Chapter 671 0666 [Monks Also Resist the Jin]

Chengtian Village is located in Chengtian Mountain to the west of Niangziguan.

The full name of the early Song Dynasty was Chengtian Army City, which had county-level administrative agencies and was affiliated with Zhending Prefecture in Hebei Province. The administrative seat was Niangziguan Town in later generations, but the military fortress was still on Chengtian Mountain.

Later, the county-level establishment was abolished, downgraded to Chengtian Army Stronghold, and renamed to the Hedong (Shanxi) Pingding Army.

A mountain city is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Zhang Guangdao led his army to attack for more than half a month, but Chengtian Village still remained motionless. There were actually only three hundred Jin soldiers inside, and the rest were all old Liao and Han soldiers. The total number barely exceeded a thousand.

This terrain is too difficult for the attackers, and it's even more difficult since it's snowing.

Going to Jingxing, there were twenty or thirty checkpoints in the past dynasties. By the Song Dynasty, almost all of them were abandoned, and even Chengtian Village was abandoned for a time.

On the contrary, heading east from Yu County, in the northern passage of Jingxing, there are Wangjiagu Village, Xiaozuokou Village, etc., and Wanyan Zonghan handed them over to Han troops for garrison.

Zhang Guangdao left 5,000 men to besiege Chengtian Village, and then divided into two groups: north and south. Han troops surrendered one after another along the way, and finally met outside Jingxing County. Guan Sheng and Yue Fei had also captured Pingshan County, and Li Qiong acted as the vanguard and reached the northern suburbs of Jingxing County.

Two Ming armies from Shanxi and Hebei surrounded Jingxing County.

"Meet Zhang Hou!"

Li Qiong came to Zhang Guangdao's camp through the snow.

Zhang Guangdao was quite happy and asked hurriedly: "Did the Hebei battlefield win?"

Li Qiong replied: "The prince led the army to defeat the gold thief, and Wanyan Zongwang fled back to Yanshan in embarrassment."

"It's gratifying," Zhang Guangdao said with some pretentiousness. "On the Shanxi side, they only killed tens of thousands of gold soldiers and captured one army, one county and two cities. From the north of Xinzhou, they were still occupied by gold thieves. We can attack again next year.”

Li Qiong marveled: "Zhang Hou was so majestic that he actually killed tens of thousands of gold soldiers!"

While the two were chatting, the soldiers were already building siege equipment. As soon as the moat became more solid, they crossed the ice and captured Jingxing County.

At the same time, Li Qiong sent a messenger back to Pingshan, claiming that there were enough troops to attack Jingxing, so that Guan Sheng, Yue Fei, and Li Shifu did not have to come again and could just go northwest to attack the Jinbing fortress along the way.

Two days later, someone left the city in a hanging basket at night, crossed the river on ice and quietly arrived at the Ming army camp.

As soon as he approached the camp, he was arrested and taken directly to Zhang Guangdao's tent.

"Are you here to contact Xiancheng?" Zhang Guangdao asked with a smile.

The man knelt down and replied: "My husband's name is Zhou Qin. He was a student of the imperial family during the Xuanhe period. He was awarded a Jinshi status by the imperial examination and was forced to become the magistrate of Jingxing County. But my husband did not help the emperor to do evil. The Jin people made the decisions in the county. . The Jin general guarding the city is called Lou Su, and he has three hundred Jin soldiers under his command. He is ruthless and cruel!"

Zhang Guangdao asked: "Besides the three hundred golden soldiers, what other defenders are there?"

The man replied: "Jingxing is very important. In addition to the 300 Jin soldiers, there are also 2,000 Han troops, all of which are recruiting bandits nearby. My husband has convinced the bandit leaders, and they are all willing to sacrifice the city to surrender. But they were forced by the Jin people's lust. , dare not take action easily, the general will have to send troops to attack the city, and then the Han troops in the city will dare to defect. At that time, the Han troops who are willing to return will plant five flags at the top of the city, and the general can send troops to attack the place where the flags are planted. "

"You don't dare to fight two thousand against three hundred?" Zhang Guangdao was extremely contemptuous.

