newbobooks Chapter 146 Si Xingfang accepts Wang Yan as his disciple; Chief Li worries about the Yellow River.
Chapter 146 Si Xingfang accepts Wang Yan as his disciple; Chief Li worries about the Yellow River.
"Ok?"
Li Hanxiao turned around and saw the young man who had spoken; it was Wang Yan.
Although Wang Yan is only a young man now, he is destined to make a name for himself in history.
"There's no need for a shrine. After this calamity, the villagers will likely face hardship for the next two or three years. As for our names... it's not convenient to disclose them."
As soon as Li Hanxiao finished speaking, Wang Yan knelt down in front of Li Hanxiao, blocking his way.
"Wang Yan knows that you are all top-notch masters. I am grateful for your help and earnestly request that you take me as your disciple and teach me some martial arts!"
Having survived this calamity, Wang Yan's family was destroyed and he was all alone. He realized the importance of power, as he was not strong enough to protect his family.
Li Han smiled slightly. He couldn't just take on disciples casually. All the skills he knew belonged to Erlang Shen, and he couldn't teach them to anyone without Erlang Shen's permission.
The rest of the martial arts techniques were recorded in Zhou Tong's secret manual, but those were the unique skills of Zhou Tong's sect. Although Zhou Tong allowed Li Hanxiao to practice them, he did not allow him to teach them to others.
"Our identities are not simple. You come from a respectable family, so you should uphold righteousness and integrity!"
Li Hanxiao tried to persuade Wang Yan, but Wang Yan did not accept it. He said seriously, "You all are capable of saving people from dire straits, so you must not be bad people. I believe you are all chivalrous people!"
Looking at the determined light shining in the young man's eyes, Li Han couldn't help but admire him. The imperial court regarded them as monstrous floods and wild beasts, as bandits and outlaws, and did not regard them as good people.
This boy before him dared to follow him, and even asserted that they were not evil people...
Yes, good and evil reside in the hearts of the people, so how can they be judged by the imperial court...?
"If you follow us... things won't be easy from now on. You'll inevitably have to risk your life to uphold justice, fight for the country and its people. Do you still dare to come now?"
Li Hanxiao continued to probe.
"Punishing evil and promoting good is a man's true nature. I'm willing to go. If you don't want me to go, I'll kill myself right here!"
After saying that, Wang Yan started banging his head against the ground repeatedly, and blood immediately appeared on his forehead.
"Alright! There's no need to hurt yourself!"
Li Hanxiao stopped Wang Yan, pulled him up, and asked the crowd, "Which brother would be willing to take this boy as his disciple?"
The group looked at each other, and finally Si Xingfang spoke up, "Why don't I give it a try?"
"Alright, then Brother Si, you can teach him some martial arts."
After Li Han finished speaking with a smile, Wang Yan said, "Your Highness thanks!"
"Wait! Your name is Wang Yan? Which Yan?"
Upon hearing that his courtesy name was "Zicai," Li Hanxiao immediately stopped him and inquired about it.
“For the sake of beauty and talent.”
Wang Yan said.
Li Hanxiao then realized that he seemed to have struck gold. This was Wang Yan, a famous general who resisted the Jin dynasty in history. His family was in the Shangdang area of Hedong!
Historically, Wang Yan was a bold and unrestrained young man who loved reading military books. Later, he went to the capital at his father's behest and joined the Imperial Guard. After being personally tested by Emperor Huizong of Song, he was appointed as the magistrate of Qinghe. He then joined the army in Jingyuan and twice followed Zhong Shidao to fight against the Western Xia, where he made great contributions.
Judging from his age, he should be about to go to the capital to take the imperial examination. Unfortunately, a sudden change occurred, his family was destroyed and he died. It seems that he will not be able to go to the Western Army this time!
However, in terms of resisting the Jin dynasty, Yue Fei was still his junior. During the Jingkang era, when the Jin army besieged Bianjing, Wang Yan resolutely abandoned his family and went to Hebei to fight the enemy and serve the country. He joined the army of Zhang Suo, the Hebei Pacification Commissioner, and was promoted to Commander-in-Chief.
