Chapter 50: The War is Coming
Zhao Xiao returned to the barracks from the training ground, and the guard came to inform him that Xu Bing was here.
Zhao Xiao muttered to himself: What is he here for?
"Let him in."
After a while, Xu Bing came in with his hands in his pockets. It was so cold outside that he kept stamping his feet.
"General Zhao."
"Come over and warm yourself by the fire. If anything happens, just let me know. Why did you come all the way here in person?"
Xu Bing moved a chair and sat down around the stove: "There is something very important that I must tell you in person."
Zhao Xiao looked up and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Master Zhu is the king... What do you think?" Xu Bing carefully observed Zhao Xiao's expression. He didn't dare miss any of his expressions, as he was afraid that Zhao Xiao would turn against Song Yuzhu because of power.
Sometimes the rise and fall of a power does not require external forces, and internal strife can completely disintegrate. He did not want his hard work to go to waste, and he did not want to see Chengtian Army go to that step.
Zhao Xiao smiled: "I thought it was a big deal. You can just discuss it with him. Why did you specially inform me?"
Xu Bing also smiled: "Since you have no objection, then let's announce the news tomorrow."
Zhao Xiao knew that he was testing him, and he also understood that Xu Bing had no ulterior motives.
He stood up and patted Xu Bing on the shoulder: "Old Xu, don't worry, I will never betray him, just like you will never give up the ideal of universal peace."
Xu Bing stood up and said, "I was overthinking. If there's nothing else, I'll go back first. The young master plans to renovate the Fourth Prince's Mansion and move the office there."
"Okay, go ahead and get busy."
After Xu Bing left, Zhao Xiao sat by the fire in a daze for a while. He had expected Song Yuzhu to become king, but he did feel a little uncomfortable in his heart.
To be fair, he hoped that Song Yuzhu would become king, but he was afraid that one day he would not be able to walk side by side with him.
The young man was advancing at a rapid speed, and he tried hard to catch up with him, fearing that he would be left behind, but he could only look up to him...
This feeling of being out of control made him uneasy, and for a moment, a terrible thought arose in Zhao Xiao's mind.
Take him away... to a place where no one knows him, so that Song Yuzhu will belong to you alone.
Of course, this thought only flashed through his mind, and he was reluctant to destroy this shining man.
*
On the sixth day of the first lunar month in the second year of the Yong'an reign, Song Yuzhu proclaimed himself king in Xuzhou and was named Chengtian. The people called him King Chengtian.
A story of Fengtian Chengyun also quietly spread among the people.
According to legend, when Song Yuzhu's mother Jiang was seven months pregnant, she dreamed of a golden dragon hovering on the roof and refusing to leave. The golden dragon wanted to enter her belly to reincarnate, but her mortal body could not bear the dragon, so Jiang gave birth prematurely that night, just in time for Song Yuzhu to be born prematurely.
Song Yuzhu was the reincarnation of a golden dragon, so he was different from ordinary people from birth. He could read at the age of three, compose poems at the age of five, and started practicing medicine to save lives at the age of ten.
When he was fifteen, Song Yuzhu realized that practicing medicine could not save the people of the world, so he turned into a golden dragon and returned to heaven to ask the Emperor of Heaven how to save the people from water and fire and save the people from hanging.
The Emperor of Heaven said: "In today's world, when a country with ten thousand chariots implements benevolent governance, the people are pleased with it, as if they were saved from hanging upside down."①
The Golden Dragon was inspired and returned to the human world to kill the tyrants, punish the evildoers, carry out the destiny of heaven, establish the Chengtian Army, and save the people of the world.
Of course the story was fake. It was written by Zhang Yi and Taoist Chang Ming in two days, and then slightly polished by Song Yuzhu before being passed on.
If this kind of story were told in modern times, it probably wouldn’t even fool an elementary school student, but in ancient times when people’s wisdom was not yet enlightened, it was extremely effective.
The reason why the fools are called fools is that they have no thoughts of their own, and will not think about the truth of the story. Word of mouth spreads from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and the news that King Chengtian is the reincarnation of the Golden Dragon spreads.
