Chapter 225: Song Jiang

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Fengqiu is very close to Dongjing Bianliang.

By horse, it takes just over two hours to travel from Fengqiu County to Dongjing Bianliang.

Thus, Zhao Yu and his ministers learned of events in Fengqiu at once. The local gentry of Fengqiu incited the county's students to intercept the county magistrate and force him to rescind the Two New Policies; after Magistrate Yu Li refused the students' demands, he sent messengers galloping to report the matter to court.

At the time, Zhao Yu and his ministers did not respond because they wanted to let the bullet fly a while longer, to see what else the Fengqiu gentry might do.

Crucially, Zhao Yu needed a typical example—kill a chicken to scare the monkeys. The Fengqiu gentry merely incited students to intercept Yu Li and force him to rescind the Two New Policies; that level of defiance was not enough for Zhao Yu to launch a full-scale purge.

Besides, Zhao Yu had to give other regions a chance to see if anyone would be even more foolish.

The result? Probably because Zhao Yu and his ministers had acted too harshly before, other regions' gentry grew fearful and unanimously chose to watch and wait—until the Fengqiu gentry, the most foolish of all, chose to incite the Fengqiu students to boycott the exams and riot in the examination halls, blocking the court's recruitment and trying to force the court to back down.

Seeing that the Fengqiu gentry were truly brazen and the Fengqiu students truly stupid, Zhao Yu issued an order: act.

That night, Yuwen Xuzhong, who had long been prepared, personally commanded the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest everyone involved in the incident: the Fengqiu gentry behind the scenes and their entire families, the leading student agitators and their entire families, and even those Fengqiu students who had responded to the gentry's call and refused to take the local provincial examination.

The next day, Zhao Yu's edict arrived.

According to Zhao Yu's edict, the ringleaders were to be executed immediately at the local crossroads; all the Fengqiu gentry behind the scenes and the leading student agitators were killed, their families confiscated and exterminated: male relatives were branded and exiled, female relatives sent to the Teaching Bureau; the Fengqiu students who had refused to take the provincial exam were branded with "Foolish" on their left cheek and "Selfish" on their right, beaten one hundred strokes, and permanently barred from official service.

The entire city of Fengqiu fell into panic, instantly sinking from its former roaring wave of resistance into utter silence; doors and windows were shut tight in every alley and household, not a sound dared to be made. Even the wind seemed frozen, leaving only the occasional mournful caw of crows from afar, adding further desolation to this sorrowful land.

Under the edict, no one dared speak. Those once like local emperors were now corpses beneath the blade; those young, impulsive students paid a heavy price for their moment of rage. Their families suffered innocently: men exiled at least a thousand li away, women sent to the Teaching Bureau to be shared by all, their households shattered, families torn apart, fates unknown.

Yuwen Xuzhong stood on the city wall, gazing down at the empty streets and the crossroads stained red with blood, a complex emotion flickering in his eyes.

Yuwen Xuzhong knew this storm was not merely punishment for the Fengqiu gentry—it was a warning to every gentry family in the Zhao Song dynasty.

Yuwen Xuzhong sighed softly, feeling both admiration for Zhao Yu's decisive action and sympathy for the innocent who suffered.

Yet Yuwen Xuzhong did not believe Zhao Yu had done wrong. He had visited the newly reclaimed regions and knew how much better they had become after the Two New Policies were implemented, how happy the people there were—and thus knew Zhao Yu was right, and the gentry and students were wrong, dragging history backward.

News of Fengqiu spread rapidly across the land; every gentry family trembled, grateful they had not been the first to raise arms to defend their interests. They began to reassess the court's resolve and power, realizing this time the court was not bluffing—it truly intended to abolish the gentry's privilege of exemption from land taxes and corvée labor.

Moreover, this made the gentry realize that directly opposing Zhao Yu—the emperor who had reclaimed Qingtang, reclaimed Xixia, reclaimed the Eleven States of Yanyun, recovered all tribute extorted by the Liao, signed a favorable peace treaty with the Liao, and brought the Zhao Song dynasty to prosperity—was suicide. They would have to find other ways to protect their interests.

Notably, after this incident, the implementation of the Two New Policies in Fengqiu accelerated dramatically and became thoroughly complete.

