In 1130, with the return of the Jin army led by Yan Zongbi to the north, Emperor Gaozong of Song, who had just been in difficulty, was able to return to Hangzhou. However, a great fright still haunted him, forcing him to take a counter-offensive posture for his own safety. After some careful planning, it was decided to open a second battlefield in the Shaanxi-Gansu Border Region, which is far away in the west.
However, at that time, the Song army was not prepared for a large-scale counterattack. However, forced by the emperor's personal will, he had to drive the ducks into battle. As a result, the Battle of Fuping, which was fought later, was exposed to the truth, and suffered a crushing defeat due to the huge gap in strength.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the final solution for Jurchens</h1>
After the Return of the Jin Soldiers from the South, the Jurchens had basically abandoned the plan to destroy the Song Dynasty
As early as April 1130, the Jurchen elite of the Jin Dynasty basically abandoned the ideal of rapid annihilation of the Song Dynasty. Because in just a few years, too many old lands of the Liao and Song dynasties were eaten, it was painful to feel that the scale of the clan was insufficient to effectively control the vast area north of the Yangtze River. At the same time, many Jurchen nobles did not want to stay in the hotter south for a long time, and only wanted to send the booty back to their hometown in Northeast Asia. Therefore, even with the assistance of a large number of cultural relics officials who come to the rescue, they are not prepared to take care of everything in a hands-on way.
So by July of that year, Jin Taizong had finished Yan Sheng and sacrificed the final solution of the Jurchens. On the one hand, with the former Liao state of Nanjing Youzhou City as the core, the land north of the Yellow River was brought under direct rule. At the same time, he also sought puppets among the surrendered Song officials and served as vassal monarchs in various places south of the Yellow River. In order to isolate itself from the border of the Southern Song Dynasty, it created a large buffer zone at the geopolitical level. Subsequently, Liu Yu, who was originally a criminal officer of the Northern Song Dynasty's Hebei West Road, appeared on the scene and was instantly promoted to emperor of Daqi who sat in Kaifeng.
The pseudo-Qi regime became a strategic buffer between the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty
Of course, the Southern Song Court in Hangzhou did not know anything about this. Emperor Gaozong zhao also had lingering feelings about Jin Bing's repeated southward movements, fearing that the other side would once again use the dry water period in winter to cross the river to pursue and kill. After Yan Sheng's hand-picked news of Liu Yu's ascension to the throne, it was further interpreted as a way to replace himself. Therefore, he hoped to attack instead of defend and disrupt the Jurchens' southward plot. It is best to open up new battlefields far from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, so as to keep your camp away from the hot war. As a result, Bashu and Shaanxi, which had previously been less affected by the war, became the most ideal source of counter-offensive.
Even from the perspective of the poisonous eyes of the future generations, Zhao Shuo's strategy of diverting water to the west can be regarded as quite elaborate. In addition to the geographical distance factors mentioned above, Bashu and Shaanxi in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty also had no shortage of warriors. Because since the Shenzong Dynasty in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, it has been the most important military conquest center in the country. Most of the financial resources were constantly piled up to cultivate a Western army team that impressed the party members. Although they suffered great losses in the later shame of Jingkang, a considerable part was eventually able to withdraw safely. Finally, although the Jin Dynasty nominally occupied the relevant central government, it did not have any effective rule. The task of a small number of garrisons also included the defense of the strong neighbors of Western Xia, and more soldiers came from local troops, so it was difficult to resist a large-scale attack.
Zhang Jun, a hardcore confidant of Emperor Gaozong of Song
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > political performance of the emperor's confidants</h1>
It can be called the backbone of the Northern Song Dynasty's armed forces
As early as August 1130, Emperor Gaozong sent his hardcore confidant Zhang Jun to the Northwest Frontier Region to preside over a strategic counteroffensive. At the same time, he was given the power to restrain all the people of the Western Army in order to deter local generals who were inclined to deviate from the trend or conservative thinking. The latter also refused any defensive opinions, gathering an infantry army of 400,000 men to go north, and arming a large number of civilians to serve as cannon fodder for themselves.
Soon, the military adventurism of the Southern Song Dynasty was miraculous. Since most of the main forces of the Jin army were stationed in the hinterland of the Central Plains, the major cities in Guanzhong were neglected to guard against them. The pseudo-Qi soldiers, who were responsible for maintaining law and order, also appeared to be demoralized when threatened. As a result, Wu Jie easily took Xi'an with the passage of the Yongxing Military Road, and Zhao Zhe of Huanqing Road once occupied Yanzhou in the east. Zhang Jun himself was not in charge of the front-line command, but also actively mobilized and dispatched in the rear, and entrusted the actual commander-in-chief to Liu Xi, the commander-in-chief of xihe road. In this way, the Western Army system stranded in the distance was smoothly grasped. In contrast, whether you can finally win is no longer the first priority.
