Chapter 778: Since Ancient Times, the Only Hard Thing Is Death

On the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the fourth year of Shaoming, 949 CE, Liu Renzhan, Military Governor of the Qinghuai Army at Shouzhou in the Southern Tang, took his own life at the military governor's headquarters, dying for his country.

When the news spread, more than twenty officers of the Qinghuai Army took their own lives together, shedding their last drop of blood for the Shouzhou they had defended and for the Southern Tang state.

Before his death, Liu Renzhan had also sent a man out of the city bearing a letter to Zhang Zhao, asking the Son of Heaven of Shaoming not to implicate the entire Qinghuai Army and the people of Shouzhou for his one man's offense.

At the end of the mao hour, when the first ray of sunlight fell upon the cannon-shattered north gate of Shouzhou, Zhou Tinggou, Army Supervisor of the Qinghuai Army of Shouzhou in the Southern Tang, Sun Yu, Deputy Commissioner of Military Farms, and Liu Chongliang, second son of Liu Renzhan and Troop Commander of the governor's household troops, came before the north gate bearing the great seal of the Qinghuai Army of Shouzhou and requested surrender.

When Zhang Zhao heard that Liu Renzhan had killed himself and died for his country, he too gave a long sigh and did not know what to say.

In all fairness, Liu Renzhan had always schemed against him with deliberate intent. Although he had not caused much damage, he had kept the two prefectures of Hao and Si in constant turmoil, and Zhang Zhao did bear some hatred for him.

But at the same time, Zhang Zhao had to admit that Liu Renzhan was a standard, utterly selfless loyal minister.

"Liu Shouhui, though he was my enemy, was in the end a pure minister of loyalty and integrity. What a pity he could not be used by me!"

Zhang Zhao sighed. Originally he had intended to have someone take Liu Renzhan's armor and send it to Li Jing, but at this moment he could not bring himself to do it.

I, Sage Zhang, accepted the golden seal, then handed it to Liu Chongliang, Liu Renzhan's second son. "Since your father was unwilling to be a subject of my Great Zhou, I will not force him.

Take this golden seal, ride one of our army's heavenly horses to Jiangning Prefecture, and give it to Li Jing. Let him confer posthumous rank and title, deliberate on a posthumous name, and give your father the honor he deserves."

This is a matter of innate talent. Few people can be as thorough in these matters as I, Sage Zhang.

Liu Chongliang threw himself to the ground and wept bitterly, kowtowing to Zhang Zhao with endless gratitude. Then he accepted the golden seal and prepared to go to Jiangning Prefecture.

Zhang Zhao suddenly felt somewhat dispirited as well. He lingered for a moment outside the north gate of Shouzhou, then said to Yang Jiye: "Liu Shouhui was a loyal minister. His funeral affairs must be properly arranged. My son shall go in my place to offer condolences."

Then Zhang Zhao said to Li Gu behind him: "Minister Li, you are a man of Huainan. Assist Yang Jiye in pacifying the people of Shouzhou.

The Qinghuai Army is disbanded as of today. Establish a new imperial guard army here, taking its name from the meaning of loyal, pure ministers, and call it the Zhongjie Garrison."

In the Southern Tang, at Jiangning Prefecture, within the Palace of Purple Tenuity.

Liu Chongliang arrived before Li Jing bearing Liu Renzhan's bloodstained clothes and the golden seal. Although Li Jing had also been displeased that Liu Renzhan was always provoking trouble in Huainan, at this moment, seeing Liu Renzhan's bloodstained clothes, grief rose from his heart. The ruler of the Southern Tang struck the table with his hand and collapsed to the ground weeping.

The assembled ministers at court also began to sob quietly, and a pall of gloom hung over the whole assembly.

Although Li Jing had collapsed weeping, he was still observing the conduct of his ministers.

Seeing that most of them were merely putting on a show, and that the few who cried out for revenge could offer not a single useful suggestion, he grew utterly disheartened and simply used the news of Liu Renzhan's death as an excuse to retreat once more into the inner palace.

In the inner palace, Queen Zhong, leading Consort Ling and the other consorts, brought in Li Jing's eldest son Li Hongji, second son Li Hongmao, sixth son Li Congjia, seventh son Li Congshan, and the rest.

