Chapter 597: The Bewildered Great Talisman

A good book.........

Fu Ying'er — the future Empress Xuan Yi Fu of history — was given the name Ying by her father Fu Yanqing specifically before she entered the palace.

Historically, Fu Ying'er should have married Li Chongxun, son of Li Shouzhen, last year.

Then Li Shouzhen rebelled from Hezhong and was promptly put down by Guo Wei; father and son Li committed suicide in despair.

But before the suicide, Li Shouzhen's son Li Chongxun came looking for Fu Ying'er, intending to have his beautiful wife die with him, so as not to benefit the soldiers who were about to rush in.

Fu Ying'er had been married into the Li family less than half a year at that point, and of course refused to die with him, so she hid behind a bed curtain. Li Chongxun searched everywhere but could not find her, and had no choice but to set off on his own.

And not long after the Li father and son killed themselves, the Later Han's great army stormed into the Li family mansion.

In the chaos of war, the Li mansion fell into utter terror. The soldiers who broke in killed the men even as they seized young women and gold, silver, silk, and brocade.

The room where Fu Ying'er was, naturally, was also a key target of the search.

At the critical moment, Fu Ying'er came out from behind the bed curtain of her own accord, sat down in the main hall, and with perfect composure shouted at the soldiers who were preparing to violate her on the spot.

"I am the daughter of Fu, Prince of Wei. The Prince of Wei and the Grand Commandant of the Bureau of Military Affairs (Guo Wei) are closer than brothers. You had best not be rude."

The soldiers were startled by Fu Ying'er's composure, and also knew that the eldest daughter of Fu Yanqing, then enfeoffed as Prince of Wei, was indeed the Li family's daughter-in-law. Not daring to be rude, they withdrew, and only thus did Fu Ying'er escape the fate of being raped and killed.

Later Guo Wei arrived, astonished by Fu Ying'er's composure, and praised her to those around him: "This woman preserved herself amid flashing blades and chaos. She may truly be called an extraordinary person."

Thereupon he not only personally escorted Fu Ying'er back to the Fu family, but also had Fu Ying'er take him as her adoptive father.

Two years later, Liu Chengyou killed Guo Wei's entire family, and along the way also killed Guo Rong's wife, Lady Liu, and their two sons.

Guo Wei then sought a marriage alliance with the Fu family, marrying Fu Ying'er, whom he had long admired, to his adopted son Guo Rong.

But in this era, Fu Ying'er had not even married Li Chongxun yet, so naturally it was not Guo Rong's turn either.

Not to mention that Guo Rong was now trapped by family ties and had already gone over to the side opposing Zhang Zhao; no matter how much he regretted it in his heart, there was nothing he could do.

As for being sent into the palace this time, Fu Ying'er was not particularly flustered.

First, because she had met the Emperor before. Although he was more than ten years older than her, his features were regular and he was very affable.

Fu Ying'er did not fear this Shaoming Emperor; on the contrary, she was even a little expectant.

It was just that the waiting was still a bit too long. She had begun waiting from the start of the shen hour, and now it was almost the end of the you hour, yet she still had not seen any sign of the Emperor.

Could it be that he went to Lady Gao's place and will not come today?

Fu Ying'er thought uneasily, then felt somewhat deflated. Lady Gao not only had a much fuller bosom than hers, but was also more beautiful. It was only normal that the Son of Heaven liked her more.

Her mind wandering this way and that, the restless Fu Ying'er could no longer sit still. She paced back and forth in the room, not caring whether her ceremonial robes and headdress would be mussed. If she did not walk a few steps, her heart simply churned too violently.

But before she had taken more than a few steps, Fu Ying'er heard footsteps outside, along with the cries of palace maids and attendants paying respects to the Emperor — though the cries seemed to carry a hint of surprise.

Fu Ying'er was badly startled and hurried back to sit down properly.

Just as her bottom touched the bed, the door was kicked open with a bang. Fu Ying'er looked up and saw that the Emperor, whom she had just doubted would come, had already arrived.

Only... uh!

Only, on the Emperor's shoulder was slung another woman also dressed in ceremonial robes; from the back, she looked like Gao E'niang.

