In the second year of Longxing, the ninth year of the Southern Jin Zhenglong, and the seventh day of the first month, the Jin army of Tongxu and Qixian County combined forces to attack Bozhou, and after losing 5,000 elite light cavalry, when the heavy snow had not yet melted, they suddenly launched an attack on the Song army camp outside Qixian.

The Song army was prepared, attacked continuously for half a day, but did not achieve results, and in the evening, the Jin army withdrew and retreated.

Cheng Min, the main general of the Song army, lost his troops when he retreated several times before, and saw that the Jin army was not attacking the city at this time, and was ready to retreat, and immediately decided to wait for the Jin army to retreat, go out of the city to pursue, regain face, and win military achievements.

At that time, the Jin army retreated for half a mile, and the Song army suddenly opened the camp gate and waved the army to kill the Jin army.

I didn't want the Jin army to flee to its own camp like the previous Song army, but turned around and started a fierce battle with the Song army.

As the melee unfolded, the soldiers of the Song army, who were originally reluctant to fight in the cold weather, became more and more demoralized, and changed from pursuing to fighting and retreating.

In the melee, I don't know who shouted "withdraw", although the officers and soldiers of the Song army did not hear the sound of Mingjin withdrawing troops, as soon as this word came out, it was like an order, and it quickly spread in the battlefield.

The Song army retreated, and nearly 10,000 Song troops quickly retreated to the gate of the camp, crowded into a group, and desperately squeezed into the camp, completely ignoring the Jin army that rushed over not far away.

In the end, the Song soldiers, who only cared about fleeing for their lives and did not know how to resist, were surrounded in front of the camp and killed.

Seeing that the situation was not right, the camp wanted to close the gate, but under the continuous impact of the swarming Great Song soldiers, it was impossible to close the gate.

When the final camp gate was closed, the number of Great Song soldiers killed outside the camp had reached four or five thousand, and there were still nearly 1,000 Song troops outside the camp at this time.

The soldiers who could not return to the battalion were once again abandoned by the battalion, they wanted to break through, but it was too late, how could thousands of people break through under the siege of tens of thousands?

Outside the city, thousands of Song soldiers looked at the camp close by, and were killed by the Jin army one by one in resentment, and their shouts before death penetrated the camp gate and entered the camp.

The officers and men in the battalion were all sad and cold when they heard the words, and the morale of the whole army fell into the dust for a while, and there was no morale at all.

The Jin army got advantaged, and saw that the Song army's camp was strong, so they withdrew and retreated.

That night, in the dead of night, a Song army quietly left the camp from the unmanned rear camp and retreated in the direction of Sui County.

Not long after the Song army left the camp, several more troops left the camp one after another.

An hour later, Cheng Min heard that some soldiers had escaped, and when he hurriedly gathered the generals to learn more about it, he found that the commander in the army had disappeared six or seven out of ten, and he did not know where to go.

Seeing this, Cheng Min's face changed greatly, and he immediately ordered the whole army to retreat and retreat back to Defu!

The Song army abandoned all food and grass baggage, only wore the armor on his body, held the weapon in his hand, and had nothing else.

Two hours later, the Song army camp became an empty camp, and what was left in the camp was grain and grass that had not had time to be taken away or destroyed.

At noon the next day, when the Jin army spies arrived to investigate and found that the Song army camp was silent and no one was moving, they relied on the courage to turn into the camp, only to know that the Song army camp was already a completely empty camp, and the forty or fifty thousand Song troops in the camp had disappeared without a trace.

The spies brought the news back, and the general of the Jin army did not believe it at first, thinking that it was a plan set up by the Song army, and only after sending cavalry to carefully search the surrounding twenty miles and carefully inspect everything in the camp did he believe that the Song army had indeed evacuated and returned to Defu.

However, in order to prevent anything unclean in the Song military camp, the Jin army removed all the useful things such as grain, grass, and baggage, and then completely burned down the camp with a fire.

Since then, there has been no Song army in Qixian County.

Cheng Min first lost when he attacked Tongxu, lost his troops, and retreated back to Defu at this time, which gave Zhang Jun a great blow.

At the beginning, he commanded the Northern Expedition in Xuzhou, because of Shao Hongyuan's discord with Li Xianzhong, resulting in the defeat of the Northern Expedition in Jeju City, resulting in the failure of the Northern Expedition and retreating to Xuyi.

Zhang Jun is the only existing veteran commander of the Great Song Dynasty, and the emperor, the central government and the Great Song army all have high hopes for him, all counting on him to lead the army, succeed in the Northern Expedition in one fell swoop, and recover the old land of the Central Plains, but now I am afraid that it can't.

Zhang Jun's status is there, he used to be the prime minister, and later participated in the fight against the Jin people as a commander of the army, and his life was brilliant, although because of the main battle and Qin Hui's situation, Zhao Gou did not like it, and he was idle at home for 20 years, but his glorious past was destined to be a proud person, who could fail once or twice, but there must not be a third time.

The army was defeated in Jeju, and the voice of impeachment against him in the court was suppressed by the main battle faction and the emperor Zhao Yan, he knew about it, and later the emperor and the main battle faction once again let him lead the Northern Expedition army north to return to Defu, during which he encountered how much opposition to impeachment, although Zhang Jun was not very clear, but it was not unheard.

The first time Qixian retreated, the loss of 20,000 soldiers, the main peace faction of the DPRK and China had the voice of impeachment of Zhang Jun, the main battle faction still suppressed those remarks, the defeat of Tongxu, and the loss of 30,000 soldiers, the voice of impeachment in the DPRK and China was even worse, Chen Kangbo sent him a handwritten letter, telling him to be careful, even if he does not win, he must not be defeated again, which shows how critical the situation in Lin'an is.

