Original subtitles

♫ Raising the wine cup, I toast to the boundless sky ♫

♫ In talks and laughters are vast mountains and rivers. ♫

♫ Love and hate, debt and feuds, have all dissolved. ♫

♫ Where's my soul's hometown and my kindred spirits? ♫

♫ Seasons rolling by, we dream for harvest. ♫

♫ Warriors and warhorses howl across the sky. ♫

♫ If only I could turn into the wind, ♫

♫ to blow away all the pain in mortal coil. ♫

♫ I toast to the blue sky, to courage in solitude, ♫

♫ to migrating gooses, to boats heading home. ♫

♫ With even three thousand days and nights, ♫

♫ Will it be enough to drain this cup I toast to peace? ♫

[Swords into Plowshares]

[Episode 45]

Your Majesty.

I am guilty.

I should not have believed

the words of the enemy state

and brought disaster to our state.

I have failed

our ancestors,

and failed the land and people of Great Tang.

I should been condemned to death to repay you.

Master Xu, you are not guilty.

The guilty one is me.

It is me,

who have failed our ancestors,

failed the officers and men of the three armies,

and failed the people of Jiangnan.

Your Majesty! Your Majesty!

How I regret it now.

I regret that

I did not follow

Li Yuanqing's advice.

Enough.

We cannot fight,

and

we cannot sue for peace.

Then we must surrender.

Your Majesty!

Long ago,

I heard of the Jin Emperor led out a lamb,

and thought,

there was no misery in this world

greater than that.

Now, decades later,

it is my turn.

Yet I find it is nothing.

Born in a troubled age,

even if one is the Emperor,

what can be done?

Master Xu,

you

shall draft the surrender document for me and present it to the Song camp.

The crimes of Jiangnan

rest solely

on my shoulders.

Even

ten thousand deaths

would not suffice.

I beg the Song Emperor

to have mercy

upon the suffering common people,

to treat the officials, scholars, and folk well,

and bestow upon the people of Jiangnan

a real

era of

peace.

For forty years my land and state were mine,

Three thousand miles of mountains and of streams.

Phoenix towers and dragon halls pierced clouds and sky,

Jade trees and jewelled boughs in mists and dreams.

How could I know of war and battle cries?

One day a captive, vassal to another,

My slender waist and grizzled hair decay.

Worst was the hurried farewell to ancestral shrine,

While parting songs were played the courtly way;

In tears I faced the palace maids that day.

One day a captive, vassal to another,

My slender waist and grizzled hair decay.

In tears I faced the palace maids that day.

Your son is already considered quite good.

The brats in my own household,

spend their days in nothing but feasting, drinking, and revelry,

or playing around with the female attendants.

Compared to the one in the city,

who is willing to devote himself to poetry and prose,

he is already considered promising.

To live a peaceful and stable life,

to avoid danger,

and not to stir up trouble,

that is already being a good child.

You yourself have struggled your whole life.

Now, looking at the younger generation, you hope they won't cause trouble?

Our family,

from Grandfather to Father,

to Sixth Brother, Seventh Brother,

and finally down to me, their younger brother,

has been struggling for nearly a century.

The world has fallen into chaos.

It does not allow you to peacefully live a life of peace.

If you don't struggle,

the whole family cannot even preserve their lives,

let alone protect the state and its people.

But now,

the era is about to change.

Let's finish the battle before us first.

It has been over a year since the Emperor decreed the southern campaign.

Jiangning, after all, is the capital of a state.

No matter how depleted, raising tens of thousands of soldiers should not be too difficult.

Even the most wretched court

always has a few loyal ministers and

defiant descendants, figures like Tian Heng. [Tian Heng: late Qin's noble of Qi, resisted Han with determination]

As long as I have breath left in me, [Tian Heng: late Qin's noble of Qi, resisted Han with determination]

I will never allow anyone under my very eyes

to become a Tian Heng.

The Southern Tang ruler surrenders to the Imperial Court!

The Southern Tang ruler surrenders to the Imperial Court!

The Southern Tang ruler surrenders to the Imperial Court!

I, your guilty subject, Li Yu, surrenders to the Grand Marshal and Marshals of the Superior State.

By the decree of our Ruler,

we present to the Grand Marshal and Marshals

the seal of Southern Tang,

nineteen prefectures, one hundred and eighty counties, with registers of land, population, and households.

Grand Marshal.

The land and the people

all belong to the state.

I beseech you, Marshal,

to accept them in the Emperor's name.

But why go to such lengths?

