novelAbuy Chapter 115 Brothers in the Jinci Temple
Chapter 115 Brothers in the Jinci Temple
As night deepened, when all should have been quiet, the chaotic city of Ye was filled with the clatter of iron hooves thundering across the stone pavement, accompanied by the boisterous laughter of friends calling out to each other, and a few weak, feeble pleas of women, before disappearing into the end of the long street.
In the mansion of a wealthy merchant, the guards, armed with knives, staffs, bows, and arrows, vigilantly watched for any movement outside, their faces showing tension.
They were more than capable of dealing with the occasional bandits on their trade routes, but against a regular army in full armor and armed with weapons, they were doomed.
In the back room, the two sat facing each other, sipping tea. The elder was over forty years old, while the younger was sixteen.
The aroma of tea filled the air. The elder looked worried, while the young man remained calm and took a sip of tea.
"Your concern is so great that it would be a waste of this fine tea that I bought in Jiangling."
"Yuquan cactus, Songzi Bijian tea."
The boy admired the teacup, which had a delicate body, a pure white glaze, and a silvery appearance, while the tea inside was a clear, deep blue.
"The Yue ware of the South is as clear as ice and jade, the Xing ware of the North is as white as silver and snow. Xingzhou white porcelain paired with this pre-Qingming tea is well worth the months of hard work. Brother Jiedie, you can earn several times the profit in one trip, so what is there to worry about?"
The man with the rather peculiar surname and a Central Asian appearance stroked his curly beard and said, "Brother Rong, you're quite carefree. It's chaotic outside; who knows when a bunch of marauding soldiers will storm in and kill us? All the money we have will just end up benefiting others."
Rong Ge'er was none other than Guo Rong, whom he had met with the Gao siblings in Luoyang. He came to Yedu to do business, but unexpectedly, he and his partner, the local wealthy merchant Jie Die, were caught up in the chaos of war. (Note 1)
Guo Rong smiled slightly: "Brother Jiedie has been a merchant for many years and has been able to maintain his position in such a prosperous place as Yedu, monopolizing the tea and horse trade in Hebei with the Helian and Bai families. How could he be an ordinary merchant who can be easily manipulated? If that were the case, my godfather would not have felt at ease letting me follow you."
He twirled the teacup in his hand: "The Helian clan are descendants of the Xiongnu Tiefu tribe, and the Bai clan originated from the Murong Xianbei Tuyuhun. Brother Jiedie, let me guess your original surname... Ashina of the Turks?"
Jie Die laughed heartily, his worries vanishing completely: "Rong-ge'er, you certainly have a good eye. No wonder when we were in Jiangling, the fortune teller Wang Chushi saw you and the divination sticks jumped out of the container, stood upright, and said that your destiny was exceptionally noble."
"It's just a trick of the martial arts world."
Guo Rong didn't take it to heart and joked, "Master Wang thinks I should be the ruler of the world. If I come here one day, what official position do you want? Please tell me."
Jie Die also said, half-truthfully, "In my thirty years as a merchant, I have never done business without going through the capital. I have always seen tax officials sitting and making profits, earning in a day what merchants earn in several months. I secretly envy them. If you, young sir, were to become the emperor, I would be content with the tax office in the capital."
Guo Rong laughed and said, "How can you expect so little!"
Seeing that he was not yet twenty years old but spoke with great arrogance, Jiedie deliberately questioned him, "Your adoptive father went to war against Hedong. On the battlefield, swords and spears have no eyes. Aren't you worried about his life and safety?"
"How can Taiyuan, a small corner of the country, stand against the entire nation? The imperial court is certain of victory in this battle."
Guo Rong was full of confidence: "My godfather has lofty ambitions, and with the help of a group of brothers, this battle of Taiyuan, a real fight, is a golden opportunity for true men to make their names for themselves for eternity!"
Although he was exceptionally intelligent, he was still young and naive, unaware of how treacherous and utterly devoid of dignity and principles people could be.
More than 500 years ago, someone said, "If one cannot leave a good name for posterity, it is not enough to leave a bad name for ten thousand years!" (Note 2)
……
The fifth day of the sixth month in the third year of the Qingtai era, the day of Xinyou.
Liu Yanhao, the military governor of Tianxiong Army and the garrison commander of Yedu, fled back to Luoyang. Li Congke was furious and ordered the Secretariat and Chancellery to investigate his crimes. The ministers, citing the serious crime of losing their post, requested that the old laws be reinstated.
