[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-shao-song":3,"chapter-shao-song-shao-song-chapter-24":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Shao Song",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1558190,2024,"Chapter 24: The Pact of Thirty Thousand","shao-song-chapter-24",24,"\u003Cp>\"Your Majesty!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jun was stunned for a moment, but quickly dismounted and immediately pointed to the sky in the snow. \"Let Your Majesty know, when Han Shizhong passed through Shouzhou, he already spoke of this matter with me. I share the same view. If the Jin troops dare to come against heaven's timing and earth's advantage, with more than thirty thousand men, I dare not speak of holding the line; if below thirty thousand, and with Jin Wushu, a man newly in command of a large army, as their commander, then together with Han Shizhong, and joining forces with Liu Guangshi and Liu Zhengyan, with all our armies united, relying on strong fortresses and joint defense, I will never let the Jin troops cross the Huai River half a step! If things fail, let Your Majesty see me die before your horse!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That's good.\" Zhao Jiu nodded repeatedly from his high position. \"As said before, I will stop at Shouchun on the opposite bank of the Huai River and go no further! I will specifically lure the enemy for you all! If things succeed, in the future, whenever I have a feast, there will always be a seat for you, Grand Commandant Zhang; if things fail, I won't force you. You may die or surrender as you please. I only ask that Grand Commandant Zhang not come to see me again, to preserve the heroic spirit of today's snow!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Jun was naturally speechless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, aside from those surrenderists who could empathize, Zhao Jiu's thoughts could not be hidden from truly perceptive people... When everyone said they could not fight, then naturally he had to ask if they could defend?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When everyone said even the Central Plains could not be defended, he naturally had to ask if they could defend along the Central Plains border, relying on the Huai River and the advantage of terrain?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And even when the Huai River was difficult to defend against the main Jin force, he naturally had to ask again, how many troops constituted the main Jin force?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After being pressed to the wall by His Majesty, Han Shizhong finally drew a red line: if all the Imperial Camp's forces could be gathered, properly deployed along the Huai River relying on strong fortresses and the great river, then against a Jin force of fewer than thirty thousand, they could still hold the line.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, Zhao Jiu proposed this rough plan based on that condition... He himself would act as bait, trying to lure a detached force under Jin Wushu, in order to achieve at least a seemingly successful defense on the Huai River, to boost the people's morale and the army's spirit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for where the Zhao Emperor's confidence came from?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the eyes of some ministers, this was of course a blind confidence born from the day the Zhao Emperor single-handedly suppressed the rebellion. But to be fair, it wasn't confidence. The confidence from that suppression and the meeting with Han Shizhong was more of a catalyst. What truly drove the Zhao Emperor to go to such lengths, sparing no expense, was the desperate struggle of a time traveler, an attempt to prove his own existence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Zhao Jiu's view, succeed or die—this completely self-directed gamble. If he succeeded, he would fully embrace his role as the Zhao Emperor, playing out this life following the template of Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wu of Han; if he failed, he would just treat it as a dream!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This kind of thing, put positively, was being inspired by the times, throwing caution to the wind, and being willing to sacrifice; neutrally, it was a normal person's positive self-protective stress response under the shock of a drastic change; put crudely, it was a fool's self-abandonment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But regardless, back to the present, this kind of thing still seemed absurd in the face of the Jin army's absolute strength. So even the fearless Han Shizhong took the initiative to make three agreements with Zhao Jiu:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, once the Jin arrived, the Zhao Emperor must immediately relocate to the south bank of the Huai River, to the safer Shouchun to \"direct\" the battle;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Second, if the Jin force exceeded thirty thousand, or if the weather suddenly changed and the Huai River froze thickly, the Zhao Emperor must unconditionally withdraw;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Third, the civil officials at the center were for the Zhao Emperor