Chapter 692: The Powerful Landlords Are the Fattest Chives to Harvest

Toward the powerful-landlord class, Zhang Zhao was perhaps the most tolerant of all founding rulers in history.

Never mind Emperor Guangwu of Han — he had no choice.

In his early years, to move against the powerful landlords was to move against his own foundations.

By the time he wanted to move against them later, not only had the powerful landlords grown into a force of their own, but he himself was already advanced in years, in the twilight of a hero's life, and so he simply let it pass with eyes half open and half shut.

Zhang Zhao was different. If he wanted to move against these so-called powerful landlords, it was a very simple matter.

Besides, there were no powerful landlords in the realm worth launching a major campaign against. Those petty local strongmen in the villages could all be dealt with by a single company of garrison troops, or even by a few martial officers and constables.

But since the founding of the Zhang Zhou dynasty, Zhang Zhao had only done some things in Henan and Hebei such as restricting fortified manors and releasing commoners, without ever touching the foundations of the powerful landlords.

The reason was simple: Zhang Zhao, coming from a later age, did not look at problems from the same angle as the rulers of his own time or before.

The rulers of his own time and before did not know the course of later history, did not know from which direction danger would come — but Zhang Zhao did.

In his heart, he never believed that the Zhang Zhou dynasty could last for ten thousand generations, nor did he believe that founding a dynasty was his historical responsibility.

Therefore, although in his heart he very much wished that Zhang Zhou could be passed down forever, with his descendants living as masters above others generation after generation, he was not prepared to force the matter for the glory of one family and one surname.

While working to extend the lifespan of the Zhang Zhou state as much as possible, Zhang Zhao had another goal: to reverse the conservative, civil-over-military ethos that, in history, was about to arrive.

To ensure that the gaze of his countrymen would not be so shortsighted as to see only the thirteen provinces of the Han lands, but would extend to the great deserts, the snowy mountains, the grasslands, the jungles, and the vast oceans.

This was also the greatest reason he had set the dynastic name as Zhou.

This was the age when Buddhism and Chinese culture fully merged, the age when Confucianism revived once more, the age when the ethos of a thousand years was transformed — and even more, the beginning of classical China's decline.

Only by once again stirring up a great tide of "Xia lords over Yi subjects," as King Wu of Zhou had done, could it be saved!

Therefore, Zhang Zhao was not a fanatical supporter of the commandery-county system. He had seen what kind of predicaments the two Song dynasties and the Great Ming encountered after they zealously climbed onto the great tide of the commandery-county system.

When the state was rising, the commandery-county system helped the central government seize all power under heaven, which was certainly beneficial to the rule of one family and one surname, and also conducive to long-term peace and stability.

But when the state was declining, a thorough commandery-county system and high centralization meant that a vast, glorious empire, once it lost its center, became like a cat or dog seized by the throat.

In Zhang Zhao's view, the commandery-county system and high centralization required at least two things: the telegraph and the railway.

Only when those two things spread throughout the realm could the central government know everything happening in the localities as clearly as the palm of its hand. Only then would the age be ripe for a full commandery-county system.

Otherwise, as at present, from Khotan to Luoyang was a full eight thousand li.

The so-called eight-hundred-li express relay was supposed to cover it in ten days, but in reality there was no such efficiency; a hundred fifty to two hundred li a day was the limit.

That is to say, if something major happened in Khotan that required the central government to dispatch troops, it would take forty days for the news to reach the center without stopping day or night; ten days for the center to make a decision was not slow; and then another forty days to send an imperial envoy back to Khotan.

Going and coming, that was ninety days. In three months, anything could happen: a small matter would already have grown large, and a large matter would already have spread like wildfire.

In a place like that, if you did not support a pile of small-scale powerful landlords to entrench themselves locally, then you had better prepare to raise a great trouble as hard to control as the Turgesh Khaganate, just as the Great Tang had done.

Moreover, unlike what later generations imagined — that powerful landlords necessarily wanted to rebel — most powerful landlords did not want to rebel at all.

