Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 356 The fall of Later Shu, the country destroyed in thirty-six days.

Kuizhou.

Duncan led an army of 50,000 men up the Yangtze River from Guizhou, entered the Three Gorges, and successively captured the strongholds of Sanhui (northeast of present-day Wushan, Sichuan) and Wushan. He captured the commander Yuan Dehong and others, annihilated more than 20,000 naval and infantry troops, seized more than 200 warships, and pressed on towards Kuizhou in victory.

Kuizhou was the throat of Badong. The Shu army built a pontoon bridge to lock the river to the east of the city, with three layers of wooden palisades on it and cannons lined up on both sides of the river, making it very heavily fortified.

As the western entrance to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Kuimen is a strategic military location. The river is narrow and the current is rapid. The Shu army concentrated almost all of its elite naval forces here, hoping to use this natural barrier to block the Red Army's offensive.

Three days later.

Duncan led his 3,000 elite naval troops in a fierce attack, and the two sides clashed in a major battle on the main channel of the Yangtze River.

The outcome will be decided in one battle.

The Shu army suffered a major defeat, and tens of thousands of soldiers and generals surrendered.

A strong wind was blowing.

There was a burst of rapid horse hooves sounds.

Duncan, clad in gleaming armor, led over a hundred personal guards to Kuizhou. Before him knelt a vast, dark mass of people, led by Gao Yanchou, the military governor of Kuizhou.

Gao Yanchou was a man of some talent. In the original historical account, when the Northern Song Dynasty attacked Later Shu, he believed that the Song army had come from afar and that a quick battle was the best option. He believed that they should hold their ground and defend their city. However, the supervising officer Wu Shouqian did not listen to his advice and led his more than a thousand men into battle rashly. They suffered a great defeat and were driven into the city. Gao Yanchou fought bravely but failed and died by self-immolation.

This time, however, Gao Yanchou was completely convinced of his defeat, and was even too afraid to look up.

After the Red Army's vanguard force of over a thousand men approached Kuizhou, Gao Yanchou realized that the enemy's foundation was not yet stable and that they were overconfident and reckless. This was a good opportunity to strike a blow against their momentum. Therefore, he did not hesitate to order his navy to attack, intending to annihilate the vanguard of the navy sent by Duncan.

Gao Yanchou mobilized tens of thousands of troops to launch a preemptive attack, but the enemy's strength was unexpectedly overwhelming, and his side suffered heavy losses in the battle.

Before he could regroup his troops, a huge black shadow, more than ten feet long, suddenly appeared in the Yangtze River.

"dragon!"

"Heavens! It's a dragon!..."

The soldiers around Gao Yanchou were filled with terror. Thousands of them trembled as they looked at the huge black shadow at the bottom of the river. He had already gained an absolute advantage in troop strength. Even if he relied on human wave tactics, he could wear down the enemy and even have the strength to return to the city before the enemy's main force arrived. However, the appearance of a black dragon directly changed the entire battle situation.

Within a quarter of an hour, the Shu army's navy suffered a crushing defeat, with countless men kneeling on the deck, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

It really is a dragon!

At least nearly 10,000 people saw the underwater phantom of the dragon.

The black dragon did not fully reveal itself, but more than ten of the Shu army's main warships sank. The dragon's shadow swam back and forth several times at the bottom of the Yangtze River. The morale of the remaining Red Army was greatly boosted, and they pursued the enemy with their victory. With three thousand men, they captured more than twenty thousand people and directly stormed into the city of Kuizhou.

"Recruit as many soldiers and officers as possible who do not have the habit of cannibalism."

"Kill all those who eat people."

There weren't many cannibalistic generals in Shu. There was a surrendered general named Zhao Yantao, who had a notorious reputation, but at most he would just dig out hearts and livers with his own hands. Later Shu was rich and prosperous, so it didn't come to the point of cannibalism. When they attacked the Central Plains, Duncan would have to go on a killing spree.

