Chapter 559: North or South? Both Are Nothing but Dreams

The setting sun slanted low. The squad general of the Longjie Army planted his right foot on a small wooden stool and stood squarely in the middle of the road with a swaggering, wide-legged stance, exuding the air of one man holding a pass against ten thousand.

He was slightly puzzled: those fellows leading tall, big horses toward him — why did they start mounting up the moment they saw him?

And it was already the fourth month. Why were those fellows still wearing such thick clothes?

Moreover, they mounted clumsily, as if carrying something very heavy. Whose horse slaves were these? Without real strength, how could they roam north and south?

At that thought, the squad general's bearing grew even more imposing. He had been somewhat wary of these powerful-household horse slaves who dared to trade fine horses, but now that he saw they could barely mount, why hold back?

"Hey! Whose household are you from? State your name at once!"

Li Cunhui swung himself onto his horse. In such a tense moment, he actually stood frozen for a brief while.

Outside the gate of Yangzhou before him, most people had been frightened senseless by their sudden arrival — or rather, struck dumb.

Only one warrior in paper armor stood fearless, like Zhang Yide holding Changban Slope alone, standing proud and solitary.

As a member of the Longxi Li clan, a distant branch of the Great Tang imperial house, Li Cunhui at once felt a measure of respect.

Today he had ridden a thousand li in a surprise attack. So large a city as Yangzhou, so many people, and none understood what was about to happen — only this man still dutifully stood guard. He could be counted a capable, loyal, and brave fellow.

Seeing no danger, Li Cunhui laid his cavalry lance across his horse, then raised his bronze-ribbed iron-backed bow high and, without the slightest concealment, roared out.

"Of the Great Tang imperial house, adopted son of the Shaoming Son of Heaven, Duke of Shouchang Commandery of Zhou, Right Yulin Guard Commander Li — here to seize the gate!"

Wha... what? Zhou? Commandery duke? Seize the gate?

The squad general's head exploded in an instant; the world itself seemed to turn unreal.

He wanted to run, but his hands and feet would not obey. He wanted to wail and dive into the crowd, but he could not move at all.

"A true man indeed! Then take one arrow from me. If you do not die, it is Heaven's will!"

Li Cunhui sighed in admiration once more. A soldier who could remain so composed after hearing his name was truly no simple man.

His sigh done, Li Cunhui drew his bow to a full moon with sincere respect.

With a whoosh, the arrow flew like a shooting star chasing the moon, carrying Li Cunhui's faint regret as it struck this "valiant" Southern Tang squad general—

—and shot him tumbling to the ground!

This was a super-hard bow of one dan and two dou. At such close range, who could withstand it?

And at the very instant Li Cunhui drew his bow, fifteen of the one hundred fifty armored riders under his command moved out first.

Wielding divine-arm crossbows, they picked off the soldiers atop the north gate one by one.

Then eighty riders charged the gate, scattering the roadblocks the Southern Tang army had hastily set up, and cut down one by one the Southern Tang soldiers trying to close the gate.

Li Cunhui led the rest, loosing arrows in succession and slashing wildly with their sabers, killing the dozen or so soldiers outside the gate in an instant.

Immediately after, something like a firework was lit. Hearing the sound and seeing the smoke and dust shoot skyward, Gao Huaide's force came charging in with a roar from half a li away.

By now the gate was in utter chaos. At least a thousand people entering or leaving the city had been frightened into scattering in all directions, and quite a few jumped straight into the official canal.

Some old folk nearing sixty still had impressions of Sun Ru's massacre of Yangzhou in years past.

In that moment, amid the weeping of people and neighing of horses, the shadow of that old slaughter surged into their minds, and they fled in even greater terror, as if doomsday had come.

Gao Huaide's seven hundred fifty riders had long since memorized the map of Yangzhou thoroughly, so they did not blunder about at all, but charged straight for the Jiangdu Acting Governor's office.

And what was the Southern Tang's Jiangdu Vice Acting Governor Zhou Zong doing at this moment?

He was in the office discussing with the Eastern Capital Administrative Assistant Feng Yanlu and others the preparations for celebrating Li Jing's birthday.

Although Li Jing's birthday was still four months away, as subordinates of the Eastern Capital Acting Governor Li Hongji, they naturally had to prepare everything early for Li Hongji.

