I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 175 Three-pronged Northern Expedition to Destroy the Jin Dynasty (A long chapter of 7,000 words)

In the eighth month of autumn in the third year of Jianyan (1122), 150,000 newly trained and reorganized Song soldiers, dressed in full armor, awaited the emperor's inspection north of Bianliang (Kaifeng).

After three years of recovery, the population of Bianjing (Kaifeng) had rebounded from two or three hundred thousand at the beginning of the recovery to more than five hundred thousand. When the people of Bianjing heard that the emperor was going to personally lead an expedition to recover Hebei, they flocked to watch.

For a moment, the onlookers were as numerous as mountains, their faces filled with dejection, and heaven and earth seemed to slump in hushed tones.

"His Majesty is going to personally lead the expedition! We are finally going to recover Hebei!"

"Truly a wise and mighty ruler, an unprecedented and powerful emperor. No emperor in history has ever been so divinely mighty. Heaven truly blesses our Great Song Dynasty and our China."

The students were also moved to tears. They couldn't help but compose poems and sing praises as they looked at the emperor in his blood-red armor with carved feathers and his majestic black horse.

After three years of governance by Zhao Zicheng, the spirit and appearance of the people in the capital region were completely different. The famine of the past was no longer visible, and the people's complexion had improved considerably.

The martial spirit among the people has seen a resurgence, and public support for the emperor's efforts to recover lost territories has greatly increased. While the imperial court still faces a shortage of funds and provisions for this northern expedition, a surge of voluntary fundraising has emerged from the populace.

Zhao Zicheng also ordered the Ministry of Revenue to keep clear accounts to ensure that the people's generous donations of food and drink to the army would not be misappropriated. Anyone who dared to embezzle the money would be executed without mercy, and their property would be confiscated!

The people were indeed not wealthy, but Zhao Zicheng gave them a dignified way of life and restored their national pride. He showed them the light that had returned to China after its decline, which inspired a sense of unity among the people. With such morale and spirit, how could the Jin invaders not be defeated?
Zhao Zicheng stated that the latest imperial examination had officially included archery and mathematics tests, so most of the newly selected scholars were physically fit. Consequently, the students at the Imperial Academy also began diligently practicing archery.

Nowadays, an archery academy has been added to the Imperial Academy, much like the archery academy of later generations. Every day, countless students can be seen diligently practicing archery there, no longer ashamed of practicing martial arts.
Coaches also help correct movements to prevent persistent incorrect posture from injuring the spine.

The instructors who taught archery at the Imperial Academy were not limited to scholars. When the academy was first established two years ago, Zhao Zicheng selected a group of soldiers with good archery skills and military merits to serve as instructors at the Imperial Academy.

At first, the students were quite resistant, thinking that how could a scholar's teacher be a completely uneducated boor? Even if the other person was good at archery, shouldn't he at least have some knowledge?

However, Zhao Zicheng overruled the objections and personally quoted Han Yu's "On Teachers" to refute them:
A disciple need not be inferior to his teacher, nor a teacher necessarily more virtuous than his disciple. There is a sequence in learning the Way, and each has their own area of ​​expertise.

That's it.

Soldiers skilled in archery have their own expertise, so why can't they be teachers to the Imperial Academy students?

Of course, to ensure the quality of teaching, Zhao Zicheng first gave them a warning and then a reward, requiring that the soldiers who went to the Imperial Academy as instructors must at least be literate and have good speaking skills. Otherwise, even if they were good at archery, they wouldn't know how to teach others.

In the future, physical education teachers will at least need to graduate from a teacher's college with a physical education major and obtain a teaching certificate. Poor communication skills will mislead students.

This requirement was reasonable, so the coaches who were rejected had no complaints and accepted the outcome willingly. After this incident, a spontaneous and diligent effort to learn literacy and at least recognize characters was launched among the soldiers.

The treatment and social status of Song Dynasty soldiers also improved significantly, and the common people no longer regarded all soldiers as completely illiterate and uncouth.

