Chapter 256: Debt

Now, due to the limitations of productivity, winter had always been a kind of forbidden zone for agricultural production, and once an agricultural society could not engage in farming, the countryside inevitably appeared desolate and bleak. However, in contrast, within cities and villages, because of the agricultural slack season, it was actually suitable to hold large-scale gatherings that could not be held during ordinary times, and then carry out corresponding political and religious activities.

A heavy snow fell unexpectedly, then quickly cleared. Regardless of Qin Gui and Hong Ya and others on the north bank of the Yellow River, who were determined to wage an unyielding struggle for the fate of themselves and their families, at almost the same time, within the territory of Zhao Song on the south bank of the Yellow River, cities and villages gradually became lively.

And among this, the one who fired the first gunpowder cannonball of winter was none other than the Zhao Song Emperor himself... In early November, after announcing that all of last year's national debt had been fully repaid without error, this Emperor once again began peddling the so-called 'Winter Special National Debt' in the capital.

Regarding this matter, the Capital Gazette provided a detailed and thorough explanation... According to what the Capital Gazette said, this debt was still a legitimate national debt personally signed by the Emperor, and this time the detailed household registration information of the purchaser, such as the head of household and family composition, had to be recorded in the Ministry of Revenue. Moreover, it could not be resold; it could only be exchanged and settled with the Ministry of Revenue on a household basis.

As for the purpose of this national debt, it was also stated very clearly: it was to be used for winter relief, garrison and city-village festival activities, the Imperial Academy's political discussions, and various other daily winter affairs.

In fact, the Capital Gazette even unabashedly stated the reasons for this 'Special National Debt': first, the impact of last year's Battle of Yaoshan, which incurred considerable expenses and rewards, causing various circuits in Bashu to pay their taxes one year in advance, so after the Battle of Yaoshan, Bashu could only pay half taxes for two years; second, it was precisely the rebellion at Dongting Lake that created a fiscal gap in the Jingxiang region; third, after the comprehensive reorganization of the army, there was an additional expense for resettling demobilized troops.

Therefore, as the year-end approached, a gap of approximately two million strings appeared.

After discussion among the chancellors, and with the Emperor's consent, they decided to handle it leniently and specially issued a total of three million strings of national debt, with a term of half a year or one year, calculated at an annual interest rate of three percent.

Among this, nine hundred thousand strings were the Emperor's own share, purchased on his behalf by the Imperial Clan member Zhao Shi, the maternal relative Pan, and the maternal relative Wu; the remaining two million one hundred thousand strings, all in denominations of one thousand strings or two thousand strings, were still personally signed by the Emperor, then directly supervised and recorded by the Ministry of Revenue, and sold publicly by the Palace Eunuch Bureau at the leftmost gate of Xuande Tower, limited to thirty days, with a daily quota of seventy thousand strings.

Returning to the present, to be honest, this national debt was still a passive and helpless move, because a fiscal gap had indeed appeared again, and the size of this gap was so large that it caused the Zhao Emperor and several chancellors some doubt and worry.

And this was also reflected in certain details of this national debt.

For example, the name 'Winter Special National Debt' was somewhat misleading... After all, the main reasons behind the fiscal gap were indeed those mentioned, but the ongoing suppression of the rebellion at Dongting Lake was certainly one of them. However, it could still be argued that the court took the daily winter expenses and used them as military funds, leaving the daily winter expenses without support.

However, what happened next proved that the frenzy in this debt market far exceeded everyone's imagination.

The nine hundred thousand strings that Zhao Jiu had taken for himself were swept clean by many high-ranking officials and nobles who had been waiting at the homes of the three powerful families, using verbal agreements, before they were even issued.

A more direct scene appeared at the foot of Xuande Tower. After sales began, the first day's quota of seventy thousand strings was instantly bought up in bulk by three merchant families who had come from Quanzhou to deliver marine goods.

Because of this, the Zhao Emperor had to post an additional notice, limiting each household to a maximum purchase of five thousand strings per day.

Thus, from the second day, people began to line up as proxies, but this was immediately stopped by the Imperial Guard.

And from the third day, scenes similar to on-the-spot premium transfers began to appear. Many people were willing to pay cash directly to those ahead in line to give up their spots, exchanging a completely profitless, even somewhat loss-making actual cost for the opportunity to sign a contract with the Ministry of Revenue to purchase a certain share of the national debt.

In response to this, Zhao Jiu, who already had some psychological preparation, hesitated for a moment, then immediately had the Imperial Guard stop this kind of thing, using the most stable and basic method to maintain financial order... In other words, people still had to queue to buy, and it was still first-come, first-served. To this end, the Imperial Guard had to take control of nearly half of the Imperial Street to maintain order.

