I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 103 Let’s sleep with what belongs to Zhao Gou in the future

"Have the reinforcements defeated Fang La's main force? 50,000 captured?"

When the Hangzhou government troops on the inner city heard the good news of victory, they all couldn't help but gasp.

"Quick! Go and call Envoy Chen and Envoy Zhao!"

"So many of Fang La's main forces were defeated? It must be General Tong who has arrived with the entire main force of the Western Army! When did the imperial court dispatch troops so quickly?"

There was a moment of celebration on the city wall. Although most of the soldiers were surprised, they quickly accepted this setting.

Because all day, there had been no sightings of Fang La's army attacking the inner city, and the Fang La troops in the outer city had indeed been somewhat disorganized and quiet. The government troops guarding the inner city didn't understand at first and didn't dare venture out to confirm the situation. Now, finally hearing that Fang La had been defeated, everything made sense.

Not long after, Chen Jian and Zhao Yue, the two surviving road-level officials, arrived at the city wall. Both were still in their pajamas and barefoot. They asked in unison, "Where is Zhao Tongpan? Where is Zhao Tongpan?"

The winter night was cold, and they did temporarily wear a tattered fur coat over their pajamas, but it looked awkward no matter how they looked at it.

"The one outside the city gate, riding a red horse, wearing a red robe, holding a spear!"

Chen Jian and Zhao Yue rubbed their eyes. They didn't recognize the person and were also afraid that Fang La's army was cheating. After they discussed it, they decided that Zhao Yue would take a basket to go out of the city and confirm the situation.

Zhao Yue put on some shoes, placed a few jars of Yuezhou yellow wine in the hanging basket, and then went down into the city carefully.

"Is this Zhao Tongpan of Suzhou?" Zhao Yue walked slowly and cautiously to Zhao Zicheng's horse and bowed cautiously.

Zhao Zicheng didn't know his identity, so naturally he wouldn't dismount to return the greeting. He simply bowed from his horseback and said, "That's right. I have armor on, so I won't dismount to return the greeting. I don't know who you are..."

Zhao Yue nodded, his heart filled with excitement. He had long heard that Zhao Zicheng was young, well-educated, and a member of the imperial clan—in fact, Zhao Yue himself was a very distant relative of the imperial clan. In the late Northern Song Dynasty, there were so many members of the imperial clan that the surname Zhao was originally worthless.

Historically, Zhao Gou planned to adopt a son and ordered the Imperial Clan Director to conduct a census of all imperial clans. Even after the Jingkang Incident, when many close relatives were arrested, over 300 members of the Zhao family could still be found whose lineage was as close as, or even closer than, Zhao Zicheng's.

By the time of Zhao Zicheng's son, the future Emperor Xiaozong of Song, Zhao Shen, the number of Zhao family members who met the bloodline requirements had increased several times to more than 1,040.

But the identity of a royal family is not valuable alone, but when combined with other talents, it becomes very rare.

Zhao Zicheng was so talented in both civil and military affairs that he was able to repel Fang La, who was causing trouble in the six states. Zhao Yue could no longer imagine how he did it.

Zhao Yue was stunned for a long moment before taking a deep breath and solemnly bowing, saying, "I am Zhao Yue, the Inspector General of Liangzhe Province. So, my nephew is a relative of mine. He is so young and promising, so accomplished in both civil and military matters, that I am truly humbled. I wonder where General Tong is now? Has he personally led his troops to Hangzhou?"

Zhao Zi said that after hearing Zhao Yue talk about seniority, he knew that Zhao Zi was his distant uncle, so he could not be arrogant anymore. He jumped off the horse in a graceful manner, with an elegant posture like the elf prince played by Orlando in "The Lord of the Rings".

"General Tong hasn't arrived yet. We were originally ordered to guard the border between Hangzhou and Huxiu, to deter Fang La and to support Hangzhou. The other day, we were shocked to hear that Hangzhou City seemed to be unable to hold out, so we had no choice but to risk coming alone to support it. We can't wait to meet General Tong.

Fortunately, Fang La's army had been through a series of bloody battles, and their morale seemed low and they were unwilling to fight again, so my nephew took advantage of them. Uncle, I hope you don't think my nephew stole your credit."

Zhao Yue was horrified. "How could it be! We were lucky enough to defeat Fang La! But I wonder how many troops my nephew brought with him?"

