Chapter 1120: The Pacified Great Wuyue Rebellion

Two years passed quietly. For the people of the Great Han, it brought a truly peaceful and harmonious living environment; for the Great Han Empire, it was a critical period of transition.

Under the leadership of Emperor Liu, with the assistance of wise chancellors and capable ministers, and guided by the spirit of the Kaibao New Policies, the Great Han successfully transformed into a unified empire and consolidated its rule.

In these two years, the Great Han welcomed unprecedented development, with north and south joining hands to march toward prosperity. In summary, politics remained stable and the economy trended toward prosperity.

The unification of the realm, especially the recovery of the southeastern region, brought an enormous boost to the Great Han's economy. In the third year of Kaibao alone, grain shipped via the canal from Jianghuai to the Eastern Capital reached 3.5 million dan, accounting for half of the court's combined official and civilian consumption — and this proportion would only increase year by year, with great room for growth.

As for other goods — coin, silk, and wealth — even greater quantities were delivered to Kaifeng. With no borders, no war, and relaxed political oppression, the economic vitality of the southeastern region was rekindled and directly exploded.

The Kaibao New Policies promoted by the court reduced the people's burdens and allowed them to recuperate. The main goal was to ease the social contradictions of the old era and establish a new ruling order for the new age. On this foundation, the realm would stride toward an age of great peace, giving the empire's subjects the opportunity to pursue a more stable and prosperous life.

By the fourth year of Kaibao, the results were gratifying to see, and they proved that the Great Han's governing principles and philosophy were not mistaken. As long as the established national policy was followed, the Great Han was certain to usher in an era of stability and prosperity, and Chinese civilization would once again achieve revival, leaving behind a glorious and splendid history.

Of course, this did not mean the Great Han had no problems. The overall situation was calm and macro-level stability was maintained, but inside and out, high and low, there were still no small number of twists and turns.

The development potential of the southeastern region remained to be tapped, and public order did not truly stabilize until the third year of Kaibao. The rectification efforts led by Han Xizai were never smooth sailing from start to finish — struggles and resistance rose one after another.

In the Two Rivers region alone, seventeen rebellions occurred over the matter of relocating powerful families. When the policy was extended to Liangzhe, the turmoil it caused was even greater. Territory seized by force is always harder to digest, and Emperor Liu for the first time came to realize the power of local magnates.

In the tenth month of winter in the second year of Kaibao, because of the court's overly forceful and hasty rectification measures, a great rebellion erupted in Liangzhe, touching nearly the entire region. Former Wuyue officials, soldiers, magnates, and wealthy merchants joined hands to show off their strength to the Great Han court. These interests-damaged parties killed court-appointed officials, abolished court institutions and policies, restored the old Wuyue system, and swept up a great many Liangzhe commoners to join the rebellion.

At the rebellion's height, south of Hangzhou, traces of rebel banners could be seen in nearly every prefecture and county. That rebellion naturally provoked extreme fury from Emperor Liu, and his response was forceful and decisive: suppress first, talk later.

Because of the great Wuyue rebellion, a number of court officials suggested changing or slowing the implementation of the New Policies in Wuyue as a means of appeasement. Every official who submitted such a memorial was either demoted or dismissed. How many years had it been since Emperor Liu compromised — and certainly not in a situation like this. Those who could not keep up with his thinking were unworthy of serving in court.

Even if some things in the handling of Wuyue affairs were done improperly, reflection and review were matters for afterward — not a reason to conservatively compromise in order to quell the situation.

Once Emperor Liu's edict was issued, the civil and military officials stationed in the southeast naturally joined forces and let loose to suppress the rebellion. None held back. Whatever the cause of the rebellion, such a major disturbance occurring under their watch meant they could not escape blame, so they all did their utmost, hoping to offset their guilt.

The commander-in-chief for suppressing the rebellion was Shi Shouxin, with Zhao Yanjin as Army Supervisor. These two handled military affairs, so naturally there was no surprise there. The troops used to suppress the rebellion were mostly local armies reorganized from Wuyue personnel. Moreover, from start to finish, the imperial army stationed in the southeast only garrisoned the major cities and key military points, serving as a backstop. It could be said that this was a rebellion and its suppression carried out by Wuyue people slaughtering each other.

The Wuyue rebellion made a great show of force, but in the end it was a resistance movement of vested interests fighting each on their own. Though they responded to one another, there was no unified command, and the nominal leader they jointly revered was Prince Huaiyang Qian Hongchu, enjoying his comforts far away in Kaifeng.

