Simulates history, but Chongzhen is the Divine Emperor at the beginning

Chapter 230: Golden Man, Demon

"What does the Jin man actually look like?"

[This was the most frequently discussed question among the entire army since the Northern Expedition began...]

It's no wonder everyone is curious. After all, in the past two hundred years of oral tradition, the Jin people have always appeared as "mutated demons." Therefore, in everyone's minds, the northerners have long been extinct, replaced by inhuman demons that feed on human blood!

[As a result, the war between the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty changed from a normal war between enemy nations to a racial war between humans and demons. There was no peaceful coexistence between the two sides, only a life-and-death struggle!]

[As for these two hundred years of peace, it was merely a long truce. As long as the two sides have not yet determined the winner, the war will never stop...]

【Based on this, everyone couldn't help but become curious about what the Jin Dynasty looked like.】

"Do the Jin people have intelligence? Could it be that they simply can't understand human language, like monkeys?"

"What did the Jin people eat? Did they hunt, farm, or eat each other?"

"The Jin people are monsters, but what about the Jin emperor? The Wanyan family can't be muddleheaded monsters, right?"

"Hmm... that's unlikely. After all, we signed a peace treaty with the Jin Dynasty. If the Wanyans were monsters who couldn't understand human language, what was the point of signing a treaty..."

【In short, everyone is talking about this.】

[And you're actually also curious about these questions: It's said that the north was polluted by something strange, so the people of the Jin Dynasty mutated into ferocious monsters. How did the Jin Dynasty still maintain its regime?]

[And considering the fact that the Jin emperor was able to sign a treaty with the Song, it proves that the Jin dynasty indeed maintained power amidst a group of monsters... Based on this, you can infer the following two possibilities.]

"Either the entire Jin people haven't transformed into mindless monsters. At least those headed by the Wanyan family are still human. These humans form the Jin regime, and they can also command monsters through some kind of divine power or special method, thus maintaining their rule in the north where beasts and humans are rampant."

"Or perhaps, even though the Jin Kingdom is inhabited by monsters, these monsters are not as mindless and ferocious as the Song people imagined. Instead, they retain a certain level of intelligence while mutating. This is why they are able to maintain the existence of the Jin Kingdom..."

[With insufficient evidence, you can only speculate, and whether or not this speculation is correct... you don't know.]

So you placed your hopes on your father-in-law.

But the Prime Minister also shook his head: "I am not an objectively existing substance, so I cannot directly observe this universe... All my knowledge of this universe comes only from your knowledge."

“If you want to ask me about unknown things about the Jin Dynasty, you must first go and explore that unknown information yourself. Only then can I help you organize and summarize it…”

[Hearing your father's words, you can't help but feel a little disappointed...]

[But what the Prime Minister said makes sense. There's no such thing as someone born with knowledge in this world. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. To unlock the unknown secrets of this world, you, the "protagonist," must explore it yourself!]

You always believe that there is nothing unknowable in the world. As long as you explore enough, you will eventually unlock these unknown information...

You clenched the spear in your hand, your eyes filled with determination.

【…】

[Next, you will follow Yue Fei's 100,000-strong army and march northward. Your first target is "Xinye County"!]

Xinye was the site of Liu Bei's garrison during his time in Jingzhou during the Three Kingdoms period. While small, this county served as Jingzhou's crucial northern gate. If they were to secure the important town of Xiangyang in the rear, this place was crucial. Under normal circumstances, the Jingzhou government would undoubtedly have firmly held this area. If even this were lost, Xiangyang would become a strategic point vulnerable to attack at any moment, making its defense extremely difficult.

However, in the current historical arc of the "Divine Emperor Southern Song Dynasty," Xinye, the northern gate to Xiangyang, was easily abandoned by the imperial court... The reason for this wasn't Zhao Gou or Yue Fei's fault, but rather that Xinye had been corrupted by the indescribable "Jin Dynasty weirdness," transforming the locals into monsters. As a result, Yue Fei couldn't maintain a permanent presence there, and ultimately had no choice but to cede it to the Jin Dynasty.

[Thus, for two hundred years, the Song army had never set foot here. This place was like an unknown territory shrouded in the fog of war...]

[However, since Yue Fei is resuming the Northern Expedition, the bridgehead of Xinye must be captured first!]

[So, while you were cautiously marching north, good news arrived from the front lines: five divisions had captured Xinye County...]

In the 215th year of Shaoxing, Yue Fei sent his eldest son Yue Yun to lead a small army as the vanguard of the Northern Expedition, ordering them to capture Xinye, the Jin Kingdom.

[That year, Yue Yun's troops were ordered to attack Xinye... Although the Song army had not fought the Jin people for many years and everyone was afraid of the Jin monsters, when the army encountered the legendary Jin people head-on, the temptation of military merit led everyone to attack the Jin village!]

[Thus, Yue Yun's Song army won the first battle, annihilating over 200 Jin soldiers in a village at the cost of a hundred of their own casualties!]

When the news reached Yue Fei's rear, the entire army cheered: "We've won! And our casualties were lower than those of the Jin army. It seems the terrifying Jin army is no match for the Song army's elite!"

[If that's the case, then there's nothing to be afraid of. Just charge in and it's over!]

After this victory, the Song army, energized by their victory, finally shed their fear of the Jin invaders and bravely rushed to the villages along the way, frantically harvesting Jin heads...

[However, facing those decimated Jin villages, you, who had originally been looking forward to military success, fell into an unexpected hesitation.]

"Village..."

You lead over a hundred of your men through a decimated Jin village. Looking at the well-maintained houses and the mulberry and bamboo trees growing in front of and behind them, you know clearly that this is a Jin village, but it's still difficult to distinguish it from a Song village...

“Isn’t this exactly the same?”

You can't help but wonder: Isn't it said that the Jin people lost their minds after their transformation? Why is this village the same as the Song people?

[They can repair houses and raise silkworms. Looking at the rice paddies and vegetable fields outside the village that were trampled by the army, it's clear they can also farm. I guess that's how they make a living...]

[Can inhuman monsters really do things that only humans can do? ]

[Thinking about it, a thought occurs to you: Could it be that these monsters still retain their sanity...?]

If the Jin people really still retained human intelligence, then wouldn't they be just Song people in a different form?

If they were merely Song people in disguise, then wouldn't this Northern Expedition be just... a gratuitous massacre?!

[This terrifying thought suddenly makes you tremble...]

……

(End of this chapter)