What they thought about most was actually for the central government to recognize their control over their localities, so that they could lord it over their own territory.

They were a threat to state centralization, but they were also a guarantee of the state's full mobilization.

And in the eyes of Zhang Zhao, who was preparing to send Xia lords among Yi subjects, what kind of family could be driven out to lord over Yi subjects and still get the job done — was it not precisely this group of people?

If they did not go, were the common folk who toiled at farming back home supposed to go?

Would they not be torn apart and eaten by all manner of barbarians from every corner of the earth? That would not be Xia lords over Yi subjects; that would be sending them to their deaths.

For example, when Zhang Xiancun went to Dali, Zhang Zhao planned to have families like Li Congzhao's, Han Baozheng's, An Shuqian's, and the Li Zun family before him — powerful landlords great and small — contribute men and money and go along.

When the time came, one family would be placed in each county of Dali, given titles such as Pacification Commissioner and Inspection Commissioner, and set up as native chieftains.

Once they gained a firm foothold, the small powerful landlords of the Central Plains would have grown up, and the sons of these native chieftain families would have grown up too.

The court would then join them in contributing money and grain to continue southward, and over one or two hundred years, crush all the native powerful landlords on the Indochinese Peninsula and establish dozens or hundreds of Zhou native chieftain states. Would the matter not be accomplished then?

So Zhang Zhao, who had long held these ideas, did not look at the local strongmen who emerged with a wary eye at all, but with the eye of one looking at chives to be harvested.

Other emperors harvest the chives of the common people; I, Sage Zhang, specialize in harvesting the chives of the powerful landlords.

Zhang Zhao reckoned he could probably live another thirty years, so he would just keep harvesting chives for thirty years.

Once the harvesting became a habit, and the benefits of Xia lords over Yi subjects began to show increasing returns, this ethos could be considered established.

As long as there were benefits, these powerful landlords great and small, these chive-harvesters, would probably scramble to go out, wouldn't they?

As for the greatest aftereffect of this matter — namely, that the Zhang Zhou court's control over the border regions would be relatively weak, along with the series of problems arising from that.

Regarding this drawback, Zhang Zhao felt it still depended on how one looked at it. As long as the Six Dharma Sect controlling the grasslands to the west did not have major problems, the challenges to the central regime would not be very great.

At least within the foreseeable several hundred years, the sea would not become the danger that destroyed the traditional Eastern order of China.

Even in the worst case, if in the future Zhang Zhao's enfeoffments and semi-enfeoffments everywhere produced many rebels, and someone could even unite these forces and push back into the Central Plains to destroy the Zhang Zhou dynasty.

That would not matter either. When Zhou destroyed Yin-Shang, the realm still belonged to all the people of the state — far better than falling into the situation of later generations.

Li Zun prostrated himself on the ground, but saw only that the Emperor's gaze was inscrutable. A chill ran through his heart again and again. Could it be that the Emperor even felt wariness toward a local strongman family like theirs, in one small county?

From this, Li Zun thought further: could the Emperor be planning to use their family as the chicken killed to warn the monkeys?

The more he thought, the more terrified he became. He, who had come full of confidence to win a great official hat from the Emperor, now felt as though he had fallen into an ice pit.

Li Zun reproached himself endlessly in his heart: he should not have been greedy in the first place; he should have known that the court would never permit a family like theirs to exist.

"From hearing your words and observing your bearing, you have studied?" Only after Zhang Liecheng whispered a few words in Zhang Zhao's ear did Zhang Zhao make his decision.

Although he was pleased to see the growth of local strongmen, this Li Zun before him still needed a thorough dressing-down, because their family's boldness was of the especially great kind.

This family could produce brave and heroic figures like Li Zun and Fan Changgong, and had Han identity, yet was not very famous in Hexi and Longyou — there was a reason for that.

It turned out that this Li family of theirs was connected by marriage to the the the Shatuo Li family of Lanzhou back in the day.

