An incompetent commander brings disaster upon the entire army.

"I believe you like I believe the sky is falling!"

Zhang Gui and Zhang Shun, leading a mere three thousand men, were able to break through the encirclement of 170,000 Yuan troops and fight their way into Xiangyang—warriors unparalleled in the world. And yet you, Fan Wenhu, with a naval and land force of nearly 100,000, sat idle, wasting the army's strength to no avail.

And now, you have the audacity to call Zhang Gui a villain, accusing him of failing to meet the agreed-upon time and being a coward who feared battle? While you, Fan Wenhu, claim your courage is beyond compare, fighting back and forth and breaking through the encirclement twice?

Fine. Then where is your army of 100,000? Where are the imperial soldiers you supposedly brought back with you through the enemy lines? If you had even one or two thousand men left by your side, would you even cast a glance at my few hundred local militia?

You’ve clearly made up your mind to absorb my unit under Zhang Xun to establish a foothold. Then, by camping at Xijin Ferry and wielding your authority as the Deputy Commander of the Palace Command, you intend to round up the retreating imperial soldiers fleeing from the upper reaches of the Yangtze.

As luck would have it, the military provisions I am escorting are already destined to be handed over to you. The grain will feed your men, and the hemp cloth will serve as rewards. Once you manage to scrape together ten or twenty thousand men, you can claim you fought your way out at the cost of your life, and that you brought the imperial troops out with you.

By then, not only will you be blameless, but you will even be credited with a victory.

Pah! What a piece of work.

"Sigh, I wonder how Junshi is faring..." Wen Tianxiang was unfamiliar with military affairs, but he understood the court's internal politics all too well.

The habit of scrambling for merit and shifting blame had permeated the entire Southern Song Dynasty. Every time a Northern Expedition failed, it resulted in a massive uproar, and how many loyal ministers had been wrongly executed as a result?

Now that the relief effort for Xiangyang had failed, it would take the imperial court another year or two just to reorganize. It was hard to say if Xiangyang could hold out for that long. Furthermore, Lu Xiufu was on the front lines at Xiangyang. With this defeat, he might well be trapped in the fray. Such a noble life, such a generous soul—to be caught up in this disaster.

"Alas." Zhang Xun could hardly tell him that Lu Xiufu had retreated alongside Li Tingzhi and was surely safe.

What else could he do but sigh? Li Tingzhi was a grand commander with large, sturdy warships, and, more importantly, he was not on the front lines. Being "not on the front lines" meant he was likely ten or twenty kilometers away from the combat zone. The entire Xiangyang battlefield spanned a radius of hundreds of kilometers—a massive, large-scale conflict.

The total force deployed by both sides exceeded half a million. It took hours just for orders from the commander’s headquarters to reach the front lines. When the defeat at Longweizhou occurred and Ashu attacked across the Han River, Li Tingzhi had more than enough time to react—or, to put it bluntly, more than enough time to run.

If Fan Wenhu could flee, Li Tingzhi could certainly escape.

With the Yangtze as a single path, there was no fear of taking the wrong turn.

"After this defeat, I fear the morale within Xiangyang City has completely collapsed," Wen Tianxiang remarked, assuming Zhang Xun’s sighs were born of concern for the nation and his family.

"Let’s deal with this Palace Commander first." Zhang Xun did not want to continue this conversation; besides, his eldest sister and his niece and nephew were right there in the cabin.

If they kept talking and the women overheard, it would only cause unnecessary distress. After a disastrous rout of the Song army, the uncertainty of not knowing if their loved ones were alive would be agonizing.

The military officer who had run back returned with several documents. Fan Wenhu could not touch Zhang Xun's men, but Zhang Xun’s grain and hemp cloth were already meant to be handed over.

By invoking the authority of the Palace Command, he could legally and reasonably seize these supplies, and even Zhang Xun could not utter a word of protest.

Invoices were drawn up, and signatures were affixed. It was true; the Song Dynasty made extensive use of *huaya*—stylized personal signatures. Every emperor had their own unique *huaya*, all of which could be verified. It was only later that this practice became more common in Japan while gradually fading from view in China.

