Magical Water Margin: They all call me brother

Page 136

Grand Commandant Gao spent days preparing his armor and making banners for a distant expedition against the Liao!

Gao Qiu's plan was brilliant. All of Liao's elite troops were currently stationed on the Liaoxi defense line, confronting the Jin army. The Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun were completely undefended. Gao Qiu pressed his advantage and directly broke through Bazhou and Zhuozhou, reaching the gates of Youzhou! Youzhou had no troops at all at the moment. All the troops had been taken by Liao to the Liaoxi front to fight against the Jin. They surrendered without resistance.

More than a century later, the banner of the Great Song Dynasty was once again raised on the walls of Youzhou. Gao Qiu, beaming with pride and self-satisfaction, declared, "I have accomplished a feat that even Emperor Taizong of Song could not achieve! I have recaptured Youzhou! Now, let's see who in the court dares to slander me or attack me!"

However, a few days later, Gao Qiu received an urgent report—the Liao general Yelü Chun had heard that Youzhou had fallen and was leading 30,000 to 40,000 Liao soldiers back to reinforce it, hoping to retake Youzhou.

Upon hearing this, Gao Qiu was overjoyed. This was another way to boost his battle record!

First of all, Yelü Chun was a member of the imperial family of the Liao Dynasty, and his prestige and status were extremely high.

Secondly, our army, riding high on the momentum of a great victory, was well-prepared and full of energy, while the enemy, having marched a long distance, was exhausted.

Finally, the enemy forces were very few, only thirty or forty thousand. In any case, the ratio of this battle was two hundred thousand to thirty thousand, and the advantage was on our side!

With this in mind, Gao Qiu confidently led an army of 200,000 out of Youzhou City to meet Yelü Chun in open battle!

The north wind howled. On the front line of the battle, hundreds of ogres, each as large as a hill and clad in Tang Dynasty black armor, roared deafeningly beneath a banner of the Liao Dynasty! Their thick arms carried huge, rough black iron cannons that glowed with a molten red light. They rode on beasts the size of rhinoceroses, their riders and cavalrymen all covered in thick black iron armor.

Without needing to form a battle formation, the heavy footsteps of these hundred heavily armored ogre cavalry were enough to shake the earth, becoming the vanguard of the entire Liao army's charge! They charged forward under the dense rain of crossbow fire from the Song army!

"Shoot the arrow!!!"

At Gao Qiu's command, arrows rained down, blotting out the sky. Of the hundred daredevils, thirty perished on their advance, killed by the overwhelming barrage of arrows from the Song army. The remaining seventy cannibals stubbornly charged to within fifty meters of the Song army's ranks!

"Fire!!!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the muzzles of cannons suddenly spewed forth a torrent of fire! It wasn't solid projectiles, but a viscous rain of burning, boiling lava, mixed with unmelted iron fragments and pebbles, like the first strike of a hellish volcanic eruption. The fire rain covered the Song army's impenetrable shield wall and vanguard; steel instantly twisted, exploded, and melted! Flesh and leather armor vaporized, carbonized, and splattered directly in the intense heat, the stench of burning flesh and thick sulfurous smoke mingling with agonizing screams that filled the sky.

The sturdy shields and spears were as fragile as paper; the dense formation became a fuel depot for the raging lava. Molten battle flags, wrapped with severed limbs, fell to the ground. Seventy shotguns, firing at close range from fifty meters away, instantly melted the Song infantry's front line!

Even after the first devastating volley of shrapnel, with the ground still ablaze and thick smoke still lingering, terrifying roars pierced through the smoke. Seeing the vanguard's success, Yelü Chun immediately led the charge, sending even more unarmored, defense-sacrificing, speed-focused Zangya Beast cavalry on a furious charge, their momentum capable of shattering mountains and rivers!

The heavy ramming of the Zangya beasts was like a hammer smashing tofu; they showed no mercy to the surviving wounded, their massive hooves crushing bodies into a bloody pulp, the splattered red mist forming cruel trails in the air. Iron Falcon's spears, maces, and scimitars transformed into whirlwinds of death, easily sweeping away anyone who tried to stand. Song soldiers were like stalks of wheat blown down by a gale, submerged, trampled, and torn apart!

