In the autumn and early winter of the second year of Wujian Shuo, the chaotic situation in the Northwest exploded like a gunpowder keg, scattering huge flames across this barren and treacherous land, which even the continuous rain could not extinguish in the slightest. The chaos rapidly reached its peak, and the aftershocks seemed poised to intensify.

The initial clash between the Huaxia Army and the Jurchen Western Route Army occurred on the night of August 25th. Following this first wave of conflict, propaganda for resisting the Jin was launched on a large scale, orchestrated by members of the Zhuji and coordinated with the Zhong family's influence.

Centered around Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and other regions, the Zhuji storytellers and informants began spreading the news to nearby Ning, Fang, Yuan, Huan, Lin, Fu, and Feng prefectures, as well as Baoan Army and Qingjian City, stirring up an atmosphere of resistance against the Jin. As the Jurchens retreated and Yan Zhenguo's army disintegrated, the situation in the Northwest began to shift dramatically over the next two or three days.

The first and most determined to join the fight was naturally the Zhong family army, led by Zhong Lie. In addition, spurred by the propaganda, villagers in Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and other areas spontaneously formed local militias. Some mountain strongholds and local bullies in the Northwest also began to take action, persuaded by the Zhuji – these bandit forces had actually benefited quite a bit from the large-scale transport of goods through Small Cang River and had some connections with the Zhuji members.

Mount Luofeng, located at the junction of northeast Qingzhou and Baoan Army, was one such small force.

Several armies from the direction of Jingzhou and Pingliang Prefecture began to move. On the other side, Yan Zhenguo, with no way back, rallied his scattered troops and, having regained his senses, marched again towards Qingzhou. Coordinating with him were two Wu Dynasty units that had previously surrendered under Jurchen pressure, one with 20,000 men and the other with 30,000, advancing northwest from the southeast.

Regular armies, local forces, militias, volunteer troops, and bandit strongholds, each with their own motives, moved forward in a vast and mighty wave, forming a huge vortex of war on the Northwest land. Various frictions and clashes occurred frequently in the surrounding areas of the main battlefield.

The real core of the battle remained the Western Route Army of Lou Shi and the Huaxia Army of Small Cang River. The two forces, each with only about 20,000 men, confronted and fought each other on the edge of the Loess Plateau, and the intensity of the peripheral battles was unmatched for a time.

In order to maintain momentum and attack the weak with strength, the Huaxia Army pressed closely on the army of Wanyan Lou Shi at the first moment. Wanyan Lou Shi used his cavalry advantage to frequently harass and tear at the Huaxia Army's lines, attempting to make them retreat in the face of difficulty. However, once the Black Flag Army's small units unfolded their combat power, the probing between the two sides on the edge of the battlefield frequently turned into head-on clashes.

Even the small units of the Black Flag Army, with many veterans as their backbone, showed extraordinary resoluteness in the face of the Jurchens.

And the Jurchens, especially the Jurchen elites under Wanyan Lou Shi, were never afraid of war. They were also powerful soldiers who had swept across the world. After destroying the Liao, they had twice swept across the Wu Dynasty like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves. Now, in a corner of the Northwest, they were being frequently provoked by the opponent, and although they were not ashamed to retreat when they encountered weak opponents, they often became excited when they had to gnaw on a hard bone.

After all, the courage to charge into battle without hesitation when necessary was also the reason why the Jurchens were able to sweep across the world.

In these first few days, interlocking tearing and killing occurred continuously. Since it was not a large-scale mixed battle, neither side regarded these encounters as formal battles, but the willpower of each side was stretched to the limit. In order to avoid the Black Flag Army's artillery and battle formation advantages, Wanyan Lou Shi almost had to issue a death order to his cavalry, forbidding them from charging into battle under any circumstances, only harassing, transferring, harassing, transferring… This rigid order was of course not issued, but if this continued, it was likely that the kite-flying tactics commonly used by the later Mongols would first become proficient in Lou Shi's hands.

The main force of the Black Flag Army simply pushed forward relentlessly with an iron-barrel-like formation. In a sense, Lou Shi was constantly adapting to the fighting style of this elite army with artillery. Qin Shaoqian was also trying his best to understand the strength of his army. As Ning Yi said in Small Cang River, before using the unorthodox, one must first become proficient in the orthodox.

Even though he was accompanying this army in its growth every day, Qin Shaoqian and others were still not clear about the potential and limits of this army, which had been tempered by new training methods.

Looking back from a long time later, the confrontation that suddenly erupted on the Northwest land, the two sides initially showed the peak strength of the armies of this era. The large and small frictions in two or three days, the strength and toughness shown by both sides, were no less than any other army in the same period, and the intensity of the battle was astonishing. However, at the time of the battle, both sides were just constantly placing pieces according to the situation, without considering this point.

By the evening of August 29th, autumn rain fell. On the edge of the battlefield during the forced march, several teams of the Black Flag Army realized that the heavy rain would erase the advantage of firearms, so they simply chose to lure the enemy. A Jurchen team of about a thousand men, led by the general A Xibao, also seized the opportunity to launch a fierce attack. The melee between the two sides lasted for more than ten miles, and some of the men on both sides were separated from the main force in the battle.

On the same night, more things were happening. That was a force that played a pivotal role on the Northwest land. After receiving Wanyan Lou Shi's order to send troops a few days ago, the Zhe family, whose attitude in this area had always been ambiguous, took action.

Under the order of Zhe Keqiu, large-scale arrests of Zhuji members who incited resistance against the Jin in the cities of Linzhou, Fuzhou, Fengzhou, and Qingjian began.

At the same time, Zhe Keqiu mobilized 40,000 of the Zhe family's elite troops, personally leading the army, with Zhe Yanzhi as his deputy, and marched towards the Qingzhou battlefield, making clear his support for Wanyan Lou Shi.

