Diqin Designer

Chapter 510 Our Great Song Dynasty Has "Divine Weapons"! (History of the Northern Song Dynasty)
"Therefore, it is true that the Liao people hated the Jin people, but they hated the Song Dynasty even more for not coming to their aid and kicking them when they were down."

"Zhao Huan and others thought that if the Jurchens destroyed the Liao, the Liao people would hate the Jurchens and be willing to help them fight against the Jurchens. This was pure wishful thinking."

The Song dynasty people were arrogant in many ways, and not just in this respect. For example, they thought the Jurchens would not invade the south, and that the Jurchens would not invade the south a second time.

I don't know what's wrong with these people's brains. They think they can do whatever they want.

"Zhao Huan and others sealed a secret letter in a wax pill and asked Xiao Zhonggong to deliver it to Yelü Yudu. However, Xiao Zhonggong did not give the wax pill to Yelü Yudu. Instead, after returning to the Jin Kingdom, he gave it to Wanyan Zongwang."

"Leaving aside whether Yelü Yudu was willing to rebel against the Jin, even if he were, he would most likely not choose to cooperate with the Zhao Song."

The Song dynasty had lost all credibility with the Liao people and was at the very bottom of their trust chain. Yelü Yudu later plotted against the Jin dynasty, but after the plan was leaked, he did not choose to flee to the Song dynasty, but instead fled to the Western Xia and Tatars.

With the credibility of the Song Dynasty court, even a dog would shake its head in disbelief!
"Not only did the plan fail, but it also gave the Jurchens another handle to use against us. So in August of the first year of the Jingkang era, the Jurchens used this as a pretext to launch an attack on the Song Dynasty!"

Of course, whether Zhao Huan and others did this or not would not have affected the Jurchens' attack on the Song Dynasty, but the fact that Zhao Huan and others deliberately created a mess and gave the Jurchens a pretext is different.

"In this attack on the Song Dynasty, the Jin army advanced with unstoppable momentum, and Taiyuan was also captured during this attack."

From the first Jurchen attack on the Song Dynasty to the second Jurchen attack, the people and soldiers of Taiyuan have done right by the Song Dynasty.

Meng Tian laughed and said, "This time, Zhao Ji didn't escape?"

Li Nian said, "He didn't escape! It wasn't that he was no longer afraid of the Jurchens, but rather that after learning about the situation during the first siege of Bianjing, the great calligrapher believed there was no need to escape."

"Although the Jurchens are powerful, they are ultimately just a bunch of barbarians. Their siege is merely to demand some wealth and land. As long as their demands are met, the Jurchens will withdraw their troops. This is the lesson they learned after the first Jurchen siege!"

"Not only did the great calligrapher think so, but Zhao Huan and the Song officials who advocated peace also thought so. They believed that the Jin people did not want to destroy the Song, but rather to extort money from them."

"As for wealth and land, our Great Song Dynasty has plenty. We can easily scrape out 'a little' to satisfy the Jurchens."

This was because the Liao and Western Xia dynasties instilled a path dependency in the Song dynasty. Furthermore, when the Jin dynasty besieged the city for the first time, they actually made the Song dynasty pay reparations and cede territory to lift the siege, leading the Song emperors and ministers to mistakenly believe that the Jin dynasty was the same as the Liao and Western Xia dynasties in the past.

The Jurchens were just here to ask for money and maybe some land; they were no different from the Liao and Western Xia people.

This may have also given the Zhao Song emperors and ministers a sense of superiority over the Jurchens: they felt that the Jurchens were nothing special, that they could be dealt with by giving them "a little" money, and that barbarians were still barbarians after all.

"The Song court believed that since they had succeeded in making the Jin army retreat the first time, they could do it again the second time and seek peace with the Jin army in the same way as the first time."

"Secondly, the fact that the Jurchens failed to breach the city during their first siege of Bianjing gave the Song court confidence in holding it. The Jurchens could only besiege the city at most; as long as the city was well-defended, the Jurchens wouldn't be able to break in!"

