The world begins with refining skills

Chapter 174 The Fall of the Southern Song Dynasty
Jinghu South Road, Tanzhou, the prefectural government office.

As the place where the highest administrative officer of a state governs the people on behalf of the emperor, this place should be a solemn and dignified place where dignitaries come and go and chat and laugh with gentry.

Nowadays, soldiers wearing yellow-brown cloth and leather armor of varying ages can be seen everywhere.

Even looking across the entire Tanzhou City, soldiers dressed like this can be seen patrolling everywhere.

In the main hall of the government office, Yang Guo, dressed in a black robe, was looking at the young men and women in the hall with a look of joy on his face.

"Brother Yang, Brother Ergou"

"Brother Yang, why didn't you come back to Jueqing Valley to see us last year?"

"Brother Ergou, you look so handsome in this outfit, like a great general."

"What Brother Ergou? Now it's Brother Xiaotian, Yang Xiaotian"

"."

Everyone gathered around Yang Guo and Er Gouzi to greet each other and express their joy at not seeing each other for many days.

Ergouzi couldn't help smiling when he saw his friends whom he hadn't seen for several years. The experiences of the past few years also made him more mature.

Four years ago, Yang Guo brought Er Gouzi to Jinghu South Road. By dividing the land and fighting the local tyrants, holding public trials and other means, they quickly formed a peasant uprising army.

It even occupied an entire county in just one month. If it continues like this, it will probably spread from the county to the state, prefecture, and even the entire Jinghu South Road.

After all, for those low-level people who work hard every day, yet are already hungry and cold, and struggling on the line between life and death, as long as someone raises a call, people will flock to follow.

Not to mention that the methods Mu Sheng taught Yang Guo, which he learned from his predecessors before he traveled through time, were simply a dimensionality reduction attack and quickly captured the hearts of the working people at the bottom.

However, under Mu Sheng's reminder, Yang Guo and his men did not expand blindly. Instead, after occupying a county, they restrained their edge and began to adopt the strategy of cultivating the team bit by bit.

As for why no one came to wipe them out, it was because Yang Guo used bribes and the Three Corpses Brain Pill to block the news within a small area.

It was not until half a year ago that Yang Guo took over the Jinghu South Road in one fell swoop after he had enough grassroots personnel to maintain the basic operation of the road.

However, after the territory expanded, Yang Guo also felt the shortage of personnel.

The lower-level personnel were not bad; the popularization of simplified Chinese characters and Arabic numerals, plus the recruitment of some down-and-out scholars, was enough.

But it’s different for middle and senior management, which cannot be trained in just a few years. Fortunately, he doesn’t have to worry about it now.

Although none of these twenty or so little beggars are particularly talented, after years of teaching by Mu Sheng, they are capable of handling the government affairs of a county.

After a while, when everyone's excitement had calmed down, one of the young men took out a booklet from his arms and handed it to Yang Guo.

"Brother Yang, this is what the Valley Master asked me to give you."

"The Valley Master said that the Little Dragon Elephant Skill he gave you earlier was too damaging to your body in order to quickly strengthen it. It will inevitably shorten your lifespan and reduce your potential."

"This technique can make up for the physical deficiency caused by the Little Dragon Elephant Technique. In addition, there are a batch of honey tonic pills. If there are people with good talent, these tonic pills can be given to them."

Yang Guo took the booklet and flipped through it for a few times. After hearing Mu Sheng's message, he understood what he meant.

The Little Dragon Elephant Skill has only three levels. It was originally given to him by Mu Sheng to train soldiers. It is derived from the Dragon Elephant Prajna Skill, but it can be practiced faster. The price is that it will overdraw potential and even affect lifespan.

But for ordinary people, overdrawing potential is better than not being able to realize potential at all. As for the life span affected, it is not worth mentioning.

For ordinary people whose average death age is in their thirties, this loss of life span may actually mean they can live longer.

"Thank you for your concern, Master," Yang Guo sighed softly.

Although Mu Sheng had been staying in the Jueqing Valley all these years, Yang Guo could say with certainty that Mu Sheng deserved half of the credit for his achievements in just four years.

With the support of these twenty or so old friends who had at least second-rate martial arts skills and knew how to govern the local area, Yang Guo's rebel army was gaining more and more momentum.

Half a year later, the Southern Song Dynasty's anti-bandit army launched an attack on the rebels.

On one side was a brave army with high morale and practicing the Little Dragon Elephant Kung Fu, and on the other side were weak soldiers whose food and wages were withheld. The result was obvious. The rebels easily defeated the army of the Southern Song Dynasty.
Two years later, the rebel army marched south and captured Guangnan East Road.

