Chapter 237: Fire Ignites the Jiangnan, Gentry Beg for Imperial Troops

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Bao Kang was surprised that Fang La intended to use "Clear the Emperor's Side" as the slogan for his rebel army.

"Clear the Emperor's Side" is a common political slogan in rebellion, with both advantages and drawbacks.

The advantage is that an uprising needs legitimacy; by claiming to remove corrupt ministers surrounding the Emperor, it frames its actions as restoring order, reducing pressure from direct confrontation with the Emperor, and making it easier to gain the support of subjects unwilling to defy imperial authority. For example, during the Rebellion of the Seven States in the Western Han, Prince Liu Bi of Wu used the slogan "Execute Chao Cuo, Clear the Emperor's Side" to make his rebellion appear justified.

This also redirects blame toward the Emperor's corrupt ministers and villains, rather than the Emperor himself, somewhat diminishing the treasonous color of the rebellion and potentially attracting support from forces that still recognize imperial authority but resent powerful ministers.

From Fang La's perspective, since Zhao Yu has no faults and even enjoys a reputation for "sage-like wisdom," using the slogan "Clear the Emperor's Side" is indeed appropriate.

Moreover, the corrupt ministers and villains Fang La chose are also well-suited. He did not select Chancellor Zhang Dun, whose reputation had improved due to his recovery of Qingtang and Xixia, his decisive victory over the Liao, and his vigorous governance under Zhao Yu; he did not even select Vice-Chancellor Han Zhongyan, but instead chose Left Minister of the Minister Province, Cai Jing.

Cai Jing wielded immense power throughout the court and constantly sent women to Zhao Yu, even giving his own daughter to him; he loved luxury, acted without scruples, had a terrible reputation, and crucially, he had indeed seized land in the south through his influence, accumulating vast wealth and extensive estates. More crucially, during his early tenure as an official in Hangzhou, Cai Jing befriended a highly capable villain whom the southern people despised intensely.

This villain's name was "Zhu Chong," who had a son named "Zhu Mian"—one of the infamous Six Evils in history. The father-and-son duo were extremely prominent gentry in Suzhou, with connections reaching the highest levels, ruthless and highly capable; it was said there was nothing they could not accomplish or no one they could not subdue.

Zhu Chong had originally been a menial laborer, but by chance encountered a benefactor who aided him; after returning home, he opened a pharmacy.

The medicines Zhu Chong sold proved remarkably effective, gradually earning him considerable fame in the Suzhou region, and his family's fortune slowly grew.

Once, Cai Jing came to Suzhou intending to build a temple. However, the enormous cost troubled him greatly, so he consulted local monks on the matter. During discussions, the monks unanimously recommended Zhu Chong, asserting that only he in the region could afford such a massive donation. Upon hearing this, Cai Jing entrusted the matter to Zhu Chong.

After agreeing to Cai Jing's request, Zhu Chong acted swiftly, and soon the temple's construction materials piled up like mountains.

A few days later, Cai Jing visited the temple to inspect progress; Zhu Chong's efficiency greatly pleased him.

After that, Cai Jing held Zhu Chong and Zhu Mian in high regard.

Although in this lifetime the Emperor had changed from Zhao Ji to Zhao Yu, and the Flower and Stone Fleet no longer existed, since Zhu Chong and Zhu Mian had aligned themselves with Cai Jing—who oversaw the Song Dynasty's economy and controlled the most profitable maritime trade—how could such exceptionally capable father-and-son duo fail to amass great wealth?

The details need not be recounted; in short, over these years, Zhu Chong and Zhu Mian accumulated vast fortunes, and their family purchased hundreds of thousands of mu of land, terrorized their hometowns, oppressed men and raped women, committed every imaginable evil, and became notorious throughout the entire south.

Speaking of this, one must also note: it is no wonder southern gentry resisted the Two New Policies so fiercely—they owned far too much land.

You have to understand that the father and son Zhu Chong and Zhu Mian were actually just "nouveau riche" among the gentry, yet even so, their family owned several hundred thousand mu of land.

