You have truly caused me great suffering!

The capital of the Yue Kingdom.

Thang Long City.

The name is very imposing, which is consistent with their usual style.

When Ly Cong Uan, who established Dai Viet, moved the capital, he saw a dragon rising from the Red River, and thus named the imperial city "Thang Long" (meaning "Rising Dragon").

This also gave later emperors of the Central Plains a resounding title when they conquered Jiaozhi (Vietnam) – "Capturing the Dragon in the South".

Because it had just rained, the roads in the city were muddy, and the horses' hooves made a clattering sound in the mud.

The people on the road quickly took cover.

When the knights arrived near the imperial city, the atmosphere changed dramatically, and flat, wide brick ground and magnificent palaces came into view.

Upon entering the imperial city, the guards stopped him. The knight revealed his identity before they allowed him to pass.

In the imperial city, Emperor Li Qiande, despite having been the emperor of Da Yue for over fifty years, was actually only sixty-five years old. This was mainly because his father died early, and he ascended the throne at the age of six.

Don't underestimate this child. At the age of six, he revealed his vicious nature. He had just ascended to the throne and forced the Empress Dowager Shangyang, who was ruling from behind the curtain, to commit suicide and made his birth mother the Empress Dowager.

When he launched the massacre in Yongzhou, he was only ten years old. He ordered Li Changjie to lead the navy and Zong Dan to lead the army to invade the Song Dynasty in two separate routes, citing the reason that "the Song Dynasty was gathering troops on the border and threatening the safety of the Joseon Dynasty".

After the Song Dynasty won, it did not seek revenge, but instead lavishly rewarded him, allowing him to amass a fortune. After Emperor Shenzong finished bestowing the rewards, Emperor Zhezong, upon ascending the throne, further enfeoffed him as the Prince of Nanping, adding a fief of one thousand households and a real fief of four hundred households.

Later, he was successively promoted to the rank of "Sincere Assistant" (34 characters omitted here), "Meritorious Minister", "Jinghai Jiedushi", "Grand Master of the Three Offices", "Grand Preceptor", "Minister of Works", "Chancellor of the Secretariat and the Chancellery", "Protector of Annam", "Pillar of State", "Prince of Nanping", with a fief of 25,000 households and a real fief of 9,800 households.

This battle earned him enough prestige to defeat the Song Dynasty in the north, almost elevating him to godlike status.

From then on, no one in the Great Yue Kingdom could threaten his position.

During his fifty-year reign as king, he was never idle, conquering the south and expanding the territory.

Li Qiande held a pair of soft, young sisters in his arms, pressing his skin against theirs to feel their youthful elasticity.

"Our Great Yue Kingdom boasts beautiful mountains and rivers, and its spiritual energy is truly nourishing!"

The palace maids and eunuchs around them all laughed and echoed their sentiments, flattering and fawning.

In their eyes, the king was a god, in charge of everyone's life, death, honor, and disgrace. His only regret was that he had no children in his old age and could not inherit his family business, so he desperately favored women, hoping to have a happy ending in his old age.

The old man's withered fingers caressed the beautiful face of the girl in his arms, one finger pressing against her soft lips, teasing and joking.

He grew old and made many of the mistakes that kings make in their old age: indulging in wine and women, seeking elixirs and medicines, wanting to live forever and enjoy wealth and honor forever.

At this moment, someone came in, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, an imperial edict has arrived from the Great Song Dynasty."

Li Qiande sneered, revealing a hint of disdain, "You've given me another title?"

The old eunuch Li Linxiang dared not speak, and knelt down with a thud, saying, "The Song people are unruly, daring to question Your Majesty."

"Oh?" Li Qiande was not angry but pleased, and said with a smile, "Read it to me!"

