Chapter 181: Tangzhou Recovered

On the sixth day of the fourth month of the second year of Kaixi, in the Jingxi South Circuit, Tangzhou.

Tangzhou was not large. In terms of city defenses, it lacked the brick and stone fortifications of Lingbi; in terms of garrisoned troops, it did not even have the two thousand men that Sizhou had. Yet it was wedged between the Tongbai Mountains and the Tang River, serving as the southern gateway to the Nanyang Basin. Capturing Tangzhou would bring Dengzhou within sight; capturing Dengzhou would choke the throat of the Bian River Western Route. The strategic value of the Central Route lay not in how many enemies were annihilated, but in steady advancement, prying open doorboards one by one—behind every door lay a path leading to the heartland of the Central Plains.

Xue Shusi pitched the main army camp at Huyang Town, thirty li south of Tangzhou. He was not as impatient as Guo Ni. The Eastern Route had already attacked Sizhou and was currently besieging Lingbi; battle reports flew to Lin'an one after another, each carrying the scent of burning oil and blood. Xue Shusi read those reports, then folded them exactly as they were, placed them at the corner of the desk, and continued approving his own grain and supply documents. It was not that he did not care about the Eastern Route—he simply understood that his mission was different. The Eastern Route was the main force, fighting with the momentum of mountains collapsing and seas surging; the Central Route was a secondary force, fighting with the persistence of dripping water piercing stone. A secondary force had its own methods of fighting; stability was more important than speed.

But this did not mean he was not anxious. When no one else was in the tent, he stood alone before the map, his finger slowly tracing the official road from Tangzhou to Dengzhou, his brows knitted into a character resembling 'chuan'. His forces numbered only fifty thousand, of which fewer than thirty thousand were truly capable of open-field combat; the rest were transport soldiers carrying grain and new recruits stationed along the way. He was not fully clear on the strength of the opposing Jin army, but spies reported that the Tangzhou garrison numbered about three thousand, while Dengzhou had more, possibly six or seven thousand. Three thousand men defending a small city—if he attacked with full force, he should be able to take it within three days. But then what? A fierce assault meant casualties, and his forces could not afford heavy losses. The strategy of the Central Route was steady advancement, not a desperate deadlock.

On the twelfth day of the fourth month, Xue Shusi's vanguard arrived at the southern suburbs of Tangzhou. The regiment commander Li Yi led five hundred cavalrymen who arrived first, establishing their position three li outside the city, and held their ground according to Xue Shusi's orders. That afternoon, Xue Shusi's main force arrived; the fifty-thousand-strong army slowly deployed across the open fields south of Tangzhou City, setting up a camp so tightly sealed that not a single gap remained—moats, chevaux-de-frise, arrow towers, and patrol sentries, nothing was missing. He did not rush to attack the city. Instead, he first sent a messenger into the city.

The messenger did not carry a letter of surrender, but a letter personally written by Xue Shusi. The tone of the letter was calm, devoid of the usual threats like "heavenly troops have descended, surrender immediately"; it only stated three things: First, Sizhou has been captured, Hongxian has been captured, and the Eastern Route army is currently besieging Lingbi; the southern Jin army's momentum is broken. Second, the garrison in the city numbers fewer than three thousand, while our army has fifty thousand; a fierce assault would guarantee victory, but I am unwilling to cause unnecessary slaughter. Third, I give you one day to consider. After one day, if you do not surrender, our army will attack the city. Should the city fall, you will bear all consequences.

At the end of the letter, he added a sentence: "The common people in the city are all former subjects of the Great Song; Xue does not wish to add violence with weapons. I hope the general will keep the lives of the entire city in mind."

The Jin army commander in Tangzhou was named Wanyan Alubo, an old military veteran over fifty years of age. Among the generals of the Great Jin's southern front, he was not particularly prominent, but he was known for being steady. The soldiers under his command indeed numbered fewer than three thousand, half of whom were local conscripted soldiers. When the letter arrived, Wanyan Alubo convened a brief meeting with several of his thousand-household commanders. The meeting was held quickly because the situation required no discussion: three thousand against fifty thousand, no reinforcements, no fortified city, and supplies could last only half a month, but within that half-month, absolutely no Jin army reinforcements would appear before Tangzhou City. The main Jin forces were in the north and west; the southern front had been emptied. Over at Lingbi, He Shi Lie Heshilie Zhizhong was still holding on desperately, but here in Tangzhou, there was nothing.

Wanyan Alubo did not hesitate for long. He was not He Shi Lie Heshilie Zhizhong—he lacked the fierce bravery of someone who had fought twenty years of hard battles against the Western Xia, nor did he possess that death-defying will of "if the city stands, I stand." He was a pragmatic professional soldier; for an old veteran, the most important question was not "how to fight," but "what to do after the fighting is over." He knew the grand strategy of the Jin army on the southern front: abandon the frontier small cities, consolidate forces to defend Dengzhou, and if necessary, continue consolidating to defend Bianjing. In the Defense Bureau's plan, Tangzhou was originally listed under the category of "can be abandoned." Since that was the case, there was no point in a desperate deadlock with the Song army here.

