Chapter 362: Hunting the Tiger

In the second month of the second year of the King of Wei's reign, after seeing Du Shi off on his westward journey, the old Confucian officials of Henei shed their earlier reluctance and began fiercely denouncing the King of Wei's approach to employing talent.

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"In ancient times, when King Wu of Zhou conquered Yin and returned to Shang, before he could even alight from his chariot, he enfeoffed the two kings and the three honored houses, raised a mound over the tomb of Prince Bigan, released Jizi from captivity, and allowed him to restore the rites of Shang and resume his position. The common people were relieved of harsh governance, and the lower officers had their salaries doubled."

"Yet now the King of Wei emulates the revolution of Tang and Wu — though he has expelled a tyrant and punished the people's enemies, when it comes to employing men, it is truly hard to describe in a single breath."

"Indeed. How numerous are the eminent clans and venerable elders of Henei! Yet the King of Wei has only entrusted military and civil authority to his maternal kinsman Ma Wenyuan, not giving a single important post to any local notable, while instead favoring that Du Shi..."

"Zhuangzi said: where there are machines, there are bound to be machine-like affairs; where there are machine-like affairs, there is bound to be a machine-like mind. With a machine-like mind lodged in the breast, pure simplicity is lost. And now, because of machine affairs, he is promoted to the capital — truly, the hearts of men have fallen from the ancient ways."

Earlier, when bidding Du Shi farewell, they had been all smiles, but now they had become two-faced. Yet they insisted that they were only criticizing Du Shi, and absolutely not expressing discontent with the King of Wei: "Last year, when the King of Wei came to Henei, I secretly observed his aura. It formed dragons and tigers, and took on the five colors — this is the aura of the Son of Heaven."

Immediately, someone rushed to add: "I saw it too. There was a cloud shaped like a man, dressed in green and without hands, to the west of the sun. What a fine aura! Lush and flourishing it was."

Unlike last year, when the Henei notable Cai Mao wholeheartedly sought to serve the Han and was sent by Diwu Lun to be killed by the Greenwood men, after half a year of cooling down, the people of Henei discovered that the Greenwood Han regime to the south was entirely controlled by Greenwood outlaws, and dealing with them was extremely difficult. Meanwhile, the Northern Han was managed by the three Lius of Hebei, and now even Liu Ziyu had vanished without a trace — they were unreliable too.

Looking around, it was still Henei under the King of Wei's rule that was stable. The turmoil of attacking and killing anti-Wei strongmen in Weinan and Weibei had not spread here either.

Their current attacks on Du Shi were mostly born of resentment at not having been elevated and given important posts by the King of Wei themselves. As they talked, Du Shi's crimes multiplied: "Du Shi recklessly set up machines, disrupted the waterways, and ruined the fengshui of Henei. That there has been no rain this spring is his fault."

Someone added with even greater venom: "If Du Shi enters the Pass and builds more water-powered bellows and other machines, ruining the dragon veins of the Guanzhong water system and damaging the royal aura of Chang'an, then a great disaster will be upon us!"

The assembly nodded in agreement, deciding that upon returning home, they would begin fabricating charges that Du Shi's water-powered bellows were a calamity to the nation and its people, and send them to Chang'an. They would also prepare a "Ten Thousand People's Petition" — after all, plenty of laborers who had lost their livelihoods to the water-powered bellows and mills were also filled with righteous indignation!

Du Shi had no idea that the two-faced crowd behind him harbored such venomous envy. He simply rode westward in a carriage, his heart full of trepidation.

The last time Diwu Lun came to Henei, he had specifically summoned Du Shi for a question-and-answer session and was extremely appreciative of him. After serving half a year as "Chief of the Water Balance Commandant's Office," setting up dozens of water-powered bellows and mills along Henei's various rivers, Du Shi was promoted once again.