Twelve years earlier, the the the Shatuo Li family of Lanzhou had resisted Zhang Zhao's entry into Lanzhou, and were subsequently attacked and destroyed by Ma Zhaoyuan and Murong Xinzhang, whom Zhang Zhao dispatched.

In the years after that, Zhang Zhao used the pretext of rooting out the remnants of the the the Shatuo Li clan of Lanzhou to launch large-scale campaigns against the recalcitrant forces in the prefectures and counties of Lan, Yuan, Hui, He, Wei, and elsewhere.

As in-laws of the the the Shatuo Li family, Li Zun's family had, at that time, taken in large numbers of the the Shatuo people who were wanted by Zhang Zhao, then serving as Military Governor of Hexi and concurrently Surveillance and Disposal Commissioner of the five prefectures of Shan, Lan, He, Kuo, and Wei.

Fearing that Zhang Zhao would campaign against them, the whole clan fled up Mount Niaoshutongxue, and later, even more afraid of being reported, they dared not come down to surrender.

But at that time, Zhang Zhao's Hexi-Longyou group prospered continuously, and people under the Li family's control kept running down the mountain to pledge service to Zhang Zhao.

Zhang Zhao had also heard that there were people on Mount Niaoshutongxue who refused to submit to royal rule, and had sent Lu Sanlang to attack and clear them out several times.

It was just that at the time Zhang Zhao was busy swallowing up Yinzhou and the Xia provinces and advancing into Guanzhong, and besides, Mount Niaoshutongxue was very large, so ordinary mopping-up operations were hard to make effective. Lu Sanlang's two sweeps had also captured several thousand people and brought them down the mountain, and he figured there couldn't be too many people still up there, so he stopped taking the matter seriously.

In the end, unexpectedly, the Li Zun family really did have a fair amount of resilience. Despite suffering blow after blow, its core members had still managed to survive.

When Li Zun heard Zhang Zhao ask whether he had studied the classics, he was briefly taken aback, then nodded and replied, "In Longxi, this subject spent several years working on the Shangshu."

Zhang Zhao's eyebrows rose. That word "working on" was not one to be used casually. Converted into later-age terms, "working on" did not mean studying, but researching.

"Working on the Shangshu" meant he had already moved past the stage of studying the Shangshu and turned to delving into it. In a later age, he would at least be a graduate student in some field.

Even with the developed economy and educational support of a later age, graduate students were not a large share of the population, to say nothing of this era.

Zhang Zhao immediately summoned the Hanlin Academician and Secretariat Drafter Dou Yi to come examine him.

After a long while, Dou Yi reported back to Zhang Zhao, saying, "This man's learning is passable, but only by Longyou standards. Within the Central Kingdom, though not countless, he would certainly not count as any great talent."

Having said that, Dou Yi paused, as if considering something, before continuing, "However, this young lord's aptitude for the Shangshu is indeed quite good. But to work on the Shangshu, one cannot study only Kong Taichang's Shangshu Zhengyi.

For those who write books and commentaries all speak only for their own school. To truly work on it, one must study and read broadly. My family's library is quite rich. If you can come to the Eastern Capital, to Kaifeng Prefecture, then come seek out the Dou family north of the city."

Kong Taichang was the great Tang Confucian scholar Kong Yingda. No sooner had his Shangshu Zhengyi been completed than it was fiercely attacked by many masters of classical studies, and the Wujing Zhengyi, which included the Shangshu Zhengyi, was at the time almost universally reviled.

A large part of the reason was that Kong Yingda had been dragged into the struggle between Li Erfeng and the great aristocratic clans, and his interpretations of the Five Classics were heavily biased.

In the end it grew so bad that Emperor Taizong of Tang could barely hold out and told Kong Yingda to revise it, but Kong Yingda fell ill and died before he could even begin.

Thus by this time, the view that one could not rely solely on Kong Yingda's Shangshu Zhengyi when working on the Shangshu had practically become a consensus.

"Hahaha!" Zhang Zhao was in excellent spirits and clapped his hands, laughing heartily at the side.

"People say Dou Yanshan is a benevolent and virtuous gentleman who is also skilled at raising his sons. Seeing him today, it is indeed so."

