I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 132 Yue Fei Leads the Charge, Surrounds the Capital, and Goryeo is Doomed (8,000-word long chapter)

Despite some setbacks, Song Jiang managed to capture Qingzhou and Shangzhou relatively quickly, proving his strength and high value to the Song Dynasty's government troops.

Cheongju and Sangju were important strongholds of Goryeo in the southern region, and each had gathered several thousand people to defend them, which is why they were able to hold out for so long.

With the fall of these two locations and the complete annihilation of the local garrison, even if the Goryeo people tried to move the garrison on the northern front as far south as possible to plug the gaps, they were destined to fail.

In the rush, the Goryeo people could only hold out for one more state south of the Han River, Yangju (Seoul), while the other states, Inju, Suju, Gwangju, and Chungju, could only be left to fate, relying on the local militia to defend them.

However, Song Jiang's army on the other side had just fought two fierce battles and needed to rest and recover. Their achievements in Renzhou and other places were not significant, so there was little to claim. Therefore, Song Jiang observed the skills of Huyan Zhuo, Xu Ning, and Yue Fei as agreed, waiting for the future attack on Yangzhou before cooperating fully.

Of course, to avoid accusations of diplomatic betrayal, Yue Fei did not directly use the banner of the Song Dynasty's official army during the attacks on Renzhou and other places, so as not to make things look bad in future historical records.

Zhao Zicheng sent 6,000 men, all of whom wore tattered battle robes of Liangshan bandits over their iron armor. All flags that might reveal their official ranks were temporarily replaced, leaving only the flags representing the generals' surnames.

Before the battle began, Huyan Zhuo first took a comprehensive look at the battlefield situation and then made a general plan.

"Before attacking Yangzhou, there is no need to conquer all the surrounding cities of Renzhou, Shuizhou, Guangzhou, and Zhongzhou. Our army has the advantage of sea transport. As long as we conquer Renzhou, which is southeast of Yangzhou, seize a suitable anchorage, and control the mouth of the Han River, we can ensure a continuous supply of military supplies. At that time, it will not be a problem to encircle Yangzhou for a long time."

Huyan Zhuo's understanding of military strategy was clearly superior to Song Jiang's. This was mainly because he had more experience commanding regular troops and knew how to balance detail and brevity, and make appropriate choices.

Although Song Jiang had Wu Jialiang by his side, Wu Jialiang had no strategic planning. He might have had good control over the details of tactics, but he was just going about his business as it came.

In contrast, Hu Yanzhuo and Yue Fei had a much clearer sense of purpose when leading troops, as they were deploying their forces around a long-term goal rather than for short-term gains.

After listening to Huyan Zhuo's deployment, Yue Fei also felt that he had benefited a lot. At the same time, he studied and pondered, and put forward a few supplementary opinions: "I wonder if our army can design a strategy of besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements? It is true that our army can achieve a long-term siege of Yangzhou by relying on Renzhou alone, but the Goryeo garrison in the other three prefectures of Hannan may not understand this point."

If we don't remind them, wouldn't we be like casting pearls before swine? I believe that when the time is right, we should find a way to subtly inform them, letting them know that the Goryeo troops in the southern provinces either retreat to northern Han or come to reinforce Inju or Yangju, otherwise they can expect to be encircled and annihilated by our army.”

Hu Yanzhuo's eyes lit up slightly upon hearing this; this young man was truly talented. Although he had only been in the army for a year, and had previously only engaged in battle and had no opportunity to actually apply military strategy, his insight into planning on his first attempt was indeed remarkable.

"Excellent, that's a great idea, Brother Yue. I've heard that the Prefect values ​​you highly. You're truly intelligent and brave. You're only twenty years old, your future is limitless. In that case, I'll give you more opportunities to gain experience this time."

When attacking Inju Castle, you will be responsible for containing the eastern and northern sides of the city. Additionally, you will be responsible for cutting off communication between Inju's eastern and northern flanks and other Goryeo reinforcements. Your original 300 cavalry will remain under your command, and I will temporarily allocate 300 infantrymen to you. Be adaptable and perform well.”

Yue Fei was only a junior officer at the deputy battalion level, and he was already over-allocated with 300 cavalrymen. Now, he was given another 300 infantrymen. Huyan Zhuo was really giving him face.