This time, he was appointed by Diwu Lun as "Supervisor of Waterworks for the Capital Region," with a rank of one thousand dan. Remarkably, this merged the three water offices under the Han dynasty's Chamberlain for Ceremonials, Privy Treasurer, and Water Balance Commandant into one. From Guanzhong to Henei, all matters concerning reservoirs, irrigation, water conservancy, and river channels were to be managed by him.

While delighted, Du Shi also deeply understood the weight of his responsibility, and traveled day and night without pause.

Along the way, Du Shi frequently observed the tense troop movements in Henei Commandery: ever since last month, when Ma Yuan reinforced Puyang and even boldly crossed the river to burn Wuchao, routing the Greenwood forces at Guandu, it was as if he had poked a hornet's nest.

Wang Kuang, the King of Biyang, flew into a towering rage and immediately mobilized tens of thousands of troops. The Greenwood forces on the southern bank of the great river all massed at Luoyang, Chenggao, and other locations, gathering boats in a posture that suggested they were about to cross the river in retaliation.

Yet precisely at this moment, the Northern Han fell into civil strife without any warning, as the King of Zhending and the King of Zhao began fighting each other. Seizing the opportunity, Ma Yuan could only personally deploy defenses along the river, while also sending three or four thousand men to Geng Chun to make do with.

By the time Du Shi's carriage had laboriously crossed the Taihang range and reached Hedong Commandery, he found that this place, too, presented the scene of a place on the eve of a great battle.

The Marquis of Yangquan, Zhang Zong, had already returned here. His three thousand Hedong soldiers had shone brilliantly at the Battle of Zhouyuan, and every man had received a land allotment. The King of Wei had personally bestowed rewards, and these Hedong troops had become the model that the State of Wei vigorously publicized. They were sent back to Hedong Commandery first, to tour and parade through each county.

As territory expanded and warfare shifted to external fronts, relying solely on Guanzhong's manpower was no longer enough. Diwu Lun began to set his sights on Hedong's two hundred thousand households. Building on their achievements, he elevated Zhang Zong, in order to win the admiration and service of Hedong's scholars and commoners.

Riding this wave of propaganda, Dou Rong, the Governor of Hedong, also began organizing manpower after the busy spring plowing season ended. When Du Shi passed through Anyi, he saw an endless stream of farmers gathering there, moving in the same direction as Du Shi. He heard that even earlier groups had been conscripted a month ago to repair bridges.

By the time Du Shi reached the Puban ferry crossing, the pontoon bridge that had been burned by remnants of the Xin army the previous year had already been repaired. Chains were tethered to the massive iron oxen. As waist drums beat, Wei soldiers — carrying bamboo hats and shields on their backs, wearing cloth shoes and simple puttees — shouldered their spears and halberds, following officers with ring-pommel swords at their waists and riding large horses, tramping across the pontoon bridge's planks and heading east. Their numbers were so great that the bridge swayed and creaked; it took several days for them all to cross. As for this campaign, they did not know whether they were going to attack Shangdang or Taiyuan...

Because the pontoon bridge was prioritized for military use, Du Shi had to cross the Yellow River by boat, brushing past the banners bearing the character "Jing" of General of the Vanguard Jing Dan.

After setting foot on the western bank, this was Du Shi's first visit to Guanzhong, and he felt a small thrill of excitement. Regarding the route, he made quite a few requests of his entourage.

"First, we go to Mount Shangyan. I want to see exactly how the Dragon Head Canal was built."

"Then we will travel westward along the Bai Canal and the Zhengguo Canal. I have long admired these two canals."

His attendant grew anxious: "Master Du, the Great King is waiting for you!"

Du Shi paid no heed: "It is merely a look along the way. No delay, no delay."

When he reached Weibei, the granary of Guanzhong, and saw that the fields on both sides of the Bai Canal had been thoroughly plowed and already sown with millet seeds, and that after the able-bodied men had left, the old, weak, women, and children were diligently irrigating and fertilizing, Du Shi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"As long as the war has not delayed the spring plowing, it is well."

