novelAbuy Chapter 28 Zhang Du and Zhang Ding
Chapter 28 Zhang Du and Zhang Ding
His voice was old, yet it intimidated everyone, making them afraid to make any rash moves.
Zhang Jizhi, these three characters are a household name in Liang State. That is his courtesy name, the name of that spirited young man thirty years ago.
Now he is old and has been forced into this situation by his own people, but he still stands on this battlefield and shouts out this name.
A commotion broke out in the rebel ranks, and the soldiers in the front row instinctively took a half step back.
But Si Wenming's chariots did not move, nor did Zhang Zhuo's central banner.
The battlefield was completely silent.
The wind blew across the battlefield, making the banners flutter loudly.
Twenty thousand rebel soldiers stood in formation at the front, their spears and halberds like a forest, yet not a single one dared to step forward.
As they looked at each other in bewilderment, someone in the back row whispered, "The king himself has taken to the battlefield..." It was an old soldier, his voice low and filled with fear.
At this moment, an idea began to spread among them: Do I really want to go against the king?
Do I dare to oppose the king?
How could I possibly oppose the king?
Zhang Du rode on his horse, his long spear held across the saddle, quietly watching the 20,000 rebels opposite him. He saw their faces, each one a distinct, sun-darkened face.
Fear, hesitation, and avoidance were visible on the faces of those people. In the front row, a young Gosser's hand, which was about the same size as his son's, was trembling as he held his Gosser.
An old soldier in the back row was backing up, but stopped after taking half a step because the person behind him was blocking his way.
He suddenly remembered something his grandfather, Zhang Quzhuo, had said.
When he was a child, his grandfather held his hand and stood on the top of Hanzhong city wall, pointing to the soldiers training below the wall and saying, "Du'er, you must remember this. They are human beings. They have parents, wives and children, fears, reluctance to leave, and homes they want to return to but cannot. You must treat them as your sons! A good ruler must remember this. If you remember it, you can make them follow you. If you don't remember it, you will be all alone."
He remembered it.
For the past thirty years, I have built the Four Directions Hall, accepted the opinions of all schools of thought, and allowed commoners and officials to sit at the same table. This is not for the sake of the way of the sage king, but because of my grandfather's words.
He treated every single person in the Liang Kingdom as his son!
The 20,000 people opposite us are also from Liang.
Zhang Du slowly slammed his long spear to the ground.
In the middle of the empty battlefield, this muffled sound, like a drumbeat, drowned out the wind and the fluttering of the flags.
"The soldiers of Liang."
His voice was not loud, but it clearly reached the ears of every soldier in the rebel army.
"I know that most of you did not come here to rebel on your own initiative. Your generals brought you here. Many of you have heard stories of the Liang Kingdom from your fathers and brothers since you were young, about how Duke Wen Zhao followed King Wu to attack King Zhou, and how Duke Wen defeated the Zheng army at Xuge..." He paused, his voice suddenly becoming a little hoarse, "Duke Wen was my grandfather."
Another commotion broke out in the rebel ranks.
"Duke Wen fought more than seventy battles in his life, and not once did he point his spear at his own people." Zhang Du's voice gradually rose. "His spear was only pointed at the enemies who invaded Liang. Now that his spear is in my hands, I do not want to use it to kill the people of Liang."
He paused for a moment, then shouted, "Zhang Zhuo and Si Wenming are your generals, and I am your ruler. I only ask you one question: Did you choose to stand here willingly?"
"Are you really willing to point the very spears you use to defend your homeland at your king?"
This sound was like tearing silk, like a thunderclap.
"Yes, how could I point a spear at my ruler?"
"How can I be an enemy of the king?"
Such words began to echo frequently within the rebel ranks, eventually culminating in a unified cry: "We do not wish to be enemies of the king! We do not wish to be enemies of the king!"
Zhang Du knew his time had come, so he shouted to the rebels: "My dear soldiers, you have been deceived by treacherous men and have come to attack your king, but I do not blame you. If I blame you, what right do I have to be your king?"
"Now, the traitor is right there. Are you willing to rid your king of this traitor?"
"I am willing to die for my sovereign! I am willing to die for my sovereign!"
Apart from Si Wenming's clansmen and Zhang Zhuo's personal guards, the entire rebel army defected and turned to attack Si Wenming and his men.
