“Gentlemen, the time for the decisive battle has arrived.”

April 19th, Dalong Mountain near Kang County, the moonlight before dawn was bright and white, shining through the wooden window frames into the room in squares.

Inside the wooden house, torches burned, not very large, the firelight and starlight merging together, Qin Shaoqian addressed the 7th Army generals who had just gathered, giving a mobilization speech.

"More than ten years have passed," he said. "In the past ten years, the Central Plains has fallen into war, our compatriots have been bullied and slaughtered, and so have we. We have lost comrades, and most of you have lost loved ones. Do you still remember the faces of your... loved ones?"

Outside the room, soldiers of the Chinese 7th Army had already gathered around patches of bonfires.

"I still remember my father's face," he said. "The Wu Dynasty back then was a good place. My father was a prime minister in the court, and he offended the emperor to defend Bianliang. He eventually died on the road of exile. My elder brother was a bookworm. He defended Taiyuan for more than a year. The court refused to send troops to rescue him. He was eventually chopped into pieces by the Jurchens, his head hung on the city wall. Someone brought his head back... I didn't see it."

"Just... more than ten years, I remember their faces clearly, and I remember the appearance of Bianliang very clearly. My elder brother's posthumous son is still a little radish head. He grew up in the Jin Kingdom and had a finger chopped off by the Jin people. Just over ten years... when I was a kid, I spent my days in the city chasing chickens and teasing dogs, but now children have their fingers chopped off, and they can't even speak properly. He grew up with the Jurchens, and he doesn't even dare to speak..."

Carts pulled by horses and mules came down from the mountain, carrying iron cannons and other military equipment. In the distance, some civilians also came to watch from the mountainside.

Qin Shaoqian looked at the gathered generals with one eye.

"Some people say that backwardness invites aggression, and we were attacked... I remember more than ten years ago, when the Jurchens first went south, Li Heng and I were talking on the roadside, it seemed like an evening - an evening in the Wu Dynasty. Li Heng said that this country was already in debt, and I asked him how to repay it. He said with lives. Over the years, countless people have died, we have been paying the debt, and still are..."

The wind blew through the bonfires outside, reflecting upright figures. A chilling aura gathered in the air. Qin Shaoqian's gaze swept over the crowd.

"From Xia Village... to Dongzhiyuan... the Northwest... to Little Cang River... Da Yang... to here... our enemies, from Guo Yaoshi... to that group of old court soldiers... from the Western Xia people... to Lou Shi, Ci Bu Shi... from the three years of Little Cang River to today's Wanyan Zonghan, Wanyan Xiyin... how many people have stood by your side? They charged forward with you and fell on the road..."

"More than ten years ago, when we talked about the Jurchens, it was like a myth. From Chuhe Store to Hubudagang, they defeated the invincible Liao people, always winning with fewer troops. And our Wu Dynasty, when we heard that the Liao people were coming, we felt a headache, let alone the Jurchens, who were said to be invincible with ten thousand men. Tong Guan led more than 100,000 troops on a northern expedition, but couldn't defeat 7,000 Liao soldiers, and spent tens of millions of taels of silver to buy back four states of the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun..."

He smiled, recalling the past: "Eunuch Tong, a man who could cover the sky with one hand back then, we all had to kneel before him. Eunuch Tong knelt before the emperor, the emperor knelt before the Liao people, and the Liao people knelt before the Jurchens... Why were the Jurchens so powerful? In Xia Village back then, we didn't know. The million-strong army of loyalists in Bianliang was defeated several times by Zong Wang's tens of thousands of troops. What a huge gap that was. Many of us practiced martial arts all our lives, but never thought that the difference between people could be so great. But today!"

Qin Shaoqian's voice fell like thunder: "Does that gap still exist? Who is afraid between us and Wanyan Zonghan—"

Outside the doors and windows, the firelight flickered, and the night wind roared like a tiger, passing through the mountains and ridges.

