Jinting Han people

Chapter 737 Jiangzhou is available

When Liu Xian arrived in Wuchang by boat, Wang Dun had already been waiting there with his Jiangzhou troops for quite some time.

In the past two years, Liu Xian appointed Wang Dun as the military commander of Jiangzhou, which actually caused controversy in the court. After all, Wang Dun had voluntarily defected from the Jin people and even betrayed his own relatives, so no one in the court or the public did not doubt his loyalty.

Wang Dun's immense political influence stemmed from his position as both the Imperial Son-in-Law and the head of the Langya Wang clan, a far cry from Du Tao's humble origins and lack of political power. Furthermore, his appointment as Governor of Jiangzhou was a pre-arranged condition with the Emperor, and the two were longtime friends. Therefore, even those dissatisfied with him could only refrain from expressing their discontent. However, if Wang Dun were to cause any trouble, he would undoubtedly face numerous impeachments.

Wang Dun was fully aware of this. He knew his identity and position were extremely sensitive, and that many eyes were secretly watching him. Therefore, for the two years after switching sides, Wang Dun kept a low profile and did almost nothing out of line. He spared no effort in fulfilling all the court's decrees, and for any cases he felt were too sensitive to decide, he would first consult with his colleagues before reporting to the court, leaving no room for criticism.

Even this year, Wang Dun has shown a marked improvement in his previously extravagant scholarly lifestyle. He not only simplifies his eating, clothing, and daily necessities but also sets an example by personally cultivating bean sprouts in his own public fields. This has led to an improvement in the official atmosphere in Jiangzhou. While it cannot be said that the extravagance that Liu Xian previously abhorred has been completely eradicated, at least the atmosphere of idle talk and inaction is far less prevalent than before.

Liu Xian met Wang Dun again at Lin Diaotai in Wuchang.

Lin Diao Tai was a high platform built by Sun Quan when he declared himself king and established his capital. Surrounded by pine and cypress trees, it overlooked the surging river flowing eastward. Wang Dun led the civil and military officials of Jiangzhou to wait in front of the platform, while soldiers lined up outside the city in a very strict formation.

When Liu Xian approached to examine him, he noticed that Wang Dun was darker and thinner than before, but his demeanor remained the same. Even in his ordinary indigo-purple military uniform, he remained neither arrogant nor humble, but composed and dignified.

After Wang Dun finished his greetings, Liu Xian remained silent for a moment before suddenly asking, "With Chu Zhong's current health, can he still satisfy twenty-nine concubines?"

Over the years, if there's one thing about Wang Dun that's most reprehensible, it's probably his excessive number of concubines. Because of his marriage to a princess, Wang Dun dared not be disrespectful to his wife, so he lavishly took in concubines to satisfy his desires. Since the age of seventeen, he had taken in a beautiful new woman almost every six months, and by the time he was forty-six, he already had twenty-nine concubines.

Upon hearing the Emperor's words, Wang Dun's advisors all paled, thinking the Emperor was giving his lord a warning. The reason was simple: Wang Jiangzhou had no children, and people privately speculated that it might be because he had indulged in excessive sexual activity in his youth, depleting his physical health. This was, after all, Wang Dun's private matter, so none of the advisors dared to mention it, fearing they might offend Wang Jiangzhou. But the Emperor's words at this moment seemed to be a significant embarrassment to Wang Jiangzhou.

Upon hearing this, Wang Dun looked at Liu Xian with an equally unfathomable gaze before replying, "I am willing but unable, but that is better than Your Majesty being both willing and unable."

After saying this, the two burst into laughter. Liu Xian punched Wang Dun in the chest, while Wang Dun shrugged as if nothing had happened. Only then did everyone present belatedly realize that the emperor was joking with Wang Jiangzhou.

In truth, officials throughout the court underestimated the bond between Liu Xian and Wang Dun. Even if their relationship wasn't one of unparalleled confidantry, they had nonetheless weathered many storms together and shared memories of their youthful exuberance. Twenty years had passed in the blink of an eye, and countless old acquaintances had come and gone, yet a close friend from their youth remained by their side—a bond that was hard to forget. For Liu Xian, while Wang Dun was not someone he could entrust his life to, he was still undoubtedly a bosom friend.

Since they were acquaintances, Liu Xian told the other officials to rest first, while he and Wang Dun strolled and chatted on the fishing platform.

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while. Liu Xian first asked Wang Dun about his family situation, especially the situation of his wife, Princess Xiangcheng. Wang Dun smiled bitterly and said, "It's still the same as before. The daughters of the Sima family are all tigresses. My wife has never looked down on me, and I have never looked down on her either. We live our own lives, and we can be considered to be treating each other with respect."

"We've been through thick and thin together all these years, how could you look down on me? Clothes are better when they're new, but people are better when they're old. You should cherish this relationship! And don't take any more concubines in the future."

