Chapter 271

"Young Master Chang likes brocade, so naturally, he knows that brocade is woven from silk threads. On the surface, brocade looks as smooth as water and as clear as a mirror, with no gaps to be found, but in reality, it is made of thousands of threads, each entangled with the other. This is the same with our Great Qi. To outsiders, Great Qi is just Great Qi—indivisible and as solid as iron—but in truth, the relationships within are complex, and everyone has their own calculations..."

What Wang Yang said was a piece of correct nonsense.

It is called correct because the facts are indeed so; it is called nonsense because if you replace the subject "Great Qi" in this statement with any other political entity, it would still hold true. Complex relationships? The more people there are, the more complex the relationships. Everyone has their own calculations? If a person exists, they have calculations!

Yet, the way Wang Yang expressed it made it seem as if he were truly about to reveal some secret inside information! Especially to the ears of the barbarian youth, it felt both authentic and credible, and he felt the other party was indeed somewhat sincere, even willing to "expose his own shortcomings"! He couldn't help but listen more attentively.

Wang Yang continued to "expose shortcomings":

"Take, for example, the fact that we have a central government and local governments. The central government is Jiankang, the capital; the local governments are the various provinces and commanderies. The interests of these two are not entirely the same. The central government wants to centralize power and strengthen control over the localities; the localities want to decentralize power and strengthen their own authority. This creates a conflict of ideas. The central government itself is not uniform either! There are various ministries and offices; the Ministry of Personnel alone has eight bureaus and twenty departments—there are countless factions..."

It is indeed so. Although Han is vast, its heart is scattered, not as tightly knit as the men of my tribe. It seems they are not necessarily invincible.

Wang Yang's words not only confirmed the barbarian youth's suspicions but also increased his confidence. At the same time, without realizing it, he became even more trusting of what Wang Yang said.

"And the ideas in the localities are also different! There are twenty-three provinces and three hundred and ninety-five commanderies in the localities—"

"Wait!"

The youth was startled and blurted out, interrupting Wang Yang. Realizing his loss of composure, he immediately steadied his expression, feigned a casual manner, and said slowly, "Are there really that many commanderies in Han territory?"

Wang Yang showed a look of surprise: "Young Master Chang does not know?"

The youth smiled steadily, putting on an appearance of great confidence:

"I know Han territory myself. Although Han territory is vast, it is divided into north and south; the south is Qi, and the north is Wei. Your Qi does not have that many commanderies." After finishing, he added, "Wei is Hu; the north is no longer Han territory."

Wang Yang did not argue with him about whether the north was Han territory or not, but "patiently" explained:

"I didn't count the north. If I counted the north, the number of commanderies would double. Young Master Chang, you will understand once you calculate it. Jingzhou alone has Nanjun, Nanping Commandery, Tianmen Commandery, Yidu Commandery, Nan Yiyang Commandery, Hedong Commandery, Xinxing Commandery, Yongning Commandery, Wu Ning Commandery, plus Wenyang Commandery—a total of ten commanderies. Compared to other provinces, this is actually not many. For example, Southern Xuzhou has seventeen commanderies, Yuzhou has twenty-three, and Guangzhou has thirty-five. Even if we calculate based on Jingzhou's ten commanderies, with twenty-three provinces in total, that is two hundred and thirty commanderies. Oh, actually, the specific number of commanderies is not important. My main point is—this place is too big, there are too many commanderies, management is difficult, and the ideas are therefore complex..."

Young Master Chang no longer had much heart to listen to Wang Yang's sighing and complaining...

He had always known that Han territory was very, very large, but when this "largeness" appeared concretely in his mind for the first time, he was still shocked! Wenyang Commandery alone was big enough, and now he knew that there were actually hundreds of such commanderies! No wonder their hearts were not united, and they had many factions! If they had one faction per commandery, they could drown the Wenyang tribe just by spitting! No wonder the barbarian tribes had been unable to turn their fortunes around for generations and could only shrink into the mountains...

Young Master Chang felt a tightness in his chest, and the spirit he had just gathered leaked away. He was originally distracted and didn't want to listen to the person opposite him anymore, but the next sentence from the other party pulled his attention back:

"... Just like this time, when Young Master Chang brought people into Jing, once the matter broke out, the imperial court immediately split into several factions, arguing endlessly! Some advocated war, some advocated peace, some advocated fighting first and then making peace, some advocated making peace first and then fighting, some demanded that multiple commanderies send troops together to encircle and suppress, some advocated sending troops from one commandery first and then sending a large army if they couldn't win, and some proposed simply setting fire to the forest, burning it layer by layer, month by month, and finishing whenever it was burned out—"

The barbarian youth's face was as gloomy as iron: "Are you threatening me?"

The barbarian guards stationed at the tent entrance all gripped their spears tightly!

Wang Yang was startled:

"Threaten? No, no, no. If Young Master Chang listens to what I have to say next, you will know that I am absolutely not threatening you, because I am precisely going to tell Young Master Chang—the Son of Heaven does not want to fight at all!"

The anger the barbarian youth had just brewed suddenly broke, and he asked skeptically:

"Your Emperor does not want to fight?"

"Of course he doesn't want to fight! First, our dynasty's greatest enemy is the Northern Dynasty, and the Son of Heaven is very clear about this point. Second, to be honest, in the eyes of our dynasty, this place of yours is not some treasure land. Even if we occupied all the land, then what? Could we move the common people into these deep mountains and old forests of yours? Or build cities here? So, winning the fight is useless! Since that is the case, what is the benefit of spending money and effort to mobilize the army?"

The barbarian youth said impatiently: "Then you said before that the imperial court wanted to fight—"

This time it was Wang Yang who interrupted the youth: "Didn't I say before? Great Qi is not an indivisible whole; the relationships inside are complex, and everyone has their own calculations..."

