Chapter Thirteen: Zong Wang's Dilemma

  On the south bank of the Yellow River, more than a hundred miles away from Mount Wutai, the Jin army of over 100,000 men, with the posture of a victorious nation, carried the accumulated wealth of the Song Dynasty for hundreds of years, as well as countless treasures and tens of thousands of prisoners looted from the people, set off in seven batches.

  These seven batches of captives, except for the three thousand men led by General Wan Yan Zonghan (Jurchen name: Khitan), who escorted Emperor Huizong of Song and his empress, consorts, princes, and high-ranking officials above the fifth rank from Zhengzhou across the Puji Bridge to return north, all the other six batches crossed the Yellow River at the bridge between Huaizhou and Junzhou to return north.

  Among the six routes, except for the first batch that departed on March 27 of the second year of Jingkang, with Meng An'guo leading more than 2,200 men and 3,400 women from the imperial clan and nobility of the Song Dynasty, who had already crossed the Yellow River ahead of time. The remaining five routes were blocked due to extensive looting, with mules, horses, cattle, sheep, luggage, money, and grain, as well as women and young men, all jammed on the road.

  After several days of dredging, the third batch of people and horses to arrive at the big bridge, led by Bolu and Sali with 5,000 guards and nearly 10,000 workers and young men, crossed the river first. As a result, these two brothers were very unfortunate, unintentionally inviting a plague god into their own camp near Linyang. Overnight, the two battle-hardened generals who had broken the Liao and destroyed the Song were killed and seriously injured, and the whole army was defeated.

  At this time, outside the commander's tent of Wanyan Zongwang, the right vice-general of the Jin army's eastern route, who belonged to the fifth batch of northern troops, a group of high-ranking Jin military officers were surrounding a dying wounded soldier whose clothes and armor were charred black, his body burned beyond recognition, and another headless corpse. On each face that had experienced war and was strong and stern, there was a look of shock and confusion that had never been seen since the invasion of the Song Dynasty in the south.

  Among the onlookers, the most eye-catching one was a big man with a phoenix feathered iron helmet, with two long strings of ermine balls hanging from his helmet ears, wearing silver-white heavy armor, with a purple fur-trimmed cape tied around his neck, and a robust and majestic physique.

  This man is the first person to destroy Song and capture the king, the eagle of the Wanyan family - Zong Wang.

  Zong Wang resembles his father, A'gu Da, with a broad forehead, thick and black eyebrows like spears, and a pair of sharp, long eyes that seem to pierce through. His wide face is almost entirely covered by a dense beard. Despite this, it's hard to conceal the scars crisscrossing his face, making him look like a demon king emerging from the wilderness, with a ferocious appearance that inspires terror.

  In fact, among the many Jin army generals present, almost everyone had more or less obvious scars on their faces. These scars were left by hunting and killing beasts; some were imprinted with battlefield killings; even more so, they were self-inflicted in various situations...

  Indeed, it is self-inflicted!

  The Jurchen people still retain some customs of the strong men who once inhabited this northern land - the Xiongnu and Turks, one of which is the "blood oath". When the Xiongnu and Turks avenged their blood relatives or held funerals, they often cut their faces with knives to show their determination and grief, which was called a "blood oath".

  The Jurchen people not only inherited this ritual, but also developed and expanded it - for example, when Aguda was besieged by the Liao Emperor Yelü Yanxi's 700,000-strong army in the fifth year of Tianqing, he cut his face with a knife to show his determination to break through the Liao, successfully boosting morale. In the end, with only tens of thousands of men and horses, they defeated an enemy several times their size, thoroughly defeating the Liao people.

  In the eighth year of Tianzuo (1123), Wanyan Aguda died, and the entire Jin nation mourned. Regardless of whether they were princes, high-ranking officials or merchants and soldiers, everyone cut their faces with knives, and blood and tears flowed together. This was the most solemn "blood-tear" ritual in Jurchen funeral rites. For this reason, it was extremely difficult to find a grown man in Jin who had a relatively clean face.

  At this time, Zong Wang was extremely angry, because the two main generals of the third batch of northern return troops were lying in front of him: Meng Anbo and Saqi.

  That headless corpse, of course, was Sai. The person who had been burned beyond recognition and was on the verge of death was Boru. This old brother was extremely unlucky, being hit by the shockwave from the explosion of the hand grenade thrown by Di Lie. His magnificent armor was instantly turned into a red-hot branding iron under the high temperature of several thousand degrees Celsius, scorching him into a human-shaped piece of charcoal. At this point, he still hadn't died, and his vitality could be considered quite tenacious.

  In fact, it was because the two main generals were killed and injured, no one was in command, coupled with the violent rebellion of the soldiers, which caused heavy losses for the Jin army on its way back north, and had to abandon its camp and leave. This is what made Di Lie and his men gain an undeserved advantage.

