Chapter 1696: Yanzhou

In the eighth month of autumn, on the Yulin Road, Yanzhou.

Yanzhou is located in the southern part of the Yulin Road, bordering Lingzhou to the west and Xiazhou and Youzhou to the east. It is one of the most important military strongholds in the northwest of the Great Han. As early as thirty years ago, the court began to manage this place. When Emperor Liu was focused on unification and unable to look westward, Yanzhou became the most important fulcrum for the court to maintain its rule over the northwest and to keep watch over the various Tangut tribes.

Wang Yansheng once held command here for a full decade. The reputation of "General Ear-Biter" still circulates among the locals to this day, and the Hu barbarians turn pale at the very mention of it. The Dingbian Army, trained single-handedly by Wang Yansheng, still maintains its original organization. Though the soldiers have been rotated through several rounds, its spirit and traditions have been preserved.

At present, due to Li Jiqian's rebellion, the Tangut have become disaffected, and the entire Yulin region is somewhat unstable. But Yanzhou has remained calm throughout—the three thousand troops of the Dingbian Army have clearly served as a tremendous deterrent.

Of course, the fact that the military command has been relentlessly pursuing the rebel Li, and that up to now the pacification campaign has relied mainly on Xiazhou's troops without ever deploying the Dingbian Army, is also one of the reasons.

After thirty years of management, the court's rule over Yanzhou remains quite firm. Among the immigration policies forcefully implemented back then, a large number of relocated households had Yanzhou as their destination.

All told, the Han civilians who moved into Yanzhou numbered over three thousand households. This figure, viewed against the entire scale of immigration, is truly insignificant—but for a single prefecture, it is by no means a small number. The court's regard for Yanzhou is evident from this. Some remote prefectures and counties received at most a thousand households, at least several hundred. Across the whole of Yulin, only Xiazhou and Lingzhou could slightly surpass Yanzhou.

Adding in exiled criminals, surviving Han remnants, and natural growth over the years, by the twenty-first year of Kaibao, the local Han population of Yanzhou had surpassed sixty thousand souls.

Combined with the Tangut and various Hu peoples within its borders, Yanzhou's population exceeds three hundred thousand—no small achievement in the remote Yulin region. Even measured against the densely populated Central Plains, this population scale would rank respectably, and in the Yulin region it is all the more precious.

Of course, the population distribution across the entire Yulin Road is basically centered around the five prefectures of Xia, Ling, Yan, Yin, and Sui. Looking at the Yulin Road as a whole, the total population is under two million—and this is on the foundation of the court's immigration policy to fortify the frontiers.

For this reason, the Yulin Road once petitioned the court, hoping to have the southern prefectures of Huan, Qing, and Yan placed under Yulin's jurisdiction. Before the court could even respond, this proposal provoked fierce opposition from the Guannei Road, and in the end it came to nothing.

As for Emperor Liu's thinking, the Yulin Road was established with three purposes: first, to pacify and control the various Hu peoples; second, to shield Qin and Long; and third, to improve administrative efficiency. Naturally, it had to remain lean—even without considering the Guannei Road's objections, expanding its territory would never have been approved.

Returning to Yanzhou—this place exhibits the most prominent problems of Yulin and even the entire northwest. Hu and Han live intermingled, and ethnic contradictions, far from easing with the passage of time, have instead grown ever deeper.

Yanzhou's jurisdiction exceeds ten thousand square kilometers. With such a vast territory—even accounting for the sandy wastes and deserts—there is still plenty of land suitable for farming and herding. Supporting three hundred thousand people is no problem at all.

Moreover, named for salt and profiting from salt, as the most important producer of green-white salt in the northwest, over the past twenty years its economy has flourished, ranking first in Yulin—no worse than Xiazhou or Lingzhou.

But the green-white salt, the source of wealth the Tangut had relied on most in the past, has been seized by the government. This was like cutting flesh from the Tangut—they were transformed from salt suppliers into salt purchasers.

Even when the court later lifted the salt restrictions, the profits were monopolized by powerful families and Han merchants. The Tangut could hardly get a share of the pie. This is one of the fundamental reasons for Tangut dissatisfaction with the court—there is no contradiction deeper than a conflict of interests.

The influx of large numbers of Han people has also, in practical terms, compressed the living space of the Tangut. Compared with those ethnic policies that destroyed Tangut traditions, these two factors are the fundamental ethnic contradictions of Yulin.

In the Yulin Road, the hierarchy has always been: first-class officials, second-class Han, third-class Tangut, fourth-class miscellaneous Hu. This is the class structure as seen through Tangut eyes. But in truth, in Han eyes, the Tangut are merely among the various Hu peoples, no different from the miscellaneous Hu.

As for those miscellaneous Hu, let us not dwell on them. When the Tangut were powerful, they lived at their mercy; now they have merely changed masters. Under the rule of the Great Han government, their survival crisis has actually been alleviated—at the very least, what the Han can provide is far more abundant than what the Tangut era offered.

The only ones feeling awkward, with a tremendous psychological gap, are the Tangut themselves. Of course, those forcibly relocated and exiled criminals are a minority.

The Tangut of Yanzhou are mainly composed of the Pingxia tribes, supplemented by a considerable number of Tuoba clansmen. When the Li clan rose to power back then, it relied on these eastern mountain tribal alliances. Even with the passage of time and the vicissitudes of the world, the Tuoba Li clan still retains a slight influence among the local Tangut.

