Chapter 299 The Man-Eating Demon King Approaches Kaifeng Prefecture
A dead skinny camel is bigger than a horse.

The Zhao Song Dynasty was truly extremely wealthy, and could be said to be the richest dynasty in ancient China.

When the Northern Song Dynasty was founded, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin commanded his army to fight in the south and the north. His ultimate goal was to unify the south and then gather the whole country's strength to take back the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun that were ceded to the Liao Kingdom by Shi Jingtang of the Later Jin Dynasty.

To this end, Zhao Kuangyin set up a separate "Fengzhuang Ku" to deposit the wealth collected from various countries into it, to be used as ransom or military funds for the future recovery of Yanyun.

The money in the "Fengzhuang Ku" gradually increased as the Northern Song Dynasty eliminated the separatist forces in the south one by one. During the reign of Song Taizong Zhao Guangyi, part of the national treasury and the "Fengzhuang Ku" were merged into one and renamed "Nei Zang Ku".

As a result, a huge fortune was formed, estimated to be tens of millions of strings of cash.

However, this wealth was not fully used to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. It was almost completely lost during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song.

Later, the "stubborn prime minister" Wang Anshi launched a new policy to implement comprehensive reforms of the country's fiscal, taxation and administrative systems, without regard to established rules or rumors.

The new policy was known in history as the "Xining Reforms." Although it had many drawbacks and ultimately failed, it made the country wealthy. During the reign of Emperor Shenzong of Song, the savings in the national treasury were enough to cover the court's financial expenditures for 20 years.

The sealed warehouse was also rebuilt, and the sealed wealth even exceeded that of the period of Emperor Taizu of Song.

Therefore, during the reign of Emperor Zhezong, the Hehuang Campaign recovered Qingtang, and the Battle of Pingxia City forced Western Xia to cede land and seek peace. Zhao Xu was one of the few emperors of the Zhao Song Dynasty who expanded the territory.

Unfortunately, the wise ruler died suddenly at the age of 25, and the Song Dynasty fell into the hands of Huizong Zhao Ji.

Song Shenzong saved the money Wang Anshi earned from his reforms, and then his son Song Huizong spent it like water without any regrets.

Today, the pile storage has finally reached its bottom.

No wonder Taizu left behind all kinds of imperial soldiers with the motto of "beat the tyrant monarch if he is not upright, and punish the treacherous ministers if he is in power". Perhaps he already knew what kind of people the descendants of the Zhao family would be.

Of course, all the people in the Northern Song Dynasty were descendants of the Donkey Emperor Zhao Laoer, so no matter how much blame is placed on them, it cannot be put on Emperor Taizu of Song.

We have to admit that among the 422 emperors in Chinese history, among all the emperors who were good at fighting, Zhao Kuangyin, the Emperor Taizu of Song Dynasty, can definitely be ranked among the top in terms of military strength alone.

There are naturally many reasons. For example, Taizu Changquan alone is the founder of a school of martial arts. Looking at the portrait of Taizu, he is broad-shouldered and fat, with arms thicker than a woman's waist and a face as black as charcoal. He is definitely a powerful general.

The teacher said: It is a pity that the Emperor of Qin and Emperor Wu of Han were slightly inferior in literary talent; the Emperor Taizong of Tang and Emperor Taizu of Song were slightly inferior in style and elegance.

Unfortunately, there is a younger brother.

On Liangshan Mountain, Cao Jie held a meeting with his confidants including Zong Ze, Wu Yong, Yang Bangyi, Huang Wenbing, and Xu Guanzhong.

The final plan was to attack Tokyo City.

Zong Ze sat in the second-in-command chair, looking somewhat confused, and asked, "How long has it been, and the Zhao Song Dynasty is about to fall?"

"Sir, the rise was sudden, and the fall was sudden. The fall of the Zhao Song Dynasty was not caused by us in the past two years, but by the Zhao Song rulers and ministers' 20 years of debauchery, forming cliques for personal gain, and corruption. If it weren't for what Zhao Ji and the six thieves did, how could we have conquered this half of the country and how could we have won the support of the people?"

Cao Jie's admiration for Zong Ze never changed. During this year, Liangshan conquered such a vast empire, and Zong Ze stayed in the rear, stabilizing the country, comforting the people, providing supplies, and ensuring the food supply. He was simply like Xiao He in the world.

