Chapter 422
The end of the hero
...
After the Jin army was defeated, it fled north under the drive of the Song army, eventually reaching the mountains and valleys north of the Sumo River and northeast of Ningjiang Prefecture.
This is the birthplace of the Jurchen people. In earlier times, there were more than 100,000 households. They were divided into dozens of tribes, each electing its own powerful leader as chief. The smaller tribes had thousands of households, while the larger ones had several thousand.
However, as the Jurchens rose to power, these more than 100,000 Jurchen households all moved away from here to participate in the war with the Liao Dynasty, to conquer cities and territories, and to enjoy the fruits of victory. Only a few truly old people remained here to guard their ancestral homeland.
Now, the Jin dynasty has suffered a crushing defeat, and Wanyan Aguda, leading tens of thousands of remnants of his army, has returned to where they started.
The difference is that the people who lived here back then were all Jurchens. Now, only more than 20,000 Jurchens have fled back. The rest are all Han Chinese, Khitans, Bohai people, and other ethnic groups.
Moreover, of the Jurchens who escaped back, only about 10,000 were able-bodied young men; the rest were old and weak.
In comparison, most of the Han, Khitan, Bohai, and other ethnic groups who fled here were young and strong.
It is no exaggeration to say that, disregarding everything else, just looking at the people who fled here, the Jurchens, whether in terms of quantity or quality, are no longer at an advantage.
Specifically, the Jurchen people of the Wanyan tribe actually numbered only a few hundred.
The north wind, whipping up snowflakes, swept across the forests and valleys north of the Sumo River like knives, silencing the cries of the defeated Jin soldiers.
Wanyan Aguda was wrapped in a tattered mink coat, his withered fingers gripping the curved sword at his waist tightly. The blade was still stained with undried blood, but it had long lost the sharpness that once cleaved mountains and split rocks.
The remaining soldiers behind him were mostly emaciated and pale, their tattered clothes offering no protection from the biting cold. Some of the old and weak huddled in sheltered crevices, their lips frozen purple, their eyes blank and lifeless, barely able to groan.
Even worse, their food supplies had long since run out. They could only dig up grass roots in the snow and hunt birds and animals in the forest to fill their stomachs. However, the heavy snow blocked the mountains, and the food they could find was scarce. Every day, people collapsed from cold and hunger, and their bodies were hastily buried in the snow without even a decent tombstone.
—The depletion of supplies and the suffering from hunger and cold were the final straw that broke the back of the Jin Dynasty. Without supplies, the remaining troops could not be fed, and the daily deaths from cold and hunger not only reduced the strength of the army but also eroded the remaining morale. Without warm clothing and safe shelter, the former warriors became refugees struggling to survive, and their loyalty and reverence had long been swallowed up by despair.
Even more deadly is the imbalance among ethnic groups.
Of the more than 20,000 Jurchen people, only about 10,000 were able-bodied.
The Han, Khitan, and Bohai people who fled here together were all strong and robust men. Their numbers far exceeded those of the Jurchen people, and their eyes held a hidden resentment.
These people were either conscripted laborers or surrendered soldiers who were forced to submit. They had been oppressed by the Jurchen nobles in the past. Now that the Jin Dynasty had suffered a great defeat, the Wanyan tribe had only a few hundred people left, and their former deterrent power had vanished.
In the forest valley, one can often see people from different groups looking at each other with cold eyes, and their whispers spread like poisonous vines. Those long-suppressed grievances are gradually erupting as the living environment deteriorates.
This internal mutiny and division was more devastating than the Song army's pursuit.
At this point, the fate of the Jin Dynasty was like the remaining ice on the Sumo River, teetering on the brink of collapse in the biting wind, irreversibly sliding towards the end of its dynasty.
This was not a temporary defeat, but the collapse of its foundation. Everything that had supported this steppe dynasty—its military strength, prestige, ethnic cohesion, and survival basis—had all vanished into nothingness. Just like those last dynasties that rose to prominence and then declined in the long river of history, they had already shown the inevitable signs of their demise.
Once, with the unstoppable might of the Jurchen cavalry, the Wanyan clan swept across the Liao Kingdom with great vigor. But now, that invincible army is reduced to wreckage, the territory conquered by swords has been lost, and even the ancestral land they returned to is no longer the exclusive home of the Jurchens.
Lately, Wanyan Aguda has been frequently awakened by nightmares at night. In his dreams, he either sees the iron hooves of the Song army trampling through his camps, or his various tribes turning against him. He knows that the Wanyan tribe is the foundation of the Jin state, and these few hundred people are now the last core of the Jurchen people, but this core is already crumbling.
