Chapter 9: A New Situation

In late autumn of the ninth month, on a day when the cold wind howled, Zhao Jiu had a dream in the rear hall of Mingdao Palace. He dreamed that he could actually travel back and forth between this era and nine hundred years later through that well, so he began to reinvent himself as a middleman emperor. In the modern world, he enjoyed technological life and unlimited historical materials; in the Great Song, he enjoyed the lust for power and the prestige of a sage emperor.

Then, one day, Jin Wushu led a hundred thousand iron cavalry south. Because the terrain was flat, they reached Bozhou in just a few days. And this Emperor Zhao, unable to leave the well, refused to move south under the slogan of resisting the Jin in the Central Plains. As a result, the more than ten thousand men of the Imperial Camp stationed here were surrounded on the great plain by a hundred thousand Jin cavalry.

Next, the civil and military officials of the Great Song surrendered one after another and handed over the supplies this Emperor Zhao had painstakingly brought to Jin Wushu for nothing. Forced into a corner, he could only jump into the well to escape. Back in the modern world, when he opened a history book, he only saw that the Song fell because of Zhao Jiu, a man of great ambition but little talent, who finally jumped into a well and died, earning the title of Well Emperor from the Jin, becoming a laughingstock for a thousand years.

Waking with a start in the early morning, Zhao Jiu was drenched in sweat. He let out a soft sigh, then carefully lifted the covers and got up, careful not to wake Pan Xianfei beside him.

Several young eunuchs came forward and, at Zhao Jiu's signal, deftly dressed the emperor and fastened a leather belt convenient for archery and riding. When the Emperor Zhao stepped out the door and saw Liu Yan on duty outside, he said nothing, just slightly pursed his lips, and the latter understood.

Immediately, several dozen Liaodong cavalrymen escorted the Emperor Zhao out of the temporary palace. Joined by Yang Yizhong and a few other riders who had caught up, they headed north under the faint light of dawn.

To speak of it, during this period, with Yang Yizhong's defection and Zhang Jun's rise, the small clique of Huang Qianshan and Kang Lü, which had no foundation—or rather, whose foundation was originally this Emperor Zhao's own—collapsed overnight.

Kang Lü was executed on the spot in the hall for uttering resentful words.

Huang Qianshan was dismissed as Chancellor, sent to the Hanlin Academy, given a sinecure as Superintendent of Dongxiao Palace in Hangzhou, and ordered to reside in Lizhou.

However, aside from these two core members, Privy Councillor Wang Boyan was raised high and set down lightly, changing from Grand Councillor of the Privy Council to Associate Councillor of the Privy Council, out of fear that dismissing both the Eastern and Western Chancellors at once would shake public morale. Besides this, Imperial Camp Commander-in-Chief Wang Yuan was also pardoned after specifically seeking out Zhao Jiu to weep and plead his case.

To put it bluntly, Zhao Jiu did not dare to completely clear out the court.

After this, the current structure of the court, before Li Gang could rush back, was that Vice Grand Councillor Lü Haowen effectively held the responsibilities of the Eastern Secretariat Chancellor.

Wang Boyan still controlled the Western Secretariat Privy Council.

Wang Yuan remained Imperial Camp Commander-in-Chief.

Zhang Jun was promoted out of turn to Censor-in-Chief, controlling the Censorate.

Another senior eunuch of the Eunuch Directorate, Lan Gui, hurried back from Bozhou city, but half of the Eunuch Directorate's responsibilities were almost absurdly handed over to Yang Yizhong by Zhao Jiu. The two shared command, while Liu Yan of the Red Heart Company essentially took over the palace guard duties.

Beyond this, on the recommendations of Lü Haowen, Zhang Jun, Yang Yizhong, and others, Zhao Jiu promoted a large number of close attendants—Hanlin academicians, Secretariat drafters, ushers of the Audience Gate, and the like—and issued decrees summoning a group of retired senior officials to the temporary palace under the title of academic posts for policy consultation. This complex group was, in fact, the traditional secretarial corps of the Zhao Song emperors.

All of this, together with the six ministries that had some real power after the Yuanfeng Reforms, constituted the actual core power structure of the temporary palace.

However, this alone was not enough. Otherwise, Zhao Jiu would not have fallen into the current dilemma of being unable to advance or retreat, nor would he be so anxious that he worried even in his dreams and had to go riding every morning to relax.

There were three problems, and these three problems were already very clear just from looking at the personnel above.

