On the sixth day of the first month of July in the fourth year of the Taiping Revival of the Northern Song Dynasty, shortly after emperor Zhao Guangyi of the Song Dynasty destroyed the Northern Han Dynasty, he personally supervised the army of hundreds of thousands, intending to capture youzhou city, achieve immortal achievements, and wash away the shame since Later Jin Shi Jingyao ceded Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitans. The Song army and the Liao army fought fiercely at the Sorghum River, and the Liao army general Yelü Sha fought with the Song army, and after a long time, he began to lose his physical strength, so he was defeated.
At night, just as Zhao Guangyi and the generals were happy, Liao reinforcements arrived, and Yelü Hugo asked the soldiers to hold torches. The Song army was frightened by the sudden arrival of the Liao army, coupled with the flickering of torches, the Song army could not know the specific number of Liao reinforcements, and the more they thought about it, the more frightened they became, and they did not dare to attack, planning to use the Sorghum River as a base for defense.
At this time, the elite cavalry of the Liao State of Yelü had also arrived, and together with the cavalry of Yelü Hugo, they advanced from the left and right flanks and attacked the Song army by night. At that time, the battle was extremely fierce, and the Song and Liao generals fought to the death, and Yelü Hugo suffered three wounds on his body, but still did not retreat.
Because of seeing the fire outside Youzhou City soaring into the sky and the sound of fighting, yelü Xuegu, the defender of the liao state, learned that reinforcements had arrived, so he took the initiative to open the city gate, beat drums on all sides, and led the army to rush out. At this time, the Generals of the Song Army found that they were surrounded by the Liao Army, so they became timid and retreated one after another.
If there is no panic at this time, the Song army can completely organize a formation to deal with the Liao army. However, the Song army was naturally afraid of the Liao army in its heart, and at this moment the generals took the lead in retreating, and the soldiers did not know, so they also retreated in a hurry. In an instant, the Song army was scrambling to flee south, and Yelü Hugo and Yelü Xieyun led the cavalry to pursue, killing tens of thousands of Song troops, and Emperor Zhao Guangyi was hit by two arrows in the leg.
At that time, Emperor Zhao Guangyi and all the generals were scattered, the generals could not find their own soldiers, and the Song army collapsed from top to bottom, facing the danger of being completely annihilated by the Liao army. Fortunately, at this time, there was a minister who had been following Zhao Guangyi, and he saw that the situation was so critical, so in a hurry, he found a donkey cart transporting grain and grass, asked the emperor to sit on it, and quickly fled.
Zhao Guangyi rode in a donkey cart and rushed south, and the Liao general Yelü Hugo led the cavalry in pursuit, thinking that it would be cool to capture the Emperor of the Song Dynasty. However, because he was seriously wounded, Jericho passed out during the pursuit and fell off his war horse. The adjutants found a wooden cart, put Yelü Hugo on it, and then gave orders on his behalf, continued to pursue Zhao Guangyi, and directly chased him to Zhuozhou City, the road was full of song army corpses, as well as weapons, rune seals, grain and grass, and currency.
Surprisingly, by the time the Liao cavalry reached Zhuozhou City, Zhao Guangyi was already gone. So why did the Song Dynasty Emperor Zhao Guangyi's donkey cart run so fast that even the Liao cavalry could not catch up with him? This is a very attractive event in history, and Zhao Guangyi has been jokingly called "Sorghum River Car God" by posterity.
Zhao Guangyi had actually reached the outside of Zhuozhou City at dawn on the seventh day of the first month of July, but the defeated soldiers of the Song army had not yet arrived. Although Zhao Guangyi was physically and mentally exhausted at that time, he did not dare to enter Zhuozhou City at all, so he directly bypassed Zhuozhou City and continued to run wildly until he was in a place called Jintaitun. Zhao Guangyi saw that all the armies had not yet arrived, and felt that the Liao army would certainly not be able to catch up, so he dared to stop the "car driving" and wait and see.
On the ninth day of the first month of July, the defeated Song army had not yet arrived, and Zhao Guangyi couldn't figure out why, was his donkey cart opened? The more Zhao Guangyi thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong, so he sent the guards around him to inquire, only to learn that the defeated Song army was defending Zhuozhou City.
Not only that, but there was also a piece of news that reached Zhao Guangyi's ears, that is, many Wenwu emperors in the Manchu Dynasty saw that the emperor had lost the battle, and they plotted to support Zhao Dezhao, the son of Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty, as emperor. Zhao Guangyi's eyes suddenly darkened, and he hurriedly asked Cui Han to take the edict to Zhuozhou City and order the troops to be trained.
In order to prevent the Liao army from taking advantage of the victory to invade the south, Zhao Guangyi ordered Cui Han and Meng Xuanzhe to attack Dingzhou, Cui Yan to enter Tunbing Guannan, Liu Tinghan and Li Han qiongtun bing Zhenzhou, Zhao Guangyi also gave these generals a map, ordering them that if the Khitan attacked, they must enter the Tubu formation. After explaining the precautions, Zhao Guangyi began to return south from Jintaitun and returned to Tokyo on July 28.
After Zhao Guangyi returned to Tokyo, regardless of the merits made by the generals in the destruction of the Northern Han Dynasty, it was directly a scolding and punishment. At that time, many people thought that this would not work, which would definitely make the soldiers chill. Zhao Dezhao also went forward to persuade: "The soldiers should first be rewarded for their efforts to destroy the Northern Han Dynasty, and then punished for the defeat of Youzhou." ”
At this time, when Zhao Guangyi thought of the defeat of Youzhou, the generals planned to support Zhao Dezhao as emperor, and they were immediately angry and directly said to Zhao Dezhao: "When you become emperor, it is not too late to reward you!" Zhao Dezhao's explanation was useless, and he knew that jumping into the Yellow River would not wash away the emperor's misunderstanding of himself, so he retreated to the private house and drew his sword to kill himself. Zhao Guangyi's brother Zhao Kuangyin, if he knew that his son was forced to die, he would probably have to jump out of the coffin board.
Looking at Zhao Guangyi, emperor Taizong of Song, he was eager to retake Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures from the hands of the Liao State and prove to the world that he was an emperor with achievements. Zhao Guangyi wanted to regain Yanyun's homeland in one fell swoop and restore the position of the Central Plains regime leader Siyi in one fell swoop, which was good, but he did not take into account the shortcomings of his own ability, especially military ability.
To put it simply, the Song Dynasty's destruction of the Northern Han Dynasty was the trend of the times, and it was the Later Zhou Chai Rong and the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin who laid a solid foundation. Ironically, Zhao Guangyi believed that the Song Dynasty's destruction of the Northern Han Dynasty was all his own credit, and he was blinded by the victory in conquering Taiyuan, and he rushed out of the army regardless of the fatigue of the army, and as a result, not only did he not take Youzhou, but he was defeated, and he also got the humiliating title of "Sorghum River Car God".
Zhao Guangyi underestimated the Liao army's defensive strength in Youzhou City, resulting in the Song army attacking the city for more than 20 consecutive days without winning, and fell into the dilemma of fatigue of the division and soldiers. In the end, Liao reinforcements arrived, surrounded the Song army in Youzhou, and fell into the counter-encirclement of the Liao army, with countless casualties. After the Battle of the Sorghum River, Zhao Guangyi was completely afraid of the Liao army and no longer had the courage to mention the Northern Expedition. The Liao army often invaded from the south, the Song army was passively defensive, and the Song Dynasty finally exchanged money for peace.