I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 131 Zhao Zicheng: Aguda, you go about your business, I'll wipe out Goryeo first.
Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

The timeline is rewound to the end of July in the fourth year of Xuanhe, and the focus is shifted back to the Korean Peninsula.

Because Zhao Zicheng's fleet selectively blocked information while spreading false information,

The intelligence work of the Song army and Song Jiang's army on the Goryeo battlefield was absolutely overwhelming for both the Jurchens and the Goryeo people.

Regardless of the actual combat capabilities of the Song army and Song Jiang's army on the battlefield, at least they were able to know the overall situation earlier than the enemy and the latest movements of the other two forces.

With such a unique advantage, they are naturally able to seize opportunities with unparalleled precision.

On July 30th, just seven or eight days after the Jin troops on the northern front had been withdrawn, Song Jiang's army, located in Jeonju and Jinzhou at the southern tip of the Goryeo Peninsula, learned of the situation and received orders from Zhao Zicheng to launch a full-scale attack northward.

Seven or eight days is definitely very fast. Because after the Song Dynasty spies and merchant ships operating in the Liaodong Peninsula and even the Yalu River area gathered information, they had to report back to Zhao Zicheng in Dengzhou. Zhao Zicheng then had to make a decision before sending someone to relay the order to Li Jun and Song Jiang.

The entire process, consisting of three steps, was completed in just seven or eight days, which is truly remarkable.

This means that the Goryeo Peninsula, stretching over 800 li from south to north, required such rapid communication—using the 800-li express courier service of the Central Plains, a message sent through Goryeo could theoretically reach the southernmost point from the northernmost point in a single day, if we disregard the rugged mountainous terrain. No wonder later weather forecasts in this region didn't need to be regional; a single line covered the entire country's weather.

When Song Jiang first received the order, he was slightly suspicious. However, Li Jun told him that the imperial reinforcements would arrive soon and hoped that Song Jiang would act quickly and advance northward along the west coast of the Goryeo Peninsula. This way, the imperial army would not need to detour to land at the southernmost point, saving them the trouble of turning back.

Upon hearing that the imperial army had arrived, Song Jiang immediately became more cautious, knowing that Zhao Zicheng had sent people to monitor him. Thus, he launched a new offensive within three days.

Because Song Jiang had paused for a while, his offensive had slowed down, and the Goryeo army's defenses had become somewhat lax. After Song Jiang launched another fierce attack, the Goryeo army's outer perimeter immediately began to crumble.

This cannot be blamed on Goryeo's incompetence. The main reason is that Goryeo's elite troops had already suffered heavy losses and depletion at the Jin front in the previous two months.

The main force was annihilated in waves of tens of thousands. Even the newly recruited soldiers, who were forcibly conscripted and exploited, were also largely wiped out by the Jin army's brutal tactics.

Now, Song Jiang once again used Li Kui, Wu Song, and Hua Rong as the vanguard to divide his forces and launch a fierce attack in southern Goryeo.

In less than a month, Hua Rong, advancing along the west coast, took control of the entire coastal area west of Jeonju.

Li Kui and Wu Song, who traveled north along the east coast, captured Tokyo, the capital of Goryeo, which roughly included Daegu in later Korea, as well as Pohang, an important seaport downstream of Daegu.

Anyone who has played the "Uncharted Waters" series of games knows that Pohang and Busan are the most important seaports in eastern and southern South Korea, respectively, and are also two major hubs for trade between South Korea and Japan.

The area around Daegu, which later became known as the Forbidden City, was conquered by Li Kui's troops, while Pohang Port was the work of Wu Song. The entire process is fairly straightforward. Historically, southern Goryeo lacked fortified cities; as long as one could win in open battle, coupled with the far more advanced siege weaponry of the Central Plains dynasties, they could easily crush the enemy.