This time, Cheng Min lost his troops and fled back to Defu in a hurry, and all the towns that had been recovered before fell into the hands of the Jin people, if this news came back to Lin'an, not only Zhang Jun, but also the ministers of the main war faction would probably face a stormy impeachment attack.

originally thought that he could lead the army to the Northern Expedition in his twilight years, restore the Central Plains, and leave a name in history, but now that I think about it, it is indeed a fame and a quick success!

Zhang Jun sat alone in the inner courtyard of the Shuaifu for two days and figured out a lot of things.

This era is no longer his era, and the Great Song Dynasty has long since not had so many generals who can fight well, nor so many soldiers who are not afraid of death, and there are not many subjects who are dedicated to supporting the Northern Expedition.

Now that the court is rich, but the entire Great Song Dynasty has no enterprising spirit, the main battle in the court, except for a few fifty or sixty-year-old old guys and the new emperor, there are no young and strong faces at all, and there are some young and strong officials who seem to support the main battle faction, but in fact they are opportunistic, which faction is strong, it will fall to which faction, the main battle is still the main peace, in fact, they don't care at all, all they think about is how to cling to the important ministers, so that they can move forward, as for the Northern Expedition or not, they don't care.

Zhang Jun saw clearly, the Northern Expedition was destined to fail, and the new emperor was only a momentary courage, and as soon as the old ministers of the main battle in the DPRK and China retreated, the lord and faction could immediately exhaust all his fighting spirit, and more importantly, at present, it seems that the Northern Expedition is not the common goal of the Song Dynasty and the opposition, but just the dream of a few old guys in their sixties and the new emperor.

Without the support of long-lasting fresh blood, the Northern Expedition is not easy to talk about. What if there is civil unrest in Kim at this time? Is there peace inside the Great Song Dynasty?

The Great Song Dynasty has never been peaceful inside, the suppression and drag of the main battle faction of the Lord and the Party has never stopped, whether the battle in front is good or bad, the Lord and the faction will think of a way to attack, even if they sell the interests of the Great Song Dynasty, as long as they let them negotiate with the Jin people with their mouths and seize the power of the DPRK and China, they will do everything, who let Taizu bully the orphans and widows of the Chai family, and they will not be in the right position!

After a few days of contemplation, Zhang Jun has understood that the Northern Expedition of the Great Song Dynasty cannot succeed, because if the Northern Expedition is to succeed, it is necessary to have a strong army, and it is necessary to have generals who have great achievements and can command the whole army, but the great contradiction is that the emperor and courtiers will not allow such a person to exist at all, if someone has this sign, they will strangle it as soon as possible, and if they fail to kill it at the first time, they will immediately find a way to eradicate it, and they will never give him the opportunity to command the whole army.

Zhang Jun, who thought about everything clearly, decided to give up, the demise of the Great Song Dynasty from Taizu bullying the orphans and widows of the Chai family as a military general, and it was already doomed when the yellow robe was added, for hundreds of years, there was not a day when they were not afraid of the generals, in their opinion, the generals who could fight and use their brains could not be reused, and the stupid generals who could not fight were the good ministers they wanted.

When he was old, Zhang Jun realized that the struggle in his life was meaningless, and for a while, he didn't know who it was for, the emperor? Commoners? Or yourself?

He was indifferent.

The battle report was truthful, and Pegasus was sent back to Lin'an.

In the next few days, Zhang Jun wrote several letters one after another, one to Li Xianzhong in Xuzhou, one to Wu Gong in Xiangyang, one to the new emperor Zhao Yan, one to Chen Kangbo, and one to Yang Congyi in Xingren Mansion.

Then he waited for orders from the imperial court.

In the second year of Longxing, on the twenty-second day of the first month, the edict of Lin'an was transmitted to Guide Mansion, and the Northern Expeditionary Army of Guide Mansion was handed over to Li Xianzhong, the commander of Jingdong and Hebei Road, and the commander of the Right Route Army of the Northern Expedition.

What should have come has come after all.

But Zhang Jun didn't want to get involved anymore, so he immediately wrote to the court, asking for resignation from the privy council, bluntly saying that he was old and frail, unwell, embarrassed, and wanted to go back to his hometown to care for the elderly.

On the tenth day of the first month of February, after repeated urgings, Li Xianzhong reluctantly rushed from Xuzhou to Guide Mansion, took over the 80,000 troops of Guide Mansion, and took over the Shuaifu.

At the ceremony of Li Xianzhong's gathering of generals, Zhang Jun, the former commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army, did not appear, nor did the main general Cheng Min, and they had already left one after another.

Looking at the blank eyes of the commanders in front of him, Li Xianzhong had no idea what kind of people he would face.

Cheng Min rushed all the way back to Lin'an, happily went to work, he finally returned to Lin'an again, and that night he chartered a luxurious restaurant to entertain all new and old colleagues.

Zhang Jun was very old, and he stopped and stopped all the way, and as soon as he arrived in Xuyi, he received a reply from the imperial court, and the imperial court did not accept his resignation.

But Zhang Jun was desperate, no matter whether the court accepted it or not, he would not return to Lin'an, so he wrote again to resign.

When he came to Yangzhou, the reply from the imperial court arrived.

The imperial court agreed to his resignation from the Privy Council and rebelled against Fuzhou instead, but Zhang Jun still refused to resign.

In early May, Zhang Jun died of illness.

The imperial court gave him the Taibao, and then added the Taishi, and five years later, he was given the title of loyalty.