At that time, Yue Fei was under Wang Yan's command as a subordinate general. Wang Yan had led his troops across the Yellow River to the north many times, defeating more than 10,000 Jin troops. Later, he was besieged by tens of thousands of Jin troops. He led his troops to break through to the Taihang Mountains north of Gongcheng. He fought nearly a hundred battles with the Jin army, repeatedly thwarting their advance and becoming a formidable force in Hebei. He can be called a famous general who resisted the Jin.
In September of the first year of the Jianyan era, Wang Yan led Yue Fei and 7,000 men across the Yellow River to attack the Jin army in Xinxiang County, Weizhou. After a day of fierce fighting, the Song army recaptured Xinxiang, achieving its first major victory since crossing the river.
The Jin people thought that the main force of the Song army had arrived, so they dispatched more than 50,000 cavalry to surround Wang Yan's army. At this time, Zhang Suo had been demoted and exiled to Lingnan, and the Hebei West Road Pacification Commission was abolished, leaving Wang Yan and others as an isolated force.
Seeing that he was outnumbered and had no outside help, Wang Yan broke out of the encirclement. Due to the dire situation, several of his generals fled with their troops, and Yue Fei also left because of differing methods and strategies for resisting the Jin. Wang Yan fought his way for dozens of miles and entered the western mountains of Gongcheng. He then sent his confidants to contact heroes from both sides of the river to form an alliance to jointly resist the Jin.
Because Wang Yan was causing the Jurchens a great deal of trouble, they offered a reward for his head. To prevent any accidents, Wang Yan frequently changed his sleeping location at night.
His subordinates were moved by his unwavering loyalty to resist the Jin invaders, and they all tattooed the eight characters "Loyal to the country, vow to kill the Jin invaders" on their faces to show their loyalty to Wang Yan and the Song court. This is the famous "Eight-Character Army".
The reputation of the "Eight-Character Army" gradually spread, and the rebel armies of the two rivers responded one after another. Fu Xuan, Meng De, Jiao Wentong and others came to join them, and the army expanded to more than 100,000 people. The Jin army repeatedly tried to encircle and suppress them but failed.
During the Southern Song Dynasty, in May of the first year of the Jianyan era, Emperor Gaozong ascended the throne in Lin'an, establishing the Southern Song regime. Due to Wang Yan's outstanding military achievements, he was appointed as the commander-in-chief of both Hedong and Hebei routes. At that time, Zong Ze, a minister of the Southern Song Dynasty who advocated war, greatly appreciated Wang Yan. Therefore, he recalled him to the south on the grounds that "his army was isolated and without support, and could not advance alone."
Later, Zong Ze died in grief and indignation, and Wang Yan was also ostracized by Du Chong, one of Zong Ze's subordinates. Coincidentally, Wang Yan also fell ill, so he went to Zhenzhou to recuperate. His troops were commanded by Fan Qiong, the former general in charge of suppressing bandits under the Imperial Guard. After Fan Qiong was executed for treason, the troops returned to Wang Yan's command.
After the troops changed hands several times, Wang Yan also felt that the court's offensive was beginning to slow down. In the third year of Jianyan, the court appointed Zhang Jun, a minister who advocated war, as the Pacification Commissioner of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Beijing and Huzhou, and at the same time appointed Wang Yan as the Commander of the Vanguard Army.
Wang Yan led his troops deep into the Sichuan-Shaanxi region, quelling bandits and pacifying the local people. He then moved to Jinzhou and Fangzhou, where he "pacified the people and governed the army with a balance of leniency and severity, working day and night." Later, he resisted the attacks of the puppet Qi regime led by Liu Yu, successfully protecting Sichuan from foreign aggression.
At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty had just been established and its foundation was unstable. It was busy dealing with the threat from the Jin people in the north and had no ability to manage the western regions. At that time, Sang Zhong, Li Zhong, Qi Shouzhong and others in Sichuan and the surrounding areas took the opportunity to raise troops and become powerful. Although their ferocity and arrogance were less than those of Sang and Li, the smaller ones were still no less than tens of thousands. However, the brave and skilled Wang Yan quelled them one by one.
