When the darkness reached its deepest point, the memories and emotions of the past surged into his mind like a broken dam. They were suffocating and oppressive to the touch.
Lotus flowers dotted the pond in the hot summer.
In the autumn of the third year of Jianshuo, the fake Qi Kingdom's Ji Wenkang's 200,000 troops were defeated by the Black Flag Army of China. The Jin Kingdom and the fake Qi Kingdom joined forces and launched a three-year siege on Lüliang, Little Canghe, Yanzhou and other places.
Since then, the flames of war in the northwest had never stopped.
Not long after the Jurchen expedition to the south ended, the initial attack was led by Liu Yu's regime. Under the supervision of the Jurchen regime, the second round of attack and blockade was quickly organized. After the defeat of the 200,000 soldiers, an army of 600,000 advanced step by step towards the border of Lüliang.
This time, Tian Hu, Cao Xingnong, Lü Zheng, and other major forces who were nominally under Liu Yu but had actually surrendered to the Jurchen also sent out their troops. At the end of that autumn, a large number of troops under the supervision of the Jin army pushed towards Lüliang, the northwest, and other places. As the first wave of troops advanced, reinforcements continued to gather in the Central Plains. In the northwest, the Zhe family began to move under the command of the Jurchen General Ci Buxie. The other surrendered forces like Yan Zhenguo who had lost in the earlier expedition also took advantage of this huge momentum to participate.
The grandiose mobilization was like a heavenly punishment. Although the Central Plains had fallen into the hands of the Jurchen, there were still a few resistance forces in the northwest. However, perhaps they understood the seriousness of the Jurchen in avenging Wanyan Loushi, or perhaps they were afraid of the Huaxia army's identity as a regicide, the only ones who truly resisted were the Huaxia army and the Zhong family army, which had less than 100,000 soldiers.
In the northwest, the Zhong family army defended the city while in the mountains of Lüliang, Little Canghe, and other places, the Huaxia army launched fierce attacks against the army of hundreds of thousands.
Based on the unbroken and precipitous mountains and complicated terrain, the Huaxia army's attacks were flexible and varied. They included ambushes, traps, hot air balloons flying in the sky, and cannons meticulously arranged for the terrain. At this time, winter had not yet arrived. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers entered the mountains in batches. Often, after receiving a head-on attack from the Black Flag Army, the fake Qi army would have their mountain paths blasted apart by the fierce cannons. The Black Flag Army that charged up the mountain ridges pushed down kerosene and haystacks. On the hillsides and valleys, a sea of people pushed and fled. As the fire spread, large areas were burned and roasted.
Fierce fire attacks and night raids, especially when the mountain roads were difficult to traverse, were aimed at the supply troops that entered the mountains. In the first month or so, tens of thousands of people died in the mountains as if they were attending a funeral. The situation was so tragic that it was hard to look at it directly.
Even though the ones participating in this attack were all Han soldiers, the Black Flag Army did not show any mercy, nor could they show any mercy. And to the Jurchens, the Han troops had no meaning. Liu Yu's regime continuously recruited soldiers in the Central Plains. A small number of Jurchens guarded the back of the mountains, urging the advance of the troops that entered the mountains. Because of the initial head-on attack, the expedition troops that entered the mountains began to advance in a more stable manner. They dug roads and cut down trees one by one. Under the situation of ten attacking one, they strictly stuck together and slowly advanced.
In the spring of the fourth year of Jianshuo, the fake Qi army was the first to enter the perimeter of Green Wood Stockade. The attack and defense around Green Wood Stockade began. In the autumn of that year, with the increase in Jurchens' reinforcements, the attacking army approached Little Canghe. By winter, they had completely surrounded and divided Green Wood Stockade and Little Canghe. As for the cities controlled by the Zhong family army in the northwest, they had already become a land of blood. The Zhong family army successively lost control of Qingzhou, the security army, and Huanzhou. Only Yanzhou was left, and they were bitterly holding on.
This year, the Jin and Qi army's progress could be easily translated into battle reports. However, in the process of the Jin army and the fake Qi army's advance, the Hua Xia army's resistance was astonishing, even appalling. In the mountains near Green Wood Stockade and Little Canghe, the attacking army's advance was practically a bloodbath for every inch of land. During the advance, there were even several large-scale desertions due to the death of the commanding general and the night raids and bombings of the camp. The fake Qi army was a motley crew. Were it not for the Jurchens supervising in the rear who had killed tens of thousands of deserters and erected their heads on the ground to form a forest, this battle would have been impossible to fight long ago.
In the third month of the fourth year, the flames of war had yet to envelop Green Wood Stockade. As the fake Qi army advanced inch by inch, the Hua Xia army suddenly broke out of Little Canghe and ambushed the allied army of Yan Zhenguo and the Zhe family at the Wolf Slaying Ridge in the northwest. They fought Yan Zhenguo and his personal guards and defeated the Zhe family army at the same time. Zhe Keqiu was forced to flee for more than 30 li. Several Zhe family nephews were killed by the Black Flag Army in this battle.