Tang Code: If a commander defends a city and it is attacked by the enemy, and he abandons the city instead of holding it, or fails to establish defenses and is thus overrun by the enemy, he shall be beheaded.
If the matter is decided based on kinship or nobility, the sentence will be reduced by two degrees, and the offender will be demoted to a distant prefecture.
Li Congke wanted to comply, but Empress Liu pleaded for her brother, stopping the stripping of his official titles and ranks and forcing him to return to his private residence.
At a critical juncture in the great battle, favoritism and unfairness in rewards and punishments led to corruption in the government.
The seventh day of the sixth lunar month, Guihai day.
The imperial court was unable to adjust its plans in time, so it had to issue an edict to appease the mutinous soldiers in Yedu, appointing Zhang Lingzhao as Inspector General of Works, Acting General of the Right Thousand Oxen Army, and concurrently in charge of the affairs of the Tianxiong Military Prefecture.
Zhang Lingzhao might not be unaware that this was a delaying tactic, but if he wanted to defect to Taiyuan, he would have to pass through Fukou Pass, capture Huguan Pass, and then pass through Luzhou to break through the punitive forces surrounding Taiyuan.
The other route is to go around to the north, passing through Zhenzhou and Jingxing.
Neither path was easy to take; if their way out or back was blocked from both sides, even the elite Zhang Sheng Army would be annihilated. After careful consideration, Zhang Lingzhao accepted the appointment.
June 15th, Xinwei day.
Within a few days, the imperial court quickly freed up its resources, mobilized troops in Henan, and made preparations for suppression.
Therefore, an imperial edict was issued to transfer Zhang Lingzhao to the position of Defense Commissioner of Qizhou, and to appoint Xing Li, the Third Right Commander, as the Prefect of Dezhou, and Kang Fujin, the Fifth Commander, as the Prefect of Mozhou.
Anyone could see that this was an obvious strategy to sow discord. Zhang Lingzhao resorted to the old excuse that the soldiers' attempts to persuade him to stay were futile, intending to wait and see how things unfolded in Hedong.
Li Congke sent an envoy to convey the message, but was killed by Zhang Lingzhao, and resolved to fight the court to the end.
June 18th, Jiaxu day.
Fan Yanguang, the military governor of Xuanwu Army in Bianzhou, was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Tianxiong Army's four-sided campaign and in charge of the administration; Li Jingzhou, the garrison commander of Xijing, was appointed as the deputy commander-in-chief and concurrently the military supervisor, and was ordered to attack.
On the same day, Zhang Jingda and Yang Guangyuan were changed from commanders and deputy commanders to commanders-in-chief and deputy commanders-in-chief, respectively. In case of urgent matters in the army, if there was no time to report, they were allowed to act expediently.
Zhang Jingda had been besieging the city for nearly a month, setting up a long wall and palisades, and had prepared siege equipment. Gao Xingzhou and Zhang Yanqi's imperial guards cavalry, Fu Yanqing's northern cavalry, and troops from various routes including Xingzhou An Shenqi and Shanzhou Xianglijin arrived, doubling their strength.
Since the Hebei army could not arrive as planned, Zhang Jingda did not wait any longer. He set up ladders, fired cannons, and began an offensive against Taiyuan.
The Jinci Temple, where the army was stationed, was not a solitary temple standing in the wilderness, but rather a place with hundreds of pavilions and towers. The temple was dedicated to Tang Shuyu, the son of King Wu of Jin and the ancestor of the Jin state.
King Wu of Zhou cut a jade tablet from a paulownia leaf and enfeoffed his younger brother in the State of Tang, leaving behind the famous story of "the emperor's word is law," which is also the origin of the name of the Tang Dynasty.
Four hundred years ago, Emperor Wenxuan of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Yang, built grand pavilions and dug ponds here, resulting in the landscape we see today. The last emperor of the Northern Qi Dynasty, Gao Wei, also gathered troops here before marching south to seize Pingyang and fight a decisive battle with the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
Unfortunately, Gao Wei encountered one of the most enlightened rulers of the Northern Dynasties, Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yong. Along with Prince Qi, Yuwen Xian, and a host of renowned generals from the Guanzhong Plain, Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty, was also among them.
In contrast, Gao Wei was surrounded by his beloved concubine Feng Xiaolian and treacherous officials such as Mu Ti Po. In the end, he was defeated in one battle, his country was destroyed, and he was shot and killed in the chaos while fleeing to the Southern Dynasty.
Inside the Temple of the Holy Mother, a burly soldier, about thirty years old, stared blankly at the statue of Yi Jiang, the mother of Tang Shuyu and daughter of Taigong Lü Shang, holding a package in his hands.