"That's true. If the Song Dynasty hadn't messed things up, the Jurchens would have been able to besiege the city but not breach it. But those Song officials clearly didn't take into account their own stupidity."

"Furthermore, the great calligrapher has already fled once, and has lost much of his prestige and popular support as a result. He dares not run away again so easily, and Zhao Huan and others do not want to see him run away again."

"Of course, if the great calligrapher really wanted to escape, he could have, but for these reasons, he did not flee immediately after learning that the Jin army was advancing south again. By the time he wanted to escape, Bianjing City had already been surrounded by the Jin people."

After the Jurchen army besieged the city, the great calligrapher must have regretted not escaping first. Even if he had escaped and been criticized, losing popular support and prestige, it would have been better than being besieged by the Jurchens.

Meng Tian then asked, "Did Zhao Huan regret expelling Li Gang at this time?"

Li Nian said, "Of course I regret it. When the Jin army marched south, Zhao Huan remembered Li Gang, who advocated war, and issued an edict appointing Li Gang as a Grand Academician of the Zizheng Hall and in charge of the Kaifeng Prefecture."

"Unfortunately, Zhao Huan's edict came too late. Li Gang was not near Bianjing and could not obey the edict to defend against the Jin people. By the time Li Gang received the edict, Bianjing had already been captured by the Jin people."

Hearing that Li Gang had not received Zhao Huan's edict, which was clearly a sad thing for the Zhao Song Dynasty, the First Emperor and others felt a strange sense of pleasure, as if the pent-up anger in their chests had been relieved.

It's good that they didn't receive the imperial edict; it'll allow those inhuman bastards in Bianjing to get a good beating from the Jurchens.

It was just a pity for the Zhao Song people in Bianjing, who were to be harmed by the Jurchens because of these scoundrels.

"Given Bianjing's defenses, the Jin army could only besiege it but couldn't break through. The Jin army was able to breach the city only because those people from the Song dynasty took the initiative to 'help' them. The Jin army should remember the 'merits' of Zhao Huan and others!"

Wang Jian asked curiously, "What 'merit' did they achieve?"

Li Nian said, "When the Jin army besieged the city, Zhao Huan and others naturally had to find a way to lift the siege and repel the Jin. But does Your Majesty and all of you know what methods they came up with?"

After hearing Li Nian ask them, the First Emperor and the others began to think. Given the previous actions of the Zhao Song people, they certainly couldn't come up with any correct solutions; they must have resorted to some crooked and unorthodox methods.

And it was precisely the strategy devised by these people that allowed the Jurchens to breach the city!

Feng Jie was the first to answer: "Could it be that, in order to demonstrate their sincerity in seeking peace, they allowed the Jin people to send a troop to occupy the city?"

This was something the Song Dynasty court was capable of doing. After the Jurchen troops entered the city, they coordinated with the Jurchen army outside the city, causing the fall of Bianjing.

But Li Nian shook her head; that answer was wrong!

The First Emperor and others reconsidered, carefully considering Li Nian's questions and words.

The culprits who caused the fall of Bianjing must be from the Zhao Song side, and this person, or rather these people, were personally selected by the Zhao Song side.

Although Bianjing was captured by the Jurchens, it was in reality destroyed by the Song dynasty itself.

What method did the Song dynasty come up with to resist the Jin people, which instead allowed the Jin to breach the city?
Did those incompetent Song Dynasty civil officials replace military generals and interfere with the defense of Bianjing? The Song Dynasty's practice of using civil officials to control military forces was nothing new, and those civil officials had always been doing so; therefore, this is unlikely the answer.

The First Emperor suddenly remembered what Li Nian had mentioned: the people of the Song Dynasty were quite superstitious about ghosts and gods. Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Zhao Heng, was one, and so was Emperor Huizong of Song. If the emperors were like this, how could the ministers be any better?
Could it be that those bastards of the Zhao Song dynasty hired a bunch of sorcerers and shamans to guard the city?
The more the First Emperor thought about it, the more likely it seemed, especially when Bianjing was besieged by the Jurchens and the Song court was in a state of panic. In such a critical and desperate situation, people are more likely to lose their rationality and treat matters of ghosts and gods as their last straw.

