Chapter 19: Hail Falls from the Sky

Because of the pacification of the Mingjiao Rebellion in the south of the Yangtze River, Tong Gonggong was rewarded by the emperor, and at the same time he was ordered to lead the Northern Expedition to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, which had become an enclave. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, because of the repeated defeats of the Liao army against the Jin soldiers, the Song State had a contemptuous attitude towards the Liao people, believing that as soon as the army of the Celestial Empire arrived, the sixteen states of Yanyun would inevitably be captured. It was because of the contempt for the combat effectiveness of the Liao people that there were many main battle factions in the Song army, among which Tong Guan Tong's father-in-law was the most war-seeking.

Tong Guan was under the eunuch Li Xian when he was a teenager. He has a well-behaved temperament, and from the time he was doing things to the palace, he was good at speculating about the emperor's intentions and making obedient things in advance. Song Huizong ascended the throne and set up the Jinming Bureau in Hangzhou, and Tong Guan was in charge of this matter as an enshrinement official, and began to associate with Cai Jing.

Cai Jing entered Beijing as an official, thanks to Tong Guan. After Cai Jing became prime minister, he was in favor of capturing Qingtang, and told the emperor that Tong Guan had sent envoys to Shaanxi ten times, and he was familiar with the situation of the five roads and the talents of the generals, and tried his best to recommend him. Song joined forces with 100,000 troops and ordered Wang Hou to be the commander. Tong Guan is a prison soldier like Li Xian. When the army arrived in Huangzhou, there happened to be a fire in the palace, and Song Huizong issued an edict to convey the edict by the stagecoach prohibiting Tong Guan from sending troops.

Tong Guan opened it and put it in his boots. Wang Hou asked him why, and Tong Guan replied: "Your Majesty hopes that the army will be successful." "He sent troops to fight, recovered the four states, and moved to the Jingfu Palace and the Xiangzhou Observation Envoy.

Soon, Tong Guan was the envoy of Xihe Lanhuang and Qinfeng Road Jingluo to pacify the system, and was continuously promoted to the envoy of the Wukang Army. Crusade against Xige Zang Zheng, recover the Jishi Army and Taozhou, and was added to the official position of inspector.

In the first year of Zhenghe, Tong Guan was named the captain of the school and sent an envoy to the Khitan. Someone said: "With eunuchs as envoys, is there no one in the country?" The emperor said: "The Khitan heard that Tong Guan defeated the Qiang people, so they wanted to see him, and it was also a good policy to use him as an envoy to inspect the enemy country." "Tong Guan brought Liao back, and he was more powerful, holding military and political power inside and outside the court. So he asked to send troops to Hengshan in the Xia Kingdom, and the imperial court ordered him to serve as a lieutenant as a Xuanfu envoy in Shaanxi, Hedong, and Hebei. Soon, for the opening of the palace with the three divisions, signed the Privy Council Hexi and North two rooms. For less than three years, he was in charge of the Privy Council. In addition, he commanded nine towns such as Wuxin, Wuning, Huguo, Hedong, Shannan Dongdao, and Jiannan Dongchuan, and was Taifu and Jingguogong. At that time, people called Cai Jing the prime minister, and Tong Guan was the prime minister.

At this point, Tong Guan can be said to be a high authority, and his power is tilted towards the opposition. It stands to reason that when the status has reached the point of Tong Guan Tong's father-in-law, he should also be satisfied, he is a eunuch, and he can't be allowed to replace Cai Jing's position as prime minister.

But Tong Guan didn't think so. It is because he is a eunuch, and because he has reached this point, power and wealth are nothing to him, and he has to go one step further and leave a name in history, so that future generations will know his achievements as a child.

Like his master Li Xian and Li Gonggong, when the five roads were in the summer, only Li Xian's road was not defeated, and he was still killed. But even so, those civilian officials still put the responsibility for the defeat on Li Xian's head. Even thousands of years later, a very famous author said in his novel that it was because of Li Xian's eunuch chaos that led to the failure of the Five Roads War.

