Chapter 456: Brother Ji's Quiet Footsteps

In the third month of spring, on the Guangyun Pool outside Chang'an, painted pleasure boats for sightseeing were everywhere.

The early Tang poet Liu Xiyi once wrote in "Xianghe Song Lyrics: Eight Songs of Jiangnan": "Painted boats grow faint in the mist; the spring sun dims at the horizon's edge."

Poets, scholars, and high officials would rent a painted pleasure boat, hire a few singing girls and dancing girls, tour the mountains and waters, compose poetry and couplets—in the circle of scholar-officials, this was a most elegant and refined form of entertainment.

It also gave rise to many famous poems.

The sunlight was warm, a gentle breeze brushed their faces, and the tourists all wore expressions of complete contentment. They had not the slightest awareness that in Hebei, Hedong, Henan, and other regions, the flames of war now spread everywhere.

They listened to singing girls chant poetry, warmed fine wine, ate delicacies, told amusing anecdotes, and gazed at the clear waters and green mountains beyond the windows.

At this very moment, by the railing of an enormous painted pleasure boat moored at the shore of Guangyun Pool, Gao Lishi gently draped a blanket over Brother Ji's legs, then stepped aside without uttering a word.

"Lishi, how goes the war at the front?"

Brother Ji, his gaze fixed straight on the waters of Guangyun Pool, suddenly spoke up and asked.

"Your Majesty, all is still well."

Gao Lishi said cautiously, bending at the waist, not daring to meet Brother Ji's eyes.

"Still well? Is it good or not, then?"

Brother Ji turned his head to look at him, his tone harsh, carrying a clear note of reproach.

"Hedong and Henan are both still fine."

Gao Lishi remained vague, unwilling to tell him the truth.

"Speak. There is nothing that cannot be said."

Brother Ji let out a long sigh and waved his hand somewhat feebly.

His face looked far more haggard than before, and he had little energy about him—clearly worn to the bone by a series of matters including the rebellion in Hebei.

"Fang Guozhong routed the rebel forces under Cai Xide on the mountain road east of Yuci County. The latter has retreated to defend Jingxing Pass and refuses to come out, which can be considered as having temporarily lifted the threat to Taiyuan."

Gao Lishi introduced the situation word by word, sentence by sentence, slowly, terrified of saying the wrong thing and provoking Brother Ji.

After a long silence, Brother Ji finally let out a long sigh and said, "The father and son of the Fang family are both fine generals."

After weighing his words, Gao Lishi replied, "Indeed so. Fang Youde has also repeatedly defeated stronger foes in Henan and harassed the rebels' supply lines. To this day, Huangfu Weiming has yet to organize a large force to attack Luoyang."

"What use is military talent! What I want are men who follow my commands! If they will not obey my orders, the more capable they are, the greater the menace!"

At the mention of Fang Youde, Brother Ji instantly lost his composure.

Gao Lishi said no more; he did not know what to say either. Betrayed by the person he trusted most, Brother Ji's bitterness and resentment were imaginable.

"The elite troops of the Hexi and Longyou garrisons should have crawled to Chang'an by now. Why is there still no movement?"

Brother Ji suddenly recalled this matter. From Liangzhou to Chang'an, there was an officially constructed imperial road. At the pace of an ordinary traveler, a single trip took eighteen days; for a marching army, the speed would be even faster.

And for scouts relaying messages on fast horses, changing mounts at relay stations along the way without stopping at all, a single trip took only three days.

The Hebei rebellion had been going on for nearly two months; the elite troops from the west should have arrived long ago.

Yet the actual situation was that the Hexi and Longyou border armies had not set out at all! They had not traveled a single li!

"Your Majesty, the military governors of both garrisons have submitted memorials, stating that the Tibetans are restless in the west and that transferring troops risks collapse."

Gao Lishi explained with a face full of helplessness.

Brother Ji fell silent. At this point, impotent rage served no purpose whatsoever.

"Let us return to the palace."

Brother Ji suddenly felt utterly dispirited, with no mood left for sightseeing.

In his view, Huangfu Weiming in Hebei could not make much of a wave; the real problem lay with the father and son of the Fang family.