The quality and composition of the army's personnel have also undergone subtle changes.

More men from respectable families began to join the army, instead of just recruiting unemployed and homeless people as was the case at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Therefore, Zhao Zicheng abolished the long-standing tradition of tattooing characters on the faces of soldiers, so that soldiers no longer needed to have characters tattooed on their faces. Of course, in order to help identify the army's recruits and prevent desertion, Zhao Zicheng will also have to implement other identification and management methods in the future.

For example, the most obvious idea is to have soldiers get haircuts instead of tattoos. However, Zhao Zicheng also knew that this was not something that could be done overnight; it would require years of preparation and gradual, subtle changes.

Even if people are to be persuaded to cut their hair in the future, it must be based on medical and health considerations. He is well aware of the Han people's obsession with "our bodies and hair are given to us by our parents" in this era, and he also knows how tragic it was in history when the Manchus entered the pass and left people with their heads but not their hair.

Especially now that he has to deal with the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty, who share the same origin and race as the Manchus of later generations, and who also wear queues, Zhao Zicheng must be even more determined to prevent the army representing the Han Chinese clothing from shaving their heads like the Hu people.

At most, one can only shave their head, and would rather be seen as imitating a monk. All of this must be done in conjunction with the development of a public health system and the advancement of related medical technologies.

……

To digress a bit, in short, by the autumn of the third year of the Jianyan era, the Song Dynasty had undergone significant changes from top to bottom.

If someone who left Bianjing before the Jingkang Incident were to return now, they would surely find that Bianjing has recovered to be even more vibrant and energetic than it was before the tragedy.

It was under these circumstances that Zhao Zicheng led an army of 150,000 men on a personal expedition. He was greeted by students of the Imperial Academy and the common people who lined the streets to see him off to the Yellow River before he boarded a boat and sailed downstream.

The size, tonnage, combat facilities, and seaworthiness of the warships used by the government troops were far superior to those of the Northern Song Dynasty's naval warships.

The dragon-headed warship that Zhao Zicheng personally rode in was larger than the dragon boat of Emperor Yang of Sui, yet it did not cause any hardship to the people or waste resources. When building the ship, Zhao Zicheng considered practicality, economy, and cost-effectiveness, and never pursued luxury.

But this combination of grandeur and simplicity reveals the unique majesty of an emperor on horseback.

The warships continued to leave the territory of Kaifeng Prefecture and disappear on the horizon of the Yellow River before the onlookers gradually dispersed, each one filled with excitement.

Meanwhile, Han Shizhong's naval forces and Yue Fei's troops attacking from Goryeo had already agreed on a date to launch a joint attack, leaving the Jurchens preoccupied with their own problems.

On the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, after advancing north along the Yellow River for five days, Zhao Zicheng's army first arrived at Caozhou, north of the Yellow River. Here, he also encountered sporadic resistance from the Jurchens for the first time.

However, the local population was already sparse, and there were hardly any people along the border between the two countries. The garrison there was not of the Jurchen ethnicity, but rather the puppet army of the Han traitor Zhao Gou.

Faced with Zhao Zicheng's attack, the traitorous puppet army naturally collapsed at the first touch. After Zhao Zicheng captured Caozhou, he continued to advance to the vicinity of Dezhou.

Meanwhile, Guan Sheng, who was stationed in Jinan Prefecture on the eastern route of Jingdong, also brought a portion of the Shandong army to join forces with Zhao Zicheng, and together they wiped out a small number of enemy remnants south of Cangzhou and along the Hebei coast.

On the tenth day, the emperor and his ministers successfully met in Dezhou and then officially headed north to Cangzhou.

The Jin army besieged Cangzhou on the 15th. This was the first city in which the Jin army put up a desperate resistance, because if they did not resist, they would soon be able to reach Yanjing.

Since the Jurchens were ungrateful, Zhao Zicheng would not be polite to them.