This was partly due to Zhao Zicheng's appreciation, and partly because Huyan Zhuo knew that Qin Ming had been captured alive by Yue Fei. In Goryeo, far from the emperor's reach, everyone respected those with true ability, unlike in the Central Plains where rank and official position were so important.

Yue Fei was naturally very grateful and said he would definitely do his best.

……

The next morning, the Song army disguised themselves as the Liangshan army and launched an offensive against Renzhou.

The Song army came from the southwest, so the west and south of the city were the main directions of attack. Huyan Zhuo personally supervised the battle and deployed the vast majority of the archers in the army, especially all the divine crossbows.

In contrast, Yue Fei had only 600 men on the northeast sides of the city, 300 of whom were cavalry, and the rest were light infantry equipped with ordinary bows and arrows, swords and shields, and carrying slings and wooden rafts.

Renzhou City was the last gateway to Yangzhou (Hancheng), and its defenses were quite good, with at least a moat. Most of the cities that Song Jiang had previously conquered didn't even have moats.

The moat wasn't particularly wide or deep, but because Huyan Zhuo had prepared siege ladders, the main battlegrounds in the west and south of the city had to be filled with earth before the final assault could begin. If they had tried to use rafts or trench bridges laid across the moat to push the ladders across, the trench bridges wouldn't have been able to bear the weight and would have collapsed.

As is well known, ordinary trench bridges and even wooden rafts can only support the weight of soldiers and lightweight, shoulder-carried ladders at most.

Huyan Zhuo's work of digging and filling the river was relatively efficient, utilizing some well-designed wheelbarrows to load the soil instead of relying entirely on soldiers carrying loads or baskets. However, while the Song army was filling the river, the Goryeo army would also use their expertise in accurate shooting to harass them in various ways.

Therefore, Huyan Zhuo deployed soldiers to erect large rattan and bamboo shields along the moat to provide cover against arrows, while also having all the crossbowmen engage in a firefight with the Goryeo army to suppress and wear them down.

The Song army's crossbowmen were far better equipped, with longer range and greater projectile energy, and their arrows were of far superior quality and sharpness compared to those of Goryeo. In addition, both the Song crossbowmen and the soldiers directing the river-filling were armored, and when a large amount of labor was needed, they could also capture Goryeo civilians on the spot to use as cannon fodder to transport earth, so they were not afraid of this kind of war of attrition.

From the very first day of the siege, the Goryeo people inside the city gradually reached a consensus: the Song army was determined to launch a major attack from the west, because the filling of the moat was progressing the fastest there, and they had the most siege ladders. The south of the city was also a possible alternative; if the Goryeo people held the west, perhaps after a night of intensive filling of the moat in the south, they could also fill in some gaps and then push the siege ladders down to the city walls.

The Goryeo people were largely unprepared for the east and north of the city. The Song army made no attempt to fill in the rivers in either direction, only sending some feints with flags and shouts, and cavalry patrols that were clearly incapable of attacking the city.

After the first two days, the Goryeo garrison commander made a judgment: these Song soldiers were just loitering around here to disperse the garrison's forces and prevent the garrison from moving all its reserves to the west and south of the city!

In reality, these Song soldiers did not fill in the river; at most, they relied on temporarily erecting wooden rafts to cross the bridge, and at most, they could only use lightweight ladders carried on their shoulders. How much of a threat could that pose?

"It seems the Goryeo people have greatly underestimated our army. At dawn tomorrow, assemble the entire army, without preparing bows and crossbows in advance, and launch a surprise attack on the east side of the city. Have the infantry carry ladders, and fire a few arrows at the same time as our friendly forces charge."

The remaining elite cavalry, clad in wart-covered armor, will accompany me as I personally scale the city walls and launch a fierce attack!

Yue Fei also noticed the Goryeo people's laxity and quickly adjusted his siege plan.

His words surprised his cavalrymen, who had never dismounted to perform the task of scaling city walls before. This was hardly treating them as elite troops.

What a high casualty rate it was to be the first to storm a stronghold! Moreover, crossbow bolts, rolling logs, and rocks were indiscriminate; no matter how skilled you were, you would die if you were hit by a rock. There was nowhere to hide even on a ladder.

