Chapter 206: Tension and Release

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Great Song began to impose martial law from north to south.

Beacon towers were established in Puzhou, Huazhou, Zhengzhou, Kaifengfu, Henanfu (Luoyang), Shanzhou, and the Henan portion formerly belonging to Mengzhou; patrols along the Yellow River dikes were doubled, as were the boat crews monitoring the opposite bank from the river.

The various Imperial Camp armies re-counted their personnel, verified their weapons, grain, warhorses, and all other military supply inventories, and conducted a unified inspection and clearance of the riverside fortifications.

Along the Yellow River line in Henan, soldiers' families, the elderly, women, and children were urged to move south to the Nanyang-Huai River line for resettlement.

The various Circuit Commissioners, Military Commanders, and the Prefect of Nanyangfu, Yan Xiaozhong, all received edicts ordering them to vigorously rectify defenses and act according to circumstances. The remaining military prefects in Henan also received directives and orders issued jointly from the palace and the Chancellery, instructing them to cooperate fully with the local Circuit Commissioners and Military Commanders in arranging defenses, and not to disobey without an order from the central government.

At the same time, the court issued a specific open edict to the Guanzhong region, emphasizing the absolute authority of Yuwen Xuzhong and the special status of Li Yanxian in Shanzhou.

The transport of supplies from the Southeast, Jingxiang, and Huainan was also being urgently coordinated.

Things seemed to be proceeding in an orderly fashion, but the central government still had its own worries.

After all, no amount of preparation was anything more than preparation. Once the Jin army attacked, who knew what the situation would be? Moreover, from a military strategy perspective, although the Song army now had the Imperial Camp troops in Henan, giving them a shred of confidence, there were still two huge military gaps right in front of them that could not be ignored.

These were the problem of Guanzhong and the problem of Dongjingcheng.

As for Guanzhong, the issue was that it was too rushed, too hasty.

It must be understood that to make good military preparations, one needed excellent soldiers on the one hand and complete logistics on the other. Guanzhong seemed to lack neither... Guanzhong was long recognized as a source of excellent soldiers, and it also had a ready-made elite seed force—the over ten thousand elite troops from the Jingyuan Circuit (from this perspective, Qu Duan had actually done something decent). The economic strength of Bashu was also beyond doubt, especially since Zhang Jun's bold appointment of the fiscal deputy Zhao Kai had led a remarkably successful fiscal reform, which was expanding the original fiscal base of over ten million strings of cash in Bashu.

But the problem was that in July, the three-horse chariot of Guanzhong had only just killed Wang Xie, unifying military command for barely a month. And before the central government decided to increase taxes, a considerable portion of Bashu's wealth had simply been sent down the river to Nanyang... So there was insufficient preparation there, from troops to supplies.

And to make matters worse, their old adversary there was Wanyan Loushi, the military deputy of Wanyan Zonghan and the actual deputy commander of the Western Route Army.

Here, one must say more: Wanyan Loushi was a figure who could not be ignored in this era, a figure who made all Song soldiers tremble with fear... There was no helping it. Open the little booklet compiled by Commander-in-Chief Wang Yuan, turn to the pages on this man, and you would find that this man, who was very likely a Wanyan clan slave or the chieftain of a vassal tribe (the two identities were not mutually exclusive), had fought all the way from Liaodong to Henan, with a truly dazzling record.

The main force of the Liao was broken by this man leading a long-distance cavalry raid to the battlefield, then changing horses and, together with Yinshu Ke, launching nine cavalry charges against the Liao central army in a single day. The thirty thousand Xixia cavalry sent to support the Liao were broken by this man's continuous, divided, and rapid attacks. Fan Zhixu's two hundred thousand Western Army reinforcements were scattered by this man leading ten Meng'an. At the Battle of Taiyuan, he and Yinshu Ke routed the hundreds of thousands of reinforcements one by one.

It could be said that he had participated in almost every major decisive battle during the Jin army's rise, and he was always assigned the hardest and most bitter fights, yet he was always invincible and victorious.

Truly invincible and victorious.

Even Li Yanxian's military miracle at Shanzhou only came about after this man turned his attention to Guanzhong and Shanbei. Even last year, under such hasty circumstances, this man led his army to steadily swallow Yan'anfu and force the surrender of the three prefectures beyond the river, a performance that could be called flawless.

