Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 851 The Jurchen Ruler and His Ministers Hesitate (Part 1)
At this time, Yu Yunwen was known in the State of Song for his military expertise and was considered a famous military commander.

This had nothing to do with his previous victories, but rather with the fact that Yu Yunwen dared to act alongside the army and would not hide a hundred miles away to remotely command during the battle.

This means that Yu Yunwen knew what the battlefield looked like, the state of the army, the thoughts of the soldiers, and the concerns of the generals. He knew the fighting strength of the Song army and how ferocious the enemy was.

Only by knowing these things can a reliable military plan be formulated.

It can be said that Yu Yunwen's status in the hearts of all the generals in the Song Kingdom was unique.

In other words, the military plans made by the rest of the central government were not taken seriously by the various Grand Commandants; they simply thought it was just bureaucrats and officials messing around again.

The strategy devised by Yu Yunwen would be refined by the various Grand Commandants and ministers. After several exchanges of letters, a plan spanning thousands of miles from north to south was thus formed.

However, in Yu Yunwen's opinion, although he knew some military matters, he only knew them superficially, and in terms of real skills, he was no match for Lu You.

The saying goes that prime ministers must rise from the ranks of local officials, and fierce generals must emerge from the ranks of soldiers. Yu Yunwen only got the opportunity to command troops at Caishiji when he was a secretary in the Imperial Secretariat. However, Lu You followed Wei Sheng from a small force of several hundred men on the Northern Expedition, gradually rising from weakness to strength to become a military governor.

Even though Lu You was not the commander-in-chief in several major battles, he still personally braved the enemy's arrows and fought on the battlefield without ever missing a single one.

Therefore, Lu You was naturally more knowledgeable about military affairs than Yu Yunwen.

It seemed like a foolproof plan to have him lead a detachment and coordinate with Wu Lin.

Moreover, in order to support Lu You, Yu Yunwen sent his trusted general Zhang Zhen to Sichuan as a military backup.

Yu Yunwen's entire plan can be described as simple and straightforward.

The most crucial aspect was to seize Hedong during the Hebei campaign and use the strategic location of Shanxi to suppress Hebei.

The idea is that unity can be achieved through struggle, which would force Liu Huai to maintain peace.

The Song army is indeed no match for the Han army now, but the world is constantly evolving. What about five or ten years from now? Will Liu Huai's battle-hardened elite troops still be able to maintain such combat effectiveness?

If we can just stall for time, things will eventually turn around again.

Ultimately, everyone shares the same language and culture, and Liu Huai even broke away from the Song army. There is no fundamental conflict, so why escalate it to the point of a life-or-death battle?

Moreover, to be frank and honest, if Liu Huai were to actually come to the court to take up a post, Yu Yunwen would definitely try every means to get the State of Song to bestow upon Liu Huai the title of King of Han.

Of course, when those barbarians who overstepped the imperial authority and carved out their own territories were powerful, they could form brotherhoods and father-son relationships. But now that the Jin Dynasty has become like this, wouldn't it be a sign that our Great Song Dynasty has no one to rely on if we didn't split your monarch in two?
Pu Sanzhongyi, who was in Bianliang, naturally felt this malice as well.

To be precise, before Yu Yunwen set off for Nanyang, Pu Sanzhongyi already felt that he could no longer stay in Bianliang.

Of course, it would be far-fetched to say that it was because Pu Sanzhongyi was afraid of the Song state.

Putting everything else aside, just take the recently concluded Battle of Huaibei as an example. Who could the Song army defeat?

Is it possible to annihilate the Chenzhou army, or to defeat the main force of the Western Jin?

In the end, if Liu Huai hadn't personally led the main force of the Han army's cavalry south, the outcome of this battle in Huaibei would have been uncertain!

So your name is Yu Yunwen? I'll knock all your feather fan and silk turban flying.

However, the situation was different for the leader of the Han army.

