Chapter 257: The Fall of the Southern Song

However, the Song army was already overwhelmed and unable to care for itself; who would pay him any mind?

"Die for this General!"

Lü Bu leaped, arriving behind Jia Shizhu, and raised the Painted Halberd of Heavenly Triumph in his hands, swinging it toward Jia Shizhu.

"Splat!"

In an instant, Jia Shizhu's head flew off.

"Who is this fleeing fatty?"

At the very last moment of his life, Jia Shizhu's flying head looked at his body, still carried by inertia and yet to fall from the horse, and wondered to himself.

After beheading Jia Shizhu, Lü Bu raised his head upon the Painted Halberd of Heavenly Triumph and shouted loudly:

"The enemy general is dead! Those who surrender will be spared!"

Instantly, the sound of calls for surrender echoed throughout the entire Han army.

"The enemy general is dead! Those who surrender will be spared!"

At this moment, many Song soldiers who saw this scene laid down their weapons and chose to surrender.

Those who resisted were few and far between.

"Zhang Chuang, you and Liu Cheng, along with the other two, are responsible for securing the four gates of Lin'an City."

"This General will lead Wang Yuan to the Imperial Palace to capture the Song Emperor and the others."

"Once you four have secured the gates, come to the Imperial Palace immediately to rendezvous with this General."

Lü Bu spoke rapidly to the five Colonels.

"This subordinate obeys!"

Upon hearing this, the five immediately responded in a loud voice.

Subsequently, Lü Bu and Wang Yuan led ten thousand Divine Martial Army soldiers and quickly headed toward the Song Imperial Palace.

However, just as Lü Bu and Wang Yuan were on their way to the palace, more than a dozen martial generals clad in Song military armor blocked their path.

These men were none other than the Song martial generals led by Wen Tianxiang.

Originally, Wen Tianxiang and the others had intended to secretly contact the Han army and coordinate an inside-and-outside attack to breach Lin'an City.

Yet, they had not expected the Han army's strength to be so formidable.

Before their plan could even be implemented, Lü Bu and the others had already breached Lin'an City.

"Might this be General Lü Bu?"

Wen Tianxiang brought the dozen or so men before Lü Bu and asked respectfully with cupped hands.

Seeing this, Lü Bu raised an eyebrow slightly.

"This General is indeed Lü Bu!"

At this moment, Lü Bu's entire body was still radiating a dense aura of slaughter, which left Wen Tianxiang and the others somewhat shaken.

"Worthy of being a martial general of the Great Han Empire; this strength is truly unfathomable."

"Moreover, these troops have clearly all cultivated the Martial Dao; the Great Han truly possesses such great boldness!"

Upon sensing the aura of Lü Bu and the Divine Martial Army, Wen Tianxiang could not help but sigh inwardly.

With such an army, it was no wonder the Great Song would fall within a mere half-month.

"We are martial generals of the Song. Because we have long been suppressed by treacherous officials and the Song court is devoid of the Dao, we no longer have a place to stand in the Song court."

"Therefore, we wish to defect to the Han Kingdom; we hope the General will take us in!"

Wen Tianxiang and the dozen or so men bowed to Lü Bu.

Hearing this, Lü Bu gave the group a cold look and said with authority:

"This General can accept you. Now, follow this General to the Imperial Palace to capture the Song Emperor."

As Lü Bu's voice fell, Wen Tianxiang and the others immediately responded:

"This subordinate obeys!"

Subsequently, Lü Bu led the group in a grand procession toward the Imperial Palace.

At this time, Zhao Yun, surrounded by a crowd of civil officials including Jia Sidao and Ding Daquan, was preparing to flee.

"Jia Sidao, is this the guarantee you gave this Emperor!"

"How long has it been, and Lin'an City is already lost!"

"This Emperor will kill you! This Emperor will kill you!"

Zhao Yun, while being surrounded, did not forget to shout angrily at Jia Sidao.

At this moment, Zhao Yun was filled with nothing but regret.

It was precisely because he listened to Jia Sidao's words that he believed his ghost stories.

This led him to use Jia Shizhu to defend against the Han army.

He just hadn't expected that these two uncle and nephew, Jia Sidao and Jia Shizhu, were each more treacherous than the other.

"Your Majesty, let us leave quickly. The Han army is about to breach the Imperial Palace; if we don't leave now, it will truly be too late!"

The eunuch who had always served Zhao Yun, seeing him still in the mood to care about these things, immediately spoke to him.

Upon hearing the eunuch's words, Zhao Yun finally quieted down and allowed the soldiers to carry him away.

Meanwhile, Jia Sidao and the others walking in front turned a deaf ear to Zhao Yun's words.

At this moment, they would no longer care what Zhao Yun said.

If they didn't leave now, once the Han army arrived, they wouldn't be able to leave even if they wanted to.

Immediately, the group walked quickly toward the outside of the Imperial Palace.

However, with so many people together, their movement was clearly not very fast.

Just as he arrived at the entrance of the Imperial Palace, he collided head-on with Lü Bu, who had just rushed over.

"Heavens!"

"It's over this time!"

When they saw it was the Han army, the crowd of Song civil and martial officials were so frightened they nearly collapsed to the ground.

One by one, they huddled together, looking at the Han army soldiers with eyes full of terror.

"You, are you the Emperor of the Song?"

At this time, the Han soldiers cleared a path, and Lü Bu, riding his war horse, arrived before Zhao Yun and asked, looking down from above.

"Audacious! You rebellious thieves, how dare you be disrespectful to His Majesty!"

Seeing this scene, Zhao Yun's personal eunuch immediately gathered his courage and scolded Lü Bu.

"Hmm!"

Hearing this, Lü Bu stared at him with eyes full of killing intent.

"Seeking death!"

Just then, Wang Yuan shouted angrily at the eunuch and thrust his spear at him.

"Splat!"

This eunuch, who had stood up for Zhao Yun, died right there under Wang Yuan's spear.

This scene frightened the crowd so much that they dared not make another sound.

"Hmph!"

"Truly a bunch of spineless cowards. With a monarch and court officials like you, how could the Song not perish!"

Seeing this, Lü Bu immediately spoke to Zhao Yun and the others with cold, disdainful words.

The monarch and officials of this Song Kingdom were a bunch of fools from top to bottom.

A country that suppressed its martial generals to such an extent—did they not know that only when the strength of the army is great can it protect the people under its rule?

For a country like the Song, which valued the literary and belittled the martial, to be honest, even Lü Bu, as a martial general, found it somewhat incomprehensible.

Just how stupid must this Emperor be to come up with such a method?

Subsequently, he waved his hand at the soldiers behind him and said:

"Take them all into custody and guard them well. Wait until His Majesty arrives, and he will deal with them personally."

Following Lü Bu's order, the Divine Martial Army soldiers behind him immediately stepped forward and took Zhao Yun and the others away.

During this time, as the group was being led away, they naturally saw Wen Tianxiang and the dozen or so others, and immediately began to curse them vehemently.

However, at this moment, Wen Tianxiang and the others paid no heed to Zhao Yun's group, merely watching coldly as they were led away by the soldiers.

Subsequently, the entire Song Imperial Palace was taken over by the Divine Martial Army.

And with the curtain falling on Zhao Yun and the others, it also signaled the demise of the Southern Song.

At the same time, with the breach of Lin'an City and the capture of Zhao Yun and the others, Liu Bian, who was in the Great Han Main Realm, also received the system's notification sound.

"Ding!"

"Congratulations to the Host for Lü Bu breaching the Southern Song capital of Lin'an and successfully annihilating the Southern Song." ===== CHAPTER 258 =====