Hyper-Dimensional Player

Chapter 823 - 75: The Fall of Later Shu—Nation Destroyed in 36 Days

The grand army led by Duncan had already reached the foot of Chengdu, advancing straight from Mianzhou to Jianmen, cutting off the reinforcements from the north. By this time, Chengdu was heavily surrounded, with most of Later Shu's territories having fallen.

Six days later.

Meng Chang opened the city gates and surrendered, marking the end of Later Shu, which had lasted for twenty-five years.

The conclusion of this battle shocked the entire world!

From the time Duncan raised his army to the fall of Later Shu, it took a total of 36 days. The vast majority of the time was wasted on the logistics of troop deployment and supply. The actual battles were basically over in an instant, and the combat effectiveness of Later Shu was even weaker than Duncan had imagined. He had few opportunities to personally engage, as his fierce cavalry, Tiger and Leopard Battalion, and Black Armor Army alone had already routed them mercilessly.

On the battlefield, there were often scenes of several hundred cavalrymen chasing down thousands, even tens of thousands of troops.

Chengdu.

Mohe Pool, Crystal Palace.

Duncan looked at this luxurious palace, adorned with coral-embedded windows and jade as doors, and couldn't help but click his tongue in wonder. This damned Meng Chang used nanmu as pillars and aloeswood as beams, with glass inlays on all sides. Its level of extravagance even surpassed Liu Chang of Southern Han by several degrees.

Probably because Later Shu was relatively wealthy, the Crystal Palace he built seemed even more luxurious than the Roman Palace, though not quite as large in scale.

"The Northern Song took 66 days to destroy Later Shu."

"I took 36 days."

"Not bad."

Regarding this achievement, Duncan was quite satisfied. After all, in ancient times, marching to war and logistics were always major issues. Although he had raised an army of 50,000, the actual main force in battle was less than 8,000. The subsequent troops were used to take over and stabilize the territories of Later Shu.

In the original historical narrative, although the Northern Song took only 66 days to destroy Later Shu, it took many years to digest the territory of Later Shu. There were even continuous rebellions, with the massive Sichuan uprising against Song banners taking more than two years to suppress the rebellions across various regions, leaving the whole of Sichuan covered in corpses.

So much so that for a long time, the Sichuan people missed Meng Chang and despised Zhao Kuangyin.

The reason was none other than this.

Zhao Kuangyin once said, 'When capturing a city or village, only take their weapons and provisions, distribute all money and silk to the officers and soldiers; what I want is only their land.'

In simple terms, it meant when attacking and conquering Later Shu, do whatever you want; all he wanted was the land of Later Shu.

However, due to excessive plundering, the resentment among the people of Shu boiled over, eventually leading to a large-scale rebellion. The Rebel Army, mainly composed of Sichuan people and essentially all peasants, reached ten thousand strong. To suppress their uprising, the Song Army nearly massacred the entire region of Sichuan.

And because of this extensive pillaging, Later Shu experienced an economic collapse, regressing by several decades.

Duncan, previously King of Kings, knew if he dared to tell the empire's legions, 'I only want the land, you may do as you wish otherwise,' the empire's legion would leave no stone unturned, looting the entire area.

Moreover, these were the cannibalistic armies of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

In the battle where the Northern Song extinguished the Southern Han, the Song army even boiled people, frightening the Southern Han's troops into despair.

One can imagine how terrible the disaster in Sichuan and other places was after Later Shu's fall.

If one followed the original historical route, after the Song Army occupied Chengdu and indulged in looting, the Shu army, en route to being stationed in Kaifeng, experienced docked military pay, leading to the military revolt in Mianzhou. Subsequently, the prefect of Shu Wen, Quan Shixiong, was elected as the leader, initiating a rebellion. Once the Song dynasty suppressed it, they further increased taxes and more stringently exploited the region, implementing retaliatory massacres during repressions.

The eventual outcome was the Chengdu Plain experiencing a 'ten households and nine empty' phenomenon.

Heads rolled.

Corpse Mountain and Blood Sea.

Duncan killed fiercely, but never reached a ten households and nine empty situation, whereas the troops under Zhao Kuangyin's banner truly killed to that extent.

Also because of this, the local populace's distrust of the central government became enduring, leading to the stereotype of 'Sichuan people prone to unrest,' affecting policies toward the Sichuan region in later generations.

From Duncan's perspective, the life pace of the Sichuan people was rather leisurely.

Where did the saying 'Sichuan people prone to unrest' come from?

A lesser-known tidbit: during the Yuan dynasty, Sichuan resisted the Mongol invasion. After killing Meng Ge at Diaoyucheng, the Yuan army retaliated by massacring, causing the population of Sichuan to plummet from 13 million before the Southern Song to 600,000 (only about 4% remained), leading to the complete destruction of its civilization.

Many are aware of the naval battle of Yashan, where tens of thousands of military and civilians jumped into the sea, marking the fall of the Han family; yet, how many know that vast Sichuan was left with only this few people?

After the Qing army entered Sichuan, the Sichuan military and civilians resisted for over a decade, leading to cities without intact homes and people not surviving.

This was followed by the relocation of people from Huguang to fill Sichuan, with the gap in civilization lasting for centuries.

The Sichuan people haven't just recently not let down Huaxia's heroic spirit; they've never let it down. From the Yuan to the Qing to modern times, the Sichuan people fought until their last drop of blood was shed each time, the intensity of the struggle being nearly at the cost of complete destruction.

And most occurred during times of 'fall of the world,' for mere loss of state, Sichuan remained quite leisurely; for instance, during the Late Tang and the Five Dynasties, Sichuan actually fared well, much better than the Central Plains and Southern Han.

It even became a 'land of music' in a world in chaos.

Even after Duncan took Chengdu, the grain prices here remained only half that of the Central Plains, and possibly only a third during peaceful times.

The Land of Abundance truly could flourish even under the worst of rulers.

Meng Chang played wantonly, lavishly collecting beauties with thousands of palace maids, diamond-embedded night pots, and even built the Crystal Palace, yet Sichuan remained exceptionally rich. Even after Later Shu's fall, the people would still remember him fondly.