In comparison, people like Wu Yong and Huang Wenbing are far less capable. They are just like "clouds in the sky and water in the bottle". As long as they are used correctly, perform their duties and do their jobs well, they are good talents.

"The fall of the Qin and Sui dynasties only took a few short years," Wu Yong said. In the Qin Dynasty, it took only three years from the time Qin II ascended the throne to the time he was killed.

In the seventh year of the Sui Dynasty, Wang Bo led the people to revolt in Zhangqiu. In the fourteenth year of the Daye, Yang Guang was strangled to death by Yu Wenhuaji. So it was seven years. In fact, it was not until the twelfth year of the Daye that the Wagang Army besieged the Eastern Capital. In May of the thirteenth year of the Daye, Li Yuan raised an army in Jinyang and attacked Chang'an in November of the same year.

The demise of a dynasty actually happens in the blink of an eye.

Zong Ze smiled bitterly, slapped his thigh and said with determination: "Then we should seize the city of Dongjing in one fell swoop. The people of the Central Plains have suffered from the Song Dynasty for a long time! I, Zong Ze, am already over sixty years old. While I still have some energy, I will let you, the traitor, govern the country and bring peace to the world, and establish a foundation for eternity."

To bring peace to the world for all eternity is the ultimate pursuit of literati.

Wu Yong, Huang Wenbing, and Yang Bangyi, even Xu Guanzhong, a leisurely person who was indifferent to fame and fortune, could not help but have endless ambitions.

What are the 800,000 imperial guards of the Song Dynasty? What are the Western Army that is fighting far away from the mainland?
A few years later, 60,000 Jin troops marched south, leading to the Jingkang Incident.

After the war, the Jin Kingdom once asked the Song Dynasty official Shen: I heard that the Southern Dynasty has 800,000 soldiers. Where are they now? Why don’t you meet the enemy now?

Shen Guan replied: They are being kept in various places and will be summoned when needed. There are 500,000 of them around Bian Jing alone, and there are also heavy troops guarding both sides of the Yellow River. You bastards will definitely not be able to get through.

The Jin people laughed and said: Our army went south from Yanshan Mountain as if we were in an empty land. When we arrived at the north bank of the Yellow River, your 20,000 troops ran away as soon as we started fighting. It took us six days to cross the Yellow River by boat. If you really had tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the river, how could we have gotten through?
Faced with such rotten resistance, the Liangshan army, with the prestige of having defeated Tong Guan and Gao Qiu, marched into Henan.

Under the mobilization and propaganda of the imperial court, the 1.5 million people of Kaifeng all knew that "the man-eating devil was approaching Kaifeng Prefecture."

But the common people have a scale in their hearts to judge who is eating people and who is saving people.

Besides, Liangshan’s war of public opinion had already begun, and it could not be discredited by the mess in the court.

"The despicable and shameless thief who stole the country has entered Kaifeng Prefecture."

War is about to break out.

Among millions of people, how many can escape?
Countless people could only hide in their homes, endure hunger and hope that the war would end soon.

The entire Liangshan was mobilized for the war to annihilate the country.

This time, Cao Jie naturally served as the commander-in-chief, with his "Double Whip" Hu Yanzhuo leading the cavalry, Lin Chong, Sun Li, Lu Junyi, Yang Zhi, and Lu Fang serving as deputy generals, and Qin Ming, Guo Sheng, Mu Hong, Shi Wengong, Shi Jin, Xu Ning, Guan Sheng, Dong Ping, Suo Chao and others as generals.

Wu Song, the "Subduing Tiger Arhat", led the infantry, with Lu Zhishen, Hua Rong, Shi Xiu, Luan Tingyu, Zhu Tong and Lei Heng serving as deputy generals, and Song Wan, Du Qian, Deng Fei, Ou Peng, Yang Lin, Jie Zhen and Jie Bao serving as generals.

In addition, Li Kui led Bao Xu, Xiang Chong, and Li Gun to form an army of 800 barbarian special forces.

The three thousand elite soldiers of Chen Liqing’s Yuanbi Village.

On the Yellow River, naval warships blocked the river and bombarded Tokyo city day and night.

In Cao Jie's camp, "Dragon in the Clouds" Gongsun Sheng was on high alert, along with the five ghosts represented by "Demon King of Chaos" Fan Rui, "Phantom Demon Lord" Qiao Daoqing, and "Red-haired Ghost" Liu Tang, to prevent the Shenxiao Sect from fighting to the death.

The war to annihilate the country is just around the corner.

(End of this chapter)