Even more terrifying was that each of the Zombie-toothed Beasts carried two people on its back! A three-meter-tall ogre wielded a giant iron hammer, charging left and right, unstoppable.

Behind him, a man of about 1.6 or 1.7 meters tall from Youyun or Bohai sat facing away, holding a firearm and providing ranged support in the battle.

The soldiers in the rear who were lucky enough to escape the first volley of shotgun shells hadn't even recovered from the carnage when they witnessed the inhuman torrent of bullets rolling in and the scene before them instantly transforming into hell. Fear left a crimson mark on their retinas, and their fighting spirit evaporated in an instant. The survivors either trampled each other in despair like headless flies or turned and fled for their lives, abandoning their armor and weapons, just to get one step further away from the source of destruction!

Yelü Chun snorted coldly, "Two hundred thousand infantrymen? What good are they! You, Gao Qiu, have deployed two hundred thousand troops on the plains, your entire formation stretching for dozens of miles. It looks intimidating, but once I charge, what use are those infantrymen dozens of miles away? They can't even come back to reinforce! I don't need to kill two hundred thousand people. I just need to kill all the ones blocking my way, and reaching you, Gao Qiu, will be victory!"

At this moment, Gao Qiu's face was deathly pale. He never expected his first battle as commander would end so badly! He was even more astonished by the sheer incompetence of the Song army. The Song Dynasty had been at peace for over a century, not fighting the Liao. Apart from Zhong Shidao and Han Shizhong's northwestern army, the rest of the Song army hadn't participated in a significant war in almost a hundred years. Since they weren't fighting, training was lax, and the number of soldiers was inflated. Even the 800,000 Imperial Guards had become corrupt and decadent, let alone the troops under the regional military governors. It could be said that half of the 100,000 external troops were civilians hastily recruited by the ten regional military governors to make up the numbers. The other half hadn't been properly trained either.

Moreover, times have changed. The Liao people, at least, were fighting because of the wars in the Northeast and the endless conquest conflicts on the grasslands. As a result, they researched and developed firearms technology and practiced artillery-cavalry coordinated tactics.

The Song Dynasty has truly remained unchanged. Infantry hold the line, crossbows fire—the same way Emperor Taizong fought the Liao Dynasty. The only difference is that the iron-blooded and powerful army under Emperor Taizu has long since disappeared in a century of decadence and corruption, becoming a cowardly army that crumbles at the slightest touch.

Yelü Chun, who had been fighting the Jin for years, felt an immense sense of relief, as if he had fallen from a high-level game to a low-level one. The heavy footsteps of the cannon ogres were the background noise of destruction, and the steel torrent of the Zangya Beast cavalry showed no hesitation. Braving the overwhelming barrage of Song crossbow bolts, and with the support of cannons and muskets, they relentlessly pierced through the core of the massive Song army formation! The Liao army's target was crystal clear—the central command banner, bearing the character "Gao," fluttering amidst the vast army!

Gao Qiu's magnificent banner, the enormous flag symbolizing power and status, was transformed in a very short time from a safe center into the deadliest target on the battlefield. Amidst the desperate screams of his guards and the clatter of armor shattering, the blood-soaked, flesh-covered cavalrymen of the Zombie-toothed Beasts smashed through his personal guard! Yelü Chun wielded a giant spiked club, killing three military governors and two imperial guard commanders in quick succession. With a single charge, he swiftly dispatched Dang Shixiong, Gao Qiu's most trusted personal guard general, while the fangs of his Zombie-toothed Beast devoured Dang Shixiong alive!

