Chapter 503: Two Envoys Arrive with Gifts

Although his mission had not been accomplished, after spending a night in Shouchun, Sun Sheng still requested to return to Jinling to report to Li Jing—only to be refused by Liu Chengyou. Then, Sun Sheng discovered that he had been placed under house arrest, though the official story was that he had become a guest of honor of the Han Emperor, accompanying the imperial entourage south to Hefei.

As for how Jinling would respond, one of the accompanying officials was released and sent back to report to Li Jing. Thus, two days later, what Li Jing learned in Jinling was that Sun Sheng, before the Han Emperor, had displayed the arrogance of a bookish scholar, spoken rudely, provoked the Han Emperor's wrath, and instead incited him to raise an angry army and launch a full-scale invasion southward.

During these two days, the regions along the Yangtze in the Southern Tang could be said to be raising alarms everywhere—Yang, Tai, Chu, He, Shu, and Huang, not one place was free from the Han army's campaigns. Setting aside other places for now, the three prefectures of Yang, Chu, and He pointed almost directly at Jinling. Especially after the Han army reinforced its troops southward, the Southern Tang's river-defense forts and military towns had lost quite a few more.

"We employed a man of poor character, sending Sun Sheng north to negotiate peace. Who would have thought his temperament was so fierce that he provoked the Han Emperor, instead drawing his great army southward." In the main hall of the Tang palace, Li Jing sighed mournfully, sweeping his gaze over the assembled ministers: "With only generals like Murong Yanzhao, the river defenses are already reporting emergencies everywhere. Now that the great Northern Han army is advancing south, how can we block them? How should We respond?"

At this time, there were not many people in the hall, but their current political demand was all the same—advocating peace. Han Xizai and others, over these past few days, had been repeatedly agitating and conspiring, petitioning Li Jing, hoping he would resolve to resist the Han, persevere to the end, and not speak of peace. They had annoyed Li Jing so much that he simply refused to see them.

"Your Majesty, in your servant's view, the only course now is to send another envoy north to personally meet the Han Emperor, to vent his anger and show the sincerity of our peace negotiations." The Remonstrance Grand Master Wei Cen rose and replied.

As his words fell, Feng Yansi rose and said cautiously: "Your Majesty, in your servant's observation, the Han Emperor's anger is probably not entirely provoked by Lord Sun. The Han Emperor is ambitious and greedy as the sea; if his insatiable appetite cannot be satisfied, I fear he will never withdraw his troops. If our court wishes to negotiate peace, we must carefully consider what price must be paid before we can move the Han Emperor's heart!"

Feng Yansi's words were blunt yet also veiled—some matters could only be decided by Li Jing himself. Li Jing, clearly understanding his meaning, glanced at Feng Yansi, his old face sinking heavily.

After a long while, he sighed despondently and said: "Send another envoy north with generous gifts, to state plainly to the Han Emperor that We are willing to proclaim ourselves his vassal and pay tribute, and to cede the six prefectures of Guang, Shou, Hao, Si, Chu, and Hai to the Han, hoping he will cease hostilities!"

Upon uttering this decree, not only Li Jing but even the peace-advocating ministers present unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Feng Yansi and the others actually held much the same view—as the weaker side, taking the initiative to negotiate peace naturally required paying a great price, but the specific price had to be considered by the emperor himself. If ministers spoke on his behalf, and in future days the state was lost and honor humiliated, and the emperor came to regret it, there would be no good outcome for them.

Having made this "extremely difficult" decision, the next problem arose: who would be willing to serve as envoy? Li Jing asked this question. The assembled ministers fell silent, unconsciously lowering their heads. No one was willing to go on this mission—it was not a good assignment. Setting aside everything else, Sun Sheng was still being detained up north by the Han Emperor.

Seeing the reaction of these ministers, Li Jing could not help but grow angry: "You all eat the ruler's grain and receive the state's favor—will you not share the worries of your lord and father? Must We personally go north to beg for peace from the Han Emperor? Must We alone bear the humiliation of this treaty that loses the state?"

After Li Jing's words fell, the assembled courtiers still remained silent, burying their heads and playing dead. Li Jing's expression grew increasingly anxious. At this moment, the Hanlin Academician and Vice Minister of Revenue Zhong Mo stepped forward, prostrated himself at full length, tears welling in his eyes, his voice choked with emotion: "Your servant is willing to make the journey north of the river on Your Majesty's behalf!"

With someone volunteering, the tense nerves of the assembled courtiers finally relaxed somewhat. Seeing this, Li Jing, also with reddened eyes, descended the steps and personally helped Zhong Mo up: "Minister Zhong has experience as envoy to the Han; going north, you will surely accomplish the mission. I trouble you!"

Zhong Mo sighed and said through gritted teeth: "When the lord commands, the servant resolves his worries. Please rest assured, Your Majesty!"

"Your servant is willing to accompany Vice Minister Zhong!" At this moment, another minister stepped forward—it was the Wenli Academy Academician Li Deming.

Seeing his solemn expression, Li Jing was deeply moved, feeling something like "In fierce winds, one knows the sturdy grass; in turbulent times, one recognizes the loyal minister." Without further ado, he immediately appointed Zhong Mo and Li Deming as chief and deputy envoys, sending them north in haste with gifts.

After Zhong and Li departed northward, Li Jing received two reports of victory. One came from Ezhou—the Wuchang Military Governor Liu Renshan reported that he had defeated the invading Hunan bandit army at Changshan Fort, the bandit general Wang Kui fleeing in defeat, with three thousand enemy soldiers annihilated.

