Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2080 The hearts of the Cang Camp are filled with thoughts of change, and all the generals march out to force Shui Han to retreat.

Jiang Shuihan did everything in his power, using all his skills to firmly protect Huangfu Guyuan's flank.

However, no matter how difficult the fight was, he still managed to hold on until now.

He even hoped that Huangfu Guyuan, who had obtained Zhennan Zhiyuan, could defeat the Northern Han army head-on and then come to their aid.

But unexpectedly, not long after, a bolt from the blue struck.

When news of the disastrous defeat of Cang in the Battle of Henan, and even the death of Huangfu Guyuan, arrived, Jiang Shuihan's entire army was completely unprepared.

This news was like a thunderbolt to each of them.

After the initial surprise came terror.

Now, what guards their backs is no longer Huangfu Guyuan's flank, but hundreds of thousands of Northern Han soldiers who could betray them at any moment.

The forces of Meng Tian and Xue Rengui on the two frontal flanks were already overwhelming them. If the hundreds of thousands of troops from Henan Province poured in from behind, they would be wiped out in an instant.

Of course, that's not the most important thing.

For Jiang Shuihan's entire army, the most pressing question right now is where to go from here.

Huangfu Guyuan is dead, and now that Zhongcang has been destroyed, they have lost any reason to continue this battle.

For them, what would be the point of winning this battle if Huangfu Guyuan were already dead? Not to mention, what ability did they have to win this battle?
Therefore, the current state of Jiang Shuihan's camp can be described as one of unrest among its people.

The situation at Jiang Shuihan's main camp is not bad. At least he is there to keep things under control. Even though the people below are restless, it has not yet shown itself.

However, things are different in other places.

After the news spread, several generals, represented by Chen Lan, surrendered to the Han Dynasty. Moreover, they did not surrender alone, but brought their troops with them.

Although each individual group was small, numbering only a few thousand, these several groups combined, in just half a month, brought together nearly 30,000 people and soldiers who surrendered to the Han.

After all, Jiang Shuihan was defending an entire front, not just a single city.

He can take care of his own area, but he's powerless to do anything about other places.

Even on his own side, he only managed to suppress people's hearts temporarily, which was not a long-term solution.

Moreover, the suppression was only superficial; in reality, the generals, whose hearts were already turning against the regime, had long since formed a network of alliances.

Among these people, the largest group wanted to surrender to the Han Dynasty directly.

After all, following the Battle of Henan, the Han Dynasty had become overwhelmingly powerful. A single dominant force had firmly established itself in the former Da Cang region. Once the Han Dynasty consolidated its gains from this battle, the remaining powers combined would be no match for its national strength.

In this battle, the Han Dynasty has already captured Qingbei and Henan, both of which are fertile lands.

Even Guangyin, which is about to fall into the hands of the Han Dynasty, is not as rich as Qingbei or Henan, but it has developed river transport and commerce, and is rich in timber resources. Overall, it is not bad.

Excluding the Xiping Road of Dongcang, there are eighteen roads in the Ten Cang regions. On the surface, those currently under the control of the Han Dynasty, or about to be under the control of the Han Dynasty, total eight roads, which is less than half the number of the Great Cang region.

Can this kind of thing be quantified simply by numbers?
The differences between different paths can be vast.

The combined population and resources of Yanbei and Yannan are not comparable to those of their neighbor Hebei.

Furthermore, the Guandong and Guanxi regions controlled by Zhao Kuangyin combined were still inferior to the neighboring Hexi region. Otherwise, why would Zhao Kuangyin cling to the remaining half of the Hexi region?

Even the two Daos south of Dacang, Yangdong and Yangxi, combined, cannot compare to any single Dao in the Four Rivers region.

Therefore, the eight Daos currently in the hands of the Great Han contain most of the essence of the eighteen Daos of the Great Cang. The overall quality of these eight Daos is something the remaining ten Daos cannot even dream of matching!

With the Han Dynasty having grown so powerful, it was natural that the generals of Zhongcang were in turmoil, and most of them immediately thought of the Han Dynasty.

Of course, a small minority also leans towards the Great Yan.

Among them, the representative is a group of people represented by Li Zicheng.

People like Li Zicheng came from poor families. People from such backgrounds naturally had a greater affinity for the Great Yan Dynasty, which was based on the Celestial Masters sect.

