In August, Lin'an began to cool down, but the intense and nervous atmosphere in the city never subsided. The calls for pacifying the Jingkang Incident, revitalizing the military, and vowing to march north never ceased. Students took to the streets to lecture several times a month, and storytellers in the city's teahouses and restaurants narrated tragic stories of bloody battles. Even the songs played by women in brothels were mostly patriotic poems. As a result of this propaganda, the once-fierce conflict between the north and south gradually softened, replaced by a shared animosity. Joining the army became a trend among scholars, and well-known wealthy merchants and gentry donated their fortunes to contribute to resisting the enemy, which was widely praised.

After July, this fervent atmosphere continued to heat up, and time was pressing down with an aura of terror. In the past month, at the urging of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, several armies of the Wu Dynasty had successively arrived at the front lines, preparing to fight the Jurchens to the death. Subsequently, news of the departure of Zongfu and Zongbi's armies arrived, followed by the outbreak of war in the southwest and along the Yellow River.

Qin Hui felt no excitement about the arrival of these events. All that weighed on him was immense pressure. In contrast to his active movements half a year ago and in recent months, everything was now out of control.

As the current Deputy Chief of the Privy Council, Qin Hui nominally held the highest military authority in Southern Wu. However, under the suppression of the Zhou imperial power and the "righteous cause" of resisting the Jin, Qin Hui's options were limited. Several months ago, taking advantage of the anger and fear caused by the Black Flag Army's capture of Liu Yu and the blame being shifted to the Wu Dynasty, Qin Hui did his best to implement the plan he had been preparing for years: to do everything possible to destroy the Black Flag, and then use the swords sharpened by the Black Flag to defend against the Jurchens. If the situation was favorable, he might be able to forge a path of survival.

Emperor Jian Shuo, Zhou Yong, who was frightened by the Black Flag's actions, once agreed to this plan, and Princess Zhou Pei also stood by his side for a time. However, not long after, the entire plan encountered obstacles in its implementation. The lobbying of some troops who had private dealings with the Black Flag was not a major issue. It was Zhou Yong's sudden hesitation that made Qin Hui feel powerless. In the end, Qin Hui was stunned by the order to the 100,000-strong Wu Xiang Army to launch a forced attack on the southwest. During this period, he mobilized almost the entire court, but Zhou Yong's hesitant attitude ultimately led to his failure.

The Black Flag Army had withstood repeated attacks by a million-strong army in the northwest, and had even routed the million-strong Qi army. What was the use of 100,000 people? If they couldn't go all out, it would be better not to do it at all!

He was puzzled by the change in Zhou Yong's attitude—although Zhou Yong was originally an indecisive person. At first, he thought that Crown Prince Jun Wu had secretly lobbied, but later he realized that the key lay in the Princess's residence. Zhou Pei, who had once been furious with the Black Flag, finally made an extremely cold remark to her father.

"...Ning Yi once killed the late Emperor Zhou Zhe in Bianliang, and later captured Liu Yu in the palace. If we really ignore the threat of the Jin and devote all our efforts to attacking, what will happen to Father's safety when Ning Yi makes a desperate move?"

The three sides were vying with each other. The Wu Dynasty wanted to destroy the Black Flag first and then resist the Jurchens, which was originally a highly controversial strategy. Regardless of other arguments, what Princess Zhou really moved Zhou Yong with was probably this statement. If you push Ning Yi too hard, is the palace in Lin'an really safe? And with Zhou Yong's timid and fearful nature, he actually agreed. On the one hand, he didn't dare to push the Black Flag to the extreme, and on the other hand, he wanted to separate the various troops that had private dealings with the Black Flag. In the end, he placed the entire strategy on Lu Qiaoshan of the Wu Xiang Army.

The plan to deal with the Black Flag did turn into a reprimand for many troops and was implemented. Qin Hui also promoted orders to rectify the discipline of various troops, but this was only a consolation at best. In the past few months, Qin Hui had been trying to add bricks and tiles to the war in the southwest, such as transferring two more troops, at least adding more than 300,000 people, in order to firmly suppress the Black Flag. However, Crown Prince Jun Wu, carrying the righteous cause of resisting the Jin, strongly promoted the northern defense and refused excessive internal consumption in the southwest. By the end of July, when news of the official start of the war in the southwest came, Qin Hui knew that the opportunity had been missed.