Historically, it has been rare to send the most elite soldiers to fight such offensive operations.

But Yue Fei overruled the objections and encouraged his soldiers, saying, “That’s precisely why our dawn attack will be so sudden! If we don’t believe we’ll launch the main attack from this direction, the Goryeo people will believe it even less! General Huyan has filled in the river to the west and south of the city for two days, and there are heavy siege ladders waiting to be used to cross the river, so the Goryeo people will naturally be on high alert! I see that the Goryeo troops here have thinned out considerably in the last two days.”

Tonight I will advise General Huyan to hasten the filling of the moat in the dark, so that the Goryeo people cannot see clearly in the dark. In this way, they will surely judge that "the Song people must be trying to speed up the construction and completely fill in the moat before dawn to ensure a general attack at daybreak." In this way, there will definitely be fewer enemies on our side.

Moreover, I didn't send all my brothers into the vanguard. Those wearing heavy infantry armor or other overly heavy old iron armor are exempt from the first assault. Only those wearing cold-forged armor, which is less heavy and cumbersome, can move quickly and perhaps achieve a great victory in one fell swoop!

Yue Fei's junior officers and the selected elite soldiers were eventually completely persuaded by him and unified their thinking before the battle even began.

Zhao Zi said that the cold-forged steel armor made with water-powered forging hammers was indeed lighter and more flexible than the traditional armor, while its defensive capabilities were in no way inferior. Wearing such good armor, one could indeed climb the flying ladder relatively quickly and nimbly.

Huyan Zhuo, on the other hand, was also willing to try this strategy. In any case, all Huyan Zhuo wanted was to capture the city as soon as possible. He didn't care about the specific distribution of credit. No matter who made the first ascent, the credit for the overall command of the battle would belong to Huyan Zhuo.

So everything proceeded according to plan, and the next day dawned quickly.

To cooperate with Yue Fei, Huyan Zhuo specially brought a large group of newly captured local Koreans to fill the river at night. Those who were slow were whipped, causing a great commotion. Cries and wails continued all night outside the west gate of the city.

The Goryeo people were also very heartless. Even though they knew that Huyan Zhuo had taken many of their own people to fill the river, they still indiscriminately continued to fire arrows, killing countless Goryeo people.

As dawn broke, the Goryeo people were already under immense pressure, and they had practically lured all the archers in the city to Huyan Zhuo's side.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Yue Fei ordered the three hundred infantrymen carrying the wooden rafts to rush to the riverbank east of the city and set up the wooden bridge.

In the dim light of dawn, the Goryeo soldiers on night patrol did notice the situation, but seeing that there were only a few Song soldiers, and that building the bridge was already so difficult, with no combat troops following behind, the officer in charge did not rush to report it, assuming it was a Song army trick to mislead them.

"Don't panic! With so few people, there aren't even enough to climb the city walls. It must be a feint by the Han people!"

Even after witnessing this scene firsthand, the Goryeo garrison commander in the east of the city still did not immediately call for archers to provide support.

Then, the Song army crossed the river safely amidst a sparse hail of arrows. Another group of soldiers carried slingshot ladders, and just as they were about to place them on the city wall, the Goryeo people began to resist by throwing logs and stones—everyone could use logs and stones without any professional training. So even though there were no organized archers on this section of the city wall, ordinary local militia could still throw stones.

Unfortunately, it was too late. As the flying ladder was about to be erected, Yue Fei personally led three hundred cavalry to the battlefield. About one hundred of them dismounted on the opposite bank of the river, then rushed across the makeshift trench bridge made of wooden rafts to the foot of the flying ladder and began to climb it quickly.

"The Han Chinese actually ordered their cavalry to dismount and scale the city walls?" The Goryeo general who witnessed this was completely dumbfounded. Fortunately, he finally came to his senses and immediately urged his entire army to quickly throw rolling logs and stones.

At the same time, he also knew that because there were almost no archers to defend this section of the city wall, and the rolling logs and stones could not reach far, it was impossible to completely block the Song army before they could climb the city wall. So he quickly organized a suicide squad to prepare for hand-to-hand combat to block the breach.

Yue Fei deployed six flying ladders to scale the city walls at once. The number wasn't bad, but it was enough to distribute the enemy's firepower. The two outermost walls were smashed by large stones under the concentrated attack of the Goryeo people, and then cut down and pushed over.