This was because Wang Kui, previously appointed by Liu Chengyou as Military Governor of Wuping Army, had been ordered to assist the Northern Han in campaigning against the Tang. Leading six thousand Langzhou troops, he entered Ezhou territory. Attacking the Tang's Changshan Fort, he was ambushed from the rear by Liu Renshan and suffered a great defeat, losing over half his troops before fleeing back to Hunan in disgrace. Thus, of the two allied armies campaigning against the Southern Tang, Wuyue and Hunan had both been defeated by the Tang army in succession—proving that "allies" were not to be relied upon.

The second report came from the Prince of Yan, Li Hongji, stating that General Lin Renzhao had led two thousand naval troops in a surprise attack on the Han camp at Liyang, destroying the camp and killing over a thousand enemies. No mention was made of their own losses, and the battle results looked rather modest, but this was the best result against the Han army that the Tang court had received in recent times.

A single spot of green in a field of flowers—conspicuously eye-catching. Of course, when it came to the best record against the Han, it still belonged to Guo Tingwei at Xuyi. Even He Jingzhu, defending Shouchun, had inflicted no small casualties on the Han army, but no one spoke of it, and the news was hard to spread.

Knowing full well that the court was pushing for peace negotiations, the still-unreconciled Prince of Yan of the Southern Tang, Li Hongji, reported this matter to the court precisely to lift the spirits of Li Jing and the Southern Tang court—to tell them that, relying on the river defenses, they could still wrestle with the Han army.

The effect naturally existed, but such a victory carried too little weight. In fact, upon hearing the two reports of victory, Li Jing was pleased for a brief moment—just a brief moment, after all, the greater tide was hard to reverse. Moreover, Li Jing was even worried whether Lin Renzhao's battle might provoke the Han army and affect the peace negotiations.

Nevertheless, despite his fluctuating emotions, Li Jing still issued edicts of commendation to Liu Renshan and Lin Renzhao—especially Lin Renzhao, who was directly promoted to Defense Commissioner of Hezhou and Commander of the Jiangbei Field Camps.

At Hefei, Liu Chengyou had arrived, and the Huainan field headquarters had been relocated here to oversee the various Han armies' campaigns against the river-bordering prefectures and counties. At the same time, Liu Chengyou had dispatched the Iron Cavalry, Fengguo, and Xiaodi armies; in the Chu, Yang, and Tai prefectures, Han army strength was somewhat insufficient. Before the imperial presence, only the Fengchen Battalion and the Husheng two wings, over eight thousand troops, remained for protection.

The memorial from Hunan and the report of the Liyang defeat arrived on Liu Chengyou's desk almost simultaneously. Regarding the Liyang battle report, the Han army's version was far more detailed and far more truthful. In the surprise attack by Lin Renzhao, 372 Han soldiers had been killed, the camp destroyed, and of the 1,500 shi of grain stored there, 1,000 shi had been burned. In the course of the fighting, over 400 Tang soldiers had been killed.

Zhang Yongde submitted a memorial to Liu Chengyou, stating that his negligence and laxity had allowed the Tang army to take advantage, and requesting that Liu Chengyou acknowledge his guilt. In response, Liu Chengyou had someone issue him a reprimand, while also telling him that a small defeat was of no consequence—just remain vigilant. He also issued an edict, circulated to all Han army units in Huainan, that the Tang army still had fight left in them and that no one should underestimate the enemy or grow careless.

As for Wang Kui's defeat at the hands of Liu Renshan, Liu Chengyou ordered a reward of one hundred bolts of patterned silk for Wang Kui, while merely remarking: "Hunan is about to see upheaval."

The current situation in Hunan was essentially that Wang Kui, Zhou Xingfeng, and those ten brothers each divided power, controlling military and civil affairs—Wang Kui being the strongest, Zhou Xingfeng second. Now that Wang Kui had lost the battle and three thousand troops, with his strength greatly diminished, "brothers quarreling within the walls" was inevitably unavoidable.

Of course, how the situation in Hunan developed was something Liu Chengyou had no time to attend to at the moment. Or perhaps he had no intention of attending to it—like a chicken rib, tasteless to eat; setting it aside for now was not much of a loss...

"One thousand liang of gold vessels, two thousand bolts of brocade and silk, imperial garments, rhinoceros-horn belts, tea, medicines, and various other items, plus five hundred oxen for rewarding the troops and two thousand shi of wine!" Inside Hefei city, Li Fang read out to Liu Chengyou the gift list presented by the Tang envoys who had come north.

"Now this shows sincerity in seeking peace! From this gift list, one can see that the false Tang is still wealthy—their gesture is by no means small!" Liu Chengyou took the list, glanced at it twice, and said flatly: "Send the oxen to the north of the Huai and hand them over to Wang Pu for disposition. As for all the other gifts, distribute them entirely to the various army officers. Additionally, send meat, wine, and those two thousand shi of wine to reward the soldiers!"

"Yes!" Li Fang acknowledged, then immediately asked Liu Chengyou: "The Tang envoys Zhong Mo and Li Deming—when will Your Majesty receive them?"

His eyes rolling slightly, Liu Chengyou raised a finger and said: "Let them cool their heels for a night first. Tomorrow morning, take them to the military camp and let them watch our Han army drill. Tell Li Chongjin to train them well and to receive the Tang envoys properly—do not let our Han army's prestige fall before foreign envoys!"

Understanding Liu Chengyou's intent almost immediately, Li Fang chuckled and replied: "As you command!"