Chapter 700: The Enemy Is at the Gates

Create a blood feud by killing the prisoners?

Lu Zheng stared blankly at Meng Shanming, shaken once again.

If six hundred thousand Song prisoners were slaughtered at one stroke, how could that fail to create hatred?

Not merely hatred, but a great hatred.

It would become a humiliation carved into the bones of everyone in Song. If Song ever gained the opportunity, how could it possibly fail to avenge it?

So this was deliberate.

Beyond the grand strategy Meng Shanming had just explained to Gong Lince, he also intended to cut off the retreat of the soldiers invading Song and force them to fight desperately.

So even slaughtering prisoners could be used as a means of strengthening military morale.

Lu Zheng finally understood.

There were so many reasons behind the decision.

No wonder Marshal Meng was willing to bear infamy and pressure from the three major sects and still insist on doing it...

...

The army left the Qunluo Mountains.

Great groups of prisoners were driven along with it.

All the army's baggage was forced onto the prisoners' shoulders, freeing Yan's own soldiers from carrying the burden.

Although the flooded ground had dried considerably, the route remained muddy beneath their feet.

The march was still difficult.

Meng Shanming did not want to waste provisions on prisoners who were being used as labor.

They were given little more than watery broth to eat and drink.

Weak from hunger and burdened with heavy loads, their condition was easy to imagine.

Almost every prisoner was wounded.

Every man was missing one ear.

Dried tracks of blood marked their cheeks.

The road was muddy.

The army advanced slowly.

...

"Master Dao, a letter from Gongsun Bu, and one from the red-faced monkey. They arrived almost at the same time."

In the mountains, Guan Fangyi produced two messages.

Niu Youdao read Gongsun Bu's first.

There was nothing else of importance in it.

It merely informed him that Yan's army at the Qunluo Mountains had set out again.

Then he opened the message relayed by Yuan Gang.

The handwriting was familiar only to the two of them.

At once, Niu Youdao knew the contents were highly secret.

He read it.

Gao Jiancheng's reply from Yanjing had finally arrived.

The delay was understandable.

For reasons of secrecy, Niu Youdao had never let Guan Fangyi or the others around him know he was in contact with Gao Jiancheng.

Messages first had to reach Yuan Gang and then be forwarded to him.

A slower arrival was natural.

Niu Youdao focused and carefully read Gao Jiancheng's opinion.

It was very measured.

Gao Jiancheng first explained that Yanjing intended to use the six hundred thousand prisoners as bargaining chips in negotiations.

He wanted Niu Youdao to understand the situation before making any judgment.

After that, Gao Jiancheng still did not directly say whether the six hundred thousand prisoners should be killed.

He merely offered several points for Niu Youdao's consideration.

These were six hundred thousand prisoners.

If Meng Shanming killed all of them, whatever else happened, the effect on his reputation was easy to imagine.

At the very least, he would probably never escape a reputation as a "bloodthirsty butcher."

If he did not kill them, then keeping them fed consumed grain for no good reason.

In that case, it would be better to hand them to the court for use as bargaining chips.

If he did intend to kill them, however, there was still a proper way to go about it.

It would be better not to kill them too directly.

First use them as bargaining chips, and only afterward kill them.

The bargaining chips Gao Jiancheng meant were not bargaining chips for the imperial court.

They were bargaining chips for Shang Chaozong or Meng Shanming.

Gao Jiancheng's idea was that Meng Shanming should use the prisoners to demand grain and fodder from Song's army.

Once that demand reached the Song capital, there would inevitably be two factions arguing at court.

One side, wanting to save the six hundred thousand elite soldiers, would support giving the grain.

The other would certainly oppose it.

The premise was simple.

Yanjing was already using the six hundred thousand prisoners as a condition for Song's army to withdraw.

If Meng Shanming added a demand for grain and fodder on top of that, the Song court would inevitably feel Yan's terms were too harsh.

They would also worry that once Meng Shanming obtained grain, he would become like a tiger given wings.

If he then broke his word, Song itself would be endangered.

Under those conditions, two or more factions at the Song court would unavoidably quarrel.

There were several benefits to doing things this way.

If the prisoners were eventually killed and the Yan court tried to hold Meng Shanming responsible, he could plead that his army lacked grain and use that to resist blame.

