Chapter 579: The People Suffer When They Rise

A fine book...

When Li Jingda arrived, the money arrived.

This Southern Tang imperial younger brother was not stupid, but he was weak-willed and without ambition, fond of pleasure and disinclined to manage affairs, wanting only to pass his whole life amid romance and idle elegance.

Anyone else as imperial younger brother would surely have fought desperately to preserve the Southern Tang, because as the successor, the state would be his.

But Li Jingda was not like that. Never mind imperial younger brother, he had not even been willing to serve as Grand Marshal of the Armies before.

Sending a man like this as chief envoy to negotiate was no different from a giveaway, as could be seen from the things Li Jingda brought with him.

On previous occasions the gifts had been simple things chosen at random, but this time, accompanying Li Jingda came three sets of Jiangnan imperial robes of fine workmanship offered as tribute to Zhang Zhao, five sets of ordinary robes, one thousand taels of tea-medicine and gold vessels, five thousand taels of silver vessels, two thousand bolts of silk and brocade, five hundred oxen to reward the army, and two thousand hu of wine.

Li Jing had also personally written a letter to Zhang Zhao, in which he mentioned with considerable remorse his offense in sending troops north against Song and Xu.

Although in the letter he still called himself Emperor of Tang, he expressed willingness to call Zhang Zhao elder brother, and said that so long as his elder brother forgave him, he was willing to send annual tribute.

Zhang Zhao, in front of Li Jingda, struck out the three characters "Emperor of Tang," then handed the letter back to Li Jingda.

"Go back and tell your elder brother: I can agree to his request to call me elder brother, but a younger brother must behave as a younger brother should.

I can entrust the affairs of Jiangnan and Jiangxi to him, but the title of emperor must certainly be removed, and the Tang dynastic name can no longer be used, because Prince Ke of Jian never served as Son of Heaven.

Your brothers' uncle, Li Shouling, Duke of Longxi Commandery, is still in Chang'an offering sacrifice at the Great Tang ancestral temple, and the line of Prince Zheng of the later dynasty is also there. If the elders do not call themselves Tang, how can the sons and nephews call themselves Tang?"

As it happened, Li Shouling was the fourth-generation descendant of Li Yun, Prince Li of Li, second son of Emperor Xianzong of Tang, while Li Jing's father Li Bian claimed to be the fourth-generation descendant of Li Ke, Prince of Jian, tenth son of Emperor Xianzong of Tang; both traced their ancestry back to Emperor Xianzong of Tang.

Li Jingda took back the letter, but was somewhat vague about Zhang Zhao's proposal, saying only in a low voice.

"My Tang state, dwelling in a corner of Jiangnan, is indeed not fit to still be called emperor. If the Sage permits, we should remove the imperial title ourselves and call ourselves State Lord."

Zhang Zhao was somewhat dissatisfied, but did not press the point. Li Jing's move was equivalent to surrendering only halfway.

Removing the imperial title but not the Tang state name, and still calling himself State Lord of Tang, clearly showed he did not want to accept Zhang Zhao's investiture.

Of course, negotiations could not be settled in one session, and after Zhang Zhao gave no clear answer, he did not linger on this point.

But since Li Jing wanted to surrender only half, Sage Zhang was not polite either, and began making exorbitant demands.

He demanded from the Southern Tang the four prefectures of Shou, Guang, Hao, and Si in Huainan north of the Yangtze, as well as Ezhou where Wuchang was located.

This was to strike the Southern Tang from both Huainan and the upper Yangtze!

If they gave up the four Huainan prefectures and Ezhou, and with Zhang Zhao already having taken the six prefectures of Yang, Chu, Hai, Tai, Chu, and He, then all that would remain of Huainan and Huaixi would be Luzhou.

And with the key stronghold of Wuchang on the upper Yangtze also given away, there would simply be no way to survive!

Even Li Jingda did not dare agree to this. If he agreed, the Southern Tang would be finished.

"Without Huainan and Ezhou, my Tang state would be no different from destroyed. The Sage's move is not peace talks, but total annihilation. Then our whole state can only fight to the death."