Not to mention those great families whose estates had been passed down for one or two hundred years, or even a thousand years; the amount of land these great families owned must surely have reached over a million mu, wouldn't it?

Do you think these southern gentry failed to notice Zhao Yu's resolute determination to reform?

Impossible.

Zhao Yu had turned a blind eye to Song Jiang's rebellion in order to push the Two New Policies—how could these gentry not know Zhao Yu was dead set on reform?

Yet the problem is that the north has long faced military threats from the Liao, Xixia, and other regimes, with frequent warfare causing population loss and land abandonment. Peasants fled their homes to escape war, leaving land fallow or sold at low prices, making it difficult to establish a stable environment for long-term land consolidation.

In contrast, the south, far from the borders, enjoyed overall social stability, providing conditions for land development and concentration. The peaceful environment also gave southern gentry more opportunities to accumulate land through purchase, reclamation, or ruthless plunder.

Moreover, the north is mostly flatland, but prolonged farming has depleted soil fertility, compounded by relatively dry climate and unstable agricultural output. Some land became saline-alkaline or barren due to war or neglected waterworks, making it unsuitable for high-value consolidated estates. Additionally, the north combines animal husbandry with farming, leading to more dispersed land use, making large-scale monopolization by a single class difficult.

The south, however, has superior conditions suitable for high-yield crops like rice, and continuously expanded farmland through lake reclamation and terracing, yielding high economic value. Southern gentry preferred investing in land, forming the "field-to-field" scale effect, while northern land offered lower returns and thus weaker appeal to gentry.

Furthermore, the Song Dynasty's capital lay in the north, where imperial oversight of northern bureaucrats was relatively strict; northern aristocrats suffered heavy blows during the late Tang and Five Dynasties wars, and the new gentry class had not yet formed powerful land-monopolizing forces. Additionally, proximity to the capital meant direct imperial intervention in land consolidation.

Since the late Tang, the south's economic status has risen; southern scholars entered officialdom en masse through the imperial examination system, and upon retirement returned home to purchase land, forming the gentry class. They leveraged political privilege and economic power to massively consolidate land, and due to their distance from the court, imperial supervision was weak, making land concentration easier to foster.

Most crucially, warfare caused lower population density in the north and more fallow land, making it easier for peasants to acquire land, so gentry could not expand by monopolizing scarce land.

In the south, population continued to grow, intensifying the contradiction between too many people and too little land; gentry controlled limited land resources through purchase and tenancy, creating the situation of "the rich own fields stretching end to end, the poor have no place to stick a cone."

This resulted in land consolidation in the north being far less severe than in the south; southern gentry not only owned vast tracts of land—often thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of mu—but land was their greatest asset.

If Zhao Yu succeeded in implementing the Two New Policies, southern gentry would not only pay high annual taxes but also see their land drastically depreciate, causing their wealth to shrink substantially.

As Wang Xifeng said, great wealth brings great difficulties.

These southern gentry families were accustomed to luxury; even their servants wore fine robes, gold belts, jade belts—how could you ask them to live frugally, endure "hard times"?

After all, it is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality.

Thus, the southern gentry's fierce resistance to the Two New Policies was entirely understandable.

They probably wished to kill Zhao Yu.

Yet, first, assassinating Zhao Yu was extremely difficult, especially since he had strengthened his personal security and enhanced the authority of the Imperial Guard, the Eastern Depot, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Some gentry who attempted to assassinate Zhao Yu were immediately crushed by these three intelligence agencies, facing the harshest punishment—execution and extermination of nine clans. Second, the cost of assassinating Zhao Yu was too high; even if successful, failure meant complete annihilation of family and property. Typically, only those with no hope of survival would risk everything for mutual destruction; wealthy people had too many concerns—they dared not risk extermination by Zhao Yu.

Hence, no gentry had assassinated Zhao Yu—at least, none had succeeded up to this point.

Returning to the matter.

