43. Fame Spreads Across the Upper and Lower Rivers

When a person has a wonderful dream, that dream tends to end rather quickly. Just a moment ago, Zhang Xun was thinking how fortunate it would be if his cheap father were still alive—he might even be qualified to vie for the positions of Vice-Councilor of State and Co-Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs. Yet, news suddenly arrived from outside that Marshal Wang, who had just been appointed as the Pacification and Military Commissioner of the Jinghu Routes, had incurred the wrath of Jia Sidao and was stripped of his titles and relieved of his post after serving for merely a few days.

He was now on his way to the Temporary Imperial Capital, and the question was whether they should organize the local gentry to go to the Boat-Ringing Pavilion to welcome him upon his arrival and bid him farewell upon his departure.

If the imperial court’s constant habit of issuing decrees in the morning and rescinding them by evening did not undergo a profound change, it would undoubtedly meet a disastrous end. Nonetheless, Wang Lixin was a figure they simply had to see off, for he was the former Prefect of Changzhou and could be considered a former local chief official. Both sentiment and reason dictated that they offer him some parting gifts and provisions.

Furthermore, the venerable Wang family was a renowned lineage of many generations. His paternal great-uncle, Wang Che, had been a metropolitan graduate during the Shaoxing era under Emperor Gaozong and subsequently served as prime minister during the Xiaozong reign. Much like Zhang Xun's own family, they belonged to the ruling class of the current dynasty and firmly stood within the faction of the hawk party favoring military resistance.

Having instructed the household steward to prepare parting funds and gifts, Zhang Xun naturally intended to pay his respects to this Marshal Wang.

The following day, accompanied by Li Rang and a gathering of Changzhou officials and gentry, Zhang Xun waited at the Boat-Ringing Pavilion and finally caught sight of Wang Lixin. The old man was truly aged, bearing enough senile plaques to be plainly visible, yet his gaze remained clear and unclouded, and his voice possessed a certain vigor.

Having governed frontier territories for many years, he naturally exuded an imposing air and authority.

"Have you heard?" Li Rang and Zhang Xun lingered somewhat toward the back, while the front rows were mostly occupied by older dignitaries.

"Heard what?"

"The reason why Academician Wang was dismissed." Although Wang Lixin had been relieved of his post as marshal, his honorary title as an Academician of the Duanming Hall remained untouched, serving as a distinct symbol of his status.

With this symbol intact, whenever an opportunity arose, Wang Lixin could immediately be reinstated as Vice-Councilor of State or Co-Director of the Bureau of Military Affairs. Of course, given his advanced age, such an opportunity was likely nonexistent.

"What happened?" Zhang Xun only knew that Wang Lixin had apparently provoked Jia Sidao and was consequently removed from office.

"The Academician is truly old now..." Li Rang remarked with a sigh.

As it turned out, upon rushing to Jiangling, Wang Lixin discovered that there were virtually no troops left to speak of in the Jinghu region. The former regular garrison forces had all been squandered in one fell swoop by Fan Wenhu. Lushi Kui over in Jiangxi had hardly any soldiers either, and the Huangzhou and Xingguo areas were left with nothing more than scattered remnants of defeated troops. It wasn't until one reached Anqing that Fan Wenhu’s remaining force of over twenty thousand routiers could be found.

Under such circumstances, let alone recapturing Xiangyang, even holding out desperately at Ezhou seemed practically impossible. What could be done then? Perhaps driven by the impulses characteristic of a scholar, Wang Lixin submitted a memorial to the Song court outlining a strategy in three parts: upper, middle, and lower.

The upper strategy was to recruit an army of half a million men, deploy defensive forces along the Yangtze River, and appoint capable ministers. The middle strategy was to release the detained emissary of the Yuan dynasty, sue the Yuan for peace, offer tributes of wealth and currency, and strive for two or three years of peace to regroup and prepare for war. The lower strategy was for everyone to pull coffins behind them, hold jade pi-disks in their mouths, and kneel at the city gates to surrender.

The upper strategy required money the court did not possess, the middle strategy touched upon Jia Sidao's most sensitive and vulnerable spot, and the lower strategy was pure mockery—though perhaps not entirely so. It was utter farce. Upon seeing this memorial, Jia Sidao flew into a rage, stripped Wang Lixin of all his posts, and left him with merely the equivalent rank and treatment of a vice-prime minister to retire and live out his old age.

Putting aside the strategy requiring funds—since anyone could see that the Song court at this juncture lacked the capacity to raise an army of half a million—the middle strategy warrants a brief mention, as Wang Lixin had inadvertently pierced a monstrous lie that Jia Sidao had propagated years ago.

In the year Kublai ascended the throne, he dispatched the state envoy Hao Jing southwards to inform Emperor Lizong, Zhao Yun, of the change of sovereignty in the Yuan court and various matters concerning the Ezhou peace negotiations.

