Chapter 679: The Emperor's Craft

Zhang Xichong's death truly came at an inconvenient time.

As mentioned earlier, Pei Yuan was now in effect an isolated minister.

The civil and military officials of the Central Plains — whether from Henan, Hebei, or Hedong — all believed that Pei Yuan had followed Zhang Zhao as early as his return from the east, and therefore naturally belonged to the Yong-Liang meritorious faction.

But in reality, Pei Yuan had long been in Shuofang and had not led troops or fought many battles, so within the Yong-Liang meritorious faction, neither the original followers, nor the eastern returnees, nor the Liang-Lan-Liugu faction regarded him as one of their own.

As a result, although Pei Yuan was very close to the Emperor, he had no real foundation anywhere in the court.

Isolated ministers had their advantages: they often won greater trust from the emperor and could act with fewer reservations.

But there were drawbacks too — when an isolated minister was asked to do the things Pei Yuan now had to do, he often faced the embarrassment of having no one to use.

Often, for an isolated minister to get things done, he could only rely on ruthless methods and the borrowed authority of the emperor, but this in turn provoked resentment among the other ministers, making it very hard to truly accomplish anything.

Zhang Zhao had originally intended for Zhang Xichong, with his lofty prestige and good relationship with Pei Yuan, to shield Pei Yuan from some of the storms and act as a mediator. Now that he was gone, Pei Yuan had lost his most important support.

Moreover, while Zhang Zhao had concentrated a great deal of power in the Secretariat, the outer court had still been able to retain considerable power and authority, largely thanks to Zhang Xichong's strength in Zhang Zhao's presence.

When old Master Zhang lost his temper and stiffened his neck, even Zhang Zhao often had to yield a step or two.

But with Zhang Xichong gone, none of the outer court figures — He Ning, Zhao Ying, Wei Renpu, and the rest — had that kind of ability or courage.

The Commissioner of Military Affairs Guo Tiance went without saying; he was simply Zhang Zhao's personal secretary sent out to hold office. Give him a hundred times the courage and he still would not dare challenge Zhang Zhao.

That being the case, in order to maintain the balance between the inner and outer courts, Zhang Zhao had no choice but to strengthen the outer court's authority somewhat. Otherwise the outer court would become a mere appendage of the inner court, which would do Zhang Zhao no good either.

After much deliberation, there was only one way now: first give Feng Dao a push and let him step into Zhang Xichong's position.

This famous historical "tumbler," though not heavily employed during Zhang Zhao's reign, was only so in relative terms. The Minister of Rites was still an extremely important link for Zhang Zhao, who had raised the banner of restoring the Rites of Zhou.

More importantly, although Feng Dao's political achievements were not conspicuous at this time, he had one great virtue: he was not envious by nature and could promote worthy men.

History records that within and without the court, the scholars of the age, whether worthy or foolish, all looked up to Feng Dao as an elder statesman and delighted in praising him.

In other words, Feng Dao at this time, if placed in the Song or Ming dynasties, would have been the leader of the scholarly world. That was why Pei Yuan said he bore the literary hopes of the realm.

Placing such a man — one who could harmonize yin and yang and promote the worthy — in the position of Chief Minister was the best possible solution.

At the same time, Zhang Zhao also prepared to send the Vice Director of the Secretariat Liu Tao out to fill the posts of Participating in Government Affairs and Minister of Rites vacated by Feng Dao.

Liu Tao was the earliest Later Jin court official to follow Zhang Zhao, and had even risked danger to serve as Zhang Zhao's planted agent in the Eastern Capital. Zhang Zhao trusted him even more than Pei Yuan and the Commissioner of Military Affairs Guo Tiance.

Sending such a man out to serve as Participating in Government Affairs and Minister of Rites would, first, strengthen the outer court's voice.

Second, it was a disguised way of showing that Liu Tao's status was still below Feng Dao's, giving the outer court another shot in the arm.

The third matter was to transfer the Participating in Government Affairs and Minister of War Wei Renpu into the Secretariat, to take up the post of Vice Director of the Secretariat left by Liu Tao.

This would send another signal to the outer court: that mobility between the inner and outer courts existed naturally, and that the inner court's Secretariat and the outer court's Department of State Affairs, Chancellery, and Bureau of Military Affairs had not become two separate systems.

The fourth preparation was to recall He Fujin from Taiyuan to take over Wei Renpu's two posts of Participating in Government Affairs and Minister of War.

