Chapter 442

"Ziyan, you've finally returned. I've truly missed you so much."

Zhao Ji affectionately grabbed Wang Yan's arm. "I've already heard about the Western Xia affair. Well done, well done indeed. When you left, I was worried and regretful, but I never expected that in your first time leading troops into battle, you would achieve such results. With Western Xia destroyed, you deserve the primary credit. When the war ends, I will certainly reward you handsomely."

"Your Majesty, your subject dare not claim such heavenly merit. It is Your Majesty's keen eye for talent, knowing that your subject could shoulder the responsibility, trusting your subject, and allowing your subject to lead the elite of our Great Song. The merit of destroying Western Xia belongs entirely to Your Majesty, who sits in the Dragon Court, with unmatched strategy. As for the rest, it is the soldiers on the front lines who shed their blood and sacrificed their lives, fighting the enemy without fear of death. Your subject is, after all, merely a merchant. To have had this one battle in my life to fulfill my wish of galloping on the battlefield is enough to die without regrets. Your Majesty should instead bestow great rewards upon the soldiers on the front lines; your subject will not covet the merit."

"All will be rewarded, all will be rewarded." Although he knew it was flattery, it still sounded very pleasant. Zhao Ji laughed and pointed at Wang Yan. "With this great merit of destroying a nation, how could I treat the meritorious soldiers shabbily?"

Wang Yan smiled and picked up his cup to drink tea.

He then asked again about what had happened over the past year and asked about how to govern the newly acquired land, before letting Wang Yan leave. He didn't mention a word about his previous tour and being forced to return; this was the depth of an emperor's mind.

In fact, Zhao Ji hadn't been idle. The civil and military officials who had taken advantage of the war against Western Xia to embezzle had already been dealt with under various pretexts. This was a legitimate reason, and no one could blame anyone else. As for the others, Zhao Ji didn't dare to move against them again; he was afraid of dying inexplicably in the palace, as he had been truly frightened by the rampant banditry across the land previously. So, he was using his wisdom to secretly target people.

By now, it no longer mattered whether they were of the New or Old Factions, or whether they were pure officials or corrupt ones; it didn't matter how the common people at the bottom were living. The key was that he hadn't realized it before, but now he knew the truth: as an emperor, he had always been coerced by his ministers. He refused to accept it; he wanted to struggle. He simply wanted that sense of security from before, where he controlled everything.

The palace guards had already been replaced, and many eunuchs and palace maids had been killed in the palace—all his masterpieces over the past year. Once a portion of the Western Army and the Northern Restoration Army returned to the capital, he felt he would have the confidence, and perhaps by then, he would launch a purge.

Wang Yan could feel Zhao Ji's panic, but these matters had nothing to do with him, and Zhao Ji wouldn't reveal his inner anxiety in front of him. So, he didn't pay it any mind. After reporting to Zhao Ji, he took his leave directly, exited through the Xihua Gate, and headed home.

He had led the only fully formed cavalry unit in which the Great Song placed high hopes. If it weren't for his truly superior martial arts, his proven strategic ability, and his wealth as collateral, Zhao Ji, no matter how muddled, would never have sent someone without battlefield experience into battle. Even with this agreement, his wives and children had all been moved to the capital to live. There was no other reason; it was purely to prevent him from disobeying imperial orders while away. In that case, this could be considered a hand to play, and killing them to vent his anger in an emergency would be a good method.

The news of his return had been sent back by his personal guards, and the whole family was waiting. Seeing him return, Yupan, Jinlian, and Hu San Niang brought the children forward to pay their respects.

Wang Yan laughed heartily and ruffled the heads of the few children who were afraid to get close. "No need for formalities. All of you, go inside, go inside."

"Father, did you win the battle against Western Xia this time?"

Walking alongside his tall father, the nine-year-old eldest young master of the Wang family, Wang Qinghe, asked about the front-line situation like a little adult.

"Of course we won. If not, how could your father return? The Li clan royals have all fled to Mongolia, and those remaining who are putting up a desperate struggle will only last a few more months. Before long, Western Xia will be part of our Great Song."

"Father, will the Emperor grandfather promote you then?"

Walking toward the main hall, Wang Yan answered the children's questions. Upon arriving, he said, "Alright, all of you go and prepare. Later, I will test your studies from the past year or so. Whoever has been lazy, don't blame me for being impolite."

