Chapter 348: The Double Ninth Festival on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Month

At the end of the eighth month of 937, not long after the peace talks below Mawei Slope, Li Congzhao led the Fengxiang Army to yield Xingping, handing this small county seat to Zhang Zhao as a garrison point.

At the same time, part of the Fengxiang Army remained surrounded near Mawei Slope, and Li Congyan was also brought by Zhang Zhao to the county seat of Xingping.

Li Congzhao would return to Fengxiang to raise supplies, and only after the promised 350,000 strings of cash had all arrived would Zhang Zhao release the man.

An Shenqi, however, was far quicker than the Fengxiang Army. Zhang Zhao waited only three days in Xingping County before goods worth 180,000 strings — cloth and silk, gold and silver vessels, copper coins, and tens of thousands of shi of grain and fodder — were all delivered to Xingping County.

But Guo Tiance's expression was somewhat off. He came to Zhang Zhao holding a thick stack of itemized lists, the lists Zhang Zhao used to tally the various goods and supplies An Shenqi had delivered.

"Sikong! Of these 180,000 strings, apart from the gold vessels and brocade silk worth over 70,000 strings, the rest of the supplies, for the most part, must have been collected from the common people.

On quite a few of the cloth and silk pieces there are still the private marks of individual households, and judging by the wear on the copper coins, they were not stored in the treasury but were in regular use."

Guo Tiance used the very mild word "collected," but Zhang Zhao knew this was not collection — An Shenqi had seized it from the common people.

Or rather, it was apportioned, spread evenly onto every person near Chang'an, amounting to several hundred cash each.

Do not think this money was little; in truth it was not little at all. Those poor households, a family of five or six including old and young, would lose two or three strings in one stroke. To say they were utterly ruined would not be an exaggeration.

And with the current state of officialdom, layer upon layer of extortion was the norm. The rich ended up paying very little; it was always the poor who bore the greater share.

What was more, having given Zhang Zhao 180,000 strings, would those corrupt officials not seize the chance to line their own pockets and carve out another hundred-some thousand strings for themselves?

Zhang Zhao pondered for a moment. This An Shenqi was indeed an old fox. By doing this, he had lawfully allowed the Jinchang Army, from top to bottom, to fleece the common people, winning over the hearts of the Jinchang Army.

And he had dumped the chamber pot onto Zhang Zhao's head, causing the popular support Zhang Zhao had spent these months winning to vanish in an instant.

"Tiance, put out word that I intend to return these 100,000 strings of the poor people's money to the common folk, and that I will pay 100,000 strings out of my own pocket as a reward. See what the officers and men think of it.

If the men show little resistance, or even think I am doing right, then quickly organize people to assemble the village elders, ward heads, and respected seniors of Chang'an and the surrounding counties.

We shall return these 100,000 strings to the people of Chang'an according to the proportion each paid!"

"Sikong is truly a lord of benevolence and righteousness. On behalf of the people of Chang'an, your servant kowtows in gratitude!" Guo Tiance, deeply moved, actually knelt and performed a full prostration to Zhang Zhao.

"Enough, get up. Go and make the arrangements at once."

Zhang Zhao understood Guo Tiance's feelings. The Guo family could also be counted as people of Chang'an, and their ancestors' graves were all near Chang'an.

After Guo Tiance left to make arrangements, Lady Han Qi and her husband Zhao Jinfang were summoned in. After these days of recuperation, Zhao Jinfang's body had fully recovered.

Zhang Zhao had found over twenty helpers for the two of them. Hmm — helpers in name, but actually apprentices.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao had appointed Zhao Jinfang as Medical Supervisor of the lower eighth rank and as Superintendent of Army Physicians, with the twenty-some physicians Zhang Zhao had brought from Liangzhou also placed under Zhao Jinfang's management.

But this time, summoning the couple was not to discuss medical matters, but to discuss the affairs of the Shu kingdom.

Bashu lay secluded in the southwest. Compared to the war-torn Central Plains, especially after the Meng family's Later Shu was established, it had become a paradise beyond the world.

According to later statistics, the Meng Shu of this time had over forty prefectures and more than two hundred counties, with a registered population of over three million. Adding hidden households, it was at least around five million.

Shu was rich and prosperous, a land of fish and rice, known as the Land of Abundance.

A territory like this was certain to have a great many wealthy households, and such a paradise beyond the world was certain to breed extravagance, with explosive spending power.

