Chapter 299: The Troubled Son Emperor

In the twelfth month of 936, more than ten days had passed since the last emperor Li Congke burned himself to death on the Xuanwu Tower.

The entire city of Luoyang had been reduced almost to rubble, and the imperial palace, the Ziwei Palace, had also caught fire when the last emperor's whole family immolated themselves.

The Later Tang surrendered troops under Yang Guangyuan, An Shenxin, An Shenqi, and others, led by Shi Jingtang's trusted confidant Liu Zhiyuan, Chief Commander of the Hedong Horse and Foot Army, had entered Luoyang at the end of the eleventh month.

And it was they who utterly destroyed the last trace of vitality left in Luoyang.

Nearly half of the Ziwei Palace had burned down, and of the hundred thousand or so residents in the city who had not fled in time, at most two or three out of ten remained.

Almost all the middle and lower-ranking officials at court had been slaughtered, and even the high ministers had only escaped by supplying the rebel troops with wine, meat, gold, silver, and women.

By this point, nearly all the surface traces of the Great Tang's influence over this land had vanished.

This was not, of course, because the Later Tang was also a Tang, but because after Chang'an had been utterly ruined, Luoyang, as the eastern capital of the Tang dynasty, had been the empire's final afterglow.

Even though it too was already badly dilapidated, it was still the last remnant of elegance of that distant empire — and now, at last, it was gone without a trace.

Luo Yu'er had white cloth wrapped around his arm, and blood had already soaked through half of it.

Everyone in the post station was wounded; even Pei Yuan's sword had snapped in the fighting, and including Pei Yuan's servants, six men had already died in battle.

As the rebel troops in Luoyang grew more and more numerous, not only did fierce infighting break out among them, but their harassment of the post station also gradually increased.

The yabing guards of Yang Guangyuan were the most troublesome — not because they were particularly formidable, but because Yang Guangyuan was the chief culprit who had betrayed Zhang Jingda. Having done such a thing, he naturally had no face left to restrain his own men.

Thus while the yabing guards under An Shenxin could still barely pass for soldiers, the yabing guards under Yang Guangyuan had already degenerated completely into bandits.

Their fighting strength, however, was not especially great. At least one or two hundred of them came in waves, but in the end not only did they fail to break into the post station, they also lost more than twenty men killed by Luo Yu'er and the others.

Pei Yuan stretched out a hand toward Luo Yu'er, signaling him to lend him the hengdao saber at his waist — Pei Yuan's own had snapped, and he no longer had a blade.

Luo Yu'er gave Pei Yuan a strange look. In his heart he rather admired this scholar, who howled and fought with a ferocity not in the least inferior to that of professional warriors like themselves.

"Where is the Secretary going? This is probably not the time. Let us hold out a few more days and then go out to look!"

Seeing Pei Yuan strap the hengdao saber to his waist as if about to go out, Luo Yu'er hurriedly spoke to stop him.

Pei Yuan nonchalantly straightened the lan robe he wore and carefully wiped off the places stained with mud.

"Luo Erlang, listen. The wailing outside has clearly lessened a great deal these past few days, and Yang Guangyuan's bandit troops have not come for a long while either.

It has been fourteen days since the rebel army entered the city. I reckon Shi of Hedong is about to enter the city soon. We must seize this chance to go out and find food. If we go on starving like this, everyone will die of hunger."

The greatest problem Pei Yuan and his group now faced was, unexpectedly, that they had almost no food left. If they did not go out and think of something, they would likely collapse before anyone even came to attack them.

Pei Yuan had a few family friends in Luoyang whom he did not know very well, and he planned to try his luck with them.

Luo Yu'er wiped his long lance and was just about to say he would accompany Pei Yuan when a wave after wave of cheers suddenly erupted from the north of the city. Pei Yuan's face lit up with joy.

"It seems Shi of Hedong has entered the city. Leave five men to guard this place. Luo Erlang, come with me to take a look. We must get some grain out of these thieving slaves."

At the north of Luoyang, at the Anxi Gate, Shi Jingtang, dressed in a vermilion round-collared lan robe, arrived by carriage, escorted by his confidant Sang Weihan, the surrendered general Yang Guangyuan, his adopted son Shi Chonggui, and more than ten thousand Hedong troops and more than ten thousand Khitan soldiers.

