Chapter 233: 231: The Provincial Administration Commissioner Ready to Turn Rebel (for Penguin Da)

Even as Zhao Han issued bonds, his expansion was proceeding at a furious pace.

Large numbers of probationary clerks were confirmed in their posts, large numbers of clerks were promoted to officials, and backbone cadres from every village peasant association were also seconded, advancing with the army into territories not yet occupied.

Nankang Prefecture was swiftly taken; its Prefect dared not resist, and still less dared report it to the imperial court, so he could only slip quietly back to his hometown and play dead.

Some of the gentry had intended to flee, but there was nowhere left to flee to.

North of the Yangtze, roving bandits were everywhere — one could only escape south to Jiangnan or southern Huguang. But Jiangnan was stricken by catastrophe, and southern Huguang was in chaos as well; better to stay in Zhao Han's territory, where at least one could keep one's life!

Jiujiang Prefecture, De'an County.

The main line of the Lou clan had lived for generations in Guangxin Prefecture; the branch in Jiujiang was a cadet line.

When Zhao Han's forces entered Jiujiang, the first place they occupied was De'an County, and the De'an gentry and landlords could only resign themselves to fate.

The few who banded together to stir up trouble quickly became targets of public trials.

Lou Shang stayed hidden at home, not daring to go out. Though he had long heard that the Luling rebel Zhao wanted land, not wealth, and would not kill so long as one did not resist, he still felt that rebels could not be trusted.

"Master, Master, the rebels are at the door!"

Lou Shang started up in alarm, his legs went weak, and he sank back down again. "Help me up," he said hurriedly.

He had all the women of the household hide themselves well, but still felt uneasy, so he had a servant bring pot-black from the stove and made every woman with any beauty smear her face black.

Lou Shang led his sons and grandsons to open the gate, bringing the land deeds to welcome the rebels.

He had already made inquiries: so long as one voluntarily surrendered one's landholdings, the rebels would issue a placard. The placard read "Household of Righteousness and Benevolence" and could be hung at the gate or kept stored away.

The main gate swung wide open.

Lou Shang went out to receive them and saw a high-ranking rebel official approaching with more than twenty rebels.

"I pay my respects to…"

Lou Shang was somewhat at a loss for the proper form of address, then in a flash of inspiration said, "I pay my respects to you, sir!"

"Fei Chun?"

A household servant cried out in astonishment.

Lou Shang's eldest son, Lou Wei, immediately rebuked him: "Shut your mouth!"

Lou Shang smiled apologetically. "The household slave is insolent; pray do not take offense, sir."

"It is nothing," Fei Chun said with a smile. "Manager Lou, let us go inside to talk."

"Please!"

Lou Shang stepped aside and gestured for him to enter.

They came to the inner courtyard and entered the reception hall. Fei Chun said, "All those not needed here, withdraw for now."

Very soon, only Fei Chun, Lou Shang, and Lou Shang's two sons remained in the room.

Fei Chun rose and bowed with clasped hands, smiling. "Greetings, Elder Lou."

Lou Shang asked suspiciously, "You recognize this old man, sir?"

Fei Chun explained, "I came here several times before in the young master's company. The elder is a busy man who forgets many things, so naturally you would not remember."

"Who is your young master?" Lou Shang was even more puzzled.

Fei Chun said, "Fei Ruhe."

"He'er?" Fei Ruhe was Lou Shang's maternal grandson.

Fei Chun added, "The Second General Zhao is none other than Fei Ruhe."

Lou Shang and his two sons were first greatly startled, then overjoyed. The terror of rebels pressing on their borders vanished in an instant, replaced by the delight of meteoric advancement.

Lou Shang dared not be remiss and asked, "May I inquire after this gentleman's honored name?"

"Fei Chun," Fei Chun said. "I oversee the grain and funds of Jiangxi."

So he was no ordinary household slave; Lou Shang became even more deferential.

Lou Wei asked, "Since we are all our own people, can the Lou family perhaps be exempted from land redistribution?"

Fei Chun presented a letter and said, "I was originally handling affairs in Raozhou when Madam sent a letter, entrusting me to make a trip here to De'an. Madam's meaning is to ask the Lou family to cooperate actively and set an example, so as to avoid anything regrettable occurring."