After the rebels rested for a year and digested the occupied territories, they set out in two directions and captured Guangnan West Road and Jinghu North Road at the same time.

In the following five years, the rebel army maintained a pace of one road a year and successively captured Jingxinan Road, Kuizhou Road, Tongchuan Road, Chengdufu Road and Lizhou Road.

At this point, most of the Southern Song Dynasty's land fell into the hands of the rebels. Three years later, the rebels gathered an army of 100,000 and attacked from three routes: Huainan West Road, Jiangnan West Road, and Fujian Road.

They captured cities along the way, and half a year later, three armies appeared outside the city of Lin'an.

Lin'an City, as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, had its city walls raised and reinforced by emperors of all dynasties.

Looking around, the more than ten-meter-high city wall stands like a mountain on the ground.

In the rebel army’s base, Yang Guo looked at Lin’an City not far away, with a myriad of thoughts in his mind.

“Brother Yang, aren’t we going to start attacking the city yet? The soldiers in the army have requested to fight many times!”, Er Gouzi, no... Yang Xiaotian’s voice sounded from behind Yang Guo.

“No rush, it’s easy to take Lin’an City, but the time has not come yet,” Yang Guo said calmly.

He naturally knew what these soldiers were thinking. As it was the last battle to destroy the Southern Song Dynasty, whoever could be the first to break through the city gate would definitely be granted a title in the future.

Moreover, the army in Lin'an had already lost the will to resist, so it was not difficult to break through the city gate.

"Timing?" Yang Xiaotian was puzzled but did not ask. He just stood quietly behind Yang Guo.

Yang Guo's thoughts seemed to fly high into the sky. He saw the Central Plains with new vitality, and also saw the Mongolian army in the north eyeing him covetously.

It is easy to take Lin'an, but it is difficult for the Mongols to retreat!
"Gah~"

"Gah~"

As a familiar crow's cry sounded, Yang Guo and Yang Xiaotian looked up at the sky at the same time.

I saw a huge crow hovering over the base of the rebel army's 100,000-strong army.

'The Valley Master is here?', a thought flashed through Yang Xiaotian's mind, and he recognized Xiao Hei's unusual body shape at once.

“The time has come!” Yang Guo said loudly: “Xiaotian, pass the order down and prepare to attack the city!”

"promise!"

With an order, drums and horns sounded in the army camp. The 100,000-strong army quickly organized its armaments and advanced towards Lin'an City in an orderly formation.

On the city wall of Lin'an, the guarding soldiers saw the rebel army approaching and instantly became panicked.

"Oh no! The enemy army is about to attack the city!"

"What should I do? What should I do? I don't want to die."

"It's okay. Just hide under the wall and don't show your head. When the rebels attack us, we can just surrender. Nothing will happen."

"."

"These lowly people are traitors! They should all be killed along with their entire clans!", a general in armor shouted in fear as he watched the army approaching outside the city.

The public trial after the rebels attacked the city was destined to end badly for these nobles. Otherwise, they would have opened the city and surrendered long ago.

The general defending the city was considered a very courageous man, as he was able to organize resistance on the city wall. However, many other members of the exploiting class who were also doomed to die had already fallen.

Hiding at home, enjoying myself to my heart's content, enjoying every day I can.

"No one is allowed to squat. Stand up and pick up your bows and arrows." The general guarding the city and his personal soldiers patrolled back and forth on the city wall, scolding from time to time.

Soon, the 100,000-strong rebel army stopped within an arrow's reach of Lin'an City, and a man wearing black iron armor rode out slowly from the army.

Yang Guo didn’t care at all whether he would be shot by arrows by the Song army on the city wall, not to mention that his martial arts were about to break through the tenth level of the Dragon Elephant Prajna Sutra.

Just the armor on his body made of a heavy black iron sword makes him fearless of arrow attacks.

Yang Guo took out the big loudspeaker hanging next to the horse's head and shouted loudly to the Song army on the city wall.

"Listen up, people on the wall. The emperor of the Song Dynasty is incompetent and treacherous, and there are still treacherous officials who control the government, causing the people of the world to suffer miserably."

"Fortunately, the heavens have eyes and sent my master down from heaven to enlighten Yang Guo when he was ignorant and save the people of Liming from suffering."

"Although the Song Dynasty has reached its end, at 3:30 pm, a fire will fall from the sky and destroy the Song Dynasty. If you don't want to die, run for your lives."

