Chapter 40: Sudden Attack (Part 2)

  Thanks to Feng Wu Tian Yang for voting! The long-awaited chapter has finally arrived!

  Yue Yun saw that Yan Zongmin was withdrawing from the battlefield and felt a great sense of urgency, but at the same time he also realized that this was an excellent opportunity to thoroughly defeat the enemy.

  "He immediately shouted loudly: 'Everyone look! The king of the Golden Thief is going to escape, victory is in sight! Brothers who understand Jurchen language also shout for me! Shout that the Golden Thief has been defeated!'"

  The Song army's warriors saw that Wanyan Zongmin was indeed slowly retreating with his back turned. Some quick-witted soldiers who knew the Jurchen language immediately shouted according to Yue Yun's orders: "The Jin army is defeated! The Jin army is defeated! Wanyan Zongmin wants to escape!"

  The Jurchen cavalry, who were in the midst of a fierce battle, turned their heads to see that their commander was indeed retreating, and their morale suffered a setback. This shift in momentum allowed Yue Yun and Niu Tong to finally break through the enemy lines...

  At this time, Wanyan Zongmin had already retreated to a small hillside more than 20 zhang away under the cover of his personal soldiers. Here was very close to the rear grain and grass camp, with less than 10 li of road.

  Yue Yun and others knew that after such a long time of killing, their mounts were already exhausted and could not outrun Wanyan Zongmin, who was waiting in ambush. Once Wanyan Zongmin crossed this hillside, he would gallop wildly, and in the dark night, it would only take an instant to run back to the camp.

  Moreover, although they had already pierced the Jin army's defensive formation, there were still many Jin troops surging towards them from left and right as well as from behind. Under the obstruction of these Jin troops, it was even more impossible for them to catch up with Wanyan Zongmin who was fleeing desperately.

  Yue Yun was anxious in his heart, he tried to bend his bow and shoot a few arrows, but they all deviated too far.

  At this time, he couldn't help but secretly blame his former father-in-law, Yuen Yung, for not practicing archery. If he had the kind of marksmanship that could pierce a bell at a hundred paces, he might have been able to shoot and kill Wanyan Zongmin. What to do now? It seemed that Yuen Yung's body was only good at spear techniques and having great strength...

  "Got it! Although archery won't work... why don't we try throwing javelins!" Yue Yun suddenly had an epiphany.

  He remembered that he used to love throwing sports when he was in college, often practicing javelin throws, and his accuracy and strength were still okay. It's just that now he only has this iron spear in his hand, if he throws it out and misses, he'll be left with nothing.

  "Whatever! I'll take a chance!" Yueshan also couldn't care about so much anymore.

  He took a deep breath, suddenly switching the long gun to his right hand, and then he threw it out with great force at Wanyan Zongmin, who had already raised the reins and was ready to gallop away!

  "Whoosh——!" The iron spear shot out like a sharp arrow, cutting through the air with countless people's hopes, and flew towards Wanyan Zongmin's back with lightning speed...

  "Whoosh!" The javelin finally hit Wanyan Zongmin accurately.

  Wanyan Zongmin didn't even have time to let out a miserable cry before he was pierced through the chest by a long spear, and fresh blood flowed out along the spear shaft like a gushing spring, dripping onto the horse's back.

  He was still staring at the gun tip protruding from his chest in shock and disbelief, seemingly unable to comprehend that he would lose his life in a battle for Chu State that had seemed inevitable and extremely safe to him.

  When Wanyan Zongmin's corpse fell from the horseback, those Jurchen cavalrymen who were rushing over stopped abruptly in shock, their faces filled with unbelievable terror.

  The two armies of Song and Jin stopped shouting at the same time as everyone who saw this scene. Suddenly, all around was quiet, with only people on the periphery still desperately shooting arrows.

  "We've finally succeeded! We killed Wanyan Zongmin. Although it's unclear whether the Battle of Chuzhou will turn around because of this, we've at least taken a step forward towards victory."

  Historically, Jin Guo's Ji Wang Ye Wanyan Zongmin died in 1150, but now I have advanced his death to 1140. It can be said that history has been changed.

  Only I don't know if the wheel of history will turn in another direction because of this butterfly effect. But doing something is better than waiting to die.

  "We'll take things one step at a time from now on!" Yue Yun thought to herself.

  Seeing Wanyan Zongmin had been killed by Yue Yun, a thunderous cheer finally erupted from the Song army's ranks.

  Guan Ling and Niu Tong were overjoyed at the sight, Niu Tong spurred his horse to hurry to the side of Wanyan Zongmin's corpse, pulled out Yue Yun's iron pike spear, and then threw it back to Yue Yun saying: "Young Master! Catch!"

  Yue Yun took the long spear and turned around to rush into the crowd of Song soldiers, fearing that in their grief, the Jin army would surge forward and chop him to pieces.

