Chapter 379: North-South War

Going along with Shun won't work, anyone can see that.

Even the gods' restoration army is doomed, everyone can naturally see that.

After the newly risen Six Dynasties crushed the joint suppression of all internal and external opposing forces, they now possess the momentum and strength to sweep across the six realms!

No one expected that this game, with heaven and earth as the board, all beings as pieces, and the gods as players, which had been ongoing for nearly a hundred years, would actually end like this.

But regardless of whether everyone likes it or not, what ought to end must end, after all the war among mortals has already decided the victor, the Gu King; to overturn this result, only their true selves can descend as true gods.

But this is impossible, because everyone understands: fighting and killing in the game is fine, but how could the players themselves actually step onto the field?

So, after careful discussion, the gods decided to withdraw in a comparatively dignified manner...

Soon, Li Ziliang, under an alias, received a joint proclamation from all the restoration armies: the situation is such, further resistance against the heavenly troops is meaningless; all armies may surrender!

"But, the affairs of Southern Continent ought to be handled by its own people, so you must change that Western Continent banner…"

Upon receiving this proclamation, Li Ziliang merely smiled and then, in front of the envoy, casually tossed it aside.

"Go tell your old ancestor, they currently have no qualifications to negotiate with me!"

Li Ziliang said contemptuously: "If you have the ability, let your army come and exterminate me; if you lack the ability, don't talk terms—whom I follow is my business, it's not for you to interfere!"

Having said that, as the supreme commander of the Six Armies, Li Ziliang decisively issued a new operational order: Northern Expedition! Exterminate all warlord factions!

In the 69th year of the New Heavenly Court, the 218th year of the Great Shun, the newly risen Southern Six Dynasties regime launched a grand Northern Expedition against the warlord factions that had held the north for nearly a century!

The Six Armies possessed firearms and artillery, maintained strict discipline, shouted the "Northern Expedition" slogan, and launched multi-pronged attacks.

Wherever the Six Dynasties' Six Armies went, the populace welcomed them wholeheartedly! After all, warlord rule had lost the people's hearts; the common folk had long hoped to exterminate these heaven-defying restorationists, and now the Southern Dynasties' Northern Expedition naturally garnered universal support.

Under the combined strong offensive of military and civilians, the major warlord factions all collapsed one after another!

Faced with such a defeat, the gods were furious and resentful, all cursing the Six Armies as uniformly "Shun traitors," but with the situation as it is, and the Southern regime clearly unwilling to negotiate, the gods could only hold their noses and accept it.

In just three years, the Northern Expedition army exterminated all the old warlord factions; each true god, helpless, could only bring their defeated, lamenting descendants to leave the Southern Continent continent, taking refuge on isolated islands in the sea…

By the time the fighting reached this point, the gods had nothing more to say, so they simply became carefree clouds and wild cranes—out of sight, out of mind.

……

Western Continent.

Lin Liu looked at Li Ziliang in surprise: "You really won't give them face?"

"No."

Li Ziliang was very calm:

"On what grounds should I give them face? Since I promised you to help you unify the four great continents, I will certainly not go back on my word."

Hearing this, Lin Liu felt somewhat moved, after all Old Li had only joined midway, and he himself had not offered him sufficient benefits; it was purely idealistic inspiration, and they had merely talked it out.

And now, Old Li actually fulfilled what he had initially promised……

"Alright……"

Lin Liu sighed: "If they later plan to be unfavorable to you…… I will bring people to stand with you!"

"That won't be necessary."

Old Li shook his head: "First, I have never revealed my identity from start to finish; they will only think the Six Dynasties are an accidental rise of a mortal righteous army, not that I am pulling the strings behind the scenes."

"Second, they are not three-year-olds who would flip the board and start fighting if they can't bear to lose; losing is losing, just a game."

"So as long as you don't intervene, there's no need to worry about us being besieged……

Having said that, without waiting for Lin Liu to think further, Li Ziliang smiled: "Rather than worry about these, you might as well give me two battalions' worth of equipment—then we can fight faster!"

Lin Liu was puzzled:

"Haven't all the warlords been wiped out? There are hardly any people on the overseas islands; what else do you want to fight?"

"Great Shun."

Li Ziliang's reply was calm: "No matter what, Great Shun must be destroyed; only by destroying it will the gods be convinced, and only by destroying it will the human world become as you hope."

"As for my descendants, they have enjoyed the throne for over two hundred years, which is more than enough."

"The world, I now entrust to you……

No one knows how the Shun Taizu, who personally buried his own dynasty, truly feels, nor whether his calm exterior hides emotions surging like a tide……

In short, he really made this decision very calmly.

Lin Liu slowly nodded, his gaze solemn: "Good."

In the 72nd year of the New Heavenly Court, the Six Dynasties' Northern Expedition won a complete victory, eradicating the warlord factions that had poisoned the land for nearly a century!

That year, the Six Dynasties again reorganized and prepared for war…… In the 75th year of the New Heavenly Court, the Six Dynasties finally launched the final Northern Expedition, aiming directly at the capital of Great Shun!

The great army marched north, the capital trembled!

Both soldiers and civilians were filled with dread; some wanted to surrender, some wanted to fight, hearts were unsettled, chaos abounded.

Upon hearing the news, the Shun Emperor, who knew the inside story, wore an expression of utter bewilderment: "The ancestors are truly gone mad……

The ancestor personally instigated rebellion against himself—what point is there in fighting such an abstract war?

