Chapter 131: Politics and Military

The Battle of Xianrenguan was an unprecedented victory for the Southern Song Dynasty. Since the Song Dynasty, in the battles with the Liao State and the Jin State, the scale is larger than this, such as the Battle of Fuping and the Second Battle of Bianjing, all of which are huge in scale, but the Song State has never achieved such a brilliant victory in the Great War.

The planning of the final battle of the Battle of Xianren Pass was completed by Gao Chong, and Gao Chong also sent troops to intercept Liu Kui's troops of more than 10,000 people, eliminated the 10,000 Jin army cavalry of the ancient camp of the old road, and the 500 Dasanguan defenders, cut off the return route of Jin Wushu, and finally eliminated the vanguard of 10,000 troops who retreated to Chengzhou, and gave Jin Wushu the final blow, so that his troops collapsed, and Jin Wushu finally retreated to Fengzhou Jin Bingjing was left with less than 10,000 people.

Under the persecution of the armies of Gao Chong and Wu Jue, Jin Wushu had to retreat to the very big mountains of the Qinling Mountains to find his way home. In the end, the Golden Vulture went from 100,000 people who launched an attack to only 10,000 people in Fengxiang and more than 1,000 people who escaped. If it weren't for the decision of Wanyan, who was guarding Fengxiang, to retreat the seven or eight thousand cavalry that had set off to the city and not to confront Gao Chong, these 10,000 people and Feng Xiang would also have fallen.

Although Wu Jue recorded the nearly 90,000 Jin troops he eliminated this time in his own account, he had eliminated nearly 50,000 Jin troops in total, at least since December of the previous year, not including the subordinates of the Jin army, which was twice his own strength. If you add the subordinate entourage and baggage personnel, this number also reaches about 100,000, such a major victory, even if he overreports tens of thousands, it is not too much. However, at that time, the calculation of combat achievements was based on the calculation of regular soldiers, and the subordinate logistics personnel were not counted as combat achievements.

Wu Jue's own losses were also nearly 30,000 people, if it weren't for the surrender of more than 10,000 people under Guan Shigu, the guard general of Chengzhou, who was in charge of the Ma Bu Army in charge of Chengzhou, and if it weren't for the support of Liu Qi's 3,000 horse army, Wu Jue would have been unable to defend against the immortals. It was the addition of these new forces that was able to withstand the wave attack of the Golden Vulture and finally have the strength to carry out the night attack and achieve a complete victory.

Such a huge victory shook the offensive force of the Jin State at once, and the Jin army was overstretched. The situation on the entire battlefield has gradually developed from a strategic offensive to a strategic stalemate stage. In the next stage, the Jin State will make more use of the old army of the former Song State and the power of their puppet Liu Yu.

But since 1115, the Jin State has inherited the power of the original Great Liao, think about it, in 1115, the original Great Liao alone had 1.7 million war horses, that is, only half of these war horses were left after the war was 850,000, plus the original own is also more than one million. This is the largest and most fundamental combat power in the era of cold weapons.

The second combat power of war is population and land, and with population and land, there is the potential for war. I think that when the Jurchens attacked the Great Liao, there were only 100,000 households and only 20,000 cavalry, but in addition to occupying all the land of the Liao State, from 1125 to the present ten years, the Jin State attacked the Song State without retreating, and occupied the most developed Central Plains and Guanzhong regions in China, which have a large population, developed economy, and great war potential.

So don't look at the Jiangnan, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang regions, although there has been a great improvement in the operation of the South Yue State from a backward region, this region is still much inferior to the Central Plains in terms of population and productivity, but the development in the late Southern Song Dynasty made it the most developed region in the world at that time.

The Jiangnan region, which had just been initially pacified after the war, was in ruins, so it would not be wise to launch a full-scale war with the Jin State at this time. As politicians, the main leaders of a country must have a clear understanding. In the same way, if war is avoided and feared because of this, it is unacceptable to the people of the country who have just lost a large part of their country and have experienced the shame of Jingkang, especially from an emotional point of view.

Therefore, as the master of a country or the politician who determines the direction of the country's development, he must have a trade-off and a balance, so as to determine his future development direction, and see the shortcomings and strengths of both the enemy and the enemy, so as to lead the people of the country to be invincible in the future confrontation between countries, and seek the greatest well-being for the country and the people.