Gao Qiu's meticulously tailored brocade robe and armor, his carefully maintained face, were distorted and deformed in the chaos and extreme fear. He didn't even have time to see the saliva dripping from the mouth of the nearby monster and its crimson eyes; the instinct for survival overwhelmed everything. In that moment, he was not a commander, but simply an old man stripped of all glory and reliance, his heart and soul shattered. He tumbled violently from his magnificent saddle, letting his brocade robe tear apart amidst the rubble and mud, like a frightened mouse, scrambling on all fours into the gaps between the chaotic crowd and the piles of corpses. All prestige, all dignity, all the 200,000-strong army—all were utterly left behind, leaving only the naked fear of death and the desperate desire to escape hell!

The next day, devastating news reached Tokyo: the Liao army of 200,000 men had been annihilated by Yelü Chun, the Prince of Qin and Jin of Liao. Gao Qiu barely escaped with his life, and Youzhou, which had been recovered, was retaken by Liao just seven days later.

What's even more terrifying is that the Song Dynasty has been plagued by rampant embezzlement of military funds in recent years. Several major bandits, including Liangshan, have also wiped out a significant portion of the imperial army. The imperial court lost 100,000 imperial guards in this battle, and in the four recent attacks on Liangshan, it also lost more than 100,000 soldiers.

Logically speaking, this is only 200,000; there are still 600,000 Imperial Guards.

However, Gao Qiu knew perfectly well that the Imperial Guards of Tokyo numbered only 200,000! The remaining 600,000 were all drawing salaries without working, and those few had lined their own pockets! His defeat at Youyun had completely destroyed Tokyo's last defensive force! The 800,000 Imperial Guards had been wiped out.

Chapter 393: Yelü Chun Heads North to Resist the Jin

The cannibal raised his arms and shouted in celebration of the victory. Yelü Chun, the Prince of Qin and Jin of the Liao Dynasty, forcibly recruited Han soldiers in Youzhou and equipped them with 200,000 pieces of various armors, powerful bows and crossbows, weapons and warhorses seized from the Imperial Guards of the Song Dynasty in Tokyo. In an instant, the number of soldiers expanded to 230,000!

This 230,000-strong Liao army, carrying the residual power of its crushing victory over the Song army and billowing with sulfur and blood, swept across the northern lands like a moving volcano. Their heavy footsteps made the earth groan, their crude iron cannons steamed in the cold wind, and their狰狞 faces were etched with a fervent anticipation of their next target. However, when this massive army re-entered the Liaoxi battlefield, ready to rewrite victory with lava and brute force, they were not met with a panicked army of mortals, but with a sudden, soul-freezing white hell.

The sky darkened without warning, and a biting wind swept across the land like a million icy blades. The temperature plummeted in an instant, and the hot sweat on the ogre's rough skin froze instantly. Then, the earth began to tremble—not from the ogre's heavy footsteps, but from the awakening of something far greater and more ancient. Accompanied by a deafening roar like glaciers cracking, several mountain-like figures slowly rose from the swirling blizzard!

In an instant, the raging blizzard ceased to be a devastating backdrop, becoming a servant swept and driven by these moving, living glaciers. The polar winds didn't come from the ground, but rather surged forth with each heavy stomp, carrying a chilling malice. The horizon distorted and trembled in the distance, not from the heat, but from the pure, freezing pulse of frigid cold rumbling ever closer!

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Amidst a deafening roar, countless frost giants emerged from the blizzard and the Yanshan Mountains, their outlines blurred yet as immovable as the mountains themselves. Each one was over ten meters tall, seemingly sculpted from ancient, perpetually frozen glaciers—but these glaciers were alive. Their skin was a mixture of frozen blood and deep blue permafrost, their bulging muscles writhing beneath their icy shells, bursting forth with the power to shatter rock. Necklaces of shattered beast teeth hung around their necks, and sturdy armor pressed down tightly, the frost forming a second layer of frost armor.

Their faces were like frozen rocks before an avalanche: cold, ruthless, and exuding a destructive pressure. Wherever their gaze fell, even the air seemed to freeze into ice crystals. Each breath spewed forth a chilling current of ice shards, freezing a crackling path of frost in their path. Their heavy footsteps pounded the earth like battering rams, each impact causing the ground to groan, crack, and the frozen soil to shatter into a spiderweb of ice patterns beneath their feet.