Figures like Han Shizhong and Yue Fei in history never actually encountered this kind of opponent. If they had, it's hard to say what would have happened. Anyway, among the people currently useful before His Majesty Zhao, those who had clashed with him—such as Zhang Jun, Li Yanxian, Qu Duan, and Yang Yizhong—were all his defeated opponents... Of course, this statement is not accurate. The accurate statement is that these men were at the time the remnants of Wanyan Loushi's defeated opponents, not even worthy of being called his defeated opponents.

Back then, Song armies of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands were repeatedly defeated by this Wanyan Loushi and his main partner, Wanyan Yinshu Ke, of the Jin Western Route Army, who often won with fewer troops, trouncing them time and time again. The reason Zhang Jun, Li Yanxian, Qu Duan, and others could become important military officials was mainly because they gathered the defeated troops after Wanyan Loushi withdrew.

Not only that, but this man and his old partner Yinshu Ke campaigned continuously, capturing the King of Xi alive, capturing the Liao Emperor Tianzuo alive, and even capturing Yelu Dashi alive (who successfully escaped after serving as a guide for the Jin army for a few days)... To put it bluntly, if the Jingkang Incident hadn't happened while he was away from Dongjingcheng, this man might have achieved an unprecedented feat in Chinese military history: capturing four great empire emperors.

Facing such an opponent, leading a main force of the Jin army, and precisely targeting one's own weakest point—who wouldn't be worried?

As for Dongjing, there was even less need to say. Dongjing was too far forward. Once the Jin army crossed the river, it would be another siege of Dongjing. And the four words "siege of Dongjing" had almost given the entire Great Song upper and lower classes PTSD.

So, whether it was because they knew worrying about Guanzhong was useless, or because they were in the thick of it, the entire Great Song central government, after entering a state of war readiness, focused all its efforts on the defense of Dongjingcheng. Everyone's attention was on it.

Setting aside the initial inevitable panic, as the city gradually readapted to martial law, the area inside and outside Dongjingcheng, whose population had recovered to over three hundred thousand, suddenly displayed an unexpected burst of energy centered on city defense construction.

The new Privy Councilor Chen Gui was unquestionably the chief defender of Dongjing and the core of the city defense system. Concurrently serving as Minister of War and Prefect of Kaifengfu, he had also obtained virtually all imaginable authority. So, with his successive orders and the full cooperation of the central government officials, the entire Dongjing quickly began to militarize and fortify itself, using the earlier Nanyang as a template.

Countless loads of coal fuel were transported from various parts of the Central Plains. The vast majority was sunk into a newly excavated artificial lake inside the Jinshui Gate of the Imperial City, while a small portion was sent directly to the brick kilns outside the city, which never ceased their smoke and fire.

The brick kilns, fueled by coal and timber temporarily felled from the forests around Dongjing, produced solid bricks day and night without stopping.

These bricks, of course, could not compare to the material of Dongjingcheng's city walls, but they were sufficient for building simple, practical sheep-and-horse walls outside the city, and for constructing countless brick walls inside the city to form Nanyang-style partitioned military wards, and then for building arrow towers and hidden fortifications.

The three layers of city walls were all reinforced and thickened. The city gates, each with its gate tower, were completely transformed into military fortresses, each garrisoned by at least one Du (a hundred-man unit). The dozen or so water gates were key defensive points, all fitted with double-layered iron mesh sluice gates, and were managed and handled with the assistance of troops sent from Liangshanpo.

However, the most eye-catching aspect was the three rivers that passed through the city... To facilitate the entry and exit of reinforcements, and to ensure proper defense along the rivers even after the outer city fell, the Caihe, Bianhe, and Guangjihe rivers, which flowed through the city, were comprehensively dredged, widened, and deepened. This work had begun earlier and had not stopped.

By late August, this work reached a climax. Even His Majesty Zhao, after recovering from his illness, went with Wang De, the Defense Commissioner of the Four Walls of Bianjing, who had led his troops back into the city, to carry earth on the riverbanks and dig mud in the river. He also had Lady Wu lead the few palace maids, along with a group of gathered Dongjing kitchen maids, to boil water and cook rice for the people on the riverbank.

In this fervent atmosphere, the Guangjihe, formerly known as the Five-Zhang River because it was five zhang wide, had long since become seven or eight zhang wide. This width was basically determined by the width of the various bridges over the river, meaning it narrowed back to five zhang only at the water gates at either end.

The Bianhe needed even less said. Looking at the "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" scroll, one could see how wide that river was. Now, after being cleaned, it was sparkling with ripples, a sight that made one sigh in admiration.

