Chapter 160: People's joys and sorrows are not the same

Discussing shallow topics deeply is a major faux pas; 'Young Master Zhang' was very cautious. After three rounds of drinking games with Fang Chongyong and others, he excused himself, saying he had urgent business, and left unhurriedly with his attendants.

From beginning to end, he never said anything important to Fang Chongyong, and naturally Fang Chongyong's attitude was the same.

From meeting to parting, the two only knew each other's names and whose fathers they were; everything else had to be guessed or inquired about later.

"This Young Master Zhang feels far from simple."

Fang Chongyong couldn't help but sigh, saying, "Today's meal was truly full of twists and turns."

"Indeed, as the son of Minister Zhang, yet so low-key, keeping his joys and angers hidden—truly..."

Yuan Jie hemmed and hawed for a while, not knowing how to put it, because he realized Fang Chongyong seemed similar, and saying certain things would be inappropriate.

"Prefect Fang, if the inspection task is too difficult, we can skip it. Just now the Prefect of Jingzhao mentioned examination fraud; I fear this examination..."

Du Fu, who had been silent all along, suddenly brought this up.

"Alas!"

Fang Chongyong let out a long sigh, then clasped his hands to Du Fu and Yuan Jie and said, "Rest assured, although I am no longer an appointed official, like you I will also take this examination. But you can be confident—I still have some assurance about the inspection task and will not speak recklessly."

Fang Chongyong gave a firm guarantee.

Huh?

Du Fu and Yuan Jie stared, wondering why they felt they had just heard something momentous.

Yuan Jie quickly suppressed his inner anxiety, lowered his voice, and asked, "Prefect Fang, have you resigned from office?"

"Not exactly; my term ended, I came to Chang'an to report on my duties, which isn't resigning."

Fang Chongyong waved his hand casually and said.

Eh?

Du Fu and Yuan Jie sitting opposite were startled, almost jumping up! After finally finding a thick thigh to cling to, they couldn't just let it go!

"What you just said, Prefect Fang… are you taking the imperial examination?"

Du Fu's voice trembled as he spoke.

"Oh dear, I've been swamped with miscellaneous affairs and social obligations, forgot to tell you two. I'm also taking the imperial examination this year, just like you. So now we're fellow examinees, hahahaha!"

Fang Chongyong scratched the back of his head and laughed heartily.

"Brother, you don't toy with people like this! You've served as a Regional Governor—why come back to take the imperial examination? Are you just doing it for 'experience'?"

Du Fu and Yuan Jie exchanged wry smiles; the mindset of these nobles is truly hard to fathom.

Yuan Jie asked, bewildered:

"Prefect Fang, normally after reporting on one's duties, one simply waits for an appointment, staying at home. If one really wants to strive, shouldn't the task be to cultivate connections so the court arranges a better official post?"

"After the imperial examination, one must wait three years for the court's so-called inspection—not to mention that, even after those three years, one still has to go through the selection process; what's the difference from now?"

When he finished speaking, Du Fu also nodded slightly in agreement.

"Prefect Fang, when I was young, I also thought that coming to Chang'an and Luoyang would make fame and fortune as easy as reaching into a bag."

However, when I previously went to Luoyang to take the exam, I suffered a crushing defeat and my name was absent from the list. Now, with my family's decline, I finally understand the hardships of the world.

"Prefect Fang, you became a Regional Governor at a young age, a promising future—why bother with the imperial examination? I would like to enter the Imperial Academy to stay ahead in the exams, but I can't even manage that, so I truly cannot compare with you."

Du Fu said this frankly, which also amounts to exposing his own shortcomings.

Then why does Du Fu say he cannot follow Fang Chongyong's example, using connections to enter the Imperial Academy for a polish, then take the exam as an Imperial Academy student? Doesn't he know such status would give great advantage in the examinations?

Actually, doing so is not merely a matter of his lacking backing.

Rather, it is because the Imperial Academy's admissions, although corrupt in many ways and essentially without standards or principles, still uphold one principle consistently.

That is the Imperial Academy's admission age: must be between fourteen and twenty! A rigid standard—if you don't meet it, even a chief minister's intervention is useless.

This serves both to prevent Chang'an nobles from treating the Imperial Academy as a mindless résumé‑padding toilet and to reflect Tang society's overall veneration of prodigies and disdain for mediocrity.