"If your Emperor says not to fight, who can fight?!"

"If the Emperor could make the world follow with just one word, it would be simple! For example, your father is Zou Ye—"

"You understand the barbarian language?" the barbarian youth asked in surprise.

"I don't, I don't. It's just that before I came, the imperial court provided some information—"

"What information was given?" The barbarian youth's eyes became sharp.

Wang Yang waved his hand, looking indifferent:

"The miscellaneous things are not important; let's continue with the serious business. For example, Young Master Chang's father is Zou Ye, but if Young Master Chang's father ordered your entire tribe to move to Tianmen, is this something that can be done with one word? The principle is the same. Although the Emperor is supreme, he cannot act entirely on his own will. Above him are the system, national dignity, ancestral laws, and great righteousness. Below him are the noble families, the imperial clan, the hundred officials, and the regional commanders. Pulling one hair affects the whole body; offending the hearts of the masses makes it difficult to act.

Take the matter of Young Master Chang wanting brocade, for instance. It's only a few thousand robes and jackets! The Emperor has hundreds of commanderies in his hands, and the annual income in the national treasury could fill an entire valley. Could he be short of your bit of satin? Have you seen a sheep? This is just a hair on a sheep! Do you understand? A hair! Let alone the Emperor, even if the Liu family provided these satins themselves, it would be easy! So at that time, when the peace faction heard that you only wanted three thousand brocade robes and three thousand crimson jackets each, they were happy and said, 'They came from far away, and they didn't burn, kill, or plunder—'"

Wang Yang stopped and looked at the fully focused barbarian youth, asking uncertainly: "You didn't burn, kill, or plunder, right?"

"No, no! Absolutely not! We just tied people up and went back!"

The barbarian youth was listening with great interest, and when Wang Yang asked, he hurriedly swore to guarantee it! He just felt that listening to this person speak had a kind of... a very good feeling. He couldn't say exactly how good it was, but in short, it was both interesting and vivid, and he enjoyed listening to it. Perhaps this was what was called "eloquence" in Han language.

The black-hearted person also spoke Han language very smoothly, and he could talk endlessly, but he found it annoying to listen to, not as good as watching women dance. Now he felt that if he didn't watch the dancing, listening to this envoy talk for a while was also quite good. Of course, it was best to alternate; the dancing still had to be watched...

Eh? Why did I want to guarantee it to him? Doesn't this make me look guilty?

It's not a guarantee; we really didn't burn, kill, or plunder. I can't admit to it indiscriminately, hmm.

Young Master Chang felt he had straightened out his train of thought.

Wang Yang continued: "Yes! So the peace faction thought, since you didn't burn, kill, or plunder, and you really encountered relatively large difficulties and had no choice but to come and kidnap people..."

Young Master Chang's face changed: "How do you know my tribe encountered large difficulties?"

Isn't it because of large difficulties that one would risk sneaking in and kidnapping people...

"It's not that I know, but the imperial court knows. As for how the imperial court knows, I don't know either..."

The Han court is powerful and has such keen ears and eyes; it really cannot be underestimated. Young Master Chang couldn't help but feel deeper wariness.

Wang Yang was not in a hurry and immediately stopped talking, watching the other party's reaction.

Seeing Wang Yang silent, Young Master Chang asked: "And then? The peace faction said we didn't burn, kill, or plunder; what did they say later?"

Wang Yang then continued:

"The peace faction said, 'They came from far away, and they didn't burn, kill, or plunder, and they only want three thousand robes and jackets each. Is this little matter even a matter? Just give them five thousand each!!'"

Young Master Chang said excitedly: "Is that really so?!"

Wang Yang said sternly: "This is a public discussion of the imperial court; it's not like only I know about it. Besides, I am from the Langya Wang clan, representing the imperial court as an envoy. How could I speak nonsense about such a major event?"

Young Master Chang stared and slapped the table, shouting: "Then why didn't you bring the brocade?!"

Wang Yang also stared and slapped his thigh:

"The war faction doesn't agree! They say that crossing the border is invading the territory, and kidnapping people is a provocation. How can the dignified Great Qi be coerced by others? They also say that if we give your tribe brocade today, other tribes will follow suit tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, not only the Southern Barbarians will come, but all the Li, Xi, Yue, and Liao will come to imitate kidnapping people back to demand ransom. Even if the imperial court has money, it can't hold up! And it's not just a matter of money. If this happens, all dignity will be lost. How can we guard the borders? How can we rule the world? If this precedent is opened, the country will not be a country!"

"So we must fight! Not only must we fight, but we must fight to the end! Kill one to warn a hundred, to warn others! Hey, actually, it just sounds good. What country, what dignity—to put it bluntly, isn't it just wanting to fight to earn merit and exchange soldiers' lives and your heads for a future? This group of black-hearted people, heh..."

Wang Yang spoke with indignation, and Young Master Chang felt cold in his heart.

If Wang Yang had said these words at the beginning, he would definitely have been too lazy to listen, and even if he had listened, he would have thought it was either an excuse or a threat and would not have taken it seriously at all. But since the two of them had chatted until now, these words had all been heard into his heart. The more he listened, the more he felt it made sense, and the more he listened, the colder his face became. His brows gradually became cold and hard, a fierce and ruthless spirit rose in his heart, he slowly clenched his fists, and said word by word:

"To put it to the end, you Han people still want to fight?"

Wang Yang sneered and waved his hand with heroic spirit:

"That's not necessarily true! In the affairs of the world, how can everything go according to the wishes of the war faction!"

Young Master Chang was stunned, the determination gathered in his eyes suddenly scattered into flickering afterimages, and that clenched fist also loosened a few points unknowingly...