  "What's going on here?" Zong Wang vented his anger at the defeated general, Meng Ke, who had led the troops in retreat. He used a whip to lash out at Meng Ke, who was kneeling on the ground, beating him until his back was bloody and bruised, with bones almost exposed. The great achievement and excitement of having just destroyed a dynasty that had lasted for centuries were greatly dampened by this inexplicable defeat.

  The crowd was silent for a moment, and after a while, one of the golden generals finally gathered his courage, pushed through the crowd, and carefully examined Sa's corpse. His face looked very unsightly: "According to what I saw, it takes great strength to smash Sa's head into powder, this kind of strength is indeed rare. Apart from that, there are no wounds on the whole body, it can be imagined... that he was killed with one blow. I really can't imagine who in this world could silently and stealthily kill the main general and his subordinates, as well as the guards, in a heavily guarded military camp of thousands of soldiers..."

  Another Jin general's voice also trembled as he said, "Sari Buken can be said to have been assassinated by a rare master, but Borjigin and his nearly hundred elite bodyguards were swallowed up by the massive shockwave and flames like thunder and lightning... this is truly beyond human power..."

  The last words of the Golden General made dozens of high-ranking Golden Army generals present break out in a cold sweat, staring at each other in dismay, unable to utter a sound for half a moment.

  Zong Wang's right eyelid twitched, and he didn't speak for a long time. The atmosphere on the scene was extremely oppressive. After a while, Zong Wang slowly took off his helmet, revealing his half-bald head that had been shaved to a glossy sheen. He stretched out his rough hand and rubbed his forehead several times before suddenly turning his eyes sideways towards a middle-aged man standing at attention on his left side, who was wearing a left-facing fur coat. "Gu Shen," he said, "you are the most knowledgeable sage of our Wanyan clan and even the entire Jin Dynasty. Tell me, what's going on here?"

  The middle-aged man beside Zong Wang is the right supervisor of the Jin Donglu Army, the creator of the female Zhenzi, the elder of the Wanyan Department, and the son of Huan Dou, one of the few literary and military talents in the Jin Dynasty: Wanyan Xiyin, also known as Gu Shen.

  On the day when the Jin army broke into Bianjing, almost all the Jin generals were searching for money, treasure and beautiful women. Only two people were exceptions. One was Wanyan Zonghan's younger brother, the Left Vice General of the Western Route Army of the Jin Dynasty - Wanyan Zongheng. The first thing he did after entering Bianjing City was to collect a large number of books from the Song Dynasty, documents on the system of rites and music of the Song court, etc. This seemed like a foolish thing to others, but it received great praise and support from Wanyan Xiyin.

  This Jurchen, who preferred holding a pen to holding a sword, was an oddity among his peers, and his intelligence and insight had always been highly valued by the Jin people. However, at this moment, this "wise man" also furrowed his brow, puzzled and perplexed. After a long time, he stroked his long mustache under his chin, seemingly talking to himself and analyzing for the benefit of the other generals: "From all the information gathered, when the incident first occurred, several dozen carts of fodder outside the central army's stables suddenly caught fire. There was no warning beforehand, and afterwards, not a single suspicious attacker's corpse could be found, which is strange. Mo Yan and Mou Ke were killed at the same time in the central army commander's tent, one with his head shattered and the other with his chest split open, their deaths were brutal and bizarre, making it difficult to guess what had caused them, which is strange. The main general, Bo Lu, and his dozens of personal guards being attacked by thunderfire without any warning signs, which is even more inexplicable; and yesterday's news that a group of Mou Ke soldiers who were collecting scattered horses in the big camp were hit by an invisible and intangible terrible attack, including one named Pu Yu, nine people died, their deaths were also like Mo Yan and Mou Ke... This is strange. Therefore, I think..." Wanyan Xiyan stopped here, hesitating for a moment, unsure whether to say this conclusion or not.

  At this time, the Mo Ge who was beaten half to death by Zong Wang and lay on the ground, vaguely spit out a sentence: "That is heavenly punishment... not something that can be done by humans... it is the thunder god's heavenly fire... burning the hay, triggering chaos, and also burning to death Bo Lu Mo Yan and nearly a hundred guards..."

  This Mo Ge was severely punished, his words were unclear and his voice was low, but what he said was like spring thunder that rolled through the ears of the golden generals present, and also stirred up the reverence for God and fear of heaven in the hearts of these grassland people.