Feng Yanlu also turned loyal and righteous. He stepped forward and spoke loudly to Zhang Zhao, while Li Jingda prostrated himself on the ground and pleaded repeatedly.

Should he trust Feng Yanlu this time?

This was a decision Zhang Zhao had to make immediately.

Because clearly, Feng Yanlu was inclined toward him, and had shown the possibility of being recruited.

Now that he spoke this way, it meant that ceding all of Huainan, the north bank, plus Ezhou, was something Li Jing absolutely could not accept.

Thinking of this, Zhang Zhao pondered for a moment, then gave a cold laugh.

"I have tens of thousands of heavenly troops on the right bank of the Yangtze. They could break the city at any moment, and taking all of Huainan would be effortless. If you want peace, how can you not pay a price?"

Li Jingda pleaded for a long time, but Zhang Zhao still would not relent. Li Jingda had no choice but to hurry back to Jiangning to consult with Li Jing again.

Most of the other Southern Tang ministers did not go back, and began visiting the various civil and military officials on the Zhou side, hoping they could help persuade Zhang Zhao.

Time came to the beginning of the sixth month, and the weather grew ever hotter and more humid. The Hexi troops truly could not endure it much longer.

The various tools of the Divine Machine Battalion were severely damaged, and the one hundred camel-mounted whirlwind catapults had long since returned north, because the camels had begun to suffer from the unfamiliar climate and their hooves were rotting. As for the warhorses, rotting hooves had also begun to appear.

During this period, not only did Southern Tang envoys keep coming to the Zhou army's main camp at Hezhou, but Zhou state envoys also went to Jiangning several times. After continuous haggling, the two sides finally reached an agreement.

On the issue Zhang Zhao had never relented on, the removal of the Southern Tang state name, it was Zhao Pu who finally broke the deadlock.

This devious fellow asked Zhang Zhao only one question: did he still want to come back and give the Southern Tang another beating in the future?

If he did not leave behind an excuse, then after returning fully laden this time, the Southern Tang would already be extraordinarily submissive. What excuse could he use to attack again? Having a just cause for war was also a very important matter.

So after much deliberation, Zhang Zhao finally accepted Zhao Pu's argument. He had to leave the Southern Tang with an extremely important handle that could be pulled out and used to beat them at any time, so as to keep a pretext.

And in Jiangning, Feng Yanji was in fact also bitterly urging Li Jing: since they had already retreated this far, they should not leave the Zhou state a handle. Feng Yanji even said outright.

"The Zhou state claims to inherit the virtue of the Great Tang, yet I bear the name Tang. Is this not naturally giving others a pretext for punitive war?"

But Li Jing had his own considerations. Their identity as descendants of the Great Tang imperial clan could not withstand scrutiny in the first place. If they removed the Tang name, what would they use to rally people's hearts?

Ceding land and paying indemnities could still be described as sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall, but removing the Tang name — that clearly could not be explained away!

Moreover, Li Jing felt in his heart that in fighting to this point, he had indeed made many mistakes, but he had also drawn many lessons.

With experience, next time the Zhou army came, things would not be so cheap.

Thus, the two sides finally reached a settlement at Hezhou. That very day Zhang Zhao led his army in triumph back to Yangzhou.

Li Jing again sent the imperial younger brother Li Jingda across the river, and the two sides reached the following terms.

First, Li Jing would remove the imperial title, change the Tang state name to Southern Tang, and call himself State Lord of Southern Tang. The Southern Tang would declare itself a vassal of the Zhou state. Li Jing would call Zhang Zhao elder brother, and Zhang Zhao would call Li Jing younger brother.

Every year on Zhang Zhao's birthday, on the birthday of Zhang Zhao's legal mother the Compassionate Blessing Empress Dowager, and on the birthday of his birth mother the Compassionate Sage Empress Dowager, Li Jing must present congratulatory gifts and send members of the imperial clan as birthday envoys.