If Fang La's rebel army raised the slogan "Clear the Emperor's Side" and executed Cai Jing and the Zhu Chong-Zhu Mian father-son duo, it would instantly ignite the southern people's fury, transforming their accumulated resentment against gentry into powerful support for Fang La's army, gaining widespread popular sympathy and backing. More importantly, this move would cleverly avoid direct confrontation with the court, reducing pressure from opposing imperial authority.

But the downside is: if Fang La's true goal is to overthrow the Song Dynasty, the slogan "Clear the Emperor's Side" diverges from his true intent; once actions exceed the scope of "clearing the Emperor's side," his ambition will be exposed, and he will lose public support. For example, during the An Lushan Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, An Lushan claimed "Clear the Emperor's Side," but his rebellion was fundamentally about seizing power; eventually, the hypocrisy of his slogan became obvious.

Also, if Zhao Yu truly removed the so-called "corrupt ministers and villains"—say, by punishing Cai Jing and the Zhu Chong-Zhu Mian father-son duo—Fang La's army might lose its slogan's legitimacy and fall into passivity. As in the Rebellion of the Seven States, when Emperor Jing of Han executed Chao Cuo to quell unrest, Prince Liu Bi did not disband his forces; instead, he confirmed his true rebellious nature.

In short, Fang La's army using "Clear the Emperor's Side" as a slogan might have some mobilizing effect initially by invoking "loyalty to the Emperor," but its long-term effectiveness depends on how well the army's true objectives align with the slogan.

Based on this, Bao Kang and others in Fang La's army who harbored thoughts of surrender would certainly agree with Fang La's idea—even though "Clear the Emperor's Side" is a common rebellion slogan.

For Fang La himself, he wanted rebellion, he wanted to become emperor, he wanted to rally his forces now. Combined with the hesitant attitudes of Bao Kang and others in his army, only the banner of "Clear the Emperor's Side" could temporarily conceal his ambitious goals, serving as a temporary expedient to unite hearts and consolidate strength, solving Fang La's army's greatest problem.

Immediately afterward, Wang Gonglao, promoted to Fang La's top strategist, argued that without proper name, words lack legitimacy; the urgent task was to quickly establish Fang La's army's administrative system so it could form combat capability.

Simultaneously, Wang Gonglao wrote letters to Lü Sinang of Xianju County in Taizhou, Qiu Daoren of Shan County in Yuezhou, and Zheng Mo Wang of Quzhou—all Moni Sect protectors—urging them to secretly organize sect members to rise in rebellion, killing corrupt officials and greedy, cruel gentry.

Fang La also wrote letters to Shi Sheng of Suzhou, Lu Xinger of Gui'an County in Huzhou, Zhu Yan and Wu Bang of Ling Shan Cave in Lanxi County of Wuzhou, Chen Shisih of Fangyan Mountain in Yongkang County, and Huo Chengfu and Chen Gutong of Jinyun County in Chuzhou, inviting them to join the rebellion and kill corrupt officials and greedy, cruel gentry.

Bao Kang proposed that the rebel army lacked weapons and should cut bamboo from nearby Bamboo Mountain to make bamboo spears and bamboo arrows, and must train day and night, actively preparing for battle to become accustomed to formations and ready for combat at any moment.

Fang La agreed and ordered Fang Wu's unit, Fang Qi's unit, Fang Baihua's unit, Lu Baling's unit, Guan Sunzhong's unit, Fang Shizong's unit, and the various small rebel bands led by Fang Jing to immediately produce bamboo spears and arrows and conduct combat training.

Wang Gonglao suggested that all rebel soldiers wear red headbands or other colored headbands as identifiers, and in the future, headband colors could distinguish ranks for easier management.

Fang La also ordered Fang Fei to implement this immediately.

The group pooled their efforts and straightened out the previously chaotic Fang La rebel army.

With Bao Kang and Wang Gonglao's arrival, Fang La not only stabilized the army's morale—the very thing he feared most—but also solidified his position as leader of the Fang La rebel army. Moreover, with Bao Kang's disciples and Wang Gonglao's sect followers serving as the army's backbone, the Fang La rebel army finally began to take shape.