Their movements were slow, yet possessed an unstoppable, immense momentum, like a collapsing iceberg slowly sliding into the ocean. They wielded not weapons, but tools of destruction: massive ice axes, rough as logs, their blades emitting a visible blue aura of cold vapor from the extreme temperature; and giant iron hammers, covered in frozen debris, tearing through the frozen air with each swing. Some of these giants casually draped or carried on their shoulders prey frozen stiff like ice sculptures—a robust yak from the cold, or worse, the half-buried, unrecognizable remains of a humanoid creature.

Before the snowflakes could even touch their shoulders, they were frozen into frost by the low temperatures emanating from their bodies—enough to embrittle steel. Where they passed, they left behind a path of death, utterly plowed and instantly frozen into a smooth, jagged expanse of ice. On either side of the road, the once tenacious coniferous forests froze instantly in a strange, struggling posture, their branches and leaves covered in ice crystals, like sculptures of terrified, wailing ghosts.

You can even see some small ice creatures—ferrets, goblin scouts—caught up by the spreading frost before they can escape. In extreme fear, they are instantly frozen into fragile ice sculptures, then crushed into ice dust by a giant foot that falls mercilessly, melting into the snow. Even the bloodstains are frozen into eerie deep red ice crystals.

Dead!

Only the howling wind and the muffled thunder of footsteps echoed across the vast, empty ice field. The air was as heavy as frozen mercury; each breath felt like swallowing icy needles. The air was thick with the pungent stench of pre-avalanche earth, frozen blood, and the biting chill of ancient rocks deep within the glacier. A despairing sense of oppression, accompanied by a numbing cold, crept up my spine.

The Liao army seemed to be witnessing not an enemy, but the absolute terror of a natural disaster slowly approaching! These were not frost giants, but rather a sky-covering glacier marching forward in the form of intelligent beings! And we stood in the way of the Jurchens!

"Oh no! It's the Frost Giants! The Wanyan tribe, the leader of all the Jurchen tribes! We've run into the main force of the Jin army!!!"

Yelü Chun was sweating profusely. He couldn't believe that the Jurchens hadn't taken the Liaoxi Corridor and marched all the way to Youzhou, but instead had gone around and forcibly crossed the Yanshan Mountains to attack him!

However, at this moment, they could only hastily prepare for battle, deploying firearms and preparing for artillery and cavalry coordination to engage in a frontal battle. A large number of cannons and muskets were ready to fire.

But the next second, a frost giant moved. His staff, crafted from millennia-old ice, emitted a chilling blue light capable of freezing souls. With each swing, the earth was covered by a thick layer of frozen earth, shimmering with deadly sharp ice crystals. With a casual wave of his massive ice hand, a torrent of frigid breath, streaked with sharp ice shards, swept across the land like a white flood. The ogre's prized lava cannons were child's play before this absolute zero breath; the scorching lava flow solidified, cracked, and turned into smoky black slag the moment it touched the ground! The ogre struck directly by the breath didn't even have time to scream before its massive body was instantly frozen into a lifelike giant ice sculpture. Its flesh and bones shattered under the extreme cold, and then, in the next second, were blown into countless shimmering powders mixed with scarlet ice particles by the ensuing ice storm!

The frost giant muttered incantations, a deep, muffled spell emanating from its throat like the cracking of a glacier. The sound wasn't loud, yet it reverberated through the air, causing every creature that heard it to tremble deep within their very bones. As the last syllable of the spell shattered like a falling icicle, it abruptly pointed its staff, radiating a chilling aura of destruction, straight at the heavens!

In an instant, the world lost its color. The leaden clouds seemed to be torn apart by the staff, and a huge, bottomless, blue-black vortex spun and expanded wildly in the sky above where the staff pointed. The sunlight was completely extinguished, and only the vortex emitted a suffocating, frigid glow, as if the chill of an ancient glacier was being poured down from it in an instant! The hot breath exhaled on the battlefield instantly turned into thick white mist, which then immediately froze into tiny ice crystals in the air.

