Chapter 58

Bai Pu glanced at Li Wuqing, his eyes widening in surprise, and asked Liang Wenjing, "So, Brother, do you know this young man?"

Liang Wenjing opened his mouth but had not yet spoken when Liang Tiande preempted him, saying, "No, I just happened to meet this young man on the road. I don't even know his name."

Bai Pu nodded and smiled at Li Wuqing, saying, "Brother, it's an honor to have you here. Bai Pu is delighted."

"Very good, very good."

Li Wuqing laughed, stepped forward, and sat down, saying, "My name is Leng Xue. You can call me by my name."

"So, you are Brother Leng. I am Bai Pu."

Bai Pu clasped his hands and said.

Li Wuqing replied, "I know, I heard it just now."

"This is Mr. Duanmu, known as Changge." Bai Pu pointed to the old man with the purple face. "This is Brother Yan Gang, known as 'Eight-Armed Saber.'" He pointed to the man carrying a saber. Both men merely nodded slightly but did not speak.

"Are the two of you from the north?"

After introducing Duanmu Changge and Yan Gang, Bai Pu asked Liang Tiande and Liang Wenjing.

"Yes, we come from Mount Hua."

"Oh." The white-robed scholar said, "But from your accents, you sound more like southerners."

"Yes, my ancestral home is in Hezhou. I spent some time in Jiangnan when I was young, but I have been in the north for over twenty years."

Bai Pu clapped his hands and said, "The Tartars are rampant in the north. Despite living among the barbarians, you still remember the sounds of the Great Song. That's remarkable. However, your son also has a southern accent, which is even more unusual."

Liang Tiande's muscular body trembled, and the wine in his hand spilled onto his clothes.

"Father." Liang Wenjing suddenly realized, "So, you made me speak that soft and strange language for this reason."

"Eat your meal." Liang Tiande glared at him, scaring Liang Wenjing into burying his head in his bowl.

"May I ask about the situation in the north?"

Before Liang Tiande could speak, Liang Wenjing interjected, "The Mongols are terrible. They treat us Han people like dirt and force Han men to join the army. Father got angry and brought me back to the Great Song."

"Oh."

"Now it's good. We won't be bullied by the Mongols anymore. But... but many people still have to live there in hardship." Liang Wenjing's expression darkened slightly.

"Yes, the tears of the remnant people are exhausted in the dust of the Tartars, and they look southward for the imperial army year after year." Bai Pu sighed deeply.

Liang Tiande sneered, "If I may speak out of turn, even if Yue Wumu and Han Shizhong were reborn, the imperial army of the Great Song would not be able to reach the north."

"What do you mean by that!" Yan Gang's eyes widened in anger. "Do you think the Mongols have three heads and six arms?"

Liang Tiande chuckled, "The Mongols don't have three heads and six arms, but the small court in Lin'an has plenty of meddlesome women."

"You dare to defame the court." Yan Gang was furious.

"I dare not. I just admire how the Great Song can still survive with a large group of sharp-tongued officials who mislead the emperor."

"Hahaha, Uncle Liang is not a coarse person, nor is he talking nonsense. His criticism of the Great Song's problems is right to the point."

Li Wuqing laughed and pointed out, "Since Emperor Taizu Zhao Kuangyin disarmed the generals with a cup of wine, the Song Dynasty has emphasized literature over military affairs, making the army weak. Civil officials, who know nothing about military affairs, command the troops, which is why they lack combat effectiveness. Throughout the Song Dynasty, the great Han nation has lost the grandeur of the Han and Tang dynasties, repeatedly suffering at the hands of foreign invaders. The Zhao royal family bears a significant responsibility for this."

Yan Gang was enraged and glared at Li Wuqing, "You... you dare to insult the royal family and Emperor Taizu."

Bai Pu, who seemed to have excellent manners, also changed his expression and looked at Li Wuqing with disapproval.

Li Wuqing smiled faintly and said with disdain, "I am speaking the truth. In the Northern Song, Emperor Renzong was benevolent, which led to the emergence of famous ministers like Fan Zhongyan, Bao Zheng, and Di Qing, contributing to the prosperity of the Northern Song. However, the Northern Song was destroyed by the Jurchens, and the small court in Lin'an is even worse. Despite having loyal and capable generals like Yue Wumu and Han Shizhong, they could not resist the foreign invaders. How much more so today?"

"Moreover, the Mongols have become a formidable force, with strong armies and the intention to destroy the Great Song. The great rivers and mountains of China are in grave danger."

"Brother Leng has a good understanding. The Mongols are conscripting a large army in the north, showing their urgent desire to destroy the Great Song."

Bai Pu's face showed concern.

"Throughout history, the strong have always swallowed the weak. The Great Song's lack of military strength has left its fertile land vulnerable to the enemy. The fall of the Great Song is now inevitable."

Li Wuqing declared.

Having read history, he knew that the Southern Song was destroyed by the Mongol iron hooves, with plundering and massacres continuing for a long time. Cities like Xiangfan, Jiankang, and Changzhou were all razed to the ground.

Through historical books, one might not fully grasp the blood and tears of the Southern Song's final years, but Li Wuqing knew that the situation at the time must have been very tragic.

Even though in modern times, the textbooks of the Huaxia nation promote the idea that the Huaxia people are one family and that Mongols and Han are one family, reading that history still left Li Wuqing with unresolved feelings.

In the world of Iron Blood and Pride, coinciding with the end of the Southern Song, feeling the hope and love of these patriotic people for their country, Li Wuqing could not help but be emotionally moved when he spoke.

"Destroy the Great Song?" Liang Wenjing stopped eating and asked curiously, "Doesn't the Great Song have soldiers? The storyteller says, 'When the enemy comes, the general will block them; when the water comes, the earth will cover it.' Why not just drive the Tartars back?"

"Heh, what a fine 'when the enemy comes, the general will block them; when the water comes, the earth will cover it.'" Duanmu Changge, who had been silent, suddenly said, "Since Genghis Khan's rise, the Mongols have never been defeated in decades; since Yu Yunwen's victory over the Jurchens, the Song has not won a single battle in nearly a hundred years. The disparity in strength is obvious. You are just talking nonsense, little boy."

Liang Wenjing's face turned red with embarrassment. He turned his head to look elsewhere and saw a painting of "Li Bai Walking and Chanting" in the dark corner of the southern wall, with twenty lines of wild cursive script for "The Difficulty of the Sichuan Road" below it, the brushwork was very unique.

Seeing him staring at the painting, Bai Pu said, "Little brother, do you also like calligraphy and painting?"

"Ah... no." Liang Wenjing blushed and said, "I just think this painting is extraordinary. One can see the painter's considerable effort in the calligraphy and painting."

Bai Pu was taken aback, "Tell me more."

Liang Wenjing said, "Although this painting is only three feet square, the mountains, water, and figures in it seem to be painted on a ten-thousand-foot silk. It shows that the painter had the grandeur and skill to paint a ten-thousand-foot scroll but had to paint it on a three-foot piece of paper. The uncontainable frustration in the brushwork surges outward, as if it wants to tear the mountains, water, and figures apart, making the painting appear exceptionally powerful and wild. The painter's state of mind probably matches Du Gongbu's line: 'Great talents are hard to use.'"