Chapter 531: The Scoundrel Ruler, the Bandit King

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Nanping, Jiangling Prefecture. At fifty-five, Gao Conghui was already old and failing.

He stood atop the palace-city wall of the Nanping royal residence, watching a lone rider galloping toward him through the dust, his heart uneasy.

The state of Nanping lay south of Xiangzhou and was the smallest of all the realms under Heaven.

Yet it occupied a strategic crossroads, its land was fertile, and it also enjoyed the bounty of fish from the Yangtze.

Thus, although it held only three prefectures and seventeen counties, its population still reached more than one hundred forty-three thousand households, with nearly eight hundred thousand mouths.

The founding ruler of Nanping was Gao Conghui's father, Gao Jixing. In his early years this man had been a household slave of Zhu Yourang, the adopted son of Zhu Wen. Because he fought bravely and had a glib tongue, Zhu Wen took a liking to him and specifically had Zhu Yourang adopt Gao Jixing as his own son.

So, in name, Gao Jixing was Zhu Wen's adopted grandson. After Zhu Liang fell, Gao Jixing trimmed his sails to the wind, and from being the Later Liang's Military Governor of Jingnan, he leapt in one bound to become the ruler of a state.

However, the reputations of this father-and-son pair, Gao Jixing and Gao Conghui, were both rather poor. Together the two were called the Gao Scoundrels, ever fond of going back on their word; where there was profit, there was nothing they would not do.

Gao Conghui outdid his father, and was an even greater oddity among the rulers of the time. This gentleman was famously shameless, and in his whole life he loved to do just two things.

The first was acknowledging big brothers everywhere. He acknowledged the Later Tang and Later Jin courts of the Central Plains; he acknowledged the big brothers at either end of the Yangtze, the Later Shu and the Southern Tang; and to the south he acknowledged Ma Chu, whose strength was about equal to his own.

He could even bring himself to fawn upon states like the Southern Han and Wang Min, going so far as to become their tributary vassal.

One should know that Wang Min's national strength was arguably not even as great as Nanping's.

What he sought, of course, was reward. You proclaim yourself emperor, and I, old Gao, will come be your vassal and declare myself your subject — a few melons and dates won't be enough to send me away.

Hah! At first, all the states despised Gao Conghui's conduct and cursed him as a shameless beggar. It was at this time that the name "Gao Scoundrel" spread far and wide.

But later on, after the rulers of the various states proclaimed themselves emperors, they all suddenly began showering Gao Conghui with lavish rewards, and even feared he would not come to pay tribute.

Why was that?

Very simple! With all the states under Heaven standing side by side, you might consider yourself a sage and divine warrior worthy of the imperial title, but if even Gao Conghui the Scoundrel would not come and declare himself your subject, where would you get the face to call yourself emperor?

So in the end, whenever any state was about to proclaim an emperor, they would even notify Gao Conghui in advance and invite him to come pay tribute and declare himself a subject. The sheer absurdity of it was plain to see.

And the second thing Gao Conghui loved to do was rob and detain the envoys, and even merchant caravans, that the various states sent to the Central Plains.

Nanping sat astride Jiangling Prefecture (Jingzhou), the vital transport hub on the Yangtze. When the southern states traveled north to the Central Plains, or when Meng Shu communicated with the Southern Tang, most of them had to take this route.

So Gao Conghui made full use of his geographical advantage, gave play to his special talents, and took up the bandit's trade of "I opened this road, I planted these trees."

Any large merchant caravan or envoy mission heading north — Gao Conghui would rack his brains and dig through heaven and earth to find a way to rob it.

Of course, the Gao Scoundrel's methods were very gentle. He killed no one and did not seize goods outright. Generally he would detain the merchants or envoys in Nanping military camps or elsewhere, then wait and see how the owner reacted.

If the owner sent someone to negotiate properly, he would extort a ransom, though never too excessive — always within the range where the owner could swallow the loss and count himself unlucky.

If the owner raised troops to attack him, Gao Conghui would deploy his forces and put on a show of being ready to fight to the death.