Fu Ying'er was so stunned that the round fan she had just raised before her face dropped to the floor.

At this time, at weddings, there was not yet the custom of covering the bride with a red veil. Usually the woman held a round fan before her face to cover her mouth and nose; after the couple bowed to each other, the woman lowered the fan, signifying the rites were complete and the two formally became husband and wife.

So after the round fan fell to the floor, Fu Ying'er was badly startled. She was just about to bend down to pick it up when she heard the Emperor speak, somewhat out of breath.

"Don't pick it up. Come, come over and help me hold her down. This little lady is quite strong!"

Huh?

Ah! Ah......

Fu Ying'er, whose brain was nearly crashing, moved aside a little to let the Emperor toss Gao E'niang onto the bed, then let out three utterly bewildered exclamations of "Ah!"

"Is the Sage speaking to your servant?" Fu Ying'er asked cautiously, pointing at her own nose.

"Of course to you. Is there a third person here? Come! Hold down her left hand."

Zhang Zhao pointed matter-of-factly at Gao E'niang, who was trying to cover her face with her hands.

"It is not in accord with propriety! Not in accord with propriety! This is improper!"

Gao E'niang was no innocent like Fu Ying'er; she of course knew what the Emperor intended. Her calves twitched gently as she tried to resist the improper Emperor.

But very quickly, she felt herself soaring through the clouds, and then she was flipped over by the Emperor and lay prostrate on the bed. Immediately after, her legs were pinned down, and then a chill came over her lower body — her clothing was being removed.

She had just reached out to stop him when, unexpectedly, a pair of soft yet strong hands seized her hands.

Gao E'niang was nearly faint. She looked at Fu Ying'er, still somewhat dazed yet so obedient, her flushed face a mixture of tears and laughter.

"My silly little sister, you really do obey! After he's done bullying me, it'll be your turn. You really... aiya! Hiss!"

Gao E'niang was still lecturing Fu Ying'er when she suddenly let out a muffled groan, then said no more. Her hands stopped moving too, and she simply buried her head in the bedsheet.

She swayed gently with the bed, now and then letting out a soft, irrepressible moan, like weeping and like pleading.

Fu Ying'er, in turn, found her hands gripped tightly by Gao E'niang. She sat dazedly at the edge of the bed, rocking as if riding a boat on a great river.

She looked on blankly. Gao E'niang lay prostrate on the bed, and beneath the wide ceremonial robes were two fair, bare legs and, occasionally revealed by the rocking, a glimpse of whiteness.

And the Emperor's robust body, utterly unclothed, moved back and forth before her, advancing and retreating, again and again.

She did not know how much time passed. It seemed as if the wind and rain had ceased, and also like the stillness before the next storm.

Fu Ying'er suddenly felt Gao E'niang beside her yank hard, and she tumbled onto the bed.

In her daze, Fu Ying'er saw Gao E'niang pin her down at once, her face flushed with satisfaction, none of the unwillingness from before remaining.

"Can the Sage still go on? Hee hee! I've got her held down."

Zhang Zhao casually picked up something and wiped the sweat from his head, then laughed heartily and pounced over. "A real man is always able."

Fu Ying'er did not know why, but she felt she had entered a very strange state. Although she could clearly feel everything, her body seemed no longer her own, and her consciousness looked down upon everything in the room from above.

She saw herself opening everything to a man; white, crimson, mixed with a few other colors, presented upon a perfect, supine body.

Fu Ying'er let out a soft hum. Mother had been wrong. It seemed... it seemed it did not hurt very much. There was even a faint tremor from the depths of her soul.

The pleasures of the inner palace could only ever be a seasoning. Zhang Zhao understood this principle very well: if you do not attend to proper business, everything you possess will soon belong to someone else.

Just like this morning when he woke, Gao E'nang was kneeling before him, begging the Emperor to issue an edict pardoning Du Chongwei's crimes.

Du Chongwei had failed at everything else, so now his daughter-in-law was kneeling on Zhang Zhao's bed.

