Chapter 1023: Surrender Can Be Discussed

The bleak winter wind, carrying the dampness of the river, drilled frantically through the gaps in the doors, windows, and roof tiles into the Hall of Clear Heart, sharpening the wits of the Jiangnan sovereign and his ministers gathered there. Yet the damp chill of the winter wind was ultimately no match for the coldness in their hearts, especially after Xu Xuan had brought back Emperor Liu's stern and unyielding reply.

With the situation having slid to such a pass, even Chen Qiao, who had consistently advocated resistance, found himself at a loss for words to continue urging Li Yu on and encouraging him to hold out.

The courtiers of Jinling present here were, after all, only literati—barely worthy of being called politicians, and not a single one among them a true statesman. To let them govern the state required caution, and to expect them to save it at a moment of such peril was indeed asking too much of them.

"Sovereign, Emperor Liu's will to unify the realm is firm and unbreakable. Your servant is incompetent and could not sway his resolve!" Xu Xuan spoke again, breaking the oppressive silence and summing up his mission to the Eastern Capital.

Hearing this, Li Yu displayed his magnanimity and said, "Sending Minister Xu north was a move of last resort, undertaken merely as an attempt. Now that the Han army has surrounded the city, how could there be any possibility of them withdrawing?"

Pausing for a moment, Li Yu looked at Xu Xuan and asked, "Minister Xu, in your view, what course should we take?"

At the question, Xu Xuan was silent at first, then raised his head and said solemnly to Li Yu, "Your servant vows to follow the sovereign unto death and to support whatever decision the sovereign makes!"

Hmm, Minister Xu's words were rather cleverly spoken—before Li Yu, he was not nearly as unyielding or confrontational as he had been with Emperor Liu and Li Gu, his resolve unshakable. Xu Xuan's meaning was also quite clear: whether to fight or to surrender, he would follow Li Yu.

Ah, these literati—sometimes they were simply being pretentious.

Another stretch of silence followed. Li Yu sighed, picked up the letter written in Li Gu's hand on the table, and said to the assembled ministers, "The commander of the Han army has sent a letter urging me to surrender. What do you all think?"

The assembled men exchanged glances, their expressions and eyes full of meaning, yet no one volunteered an opinion, as if all were waiting for someone else to take the lead. After a long while, as Li Yu's young face grew increasingly bitter, Zhong Mo stepped forward on his own initiative and spoke with certainty, wasting no words: "Sovereign, your servant believes we should surrender!"

At these words, the others looked at Zhong Mo, all wearing similar expressions: Of course it's you, Zhong Mo!

Ever since the Han army had arrived at the city walls, Zhong Mo's voice had grown louder, and he had become more active. While establishing contact with the Han army, he had also been rallying like-minded associates, preparing to welcome the great army into the city, and even considering assisting the court in stabilizing Jiangnan's governance and people's livelihoods after the war. Of course, if he could persuade Li Yu to surrender and avert a costly siege battle, that would be a merit for Zhong Mo.

"Sovereign, you must not heed Zhong Mo's words and give up lightly!" Chen Qiao also stepped forward: "Our forefathers founded this state with great difficulty, and preserving it is even harder. How can we descendants speak lightly of abandoning it and become unfilial sovereigns?"

Hearing Chen Qiao's words, Zhong Mo could not help but let out a sneer and retorted, "Now the great army is at the city walls, Jinling is as precarious as a stack of eggs, the hearts of the people within are panicked, and the morale of the troops is wavering. With weak soldiers and a feeble army, how can we resist the strong troops of the Central Plains?

If the sovereign surrenders, he will not lose the rank of a prince or marquis. But if he stubbornly resists and the strong army breaches the city, not only will the common people be harmed, but the sovereign's own safety will also be unpredictable! If the ancestral temples are destroyed and the Li clan is cut off, with no one left to offer sacrifices to our fathers and forefathers in the future—is that filial piety?"

When Zhong Mo finished speaking, Li Yu involuntarily shuddered. His imagination was vivid, and his mind automatically conjured scenes of the palace city falling and fierce soldiers running rampant—it was truly chilling to the bone.

In the final analysis, Li Yu was merely a frail scholar, in the wrong place at the wrong time, who had never truly experienced any setbacks. Facing such a crisis, he could hardly respond with composure and was easily swayed by others.