After surveying the land, the total area concealed or exempted by the gentry exceeded tenfold the area actually paying taxes.

No wonder the Fengqiu gentry had panicked—they had been directly threatening their enormous interests.

Moreover, after this heavy-handed crackdown, gentry families in nearby prefectures and even nearly half of the Jingji region reluctantly accepted the Two New Policies.

Yet Zhao Yu did not lower his guard. He knew well how difficult implementing the Two New Policies was, and how greedy human nature truly was.

Suppose you earned six million annually, then suddenly an order came demanding you pay two million—would you not resent it? Wouldn't you want to eliminate those who weakened your ability to earn?

Remember: blocking someone's path to wealth is like killing their parents.

Moreover, the gentry's greed far surpassed ordinary imagination. They had enjoyed privileges for generations, viewing exemption from land taxes and corvée labor as their birthright; once stripped of these privileges, their resentment and resistance would not be easily quelled.

Zhao Yu knew that although the court had crushed the Fengqiu gentry's resistance with thunderous force, the root problem remained unsolved. The gentry still harbored discontent, merely suppressed for now by fear—should opportunity arise, they would return with vengeance.

Yet after this crushing blow from the court, their next resistance would no longer come openly.

And while a spear is easy to dodge, an arrow from the shadows is hard to guard against; true danger often lurks beneath the surface.

Put plainly: there was no guarantee these gentry wouldn't try to eliminate the one who raised the problem.

Thus, on one hand, Zhao Yu personally funded the expansion and empowerment of the Imperial Secret Police, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, permitting them to plant spies in every department of the Zhao Song dynasty—including local offices—and even among every official and general, with spies cross-planted and mutually unaccountable, ensuring not a single action, not even the faintest emotional ripple, escaped Zhao Yu's notice.

—The art of surveillance and balance lies in total control of information. Thus, Zhao Yu not only strengthened the functions of these three intelligence agencies but ensured they cooperated yet checked each other, forming an impenetrable web of intelligence covering every corner of the Zhao Song dynasty.

On the other hand, from the moment he decided to implement the Two New Policies, Zhao Yu had taken measures to protect himself.

For example, he built nine sleeping chambers in Yanfu Palace, each chamber containing nine rooms; each night, he decided only at the last moment where he would sleep.

Another example: he tightened control over his food. Now, almost all his meals were prepared by Yuan Qing Cheng, and her kitchen assistants were all female medical officers; crucially, every dish he ate had to be tasted first by these female medical officers to confirm it was safe before he could eat it.

In short, Zhao Yu had done many things to prevent disaster before it struck.

Zhao Yu did not think he was overreacting.

After all, in the game of power, there are always treacherous players.

And let's be honest: emperors of the Song who accomplished something—no, let's say emperors who tried to act, who tried to reform—all died young. Was this truly all coincidence? Of course, the gentry likely lacked the courage to strike Zhao Yu directly; after all, if they failed once, they would face Zhao Yu's wrath.

A sovereign's anger can leave a million corpses—this was no empty saying.

Zhao Yu and his ministers suspected the gentry's resistance to the Two New Policies would mostly take the form of covert sabotage and feigned compliance.

For example, during land surveys, they used clan power to threaten village heads and constables into falsifying Tian Qi, concealing their land; or colluded with local clerks to inflate tax collection at every level, shifting the gentry's tax burden onto common farmers, stoking conflict between court and people, hoping to incite public discontent with the New Policies.

Some gentry leveraged their influence in literary and academic circles to incite scholars to write essays denouncing the New Policies, twisting "Equal Taxation for Gentry and Commoners" into Zhao Yu's tyrannical extortion, and painting "Land Tax Merged with Head Tax" as Zhao Yu destroying ancestral law. They also organized debates in academies across the land, using lectures as cover to spread oppositional rhetoric, attempting to undermine the New Policies' legitimacy through public opinion.

Worse still, some might secretly incite unrest between prefectures to disrupt tax collection, or incite censors to openly attack the New Policies and the officials enforcing them, sowing discord between Zhao Yu and his ministers, weakening the New Policies from within.

These invisible knives, though bloodless, were harder to guard against than open rebellion—and tested Zhao Yu and his ministers' wisdom and skill far more severely.

