The ordinary Song civilians of Bianjing living in the non-imperial quarter were left alone after being forced to pay huge ransoms to the Jin.

This price was considered to be extremely generous because it was the tribute that the Song had been paying to the Liao annually since the Chanyuan Treaty of 1005.

According to the Twenty-Four Histories, in 1123, three years after the fall of Liao, a Jin general Zhang Jue (張覺), defected to the Song dynasty.

Nonetheless, the Song imperial court initially welcomed the defection and awarded Zhang Jue an honorific title and land.

The Jin dynasty, on the other hand, sent a small army aiming to overturn the defection but was defeated by Zhang Jue's troops.

Panicking, Wang Anzhong (a Song general) killed someone who looked like Zhang Jue and sent the head to Jin.

[6] This came too late: in the fall of 1125, Emperor Taizong of the Jin dynasty issued an order to launch a full-scale attack on Song territories.

[3] The Jin northern army advanced quickly, sacking Qinhuangdao in October 1125, followed Baoding, Dingzhou, Zhengding and Xingtai in January 1126.

On the other hand, the Jin western army, commanded by Nianhan (Wanyan Zonghan),[8] was held up near the cities of Datong and Taiyuan from the very beginning and did not make much progress for the rest of the war.

In February 1126, the Jin northern army crossed the Yellow River and began the siege of Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), the Song capital.

In an effort to end the battle sooner, Emperor Qinzong sent his ninth brother, Zhao Gou to the enemy camp for peace talks.

Eventually, the Song imperial court came forth with the ransom and the city of Taiyuan was also given to Jin as a gift in good faith.

Emperor Qinzong sent a coded letter which was sealed in candle wax, inviting them to join Song to form an anti–Jin alliance.

The northern army, having sacked Baoding, Dingzhou and Zhengding in September, regrouped and crossed the Yellow River in November.

[12] Gold and silver were given to the Jin in exchange for Jin soldiers sparing the Kaifeng's people from looting, as well as Buddhist and Daoist books, printing blocks, silk bolts, silk thread pharmacy pills, parasols, ox carts, old bronze vessels, Buddhist monks, professors, storytellers, painters, clerks, jade carvers, gardeners, masons, weapons makers, astronomers, musicians, physicians diagrams, maps, headgear worn by consorts, musical instruments, bells and shop, temple and palace lanterns.

Awaiting them was a directive from Emperor Taizong that they were to be demoted to commoners, stripped of their ceremonial trappings and Jin troops would compound the imperial palace.

[15] All the female prisoners were ordered, on pain of death, to serve the Jin aristocrats no matter what rank in society they had previously held.

[16] A Jin prince wanted to marry Emperor Huizong's daughter, Zhao Fujin, who had been another man's wife.

Therefore, he set up in Bianjing a puppet government for the lands south of the Yellow River, called Chu (楚),[8] and ordered all the assets and prisoners to be taken back to the Jin capital – Shangjing (in present-day Harbin).

Their entourage – almost all the ministers and generals of the Northern Song dynasty – suffered from illness, dehydration and exhaustion, and many never made it.

Emperor Qinzong of Song would spend the rest of his life in Jin captivity, although his status was eventually raised to nobility and he began to receive a stipend.