Dismissing the troublesome brats, Wang Yan sat on a stool and looked at his three wives. "I haven't sent many letters home in the past year or so. Is everyone doing well?"

Zhao Yupan spoke first. "With the master's influence, and fighting for the country, the family is all capable. Uncle Fu manages everything in perfect order, so how could we not be doing well? It's just that in the future, the master should avoid taking risks, as it makes people worry."

Jinlian followed, wiping away tears with a handkerchief. "That's right, everything is well, everything is well. It's just that the master has made this slave miss you so much. Knowing the master was risking your life on the battlefield, I've been on tenterhooks all day. Seeing the master return safely today, my heart can finally be at ease."

Hu San Niang rolled her eyes from the side. Although they had a good relationship, it didn't stop her from secretly cursing this little vixen who was so good at putting on an act. "The master should have agreed to let me go with you. I've practiced martial arts for so many years, and being able to share the master's burdens would have been somewhat useful."

Wang Yan shook his head and didn't take the bait, turning instead to chat with the three women about the trivialities of life over the past year. This rambling, everyday simplicity was the warmth of a humble home.

After chatting for a while and giving instructions to set off for Wang Family Village the day after tomorrow, Wang Yan went out to wash away the dust of his journey. After freshening up, he went to the study to meet the steward of the capital residence to understand the situation. This was a member of the main village who had been tested and was qualified to participate in the major affairs of the Wang family, with the authority to know most of the key information. Although he didn't know as much as Wang Fusheng, his understanding of the situation was sufficient.

In over a year, many things had happened. Where the Wang family's business had expanded, what new products there were, how much the income was, the sorting out of relationships in various places, how many new people had been recruited—these were all urgent matters, his capital.

Besides this, there was the expansion of the territory in Liaodong. Compared to the stability of the Great Song, there was never a time when Liaodong wasn't at war; it was either you attacking me or me attacking you. Now, another year had passed, and Lu Zhishen no longer hid his intentions, indulging the Jin Kingdom to attack the Liao Kingdom to recuperate, while he himself began to fight the Liao Kingdom for real. With the Yuguan Pass taken earlier, they were now blooming in two places, both inside and outside the pass. Along the coast, they had even taken everything down to Jinzhou.

Previous actions could only be called small skirmishes. The main reason was that they couldn't hold the places they took; there weren't enough people to govern them, so they were just exclaves—useless even if taken, and they would only waste soldiers' lives. Now, after several years of cultivation, plus some scholars sent out by Wang Yan, they were finally able to support the expansion of territory, so they began large-scale troop deployments.

In fact, in this era, apart from the rising and fierce Jin Kingdom, the Great Song, Western Xia, and the Liao Kingdom were just competing to see who was worse. The most pathetic was, of course, Western Xia; their location wasn't good, and their potential was too small. The Great Song was in the middle; although they looked stronger than Western Xia, they were actually even more pathetic. After all, they occupied good land with such great potential, yet they couldn't do anything right. Even in the original history, the Liao Kingdom had been beaten like that by the Jin Kingdom, and when the Great Song sent troops to fight, they were beaten until their heads were covered in bumps—truly pathetic.

However, the situation was different now. Liaodong was in an era of tripartite struggle. The Liao Kingdom had been suppressed very severely and was now beset by internal and external troubles, unable to cope. Facing the combined attack from Lu Zhishen and the Jin Kingdom, they had long since begun to shrink their forces. After Lu Zhishen seized Yuguan, the throat of the north, this was even more the case. They almost abandoned the entire Nanjing Circuit—that is, the vast land inside the pass bordering the Great Song. They concentrated their forces to protect the Xijin Prefecture (Beijing) area, and for the rest of their defense against the Great Song, they retreated along the entire line, concentrating their forces to detour north to support the northern battlefield.

The land they abandoned belonged to the northern part of the North China Plain. As everyone knew, the plain was a good area for development; this was fertile land. Whether for farming or trade, development here was actually quite good. After all, it bordered the Great Song, and the exchange of production materials greatly drove regional development.

But they were being fiercely hammered by the combined forces of Lu Zhishen and the Jin Kingdom on the battlefield, struggling to resist, and one wrong move would mean the destruction of their nation. At this time, shrinking their defensive line and concentrating their strength in key areas to preserve their foundation was the urgent priority. Especially after Lu Zhishen occupied Yuguan, their control over the Nanjing Circuit had dropped significantly; not abandoning it would be a burden. This was the optimal choice at the moment.