Secretly, however, he would bribe the owner's trusted confidants and have them privately persuade and bamboozle him, until in the end the owner would basically accept his bad luck and pay to make the trouble go away.

Of course, if the owner simply ignored the matter and asked nothing, then all the better. Gao Conghui would usually wait a month or two, and if the owner truly did not come to demand the goods back, he would keep the valuables and drive the people away.

This Gao Conghui and Liu Chang of the Southern Han truly made a pair of indescribable clowns.

One went everywhere shamelessly begging, and also enjoyed playing the mountain bandit, robbing travelers on the road.

The other turned all his subordinate ministers into eunuchs, then frequently led his navy out to sea to act as a pirate.

But objectively speaking, Gao Conghui's ability to govern a state was at least several streets ahead of Liu Chang's.

This man played the scoundrel everywhere not to satisfy private desires, but to strengthen the state of Nanping.

At home, he respected his civil and military officials, treated worthy men with courtesy, lived and dressed frugally, delighted in reading the classics, histories, philosophers, and collected works, and could also reduce punishments and lighten corvée and taxes.

Under his hand, Nanping remained quite stable and prosperous.

The people of Nanping were deeply grateful that the Gao father and son had sheltered them in those chaotic times, and so the hearts of the people were with them.

This was also the key reason why Nanping, small and weak as it was, could still live quite well in the cracks between the great powers.

One could say that among the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, Gao Conghui's ability to govern was third only to Guo Rong, Emperor Shizong of Zhou, and Qian Liu, King of Wuyue.

It was only a pity that Nanping was simply too small. Several times Gao Conghui tried to expand, but because his size was too small, he would win first and lose later, and in the end all his efforts came to nothing.

And now, Gao Conghui, already nearing sixty, had made an enormous mistake — so enormous that when he learned in his residence of the result of the great battle at Luoyang between Yong and Liao, he fainted dead away on the spot.

For when Yelu Deguang had first entered the Central Plains, before Zhang Zhao had even marched his troops, Gao Conghui had already made a precise judgment based on more than ten years of close attention to the political situation in the Central Plains.

He judged that the Khitan could not stay long in the Central Plains, and following the established pattern of the realm since the Later Tang and Later Jin, Gao Conghui believed that the man with the ability to clean up the mess and found a new dynasty would surely be Liu Zhiyuan, who came from the military nobility of Daibei and had long enjoyed popular esteem.

So Gao Conghui decided to place his bet early. On one hand, following his usual style, he sent envoys to the Khitan to express submission and fleece Yelu Deguang's wool.

On the other, he secretly dispatched envoys to communicate with Liu Zhiyuan, expressing that Nanping was willing to support Liu Zhiyuan in proclaiming himself emperor.

He could even supply grain, fodder, and troops. He only needed Liu Zhiyuan, after the deed was done, to hand over Yingzhou (Zhongxiang in Hubei) for him to administer.

And not long after the secret envoy set out, the situation under Heaven further confirmed Gao Conghui's judgment. The Khitan not only levied crushing taxes in the Central Plains, they were even fucking harvesting grass and grain, and for a time resistance rose like wind and surging waves.

And at this moment, a piece of news deeply stung Gao Conghui.

It was that Li Jing, ruler of Wu Tang, had received the surrender of Hu Cile, the Military Governor of Wuning Army in Xuzhou under the Later Jin.

Wu Tang seized the opportunity to merge its own territory of Haizhou into Xuzhou, renaming it the Huaihai Military Governorship, headquartered at Xuzhou.

Li Jing additionally enfeoffed Hu Cile as Acting Grand Guardian, Military Governor of Huaihai, and Commander of the Wuning Army troops, enfeoffed him as Duke of Xu, and bestowed five thousand bolts of colored silk and twenty million cash.

He also transferred the Jianwu Army from north of the Yangtze to Xuzhou to assist in its defense, appointed Hu Cile's eldest son Hu Wei as Deputy Commander of the Southern Tang imperial Longwu Army, sent him to the Wu Tang capital Jiangning to serve in the palace guard, and gave him a daughter of the imperial clan in marriage.

By this time, the Southern Tang essentially held all of Huainan.

