Chapter Seventy: The Dark Invitation

  In the seventh year of Xuanhe in the Great Song Dynasty, September, the court and the people of the Great Song were still immersed in the joy of recovering Yan Yun Liu Zhou. The dark clouds on the northern border were almost unnoticed, the emperor was busy cultivating on one side and preparing for the suburban ritual on the other, the whole country was joyful and harmonious. But this harmonious atmosphere was disrupted by a memorial.

  This memorial was written by the supervising censor Zhang Suo. Originally, as a censor, it was normal to impeach officials, inspect prefectures and counties, and submit memorials criticizing them. Impeaching officials was an everyday occurrence. Furthermore, during the Song dynasty, the political environment was relatively relaxed, and one would not be punished for speaking out, so censors could freely speak out on matters they had heard about. Therefore, which day did the court not receive a memorial impeaching civil or military officials?

  It's strange that Zhang Yu Shi's memorial impeached none other than Guo Yao Shi, the Inspector of the Imperial Guards, Military Governor of Wu Tai Army, and Concurrent Administrator of Yan Shan Prefecture. He accused Guo Yao Shi of being arrogant and domineering due to his imperial favor, repeatedly humiliating his superior, Wang An Zhong, the Magistrate of Yan Shan Prefecture. Furthermore, he sent his subordinates into the interior to engage in commerce and accumulate wealth. More importantly, it was said that Guo Yao Shi gathered craftsmen from the former Liao Empire to manufacture various precious items to curry favor with the powerful officials at court, which raised suspicions about his intentions.

  After this memorial was submitted, it was suppressed by Prime Minister Bai Shiming. It was thought that the censor would impeach and go through the motions, but who knew that the officials would all gang up on Guo Shi like a cannon? One after another, the memorials were submitted to the Politburo, with each one more shocking than the last. When Bai Shiming saw that things were not going well, and added to this was Cai You's group of people who somehow got wind of the news, they stirred up trouble and it couldn't be suppressed anymore, until it reached Emperor Taizong.

  When Zhao Ji first saw the memorial, he didn't take it seriously, but Zhang and others continued to present their case. Emperor Dao was beginning to have some doubts, just then, Cai You, the imperial envoy, rushed forward to denounce Guo Shi for harboring evil intentions, with evidence from Wang Anzhong, the former prefect of Yanshan and current prefect of Daming and Beijing's garrison commander. In his memorial, Wang Anzhong tearfully recounted how Guo Shi had bullied him when he was in Yanshan Prefecture, and also said that the imperial court's favoritism towards Guo Shi had led to military officials being oppressed by civil officials.

  Apart from that, Zhao Ji could ignore it, but the sentence "the military officials suppressed the civil officials" made him somewhat shocked. Since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, there has been a basic national policy of promoting literature and suppressing martial arts, with literature controlling martial arts. If the military officers were to suppress the civil officials, how would that be acceptable? He was thinking about whether or not to send someone to ask Guo Shi what he was doing. Cai Que came out and represented his father in a memorial to the imperial court, saying that Guo Shi had surrendered two states to Song and had made military achievements, and was a pillar of the dynasty, a fierce tiger given by heaven to the emperor. One should not listen to slander and alienate loyal ministers.

  This matter has not yet been settled, and Hebei has reported again that Zhang Di, a bandit in Mizhou, has gathered tens of thousands of people, attacking counties and prefectures, with an unstoppable momentum. Please request the imperial court to quickly dispatch troops to eliminate them, lest it become a major disaster. Zhao Ji was flustered and hastily ordered the Secretariat to dispatch troops to suppress the bandits. Cai You, although serving as the Secretariat Envoy, spent his days idling around the palace, telling ghost stories and performing lewd dances, completely ignoring the affairs of the Secretariat, leaving Xu Shao, the signing official in charge of Secretariat affairs, to take responsibility.

  The Tokyo court was in an uproar, but Xu Wei rushed back to Daming on horseback. A storm was brewing, and his small boat was not enough to withstand it. The plan had already been discussed with He Guan in the imperial court. What he needed to do now was to take He Guan's handwritten military order to the Daming Temple to receive equipment, recruit soldiers and horses, and train them as soon as possible.

  Upon arrival at the Daming Prefecture, Xu Wei first found his fourth brother Xu Sheng and Zheng Jianya, together they paid respects to the newly appointed prefect of Daming and Beijing's garrison commander Wang Anzhong. As it happened, Prefect Wang had long been under the patronage of Cai Yao, so he knew who Xu Wei was, therefore he opened up his convenient door, issued a document notifying the Daming Institute, and allocated equipment to Xu Wei. The total included 3,500 sets of armor for infantrymen, over 2,000 long and short weapons, over 1,000 bows of various types, 30,000 arrows, and other military supplies in large quantities. Naturally, he also ordered Xu Sheng to lead soldiers to escort the transport, as well as the reward money for suppressing bandits in Shandong and the military rations and fodder for the Jingwei camp, all to be sent to Xiatian.

  This was September 22nd, with dense clouds and a bleak autumn wind. However, on the vast wheat field of Xu's village, it was bustling with activity. Over two thousand soldiers were divided into several formations, diligently practicing their drills. The autumn harvest had already ended, and the bored village women gathered at the edge of the field to watch the commotion. Xu Taigong wore a short jacket, neat and tidy, holding a crescent moon knife standing at the edge of the field, his stern gaze sweeping across the entire field, supervising the soldiers' drills.

