Chapter 1085: Aggressive

After Qi Haoran took down Zhengzhou, the Emperor’s carriage also arrived at the front line. Qi Xiuyuan personally deployed the troops to speed up the process.

Before Wulie could discuss the terms with Ogedei, Great Qi’s army launched a large-scale attack. Great Jin immediately fell into a predicament of being attacked from the front and back.

He could only squeeze out reinforcements from all over the place while forcibly taking rations from the commoners. This method of drinking poison to quench one’s thirst quickly forced more commoners to join the ranks of the rebellion. As the Han people south of Datong Prefecture knew that Great Qi was about to attack, they raised their banners in response to the Great Qi army.

The Han people had a hard time under the rule of Great Jin, paying nearly double the amount of taxes as before; having to pay all kinds of harsh taxes gave them almost no chance to catch their breath.

Moreover, in Great Jin, the Jin people could humiliate and kill Han people at will. After that, the culprit would only have to pay some money or get flogged a few times. It could be said that in Great Jin, a Han person wasn’t even as valuable as a horse.

Great Jin was in a terrible fix, and Ogedei’s days were gradually becoming difficult. First, it was exposed that his subordinates intercepted assets for their own use and withheld the soldiers’ military salary. Then, a few of his brothers came to fight with him for power. Although he and Emperor Wulie of Great Jin had privately agreed to temporarily stop fighting and instead deal with the Han people first, the two sides had fought for several years after all. Both sides had lost relatives and brothers to each other, so conflicts between the two sides continued. In addition, someone had spread rumors that he wanted to accept Great Jin’s offer of amnesty and surrender his three armies in exchange for glory and wealth.

This was simply slander. Why would he surrender when his goal was to become the Emperor?

If he really wanted to surrender, he would have done so long ago. Why did he have to wait until now?

However, no one seemed to be willing to listen to his explanation, and his advisors also didn’t have a good solution. His Military Advisor was even accidentally injured in the conflict with the Jin people. Not only did it anger the soldiers, but he now also had one fewer person who could come up with ideas for him.

Just as he was about to send troops to stop the Han people, West Xia took advantage of the situation and took down two of their cities in a row.

He had spent so many years building his empire. How could he let West Xia snatch it away?

Therefore, Ogedei was kept extremely busy. Not only did he have to subdue his brothers, but he also had to handle his relationship with Great Jin. He also had to arrange a counterattack against West Xia. Finally, he had to send people south to stop the Han people.

Under such circumstances, Ogedei could not help but be a little negligent in controlling his subordinates. Without him knowing, Li Zhang slowly sowed discord between him and his subordinates.

Since he dared to betray the alliance, he had to be prepared to pay the price!

As Great Jin’s army had been in a civil war for several years, the soldiers were exhausted and their morale was extremely low. At this moment, the Great Qi armies were advancing at the same time. While the other party kept winning, they kept being forced to retreat step by step. Their morale had long fallen to the freezing point.

To make matters worse, right behind there was a rebellious peasant army.

They tried their best to defend the city, but the people they thought they were protecting actually approached the city gate under the excuse of helping to defend the city. In fact, they were doing so to open the gate for the Great Qi army outside. Upon defeat, they wanted to flee and hide, but the people of Great Jin tipped off the Han army to encircle and surround them. This feeling of having enemies coming at them from all sides almost made the soldiers collapse. They were simply powerless to stop the Great Qi army whose morale was rising.

A Great Jin general slammed the table in anger and advocated slaughtering all the Han people under their rule to prevent future troubles. “What ingrates. Great Jin has raised them for more than 30 years, but they still only remember that they are Han people, and forget that they are now also citizens of Great Jin!”

Wulie’s expression was also ugly. He also felt that these Han people were too crafty and were ingrateful. However, it was impossible for him to agree to slaughter the Han people for no reason. How many Han people were there south of Datong Prefecture?

At least seven out of ten commoners were Han Chinese. Should they attempt to slaughter all of them, their blades would probably have curled up before they finished doing so. Moreover, by doing so they would force the remaining Han Chinese to rebel. The north of Dongjing had long been occupied by Ogedei. If they now lost the area south of Datong, Great Jin would really perish.

Wulie did not want to be the ruler of a fallen country. He had only been the Emperor for ten years and had yet to achieve anything.

At this moment, he noticed the pro-peace faction’s comments.

The pro-peace faction was different from the pro-war faction; their attitude was more gentle.

The pro-peace faction advocated reducing taxes on the commoners in order to reduce domestic conflicts. They wanted to try their best to contain the momentum of the domestic rebellion and then send people to seek peace with Great Qi to stall for time.

They suggested sending gold and silver to West Xia to persuade them into sending troops to Great Qi to restrain their troops. If Great Qi agreed to make peace, they were willing to return the territory that they had previously seized from them. Or, they could pay tribute every year. Only when the war halted would they have a chance to reorganize their troops.

Otherwise, if they were taken out by Great Qi, Great Jin would really perish.

After some thought, Wulie agreed. He sent envoys to meet the Emperors of West Xia and Great Qi.

When Qi Xiuyuan received Great Jin’s diplomatic letter, he smiled at General Yuan, who had come to pay his respects. “I was just worried that I didn’t have time to reorganize my troops, and here they are, offering me an excuse.”

General Yuan was apprehensive. “Your Majesty wants to negotiate with them?”

“No.” Qi Xiuyuan smiled and said, “Let’s stall them first. The generals can take the opportunity to let the soldiers rest and transport the rations first. Moreover, we have to guard the places we conquered. Taking down the cities isn’t the end. The local magistrates and county magistrates have to be reassigned and various systems have to be changed. There are many miscellaneous stuff like this to attend to. I didn’t expect us to be able to recover the Jinan Prefecture so quickly. We should take some time to catch a breather.”

As they fought very quickly, the subsequent rations were a little insufficient. If they continued to charge forward, they would probably be in danger, and there could be many problems.

Qi Xiuyuan had always been calm. Since advancing aggressively was disadvantageous to them at this time, he might as well stop and reorganize.

Qi Xiuyuan looked at General Yuan, whose hair and beard were all white, and sighed. He patted his hand and said, “I know that you’re anxious, but at this moment, it’s better to be calm than anxious. In the previous dynasty, you fought all the way to Dongping, but you couldn’t defend it in the end. Why was that so?”

General Yuan’s eyes turned red. He lowered his head deeply and said, “Other than the Imperial Court of the previous dynasty, there’s also the fact that I advanced too quickly and my forces weren’t stable enough. Naturally, I couldn’t defend the city. Furthermore, my army went deep alone without reinforcements.”

Qi Xiuyuan nodded. “That’s the reason why you and General Mu have to stop and gather your troops.” Qi Xiuyuan said with a smile, “General, you realized that since I came here personally, I can’t possibly give up halfway and negotiate? Hmph, unless they return all the lost territory, how can we negotiate?”

General Yuan let out a sigh of relief. He had been afraid that Qi Xiuyuan would agree to negotiate with the Jin people like Emperor Jingyan did in the previous dynasty. Should he do that, their two months of hard work would be in vain.

Qi Xiuyuan asked General Yuan and Mu Shi to rest and reorganize the army. On the other hand, he ordered Qi Haoran to advance in one go and only focus on taking down the city. He would send people to clean up the mess later, and the rations would definitely be sent to him in a timely manner.

When General Yuan saw that Qi Haoran had fought his way all the way to Daming Prefecture, Xingzhou, Shijiazhuang, and other places ahead, he was even more relieved. It seemed that the Emperor was really focused on reclaiming the country’s lost territory.