As the sun gradually dipped towards the west, on the city walls of Taiyuan, the retreating lines of the enemy soldiers could be seen receding from view. Search: \(Complete Novel Website\) to read high-quality literature for free.

Black smoke from signal fires billowed into the sky from near and far. Scattered flames still burned on the walls. People pushed corpses over the ramparts, and siege equipment like caltrops and wolf teeth were re-hung on the walls, with sandbags piled up inside the crenellations.

Below, on the plains, dark red blood mingled with corpses in a scene of tragic horror. Most of the dead were Wu Dynasty civilians, driven forward to attack the city. The dead were mixed with those not yet dead, their pained groans lingering. However, most of the moans were weakening. Countless bodies and those dying or nearly dead lay on that plain. Further away were the despairing civilian captives and the Jurchen army, filled with bloodlust and ambition.

Qin Shaohe stood on the wall, gazing at the Jin army camp on the other side. During the intense battle, as the commanding officer, he had participated in the fighting on the wall, personally killing two Jin soldiers. His official robes were now stained with splattered blood, and one corner had been scorched black.

After a day and a night of continuous fighting, witnessing the countless horrors on and below the city walls, his emotions were no longer simply pity. The numbness and trembling of his body resonated with the entire world around him. A buzzing sound filled the air. Every inch of the earth, the awareness of death and the fear lurking beneath, the bloodthirsty impulse and the lingering fear after being wounded—all were mixed together.

Coming along with these things was a kind of greater feeling that transcended them, expanding before him—though perhaps only in the heart of a Confucian general like Qin Shaohe would such an emotion arise. The clash and death of over a hundred thousand people, their pain and hope, the pasts of countless individuals stretching to this point, many of which were about to be abruptly cut short in this surge of rage.

"It's not too difficult to defend," Qin Shaohe murmured in a hoarse voice, gazing in the direction where Wanyan Zonghan might be. However, his words were not met with agreement from the generals behind him.

Because of the Jurchens' previous glorious victories, when their armies reached Taiyuan, the defenders were unsure if they could hold the city against the initial onslaught. Due to this concern and awareness, Qin Shaohe, as one of the main officers, had personally rushed to the city wall to fight. Now, after a day and a night, they had finally seen the Jurchens retreat, but no one felt relieved. Because of this mood, when Qin Shaohe spoke words to boost morale, the generals behind him didn't immediately agree.

Of course, this also proved that, under Qin Shaohe's command, none of the generals had been slacking off in the rear. They had all felt the pressure from the Jurchens in this first, solid clash.

After exchanging glances, the opportunity to agree had passed. One of them pointed forward and said in a low voice, "Lord Prefect, the Jin people failed their first attack and couldn't maintain their momentum. This is because they rushed here without properly preparing their siege equipment. Their retreat now is certainly not a withdrawal, but rather a period to prepare their equipment. Their next attack will surely be even more fierce. We must not be careless."

"General Han is right," Qin Shaohe nodded. "Now we know the extent of the Jurchens' ferocity. Look at those people below the wall. From today onward, our only option is to defend. But the good thing is that before, we were only speculating about the Jurchens' strength. Now, after this hard clash, we know that although the Jurchens are formidable, they are not three-headed, six-armed demons. They have their limits. Everyone, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Taiyuan now rest in our hands... Let's work hard."

He cupped his hands in salute, and the other generals solemnly returned the gesture. Qin Shaohe smiled. "But it's also good. I heard that Wanyan Aguda only needed three hours to capture Shangjing. We've defended quite well." As he spoke, he walked to the side, picked up a bow and arrows, and went to the edge of the city wall. Looking at the groaning below, he aimed for a moment and fired an arrow.

Among the corpses below, a Wu Dynasty civilian whose limbs were broken but who was still alive was shot in the heart and finally died.

Qin Shaohe held the bow, staring blankly at the corpse below for a long time before finally taking a step back and waving his hand. "Pass down my order, let the Divine Archer Team and the Military Law Team select the severely wounded civilians below who are beyond saving. For those in too much pain, send them on their way..."

He walked down the city wall. Not far away, a man named Cheng Zhouhai walked towards him. Although his clothes were neat and tidy, the dust on his robe and the color of his face showed his recent exhaustion. When he reached him, Cheng Zhouhai bowed. "Lord Qin, now that the battle has calmed down for the moment, it's time for the able-bodied men I organized to take turns coming to the city to take a look."

Qin Shaohe nodded. "Send them up. They should see what the people outside the city are like. Tell them that if the city falls, that's what they'll become... But although the Jurchens have retreated, it's hard to say if it's a feigned retreat. Don't send too many people up at once, and be careful of Jurchen spies mixing among them. Also, if the Jurchens attack again, they must be withdrawn immediately..."