Yang Guo's voice was like a muffled thunder in the sky, resounding over the entire Lin'an city wall.

"Heavenly fire descending? Pah, you are just pretending to be mysterious and talking nonsense. If there is real heavenly fire, it will fall on the heads of you traitors!"

The general guarding the city cursed coldly, showing disdain for what Yang Guo said, but ordinary soldiers did not think so.

"Three quarters after noon? Isn't that fifteen minutes later?"

"Uncle Liu, will fire really fall from the sky?"

"It's better to believe it than not to believe it. We can't stop the rebels' attack anyway. If it's fake, isn't it like taking off your pants and farting?"

"Then what do we do?"

"What should I do? Of course I will run away. Will I be buried with those officials?"

"But there are military supervisors behind us."

"What are you afraid of? There are only a few of them. If they dare to stop me, I will stab them to death with one knife."

"Let's go then?"

"go!"

After the uncle and nephew looked at each other, they quickly stood up, called a few colleagues around them, and ran towards the city wall.

There were many people who had the same idea as them. When they saw someone taking the lead, others followed and ran towards the city wall.

"stop!"

"Retreating in battle is a capital crime! Anyone who retreats will die!" Several military supervisors stood in front of the crowd and shouted harshly.

"Death penalty?" Everyone looked at each other, and almost at the same time drew their swords and chopped at several military supervisors. They soon knocked them to the ground and continued to run towards the city wall.

Seeing this, the others followed suit and gathered together to run towards the city wall. When they encountered military supervisors trying to stop them, they swung their swords and slashed at them. Soon the military supervisors did not dare to move forward and even ran away with them.

"Don't run, come back here"

"If you retreat in battle, you will be punished by death, death." The general defending the city, along with a few of his personal soldiers, waved their steel knives and madly slashed at the fleeing soldiers.

Soon several soldiers were chopped to the ground. This situation angered the other soldiers, and they rushed forward. The general defending the city and several of his personal soldiers soon could not hold on.

Under the siege of the crowd, several personal soldiers were quickly hacked to death, and the general defending the city was also chopped to the ground.

"Wait!" A soldier stopped the person who was about to kill the general defending the city.

"Tie him to the city wall and let the sky fire crush him to death."

"Hahaha, good idea, I'll go get the rope."

Soon, everyone tied the city guarding general, who had been cursing, to the flagpole above the city gate.

As the time approached three quarters after noon, all the soldiers on the city wall had withdrawn, leaving only the general guarding the city alone, shouting curses at the air.

Soon it was three quarters after noon, but the sky was still clear without a single cloud in sight.

"No, no, hahahaha", the general defending the city laughed wildly, as if he had won if the heavenly fire did not appear.

"How come there is nothing? Then we have come here for nothing?" the nephew muttered.

Snapped!
Uncle Liu slapped his nephew on the head.

"What a waste of time! Even if there is no skyfire, the 100,000-man army is not fake, right? The sooner you run, the sooner you can rest assured."

"Uncle Liu, you are right, but could you please stop hitting me on the head?"

Snapped!
The rebel soldiers on the other side also began to whisper to each other.
"Brother Yang, why hasn't the heavenly fire come yet?" Yang Xiaotian asked, looking up at the sky.

"Don't worry, let the skyfire fly for a while"

At this moment, a faint light appeared in the sky. If Yang Guo had not had strong internal energy and sharp five senses, he would not have been able to detect it under the dazzling sunlight.

'coming! ’

Yang Guo finally let go of the worry that had been hanging in his stomach. Although he had never doubted Mu Sheng's identity as an immortal, he still felt a little uneasy until he saw the heavenly fire appear.

Soon the faint light grew bigger and brighter.

"Skyfire!"

"The sky fire is coming!" A soldier discovered something strange in the sky and shouted excitedly.

"Where? Where? Why can't I see it?"

"Um, why do I feel like the skyfire is falling towards us? It won't hit us, will it?"

"Gululu! That shouldn't be the case."

Looking up at the sky from the ground, you can see a huge fireball falling straight down from the sky, as if facing the wrath of the sun god, which instinctively makes people feel fear and awe.

Rumble!
Rumble!
It only took a few breaths from the time the heavenly fire was seen to the time it had accurately hit the city wall of Lin'an City.

A huge gap appeared on the city wall of Lin'an, and soon the wall began to collapse along the gap.

Then the roar caused by the collision reached everyone's ears.

At this time, there was not even a trace of the general who was tied to the top of the city wall.

(End of this chapter)