What exactly was discussed and agreed upon during those Ezhou negotiations, aside from Jia Sidao himself, was probably known only to Kublai and Hao Jing. The extent of the unspeakable contents hidden within was truly impossible to fathom. In any case, Jia Sidao never dared to let Hao Jing meet Emperor Lizong, Zhao Yun, and had thus kept the man imprisoned in Yangzhou for some fourteen or fifteen years.

Now that this matter had been dragged back into the light by Wang Lixin, Jia Sidao was inevitably seized with terror; terror quickly morphed into fury, and consequently, Wang Lixin was stripped of every last office he held.

"So there was such a backstory to this." Zhang Xun nodded slightly, indicating his understanding.

In the current era, one of the primary arenas of public opinion was the student body. After all, among the students of this age, there were no truly destitute individuals. Regardless of what history books might claim about this or that person being impoverished in their youth, poverty still left them with the money to purchase writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.

The truly poor were those selling their sons and daughters outside the Guanghua Gate; those were real paupers. Anyone capable of studying and becoming a student at this time invariably belonged to at least a middle-class household of the first or second tier.

Where there is wealth, there is naturally leisure; where there is leisure, people engage in conversation, debate, and ultimately, griping.

Many major events ultimately originated from students stirring the pot—a phenomenon that seemed remarkably consistent across ancient and modern times, both domestically and abroad. Li Rang frequently mingled within student circles, and his intelligence gathering was often even more prompt than Zhang Xun's.

"The Jinghu region is left without a marshal once more." Li Rang’s remark carried a tone that hovered ambiguously between lamentation and speechlessness, leaving Zhang Xun unable to discern his true sentiment.

While the two were chatting idly, Wang Lixin had already been welcomed ashore. Coincidentally spotting Li Rang, the veteran official inquired whether he was the son of the Surveillance Commissioner Li. Naturally, he was; Li Zhu had just passed through Jiangling and by now was likely approaching Chongqing.

Li Rang hurriedly stepped forward to bow. Wang Lixin seemed to hold a great fondness for him, repeatedly praising his father Li Zhu for his boundless devotion to state affairs, traveling three thousand days and nights without a single moment of rest to assume his post. He expressed the hope that Li Rang would follow in his father's footsteps and remain utterly loyal and sincere in the service of the realm.

It appeared that Wang Lixin had indeed met with Li Zhu, likely conversing with him throughout an entire night. As the Prefect of Chongqing and the chief authority in the Kuixia region, Li Zhu may well have discussed plans for a counter-offensive against Xiangyang with Wang Lixin.

After chatting for a brief moment, Wang Lixin finally noticed Zhang Xun. Someone nearby immediately stepped forward to make the introduction: this was the son of the Councilor of State Zhang, and the younger brother of Imperial Drafter Zhang. Indeed, my father was the minister of defense, and my brother was the deputy director of the central general office. Zhang Xun also hastened to pay his respects to Wang Lixin, as they shared family ties of old friendship.

"When I was at Hukou, I heard that Zhang Erxing of Jinling served his mother with the utmost filial piety, personally carrying sheets of cotton paper for her, and that he displayed extraordinary valor in subduing a tiger and ridding the people of a menace. Might that person be you?" Upon seeing Zhang Xun, Wang Lixin immediately brought up these tales.

"Such a lowly and insignificant name of mine somehow reached the ears of the Academician," Zhang Xun replied hastily, cupping his hands.

"Jiang Guxin, Tong Wen, and Lü Shishan all spoke of you in the highest terms as the finest gentleman in Jiangdong. Seeing you today, you are truly no ordinary individual." Evidently, along the road leading to Hangzhou, Wang Lixin had also crossed paths with Jiang Wanli and Wen Tianxiang.

Needless to say, Wen Tianxiang must have praised Zhang Xun as a peerless prodigy rarely seen in heaven or earth, practically ranking him among the highest-tier loyal ministers and capable generals the world had ever known. This was hardly the first time Wen Tianxiang had engaged in such behavior; he had done precisely the same in Changzhou, and to think that upon returning to Jiangxi and meeting the former prime ministers Jiang Wanli and Wang Lixin, he was still doing it.

Why on earth was he campaigning so strenuously on my behalf?

In truth, Zhang Xun was somewhat baffled, for the two of them were neither relatives nor old acquaintances. Had Wen Tianxiang been praising Zhang Cheng, it would have made sense, as the two were fellow examination cohort peers. Yet Zhang Xun had never even taken the imperial examinations; he was merely a minor official who entered service through his family's hereditary privilege, which strictly speaking didn't even qualify him as a regular scholar-official.

Regardless of what Zhang Xun might be thinking, Wang Lixin launched into a torrent of extravagant praise, declaring flat out that Piling Commandery in Jiangdong was a prosperous sanctuary richly endowed with outstanding talents and spiritual energy.