Tang society's ethos is intensely utilitarian, and they openly admit that holding office is for pursuing fame and profit. This contrasts with the conservative mores of the Ming and Qing dynasties, where officials ostensibly served only for food and clothing yet claimed they governed for universal peace.

In the Tang dynasty, if a person is middle‑aged yet still studying at the Imperial Academy,

then, under normal circumstances, passing the imperial examination would not happen until at least fifty, or even fifty‑five years of age. As for whether one could obtain an office… it's better not to speak of it, because reality is too harsh; such a person's chance of being appointed is already minuscule.

Given ancient medical conditions, past fifty one is at constant risk of death from illness. Such officials have extremely limited potential and investment value! In other words, offending the Imperial Academy's officials means you have already offended them.

Such a person, after finally achieving office in his fifties, would not think of using his remaining years to make money and enjoy life; would he instead spend all day scheming to bite those who once offended him?

Therefore, the Imperial Academy openly discriminates against nobles who are old yet uneducated, using this as a final fig leaf!

No matter who, anyone over twenty is not accepted!

Fang Chongyong was able to obtain his 'graduation qualification' smoothly, largely because of the saying 'Do not bully the poor youth.' No official would dismiss a teenager who had already served as a Regional Governor.

Du Fu also wanted to enter the Imperial Academy to accumulate credentials. But the problem is, even with noble backing, would they accept him?

He is already in his thirties.

This is the sorrow of the age, and also Du Fu's sorrow. In middle age, every door of opportunity on the official path closes silently.

Once he thought he could do anything, but now he finds that as age increases, the roadblocks ahead are not fewer but more numerous, taller, sturdier, and harder to overcome.

"This office of mine rests entirely on ancestral favor and imperial patronage—like a tower built on sand, it collapses at the slightest wind."

Fang Chongyong rose, walked to the railing on the second floor of the Apricot Flower Tower, and gazed into the distance.

"I don't want to live under the shadow of my ancestors' favor, where anyone who mentions me says, 'This is the son of Jiedushi Fang!'"

"This imperial examination, I merely want to prove that, even relying on my own strength, I can carve out a place for myself in the official world."

Fang Chongyong spoke with resounding conviction, his already tall and sturdy frame now seeming like a giant.

Yet Du Fu and Yuan Jie stared at each other, unsure whether this Young Master Fang was deliberately putting on an act before them or was genuinely this immature.

By rights, that shouldn't be the case!

Even they both understand that entering the officialdom without strong family support and ancestral favor is nearly impossible, let alone what comes after attaining office.

Who dares claim that success in officialdom is purely one's own ability? They'd better not have their tongues blown away by the wind!

How could this Prefect Fang, born into an official family, harbor such an 'arrogant' idea!

"Fang Shijun truly has extraordinary ambition…… extraordinary ambition, ah."

"Yuan Jie pondered for a long time, finally gave a thumbs up, and said an irrelevant remark that even he found embarrassingly awkward."

"It seemed he also realized he had been showing off too much, and Fang Chongyong then sighed and said: 'My situation is not quite what you imagined. I am not now seeking a higher office, but rather wish to temporarily retreat to avoid disaster. The obscure matters in between, I will slowly tell you.'"

"Fang Chongyong then sat down, poured wine for Du Fu and Yuan Jie, drained the cup of 'Sanlei Jiang' in one gulp, and then began to tell his own story."

"When I was nine and came to Chang'an, I originally intended to enter the Hongwen Academy to study. However, the sage emperor kept changing orders from morning to evening, not only forcing me to quit school but also giving me the position of Acting Commander of the Thousand Bulls Guard, Middle Lieutenant."

"Although this post is a sinecure, useless, but could an ordinary child possibly have such a position?"

"Fang Chongyong couldn't help but complain."

"Du Fu and Yuan Jie nodded blankly; indeed, this is the top player among the high-end circle, indeed different from us ordinary folk."

"Right from the start, he crushed the competition!"

"Later, I wanted to tour Hexi, and the sage emperor gave me the position of Prefectural Military Assistant of Liangzhou Prefecture! That year I was still under ten!"

"Can a ten‑year‑old bear the responsibility of a Prefectural Military Assistant?"

"Fang Chongyong said with anguish."