And according to Chen Gui's plan, the excavated earth was used to build high embankments on the inner side of the river, to stack brick walls, and to set up artillery positions, creating several more excellent defensive lines for the future.

Not to mention the Daxiangguo Temple, where the production of catapults, clay balls, stone projectiles, and gunpowder packs had been continuous from the very beginning.

Here, His Majesty Zhao must be praised again. This emperor hadn't been sick every day before, and his constant trips to Daxiangguo Temple weren't just to freeload on their food and drink... Much earlier, on his suggestion and with his assistance, the counterweight trebuchets at Daxiangguo Temple had been divided into several fixed models, and each model strived to use unified weights and measures to produce 'standard parts' that were as 'standard' as possible.

A rudimentary assembly line—the benefits were self-evident.

One was naturally to increase efficiency, another was to ensure rapid repair of catapults on the battlefield, and a third was to facilitate transport.

This was His Majesty Zhao's main project this year after his initial failed attempts with cannons... It wasn't high-tech, but it was absolutely practical, and the key was that the benefits of doing this could be understood and recognized by everyone.

In short, the entire city was buzzing with activity.

However, as the days passed, the passion was gradually worn away, followed by fatigue and numbness.

His Majesty Zhao went from digging river mud all day to carrying bricks all day... Sometimes, he couldn't help but feel that being an emperor was too thankless. He had found a job before time-traveling but hadn't even started before he came here. And now, he was experiencing such high-intensity brick-carrying labor. Who else had it as hard as him?

And being so exhausted, when he returned to Yanfu Palace at night, he had no strength left... After eating the snacks sent by Consort Pan Xianfei, he would lie on the bed and, smelling her fragrance, quickly fall into a deep sleep.

Sometimes he stayed overnight at Lady Wu's place. Lady Wu, equally exhausted, would often cry secretly in the middle of the night. Was she crying because she had married the wrong man? So much so that she spent half the year boiling water and cooking, and the other half studying and practicing martial arts... At such times, even if Zhao Jiu was awake beside her, he was completely numb, without the strength to comfort her or lose his temper.

But what came after numbness?

The answer was anticipation.

It sounded absurd, but the fact was that after August ended, September came, and September was almost over... As this great city defense renovation, which His Majesty Zhao had praised as "a great forty-day push after autumn," victoriously concluded—to the point where even someone like Chen Gui couldn't think of anything more to add—who knows about others, but His Majesty Zhao himself began to look forward to it eagerly.

He looked northward with eager anticipation.

But to his disappointment, the beacon fires never lit up, and the Jin army never came.

And this non-arrival was not false... After Ma Kuo, Ma Zichong, fled into the Taihang Mountains last year, he gradually began to move south to avoid the core ruling areas around Yanjing controlled by the Jin army. This filled the gap left by Wang Yan's Eight-Character Army and re-established contact with Henan. According to Ma Kuo's latest intelligence, the Jin army hadn't even mobilized; at the very least, the Meng'an and Mouke settled in various parts of Hebei had not mobilized.

Entering October, winter officially arrived. Ma Kuo's latest report was still clear: the Jin army had made no move.

This was, of course, a good thing, at the very least allowing the Guanzhong side to use this precious time and this year's autumn harvest from Chuanshu to organize a sizable force.

However, correspondingly, to prevent the prolonged high tension in Henan from causing unnecessary strain or slackness, which could then lead to a successful Jin army surprise attack, His Majesty Zhao, after discussions with the Grand Councilors, the Chancellery, and the Privy Council, proactively relaxed some of the tense posture. He ordered that, while maintaining martial law, the various places should have a measured pace, ensuring soldiers could take turns visiting home and having leave, ensuring normal city life, but also being wary of spies and surprise attacks... and so on.

After the imperial decree was issued, it was unclear elsewhere, but in a city as large as Dongjingcheng, it instantly fell into a strange state... No one knew what to do.

Winter was unquestionably the slack farming season, a time of idleness. And because of the need to guard against spies, both military and civilian supplies were generally exchanged outside the city. Inside the city, everything was partitioned into wards. Ordinary people, though at home, could hardly enter or leave the wards easily... Those with able-bodied men or soldiers in the family could directly receive a ration of grain and a ration of coal (basically everyone had this), but things like sauces and linen had to be bought from the authorities with money.

In other words, commercial activity had basically come to a halt... As a result, people's hearts naturally grew anxious.