This was a ruthless man who had defeated countless famous generals and teachers of the Jin Dynasty.

Pusan ​​Zhongyi felt that he was on par with Heshilie Zhining, but Heshilie Zhining died so quickly last year. Didn't that mean that if he really faced the Han army, Pusan ​​Zhongyi would also meet the same fate?
What alerted Pu Sanzhongyi was quite simple.

In June, Liu Huai's banners appeared in Guide Prefecture, and he took the opportunity to reorganize the troops and officials.

Everyone in the Han army knew that Liu Huainan had actually gone down to chase after Lu You.

But Pusan ​​Zhongyi was unaware of this.

He thought this was the beginning of the next invasion by the Han army, and Liu Huai's personal armed reconnaissance made him even more nervous.

But moving the capital is not something that can be accomplished overnight.
Putting aside the political implications, those bottles and jars aren't something you can just throw away.

Moreover, Shanxi is still under the control of the Eastern Jin. Although Wanyan Guying is in a lot of trouble because of the Han army's salient in Shexian, he is still able to send reinforcements to Hanoi.

If the two Jin kingdoms, separated by the Yellow River, were to fight again, the Jin dynasty would truly be doomed.

"Lord Zhang, when exactly can we move the capital?"

Even with his full head of white hair, Pu Sanzhongyi still maintained the utmost respect for Zhang Hao.

As a veteran minister who had served as Minister of the Imperial Secretariat since before Wanyan Liang's southern expedition, Zhang Hao was extremely loyal to Wanyan Liang. Even when Wanyan Liang was captured during the southern expedition, he did not take the opportunity to defect to Wanyan Yong. Instead, after the Liang brothers stirred up trouble in Bianliang and found Wanyan Guangying, he worked hard to maintain the situation.

With such merit and qualifications, even though Zhang Hao was a Han official, he deserves to be respectfully addressed as "Lord Zhang" by the loyal and righteous servant.

Zhang Hao shook his head, his full head of white hair swaying like weeds in water: "Marshal Du, do you think this is a move? How can you just leave like that? How did your talks with the Meng'an and Mouke households around here go?"

Pusan ​​Zhongyi shook his head with a wry smile: "How could that be? These Meng'an and Mouke households are the most loyal to His Majesty. They followed His Majesty all the way south when he moved the capital from Liaoyang. It's really too difficult to talk to them." At this point, Pusan ​​Zhongyi asked again: "What about those Han gentry and powerful families?"

Zhang Hao shook his head with a wry smile: "Of course they are unwilling, and I think they have even joined forces with the Meng'an Mouke people and the locals, which makes them even more uncontrollable."

Upon hearing this, Pu Sanzhongyi could only smile bitterly and sigh.

Unlike the Meng'an and Mouke households, which mostly migrated from the north, the origins of the powerful clans and gentry around Bianliang were far more complex.

Some of them were Han Chinese from Hebei, such as Zhang Hao himself. They followed Wanyan Liang to the Central Plains during Wanyan Liang's heyday and settled there, and it has been almost ten years since then.

Another group consists of local bullies.

Of course, these local strongmen didn't necessarily start operating here when the Song Dynasty established its capital in Bianliang. After all, Bianliang was breached by the Jin army several times at that time, resulting in heavy casualties and impacting the powerful clans and gentry.

However, it is undeniable that after the pseudo-Qi and Jin dynasties re-established order, Bianliang, as a commercial city, naturally developed again, the population gathered again, and the gentry and powerful families rose again.

The other small group consisted of powerful families who had fled from various parts of Henan and Hebei.

Most of these people were local tyrants and evil gentry, with blood on their hands. They were likely to be chopped off in a public trial, so they had no way to survive when the Han army attacked and could only flee at top speed.

At first, Zhang Hao could still make decisions and allocate land to settle these people, hoping that they could serve as the vanguard for a counterattack in the future.

But as more and more powerful families fled here, Zhang Hao didn't have enough resources to allocate to them.

