Chapter 301: The Little Sneak Thief and the Old Fox

The day after their chance meeting at the prefectural school, Fan Zhi took the initiative to seek out Zhang Zhao.

However, as an old hand famous even in history, once his excitement passed, Fan Zhi still weighed the situation carefully and would not stake everything on Zhang Zhao.

After all, his clan and family were still in the Central Plains, and the land of Hexi was far too unfamiliar to him.

Yet the man was not without passion in his heart, so he came on his own initiative to find Zhang Zhao, hoping that within the limited time available, he could do something for him.

In particular, after seeing the many errors and omissions in the teaching of the Three Histories and Three Commentaries at the Liangzhou prefectural school, he was all the more willing to contribute his own efforts to correct them.

For a man of letters, this was precisely the sort of thing most impossible to tolerate.

Zhang Zhao in fact had never expected to win over an official from the Central Plains in just one or two encounters, especially not someone like Fan Zhi, who had made such a great name for himself in history.

Hexi had been cut off from the realm for a hundred and fifty years, and compared to the Central Plains it was like a wilderness; how could it easily attract men of talent?

So Zhang Zhao's own expectations of Fan Zhi were not that high.

First, he wanted him to help with some matters while he was in Liangzhou; second, he wanted him, after returning to the Central Plains, to publicize Hexi and Liangzhou among the literati circles there and attract people truly willing to put down roots in Liangzhou.

It was like courtship: only when the other person's heart is in you does the romance become worthwhile.

And compared to the lecturing at the prefectural school that Fan Zhi had volunteered for, what Zhang Zhao cared about more was having Fan Zhi establish a legal system belonging to Hexi.

So he took Fan Zhi's hand and gently urged, "Since the prefectural school opened, I know there are indeed quite a few deficiencies, but that is not the most urgent matter at hand. What is most urgent now is that Liangzhou lacks laws.

The entire core body of statutes and ordinances currently in force is still inherited from the laws of the old Tibetan rule.

Brother Fan has seen the situation here. To successfully turn the barbarians back to Han ways and bring the descendants of the Hexi and Longyou soldiers back into the ranks of the Han, the first thing to change is their customs and habits.

And the best way to change customs and habits is none other than to use law to set standards and impose restraints."

Fan Zhi was himself an expert well versed in law, so he nodded in full agreement, and his admiration for Zhang Zhao grew even greater.

He had not expected this young Minister of Works Zhang to have so many insights into the way of law.

Zhang Zhao was right: to change a people's long-standing habits, besides the subtle influence of soft culture, hard restraints were also needed, and that hard hand was law.

For example, under the laws of the Tibetan period, if a chieftain of the Wenmo tribe beat to death a serf of the lowest rank in his own valley, he did not even have to pay the price of a single sheep, and they also had vile customs such as making drums from human skin.

This was perfectly normal in slave-holding Tibet, but transplanted into the Great Tang, where Han people predominated, or into any other dynasty's society, at least openly and morally it could absolutely never be tolerated.

As for those who committed such atrocities, the punishment they received was sometimes not satisfying, but the reason for that situation depended largely on the integrity of the court; at the level of the law itself, there was no change whatsoever based on a person's status.

And to change such perceptions, waiting for cultural infiltration to slowly bring change would not do; it had to be affirmed in the form of law, to reverse the lingering Tibetan imprint in the people's minds.

However, although Zhang Zhao knew the importance of law, before his transmigration he had only been a military history blogger, a muscle-bound man who did full-contact armored combat; law, mathematics, administration, and such were not his strengths.

Moreover, establishing a body of law was no easy matter; it required comprehensive consideration of popular sentiment, social customs, and even economic conditions.

It also had to be simple and easy to understand, because most people of this age were uneducated, with only simple notions of right and wrong in their hearts; if the law was designed even slightly too complex, it would be shelved and become a dead letter, so it had to stay as close to everyday life as possible to take effect.

Fan Zhi cupped his hands with a rather troubled look. "What the Minister of Works says is quite right; the legal system of Liangzhou and indeed all of Hexi truly must be changed.

But compiling a body of law is not the work of a single day; even a very crude one would take several months before it began to take shape.

