Chapter 498: Raising a Righteous Army, Punishing the Northern Invaders, Marching Out of Tong Pass, and Saving the Realm

Meng Chang assumed Zhang Zhao was asking for grain to stockpile military supplies, but in truth, Zhang Zhao had been preparing for a full ten years to enter Guanzhong.

He had stockpiled vast quantities of grain in Qinzhou, Yuanzhou, and Xiazhou, enough to supply tens of thousands of Liang troops campaigning for a year and a half.

However, regarding the great famine soon to strike Guanzhong, there was one piece of bad news and one piece of good news.

The bad news was that the preliminary count had come in: the acreage successfully planted was not seventy percent, but just over fifty percent.

And that was with Jingzhou, Yuanzhou, Binzhou, and Ningzhou basically stabilized; in the worst-hit Yaozhou, less than ten percent of the land had been planted.

The good news was that, after natural disasters and man-made calamities, Guanzhong had lost a full two hundred thousand people in the past year alone to starvation, war, and disease.

By rough count, Guanzhong's population now stood at only about 1.1 million — two hundred thousand fewer mouths to feed.

What wonderful "good news" indeed!

What Zhang Zhao did not know was that, historically, this great natural disaster struck Guanzhong far harder than it had now, and was followed by the rebellions of Wang Jingchong and Zhao Siwan, and He Chongjian's defection to Shu.

Zhao Siwan's rebellion in Chang'an was especially devastating: before his revolt, the city held over a hundred thousand people; by the time Zhao Siwan surrendered, barely ten thousand remained.

It would not be until the reign of Emperor Taizong of Song that Guanzhong's population recovered to around 1.7 million.

"Great King, the Shu envoy has already reached Qinzhou. The Shu ruler Meng Chang has indeed agreed to lend grain, and in return demands the widening of the old plank roads and the dredging of the Xiegu River."

Zhang Zhao gave a cold laugh. A rich second generation who had never been beaten down would always underestimate the cruelty of war.

In Zhang Zhao's view, for Shu to unify the realm, two conditions would both have to be met.

First, the ruler of the Central Plains would have to be a self-destructive prodigy on the level of the Second Emperor of Qin or Emperor Yang of Sui.

Even a fool like Emperor Hui of Jin would not do, because his ministers would restrain him.

Second, the ruler of Shu would have to be at least a hero of an age, on the level of Liu Bei.

Otherwise there was simply no chance at all, because Shu lacked warhorses even more severely than Jiangnan, and its elite mountain troops would have no use at all in Guanzhong.

They had a navy, but could not make any use of it; after the Han River changed course, the cost of transporting provisions would be enough to frighten a man to death.

"Go inform He Ning. Have him receive the Shu envoy in Qinzhou, and say that the Khitan show signs of entering Guanzhong, and that I have already gone in person to the Tong Pass area.

Also, do not let the Shu envoy pass beyond Qinzhou. Any merchants coming from Shu must be carefully screened; anyone with ties to Shu must be delayed from entering Guanzhong on some pretext."

After Guo Tiance withdrew, Han E, the head of the Qimin Academy, came to the palace in response to the summons.

Looking at this somewhat stout old man, Zhang Zhao could not help breaking into a smile.

Because this man truly had ability. Ever since Han E had arrived in Liangzhou, the skill of Liang's agricultural science examinees had improved enormously.

With his grafting techniques, Liang's melon and fruit yields had more than tripled.

Han E had also developed intercropping techniques suited to local conditions, increasing per-mu yields in Liangzhou and Lanzhou by more than twenty percent.

Zhang Zhao had been preparing to promote these on a large scale, but the dire state of agriculture in Guanzhong forced him to recall Han E to Guanzhong instead.

"Elder Han, you are weary from the journey. I should not have summoned you in such haste, but I imagine you know something of the situation in Guanzhong."

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao sighed. "If we were still in Hexi, we could pretend not to see it. But since we have entered Guanzhong, we cannot ignore it. These are hundreds of thousands of living human lives!"

Han E was already past sixty, and the forced march from Liangzhou to Chang'an had indeed worn him out; being summoned to an audience this late at night made it all the harder to bear.

But upon hearing Zhang Zhao's words, the old man could not help feeling deep respect.

"Your servant is sixty-four this year. In the old days, when the late emperors of the great dynasty were still alive, I never saw such love for the people. Though I am weary now, for the people of Guanzhong, and because it is my duty, how could I not exert myself to the utmost?"

"Good! Then I appoint Elder Han as Vice Minister of the Left of the Ministry of Works, in charge of the Land Reclamation and Waterways Bureaus. The students of the Qimin Academy shall all be at Elder Han's disposal.

