Chapter 16: The Great Building Will Collapse, Alone Supporting It (Three)

  "Zhou De-yuan, this old scoundrel, since becoming the Imperial Envoy and being enfeoffed as Duke of Zhao, has been treating us eunuchs with disdain, scrutinizing every detail. Now he's suffered a great defeat in Shu, damaging our Later Tang elite army. I'll go gather all the other eunuchs and we'll make sure to impeach him severely, so that His Majesty will strip him of his title as Duke of Zhao!" Ma Shao-hong finally thought of a sinister plan, deciding to mobilize all of Zhou De-yuan's enemies to trample him mercilessly, ensuring he would never be able to recover.

  Three days later, Zhou Deyu, who had rushed hundreds of miles to arrive at the same time, also arrived in Luoyang, the capital city, with a handwritten memorial from Li Jiqiu, the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary army against Shu.

  After Zhou Deyu rested for a moment due to exhaustion from consecutive nights of rushing about, a small eunuch arrived from the palace, bringing the latest military news.

  In recent days, Zhang Juhan has been stationed in the central government and does not dare to slack off. He and Zhou Deyan can be said to have an alliance relationship, and Zhou Deyan has promoted him. As soon as Li Jiqiu's memorial arrived at the Imperial Secretariat, Zhang Juhan personally copied a copy and handed it over to his trusted eunuch to send out of the palace.

  This time Li Ji's memorial was more detailed than his previous urgent military report.

  Li Jiqian stated in his memorial that since the Later Tang's 60,000-strong army, referred to as a 100,000-strong army, entered Shu, all the military prefectures they reached surrendered at the mere display of the Later Tang army's might, offering them wine and grain. When they reached Xingzhou, the defending general surrendered and led his troops in repairing the road through Jianmen Pass to help the Tang army cross Jianmen Pass. They defeated the Shu army at Sanquan and then entered Chengdu via Wenzhou.

  At this point, the Later Tang army divided into two routes. One route was led by Li Jichou, attacking Mianzhou, and the other route was led by Zhou Deyan, taking Zizhou. Unexpectedly, Li Jichou's large army was heavily defeated and besieged by the Shu kingdom's army under the city of Mianzhou. When Zhou Deyan heard that King Wei Li Jichou's army had been defeated, he was shocked and rushed to reinforce him overnight. However, halfway through, he was ambushed by the enemy on a small path, and arrows and rocks fell down. The commander of his personal guard, Zhou Wenshuang, fought fiercely but died, and Zhou Deyan himself was hit by five arrows and died of his injuries.

  Li Jiqian took advantage of the enemy's ambush against Zhou Deyan's army, and despite opposition from many people, he bypassed Mianyang and personally led a large army of 20,000 to launch a surprise attack on Chengdu, arriving under the city walls in three days.

  Only the old, weak, sick and disabled are left in the city, unable to withstand a single battle.

  The King of Shu, Wang Yan, sent a memorial requesting surrender.

  The next day, Wang Yan rode a bamboo sedan chair to Shengxian Bridge, wearing plain clothes and leading a sheep. He had a rope tied around his neck, was barefoot, held a jade tablet in his mouth, and carried a wooden yoke on his back. The officials wore mourning attire and walked barefoot behind him.

  At this time, Li Jiqian only knew that the general who led the Shu army to fight was Wang Zongliang, the elder brother of the King of Shu. He had a good military strategy, and previously the Shu army either suffered a great defeat or surrendered at the sight of the enemy. The wind and dust were blowing in the court of Shu, and a group of civil and military officials were making speeches asking for surrender.

  When Wang Zongliang, the commander of Shu's cavalry, led 3,000 soldiers out of Mianyang, he captured nearly 10,000 defeated Shu soldiers after the battle of Sanquan. Using the strategy of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao", he achieved a remarkable feat, killing Zhou Deyan and his son, and the Later Tang's eastern army was greatly defeated.

  After the defeat of the Later Tang's eastern route army, Wang Zongliang heard that the main force of the Later Tang had entered Chengdu and that the ruler of Shu, Wang Yan, had surrendered. He wept bitterly. Then he rallied his troops and fought battles in Suizhou, Hezhou and other places, occupying Dongchuan.