Gao E'nang was not trying to overturn Du Chongwei's case; rather, she hoped that after the Emperor pardoned Du Chongwei, she would be allowed to collect and bury the bodies of her former mother-in-law — Shi Jingtang's younger sister, Lady Shi — as well as her husband Du Hongzhang and her brother-in-law Du Hongcan.

As for Du Chongwei — ha! The former Later Jin soldiers and officers hated him to the bone, and he had been beaten into a pulp of flesh right in front of Zhang Zhao. There was no body left to collect.

Du Hongcan, in truth, had no body worth collecting either, because Huangfu Yu's nephew Huangfu Chong had cut open his belly, torn out his heart, and offered it in sacrifice to Huangfu Yu.

Afterward, the remains had been thrown outside the city walls and long since devoured by wild dogs. The only thing that could be collected, perhaps, were the four limbs that had been severed before the belly was opened.

Only Du Chongwei's wife, Lady Shi, because she was a woman, had merely taken a single blade to the chest and belly.

And out of respect for Gao Xingzhou and Gao Huaide, the crowd had left Du Hongzhang's body intact. In the end, it was Gao Xingzhou who came forward, wrapped the mother and son in two reed mats, and burned them.

But Zhang Zhao had sentenced Du Chongwei's entire family to unpardonable crimes. Gao Xingzhou had already taken an enormous risk by daring to collect the bodies, so he did not dare bury them and had left them deposited in a commoner's house in Songzhou.

Zhang Zhao considered it for a moment. Although Lady Shi and Du Hongzhang had enjoyed the wealth and rank Du Chongwei provided and were therefore guilty as well, the people were dead now, and this could be used to display his benevolence. So he agreed to Gao E'nang's plea.

But he had not expected that just as Gao E'nang breathed a sigh of relief, the still-little-loli Fu Ying'er, bearing the pain, would come over and rub and nuzzle against him.

It turned out that Li Shouzhen, who had colluded with Du Chongwei, had been captured at Yanshi City and kept by Zhang Zhao in a Luoyang prison ever since. Later, Li Shouzhen's entire family had also been arrested and imprisoned.

After Zhang Zhao recovered Songzhou and the generals beat Du Chongwei into pulp and killed his whole family, Li Shouzhen had begged a jailer he had bribed to give him a dagger, and then cut his own throat in prison.

But while he had the courage to die, his son Li Chongxun did not, and so the son had remained imprisoned until now.

Fu Yanqing, though far craftier than Gao Xingzhou, had already dissolved Fu Ying'er's engagement to Li Chongxun before Zhang Zhao had even thrown Li Shouzhen's family into prison.

But this had always remained a sore spot in Fu Ying'er's heart.

Zhang Zhao had initially been somewhat displeased by this, but he could not withstand the tearful pleading of the little loli, and thinking back to her tender attentions the night before, and also reflecting that keeping them locked up forever was no solution, he reluctantly agreed.

As Zhang Zhao walked and thought, just as he reached the outer court, Cao Shisi — Cao Yanming, the Commissioner for the Construction of the Divine Capital — arrived in the Eastern Capital. He had come to report to the two Empress Dowagers on the progress of repairs to Jinshan Palace.

Cao Shisi was now quite wealthy, and his body had grown ever more swollen. The moment he saw Zhang Zhao, his face was full of grievance.

Sage Zhang had not seen anyone dare give him a sour look in a long time, and he looked at Cao Yanming with some puzzlement.

"Shisi, what's got into you now? Why does that look in your eyes so resemble Shijiu's?"

Uh — after asking, Zhang Zhao looked at the greasy, fat Cao Yanming and couldn't help shivering.

Hearing this, Cao Yanming also felt chills running down his back, and he hurriedly returned his expression to normal.

"Sage, you have to blame yourself for this. Making Sanniang a Princess of Hanguo has made your servant sleep in the study for days. Yesterday I even caught a chill from the cold."

The "Sanniang" Cao Shisi spoke of was Princess of Hanguo Li Zhen'er, the principal wife of Cao Liulang, Cao Yanlu. And Li Zhen'er and Cao Yanming's principal wife were half-sisters sharing the same father.

