Chapter 439: About to Die

As it happened, the Yanjing city at this time was built on the former Liao dynasty's Southern Capital system, with the palace city, or imperial city, located in the southwestern part of the city. It not only occupied more than a quarter of the entire city, but the southwestern two sides of the palace walls even shared gates with the city walls of Yanjing... It was a typical case of large area, few people, and leaks everywhere.

And this directly made defending the palace city a major problem.

Previously, the Great Prince had transferred out the Hezha Meng'an because the New Army and the great clans of Yanyan were all in the northern city, but he never expected that they would be easily taken advantage of by Talan, Yinshu, Taiyu, and others.

And since Geshilie Taiyu and the others had taken advantage of the void to occupy the palace city, based on their strength, they did not dare to continue staying in the palace city.

Under these circumstances, the Minister Tai, located near the city center, became the best choice. Its area was relatively small, but it was built with walls following the palace wall regulations, making it easy to defend, and the solitary main hall in the center was also convenient for surveillance and control.

In fact, this was precisely an important reason why Wushu had chosen to strike and eliminate Nianhan at the Minister Tai back then.

"What do you intend to do now?"

In the twilight, the pitch-black walls of the Minister Tai were faintly visible under the firelight. After watching Zheng Xiunian turn back to report to the Qin residence, Hong Ya suddenly noticed Qin Hui's still hesitant posture and immediately stepped forward to inquire.

"I'm thinking about whether to go back to the Great Prince's side." Qin Hui lowered his voice in the darkness. "If necessary, I'll urge him to come personally to face His Majesty."

Hong Ya frowned for a moment, instinctively sensing the other's cunning.

After all, even at this point, the situation was only a fifty-fifty affair. If he still openly maintained his identity as a member of the Great Prince's faction, and if things failed tonight, this Qin Huizhi might be able to use the chaos and a certain unspoken silence to shake off suspicion. But if things succeeded tonight, this fellow would still be recognized by everyone here as a great contributor.

One could only say it was a fine plan.

But at the same time, Hong Ya had to admit that with the sovereign in hand and the Minister Tai right before them, the battle of Elubu and Jiagu Wulibu to suppress the private soldiers of the three great clans' New Army was irreversible. At this moment, the most important thing was to get the Great Prince himself to the Minister Tai... whether by trickery, luring, imprisoning, or even forcing a situation where he was shot dead by an arrow outside the Minister Tai gate, the key was to get the Great Prince over and under control.

At this time, Qin Hui, who had not shown any obvious flaws, returning to the Great Prince's side and, from the perspective of an insider, prompting the Great Prince to come to the Minister Tai, was certainly beneficial to the situation.

So Hong Ya only frowned but did not object, nor did he even dare to snort coldly.

Seeing that Hong Ya had no objection, Qin Hui made up his mind, took the initiative to speak with Wanyan Talan and Geshilie Taiyu, and expressed his intentions. These two indeed had no extra comments and actually let him leave without hindrance.

In the pitch darkness, Qin Hui slipped away alone with a few guards, attracting no one's attention. Soon, escorted by a troop of soldiers, the sovereign couple, namely Wanyan Hela and Empress Peiman, riding a single horse, also arrived before the Minister Tai.

By now, the chaos in Yanjing city had grown large enough in both noise and scope. The Minister Tai had naturally heard the commotion and reacted. By the time the crowd reached the outer gate of the Minister Tai, the gate was tightly shut, and behind the high walls above, there were lit braziers and armed soldiers holding their positions.

However, all of this quickly dissolved with a single sentence from Wulinda Zanmo, who stepped forward to the gate:

"I am Minister of Rites Wulinda Zanmo. The sovereign and the empress are both here. Marshal Talan, Commander Yinshu, General Geshilie, and Drafter Hong are also present. Open the gate quickly to receive us!"

With just one shout, the soldiers behind the wall fell into disarray, and in no time, the Minister Tai gate was opened directly.

The crowd escorted the sovereign and empress as they surged inside. Seeing that the interior of the Minister Tai was still pitch black, Talan hurriedly barked orders, demanding that the remaining soldiers and clerks light lamps, making sure everything was brightly illuminated to prevent the sovereign and empress from stumbling... Of course, everyone knew in their hearts that this was also to facilitate surveillance of the central main hall.

