Chapter 1586: Kublai Khan is dead, Chabi is no longer popular

"Kublai Khan, Yang Guo is here!"

Yang Guo was originally guarding Jingdong Road. When he learned that Kublai Khan was leading an army of 500,000 to attack, he immediately asked Su Mingzhe for orders, requesting to lead the team to guard the last pass personally.

Su Mingzhe also saw that the Song court in Lin'an was quite honest and had no intention of stealing the fruits of his victory, so he replaced them with other people to guard the Jingdong Road and let Yang Guo lead the troops to Jingxing Pass.

"Yang Guo...Su Mingzhe's junior fellow apprentice?"

Kublai Khan was naturally no stranger to Yang Guo, the governor of Jingdong Road.

Among the several Southern Song masters who were chasing him outside the city of Xiangyang that year, there was this Yang Guo.

When Kublai Khan thought about how such a great pass was blocked by this evil star, he became extremely anxious:
"Qie Debuhua, the southern barbarians behind are now in your hands! Everyone else, follow me and break through!"

"The last general takes command!"

Qiebuhua was a captain of ten thousand households whom Kublai and Mongke trusted. He received the order and led his troops to fight back against the pursuers.

At this moment, moving forward means a life-threatening situation, while rushing backwards means a certain death.

However, even though Qie Buhua knew that he would die, he remained fearless and led his 10,000-man army to rush towards the pursuing troops!
……

"How come these Tartars also have firearms?"

Yang Guo dodged a stone bullet from a stone cannon and his face instantly turned pale.

The deputy general was afraid that he might misunderstand, so he quickly explained:
"Master General, the Tartars already have firearms. The one that fires stone bullets is called a 'stone cannon'. It weighs about 500 kilograms and is placed on a wooden frame. A horse can pull it. There is also a 'fire cannon' that weighs more than 800 kilograms. The things it fires are like flowers scattered by fairies. There are all kinds of iron pieces and sharp weapons. It is more powerful than the tiger squat cannon..."

……

Kublai Khan, who was at the gate of the city, couldn't help laughing when he saw that the one hundred stone cannons he carried had finally gained power and suppressed the defenders.

This trip south really made him feel wronged to death.

Mingming led an army of 500,000 and a hundred stone cannons. Ten years ago, he would have been the coolest guy on the grassland.

But this time when he went south, he was suppressed by Su Mingzhe and couldn't breathe.

……

As Kublai Khan used stone cannons to break through the pass, Jingxing Pass began to be in danger.

Su Mingzhe, who had been paying attention to the battlefield, naturally saw all of this.

However, he had no intention of taking action.

Kublai Khan is now at the end of his strength and can only make one last desperate attack.

Yang Guo was guarding the dangerous pass and waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out. If he still couldn't defeat Kublai Khan, it would mean that his potential was limited and he was not worthy of more trust.

……

"Everyone hide yourselves and wait for the Tartars to climb up before you attack!"

Yang Guo followed Su Mingzhe for several years. When he was in his twenties, he became the general manager of Jingdong Road, which was considered a young success.

Seeing that Kublai Khan was leading a group of defeated soldiers who were like lost dogs, and forcing him to avoid their attack, he was immediately filled with rage.

As the Tartar army climbed up the wall with ladders, the Tartar stone cannons slowly stopped firing.

Yang Guo led the charge and was the first to attack the Tartar's vanguard.

……

"Zhen Jin wishes His Majesty good health!"

Zhen Jindali knelt down in front of Su Mingzhe and did not dare to move for a long time.

Su Mingzhe looked at the young man and felt a lot of emotion for a moment.

These days, everything Zhenjin said and did while at Kublai Khan's place was under his observation.

It can be said that although Zhenjin is young, he has the style of Qin Ganluo.

If he is trained, he will definitely become a famous official when he grows up.

"Get up!"

Zhenjin kowtowed twice more before he stood up:
"Thank you, Your Majesty."

……

"Your Majesty, the young prince has been taken away by the southern barbarians!"