For Li Hongji was not the heir apparent now. In the line of succession, he ranked behind the Prince of Qi, Li Jingsui, and the Prince of Yan, Li Jingda, so his position was far from secure.

These officials, already branded as the Eastern Capital faction, naturally had to plan carefully.

And Zhou Zong did not involve himself much in affairs at this time. First, because the Eastern Capital office's Administrative Assistant Feng Yanlu was the younger brother of the Chief Minister Feng Yanji.

As an old minister from Li Bian's time — a new sovereign brings new ministers — Zhou Zong's standing was naturally not equal to Feng Yanji's, so he was not foolish enough to contend for power with Feng Yanji's own younger brother, Feng Yanlu.

Second, although Zhou Zong's eldest daughter was only ten, he himself had been born in the sixth year of Zhonghe of Emperor Xizong of Tang — that is, 886 CE — and was sixty years old this year.

In this age, there was a saying that since ancient times, few men live to seventy. If Zhou Zong could live another five or eight years, that would already count as great longevity.

At this age, he was no longer of an age to cling to power, so all affairs of Yangzhou in the Eastern Capital office were in fact handled by Feng Yanlu in his capacity as Eastern Capital Administrative Assistant.

As the two deliberated, they could not help worrying over the fall of Xuzhou and Hucile's suicide.

At their rank, they naturally knew what the fall of Xuzhou meant.

They knew even better that having taken Xuzhou and still craving Songzhou had surely enraged all of Zhou, high and low. It was only a matter of when the thunderbolt from the Central Plains would fall.

Feng Yanlu set down the account book in his hands and said bitterly, "A few days ago, I went to call on Li Gong Quanjin, Military Governor of the Runzhou Zhenhai Army. That man rose from a fierce northern general, so he knows a thing or two.

He said the Son of Heaven of Zhou comes from Hexi, and it is no easy matter to make the military men of Hedong and Daibei submit willingly.

The Beiping Prince Liu Zhiyuan, who now dominates Hedong, is the true mortal threat to Zhou. Therefore, until Liu Zhiyuan is dealt with, Zhou likely will not march south."

Zhou Zong nodded heavily. "Li Quanjin is a northerner, so he naturally knows something of it. But Liu Yanzhen lost thirty thousand troops at the Si River, and the court's elite forces have been cut down by more than half. The Zhou men have seized great quantities of baggage and supplies, and their morale is at its peak. Even if they sent only a detached force, I fear it would not be easy to withstand."

Feng Yanlu clapped his hands sharply. "Exactly so. That is why my elder brother Feng Zhengzhong proposes we send envoys to make alliance with Liu Zhiyuan in Taiyuan. If Zhou dares march south, we strike from north and south together.

At the same time, establish a military province at Chuzhou, choose a brave and martial man as its governor, and coordinate with Shouzhou on left and right to hold Huainan firmly.

But Sun Cheng and Han Xizai have submitted memorials saying the south has few cavalry, that even if we took Huaibei we could not hold it, and still less can we pin our hopes on Liu Zhiyuan.

We should devote all strength to digesting Min, and may also seize Chu amid its internal strife. First, like the southern dynasties of old, secure all of Jiangnan for self-preservation, and only then plot for the Central Plains.

This is simply absurd! By the time we hold all of Jiangnan, the Central Plains will have long been unified.

Since ancient times, no one has ever risen from the south and annexed the north. Once the Central Plains is unified, how would our Great Tang survive?"

Hearing Feng Yanlu's complaints to the end, Zhou Zong could not help sighing inwardly.

The root cause of the mutual attacks between Feng Yanji, Wei Cen, and their faction on one side and Yang Cheng, Han Xizai, and theirs on the other lay precisely here. As for currying favor before the sovereign, those were mere trifles.

Of these two factions, Feng Yanji, Wei Cen, including Zha Wenhui and the rest, were the court's northward-advance party.

They advocated exploiting the chaos in the Central Plains to march north and join the contest for it. They held that since ancient times, those content to hold a corner of Jiangnan all met bad ends; only by fighting into the Central Plains could one achieve hegemony.

