“His eldest uncle, where exactly did Zhou Kun go? He’s been honest and proper his whole life, always helping you carefully with his work, never making mistakes. How could he suddenly be taken away? If something terrible happens to him, how are we orphans and widows supposed to survive?”
After Zhou Kun and Zhou He left with Xu Jin on the night of the Lantern Festival, four days passed without any news. Songzhou City was now completely under the control of the garrison troops, and ordinary civilians were prohibited from leaving their homes and walking the streets during the day unless necessary.
Zhou Kun’s wife was a commoner woman who had found shelter with Zhou Kun in the Zhou residence. Although Zhou Kun’s disability was often ridiculed by others, she felt their modest life was peaceful and comfortable. This sudden great upheaval left her completely flustered, and today she couldn’t help but run to the main courtyard, grabbing Zhou Shen and tearfully pouring out her complaints.
“What kind of people did Zhou Kun usually interact with? Do you really know nothing at all?” Though Zhou Shen found Zhou Kun’s wife’s wailing irritating, he still patiently asked.
The city now had that terrifying silence before a storm. With his status, he couldn’t learn much at the government offices, only knowing that the situation was completely controlled by Prince Xu Sizhao and Left Commander Xu Jin.
However, apart from a few trusted officers, Xu Sizhao and Xu Jin did not receive other officials, leaving people unclear about what exactly was happening inside the Military Commissioner’s mansion.
Reflecting on these years, Zhou Shen couldn’t recall detecting any possibility that Zhou Kun might have connections with the Liang army, nor did he know whether Zhou Kun and Zhou He—the servant Zhou Kun had picked up during their refugee journey—being taken by Xu Jin was fortune or disaster.
“Creak!”
They were in the central courtyard when they heard the front gate open. After a moment, they saw Zhou Kun’s six-year-old son Zhou jumping over and throwing himself into his mother’s arms, calling out: “Father has returned!”
Zhou Shen and Zhou Kun’s wife walked to the front courtyard, where they saw Zhou Kun and Zhou He walking over surrounded by a squad of armored soldiers whose uniforms and armor were completely different from the Shouzhou army.
Zhou Kun’s hunched figure wore a crimson official robe, while Zhou He, who had previously seemed utterly unremarkable, wore a military commander’s armor. Standing in the front courtyard with his sword, despite being in his fifties with somewhat graying hair, he appeared imposing and revealed a sharp edge.
Zhou Shen stood there dazed for a moment, unclear about what had happened during the four days Zhou Kun and the household servant Zhou He had disappeared before reappearing.
“Where did you go with the Left Commander these four days? Why did you only return now? What’s with these changed robes you’re wearing?” Zhou Shen couldn’t help asking. Seeing the countless sharp-edged armored soldiers outside the main gate, his heart felt hollow.
“The Shouzhou army will deploy to designated locations within three days to accept reorganization by the Henan Provincial Administration. After that, troops will take over Songzhou City—from this moment on, if nothing unexpected happens, Songzhou has officially been incorporated into the Great Liang’s territory…” Zhou Kun said.
“This, this…” Zhou Shen stammered for a long time, not knowing what to say. Had the world changed just like that? After calming down for a while, he swallowed and pointed at Zhou Kun and Zhou He, asking: “What exactly is going on with you two?”
“We are advance personnel from Henan, ordered to lead two hundred troops to garrison Songzhou first, ensuring everything can transition smoothly without any disturbances,” Zhou Kun said. “We have no government office in the city, and elder brother’s residence is quite spacious, so we thought to come and borrow a side courtyard to conduct official business. We’ll officially move to a new office after the transition is complete. Time was too rushed—we didn’t send someone to inform elder brother beforehand. Elder brother won’t blame us, will he?”
“How could I? You’re supervising administrative affairs—how could you just use a side courtyard? Your sister-in-law and I will move to the west side courtyard and squeeze in with Zhou Zhi. You and General Zhou can settle here in the main courtyard with your men…”
“That works well,” Zhou Kun said. “Then we’ll need elder brother’s help to find Old Master Qiu Ji at the end of the lane. We may need to temporarily borrow his residence to detain a group of unpardonable criminals, but Old Master Qiu should stay at home and not move about freely. Everyone else can move to their villa in the eastern part of the city first…”
“Qiu Ji has committed many evil deeds and will be dealt with?” Zhou Shen asked in alarm. “Is it that the more one worked for the Shouzhou army and committed evil deeds, the worse it is?”
“Qiu Ji is temporarily listed among war criminals, but how he’ll ultimately be dealt with must wait for the Inspectorate to interrogate him—Elder brother, rest assured, though you’ve provided counsel and done much work for the Shouzhou army these years, all this was specifically approved by Luoyang. Of course, it’s not that the more one worked for the Shouzhou army, the more severely one will be dealt with. Simply serving one’s master and fulfilling one’s duty loyally is harmless. What matters is whether there were other evil deeds!” Zhou Kun comforted him.
Zhou Shen thought for a long time and privately felt that apart from his fondness for drinking at flower houses, he hadn’t committed any evil deeds like bullying men or oppressing women, so he should be fine.
