of grain that could not be transported away were burned into black charcoal. Many materials were also burned. However, materials that were not easily melted, such as pig iron and copper ingots, were completely preserved.
Three days later, the first logistics team of the Jin army arrived in Chengdu, bringing 50,000 shi of grain. At the same time, the logistics team composed of 100,000 civilians and 30,000 carts were on their way from Hanzhong to Bashu.
Food, tents and a large amount of military supplies will be brought.
A large number of people who had fled Chengdu also began to return home one after another after learning that the Tibetan troops were withdrawing south. For several days, the official roads were filled with an endless stream of returning refugees, carrying burdens, pushing carts, and dragging their families with them.
, everyone is eager to go home. After learning that the Jin Dynasty's army has entered Chengdu, they have never been so eager to go home as they are today.
In the early morning, Guo Song, accompanied by Zhang Qi, the former doctor of the Ministry of Household Affairs, came to the Minjiang Pier outside the city. There were dozens of large warehouses here. The Tibetan army did not have time to burn them down, and the warehouses were spared.
The warehouses here are mainly transit warehouses, which basically contain household supplies, including well salt, tea cakes, grain, oil, cloth, and dozens of other categories.
Zhang Qi is also Zhang Yanshang's nephew and Zhang Yu's brother. After Zhang Yanshang committed suicide, it aroused widespread dissatisfaction among officials. In order to calm down the incident, Zhang Qi was not jailed, but was dismissed from the position of a doctor in the Ministry of Household Affairs and stayed at home.
, this time the people fled. Because his wife was in poor health, he did not follow him south and stayed in Chengdu.
After Guo Song entered Chengdu, he was asked to serve as governor of Chengdu to maintain public security in Chengdu. Zhang Qi readily accepted the appointment.
Zhang Qi ordered people to open the warehouse and introduced to Guo Song: "These warehouses are not all official warehouses. There are forty-five in total. The first twenty are official warehouses and the last twenty-five are private warehouses. These private warehouses are all
It is a giant businessman in Chengdu who has inextricable ties with the Eunuch Party and monopolizes Chengdu’s people’s livelihood resources.”
Guo Song came to a huge warehouse. The door of the warehouse was open, and the materials inside were piled up like mountains, all packed in bags of jute bags.
"What's in here?" Guo Song asked.
The manager of the warehouse next to him bowed and said: "Your Majesty, here is salt, all from wells. There are four warehouses in total, worth 200,000 stones."
It turned out to be salt. Guo Song nodded and asked, "Do you have a private salt warehouse?"
"No! The four salt warehouses here are directly under Beiya."
Guo Song turned back and asked Zhang Qi, "How is salt sold?"
Zhang Qi leaned forward and said: "Your Majesty, the salt is directly managed by Beiya Salt Supervision. After the well salt is transported to Chang'an, it is sold to the four major trading houses at 300 wen per dou. The four major trading houses increase the price by 200 wen and then sell it to the merchants in Bashu.
The salt shop sells it to the people for an additional forty or fifty cents, so the price of salt in various places in Bashu is basically about five hundred and fifty cents per dou."
"What are the four major trading houses that raise prices so harshly?" Guo Song asked in surprise.
Zhang Qi smiled bitterly and said: "The four major business houses are the four major families of Wang, Huang, Wu, and Wei. They are all the adopted sons of several major eunuchs. They were originally Wang, Huang, Zhao, and Jin. After Feng died in the Song Dynasty, the Zhao family
The Jin family was raided, and Ju Wenzhen's two adopted sons, the Wu family and the Wei family, came to power. At present, they have all fled to Yuzhou with the eunuchs. These four big families control the people's livelihood supplies, food, and salt in Bashu.
, wine, tea, oil, and cloth were all controlled by them, and a steady stream of huge wealth was transferred to several eunuchs through their hands."
Guo Song suddenly remembered Wei Chengyang, the governor of Mian, and asked: "Is Wei Chengyang, the governor of Mian, from the Wei family here?"
"Exactly! He is the brother of the head of the family, Wei Chenghong, and the adopted son of Ju Wenzhen. His cloth business is very big."
Guo Song nodded and asked the warehouse manager: "In addition to salt, how many other supplies are there, including official warehouses and private warehouses!"