If he told them: I will lead you to prosperity and make everyone well fed and clothed, the people would definitely think Song Yuzhu was lying. But if he changed the way he told them, and made up a mysterious story, the people would actually believe it.
The people of Xuzhou, whether adults or children, all revered King Chengtian. Even the issue of recruiting soldiers was easily solved. This was the reincarnation of the golden dragon, the biological son of the Emperor of Heaven. Wouldn't it be promising to follow him to conquer the world?
In addition, the Chengtian Army was treated very well, with a monthly salary of two taels of silver, a subsidy of fifty taels for serious injuries, and a pension of one hundred taels for death in battle. This was definitely the highest among all the armies!
The army had three meals a day, and occasionally they could eat meat and vegetables. In winter, they had cotton-padded uniforms, and in summer, they had single clothes. Even the boots on their feet had cowhide soles, which were both warm and damp-proof. This treatment alone was much better than that of ordinary people. In just a few days, they recruited tens of thousands of young and strong soldiers.
The next thing was to buy grain. Master Wu from the escort agency introduced two grain merchants to Song Yuzhu. One was named Niu Qingshan, and the other was Ye Linan. Both of them were big grain merchants in Luzhou, holding tens of thousands of dan of grain.
This year, because of the heavy snow in the south, the roads were blocked and the harvested grain was piled up in the warehouse and could not be transported out. If it is not sold before the summer harvest next year, the grain will become stale grain. The price of stale grain will drop a lot, so they are more anxious than Song Yuzhu.
Upon learning that King Chengtian of Xuzhou wanted to buy grain, the two of them rode at full speed and rushed over from Luzhou.
The main grains of this dynasty were millet, sorghum, wheat, rice, and beans. Because of the low yield, the price of grain was not cheap, usually one stone of white rice cost one tael and two coins, wheat was a little more expensive, and the cheapest was beans, one stone also cost one tael of silver.
The two asked Song Yuzhu how much food he wanted.
Song Yuzhu asked: "How much grain can you two sell?"
The two looked at each other, and Niu Qingshan said, "I can sell 30,000 stones."
Ye Linan agreed, "Me too." Although they had more grain than this, there was no such thing as short selling when it came to business.
Song Yuzhu calculated that in ancient times, one shi was about one hundred kilograms, and sixty thousand shi was about six million kilograms of grain. With this amount of grain, Xuzhou Prefecture could probably keep hundreds of thousands of people alive.
"I'll take all the food at the market price, and I'll take any leftovers as well."
Niu Qingshan said quickly: "Your Highness, we only want to settle the bill with cash." The world is in chaos right now, and many banks no longer exchange silver bills. The silver bills may even become waste paper.
"Sure." What Song Yuzhu lacks the least now is money. The salt field makes a huge amount of money every day, and he can't spend it all.
Ye Linan said: "In the next ten days, we will send people to transport the grain to Xuzhou."
Song Yuzhu calculated the days and found that ten days was too long. The spies at the front reported that the imperial army had already arrived in Lingcheng and would reach Xuzhou in another seven or eight days.
"It's too slow. It must be delivered within five days."
The two men discussed it and decided that if the carriage traveled day and night without interruption, it should take less than five days.
Seeing that the deal was done, Song Yuzhu directly sent someone to get 12,000 taels of silver as a deposit.
Seeing that he was open-minded, the two men quickly stood up and bowed, saying, "Okay, King Chengtian is straightforward, then we wish you immediate success!"
The food problem has been solved, and there is enough firewood for heating. If a large army besieges the city, we can easily fight them off for two months. Of course, this is the worst-case scenario.
The remaining kerosene is still on the way. I don’t know if it can be delivered back before Sheng Jun.
The army had recruited many new soldiers, so there were not enough armor and weapons. Ironware was strictly privately sold, so it was not easy for Song Yuzhu to buy it. Although there were two iron mines in Xuzhou according to the map, it was too late to mine them now, so he could only wait until next spring.
