Chapter 280 Hebei has suffered from the Zhao and Song dynasties for a long time

People say that the Song Dynasty was rich, but only the landlord class and the upper class were rich. The people in the lower class lived in an exploitative society where they could not get enough food for a long time.

Now that the six thieves are in control of the court, corruption can be said to be extremely exaggerated. The upper class people spend money lavishly without being stingy, while the lower class people cannot get enough food and starve to death.

Whether it was the Liangshan Uprising or the Fang La Uprising, it was the officials forcing the people to rebel.

The people of Hebei have naturally suffered from the Zhao Song Dynasty for a long time!
The King of Wei in Shandong marched northward with 10,000 combat troops, 20,000 auxiliary troops, and 30,000 militiamen. It can truly be said that he surrendered at the sight of the enemy.

The land in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is really bitter.

Especially in the last hundred years, which is the third major period of the Yellow River's course change in Chinese history, the disaster it brought was far greater than the previous two times.

During this period, the lower reaches of the Yellow River burst almost every two or three years, and a major course change occurred every thirty to forty years.

The Yellow River sometimes flows north and sometimes flows east, and it has never stabilized in a fixed river channel. It flows through Chanzhou and Puzhou as its apex, and swings within a radius of a thousand miles from the Taihang Mountains in the north to the Huai River in the south. Wherever the water passes, fields and houses are destroyed.

Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was not far from the site where the Yellow River burst its banks, and the lower reaches of the Yellow River, both in the north and south, were important tribute areas for national taxes. Naturally, controlling the Yellow River became a major event for the Northern Song Dynasty.

However, it was difficult to reach a consensus in the court on whether to protect the northern flow and block the eastern flow, or to protect the eastern flow and block the northern flow.

This made the management of the Yellow River extremely difficult. Looking back on this period of history, we can almost see the diverse opinions and difficult to resolve issues in the court, while behind the scenes the Yellow River was rising again with raging waves and floods.

The East Hebei Route and the entire Shandong Province were living a life worse than death due to the flooding of the Yellow River and the heavy taxes imposed by the court.

Now Cao Jie led his army to Cangzhou, and there was little resistance along the way.

After all, not many states can produce a general like Zhang Qing, the "Featherless Arrow".

When the army arrived at the territory of Cangzhou Prefecture, Cao Jie was quite moved.

I couldn't help but recall the scene when I first came to Cangzhou, there were only a few people there.

The oath he made when the Iron Lion of Zhenhai roared and scared away Princess Tianshou of Liao is still ringing in his ears.

Today, Cao Jie came with a large army.

Cangzhou Prefecture is the prefecture with the largest population and the largest military force among the eleven prefectures under the jurisdiction of Hebei East Road.

But the scene before him now was not worthy of his military status.

A few years ago, Cao Jie knew that Cangzhou, a military stronghold, had been completely corrupted.

We can get a glimpse of the whole situation from the hay field guarded by Lin Chong.

Did the government not pay attention to the forage fields in Cangzhou because the country was peaceful and prosperous and there was no threat of invasion from foreign invaders? In fact, it was just the opposite. Cangzhou was not only threatened by war, but also suffered from wars all year round.

Cangzhou is located in Hejian Prefecture in the eastern part of Hebei Province. It was often invaded by the Khitans. Military supplies were in short supply, and fodder was an important military supply in the war.

The Khitans had many war horses, and after every cold winter, many cattle and sheep would freeze to death or starve to death. They would often organize their army to go to the border to plunder food and people after the ice and snow melted.

When the Song army was going to fight the Khitans, war horses were an indispensable riding tool. After all, if they couldn't catch up with the Khitans, there would be no way to fight the war.

It can be seen from this that the Cangzhou army is in great need of horse fodder for combat. If something happens to the forage field and food and fodder cannot be supplied normally, it will cause a great defeat on the front battlefield.

But there was only one old soldier guarding the huge hay field.

Lu Qian and his companions didn't hesitate at all and set it on fire.