Zhou Kun’s wife held her son’s small hand, standing timidly to one side, hardly daring to believe that the man before her eyes was the same husband who had been ordered about by his elder uncle-brother and mocked for his disability yet only responded with timid smiles.
……
……
As nearly thirty thousand Shouzhou troops successively deployed to designated locations along both banks of the Guo River, surrendering their weapons and armor to accept reorganization, the southern Henan region—spanning eighteen counties south of Bianling, west of the Si River, and straddling both banks of the Guo River—was finally peacefully resolved.
On the twelfth day, Feng Yi rode a tall date-red horse, following Wei Xu’s contingent of five thousand cavalry and infantry into Songzhou City. He dismounted under the city tower and looked up at the Great Liang’s coiling dragon blue banner being officially raised on the southern gate tower. Quite moved, he looked toward Xu Sizhao, who had come to receive them, and said:
“Over twenty years ago, when you returned to the capital as Marquis Xu’s son, you didn’t even show your face but directly sent someone to take away Little White Phoenix from the Spring Fragrance House. Do you know how many gold cakes Zhou Kun and I had spent on Little White Phoenix just to hold her hand once—Kong Xirong and Han Qian were so envious back then, saying that if they could live like Brother Sizhao in this lifetime, their lives would be worthwhile.”
“Cough cough…” Xu Sizhao really didn’t know how to respond to Feng Yi’s words and could only fake a coughing fit to brush the topic aside.
Although Han Qian still had no intention of proclaiming himself emperor, the left and right Secretariat after the new year were first upgraded and reorganized into the Central Secretariat and Imperial Secretariat, with various bureaus successively upgraded to ministries.
For their merit in献出 Songzhou, Han Qian issued an edict bestowing upon Xu Jin and Xu Sizhao the rank of Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, appointing them as Vice Inspector and Strategic Counselor to serve under the Henan Provincial Administration.
As for the disposition of nearly forty thousand Shouzhou troops, they would first be reorganized, then after a certain period of disciplinary education, the vast majority would ultimately be demobilized and settled locally.
The Great Liang practiced a recruitment system, with the scale of active elite troops strictly controlled and not allowed to expand indefinitely.
Currently, the various campaign armies had over two hundred fifty thousand elite troops plus some reserve and auxiliary forces. In terms of military scale, this was already sufficient for unifying the realm.
Moreover, accepting the Shouzhou army’s surrender without treating them as prisoners of war was already magnanimous enough—there was no way they could be allowed to enjoy the generous treatment afforded to Great Liang’s active elite soldiers and officers immediately after surrendering.
However, Xu Mingzhen had maintained the Shouzhou army with great difficulty over these years, and the Shouzhou officers and soldiers had also lived extremely harsh lives. Being able to shed their military service and reunite with their families, they had no complaints.
The disposition of the Xu-Si army was relatively more generous.
Han Qian had never considered using the Xu-Si army to participate in attacking Bianling City.
With the Second Central Campaign Army coordinating with the Henan Campaign Army, taking Bianling City wouldn’t require much cost. Han Qian’s initial hope was mainly that after the Xu-Si army’s allegiance, they could help contain the Shouzhou army somewhat. He hadn’t expected the Shouzhou army to surrender at the sight of the wind not much slower than the Xu-Si army.
The nearly sixty thousand Xu-Si troops, not needing to undertake combat missions, would be directly reorganized into three reserve brigades to be responsible for local security in the Xu-Si region.
During this wartime period, these three reserve brigades could have fifteen thousand troops. After the wartime situation ended, they would be further reduced to two thousand personnel. However, there was a benefit—the three brigade-level military structures would be preserved, accommodating some commanders and officers.
Han Qian also instructed the Central Secretariat and General Staff to arrange positions locally for most of the old officers of the Xu-Si army after they had accepted transformation.
Unlike the Shouzhou army, where apart from the very few like Xu Jin and Xu Sizhao who would receive some minor local or central government positions, most officers would be directly demoted to commoner status without special arrangements, and those with evil deeds would be handed over to the Inspectorate’s criminal prosecution departments for reckoning.
It wasn’t that Xu Jin and Xu Sizhao didn’t want to seek some preferential treatment for their subordinate officers who had followed the Xu family for many years. When they rushed to Dancheng for negotiations with Zhou Kun and witnessed two smoothbore cannons being test-fired, Xu Jin and Xu Sizhao thought it most important to preserve themselves first.
Although the vast majority of Shouzhou troops still didn’t know of the fire cannons’ existence, when they were taken over and reorganized, they all behaved very calmly. Even mid-level officers showed little strong resistance and quickly accepted reality.
Counting from the Jinling rebellion, how many times had they been defeated at the hands of Han Qian and the Liang army? Even if the Meng army didn’t fall, how many Shouzhou officers and soldiers truly believed they could resist the ascendant Liang army?
On the night of the Lantern Festival when Xu Mingzhen passed away, when Xu Hui led armored soldiers into Zhao Mingting’s residence, Zhao Mingting also had a calm expression, even feeling a sense of finally being liberated…