Chapter 496: The Realm Is Beset with Troubles

In the thirty-first year of the First Emperor, in the fourth month, Zhang Cang, who was in Xianyang, welcomed two momentous events in his life!

The first: after years of exhaustive study, he had finally completed the first half of his "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art."

The first half of the Nine Chapters consists of six volumes, all concerning the practical application of mathematical knowledge. The "Rectangular Fields" chapter covers the precise measurement of farmland; "Millet and Rice" deals with the proportional exchange of grains and cereals; "Distribution by Proportion" relates to the allocation of official salaries; "The Lesser Breadth" and "Consultations on Works" involve calculating earthwork and construction quantities; and "Equitable Taxation" addresses the reasonable apportionment of levies. Each volume contains not only formulas and algorithms but also practical examples, amounting to tens of thousands of words in a sweeping text.

In addition to this, Zhang Cang also wrote a small booklet in his spare time called "Bead Calculation," specifically discussing the usage, techniques, and formulas of the abacus.

After these two books were presented to the First Emperor by the Imperial Secretary, the Emperor praised them endlessly and even summoned Zhang Cang to the palace to teach the receptionists how to use the abacus. The First Emperor reviewed a vast number of memorials daily, nearly every one involving figures of money and grain. He habitually had the receptionists recalculate them, but counting rods were slow, and the Emperor was too impatient to wait. The abacus, which had gradually gained popularity in recent years, was a powerful tool for rapid calculation.

Because of this opportunity, the First Emperor came to know this large, stout man named Zhang Cang. Believing that making him a Pillar-Below Scribe in charge of maps and books was a waste of his talent, the Emperor waved his hand and transferred Zhang Cang to the office of the Superintendent of Grain, appointing him as the office's Deputy Director, with a rank of six hundred dan...

The Superintendent of Grain was the national finance ministry of the Qin dynasty, overseeing the state's land tax and all revenue and expenditure of money and goods, and was also known as the "Chancellor of Accounts." Under it were five directorates, including the Grand Granary and the Sacred Fields. Zhang Cang was specifically in charge of the budget, responsible for the annual reports from the commanderies and counties nationwide and the principle of "matching expenditure to revenue," equivalent to a later-era National Development and Reform Commission.

After taking office in early April, Zhang Cang discovered it was truly a bitter assignment. Why? Because the situation was the same as what Heifu faced in Jiaodong: the entire Qin dynasty was also teetering on the edge of a fiscal crisis...

The Emperor had sent him to the Superintendent of Grain's office precisely in the hope that Zhang Cang could use his expertise to resolve the fiscal shortfalls that had plagued the court for years.

As soon as Zhang Cang examined the capital's account books, he felt a toothache coming on. After a period of frantic frustration, he could not help but complain in a letter to his good friends Heifu and Zhang Han:

"His Majesty destroyed the six kingdoms and seized vast quantities of their royal wealth and precious objects. But for over five years, there have been campaigns almost every year. Even a mountain of gold or a sea of pearls would have been squandered completely!"

He began to list the Qin dynasty's fiscal expenditures over the years for Zhang and Hei: "In the twenty-sixth year, twelve metal colossi were cast. Massive construction imitating the palaces of the six kingdoms was begun on the northern slope of Xianyang. Also, 120,000 wealthy households from across the realm were relocated to the Guanzhong region!"

Although these people also brought considerable wealth with them, the relocation and provisions for hundreds of thousands of people placed a heavy burden on that year's finances, which ultimately ended in a deficit.

In the twenty-seventh year, the Emperor, heeding the words of alchemists, set his mind on seeking immortality. He built the "Supreme Temple" and the front hall of the Sweet Springs Palace south of the Wei River, and constructed a galleried road from Xianyang to Mount Li, essentially an Emperor-only, closed expressway. At the same time, expressways were built nationwide, and in the spring, he made an inspection tour of Longxi and Beidi. Fortunately, Heifu diverted the Emperor's attention to searching for the Queen Mother of the West's kingdom, halting the palace complex south of the Wei River, which kept the Privy Treasury's fiscal deficit from growing too large.

In the twenty-eighth year, the Emperor set his mind on opening up the northwest, ordering Zhang Han to build a straight road, and also toured Dai North and Shang Commandery. Although Heifu used troops at Huamachi, it was only a small battle and did not cost much in money and grain. That year, income and expenditure miraculously balanced out.