Of course, this influence must be viewed in light of the current situation and environment. In fact, when news of Li Jiqian's rebellion arrived, it did elicit some response among the Tangut of Yanzhou.

Li Jiqian, waving the banner of Tangut independence and revival, holds considerable allure for today's Tangut. And after the entire Li clan was taken to the Eastern Capital and beheaded, Li Jiqian has become the most orthodox heir of the Tuoba Li clan.

Last year, because of Li Jiqian's rebellion, the court took what can only be called cruel measures against the Tuoba Li clan. Several hundred of its members were all captured—including the clan chief Li Jipeng—and the old and young, the direct line and the collateral branches, were all executed. Only a few, quick to read the situation, escaped by concealing their identities.

The scale of the executions was greater than any purge of corrupt officials in the Great Han's history. Of course, the bloodshed and the profound impact were similar.

When this news reached Yulin, it certainly intimidated many Tangut who had been stirring restlessly, but it also aroused sympathy for the Tuoba Li clan. Behind this sympathy lies support for Li Jiqian.

Not long ago, among the Tangut tribesmen of Yanzhou, a rumor suddenly arose that the court planned to exterminate all Tangut. This caused panic. Although the Yanzhou government brought forward some respected clan elders to offer a measure of reassurance, the power of rumors lies in their occupation of people's hearts.

Now in Yulin, the Tangut have little trust left in the court. Their alienation has reached a dangerous edge. Thus, for the past half year, the atmosphere in Yanzhou has been like that of Xiazhou and Yinzhou—strange and oppressive.

In fact, by this point, the upper echelons of Yulin have all realized that the trouble in Yulin lies not with Li Jiqian, but with the Tangut. The reason Li Jiqian keeps rising after every fall, never being wiped out despite two crushing defeats, and still stirs up trouble—the crux lies in those Tangut tribes that have become estranged from the court.

If the Tangut problem is not resolved, then even if one Li Jiqian is eliminated, another will emerge. Moreover, the current Li Jiqian is still stubbornly holding on.

In the sixth month of this year, feeling the difficulty of his situation and that his anti-Han cause was undergoing a serious crisis, Li Jiqian, seeking to break the deadlock, led his remaining six hundred-plus cavalry south once again to raid Xiazhou and attack Hengshan Fort beside Mingtang River.

Since Xiazhou is the region where the Han army is strongest, many of his subordinates opposed this plan. They suggested attacking Fengzhou or Shengzhou to the north instead, but Li Jiqian refused, insisting on striking Xiazhou.

Li Jiqian knew very well in his heart that if he wanted to succeed, he could only rely on the Tangut. If he could not mobilize the several hundred thousand Tangut tribesmen, then no matter how vigorously he jumped around, he would only be a clown, and his blows against the court would be no more than scratching an itch through a boot.

And after the raid on Dijing Marsh, not only had the rebel forces suffered an almost devastating blow, but the Tangut's confidence had also begun to falter.

Under these circumstances, Li Jiqian had no choice but to risk a southern foray. His goal was not to kill many Han soldiers or plunder many Han civilians, but merely to prove to the Tangut of Xiazhou that he, Li Jiqian, had not been destroyed by the Han army—that he was still persisting in the great cause of resisting Han.

Therefore, in the battle at Hengshan Fort, after leaving behind a dozen or so lives, Li Jiqian quickly withdrew north before the pursuing Han army could arrive.

The Han army lost nothing—Hengshan Fort even gained the merit of over a dozen severed heads. However, Duke of Yanguo, Wang Shen, was somewhat humiliated and enraged. He now felt mounting pressure, as if Emperor Liu's gaze could pierce two thousand li and land directly on him, sending chills down his spine.

Yet, although he won every engagement against the rebels and achieved no small results overall, the current situation truly stuck in Wang Shen's throat like a fishbone, and the edicts from the Eastern Capital made him feel as if he were sitting on needles.

In particular, Li Jiqian's bold southern raid further proved that he was showing signs of resurgence. For this reason, Wang Shen had no choice but to redeploy troops for yet another campaign of encirclement and suppression.

At present, across the entire Yulin region, except for Fengzhou and Shengzhou far to the north, all areas where Tangut congregate are enveloped in a tense and sensitive atmosphere. Yanzhou is no exception.

However, apart from Xiazhou, where Wang Shen is directing the suppression of the rebel Li, the other prefectures and counties are all in a state of self-defense—each suppressing local unrest, pacifying their tribal populations, and tightening surveillance over the Tangut.

Take Yanzhou as an example: the Dingbian Army has had its leaves canceled for a considerable period now. Its forces, aside from being deployed at the salt ponds and the prefectural seat, are constantly patrolling the area.

Due to a shortage of manpower, they have even conscripted a batch of militia from among the Han and miscellaneous Hu to keep watch on the Tangut and maintain stability. This differential treatment is far too obvious—how could it go unnoticed?

In truth, it would be impossible for all the Tangut in Yulin to be rebels supporting Li Jiqian's uprising. One could say that at least half feel it has nothing to do with them. Though their ethnic interests have been infringed upon, few will resort to violent resistance before the rope tightens around their necks.

Of the rest, even among those who sympathize, not many are willing to follow Li Jiqian. The true radicals are only a minority. Yet, in the prevailing environment, a small number of people can stir up collective emotions.

The Tangut of Yanzhou are growing increasingly unstable—and so is the Yulin Road.