The Road to Slaying God Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16: CHAPTER JIANG HONG

“My wrath bristles through my helmet, the rain stops as I stand by the rail

I look up towards the sky and let loose a pa.s.sionate roar.

At the age of thirty, my deeds are nothing but dust, my journey has taken me over eight thousand.

So do not sit by idly, for young men will grow old in regret.

The Humiliation of Jingkang still lingers,

When will the pain of the Emperor's subjects ever end?

Let us ride our chariots through the Helan Pa.s.s.

There we shall feast on barbarian flesh and drink the blood of the Xiongnu.

Let us begin anew to recover our old empire, before paying tribute to the Emperor.” (# poem copied )

Everybody was surprised for a moment, who could have expected Zhang Yang to actually read from the black board about Man Jiang Hong (humiliation of Jiang Hong). Zhang Yang’s voice was slightly hoa.r.s.e, very masculine, magnetic and also full of penetrating force that the old professor kept nodding all the time. If the glory of his recitation was to be commented, then undoubtedly the child was very good, Yue Fei’s agitation and momentum were manifested in his statements.

“Professor, looking from Yue Fei’s point of view only, this “Man Jianghong” is worthy of eternal fame, but from the ideological point of view, “Man Jhonghang” also has a great limitation …”

Zhang Yang’s expression suddenly changed, calm, frank and confident. The crowd came around.

“How do you say that?”

 Suddenly, the professor looked imposing, and he felt the beginning of the steady change on the wretched boy, those pairs of eyes flashing wisdom and confident radiance. Throughout his life, he had only seen this type of eyes twice, but recently, he has been seeing it several times in a row. Coincidently, the other one was also sitting on the exact position of Zhang yang.

“Undeniably, this is a famous masterpiece, it can be affirmed in our vast poetry. There is no such profound social impact as the poetry, and nothing has never been as exciting as these phrases, inspiring people to fight the enemy on the battlefield of strength.” This poetry expressed Yue Fei to serve the court with a sincere heart, open heartedness and courage, very touching, and the words such as rivers and lakes, twists and turns reverberating, this is like a stone inscription.

“Well, go on!”

The old professor nodded, while the other students were amazed for a moment. Actually they were not fond of “Man Jiang Hong”, but Zhang Yang incredibly praised the poetry so highly that they all were looking forward to see why Zhang Yang does not support this eternity fame.

“In fact … I like this poetry, my favorite part is about the heroism of Yue Fei, that horse (like in a chess piece) riding the Hun’s spirit, however, this poetry has a lot of limitations about YueFei. First, he is only fighting, but do not dare to open up a new territory on the divided soil, he just wanted to drive away the outsiders from JianShan of the great Song (Song is a feudal state in the Zhou dynasty .. not a melodious voice with music lol ). While on the other hand he did not consider to seize the outsider’s territory and include it into the great Song’s territory.  This includes a line of verse to clean Jianshan to ill.u.s.trate his idea. And of course, this is only the first …”

“What about the second?”

The old professor nodded, eyes tightly fixed on Zhang Yang. Needless to say, Zhang Yang pointed out Yue Fei’s thinking limitations. Back then Yue Fei only wanted to stabilize the great Song’s JianShan, but did not want to expand the layout of the Song. As a matter of fact, no matter if it was the Huns or the other races invading in the Song Dynasty, they all have become Chinese people now.

“Secondly, Yue Fei, to be loyal to the soverign and devoted to the country at that time and at those circ.u.mstances was indeed praise worthy, however, this also caused his ignorant character. When encountering the choice between loyalty and patriotism, he chose to be a loyal monarch. In his eyes, loyalty was more important compared to patriotism, the humiliation of JingKang, still haven’t wiped away the hate and regrets even when it’s over. This is the part which consequently explains the way of thinking of general Yue. Certainly, this was caused by the environment and the circ.u.mstances in those days, after all, the emperor symbolized the country at that time and loyalty to the king meant loyalty to the country…”

“I do not know, when each of you fellow students face this kind of choice, will you be loyal to the king or loyal to the country?” Zhang Yang paused all of a sudden and looked around all the way.

Everyone was silent, although they had thought about it, but never from this point where they had to overthrow the patriotic thought of Yue fei. From the modern point of view, undoubtedly, Zhang yang’s argument was more reasonable. When the country is in danger, this basically does not even need to be considered whether to devote yourself to a political party or the country, anyone would choose the country. A regime may collapse, but a country must not perish, the truth understood by everyone (idiom).

“You student, do you think the other great soldiers from the northern Song dynasty (960-1127) are capable to place on a par with Yue Fei (1103-1142)? The old professor nodded and asked.

“To compare the soldiers of Northern Song with general YueFei is too much …” Zhang Yang suddenly felt his brain gush out countless Noethern Song characters.

“Well, explain it” The old professor smiled.