Soon, as the crowd quickly surged toward the main hall, the entire Minister Tai rapidly became bright, almost brilliantly lit, and it kept getting brighter... even gradually becoming excessively bright.

At a distance of several dozen steps from the central hall of the Minister Tai, Talan and Geshilie, walking on either side of the sovereign couple, seemed to sense something first, then began to slow down gradually, trying to observe.

But it was completely too late.

The evening wind howled, the firelight was dazzling, and the doors of the five-bay-wide central hall of the Minister Tai suddenly all burst open. Hundreds of armored soldiers poured out from four side doors, and in the midst of the armored tide, several figures abruptly appeared before everyone.

And that wasn't all; even more armored soldiers emerged from the outer side halls and wing rooms.

At this moment, unlike the few beside him who halted in panic and instinctively reached for their swords in alert, the sovereign Wanyan Hela was not alarmed but delighted, and he actually stepped forward to meet them:

"Fourth Uncle! Chancellor Xiyin!"

These two titles caused Hong Ya's heart to sink to the bottom, and threw the vast majority of the accompanying palace guards and Geshilie tribe officers into complete panic and confusion.

A grim-faced Wanyan Xiyin stepped forward to support Hela, while Wanyan Wushu, standing behind the hall's doors, merely nodded slightly at Hela. Then, supported by Taishinu, he limped out of the hall. When he reached the very front of the hall, he swept his gaze once, and Geshilie Taiyu, Wanyan Talan, Wanyan Yinshu, and of course Hong Ya, all felt a chill run through them.

After a day of hard work, they had fallen into someone else's trap!

Of course, there were those who acted calmly. Wulinda Zanmo, who had been at the front of the procession, unhesitatingly supported the somewhat bewildered young empress, bowed his head, and moved forward, turning inside the gate to find the sovereign and Xiyin.

"Uncle Talan, General Yinshu, General Taiyu."

For some reason, despite the successful ambush, Wushu, standing on the steps of the Minister Tai, lacked any imposing aura. Instead, he had the same bitter expression he had shown here during the day. "Let me say this first... I know your difficulties, and I don't intend to hold anyone responsible today for breaking into the palace... As for you, if you feel unwilling and want to try again, we're only a dozen or so steps apart. Why not come over and finish me off with a single sword stroke? I'm not wearing armor today."

Talan opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Like Yinshu beside him, he only looked at Geshilie Taiyu.

Geshilie Taiyu, gripping his sword, was silent for a long while before speaking with difficulty: "Fourth Prince... if you truly intended to stop the chaos, why didn't you just wait in the palace from the start?"

"Because I really didn't plan to stop you at first, and I didn't know you would make such a big commotion." Wushu shook his head in response. "It was Chancellor Xiyin who came to persuade me for a long time, and then I accidentally learned of something I couldn't let go of in my heart. That's why I had to ask General Yelu Ma Wu to step in, along with a few private troops, to wait here... Even Minister Wulinda was stopped outside the palace by Chancellor Xiyin's men on the spur of the moment."

Geshilie Taiyu turned his head back, his gaze sweeping over the many people on the steps. He glanced at the troops of his own tribe who were still pouring in, unaware of the situation, and at Yelu Ma Wu standing by the outer gate. Then he finally became dejected... In the end, he lacked the courage, in such an open and public setting, with both sides having equal strength, to openly attack Prince Wei, the sovereign, the empress, and Chancellor of the Capital Secretariat Wanyan Xiyin, and Minister of Rites Wulinda Zanmo.

Or rather, from the moment Wushu appeared here, everyone knew they had failed.

"Prince Wei!"

Taiyu turned back. "You must swear an oath here and now, pardoning everyone inside this Minister Tai, and you must also stop the Great Prince from seeking revenge afterward. Only then can I trust you..."

"I cannot swear that oath."

Wushu let out a long sigh. "Because I said earlier, if I hadn't accidentally learned of something today that I am even more uneasy about, I wouldn't have come... Everyone here today can be pardoned, but there is one person. If that matter is verified, I will kill him without a doubt!"

