Simulates history, but Chongzhen is the Divine Emperor at the beginning

Chapter 279 Searching the mountains and seas to capture Zhao Gou!

[Have they captured the Jin dynasty?]

Your heart skipped a beat upon hearing this news...

Although you don't have a direct emotional bond with your son, and you've only met a handful of times, the older you get, the more you care about the continuation of your bloodline... After all, you never formally married or took a concubine, and this branch of your bloodline, which was accidentally conceived in your early years, is your only descendant.

Based on this, even if you've never been father and son for a single day, you'll subconsciously care about him...

But in those chaotic times of war, it was virtually impossible to find someone who had been captured and taken to the Jin Kingdom on your own. And to mobilize the Song army to search for someone within Jin territory was even more of a pipe dream… Leaving aside the immense difficulty, the mere thought of the news spreading would be distasteful: the Grand Tutor of the Song Dynasty disregarding the safety of the Song army and sending a large force to the enemy country to search for an illegitimate child…

[If this news gets out, it will not only affect the morale of the Southern Song Dynasty in resisting the Jin, but it will also directly expose your son... Being captured by the Jin soldiers may not necessarily kill him, but exposing him will definitely put him in danger!]

After much deliberation, you finally and reluctantly gave up the idea of ​​going to the Jin Kingdom to find him, and could only grit your teeth and silently pray for him.

The nation is in turmoil, and the people are displaced; even you, as the Grand Tutor, are not immune to this fate...

【…】

In the 260th year of the Shaoxing era, you abandoned your search for your son, who was far away in the Jin Kingdom, and instead continued to lead the resistance against the Jin!

[In order to inflict as many casualties as possible on the southward-bound Jin army, and in order to maintain the stability of the people's livelihood in Jiangnan as much as possible, you have done your best to manage the government affairs and maximize the efficiency of the Song Dynasty's administration... You have done your best.]

Yet, a deep gloom lingered in your heart, for you knew that under the Jin dynasty's relentless bleed-out tactics, the Southern Song had become utterly impoverished and weak. Not only had its elite forces been almost entirely wiped out, but its economy and people's livelihoods were also on the verge of collapse, just one step away from national demise!

[The Jin dynasty only needs one more major southward invasion to easily annihilate the remaining elite troops of the Song dynasty, destroy the Jianghuai defense line, and then capture Lin'an, burying the Song dynasty in its final resting place...]

Now that things have come to this, perhaps the only lifeline is the Emperor Zhao!

[You understand, as long as Zhao Gou uses his profound powers again, covering the Song Dynasty's territory with divine strength as before, the Jin threat can be eliminated, and the Song and Jin can continue to govern separately along the Yangtze River!]

But... He simply wouldn't do that.

[His reason was that his divine power had weakened, so he was powerless to save Song, but you know he was actually faking it... He might have indeed weakened to some extent, but it was far from enough to suddenly become useless, leading to the current crisis. It was all his deliberate doing.]

[He intends to use this national crisis to provoke you into kneeling and surrendering to Him, to satisfy His "groin literature"... or to force you to turn against Him, and then He will forcefully subject you to "groin literature"!]

[You claim to love your people like your own children? Then I'll put those people you cherish like your own children in grave danger, and see if you'll still give in...]

This strategy is unsolvable; at least for now, you really can't do anything about it. Dignity and the people are like fish and bear's paw—you can't have both.

And what is your choice?

Answer: Dignity!

You couldn't sacrifice yourself for the people to that extent. In the end, you chose your family over the greater good. And since that's the case, even if you knew your choice would lead to the destruction of the country and the ruin of your family, there was nothing you could do...

However, you will not stand idly by and watch the Song Dynasty perish, for the day the Song Dynasty falls will be the day you commit suicide for your country!

Consider it atonement...

【…】

[In the 261st year of the Shaoxing era, the year after you defeated those ten thousand Jin soldiers, the Jin army marched south again!]

[And this time is different from the past. It seems that the Jin Dynasty had already calculated the limits of the Southern Song's fighting strength. They knew that the bloodletting tactics had already exhausted the Southern Song to the point of exhaustion, so this time, they decided to deliver the final blow to the Southern Song!]

That year, the Jin dynasty appointed the veteran general Wanyan Zongbi (Wuzhu) as the commander-in-chief to destroy the Song dynasty, and several other members of the Jin royal family as commanders of detachments... Zongbi led 300,000 troops out of Xinye, crossed the Han River to attack Xiangyang and Yue Fei, while the other detachments each led 100,000 troops to attack the Huai River region, Hanzhong, and other areas, destroying a total of over 600,000 Song troops!

In order to wipe out the Southern Song Dynasty in one fell swoop, the Jin Dynasty directly ignited a war that stretched for thousands of miles along the border between the two countries...