But this is too outrageous. The First Emperor wanted to curse: Bianjing City could have been defended, but these bastards did not trust the Song army and the people of Bianjing City, and instead placed their hopes for defending the city on a group of witches and sorcerers!
They sent a group of witches and sorcerers to fight the enemy, but these charlatans failed to use their magic to repel the Jin soldiers. Instead, the Jin soldiers took the opportunity to break into the city.

Before Wang Jian, Wang Wan, and the others could answer, the First Emperor said, "Could it be that Zhao Huan and the others have found a group of shamans?"

Upon hearing the First Emperor's words, Wang Jian and the others immediately realized that this answer was very likely.

The gazes of the group fell upon Li Nian, who said, "Just as Your Majesty thought. When Zhao Huan and the others faced the Jin army's siege, their plan to repel the Jin army was to find three sorcerers to lead the troops in battle against the Jin."

"These three sorcerers are Guo Jing, Yang Shi, and Liu Wuji, with Guo Jing as their leader!"

"Guo Jing was originally an insignificant low-ranking officer in the Zhao Song imperial guards. If it weren't for the Jin army besieging the city, he would probably have lived an unknown life until his death."

"At that time, the Jin army was besieging the city tightly, and the Song army was repeatedly defeated in battle against the Jin. Although Bianjing City had not yet been captured, Zhao Huan and others were extremely anxious. The Song court was looking for a way to defeat the Jin and defend Bianjing!"

“Sun Fu, the Crown Prince’s tutor when Zhao Huan was the Crown Prince, was naturally included in this list. This Sun Fu was also one of the ministers appointed by Zhao Huan to defend the city and was responsible for finding a way to defend the city and repel the gold.”

"And where did Sun Fu find a solution? He didn't consult anyone, nor did he visit or investigate the key defensive positions in Bianjing. He looked for it in books!"

Then, he happened to read a line of poetry, “Guo Jing, Yang Shi, and Liu Wuji, all lie in the southeast under the white clouds.”

Upon hearing this, the First Emperor and the others were filled with the thought that this was the essence of the Qin Dynasty at that time. So this was how those three monstrous people were selected. Could it get any more outrageous?
Just because of a line of poetry he happened to see, he entrusted the heavy responsibility of guarding the capital to three sorcerers.

The Song Dynasty is completely beyond saving; it should be destroyed quickly, it's rotten to the core.

"After seeing this poem, Sun Fu had a flash of inspiration. He felt that this must be a divine revelation for him, instructing him to find these three people, turn the tide, and save the Song Dynasty from collapse."

"This is the will of Heaven. Heaven is supreme, and we must obey it!"

“Sun Fu’s idea was also related to the superstitious atmosphere of the Song Dynasty, especially since the Song court intentionally allowed certain ghost stories to circulate, such as the story of Emperor Taizu of Song encountering immortals on Mount Hua.”

Feng Quji said, "They want to use these things to prove that the Song Dynasty's acquisition of the country was legitimate and reasonable, and at the same time, they want to appease the people. I just wonder what they would think if they knew that Zhao Huan and others were leading troops against the Jin people with three sorcerers?"

Li Nian laughed and said, "That's why I've always said that feudal superstition is unacceptable. Using it to fool the people will only make them fools themselves in the end. This Sun Fu is a Confucian scholar-official and a disciple of Confucius and Mencius. I remember that Confucius and Mencius didn't believe much in ghosts and gods. I wonder why this Sun Fu is so superstitious?"

"Because of that poem, Sun Fu began searching all over Bianjing for people named 'Guo Jing', 'Yang Shi', and 'Liu Wuji'."

Meng Tian said, "With so many people in Bianjing, it's not impossible to find these three people."

Li Nian nodded: "Moreover, 'Yang' and 'Liu' are both common surnames, while only the surname Guo is less common. Thanks to Sun Fu's efforts in searching, he actually found Guo Jing, who was a low-ranking officer in the Imperial Guard."