It has always been said that to hold the Yangtze one must hold the Huai. Whether a Jiangnan regime could survive depended entirely on whether it held Huainan or not — the two were completely different situations.

In addition, the previous year Lian Chongyu and Zhu Wenjin of Wang Min had murdered their ruler and set themselves up, and Li Jing had seized the chance to send his great general Zha Wenhui out with troops, utterly destroying Wang Min.

Against the backdrop of the great chaos in the Central Plains, Wu Tang, which styled itself as the imperial house of the Great Tang, actually began to take on the air of the supreme state under Heaven.

Gao Conghui's eyes went red with envy. Why? Why had he, Gao Conghui, toiled with all his might for seventeen years, and still not done as well as that second-generation wastrel Li Jing?

So the Gao Scoundrel could not wait for his messenger to return, and decided to take matters into his own hands and feed himself by his own labor.

Hmph! I, the Gao Scoundrel, have played the grandson for most of my life — can't I stiffen up for once?

If Wu Tang can lay hands on Central Plains territory, can my Nanping not do the same?

So Gao Conghui first sent ten thousand naval troops up the Han River to attack Xiangzhou.

And although the people of Shannan West Circuit were in a state of panic at this time, the Defense Commissioner of Xiangzhou, Jiao Jixun, commanded great prestige. He personally mounted the city walls and led soldiers and civilians in defending the city. The Nanping naval forces could gain no advantage whatsoever and could only withdraw in dejection.

Afterward, the undeterred Gao Conghui sent another six thousand infantry to attack Yingzhou, and this time the result was even more disastrous.

When the Prefect of Yingzhou, Yin Shi, heard that the Nanping army was coming, far from being afraid, he was actually quite excited, feeling that his chance for merit had arrived.

And so the Nanping army that had set out to take Yingzhou was, before it even reached the walls of Yingzhou, met head-on and soundly beaten by Yin Shi leading several hundred stout warriors.

The Nanping vanguard of two thousand men collapsed at the first clash, and this in turn set the whole army to rout. When they retreated to Nanping with losses in both men and officers, they had gathered back only close to four thousand men.

This battle was simply too shameful, and it sent Gao Conghui, who was in Jiangling, into such a rage that he lay in bed for several days.

As it happened, today he had just begun to feel a little better. He got up and drank a bowl of white-sugar congee, and then the dire news arrived.

Standing before Gao Conghui was a Jiangling merchant. The merchant had been instructed by an envoy of the Zhou state to notify Gao Conghui, telling him to prepare to wash his backside clean and get ready for a beating.

"A hundred thousand Khitan troops, completely annihilated? Even the Khitan ruler Yelu Deguang is dead?" Gao Conghui cried out miserably to the merchant, tears nearly falling.

Damn it all, weren't you Khitans supposed to be iron cavalry beyond the frontier, coming and going like the wind?

If you couldn't win, couldn't you at least run? And you even let your emperor die in battle — have you no shame?

You bastards should at least have held out a few more months, so that a man like me who bet on the wrong side could have a chance to make amends!

Gao Conghui, on the verge of collapse, cursed Yelu Deguang's ancestors back eight generations.

"To answer the Great King, this matter is absolutely true. When I set out from the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, the Khitan ruler had already been made into an imperial biltong and was being carried north.

It is said that beneath the walls of Yanshi more than ten thousand Khitan heads were cut down and heaped into a victory mound. Many people saw it with their own eyes."

Gao Conghui believed the merchant's words, because the merchant's entire family was in Jiangling. If he dared to speak recklessly, did he not care whether his whole family lived or died?

"Do you know where the Zhou state's imperial envoy has reached? Were they just trying to frighten you?"

Gao Conghui still refused to believe that matters had reached this point, and asked with a faint hope in his heart.

The merchant shook his head like a rattle-drum. "When I set out, the Son of Heaven had personally appointed the great Zhou general Erzhu Jing as military envoy, leading two thousand Zhou imperial troops and one thousand five hundred yabing guards of the Weisheng Army. They have already come south. The Son of Heaven's adopted son, Lord Li Cunhui, also bade me bring a message to the Great King."

