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

Chapter 300 Tumu Fortress!
"An army of 500,000..."

[Faced with this shocking news, even though you had already anticipated that Ginting would strike you hard first, you were still astonished.]

[We are both amazed by the sheer number of Jin soldiers and by the grand scale and ambition of this new emperor, whom we have never met!]

From the Jin court's perspective, no matter how powerful you are, you are absolutely not worth the Jin emperor making such a show of force... Therefore, in your expectations, the Jin court's current campaign would at most involve sending Wuzhu with an army of 100,000 to attack.

[But you never expected that this new emperor would immediately launch a personal military campaign, accompanied by a massive army of 500,000!]

[Heaven have mercy, the Jin border troops fighting against the Mongols along the Great Wall only number three to four hundred thousand, and not all of these three to four hundred thousand are your men. Even if you raise an army, you can only gather a small portion of them to fight against the Jin. Compared to the emperor's five hundred thousand imperial guards, the difference is enormous...]

[Moreover, the emperor possesses an inherent "royal aura." Normally, he wouldn't need to lead so many troops to quell a rebellion; if he so desired, no matter how many enemies came, they would all kneel before him!]

Therefore, you can tell at a glance that He had other purposes besides suppressing the rebellion...

"If I'm not mistaken, besides wanting to suppress my still-brewing coup, this new emperor also wants to take the opportunity to show off his power..."

Simply put, he just wanted to show off!

[This is actually quite normal. After all, being an emperor is bound to be a time of great pleasure... Besides, His reign as emperor is only for three years, and he might even lose his mind in the first year, gradually becoming assimilated into chaos until no one remembers him anymore...]

[In this situation, if He doesn't have his fill of pleasure now, then he'll truly have no chance!]

So, you actually understand His thoughts... but understanding is one thing, since He struck first, you can't be blamed!

[You felt a chill run down your spine and immediately spread the news that the Emperor was leading 500,000 Imperial Guards on a personal campaign against the enemy, causing widespread panic...]

[And at this very moment, you stepped forward solemnly: Since the Emperor has brought this massive army of 500,000 men, he certainly won't stop here without establishing his authority through bloodshed!]

Therefore, the emperor will most likely not accept surrender in this battle; everyone is now on the emperor's kill list...

"Whether we perish now or launch a grand plan, we will still die. Since death is inevitable anyway, is it not better to die for our country?"

[Before the terrified soldiers, you slowly uttered this famous saying from over a thousand years ago!]

[Once these words were spoken, even if everyone was still uneasy, they had no choice but to follow you down this dark path, to carve a way out of a dead end...]

[And so, very quickly, the soldiers and officers who had initially been hesitant about your mutiny were all forced to grit their teeth and board the ship, indicating their willingness to accept your orders!]

【"good!"】

Seeing that internal opinions had been forced to converge under the emperor's pressure, and a united front against the Jin dynasty had been formally formed, you did not hesitate any longer and immediately announced the pre-prepared anti-Jin declaration!

【…】

In the 223rd year of the Shaoxing reign of the Song Dynasty, the Jin Emperor personally led an army of over 500,000 imperial guards, marching in a grand and imposing manner towards the Yanshan Great Wall!

Faced with this threat, you, a renowned general of the Great Wall border army, had no choice but to "reluctantly" raise an army and declare rebellion against the Jin dynasty in order to protect yourself...

However, although everyone knows you are launching an anti-Jin uprising, it's still better to have a more respectable title... so you didn't announce your anti-Jin stance from the beginning, but only raised two banners.

"In accordance with the mandate of Heaven, we will quell the rebellion!"

"Purge the court of corrupt officials!"

In your declaration, you accused the imperial clan and nobles, led by Jin Wuzhu, of deceiving their superiors, committing atrocities, levying exorbitant taxes on the people, and turning a blind eye to corruption, leading to widespread unrest and misery among the populace!

At this critical juncture, they dared to spread rumors and incite the Emperor to annihilate the innocent border troops along the Great Wall… This not only condemns the Emperor to injustice but also desecrates the loyalty and achievements of the brave soldiers who defended their country!

Faced with this heinous atrocity, even though the border troops remained loyal to the Great Jin and the Emperor, they had no choice but to rise up and fight back, using their inferior forces against the Emperor's heavenly army...

【However, Your Majesty, please rest assured that this battle is only aimed at the treacherous and wicked Jin Wuzhu. Even if we are fortunate enough to win, we will only kill Jin Wuzhu and his ilk… We remain Your Majesty's reliable and loyal subjects!】

【loyalty!】

In short, after a declaration brimming with a sense of justice, you finally began to deploy your troops...