Just as Ren Guang had predicted to Diwu Lun, saying that in the late spring and early summer of this year, when the old grain stores were exhausted, there would surely be a famine across the land, Du Shi had sensed the same in relatively stable Henei. Because of years of continuous warfare and people abandoning their land to flee, many places had practically no harvest at all last autumn. The King of Wei's realm was sustained entirely by the grain from Weibei, Henei, and Wei Commandery — merely robbing Peter to pay Paul.

If this year's spring plowing were also neglected, then the great famine would repeat itself in an endless cycle.

It was only when he reached the vicinity of Chang'an that Du Shi was informed by Diwu Biao, the Commandant of the Capital who was inspecting the city gates, that the King of Wei had gone on a tour of inspection to the newly established "Shanglin County," and that Du Shi was to go there directly upon arrival.

Diwu Biao was rather displeased. He sized up Du Shi and said, "Summoned by the Great King, yet you arrive so tardily. Go and beg forgiveness at once!"

As it happened, Zhang Yu also needed to go to Shanglin to report, so he took Du Shi along with him.

Now that Shanglin had been established as a county, it was no longer a restricted area. Whether officials, commoners, or ordinary folk, all could enter and leave freely.

Du Shi was observing the newly reclaimed land at the edge of Shanglin, and the Chang'an migrants now living within the palace gardens, listening to Zhang Yu describe the recent situation there, when suddenly a clamor arose, and the horses they were riding grew restless and skittish.

A group of men came shouting and whooping as they burst out from the other end of the forest, crossbows in hand, spears and hunting forks on their shoulders. They were chasing a wild beast. The beast, limping, plunged headlong into the hunters' encirclement, took a few arrows, and collapsed, listless.

Drawing closer for a look — good heavens! A fierce tiger with slanted eyes and a white forehead lay dead on the ground. Its body was over ten feet long, and on its forehead was strikingly emblazoned the character "Wang" — "King"!

"Is the King of Wei out hunting?" Du Shi thought instinctively, a slight disappointment in his heart. With soldiers fighting abroad and commoners toiling in the fields, this was truly no time for such an activity.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Yu laughed heartily and said, "The Great King dislikes hunting. This is a tiger-hunting squad."

It turned out that over the past two hundred years, as an imperial park, Shanglin had been artificially stocked with a large number of wild beasts. During Wang Mang's time, the tigers and leopards in the menagerie were all released, so that this area of three to four hundred li, once farmland, had become a habitat for beasts of prey.

Now, forced by the pressure of grain supplies, Diwu Lun was opening up Shanglin, which naturally meant competing with the beasts of prey for living space. For a time, wild cattle and boars, driven to wander everywhere, broke through fences and invaded the fields to eat the seedlings. The land that had been so painstakingly opened up was ruined by their rampages, yielding no harvest.

And beasts of prey roamed outside every village, hamlet, and palace garden.

Zhang Yu said: "From the establishment of the county in the first month until now, twenty thousand households have successively entered Shanglin. Yet tigers, leopards, and bears have injured one hundred and twenty people, killed thirty-two, and harmed livestock by the thousands. Near Kunming Pond, a fierce tiger broke into a cattle pen, and of the dozens of plow oxen so laboriously brought from Weibei, more than half were mauled to death."

Men were hungry, and so were the beasts of prey. There was simply no possibility of coexistence. Therefore, Diwu Lun organized the hunters of the capital region, establishing over a dozen tiger-hunting squads specifically to hunt beasts of prey in Shanglin.

"For killing a leopard, each squad is rewarded with one dan of grain and one bolt of cloth; for killing a tiger, each squad is rewarded with two dan of grain and two bolts of cloth. From the second month until now, they have already killed over two hundred tigers, leopards, bears, and the like."

Each squad ranged from ten to several dozen men. The tiger-hunting squads could also keep the pelts and meat of the tigers and leopards they killed, so their motivation was very high. Along the road, Du Shi also saw hunters carrying knives, forks, clubs, and cudgels, spreading nets as they headed deeper into the forest.

