Chapter 179 Countdown

Dark clouds loomed over the city, threatening to destroy it. A cold wind blew fiercely. The Qi army surrounded the entire Hecheng to prevent people inside from breaking out.

The horse seemed to sense that a big battle was about to begin, and it snorted nervously. Zhao Xiao reached out and touched its mane and said, "Good boy, we can go home after this battle."

The dark horse seemed to understand what he said and raised its head to rub his palm.

It was getting dark. The days were short in winter, and the sun had already set in the sky just after 3 p.m. It looked like we would have to fight a night battle tonight.

Zhao Xiao ordered the soldiers to light bonfires all around. Hundreds of bonfires were lit at the same time, making the sky faintly red.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The sound of war drums suddenly rang out in the city, and a burst of rapid and fragmented footsteps came from afar.

The gate of Hecheng was opened, and 20,000 Jin soldiers rushed out like a floodgate opened!

Zhao Xiao gripped the long sword tightly, his throat tightened and his heartbeat quickened as the enemy got closer and closer.

He shouted, "Kill!" and rushed out like an arrow.

"Kill!" The soldiers behind him followed closely, and more than 50,000 soldiers gave a deafening roar, and the sound of horse hooves resounded through the sky like thunder.

These Jin soldiers who were forced into a desperate situation had amazing fighting power. 20,000 of them could actually fight back and forth with 50,000 Qi soldiers.

The opponent's goal is very clear, which is to break out of the encirclement and survive!

For a moment, the encirclement formation seemed to be broken. Zhao Xiao was anxious. Letting the tiger go back to the mountain would cause endless troubles. He couldn't let them get away!

Not many of the Jin army's war horses were killed, and only the generals were able to ride. Zhao Xiao saw Yelu Baorong in the distance at a glance. He was holding a scimitar and was like a trapped beast, letting out his last roar.

Zhao Xiao hacked and killed while moving closer to him. He believed that to catch a thief, one must first catch the leader. As long as Yelu Baorong was captured, the Jin people would surrender without a fight.

Yelu Baorong also saw him. It was because Zhao Xiao advanced too fast, like a sharp knife stabbing at his army.

"Khan, I'm going to meet the enemy commander!" the deputy general volunteered.

"No, Shandu, you lead everyone to break out to the northwest. I will meet him in person."

"But what if you——"

Yelu Baorong knew what he was worried about. He sighed and said, "If I die, you take the remaining soldiers to the Northern Five Tribes to join Lao Si, and don't return to Jindu."

He knew that Yelu Guang would definitely surrender, and the remaining soldiers would be full of hatred and would no longer obey him, so it would be better to gather them under the command of the fourth brother.

I hope that one day Yelu Xiang will be able to inherit the throne and bring the Jin Kingdom together again.

After saying that, he whipped his horse and rushed towards Zhao Xiao. Half a minute later, the two of them finally collided with each other, and the collision of weapons produced dazzling sparks.

Zhao Xiao didn't expect that the opponent was so powerful that he was actually defeated.

"Boy, there is a poem in your Central Plains that goes, 'Although the old general has white hair, his sword is still sharp. Today I will definitely cut you off your horse!'"

Zhao Xiao shook the hand holding the long sword and said: "There is a saying in the Central Plains that a random punch can kill a master. Please teach me." As he said that, he squeezed the horse's belly and rushed towards him again.

The two men exchanged hundreds of moves on horseback, and for a moment it was difficult to tell who would win. Any soldiers around who wanted to come over to help were hacked to death by the two men on horseback. Gradually, this place became an empty space, and no one dared to move forward.

The wind was freezing cold, but Zhao Xiao's back was soaked with sweat. Yelu Baorong was no less frightened, and his hand holding the knife was shaking slightly.

He didn't expect that the young general on the opposite side was so powerful that he could last for a hundred moves without losing strength. If he continued like this, he would definitely lose because he didn't have much physical strength left.