On the thirteenth day of the fourth month, before the one-day deadline given by Xue Shusi had expired, the north gate of Tangzhou opened.

Wanyan Alubo led his troops out of Tangzhou under the cover of night. Before leaving, he did two things. First, he had people pour oil on all the supplies in the granary and armory that could not be moved, but he did not set them on fire. In a letter left for Xue Shusi, he wrote very plainly: "Grain, supplies, and military equipment are left for the general, not to show weakness, but because the common people are innocent. If they are burned, chaos will surely erupt in the city, and the people will suffer. I hope the general will restrain the soldiers after entering the city and not disturb the civilians." Second, before withdrawing his army, he personally visited the camp of the conscripted soldiers in the south of the city and said one sentence to these local soldiers: "You are all former subjects of the Great Song; you do not need to follow us. When the Song army arrives, put down your weapons and return home to farm; no one will trouble you."

The conscripted soldiers looked at each other in silence. A few old soldiers burst into tears on the spot—not out of fear, but because after serving as soldiers under the Jin banner for so many years, this Jurchen general still cared about their lives at the very end.

Before dawn fully broke, Li Yi's cavalry entered the city. There was no resistance at the city gate; the city walls were empty. The Jin flags had already been taken down, leaving only bare flagpoles swaying slightly in the morning breeze. The streets were very quiet; occasionally, common people peered out from door cracks. Seeing the Song army flags, the expressions on their faces were neither cheers nor fear, but a cautious, uncertain expectation. Tangzhou had fallen to the Jin for too long—counting from the Song-Jin peace treaty in the eleventh year of Shaoxing when Tang and Deng were ceded, it had been over sixty years. Over sixty years of foreign rule were enough to turn three generations from subjects of the Great Song into citizens of the Jin. But the accent had not changed. The accent of the Central Plains was still the accent of the Central Plains; the dialect spoken among the neighbors was almost identical to that of Xiangyang Prefecture, and even the wording of the couplets pasted on the doors was much the same as in the south, except the era name had been changed to the Jin's "Mingchang."

Xue Shusi entered the city at noon that day. He did not ride a horse through the main gate to show off his power; instead, he entered through the south gate on foot, accompanied only by a few personal attendants and one secretary. He wore a faded green official robe that had been washed many times, without armor and without a sword at his side. He did not look like a commanding general, but rather like a prefect inspecting the people's livelihood. This posture was deliberate—he knew deeply that for a city like Tangzhou, which had been under Jin rule for over sixty years, the Song army was not "royal troops," but "an army from the south." For over sixty years, the feelings of these people toward the Great Song had been separated by two or three generations. The "Great Song" in their memories was stories told by their grandparents, old ancestral tablets secretly worshipped during festivals, or a copper coin with the Jingnan era name hidden in the roof beams. What Xue Shusi needed to do was not to conquer them, but to turn them back into subjects of the Great Song. Conquest relied on the sword; winning the hearts of the people relied on treating everyone equally.

The first thing done after entering the city was not to hang a plaque at the yamen, but to order the posting of a notice to pacify the people. The notice was drafted by him personally, with extremely concise wording, containing only four points: One, the Song army has entered the city; there will be no violation of property. Anyone who forcibly enters a residence will be beheaded, anyone who forces a sale or purchase will be beheaded, and anyone who commits rape or looting will be beheaded. Two, former Jin officials who wish to stay may continue their posts after vetting; those who wish to leave will be given travel expenses; no one will be killed or humiliated. Three, the granary will open to distribute grain for three days; each household will receive one dou, with registration and records kept; the elderly, weak, orphaned, and widowed will receive double. Four, the original land, houses, and shops of the city's common people will remain unchanged in ownership; no one may encroach upon them in the name of "recovery."

The four notices were posted at the four gates; those who could read recited them to those who could not. The effect was immediate. Shop doors that had been tightly closed were taken down one by one; tea shops began boiling water again, and noodle shops began kneading dough again. Brave young people began actively helping the Song army move grain and repair city walls in exchange for a few copper coins. By the third day, the market in front of the City God Temple had recovered; vegetable sellers, firewood sellers, and cloth sellers were hawking their wares just as usual. Xue Shusi specifically changed into casual clothes and strolled through the market. Upon returning, he said one sentence to the secretary: "The people's hearts can be used. But the people's hearts fear inconsistency the most. Whatever we do in Tangzhou, we must not miss a single thing when we go to Dengzhou or Bianjing." The secretary recorded this sentence in the army's daily log.