He rambled on for a while, then felt that he was being too long-winded. Qin Shaohe's expression steadied,

Then he smiled wryly and patted Cheng Zhouhai on the shoulder. Having worked in the Prime Minister's office for so long, Cheng Zhouhai was more meticulous and rigorous than him when it came to planning. With a slight smile, Cheng Zhouhai simply replied, "Yes." Then he looked at his deputy, who nodded and left.

Cheng Zhouhai looked towards the city wall, while Qin Shaohe, patting his shoulder, looked ahead. Houses near the city walls of Taiyuan were being demolished. Soldiers and laborers were busy in the field of vision, running back and forth. Further away, the houses of Taiyuan City stretched out in dense rows. The war had begun, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people would continue in a tense manner.

On the plains outside the city, the autumn wind of August howled through the fields filled with blood and the smell of gunpowder. Corpses, the wounded, and the assembled, restless armies stretched all the way, awaiting their unknown fates.

This was the beginning of the Battle of Taiyuan...

Soon, Qin Shaoqian led the Wu Rui Battalion to meet the enemy at Shou Zhang, encountering the armies led by Wanyan Zongwang and Guo Yaoshi. The two armies fought back and forth for a day near Shou Zhang, which had been turned into a scorched earth through the scorched earth policy. Qin Shaoqian did not order the Wu Rui Battalion to directly confront the enemy. He divided the Wu Rui Battalion into five units of nearly ten thousand men each, using the terrain to maneuver around Guo Yaoshi near Shou Zhang, constantly feigning attacks. A large number of scouts and detachments engaged in small-scale battles around them.

In this back-and-forth fighting, Guo Yaoshi chose a relatively conservative approach to determine the situation. In this feigned attack and small-scale offensive posture, Qin Shaoqian led the most elite unit, turning the intangible into the tangible, and attacked the army led by Zhang Linghui. The two sides engaged in fierce fighting near Xizhi Village, north of Shou Zhang. He tried to swallow the weaker Zhang Linghui in the initial attack, but only gained a partial advantage.

Meanwhile, Guo Yaoshi was already fighting against a ten-thousand-man force on the other side, which was responsible for holding them back. The ten-thousand-man team was defeated in half an hour.

The defeated troops fled in all directions, and were then reassembled by many liaison officers whom Qin Shaoqian had arranged around them in advance. Next, the entire Shou Zhang battlefield seemed to turn into a huge pile of loose sand. There seemed to be opponents all around, and the fighting became fierce, but nowhere was there a main force. Qin Shaoqian led that elite ten-thousand-man team and lurked around, while maintaining the operation of the battlefield with the greatest strength, waiting for an opportunity to give Guo Yaoshi and others the most violent blow. Guo Yaoshi then began to gather his troops and pounce on Shou Zhang County, which was defended by ten thousand troops.

This chaotic battle lasted for a day. Small-scale skirmishes broke out dozens of times, and large-scale battles occurred twice, but they also made it impossible for Guo Yaoshi and others to concentrate on attacking the city. A day later, Wanyan Zongwang's main force arrived, and eighty to ninety thousand people joined forces in Shou Zhang. After clashing with the Wu Rui Battalion, they marched mightily over Shou Zhang County...

The Wuwei and Wusheng armies, which were originally supposed to intercept Zongwang's forces in a three-pronged attack, held Jinan and Daming, and did not appear from beginning to end. As for the Wu Rui Battalion, which took the initiative to intercept the Jurchen army, in this battle, apart from the superb military organization skills that Qin Shaoqian showed in the sandy deployment, there was not much to mention...

After this battle, Wanyan Zongwang invaded the Central Plains!

****************

A large number of wounded soldiers, defeated soldiers, and civilians near Shou Zhang retreated from the front. Chaotic sounds filled the sky.

Ning Yi and Wenren Erbu stood by the roadside, watching this scene of defeat.

"Although I already knew General Qin would be defeated, at this rate, time is really running out."

Wenren Erbu took a breath and sighed in a low voice. After a moment, they greeted a wounded general who had retreated: "Where is General Qin! Where is your General Qin!?"

The general glanced at Wenren Erbu and Ning Yi, then shook his head: "I don't know! I don't know! I was just ordered to retreat back to Dongping! Ask someone else!"

The general disappeared into the crowd. Wenren Erbu glanced at Ning Yi, whose expression was serious but calm. Ning Yi tilted his head, looking at the crowd: "Would you say this is a smooth retreat?"

"What?"

"Look at these people, the civilians are evacuating, which means they didn't leave in a hurry, right?"

"...I guess." Wenren Erbu hesitated for a moment, then said, "But the Jurchens are also moving too fast. The original plan for the scorched earth policy definitely can't keep up..."

"We have to do it even if we can't keep up." Ning Yi closed his eyes, then opened them after a moment. "After all, this is like playing chess, we can't expect others to follow your pace..."

After he said this, he walked into the crowd and grabbed a defeated general. The other party reached for his sword, but Ning Yi held his wrist: "General, where is General Qin? Where is your General Qin?"