"What's your name?" Yelu Baorong asked while waving his scimitar and breathing heavily.

"Zhao Xiao."

"I've heard of your name, but I didn't expect you to be so young. The Jin Kingdom didn't take the initiative to attack Daqi, so why did you come north to attack us?"

Zhao Xiao blocked his attack with a sneer, then turned around and almost hit Yelu Baorong's shoulder with his sword.

"This is called taking precautions. You Jin people have evil ambitions. It will be too late when you attack us!"

"If I promise not to attack Daqi again in this lifetime, will you let my soldiers go?"

Zhao Xiao knew that he was delaying time. In order to prevent any accidents, he stopped answering the other party's questions and his moves became more and more fierce.

Finally, when both of them were almost exhausted, Zhao Xiao slashed at the horse's tail with a knife and cut off the opponent's warhorse's tail.

The horse raised its front hooves in pain and neighed miserably, and Yelu Baorong was thrown off.

Without the horse, his heavy body seemed to have lost power all of a sudden, and he didn't even have the strength to lift his knife.

The long sword hummed in the wind and blood splattered on the ground.

Zhao Xiao picked up Yelu Baorong's head, held it high and shouted, "The Khan is dead! The Jin army will be defeated!"

This roar seemed to give Qibing a shot of chicken blood, and he immediately counterattacked and gained the upper hand.

Without their Khan, the Jin soldiers had lost their will to fight, and many of them dropped their weapons and knelt on the ground in surrender.

The war finally ended with Daqi's victory.

The sky gradually turned pale, and Ge Zhongshun rode over on horseback: "General, are you okay?"

Zhao Xiao wiped the blood off his face and said, "It's okay. You lead the troops to clean up the battlefield and tie up the surrendered prisoners and bring them back to Meicheng."

"Yes, sir!"

“Also, ask Chen Jing to lead 20,000 troops to stay in Hecheng. Those people in the city who are willing to leave can be allowed to leave, and those who don’t want to leave can stay and continue living in the city.” After Zhao Xiao finished speaking, his eyelids darkened and he slipped off his horse.

"General!" Ge Zhongshun was shocked. He quickly jumped off his horse and helped Zhao Xiao up. He used his hand to check his breath and found that he was exhausted. He felt relieved to see that he was fine.

He called his men to send Zhao Xiao back to the camp to rest, and they continued to clean up the battlefield.

In this battle, not only did the Jin army suffer heavy casualties, but their side also lost 8,000 soldiers.

It was impossible to use firearms on a large scale in night battles, because it was impossible to distinguish between the enemy and us, and it was easy to accidentally injure friendly forces. So we had to rely on real swords and guns. The Jin soldiers rushed over like mad dogs and were almost unstoppable.

Fortunately, the general killed Yelu Khan and the Jin army was defeated. Only 4,000 Jin soldiers surrendered. The Qi army took away their weapons, tied their hands and feet with ropes, and drove them towards Meicheng.

Ten days later, the eldest prince of the Jin Dynasty, Yelu Guang, ascended the throne. The first thing he did was to send a letter of peace to Daqi. Along with the letter of peace, the second prince, Yelu Ran, was also sent.

The peace letter stated that the Kingdom of Jin voluntarily ceded the cities of Mo, Xin, Yewang, and He. It also paid Daqi 50 million taels of silver, 5,000 war horses, and 30,000 cattle and sheep.

This letter of peace was full of sincerity, and this battle made the Jin Dynasty unable to catch its breath for at least decades.

The ministers in the court were overjoyed. This kind of thing was unthinkable ten years ago! They could actually defeat the Jin people and make them voluntarily cede cities and ask for peace?

For a time, the reputation of General Zhao Xiao was known to the people. Even children of a few years old liked to pretend to be him and kill people everywhere when they played.

Only Song Yuzhu was worried about whether Zhao Xiao was injured. Before the Kingdom of Jin sent a letter of peace, Song Yuzhu had no way to check the war on the map.

