Tiger Guards

Chapter 723 A Lone Army Destroys a Nation
Liangzhou, in Hezhong.

As the spring breeze blows, the Zhao-character battle flags stand neatly on the south bank of the Li River.

On the rough wooden platform, Zhao Yun sat motionless, his expression serious, revealing no emotional fluctuation.

Before the high platform, Song Jian, the King of Pinghan of Heshou, was escorted to the only small wooden platform.

After enduring severe torture, Song Jian had extracted almost all the information he could.

Behind the wooden platform stood rows of civil and military officials, all of whom had been subjected to torture.

Through corroboration of the information revealed during the torture, the wealth of these families, both publicly and privately, was essentially completely exposed.

As the chain of events continued, even the Han and Qiang chieftains in Huangzhong, Wuwei, and Zhangye were implicated.

After the torture and interrogation ended, these officials, both high and low, who had accepted official positions in Song Jian's puppet state, had been squeezed dry of their last bit of usefulness.

With the various confessions obtained, plus the old grievances against Han Sui, the powerful and influential people of Liangzhou were basically all captured.

Only some powerful families in the northern regions and the two prefectures of Anding escaped this round of purges. Some of these people had already joined the Jin army, but some would be implicated in the subsequent investigation and would also fall.

On the execution ground by the Li River, as the supervising official finished reading the verdict aloud, the already soothing rhythm of the drums also stopped.

Fewer than a thousand innocent civilians remain in the river, anxiously awaiting their fate.

More than 10,000 prisoners, along with their families, watched nearby, now too afraid to even cry, staring blankly at the execution ground.

Zhao Yun stared at Song Jian, who was barely clinging to life, and said nothing more. He picked up the command arrow from the table, held it high, and then threw it forward: "Execute him!"

"Execution!"

The flag officer standing to the side shouted loudly, and soon the drums started beating again, the rhythm becoming more intense.

Song Jian was immediately pinned down on the small wooden platform. Four armored soldiers pressed down on his arms and legs from below. A burly warrior dragged an axe onto the platform and, without delay, slowly raised the axe and steadily chopped down at Song Jian's waist and back.

Song Jian was already numb, but when the axe fell with a strange sound, he didn't feel pain at first. Instead, he felt a deeper numbness and emptiness.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Song Jian took a deep breath before feeling intense pain and began to howl and struggle.

The two armored soldiers who had been holding down his arms had already left the wooden platform and were far away; while the armored soldier who was holding down Song Jian's two calves was unable to dodge in time and was drenched in blood gushing from the severed upper body. He was wiping the blood off his face with his sleeves.

Soon, the other rows of traitors awaiting execution were escorted by two armored soldiers to the riverbank wetlands.

A line of fifty traitors, after dragging themselves for over thirty steps to their positions, stood in formation. A row of swordsmen, swords raised, glanced sideways at the executioner holding the flag.

Seeing the prisoners lined up neatly, the executioner expressionlessly waved down the red flag in his hand.

Fifty swordsmen simultaneously swung their swords and slashed down.

Heads rolled off, and streaks of blood gushed out from the severed necks, some stretching for more than ten feet, others flowing like a spring, splashing only near the body cavity.

Some bodies convulsed instinctively, and the soldiers responsible for escorting them held their arms tightly to prevent the headless bodies from swaying wildly, lest blood splatter onto them.

After a few breaths, the soldiers saw that the gushing blood was losing its momentum and the corpses were no longer twitching violently, so they dragged the remains away for more than a hundred paces and threw them into the trench they had dug.

These trenches have been filled with large logs, and thick piles of firewood and straw have been laid beneath them.

As the first batch of mutilated corpses were thrown in, the second batch of condemned prisoners had already been piled up on the riverbank. The executioners swung their knives in unison, and another row of well-dressed elites had their heads fall to the ground.

Zhao Yun calmly watched the execution scene before him. His detachment had advanced very quickly, but Han Sui's retreat on the Longyou battlefield had also been swift.

As a result, when Zhao Yun's 10,000-strong cavalry of Shuofang Yicong arrived at Yongshichuan, Han Sui's detachment left there had already been suddenly attacked from behind by Zhang Xiu and Yang Qiu, who were marching rapidly, and was defeated in one fell swoop.

When the three armies joined forces to besiege Jincheng, the people of Jincheng wisely turned against Han Sui's garrison and welcomed the imperial army into Jincheng.

Then Zhao Yun pursued Song Jian into Hezhong, while Zhang Xiu entered Huangzhong, leaving Yang Qiu to guard Jincheng, intercept and kill the Han and Qiang rebels under Han Sui's command.

The reason why no one has dealt with Song Jian, who has been king for so many years, is not because Song Jian or his small kingdom is particularly strong or tenacious, but because this barren land has no decent output and does not affect the overall situation of Liangzhou.