  Although the Later Tang suffered heavy casualties of 20,000 troops in this war, it still captured Chengdu, destroyed the Former Shu regime, and occupied the western Sichuan region, which was the essence of Shu Kingdom, basically achieving its pre-war goal.

  After this battle, Li Tinggui and Wang Zongliang both achieved great merits, one of them annihilated the country, and the other defeated and killed Zhou Deyan, the commander-in-chief of the Later Tang Dynasty, making a big name for himself and being praised as a famous general of his time.

  These past few days, the Zhao State Duke's estate was like being placed in an ice cellar at minus dozens of degrees, and also as if sitting on the mouth of a volcano that is about to erupt.

  The people in the mansion were very cautious, each one moving lightly and quickly, afraid of being blamed by their master. At this time, making a small mistake could lead to being beaten to death.

  In the past few days, Zhao Guo Gong's wife, Madame Lü, had been somewhat gaunt and frail. However, after reading Zhang Juhan's delivered memorial from Li Jixing today, she learned that her own son, Zhou Wenshuang, had also died in battle. Who would have thought that both her husband and son would perish? The old lady could no longer withstand this blow and fainted.

  At this time everyone was in a state of panic, and Zhou Wenbo stood up at this moment.

  "What's all the fuss about? Xiahe Autumn Moon, you help Mother rest, De Shu, hurry and invite Doctor Zhang!"

  Xia He and Qiu Yue were the old lady's personal maidservants, while Zhou De was the chief steward of the Zhao Guo Gong Fu, also standing in attendance in the hall.

  Zhou Deyan and Zhou Wenyuan, father and son, died in battle. Zhou Jinkang's life or death was unknown. His young nephew, Zhou Jinshan, was only two years old. Madame Lü, the Duchess, fainted. For a time, the vast estate of the Duke's mansion had only one person left to take charge - Zhou Wenbo.

  At this time, if he doesn't stand up and take on this heavy burden, no one else will be able to bear it.

  Li Ji's memorial was submitted, and the Zhao Guo Gong Mansion is in danger!

  The Later Tang army entered Shu, with Li Jitao as the nominal commander-in-chief and Zhou Deyan as the actual commander. However, after this battle, Li Jitao, who was originally idle, led the Western Route Army to victory, capturing Chengdu, pacifying Xichuan, and destroying Former Shu.

  The seasoned Zhou Dejian ended up dying in battle while going to rescue Li Jiqian, who was in a precarious situation. Prior to this, the Shu state's army had been defeated and was no longer able to withstand even a single blow, which made Zhou Dejian somewhat complacent. However, if not for Zhou Dejian having received intelligence that the Shu state only had a few thousand soldiers left, he would not have rashly divided his troops.

  Who would have thought that among the mediocre generals of Shu, a brilliant general like Wang Zongliang would emerge? With his clever strategy of "besieging Wei to rescue Zhao", combined with the difficult terrain and complex geography of Shu, he achieved a great victory over the Eastern Route Army. For Wang Zongliang, it was even more fortunate that Zhou father and son died in battle, which meant that the Eastern Route Army was left without a leader, and those who had managed to escape death would surely disperse.

  Thus, Li Jiyeo took charge of Chengdu, gathered scattered troops, and as time went on, the command of tens of thousands of soldiers would inevitably fall to Li Jiyeo. And Zhou Deyan, who led the defeat of tens of thousands of soldiers, had already died in battle, and the emperor's anger could only be directed at the Zhao Guogong Mansion...

  Zhou Wenbo had originally pinned his hopes on his elder brother Zhou Wenshu, who had been in the military for twenty years, to continue leading the army. As long as he still had an army of his own, he was not afraid that there would be no chance to rise again.

  However, Zhou Wenyuan died in battle this time, and the Zhao Guo Gongfu directly lost all the military power under its control. It is likely that his nephew Zhou Jinkang, who had been a participant for only two years, even if he was lucky enough not to die, would not have the prestige and ability to gather the remaining troops.

  The Zhao Guo Gong Fu, having lost all its troops and the pillar of the family, Zhou Dewei, was like a toothless tiger. Even if Emperor Li Cunxu did not want to punish them, the enemies that Zhou Dewei had offended would swarm in and strike at the Zhao Guo Gong Fu with frenzy, trying to completely destroy the house of the most powerful minister of the Later Tang Dynasty.

  What should I do now? Zhou Wenbo fell into deep thought.