Grand Marshal.

Go back safely to the capital.

Go and see for me

what Bianjing is like today.

In the year 975 AD,

November,

Jinling City fell.

The Southern Tang ruler, Li Yu, came out in plain white robes to surrender,

presenting the formal submission.

The Southern Tang regime, which had lasted nearly forty years,

was thus toppled.

Its territory of twenty-two prefectures was finally incorporated into the Great Song's domain.

Our brothers have fought bloody battles for years.

Now, with great victory at hand, the Marshal forbids the armies from entering the city.

We fear the troops' morale may waver, leading to unforeseen trouble.

Marshal, all the great and fierce battles along the way, were fought with our blood and sacrifice.

Now that Jiangning city has fallen, those who enter are those Wuyue troops.

Such an unreasonable order cannot win the troops' respect.

We implore you to reconsider.

We implore you to reconsider.

Which battalion's morale,

is wavering?

And which battalion's officers and soldiers,

are about to cause trouble?

I joined the army as a boy.

On my very first day in the camp, the Company Commander personally told me:

Military orders are as weighty as mountains.

For those who disobey orders, the camp has seventeen forms of punishment and fifty-four offenses to be executed.

An order is an order.

An order that suits your fancy is as weighty as a mountain.

Does an order that doesn't suit your fancy

become as light as a feather?

Is an absurd order that fails to win respect

no longer a military order?

Lord An of the previous dynasty once said: [Lord An: An Chongrong of Later Jin, Military Governor of Weide]

"The Emperor [Lord An: An Chongrong of Later Jin, Military Governor of Weide]

is he who has the strongest army and the sturdiest horses."

Yet just a few years later,

he was reduced to a pile of bloody pulp.

Now, after fighting a few battles,

tell me,

which battalion is it

that now thinks its army is strong and its horses sturdy?

And which brave fellow among you

sees the aura of the Emperor above his own head now?

Or perhaps,

among you,

someone has eaten something unclean, and his heart is corrupted.

He has secretly prepared the yellow banners,

intending to wrap them around me and Marshal Pan?

The world has changed.

Understand?

Put away all those old, underhanded tricks—

inciting the rank and file, coercing superiors, corrupting military law,

overturning all order and decency—

all those petty, scheming thoughts.

Put them away now.

I

now show a way out for you all.

Sit quietly in your camps.

Keep your soldiers and men in check.

When we return to the capital, the merits to be recorded, the rewards to be given—

not a single coin, not a single honor will be short of yours.

But if you seek death,

my personal guard from the command tent

are all former Imperial Guards.

If that is not enough,

under Grand Marshal King Qian,

there are still tens of thousands of elite troops.

Whichever camp rebels,

I will slaughter that camp.

Upon returning to the capital, I will report to the Emperor and have their three clans exterminated.

Cao Bin is a smart man.

In the military,

few as smart as him

are to be found.

Yes.

A great city lies before him, the glory of conquering a kingdom is at hand,

yet he still knows so well the way of forbearance and patience.

Truly remarkable.

However, he himself refuses to enter the city gate,

yet asks you, Great King, to lead the Wuyue troops in.

His intention

can hardly be called kind.

He knows that I

will certainly not go.

That is not his, Cao Bin’s, Jiangning,

nor is it my Jiangning.

It is the Emperor’s and the court’s Jiangning.

So,

Great King, you sent troops but would not go yourself,

and instead sent Ding, as the City-Entry Envoy with the title of Army Supervisor.

Whether I enter the city or not,

the Emperor may not even care.

It’s those in court,

the chief ministers,

most born in times of chaos.

They catch a whiff of such things and will jump at it.

That is no Jiangning.

It is clearly a deep pit.

He, Cao Bin, won’t jump in.

I, of course, will not jump in either.

That’s for the best.

Ding, relying on his role as imperial overseer, has been mad for the spotlight all this way.

This time,

let’s just give him

a big spotlight.

The whole army has been cursing these past few days.

Let them curse.

As long as they don’t cause trouble,

and we can return safely and steadily to the capital,

then

they can curse my ancestors if they want.

Are we really going to give up Jiangning to them?

This is the nation’s territory.

How can we privately give it away?

King Qian is a man of supreme intelligence.

He should understand my meaning.

The Eldest Prince and the heir are still young after all.

A grand occasion like this, they may never encounter once in their lifetime.

Let them enter the city to broaden their horizons would be good.

Protect the Heir and the Eldest Prince!

Yes!

Five thousand warriors march,

banners of the Black Cloud Company.