Zhao Zi said: "The troops from the three states of Su, Xiu and Hu, plus the two battalions of Western Army cavalry and the Zhenjiang Prefecture Jiangfang Army who came to support us, total ten thousand people."

Zhao Yue found it increasingly difficult to believe: "Fang La still has a hundred thousand men! My dear nephew, you defeated ten enemies with one man. Did you use some ingenious strategy?"

Zhao Zicheng feigned a simple smile. "We employed considerable strategy in our previous battle against the bandits in Haining, but this time, the urgent task of rescuing Hangzhou leaves us no time for careful planning. All we have to do is cross the Grand Canal and Shangtang River, and engage the bandits in a decisive battle in the field."

When Zhao Yue heard this, his knees almost gave out. He felt just like the various princes who crawled on their knees after the Battle of Julu.

No tricks! Just a head-on confrontation to defeat an enemy ten times their size!
Even if the side with ten times the number of people was just a hastily assembled mob with a large number of old, weak, sick and disabled auxiliary soldiers, it would still be very difficult.

Only Zhao Zicheng knew in his heart what a great advantage he had taken and what a good opportunity he had seized - if he had waited a few days longer, before Fang La's army broke through Hangzhou City and robbed the property, and before the soldiers were all holding their breath, he would definitely not be able to defeat them.

But Fang La had just launched a series of fierce attacks, which had severely depleted his fighting capacity. After the loot was secured, the army's morale immediately dissipated, and once the breath was lost, the spirit and energy could never be restored.

Zhao Zicheng had waited for so long and had his scouts keep an eye on the battle situation in Hangzhou. He chose this critical moment to take action.

However, there was no need to share these details with a military-informed civilian like Zhao Yue. Not only would it not appear strategic, but it would also be offensive—so you deliberately waited until the outer city of Hangzhou was breached and Fang La looted before arriving? Why didn't you come earlier to rescue the outer city as well? Of course, Zhao Zicheng had no intention of standing aside to save the city; he simply wasn't confident he could defeat Fang La's army at this point. Furthermore, the ultimate failure to hold the outer city of Hangzhou was truly the fault of the Hangzhou defenders' own incompetence.

Moreover, if the Hangzhou defenders could hold out for another ten days, until Tong Guan's main force arrived, they would naturally be able to safely preserve the outer city, and there would be no need for Zhao Zicheng to risk his life to rescue them. Zhao Zicheng had done the best he could with only these few soldiers and resources.

Zhao Yue didn't see the twists and turns in it, so he could only imagine Zhao Zicheng as a pure desperate person.

"My dear nephew, you are truly... The people of Hangzhou and Jiangnan owe you great kindness. I am truly ashamed. As a civil servant, I couldn't even fully protect Hangzhou. Please go to the inner city and rest first."

Zhao Yue sighed and asked the guard to open the inner city gate and lead Zhao Zicheng into the city.

Of course, before entering the city, he inevitably took out a few jars of Yuezhou yellow wine from the ropes he had brought with him and opened them. He personally poured three bowls for Zhao Zicheng as a token of gratitude, and let the generals brought by Zhao Zicheng pour and drink the rest.

……

After entering the inner city, Zhao Zicheng soon met Chen Jian, the governor of Liangzhe Road, and others.

The ranks of these officials were clearly higher than Zhao Zicheng's. In peacetime, some of them could even be considered Zhao Zicheng's immediate superiors.

However, they had just been besieged by Fang La's rebels for a month or so, and had suffered heavy casualties, their spirits were low. Now when they saw Zhao Zicheng, it was like seeing a savior, and they did not dare to be arrogant at all.

Because the inner city was already in ruins and there was no place to accommodate him, Chen Jian led Zhao Zicheng to stay temporarily at Fahui Temple.

Fahui Temple is not far from the Hangzhou Prefecture and is also part of the remaining palace of the Wuyue Kingdom.

After Qian Chu, the last King of Wuyue, surrendered to the Song Dynasty, the Chaotian Hall, the main hall of the Wuyue Palace, was stripped of its outer gate and a few other unauthorized structures. It was subsequently converted into the residence of the Hangzhou prefect. The remainder of the Wuyue Palace was converted into a Buddhist temple by official decree of the Northern Song Dynasty, the main structure of which is the Fahui Temple.