Without provisions, the people's hearts cannot be won over; without enough able-bodied men, this ancestral land cannot be defended; and without the former prestige, it is difficult to suppress the dissent of various ethnic groups. The slightest misstep could lead to complete annihilation by the pursuing Song army or disintegration in internal strife. The rule of the Wanyan clan and the survival of the Jurchen people hung on a precarious thread, and the slightest disturbance could lead to utter destruction.
Despite this predicament, Wanyan Aguda continued to strive to stabilize the situation.
Moreover, Wanyan Aguda rejected all the offers of surrender from Zhao Yu and the various generals of the Song army without hesitation.
Zhao Yu once wrote the following in an imperial edict:
"It is said that the way of Heaven is cyclical, with rise and fall having their appointed times; the affairs of the world change, with success and failure being unpredictable. In the past, the Jurchens rose to power, relying on the sharpness of their iron cavalry and displaying the might of their weapons, sweeping across Liaodong and eyeing the Central Plains, their arrogance reaching the heavens. However, by going against the will of Heaven and exhausting their military might, they ultimately suffered betrayal and desertion, their army collapsing like a house of cards. Now you are hiding in the north of Sumo, trapped in the forests and valleys, your food supplies cut off, suffering from hunger and cold. Is this not Heaven's will to destroy the Jurchens?"
The victor is king, the loser is villain—this has been the way of the world since ancient times; only those who understand the times are true heroes. Your Jurchen fortune has run out, your great blessings are gone. Stubborn resistance will only increase casualties, and holding out will surely lead to annihilation. I, in accordance with Heaven's benevolence towards life, and out of pity for you who have long been entangled in war, hereby issue an edict to surrender: If you can submit and surrender with your people, I will surely pardon your past crimes, restore your royal titles, grant you land to inherit; your officials will retain their positions, your property will be returned to their former masters, your families will be safe, and your people will live in peace.
If they remain obstinate and stubbornly resist, I will surely order a massive army to march north, my iron cavalry trampling through forests and valleys, their blades aimed directly at the remaining camps. At that time, everything will be destroyed, not even a chicken or a dog will survive, the Wanyan clan will be extinct, and the Jurchen people will be reduced to dust. Then it will be too late for regrets!
My words are law; fortune or misfortune is yours to choose. I urge you to quickly assess the situation and decide your course of action, lest you regret it later. This is my decree.
As one of the top three warlords of his time, a great hero who once led his people in rebellion against the tyranny of the Liao Dynasty and successfully overthrew the Liao Empire, even though he had been reduced to his original state, rendering his years of efforts futile and even worse off than before, Wanyan Aguda still deeply hoped that he could lead the Jin Dynasty to rise again and build an empire belonging to the Jurchens and the Wanyan clan. This was his dream, his goal. Even if he ultimately failed, he would have no regrets. Therefore, he ignored all the surrender edicts sent by Zhao Yu. As for the surrender letters sent by other Song generals, he paid them no heed either.
Although the situation was dire, Wanyan Aguda remained enthusiastic, venturing deep into the army to mourn the dead and wounded, offering self-criticisms, and selecting outstanding officers regardless of ethnicity to hold important positions. He also reflected deeply on the situation, believing that for the Jin people to rise again, they must develop firearms, especially the Li Lin cannon and the Li Lin musket. He even recruited the Song artillery and musketeers whom the Jin army had painstakingly captured, promoting them and granting them titles and ranks. He also squeezed out food from their already limited supplies to help the Jin develop firearms…
Wanyan Aguda's various measures gradually calmed the people's hearts, stabilized the situation, and revitalized the Jin Dynasty's military strength.
Wanyan Aguda was very confident that he could solve all the problems, including the fact that the number of other ethnic groups exceeded that of the Jurchens, and that the other ethnic groups hated the Jurchens, and even more so the Wanyan clan.
In Wanyan Aguda's view, the Jurchen was never a single tribe, but rather a collective term for the mountain and forest tribes that resisted the Khitans. Besides the Raw Jurchen, there were the Changbai Mountain Jurchen, the Yalu River Jurchen, the Donghai Jurchen, and even those described as having "mostly yellow hair, yellow sideburns, and green eyes, called the Yellow-Headed Jurchen." These tribes, scattered throughout the mountains and forests, were not all of the same ethnicity as the Raw Jurchen, and their languages were not unified, including Mongolian, Turkic, and Tungusic. Ultimately, however, "Jurchen" became the common name for all these tribes.
Wanyan Aguda was very arrogant, thinking that in the past, his Wanyan clan was able to unite all the Jurchen tribes into one, and now he could appease these peoples who had already submitted to him and make them continue to serve the Great Jin.
It must be said that Wanyan Aguda's dream was good, and he certainly possessed the ability and charisma to lead. If Wanyan Aguda had been ten years younger, or in better health, and had already realized the military disparity between the Song and Jin dynasties, he might have truly been able to lead the Jin dynasty to a turnaround, or at least help the Jurchens establish a base of operations.
