Chapter 144: 142

Early morning.

Several hired hands were sweeping away the accumulated snow when Liu Zhu, the deputy captain of the personal guard, came hurrying over.

"Commander, some common folk have come to deliver winter livestock. We told them it's not wanted, but they're stubbornly refusing to leave." Liu Zhu wore a troubled expression as he spoke, yet his tone carried a note of pride and satisfaction.

Winter livestock was a means by which landlords exploited their tenant farmers — using the winter solstice festival to force tenants to send gifts, which had to be domestic fowl or livestock.

Now, the military households near the prefectural city, having completely turned their fortunes around after the land distribution, were coming of their own accord, bearing gifts to congratulate Zhao Han on the winter solstice.

Zhao Han said, "Go and make it clear to the common folk: sending gifts to officials is forbidden. If anyone insists on giving, have them deliver it to the relief homes. Anything left behind by those who just drop off winter livestock and leave — send that to the relief homes as well."

"At your command!" Liu Zhu left at a jog.

Every town had a relief home. They were not large in scale, but they operated passably well. Their residents had work to do all year round — making cloth shoes for the soldiers, sewing military cotton-padded coats, and so on. Many urban drifters also made shoes to sell to the Commander's headquarters.

Fei Rulan came chasing after him, an overcoat in hand, and called out, "Put this on! It's terribly cold today — don't catch a chill!"

Zhao Han turned back with a smile. Fei Rulan had already reached him and briskly helped him into the overcoat.

It was a front-opening outer garment. Fei Rulan had personally sewn this goose-down overcoat. Once Zhao Han had it on, it felt both warm and light — quite reminiscent of a down jacket.

He strolled over to the front-courtyard yamen. Li Banghua had already returned from Jishui and was waiting for the meeting to begin.

As we mentioned before, the record for the number of candidates in a Ming-dynasty county examination was set in Linchuan County, Jiangxi, where over ten thousand people took part in a single examination — all of them schoolchildren and child students who had not yet passed the xiucai exam.

The quality of scholars in Jishui County was higher, though limited by the amount of arable land, the number of educated men was not as great as in Linchuan County. Still, out of a total population of one hundred twenty thousand in Jishui (not counting the county seat), there were four to five thousand scholars who had studied the Four Books and the Five Classics. If you included those who could recognize a few hundred characters, the number easily exceeded ten thousand. Even some tenant farmers' sons knew a handful of characters.

Incidentally, the severe land consolidation in the late Ming led to a decline in the number of educated men in Jiangxi, and the number of jinshi degree-holders also fell far below earlier levels.

In the early and mid-Ming, large numbers of poor Jiangxi youths passed the jinshi examination. By the late Ming, jinshi from humble backgrounds in Jiangxi had become exceedingly rare.

After Li Banghua issued his call to action, countless low-level scholars flocked to join them — "talent" had exploded to overflowing.

To prevent cheating in the land distribution, the scholars of Jishui County were transferred to Anfu County to assist with land distribution there. And the scholars of Anfu County were transferred to Jishui to assist with land distribution here.

Typically, one propaganda officer, leading several newly recruited scholars, would be assigned to various villages to organize the land distribution. Under these conditions, the land distribution work in both counties was swiftly completed, followed by the formation of peasant associations in both counties.

"Commander!"

Everyone rose to their feet.

Zhao Han raised a hand. "Sit, all of you. Let's each report on the situation."

Chen Maosheng was the first to speak. "We are no longer short of educated men now — especially child students and schoolchildren, the kind who have studied the Four Books and Five Classics. We have so many that there are simply no posts to assign them to. But among them, many do not believe in Great Unity under Heaven, and they often flout the rules in their work. I believe we should rename White Egret Islet Academy to Great Unity Academy, specifically to give lessons to those educated men who do follow the rules, and only assign them posts after they complete the course!"

Li Banghua immediately said, "I agree with establishing a school to impart Great Unity thought, but White Egret Islet Academy cannot be renamed. That would certainly provoke resistance among the scholars."

"Let's not change the academy's name," Pang Chunlai also said.

"Then we won't change it," Zhao Han said with a smile.

Any proper scholar had an emotional attachment to White Egret Islet Academy — it was, after all, the place that had produced Wen Tianxiang and so many other worthies of the past.

Chen Maosheng could only sit back down. Born an opera performer, his thinking was particularly radical.