Li Linxiang swallowed hard, unfolded the imperial edict from the Song Dynasty, and read aloud:
"I have been granted the mandate of heaven, and I look up to the favor of the heavens and look down upon the peace of the people. Since assuming the throne, I have strictly adhered to the laws of our ancestors, pacified the barbarians, and hoped to jointly safeguard our borders and share in peace. However, Li Qiande, the ruler of the Southern Yue Kingdom, has defied the will of heaven and disregarded gratitude. In recent years, he has repeatedly waged war, invaded our southern borders, slaughtered countless lives, and plundered prefectures and counties, causing our border people to be displaced and leaving countless bones scattered across the fields. When I hear of this, I am filled with grief and indignation!"

Charles's crimes are unforgivable:

Firstly, during the Xining era, under the pretext of "defending against the Song Dynasty," you dispatched General Li Changjie with a naval force to launch a surprise attack on Yongzhou. The city was besieged for several months, and its inhabitants were set on fire. The elderly, women, and children were all massacred, with over 100,000 dead. Blood stained the Yong River, and bones littered the fields! Qinzhou and Lianzhou were also ravaged, with trade and travel halted and fields left barren. This is irrefutable evidence of your treachery!

Secondly, this autumn, you again sent a detachment to invade my Tengzhou, plundering villages, burning houses, and abducting able-bodied men as slaves and women as maids. You even cut open pregnant women's bellies to observe fetal breathing and gouged out the eyes of infants for your amusement. Your cruelty and tyranny are beyond human comprehension, surpassing even that of tigers and wolves!

You are a tiny, insignificant nation, established thanks to the investiture of our Great Song Dynasty. You have paid tribute annually, yet instead of being grateful, you have relied on your strength to bully the weak, repeatedly provoking border conflicts, and attempting to nibble away at our territory and divide China. This is an act against Heaven and reason, and it is intolerable to Heaven!
I hereby issue this edict to solemnly inform you, Li Qiande:
You are hereby given ten days to completely withdraw your troops from Yongzhou and Qinzhou, return the occupied prefectures and counties, send back the captured people, repair the city walls, and provide relief to the orphans. If you dare to disobey or delay, I will personally appoint a general to lead troops south, utterly destroy your homeland, and annihilate your state! At that time, your ancestral temples and altars will be reduced to dust; your descendants and subjects will be prisoners! Do not say you were not warned!

If you remain obstinate, wherever the Chinese army goes, it will flatten Thang Long and hang your head on the streets to appease the world!
This proclamation is hereby issued, so that all within and outside the country may know. So be it!

Li Qiande suddenly stood up from the dragon throne, leaving the two girls on the ground, his anger raging.

"Imprison the Song envoy and send someone to summon Liu Qingtan and Zhang Boyu to the palace!"

He paced back and forth beside the dragon throne, his obese body trembling, clearly showing how angry he was.

On the other hand, the one who had always been very polite to him and tried to appease him hadn't dared to say such harsh words even after killing hundreds of thousands of them.

In his later years, Li Qiande had lost much of his ambition, and he knew little about what was happening in the north.

All we know is that the Song Dynasty faced northern barbarians, western bandits, and the newly rising Jurchens. Powerful ministers within the country commanded armies of 100,000, so it should have been in a worse situation than it was forty years ago.

This Song emperor, with his empire on the verge of collapse, where did he get the audacity to reprimand me?

He simply did not believe that the Central Plains would send troops to attack him for the sake of these lowly people on the border.

In places like Yongzhou, Qinzhou, and Lianzhou in Guangnan during the Song Dynasty, most of the people were not even Han Chinese.

The cost of moving troops is enormous, especially for the Song Dynasty, which has no strong troops in the south. The cost of mobilizing troops from other places is even more unpredictable.

After his anger subsided, he laughed again. "I wasn't even thinking of sending troops to raid the border, and you've delivered yourself right to my doorstep!"
In mid-September, Wu Jie led his troops from the Northwest to Guangnan.

At this time, many places in Qinzhou, Yongzhou, and Lianzhou were already under the rule of the Yue Kingdom.

Officials from both the eastern and western routes of Guangnan were greatly encouraged to see such a large and impressive army arrive.

They've been bullied terribly by the people of Jiaozhi over the years.