The Song Dynasty has been officially and publicly producing bronze cannons for three years, and it has no shortage of heavy siege cannons weighing two thousand catties each. Zhao Zi said that this time, advancing by water along the Yellow River, it would be very convenient to transport cannons by large ships.

They lined up heavy siege cannons outside Cangzhou City and bombarded the city. After a fierce bombardment, the Jin general defending the city was thrown into disarray, losing all command and control over his troops.

The Song army poured into the city through the collapsed wall and engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Jurchen and Xi soldiers, during which a large number of projectile firearms were used in actual combat.

Zhao Zicheng stated that smoothbore muskets were still not in mass production; the technology was still somewhat challenging, and they were still researching it. However, old-fashioned hand grenades had been widely distributed to ordinary soldiers, which was sufficient to deal with firearms of the Jurchen level.

Under the combined bombardment and mortar fire of the Song army, coupled with the overwhelming morale of the Song troops and the emperor's supervision, the two thousand-man squads of the Jin army were completely annihilated in Cangzhou.

Riding on the momentum of conquering Cangzhou, Zhao Zicheng continued his northward march, his prestige even surpassing that of Emperor Shizong of Zhou, Chai Rong, who had recovered the three prefectures south of the pass during his northern expedition 170 years earlier.

The Song generals were all eager to prove themselves, and Liu Guangshi, Guan Sheng, Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, Lu Da, Song Jiang, and Lu Jinyi all volunteered for battle.

Zhao Zicheng commanded with composure, ordering Liu Guangshi to take Baozhou (Baoding), Guan Sheng to take the area around Tianjin (later known as Tianjin), and the other generals to work together to encircle and conquer the various prefectures.

By November of that year, Zhao Zicheng had successfully crossed the Yi River and was at the gates of Yanjing.

The Jin dynasty had already moved its capital to Yanjing, so there was nowhere left to retreat to.

Emperor Wanyan Zonggan of the Jin Dynasty refused to go anywhere and insisted on staying in Yanjing.

In fact, the Jurchens still controlled a considerable area of ​​sparsely populated land in Hebei. Hebei West Road, which is the fertile plain area of ​​Hebei far from the Yellow River channel, is still in the hands of the Jurchens.

But Zhao Zicheng didn't care. He had no intention of getting entangled with the Jin people on the plains. He would just fight his own battles and head north along the Yellow River and the coast to seek a decisive battle with the Jin people.

Let's have a direct, large-scale battle.

Wanyan Zonggan, of course, could not back down.

He disregarded the fact that Wanyan Zonghan had annihilated tens of thousands of men in Henan by Zhao Zicheng a few years earlier, and that Wanyan Zongbi had also lost 10,000 to 20,000 men in the Huai-Si and Xu-Zhou areas before that, plus the nearly 10,000 casualties from the power struggle within the Jin state three years ago. At its peak, the Jin state only had 150,000 of its own troops, and now that number had actually fallen below 100,000.

Wanyan Zonggan risked his life to gather 90,000 Jurchen soldiers, which was already exhausting the resources of the army, and he had almost dragged all the able-bodied men onto the battlefield.

To ensure victory, he also recruited 50,000 Khitan servants and 50,000 Xi and Bohai servants, bringing the total to 200,000 troops, intending to overwhelm Zhao Zicheng with their numerical superiority.

But Zhao Zicheng was not in a hurry at all. After seeing that Yan Zonggan insisted on bringing 200,000 troops to fight his 150,000, he decided to build a strong camp under the city of Yanjing and fight a protracted war, advancing steadily and surely.

From the Bohai Sea near Tianjin, along the Haihe River all the way to Yanjing, the Song army set up camps every twenty li, maintaining a continuous line of camps until they reached the vicinity of Yanjing. They did not besiege the city, but simply maintained a military presence on the southeast sides of the city, allowing the Jin people to freely enter and exit from the northwest.

Wanyan Zonggan was still wondering what Zhao Zicheng was up to when he received a series of urgent reports a few days later.