Among Li Jing's sons, Li Hongji was already sixteen this year, very strongly built, ordinarily taciturn, but once the topic turned to military affairs he spoke endlessly. The previous year he had been posted to Runzhou to command the Zhenhai Army, where he had won considerable support from the officers and soldiers.

The second son, Li Hongmao, was only a few months younger than Li Hongji. He excelled at riding, archery, and the lance, and was fond of poetry and prose, with considerable bearing.

The sixth son, Li Congjia, had double pupils in one eye. Although he was only twelve this year, he already had a solid foundation in poetry and painting.

Li Jing was extremely fond of these three sons, and among his daughters he doted solely on the Princess Yongning, who was seven this year.

And this princess had an experience that was, for her, a bitter ordeal, but for later generations, a rather legendary tale.

It is said that in history, after Li Yu surrendered, the chariot god Second Brother Zhao forcibly took the Princess Yongning, already past thirty, as his consort. Then, when he went north to contest Yan-Yun, Second Brother Zhao was shot in the buttocks and abandoned Princess Yongning outside the city of Youzhou.

After Princess Yongning was captured by the Liao army, she caught the eye of Emperor Shengzong of Liao, who made her a Fangyi consort.

Seeing this display, Li Jing actually guessed what Queen Zhong was about to say. He gave a long sigh.

But Zhong, contrary to her usual manner, wore plain white mourning clothes and ordered Consort Ling and the others to accompany her with music, then sang in a mournful voice:

"When the Protector first went to war, I too loathed to hear the summons. Would that I were the Stone-You wind, cutting off all travelers in every direction. I heard my love had gone north to war, and saw him off at Zhidu Ford. Only tears could come forth, no words of feeling left to speak!"

Consort Ling followed behind, singing low in deep sorrow: "Ding the Protector, Ding the Protector."

This dance song was called "The Protector." It told of the late Eastern Jin, when Xu Kuizhi, eldest son-in-law of Liu Yu, the future Emperor Gaozu of Song, and General of Inspiring Might, was killed by Lu Gui, a subordinate of Sima Xiuzhi, while campaigning against Sima Xiuzhi.

Liu Yu ordered his trusted guard commander Ding Wu to recover Xu Kuizhi's body. Ding Wu, not good with words, faced Liu Xingdi, Liu Yu's eldest daughter, dressed all in white mourning, and could not bear to tell her the terrible truth that Xu Kuizhi's head and body had been separated on the battlefield.

Only when Liu Xingdi asked a question would he force himself to answer. Liu Xingdi, heartbroken that her husband had died in battle and she could not see his body, grieved bitterly and could only cover her face and call out endlessly: "Ding the Protector! Ding the Protector!"

Her voice was mournful and plaintive; all the sorrow and pain lay in what was left unsaid.

Later, people of the time took Princess Yongxing Liu Xingdi's repeated mournful cries and made the song "The Protector."

In Tang times, the immortal of poetry Li Taibai reworked the Song of Ding the Protector, but what Zhong sang was still the mournful Protector song of the Liu-Song period, and its meaning could not have been clearer.

Zhong and Li Jing were a deeply loving couple, and so she knew exactly what to use to persuade a romantic like Li Jing.

Though this Song of Ding the Protector was so inauspicious, Li Jing was moved to tears by the singing. He struck his bowl with his chopsticks and sang along: "Would that in life after life, I were not born into an imperial house, but could with you, my love, drift in a boat upon the rivers and lakes."

Seeing their parents like this, even the ordinarily taciturn Li Hongji could not hold back his tears.

Zhong also collapsed to the ground weeping, and raised up a letter personally written by Zhang Zhao's birth mother, the Compassionate Sage Empress Dowager, and jointly sealed by his legitimate mother, the Compassionate Blessing Empress Dowager, presenting it to Li Jing.

"My lord, the Compassionate Sage Empress Dowager and the Compassionate Blessing Empress Dowager have together replied to me. The two empress dowagers have jointly promised that after we surrender our territory, they will together guarantee the safety, prosperity, and honor of our family.

The Compassionate Blessing Empress Dowager also said that if my lord is still uneasy, you may acknowledge her as your paternal aunt."