So, politics is not as simple as it seems. It is politics rather than the military that determines success or failure, and it is impossible to be the economy and people's livelihood, whether it is the military, the economy, or the people's livelihood, all of which are part of politics.

Gaozong Zhao Gou can be said to be an arrogant person in this kind of political proportionality and rhythm. At the feet of an enemy who can fall, it is either a great knowledge and a brave person, or a cowardly incompetent, and Zhao Gou is obviously not the latter. However, the teaching and inheritance of the royal family, and the deep taboo of the Zhao family against military generals, made him a little biased in his grasp of proportion. It can also be said to be the self-destruction of the Great Wall. But at least in this general judgment, he is still a qualified leader with high intelligence.

Seeing Wu Jue's victory in the Battle of Xianren Pass, he also saw the victory that could be expected in the future battle in the Jingxiang area, at least in terms of the general trend. Since Yue Fei proposed to carry out the Jingxiang Battle at the beginning of the year, he has been thinking about the direction of this war and the general trend of the country. The following ministers also had extensive discussions, but what did not make Zhao Gou decide was that the results of the Jin army's attack on Sichuan from the old way last year had been unclear, and the Song army had been in a disadvantageous position after several months of fighting. This unexpected victory was like a strong needle in Zhao Gou's heart.

Many studies, whether from the historical or from the actual geography, Xiangyang has always been a military powerhouse, it can march to the Central Plains, retreat can defend the two lakes, and defending the two lakes must defend Xiangyang is a truth that can be said to be unbreakable in the military environment at that time.

Without Xiangyang, there is only the Yangtze River natural danger, but for the reality of the extremely poor communication and troop deployment at that time, the Yangtze River natural danger is not too terrible, so the loss of Xiangyang means that the door to the enemy is open.

In the third year of Shaoxing, Li Hengxin was defeated and retreated to Xiangyang, and there were many plans and preparations in the court, but perhaps it was the attack of the Song army in the early stage due to the fact that the soldiers who originally surrendered to Liu Qi won one victory after another, but these victories were too smooth, thus underestimating the strength of Liu Qi and the Jin State, and overestimating the combat power of Li Heng and these second-rate armies.

The original arrangement of the court has not been seriously implemented, which also shows that the orders of the court have not yet formed enough authority for the commanders of the theaters, and the generals are proud of their achievements, and this matter has left a deeper shadow in Zhao Gou's heart in the counterattack of the Jin army and Liu Qi. But at this time, Zhao Gou had no choice, and Zhao Gou had to use them to help him defend his homeland and country.

The counterattack of the Jin army and Liu Qi, Li Heng and they were defeated so quickly that they did not even set off for support, and they had already lost across the Yangtze River, thus forming the current situation.

The occupation of Xiangyang is like a stalk in the throat, and for the Great Song Dynasty in the south of the Yangtze River, it is a dead hole. The court had to dispatch the most elite Yuejia army at that time to end the task of clearing and defending the first line of Ezhou, Hanyang, Yueyang, and Jiangzhou (Jiujiang). The Chizhou, Tongling, and Wuhu fronts were in charge of Liu Guangshi, who had the largest military strength at that time.

In December last year, the court defeated more than 8,000 remnants of Li Heng, Zhai Cong, Dong Xian, Li Dao, Niu Gao, etc., and the two armies of Yan Xiaogong and Cui Bangbi, the pacification envoys of Hubei Road, were assigned to Yue Fei's men, and Wu Quan, Wu Xi, and 3,000 men under Yue Fei's subordinates were brought under Yue Fei's control, and Yue Fei's troops suddenly reached more than 40,000 people. However, Yue Fei's horse army, led by Zhang Xian, was still less than 5,000 people. This adjustment is also Zhao Gou's full affirmation of Yue Fei's command and combat ability.

