Chapter 372: Making a Fuss Over Nothing

After taking the written proposal handed over by Master Bo, Xiong Wencan flipped it open and glanced through it, discovering it was an investigation report of exhaustive detail.

The report first dissected the formidable strangeness of the Cao Clan from four angles—manpower, wealth, machinery, and grain—and among these, it particularly emphasized that a certain power base was abusing bizarre and ingenious techniques, leading to the abnormal phenomenon of "fields without farmers, strange crops emerging."

Comrade Bo Daxing deliberately introduced some occult concepts at this point. In his view: using smoke-belching, mist-spitting iron devices to grow strange crops that the Great Ming had never seen—this kind of behavior, like those three-legged deformed infants, belonged to an unnatural demonic aura, a dangerous omen, a poisonous affliction upon the nation, and required prohibition.

The second part of the report was extended reading.

Master Bo still used farmland as his entry point, focusing on elaborating the profound harm that this farming model—which needed neither farmers nor landlords—would bring to the imperial court and to the gentlemen.

Master Bo pointed out with great foresight: this "evil art" unquestionably violated the core interests of the vast landlord class, and Cao Chuan, who promoted the evil art, was a great burden upon the Ming Cult—right now, proper gentlemen needed to awaken, not only to eradicate this wretch, but to kill the man and destroy his ideas, smashing all those "mechanical harms" to pieces, then implementing benevolent governance, "urging sericulture and urging agriculture," driving all those lost farmers back to toil in the fields before the work could be considered fully accomplished.

When Xiong Wencan finished reading this impassioned and ruthlessly sharp proposal, he first closed his eyes and pondered for a moment. Then he did not express any stance, but instead chatted a few sentences with this Bu Songming before him, whom he was not familiar with—just as Lao Xiong expected, this gentleman had indeed returned from Yizhou not long ago.

Ever since large-scale migration began between the two shores, Xiong Wencan had been receiving bits of information continuously, and naturally, much of it was unfavorable to the Cao Clan... There were many who could not stand those grotesque acts, not just Master Bo alone.

However, Master Bo's performance today was the first time in history that someone had formally investigated and summarized the situation in Yizhou, then written a proposal and submitted it as a scholar-official. Lao Xiong could ignore those previous scattered murmurs, but as for Old Bo, although Xiong Wencan was inwardly furious at this moment, he still intended to speak a few more sentences with the other party.

So Lao Xiong asked with an amiable expression, "Then in Songming's view, how should this matter be arranged?"

Bu Songming could not discern Lao Xiong's inclination from his expression, but that didn't matter—he would certainly follow his own prepared routine now: "My lord, in this student's view, this matter should be early rather than late, swift rather than slow. That 'demon man' has now grown into a force in Yizhou; fortunately, he has yet to poison our Great Ming. I beseech my lord to employ thunderous measures, to save our Ming Cult, to save our homeland!"

Hearing this, Xiong Wencan remained noncommittal. He turned and leaned back against the chair, crossed his hands over his belly, and only then slowly continued asking, "Killing an imperially appointed senior general without an edict? Does Songming have instruction for me?"

Master Bo then stood up, cupped his hands, and said, "My lord, this is an act to defend the cult. In urgent matters, one must act expediently—we can hardly worry about so much else!"

"And after the fact, the court will invite this old man for another stroll through the imperial prison? Just to let a fool like you watch the joke?" After Xiong Wencan finished this silent rebuke, his heart was already furious. But his composure was ultimately profound, so his face still showed nothing: "If those Cao's Forces were to invade my Fujian, then what?"

"My lord, this lot is but a rabble to begin with. One need only remove their leader, then use edification, benevolence, and the great righteousness of the imperial court to subdue them, and the remainder will surely feel gratitude in their hearts and submit in awe."

After hearing this sentence, Xiong Wencan finally completed his appraisal of Master Bo: this was an old pedant who knew nothing of the world and could only spout empty talk of great righteousness.