So he has been living in fear these days, and with the cold winter weather, his old bronchitis has recurred. He has been coughing all night and couldn't sleep, and his throat is so sore that he can't speak.

Jiang Rong was worried about her son's health, so she went straight to the palace to take care of him. Song Yuzhu didn't feel relieved until the news of victory was reported back to the capital.

*

"Eat more. You've lost so much weight." Jiang Rong sat next to her son and served him soup, which was chicken soup made with Fritillaria cirrhosa, loquat leaves and lotus seeds.

The oil in the soup was skimmed off, leaving only the milky white soup with a rich aroma that was very tempting.

Song Yuzhu could not drink any more after drinking only one bowl. Seeing her mother's worried look, she filled another half bowl and forced herself to drink it.

Jiang Rong said in a serious tone: "Yuzhu, are you hiding something from mother?"

"No."

Jiang Rong grabbed his hand and felt his pulse. Although she had never studied medicine, she had learned a lot from following Song Bai for so many years.

The palms of my son's hands were warm, cool and moist, and his pulse was weak, slippery, soft and deep, just like that of an old man in his twilight years.

My son just turned 30 after the New Year, how come his health has deteriorated to this extent!

Seeing Jiang Rong's red eyes, Song Yuzhu felt a little pain in her heart, "Mom, don't be sad..."

"It's all mother's fault. If I hadn't been born prematurely, your body wouldn't be... wouldn't be so weak." Jiang Rong sobbed.

Song Yuzhu hugged her and choked up, "How can I blame you for this? It's my fault that I ran out to see you in such a hurry."

Jiang Rong cried for a while, wiped her tears and said, "Does he know about your health?"

Song Yuzhu understood who her mother was talking about. "I haven't told him yet, but he should have guessed it in his heart."

Ever since he fell into a coma last time, Zhao Xiao has been worried. This time he was anxious to attack the Jin Kingdom, partly because he wanted to pave the way for Song Yutong, in case when she ascended the throne in the future, the Jin people would take advantage of her youth and suddenly march south to attack Daqi.

Now the overall situation around Daqi is stable. Fusang has become a vassal state. Nanzhao was defeated and ceded seven cities to Daqi. There are natural mountains and sand dunes in the west as the boundary. The most difficult Jin Kingdom in the north has also taken the initiative to seek peace. Daqi can at least survive for ten years in peace.

As for ten years later, Song Yutong has already grown up. Song Yuzhu believes that with her sister's abilities and means, she will definitely lead Daqi to the peak!

After Jiang Rong left, Song Yuzhu lay on the couch and opened the map to continue looking at it.

Zhao Xiao has already led his troops back and will reach Shangjing in another half a month.

In addition to preparing a welcoming banquet, they also have to accommodate the wounded soldiers, pay pensions to the families of soldiers who died in battle, and provide follow-up assistance.

Song Yuzhu wrote all these things down on paper and handed them over to the Ministry of War for handling at the morning court tomorrow.

After finishing these things, Song Yuzhu opened the technology tree in the system again.

This is the second function of the system. He had picked three or four apples before, and the self-ringing clock was the blueprint that popped out of one of the apples.

There were still six or seven apples on the tree. Song Yuzhu picked them one by one, and the apples turned into pages of paper and fell on the table.

It includes the principles of the invention of radio, various formulas for chemical reaction rates, advanced knowledge of physics, and so on.

If we take these things to the scientific research department and let them study them thoroughly, Daqi's technology can directly skip the steam age and enter the electrical age.

But he cannot do this, because over-development may not be a good thing. Before the people's food and clothing problems are completely solved, technology is not a necessity and will only become a burden to the people.

Song Yuzhu plans to leave all these things to her sister, and let her decide whether to invent them in the future.

After arranging all this, Song Yuzhu saw the dark red countdown on the cover of the system book: 361 days, 13 hours, 41 minutes, and 37 seconds.

There is a line of small words at the bottom: the deletion test is about to end...

(End of this chapter)