A dozen or so Song soldiers screamed as they fell from the two ladders, inevitably sustaining injuries. However, the four ladders in the middle, thanks to the delaying efforts of the surrounding allies, successfully held out long enough. After several soldiers were crushed to death, someone finally made it to the top of the city wall.

Yue Fei himself was on one of the two ladders in the middle, holding a short-handled axe and hammer in one hand and a shield in the other, with his iron double-hooked spear on his back, and quickly climbed up the city wall.

During the fight, he also used his shield to deflect two pieces of wood and a rock. Especially the rock; even with Yue Fei's innate superhuman strength, he still felt a surge of blood and a tightness in his chest when he tried to deflect it, and his shield was also cracked.

Despite the suffocating feeling, Yue Fei leaped onto the city wall and hurled his cracked shield, knocking down three or four Goryeo soldiers who were trying to intercept and kill him.

One of the victims was hit the hardest, his ribs were broken, and he was sent flying backward, crashing directly to the foot of the city wall.

Yue Fei's charge instantly suppressed the morale of the surrounding Goryeo soldiers. Taking advantage of the opportunity to throw out his shield, Yue Fei drew the long spear hanging on his back, and began to thrust wildly from side to side.

The Goryeo soldiers' close-combat skills were hardly anything special; Yue Fei moved through their ranks as if they were nothing, killing several enemies in a matter of moments. Moreover, the Goryeo soldiers lacked metal armor, and Yue Fei quickly discovered that the side blades of his double-hooked iron spear could easily hook and kill them—

It should be noted that in China, weapons like halberds and spears were gradually phased out as early as the Tang Dynasty. Only during the Han, Wei, and Six Dynasties period did halberds and spears still have some use, because the armor rate of the Central Plains army was getting higher and higher, and the pecking pressure of the horizontal blade and small branch of long weapons could not penetrate the armor at all.

However, the situation in Goryeo was completely different from that in the Central Plains. The armor rate of the Goryeo army was between that of the Central Plains and the Fusang people. The Fusang people still had room to use the cross-shaped spear until the Warring States period, which was equivalent to the Ming Dynasty in the Central Plains. The tip of the horizontal blade could easily break through the armor.

Therefore, with his double-hooked spear and his innate superhuman strength, Yue Fei could kill any Goguryeo soldier he hit with just a few sweeps. He didn't even need to push, pull, or slash; he could just sweep wildly, and wherever he went, a bloody hole would appear.

Its power is such that a mere touch will kill, and a glancing blow will injure. It's no longer a double-hooked iron spear; some might even believe it's the Ruyi Jingu Bang (the magic staff).

Yue Fei, caught up in the heat of battle, killed more than a dozen enemies in succession. The surrounding Goryeo soldiers were so frightened that they fled in panic, almost scattering like birds and beasts.

The Goryeo officer guarding the west gate of Renzhou City, roughly equivalent to a commander of a Central Plains army, saw that the city was in imminent danger and brought his personal guards to try and stop the leaks. Seeing Yue Fei's bravery and the fact that the Goryeo soldiers around him were either dead or fleeing, he dared not directly engage in battle.

The garrison commander then shouted, "All archers, fire at this traitorous general! Forget about what's below the city!" There were still a few scattered archers on this section of the city wall, who had been firing arrows down at the city. Upon hearing the commander's order, they all turned and aimed.

The garrison commander was quite knowledgeable; he knew that Yue Fei had already climbed the wall, and the rolling logs and stones, having lost their height difference, were no longer effective in stopping him. At this point, what else could they rely on but arrows? As for the enemies who hadn't yet climbed the wall, the rolling logs and stones would suffice.

However, just seconds later, the Goryeo general realized that he had miscalculated again.

The dozen or so elite archers, though few in number, had surprisingly good aim, firing arrows sparsely at Yue Fei. Yue Fei was initially nervous, wielding his double-hooked iron spear like a wheel, trying to deflect the rain of arrows as if they were impenetrable.

After deflecting seven or eight arrows, one or two still managed to slip through the spear's quiver and penetrate the net. Yue Fei could only protect his core, not his surroundings. When the arrows hit his shoulder guards and sash, they only bounced off with a couple of sparks before flying away.