Zhao Kuangyin's brother-in-law was already on his kill list.

Duncan glanced at Gao Yanchou and the others kneeling on the ground before spurring his horse toward the city.

In the original historical record.

The Northern Song Dynasty destroyed the Later Shu Dynasty in just 66 days.

Duncan has already spent half a month. As the king of kings, he personally led troops to attack Later Shu. He can't possibly be inferior to the historical achievements of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Soldiers are very fast!
After Duncan led his army to capture Kuizhou, he marched west along the Yangtze River, taking over Wan, Kai, Zhong, and Sui (Wanxian, Kaixian, Zhongxian, and Suining in Sichuan) prefectures, and advancing directly towards Chengdu. Li Fengji, Xu Hao, Zhu Li, and others gathered surrendered soldiers along the way, killing some and sparing others.

"Why doesn't Your Majesty allow the Miao people of the Five Immortals Sect to start an uprising in the rear?"

At this moment, Duncan was accompanied by a group of experts from the Great Ming Sect. The benevolent mother, with a slightly puzzled expression, asked, "If the Five Immortals Sect is coordinating from within and without, they should be able to take Chengdu and other places very soon."

Duncan only stayed in Kuizhou for two days before leading his army straight towards Chengdu.

He glanced at Shanmu beside him and said indifferently, "The chieftains of the Miao villages have other uses, and besides, the Miao people have always been unruly."

"Although I saved that Holy Maiden's life, the Five Immortals Sect has not yet completely submitted."

In a word.

Kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

Although Duncan had the ability to instigate the Five Immortals Sect to launch an uprising behind the scenes, making it easier for him to attack Later Shu, he always looked down on martial arts sects. He thought that a sect only had a hundred or so people, so how much of a role could they play in a large-scale war?

Rather than getting them to do the work, it's better to intimidate them and directly subdue all the ethnic minorities in southern Xinjiang.

This battle was fought to show the Miao people!

Duncan will take Dali in the future, and that will be the time to use the mountain troops from the ethnic minorities in southern Xinjiang.

With the fall of Kuizhou, Meng Chang was greatly alarmed and immediately appointed Wang Zhaoyuan as the Commander-in-Chief of the Southeast Army, Zhao Chongtao as the Supervisor, Han Baozheng as the Commander-in-Chief, and Li Jin as the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, to lead troops to defend against the enemy.

Wang Zhaoyuan overestimated his abilities and often compared himself to Zhuge Liang.

Duncan's general Li Yanqing defeated Wang Zhaoyuan and beheaded Li Jin in Kaizhou. He then defeated Han Baozheng in Zhongzhou, capturing more than 10,000 people. Finally, in Suining and other places, Duncan personally led a thousand cavalry on a long-distance raid, winning three battles in a row, defeating tens of thousands of enemies, and capturing Wang Zhaoyuan alive.

The 126th day after the pacification of Jiaozhi.

Duncan's army had reached the outskirts of Chengdu. One army marched straight from Mianzhou to Jianmen Pass, cutting off the northern reinforcements. At this time, Chengdu was heavily besieged, and most of the territory of Later Shu had fallen.

Six days later.

Meng Chang surrendered the city, marking the end of the Later Shu dynasty after 25 years of existence.

When this battle ended, the world was shocked!
From the time Duncan raised his army to the fall of Later Shu, it took a total of 36 days. Most of the time was wasted on troop deployment and logistical support. The actual battles were basically a one-sided rout. The fighting strength of Later Shu was weaker than Duncan had imagined. He himself had very few opportunities to fight. His Suanni Iron Cavalry, Tiger and Leopard Battalion, and Xuanjia Army alone were enough to rout them.

Throughout the battlefield, it was common to see hundreds of cavalrymen chasing and killing thousands or even tens of thousands of soldiers.

Chengdu.

Maha Pool, Crystal Palace.

