In mid-July, Xu Wei bid farewell to the emperor, set off to return to Sichuan and Shaanxi, and when he was ready to march into the army, Zhao Jin personally gave him a send-off, highly praised Xu Wei's work in running Sichuan and Shaanxi, and gave a gold belt, a collar of bead robes, and a number of treasures in the inner house, Xu Wei thanked him for going down to the south of the Yangtze River this time, it can be said that he came in a hurry, and went in a hurry, although he only stayed in Hangzhou for a few days, but it was precisely because of his suggestion that the imperial court decided to detain the golden envoy, and he rushed back to Sichuan and Shaanxi at the same time as he rushed back to Sichuan and Shaanxi. Xu Liang, who wanted to achieve the world's achievements, couldn't wait to ask Emperor Zhao Jin to issue a personal edict pointing out that the Jin people had invaded the Great Song Dynasty for a long time, and now they still stole Lianghe, Shandong, the Central Plains, Huaidong and other places, and went against the grain, brutal and cruel The remnants of the northern land looked south to the king's division, looking forward to restoring the old frontier of today's son as the restoration of the ancestors, saving Li Shu from fire and water, and ordering the king of the world to raise troops to go on a northern expedition

Once the Northern Expedition was pro-conquest, Jianghuai was boiling, both the army and the people were greatly encouraged, the Great Song Dynasty had not done this kind of thing before, the first emperor Zhao Chen was alive, he had ordered Zhi Yanzhi to send troops to the north, but at that time, the emperor bypassed the imperial court and directly commanded the front-line generals, quite a bit of a secret taste, and this time, the emperor announced to the world, its significance is extraordinary

Compared with the last time in a hurry and sloppy, this time the Song army was fully prepared as early as a few years ago, the southern armies had begun to prepare for the troops, and now the troops of the division are strong and strong, the food and salary are sufficient, and the morale is high. It's been almost 150 years

Therefore, as soon as the emperor arrived in Zhenjiang, it caused a great sensation, and the generals of the Huaixi army crossed the south of the Yangtze River one after another to face the saint, and Zhao Jin appeared at the head of Zhenjiang Mansion, and the soldiers and civilians shouted long live, and the voice spread that there was really the spirit of drinking the Yangtze River for a hundred miles, and as soon as the news came out, the Jianghuai armies were all excited

Xu Liang saw that the time had come, and immediately ordered Huaixi to appease Liu Guangguo to launch an attack, Liu Guangguo was the father of the current empress Liu, the father of the daughter was noble, and now he was already a lieutenant, and he also served as the deputy commander of the southern armies of the Northern Expedition, and he was in the limelight for a while

After Liu Guangguo got the order, he was also eager to make meritorious contributions, so as to prove that he was not only a relative of the emperor, but also walked out of the serious general gate of the Western Army, he did not send Huaixi to pacify the deputy envoy Li Xianzhong as the vanguard this time, but let his younger brother Liu Guangyuan lead 15,000 elite soldiers to advance in advance, and he and Li Xianzhong raised the main force behind

Liu Guangyuan, is the third child of the Liu family, the son of Liu Yanqing, this Liu San has no ability, don't say, but the luck is really not bad, he mentioned 15,000 infantry troops to Suzhou The last time the Huaixi Army attacked Suzhou, Li Xianzhong had broken through this place, so Liu Guangyuan came, the Jin army was caught off guard, and under the rule of Suzhou, Lingbi and Hong County, two places looked at the wind and descended, Liu Guangyuan was encouraged by this, and only 15,000 men and horses rushed to Suzhou City

When the Suzhou Jin army was only a few thousand people, the city gate was closed and the Pegasus reported to Tokyo that Liu Guangyuan commanded the troops to attack, but they were all blocked back, and more than 2,000 people could not break the city, Liu Guangguo and Li Xianzhong then rushed to Li Xianzhong's department to attack Wang De on the city, waving the flag and shouting: "I Huaixi Li pacification general Wang De is also the remnants of the Central Plains can surrender and die if you don't surrender", the Jin army was defeated, the Han officials in the city surrendered, Suzhou recovered the Huaixi army flag and opened the victory, the news spread across the Yangtze River, Zhao Jinjunchen who sat in Zhenjiang Mansion was greatly encouraged, but the good show is still to come, After recovering Suzhou, it took less than five days for the Huaixi army to capture Sizhou, and the officials of the Jin State all hastily resisted, that is, they surrendered

