Chapter 698: A General in the Field Does Not Always Obey the Sovereign's Command

After Gao Jiancheng finished reading, he let out a quiet breath of relief.

The letter did not say Niu Youdao had already decided to kill the prisoners.

He merely wanted Gao Jiancheng's opinion.

Gao Jiancheng's first instinct was to urge him to stop.

After all, the court here had already begun preparing for negotiations.

If something unexpected happened now, most of the people in Yanjing might be trapped by Song's army, the Gao family included.

He was about to reply along those lines when he hesitated.

Rising from his chair, he began pacing through the study.

Fan Zhuan's gaze followed him back and forth.

It came back to the same point.

Niu Youdao had asked for Gao Jiancheng's opinion.

He had not asked Gao Jiancheng to speak from the court's position.

Nor had he asked him to consider his personal gains and losses.

After thinking it over repeatedly, Gao Jiancheng decided to give an objective answer.

He had Fan Zhuan bring fresh brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, then personally drafted the reply.

...

"Six hundred thousand prisoners?"

Luo Zhao asked in surprise from horseback amid the moving army.

After the earlier episode in which rage had attacked his heart and he had coughed blood, cultivators had treated him with their arts.

Physically, there was no longer any serious problem.

A message had now arrived from Song's envoy Qian Liansheng, asking Luo Zhao to confirm whether Yan truly held six hundred thousand Song prisoners.

Because Luo Zhao was conducting the war against Yanjing, he naturally had to keep abreast of conditions inside the capital.

He and Qian Liansheng had established contact long before.

Qian Liansheng had sent the inquiry to Luo Zhao for two reasons.

First, Luo Zhao was directing the campaign and presumably understood the broader military situation.

Second, Luo Zhao's army was already close to Yanjing. The distance for messages was short, allowing Qian Liansheng to obtain accurate information as quickly as possible.

As Song's principal representative in Yan, Qian Liansheng naturally needed a clear grasp of the facts before bargaining with Yan.

Of course, at the same time he had also sent a message back to Song asking the same question and reporting the situation.

Luo Zhao's side, being closer, received his inquiry first.

Wen You and the others all shook their heads.

At present, they knew only that the river-defense army had suffered defeat.

In so short a time, they had not yet learned how many prisoners Meng Shanming had actually taken.

One point was certain.

There had to be prisoners.

With an army that large collapsing, it was impossible for everyone to avoid capture.

The exact number, however, was still unclear.

The reason was simple.

When Song's army was defeated in the Qunluo Mountains, the fighting and flooding had spread across a very broad area.

Prisoners had been taken by Yan forces all around the mountain region and were not initially held in one place.

Until the separate armies finished counting and reported their totals, outsiders could not know the overall number.

One would need a spy planted inside Meng Shanming's central command to learn it immediately.

Horseback in the middle of a moving army was not a good place to discuss such matters.

Luo Zhao guided his mount out of the marching column and stopped on a flat stretch of ground beside the official road.

Wen You and the others followed.

They dismounted as well.

Su Yuanbai asked, "Six hundred thousand? Could Yan's army really have captured that many of our men? Might this be a deception?"

Luo Zhao considered the question, then shook his head.

"Probably not. Nine times out of ten, it is true."

Su Yuanbai looked surprised.

"Why do you say that?"

Luo Zhao replied, "If they want negotiations, we will certainly verify the facts. There would be little point in fabricating something so easily exposed."

"Under ordinary battle conditions, capturing six hundred thousand men would indeed be difficult."

"But Meng Shanming used a flood attack. Once the army was smashed apart by water, unable to assemble into formations and counterattack, its cohesion and morale collapsed with it."

"Under such circumstances, six hundred thousand prisoners is entirely possible."

That was the difference between someone who understood war and someone who did not.

Where others had no clear sense of what was possible, Luo Zhao could still form a judgment.

But once he said it aloud, the mood among those present became considerably heavier.

They had not expected Yan to obtain bargaining leverage first.

Dong Yinglai said, "Grand Commander-in-Chief, if Yan is holding six hundred thousand sons of Great Song hostage, I fear we can no longer strike Yanjing."

Just then, a general galloped over.

"Grand Commander-in-Chief, an imperial order has arrived!"