Li Zicheng's entry into the Zhongcang Army was somewhat of a coincidence. After joining the army, he gained the appreciation of his superiors, which allowed him to stand out and be promoted.

However, his superior has now died in the Battle of Henan, which means that the connection between Li Zicheng and Zhongcang has been severed.

Therefore, by this time, he no longer cared about Zhong Cang, and his desire for Yan grew stronger day by day.

In fact, he had already established contact with the Great Yan Kingdom a long time ago, and had even traded supplies with them before. And he still maintains contact with the Great Yan Kingdom today.

Even his nephew Li Zicheng did not introduce him to Zhongcang, but instead recommended him to Dayan.

The conflict between the Yan and Cang families has lasted for many years. In addition to the fierce battles on the surface, there has also been a lot of infiltration and counter-infiltration between them in the shadows.

People like Li Zicheng, with his background, naturally receive more attention from the Great Yan side.

Before this, Li Zicheng had developed a favorable impression of the Great Yan Dynasty, and even did many things he shouldn't have done, but he had ultimately owed his superior a favor. Therefore, he had always hesitated and never took that final step.

However, now that Zhongcang has perished and his superior has also died in battle, this thought of his has clearly resurfaced.

Besides these people, there were even some who suggested Zhennan.

Of course, this group is negligible, and only one or two people have prior connections with some members of the Zhennan Army. These one or two people, relying on this relationship, believe that by joining the Zhennan Army, they will not be isolated and helpless, hence their idea.

However, in reality, apart from one or two people who were almost negligible, the rest of the people never even considered Zhennan.

People like Zhennan or Zhenbei, now that the world is in chaos, are still hesitant and have never been able to establish themselves independently or show any ambition. Naturally, no one will consider them.

In particular, with Tuoba Changping shifting from appeasement to hardline tactics and actually resorting to force, Zhenbei is clearly in a precarious situation.

After all, it was only a matter of time before people like them were swept away by the tides of time in such chaotic times.

Aside from these three, the rest, whether it was the Zhao Song dynasty or the Zhenbei, were completely out of their consideration. In the minds of Zhong Cang and his ilk, the Zhao Song dynasty still held some traction. After all, the Zhao Song's slogan of co-governing the country with scholar-officials still resonated strongly with the scions of aristocratic families.

The appeal of Zhao Song's slogan was second only to the Nine-Rank System proposed by Dong Cang.

At least in the Song Dynasty, regardless of your background—whether from a noble family or a commoner—as long as you became an official and joined the scholar-official class, even if you fared poorly in court struggles, you at least didn't have to worry about your life.
However, at this time they were too far from Guangyin, and this distance was not within their consideration.

In contrast, while the Northern Han Dynasty did not offer the same benefits to aristocratic families or scholar-officials as the Song Dynasty or the earlier Eastern Cang Dynasty, it at least did not adopt any oppressive attitude.

After everyone discussed it, the one or two who were inclined towards Zhennan didn't even have a chance to speak.

For the small group represented by Li Zicheng who were loyal to the Great Yan, and for those loyal to the Great Han, there was clearly no advantage.

In addition to other factors, the group represented by Li Zicheng eventually succumbed to the majority and decided to join the ranks of those who surrendered to the Han.

As for Jiang Shuihan being a staunch loyalist of Huangfu Guyuan?

So what?
Now, following Jiang Shuihan, they see no way forward. If Jiang Shuihan tries to stop them from surviving, then they can only send him on his way first.

As for Jiang Shuihan, he was not unaware of the situation below.

However, nowadays, very few people are still willing to gather around him; most people have already begun to consider changing their minds.

There are indeed loyalists like him in the military today, but they are far too few. A significant portion of the truly loyalists have already died in battle.

In the previous battle with Ye Xiaoying, the vast majority of the generals who followed him were the true loyalists of Zhongcang.

After all, in a situation where survival is almost impossible, Jiang Shuihan naturally had to prioritize his accompanying generals. If they weren't resolute enough, and surrendered in despair, wouldn't everything be over?

It is precisely because most of these loyal generals have died in battle that, among the remaining generals, there are very few who can stand by his side when the empire is about to collapse.

