Chapter 758: How Can One Allow Another to Snore Soundly Beside One's Own Bed?

In the fourth year of Shaoming, 949 CE, the fifteenth day of the first month, the Lantern Festival.

Zhang Zhao summoned to Chengde Prefecture Cao Sanniang, the lady Yannai, who had been frightened in the Luoyang upheaval; Cao Yuanzhong, who had nearly been killed by Cao Renzun in the Chang'an upheaval; Luo Yu'er, who had withstood a tremendous trial; and Zhao Kuangzan, who had fared even worse than Cao Yuanzhong and had barely escaped with his life.

Zhang Zhao summoned them because he wanted to reassure them properly. Apart from the lady Sanniang Yannai, who is my Sage Zhang's accomplice, the other three were all victims of his fishing operation. Their lives had nearly been lost, so an explanation had to be given.

And accompanying the lady Cao Sanniang came her eldest daughter, Princess Baoding, along with a whole crowd of her younger brothers and sisters. Among Zhang Zhao's children, all those who had reached the age of ten and could endure the hardships of a long journey had also hurried over.

These princes and princesses were no longer young, yet many of them had hardly ever traveled far, at most going back and forth between the two cities of Luoyang and Kaifeng.

This would not do. They ought to be made to experience more of this splendid land of rivers and mountains.

And as soon as these two sons and three daughters who had reached the age of ten arrived, they got to witness the awe-inspiring and domineering side of me, Sage Zhang.

When they arrived, great snow drifted down like cotton fluff, and the whole of Lion Peak at Chengde Prefecture was wrapped in silver. In such weather, naturally the only comfortable place to be was inside the Rehe traveling palace.

Although the traveling palace was not large, beneath it natural underfloor warmth surged from hot springs, and there were also dedicated hot-spring pools where one could soak in the warmth amid a world of ice and snow.

Zhang Zhao first accompanied his sons in a thoroughly enjoyable hot-spring bath, and then he convened a grand banquet.

This banquet was held to send off Li Jingda, younger brother of Li Jing, the ruler of the Southern Tang, and the Southern Tang envoy Han Xizai.

The banquet was of the highest standard. Zhang Zhao also gave Han Xizai very high praise, and he had his third son, Zhang Xianzhao, seek Han Xizai's instruction in the stele inscription prose at which Han Xizai was supremely skilled.

The statecraft of this famous Southern Tang minister, who would be remembered by posterity through the Night Revels of Han Xizai, could not yet be judged, but he was indeed a very renowned man of letters and poet, and in character and integrity he also had admirable qualities.

To Han Xizai's left sat Li Jingda. After following Zhang Zhao on a trip to the northern desert, he seemed a changed man; the bold and heroic spirit of his Han and Tang ancestors had fully awakened in him.

When he learned that Liu Renzhan had actually dared to take advantage of the crisis, and that his elder brother Li Jing had tacitly approved, Li Jingda grew frantic with anxiety.

He wanted to return to Jiangning as soon as possible to persuade his elder brother Li Jing to abandon all illusions and honestly go to the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, to become a wealthy immortal of poetry. After all, what his elder brother liked most was precisely exchanging poems with a circle of literati.

Han Xizai, however, still harbored some illusions. Although Zhang Zhao had held this send-off banquet for him at the extraordinary standard of a family feast, bringing out the princes and princesses, Han Xizai kept rambling on about how the Southern Tang was a respectful and obedient vassal, how the ruler Li Jing served the great dynasty with the utmost reverence, and how it was truly without guilt, and so on.

This man was indeed skilled at shaping public opinion. In barely twenty-some days at Chengde Prefecture, he had already deeply implanted the image he had crafted of Li Jing as timid, cautious, and serving the great dynasty as if serving his own father, gratuitously earning no small amount of sympathy and pity.

Even among Zhang Zhou's officials, there were those who felt the Southern Tang should not be attacked, because Li Jing truly did seem very obedient.

Obedient? Without the stunt Liu Renzhan had pulled, he would indeed have been very obedient.

Since the first year of Shaoming, that is, three years earlier in 946 CE, when Zhang Zhao had beaten him into submission, Li Jing had, at every seasonal festival and on the birthdays of Zhang Zhao's legal mother, the Empress Dowager Ciyou, his birth mother, the Empress Dowager Cisheng, Zhang Zhao himself, and the Empress Cao Yanxi, sent officials of vice-minister rank or above as birthday envoys, with gifts starting at ten thousand strings of cash every time.

Last year, on the birthday of Zhang Zhao's birth mother, Lady Song, Li Jing presented a ruyi scepter of gold and jade bearing an image of Guanyin, Bodhisattva of the Southern Seas, which so delighted the Empress Dowager Cisheng that she kept it by her side at all times as a treasure.

