Chapter 1577: Sneak Attack on Dadu, Accept Surrender

A month later, the news of the unrest in the Song court was learned by Mongke and Kublai Khan.

The two men thought that the Southern Song Dynasty was unable to take care of itself and would be plagued by internal strife, so they joined forces and marched north to compete for the throne of the Khan of the grassland.

What they both didn't know was that Su Mingzhe had no martial ethics at all.

The two sides had already formed a secret alliance and agreed not to interfere with each other.

But, in early May.

As soon as Mongke and Kublai left, Su Mingzhe personally led 30,000 cavalrymen to attack Kublai Khan's lair - Dadu.

Mid May.

Thirty thousand cavalrymen marched quickly all the way and arrived at the city of Dadu.

Su Mingzhe didn't even build a camp. He just lined up the fifty newly built tiger-crouching cannons in a row and fired three rounds at the same time, reducing the city walls of Dadu to rubble.

"It's that big devil Su Mingzhe again!"

Kublai Khan's eldest son Duo'er was so frightened that his legs went weak when he heard the roar of cannons!
He is only a ten-year-old child. How could he be confronted with the big devil Su Mingzhe?

Fortunately, he had his personal guards by his side who helped him up in time.

Only then did Duo'er remember that her father had left her a military advisor.

When people are in danger, even a straw can be a life-saving rope.

Duoer just grabbed the monk Zicong beside him, that is, Liu Bingzhong, and said with a pale face:

"Master Liu, what should we do now?"

After two bloody battles in Xiangyang, Su Mingzhe defeated the larger force with a smaller one and wiped out 300,000 Tatars.

In the eyes of the Tartars, Su Mingzhe has long been no different from a demon.

The city gate had been broken at this moment, but Su Mingzhe still ordered his men to load shells, making it clear that he wanted to continue the bombing.

Under tremendous psychological pressure, the Tatars on the city wall either fled or knelt down and surrendered.

Seeing this, Liu Bingzhong recalled the advice of his old friend, sighed, and then said to the young master:

"Your Highness, the enemy is coming with great force. I can hold them off with Yelu Jin for a while...Your Highness, you can lead the Qiexue Army and escape from the north gate..."

The Qiexue Army was the royal guard of the Tartars and was the most powerful army among all the Tartar armies.

Duo'erzhi was the eldest son of Kublai Khan. Before Kublai Khan left, he left him a thousand Qiexue soldiers.

When Duo Er heard Liu Bingzhong asking her to flee with a thousand Qiexue troops, she panicked instantly:
"Master Liu, where do you want me to escape to?"

Kublai Khan led an army of 150,000 north to help Mongke fight for the Khan throne.

Now, most of them have been conquered by Su Mingzhe.

In Duo'er's eyes, there is no safe place in the world.

"If the prince is unwilling to leave Dadu... then surrender..."

Liu Bingzhong said with difficulty the outcome he had long expected:

"I heard that Su Mingzhe has been benevolent in Jingdong Road, and has been especially kind to the Jurchens and Khitans, treating them equally. If we don't resist and surrender directly, maybe Su Mingzhe won't make things difficult for us!"

"…Listen to Master Liu!"

As the eldest son of Kublai Khan, when Duo'er heard Liu Bingzhong asking him to surrender, his first reaction was not anger, but a long sigh of relief.

Facing the big devil Su Mingzhe, it is not shameful to surrender.

As Liu Bingzhong led Duo'er down from the city and announced surrender, Su Mingzhe successfully took over the entire capital city.

After all 50,000 city defense troops in Dadu were disarmed and imprisoned, Su Mingzhe summoned the surrendered Tartar generals.

"I, the guilty minister Liu Bingzhong, pay my respects to His Royal Highness Prince Lu!"

When Liu Bingzhong saw Su Mingzhe, he immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed, begging for mercy.

This time, Mongke and Kublai led the army north, and the people left behind in Dadu were headed by Dorji, Yelu Jin, and Liu Bingzhong.

Duo'er was only the eldest son of Kublai Khan. However, he was not very old, only ten years old. Although he was said to be a minister who stayed behind, he actually had only one thousand Qiexue soldiers under his command.

Yelu Jin is the son of former Prime Minister Yelu Chucai, and the elder brother of Yelu Qi in the novel "The Return of the Condor Heroes". He represents the old forces of the Liao Kingdom and controls 50,000 city guards.

Liu Bingzhong's ancestors were from the Liao Dynasty, and his great-grandfather began to serve in the Jin Dynasty.

When Liu Bingzhong grew up, his father Liu Run surrendered to the Tartars.

