Inside Ganlu Hall.
As for Zhao Guangyi's painstaking attempt to take Taiyuan, only to lose everything in one reckless rush for quick success, Li Shimin felt… indifferent.
One could only say that even if both men were "number two," there was still a very real gap between a Taizong and another Taizong.
And the Battle of the Gaoliang River had never really been a surprise anyway. Li Shimin still remembered a flippant doggerel from later generations.
Outside Xizhimen the killing cries rang loud…
Yet the donkey cart drifted off course.
The one thing that truly bothered him was how heavily varnished the Song History seemed to be.
How the elder brother died could not be written.
Why the throne was inherited could not be recorded.
Even a crushing defeat had to be glossed over in a few guarded lines.
Thinking back to how, just last month, he had instructed Chu Suiliang that the Xuanwu Gate Incident must be recorded in full and without distortion, Li Shimin could not help but shake his head.
"Fine rhetoric flourishes, yet those who truly hold the brush are few."
"Paper grows cheaper by the day, yet those who can write grow ever scarcer."
This was not aimed solely at the Northern Song. More than anything, it was the sigh of a Tang ruler, lamenting a dynasty that had inherited Tang's mantle and yet fallen so short.
The room fell quiet. Du Ruhui stepped forward and spoke.
"When Taishu Ji lost three brothers, he still wrote plainly, 'Cui Zhu murdered his ruler,' without changing his expression."
"Such blunt honesty earned a place in the histories. It came not only from the moral backbone of the Grand Historian's line, but also from scribes who carried their bamboo slips forward without counting the cost to their own lives."
"The Song has neither. Or perhaps those men were all killed."
Li Shimin understood him perfectly.
It was not that the Song lacked upright historians, nor that Zhao Guangyi was as accommodating as Cui Zhu's ruler had been.
If one wanted to be charitable, perhaps all the historians who dared write the truth had already been executed.
Li Shimin shook his head again. Dwelling on this was only asking for a headache. He set it aside and sighed instead.
"This Guo Jin… what a waste. Had he lived, the assault on Youzhou might have cost fewer good men."
Fang Xuanling did not even need to look up. The moment His Majesty saw a talented general, that old ailment of cherishing ability flared right up.
A man who excelled in both civil and military affairs, who won with fewer troops, who died unjustly. Every point hit the emperor square in the heart.
"If Guo Jin had been under the walls of Youzhou," Fang Xuanling said, shaking his head, "the Song army might have collapsed even faster."
He continued, "Later generations speak of internal strife in the Song army, citing the 'plot to enthrone Dezhao.' Judging from the later attempt to install Zhao Defang, Zhao Dezhao was likely the true son of Emperor Taizu."
"From this, one may infer that Zhao Guangyi withheld rewards and forced the army to assault Youzhou. The soldiers already resented him, and after prolonged failure, unrest was inevitable."
"If Guo Jin had been there, he would have been drawn into it. In the end, it might have sparked outright mutiny…"
As he spoke, Fang Xuanling shook his head repeatedly and fell silent. The waters of the Northern Song ran too deep. Even he could not see the bottom clearly.
Li Shimin nodded and returned his gaze to the light curtain. Yet the words "Wang Xiaobo's uprising" churned quietly in his mind.
Years of warfare had honed his instincts to a razor edge. Just those three words sent a chill through his body.
Later generations often spoke of "ancient inequality," implying that their own age was more equal.
And "equalizing wealth" sounded suspiciously aligned with that idea.
If someone like Wang Xiaobo truly succeeded in equalizing wealth, then what came next?
Li Shimin did not need to think. Three words leapt into his mind.
Equalizing status.
A faint cold crept up his spine and straight into his head. In that instant, Li Shimin felt he finally understood why later ages no longer had emperors.
But the light curtain did not give him time to think further. On it, Zhao Guangyi was clearly preparing to strike again.
[Lightscreen]
[From a historical perspective, the Battle of the Gaoliang River was the closest the Song dynasty ever came to recovering the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun. Its catastrophic defeat directly damaged the foundations and fate of the Northern Song.
Yet within the Song at the time, although the defeat at Youzhou was severe, Zhao Guangyi could still paper over it with his conquest of Northern Han. The impact was not immediately devastating.
What truly saddled the Northern Song with a lasting case of "Liao-phobia" was the Yongxi Northern Campaign.
Three years after the Gaoliang River disaster, Emperor Jingzong of Liao died, and his ten-year-old son ascended the throne.
His mother, Xiao Chuo, was honored as Empress Dowager and assumed regency.
Han Derang and Yelü Xiezhen became regent ministers, assisting in governance.
Under these circumstances, He Lingtu, the prefect of Xiongzhou, submitted a memorial claiming that the Khitan ruler was young, the state uncertain, and that the empress dowager was engaged in an improper relationship with Han Derang. He insisted that Khitan was drowning in curses and waiting for the royal army.
