Chapter 644

Wang Yun was growing impatient. Zhang Shaodi had sent word that he would arrive before noon, yet Wang Yun had waited until the beginning of the shen hour without seeing so much as a shadow of anyone.

For Wang Yun, who had just been courted by the Southern Tang and was still floating on cloud nine, his displeasure had by now built up to a considerable degree.

But just as Wang Yun was feeling slighted and about to leave Yueyang Tower, swearing in his heart that if Zhang Shaodi still had not arrived by the time he walked up to the Southern Tang envoy, he would throw in his lot with the Southern Tang — at that very moment, a yabing guard came to report that Zhang Shaodi had arrived with an envoy of the imperial court.

Wang Yun let a puff of white mist escape lightly from his nostrils. He wanted to make Zhang Shaodi cool his heels for a while, yet he also felt uneasy at heart. In the end, somewhat sulkily, he had the yabing guard invite Zhang Shaodi up — he himself would certainly not go downstairs to receive him.

Zhang Shaodi had come together with Yang Jiye, and no one else besides, because after killing the Southern Tang envoy and several yabing guards of the Yisheng Command, the remaining armored soldiers of the Hanshan Command had all hurried out of the city.

If they could overawe Wang Yun, then nothing would happen. If they could not, then twenty armored soldiers here would amount to no more than killing one man to break even.

Yang Jiye was carrying a wooden box. The thick stench of blood made Wang Yun's trusted yabing guards up on Yueyang Tower watch him with great wariness.

Zhang Shaodi, for his part, walked behind Yang Jiye, looking as though he were taking Yang Jiye as the one in charge.

This made Wang Yun even more puzzled. That Tuntian Commissioner Xu Songzhi held too low an office to recognize Zhang Shaodi, but Wang Yun did recognize him.

After all, Zhang Shaodi's father, Zhang Ji, was a man who had very nearly become Military Governor of Wuning Circuit, and Ma Chu had very nearly become Zhang Chu.

In Wang Yun's view, although Zhang Shaodi was a man of no small ability, he was somewhat arrogant in manner, everywhere radiating an air of "I am the greatest, I am the most far-sighted." He had never before seen Zhang Shaodi show such deference to a callow young man.

"Master Zhang, I trust you have been well?" After the atmosphere had gone quiet for a brief moment, Wang Yun looked at Zhang Shaodi behind Yang Jiye and asked.

Zhang Shaodi did not answer. Yang Jiye first looked Wang Yun up and down, then turned to Zhang Shaodi and said, "So this man is Wang Yun, Chief Commander of the Yisheng Command?"

At this time, calling someone directly by name in this manner was extremely impolite, unless the two parties were far apart in status. Otherwise, even between ordinary superiors and subordinates, one still had to address a subordinate by his courtesy name in order to show closeness.

Wang Yun was also a second-generation power-holder. Hearing the young man opposite speak in this way, his temper flared at once. He stared fixedly at Yang Jiye, as though weighing whether to summon soldiers to strike Yang Jiye down.

Only at this moment did Zhang Shaodi nod and answer, "Exactly. This man is Prefect Wang of Yuezhou, of the Chu domain."

Having said this, Zhang Shaodi was about to introduce Yang Jiye, but Yang Jiye reached out a hand and stopped him.

Under Wang Yun's scrutinizing gaze, he strolled forward a few more steps as though walking in a leisurely courtyard, stopping only when he stood face to face with Wang Yun, five paces apart, and spoke in a calm voice.

"I have brought a gift for Prefect Wang. I guarantee that the moment you see it, you will properly thank me for it."

Wang Yun eyed the wooden box in Yang Jiye's hand warily. A sense of foreboding welled up in him. He had already vaguely guessed at something. Wooden boxes holding human heads — he, Wang Yun, had done that plenty of times himself.