The man laughed awkwardly: "They are all bandits who are recruiting for peace, how can they compare with the general's elite?"

Zhang Guangdao said: "You go back to the city. Just say that in two or three days, when the ice on the moat becomes stronger, I will attack Jingxing City with all my strength."

"Young man, please retire!" After the man bowed, he was taken away by the soldiers.

Three days later, Zhang Guangdao and Li Qiong began to attack the city.

The wall where the Jin soldiers were stationed was just a feint attack. The Ming army found five flags, and with the support of the Han soldiers in the city, they quickly climbed onto the city and attacked the Jin soldiers.

The county seat of Jingxing was captured.

Guan Sheng, Yue Fei, and Li Shifu attacked Xilin Village, Bailing Village, and Donglin Village respectively.

They were all small villages without even Jin soldiers, and the Han soldiers inside surrendered one after another.

On the third day after Yue Fei captured Bailing Village, soldiers came to report: "General, more than a thousand martyrs have come to surrender, and someone claims to be the abbot of Taiping Xingguo Temple in Mount Wutai."

"Please come quickly!" Yue Fei has always respected these anti-gold warriors.

Not long after, more than a thousand beggar-looking rebels were brought in. Every one of them was shivering with cold. Many of them were injured, and even some who were unconscious were carried over.

Yue Fei quickly ordered: "Hurry and boil hot water, cook food, and bring some warm clothes so that the military doctors can treat the wounded."

Monk Zhenbao, the abbot of Taiping Xingguo Temple in Mount Wutai, led everyone to pay homage as a representative and introduced the basic situation of their rebel army.

But Wu Hanying, the Song Dynasty civil servant who was the first to surrender to the Jin Kingdom, took the initiative to shave his hair and change clothes to gain Wanyan Zongwang's trust, and then tricked Wanyan Zongwang into letting him return to Tokyo to persuade him to surrender. After Wuhan Ying returned to Tokyo, he immediately told Zhao Huan the information about the Jin army in detail.

Later, Wuhan Ying was sent to rescue Taiyuan.

But Wuhan Ying had no soldiers at all, and the prefectures and counties along the way did not lend him any troops. Wuhan Ying ran to Mount Wutai, hoping to create an army of monks to save the country.

This monk army was formed by Monk Zhenbao on his orders.

Before they left Wutai County, they encountered Wanyan Zonghan's divided troops and attacked. They collapsed at the first touch and fled in defeat.

The monk soldiers, led by Wuhan Ying and Zhenbao, fled south in embarrassment, taking the same valley path where the Jin soldiers were defeated by Zhang Guangdao and fled.

But as soon as they came out of the valley, they heard that the south was also occupied by Jin soldiers, so they had no choice but to go back to the southern mountains of Wutai County to fight guerrillas.

Due to the brutal rule of the Jin people in Wutai County, Yanshan Temple on the northern foot of Mount Wutai also rebelled. A monk named Lu Shannuo used Yanshan Temple as a base to fight against the Jin. The deputy monk of Wutai County, Monk Zhenxi, and a righteous man nicknamed Master Du, each brought their troops to unite. At that time, they had more than 20,000 anti-Jin troops.

The Jin soldiers came and the rebels suffered several defeats and could only move to the northern mountainous area of ​​Yu County. Yanshan Temple and Taiping Xingguo Temple on Mount Wutai were burned down by the Jin soldiers.

Later, Wuhan Ying and Monk Zhenbao led the remnants to join Lu Shannuo, Monk Zhenxi, and Master Du, and fought against the Jin in the mountainous area at the junction of Wutai County and Yu County.

Among the five leaders of the rebel army, Monk Zhenxi and Master Du had died in battle, leaving only Wuhan Ying, Monk Zhenbao and Lu Shannuo.

Moreover, Wuhan Ying was unconscious at this time, and Lu Shannuo was also seriously injured and carried away.

Monk Zhenbao said: "The Jin army was defeated by Zhang Hou last time, and we took the opportunity to attack Wutai County, but the traitor reported it and we were ambushed by the Wutai defenders. We fled back to the mountains. When the main force of the Jin army went to Xinzhou, we went out of the mountains to attack Wutai County again, and we had already captured the county."