Their threat was far greater than that of the Hebei rebels!

What Fang Chongyong was thinking now remained uncertain, but if he sided with Li Chang... then things would be very dire indeed!

Brother Ji was brewing a grand plan in his heart.

"When can Wang Zhongsi arrive in Chang'an?"

Brother Ji stood up and, gazing out at the emerald waters of Guangyun Pool in the distance, asked the question.

"Wang Zhongsi's son Wang Yanshu has already entered the capital. Your Majesty need not doubt his loyalty."

Gao Lishi offered a word of defense for Wang Zhongsi. A military general willing to send his son ahead to Chang'an to prepare the ground most likely did not harbor complicated intentions.

Of course, there were also ruthless men who cared nothing for the lives of their families and children. What Wang Zhongsi was truly like—only heaven knew.

"Have Li Guangbi lead the Chishui Army to Hedong and help Fang Guozhong defend Taiyuan."

Brother Ji suddenly issued a puzzling imperial decree to Gao Lishi.

"Your Majesty, this is..."

Gao Lishi could not quite understand what was going on.

"Send someone to deliver a secret decree to Wang Zhongsi. If Li Guangbi does not go to Hedong, then have Wang Zhongsi purge the upper ranks of the Hexi border army. Every one who can be replaced, replace them all for me!"

Brother Ji clenched his fists fiercely, his face contorted with menace.

Gao Lishi hastily bowed and said, "Your Majesty, please calm your wrath. I will escort you back to the palace and then attend to it at once."

He lamented inwardly: the Sovereign had truly grown old.

The Sovereign could do nothing about the father and son of the Fang family, so he would vent his anger on others. The emperor who once dared to seize power through a coup in adversity had now become a coward who bullied the weak and feared the strong.

But Gao Lishi still had not figured it out: what did Brother Ji want Li Guangbi to lead the Chishui Army to Hedong for?

……

Smack!

Sun Xiaozhe received a heavy slap across the face!

He looked in disbelief at his adoptive father Shi Siming, completely unable to understand why, after he returned to Xiurong City, Shi Siming not only failed to comfort him but instead slapped him, appearing absolutely furious.

"Stupid pig! You are a hopeless, stupid pig! You couldn't even see through such a crude scheme of sowing discord!

Cai Xide is going to rebel! He is going to rebel, do you know that!"

Shi Siming cursed at Sun Xiaozhe at the top of his lungs, his whole body trembling with rage.

Without the slightest warning, he suddenly drew his saber and slashed at Sun Xiaozhe.

"Father! Stop, quick! That dog thief Cai Xide is in collusion with the government troops—he deliberately wanted to lose! It truly has nothing to do with me!"

Sun Xiaozhe shouted at the top of his voice while dodging Shi Siming's slashes, scrambling frantically out of the city tower's signing room. Shi Siming chased him all the way to the doorway before finally sheathing his blade.

"Now things are bad."

Shi Siming could not help but sigh.

He went to the map, his eyes fixed on the area around Zhending and Jingxing Pass, his brows tightly furrowed. Cai Xide's surrender was no great matter—nothing more than a few thousand troops, a loss Shi Siming could afford.

But if he meant to offer up the two Jingxing passes to Fang Chongyong as a stepping stone for promotion, then things were very dire indeed.

Once Jingxing Pass was broken, Hebei's western gateway would be thrown wide open. With just ten thousand elite troops, one could range freely through the heart of Hebei.

This had already struck at the very roots of the Hebei rebel army!

To salvage the situation, Shi Siming had no choice but to withdraw from Hedong and return to Hebei via Feihu Xing, to fight the government troops in the heart of Hebei.

The cost-effectiveness of doing so was extremely low!

How could he break this deadlock?

Shi Siming immediately sent for his chief strategist Li Shiyu. All along this campaign of seizing cities and territory, it had been Li Shiyu helping him devise strategies.

Before long, a man nearing fifty arrived at the signing room—lean of face, ordinary in build, wearing a brocade robe, with a long beard. This man was Li Shiyu.

