Chapter 99: Nanyang (Part 1)

Although some people kept saying they would enter Nanyang lightly equipped, in fact, when the Imperial Lord led the crowd into Nanyang city during the late spring season of falling flowers, there were still countless regrets.

For example, he had especially wanted to meet Niu Gao this time but failed. This local armed leader, originally a bowman from Ruzhou, had been lightly recruited by the Zhai brothers of the Western Capital with a "recommended official position." He was now on his way to support the Western Capital in the humble capacity of a minor functionary as a Baoyi Attendant, completely unaware that if he had only headed north a few days later, he could have at least become a commander of the Imperial Camp.

For another example, Zhao Jiu knew full well that the hastily implemented reforms to unify authority and establish a wartime headquarters contained much chaos, inevitably including many private agendas from the chief ministers. And he, as the Imperial Lord, constrained by his own shortcomings, could not figure out the intricacies within a short time, so he had no choice but to accept the potential new institutional loopholes that might appear in the future.

For yet another example, perhaps precisely because this reform required the cooperation of the ministers' power, Zhao Jiu ultimately could not kill Fan Zhixu, whom he had particularly wanted to execute, and instead demoted him to Zunyi Stockade... That's right, after subsequent inquiries, the ministers confirmed another matter: this so-called Zunyi Army had long been downgraded to Zunyi Stockade... But it didn't matter. The Imperial Lord watched coldly from the sidelines, waiting to see if this man could survive the journey to Zunyi to soak his hot feet.

But these regrets were ultimately just regrets. Nanyang city was right before their eyes, and there was no need to dwell on them further.

And on this day, after the Imperial Lord had set up the camp outside the city, assigned the central army troops of the Imperial Camp, and then led the civil and military officials of the temporary court into Nanyang city, the entire temporary court was plunged into a near-overwhelming sense of happiness, satisfaction, and security... Many people wept, covering their faces along the way. Then, before even reaching the temporary palace, the chief ministers jointly submitted a memorial, requesting that the Imperial Lord must, following the precedent of Zhang Que, add the position of Vice Grand Councilor of the Central Secretariat (the name for the Eastern Administration after the merger of four departments) to Liu Ji, the Fiscal Commissioner of Jingxi Circuit. Otherwise, they themselves would be too ashamed to sit still.

To this, Zhao Jiu naturally followed the good advice, opening his mouth wide, and incidentally changed the Fiscal Commissioner's title to Pacification Commissioner of the Jingxi South Circuit.

This way, Liu Ji, as Vice Grand Councilor and Pacification Commissioner, vaguely assumed the posture of a Minister with Honorary Titles like Li Gang and Zong Ze... Of course, it was still the same meaning—he remained the military and civil chief of Jingxi South Circuit, still had to oversee the coordination of material transport from the Yangtze River basin to the auxiliary capital of Nanyang in Xiangyang. The key was that his rank had risen considerably, making Liu Ji and everyone in the temporary court happy. Why not do it?

But to be fair, Zhao Jiu's promotion was not a perfunctory gesture based on his own political logic, because Liu Ji had visibly done a great deal of work...

It must be understood that according to the arrangements of June last year, once the strategy of making Nanyang the auxiliary capital was settled, all normal material tributes from the Sichuan region were intercepted and kept in Nanyang. And Sichuan had been virtually unscathed throughout the entire turmoil, so its financial and material resources need not be mentioned.

Thus, Liu Ji utilized Sichuan's material resources and local manpower, gathered a large number of craftsmen, expanded the city walls in Nanyang, built the temporary palace, and then established dedicated warehouses for gold, silver, coinage, cloth, grain, and specialty goods to stockpile supplies. And at this moment, inside those warehouses, at the very least, grain and cloth were piled up like mountains!

Not only that, but as the Imperial Lord delayed his arrival, he even added the Imperial Academy and government offices for key departments on both sides of the temporary palace, and even built residential districts along the river south of the city for the families of officials and direct-duty guards!

With such arrangements, how could the officials of the temporary court not be overwhelmed with gratitude?

It must be understood that if counting from the beginning of last year, the main officials in the temporary court had been wandering for over a full year! And half of that time was spent in the dire straits of material shortages... Was it false that the Imperial Lord had been scraping the gold powder off the statues of Daoist patriarchs and Buddhist Buddhas every day?