  However, the Jin army's morale is now in great disarray. Although Wan Yan Zong Min's personal soldiers are still loudly calling for revenge for their prince, their flags are already scattered and disorderly, and both soldiers and officers are somewhat bewildered and at a loss. Although defeat is no longer a new thing for the Jin army, the ninth uncle of the emperor of the great Jin dynasty, Prince Shu Wan Yan Zong Min, was killed by this group of Song troops who suddenly appeared out of nowhere, which is an unprecedented precedent in Jin history.

  "Kill! Kill all these Jin bandits!" The Song army soldiers, although far outnumbered by the enemy and having fought for half the night, seeing their commander successfully kill the Jin general, regained their strength. Meanwhile, the Jurchen cavalry was now leaderless, divided into two units, and several commanders were more concerned with how to explain themselves to Wuzhu and Wanyan Liang than with directing the battle.

  The small disturbance of the Jurchen cavalry finally turned into a big one. After several leaders consulted with each other, they simply ordered to take Wanyan Zongmin's body and escape to their original destination - the grain and grass camp.

  They had already calculated that when they returned, they would report that there were more than 6,000 Song troops. If they reported only over a thousand cavalrymen, then the blame for not protecting the king well enough and causing the Ninth King to die in battle would be inescapable.

  Thus, under the unintentional love war, the Jurchen iron cavalry, which was known as invincible all over the world, finally scattered and ran away.

  Half an hour later, on this desolate battlefield, there was no longer a single Jin soldier.

  "Finally killed the king of these golden thieves!" Guan Ling Chang spat out a mouthful of air, turned over and dismounted to rest.

  "Ah! This battle was really fucking satisfying!" Niu Tong sat down on a rock, panting and said.

  Yue Yun looked around and was suddenly shocked: he saw that more than a thousand Song army soldiers were left with only over 400 people, and most of the survivors were also seriously injured.

  Without these generals who fought bloody battles with me, without the cover of Niu Tong and Guan Jing, without the strategy of Yu Yunwen, without Han Shizhong's reinforcement of his own 500 cavalry... how could I have led the army to kill here, killing the Jin Dynasty's Ninth King Wanyan Zongmin, making the battle of Chu State march towards victory.

  Do you still want to change the tragic fate of Yue Fei and the Han people, creating a brand new history that seems impossible now? Is this the first step?

  These people, nominally their subordinates, are actually their brothers...

  Yue Yun silently knelt down on one knee, bowed to the surrounding corpses of the Song army generals and soldiers, and said with extreme sorrow: "All you deceased brothers, Yue Yun makes a vow here. I will definitely bring your remains back home, raise your children, support your parents. If Yue Yun fails to do so, he will end up like this arrow!"

  After saying this, Yue Yun took an arrow from his quiver and broke it in two with a loud snap in front of all the generals.

  More than 400 Song soldiers, at this time, also disregarding the newly wrapped wounds, stood up and stood upright beside Yue Yun, shouting in unison: "We are willing to die for the young master!"

  "Let's put our brother's body on horseback and take it back for burial. This place is not far from the Jin army's camp, we can't stay long, everyone hurry up and retreat to the east."

  Yue Yun sighed and then said to Guan Ling: "Guan Ling, take some uninjured brothers to patrol around, the Golden Army's reinforcements will arrive at any time!"

  Guan Ling responded with a sound, then took out a sword and a yellow satin bag from the saddle bag on his horse's back, handing them to Yue Yun: "Just now when Jin Jun moved away the corpse of the King of Jin, I saw this sword and a satin bag falling from the corpse. See if they are useful?"

  Yue Yun took over the two items with a puzzled expression, and conveniently tied the sword to his waist. He then opened the brocade bag and took a look inside. There was a notebook, a seal, and several letters. The notebook was written in Chinese and seemed to be a military campaign log. The seal had Chinese characters and another language that he didn't recognize, probably Jurchen script. It looked like it should be Wanyan Zongmin's personal seal.

  Then, Yue Yun opened the letters and took a look. Most of them were correspondence between officials in the Jin Dynasty, some written in Jurchen script and others in Chinese characters. He couldn't understand what they said. However, one letter caught his attention. The content seemed to say that Liao Dynasty scouts had been spotted within Western Xia territory. Western Xia requested aid from the Jin Dynasty if an invasion were to occur and asked for instructions on how to handle it. It appeared to be a confidential document submitted by local officials in Shaanxi Province near Western Xia.

  Yue Yun was also stunned when he saw this and thought that Liao State had been destroyed long ago, so why did Western Xia still mention the existence of Liao State scouts?

  He immediately recalled carefully and remembered the history recorded by later generations, so he also let it go: this Liao country must refer to the Western Liao established by Yelü Dashi, not the Great Liao destroyed by Wanyan Aguda, the founding emperor of the Jin Dynasty.

  But for now, it's not the time to consider these issues. Yue Yun put the brocade bag into his arms and grabbed the reins, leading the remaining 400 iron cavalry to retreat eastward.