The World Online

Chapter 1026 – When the Ruler Is Young, the Country Is in Doubt

After exchanging greetings, Zhang Shijie explained the Mongol army situation to Ouyang Shuo.

The more he heard, the blacker his face turned.

“Gaia is finding trouble with us!”

In history, the main general attacking South Song was Boyan, Zhang Hongfan when one talked about the Battle of Yashan. Talking about Zhang Hongfan, he was a person who had a lot of controversy around him.

His father, Zhang Rou, was a Chinese person who lived in Jin Country. He was also a strong local hegemon, fighting head to head against the Mongol army before losing and joining them.

Zhang Rou was 19 when Zhang Hongfan was born. At that point, Jin Country was destroyed for four years. Hence, Zhang Hongfan was a Chinese person who grew up under Mongol rule.

Due to such a childhood, for him to become a Mongol general was understandable. However, he was the main general of the Mongol army in the Battle of Yashan, and he could be considered the one that destroyed South Song.

Since he had the blood of the Chinese in his veins, he was naturally blamed in history and humiliated.

Due to the huge damage that the Battle of Yashan caused to Chinese civilization, Ouyang Shuo did not have a good impression of Zhang Hongfan. If they met on the battlefield, he would definitely kill him.

In the Battle Map, apart from them, the huge boss of the Mongol Yuan army, Kublai Khan, also came, making this totally different from history.

Who was Kublai Khan? He was the emperor who started the Yuan dynasty. Speaking about this, one had to mention the experiences of this Mongol Kehan as well as the changes from the Mongol Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty.

After the death of Genghis Khan, the third Son Ögedei Khan became the ruler, while the fourth Son Tolui was in charge of 80% of the Mongol army.

Genghis Khan’s arrangements would result in the splitting of the Mongol Empire. While Ögedei Khan was in rule, to reduce problems, he assassinated Tolui in secret.

After Ögedei Khan’s death, his eldest son, Guyuk, took over. However, he was unskilled and died after three years of being in power. Tolui’s eldest son, Mongke, rose up in power and stole the position of ruler.

Since then, the Tolui family had been in control of the position of ruler until the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty.

Mongke was an amazing figure, and the Europeans termed him as the whip of god. When he was in power, he launched the third Mongol invasion toward the west, and the land he took over was even more than his grandfather, Genghis Khan.

Helplessly, he did not have a good life. While he was attacking South Song together with his brother Kublai Khan, he died. Not only did this cause a five year battle for succession between Kublai Khan and Ariq Böke, but it also caused the west conquering mission of the Mongols to stop.

At this point, the army was already at the Mediterranean and were preparing to attack Egypt. If it were not for the sudden death of Mongke, the entire history of the world would probably be changed.

The entire history of Europe would also be greatly different.

Kublai Khan was able to win in the battle because of the Han officials under him, which was because of the Confucian influence that gave birth to the Yuan Dynasty.

This siege battle would be personally led by him, and it would definitely be a bloody battle.

If one added in the South Song Guards, the South Song camp had a total of 460 thousand troops. However, the Mongol army actually reached a million strong and that did not include war prisoner forces.

Such a huge army naturally could not all be housed outside of the city. With Lin’an city as the core, the Mongols set up frontline barracks in the nearby six cities and surrounded Lin’an city.

Apart from Lin’an city, the entirety of China was taken down by the Mongols, and they had enough grain to support their million strong army. The Lin’an city troops were the ones with problems. Based on Lu Xiufu’s calculations, if one considered the player forces, even if they used it sparingly, the grain within the city would only be enough to last for 20 days.

After which, they would have to think of other plans.

In history, there were many famous city defense stories. The reason why the defending troops were able to survive for many months was often not because of the amount of grain they had piled up but because they were able to find other food sources.

What sources were there?

It was actually really sensational.

When the city lacked grain, the first to suffer were the warhorses. Anyways, they would not be able to charge out, so they became the sacrifices.

After eating the horses, leather armor would be next.

That’s right. Leather armor. The soldiers would cut them into strips and cook them in the pot. As they were made using animal skin, they could barely be considered a food source.

Apart from that, there were belts, leather boots, and even bows. Anything made from animals were turned into food.

After that? Well they could only eat people starting from the sick, and then the normal civilians…

All in all, when the defending troops reached a desperate situation, there was nothing they would not eat. There were no morals and no humanity, all of which were tossed aside.

In China’s history, cannibalism was not a rare matter.

As for the Battle of Lin’an, Gaia was a cheat. It set the defense period to a month, but the grain in the city could not last for a month.

The only way would be to use attack as a form of defense, striking out and searching for grain outside. If they did that, the entire battle would become tougher.