Having said this, Wushu looked at a figure standing further away at the bottom of the steps: "Drafter Hong... step forward!"

Hong Ya stood still, knowing that today would be difficult to resolve. But strangely, instead of fear, he mustered a strange courage and let out a cold laugh on the spot: "Prince Wei, you Jurchens are in chaos among yourselves, yet you want to use me, a Han with no roots or foundation, as a scapegoat?! Do you think everyone in Yanjing city is blind? After today, the New Army on the outskirts will immediately turn their coats, and you will only be able to flee in haste, with everyone suspicious of each other on the road, leading to a massive internal conflict! And aren't the roots of all these events today in Huolu, aren't they in you?!"

"Drafter Hong, I only want to ask you one question."

Wushu did not refute at all. He waited calmly for the other to finish his tirade before speaking seriously. "Tonight, when Xiyin and I were discussing you southern-escape Han, we talked about you... I won't mention the time in Zhending. But Taishinu suddenly remembered something. He said that back in Huolu, when he was ordered to take Yu Yunwen to negotiate a truce, just as they arrived at the front line, Yu Yunwen shouted that Yue Fei had come from the rear... How did that happen? How did Yu Yunwen know that Yue Fei had already arrived at that time?"

Hong Ya was silent.

In truth, he could have continued with some verbal sophistry, such as saying that Yu Yunwen was merely imitating an old trick from the Eastern Jin, or that Wushu was pardoning an actual rebellion but wanted to kill him for his words. At the very least, he could have continued to shout and curse, insisting that the main responsibility lay with Wushu's defeat. But perhaps because he already realized that Wushu would never forgive anything related to Huolu and would never let him go tonight, he did not do so. He only remained silent.

Not only that, but in his silence, a strange thought gradually arose in Hong Ya's heart, a bizarre notion that slowly gave him the courage to face all of this.

On the other side, seeing Hong Ya's silence, Wushu finally sighed: "I know Drafter Hong is not convinced. I know you must be thinking in your heart that it was I, Wushu, who lost the battle at Huolu with sixteen Wanhu, which led to all these other troubles. But one thing is one thing. No matter what, leaking military intelligence, causing tens of thousands of scattered soldiers to be unable to return north, is..."

"Correct!"

Under the firelight, before the main gate of the Yanjing Minister Tai, amidst countless armored soldiers, Hong Ya's face suddenly flushed red as he shouted loudly, though in the face of life and death and drawn blades, he still dared not move. "It was I who spared Yu Yunwen's life and told him about the battle situation in Hejian, which led to none of you being able to return north on horseback!"

Wushu was momentarily stunned.

"You barbarians! Ignorant and virtueless! You only know how to kill and plunder! You are utterly crude and laughable!" Hong Ya stood in place, raising his hand to point at Wushu directly ahead, then turning to Yinshu, Geshilie Taiyu, and even Wanyan Talan. "If it weren't for the coercion of arms, do you really think that I, a dignified Presented Scholar of the court, would be willing to flatter you, reeking of your stench? I've long wanted to send the whole lot of you to hell!"

"This fellow actually admitted it." Yinshu gave an awkward laugh, saying a sentence that was clearly a beat too late, and no one paid him any attention.

"Kill him!" Talan, upon hearing the last sentence, actually showed a hint of sadness.

"In the past, you could still talk about the victor being the king and the loser the outlaw, boasting with the power of your armor and weapons. You could justify any bad habit or disgusting thing, even your stench could be spun as hardiness... Who made you strong? You could say anything! But now? What do you have now?! Without the knife at your waist, stripped of this mask, what exactly do you have left?! The money rat tail at the back of your head?!"

As he spoke, Hong Ya actually took a small step forward. And this single step caused a flustered reaction from those around him. Many armed soldiers actually took half a step back, nervously watching this scholar who was as weak as a chicken.

"Kill him!"

Heshilie Taiyu swallowed dryly, seeming unable to wait any longer.

As for Wanyan Wushu and the great hall behind him, there was no sound at all for a moment.

Hearing the order, a personal guard beside Heshilie Taiyu nervously glanced at the silent Fourth Prince Wushu, then frantically drew his blade.