In the first month of the third year of the Shaoxing era, the Jin general Wanyan Gao led his army south to attack Shu. Wang Yan, who had already discussed with Zhang Jun, Liu Ziyu and other pro-war faction members, took the initiative to fight back against the Jin army. Historical records state that he "used high ground to defend against attacks, fought dozens of battles in a single day, charged with long spears, and fought swiftly with double strikes. The enemy's armor was broken, their armor was discarded and they scattered, some even kneeling on the road with wounds." He also recovered Jinzhou, Junzhou and other places that had been occupied by the Jin people.
It can be said that Wang Yan was almost among the top tier of famous generals who fought against the Jin dynasty at the time, but he was never given important responsibilities by those in power...
Until the seventh year of Shaoxing, the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty signed a peace treaty. During the Shaoxing Peace Treaty, generals such as Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun were stripped of their military power, and Yue Fei was executed on fabricated charges. Wang Yan was also stripped of his military power for opposing the peace treaty, and his Eight-Character Army was placed under the command of Liu Qi, the commander of the Imperial Guard Cavalry.
The imperial court shifted its strategy from offense to defense, and then to peace talks. It's fair to say that the fates of these once-glorious generals were not much better...
In the ninth year of the Shaoxing era, the imperial court appointed Wang Yanqi as the prefect of Dingzhou. However, Wang Yanqi died of illness on the way to his post before he could take office, at the age of fifty.
Wang Yan spent his life fighting against the Jin army. The Eight-Character Army he led greatly slowed down the Jin army's advance into the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty and enabled many Han Chinese who had been stranded in the north to return to the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Besides fighting in various places under the command of Wang Yan, the Eight-Character Army also cooperated with anti-Jin forces such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong under the leadership of Liang Qing, Liang Xing and others. The "Biography of Han Shizhong" in the History of Song states: "Initially, Shizhong moved his garrison to Shanyang and sent spies to make friends with the heroes of Shandong, agreeing to respond to each other in times of emergency. Ma Qin of Suzhou and the bandits of Taihang were mostly willing to follow his agreement."
However, with the deaths of Zong Ze, Wang Yan, Liang Qing, and others, and the dismissal and idleness of Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun, the hundreds of thousands of loyal and righteous men in the Taihang Mountains were ultimately wiped out by the Jin army, leaving people with a deep sense of regret.
Li Hanxiao never expected to meet Wang Yan. He felt like he had struck gold and would definitely nurture him well in the future.
"Alright, get up. Let me tell you, we are the righteous army of Liangshan Marsh. I am none other than Li Hanxiao, the leader of Liangshan Marsh. If you follow us, you will rebel against the tyranny of the imperial court. Are you willing?"
Li Hanxiao asked.
"If you are willing, then you are the Chief Li, whose murderous aura soars to the heavens, whose tiger whiskers ripple and imprison ghosts and gods, whose soul-severing blade pierces the boiling spring of greed, whose wicked eyes open the autumn of Fengdu, whose binding dragon dares to shatter the decree of the Heavenly Court, whose blood is poured to dredge the ferry boat in the wilderness, who do not say that the True Lord has no tearful eyes, for the turbid waves of the mortal world have never bowed down?"
Wang Yan suddenly recited a poem, which completely bewildered Li Hanxiao. Before he could react, Li Hanxiao hurriedly asked, "What? What's with this poem?"
"You don't know? This is a poem written for you by the brothers in the bandits, specifically to praise you!"
Wang Yan said.
Li Hanxiao never expected that his reputation in the martial arts world would be so great that someone would even write a poem to praise him!
Not bad!
This delayed them by two days. After Li Hanxiao and the others found a mount for Wang Yan, they immediately set off. They would reach Puzhou and Yuncheng soon.
Puzhou, formerly known as Puban, is the core area of the birthplace of the Chinese nation. Sima Qian called it "the center of the world" in the Records of the Grand Historian. The Lu Shi records that "Zhu made his capital in Puban", believing that Zhu, the son of Lieshan, the god of agriculture in ancient legends, once made his capital here.