But soon, the Zhao Emperor slapped his own face, because on the fifth day, a middle-aged man suddenly burst into loud wails on the Imperial Street... Yang Yizhong, who was personally overseeing the matter, went forward to inquire and learned that this man was not buying for himself alone. He had been publicly elected to buy on behalf of several hundred village households from a military colony-turned-village near Yuntai in the west of the city, using his own household registration. They only wanted one thousand-string national debt bond, but after entering the city, he had been unsuccessful for several days and couldn't bear to return empty-handed to face the elders of Yuntai, hence the public weeping.

Village households converted from military colonies were basically Hebei refugees and retired soldiers. Such a matter could not be ignored.

So the Zhao Emperor immediately slapped his own face again and changed the rules. He set up a special queue for such collective households inside the Left Second Gate, limited to ten opportunities per day, with each household allowed to purchase at most two thousand-string bonds. Then, a special file was created, and legally, it was treated like the clan property and charitable estates invented by Fan Zhongyan. That is to say, during the period the bonds were held, the personal crimes of the nominal holder would not affect the actual ownership and security of this money.

As soon as this policy was issued, it immediately sparked a second wave of purchasing frenzy, because many officials and Imperial Academy students, after realizing this, did not hesitate to buy in the name of their clans... After all, this special semi-collective form of property, clan property, had been widely praised and recognized ever since Fan Zhongyan invented it, possessing a strong propaganda effect for Confucian ideology and an even greater value-preservation effect.

However, that was all there was to it.

By this point, both Zhao Jiu and those shrewd court officials had basically realized the crux of the problem.

This was not at all a question of patriotism. For a small number of high-ranking officials and nobles, this matter might also signify their status in the Zhao Emperor's heart and their distance from the Emperor. But for everyone, including all the high-ranking officials and nobles, the root of the problem was actually that there was currently no savings method more secure than the national debt personally signed by the Emperor.

In the past six years, with continuous warfare, not to mention the areas directly ravaged by war like Hebei, Henan, Guanxi, and Jingdong, nor the lower-class commoners who had lost almost everything, even the high-ranking officials and nobles who had managed to avoid the war had seen their family wealth severely shrink.

Now, with Zhao Jiu providing credit guarantees in the name of the Son of Heaven, and the Ministry of Revenue using the empire's taxes as actual wealth guarantees, it was no wonder these people were scrambling to buy.

Of course, some credit still had to be given to the court and the Zhao Emperor... Think about it carefully: if it were the two Retired Emperors from the Jingkang era, who had plundered the entire city's wealth to give to the Jin, sitting behind this Xuande Tower, who would dare to trust them? If it were still the precarious situation of the Jingkang era, who would dare to buy?

The victory in the war, the unwavering resolute attitude of the court since its exile from the Huai River region, including the long-term stability of the political situation—these were the underlying foundations for the sudden emergence of this reasonable economic phenomenon.

And it was precisely based on this consideration that Zhao Ding proposed expanding the scale and term of the national debt and setting up special debt shares for officials; Zhang Jun proposed relaxing certain local restrictions and extending the sales scope to the localities; the Ministry of Revenue directly submitted a memorial suggesting extending the debt term and lowering the interest rate, and so on—all seemingly reasonable proposals... were all rejected by the Zhao Emperor.

Because Zhao Jiu felt that the current political and military foundation was still very fragile, and it was not the time for financial innovation. Moreover, no one knew the underlying strength of this matter, so there was no need to forcefully test it and risk making a mess of things.

Besides, he was too young; he had plenty of time to institutionalize this thing steadily.

Returning to the present, after the national debt, the court had money, so various miscellaneous matters were immediately put on the agenda.

For example, the Zhao Emperor personally issued an edict for the Department of State Affairs to allocate funds and grain, and then hold large-scale, institutionalized cuju (ancient Chinese football) matches and sumo wrestling competitions in the Henan region... Among these, the Jingxi North Circuit and Jingdong East Circuit would use the prefecture, department, and military command level as the basic unit; Kaifeng Prefecture, Huazhou, and the Henan part of Kaide Prefecture would use the county level; the Imperial Army stationed in Henan would use the commander's directly-led army as the unit. Each would first hold internal elimination tournaments, and finally, the four selected teams would represent their respective affiliations, gather in Dongjing City in the latter part of the twelfth lunar month, and hold the final competition in front of the Emperor using a round-robin points system.

The Zhao Emperor clearly intended to share the joy with the people, and of course, there was also a deliberate effort to appease the Henan region, which had suffered the most from the war.

But regardless, the effect was immediate. The entire Henan region immediately became extraordinarily lively. The common people, in their agricultural slack season, supporting the elderly and leading the young, flocked into the cities, just to witness the outcome.

At the same time, the scholar-officials also began to become active.

