Chapter 198: Luoyang Carved Up

The Western Capital, Luoyang.

Over a hundred officials of all ranks, along with the stationed troops and several thousand commoners, waited outside the city walls. After all, this was the final stop of the Son of Heaven's western tour—a somewhat proper welcome ceremony was only to be expected.

Among the welcoming crowd, the commoners were numb, the soldiers indifferent, and the officials anxious—there was little joy to be found. Liu Chengyou had demoted and executed people all along this journey, and word of his reputation had already spread.

At the head stood the Acting Military Governor, Li Congmin, Duke of Ju, positioned at the front, his gaze fixed eastward. At the end of his sight, he could faintly make out the forest of dragon banners and ceremonial halberds. Li Congmin was approaching the age of fifty, yet he appeared extraordinarily aged, looking far older than his years.

His expression was extremely solemn. After all, his status was special—he was a member of the imperial clan of the dynasty before the previous one. When Liu Zhiyuan had appointed him Acting Military Governor of the Western Capital, it had merely been a gesture to reassure the people. Now that a new emperor had taken the throne, what attitude he would face remained unknown.

Moreover, during this period, he had offended Chancellor Su Fengji. And this time, with the Son of Heaven touring the west, Su Fengji had been ordered to accompany the imperial entourage—he could not help but worry about retaliation. The Son of Heaven had already dealt with so many officials on this journey; Li Congmin did not consider his own hands clean.

"So this is Luoyang?" As the imperial carriage slowly turned toward the southern gate of Luoyang, Liu Chengyou's tone carried a hint of surprise as he leaned out to gaze at the city.

Out of consideration for an old minister, Feng Dao had been summoned to the imperial carriage to keep Liu Chengyou company in conversation. He too gazed at Luoyang city with some deep emotion: "Indeed. Having not set foot in the Western Capital for many years, this old minister finds it strangely unfamiliar."

Liu Chengyou's exclamation was not astonishment at the city's grandeur and magnificence, but rather that the city appeared far too ancient and dilapidated. The city was naturally a mighty one—after all, it was a thousand-year-old capital with profound heritage, its walls so vast that even the Eastern Capital's Kaifeng could not compare. But it lacked that "vitality" of the Eastern Capital.

"Your servant, Li Congmin, Acting Military Governor of the Western Capital, leading all the offices, generals, officials, meritorious subjects, and commoners of the Western Capital, respectfully welcomes Your Majesty!" As the imperial carriage drew near, the civil and military officials of Luoyang, led by Li Congmin, bowed in unison in welcome.

Liu Chengyou stepped out of the carriage, standing on the shaft, and swept his gaze over the crowd from above. His first impression of the Western Capital's officials was: why are there so many officials!

There were too many people, and Liu Chengyou was certain that most held nominal posts. Over the accumulated dynasties, countless nobles and old officials had been produced, and now the Great Han had inherited them all—after all, one had to win people's hearts, just as retaining a large number of Later Jin officials in the Eastern Capital was the same principle.

His gaze swept over the officials with bowed heads and bent backs, then looked at the commoners "swarming" around them. There was no scene of eager subjects rushing to greet and pay homage—the atmosphere was very solemn, so solemn it was somewhat oppressive.

Liu Chengyou said little, merely ordering someone to convey his decree that the officials and people of the Western Capital need not stand on ceremony, and issuing words of commendation to the gentry and common folk.

"I have repeatedly ordered that no welcome ceremonies be held, and that disturbing the people be strictly forbidden. Yet these Luoyang officials still make such a great commotion—what are they trying to do, curry favor and flatter?" Liu Chengyou said flatly as he entered the city.

Feng Dao sat stiffly beside him, and upon hearing this, his face couldn't help but twitch. He felt that Liu Chengyou was somewhat too harsh with his subordinates. If he truly did not wish to disturb the people, then this emperor should not have gone on tour at all—staying quietly in the palace and ruling by inaction would absolutely not disturb anyone.

Of course, this was merely the old fox muttering to himself inwardly; he would never voice it, nor would he show even a trace of it in his expression. After a moment's thought, he gently offered consolation: "Luoyang is also a national capital. Now that Your Majesty has arrived, the officials and people welcome you joyfully, as if longing for sweet rain—surely this comes from the bottom of their hearts..."