Now that he Tong Guan has made many military exploits, even if he has made countless attacks, he will still be withdrawn as a scapegoat when the time comes. He understands this very well. Therefore, he has to make transcendent achievements, to be the first important eunuch, and to set up a masterpiece that even history books cannot completely erase his merits.

Could it be that Tong Guan wants to be the real prime minister? But even if you become the prime minister, it's not a big deal. At that time, a certain imperial court in the south wanted to be an official. Naturally, the prime minister of that court was also a eunuch.

Therefore, Tong Guan's ambition is even greater. He doesn't want to be the prime minister, but he wants to be the king!

A eunuch, a king in an era like the Song Dynasty when scholars and emperors ruled the world together? It's impossible in normal times, unless... He was able to do what the Taizu of the Song Dynasty promised - to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

As long as he can recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, he Tong Guan will be the first person to be crowned king as a eunuch, which is unprecedented in history, if not the last. In order to achieve the goal of becoming the king, Tong Guan gave up everything, and finally achieved his long-cherished wish, but this is just the beginning. He expected the beginning, but he didn't expect the end of the story.

In April 1122, the Song dynasty officially broke the 120-year-old alliance between the two countries. Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty issued an edict to declare war on the Liao State in the name of recovering Yanyun, restoring the Han land, and crusading against Wudao, and Tong Guan led 150,000 Song troops from the Beijing Division to control and control the Song armies of all walks of life.

Before leaving, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty gave Tong Taishi the Three Strategies of the Imperial Pen as the three basic principles to guide the Pingyan War. "If the Yan people look at the wind and surrender, they will also; The king of Yan is called a vassal and a middle one; The Yan people were not satisfied, and patrolled the border according to the soldiers, and went down. After making trouble for a long time, Song Huizong wanted to pursue the highest level of fighting with soldiers in "The Art of War", "a soldier who surrenders without a fight"! But the reality is very regrettable, but I don't give face to the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty's provocative acts of recruiting rebels on the border finally angered Yeluchun of Yanjing. He collected the refugees who had fled from Liaodong to Yanjing, expanded his troops, and ordered the generals Yelu Dashi and Xiao Gan to lead the army to the Song-Liao border to meet the Song army. Tong Guan learned that the Liao army had increased troops on the border and intended to confront, so he ordered the commander to lead the West Route Army to Baigou, and the general Xin Xingzong to lead the East Route Army to Fan Village. On May 26, the Liao army defeated Yang Keshi, the vanguard of the Song Western Route Army, and the Song army suffered many casualties, and the Western Route Army was defeated and retreated in the direction of Xiongzhou. On the 30th, the Liao general Xiao Gan defeated the Song East Route Army in Fan Village.

On June 3, after the Liao army detected the news of the retreat of the Western Route Army to Xiongzhou, they followed and killed one by one. The main force of the Song army on the west road led by the seed master Dao started a bloody battle with the Liao army outside the city of Xiongzhou, at this time, the heavenly prince was not beautiful, and suddenly the north wind blew, the dust was flying, and a fist-sized hail fell.

Under the double blow of the Liao army and hail, the dizzy, "unable to find the north" Song army collapsed on the whole line, from Xiongzhou (Xiongxian County, Hebei) to the south to Zhending (Zhengding, Hebei), between hundreds of miles, corpses and bones can be seen everywhere (most of them trampled on each other when fleeing and died). Fortunately, the Liao army only pursued to Xiongzhou and did not cross the border to pursue, otherwise, the Song army would have died even more ugly.

The so-called statement that the whole army was defeated because of hail from the sky, Chen Cheng scoffed at it. Could it be that this hail only hit Song Jun's head, and the Liao Army was like a god who didn't hit a piece?

is obviously his own waste material, instead of summing up the lessons and lessons, he blames the weather for the failure, such a Song army..... It will only make people more despised.