After all, the court had been unable to provide adequate supplies.

He could also say Song had shown no sincerity and that he had killed the prisoners in anger.

That would offset at least some of the damage to his reputation.

Some of the responsibility could be shifted onto Song by accusing it of refusing to save its own prisoners.

That, in turn, could weaken the hearts and morale of Song's soldiers.

And there was one final benefit.

Once the prisoners were dead, the faction at the Song court that had supported giving grain would inevitably accuse the faction that had opposed it.

They would say those men had caused the deaths of six hundred thousand elite soldiers.

That could set the Song court itself against itself.

In the end, Gao Jiancheng's meaning was simple.

If you intended to do something wicked, then at least have a reason prepared to argue that you were not the villain—and use the opportunity to make as much trouble for the enemy as possible.

When Niu Youdao finished reading, one corner of his mouth lifted.

A man steeped in court politics for so many years truly was a man steeped in court politics.

His belly was full of dirty water.

When it came to this sort of game, Gao Jiancheng really was practiced.

Niu Youdao's attitude remained the same.

Unless necessary, he did not want to interfere too deeply in battlefield matters.

Specialized affairs were best left to people who specialized in them, with enough freedom to use their abilities fully.

So he sent Gao Jiancheng's suggestion on to Meng Shanming.

Naturally, he left no trace whatsoever that Gao Jiancheng was involved.

Everything was rewritten as Niu Youdao's own idea.

The two sides were not very far apart.

Gongsun Bu soon received the message.

After decoding the secret letter, he delivered it to Meng Shanming immediately.

The road was muddy and the army moved slowly.

Meng Shanming was sitting inside a carriage when the letter arrived.

Gongsun Bu passed it through the window.

Luo Da'an took it and handed it over.

Lu Zheng was serving as the driver and controlling the horses.

After reading the letter, Meng Shanming stroked his beard and shook his head.

He clicked his tongue softly.

"Master Dao is Master Dao. Even at court, he knows how to make the calculations come out in his favor."

The admiration was genuine.

Meng Shanming was formidable in war.

When it came to affairs at court, as outsiders often said, he had never been especially skilled.

More precisely, it was not that he was stupid.

He simply did not value such matters highly and was unwilling to spend his energy studying them.

A man's energy was limited.

Scatter it too widely and one could never become truly accomplished in a single field.

When Prince Ning had still been alive, Meng Shanming had needed only to devote himself to warfare.

Prince Ning had shielded him from the affairs of court.

Meng Shanming himself had held no improper ambitions there.

Now, there was even less reason for him to concern himself with what the court thought.

Niu Youdao, by contrast, had placed no restrictions on him from beginning to end of the war.

He only supplied useful assistance.

That made Meng Shanming feel deeply at ease.

Unlike the three major sects, Niu Youdao did not keep trying to interfere.

Having a capable man hidden behind the scenes, watching for danger and stepping out in time to dissolve crises, felt like a great stroke of fortune.

Take the earlier suppression of the rebellion.

As disaster closed in, no one in Nanzhou had noticed it.

Only Niu Youdao had realized the court intended to move against Shang Chaozong.

Niu Youdao immediately transferred Nanzhou's one hundred thousand iron cavalry away before they could be caught in the coming calamity, allowing Meng Shanming to lead them out of danger in time.

Emotionally, Meng Shanming and the others had found it extremely difficult to accept leaving Shang Chaozong alone to face danger.

Meng Shanming had wanted to lead men back for an urgent rescue.

Again, Niu Youdao had sent someone to stop him.

Looking back now, so long as Meng Shanming and Nanzhou's strength remained intact, the imperial court had never truly dared do anything irreversible to Shang Chaozong.

From another perspective, Shang Chaozong had remained behind and suffered, but the matter of killing Shi Sheng had gradually faded as well.

When Meng Shanming looked back over the entire sequence, Niu Youdao had been the most rational and calm man of them all.

Given Shang Chaozong's situation at the time, one could even say his rationality had been frightening.

Without Niu Youdao, the consequences were easy to imagine.

It had been Meng Shanming and the others who loudly demanded the chance to send troops and save Yan.

But the man who cleared away the obstacles preventing that deployment and guarded against its risks had been Niu Youdao.