Song Yuzhu also wanted to make gunpowder. Firecrackers already existed in this dynasty, and the ingredients in them were similar to gunpowder. Unfortunately, he knew nothing about this. He only remembered from high school chemistry that gunpowder was made of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. He would have someone study the exact proportions later when he had time.
There were many things waiting for him to do, Song Yuzhu was too busy to handle them all, and he was busy day and night. In just a few days, he lost a lot of weight. Zhao Xiao was so distressed that he had a gloomy face every day these days, training the new recruits to death.
Xu Bing reminded Song Yuzhu that it was time to recruit talented people. If he relied on one person alone, he would never be able to finish all the work even if he worked himself to death.
Song Yuzhu thought about it and decided that capable people were indeed needed, so he drafted a notice overnight: Chengtian Army is recruiting talented people, regardless of age, gender, or status.
As long as you have a skill, you can apply. Once you are hired, you can receive a salary of five taels of silver per month.
After the notice was posted, there were only a few applicants. It was not because the people did not want to make money, but because there were too few talented people! After all, there were not many people who could read in this dynasty, let alone those who had any special skills.
*
Three hundred miles away from Xuzhou, a long and endless army was slowly approaching. It was the army sent by the imperial court to Xuzhou to quell the rebellion.
Yang Yuanli was afraid that he would die suddenly, so in order to avoid future troubles, he actually sent General Xu Dingkun as the chief general and Shen Congwu as the deputy general. Together with the cavalry and infantry, a total of more than 50,000 people were sent to redress the injustice. The team was two miles long.
"General, General!" Suddenly someone on horseback came after them.
Shen Congwu pulled the reins and frowned, "What's the matter, Commander Yang?"
"General Xu orders you to camp and rest here."
Shen Congwu said with a look of surprise: "It's not even dark yet. How far have we walked before we set up camp to rest? At this speed, when will we get to Xuzhou?"
Yang Ping ignored him, just passed the message over, turned around and rode away.
Shen Congwu spat angrily and shouted, "Stop! Set up camp and rest!"
In fact, Shen Congwu felt in his heart that those rebels were a mob and there was no need to send so many people.
When I went to Zhongzhou to quell the rebellion, I heard that the enemy had 40,000 to 50,000 troops, but when I fought them, they were all ordinary people who couldn't even use a sword. It was a waste of food and grass to send so many people.
However, he submitted several petitions, but they were all rejected. In the end, the old man Xu Dingkun was sent as the chief general, and he was the deputy general. The higher the rank, the more powerful he was. If the old man asked to stop the army, it had to be stopped. Shen Congwu had no choice.
Xu Dingkun did have many military exploits when he was young, but now he is over 50 years old and has a serious leg disease, so he can't even ride a horse. Isn't it better to retire at home at such an old age? Can a tiger without claws still be called a tiger?
The army camped on the spot, and Shen Congwu walked towards General Xu's camp angrily.
When he reached the door, he was stopped by Yang Ping. This guy was Xu Dingkun's grandson. It was estimated that he was bringing his grandson out to gild himself.
"Is General Shen okay?"
"I will discuss the siege with General Xu."
Yang Ping followed him into the camp and saw Xu Dingkun reading a letter.
"Xiao Shen is here, come and sit down."
Shen Congwu sat down and said, "General, are we moving too slowly?" It took him less than two days to go from Shangjing to Zhongzhou. Now they have wasted half a month since they left Shangjing, and they haven't even reached Xuzhou yet.
"Young man, don't be anxious. Knowing yourself and your enemy will ensure victory in every battle. You must first understand your opponent's strength."
"What strength do those unruly people have? Maybe we can scare them away before we even get outside the city!"
Xu Dingkun stroked his beard and smiled without saying anything, then handed the letter in his hand to Shen Congwu.
"What's this?"
Yang Ping said: "A secret letter sent from Xuzhou."
Shen Congwu opened it and started reading. The more he read, the deeper his frown deepened.
Xuzhou actually had more than 30,000 soldiers? Half of them were Yang Yuanqing's cavalry, and the other half were Yang Yuanzhen's infantry...
It seems that these two princes have handed over all the soldiers they raised to others?
(End of this chapter)
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