Chapter 128: The Office-Shielding Talisman

"My soldiers were rude and gave you much offense just now — I hope Bailiff Ren can forgive them."

Diwu Lun invited Ren Guang to sit for a while in his quarters, and only there, where the lamps were lit, did he see clearly that this Ren Boqing was in his forties, nearing fifty, with a long, full beard and an honest, kindly face. Though he was only a petty township head, he was nothing like the grimy village clerks Diwu Lun had encountered along the way; his cap and robes were kept bright and clean, and once inside the house he was circumspect and courteous.

Ren Guang, however, said, "It was really the Station Bailiff who was inflexible. The Statute on Relay Provisions states that relay horses, courier horses, and the commandery stables' horses may each be fed one and a half dou of beans per day. The Grand Master Diwu's horses are courier horses — feeding them only hay was indeed improper."

Diwu Lun shook his head. "That rule is for years of plenty. On the road I saw that the Forward Commandery is suffering from drought in many places. We are not racing a hundred li a day, and the horses are not being worked hard — how can we let dogs and swine eat men's food without restraint? That dou and a half of millet and beans, if saved, is several people's rations."

What was more, what the Yue Cavalry Camp had demanded was several tens of dan of millet and beans — that bunch were merely using Diwu Lun's name to swindle a profit.

Ren Guang could not help but feel a surge of goodwill toward the young Grand Master before him. He bowed again. "I have never seen an imperial envoy as amiable and easy to speak with as you, Grand Master."

Diwu Lun said, "To tell the truth, this is my first time bearing an edict as an envoy. I don't know how others behave — would you tell me about it?"

Ren Guang hesitated a moment, then said in a low voice, "Then I shall not hide it from you, Grand Master. I have been a village clerk for many years and have seen every kind of envoy there is."

"In the Shijianguo years, the ones who came were the 'Grand Unity Envoys' and the 'Five Emperors Envoys.' They hurried to every corner of the realm to exchange the Han seals for the new seals. But if the local officials' bribes were insufficient, the envoys would report that the officials were unwilling to make the change, bringing down arrests and imprisonment from the court — they did not even let the petty clerks' half-seals go."

"Later, those who traveled frequently through the regions were the Generals of the Five Majesties. They rode in Qianwen carriages, drove teams of six Kun horses, wore the plumes of the golden pheasant on their backs, and their regalia was magnificent. Their task was to collect auspicious omens from every locality, to observe local customs, and to gather songs of praise, all to confirm the Son of Heaven's accession. If the local officials could not produce an auspicious omen, or if what they reported was a disaster, there would be another round of punishments."

Diwu Lun had heard of such cases while at court. When Emperor Ping and Wang Mang first succeeded to the throne, they gathered songs of praise from the whole realm, and every commandery sang of their merits and virtues — all except Langya and Guangping. The Grand Governor of Langya was thrown into prison, while Ban Zhi, the Chancellor of Guangping, escaped disaster because he was the younger brother of the Han dynasty's Consort Ban and a childhood friend of Wang Mang.

"But after a few years, by the Tianfeng era, the court suddenly forbade the localities from offering auspicious omens. Some officials, cut off from news and not understanding why, continued to present mandate omens when envoys arrived, hoping to curry favor — only to be caught red-handed by the Master of Fates of the Five Majesties."

Before, failing to report an omen was a crime; now, privately reporting one was a crime. The orders changed overnight — who could you even reason with? In any case, every one of those unlucky fools was turned into a merit tally by Chen Chong.

After these three rounds of blows, the reputation of the court's envoys was thoroughly rotten. Yet in recent years the "imperial envoys" had been dispatched ever more frequently — either to grant the titles of General or Colonel to commandery and county magistrates, or to conduct sweeping investigations into local corruption and treason. In the end, they did no real work and all seized the chance to amass wealth.

Ren Guang said, "In my little township in Western District, sometimes ten batches of envoys would arrive in a single month. In recent years, with the regions growing unsettled, the guards and soldiers the envoys bring have grown more and more numerous, often one or two hundred at a time. There is no ready grain in the storehouses to supply them, and not enough horses to pull the relay carriages. Those followers and retainers, unwilling to walk, simply take from the common people, using their tallies and tokens of authority to commandeer carts and horses along the road. In the end they do not leave so much as a single zhu coin behind, and even claim that it is the supplier's honor. Worse still, some have even forcibly seized the wives and daughters of petty clerks to sleep with them."

Diwu Lun understood. "No wonder that all along this road, when the local officials saw us swaggering through, they looked at us as if we were tigers and wolves."