During this period, the court's actions were not without results. By severing ties with the southwest and reprimanding various troops, the authority of the central government was increased. The Crown Prince and the Princess, under the heavy pressure of the impending arrival of the Jurchens, worked hard to alleviate the once increasingly tense north-south conflict, at least playing a huge role in the Jiangnan area. Princess Zhou Pei and Crown Prince Jun Wu were doing everything they could to strengthen the Wu Dynasty itself. For this matter, Qin Hui had also negotiated with Zhou Pei several times, but there was not much progress.

This was also a clash of ideas that occurred during the Wu Dynasty's more than ten years of war, humiliation, and reflection with the Jurchens. The Wu Dynasty's literary style was flourishing, and it once excessively emphasized strategy and expediency. After more than ten years of being beaten, more and more people realized that only one's own strength was everything. These people were more and more looking forward to the miracles created by unyielding strength, and as much as possible to borrow less foreign objects until the last moment.

Crown Prince Jun Wu was young and vigorous, and this idea was most obvious. Compared to excessive use of strategy externally, he valued internal unity more, and he valued the power that southerners and northerners together gathered under the banner of the Wu Dynasty. Therefore, he was most disgusted with the strategy of fighting the Black Flag first and then fighting the Jurchens. Princess Zhou Pei was able to understand reality at first. She was not a firm supporter of north-south integration. More often, she was cleaning up a mess for her younger brother. Many times, she coordinated better with people who understood reality better, but after the Liu Yu incident, she seemed to have changed in this direction.

Although taking the Black Flag first and then resisting the Jurchens was also a kind of desperate measure, Zhou Pei had begun to subconsciously reject desperate measures when her own strength was insufficient. In several discussions, Qin Hui realized that she also hated the Black Flag in the southwest, but what she hated even more was the weakness and disunity within the Wu Dynasty. Therefore, the southwestern strategy was reduced by her to a reprimand and rectification of the army, and the pressure of the Jurchens was fully directed by her towards resolving the internal north-south contradictions. If it had been in the past, Qin Hui would have nodded in agreement with her.

However, there was not enough time.

In a few months, half of Qin Hui's head was covered with white hair, and he had suddenly lost weight. On the one hand, he was worried, and on the other hand, the political struggles in the court were never peaceful. After the southwestern strategy was dragged into a mess, impeachments of Qin Hui's faction appeared one after another in the court, with people criticizing Qin Hui's southwestern strategy from various angles. At this time, Qin Hui, although he had a high position in Zhou Yong's heart, was ultimately not comparable to Cai Jing and Tong Guan in those years. When news of the Wu Xiang Army entering Liangshan in the southwest came, he wrote a memorial, admitting his guilt and requesting resignation.

Zhou Yong did not agree to his resignation and immediately rejected it. As a father, he certainly believed in and supported his son's energetic efforts in various affairs, but at the same time, as the emperor, Zhou Yong also trusted Qin Hui's prudent character very much. His son was fighting the enemy on the front line, and there had to be a trustworthy minister in the rear to keep the situation under control. Therefore, as soon as Qin Hui's memorial was submitted, it was rejected by Zhou Yong with a scolding.

Qin Hui then submitted his resignation for the second time. Although the southwestern strategy had changed to some extent, it was originally proposed by him. Now it seemed that Lu Qiaoshan would inevitably be defeated, and the southwestern situation was about to deteriorate. He had to take responsibility. Zhou Yong was furious with his pessimistic words in the court, and privately comforted Qin Hui for a while, because at the same time that this resignation memorial was submitted, news from the southwest came again. On the 26th, Lu Qiaoshan's army was head-on attacked by tens of thousands of Black Flag troops in the Xiufeng Pass area of Liangshan. More than 30,000 men of Chen Yuguang's department were defeated in one blow, and the defeated soldiers scattered into Liangshan. Then, Lu Qiaoshan's main force of 70,000 men was attacked and divided by the Black Flag Army. Lu Qiaoshan defended each mountain, dragging the war into a stalemate.

The southwest war situation took a sharp turn for the worse on the fourth day of entering the mountain. Qin Hui's foresight saved him a lot of face. On this day, many colleagues came to comfort and retain him. Some people also said that Lu Qiaoshan was clever and skilled in using troops. He was caught off guard by the Black Flag's surprise attack, but he finally stabilized his position. As long as the strategy was adjusted in time, the entire Liangshan situation might not be reversed. Qin Hui just shook his head and sighed.

