Riding his warhorse behind Li Qin, Geng Zhixiang, who had just been enfeoffed as the Marquis of Jinshun, turned to look at the army behind him.
I was constantly praying in my heart, praying that we would win this battle.
He has staked his entire reputation on this.
He had received an imperial edict from Emperor Zhu Qizhen ordering him to surrender to Li Qin.
He knew it perfectly well in his heart.
That was the letter of surrender that Li Qin gave him, urging him to surrender.
He had originally planned to hold 30,000 troops and observe the situation.
After all, if he were to hold Tianjin to the death, with 30,000 men under his command, Li Qin wouldn't be able to take it down in a short time.
However, a single remark from one of his advisors immediately brought him to his senses.
That means he doesn't have the so-called "capital to wait and see".
He was different from the governors and generals of Shandong and Henan.
He had no choice but to seek refuge with Li Qin.
The most crucial point is that Li Qin led a large army to besiege the emperor in Tushubao for several days.
He commanded 30,000 troops, yet despite being so close, he sent not a single soldier to provide support.
They watched as the emperor was arrested by Li Qin.
The imperial court will likely bring this up and settle accounts with him in the future.
Therefore, he had no choice but to surrender to Li Qin in exchange for some benefits.
And if he goes down a path that leads nowhere, he can't blame anyone.
The only thing to blame is why he was in Tianjin and didn't send anyone to support Emperor Zhu Qizhen.
As for why he didn't go to provide support, he knew very well that leaving the city would be suicide.
He only had 30,000 men, while Li Qin had more than 100,000 elite soldiers.
Among them were tens of thousands of elite Liaodong cavalry.
To confront him in the open wilderness would be tantamount to suicide.
If only I had gone to rescue the emperor back then.
I guess I'm probably a corpse in the wild by now.
So after his advisors analyzed the pros and cons for him.
He surrendered to Li Qin directly, citing the emperor's decree as the reason, taking advantage of the opportunity provided by Li Qin.
He didn't surrender voluntarily; he didn't contact Li Qin on his own initiative.
He surrendered after receiving His Majesty's imperial edict.
After all, as a loyal minister like the Duke of Liaodong, he could not disobey the imperial decree.
After receiving Li Qin's order to join him in attacking the capital.
He immediately led his 30,000 troops and set off for the capital with Li Qin.
At this moment, in the center of their army, a royal dragon flag representing the emperor was prominently displayed.
The repaired imperial carriage slowly traveled through the middle of the army.
At this moment, Zhu Qizhen, who was nominally the emperor but was actually a puppet, sat nervously inside the dragon carriage.
The smiles he had when he set off for the campaign were completely gone.
Because several guards with knives were standing next to him, staring intently at him.
At the front of the army, Li Qin rode his horse with a smile on his face, his gaze deep as he looked ahead.
He had just received a letter from Zhang Hengshuo, who was monitoring Wanyan Jian.
In his letter, Zhang Hengshuo said that Wanyan Jian had already set off with a large army, with the capital as his destination.
He was leading a large army behind them.
It is expected that he will meet with us at the city gates of the capital.
Li Qin looked at the more than 100,000 troops behind him, plus the 30,000 troops of Geng Zhixiang who had just surrendered, and Wanyan Jian's 30,000 Jurchen cavalry.
He himself will gather a coalition army of about 170,000 men to attack the capital.
If we include his younger brother Li Wenqi, who was stationed at Shanhaiguan and oversaw the logistics and laborers mobilized for the army.
There are also civilian laborers who are currently transporting grain with the army, which number over 200,000.
As for the more than 100,000 prisoners of war, their hands were bound, and they were watched by special personnel who followed behind them.
Because of the large number of people, Li Qin's march was relatively slow.
Meanwhile, the Jurchen cavalry led by Wanyan Jian of Jizhou arrived at the city walls of the capital before Li Qin.
Wanyan Jian stood not far from the capital, looking at the endless city walls of the capital in the distance.
He nodded repeatedly.
He addressed the many Jurchen generals around him:
"In all my years of traversing the world, I have never seen a city of such immense size."
"Truly worthy of being the capital of the Southern Dynasty."
Behind him, many Jurchen generals were also shocked by the enormous scale of the capital city of Great Wu.
You should know that the capital of this Great Wu is home to a million people.
Their entire Jurchen tribe had a population of less than a million.
In other words, the population of the city in front of them was greater than the entire population of their tribe.
How could this not shock the Jurchen people who had lived in the Changbai Mountains and Heilongjiang River region for generations?
Wanyan Jian looked at the surrounding terrain and said to the people around him:
"Let's set up camp here. The view from here is excellent, and we can get a close look at the capital of the Southern Dynasty."
Upon hearing Wanyan Jian's order, his son Wanyan Gun immediately said to Wanyan Jian:
"Father, isn't this place too close to the capital of the Southern Dynasty? Should we move further away?"
Faced with his son's advice, Wanyan Jian shook his head and said:
"No, it's right here. The capital of the Southern Dynasty is now just an empty shell, filled with the old, weak, sick, and disabled."
It was simply impossible for them, and they had no ability to leave the city and fight against our Jurchen warriors.
As for our position, I checked, and it's completely outside the range of crossbows.
Their crossbows could not possibly hit us.
So although it may seem close by, it is actually very safe.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
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