The Bloody Lonely City: A Record of the Battle of Huaian, Jiangsu Province in the Southern Song Dynasty

1. Dark clouds were threatening to destroy the city

In October of the third year of Jianyan (1129 AD), Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, the Jurchen rulers of the Jin Kingdom launched a large-scale attack to eliminate the Southern Song Dynasty in one fell swoop. Unprecedented winter offensive. In this attack, almost all the Jin army was dispatched, and the Japanese troops were divided into three groups. In the east, Talan (Wanyanchang) and Wushu (Wanyanzongdai) went straight to Huainan; in the west, Loushi and Yinliduo (Wanyanzongfu) attacked Shaanxi, and in the middle, Nianhan's army invaded the two lakes. The three-pronged army is approaching fiercely, and it is likely that the Song Dynasty will not return until it is destroyed.

Jin general Wushu was in charge of the Jiangnan battlefield, and Talan was in charge of the Huainan battlefield. The Jin Dynasty's evaluation of them was: Wushu was "lack of strategy but crude and brave", and Talan was "strategic but timid".

Wushu was the fourth son of Jin Taizu Wanyan Aguda, and the Jurchens were often called the "Fourth Prince". In the battle of Yuanyangli to destroy the Liao Dynasty, he ran out of arrows and actually seized the spears of the Liao soldiers with his bare hands. He killed eight people with his hands and captured five alive. The first battle of Wu Shu in the Song Dynasty was to capture Tangyin County, Yue Fei's hometown. Whenever the battle was inextricable, Wu Shu would like to take off his armor, brave a shower of arrows and stones, take the lead and charge into the battle, which is indeed extraordinary bravery.

The Jurchen cavalry commanded by Wu Shu were all elites of the Jin army. The main force of the Jin Army is cavalry, and the infantry only performs auxiliary tasks such as transportation and trench digging, and is used to make a splash during combat. The Jurchen cavalry are accustomed to fighting in heavy armor weighing dozens of kilograms. Their hoods are strong and their eyes are not exposed. They are good at continuous combat. If a charge or a round of confrontation fails, the defeat will not lead to chaos; they can temporarily withdraw from the battle, reorganize the formation, and charge again, which is called "advance and retreat." The cavalry has a heavy load, but it can fight continuously for dozens to hundreds of rounds, which shows its stoic combat effectiveness. The main weapon of the Jurchen cavalry is bows and arrows. They are good at long-range shooting with bows and arrows, but short at hand-to-hand melee combat.

Although the Jurchen cavalry are elite, after all, they are a backward ethnic group with a small population. After conquering the Liao Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty began to bring a large number of Khitans, Xi people, ***, Bohai people, and Uighurs People, people from Shiwei, people from Dangxiang, etc. were all conscripted into the army. The complex ethnic composition not only increased the number of soldiers, but also made up for certain tactical shortcomings, such as large-scale siege warfare, first attack tactics and the production of complex siege equipment, which were clearly not the Jurchens' specialties. This time when they went south, the Jin army dispatched a large number of "southern people" from Heshuo to serve as "signing troops."

The Jin army on the Jiangnan battlefield was divided into two groups. The west route was commanded by Ba Lisu, Yuying and Yelv Mawu. In October of the third year of Jianyan, they crossed the river from Huangzhou (now Huanggang County, Hubei Province) and ravaged Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei routes, and then withdrew northward. Liu Guangshi's army stationed in Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province) fled in the face of the wind, allowing this partial division to travel thousands of miles. It was only because the villagers rose up to resist that the Jin soldiers were afraid.

The east road is the main force led by Wu Shu. In November, the Jin army defeated Song's Jianghuai Xuanfu envoy who attacked the rebel general Li Cheng's army and captured a large number of Song's ships. The Jin army first attacked Caishidu and Cihu in Taiping Prefecture (today's Dangtu, Anhui) but failed, and then turned to attack Majiadu in the southwest of Jiankang. Bohai Ten Thousand Households Da Ta Buye was the first to land and defeated the second army commanded by Song general Chen Cui. Ten thousand troops, Chen Que was killed in battle. Du Chong, the general guarding the Yangtze River, fled first when he heard the news. Later, Wu Shu sent someone to persuade him to surrender. He immediately rebelled and surrendered to the Jin Dynasty.

2. Although there are thousands of people, I will go

Facing the Jin army's southern invasion, the small court of the Southern Song Dynasty was helpless and had no choice but to beg for mercy. After Emperor Gaozong fled to Hangzhou, he sent back Du Shiliang, the judge of the Jingdong transfer, and Song Ruwei, the Xiuwu Lang, to go to Jindu together to apply for a deferment of troops, and wrote a rare letter. Everything in the book was nothing but a plea, which was almost shocking. Can't bear to watch. Shu Yun:

In ancient times, those who had a country and were forced to perish could only defend and run. Now if I keep my guard, there will be no one, and if I run, I will have no place. So I am stunned, I just hope that you will feel sorry for me. Therefore, the former even submitted a letter, wishing to cut off the old title. Between heaven and earth, there is a country of great gold, and there is no one above it. Why bother to travel far away and then be happy! (Hearing this book made me sick for three days.)

