In the first year of Song Longxing, the eighth year of South Jin Zhenglong, and the third year of North Jin Dading, on April 23, the inside and outside of Jinan City were cleaned up.

In this battle, the defenders of Jinan City were completely wiped out, and the Shandong rebels suffered nearly 6,000 casualties.

At the cost of 15,000 people, the Shandong Righteous Army took Jinan City in a month and a half.

After 55,000 people were stationed in Jinan, they notified the surrounding prefectures, counties, and counties and the people in the name of the Shandong Righteous Army: Belong to the Shandong Righteous Army and be exempted from taxation for three years!

A few days later, the remaining counties and towns that had been under the jurisdiction of Jinan Prefecture were annexed.

On April 25, the Yamen of Yidu Prefecture sent officials to Jinan City to take over the government affairs of Jinan Prefecture, and ordered the rebel armies from all walks of life to shrink their front and concentrate their main forces in Jinan City and Yidu City to prevent the Jin army from counterattacking.

However, what made the Shandong Righteous Army more strange was that the 70,000 Righteous Army besieged the city of Jinan for more than a month, and they did not see the Jin Army come to the rescue, until the city was broken, and they did not see the shadow of the Jin Army south of the Yellow River.

After taking Jinan, the task of the Shandong rebel army in the north has basically been completed, and all that remains is to hold the city, wait for the order of the Song army, and then cooperate with the Song army to recover Jeju and Xingrenfu, and threaten Kaizhou north of the Yellow River.

Before there is no news of the Northern Expedition of the Song Army, it is not appropriate for the Shandong Righteous Army to move lightly.

Jiedu made the Yamen order the left government to lead 60,000 people to garrison Jinan and Tai'an, and the right government to garrison Yidu, Zizhou, and Weizhou.

Shandong Jiedu made Shen Jin learn that the righteous army captured Jinan City, and after learning that the city defense and moat were seriously damaged, he personally designed the city defense map, and at the same time sent dozens of craftsmen to come with a batch of city construction materials.

More than 10 days later, at the end of April, more than 30 large ships docked in Laizhou Bay, loaded with a large amount of grain sent from Liuqiu, and the food shortage faced by the Shandong righteous army and the common people was alleviated.

As soon as this batch of grain arrived, it was sent to all prefectures and prefectures in batches, and in addition to supplementing the garrison's food and salaries, some of it was also used to lend to the people who had no grain at home.

Half a month after the Shandong Righteous Army took Jinan Mansion, on the second day of the fifth month, the Song Dynasty issued a war letter against Nanjin.

The war book said: The Central Plains is the homeland of the Great Song Dynasty, Jin occupied it for 36 years without reason, tyrannical and unkind, the Central Plains has been repeatedly exploited, the people are displaced, and all hope to return to the Great Song Dynasty. Later, the Song-Jin Covenant, more than 20 years without war, Jin tore up the covenant again, led millions of troops to invade the south, scourged the world, and made the Yangtze River and Huai River miserable, ten rooms and nine empty, what he did, heaven and man were angry. Today, the Great Song Dynasty sent 500,000 troops, returned to the Central Plains in the north, and crusaded against the unkind!

At the same time as the war letter was issued, Emperor Zhao Yan, with the support of Zhang Jun, Chen Kangbo and other radical ministers of the main war faction, ignored the opposition of Yang Cunzhong, Shi Hao and other ministers, bypassed the three provinces and the Privy Council, and directly issued the Northern Expedition edict to Zhang Jun and the generals.

In the first year of Song Longxing, the eighth year of Southern Jin Zhenglong, the third year of Northern Jin Dading, and the fifth day of the fifth month of May, after receiving the edict, Zhang Jun, the veteran general of the Great Song Dynasty, transferred 80,000 Jianghuai troops in Yangzhou, known as 200,000, and went straight to Xuzhou.

On May 15, Zhang Jun personally led a large army to Xuzhou.

After summoning the generals to discuss the matter, he ordered Li Xianzhong to lead 30,000 troops to take Lanling County, and Shao Hongyuan to lead 30,000 troops to take Teng County.

Yang Congyi, who nominally had 40,000 troops and was stationed in Suzhou, Bozhou, and Chenzhou, was not ordered by Zhang Jun.