The military men still needed placating. Zhang Zhou's court was now essentially staffed entirely by civil officials as chief ministers, which had already made many military men uneasy. Recalling He Fujin now would help set their minds at ease.

After all this maneuvering, Zhang Zhao felt dizzy and exhausted, but this was the necessary craft of an emperor — and it was not over yet.

Liu Tao, as Vice Director of the Secretariat, was now suddenly being sent out to the outer court to serve as Participating in Government Affairs and Minister of Rites, a clear demotion in status. On one hand, Liu Tao needed to be properly placated.

On the other hand, it had to be skillfully shown to the outside world that Liu Tao had not lost the emperor's favor, but was in fact the emperor's absolute confidant, which was why he was willing to make this sacrifice for the emperor.

If this was not handled well, those who fawn on the powerful and kick the weak could make Liu Tao — whose abilities were not particularly strong to begin with — unable to do his work, or even break his spirit.

Next, for Pei Yuan's trip to the Eastern Capital to reform Buddhism, Zhang Zhao intended to grant him full authority and greatly elevate his political standing and official rank.

But Pei Yuan had not accumulated much merit, and even though Zhang Zhao was the emperor, he could not suddenly raise him out of thin air. He still had to find a way for him to earn some credit.

The same went for Feng Dao: to go from the lightly used posts of Participating in Government Affairs and Minister of Rites to Director of the Department of State Affairs and Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery, he too needed a bit of merit to make it seem legitimate.

Just at this moment, Yin Yaozi Yin Zhengqi sent up a memorial from Chengdu Prefecture, and the matter Zhang Zhao had been worried about was indeed brewing.

Because Zhang Zhao had not given Yin Yaozi full authority and the battle-axe of command when entering Shu, in the post-war distribution of rewards he had to report upward first and could not reward the meritorious officers and soldiers on his own authority.

And after the troops entered Chengdu Prefecture, many had been stimulated by the great achievement of destroying a state until their minds were somewhat adrift.

Although it had not yet reached the point of the Song army "beating the grass" in Shu, incidents of looking down on the Shu people, arrogance over their achievements, and accepting bribes from powerful Shu families and wealthy merchants were still frequent. The military law office's provosts had even already uncovered several dozen soldiers extorting money.

Zhang Zhao thought it over — was this not exactly the moment for Pei Yuan and Feng Dao to earn military merit?

So Zhang Zhao first summoned Liu Tao to console him and settled Liu Tao's concerns, then called Wei Renpu to attend at his side so he could familiarize himself with the work of Vice Director of the Secretariat.

This was actually not difficult, because Zhang Zhao's Vice Director of the Secretariat was, most of the time, a yes-man. Liu Tao had done it that way, and Wei Renpu seemed mild-tempered enough that he should be able to adapt.

Finally, Zhang Zhao summoned Pei Yuan and Feng Dao. Besides sending them as imperial envoys to assist Yin Yaozi Yin Zhengqi in handling affairs, Zhang Zhao also prepared to send them to the Songzhou and Fuzhou area in northwestern Sichuan.

This was roughly the area of later Songpan, Huanglong, and Aba Prefecture in Sichuan.

The reason for going there was that, through the introduction of the Lun Zhangbomi family — a great Tibetan clan in Huangshui Prefecture that had already begun sinicizing — and the Wenbu family, a great Tibetan surname of Taozhou.

The great Tibetan and Qiang clans of Song, Fu, and Wei prefectures — the Songchang, Misang, Xianjie, and others — were preparing to submit to Zhang Zhao, and had petitioned for the Supreme Heaven to send Rinpoches (gurus) into the three prefectures to build temples, so that the people of the three prefectures might bathe in the grace of the Supreme Heaven.

If one asked whom Zhang Zhao's Hexi Six Dharma Sect had most affected, the Han lands of the Central Plains had only felt a faint sense of crisis.

But for the already fragmented btsanpos on the plateau and the local primitive faiths, it was a pain that cut to the bone.

As the ascetic monks and Rinpoches of Hexi continued to enter Qingtang, combined with Zhang Zhao's enormous prestige and strength, they had beaten the aforementioned two into a rout.

In the contest for the two most critical resources — vassals and believers — Zhang Zhao had hardly dispatched any troops.