Yue Fei was slightly taken aback, then realized that the Goryeo people's light arrows and cast iron arrowheads posed no threat to his cold-forged armor.

The biggest threat the Koreans posed to him earlier was heavy, blunt weapons like rolling logs and stones! They could overpower opponents with sheer force and cause internal injuries! But after Yue Fei gained a foothold on the city wall, apart from spears that thrust with all their might, no other weapons could harm him! The Koreans also didn't have the habit of using axes or hammers.

Once Yue Fei made up his mind, he no longer cared about the scattered arrows. He immediately changed his wielding to a sweeping motion, quickly approaching the Goryeo general with a "snake-finding-the-grass" style, and swiftly killing seven or eight soldiers along the way.

Seeing that the situation was not good and that his guards were too crowded to escape or move around, the Goryeo general had no choice but to grit his teeth and charge at Yue Fei with his spear.

The Goryeo general thrust his spear straight into Yue Fei's chest, but Yue Fei's double-hooked spear moved swiftly twice, and in the blink of an eye, he used the barbs to hook the spear shaft and drag it to the side.

The opponent felt an indescribable force that was like using the opponent's strength against them, and his weapon was immediately blocked. He even lost control of one of his hands.

With the defense wide open, Yue Fei's subsequent, incredibly smooth thrust immediately and precisely pierced the opponent's heart.

The other party originally intended to kill Yue Fei in this way, but somehow they ended up being killed in the same way.

Yue Fei showed no joy at all, as if killing such an enemy general was no different from killing an ordinary soldier.

Perhaps Yue Fei also knew that this man was only the garrison commander of the East Gate, not the commander of the entire Renzhou City. Killing him would not cause the entire city's garrison to surrender automatically, so what was there to be particularly excited about?
Instead of wasting time being complacent, we should continue to expand our gains.

But the more composed Yue Fei was, like a calm killing machine, the more terrified the surrounding Goryeo soldiers became.

They were as if they had seen a vengeful ghost, completely unable to comprehend this being who, after beheading a general, didn't even bother to say a few words of persuasion to surrender, but simply continued to kill.

"Is this a human or a ghost?!"

"He...he is not human!"

"Run! General Li was killed with a single shot! The Han people are aided by vengeful spirits; even after being hit by more than a dozen arrows, they are impervious to swords and spears!"

The morale of the Goryeo soldiers guarding the east side of the city finally collapsed completely, and they were routed by Yue Fei and a small squad of elite warriors. Some Goryeo soldiers, in order to get away from Yue Fei as quickly as possible, trampled each other to escape when they saw their comrades behind them crowding the area, and some even jumped off the side of the city wall.

Yue Fei easily stormed the city wall and, as if entering an empty city, directed his men to open the city gates. More than a hundred cavalrymen rushed in from outside the city, followed by the infantry who had built trenches, bridges, and ladders. Renzhou City was quickly captured.

By lunchtime that day, Yue Fei's army had already settled in and were enjoying a victory celebration banquet.

Song Jiang, Wu Jialiang, Hua Rong, Wu Song and others who originally planned to watch the battle got up late because they didn't have any combat missions that day. As a result, by the time they arrived at the battlefield, Yue Fei had already finished fighting.

"How is this possible? Wasn't General Huyan filling in the moat just two days ago? Didn't he only start the assault and scaling the city walls today?"

Upon hearing this, Song Jiang and Wu Jia looked at each other, speechless with astonishment.

Several captains under Yue Fei looked on with an air of matter-of-fact: "What's so strange about that? We prepared at the fourth watch, set up the ladders at the fifth watch, and finished the battle by the end of Chenshi (7-9 AM). However, the general ordered us to keep the news under wraps and not spread the good news of Renzhou's fall too quickly."

South of the Han River, the Goryeo garrison in the remaining three prefectures hasn't withdrawn yet. General Huyan said that they should be lured north according to plan, then surrounded and forced to surrender in open battle.

Song Jiang and his men could only nod and agree, and dared not do anything wrong.

And the plan suggested by Yue Fei was indeed successfully implemented.

