Chapter 32: Smoke and Fire Everywhere (Part IV)

The news that the Jin army was about to march south upon Bianliang spread throughout the city, accompanied by rumors that the powerful and wealthy were preparing for a mass flight to the south.

On the Imperial Street of Bianjing, Old Zhang, a vendor selling sesame cakes, was sprinkling seeds onto his dough when he heard the words "the Jin are marching south." His copper spatula clattered onto the iron griddle, and he scalded his hand so badly he could not help but stomp his feet.

"How can this be? Just a few months ago, I saw the Jin envoys drinking wine at the Fan Tower, swearing that we would remain allies forever!"

"Allies, my foot!"

A peddler carrying a load nearby spat on the ground, the porcelain bowls in his crates clinking sharply. "My cousin serves in the border army. Half a year ago, he sent a message saying that the Jin cavalry were drilling outside Yunzhou City, a black, endless sea of them. He sensed disaster and asked me to help settle his family. Yet, some people had the local officials suppress the news!"

The crowd grew, soon blocking half the street. An old scholar, trembling with rage, struck the ground with his cane. "Cai Jing and those treacherous scoundrels! They took military funds to build the Genyue garden and sold off weapons to buy antiques. Now, their retribution has come!"

"And Wang Fu!" someone shouted. "This gang of corrupt officials—all they know is how to bleed us dry. They deserve to die!"

"Yes! Kill the corrupt officials!"
"Prepare for war against the Jin!"

The chants grew louder, rolling like thunder toward the imperial palace.

Beneath the archway of the Imperial Academy, Chen Dong stood upon the stone steps, holding aloft a piece of white cloth covered in writing. This thirty-nine-year-old student, dressed in a white scholar's robe worn thin and frayed at the cuffs, stood with his back straight. His voice was clear enough to pierce through the chaotic din:

"Fellow citizens! Fellow students!"

Chen Dong raised his arms, the characters "Execute the Six Traitors" written on the cloth fluttering in the wind. "The Jin are knocking at our gates! This is not a curse sent by Heaven, but the ruin brought upon our nation by these very scoundrels!"

He pointed an accusatory finger toward the opulent Kaifeng mansion of Cai Jing, his voice cracking like breaking stone: "Cai Jing, that old thief, still disrupts the court even after retirement! He forms cliques for private gain and has misled our Great Song for over twenty years! He stripped military funds to build the Genyue, and stole weapons to trade for trinkets. Our border soldiers freeze and starve like dogs, while his mansion is piled high with pearls and jade! If this thief is not removed, our army will have no heart to fight!"

He turned to point toward the residence of Tong Guan, his eyes brimming with blood-red fury: "Tong Guan, that eunuch, holds the military command yet cowers in battle! He once allied with the Jin to destroy the Liao, yet with a hundred thousand troops, he was routed by a remnant force! He lost our armies and humiliated our nation! By colluding with the Jin and squandering our wealth for empty cities, he has betrayed our military secrets. With such a man in command, it is no different from opening the gates to invite thieves inside!"

"Pity our people in Hebei, countless of whom have frozen or starved to death! Refugees fleeing for a thousand miles—how tragic it is!"

"Wang Fu, you scoundrel!"

Chen Dong stamped his foot, shaking a few flecks of frost from the stone steps. "You deceive the Emperor with flowery words and oppress the people with harsh taxes! You sell offices and titles; from governors to county magistrates, everything has a price! The lifeblood of the people has been drained, yet you squander thousands of gold pieces a day on banquets and courtesans! Before the Jin have even arrived, the people are already on the verge of rebellion—all because of you!"

The surrounding crowd cheered, their emotions surging.

When he mentioned Liang Shicheng, he sneered, his voice like an ice pick: "This eunuch styles himself the 'Hidden Chancellor,' usurping authority! He drafts imperial edicts and alters the Emperor’s will. Any court official wishing to offer loyal advice must first bribe this corrupt eunuch! To allow a eunuch to wield power in the halls of state—where has our order gone?"

"Well said! Brother Chen is truly a model for us all!"
"Only this shows the true backbone of a scholar. Exterminate the traitors! Seal our resolve with blood!" The students of the Imperial Academy were filled with righteous indignation.

"Zhu Mian, that evil thief!"

Chen Dong pointed toward the southeast, his rage intensifying. "The calamity of the Flower and Rock Convoy has poisoned the land for thousands of miles! They tore down homes and dug up ancestral graves just to search for exotic rocks and trees! In the south, the people were driven to trade their children for food, while his boats stretched for a hundred miles, one after another, transporting rocks to the capital! The wrath of Heaven and the resentment of the people all began with this!"