This memorial scratched Zhao Guangyi exactly where it itched. The fool was overjoyed and immediately began planning a northern expedition.
In truth, the entire Song court committed a textbook error of experience-based thinking when choosing the timing of the Yongxi campaign.
He Lingtu assumed that a woman ruling would inevitably involve seduction and corrupt power exchanges.
In reality, Empress Dowager Xiao was one of the rare female political figures of antiquity.
Less than two years after Jingzong's death, she had largely eliminated internal threats. The two regent ministers obeyed her commands, and even Yelü Xiuge, who once failed to catch a donkey cart at Gaoliang River, openly declared his support. At this point, Liao could be said to be unified in ruler and ministers alike.
And even if, for argument's sake, she truly had an improper relationship with Han Derang, Khitan customs would not have considered it scandalous in the slightest, let alone provoke widespread outrage.
Now look at the Song.
After his donkey cart escapade, Zhao Guangyi never again mentioned leading the army personally. Instead, he switched to armchair command.
Before the campaign even began, he devised a three-pronged northern offensive, meticulously dictating what each army was to do.
In simple terms, the army was split into three routes, using the north-south Taihang Mountains as a dividing line. The eastern army would draw Liao's main force on the Hebei plains. The central army would seize the mountain passes, then join the western army to sweep west of the Taihang, before reinforcing the eastern front.
Viewed today, this strategy reeks of spur-of-the-moment thinking. The Song's fundamental objective was always Youzhou in the east.
No matter what happened in the Taihang Mountains, victory or defeat there did nothing to stop Liao cavalry from chasing Song troops across the Hebei plains.
The result was predictable. The western and central armies won battle after battle. The eastern army lost again and again. Once the Liao finished sweeping the Song forces from the plains, the western and central routes, lacking strategic anchors, could neither hold nor advance, and ultimately collapsed.
The eastern army's defeat was not just about inferior cavalry. It also involved Zhao Guangyi's own… creative decisions.
The eastern army was led by Cao Bin, a veteran general of Zhao Kuangyin, who was deeply mistrusted under Zhao Guangyi.
Before the Yongxi campaign, a military supervisor in Zhenzhou falsely accused Cao Bin of currying favor with the troops. Zhao Guangyi promptly stripped him of his post as Grand Councillor.
A month later, the supervisor was convicted and Cao Bin's innocence was proven. Even so, Zhao Guangyi refused to restore his position.
The result was that as the central and western armies kept winning, Cao Bin, holding low rank but high responsibility, lacked the authority to restrain his subordinates. Forced into action, he was utterly smashed by the Liao.
According to the Records of Emperor Taizong, both the advance and retreat of the eastern army were issued by Zhao Guangyi himself. Cao Bin had effectively been hollowed out.
After the defeat, Zhao Guangyi pinned the blame squarely on Cao Bin, declaring that the loss was due to "the commanders' failure to follow established plans."
This maneuver inevitably brings to mind a certain transport unit commander who once parachuted orders onto a battlefield from afar.
Moreover, modern scholars conclude that after the failure of the Yongxi campaign, Emperor Taizong adopted a strategy of full contraction. He abandoned plans for northern expansion and also pulled back from the southwest.
With no external momentum, pacifist doctrines gradually took hold. Military commanders lost all influence. The emphasis on civil over military affairs became entrenched, marking the beginning of the Northern Song's long weakness.
During Emperor Renzong's reign, the civil official Yin Shu summarized the situation with these words:
"Even if the top-ranked scholar commands tens of millions of troops, recovers You and Ji, drives the barbarians into the distant sands, returns in triumph, and offers the spoils at the ancestral temple, his honor still cannot match that of the newly named zhuangyuan outside Donghua Gate."
Even a general who reclaimed Han and Tang lands and presented victory at the ancestral temple was less honored than a freshly announced examination champion. That was the weak Song.]
Weak Song.
Everything before had stirred either anger or sorrow in Zhao Kuangyin. But these two words alone made his body sway.
In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to charge into the light curtain and roar:
Only by expanding borders can a state stand. Without expansion, a state cannot survive. What use is a zhuangyuan then?
But it was only a fantasy. Even from his own perspective, he understood that when military power had declined to this point, those who wished to carve territory for the state faced impossible odds.
Either reform and struggle for survival, or wait for the Jin armies to arrive and watch the imperial avenue be paved with the bones of scholars.
"You were timid and spineless, lacking all martial spirit, and wasted my soldiers, grain, and wealth for nothing."
Hearing his elder brother's lament, Zhao Guangyi opened his mouth to explain, then found himself at a loss.
He did not want to admit that the Emperor Taizong who lost his nerve in one battle and his backbone in the next was himself.
Yet a voice inside told him that Zhao Guangyi doing these things was entirely predictable.
Otherwise, he could have joined the army during Later Zhou and assisted his brother on campaign. Instead, he chose the safety of Bianliang.
Going to war was not impossible. He simply did not want to.
