Hebei. Hebei
Fang Xuanling's explanation fully unpacked Du Mu's words, breaking them down piece by piece, until the officials of the Zhenguan era all fell silent in thought.
Li Shimin slowly turned his head and carefully examined the map of China that he had already studied countless times.
Mountains curved like hooked blades. Rivers spread like folded fans. The plains were flat as mirrors. The seas wide as platters.
This was a vast land that had been neglected time and time again throughout history.
On this detailed map, Guanzhong, praised as "land cradled by mountains and rivers, fertile for a thousand miles, the most advantageous terrain under heaven," was not even one tenth the size of Hebei.
Li Shimin still remembered the words he had spoken to his father after the uprising at Jinyang.
"Heroes rise everywhere in Guanzhong, and their loyalties are uncertain. If we march west boldly and pacify the land, it will be like taking something from a pouch."
That judgment was not wrong. But after a century of peace, circumstances had changed.
The An Lushan Rebellion struck the Tang dynasty with a devastating blow. In Li Shimin's mind, he could almost see a thin, scholarly figure standing before his descendants, arms raised as he cried out:
"If Hebei is lost but Tang remains, it is like a man losing his jewels yet still living. If Tang loses Hebei, it is like a man losing both legs and still trying to call himself a state."
Two hundred years later, a young man born to a poor farming family stood before an emperor fleeing south and shouted once more, pleading for a northern expedition.
That young man resolved to reattach Hebei, the missing leg, to the Song dynasty.
Cross the river. March north.
At last, Li Shimin let out a heavy sigh.
"A hero ruined by a mediocre ruler. What a tragedy."
[Lightscreen]
[Yue Fei had long harbored great ambitions. Upon reaching adulthood, he happened to live through the period when Song and Jin formed the Maritime Alliance. Campaigning against Liao and reclaiming Yan was the dominant theme of the era.
Joining the army thus became the natural choice.
It must be said that Yue Fei's first experience in military service was strikingly impressive.
Thanks to the relatively sound recruitment system of the Northern Song, Yue Fei stood out through his exceptional physical strength and the spear techniques and archery he had learned under a local master. He smoothly became the leader of a thirty man squad, a junior officer.
After reporting to his superiors and leading two hundred men to suppress banditry in his home region, he tasted his first success and grew eager to achieve unparalleled merit.
Unfortunately, reality struck quickly and hard.
As Yue Fei marched toward the battlefield with his unit, veteran Northern Song general Yang Kecheng, together with the former Liao defector Guo Yaoshi, led three thousand men in a night raid on Yanjing. Taking advantage of the city's weak defenses, they easily broke in.
At that moment, the Northern Song's second campaign to seize Yan appeared to be proceeding more smoothly than anyone had expected.
Then everything went downhill.
The first thing the Song troops did after entering Yanjing was massacre the Khitan and Xi residents inside the city.
"Han people all climbed the battlements, pointing out Khitan and Xi households. Tens of thousands were slaughtered. Blood flowed through the main streets."
Before even capturing the Liao imperial palace, the Song army had already revealed its ugliest side.
"They drank, looted wealth, and indulged themselves without restraint."
The collapse of discipline bogged down fighting within the city. The Khitan defenders resisted desperately, buying enough time for Liao reinforcements to return. With coordinated attacks from inside and outside, the Song army was annihilated. Only the commanders Guo Yaoshi and Yang Kecheng escaped with their lives.
The destruction of the Yanjing raiding force was only the beginning.
Liu Guangshi, stationed in Zhuozhou and commanding the vanguard, saw Guo Yaoshi's battered forces flee back and mistakenly believed the main Liao army was advancing. Acting on his own authority, he burned supplies and camps and ordered a retreat.
This retreat sent a false signal to the rear. Tens of thousands of soldiers saw flames rising ahead but received no orders. Some withdrew on their own, others hesitated. Chaos erupted, formations collapsed, and countless soldiers died in stampedes as they trampled one another.
