Chapter 739

Li Banghua stayed two days in Huailai City. Accompanied by Ma Guoxi and others, he toured several of the "Eight Scenic Spots of Huailai" with considerable interest, especially climbing Niujiao Mountain outside the East Gate to offer incense at the Temple of Mount Tai.

He also crossed the famous Tongji Stone Bridge over the Guishui River and climbed to the summit of Woniu Mountain, eagerly gazing at the city not far away. It happened to be sunset, and the sight of the moon setting over the western crags was breathtakingly beautiful. So full of poetic charm, it stirred the two men's poetic fervor, and they did not stop until they had "composed" several poems.

Yet if the two men knew that several hundred years later, this ancient city would be submerged beneath the Guanting Reservoir, with all its beautiful scenery gone, one wonders what they would have thought.

Li Banghua continued his journey, with Ma Guoxi accompanying him, intending to see him all the way to Jiming Post Station.

As the Eastern Route Military Defense Intendant, he naturally had the authority to move freely within his jurisdiction. Welcoming an imperial envoy was also part of his duty, and besides, he was now truly idle to the point of boredom.

Traveling on from Huailai City, the next major city was Baoan Guard City, also called Baoan New City (its ruins are in the later-era Xinbaoan Town, Huailai County). Originally just a small post station called Leijia Station, a guard city was built after the "Tumu Fortification" Incident, separated from Baoan Department City across the Yanghe River.

It further administered six Battalion Commander posts: Front, Rear, Left, Right, Center, and North, originally possessing over one hundred and twenty-seven garrison farms, making it a very important fort within the Eastern Route.

The party traveled along, passing through important large forts such as Tumu Fort, Shacheng Fort (later-era Huailai County seat), Dongbali Fort, and Liangtiantun Fort.

The road was flat and the official highway itself was very easy to travel. Every ten li there was a post station. Ma Guoxi voluntarily paid out of his own pocket, arranging for everyone to rest at the post stations at regular intervals. Watching his practiced manner, Li Banghua felt he seemed quite accustomed to this.

The post station officers were very enthusiastic, letting everyone enjoy the highest treatment. However, Li Banghua reflected that these people were only doing it for the money, merely the effect of filthy lucre, and not because of his own dignified status as imperial envoy, which made him feel somewhat sorrowful.

When passing through Tumu Fort, Li Banghua stopped. He prepared sacrificial offerings and entered the Xianzhong Shrine inside the fort to pay homage to the ministers who had died for the country, especially going to worship before the statue of Yu Qian.

Tumu Fort is famous far and wide, but its perimeter is only three hundred and fifty-seven zhang, a very small place. It is hard to imagine how it squeezed in an army of five hundred thousand. When Emperor Xianzong ascended the throne, he rebuilt the Xianzhong Shrine at Tumu Fort, erected a statue of Yu Qian within the shrine, personally wrote the epitaph, and inscribed the shrine's plaque.

At this time, the Xianzhong Shrine covered a considerable area, fifteen zhang east to west and twenty-five zhang north to south. The main gate faced south, and the compound was divided into two courtyards.

When Li Banghua arrived before the main gate, he saw a wooden couplet on each side of the entrance: one read, "A generation's loyalty and integrity honor the ancestors," and the other read, "A thousand autumns of moral integrity tower over the mountains and rivers."

Entering the main gate, he saw a plaque hanging above reading "Awe-Inspiring Integrity," with another pair of wooden couplets on either side: "Exalting the annals of a thousand autumns, commemorating the loyal and good of a generation."

Passing through the second gate and following a brick-paved path over ten zhang long, the party arrived directly before the main hall of the Xianzhong Shrine. There they saw two wooden couplets hanging from the pillars: one read, "Old veterans still harbor sorrow, the army's rout too painful to discuss past events." The other read, "Gentlemen, you should console yourselves, if the sovereign survives, why ask about your humble bodies?"

On either side of the steps before the hall stood stone steles: the stele for the initial construction of Xianzhong Shrine, the stele inscribed with the names of the fallen ministers, the stele for Emperor Xianzong's reconstruction, the stele personally written by Emperor Xianzong for Yu Qian, and the stele for Hu Sishen's reconstruction during the Wanli era. Inside the hall, on the offering table arranged horizontally at the front, were placed the spirit tablets of the various heroes.

The Xianzhong Shrine at Tumu Fort was considered a major shrine of the state. Every year the court was required to perform the "Three Sacrifices at the Public Tomb" (at Qingming, the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and the first day of the tenth month). Only at these times was the main gate opened; at all other times, everyone had to use the side gates.

