Chapter 20: One Question (Congratulations to Xiao Ming on His Happy Marriage)

Dangers in chaotic times are always inexplicable and muddled, just like this rebellion of Han Shizhong's—absurd indeed, but the danger was also real, because when humans are unrestrained, they are capable of anything.

Actually, in theory, this wasn't the first time our Lord Zhao had encountered such an incident. Earlier in the temporary capital, some members of the Red Heart Squad had misunderstood his words, thinking the Jin army had arrived, and prepared to seize him as a stepping stone to return to Liaodong.

Conversely, this couldn't be the last time either. Following the tradition of Chinese professional military since the Tang Dynasty's Fanzhen system, right up to the fall of the Song, and possibly extending to the end of the Ming, similar incidents recorded in history are simply too numerous to count.

However, this false alarm was also special... because after being backed into a corner and throwing caution to the wind, what Zhao Jiu gained was not only an unprecedented sense of security, nor merely the beginning of some inexplicable confidence in himself—the key was that others' views of this Lord Zhao had also undergone some subtle changes.

"Lord Li has fallen ill and truly cannot handle affairs anymore?"

Under Han Shizhong's personal escort, at noon on the fifth day of the eleventh month, Zhao Jiu, wearing a cowhide belt, had just arrived outside Shunchang Prefecture (also Yingzhou City, later Fuyang) when he received this report from Lu Haowen, the Vice Minister of the Right of the Department of State Affairs.

Yet, like everyone else's reaction, Lord Zhao showed neither much surprise nor excessive concern.

The reason was that everyone knew the cause of Li Gang's earlier illness, and the worsening of his condition was expected. Moreover, Li Gang was only forty-five this year, usually strong and vigorous with plenty of energy, and having now arrived in a large city like Shunchang Prefecture, which lacked neither medicine nor doctors, he could receive proper care. So there was no need to worry excessively about something as probabilistic as catching a cold.

However, besides this, there was an unspoken understanding among everyone: while Li Gang was outstanding in administration and a good hand at overseeing court affairs, his conduct was rough and violent. He had offended who knows how many people, and who knows how many wished he would take a rest so everyone could catch their breath.

Besides, wasn't there still a Lord Zhao here who had suppressed a rebellion with a hundred cavalry and used a belt to secure military power? Everyone wouldn't be without a backbone.

Back to the present, Han Shizhong, with seven or eight thousand troops, naturally couldn't lead the army into the city. He went to arrange defenses and set up camp outside the city, while Zhao Jiu, surrounded by the civil and military officials of the temporary court, entered Shunchang Prefecture. After visiting Li Gang with the hundred officials and returning, he settled in, and it was already evening.

However, just as this Lord Zhao sat down in the government hall, ready to brief everyone on the situation and share information, Wang Boyan, the Vice Commissioner of the Bureau of Military Affairs, cautiously stepped forward... It turned out that Shunchang Prefecture (Fuyang) was a key town on the Huai River, connecting the two Huai regions and serving as a hub for water and land routes. So in just three to five days, information from all sides had gathered here, and Wang Boyan, as the head of the Bureau of Military Affairs in the temporary capital, dared not fail to report.

"Jinan Prefecture (formerly Qizhou, now the Jinan area) fell in five days?" Zhao Jiu was dumbfounded. "I've seen the map too. Jinan Prefecture is so large, and it's the capital of Jingdong East Circuit. Jinan City is also a famous city in the world, with a large population. How could it fall in five days? Even the Jin army riding horses past would take five days, right?"

"Let Your Majesty know," Wang Boyan's words grew even more cautious. "Liu Yu, the Prefect of Jinan Prefecture, surrendered Jinan to the Jin. The defending general in Jinan Prefecture, Guan Sheng, originally intended to leave the city and set up separate camps to resist the enemy, but was poisoned to death by Liu Yu. This happened over ten days ago..."

Zhao Jiu was momentarily dazed, lost in thought.

Of course he would think. First, the name Guan Sheng was too familiar. Second, Liu Yu also gave him a vague impression, probably seeming like a notorious traitor. As these hazy pieces of information overlapped, Zhao Jiu roughly understood in his heart that this should be something like a cutscene or a scripted event... He was seven or eight hundred li away, had never interfered in Shandong affairs, and the butterfly effect probably hadn't reached there, so naturally there was nothing he could do.

However, Lord Zhao was mistaken here. He certainly didn't know that this matter was actually caused by him, or rather, the truly large-scale butterfly effect had already swept across the entire world ever since he stopped at Bozhou!