The ancient Puzhou was actually the later Yongji City, administered by Yuncheng City. Located in southwestern Shanxi Province, at the southwest corner of the Yuncheng Basin, it borders the Yellow River to the west, facing Dali County and Heyang County of Shaanxi Province across the river. To the south, it borders Ruicheng County, which is separated from it by the Zhongtiao Mountains. To the east, it borders Yanhu District, and to the north, it borders Linyi County. During the Tang Dynasty, it was once the capital of Zhongdu and was one of the "Six Great Cities", known as "Hezhong Prefecture". It is also the hometown of Liu Zongyuan, one of the Eight Great Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties, Lu Lun and Geng Hui, the Ten Talented Scholars of the Dali Era, poets Wang Wei and Nie Yizhong, poetry critic Sikong Tu, and Song Dynasty masters of painting such as Wang Jue, Wang Quzheng, and Ma Yuan. It can be said to be a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery.
The neighboring city of Yuncheng is even more famous, as the renowned "Martial Saint" Guan Yu was from Yuncheng, Shanxi.
The name of Yongji County originates from the Yongji Canal, an ancient water conservancy project within its borders. According to records, in the first month of the second year of the Baoding era of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the people of the prefecture dug a canal east of Puzhou City to divert river water for irrigation and named it Yongji Canal, meaning "perpetual benefit".
During the Song Dynasty, this canal was continued to be used to divert the surging Yellow River water into the canal, "reduce the force of the water", relieve pressure, ensure that the Pujin Bridge would not be destroyed by the water, and still draw water to irrigate the fields, which greatly benefited the people.
Two days later, Li Hanxiao and his group arrived in Puzhou, but they were unable to enter the county town and were stopped halfway.
It turned out that after the summer flood season began, the Yellow River's water level rose sharply, causing floods that reached Puzhou. Due to severe siltation caused by local officials, the Yongji Canal could not function as a diversion channel for floodwaters, resulting in the Yellow River flowing through the area. Outside Puzhou, the city was flooded for thousands of miles, and the people suffered greatly!
The Yellow River has been prone to flooding in the areas it flows through for millennia, and it was this vast expanse of floodplains that blocked Li Hanxiao and his companions' path.
Seeing that there was flooding ahead, Li Hanxiao, a descendant of Li Bing, quickly found a nearby hillside to check the situation and see if he could help the local people.
After all, they can't leave unless the problem of the Yellow River flood zone is solved. With the Yellow River surging, even riding a sheepskin raft would be risky!
Once they reached the top of the hill, Li Hanxiao sensed something was amiss.
Of the two banks, only the north bank was affected by the flood, while the south bank was unaffected. However, the south bank, with its thousands of acres of farmland at a lower elevation than the north bank, should have been the first to be harmed by the flood.
It turns out that there is a very high dam on the north bank that has blocked all the water to the south bank, but this is not the best solution, because the south bank is full of residential houses, and if it is flooded, it will cause great harm to people.
Conversely, there are no houses on the north bank, which looks like thousands of acres of farmland. If the dike on the north bank were breached to release floodwater, the low-lying terrain on the north bank, which is already below the elevation of the south bank, would flood the farmland, but would be enough to ensure that the houses on the south bank would not be affected at all!
Li Hanxiao couldn't help but wonder, in this situation, not to mention the river officials in charge of water conservancy, even a farmer familiar with water conservancy could see that the north bank dam should be breached to release the floodwaters, but why didn't the local officials do so, and instead let the yellow water wash away the people on the south bank?
This is truly baffling! Could it be that the floodwaters were so powerful and fierce that there wasn't enough time to breach the dikes and release the floodwaters? That shouldn't be the case. The north bank wasn't flooded; one could simply detour to the north bank to breach the dikes and release the floodwaters. Although the south bank was eroded by the flood, it didn't affect the north bank at all...
Could it be that they're afraid of destroying the crops on those thousands of acres of land? But in this raging flood, which is more important, the lives of the people or the crops? Judging from the current water level, it's estimated that the water will rise further, and the water level will surge, because it's been raining heavily all day!
If the water rises again, I don't know how many people will perish!