"Bailiff Ren, on the other hand, is very adaptable. Even if I had not stepped in just now, Boqing could have resolved the dispute on his own."

Ren Guang gave a bitter smile. "Only because one learns from repeated injuries. In the past I was just like the Station Bailiff, stiffly resisting unreasonable orders — and I got beaten for it."

He rolled up his sleeve and bared his arm. On it were faint lines of scars, left long ago.

"A petty village clerk who suffers wrong has nowhere to seek redress. The pain is borne in vain."

Fortunately, his family was well-off, so afterward, whenever he encountered such situations, he simply paid to avert disaster. In times like these, for a low-level clerk at the grassroots to survive, he needed both family resources and wisdom. The alternative was to refuse to swallow such grievances — kill the envoy, burn the station, and take to the hills as an outlaw.

Diwu Lun sighed. "None of it is easy. I cannot control the other envoys, but as for these soldiers of the Yue Cavalry Camp, I will do my best to keep them in check from now on."

"You are truly a worthy Grand Master."

After the two had chatted for a while, Diwu Lun learned that Ren Guang in his prime had traveled all across Nanyang and was very familiar with the commandery. He asked him, "May I ask, Boqing, does the Forward Commandery have a 'office-shielding talisman'?"

Ren Guang was taken aback. "What do you mean by an 'office-shielding talisman'?"

Diwu Lun said, "In the former dynasty there was a saying: 'Better to betray a two-thousand-dan official than to betray a great and powerful house.' Every commandery has its mighty magnates whom the commandery clerks fear and avoid, not daring to cross or offend. I wonder if the Forward Commandery has any?"

This "office-shielding talisman" was Diwu Lun's playful coinage, but it described a real phenomenon: the great and powerful clans, the renowned official families, those with the most power, influence, wealth, and rank. Take his own home, Liewu County, for example — the talisman there would certainly include the Qiongcheng Marquisate and the Xiaoxiang Marquisate. Now, after Diwu Lun had consolidated the various Di clans, they had risen to the second tier, and with the backing of the commandery's Grand Governor Zhang Zhan, they too counted as a family one dared not provoke.

As for Beidi, where he had once gone — the Yiyang Marquis Fu clan of Niyang, the Yicheng Marquis Gan clan of Yuzhi, plus the former Fuping Marquis Zhang clan of Tewu — their names would certainly be on the talisman.

After Diwu Lun explained, Ren Guang still seemed hesitant. Diwu Lun smiled. "I am neither an Inspector nor a Supervisor, nor a commandery Governor or Master of Fates, and I certainly cannot afford to provoke the great houses. This is just idle talk over wine — I ask out of curiosity. If there is a true hero, I might even wish to seek him out and make his acquaintance. Boqing, speak freely, there is no harm."

wWW▪ Tтkǎ n▪ co

Ren Guang then said, "The Forward Commandery cannot compare to the Guanzhong heartland. There are no scholar-official clans with generations of eminence who reach up into the court, but there are quite a few local magnates."

He held up one finger. "If I must name a great house that the commandery clerks dare not offend, in truth there is only one."

Ren Guang said, "That is the Li clan of Wancheng, who built their fortune through generations of trade. Nanyang produces iron. After the decline of the Kong clan of Wan, the Li clan took their place and became the great ironmasters of Nanyang. Even now, many of their sons, younger kinsmen, and retainers serve the court as iron officials, and they have amassed wealth counted in the millions. They travel in carriages and on horseback in droves to visit the capital, and have won a fine reputation as leisured gentlemen who delight in charity and almsgiving."

щщщ●TтkΛ n●c o

Not only that, the Li clan also holds office at court. The family head serves under the State Preceptor as 'Supervisor of the Imperial Clan,' in charge of the imperial house, with a rank and stipend roughly equal to Diwu Lun's own as Grand Master of the Palace.

This, then, was the foremost powerful family of the Forward Commandery, relying on wealth accumulated over generations and taking the middle-to-upper-level route.

Diwu Lun, still not satisfied, then asked about the second-tier powerful families — the kind the commandery could handle if it wished, but whom the county dared not offend.

There were many of those. Ren Guang listed them one by one, more than a dozen in all: the Yin clan and the Deng clan of Xinye; the Fan clan of Huyang; the various Liu branches of Anzhong County — that is, the family of Liu Long's adoptive father, who held one marquisate and seven attached fiefs. There was also a man whose family foundation was not deep, but who had risen to prominence purely through personal valor and charisma: Liu Bosheng of Caiyang, famed throughout the commandery. Often the idle, roving gallants of the villages, who produced nothing, would clamor to go and join him.