"...Our 5th Army has just defeated them in the Southwest. Mr. Ning killed Zonghan's son, and in front of them, killed Eli Li, killed Dalai, killed Yu Yu. Chen Fan killed Yin Shuke in Tanzhou. Next, Yin Shuke's younger brother, Ba Li Su, will never be able to get out of Jiange! These people's hands are stained with the blood of the Han people, and we are gradually taking it back from them—"

"The 5th Army is already fighting against Zonghan in the most difficult environment and has turned defeat into victory. Gentlemen of the Chinese Army, their forces are already very stretched. Ba Li Su is desperately defending Jiange, not wanting our two armies to connect. Zonghan thinks that as long as Jiange is separated, they will face us with superior forces here. Their main force is nearly 100,000, and we are only 20,000, so he wants to take advantage of the fact that Jiange has not been breached to defeat us and finally give an account of this war..."

A murderous intent flashed in his eyes: "The Jurchens in the Southwest are already defeated generals, and their vigor has been lost, but Zonghan and Xiyin don't want to admit this. Then for us, there is a piece of good news and a piece of bad

news. The good news is that we are facing a group of defeated generals; the bad news is that the invincible army that came out of nowhere and conquered the country for the Jurchens is no longer there..."

"Our Chinese 7th Army, how much tempering have we gone through to get to today? Why is the difference between people so great? We put people in this big furnace to burn, let people run on the edge of a knife, roll in a sea of blood, endure the most suffering, undergo the most difficult grinding, you have been hungry, endured pressure, swallowed charcoal, run through wind and sand, and come here... If it were back then, if it were in Hubudagang, we would have beaten Wanyan Aguda to death alive in front of the army..."

"But today, we can only eat some cold leftovers."

When he said this, his tone was not high, and there was a bloody suppression between each word. The generals in the room sat upright, people clenched their fists, and some gently twisted their necks, making a slight sound in the cold night. Qin Shaoqian paused for a moment.

"Think about the people who have died along the way! Think about the murderers who committed these evils! They have 100,000 people, and they are coming towards us! They want to take advantage of our small number and gain some advantage! Then let them take this advantage! We want to shatter their last delusion. We want to smash the dog's head of Wanyan Zonghan, the Grand Marshal of the World's Armies, into the mud!"

"—Everyone, stand up!"

The generals in the room stood up.

Qin Shaoqian's gaze swept over them.

The cold moonlight outside the window was also sweeping over the mountains and rivers of this world, and some influences were spreading out like waves. The generals went to the soldiers, layer upon layer of mobilization, and then the reconnaissance troops began to act first, followed by the main force and supplies. The 7th Army was different from other armies. They did not have superficial fanaticism. Blood only burned in their bodies. The moment of the decisive battle had arrived.

"We - set out."

The military force was like a river bursting its banks, surging up!

……

Zonghan rarely thought about that forest and snowfield anymore.

The Tiger River (now Acheng District, Harbin) had no seasons. The snowfield there often made people feel that the four seasons described in books were an illusion. The Jurchens who grew up there didn't even know where in the world there were four seasons different from their hometown.

Knowing too much is a kind of pain.

Zonghan was the eldest son of the state chancellor Sagai. Although the Jurchens were a poor tribe, as the son of the state chancellor, he always had various privileges. He had knowledgeable shamans tell him the principles of heaven and earth. He was fortunate enough to go to the south to see and enjoy the taste of summer in the Liao Kingdom.

This was the taste of pain.

For a while, he even felt that the Jurchens were born in such a snowy and icy land, which was a curse given to them by God. At that time, he was still young, and he was afraid of the snowy weather. People often walked into the snowy and icy land and did not return after nightfall. Others said that he would never return.

There were wolves and bears in the snowy and icy land. People taught him how to fight. He was not afraid of wolves and bears. He was afraid of the invincible ice and snow, the huge, malicious behemoth that filled the sky. His steel knife and javelin could not damage this behemoth in the slightest. From the time he was a child, people in the tribe taught him to become a warrior, but the warrior could not hurt this piece of heaven and earth. People could not defeat things that were not injured.

Even if he became the strongest warrior, he was still a helpless ant in the face of the enemy.

It wasn't until he was twelve years old that he participated in the second winter hunt with the adults. In the wind and snow, he was separated from the adults. The malice of the sky squeezed his body everywhere. His hands were frozen in the ice and snow, and his knives and spears could not give him any protection. He went forward all the way, the wind and snow mixed, and the giant beast was about to swallow him little by little.

Until the last ray of light remained on the horizon, he found a small cottage made of wood piles under a tree. It was a temporary resting place built by an unknown Jurchen hunter. Zonghan crawled in, hid in the small space, and drank the last sip of wine he carried with him.