This gave Fang La a glimpse of the dawn of becoming emperor.

Soon, Fang La proclaimed himself "Sheng Gong." Since many of his soldiers hoped that, if successful, they would become founding ministers of his new dynasty, and if unsuccessful, they could still accept imperial amnesty and retain wealth and status, he did not change the era name, only appointed officials and generals, distinguishing ranks by headband colors—from red upward, divided into six grades. The rebellion spread like wildfire, with vast numbers of southern people rising in response.

Shortly after launching the rebellion, Fang La's army grew to over a hundred thousand strong.

Wherever Fang La's rebel army went, they robbed the wealthy households, killed officials and scholars, targeting corrupt officials and the gentry class, and distributed the officials' and gentry's property to recruit followers.

In the early stage of the uprising, although Fang La's rebel army had no armor and lacked weapons, because the Moni Sect used religion to control the southern commoners who truly could not survive under the gentry's exploitation, whenever they fought the gentry's private armed forces or the Song army, they fought to the death without fear of death, one falling after another, fully unleashing the terror of human-wave tactics.

At Xikeng in Qingxi County, Fang La's rebel army used this very method to annihilate the five thousand Jiangnan Imperial Guards who had come to suppress them, and rode the momentum to take Qingxi County in one stroke, becoming famous overnight.

Fang La's rebel army subsequently took Meizhou, Shezhou, and Quzhou, occupying Shouchang, Fenshui, Tonglu, Sui'an, and other counties, and their ranks rapidly swelled to over a million people.

With continuous victories, to expand the fruits of war, Fang La personally led his troops north, taking Xincheng, Fuyang, and other counties with the momentum of a bamboo splitting, heading straight for Hangzhou...

In response, the Jiangnan gentry group had originally wanted to handle it themselves. They were well aware that, because they had resisted the court's implementation of the second New Policy, seriously delaying the court's reforms and obstructing the development of the Zhao Song dynasty, Zhao Yu hated them to the bone, wishing nothing more than to eliminate them, so even if they asked the court to act, the court most likely would not, and might even use the excuse that they had driven the commoners to rebel to settle scores with them.

Those five thousand Jiangnan Imperial Guards had been sent by the Jiangnan gentry group to suppress Fang La's rebel army.

Besides this, the Jiangnan gentry also massively recruited private soldiers, preparing to wipe out Fang La's rebel army and defend themselves.

Only, what the Jiangnan gentry never expected was that the Jiangnan Imperial Guards' combat effectiveness was so poor — five thousand well-equipped regular troops were actually completely annihilated by a group of farmers wielding hoes.

Actually, thinking carefully, it's not hard to understand why the Jiangnan Imperial Guards' combat effectiveness was so poor.

Due to long-term peacetime conditions, the Jiangnan Imperial Guards had long suffered from lax military preparedness. Moreover, corroded by these gentry, many Imperial Guard officers and soldiers also engaged in commercial activities; after making money, they bought fields and became landlords, living in comfort with training neglected, so their combat effectiveness naturally declined significantly.

The result was that none of Jiangnan's armed forces — whether the Song army or the private forces organized by the gentry — could withstand the attacks of Fang La's rebel army and Song Jiang's rebel army moving south.

The key was that, because the southern commoners hated the southern gentry to death, and they were a religiously-oriented rebel army, whenever they captured officials or gentry, they would surely cut off their hands and feet, rip out their lungs and intestines, sometimes boiling them in hot oil, sometimes shooting them with a volley of arrows — in short, they used every means to torture these officials and gentry, venting the resentment they had long accumulated.

Facing the millions of Fang La's rebel army bloodshot with killing frenzy, the Jiangnan gentry finally knew fear; through every possible channel they begged the court for reinforcements, and proactively expressed willingness to accept the second New Policy, pledging to actively cooperate with the court's reforms, only asking the court to quickly send reinforcements to save them from the abyss of suffering...

(End of this chapter)