First was finance.

To speak of it, although the Yuanfeng Reforms returned financial authority to the Ministry of Revenue, which was then directly under the Chancellor, under the current circumstances, the Ministry of Revenue was simply a clever woman who couldn't cook without rice. The real source of funds still relied on remittances from the Yangtze River region. Specifically, it depended on Liang Yangzu, the Compilation Editor of the Hall of Assembled Excellence, Attendant of the Huanyou Pavilion, Prefect of Yangzhou, Commissioner for Transport and Supply of the Jianghuai Circuits, and Supervisor of Southeast Tea and Salt Affairs, to deliver the southeastern financial resources.

This important minister, who had once taken in the remnants of the Western Army—Zhang Jun, Yang Yizhong, Miao Fu, Tian Shizhong, and others—and essentially saved the Emperor Zhao's life, was actually the god of wealth for this entire exiled court. But he had probably only just arrived south of the Yangtze.

In a word, the temporary palace still had no real money to do anything!

Next was the military.

After fully engaging with court affairs, Zhao Jiu basically confirmed that, with the road to the Western Army cut off, what he currently had in hand was just the Imperial Camp plus the troops under Tokyo Defender-in-Chief Zong Ze. The various commanders of the Imperial Camp were mostly still suppressing bandits in the two circuits of Jingdong (Shandong region) and the two circuits of Huainan (Huai region). They had barely cleared even half of them, and would likely need a rotation for rest and refit before they could clean up the bandits everywhere.

In other words, the temporary palace currently had no large-scale army truly capable of fighting!

In fact, this was the fundamental reason Zhao Jiu had not dealt with Wang Yuan and Wang Boyan. Under the current situation, they couldn't hold military power anyway. The troops were all in the hands of various military leaders, and Zhao Jiu could communicate directly with these leaders, large and small.

Besides having no troops and no money, what truly drove Zhao Jiu to despair, or what had really worried him to no end these past days, was precisely Grandfather Zong Ze, whom he had previously looked forward to the most!

For no other reason—Grandfather Zong truly did not take him seriously, truly treated him like a troublesome child to be humored.

First, when Zhao Jiu initially sent an edict to Tokyo summoning Zong Ze to be Privy Councillor, Grandfather Zong accepted the post but absolutely refused to come to Bozhou to see Zhao Jiu. His reason was naturally that the war situation in Tokyo was critical, as Jin troops had already appeared at Sishui Pass, and the fighting was intense.

Next, Zhao Jiu continued to send envoys to tell Zong Ze that Huang Qianshan had been dismissed and he had reinstated Li Gang. Grandfather Zong immediately replied, explaining the difficulties of the situation around Tokyo and bluntly stating that Tokyo was suffering a famine, then demanded troops, money, and grain. Zhao Jiu could certainly understand this, and while he naturally had no troops, he did have a small stock of money and grain. So he tightened his belt and tried his best to support Grandfather Zong, even scraping the gold powder off the statues of Daoist patriarchs, melting it down, and sending it over!

Then, about seven or eight days later, just as Li Gang was turning back near Huaixi, he encountered a newly emerged rebel named Ding Jin blocking the road. So Chancellor Li sent a document from afar, first stating his political platform, roughly saying that the temporary palace should prepare everything and wait for him to arrive before going to Nanyang together. Unexpectedly, because this document was sent by a roundabout route, it caught Grandfather Zong's attention. The latter immediately sent a document to the temporary palace, saying that grain prices in Tokyo had calmed down considerably, that he now had a million-strong army in hand, enough to repel the enemy, and that the emperor should not go to Nanyang but should return directly to the old capital!

This was utterly absurd. Not to mention that just a moment ago he was demanding troops and grain and saying Tokyo was suffering a famine, and the next moment it became that grain prices in Tokyo had calmed. The key point was that million-strong army. There were certainly a million refugees in Tokyo, but a million-strong army was far too ridiculous!

At this moment, Zhao Jiu truly felt the helplessness of being treated like a child, and this helplessness was probably even more severe than what Zhao Gou had felt before. After all, if he were like the previous Zhao Gou, bent on fleeing south and ignoring these words to run headlong to Yangzhou, that would be one thing. But the key was that Zhao Jiu vaguely understood Zong Ze's intentions!

