choke element

Chapter 1043 The Future (Part )

Yila Pu'a growled behind him, as if he was going to rush into the yard, but he stopped abruptly, with his heels seemingly glued to the ground.

Dozens of people following Yila Pu'a started and stopped quickly, following their leader. Some stumbled and walked diagonally towards the center of the courtyard. The foreigners recruited by Wanyan Congtan were startled, thinking they were ambushed and some were shot by arrows.

They roared subconsciously, preparing for the upcoming battle.

The roar spread far in the quiet night, but no one responded. Even inside the mansion, there was only a slight commotion, but it soon returned to silence. After a while, dogs barked one after another in the distance outside, and a newborn baby was startled and cried a few times.

Wanyan Congtan shouted twice to calm the restless foreign warriors. He took a few steps forward, stood on the steps of the moon gate, and looked into the courtyard.

The courtyard was dark, with only a lamp hanging under the eaves. Monk Wanyan Chen was standing under the lamp, probably just walked out of the house. He was empty-handed and had no weapons. As far as Wanyan Congtan could see, he didn't see anyone else.

But Wanyan Congtan was not happy about this. He knew that Wanyan Chen Heshang was the commander of the emperor's personal army. His presence meant that the emperor's military forces were nearby, and maybe the emperor himself was there. Since Wanyan Chen Heshang appeared here, it meant that all his plans had failed.

This made him feel humiliated, but this humiliation did not make him angry.

At the end of last year, the Mongols secretly sent several envoys to discuss the entire plan with him in detail. Among those who participated in the planning, there were not only veterans who had been tempered by the Western Expedition and could coordinate and cooperate with each other over a distance of thousands of miles, but also several old acquaintances of Wanyan Congtan.

They were all outstanding figures among the Jurchens who had joined the Mongols. They were well aware of the material support needed for a Central Plains dynasty to mobilize troops on a large scale, and they knew that the Jin Dynasty absolutely did not have such conditions. They were also sure that the actions of the Great Zhou could not keep up with the interlocking rhythm of the Mongols.

But they were wrong. The Mongols made so many moves, but they failed to hide it from Guo Ning. Obviously, they underestimated both the power of the Great Zhou and Guo Ning's decisiveness.

Even the Mongols were not immune, so Wanyan Congtan felt that it was only natural that the trivial plans of a mere surrendered general like him would be seen through.

He even felt somewhat relieved about this.

"The Great Zhou is just beginning to gain momentum, and it is popular with the people. There are only a few subordinates who trust me and are willing to take risks with me. This time, I sent many people to the post stations, warehouses and official roads in Hezhong Prefecture and even Jiezhou, Jiangzhou, Zezhou, etc., in order to cooperate with the outside world at the appropriate time. The only ones left in Hezhong Prefecture to do business are these..."

Wanyan Congtan looked back and slapped his forehead. "We have sent out hundreds of people to important places in the city. I thought that if there was no noise everywhere, we would succeed. Now it seems that most of them have been eliminated, right? If it were someone else, I don't believe he would have the ability to do this. With your identity and means, Liangzuo, you can do it."

Monk Wanyan Chen nodded.

Wanyan Congtan wanted to say something else, but a baby across the courtyard walls started crying again, followed by the voices of women trying to comfort him.

Wanyan Congtan listened attentively and said, "Last year, I proposed to rebuild the Pujin Bridge and recruit skilled craftsmen for the purpose. Living there is a master craftsman from Zhengding, Hebei, and his family, as well as several apprentices and grandchildren. When the crying baby was 100 days old, I congratulated the whole family and drank wine with them."

"After celebrating and drinking, we will invite the Mongolian army to kill them all?" Monk Wanyan Chen laughed strangely.

"That may not be the case... The Mongols need craftsmen. If they can obey me at that time, and with my recommendation, they may live better than they do now."

"Nonsense!" Monk Wanyan Chen cursed.