Duncan gazed at the luxurious palace with its coral-inlaid windows and jade doors, and couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. That damned Meng Chang used nanmu wood for pillars and agarwood for beams, with glazed tiles inlaid on all four sides. Its level of luxury was even more extravagant than that of Liu Chang of the Southern Han Dynasty.

Perhaps because the Later Shu was relatively wealthy, the Crystal Palace it built looked more luxurious than the Roman palace, although it was not large in scale.

"The Northern Song Dynasty took 66 days to conquer the Later Shu."

"It took me 36 days."

"good."

Duncan was quite satisfied with the result, after all, logistics was always a major problem in ancient warfare. Although he raised an army of 50,000, the main fighting force was less than 8,000 men, and the follow-up troops were used to take over the territory of Later Shu and suppress the local forces.

In the original historical account, although it only took the Northern Song Dynasty 66 days to destroy the Later Shu, it took many years to digest the territory of the Later Shu. There were even continuous rebellions and uprisings, raising the banner of resistance against the Song Dynasty among the people of Sichuan. It took more than two years to quell the rebellions in various places, leaving the entire Sichuan province littered with corpses.

For a long time, the people of Sichuan missed Meng Chang and despised Zhao Kuangyin.

There is no other reason.

Zhao Kuangyin once said, "Whenever we capture a city, we will only provide its weapons, armor, and provisions, distributing the rest to our soldiers with money and silk. What I desire is its land."

Simply put, it's about attacking Later Shu. You can do whatever you want, I just want the land of Later Shu.

However, excessive looting led to widespread resentment in Sichuan, eventually triggering a large-scale rebellion. The rebels, mainly composed of Sichuanese people and mostly farmers, numbered around 100,000. In order to suppress their uprising, the Song army massacred almost every part of Sichuan.

Because of this massive looting, the Later Shu suffered an economic collapse, setting it back decades.

Duncan was once the King of Kings. If he dared to say to the Imperial Legion, "I only want land, you can have whatever you want," the Imperial Legion could have plundered the entire area.

Moreover, this was a cannibalistic army from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

During the battles in which the Northern Song Dynasty destroyed the Southern Han Dynasty, the Song army even boiled and ate people, which terrified the Southern Han army and demoralized them.

It is easy to imagine how terrible the calamities were in Sichuan and other places after the fall of Later Shu.

If the original historical route had been followed, after the Song army occupied Chengdu, they allowed their troops to plunder. The Shu army was relocated to Kaifeng, but their pay was withheld, which triggered the Mianzhou Mutiny. Subsequently, Quan Shixiong, the prefect of Wenzhou in Shu, was elected as the leader and launched an uprising. After the Song Dynasty quelled the rebellion, it increased taxes and exploited the local people even more harshly. It even carried out a large-scale retaliatory massacre during the suppression.

The end result was that nine out of ten houses in the Chengdu Plain were empty.

A sea of ​​people.

A sea of ​​corpses and blood.

Duncan was a ruthless killer, but he never left a place so desolate that nine out of ten houses were empty. However, Zhao Kuangyin's soldiers truly decimated the area.

It is because of this that the people of Shu developed a lasting distrust of the central government, and the popular stereotype that "the people of Shu are prone to chaos" arose from this, even influencing the policy-making of later generations towards Shu.

From Duncan's perspective, the pace of life in Sichuan is still quite comfortable.

Where did the saying "the people of Shu are chaotic" come from?

Here's a little-known fact: During the Yuan Dynasty, Sichuan resisted the Mongol invasion. After the Mongol army killed Möngke Khan at Diaoyu Fortress, the Yuan army carried out retaliatory massacres, causing Sichuan's population to plummet from 1300 million in the Southern Song Dynasty to 60 (only about 4% of the population remained), and its civilization was completely destroyed.

Most people know about the Battle of Yamen, where 100,000 soldiers and civilians jumped into the sea, leading to the downfall of the Han dynasty. But how many know that in the vast province of Sichuan, only this many people survived?

After the Qing army entered Sichuan, the Sichuan military and civilians resisted for more than ten years, resulting in no intact households in the cities and no survivors.