Moreover, the host-guest conflict that ran through the feudal era still applied in Bianliang, where the local bullies and the outsiders fought each other to the death.

But now something strange has happened.

The three forces that should have been irreconcilable—the Hu people, the local gentry and powerful families, and the foreign tyrants and bullies—have now united to oppose the relocation of the capital.

What's so great about staying in Bianliang?

Wouldn't it be great to go to Luoyang?!

It's not like we won't take care of you when the time comes, so why don't you leave?

However, once these people truly unite, even if they were loyal and righteous, they would be unable to force the relocation of the capital.

Meng'an Moukehu is the source of the Jin Dynasty's regular army and also the family members of the tens of thousands of regular soldiers under Pusan ​​Zhongyi's command. How could Pusan ​​Zhongyi possibly take such a heavy blow?
The Han Chinese aristocratic families and powerful clans were the source of officials at all levels, and they were the main force in maintaining the operation of the government. It was impossible for Zhang Hao to instruct them to confiscate his own property.

A knife cannot be used to cut the hand holding the knife.

The lack of smooth communication between government and military orders made things very difficult for Pu Sanzhongyi and Zhang Hao.

After pondering for a moment, Pu Sanzhongyi stood up and gritted his teeth, saying, "No, we can't stay here and wait to die."

Some time ago, Liu's banners appeared in Guide Prefecture, only three or four days' journey from Bianliang. If this drags on any longer, Liu might very well launch an attack.

Zhang Hao nodded with difficulty: "We can only go to Luoyang. Marshal Du will go and persuade the local Meng'an Mouke households, while I will try again with the Han officials."

Pu Sanzhongyi nodded, got up to leave, but then sighed, "It's better for me to go find the Crown Prince and have him speak on my behalf than to lose face like this."

Zhang Hao immediately grabbed the servant San Zhongyi: "Wait a minute."

Pu Sanzhongyi frowned: "What, the Crown Prince can't be moved?"

Zhang Hao shook his head: "At this point, His Majesty should personally take charge, regardless of what the Crown Prince does."

That's not what I wanted to talk about. What I really wanted to know was the situation in the Kansai region.

Although Zhang Hao was the Minister of the Imperial Secretariat, theoretically he could obtain any information in the country, under the Jin Dynasty's system, information concerning military matters was ultimately not as readily available as that of the Grand Marshal.

Upon hearing this, Pu Sanzhongyi remained silent for a moment, then sighed and returned to his seat: "It's still not very good."

"Although His Majesty managed to stop Zhang Zhongyan, more than half of the Han soldiers still rebelled. If it weren't for my son leading troops to reinforce Guanzhong, Chang'an might be in dire straits right now."

"Wu Lin is a man of unhurried and steady military tactics. He is old but still strong. He blocked the Chencang Road and kept trying to enter the Guanzhong Plain, which made our army have to deal with his moves as they came, and we were a bit flustered."

"As for the Western Xia people, they are really a bunch of useless people. After His Majesty personally led an army to launch a surprise attack, they became obedient and dared not attack our prefectures and counties again."

However, the Western Xia army was subsequently defeated again by Wu Lin's beloved son, so much so that they were now stuck in a stalemate, occupying several counties in the north, neither daring to advance nor retreat.

"However, these are tens of thousands of regular troops, which neither His Majesty nor Wu Lin can ignore. Therefore, they have been extra careful in their military operations, which is why the stalemate has continued until now."

After Pu Sanzhongyi finished speaking frankly, Zhang Hao could only nod and then sincerely replied, "There are some things I can't say, but Marshal Du should know them."

After years of fighting, although I have managed to maintain the situation, the grain I accumulated in previous years is no longer enough. If the Kansai War cannot be ended by next spring at the latest, then I will be unable to procure supplies through ordinary means.

Pu Sanzhongyi nodded slightly, then fled as if he were escaping.

(End of this chapter)