Shi Siming skipped the pleasantries and laid everything out to Li Shiyu in full—Cai Xide's recent defeat, the situation Sun Xiaozhe had encountered, and Fang Chongyong's letter urging surrender.

"Jiedushi, Fang Chongyong is but a Jiedushi of one region. What virtue or ability does he have to pardon an enemy commander? The surrender overture is nothing more than an expedient measure—Jiedushi must not take it seriously!"

Li Shiyu hit the nail on the head, stating outright that Fang Chongyong's attempt to persuade Shi Siming to surrender lacked any sincerity whatsoever.

"How could I not know this? I simply don't know what the next step should be.

I hear that Commander Huangfu is also faring poorly in Henan, and it weighs heavily on this Jiedushi's mind!"

Shi Siming shook his head in disappointment. Sun Xiaozhe was truly unfit for major responsibility—he fought relying on nothing but brute strength, and his brain was barely better than a pig's!

Huangfu Weiming was equally useless at fighting. Over fifty days had passed, and he still had not even begun the assault on Luoyang!

"Cai Xide is likely going to turn. With Sun Xiaozhe's written guarantee in hand, Fang Chongyong need only show this surrender letter to Cai Xide—even if it were me in his place, I would waver just the same."

Li Shiyu sighed softly, holding nothing back, and told Shi Siming everything that was on his mind.

He was a man of great talent, yet had remained frustrated and unfulfilled all his life.

The Great Tang had been at peace for so long that social mores had grown frivolous. Among the powerful, the noble, and the literati, if you did not season your everyday speech and writings with a bit of poetry and romantic flourish, people would not even want to hear you discuss serious matters!

Li Shiyu had talent and held an official post, but precisely because his literary skills were lacking, he had repeatedly faced suppression and been unable to win promotion.

So he had no choice but to attach himself to a Hu man who barely knew his letters, seeking a path to advancement.

Li Shiyu's gaze was piercing—he had seen through Fang Chongyong's scheme at a glance.

"Master Li has great talent. What I worry about is precisely this. But Xiurong is very far from Jingxing Pass—even if we wanted to deal with Cai Xide, we are too far away to reach him."

Shi Siming could not help but sigh with frustration, feeling the bitter helplessness of having a body full of strength with nowhere to apply it.

"Jiedushi, going on like this won't do. Passively parrying means you will always be at someone else's mercy.

But where the enemy can go, we can go too. If you do not disdain me, I am willing to lead a group of sharp-tongued, capable men to infiltrate Chang'an and spread rumors everywhere, saying that Fang Chongyong intends to carve out Hedong and set himself up as king.

When the time comes, the Son of Heaven will want to kill him—let's see whether he rebels or not.

If he does rebel, we can actually pull him over to our side—would that not be splendid? And if he does not rebel, it would be no different from the government troops severing one of their own arms.

I have even composed the prophetic verse: 'Gold and jade held in the mouth, no equal courage in the heart. Taiyuan holds a dragon vein; he who obtains it shall rise.'"

Li Shiyu lowered his voice and offered his suggestion.

Hearing this, Shi Siming immediately clapped his hands and laughed heartily: "Excellent! A brilliant plan, Master Li! Fang Chongyong can use a scheme of sowing discord to force Cai Xide to rebel—why can I not use the same scheme to force him to rebel? That old emperor in Chang'an will likely be unable to hold back any longer."

The frustration in his heart was swept away in an instant.

As for whether Li Shiyu's gambit would actually work, Shi Siming did not much care—he was idle anyway, so why not?

"Then this subordinate shall set out for Chang'an at once."

Li Shiyu clasped his hands in a salute to Shi Siming.

"I trouble you, sir."

Shi Siming put on a show and performed a very unstandard hand-clasping salute. He had always been hot-tempered and rough in speech and manner. But in the presence of cultured men, he still liked to put on an air of propriety.

After Li Shiyu left, Shi Siming hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to hold his troops still for now, to observe the situation in Hedong before determining whether to withdraw back to Hebei and defend against a possible government ambush from the Jingxing direction.

He was like a patient wolf king, lying low when the situation was unfavorable, waiting for the right moment to strike.