Normally, the Xianzhong Shrine was maintained by local authorities. Although the Ministry of Rites would allocate some funds, at present neither side could really talk about management. Sacrifices were held only occasionally, sometimes not even once in several years. However, Li Banghua saw traces of repairs both in front of and behind the shrine, and the shrine officer looked ruddy and well-fed, showing no signs of decline whatsoever.

When he asked Ma Guoxi, Ma Guoxi said in a low voice that Wang Dou considered this an important historical relic and had ordered proper management, with fixed annual funds allocated specifically for it, second only to the treatment of the Baozhong Shrine at Shunxiang Fort.

Hearing this, Li Banghua did not know what he felt inside. After paying his respects, he stared blankly at the line on the couplet: "Gentlemen, you should console yourselves, if the sovereign survives, why ask about your humble bodies."

After a long while, he said, "Prepare brush and ink."

He left behind a poem, which read: "The army marched in haste that fateful day, leaving eternal regret upon this battlefield. Loyal blood to this day sinks into the northern desert, a devoted heart forever guards the sovereign. Careless steps fell into the treacherous eunuch's plot, the distant memory of the royal cauldron leaves the lyricist grieved. In this glorious era, spring and autumn rites honor the sacrifice, the courtyard brims with vitality, overflowing with fragrance."

Ma Guoxi read it and repeatedly praised it, ordering the poem to be carved into a poetry stele.

……

Because they were busy with the matter of the poetry stele, the party stayed another day at Tumu Fort, then continued their journey, passing Shacheng Fort, Dongbali Fort, and other places. The scenes along the road ahead were somewhat different.

Li Banghua heard from Ma Guoxi's introduction that around Huailai City, besides farmland, there were many orchards and vegetable gardens, satisfying the increasingly booming demands of the military and civilian populations inside and outside the city, as well as in Baoan Department and Yongning City.

They also exported labor services: teams of farming teams, quarrying teams, blacksmithing teams, mining teams, and road repair teams, all heading to places like Baoan Department to work.

The territory was generally peaceful, with few workshops. The people seen were also relatively refined. Li Banghua even praised the region for having the ambiance of "picking chrysanthemums by the eastern hedge, leisurely gazing at the southern mountains." However, the closer they got to Baoan Guard City, the more workshops there were, and many of the people walking on the roads were laborers.

They moved in groups, all coarse and illiterate, and even more so, their mouths were full of foul language, such as "motherfucker," "bird-brain," "this old man," "fuck your ancestors," and so on, speaking and laughing without restraint, which made Li Banghua frown deeply as he watched.

Hearing that there were even more workshops and livestock farms everywhere over at Baoan Department City, Li Banghua further thought: "This is the source of disaster and chaos."

Large groups of women also passed by laughing and chatting, all wearing headscarves and various kinds of floral-patterned clothes, swaggering through the streets. Ma Guoxi explained that these were the famous seamstresses of Xuanfu. These people could no longer be underestimated; some women earned more money than their own husbands.

Li Banghua frowned deeply: "Womenfolk, showing their faces in public, what kind of decorum is this?"

Hearing further from Ma Guoxi that some of these women actually earned more money than men, he thought even more: "This truly subverts ethical norms, the hen crowing at dawn."

Looking outside, Li Banghua suddenly recalled another matter. Not only were there no refugees in Xuanfu—after all, he had seen shelters upon entering the territory—but in every city and fort, he had not seen a single beggar. Even idlers and ruffians were extremely few.

When he asked about this, Ma Guoxi said that Xuanfu Garrison had established specialized almshouses and orphan camps. The elderly and children incapable of living on their own were all taken in. Under the strict crackdown of the authorities, the Beggars' Sect within the territory had also been swept clean, with the remnants switching professions one after another.

They also severely cracked down on ruffians and wandering swordsmen. Quite a few so-called great swordsmen were arrested and sent to labor in the mines, while the rest flocked into the security escort bureaus.

Li Banghua nodded: "That widowers, widows, orphans, the childless, and the severely ill are all provided for—this is good governance."

He also said: "Confucians disrupt the law with their writing, and swordsmen violate prohibitions with their martial prowess! Since the Han dynasty, wandering swordsmen have been a scourge upon the common people. They should be arrested, they should be killed!"

Ma Guoxi also introduced that in a place like Xuanfu Garrison, quite a few types of permits were needed. For example, from time to time, people would come to check employment permits.

