Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 304: The Imperial Edict Carved on Stone

When the Liaodong general received the battle report from Jia Cong, he was overjoyed. He sent fast horses to reward the three armies and asked Jia Cong to escort the prisoners back to the army.

On the day Jia Cong returned, Liang Chengzong led the garrison troops at Yafu Pass and went out of the city ten miles to welcome him.

He saw with his own eyes Li Manzhu who was captured after being wounded, Dong Shan whose body was in a mess, and more than one hundred Jurchen prisoners.

Only then did Liang Chengzong truly realize how magnificent the victory of Qingyuanji described in the battle report was. This battle alone wiped out all the powerful and brave men and eliminated the threat of the Jurchens in Liaodong forever.

It is also said that Jia Cong rejected his subordinates' suggestion to build a Jingguan to boast of his achievements, buried the corpse of the enemy chief deep inside, and erected a bluestone stele without any words as a warning. He was cautious in battle and not arrogant in victory.

The young man is brave yet magnanimous, and his demeanor is extraordinary and detached from the ordinary world. Could it be that Duke Rong's heroic spirit is still alive and well, and he will continue to shine...?

Liang Chengzong had defeated the Mongolian Tuman tribe five times, but there had never been such a stunning victory as the Battle of Qing Yuanji that would go down in history.

The young man in front of him is not even old enough to dance with an elephant. He has been in the army for only half a year, but he has already achieved remarkable feats time and again. It is truly astonishing. The famous generals in ancient times were no more than this.

The entire Yafu Pass spent three days in carnival celebration, and all the soldiers guarding the Liaodong border were excited about Qing Yuanji's great victory.

Because they knew that after the battle of Qingyuanji, the Jurchen tribe could not avoid decline. From then on, they no longer had to fight with the Jurchens and no longer had to worry about their lives.

Each of them will return home safely and reunite with their long-lost parents, wives and children. For every soldier who risks his life to defend the border, this is the greatest luck and gratitude.

At this moment, Jia Cong's prestige in Yafu Pass and the entire Liaodong army quickly rose to an unattainable height.

Many people in the Liaodong army knew that Jia Cong was born into the Rongguo Jia family, one of the top noble families in the Great Zhou Dynasty. He had made such a brilliant achievement this time, so he would definitely have a bright future after returning to Beijing.

So during the celebratory banquets during those few days, Jia Cong was drunk many times by a large number of enthusiastic Liaodong generals who kindly persuaded him.

Every time, it was his guard, Ellie, who helped him back to the Military Affairs Office. Naturally, no one cared when they saw this scene.

Almost all of them knew that Ai Li accompanied Jia Cong in charging into battle and killed the enemy, and also followed him in battles for several months to defeat the Jurchens. The two had a very deep "friendship".

Amid the ups and downs of the thousands-mile battle and the celebration of Qing Yuanji's great victory, those vague anecdotes about the young general also became well-intentioned gossip...

As the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Town, Liang Chengzong personally wrote a report on the great victory of Qingyuanji based on the recorded battle reports, and sent several trusted captains to deliver it to the capital day and night.

……

Shenjing, the palace city of the Great Zhou, Qianyang Palace.

Emperor Jiazhao received the news of the great victory at Qingyuanji in Liaodong ten days after the end of the war.

As usual, the battle report was urgently delivered to the palace by Peng Runan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, and Chen Yi, the Left Army Commander-in-Chief.

Emperor Jiazhao was overjoyed after reading the victory report of Qingyuanji. He did not expect that after Jia Cong made the first contribution at Yafu Pass, he would also make such a great contribution at Qingyuanji.

Emperor Jia Zhao had been on the throne for more than a decade and had seen countless amazing talents, but he had never seen a person like Jia Cong.

He carefully read the battle report of the Qingyuanji victory written by Liang Chengzong. The reason for the great victory was inseparable from Jia Cong's foresight, resoluteness, courage and ruthlessness.

But without the perfect combination of time and place, this battle would not have achieved such a brilliant result. He was young and brilliant, both civil and military, and outstanding in military affairs, but these were all fine, and the luck and opportunity he possessed were also rare in the world.

He thought carefully about the four kings and eight dukes of the previous generations, and the rising star, Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding. All of them were outstanding people of their time, but he did not see such aura in any of them...