Only then did Li Jing recall that the Shaoming Son of Heaven's legitimate mother, the Compassionate Blessing Empress Dowager, of the Li clan, came from the Yuchi family of the Khotan royal house and had been granted the surname Li. In truth, she was even a little more authentic than his own self-proclaimed descent from the Great Tang imperial house.

If he acknowledged the Compassionate Blessing Empress Dowager as his paternal aunt, and Queen Zhong in turn called the Compassionate Sage Empress Dowager "Mother," perhaps he could even pay respects to her as an adoptive mother. The lives of the whole family should then be secure, and he need not worry about being humiliated upon going to the eastern capital at Kaifeng.

Having obtained these conditions, Li Jing's heart had in fact already wavered. These past few months, the pressure Zhang Zhao had put on him had been too great.

Li Jing could no longer remember how long it had been since he had properly enjoyed a song and dance performance, exchanged poems and wine with Feng Yansi and the others, or built a great garden for his pleasure.

At just that moment, Li Jingsui and Li Jingda, who held the right to walk freely within the palace, burst in, heedless even of the guards' shouts.

Seeing the two of them arrive together, a sense of foreboding immediately rose in Li Jing's heart.

Sure enough, no sooner had Li Jingsui and Li Jingda arrived than they collapsed to the ground with a thud. Li Jingda looked at Li Jing, so anxious that tears were about to fall.

"Elder Brother, I have just received a secret letter from the Zhou Fengyi brothers at Jiangdu. The court's Duke Li of Wei has personally led eight thousand iron cavalry to within twenty li north of Jiangdu Prefecture. The vanguard commander Pan Mei has already entered Jiangdu Prefecture, and the civil and military officials from Prefect Zhou Zong of Jiangdu down have opened the gates and surrendered the city."

Li Jing felt the world spinning around him, but the matter was not finished. Li Jingsui said through tears: "The Commissioner of the Jinghai Commission reports that Qian Hongchu, King of Wuyue, has personally led twenty thousand naval troops and four hundred warships to south of Hudou Island, and will set sail westward within days."

At this time, the mouth of the Yangtze was not the same as in later ages. Nantong was still an island, and places like Haimen and Qidong had not yet appeared.

Hudou Island was near the later Nantong. The Qian-Yue fleet had already reached the river mouth, surely waiting for the northwest wind to ease before sailing upstream against the current. It would take only a few days to reach Jiangning Prefecture.

When Zhong heard this, she was so frantic she stamped her feet. She clung to Li Jing's leg and wept bitterly: "My lord, there is still time to surrender our territory now. If we truly wait until the enemy is at the walls, then please kill me and Consort Ling at once, and Yongning, Yongjia, and the rest, so that we are spared the humiliation of a fallen state."

Hearing this, Li Jing felt as though his heart were being cut with a knife. What calamities his wife and daughters would suffer after the fall of the state — merely thinking of it made Li Jing tremble in agony.

At this moment he leaned against a pillar in the hall, all the majesty of a ruler of a state gone from him. In his grief he raised his head, closed his eyes, and wept aloud: "Jing cannot preserve the sacrifices, nor can he die for the altars of the state. I have failed my forefathers who hacked through brambles and thorns!"

Li Jingsui, Li Jingda, and the others came forward and embraced Li Jing, weeping together.

Only the eldest son, Li Hongji, rose abruptly to his feet. "Your Majesty, give me full authority to command the troops. We still have twenty thousand men in the Palace Army and the garrison forces. If we hold the river and defend, it is not certain we cannot preserve the altars of the state.

And even if we cannot preserve them, what harm is there in us, father and son, dying for this realm!"

Li Jing shook his head, tears welling in his eyes. If Li Hongji had not spoken so, it would have been fine, but the more he spoke, the more Li Jing resolved to surrender. Had he possessed the courage to die for the altars, the situation would never have come to this.

"My son is a hero. Preserve your life, and serve the new dynasty in days to come!" With that, Li Jing looked at Li Jingda.

"Fourth Brother, you must slip out of the city in light gear, cross the river, and report to the Duke of Wei. Tell him that I, Li Jing, am willing to surrender."

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