Chapter 64: I Shall Personally Lead the Campaign to Avenge Lord Geng!

Early the next morning, Li Shaoyou came to bid farewell to Liu Chengyou. Liu Chengyou called him aside for a private talk for a moment, and only then did Li Shaoyou leisurely return to Jinyang to report on his mission.

"What a loss, what a loss!" As the carriage slowly headed north, sitting inside the carriage, sniffing the faint floral fragrance floating in the air, he muttered incessantly to himself.

Leaning back against the carriage wall, his body swaying with the motion of the carriage, Li Shaoyou recalled in his mind the task Liu Chengyou had given him before parting. After returning to Jinyang, he was to prepare a lavish gift and, on behalf of Liu Chengyou, go visit Su Fengji...

Though the words were not spoken plainly, with Li Shaoyou's intelligence, connecting it to the situation at the court in Jinyang, it took no effort at all for him to grasp Liu Chengyou's "deep meaning." The only thing that left him somewhat helpless was that regarding the gift, Liu Chengyou had shown not the slightest indication.

The image of Liu Chengyou's plain, matter-of-fact face surfaced in his mind, and Li Shaoyou felt a bit helpless. Yet though his mouth uttered sighs, his face clearly bore a smile. Second Young Lord Liu was clearly treating him, his cousin, as a trusted confidant.

"Young lord, what are you saying—did you suffer a loss at the Second Prince's place?" Hearing Li Shaoyou's muttering, a beautiful young woman leaning beside him asked curiously.

This was one of Li Shaoyou's favored concubines, recently taken in, whom he doted on greatly—even on this trip to deliver the imperial edict, he had brought her along for his pleasure.

Hearing the lady's charming voice, Li Shaoyou turned his head, gazing at her with a calm expression, then his eyes suddenly sharpened as he coldly rebuked: "What you shouldn't know, don't pry into!"

The man's sudden change of face caught the lady off guard, frightening her. She instinctively lowered her head and hastily uttered two "yeses" in a fluster.

Seeing the lady's delicate, frightened appearance, Li Shaoyou casually pinched her chin, squeezed her tender cheeks, and a smile bloomed on his face: "This time, I truly did suffer a loss—but I'm willing..."

On Liu Chengyou's side, after seeing off Li Shaoyou, he ordered people to summon Murong Yanzhao and Han Tong.

"Your Highness, may we ask what instructions Your Highness has for us two?" In the hall, Murong Yanzhao and Han Tong exchanged a glance, then looked to Liu Chengyou and asked.

Liu Chengyou didn't waste words, directly giving orders: "There's trouble in Jinzhou. Luo Conglang, Deputy Military Governor of the Jianxiong Army, has imprisoned our court's envoys and intends to betray and serve the enemy. Jinyang has decided to send troops to punish him, to destroy the disloyal, take Jinzhou, and defend Hedong! The edict orders me to dispatch troops. I want you two to lead the army westward!"

Jinzhou lies about two hundred li west of Luzhou. As can be seen from the map, since taking Luzhou, the only gap remaining in the core defensive area of Hedong was the territory of Jinzhou.

"As ordered!" Han Tong accepted the command very crisply.

Murong Yanzhao, however, thought a bit more and asked: "Your Highness, our army has far to travel—why doesn the court send troops from the closer Xizhou and Qinzhou instead of going far rather than near?"

"Xizhou and Qinzhou are close, but their forces are weak—barely enough for self-defense, let alone launching an attack. All things considered, we truly are the only suitable choice!" Liu Chengyou explained briefly and plainly.

"This time, we'll dispatch the Fourth Army and the Cavalry Division!"

"Our thousand-plus infantry and cavalry?" Han Tong blurted out in surprise.

Liu Chengyou instead looked at Murong Yanzhao: "Brother Yanzhao, any more questions?"

Murong Yanzhao thought for a moment, then with a "snap" clasped his fists: "This officer obeys the order!"

After replenishment from Luzhou and Zezhou, each of the Longqi armies had been expanded, and the Fourth Army under Murong Yanzhao's command had finally shed its "congenital deficiency," with its establishment fully supplemented.

Saying this, Liu Chengyou then explained to the two of them the situation in Jinzhou.

The situation in Jinzhou was not particularly complicated, similar to Luzhou. Originally, Liu Zaiming, the Acting Military Governor of Jinzhou, had also gone to the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng, to pay homage to Yelu Deguang, leaving Deputy Governor Luo Conglang to manage Jinzhou's military affairs. After Liu Zhiyuan proclaimed himself emperor, he sent envoys Zhang Yanhong and Xin Chuming to Jinzhou to announce his ascension and win over Jinzhou's civil and military officials.