This led to the later migration of people from Hubei and Hunan to Sichuan, resulting in a cultural break that lasted for hundreds of years.

The people of Sichuan did not only live up to the spirit of the Chinese nation in modern times; they have never failed China. From the Yuan Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty to modern times, the people of Sichuan fought to the last drop of blood every time, and the intensity of their struggles almost always came at a devastating cost. Moreover, this often happened during times of national subjugation. If it was just the fall of a country, Sichuan was still quite peaceful. For example, during the late Tang and Five Dynasties period, Sichuan actually fared relatively well, much more comfortably than the people of the Central Plains and the Southern Han Dynasty.

It even became a "paradise" in times of chaos.

Even after Duncan conquered Chengdu, the price of grain there was only half that of the Central Plains, and in times of peace it was probably only about one-third.

The Land of Abundance is so prosperous that even a dog could be emperor and govern it well.

Meng Chang was so extravagant, amassed a large number of beautiful women, had thousands of palace maids, and even built a crystal palace with diamond-encrusted chamber pots. Sichuan was still very wealthy, and the people still missed him even after the fall of Later Shu.

However, in the early Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan became a major hotspot for rebellion. It can only be said that they played a winning hand so poorly that it was a disaster. No wonder the Song Dynasty was never able to achieve unification.

Therefore, the claim that "the people of Shu are prone to chaos" is completely unfounded. It was Zhao Kuangyin's unrestrained plundering that led to the uprisings and rebellions of the people of Sichuan.

The prosperity of Tokyo later also drew upon the resources of the entire nation, with Sichuan and Chongqing being particularly important sources of this wealth. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Sichuan's tax revenue once accounted for one-third of the country's total fiscal revenue.

Later generations came to say that "the people of Sichuan did not fail their country".

The people of Sichuan and Chongqing absolutely deserved the Song Dynasty's trust. Of the tens of millions of people, only six or seven hundred thousand survived; they were practically wiped out.

In modern times, Sichuan soldiers and civilians went out of the province to fight against the Japanese. Liu Xiang died for his country. The people of Sichuan cursed and swore that this warlord, who had levied taxes until 1975, was carried into the Wuhou Temple to enjoy incense offerings.

This is truly a case of constant cursing and swearing, going on for decades. They still curse as much as they want, and even after they've finished cursing, they still have incense offerings.

For Duncan, Sichuan was a much better territory than the Southern Han.

The population, economy, handicrafts, Shu brocade, and so on were all more prosperous than the Guangdong and Guangxi regions today, but that did not stop him from confiscating their property. The powerful and wealthy people here still had to have their property confiscated.

Treat the people of Sichuan well.

After Duncan entered Bashu, he attached great importance to military discipline. The armies of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms had to be severely disciplined. This time, the person in charge of military law was Lu Shanjun.

Along the way, they looted local areas, plundered wealth, and committed numerous acts of rape and abuse against women.

The solution he adopted was also very simple.

Chop off their heads!
Duncan was quite adept at this; he had used this method to maintain discipline when he commanded Imperial Legions and barbarian armies. For those illiterate soldiers, no amount of reasoning worked; only blood and fire could make them obey orders.

If barbarians can be made to obey military discipline by law enforcement teams, the armies of this world can be made to obey the same rules, it's just a matter of cutting off a few hundred or a thousand more heads.

The arrogant and fierce generals of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, once they died, they died. It's good that some of them died, and that the world is at peace.

Since entering Sichuan, the elite troops on the front lines have not suffered many casualties, while the receiving troops in the rear have lost more than a dozen heads every day. In some counties and places, they would kill a few of their own people first to celebrate, as the enemy's heads were being cut off faster than their own. They would then display the heads in the city to tell the people that the Red Army was a little different from other armies.

After conquering Kuizhou, some officers and soldiers allowed their troops to plunder. Lu Shanjun took off the heads of the officers and soldiers, and the law enforcement team executed 37 people, beheading them directly at the river mouth. Countless onlookers gathered around.

