Chapter 62: The Situation Is Excellent

"How exciting?" Liu Chengyou asked casually.

Li Shaoyou perked up at the question, waving his hand vaguely in the air, and replied in an uncertain tone: "Perhaps, like eating an unripe green plum."

Seeing Liu Chengyou still buried in that edict, Li Shaoyou couldn't help saying: "That old pedant Su Yugui's writings are obscure and hard to understand—no harm in skipping them."

Li Shaoyou was somewhat casual, and Liu Chengyou didn't mind. He put away the edict, set it aside, and said: "This Zhaoyi Military Governorship will probably still need Jinyang to deliberate."

"What do you mean?"

"I recommended Wang Shou'en, the former Patrol Inspector of Luzhou, but unfortunately, just last night, he died of a sudden bout of malaria." Liu Chengyou explained flatly.

Li Shaoyou gave a slight smile: "It seems this man's luck was thin—he had no such fortune."

"He was Wang Jianli's son," Liu Chengyou said.

"Then he must have already exhausted his fortune..."

After a few idle exchanges, Liu Chengyou looked up and calmly fixed his gaze on Li Shaoyou. Being stared at so directly by Liu Chengyou, Li Shaoyou couldn't help feeling somewhat uneasy; a familiar awkwardness crept over him, and he quickly pulled a letter from his bosom: "This is a secret letter from His Majesty to you."

Only then did Liu Chengyou's expression return to normal. He took it casually, tore it open, and began to skim through it. Liu Zhiyuan's personal letter was far more straightforward, and Liu Chengyou read it much more smoothly. As for the contents—besides expressing his and Lady Li's concern for him, it consulted him on strategic matters, the same old question: advance or retreat, attack or defend.

Reading between the lines, one could faintly sense that his old father was not finding the emperorship entirely smooth—the pressure was a bit heavy. Perhaps Liu Chengyou's great victory over the Liao army on his southern campaign had once again surprised Liu Zhiyuan pleasantly, and the old father seemed to think a bit more highly of him.

Putting away the letter, Liu Chengyou pondered for a while, let out a soft sigh, steadied himself, and looked at Li Shaoyou: "Brother You, how is the situation in Jinyang now?"

At this mention, the frivolity on Li Shaoyou's face vanished instantly, and he answered seriously: "One could say it's excellent!"

"In the east, His Majesty personally led troops to defeat Liu Jiuyi and took Tumen (Jingxing); in the north, Shi Hongzhao beheaded Wang Hui and regained control of Daizhou; in the south, you annihilated Geng Chongmei's army and fully occupied Luzhou. Hedong's geographical advantages are now entirely in hand—for a short time at least, the Khitan won't pose too great a threat to us."

"Now, throughout the prefectures under Hedong's jurisdiction, soldiers, officials, and civilians alike have all rallied to us—the new dynasty's situation has gradually stabilized."

"In Shanzhou, imperial army commanders Zhao Hui, Hou Zhang, and Wang Yan killed the Khitan general, surrendered the prefecture, and sent envoys to Jinyang offering their allegiance; the Zhangyi Military Governor, upon hearing that His Majesty had assumed the throne, immediately submitted a memorial of submission; even over in Chanzhou, some petty squad leader gathered a band of villagers, attacked Chanzhou, burned the Khitan ships moored on the great river, and even sent someone by a roundabout route to Jinyang to present a memorial..."

Then Li Shaoyou gave Liu Chengyou several more examples—one prefecture submitting, another county presenting a memorial, or some band of outlaws harassing Khitan troops and killing officials appointed by the Khitan...

In summary, it came down to one sentence: the situation was excellent. Though few were of any scale, and even fewer made much noise, and most were prefectures and counties near Hedong, at least on the surface things looked quite good.

As he spoke, Li Shaoyou grew somewhat excited, as if basking in glory, his expression slightly exaggerated.