Compared to the Central Plains, which had a population of over ten million but was in constant war, where the people thought only of hoarding grain and dared not spend, they were the true big customers for rock sugar and white sugar.

Moreover, Shu's brocade silk, tung oil, tea, and raw lacquer were all goods urgently needed in Hexi, Longyou, Anxi, and Hezhong.

Developing trade with Later Shu became Zhang Zhao's foremost concern.

Thinking of it this way, Zhang Zhao no longer hated An Shenqi so much, because even just to open the trade route, he would have to fight a great battle against Li Congyan, who occupied Fengxiang and held the passage into Shu.

However, to open the trade route to Shu and let Hexi merchants enter Shu, the nod of the Later Shu ruler Meng Chang was certainly required.

Yet although Zhang Zhao was about to obtain the office of Military Governor of Longyou, and could even call himself a king over one region, with Hexi and Longyou combined having a population of over one to two million,

compared to the Meng family entrenched in the rich lands of Shu, he, Zhang Zhao, was still of somewhat lowly status.

What was more, he was after all still a subject of the Central Plains dynasty, and sending envoys openly to communicate with the Shu kingdom was not entirely appropriate.

After Lady Han Qi learned of this situation, she took the initiative to seek out Zhang Zhao.

Only then did Zhang Zhao recall that Lady Han Qi was a native of Zizhou (Santai, Sichuan), under the Wude Military Governor of Shu, and more importantly, her elder brother was the famous Shu physician Han Baosheng.

This Han Baosheng was a renowned Confucian physician in history. Using the Newly Revised Materia Medica as his foundation, he compiled the Shu Materia Medica, a book that Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica drew upon extensively.

He was deeply versed in medical theory and thoroughly understood the properties of medicines. His contemporaries praised him, saying, "In treating illness and prescribing medicines, he is not bound by set formulas; in clinical practice, his remedies always have wondrous effect."

Moreover, Han Baosheng had a very good relationship with Meng Chang, who was himself well versed in medical theory. He was one of Meng Chang's Hanlin Academicians, and the preface to the illustrated commentary he made for the Shu Materia Medica was written by Meng Chang personally.

With such a connection, it became far easier for Zhang Zhao to reach Meng Chang and extend the trade route into Shu.

Zhang Zhao immediately appointed his second maternal uncle, Song Shanrong, as a secret envoy, sending him with the family letter Lady Han Qi had written to her elder brother Han Baosheng, to go to Shu and seek an audience with Meng Chang.

The next day, Guo Tiance came to report that the Guiyi Army, from top to bottom, strongly supported Zhang Zhao's act of returning 100,000 strings to the people of Chang'an.

Zhang Zhao immediately appointed Guo Tiance and Guo Guangsheng with full authority over the matter. The two convened several hundred village elders, ward heads, and respected seniors from the one prefecture and six counties of Chang'an, and drew up a detailed restitution and compensation plan.

This plan left An Shenqi in Chang'an utterly dumbfounded.

This was not merely a matter of returning 100,000 strings; it further demonstrated that under Zhang Zhao there was a highly efficient administrative staff.

He had intended to strike at Zhang Zhao's reputation, but instead gave Zhang Zhao another boost of prestige.

Moreover, in the process of organizing the restitution, the Guiyi Army's officials went deep into the villages of every county, gathering a great deal of local intelligence, and had even begun drawing maps of the Chang'an area and gaining command of grassroots information.

The ninth day of the ninth month was the Double Ninth Festival, one of the most important festivals of the Tang era, when people would climb heights to pray for blessings, worship the gods and honor ancestors, reunite with family, and feast and gather in celebration.

In later ages the Double Ninth Festival fell out of favor because half of its functions were given to the Mid-Autumn Festival and half to the Spring Festival, leaving it in an awkward in-between state.

But in this era, the Double Ninth Festival was extremely important, so Zhang Zhao simply chose this day to return the 100,000 strings of goods and money to the people of Chang'an.

For Zhang Zhao, holding the small Silk Road circuit, the Buddhist money houses, and the three great weapons of white sugar, rock sugar, and tea bricks, he did not lack money in any real sense.

A hundred thousand strings, two hundred thousand strings — these were just numbers. Were it not for fear of causing inflation in Hexi, he could casually produce millions or even tens of millions of strings.

