Chapter 482: Making a Move

When Commandery Governor Heifu's carriage departed Gaomi County, all it left behind was a single paper manuscript of the *Yanzi Chunqiu*; what it took away, however, were over ten "good and virtuous sons" from the Yan clan of Gaomi and several other county magnate families.

These young men ranged in age from their teens to their twenties, had a rough grasp of Qin seal script, and a few among them could even speak simple Guanzhong courtly speech. Most were leaving home for the first time, full of dread and unease, bidding farewell to their worry-ridden elders.

After the convoy vanished into the wind and snow, the Yan clan head could not help but beat his breast and stamp his feet, overcome with regret, cursing only that his own juniors, once stirred up by that new commandery governor, had chimed in and clamored along. In the end, they had fallen right into his trap: those sons taken away were nominally being sent to the Qin study chambers to learn the statutes and ordinances so they might become officials one day, but in reality, they were also hostages detained in Jimo!

In this way, their Yan clan had been forcibly branded with the label "colluding with Qin officials," a stain they could never wash off.

"Now there's no explaining this away. The various Tian clans will hate our Yan clan to death…"

Seeing his father so deeply troubled, Yan Bo, who served as the county's Tian Se Fu, said, "Now that Tian Qi has already fallen and the one in charge of Jiaodong Commandery is a Qin official, the various Tian clans are no longer enfeoffed lords but ordinary magnate elders — why must we fear them? If it is as that Commandery Governor Wei says, and they begin to employ our Yan, Guo, Gao, and Lü clans, with our sons entering the government offices and grasping authority, then in a few short years the Yan clan may well recover its former glory. By that time, it will be the Tian clans who fear us, not us who fear the Tian clans!"

"What do you know!?"

The Yan clan head glared fiercely at his son. "The various Tian clans have been accumulating power for over two hundred years — like earth heaped into a mountain, it is no work of a moment, nor can it be dug away in a single morning or evening. Though our Yan clan is old nobility of Jiang Qi, compared to the Tian clans of Jimo and Yeyi, who can yoke a hundred chariots and command a thousand retainers, we are still far inferior. Their marriage ties spread throughout Jiaodong, their descendants are scattered across every county, and wandering knights and Ru scholars alike revere them. For the past five years, the commandery governor and commandant of Jiaodong have had to defer to the various Tian clans by three parts just to keep the region peaceful and free of trouble."

"Now the new commandery governor, the moment he takes office, starts spouting that Tian Qi's acquisition of the state was illegitimate — this is meant to push the Yan clan forward, to force us to throw in our lot with the government and wrestle with the various Tian clans. A few fine words, the gift of a single book, a bit of praise for the Yan clan lineage, and it has you this elated — truly a child. Sooner or later our family will be destroyed in your hands!"

Yan Bo truly had not thought of any of this, and he asked in a fluster, "Then what should we do now?"

The Yan clan head rolled his eyes. "The Yanzi Temple has been visited, the words spoken at the banquet about supporting the old clans of Jiang Qi have already spread, and our family's sons have all been taken away by him. In the eyes of the various Tian clans, that the Yan clan sold out the Qi people and threw in with the Qin officials is an ironclad certainty. What can be done about it now? For the moment, we must swallow this bitter draught and see what else this commandery governor intends to do!"

…

"Without the words you prepared for me, all those classical allusions and quotations, I could never have spoken them."

At the same time, in the carriage traveling east, Heifu called Chen Ping to ride with him and confer.

The idea of drawing in the Yan clan and other old clans of Jiang Qi was one Chen Ping had proposed. As early as Xianyang, after roughly acquainting himself with the distribution and strength of the noble clans in each county of Jiaodong, he had said to Heifu, "In ancient times, when King Wu conquered Yin and turned back from Shang, before he had even alighted from his chariot, he enfeoffed the descendants of the Yellow Emperor at Ji, the descendants of Emperor Yao at Zhu, the descendants of Emperor Shun at Chen, and the descendants of Xia Yu at Qi. Thereupon all under Heaven rejoiced and abandoned Shang to serve Zhou. Why? Though the remnants of Yin plotted day and night to restore Shang, the old clans of Tang, Yu, and Xia, who had likewise once been subjects of Shang, all received fiefs, and so they were willing to support the house of Zhou."

To put it plainly, King Wu of Zhou united the majority of the old clans of the Three Dynasties, gave them the promise of enfeoffment and state-building, and thereby isolated the remnants of Yin-Shang.

In Chen Ping's view, the Qi nobility of Jiaodong were not a monolithic bloc. Two hundred years ago, the movement of the Tian clan usurping Qi drove all the losers to Jiaodong — the Lü, Yan, Guo, and Gao clans. They had always been viewed with suspicion by the Tian kings and lords of Qi and never given important posts. Now that an opportunity to turn the tables had appeared, as long as the Qin government extended a hand, there were bound to be those willing to borrow that strength to ascend to high positions once more.

"Even those unwilling to throw in their lot with the commandery governor must be forcibly pulled onto the carriage, with their sons taken as hostages, so that the various Tian clans will bear a grudge against them!"