In response, His Majesty Zhao could only imitate the routines of certain high-end web novels, having these people organize cuju and wrestling teams according to the military wards. Fortunately, cuju in this era didn't take up much space. Cuju fields could be set up in sections directly on the Imperial Way and the main east-west streets, allowing the various wards and armies to take turns opening them on odd and even days for cuju and sumo.

But this situation continued for another month, including dealing with things imaginable and unimaginable, such as the high-price resale of sauces, official slackness, and cuju brawls.

By the time November arrived, the Jin Army still showed no signs of movement.

At this point, Zhao Jiu, aside from having already further opened up the outer city of Dongjingcheng long ago—generally connecting several wards together to open the military ward gates, dividing the entire city into seven or eight independent large zones for activities—was also starting to lose his patience.

In fact, by now various rumors had already spread. Among the common people, many said that the Jin, after last year's battle at Yanling-Changshe, no longer dared to come south. Meanwhile, officials and many newly enrolled prefectural students in the Imperial Academy were buzzing with talk, all claiming that the Jin's Imperial Younger Brother had died, and that the sons of the late founder Aguda and the sons of the current Wolf Lord Wanyan Wuqimai were locked in an endless succession struggle.

There was solid evidence for the latter. As early as after the Mid-Autumn Festival in the eighth month, the central government had unexpectedly learned this intelligence from Goryeo merchants, stating that the Jin's Imperial Younger Brother, that is, the Anban Bojilie Wanyan Xian, had been gravely ill for some time, and then, failing to rest quietly in autumn, had died outright. Afterwards, the central government immediately dispatched Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial Wang Lun to take a detour eastward to Goryeo to verify the intelligence.

Now, after three months away, Wang Lun had successfully returned and indeed fulfilled his mission, confirming Wanyan Xian's death and verifying the fact that the Jin seemed to have internal strife over the succession.

But to be honest, both Zhao Jiu and the several chief councilors were skeptical about whether Wanyan Xian was truly that important. Moreover, the Jin Army had never before abandoned their autumn-winter southern campaigns due to the death of an important figure or internal disputes, so the central government still had no intention of changing course.

Relatively speaking, Liu Ziyu, the Administrator of the Bureau of Military Affairs concurrently serving as a military counselor in the Directorate of Maps and Terrain, put forward a different view. He believed it might not just be the effect of last year's battle at Changshe; it was very likely that the Imperial Song's strict military control and deployments after the Mid-Autumn Festival had themselves achieved an effect of subduing the enemy without fighting.

This made a great deal of sense, but regardless, everyone's opinion was that the Jin Army probably, should not be coming this year.

Naturally, Zhao Jiu and the chief councilors would not relax because of this, but they could not suppress the increasingly restless public sentiment and the gradually loosening atmosphere below.

Many people began to suggest opening the city on a small scale and restoring a certain level of commercial circulation... Their reasoning was sound: during the previous period of large-scale strict military control, there had been many solid examples of city defense soldiers and transfer officials lining their own pockets and neglecting the people's livelihood, making life hard for the common folk.

At first, Zhao Jiu and the chief councilors did not agree. But as more and more people submitted memorials, and because the lockdown led to increasing cases of slackness and corruption, and some had already begun to suggest lifting the civilian patrols and completely removing the military ward isolation, the central government, under pressure, temporarily agreed to a small-scale opening of the city, allowing reliable merchant caravans to enter.

Facts proved that commercial activity was the key to urban residents. As the city gates were opened on a small scale and trade resumed, Dongjingcheng almost immediately regained its vitality. The civilian patrols and military wards suddenly seemed insignificant.

But as the city regained its vitality, all sorts of messy affairs began to surge up again... In late November, an official formally submitted a memorial, citing the special season and the need for the imperial house to reassure the people, requesting the establishment of an empress.

As soon as this was said, it immediately triggered a chain reaction. Many officials with nothing better to do followed suit, and memorials requesting the establishment of an empress instantly piled up on the imperial desk. Later, even commoners in the capital and Imperial Academy students sent written appeals to the military ward gates, requesting they be forwarded. And that was not all. Since the entire Henan region was under military-controlled cities, and information was mostly transmitted through the military, soon officers both inside and outside the city directly submitted secret memorials to the imperial presence, requesting the establishment of an empress as before.

In a daze, this matter had already developed into a winter trend in Henan.

To be honest, both Zhao Jiu and the several chief councilors were somewhat bewildered.