Chapter 113, Second Demotion: Prefect of Jizhou.
Almost as soon as Li Wei made the decision to personally meet the emperor, a loud and shrill funeral melody suddenly rang out from outside, extremely jarring!
The people inside the tent immediately rushed out, only to see that all the soldiers in the camp were looking up at the northeast direction, where there was a mountain range. On the nearest mountain peak, several rows of figures dressed in white mourning clothes had appeared out of nowhere. Behind them stood white banners used for sacrifices, fluttering in the wind, which were very eye-catching.
The suona music suddenly stopped, replaced by a clear and loud human voice: "Last night, the Emperor of the Great Zhou met his end in Yicheng. His Majesty could not bear to see him die far from home, so he specially ordered us to come and see the Emperor of the Great Zhou off!"
He repeated it three times, and then the shrill funeral music of the suona horn started again.
The suona is commonly used in funerals among the common people, so the soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty, who came from the common people, were very familiar with this kind of suona funeral music. However, if the king of a country were to pass away, the funeral music should be played with the solemn and dignified tones of bells, chimes, sheng, and drums. Instead, the Yin Emperor ordered people to play the suona wildly. His gloating and humiliating intentions made Li Wei and others grit their teeth!
"This is outrageous! This is outrageous! I will personally go and kill them!" King Qi drew his sword from his waist and roared for his men to prepare his horse.
Li Chong quickly stopped the King of Qi, advising him to calm down while arranging for cavalry archers to shoot down the Yin soldiers and prevent them from further disrupting the morale of our army.
Li Wei then instructed Xiao Lin to plant the heads of all the Yin soldiers he had brought on tall poles, displaying them around the camp while having the accompanying soldiers proclaim in unison that the four thousand ambushers arranged by the Yin Emperor the previous night had all been killed. This was both to humiliate the smug Yin soldiers on the mountain and to tell the soldiers of the Great Zhou that the Emperor was still alive and well and not to believe the rumors spread by the Yin Kingdom.
Without delay, Li Wei left Li Chong, Liang Bizheng, Xiao Lin, and the Prince of Qi to temporarily stabilize the morale of the army, while Li Wei, accompanied by Chen Ruliang, hurriedly headed to Yicheng.
Five thousand Zhou soldiers were stationed on each side of the Liao River to guard against a Yin army attack that would destroy the dozen or so pontoon bridges essential for marching and transporting supplies. When Xiao Lin and Chen Ruliang passed through this river in the morning, the garrison on both sides was safe and sound. However, just over an hour later, when Li Wei and Chen Ruliang arrived on this side, they were informed by the river garrison commander that not long ago, Yin soldiers had also come to announce a death with suona horns, and the garrison on both sides was filled with panic.
In a battle between two armies, if the general is killed in action, the soldiers below will immediately fall into disarray. If it is the emperor who dies on the battlefield, even if the general can remain calm, the soldiers will not be willing to die in vain, because they are fighting for the emperor. If the emperor is dead, why should they risk their lives?
The royal family and nobles regard ordinary people as ants, but little do they know that even ants try to survive, and no one wants to die in vain if there is any hope of living.
Unless Emperor Xianping was brought over so that the soldiers could see him with their own eyes, Li Wei could not persuade the soldiers no matter what he said, so he had no choice but to continue riding westward.
Before dusk, Li Wei and Chen Ruliang finally arrived at Emperor Xianping's lodging.
Upon hearing the news at his assigned barracks, Xiao Yu rushed over, just as Emperor Xianping had finished changing his medicine and was summoning the two of them inside.
"emperor!"
Upon seeing the Emperor Xianping lying in bed, pale-faced, Li Wei knelt down with tears in his eyes and blamed himself, saying, "It was my dereliction of duty when I was inspecting Yicheng that led to Your Majesty's perilous situation by failing to discover the underground passage. I beg Your Majesty to punish me!"
Emperor Xianping, unable to move, barely raised his hand to signal him to stand: "This matter is none of your concern, so please dispense with the formalities. How is the army doing? And why have you come?"
Seeing the emperor so badly injured, Li Wei felt a pang of pity, but he still had to report the truth: "Before I came here, the Yin Kingdom sent people outside the camp to falsely claim that our emperor had passed away in an attempt to sow discord among our troops. Although we tried our best to reassure the soldiers, words are not enough. I'm afraid that only Your Majesty's personal visit to the front lines can completely shatter the Yin Kingdom's rumors."
Emperor Xianping looked at Chen Ruliang.
Chen Ruliang nodded sadly, confirming that what Li Wei said was true.
Emperor Xianping then looked at the two imperial physicians waiting to the side.