Wu Jie led his troops across Kunlun Pass and into Yongzhou territory. He then divided his forces and took the Yunnan Temo Road, sending envoys to contact the Dali Kingdom to request passage through Dali, while his troops launched a two-pronged attack.

The terrain of the Yunnan Pass is mainly "plateau basin": starting from Yongzhou, passing through the "Zuojiang River Basin" to enter the Yunnan Temo Road, and then going north along the "Eastern Yunnan Plateau" to Dali, the terrain gradually rises but the undulations are small, which is suitable for large-scale military marches.

The cavalry from the northwest had no obstacles along the way.

The route to directly attack Jiaozhi via Guangnan required traversing mountain ranges such as the "Shiwan Dashan" and "Mengzhuling," which are mostly over 1000 meters high, densely forested, and filled with miasma.

Following the instructions of the Prince of Dai, Wu Jie amassed a large quantity of medicinal herbs, recruited military doctors, and ordered that water should not be boiled before drinking and that each person should always carry antidote pills.

These preparations took almost a month.

The Đại Việt Lý Dynasty, like later dynasties, conquered and invaded surrounding countries over the years.

Dali has many border disputes with it.

When the Lý Dynasty's Thái Tóu, Lý Công Uồn, established the Đại Việt Kingdom, he personally led his troops to conquer and kill the Dali general Hạc Zhồn, and occupied the northern part of Việt.

Later, the Li Dynasty actively expanded its territory, leading to constant friction. Although the Li Dynasty wasn't particularly friendly to the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty consistently suppressed Dali while supporting Jiaozhi, hoping to use Jiaozhi to counterbalance Dali. Dali, on the other hand, was very submissive to the Song Dynasty, maintaining frequent trade relations and never violating the border. The campaign against Jiaozhi during Emperor Shenzong's reign involved a route through Dali.

The relationship between these three kingdoms is enough to reveal the abstract nature of the Song Dynasty.
A few years ago, the Đại Việt Lý Dynasty attacked Phu Chương in Dali again, and Dali also sought help from the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was too busy to send troops, and only provided some food and supplies.

Sure enough, as soon as Wu Jie's men arrived in Dali, they were treated as honored guests, especially when they learned that they were going to fight Jiaozhi, they were overjoyed.

Despite its small size, the Dai Viet Ly Dynasty was incredibly powerful, conquering everything around it and nearly overwhelming Southeast Asia.

By October, when Li Qiande received the edict that had insulted him, Wu Jie had already set off for Dali with 30,000 men.

Ten thousand troops were left to defend Yongzhou, ready to annihilate any invading enemy.

The Dali Kingdom not only agreed to allow passage, but also organized Yunnan horse caravans in advance to help them transport grain.

They even mobilized Bai Man soldiers to prepare for battle, hoping to take advantage of the arrival of the Song army to reclaim the land that the Joseon Dynasty had taken from them.

Historically, whether it was the Northern Song Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty, or the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, whenever they went to fight Jiaozhi, Dali would always agree to let them pass through and even offer assistance.
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Du Yingwu led 10,000 Shenglong Imperial Guards to the border and recruited 30,000 people from various tribes in Guangyuan Prefecture, Liang Prefecture, and Sumao Prefecture.

Wearing straw hats, they excitedly traversed mountains and valleys, preparing to wreak havoc within the territory of the Great Song Dynasty.

The more people go, the larger the city can be breached.

The larger the city, the more treasure it contains, and the more beautiful the women there are.

We felt especially energetic when climbing the mountain.

The narrow paths of the Ten Thousand Mountains were a death sentence for the Song people, yet they knew every single one of them intimately.

The Thang Long Imperial Guard was considered well-trained and well-equipped in the Joseon Dynasty, but if their armor, swords, spears, and bows were placed on the northern battlefield, probably few people would be willing to use them.

This was the core force of the Joseon Dynasty in its external warfare.

Du Yingwu rode on horseback, feeling quite pleased with himself. The old emperor was clearly on his deathbed, and he had just made a contribution to the army.

Whoever wants to become emperor will try to win him over and gain his favor.