This humble official was dispatched by the court and still has the task of conferring honors upon Acting Minister over the Masses Cao Yuanzhong uncompleted. If I linger in Liangzhou for several months and then go to Dunhuang, the round trip will drag on for a long time; that is not the way of a proper subject!"

Zhang Zhao understood that when Fan Zhi spoke of "the way of a proper subject," that was not at all what he meant. What he meant was that if he stayed here with Zhang Zhao for several months, and then traveled from Liangzhou to Dunhuang, the back and forth would take several more months.

Going and returning like that, by the time he got back to the Central Plains and the eastern capital, it would probably be more than a year later. Delivering an imperial edict would have taken over a year; by the time he returned to court, to say nothing of whether his current office could be preserved, even whether his family was still there would be uncertain.

At that, Zhang Zhao smiled faintly and said, "Brother Fan, do not worry. As for this trip to Dunhuang to confer honors upon my father-in-law Cao Yuanzhong, I have observed that your page has followed you for many years and is a man of some talent. Why not let him go to Dunhuang in your place to perform the investiture rites?

And afterward, if Brother Fan is willing to part with him, I would also like to grant him the status of a free commoner and invite him to serve as a professor of the Spring and Autumn Annals at the Hexi prefectural school."

While Zhang Zhao was speaking with Fan Zhi, Fan Zhi's page was in fact waiting just outside the door. Hearing Zhang Zhao say this, he tumbled in through the doorway with a thud.

For a servant like a page, being set free as a commoner was not necessarily a good thing, because without the protection of a great clan, an ordinary commoner might not live as well as a servant in an official's household.

But becoming a professor at the Liangzhou prefectural school was different. Although it was a petty office not even worth ranking, it still made one an official.

For a mere page and servant to become an official could absolutely be called rising to heaven in a single step.

But the page had been born into the Fan household and grown up there, inseparable from Fan Zhi for more than ten years, and his feelings for Fan Zhi were rather deep.

So he did not interrupt, but only stared with tear-filled eyes, looking hopefully at Fan Zhi.

Fan Zhi gave a long sigh. His understanding of Zhang Zhao's nimble mind and many methods deepened yet another level.

It seemed that Minister of Works Zhang intended to use keeping his page to firm up his resolve to spend these months drafting laws for Zhang Zhao.

Moreover, the page Fan Qiu could also serve as a direct link between the two of them, which was in effect a disguised way of getting Fan Zhi onto his boat.

And could Fan Zhi stop his own page Fan Qiu from becoming a professor at the Liangzhou prefectural school? Obviously not!

Although Fan Qiu was his milk-brother, as close as a blood brother, and they had grown up together, even between brothers as close as that, if he blocked such a path of advancement, their relationship would surely never return to what it had been, and keeping him by force would do no good at all.

"Fan Qiu, why do you not kowtow and thank Minister of Works Zhang? This is your good fortune. From now on you are no longer a servant of the Fan household, but a proper, upright official.

Serve the Minister of Works here with peace of mind. Mother Fan and the second young lady, I will look after on your behalf. If one day you can earn some merit and save up some family wealth, then bring them over, and you will have good days ahead."

The page called Fan Qiu first crawled on his knees to Zhang Zhao and knocked his head on the ground twice with two thuds. "This servant thanks Minister of Works Zhang for his regard! I will serve with all my heart and strength!"

Then he turned around and made a grand kowtow to Fan Zhi, tears and snot streaming down as he said gratefully, "Many thanks to the young lord for granting this! In this life I will never dare forget the young lord's great kindness!"

This truly was a perfect ending. After all, Fan Qiu had studied alongside Fan Zhi for more than ten years; Fan Zhi studied the Spring and Autumn Annals, and Fan Qiu had studied along with him for just as long. The two had even shared the same teacher, and he was in no way inferior to a proper scholar.

Even though he was a servant, his learning in Liangzhou was still better than that of the vast majority of people, and this was a living, breathing signboard — this was Zhang Zhao buying horse bones with a thousand gold!

When word of it spread to the Central Plains in the future, that even the page of a minor Revenue Department inspector like Fan Zhi could obtain a professorship at the prefectural school in Liangzhou, wouldn't all those with talent and ambition rush to Liangzhou? An absolute win for both sides.

"Then I shall forthwith appoint Brother Fan as Legal Officer of the Hexi Military Governor's headquarters, charged specifically with drafting the laws." Zhang Zhao said in a clear voice.