Generally, once you found a job, the shopkeeper or boss would apply to the relevant department and issue you this permit. The same applied to those opening shops, setting up stalls, or doing business, to prove you were not unemployed and homeless. Otherwise, you risked being locked up in a shelter and forcibly assigned work.

This also forced outsiders to constantly look for work. Fortunately, there were quite a lot of jobs here. As long as one was willing to work, one would not fail to find a job; it was just a matter of good or bad.

Li Banghua frowned slightly and said slowly: "...Upon entering a state, observe its customs. The common people are simple and honest, the music is proper and refined, the clothing is plain and clean, everyone holds the authorities in awe and is obedient, preserving the ancient folkways. Entering the cities and government offices, the minor officials are strict and solemn, everyone is respectful, frugal, sincere, and dedicated, loyal and faithful in their duties, without any bad habits, just like the good officials of antiquity. Entering the national capital, Xianyang, the scholar-officials are devoted to their duties, leaving their private gates for the public gate, leaving the public gate to return to their private gates, not using side paths or back roads for private matters, not forming cliques or factions, not engaging in partisan collusion, handling matters and treating people not for personal clarity but for the public good, which can be called the scholar-official ethos of ancient times. Observing the court of the Qin state, its court deliberations are orderly, hearing and deciding all matters without delay, operating in an orderly fashion as if governed without governing, truly a court of ancient ethos..."

He said: "This was the Qin state. When Xunzi wrote his treatises, he praised it vigorously. How similar it is to today's Xuanfu Garrison! Yet Qin ended after its second emperor, precisely because it was excessively strict, and steel cannot endure forever! The Great Han learned its lesson, relaxed the burdens on the people and aided them, and thus had a realm lasting four hundred years. The Marquis of Yongning imitates the tyrannical Qin—how wrong!"

Ma Guoxi stood with his hands behind his back, silent. He always felt that Xuanfu Garrison was still different from the tyrannical Qin. The accumulated ills of the present dynasty were precisely because it treated the localities too leniently. If every part of the Great Ming had the level of control that Xuanfu Garrison had, perhaps the dynasty would not have come to this point!

Of course, he was a man of considerable depth, an old fox. Though he disagreed with Li Banghua's view in his heart, he still said with a smiling face: "What Lord Li says is most correct."

……

The procession of the Imperial Envoy finally reached Baoan Guard City. Of course, having learned their lesson, Li Banghua's party had long since stopped walking in the middle of the road, but instead consciously and willingly kept to the right, thus not causing any further traffic chaos.

Before them was a majestic great city, over seven li in circumference, no less than Huailai Road City. This city leaned against Modou Mountain to the northwest, also called Jiming Mountain, with Yaoer Ridge nearby, and Zhuolu Mountain to the southwest. To the east and south were open fields and plains, with forts like Dongbali and Liangtiantun, making it a fine fort that fully utilized its geographical advantages.

The Guard City Garrison Commander, Xu Zucheng, greeted them outside the East Gate. But Li Banghua could clearly sense that Xu Zucheng was polite on the surface but cold in reality. The welcoming banquet he arranged was also ordinary, and afterward, he did not send a single silver coin as a ceremonial gift.

In fact, within the system under Wang Dou's governance, no one ever sent ceremonial gifts.

Li Banghua took it in stride, but his retinue and subordinates were all indignant. Ma Guoxi was somewhat embarrassed, but he could not say anything about Xu Zucheng either; after all, Xu Zucheng had fulfilled the superficial proprieties.

Moreover, both he and Xu Zucheng were now idle officials. The authority of the Military Defense Intendant had long since vanished.

Xu Zucheng was also the former superior of the Marquis of Yongning, Wang Dou, with whom he maintained close ties. Even if he did not get promoted, he could grow old in the position of Garrison Commander of Baoan Guard City. In fact, Xu Zucheng was now simply living out his retirement, leisurely and carefree every day, and had grown even fatter by several sizes.

……

What Li Banghua did not know was that just as he was about to enter the city, from the direction of Zhenhai Bridge at the West Gate, a dozen or so fast horses came galloping. They were all young lads of seventeen or eighteen years old, each dressed in sturdy attire with sharp swords at their waists. The one in the lead had sword-like eyebrows and star-bright eyes, exuding a heroic spirit, and beside him was a young man with a slightly round face and a spirited expression.