Facing Zhong Mo's rebuttal, Chen Qiao widened his eyes and said to Li Yu with impassioned exhortation, "Since ancient times, no state has been immortal. Surrender will not bring safety either—it will only bring humiliation. I beg you to fight with your back to the city walls."

Moving one's lips cost nothing, and Chen Qiao's loyalty to Jiangnan was sincere. His emotions somewhat stirred, he directly suggested to Li Yu, "Zhong Mo is a traitor who has betrayed his sovereign. I beg you to execute him and offer his head to the banners, to demonstrate our resolve to resist!"

At these words, Zhong Mo was startled, cursing inwardly while his face also tore off all pretense. He said to Li Yu, "Sovereign, Chen Qiao, for the sake of his own convictions, would plunge the sovereign and hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians into death. This is truly a treacherous minister. I beg you to execute him, to demonstrate our sincerity in submitting and to preserve the safety of the entire city!"

"Your servant believes we should surrender!"

"Minister Zhong speaks truly—Chen Qiao should be executed!"

"Your servant concurs!"

"......"

This time, those who openly declared their stance and supported Zhong Mo grew in number, with more than a dozen courtiers directly stepping forward on the spot. At this point, if one did not make his position clear, strike the right pose, and throw in his lot with the court, it would truly be too late.

Seeing this scene, Zhong Mo breathed a slight sigh of relief, while Chen Qiao's face visibly twisted into an ugly grimace. Li Yu's complexion was not much better either. If one had to say whose feelings were the most complicated, it would have to be the sovereign himself.

However inadequate Li Yu might have been as sovereign, he was still the ruler of a state who held court facing south. Even at the end of his rope, the decision to surrender was not one to be made lightly. Moreover, for Jinling, it had not yet reached the true end of the road—the city walls were still sturdy, the defending troops still numbered in the tens of thousands, the populace still in the hundreds of thousands, and food and weapons were not yet in short supply.

After hesitating for a while, Li Yu looked at Feng Yanlu: "Minister Feng, what do you think?"

Feng Yanlu's expression was also solemn. After a brief deliberation, he clasped his hands and said, "The great trend of the world is thus—the countless millions of people all yearn for unification and peace. Since the true sovereign has emerged, going against the current will ultimately not prevail. Your servant has received great kindness from the sovereign. Now that the state is in peril, I seek nothing else but to follow the sovereign with all my might!"

Feng Yanlu's meaning was also expressed quite clearly: the unification of the realm was an unstoppable tide, and surrender was the only way out. He, Feng Yanlu, was willing to follow the sovereign in surrendering.

Li Yu was certainly not a fool, and he understood well. After thinking for a moment, he said with listless weariness, "Let us end today's discussion here. As for surrendering or not, I still need to consult the Empress Dowager and make offerings to the ancestral temples!"

Another court assembly ended in a stifling atmosphere, and in the end, no conclusion was reached. However, in terms of today's content, it could be called a major breakthrough. At the very least, in all the previous discussions, not so many people had loudly shouted the word "surrender."

After the assembly dispersed, Li Yu went directly to find his mother and, in mournful words, explained the current situation, hoping to gain support from her—support for surrendering. Empress Dowager Zhong was virtuous, kind, and gentle—a woman who had merely supported her husband and raised her children, and who never interfered in politics. How could Li Yu expect to receive any strong support by asking her?

In the end, it still came down to Li Yu's own decision. Before the Han army launched its formal assault and breached the city, he still had some time to consider.

Compared to Li Yu's torment, hesitation, fear, and helplessness, Zhong Mo, after leaving the palace, was considerably more relaxed. A number of courtiers gathered directly at his home and held a banquet. Indeed, even with the Han army besieging the city, for these bureaucrats, song, dance, and feasting remained routine activities, seemingly unaffected in the slightest.

However, being somewhat cautious, Zhong Mo first said privately to several officials with whom he was close: "Things have come to this. Judging by the situation in the hall, the sovereign already has the intention to surrender—he is merely still hesitating, and men like Chen Qiao cannot dissuade him. Next, we should spread rumors among the people of Jinling, agitating for surrender. As long as public opinion favors surrender, the sovereign can follow the will of heaven and the hearts of the people, and open the city gates to submit!"