"Brother Guo is thinking about his sister-in-law again."
Eight or nine people walked into the ancestral hall. Seeing his gentle expression, some of them couldn't help but make a joke.
"You scoundrel, you never say anything nice."
The soldier snapped out of his daze and laughed, "From Luoyang to here, I've been eating pancakes and pickles every day for a month. My mouth must be so bland. Your sister-in-law sent me a bottle of wine, and I even beat up a stray dog to feed you all, and you dare to make fun of me?"
As he spoke, he dragged a dead dog out from under the table.
The crowd cheered and rushed forward to help, fetching water, chopping firewood, skinning and gutting the animals, washing and cleaning them, skewering them with branches, and roasting them over the fire.
After a while of busy work, everyone sat down around the campfire.
The soldier opened the package, inside which was a neatly folded scarlet jacket with a slit at the back and a cotton-padded lining. This was commonly worn as autumn clothing in the army, and many people in the market also wore it under the pretense of military command, to the point that the imperial court issued an order to ban it.
The package also contained a leather wine bag, which looked to contain five or six jin (2.5-3 catties), about half a dou (250 ml) of wine, enough for ten people to have a small drink.
Seeing the padded jacket, another person said sourly, "My sister-in-law is so thoughtful; she brought me autumn and winter clothes in the middle of summer. It makes me want to find a wife too."
One of them immediately retorted, "That's because Brother Guo is a hero, and only he deserves his virtuous wife. Don't even think about it."
Another person said, "Your sister-in-law even brought us thermal underwear. We're not going to stay here for months to come, are we?"
Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.
Even high-ranking generals didn't know how long it would take to conquer the fortified city of Taiyuan, let alone a group of ordinary soldiers.
The ancestral hall was so quiet that you could hear the crackling of the burning firewood. Occasionally, a tongue of fire would rise and lick the slowly turning dog's body, turning from reddish-brown to golden, and then to charred brown, with oil seeping out and dripping, sizzling and releasing a fragrant aroma.
"Forget about it, let's not think about it anymore. Let's live for today and enjoy the moment."
The sergeant surnamed Guo changed the subject: "This dog originally wanted to find some corpses to eat, but it became our food instead."
He took a small piece of salt from his satchel, drew his short knife, cut off a hind leg, wiped the salt off, and offered it to the eldest man: "Brother Li, please go first."
Brother Li, who was about forty years old, reached out and took the food but didn't eat it. He waited until everyone had a piece before taking a bite and slowly saying, "Sister-in-law is beautiful and intelligent, and she understands things clearly. Maybe we really will have to spend the winter outside Taiyuan City."
"Brother Li, you once said that the art of war says: if you have ten times the enemy's strength, surround them; if you have five times their strength, attack them."
The soldier surnamed Guo was pouring wine for everyone from a leather bag when he heard this and stopped, asking a question.
"I've heard that the imperial court has mobilized 30,000 troops from various prefectures and garrisons in Hedong and Daibei, along with 20,000 of our imperial guards, 30,000 Hebei troops as reinforcements, and 20,000 Youyan troops as a detachment, bringing the total force to over 100,000. Meanwhile, the Taiyuan army numbers only 20,000. How could they possibly fail to capture this city?"
Brother Li, who held a high official rank, glanced at the entrance of the ancestral hall and, seeing that no one was there, said in a low voice, "Even if the Youyan army has not arrived due to the long distance, the Hebei troops should have arrived long ago. The fact that they are nowhere to be seen suggests that something has happened."
"You once served under General Shi and know his military skills. With Jinyang being a fortified city, it won't be easy to take it."
The sergeant surnamed Guo scratched his head: "It happened eight or nine years ago, who can remember it clearly? At that time, I joined the army first and wanted to become a captain based on my merits. Who knew that because I knew a few words, the commander would make me manage military records and documents. It was so frustrating." (Note 3)
Brother Li laughed and said, "Military matters are confidential and require contact with the generals; that's a way of promoting you."
"Alas, who would have thought that Commander Shi, who commands tens of thousands of soldiers in Hedong, would be branded a traitor with a single imperial decree, stripped of all his official positions and titles, making him even worse off than you and me?"
"The world is ever-changing; who knows?"
Brother Li took a big gulp of wine, swallowing back the rest of his sentence: "It's all about the victors and the vanquished. Didn't the current emperor rise to power through a similar experience?"
He didn't want to talk much about the current battle, so he tore off a piece of meat, chewed it slowly, and stuffed it into his mouth.