"Come on, kill me! Let the whole world know that I, Hong, am no Song traitor, but a spy who has been patiently infiltrating!"

And at this moment, Hong Ya, looking as if mad, no longer cared about anything.

"Wanyan Wushu, if I die today, you'll still give me a reputation! Though dead, I live on! But you Jurchen dogs! Even if you slink away to Huining Prefecture, what then? The gold and pearls your elders plundered will all have to be returned, and you'll continue to be poor and suffer! The next generation, to keep their books, will have to kneel to the southern officials, being dogs and oxen and sons!"

"Shut up!" The one who spoke was Wulinda Zanmo, who rushed out from the doorway.

"At the Battle of Huolu, you were already all dead!"

"Kill him!" Wulinda Zanmo urged fiercely.

"Once you leave Yanjing, the Great Jin Kingdom is finished!" Hong Ya's face was ferocious, utterly fearless, and he even stepped forward. "Come on, kill me!"

"Kill him quickly!" Wulinda Zanmo finally roared out from beside Wushu as well.

With that final sentence, the guard who had been cowering nervously before Hong Ya finally, under the urging from behind, thrust his blade in. And with that one thrust, without any miracle, Hong Ya, wracked with unbearable pain, clutched his belly, fell, and writhed, then let out a wanton howl, no longer able to speak.

Like most people in this world, he was still afraid of pain and death.

The guard hurried forward, repeatedly stabbing, quickly reaching a fatal spot, and Hong Ya soon lost the strength to struggle, his voice gone, lying weakly on the steps before the Secretariat, waiting for his life to fade.

At this moment, Hong Ya had lost all basic sensation and reaction. He had only one feeling: it was too cold, his whole body icy. And then only one thought lingered until the very last trace of life, then dissipated with it... That was, having mustered such courage to curse the Jurchens publicly and claim such merits, he dared not hope to move the Emperor, but could it at least move his 'handler,' the Tranquil Commandery Prince, to grant him the title of martyr and let him enter the Yue Platform?

"This matter ends here."

No one knew how long passed before Wushu finally spoke, his face still bitter. "Next, I and Prime Minister Xiyin have already discussed it. Later, we will ask the Lord of the Nation to issue an edict... The unauthorized entry into the palace last night will not be investigated. For the Han, Zuo, and Liu families, only the ringleaders will be executed... After dawn, when my elder brother arrives, we will summon the Yan-Yun great clans in the city, and both sides will split the weapons and gold in the treasury equally... To avoid further trouble."

Having said this, Wushu was somewhat helpless but had to continue: "There's no other way. The chaos last night is bound to be impossible to cover up. Once the news spreads, I fear the new armies on the periphery will immediately defect and surrender... We must leave as soon as possible... Leave through Gubeikou! If we cannot part amicably with the remaining Yan-Yun great clans at this time, the entire nation will be destroyed."

Talan withdrew his gaze from Hong Ya's corpse and shook his head repeatedly: "Though you say that, without a peace negotiation, we will be relentlessly pursued... If we make peace with the Yan-Yun great clans today and escape Yanjing, tomorrow, when we reach the Zhongjing Circuit, how will we 'make peace' with the Mongols to reach the Liao lands? Once in the Liao lands, how will we 'make peace' with the Koreans? When we reach Huanglong Prefecture, will we have to make peace with the Bohai and Khitan people too... And by then, who knows what new conditions the Zhao Emperor will have? I'm afraid even the Lord of the Nation will have to die."

"I know the gravity of this matter." Wushu waited for the other to finish before speaking solemnly. "I will have my own explanation by then. At the very least, I can make that Emperor draw a clear line... No more playing cat and mouse."

Talan shook his head unceasingly, clearly unconvinced.

And Wanyan Yinshu and Heshilie Taiyu, their gazes also drifted, no one knew what they were thinking.

With the third force that had been fishing in troubled waters gone, the night's chaos ended quickly. As everyone thought, the Han, Zuo, and Liu families seemed to control many new army forces, but those men, whether in combat experience or commander quality, were far inferior to the remnants led by Elubu and others.

