The state of the Great Zhou was in a terrible state, but the Golden Horde was in an even worse state.
The regimes established by these nomadic peoples rarely lasted long, because once they set foot in the Central Plains, they were immediately blinded by the allure of the world and began to become corrupt and decadent.
The Golden Horde is an example of this; it only occupied a portion of the Central Plains and yet it became like this. One can only imagine how degenerate it would have become if it had occupied the entire Central Plains.
However, these people only felt comfortable joining the Great Zhou because of its strong and powerful army.
If the Great Zhou continues to be corrupt and decadent, they will also take up arms and become bandits who plunder the borderlands.
After learning that the Great Zhou had sufficient troops, Yang Cheng asked Yuwen Du, "I'll leave some people here in the Golden Horde. I plan to wipe out the Jurchens in the north. How many people do I need?"
Yuwen Du pondered for a moment and said, "The Northern Jurchens were just a small tribe before, not very strong, with a total population of less than a million. Although almost everyone was a soldier, after deducting the old and weak, they numbered less than 50,000."
Even though they have grown stronger now, they still have less than 100,000 soldiers. So I can easily deal with them by leading over 100,000 elite troops, plus 100,000 surrendered troops from the Golden Horde.
But the problem is that the place outside the Great Wall is too strange. The Jurchens in the north worship the Five Immortals, and the power of the Five Immortals can make the Jurchens' strength increase by a lot.
Especially in the lands beyond the Great Wall, their strength far surpasses that of ordinary martial artists; almost every Jurchen soldier empowered by the Five Immortals lineage is comparable to a martial arts master.
The venerable Zhou Yan, who now resides in the Sutra Repository, once led troops to sweep through the Jurchens of the North, but suffered a great loss at the hands of the Five Immortals.
Speaking of the Jurchens of the North, Yuwen Du also had a lot of headaches.
With the protection of the Five Immortals lineage, the Jurchens of the North were virtually invincible outside the Great Wall.
Even if they can't beat you for a while, they have ways to escape, and they can even use the power of the Five Immortals to harass and ambush you from the shadows. In short, they are very annoying.
Therefore, although the Great Zhou Dynasty had never had a major war with the Jurchens of the North, there were constant minor skirmishes, and the Great Zhou had always been the one suffering losses.
Yang Cheng said in a deep voice, "Don't worry about the Five Immortals lineage, I'll deal with them. Just gather the troops as soon as possible."
"Yes, sir!"
With Yang Cheng's words, Yuwen Du was naturally not afraid of the Five Immortals.
These beasts may claim to be immortals, but in reality they are all evil beings.
Who is the Grand Commander? He's practically a god! Dealing with these evil spirits is a piece of cake for him!
Therefore, Yuwen Du immediately prepared to send troops to attack the Jurchens in the north. However, this time Yuwen Du was not as excited as when he attacked the Golden Horde.
He had fought wars that destroyed entire nations. Although the Jurchens of the North were not weak, they were not actually a nation; at most, they were just a tribe.
The Great Zhou army marched northeastward, but as soon as they entered the territory of the Jurchen in the north, the Jurchen army retreated for hundreds of miles to avoid their advance.
The leaders of the Northern Jurchens were all idiots; they couldn't possibly have done something like using a small border town to hold off the more than 200,000 troops of the Great Zhou.
They retreated to the ancestral lands of Liaodong, in the Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River basin, where the climate was harsh and there were many dense forests and mountains. This was the main battlefield for the Jurchens in the north.
Historically, when the Great Zhou attacked the Jurchens in the north, they were always dragged down here and eventually worn down step by step.
However, this time Yuwen Du had an army of over 200,000, especially 100,000 surrendered soldiers from the Golden Horde, who were also adapted to this climate.
Therefore, Yuwen Du chose the most direct, and also the most barbaric and brutal, approach.
They directly fortified their positions and cleared the fields, plowed the courtyards and swept away the caves, burned the forests where they encountered them, and surrounded the mountains where they encountered them.
We do not seek to annihilate the Jurchens in one battle, but only to gradually shrink their territory step by step, destroying one tribe at a time, without giving them any chance.
If it weren't for the annihilation of the Golden Horde and the seizure of a large amount of wealth and resources, Yuwen Du wouldn't have dared to wage such a rich war.
Of course, the most important thing is that Yang Cheng is behind this.
Otherwise, if a general stationed in the field dared to squander the spoils of war so recklessly, the court would have impeached him long ago.
Seeing Yuwen Du's methods, the Jurchens were truly panicked.
This kind of warfare, which involves no technological sophistication and is purely a contest of national power, completely stunned them.
Therefore, the leaders of the eight Jurchen tribes, led by the Jurchen chieftain Helie Xiyan, brought a large amount of offerings to the ancestral temple, Wuxian Valley, in the dense forests of Liaodong, and knelt before the gate of the valley.
"Jurchen Helie Xiyan, I beg the five immortals to save my Jurchen tribe!"
An army of over 200,000 attacked Liaodong in the north, causing heavy casualties among my eight tribes. The Changbai Mountains and the Heilongjiang River were stained red with blood.
"If the immortals can save my Jurchen tribe, my Jurchen tribe will worship the Five Immortals for generations to come, and spread the immortal tradition throughout the Central Plains!"
Helie Xiyan and the other eight tribal leaders all knelt on the ground, their attitude extremely respectful.
Meanwhile, inside the Five Immortals Valley, before He Lie Xiyan arrived, they were already discussing matters.
Outside, it was still a world of ice and snow, but inside Wuxian Valley, it was a scene of vibrant spring, with lush vegetation, blooming flowers, and flowing water like jade cascading down the valley, creating a delightful landscape.
Inside the Valley of Five Immortals, five people sat on five chairs, and around them stood a dense crowd of strange-looking people, as well as monsters with human bodies and snake tails, rat heads and human bodies.
These five people were the ancestors of the Five Immortals lineage. The first one was a middle-aged man in green robes with a fierce and gloomy face and green eyes. He was Chang Tianlong, the ancestor of the Liu family.
The man on the left was thin and dressed in a yellow brocade robe. He had a goatee and looked to be about sixty or seventy years old. He was extremely shrewd and was the third patriarch of the Huang family.
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