The twenty-ninth year was different. The Emperor dispatched 300,000 men to campaign against the Xiongnu. Transporting provisions a thousand li, the costs at home and abroad, the supply of chariots and armor, consumed a thousand pieces of gold daily. The tens of thousands of cattle and sheep seized by the generals could not possibly offset the enormous expenses. That year, the Superintendent of Grain exhausted every effort just to meet the military grain supply. When it came time to reward the troops, no more money could be produced, and the Privy Treasury had to fund it.

The thirtieth year seemed uneventful, but establishing new commanderies, settling soldier-farmers for garrison duties, building the Great Wall in Shuofang, the Emperor's inspection tour of Ba and Shu, opening the Five-Chi Road to reach the southwestern barbarians, and dispatching envoys and merchants to the Western Regions all incurred massive costs. The fiscal deficit did not improve in the slightest...

Troubles on the frontiers and frequent construction projects meant a huge demand for corvée laborers and garrison soldiers. The frequent conscription of able-bodied men inevitably affected agricultural work. Although the Qin dynasty collected land tax as a flat rate—regardless of your actual harvest, one and a half dan per mu!

But if the common people's entire grain supply could only fill their stomachs, their desire to purchase goods would naturally plummet. The private market was depressed, and correspondingly, the market tax, which constituted the bulk of the Privy Treasury's income, began to shrink, and the revenue from state-run workshops also sharply declined.

Not to mention, to solve the fiscal deficit, from the Superintendent of Grain and the Privy Treasury down to the local commanderies and counties, there was only one method employed: increasing the poll tax!

In the worst year, the twenty-ninth, some places even levied it three additional times, driving impoverished commoners to strangle their own newborn infants...

This was a vicious cycle. In his position, he had to plan for its duties. Zhang Cang saw with utter horror that beneath the Empire's seemingly glorious and mighty exterior, a tremendous internal crisis was already quietly sprouting!

After enumerating the events of the past five years, Zhang Cang could not help but vent his anger at Heifu in the letter:

"The realm is beset with troubles, and you, sir, are responsible for half of them!"

This was, of course, said in anger. Anyone with a slight understanding of the First Emperor knows that His Majesty was impatient by nature and could not bear to let the realm be idle for a single year. Even without Heifu's proposed western expansion, there would have been a southern campaign. Even without sending people to the Western Regions to search for the Queen Mother of the West's kingdom, he would have sought immortals in the Eastern Sea.

The road to Lingnan was distant and filled with miasma; the money and grain consumed, and the casualties suffered, might have been even greater. When Wushi Luo opened trade with the Western Regions, he at least brought back the possibility of trading silk and sugar with the states of the Western Regions to earn foreign exchange. The vast, misty Eastern Sea, however, yielded nothing at all...

Furthermore, Heifu's proposal of "southerners garrisoning the south, northerners garrisoning the north" also saved a huge amount of corvée labor costs.

Besides, without the method of composting and fermenting fertilizer first advocated in Nan Commandery, which increased the yield by half a dan per mu, the common people might have long been driven to desperation by heavy land taxes and levies, with bandits even arising within Guanzhong itself!

After venting his anger in the letter, Zhang Cang calmed down. What was past was past. He now had to concentrate his energy on properly managing this year's budget, ensuring that finances did not continue to run a deficit and that the losses could not again be passed on to the common people!

But looking at the numerous matters His Majesty the Emperor was preparing to undertake this year, Zhang Cang's temples began to throb again.

Originally, he had hoped that the court could have some peace and quiet in the thirty-first year. But the tree may wish for stillness, yet the wind will not cease. In early spring, because of the case where a Yuezhi prince was sentenced to death for murder, the relationship between Qin and the Yuezhi ruptured. The Yuezhi king frequently contacted the Xiongnu Modu Chanyu, seemingly intending to pick up Modu's proposed plan of a "Three Hu Alliance to Jointly Resist Mighty Qin."

At Li Xin's suggestion, the First Emperor decided to strike first. At the end of the second month, he issued a proclamation condemning the Yuezhi king for failing to properly instruct his son and for betraying the vassal alliance. Li Xin was appointed general, and a total of 100,000 soldiers and civilian laborers were dispatched to attack the Yuezhi!

Now, two months later, reports of victory have come frequently from the west. Li Xin heavily defeated the Yuezhi king by the Black River, taking several thousand heads. The First Emperor was overjoyed and named the battlefield location "Wuwei." Li Xin's forces are resting and regrouping there, preparing for a further attack on the Yuezhi capital, Zhaowu City.

Although the Xiongnu Modu Chanyu sent men to raid the small Qin fort at Juyan Marsh, slaughtering the garrison and burning the settlement, the Commandant of Beidi Commandery, Zhang Han, is also maneuvering against them, preventing the Xiongnu from supporting the Yuezhi...