In the sixth month, a special force of about a thousand men infiltrated into Jin territory and broke into Shuozhou's Middle Hill. The thousand men took over the county town and seized a horse farm guarded by the Jin soldiers. They stole hundreds of warhorses and set them on fire before leaving. When the Jurchens arrived, the horse farm and the county office had already been burned to the ground. All the Jurchens officials were executed on the city walls and their heads were hung up as a warning to the public.
On the mountain path leading back to Luliang, the troops left the Jurchens' words: Do not hope to return alive.
— There was no need to think about returning alive.
This was an intense battle that no one had ever imagined. In the past few years, the Jurchens had swept through the world without meeting a worthy opponent. When the army attacked Little Canghe and attacked the northwest, although they were supervised by the Jurchens, they were still digesting the results of their third invasion south. At this time, they were like a lazy snake. No one was willing to face the full force of the Jurchens. However, the Black Flag Army actually brazenly attacked like this, ruthlessly cutting off the enemy's body.
This kind of attack did not cause the Jurchens any pain, but the loss of face was a feeling that they had not felt for a long time.
Following this action, more and more Jurchens began to move south.
However, facing the fierce artillery attacks of the Black Flag Army, the Jurchens still did not rush to the front lines. They only used a large number of Han soldiers as cannon fodder, using them to test the power of the cannons and the power of the gunpowder, gradually finding a way to restrain them.
However, in the ninth month, the same army took advantage of the Black Flag Army's attack to tear apart the blockade line and killed their way out of the mountainous area on the eastern line, stirring up the Jurchens' encampment. If not for the fact that the Jurchens' general guarding the eastern line, Na Gu, was lucky enough to survive the attack, the offensive at the front would have been scattered by this surprise attack. However, following the swift response of the Jurchens, these one thousand people suffered a fierce encirclement on their way back to Little Canghe and suffered heavy losses.
In the spring of the fifth year of Jian Shuo, the Jurchens' general Ci Busu led thirty thousand Jurchens' army south to the northwest. They stepped over the "Do not hope to return alive" stone tablet and Shu Lie Su led thirty thousand soldiers into the central plains. In the second month, after receiving this news, half of the Jurchens' army broke out of the encirclement and began a bloody battle that lasted nearly a month. They threw the encirclement into chaos in the mountains and temporarily opened up the encirclement. This was a fierce battle after the army advanced step by step. During this time, the fake Qi's general Ji Wenkang, Liu Yu's brother Liu Yi, and other high ranking officials were all killed by the Black Flag Army.
Blood flowed like rivers and corpses piled up in valleys.
In the third month, Yanzhou fell. Zhong Lie resisted until the end in Yanzhou and died in battle. From then on, there was no more Zhong family army.
In the sixth month, with the participation of Shu Lie Su's troops, Little Canghe burst its dam after being besieged for more than half a year. The Green Wood Stronghold and Little Canghe's army broke out of the encirclement and the mountains were in chaos. Ning Yi led a twenty thousand strong army to attack Yanzhou and Ci Busu led his army to confront them. The Black Flag Army used the secret tunnel dug by the Zhong family army to sneak into Yanzhou and attacked the city from the inside. The Jurchens' general Ci Busu was captured in the chaos and was beheaded by the Black Flag Army at the top of the city wall.
Qin Shaoqian led another Black Flag Army south and east and killed his way into the central plains. After seizing several cities, he broke into the vicinity of Taiyuan. It was said that Qin Shaoqian paid his respects to his deceased brother at Taiyuan and not long after, he suddenly returned to the west.
As for the Black Flag Army, after taking back Yanzhou, they went straight to the Zhe family's territory and pretended to attack Fuzhou. After besieging the Zhe family's reinforcements, they broke into the city and took Lin Province. After that, they killed their way back to the mountains in the east to shake off the pursuit of the Jurchens' elite cavalry...
At this time, the western and northwestern regions of the central plains where the Black Flag Army was moving unhindered had completely turned into a chaotic killing field.
Regardless of whether it was the west, the south, or the north, everyone was watching this war. At the beginning, they might not have paid much attention to it, but at this stage, its appearance and progress could no longer be ignored by anyone. In the second year of the war, the central plains had already mobilized almost all of their forces. Liu Yu's regime's exorbitant taxes rose sharply, the Han people fled south, and the people had no way of making a living.
The Jurchens also spent a large amount of troops to suppress them. Liu Yu's army and Tian Hu's army sealed off all the routes from the central plains to Little Cang River. Only when Qin Shaoqian led his troops out was this blockade temporarily broken.
No one knew how much despair the people who participated in the war felt. The Black Flag Army captured on the battlefield would be cruelly tortured to death. The Han people who were forced to go to the front lines had long lost their courage. Sometimes, there would even be cowards who would kneel in front of the army formation and beg for the Black Flag Army to surrender, begging them to quickly die. They could not see any chance of survival for the Black Flag Army, so they did not dare throw themselves into death. The Black Flag Army similarly did not show them any mercy.
