0p0 Chapter 472: Horses Trampling the Capital
Chapter 472: Horses Trampling the Capital
Looking at the Korean soldiers standing in battle formation on the walls of Kaesong in the distance, Hua Rong, dressed in white robes and silver armor, jumped out on his horse with his spear in hand and said, "General, let me go and ask them to open the city gates."
"Go ahead and tell them we want to see the King of Goryeo."
Hua Rong came to within an arrow's reach of the city, exhaled and spoke loudly to the Koreans on the city wall: "Listen, people on the city, our general wants to see your King of Korea. Open the city gate quickly, otherwise we will break it down and kill our way into the palace!"
At this time, Goryeo had not yet formed its own writing and language, and still used Chinese and Chinese characters. Although there were some local accents, communication was no problem.
The Korean guards on the city wall looked at each other after hearing this, and then one of them stood up and shouted, "General below the city, where are you from? Who do you represent?"
"We are the Liaonan Yangwei Army. I am General Hua Rong. Open the city gates immediately!"
"General, please wait a moment. I have to go back and report to the king."
Previously, Kaesong City had sent out 10,000 troops to stop the enemy, but it had no effect. This also made the Goryeo officials in the city fear the enemies outside the city like a tiger and they dared not be negligent in the slightest.
The city wall of Kaesong City was only about two meters high, which could not bring much sense of security to the Koreans on the city walls.
Hua Rong was not in a hurry. Seeing that the other party had sent someone to report, he turned around the dock and returned to the army.
Lu Cheng was not in a hurry and let the soldiers take a rest and fill their stomachs.
After a long time, seeing movement on the city wall again, Hua Rong jumped out on his horse and shouted at the city wall again. Unexpectedly, just as Hua Rong reached a range of arrows from under the city, a row of archers suddenly emerged from the city wall and were about to shoot at Hua Rong.
Hua Rong was well prepared and immediately turned around to get out of the shooting range of the archers on the city wall. Then he turned around quickly, drew his bow and shot three arrows at the city wall.
The enemies on the city wall obviously underestimated Hua Rong's reaction speed and even more so his archery skills. In an instant, three Goryeo soldiers were shot, including a defending general.
Lu Cheng also immediately jumped on his horse and came to the point within an arrow's reach of the city. He took out a pack of explosives, pulled the fuse, swung his arm, and threw it towards the gate of Goryeo City.
The explosive pack drew a graceful parabola and landed precisely under the city gate. With a loud bang, the gate of Kaijing City was instantly blown into pieces. Several Goryeo archers on the top of the city lost their balance and fell down.
Taking advantage of the other party's panic, Lu Cheng had already drawn his sword and jumped on his horse, arrived at the moat outside the city, jumped from the horse's back, spanned two or three feet, and jumped directly over the moat. Then he raised his sword and cut the iron chain, lowering the suspension bridge at the city gate.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Cheng rushed to the city gate in three or two steps. The long sword in his hand was as fast as the wind, and he cleared the city gate in a blink of an eye.
Hua Rong immediately led the cavalry, each of them raised their shields, and took advantage of the situation to rush into the city.
The Goryeo army in the city never expected that the enemy outside the city would break into the city so easily. They didn't even have time to organize a resistance before they were attacked into the city and headed straight for the palace.
Due to the appearance of enemy troops outside the city, Goryeo city had already been under martial law. The people had all retreated back to their homes and there were few people on the streets, which made it convenient for Lu Cheng's cavalry team to march straight in.
The capital of Kaifeng was not big, and the Goryeo Palace was just a large courtyard. Lu Cheng did not even use explosives. He jumped into the air, chopped open the gate of the Goryeo Palace with a knife, and led his men into the palace courtyard.
It is called a royal palace, but in fact it is just a large compound, slightly larger than Lu Cheng's residence in Bian Jing. There are not many large buildings, and the tallest ones are just some two- or three-story small buildings.