At the same time, the Wusun tribe, which had a generational feud with the Yuezhi, was persuaded by Qin merchants to suddenly submit to Qin and began raiding the Yuezhi's northwest. Lacking the vast strategic depth of the Xiongnu, the Yuezhi found themselves in a dilemma.

From the looks of it, this war could be won by late summer at the latest.

The various offices in Xianyang were jubilant, but the officials of the Superintendent of Grain alone wore bitter expressions. Even if everything went smoothly, the journey to Hexi was a thousand li long. The money and grain that had been so painstakingly collected just last year was now flowing out like water.

What was even more terrifying was that, upon hearing the reports of victory from the west, the First Emperor decided that after Li Xin destroyed the Yuezhi, in the cool weather of early autumn, he would begin his repeatedly postponed eastern inspection tour!

Unifying the realm, sweeping away the six kingdoms, crushing the Xiongnu, and destroying the Yuezhi—these deeds were truly unprecedented throughout history. He was more qualified than the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to perform the Feng and Shan sacrifices!

Upon learning this news, Zhang Cang felt his heart about to stop. With trembling hands, he calculated the accounts: the campaign against the Yuezhi had consumed one-third of the Superintendent of Grain's fiscal revenue. The remainder was already insufficient to cover expenditures.

He reported to the Superintendent of Grain: "If we do not want the officials of Xianyang to go unpaid, the eastern tour and the Feng and Shan sacrifices can only be funded by the Privy Treasury!"

But the Privy Treasury was also crying poverty, saying that military campaigns and road building elsewhere lasted at most a year, but the Mount Li mausoleum project, which the Privy Treasury was responsible for, had already been ongoing for over a decade.

Although the First Emperor set his mind on seeking immortality and eternal life, he was also making preparations on a second front, crafting his own afterlife world.

As His Majesty took the title of Emperor, the scale of the Mount Li mausoleum was repeatedly expanded, with more and more elaborate features added: for example, firing life-sized, vividly expressive terracotta warriors and horses to guard the imperial tomb; making the underground palace as vast and magnificent as the Xianyang Palace; refining mercury to simulate the hundred rivers, the great sea, so that the tomb would have the heavens above and the geography below.

That gigantic tomb pit had seemingly transformed into a ferocious monster with a mouthful of tusks, never satiated no matter how much money was stuffed into it!

The leaders of the Superintendent of Grain and the Privy Treasury put their heads together and realized both had exhausted their tricks. Even if they ordered the commanderies and counties to levy additional poll taxes, it could not fill this year's massive hole. Thus, they could only think of new measures.

The Director of the Privy Treasury thought of a clever move: "Nowadays, there are many in the south planting sugarcane and refining sugar. The Ba clan of Ba Commandery has regained its wealth from this, and the Sugar clan of Nan Commandery has amassed a fortune of a thousand gold. The powerful and noble in the southern Chu region also frequently profit from this. Brown sugar is quite popular in all commanderies and counties, and can even be exported to the Western Regions, sold at high prices to the various Hu lords. Why don't we request His Majesty to follow the precedent of the wine and salt monopolies, nationalize the brown sugar workshops in each commandery, and have the government run them exclusively!"

They were driven to desperation and were starting to set their sights on the burgeoning sugar industry. In recent years, the north had been somewhat economically depressed under the burden of heavy corvée conscription, but the south had become prosperous, driven by the sugar industry. The only problem was a labor shortage, and the southern plantation owners had begun clamoring for war against the southwestern barbarians and the Baiyue to plunder slaves.

Listening nearby, Zhang Cang silently mourned for Heifu. Everyone knew that the so-called Sugar clan of Nan Commandery was Heifu's family, which practically controlled the sugar industry in Yuzhang and Nan Commandery. But Heifu had strictly ordered his family not to expand beyond these two areas, at most opening a few unprofitable branch stores elsewhere, without any crazy expansion.

It was precisely because of Heifu's low profile and restraint that the court had tolerated this. Only now, driven by necessity, did the Privy Treasury decide to slaughter this sheep that had not yet been fattened.

Just as the Superintendent of Grain and the Privy Treasury decided to push this matter through, even if it meant deeply offending Heifu, news arrived from Jiaodong at the end of the fourth month that made it awkward for both offices to act...

"The Governor of Jiaodong Commandery reports that a large gold mine has been discovered in Qucheng Township, Huang County! He requests the Privy Treasury's approval to establish an official mining operation and to immediately dispatch two thousand soldiers from Linzi to garrison Qucheng, strictly preventing powerful families and commoners from illegal mining!"

PS: The second chapter will be quite late.

(End of Chapter)