The Empress Dowager Cisheng had also sent gifts in return, such as Buddhist images and prayer beads, to Li Jing's principal wife, Queen Zhong. Zhong took the opportunity to address Lady Song as "Mother," and their relationship became very close, with letters exchanged almost every month.

The Inner Court's Bureau of Palace Receptions had once calculated that over these three years, the value of the congratulatory gifts and other presents Li Jing had sent to the imperial palace alone exceeded three hundred thousand strings of cash.

This won him the goodwill of nearly everyone around Zhang Zhao, except for three formidable women: the Empress Dowager Ciyou, Lady Li; Cao Sanniang; and his young aunt Li Ruoliu. Even the Empress Cao Yanxi said that Li Jing was exceptionally obedient and very good at handling people.

And in the annual tribute payments, Li Jing had never once fallen into arrears. As soon as the Southern Tang's spring and autumn taxes were collected, he immediately sent the tribute to Zhang Zhou according to the original agreement.

The amount exceeded five hundred thousand strings of cash every year, approaching two million strings over three years.

It truly had to be admitted that this was very obedient indeed. Each year, the benefits Li Jing could extract from the small regime of the Southern Tang were probably not even as much as what Zhang Zhao received.

If this Li Jing were not the ruler of the Southern Tang, but rather the ruler of some state on the Korean peninsula or the demon island, Zhang Zhao would have been willing to grant him the highest honor, bestow upon him the surname Zhang, and recognize him as a younger brother.

It was only a pity that what Li Jing's Southern Tang occupied was the land of Jiangnan, national territory that was destined to be reclaimed.

So when he heard Han Xizai still making an issue of Li Jing's obedience, and saw that some people deeply agreed, Zhang Zhao decided it was time to reverse this trend.

Han Xizai stroked the handsome beard that reached down to his chin. He felt that this "diplomatic activity" of his had been very successful, at least in deeply implanting the image of the Southern Tang as an obedient vassal in the minds of the Zhou ruler and his ministers; even the Emperor had not offered much rebuttal to his words.

He was just about to press the advantage and further reinforce this perception in the Emperor's mind when Zhang Zhao waved his hand, cutting off Han Xizai's lengthy discourse. Zhang Zhao asked him directly:

"Minister Han, how do you think We compare with the First Emperor of Qin, Emperor Gaozu of Han, and the Taizong Emperor of the previous dynasty?"

Han Xizai naturally had to flatter Zhang Zhao. He answered in a ringing voice: "The First Emperor built upon the six generations of accumulated might of Qin, sweeping up all under heaven, and became the founding ancestor of the imperial enterprise.

But he had the foundation forged by successive kings of Qin, and his governance was excessively harsh. He does not compare to the Sage, who started from nothing in the desolate lands of Hexi and yet practiced benevolent rule.

Emperor Gaozu of Han also rose from humble origins and won the empire in four years, but his conduct was too willful, and he suffered the siege at Baideng. He does not compare to Your Majesty, who swept across the great desert.

Only the Taizong Wen Emperor of the previous dynasty matched the Sage in civil governance and martial achievement, but with the stain of the Xuanwu Gate upon him, he too falls slightly short of the Sage."

"Well said!" Zhang Zhao appeared very pleased, but then his tone shifted. "You say these three great rulers all fall short of Us, yet in Our view, We are far inferior to them.

For it has already been sixteen years since We raised our banner, thirteen years since We first entered Guanzhong, and three years since We drove out the Khitan barbarians.

Has there ever been, in this world, a founding great ruler who spent sixteen years without unifying the empire?"

Han Xizai had in fact sensed something was wrong halfway through Zhang Zhao's words. Now, hearing Zhang Zhao speak thus, he immediately prostrated himself and cried out loudly:

"In the realm today, the Southern Tang and Wuyue are both Your Majesty's vassals. The only one that has not yet submitted is the Han state in Lingnan."

"Vassals? Good!" Zhang Zhao shouted. "Then We now issue an order: let Li Jing come at once to Chengde Prefecture to pay court. Or else have the Southern Tang state re-enfeoffed in Andong."

Han Xizai did not dare take up these words, nor did he know how to respond.

But Zhang Zhao was not about to let him off. My Sage Zhang extended his right hand and pointed at Han Xizai like a halberd: "You, Han Shuyan, have also read the books of the sages. Do you not understand the principle that the realm must be unified and the golden vessel left without a single chip?

Mencius said: the people are most important, the altars of state come next, the ruler is least.

The realm has been in turmoil for two hundred years, the people without means of livelihood. Today you kill me, tomorrow I kill you. Do you not see the two-legged sheep by the Yellow River of old, the human livestock of Yangzhou?

I rose from Hexi and for sixteen years have not shunned blade and sword. What I have worked for is the revival of the great dynasty, the reunification of the realm, and a peaceful life for the common people.