Qiebuhua led the remaining hundreds of soldiers back to Kublai Khan to report to him.

"Thank you for your hard work!" Kublai Khan learned that his son Zhenjin was safe and sound, and then he took off his cloak and said solemnly to the generals around him:
"In today's battle, even if you surrender, I will not blame you! But before I die in battle, I hope everyone can work together..."

……

"Is this death?"

Su Mingzhe led the army and successively destroyed three teams of 10,000 people before rushing to the front of Kublai Khan.

Kublai Khan opened his eyes wide and glared ahead, as if something incredible was happening in front of him.

A surrendered general knelt in front of Su Mingzhe, his head almost buried in his crotch:
"I am Boyan, respectfully wishing King Lu all the best!"

Su Mingzhe turned his eyes away from Kublai Khan's corpse and asked:
"Did you kill Kublai Khan?"

"I killed him myself!"

Bayan was the youngest commander of a thousand households on the grassland with a bright future. However, he was fooled by Kublai Khan and took his subordinates south to establish his own achievements.

Now I haven’t accomplished anything yet, but my life is in danger.

How could Boyan be willing to accept this!
It was also Kublai Khan's bad luck that he sent all his loyal Qiexue troops to attack the city, leaving only Bayan, the captain of ten thousand households, by his side.

After a brief psychological struggle, Boyan decided to fight for himself.

And just like that, Kublai Khan died at the hands of his own people.

"Go back!"

Su Mingzhe felt that Kublai Khan's death was not worth it.

After Boyan left, Su Mingzhe called Zhenjin over:
"Zhenjin, your father is dead. How are you going to deal with his funeral?"

When Zhen Jin saw his father's remains, he did not look sad, and his eyes were very calm:
"Your Highness, according to grassland customs, you can bury him openly!"

When Kublai Khan sent him back to Su Mingzhe, Zhenjin guessed that his father would die in battle.

Since it was expected, although Zhenjin felt sad, he could accept this fact calmly.

As for what he called "open burial", it is also called wild burial.

That means dragging the corpse into the wild and waiting for wild beasts and birds of prey to eat it.

A few days later, when the relatives return and see that the corpse has been completely eaten, they believe that the spirit of the deceased has returned to the eternal heaven and found peace.

If the body is still there, or has not been eaten clean by wild animals, relatives will apply some "seasoning" on the body and wait a few days to check on it.

This is the open burial on the grassland.

This is also a funeral for ordinary people.

If you are a noble, you can be buried.

The burial method is somewhat different from that in the Central Plains, and there are some taboos.

Now that Zhenjin has chosen to be buried in the open air, Su Mingzhe also respects his wishes.

A team of people was immediately arranged to accompany Zhenjin to escort Kublai Khan's body to a deserted place for public burial.

As the news of Kublai Khan's killing spread, the Tatar army that was still fighting chose to surrender one after another.

Of the 500,000 troops that followed Kublai Khan south this time, only 150,000 were elite Tatars, and the other 350,000 were vassal troops composed of other ethnic groups.

Among them, about 170,000 to 180,000 died in the battle.

About 110,000 to 120,000 people were captured because of injuries.

There were also about 200,000 who surrendered along with the crowd.

As for the surrendered and captured Tartars, Su Mingzhe instructed Yang Guo to carefully identify them and treat them differently in the future.

Some of the more stubborn ones who are unwilling to "eat the emperor's food" are sent directly to the mines to mine, and are forced to spend the rest of their lives in the mines.

For those with docile personalities, we taught them to speak Chinese and assimilated them.

With the acceptance of surrender and reorganization, a series of events unfolded in an orderly manner.

A few days passed.

After Kublai Khan's funeral was over, Su Mingzhe took Zhenjin, as well as civil officials and advisers such as Liu Bingzhong, and took the lead in returning to Dadu.

Kublai Khan's death made Su Mingzhe very depressed.

After all, before this, his imaginary enemy was Kublai Khan.

Now that Kublai Khan is gone, Chabi is no longer popular.