  These two thousand soldiers were all carefully selected by Xu Wei, with strong physiques and mostly from farming families. The main training projects were hand-to-hand combat and formation drills. This was quite challenging as most of the soldiers were illiterate, some couldn't even tell left from right. When trying to form a line, after a military order, most of the soldiers would scatter around like headless flies. Xu Taigong's solution was simple: beat them! If they didn't understand, beat them until they remembered! After less than ten days, the entire Jingui camp tightened up, practicing during the day and reading military rules at night, with no one daring to slack off.

  "Yang Yan! Come here!" Xu Taigong shouted, and Yang Yan, who was leading the soldiers to practice the formation according to Taigong's method, hurried over with a small run, standing upright in front of Taigong, not even daring to breathe heavily.

  "What are you doing! It's been almost ten days! Your subordinates can't even tell left from right!" Xu Wei shouted in a stern voice, the unique tone of a military man sending chills down Yang Yan's spine.

  "These fellows are really too stupid, they've been told countless times but still can't remember! Taigong, I'm at my wit's end..." Yang Yan was about to scold.

  "Nonsense! The troops are not working hard, it's your laziness as the commander-in-chief! Take him away and give him twenty military lashes!" Xu Taigong didn't hesitate, and a row of men holding big sticks swarmed forward from behind, dragging Yang Yan to be beaten.

  As soon as the soldiers under Yang's command saw him, they rushed over to plead for him. It wasn't that Yang had won their hearts, but rather the soldiers knew clearly that Yang was a living Yama! If he got beaten today, he would take it out on us with interest!

  Xu Taigong was initially unwilling, but the soldiers begged urgently and he finally agreed, saying: "The law does not blame the masses, and remember these twenty military clubs! Give you one more day, when the time comes, as long as there is still one person who can't tell left from right, it's all up to you!"

  Everyone nodded in agreement, and Yang Yan was let go, muttering to himself. We're just a local militia, why are you holding us to the same standards as the Western Army? We're not going to fight against the Tanguts anyway.

  "Not satisfied?" Xu Taigong saw through Yang Yan's mind at a glance and asked loudly.

  Lian Cheng didn't dare, he called Qu Dao: "Taigong, our equipment is a bit too shabby. Take a look, most of them are just wooden swords, and there are even hunting spears and clubs. Even if we train well, with these things..."

  "What do you know? The strength of an army lies in its morale! To die without regret, to dare to advance in the face of danger! Equipment? I'll give you the best equipment right now, go fight the Jurchen people, can you win?" Xu Taigong sneered.

  Jurchen people? Am I wrong, the Khitan people are finished, and the Jurchen people are on our side. Besides, the responsibility of our Xiangyong camp is to pacify the Suzhou area, eliminate bandits, and with our current strength, it's enough.

  Suddenly, a crowd of onlookers appeared, and it turned out that a convoy had arrived at the west end of the village. Could it be that Ninth Brother had returned? Upon closer inspection, it was indeed Xu Si and Xu Jiu, the two brothers, riding tall horses and leading the convoy towards the wheat field.

  "Lao Jiu, your Jingwei Camp has already taken shape." Xu Sheng said with a smile to his younger brother as he looked at the soldiers training hard on the wheat field.

  Xu Wei was overjoyed, and in just over ten days, the troops had already begun to take shape. At least they looked more spirited than when he first brought them back to Hebei, it seemed that the old man had not slacked off. The convoy arrived at the wheat field, and the two brothers first paid their respects to their father. Xu Taigong responded with a single word, then continued to focus on training.

  Xu Wei didn't intervene, and together with his brother, he directed the soldiers to unload the equipment from the car. The soldiers who were training in the arena had been expecting the return of their commander, and when they saw that there was actually equipment on the car, how could they still have the heart to train? They looked at each other, armor, bows and arrows, long knives and big guns, and some instruments that couldn't be named! Had Commander Xu made a fortune this time?

  "Law enforcement officers!" Xu Taigong shouted loudly as he saw that the soldiers were not taking their training seriously.

  "Yes!" Eight soldiers standing behind him, holding large clubs, responded in unison.

  Without waiting for his order, the soldiers immediately withdrew their gaze and resumed training. Xu Taigong turned around, saw the equipment scattered all over the ground, and was shocked - these equipment were enough to fully equip the entire Jingwei Camp! In fact, the Jingwei Camp had long been severely overstaffed. According to the imperial military system, 100 men formed a "du", five "du" formed a "ying", and five "ying" formed a "jun". The Jingwei Camp under Xu Wei already had more than 2,700 people, exceeding the quota of a "jun". Now that they had these imperial-standard equipment, if they were strictly trained, they would surely become an elite force in no time!

  The sun sets in the west, and over 2,000 soldiers are exhausted from their training. After a single command to cease training, they gather together in formation. Xu Taigong takes roll call and counts 2,763 people. He says to Xu Wei, "I'm handing them over to you." Having said that, he puts down his spear and picks up his cane, heading home on his own.

  Xu Wei did not say a word, and the silver was all that mattered. He immediately ordered people to distribute military rations and reward money. In the battle of Shandong, the Jingwei camp had many achievements. If they strictly followed the system, the Xiangyong camp would have been rewarded with hundreds of heads, 6,000 prisoners, not counting those who drowned in the lake. The reward money should be a lot! However, the court only counted the number of heads, and did not count those who drowned in the lake or were handed over to the Jinan prefect Zhang Shuye as prisoners, nor did they count those who were recruited into the Jingwei camp later. The reason was simple: using the Jingwei camp would save money! However, it is estimated that even they themselves felt a little guilty, so they allocated an additional 2,000 taels of silver to reward Xu Wei's soldiers.

  Even so, the Jingwei camp was still in a state of jubilation. Those who had received the reward money for beheading enemies were proudly displaying their wealth, while those who hadn't received any looked on with envy, secretly vowing that next time there was a battle, they would also return with some beheaded enemies to collect their reward!