Second, the Southern Tang would cede the four Huainan prefectures of Chu, Hai, Hao, and Si to the Zhou state, pay one hundred thousand strings of cash in compensation for the damage caused by the invasion of Song and Xu, and bear the military expenses of this Zhou expedition, valued at three hundred thousand strings.

Third, the Southern Tang must pay to redeem the prefectures occupied by the Zhou state: Yangzhou three hundred thousand strings, Taizhou one hundred fifty thousand strings, Chuzhou and Hezhou one hundred thousand strings each, Tianchang Jianwu Army and Yancheng fifty thousand strings each, for a total value of seven hundred fifty thousand strings.

Fourth, the Southern Tang must annually pay tribute to the Zhou state of one hundred thousand jin of tea, one hundred thousand bolts of brocade, two hundred thousand shi of grain and rice, and various other Southern Tang local products.

The specific quantities could vary, but the total value must not be less than four hundred thousand strings. The annual tribute must be transported via the Grand Canal, and the Southern Tang must guarantee the unimpeded passage of the Hangou Canal.

Fifth, Zhang Zhao would release the captured Southern Tang Prince of Yan Li Jingda, Bian Hao, and other civil and military officials, as well as fourteen thousand Southern Tang army prisoners, but they could take with them loyal civilians willing to go north.

Sixth, the Southern Tang must immediately execute Commissioner of Military Affairs Chen Jue, who had attacked the Zhou navy's main camp, hand over naval commander Chen Hui and others, and severely punish the officers and soldiers who had approved the campaign.

The moment the treaty was signed, Zhang Zhao knew that the Southern Tang was already half destroyed.

A one-time indemnity of one million one hundred fifty thousand strings — this was equivalent to almost an entire year of fiscal revenue.

The annual tribute of four hundred thousand strings was a constant draining of blood.

This sum was basically equal to sixty percent of the Southern Tang's annual revenue, because Chuzhou and Yangzhou were the Southern Tang's two largest salt-producing centers. Without Chuzhou, the Southern Tang's fiscal income would certainly shrink drastically.

Defensively it was even worse. Without Chuzhou, almost all of Huainan north of Yangzhou became undefended.

Without Haozhou and Sizhou, of the remaining Huainan lands the Southern Tang was left with only Shouzhou as a single foothold, which it fundamentally could not hold.

In the end, the Southern Tang would inevitably have to pull its defense line back to Chuzhou, relying on Chuzhou's Qingliu Pass and the Jianwu Army at Tianchang for defense.

But neither Qingliu Pass nor Tianchang could compare with the four prefectures of Shou, Hao, Si, and Chu.

From then on, the entire north bank of the Yangtze would provide only limited shielding for Jiangnan, and would instead become an enormous burden.

Moreover, with sixty percent of its annual revenue drained away, if it still had to build up defenses, the only option would be to squeeze the common people to the utmost, and when that happened, all popular support would surely be lost.

Zhang Zhao suddenly understood why, in history, during Li Yu's reign even a goose giving birth to twins was taxed.

On the fifteenth day of the sixth month, Zhang Zhao dispatched Zhang Liecheng as imperial envoy to cross the river to Jiangning and invest Li Jing as Ruler of the Southern Tang.

Li Jing led his civil and military officials ten li beyond the city to kneel in welcome. With this, Zhang Zhao's six-month campaign against the Southern Tang formally came to an end.

In this campaign, Sage Zhang had beaten the Tang state founded by Li Bian into a true Southern Tang, so that it would no longer need historians to call it the Southern Tang.

Zhang Zhao annexed the Southern Tang's four Huainan prefectures and nineteen counties, and gained a great quantity of coin, grain, wealth, and goods. Even after generously rewarding the officers and soldiers, there remained a surplus of five to six hundred thousand strings.

And the annual income of four hundred thousand strings would also greatly spur the recovery of production in the Central Plains.

In particular, grain from Jiangnan could finally be shipped to the Central Plains, and Zhang Zhao would no longer have to scrape it bit by bit from Hexi, Longyou, and Guanzhong, which were already short of grain.