Thanks to the Song army's meticulous maneuvering, which involved both bluffing and concealing their true strength, many of the Goryeo garrison troops south of the Han River were deceived. They mistakenly believed that "Inju is in imminent danger but has not yet been captured, and there is still time to retreat to the north bank, or at least to Yangju, before the Song army further cuts off the route to the north."

Of course, only a portion of the population will be deceived; it's impossible to fool everyone. Of the Goryeo generals in Suju, Guangzhou, and Chungju, the one in Chungju was not deceived and did not act rashly.

But Huyan Zhuo and Yue Fei didn't care at all; they were happy to deceive as many people as they could.

Out of fear, the Goryeo soldiers in Shuizhou and Guangzhou took the initiative to retreat north, and as expected, they were encountered by Yue Fei on the way and successfully intercepted.

This time, Yue Fei didn't need any fancy maneuvers. He simply brought three hundred elite cavalrymen, along with scouts sent out far ahead to monitor the movements of the Goryeo soldiers.

When the two Goryeo troops retreated to the banks of the Han River and were about to cross north, Yue Fei's cavalry suddenly appeared, rushed close at high speed, and then launched a surprise attack while the troops were crossing.

These Goryeo soldiers were mostly conscripted local militias, only there to defend their territory, so they naturally had no fighting spirit whatsoever. Faced with this surprise attack, the Goryeo soldiers all wanted to rush onto the boats to cross the river, having no intention of fighting at all.

With only three hundred men, Yue Fei utterly defeated the Goryeo army that hadn't even boarded the ships yet. The dead almost floated from the south bank of the Han River all the way to the north bank, turning the Han River red with blood.

After this battle, a legend of a Han general with a silver spear and a white horse spread among the Goryeo people. It was said that this man carried a banner with the character "Yue" on it, and was like a fierce ghost, impervious to swords and spears, and even a hail of arrows was useless. He killed almost every person with a single blow, and he came and went like the wind, elusive and unpredictable.

It is said that this person is also an expert archer, capable of hitting a target from a hundred paces away. The crossbow he uses is also extremely powerful, capable of piercing through even two sets of armor worn by Goryeo generals.

This legend spread far and wide, and eventually, whenever the Koreans saw the Yue banner in the field, they dared not fight at all, and only dared to defend the city to the death, or surrender.

Besides Yue Fei, other Song cavalry generals were naturally not to be outdone. Huyan Zhuo himself was also skilled at training elite cavalry, and he had a keen sense for this kind of advantageous battle where they could cut off and sever enemy forces. Within a few days, he commanded two small victories, which, although small in scale, were very well won.

By mid-August, Shuizhou and Guangzhou had fallen to Huyan Zhuo, leaving the area vulnerable as most of the garrison troops had withdrawn. The only garrison south of the Han River that hadn't fallen for the trap, Zhongzhou, remained relatively intact, but its morale had been shattered.

Huyan Zhuo sent men with the heads of the garrison commanders of several other prefectures to the city of Zhongzhou to persuade them to surrender. Seeing that the situation was hopeless and that his own troops were no longer of any use, the garrison commanders surrendered without bloodshed.

The morale of the Song army was greatly boosted, and they then surrounded Yangzhou, which later became known as Hancheng.

Seeing the rapid progress of the government army, which had captured Renzhou, Shuizhou, Zhongzhou, and Guangzhou in less than half a month, and killed, captured, and forced countless enemies to surrender, Song Jiang's leaders could no longer sit still. They quickly ended their rest and rushed to join forces with the government army to prepare for a strong attack on Yangzhou.

Yangzhou was, after all, the most important city south of the Han River, and it could have been defended.

After Huyan Zhuo and Yue Fei besieged the city, they took it seriously and planned to devise a proper attack strategy.

But perhaps fate was also on the side of the Song Dynasty, because at this very moment, a piece of terrible news that could no longer be concealed finally came from within Goryeo.

"Reporting to Commander Huyan! When our army cut off the communication between Yangzhou and the Goryeo capital in the north, we defeated several Goryeo reinforcements and captured some prisoners. After interrogation, we learned that a major incident had occurred in the Goryeo capital two months ago!"