Armor, swords, helmet plumes—everything exposed to the elements was covered in a thick layer of frost at a visible speed. The undried sweat and breath of the Liao soldiers instantly froze into ice on their eyebrows and lips.

The next instant, the core of the icy vortex roared, and countless fine, needle-like raindrops, mixed with fingernail-sized, sharp-edged frozen snowflakes, poured down with astonishing density and speed! This was not gentle snowfall, but a high-speed storm of ice needles carrying a bone-chilling cold! The raindrops were frozen into ice particles by the extreme cold as they fell, creating a dense crackling sound as they hit metal armor, and bringing a needle-like pain and instant numbness when they hit the skin! This violent rain and snow, imbued with the bone-chilling cold of the mage giant, precisely covered the Liao army's proud firearms positions.

The icy frost and snow immediately splashed and seeped onto the carefully prepared muskets, matchlock guns, and cannons. The frost froze instantly on the gunpowder and matchlock. When it landed on the scorching cannon barrels or matchlocks, it melted into water, which, after being soaked, was then frozen into thin ice by the frigid air.

The gunners' hands were numb and purple from the cold, their joints stiff. Touching the cold metal of the cannon was like sticking their hands into a red-hot iron. Their breath blurred their vision, then was instantly blasted into icy shards by the icy wind and stung their faces. Only helpless curses, the chattering of teeth, and the terrifying cacophony of icy rain and snow pounding on the metal filled the battlefield. Their once-proud, thunderous weapons of mass destruction had, in a mere few dozen breaths, been transformed into rows of silent ice sculptures covered in icicles.

One of the four generals of the Jin Dynasty: Wanyan Zongwang.

Chapter 394: The Wanyan Tribe Shakes the Heavens and Earth

"Father! I've contained their cannons!"

Wanyan Zongwang raised his staff high, laughing heartily as he looked at the Liao army's chaotic firearms positions. Behind him stood a frost giant over fifteen meters tall, clad in steel armor, with a yellow silk shawl draped over his shoulders. His helmet was adorned with a crown-like headband made of molten gold, resting on his phoenix-winged helmet. This was none other than the Great Jin Emperor: Wanyan Aguda.

He carried five large banners on his back, each embroidered with a different image: green, depicting a swollen, rotting rat; pink, a seductive and alluring fox; red, a heavily armored, spiked hedgehog; blue, a twisting and shifting venomous snake; and yellow, a sacred and solemn weasel.

He stared at the chaotic artillery positions of the Liao Dynasty, his eyes shifting from calm to burning with fervor, then to madness. He raised the mace in his hand and swung it down with tremendous force.

"Wanyan Loushi as the vanguard, all troops, charge!"

Just as the ogres were thrown into chaos by the terror of the frost giants, an even more terrifying shadow suddenly loomed over the battlefield. The leaden clouds were torn apart, and accompanied by a deafening dragon's roar, a colossal beast so large it blotted out the sun descended—it was the three-headed white dragon that Wanyan Loushi had transformed into! Every scale on it gleamed with a cold, iron-like light, and on its three majestic heads, six enormous, bluish-white vertical pupils swept across the ant-like ogre army below like searchlights. There was no anger in its eyes, only a pure, icy will to destroy.

Wanyan Loushi was the adopted son of Wanyan Aguda's father. He came from a Jurchen tribe that had been annexed, so he was not a frost giant at all, but a terrifying white dragon with three heads. He was the Great Jin War General, second only to Wanyan Aguda.

"Roar!!!"

Three gigantic maws opened simultaneously, not spewing flames, but three distinct yet equally deadly breaths: one an absolute zero chill that froze everything, another a ghostly green acid mist that paralyzed everything, and the last a pure psionic, bluish-white annihilation beam! The chill instantly froze the charging fanged beasts and their cavalry into ice blocks, which were then crushed into ice shards by the iron hooves that followed; under the acid mist, the ogres' powerful limbs trembled and became paralyzed, unable to move; wherever the annihilation beam passed, whether it was the massive bodies of the ogres, the swarms of fanged beast cavalry, or the lava cannons, everything disintegrated and vaporized silently, leaving only deep, mirror-smooth, scorching trenches in the ground!