Wherever agricultural scholars are needed, report to Minister Zhang, and he will coordinate their transfer from the various prefectures of Hexi and Longyou. A great famine in Guanzhong this year is already certain, but if we can save one person, then we save one."

Though it was already the fourth month, it was still barely possible to rush-plant some crops. After Han E received his orders and withdrew, Zhang Xichong and Cao Yuanzhong came in.

"The matters of rush-planting, disaster relief, labor service, relocating refugees, and the handover with Shu in Guanzhong — I entrust them all to Elder Zhang. The army's provisions I have long since made ready, but as for the people of Guanzhong, we truly cannot save them all."

Was there, at this moment, any way to save the people of Guanzhong? There was indeed.

That would be to keep only ten thousand elite troops, send the great army back to Hexi, Longyou, and Xia-Sui, and then use the military grain to relieve the refugees.

But Zhang Zhao would not do that, because it would be tantamount to handing the Central Plains over to Liu Zhiyuan.

Saving an extra hundred thousand or so people of Guanzhong today would likely cost the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers to repay in the future.

This great disaster in Guanzhong was not caused by him, Zhang Zhao. If he truly did such a thing, how could he face the brave warriors who had bled for him?

Therefore Zhang Zhao could not possibly use military grain to relieve the refugees. So after giving Zhang Xichong his instructions, Zhang Zhao made a point of summoning his father-in-law Cao Yuanzhong.

"The army's supplies must not be neglected in the slightest. No matter what happens, under no circumstances may military grain be diverted to other uses. Whoever dares to lay a finger on the military grain shall be dealt with according to military law."

This was a tightening of the golden band, because Zhang Zhao's people-loving measures in recent years made him fear that some official below might misread his intent and forcibly requisition military grain to relieve the refugees.

Do not think such things could not happen in the Five Dynasties. The character and integrity of officials largely follow the character of the emperor; it was entirely possible that a few hotheads would appear. That was why he had Cao Yuanzhong stay in Chang'an rather than return to Xiazhou.

Both of Cao Yuanzhong's daughters were married to Zhang Zhao — one was queen, and one was a commandery lady bound to him by shared hardship. After Zhang Zhao left, only Cao Yuanzhong could hold the situation together.

At the end of the fourth month, after Zhang Zhao had arranged everything, he issued a conscription order in Guanzhong in the name of the Office of the Celestial Strategy Supreme General, calling on the heroes of Guanzhong to join the army and campaign against the Khitan.

The name "Celestial Strategy Office" struck straight at the hearts of the people of Guanzhong.

In no time at all, every man of Guanzhong with any strength was spreading the word, a complete contrast to the old days of press-ganging, when men fled as fast as they could.

The people of Wugong, Xingping, Qian County, and Xianyang, who had received Zhang Zhao's kindness during his last entry into Guanzhong, were especially eager, because they trusted Zhang Zhao.

The place the poet Du Fu once described — where parents, wives, and children ran to see their men off, and dust hid Xianyang Bridge — presented a completely different scene today.

Seven thousand able-bodied men from the sixteen prefectures of Guanzhong had gathered here. Though they carried poor-quality weapons and bore soft hunting bows on their backs, every man was fired with zeal, every one of them eager.

Besides these able-bodied men, there were also more than four hundred hardened bandits who had come down from the mountains.

Zhang Zhao did not have them all beheaded. Instead, he enrolled them all in the Forlorn Hope. Those who survived and won merit would have all their crimes pardoned; those who did not survive would naturally face no further punishment.

On Xianyang Bridge, officials from the Ministry of War were assessing the Guanzhong men, granting small amounts of armor and weapons according to their martial ability.

Though most of what was granted was leather armor and iron blades, even these were extremely precious.

Presently a burst of cheering rang out — that surely meant a remarkable warrior had appeared, one granted iron armor and a fine horse.

Sure enough, amid the cheers, a brawny man with arms like an ape's came striding out. Behind him was granted a tall Hexi fold-eared horse, and on the horse's back lay a set of cloth-faced iron armor.

Of course, for now it was only for the brawny man's use; when the war ended, it would have to be returned.

Unless he could win great merit and obtain a rank officer's post of the forty-eighth order, the ninth-grade Loyal and Valiant Gentleman or above, only then might it be granted to him permanently.

"Whoa! So it's Zhao Silang of Qishan. I heard his mounted skills let him come and go as he pleases — back in the day, Grand Commandant An Shenqi sent two hundred soldiers and still couldn't catch him. Never thought he'd actually come down from the mountains and join the Great King. Zhao Silang is one of the most notorious bandit horsemen in Guanzhong — plenty of people have heard his name even if they've never seen his face."