With Han Sui blocking their way, no one could get past him to deal with Song Jian. Although the Hebei Righteous Cavalry under Zhao Yun's command were mainly composed of Xianbei, Xiongnu, and northern Qiang people, these tribes had always lived a life of farming, herding, fishing, and hunting in relatively high-altitude areas. Therefore, the altitude of the Hehuang region did not affect them, and it was even quite suitable for some of the Righteous Cavalry.

The so-called Heshou Pinghan Kingdom was utterly worthless and easily defeated.

After Zhao Ji subdued the Xiongnu and Xianbei, Zhao Yun became the second general to lead an army to conquer a country.

Although it was a pseudo-kingdom, only half the size of a prefecture with a population of less than 30,000 households, it was still a kingdom after all, with all the necessary bureaucratic framework.

Zhao Yun, leading his army alone, completed the pursuit of King Song Jian and the purge of his officials in the country in four months.

Zhao Yun didn't want to execute so many people at once unless it was absolutely necessary.

There was nothing they could do; these were all seasoned traitors, veterans who had followed Song Jianli in establishing the country.

Over the years, Song Jian and Han Sui have worked together, and Han Sui has sometimes allied with Ma Teng and sometimes fought against him, making Liangzhou a mess.

Those beheaded today were almost all beneficiaries of the chaos in Liangzhou.

While these people are also victims in a broad sense, they are not at all aggrieved compared to other simple victims.

The executions began at noon and were not considered complete until around 4 p.m.

More than 1,300 heads were cut off and piled up on a high point on the southeast bank of the Li River to form a platform. Before nightfall, the heads were stacked layer by layer on the platform and covered with yellow mud.

Otherwise, if the flesh rots and the skull loses its support, it would fall to the ground and lose its deterrent effect and purpose.

As night fell, firewood in the trench piled with corpses was ignited upwind, and the flames roared into the sky.

The wind was already strong here at night, and the firewood, soaked with grease, burned with flames that were twelve or thirteen feet high.

No one can accurately measure its height; the surrounding flames are scorching, and no one dares to approach.

When the fire is intense enough, it is difficult to smell the burning.

Inside the stone city, Zhao Yun watched the fire burning outside the city and then picked up the military letter that Zhao Ji had recently sent and began to read it.

Before Song Jian declared himself king, the administration of the Hezhong region was far less effective than that of Huangzhong. Huangzhong also had a large county called Xining, and the prefecture and county were often integrated. During Wang Mang's reign, in order to make up the "four seas" (referring to the four seas), there was also a Xihai (West Sea) in Xining, so the regional control was strengthened in terms of institutional setup.

However, it did not have the corresponding strengthening effect in practice, but Wang Mang's establishment of Xihai Commandery did have a positive aspect.

For example, at this time, Zhao Ji sent a military letter proposing to establish a new prefecture in the Hezhong region, changing the name of the Li River to the Daxia River. This new prefecture was called Xiayang Prefecture, which would be closely linked to Xining Prefecture, which controlled Huangzhong in the northwest.

By conquering a country and establishing a prefecture, as long as Xiayang Prefecture still exists, Zhao Yun's feat of conquering a country with a single army will continue to exist and be known to the world.

At this moment, Zhao Yun repeatedly read Zhao Ji's transfer order, his feelings somewhat complicated.

The rebels under Zhao Yun's command are now showing signs of homesickness and a desire to return to the four commanderies of Shuofang. This is not something Zhao Yun can easily suppress.

Therefore, Zhao Ji did not need to emphasize that Zhao Yun's volunteer troops should also be withdrawn and disbanded, and then the next batch of volunteer troops would be recruited starting at the end of August.

Zhao Yun was not worried about the disbandment of his army, but about the impending war in Liaodong.

This war will inevitably involve Youzhou and Jizhou, and he may have to lead his troops back to his hometown again.

The Kingdom of Changshan was already in ruins, and the King of Changshan was executed along with his entire clan during the winter by Yuan Shao on charges of treason.

The remaining royal forces of Zhongshan and Zhao were also completely destroyed by Yuan Shao. Now, only Pingyuan and Hejian remain in Ji Province. The other kingdoms and marquisates have been uprooted by the Yuan family.

Although Yuan Shao was directly responsible for such a huge loss, the underlying reason was that Zhao Ji and the Empress issued an edict that gave the royal family members and princes the right to seize power.

Zhao Yun wasn't blaming the Empress Dowager, but rather he couldn't bear to see his hometown ravaged by war again.

He knew Yuan Shao too well. If war broke out, Changshan State, especially the Zhen Ding area, would definitely be turned into a no-man's land by Yuan Shao's scorched-earth policy in advance.

(End of this chapter)