"What message? Speak." A last thread of hope rose in Gao Conghui's heart, and he asked cautiously.

The merchant's expression turned somewhat strange, and he answered hesitantly: "Lord Li bade me ask the Great King: since the Gao clan has submitted to all quarters, why is it that you alone will not submit to the Great Zhou?

Is it that the Son of Heaven's Six Armies are not mighty enough, or does the Great King think the walls of Jiangling are as solid as metal and stone?"

"I have been cautious all my life, and now in my old age I have made so great a blunder. The ancestral temple of my Gao clan is in peril!"

With that, Gao Conghui pounded his chest fiercely. He felt unbearably oppressed, and suddenly his face turned the color of gold paper. With a miserable cry, he spat out a mouthful of clotted blood and fainted dead away again.

At the very moment Gao Conghui fainted away, the three thousand five hundred men led by Erzhu Jing had in fact already reached Xiangzhou.

The post of Military Governor of Shannan West Circuit, where Xiangzhou was located, had not been filled again since the rebellion of An Congjin. Jiao Jixun had been managing affairs all along under the title of Defense Commissioner of Xiangzhou.

Jiao Jixun was a man of Xuzhou. In his youth he had great ambitions, and once said: "A true man should win merit in foreign lands and take a marquisate of ten thousand households. How can one bury oneself in brush and inkstone!"

But the times were chaotic, and Jiao Jixun never got the chance to realize his ambitions. Instead he became a knight-errant of the countryside, doing little beyond righting wrongs.

It was only when he went in scholar's robes to see Shi Jingtang, and the two talked long into the night, that he gained important employment. Within a few years he had won great merit guarding the southern frontier.

In fact, the rebellion of An Congjin several years earlier had been suppressed by Jiao Jixun alone, and he had also given the Southern Tang a thorough beating in the process.

And the reason Jiao Jixun had not gone to the Eastern Capital to pay homage to Yelu Deguang was also simple. First, Gao Conghui was stirring up trouble, and he could not get away.

Second, he had been promoted by Shi Jingtang. Grateful for Shi Jingtang's kindness and favor, Jiao Jixun did not wish to go pay homage to the Khitans who had destroyed Shi's Later Jin.

Of course there was also an inner reason: a man like Jiao Jixun, who had great ambitions from youth and took Ban Chao as his idol, could never willingly submit to northern barbarians.

Zhang Zhao's sending of Erzhu Jing south with three thousand five hundred men was not to replace Jiao Jixun.

Quite the opposite. After the Khitans entered the Central Plains, among the three local power-holders who had not gone to pay court, Liu Zhiyuan's intentions were obvious to all.

Hucile, for his part, had thrown in his lot with the Southern Tang and gained enormous benefits, so of course he would not go pay homage to the Khitans.

Only Jiao Jixun had gained not the slightest benefit, yet had stubbornly held out and not gone to pay homage.

Whatever his reasons, at this moment he looked like a great and loyal subject indeed!

He was the moral exemplar that the Zhang Son of Heaven wanted to hold up and reward — how could he send someone to take his place?

In fact, Zhang Zhao had already nearly finished drafting the edict to keep Jiao Jixun in Xiangzhou and promote him to Military Governor of Shannan West Circuit.

But Jiao Jixun personally submitted a memorial, earnest in its wording, asking on his own initiative to come to the Eastern Capital to pay court to Zhang Zhao.

What was this? This was knowing how to conduct oneself, this was breadth of vision!

Yelu Deguang could not get him to come even by invitation, yet the moment Zhang Zhao entered the Eastern Capital, he personally submitted an earnest memorial asking to come. Having given the Zhang Son of Heaven so much face, how could he not be put to important use?

Zhang Zhao immediately granted Jiao Jixun's request and sent Erzhu Jing south with troops to relieve him.

And when Erzhu Jing reached the city of Xiangzhou, Jiao Jixun had already packed up even his personal effects. The handover ceremony between the two was held outside the city gate.

Erzhu Jing had never encountered such a scene before, and for a moment felt somewhat embarrassed. It made it seem as though he, Erzhu Jing, could not wait to become Military Governor of Shannan West Circuit.