Zhao Han thought for a moment. "I will serve as the academy's headmaster, but I'll only go there occasionally to give lectures. Mr. Li will be the academy's deputy headmaster — he can also drop by when he has time. Chen Maosheng will be the Dean of Studies, in charge of the academy's specific affairs. Oh, and that Magistrate Wang — after making a tour of the countryside, he's back in the prefectural city feeling a bit awkward. Send him to the academy as an instructor as well."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

The group burst into laughter.

The former Luling County Magistrate, Wang Tiaoding, was willing to join the rebels, yet also unwilling to join the rebels — hemming and hawing, thoroughly ill at ease.

However, Wang Tiaoding and Ouyang Zheng had jointly put brush to paper and produced a theoretical essay — "The Great Unity Discourse on Land Distribution."

The angle from which they approached the argument was extraordinarily ingenious, originating from this line in the Laozi: "The Dao of Heaven takes from what has excess and replenishes what is lacking. The way of man takes from what is lacking and offers it to what has excess. Who can take from their excess and offer it to all under Heaven? Only one who possesses the Dao."

What does that mean?

The landlords' ceaseless annexation of land belongs to the way of man — it is an inevitability of human nature. Zhao Han's presiding over land distribution belongs to the Dao of Heaven — he is carrying out Heaven's work. One who can take from their excess and offer it to all under Heaven may be called "one who possesses the Dao." Zhao Han and the officials under him are precisely such possessors of the Dao.

This essay was written in highly abstruse terms. Ordinary common folk could not understand it at all, but to educated men, it was extraordinarily persuasive.

Those low-level scholars who had already reaped the benefits were even more fervent in their esteem for "The Great Unity Discourse on Land Distribution." With this essay, they could set aside their psychological burdens entirely and go merrily off to distribute land — for distributing land was acting in accord with the Dao of Heaven.

The crude slogans that Chen Maosheng shouted were aimed specifically at the common people.

The essay by Wang Tiaoding and Ouyang Zheng was aimed specifically at the scholars of the realm.

A pity that, having written the essay, neither dared sign his own real name to it. One used the pseudonym Wang Fan, the other Ouyang Zhen — sneaking about as furtively as thieves.

Both Wang Tiaoding and Ouyang Zheng had been child prodigies: the former became a stipend-xiucai at age eleven, the latter at age thirteen. As expected, they had genuine learning in their bellies. Zhao Han was thoroughly pleased after reading the essay and personally acted as their recommender, bringing both into the Great Unity Society.

And that essay, "The Great Unity Discourse on Land Distribution," was made required reading for all members of the Great Unity Society — ideally, they should be able to recite the entire text from memory.

After stirring up such a major action, Ouyang Zheng went off happily to serve as a county magistrate, but Wang Tiaoding was unwilling to take up any actual post. So toss him into the academy as an instructor, then — let him impart Great Unity thought to the students, and from now on he can devote himself to theoretical research.

Having finished with the academy matters, Li Banghua said, "There are far too many scholars waiting to become officials and get things done. I believe we can take the entire Ji'an Prefecture! At the very least, we must take Taihe County and half of Wan'an County. That way, we can both assign posts to the scholars who have come over to our side and make our territory's borders mountains and rivers!"

Zhao Han did not want to expand too rapidly, but he had already received secret reports from Xu Ying — Taihe County and Wan'an County had to be brought into their domain.

Only by taking the two counties to the south could they fully occupy the central Jiangxi basin, so that their territory would be surrounded on all sides by great mountains.

Sometimes, one cannot look only at internal administration — military considerations must also be taken into account. Li Banghua was thinking in terms of the overall strategic situation.

"Has contact been made with the righteous army in Longquan County?" Zhao Han asked.

Xiao Huan not only managed anti-corruption affairs but was also temporarily in charge of intelligence work within their territory. He immediately rose and said, "I was just about to report on this matter. We have already established contact with the Longquan righteous army. The leader of the Longquan righteous army is called Fang Shengchang. His great-grandfather was once a deputy centurion in Longquan, but by his generation the family had fallen into decline. This man studied for a few years but had to drop out midway due to family poverty. Although he seized the Longquan county seat, he fears encirclement and suppression by government forces, and is therefore willing to submit to us."

Zhao Han smiled. "Very good. Once we have taken Taihe and Wan'an counties, send men at once to take over Longquan County and link our southern territories into one contiguous stretch."

Chen Maosheng could not help saying, "Commander, aren't we expanding too fast? Many of these educated men simply won't obey orders. Send them out to the various counties as officials, and we'll surely end up with a whole swarm of corrupt and venal functionaries."

