[Lightscreen]
[Xin Qiji needed only sixteen years to understand the Jin Empire.
Understanding the Southern Song, however, took him nearly forty.
That was also the greatest flaw of the Ten Discourses on Meiqin. As a returnee from the north, Xin Qiji never fully grasped just how rotten Southern Song governance truly was.
Earlier we mentioned the Longxing Northern Expedition. At that time, Wei Sheng's rebel army recaptured Haizhou and, with help from two other forces led by Li Bao and Wang Youzhi, repelled the Jin army.
Then came the Longxing peace agreement.
Southern Song promptly handed Haizhou back to Jin, treating the bloody victories of those three rebel forces as if they meant nothing.
After the treaty, Wei Sheng was transferred to nearby Chuzhou. First his superior Liu Bao stripped away his soldiers. Then Jin forces moved south and surrounded him.
Wei Sheng commanded only a small detachment, yet still fought the Jin army in a desperate half-day battle.
Just forty li away, Liu Bao received his plea for reinforcements and coldly rebuked it:
"We have just made peace. There will be no fighting."
He sent not a single soldier.
He sat and watched while Wei Sheng died in battle barely forty li away, his entire force wiped out.
Wei Sheng's death was only one fragment of Southern Song military reality, yet it revealed everything about the rot within its command. An army like that could never be saved by a single policy essay.
Because of this, during his early provincial postings Xin Qiji had always wanted to build a truly elite force.
To create the Flying Tiger Army, the young Xin Qiji maneuvered tirelessly. He even risked his life by secretly hiding the imperial order from Emperor Xiaozong of Song demanding its disbandment. Only through immense effort did he finally succeed.
And once the army was built?
Xin Qiji was swiftly accused of crimes and kicked aside. The Flying Tiger Army passed into other hands.
Southern Song officialdom was deep water. Xin Qiji simply could not control it.
That was why, after being recalled by Han Tuozhou, Xin Qiji first sincerely told Emperor Ningzong of Song:
"Jin will fall into chaos. Jin will perish."
Then he advised:
"To attack Jin, we still need twenty more years."
The result was the opposite of what he expected.
Han Tuozhou and the hardline pro-war faction were furious. Everyone who shared Xin Qiji's cautious stance was dismissed.
The prefect of Luzhou openly criticized:
"You have the will for revenge, but not the strategy."
A military student named Hua Yue went even further:
"The generals are mediocre, the army resentful, the cavalry untrained, horse administration neglected, heroes ignored, talent unused, supplies insufficient, terrain unsecured, fortifications unprepared."
In short:
You want a northern expedition? With what exactly?
Half a year later, Han Tuozhou still wanted the prestige of Xin Qiji's support. So he appointed him Prefect of Shaoxing and Pacification Commissioner of Eastern Zhejiang.
This post faced the sea to the east, leaned on the Yangtze to the north, guarded the grain transport routes, and stood close to Lin'an. It was the richest and most powerful office in Southern Song.
The bribe could not have been more obvious.
Xin Qiji exploded in anger:
"Can Han Tuozhou use Jiaxuan to build his fame? Would Jiaxuan ever cling to Han Tuozhou to seek wealth?"
Han Tuozhou was equally furious.
If the butcher Zhang refuses to sell meat, must I starve?
That year, he resolved to prove himself by force.
Thus the Kaixi Northern Expedition began, rushed and reckless from the very start.]
Inside the imperial palace at Bianliang, Emperor Taizu of Song's eyes shone.
Beside him, Zhao Pu hurriedly took notes while sighing.
"A pity we cannot see the full text of the Ten Discourses."
Zhao Kuangyin felt the same, but understood the difficulty.
"That work runs to tens of thousands of characters. The later commentary alone is extremely direct. To explain it fully might take fifty thousand more. Hardly feasible."
Zhao Pu nodded.
The light screen of later ages functioned more like a storyteller than a scholar.
Just like a street raconteur might lavish detail on Guan Yu's slaying of Yan Liang, describing the horse, armor, and weapon in vivid glory, yet gloss over the strategic meaning of the Longzhong Plan or the depth of the Memorial on the Expedition.
Separated by a thousand years, the later world would hardly bother studying some old military proposal buried in dusty archives.
Yet the ideas themselves felt astonishingly fresh to them.
Land-sea coordinated warfare.
Advisers with roles but no command power.
The principle that planning requires many voices but decision requires one.
Even the philosophical argument that the poor risk life for wealth while the rich fear death to preserve it.
To later generations these might be ordinary. After all, they lived in what was called the Age of Sea Power, with an emphasis on naval forces unmatched in two millennia.
"I understand most of it," Zhao Kuangyin said. "But what exactly is this 'political commissar'?"
Earlier, the later narrator had explained the deaths of Guo Jin and Yang Ye. In both cases, a supervising official made unilateral decisions, clashed with the commander, and ultimately caused brave generals to die.
Yet removing supervisory roles entirely was also dangerous. Fifty years of history proved that much.
With the fall of Southern Tang nearly inevitable, Zhao Kuangyin wanted to finalize military structures before campaigning against Northern Han. The later explanation of the Ten Discourses felt like rain after drought.
