I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 23 We Would Rather Surrender to Mr. Zhao

Seeing the remaining pirates who had escaped come back, Zhao Zicheng and Murong Yan couldn't believe their eyes.

"They were clearly defeated and fled, so why are they coming back? Could it be that they are still determined to try again?" Zhao Zi said he couldn't understand it at all.

In the end, Deng Yue had traveled more often by water and was more knowledgeable. He looked into the distance and finally found a clue.

"It's the Zhenjiang Prefecture's naval forces coming from upstream! These little thieves have been stopped and driven back!"

Zhao Zicheng suddenly realized it.

Such a large-scale and brutal bloody battle took place on the river, which lasted for almost half an hour.

The Xiang Army navy responsible for river defense patrols should arrive at the scene to clean up the mess, no matter how slow they are to react. Otherwise, if they are held accountable by their superiors, none of them will be able to withstand it.

As a garrison soldier, you may not be very good at fighting, but you cannot completely turn a blind eye to the enemy's activities. Even if it is just to show up, you have to come and hang around.

These people are like the cops in Hong Kong movies; it's too late to count on them for a fight. But once the fight is over and the winner is decided, they always show up at the right time to make a noise and shout a few words to make their presence felt.

"They arrived at a perfect time this time. So, let's deploy our forces and block their path, lest they escape and harbor a grudge before seeking revenge again!"

To cut the grass, one must root it out. Zhao Zi said that he did not want the news that he was carrying a large amount of treasures and secret books on the journey to be known to all the green forest people in Jiangbei.

Zhao Zi said that judging by common sense, it was basically certain that, up to this point, this group of Yangtze River pirates had probably not yet passed on the news of the Flower and Stone Gang to their fellow comrades. This was because they also wanted to keep the spoils to themselves and did not want more competition.

But if these bandits return in defeat this time and realize that they cannot defeat Yang Zhi and Zhao Zicheng on their own, then they will most likely spread the news.

Zhao Zicheng's judgment instantly won the approval of Yang Zhi, Deng Yue and others, so the Hua Shi Gang fleet quickly deployed according to Zhao Zicheng's order and tried to intercept on the river.

For a time, Zhao Zicheng had become the chief military commander of the fleet, and even Yang Zhi did not think there was anything wrong with his temporary seizure of power.

After this battle, Zhao Zicheng's prestige among these officers and soldiers had been established unknowingly.

The two sides walked towards each other, and in just a short period of time, the distance between them was less than a hundred feet.

On Zhao Zicheng's fleet, the soldiers drew their bows and arrows and were on high alert, waiting for the pirate ship to come into range again and then shoot.

At this moment, the leading pirate ship suddenly raised a white flag, and several sailors were dancing and shouting on the deck.

Zhao Zicheng thought for a moment and asked Deng Yue suspiciously, "Do they want to surrender?"

Deng Yue was accustomed to the howling river wind, and his hearing was not easily disturbed. He listened for a moment longer and confirmed, "They are indeed shouting about surrender. It seems they would rather surrender to us than be captured by the Zhenjiang wing troops."

Zhao Zi said that he didn't understand why the other party made such a decision, but since they wanted to surrender without a fight, he might consider giving them a chance, as long as he could ensure that it was not a false surrender.

Zhao Zicheng's eyes rolled as he quickly gave the order: "The bandits are erratic and must be guarded against. If they are simply afraid of being rained down by arrows and are trying to feign surrender and buy time to break through the encirclement, that would be disastrous."

"Let our men also announce that if they want to surrender, only one ship is allowed to come over first, and the rest of the ships must anchor where they are and not come near. And the ship that comes over to surrender must throw all its weapons into the water in front of us. Otherwise, we will shoot arrows."

Deng Yue immediately arranged for the servants of the Murong family to shout as ordered, and then Yang Zhi and others on the boat also began to shout.

The river was noisy, and the approaching thieves did not react for a while. One or two small boats were rushing too fast and still disobeyed Zhao Zicheng's orders and got too close.

The result was naturally a hail of arrows washing their faces, and three or five more were shot dead. After being frightened by the rain of arrows, the remaining thieves finally sobered up and strictly followed Zhao Zicheng's military orders.

Most of the pirate ships dropped their anchors on the spot, gave up resistance and fled. The leading ship, which was obviously slightly larger than the other pirate ships, slowly approached Zhao Zicheng's ship.

When they were still twenty or thirty feet away, they began to throw their swords, machetes, bows and arrows, javelins and rattan shields into the river in front of Zhao Zicheng, not daring to be stingy with their equipment at all.

If they started throwing arrows from a greater distance, they feared Zhao Zicheng wouldn't be able to see clearly, and the throws would be in vain. If they caused a misunderstanding and drew a hail of arrows, they would have no recourse. In the end, the two sides were only five or six feet apart, and the pirate ship dared not approach any further. Instead, a large man jumped directly from the deck into the river, paddled seven or eight times, swam to Zhao Zicheng's boat, and pleaded with the government troops to let him on board and surrender.

Zhao Zicheng's boat was covered in caltrop fishing nets with bitter bamboo sticks on both sides. If he climbed directly onto the boat, he would definitely get entangled in the nets. So Zhao Zicheng had one of his servants hold out a long bamboo pole and let the other person climb onto the boat by pulling on it.

The big man was only wearing a pair of calf-nose pants for swimming, with no clothes on his upper body. There was no place on his body to hide weapons. It could be seen that this man was a rough but careful person, and had tried his best to avoid misunderstandings and accidental discharge of his weapons.