When Liu Bingzhong grew up, he became a monk and was given the Buddhist name Zicong. Five years ago, Kublai Khan and Liu Bingzhong hit it off and took him under his wing.

Most of the people who stayed behind this time were led by Duo'er, but in fact, everyone obeyed Liu Bingzhong's orders.

Therefore, when Liu Bingzhong surrendered with his men, although Yelu Jin still had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, he did not resist anymore.

At this moment, all these people knelt obediently in front of Su Mingzhe.

"No gifts!"

Su Mingzhe had heard of Liu Bingzhong's name for a long time.

It is rumored that Yao Guangxiao, the "black-robed prime minister" of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di, was his disciple from a different generation.

Su Mingzhe looked past Liu Bingzhong and looked at the group of captives kneeling behind him. His eyes were cold and ruthless, and he began to admonish in a deep voice:

"The royal army is heading north to restore the Central Plains and the prosperity of the Han and Tang dynasties... You and your people may be called 'barbarians and Tartars', but in my eyes, you are also descendants of the Yan, Huang and Miao people! If you are willing to submit, I can guarantee that I will treat you equally... But if you rebel again after surrendering, it would be disloyalty and injustice..."

"The guilty minister dare not!"

Seeing that Su Mingzhe was willing to accept him and others, Liu Bingzhong kowtowed happily and expressed his gratitude repeatedly.

As for what Su Mingzhe said later, just listen to it.

In such troubled times, how can there be truly loyal ministers?
Duoerzhi, Yelu Jin and others could only kowtow to express their gratitude.

Seeing that everyone obeyed, Su Mingzhe nodded with satisfaction, and then began to appease everyone:
"Yelü Jin, I heard that your little sister Yelü Yan is extremely beautiful. I want to marry her to be my concubine. Are you willing?"

The Yelu clan was a member of the Liao royal family. Su Mingzhe married Yelu Yan just to win over the Liao's old ministers, not because he was really attracted by Yelu Yan's beauty.

Yelu Jin didn't care about that. Hearing that Su Mingzhe was going to marry his sister as a princess, even if it was a concubine, made him feel relieved. He quickly thanked him and said:
"It is an honor for me to marry the prince!"

By pacifying the Yelu clan, the Khitans would also be pacified.

Su Mingzhe then looked at Duo'er and said:

"Duo'erji, I heard that your mother Chabi is a beauty from the grassland. I want your mother to be my concubine. Do you have any objection?"

"I have no objection!"

The ten-year-old Duo'er was already sensible enough to know that his biological mother was taken as a concubine by Su Mingzhe, which was a humiliation to his father Kublai Khan. However, he did not dare to speak out against it.

After all, the situation is stronger than the person. If he dares to oppose, he will probably lose his head.

Afterwards, Su Mingzhe tried to win over other ministers in Dadu and collected a total of six concubines.

These six concubines mainly come from four forces.

Two of them came from Kublai Khan's Orudo, one was Chabi, the mother of Dorji, and the other was named Tegulan.

Tegulen and Chabi both came from the Hongjila tribe.

Among them, Tiegulun is the great-granddaughter of Hongjila Anchen. She is 26 years old this year and married Kublai Khan when she was nine years old.

Chabi is the youngest daughter of Hongjila Anchen. She is 24 years old this year and married Kublai Khan when she was seven years old.

Tiegulun had no children.

Chabi gave birth to two sons, Duoerji and Zhenjin, for Kublai Khan.

The other four women were Yelu Yan, descendants of the Liao royal family.

Wang Chen, granddaughter of Wang E, the top scholar of the Jin Dynasty.

Xu Jie, daughter of Xu Heng, a great Neo-Confucian scholar.

Zhang Caiwei, daughter of Zhang Wenqian, one of the Five Heroes of Xingzhou.

With the political marriage, those who followed Liu Bingzhong in surrendering felt a little relieved.

At night.

Su Mingzhe invited all the surrendered people to a banquet, and then, in order to show his sincerity in accepting everyone, he took the hands of Tegulen and Chabi and started dancing around the campfire.

When everyone saw this, their expressions gradually became happy.

This is the truth that 'actions speak louder than words'.

No matter how nice Su Mingzhe's words sound, they are not as good as action.

Of course, no matter how close Su Mingzhe is to others, he still has to take necessary precautions.

While holding Tegulen and Chabi in his arms and entering Kublai Khan's Orudo to rest, Su Mingzhe did not forget to cover the capital city with his spiritual sense.

At this moment, Dadu was in a state of being loose on the outside but tight on the inside, just like Tegulen and Chabi.