The roads were now much safer. Zhang Yu said, "I hear from the tiger-hunting squads that the beasts of prey and wild boars are moving into the deep mountains south of Shanglin."

Du Shi nodded and praised, "I have heard that in the time of the Duke of Zhou, he drove the tigers, leopards, rhinoceroses, and elephants far away. Is this not exactly such a deed?"

When they arrived at the King of Wei's location and Du Shi paid his respects and begged forgiveness for his tardiness, Diwu Lun did not blame him, but only asked, "Have you been to see the Zhengguo Canal and the Bai Canal?"

Du Shi answered honestly. Diwu Lun then turned to the assembled ministers and laughed, "What did I tell you? Master Du, once he sees a canal, cannot move his feet."

Finally, Diwu Lun added, "It was because the Qin and Han dynasties built canals in Weibei that we have today's fertile soil and granary. Shanglin, having been set aside as a park and hunting ground, had its water conservancy neglected."

He had someone bring a map and assigned the water manager Du Shi his task: "In Shanglin, the Feng, Lao, Jue, Hao, Chan, and Ba rivers flow through. The ten thousand mu of newly opened farmland are mostly along the banks, but the irrigation canals have not kept pace. I have transferred you, Master Du, to serve as Supervisor of Waterworks for the Capital Region. The first thing you must do is to open canals along these six rivers."

To use an analogy, if natural rivers are the great blood vessels, then the artificially dug irrigation canals are the capillaries, connecting to the agricultural areas so that the land is nourished, rather than merely looking up to the sky and waiting for rain.

"Shanglin County has twenty thousand households, nearly one hundred thousand people, among whom there are thirty to forty thousand able-bodied men. I will not conscript them into the army. I will have the County Magistrate and the agricultural officers follow your orders, and the Grain Colonel and the Privy Treasurer will also cooperate. Before autumn, first complete ten trunk canals. Can you do it?"

This was a massive project. It seemed that to increase the autumn harvest this year, the King of Wei was truly sparing no expense. But Du Shi felt uncertain in his heart, and for a moment did not dare to accept the task.

Diwu Lun added, "Lord Du, you saw clearly on your journey west — war drags on without pause, and famine is certain this year. Every extra canal dug in Shanglin, every extra dan of grain grown, means one less person starves."

"First, open the most urgently needed trunk canals and repair the waterwheels, so the people migrating to farm the Shanglin county lands have ample irrigation. Then, during the summer and autumn farming lulls, we can build watermills, water-powered trip-hammers, and the like along the various streams and canals."

Diwu Lun smiled. "I have not forgotten the pact I made with you, Lord Du, back in Henei last year."

Du Shi certainly remembered. Back then, Diwu Lun had shared his vision with him: in the future, wherever water flowed under heaven, they would build more watermill workshops, water-powered trip-hammers, and great water-driven spinning frames.

This was also why Du Shi had gone from not caring who held power to devoting himself wholeheartedly to Diwu Lun's service.

Du Shi therefore gritted his teeth and swore a military pledge: "Let this vision begin right here in Guanzhong, in Shanglin County! I shall not fail the great trust Your Highness has placed in me!"

…

Diwu Lun sent Du Shi to familiarize himself with the government offices while he studied the trunk canal routes with Ren Guang.

Specialists were assigned to their specialties: Du Shi was responsible for waterworks. As for how to improve farming techniques and raise per-mu yields by building on agricultural treatises like the *Book of Fan Shengzhi* and making use of existing conditions — that was the work of Grain Colonel Ren Guang and the agricultural officials under him.

At the same time, Diwu Lun received from Zhang Yu the intelligence gathered by Huang Chang's surveillance. He could only sigh. He had not been overly strict about graft and petty skimming, but some people had truly gone too far.

"It is not only Shanglin that has tigers."

"Within the government offices, there are 'tigers' to be struck down as well!"

…

PS: Second chapter at 23:00.