Thinking of this, Lao Xiong, who had been inwardly furious, suddenly became utterly disinterested. So he amiably spoke his final sentence to Master Bo for the day: "This matter requires my further deliberation."

After speaking, Lao Xiong picked up a transparent glass tea bowl, but did not drink.

Master Bo of course understood the meaning of this gesture. Yet just as he opened his mouth, preparing to say something more, the Bear Mansion's Chang Sui standing to the side had already shouted the two words "See the guest out" in a full-throated, aria-like mode.

So Master Bo had no choice but to turn around and leave; accompanying his retreating figure was Xiong Wencan's icy gaze.

If calculated by the ranks of later generations, a Feudal Official like Xiong Wencan was already securely at the level of a Central Committee member. And speaking of Lao Xiong's current imperial favor, if he returned to court for an official post tomorrow, Chongzhen would certainly bestow upon him a position among the Nine Ministers.

The Nine Ministers were equivalent to entering the Politburo in later generations—this rank, whether ancient or modern, belonged to the top-tier figures who could participate in state affairs.

Top-tier figures were naturally different from ordinary officials. Whether in information acquisition, or in the scope and thinking with which they viewed problems, they differed from ordinary people, and at times even appeared to be the opposite.

At Xiong Wencan's position, although he only governed the single province of Fujian, he had plenty of channels to understand the great affairs of the realm, and he had to understand them—heavy is the head that wears the crown; a Feudal Official who could not figure out the court's direction was not a qualified Feudal Official.

Under these circumstances, regarding the pile of nonsense Comrade Bo Daxing had spouted today, Xiong Wencan truly sneered at it with contempt.

Why had Lao Xiong come to Fujian in the first place?... Pirates were rampant, government troops suffered repeated crushing defeats, the Regional Commander was imprisoned, the Fujian-Guangdong Coast was in turmoil, and the imperial court, already billowing smoke everywhere, truly had no other choice, so it dispatched Xiong Wencan to Fujian to recruit and grant amnesty to Zheng Zhilong.

Unlike the Jiajing period, when a total maritime ban was used to confront the pirates head-on, by the time this wreck of a ship, the Ming Dynasty, had limped into the early Chongzhen years, there was no longer a navy that could be used to punish the Zheng Zhilong group—yes, the fundamental reason Xiong Wencan came to Fujian back then was that the court was already helpless against the sea bandits.

In other words, the matter of Xiong Wencan governing Fujian itself represented the court's public admission of defeat.

Then how was the matter ultimately resolved? Everyone on earth knows: the Cao Family Army took action, one against two. Not to mention the Zheng Clan's bandit gang, all other pirates throughout the Min Sea were swept clean in one net by the Cao Clan, and from then on the seas were calm.

So under these circumstances, a certain man surnamed Bu came running to Xiong Wencan and said: you just grab Cao Chuan now and cut him down with one blade, and the world will be at peace...

Leaving aside for the moment whether he could be cut down, even if we retreat ten thousand steps and Xiong Wencan really did cut that fellow Cao down, then when the frenzied Cao's Forces surged forth from Dayuan afterward and rose in rebellion across all Fujian, what would he, Xiong Wencan, do then? Subdue them with virtue? Or go bluff the pirates again by brandishing his official authority?

In fact, by that time, Lao Xiong estimated he would have no official authority left to speak of. Because knowing Chongzhen's temperament, if he didn't throw Lao Xiong—who had caused all Fujian to rot once more—into the imperial prison, that would already be doing right by him.

Yet Master Bo cared nothing for this. His proposition was: regardless of the whys and wherefores, deal with that fellow Cao first. As for the mess afterward... what did that have to do with his esteemed self? He was just a child—no, just a retired old comrade. If you couldn't handle it afterward, that was your, Xiong Wencan's, fault. Who told you to insufficiently study the great righteousness of the sages, to lack benevolence and virtue, and be unable to suppress the sea bandits?