It was just that Wang Yun had not yet thought of the Southern Tang envoy, because the Southern Tang envoy had come in secret, and the Zhou state could not possibly have known. Even in the most extreme case, even if the Zhou state had known, it could not possibly have found the Southern Tang envoy's lodging so quickly.

So although Wang Yun hesitated for a moment, he still reached out to take the wooden box, then opened it with an air of perfect composure.

Sure enough, it was a human head, and it even looked somewhat familiar. Wang Yun had only met the Southern Tang Eunuch Sun once, so his impression was not deep, and he could not immediately recognize who it was.

But Wang Yun's cousin Wang En, who stood beside him, jumped up at once. Eunuch Sun and the others had been staying at his outer residence, so of course he was very familiar with them.

"Elder Brother, this is the Southern Tang envoy Sun! They have killed the envoy of the Southern Tang state!"

Towering fury very nearly overwhelmed Wang Yun's mind.

"Aiyah!" This son of a tiger-minister of Ma Chu roared, drew the hengdao saber from the guard beside him, and immediately moved to thrust it at Yang Jiye.

And almost at the same moment, a chorus of blades leaving scabbards rang out, and the yabing guards in Yueyang Tower all closed in.

They surrounded Yang Jiye and Zhang Shaodi tightly with long spears and hengdao sabers, and in the next instant would have hacked the two men to pieces.

"Wang Botong, do you want the Wang clan of Yuezhou to be exterminated?"

At this critical moment, Zhang Shaodi suddenly leaped onto a stone table and shouted. Pointing at Wang Yun, he continued to cry out, "This is Yang Dalang, the seventh adopted son of the present Shaoming Son of Heaven! If you kill him, all two hundred members of the Wang household, high and low, will die with him in burial."

This shout was more effective than anything else. Wang Yun's thrusting motion stopped at once, and the officers and soldiers of the Yisheng Command merely kept their blades and spears leveled at the two men, without striking.

"Hmph!" Yang Jiye, on the contrary, gave a cold snort. He pulled Zhang Shaodi down from the stone table, then once more drew close to Wang Yun — so close that with one light thrust, Wang Yun could have stabbed our old Lord Yang to death on the spot.

"Wang Botong, foolish as you are, how have you managed to hold the military and civil power of Yuezhou?

In the world today, the Sacred Zhou has received Heaven's mandate, the true sovereign has appeared, and the force of universal unification cannot be stopped. You, a petty Prefect of a single prefecture, with no more than eight thousand soldiers, how dare you go against Heaven's will?"

Yang Jiye bellowed, and the shout stunned Wang Yun into a daze. In truth, this Prefect Wang was no fool.

As the saying goes, a tiger father begets no dog son. Wang Yun was somewhat more capable than the average third-generation power-holder, or the house-guarding dogs among the second generation.

At least in history, with the single prefecture of Yuezhou, he had very nearly put down Ma Xi'e's rebellion completely — he was only capsized by that fool Ma Xiguang.

And now that matters had reached this point, Wang Yun knew very clearly that he no longer had any room to choose.

Seeing Wang Yun hesitate, Zhang Shaodi immediately stepped forward and separated Wang Yun and Yang Jiye. Putting on an expression of concern for Wang Yun's sake, he said urgently,

"Wang Botong, how muddled you are! The Son of Heaven is at Jiangling, and the Heir Prince of Chu is also with the army. The imperial court's great army has come from the Central Plains, with eighty thousand horse and foot.

This is a mighty force that has slain two successive Khitan emperors in battle and destroyed Liu Zhiyuan of Hedong. It has moreover absorbed twenty thousand elite troops of the Southern Ping water and land forces. Can you, Wang Botong, compare with Yelu Deguang or Liu Zhiyuan?"

Wang Yun listened until cold sweat streamed down him, but Yang Jiye was not ready to let him off. Unlike in history, Yang Jiye's adoptive father was not a rogue like Liu Chong of the Northern Han, and the Zhou state was not a son-state like the Northern Han, beaten in every manner imaginable.