Outside the wood pile, the gale roared, and he curled up tightly in that space.

He spent a night with the wind and snow like this. He didn't know when the wind and snow outside stopped, and everything was silent. He crawled out of the room. Pushing aside the snow, it was probably early in the morning. There were stars all over the sky above the woods, and the night sky was as clear as washing. At that moment, it seemed that there was only him in the whole world. Beside him was a shelter built up by a small wood pile. He seemed to understand that heaven and earth were just heaven and earth, and heaven and earth were not giant beasts.

The next day, he set off from this wood pile, took his knives and spears, hunted a wolf in the snowfield, drank the wolf's blood, ate the meat, found another hunter's hut before dark, and found the direction.

Everything was clearly placed in front of him. There were crises everywhere between heaven and earth, but heaven and earth had no malice. People only needed to travel between one wood pile and another to overcome everything. From then on, he became the most outstanding warrior of the Jurchen tribe. He keenly perceived, carefully calculated, and bravely killed. From one wood pile, to another wood pile.

For a long time, the Jurchens had lived like this in the harsh world. Outstanding warriors were always good at calculating, calculating life, and calculating death.

Several years later, Aguda wanted to raise troops to rebel against the Liao. The Liao Kingdom was a behemoth with a million troops in hand, and Aguda had only two thousand soldiers he could lead. Everyone was afraid of the power of the Liao Kingdom, and their attitudes were relatively conservative. Only Zonghan chose the same direction as Aguda.

If this world was the enemy, then all the warriors could only wait to die. But the world had no malice. No matter how powerful the dragon and elephant were, as long as they could be harmed, there must be a way to defeat them.

Soon after, Aguda defeated 10,000 Bohai soldiers with 2,500 men, beheaded Yelu Xie Shi, captured Ningjiang Prefecture, and began the glorious journey of the next few decades...

Looking back, this was already forty years ago.

During this period, he rarely thought about the wind and snow that night. He remembered his mood when he saw the giant beast galloping past, and then the starlight was like water, and everything in this world gently accepted him.

Sitting on the hillside, Zonghan opened his eyes. In front of him was a sprawling camp. The sky was full of stars like weaving, and the warm earth and the mountain range that stretched across it didn't seem to have any malice at all. Here, people didn't have to go from one wood pile to another, and they didn't have to find the next hut before dark, but in this early morning when he came out for a walk, he finally saw the whistling and stern north wind again.

If people didn't calculate the distance to the next hut well, they would die in the wind and snow.

Forty years ago, the young man clenched his spear. In this world, he had seen countless magnificent scenes, killed countless giant dragons and primordial elephants, and the wind and snow had dyed his beard white. He also remembered his companions who came with him in this stern wind and snow: Heli Bo, Ying Ge, Wu Ya Shu, Aguda, Olugu, Zong Wang, Lou Shi, Ci Bu Shi... By now, these figures had all remained somewhere ravaged by wind and snow.

But the Jurchens will continue to move forward, looking for the next hut to escape the wind and snow, and he will kill the giant beasts on the way, devour their blood, and eat their meat. This is the truth of the world.

On the morning of April 19th, the scouts in front of the army observed signs that the Chinese 7th Army had turned and was trying to escape south, but in the afternoon, it was proved that this judgment was wrong. At 3:15 PM, a large-scale reconnaissance force from both armies was drawn into battle near Yangba, and nearby troops were immediately attracted and moved closer to support.

But not long after, Jin vanguard Pu Cha engaged the enemy near Lueyang County, a hundred miles away. The main force of the Chinese 7th Army's First Division followed the Qinling Mountains all the way to the Jin army, and the two sides quickly entered the range of engagement, launching an attack almost simultaneously.

Zonghan divided his troops into several routes and launched a rapid encirclement against the Chinese 7th Army, hoping to create a local advantage outside Jiange Pass by using more to defeat less before the Jiange Pass was broken by Ning Yi. He was the main attacker, and in theory, the Chinese 7th Army would try to retreat and defend as much as possible in the face of four times its own strength, but no one expected that the 7th Army rushed up.

That afternoon, the bugle of the Chinese Army resounded through the mountains and fields near Lueyang County, and two giant beasts tore at each other -

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