Before he could finish, an elderly man missing an arm pushed through the crowd and knelt with a thud before the archway: "Master Chen is right! I am from Huzhou. When Zhu Mian’s men came to collect rocks, they tore down my family’s three-room house just for a worthless stone! My one-year-old child was buried in the rubble. My wife held the corpse and wept for three days before throwing herself into the river. It was all Zhu Mian’s doing!"

Many who had suffered similar fates began to cry out their grievances. A woman in a coarse cotton jacket lunged forward, her child in her arms wailing in terror: "My husband was a soldier in the Liangzhe regional army. He was pressed into service by Zhu Mian’s men to transport rocks. In the dead of winter, wearing only a single layer of cloth, he froze to death in the canal! The officials wouldn't even return his body, saying, 'A lowly life is not worth as much as a rock!'" The woman wept bitterly, her child crying along with her.

Chen Dong finally mentioned Li Yan. His voice dropped, heavy with bone-deep hatred: "This beast managed the Field-Seizure Bureau, seizing thirty thousand hectares of civilian land! He burned homes and looted property; seven or eight out of every ten refugees died in the ditches! The people curse him as a 'Living Yama.' How can such a cruel official be allowed to exist in this world?"

He waved the white cloth until it snapped in the wind, his spittle landing on the frosted steps: "These six traitors are intertwined, devouring the nation like wolves! Today, the Jin march south because our border defenses are ruined and the people are in uproar. It is not that the Jin are strong, but that these people have destroyed our own Great Wall!"

A beggar with a blind left eye groped his way forward: "I am from Daming Prefecture. Three years ago, Li Yan’s men came to seize land. They said my family’s three acres of poor soil were 'Imperial restricted land.' They not only took the land but set fire to my thatched hut! My parents couldn't get out; I couldn't even lift their charred bodies!" He kowtowed to Chen Dong, his forehead bleeding as it struck the frozen earth. "I beg Master Chen to seek justice for us, to kill this Living Yama!"

Cries of grievance rose one after another, washing over the Imperial Academy archway like a tide. Old women holding memorial tablets, farmers waving documents of forced land seizure, craftsmen displaying broken limbs—each bore the scars left by the Six Traitors, and each cry was like a knife carving into the hearts of everyone present.

Looking at these broken and blinded people, Chen Dong felt his throat constrict. He slammed the white cloth onto the stone steps, his voice fiercer than the northern wind: "Listen, everyone! This is the evil wrought by the Six Traitors! The people of the south are ruined by the Flower and Rock Convoy, the elders of Hebei are driven to cannibalism by the land-seizure offices, and our border soldiers die of cold and hunger while their families cannot even find their bodies!"

Chen Dong walked among the people and bowed deeply to them: "Only today do I realize that the evil of these six is worse than that of the barbarians! They scrape the marrow from the people’s bones and hollow out the foundations of the Great Song. Now that the Jin are at our gates, they want to grease the soles of their feet and flee!"

He turned and shouted toward the imperial palace, his voice tinged with the metallic tang of blood: "Today, we shall petition the throne. We ask for nothing else but for the court to hand over these six traitors so that those they have wronged may carve them to pieces with their own hands!"

"Kill Cai Jing!" someone shouted, the response like a thunderclap.
"Cut Tong Guan to pieces!"
"Boil Wang Fu alive!"

The roar of tens of thousands merged into a flood, vibrating the archway of the Imperial Academy.

Chen Dong held the white cloth high, his silhouette standing as straight as a pine in the cold wind: "I hope you will all follow me to the palace gates and implore the court to remove these six! Once the traitors are gone, the hearts of the people will be at peace; when the hearts of the people are at peace, the Jin can be driven back! If Heaven does not protect the Song, I am willing to stain the palace walls with my blood to awaken the world!"

"Agreed!"

Hundreds of students responded in unison, raising the white cloth banners inscribed with "Kill the Six Traitors" and "Resist the Jin," and followed Chen Dong toward the Xuande Gate.

As they passed a tavern, the proprietor chased them out, carrying two jars of wine. He shoved them into their arms: "Drink this to bolster your courage! If the court dares to stop you, the staff of my tavern will follow you too!"

The crowd surged like a tide, grinding brick and stone into powder underfoot. The northern wind carried their angry shouts, piercing through layers of palace walls and pressing directly upon the song-and-dance-filled Zichen Hall, where the Six Traitors lurked.

Outside the Xuande Gate, the officers of the Imperial City Guard tried to block their path. Seeing the surging crowd, they turned pale, raising their blades and shouting, "By imperial decree, those who gather to riot shall be beheaded!"

Chen Dong stepped forward, holding the white cloth above his head to face the blades: "General, look at the words written here! Cai Jing has brought disaster upon the nation, Tong Guan has colluded with the Jin, and Wang Fu has sold offices for profit! Do you dare say you do not know these things? The pay you receive every month is earned from the sweat and toil of the people—it is the fat and blood of the populace! Now the Jin are coming, and instead of protecting us, you are helping the traitors block our path?"

