Chapter 695: A Defeat That Caught Everyone Off Guard

Within the imperial garden of Song's capital, amid winding pavilions and terraces, sovereign and minister strolled together.

The sovereign was Mu Zhuozhen, Emperor of Song. The minister was Chancellor Zi Pingxiu.

Affairs of state, household affairs, affairs beneath Heaven—their conversation touched on all of them. After circling around the subject for some time, Zi Pingxiu finally steered the discussion back toward the topic Mu Zhuozhen least wanted to hear about these days.

"Your Majesty, this minister remains somewhat worried about the fighting between the river-defense army and Meng Shanming."

Mu Zhuozhen frowned slightly.

"When it comes to warfare, the Chancellor should admit that he is not Luo Zhao's equal."

The words were not particularly pleasant.

He had simply become thoroughly sick of the subject lately.

The moment Meng Shanming broke through the river defenses, the court had erupted into agitation. Voices demanding that Grand Commander-in-Chief Luo Zhao withdraw and intercept Meng Shanming quickly gained the upper hand.

The court had argued endlessly.

One faction supported Luo Zhao's decision, believing Song should exploit Yan's weakness, seek a swift decisive result, and destroy Yan in a single stroke.

Another faction believed Luo Zhao had advanced too rashly and wanted him to proceed steadily.

Both sides had reason behind them.

Mu Zhuozhen himself leaned toward Luo Zhao.

He wanted to accomplish a great feat no predecessor had achieved.

The humiliation Yan had inflicted on Song in years past had happened during his reign. That made it his humiliation as well.

These past years, he had placed heavy trust in the young and vigorous Luo Zhao, letting him temper Great Song's armies precisely because he wanted to wash away that old shame.

How could there be any reason to retreat now?

Fortunately, Luo Zhao had persuaded the three major sects.

With their support and the Emperor's own backing, the voices demanding caution at court had finally been suppressed.

Now Zi Pingxiu had brought the matter up again.

Naturally Mu Zhuozhen was displeased.

"Yes, yes." Zi Pingxiu bowed humbly. "Your Majesty speaks truly. This minister is a civil official, while the Grand Commander-in-Chief is a military commander. In matters of war, naturally this minister is inferior to him."

"But there are others in the army who understand warfare and hold different views."

"Meng Shanming has spent his entire life in campaigns and is exceptionally skilled in war. The troops now gathered under his command are his former subordinates, moreover the elite among Yan's armies."

"Once the river defenses have been broken, I fear all of Great Song may be endangered."

Mu Zhuozhen said, "Is the Chancellor saying Our elite river-defense army is inferior to Yan's elite troops? Or are you saying that with Our army already approaching Yanjing and victory nearly within reach, We should still insist on withdrawing and give Yan a chance to recover?"

Zi Pingxiu replied, "Your Majesty misunderstands. This minister is worried that something may go wrong while the river-defense forces are contending with Meng Shanming."

"The situation is plain," Mu Zhuozhen said. "Meng Shanming has limited grain and fodder. Before long he will collapse from exhaustion. What is there to fear?"

Zi Pingxiu said, "One need not fear ten thousand possibilities, only the one contingency. Meng Shanming must not be underestimated."

"At present, all six million elite troops across Great Song's vast territory have been committed."

"Three million are attacking Yan."

"Two million were deployed on the border against Yan."

"One million are deployed on the border against Han."

"The interior of the state is empty."

"If Meng Shanming breaks free of the river-defense army's entanglement and drives inward, who will stop him?"

Mu Zhuozhen looked at him.

"What is the Chancellor trying to say?"

Zi Pingxiu stopped circling around the point and spoke plainly.

"General Chen Shaotong has volunteered for the task. He wishes to gather some forces from within the state and serve as a second line of defense."

"If Meng Shanming somehow shakes off the river-defense troops, Chen Shaotong can find a way to obstruct and delay him, buying time for the river-defense army to catch up again and preventing Meng Shanming from driving straight into the interior."

"Soldiers are instruments of violence. War is a grave affair of the state. One cannot guard too carefully. Greater caution is never wrong."

Chen Shaotong was Zi Pingxiu's son-in-law.

He had risen through Zi Pingxiu's patronage, and because of Zi Pingxiu he had also been viewed with suspicion and excluded by others.

Zi Pingxiu could understand that.

How could both military and civil authority be concentrated entirely in his own hands?