In the second half of the fifth year of Jianshuo, the Jurchens' cannons had already begun to gradually be used in the army. The elite Jurchens mixed into the army would launch surprise attacks on the Black Flag Army after the cannons stopped firing. At this time, the Black Flag Army already did not have much gunpowder left, and the Jurchens relied on an endless supply to still have a large amount of gunpowder to squander.
The intelligence sent to the south always seemed simple, but in these mountains, every conflict was so bitter it made it hard for one to breathe. There were also small scale confrontations in the large scale battles. There were small groups of Black Flag Army that were trapped in the mountains until they starved to death. There were those that were ambushed by the army and then killed to the last man. People would find black flags still standing amidst the mountains of corpses. In the harshest environment, in the most despairing land of death, every time the Black Flag Army charged, it made people tremble in fear …
How could people who had never experienced it imagine it?
In such a period of time, the situation in Jiangnan stabilized and continued to develop. The refugees who had fled from the Northern Lands had ample manpower for workshops of all sizes. They no longer had any permanent property and were begging for a mouthful of food. The merchants in the Jiangnan area had a large amount of low-cost labor force. The officials began to sing praises in the court, believing that this was the reason for their painful experience, the symbol of the rise of the Wu dynasty. As for the war in the north, no one said anything, no one dared to say anything, and no one could say anything.
Just like Emperor Jingping, who was locked up in the north like a pig or a dog, every year he would write imperial edicts and sing praises to Emperor Jin. The imperial family also continuously blocked news of the war situation in the northwest. The higher-ups who knew about these things could not say anything. Zhou Pei also had no way to say or think about it. She only received one cruel news after another about the north, reprimanding her younger brother Jun Wu for showing his joy and anger on the outside. As for the news that made her heart palpitate, she did her best to quietly suppress it.
After suppressing these emotions for a long time, they became a natural reaction. Thus, she was no longer too shocked by those tragic news — in any case, every news was tragic — in this peaceful and bustling atmosphere of Jiangnan, sometimes she would suddenly feel that these were all fake. She quietly finished reading them, quietly filed them away, quietly … It was only in the middle of the night, when she was most relaxed in her dreams, that nightmares would suddenly come, reminding her of the corpses that piled up like a mountain, the blood that flowed like a river, the fluttering flags, and the fiercest cries of resistance.
In the background of the Jurchen invasion to the south, millions of people were unable to resist. However, under the most difficult circumstances, the renegade who killed the emperor in anger, firmly nailed himself to a place where he absolutely could not stand. In the face of attacks that could topple mountains and overturn the seas, he firmly grasped the throat of the almost undefeatable powerful enemy. In the three years of bitter fighting, he did not waver.
In this dangerous situation, which was as if the sky was falling, no one had ever been able to do this.
In these three years, Zhou Pei could understand her younger brother's feelings. She could even completely imagine, after receiving the news that Zhong Lie had died for the country in Yanzhou, that the Black Flag Army had killed Ci Buxie on the city wall, and that Qin Shaoqian had charged into Taiyuan, what kind of feelings would those generals like Yue Fei, who had once crossed paths with that demon, feel.
It wasn't just these upper echelons. Many scholars who had access to information about the upper echelons would also talk about the war in the northwest. As people cursed the regicidal demon, they talked about these matters with incomparably subtle emotions in their hearts. How could Zhou Pei not understand these things? It was just that … she was unable to move.
In the sixth year of Jianshuo, the war continued. The Jurchen army came one after another. The situation in the northwest became more and more bitter. The people on the land were almost emptied. The people of the Central Plains became more and more destitute. The losses of the Black Flag Army also increased. It was very difficult for Zhou Pei to know how they managed to survive on that piece of land. But … perhaps he would have more ways to deal with it.
After all, that demon who killed the emperor … was truly a demon who made people tremble in fear.
Jiangnan became more and more stable. She was almost getting used to these things.
When would you fall? She had also thought about it, but every time, she could not continue thinking.
In the sixth year of Jianshuo of the Wu dynasty, on the eighth day of the sixth month, the allied forces of the Jin and the puppet Qi besieged the main force of the Black Flag Army at Huangtou Slope in the northwest. On the thirteenth day, they killed the leader of the Black Flag Army, Ning Yi, and countless bandits. After the military personnel confirmed Ning Yi's corpse, they dismembered it into thousands of pieces. Their heads were presented north to the throne of the Jin Emperor.
That was a scene that had never appeared even in her deepest nightmares for many, many years …
That giant was born from a duckweed. In the time that she watched him, she gradually grew up. She saw his elegance, his humor, his tenacity, and his fierceness … they were not fated. She still remembered that year when she was fifteen, they met again in that courtyard. That night, the stars, that night's wind. She thought that she had suddenly grown up that night. But she did not know why, even if they never met, he would always appear in her life, making her gaze unable to look elsewhere.
She had too many emotions in her heart, too many fantasies. But she had never thought that one day, he would fall.
How could it be? He killed the Emperor. He even killed the Emperor. Didn't he want to save the world …
In the courtyard, it was as hot as a prison. All the prosperity and tranquility seemed like an illusion.
Fake … she thought.
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