Where there is life, there is death.

Our blood sacrifices to Tang and Wu!

Roaming across three thousand li,

looking down upon fifty provinces.

In Jiangnan are righteous men,

whom the Nine Cauldrons cannot contain!

The bandits are fierce, but few in number.

Once our main force forms its battle array, victory can be decided in an instant.

I beg Heir and Eldest Prince to step back for now.

Zhongshun Company!

Yes!

Form array!

Destroy the bandits!

There! Go!

[left: Lu Yanzhu; right: Shen Chengli]

Heir!

Eldest Prince!

I was late in providing protection.

Heir! Eldest Prince!

After a rough check of the corpses on the street, most are young and middle-aged men.

Only a few dozen are older,

at most not over fifty.

Li Yuanqing was not found.

This man is the true heart of the trouble.

If this traitor does not die, Jiangnan cannot be pacified.

Heir, rest assured.

We will order officers and soldiers to search the streets carefully again.

We will definitely cap...

There's no need for a careful search.

This is the capital of an enemy state.

Everyone in the city is an enemy.

Order the entire army:

conduct a full city sweep!

Supervisor!

Those who harbor Li Yuanqing and his rebel faction,

exterminate their three clans!

Their family assets and property go to the officers and soldiers.

Supervisor!

Jiangnan is newly pacified, people unsettled.

Now we should focus on calming the people.

I am the Army Supervisor of the Shengzhou Campaign, and also the Envoy for entering the city, personally appointed

by the Grand Marshal and Marshal.

Prince,

are you defying my order?

Supervisor!

Order the entire army:

conduct a full city sweep!

Yes!

Go see Father.

Chengyou.

Great King.

Go and tell Cao Bin for me.

Yes.

Say that

I invite him to enter the city with me

to quell the disorder.

Yes.

Kneel down.

Properly.

Reporting: The personal guards have captured

a total of one hundred and thirteen officers who violated the prohibitions.

Among them,

eight are arsonists, nineteen condoned their troops injuring or killing people,

sixteen committed rape, and seventy plundered civilian property.

We request you to decide their punishment.

The Wuyue army has its own laws.

The Grand Marshal will deal with them separately after returning to camp.

Those who plundered civilian property

shall receive eighty cane strokes,

be stripped of their titles and appointments, and sent to labor service.

All plundered civilian wealth must be returned in full.

Those who set fire,

injure people,

and the rapists

are to be executed immediately.

We know our wrongs, Great King!

Spare us, Great King! Great King!

This is a military order.

It is also the king's command.

We know our wrongs!

Spare us, we beg you!

Go! Move!

Go!

Great King, spare our lives!

Move!

Army Supervisor of the Campaign,

Ding Deyu, where are you?

Grand Marshal, I am here.

Have you captured Li Yuanqing?

Reporting to the Grand Marshal,

he is

cunning and deceitful.

He has not yet been captured.

You are the Court's Introduction Commissioner.

According to regulations, I have no authority to punish you.

But today,

within the Wuyue army,

just among officers,

forty-three were executed.

Over seventy were caned.

As for the other cavalry and infantry soldiers, those executed or punished are too numerous to count.

Moreover,

such a famous and great city,

now,

lies burnt to patches of ruins.

Innocent commoners,

who did not perish in the war,

died instead in the chaos caused by our Wuyue troops.

Every household hangs mourning banners.

Every family wears mourning clothes.

I once heard that Wang Quanbin slaughtered and plundered Yizhou,

yet was angered by his army's lack of discipline.

But I never imagined

that such heinous crimes

would one day fall upon my own shoulders.

You are from the Court.

I cannot punish you.

But I

cannot swallow my anger.

Mei.

Grand Marshal.

Do me a favor.

Press this traitor down at the foot of the steps.

Grand Marshal.

I

am the Army Supervisor of the Campaign!

What are you doing?

Let me go!

I have always been clear about gratitude and grudges.

Today's matter,

has nothing to do with the other generals.

It was I

who fought with him due to personal enmity.

Once this traitor is beheaded,

I will trouble Bin and Mei

to arrest me

and present me before the Emperor in the capital to uphold the national law.

Great King, you must not! Calm your anger!

Great King! Great King!

Step aside!

Calm your anger, Great King!

Great King, calm your anger!

Father, calm your anger!

Fine!

I will not kill him.

I will not kill him.

You two,

get away!

Get away!

Ding Deyu!

I don't kill you.

I don't kill you.

If I don't kill you,

I would be ashamed to see my ancestors!