After seeing off his colleagues in the court, his old wife, Madam Wang, came to comfort him. Qin Hui sighed: "More than ten years ago, the mood of the late Right Chancellor Lord Siyuan was probably similar to that of her husband today. In this world, unsatisfactory things happen eight or nine times out of ten. Even with a sincere heart, how can one resist the emperor's fickleness?"

Madam Wang was silent for a while: "The brothers and children of the clan are all outside. If you resign, you should tell them."

"Resign? How easy is it? Eighty-one years of past events, no home three thousand miles away, flesh and blood each on the edge of the sky, looking at China with tears..." Qin Hui smiled and shook his head, reciting the last poem of Cai Jing, a powerful minister of the previous generation, "Five times I have been Prime Minister in the Golden Hall, ten times I have announced decrees in the Jade Hall, recalling the past prosperity, it has all turned into a dream... It has all turned into a dream, madam. Cai Yuanchang was the most powerful in the court for decades, second only to one person and above ten thousand. In the end, he was starved to death."

When the Jurchens invaded the south for the second time, Cai Jing was demoted to the south. He had been the number one person in the court for decades, and most of the blame for the collapse of the Wu Dynasty was placed on him. The eighty-year-old Cai Jing went all the way south, unable to buy rice even with money. In the end, he starved to death in Chongjiao Temple in Tanzhou. For more than ten years, the outside world said that he had done many evil deeds that caused the people's resentment, so he could not buy food even with money, highlighting the loyalty of the world. But where did the people get such discerning eyes?

In the past, Cai Jing and Tong Guan were at the forefront, and the many party struggles in the court were mostly participated in by the two. Qin Hui, although he had been smooth all the way, was ultimately not an upstart. Now, he was the leader of a faction. Clan members, students, and court officials had to rely on him to eat. If he really resigned, how many people would have to walk Cai Jing's old road?

"However, madam, don't worry." After a moment of silence, Qin Hui waved his hand, "At least this time, there is no need to worry. His Majesty feels indebted to me. This southwestern matter, I drew firewood from under the cauldron and finally stabilized the situation, so that it will not lead to Cai Jing's fate. But the responsibility must still be borne. Bearing this responsibility is for His Majesty, and suffering a loss is taking advantage. There is no need to pay attention to those people outside. I accept the punishment and let them be reprimanded. The affairs of the world..."

He paused: "...are all ruined by some ignorant youngsters!"

That night, the capital city of Lin'an was brightly lit, and the surging undercurrent was hidden in the prosperous scene, still appearing ambiguous and blurred.

In Liangshan, Southwest, on the sixth day after the start of the war, explosions sounded in the mountain valleys after nightfall. In the distant foothills, there were layers of camps set up by the Wu Xiang Army. The torches around the camps were not dense, and the well-defended sharpshooters hid behind the wooden walls, quietly not daring to speak.

The woodland opposite the camp was pitch black. At some point, a faint sound came from the darkness: "Crippled one, how is it?"

"Don't worry, I saw a big one..." The young man in the tree, with a long firelock almost taller than him in front of him, was scouting the distant camp through binoculars. This was Yuwen Feidu, who had a limp and followed Ning Yi. Since injuring his leg, he had been practicing archery hard. Later, when firelock technology broke through, under Ning Yi's promotion, a group of people in the Chinese Army were selected to practice firelocks, and Yuwen Feidu was one of them.

In the R&D department of the three counties in the southwest, although firelocks could already be manufactured, the requirements for steel were still very high. On the other hand, machine tools and rifling were just getting started. At this time, Ning Yi gathered the entire Chinese Army's R&D capabilities and produced a few firelocks that could shoot far and were equipped with binoculars. Although these firelocks could reach far, the performance of each one still varied, and even the shooting effect was slightly different due to the difference in each special bullet. But even if the accuracy at long distances was not high, relying on shooters like Yuwen Feidu who had a lot of spirituality, they could still be relied upon as a strategic advantage in many cases.