For Qian Hongchu at the time, news of the Wuyue rebellion was already shocking enough, but what truly terrified him was that the rebels had acclaimed him from afar as emperor, seeking to restore the state of Wuyue.

In response, Qian Hongchu did not hesitate in the slightest — he went to the palace to confess and beg forgiveness. His reaction was quick, because before long, memorial after memorial targeting him was placed on Emperor Liu's desk. It was only because Emperor Liu was magnanimous enough and understood that Qian Hongchu was innocent, offering him kind words of comfort, that he was finally put at ease.

Nevertheless, in Qian Hongchu's name, a "Letter to the People of Wuyue" was written and distributed to all the prefectures of Liangzhe, branding those "righteous armies" as rebels and weakening the resistance will of the commoners who had been swept along without knowing the truth. It naturally had its uses. Through this, Emperor Liu came to realize that the Qian clan's influence in the Liangzhe region was deeply entrenched — not something that could be eliminated in a short time.

The rebellion did not last very long in total — only a little over three months. The main rebel forces were quickly destroyed, and the time consumed was mostly concentrated in the advance into southern Zhejiang, where the constraints of terrain were rather pronounced.

By the first month of the third year of Kaibao, the rebels were dead, surrendered, or fled, and the Wuyue rebellion was declared pacified. Though short in duration, the destruction it wrought on the Wuyue region was very severe — it was the greatest war the Wuyue region had suffered in sixty or seventy years of peace.

There were positive aspects too, to be sure. At the very least, through this rebellion, the court's subsequent rectification measures in the southeast became somewhat gentler, and some of the more presumptuous clauses in the New Policies were improved.

At the same time, it also caused those who were dissatisfied with the court and refused to accept Great Han rule to jump out, and they were dealt with and purged one by one. Ironically, through this chaos the court's rule was strengthened and thorough governance was achieved — though the price was somewhat heavy.

In fact, regarding the Jiang-Zhe region, Emperor Liu had considered that the Two Rivers region, formerly belonging to the Southern Tang, might see rebellion — he never expected that the eruption point would actually be Wuyue.

By comparison, the Two Rivers region's troubles were merely disturbances. During the height of the Wuyue rebellion, the Two Rivers region was quite quiet, with almost no response.

In fact, after Emperor Liu issued that warning-laden edict to the southeastern officials in the winter of the first year of Kaibao, the implementation of rectification work became much more moderate and gentle, both in attitude and method.

And after Han Xizai entered Liangzhe, he acted with proper justification, and the family-relocation operations mostly began with those local tyrants and vicious gentry of poor reputation — a full consideration of popular sentiment. Yet even so, the backlash was even more violent than in Jiangnan and Jiangxi.

For many Wuyue magnates, they truly did not welcome Great Han rule; they preferred the Qian family in power.

After great chaos comes great governance — that was probably a phrase one could use to comfort oneself. And indeed it proved true. The old order was thoroughly broken, and social resources and wealth were in practical terms redistributed during that great upheaval.

Because of this rebellion, the dead among the Wuyue people numbered as many as 130,000. Those relocated away afterward exceeded 200,000. The pacification of the Wuyue rebellion also marked the conclusion of the court's great rectification in the southeast.

In the end, it did not achieve the smooth transition Emperor Liu had hoped for. That was understandable — undertakings involving social transformation and redistribution of interests, especially those expected to show results in a short time, were never as simple as hosting a dinner party.

A bloody storm, to be sure, with no small cost — but it also swept away a great many obstacles. Now, Emperor Liu could confidently say that the southeastern region was secure for a hundred years.

From the first year of Kaibao through the fourth year of Kaibao, over a span of more than three years, the court relocated more than 400,000 people from the Two Rivers and Liangzhe regions, half of whom were settled in the Jinghu Southern Circuit.

Of the remainder, 50,000 were absorbed within the passes, 30,000 to Longyou, 30,000 to Shanyang, and the rest scattered across the Central Plains and Hebei. After all that turmoil, the southeastern region gradually came into an orderly state that satisfied Emperor Liu and conformed to Great Han rule.

Han Xizai's position as Pacification Commissioner of the Southeast was formally abolished in the third month of the fourth year of Kaibao, and he was recalled to the Eastern Capital. During his years in the southeast, he had been the target of seven assassination attempts, and on the fourth he nearly lost his life — a testament to how much those whose interests were violated hated him.

Likewise, in court, criticism never ceased. By the time he returned to Kaifeng, Han Xizai was exhausted in both body and mind, and he directly asked Emperor Liu to let him resign.

Liu Chengyou refused, instead appointing him Grand Academician of the Jixian Hall, where he could compile books and live a more relaxed life.