Such a Cangzhou Prefecture is a paper tiger. As expected, the army arrived at the city of Cangzhou Prefecture without encountering any resistance. The civil and military officials in the city had been waiting at the city gate.

The prefect of Cangzhou knelt down and greeted him, "The criminal Du Chong pays homage to the young King of Wei!"

Brothers had already taken over the defense of Cangzhou City. Cao Jie rode on the jade lion horse Zhaoye presented by the "golden retriever" Duan Jingzhu. He took a look and asked, "Why are there only these few officials?"

Du Chong lowered his head and replied, "The officials such as the Tongzhi, Tuiguan, and Zhixian have all fled in the past few days."

"Why don't you run?" Cao Jie asked.

Du Chong said, "I admire the reputation of the young King of Wei and am willing to offer the city to atone for my sins."

This is of course nonsense. The reason Du Chong surrendered is that he is the chief officer of this city. Even if he escapes, it doesn't matter. If the court punishes him, he will be punished.

As for the other civil and military officials, they were locals and had nowhere to escape to, so they could only surrender.

Cao Jie was about to ride his horse into the city.

Unlike other cities along the way, Cangzhou Prefecture was to be stationed there and serve as a temporary base camp.

At this moment, Cao Jie suddenly pulled the reins, turned his head and asked, "What did you say your name was?"

"The criminal Du Chong, whose courtesy name was Gongmei, was from Xiangzhou and he became a Jinshi during the Shaosheng period of Emperor Zhezong." Du Chong gave a detailed introduction to his background.

He seemed to be expecting something.

"Oh! Du Chong!"

This is a famous person. On the eve of the second Jin Dynasty's attack on Song Dynasty and the conquest of Kaifeng, Du Chong was guarding BJ Daming Prefecture. He boasted that "a general should not sit in the tent and make plans, but should brave the arrows and stones." It seemed that he was the reincarnation of Han Xin. Not only could he make plans, but he could also lead troops into battle personally.

But when Wanyan Zongmou's Jin army arrived from the east, Du Chong did not dare to fight them. His only countermeasure was to order the Yellow River dike to be breached, allowing the Yellow River water to flow into the Huai River from Sishui, in an attempt to block the pursuing troops behind him.

Du Chong's breaching of the river not only failed to stop the Jin army from the east, but also caused more than 200,000 local people to be drowned, and the death toll from displacement and plague was several times that. The most prosperous Lianghuai region in the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, and nearly 10 million people were left homeless and became refugees.

It would have been fine if the military operations were ineffective, but after Zong Ze died, Du Chong took over as the governor of Tokyo Kaifeng Prefecture. After taking over, he immediately did the opposite.

When Zong Ze is in power, bandits can be used as soldiers, but when Du Chong is in power, all soldiers become bandits!
This is how history evaluates him.

After Du Chong took office, he not only stopped the Northern Expedition and stopped supporting the anti-Jin armed forces in the north, but also rejected the anti-Jin armed forces that Zong Ze had already recruited as potential enemies. Ding Jin and Yang Jin were the first to rebel and become "bandits", and Wang Shan, Zhang Yong and other groups also made changes.

When Du Chong heard Cao Jie's tone and felt that he seemed to know him, he had some ideas and thought that he could be promoted by offering the city.

After all, many officials have been given important positions along the way.

But Cao Jie sneered in his heart. Now that the entire East Hebei Road fell into his hands, it was time to kill someone as a sacrifice. The other high-ranking officials had all fled, so it was a good opportunity to bring Du Chong to public trial and win the hearts of the people of Hebei.

"Someone, catch him!" Cao Jie waved his hand, and Liu Tang led his men behind him to kick him over and tie him up.

Du Chong was very confused. This script was wrong!

He exclaimed loudly: "King of Wei, I have contributed to the surrender of the city, why are you treating the surrendered officials like this?"

"The officers and soldiers didn't even put up a resistance, so why do I need you to surrender the city? Lock him up, investigate what crimes he committed in Cangzhou, and put him on trial in three days!"

(End of this chapter)