"Your Majesty has never treated you unfairly, nor has he treated us, the former ministers... What exactly do you want by doing this? Isn't the power of the Great Zhou ten or a hundred times greater than that of the Great Jin? Aren't the people of the Great Zhou the same as the people of the Great Jin? Are you happy to surrender to the Mongols and use their lives to pile up mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Are you living a comfortable life?"

Wanyan Congtan chuckled twice: "I am a member of the royal family of the Great Jin Dynasty. If this plan succeeds, I will definitely become the ruler of Henan. It will be more comfortable than being a military governor."

At this point, Monk Wanyan Chen's face was full of disdain.

Back then, these two were generals who fought to the end for the Kaifeng regime. If they really wanted wealth and power, they could have surrendered long ago, and there was no need to tie their heads to their belts and fight desperately. Not to mention that they had surrendered for several years and received a lot of salary from the Great Zhou, but suddenly they jumped out to rebel?

We are all men of honor, why do we have to do this?

Wanyan Congtan said it himself and shook his head with a bitter smile.

After a pause, he continued, "In the past few years, the number of Jurchens in the Central Plains has been decreasing. In Hebei alone, at least 200,000 to 300,000 people changed their surnames to Han Chinese in order to catch up with the opportunity of land distribution. In Shandong, there are even more people who have abandoned their Jurchen identities. Most of the Jurchens in the northeast regard themselves as Huligai or Sushen people, and do not recognize their fellow tribesmen in the Central Plains at all..."

He stepped through the doorway and casually drew the short knife from his waist: "In fact, I had expected this situation to happen. Back then, we Jurchens destroyed the Liao Dynasty and forced the Khitans to change their surnames and ethnic groups, and continued to divide them. However, there were too few Jurchens and they were not good at civil governance. We could not attract people by eating raw meat and drinking blood. After all, we could not integrate the Khitans. On the contrary, the Jurchens became more and more like Han people. The conditions of the current Great Zhou court are much better. The court uses various means, both overt and covert, whether it is money or fame, so it can easily cause countless Jurchens to waver."

He raised the short sword, looked at the dancing flames on the blade, and continued, "Even people like you and me who once fought for the Great Jin, studied Chinese classics since childhood, wore Chinese clothes, spoke Chinese language, and used Chinese characters. On the contrary, the Jurchens... Let's not talk about anything else. The Jurchen characters created by Emperor Taizu and Emperor Xizong, Liangzuo, can you write them?"

Monk Wanyan Chen said "Hey".

The so-called Jurchen large and small characters were created out of thin air by referring to Chinese characters and Khitan characters, and then forcing the Jurchen accents. They were rarely used in daily life. During the Dading period, under the promotion of two civil officials, Tushan Ji and Yelu Lu, Chinese classics were gradually translated into Jurchen characters, and then used in the Jurchen Jinshi examination.

But despite this push, the Jurchen script is still just a brain game for a very small number of people. People who don't plan to take the Jurchen imperial examination can't learn it at all, and even if they learn it, they have no chance to use it.

Wanyan Chen Heshang was born into a family of military commanders, and most of his family's knowledge was learned in the military academy of the Great Zhou Dynasty... How could he understand all that? He could neither write nor speak. In fact, two generations ago, starting from Wanyan Chen Heshang's ancestors, they had already stopped using Jurchen names and used Chinese names instead.

This was true for the monk Wanyan Chen, and even more so for the ordinary Jurchens. Long before the fall of the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchens in the Central Plains had already increasingly abandoned their own customs and became like Han people in the name of Jurchens. The emergence of the Great Zhou greatly accelerated the process of the Jurchens' sinicization with drastic measures.

"If this continues, in another ten or twenty years, who will still consider themselves Jurchens? Who will still remember the might of our ancestors who rose from the White Mountains and Black Waters and conquered the world with raging fire? Liang Zuo, I don't know what you think. I can accept the demise of the Great Jin, but I cannot accept the demise of the Jurchens. Whenever I think about this in the past few years, I am often heartbroken."