On the twentieth day of the sixth month, after Zhang Zhao had offered sacrifices in Yangzhou to the more than six hundred Zhou soldiers who had died in battle and the more than one hundred who had died of illness,

he set out northward from Yangzhou by the Hangou Canal, taking with him one hundred thirty large and small warships built in Jiangnan, more than two thousand sturdy sailors recruited from Jiangnan, over ten thousand family members, and several hundred artisans of all trades.

At the same time as the northward return, Zhang Zhao emptied the treasuries of the four prefectures of Yang, Tai, Chu, and He and their subordinate counties, then hired on the spot tens of thousands of commoners from Yangzhou, Tianchang, and Yancheng to help haul the boats by towline.

These commoners had assumed the Zhou army was brutal, because that was how the Southern Tang court had propagandized it, and that was what the local gentry in the countryside said as well.

Therefore they all thought that once they went, they would either be beaten to death or worked to death. When they were taken away as "hired" labor, it was like going to their deaths, and there were even several disturbances.

But after they arrived, they discovered that the Zhou army was strictly disciplined, that the Zhou officials treated people kindly, and that the towline work was not heavy.

Every day they were not only provided three meals, but could also eat a chicken-egg griddlecake, and every two days there was mutton soup to drink.

Even more astonishing, they were paid. Each person received one large coin per day. Though little, it was still money, was it not? Those who did not want coin could exchange it for an equal amount of salt or cloth.

If anyone fell ill, there were army physicians accompanying the troops to prescribe medicine and treat them.

Under such treatment, the commoners of the Southern Tang's north bank burst forth with tremendous enthusiasm, and they hauled all the way to Chuzhou and still refused to leave.

Zhang Zhao therefore specially granted them permission to escort him as far as Xuzhou, and all along the way they were given ample food and pay.

Outside Xuzhou, Zhang Zhao personally appeared to disband the more than thirty thousand laborers. To make their return easier, he specially left behind five large and small boats, loaded full of the cloth, salt, and tea they were owed.

Then Sage Zhang issued an edict, saying that, moved by the people's send-off, he would disburse from the inner treasury a reward of one bolt of cloth per person, as well as five thousand shi of grain as provisions for their journey home.

He further promoted a large number of capable people from among the commoners to be officials, and sent Zhao Pu, Secretariat Drafter and Vice Director of the Ministry of Revenue, to escort them back south.

When the commoners heard this, they were moved to tears streaming down their faces. Outside Xuzhou they shouted "Long live!" from the hills, and many were still kowtowing in gratitude long after Zhang Zhao's carriage had departed.

This was also an open stratagem, because the Southern Tang commoners who had received such generous treatment from Zhang Zhao would surely transfer that expectation onto Li Jing as well.

Then they would discover that, in order to scrape together the annual tribute to the Zhou state and still have a surplus to build the defenses from Chuzhou's Qingliu Pass to Tianchang, the Southern Tang court would certainly impose much heavier taxes on them.

When that time came, the scales of the people's hearts would tip completely to the other side.

However, Zhang Zhao's mood was somewhat complicated. The suffering these Southern Tang commoners were about to face could be said to be closely connected to him, yet he had no choice but to do this.

At least for now, he could not save these commoners. Instead, he had to let them be ruthlessly squeezed, and then rise up in revolt.

Thinking of this, Zhang Zhao sighed to his eldest son Zhang Xiancun beside him.

"Though it is said that when a state rises the people suffer, and when it falls the people suffer, after it rises, at least there are some better days to look forward to. What I can do is no more than this."

Zhang Xiancun was already thirteen this year. He understood only vaguely, but his skill at flattery had grown ever more refined. He cupped his hands.

"Father is an exemplary sovereign for all ages. The people under your rule surely do not suffer."

Zhang Zhao chuckled, not knowing whether to nod or shake his head. He could only make the people suffer a little less. As for not suffering at all, that was impossible.

Those at the very bottom of society could not avoid hardship in any era. The only difference was whether, after enduring the hardship, they got to taste a little sweetness.