Even so, his pride would not let him yield.
"In that case," he said, "that my wishes went unfulfilled should be cause for my elder brother's joy."
Zhao Kuangyin lifted his gaze and studied his brother.
"If I were to punch you dead right here, would those future generations in the light curtain know? Would their histories change?"
Zhao Guangyi was terrified. Seeing his brother clench his fist, he nearly scrambled away on hands and knees, every scrap of wit firing at once.
"Brother, Emperor Taizong of Tang also watches the light curtain, yet the chaos at the end of Tang has not changed."
"You yourself said that Liu Bei gained Guanzhong with the light curtain's help, yet the Records of the Three Kingdoms remain unchanged."
"From this, we can see that killing your brother would change nothing."
The argument was sound. Zhao Kuangyin was convinced. He lowered his fist and smiled.
"I was only joking. Why take it so seriously, good brother?"
Since the emperor said so, Zhao Guangyi cautiously returned.
Seeing that his brother truly let it go, he searched for something to say.
"I did not expect that Khitan empress to be so formidable."
"I judged their customs by our own, and in the end misjudged them."
Zhao Kuangyin shook his head lightly.
"I have heard those later generations say that the Histories of Liao and Jin are both counted among the Twenty-Four Histories, honored as orthodox."
Zhao Guangyi could only smile awkwardly, a hint of regret stirring within.
If Liao was also orthodox, why had the light curtain not gone to the Khitan instead? Why did it land him in this position?
In just two more years, he would have shed the title of Prince of Jin and ascended…
The thought flickered for an instant before Zhao Guangyi crushed it firmly.
If he wanted to live well, he could not harbor even the slightest covetous thought toward his brother, unless his brother truly could not escape his fatal fate two years hence.
As for himself, he had to survive these two years no matter what, to see how it all ended.
…
At the General's Residence in Chang'an of the Han, Zhang Fei vented bluntly.
"If what these Song ministers say is true, even if the Marquis of Champions returned to life, he would still rank below a zhuangyuan?"
Pang Tong, never afraid of trouble, grinned.
"Brother Yi, forget the Marquis of Champions. Even if all of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing's achievements belonged to one man, in the Song he would still have to listen to a zhuangyuan, and fight wars by remote control from the emperor."
"Win, and it's the emperor's brilliance. Lose, and you failed to follow the plan."
"Plans? Even the Marquis of Huaiyin never claimed certainty before battle!"
Zhang Fei spat.
"A ruler who wet himself in one battle and murdered his brother still thinks he can plan. No wonder the Song fell."
"Can a zhuangyuan stand against a thousand elite soldiers?"
Zhuge Liang watched Zhang Fei rant with a gentle smile. It was not surprising.
Whether it was the Han of their own time, the later ages in the light curtain, or early Tang, all honored military achievement as the path to expanding borders.
Zhang Fei most of all. He dreamed of frontier conquests, of entering the Martial Temple, of leaving his name carved among the stars and moon for future generations.
To see such achievements treated with contempt, how could he not rage?
Pang Tong added fuel to the fire.
"Only pity that there is no Song dynasty zhuangyuan here for Brother Yi to spar with."
This time Zhang Fei hesitated and shook his head.
"They're my descendants too. I get it. It's not the zhuangyuan's fault."
"It's that Zhao Guangyi is a coward with no guts."
The hall erupted in laughter. Liu Bei shook his head and concluded.
"When military power grows unchecked, there is the disaster of Tang's regional warlords. But suppressing the military with civil authority leads to commanders who know nothing of war and disaster in every battle, and even the fall of the state."
"This must be taken as a warning."
Zhuge Liang, Pang Tong, and the others all nodded. They were now using this overturned cart as a lesson for their own road ahead.
Zhang Fei loudly undercut the mood.
"Brother, don't think so far ahead. Once we wipe out Cao the traitor, let me open the Western Regions, take Jiaozhou, seize the Korean Peninsula, and go have a look at Wa."
"I, Zhang Fei, will definitely retire and lay down my armor then, so I won't make things hard for you."
Liu Bei laughed helplessly. Ma Chao's eyes shone with the same longing.
Who could resist achievements that would echo through a thousand autumns?
…
"This Song emperor truly understands nothing. How could he not lose, commanding on the brink of battle like this?"
"If I had restrained Yaoshi like that, forget Tuyuhun. Jieli would still be strutting about today."
Li Shimin vented just as loudly, prompting Li Jing to nod in agreement.
Perhaps because he had only been emperor for five years, the memory of charging on horseback still weighed as heavily on him as the throne itself.
Empress Zhangsun smiled and asked, "If Your Majesty were in the Song emperor's place, commanding such generals…"
Li Shimin answered without hesitation.
"I would do as Zhao Kuangyin did. Take the throne, sweep away all enemies, and unite the realm."
Empress Zhangsun shook her head.
"And that may be exactly why Zhao Guangyi could never trust his generals."