Given the Goryeo people's defensive tactics, the southern cities could be easily scaled with just a few siege ladders. The Goryeo people's most well-constructed fortifications were primarily concentrated in Baozhou, bordering the Liao and Jin dynasties to the north. This was because only there did they need to guard against large-scale attacks from the Central Plains dynasties. What was the point of the Goryeo people spending so much money building fortifications along the southern coast? Was it to defend against a Japanese landing?
The threat of Japanese invasion was minimal at this time, and even if the Japanese wanted to land, they couldn't rely on building fortified cities for defense. Unless you built cities along the entire coastline, the sheer scale of the project would be enormous. And if there were any weaknesses, the Japanese could simply target those gaps to land; therefore, it was better not to waste resources.

All these factors contributed to Song Jiang's smooth initial progress.

After completing the first phase of their advance, Song Jiang's army continued north to launch a joint attack on Qingzhou and Shangzhou.

Readers unfamiliar with Korean geography may not grasp the significance of this development, but they only need to know that after breaking through here, they could head north and directly attack the Seoul-Incheon line of later generations.

Of the eight provinces of Korea, there are Chungcheong Province and Gyeongsang Province. The "Cheong" in Chungcheong Province comes from Cheongju, and the "Sang" in Gyeongsang Province also comes from Sangju. After conquering these places, the southern four provinces of the eight provinces of Korea were half of the country, except for the one around Seoul.

At this point, two more pieces of very good news for the Han people arrived.

First, the reinforcements sent by Zhao Zicheng to monitor Song Jiang and fight alongside him finally landed near Qingzhou and joined forces with Song Jiang.

Currently, Hua Rong is directly in charge of the siege of Qingzhou, but Song Jiang and Wu Jialiang are also personally overseeing the Qingzhou battlefield, directing the overall operation. Song Jiang's army has now swelled to a total strength of over 20,000 men, of whom nearly half (40%) are poor people mobilized from Goryeo. The remaining 60% are veterans from the Central Plains.

In addition, there were several minor leaders, such as Shi Jin, Liu Tang, and Pei Xuan, who each led troops to carry out specific combat missions.

Upon hearing that Lord Zhao's reinforcements had arrived, Song Jiang dared not delay and personally led Wu Jialiang and Hua Rong to greet them.

There were two commanders in total for the reinforcements, one for the water and one for the land, each with their own duties.

The commander of the land forces was Huyan Zhuo, the military commander of Laizhou, and the commander of the navy was Huyan Qing, the commander of the Pinghai Navy.

Huyan Zhuo also had two generals under his command: Xu Ning and Yue Fei, while Huyan Qing had Li Jun under his command.

The total number of government reinforcements reached 6,000, of which Huyan Zhuo led 4,000, including 1,000 cavalry and 3,000 infantry. Huyan Qing had 2,000 sailors under his command, but these sailors could also go ashore to serve as infantry in land battles when necessary, as the distinction between land and sea forces was not so strict at that time.

Song Jiang himself had more than 20,000 men, and when he first heard that the total number of government troops was only 6,000, he was not very intimidated. Although he had been badly beaten by government troops last year and had to run around everywhere, he had regained some confidence in the Goryeo people in the last six months and felt that he was capable again.

But upon seeing the equipment, military bearing, and discipline of these six thousand men, Song Jiang couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat and immediately abandoned his previous contempt.

Zhao Zicheng's identity was too sensitive. As a member of the imperial clan, he could not arbitrarily expand the army and increase the number of officers and soldiers in Dengzhou and Laizhou. Therefore, he could only try to take the route of elite troops and do a better job in training and equipment. This is why Song Jiang saw the situation he had today.

Zhao Zicheng had actually thought things through quite thoroughly. He planned to emulate the "100,000-strong army" model of the Germans when they were bound by treaties. After World War I, the German army was bound by the Treaty of Versailles, which limited the size of its troops. So, they would take the route of elite troops, training ordinary soldiers to the standards of officers or at least non-commissioned officers several years in advance. Once the shackles of the treaty were lifted, and the army could be legally and rapidly expanded, then every one of those 100,000 men could become a junior officer, or at least a squad leader or even a platoon leader.

Zhao Zicheng thought the same way. Before the incidents involving Emperors Huizong and Qinzong, he believed that if he expanded his army too much, he would be finished once the matter was exposed.

Being half a step ahead of the times makes one a pioneer; being two steps ahead makes one a martyr. Therefore, this elite force strategy must continue until at least the eve of the Jingkang Incident.