After the subsequent troops took over Wanzhou and Kaizhou, Lu Shanjun discovered that some people were abducting women, and even secretly kidnapping dozens of women to be publicly raped in the military camp. (Note: The Southern Han army had a tradition of abducting women to serve as military prostitutes in the camp.)
On that day, Lu Shanjun removed 327 heads, all of which belonged to the army under Liu Chang of the Southern Han Dynasty. After the Embroidered Uniform Guard secretly reported to Duncan, he gave his approval, and the next day, from officers to soldiers, they were all killed. Tens of thousands of soldiers watched the beheading.

Lu Shanjun, wielding a machete, led the enforcement team, personally suppressing the unrest and supervising the execution on the spot, his tiger-like might intimidating the entire army.

Even though so many were killed.

However, when conquering Mianzhou, Zhongzhou, Suizhou and other places, there were still people who were courting death. It can only be said that people in this era have become wild and wicked. Some soldiers and generals who have eaten people only have death as a good end. Lord Lushan personally led the law enforcement team and beheaded another 121 people.

They marched and killed their way through, losing hundreds of heads in their own army.

Duncan's rise to prominence was relatively recent.

Even though he reorganized the Southern Han army and enforced strict military discipline, he couldn't be perfect in every aspect. When it came to battle, without anyone to keep them in check, they immediately revealed their true colors. Some of the Southern Han generals who had surrendered were incredibly skilled at plundering the local area, even managing to deceive the supervising officer and allow their troops to loot without his knowledge.

at last.

After killing wave after wave, the troops that arrived in Chengdu finally behaved themselves, realizing that disobeying military discipline meant losing their heads.

It's not that no one is dissatisfied, but they should keep their dissatisfaction to themselves. As long as Duncan can win, they will obediently submit.

Duncan will eventually replace all of these players.

During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, obedient military officers were kept alive, while disobedient ones were killed. By killing one batch and replacing it with another, it made room for newcomers.

Lu Shanjun slaughtered his way through the city, and when his army arrived in Chengdu, while it may not be said that they committed no offenses, they were at least a respectable army, resembling a kingly force.

"His Majesty."

"How should we accommodate the thousands of palace servants in Meng Chang's palace?"

Lu Qiongxian appeared, followed by several women, all from the Xingwang Mansion. Meng Chang's harem was also very large, and if soldiers were to manage it, they would inevitably be subjected to rape and humiliation. Only Lu Qiongxian could be in charge.

Upon hearing this, Duncan raised his head, put down the memorial in his hand, pondered for a moment, and then said, "Select some of the soldiers in the army who are unmarried."

His harem was already quite large.

Needless to say, Liu Chang's palace was full of palace maids and eunuchs. Duncan couldn't even take in all the female relatives of him, his father, and more than a dozen of his brothers. There were nearly a hundred relatives, wives, and daughters of Liu Chang's uncles alone in the harem of the Prince of Xing's mansion.

Lu Qiongxian also ruled over the Hehuan lineage of the Demonic Sect. Of the ten beauties, only five remained, each of whom managed dozens of female relatives.

Even with a million things to do every day, they still can't keep up.

Meng Chang's side was even more outrageous.

There were thousands of palace women in the Chengdu palace. He selected many young women to enter the palace, and there were one or two thousand unmarried women of marriageable age alone. There was simply no way to accommodate so many people. If Duncan took in more, the number of palace women would approach ten thousand, not to mention that the Southern Han also had one or two thousand eunuchs.

What does he need so many people in his harem for?
Following His Majesty, one gets land, women, and everything else. There's not much to say about this era. Duncan released some of the palace women, and the rest were directly married off to the elite troops he selected.

As for the miscellaneous troops of the Southern Han, let's put them aside for now; this part still needs to be dealt with.

He seriously underestimated the limits of the military in this era.

Even though it is explicitly forbidden, some people still dare to act recklessly.