The only problem was that it was still hard to understand.
Feeling the emperor's gaze, Zhao Pu braced himself and tried to interpret:
"'Political' refers to governance. 'Commissar' implies one entrusted with understanding and conveying intent."
"Thus his duty lies in knowing, not supervising. And since the role requires literate civil officials, perhaps the purpose is to ensure soldiers understand the ruler's will."
That sounded reasonable.
Zhao Kuangyin thought it over.
"So in later armies, the generals understand warfare, and the soldiers understand policy?"
Even a rough guess revealed the advantages.
If soldiers understood that Song sought to restore Hebei and reunify the realm, commanders in the field would find rebellion far less tempting. With proper systems, perhaps the warlord disasters of late Tang could be eliminated from another direction.
But the cost would be enormous.
If advisers were meant to explain strategy to soldiers, one per army was obviously insufficient. The imperial army numbered nearly two hundred thousand. Even one adviser per hundred men would require two or three thousand literate officials.
The Song founder sighed again.
"All institutions ultimately rest on education. And in education, later generations must truly be the greatest in two thousand years."
"Still, we must do it. So that our Song will face no Liao, Jin, or Western Xia. So that Song will never again be divided north and south. So that I do not repeat my brother's fate."
Zhao Pu bowed deeply in sincere acceptance.
Beside them, Emperor Taizong of Song turned his head away with a resentful snort.
In the Luoyang residence, Zhang Fei blinked.
"Butcher Zhang? Hairy pig?"
Such a simple phrase somehow made the butcher of Zhuo Commandery's hands itch again.
To Zhuge Liang, the summary of the Ten Discourses felt entirely obvious.
Why could Guan Yu hold Jingzhou's north against Cao forces for so long without complaint from the troops?
Why could Zhang Fei lead armies west into Liangzhou to quell rebellions without resentment?
Yes, improved supplies helped. Coal briquettes, soup medicines, herbal powders, all eased hardship.
But ever since Jingzhou, they had also insisted on establishing schools in the army so veteran soldiers could learn to read.
That achievement could not be ignored.
At the very least, countless soldiers now longed to march north and return home, to free their villages from Cao's control.
As for land-sea coordination, that was even simpler. Kongming vaguely remembered a later war on the Korean peninsula called the Incheon Landing…
What fascinated him most, however, was the simplest phrase:
Planning needs many minds. Decision needs one.
It reminded him of that vast western empire.
Later generations had still spoken of the Roman Senate in the time of Former Han. But afterward, whether Rome split in two or changed forms, only the emperor's name remained, while the Senate faded from record.
Perhaps those six simple characters described that transformation perfectly.
[Lightscreen]
[In the year 1206, with Emperor Ningzong of Song effectively checked out, Han Tuozhou seized power and launched the northern campaign.
Four Song armies marched simultaneously. The invasion of Jin officially began.
If one wanted to know why the Kaixi Expedition was so sloppy, one only needed to look at the Suzhou front.
The commander attacking Suzhou, pacification commissioner Guo Ni, was a devoted fan of Zhuge Liang. He often compared himself to the strategist, idly posing with a feather fan. On the fan he had written:
"Three visits troubled the realm's strategy.
Two dynasties bore an old minister's heart."
Unfortunately, his actual deeds were not worth even one strand of Zhuge Liang's hair.
Suzhou lay on the Song-Jin border. Most of its residents were Han Chinese.
During the Longxing campaign, the city had briefly returned to Song rule. Combined with Jin's harsh exploitation of the Han population, many there truly felt the sentiment: another year looking south for the king's army.
When Guo Ni first attacked, informants inside the city constantly sent him intelligence.
A local rebel force even came to help voluntarily. They knew the city thoroughly and had already infiltrated it everywhere. During the assault, they took the lead in scaling the walls.
Suzhou was on the verge of falling. One more push would have done it.
Then Guo Ni, posing safely in the rear, suddenly slapped his forehead.
Damn it. If the rebels break the city first, they get the credit.
That, naturally, was unacceptable.
Under his orders, Song troops below the walls drew their bows and aimed… at the rebel fighters battling Jin soldiers atop the ramparts.
The Ting Shi recorded:
"The loyal and brave had already fought their way up. Our own army, jealous of their merit, shot them from below."
The Han collaborators inside the city instantly lost heart.
"If even their own people are treated like this, how could we possibly escape slaughter?"
And so the crumbling city of Suzhou was instead held by Jin forces.
When Jin reinforcements arrived, Guo Ni led his army into a chaotic retreat.
The victorious Jin troops even mocked him:
"Song and Jin were friends. This conflict began only because of the brave general Tian Junmai guarding Hao. Hand over the culprit and you may live."
Guo Ni did not hesitate for a moment. He bound Tian Junmai and handed him over.
The Jin kept their word and spared Guo Ni's life.
They continued slaughtering Song soldiers anyway.
More than thirty thousand men had marched out. By the time they retreated to Lingbi, only five thousand remained.
A northern expedition conducted like this never had any chance of success.]