In the cold wind, they watched the procession, each pair of eyes seeming about to spew fire. The leading young man gave a cold snort: "So this man is the one who said, 'Was not Song Taizu's service to Zhou Shizong also disloyal?'"

The round-faced youth beside him said coldly: "Indeed, it is that traitor Li Banghua, that cur of an official. I wish I could draw my sword and slay him!"

"Loyalty or treachery lies not in one's heart, but in one's power! This scoundrel puts on an appearance of utter loyalty and courage, yet in his eyes, whatever the Grand General does is wrong!"

Another youth also sneered: "Now he's even become a demoted official, yet he still puts on such airs, doing nothing but alarming and disturbing the people all along the way."

The round‑faced youth grew angrier the longer he looked at Li Banghua; his hand even moved to his sword hilt.

The young man at their head glanced at him: “Brother Zhong, do not act rashly.”

The round‑faced youth said urgently: “Brother Jinghe!”

The young man at their head gave a low shout: “My Lingyun Society is the sword of the Grand General; we take the founding of a flourishing age for China as our own duty. We are not common reckless brutes, still less may we harm the Grand General’s reputation! Li Banghua is a mere rat — not worth our drawing swords.”

That young man stared at Li Banghua for a long while, a cold gleam flickering in his eyes, and finally said: “Let us go, back to the garrison city.”

……

Li Banghua likewise stayed two days in the guard city. Xu Zucheng introduced the scenery to him — Mount Mogan and Yao’er Ridge were both worth a look; Xiaowen Mountain, eight li north of the city, was also not bad; and there was Yushi Gully twenty‑five li northeast of the city, where the stone produced was like jade, even more worth hunting for treasure.

As for sightseeing, Li Banghua was indifferent. According to what he said privately, the two districts of Bao’an Prefecture and the guard city were already tainted with foul air and were no longer paradisiacal splendors; the mood of “picking chrysanthemums beneath the eastern hedge, carefree I gaze upon the southern hills” had been utterly swept away — there was nothing much worth enjoying.

His main wish was to observe more deeply and carefully what he called “the source of calamity and chaos,” to understand in detail the two places where workshops and factories covered the land. In any case, within Xuanfu Garrison there was peace and tranquility, and nothing to worry about or fear.

So he took a few attendants, changed his clothes, and once again went out incognito with Ma Guoxi on a secret inspection, planning to spend two days traveling from the guard city to the prefectural city.

The distance from Bao’an Guard City to the prefectural city was not very far. If one simply rode a horse, following the official road to the edge of the Yang River, then crossed the river and went on a little further, one would arrive — the whole journey added up to only a few dozen li.

Li Banghua, Ma Guoxi, and the others urged their horses along the smooth official road. The road was dense with people, carts, and horses; everywhere one saw men in bright clothes on spirited steeds, and many of them could be recognized at a glance as people from Bao’an Prefecture.

These people all shared a particular air — self‑assured, high‑spirited, brimming with vigor, carrying a faint pride, much like the way people in the capital looked upon everyone from other places.

These people were clearly well‑off; every one of them had a horse, which was even more astonishing than everyone owning a car in later ages — after all, in an era when owning a donkey made one a landlord or middle peasant, the value of a horse was even harder to imagine.

What they wore was all new clothing; now that the weather had turned cold, each person was also mostly wrapped in fur‑lined outer garments. They spent money very freely; sometimes a single tip was even a silver dollar given to someone else — in later ages, casually giving a tip of three or five hundred yuan was hardly a common sight either.

Li Banghua watched and inwardly gave a cold snort: they knew nothing of restraint, flaunting themselves on the surface — shallow. The civilizing influence here fell far short of that in Huailai City.

He looked to both sides of the official road: dense wheat fields stretched everywhere. This was just the time for weeding, hoeing, loosening the soil, and preserving moisture; although the weather was still cold, there were still hard‑working commoners laboring in the fields, as well as the plowing teams Ma Guoxi had mentioned. Li Banghua nodded secretly to himself — these plowing teams were not bad.

However, as more workshop people appeared along the road, everywhere his eyes met uncouth and unlettered sorts, and everywhere his ears were filled with jabbering local patois — “in conversation and laughter all were great scholars, but coming and going were all illiterates” — Li Banghua’s brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

Especially when he heard that within the borders of Bao’an Prefecture there was a Liu‑family sewing workshop where the seamstresses already exceeded a thousand, Li Banghua’s brow creased into a deep, deep frown. (To be continued…)

〖∷Fast updates∷∷Plain text∷〗