In fact, just a few days earlier, when the Imperial Lord left Fangcheng Mountain, he had not forgotten to have people ransack the temples and Daoist monasteries on Fangcheng Mountain, seizing the monks' and Daoists' movable wealth and book printing tools, yet none of the temporary court attendants stopped him... At the time, local Nanyang officials thought the Imperial Lord and the temporary court had unified their thinking, learning from the lesson of the Two Emperors, and were about to abolish Buddhism and Daoism. In reality, it was simply a habit formed by some people who had been poor for too long.

If the key figures of the temporary court had known that Nanyang's supplies were so abundant, some would have surely stopped the Imperial Lord and remonstrated to the death, urging him to do less of such banditry.

Of course, after settling down in Nanyang that day, thinking back, many officials couldn't help but sigh... If the Imperial Lord had not fought that battle on the Huai River, if Li Yanxian of Shanzhou had not just created a military miracle, then what fate would this reassuring city have met before Wanyan Yinshu?

Nothing more than the same fate as Dongjing!

"The Imperial Lord is not in the palace?"

A day later, after experiencing the supplementary payment of salaries to officials and the grand banquet the previous night under the pretext of summoning local elders, on the twenty-second day of the third month, many high ministers of the auxiliary capital, who had resumed normal office, couldn't help but feel a bit lax. However, when they arrived at the temporary palace on time that day, they were jolted awake by the Imperial Lord.

"Let me inform all you lords," said Lan Gui, the Chief Eunuch of the Palace Domestic Service who remained there, with a helpless expression, but he could only respond helplessly. "The Imperial Lord rose early this morning and, escorted by the duty Scholar Lin and Commander Yang, went to the military camp outside the city. He also temporarily summoned Wang Yuan, the Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Camp, and Vice Prefect Yan, the acting Prefect of Nanyang, saying he wanted to personally distribute military pay to the various units of the Imperial Camp's central army."

"Yang Yizhong deserves death!"

In the cold, empty main hall, amidst the occasional cooing of collared doves from the small grove outside, Xu Jingheng was the first to erupt. But unable to curse the Imperial Lord or the key officials, he could only curse Yang Yizhong, whom everyone could scold. "As a bodyguard, when the Imperial Lord leaves the city without authorization, how could he not report it to the Grand Councilor?"

Liu Ji, attending such an occasion for the first time, frowned slightly, unsure of what to say... And the surrounding ministers could only fume in vain after that sentence, "Yang Yizhong deserves death."

Now, if the Imperial Lord wanted to secure military power by distributing pay, the Grand Councilors naturally found it hard to speak. But hadn't they just supplemented the salaries and given rewards to the temporary court officials yesterday? So, for the Imperial Lord to rush off early this morning, bypassing everything, to personally handle the distribution of military pay—was he implying that the chief ministers had not treated everyone equally, or was he trying to tell the soldiers that only he, the Imperial Lord Zhao Jiu, remembered the army outside the city?

It was fine for him to curry favor himself, but couldn't he avoid stepping on others to do so?

"All lords," Lan Gui hesitated briefly before speaking to explain. "Before leaving, the Imperial Lord had Scholar Lin leave several policy memoranda on the imperial desk, requesting that you all make early decisions. When he returns, he expects to hear your deliberations in his presence... I dare not touch them without authorization. I ask Grand Councilor Lu to take them himself."

The group of chief ministers had no choice but to suppress their anger and look at those memoranda. However, when Lü Haowen first picked up the top slip of paper from the desk and turned it over, he immediately felt his head swell as big as a bucket... It turned out that the first slip of paper bore the two characters: "Tu Duan" (Land Settlement)!

The other chief ministers stepped forward and also drew in a cold breath, but each had nothing to say.

It must be known that the term "Tu Duan" was a policy strategy of Liu Yu during the Liu Song dynasty of the Southern Dynasties, mainly referring to the reorganization of household registration within the Southern Dynasty's territory against the backdrop of northerners fleeing south. At present, Jingxi had just suffered war, with many refugees. Not only that, but looking at the overall situation since the Jingkang era, with the Huai River and Qinling Mountains as the boundary, a great many northerners had fled south. And in the short term, the Great Song indeed had no ability to recover lost territory.

Therefore, at this time, the "Tu Duan" policy of settling the fleeing northerners locally and incorporating them into the household registers appeared extremely urgent and pressing.