From Tangshan to Linyu (Shanhaiguan), Han Shizhong led 40,000 elite troops to harass various places, and many poorly defended Jin cities were breached by Han Shizhong. Afterwards, they either slaughtered and plundered the Khitan, Jurchen and Xi people, rescued the local Han people, or robbed and rescued some.

A few days later, an urgent report came that Liaodong had been captured by Yue Fei. Yue Fei's advance was rapid, and he had actually broken through Pingzhou and Baozhou on the Liaodong Peninsula. He then marched straight towards the Liaoze area and was about to besiege Shenzhou.

In short, Wanyan Zonggan also stationed troops in those places. But the problem was that those non-Jurchen troops were no match for Yue Fei and Han Shizhong.

Zhao Zicheng originally planned to have Yue Fei and Han Shizhong harass the Jin people, so that they would be unable to attend to both ends. Who knew that Wanyan Zonggan would be so tough, fighting to the death for Yanjing and bringing his main force, which allowed Zhao Zicheng's flanking force to advance rapidly.

At this point, Zhao Zicheng suddenly realized that he had overestimated the foundation of the Jurchens.

At this critical juncture, the biggest disadvantage of the Jurchens is that their state has been established for too short a time!
The Jurchen regime did not last long enough for a full generation of adults to establish itself.

In other words, today's adults in Northeast China, especially those in their prime and middle age, were not born as "citizens of the Great Jin Dynasty" when they were children; they have historical memories of being people of another country.

For regimes with short histories, if they are always militarily strong, that's fine; they can be subdued by force. But if they suppress for sixty years, a generation will live to old age and die, and national identity and historical memory will be established. People will get used to their rule and feel that they were born into this country.

However, the Jin dynasty had only risen to power a few years prior, and its military strength had already been surpassed. Under such circumstances, without sufficient Jurchen troops to maintain order in the rear, it was very easy for trouble to break out.

Zhao Zicheng suddenly realized that he could switch between reality and illusion and take the Jurchens' "land of origin outside the pass"!

"Since the enemy insists on fighting to the death, it would be a disservice to them not to take this opportunity to eradicate them completely. I suddenly feel that the Jin people's unyielding spirit is a double-edged sword, just like their harsh military law of 'the Meng'an army is to be executed along with a thousand men, and the Mouke army is to be executed along with a hundred men.' When their military strength was overwhelming, that kind of military law ensured strict discipline and unity. But after their military strength was surpassed, continuing to enforce such strict military law was tantamount to suicide. It would leave the Jin state with no buffer when it was defeated and destroyed. One moment they were fighting to the death, and the next they were all wiped out."

To be honest, although Song's model is cowardly, it is quite resilient when half of its territory is bitten off. Only Song's model can survive for 160 years with only half left.

Even the Ming Dynasty was too fierce, so after losing Beijing, the Southern Ming Dynasty was gone in just a few years.

The early Jurchens were actually more resilient and less flexible than the Ming dynasty, making them more like glass and diamond—unyielding and prone to shattering when they could no longer withstand the pressure. (The late Qing dynasty is an exception; by then, they had long lost their resilience and backbone, becoming utterly cowardly.)
Since that's the case, Zhao Zicheng decided to respect his opponents and give them a quick death.

Just like Han Xin's raids on Zhao, Wei, and Qi, and Peng Yue's raids on Chu, Yue Fei and Han Shizhong completely wreaked havoc on the rear of the Jin state.

The only hope the Jurchens could have was that the Song people were afraid of the cold and their fighting strength would decrease in the dead of winter. At that time, the Jurchens could rely on their advantage of being resistant to the cold to turn the tide.

Unfortunately, Zhao Zi said that the entire army had large cotton-padded coats, and the quality and availability were even better than a few years ago.

Finally, in the first month of the fourth year of the Jianyan era, Wanyan Zonggan and Wanyan Zongbi had no choice but to launch a preemptive strike in desperation. Because if they didn't defeat Zhao Zicheng's 150,000-strong main force, the Jin army's main force would never be able to leave, and they would be completely stabbed in the back by the Song army in the rear.