Therefore, Xiong Wencan, who was responsible for truly presiding over the government's operations, simply could not communicate with a gentleman like Master Bo, whose head was stuffed full of great righteousness. Because gentlemen do not carry the blame; gentlemen only shift the blame—killing an imperially appointed senior general without an edict: Yuan Chonghuan dared; did he, Lao Xiong, dare?

Besides, Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong were engaged in a life-or-death factional struggle: Old Yuan wanted to appease and negotiate peace, while Mao Wenlong wanted to fight the Jian slaves to the death; add to that the Guanning Warlords and the Liaoxiang vested interest group represented by Grand Secretary Qian Longxi egging them on from behind the scenes, and that was why Yuan Chonghuan had the guts to kill Wenlong without an edict.

And what about him, Xiong Wencan? Did he have any conflict of interest with the Cao Clan?... In fact, everyone on earth knew that Lao Xiong had walked the path to his life's peak precisely by relying on the Cao Clan.

The Cao Clan swept clean all the bandits of the Min Sea, transforming Lao Xiong overnight from a miserable, anxious amnesty-patrolling governor whose sole job was carrying the blame, into a capable court official and the Emperor's favored general.

The Cao Clan shipped away hundreds of thousands of famine victims, exterminated countless mountain bandits, brought grain and job opportunities to Fujian, leading to good governance and harmony everywhere, economic development, great benefits for all officials, Xiong Wencan's decrees flowing without obstruction, and his official reputation being excellent.

The Cao Clan handed the Fujian general distributorship for glassware to Xiong Qi of the Bear Mansion, and so every so often, Lao Xiong would send people to his Old Home transporting many ingot-shaped "Fujian local specialties."

... All of the above was no joking matter. In the eyes of everyone in the court today, Xiong Wencan and Cao Chuan were two sides of the same coin—political allies who supported each other and achieved success together.

How did that saying go? "All may surrender to Cao, but you, General, must not surrender to Cao!"

By the same logic, Xiong Wencan was now no different from Sun Quan back then: anyone could shout for Cao Chuan to be killed, but Lao Xiong alone, already tightly bound together with Cao Chuan, could not.

As for the disruption to the tenant-landlord mode of production that Master Bo raised, in Lao Xiong's view, that was even more preposterous nonsense.

The control exerted by a feudal dynasty was quite low. Not to mention the surrounding states that shut their doors and acted as emperors, even within the Ming Dynasty itself, regions that were nominally Jimi prefectures but were in reality kingdoms within remote provinces under Tusi rule were still everywhere.

Whether surrounding states or so-called Jimi prefectures, the social forms of these regions varied in countless ways—the Wo State had its Emperor and Daimyo, the Tusi had their slave children... and what of the imperial court? The court could only stare helplessly.

Never mind intervention; nowadays, as long as these kingdoms didn't cause trouble, the court would be thanking the heavens and earth: eight years ago, during the She'an Rebellion, the court spent three years, mobilized all the armies of the southwest, and expended a monstrous amount of money and grain just to annihilate the Tusi She Chongming and his sons.

Just one frontier Tusi rising in revolt was enough to send the Ming Dynasty into a frantic, exhausted scramble. Then what of Cao Chuan, who had carved out a domain on the overseas island of Yizhou, beyond the reach of troops and horses, and whose strength exceeded that of a Tusi a hundredfold? Even if he used no tenant farmers, only mechanical iron devices to grow some "strange crops" on his own land, would the court issue an edict to exterminate him because of it? If the court truly had the ability to reach Yizhou, would the Jian slaves and Tusi on the periphery still be rebelling?

So in Lao Xiong's view, Comrade Bo Daxing was purely looking for trouble where there was none: if those iron devices for tilling fields were spread throughout the Great Ming, causing discontent among the gentry, then there might be some point to it. But as things stood, those iron devices were still on Yizhou, a place utterly beyond reach—what was Bo Daxing jumping up and down about? Would Confucianism perish without you tomorrow?

"Truly, making a fuss over nothing!" Xiong Wencan sat alone in the Flower Hall, slowly finishing a cup of clear tea, and finally pronounced this definitive judgment on Comrade Bo Daxing.