Mu Zhuozhen's brows lifted slightly.

He understood.

Zi Pingxiu wanted a share of the merit for destroying Yan.

His gaze flickered.

Then he suddenly laughed.

"The Chancellor speaks reasonably. We were negligent."

"Very well. At tomorrow morning's court session, let the Chancellor propose the matter."

That was the same as agreeing.

Zi Pingxiu immediately cupped his hands.

"This minister obeys!"

In truth, both men understood perfectly well that this was a naked transaction.

Luo Zhao was campaigning at the front according to the Emperor's will.

Zi Pingxiu was willing to help suppress opposition at court.

But if he was to do that, his own side needed to receive a share of the benefits.

To a certain degree, Zi Pingxiu was merely settling for the next best thing.

If the greater tide could no longer be changed, then he could only move with it.

He could hardly allow everyone else to make a grand display while his own side did not even produce a sound.

Would that not reduce the Chancellor himself to a decoration?

Perhaps Luo Zhao had the final say on the battlefield.

But at court, Zi Pingxiu's influence carried enormous weight.

So long as Chen Shaotong rendered some service, how great that service ultimately became in the record would still be judged at court.

Mu Zhuozhen was also quite willing to make such a compromise.

So long as his own objective could be achieved, giving Chen Shaotong some benefit was no great matter.

Sovereign and minister exchanged knowing smiles.

Not far away, Chief Steward of the Inner Palace Mo Gao exchanged a few words with the man who had just delivered a report.

His face changed dramatically.

He turned and strode back.

Standing before Mu Zhuozhen, he forced out, "Your Majesty..."

His lips trembled.

The rest of the words would not come.

The moment Mu Zhuozhen saw his reaction, he knew something was wrong.

His gaze fell on the report Mo Gao held in both hands.

His voice sank.

"What happened?"

Mo Gao bowed and raised the report.

His voice shook.

"The entire river-defense army has been destroyed!"

"What?"

Mu Zhuozhen and Zi Pingxiu shouted at the same time.

Both men's expressions changed drastically.

Both were stunned.

Zi Pingxiu's hand shot out almost instinctively.

He nearly snatched the report himself.

At the last moment he caught himself and pulled his hand back.

Cold sweat broke out in his heart.

He hurriedly turned and bowed toward the Emperor instead.

Mu Zhuozhen noticed none of it.

He seized the report, tore it open, and began reading at once.

As he read, both hands began to tremble.

His face turned white.

His entire body swayed as though he might fall.

"Your Majesty!"

Mo Gao and Zi Pingxiu cried out in alarm and hurried forward to support him.

"The two million elite troops of the river defenses are gone... just gone like this?"

After a long hoarse silence, Mu Zhuozhen finally spoke in grief and fury.

"The entire army destroyed? How is that possible?"

"How could this happen?"

"How could this happen?"

"Luo Zhao... Luo Zhao! You have disappointed Us too greatly!"

He knew perfectly well what those two million river-defense troops meant under present conditions.

With them gone, the whole of Song would be exposed to Meng Shanming's rampage.

"Your Majesty!" Zi Pingxiu asked for the report.

Once it was handed to him, he read it quickly.

His heart pounded with alarm.

Inside, he could only sigh bitterly.

Luo Zhao, Luo Zhao... this time you truly have become a sinner against Great Song for all ages.

Zi Pingxiu felt no schadenfreude.

Luo Zhao had taken nearly half of Song's elite forces into Yan.

Even if he wanted to rush back now, distant water could not extinguish a nearby fire.

The one million elite troops stationed in the northwest could not return in time either.

Even if they could, no one dared withdraw them.

Those troops were guarding against Han.

Yan had already fallen to its present state, yet it still maintained a large force in the north against Han.

If Song truly removed its own one million elite troops from the northwestern border, leaving the frontier unguarded while its interior stood empty and Meng Shanming rampaged through the state, one could tell even by thinking with one's backside whom Han would attack.

Would Han ignore easy spoils right before its eyes and instead go fight the Yan troops in the north?

So the heavy northwestern force could not move.

But if it could not move, then who within Song could stop Meng Shanming's army now?

Luo Zhao held three million elite troops in his hands yet was going to sit by and watch Song suffer disaster.

How could he not become a sinner against the state for all ages?

Who at court would still dare speak on his behalf?