Then the Huaixi army marched into Maozhou, at this time the Jin army also came to its senses, quickly mobilized more than 30,000 horse infantry troops to rush to Mengcheng County, southeast of Maozhou, to block the Huaixi army against it, the battle began at noon, until after noon, regardless of victory or defeat, fell into a stalemate Li Xianzhong saw this, personally led himself from the Western Xia to bring back the elite horse army to attack the side, the Jin army was in chaos, Liu Guangguo took advantage of the situation to wave the army to attack, the Jin people were defeated and left

The good news on the front line was frequent, and the emperor Zhao Jin, who had never been very enthusiastic about the matter, was also encouraged, and of course, it was his father-in-law Lao Taishan who commanded the Huaixi army, which was also crucial

The Huaixi Army is progressing smoothly, and it has already shocked the Jin Army general Wuyan Puluhun who is sitting in Tokyo as the commander of the Jin Army south of the Yellow River, Puluhun has been paying close attention to the movements of the Song Army in recent years, and he knows that the south is going to "invade the north" sooner or later, but because the Jin Ting sent Zhang Tonggu to lead a large delegation to Jiangnan, and Xu returned to the Central Plains and Huaidong to negotiate peace with him, so he didn't expect the Song Army to go to war without declaring war, so there was a Huaixi Army even under Suzhou Sizhou, and the Jin Army had no reaction to the situation that he urgently sent 30,000 reinforcements for the Huaixi Army to defeat, Pu Luhun realized that this was just the precursor of the Song army's large-scale northward march, and he judged that the Huaixi army was only beating the side drum, and the real threat came from the Jinghu Xuanfu Division in front of him

With this judgment, he didn't care about the Huaidong war situation first, but ordered Chi Zhanhui, the Jin Guoyong general who was sitting on the front line of Tang Erzhou in the suburbs, to let him strengthen his vigilance, and the southern army could go north at any time Then, he urgently reported the news of the Song army's northern invasion to Yanjing, and finally, this order the Huaidong Jin army to stay on the defensive, not to defeat the Huaixi army, as long as he dragged the other party because he knew that it would not be long before Han Shizhong, Yue Fei, and Jiangxi's Zheyan were coming

At the end of July, the Huaixi army passed the good news again, the clamp army defeated the Jin army again in the territory of Maozhou, if the Huaixi army took this place, to the north, you can attack Tianfu, where it was Nanjing of the Great Song Dynasty, to the west, you can go straight to the boundary of Kaifeng Mansion but, the good times are not long, inspired by the victory of the banner, the Huaixi army is a little rash, as the vanguard Liu Guangyuan only led more than 10,000 soldiers to rush to the city of Maozhou, at this time, the main force of the Huaixi army is still in Mengcheng County

The commander of Haozhou, no better than the previous generals of Sizhou and Suzhou, he is a serious Jurchen, although the vast majority of the 20,000 horse infantry troops under his command are Han signing troops, but the combat power of his army is second to none in the Han army, and he has been personally rewarded by Wushu When he saw Liu Guangyuan coming alone, he only took 8,000 people out of the city to fight

Seeing this, Liu Guangyuan did not care, and ordered the forward attack on the Huaixi Army, which had won successive battles before, and the soldiers were all in high spirits, holding the mentality of grabbing merit, and they could take a look at it, and they found that this Jin Army was extraordinary, it was well-trained, properly coordinated, and the technical and tactical level of the soldiers was very high, "not at all as easy to bully as the previous Jin Army."

After the battle, Liu Guangyuan was disgraced, losing more than 3,000 people, turning around and running back, if the Jin army had not been afraid that the main force of the Huaixi Army was behind, he was afraid that he would have chased after him

Liu Guangyuan's defeat "made Li Xianzhong, who was the deputy envoy of Huaixi pacification, very dissatisfied, he had already reminded Liu San before, you are the vanguard, open the way for the army, if you encounter resistance, you can fight, who told you to run to the city of Maozhou?" Liu Guangguo knew Li Xianzhong's ability, so he reprimanded his younger brother and asked him Li Xianzhong thought that the Huaixi Army only had 40,000 troops this time, "what I am most afraid of is to storm the strong city of the Jin Army, which is good at field battles

Liu Guangguo adopted his suggestion, sent a general, and only led thousands of people to the outside of the city of Maozhou to call for the battle of the defenders of the city, and led the troops out of the city without saying a word" The result was no suspense, the Song army fought for a while, and then turned around and ran away, and the Jin army was encouraged by this, thinking that the Huaixi army was nothing more than that

The next day, Liu Guangyuan "Li Xianzhong led the Huaixi Army to the outskirts of the city, claiming revenge on the Jin generals of Maozhou, and saw that the main force of the Huaixi Army was coming" also exhausted his elite, led 20,000 troops out of the city, lined up in formation, and wanted to have a hard-fought battle with the Huaixi Army

