Chapter 532: Stop!

"Thanks to your brilliant plan, the Zhu Tians are finished."

A few days later, inside the government guesthouse of Yeyi County, Heifu told Chen Ping to dispense with formalities. The two sat facing each other, and Heifu personally poured wine for Chen Ping, saying:

"His Majesty was at the Wei River salt flats when he heard that the Yeyi Tian clan were the biggest private-salt bosses in Jiaodong, and that none of the Zhu Tian houses were free of involvement — he was furious. After arriving in Yeyi and seeing everything you had arranged, he felt even more strongly that rooting out the local magnates and great clans completely was absolutely necessary…"

Chen Ping said hastily, "In the end, it was the Commandery Governor's strategy for governing Yeyi that proved effective; I was only able to contribute a sliver of effort. May I ask whether His Majesty was satisfied with today's proceedings?"

Heifu laughed. "His Majesty was greatly pleased, and praised it again and again!"

The truth was, Heifu had long since divided the work among his men: he himself guided the Emperor, while his trusted aide Chen Ping ran the image-building project in Yeyi…

Half a year earlier, after the Yeyi Tian clan had been driven out, one hundred thousand mu of farmland had been distributed to the left-lane poor and hired labourers to farm. Those people had been poor and miserable for so long — when had they ever received such grace? Instantly they were overflowing with gratitude. On the other hand, however, the Qi people who still favoured the Tian Dan clan reviled them as "Qi traitors." At first they were anxious and uneasy, but they soon discovered that the authorities and the garrison had their backs, so they straightened their spines and turned the tables, becoming masters themselves!

Several thousand households were thus bound to Heifu; these beneficiaries became the staunchest supporters of Qin rule. To hold on to those fifty mu of land, they would do whatever the authorities told them.

The day before, when the First Emperor's carriage procession reached Yeyi, those several thousand left-lane households had also been mobilised by Chen Ping. Men and women, old and young, all lined both sides of the road to watch and kowtow to the imperial carriage. That alone would have been enough, but as the Emperor passed between the crowds, the people even shouted a slogan that belonged to later ages…

"Long live! Long live! Long, long live!"

The sound shook the heavens and startled the whole city; even the tightly drawn curtain on the Emperor's carriage could not help but be parted a crack.

To the left-lane people of Jiaodong, shouting "Long live" was not something directed exclusively at the sovereign. Just as a hundred years earlier, when Lord Mengchang's retainer Feng Xuan burned the locals' debt contracts in Xue City and "the people cried 'Long live'", whenever they had something to rejoice over, they would make this cheer — it was nothing more than that!

The Emperor had ordered the commandery office to grant them land — was he not their benefactor? If the authorities told them to shout, then shout they would!

But to the First Emperor's ears, this threefold cry of "Long live" sounded exceptionally pleasing. He parted the curtain, saw the enthusiasm of the people of Yeyi, and at once his dragon countenance lit up with delight. He said:

"It is exactly as Heifu said: the black-headed people of Yeyi are all wishing Us long life! This is true auspiciousness!"

In his pleasure, the First Emperor granted this group of left-lane people an additional year of tax exemption on top of what they already had.

With so many crowd extras cooperating, the image-building project Chen Ping had come to run was indeed impressive, so everything the First Emperor saw in Yeyi was the manifold benefits to official governance after the magnates had been uprooted.

"I seized the moment to tell His Majesty that Tian Chang had many sons and grandsons, so in the ten-odd cities of Jiaodong, every county has its Zhu Tian. Under Tian Qi rule, these distant branches of the ducal clan monopolised the profits of the lakes, marshes, mountains, and seas, their wealth rivalling the state's. Now, although the authorities have reclaimed those resources, they are still unwilling to accept it, and those who privately boil salt, fell timber, fish, and hunt are beyond counting — this is stealing the state's profit."

Chen Ping clapped his hands in approval. "The Statutes on Granaries say that if more than three rat holes are found in a granary, the responsible officials are all to be punished, because the state's grain cannot tolerate great rats stealing it. In His Majesty's eyes, the profits of the lakes, marshes, mountains, and seas are like grain in a granary, and those who traffic in private salt are the great rats in that granary! How could he show them any further leniency?"

He was right. Qin law imposed extremely harsh penalties for boiling and selling private salt: once discovered, the offender would suffer "amputation of the left toe" — the big toe of the left foot would be cut off. Unfortunately, the profits were simply too high, so the practice persisted despite repeated bans.

That said, not all the Zhu Tian could be linked to private salt. The Tian clan of Jimo, for instance, were exceedingly cautious, and Heifu found it very difficult to get anything on them.