As frost and dragon might raged, a killing frenzy swept across the land. Accompanied by inhuman roars, the Jurchen army surged forth like a flood. Warriors from various Jurchen tribes, surrounding frost giants of the Wanyan clan, charged out like a tidal wave!

Among them are ice bears, as strong as polar bears, yet standing upright like humans, clad in heavy armor.

It is as terrifying as a dragon, but without wings, possessing only its size and four claws, resembling a large frost lizard.

Some can transform into roe deer or tigers. These are beast-like beings who can freely switch between human and non-human forms.

There is a frost demon soul whose entire body is wrapped in frost prisms.

There are also a large number of frost trolls whose size is comparable to that of ogres, but whose appearance is even more ferocious and terrifying, and who can heal quickly no matter how serious their injuries are.

Living in the snow-capped mountains and dense forests, these white dragons are fierce, reckless, and brave by nature, and they travel in groups.

Even more remarkable are the Wanyan Jurchen, the Frost Giants, who were able to unite these races and tribes, which had been divided for thousands of years and had thousands of different beliefs and appearances, under the same banner.

They were truly like tigers, horses like dragons, climbing mountains like monkeys, and swimming like rapids; their power was as great as Mount Tai, and the Liao Dynasty was as fragile as a pile of eggs!

What was even more critical was that the Liao army, while marching back to defend the Liaoxi Corridor, formed a long, single-file formation.

Wanyan Aguda, however, did not take the Liaoxi Corridor route, but instead charged out from the Yanshan Mountains! With a single stroke, he cleaved the long, serpentine Liao army formation in two, preventing them from supporting each other. Moreover, this army of 200,000 men consisted of conscripted soldiers, whose only advantage was the superior equipment they had captured from the Song army. These Liao soldiers were armed to appear respectable, but in a real battle, these conscripted soldiers had virtually no morale whatsoever.

Large numbers of Jurchen soldiers charged into the Liao army's ranks like tigers among sheep. These monsters, their muscles bulging, fangs bared, and eyes bloodshot, were completely driven by primal bloodlust. Ignoring their pain, they pounced on the chaotic ogres with astonishing speed and strength, tearing through tough skin with their claws and snapping thick necks with their fangs. Several beastmen even worked together to pin an ogre to the ground and frantically ripped out its entrails!

Even more terrifying were the equally enormous frost trolls, clad in primitive bone armor or thick fur. They were far less tall than the frost giants, but far more numerous and equally terrifyingly powerful. Wielding massive stone clubs, bone hammers, or thick tree trunks, they slammed them down on the ogres' heads or knees like pile drivers. The sounds of cracking bones and exploding flesh were deafening. One troll even ripped an ogre's arm from its body and used it as a weapon to sweep across the surrounding area.

And when they were ripped open in the chest, smashed in the arms, and even had their heads chopped off by the cannibals, their bodies were able to heal and regenerate at an incredibly fast speed, growing new organs, new arms, and new heads!

"That's a troll! The only way to stop its regeneration is with fire!"

A Liao army officer roared, trying to start a fire, but Wanyan Zongwang was still in the central army, maintaining his massive ice and snow magic that covered the entire battlefield. Firearms could not function properly, let alone start a fire.

The ogre's cannons were difficult to ignite in the extreme cold, and even if they were to be fired, the lava projectiles were easily frozen or annihilated by the white dragon hovering in the air.

The brute force that the ogres were so proud of appeared clumsy and laughable under the absolute power of the frost giants, the aerial suppression of the white dragons, and the frenzied attacks of the orcs, ice bears, and trolls.

Faced with this terrifying power beyond comprehension, the ogres' primal ferocity was gradually replaced by utter fear. They watched as their companions were instantly frozen, melted by acid mist, annihilated by dragon breath, torn apart by hordes of beasts, and crushed by giants; their fighting spirit completely collapsed. Howls replaced battle cries; they began to trample each other, trying to escape this white inferno of death. Even Yelü Chun, who had once torn apart three Song Dynasty military governors and killed two imperial guards, and was once so arrogant and powerful, was helpless in the face of this situation.