From September of the previous year, Yue Feichi, because of his accumulated military merits, Wu Anjun, the central guard doctor who was originally "Yao County", made the Shenwu deputy army commander control Yue Fei and the deputy army of Shenwu, and made the Jiangnan West Road system for the Zhennan Army, so that Yue Fei officially became a senior commander and the commander of a front army. He promoted his old subordinates Fu Xuan (Tunjiang Prefecture) and Li Shan (Zhiqi Prefecture) to be the commander of the department. The Shenwu Deputy Army commanded the Jiangxi system and set up Yue Fei's department, which was renamed the Shenwu Rear Army, which was controlled by Yue Fei, and Yue Fei broke away from Zhang Jun's establishment and became an independent army.

In the autumn of the third year of Shaoxing (1133), Zhao Gou ended the purging of the rebel army in Jiangnan and carried out a comprehensive reorganization and deployment adjustment of the army throughout the country. appointed Liu Guangshi, the Jiangdong Xuanfu envoy, as the Jiangdong Huaixi Xuanfu envoy, and placed Si Chizhou; Han Shizhong, the Xuanfu envoy of Huainan East Road, was the Xuanfu envoy of Huainan East Road, Jiankang Zhenjiang Mansion, and placed the Zhenjiang Mansion; Shenwu former army commanded Jingnan Prefecture, Tan Dingli, Yue E and other states to set up envoys Wang Xie, Jingnan Mansion Yue E, Ding Li, Huangzhou Hanyang Army system envoy, placed in Ezhou; After Shenwu, the army was under the control of Jiangxi, and Yue Fei was the envoy of Shuqizhou on Jiangnan West Road, and he was placed in Jiangzhou. At this time, the Zhenxi Army made Sichuan and Shaanxi recruit Wu Jue, the envoy of the system, and was fighting against Jin Wushu at this time.

Judging from this arrangement, Han Shizhong of Nanjing, Liu Guangshi of Chizhou, Yue Fei of Jiangzhou, and Wang Xie of Ezhou (now Wuchang) were arranged along the line of the Yangtze River. In fact, this situation is more due to the fact that after Li Heng lost the six states of Xiangyang, the Southern Song Dynasty faced severe defensive loopholes and could not make military arrangements.

Of the five front armies, Liu Guangshi had the largest number of troops, with more than 70,000 people, followed by Han Shizhong with 55,000 troops, and Yue Fei and Wang Xie were both about 40,000 people.

But when it comes to the combat effectiveness of the troops, the strongest is none other than the Yuejia army.

The best defense is to attack, and taking back Xiangyang is the fundamental way, so in this line, there are nearly 90,000 Shenwu troops led by Wang Xie, the envoy of the Hanyang Army of Jingnan Prefecture, Yue Etan, Dingli, Huangzhou, and the Shenwu Rear Army.

For this reason, at the beginning of February of the fourth year of Shaoxing (1134), Yue Fei wrote the book "Begging for the Restoration of Xiangyang Zazi", and put forward the idea of launching the Jingxiang Campaign.

"The six counties of Xiangyang, the land is dangerous, and the restoration of the Central Plains is the basic"

And again:

"Those who are good at observing the enemy should know where it begins; Those who are good at controlling the enemy should first go to what they are afraid of. Today, there is a coward of the northern captives outside, and there is a peep of Yang Mo inside, which is a big trouble. On the front of Chen's placket, but according to the minister's view, although Yang Mo is close to the worry of the heart, in fact, he is fake Li Cheng, thinking that he is the help of his lips and teeth. ”

"Today's plan, just march into Xiangyang, take the six counties first, Li Cheng is not bound, then he will also lose his division and flee, so he will add troops to Huxiang to fight the group of thieves"

Yue Fei's report was on the military crisis facing the Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, this battle must be fought, and the key is when to fight and to what extent the battle will be fought.

This is the issue that Zhao Gou and the Privy Council and senior officials have considered in the past two months.

Zhao Gou came down from Wu Mountain and returned to the palace, at this time, Zhang Jun, the privy envoy of the Privy Council, the privy deputy envoy of the three towns, the deputy envoy of the privy council, Han Shizhong, the Xuanfu envoy of Huainan East Road, Jiangfu Zhenjiangfu, and the envoy Yang Cunzhong, the left and right servants and other ministers had arrived at the palace.

Seeing Zhao Gou take a seat, everyone congratulated Zhao Gou together:

"Congratulations to the official family, congratulations to the official family, the immortal Guan is victorious, then I don't have to worry about it!"