Chapter 173: 171 — The Whole Family a Den of Rebels?

Guangxin Prefecture seat (Shangrao).

Fei Yinghuan presented his visiting card at the prefectural yamen, then returned to the inn to wait.

He had followed the Circuit Intendant into battle, wiping out the Lake Tai bandits, and at the moment of his meritorious service he also sent silver — finally earning another promotion. He was now the Magistrate of Funing Subprefecture, governing the two counties of Fu'an and Ningde, a subprefecture both poor and rich.

It was poor because grain production was insufficient, and the common people's lives were unbearably hard.

It was rich because maritime smuggling ran rampant; as long as you cooperated obediently with the gentry-pirates, there was certainly silver to be scooped up.

Fei Yinghuan was on his way to Fujian to take up his post, and happened to be passing through his old home. In truth, he had long wanted to return and look in on the family. Hearing that rebels were rising everywhere in Jiangxi, and that even his home county was plagued by sectarian bandits, he had been constantly on edge, terrified that something would go wrong.

Passing through the Guangxin Prefecture seat, Fei Yinghuan had made a point of calling on the Prefect, hoping to ask the Prefect to look after the Fei clan more attentively.

At this very moment, the Guangxin Prefect, Zhang Yinggao, was paying his respects at the ruins of Xin Qiji's Jiaxuan estate.

Hearing that the Magistrate of Funing was calling, and that he was moreover a son of the Fei clan, Zhang Yinggao immediately returned to the yamen and sent someone to invite Fei Yinghuan to visit the next day.

Zhang Yinggao was a man of Northern Zhili, with no real ties to the Donglin Faction. The recently demoted and transferred Jiangxi Regional Commander, Li Ruolian, had a younger brother who was Zhang Yinggao's close friend; the two had studied together under Zhu Zhengse.

This Zhu Zhengse was a most interesting figure himself. He had been promoted by Zhang Juzheng, yet while serving as a local official, he rigorously investigated Zhang Juzheng's own younger brother for corruption and abuse of the law. The officials at the Ministry of Personnel were terrified and tried to transfer Zhu Zhengse away, but Zhang Juzheng said he had investigated well, and had Zhu Zhengse remain there in office.

In truth, it was because Zhang Juzheng knew his clansmen were running amok, and had specially dispatched Zhu Zhengse to govern his own home county!

Why was the Guangxin Prefect, Zhang Yinggao, able to swiftly exterminate the Yanshan sectarian bandits? All his skills he had learned from Zhu Zhengse. Zhu Zhengse had tamed the Yellow River, served as a frontier official, and had even reformed weaponry and tactics.

By now, Guangxin Prefecture already had five thousand local militia, their combat strength far surpassing the Governor of Jiangxi's own elite troops.

"Your junior Fei Yinghuan pays his respects to Lord Danru!" Fei Yinghuan's manner was extremely deferential; after all, the man was the parent-official of his home region.

Zhang Yinggao smiled. "Dazhao, no need to stand on ceremony."

Fei Yinghuan said, "That the Yanshan sectarian bandits were swiftly crushed is owed entirely to your lordship's divine command."

Zhang Yinggao replied, "Much credit also goes to the Fei clan's aid. Otherwise, where would I have found the funds and grain to raise troops and wage war?"

The two exchanged compliments, and at once host and guest were in harmony; the atmosphere was instantly just right.

After chatting for a long while, Zhang Yinggao suddenly said, "For now, though the Yanshan sectarian bandits have been exterminated, those Nanfeng sectarian bandits still remain. The Luling rebel Zhao has gone so far as to seize three prefectures and fifteen counties. The Guangxin Prefecture militia cannot be disbanded. On this matter, I must trouble Dazhao to earnestly persuade the Fei clan elders."

Whether it was Sweeping King or Surpassing Lü Bu, all such rebels were regarded by the court as part of Zhao Han's forces.

Thus, in the court's eyes, the territory of the Luling rebel Zhao already comprised three prefectures and fifteen counties.

As for the Guangxin Prefect, Zhang Yinggao, his own situation was rather awkward. He wanted to continue drilling troops and wage war across prefectural borders. But the local gentry disagreed, for the Yanshan sectarian bandits were already destroyed and Guangxin Prefecture was already at peace. Why should they donate money and grain to support troops, sending them off to other prefectures and counties to suppress rebels?

The gentry were shortsighted, fixated only on their own tiny patch of ground.

Zhang Yinggao continued, "Rebel uprisings are not the affair of a single prefecture or county. If we allow that rebel Zhao to grow unchecked, how can Guangxin Prefecture hope to escape?"

