The Lantern Festival at the Songzhou-Shouzhou Military Commissioner’s Prefecture was immersed in an atmosphere of oppression and panic.
Military Commissioner Xu Mingzhen had entered his final moments before the new year and could pass away at any time. After the new year came news that the main Mengwu forces had been completely annihilated in southern Jin.
The former might be an opportunity for some, but the latter plunged the old and young of the Military Commissioner’s Prefecture as well as the vast majority of Songzhou’s officers and officials into panic and dread.
Zhao Mingting and Xu Jin ultimately borrowed Xu Mingzhen’s critical illness as pretext to lead three thousand cavalry away from Fugou south of Biangliang, returning to Songzhou—naturally Zhu Rang and Liang Ren didn’t permit Zhao Mingting and Xu Jin to withdraw to Songzhou on their own authority, but at this time with people in Biangliang in a state of panic, Xu Jin and Zhao Mingting ignored Zhu Rang’s “edict,” and no one was seen running to Songzhou to hold them accountable.
Wusu Dashi, Xiao Yiqing, as well as Xiao Siqing, Wusu Zongshu, Wusu Zongbei, Nahe Yanzhen and a large group of Mengwu Southern Court commanders and a hundred and fifty thousand officers and soldiers were all annihilated at Zezhou. Although the Mengwu Southern Court still had quite a few troops in Taiyuan Prefecture, northern Jin, River-North, and Yanyun, everyone knew in their hearts that the Mengwu Southern Court forces were completely finished.
With Mengwu Southern Court forces completely finished, Liang forces would need to leave only forty to fifty thousand elite troops to sweep across the remaining unconquered northern lands. This meant that after the new year, Liang forces could directly transfer fifty to sixty thousand elite combat power from the northern front southward into the Huai River battlefield.
Together with the Henan Command Army, after the new year Liang forces in the Huai River region would be able to deploy over a hundred thousand elite troops for campaigns and conquests.
Currently it appeared that aside from the wavering Xu-Si forces, the Shouzhou Army and the Biangliang forces directly controlled by Zhu Rang and Liang Ren still had over a hundred and twenty thousand troops in total. But the strength or weakness of a military force was never simply measured by numerical superiority.
Since Liang Shixiong and the Weibo elite were annihilated at Xingyang, needless to say about the Biangliang forces mostly composed of new recruits—the Shouzhou Army seemingly still had forty thousand elite troops available, but over these years when had they ever gained any advantage from Han Qian?
Moreover, according to accounts from fleeing remnant soldiers and scouts, Liang forces this time employed a new type of war machine called smoothbore cannons on the southern Jin battlefield. As a result, in the Gaoping and Lingchuan areas, using fewer than thirty thousand elite troops, Liang forces completely sealed off the main Mengwu forces’ northern withdrawal route, ultimately completely annihilating nearly a hundred and fifty thousand main Mengwu forces within Gaoping and Lingchuan territories.
Currently the intelligence they had obtained was still fragmentary, but even without this new type of war machine called smoothbore cannons, before a hundred thousand battle-hardened elite Liang troops, how long could they hold out?
Zhao Mingting and Xu Jin stood before Xu Mingzhen’s sickbed, their expressions also complex and grave.
Xu Mingzhen had fallen into his final moments, spending the vast majority of time in confused consciousness. Besides Zhao Mingting and Xu Jin, there were also Xu Mingzhen’s legitimate eldest son—Songzhou Governor and Deputy Military Commissioner Xu Sizhao—and legitimate eldest grandson Xu Hui keeping watch at the sickbed.
Xu Mingzhen’s second wife and two young ladies he had favored in his later years sat before the sickbed wiping tears, feeling as if the sky were about to collapse.
“Ugh!” Like a thick glob of phlegm blocking his breath in his throat, the next moment Xu Mingzhen’s withered chicken-claw-like hand suddenly trembled. His sunken eye sockets opened, revealing clear and bright eyes.
“The lord has awakened…”
Seeing this scene, the medical clerk keeping watch at the sickbed said.
Everyone was very clear—this was likely Xu Mingzhen’s final moment of lucidity before death.
“The Mengwu army was defeated again?” Xu Mingzhen, fallen into his final moments, vaguely heard the voices of Xu Jin and Zhao Mingting speaking while standing at the sickbed, and asked tremblingly.
