Upon hearing this, Liang Song suddenly erupted, pouncing towards Chen Mo, but he quickly felt a tremendous force pressing on his shoulders, forcing him to kneel in front of Chen Mo, unable to raise his head.

It was a dense mass of purple qi, tightly binding him, yet Liang Song still refused to be compliant and roared, "Don't even think about it."

"Your whole family is in my hands now, do you think you can still resist?"

Chen Mo crouched down and whispered in Liang Song's ear, "Liang Song, Prefect of Yu State, surrenders to General Xuanwei Chen Mo to save his life and offers his daughter to General Xuanwei as a concubine. What do you think the world would say if such news spread?"

Liang Song trembled and then roared angrily, "Do you think people would believe it?"

"I don't need people to believe it; I just need to make it a reality. In this way, what the world sees is indeed your daughter becoming my concubine and you still being alive. Whether you surrender or not is already not that important."

Finally, Chen Mo delivered another heavy blow to Liang Song: "Even if the world doesn't believe it, suspicions will arise. Will Prince Huai still trust you then?"

"Bastard, shameless villain..." Liang Song couldn't help but curse angrily.

Chen Mo stood up, clasped his right hand fiercely, and the innate spiritual qi pressing on Liang Song entered his body at once. The next moment, Liang Song's face changed dramatically, his eyes dilated like a deflated balloon: "You... you actually crippled my dantian..."

"I just didn't want you dead, but I didn't say I wouldn't cripple your cultivation."

Chen Mo calmly said, "The dowry you prepared for your daughter is quite nice; I'll gladly accept it first."

After speaking, Chen Mo waved his hand: "Take him away, guard him well, and make sure he doesn't die."

"Yes."

"Rebel, traitor, you will not succeed..." Liang Song couldn't finish his sentence before being dragged away by Chen Mo's personal soldiers.

"Sun Meng."

"Here at your service."

"Lead the personal guard team and the Divine Martial Guard, continue pursuing the enemy troops, kill those who don't surrender."

Chen Mo instructed.

This ambush let many from the Yu State Army escape, Chen Mo didn't intend to let them run away, and they couldn't anyway. The Xianzhen Guard led by Zhang River should be coming from behind, just in time to block all these routed soldiers.

"Yes."

Sun Meng quickly retreated, leading the personal guard team and the Divine Martial Guard to pursue.

Chen Mo stayed in place, leading the Divine Courage Guard to confiscate the weapons and battle armor of the defectors, while cleaning up the battlefield.

From ancient times, the victors clean up the battlefield.

When encountering enemy soldiers who are injured but can't be rescued, they're dispatched with a blade immediately, while our injured soldiers are carried back; those who can be saved are saved, and those who can't are left to die, finally recorded in a register. According to the military law set by Chen Mo previously, compensation is issued.

Through the tally of corpses in this battle, the Yu State Army suffered over 2,700 casualties, and currently 3,200 prisoners have been captured. According to prisoners' confessions, there are still seven to eight thousand in escape, but morale has dispersed and they are not a concern.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Chen Mo led the defectors back to Longmen County.

...

And before this in Tianchuan.

April 20th, the eighth year of Xuanhe.

Xu Guozhong formally began moving the capital; he and his "pseudo-court" army massively evacuated Tianchuan.

On the evacuation route, there were dense formations of pseudo-court troops, not less than one hundred thousand strong, along with numerous carts, horses, supplies, and provisions, almost completely packed.

Such a large-scale capital move could not evade Prince Huai's scrutiny, and not to let Xu Guozhong escape.

The Loyalist Army increased troop pressure into Heaven-Suppressing Gate.

April 21, Heaven-Suppressing Gate was occupied by the Loyalist Army.

After occupying Heaven-Suppressing Gate, the Loyalist Army should have immediately pursued Xu Guozhong's "pseudo-court army," stopping Xu Guozhong from moving the emperor.

But at this moment, the Loyalist Army unexpectedly fell into strife.