Diwu Lun, however, was growing a little drowsy. That was it?

Ren Guang said that the Yin clan of Xinye were great landowners, with seven or eight hundred qing of land and over a thousand retainers and slaves, considered to wield power 'comparable to a feudal lord.' The Deng clan had produced Inspectors and Commandants for several generations and had a flourishing population. Liu Bosheng was called the great gallant of the Forward Commandery… They were indeed local powers, but if placed in the Guanzhong heartland, where the realm's wealth converged, they were all small fry.

No matter how rich and noble the Li clan of Wancheng was, no matter how many connections they had at court, they still fell short of the Wang clan of the Qiongcheng Marquisate. The Yin clan's land, retainers, wealth, and rank could not compare to Zhang Chun of Tewu County. The Deng clan's pedigree was not even fit to carry the shoes of the Ma clan of Maoling. And that Liu Bosheng sounded like a bargain-basement version of the Guanzhong great gallant Yuan She.

Wealthy merchants, high officials, great landowners, and bold gallants — the powerful families of every commandery were basically these types, each occupying its own niche. When you compared the powerful families of different provinces and commanderies side by side, it was hard to say who was stronger than whom. The powerful houses were still in a primitive stage; in any case, none could span across provinces and commanderies. They all stood on the same starting line, waiting for the gunshot to sound, for the moment when the realm fell into chaos, to make their own choices.

After that, the brothers would take to the hills, each relying on their own abilities. Who could leap up in a single bound, and who would soar upward only to plummet — that depended on personal ability and the fortunes of the times. In just a few short years, the gap between them would rapidly widen.

"With Ren Boqing's insight and his way of handling people and affairs, being a petty village bailiff truly does him an injustice." After their nighttime chat ended and Ren Guang took his leave, Diwu Lun recorded everything he had said, one item after another. This trip had not been in vain.

【Claim Red Packet】Cash or coin red packet has been sent to your account! Follow the WeChat public account 【Book Friend Base Camp】 to claim!

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Early the next morning, before Diwu Lun and his party could set out for Wancheng, a "tour guide" came to them of his own accord.

A tall, lanky man of great height, leading a crowd of servants bearing meat, wine, and gifts, announced himself outside the station: "I am Li Tong of Wan. Having heard that Lord Kenu is passing through this place, I have come specially to pay my respects!"

…

Li Tong was the direct-line son of the Li clan, the very "foremost powerful family of the Forward Commandery" that Ren Guang had spoken of the night before. His family's information was indeed well-informed; before Diwu Lun and his party had even reached Wancheng, he had taken the initiative to come to them.

Li Tong was only in his twenties. The first impression he gave Diwu Lun was of his extraordinary height — at least eight and a half chi, equivalent to over one meter ninety in later ages. Such a tall man was rarely seen in that era, and he even had to duck his head slightly when entering the station gate.

Li Tong, however, did not let the shorter Diwu Lun strain his neck or feel awkward. With great tact, he bowed low. "My father serves under the State Preceptor as Supervisor of the Imperial Clan and has often spoken to me of Lord Kenu's youthful brilliance. Now that you pass through our humble region, it is only right that I, Tong, act as host and invite you to my home for a feast. Yet I feared delaying the Grand Master's mission, so I have brought meat and wine here to welcome you and wash the dust from your journey."

At this, Diwu Lun remembered: on those two occasions when he had visited the State Preceptor's residence, he had indeed seen an official as tall as Li Tong coming and going.

By bringing up that his father served under Liu Xin, Li Tong was telling Diwu Lun: we are on the same side — even though… the State Preceptor Liu Xin was now out in the cold.

One does not strike a smiling face, and moreover, the Li clan's house was great and their enterprise vast. Diwu Lun had no time to meet with each of the Forward Commandery's dozen or so second-tier powerful families one by one, but he could start building ties with the Li clan.

Diwu Lun therefore smiled and went to help Li Tong up. "The State Preceptor treated me as if I were his own son or nephew. Let us not stand on ceremony, calling each other 'Grand Master' and 'Lord' — that only creates distance. We should use our courtesy names. My courtesy name is Boyu. May I ask how you are called?"

Li Tong said, "My courtesy name is 'Ciyuan.'"

Setting everything else aside, that courtesy name alone amused Diwu Lun.

Ciyuan? Marvelous. Only, was it the three-prickles ape, or the two-prickles ape?

…

PS: Got up late so this is a bit short. The noon chapter will be longer. Chapter 2 at 13:00.