What he lacked was actual goods, open trade routes, and immense prestige. He wanted all under heaven to know the benevolence and righteousness of Zhang Erlang of Hexi.

To this end, Zhang Zhao did not begrudge these 100,000 strings of goods, and even on the day of the Double Ninth Festival, he prepared four kinds of gifts — rice, flour, meat, and sugar. All those aged fifty and above or five and below who came to the site would receive rewards.

Hmm, it looked generous, but in truth it cost very little.

In this era, there were truly not many commoners over fifty. Even among the wealthy, living to fifty was already quite good; many people generally lived only to their thirties.

And while there were quite a few five-year-old children, the rewards for them were small too!

They made a grand spectacle of it all day long. Amid the mountains and valleys echoing with cries of "May the Excellency live ten thousand generations!" and "The Excellency is great and righteous!", what Zhang Zhao actually spent came to less than seven thousand strings of cash.

Moreover, this produced a very fine unexpected effect: a great many common folk who had suffered the ravages of war and could no longer survive, or who wished to leave this place of sorrow, saw how righteous Zhang Zhao was, and on the spot over a thousand people expressed their wish to follow Zhang Zhao to Hexi.

Added to the people of Qian, Bin, Ning, and Jing prefectures he had earlier rescued, Zhang Zhao could bring back at least ten thousand sons of Tang.

At the same time, he also ordered locals like Lady Han the Seventh to search everywhere among the common people for those with special skills.

Those who farmed well would be given land once they reached Hexi; those who farmed exceptionally well would be given the status of agricultural official — not only land, but also rewards.

The same went for those with passable medical skills. As for the rest — carpenters, stonemasons, tilers, plasterers, boatmen, butchers, those who could repair houses, those who could dig irrigation channels, even farm women who wove cloth well — as long as they were willing to go to Hexi, all would be given rewards.

If there were literate scholars, that was even better; they would generally first be given five strings of cash as a settling-in allowance.

"Young man, what you seek is no small thing! Back in the day, if Emperor Min of the Zhuang Temple had possessed even a fraction of this resolve, the Great Tang would have been reunified long ago!"

Kang Fu had been following Zhang Zhao around these past days, but had done little more than drink tea and eat rock-sugar braised pork, keeping mostly silent. Only at this moment could he no longer hold back his words.

Zhang Zhao came back to himself and looked at Kang Fu. "Grand Commandant, the situation now shifts unpredictably. Who can know what the future holds?

To speak from the heart, the great thing I seek is nothing more than a unified realm, the submission of the barbarians on all sides, and peace across the seas and rivers.

If this were such a golden age, then very likely I, Zhang Zhao, would not even be here."

Only Zhang Zhao himself understood this sentence. Kang Fu half-understood, half-did not, and his thoughts wandered elsewhere.

"A unified realm, the submission of the barbarians on all sides, peace across the seas and rivers — what a fine vision! If the world were truly so, then I, Kang Fu, would right now be living free and easy in the Eastern Capital at Kaifeng Prefecture!"

Having said this, Kang Fu took Zhang Zhao's hand. "Since the Excellency is so generous, give me thirty thousand strings, and I will sell you the Xiongwu Army, and also draw you into the Daibei military nobility!"

Zhang Zhao looked at the old fox and laughed. Kang Fu had likely been frightened by the Song family's hollowing out of his authority this time, and besides, he was already past fifty, and his desire to return to the Eastern Capital at Kaifeng Prefecture to enjoy his remaining years in peace was growing ever stronger.

"And how is the Grand Commandant's granddaughter in appearance?"

"Still thinking about this old man's granddaughter, are you? That will cost fifty thousand strings. Let me tell you, this old man has eleven granddaughters, every one of them a national beauty — I guarantee you'll be dazzled beyond choosing!"

Kang Fu spoke in a jesting tone, but his eyes were serious.

"Is the old gentleman truly returning to the Eastern Capital?" Zhang Zhao then asked, equally serious.

"I am going back. Once you return to Liangzhou, take Weizhou (Longxi) as soon as you can. This old man can remain in Qinzhou for half a year at most. Within half a year, the edict graciously permitting me to retire and return home will certainly arrive."

Zhang Zhao nodded. "Fifty thousand strings in silver notes will be delivered to the Grand Commandant tomorrow. They can be redeemed at any of the great Buddhist temples in the Eastern Capital!"

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