to handle personally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it was based on these principles that Zhao Jiu had been maneuvering, on one hand making a great show of force, fearing the north wouldn't notice, while on the other hand, using the relocation matter to peel away, layer by layer, the central civil officials who could obstruct him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The most troublesome and threatening, Li Gang, took advantage of his illness—whether real or fake—to quickly send this fellow away with Pan Fei and her son; then the main body of civil officials was split off at Yingkou, and that wasn't the end... After securing Grand Commandant Zhang Jun that day, Zhao Jiu went with him to Xiacaicheng, the seat of Shouzhou, but then dispersed several veteran ministers and councilors originally meant to reassure people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among them, Zhang Que, who actually managed the Ministry of Revenue as Vice Privy Councilor, was sent to Huaidong to sell salt certificates and monastic ordination certificates to raise funds; while the new Vice Director of the Right, Xu Jingheng, was dispatched to Shouchun to handle the personnel placement of the previously south-fleeing officials.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These were all legitimate and necessary heavy responsibilities, so the two men had no suspicions. This left Zhao Jiu's side, though still with the two government councils and the Imperial Camp commander, with only the good-natured Lu Haowen presiding, while Wang Boyan and Wang Yuan were mere yes-men.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And by the fifteenth day of the twelfth month, two important pieces of news arrived simultaneously, and Zhao Jiu finally entered a state of \"everything is ready, only the east wind is needed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One, definitely good news, was that Liu Zhengyan, under immense political pressure, had adopted the stratagem of feigned troops presented by Liu Yan, Liu Pingfu... The plan was extremely simple, essentially copying Dong Zhuo's old trick: eight hundred Red Heart Cavalry rode ostentatiously into the camp by day, then sneaked out at night... After seven or eight consecutive days, the Huainan bandit Ding Jin finally couldn't bear the pressure and surrendered voluntarily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, Liu Zhengyan was accepting the surrendered bandits and would be able to join the imperial progress at Shouzhou before the new year.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The one that should be bad news was that, at some unknown time in the past, Jin Wushu had defeated an unclear force—whether anti-Jin righteous army or rebels trying to seize territory—at the entrance of Mount Yimeng... However, this force numbered tens of thousands, and the location was a key route south. It could be said that after this battle, only Liu Guangshi stood between Jin Wushu and Zhao Jiu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So, whether this Fourth Prince of the Jin Kingdom would come seeking Zhao Jiu would soon be revealed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wushu, what nonsense are you talking?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside a large mansion in Yidu City, Qingzhou, before a hall full of Jin generals and staff officers, a man in a splendid silk and satin padded coat—more like a short, stout local landlord than the commander of a hundred-thousand-strong army—the Deputy Army Supervisor of the Jin Eastern Route Army, Wanyan Talan, slammed down his wine cup heavily and gave a cold shout. \"This southern campaign, the Great King's intent was clear: to take the Jingdong East Circuit, clear the periphery to stabilize Hebei. The campaign is going smoothly, so you should quickly return to Hebei and attack Great Ming Prefecture...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why would I need to go attack Great Ming Prefecture?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Talan had finished speaking, a young Jurchen noble seated in the first seat on the left side of the hall also gave a cold snort, showing not a shred of face to his nominal superior. This was the vanguard commander of the Jin Eastern Route Army, Aguda's own son, commonly known as the Fourth Prince, Wanyan Wushu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, this Wanyan Wushu was only twenty-five or twenty-six, just four or five years older than Zhao Jiu. But like most Jurchen generals present, having been tempered by the wind and frost of the battlefield from an early age, with a thick beard, he looked a full thirty-five or thirty-six. Yet whether he looked thirty-five or was twenty-five, whether he was the vanguard or of shallow experience, no one dared to interrupt when he argued with Wanyan Talan... because the brand of being Aguda's own son was harder than any seniority or official rank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(And)\u003C\u002Fp>",1449,"2026-06-06T07:45:46.639Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","e80edc7591e2dec1b041611c0e701c7b760e8ca8fafa64a9554934989e7b7a43","shao-song-chapter-25","shao-song-chapter-23",489,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fshao-song-cover.jpg"]