The Liao army seized the opportunity, pursued closely, and crushed the Song forces along the Baihe River. Casualties were recorded as "beyond counting."
The only bright spot of the battle was the thirty two year old Western Army general Han Shizhong. At the Hutuo River, he led just over fifty cavalry straight through enemy lines, killed commanders, seized banners, shattered the morale of more than two thousand Liao riders, and fought his way out, preserving the last shred of dignity for the Song army.
Considering that Han Shizhong had once charged alone into enemy ranks against Western Xia and killed their supervising imperial son in law, breaking their formation, leading fifty riders in such a breakout was not entirely unbelievable.
Still, all of this was far too much for Yue Fei, who was stepping onto the battlefield for the first time.
The great saber he had prepared went unused. The finely maintained bow was never drawn. The young warrior retreated in confusion with the main force, and before he could even process what had happened, the Northern Song's campaign to seize Yan ended like a farce.
Soon after the retreat, news arrived that his father had died of illness. Yue Fei chose to return home to observe mourning rites.
For the Northern Song, both attempts to seize Yan ended in failure. In the end, Emperor Huizong and his ministers had no choice but to buy Yanjing from the Jin, who had already destroyed Liao, using money and goods to save face.
The Jin were not fools. What they sold to the Song was the already plundered Six Prefectures of Yan and Yun and an almost empty Yanjing. They simply sat back and watched Huizong perform.
Huizong did not disappoint them.
He began by grandly declaring several years of tax exemptions for Yanjing. Soon, however, the city's finances collapsed, forcing him to improvise.
He returned to his old habits.
First, he seized land from the people of Youzhou, ran it through imperial hands, then distributed what remained to former Liao defectors like Guo Yaoshi.
Next, the Song salt monopoly system was imposed in Youzhou, instantly doubling salt prices. Later, after further manipulation by officials sent from the south, prices surged nearly tenfold.
With just these two moves, life in Youzhou became unbearable.
As a result, when Jin forces advanced again, all they had to do was order Guo Yaoshi and other defectors to return land and houses to their original owners and stabilize salt prices. Just like that, "the people of Yan returned their hearts."
Meanwhile, under Huizong's administration, a new miscellaneous tax was added across Hebei, called the "Yan Transport Levy," supposedly to subsidize Youzhou.
The outcome was entirely predictable.
Youzhou never received the subsidies. Hebei's finances deteriorated further. Yue Fei, already reduced to a tenant farmer, could no longer make ends meet. That year, records show he had to borrow grain from landlords.
In the same year, banditry in Hebei exploded. Some gangs even dared harass Yue Fei's household directly.
After wiping out one such group, Yue Fei made a bitter decision.
Perhaps joining the regular army was the only way left to keep the realm at peace.]
[Chat Server Log]
Zhang Fei: Are these Song generals idiots? I, Old Zhang, can't stand it!"
SkyLantern: Third Master Zhang, if the Northern Song could have stood up even a little bit, they wouldn't be in this mess. In the beginning, the people of Hebei had hope for the Song, but after these taxes? They didn't care if the Emperor was named Yelu, Zhao, or Wanyan Gou, and whoever taxed less was the Sage King!"
VoidBreaker: Hebei has been alienated from the Central Plains for centuries. From Li Yuan killing Dou Jiande to the An-Shi Rebellion, the Guanzhong elite have oppressed Hebei for a long time. It's no wonder the people there didn't feel like 'Song' citizens."
Zhao Kuangyin: I must ensure restore the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun to Song, so the state will be whole.
NerdTree: Brother, don't just stop at Yan-Yun. What about Jiaozhou (Vietnam)? What about Yizhou (Taiwan) and the Ryukyu islands? Reclaiming the Western Regions wouldn't be overdoing it either! But first, Zhao Da, you should focus on how to handle your brother..."