Shi Jingtang had long eyebrows, deep-set eyes, a square face, and a wide mouth — the features of a barbarian. His father's name was Nielieji, not even a proper formal name.

Moreover, he was very likely a Sogdian from the Stone Kingdom, not even counting as a first-class barbarian like the the the Shatuo — his origins were quite lowly.

He had originally been the son-in-law of Li Siyuan, Emperor Mingzong of the Later Tang, and in earlier years had several times saved the lives of Emperor Zhuangzong Li Cunxu and Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan.

After witnessing Li Siyuan continue to exterminate the descendants of his adoptive father Li Keyong, and then Li Congke nearly slaughter all the offspring of his adoptive father Li Siyuan,

now at last it was Shi Jingtang's turn to sit upon this seat of the Son of Heaven that burned one's backside.

Outside the Anxi Gate, the few remaining Later Tang court officials and the surviving residents of Luoyang had all been rounded up by the marauding troops.

Even the only surviving son of Later Tang Emperor Mingzong Li Siyuan — the five-year-old Prince of Xu, Li Congyi — and his foster mother Consort Wang, had been found in the cuju field where they had been hiding.

Perhaps it was the immense psychological pressure of calling himself the Son Emperor and ceding the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan-Yun, or perhaps it was the shock of Luoyang like a city of the dead, full of corpses, or perhaps the sense of unreality was simply too strong.

Shi Jingtang actually took the hand of the five-year-old Li Congyi outside the Anxi Gate and wept until his tears soaked his robes.

Shi Jingtang even declared that he truly had not wanted to rebel, that he had been forced into it by Li Congke, and expressed his willingness to return the throne to the descendants of his father-in-law Li Siyuan.

Sang Weihan, who had been feeling rather pleased with himself beside Shi Jingtang, nearly died of fright on the spot when he heard this.

This was no ancient age of three refusals and three yieldings — this was an era when whoever had soldiers could make himself a grass-roots king. The speaker might not mean it, but the listener would take it to heart; if someone with designs took it seriously, there would be trouble.

Besides, Shi Jingtang had already proclaimed himself emperor outside Taiyuan long ago. To put on this act now — was it not somewhat superfluous?

Just as Sang Weihan was about to step forward himself and interrupt Shi Jingtang, a scholar in a lan robe covered with bloodstains and mud walked straight out and shouted loudly:

"The Prince of Xu is but a child — how could he grasp the sacred vessel? And how can one realm have two masters? The realm is now in chaos; without a mature sovereign, I fear upheaval will come again!"

The scholar was none other than Pei Yuan. Though inwardly utterly disgusted, at this moment he still had to step forward and fight for the interests of himself and Zhang Zhao.

And he could also see why Shi Jingtang was putting on this show — he had simply done too many things that stank to high heaven, and now he wanted to salvage a bit of his reputation.

Sang Weihan's eyebrows rose. Without pausing to see who the scholar was, he immediately seized on the words and hurried to Shi Jingtang's side to remonstrate.

"Does the Sage mean to betray the hearts of the soldiers of the three armies? If you pity the Prince of Xu, grant him more fiefs and bestow more treasures. Now you should enter the Ziwei Palace without delay!"

By now Shi Jingtang had also come back to his senses. In particular, Sang Weihan's words about not betraying the hearts of the three armies instantly made Shi Jingtang's heart jump and his back turn cold. The seat beneath his backside was not even secure yet — this was no time for theatrics.

At that thought, Shi Jingtang scooped up the kneeling Prince of Xu, Li Congyi, in his arms and looked toward Pei Yuan, who had spoken first.

"Where do you hold office, sir? You may accompany me to the Ziwei Palace."

Shi Jingtang naturally assumed that Pei Yuan, with his fine bearing, was a high court official, because Shi Jingtang, who had deliberately allowed the rebel troops to sack Luoyang, knew very well that no family or official without considerable strength could possibly have survived under the blades of those rebels.

Pei Yuan knew the moment had come. He raised both hands and performed a full kowtow, lowering himself to the ground.

"Sage, the former Acting Military Governor of Liangzhou and Hexi, Li of the courtesy name Wenqian, has unfortunately passed away from illness. The post of Military Governor of Hexi is vacant. East of Liangzhou, the barbarians of the four directions are restless, and the people are uneasy.