The core of the Jurchen force The Iron Float Slaughter Heavy Cavalry
At the same time, the Jin side also quickly sent reinforcements due to the emergency in Guanzhong. Half a year ago, Yan Zongbi, who was still crossing the south of the River, immediately led 20,000 infantry and cavalry from Luoyang and marched through Tongguan to force the enemy's flank. Another founding general, Yan Lou, also set out from his garrison in southern Shanxi to threaten the vanguard of the Song army from the north. Under the coordinated pressure of these two people, Zhang Jun had to adopt a contraction defense strategy and concentrate all the detachments in front of him near Xi'an. The advantages of this are not only advantages in scale, but also contribute to the long-term development of local wars.
In the end, Liu Xi, who was in charge of the commander-in-chief, made a decision to set up the main position in Fuping County, north of Xi'an. The various men and horses formed strong positions separately, and there were camps and heavy wrapping of soldiers and civilians on the outside, so as to form a huge base. To the east, there was also a large swamp covered with reeds, enough for the Jurchens, who relied on cavalry, to pass easily. Although cadres such as Wu Jiu will continue to propose moving the camp to a higher place, similar proposals have not been adopted by Zhang Jun and other decision-makers. If we take into account the size of the Song army, it is easy to understand such seemingly pedantic conservative moves. Because at least from the book, there is nothing wrong with the location of the Southern Song army before the Battle of Fuping.
The Jinguo army, composed of Jurchen Khitan and Han'er
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="13" > the gap in combat strength that cannot be smoothed</h1>
A Song Dynasty warlord surveying the terrain near a swamp
In September 1130, Emperor Yan's Jinguo Southern Route Army arrived in Fuping first and confronted the Song army across the swamp. Zhang Jun saw that the other side's troops were limited, and he hoped to completely annihilate them. Not only did he veto the proposal to sneak up on the Jurchen camp, but he also insisted on writing a letter to the other side to fight. As a result, he did not receive any response, and he sent a woman to the opposite camp to give women's clothes. At the same time, he went to his camp and posted a notice, promising that anyone who had to catch the Zongbi could be promoted to the rank of emissary and receive nearly 10,000 amounts of silver and silk.
In fact, Yan Zongbi was not afraid to fight Zhang Jun and others, but only deliberately showed weakness in order to wait for the remaining troops to arrive. During this period, he also personally ascended to observe the other party's array, and found that the Song army camp seemed to be unbreakable, but the various people and horses themselves still did not take care of each other. In particular, the outer civilian and heavy defensive circles isolated the camps of several detachments, making it difficult to cope with simultaneous attacks from several directions. When the 10,000 soldiers in Yan Lou's room arrived late, they did not forget to fight back with tit-for-tat notices, saying that the reward for any life to capture Zhang Jun was only 1 donkey + 1 coarse cloth.
Arrived at the battlefield of the Jinguo Iron Floating Heavy Cavalry
However, Song Jun, who was full of self-confidence, still preempted the attack in the early morning of the 24th of that month. The commander Liu Xi quietly dispatched more than 1,000 dead soldiers, intending to sneak attack the headquarters of the least powerful Yan Lou. However, before the men could cross the dense swamp reeds, their actions had been detected by the guards. The latter was even more calculating, deliberately allowing the sneakers to easily break into the back of the barrier, and then wrapped them up with cavalry that left early. As a result, Liu Xi's subordinates either died or surrendered, which made the generals of the Southern Song Dynasty realize that the battle was not easy. Moreover, at the same time that Zhang Jun and others decided to extend the confrontational situation, the carefully planned counterattack of the Jurchens also came unexpectedly.
It turned out that in the short confrontation stage, the Jin side had made a lot of preparations for crossing the swamp. Taking advantage of the Southern Song Dynasty's prejudice of focusing only on the Jurchen headquarters soldiers and horses, they secretly sent khitans and Han'er in the army to carry out civil engineering work. Finally, a path was opened with a large number of bags filled with dry soil, which was enough for the non-heavy cavalry to smoothly cross. So only at noon on the day when the Song army's sneak attack failed, it responded with a sudden strong attack of 3,000 riders. They attacked several civilian camps on the outside, and quickly captured them without much effort. The resulting widespread rout also led to a chaotic field camp in the inner circle. Everyone thinks they are the opponent's breakthrough target, but they don't know what the real situation is!