He was forcefully directing his troops to break through the encirclement when suddenly death struck. Wanyan Loushi roared and swooped down! The first dragon head bit down hard on Yelü Chun's head, while the heads on either side bit down on his arms. Using the momentum of the charge, the three heads violently pulled in three different directions, instantly tearing Yelü Chun's body into four pieces of mangled flesh! This completely shattered the Liao army's morale.

The battle, or rather the massacre, ended with extraordinary speed. The once invincible ogre army, along with their equally ferocious fanged beast mounts, was almost completely annihilated on this land ravaged by frost and dragon breath. The battlefield was littered with enormous, frozen ogre carcasses, like grotesque ice sculptures; molten acid craters emitted wisps of smoke, from which floated half-dissolved flesh and bone; deep trenches plowed by annihilation beams resembled scars on the earth; and even more numerous were chunks of flesh torn and smashed by orcs and Jurchen giants, rapidly freezing in the extreme cold, mixing with crimson ice crystals, filling the entire field of vision.

Wanyan Aguda stood silently in the center of the battlefield, like an unchanging iceberg. The three-headed, blue-eyed white dragon, Wanyan Loushi, hovered low in the sky, its cold dragon eyes sweeping over the silent, deathly tundra he had personally created. The Jurchen beast-like warriors and giants roared victoriously and wildly amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, proclaiming victory! The equipment and weaponry of the 200,000 Song troops, after a brief passage through the hands of the Liao Dynasty, were all happily accepted by the Jurchens.

Chapter 395: Emperor Huizong of Song Recaptures Youzhou Twice

At this point, things became quite awkward.

In the Song Dynasty court, the officials were terrified: the 200,000-strong army had been completely annihilated by Yelü Chun, the Prince of Qin and Jin of the Liao Dynasty, with Gao Qiu barely escaping with his life. Such a humiliating defeat caused controversy throughout the court. Grand Commandant Su, who had always been at odds with Gao Qiu, bluntly said: "After losing to the Western Xia, we lost to Fang La, then to Liangshan, and now to the Liao Dynasty. If the Song army continues to lose like this, they will lose all face!"

Meanwhile, Yelü Chun, the Prince of Qin and Jin of the Liao Dynasty, armed with Song Dynasty equipment, led a force of 230,000 men in Youyun, only to be annihilated in a single battle by Wanyan Aguda, his body even being smashed into four pieces.

Doesn't this make our Great Song Dynasty look weak and pathetic? And what exactly is the Great Jin Dynasty in the northeast? Is their fighting power so exaggerated?

If the Jurchens thought our Song Dynasty was too weak, would the previous agreements still be valid?

At this moment, the Song emperor finally stopped writing poems, painting, playing with cats and birds, and began to study this crucial issue with great tension—the Song-Jin agreement: according to the agreement, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun of the Liao Dynasty would belong to the Song Dynasty, and the rest of the country would belong to the Jin Dynasty.

If the Han people of Yan and Yun fled to the Jin Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty would send them back to you.

However, if Liao people from other places flee to the Yan-Yun region, the Song Dynasty must send them back; it cannot accept refugees from the other side! Traitors!

The treaty looks good, but the only problem is that the Song Dynasty really doesn't have any extra troops to send to Youzhou to recover, occupy, and protect the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. The demise of the Liao Dynasty, along with the destruction of Yelü Chun's army, is imminent.

If, when the time comes to divide up the Liao Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty discovers that the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun in the south are in complete chaos and have no soldiers left, what will they think?

But at this critical moment, the appearance of one person changed the entire situation—Pharmacist Guo's ever-victorious army.

The formation of this army was not complicated. After the Liao Dynasty lost the entire Northeast, Wanyan Aguda did not win the hearts of the local people. Many Khitan cannibals, Bohai people, and even the Jurchen tribes who had already converted to Buddhism were unwilling to submit to Aguda's rule. They took their families and left their homes, fleeing the Northeast and coming to Youyun.