On the sixteenth day of the fourth month, the plaque at the Tangzhou yamen was officially changed. The plaque-changing ceremony was very simple; there were no firecrackers and no military parade. Xue Shusi simply invited several elderly local gentry to witness the ceremony. When the new plaque reading "Office of the Prefect of Tangzhou, Great Song" was hung up, an old gentry with white hair and beard suddenly burst into tears. The person beside him whispered that this old man's grandfather had been an advisor to the last Great Song prefect of Tangzhou during the Shaoxing era; when the Jin troops attacked, he refused to surrender and was killed. That old plaque had been smashed right in front of his grandfather. For over sixty years, his whole family had lived in Tangzhou without migrating south. They had waited for this new plaque for three whole generations.

Xue Shusi heard this crying. He did not walk over to comfort him; instead, he stood on the steps of the yamen and bowed deeply to those gentry. Then he turned and entered the yamen to begin drafting the battle report for Lin'an.

He pondered the wording of this battle report for a long time. A victory report written too flamboyantly would make Grand Councilor Han happy, but the soldiers of the Eastern Route might not feel comfortable—after all, they had fought a bloody battle at Lingbi for half a month, while he had taken Tangzhou without drawing a sword; no matter how flowery the victory report was, it would seem like he was taking credit for others' efforts. If written too plainly, it would seem insufficiently enthusiastic about the court's Northern Expedition campaign. Finally, he decided to write the truth: Tangzhou has been recovered; the Jin army voluntarily abandoned the city and withdrew north; our army did not attack the city, and casualties were zero; the people in the city are safe and order has been restored; a certain amount of grain and military equipment were captured from the granary; with Tangzhou taken, the gateway to Dengzhou is wide open, and the Central Route army will advance north in the coming days.

After finishing, he added a sentence at the end: "Your subject Xue Shusi respectfully reports: The recovery of Tangzhou was not due to merit in battle, but because Your Majesty's prestige and virtue spread far, causing the Jin people to tremble in fear. However, your subject knows deeply that Tangzhou is small while Dengzhou is large; the Jin people abandoning Tangzhou was not out of cowardice, but to consolidate forces and firmly defend Dengzhou. Your subject has ordered the vanguard under Li Yi to advance to the northern border of Tangzhou to closely monitor enemy movements in the direction of Dengzhou. Once the situation of the battle at Lingbi on the Eastern Route becomes clear, your subject will lead the main force north to jointly attack Dengzhou."

This battle report was written with perfect balance, neither exaggerating nor showing weakness. Xue Shusi read it over three times, confirming that every word could withstand scrutiny, before sealing it with red wax and handing it to the courier. Then he walked to the map, his gaze shifting from Tangzhou toward the northwest—Dengzhou. Dengzhou was the northern gateway of the Nanyang Basin, and the Jin defenses there were far more solid than in Tangzhou. Moreover, the Jin troops were consolidating; the three thousand men from Tangzhou had withdrawn, so the forces in Dengzhou would be even greater. The true test for the Central Route army lay at Dengzhou.

He thought for a moment, picked up his brush, and wrote another private letter to Zhao Chun, the Jinghu Regional Commissioner. The content of the private letter was much more candid than the battle report: "Although Tangzhou has fallen, the situation of the Central Route cannot be viewed optimistically. The Jin people are abandoning small cities to protect large ones, consolidating forces, and waiting with ease to attack the weary; this is an offensive strategy within a defensive posture. If our troops rashly advance north, we may repeat the disaster of the Eastern Route at Lingbi. Please, my lord, transfer another three thousand elite soldiers and sufficient grain for three months to prepare for unforeseen needs."

After finishing this letter, the sky outside the Tangzhou yamen had already darkened. In the twilight, the waters of the Tang River flowed quietly; the Song army flags on the city walls swayed gently in the evening breeze, and the flagpoles still bore the marks of where the Jin flags had been tied. The lights of ten Battalion Commander in the city lit up one after another; cooking smoke rose in wisps, no different from any Great Song city in the south. The recovery of Tangzhou was the first victory of the Northern Expedition's Central Route army, and also the quietest victory since the start of the Northern Expedition—no artillery fire, no street fighting, no beheading of a thousand enemies. There was only a letter, an empty city, the tears of a few gentry, and a plaque hung up again.

Xue Shusi stood by the window looking at this peaceful small city, but in his heart, he was calculating another account. The Jin troops' voluntary withdrawal indicated that they were executing a clear strategy of consolidation. Tangzhou was abandoned, Hongxian was abandoned, Sizhou was abandoned—all these frontier small cities were given up, and forces were pulled back. Where were they consolidating to? Dengzhou, Suzhou, Xuzhou. Pulling the fist back was not to stop fighting, but to strike harder. He knew Dengzhou would never be as easy to take as Tangzhou. The shorter the Jin people made their front line, the more concentrated their forces would be; the more concentrated the forces, the harder it would be to attack the city. The battle at Lingbi on the Eastern Route had already proven this once; the battle at Dengzhou on the Central Route would likely prove it again.

He turned back to the desk, spread out the map, and continued studying the terrain of Dengzhou by candlelight. Outside the window, the city of Tangzhou was peaceful; this was the quietest victory since the start of the Northern Expedition. But quiet did not mean easy.