The part that gave Ouyang Shuo a headache was that from the words of Lu Xiufu, although he could see that the players had the absolute numerical advantage, they did not want to give up power.

At the very least, the 100 thousand South Song Guards would not be controlled by Ouyang Shuo.

If the three of them did not want to cooperate, it would create a lot of problems for Ouyang Shuo. Obviously, he could learn from the coup in the An Lushan rebellion and take over power.

However, if he really did that, the situation might get worse.

A coup worked in Chang An because Li Longji was there, and there were many princes to choose from.

What did Lin’an have?

Apart from Zhao Bing, the Zhao royal family did not have anyone else.

If Ouyang Shuo truly did something like that, he might anger the three of them, and in the end, nothing would be achieved. At the very least, calming the people, recruiting laborers, and gathering grain could not be done without the help of the civil servants.

This was the Battle Map, so Ouyang Shuo did not bring any civil servants over. Even if he did, it would be useless because they could not do anything much in a month.

In the end, without their cooperation, they stood no chance in the Battle of Lin’an.

Thinking about which, Ouyang Shuo could only agree. As long as they did not raise any insane demands, as long as he could do it, he would try to.

Luckily, their interests aligned, and they had the foundations to cooperate with one another.

After probing one another, Lu Xiufu suggested they set up a temporary Grand Council to be the commanding organization to take over all political and administrative matters of Lin’an.

Lu Xiufu, Zhang Shijie, and Wen Tianxiang were naturally included. Ouyang Shuo as the player representative was also included. If not, there would be no point in setting up this Grand Council.

Seeing Ouyang Shuo being so cooperative, Lu Xiufu naturally knew how to repay the kindness, allowing him to add one more Lord and two generals to the discussion.

Only then did Ouyang Shuo feel more comfortable.

Thinking about it, for the choice of Lord, Ouyang Shuo selected Xiong Ba. Of course, he could have selected Feng Qiuhuang and increased his speaking rights in the council, but what would be the point of that?

The Battle of Lin’an needed the participation of the Yanhuang Alliance.

As for why Xiong Ba and not the newly appointed speaker of the Yanhuang Alliance, Di Chen, there was no complicated reason. It was just that Ouyang Shuo was not used to seeing his face.

One viewed him as an enemy, while the other took the initiative to strike up a conversation; it was an obvious choice.

As for the choice of general, this was a complicated one. Out of all the troops in Great Xia, the Zhou Yu led Emperor Squadron was not even here, and Er’Lai was not the material.

As for Xu Chu, he was the same as Er’Lai.

On the contrary, Jia Xu, who followed along this time, was a good choice. During the An Lushan rebellion, Ouyang Shuo brought along Pang Tong, which could be said as him giving the latter a chance. However, in the end, in terms of military strategists, Ouyang Shuo preferred Jia Xu.

Helplessly, he was a strategist and could not enter the Grand Council.

Ouyang Shuo could only ask Feng Qiuhuang to let Guo Ziyi enter and leave the other spot to the Yanhuang Alliance.

After spending such a long time on the throne of Great Xia, Ouyang Shuo was becoming more and more magnanimous. He knew how to act at various occasions and would not be so petty as to create problems for the Yanhuang Alliance.

If he really wanted to, he would do so in the wilderness and not in the Battle Map. If he really did so, he would cause Di Chen and the others to look down on him and lower his own style and standard.

After discussing everything, Ouyang Shuo left.

During the entire process, the little emperor Zhao Bing sat on the seat and did not say a word. He was a total puppet.

…

Returning from the palace to the barracks, Ouyang Shuo immediately met up with Xiong Ba and told him about the intel and the Grand Council.

When Xiong Ba heard it, he was filled with respect, “I respect your magnanimity. Do not worry, I’ll coordinate the Alliance Army to follow orders from the Grand Council.”

“Thank you for your help!”

Ouyang Shuo smiled as he cupped his fist.

Following which, Xiong Ba talked about the situation they understood.

Whilst Ouyang Shuo was in the palace, Xiong Ba and the others went around the city to understand the situation.

The most worrying aspect was the unsettled people.

Why?

The Mongol army had a tradition, which was enough to terrify the people. When they sieged a place, if the defending side showed signs of resisting, after they broke through, they would massacre the city.

Be it when they went west or down south, they did the same.

After which, they would throw the bodies into the water. Millions of bodies would be thrown into the river or branches of the river, totally dirtying the water. The Mongols would also leave hundreds of survivors to spread the horror.

Before surrounding Lin’an, the Mongol army had wiped out many cities.

Hence, how could the civilians not be afraid?

Thinking about this, Ouyang Shuo suddenly said, “I have a good idea to calm the people down.”

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