Chapter 890: Breaching Yingtian Prefecture, Homeless Dogs (Part 2)

Chapter 890: Chapter 84: Breaching Yingtian Prefecture, Homeless Dogs (Part 2)

The wealth in the city, especially the vast riches accumulated by Zhao Gou’s court, fell entirely into the hands of the Jin Army.

…

The news, in the end, cannot be contained.

When scattered soldiers filled with terror and despair, along with refugees fleeing from the south, brought the earth-shattering news of “Jin Army breaking Huainan,” “Yingtian falling,” and “Wan Qixie’s treacherous surrender of the city” to Zhao Gou’s massive Nine Palace turtle shell formation, the entire Song Army camp erupted as if a giant stone was thrown into a pool of dead water.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Disaster has struck!”

A general, covered in dust with bloodstained armor, almost crawled into the central military tent, voice shrill, “Yingtian… Yingtian is lost!”

“That traitor Wan Qixie betrayed us to the Jin barbarians, opening the gates to invite the enemy!”

“Jin Monarch Wanyan Digü has… already moved into the temporary palace!”

Zhao Gou, who was still proudly scrutinizing the battle map, was shocked as if struck by lightning upon hearing this. The red brush in his hand dropped onto the table with a “plop,” creating a glaring red stain.

He stood up abruptly, his face turning red at first, then swiftly paling to ash, his lips trembling violently, pointing southward, yet unable to utter a single word.

“Nonsense! Utter nonsense!” A close attendant beside him shrieked, attempting to maintain the last shred of dignity.

“Absolutely true, Your Majesty!” The general knelt in despair, his voice choked with sobs, “The barbarians are pillaging everywhere, Jiangnan… Jiangnan is in utter chaos!”

“Supply line… our supply line is completely severed!”

Inside the tent, there was deathly silence, so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.

All the generals had ghastly faces; the provisions, retreat route, and even the symbol of legitimate rule they relied on, all crumbled at this moment.

Zhao Gou’s painstakingly constructed “turtle shell,” not only failed to protect them, but rather became the last laughable and tragic barrier separating them from doomsday.

Indeed, laughable!

At this moment, some even collapsed directly onto the ground.

“Impossible!!!”

After a brief moment of stupor, Zhao Gou reacted but still refused to believe all of this.

“You treacherous ministers, how dare you deceive the heavens?”

He roared in fury.

Grabbing the bloodstained battle report, he tore it to pieces after only glancing at it.

“Impossible!!!”

“You’re all lying to me!!!”

“How could Minister Wan betray me, how could my Yingtian be lost?”

He continued to howl, almost as if possessed, charging out and confronting those remnants of the army.

“Your Majesty… Yingtian truly lost, cries of anguish echo across Jiangnan….”

— “Stab!”

Before the wounded soldier could finish speaking, Zhao Gou already pierced his neck with a sharp sword, yet he showed no reaction, continuing to shout “Impossible” while moving to the next person.

The blade glinted ominously in the sunlight.

He grabbed a Captain who had just escaped back from the south, eyes blood-red as he demanded, “Speak! What truly happened to Yingtian?!”

The Captain, terrified by his madness-like demeanor, stuttered, “Your, Your Majesty… Yingtian… Wan Qixie, he…”

— “Stab!”

The blade unhesitatingly pierced the Captain’s chest, blood splattering onto Zhao Gou’s bright yellow dragon robe, leaving a shocking mark.

He pulled out the sword, ignoring the fallen corpse, then turned to another pale-faced official, who was a Transport Magistrate fortunate enough to escape back from Huainan.

“Speak! Is Jiangnan safe?!” Zhao Gou’s voice was piercingly sharp, the sword point aimed directly at the official’s throat.

The official trembled like a sieve, looking at the convulsing colleague on the ground and then at the blood-dripping long sword in the Emperor’s hand, his desire to live overwhelmed everything, almost shouting, “Safe… Safe!”

“Your Majesty!! Jiangnan is safe and sound!”

“The Jin invaders… Jin invaders have been repelled!”

Zhao Gou stared at him, eyes bloodshot as if wanting to discern the truth in his words, scaring the official nearly into fainting.

After a while, Zhao Gou’s face twisted into a bizarre smile, mixing madness with relief.

“Hehe… Haha… Hahaha!” He laughed madly to the sky, the laughter echoing in the dead silent camp, eerie and terrifying, “Just as it should be!”

“I knew it!”