Fei Yinghuan clasped his fist in salute. "Lord Danru, set your mind at ease. I shall certainly convey this to the clan elders and urge them to give full support to Your Excellency the Prefect's troop training."

"Then I thank you," Zhang Yinggao said with a smile.

Fei Yinghuan asked, "That Luling rebel Zhao — did he not hold only three counties? How does he now have three prefectures and fifteen counties?"

"Ah," Zhang Yinggao sighed. "In the fifth month of this year, the Governor led a combined army of land and naval forces, nearly twenty thousand strong, and fought a great battle with that rebel Zhao in Linjiang Prefecture. The two sides faced off for over a month. By mid-sixth month, the government forces were routed. Of the fifteen thousand land troops, nearly the entire army was annihilated. Of the naval force of over two thousand men, only half fled back to Nanchang."

Fei Yinghuan said in shock, "That Luling rebel Zhao is so formidable?"

"If he were not, why would the court order Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian to join the encirclement campaign?" Zhang Yinggao said. "The outside troops from Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian are now suppressing bandits in southern Jiangxi. If the rebel Zhao cannot be swiftly put down, once the outside provincial armies enter in force, the people of Jiangxi will again be plunged into misery and devastation."

Fei Yinghuan at last took the matter seriously. Cupping his hands, he said, "This junior shall certainly lobby the Fei clan elders, urging them to contribute funds and effort to aid the war chest. If the rebel Zhao is not destroyed, how can Jiangxi ever know peace?"

The two men's conversation grew ever more cordial, and Zhang Yinggao invited Fei Yinghuan to a banquet.

Though there was wine and meat, it was not extravagant or wasteful, and Fei Yinghuan admired his incorruptibility all the more.

By comparison, Fei Yinghuan was truly a corrupt official, having scooped up plenty of silver at his post, and ordinarily he was fond of luxurious pleasures.

The next day, Fei Yinghuan took a boat home. At his side, Moxiang followed, a two-year-old toddler cradled in her arms.

Indeed, Fei Yinghuan had another son, named Fei Rugao.

On this trip home along his route, he also intended to give Moxiang and her child formal status — officially taking Moxiang as a concubine, and entering the young son's name into the clan genealogy.

Madam Lou would not object; she had long ago promised Moxiang she would be made a concubine.

Fei Yinghuan's homecoming this time was an even grander spectacle, for he was now a Subprefectural Magistrate. Old Master Fei ordered the entire household to turn out, sending his second and third sons directly to the dock to receive him. The retinue numbered over two hundred; aside from the household servants who chopped wood and stoked fires, and the senior maids attending the masters, every other servant went to the dock.

After a long stretch of talking with his parents and brothers, it was not until evening that Fei Yinghuan had a moment to discuss serious matters with his wife.

Moxiang handed her son to the wet nurse. She seemed to have become a maidservant once more, attending Madam Lou with the utmost deference.

Madam Lou did not treat her harshly, merely smiling and bidding Moxiang sit, even addressing her affectionately as "younger sister." Wife and concubine in harmony — the scene was lovely, but it was all Madam Lou's careful handiwork.

Once Fei Yinghuan entered, he immediately dismissed the maids, and sent Moxiang away as well.

Alone in the room with just husband and wife, Fei Yinghuan's expression suddenly turned stern. "In my letters I urged you repeatedly to send Rulan to Huzhou for the marriage. You kept putting it off — what is the reason?"

Madam Lou smiled slightly. "Husband, Rulan is already married. And she has written to say she is with child."

"Who is the husband?" Fei Yinghuan was deeply displeased; as her father, he did not even know whom his daughter had married.

"The one you brought home," Madam Lou replied.

"Zhao Han?" Fei Yinghuan said, bewildered. "Wasn't he stripped of his degree?"

The matter of Zhao Han had also greatly displeased Fei Yinghuan, but after all, it had been his own father's doing. He could not, for the sake of an outsider, directly fall out with his father and son.

"Ah!"

Madam Lou sighed. "Does my husband know of the Luling rebel Zhao?"

Fei Yinghuan nodded. "Of course I have heard. That rebel now holds three prefectures and fifteen counties."

Madam Lou corrected him. "It is not three prefectures and fifteen counties, only two prefectures and eight counties. The other rebels merely honor his name; they are not in league with him."

"How do you know this so clearly?" Fei Yinghuan asked, puzzled.

Madam Lou said with a smile, "The Luling rebel Zhao is Zhao Han."

"What?"