"But...but Wanyan Zonghan personally led his troops back, and we were defeated by the Jin thieves, so we had to abandon the city and flee into the mountains. After several battles, only more than 2,000 of the more than 30,000 volunteers were left. They lacked food and clothing, and many of them died of freezing and starvation. Now there are only more than 1,000. Hearing that the heavenly soldiers had recaptured Bailingzhai, we hurried over to join them."

After listening to this, Yue Fei was deeply moved and put his hands together and said: "Master, you have the heart of a bodhisattva and the means of a diamond. I admire you very much. "

Lv Shannuo, a monk from Yanshan Temple who had returned to secular life, was lying on a stretcher and said, "I still have brothers in the mountains of Wutai County. If the heavenly soldiers attack Wutai County next year, I can go back and recruit the volunteers even if I am lying down. The people of Wutai have been implicated and exploited and killed by the Jin people because of our resistance to the Jin people. Every household is willing to fight against the Jin people and help them!"

Yue Fei said, "When the snow melts in the spring next year, the heavenly soldiers will definitely recover Wutai County!"

Monk Zhenbao said, "Please give me some bedding and food, and I can take people back to Wutai to help other volunteers who are still hiding in the mountains. Otherwise, they may not survive this winter."

"That's what I should do. I will immediately transfer food and clothes." Yue Fei said.

...

Zhu Ming left part of the army to garrison the city on the border, and led his army back to Zhending Prefecture.

After receiving the message from Yue Fei, Zhu Ming sighed: "This is a truly great monk. I destroyed temples in other places, but I will reward the monks in Mount Wutai. After we recover Wutai County, we will build a temple to protect the country in Mount Wutai and engrave the sacrificed anti-Jin heroes on stone tablets for worship."

Fu Zhirou said: "The people are all looking forward to the royal army. We will definitely recover the entire Shanxi next year."

Zhu Ming was talking about the anti-Jin monks in Mount Wutai when Bai Sheng suddenly came over and said: "Your Highness, the Dong, Lu and Li families in Gaocheng want to see you. They request that Zhang Di and Kong Yanzhou be severely punished."

"What's going on?" Zhu Ming asked.

Bai Sheng said: "These big families in Gaocheng said that Zhang Di and Kong Yanzhou often let their soldiers rob the people. During the siege of Gaocheng, they looted the shops of the Dong, Lu and Li families in the city, killed all the men in the shops, and took possession of the women of the three families in the shops."

Zhang Di raided Wanyan Zongwang and helped the Ming army capture the city. He was also injured in many places, which was highly appreciated by Zhu Ming and the generals.

The Ming army went north to pursue the Jin soldiers and handed Gaocheng to Zhang Di, who was ordered to lead the remnants to defend the city.

Kong Yanzhou was captured in the battle and is still in a prisoner of war camp.

Bai Sheng took out another letter: "This was sent by Zhang Di. It is estimated that he found out that the three families were going to complain."

Zhu Ming opened the letter and read it. There are probably three contents:

First, Zhang Di admitted that he let his soldiers extort money because the puppet court could not pay the food and wages. Moreover, the people were all poor ghosts, and he extorted all the big families and rich families. Therefore, it was not a robbery, but just "borrowing" some money and food. Facing the soldiers, the wealthy families all "honestly" gave money and food. He did not kill or plunder, nor did he dare to raise the butcher knife to the wealthy families.

Second, he robbed Dong's gold shop, killed the men in the shop, and occupied the women in the shop. This was forced by the Jin people to do so. It was the Jin people who forced him to submit his surrender. He did not bully women, he was performing for the Jin people at that time.

Third, Zhang Di asked the prince to marry Li to him.

This Li is the daughter of the Li family in Gaocheng. Now it is rumored that she was slept with by Zhang Di. Even if Zhang Di puts the person back safely, the Dong family insists on divorcing and expelling her, and the Li family forces their daughter to become a nun.

After reading the letter, Zhu Ming said to Bai Sheng: "Bring the people from the three families in. Send a few more people to Gaocheng to inquire about the truth."

"Yes!" Bai Sheng took the order and left.