Destroy Jin and conquer Song, and carry the Northern Expedition through to the end

Chapter 949 Many Righteous Men in Yan and Zhao

October 15th.

How should history record this day?

Should we consider this day the beginning of a great era, or the end of a chaotic and war-torn world? Or perhaps the end of one kind of beginning, or the beginning of another?
Should we praise the greatness of humanity, or should we condemn the baseness of human nature?

Should we be elated? Or should we lament?
Even centuries later, opinions on these matters remain divided and there is no consensus.

However, every historian, when recording the beginning of this day, will always use one event as the starting point.

On October 15th, the Han army besieged Yanjing.

After countless battles, Liu Huai, the King of Han, led the heroes of the Han people and, after six years, finally arrived here.

Having arrived at the capital of the Jin Dynasty, the Han soldiers were unwilling to wait even a second longer. After setting up a makeshift siege camp, they immediately volunteered to be the first to attack the city.

Wenren Ziqi was the first to jump out, clutching his belt, and shouted, "King of Han, I saw it clearly. After the Jin emperor entered the city, he never came out at all."

Our Five Deer Army… oh… and the Heavenly Hero Army too, had already divided our forces to block the city gates. Unless the Jin emperor could fly, there was absolutely no way he could escape!

Wang Youzhi was immediately enraged.

What does it mean to still be considered part of the Tianxiong Army?

Just like how the Tianxiong Army was a follower of the Wulu Army.

Liu Huai pointed and said, "Sit back! This is a meeting, not your time to speak!"

"Oh!" Wenren Ziqi immediately slunk back to his seat.

Although Liang Su was interrupted, he was not annoyed.

After all, we are now in a situation of great victory, where we can win no matter how we fight. The only difference is whether we win in a graceful manner.

On the other hand, if we were to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Jin army's remnants after a great victory, then everyone would be shamed and their names would be etched in history books.

Thinking of this, Liang Su couldn't help but suppress his excitement and continue talking about military strategy: "The Liu family of Youzhou has completely sided with our side. Liu E has already found a way to enter the city and contact the powerful families of Youyan."

According to him, after the Battle of Huolu, no one will dare to oppose our army, and I believe him.

But the Jin Dynasty was once a great nation with vast territory. Under such benevolent rule, who can guarantee that no one will defy the will of Heaven?

Therefore, the powerful clans of Youyan can be trusted, even believed, to open the city gates, but the armies must be prepared for the difficulties of attacking the city.

The engineers and artillery of each army are all in position. Once the signal for the general offensive is given, if no one opens the city gates, can they simply be blown open?

The generals all agreed.

"At the same time, each unit must allocate reserve troops to scale the city walls using simple siege ladders. Once the main army enters the city, military judges and imperial guards from each unit will be mobilized. Anyone who dares to violate the law will be executed without mercy!"

After Liang Su played the bad cop, it was Liu Huai's turn to play the good cop, as usual.

"I have nothing more to say. Rewards and punishments are already clear, and military strategy is also in my mind. Here I only have one sentence to say to you all."

Liu Huai stood up, supporting his sword, and slowly looked around at the generals in the tent: "The place we are in now is land that the Han people lost more than two hundred years ago. It is said that the Han people speak the language of the barbarians, yet they curse the Han people from the city walls."

If judged by the hearts of the people, this land no longer belongs to the Han. What we must do is to win back the hearts of the people who have been lost over the past two hundred years. Therefore, we must not only win this battle, but win it spectacularly.

"Let all the people of the world, and all future generations, witness the majesty of the Han Dynasty!"

"Here!"

Amidst resounding responses, the generals returned to their respective camps, while Liu Huai raised his command flag outside the south gate of Yanjing.

The Han army only established a siege camp, while the attack camp consisted of only a few wooden fences and barricades.

However, even in such a simple siege camp, when the Han soldiers began to prepare for the attack, it still caused a commotion on the walls of Yanjing.

The defending troops almost immediately panicked, and several sections of the city walls collapsed without a fight.

This is to be expected. In just one month, the Jin Dynasty lost 70,000 regular troops. How could the remaining second-line garrison troops possibly hold out?
Moreover, of these 70,000 people, more than 20,000 were local soldiers from Youyan. Only a few thousand returned intact, and the morale of the army was on the verge of collapse, causing panic throughout the city.

When a Khitan general saw that Yanjing was truly beyond defense, he immediately went to the Duke of Cao's mansion to find Yelü Wowo.

"Duke! Duke! Something terrible has happened!" Upon seeing Yelü Wowo, the Khitan general, disregarding the strong smell of alcohol, grabbed the man's hand and burst into tears.

Yelü Wowo opened his sleepy eyes, shifted his large body, and slowly said, "Is there not enough wine? Go and buy more right away!"

Upon seeing Yelü Wowo's demeanor, the Khitan general was momentarily stunned, then overwhelmed with grief, his sobs growing louder: "Waaah... How heroic and valiant the commander was back then! Why... why did he succumb to the corrupting influence of wine and women after only a few years in Yanjing? What... what should we Khitans do! Waaah..."

Yelü Wowo was getting annoyed, but still asked helplessly, "Stop crying, explain now what happened?"

The Khitan general burst into tears, unable to stop, but still pointed towards the city wall and forced himself to say, "Commander, the Han army is here! The Han king has come to reclaim Yanjing! The Great Jin... the Great Jin is doomed..." Yelü Wowo was even more helpless. He cupped the Khitan general's face and said, "The Great Jin is doomed, but it's not the Great Liao that's doomed. Why are you crying?"