"Prefectural Military Assistants are usually scholars who passed the jinshi exam, a post many cannot obtain even at the start of their careers. Those without connections can only settle for a minor county magistrate. Who would have thought Fang Chongyong, having done nothing and not even studied, could become a Prefectural Military Assistant of a prefecture."

"This post carries great authority, little work, and no fixed office location—it's practically a 'sweet or salty' super cute official post!"

"Those without ability take this post to bustling places to loaf, spending their days eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves as officials. Cities of prefecture level are usually capitals of warlord eras, their prosperity only slightly inferior to Chang'an and Luoyang."

"For example, Chengdu Prefecture, Liangzhou Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture (Jiankang City was dismantled by Yang Jian, and the Yangzhou across the river in the Tang dynasty took its place); the regional populations are several hundred thousand to millions."

"Meanwhile, those who are capable and want to get things done can use this post to intervene anywhere, without being pinned down to a specific place."

"Damn! How enviable! To be a high official at ten! And such a cushy post!"

"What the heck, what's not good about this?"

"Hearing this, Du Fu and Yuan Jie not only failed to empathize, but secretly resented why they didn't have a formidable father like Fang Youde. Decades of painstaking effort cannot compare to having a good father—how realistic, how cruel!"

"Indeed, hahaha……"

"Yuan Jie and Du Fu gave a casual reply."

"You don't understand; there's even more outrageous to come!"

"Probably because I drank a bit, just thinking back to those years of embarrassment makes me angry!"

"Fang Chongyong pounded the table hard and continued to complain:"

"Later, when the Tibetans came, the sage emperor then gave me the post of Governor of Ganzhou!"

"A ten‑year‑old Governor of Ganzhou! Do you know how I managed back then?"

"Just thinking back to those days in Ganzhou, trembling with fear, with only Guo Ziyi's six hundred troops outside the city and the Ganzhou autumn defense order barely being carried out, he doesn't know why he was so bold as to oppose Guo Ziyi and flout the autumn defense order."

"Fang Chongyong served as Governor of Shazhou, engaging in smuggling trade with the Tibetans; only after befriending Enlan·Dazhalu Gong did he realize that the feeling he had in Ganzhou of being watched by a beast was not an illusion!"

"But the Tibetans had actually prepared in earnest, crossing the Qilian Mountains to launch a surprise attack on Ganzhou City!"

"They were just a step away from launching the attack!"

"At that time, after Fang Chongyong consulted with Guo Ziyi, they adopted a feint tactic!"

"The Ganzhou prefecture office promoted to the local populace, especially the Sogdian Hu settlements: near the small path south of Ganzhou at the Qilian Mountains, perhaps there is a gold mine; whoever finds it should report to the Ganzhou prefecture office, then we'll split it fifty‑fifty."

"Furthermore, Fang Chongyong sent Yan Zhuang to spread rumors among the folk, claiming someone had picked up gold at the exit of the Qilian Mountain small path. Consequently, many local Hu herders rushed there to pan for gold."

"This scene made the already cautious Tibetans mistakenly believe the Tang forces were heavily defended and prepared, so they refrained from acting rashly!"

"Without this ploy, Fang Chongyong, Guo Ziyi, Xin Yunjiang, and the others would likely have died in battle or been captured. Given Ganzhou's terrain, they couldn't escape, only hold out for reinforcements. With only six hundred elite troops, how long they could hold out and whether Tang reinforcements would arrive in time—only heaven knows."

"Only after the fact, when the situation was clarified, could one feel how perilous it had been."

"Fang Chongyong never told Enlan·Dazhalu Gong about the situation in Ganzhou at that time, merely boasting that his plans were flawless."

"You even served as Governor of Ganzhou!"

"Du Fu and Yuan Jie exclaimed in surprise, their concerns completely different from Fang Chongyong's."

"Isn't it just that bitter‑laughing Governor of Ganzhou, sigh!"

"Fang Chongyong let out a long sigh with a wry smile, unable to suppress his feelings."

"In the Tang bureaucracy, the speed of official turnover often serves as the most superficial indication of whether an official has a future."

"If an official's turnover is extremely slow, requiring him to finish his term before a change, his prospects will be very dim. Because when the term ends he must return to Chang'an to report duty, at which point he has to hustle everywhere seeking a post, and cannot immediately receive a new appointment."

"This wait might be a few months, or perhaps a few years; many officials wait a lifetime and never receive another post."