However, Wanyan Aguda was already over fifty years old. A few years ago, when the conquest of Liao was going smoothly, Wanyan Aguda was very fond of women and especially liked drinking. He often held banquets, boasted and drank with his officials, and then went crazy with Liao women. After a lifetime of military campaigns, he suddenly became immersed in this gentle land. After a long time, how could his body not be hollowed out?
In recent years, after the Song-Jin War broke out, the Jin state suffered repeated defeats, and Wanyan Aguda undoubtedly bore enormous pressure.
Over time, Wanyan Aguda inevitably fell ill.
After the Jin Dynasty lost this most important decisive battle, Wanyan Aguda was unable to hold on any longer.
However, Wanyan Aguda knew that he could not fall now, otherwise, the Jin Kingdom would have no hope at all.
So Wanyan Aguda gritted his teeth and persevered, just like his subordinates, enduring the freezing cold.
However, this kind of mental victory method is destined to only last for a while and cannot be sustained indefinitely.
Soon, Wanyan Aguda's condition worsened.
For days, Wanyan Aguda had been plagued by nightmares. In his dreams, he would always dream of a man beheading him. Although Wanyan Aguda could not see the man's face clearly, he knew that the man must be Zhao Yu.
When Wanyan Aguda woke up, he was always in a daze.
All the Jin people could see that something was wrong with Wanyan Aguda.
At first, Wanyan Aguda thought he could overcome the disease and lead the Jurchens to a comeback.
But gradually, as Wanyan Aguda felt his body getting worse, he realized that he had overestimated himself.
Wanyan Aguda was extremely unwilling!
He desperately wanted to defeat Zhao Yu, even if it was just by winning one match.
Unfortunately, life is full of disappointments, and he is not a god. Faced with such a dead end, what can he do?
Wanyan Aguda summoned Wanyan Xie, took his hand, and said, "You are no match for Zhao Yu. If you stay here, you will surely be wiped out by Zhao Yu next spring. Therefore, although this place is the birthplace of our Jurchen people, you cannot stay here for long. If you want to make a comeback, you must move to Tongmen River before the snow melts, and follow the example of your ancestors to go to Japan by sea..."
Wanyan Xie also knew that Wanyan Aguda was making arrangements for his own death, and that he would be the next emperor of the Jin Dynasty.
There's nothing we can do about it.
Originally, the crown prince was Wanyan Wugumai. After Wanyan Aguda's death, Wanyan Wugumai should have inherited Wanyan Aguda's throne.
However, Wanyan Wuqimai has already been captured by the Song Dynasty, and his fate is unknown. Obviously, he cannot inherit the throne from Wanyan Aguda.
Therefore, whether considering bloodline, achievements, or prestige, among the surviving members of the Wanyan clan, the most suitable person to inherit Wanyan Aguda's throne was none other than Wanyan Xieye.
At this critical juncture where the Jin Dynasty, the Jurchen people, and the Wanyan clan were on the brink of life and death, and with Wanyan Aguda fallen, Wanyan Xie could not shirk this heavy responsibility under any circumstances, otherwise they would have no hope at all.
Therefore, Wanyan Xie also assured Wanyan Aguda: "Next March, I will lead them away from this place to Kou Kingdom and occupy it..."
Wanyan Aguda then gave Wanyan Xieye some other instructions and told him to prepare to "ascend the throne".
After Wanyan Xieye left, Wanyan Aguda summoned other important figures of the Jin Dynasty, hoping they would support Wanyan Xieye and work together to make a comeback.
No one would argue with a dead man, so almost everyone readily agreed to Wanyan Aguda's "request." As for what they really thought, only they themselves probably knew.
That night, feeling utterly exhausted, Wanyan Aguda went to bed early. He reflected on his life, a life full of ups and downs, successes and glories, but unfortunately, the ending was not good, leaving him with many regrets.
That night, Wanyan Aguda closed his eyes and never opened them again, thus ending his life at the age of fifty-three, three years earlier than in history.
The History of Jin describes Wanyan Aguda as follows: "Emperor Taizu was wise and shrewd, magnanimous and generous, good at recognizing and employing people, and people were happy to serve him. The Jin dynasty ruled for 119 years. In just a few years, Emperor Taizu made no mistakes in his plans and led his troops to victory, thus establishing a great dynasty that he passed on to his descendants."
The History of Jin was not written by the Jin people, but by the Yuan people. Historically, the Mongols and Jurchens were sworn enemies. However, in the History of Jin, we can see that the Yuan people praised Wanyan Aguda throughout the entire text, which is very rare in the biographies of ancient Chinese emperors.
In this life, because of the interference of time travelers like Zhao Yu, Wanyan Aguda's ending was not perfect, even tragic. But this did not diminish his status as a great hero worthy of praise in his time, at least in the eyes of the Jurchens.
...(End of chapter)