In the Joseon Dynasty, only by decisively defeating the Song Dynasty to the north could one achieve true military merit and be welcomed by the people upon returning to Thang Long!
Every time the Joseon Dynasty invaded the Song Dynasty, the heartland of the Joseon Dynasty would be filled with jubilation, like celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The vanguard traversed the dense jungle, and dusk had fallen. Du Yingwu ordered a night's rest, and the next day they headed straight for Yongzhou.

Joseon soldiers began cooking, making no attempt to conceal the smoke and fire.

The Song Dynasty's influence over the past fifty years has left such a deep impression on the Joseon Dynasty that they are completely unprepared.

Every time they come, it's a one-sided massacre.

This time, the emperor was ruthless and ordered himself to kill people, even more ruthlessly than the previous massacre in Yongzhou.

Du Yingwu had a good night's sleep, and the next day after getting up, he led his army to continue their journey to Yongzhou.

After crossing a valley, a breathtaking view suddenly appeared before them, leaving all the Joseon soldiers dumbfounded.

On the flat land, cavalry units stretched to the horizon.

These horses were all well-trained and rarely neighed; the riders on horseback were all fully armored.

They leaned slightly forward, weapons in their hands, staring coldly ahead.

Wang Wu, the commander of the cavalry, looked at the straw-hat soldiers in front of him and wondered why they didn't even send out scouts when they went to war.

When I was cooking dinner, I could see the smoke rising from the chimneys several miles away, wisps of smoke seemingly mocking me.

The sent-out scouts approached cautiously, and they managed to sneak into their camp without being discovered.

The next day they woke up and marched straight ahead. How did this group of people survive until today?

Not to mention the Song-Jin battlefield in the Northeast, even the battles between the Tibetans and the agricultural protection teams were never this hasty.

Wang Wu was a fierce general, known for his bravery. Historically, he was a formidable figure who could lead cavalry to break through the Jurchen army's formation.

At this moment, leading two thousand elite cavalry, he looked at the vast enemy army opposite him and frowned slightly.

Never mind, if I can't figure it out, I'll stop thinking about it!
"kill!"

At a single command, the sounds of drums and horns resounded, and the air was thick with the clashing of weapons and the chilling atmosphere of battle, rising high above the southern border.

The iron cavalry charged rampage through the enemy ranks, amidst a cacophony of shouts, screams, and cries of agony.

The Joseon Dynasty's bows and arrows were only effective against the thousand old and weak border troops in Quang Nam, but they couldn't penetrate the armor of these iron cavalrymen at all.

As for their own armor, it should be considered a type of rattan armor, with almost no iron plates.

The cavalry behind them unleashed a volley of fire, and swathes of enemy soldiers fell.

The banners fluttered, and the cavalry on both flanks flew in unison, but unfortunately, the difference in numbers was too great, and they could not completely surround them.

At this time, it was the Li Chao soldiers recruited from Guangyuan Prefecture, Liang Prefecture, and Su Mao Prefecture who, because they were familiar with the terrain, fled particularly quickly.

Especially once they've disappeared into the mountains and forests, they're practically impossible to chase down.

Du Yingwu's elite Rising Dragon Imperial Guards, originally the central army, were now blocked in the middle and became easy targets.

Wang Wu also saw through it and ordered a division and encirclement, specifically targeting those who looked somewhat capable.

In its first battle, the Joseon Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat. Its commander, Du Yingwu, surrendered, nearly 8,000 were killed, and 15,000 were captured.

When the news spread, the people of Guangnan, who had been terrified, were overjoyed.

Countless gentry and common people began to spontaneously raise funds to provide food, wine, and provisions for the army.

The Joseon Dynasty's oppression of these tribes on the border of Yongzhou was severe, almost equivalent to the Jurchens' abuse of the various nomadic tribes in the northern deserts.

They had no choice before because no one in the vicinity could defeat the Jiaozhi soldiers.

The Song army has finally won, and won so decisively that these tribes have all come out of the mountains, hoping to join the war.

Wang Wu reassured them and told them to return to the mountain and await further instructions. (End of Chapter)