Zhao Han sighed and said, "The tree wishes to be still, but the wind will not cease. I, too, would like to develop slowly, but the court gives us no chance. That old Emperor has already learned of the events in Jiangxi. Troops from Guangdong and Fujian provinces will likely cross the border to strike at us next year!"

Everyone was instantly shocked and alarmed — including Fei Ruhe, who had just returned from Anfu County and could not help feeling somewhat apprehensive.

A three-province encirclement campaign — they might send tens of thousands of troops, even a hundred thousand. Could they really withstand it?

Only Li Banghua and Pang Chunlai remained at ease, sitting there smiling.

Li Banghua said, "In the great mountains of western Fujian and southern Jiangxi, there are many righteous armies. The troops of Fujian and Guangdong will have to clear out those righteous armies before they dare march north to attack us."

Pang Chunlai added, "Given the nature of the Great Ming's government troops, coordinating a joint campaign between two provinces will take at least half a year. If they encounter anyone throwing up obstacles, mobilizing the troops could take over a year — and the sheer amount of provisions and fodder will give them plenty of headaches. This is a path to their own destruction. I fear that before the righteous armies of southern Jiangxi are even wiped out, Fujian and Guangdong will already be ablaze with beacon fires on all sides."

"Mr. Pang's point is well taken," Li Banghua concurred.

In Fujian and Guangdong provinces, first of all, the regular army was extremely small — only the naval forces were even passably adequate. If they wanted to come to Jiangxi to suppress bandits, they would have to recruit and train new troops, and they would have to raise the provisions and fodder from within their own provinces.

Right now the north is still at war, and the court is pressing hard for grain and taxes.

The provincial officials of Guangdong and Fujian have to meet the court's tax levies and corvée demands, and on top of that provide money and grain to recruit troops for campaigns — where are they supposed to get that much silver and grain? When the time comes, they'll surely squeeze the common people even harder, which is bound to drive countless peasants to revolt.

After hearing Pang Chunlai and Li Banghua explain this, everyone relaxed again and no longer feared encirclement by government troops quite so much.

Fei Ruhe suddenly spoke up: "When I was in Anfu County, some righteous soldiers who had fled from Pingxiang came to enlist, and they brought important military intelligence with them. When the Prefect of Yuanzhou was campaigning against the Pingxiang righteous army, he had over a thousand archers under his command."

"Really?" Zhao Han was extremely surprised.

Fei Ruhe said: "I also sent men to Yuanzhou to gather information. It turns out that this Prefect of Yuanzhou, Tian Younian, upon hearing that the Tartars had besieged Beijing, set about recruiting craftsmen to make bows. He brought in over ten craftsmen from the Nanchang Guard's armory, and ordered local Yuanzhou craftsmen to learn from them. By the autumn of the fourth year of Chongzhen, he had already produced five hundred sets of bows and arrows, all of which were delivered to the capital and presented to the Emperor. I heard he even received an imperial commendation and was granted silver to continue making bows."

"That man is a talent," Zhao Han said with a sigh.

Fei Ruhe continued: "The Yuanzhou Guard itself has an armory, and he brought in more craftsmen from Nanchang. Now there are over a hundred bow-makers in Yuanzhou. They can produce several hundred bows and tens of thousands of arrows each year — some shipped to the capital, some kept for their own use. This man has over three thousand troops under his command, a thousand of whom are archers."

Pang Chunlai suddenly sighed: "It seems our true formidable opponent is not Li Maofang or Wang Siren, who are suppressing bandits in Duchang, but this Prefect of Yuanzhou, Tian Younian. This man has been drilling his troops for at least a year; they are no beggar army thrown together at the last moment. No wonder the righteous army of Pingxiang was wiped out by him so easily."

"If the righteous army in Duchang is wiped out," Li Banghua said, "Tian Younian will very likely bring his elite troops and march south with the Governor to attack us."

Yuanzhou lies just north of Anfu County — at first glance, a close neighbor — but a range of mountains stands between them, so only a few key passes need to be defended.

If Tian Younian is clever, he will not come by crossing those great mountains; that would make him highly vulnerable to ambush and defeat. Most likely, he will travel by water together with Governor Li Maofang.

Pang Chunlai said: "We can't just sit and wait for others to attack. We don't have a single suit of armor; against a thousand archers, we'd be at a terrible disadvantage."

"Then we strike first!"

Zhao Han rose to his feet and said: "We'll hit Yuanzhou first. We won't hold the city, and we won't distribute land — we'll go purely to destroy Tian Younian's elite troops. And if we can 'invite' those bow-making craftsmen back with us, so much the better!"

(End of Chapter)