Of these 6,000 government troops, 1,000 cavalrymen were all equipped with steel armor, their warhorses were of good quality, and they were all equipped with horse armor, or at least leather horse armor.

These were all valuable resources accumulated by Zhao Zicheng during his year-long farming in Dengzhou and Laizhou, combined with his previous work suppressing the Fang La rebellion in Jiangnan and governing Suzhou and Hangzhou. The steel for the armor was all cold-forged using water-powered hammers.

The three thousand dedicated infantrymen were mainly spearmen equipped with cold-forged double-hooked spears, whose weapons were far superior to those of ordinary spearmen. They had also undergone anti-cavalry combat training, with Xu Ning personally training them for a year in anti-cavalry spear formations and hook-and-sickle spear techniques. The infantrymen were also equipped with light steel armor, whose defensive capabilities were in no way inferior to the original Song infantry armor, but with a lighter overall weight and a much more optimized load-bearing structure, making it less tiring to wear and allowing them to support long-distance marches and battles.

The last two thousand naval troops were mainly equipped with swords and shields and crossbows. These soldiers were primarily trained as ranged troops, since there were indeed few opportunities for close combat at sea and on rivers; mastering crossbow formations was sufficient. If the enemy boarded their ships, they would switch to sword and shield melee combat, and this sword and shield melee training could also be applied to land warfare.

Moreover, judging from the physique and military bearing of Zhao Zicheng's soldiers, their daily training must have been extremely demanding, but their food rations were also guaranteed. If they hadn't been eating well, they definitely wouldn't have been able to withstand such training and the formidable armor and weapons.

After the meeting, Song Jiang was quickly brought before Hu Yanzhuo, the commander of the government army. After some pleasantries, Hu Yanzhuo asked Song Jiang if he was facing any difficulties and whether he needed the government army's help in attacking Qingzhou City.

Song Jiang had already paid a price and made some efforts at the gates of Qingzhou, and seeing that he would soon achieve victory, he did not want his credit to be taken away.

More importantly, he also wanted to show off his strength in front of his allies and avoid being looked down upon, so he told them the truth:

"The Goryeo people do still have some fighting strength, but Cheongju can definitely be taken! It can be taken within this month! To be honest, in order to attack Cheongju, our army also lost hundreds of soldiers and two leaders, and nearly a thousand were wounded. However, the main force of the Goryeo army in the city is already exhausted. General Huyan, just watch me break through the city!"

"Once we capture Qingzhou, and then advance north to Renzhou, Shuizhou, Guangzhou, and other places, we'll see how General Huyan triumphs, and then we can finally rest. As for Yangzhou, the last stronghold south of the Han River, I estimate we'll need a combined effort."

As Song Jiang spoke, he pointed to a map of Goryeo and explained it to Huyan Zhuo. Renzhou and Shuizhou roughly correspond to Incheon in later times, while Guangzhou is located in the southern suburbs of Seoul in later times. After taking these three prefectures, they could then encircle Yangzhou, the future capital of South Korea, from the south.

Seeing that Song Jiang had lost his temper and that two leaders had been lost since the uprising began, Huyan Zhuo decided not to fight Song Jiang anymore. He let Song Jiang finish the battle alone so that Song Jiang could see his strength and vent his anger.

Huyan Zhuo had just crossed the sea, and his troops would need a few days to adapt to the environment, so he decided to observe the battle for the time being.

He was just being polite when he casually asked which leaders had been lost during the attacks on Qingzhou and Quanzhou. He eventually learned that it was two guys named Zhang Qing and Sun Erniang.

Huyan Zhuo wasn't a time traveler, so he was unaware of the two men's cannibalistic past and simply considered them ordinary righteous men. If Zhao Zicheng were here, he might think that letting these two die in the war against the Koreans was a way of giving them a chance to clear their names.

In addition, I heard that the two leaders who died had a particularly good relationship with Wu Song, a fierce general under Song Jiang. I wonder if Wu Song will become even more furious after learning this and achieve even better results against the sticks in the east.