Unfortunately, the results seemed less than satisfactory. Luo Conglang's attitude was ambiguous—perhaps he harbored expectations for the Khitan's strength, or perhaps he was simply covetous of power and unwilling to submit. While Liu Chengyou and Geng Chongmei were wrestling with each other, he imprisoned the two envoys, Zhang and Xin.

The current situation in Jinzhou, compared to Luzhou half a month ago, might be somewhat more tense, but it wasn't much more severe. Liu Chengyou sending Murong Yanzhao was giving him an opportunity to independently demonstrate his abilities. Liu Chengyou still had some confidence in Murong Yanzhao.

In the third month, the Eastern Capital's atmosphere seemed even more oppressive.

The various Khitan armies that had been plundering the capital's outskirts were finally slowly gathering back. It was clear that the Khitan army had "reaped a bountiful harvest"—from generals down to common soldiers, not one had empty bags.

Gold, silver, valuables, silk, brocade, grain, livestock... all kinds of wealth were piled up like mountains in the Khitan army camps. For a time, the Eastern Capital had nearly concentrated all the wealth of the Central Plains in one place.

At the same time, under Yelu Deguang's edict, several groups of troops had already been escorting wealth northward.

In the Bian Palace, Yelu Deguang was still his old self, enjoying the fruits of his victory. Of the beauties in the Later Jin's harem, fewer than one in ten had received his favor—he was still working on it.

The "bad news" coming from the various prefectures of the Central Plains could no longer affect Yelu Deguang. For him, as long as the Hebei region remained stable, everything was temporarily acceptable.

In fact, though there were also disturbances and unrest, compared to the Central Plains, which was already seething like hot oil, the situation in the Hebei region was indeed much more stable.

Recently, Yelu Deguang's mood had been fairly good. That group of "rioters" in Chanzhou had been swiftly suppressed after the main Liao army deployed, and the "rebel leader" Wang Qiong was killed. Though the ferry crossing had been destroyed, they had begun scouring the great river for boats, preparing to rebuild a pontoon bridge at the Baima Crossing in Huazhou to the west.

At the same time, the scattered Liao forces had regrouped, giving him a greater sense of security. The northward withdrawal was also proceeding very smoothly—large quantities of wealth had already been loaded onto carts, and most of the treasure in the Bian Palace had been packed up.

The formerly threatening surrendered Jin soldiers had also been split up by him—a portion was given to Du Chongwei to take to Yecheng. The rest were dispersed and used for transporting wealth, weapons, and livestock, doing hard labor. (This was a foolish move—among these surrendered Jin soldiers, some killed their Khitan army supervisors and seized the supplies, while others simply offered themselves to Hedong as a means of advancement...)

In fact, in the Bian Palace, Yelu Deguang was no longer as "debauched" as he had been in his earlier days of triumph. During this period, he had somewhat "reined himself in."

"Your Majesty." Director Zhang Li, holding a memorial, came to pay his respects.

Zhang Li was also an old Han minister of the Khitan, having served two generations of Khitan emperors. Yelu Deguang was still fairly courteous to him, waving his hand and saying: "Be seated."

But Zhang Li clearly didn't even have the mood to sit down. His face didn't bother to hide his concern at all, and with a grave expression he said to Yelu Deguang: "Cui Tingxun of Heyang reports that the Yan troops led by Geng Chongmei have been completely annihilated..."

"Oh, I see." Yelu Deguang responded casually at first, then suddenly reacted, his expression changing drastically: "What did you say? How is that possible?"

Zhang Li wiped sweat from his forehead that may or may not have existed, and handed the memorial to Yelu Deguang: "These are the details reported by Cui Tingxun. Your Majesty, please take a look..."

With a gloomy face, Yelu Deguang read it through once, and immediately flew into a rage.

Soon, Yelu Deguang summoned a host of Hu and Han ministers to Chongyuan Hall for deliberation, expressing his fury in a near-roar, disregarding his ministers' counsel: "I shall personally lead a great army north, break Luzhou, trample Hedong flat, and avenge Lord Geng!"

Yet, though the slogan was shouted loudly, not a single thing was actually carried out afterward. Aside from ordering the Liao's subordinate prefectures and counties around Hedong to strengthen their defenses against Hedong, Yelu Deguang ordered an acceleration of the northward withdrawal.