Wang Dun readily agreed, saying, "Very well, I'll marry off all the young women and find them good families, which will save the manor money on food."

At this point, Liu Xian paused for a moment, then suddenly changed the subject, saying to Wang Dun:

"Chu Zhong, I want to use you now, but many people are gossiping about you. Do you know what kind of gossip is circulating?"

Frankly speaking, although things appeared harmonious on the surface, Liu Xian couldn't possibly be without reservations about appointing Wang Dun. Even if Liu Xian completely trusted Wang Dun, the public opinion at court and within his own family would place a significant psychological burden on Wang Dun after he pledged allegiance to him. While Liu Xian could use Wang Dun to defend his territory in normal times, in such a large-scale operation, even the slightest sign of disloyalty could have serious consequences.

Therefore, before the battle, Liu Xian needed to have a frank talk with Wang Dun and assess him to determine the appropriate role for the Jiangzhou army in this campaign.

"Of course I know." Faced with the emperor's question, Wang Dun was taken aback at first, but then regained his composure and answered as if it were nothing more than saying that I was ungrateful, had wolfish ambitions, and had forgotten my ancestors, right? I'm used to hearing that.

"So what do you think?" Liu Xian asked.

"No one can escape gossip in life; I'm used to it." Faced with this dilemma, Wang Dun casually tossed the question back to Liu Xian: "I was just about to ask, what does Your Majesty think?"

"What do you think I should think?" Liu Xian, of course, wouldn't fall for it and passed the question back. Wang Dun shook his head slightly, smiling calmly, "In that case, Your Majesty, I must tell you an anecdote concerning an old man, a child, and a donkey..."

This is a very well-known story. Simply put, a father and son used a donkey to carry goods to the market. After the market, they took the donkey home. On the way, a passerby pointed at them and said, "This father and son are really foolish; they have a donkey but don't ride it." So the father let his son ride the donkey. A little while later, another passerby saw this and pointed, saying, "This son rides the donkey himself, neglecting his father; he's truly unfilial." So the son quickly dismounted and let his father ride. Then someone else mocked, "This father rides the donkey himself, neglecting his son; he's truly unkind." So the father and son rode the donkey together, and then someone else ridiculed them, saying, "This father and son don't cherish their possessions; they'll exhaust the donkey to death." The father and son had no choice but to dismount and carry the donkey home. Finally, their mother saw them return and laughed, "Who carries a donkey? You two are so foolish!"

After Wang Dun finished recounting this anecdote, he looked up at Liu Xian and said calmly, "Your Majesty, the world's evaluations and accusations are so absurd. If we were to conduct ourselves in the world and listen to the idle gossip of others, I'm afraid anyone would be considered a rebellious and lawless traitor."

At this point, he looked into Liu Xian's eyes, and Liu Xian looked into his eyes as well. After a moment of silence, Liu Xian pointed at the two of them and said, "So, in that case, between you and me, who is the father and who is the son, and who should ride the donkey?"

Wang Dun sighed, "A father may not be kind, but a son cannot be unfilial. Your Majesty should ride."

After saying this, the two burst into laughter again. After these words, Liu Xian finally made up his mind to give Wang Dun a heavy responsibility in this battle.

Wang Dun then briefed Liu Xian on the current state of the Jiangzhou army. Since their joint military exercises last year, Wang Dun had keenly felt the Jiangzhou army's weakness and had begun retraining them. This time, however, Wang Dun knew he couldn't blindly imitate the Anhan army, as the court clearly intended to use them as the main force for the Northern Expedition, with other armies only serving as supporting units. Therefore, he focused his military buildup efforts on the navy.

It should be known that Jiangzhou has Poyang Lake to the south and Leichi Lake to the north, making it a natural and ideal place to train a navy. Furthermore, Luling and Linchuan counties have abundant ancient timber, perfect for making ship planks. Therefore, Wang Dun stockpiled ship planks, built ships, and trained his navy, hoping to achieve something when he launched an attack in the Huainan direction. Unexpectedly, this war came along, and these plans came in handy.

According to the numbers reported by Wang Dun to Liu Xian, the Jiangzhou army currently has fifty rudder ships, four hundred warships, thirty tower ships, and one hundred and sixty small boats, totaling over six hundred ships. There are also spare planks, enough to build another one hundred warships, and the navy can be repaired at any time.

Of course, the number of warships was not the key point. More importantly, these ships were different from those that Liu Xian had built in Bashu. Wang Dun had redesigned the warships based on the existing new tactics.

Generally speaking, there are three categories. The first is the design of mother-and-child fire ships that can carry a large amount of firewood and move quickly, so that boatmen can row the fire ships to a position close to the enemy and then escape calmly from the child ships. The second is that holes were reserved on the hull of the warships to temporarily install planks, so that the warships could be linked together to form a blockade during boarding battles. The third is that a large number of slingshots designed by Zhang Yi were installed on the tower ships, which basically replaced the previous ship crossbows and used stone throwing to determine the outcome of the battle between tower ships.