Shenzhou (Shenyang) has already been captured by Yue Fei. Why not fight a decisive battle now, or wait until next spring for Yue Fei to march north and strike at the capital again?
Thus, the final decisive battle took the form of a full-scale attack by the Jin army, while the Song army could set up camp along the Haihe River and fight a defensive battle.

Zhao Zicheng had been building camps on both sides of the Haihe River for several months. The fortifications were very strong, and the camps had plenty of food.

The only drawback is that the Haihe River and the Bohai Sea are frozen over this season, so Zhao Zicheng's fleet will be unable to sail for several months.

However, Zhao Zicheng didn't care. He even left some of the boats on the river near the camp area, waiting for it to freeze over so that the frozen boats could be used as cover, which would also strengthen the defenses.

The reason Wanyan Zonggan chose to launch the attack in the first month of the lunar calendar was because he saw that Zhao Zicheng's reinforcements were gone in the dead of winter and his ships could not move. He wanted to take a big gamble. If he could kill the Song emperor here while the Song ships could not move, everything could be turned around!
This was a battle between emperors, enough to decide everything, and therefore worth the Jurchens gambling their entire national destiny on.

Two hundred thousand Jin soldiers, one hundred thousand Jurchens, fifty thousand Khitans, fifty thousand Xi tribesmen, and Bohais launched a general offensive against the fortified camp of 150,000 Song troops on the Haihe River southeast of Yanjing (Beijing).

The heavily armored Jin infantry surged forward like a tidal wave, crashing into the Song camp.

Wanyan Zonggan and Wanyan Zongbi personally supervised the battle, and all the elite generals of the Jin state were dispatched. Anyone who was afraid to fight was killed.

The Jin army's iron cavalry and cavalry also stood frozen in the heavy snow, ready for battle, hoping that once the infantry broke through the camp's defenses and tore open a gap, the cavalry would charge in through the breach and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

"Fire!" With the cover of the camp walls, the Song army was finally able to use a tactic that Zhao Zicheng had always wanted to use but had never had the opportunity to use before.

That is to repeatedly load and bombard the attacking enemy with shotgun shells.

The Song army had had shotguns for four years, but the problem was that in previous battles, the Jin people rarely launched a strong attack on the Song army when they knew that the Song army had cannons, while the Song people defended the city and the fortifications.

Therefore, the Song army had never been able to repeatedly bombard and reload their shotguns on the battlefield. In open field battles, they could only fire one volley before the enemy cavalry charged at them.

The last time the Jurchens failed in their attack was when Wanyan Zongbi attacked Xuzhou, which Yue Fei had defended to the death. At that time, Yue Fei had enough thunderbolts to make the city impregnable, preventing the Jurchens from crossing the line.

However, the Jurchens believed that this was only an attack on the camp, not a siege of the city. The thunderclap bombs required a significant height difference to be used, and if the explosive power was too great, misuse during the defense of the camp could easily injure their own men.

It was this confidence that emboldened the Jurchens to launch such a fierce attack.

However, they were met with continuous bombardment from shotguns.

With the protection of the camp walls, trenches, and barricades, the artillerymen didn't have to worry about being approached by enemy cavalry quickly after firing. They could reload slowly, even if it took several minutes to fire a single shot. As long as they continued, little by little, the Jin people would eventually be unable to hold out.

Furthermore, the Song army's thunderbolts could be used while defending the camp, but the ones with the large explosive charge used for defending the city couldn't be used. Zhao Zicheng had already prepared a large number of small thunderbolts to ensure that they wouldn't accidentally injure his own men after being thrown.

With the roar of grenades and the repeated bombardment of cannon shells, the Jurchen heavy infantry fell in large numbers, like wheat being harvested.

The corpses of the Jurchen soldiers quickly piled up outside the Song camp, forming a mountain that gradually became as high and thick as the camp walls and antlers.