Dou Yi's father was named Dou Yujun. Because he was from the Yanshan region, people called him Dou Yanshan. The "Dou Yanshan" in the Three Character Classic — "Dou Yanshan, who had the right method, taught five sons, all of whom became famous" — refers to him.

Zhang Zhao said this because what Dou Yi had said to Li Zun was dangerous.

For among the officials following Zhang Zhao, anyone who was not a fool would certainly have seen that Zhang Zhao seemed quite displeased with this Li Zun.

By all reason, Dou Yi should have harshly denounced Li Zun and made him out to be worthless. Instead, Dou Yi not only reported the truth but also judged Li Zun to have aptitude and was willing to invite him to his own home to read his books.

Of course, this also indirectly showed that Li Zun truly did have talent. To have studied the Shangshu on Mount Niaoshutongxue, he could be considered of rough, self-taught origins, yet he had still managed to earn Dou Yi's appreciation.

It had rather the flavor of a later-age shepherd boy getting into Peking University.

"Issue an edict: Dou Yujun is skilled at raising his sons. Reward him with three jars of purple wine, tribute from Khotan, and one fat sheep, and permit him to enter the Qionglin Academy to read." Zhang Zhao said to the inner attendant behind him.

The Qionglin Academy was the royal library established by Zhang Zhao. It housed a great collection of treasured books from all over, especially from the Gao family of the Nanping Kingdom.

Sun Guangxian and others had been ordered to sort and identify them, and even now they had not completed half the work, which showed how rich the collection was.

Dou Yi was overjoyed at these words and repeatedly thanked Zhang Zhao for his grace. His own Dou family was also famed for its rich book collection, but it certainly could not compare to Zhang Zhao's, which had been gathered so quickly and abundantly through what might be called "plunder" by the army.

Therefore, when at home, Dou Yi's father Dou Yanshan would often climb the big tree in the family compound and gaze out toward the Qionglin Academy far off in the imperial palace, often saying that if he could go in and read for just one night, his life would not have been in vain.

Watching the usually composed Dou Yi lose his composure somewhat, Zhang Zhao said with a smile to Zhang Liecheng, "It seems this Dou Yanshan has had his eye on Our books for a long time! Even Dou Kexiang has grown impatient.

Let us simply do the good deed thoroughly. Pick out those in the Embroidered Uniform Guard skilled at riding and have them rush back overnight to deliver the edict to Dou Yanshan, so that he may feast his eyes all the sooner."

Seeing how thoroughly Zhang Zhao had considered everything, Dou Yi's eyes reddened as he looked at Sage Zhang and performed a full kowtow of deepest gratitude.

Li Zun watched all this silently from the side, and could not help but feel a jolt of alarm.

This emperor's method of bestowing favor had already reached the level of the antelope hanging by its horns, leaving no trace to be found. With just a few casual words and a few arrangements, he could strike precisely at the deepest longing in the heart of the one being rewarded.

Truly a sage born once in five hundred years!

After rewarding Dou Yi, Zhang Zhao looked at Li Zun, still prostrated on the ground, and let out a long sigh.

"This homeland of ours, after all, still lacks a bit of literary refinement. It has produced no shortage of fierce and heroic men, but as for learned scholars of broad erudition, there is not a single one."

The phrase "this homeland of ours" had no particularly flowery rhetoric, yet it at once stirred Li Zun's emotions, as if he truly were a fellow native of Sage Zhang's home region. In fact, the two men's homelands were far apart.

"That you could persist in hard study up on Mount Niaoshutongxue — it must have been rather difficult, was it not?" Zhang Zhao asked gently.

Li Zun raised his head a little, a few glints of light flashing in his eyes. "This is what my clan's continuity rests upon. Though this servant dwells in the border wilds, he cannot forget his studies."

This truly was a talent. His ferocity and valor rivaled a wild bear's, and studying letters in the border wilds, he had still managed to earn the appreciation of a learned man.

Given time and proper cultivation, he would be a great talent fit to serve as general abroad and minister at court!