“Zhao Kuangyin, although he is the creation of the Northern Song dynasty, valuable for the imperial throne, but actually it was the general of Zhou Dynasty (951-960) of the Five Dynasties (907-960) who ascended the palace with meritorious military service even before the one by one inspection, and commander ban. Chenqiaobingbian (the military revolt of 960 that led Zhao Kuangyin to found the Song Dynasty) captured the later Zhou regime to establish the reigning Song Dynasty. It took him more than two years to suppress the internal counterforces followed by the reunification of the National military operation to take over the first south after the north, the first easy effort after the difficult strategic approach. More than ten years, the battle of Jing nan, Hou shu, Southern Han and other separatist regimes was suppressed. Meanwhile, a series of measures were adopted to reform the military, political, financial, imperial and other systems to strengthen the centralization of his reign of seventeen years. The temple of Taizu (great ancestor) nianhao(reign t.i.tle) was established. During the reign, it basically ended the situation of separatist regime of the Five Dynasties and Ten kingdom, and played an active role in the recovery and exhibition of social economy. Though he was the ruler of the country, still we have no choice but to say that he was an excellent general!”

“Continue!” the old professor’s eyes light up, he never expected Zhang Yang to actually answer about the founding emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty with thorough understanding. It was rare and praiseworthy that he actually was capable to remember clearly, and yet, Zhang Yang wasn’t satisfied with this answer. The student’s eyes were also full of disbelief even to the extent that many of them wanted Zhang yang to continue, but of course, there were also some people who ZhangYang to make a fool out of himself.

“Cao Bin, Ji Guohua, truly a person of Lingshou. He was a close relative of the imperial harem of the later Zhou Dynasty and served as the supervisor of Jinzhou military force acc.u.mulating the recommendation of the government officials. After the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty, he moved-in squire to the central province and committed to the purpose for two years, by going to the field headquarters as a supervisor to partic.i.p.ate in the battle of the extermination of Shu but not through ma.s.sacre and then obtained Song’s Kuangyin’s praise and honor, granted the south court to Xuan Hui and make righteous army with the Jiedushi (governors). For seven years, he received a.s.signments to limit the armed forces to wipe out Nan Tang (one of the Five Dynasties) and restrain them but The Song’s soldiers was not be allowed to recklessly ma.s.sacre and plunder to avoid sufferings and great damage to Jiangning, the capital of Nan Tang. After returning, soon he was appointed as senator, Song Tai Zong ascended the throne of Zhao, plus pa.s.sed judgment on the matter of Feng Luguo Yi’s trust. The Yongxi campaign, for three years, Song TaiZong divided the forces into three groups to attack Liao (dynasty). Cao Bin took the Youzhou road preceding the field headquarter and deployed the armed force in a horse stance. The main force of Song’s army, Zhou were certainly powerful but due to the incompetence in command, they could not restrain the department and was crushingly defeated, therefore, the other two division was forced to retreat. As a result, he was blamed as the top general. The following year, the Wuning army jiedushi, Song ZhenZong ascended the throne and summoned the senator. After suffering from two years of illness, he died at 69 years of age.”

“If Ciao Bin had not gone for the war and not been defeated like that, then, he could be considered as a famous general, … it’s a pity …” Zhang Yang sighed.

“Yang Yanzhao, real name Yan Lang, along with his fatherYangYe went on an expedition. The Yongxi(984 - 997) era, on the three years of Northern Expedition, a proportion of the army of Yangye attacked Shuo and the other states, and 29 years old Yanzhao acted as the vanguard on the battle with ShuoZuo city. After drifting and and even more fierce close combats, finally penetrated through the ShuoZhou city wall. After the death of his father, he took up the responsibility of resisting Liao in Yanbian of Heibei province. And after the Northern Expedition, YanZhao protected his state, BaoZhou and other places against the Liao Army intrusion. Just like his father Yang Ye, Yangzhao was also wise and brave in battles, had the ability to get along with the soldiers sharing both good times and the hard times, and at the time of encounter with the enemy, he would always charge at the front but never took any credit for himself and the soldiers deeply admired him. He defended the border for many years and had a mighty reputation among the Qidan people. (#Qidan = an ancient nationality in China) The Qidan people feared and used to call him ‘Yang Liu Lang’. After his death, many people looked at his coffin and wept, and even the enemy, the Qidan people, also mourned and paid tribute. He had three sons: Chuan Yong, De Zheng and Wen Guang.”

“He and his father Yang Ye are the famous Song Dynasty family of warriors, which left people no choice but to respect the Northern Song Dynasty generals!” Zhang Yang added a comment.

“Carry on”.

The old professor and the cla.s.sroom full of students had a shocked expression in their eyes. Zhang yang, no matter what, the number of Northern Song Dynasty and the generals of the military are perfectly clear, even the old professor himself could not guarantee to clearly express the detailed history of these generals in such way.

