The atmosphere inside the Bianliang palace hall finally became much livelier.
Although later generations would still mock the Zhao Song in their writings, at least this time, there was no more talk of avoiding battle.
The eastern and western fronts were locked in stalemate, while the central front had recovered Henan.
Put together, was that not basically a major victory.
As a result, even the eunuchs in the hall could not hide their smiles.
The power struggles of the nobles and the emperor's moments of cowardice felt distant to them. For these men who had already been castrated, they could never truly escape the identities of being Song people and people of Bianliang. Naturally, they could not help but feel encouraged and excited by these developments.
Not to mention Zhao Kuangyin. Watching the changes on the battlefield, he let out a heavy snort, but his tightly furrowed brows finally relaxed a great deal.
Zhao Pu even had the leisure to offer an evaluation.
"This Yue Fei possesses both courage and strategy. He can carry out the clever scheme of Linking the River Northlands, and he can also charge into enemy formations himself. His bearing is outstanding. He truly resembles the famous generals of antiquity."
This assessment made Zhao Kuangyin nod repeatedly, and he even added his own analysis.
"The Jin state first destroyed Liao, then attacked Song. They won battle after battle, so their momentum became unstoppable. Back then, Han and Yue had to exhaust all their strength just to barely drive the enemy back."
"But now, this Yue Fei can defeat the enemy head on and achieve victory. On the one hand, it is the result of ten years of training troops. On the other, it is likely also because the Jin barbarians have grown arrogant."
"Now that south of Yannan their commands no longer function, if the people's hearts have not been lost, it may not be impossible to imitate the Jin's earlier strategy, cross the Yellow River, and strike Youzhou."
"If we can form a situation of linking mountains and sealing passes, then we can close the gates and catch the thieves, eliminate the Jin in Hebei, then look toward Liaodong and wash away this humiliation."
The plan sounded so beautiful that by the end, Zhao Kuangyin let out a self mocking sigh.
"This strategy is likely me thinking too much. That Zhao Gou was able to promote three generals on the eve of battle instead of centralizing power and remote controlling the battlefield is already fortunate enough. How can we ask for more."
At that, the words Zhao Pu had intended to use to persuade him died in his stomach. He changed to a sigh instead.
"What Your Majesty says is entirely reasonable. Still, looking at these three generals promoted on the eve of battle, Han Shizhong guarding and Yue Fei attacking makes sense. But this Zhang Jun, who has already withdrawn, what is the meaning of that."
"The younger generation once said that Zhang Jun lost the Huai West army and thus relinquished military authority. From this view, it seems that the Huai West defeat has not yet happened."
"This means Yue Fei's campaign will likely face many twists and turns."
Zhao Kuangyin nodded. Zhao Pu's words matched his own thoughts almost exactly.
He looked up at the light screen. A single Yellow River split the Song and Jin territories. In the Hebei region, one Song colored point after another burst into view, dyeing large swaths of Jin territory until the color nearly changed completely.
Judging purely from the battle map, Wuzhu of Jin seemed to be surrounded on all sides, as if he were facing enemies in every direction.
The situation looked excellent.
Yet for some reason, thinking of Yue Fei's likely difficult ending, Zhao Kuangyin felt a faint sense of sorrow rise in his heart.
Zhao Pu continued his analysis on the side.
"Although Yue Fei's Linking the River Northlands has created great momentum, the loyalist militias are uneven in quality, and troops must also be split to guard passes and strongpoints."
"The Jin may be surrounded, but this also allows them to concentrate their forces in one place. Yue Fei's overall situation is favorable, but in local engagements, he is at a disadvantage. Completing the campaign will be difficult."
Hearing this, Zhao Kuangyin rarely burst into laughter.
"Why must Zeping worry so much. You yourself said that Yue Fei has the bearing of a famous general of old. If so, then let him win with the momentum of a famous general. We can simply watch calmly."
[Lightscreen]
[During Yue Fei's fourth northern expedition, Zhao Gou, as expected, continued to play an indispensable role.
At the start of the war, Wuzhu's hundred thousand strong army frightened Zhao Gou badly. At that time, our Comrade Zhao Gou could temporarily act like a proper human being. He rewarded Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and Zhang Jun, and even approved Yue Fei's northern expedition request, putting on a picture of harmonious ruler and ministers.
But as Wuzhu's three routes of armies were successively blocked in Guanzhong, Shunchang, and Haizhou, Zhao Gou, whose courage had been scared out of him earlier, suddenly felt that Wuzhu was nothing special after all.
His brain immediately went offline, and he began calculating personal gains and losses.
Right away, he sent Li Ruoxu as an envoy, demanding that Yue Fei "should withdraw for the time being."
Yue Fei, of course, was unwilling.
I already have full equipment and I am about to push the battle line across the river, and you want me to click surrender now. Are you serious.