Liu Chengyou did not take Feng Dao's words to heart, but he also said nothing more. Logically speaking, the respectful welcome of Luoyang's civil and military officials should have pleased Liu Chengyou—yet it had violated his earlier orders. This made Liu Chengyou's feelings somewhat complicated. Of course, he also knew that he could not appear too harsh...

The Heavenly Street running through Luoyang from north to south was still as broad as ever, but it appeared much more disorderly. Personally experiencing the Western Capital, one could discover that both inside and outside the city, there were too many traces of years of neglect and disrepair.

Entering the Ziwei Imperial Palace, he took the main hall and received the congratulations of the civil and military officials remaining in Luoyang. This was the first time Luoyang's officials had seen Liu Chengyou, this Son of Heaven, and also the first time Liu Chengyou had seen them. This place was almost a miniature court—even if Liu Chengyou were to govern the realm from Luoyang, it seemed there would be no problem; all the officials could be summoned at will...

Following the pre-prepared speech, Liu Chengyou delivered it with little emotion. It roughly elaborated on the purposes of the western tour—reassuring the people, encouraging agriculture, and inspecting governance—offered some explanation for the "rectification campaign" along the way, and issued some words of reassurance. As for how much comforting effect it had, that was anyone's guess.

The Luoyang palace was dilapidated, and the Western Capital government simply had no resources to repair it. Little in the way of artifacts, jade, or wealth remained in the palace—reportedly, when the northern barbarians had previously invaded, the Khitan had looted it clean. But Liu Chengyou was not particular about such things; as long as it was habitable, it would do.

The first thing Liu Chengyou did after settling in was summon Li Shaoyou to hear his report. Before coming west, Liu Chengyou had dispatched him, as Commissioner of the Wude Office, to lead a team personally and arrive at the Western Capital ahead of time to investigate the situation in secret.

The situation Li Shaoyou reported made Liu Chengyou furious.

The situation in Luoyang could actually be summed up in one phrase: carved up completely.

Whether they were new nobles of the current court, old officials of the previous dynasty, or powerful figures of the outer garrisons—virtually all of them had established properties in Luoyang.

Take Su Fengji as an example: since entering the Central Plains, he had sent a group of household servants and retainers to Luoyang to enclose land and seize houses. Over the course of nearly a year, there were five Su residences within Luoyang city, and over ten manors around Luoyang's outskirts, respectively controlling more than fifty qing of land belonging to Su Fengji...

And this was just Su Fengji's household alone. The court officials of the Eastern Capital had more or less followed suit—even Yang Bin, renowned for his incorruptibility, owned two residences in Luoyang city, and had a share of the land around Luoyang as well. It was said that Yang Bin's sons had sent people to acquire them.

How many officials were there in the Eastern Capital, and how many in Luoyang? Kaifeng city was at the feet of the Son of Heaven, so few dared to act recklessly there—but Luoyang was a different matter.

Based on information from various sources, a rough estimate suggested that about eighty percent of the land around Luoyang had been seized by officials of all ranks. As for the military farming that Li Congmin had carried out in the Western Capital, it was only a very small scale.

And this gave rise to a problem—the problem of hidden households. Having land alone was not enough; they needed people to farm it. Thus, large numbers of landless peasants became their manor tenants and hired laborers, and very likely "voluntarily" so.

After all, the court's policy was in place—as long as one registered in the household records, one could obtain one's own land. But policies also required people to implement them, and the implementers were basically these same bureaucratic classes who had seized the land.

It seemed to be a vicious cycle.

The refugees from various regions should have been self-cultivating farmers allocated land by imperial decree, paying taxes and delivering grain to the court! In the feudal age, self-cultivating farmers were the main source of the court's fiscal revenue.

It was precisely because this era had a sparse population, with vast lands and few people everywhere, that there was basically no major contradiction over land. But this abnormal phenomenon of land annexation in Luoyang alarmed Liu Chengyou greatly. He seemed to see the scene of the rich owning fields stretching to the horizon while the poor had no place to stand a needle.

Of course, not all regions across the country were like this—Luoyang had its own particularities. But if such a situation were not suppressed, once it spread, the state would inevitably become unstable. Thinking further ahead, once the realm was pacified and the population entered a phase of explosive growth, within a few decades, the entire country would likely rapidly fall back into that vicious cycle of land contradictions.