Only ten days after Li Xianzhong and Shao Hongyuan's armies went north from Xuzhou, they received a verbal order from Zhang Jun, the commander of the Northern Expedition: Strictly guard Suzhou, do not let the Jin people go south, and cut off the back road of Xuzhou!

At this point, Zhang Jun completely excluded Yang Congyi, the old general of Yang Cunzhong's palace and the newcomer of the Song Army, who was a newcomer to the Song Army, from the Northern Expedition led by him.

Since Yang Congyi received the news that Shen Jin sent the 80,000 Shandong rebels to attack Jinan Mansion, he has been preparing to wave his army north and take Jeju directly, and now he has finally waited for the imperial court to edict the Northern Expedition, he has 70,000 troops, but he was excluded from the Northern Expedition, how depressing this is!

However, Yang Congyi soon calmed down, although Zhang Jun, Li Xianzhong, Shao Hongyuan and others had 80,000 troops, but if they wanted to attack ** Yuan, it was impossible, from Xuzhou to Jeju, and then from Jeju to Xingrenfu, and then to Bianjing, without 200,000 elite soldiers, it was impossible to hit Bianjing, and if the Northern Expedition was to succeed, his Suzhou army would inevitably be mobilized.

Let's let them take Jeju first!

When they march west from Jeju and attack Heungin, they will definitely transfer the Suju army north to contain the Jin army of Guideokfu, and if they win one or two battles, his opportunity may come.

Then Yang Congyi gave orders to Su Zhong, Pan Cheng, Yuan Hua, and Xue Wang, ordering them to actively prepare for war and prepare to go north at any time.

On May 20, Li Xianzhong led his troops to the city of Lanling County, and after resting for two days, he launched a fierce attack on the county seat, and more than 10,000 Jin troops in the city resisted to the death.

On 25 May, the defenders of Lanling County lost their troops and surrendered, and the reinforcements were delayed, so they surrendered out of the city.

In the 35 years since Huaibei fell to the hands of the Jin, the Great Song army recovered Lanling for the first time.

The war report was sent to Xuzhou, Zhang Jun was overjoyed, the first battle of the Northern Expedition was victorious, which was a good sign, so he sent the Lanling war report back to Lin'an in the starry night with an express delivery of 800 miles.

The other army led by Shao Hongyuan, after arriving in Tengxian County on May 24, quickly launched a fierce attack, but with little success.

The army stormed for three days, not only failed to capture Tengxian, but suffered heavy losses, with three or four thousand casualties.

On May 30, Li Xianzhong led his army north from Lanling, and saw that Shao Hongyuan's troops were delayed in attacking Teng County, so he sent Lanling troops to persuade him to surrender, and the Teng County guard gave up resistance, and Teng County returned to the hands of the Great Song Dynasty.

After that, the two armies rested in Tengxian County and waited for logistical supplies.

After capturing Teng County, Li Xianzhong suggested taking advantage of the victory to capture Jeju, but Shao Hongyuan did not move on the grounds that the soldiers were tired and needed to continue to rest.

In fact, Shao Hongyuan was ashamed of his military exploits in Tengxian County, and he had a grudge against Li Xianzhong.

Li Xianzhong had no choice but to lead his troops north to attack Jeju alone.

After five days of hard fighting, the city was about to be broken, and Shao Hongyuan led his troops to come late and enter the battle.

A quarter of an hour later, the Jeju defenders were defeated and broke through.

On the 10th day of June, Jeju returned to the Great Song Dynasty.

The battle report was sent back to Lin'an through the starry night of Xuzhou, and the monarchs of the Great Song Dynasty were greatly encouraged when they learned the news.

Due to Li Xianzhong's outstanding achievements in the capture of Lanling, Tengxian, and Jeju, Emperor Zhao Yan promoted Li Xianzhong to Huaibei, Jingdong, and Hebei to recruit envoys, with Shao Hongyuan as his deputy, and ordered the two of them to continue to recover the lost territory.

However, just when Li Xianzhong was planning to continue his northward advance, Shao Hongyuan was ashamed to be under Li because his qualifications were not lower than Li Xianzhong, and he clearly expressed to Zhang Jun, the commander of the Northern Expedition, that he refused to accept Li Xianzhong's moderation!