The other party, still shaken, looked Ning Yi up and down, then waved his hand violently: "How the hell would I know!"

An ominous aura permeated the sky. Far and near, this was just one corner of the chaos. The Jurchens' direct advance meant that the entire scorched earth policy was already behind schedule from the beginning.

On the seventh day of the eighth month of the thirteenth year of Jinghan, Emperor Zhou Zhe made a final decision and the court issued an order for a scorched earth policy in Hedong East, Hedong West, Jingdong East, Jingdong West, and Hebei. However, the public opinion in the entire court and society was still in a very subtle state.

The Jurchens came too fast, and the entire society had not yet been shrouded in the fear of war. While Ning Yi and others from the Prime Minister's Office were implementing the scorched earth policy, impeachment memorials from the entire court were flying to Zhou Zhe's desk like snowflakes.

In a war, using scorched earth tactics was an extremely decisive measure. The interests involved in the relocation of millions of people and the destruction of materials were astronomical, not to mention that it was around the time of the autumn harvest. Anyway, most people who opposed the scorched earth policy held two main attitudes. One was based on interests. The people most affected by the scorched earth policy, the relocation of people, and the burning of fields and houses, were the large landlords and gentry in the north. Supporting their position was another, more rational attitude, which was: scorched earth was useless and would only cause a large number of civilians to die at the hands of their own people.

This argument was very tenable. On the most intuitive level, the Jurchens had only two hundred thousand troops marching south. How much land could they sweep through as they fought? How many people could they kill? More areas would not be affected by the war, and these people might be able to survive in the gaps of the war. Even if the scorched earth policy was implemented, when these two hundred thousand people wanted food, they could easily satisfy their needs by capturing one place. On land where tens of millions of people lived, how far could you implement the scorched earth policy to make all the food disappear?

"Even if the court can't stop the Jurchens, it should leave the people a way to survive!"

In the rhetoric of the Confucian scholars, the backlash against this measure was indescribable. What truly supported the implementation of this measure was Emperor Zhou Zhe's attitude. In a sense, Zhou Zhe was a symbol of courage. Only his support could allow this matter to remain unmoved amidst so much criticism. As the upper echelons of the Wu Dynasty, whether it was Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Li Gang, or Qin Siyuan, they probably had vaguely seen the seriousness of the situation. While the middle and lower levels were fiercely arguing, the attitudes of these powerful figures were surprisingly consistent. They simply watched silently, which was difficult for Li Gang and Qin Siyuan to defend.

Under the operation of low-level officials north of the Yellow River, the initial stage of the scorched earth policy achieved enormous results, but the real focus of Ning Yi and others' work was on the south of the Yellow River from the beginning. They guided a large number of refugees south, spreading the atmosphere of war and promoting the necessity of the scorched earth policy. The atmosphere of terror quickly accumulated, but as Wenren Erbu said, the Jurchens came too fast.

The debates and impeachment wars in the capital court were still going on chaotically. Scholars and literati were talking about the war with passion in restaurants and brothels, praising the bravery and heroism of the front lines. On the twentieth day of the eighth month, Wanyan Zongwang's army began to cross the Yellow River. Zhou Zhe shouted in the Golden Luan Hall: "Why hasn't the area near the capital started to be cleared!"

Before this day, the troops near the capital had already been transferring a large amount of grain to the city, and then finally began to drive out the civilians and plunder grain in a large scale. Huge and chaotic civil uprisings began to break out. A county magistrate was stoned to death by angry civilians when he demanded that they evacuate, and then the army began to clash with the civilians. In this rapid situation, the debate over the scorched earth policy in the capital came to an abrupt end. An atmosphere of panic began to envelop every part of the city. A large number of people poured into the capital, and a large number of people poured south.

On the twenty-third day of the eighth month, the Yellow River defense line collapsed, and the Jurchen Eastern Route Army crossed the Yellow River on all fronts.

Ning Yi and others' previous planning had created a certain amount of order and convenience for the transportation of grain and the relocation of people near Kaifeng, but a large number of people were still caught up in the war. For the first time in more than two hundred years, the war had spread to the south bank of the Yellow River. No one had expected the opening of the entire war to extend so quickly, and it seemed that it had reached the end that determined everything at the very beginning.

On the twenty-eighth day of the eighth month, just over a month after the Jurchens started the war, Wanyan Zongwang had traveled over a thousand miles, began to besiege Tokyo, and then launched an attack.

The Wu Dynasty's capital's defensive forces had fully shrunk into the city. While the Battle of Tokyo was beginning, Zhou Zhe's orders had already been sent out. More than 300,000 reinforcement troops from all over the country began to converge on Tokyo. This also included the Wuwei and Wusheng armies that had remained inactive in the Battle of Shou Zhang. An even larger and more chaotic war was about to unfold outside Tokyo.

While Ning Yi followed the army south, Taiyuan City had resisted the frenzied attacks of Wanyan Zonghan for nearly half a month...

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