He was the adopted son of the Yili Khagan, the Supreme Dharma King, the Shaoming Son of Heaven!

Nor had he, after surrendering to the Northern Song, been wantonly pushed aside by the military-merit clique of Bianliang. Moreover, he had been raised in the palace since the age of nine — a full-scale Wang Zhongsi in the making.

Although he was, as in history, loyal, brave, wise, and profound, mighty in martial force, and able to win the hearts of the soldiers, at the same time, deep in his heart, he could not avoid a certain arrogance. Wang Yun's feint of thrusting at him just now had already made Yang Jiye extremely displeased.

So Yang Jiye gave a cold snort. "Perhaps you are still thinking that as long as you go over to the Southern Tang, you will have a way out.

A joke! The Son of Heaven has personally led a great army to Jiangling, come to uphold justice for Lord Ma Xiguang. Would he permit Yuezhou to fall to the Southern Tang?

The Tang ruler Li Jing could not even recover his eastern capital of Jiangdu Prefecture except by buying it back, and to this day must still pay tribute of several hundred thousand strings of gold and silver every year. On what grounds does he dare come and take Yuezhou?

You and yours harbor delusions. When the court's heavenly troops arrive, you, Wang Botong, and all the Yisheng Command, high and low, can wait to sink to the bottom of the river!"

"Indeed! How would the Southern Tang ruler dare contend with the court for Yuezhou, and how would he dare to open war with the court in Yuezhou?"

Zhang Shaodi wore an expression of deep anguish, perfectly presenting the image of a kindly elder who had decades of ties to Wang Yun's family and was frantic with worry because Wang Yun was falling into error.

Wang Yun now also caved in. Well, one could say it was not exactly caving in, but rather, as Yang Jiye had analyzed when he set this plan in motion, the Southern Tang envoy had already been killed, so the Southern Tang side would no longer trust Wang Yun at all. He had no other choice left; he could only choose to submit to the imperial court.

"Master Zhang, and this heavenly envoy — I believe both of you have misunderstood. Wang's ancestral home is Xuzhou; I am a man of the Central Plains. How could I go over to the ruler of the Southern Tang?

The Southern Tang did send an envoy, it is true, but I have never once met with him. On the contrary, from the mao hour today, I have been waiting here at Yueyang Tower for the two of you!"

As he spoke, Wang Yun put on a face full of smiles and at once tossed the hengdao saber in his hand into the hands of his cousin Wang En beside him.

Wang En hurriedly waved a hand, making the yabing guards surrounding Yang Jiye and Zhang Shaodi all withdraw.

Zhang Shaodi gave another heavy sigh. "Even if the facts are as you say, whether the Sage will trust you, Botong, once he learns of this, is still unknown!"

As he spoke, Zhang Shaodi, with his back to Yang Jiye, shot Wang Yun a meaningful glance.

Wang Yun understood instantly. He hurriedly performed a grand salute toward Yang Jiye. "Heavenly envoy, Wang's heart is utterly sincere. I have absolutely no intention of going over to the Southern Tang. I beg the heavenly envoy to see clearly."

Only then did Yang Jiye give Wang Yun a proper look, and with a touch of arrogance said, "Now do you see why I said you would be thanking me for this great gift?"

Wang Yun nodded repeatedly, his expression growing even more submissive. If this somewhat arrogant young imperial envoy spoke like that, it surely meant he did not intend to hound Wang Yun to death.

This also matched his judgment: the court lacked warships and naval forces, and was in urgent need of capable men. Besides, he truly had not accepted Southern Tang's overtures.

"I nearly strayed down the wrong path, and indeed owe it all to you, Envoy. I am endlessly grateful. I shall now assemble all the officers and men of the Yisheng Command. From this moment we are soldiers of the court, and should any more men come from Southern Tang, we will seize them all!"

Yang Jiye chuckled. His objective was more or less achieved; now he only needed to wait for the court's main army to arrive.

