Boom—

The massive rock soared through the sky, accompanied by a dense rain of arrows, traversing dozens of yards before slamming heavily into the imposing city wall. The stone shattered and fell, the wall trembled, and some fragments flew over the ramparts, landing within the city amidst the soldiers, causing horrific casualties. On the wall, men launched cannons amid shouts, lit the fuses, and cannonballs hurtled towards the enemy lines outside the city.

In the ninth year of Wu Jian Shuo, in early September, the altar of hell, having drunk its fill of sacrificial blood, finally opened the gate for reaping.

The Jurchen's fourth southern invasion, in an atmosphere that was tacitly understood yet suffocating, progressed to the brink of war. The herald of this moment was the city of Daming, in the path of the Jurchen's eastern army southward.

Before this, all possible efforts had been made. Wang Shanyue's Guangwu Army and Zhu Biao's Black Flag forces had crushed nearly 200,000 of Li Xizhi's troops, clearing the surrounding area with great fanfare. But the arrival of the Jurchens represented something entirely different. Even though Daming had adopted a do-or-die posture, no one could be certain whether the isolated city could withstand the Jurchens' fierce initial assault.

The former Liao capital, Shangjing, was also hailed as a fortress capable of holding out for years, yet under Aguda's leadership, the Jurchens, outnumbered, achieved the legendary feat of taking Shangjing in just half a day. Of course, the battlefield was ever-changing. During the Jurchens' first southern invasion, Qin Shaohe led Wu Dynasty soldiers, whose quality was inferior to that of the Liao army, to defend Taiyuan, ultimately delaying them for over a year. In any case, the Jurchens had arrived, the main act was beginning, and all the players, with trepidation, took to the stage, awaiting the verdict.

On August 17th, dusk quietly swallowed the western sunlight as the vanguard cavalry of the Jurchen "Fourth Prince," Wanyan Zongbi (also known as Jin Wushu), arrived at Daming, establishing a camp north of the city. Subsequently, the main Jurchen force, artisans, and logistics arrived in succession. Then, troops of the puppet Qi regime that could be mobilized in the vicinity, driving civilians who hadn't managed to escape, poured towards the isolated city on the north bank of the Yellow River in a continuous and vast stream.

Tents, banners, and the weeping masses of people driven forward formed a terrifying and chilling ocean in the distance. Every morning and evening thereafter, the wails and cries from the crowd caused the defenders on the city walls to clench their fists and shed tears.

The war had not yet begun, but the most brutal events were already foreshadowed. For more than a decade, it had been the Jurchens' practice to drive civilians ahead of their armies during sieges. After driving the Wu Dynasty out of the Central Plains during the third southern invasion, this land, nominally belonging to the puppet Qi, had been under Jurchen rule for many years. But this time, facing the obstacle of Daming, Wanyan Zongbi immediately designated all the Han Chinese nearby as rebels. On the one hand, he drove the masses towards the city, and on the other, he began to propagandize among these civilians.

"...The Wu Dynasty has lost its virtue to the world. The Central Plains have belonged to the Great Qi for many years and no longer belong to the Wu Dynasty! Our Great Jin and Great Qi are brotherly nations. It is only natural for you to live and thrive here as people of the Great Qi. Now, these Wu Dynasty rebels are occupying the city and causing chaos! Remember well, your good days have been ruined by these Wu Dynasty traitors—"

While spreading this propaganda, they selected people to enter the city to persuade its defenders to surrender. Those who came into the city either pleaded or cursed, but these were merely uncomfortable appetizers before the main battle. When their pleas for surrender were rejected, those who had been sent out of the city, along with their families, were dragged out and flogged to death in front of the city walls. At the same time, construction of siege equipment continued non-stop in the Jurchen camp.

On the morning of September 4th, the masses were driven towards Daming, weeping and begging. They triggered the hastily buried first wave of landmines outside the city. Some even carried ladders for the Jurchen army, attempting to rush towards the city and seize a chance of survival. The Jurchen military police were arrayed in the rear. Han Chinese faced Han Chinese, and shortly after entering range, the first rain of arrows arrived as expected...

...

War is never a place for the weak. After more than a decade of war, the people tempered by it had come to understand this.

Crimson clouds reddened the sky, faintly tinged with the color of blood. Daming, on the north bank of the Yellow River, was already awash in blood. On September 4th, the first day of the Jurchen siege, over ten thousand Han Chinese who had been driven forward were killed or wounded. Driven by the Jurchens' blades, the entire moat was almost filled with corpses.