The Acting Military Governor of Hexi, Lord Zhang, has soothed the loyal, chastised the rebellious, and caused the various peoples to desire allegiance. Therefore he has specially dispatched me to court to request the banner and tally of Military Governor of Hexi, and to return the five prefectures of Liang, Lan, He, Kuo, and Shan to the state."

As expected, Pei Yuan had wagered correctly. Shi Jingtang's eyebrows rose, and a look of delight involuntarily appeared on his face.

In truth, what Shi Jingtang feared most at this moment was people using the matter of his acknowledging the Khitan Yelu Deguang as his father to mock him and stir up trouble.

After escaping danger, he probably felt ashamed himself, which was why he had staged this performance at the Anxi Gate.

Now with Pei Yuan stepping forward like this, before Shi Jingtang had even entered the Ziwei Palace, the five Hexi prefectures of Liang, Lan, He, Kuo, and Shan were coming to submit — did that not make him, Shi Jingtang, seem to have some fortune as well?

It was the equivalent of sticking a nipple patch onto his bare, naked body — at least it provided a bit of cover.

"Hexi indeed produces men of loyalty and righteousness!" Shi Jingtang said with considerable emotion — though how he could bring himself to utter the words "loyalty and righteousness" was anyone's guess.

"Since you are envoys from Hexi whose hearts remain with the court, let us first enter the Purple Tenuity Palace together!"

"Your outer subject obeys!" Pei Yuan's face brightened; he knew the matter was already half settled.

His appetite was truly not small. Of the five prefectures he had just named, all except Liangzhou — Lan, He, Kuo, and Shan — were originally the territory of the Military Governor of Longyou.

Even after Pei Yuan had made such an exorbitant demand, Shi Jingtang showed hardly any anger and still invited him to enter the Purple Tenuity Palace together. That meant there was room to negotiate.

Moreover, Pei Yuan had never expected Shi Jingtang to acknowledge those five prefectures as belonging to Liangzhou, because even in name alone, the Central Plains court would never agree to it.

Liangzhou plus the four prefectures of Lan, He, Kuo, and Shan — that would make an oversized military governorship like that of Hexi-Longyou.

And one must never underestimate the value of a nominal title. In this age of poor communication, it was extremely useful. If Zhang Zhao had a title in hand, he would certainly achieve twice the result with half the effort.

And the importance of Hexi and Longyou was beyond question. In the time of the Great Tang, apart from the central imperial guards, only Hedong and Hexi produced generals and soldiers.

By the Five Dynasties, nearly everyone who fought his way into Luoyang to become emperor had risen from Taiyuan in Hedong, while Hexi had collapsed into chaos and was regarded as beyond the realm.

But that did not mean the Central Plains court was insensitive to this place. On the contrary, it was precisely because Hexi was a boiling mess that they felt at ease.

Otherwise, Hedong alone was trouble enough; add a large-scale Hexi on top of it, and how would they ever get through their days?

Therefore, Pei Yuan's exorbitant demand was only meant to leave room for bargaining. Not to mention that Zhang Zhao's strategy was first to take Lingzhou, where Shuofang lay.

Even if he were to take Lanzhou and the other territory of the Military Governor of Longyou, it would have to be done as quietly as possible, or it would surely draw interference from the Central Plains dynasty.

To say nothing else — merely choking off the trade routes, or levying heavy taxes on Hexi merchants, would be more than Hexi could bear.

Sang Weihan cast a deeply meaningful glance at Pei Yuan. To someone like Sang Weihan in the present court, how could Hexi and Longyou possibly be unified all of a sudden?

This self-styled Acting Military Governor Zhang could never possibly take the five prefectures of Liang, Lan, He, and the rest!

"Hmph!" Sang Weihan snorted coldly. This envoy from Hexi must be thinking of exploiting the court's recent founding to make exorbitant demands.

Pei Yuan also glanced at Sang Weihan with great subtlety. He knew this man was Shi Jingtang's chief strategist.

Sang Weihan's reaction was exactly what he had anticipated. Pei Yuan wanted them to think he was making exorbitant demands.

That way, when Zhang Zhao later swallowed the four prefectures of Lan, He, and the others, it would not draw so much attention!

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