If it were just a few people who were having second thoughts, Jiang Shuihan could use ruthless methods to make an example of them.

However, given that most people are in this situation, he absolutely cannot act rashly.

If ruthless measures were used at this moment, it could very well provoke the remaining people into desperate measures.

Therefore, at this moment, Jiang Shuihan knew that the situation below was not optimistic, but he still could not and dared not make any rash moves.

"General, now that His Majesty has passed away and the situation is as it is, what are your plans?"

Many generals gathered together and came to Jiang Shuihan, tentatively asking him questions.

Jiang Shuihan was a top general in Zhongcang, and it could even be said that he was almost the head of the military in Zhongcang. He had a very high prestige in the army.

Therefore, even though most people were willing to surrender to the Han, they still dared not act rashly and wanted to test Jiang Shuihan. If they could persuade Jiang Shuihan as well, that would be a win-win situation.

"Oh?"

"What are your thoughts, General Gao?" Jiang Shuihan raised an eyebrow and asked.

However, Jiang Shuihan's gaze towards these people was clearly somewhat unfriendly.

"uh-huh……"

The general coughed deliberately, cleared his throat, and then, with his head held high and a smile on his face, said, "We are originally subjects of Cang, and the Empress of the Great Han is also of the legitimate bloodline of the Cang royal family. The two are essentially the same, and Han and Cang are one family. If you surrender to Han, becoming a subject of Han or a subject of Cang is no different. It would be a wonderful thing to turn hostility into friendship."

"General Gao is right!"

Guo Tu, a strategist in the army, stepped forward, looking as if he had slammed his fist on the table in approval, and said in agreement, "The two families are originally one family. If we can turn hostility into friendship, it would be a wonderful thing."

"In this way, we can avoid further bloodshed and the needless loss of our soldiers' lives!"

"It is not only a good thing, but also a benevolent act."

Upon hearing Guo Yuan's words, General Gao immediately looked proud and smug, as if he truly believed that what Guo Yuan had just said was something benevolent and righteous that benefited the country and its people.

Although Jiang Shuihan had already mentally anticipated the shamelessness of these people, she was still so angry that her nose almost twisted out of shape when she heard these words.

Seeing that the two wanted to continue talking, Jiang Shuihan immediately cursed, "You bastards, shut up!"

Guo Tu and the others, who had been smug, turned pale after Jiang Shuihan's shout.

"A liar who argues so unreasonably!"

“That Wang Pengfei is nothing but a traitor who stole the country. If he surrenders to the Han, how are we any different from following the traitor?”

"I am a subject of the Azure Heavens, born a human of the Azure Heavens, and even in death, I will be a ghost of the Azure Heavens!"

"Do you intend to implicate me as disloyal, unfilial, unkind, and unjust?"

Jiang Shuihan still held considerable prestige in the army. Upon hearing this, Guo Tu and the other man's expressions immediately changed. Although they were indignant, they dared not say anything on the surface. They quickly knelt down and cried out in unison, "We dare not! We know we were wrong!"

"Humph……"

Jiang Shuihan might at most curse at the two of them, but he wouldn't actually do anything substantial.

If he were to actually use this as a pretext to kill them, then everyone would truly reveal their true intentions. These two are merely representatives put forward; if they are driven to desperation, Jiang Shuihan has no chance of winning.

Although Guo Tu and his companion outwardly bowed their heads and admitted their mistakes, their eyes were filled with anger and resentment, and they cursed inwardly: "You Jiang Shuihan, you won't listen to reason, so you'll have to drink the penalty cup. Da Cang is already dead, who are you trying to impress with this act?"

At this moment, Gu Fei also stepped forward and said, "General, I believe that what General Gao and Military Advisor Guo said is not entirely without merit."

Jiang Shuihan stared at Gu Fei in astonishment. This man was his deputy. In the current military, besides himself, this man held the highest rank.

He initially thought that Gu Fei should stand with him, but he never expected that even this one had changed his mind.

It should be noted that although Gu Fei was not among Huangfu Guyuan's original core group, he had been following Huangfu Guyuan for several years before the Three Kings Coup, and was considered a veteran among the officials of Zhongcang.

"Gu Zizhong, do you know what you're saying?" Although Jiang Shuihan was heartbroken, he stared straight at Gu Fei and said, word by word.