Zi Pingxiu could already imagine it.

All the brilliance Luo Zhao had accumulated over these years had now been smashed to pieces in Meng Shanming's hands.

Lost in thought, Zi Pingxiu suddenly felt his wrist tighten.

He looked up.

Mu Zhuozhen had seized it.

The Emperor's face was earnest.

"What the Chancellor warned Us about has truly come to pass. This proves the Chancellor's foresight."

"As for Chen Shaotong taking command, We approve it now."

"The court surely will not object either."

"The Chancellor must immediately have Chen Shaotong go deal with the emergency as quickly as possible and hold the situation until Luo Zhao leads the main army back to reinforce him!"

"..."

Zi Pingxiu opened his mouth, then closed it.

He regretted the matter so bitterly he wanted to slap himself twice.

What timing.

Of all times to raise the subject before the Emperor, why had he chosen precisely this moment?

If only he had brought it up a little later.

Now look what had happened.

He had lifted a rock only to drop it on his own foot.

The critical problem was this:

Two million elite soldiers had failed to stop Meng Shanming.

What right did his son-in-law have to scrape together some motley rabble and fight Meng Shanming?

Was that not taking a lantern and going out to look for shit?

And this was his own son-in-law.

Worse, the proposal had come from Zi Pingxiu himself.

If Chen Shaotong were defeated, Zi Pingxiu would have nowhere to shift the responsibility.

He would be dragged down together with him.

How could he possibly agree now?

But this was a matter of war and state.

A sovereign did not speak in jest.

Nor could a minister speak in jest before his sovereign.

Some words, once spoken, could not be taken back.

Mu Zhuozhen looked sincerely and expectantly at his Chancellor.

Of course he knew how formidable the network Zi Pingxiu had cultivated over so many years was.

At a moment like this, he intended to force the Chancellor to exhaust every ounce of that influence in meeting the emergency.

Zi Pingxiu remained mute for a long while.

His old face was wooden.

He had driven himself into a dead end.

There was no way to refuse.

Inside, he cursed Luo Zhao's ancestors through eighteen generations.

The defeat had simply come too suddenly.

Too cleanly.

It had caught everyone completely unprepared.

And it had smashed the Chancellor himself straight into the pit.

At last Zi Pingxiu could only accept with great difficulty.

"This minister obeys!"

...

Song's army, still driving straight toward Yanjing, continued its advance.

Beside the road, beneath a tree, Luo Zhao received the battle report and nearly collapsed where he stood.

He thought of the situation Song would now face.

He thought of the pressure that would inevitably come from court.

He thought of the strategy into which he had poured so much effort now about to fail at the final step.

He thought of the reputation he had built throughout his life.

Suddenly he clutched hard at his chest.

The stabbing pain in his heart was severe.

His worst fear had come true.

Meng Shanming truly had used a flood attack.

Luo Zhao's last hope—that his own judgment had somehow been wrong—was shattered.

The emergency military order he had sent to the river-defense forces had still arrived one step too late.

The entire river-defense army was destroyed.

"Grand Commander-in-Chief!"

Su Yuanbai grabbed him and was just about to circulate spiritual power to regulate his breathing.

Luo Zhao's vision had already gone black.

A sweetness rose in his throat.

Fury struck his heart.

"Puh!"

He could no longer suppress the blood and spat out a mouthful.

"Grand Commander-in-Chief!"

Everyone cried out.

After frantic treatment, Luo Zhao was finally eased down beneath the tree.

He looked as though he were on his last breath.

The first words from his mouth were:

"Order the vanguard to accelerate."

"Once Yanjing is broken, leave neither chicken nor dog alive."

"Massacre the city!"

"We will use it to restore the confidence of Great Song's people and the morale of our army!"

The logic was simple.

Meng Shanming had wiped out two million of Song's elite troops.

If Song wiped out Yan's capital, then at least they could claim they had not come away empty-handed.

More importantly, Luo Zhao would have something to explain to the Song court.

Otherwise, if he achieved none of his objectives and returned empty-handed after allowing Song itself to fall into such danger, how could a man who had resisted pressure at court and insisted on his own strategy possibly account for himself?

He could already imagine what would happen next.

The court would certainly order him to withdraw and return as reinforcement.

Even the Emperor would likely force him to do so.

So before that order arrived, he had to seize Yanjing first.

[End of Chapter 695]