……

Fang Chongyong had no idea that Shi Siming intended to use a scheme of sowing discord against him. Of course, even if he had known, he could not have stopped it. This move appeared to be a covert scheme, but was in truth a perfectly overt one.

An old emperor who had lost his sense of security, and a lone official whose father had already "defected"—how much mutual trust remained between them? Only heaven knew.

Human nature cannot withstand such trials!

But at this very moment, Fang Chongyong was attending to another important matter.

At the foot of Mount Fang, by the bank of the Beichuan River. Accompanied by Che Guangqian and others, Fang Chongyong brought only a few personal guards and was strolling along the riverbank, waiting for Cai Xide's arrival.

"Jiedushi, what if Cai Xide doesn't come?"

Che Guangqian asked in puzzlement.

At this moment the two of them were by the riverbank, picking up stones and skipping them across the water for fun.

"No, Cai Xide will not only come—he has been coming every day these past few days."

Fang Chongyong turned and pointed to the traces of burnt-out campfires at the edge of the woods, explaining: "This place is rarely visited, and it is even less likely that anyone would spend the night here. So who lit these campfires?"

Che Guangqian suddenly understood. After mulling over Cai Xide's situation, he realized that the man was likely extremely anxious right now, unable to make up his mind, fidgeting restlessly.

A bit like a desperate suitor waiting for his goddess to show up for a date.

"Jiedushi truly understands Cai Xide."

Che Guangqian could not help but laugh.

But Fang Chongyong gave a bitter smile, shook his head, and sighed, "The fox mourns the dead hare — a creature grieves for its own kind, nothing more."

His current situation was no different from that of the imperial army's 'Cai Xide.'

"Jiedushi, many people are now whispering privately about whether we should throw our lot in with the Crown Prince.

What do you think?"

After a long silence, Che Guangqian suddenly spoke up and asked.

"What do you think?"

Fang Chongyong asked in a low voice.

"The Crown Prince is but a puppet, merely a banner to rally people's hearts.

Once the Hebei rebellion is quelled, the men behind him will inevitably emerge to vie for power and profit. The Crown Prince may not be able to keep them in check.

And the other princes are no easy marks either. Many of them have already been sent out as Military Governors, and they will certainly stir up trouble when the time comes.

To achieve peace under heaven — easier said than done!"

Che Guangqian shook his head and sighed. Though he did not answer directly, he had made clear the drawbacks of siding with Li Chang.

The reason the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army stood out from the rest was entirely due to the overwhelming advantage of imperial power, which allowed it to handpick elite soldiers from the border armies.

This privilege was granted by imperial power.

Crown Prince Li Chang appeared to be the heir to imperial power, but his foundation was far too weak. In the future, the pattern would inevitably be a weak sovereign with strong ministers.

Siding with such a man carried no less risk than fighting another battle against the Hebei rebel army. And the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army was no strong suit in political struggle — unless they truly staged a mutiny and rebelled!

"That is roughly how things stand. In order to hold onto power, the Emperor will certainly rely heavily on eunuchs. If Li Chang does not, his successor will.

Regional Military Governors carving out their own domains, eunuchs monopolizing power at the court, foreign tribes growing strong — this will essentially be the trend over the next ten or twenty years.

We will surely get dragged into trouble, but we must not actively involve ourselves in it.

You must understand: in this kind of mess, the ones who stick their necks out first die first!"

Fang Chongyong was explaining this to Che Guangqian when he spotted several people approaching from afar, wearing the yellow uniforms of the Hebei rebel army, without even a shred of armor on them.

"Might I ask if this is General Cai before me?"

Fang Chongyong called out to those men.

Once they were close, one of them stepped forward, clasped his fists in salute to Fang Chongyong, and said, "The sinner Cai Xide pays his respects to Jiedushi Fang."

This person was without a doubt Cai Xide himself!

Che Guangqian, standing to one side, could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Cai Xide must have been observing from the shadows for a long time before he was willing to come out.

Fang Chongyong truly understood the mindset of such men. If they had brought too many people this time, the other party would likely never have shown his face.

(End of this chapter)