Still, to put Wang Yun further at ease, he deliberately fixed Wang Yun with a deeply meaningful look.

"Does Prefect Wang intend to thank me with nothing but empty words? Those Southern Tang armored soldiers were not so easy to deal with."

Wang Yun was not the least bit surprised; in fact, this felt exactly right to him. At once he said with a face full of smiles, "I am willing to offer five hundred strings of cash to reward the Envoy and Lord Zhang."

"Hmph!" Yang Jiye snorted coldly again. "A great city like Yuezhou, and a Yuezhou Prefect on par with a Military Governor is worth only five hundred strings? It must be one thousand strings!"

Military men were just that direct. A scholar might have gone about it with twists and turns, but a military man generally named his actual price straight out. Give it or not, it was a single word—what mattered was being clean and decisive.

Wang Yun was overjoyed. "The Sage is willing to appoint me Prefect of Yuezhou? Truly the imperial grace is boundless!"

Yang Jiye nodded. "Our Great Zhou has no Prefects, but the Sage has shown mercy. As long as Prefect Wang is willing to surrender, Yuezhou may be changed to Yueyang Prefecture, and Prefect Wang appointed as Governor of Yueyang Prefecture."

"Then the Yisheng Command will be elevated to the Yisheng Garrison of the Imperial Army, and Prefect Wang, in his capacity as Governor of Yueyang Prefecture, will concurrently serve as Regional Commander of the Yisheng Garrison."

"Aiyah!" Wang Yun could not help exclaiming. "Truly the imperial grace is boundless! To receive such trust and regard from the Sage, even if I dashed out my brains and liver upon the ground, I could never repay it!"

His mouth was full of exclamations, but in his heart he was full of regret. Had he known the court would also make an offer so readily, why had he gone and provoked Southern Tang?

Which fool had told him earlier that the court was going to take back all power under Heaven and would no longer establish military provinces? Pure nonsense!

This pattern of Governor plus Regional Commander—was that not just a Military Governor, only under a different name?

"I am willing to give one thousand five hundred strings. I beg the Envoy and Lord Zhang to put in a few good words for me before the Sage." Wang Yun was staking everything on this.

This was not the economically vibrant Northern Song of several decades later. One thousand five hundred strings' worth of goods and money then, converted to later times, would be roughly equivalent to about one and a half to one and seven-tenths million.

But at this time, one thousand five hundred strings was worth at least around ten million.

Yang Jiye and Zhang Shaodi both revealed satisfied smiles. This one thousand five hundred strings would certainly be made known to the Sage, but it would likely be granted down as a reward for the two men's achievements.

When the time came, after sharing it out with the fifty armored soldiers of the Hanshan Command and a few Brocade Guard captains, Yang Jiye and Zhang Shaodi would each come away with at least several hundred strings.

More importantly, of course, was that by stabilizing Wang Yun now, they had effectively cut off Southern Tang's ability to interfere with the court's seizure of Ma Chu.

Because even if Southern Tang's navy was quite good, it still could not withstand the combined naval forces of Nanping and Ma Chu. If it still tried to intervene by force now, it would certainly bite off more than it could chew.

Wang Yun also smiled with satisfaction. That an imperial envoy like Yang Jiye, who was the Emperor's adopted son, had begun soliciting bribes proved that the court truly did not intend to do anything to him. The posts of Governor of Yueyang Prefecture and Regional Commander of the Yisheng Garrison were finally secure.

Zhang Zhao received Yang Jiye's report at Jiangling Prefecture. This time, he had to look at Southern Tang's speed of action with new respect.

Even with his own arrangements made in advance, he had only just sent men to Yuezhou, while over on Southern Tang's side, Li Jing had already put a price on the recruitment.

This indicated that, very likely, even before Ma Xifan died of illness or fell gravely ill, someone within Southern Tang had already begun moving against Yuezhou.