And abandoning this vast land had another benefit: it allowed Lu Zhishen to march south and border the Great Song. Although the Liao Kingdom didn't think much of the Great Song, to whom they had paid tribute for decades, at least they had hundreds of thousands of troops, and at least their military equipment was advanced. Even if they couldn't beat Lu Zhishen's army, they could pin down a portion of their main force at the border, which would make their situation much better.

But after they abandoned the vast land of the Nanjing Circuit, the result was not what they had expected. The Great Song actually only tentatively pushed their defensive line to the Fengnan (Tang Shan) area and did not continue to push forward, nor did they come into conflict with Lu Zhishen's forces. On the contrary, Lu Zhishen's troops chased them to the vicinity of Xijin Prefecture, still catching them and beating them.

The Great Song's cowardice exceeded the Liao Kingdom's expectations. It wasn't that they didn't know the Great Song's elite Western Army was all fighting Western Xia, but even so, the Great Song's Northern Army had two or three hundred thousand men. Over these years, they had strictly enforced military discipline and strengthened training, and their combat effectiveness had improved quite a bit. Yet with so many troops, they didn't dare to march north to fight Lu Zhishen.

How could they know that by picking up this bargain, the Great Song's monarch and ministers were all overjoyed from top to bottom. After all, they hadn't done anything, hadn't spent a single soldier, yet they had received several prefectures. At this time of destroying Western Xia, supplies were being thrown around like they were worthless, so where would they start another war? It was just fine as it was.

Although the Liao Kingdom had ruthlessly plundered the local people when they withdrew, it didn't matter. The Great Song might not be able to afford another war, but they could still manage to provide relief to various places to restore people's livelihoods. Those unemployed officials who only had official ranks but no positions or duties were overjoyed; this suddenly created many positions—what a good thing.

Not achieving the original goal in the Nanjing Circuit didn't matter much to the Liao Kingdom. After all, concentrating resources in a few important areas was better than being scattered and picked off one by one.

After such a toss-up, Lu Zhishen's territory was roughly the entire Liaoning of later times, plus the northern part of the area inside the pass from Tang Shan to Beijing. The most forward position had already reached the Liao Kingdom's capital, Linhuang Prefecture (Chifeng).

In terms of power and strength, they were already the strongest of the three parties. Even the warhorses that were once scarce were now available in fully formed cavalry units, thanks to the spoils of war from battles with the Liao and Jin kingdoms. Internally, agriculture, commerce, and so on were relatively prosperous, and infrastructure construction had never stopped, making them strong in both troops and horses. All that remained was to develop slowly, balance the Liao and Jin kingdoms, slowly nibble away, and in another three to five years, have one big battle to unify the north.

Besides these important matters, there was one unsurprising and unimportant matter.

Liang Shan was gone.

Song Jiang and the others from Liang Shan still couldn't escape their original fate. After fighting Wang Hu, they fought Tian Qing; after fighting Tian Qing, they fought Fang La; after fighting Fang La, they went to the Western Heaven. Even without Cai Jing, Gao Qiu, and Tong Guan, they still died.

It was still the same saying: Zhao Ji held a grudge. The Liang Shan forces were too arrogant, running to the capital to cause a scene and ruining his mood—this was the reason they deserved to die. So, after the Liang Shan forces had suffered more than half their losses, pacified Fang La, received rewards, and handed over their military power to become local officials, they were poisoned to death by the Emperor's wine.

Song Jiang, that good brother, still took Li Kui, that good younger brother, with him. Wu Yong and Hua Rong also followed him to the grave, just as they had originally. Perhaps only at the moment of death did Song Jiang understand that he had taken the wrong path.

Li Kui kept shouting about rebellion, but what did he have to rebel with? His military power had been handed over, and he had no men under his command; he had no power to rebel. Even if he raised his banner again and invited his former brothers, not many would follow him. The few remaining ones had either become monks or were officials; no one wanted to live the life they had before. As for those common soldiers who had joined for various reasons, the Great Song government didn't target them; they were either incorporated into other armies or sent home to live their lives. Who would still follow him?

So they died without a ripple.

After hearing this information, Wang Yan shook his head and smiled, not caring about the end of Liang Shan. After giving instructions to the steward and letting him leave, he silently pondered.