Amidst the overwhelming rain of arrows, stones, and explosions, some erected ladders, attempting to scale the walls amidst shouts and cries. And the defenders threw down stones.

No one knew where the Jurchen soldiers were mixed in.

In the intense exchange, the Jurchen army launched three consecutive surprise attacks on the defenses of Daming. The defending soldiers on the city walls were not negligent and responded promptly to each Jurchen assault. At noon, a Jurchen vanguard even briefly scaled the city walls but was subsequently killed on the ramparts by a team led by Hu Sanniang, repelling the attack.

The Jurchens were unwilling to lose too many troops at Daming, but the lives of the Han people below the city were worthless. To force these people to climb the walls with all their might, the Jurchens rained down arrows and stones on both the city and those below. This high-intensity combat lasted all day. By the time the fighting subsided somewhat that evening, the soldiers on the city walls, having barely recovered, felt utterly exhausted. As for below the city, there were countless corpses, with the wounded rolling among them, wailing, moaning, and crying. Amidst the blood, it was a heartrending human tragedy.

Wang Shanyue then led the reserve troops up to relieve the others and count the wounded. Late that night, the Jurchen camp's catapults were activated, launching another round of attacks. The civilians below were driven to carry ladders and set them up again, crying and begging the people in the city to open a path for them. The people on the city walls, with red eyes, smashed stones down upon them.

The next day, the fierce fighting continued as usual. The soldiers on the city walls threw down leaflets with the words "Run east if there's any movement." The notes were passed among the civilians below. The Jurchens strengthened their defenses to the east. On the third day, as the brutal siege continued, Wang Shanyue had the soldiers on the city walls shout, "Go west! Run west!" The people, driven by the pressure of death for three days, rioted, surging towards the west. Subsequently, the Jurchens' cannons on the west side fired, cannonballs tearing through the crowd, blowing limbs everywhere. But in the midst of tens of thousands of people, they couldn't tell front from back, left from right. Even if some people stopped at the front, countless others continued to run. This chaos broke through the relatively weak Jurchen defenses on the west side, creating an opening from which about ten thousand people surged out, fleeing desperately towards the distant forests.

On the fourth day, several thousand of these ten thousand people were driven back to continue participating in the death squads attacking the city.

From the first defense of Bianliang to the present, more than a decade had passed, and the cruelty of war had never changed. Xue Changgong rushed about on the walls of Daming, supervising the defensive operations of the 48-li-long city wall at every point. Defending a city was a difficult and protracted task. Along the 48-li length, a sufficiently alert general had to be stationed at every visible point to command and respond. After defending during the day, there was still the night. During the most intense periods, fresh troops had to be kept in reserve and rotated in the subsequent lulls. Compared to the emphasis on martial prowess during an attack, defending a city required more of a general's meticulousness, thoroughness, and adaptability. Perhaps this was why Taiyuan was able to hold out for a year under Qin Shaohe's command.

In this cruel siege, reminiscent of more than a decade ago, some things had emerged in recent years. Up and down the city walls, during the lulls before and after each major battle, the soldiers would sit together and talk quietly about their lives: their lives in the Wu Dynasty, the changes after the Jurchens invaded, the humiliations they suffered, the relatives who had died, their voices and smiles. At these times, Wang Shanyue, either coming from the rear or just withdrawing from the city walls, would often participate in such discussions, talking about the Wang family, the family of martyrs, the family of widows, and his feeling that he would rather eat people than admit defeat.

This change was brought about by Wang Shanyue. It originated from the Zhuji of the inner demon. Since Wang Shanyue established the Guangwu Army, meetings similar to "recollecting bitterness and thinking about sweetness" had been held frequently. The culture of this land was often reserved. A great man would not overly reveal his past to outsiders, and Xue Changgong's nature was also reserved. When he first saw this, he felt it was somewhat inappropriate, but Wang Shanyue didn't care. He talked about his grandfather, talked about how he couldn't beat others, but he was the only man in the Wang family, so he had to support the whole family. He ate people only to make people afraid, but to make people afraid, he didn't mind biting the enemy to death. After being together for a long time, Xue Changgong realized that this man, who looked like a woman, might initially have been unwilling to talk about these things with others.