The second son, Lou Zhan, was very displeased: "Our nephew has become a general, yet his mother's family must still have its land divided? This is simply absurd."

Fei Chun laughed coldly. "You, sir, are welcome to try."

Lou Shang swiftly finished reading his daughter's letter and immediately clasped his fists. "The Lou family will certainly cooperate with full effort, to serve as a model for the De'an gentry!"

"That is well, then," Fei Chun said, rising and clasping his fists. "I take my leave."

Lou Shang pressed him to stay: "Superintendent Fei, why not stay for a simple meal before you go?"

"No need; I have a great many matters to attend to and must leave at once for Nanchang." Fei Chun departed as soon as he had spoken.

Lou Shang hurriedly saw him off, escorting him all the way outside the main gate.

They shut the gate and returned inside. Lou Zhan asked, "Father, why did you act so? He'er is the Second General Zhao, a prominent figure among the rebels; the Lou family could certainly have kept a bit more of its land."

Lou Shang beamed with delight. "Do you two know who the Luling Mr. Zhao is?"

"Could it be Dazhao?" Lou Wei guessed, meaning Fei Yinghuan.

"Does he look like a man who would dare rebel?" Lou Shang held up the letter and said with a smile, "You have not guessed correctly, but you are not far off. The Luling Mr. Zhao is Dazhao's son-in-law!"

The two brothers exchanged a glance, both astonished and delighted.

Lou Shang continued, "Now the realm is in great chaos, the court is powerless to exterminate the rebels, and even the wealthy lands of Jiangnan suffer great famine. This Great Ming dynasty, I imagine, has not much time left. The Luling Mr. Zhao has the bearing of dragon and tiger and may become the lord of all under Heaven. Yun'er and Mu'er" — the eldest sons of the Lou brothers — "must be sent at once to the government offices, to become those so-called probationary clerks. Also, keep enough grain at home for two years' consumption; use the remaining grain to buy bonds, and donate five hundred shi to the government offices as well."

Lou Wei said, "Why send those two youngsters to serve as officials? My younger brother and I can go instead."

Lou Shang looked at him with contempt. "Can the two of you endure hardship? All officials and clerks under Mr. Zhao's rule must toil and work in earnest; only by achieving results in governance can they be promoted."

"That is far too unreasonable," Lou Zhan said discontentedly. "If Mr. Zhao gains the realm, we shall all be imperial relatives. Not to speak of being enfeoffed with a title of nobility, we should at least be able to serve as high officials. We are not even given clerkships, only probationary clerk posts — then what is the point of following rebels and rising in revolt?"

"Foolishness!"

Lou Shang rebuked him: "Which founder of a dynasty was not a fierce and ambitious hero, and which did not establish rules? Since Mr. Zhao has set down rules, we must not be the ones to take the lead in breaking them. Yun'er and Mu'er may seem to be only probationary clerks, but with people of ours at court, need we fear their promotion will not be swift enough? At present, Mr. Zhao holds only the territory of Jiangxi; when his domain expands later, how many officials and clerks will he need to appoint? After he takes the southern provinces, Yun'er and Mu'er can at the very least become Prefects! Summon the two of them here; I must give them a stern admonition — they must not act foolishly."

……

After Xiong Wencan was transferred, the new Governor of Jiangxi was named Zhu Zhichen.

Like Xiong Wencan, he was a native of Sichuan. Later, in the Southern Ming rump court, he served as Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice. When the Qing troops arrived, Zhu Zhichen, along with Qian Qianyi and others, braved heavy rain to go outside the city, kneel, and surrender to the Manchu Qing.

"The rebels have made their move — what is to be done!" Zhu Zhichen cried urgently.

Wu Shiliang, over eighty years old, sat with eyes slightly shut in silence, like an old monk deep in meditation.

Zhang Bingwen, his expression grim, said, "I said long ago that the rebel Zhao is not the sort who can be pacified. After Supreme Commander Zhu left, the military readiness around Nanchang slackened, and the rebel Zhao could take it at any time. What options remain now? Either join the rebels, die for the dynasty, or flee."

The newly appointed Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Jiangxi was named Li Shiguang. Like Zhang Bingwen, he would historically die resisting the Qing.

This fellow was terribly unlucky — he had only been in Jiangxi for two months, and in the fog of confusion, the rebel Zhao was about to swallow the entire province.