King Wang Yu of Goryeo actually died in June! It is said that he left a decree on his deathbed to pass the throne to his eldest son. However, because the Jin army and the Song army were attacking Goryeo from the north and south, the powerful minister Yi Ja-gyeom feared that Wang Yu's death would cause internal strife, so he kept the news of his death a secret and wanted to make other preparations to support Wang Yu's son, Wang Gae, to succeed to the throne.

Wang Kai was only fourteen years old. When Wang Yu was seriously ill, his younger brothers all expressed the idea that "in this time of national crisis, only an elder ruler can protect the country and defend against enemies." Fearing they would cause trouble, the powerful relative Yi Ja-gyeom secretly killed three of Wang Yu's brothers under the pretext of not announcing his death, attempting to forcibly install Wang Kai as emperor. Now, internal strife has broken out in the Goryeo capital!

On a side note, it's true that King Yejong of Goryeo died of illness in the fourth year of the Seonhwa era. After his death, his father-in-law, powerful minister, and maternal relative, Yi Ja-gyeom, did indeed serve as regent. This is entirely true; it's simply how history unfolded.

Of course, historically, it seems that Wang Yu died suddenly from excessive indulgence during a banquet, perhaps due to high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Now, because of the dangerous situation in Goryeo, Wang Yu had no interest in feasting and lived for a few more months, but ultimately succumbed to excessive worry and pressure.

However, in the historical record, the Song Dynasty was already struggling to survive in the fourth year of the Xuanhe era, so whether or not Goryeo had internal strife was irrelevant to him. The Song Dynasty itself had suffered a disastrous defeat in its campaign against the Liao Dynasty and couldn't even recapture Yanjing (Beijing), so who would care about the trivial affairs of Goryeo, which was just across the Yellow Sea?
Even the Jin Dynasty couldn't spare any attention for Goryeo, because it was preoccupied with the Liao Dynasty, which was also set to be destroyed that year.

But in this life, everything is different. Although Zhao Ji and Wanyan Aguda's attention was drawn to the Liao Kingdom, which was about to be destroyed, the Song Dynasty still had Zhao Zicheng, a lawless outlaw who was acting like a madman overseas.

With the help of Yue Fei and others, Zhao Zicheng completely squandered the benefits of Goryeo's internal strife. At this point, even a god couldn't save Goryeo.

As news of the internal strife in the capital city of Gaegyeong gradually spread and was confirmed, the Goryeo garrison troops in various regions experienced varying degrees of chaos.

The Goryeo troops in Yangju and Nanjing had no will to fight, and some even killed each other due to factional infighting.

Huyan Zhuo, Yue Fei, and Song Jiang were overjoyed. They intensified their attack and quickly captured the panicked city of Yangzhou. At the same time, they sent fast ships back home to report the news.

Zhao Zicheng, who was in Dengzhou, was also very excited after hearing that Goryeo was experiencing a triple whammy of the old king's death, the new king's youth, and the massacre of the royal family by the empress's relatives.
Zhao Zicheng found an excuse to escape the surveillance of Chen Guoting, the military commissioner of Laizhou sent by the court to monitor him, and then took a fast boat out to sea, directly landing at Wengjin and heading straight for Gaegyeong, the capital of Goryeo.

By the time Zhao Zicheng arrived, another half month had passed.

Yangzhou, Goryeo Nanjing, and Chunzhou and Tiezhou (Tieyuan) in the west were all captured by Huyan Zhuo and Yue Fei.

As for Haizhou and other places along Zhao Zicheng's route, needless to say, the Song army had already surrounded the capital of Goryeo from three directions.

Within the capital, only the guards directly loyal to the fourteen-year-old young king Wang Kai (actually loyal to the recently deceased old king Wang Yu) and the trusted troops of the maternal relative Li Ziqian remained.

As for the armed forces supporting other members of the Goryeo royal family, they all fled or were purged by Yi Ja-gyeom through infighting.

The reason why Huyan Zhuo and Yue Fei fought a little slowly was because they were afraid that their great achievements would arouse their jealousy.

This is the final battle to destroy the country, and this final blow must be delivered personally after Duke Xiu arrives.

Just like the ribbon-cutting ceremony after a project is completed, this is something that cannot be done for someone else.

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PS: This is already over 8,000 words. I mainly wanted to get through the Goryeo's fall storyline quickly, so I had to combine long chapters with detailed and concise ones. That's all for now.

(End of this chapter)