After all, the Jin army numbered 200,000, so they could easily level several sections of the camp wall; the highest point of the camp wall was only a little over 10 feet high.

Wanyan Zonggan and Wanyan Zongbi had no way out; retreating would mean certain death and the fall of their country. They had no choice but to fight a spectacular battle.

So they gritted their teeth and held on until the camp walls were leveled by corpses. Wanyan Zongbi personally led all the Iron Pagoda soldiers in a desperate charge against the already ravaged Song camp, in a gesture of proving his honor.

Unfortunately, the Jin Dynasty had less than 20,000 Ironclad Cavalry left in the entire country, and the previous battles had caused heavy losses. Wanyan Zongbi could only muster a mere 10,000 Ironclad Cavalry.

More than 10,000 cavalrymen charged forward in a desperate attempt to stop the attack. Zhao Zicheng showed them the utmost respect by mobilizing several times their number of troops and having Liu Guangshi, Guan Sheng, Yang Zhi, and Lin Chong surround them.

Wanyan Zongbi saw Zhao Zicheng's canopy from afar, and with all his might, he had no other target in his eyes but to tear open an opening and rush straight at Zhao Zicheng.

The four Song generals cut in and separated Wanyan Zongbi's Iron Pagoda Army formation, then surrounded and annihilated it.

Once the Ironclad Cavalry loses its offensive power and is forced to stop and fight positional battles, then even if its armor is as solid as a rock, it will ultimately be nothing more than a can of iron waiting to be slaughtered.

It can be said that Wanyan Zongbi only had Zhao Zicheng in his eyes, and charged forward without regard for formation, which had a serious negative impact on the combat effectiveness of the Jin army's iron cavalry.

The cavalry were stretched into a long, single-line formation instead of a thick wedge formation, so how could they possibly break through?

"Zhao Zicheng, prepare to die! Soldiers, follow me and kill Zhao Zicheng with all your might!"

"The one wearing the dragon robe is Zhao Zicheng! The one in the blood-red armor is Zhao Zicheng!"

Wanyan Zongbi paid an unknown price, yet he was still able to push Zhao Zicheng to within a few dozen steps.

Zhao Zicheng did have some ignorant generals around him. They actually imitated Tian Feng's words when he saw Gongsun Zan's White Horse Cavalry and advised Yuan Shao to hide behind the earthen wall. They also wanted to advise Zhao Zicheng to avoid Wanyan Zongbi's sharp edge.

"Your Majesty! A son of noble birth would not sit under a dangerous roof, and a wise man would not stand under a crumbling wall..."

"Insolence! If the banner were to move even slightly, wouldn't that undermine morale? Our army has already won! Get out of my way and don't obstruct me!"

Zhao Zicheng had no interest in throwing his helmet to the ground like Yuan Shao did. He simply picked up his double-hooked iron spear with one hand and pulled out his personal revolver, already loaded with six rounds, from his boot with the other.

He has now been on the throne for three years, and has even commissioned the craftsmen of the Royal Arsenal to create two revolvers with gold dragon patterns on the surface, two of which are unique in the world.

Although it doesn't have much of an enchantment effect, it's still enough to kill Jin Wuzhu.

With a series of "bangs," just as Wanyan Zongbi rushed to Zhao Zicheng's side, two streams of blood burst from his chest. Even the double-layered cold-forged green Tang wart armor could not completely block the slugs from the high-powered pistol.

Wanyan Zongbi's chest was punched open, leaving a bloody hole and a large dent, as if a heavy hammer had broken his ribs.

"You lowly—" Wanyan Zongbi no longer had enough lung capacity to utter the word "despicable," and Zhao Zicheng's double-hooked iron spear quickly slit his throat.

"Soldiers, follow me and slaughter all the Jin dogs!"

The Song army's central force was greatly encouraged, and they charged and fought fiercely alongside the emperor, their blood boiling with excitement.

"His Majesty has personally killed Wanyan Zongbi! Long live the Emperor!"