That being so, it was naturally Cao Shisi's wife who was envious of Li Zhen'er's title of Princess of Hanguo.

But Zhang Zhao did not believe it, because Cao Yanming's wife, Li Erniang, though Li Shengtian had treated her well back in Khotan, was not of high status by birth.

For her mother had been a defeated subordinate of Cao Yuanxing. Cao Yuanxing was such a domineering person that she had dared, right in front of Li Shengtian, to carry off the Queen of the Karakhanids and bestow her upon Zhang Zhao.

For Li Erniang to escape the fate of shaving her head and practicing Buddhism in a temple like her mother was already burning high incense.

Therefore, toward Cao Shisi, Cao Yanming, who had led her out of that sea of fire, Li Erniang was utterly devoted.

Because she clearly understood that if Cao Yanming were not a core figure of Zhang Zhao's founding faction and did not control the Divine Mechanism Battalion, she would absolutely have been married off by Cao Yuanxing to any Tom, Dick, or Harry, and would never have left Khotan in her lifetime.

Seeing the disbelief Zhang Zhao displayed, Cao Yanming had no choice. He grabbed the hem of Zhang Zhao's robe and followed pitifully along like a lapdog.

"Sage, don't disbelieve me! Everything I said is true. I really have been sleeping in the study for days."

Zhang Zhao chuckled. "That's fine, then! Since Lady Er has driven you out of the bedchamber, I shall bestow a few beauties upon you, so you can share one big blanket in the study."

Cao Yanming let out a miserable groan, grabbed Zhang Zhao's robe, squatted and knelt on the ground, and began to play the rogue.

"Second maternal uncle, don't ruin me. Last time you got drunk and insisted on bestowing a palace maid on my household. When I got home, Erniang nearly beat me to death."

Hearing Cao Yanming call him "Second maternal uncle," Zhang Zhao knew that Cao Yanming had probably truly been pushed to his limit by Li Erniang.

"What's going on? Erniang surely wouldn't treat you like that?"

"Why wouldn't she? The Sage doesn't know yet, but when my father-in-law set out for the capital this time, Erniang actually wasn't notified. She only found out when I came home and mentioned it."

Zhang Zhao was stunned. He rubbed his chin, and a familiar feeling washed over him. This kind of petty, nauseating trick — needless to say, it had to be the work of his aunt, Cao Yuanxing.

Thinking of Cao Yuanxing, Zhang Zhao's thoughts could not help but wander a little. This aunt and cousin of his was no easy customer. She had the style of a Li-Tang princess, a formidable woman as ruthless as Princess Taiping.

In her doing this, Zhang Zhao detected a hint of dissatisfaction. Could it be because after he ascended the throne, he had never granted rewards to Li Shengtian's line?

Thinking about it, he indeed seemed not to have carefully considered the matter of the Kingdom of Khotan. After entering the Central Plains, he had not, in fact, settled Li Shengtian's status.

And Li Shengtian was the sort who desperately craved recognition from the Central Plains court and inwardly believed he should be Han Chinese. Perhaps he had grown somewhat resentful.

Thinking of this, Zhang Zhao kicked Cao Yanming, who was still lying on the ground.

"Enough! Enough! Get up. I'll give you a chance to earn some credit.

Have Erniang write to her uncle and say that I intend to enfeoff him as Prince of Anxi and Military Governor of the Four Garrisons of Anxi. Her aunt is also to receive the title of Grand Princess. Ask her which title she prefers."

Cao Yanming was overjoyed. Letting Erniang lead this matter by writing the letter would immediately soothe the wound in her heart from being ignored by her father, and Cao Yuanxing would also have to give her some face.

"What about Erniang's title?" Cao Yanming still remembered that his wife had no princess title, which was far too humiliating.

"Fine, fine, fine! I'll have the Ministry of Rites select a title at once. But don't even think about a State Princess."

Cao Yanming chuckled, immediately scrambled to his feet, and waved both hands repeatedly.

"No need, no need. If she can receive the same treatment as Lady Qiw an, Erniang will be satisfied."

Zhang Zhao watched Cao Yanming's receding figure, rubbed the few whiskers on his chin, and sank into thought.