The Southern Song Dynasty army had completely lost command at this time. Zhao Li, the governor of the Lianshui Army, found out that the Jin soldiers were marching south in large numbers, and was leading 30,000 troops to prepare for the attack. On the way to King Qin of Jiankang, he received an order from Du Chong before his escape, asking him to guard Chuzhou (now Huai'an, Jiangsu). Zhao Li led his army through Huaiyin, and when he encountered Talan's army heading south, they swarmed towards him. The reconnaissance cavalry flew to report to Zhao Li, and his subordinates advised him to flee back to Xuzhou. Zhao Li said angrily: "Anyone who looks back will be killed!" He accurately concluded that if he continued forward, he would encounter the Jin soldiers. According to the practice of the Song Dynasty's military recruitment system, when the army moved to a camp, its family members often accompanied it; there were more than 30,000 soldiers, but less than 5,000 capable soldiers. Zhao Li then divided his troops to cover his family's retreat to Xuzhou, and led more than 3,000 men to fight to the death with the Jin people. They fought for forty miles and reached the gate of Chuzhou City. Zhao Li was hit in the cheek by a stray arrow and was unable to speak. He still directed the entire army with his hands, like a sharp blade, straight into Chuzhou City. And enter the city to rest, and then pull out the arrowhead. Ta Laan was also afraid of his loyalty and bravery, so he did not dare to advance, so he divided his troops to surround him. However, he changed his route to plunder Zhenzhou, broke through Lishui County, and reached the north of the Yangtze River, echoing Wushu from afar. After pacifying the Northern Song Dynasty army, the main force returned to besiege Chuzhou. Zhao Li led his troops and civilians to defend the enemy in every possible way, but the Jin soldiers were unable to attack repeatedly.

In March of the fourth year of Jianyan, after Wushu plundered the south of the Yangtze River, he came to Zhenjiang Prefecture with a full load of harvest. On April 25th, Wu Shu took advantage of the calm weather and defeated Han Shizhong's eight thousand naval army with rockets. He crossed the Yangtze River north and marched along the canal by land and water in order to transport the plundered property and treasures back to the north. On the way, he received a document from Talan asking for help. He said that he would not attack Chuzhou, so he asked Wu Shu to take advantage of it and attack from a flank.

Wu Shu asked the envoy: "Is the city of Chuzhou easy to attack?" The visitor said: "The city of Chuzhou is not very strong, but the defender Zhao Li is very capable, so he cannot be attacked repeatedly." Wu X said arrogantly: "Now I am eager to return to the north and return my luggage. Zhao Li wants to allow me to leave, but I don't have time to attack him. Otherwise, I will attack him from a flank." Along with a letter, he sent an envoy to Chuzhou. Three days later, Talan Fei reported to Wu Shu that the envoy had been beheaded by Zhao Li and hung on top of the city.

Wushu was so angry that he flew into a rage and said angrily: "What Zhao Li? Dare you kill my envoy? This revenge must be avenged!" Then he sent back the envoy Ta Lalai and said: "You want to To defeat Chuzhou, we must first intercept his food route. I am willing to take on this task. There is no food in the city and it will collapse without a fight. Please tell your commander to go away. Wu X then set up two camps in the north and south to cut off the Chuzhou rate road. Chuzhou was besieged by Talan and had its wages cut off by Wu X. Of course, it was extremely critical. Although Zhao Li was stoic, he was somewhat unable to hold on and could not express his urgency. At this time, Zhang Jun, the Privy Councilor of the Southern Song Dynasty, was gathering troops on a large scale in Shaanxi. Wu X's First Army was ordered to transfer westward, leaving only Longhu King Tuhesu's First Army and Ta Lanjun to take charge of the Huainan battlefield.

3. The siege was not relieved despite the exhaustion of Guanshan

At this time, the Song Dynasty troops had gathered, but Emperor Gaozong was afraid that the generals would support their own troops and did not dare to set up a dedicated person to unified command Han Shizhong, Wang Jun, and Liu Guangshi The troops of the three generals fought a decisive battle with the Jin soldiers in Huaidong. Zhao Ding, a minister of the Privy Council who signed the letter, first sent Zhang Jun to rescue Chuzhou, but Zhang Jun claimed that the lazy soldiers could not stand up to the enemy, and that saving Chuzhou was just "fighting the tiger with bare hands, and there is no use in dying". The two argued repeatedly, and Zhao Ding reported: "If Jun is afraid to go, I am willing to accompany him." Zhang Jun still refused to obey, so the Song court had to reassign Liu Guangshi to send Yue Fei, Guo Zhongwei and Haizhou and Huaiyang military towns. The envoy Li Yanxian and other ministries were also placed under Liu Guangshi's control.

Liu Guangshi received five hand-written edicts from Emperor Gaozong and nineteen letters from the Privy Council handed over with gold-lettered plaques. According to Gaozong's order: "It is advisable to cross the river quickly and supervise the battle personally, so that the towns can serve their lives and urgently relieve the siege of Chuzhou." However, Liu Guangshi's practice of using troops is to stay away from the battlefield and only send his side troops to fight, which is considered " discreet". Liu Guangshi himself was stationed in Zhenjiang Prefecture. On August 24, his generals Wang De and Li Qiong led a light force across the river and arrived at Shaobo, not far from Chengzhou. However, they did not dare to go north, but went northwest to Tianchangjun is separated from Chengzhou by Chonghu Lake. Just from the march route, it can be seen that these two people have no sincerity in helping Chu. After Wang De lied about some of his military exploits, he killed Liu Zhen, the commander of the left army, and Wang Axi, the general of the left army, and withdrew his troops in September on the pretext that his subordinates were not killed.

The only one who sincerely came to aid Chuzhou was Yue Fei's army. On August 15, Yue Fei returned to Yixing. He led his troops and horses to set off on the 18th and arrived at Jiangyin Army on the 22nd. As a detective report came that Chuzhou was besieged by Talan's army, he hurriedly led his Qingqi across the river and went straight to Taizhou, arriving on the 26th. However, the entire army moved extremely slowly. This was still a consequence of the Song Dynasty's recruitment system. There were more than 10,000 soldiers, and together with their family members, there were 70,000. Coupled with the scarcity of military ferries in Jiangyin, it was not until September 9 that the entire army entered Taizhou, which lasted more than half a month.