"This descent from the mountain must have been your idea, was it not? Learn the arts of letters and war, and sell them to the imperial house. When one's abilities cannot be put to use, it must surely be hard to bear."

Li Zun's heart pounded. He had already begun to realize that Zhang Zhao must know the full history of his family, and so he lowered the head he had just raised and buried it again, answering in an even more submissive posture, "Your Majesty's sagely brilliance illuminates all. It is indeed so."

"Then what is Li Chunzhong to you?" Zhang Zhao asked directly.

Li Chunzhong was the younger brother of Li Chunxiao, the former head of the the the Shatuo Li clan of Lanzhou. Li Chunxiao had been killed, and his head had even been presented to the court, but Li Chunzhong had never been found.

Li Zun fell silent for a long while, and only after much hesitation answered truthfully, "Li Chunzhong is my father."

"You are a the the Shatuo lad?"

Hm? This was something Zhang Zhao had not expected. Damn it, just now you were saying that study was what your clan's continuity rested upon, and now it turns out you're not even a Han but a the the Shatuo.

But unexpectedly, this one sentence from Zhang Zhao provoked Li Zun. He suddenly raised his head and looked at Zhang Zhao in anguish as he asked,

"Sage, we the the Shatuo lads have been subject to the great dynasty for several hundred years. We have made mistakes, but we have also shed blood.

By now we speak the Tang tongue, wear Han clothing, practice Han rites, and study the Han classics. Can we still not be counted as Han?"

This actually gave Zhang Zhao pause. He was right! The the the Shatuo had long since merged into the Han, and Han and the the Shatuo were now basically indistinguishable from one another.

"It was a slip of the tongue on Our part. A the the Shatuo lad such as you is indeed a Han."

But then Zhang Zhao raised his voice and, with a hint of anger, rebuked him, "If you are a Han lad, then how is it you do not know Han law and order?

How dare you, in a prefecture where We have stationed Our personal army and the imperial guard, collude with forces on all sides and disregard the government's prohibitions? What is it you intend to do?"

Zhang Zhao was like a male lion whose territory had been invaded. Whether they were local strongmen or not, Zhang Zhao did not care — but not in his Hexi and Longyou.

Because this was Zhang Zhao's private preserve. In all of Hexi and Longyou there could exist only one local strongman, and that was the Zhang-Zhou imperial house.

Over the years, it was not as though no great clans had appeared with dozens of officers in the personal army and imperial guard, but in the end Zhang Zhao had easily split them all apart.

Yet unexpectedly, around this little Mount Niaoshutongxue, there were still people secretly exploiting gaps in his arrangements.

"That was my father's doing. He passed away from illness a year ago. This servant and the Li clan wish only to be the Sage's loyal children. I beg the Sage to grant this."

Li Zun knew there was no other way now. All he could do was plead and hope to win the Sage's sympathy.

Well-versed in the Book of Documents, he knew even better that an emperor who could say without the slightest hesitation, "It was I who misspoke," was not someone a petty rural magnate like himself could deal with through any sort of trickery.

Zhang Zhao studied this Li Zun carefully for a long moment before asking, "Then tell me, how do you intend to be this newborn child?"

Li Zun's face lit up with joy, and he declared loudly, "Your servant has over one hundred and thirty able-bodied men, all skilled in riding and archery, ready to be dispatched by the Sage to the ends of the earth."

"To be able to give up such a vast family estate shows some sincerity. Before noon tomorrow, have all the able men of your household report to Tianshui Prefecture for selection.

As for you, stay by my side. There is no rush to the battlefield — spend a few more years reading."

Li Zun was moved to tears of gratitude, and at the same time genuinely felt that Sage Zhang was broad-minded, daring to keep even the descendant of a criminal like himself at his side.

But he did not see Zhang Liecheng, standing behind Zhang Zhao, smile mysteriously.

It was hardly that simple. Without handing over a batch of fellows like himself as a pledge of allegiance, did he think he could become the Emperor's trusted confidant?

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