The armory was quickly retaken. Although the Lord of the Nation was very dissatisfied with the deaths of Han Fang and Zuo Yuan, he dared not defy the consensus of his adoptive father, his fourth uncle, and almost everyone else, including the highly prestigious Vice Grand Councilor Wanyan Xiyin.

The next morning, he issued a series of edicts. First, naturally, he pardoned all the rebels from the previous day. Then, with Wanyan Xiyin as the head, he took overall charge of the nation's clan's evacuation from Yanjing. At the same time, he opened the treasury and ordered all officials in Yanjing City who were unwilling to leave with the nation's clan to come and collect goods and weapons according to their rank... As for the remaining grain, on Wanyan Xiyin's suggestion, it was simply distributed to the city's populace as compensation for the previous night's chaos.

Of course, such arrangements could not satisfy everyone.

On the contrary, beneath the so-called amicable parting lay various dissatisfactions forcibly suppressed by the army... Almost no one was satisfied with this outcome.

The young Lord of the Nation could never forget his teacher's death. He did not even dare to ask afterwards whether it was Heshilie's group or his adoptive father's good son who had done the deed.

The Grand Prince was particularly angry at Heshilie's actions, but facing the central alliance of the Fourth Prince, Xiyin, and the Lord of the Nation, even he could only suppress his rage.

Heshilie and his group were also clearly dissatisfied with their failure the previous night, and were additionally anxious about being held accountable later.

As for the so-called nation's clan and the Yan-Yan great clans, when it came to this moment, they were not so straightforward either... Countless people within the nation's clan were unwilling to leave Yanjing. Some of them had even lived along the Yellow River in the south for over a decade. How could they be willing to suddenly return to some place of white mountains and black waters?

Not to mention that the Jurchen nobles were leaving in such a hurry that they could not take all their gold, pearls, and weapons. They had to divide them with the Yan-Yan great clans, exchanging goods and weapons for carts and livestock. This method of division and such hasty transactions were bound to leave both sides dissatisfied.

But then again, under the cohesion of the political alliance of Wushu, the Lord of the Nation, and Xiyin, pulling the Grand Prince on one side, restraining Heshilie, Talan, and others on the other, and then dragging a few generals below, the Jurchens barely managed to maintain a unified front, allowing them to forcibly initiate the evacuation with a swift, decisive approach.

Moreover, there was no choice but to evacuate.

The turmoil in Yanjing City was spread by interested parties to Zhuozhou that very afternoon... There was no helping it. At this time, even closing the four gates would become 'evidence' of Yanjing's chaos, let alone the commotion from the previous night?

Upon receiving the news, the already wavering Fanyang New Army camp began to collapse like an avalanche. There, with a massive desertion of soldiers, the new army mustered all its strength to scrape together a situation by evening. They gathered seven or eight generals, wrote a letter of surrender, and collectively surrendered to Han Shizhong, who was in the Xincheng area to the south, requesting that Marshal Han come to take over the troops.

And by nightfall, before the surrender letter from the Fanyang camp had even reached Xincheng, the defender of Liangxiang behind them, the old general Cheng Mu, who came from a Yan-Yan powerful clan, upon learning of the news from the front camp, resolutely and decisively, at nearly seventy years of age, switched sides directly, hanging the prepared Zhao Song banners on the walls of Liangxiang City.

Then he proactively informed Yanjing of his 'righteous act of changing flags.'

In the latter half of the night, the news from Liangxiang reached Yanjing... Although the Yanjing high command had long anticipated the collapse of the front lines, they still became flustered. Only, as it was already the latter half of the night, it did not directly trigger chaos throughout the city.

But that was it. By dawn, the news in the city spread uncontrollably. The local great clans began to mobilize again. The armored new army regained its courage, occupying and controlling various government offices without scruple. On streets and alleys beyond the main roads, local new army patrols were also numerous.

Then came probing, then conflict. And this time, the Jurchen troops, utterly devoid of fighting spirit, mostly showed signs of collapse.

Soon, even the most important armory was seized by the local Yanjing great clans, and no one attempted to retake it.

The night before, countless people had racked their brains and painstakingly planned, as if contending for something extraordinary. Yet, after only a single day, it was all easily crushed by a flag that someone had hung up on their own, which was laughable.