“Defeated, completely defeated!” Xu Jin stepped forward and said. “Mobilizing elite forces from Yanyun, River-North, Taiyuan and other places, plus the original garrison troops of southern Jin’s Ze and Lu prefectures—a total of a hundred and sixty thousand troops. Probably only the garrison troops in places like Luzhou and Huguan that weren’t within Liang forces’ encirclement managed to escape to Taiyuan in time. But I heard that Taiyuan is also completely in chaos. After the garrison troops there heard news of Wusu Dashi’s death, Mengwu soldiers and civilians competed to flee northward. By now Liang forces may have already entered Taiyuan city…”
Taiyuan had served as an auxiliary capital during the previous dynasty and was a major stronghold in central Jin. The city walls were vast and solid, not even inferior to Biangliang. However, with the garrison troops completely lacking fighting spirit and in utter chaos, even the most solid and vast city walls were mere decoration.
“The Mengwu army whose iron cavalry trampled the Central Plains with no one able to match them—it’s just finished like this?” Xu Mingzhen’s turbid old eyes stared at the faces of Xu Jin and Zhao Mingting in disbelief. At this moment he would rather hope they were making excuses to return to Songzhou with other schemes, but from their faces showing hearts filled with ash and cold, he didn’t see the doubts he expected.
Xu Mingzhen weakly waved his withered hand, indicating that his wives and concubines, medical clerks, and attending eunuchs and maidservants should all withdraw. He even had Zhao Mingting and several other veteran Shouzhou Army generals temporarily exit the great hall, leaving only Xu Jin, Xu Sizhao, and eldest grandson Xu Hui at the sickbed.
Zhao Mingting felt a trace of doubt in his heart, but Xu Sizhao was Xu Mingzhen’s only living legitimate son, Xu Yao was the legitimate eldest grandson, and Xu Jin was the adopted son most valued by Xu Mingzhen who controlled military power—if Xu Mingzhen had any final words before death to entrust only to these three people, others couldn’t say anything.
Xu Mingzhen struggled to sit up but discovered that after a lifetime of military service, at this moment he didn’t even have the strength to sit up. It was still Xu Sizhao who walked over, sat at the edge of the sickbed, and let Xu Mingzhen lean against him.
Xu Mingzhen’s chest heaved like bellows, breathing with difficulty, as if the next breath might not connect. After a long while, still uneasy, he indicated for Xu Jin to close the hall doors before speaking with difficulty: “Sima Tan has always been a fence-sitter swaying with the wind—perhaps he’s already sent people to Luoyang. In the eyes of Luoyang’s ministers, we all bear heavy sins, unforgivable crimes. But aside from me and Zhao Mingting and others who directly participated in the Jinling rebellion and murdered Han Daoxun, you all may still have a chance to preserve your lives—wasn’t there already talk in the army that after my death, if Jin’er controls the Shouzhou Army, there’s still a chance to return to Great Chu?”
“…” Hearing this, Xu Jin’s forehead nearly broke out in cold sweat. He hadn’t expected that even lying sick in bed, his adoptive father’s ears and eyes couldn’t be fooled about military movements.
If not for seeing his adoptive father’s current appearance, Xu Jin would suspect he was feigning illness.
Of course, after news of the Battle of Fanchuan River arrived, their thoughts of rejoining Chu forces had completely cooled. Originally they had hoped the Mengwu army could hold out in southern Jin—they hadn’t expected Wusu Dashi would also be unable to escape the tragic fate of losing his head.
“The reasoning is the same—without me, there’s no obstacle to your submission to Luoyang. Sizhao’s talents aren’t prominent, but now it seems that’s not a bad thing,” Xu Mingzhen continued speaking with difficulty, seemingly not noticing Xu Jin’s awkward reaction. “Revenue Officer Zhou Shen, Yihe Granary Administrator Han Tong, and Guoyang Magistrate Zheng Lun—these three may have long been secretly colluding with Liang forces. After my death, you should bind and imprison Zhao Mingting and others, then go find these three men and surrender to Luoyang…”
“Sima Tan may not have sent people to Luoyang yet!” Xu Sizhao said still unwilling.
