Chapter 600: The Emperor in the Mist

Zhang Zhao frowned. In his hand was the memorial that Zhang Xiaobao had just submitted through the Dengwen Drum.

And after reading only a few passages, he knew this was Pei Yuan's narrative style.

Sure enough, at the end, Zhang Xiaobao also explained that part of it was what he had seen, and part was Pei Yuan's analysis.

"Pei Yuying has grown distant from me! He fears I cannot understand his hardships, so he had Zhang Xiaobao submit the memorial this way."

The person now attending Zhang Zhao daily was Li Fang, Hanlin Academician and Drafter of Edicts.

Li Fang naturally understood the Emperor's temperament well. He knew the Emperor was not lamenting, still less reproaching Pei Yuan, but rather praising Pei Yuan for knowing when to advance and when to retreat.

Saying these things was also just to show that Pei Yuan was still his trusted confidant and close aide.

So Li Fang answered with a smile: "This is not distance, but the proper separation between sovereign and subject. Duke Pei is observing the rites of a subject, not growing arrogant from closeness."

Zhang Zhao nodded with a smile. Whether sovereign and subject were close or not actually depended on office, and even more on a sense of measure.

For instance, intimates like Zhang Zhaozhong (Manxiong) and Zhang Zhaojie (Qiongred Uojin), who were almost as useful as the armor on Zhang Zhao's body, or a trusted chief secretary like Li Fang, always at his side.

Of course they should be closer, because they were Zhang Zhao's safeguard. The closer they were, the safer Zhang Zhao was.

But for a frontier grandee like Pei Yuan, one could not be too close, lest he lose his awe and the sense of hierarchy between high and low.

For one already far from imperial authority, the awe of imperial authority must be reinforced all the more.

Moreover, Zhang Zhao saw two things in this memorial.

First, the situation in Liangzhou was indeed becoming somewhat serious.

Zhang Zhao's move into the Central Plains had essentially drained away the strength of the able men of the four prefectures of Liang, Lan, Gua, and Sha, which had previously been the foundation of the Liang state.

The situation in Liangzhou and the other places now was that the core population had mostly left, and no new strength had been poured in to replace them, creating a vacuum.

Second, the situation in Liangzhou was also not that serious, because if it were very serious, Pei Yuan would certainly not have chosen the route through Zhang Xiaobao, but would have memorialized directly at once.

But these problems in Liangzhou were not easy to solve, because Zhang Zhao could not casually distribute these vacated lands to just anyone.

In terms of ownership, these lands had already been granted as rewards for military merit. What the state still held was only nominal ownership, without the right of use.

The right of use belonged to the warriors of the personal army and the imperial guards. Arbitrary redistribution would in effect be stripping them of their property, and that absolutely must not be done.

To fill these vacant lands in Liangzhou with fresh blood, one also had to be cautious.

Because the personal army and imperial guards who had followed Zhang Zhao were, in their origins, either Han families with surviving lineages, or members of the Liang-Lan Wenmo and Six Valley Tribes whom Zhang Zhao had recovered.

These people were the most sinicized in Liangzhou, and in their hearts acknowledged themselves as Han.

Now that they had left, in the dozen-plus prefectures and seventy or eighty counties of Hexi and Longyou, what remained were half-sinicized Tuyuhun, Tibetans, and the various Qiang of the Tangut.

If one simply moved them all into the fertile, well-irrigated prefectures of Liang and Lan before they were thoroughly sinicized, that would be making trouble for oneself.

Although these people regarded Zhang Zhao as a god or Buddha, they could only be used gradually. At the very least, one had to ensure Han culture remained dominant in Hexi and Longyou while letting them in bit by bit.

Li Fang watched the Emperor's expression and said carefully: "Sage, in truth the lands of the Henan region are far more fertile than those around the Western Capital, Chengtian Prefecture. The reason they seem poor now is the lack of complete irrigation works and their having lain fallow too long.

If these lands could be leveled and prepared, they could perfectly well be used to exchange for the lands of the personal army and imperial guard warriors in the Western Capital."

"Alas, too many fortified manors occupy the strategic points and control large numbers of farming households. Even if the land were leveled, it still could not compare with the Western Capital, Chengtian Prefecture."

In fact, Zhang Zhao had not failed to consider leveling the lands around the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, and using them to exchange for the lands of the Western Capital, Chengtian Prefecture, in Liangzhou.