"You! Do you dare defy the imperial decree?" The officer’s blade trembled violently.

"Imperial decree?" Chen Dong sneered, his voice rising sharply. "If an imperial decree orders that traitors rule the land and the Jin trample our central plains, then that decree is nothing but waste paper!"

The students behind him echoed: "Execute the Six Traitors! Save our homeland!"

The officer, fearing he would disturb the nobility, raised his whip to drive the crowd back, but Chen Dong caught his hand: "Do you dare strike the people? Everyone here is a loyal subject of the Great Song!"

"That's right!" A woman threw a clod of frozen dirt at his feet. "My husband serves in the border army. He wrote last month saying he hadn't been paid for two months, and they eat nothing but watery soup. Have you ever cared about that?"

The shouting was like rolling thunder, shaking the palace walls. Soon, tens of thousands had surrounded them—farmers with hoes, old veterans leaning on canes. Their voices slammed against the vermilion palace gates, splashing back in echoes of rage:

"Give us back our pay!"
"Damn the evil thieves!"
"Kill the Six Traitors to appease the world!"

Their cries merged into a flood, battering the vermilion gates.

"Your Majesty! Wake up!"
"Kill the traitors, save our country!"

Inside the palace walls, the argument in the Zichen Hall continued. Zhao Ji, startled by the shouting outside, revealed only his trembling boots. Wang Fu and Bai Shizhong knelt on the ground, incessantly crying, "Send troops to suppress them!" but Li Gang suddenly pushed past the eunuchs blocking his way and strode toward the hall door.

"Your Majesty!" His voice was heavy with sorrow and indignation as he shouted to Zhao Ji on the throne. "Listen to the voices outside! Those are the hearts of the people! If you do not make a decision now, what will become of the Great Song?"

Another eunuch ran in, panicked, holding a letter just arrived from Cai Jing’s residence: "Your Majesty! A letter from Grand Tutor Cai!"

"Cai Jing?" Zhao Ji, as if grasping at a straw, snatched the letter and tore it open.

But as he read, his face turned pale. The letter stated: "The Jin forces are too strong. It would be better to retreat to Jiangning (Jinling) to preserve our strength and plan for the future."

Overwhelmed, he couldn't help but shout, "He actually wants me to move the capital!"

"Move the capital?" Li Gang was shaking with rage. He snatched the letter and tore it to shreds. "Cai Jing, that old thief! Even at a time like this, he thinks only of running away! Your Majesty! If you dare to move the capital, how will you face your ancestors? How will you face the people outside who are petitioning you?"

The shouting outside drew closer; one could already hear the scolding of the Imperial Guards and the curses of the people. Wang Fu secretly tugged at Bai Shizhong’s sleeve, and the two exchanged a look. Taking advantage of Zhao Ji’s daze, they quietly retreated, clearly intending to slip away.

Li Gang watched their retreating backs, then looked at Zhao Ji, who was cowering and trembling on the throne, then listened to the deafening roars outside. He felt a wave of despair.

He suddenly knelt, bowing three times toward the north, his forehead striking the golden bricks until it bled. "Your subject Li Gang is willing to die to prove his sincerity. I implore Your Majesty to execute the traitors and reorganize the army to resist the Jin! If Your Majesty does not agree, I shall die right here in the Zichen Hall!"

"Your subject, Wu Min, feels the same." The Imperial Remonstrator Wu Min knelt in response.

"Your subject, Xu Han, begs Your Majesty to reorganize the troops and resist the Jin!" The Imperial Secretariat Drafter Xu Han was the third to step forward.

The civil and military officials below the steps had different reactions: some joined Li Gang in advocating for war, others requested to send envoys to seek peace, but most were at a loss, standing there in a daze. Others, holding to the principle that doing nothing would lead to no mistakes, watched coldly from the sidelines.

Soon, the various factions began to argue, and one could occasionally hear phrases from the Confucian classics, such as "War is a tool of ill omen; the sage uses it only as a last resort," and "The calamity of war will shake the foundations of the nation."

Their voices passed through the palace doors, mixing into the shouts of the people outside like a stone cast into a lake, creating ripples of unrest.

But all that responded to him were the panicked expression of Zhao Ji and the hurried footsteps of Wang Fu and Bai Shizhong.

The cold wind continued to blow, carrying the chill of the northern frontier and the coming storm, enveloping this prosperous yet fragile capital. The court remained locked in endless debate, torn between war and peace, unable to make a decision while the best opportunity slipped away.

No one knew what catastrophe this storm would bring; they only knew that Bianjing now stood on the edge of a cliff.