Fan Zhi now set his mind at ease as well. If he counted the round trip to Dunhuang, he could save at least three months, and within three months it should not be difficult to produce a rough but suitable body of law for Hexi's current conditions. He cupped his hands.

"I am willing to serve the Minister of Works!"

Just as Zhang Zhao was winning over Fan Zhi, Pei Yuan in Luoyang was drinking at home with Sang Weihan, Shi Jingtang's trusted confidant.

Though it was called a banquet, only the two of them were present; apart from a single servant pouring wine, there was not even music or dance.

"Since Yuying comes from the Pei clan of Wenxi, a great clan of Hedong, and shares something of a fellow-townsman's bond with the Sage, why not simply remain in the eastern capital and serve the Sage at court together with me? Would that not be splendid?"

Sang Weihan said slowly, as though he truly admired a talent like Pei Yuan.

Hmph! Pei Yuan sneered inwardly. You, Sang Guoqiao, who ground through an iron inkstone — that needle's-eye-sized heart of yours, who doesn't know it?

Isn't it just that you feel someone stole your thunder outside Anyi Gate a few days ago? Is there any need to come probing me like this?

Pei Yuan understood perfectly well that Sang Weihan, for Shi Jingtang's sake, had even done the shameless thing of kowtowing and wailing before the tent of the Khitan ruler Yelu Deguang — so he would never allow another favored minister capable of threatening his position to appear at Shi Jingtang's side.

These past few days Shi Jingtang had repeatedly summoned Pei Yuan for consultations and shown considerable appreciation for him; it seemed Sang Weihan had already grown wary.

Of course, the fact that an envoy from Hexi could win such recognition from Shi Jingtang that even Sang Weihan felt somewhat uneasy was, in truth, entirely deliberate on Pei Yuan's part.

Had this been two years earlier, if he, Pei Yuan, could have won the regard of a man like Shi Jingtang, he would have been overjoyed and would have hastened to kneel and offer him allegiance, kowtowing to declare his loyalty.

But today, after spending time with Zhang Zhao, and after seeing the corpses that filled Luoyang's streets, and the reality that Shi Jingtang could not even control the yabing guards under his command, Pei Yuan no longer believed this forty-five-year-old the the Shatuo had the ability to become master of the realm.

By contrast, the young lord Zhang Erlang of Liangzhou had a host of talented men under him, civil and military united in purpose; the lives and deaths of all the tribal chieftains and officers lay in his hands; he had none of the yabing guards' arrogance; and his remote western frontier position resembled the mighty Qin of old — able to attack when advancing, able to defend when retreating.

Only a man holding such terrain could have the possibility of ending this age of chaos and becoming the Son of Heaven!

Therefore, Pei Yuan had absolutely no intention of boarding Shi Jingtang's broken ship again. His reason for provoking Sang Weihan like this was to make Sang Weihan wary of him, so that he would think of sending him far away as quickly as possible.

And since Sang Weihan wanted to drive him away, it was simple enough — just quickly agree to the Hexi Military Governor post he had requested on Zhang Zhao's behalf.

"Many thanks for the Commissioner of Military Affairs' regard, but I have received great kindness from Lord Zhang of Hexi and promised to help him stabilize Hexi, so I can only disappoint the Commissioner's regard."

Hearing Pei Yuan speak thus, Sang Weihan gave a cold laugh. If he did not wish to serve at court, then why had he been seeking audiences day after day? And why had he gotten on so well in his consultations with the Sage?

Even less did he believe that a man like Pei Yuan would give up the chance to serve at the Sage's side in a court post because of some so-called great kindness.

The way he spoke now showed he had not told him the truth and was being evasive. This man was not easy to deal with, and it would be best to send him away as soon as possible.

Sang Weihan secretly made up his mind, then let out a hearty laugh. "Lord Zhang's appetite is truly enormous! Requesting a Hexi Military Governor post should have been enough, yet he also wants the four prefectures of Lan, He, Kuo, and Shan.

Those four prefectures, added to Liangzhou, must hold nearly a million Wenmo. With so many people and so many complications, can Lord Zhang really shepherd and guard this land for the court?

If it were only a Hexi Military Governor post, I could certainly put in a few good words for Lord Zhang before the Sage!"

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