The so-called imperial order was an urgent written dispatch.

At a time like this, it was hardly convenient to send ceremonial envoys again and again with the full formalities of an imperial decree.

An army at war simplified everything.

Luo Zhao accepted the letter and read it.

He was silent for a moment before handing it to the others.

Only after they read it did they learn that, just as Luo Zhao had expected, the court was ordering the army to withdraw and return to block Meng Shanming.

Chang Fei said, "The messages we sent back are probably still on the road."

In other words, the court's order had arrived before Luo Zhao's latest reports.

Luo Zhao narrowed his eyes.

"Qian Liansheng's message informing the court that Yan wants negotiations is probably still on the road as well."

Su Yuanbai said, "Grand Commander-in-Chief, if Yan truly holds six hundred thousand of our men, Great Song cannot simply ignore them."

"Continuing toward Yanjing is no longer appropriate."

"Why not obey the decree and withdraw? It will also spare you the charge of defying an imperial order."

Luo Zhao's jaw tightened.

He spoke one word at a time.

"A general in the field does not always obey the sovereign's command."

The others exchanged glances.

Dong Yinglai tried to persuade him.

"Grand Commander-in-Chief, why insist on your own course to this extent?"

"You know what court politics are like."

"The unfavorable turn in the war has already given your enemies an opening."

"If you now defy the imperial order as well, who knows how many people will throw stones at you once you are down?"

"We are saying this for your own good."

Luo Zhao sighed.

"The war has reached this point. Even ten thousand deaths could not absolve me of responsibility."

"I no longer care what happens to me afterward. Let them punish me however they wish."

"I am not a civil official who can seek safety through inaction and coast along so long as nothing goes wrong."

"I am a military commander. Can one coast through a battlefield?"

"That is why the thinking of civil officials can never truly align with that of soldiers who fight in the field."

"Withdraw? How do we withdraw now?"

"The battlefield situation currently favors Yan. Why, then, is Yan willing to negotiate with Great Song at all?"

"For one reason only: this army threatens Yanjing."

"That is what forces them to negotiate."

"If we withdraw now, that will be truly courting death."

"Once the threat to Yanjing is removed, do you think the other side will still have any reason to negotiate with us?"

That single sentence struck the heart of the matter.

Everyone's expression turned grave.

"How likely is it that any negotiated agreement will actually be carried out?"

"If there is an opportunity to annihilate three million of Great Song's main troops, what enemy commander would not be tempted?"

"If I were Meng Shanming, once the danger to Yanjing was lifted, I would treat the court's decree as nothing but a fart and tear up the agreement without hesitation."

"Our army would never cross the Dongyu River easily."

"They could simply exhaust our grain and fodder until all of us died."

"Shang Chaozong's one hundred thousand iron cavalry come and go like the wind and watch us like wolves."

"Why?"

"They are waiting for the best moment to strike."

"They intend to coordinate with Meng Shanming and bury all three million of us here."

"They hold six hundred thousand hostages."

"We hold no bargaining chips at all."

"And you want to withdraw like this?"

"What would there be left to negotiate about?"

"Once the threat to Yanjing disappears, do you truly think they will let us go?"

"If the opportunity to destroy us appears, even if Meng Shanming defies orders and tears up the agreement, Yanjing will simply turn a blind eye."

"Negotiations?"

"They will forget the whole thing in an instant."

"What then?"

"Would our remaining grain and fodder even support another march back to threaten Yanjing?"

"So we cannot withdraw."

"Only by holding Yanjing in our grasp can we negotiate!"

"Moreover, the court apparently does not yet know that six hundred thousand of our men may be prisoners."

"Qian Liansheng's message probably has not reached them."

"The court does not even know negotiations are underway, and you want us to withdraw first?"

"Can any of you tell me how that is supposed to work?"

After all the arguments were stripped away, Luo Zhao was still trying to secure the support of the three major sects.

...

Inside Song's embassy in Yanjing, the anxious Qian Liansheng received a message from the Song capital at almost the same time Luo Zhao received his own imperial order.

The court's meaning was simple.

Negotiate peace.

The condition was that Yan withdraw its forces from Song territory, while Song would stop attacking Yanjing and withdraw its army from Yan as well.

