Chapter 885: Breaking the Song Army, Ideological Fractures

Chapter 885: Chapter 82: Breaking the Song Army, Ideological Fractures

This is destined to be an unprecedented upheaval.

Completely different from ordinary rebellion.

——What Gu Hui is shaking now is the very foundation of the Great Song, Zhao Gou’s legitimacy, and even the entire imperial authority system.

The news spread, and everyone in the world was shocked!

No one could have imagined that Gu Hui would act in such a manner.

As a minister, he directly deposed Zhao Gou.

But what could they say?

Taizu’s edict was real, and Zhao Gou’s actions were also real.

If Zhao Gou were a wise ruler, it would be fine, Gu Hui wouldn’t be able to undermine his position, but unfortunately, he was not!

The scholar community around the country was in an uproar.

In the academies of Jiangnan, scholars argued until their faces turned red.

Someone angrily criticized Gu Hui for “using the ancestors to command the world, indeed a second coming of Wang Mang,” arguing that even if Zhao Gou was wrong, it was not for a minister to depose and establish a ruler; once this precedent was set, there would be endless consequences.

But there were also others, especially young scholars well-versed in history and dissatisfied with the current situation, who privately discussed: “With Taizu’s edict here and the evidence of Zhao Gou colluding with the Jurchens clear, Grand Tutor Gu’s move, though shocking, might not be… a necessary purging of the court?”

The rift in thought deepened further during this great upheaval.

On the military front, the impact was more direct.

Zhao Gou received the news at Yingtian Prefecture, first stunned and speechless, then flew into a rage, vomiting blood.

The “righteous” legitimacy upon which he relied to maintain military morale was forcibly shattered by Gu Hui using Taizu’s edict as a sharp sword.

He could only scream hoarsely that the edict was a “false edict,” and claim Gu Hui was “fabricating edicts to mislead the public,” ordering the three-route army to accelerate their advance, aiming to cover the collapse of legality with military victory.

However, the military morale was already unsettled.

The Central Route Army led by Zhang Jun aggressively marched towards Daming Prefecture.

But before his troops could press upon the city, the elite riders of the Northern Border appeared like phantoms, incessantly harassing its long supply routes day and night.

More deadly was that Gu Hui had the “Taizu’s edict” and some evidence of Zhao Gou’s contact with the Jin Kingdom copied numerous times, either shot into Zhang Jun’s camp by light cavalry or spread within the army by spies.

Cries of “Righteousness from Heaven, deposing the foolish and establishing the wise!” accompanied by accusations of “Zhao Gou selling out the country, Taizu will not allow it!” quietly circulated in the military camps.

Many of the lower-level soldiers already had doubts about the court’s reconciliation with the Jurchen invaders, their morale at this moment sunk even further, unsure of whether to advance or retreat.

Though Zhang Jun executed several soldiers spreading “rumors,” he couldn’t curb the collapse of military morale.

By the time he finally reached Daming Prefecture exhausted, he was not only faced with strong fortifications and deep moats but also an ambush from Yue Fei’s main forces, well-prepared and ready to strike.

In the fierce battle, the Song army’s vanguard was defeated, compounded by the lack of supplies and swirling rumors, Zhang Jun had no choice but to temporarily halt the attack, camp in confrontation, losing the Central Route’s sharpness entirely.

The Left Wing under Yang Yizhong moved along the Yellow River, intending to pin down the forces at the Northern Border.

However, the Northern Border’s navy had already seized control of the key crossings, and their army, familiar with the terrain, continued launching small elite assaults, attacking its flank.

Yang Yizhong made slow progress, not only failing to create effective constraint but rather getting himself caught in a quagmire of entangled fighting.

Yet the greatest pressure was on Liu Qi’s Right Route Army.

He aimed to take Yanchang Prefecture directly.

However, when he reached the city, he faced not only the well-prepared defensive forces but also a large banner on the city walls boldly stating “By Taizu’s edict, deposing the unworthy ruler!”

Gu Hui himself oversaw Yanchang, turning it into a center for advocating the “legitimacy of deposition.”

Although Liu Qi’s troops were battle-hardened, facing the direct challenge to the legitimacy of imperial authority, military morale could hardly avoid being heavily impacted.

Let us not forget that Gu Hui is, after all, surnamed Gu.

Even if he had severed ties with the Gu Clan, he was still named Gu!

This alone exerted tremendous influence over them!

The siege battle was exceptionally brutal, the Northern Border’s defenders relying on sturdy city forts and soaring morale repelled Liu Qi’s fierce attacks repeatedly.

At the same time, a Northern Border elite cavalry, guided by locals familiar with the paths, quietly circled to Liu Qi’s rear, raiding his accumulated supplies.

Liu Qi was beset on both sides, his offensive thwarted, forcing him into a stalemate.

The battle did not turn out to be a one-sided crushing as Zhao Gou and Wanyan Digünai had anticipated.

Gu Hui, using “Taizu’s edict,” gained a legal victory, greatly weakening Song army morale;

while the Northern Border troops under Yue Fei’s command were tactically adept, defending stoutly, and supported by the populace newly mobilized by fresh ideas, making none of the Song army’s three advancements bear definitive progress.

These are the abilities of Gu Hui and Yue Fei.

By contrast, although the Great Song Central Hub still holds absolute advantage.

But this is war!

This is the gap in ability between both sides!

In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, October, the overall situation on the battlefield kept changing with the passage of time.

The stalemated situation finally broke under Gu Hui and Yue Fei’s precise arrangements.

They knew well that with the numerically superior Song army, a direct clash was not the best strategy; it was necessary to attack the mind, seeking opportunities to strike.

The first breakthrough was Liu Qi’s Right Route Army, already at the end of its strength.

After failed prolonged attacks on Yanchang and repeated harassment of supply lines, Liu Qi’s troops, increasingly demoralized.

Gu Hui seized the moment, ordering the defenders after a nighttime raid to purposely leave behind some “captured” documents, among them notably Zhang Jun criticizing Liu Qi for “delaying the advance, missing war opportunities” and Yang Yizhong secretly reporting Liu Qi of “possibly holding troops for self-importance.”

These documents, whose authenticity was hard to discern, quickly spread within Liu Qi’s army, further exacerbating the grievances of soldiers already resentful due to their deep incursion, lowering trust in allies and the court to the freezing point.