"If you want to bring charges, why worry about finding words? For His Majesty to deal with the Zhu Tian, he doesn't even need a reason — the mere fact that they are the ducal clan of Tian Qi is enough…"

Heifu was very flexible; he had long since prepared charges for the Zhu Tian: blocking the paths of recommendation, deceiving those above and concealing from those below, inciting Confucian scholars and commoners to oppose the authorities, and even colluding with anti-Qin forces overseas, providing funding and passing messages to rebels. Some magnates, like the Tian clan of Jimo, also lent money to commoners, currying favour with the black-headed people — their intentions were unfathomable!

Heifu's proposal was simple: use the authority of the Eastern Tour to pull up the Zhu Tian by the roots and relocate them to the Guanzhong region!

He raised his wine cup and laughed. "This is the strategy of cutting a tangled skein with a sharp blade!"

The Zhu Tian were deeply entrenched and intertwined; to deal with each one individually would be nearly impossible to untangle. Heifu had only taken out the leading Yeyi Tian clan, intimidating the rest of the Zhu Tian, and then held back and bided his time to avoid driving them to desperate measures.

He had waited until the Emperor's Eastern Tour, and then, borrowing the tiger's might, driven them all out in one sweep!

Heifu's calculation was that by the time the Emperor left Jiaodong, there would be no more Zhu Tian in Jiaodong, and the vacated land could continue to be used to recruit left-lane poor and hired labourers to farm.

Only then could his true plan for governing the commandery formally begin…

"The Commandery Governor's strategy — I deeply concur."

Chen Ping said, "Governing the noble and powerful should be done with severity, but governing the people should be done with patience, with gentleness."

At this, he hesitated, as if wanting to speak but stopping.

Heifu sensed what was on his chief advisor's mind. "What have you heard?"

Chen Ping replied, "This subordinate has heard that when you were in Xiami, the Commandery Lord and your brother-in-law Zhang Cang presented His Majesty with the new sun-drying salt method, but your brother-in-law also strongly advocated imposing a heavy tax on official salt to compensate for the Privy Treasury's deficit."

Heifu understood now — Chen Ping seemed to hold a different view on this. He always encouraged his subordinates to voice their opinions, so he smiled and said:

"There are no outsiders here, and what you say will not reach Zhang Cang's ears. Whatever thoughts you have, speak freely!"

"Yes."

Chen Ping bowed and began to expound his view. "I come from humble origins and know deeply how hard it is for the black-headed people to get salt."

He calculated for Heifu: "A household of five consumes at least fifteen sheng of salt a month — that is one and a half dou. The realm has six million households and over thirty million mouths, so it requires one million dan of salt. But to my knowledge, the total salt output of the whole realm — the seacoast, Ba-Shu, beyond the frontier, Hedong — is no more than six or seven hundred thousand dan. Even if the Commandery Governor's sun-drying method spreads throughout Jiaodong, it will only add at most one hundred thousand dan — a drop in the bucket."

The realm still had a shortfall of three hundred thousand dan of salt, which meant that many people in this world did not get enough salt, or even got none at all…

And that was just the average. In reality, like wealth, a vast amount of salt was concentrated in the hands of a few. In the homes of aristocrats and magnates, salt was used to cure countless meats — hams and salted fish in abundance — while the poor fretted over having no salt to eat and no strength to work.

"This is especially true in the Central Plains. Whether it is Hedong salt or Yan-Qi sea salt, by the time it is sold in Liang, it is as expensive as honey."

At this, Chen Ping's heart was heavy with sympathy. Although his own family had been poor, they were not the worst off. In Yangwu County, some families could not afford official salt, nor private salt — what could they do? Driven to desperation, they could only use the wall earth from pigsties and dry latrines to boil out salt.

They would go and dig out people's wall earth, break the earth into pieces, soak it in water, and after several days filter the brine through cloth and boil it in a pot. When the water had boiled dry, what remained in the pot was nitrate salt.

This nitrate salt tasted somewhat bitter and astringent, and eating too much of it could cause poisoning, but at least it served in an emergency. Over time, this even produced a body of knowledge among the lower classes: combining salty-tasting earth with sour or bitter-tasting earth produced a boiled salt of better quality than using earth of only one flavour…

Just hearing about it was heart-wrenching, and Chen Ping was still holding back — he did not mention the even more nauseating "urine salt" and "dung salt."

These earth salts could only serve for a short while; after they were used up, people would go another seven or eight days, or even a month, without a single taste of salt. As a result, the left-lane people, though not yet old, would see their hair turn white, their limbs grow weak, their bodies swell, and all manner of strange illnesses follow one after another.