In truth, whether negotiations succeeded or not, Song had to withdraw.

Song could not behave like battered, half-ruined Yan and simply smash the jar because it was already cracked.

It could not allow Meng Shanming to rampage freely through Song territory.

The war had already placed the state itself in danger.

The purpose of negotiating was to seize whatever chance remained and, ideally, help Luo Zhao's three-million-man army withdraw safely.

But the message from court did not mention the six hundred thousand prisoners at all.

Qian Liansheng found that strange.

Did the court not know about them?

Or had Yan been spouting nonsense?

Based on his experience, the Yan court should not fabricate something this serious out of thin air.

Fortunately, Luo Zhao was much closer.

His reply arrived quickly.

Luo Zhao said the situation was complicated.

For the moment, he could not confirm whether Yan truly held six hundred thousand prisoners.

The court probably did not know the exact situation either.

But based on Luo Zhao's judgment of the battle, six hundred thousand prisoners was entirely plausible.

Luo Zhao also stated plainly that he did not intend to obey the order to withdraw.

He told Qian Liansheng to use the need to verify the prisoners as a reason for delay and have Yan cooperate with the verification.

This served two purposes.

They genuinely needed to confirm the prisoners' condition.

It would also stall the Yan court.

If the prisoners were real, the delay might keep Yan from harming them.

And if Luo Zhao could surround and seize Yanjing first, Song would obtain bargaining leverage of its own.

Luo Zhao had openly stated that he meant to defy the imperial order.

Qian Liansheng was forced to cooperate.

Besides, as the man responsible for negotiating, he understood the importance of bargaining chips perfectly well.

And there was indeed a need to verify the six hundred thousand prisoners.

They could not simply accept whatever Yan claimed.

So Qian Liansheng immediately went to the residence of the Grand Minister of Works and met Tong Mo.

Shang Jianxiong had placed Tong Mo in charge of the negotiations.

When the Song court finally received Qian Liansheng's report that Yan was demanding negotiations, it was greatly shocked.

Only then did the court learn that six hundred thousand Song soldiers had been taken prisoner.

It immediately dispatched a group of cultivators to verify the matter.

At the same time, it sent instructions telling Qian Liansheng to find a way to keep the Yan court steady for now.

...

At the Qunluo Mountains, Yan's army had rested for a day after winning the flood battle.

Once the ground had dried somewhat, the army formally prepared to set out.

Gong Lince had received a message from Meng Xuan in Yanjing.

He entered the central command tent and found Meng Shanming issuing instructions to the generals concerning the next stage of the campaign.

Gong Lince waited to the side until the arrangements were complete.

Only then did he explain why he had come.

The court intended to use the six hundred thousand prisoners in negotiations.

The army was not to act recklessly against them.

The moment the generals heard this, the tent erupted in protest.

Most of those making noise were eventually driven out by Meng Shanming.

After the irrelevant men had left, Su Qitong said in obvious displeasure, "Sect Leader Gong, the present situation is overwhelmingly favorable to us."

"Great Yan is already battered and broken to this extent. What is there left for us to fear?"

"Now Song should be the one afraid."

"Its interior defenses are empty, and Meng Shanming's army is threatening the heartland."

"Releasing six hundred thousand elite Song troops merely to preserve Yanjing—how is that different from raising a tiger to invite disaster?"

"We have to exploit this opportunity and cripple Song before we can stop!"

Zhang Hu was equally dissatisfied.

"If Song's army wants to attack, then let them attack!"

"Why should we care about those people in Yanjing?"

"Don't they have legs? Don't they know how to run?"

"When we needed their support, there was none."

"When it comes time to drag us backward, they're faster than anyone!"

"How many brothers have died fighting all the way to this point?"

"We finally overturned the situation."

"Now Song stands before our army like a lamb waiting for slaughter."

"Song started this war. How can we let them off easily?"

"And now they want negotiations, want us to release prisoners, and even want us preparing to withdraw?"

"I will be the first to refuse!"

These men and the imperial court had never belonged to the same faction in the first place.

What the hell did Yanjing's survival have to do with them?

To ask them to abandon such an extraordinary opportunity for revenge merely to preserve one capital city—how could they possibly agree so easily?

[End of Chapter 698]