Great King!

You must not, Great King!

I am not only the King of Wuyue,

but also the Minister of Works of Song, and the Grand Marshal of All Forces.

Do you dare to defy your superior

and try my military law?

Great King, Grand Marshal, calm your anger.

This Ding is merely a crude soldier.

Why ruin the your reputation for the sake of such a man?

Bin, let me go!

Let me go!

Why aren't you taking Ding away and administer forty strokes?

Let me go!

One hundred strokes!

Le us go! Let us go!

Generals, consider the greater situation.

Do not place the Grand Marshal in an unjust position.

Get out!

Get out!

Get away!

You fool!

Get out!

Take him away.

Make way.

Grand Marshal, forgive our rudeness.

The people of Jiangning...

It is my fault.

I...

wishes to follow the Way of a King.

Issue the order.

All troops...

return to the capital.

Yes!

Edict on the crimes of false ruler of Jiangnan:

I, having received the Mandate of Heaven,

hold the sacred vessels and rule the land.

My will is to unify the realm and bring peace to all people.

However, the false ruler of Jiangnan, Li Yu,

inheriting a legacy from successive generations,

occupies a remote region and usurps the title.

For generations, he has been rebellious, his crimes accumulating.

His sins are innumerable, incurring the wrath of heaven and man.

Consulting the ancient canons,

clear punishment is warranted.

Proclaiming this to the world,

let there be no remittance.

Do you admit your guilt?

We, your subjects, divided the land and established separate states,

usurped titles and violated regulations,

resisted the imperial army, and refused to submit to royal authority,

causing the people of Jiangnan region to suffer,

where all people found no peace.

My guilt is clear;

I dare not argue.

I humbly beg the Emperor for mercy,

and execute me alone, to atone for the state and its people.

All our clan relatives and ministers, including women, children, and the elderly, were misled by us.

We beg Your Majesty for leniency, to allow the people of the fallen state

to share in the imperial grace and enjoy an era of peace.

If you knew this day would come, why did you act as you did?

Since you have admitted your guilt,

I

will impose no further punishment.

Draft the decree.

Enfeoff Li Yu

as Marquis of Disobedience,

appoint him as Commander of the Left Imperial Guard.

Appoint Xu Xuan as Senior Court Attendant,

Zhang Ji as Attendant of the Crown Prince, serving in the Secretariat,

The rest shall all be granted official ranks and attend court assemblies according to their positions.

I receive the decree.

Your guilty subjects kowtow in gratitude for the Emperor's grace.

The Jiangnan Region is pacified.

Households are registered and the people unified. The territory is unified.

The locals are tranquil and peaceful. Generals and commanders have striven with all their might.

We, your subjects, respectfully congratulate the Emperor.

We, your subjects, respectfully congratulate the Emperor.

Ding Deyu.

Your Majesty.

What happened to your ear?

King Qian is arrogant and despotic.

He scorns the heavenly dignity of you Your Majesty, and bullies and oppresses your subjects.

We beg Your Majesty to uphold justice for me.

He only cut off one of your ears?

Truly, time spares no one.

Even Chu has grown old.

Your Majesty,

for today's assembly, the ceremony for presenting captives is concluded.

The remaining matters

can

be discussed in a later court session.

The Marquis of Disobedience and others have just entered the court.

It is fitting to bestow a banquet upon them, to show your grace.

Good.

Your Majesty,

the Qian clan has carved out a separatist regime in the southeast,

dividing the nation and splitting the land, damaging the unity of the state.

Now, they have even openly defied the laws of the state,

torturing and interrogating a great general of the court.

Their usurpation and arrogance are such.

I ventures to

request Your Majesty to follow the precedent of Jiangnan,

raise troops to punish them,

in order to achieve the unification of the realm.

The King of Wuyue diligently fulfills his tributary duties, and serves the Central Kingdom well.

I am the Emperor,

How can I raise troops without just cause?

Your Majesty once said,

the common people of the realm have long suffered from division and collapse.

With these words,

you raised troops and took Jinling.

Now it is Wuyue's turn.

Your Majesty,

why do you favor one and discriminate against the other?

Ding Deyu.

Yes.

I appoint you to command the six armies,

to welcome King Qian back to court.

What is your opinion?

I dare not refuse to serve unto death.

Your death

is not worth a pity.

What I pity is the lives of the people,

and the soldiers there.

Draft the decree.

Strip Ding Deyu of his titles and appointments,

demote him to Prefect of Fangzhou, and place him under local supervision.