“My Jiangnan is as solid as gold, my Minister Wan loyal to the core!”

Yes, even now.

He never heard the cries of anguish echoing throughout Jiangnan.

Caring only for Yingtian Prefecture that could give him a sense of security, and loyalties that proved he wasn’t a muddle-headed ruler.

Zhao Gou laughed maniacally.

But in the next moment, as if recalling something, he abruptly stopped laughing, his face twisting into a visage of extreme hatred, turning back and pointing his sword at the two still warm corpses on the ground, cursing fiercely, “You chaotic ministers, how dare you fabricate lies, shake military morale, deceive the sovereign?!”

“Dying is too good for you! Dying is too good for you!”

As he shouted, he continued to vent his rage, fiercely hacking at those two corpses with his sword. The bodies were a bloody mess, extremely horrifying.

The surrounding generals and soldiers were terrified, none dared to step forward to stop him, and not a single person dared to make even the slightest sound.

The frenzied hacking exhausted Zhao Gou’s last ounce of strength. His movements suddenly halted, his body swayed, and the blood-stained long sword in his hand clanged to the ground.

The rage and ferocity on his face instantly faded, leaving only a blank emptiness. His eyes rolled back, and he fell straight backward.

“Your Majesty!!”

Only then did the attendants awaken as if from a dream, gasping in shock and rushing forward to support the now unconscious Zhao Gou.

In front of the central military tent, there remained only the wreckage strewn about, splotches of blood, and a desperate atmosphere of a dynasty’s downfall that pervaded the dead silence.

Everyone stared dumbfounded at this scene, even Zhao Gou’s collapse left them completely unaffected.

They had already been stunned!

From the moment they received the news, from the moment Zhao Gou went mad, they had been utterly frozen!

Yingtian lost?

Jiangnan is gone?

And just like that, the Great Song is no more?

No one would be like Zhao Gou, willing to believe such unrealistic words given the current situation.

By this point, even if everything seemed impossible, it must be true!

But how could this be accepted?

This was the Great Song!

The most powerful dynasty in history, how could it just be gone?

In other words…

If the Great Song has fallen, what about their families back home?

News spread rapidly.

During the time Zhao Gou was unconscious, this issue exploded in the Song Army camp like a bomb.

Family…

This issue, which can be considered a heart-shattering bomb for the army at any time, instantly destabilized the entire camp.

“My family…”

“Mother! My mother is in Suzhou!”

“My wife and children… they’re at the estate outside Yingtian City! Those Jin dogs! The Jin dogs have gone there!!”

“Jiangnan is gone… home is gone! What are we doing here?! Waiting to die?!”

Crying and wailing erupted from all directions, the long-suppressed fear and worry for their relatives burst forth like a flood through a broken dam, demolishing the last remnants of discipline and sanity.

What “Nine Palace Tortoise Shell Formation,” what grand northern expedition, what His Majesty the Emperor, all became powerless before the word “home.”

Some sat on the ground, sobbing and pounding the earth;

Some wandered the camp like headless flies, muttering their relatives’ names;

More were driven by a stronger instinct after a brief breakdown—to go home!

“Let’s go! Go home!”

“Go back to find family!”

“We can’t fight this war! The Emperor has lost his mind!”

Someone shouted these words first, and chaos spread like a plague.

The soldiers began to disregard the officers’ scolding and even the threat of swords, discarding their armor and weapons in droves, flooding towards the camp gate like a tide.

They tore down fences, trampled over the carefully arranged chevaux de frise and covered carts, which Zhao Gou had once relied upon, the “tortoise shell” fortifications, now a laughable obstacle to going home, easily destroyed by the angry and desperate crowd.

Some middle and lower-level officers, who still had conscience and insight, witnessing this completely uncontrolled situation, looked back at the north where Gu Hui and Yue Fei were stationed, the only forces able to possibly stabilize the situation and resist foreign invasion.

They gritted their teeth and fiercely whispered to their remaining rational trusted subordinates: “The court has fallen, His Majesty… His Majesty can no longer be supported!”

“Jiangnan is devastated, only the Northern Border may preserve our Han garments and gowns! Those willing to follow me to join the Grand Tutor, come!”

Thus, another flow of people formed.

While they also left this desperate military camp, their goal was clear, heading towards the Northern Border.

Among them were soldiers who had long been disillusioned with Zhao Gou and the court.

The entire Song Army camp had completely fallen into an irretrievable collapse…

….

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