Historically, when Zhao Gou moved south, he had no palace to live in when he arrived in Hangzhou. At that time, he had no money to completely rebuild it, so he took back the official residence of the Hangzhou prefect and the surrounding Buddhist temples, and converted the entire site of the former palace of the Wuyue Kingdom into the palace of the Southern Song Dynasty.

By the late Shaoxing period of Zhao Gou, the Song and Jin dynasties had stopped fighting, and he had the money to build additional palaces such as the East Garden nearby. Only then did the Southern Song court completely surpass the scale of the remains of the Wuyue Kingdom.

However, today, Fahui Temple is just a temple, but its architectural specifications are similar to those of a prince's palace. Zhao Zicheng saved the city of Hangzhou, and it was not considered excessive to live there as a matter of urgency during the war.

After being expressed in gratitude and flattery by Chen Jian and Zhao Yue, Zhao Zicheng slept peacefully that night in the monk's quarters which was converted from the palace where the King of Wu and Yue stayed a hundred years ago.

The sleep quality was very good, probably because the series of bloody battles during the day were too exhausting, so I slept until noon the next day.

"This is where Zhao Gou will sleep in the future. I wonder if I can absorb some of Zhao Gou's luck by sleeping there for a few nights in advance. If I find a few women who are supposed to be Zhao Gou's harem to accompany them, maybe I can absorb even more luck."

When getting up and washing up, Zhao Zicheng was still daydreaming with a sense of mischief.

There are too many such jokes in ancient times. For example, a fortune teller said that a certain woman would be very noble and would give birth to an emperor in the future. Someone then tried to abduct the woman, but in the end he was defeated and died. The fortune teller only became rich and noble after the woman was abducted by the enemy.

After sleeping in the palace of the future Zhao Gou, Zhao Zi said he felt refreshed and quickly got down to business. He met with Chen Jian and Zhao Yue to discuss in detail the spoils of the Battle of Hangzhou and the reporting issues.

According to the plan, he took out 15% of the property seized from the previous day's attack on Fang La, gave the list to Chen Jian and Zhao Yue, and said straight to the point:

"During yesterday's battle, our army also seized some of Fang La's property on the battlefield. Some of it may have been looted in Hangzhou, and it should be returned to the original owner. Therefore, I have returned half of the seized property here.

The remaining half needs to be used to reward meritorious soldiers and pay pensions. After all, there were heavy casualties in the bloody battle, and Fang La’s army’s property was not necessarily obtained from Hangzhou. There were also losses suffered by the people in Muzhou, Wuzhou and Chuzhou. Naturally, a portion of it must be returned to the local treasury for post-war disaster relief.

"Is this 50-50 split acceptable to Envoy Chen and Envoy Zhao? If General Tong wishes to send more troops to aid Hangzhou in the future, whether General Tong should be sent and how he should be provided with support will be up to you. It has nothing to do with me."

Zhao Zi claimed that he actually gave 15% to the soldiers as compensation, 15% to the Hangzhou government, and embezzled the remaining 70%. However, he claimed that the 30% he gave out was the entire amount, and the 15% was 50%, so Chen Jian and Zhao Yue would never be able to find evidence to the contrary.

These are things that cannot be proven.

Therefore, Chen Jian and Zhao Yue wisely acknowledged the situation: "President Zhao saved Hangzhou from disaster and was willing to return half of the seized property. This is already a great act of righteousness! We will write a letter to inform General Tong that Fang La's bandits have fled west, and tell them not to come to Hangzhou again.

Hangzhou has been through bloody battles and is in ruins, unable to support a large army. General Tong wants to kill Fang La, so he can simply go to Fang La's hometown, Muzhou. The imperial reinforcements will depart from Zhenjiang, and after reaching Changzhou, they can head south along the west bank of Taihu Lake. They can then enter the Tianmu Mountain area and pursue Fang La's lair. There are no enemy troops left in the eastern Zhejiang plains, so coming here would be unnecessary."

Chen Jian and Zhao Yue both agreed to the same strategy. They knew all too well the pitfalls of "troops rushing through like a comb." Hangzhou had clearly been taken, and if Tong Guan's hundreds of thousands of men came again, they would surely drive the remaining civilians to their deaths. Where would Hangzhou even have enough food to support Tong Guan?
(End of this chapter)