So the Liao Dynasty gathered these people from the Northeast, selected the elite, and formed a brand-new army of about 10,000 men: the Ever Victorious Army.

The leader was an elderly silver dragon from the Bohai region, Guo Yaoshi. He was instructed to first train troops in Yanyun, to develop this ever-victorious army composed entirely of Liaodong cannibals, Jurchens, and Bohai people, before they could participate in battle.

But now, the Liao Dynasty has almost lost all its troops. The Liaoxi defense line was broken by Wanyan Aguda, Yelü Chun died in battle, Emperor Tianzuo has fled to who knows where, and the Yanyun region is in chaos. What the hell is the point of fighting? All the members of the Ever Victorious Army are Northeasterners who were driven out of their homes by the Jin Dynasty. They are very resistant to the Jin Dynasty and even hate it.

With no other option, Guo Yaoshi led the two prefectures of Zhuozhou and Yizhou, which he actually controlled, to submit to the Song Dynasty, hoping to become a general and live out the rest of his life in the Song Dynasty.

So he submitted a very emotional surrender document. First, he expressed his strong sense of national identity with the Song Dynasty. "I met Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, when I was a child. I was there when the Tang army destroyed Goguryeo and recovered the Northeast."

He also said that he was originally loyal to the Liao Dynasty, but his Bohai Jurchen armed forces could not be trusted in the court, so he had no choice but to betray the Liao and surrender to the Song Dynasty.

Because of Guo Yaoshi's familiarity with the Liao Kingdom and his possession of the Ever Victorious Army, an important armed force, the Song emperor accepted him and appointed him as the military governor of Enzhou while retaining his position as the military commander of Zhuozhou. The Ever Victorious Army leaders who had surrendered with him, such as Zhang Linghui, Liu Shunren, Zhen Wuchen, and Zhao Heshou, were also promoted to appease him and placed under the command of Liu Yanqing.

Emperor Huizong gritted his teeth and forcibly conscripted the people, ordering Liu Yanqing to send 100,000 men to Youzhou. However, the quality of this army was extremely poor, even by the standards of the Northern Song Dynasty. Although the Imperial Guards were bad, they at least received military training and were equipped with top-of-the-line equipment.

The local militia was also incompetent, but at least they could maintain local order—provided there were no peasant uprisings of the magnitude of Liu Hong or Fang La.

Now, these 100,000 men were truly untrained and unequipped. The Song emperor thought that the recapture of Yanjing was imminent, so he hastily renamed Yanjing as Yanshan Prefecture and urged Liu Yanqing to advance quickly. In this battle, Guo Yaoshi's ever-victorious army took the lead and was the bravest in the army. They broke through the nine gates of Youzhou in one wave and planted the flag of the Great Song on the land of Youzhou for the second time. At this time, it seemed that Yanjing was bound to be returned to the Song.

But at this critical moment, instead of calming the people in the city, Liu Yanqing issued a wrong order: Brothers and sisters! The time has come to sever the alliance of Tanyuan! Slaughter all the Khitans in Youzhou and plunder all their treasures.

If we're being honest, the order itself wasn't the problem. The real issue was that the Song soldiers under his command hadn't received any proper training; they were all temporarily conscripted, and their discipline was nonexistent. After killing a few Khitans and seizing all their property, they went mad, indulging in drunkenness and robbery everywhere. They claimed they only killed Khitans. But, in my opinion, whoever is a Khitan is a Khitan!

You say you're Han Chinese? Sorry, but your wife is too beautiful; I think she's Han Chinese and you're Khitan. Kill! Kill! Kill!

In an instant, the entire Youzhou was engulfed in flames by 100,000 Song troops, sparking fierce resistance within the region. The Han people of Youzhou, who had been separated from Han rule for over a century, never expected that the royal army they had waited for for a hundred years would turn out to be so despicable. They were utterly disappointed in the Song Dynasty. Meanwhile, the Liao Dynasty regrouped its forces in the Yan-Yun region and returned to retake Youzhou. Many people preferred to cooperate with the Liao army rather than with the Song army.