The imperial physician also spoke the truth: "Your Majesty should not get up for three to five days, otherwise the condition may worsen and your life may be in danger. If Your Majesty recovers well after five days, you can at most lie flat in a carriage for half a month to march, but you must never ride a horse, so as not to cause the injury to relapse and harm your health."
Emperor Xianping longed to conquer Liaozhou and achieve the feat of unifying the ten prefectures, but he cared more about his own life. Now, his chest ached when he breathed, so how could he dare to cause any more trouble?
"Let the army surround the capital of Yin first, and I will go to the front of the army to boost morale half a month later. What do you think, Duke?"
Li Wei said with a pained expression, “Your Majesty, the battle between two armies relies on morale. Attacking a city is more difficult than fighting on flat ground, and morale is even more important. Today, the army at the front is in a state of panic because of the rumors spread by the Yin Kingdom. Even if Your Majesty cannot show up within five days, let alone fifteen days, the army’s morale will collapse day by day and soon they will be completely demoralized.”
Chen Ruliang questioned on behalf of Emperor Xianping: "Does the Duke expect His Majesty to disregard his health and go to comfort the army?"
Li Wei knelt down and said to Emperor Xianping, "I have no such intention. I believe that the morale of the troops has been damaged in this campaign against Yin. Rather than forcing Your Majesty to comfort the army and harming Your Majesty's health, or besieging Shencheng for a long time without success and wasting food and manpower, it would be better to withdraw the troops temporarily and wait for Your Majesty's health to recover before launching a northern expedition."
No sooner had he finished speaking than Emperor Xianping began to cough, the coughing becoming increasingly painful. The usually dignified and noble emperor uncontrollably let out groans of agony, causing Zhao Yi, Chen Ruliang, Xiao Yu, and the others to kneel down in fear.
The two imperial physicians did their best to alleviate Emperor Xianping's pain.
After a long while, Emperor Xianping reluctantly said, "Give me five days. After five days, I will set off for the front line. At that time, I will ride a horse to inspect the camp and prove to the army that I am in good health and they need not have any worries."
Yicheng is 300 li away from Shencheng. It would take the emperor five days to travel there and a full ten days to rest. Emperor Xianping did not believe that he did not even have the strength to ride a horse.
When he decided to personally lead the expedition last year, the old emperor's brother-in-law dissuaded him, the two prime ministers didn't say anything but were clearly not in favor, and Xiao Yu even disregarded his expression and still opposed it. Now the army of the Great Zhou has already reached the capital of Yin. If he, as the emperor, returns empty-handed, how can he face the civil and military officials and his concubines and children?
This Northern Expedition can fail, after all, Father Emperor failed in both of his previous Northern Expeditions, but this failure must not be caused by him.
The imperial physician tried to dissuade him, but was silenced by a single look from Emperor Xianping.
Seeing that the emperor was willing to harm his health to insist on attacking the city, Li Wei knew he could not dissuade him and could only acquiesce.
After a long silence, Xiao Yu suddenly asked the imperial physicians, "Are you two confident that His Majesty's condition will improve in ten days and that he will be able to ride a horse to patrol the camps at the front?"
When one is ill, one should rest and recuperate. Can an emperor who is worried about the war at the front really control the speed of his recovery? If a sickly emperor appears before the army in the end, how can morale be boosted?
The imperial physicians were not confident.
Chen Ruliang looked directly at Xiao Yu and said, "If ten days is not enough, then rest for a few more days. It took my army four months to reach the capital of Yin. Rather than withdrawing and spending another four months of manpower and resources to make the same journey again, what is half a month of rest for the Emperor? Why must you pour cold water on my army, Lord Xiao?"
Xiao Yu sneered: "Lord Chen makes it sound so simple. If the army delays its attack for half a month, the 380,000 troops and 200,000 laborers transporting grain will consume 180,000 shi of grain during that time. If grain were merely an external resource, the imperial treasury could provide it. However, after half a month, the army's morale will have plummeted to its lowest point. How many soldiers will die in vain during the attack? Does the imperial treasury intend to compensate families who have lost their children and husbands?"
Chen Ruliang stood tall and said, "The soldiers of our Great Zhou are all filled with patriotic fervor. For the sake of the Great Zhou's unification of the world, they are absolutely fearless of death."
Xiao Yu: "Without morale, even an army of 400,000 cannot conquer the capital of Yin. The soldiers of Great Zhou are not afraid of death, but a wise ruler should not sit idly by and watch them go to their deaths in vain."
"Get out, all of you get out!" Emperor Xianping suddenly erupted, forcefully pounding the extremely simple earthen beds in every barracks of the Yicheng city camp with his only usable hands.
Zhao Yi quickly pushed out all the civil and military officials who spoke kindly or harshly.