Heavy infantry of the Southern Song Dynasty who were engaged in a confrontation with Tiefu Tu
Seeing that the entire Southern Song Army had lost its unified order, Yan Lou and Yan Zongbi also sent their main forces to the battlefield at the same time from the left and right flanks to besiege the opposite camp. However, at this time, the Song army did not completely lose hope of victory. Because the path paved by the Jin people could only be used by small-scale troops. Therefore, after making the decision to go to battle in groups, there are still many cavalry that will get into trouble due to the peculiarities of the swampy terrain. That is to say, as long as a small number of Jinguo vanguard troops can be resisted, there is still plenty of time to calmly attack the rest. For example, the coach's brother Liu Kun attacked the opponent's left wing after falling into the quagmire, and killed the Jurchen general Chi Yanhui on the spot. However, the remaining riders still fought to the death, so that the Heavily Armored Song infantry also fell into the swamp and fought bitterly.
At this moment, the mobility of the Jinguo army began to play a key role. They could take advantage of the speed given by the horses and quickly move from one end of the line to reinforcements elsewhere. Therefore, Yan Zongbi, who was originally responsible for commanding the right wing, could calmly divide his troops to relieve the siege for his left-wing colleagues. In contrast, the resilience of the Southern Song army was too much lacking. Not only because the proportion of infantry is too high, but also because most of them are crossbowmen who lack melee skills. Once a small number of heavily armed infantry were mired in a bloody battle, it was difficult to draw the remaining members from the detachment. Therefore, the army of the Song Dynasty always wanted to hide in a fixed camp and wait for the other side to take the initiative to launch a failed strong attack. It is often difficult for all walks of life to achieve mutual reinforcement in the true sense, and they can only be forced to fight separately under heavy pressure.
Song Dynasty infantry that relied too much on positional defense
Of course, the high will of the Jin army was also a necessary guarantee that they could survive adversity better than the Song army. Moreover, similar situations were not limited to the Jurchen headquarters, but were also upheld by khitan or Han soldiers who depended on their hegemony. For example, the Han general Han Chang, who had fought for the Liao state, took over the command after Chi Zhanhui's death and led his subordinates in a bloody battle with the Song army that surrounded him. Eventually, they waited for the Jurchen cavalry on the right flank to arrive, and successfully suppressed Liu's deployment back to the camp. The Southern Song soldiers in the rest of the direction were also unable to bear the pain of a long battle, and retreated with their generals to the inner circle to defend.
In the evening of that year, the Jin people launched a fatal blow after a slight adjustment. As a result of their successful occupation of the outlying heavy camps, they had effectively divided and encircled the complete Song army. The latter also lost most of the supplies and salaries they had earned to support the battle, and were unwilling to persevere on the newly recovered lands. When the enemy army came to attack the tent again, they took advantage of the numerical advantage to run from several directions. At this point, this huge battle of Fuping ended with the complete defeat of the Southern Song Dynasty.
The appearance difference between the Jinguo Iron Floating Tu and the Song Dynasty Infantry Armor
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" > decision-making layer or the biggest winner</h1>
A Jurchen nobleman who travels on horseback
From a purely military point of view, the Battle of Fuping can be called a major disaster on the northwestern front of the Southern Song Dynasty. In order to organize this costly battle, they had to advance local tribute for 5 years in advance. As a result, they collapsed at the touch of the enemy, and gave a large amount of grain, grass, pay and weapons to the enemy. The previously occupied areas such as Guanzhong and Hexi have also changed hands again in a short period of time. After that, the Song army could only completely turn to the defensive position, relying on the terrain bonus of the mountain pass to fight against the Jin soldiers.
However, Zhang Jun, who is the top decision-maker, has not been punished in any way. On the contrary, he also pulled others on the back after the situation stabilized slightly, and used extreme tactics such as dismissal, exile or beheading to purge veteran generals of the Western Army, including Liu Xi. So much so that some generals, out of fear, turned to the Golden State and acted as vigilantes and leading parties for their former opponents. Some people, because they could not accept the jurchen solicitation, simply declined and fell to the longer feud Of western Xia. But for the remote Hangzhou imperial court, these are more like huge gains at the personnel and political levels.
As for the victorious Golden Soldier, he did not immediately correct his solution. They continued to leave most of the affairs in Guanzhong under the control of the pseudo-Qi, leaving only a few garrisons to be in charge of surveillance. It was not until the situation in the Central Plains deteriorated seriously that the entire area south of the Yellow River was finally brought under its jurisdiction.