At once a crowd of able-bodied men gathered around curiously, wanting to see what this legendary horse bandit looked like.

Zhao Silang didn't hide anything at all; instead he looked rather pleased with himself.

"Take a good look, all of you. I am Zhao Silang, the Qin Qiong Reborn. From now on I follow the Great King in his campaigns north and south, and one day I'll be enfeoffed as a duke or a king. Then you lot of dumb yokels will have to kneel and kowtow when you see me."

When the crowd heard this, a wave of cursing broke out, and the admiration they'd felt a moment ago vanished into thin air.

Many men who also went by nicknames like "Qin Qiong Reborn" or "Little Qin Qiong" immediately grew eager to step up and test him.

Why was "Complete Tales of the Great Tang Heroes" so popular here? Why had so many veteran horse bandits come out to enlist?

One only had to look at the able-bodied men all around: the Qin Qiong Reborns and Black Luo Chengs here numbered no less than eight hundred if not a thousand.

Half of them had come for Zhang Zhao's reputation for benevolence and righteousness; the other half had been drawn in by "Complete Tales of the Great Tang Heroes."

On the first day of the fifth month, Zhang Zhao left Yin Yaozi in command of one battalion from the Hanhai garrison and two battalions from the Xiongwu garrison — three thousand men — to hold Qinzhou.

Liu Zaisheng led one battalion from the Yingyang garrison and two battalions from the Feng'an garrison — three thousand men — to guard the rear at Qizhou.

Zhang Zhao personally led the Hanshan regiment, the Left and Right Yulin Guards, and the main elite forces of Hanhai, Yucheng, and Wuwei.

Following tradition, he also levied four thousand united archers and six thousand sworn-follower cavalry as auxiliary troops.

Added to seven thousand Guanzhong men who brought their own weapons, the total host numbered sixty-five thousand.

Of these, thirty thousand were cavalry and thirty-five thousand infantry, with more than eighty thousand mules and horses and a thousand boats, advancing eastward along the river by both water and land.

When they set out from Guanzhong, Zhang Zhao issued a proclamation denouncing the rebels at Chang'an.

This was not the sort of summons used in the previous call to arms, but a true proclamation of war against the Khitan.

In the proclamation, Zhang Zhao drew on the heroic rhetoric of the later Zhu Hongwu's northern expedition against the Mongols, writing:

"Since ancient times, when emperors have ruled all under heaven, the Central Kingdom has dwelt within to control the barbarians, and the barbarians have dwelt without to serve the Central Kingdom. Never has it been heard that barbarians dwelt within the Central Kingdom and ruled all under heaven..."

"The Khitan, a barbarian slave people, were originally vassals of the Great Dynasty. They submitted and then rebelled, devoid of loyalty and righteousness..."

"And when the Great Dynasty declined, servants came to sit above their masters, and the barbarian slaves stole the sacred vessels of the Central Kingdom."

"Chuolizhi falsely calls himself Emperor, and his son Yaogu is even more arrogant and perverse, using barbarians to enthrone a Son of Heaven over the Huaxia — a deed that outrages both gods and men..."

"At this moment, the cycle of fortune turns, and a Sage is born. The city of Dunhuang was first enfeoffed by the Great Dynasty's Taizong; the land of Hexi carries on the integrity and valor of Huo the Cavalry General..."

"Zhao, a loyal descendant of the Great Dynasty, upholding the devoted heart of his great-grandfather Duke Yichao, gathered brave men of every people in the hour of Wenhua's peril, and brought Han ways back to the land of his ancestors."

"He has soothed the common people, encouraged farming and weaving, opened trade routes, and recovered ten thousand li of territory west of the passes..."

"His original intent was to rest and recuperate, awaiting a sage sovereign in the Central Plains, so that he might return to his country and fulfill his loyalty."

"But the barbarian slaves have invaded the south, cruelly oppressing our people. Their foul miasma fills the lands between the Yellow and Luo Rivers, and their poison spreads across the Nine Provinces..."

"Now we raise a righteous army, root out tyranny, comfort the people, and punish the guilty. We send this proclamation to the four directions: together we shall strike the Khitan..."

"This army of benevolence and righteousness will not harm a single hair of the people. It rewards the loyal and righteous and punishes usurpers and traitors. Let the brave and keen of every garrison come and join us, and do not forget your ancestors."

"Thus it is said: 'Drive out the northern barbarians, restore the Great Dynasty, and see whether the barbarian slaves can truly enjoy a hundred years of fortune!'"

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