The Loyalist Army was composed of multiple factions, although Prince Huai's faction was the largest in scale, other factions had their own agendas.

Thus, during the Loyalist Army's pursuit of Xu Guozhong, among them, the Xiliang Army unexpectedly broke away from the alliance army, heading straight for Tianchuan.

Tianchuan is the Capital of the Great Song Dynasty, with 180 districts within the city, no curfews, known as the city that never sleeps, with a population exceeding two million, it's the largest city of the Great Song.

Tianchuan has been the capital for several hundred years; how much wealth can it accumulate over these centuries, even someone like Xu Guozhong couldn't possibly move it all at once.

With the factions in the Loyalist Army not being of one heart, directly bleeding sacrifice so much, and after finally breaking through the Heaven-Suppressing Gate, looking at a city filled with gold right in front, how could one not be tempted? Could they hold back?

Thus, the Xiliang Army made the first move.

On the morning of April 24, they entered Tianchuan City, Tianchuan citizens were ecstatic, opening their doors to welcome them, cheers resounding throughout the city. At this moment, there were pseudo-court troops yet to evacuate, the citizens pelted them with bricks and stones, causing the pseudo-court troops to flee in disgrace, not daring to retaliate.

However, the Tianchuan citizens treating the Xiliang Army as their savior quickly faced a nightmare.

This group of Xiliang soldiers entered homes separately, looting goods and women, in an instant, the entire Tianchuan City seemed like purgatory, with more criminals taking advantage of the chaos, committing various crimes.

At this time, Tianchuan citizens missed the days when Xu Guozhong was still around.

At least back then, there was order.

Outside the city, other factions of the Loyalist Army heard the news, stirring to enter the city, Prince Huai hesitated, declaring to the people it was Xu Guozhong's scheme, intending to delay their pursuit. Various factions didn't believe, and Prince Huai, helplessly, was coerced into entering Tianchuan.

Prince Huai did not wish to plunder the citizens, but to appease various factions, he could only claim to uphold justice for the citizens, leading forces to conduct a siege on the Xiliang Army.

Ultimately, the Xiliang Army suffered heavy casualties, with less than ten thousand escaping back to Xiliang.

Prince Huai distributed the wealth plundered by Xiliang soldiers to various factions, hoping to pacify them.

Yet some factions believed that Prince Huai's distribution was uneven, particularly favoring King Chong, the Liang Family, the Xiao Family, and certain forces of Hedong, feeling discontent.

Actually, such situations had occurred more than once. Previously, during the assault on Hedong, two factions had a violent clash due to grain distribution, but Prince Huai suppressed it, handling it post-war with deception.

So this time they did not outwardly express dissatisfaction, but subsequently, during the Loyalist Army's continued pursuit of Xu Guozhong, three factions outright broke the alliance, leading to a reduction in the Loyalist Army's strength.

Then, during the pursuit, King Chong's confidant general, Gongsun Yan, to seize glory, secretly sent his brother to take a shortcut, attempting to intercept the pseudo-court army ahead of Chu Ce, encountering Lu Sheng's ambush, costing Gongsun Yan's brother his life.

Such actions wastefully diminished the Loyalist Army's power.

On April 30, two more factions sought to leave the Loyalist Army.

By this time, prompted by his staff officers beside him, Prince Huai finally recognized his mistake, immediately personally conciliating and retaining the two factions intending to leave, and personally funded compensation for factions that previously suffered unfair treatment.

Thinking the repairs could allow continued campaigning, news arrived that Jing County had fallen, and the Celestial Master Army threatened Yangzhou and Huai State.

Instantly, the multi-faceted forces of the Loyalist Army were shocked; these places were their home bases.

Now, they had no mind to continue supporting the king, breaking away from the alliance in droves.

Prince Huai, also concerned for his home base, after considerable thought, decided to take troops and depart.

Thus, the grand expedition of the Loyalist Army ended in failure.

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