Now that Jiaodong had the sun-drying method, salt output had increased and costs had fallen. In Chen Ping's view, this was originally a fine opportunity to let salt prices drop and enable more people to afford salt.

But with the "taking without a trace" strategy that Zhang Cang had presented, no matter how much more salt was produced, the authorities would probably not lower the monopolised salt price by a single coin!

With every sentence Chen Ping spoke, Heifu's expression grew a shade graver. Nan Commandery had been relatively fortunate: located downstream from Ba-Shu, the Yangtze River carried Ba-Shu well salt in an endless flow to Anlu. Even if the poor could not afford it, they could supplement the salt in their diet with the blood and flesh of aquatic creatures from Cloud Dream Marsh, so salt-deficiency diseases were not very common.

But in the densely populated Central Plains, where people were many and land was scarce, the situation was indeed dire.

When Chen Ping had finished, he bowed to Heifu and said, "This subordinate has heard that the salt pools of Hedong have been worked since the time of Yu Shun. The local people sang of it: 'The south wind's gentle breath — it can ease our people's woes. The south wind's timely blow — it can enrich our people's wealth…'"

"This subordinate hopes that the Commandery Lord can be that 'south wind' — one who can not only enrich the state's wealth, but also ease the people's woes!"

Chen Ping had his own ideal: if one day he could govern all under Heaven, he would do it like dividing the meat at the village altar sacrifice — apportioning meat fairly to the people according to each person's station and need, yet ensuring that even the poorest and lowliest received a small piece.

He was still far from that position now, so he vested this ideal in Heifu, whom he served.

But after he had spoken, he felt a twinge of fear. One should mind the duties of one's own station; what Chen Ping had spoken of today somewhat overstepped his bounds. Hastily and apprehensively, he prostrated himself to beg forgiveness.

"Get up, quickly, get up."

Far from being angered, Heifu felt gratified.

This was the other side of Chen Ping. Although he delighted in devious stratagems and was utterly merciless when helping Heifu deal with enemies, when it came to governing a commandery, he had always inclined toward the Huang-Lao ideal of "governing by non-action."

"I too am fond of Huang-Lao. Chen Ping, that catchphrase of yours is indeed not just empty words. Very good — when poor, perfect oneself; when successful, benefit the whole world. That is the proper aspiration of a scholar!"

He helped Chen Ping up and sighed: "It's just… you and I were both once commoners. You haven't forgotten your own origins — how could I have forgotten mine?"

The original reason Heifu had people research the sun-drying salt method by the sea was not to curry favor with Qin Shi Huang, nor simply to increase the court's revenue. It was the same as the "south wind" Chen Ping hoped he would bring — to let every person under heaven, rich or poor, have salt to eat!

This is probably the minimum standard — call it "poverty alleviation." Beyond that lies the ideal state where those of seventy wear silk and eat meat, and the common people suffer neither hunger nor cold — that can be called "moderate prosperity."

Yet now, more than half the people under heaven cannot even reach the minimum standard of survival.

But there is no choice. Before benefiting all under heaven, one must first save the world.

Heifu said: "Right now, only Jiaodong is sun-drying salt — still a mere drop in the bucket. But once the sun-drying method spreads to Donghai, Kuaiji, and even the Yue lands of Lingnan, sooner or later I will let everyone under heaven have salt to eat! However, the most critical thing right now is the court's practice of constantly collecting the poll tax whenever expenditures exceed income."

Heifu had also discussed it with Zhang Cang, and they agreed that if this continued, disaster was certain. Now the only option is to use the salt tax and gold mines to fill the gap, so that this vicious policy can be halted for a time!

Chen Ping nodded. He was a pragmatic man and accepted Heifu's reasoning, but he had something on his mind that he took the opportunity to speak today.

"Lord of the Commandery, levying the poll tax is drinking poison to quench thirst. But is heavily taxing salt any different?"

Heifu spun around sharply and looked at Chen Ping: "What do you mean by that?"

"Whether in Nan Commandery, Beidi, or Jiaodong, everything you, Lord of the Commandery, have done these years — the composting and retting methods, the water-powered trip-hammers, waterwheels, wheat foods, wool spinning, sun-dried salt, gold mines — all of it has been about opening up new sources of revenue. It's just that the ills and corrupt policies of Great Qin cannot be solved by opening up new sources…"

Chen Ping raised his head and said to Heifu: "Today, Ping dares to speak boldly. Great Qin right now is like a great carriage racing at breakneck speed down a narrow path — campaigning without a year of rest, jolting unbearably. What must be done now is not to reinforce the wheels and axles, but to stop, and let the tens of millions of subjects pulling the galloping carriage catch their breath!"

(End of Chapter)