Emperor Gaozong crossed the Yangtze River, walked more than ten miles south, and finally found a place where he could rest and settle - the Water Emperor Temple.

This statement of the official history is quite consistent with the legend of Emperor Gaozong crossing the river with mud horses.

Of course, the official history does not say that Emperor Gaozong encountered the grass mud horse beast again in the Water Emperor Temple, but said that after Gaozong arrived at the Water Emperor Temple, he first wiped the blood stains on the sword with the soles of his boots, and then took off the fur on his body, put it on the ground, and fell asleep with half a cushion and half a cover.

At this time, Emperor Gaozong did not have any civil and military officials and forbidden army guards around him.

"Renewal of Capital and Governance. Volume 13 records that the emperor sat in the temple of the Water Emperor at the entrance of the second Beijing, and took the sword and wiped the blood with his boots; None of the officials came, and none of the guards and forbidden troops followed.

Emperor Gaozong's southern crossing marked the Song Dynasty's complete defeat in the northern battlefield; In the future, the Song Dynasty will be able to rely on the Yangtze River to protect the remaining half of the country.

From now on, we can rightly call the Song Dynasty "Southern Song Dynasty".

The emperor actually got separated, this is a terrible thing, the news reached Zhenjiang Mansion, and Qian Boyan, the magistrate of Zhenjiang County, actually drove out the residents of the whole county and looked for the emperor everywhere.

There are still a lot of people, and there is a lot of power. The people soon found the down-and-out little emperor in the Temple of the Water Emperor. After knowing the news, the prefect of Qian Boyan immediately sent troops to greet him.

In this way, with the joint blessing of the Buddha and Tianzun, our little emperor Gaozong finally met his ministers again in Zhenjiang.

"Renewal of Capital and Governance. Volume 13 records: Zhenjiang heard the car driving forward, the residents ran to the valley, and the city was empty. The retainer Qian Boyan sent soldiers to come.

Over here. A small scandal of Emperor Gaozong was discovered:

"Renewal of Capital and Governance. Volume 103 records: The emperor went to Zhenjiang. Emperor Su Yu asked, "Is there a clan near Shang?" "Shi Canggang is Cao Guan. Or in the name of the pair. Then he summoned the priests to sleep together, and the emperor gave him the royal cotton vest. Shi Canggang, Zhong Weizi also.

This passage is indeed somewhat puzzling.

At that time, it was the time of the escape in distress, and it stands to reason that Emperor Gaozong should not have any leisure to pick up soap and break his back; Could it be because Emperor Gaozong found that his little Zhao Gou couldn't get up anymore, so he wanted to change his role and try his skills?

Our little emperor Gaozong is indeed a mysterious existence

The same defeat. But a defeated monarch also had two choices: lead the people to flee or flee alone.

Liu Bei during the Three Kingdoms period chose the former approach, which brought him great reputation and laid a good foundation for the later establishment of the Shu State.

The little emperor Gaozong chose the latter approach, and as a result, the little emperor was saddled with a lifetime of infamy

Reading the history of the Song Dynasty is sometimes very confusing, because the comparison of the strength and strength of the Jin and Song dynasties is often very different; Sometimes ten Song infantry were able to compete with the cavalry of a Jin state, and they won the battle; Sometimes, a cavalry of the Jin Kingdom would chase hundreds of Song soldiers all over the mountain.

You must know that the Song Dynasty was still in the era of cold weapon warfare, even if the cavalry had an advantage over the infantry, but this advantage was not so huge that it could not be overcome.

This time. The vanguard of the Jin soldiers arriving in Yangzhou was only 500 cavalry. However, the Song army was a subordinate of a commander of Liu Shiguang. There were already tens of thousands of people, not including Emperor Gaozong's own Imperial Army.

With such a comparison of strength, why did Emperor Gaozong and his subordinates not consider resistance at all, but instead panicked and fled first?

This is a question that historians may find difficult to answer

Anyone who has played real-time strategy games such as Warcraft, Starcraft, Red Alert, or Age of Empires will agree that the most enjoyable time to play is to kill the opposing farmer; Killing the opposing peasant's is equivalent to cutting off the opponent's economy.

Jin Bing, who had just arrived in Yangzhou City, did this kind of thing.

Hundreds of thousands of Yangzhou residents, each carrying their own belongings, stood on the side of the Grand Canal, waiting for the Jin soldiers to come and loot.

Those who were waiting on the shore to get on the boat and flee, those who had already boarded the boat, but were stranded on the boat because the river was blocked, and those who did not flee fast enough for various reasons, all became prisoners of the golden soldiers; Naturally, their belongings also became the spoils of war for the golden soldiers.

Inside and outside Yangzhou City, there is a voice of mourning.

What is called "people are swordsmen, I am fish and meat", Yangzhou City at this moment is the best answer

During the Japanese invasion of China, Japan's special forces, Unit 731, once did an experiment and threw several cats into a swarm of mice, and all the cats were eaten by mice.

Just imagine, if these hundreds of thousands of Yangzhou Han people can have a little spirit of resistance, can they work together to kill these 500 Jin soldiers?

The answer should be yes, after all, there is a high ratio of 1,000 to 1; Even if you stand still and let the golden soldiers cut, it will be enough for those golden soldiers to be tired.

The problem is that for more than 100 years, the Song Dynasty emphasized literature and suppressed martial arts, advocated Confucianism, emphasized the preservation of heavenly principles, and destroyed people's desires, and the martial culture since the Han and Tang dynasties has disappeared.

The officers and soldiers of the Song Dynasty were all like such bears, could they have more requirements for the common people?

Living history is the answer.

In response to the arrival of these murderous invaders, the people of Yangzhou City who could not escape adopted another strategy: arranging incense candles and flowers to welcome the arrival of the golden soldiers.

"Renewal of Capital and Governance. Volume 13 records: In the evening, Jin General Matu galloped to Yangzhou with 500 horses, and the Yellow Yuan of the Right Wen Hall of the Shouchen had fled, and the people of the state prepared fragrant flowers to worship.

Now that things have come to this point, there's nothing more to say.

Jin Bing expressed a high degree of appreciation and praise for the obedience and understanding of current affairs of the people of Yangzhou; After appreciating and praising him, Jin Bing began to loot inside and outside Yangzhou City, taking what he wanted.

Simply categorized, the gold soldiers were robbing nothing more than three categories: money, women, and food.

"Renewal of Capital and Governance. Volume 103 has the following record:

"Jin Bingtun is downstairs under the star, and the city sergeant's female gold silk is all taken by Jin. Nanyang Wei Yan filial piety Guangnu, fifteen years old, beautiful, for the Jin soldiers, want a wife, Yan is hanged and begged for death, Jin people are righteous. Filial piety, the great-grandson also.

The gold people have not arrived, the public and private are contained, and the sampan is linked. The canal is fifty miles from Yangzhou to Guazhou, and only one boat is passed. At the beginning, the city heard that the people who went out of the city were all to get the boat for the benefit, and the golden soldiers arrived, the tide should not be locked, and the glue mud was in the mud, all of them were taken by the golden soldiers, and the public opinion was subdued, and the official government was in charge, and there was no one left. ”

For all kinds of tragic situations in Yangzhou City, what future generations can do is to "mourn its misfortune and be angry with it." ”。 (To be continued......)