"Don't fire your gun randomly." Xiao Hei, who set up a mine in a hidden place under the tree and partnered with him, raised a pair of binoculars and said in a low voice, "Actually, in my opinion, it's a bit of a waste to take out your gun now. Every time you hit a few small fries, it's not very accurate, and it makes people wary. If you take this to the north and kill Wanyan Zonghan with one shot, that would be great."

"Consider the long-term gains... Teacher said that war will promote technological progress. Now, this thing only hits one out of three shots from a hundred zhang away, and each one can't be used for too long. It's just right to mix it up in this kind of place and get familiar with it. When I go back, I can think more about how to improve it. Hehe, in the future, whoever I point at within three hundred zhang will have to call me dad. Caught one."

As soon as Yuwen Feidu's voice fell, he pulled the trigger. In the dark night, a flash of fire suddenly burst out, and even the trunk of the tree moved. Yuwen Feidu hugged the long gun barrel and climbed down the tree like a monkey, and there was a commotion in the opposite camp. Xiao Hei cursed in a low voice under the tree: "Damn you, damn you, I told you to be careful, did you confirm it was a big boss?"

"It looks like it, I've been waiting all night."

"Did you hit it?"

"I don't know, I didn't see clearly, let's go, let's go."

"Go that way, go that way, you crippled one, do you want to be blown to death?"

"You're dark and heartless, you put mines everywhere for no reason, you'll get your comeuppance sooner or later."

The two cursed each other and scrambled to leave along the dark foothills. They hadn't run far when a loud bang suddenly came from the place where they had been hiding, and light bloomed in the forest. It was probably a scout from the opposite side who touched the trip mine left by Xiao Hei. The two looked at each other and smiled, heading towards the Chinese Army's camp on the other side of the mountain.

On August 2nd, the sixth day of the war in Xiaoliangshan, the battle continued. Calling it a stalemate was more like a restraint on the part of the Chinese Army, fearing war losses. Except for July 26th and 27th, when the entire Wu Xiang Army was ferociously divided and swallowed up, when Lu Qiaoshan shrunk the army and began to defend comprehensively, the Chinese Army's offensive became restrained and methodical.

The so-called restraint meant that the Chinese Army occupied camps one by one every day with superior forces, harassed them at night, laid mines on the mountain roads, and never launched a large-scale strong attack and advance.

In the past ten or twenty years, the Wu Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom had been declining, and were like a nest of bears. Starting from Chuhe Shop, Wanyan Aguda led 3,700 people to defeat 100,000 Liao soldiers, and then at Hubudagang, 20,000 people chased and killed 700,000 people. The legend of winning more with less had never stopped. During the Jurchen's first southern invasion, they successively defeated a million-strong royalist army under the city of Bianliang with tens of thousands of troops. During the second southern invasion, they broke Bianliang, and during the third invasion, they killed all the way to Jiangnan. In order to capture Zhou Yong and search the mountains and seas, they defeated the various armies of the Wu Dynasty like mountains collapsing. The Black Flag had also overturned millions of troops from Daqi in Xiaocang River, seemingly effortlessly. It seemed that using superior forces to win more with less had become a common practice.

But it must be admitted that when the quality of soldiers reaches a certain level, and the collapse on the battlefield can be adjusted in time, and the situation of sweeping everything like a tornado cannot be formed, the situation of the war is not as simple as solving the problem in one go. In recent years, the Wu Xiang Army has been rigorously reorganized, and the military law is extremely strict. After the defeat on the first day, Lu Qiaoshan quickly changed his strategy, ordering the army to constantly build fortifications, and the various departments of the army echoed each other in offense and defense, finally slowing down the intensity of the Chinese Army's attack. At this time, Chen Yuguang and others led 30,000 troops to collapse and scatter, and the entire Lu Qiaoshan main force was left with only 60,000.

In a few days, the Chinese Army spotted the weaknesses in the Wu Xiang Army's defense, and occupied a camp of several thousand people every day. Lu Qiaoshan worked hard to manage the defense and constantly gathered the defeated soldiers, which slightly stabilized the situation. But Lu Qiaoshan also understood that the reason why the Chinese Army did not launch a strong attack did not mean that they did not have the ability to do so, but that the Chinese Army was constantly destroying the will of the Wu Xiang Army, reducing resistance to a minimum. Having governed the army in the southwest for several years, Lu Qiaoshan believed that he had done his best. The current Wu Xiang Army had undergone a thorough change from the original group of soldiers who were only interested in making money. It was also because of this that he had some confidence in leading his troops into Liangshan.