However, once he spoke up, it was quite useful for the army. Some men who were clumsy with words might only say, "I want to avenge my children." But after talking to people, their spirit and energy were indeed different. Especially in this desperate situation in Daming, the new soldiers who joined in talking about these things were all the more poignant, but after speaking, the meaning of dying for the cause in their eyes became more intense.

After the Guangwu Army and the Huaxia Army defeated Li Xizhi together, patriots from nearby Huangshe Village, Huishan Village, and other places came to join them. Although these foreign soldiers had some ambition, there was always a bandit spirit in terms of allocation and quality. Even if they joined, they often seemed to have their own ideas. On the second day after the start of the war, Yan Kan, the chieftain of Huishan Village, talked to people about his family. At that time, he could be considered a wealthy household in the Central Plains. His daughter was raped and killed by the Jurchens. Yan Kan went to the government, but was arrested by the government and given eighty strokes of the cane. He was beaten to the point of near death, and half of his property was scattered before he was left with a life. After recovering, he became a bandit until now.

After these things were revealed to everyone, the old chieftain cried in front of everyone, and then dispersed several of his capable men into the Guangwu Army, never again acting on his own. On the third day of the siege, Yan Kan led a team to charge and kill, repelling a wave of Jurchen surprise attacks. He was lucky enough not to die, and after the war, half of his body was stained with blood, he still laughed heartily with others, indescribably happy.

In fact, in recent years, after the Central Plains became Daqi, who joined the Guangwu Army without a trace of sadness? Even if they didn't have relatives, at least they had personally witnessed the deaths of comrades and friends.

Listening to them talk about these things, Xue Changgong would occasionally think of his deceased wife, He Leier, thinking of how timid and fearful she was, but more than ten years ago, she ran to the city walls and was ultimately hit by an arrow... In recent years, he was afraid of the Jurchens' combat power and dared not leave children in this world. For his wife, he didn't really feel deep affection - why should a great man worry about not having a wife? But thinking about it now, he could often see the woman's voice and smile floating before his eyes.

So be it.

He thought, woman, anyway, I never thought I could live forever...

He was a general, so he couldn't say these relatively depressing words. He just occasionally looked at the tragic scene outside the city and the surging crowds, and he could often laugh. And in the city, Wang Shanyue was also boosting morale and brainwashing people step by step.

"...Yes, the Wu Dynasty is nothing great, but compared to the Jurchens, is it better... Look at those people outside the city, they are miserable, but what if we surrender? If the whole world surrenders, will we live well? We will all be slaves - the Jurchens are not immortals, they used to be... just have nothing, now we have guarded it, do you know why... now we have nothing..."

"...We can't defeat them, we can't do it... But even if we break their teeth, we have to leave them here... Wanyan Aguda is already dead, Wu Qimai is about to die, if we drag on, they will have infighting, the Wu Dynasty will fight back... If we drag on, the Black Flag Army will fight back... That ten thousand plus Black Flags, that Zhu Biao, as long as we can hold on, they can fight from behind, brothers... The city is not easy to defend, and it is not easy for us to live, I don't know if I open my eyes tomorrow, who of you will be gone, or I will be gone..."

"...But we have to hold on, I want to live, and the people outside the city want to live. If the Jurchens don't die, no one can live... so even if I die, I will drag them, die together."

"...Die together..."

The pervasive smoke was rolled up by the strong wind, the city walls were pitted by boulders, the corpses gradually began to stink, and the people who had lost everything stood firm on the desperate ground...

In early September, the Jurchen Eastern Route Army went south. The first battle of destroying Southern Wu, facing the city of Daming guarded by more than 40,000 people, Wanyan Zongbi had made a plan to break the city in three days at most. Then three days passed, and three more days passed. The city was almost submerged in blood in the first round of attacks, but by mid-September, Daming was still standing firm in this sea of corpses and blood. This city was built from the beginning to control the Yellow River and resist foreign enemies. Once the warriors in the city could grit their teeth and persevere, it was really not easy to destroy the defenses from the outside.

At this time, Wu Qimai had been suffering from a stroke for nearly a year, and the change of era was imminent. The brothers Zongfu and Zongbi never expected that the first battle to the south would be fought on such a tough bone. What they also didn't expect was that, apart from the Black Flag, the southern Han people were gradually beginning to have such bones as well.

In the west, Wanyan Zonghan crossed Yanmen Pass and set foot in the Central Plains.