Zhang Jun considered the Northern Expedition and accommodated Shao Hongyuan's request and let him lead an army alone, not controlled by Li Xianzhong.

But then over the issue of the Jeju treasury's reward, Lee Hyun-chung had a dispute with Shao Hongyuan.

The two Northern Expeditionary armies that won the battle in a row, had sufficient grain, grass and materials, and were all proud soldiers and fierce generals who were well fed.

At the same time, the Jin general Sushi Zhining led the army from Heungin Province with more than 10,000 troops to attack Jeju, and Li Xianzhong led his army to defeat it in Jiaxiang.

A day later, more than 50,000 people of the main force of the Jin army arrived, and Li Xianzhong led his troops to fight fiercely with the Jin army near Jiaxiang.

Li Xianzhong's troops fought hard with the Jin army, and Shao Hongyuan did not move in Jeju City because of his resentment.

Regarding Li Xianzhong's request to send people to lead the army to fight and attack the Jin army together, Shao Hongyuan refused to pay attention to it, and said cool words: "On this hot day, it's not cool to shake a fan, let alone fight hard under the big sun!" ”

When the rumors spread, the Song army in Jeju City immediately collapsed, and the generals who originally had fighting spirit were discouraged.

The messenger brought back the news, and Li Xianzhong was furious, but to no avail.

The Jin army was strong, and Li Xianzhong's army was difficult to support alone, so in desperation, he had to withdraw to Jeju City.

That night, Shao Hongyuan's commander of the Chinese army, Zhou Hong, privately gathered the generals.

"Coming north from Xuzhou, although we have won a few games in a row, but now Shao Hongyuan is hiding in the city to take advantage of the coolness, and he has no intention of fighting again, and Li Xianzhong is bent on making meritorious contributions, and wants to continue to march north, wanting to exchange his brother's life for meritorious service, now the two main generals are not in harmony, the Northern Expedition will inevitably be defeated, and at this time the Jin army is attacking again, if we don't evacuate as soon as possible, our lives will be lost here!" Zhou Hong shouted.

"Zhou's words are good, this Shao Hongyuan has always been like this, and when it comes to war, he will drag his feet. I remember that when he was guarding Zhenzhou, he was drunk every day, and he didn't care about military affairs at all, and when the Jin army came to attack, he got drunk and gathered generals and led the troops to meet the enemy. The result can be imagined, just with the enemy army, he fell under the horse, fortunately the brothers desperately resisted, only to rescue him from the chaos, as soon as this incident came out, the morale of the whole army immediately weakened, each fled for his life, where can he still care about blocking the enemy. Unified system sighed.

"It turns out that Zhenzhou was lost so quickly, and Liu Shuai was so tired that he ordered us to retreat in a hurry, just because Shao Hongyuan was drunk and mishap?" Another ruler asked.

"Damn, you don't know, we fought a few battles with the Jin army in Huaiyin, and it was difficult to separate, first I suddenly heard that Huaixi was lost, and the Jin people drove straight into Luzhou, approaching Hezhou, and Liu Shuai had to let us retreat. At that time, we were ready to retreat to Yangzhou, and fought to the death with the Jin people in Yangzhou, who knew that before entering Yangzhou, I heard that Zhenzhou was lost, and we hurriedly retreated to Guazhou, built a large camp in Guazhou, and guarded the Guazhou ferry. It was because of the loss of Zhenzhou that our army did not enter Yangzhou City, and the defenders of Yangzhou City abandoned the city and fled when they saw the Jin people's vanguard coming to attack. It turns out that the culprit of all this is Shao Hongyuan! It's a damn shame to take away half of the treasury loot, disgusting! The other commander immediately scolded.

"Okay, now that everyone knows Shao Hongyuan's character, don't hesitate any longer, when the Jin army comes to attack Jeju City, he will definitely be the first to escape, and we want us to save his life, rather than this, it is better to take a step first!" Zhou Hong continued to make noise.

"If you abandon the Lord and run away in battle, even if you survive, you will be killed. If we run first, we won't be able to survive any of us. The First Commander hesitated.