During this transmission of the imperial order, the envoy Li Ruoxu actually stood on Yue Fei's side and voluntarily took responsibility for falsifying the decree, supporting Yue Fei's continued northern expedition.
Naturally, Zhao Gou was very unhappy about this.
So when Yue Fei submitted memorials requesting that the Sichuan Shaanxi and Henan Pacification Offices send troops to garrison and secure the recovered territories, Zhao Gou used every possible excuse to dodge and delay.
Yue Fei sent victory reports again and again, requesting assistance. Zhao Gou first said that the area was extremely dangerous and that he should withdraw early. Later, he said that if it really was not possible, then Grand Guardian Yue could just return alone on light cavalry to report the victory. After that, he directly said that military affairs could be handed over to subordinates and that Yue Fei should hurry back.
In short, he spent the entire time pulling Yue Fei's leg.
The recovered territories kept expanding, but the number of troops Yue Fei could actually use remained the same. On top of that, he still had to argue with Zhao Gou across long distance memorials.
Yue Fei was exhausted in both body and mind.
He could only temporarily choose to concentrate his forces at Yancheng to prepare for any unexpected developments.
It was precisely during the time Zhao Gou was busy dragging his feet that Wuzhu discovered that Yue Fei himself was at Yancheng and that his troop numbers were not large.
This veteran general made a decisive judgment on the spot.
He chose to gather elite troops and carry out a decapitation strike.
According to the research of the famous historian Wang Zengyu, as well as Yue Fei's own victory reports and the records in the History of Jin, in order to achieve surprise, Wuzhu did not bring his Qianjun infantry.
Instead, he gathered cavalry from his subordinate generals along with his own Iron Pagoda heavy cavalry.
In total, fifteen thousand cavalry launched a sudden strike, advancing to a point twenty li north of Yancheng before they were discovered by Yue Fei's forces.
At that time, Yue Fei had only the Beiwei Army and the Youyi Army in Yancheng, totaling just over ten thousand men. After subtracting city defense and logistics personnel, the number of troops that could actually fight was at most ten thousand.
Even without considering troop types, purely in terms of numbers, Yue Fei was already at a disadvantage.
On open plains, in a frontal encounter, the Jin immediately used their most familiar tactic.
First, the Guai Zi Ma light cavalry harassed and lured, disrupting formations and drawing the enemy out. Then both wings would pull away to execute encirclement. The Iron Pagoda heavy cavalry would charge from the front to form a crushing, annihilating assault.
This combination of light and heavy cavalry had been proven repeatedly, from the Parthian Empire in Central Asia to the later Mongol cavalry. It was one of the most classic and reliable cavalry tactics in history.
But Yue Fei was far too familiar with this method.
At the very start of the battle, he cast aside any panic from being ambushed. His eldest son, Yue Yun, was ordered to lead the Beiwei Army in a direct charge, plunging straight into the Guai Zi Ma formation and preventing them from maneuvering and encircling.
Failing to gain advantage, the Jin immediately dispatched the Iron Pagoda to rescue the Guai Zi Ma.
At that moment, Yue Fei's Youyi Army also entered the battlefield, fighting to the death without retreat, causing the Iron Pagoda's charge to fail.
Yue Fei seized the timing with precision. He ordered the Beiwei Army to countercharge, wielding long handled axes and long sabers, striking riders in the chest and hacking at horses' legs.
Once the Iron Pagoda lost speed and mobility, they fell into a slaughter by the Song army.
The Jin army fell into a clear disadvantage, and defeat was basically sealed.
Yue Fei's general Yang Zaixing even charged into the enemy formation alone, attempting to capture Wuzhu alive, but unfortunately failed and withdrew.
The two sides fought until evening. The Jin organized one final charge, but it was once again smashed by the Beiwei Army. At last, morale collapsed.
Taking advantage of the night, Wuzhu broke out and fled.
The Battle of Yancheng ended in Yue Fei's victory.
The entire battle might look simple on paper.
But for the Song people, since the time of Emperor Huizong, they had first suffered from fear of Liao, then fear of Jin. For Yue Fei's troops to use infantry and light cavalry to directly confront elite heavy cavalry without collapsing was itself a miracle.
This was also the greatest difference between Yue Fei's army and ordinary Song troops.
Furthermore, in the cold weapon era, to be entangled with Guai Zi Ma and then face a frontal charge by Iron Pagoda, nine out of ten armies would collapse on the spot.
So the Battle of Yancheng was not because Wuzhu's light and heavy cavalry combination had become weak.
It was because Yue Fei's Beiwei Army was simply too strong.
Wuzhu himself understood this very clearly.
After Yancheng, he sighed and said,
"Since rising from the sea, we have always won with this method. Now, it has finally failed."
What he referred to was precisely the once invincible cavalry tactic combining Guai Zi Ma and Iron Pagoda.]