Apart from the monks of the Six Dharma Sect, it was entirely the spontaneous action of the sinicized Tibetan and Qiang great clans of Huangshui Prefecture (Shanzhou), Hezhou, Taozhou, and other places.

Their enthusiasm was so high that they had now almost won Zhang Zhao more than half of later Qinghai and more than half of northern Sichuan. One had to say, this was strength!

But there seemed to be a side effect as well. It was said that the great and small Tibetans and chieftains on the Qingtang Plateau, who had originally been beating each other's brains out, were now making contacts everywhere, apparently preparing to strike a hard blow at the Six Dharma Sect.

So now was the perfect time to send Pei Yuan and Feng Dao on a trip. First, they could earn the merit of expanding territory and pacifying the frontier — and one must remember that even the Great Tang had never fully controlled these three prefectures.

Second, they could go see whether opposition forces really were gathering on the Qingtang Plateau.

On the third day of the sixth month, before Lady Huarui had even reached Chang'an, Zhang Zhao appointed Pei Yuan and Feng Dao as imperial envoys and, bearing Zhang Zhao's edict, they set out for Chengdu Prefecture to help Yin Zhengqi pacify the army.

Pei Yuan and Feng Dao both knew their responsibility was great and time was pressing. Escorted by a hundred elite cavalry of the Hanshan Unit, they took only simple luggage and traveled day and night toward Chengdu Prefecture.

When they reached Hanzhou (Guanghan), Yin Yaozi Yin Zhengqi, the army's commander-in-chief holding the situation for Zhang Zhao, even left Chengdu in person and came to Hanzhou to meet them — a sign of how urgent his mood was.

After they met, Yin Zhengqi exchanged no pleasantries and directly laid two problems on the table.

First, the rewards had not been clarified, and the army's officers were eyeing the wealth of Shu with envy. Most were beginning to stir restlessly, to the point that even Yin Zhengqi was somewhat worried.

So he hoped to get Pei Yuan's help in tightening military discipline as soon as possible — after all, as a commander, he still very much needed to borrow the Emperor's prestige.

Moreover, the men under him were all the riffraff Zhang Zhao had sent him from every corner of the realm, and their composition was extremely mixed.

When everyone was of one mind to win the glory of destroying a state, Yin Zhengqi could wield them as easily as his own arm, but now that the great achievement was in hand and each unit began to cut loose, they had become somewhat hard to control.

The second matter was the handling of Meng Chang, the ruler of Shu — the retention of Shu's civil and military officials, and whether Yin Zhengqi or Ma Zhaoyuan would hold chief authority in Shu, still required Zhang Zhao to make the assignment personally.

Seeing the urgency, Pei Yuan did not hesitate. He immediately followed Yin Zhengqi into the city, not even dealing with Meng Chang, the ruler of Shu, but first went to the Moke Pool and, bearing the imperial tally, summoned all officers of the rank of Jiangyuhou and above who were still in Chengdu.

As the Emperor's trusted confidant, the great meritorious official who had enabled the Emperor to enter Liangzhou and lay the foundation of the Zhang-Zhou realm, and moreover the imperial envoy bearing the tally — under these multiple layers of authority, for the moment no one dared act insolently before Pei Yuan.

Pei Yuan first announced the Emperor's rewards for the army that had entered Shu.

The commander-in-chief of the Shu campaign, the Duke of Cai, Yin Zhengqi, was promoted to Duke of Qi, with an increase of one thousand households in his fief, of which fifty were actual.

Cai was a minor state of the Spring and Autumn period, but Qi was one of the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn and the Seven Powers of the Warring States — its renown was far beyond what Cai could compare to.

Thus Yin Zhengqi's promotion from Duke of Cai to Duke of Qi, though the rank of his title remained unchanged, was in substance an elevation.

In addition, the commander of the Shu-pacifying army, Ma Zhaoyuan, was promoted from Duke of Jiuquan Commandery to Duke of Chen.

Among the four men with the greatest merit in the entry into Hanzhong — Erzhu Jing, Jiao Jixun, Li Rong, and Wang Tongxin —

Erzhu Jing was promoted to Duke of Jincheng Commandery; Jiao Jixun and Li Rong also obtained the titles they had long dreamed of — Jiao Jixun was promoted to Marquis of Chenggu, and Li Rong to Marquis of Xixiang. Wang Tongxin was promoted from Marquis of Wucheng to Duke of Xingyuan Commandery.