But to be fair, the Jurchens simply could not hold on any longer. Soon, an edict was passed down to all places... The Lord of the Nation's imperial carriage would leave in the afternoon. All the nation's clans would travel together. Officials of Han origin should try to follow; those unwilling could stay.

Zheng Xiunian chose to stay. He dared not try the excitement of the previous night again. But Qin Hui, who had also narrowly escaped death the night before, hastily packed his luggage and, together with his wife Lady Wang, went out the door, clearly preparing to follow the exodus beyond the pass.

"Why is Prime Minister Qin also leaving?"

Unexpectedly, as soon as they exited the alley, Qin Hui and his wife were met by a blocker in the prime of his life.

Qin Hui glanced at the man. Though he did not recall his specific background, he vaguely felt he looked familiar, seeming to be a Han Chinese captured during the Jingkang Incident. He paused slightly on his horse, then let out a faint sigh: "If I stay, I will surely die!"

"Is it because you became a Jin prime minister and are now guilty, so you might as well change your name and become an ordinary person?" The strong Han man immediately became anxious. "Prime Minister Qin, with the situation as it is, why not be a proper Song man? Do you want to become a Jurchen?"

Qin Hui was about to speak, but unexpectedly, Lady Wang urged from the carriage behind him: "Go, go, go! Are you going to be the last one to flee? Do you want to be a poor man, eating chestnuts all day?"

At this moment, Qin Huizhi finally remembered what dealings he had had with the Han man blocking him, but he only lowered his head, silently urging his attendants forward... Behind him, there were seventeen or eighteen carriages alone, loaded with the rewards and bribes from the Jurchen nobles over the years.

As he moved on, the Han man, pushed aside by the attendants, was still shouting anxiously from behind: "Prime Minister Qin, if you truly go beyond the pass, I fear you will have no chance of survival!"

Qin Hui pretended not to hear.

Since it was a flight, there was naturally no order... When Qin Hui got onto the street, he wanted to find the Fourth Prince's carriage and retinue to follow, but could not find them at all. He then went to look for Xiyin's family, but also could not find them. With no other choice, he could only wait by the roadside at the North Gate, preparing to follow the Lord of the Nation's carriage north.

This time, Qin Hui did manage to wait for Wanyan Xiyin and the families of Wanyan Xiyin and the Fourth Prince, but the Fourth Prince himself was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is the Fourth Prince?"

Having narrowly survived the previous night, Qin Hui was quite cautious, but he could not help but be suspicious... If the core balancing alliance of the Fourth Prince, Xiyin, and the Lord of the Nation were to fall apart, he would likely be in trouble on the road... So he took the initiative to ask Wanyan Xiyin.

"I will tell Prime Minister Qin when we reach Gubeikou." Wanyan Xiyin's face was ashen, and he replied calmly.

Qin Huizhi felt his scalp tingle, but he was helpless.

After traveling hard all the way, people kept scattering. By the time they reached Gubeikou in the evening, everyone stopped to rest, but Qin Gui was still thinking about Jin Wushu's whereabouts. Having barely settled his family, he hurried over to ask Xi Yin.

"After news of the flag change at Liangxiang arrived last night, the Fourth Prince immediately bound himself and headed south to seek peace with His Majesty Zhao!" Xi Yin replied without any emotion. "I gathered his family members for him."

Upon hearing this, Qin Hui felt as if struck by lightning.

PS: Thank you to big shot slyshen for the thirteenth sponsorship and Malaka for the sponsorship. This is the 227th sponsorship.

Then, as usual, I sacrifice two books: "Pursuing the Dao in All Realms" (written by big shot Xinhaiyue; it seems writing history is indeed a dead end) and "Welcome to My Creepy Website."

Finally, I need to ask for leave... From today until the 9th, I have a training event organized by the China Writers Association. The standards should be relatively high, and the discipline should be strict. I'm not sure how intense the learning process will be, nor whether I'll return on the evening of the 9th or the 10th... If updates are delayed for up to three days, please don't mind... It all depends on the situation... I'm about to leave now... Good morning, everyone.