"Long live! Long live! Victory!"

The Song army advanced like a dragon, launching a fierce and relentless attack. They counterattacked from within the camp, and the Jin army that had just stormed into the camp was almost as if it had been submerged in a vast ocean.

Seeing his third brother killed in battle and the Iron Pagoda army almost completely wiped out, Wanyan Zonggan realized it was too late to escape.

The last main force of the Jin people was swept away by the Song Dynasty. The emperor personally led the charge to boost morale, the army was composed of respectable men from good families, even the Jinshi (successful candidates in the highest imperial examinations) had to learn archery, and those who mastered archery were qualified to teach the students of the Imperial Academy... With these factors combined, the Han people had regained the bravery of the Han and Tang dynasties!
The main infantry force of the Jurchens was almost completely annihilated in this battle, with tens of thousands of corpses lying on the ground. The Khitan, Xi, and Bohai soldiers were also wiped out in an instant, like coals being poured into the sea.

The Song army launched a counterattack and swiftly captured Yanjing. Upon entering the city, the army did not commit atrocities, but instead called upon all ethnic groups other than the Han Chinese to voluntarily assimilate into Han culture, promising to forgive any past transgressions. Even Jurchen commoners, women, and children, as long as they did not resist and were willing to assimilate, could be spared and exiled to perform corvée labor in rural settlements.

Wanyan Zonggan eventually fled with his cavalry, using their mobility to abandon Yanjing and fight his way out, which made Zhao Zicheng spend several more months chasing him, but it did nothing to change the outcome.

It wasn't until the summer of the fourth year of the Jianyan era that the Jin emperor was finally pursued and killed by the Song army in Shangjing Road, north of Liaoze, roughly in the area of ​​Chifeng and Tongliao in later generations.

Prior to this, the Jin dynasty had already captured Nanjing, Tokyo, and Shangjing from the Song dynasty.

Zhao Zicheng originally planned to first take over the interior of the pass, rest for a few years, and then take over the exterior in one fell swoop. However, he did not expect that the Jurchens would be destroyed in one fell swoop because their history was too short and their foundation was insufficient.

By the end of the fifth year of the Jianyan era, the last emperor of the Jin dynasty was killed by the Song dynasty, and no member of the Jin royal family could claim the title of emperor again, marking the formal end of the Jin dynasty.

Of course, the so-called annihilation was more about the direct submission of local tribes than the complete subjugation and direct rule.

After the Jin royal family was completely wiped out, various tribes in different regions submitted to the Song Dynasty.

For the Song Dynasty to directly rule the entire Northeast, it would be quite difficult. For the time being, it could only gradually establish prefectures and counties in areas such as Liao and Jilin. As for the Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia regions further north, it could only be governed by indirect rule.

In the future, we might be able to introduce cold-resistant rice from Hokkaido in Japan, and then expand the agricultural area in Northeast China to gradually and completely assimilate the region. However, that would take at least one or even two generations.

Zhao Zicheng didn't have much time to focus on this matter personally. After destroying the Jin dynasty, he would take a short break to recuperate before considering the conflicts in the south.

As mentioned earlier, within the entire former territory of the Song Dynasty, only the conflict between people and land in Sichuan in the south remains unresolved. Therefore, compared to dealing with the Western Xia and Western Liao in the northwest, resolving the issues in Dali and Jiaozhi in the south is more important.

Moreover, the main purpose was to conscript Sichuan soldiers to expand territory, and to reward the newly occupied farmland in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Jiaozhi with the Sichuan soldiers who went south. This ensured that as long as they were willing to go, they could become large landowners in Yunnan, Guizhou, or Jiaozhi.

To achieve all this, a great deal of preparation is needed, such as drugs for the prevention and treatment of tropical diseases, related medical research, and training of medical personnel. All of these must be planned in advance.

Otherwise, rashly sending Sichuan soldiers to Yunnan, Guizhou, and Jiaozhi would be irresponsible and disregard human life.

(End of this chapter)