Yes.

Ding is merely a crude soldier.

Just deal with him.

Your Majesty need not be distressed.

You think

I am angry at that wretch?

Since Wang Pu presented the “Strategy for Pacifying the Borders”,

Rong and I established the Palace Command to reorganize the imperial army,

it has been over twenty years, hasn’t it?

Yet even today,

there are still people who dare to treat military law as nothing

and regard the common people as pigs and dogs.

Rules destroyed over two hundred years ago –

how difficult it is,

to rebuild them again.

Your Majesty,

most of the generals in the army inherited their posts from Liang, Tang, Jin, Han, Zhou –

the five previous courts.

Your Majesty has reigned for only fifteen years.

As the saying goes, flaws are easy to remove, but ingrained habits are hard to change.

Arrogant soldiers and unruly generals mostly emerge from chaotic times.

As long as the world enjoys lasting peace and there are no wars on the borders,

the arrogance and laziness in the army will then lose their foundation.

If the court strictly enforces military law, such incidents will naturally decrease.

To bring peace to the world,

we must first achieve the unification of the realm.

Today, Xu’s provocative words in court are originally not worth mentioning.

However, the Qian family has ruled the southeast land

for nearly a hundred years now, through five reigns.

Their governance, military, and finances have all become an independent system.

Now that the Jiangnan matter is concluded,

the matter of Wuyue has indeed reached the time for discussion.

What's your opinion, Kuangyi?

Although Wuyue is a military governorship, it has always been respectful to the court.

King Qian is also a hero of this era,

and has an old friendship with Your Majesty.

Due to his efforts, the thirteen prefectures in the southeast are stable and prosperous.

Your younger brother believes Minister Zhao’s words are reasonable.

However, Wuyue is different from Southern Tang,

and King Qian is certainly not someone like Li Yu and his kind.

Even if there are discussions or plans within the court,

we must act with caution and prudence.

The great war has just ceased;

now is definitely not the time to mobilize armies again.

What about you all?

Speak your minds.

I have jointly held the military tally with the Grand Marshal, King Qian, for over a month,

yet I cannot fathom his mind and depth.

Regarding Ding's case, he acted out of righteous indignation;

there were reasons for it, and it was not an act of arrogance.

I observed the troops of Wuyue;

in battle, they showed no fear, and their discipline during marches was quite strict.

The tragedy in Jinling would not have happened had they not received Ding’s military orders.

In your view,

how many troops would be needed

to capture the thirteen prefectures?

I dare not deceive Your Majesty.

Wuyue is completely different from Jiangnan; it would require no less than three hundred thousand troops.

Mei, your opinion?

Maybe two hundred thousand elite troops can have a try.

So it seems

Bin’s talent is not as great as Mei’s.

Two hundred thousand elite troops might be able to destroy their state,

but it would turn the southeast land, into a wasteland.

Into a wasteland...

Draft an edict.

Summon King Qian to court.

Registrar,

what kind of extravagant person is this, that it requires you to travel so far to welcome him?

He was originally a Marshal in the army.

He caused trouble during the southern campaign, and that’s why he was exiled to Fangzhou.

They say that

Considering his past merits in battle,

[Guo Yue, Registrar of Fangzhou Prefecture] His Majesty is unwilling to take his life.

[Guo Yue, Registrar of Fangzhou Prefecture] For such a person,

you cannot treat him lightly, nor can you attach to him too much importance.

Is this Marshal Ding’s carriage?

I, Guo Yue, Registrar of Fangzhou Prefecture,

by order of the Prefect, come specially here to welcome you.

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles stretch towering mountains. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles run surging rivers. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles cry warhorses. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles there are emotions unspoken. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, flowers are blooming along the road. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, gooses are returning to the north. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, we stand through storms. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, we hope for a safe return. ♫

♫ Tens of thousands of miles is not enough, ♫

♫ for a lifetime's sorrows and joys. ♫

♫ Tens of thousands of miles is not enough, ♫

♫ for the endless seas and rivers. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, ♫

♫ love will overcome all barriers. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, ♫

♫ we are together in life and death. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, ♫

♫ the moon shines in the boundless world. ♫

♫ My heart has its hometown to return. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, ♫

♫ who is the one crossing the waves with me, ♫

♫ with our hearts unrepentant, through countless lifetimes. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, ♫

♫ oceans and lands witness that♫

♫ the world will be safe and sound. ♫

♫ Across tens of thousands of miles, ♫

♫ my heart is unchanging. ♫