Without Niu Youdao hidden behind the scenes and acting when necessary, the consequences of Shang Chaozong killing Shi Sheng alone would have been impossible to predict.

How could the present situation ever have come about?

A flying creature appeared in the distant sky.

Before long, Zhang Hu's voice sounded outside the carriage window.

"Marshal, men from the Song capital have arrived. They want to verify the number of prisoners."

Meng Shanming folded the secret letter in his hands.

His reply was calm.

"Notify every force to remain on guard and let them conduct their verification."

"Also tell the Song men this: if they want the prisoners, bring grain."

...

Negotiations between Song and Yan had already produced a result.

Yet the Song army had not stopped advancing.

At last, Song's five hundred thousand vanguard troops reached Yanjing and surrounded the capital.

The gates of Yanjing were shut tight.

The defenders along the walls faced the enemy as though confronting a mortal crisis.

Every defensive weapon and installation had already been prepared.

Inside the city, one million conscripted laborers had been organized and were working continuously, cooperating with the army in the defense.

That alone showed that once Yanjing truly resolved to resist, its defensive manpower amounted to far more than the two hundred thousand regular troops stationed there.

Even so, the common people inside the city remained terrified.

Outside the walls, cultivators escorted Song envoy Qian Liansheng out so he could meet the commanders of Song's army.

After Qian Liansheng's persuasion, and with Luo Zhao's military order also in hand, the Song troops temporarily encircled the city without attacking.

They would wait for the negotiated terms to be carried out.

If implementation went badly, the army would attack immediately.

Outside the walls, Song soldiers shouted threats and insults.

From time to time, drums thundered and horns blared, creating a constant pressure upon everyone inside the capital.

...

One corner of the imperial palace had become a place no one dared approach.

Some of the bodies from within the palace had been gathered there and burned.

No one dared discuss how the palace women had died.

Everyone knew the matter could never truly be concealed.

Even so, Chief Steward Tian Yu had issued a strict prohibition.

Anyone who spoke recklessly about it would die.

For the moment, Shang Jianxiong did not dare return to the rear palace to sleep.

He had even moved his sleeping quarters into a small room adjoining the Imperial Study.

Everyone around him knew perfectly well what he feared in his heart.

No one dared say it aloud.

Enemy troops clamored outside the city.

Inside the palace, Tong Mo held the negotiated terms and discussed with Shang Jianxiong and the others how they were to be implemented.

There was no helping it.

They had to carry out the agreement while also taking Shang Chaozong's reaction into account.

The situation no longer allowed Shang Jianxiong to ignore Shang Chaozong and simply issue orders by force.

Shang Chaozong held military authority in his hands.

Military authority was also one of the things civil officials hated most about military men.

And one of the things they feared most.

That was why, whenever the opportunity appeared, civil officials could hardly resist layering restraint upon restraint over the military power held by commanders.

At a moment like this, if Shang Jianxiong truly enraged Shang Chaozong, it would not matter what terms had been negotiated.

From Shang Jianxiong's standpoint, Shang Chaozong had every reason to destroy the agreement if angered.

Earlier, Shang Jianxiong had desperately hoped Shang Chaozong's one hundred thousand iron cavalry would attack Song's army.

Now he truly feared Shang Chaozong might act impulsively and ruin everything.

Meng Xuan arrived.

As usual, he ignored the guards outside and entered directly.

Shang Jianxiong rose from behind the desk and asked eagerly, "Sect Leader Meng, have the three major sects arranged everything properly at the front?"

Meng Xuan hesitated.

The matter embarrassed him.

He found it difficult to speak.

After all, he had given his assurance earlier.

But there was no choice.

The message Gong Lince had sent back truly did make sense.

More importantly, Meng Shanming and the others held the troops in their own hands and were using their ability to determine the course of the war as leverage.

They simply refused to listen to the three major sects.

At a moment like this, so long as the three major sects still cared about their own interests, they did not dare do anything to Meng Shanming.

The consequences would be too severe.

The moment Shang Jianxiong and the others saw Meng Xuan's reaction, all of them became tense.

No one even dared breathe loudly.

At last Meng Xuan spoke slowly.

"Your Majesty, I estimate Song's army will begin attacking before long."

"Have the defenders prepare to hold to the death."

"Have them prepare to live and die with Yanjing."

[End of Chapter 700]