The Shun Emperor, overwhelmed with mixed feelings, once considered surrendering outright! But Old Li would not allow him to surrender, reasoning that it would "harm international perception"……

Shun Emperor: WhatcanIsay？

Faced with the ancestor's determination to fight a splendid battle to show off to the gods, the Shun Emperor could only grit his teeth, meanwhile urgently seeking aid from the Western Continent while mobilizing new troops and local militias to launch a counterattack against the oncoming Northern Expedition army!

The great battle was on the verge of breaking out……

You, having watched the entire battle from start to finish, after a long time also understood why Li Ziliang insisted on going to war.

The Shun dynasty, although he founded it himself, had, over two hundred years, already accumulated a myriad of problems internally.

Especially during these past few decades when the warlords had bloodily exploited it, "tribute payments", "annexation", "outstanding cases", "powerful elites"…… and so on, combined, made Great Shun deathly stagnant and utterly corrupt, its dynastic lifespan greatly reduced, urgently needing a thorough change of dynasty to sweep away darkness and inject vitality!

Therefore Li Ziliang must fight this battle, not only fight but fight on a grand scale, wage a war to exterminate the state, in one fell swoop sweep away all of Shun's entrenched ills, so that your subsequent governance can proceed.

Old Li's kindness is not yet repaid!

You, feeling moved, find that thought in your heart becoming ever clearer……

【In the seventy-fifth year of the New Heavenly Court, the Six Armies launched another northern expedition, engaging in fierce fighting with the Shun Dynasty's new troops and local militia forces!】

【The Six Armies came with the determination to destroy the state and achieve unity, their troops elite, supplies ample, morale high.】

【The Shun Dynasty's new troops suffered repeated defeats, their morale low, yet those local militia forces were high-spirited, for they knew the Six Dynasties would redistribute land and settle accounts, a serious threat to their interests, so they fought to the death to block the northern expedition.】

【Thus, once the battle commenced, it immediately entered a white-hot phase……】

【Both sides fought to the death without retreat; their fighting resolve and the intensity of the battle far surpassed any previous warlord conflict!】

【But after all, the South had undergone Li Ziliang's carefully cultivated industrial upgrades, so the Six Armies grew stronger, while the Shun forces remained shallow-rooted, unable to sustain a war of attrition.】

【Thus, after the prolonged North-South war, the northern Shun forces gradually could not hold out, suffering defeat after defeat……】

【In the eighty-first year of the New Heavenly Court, the 230th year of the Great Shun, the northern Shun forces suffered successive decisive defeats, finally losing their combat effectiveness, while the southern Six Armies, vigorous as a tiger swallowing thousands of miles, step by step seized the Shun Dynasty's lands.】

【The following year, the Six Armies advanced straight in, breaking through multiple defense lines, and in one bold push reached the capital, shaking the entire city!】

【To lay siege, Li Ziliang directly brought dozens of the latest Italian cannons… the Western barbarian cannons, and unleashed a frenzied bombardment on the city gate towers!】

【Finally, after a brief resistance, the Shun Emperor, mentally prepared, helplessly issued an edict: surrender.】

【In the 231st year of the Great Shun, the Shun Emperor formally issued an edict abdicating the throne!】

【That day, the Shun Emperor, accompanied by the imperial clan, officials, and the Forbidden Army, emerged to surrender, bound with cords, riding a white horse in a plain carriage, bearing the emperor's seal, and surrendered at the Zhi roadside.】

【Who knows whether the Shun Emperor did it on purpose, but this entire surrender ceremony was a complete replica of the surrender ritual from over two hundred years ago by the previous dynasty, down to the last detail!】

【So, when the incognito Li Ziliang came to accept the surrender, seeing this intimately familiar ceremony, even he couldn't help but twitch his old face……】

【But feeling abstract is one thing, something else another; when Li Ziliang witnessed this ceremony, an inexplicable emotion welled up……】

【In the 231st year of the Great Shun, the Shun Emperor emerged to surrender, and the Shun Dynasty, which had endured for 231 years, formally perished!】

【And the fall of the Shun Dynasty also signified that this arduous North-South war had been decided: the southern Six Dynasties' industrial zone won big, the northern Shun Dynasty's agricultural zone lost big—what a topsy-turvy North-South war, so are you called Lincoln?】

【No! You actually seem to bear the surname Lin, and even hold the title of 'Grand President'……】

【In short, Southern General Li, under the banner of President Lin, won this North-South war!】

【That year, General Li refused his subordinates' urgings, and with righteous resolve accepted the President of West Continent as emperor, abolishing the 'Great Shun' era name and adopting the worldwide unified 'New Heavenly Court' era name.】

【When the news spread, the world was in an uproar!】

【After all, everyone thought Old Li was merely using the abstract banner 'Lord=6' for profit's sake, and would naturally discard it after unification.】

【But no one expected that he wasn't just pretending……】

【Thus, countless advisers flew into Li Ziliang's office, endeavoring to persuade him to draw a clear line with you, this Western barbarian chieftain!】

【But Old Li remained unmoved, merely sending a memorial of advice to the West Continent.】

【"Please, President, conform to Heaven's mandate and, following the customs of the Southern Continent, assume the title of emperor!"】

……

(End of chapter)