Upon hearing of the Jin army's southward advance, your heart sank. You immediately ordered Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, and other border generals to abandon key border towns like Xiangyang, and to bring the remaining elite troops back to Lin'an, where all armies would jointly defend the capital!

[After all, it's obvious we can't hold out any longer. Dividing our forces to defend it would just be suicide. We might as well concentrate our strength for a final, decisive battle!]

This battle is a certain death sentence. After this battle, the Song Dynasty, which has lasted for over four hundred years, will come to an end!

In these final moments, you decided to give the Song Dynasty a dignified and glorious exit, rather than let it end up like a clown, suffering the humiliation of the Jingkang Incident.

Let the Song Dynasty die like a warrior...

【…】

In the 261st year of the Shaoxing era, although Yue Fei and other generals were unwilling to abandon their territory and retreat, they ultimately obeyed the Grand Tutor's order to abandon military towns such as Xiangyang and instead led their elite troops back to Lin'an to prepare for the final battle...

After the armies returned to Lin'an, and following reorganization and census, the final number of combat-ready troops was determined to be... 50,000.

Yes, you only have 50,000 elite troops, while the Jin army has over 600,000. You don't even have a fraction of their strength...

While history is not without examples of smaller forces defeating larger ones—such as the Eastern Jin's 80,000 men defeating the Former Qin's 800,000, Liu Xiu's 20,000 men defeating Wang Mang's 400,000, and Xiang Yu's 30,000 men defeating Liu Bang's 500,000—those were miracles achieved through a confluence of favorable circumstances. You lack such a miracle.

[The 600,000 Jin soldiers on the other side are no ordinary people; conventional tactics cannot defeat them... meaning this battle is doomed to be lost.]

But... you were not afraid!

"The warm breeze intoxicates the tourists, making them mistake Hangzhou for Bianzhou... But Lin'an in Jiangnan is ultimately not Bianjing in the Central Plains, and the intoxicated tourists cannot ultimately deceive themselves."

"Since the Jingkang Incident, although the Song Dynasty enjoyed two hundred years of peace in the south, these peaceful years also eroded its ambitions. Over the past two hundred years, the Song Dynasty had long forgotten the Central Plains, and the Central Plains had long forgotten the Song Dynasty..."

[You stand before the army, before all the civil and military officials and soldiers, and deliver your sermon in a deep voice.]

"In this battle, our army will surely be defeated, and the Song Dynasty will surely perish."

"But...we're not afraid!"

"Because we will not repeat the mistakes of the Jingkang Incident, nor will we flee to a precarious peace... We will use the most fervent weapons to avenge our past humiliations, and with our lives we will write the most magnificent tale of national subjugation for the Song Dynasty. Even when future generations read the history books, they will marvel at our spirit!"

"After this battle, the misty rain of Jiangnan will remember us, and the Jin soldiers from the Central Plains will also remember us. They will remember our strength, our indomitable spirit, and that we are the last souls of the Song Dynasty..."

"From then on, when the Jurchens recalled the story of the Song Dynasty's fall, they no longer only thought of the laughable humiliation of the Jingkang Incident; they also thought of the heroic Battle of Lin'an!"

"Future generations will always remember us!"

After he finished speaking, everyone burst into tears... However, these tears did not dampen morale; on the contrary, they ignited a fierce determination in the entire army to fight to the death!

They were prepared to die for their country.

【…】

In the 261st year of the Shaoxing era, the Jin army, facing no further obstacles along the way, advanced with unstoppable momentum. Commander Zong Bi led an army of 300,000 men, easily capturing the undefended Xiangyang, and then continued their relentless advance!

That month, 300,000 Jin troops crossed the Yangtze River, their advance aimed directly at Lin'an!

That month, the Jin army attacked Lin'an. Song Grand Tutor Zhou Hui led 50,000 elite troops and civil and military officials to meet the enemy head-on. The battle was extremely fierce from the very beginning...

The following month, the Song army was almost completely wiped out, and Grand Tutor Zhou and all his officials also died heroically in battle!

With this, the Southern Song Dynasty fell...

[Wuzhu was amazed by the Song army's tenacious resistance. He then found the remains of Grand Tutor Zhou and buried him in Lin'an with the rites due to an emperor. He also issued a proclamation to reassure the people, stating that only Zhao Gou would be executed, and the common people would not be harmed!]

That month, the Jin army once again raised the slogan: "Search the mountains and seas to capture Zhao Gou!"

That month, Emperor Zhao Gou of the Song Dynasty fled from Lin'an, taking with him trusted former generals such as Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, and sailed out to sea, heading straight for the South China Sea...

【…】

(End of this chapter)