However, although this was the case, this matter was far too complex, touching almost every aspect. With a thousand threads and no clear starting point, how could there be any "early decision"?

But it was absolutely impossible to set this matter aside.

With a complex mood, Lü Haowen handed the heavy-as-a-thousand-jin slip of paper bearing "Tu Duan" to Xu Jingheng behind him, then picked up the second slip of paper. His head swelled again, for on it was written the two characters: "Fan Qiong."

Fan Qiong, Fan Qiong—these two characters were all too familiar to the temporary court. From the time the Imperial Lord ascended the throne, the temporary court had been discussing this man, debating from Nanjing (later Shangqiu) to Bozhou, from Bozhou to Shunchang Prefecture (Yingzhou, later Fuyang), from Shunchang Prefecture to Bagong Mountain, and finally to Nanyang. It could no longer be delayed!

However, unlike the past, when there was always debate about whether to deal with this man, this time everyone had a unified understanding: he must be killed, and Xiangyang must be secured as a fallback... Otherwise, not to mention how to effectively communicate between the Southeast and Jingxiang, but if the Jin army invaded south and Nanyang was in danger, the Imperial Lord would have no retreat. How could that be?

And the Imperial Lord leaving this man's name now was certainly not for the chief ministers to discuss again how to deal with him. Combined with what the Imperial Lord had said earlier at the foot of Fangcheng Mountain, it was clearly to have everyone discuss some auxiliary countermeasures to assist the Imperial Lord in moving south to Xiangyang and eliminating this scoundrel.

Only, matters of military and state left the chief ministers no choice but to treat them with utmost seriousness.

Lü Haowen handed this slip of paper to Wang Boyan, the Vice Commissioner of the Privy Council, behind him, then continued to flip through the third slip of paper. He saw the two characters "Sun Mo" and, already numb, directly handed this slip to Liu Ji behind him.

Now, Sun Mo was the defending official of Yingchang Prefecture in Jingxi South Circuit who had died under the Jin army's blades. His matter was unrelated to the temporary court but was an important unresolved case, a suspicious case, and a public case in the local officialdom of Jingxi.

The matter was like this: before the Jin army invaded south, the position of Vice Prefect of Yingchang Prefecture was vacant. At that time, Liu Ji issued a document, appointing a man named Pei Zude, who was in mourning, as acting Vice Prefect of Yingchang Prefecture. When the Jin army came south, Sun Mo, as Prefect, quickly gathered troops and had Pei Zude lead the defense, retreating to Yancheng, the southernmost part of Yingchang Prefecture. At the same time, he himself went to Yangzhai to fetch his family. In response, Pei Zude, while defending Yancheng, impeached Sun Mo for cowardly fleeing!

Subsequently, Wanyan Yinshu moved south and killed Sun Mo in Yangzhai, but unexpectedly did not touch Yancheng. Then Zong Ze, upon hearing the news, naturally temporarily recommended Pei Zude, granting him the title of Acting Direct Secretary and making him Prefect of Yingchang Prefecture.

Up to this point, the rights and wrongs seemed clear: Sun Mo, holding a high position, had cared for his family in a time of crisis, while Pei Zude, as Vice Prefect, had taken charge of the situation, clearly on a higher moral ground... Moreover, Pei Zude had the recommendations of both Liu Ji and Zong Ze, the two most influential figures in Jingxi.

Only, Sun Mo had ultimately chosen to die for his country, while Pei Zude survived, so everyone could hardly say anything more.

However, the matter did not end there. After Wanyan Yinshu withdrew from Yancheng, Sun Mo's family, carrying documents that Sun Mo had not yet sent out, went to Liu Ji to file a complaint. According to these documents, Pei Zude had heard from others that the Jin army would not come, and then used this false news to deliberately deceive Sun Mo, coaxing him into going to Yangzhai... If this was true, then Pei Zude was a two-faced, shameless villain who had deliberately sought to kill his superior by using a borrowed knife!

This matter involved both Liu Ji and Zong Ze. Precisely because a deceased Prefect's reputation was at stake, the debate was intense, and Pei Zude's official position had been stuck there. When the temporary court discussed the vacancies in Jingxi this time, this matter was unavoidable... The one who tied the bell must untie it. Liu Ji had no choice but to accept this slip of paper.

PS: One chapter posted first, everyone don't wait.