In the Shu campaign army that had entered Shu through Kuimen, Guo Rong was enfeoffed as Count of Xinzhou, Zhao Kuangyin as Count of Zhongzhou, and Du Lun Chixin was promoted to Marquis of Lintao.

The remaining officers and soldiers each received rewards; military rank offices alone numbered more than two hundred.

Zhang Zhao also specially granted all officers of the rank of Jiangyuhou and above in the entire army the title of meritorious official: "Meritorious Official of Shu-Pacifying Martial Glory."

Though it was only a two-character meritorious title, it reached an extremely broad range of men, and so the assembled officers raised a mountain-shaking cry of "Long live the Emperor!"

A meritorious title carried no stipend of grain and no other special privileges, but it could be used when names were announced at banquets, these characters could be carved on portraits and tombstones, and in local county gazetteers, biographies of notable persons, and the compilation of clan genealogies, it could be solemnly recorded.

The special-class and first-class merits of the later republics evolved from exactly this.

For example, if an ordinary officer attended a banquet where names were announced, the herald could loudly proclaim "Meritorious Official of Shu-Pacifying Martial Glory, So-and-So" — and in an instant, all eyes would be upon him, and his standing would double.

But once the rewards were announced, Pei Yuan immediately became far less agreeable. He ordered men to distribute fish tally pouches, the size of golden-fish pouches but not imperially granted, to all the officers present.

Inside each fish pouch were two wooden beads, one square and one round. If a man had violated military law, he was to keep the square bead and take away the round one; if he had not violated military law, he was to keep the round bead and take away the square one.

For those who kept the square bead and voluntarily admitted their offenses, the military judges of the imperial envoy's military law office would come to verify the matter.

In cases where stolen goods were returned or surrendered, punishment could be reduced. But those who did not keep the square bead and were later found out would be punished with increased severity.

The officers present all knew that Pei Yuan was saving face for them — whether one kept the square bead or the round bead was inside the fish pouch, and no one else would know, and punishment would still be reduced.

But some men had cut loose too thoroughly, and right there in the crowd they began to clamor. Even the personal troops and imperial guards who had come from Hexi and Longyou had inevitably been infected by the temperament of the Central Plains warriors.

This was an age when warriors could soar to the heavens, and moreover, many of these officers were originally imperial guards and yabing guards from the Central Plains who had switched allegiance.

Before long, the clamor in the banquet grounds by the Moke Pool grew louder and louder, the agitation spread, and men in the crowd shouted that Pei Yuan could not arbitrarily deal with them, meritorious officials of Shu-pacifying, and so on.

But Pei Yuan, seated at the head, remained unhurried. He merely waved his hand and sent forward two young officers in silver-white lamellar armor, with silver-white-edged golden forehead bands, to intimidate them.

In no more than a dozen breaths, the clamoring officers all fell silent, for these two young officers were none other than the Emperor's eldest son, the Marquis of Shanshan, Zhang Xiancun, and his second son, the Marquis of Shicheng, Zhang Xianyu.

At present the Zhang-Zhou realm had no crown prince, and Zhang Xiancun and Zhang Xianyu were the imperial sons first in line of succession. In most people's eyes, the most likely heir apparent was one of these two.

Now that the two of them personally served as military law yuhou of the imperial envoy's military law office, who would dare make trouble?

To make trouble at this moment would not only affect oneself — it would affect one's sons and grandsons for generations.

The uproar was like a sudden gust of wind — it came quickly and went just as quickly. The moment Zhang Xiancun and Zhang Xianyu appeared, the officers all became perfectly well-behaved.

At this point the commanders of the various guards and armies also entered the grounds, and these officers, who had been floating up to the heavens in Shu, finally remembered once more the severity of military law. Some were even so frightened that they began confessing their crimes on the spot.

Pei Yuan and Yin Zhengqi exchanged a glance and both breathed a sigh of relief. At least it had not erupted into a mutiny.

Now that these mid- and lower-ranking officers had been brought to heel, it would be much easier to have them bring their soldiers under control.

Once military discipline was fully restored, they would single out a few of the most brazen offenders and deal with them harshly, and then announce the rewards for the rank-and-file soldiers.

A stick followed by a sweet date — their runaway hearts should then settle down, and they would once more become the Emperor's sharp claws, with a deeper recognition of the majesty of military law.

(End of Chapter)

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