……

The day after Huyan Zhuo arrived, Song Jiang, eager to make a name for himself, rallied his brothers to launch a final assault on Qingzhou.

"Brothers! We can't let the court look down on us! The Goryeo people in the city are already at their last gasp! All the credit for this is ours! As long as we capture Cheongju, you brothers can loot for three days as you please!"

The city is full of Koreans who even killed their own brothers, so there's no point in being polite. Even if there are only a few people left in Qingzhou after the war, we can just move Han people over to cultivate the land.

In any case, the Central Plains have no shortage of people these days. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, the population of the Song Dynasty had already swelled to 100 million, and the problem of too many people and too little land was very serious. In particular, the Hebei region was plagued by years of war, with refugees everywhere. As long as Zhao Zicheng was willing to provide seagoing vessels for transshipment, transporting tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of Han people over would be a piece of cake.

This can be compared to the late Ming Dynasty. In Fujian and Zhejiang, disasters and population overflow were not very serious, but whenever there was a flood or drought, Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong were able to help relocate tens of thousands of starving people to Danshui for reclamation free of charge.

Zhao Zicheng believed that with the government's resources at hand, the transport capacity was likely comparable to that of Zheng Chenggong in later generations. Rather than letting hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Hebei starve or die under the swords of the Jin soldiers, it would be better to relocate them to Goryeo to cultivate the land, which would be a great act of merit.

Moreover, this couldn't even be considered "reclaiming wasteland"; it was simply continuing to cultivate the arable land that the Goryeo people had already developed. It was only because the original Goryeo landowners were killed by the rebel Song Jiang, leaving the land unclaimed, that Han Chinese landless farmers had no choice but to come and cultivate it.

This makes sense.

Therefore, at this moment, inspired by Song Jiang's call to "open up the looting after breaking through the city," the Liangshan army erupted with astonishing fighting spirit.

Hua Rong personally supervised the battle at the front line, directing his soldiers to suppress the city walls with bows and crossbows, and then a large number of soldiers climbed up the siege ladders.

As friendly forces observing the battle, Hu Yanzhuo and others did not directly intervene, nor did they want to take credit. They simply took the opportunity to observe the battle tactics of both sides.

Huyan Zhuo quickly noticed some details and discussed them with Xu Ning and Yue Fei beside him:
"The tactics these Goryeo people used to defend the city with rolling logs and stones are quite similar to those of the Central Plains. They used boiling water and molten metal more often, but I didn't see much lime or boiling oil. Is it because the Goryeo people were not good at producing lime and oil?"

"The Goryeo people's bows and arrows are very accurate. They lack powerful crossbows, but they shoot accurately. They seem to be barbarians who are good at fishing and hunting, just like the Jurchens."

Regardless of how later generations evaluate the Koreans, their archery skills have always been considered good. After all, they were Dongyi people. The character "Yi" itself is composed of "one person and a bow," which shows from the logic of character formation that the ancients believed that the foreign tribes of the East were skilled in archery. Moreover, Goryeo also had a tradition of fishing and hunting.

Because the peninsula is mountainous, the Koreans were not as skilled in both horsemanship and archery as the Jurchens. They were only good at archery and not horsemanship.

After observing for a while, the group witnessed the fierce battle between the two sides. Song Jiang's soldiers repeatedly scaled the city walls and gained the upper hand in localized hand-to-hand combat. The fearless and seasoned bandits were able to overpower the relatively inexperienced Goryeo recruits. Once they reached the top of the walls, the exchange ratio of Han soldiers was quite favorable.

However, the Goryeo's crossfire was extremely cunning. The arrows fired from both sides of the city wall towards the middle were very accurate, always managing to shoot down soldiers climbing the ladders from the side. Song Jiang's vanguard soldiers were constantly disrupted, unable to continuously charge up the city walls.

The soldiers on the city wall were easily isolated and helpless, and were eventually pushed down. However, the Koreans also suffered greatly, with heavy casualties and losses.

After observing for a while, Yue Fei tentatively suggested, "Song Jiang doesn't want us to get involved, so why don't we lend them some crossbows to help them suppress the Goryeo archers on the city wall?"

