Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Han and Khitan civilians who took advantage of the chaos to rebel formed more than ten groups within the city, one of which had already gathered more than two hundred people.

More than ten people rushed over, and the leader shouted, "I am a spy of the Ming Dynasty, ordered by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty to infiltrate Liaoyang."

"The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty will reward those who capture this city handsomely!"

When the Ming and Jin dynasties negotiated peace, a large number of people from Youyan were relocated.

Taking advantage of the situation, Shi Yuangong deployed hundreds of spies, who disguised themselves as Han Chinese from the north and followed the migration eastward.

At that time, the migration work of the Jin Dynasty was extremely chaotic. There was not even a basic roster, and it could only be carried out by the gentry and local leaders of various ethnic groups.

There were also many scattered civilians who had no idea of ​​their origins, and not a single Ming spy was discovered.

Most of these more than one hundred Ming Dynasty spies were settled in the countryside to farm, and this year some were even conscripted into the militia.

The man before us, however, was a skilled carpenter who had been brought to Liaoyang by the Jin dynasty to serve as a craftsman.

The leader was named Song Yu, and he was carrying an axe.

He had just been forced to help dismantle houses and make simple defensive equipment such as forks from old wood.

Seeing that chaos had broken out in the city, Song Yu immediately led his men to cause trouble.

The dozen or so people behind him were not spies, but carpenters he had tricked into rebelling.

"Are you really sent by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty?"

The leader of the rebels asked.

Song Yu loudly proclaimed to the crowd, "My name is Song Yu, and I am a carpenter. I am originally from Wanping County in the Liao Kingdom, but my whole family was captured by the Jurchens and taken to western Liao.

"Later, when Zhang Jue rebelled, I was separated from my family and fled back to Youzhou with the defeated soldiers, where I became a soldier under Commander Guo (Guo Yaoshi)."

"Later, he joined the Liangshan Emperor of the Ming Dynasty... and became a spy to return to Liaodong, while also searching for his lost family."

"The Emperor of Liangshan is a star descended from heaven. He has never lost a battle. No matter how powerful the Jurchen soldiers are, they cannot defeat the Emperor of Liangshan."

"Tonight, follow me to kill the Jurchens; every one of them will be credited with merit. After we destroy the Jin Dynasty, we'll drink and eat meat every day—wouldn't that be wonderful...?"

Just then, more than a hundred Xi soldiers attacked.

Song Yu, axe in hand, roared, "Which tribe of soldiers are ahead?"

"I have been sent by the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty! Jurchen soldiers, kneel down and accept your death!"

"Bohai soldiers, Khitan soldiers, Xi soldiers, and Han soldiers can all be spared death and follow me to kill the Jurchens. Each of them will be granted a title and a position that benefits their wives and children!"

The Xi general stopped abruptly, asking in surprise, "Are you from the Ming army? Has the Liangshan emperor led his troops to attack?"

Song Yu said, "I was sent by the Emperor of the Great Ming to infiltrate the city. The Great Ming army is already dozens of miles away, with a total of 500,000 troops."

"Among the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, there are many Xi people, and each of them is highly valued by the emperor!"

"Follow me to kill the Jurchens, and I guarantee you wealth and honor."

The Xi general was still hesitating.

Song Yu roared, "What are you waiting for? Are you going to die with the Jurchens?"

The Xi general gritted his teeth and said, "I'll fight you."

"My lads, follow me to kill the Jin invaders!"

"kill!"

With the addition of these hundred-plus Xi soldiers, the morale of the rebellious civilians of various ethnic groups soared even higher.

Song Yu commanded, "Attack the city gate and welcome our friendly forces in!"

The first two hundred or so Huangtou Shiwei rebels were at the city gate, being attacked from both sides by Jurchen soldiers.

These guys fight without regard for their lives; they are even more savage and ferocious than the Jurchen soldiers.

Historically, during the period of rapid expansion of the Jin Dynasty, they frequently conscripted the Yellow-headed Shiwei people into their army and assigned them to the front lines for charging into battle.

