I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 102 It doesn’t matter whether I live here or not, it’s important that Zhao Gou doesn’t live here

"The one wearing the yellow robe is Fang La!"

"Fang La can't escape!"

As the government troops shouted louder and louder shouts, Fang La's army was finally completely defeated, and they fled in all directions and were beaten all over the mountains and plains.

Zhao Zicheng ordered his generals to pursue the rebels individually, cutting them into small groups like a horse racing around a field, capturing and forcing many to surrender. Thousands of rebel soldiers, cut apart, knelt and surrendered in formation, completely losing their will to fight.

It was a pity that Zhao Zicheng had too few troops. Before the war, there were only 10,000 people at most. After a series of bloody battles, there were bound to be casualties. In addition, a large number of soldiers were exhausted and could not continue to pursue and expand the results of the battle.

The total number of troops that Fang La's army brought to the Hangzhou battlefield was nearly 100,000 (70,000 to 80,000 were mobilized in the Haining battle, but some of them stayed in the siege camp outside Hangzhou, so the total number of troops that Fang La's army brought to the Hangzhou battlefield before the war was more than 100,000).
Even taking into account the casualties from the bloody battle and fierce attack on Hangzhou City, the total number of people brought to the Qingheyan battlefield today is still over 70,000.

Zhao Zicheng fought fiercely again, and when Fang La's army finally collapsed, 50,000 to 60,000 people still fled. Zhao Zicheng tried his best to hunt down and capture prisoners, but he was still too busy to do so, and more than half of them escaped.

The final statistics of the battle showed that more than 40,000 people were killed, wounded, captured, or surrendered, and about 30,000 escaped.

Of the 40,000 killed and seriously wounded, only about 10,000 were killed, and another 30,000 were captured, with the majority captured alive or surrendering. This is also consistent with the norm in ancient warfare against rebels.

The rebellions, which had only been in existence for a few months, were not very resolute. The only exceptions were the brainwashed Manichaeans who fought to the death, but most were killed. The rest, ordinary rebels who had been coerced and lacked the support of faith, generally surrendered decisively when they saw the situation was hopeless and they were surrounded.

Unfortunately, Fang La himself was not captured in this battle. He had many generals with excellent martial arts skills around him, and Fang La himself was also quite skilled in martial arts. It was still easy for him to break out when he was defeated.

No matter how great Zhao Zicheng was, he couldn't defeat seven opponents in a field battle and ensure the capture of the enemy's commander. That was beyond human power.

Fortunately, although many of the enemy had fled, not all of them could be recaptured by Fang La. Many of the defeated soldiers who fled in various directions would probably try to hide and return to their hometowns to become good citizens after the storm had passed.

It would be good enough for Fang La to gather some of the defeated soldiers back to his base, and it would take a lot of time.

Another good news is that because Fang La's defeat was so tragic and he fled so quickly, all he had left were the gold and silver carried by a few trusted confidants and some rations carried by the army.

Most of the other property that Fang La's army looted in Hangzhou City was not transferred away in time and was directly seized by Zhao Zicheng.

Among the seized property, the largest quantity and quantity were various silk fabrics.

As a land of fish and rice and a representative of the prosperous areas in the south of the Yangtze River, Hangzhou has an extremely developed textile industry and a Maritime Customs Office.

Fang La plundered the entire city of Hangzhou, and the silk and satin he robbed and then seized by Zhao Zicheng amounted to over a million pieces! He was truly rich!

When Zhao Zicheng finally saw this number, he was shocked.

How could a city like the one that was the richest in Liangzhe Road, with its own Maritime Customs Office, actually find so much silk? I had underestimated the wealth of Hangzhou during the Song Dynasty.

After all, it was the only city among the former capitals of the Ten Kingdoms that was peacefully taken over by the Song Dynasty without going through war. It is no wonder that Zhao Gou later chose to make it his temporary residence when he fled south.

It is no wonder that Fang La pretended for so long in history to be "benevolent and righteous, loving the people, and not randomly robbing and killing innocent people", but after entering the city of Hangzhou, he suddenly became like a different person, no longer talking about any program, and began to plunder and kill indiscriminately.

Because even if he plays the role of "punishing criminals and pleading for the people" for his whole life, he will never have the chance to seize a richer city, so it is better for him to stop playing the role here.

In addition to silk and satin, the remaining major treasures were mainly copper coins, grain, and of course tea, silk and other items.

There wasn't much gold or jewelry, mainly because those items were too valuable and could be taken away by the defeated Fang La soldiers. Only a small amount of precious metals and jewelry could be confiscated from the captives and surrendered soldiers, but the items from the 30,000 who escaped could not be recovered.

All the confiscated property was in Fang La's hands for less than 72 hours before being laundered and transferred to Zhao Zicheng.

"Should we return these things to the people of Hangzhou? Forget it. As for the grain, besides the portion that will be returned to the government treasury as rations for the garrison, the rest will be used to provide porridge and disaster relief, to ensure that the surviving people of Hangzhou can survive this winter and the famine next spring.

Hard currencies like gold, silver, and silk, as well as bulk commodities like tea and porcelain, will be handled separately. A portion of the copper coins can also be distributed to reassure the people.

Zhao Zicheng was relatively merciful. He knew that after Fang La's killing and looting, the people of Hangzhou would not survive the winter. So the grain and copper coins had to be returned.

The population of Hangzhou was massacred by Fang La, and at least 100,000 households were lost. Not all of them were killed, and some fled and became hidden households. However, the population recorded by the government was definitely reduced by 100,000 households.

In fact, the remaining living people only need a few hundred thousand dan of grain to survive the year.

