63. Liu Zheng Dies Suddenly, To the Court's Delight

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Not really, Zhang Xun had assumed Zhao Huai would understand this.

Most of these five thousand soldiers came from Huainan and eastern Zhejiang, with only a very small number from Jinghu. The troops from Jinghu and Huainan were primarily refugees who had fled southward from the Central Plains of the north. Consequently, soldiering was their profession, and they lacked a distinct sense of native place or hometown allegiance. Naturally, even when Song dynasty commanders led them into battles everywhere, they held no major grievances.

So long as the pay arrived on time, they possessed combat effectiveness. If the pay arrived on time and they were simultaneously led back to reconquer Henan and Shandong, their combat effectiveness would reach even greater heights.

Yet what was to be done with the troops from eastern Zhejiang? Especially the several hundred imperial guard soldiers whose families resided within and outside the city of Hangzhou. Now that their men had reached Changzhou, a journey to Hangzhou by water would take only two or three days under favorable conditions.

They would never be willing to remain in Changzhou to fight under Zhang Xun's command, nor would they exert themselves to defend Changzhou to the death.

Defending Hangzhou to the death might have been somewhat plausible, given that it was their homeland, where their parents, wives, and children lived.

These earnest words were spoken, and Zhao Huai had presumably only thought of seizing control of the army before his arrival, failing to consider this aspect. He therefore immediately asked Zhang Xun how many of the five thousand men were soldiers from eastern Zhejiang.

A muster was currently underway below, and after re-registering their military status, the exact number would be known in another day. Hearing this, Zhao Huai stated that he would stay in Changzhou for an extra day and personally step forward to pacify the eastern Zhejiang troops; if they could be persuaded to stay, they would stay, and if they could not, nothing more could be done.

When the muster was completed the following day, it turned out that seven or eight hundred men were indeed from eastern Zhejiang, and virtually none of them were willing to remain in Changzhou. All longed to hurry back to Hangzhou to reunite with their parents, wives, and children. After all, having narrowly escaped the bloody meat grinder of Ezhou through every conceivable hardship, their sole objective in rushing back was to return to their native land.

In a sense, the eastern Zhejiang troops had completely lost their will to fight.

The other soldiers, having no hometowns to return to, might still be rallied to continue fighting. The eastern Zhejiang troops could not, at least not at this moment. Allowing them to return home for a year or two of reunion, followed by generous pay incentives, might make it possible.

Very well, Zhao Huai took those seven or eight hundred eastern Zhejiang soldiers away. Additionally, he submitted a memorial to the imperial court stating that there were seven or eight hundred imperial guard soldiers stationed in Changzhou whom the court could dispatch.

As for the remaining four thousand-plus men, their names and identities were altered, and they were completely transferred onto the military roster of western Zhejiang.

Since those dozen or so officers had already drawn away the mid-level and junior officers of the army, as for the common soldiers, the court would provide funds, and they could simply be left to continue recruiting.

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This was truly a massive embezzlement of "state assets."

However, having embezzled such a vast sum, the troops were not even left under Zhang Xun's command. Primarily because Zhang Xun did not know how to lead them, they had to be handed over to Ma Yong, split into northern and southern garrison camps, to continue militia training.

Furthermore, a formal dispatch had to be sent to Hangzhou to nudge our esteemed elder brother-in-law, Lu Xiufu. Unwilling though he was to oversee the Imperial Arsenal, he had taken charge of it nonetheless. Since matters had reached this point, acting on the principle of making the utmost use of everything, he was requested to manufacture military equipment first and supply it to the Changzhou garrison.

The administrative procedures were a minor affair, costing a mere few thousand guan. If the armor and weapons for these four thousand-plus men could be completely replenished at that price, it would be an absolute bargain.

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At this time, Yangzhou had not yet encountered Liu Zheng's offensive. However, Sizhou, located north of Yangzhou, had already issued a state of emergency. Why attack Sizhou? Because Sizhou was the connection point between the Bian River and the Huai River.

During the Northern Song dynasty, the Bian River had suffered from some degree of siltation, but after the mid-Southern Song dynasty, the global climate experienced a brief period of minor warming. It was precisely during this period that the previously harsh and desolate steppes transformed into a thriving expanse.

This gave rise to the Mongol Empire; an unprecedentedly abundant population and vast herds of cattle and horses laid the foundation for the expansion of the Mongol Empire. One must admit that this was a "gift of nature" for them.

Without this wave of minor warming, it would have been utterly impossible to forge such a massive empire on the grasslands. Naturally, the previously silted Bian River, owing to the humid climate of the mid-to-late Southern Song, recovered from its usual depth of only 0.5 meters to around 1 meter. This made it possible to transport military grain and equipment to Shaanxi and Henan via the Bian River.

If Liu Zheng wished to connect the water transport route of the Bian River, the Huai River, and the Grand Canal, he had no choice but to launch a fierce assault on Sizhou.

Just as he was leading his forces in a fierce offensive, news arrived that the reinforcement army had captured Ezhou, defeated one hundred thousand Song troops, and forced over thirty thousand men including Gao Da to surrender. The Yuan army had already entered the Yangtze River waterway and gained control of Xiangyang and Ezhou, the two most crucial garrisons on the upper river.

Upon hearing this news, Liu Zheng was filled with great grief and indignation. The strategic plan of the entire Yuan court regarding the Southern Song had actually been formulated entirely upon Liu Zheng's own proposals. Logically speaking, he was the most suitable person to execute the southward attack on the Song dynasty, yet Kublai Khan did not completely trust him.

Aside from the factor of his being a surrendered general, this was also related to his identity as a Han Chinese. Within the Yuan court, Liu Zheng was a person lacking powerful "connections and backing." Whether among the Mongol nobility or the Han military warlords of the northern clans, they all possessed deep-rooted "connections" within Kublai Khan's regime.

To seize a merit as vast as the destruction of the Song? Liu Zheng was, in truth, harboring pipe dreams.

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He had not understood this previously, but once Bayan kicked him away and drove him south to Huainan, he finally grasped the reality to some extent. By the time Ezhou was captured, how could he possibly understand nothing?

That very night, Liu Zheng lamented with profound sorrow: "The supreme commander halted me, leaving me only to let others reap the fruits of success. Those who excel at initiating do not necessarily excel at completing. It is true indeed."

Thereafter, Liu Zheng drank heavily throughout the entire night. When he arose the next day for a look, he had already died suddenly of apoplexy at the age of sixty-three.

Sizhou, which had previously been in peril, immediately saw the siege lifted. The various Mongol and Han generals carried Liu Zheng's remains and retreated all the way to Zhengyang—namely, the region of future Huoqiu, Shou County, and Yingshang where they camped. This location was the river mouth where the Ying River emptied into the Huai River, considered an area controlled by the Yuan court, relatively safe, and close to Xiangyang, the operational base for the conquest of the Song.

Not only was it easy to receive supplies from Henan and Hebei, but it was also easier to receive military orders from the Xiangyang headquarters. Who would command this flanking force from then on and how they would conduct operations required the military commands of Bayan or Kublai Khan.

Upon learning of Liu Zheng's sudden death, Zhang Xun was overjoyed. If Liu Zheng had still possessed the thirty thousand soldiers and civilians of Luzhou as his capital asset, he would have become a powerful Han warlord of the Yuan court.

Yet he had failed to bring those thirty-odd thousand people along, having brought away only a tiny fraction of his trusted personal troops. For the Mongols, before capturing Xiangyang and possessing a naval force, Liu Zheng was a priceless treasure. Now that Lü Wenhuan was also theirs, Liu Zheng was of no further use whatsoever.

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