That boy Cao Yanming was getting fatter and fatter. Accustomed to the good life, he had also begun to neglect his research. The matter of moving the Heavenly Works Institute to the Divine Capital, Luoyang, still had not been completed.

No! He would summon Li Erniang and indicate that if Cao Yanming could achieve a breakthrough in researching gunpowder and bronze cannon-casting, then Li Erniang could be enfeoffed as a State Princess. Let Li Erniang push Cao Yanming. Heh heh!

After seeing Cao Yanming off, Zhang Zhao held a small court session, summoning the four chief ministers: Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs and Minister of Personnel Zhang Xichong, Secretariat Director He Ning, Vice Director of the Chancellery Fan Zhi, and Commissioner of Military Affairs Guo Tiance.

Along with Minister of Rites Feng Dao, Minister of Revenue Xue Juzheng, Left Vice Minister of Personnel Zhang Yuan, Hanlin Academician and Drafter of Edicts in the Secretariat Li Fang, Hanlin Academician and Left Vice Minister of Rites Wang Jiu, and Hanlin Academician and Left Vice Minister of Revenue Zhao Pu.

As well as Li Gu, who had just returned from Chuzhou and had even encountered an assassination attempt, were all summoned to the palace.

Just as everyone had taken their seats, Zhang Liecheng and Murong Xinzhang arrived together.

Zhang Liecheng had originally wanted to report to Zhang Zhao privately, but Zhang Zhao gestured for him to read it out directly.

Zhang Liecheng gave a light cough and said, "Your son has now ascertained that the spreading of rumors in the four prefectures of Song, Xu, Chen, and Cai, the undercurrents stirring in the two prefectures of Hao and Si in Huainan, and the assassination of the Transport Commissioner were all instigated by Liu Zhiyuan of Hedong and organized by the Huaibei bandit Li Renshu."

At the name Li Renshu, my Sage Zhang's eyes flashed with fury.

For this man was no simple figure — one could even say he was the greatest thorn in Zhang Zhou's side in Henan.

Historically, both Huainan and Huaibei, on either bank of the Huai River, were places that produced heroes in abundance and whose people were fierce and hardy.

Ever since the Cao and Sun houses of the Three Kingdoms fought back and forth across the Huainan region, this place had essentially become a battlefield whenever the realm fell into chaos.

After the Jin dynasty fled south, this was the front line of confrontation between the Eastern Jin and the northern dynasties. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the southern courts regarded the Two Huai as their lifeline, pouring in vast sums of money and leaving behind a ferocious local temperament.

By the Tang dynasty, the crossbowmen of Jianghuai were famed throughout the realm, and in the era of military province separatism, Huainan — a single province — became the most unstable element in the country.

In the later Southern Song, Li Tingzhi resisted the Mongols in Huainan, and the Huaixi army was incomparably fierce.

As for the Yuan dynasty, there is no need to elaborate — Zhu Hongwu was a man of the Huai, and the rebel armies of the Huai were no joke.

By the Manchu Qing, the Nian of Huaibei were known throughout the land — bandits when they went out, common folk when they came home, coming and going like the wind, vanishing without a trace.

Even today, places like Xuzhou have a fierce local character; people speak so loudly it sounds like quarreling, and when they act warmly toward you, you might think they are about to hit you.

Before Sage Zhang transmigrated, he had several friends from Xuzhou and Huai'an, and he had experienced this firsthand.

And now Zhang Zhao faced the same great problem.

Earlier, during the Southern Wu of Yang Xingmi and the Southern Tang of Li Bian, the authorities had deliberately cultivated the strength of the Huai bandits in order to form a buffer in the Two Huai.

After the Khitan entered the Central Plains, the bandit bands of Huaibei grew even stronger under the banner of expelling the Khitan and protecting their homeland.

By the time Zhang Zhao campaigned against the Southern Tang and shattered its main force at Songzhou, he sent men to summon the Huaibei bandits to surrender.

Unexpectedly, the Huaibei bandits paid no heed. They scattered to various places, and their main force had likely withdrawn to Yizhou and Mizhou — that is, the area around what would later be Linyi and Gaomi in Shandong.