The Khitan general's crying stopped abruptly, and a look of confusion appeared on his face.

Yes, the Jurchens were about to be destroyed, so why were the Khitans crying?

Yelü Wowo continued, "Moreover, that Han king is not an unreasonable person. Kuoli and the old monk also served in his army. They just changed their surnames. It's still the Han surname given by our ancestors. What does it matter?"

The Khitan general wiped away his tears and nodded emphatically: "Then I will protect the governor, open the city gates, and let the Han army in."

Yelü Wowo shook his head and chuckled: "Do as you please. I need to go to the palace. In my whole life, I've always given up halfway through everything I've done. I wasn't happy being the chief clerk of the Musiting Bureau, so I joined the rebel army. I wanted to be emperor, but I didn't have the guts. I couldn't succeed as a rebel, so I came to surrender to the Great Jin. Now I should finally do something that I can see through to the end."

The Khitan general looked somewhat flustered, but Yelü Wowo reassured him again, saying, "I must meet with His Majesty and persuade him to surrender. You go first, I will follow shortly."

The Khitan general breathed a sigh of relief, feeling a great weight lifted off his shoulders. After agreeing, he immediately turned and left.

With the help of his servants, Yelü Wowo struggled to put on the iron tunic, but because his waist was too big and he was too obese, he could not fasten the skirt armor no matter what he did, so he threw it aside.

Afterwards, Yelü Wowo struggled to mount his horse and, together with more than ten personal guards, headed towards the palace.

Needless to say, the journey was filled with chaos and war. Even the palace gates were wide open and unguarded. Yelü Wowo rode his warhorse and arrived at the Wende Hall almost without any obstacles.

"His Majesty!"

Yelü Wowo struggled to dismount his warhorse and looked at Wanyan Yong, whose face was now deathly pale, and said, "Your subject has arrived."

Wanyan Yong stared at Yelü Wowo for a long while before laughing and saying, "Today we are not about ruler and subject, but about brothers. You and I are sworn brothers, so let's not be so formal."

Yelü Wowo laughed as well, staggering to his feet, but couldn't help but recall the scene of their sworn brotherhood.

Comparing the scene to today in his mind, Yelü Wowo could only sigh, "Brother, how strong we were back then! How weak we have become now!"

Wanyan Yong ignored the sigh and looked intently at Yelü Wowo, saying, "Brother, do you know why I haven't summoned you to participate in the decisions recently?"

Yelü Wowo's alcohol-fueled brain suddenly became somewhat clear: "Even if I didn't understand at first, I can figure it out now. My brother wanted to leave me a way out when the Great Jin was defeated and destroyed."

Wanyan Yong remained noncommittal: "Since you've thought of that, why have you come to the palace now? Do you intend to offer Fei Hu Zi my head as a greeting gift?"

Yelü Wowo shook his head directly: "That's not it. I've already betrayed one sworn brother, and I really don't want to betray a second one. Today, let me live and die with my brother."

Wanyan Yong burst into laughter, only stopping when tears streamed down his face.

He got up and came to Yelü Wowo, took the other’s fat hands and said sincerely, “When we became sworn brothers, there were indeed political calculations, considerations of people’s hearts, and some shady tricks.”

"But after this day, who dares to say we are not truly sworn brothers? My dear brother, please wait a moment. I have already summoned the loyal ministers of the Great Jin to do one last thing. Then, I will find a way to demonstrate to the world the strength of our brotherhood."

Yelü Wowo could only nod repeatedly, and then, for some unknown reason, he burst out laughing.

……

"Ha ha ha ha."

In the Hall of State Affairs in Lin'an City, after months of intrigue and power struggles, Yu Yunwen finally laughed heartily for the first time.

Looking at the drizzling rain outside the door, he said to Chen Junqing, "Master Chen, the Emperor Emeritus has finally agreed to move the capital. All obstacles have disappeared, and this matter can finally be settled."

Chen Junqing, however, showed no joy: "Alas, this may implicate the Emperor in an act of filial impiety."

Yu Yunwen suppressed his smile and said with some helplessness, "This is already the best outcome. We pushed everything onto Liu Dalang and used his progress in the Northern Expedition as a threat to force the Emperor Emeritus to make concessions. We couldn't push the Emperor out of the picture."

Chen Junqing flipped through the documents in his hand, equally helpless: "In just one month, they have swept through half of Hebei. The Jin army does not dare to confront them at all. They truly have the style of famous generals of the past. If Liu Dalang were still in our court, wouldn't the restoration of the country be within our grasp?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Yunwen inevitably thought of Wei Sheng and Lu You again, and felt sad: "Forget it, let's not talk about these things anymore. It's already like this, and we, as husband and wife, can only try to fix it."

"Report!"

Just as the two ministers were talking privately in the alley, a palace official rushed in to report: "Minister Yu, the Emperor summons you."

"Understood." Yu Yunwen stood up, and without even taking out an umbrella, walked directly into the misty drizzle.

A moment later, several riders dressed in hemp clothing and dressed as servants arrived outside the gate of the government office, looking for Yu Yunwen's carriage.

After spending some money, the head servant finally got accurate information from the other servants who were taking care of the carriage.

"Don't bother looking anymore. Prime Minister Yu just left. Judging from the direction he's going, he should be heading to the palace."

The lead rider removed his straw hat, gazed in the direction of the palace, and muttered to himself, "Is it too late?"

(End of this chapter)