Li Jing is indeed obedient. If he came to Luoyang, We would treat him as Our own younger brother. But this realm must be unified.

Compared to the peace and happiness of the myriad people under heaven, his petty Southern Tang altars of state and his petty Southern Tang ruler are lighter than a goose feather!"

What a fine piece of concept-stealing. So Li Jing's Southern Tang state counts as the "altars of state" that come second, and the Southern Tang ruler is the "ruler" who is light as air, but your Zhang Zhou is not, is that it? Still, there was no one so fearless as to dare say so.

Han Xizai certainly did not dare either, and he understood clearly that the moral high ground truly was in Zhang Zhao's hands. From the moment this Sage of Shaoming before him had driven out the Khitan bandits and established his capital in the Central Plains, the Southern Tang had lost the moral high ground.

Now that the Son of Heaven of Shaoming had swept across the great desert, performed the rites at Langjuxu, and brought all the peoples beyond the frontier to submission, the Southern Tang no longer even had a legal basis for its existence.

Han Xizai could not argue. He could only weep and prostrate himself on the ground. "All the world knows the Sage's divine might is irresistible. My lord knows it too, and has never harbored any intention of provoking the great state. He asks only to huddle in Jiangnan and preserve his altars of state.

Even if it is only for one more day, it would do right by his ancestors who hacked through brambles and thorns. With such obedience as this, can the Sage not grant a little more time?"

Zhang Zhao waved his hand, and his wide sleeves struck against his robes with a sound like wind and thunder. "The Southern Tang borders the Jianghuai in the north and lies near Wuyue in the south, right at Our side.

Jiangnan is without guilt, and Li Jing is without guilt. But how can one allow another to snore soundly beside one's own bed!

Go back and tell Li Jing: if he can come north, he shall be Our own full brother. If he dares to resist to the bitter end, then beneath the thunderbolt, there will be only dust!"

Han Xizai's face was full of terror. The faces of the entire Southern Tang delegation that had come with him turned deathly pale, and even Li Jingda's expression changed drastically.

And every civil and military official of the Zhou court present wore expressions of surging, impassioned ambition.

How can one allow another to sleep soundly beside one's own bed? This was the strongest declaration Zhao Da ever made in history, the most domineering of all.

Now that Zhang Zhao wielded it, carrying the might of sweeping across the northern deserts and purging the rot within the realm, it surged with heroic spirit like a heaven-shaking great wave.

Han Xizai wept bitterly and said to those around him, "My ancestors for generations received the Great Tang's stipends, and I myself have received the great favor of the Exalted Ancestor, the High Emperor, yet I cannot preserve the altars of the state. What face will I have to meet them after death?"

With that, the Southern Tang envoys wept together with Han Xizai, their wailing utterly wretched, and some among them kowtowed repeatedly on the ground until blood flew from their foreheads.

Even Li Jingda, who had harbored the thought of persuading his elder brother to offer up the maps and household registers, could not help but feel grief rise from his heart as tears streamed down his face.

The surrounding civil and military officials and meritorious nobles of the Zhou court all wore expressions of unbearable sympathy. Apart from ruthless killers like Luo Yu'er and Gao Huaide, even someone like Yang Jiye was moved by them.

Zhang Zhao turned his head slightly and saw that tears were actually glistening in Lady Cao Sanniang's eyes as well, though he did not know whether she was thinking of the Guiyi Army's plight in years past. His several daughters were even more overcome, tears already streaming down in profusion.

Women! No matter how formidable she may be, she will always be infected by outside emotions when she lets her guard down.

But I, Sage Zhang, am different — his heart is hard indeed!

Zhang Zhao stepped forward and helped Li Jingda to his feet. Han Xizai needed no attention — this fellow had actually come to regard the Southern Tang founded by Li Bian as a continuation of the Later Tang, so what more was there to say?

Zhang Zhao helped Li Jingda up. "The Grand Historian said that a man's death may be weightier than Mount Tai or lighter than a goose feather.

Today your house weeps for the altars of the state, yet it can spare every household south of the Yangtze from wailing in mourning and donning funeral white in days to come. You should understand that the former is as a goose feather, and the latter as Mount Tai.

I have sworn to unify the whole world and build anew a great dynasty. This heart is as iron and stone — though heavenly thunder strike it and fierce fire burn it, it will never change!

Go back and counsel your elder brother once more. Let him come to the Eastern Capital and be a carefree king. I will reserve the title of King of Wu for him — tell him he must not bring ruin upon himself."

Li Jingda rose to his feet with tears streaming down his face and nodded firmly. "Better one family weeps than a whole nation weeps. If my Li clan weeps today, then the common people south of the Yangtze need not weep tomorrow. This principle, your servant understands."

Han Xizai was dumbstruck. The sorrowful offensive he had launched with all his strength was, before Zhang Zhao's great national cause, like an egg dashed against a stone.

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