Chapter 150: The True Colors Revealed

Things evolving to this state, let alone the illustrious dignitaries in the imperial court, even Zhao Hengyi, who was closely monitoring the battle situation along the Eternal Fortress front, had not anticipated it beforehand.

In the current situation, should it be considered a natural disaster or a man-made calamity?

According to the court's expectations, from the end of last year to the beginning of this year, the entire realm suffered from a severe drought, and barbarian incursions were naturally expected.

Although the veteran officials in the capital did not expect the barbarians to be so impoverished that they could not even wait for the summer harvest before impatiently striking the border towns, based on their previous experience, a barbarian incursion usually amounted to little more than a raid.

Once they had plundered enough food and captives, they would simply return to their own territory to continue their lives.

Under normal circumstances, the barbarians operated under the same logic.

After all, over several decades, regardless of friend or foe, everyone had grown accustomed to this mode of interaction.

However, a prolonged rainy season that blanketed the entire Great Yan Empire and nearly half of the barbarian territories caught both the barbarians and Great Yan completely off guard!

Barbarian campaigns had always been organized around tribes, with cavalry as the main force. Although the continuous rainfall relieved the drought, it also turned the terrain into a quagmire, making it difficult for the barbarian iron cavalry to move.

It would seem that under such circumstances, the barbarian army should have fallen into a dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat, and the armies of Great Yan should have seized the opportunity to counterattack.

In reality, things were completely different!

The barbarian main army was indeed forced to remain in the regions they had plundered, but the armies of Great Yan failed to organize any decent counterattack!

Everyone in the Great Yan upper echelons was still fucking waiting for the barbarians to voluntarily withdraw, after all, they planned to send people to take over the lost territories afterwards. Naturally, the generals leading the army this time would definitely be civil officials, or the nephews of civil officials—after all, recovering lost territory was also a credit!

The barbarians, having plundered enough, could not leave immediately and could only temporarily manage the occupied territories using the captured Han commoners. As they managed these areas, the barbarian leaders discovered that even after being burned and slaughtered by their steppe warriors, this Han territory, with just a little management, could actually be so comfortable!

With this realization, many barbarian leaders had their thoughts stirred. They secretly pondered: if they simply stayed in Great Yan and turned all the Han people into their slaves, making them provide for the warriors of the steppe, wouldn't that be far more wonderful than herding sheep and cattle with their tribes?

These Han slaves were capable indeed. Back on the steppe, they had to be taught everything from scratch and were clumsy, but right here on their own land—farming, weaving, blacksmithing, winemaking—they were exceptionally clever!

Once this notion took root, it spread unstoppably among the barbarians, and many barbarian soldiers also developed the idea of staying put and letting Han slaves support them.

Given Great Yan's decayed and ruined military preparedness, along with the foul internal atmosphere of the imperial court, it was sheer luck that the barbarians only now came up with the idea of completely occupying Han territory!

Great Yan should be grateful that the barbarians were not internally united, or rather, that no chosen one capable of integrating all the tribes and surnames had emerged.

If a strongman had appeared in this era, integrating the barbarians and forming a truly unified political structure, Great Yan would likely have ceased to exist long ago!

Even though the barbarian armies still acted independently, even though internal contradictions remained rampant among them, and even though various tribes still refused to submit to one another... weren't they currently trapped in the Han lands by the continuous rain and unable to leave?

Even without a truly unified command system, having broken through various border towns and scattered across Great Yan after plundering, the barbarian factions had already begun communicating with one another. Nearly half of the leaders wanted to simply remain in Great Yan!

In the past, the conventional mindset of the barbarians was that their raids were meant to catch the Han unawares!

Strike and plunder, then run upon finishing. The fundamental reason was always the fear that a massive Han army would subsequently arrive to encircle and suppress them.

Yet the current strength of the Han army was so shockingly poor that many barbarian leaders suddenly woke up to a realization: had they been far too conservative all these years?

Even though their numbers were few, it could not change the fact that the Han people were as cowardly as sheep!

Those border garrisons truly collapsed at the slightest touch!

As for the local garrison troops behind the border towns, they were even more useless. Before the iron cavalry of the steppe warriors even arrived, those beggar-like guards had already fled without a trace!

If the soldiers of the entire Great Yan Empire were of this sort, then even though the steppe warriors were somewhat lacking in numbers, they might still have a chance to pull off a massive score!

Of course, those harboring such thoughts were mostly young and impetuous hardliners.

As for the seasoned and prudent leaders, they still believed that the Han population was simply too vast. Taking advantage of them was fine, but attempting to overthrow the Han imperial court and seize their picturesque rivers and mountains was still far too delusional.

The two factions held opposing views, each sounding as though they had valid points, and neither willing to submit to the other.

To put it bluntly, the root cause was still the lack of a powerful figure to command the overall situation among the barbarians. If Tuoba Dewang, who originally chose to launch a surprise attack on Eternal Fortress, had not encountered Zhao Hengyi; if Tuoba Dewang had led his massive army to break through the Eternal Fortress defense line and was now lingering deep within Great Yan's heartland with thousands of elite cavalrymen, perhaps a single command from that talented scion of the Tuoba clan would have been enough to rally more than half of the barbarian army to jointly assault the capital!

Unfortunately, Great Yan's destiny was not yet exhausted. Tuoba Dewang, a renowned commander among the barbarians, first suffered a devastating blow at Eternal Fortress, and then, after sneaking into Jiangling City in an attempt to strike a deal with a certain high-ranking figure... ultimately lost his puny life to Zhao Hengyi's hands!

One could only attribute it to timing and fate. In a sense, Zhao Hengyi had inadvertently saved the crumbling Great Yan Empire.

Even though there was no unified voice within the barbarian ranks, it did not hinder them from cooperating with one another in preparation for heavily extorting a massive sum from Great Yan!

To extort the Emperor of Great Yan, they first had to eliminate Great Yan's last remaining hope and confidence!

Eternal Fortress was still holding firm to this day. The barbarian cavalry had never truly managed to breach that defense line from start to finish. Now that the steppe warriors had penetrated behind the Eternal Fortress front, they simply had to uproot this thorn!

Once Eternal Fortress was broken, the barbarians believed it would completely shatter the last shred of confidence and reliance held by the Emperor of Great Yan. Following that, a little intimidation would surely extort countless benefits!

This line of reasoning could not be called incorrect, but applied to Great Yan... one could only say that these barbarian leaders still placed far too high an estimate on that sovereign of the Zhao family sitting deep within the imperial palace of the capital.

Under these circumstances, the barbarian main army began to move slowly, on one hand guarding against the mobilization of Great Yan troops to reinforce Eternal Fortress, and on the other hand gathering their forces in an attempt to launch a rear attack and completely breach Eternal Fortress!

Various intelligence reports were delivered to Zhao Hengyi through Song San. Although Zhao Hengyi had confidence in his elder brother Song Yingan and the veteran general Zhang Zhaoyang, he had zero confidence in the Great Yan imperial court!

In fact, Zhao Hengyi even suspected that a scenario might unfold on the battlefield where Eternal Fortress was still fiercely resisting to the death, while an imperial decree ordering surrender was simultaneously dispatched to the troops!

Such an absurd maneuver was entirely within the capabilities of the elderly dignitaries who controlled the Great Yan court!