So upon receiving the report, Zhang Zhao immediately mustered eight thousand naval troops, with Zhao Yanjin and Wei Lin as overall commander and deputy commander.

Zhang Zhao himself led the Hanshan Command and six thousand cavalry and infantry of the Right Yulin Guard, escorted by Li Cunhui, Zhang Zhaozhong, Zhang Zhaojiu, and Wang Shenqi, traveling by land down along the river.

On the first day of the tenth month, Zhao Yanjin led the navy to Sanjiangkou (northwest of present-day Yueyang), a key naval town northwest of Yuezhou.

As soon as Zhao Yanjin arrived, Liao Kuangtu, Ma Chu's Land-and-Water Defense Commissioner of Sanjiangkou, came forward with a hundred warships and two thousand naval troops to surrender to Zhao Yanjin.

The army personally led by Zhang Zhao also crossed Shishou at this time. Wu Hong, the garrison commander of Shishou appointed by Ma Xi'e, likewise led over a thousand troops to kowtow and beg forgiveness before Zhang Zhao's carriage.

On the fourth day of the tenth month, Zhao Yanjin and Wei Lin led the Flying Tiger and Flying Crane fleets, along with the Ma Chu naval forces from Sanjiangkou, to outside Yuezhou city. The accompanying warships numbered over five hundred, large and small, filling the river's surface.

Wang Yun, perhaps feeling that Zhao Yanjin had arrived with too aggressive a manner, shut the water and land gates of Yuezhou and refused to let Zhao Yanjin enter the city.

Zhao Yanjin was in no hurry, because just as the navy reached outside Yuezhou, Zhang Zhao's carriage also arrived thirty li west of Yuezhou.

With the Son of Heaven himself arrived, Wang Yun naturally did not dare remain cowering inside the city. After the envoy Zhang Zhao sent again arrived, and urged on by Yang Jiye and Zhang Shaodi, he went thirty li out of the city to pay his respects to Zhang Zhao.

This was the moment everyone had been waiting for. The moment Wang Yun and Yang Jiye left the city, Pan Shusi and Xu Songzhi, who had long been oppressed by Wang Yun and the local officers' faction inside Yuezhou, immediately launched a mutiny.

This Pan Shusi was an outside general sent to Yuezhou by the Ma Chu court, and so he and the thousand-odd troops he had brought from Tanzhou had always suffered oppression.

Xu Songzhi went without saying—even a squad general of the Yisheng Command could climb over his head.

The two groups struck with pent-up fury, and with the aid of Zhang Shaodi and the Brocade Guards inside the city who were skilled at sowing chaos, they swiftly seized Yuezhou's west gate and shut the city gates.

At the same time, Li Jian, a trusted yabing officer under Pan Shusi, risked his life to open the water city gate. Seeing this, Zhao Yanjin immediately charged his troops in and directly took control of the Yuezhou navy's Yisheng Command.

At the same time, Wang Shenqi galloped in with a hundred riders from thirty li away and immediately seized Wang Yun himself, denouncing him for his monstrous treason in dealing with Southern Tang envoys.

Wang Yun's eyes split with rage. He stared at Yang Jiye, who wore an utterly unconcerned expression beside him, and roared, "Yang Dalang, you gave me your word!"

Unfortunately, Wang Yun had sorely underestimated the thickness of Yang Jiye's skin.

One must know that historically, our old Lord Yang, besides being loyal, brave, and composed, was equally famed for being able to set aside all face.

Back then, when the Northern Song attacked Northern Han and surrounded Jinyang completely, the Khitan came from a thousand li away and forced the Northern Song army to retreat, once again preserving Northern Han.

And Yang Jiye, then a trusted confidant of the Northern Han ruler, far from being grateful, instead advised Liu Jiyuan to seize the chance to ambush and slaughter the Khitan army and seize their ten thousand fine horses.

Then, using those as bargaining chips, he could surrender to the Northern Song. That way, the Northern Song would gain ten thousand elite warhorses and Liao army armor, and would surely be willing to treat Liu Jiyuan generously, while the people of Hedong would be spared the flames of war.