Zhang Zhao had no choice but to give up. He then appointed An Shenqi as Military Governor of Ziqing-Pinglu and Xue Huairang as Prefect of Mizhou to suppress the region, and in the end, no major trouble broke out while he advanced to the banks of the Yangtze.

As for this Li Renshu, he was said to be open-handed and generous. Whoever had troubles had only to seek him out and he would do his utmost to help. The bandits of Huainan and Huaibei all acknowledged him as their great chief — rather like the prestige of Chao Gai, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, in Water Margin.

In truth, Zhang Zhao did not know that the historical Li Renshu was far more glorious than he was now.

When the Khitan withdrew north, he had been able to mobilize tens of thousands of cavalry and infantry to besiege Xuzhou, leaving even Fu Yanqing powerless against him.

That he was now forced by Sage Zhang into only petty schemes showed he was being extremely restrained.

This was, of course, also because after Zhang Zhao entered the Central Plains, the political situation quickly stabilized and the people gave him their hearts, shrinking Li Renshu's base of support.

The Chief Minister He Ning cupped his hands and said to Zhang Zhao, "This villain Li Renshu and the bandits of Huainan and Huaibei are the result of evils that have accumulated over a long time.

The root cause is that since the great dynasty fell into military province separatism, the court's governing authority has never again reached down into the counties and villages. If these accumulated evils are not reformed, there can be no fundamental cure."

Seeing that Zhang Zhao still did not quite understand, He Ning explained further.

After listening for a dozen or so minutes, Zhang Zhao gradually grasped the situation. It turned out that beginning in the mid-Tang, the model of village governance in China had changed from the village-official system to the corvée-post system.

To put it simply, before the mid-Tang, a village official was the sort of post Liu Bang had held as a village head — he ate from the state's table and drew a state salary, so at least he was an official, with power in his hands, and therefore reasonably diligent and responsible.

But after the mid-Tang, the village official disappeared and was replaced by a corvée post. The court still appointed you to manage the locality, but you were no longer an official — merely a village commoner helping the court collect taxes.

Do not underestimate the loss of official status — it was a change of enormous consequence.

Once you lost official status, the petty clerks of the yamen who had once bowed and scraped before you instantly became your superiors. How could they not make things difficult for you in every way?

For a person who already possessed popular esteem and ability, holding such a corvée post was somewhat more bearable. He could more or less avoid being pushed around by the yamen clerks, could still collect taxes in the countryside, and might even use this scrap of power to prey upon the villagers.

But for an honest man, it was utter ruin!

Harassed and pressed from above, unable to collect taxes from below, he often had to pay out of his own pocket to make up the shortfall. Countless commoners were ruined by this.

By the late Tang, the common people were fleeing in droves. Even the capable could no longer collect taxes, yet those above pressed and demanded just the same.

Caught between the two, even wealthy households came to regard this corvée post as a flood or a savage beast, doing everything they could to evade it — some even fled with their entire families. The political foundation of the villages gradually ceased to exist.

But while the men who held power were gone, the power itself remained in the villages, and bandits like Li Renshu began to appear everywhere.

They used their own clans as bonds, organized the local strongmen into blood-oath brotherhoods, held military power in their hands, could avoid being exploited by the authorities, and could in turn exploit the common people below for gain.

Even if the government wiped them out, they did not fear it, because with the grassroots system destroyed, the government could not possibly station troops in every village.

Even the military men now soaring to the heights could not do it. The bandits only needed to wait until the court's great army left, then return and kill their way back.

So it was exactly as He Ning said: force alone could never eliminate them.

Wonderful! In Hebei, local strongmen were everywhere, some powerful enough to negotiate terms with the court.

In Henan and Huainan, bandits rose on all sides. Send too few men and it was useless; send a great army and they hid. The moment you left, they sprang back to life.

Imperial power could not even reach the villages — good heavens, in many places it could not even get beyond the county seat.

This was what had piled up across the whole realm since the An Lushan Rebellion, now left to Zhang Zhao as a problem he had to solve.