“Di Qing, a character from the Han Dynasty, born to a farm household, was a military general of the Northern dynasty. After he joined the army, he was elected to hold the position of the protection squad of Emperor Renzong of Song. At the beginning he was appointed as the commander of YangZhou, in the defense of the war against the western Xia and known for his bravery and outstanding military exploits. He had a high reputation among the soldiers. He had always been guarding against the generals of the Song Ting, who were not allowed in the a.s.sembly and only in the Privy Council for four years. Compared to him, Yue Fei was even more unsuccessful, depressed in the later years and finally … “

“Here, we also want to remember an almost forgotten name, Pan mei …, a novel called ‘Pan Renmei’, the Northern Song Dynasty generals, ling zi zhong, a big celebrity. After the beginning, the official to the province Pan Mei were on good terms with the emperor Taizu of Song, Zhao Kuangyin. After subjected to the commander position Pan Mei fought the north and south war and played a positive role in the process of eradication of ten countries in Northern Song Dynasty. The Yongxi campaign with three division of armies, in the Northern Expedition of Liao dynasty, Pan mei was deployed Yang Ye to the west road in the direction of Ke jie. Soon after, because of utter defeat of the east army led by Cao bin by Qi gou Guan, Pan mei was subjected to imperial withdrawal and shield the four states of civil migration. In the process of withdrawal of the troops, Yang Ye was forced to meet the enemy, set an inevitable defeat and no reinforcements, resulted in YangYe annihilation, captured and killed. At the end Pan mei was demoted by three ranks, reduced to the inspection Taobao. He stayed in Chunhua for two years and a few months later died …”

“If he hadn’t retreat in the middle of the battle and compelled Yang Ye to die, then he wouldn’t have been forgotten in history…!!”

“Of course, there are a number of famous soldiers in the Song Dynasty. I’m afraid that it would take several days and nights to speak of them one by one. As a matter of fact the history of Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty is almost the same, desolate feeling arises spontaneously ………. …..  …………………………,   poor Song Dynasty is  chaotic ……… alas, exasperating, pathetic and sad …..”

……………………

Zhang Yang was speaking frankly with confidence, his heavy voice added that some Northern Song generals are mostly unsuccessful, and the cla.s.sroom was filled with a depressed atmosphere. Some students looked at Zhang Yang with an expression quite different from how they were in the beginning. Just now Zhang yang was capable of a clear description of most of the famous names of Northern Song Dynasty and the final finishing touches on the comments can be seen. Zhang yang is definitely not a tactless and impulsive person.

“Where’s my wallet?”

Seeing everyone dumbfounded and in a deep thinking, Zhang Yang hurriedly lowered his head and asked.

“ … I don’t have it right now …” The girl  stayed put foe a while and looked at Zhang Yang’s wretched appearance.

“Ah! That’s miserable …” Zhang yang with a long face.

“What’s the matter?” Asked the girl curiously.

“I haven’t eaten bread for four days ..”

“………………………”

“Teacher, can I come in?”

Zhang Yang had just sat down when a young man appeared standing in the cla.s.sroom doorway, holding a few books in his hand, and his expression looked very simple and honest. The old professor saw this young man and suddenly his eyes light up, pleased and nodded his head, he’d thought that the young man wouldn’t come.

“Excuse me, this is my seat.” The young man went straight to Zhang Yang’s side , a pair of eyes looked firmly at Zhang Yang and the simple honest face suddenly became  different with a demonic look.

“Ah, ……………… I allow you …..” Zhang Yang quickly stood up, looked towards the old professor and said “Teacher, I want to go to the toilet.”

“Go on.” The professor was writing something on the blackboard on the back of the cla.s.sroom.

In fact, Zhang Yang was just using toilet as an excuse, since his wallet was not here, it was meaningless to stay and he had no interest in literature.

“Do you have money?” Suddenly ZhangYang whispered in the girl’s ear.

“……Yes … I …….” The girl felt the hot breath blown to her ear, and immediately her face turned red.

“Lend me ten bucks, and when you get me my wallet, deduct ten bucks from there.”

“Oh.”

“Thank You …”

Zhang Yang took the money from the girl’s hand and ran out of the cla.s.sroom. Right now, he did not want anything, he just wanted to eat, even if it is a lunch.

He devoured a lunch box in less than three minutes and wiped his mouth after done eating. This big pile of rice tasted particularly good after a few days of eating bread.

After eating the meal, Zhang Yang actually had nothing to do, it was a little early to go back to the dormitory. And also cannot stay in the dormitory for the whole day, as the book was continuously tortured for more than four days by Zhang yang and there is nothing worth looking at. He had no money to go out to use the internet.

Finally, he decided to go to the library as the book has been unable to meet Zhang Yang’s curiosity.