  The Jurchen people believed that all things in the world had spirits, and that they could bring fortune or misfortune to humans. They also believed that these spirits knew human fortunes. Like other ancient northeastern ethnic groups, they revered Heaven as the supreme deity controlling everything, including war victories and defeats, and various natural omens were seen as signs of Heaven's will. Therefore, on major festivals such as the Lunar New Year, they would offer sacrifices to Heaven or worship the sun. The ritual for worshipping Heaven was particularly grand: "A wooden plate was carved into a boat shape, painted red with cloud and crane patterns. A high platform of five or six feet was built, and the plate was placed on top, with food offerings arranged within. Family members would gather to worship." After Aguda established the Jin dynasty, the emperors would build an altar in the Changwu Hall for worshipping Heaven.

  At the beginning, when the 100,000-strong Jin army was approaching the city, the evil Daoist Guo Jing set up an altar on the wall of Bianjing and performed a ritual, boasting that he could summon the "Six Jia Shen Ding" to easily defeat the enemy. The Jin people saw it from afar and were also shocked and hesitant, not daring to advance. Unfortunately, Master Guo's abilities were really limited, and after nearly a month of fussing about, he still couldn't come up with anything impressive, without even touching a single hair of the Jin soldiers. In the end, he was exposed. As a result, the immortal Guo slipped away, and the Jin army took advantage of the situation to rush into Bianjing City.

  Zong Wang raised his whip high, ready to strike Mu Ke again, but his arm was gently held back by someone beside him. Zong Wang turned his head and met the worried eyes of Yu Yan Xi Yin, who slowly shook her head: "This matter is indeed strange, and it's hard to explain the various circumstances... Deputy Commander, you can't be too harsh..."

  Zong Wang's arm remained suspended in mid-air for a moment, his facial expression changing unpredictably. Finally, he suddenly lashed out with his whip at the empty space: "Summon the Shamanic Master!"

  Shamanism, as a primitive religion of spiritual worship, has long been prevalent among the various ethnic groups in Northeast China. The more economically backward and lower the level of productive forces of a tribe, the more they believed in it. When Aguda launched a rebellion against Liao, his main backbone generals were basically all Sheng girls who lived in the White Mountains and Black Waters for many years, with low productivity, few iron tools, but everyone was skilled in combat, brave and heroic, their bodies were strong, but spiritually still stuck in a primitive state that was not as good as feudalism. Therefore, when the Jin army went on an expedition, shamanic sorcerers were essential and important members of the army, with a transcendent status, responsible for important tasks such as prayer, divination, exorcism, treatment, etc.

  When the great shaman, wearing a crown of flowers and a white robe, holding a golden ritual stick, appeared in front of Zongwang, surrounded by eight attendants, all the Jin army officers and men, including Zongwang, paid their respects to him. Those with higher positions mostly bowed their heads in respect, while ordinary soldiers and some low-ranking officers performed the ceremony of knocking their heads and offering their palms.

  The gray-haired, stiff-faced great shaman seemed to possess some sort of precognitive abilities. Before Zong Wang could even open his mouth, the shaman made a silencing gesture with his hand and began the divination ritual. First, he selected a pure white rooster, cut its throat with a golden knife, drained its blood, removed its leg bone, washed it clean, and soaked it in a golden basin filled with a special medicinal liquid. Then, he retrieved the bone and placed it on the ashes of a fire to burn. Throughout this entire process, the great shaman continuously chanted incantations under his breath, while the eight attendants jumped up and down in an eerie dance, their mouths moving in unison with the shaman's chanting. The long, monotonous spell seemed to possess some sort of inexplicable magic power, causing all the Jin soldiers present to become dizzy and disoriented, their faces pale with fear, as if they had been struck dumb by a cold wind.

  In an instant, the great shaman took out the cracked bone, and when he saw the cracks presented on it, his stiff face suddenly changed color, his black lips slightly trembling, and he couldn't say a word.

  Zong Wang finally couldn't help but step forward and ask: "Master Shennong, what is the result of the divination?"

  The big Shaman's hands shook like chicken claws, and the bones fell to the ground. Slowly raising his head, his turbid eyes revealed a thread of fear: "That is not a killer from this world, the culprit that destroyed these brave warriors, nor is it a soul from this world. It's too terrifying... too terrifying..."

  Zong Wang only felt a chill run down his spine, and a cold air rose from the bottom of his heart. His voice was hoarse as he said, "Master Sheng is saying... it's not something that can be done by humans?"

  Dasa didn't respond, his eyes fixed on the shattered skull that had fallen to the ground - another new crack had appeared due to the impact with the ground. It was this new crack that caused Dasa's face to change color again. After a long time, Dasa suddenly raised his head, grabbed Zong Wang's sleeve and trembled: "That evil spirit went north..."

  "Going north?" Zong Wang asked in confusion, "What's in the north? Can it still rush to Huanglong Prefecture?"

  "No! There is still one of our troops north of Leyang!" Wanyan Xiyin exclaimed, "The first batch of northern returning army led by Gongsun, the messenger reported two days ago that they have arrived at Tangyin. At this moment, I'm afraid they have already reached Xiangzhou."