But the lands around the Eastern Capital had a particular feature: the places most convenient for irrigation and transport were all occupied by the fortified manors of local strongmen.

Their existence seriously hindered Zhang Zhao's development and use of the Henan lands.

If large-scale land equalization began now, the equalized fields would be carved into pieces by the strongmen's fortified manors, which would not only hamper resettlement but also leave hidden dangers.

"Your Majesty, in extraordinary times, one does extraordinary things. This subject knows Your Majesty pities the people and is unwilling to break up their homes and move them after they have suffered three years of great disaster and Khitan grass-cutting raids.

But in the present situation, if Your Majesty does not settle his warriors, neither family nor state will be secure. This subject ventures to ask: if our Great Zhou itself cannot be secured, when the nest is overturned, can any egg remain whole?"

Zhang Zhao was taken aback. Li Fang had come within a hair of pointing at his nose and saying he was too concerned with his reputation, to the point of appearing indecisive.

Zhang Zhao savored this carefully. It seemed he did indeed have this tendency, treating benevolence and righteousness as too important, so much so that sometimes he could not help but start performing.

"Then in your view, how should I handle this?" Zhang Zhao was not angered by Li Fang's bluntness, but humbly sought his counsel.

Li Fang could not help but press a hand to his chest. Speaking so bluntly to the Emperor, he had broken into a cold sweat for himself.

But fortunately, it seemed the Emperor truly was a worthy ruler who could take in others' opinions.

"This subject believes that now is the time to cut the tangled knot with a sharp blade. The Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture, and the Divine Capital, Luoyang, as well as Shanzhou and Hezhong Prefecture upstream, should immediately begin destroying the fortified manors and releasing the people.

Of the great clans formerly in the manors, the wealthiest portion should be settled in the Divine Capital, Luoyang; the portion with the most military strength should be absorbed into the imperial guards for service; and the obstinate should be severely punished.

The common people of the manors should be broken up and resettled in various places. They can first be ordered to level the land and plant the abandoned fields with peas, soybeans, and other soil-enriching crops to restore fertility.

The already-cultivated fields of the manors Your Majesty can use precisely to exchange for the lands of the personal army and imperial guard warriors.

And the reclaimed abandoned lands can be used to continue rewarding warriors as Great Dynasty fubing, with a portion drawn out in the middle to grant to the common people for land equalization."

"But..." Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin, still somewhat hesitant. "If we do it this way, would it not be exactly the same as in the rumors?"

"How could it be the same? In the rumors, after forced land equalization, no one cares whether the manor people live or die.

But by this method, Your Majesty would need to support the people for at least a year and a half, because when planting legumes to enrich the soil, the harvest will certainly not be enough to eat. If Your Majesty supports the people for over a year, is that not benevolent enough?"

Zhang Zhao was somewhat moved by this. Still, supporting the people who came out of the manors for over a year would cost no small sum in grain, oil, salt, sauce, and vinegar, but it should be enough to silence the mouths of the world.

"If that is so, then we can only make the ruler of Southern Tang suffer a little more. Otherwise next year's grain truly will not be enough." A ruthless expression appeared on Zhang Zhao's face.

According to Li Fang's strategy, for a year and a half, at least along the southern bank of the Yellow River, one could not expect to collect much tax revenue, and would instead have to sink in quite a lot.

With the great battle against Liu Zhiyuan imminent, grain would again be insufficient. Apart from squeezing Southern Tang, there was no other good solution.

Li Fang glanced at the Emperor strangely, then immediately lowered his eyelids again. He weighed his words for a moment before speaking slowly.

"If we count only the prefectures and counties on the south bank of the great river—Hezhong, Shanzhou, the Divine Capital, the Eastern Capital, Huazhou, Chanzhou—the able-bodied population released from the manors would be only around seven hundred thousand.

And these manors have stockpiled large quantities of grain. Simply confiscating theirs would be enough to feed the people."

When Zhang Zhao heard this, he immediately sent a palace attendant to summon the Director of the Population Bureau of the Ministry of Revenue to bring the household population data. He found that Li Fang's estimate was fairly accurate.

In the vast Central Plains region south of the Yellow River, before Shi Jingtang entered Kaifeng, the population had been relatively flourishing. The core fifteen prefectures and one hundred seventeen counties had over four million people.

But now, after three years of great disaster and Khitan grass-cutting raids, the remaining population, by rough count, was only around three million.