In his original imagination, even if the Wu Xiang Army was no match for the Black Flag, it could at least let the other side see the Wu Dynasty's determination to improve itself and learn from its past mistakes, and could cause enough trouble for the other side. But he did not expect that the Black Flag Army's head-on blow on July 26th would be so fierce. Chen Yuguang's 30,000 troops maintained the most steadfast defense, but were brutally defeated and routed by 15,000 Chinese Army troops right in front of Lu Qiaoshan's eyes. The all-out counterattack of 70,000 troops on this side, under the obstruction of less than 10,000 people on the other side, did not cross Xiufeng Pass by half a step for the entire afternoon, until the smoke of gunpowder filled the wilderness and blood flowed into rivers.

This was a real head-on blow. After that, the Chinese Army's restraint was nothing but Ning Liheng's coldness and stinginess. The entry of 100,000 troops into the mountain was like being directly thrown into the mouth of a beast, being swallowed up step by step. Now it was difficult to turn around and go back.

It was already dawn, and the lights in the central army tent had not gone out. Lu Qiaoshan, with bandages wrapped around his forehead, was writing furiously under the lights, recording what he had discovered about the Chinese Army in this war:

...The Black Flag's iron cannons are fierce, which shows that the iron cannons sold to us in the past transactions were not the best. The cannons used by the Black Flag in this battle have a range of about ten to twenty steps better than ours. I used elite troops to attack strongly and captured two abandoned cannons from the other side, hoping that the people in the rear can restore them...

...Their soldiers cooperate tacitly and have high morale, far better than ours, and are difficult to resist. Perhaps those who are directly facing them this time are all veterans of the Northwest War. Now that iron cannons have appeared, many past tactics are no longer reliable. Infantry is difficult to form an array on the front, and soldiers who cannot cooperate tacitly may withdraw from future battles...

...There is also the firelock used by the Black Flag soldiers on the battlefield, which is elusive and difficult to resist. According to reports from some soldiers, it is suspected that they have several firelocks, which can reach a hundred zhang on the battlefield and must be carefully investigated...

...Now what I see is that the method of investigation is used in battle formations, which is really effective, and there will be more novel things appearing in future battles. Those who exhaust its changes can take advantage of the opportunity. We should exhaust its reasons and strive to catch up...

Mosquitoes were buzzing in the night, and the flames were roaring, making a continuous subtle sound. Lu Qiaoshan had not rested for several days, and his face was pale, but his eyes did not have the slightest carelessness in writing, trying to preserve and send out the experience of the Wu Xiang Army's tragic defeat to warn others. Soon, a soldier came to report that the leader of the Mangshan Department, Lang Ge, was injured and brought back: this highly skilled leader of the Mangshan Department was unfortunately blown up by a mine while leading scouts to snipe Black Flag scouts, and now his injuries were not light. After Lu Qiaoshan heard this, he continued to write and ignored it.

The camps where tens of thousands of people were stationed were scattered in Xiaoliangshan, with continuous campfires. The campfires were vast, and from a distance, they looked like the fire of the setting sun, which was about to go out in this great mountain.

After dawn, an envoy from the Chinese Army came to the front of the Wu Xiang Army's camp, requesting to meet with Lu Qiaoshan. Hearing that a Black Flag envoy had arrived, Lang Ge, who was covered in wounds, also came to the camp with bandages all over his body, looking like he was gnashing his teeth.

The envoy was in his thirties and gnashed his teeth even more than Lang Ge: "I am Su Wenyu, the cousin of Su Wenfang. I am here to represent Mr. Ning and point out a way for you to survive. Of course, you can arrest me, torture me severely, and then send me back. In that case, when you die... I will feel better."

As an envoy, he spoke unkindly, his face full of displeasure, and he had an expression that you'd better not talk to me. It was clearly a clumsy blackmail tactic in negotiations, causing Lu Qiaoshan's face to turn gloomy for a long time. Lang Ge was the most valiant, and he was full of anger. He opened his mouth and said, "You... cough cough, go back and tell Ning Yi... cough..."

Su Wenyu glanced at him: "Who are you, you consumptive ghost go die, screw your mother!" Ready to die, he was full of dirty words.