Not many people could clearly grasp Zhe Keqiu's thoughts at this time, but looking back from the future, his choice was not without clues before.

When the Jurchens first went south, the Zhong family army supported the capital, and the Zhe family army also sent troops. Zhe Keqiu's choice at the time was to cooperate with Liu Guangshi to rescue Taiyuan. In this battle, the two were惨败 (canbai, suffered a crushing defeat) to Wanyan Zonghan near Tianmen Pass. After this great defeat, Bianliang was relieved, and Qin Siyuan and others wrote to request the dispatch of troops to Taiyuan, and Zhe Keqiu also submitted the same memorial. After that, the Zhe family army had a second dispatch of troops to rescue Taiyuan, but eventually retreated because they could not defeat the Jurchens.

Later, Taiyuan fell, Ning Yi rebelled, and the Jurchens attacked Bianliang for the second time. The Zhong family army still sent troops, but the Zhe family still only paid attention to the battles in Fuzhou and the Taiyuan line, and fought extremely conservatively. Then, the Western Xia invaded the south, and the Zhe family army, which should have guarded the Northwest, watched as the Zhong family was destroyed, but only guarded their own territory and refused to send troops.

This time, Lou Shi came, and the Zhong family refused to surrender. The Zhe family verbally agreed, but was unwilling to send troops to conquer the Northwest for Lou Shi. However, no one expected that the Zhe family army, which was unwilling to move when Lou Shi was going smoothly, would choose to stand on the side of the Jurchens when Lou Shi's army encountered problems.

August 30th, autumn rain. If the joining of the Zhe family army meant that there was no longer any middle ground in the entire Northwest, then the confrontation and fighting in the central area of the Qingzhou battlefield was even more tragic. Taking advantage of the rain, Wanyan Lou Shi gathered his infantry and launched a large-scale counter-attack against the Black Flag Army, which was advancing step by step.

Huangyang Ridge, Qingzhou. On the edge of the Loess Plateau, the terrain is complex. In this mountain range, hills, and river valley, the main forces of both sides clashed in several places. Wanyan Lou Shi's use of troops was on a grand scale, and the soldiers under his command were indeed battlefield elites. The Black Flag Army chose a conservative formation battle at the first moment, but in fact, at the four points of engagement, there were three feints and one real attack. On the fourth group's battlefield, which was obscured by the woodland on the side of the mountain, Wanyan Lou Shi personally led his soldiers to launch repeated attacks.

After this battle had been going on for more than an hour, the fourth group's formation was torn apart in several places. The Jurchen charge spread over, and Sun Ye, the leader of the fourth group, resisted at the front with his guards, barely maintaining the situation for a moment, but was finally forced to retreat again and again. It was not until the special forces group, which was supporting nearby, provided full assistance that they rescued some of the soldiers who had fallen into a desperate situation.

In a sense, Qin Shaoqian, who was commanding the army at this time, and the generals who led the various groups, were not mediocre. Among the people of the Wu Dynasty, they were considered to be among the best. However, the situations that the Wu Dynasty army had faced in the past were very different from the situation in front of them. When they faced the strongest of the Jurchen generals who had started from scratch and experienced countless battles, after a few days of pressing forward, they finally lost a step in the use of military tactics.

The stubbornness of the soldiers themselves did not make the situation too bad. At the other points, the Jurchen army, which was trying to feign attacks, was once dragged into a fierce battle, causing a large number of casualties. But similarly, the fourth group of the Black Flag Army suffered more than half of its casualties, and Sun Ye, the general who rushed to the front, was seriously injured. After being rescued, he was close to dying.

The Jurchen army retreated, and the Black Flag Army continued to advance. Sun Ye and a group of wounded were temporarily left near Huangyang Ridge, and were rescued by the vanguard of the Zhong family army who came later. On this night, in a grass shed near Huangyang Ridge, Sun Ye finally woke up. He was from Yingchuan, Xuzhou, forty-seven years old, and was good at planning. When he woke up, two guards were guarding beside him. Sun Ye asked them about the situation in front, and only nodded and blinked his eyes when he learned that the Jurchens' combat power loss was not necessarily smaller than that of the Black Flag Army.

He seemed to be searching for his thoughts in a state of extreme weakness, and after a long time, he spoke softly.

He said: "We and others have often discussed whether it was right to弑君造反 (shijun zaofan, assassinate the emperor and rebel) … but with soldiers like you, I think it may be right, Mr. Ning he…"

Sun Ye looked ahead and blinked again, but there was no focus in his eyes. He was so calm for a moment: "My use of troops is foolish, and death is not a pity… It's a pity… so soon…"

His voice weakened here. What he said last was: “… I can't see the future, you go and see it for me.”

The wind whimpered, and the cries of the two soldiers who had experienced many fierce battles also came out.

A long song for mourning. On this night, the news of Sun Ye's death spread to the front line where the Black Flag Army was spreading. In the days that followed, the surviving soldiers of the fourth group would wrap white cloth strips around their arms when charging.

More intense and unscrupulous confrontation and killing took place every day thereafter. Both sides were almost gritting their teeth to test the limits of their will.

This was almost the first time that Wanyan Lou Shi had encountered such a battle situation in this southern expedition—or even in his life. He participated in the fighting several times, and it is said that he was extremely happy. At the same time, the peripheral battles had also exploded like a volcano. Zhong Lie sent people to negotiate with Zhe Keqiu, and then tore his face apart. The two Western armies launched their first confrontation on the second day of September.

This was the chaotic world that had already descended. It's just that in the Northwest, the various forces that have been drawn into the vortex, with tens of thousands of people, plus the civilians who are unfortunately in it, are in a chaotic battle that looks like it has just begun...