Jiao Jixun chuckled and said to Erzhu Jing: "General, do not be surprised. Several years ago I heard of the Son of Heaven's benevolent virtue, and have long wished to pay my respects. But the mountains were high and the roads long, and I had duties to attend to.

Now that the Son of Heaven has entered the Eastern Capital, I naturally wish to go pay my respects at once."

All men like to hear flattery, and Erzhu Jing was no exception. Praising Zhang Zhao was even more effective than praising himself, and he immediately bowed to Jiao Jixun.

"Since Lord Jiao speaks thus, I am reassured. The Son of Heaven has long been waiting in the Eastern Capital, hoping to meet you."

And so the two men began swiftly transferring troops, money and grain, horses, armor, and the like.

When the handover was nearly complete, Jiao Jixun looked at Erzhu Jing and asked: "Does the General know what is currently the most pressing matter in Shannan West Circuit?"

Erzhu Jing cupped his hands and said: "I was just about to ask Lord Jiao. I have heard that the Gao clan of Nanping has long coveted Xiangzhou?"

Jiao Jixun shook his head. "Nanping is a small and weak state. Gao Conghui is old and declining. If he knew that the Son of Heaven had shattered a hundred thousand Khitan elite troops and slain Yaogu in battle, would he still dare to tug the tiger's whiskers? He would be too busy kneeling and begging for mercy.

What the General should be concerned about is the yabing guards of the Weisheng Army under your command.

Three years ago they were ordered north to strike at the Liao, but were instead seized by Song Yanjun and made to defect to the Khitans, and afterward were defeated by the Son of Heaven.

They served three years in the army before they could return home, and of every ten men, only two or three came back.

Moreover, because some people reckoned they would die in the north and never return south, and because the Weisheng Army in Dengzhou had never had a Military Governor appointed,

military strongmen and local bullies took the opportunity to prey upon the families of the yabing guards. Discontent above and below is like a mountain fire about to ignite.

You are the Son of Heaven's trusted confidant. You should report this matter to His Majesty at once.

Dengzhou sits squarely on the vital road linking Xiangzhou to the court. Once an uprising breaks out, Xiangzhou will rot away, and by then we truly will be powerless to suppress Nanping and Wu-Tang. Disaster will be upon us."

Erzhu Jing had been hurrying along his journey and had not stopped when passing through Dengzhou, so he had no idea the situation there had already deteriorated so badly. He now bowed respectfully to Jiao Jixun.

"In that case, I beg you, Master Jiao, to assign me a few men familiar with conditions in Dengzhou. After I make a brief investigation, I will write to the Son of Heaven at once."

Gao Conghui had vomited blood from the fury burning in his heart. Jiao Jixun was building up his reputation and currying favor with Zhang Zhao, waiting to be put to important use. And Erzhu Jing, serving as a regional commissioner for the first time, was cautiously learning how to govern a territory.

Zhao Pu, however, had turned himself into a mad dog — the kind of vicious cur with razor fangs and a sharp mouth, one bite enough to leave a man bleeding in torrents.

With him around, it was truly a blessing for all the temples of the Eastern Capital — the kind of "blessing" earned only by several lifetimes of accumulated evil!

On the day Zhang Zhao appointed him Vice Director of the Bureau of Revenues under the Ministry of Revenue, and also assigned Brocade Guard agents to assist him, Zhao Pu tasted the sweetness of power for the first time. It was so intoxicating it made his head spin and left him walking on air!

The moment the office was in his hands, the Brocade Guard Deputy Commander who had beaten his younger brother Zhao Anyi and coveted his beautiful sister-in-law was suddenly calling him brother.

A whole crowd of city foxes and gutter rats who had once seemed so ferocious to him were now as meek as little lambs before him.

In the past, a single string of cash would have sent the whole family into raptures, but this time the Son of Heaven had bestowed thirty strings at once, along with a great quantity of silk cloth and brocade.

When a few clerks and hired hands from the Ministry of Revenue carried all these goods home for him, his wife's illness seemed to improve at once, and her face took on a liveliness that spoke of hope.