Li Shiguang sighed and said, "Whatever the case, the events here must be reported to the court."

Wu Shiliang suddenly opened his eyes and said, "Report to the court, and then what? Can all those grand ministers conjure up funds and provisions to suppress the rebels? The rebels in Jiangxi, though sedentary bandits, are in truth harder to wipe out than the roving bandits. The people in every neighboring village and district have all been bought off with land distribution and can turn rebel at any moment. Unless you slaughter every last commoner in Jiangxi, the rebels here can never be quelled."

Zhu Zhichen said, "I am Governor, and you gentlemen are the three provincial offices. If the court learns we have lost cities and territory, every one of us will face a capital sentence!"

Wu Shiliang said, "Our only choice is to conceal it from the court and sit watching how the realm changes."

"Jiangxi has so many officials, and their families have had their land redistributed by the rebels — how can that not reach His Majesty? There is no way to hide it!" Li Shiguang said anxiously.

Wu Shiliang said, "Even if we cannot hide it, we must. We know it, and the sovereign and his ministers at court know it too. If the rebel Zhao is provoked, the Southern Metropolitan Region and Zhejiang will both be in peril. Once the Southern Metropolitan Region and Zhejiang are lost, where will the court collect its taxes? When that day comes, the Great Ming is doomed!"

Everyone fell silent.

Officials north of the Yangtze saw a dynasty in its final days, with many prefectures and counties already nine houses out of ten standing empty.

But officials in Jiangxi saw a burgeoning new regime, full of vigorous growth.

No matter where they were, officials all sensed that the Great Ming was nearly finished. After the restoration of the recommendation system, many of the worthy men recommended simply refused the summons to take office — they, too, could see the situation with perfect clarity.

Now there were three great powers under Heaven: the roving bandits of the northwest, the rebel Zhao of Jiangxi, and the Manchu Qing of Liaodong.

If they truly had to choose a new court, they would rather choose the rebel Zhao of Jiangxi. Though their families would certainly lose their land, at least they could still live their lives, and at least there would still be hope for their clans to rise again.

As for the Manchu Qing in Liaodong, they were not even worth considering.

Zhang Bingwen returned home, sat in a daze for a long while, and then suddenly resolved to join the rebels.

In history, he would rally the common people to defend Jinan to the death against the Manchu Qing — first holding the city walls, then fighting street by street, until he was struck by an arrow and died.

His wife, née Fang, upon learning her husband had fallen in battle, said to his concubine, née Chen, "I shall share life and death with our husband. The young orphans of this household will be left in your care." The concubine Chen said, "If you die, I die too." The wife and concubine then threw themselves into Daming Lake and drowned, and more than ten maidservants of the household also cast themselves into the lake together.

A man like this — was he truly willing to join the rebels?

Zhang Bingwen's ancestral home was in Tongcheng. He had once studied under Fang Xuejian, and his scholarly makeup was highly complex — an innovative School of Principle that fused the Yangming School of Mind with a simultaneous inclination toward practical statecraft.

To be honest, aside from his stance on the gentry, Zhang Bingwen admired everything Zhao Han had done.

Fang, Zhang, Zuo, Qian, Yao — the five great surnames of Tongcheng, with the Zhang clan ranked second.

But now that things had come to this, let the land be redistributed. The Zhang family estates were not his alone, after all. Moreover, the Zhang family also ran businesses; even if all their landholdings were taken, they could still earn a living through trade.

In recent years, Zhang Xianzhong had passed through Tongcheng twice, and government troops had come through twice as well. Soldiers came and bandits went, bandits went and soldiers came — the Zhang clan of Tongcheng had already been ravaged badly enough.

Zhang Bingwen intended to assist Zhao Han and return to his old home sooner to strike back. Otherwise, who knew how thoroughly the lands north of the Yangtze would be laid waste.

Summoning a household servant, Zhang Bingwen said, "Go to Ji'an at once and procure all the primary-school and middle-school textbooks."

Zhang Bingwen disdained starting as a probationary clerk. He would study the primary and middle school curriculum on his own, obtain his primary and middle school diplomas, and then personally seek out Zhao Han to be given an official post.

This gentleman had clearly inquired into these matters long ago. His intention to join the rebels had evidently been brewing for more than just a day or two, and he was very well informed about many things under Zhao Han's governance.

(End of chapter)