Right now, these new ships are gathered in an orderly fashion below the fishing platform, like a pond of carp waiting for Liu Xian to inspect them.

Liu Xian had heard about Wang Dun's move to train a navy, but he hadn't expected him to be so decisive. After seeing the ships below the platform, Liu Xian couldn't help but laugh at Wang Dun and said, "Chuzhong, you should look at someone with new eyes after three days! People in Yi'an all say that your Jiangzhou army is a weak force on land, but now it seems that they are fierce beasts on the river!"

Wang Dun never wanted to be second to anyone. The words "weak army" stung him far more than the curses and slander. At this moment, he immediately slammed his fist on the railing and said defiantly, "My army not only has fierce beasts on the river, but also brave warriors and strategists. We are all ready to be put to good use!"

That evening at the banquet, Wang Dun introduced Liu Xian to his various advisors. It must be said that, setting aside Liu Xian's previous assignments in Jiangzhou, such as Huangfu Dan, Zhao Bi, and Yan Yi, and focusing solely on the Jiangzhou army, Wang Dun's forces were a very diverse mix, difficult to describe in a short time. While they couldn't be said to lack the demeanor of scholars, they also possessed a distinctly rough-and-tumble character.

Among the talents appointed by Wang Dun, relatives such as his cousin Wang Han, adopted son Wang Ying, brother-in-law Zheng Dan, and cousin Wei Yi were naturally included; most scholars would recommend their own relatives. However, Wang Dun clearly appointed people based on their abilities. Apart from his cousin Wei Yi, who was more capable and thus given important positions, the other relatives were merely given sinecure roles. The appointment of important positions, however, was unconventional and showed no regional bias. Among the officials were powerful families from Wu, such as Shen Chong and Qian Feng, as well as prominent families from Beiliu, such as Xie Pou, Chen Ban, and Zhuge Yao, and also people from humble backgrounds in Jingzhou, such as Xiong Fu and Mei Tao.

Wang Dun's appointment of military generals was even more unrestrained. He had traditional military men like Xie Yong and Li Heng, as well as strongmen he personally trained and selected, such as Lu Rong and He Kang. He also recruited young generals from the refugee armies of Zhang Fang and Du Tao, such as Fan Jun and Wen Shao, and even southern barbarians like Xiang Can and Yuan Sui.

Liu Xian surveyed the troops one by one, and was quite satisfied. The Jiangzhou Army had the largest number of former Jin soldiers among all the Han army units. Due to the past battle records between the Jin and Han armies, the Han army units generally looked down on the Jiangzhou Army, recognizing it as a weak force incapable of fighting tough battles. However, judging from their morale, under Wang Dun's careful reorganization, the Jiangzhou Army had indeed shown significant improvement. Although some of the civil and military officers were arrogant, they also possessed a fearless and tenacious spirit, definitely not the weak force stereotyped in Yi'an; at least they wouldn't show any weakness.

Wang Dun had been waiting far too long. He had witnessed the other troops achieving numerous victories since he joined Liu Xian, while his own remained inactive. Though outwardly calm, he was inwardly burning with impatience. Even after expressing his intentions on the fishing platform, fueled by drinking, he addressed the emperor: "Your Majesty, when we were young in the Eastern Palace of Luoyang, the deposed crown prince wanted to hear music. So you played the flute, and I beat the drum, rendering the courtesans speechless and our colleagues silent. Can we hear that again today?"

This was actually a request to fight. Liu Xian smiled and nodded, saying, "Alright, let's play a duet together again today."

The two immediately began playing a duet of "The Armored Warriors' Battle Song." Wang Dun's drumming sounded like layers of iron cavalry charging across the land, startling birds and terrifying beasts, stirring up a surge of adrenaline. Liu Xian, on the other hand, played his flute like the wind, like gusts of cold wind sweeping across an icy river, howling and lingering, evoking a sense of desolation and the chill of the Yi River. Their duet was harmonious and agile, their spirit soaring, their passion boundless, and they seemed oblivious to their surroundings.

After the music ended, the entire hall fell silent. Wang Dun leisurely put away his drumsticks, cupped his hands, and asked Liu Xian, "May I ask Your Majesty, what do you think of my Jiangzhou now?"

Liu Xian put down his bamboo flute and said with a smile, "Jiangzhou has wine to drink, mountains to admire, and soldiers to use. I look forward to you all serving the country."

Thus, the guests and hosts enjoyed themselves immensely, and the civil and military officials of Jiangzhou all shouted "Long live the Emperor!" Two days later, the army set off again, with 30,000 naval troops sailing majestically downstream, their advance aimed directly at Danyang Lake. (End of Chapter)