During this period, Liu Chengyou had been focused on the fighting in Luzhou and Zezhou and the movements around them. Though news had come from Jinyang, it was ultimately not as clear as Li Shaoyou's personal account.

From the sound of it, there were indeed quite a few forces of varying sizes across the realm coming over to pledge submission. It could be expected that more people would side with Liu Zhiyuan in the days ahead—after all, Liu Chengyou's side had just won a resounding victory, completely annihilating a Liao army.

Though they were in essence Yan troops, Yan troops were still "Liao army"—and the Yan troops' fighting strength wasn't necessarily inferior to those Khitan forces.

"Sounds like the situation is indeed quite good." Liu Chengyou offered his view casually.

At this point, Li Shaoyou quickly changed his expression, suppressing his elation, and said in a tone tinged with amusement: "That's not entirely so. Right now Jinyang is debating again. Generals like Shi Hongzhao advocate riding the tide, seizing the moment while anti-Liao sentiment runs high across the land, to strike out in full force, advance into the Central Plains, and settle the realm swiftly; Yang Bin, Wang Zhang, and others strongly oppose, insisting that since no great change has occurred in the Central Plains, they should stick to the opinion of limited offensives..."

"Brother You, your information network is quite impressive," Liu Chengyou said.

"Of course—I'm now, after all, a relative of the imperial house and a close minister of the Son of Heaven." Li Shaoyou chuckled.

After quietly pondering for a moment, Liu Chengyou asked: "Between the two opinions, what stance does General Guo take?"

"Guo Wei?" Li Shaoyou was briefly taken aback, then quickly recovered, putting on a thoughtful expression: "Him? He seems to be impartial—hasn't taken a side or joined the debate."

Hearing this, Liu Chengyou wasn't surprised. It seemed that with Liu Zhiyuan's assumption of the throne, the friction between civil and military officials in Jinyang had actually shown a tendency to intensify. With Guo Wei's shrewdness, he naturally wouldn't rashly involve himself.

Liu Chengyou looked up at Li Shaoyou, this cousin who was somewhat moody on ordinary days. After a moment's thought, he asked: "What does Uncle think?"

"My father?" Li Shaoyou seemed rather nonchalant: "What could he think? Whatever His Majesty instructs, that's what he does."

Having said this, a glint of cunning suddenly flashed in Li Shaoyou's eyes. He leaned a bit closer to Liu Chengyou and said to him: "I hear that His Majesty originally seemed inclined to recall you to Jinyang and appoint another commander to lead the troops. The Luzhou Military Governorship was also to be given to another Hedong general. It seems Shi Hongzhao made the recommendation—hmm, Yang Bin seems to have had a hand in it too..."

As Li Shaoyou said this, his voice dropped considerably, though his gaze remained calmly fixed on Liu Chengyou's changing expression.

Unfortunately, what he found rather dull was that aside from a slight furrow of the brow, Liu Chengyou's face showed no other expression.

Though Li Shaoyou's words used vague qualifiers like "seemed," "apparently," and "supposedly," Liu Chengyou knew well that where there's smoke, there's fire—he must have genuinely heard some valuable intelligence.

Shi Hongzhao was understandable—that fellow had always been arrogant and self-assured, and he'd never hidden his desire to be the vanguard commander. But Yang Bin—what was his intention?

Just as he was about to think deeper, Liu Chengyou quickly caught himself, let out a soft snort, and glanced sidelong at Li Shaoyou, his voice cold and quiet: "Brother You, what's your purpose in telling me all this?"

Meeting Liu Chengyou's oblique gaze, Li Shaoyou raised an eyebrow and gave a hearty laugh: "Nothing much—just giving you a heads-up, so that if one day you're recalled to Jinyang, you won't be too taken by surprise..."

Liu Chengyou's brow furrowed slightly. This cousin clearly had more to say than he was letting on.

Not dwelling on the matter, he rose and gestured to him: "You've had a tiring journey—let me host a banquet to welcome you."