Perhaps it's because the turmoil has lasted too long since the late Tang Dynasty that some military men's values ​​have become fixed and cannot be changed. To them, the common people are just fish to be slaughtered. If they win a battle, wouldn't it be a waste if they didn't rob money and women?
The best way to deal with this kind of person is to send them to be reincarnated and reformed.

The Southern Han army that was incorporated into the army was killed one by one, and there were probably some who escaped. But Duncan couldn't kill that many, because the world was in bad shape and people's hearts were corrupted, so they still had to try to salvage the situation.

However, the practice of abducting women into military camps for sexual abuse is a long-standing problem of the Southern Han army, and it must be severely punished; killing as many women as possible is not excessive.

Outside the palace.

A palace maid whispered, "Minister Lu, why don't you inquire about how to deal with Meng Chang's concubines?"

"What should be done with Lady Huarui, Li Yanniang, and the others?"

Lu Qiongxian turned her head and glanced at her, coldly rebuking, "Foolish."

Upon hearing this, the palace maid immediately trembled with fear.

Lu Qiongxian was graceful and had snow-white skin. She loved wearing white clothes and usually looked like a white lotus flower. However, she was extremely ruthless when she used her methods. She turned and left without looking back, and went directly to the palace where Lady Huarui was being housed.

What other options are there?

Could it be that Meng Chang's concubines will also be given away as rewards?

After all, she was once the emperor's concubine, and such a person could never be released from the palace again. She should first discipline her and then ask His Majesty's opinion.

The twelfth day after the fall of Later Shu.

After gaining control of the Sichuan Basin, Duncan deployed a large force in Jingnan, eyeing the Central Plains, while secretly mobilizing troops to establish a presence on the border of the Southern Tang Dynasty.

News travels very slowly in this era.

Just as the world was shocked that the Later Shu dynasty had perished in just thirty-six days, Zhao Kuangyin also accomplished a historic feat this year: "releasing military power over a cup of wine."

On the ninth day of the seventh month of this year, in order to prevent history from repeating itself, Zhao Kuangyin adopted Zhao Pu's suggestion and used threats and inducements to coerce and entice generals such as Shi Shouxin at a banquet, forcing them to hand over their military power and retire to their hometowns, thus taking back the generals' military power.

This means that the Northern Song Dynasty had entered a strong stage of centralized power, exerting a certain degree of institutional dominance over other separatist forces.

The news reached Kaifeng.

Inside a Taoist temple, the Taoist priest Lingsu was shocked and looked at the person in front of her, saying, "What did you say?"

"Did the Later Shu dynasty fall?"

He had destroyed a country in thirty-six days. Not long ago, he went to Mount Lu to find a master to come out of the mountains, but the master avoided him and wasted almost half a month of his time. It was not that he did not know about the attack on Later Shu, but in his opinion, it was difficult to determine the winner in a war between countries without a year or two.

After Zhao Kuangyin released his generals from their military power over a cup of wine, the Northern Song Dynasty rose to power. If they could then unite with the Southern Tang, they could certainly prevent the Southern Tang from invading the Central Plains.

This is too fast!
Not only was Ling Su Dao Ren caught off guard, but everyone else was also caught off guard. After the news reached the Southern Tang Dynasty, Li Yu immediately sent the Minister of Revenue with generous gifts to the Prince of Xing's residence to pay tribute.

Previously, the Southern Tang Dynasty respected the Later Zhou Dynasty as the legitimate successor of the Central Plains. After Zhao Kuangyin's Chenqiao Mutiny, the Southern Tang Dynasty then respected the Northern Song Dynasty as the legitimate successor of the Central Plains.

It seems now.

The rightful ruler of the world has changed; whoever can fight is the rightful heir of China.

The destruction of a country in thirty-six days is destined to be recorded in history.

The Taoist priest Lingsu cast a divination.

To his surprise, the divination result was 'very auspicious'.

………………

(End of this chapter)