The battle was over the moment the rebels defected.
Zhang Zhuo died in the chaos of battle, while Si Wenming was killed by the Li clan who came to the aid of the emperor on his way back to Wudu after a difficult breakout.
Zhang Ke's lineage was stripped of their fiefdoms and relocated to Hanzhong. Without the emperor's order, they were not allowed to step out of Hanzhong.
The Si clan, however, only executed Si Wenming's lineage; the rest of the clan members were relocated to Hanzhong and were not allowed to leave Hanzhong without the emperor's order.
He then issued an edict exempting the Liang Kingdom from taxes and corvée labor for one year, and rewarding those who had rendered meritorious service!
Thus, the rebellion that began with Zhang Du and ended with Zhang Du came to an end.
Zhang Du did not punish the rebels. Instead, he gave them three times the usual pay and then gave them leave to go home and reunite with their families before they returned to their original units.
The Li clan chief who beheaded Si Wenming was promoted and granted a fief.
After the war ended, the Liang Kingdom enjoyed a period of peace.
The streets of Hanzhong City have become lively again. A new recruitment notice has been posted on the notice board outside the Sifang Hall, and people in the academy are arguing heatedly about a sentence in the "Zhou Gong Yuan Gui".
Everything returned to normal, as if the internal strife outside Nanzheng City that nearly brought down the Liang Kingdom was nothing more than a nightmare from which one quickly wakes up.
After Zhang Du returned, he rested for half a month and lost weight.
He began to have Zhang Ding attend to his affairs of state. When the six ministers presented their reports, the twelve-year-old heir sat behind a small table to the side, listening without interrupting.
After court discussions, the father and son would sometimes eat together. Zhang Du would occasionally point to a matter that had just been discussed and ask a few questions. If Zhang Ding answered well, he would not praise him; if he answered poorly, he would not blame him.
On one occasion, Zhang Ding asked, "Father, is this all the king does every day?"
Zhang Du thought for a moment and replied, "Listening to these things is what it means to be a ruler."
That winter, a group of Quanrong people crossed the Longshan Mountains and plundered several villages in Jiangyuan.
When the news arrived, Zhang Du was eating. He put down his chopsticks and remained silent for a moment.
He had faced the Quanrong when he was young, and back then he could still ride a horse to patrol the border. Now he could still ride a horse, but he was no longer the one patrolling the border. He put Zhao Yuan in charge of the troops and ordered Zhang Ding to accompany the army.
Zhao Yuan fought swiftly and decisively. The Quanrong were originally small groups that looted, but upon hearing that the Liang army had mobilized, they retreated after looting for a few days.
Zhao Yuan pursued them across the Longshan Mountains, burned two camps of the Quanrong, and captured hundreds of cattle and sheep and dozens of warhorses.
When Zhang Ding returned, he was thinner and darker. He entered the palace to report the military situation to his father, but did not leave as usual after he finished speaking.
Zhang Du asked him, "Ding'er, is there anything else?"
Zhang Ding thought for a moment and said, "The houses in those looted villages were burned and the grain was stolen. I would like to ask the governor of Chencang County to allocate some grain to them."
Zhang Du looked at him for a while, then said, "You are the heir apparent. Do what you think is right."
Zhang Ding responded with a "Yes," and turned to leave.
Zhang Du watched his retreating figure, then suddenly smiled. The attendant beside him, rarely seeing him smile, whispered, "What is Your Majesty laughing at?"
Zhang Du said with some emotion, "This child seems to have grown a few years older since he came back from his trip."
"Then this humble subject must congratulate Your Majesty."
"Hahaha...stop with the flattery."
After that, Zhang Ding frequently visited military camps and various counties and villages.
Sometimes he went with Zhao Yuan, sometimes alone, and sometimes with a few young Confucian scholars.
He didn't touch military power; he just observed and asked questions. He asked how the provisions were calculated, how the horses were raised, what the disaster-stricken villages lacked, and sometimes he would even go to the military camp to eat and live with the soldiers.
The soldiers were initially a little reserved, but after they got to know him better, they started chatting with him casually.
Some people say that the crown prince is not like a crown prince, since he doesn't squat in the military camp and eat dry rations with the soldiers.
Zhang Ding wasn't annoyed when he heard this; he just smiled.