Chen Ping's stratagem could be said to pierce the human heart. Simply by tossing the two great stones — "Tian Qi's acquisition of the state was illegitimate" and "the commandery governor intends to support the old clans of Jiang Qi" — into the water, enormous waves would be stirred up.

The Jiaodong nobility, who had previously been on amicable terms, would now, whether they wished it or not, grow suspicious of one another: the various Tian clans would suspect the Yan and others of selling them out to Qin, while the Yan clan and the other old clans of Jiang Qi, weak as they were, would fear the wrath and reprisal of the Tian clans and be forced to cling tightly to the government's thigh.

"Where there is no contradiction, create contradiction."

"Small contradictions must become large contradictions."

Heifu could not help but praise it. "In this way, by sowing discord between the old and new magnates of Jiaodong Commandery, we need not fear them joining hands to oppose the government."

The deeper he penetrated into the heartland of Jiaodong, the clearer his understanding of how to govern the commandery became.

…

After Chen Ping took his leave, Heifu, inside the jolting carriage, brought out a Go board. First he placed six white stones on the right side, arrayed in a single line, then placed a single black stone on the left, facing off against the six white stones…

He was not so bored as to play a game against himself; rather, he wanted to analyze clearly the stances of each social stratum in Jiaodong Commandery.

"One against six — defeat is certain. Therefore, I must do my utmost to pull these white stones over to the black stone's side." Heifu muttered to himself, reaching out to shift the stones on the board.

"The first white stone — this represents the greatest power in Jiaodong, the great nobles headed by the various Tian clans!"

These nobles, whose fields stretched across the paths and whose household servants numbered in the hundreds or thousands, were the enfeoffed lords and grandees of the Tian Qi era. Represented by the Jimo Tian clan, descendants of Tian Chang, and the Yeyi Tian clan, descendants of Tian Dan, they could also be called the various Tian clans.

The various Tian clans were the vested interests of the Tian Qi era. Qin's destruction of Qi meant for them the enmity of a destroyed state and fallen altars of soil and grain. Those who once stood high above others had, under the law, become "commoners"; their social status had plummeted, they had lost all manner of privileges, and naturally they nursed bitter grievances.

Economically, the various Tian clans had also been dealt a heavy blow. They had long controlled the profits of the mountains and seas: the Jimo Tian clan held ownership over the nearby mountain forests and marshes, mining ore and minting coin on their own. The Yeyi Tian clan, as enfeoffed lords, were also the largest salt merchants in Jiaodong — one-third of the salt from Laizhou Bay was produced by Yeyi.

Now, however, all of this had been confiscated as state-owned and government-run.

Between the various Tian clans and the Qin officials, there existed irreconcilable contradictions. Though they lay dormant for now, should trouble ever arise, they would be the first to rebel against Qin.

It was a pity that Jiaodong was simply too far away; the imperial court's reach fell short, and it had been unable to relocate these two families to Guanzhong. Toward these people, Heifu harbored not the slightest delusion of winning them over. First, weaken them as much as possible; then, when the Emperor made his eastern tour, borrow that momentum to root them out completely and relocate them all!

But even if the various Tian clans were relocated and the local great nobles eliminated, for Heifu to govern Jiaodong, he would still need the assistance of locals to fill the great hole left by the Tian clans.

His hand picked up the second white stone.

"This white stone is the minor nobles headed by the Yan clan…"

This group, Chen Ping had already analyzed thoroughly. They had lost their status and interests when Tian Qi was established. Now, it was time to encourage them to rise again, to serve as collaborators with the government, assisting in governing the region as hundred-bushel officials and minor clerks.

With this thought, Heifu placed this stone on the left side.

"The third white stone is the artisan and merchant class."

Unlike Qin, which had a relatively homogeneous class structure, Qi had a high degree of urbanization and a great multitude of artisans and merchants. Guan Zhong once said, "The four peoples — scholar, farmer, artisan, merchant — are the foundation stones of the state." In Qi, there was no discrimination against artisans and merchants; they possessed a certain economic strength and social standing.

But this group had suffered a heavy blow after the Qin dynasty took control of Jiaodong: the artisans of the salt and iron industries were forcibly merged into government-run workshops. The policy of inspecting but not taxing at border markets was replaced by heavy levies. The status of merchants plummeted — they could not go out wearing fine clothes, and they were the first to be conscripted for labor service.

So long as Qin's policies remained unchanged a single day, this group would stand in opposition to the imperial court, with no possibility of winning them over for the time being. Should trouble arise, the great industrialists and merchants would either become rebel leaders or secretly fund them, while the small artisans and peddlers would join the anti-Qin armies.

"But if I employ certain methods, it is not impossible to make them neutral."

Heifu placed this stone in the middle, then looked toward the next two white stones.

They were the "shi" of the Spring and Autumn period, who had by now differentiated into three types of people: wandering knights, Ru scholars, and fangshi.

The wandering knights required no thought — Qi's skilled duelists and chivalrous bravos were renowned. This group of propertyless men were the most unstable element in society, with secret organizations everywhere, criminals whom the government hunted day and night, and diehards active on the front lines of anti-Qin resistance. The assassination incident in Chunyu County was very likely organized by local wandering knights, and the bandits and pirates along the Jiaodong coast were inextricably linked to them as well.