Take this matter for example. In fact, if Zhao Jiu hadn't called Li Gang back and had instead fled south to Yangzhou, then this notorious traitor might not have taken office in the already devastated Jinan until next year, and surrendered to the Jin there. But now, because Lord Zhao had stayed long in Bozhou and waited there for Li Gang to return and overhaul the court administration with bold measures, Liu Yu, this Judicial Commissioner who had fled back from Hebei, didn't even have time to take a detour through Jianghuai before taking up his post in Jinan Prefecture early.

But it didn't matter either. Under the overall situation, there were plenty of civil officials like Liu Yu, who were terrified by the Jin army and, upon hearing they were to take office along the Yellow River, harbored a deep hatred for the governing officials. And to be honest, Jinan Prefecture bore the brunt of the attack. With a hundred thousand main Jin forces advancing south, even if they could hold out for a while, it would only delay things by a few days or force the Jin to split their forces to besiege the city.

Otherwise?

Did Zhao Jiu have troops to send for rescue? If Liu Guangshi could stabilize south of Mount Tai, that would already be a godsend.

Conversely, people like Liu Yu, being at the top, probably knew the true state of the Central Plains. Coupled with their weak spines and evil natures, they became traitors without any pressure.

"Behind Jinan Prefecture is Zizhou (the Zibo area of Shandong today), right?" After 'understanding' the situation, Zhao Jiu showed neither much surprise nor excessive discussion of the matter. In the eyes of the civil and military officials of the temporary court, this naturally displayed considerable composure. "Who is the Prefect of Zizhou?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, it is Zhao Mingcheng," Lu Haowen, the Vice Minister of the Right of the Department of State Affairs, replied immediately. Since this Vice Chancellor knew that Zhao Jiu had forgotten many people and matters, he took the initiative to add a few more words. "Zhao Mingcheng, styled Defu, is the third son of former Grand Councilor Zhao Tingzhi. Previously slandered by the traitor minister Cai Jing, he lived in seclusion in Qingzhou for over a decade. A few years ago, he was reinstated and served successively in Qingzhou and Zizhou. This time, he was appointed nearby by Lord Li..."

Hearing this, Zhao Jiu suddenly shook his head and laughed: "I naturally know this. He's the husband of Yi'an Jushi! This man shouldn't surrender to the Jin, right?"

"Naturally not!" Lu Haowen replied extremely quickly. "The son of a Grand Councilor, how could he surrender to the Jin? Only a worthless scoundrel from Hebei like Liu Yu would bring about such a disaster!"

"That's good then." Zhao Jiu sighed, then spoke clearly. "In the end, the temporary court here is still blocked by the roads. Once the Huaixi bandit Ding Jin is defeated and Lord Li wakes up, the generals and chancellors can jointly discuss the next steps... The urgent task now is to ascertain the battle situation at Caizhou and Guangzhou ahead."

As soon as these words were spoken, the assembled civil and military officials in the temporary court breathed a half-sigh of relief... It was strange how people's minds worked. When Li Gang was in power, everyone felt he was too violent and impatient, hoping the Lord Zhao would intervene. But now that Li Gang was ill and the Lord Zhao was temporarily in charge, everyone remembered the Lord Zhao's earlier remarks like 'can we fight,' and worried he might go berserk, instead hoping to continue Li Gang's original roadmap.

But regardless, leaving aside what the civil and military officials in the temporary court thought, or their later shock and uproar upon learning of the 'Commandery Prince's' words, after the Lord Zhao returned and held this court session, roughly indicating he wouldn't arbitrarily change the roadmap, the Great Song's exiled court finally had a few days of peace.

However, this peace was only superficial, a temporary stability under the collapse of the overall situation... In the following days, as Liu Zhengyan's campaign in the southwest went poorly—or rather, the Huaixi bandit Ding Jin, knowing his own troops were weak, concentrated his forces to defend the city without coming out, leaving Liu Zhengyan helpless—and as Li Gang's illness came on like a mountain collapsing and left like silk being drawn, his condition stabilizing but him still unable to come out and manage affairs, the stability in Shunchang Prefecture grew increasingly ridiculous, and a restless mood spread throughout the entire prefectural city.

On the thirteenth day of the eleventh month, another piece of news arrived: Several days earlier, the son of the Grand Councilor, the husband of Yi'an Jushi, and Prefect of Zizhou, Zhao Mingcheng, though he hadn't surrendered to the Jin, had chosen to abandon the city and flee, just like many Great Song civil officials in recent years. He had taken the several thousand local troops under Zizhou's command with him to neighboring Qingzhou, and Zizhou fell in eight days.

This time, the entire temporary court was terrified, and people began again to urge Lord Zhao to take the opportunity to change course from Shunchang Prefecture southeast to Yangzhou!

Of course, this person met with the first manual disciplinary action since Zhao Jiu had emerged from the well... Didn't he want to go south? Perfect, he could go to Qiongzhou to wait for Lord Huang!