Chapter 3426 Killing the Jurchens

Even Lu You, when writing patriotic poems, envisioned capturing the Huangtou Shiwei: "The Huangtou Jurchens, stripped of their souls, bound at the gates of the army, begged for death."

The yellow-headed Shiwei appears many times in Lu You's poems, and is considered an object of scorn and curse.

The more than two hundred Huangtou Shiwei who attacked the city gate had already suffered nearly half casualties and were still fighting a bloody battle while being attacked from both sides.

They seemed to be single-minded; once they decided to take the city gate, they would fight to the death to achieve their goal.

On the contrary, these Jurchen second-line troops, who had never experienced a real battlefield, were timid and hesitant when it came to fighting.

"Kill the Jurchens!"

Song Yu has already led his troops to attack.

He first observed the situation clearly before running off to incite others to rebel, and now he is heading straight for the city gate to cooperate with the Huangtou Shiwei.

The Jurchen troops, who had initially gained the upper hand, immediately showed signs of collapse when Song Yu led his troops to attack from behind.

"They're going to enter through the barbican!" Wang Zheng exclaimed in alarm.

Gao Jingshan said, "We have no other choice but to charge into the barbican."

"Our lives or our deaths hinge on this!"

Ignoring the light cavalry elsewhere, the elite troops of both tribes gathered in response to the sound of the horns and then charged toward the Jurchen light cavalry fleeing to the barbican.

"Shoot the arrows only when the rebels get close!"

Wanyan Zongxian gave the order.

He deployed his personal guards and hundreds of Jurchens here, determined to prevent the cavalry of both tribes from breaking through the barbican.

Once the reinforcements of light cavalry are brought into the city, the chaos within will be easily resolved.

Half an hour earlier, on the city wall several hundred meters from the barbican, two officers hurried toward their superior.

"But where is there another rebellion?" asked Yu Yaochen, a general of the Han Dynasty.

The two officers simultaneously raised their guns, aiming them at Yu Yaochen's chest.

Yu Yaochen's personal guards were stunned for a moment, then raised their weapons and pointed them at the two men.

“We were sent by the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty,” one of the officers said. “We have dozens of spies in the city. General Yu, do you think the Jurchens can still win?”

That's nonsense, there are only three spies in the city.

It was no coincidence that these two were in Liaoyang at this time, and that they were serving as junior officers.

To prevent the powerful Bohai people from instigating a military rebellion, troops from various ethnic groups were transferred to Liaoyang to defend the city.

Previously, they were either captured slaves or refugees without any roots.

The hundreds of spies sent by Shi Yuangong followed the Jurchens eastward, and they were all refugees without any roots.

Furthermore, they are relatively physically strong and can easily be recruited to supplement the troop numbers, and may even be promoted to officers during expansion.

As for the Han general Yu Yaochen, he was the second son of Yu Zhongwen.

Yu Zhongwen was from Ningyuan, Wuzhou (Shenchi County, Shanxi Province). He passed the imperial examination and served as an official in the Liao Dynasty.

He also became a Hanlin Academician, lecturing to the Liao emperor and helping him draft imperial edicts.

Emperor Tianzuo fled in defeat, and the Jin army captured Yanjing.

Yu Zhongwen surrendered to the Jin dynasty along with Zuo Qigong, and they were later sentenced to be killed by Zhang Jue.

The Zuo family was large and prosperous, and some members of the clan even moved to Liaodong, so they naturally continued to be highly valued by the Jin state.

The Yu family was much more unfortunate; none of their descendants held high-ranking official positions.

It was precisely because the Yu family had no foundation that Yu Yaochen was sent to train a new army and form a Han Chinese force loyal to the Jin state.

Yu Yaochen looked at the two officers in front of him; he even remembered their names.

One was named Fang Yong, and the other was named Wu Bogui. He personally selected them from among the refugees and promoted them to military officers!