This ruthlessness and shamelessness shocked even Liu Jiyuan, who in the end did not adopt the plan.

One could say that a man like Yang Jiye understood the greater cause and was utterly loyal to the Central Plains court, but toward his enemies, "ruthless" was too mild a word—it should be "vicious."

So at this moment, though only sixteen years old, the thick-skinned Yang Jiye wore a wholly unconcerned expression and shrugged his shoulders.

"Of course I didn't say anything. It was Pan Shusi who informed. What does that have to do with me?"

Hearing this, Wang Yun let out a miserable cry and collapsed to the ground. He had poured out his family fortune hoping to buy off Yang Jiye, only to find that the man had merely been stalling to set him up.

Zhang Zhao arrived shortly after. By then Wang Yun had been revived with cold water, and his family members along with all officers of the Yisheng Command above the rank of Deputy Commander had been brought over under guard.

At this point, the Ma Chu officials who had earlier still fantasized about letting the Wang family continue ruling Yuezhou had lost all their spirit.

He did not even dare look at Zhang Zhao, merely kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy in a numb and mechanical fashion.

Right now he very much wanted to die, but the Wang family still had over two hundred members in Yuezhou. He could not very well have them all die with him.

Zhang Zhao was not that ruthless. Hedging bets on both sides was perfectly normal—standard practice for military men of this era.

If he killed Wang Yun, then from now on, every military man under Heaven would fight the Zhou state to the death the moment they encountered it.

Wang Yun was indeed guilty, but his crime was not hedging his bets — it was that he had monopolized every benefit in Yuezhou and still wanted to keep it going.

So Zhang Zhao thought for a moment, then came straight to the point and said: "Wang Yun has rendered merit by surrendering the city. Let him be immediately transferred to serve as Chief Clerk of Puzhou. Your family is originally from the north, so move back to Xuchang Prefecture."

Wang Yun had not expected Zhang Zhao to still be willing to let him go, and felt nothing but surprise and delight. In the past, he would have felt shortchanged without a Military Governor post, but now what was there left to say?

Wang Yun wept bitterly, prostrating himself before Zhang Zhao with tears and snot streaming down his face. "Your subject kowtows in thanks for the Sage's heavenly grace."

Zhang Zhao waved a hand. "Set out at once!" Then he headed straight for the city of Yuezhou.

On the fourth day of the tenth month, Zhang Zhao entered the city of Yuezhou without incident and absorbed the more than six thousand men of the Ma Chu Yuezhou fleet's Yisheng Command, together with Liao Kuangtu, who had surrendered at Sanjiangkou. The Ma Chu fleet had essentially been taken over in its entirety by Zhang Zhao.

At this point, the Zhang-Zhou state finally had a fleet that could barely fight on the Yangtze River.

With defenses now deployed at both Yuezhou and Jiangling, the Southern Tang had finally lost the last sliver of opportunity to threaten the Zhang-Zhou state.

After entering the city, Zhang Zhao immediately ordered Yuezhou renamed Yueyang Prefecture, appointed Zhang Shaodi as Prefect of Yueyang, Zhao Yanjin as Fleet Commissioner of Yueyang, Wei Lin as Deputy Commissioner, and Pan Shusi as Commandant of the Yisheng Command, placing all sixteen thousand naval troops here under Zhao Yanjin's control.

Once Zhao Yanjin had secured control of all positions, he immediately began purging the officers and men of the former Yisheng Command who were closely tied to the Wang family, as well as those with extensive landholdings and entangled interests in the counties and prefectures of Yueyang Prefecture.

They were all broken up and reassigned to various posts, and in the end the fleet was trimmed to thirteen thousand sailors and nine hundred warships large and small.

As for Zhang Zhao, he prepared to rest briefly in the city of Yueyang. The next step was the time to deal with Ma Xi'e.

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