However, on the fifteenth day of the eleventh month, just two days later, shortly after the temporary court had issued its urging to Liu Zhengyan, another piece of bad news arrived:

To be fair, Liu Hongdao, the Prefect of Qingzhou, was a good man. Not only did he not surrender or flee, but he gathered the routed troops from Jinan Prefecture and Zizhou, along with Qingzhou's local forces, to assemble tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians. He handed command over to the prefecture's senior general, Zheng Zongmeng, and Zheng Zongmeng wasn't a coward either. He took the initiative to lead the troops to the border between Qingzhou and Zizhou, using the terrain to engage the main Jin forces in a field battle!

The result? He was crushed in a single battle by Jin Wushu, who commanded five Wanhu units!

At this point, the official Great Song military strength in Jingdong East Circuit was essentially wiped out, and the entire circuit could be declared completely lost.

The temporary court was so shocked that they were speechless for an entire day. Subsequently, news arrived that Zhang Kan, the County Magistrate of Qingzhou's administrative seat, had died for his country, while Liu Hongdao and Zhao Mingcheng had fled south together. But no one paid any attention anymore... because the entire temporary court was in chaos. A flood of memorials begged Lord Zhao to set out immediately for the southeast; a few suggested establishing a defense line along the Huai River; and impeachments of Liu Zhengyan for incompetence, requesting Han Shizhong to replace him, were practically a staple in every memorial.

Amidst this chaos, in the afternoon, several key ministers of the central government, who had jointly suppressed intelligence about the main force of Wolanyan appearing in the Luoyang and Shanzhou area, visited Li Gang together under the leadership of Lu Haowen, the Vice Minister of the Right of the Department of State Affairs. After returning, they immediately went to see the Lord Zhao again, preparing to convene an emergency meeting of the Chancellery... only to be shocked to discover that Lord Zhao had, at this critical juncture, abandoned the civil and military officials in the city and secretly slipped out to Han Shizhong's military camp by the Ying River.

"Liangchen, why aren't you wearing your jade belt?" Zhao Jiu had been standing on the river embankment for a long time and finally saw Han Shizhong rushing over. As soon as he turned his head and spoke, it made Yang Yizhong, standing nearby, feel a slight pang of jealousy.

"Such a precious treasure, how could I, your subject, really wear it every day?" Han Shizhong, who had just stepped onto the embankment, hurriedly bowed and then grinned, but this time he stood quite straight. "I left it in the camp for my wife to keep!"

"As long as it doesn't hinder going into battle, this kind of thing should be worn on your person every day to show off to others," Zhao Jiu said nonchalantly. "What's the point of keeping it stored away?"

Han Shizhong nodded repeatedly... He thought so too. If someone was jealous, let them be jealous. Without jealousy, wouldn't it be boring?

"Let's set that aside," Zhao Jiu formally turned around, taking the opportunity to change the subject, but his expression grew serious. "Liangchen, do you know what I called you here privately to ask?"

"I know!" Han Shizhong raised his hand and pointed to the sky, speaking bluntly. "If Your Majesty gives me ten days and I don't defeat Ding Jin, I'll bring my head to see you!"

"What is Ding Jin?" Zhao Jiu shook his head with his hands behind his back. "No matter how incompetent Liu Zhengyan is, it's just a matter of a few more days..."

"Then, Your Majesty..." Han Shizhong was a rogue, not a fool. He almost instantly connected it to some rumors he'd heard these past few days and had a slight realization.

"Liangchen, I've been backed into a corner by the situation again. Give me an honest answer." Saying this, Zhao Jiu gritted his teeth secretly, stepped forward two paces, took the initiative to grasp Han Shizhong's hands, and asked a question that had been hidden in his heart for a long time. "In the current situation, can we really not face the Jin in a direct battle?"

Han Shizhong, his hands held, started to speak several times, then stopped. How could he not know the debates within Shunchang City? How could he not know the current situation? How could he not know that his words might determine the next direction of the overall situation?

But after who knows how long, this famous general, whom Zhao Jiu relied on as his backbone and courage, finally made a formal and serious reply: "Let Your Majesty know. On the open plains of the Central Plains, the Jin have cavalry numbering in the hundreds of thousands. It is truly difficult for us to fight..."

Zhao Jiu was momentarily dejected.

PS:

First, thanks to the new alliance leader and the old alliance leader, the big shot of advanced construction. Then, Merry Christmas to everyone. Finally, continue to promote a book, a martial arts masterpiece, "The Knife Holder's Record"!

One last thing, I want to ask, why is everyone so happy at the end of the year? How am I supposed to live like this?

One final apology, reminded by a book friend, Yingzhou was renamed Shunchang Prefecture in the late Northern Song. This has been corrected.