As for the Ru scholars, though they too were not accepted by Qin law, these people were themselves a complex of contradictions: their mouths cried out for restoring the ancient ways, yet they were exceedingly slick and adaptable, speaking on behalf of whoever fed them, but then cursing their benefactor the moment they set down their rice bowl. Among that flock of academicians in Xianyang, many hailed from Jiaodong — for instance, Chunyu Yue, who was at Fusu's side…

The local Ru scholars of Jiaodong were profoundly conflicted in the face of Qin rule. On the one hand, they found it hard to discard the notion that "Qin is without the Dao, discarding ritual and propriety while prizing only heads taken in battle." On the other hand, they lacked the backbone of Lu Zhonglian, who "on principle would not acknowledge Qin as emperor." They very much wished to join the system, peddle their own set of ideas about benevolent governance, restoring antiquity, and ruling by filial piety and righteousness, and land some official post — after all, the notion that "excel in learning and then enter officialdom" was deeply ingrained in their hearts.

Then there were the fangshi. Their attitude toward Qin was similar to that of the Ru scholars — both repelled by it and eager to collaborate. What if they succeeded in duping the Qin and struck it rich?

Their stances were far from firm; they could be grouped into one category: the intelligentsia, the stinking ninth category.

This group still harbored illusions about the Qin dynasty; they need not be rejected wholesale and could be placed in a neutral position.

In this way, if the artisans, merchants, and intelligentsia were neutral, the situation on the board was now two against two.

Heifu shifted his gaze to the sixth, and most weighty, white stone!

"The sixth stone — this is the peasants, who make up ninety percent of Jiaodong's population…"

When Qin entered Jiaodong, the local peasants had not come out well either — Heifu was very clear on this point.

Though he spouted nonsense about "the Tian clan's acquisition of the state being illegitimate," in truth, the Tian kings and lords were a hundred times better than a ruler like Duke Jing of Qi, who only knew how to squeeze the common people and build grand palaces in his vainglorious pursuit of greatness!

The reason the Tian clan was able to supplant Qi was that several generations had persisted in using large measures when lending and small measures when collecting, thereby buying the hearts of the people — this greatly won over the peasants. Later, the Tian clan also transported timber from the mountain forests and fish from the seashore to the cities and towns, selling them all at fair prices, which in turn won over the townsfolk.

Add to that the Tian clan's patronage and esteem for the shi, and with the scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants all supporting the Tian clan's seizure of power, overturning the Jiang-surnamed Qi lords and finishing off those rotten old nobles — the Yan, Guo, and Gao — was as easy as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood. This is the power of the people.

In the early Warring States period, King Wei of Qi and King Xuan of Qi were men of great vision and bold strategy — they promoted the worthy and capable, dismissed the mediocre and inept, and made Qi strong and prosperous. The people of Linzi still wore pride written plain on their faces.

Under the next two rulers, though the state's power declined, they governed with Huang-Lao thought, bringing fifty years of peace, light corvée and low taxes, and granaries brimming with grain. To this day the common folk still speak well of the Tian Qi house.

Once the Qin came, taxes grew several times heavier. A farmer's life went from having enough food and clothing to outright poverty. If it were Heifu, he'd sure as hell rebel too.

And so, in history, the various Tian clans of Qi rose against Qin. From commoners to townsmen, the whole Qi region answered almost at a single call — within a month, two thousand li of Qi changed its colors…

The principal contradiction in Jiaodong Commandery remains that between Qin imperialism and the various strata of the Jiaodong Qi people.

So you see, copying later-era formulas wholesale — mobilizing peasants to struggle against local strongmen, dividing up the land? The first one to get chased off would probably be Heifu himself.

Even with the Dragon-Slaying Art in hand, you cannot just copy its clauses verbatim. You must analyze each concrete case concretely, apply it flexibly and learn to use it live — only then can you get immediate results…

Heifu drew his hand back, deeply rueful. Peasants are no fools — they know perfectly well in their hearts that the old days were good and the present days are bad. This heaviest white stone — so long as taxes are not reduced by a single day, so long as corvée is not relaxed by a single day — Heifu cannot place it on the left side.

"I can only hope that after deporting the various Tian clans, I can use the vast lands seized to resettle the bottom-tier landless hired laborers, and make them stand on my side…"

Volume Five, the Dragon-Slaying Art, truly is useful. After this round of analysis, Heifu now knows very clearly who his enemies are, who his friends are, and what he himself must do.

He grew even clearer on his own position.

A trace of self-mocking laughter appeared on Heifu's face.

"I am a reactionary bureaucrat standing in opposition to the overwhelming majority of the people!"

At that moment, the carriage came to a halt, and Chen Ping's voice came from outside.

"Commandery Governor, Jimo is here!"

Heifu rose, lifted the carriage curtain, faced the local officials and clan elders bowing their heads to him, gazed at the ancient city of Jimo white with distant snow, and said softly, "Let us begin!"

(End of chapter)