After getting on the deck, the big man took a quick look and then bowed to Zhao Zicheng: "We were deceived by Shi Sheng and offended the great sir. Now we have no other choice but to surrender and admit our guilt and punishment."

Zhao Zicheng couldn't help but snort coldly and laughed, "This isn't the way you green forest people behave. When did you become so weak?"

The man did not hide his intention and said directly: "Right now, the navy of Zhenjiang Prefecture is blocking us upstream. It is difficult for us to return home. If we flee downstream, we are unfamiliar with the place. Even if we break through the blockade, we will be in danger sooner or later.

We are well aware that the Zhenjiang Prefecture's garrison troops are poorly disciplined, their regular efforts to maintain river defenses ineffective, and their frequent reprimands by superiors. Driven to desperation, they have even resorted to killing innocent people to claim credit for their work. If we surrender to them, we fear death. As for the great official, while we don't know him well, we at least have some hope of survival.

"Besides, the great official is capable. To be able to devise such a plan, he must be far superior to those flatterers under Zhu Zhen. We would rather surrender to the great official and gamble our lives on this one. Although we have been thieves, the imperial court has recruited countless bandits over the years. I hope the great official will give us a chance."

Zhao Zicheng touched his chin, which had not yet grown any stubble, and rubbed it for a few times, thinking to himself:
He was a man of current affairs, a very pragmatic mindset, and indeed had some foresight and judgment. This level of insight was considered quite good among thieves.

As for loyalty and the determination to fight to the death, this man did not have much of these, but he dared to swim to the official ship alone and surrender without weapons, which showed that he had some courage and dared to take the gamble.

He knew that surrendering to the Zhenjiang navy would probably result in death and be counted as military merit, so he specifically sought out an enemy he didn't know to take a gamble.

Zhao Zicheng also did not want to be seen as "Zhu Zhen's running dog" in the future. He was willing to give a chance to those who repented and surrendered, so as to leave a loophole. This would also help him win over the people when he wanted to deal with Fang La in the future.

Zhao Zi said that the ideal image he hoped to create in his heart was actually "only to protect the Song Dynasty, but not to protect the tyrant emperor and the corrupt officials."

As long as you don't mess with me, don't mess with my territory, and only mess with Zhu Zhen, the dog official, then I won't bother you. But if you frame me, or use the banner of killing the dog official to expand the attack and harm innocent people, then don't blame me for being ruthless.

This is also the reason why Zhao Zicheng showed no mercy when he killed Zhang Heng just now.

Who was Zhang Heng? Just a weakling swinging a knife at an even weaker one, an impotent, furious thug.

He treated people to so many flat-knife noodles and wontons, and he dared to say that those he killed were all corrupt officials who harmed the people? Obviously not. How could the poor customers who wanted to save a few fare by taking a small boat across the river be corrupt officials who harmed the people? On the contrary, most of them were helpless people who were struggling to survive.

After thinking it through, Zhao Zicheng gave the other party a chance: "You are quite courageous. You dare to swim to my boat alone to surrender. If I want to kill you now, it would be like killing a dog's ear."

The big man gritted his teeth, but remained calm as he said, "The court is now corrupt and incompetent, and all civil and military officials rely on flattery to gain office. The senior official has real ability and will certainly select talented people, even if they are thieves.

Given your ability, you certainly wouldn't be like those incompetent officials, worried about not being able to suppress the surrender. That's why I dare to take this gamble with you. We haven't done much evil before. This time, Shi Sheng deceived us and wanted to pay us to borrow a boat.

The other leaders were greedy at the moment, and after hearing that the fleet was carrying ill-gotten gains plundered by Zhu Jie, they coerced the brothers into doing this."

The other party had said so much, Zhao Zicheng did not say any more nonsense, but just asked: "Who are you and where is your hometown?"

The big man breathed a sigh of relief, knowing he had finally passed the first hurdle. He bowed again and said, "My name is Li Jun, a native of Luzhou. I came from Luzhou to Jiangzhen to make a living. I used to sell fish, shrimp, fruits and vegetables, occasionally smuggling salt, and I've also had conflicts with anti-smuggling navy forces. But before this, I have never robbed innocent people. Your Excellency, please understand!"

Seeing that there were no outsiders on the boat, Zhao Zicheng disdained to hide his thoughts and spoke frankly: "Zhu Jie is a very powerful man in Jiangnan. How could I not know this? The money he got was of course ill-gotten gains.

But this kind of petty robbery will only make him more aggressive in Jiangnan, giving him an excuse to plunder even more. This kind of thing only treats the symptoms, not the root cause, and will only cause more harm to the people. If you have the guts, why not go and find trouble with Zhu Zhen directly? Why bother with the poor people below?
Moreover, Shi Sheng's offense against me this time is truly unforgivable! He had already taken refuge with the Yingfeng Bureau and colluded with other clerks there, stealing from the public and shifting the blame onto innocent people. Anyone who colluded with Shi Sheng should be killed!"

These words were well-organized, and Zhao Zicheng actually dared to publicly criticize Zhu Jie's faults, and he clearly distinguished between gratitude and resentment. After listening to them, Li Jun was completely impressed.

"So there are so many twists and turns in this matter. I never thought that a high official, even in government office, could speak frankly about Zhu Jie's crimes. If all officials in the world could distinguish right from wrong so clearly, how could there be so many thieves?"

(End of this chapter)