The other generals had no problem with his arrangement. After roughly cleaning up the battlefield, they sorted the spoils according to the instructions. Everyone was convinced by him and dared not keep the spoils for themselves, waiting for Zhao Zicheng to distribute them.

After these days of fierce fighting, these generals were completely convinced by him. He was a student of the Imperial Academy, a civil servant, a member of the imperial clan, and he could get along well with the military and understand their needs. If such a person didn't make the decisions, who would?

After roughly distributing the copper coins and grain, Liu Guangshi and Han Shizhong asked him how to distribute the silk, gold and silver.

Zhao Zicheng thought about it and privately discussed it with several high-ranking confidants: "We will divide one or two percent of the profits and report them. I mean, when the time comes, we will return it to the surviving Liangzhe officials in Hangzhou City, and let them report it to the court. Whether Tong Taiwei and others want to intervene and share some of the profits is up to the Liangzhe officials to worry about.

Anyway, since they took the 10% or 20% from us, they have to testify for us and prove that we returned all the spoils to the local authorities.

Of the remaining funds, we will use 10% to 20% as rewards for meritorious servicemen, and another 10% to 20% for disaster relief and reconstruction in Hangzhou and surrounding areas affected by the war. However, how this money is spent is up to us; we cannot let the local officials of Liangzhe Road sell us this favor.

The remaining ones, about half of the total, I will find another way to deal with - I will not hide it from you, we are not greedy people, and if we fight this battle, we will definitely be feared by the court. The court must both value us and be wary of us.

Right now, rebellions are rampant throughout the country. The rebellions in Shandong and Hebei have not yet been quelled, and the Liao and Jin are turbulent. Keeping these money and grain will also be used to reward the soldiers in the future, reorganize the troops, fill the gaps in salary and personnel, and purchase some weapons and armor. In short, it is not for my own benefit."

Zhao Zicheng didn't want to explain too much, but he told everyone that he would use the money for military purposes, and it could be considered as private money for special times. The generals were also very clear about the military preparations of the Song Dynasty and the layers of deductions.

Zhao Zicheng also made it clear that if they had the opportunity to continue cooperating and following him in the future, then the spoils would definitely be spent on them. However, if the court insisted on breaking them up and transferring them, there was nothing he could do about it, and it was not something he, Zhao Zicheng, could do.

For example, the cooperation between Liu Guangshi, Han Shizhong and others and Zhao Zicheng was definitely temporary. They could get promoted and make money by following this trend, but the emperor and Tong Guan would never let Liu Guangshi and Han Shizhong be subordinate to Zhao Zicheng.

They could only secretly express their gratitude in their hearts and wait for a suitable opportunity in the future before cooperating with Zhao Zicheng again.

"No matter how Judge Zhao handles these treasures, we will accept their consequences! He's already generous enough to use even a fraction of the total to reward the soldiers. After all, these items originally belonged to the Hangzhou treasury and the people, so a lot of them must be returned to the court and the people."

Liu Guangshi was the first to express his opinion, and Han Shizhong followed suit, saying "Me too."

Zhao Zicheng decided to trust the people he employed and not to employ them unless he had any doubts about them. He allowed some of the generals to continue cleaning up the battlefield, while he took a small number of his followers and rode south, preparing to enter Hangzhou City.

……

Today's battle with Fang La lasted about half a morning, but the subsequent capture of prisoners and cleaning up of the battlefield was chaotic and noisy for several hours.

It was almost evening when Zhao Zicheng rode his horse to the outside of Wulin Gate.

The outer city of Hangzhou was still wide open. The government troops did not dare to leave the inner city to take over, and the remnants of Fang La's army in the outer city had not completely escaped.

When Zhao Zicheng entered the city, he could actually see a few scattered Fang La soldiers continuing to loot and search the city for property. There are always people who value money over their lives.

Zhao Zicheng had no choice but to search forward cautiously.

As the saying goes, the older you are in the underworld, the less courageous you are. Now that Hangzhou City has been recaptured, it would be a shame if we were to fail in a street fight and be ambushed by arrows from the soldiers.

It was not until it was completely dark that Zhao Zicheng arrived at Fengshan Gate, the south gate between the inner and outer cities.

Fengshan Gate, as its name suggests, is the gate facing Phoenix Mountain in the south of the city. A palace has stood on Phoenix Mountain since the Wuyue Kingdom of the Five Dynasties. Later, when Emperor Zhao Gou moved south, he also built his imperial palace on Phoenix Mountain, thus becoming the location of Hangzhou's inner city.

Forty years ago, when Su Shi was the governor of Hangzhou, he composed a poem, "Jiangchengzi," specifically praising the scenery there: Beneath Phoenix Mountain, the rain has just cleared. The water is clear and the breeze is gentle. The sunset glow is bright. A lotus flower is in full bloom. Where do these two egrets fly from? As if they were attracted by your graceful beauty.

When Zhao Zicheng arrived at the city gate, he felt an inexplicable anticipation. He knew that if he did nothing, in six years, it would be Zhao Gou's turn to pass through this gate and sit facing south in the palace on the hill behind.

But since Zhao Zicheng had done so many things, he definitely could not allow Zhao Gou to sit in that position.

Of course, he might not stay in Hangzhou in the future. For him, it was not important whether he lived here or not, but it was important that Zhao Gou did not live here.

Zhao Zicheng watched intently for a long time, and finally regained his composure and shouted his identity to the defenders on the city wall from afar.

"Zhao Zicheng, the magistrate of Suzhou, has led his army to aid Hangzhou. This morning, he defeated Fang La's main force, taking 50,000 prisoners. The heads of his generals, Li Tianrun and Zheng Mowang, are here. Why not open the gates and welcome them?"

(End of this chapter)