Wu Bogui said, "General Yu, why don't you betray the Jin and join the Ming?"

Chapter 3427 Rebel! Rebel!

“The Yu family were only civil officials who surrendered to the Jin dynasty and never went south with the army. You are the first military man in the Yu family.”

“In your situation, once you defect to the Ming Dynasty and perform meritorious service, you will surely be given an important position.”

"Even the powerful Bohai families who married into the Jurchen nobility have rebelled against the Jin. What are you, a Han Chinese from the Liao, waiting for?"

"Your hometown has probably been captured by the Ming Dynasty, and your clansmen in Shanxi may have already surrendered."

Fang Yong then said to the Han soldiers around him, "The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty has led a million soldiers and has already captured Chengzhou. They will be coming over in the next two days."

"Do you intend to be buried with the Jurchens?"

Three years ago, these Han soldiers were still refugees. What loyalty could they possibly have to the Jin state?

Intimidated by Fang Yong's words and looking at the chaotic city, everyone put away their weapons and stopped pointing at the two Ming spies.

Fang Yong continued, "My family was reduced to only four people. We went south to Daming and soon began to live a good life. We were allocated eighty acres of land in Hebei."

"Moreover, there are three years of tax exemption and two years of tax reduction by half, so we can't even finish eating all the food at home."

"Do you want to live this kind of life?"

They were given land, their taxes were reduced, and they had more grain than they could eat.

The Han soldiers listened with shining eyes.

Even Yu Yaochen's personal guards said, "Sir, why don't you surrender to the Ming?"

Looking at his soldiers, Yu Yaochen seemed to have no choice, and the Yu family really didn't need to be loyal to the Jin Kingdom to the death.

The Yu clan lived far away in northern Shanxi. No one from the clan migrated to Liaodong, and no one from the clan held any high-ranking official positions.

Moreover, the Yu clan did not participate in the attack on the Song Dynasty and had no blood feud with the Han people in the south.

"Uncle Wu... Brother Wu, you take your soldiers, raise torches, wave them, and shout, then sound the gongs and beat the drums to attract friendly forces outside the city,"

Yu Yaochen arranged it,

"The rest of you, follow me to capture the city gate!"

Instead of attacking the barbican, the Han army went to capture the ordinary city gate a few hundred meters to the side of the barbican.

"Dong dong dong dong!"

"Dang-dang-dang!"

The strange sounds of drums and gongs attracted the attention of both the Jurchen and Bohai soldiers.

Wang Zheng, who was chasing the Jurchen light cavalry and trying to rush into the barbican, had already almost reached the moat.

He turned his head when he heard the sound and saw more than a dozen torches waving on the city wall. He quickly reined in his horse, slowed down, and personally blew the horn.

The Bohai cavalrymen rushed toward the city gate.

"The Han soldiers have betrayed us!"

The Jurchen soldiers in the direction of the barbican cried out in alarm.

"Quickly, break through from the east gate!" Wanyan Zongxian ordered in a panic.

The Huangtou Shiwei have already rebelled, and now the Han soldiers have also rebelled. The Jurchen soldiers have no chance of winning. If they don't escape, they will all die in Liaoyang.

Wanyan Zongxian's personal guards sounded their bugles and fled in panic toward the east gate.

The Jurchen people had a small population and were naturally not afraid of winning battles.

Soldiers of various ethnicities followed them in plundering, and were very happy to be promoted and made rich.

However, after a series of defeats in the past few years, their elite forces suffered heavy losses, and their population decreased sharply. They also failed to seize any spoils of war. Why would any of the tribes still be of one mind with them?

The wall fell and everyone pushed it!

This has always been true throughout history and across the world, and it is especially true in Liaodong, where only the strong can survive.

The Liao Dynasty had ruled for over a hundred years and was already considered the legitimate dynasty in the north.

However, with the rise of the Jurchens and their several great victories, the powerful clans of Liaodong flocked to them, completely disregarding the kindness shown to them by the Liao emperor.