With the paperwork complete, the ships and the cargo now belonged to Fan Wenhu.

The heads of the first and second-tier households, who had been conscripted by the local government, were relieved. They had feared being sent to the front lines in Yingzhou to face certain death. Now, they were to hand over the goods at Runzhou and could return to Changzhou with their documents in hand. This trip hadn't even cost them much, and they hadn't even finished the dried rations in their pockets.

Lu Xiufu’s family was sent to Dantu City, but Wen Tianxiang and his family were not so easily moved. The entire upper reaches of the Yangtze were filled with retreating, broken soldiers. These men carried blades and had lost all discipline; it was difficult to distinguish them from bandits.

According to Zhang Xun's plan, two hundred archers would escort Wen Tianxiang to Jiujiang. Once he reached the south of Lake Kou, Wen Tianxiang had plenty of friends and relatives to turn to, which would greatly increase his safety. Moreover, local officials would be happy to host a man of his stature—a local top-ranking scholar.

But Wen Tianxiang refused to leave. He insisted on waiting for Lu Xiufu to return, refusing to head back to Jizhou, Jiangxi, until he confirmed that Lu Xiufu was unharmed.

It was understandable. Historically, whenever conflict arose between Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie, it was Lu Xiufu who acted as the mediator. At one point, Zhang Shijie even forbade Wen Tianxiang from paying homage to the last emperor of the Song, and it was Lu Xiufu who intervened. The two were peers who had passed the examinations in the same year, and both possessed such deep, unyielding devotion to their country that they naturally considered each other soulmates.

Very well. Zhang Xun also wanted to confirm Lu Xiufu’s whereabouts. News of the disastrous defeat at Xiangyang could not be hidden, and Zhang’s mother would certainly hear of it. She would inevitably worry about her son-in-law’s safety, which was a matter of great importance.

After waiting for two days, Li Tingzhi’s flagship, along with a continuous stream of ships and men from the Huai-East Military Command, began to arrive. However, many of the ships headed straight for Guazhou Ferry. As the saying goes, "Jingkou and Guazhou are but a stretch of water apart"—naturally, the opposite side of Jingkou was Guazhou.

The Huai-East forces had set out from Jiangdu, Yangzhou, and now that they were retreating, they were naturally looking to return to Jiangdu.

Seeing Li Tingzhi’s large warship, Zhang Xun immediately sent men to pursue it. Sure enough, he saw Lu Xiufu, his face ashen, along with a group of Huai-East officers. Su Liuyi, an eighth-generation descendant of Su Shi, had even been wounded and was being sent to Jiangdu for treatment.

There was panic—utter, frantic despair.

Lu Xiufu had been composed at first, but upon seeing Zhang Xun and Wen Tianxiang, he broke down in tears. An army of over a hundred thousand, fighting well, was undone because that beast Fan Wenhu had not only obstructed Li Tingzhi at every turn, but had also repeatedly defied military orders and refused to coordinate.

During the previous battle at Longweizhou, Zhang Gui had fought desperately for a day and a night, finally breaking through the encirclement. But instead of sending reinforcements, Fan Wenhu mistook the sound of birds in the distance for the Yuan army attacking and abandoned tens of thousands of men, fleeing back to Yingzhou overnight. When Ashu attacked Zhang Gui’s army across the Han River, the tens of thousands of Song soldiers, lacking any command, crashed into one another in chaos. Once they saw the Yuan banners, they collapsed entirely.

Because there were too few ships and too many people, and everyone fought to board, at least twenty or thirty thousand men were left behind, all becoming fodder for the Mongol blades. Even those who managed to escape refused to enter Yingzhou City, fleeing desperately toward the lower Yangtze.

Fan Wenhu had done the same, refusing to enter Yingzhou to set up defenses and completely abandoning Ezhou as well. He drove his soldiers and boatmen to row day and night, fleeing down the river. This instantly destroyed the morale of the Ezhou garrison; had Zhang Shijie not entered the city, Ezhou would have collapsed as well.

Now, the outer city of Fancheng had been breached by the Yuan forces, the morale of Xiangyang was shattered, and the fate of the nation was utterly ruined.