He had been in this world for ten years, and from the day he arrived, he had begun making preparations. By now, with the convenience of being a close minister to the Emperor, he had been constantly infiltrating various places over these years, establishing strongholds, and in every major city across the country, there were basically prosperous villages similar to Wang Family Village. Local civil and military officials had also been won over, and as for the control of the army, whether it was the Northern Army, the Western Army, or the local garrison troops, there were more or less his people, and he could influence quite a few.

And those who belonged entirely to him, who could follow orders without hesitation, besides those under Lu Zhishen, there were also many across the Great Song. He implemented a rotation system; after recruiting a batch of newcomers and sending them to Liaodong, a batch of people who had been fighting and dying there for a long time would be brought back to recuperate. The purpose was to always maintain a sufficient number of available personnel within the Great Song.

It was mainly because he had taken advantage of Zhao Ji. If he hadn't had Zhao Ji's signboard and had been making preparations secretly on his own, he certainly wouldn't have been able to achieve this in ten years. At most, he would have managed Hebei and Shandong well; how could he be like this now, blooming everywhere, with his people everywhere, to the point where even he didn't know where his people were.

He estimated it was about time to prepare. Although Zhao Ji had awakened now, spent less money, and started wanting to govern the country well, it was already too late. Not to mention the signs of the end of a dynasty now, even in a time of peace and prosperity, if he wanted to rebel, no one could stop him. Besides, it had reached this point; he had to go up. Those below who knew the truth were all thinking about it.

Having decided to return to Yanggu County to properly sort out his family's foundation and start working, Wang Yan got up and went out for dinner.

The whole family ate together, and one table couldn't seat them all; the scene was naturally extremely lively. There weren't that many rules in the family, the children were eating, drinking, and playing without a care, and the three wives were chatting and laughing.

Wang Yan, the head of the family, didn't feel how warm it was; he only felt it was noisy. It was mainly because the children had all reached the age where they were disliked by dogs, and although they read the books of sages, it was of no use; they were very boisterous.

After dinner, it was naturally Wang Yan expressing how much he missed his three wives in a solid way...

The next day, he stayed in the capital for another day. On one hand, it was to pack up the things he wanted to take back, and on the other, there was another woman waiting for him, so it wouldn't be good not to go.

On the third day, he put together a large caravan and left the capital. He lay comfortably in the spacious carriage, swaying back and forth, while the little brats who could ride horses chased and played on their ponies in front of and behind the team, happily heading home.

To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that he provided over a million strings of cash every year and money was relatively important, with his current level, Zhao Ji wouldn't have let him leave the capital. Originally, it was very dangerous for him to have so much money and so many people; the garrison troops in the Jingdong West Circuit were watching him. The Imperial City Department had planted people everywhere, and there were quite a few garrison eunuchs, all on guard.

This time, he led the Northern Restoration Army north and forcefully fought out the opportunity to destroy Western Xia, and indirectly directed the course of the entire war, proving that he was a peerless fierce general who led charges and a commanding general who could win battles from a thousand miles away. With the Great Song's conduct, it was even more dangerous.

Someone must have already told Zhao Ji to check and balance him, manipulate him, or kill him. Once the battle in Western Xia was completely over and rewards were distributed, there would certainly be a massive number of memorials impeaching him sent to Zhao Ji, and by then, he would become a scourge of the Great Song.

However, he wasn't worried that Zhao Ji would listen to others and mess with him. After all, the million strings of cash in protection money every year weren't paid in vain. Moreover, when he met Zhao Ji earlier, he had already expressed his intention to be honest and not cause trouble. The most critical thing was that the current Zhao Ji didn't trust the officials in the court or the local areas, and perhaps he didn't even trust those in his football team, or his trusted aides like Wang Fu.

He was different. Every year, he honestly paid his tribute, and he had vision for national affairs; in fact, the Great Song was now following his strategies, just not executed properly. Over these years, except for being dragged into the water by Song Jiang and having no choice but to mess with Gao Qiu, he had always been well-behaved and never done anything out of line. He had no connections with the ministers in the court, and although he had some operations locally, he was doing business, so having some operations didn't matter. This gave Zhao Ji the feeling that he was reliable.

At this moment, his danger was instead what Zhao Ji needed at this stage—someone who could contend with other ministers and could handle affairs.

Just as he said to that dead ghost Song Jiang, only when you have value do you have a reason to live. He not only had value, but a lot of it, and was very much needed.