Wanyan Chen, the monk, blushed. After a long pause, he asked in a voice that was almost a roar: "You are heartbroken, and then you want to be a dog for the Mongols?"

"To be a dog for the Mongols is only lower than the Mongols, but higher than the Han and Khitan people. Moreover, the Mongols are far more barbaric than us, so don't even think about assimilating us."

At this point, Wanyan Congtan sighed, "It's a pity that my plan failed. Among the Jurchens, a group of people like me who have the same idea are going to die here. Perhaps it is God's will!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wanyan Congtan exerted force with his legs, twisted his body violently, and threw the short knife in his hand. The distance between the two was only a few feet, and he suddenly threw the flying knife, which was like a silver light passing by, which was extremely threatening.

However, it was late at night, the lights were dim, and the figures were vague. He couldn't see clearly, so the dagger he threw was a little off.

In terms of martial arts, Wanyan Chen Heshang was already outstanding. He had been training and tempering himself repeatedly in the past few years. How could Wanyan Congtan compare with him? Since the short knife did not hit, Wanyan Chen Heshang stepped forward and drew his waist knife to stab.

Wanyan Congtan didn't dodge at all.

The blade of the waist knife then pierced through the armor and stabbed into his abdomen. When the huge force knocked him back, the blade in his stomach was pulled out completely, and the broad blade spine changed its angle, thus expanding the wound even more.

Outside the courtyard, there were flashes of fire and swords. There were also screams. It was obvious that the elite guards who had entered Hezhong Mansion overnight had begun to take action.

Wanyan Congtan didn't care about those things. He just lay on his back on the threshold of the Moon Gate and looked down at the wound on his stomach.

Like many times he was wounded on the battlefield in the past, he felt no pain, only a burning sensation. What was different from the past was that this burning sensation penetrated deep into his body, like a red-hot iron rod piercing his internal organs. It made his heart beat faster, his breathing quickened, and he became increasingly weak.

His vision began to go dark, and he could not see the blood gushing out of the wound. He could only smell the strong smell of blood and the unique stench of the human abdomen. It was not a pleasant smell, but he was used to it.

"Good sword, it pierced my armor with one stroke. Liangzuo, his majesty really gave you a lot of good things." Wanyan Congtan whispered.

"This is the standard weapon for the imperial guards. Since last year, the output of the Military Equipment Bureau has been huge. Every one of the tens of thousands of soldiers has it. This is not a special gift from the emperor."

"Oh..." Wanyan Congtan breathed heavily.

"I have made some contributions, and the emperor should reward me. After all, I have gathered together the Jurchens who have too many ideas in the past few years. After these people die, your majesty will not have to worry about them anymore. Haha, haha."

Wanyan Congtan laughed twice: "I remember the elders telling us about life in the snowy plains outside the Great Wall. They rode horses to hunt, set traps to catch wild beasts such as tigers and wild boars, and when they got tired, they lit a bonfire, tore into the sizzling meat, and drank until they were drunk in the snow. How fun it was! Unfortunately, there are very few pure Jurchens like this. Among the millions of Jurchens, there are even fewer who are willing to die for the future of the Jurchens. I have to drag a group of Tanguts to make up the numbers when I want to do big things. It's really sad."

He spoke such a long speech, his voice becoming lower and lower, and by the last few sentences, Monk Wanyan Chen had to lean closer to hear what he was saying.

After a while, Wanyan Chen Heshang stood up straight and sighed: "It is not easy to gather all these subordinates. But, don't work so hard, just let it go."

He held the knife in his waist and stepped through the moon-shaped gate. The sound of fighting outside came towards him.

"If the Great Jin still existed, I would still be a Jurchen and would do my best for my country. But the Great Jin is gone, and the Great Jin is doomed! Why are the remaining people still entangled in the ethnic differences? As a Jurchen who is no longer pure, I will fight for the future of hundreds of millions of people in the Great Zhou as a citizen of the Great Zhou."

(End of this chapter)