Once outside, Chen Ruliang whispered a rebuke to Xiao Yu: "Knowing that His Majesty's health is compromised, you still said those things. I think you were deliberately trying to anger His Majesty to death!"
Xiao Yu retorted, "Knowing full well that there is no hope of conquering the capital of Yin, you still flatter the Emperor with clever words. You are the most treacherous minister of the Great Zhou!"
Li Wei, caught between two civil officials: "..."
To prove he was not a treacherous minister, Chen Ruliang asked Li Wei, "Does the Duke really think that if the Emperor goes to the front lines to comfort the troops again in half a month, our army will have no chance of winning the siege?"
Li Wei showed no respect to his brother-in-law, stating bluntly, "The late emperor besieged Shencheng twice. The first siege lasted three months but failed to breach the city, forcing him to withdraw due to insufficient supplies. The second siege also lasted over a month, but he had to withdraw because continuous torrential rains flooded the supplies."
The late Emperor, a wise and enlightened ruler who had been supervising the army at the front lines, still failed to capture the capital of the Yin Kingdom, a nation where the entire population was mobilized for war, within three months. As for Emperor Xianping, before his army even began its assault, he was wounded beyond repair and lost half of his most valiant Imperial Guards—a devastating blow to morale. As Xiao Yu suggested, a direct assault would only increase casualties; a retreat would be preferable, at the cost of a batch of supplies that could be replenished later.
Upon hearing this, Chen Ruliang glanced at Xiao Yu's cold face beside him and finally stopped arguing.
Emperor Xianping rested quietly for a night without seeing anyone. At dawn, he sent Li Wei to lead troops to besiege the capital of Yin, and he would make a decision based on the progress of his recovery.
Li Wei left helplessly.
Four days after he left, on the second day of the fifth month, a messenger arrived from the rear at breakneck speed, saying that rumors of "the Great Zhou Emperor's death in the ambush" were being spread in both northern Hebei and western Liaoning, which was occupied by the army. This caused great anxiety among the garrison troops and the laborers transporting grain. The chief administrator of Jizhou, who was in charge of supervising the transport of grain in western Liaoning, ordered the execution of three laborers who attempted to escape, but this did not stop the laborers from fleeing one after another.
Emperor Xianping, who had just recovered a little and was being helped by Zhao Yi to take a short stroll in the courtyard, suffered a sudden attack of blood and qi, and his chest ached again.
Chen Ruliang dared not say again, "We can continue attacking the city once the Emperor has recovered from his injuries."
Emperor Xianping thought about many things. He was close to the capital of Yin, and even if he rested for half a month before going there, he could still quell the rumors and boost morale. But he was too far away from Jizhou, especially the capital. If he allowed the rumors to continue to spread, even if he sent an imperial edict back to the capital, would the crown prince and the civil and military officials in the capital believe that the edict was genuine?
The siege may fail, but the Great Zhou and the capital must not be thrown into chaos.
This time, Emperor Xianping did not hesitate for long before sending an imperial edict to the three generals, ordering them to withdraw their troops in an orderly manner with the navy and not give the Yin army a chance to pursue them.
Meanwhile, Emperor Xianping summoned Xiao Yu and sighed, "I couldn't even bear to kill the people of Yin, yet Cheng Dawei, the Prefect of Jizhou, actually killed the laborers I had arranged to transport grain to the front lines. I am deeply pained and have already issued an edict to dismiss Cheng Dawei from his post as Prefect. Considering that the Prefect and the Governor are jointly responsible for the administration and people's livelihood of a prefecture, and the duties are heavy, it is not advisable for the position to be vacant for too long. Only you are capable of this task, so I have no choice but to ask you to fill this vacancy for now. Yuanzhi, are you willing?"
The governor of a prefecture is a second-rank official, while the chief secretary is a third-rank official. By transferring Xiao Yu, a second-rank official minister, to Jizhou as the chief secretary, he was demoted three ranks at once.
Xiao Yu didn't care about promotion or demotion; he valued more the meaning behind Emperor Xianping's actions. If Emperor Xianping truly valued him, he wouldn't feel wronged even if he were made a county magistrate. But if Emperor Xianping was only doing this because he disliked Xiao Yu's repeated outspoken remonstrances...
Xiao Yu looked at Emperor Xianping lying on the kang (a heated brick bed).
Emperor Xianping closed his eyes and continued to emphasize his expectations for Xiao Yu: "Jizhou is close to Liaozhou. When you were at Loujiang, you were able to get the people on the border of Dian Kingdom to come to you. When your virtuous reputation spreads to Liaozhou, you may also be able to attract some people from Yin Kingdom to come to my Great Zhou."
Xiao Yu understood and respectfully said, "Your Majesty, I am willing to share your burdens."
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Author's note: Second demotion, [poor thing]
100 little red envelopes, see you tonight!
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