Huyan Zhuo also thought it made sense, so he told Yue Fei to go and talk to Song Jiang himself.

Song Jiang, seeing that the other party had phrased it tactfully—merely "borrowing" a weapon, which was already quite polite—didn't refuse. Why risk the lives of his brothers?

In the end, it wasn't just about borrowing weapons anymore. Yue Fei also organized some crossbow teams from the government troops to support Song Jiang, but he mixed in a few crossbowmen from Song Jiang's own forces. Under the guise of "teaching," he let them learn by watching and shooting arrows at the city walls.

All close-quarters combat was handled by Song Jiang's army on their own.

Song Jiang quickly launched a new offensive, and the Goryeo people continued to defend using their old tactics, but they soon paid the price.

As the Goryeo archers returned to the crenellations and battlements, preparing to fire crossfire at the charging Han soldiers, a sudden volley of arrows rained down from above. The arrows were incredibly powerful, and their fletching was unusual; even at such a high angle, their kinetic energy and penetrating force upon impact were astonishing.

A large group of unsuspecting Goryeo archers were felled by a sudden volley of arrows fired from far behind the enemy lines. The screams of agony echoed from the city walls, but Song Jiang's soldiers, their morale soaring, immediately launched a desperate charge.

Shi Jin and Liu Tang each guarded several siege ladder carts and personally led their teams to scale the city walls. In no time, they tore a huge gap in the walls of Qingzhou.

Shi Jin and Liu Tang each wielded double swords/plain broadswords and charged forward bravely, each killing more than a dozen new Goryeo soldiers. More and more of Song Jiang's soldiers rushed up the city wall, and the Goryeo army, relying on archers to defend, finally could not hold on.

"Congratulations, Chief Song! Qingzhou City was indeed captured in a single day. Lord Zhao always keeps his word and will not forget your contributions."

Yue Fei was also present and offered his congratulations to Song Jiang at just the right moment.

Song Jiang didn't know much about Yue Fei, because Yue Fei was still a deputy battalion commander, far behind Hu Yanzhuo, who was already the military commander of a prefecture. Just now, Song Jiang's attention was entirely focused on greeting Hu Yanzhuo.

Following the principle of not hitting a smiling face, Song Jiang also exchanged a few polite words with Yue Fei: "Young brother, you flatter me. In the end, it was the excellent weapons provided by Prefect Zhao that proved to be of great use. Prefect Zhao is able to use people without suspicion, so why worry about Goguryeo not being destroyed?"

Yue Fei said, “It is a blessing for the court and for the future of all of you heroes that Chief Song thinks this way. Since Chief Song is willing to work together with us, I hope that we will not bring up the past again in the future.”

Song Jiang was unaware of Yue Fei's past achievements, and when he suffered defeats against the government forces, he was also unaware of the specific individuals who had contributed to those victories. In the battle reports submitted to the court, Zhao Zicheng concealed some of Guan Sheng and Yue Fei's contributions in order to exonerate Qin Ming and Huang Xin.

So when he heard Yue Fei's words of reconciliation, Song Jiang was really puzzled: "Could it be that you had some old grudge with our army when you fought against us before? Since it's all in the past, why bother to hold a grudge?"

Yue Fei: "That's good. I believe that Chief Song is a man of his word. I suppose the matter of me capturing Qin Ming in one move last year and killing four chiefs from Peach Blossom Mountain and Qingfeng Mountain will not be mentioned again in the future."

Upon hearing this, Song Jiang felt as if the hairs on his body stood on end, and cold sweat poured down his back.

This young man? He killed four brothers from Peach Blossom Mountain and Qingfeng Mountain with a single shot? He captured Qin Ming in one move?!

"Brother Yue... is truly a peerless hero. I, Song, am ignorant and have never heard of such a hero as Brother Yue in the Shandong and Hebei regions before. The past is the past..."

Yue Fei waved his hand modestly: "How dare I? Chief Song has a wide circle of friends, how can you say that I am ignorant? It's just that I have never traveled far before. When I captured General Qin last year, it was my first time fighting in the army. So Chief Song naturally hadn't heard of me before."

(End of this chapter)