The reason Zong Ze was lying through his teeth to deceive Zhao Jiu, the reason he was humoring Zhao Jiu like this, was essentially that he was afraid Zhao Jiu would run again! And if Zhao Jiu started fleeing again this time, as long as he reached Yangzhou on the Yangtze River, even if he didn't cross the river, one sentence from Grandfather Zong's memorial would become reality: the Central Plains and the hearts of the people north of the Yellow River were right there. Once abandoned, it would take over a decade of effort and several hundred thousand troops to take them back!

And it was precisely because he understood Zong Ze's heartfelt intentions that Zhao Jiu could not ignore the other's wishes. But the problem was, if he really went to Tokyo as Zong Ze wanted, it would surely be a dead end, wouldn't it?

Although Zhao Jiu didn't know the historical details, historically, Jin Wushu had chased Zhao Gou, searching mountains and scouring the seas, and only exhausted his strength after invading Jiangnan. On his return march, he still broke through Han Shizhong's main force and successfully returned north. This showed that the main direction of the next Jin offensive was precisely where Zhao Jiu's temporary palace was located. Jin Wushu's main force was staring right at this Emperor Zhao himself!

Under these circumstances, even if Grandfather Zong had historically held Tokyo firmly for several years like a pillar of strength, a veritable miracle, once he himself went there and attracted Jin Wushu's hundred thousand main force to Tokyo, if they really used that million-strong army to resist, they would probably be wiped out in one fell swoop, wouldn't they?

Yet what was even more crushing was that when Zhao Jiu told Zong Ze about his fears of a third full-scale Jin invasion to the south, Grandfather Zong simply didn't believe him. According to Grandfather Zong, the Jin Grand Marshal and Second Prince, Wanyan Wolibu, was dead. Among the Jin army, Nianhan, Dalai, and Wushu were bound to be fighting for power. In the short term, no one could serve as commander to lead the main force south. The emperor should rest assured. Incidentally, Grandfather Zong also updated the data—now Tokyo had a two-million-strong army!

This was the most helpless thing for the Emperor Zhao. Having no power for the moment was one thing, but after driving away the treacherous ministers, the loyal ministers actually didn't believe him!

Especially since Li Gang had already proven himself fit to be a Chancellor but not a military commander, while Zong Ze, though not good at leading troops in battle, was one of the most outstanding military commanders of this era, the greatest reliance he had previously envisioned!

The sun rose in the east. Zhao Jiu stood by the Guo River, gazing into the northwest. If it weren't that once you entered a place like Tokyo it was difficult to withdraw, he truly wanted to ride to Tokyo, to cut open his heart and show it to Zong Ze. Incidentally, he also wanted to see if the Yue Pengju who haunted his dreams was there.

Of course, with Grandfather Zong's attitude, what could the twenty-four-year-old Yue Pengju possibly do? Zhao Jiu had even less confidence.

"It's fully light, Your Majesty. Let's return as soon as possible, or the people at the temporary palace will be unsettled." Seeing Zhao Jiu again staring endlessly at the old capital, Liu Yan was moved inwardly but did not forget his duty, so he stepped forward to advise.

"Let's go." Zhao Jiu glanced once more toward the northwest, finally let out a deep sigh, and then turned to descend the embankment.

He knew that Zong Ze's documents would probably stop in a few days, because Li Gang was about to take a detour through Huaixi to reach Bozhou. Then this Chancellor Li would preside over the transfer of the temporary palace to Nanyang, and might even further arrange matters for entering Guanzhong from Nanyang. Under these circumstances, Zong Ze ultimately could not contend with Li Gang, the banner of the war faction. Otherwise, he wouldn't have repeatedly submitted memorials before Li Gang's return.

And once he ignored Zong Ze and followed the arrangements of the other ministers, retreating a few steps to a strategically advantageous location—Guanzhong, Jingxiang, or even Yangzhou—quietly building up strength, farming and training troops, as long as he made no mistakes, it seemed like a situation where even a dog could win by lying down. The only cost was having to wait over a decade and let several hundred thousand more soldiers die!

As the saying goes, thirty years of merit are dust and earth. Historically, when Yue Pengju received the twelve golden edicts, he must have been at least thirty-five, right? That is, at least twelve years from now.

To speak of it, just as the group of riders descended the embankment and mounted their horses, a goshawk suddenly swept across the sky, gliding from the southeast ahead toward the northwest, drawing the gazes of all the riders.

Zhao Jiu also turned his head in surprise, his heart filled with doubt, but in the end, he was at a loss.