Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2327 The situation in Guandong is hopeless; Jiu Gong's sword slays Li Jilong.
Zhao Kuangyin leveraged the appeal of the Song Dynasty's policy of co-ruling the country with scholar-officials to these powerful families, and at this critical juncture, he used various means to mobilize the power of these families as much as possible.

However, Xue Rengui, Feng Yi, Bai Qi, and others used killing as a means of intimidation.

They used such bloody methods to coerce the remaining aristocratic families into forcibly separating themselves from the Zhao Song dynasty.

Killing itself is not the goal for them, but merely a means to achieve it.

The remaining powerful families in the five counties of Guandong were indeed completely shocked by the massacres committed by these two men. Especially after they realized that they had been deceived by Zhao Kuangyin, they hated Zhao Kuangyin even more.

Therefore, during the subsequent advance of the Han army, many surrendered at the mere mention of their name, and not even one out of ten cities could resist them.

Those who wanted to resist, such as Wu Qian and Liu Wei, were dealt with by the powerful families themselves.

The fact that these aristocratic families began to organize large numbers of their own military forces also signified the expansion of their power.

When Zhao Kuangyin dispersed his 70,000 troops and reorganized them with the soldiers from aristocratic families and the able-bodied men recruited from the common people, he did indeed improve their overall combat effectiveness in this way.

However, this also means that these powerful families had even greater influence and control over these armies than the Song Dynasty.

It can be said that in every city, the military power held by these aristocratic families constituted the majority.

In Yanping, the capital of Guandong Circuit, the four prominent families of Zhao, Qian, Li, and Zheng led a rebellion against the Song Dynasty, intending to welcome the imperial army.

In response, Zhao Kuangyin left behind Prince Zhao Changping of the Zhao Song dynasty, who was stationed in Guandong. Although he was mediocre in talent, his seniority was undeniable.

After the war began, many capable members of the Zhao Song imperial family suffered heavy casualties, and Zhao Kuangyin was reluctant to put a truly talented member of the imperial family into such a perilous situation.

By leaving Yu Qing and Li Jilong, one a scholar and the other a warrior, to assist him, Zhao Kuangyin had already made the best possible choice given his severe shortage of manpower.

With reminders from Yu Qing and Li Jilong, one a scholar and the other a warrior, Zhao Changping was actually quite wary of the powerful families in the city.

Furthermore, the Imperial City Guard was no pushover either, and the major families of Zhao, Qian, Li, and Zheng dared not act recklessly.

However, problems also arose within Zhao Changping's group. Li Congxi, Xiang Yansi, and Ma Yangui colluded with various powerful families, helping them to assassinate Zhao Changping and other high-ranking officials of the Song Dynasty who were stationed in Guandong.

In the past, among the four regions controlled by Zhao Kuangyin, the Guanzhong region, which served as his main base, was too remote and isolated.

Although Zhao Kuangyin did not relocate the capital like the Han Dynasty during his eastward conquests, he did build a separate palace in Guandong Road and resided there for a long time to better control the newly acquired territories.

It was precisely because of this separate palace that the three eunuchs, Li Congxi, Xiang Yansi, and Ma Yangui, came here. They were the eunuchs who managed this separate palace after Zhao Kuangyin left.

They naturally had ways to deal with this, secretly escorting a small group of people into the separate palace.

The command center for Zhao Changping and his team was located within this separate palace.

The eunuchs Li Congxi, Xiang Yansi, and Ma Yangui were far more familiar with this detached palace than Zhao Changping was. With the help of Li Jilong and Yu Qing, Zhao Changping had been extremely vigilant in guarding against the major families in the city, but he ultimately overlooked these physically disabled people.

With the help of these eunuchs, the experts gathered by several powerful families in the city successfully entered this detached palace without anyone knowing.

Then, they launched a coordinated attack from within and without against Zhao Changping and Li Jilong.

Completely unprepared for problems to arise within the detached palace, Zhao Changping and his group were caught off guard by these aristocratic experts.

On Zhao Changping's side, there were also a group of skilled martial artists recruited by the Zhao Song court, including Bai Yutang, Ding Zhaolan, Ding Zhaohui, Ouyang Chun, Lu Fang, Han Zhang, Xu Qing, and Jiang Ping.

However, the Zhao, Qian, Li, and Zheng families can be considered the four largest families in the entire Guandong region, and naturally, these four families are not lacking in skilled individuals.

And since they were going to do this, they all gave it their all. After all, failure in this kind of thing would implicate their entire families.

Therefore, even with so many skilled martial artists around, Zhao Changping and his strategist Yu Qing were killed on the spot during the attack.

Jiang Kui, Mao Zizhi, Zheng Xingzhi, and others, who were officials within the city, were all civil officials with no physical strength and were equally unable to recover from this attack.

Only Li Jilong, as a military officer, was able to finally reunite with the garrison inside the separate palace, thanks to the sacrifices of Ouyang Chun, Lu Fang, Han Zhang, Xu Qing, and Jiang Ping.

Then, in a fit of rage, Li Jilong commanded the guards of the detached palace to begin annihilating some of his most audacious martial artists from powerful families.

Faced with thousands of troops, even though these aristocratic martial artists included many grandmasters, they still appeared powerless.

Except for a few who managed to escape quickly, the rest all perished in the army's encirclement and slaughter.

However, even though Li Jilong wiped out these people, it still couldn't undo the losses they suffered.

Almost all of the city's high-ranking officials were dead, and even the martial artists recruited by the imperial court, such as Bai Yutang, were mostly gone.

Even more seriously, while carrying out their attacks, these powerful families also began a mutiny, focusing on the military forces they could control.

These powerful families never placed all their hopes on a single assassination.

After eliminating Li Congxi and his two accomplices who had colluded with powerful families, Li Jilong led his troops to quell the rebellion as quickly as possible.

However, they were still a step too late. By this time, the city was in complete chaos, and it was impossible to quickly quell the rebellion.

Just as the two sides were locked in a fierce battle in the city, Chang Yuchun, with Deng Jiugong as his vanguard, launched a swift and decisive attack, breaching the city walls.

From this point on, the situation in the city deteriorated to an uncontrollable state. Li Jilong led his remaining troops in a desperate resistance, fighting in the alleyways for almost a day and a night, but ultimately could not change the overall situation.

Even Li Jilong himself, after his soldiers were all wiped out, was killed by Deng Jiugong, who charged in alone with three sword strikes.