After all, the Zhao Emperor had mentioned holding another Imperial Academy political discussion even before the issuance of this national debt... Not only that, this time, the Zhao Emperor seemed to have evolved further. He actually proposed many topics in advance in the Capital Gazette.

From the grand strategy of destroying Jin, to the medium-level topics of issuing jiaozi (paper currency) and whether a special institution should be established for the national debt, to the small discussion of the coexistence of the Three Hall System and the imperial examinations, down to the minute question of whether a special cuju league should be created... he asked about almost everything.

Doing this served two purposes: one was to heat up the topics, focusing the Imperial Academy's political discussions on these matters; the other was equivalent to fishing for opinions on a platform like Zhihu in later generations... By bringing up these questions in the Capital Gazette, countless officials would understand the hint and submit memorials discussing these matters, which also made it convenient for the Zhao Emperor to call on people to respond during the Imperial Academy discussions.

"The Emperor's methods are becoming more and more skillful, and Compiler Hu's literary style is increasingly appearing artless yet masterful."

As the twelfth lunar month approached, with clans gradually gathering, in the increasingly lively back garden of the Duke's Mansion, a poetry gathering was being held. However, although it was called a poetry gathering, it inevitably involved discussing the current political affairs in the Capital Gazette. At this moment, many members of the Lü clan were quietly listening to a middle-aged man in his forties with a long, thin face, who was sitting at the head seat, speaking playfully. "Throwing out topics in advance, just wait and see the Imperial Academy political discussion in a few days, another dragon fight between the two Chancellors Zhao and Zhang..."

Just as he was speaking with great gusto, suddenly, a commotion broke out in the front courtyard, with shouting and noise everywhere, disturbing everyone in the back courtyard and causing them to frown... At this time, the Duke Lü was leisurely lying on the newly built kang (heated brick bed) in his mansion, and all the Lü clan members were participating in the poetry gathering in the back courtyard. Who would dare to be so presumptuous?

However, in the Lü family's scholarly tradition, Buddhism was almost second only to Confucianism, emphasizing a casual and unrestrained nature. Many people even observed vegetarianism and precepts. So, even though the noise in the front grew louder, those in the back only frowned and watched, with no one getting up to investigate.

Of course, there was no need to investigate. After a short while, all the Lü clan members and relatives saw Lü Haowen himself, dressed in home clothes, personally accompanying a young man in a cotton military uniform with considerable bearing, turning into the back courtyard along the corridor. Behind this man and Lü Haowen were several burly men in cotton robes as attendants, along with some civil officials and young boys, and further behind were countless armored warriors with hands on their swords... There was no need to ask who the leader was, or how the previous commotion had been caused.

Thereupon, all the Lü clan members and relatives dared not be negligent and quickly rose, leaving their seats to stand in solemn silence.

Zhao Jiu was not polite at all. He directly sat down in the seat of the middle-aged man from before, then waved his hand repeatedly, pointing for Lü Haowen to sit at the head of the left side, and Han Shizhong, wearing a jade belt, to sit at the head of the right side. Then, Zhang Jun, Zhang Rong, Qu Duan, Yang Yizhong, Liu Yan, Wang De, and Li Qiong lined up in order from the Prince of Yan'an. Under the Zhao Emperor's signal, seven or eight Lü clan members also stepped forward and sat down in order following the current Duke.

As for the remaining people, they obediently stood in the lower positions opposite the Zhao Emperor, arranged in solemn silence.

"Are you composing poems?" Zhao Jiu looked down at the paper and brush on the table and couldn't help but laugh.

"The younger generation has leisure in winter and can only do these things." Lü Haowen stroked his beard and smiled in response. "Your Majesty must be amused."

"Indeed, I am amused." Zhao Jiu nodded, then became serious again. "Poetry cannot save the Great Song, nor can it restore the Two Rivers!"

The Lü clan members and relatives looked at each other, each feeling awed. Li Qiong, who was seeing such a scene for the first time, was also somewhat at a loss. Of course, Lü Haowen had long adapted to this Emperor and only chuckled lightly without saying much.

"Why is it all plain porridge and pickled vegetables?" Zhao Jiu dropped the topic of poetry, looked around, and then laughed again.

"Many family members believe in Buddhism, and quite a few have become accustomed to vegetarianism." Lü Haowen smiled even more bitterly, already imagining the Zhao Emperor would launch another criticism.

"Believing in Buddhism is one thing, but you still have to eat meat." Zhao Jiu indeed shook his head without stopping. "How can you be a good monk without eating meat? Have I told you, Chancellor Lü... The monk I've seen in my life who had the most Buddha-like aura was one who ate meat and drank wine. Before the Jingkang Incident, it was said that this man uprooted a weeping willow tree at the Daxiangguo Temple."

Lü Haowen shook his head helplessly. On the right side, except for Zhang Rong and two Imperial Guard commanders who looked slightly strange, the others all started whispering among themselves.