In less than twenty years, the population had lost more than a quarter, and eighty percent of that quarter had been lost in the last five years.

The major prefectural cities, county towns, and large cities like the Divine Capital and the Eastern Capital Kaifeng Prefecture, along with their surrounding countryside, that the court could still control now held about one and a half million people.

The rest were scattered across this vast Central Plains, and of those, about half were controlled by fortified manors — that was credible.

Still, Zhang Zhao rather disliked this policy, which was no different from robbery. It ran completely counter to the principles he now upheld and to the education of later ages.

All the more so because his ideal was to come to this world and revive the Chinese nation. Yet no sooner had he founded a state than he began this sort of operation, like the Manchu Qing practice of seizing land by riding around it on horseback — that was something he could not accept.

Moreover, the fortified-manor magnates of the Henan lands were not the same as those of Hebei.

Hebei had a tradition. From the An-Shi Rebellion onward, through the Three Garrisons of Hebei, and finally to resisting the Khitan, the Hebei magnates had always carried the label of armed force.

They had been banding together in mutual-defense associations for over a hundred years. A single fortified manor was a small local armed force.

But Henan was not like that. Henan had purely been forced into this state by chaotic times and brutal officials.

One could say that, by law, if you executed every other fortified-manor leader in Hebei, there would still be some who slipped through the net. But the fortified-manor leaders of Henan were, for the most part, pitiful people driven to Mount Liang.

"Better to use the method of borrowing and redemption. Organize the common people of the fortified manors into jia of ten households, with a jia head appointed; ten jia make a bao, with a bao head appointed; five bao make a li, with a qi elder appointed. Above the qi elders, the court dispatches officials to administer.

The cultivated fields that the fortified-manor leaders hand over shall be graded upper, middle, and lower. After the land is reorganized, it shall be repaid one-for-one according to acreage and grade.

Those who understand the court's difficulties and come forward on their own initiative to organize the people shall be appointed on the spot as bao heads or qi elders, and when their land is repaid, it shall be at a ratio of one to two.

The grain in the fortified manors shall be registered in the court's ledgers, and over a five-year period it shall be repaid in batches at value in silver, coin, cloth, silk, and other goods. But if there are still those who fail to see reason, they shall be punished with the utmost severity."

In truth, for the Henan lands, land was not scarce at all.

This was equivalent to the greater part of a later-age Henan Province plus a portion of Shandong and Hubei, and only a little over three million people lived on it. How could all the land possibly be taken up?

Even at the current level of productivity, it could support seven or eight times as many.

Historically, by the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, Henan still had land that had lain fallow so long it was hard to bring back under cultivation. So there was no need to cling to the land, and the population was nowhere near large enough that, as in the Republic, you could not equalize the fields without striking down the local tyrants.

Li Fang's brows furrowed slightly. In his eyes, the Emperor before him seemed wrapped in mist.

At times brilliant and godlike, at other times fussing over trifles.

Some obvious things he often failed to see through, yet many things hidden deep within enigmas he could pierce at a single glance.

For instance, in the matter of smashing the fortified manors of the Henan lands, an ordinary emperor would certainly send troops to intimidate them and squeeze out their wealth for his own use and to win over his officers and soldiers.

A wiser emperor would have begun smashing the fortified manors long ago and would never have waited until now.

But what of this Shaoming Son of Heaven? First he campaigned far against the Southern Tang, killing until heads rolled like waves; then he won over the far more difficult Hebei magnates; yet for the Henan fortified manors, he dragged things out until this moment.

And now he actually wanted to compensate the common people. Should one call him benevolent and loving of the people, or merely womanishly soft-hearted?

But in the next moment, Li Fang's brow smoothed out. Although the Emperor's wish to compensate the fortified-manor people would inevitably put some pressure on the court's finances, serving such an emperor set everyone above and below at ease.

They need not worry that the Emperor would throw them into prison or confiscate their homes at any moment, still less that he would kill people on a whim. Everything you gained was guaranteed.

So long as you did not break the law and provoke heaven's wrath and the people's resentment, you need not live in constant fear for your life. And whatever the Emperor said would always hold true.

"Your Majesty is truly a lord of benevolence and virtue! Emperors down through the ages have only regretted that their coffers were too small; none has ever had cause to subsidize the common people. On behalf of these million living souls, your servant kowtows in gratitude for Your Majesty's grace."

(End of Chapter)

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