As the cavalry rushed in, the entire Goryeo Palace suddenly fell into chaos. Lu Cheng asked Hua Rong to lead the team to occupy the advantageous terrain to block the surrounding troops, and then he took a hundred elite soldiers and rushed straight into the palace.
As everything happened too fast, Emperor Ruizong and the civil and military ministers were waiting for news outside the imperial city when they heard a commotion inside the palace. They hurriedly sent people to inquire about the situation, but before the palace people could report the news, Lu Cheng had already led his troops in to attack.
The guards in the palace hall hurried forward to intercept him, but Lu Cheng just swung a few times and cut seven or eight guards in front of him in half. The rest of the guards were so scared that they dared not move forward. The civil and military ministers had no time to escape and were controlled by the guards behind Lu Cheng.
Then Lu Cheng took two steps forward and came to the Goryeo throne in an instant. He picked up Emperor Ruizong who was hiding behind the table and threw him into the hall. Then he looked around and saw a guy on the right side of the hall who was obviously dressed as a Jin person. He asked in fluent Jurchen, "Are you Shichen sent by Wanyan Aguda?"
"Who are you? How dare you address the Khan of our dynasty by name and attack me..."
Without waiting for the other party to finish speaking, Lu Cheng pulled out a single-edged sword from his waist, threw it out casually, and stabbed the Jin envoy in the stomach.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng sat on the seat of the Goryeo King with a majestic horse and a golden sword, slammed the long sword in his hand on the ground, looked at the panicked Goryeo King and the civil and military officials in the hall, and shouted coldly: "This general came, not only did you not open the door to welcome me, but you also wanted to resist. Have you had enough of living?"
The King of Goryeo was shocked when he heard this and immediately knelt on the ground: "General, please forgive me. We only dared to be your enemy because of the words of the Jin envoy. I have no intention of offending your majesty, please forgive me."
"Pass the order down, tell the soldiers and civilians in the city not to resist."
"Yes, yes, Xiao Wang will pass the order right away."
Afterwards, several guards hurried out of the hall to convey orders, asking the soldiers in the city to give up their meaningless resistance.
Lu Cheng stood up from the throne, walked slowly to the front of the Jin envoy, drew out his sword, and came to the front of the King of Goryeo.
The King of Goryeo was so frightened that he trembled all over: "General... General... spare my life..."
Lu Cheng laughed: "Don't be afraid, I'm not a bloodthirsty person."
As he spoke, Lu Cheng wiped the blood on the blade on the body of the Goryeo King, wiped the sword clean with the Goryeo King's yellow robe, and then put the sword back into the scabbard.
Seeing this, the King of Goryeo also breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at Lu Cheng as if he was looking at a demon, fearing that the other party would chop off his head with ease.
Lu Cheng clapped his hands, grabbed the back of the Goryeo king's collar, lifted him up, walked back to the throne, and said, "In the past, you Goryeo were vassals of the Liao Kingdom, and then you were younger brothers of the Jin Kingdom. Now, I want you to pay tribute to my Yangwei Army. Are you willing?"
The King of Goryeo looked at the blood-dripping sword standing beside the throne. How could he dare to say no? He knelt down and kowtowed: "My little king is willing, I am willing!"
Lu Cheng glanced at the civil and military officials below: "Are there any of you who are unwilling?"
"No, no, we do!"
With a knife at their neck, no one wanted to test whether the knife was sharp or not.
Lu Cheng nodded in satisfaction: "That's right. Who is he a son to? He is a son to you. Anyway, you Gaoli are used to it."
The King of Goryeo below felt extremely humiliated, but dared not show it at all. He could only rest his head on the ground, trembling all over, unable to speak.
The cavalrymen of the Yangwei Army below were all excited and looked up at Lu Cheng above with admiration.
Even if Goryeo was small, it was still a country. Emperor Yang of Sui had conquered Goguryeo three times but failed to conquer it. Now their generals, with only a thousand soldiers, dared to march into the capital and trample the Goryeo king under their feet. How majestic was this?