Yang Cheng, Han Xizai, and the others held that the south had few cavalry and that marching north was too risky. They advocated first swallowing Wu and Chu, holding all of Jiangnan, and only after firmly securing the standing of a southern dynasty, then plotting the northward advance.

But in Zhou Zong's view, neither faction was right or wrong, because both had reason on their side — and of course, both were dreaming in broad daylight.

With the Southern Tang's pitiful cavalry, if they marched north on a long expedition, one moment of carelessness would see them annihilated to the last man, just like Liu Yanzhen.

Suffer one or two defeats like that and they would never again have the strength to march north. To speak of contending for the Central Plains is, in truth, to go and offer themselves up as meat.

But the southward faction is also nonsense. Back then, Liu Jinu was so valiant a sovereign, and the Liu Song dynasty so powerful, and he still had the great righteous mandate — yet even he could not unify the realm from south to north.

The present situation is even more chaotic. Even if one held all of Jiangnan, it would still only amount to the situation of the Chen dynasty of the Southern Dynasties.

The so-called southward faction, at bottom, is just buying a little more time, dragging out a feeble existence.

Moreover, with court policy torn between these two factions, now turning north, now turning south, the central government has been in constant turmoil since the time of Emperor Liezu.

Back when Emperor Liezu Li Bian was preparing to rest and build up strength, Feng Yansi actually dared to call Li Bian a country bumpkin.

Zhou Zong felt that the government had been ruined by this endless wavering left and right, and that sooner or later a great disaster would come of it.

However, he did agree with Feng Yansi's proposal to establish a military governorship at Chuzhou to guard Huainan, and so he cupped his hands toward Feng Yanlu and said:

"With Xuzhou fallen, Huainan's outer defenses are all gone. Chuzhou and Shouzhou must not be lost under any circumstances. Though I am old, I am still willing to submit a memorial to Your Majesty, proposing the establishment of a military governorship at Chuzhou."

Feng Yanlu was overjoyed. All his talk had been aimed at getting Zhou Zong, a weighty minister of two reigns, to endorse his elder brother Feng Yansi's strategy.

But before he could get out a word of thanks, the sound of hoofbeats seemed to come from outside the government office, along with what sounded like the clash of battle.

Feng Yanlu was just about to open the door and ask what was happening when a military officer, still in the middle of donning his leather armor, burst through the door. He looked at Zhou Zong and Feng Yanlu and shouted:

"Lord Defender, Vice Minister Feng — no one knows how many bandit horsemen have come from outside. They say it is Zhou cavalry striking in a lightning raid. The troops cannot hold them off. You two must leave with me at once."

Zhou Zong held the concurrent title of Chief Minister, which was why he could be addressed as "Lord," while Feng Yanlu held the additional title of Vice Minister of Works — yet these two great Southern Tang officials both froze at the same moment.

A moment later, Feng Yanlu jumped up as if bitten. He grabbed the officer by the sleeve and demanded:

"The Zhou army only just took Xuzhou. How could it suddenly have reached Jiangdu Prefecture? Could Chuzhou already have fallen?

Impossible! Even if there were fighting, at least one official from Chuzhou, high or low, would have come to report it. Besides, Chuzhou is a strong fortress — how could it fall in a single day?"

Seeing that Feng Yanlu was still asking such questions, the officer grew frantic. He wrenched free of Feng Yanlu's grip and shouted:

"What is the point of asking such things now, Vice Minister Feng? The iron cavalry outside is no illusion. Quickly, follow me out the back gate — if we delay, there will be no escape."

Only then did Feng Yanlu come somewhat to his senses. He stood up at once, ready to flee, but turned and saw Zhou Zong still seated on his folding camp bed, not rising. Feng Yanlu grew desperate and reached out to grab Zhou Zong's sleeve.

"My lord, come with me at once."

At that moment, Zhou Zong felt only that all his hopes had turned to ash. He was the Deputy Defender of the Eastern Capital. If the Eastern Capital fell, where could he flee to?

And besides... He shifted his stiff, sluggish legs, looked at Feng Yanlu with a bitter smile, and said: "Vice Minister Feng, go quickly. I am old, and my legs ail me. How could I outrun the Zhou iron cavalry?"

"Ah!" Feng Yanlu heaved a long sigh. He did not spare Zhou Zong another glance, but covered his face in shame and fled after the officer.

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