"Your Majesty." After a pause, Han Shizhong couldn't help but speak seriously. "There is absolutely no monk in the world who can uproot a weeping willow tree... Your Majesty has probably been deceived by that bald thief. May I ask what background this monk from Daxiangguo Temple has, to dare speak such nonsense?"

"A man from Weizhou, who served as an officer under Old Zhong in Yanfu Prefecture in his early years, later transferred to serve under Little Zhong in Weizhou..." Zhao Jiu recited the details as if counting family treasures, almost blurting it out. "Later, because he beat to death a butcher named Zhen Guanxi, he fled to Mount Wutai, and then fled again to manage the vegetable garden at Daxiangguo Temple."

Han Shizhong and Zhang Jun looked at each other. After a moment, Zhang Jun asserted firmly: "Your Majesty, this man must indeed be a swindler who only knows sleight of hand. I served under the Old Zhong Grand Coordinator for half my life. If there really was an officer who beat to death a butcher named Zhen Guanxi and then fled to become a monk, how could I possibly not know the details?"

"True enough." Zhao Jiu nodded thoughtfully, barely keeping up. "Grand Academician Su said it well—since ancient times, no poison, no baldness; no baldness, no poison; the more poison, the balder; the balder, the more poison; poison means bald, bald means poison... Those monks' words simply cannot be trusted at all, and you should all take this as a warning. As for Buddhist talk, reciting a few sutras now and then to keep up appearances is fine, but we fine men must never truly take up vegetarianism and precepts—what kind of spectacle would that be?"

Five or six of the military officers on the right nodded along, while Lu Haowen could only remain silent in resignation... Grand Academician Su's words were clearly a joke at the expense of his Buddhist friends, not worth taking seriously.

"Lu Xiang." After this nonsense, Zhao Jiu turned his head and continued harping on the same trivial matter. "At the foot of Shaoshi Mountain, before the gate of Yiyou, didn't you promise me one by one that you would prune the Buddhist talk from your Lu family's scholarly tradition and stuff in some New Learning instead? How are you still letting your family's sons and younger brothers eat vegetarian?"

Faced with such absurd and preposterous words, Lu Haowen instinctively wanted to refute them, but the thought barely turned halfway in his mind before this Grand Councilor of Military and State Affairs fell silent.

And Zhao Jiu, without pausing at all, pressed on immediately: "The foundation of the state lies in the New Learning. You, Lu Qing, as the leading minister, must set an example for the realm! From now on, never drink congee or eat vegetarian—better to eat more meat!"

Lu Haowen knew full well that today the Emperor had come to his doorstep to demand payment, and there was no way to dodge it. Helpless for the moment, he could only sigh and prepare to speak seriously with the Emperor.

Just as this leading minister was backed into a corner, the middle-aged man seated at the head beside him rose of his own accord, stepped away from his mat, and bowed, clearly intending to offer some defense for Lu Haowen: "Your Majesty..."

"Who is this?" Before the other could finish, Zhao Jiu asked curiously.

"My eldest son, Lu Benzhong," Lu Haowen quickly explained.

"How is it I've never seen him before?" Zhao Jiu continued questioning.

"First, when Cai Jing was in power and the Six Traitors ran rampant, I was barred from advancement as a member of the Yuanyou Faction, and my son was naturally implicated as well. Later, when Yuansheng and Your Majesty showed me great favor, I suddenly rose in rank and became a leading minister, so he had to keep his distance... He had been guarding the gate back home in Huainan all along, and I only had him come here in recent days." Lu Haowen gave a rough introduction.

Zhao Jiu nodded, then suddenly slapped the table, pointing at Lu Benzhong with one hand while looking at Lu Haowen with the other, speaking with utter certainty and spouting nonsense for the third time: "I see that Lu Xiang's son here has a face like the character 'field'—clearly the physiognomy of one who will be enfeoffed as a marquis, isn't it?!"

Lu Benzhong looked up, stunned and speechless. As for Lu Haowen and the surrounding Lu clan relatives and friends, as well as the several military commanders and generals, they all looked at Lu Benzhong's long face and didn't know what to say.

But none of them felt as absurd and powerless as Lu Benzhong himself, the leading figure of the Jiangxi Poetry School... For you see, 'A face like the character "field" is not my physiognomy; do not envy Ban Chao's enfeoffment as a marquis'—that was an original line from one of the thousands of poems and lyrics written by Lu Benzhong himself!

By now, not only Lu Haowen but even Lu Benzhong, meeting the Son of Heaven for the first time, understood that this Emperor had come to his doorstep to demand payment at the turn of the year!

The kind you can't dodge!

Ps: I've been taking online classes at Lu Xun Academy since the day before yesterday... The schedule is getting tighter... Combined with my shitty sleep habits, it's truly awkward and exhausting.