The Huaixi army launched an attack first, Liu Guangguo sent elite infantry troops, with side cards and knives and other equipment, and marched into the Jin army with bows and crossbows to suppress "fortunately, they are not equipped with a large number of strong crossbows", so the casualties are limited, and soon the short hand, the Huaixi army bites the Jin army's large array

Li Xianzhong took advantage of the chaos, only led a dozen horsemen to run back and forth, peeking at the Jin army's formation, only to see that the Jin general was good at underestimating the enemy, and the troops were at a disadvantage, but he discharged a full offensive formation, most of the troops were concentrated in front of the formation, like an arrow, this formation, it was very difficult to break through head-on, but it was backed by the city, and it could not launch a surprise attack behind it, so it could only attack from the side, cutting off its head and tail, but the cavalry of the Huaixi Army was limited, and it was necessary to find a suitable time

Liu Guangguo disagreed, in the previous few battles, Li Xianzhong's horse army had made great contributions, which made him very unimpressed, and in this battle, he planned to use his main infantry to defeat the gold thief

Based on this plan, Liu Guangguo committed a military taboo, adding fuel to his army, wave by wave to increase troops, trying to tear apart the formation of the Jin army, but your Huaixi army does have an advantage in strength, but the Jin army is consuming with you with a stable large formation, once you send out to the attacking troops to retreat, the other side can immediately break through the whole army, because the formation of the opponent's platoon, similar to the "front arrow formation", the main force is placed in the front, which is most suitable for breaking through in the middle

The battle became more and more difficult, after two hours, Liu Guangguo increased his troops three times and could not break through the Jin army's large array, unfortunately Li Xianzhong's words, the attacking troops were gradually pressed by the Jin army to retreat, the defenders of Maozhou seized the fighter plane, the horn sounded to the sky, the whole army of the Jin army broke into Liu Guangguo's troops were scattered in the blink of an eye, and the Jin army was like an arrow, shooting straight to the Huaixi army's main formation

Liu Guangguo knew that it was not good, but he did not plan to retreat, but ordered a strong bow and a hard crossbow to desperately suppress the enemy, but he had lost control of the battle situation, the Huaixi army was defeated by a little-known Jin general in the case of superior troops, and the loss of more than 5,000 people would have been great if it were not for Li Xianzhong to lead the troops, and the losses would have been great After experiencing this battle, the Huaixi army remembered the name of the golden general and withdrew Ge Yuan

The defeat of Haozhou, the internal contradictions of the Huaixi Army highlighted Li Xianzhong's great dissatisfaction with the Liu brothers, do you think Li Xianzhong was originally a party member, served in the Western Army, and fought for the Western Xia, galloping vertically and horizontally, and succumbing to the Liu brothers, Liu Guangguo actually insisted on going his own way, resulting in defeat, how could he give up?

After retreating to Mengcheng, he had a dispute with Liu Guangguo on the issue of responsibility, and the matter soon reached the base camp of the Song army, Zhenjiang Mansion, which made Xu Liang very worried, this just won a few battles, "This kind of thing came out of the general's discord, the impact is very bad Moreover, Liu Guangguo is the emperor's father-in-law, and the Zhao official family is extremely fond of Empress Liu, Xu Liang thought about it again and again, did not take his cousin's reminder seriously, political considerations overrode military needs, he did not deal with it, or reprimanded the Liu family brothers, but adopted a harmonious attitude, and calmed down

Besides, he didn't bother to bother with it, because a real war would break out

In August, the "commander-in-chief" of the Southern Song Army, Zhe Yanzhi, led 70,000 Zhejia troops to cross the Huai River and attack Caizhou, and at the same time ordered the Shenwu Rear Army of the Jinghu Xuanfu Division to send troops from Xianghan to attack the suburban state of Tangzhou, with Tokyo as the purpose, and marched on two routes

After Han Shizhong got the order, he sent 60,000 troops, and the former commander Yue Fei led 20,000 troops from Suizhou to the north to attack Tangzhou, and he led the main force to attack the suburbs of Zhoujiao, Tang, and Cai

In the last hasty Northern Expedition, the Shenwu Rear Army suffered great losses, and over the years, Han Shizhong, Yue Fei and others worked hard, "With the support of the imperial court, the Shenwu Rear Army was revitalized, and the officers and soldiers of the Shenwu Rear Army are looking forward to this Northern Expedition bringing them not only victory, but also shame."