"They are aristocratic scholars who cannot farm, engage in labor, or do business; if they have no office to hold, they can only 'await in idleness'."

"Colloquially called 'waiting for employment while living in leisure'."

"Such days are nothing but bitter endurance!"

"Of course, take someone like Han Yu of the Tang‑Song Eight Great Masters; such a formidable person unwilling to stay home awaiting selection would take the Ministry of Personnel's separate 'official qualification assessment'. The exam is extremely hard—Han Yu himself passed only on his third attempt!"

"Among Tang officials, how many are stronger than Han Yu? Hence this path is more than ten times harder than the imperial examinations, essentially a dead end."

"Yet look at Fang Chongyong, this top‑ranked official's son, how suave he is in the bureaucracy!"

"He hadn't even served a year as Prefectural Military Assistant before being promoted directly to Governor of a frontier garrison—no need to petition; the post just fell into his lap!"

"Truly, comparing people makes one angry enough to die!"

"And then?"

"Yuan Jie asked with a helpless expression, while Du Fu beside him was already too depressed to speak."

"Then, for some unknown reason, I was appointed Governor of Shazhou, concurrently serving as an External Official of the Ministry of Rites, and also holding the post of Dou Lu Army Supply Commissioner—anyway, it kept me busy to the point of dizziness."

"Fang Chongyong waved his hand and said, brushing it over."

"This period of experience certainly contains many unspeakable dark histories, including the 'illegal trade' in Shazhou."

"They are blood‑sucking livelihoods; better not mention them."

"If killing someone in Shazhou incurs guilt, then likely hardly anyone inside or outside the Shazhou prefecture office would be innocent! Later, Yan Chao used connections to slip into the Shazhou prefecture office as a petty official; according to what Fang Chongyong knows, this fellow has on his hands dozens of lives, personally slain."

He also served as the direct liaison among the local Han Chinese gentry of Shazhou, helping Fang Chongyong carry out plenty of shady work.

Although Yuan Jie and Du Fu are two generations older than Fang Chongyong in age, compared to the Fang manor's young master who secretly directs murder and looting, even personally leading troops to "suppress bandits," they are as pure as a lotus just risen from the water.

As for the Fang manor's young master himself, his heart is completely blackened; he has seen every kind of black-on-black big scene.

In the Tang legal code, serious crimes such as murder, ordering others to kill, plotting the extermination of a family, smuggling with enemy states, and using one's official power to bully and dominate the market—Fang Chongyong has missed none of these major offenses, handling them with ease.

Shazhou rings with the saying: "For any trouble, go to Lord Fang."

When a Hu merchant from the Western Regions first came to the area, unaware of local conditions, he got carried away and teased Fang Chongyong's concubine; Fang Chongyong would wipe out the man's entire family just to establish his authority.

In the eyes of Yuan Jie and Du Fu, this manor young master is "ignorant of the people's suffering." But in fact, Fang Chongyong not only knows it, he knows it too well, having reached the point where knowledge and action are one.

However, the customs in the rugged Hexi region are rather strange: if someone's life is too bitter to bear, the way to strive is not to farm but to become a soldier, a bandit, to rob, to murder and loot.

Even the local women admire Fang Chongyong, such a man who commands both the underworld and the overground, completely different from the pretty boys who like to wear makeup and powder in Chang'an.

This is the "struggle" of ordinary people in Hexi.

If you say they lack ambition, that's not true; it's just that their way and means of advancing differ from those in Chang'an.

Fang Chongyong truly understands the people's suffering of the lower classes in Hexi all too well.

After hearing Fang Chongyong's brief introduction, Yuan Jie and Du Fu fell silent, drinking several cups in a row.

Just as Fang Chongyong felt his chat with Du Fu and Yuan Jie was losing its rapport and was about to rise and take his leave, a sudden clamor arose outside. Dozens of soldiers wearing red inner linings and donning the distinctive armor of the Jinwu Guard surrounded the Xinghua Lodge on all sides.

"What's going on?"

Fang Chongyong glanced out the window and happened to meet the gaze of a Jinwu Guard commander. That man pointed at Fang Chongyong and shouted loudly, "It's him—arrest him!"

Eh?

What's going on?

Fang Chongyong's heart sank; he silently thought, "Oh no."

(End of chapter)