[In the 223rd year of the Shaoxing reign of the Song Dynasty, you ordered over 300,000 border troops to occupy key passes and towns along the Great Wall and blockade major transportation routes, preparing for the Jin Emperor's expeditionary army to suppress them!]

[That month, the Jin emperor's army advanced to Yanshan!] [That month, the imperial guards easily breached all the passes of Yanshan and executed all the captured rebel soldiers, numbering in the thousands, to demonstrate their refusal to surrender!]

When the news reached the Great Wall army, panic ensued: "Although you said from the beginning that the emperor wouldn't let anyone off the hook, people always have a glimmer of hope... But now, the undeniable facts are laid bare before them, completely shattering the soldiers' hopes. They have no choice but to grit their teeth and fight the emperor to the bitter end..."

[But whether they can win is another matter entirely: news from the front lines indicates that the Emperor's Imperial Guards possess extremely high combat strength and an unparalleled fighting spirit. Even when fighting down to the last soldier, the Imperial Guards have never shown any signs of defeat, showing no fear of swords or arrows... This is simply inhuman!]

[Then everyone couldn't help but feel pessimistic: if the fighting continued at this rate, their 300,000-plus ordinary border troops would definitely be no match for the emperor's inhuman imperial guards... Were they really going to be wiped out?]

[Therefore, everyone pinned their hopes on you: since you initiated the mutiny, surely you can lead everyone to victory against the Imperial Guards, right?]

To their disappointment, you showed no sign of winning whatsoever, nor did you even seem inclined to confront the Imperial Guard head-on...

As the Imperial Guards captured one pass after another, you retreated step by step to preserve the strength of your main army.

They retreated from the Yanshan Mountains to the Great Wall, and then further back, until they reached the grasslands...

[You didn't even fight a single proper battle. You led hundreds of thousands of troops all the way to the grasslands. Aside from losing some passes and a small number of soldiers guarding them, you suffered virtually no losses.]

However, this approach doesn't reassure everyone; it only makes them more pessimistic...

[What good is just running around!]

What, are you going to evacuate all 300,000-plus people to the grasslands? But what's the point of that?

[Leaving aside the fact that the emperor certainly wouldn't give up the pursuit, the only problem is that everyone would have no chance of survival if they went to the grasslands!]

[The daily expenses for feeding and caring for hundreds of thousands of soldiers are astronomical... This expense can be replenished along the Great Wall, but once they cross the Great Wall and face the vast grasslands, where will they find supplies?!]

Without supplies, a mutiny would break out within three to five days. Whether the emperor's army pursues them or the Mongols take advantage of the chaos to plunder, everyone will perish on the grasslands!

[And so, everyone couldn't help but shed tears; their already low morale plummeted even further...]

[And you, of course, saw everything, but you offered no explanation from beginning to end, only ordering the army to continue retreating into the grasslands... until the entire army had entered the grasslands, only then did you order a halt!]

Everyone was puzzled: Did the general intend to deploy his forces on the grasslands and then confront the emperor's imperial guards head-on?

[You can't win a fight anyway, and you still try to go head-to-head with them... Isn't that just suicide?]

However, on the other hand, since we've already come this far, retreating now will only lead to death, so we might as well fight the emperor to the death! In such a battle, even if we die, we'll die standing!

[Thus, the men regained their morale, and a death-defying spirit enveloped them, ready to fight the Imperial Guards...]

But you showed no panic whatsoever. You merely glanced at the Great Wall, watching the Imperial Guards occupy it and gradually cross it, advancing in a dark mass towards the grasslands!

[And among those imperial guards, there stood a striking yellow flag…it was the Golden Emperor's dragon banner!]

"They've finally arrived..."

Your eyes shone with excitement and anticipation. Although you had witnessed many grand scenes in your two lifetimes, what you were about to witness was an epic spectacle far surpassing anything you had seen in those two lifetimes. Even the well-informed Prime Minister had never witnessed it with his own eyes...

[It is... the direct confrontation with the Imperial Guards, and the capture of the Chaos God Emperor alive!]

Does this place have a name?

You suddenly asked the guard beside you, who, though startled, replied earnestly, "General, this place has no name; it's just an ordinary border between the Great Wall and the grasslands..."

"Alright, from today onwards it will have a name!"

You laughed heartily, then used your spear to draw three large characters on the ground...

"Earth! Wood! Fortress!"

……

(End of this chapter)