Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 662 A great victory
Zhao Mu led his troops to rest in Youzhou City for a few days.

However, in just these few days, he found that he didn't have to fight any subsequent battles because the Eastern and Western Armies had already fought for him.

The first to join Zhao Mu was the Western Army led by King Zhongxiao, and the two armies met in Youzhou City in triumph.

King Zhongxiao was in tears as he hadn't seen Zhao Mu for a long time.

Then he asked Zhao Mu about the recent situation of his beloved daughter Huyan Jin.

Zhao Mu replied, "Before I left Lingzhou, Jin'er was pregnant again. If we calculate the time now, she should be giving birth soon."

King Zhongxiao smiled and replied, "Good! Good! I am going to be a grandfather again!"

After the father-in-law and son-in-law finished chatting about these family matters, they got back to the topic.

Zhao Mu asked, "My Lord, how is the war going in the west?"

King Zhongxiao replied, "Your Majesty, Yunzhou and other places on the western front have been completely recaptured by our army. The 200,000 remaining Liao soldiers were defeated by us and most of them were annihilated on the spot. The rest were either captured or escaped. The whole army was annihilated. I have already written a memorial to report the victory and returned to Bianjing."

"We also talked to General Yang before. General Yang said that the strength shown by the Jurchen tribe this time was beyond his expectations. Because they had seen the brutality of the Jurchen tribe, many cities in the Liao Kingdom were willing to surrender to us. We did not encounter any decent resistance this time."

"Many cities were basically taken without a fight. As for those Khitan and Han officials who were willing to surrender, we also kept their lives as we had agreed before, gave them a large sum of gold and silver, preserved their property, and demoted them to commoners."

Zhao Mu nodded after hearing this.

However, Zhao Mu was not surprised that King Zhongxiao got the news before him, because he was just a bait this time. King Zhongxiao was the commander-in-chief of this Northern Expedition. General Yang naturally had to report to King Zhongxiao first.

King Zhongxiao took out the marching map he had drawn and spread it out in front of Zhao Mu.

Zhao Mu looked carefully at the situation in front of him.

Today, the Liao Kingdom has long been doomed. According to the previous agreement, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun and the former land of Liaodong have completely returned to the hands of the Song Dynasty.

The fastest expansion was still by the Jurchen tribe, which had been preparing for many years. Murong Fu's expansion was a bit slow. After so much time, he had only occupied a few states and counties.

At present, Shangdu and Zhongdu were surrounded by Wang Jin and Wang Xian respectively. At this time, General Yang, Wang Jin and Wanyan Zongbi joined forces to attack Zhongdu.

The main force of the Liao Kingdom had been completely wiped out by Zhao Mu in Youzhou, and Zhongdu should have been almost captured by this time.

Just as everyone was talking, a messenger rushed in.

"Great victory! Great victory! Reporting to the Grand Marshal, Your Majesty! Great victory!" The messenger's words were incoherent and he was in a hurry and out of breath.

Zhao Mu said, "Don't be impatient. Tell me slowly. What great victory?"

The attendant at the side fed the messenger some water, and then the messenger replied: "Reporting to your majesty, Grand Marshal. Our army has joined forces with the Qi army, and the Jin army has already broken through Zhongdu. A large number of Liao clansmen, ministers, officials and their families have been captured. Now General Wang is moving the seized treasury silver, and is also forcing Liao clansmen and officials to the south."

Hearing this, Zhao Mu laughed and said, "Haha. Good! Good! Although I didn't get any advantage in Nanjing this time, I have reaped rich rewards in Zhongjing, Xijing and Dongjing of the Liao Kingdom. Good! Good! Good!" Zhao Mu said three good words in a row.

This time when King Zhongxiao came, he also brought him a lot of gifts.

According to what everyone had agreed upon before, all movable wealth of the families of Liao royal family members and ministers with titles and ranks would belong to Zhao Mu.

Although these royal family members abandoned Nanjing and fled to other places, they were also wiped out by the other three armies along the way.

When King Zhongxiao conquered Yunzhou, Xijing, in addition to those who committed suicide, he also captured a large number of royal family members and their families, seized several million taels of royal family members and their wealth, and countless treasures. Now they have all been taken to Youzhou City by Zhao Mu, waiting for Zhao Mu to decide their fate.

The same thing happened on General Yang's side. Many officials stationed in Nanjing fled to Liaodong and were all killed by General Yang.

General Yang also got several million taels of wealth, as well as a large number of families of these nobles, but the main roads leading to the outside of the pass, several passes have not been completely broken by the Song army, so those people are still detained in the Eastern Capital of the Liao Kingdom. When the passes are opened, they will naturally send people to escort them all here.

Now that Zhongdu has been captured, Zhao Mu is waiting for the gift that Wang Jin will bring to him.

After Zhao Mu read the report carefully, he also said: "In this case, then this Youzhou City will be handed over to my father-in-law to garrison. I will immediately lead the army north to Shangdu to meet up with the other troops."

King Zhongxiao nodded upon hearing this.

At this time, Li Canghai walked in and said, "I'll go with you too."

At this time, she was not wearing the animal head mask, but King Zhongxiao did not feel strange when he saw her face. After all, Li Canghai, Li Qiushui, Li Qingluo, Li Qinglu, and Wang Yuyan all had the same face. King Zhongxiao just thought that Zhao Mu had brought the Xixia princess with him.

So when Li Canghai approached, King Zhongxiao also bowed to her respectfully, and murmured, "This old minister pays respect to Her Royal Highness the Princess."

Hearing the King of Loyalty and Filial Piety addressing her, Li Canghai was stunned at first, but then she reacted and said, "Your Majesty, there is no need to be so polite."

Zhao Mu said, "In that case, hurry up and pack your things. We will set off immediately."

Li Canghai nodded, then turned and left.

Prince Zhongxiao asked at this time: "I just wonder how many soldiers and horses your majesty will bring with you on this trip?"

Zhao Mu thought about it and said, "You don't need to bring more. Just give me all the cavalry under your command. Now there is only one city left in Liao that has not been conquered by us, Shangdu. I think there will be no tough battles to fight later. If we attack the city, we will not be needed with General Yang and the soldiers under the Jurchen tribe. So just give me 10,000 cavalry as the vanguard to reach Shangdu as soon as possible."

King Zhongxiao nodded and said, "I will obey your majesty's order!"

Afterwards, King Zhongxiao issued a military order, ordering all 30,000 cavalry stationed outside the city to be deployed by Zhao Mu and follow Emperor Zhong to the Liao Kingdom's Shangdu. After this final battle, the other infantrymen went to various checkpoints to assist the Eastern and Western armies in opening up the checkpoints.

After Zhao Mu had assembled his troops, he did not delay and led his own troops to rush towards the Liao Kingdom's Shangdu. This would be his last battle of the Northern Expedition, and he did not want to miss it.

Besides, Shangjing was the main capital of the Liao Kingdom, and all the good things must have been kept in Shangdu. Naturally, he had to go there in person to receive them.

(End of this chapter)