Fei Yinghuan started in shock, leaping to his feet. "How is that possible? He is only eighteen (in nominal years)!"

Madam Lou put away her smile, her face entirely serious. "It truly is him."

Fei Yinghuan's mind went completely blank. It took him a long while to recover, and then he sputtered in fury, "That wretch became a rebel, and you married our daughter to him?"

Madam Lou sighed and said, "It's all because you raised a fine son."

"Ruhe?"

A sudden great terror seized Fei Yinghuan. His eyes bulging wide, he said, "Ruhe hasn't turned bandit too, has he?"

Madam Lou said, "Zhao Yaonian, the number-one great general under the Luling rebel Zhao, is none other than your fine son Ruhe."

Boom!

Fei Yinghuan collapsed limp into his armchair, as if his soul had been drained away, dazed and utterly unable to think.

"Husband! Husband!"

A long while later, Fei Yinghuan was roused by his wife. His mouth parched, he ground his teeth and said, "They've pulled off something grand — this is going to get the Fei clan exterminated!"

Madam Lou said, "Ever since your son rose in revolt, I've read the military dispatches every month. I'd say the Great Ming is surely finished. Zhao Han and Ruhe just might succeed. Even Li Meng'an of Jishui went over to the rebels long ago. And that Prefect of Yuanzhou — he joined the rebels this year too. The government troops in Jiangxi are no match for them at all."

"Let me think in peace."

Fei Yinghuan gradually recovered his wits and began to think in earnest. His son had already rebelled; he had to weigh the pros and cons carefully.

He was the adoptive father of the rebel chieftain — even if he wasn't truly an adoptive father, that identity would certainly be pinned on him from now on. His son was the second-ranking rebel in Jiangxi. His daughter had already married the rebel chieftain, and it seemed she was pregnant besides.

How was that any different from rebelling himself?

Suddenly, Fei Yinghuan's breathing quickened. Amid the terror, he also felt a stir of excitement.

If Zhao Han truly succeeded, wouldn't he be the Imperial Father-in-Law?

His son would at the very least be a founding duke or chancellor!

I mustn't think like this, I mustn't think like this, Fei Yinghuan admonished himself to remain loyal to the sovereign.

But the more he tried to stop, the more he couldn't. Reality was already what it was — he could no longer remain loyal to the sovereign. He had only one road left: to join the rebels and revolt!

Madam Lou suddenly spoke again: "That fourth brother of yours is also in Brother Han's army. Fei Chun is in charge of all money and grain matters. Over in Henglin, Fei Yuanjian is now a rebel County Magistrate. Even Fei Yuanjian's page boy has become Brother Han's secretary — the equivalent of a Secretariat Drafter in the imperial court."

Fei Yinghuan had grown numb to it all. He gave a bitter laugh. "The Fei family truly produces talents in every generation."

"Husband, you must make a decision," Madam Lou urged.

After thinking it over carefully, Fei Yinghuan said, "I'll go to Ji'an Prefecture first and see for myself. How can a letter make the details clear?"

The couple spent a few intimate days together and settled the formal status of Moxiang and her son. Then Fei Yinghuan set out, taking Wei Jianxiong with him.

The youngest son stayed at home, with Moxiang and a maidservant attending him.

Taking advantage of the time, Wei Jianxiong also went for a secret rendezvous with an old flame — he passed the days quite pleasantly.

Aboard the boat, inside the cabin.

Fei Yinghuan asked, "Jianxiong, do you think this dynasty can still be saved?"

"I don't know," Wei Jianxiong said. "As long as the roving bandits in the northwest can't be wiped out, this dynasty won't get better."

The heaviest burdens on the common people were not in Shanxi, Shaanxi, or Jiangxi, but in the prefectures south of the Yangtze! According to the statistical data from Zhang Juzheng's reforms, the land taxes of the Southern Metropolitan Region and Zhejiang together accounted for a third of the entire empire's land tax.

Of course, if you looked only at the tax owed per mu of land, Guizhou ranked first, Sichuan second, Yunnan third, and the Southern Metropolitan Region fourth.

The Southern Metropolitan Region had remained stable purely by relying on its thriving commerce and handicraft industry.

Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, on the other hand, had seen incessant uprisings.

The reason roving bandits had emerged in Shanxi and Shaanxi was simply several consecutive years of severe drought, combined with extremely low crop yields per mu.

In any case, during his years in the south, the common folk Wei Jianxiong saw were living in utter misery.

Fei Yinghuan paced out of the cabin and stared blankly at the scenery along the banks. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined he would ever be linked to rebellion.

(End of chapter)