Yue Fei set off before the armies, although there were only 20,000 people under his command, but he was equipped with 3,000 fine cavalry, led by his eldest son Yue Yun and others, and the combat effectiveness was very strong Yue Fei's army entered the territory of Tangzhou, and defeated the Jin army of 5,000 people in Huyang County before "beheading 800 people, and then on the way to Tangzhou City, and then frustrated the Jin army to block, and cut more than 1,000 levels When he came to Tangzhou City, the people of Tangzhou rushed to tell each other, all called "Grandpa Yue is coming", and competed to attach

Who is in Tangzhou? The younger brother of the fierce general Chi Zhanhui of the Jin Ying, he called Awulu known as the unstoppable courage of ten thousand people, "the best hand and fierce beast, and of course he had heard of Yue Fei's name in the three armies, but the fierce person is always conceited, and he will never easily admit that he is weaker than others

Yue Fei's troops came to Tangzhou, he did not know the reality of the truth, "did not dare to rashly go to the battle for a few days, when he learned that the main force of the Jinghu Xuanfu Division rushed to Dengzhou, the Awulu was relieved" led more than 10,000 troops out of the city to fight

Yue Feijun's shameful opportunity to the army, known as "the winner of the official", Yue Yun, led the elite cavalry into the enemy formation, rushed back and forth to kill, stirring up the enemy's Jin army formation, Yue Fei himself came to the front line to fight, led the army to press in, only a burst of "defeated the gold thief and routed A Wushulu into the city, and exclaimed, "Xiang Ri heard Yue Fei's name, and did not take it seriously" When I saw it today, I really didn't dare to go out of the city again, and I only cared about sticking to the city

Tangzhou is very important in Tokyo, and it is not allowed to lose the state of Bangzhou with Chi Zhanhui personally in charge, it is expected that there will be no hindrance, after careful consideration, Pu Luhun led the main force of the Jin army of 80,000 and sent troops to Tangzhou, intending to eat Yue Fei's army first

At this time, the Huaixi army was planning a small re-battle, the Zhejia army was fighting fiercely in Caizhou, Han Shizhong had already exchanged hands with Chizhan Hui in Bangzhou, and Pu Luhun was just going to see this gap and take a bite to count

Yue Fei quickly sensed the danger, as soon as he heard the news that the main force of the Jin army was heading south, he immediately retreated to the border between Tangzhou and Suizhou.

As soon as Yue Feijun set up the fortifications, the cavalry of the Jin army swarmed to them, but in front of them was the camp set up by Yue Feijun according to the terrain

Yue Fei did not engage in frontal combat, and placed strong bows and crossbows in various camps, as soon as the Jin army came, they took turns to fire, and did not stop Pu Luhun to attack for two days, and countless Jin soldiers fell under the arrows of the Song army, but Yue Feijun did not move Pu Luhun was trusted by the vultures, and naturally he was not a general

When he came this time, he wanted to eat Yue Feijun in one bite, but the current situation, I am afraid that it will not let him get his wish, at this time, he received the fierce offensive of the Zhejia army in Caizhou, the Jin army could not resist, and the news that the Song army was about to come to the city Pu Yanhun immediately made a decision and immediately ordered to retreat north

In Tangzhou, he convened an emergency meeting to analyze the current battle situation of the Song Army, the Huaixi Army, the Jiangxi Army, and the Jinghu Army

The Jiangxi army is now concentrating on attacking Caizhou, the Jin army may not be able to stop Bangzhou from having Chizhan Hui, Han Shizhong will not succeed easily, Yue Fei's army is not much, as long as Tangzhou is left with some troops, it should not be able to hold him for a while

To sum up, the biggest threat now is that once he breaks through Caizhou, he will tear a gap in the defense line of Tokyo and drive straight into Kaifeng Mansion

Now, he has two choices, either lead the army to Caizhou and have a decisive battle with the Zhejia army first, or retreat, and when the two Song armies enter the vicinity of Kaifeng Mansion, choose a suitable opportunity and then have a decisive battle

The former, victory is good to say, once defeated, the Central Plains battlefield is basically finished The latter, although it is safer, but at that time the pressure on the Jin army was unprecedentedly huge Moreover, Pu Luhun knows one thing very well, that is, he has no backup In recent years, the country has been troubled, the western army colluded with the Khitans, and there was a lot of trouble in the west, and the main force of the Jin army was placed in the west to defend them

The Jin army in the Central Plains and Jianghuai region is not only insufficient in strength, but also not high in quality, generally based on the signing army of Lianghe, the Jurchen army and the Bohai army are relatively small in number and the Song army is different, through these years of conquest, their strength has improved rapidly, and it is very difficult to fight

After careful consideration, Pu Luhun decided to retreat north into the boundary of Kaifeng Prefecture, wait for a few Song troops to come, and then fight a decisive battle against him, which is also a helpless move, the Song army has been preparing for the Northern Expedition in recent years, and he can only live by guarding his old book, and the court of Yanjing did not give him any reinforcements at all