His sister-in-law's peach-blossom face gazed at him with those peach-blossom eyes, brimming with adoration, while his younger brother Zhao Anyi was so excited he was rolling all over the room.

What was this? This was power!

This was the glory power could bring a man!

And this was only the merest sliver of power. What glory would there be in reaching the posts of Commissioner of Military Affairs, Palace Attendant, or Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs? Zhao Pu no longer dared to imagine.

So the next day, Zhao Pu took the scouts led by the Brocade Guard and the Ministry of Revenue officials and located six places where the Lanruo Money House Association had hidden stolen goods.

After confirming the evidence was irrefutable, Zhao Pu again took the Brocade Guard and requested a detachment of troops from Zhang Zhao, then raided the secret base where the Lanruo Money House Association kept its warrior monks and hired thugs.

In one sweep they arrested several hundred people and seized large quantities of crossbows, armor, spears, axes, hammers, and other heavy weapons.

They also dug out the Money House Association's account books along the way, which saved them the trouble of tallying things up — they could simply check the items off one by one.

Good heavens! When Zhang Zhao received the report, he was badly startled. These monks were far bolder than he had imagined.

Not only did they have monk soldiers, but crossbows and armor as well. Hmm — he could charge them directly with rebellion. It was a perfect cover.

So Zhang Zhao, who had originally only planned to take back the money houses and swallow this ill-gotten wealth, quickly used this as a breakthrough and slapped the Lanruo Money House Association with the charge of secretly stockpiling crossbows and armor, intending to assassinate the sovereign, usurp the throne, and rebel.

As for why the monks would want to rebel? Er... that was hard to explain. He could hardly say the abbot of Great Xiangguo Monastery wanted to be Emperor, could he?

Fortunately, so far no one with a defective brain had come forward to question it.

Zhang Zhao, anxious to stabilize the political situation, had on his own initiative refrained from implicating the temples of the Eastern Capital, confining the word "rebellion" to the Money House Association alone.

Of course, that was only on the surface. Beneath it, the middle and upper ranks of monks in every temple had all been brought under Zhang Zhao's control.

Anyone who dared to grumble would immediately be branded a fellow conspirator of the Money House Association, or even a ringleader.

These monks — arguably the richest in all the world — deliberated for several days, and with no way out, could only accept their losses. Who told the Money House Association to dare stockpile crossbows and armor?

Although in truth they had hidden those things to protect their assets against Khitan raiders, how could they explain that now?

And so the temples of the Eastern Capital disgorged vast tracts of land they had acquired during the chaos through allegiance-switching, annexation, and outright seizure, paid enormous quantities of grain and fodder as fines, and surrendered control of the Money House Association.

Control only, of course — they still retained the right to share in the profits.

Zhang Zhao chuckled to himself. He had deliberately left that for the eminent monks, to set their minds at ease.

The Money House Association was no simple organization. It was an entire financial institution!

A large commercial bank capable of handling mortgages, lending, deposit-taking, and remittance — now that it had fallen into Zhang Zhao's hands, it had also gained the power to issue currency, instantly becoming a central bank as well.

Anyone could see at a glance how enormous the profits from issuing currency alone would be. Compared with its other functions, a little profit-sharing was simply not worth mentioning.

And even those profits were only temporarily parked in the eminent monks' hands.

Once Zhang Zhao had dealt with Liu Zhiyuan, brought the recently strutting Southern Tang ruler Li Jing to heel, and stabilized the situation, he would have all the time in the world to deal with them.

There was just one key question Zhang Zhao had not yet thought through.

The Money House Association, which now had over three hundred employees — should it be turned into a government department?

Or taken into the imperial household?

Or made into a central bank with special status, like those of later ages? He had not yet decided.

But that did not stop Zhang Zhao from beginning his plan to win people's hearts.

After Liu Tao, Zhang Lieming, and Zhao Pu had sorted out the gold and silver jewelry of the Eastern Capital's commoners — items clearly bearing their owners' marks — Zhang Zhao did not immediately return them to the people.

Instead, he planned the matter out carefully. He wanted to extract every last drop of benefit from this affair.

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