Emperor Jia Zhao thought of the Jurchen governance strategy submitted by Jia Cong, and the five methods of governance that made Emperor Jia Zhao's blood boil.

The first method, which is the foundation of the five methods, is the key to the implementation of the other four methods, namely, eliminating the main evil, eradicating the powerful, and destroying the bloody brave.

Emperor Jia Zhao did not expect that among the five methods of peace proposed by Jia Cong, the most important one was actually accomplished by Jia Cong himself in such a short time at great risk.

Emperor Jia Zhao will soon be able to govern the areas beyond the Great Wall and incorporate the vast land of white mountains and black waters into the map of the Great Zhou. Jia Cong has made great contributions to his pioneering work!
……

Emperor Jiazhao was so overjoyed that he urgently summoned Cabinet Grand Secretary Cai Xiang, Minister of Rites Guo Youchang, Minister of Personnel Chen Mo, and Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding into the palace.

He will also issue the decrees that have been brewing in his mind for a long time, and the issuance of these decrees will surely stir up the situation and affect the whole world!
First, he ordered Peng Runan, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, and Shi Ding, the Marquis of Zhongjing, to select 20,000 elite troops from the five military camps and garrisons in various places and station them outside the Liaodong Pass to suppress and garrison and wipe out the remnants.

Second, he ordered the Minister of Personnel to select capable officials from various places to set up prefectures and governors outside the Great Wall and inspect the people;

The third was to order the Ministry of Rites to draft an imperial edict for the diplomatic mission. When the army entered the area outside the Great Wall, the officials would complete the initial procedures for establishing a government and governing the people, and then special envoys from the Ministry of Rites would be sent to Outer Mongolia, Oros, Goryeo and other neighboring countries in northern Liao.

The Great Zhou Dynasty declared peace in Liaodong and warned all states to guard their borders and not harass.

Fourthly, the Ministry of Rites was ordered to cooperate with the Imperial College to select meritorious students and teachers from various places, and those who were willing to go outside the Great Wall to make contributions to education would be granted official titles or eighth-rank officials according to their ranks.

Fifth, he ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to encourage imperial merchants from all over the country to go to Liaodong, set up branches and workshops, exchange trade inside and outside the customs, recruit Han people and Jurchen women and children as workers, and provide them with a livelihood.

Sixth, he ordered the Buddhist Registry to recruit monks and Taoist priests of high moral character to go to Liaodong to build temples and monasteries, and spread the idea of ​​Buddhism and Taoism.

Seventh, he ordered the Langzhong of the Ministry of Personnel's Examination Office to go to Liaodong in person to check the battle achievements of the various armies in pacifying the Jurchens, and ordered Jia Cong, the Chief Inspector of Firearms, to bring relevant military meritorious generals back to the capital to award them medals.

Eighth, order the Ministry of Rites to plan a captive presentation ceremony at the Wumen Gate in June, offer sacrifices to heaven at the Wentian Pavilion in Kunyang Palace, show it to the ancestors of heaven and earth, and burn a fire to report the achievements of pacifying the barbarians and expanding the territory!
The ninth is to order the Ministry of Rites to write an inscription on the event, recording the entire process of the Liaodong pacification of the barbarians and the details of the great victory in Qingyuanji, and to engrave it on the stone stele without words erected by Jia Cong, as a warning to the powerful and serve as an edict to future generations!

When Cai Xiang, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, heard these decrees, he became more and more shocked.

Almost all the decrees issued by the emperor were consistent with the five strategies proposed by Jia Cong to pacify the Jurchens. No one expected that the emperor would agree so deeply with what the young man said.

The emperor also asked the Ministry of Rites to write an inscription to be engraved on the blank stone tablet erected by Jia Cong to record his merits. This was a way for the emperor to announce to the world his great achievements in wiping out the Jurchens.

However, it also invisibly raised Jia Cong's achievements to a dazzling level, which is almost equivalent to the glory of engraving the Yanran Stone in the Han Dynasty.

Has His Majesty not thought of this? Given His Majesty's wisdom, that is simply impossible.

Perhaps the emperor was not comparing Jia Cong to a famous general of the Han Dynasty, but was comparing him to the ancient kings who opened up new territories to encourage his own achievements...

His Majesty wants to record the glorious military achievements in pacifying the Jurchens on stone to demonstrate the great power and might of the Jiazhao Imperial Court.

(End of this chapter)