"Guo Jing is also quite capable. He knows a Taoist magic called the 'Six Jia Method,' which requires only 7,777 people to form the 'Six Jia Divine Soldiers.' Once the divine soldiers are formed, what are the Jurchens? Guo Jing can also use the 'Shrinking Earth Method' to capture the Jurchen commander alive!"

"When Li said that Guo Jing had some skills, he was not referring to Guo Jing actually knowing magic such as the 'Six Jia Method' and the 'Shrinking Earth Method,' but rather that he was able to deceive Sun Fu, Zhao Huan, and others into believing that he knew these magic skills and was very capable."

Although Zhao Huan and the others were foolish, they were not mentally challenged. They wouldn't believe everything Guo Jing said without first having him demonstrate it. Yet, Guo Jing and his group managed to fool them, which is quite an achievement.

"After finding Guo Jing, Sun Fu had unwavering faith in him, believing that Guo Jing was the only hope to save the Song Dynasty. In later generations' terms, it was said, 'We have found the immortal Guo Jing, and our Song Dynasty is saved!'"

"Therefore, Sun Fu strongly recommended Guo Jing to Zhao Heng and refuted all those who questioned Guo Jing. Sun Fu was Zhao Huan's teacher when he was the crown prince and was deeply trusted by Zhao Huan. With Sun Fu's strong recommendation, Guo Jing and the other two were entrusted with important responsibilities by Zhao Huan."

Meng Tian said, "This Sun Fu is truly a scourge to the country!"

Li Nian said: "Although Sun Fu was foolish and superstitious, he was indeed loyal to the Song Dynasty, unlike some Song officials who were both foolish and disloyal. After the fall of Bianjing, he refused to surrender and was willing to be captured along with Emperors Huizong and Qinzong, and eventually died in the Jin Dynasty."

Wang Ben shook his head and commented, "Although he is loyal, what use is this loyalty?"

If it weren't for the big mess this guy made, Bianjing might not have been captured, and Zhao Ji and Zhao Huan might not have been taken back by the Jurchens to be treated like sheep. What's the use of being loyal?
Feng Jie said, "At that time, he could only be loyal. He had already made a big mistake, and history would definitely record his scandal. By showing loyalty, he could at least save face a little."

"Under Sun Fu's influence, Zhao Huan and others also placed high hopes on Guo Jing and the other two, regarding them as the saviors of the Song Dynasty. They bestowed upon the three tens of thousands of gold and silk and allowed them to freely select people to form the 'Six Jia Divine Soldiers'."

"Guo Jing and his two companions truly formed the 'Six Jia Divine Soldiers.' These 'Six Jia Divine Soldiers' did not care about martial prowess, height, or strength; they only looked at birth dates and times. As long as the birth dates and times matched, even a rogue or scoundrel could become a member of the 'Six Jia Divine Soldiers.'"

Even if they had selected 7,777 men from the Song army, they might not have suffered a major defeat at the hands of the Jin and allowed the Jin to breach the city. Instead, Guo Jing and his two companions chose a rabble of untrained men.

Taking this group of people to fight the Jurchens is like sending them to their deaths.

"Guo Jing and his two companions knew very well what kind of people the 'Six Armor Divine Soldiers' they had recruited were, and that they were absolutely incapable of defeating the Jurchens. Therefore, at first, Guo Jing and his companions kept making excuses to avoid going into battle."

Meng Tian laughed and said, "But if they make too many excuses, it will arouse the suspicion of Zhao Huan and the others. Once Zhao Huan and the others realize that they have been deceived, Guo Jing and the others will surely be killed!"

"Therefore, these people must find a way to escape in order to survive!"

"I see," Meng Tian thought, having already figured out the next development. He laughed and said, "So that's how it is! The best time for Guo Jing and the others to escape is when they are fighting the Jurchens. He will ask to open the gates of Bianjing and then lead his army to fight the Jurchens."

"He would even use the excuse that the 'Six Jia Divine Soldiers' were performing a ritual and that ordinary people could not be near them to prevent other Song soldiers from traveling with them!"

(End of this chapter)