“Even if Sima Tan hasn’t sent people to Luoyang, after learning of the Mengwu people’s annihilation, he will absolutely stab us in the back first to compete for the final bargaining chip for submitting to Luoyang!” Xu Mingzhen spoke with difficulty. “If you’re worried about time delays, there’s a pot of wine in the left box. I originally planned to give it to Jin’er to drink before dying. You all take it and give it to me to drink…”
Xu Jin involuntarily looked toward the sandalwood small box to the left of the sickbed, instinctively feeling a chill run straight up his spine from his tailbone…
* * *
Xu Mingzhen ultimately couldn’t endure past the Lantern Festival of the eighth year of Taihe.
Although the city’s officers and officials had long anticipated this, most hadn’t yet gone to sleep approaching midnight when they suddenly heard four mourning bell tolls transmitted from the Military Commissioner’s Prefecture, reverberating through the terrifyingly silent night. Zhou Shen in his residence still felt his heart pounding with shock.
Although the situation had been deteriorating and everyone felt Liang forces would attack with Biangliang forces and Shouzhou Army unlikely to hold out, in any case, when the sky falls there’s a tall person to hold it up.
As long as Xu Mingzhen was alive, or rather as long as Xu Mingzhen dragged on without dying, it could give people some sense of security—through these years of storms, though suffering repeated setbacks from Liang forces (Tangyi Army), the Shouzhou Army over these years ultimately hadn’t collapsed and had maintained itself, hadn’t it?
Now the mainstay had completely fallen, as if the pillar supporting everyone’s final delusions had collapsed.
Zhou Shen changed into official robes in a panic.
As Revenue Officer, among the Shouzhou Army’s various officers and officials he ranked in the top thirty. He would wait for the officials announcing the death to come, then rush to the Military Commissioner’s Prefecture to keep vigil.
Hearing the sounds of armor and soldiers mobilizing outside his residence gate and squads of troops departing, Zhou Shen’s thoughts were also in chaos—with Xu Mingzhen’s death from illness, mobilizing the guard troops to strengthen the entire city’s defensive alert was proper procedure, but who knew whether behind this proper procedure there were conspiracies and ambitions they didn’t know about?
“Tap tap tap!”
Zhou Shen, sitting in the inner residence, could clearly hear the sound of the front courtyard gate being knocked. He guessed it should be people dispatched from the Military Commissioner’s Prefecture to announce the death. He brought his son Zhou Zhi toward the front courtyard, just in time to see the gatekeeper servant open the front courtyard gate. But he saw Left Commander Xu Jin leading a squad of armored soldiers directly barging in.
Zhou Shen was startled. However conceited he might be, he knew it wouldn’t be Xu Jin’s turn to personally come announce the death. Shocked to the point of stuttering: “Commander, Commander Xu, the Military Commissioner he?”
“Father has passed away from illness. Xu Jin has important matters to discuss with Minister Zhou,” Xu Jin said.
“What matter requires Commander Xu to run to my residence at this time?” Zhou Shen asked utterly perplexed.
Xu Jin looked at Zhou Shen. He didn’t know what made his adoptive father believe that Zhou Shouminʼs son Zhou Shen was secretly colluding with Luoyang, but at this moment he could only speak his intention directly:
“I wish to ask Minister Zhou to carry a message to Luoyang?”
Hearing these words, Zhou Shen felt as if struck by lightning, his entire person frightened to collapse on the ground, stammering: “Commander Xu must be mistaken. This humble person—what capability do I have to carry messages for Commander Xu? It must be Pockmarked Zhang slandering me. He, he, he fancied a girl at White Phoenix Tower and thought I was competing with him…”
“…” Xu Jin looked at Zhou Shen with disappointment, secretly feeling his adoptive father must have been mistaken. He had no mind to explain anything to Zhou Shen and was about to lead his men to leave directly.
“Commander Xu, please wait a moment.” Seeing this scene, Zhou Kun emerged from the shadows of the side corridor, hands clasped behind his back, and asked: “I wonder what words Commander Xu wishes to convey to Luoyang?”
“You…” Xu Jin had some impression of Zhou Kun, but not a deep one.
“Zhou Kun, what nonsense are you speaking?” Zhou Shen was frightened out of his wits, thinking that clearing suspicion at this time was already too late—why throw oneself onto the knife’s edge?
“Although Zhou is a disabled and useless person, I do recognize a few old acquaintances in Luoyang.” Zhou Kun looked at Xu Jin with a light and calm manner. His disabled body that had been hunched for over twenty years straightened considerably at this moment…