Zhao Yu stared at the candle flame on his desk, its flickering light reflecting in his deep eyes—resolute, yet troubled. He knew that to reform thoroughly, he must touch the cheese of entrenched interests—and these people were the hardest to move. The gentry class, one of the pillars of the Zhao Song dynasty, held deep-rooted influence that could not be subdued overnight; this would surely be a long war.

Indeed!

Zhao Yu and his ministers' fears soon became reality: the regions closest to the capital—Jingdong Donglu, Jingdong Xilu, Jingxi Nanlu, and Jingxi Beilu—were the first to return feedback on implementing the Two New Policies.

Zhao Yu showed the land survey figures reported by local officials to Zhang Chun and Ye Shi Yun; they immediately concluded these regions' gentry had concealed vast amounts of land.

In truth, the discrepancy was so absurd that even without Zhang Chun and Ye Shi Yun's analysis—or any minister's calculation—Zhao Yu could see the deception was massive.

But the problem was, there were too many places with deception.

Moreover, local officials across the regions all submitted memorials reporting they faced enormous resistance during land surveys.

Some gentry threatened and intimidated village heads and constables, warning them that if they reported land accurately, their families and friends would be driven out of the region;

Others bribed village heads and constables, making them willing to risk court punishment to conceal gentry land;

Worse still, many village heads and constables conducting surveys were themselves gentry clan members or retainers, appointed by the gentry themselves, and naturally sided with them.

As the saying goes: the law does not punish the many.

Faced with this overwhelming, intricate web of resistance and endless fraud, Zhao Yu's brow furrowed.

After consulting with Zhang Dun, Cai Bian, Su Shi, and Lu Huiqing—who had just been recalled to court as a chancellor due to his extensive experience implementing the Two New Policies—the officials had no good solution; Zhao Yu then summoned Zhang Chun, Li Lin, and Ye Shi Yun, his three "external aids," and told them of the current troubles.

The three women fell silent together after hearing this.

Reform has always been difficult.

And implementing the two new policies makes it doubly so.

Historically, although Emperor Yongzheng succeeded in pushing them through, they only lasted a few decades — the "Gentry and Commoners Pay Grain Alike" policy was abolished by his son Qianlong.

The reason, in the end, was that the gentry's resistance was simply too powerful. The policy was a challenge to a thousand-year tradition, cutting into the interests of the scholar-officials, the intellectuals, and the bureaucrats. Ever since the imperial examination system began, it had been a basic institution that those who passed the exams and obtained titles were exempt from corvée labor and taxes. The implementation of this policy subjected the examination system to an unprecedented challenge.

Therefore, ordinary measures would find it very hard to resolve this problem once and for all.

To be honest, Zhao Yu had also considered following Qianlong's example — in the future, abolishing the "Gentry and Commoners Pay Grain Alike" policy while keeping only "Spreading the Head Tax into the Land Tax," moderately restoring the gentry's privileges to balance the interests of all sides and reduce social conflicts.

Zhao Yu had also thought that, in the future, he could abolish the land tax entirely, vigorously develop commerce and foreign trade, and collect only commercial taxes and customs duties.

But all of that had to be done step by step. First, the two new policies definitely had to be implemented, so that the head tax that had been squeezing the common people for over a thousand years could be canceled. Only then, depending on the development of the Zhao Song dynasty, could the tax burden gradually be tilted toward commercial taxes and customs duties, with the land tax reduced little by little until it was completely abolished.

The key point is: throughout history, whenever the imperial court grew poorer and poorer while the local gentry and powerful clans grew richer and richer, that dynasty was not far from its downfall.

And right now, the situation facing the Zhao Song dynasty was exactly this — the local gentry and powerful clans were too rich, and growing ever richer, while the court, especially the court before Zhao Yu's accession, was so poor it was nearly bleeding from every orifice.

This had to change.

The three women were silent for a while, then Zhang Chun spoke up: "There is one person who might be able to solve Your Majesty's pressing need."

Hearing this, Zhao Yu asked Zhang Chun: "Who has such ability?"

Zhang Chun said in a low voice: "The savior of the realm bears the surname Mu, blades and arms are his watery craft. Wielding influence across thirty-six, his traces appear in Shandong."

At these words, Zhao Yu was stunned: "Song Jiang?!!!"

……

(End of chapter)