Chapter 847: The Partition of Japan and the Iwami Silver Mine

The Great Zhou, Zhili, Kaifeng Prefecture, Huazhou.

Zhang Zhao was inspecting the banks of the Yellow River with Empress Cao Yanxi.

Although Zhang Zhao had begun planting trees to restore the ecology in the Mu Us Desert, northern Shaanxi, and northwestern Shanxi after he ascended the throne,

it had only been a few years, and the results were not yet obvious. Instead, the Yellow River, that perennial headache, had begun to show another side of itself.

From the first month of the eighth year of Shaoming (953), the Yellow River broke out in ice-jam flooding along nearly its entire course from Hezhong Prefecture to Huazhou.

What is called an ice-jam flood is when large expanses of ice in the river block the channel.

This ice does not melt easily; it remains solid, the floes are enormous, and most have irregular, razor-sharp edges that can easily smash through or crush the fragile river dikes of this season.

Of course, the most terrifying thing is when the lower reaches are still blocked by ice while spring has already arrived upstream.

Then great quantities of ice upstream melt, and the river water flows downstream bringing a huge volume of water, yet the lower reaches remain blocked.

Such a stark contrast can very easily produce great floods in the lower reaches without a single drop of rain falling anywhere along the river, and cause the dikes to burst.

Therefore, from the first month onward, the entire court, high and low, was mobilized.

Fortunately, in previous years the regions along the river had built a number of artificial lakes for flood diversion, and these now came in handy.

The Ministry of Works sent men to divert the river's flow while also deploying warships to smash the ice with striking poles, and even had fishermen and sailors pilot small boats out onto the great ice sheets to chop the ice to pieces.

Yet the man who distinguished himself most in dealing with the Yellow River ice-jam flood was not an official of the Ministry of Works, but a surrendered Southern Tang general captured at the Battle of Shouzhou, Chen Chengzhao.

This man was extremely talented in flood prevention and water conservancy. Zhang Zhao had swiftly promoted him from a naval Commander to Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works and concurrently Commissioner of the Waterways Office. Even Zhang Zhao himself, the Emperor, had to submit to his direction when he came to the Yellow River.

The danger of the ice-jam flood did not pass until the beginning of the third month, and only then did Zhang Zhao breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to return to the divine capital Luoyang for a few days of rest.

A bowl of plain congee, a dish of pickled vegetables, three coarse-grain steamed buns. Zhang Zhao loved fine food, but he could also make do with very little — the sort whose upper limit was high and whose lower limit was very low.

Especially after what he had experienced back then with the dark cuisine made by Wen Da and Wen Zhong's father in Tianshui, his lower limit had dropped even further.

Empress Cao Yanxi could not manage it. She lowered her head, and after slightly avoiding Zhang Zhao's gaze, she viciously pinched the coarse-grain bun with her small, scallion-white fingers.

Each time she pinched off just a tiny bit and tossed it into her mouth, looking less like she was eating and more like she was subjecting the coarse-grain bun to death by a thousand cuts.

As for the two boys beside them, the eldest son Zhang Xiancun had experienced the dark cuisine of the Wen family of Tianshui together with Zhang Zhao, so the coarse-grain bun before him was utterly trivial; he ate with even more relish than Zhang Zhao.

As for the fourth son Zhang Xianjing, who was being raised as the crown prince, although the little fellow clearly did not like it, he still forced himself to swallow mouthful after mouthful, and was careful not to let any food drop beneath the table.

They had not eaten more than a few bites when drums sounded in the distance. This was the great drum beaten only in emergencies. Zhang Zhao immediately pushed aside his bowl and chopsticks, and without waiting for the attendants to serve him, led the whole family toward Huazhou city.

They had not gone halfway, and had not even caught sight of Huazhou's city walls, when an express courier with three red banners strapped to his back arrived.

Zhang Zhao burst out laughing. A courier in such a hurry could only be bringing a battle report from Japan; there was nowhere else it could be from.

Sure enough, the battle report the courier handed over was sent back from Japan by Murong Xinzhang.

Although the report had been dispatched before Zhao Kuangyin had finished the Battle of Sendai, the results achieved before that alone were enough to send Zhang Zhao into ecstasy.

"Xinzhang has fought brilliantly! Three battles, three victories, destroying nearly two hundred thousand Japanese troops, slaying tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers and officers in battle, capturing and killing their ruler. Hmph!"

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao let out a cold snort, as though he were only now learning that the Japanese king styled himself Emperor. "A petty barbarian dares to call himself Emperor — an act of supreme treason!"

Cao Yanxi's face also lit up with joy. Xinzhang had finally lived up to everyone's expectations, and the more outstanding Murong Xinzhang was, the more secure her position and Zhang Xianjing's became. Seeing how pleased Zhang Zhao was, she said with some emotion:

"In former days the Japanese king sent a letter to Emperor Yang of Sui, calling himself the Son of Heaven of the land where the sun rises, addressing the Son of Heaven of the land where the sun sets. Insufferable arrogance. Only because Goguryeo still stood in those days could the Sui emperor swallow such insolence and discourtesy.

Today the Sage has destroyed his country and slain his arrogant ruler — he may truly be called a sage lord of China!"

In his heart, Zhang Zhao was overjoyed. In the long term, by taking Japan he had eliminated a second Goguryeo capable of posing a certain degree of challenge to Chinese civilization, removing a future calamity for his descendants.

In the near term, with Murong Xinzhang having taken Japan so quickly, the plan to go to the Americas in search of crops and to obtain gold and silver could be realized all the sooner.

Sage Zhang did not yet know that Yanshou had already ridden the Kuroshio Current, and in his heart he was still somewhat anxious.

And compared with Zhang Zhao's quiet delight, Zhang Xiancun was even more delighted, because once Murong Xinzhang's eastern campaign was over, most of the court's manpower and resources could finally be directed to his side.

While Murong Xinzhang was slaughtering his way through Japan, Zhang Xiancun and Guo Rong were not fighting smoothly in Dali.

Although they had taken Jianchang Prefecture (Xichang) and Wumeng City (Zhaotong) at the start, the Zhou army advancing south from Jianchang Prefecture was soon blocked by the Dali army at Dukou Pass, which is the later city of Panzhihua.

This is the confluence of the Lu River (Jinsha River) and the West Lu River (Yalong River), where the mountains are high and the currents swift. The Dali army held this pass with five thousand men and refused to come out, and thus blocked twenty thousand Zhou troops.

At the same time, although the army advancing south from Wumeng City (Zhaotong) had smoothly broken through the perilous passes of Dongchuan Commandery, Dali had mobilized the entire nation's strength to raise a great army and set up defenses along the Wumeng Mountains. With more than sixty thousand men holding the advantageous terrain, and Guo Rong having only a little over twenty thousand, he could not fight his way in for the time being.

As for the eight tribes of the Western Hills north of the Hengduan Mountains and the other Tibetan and Black and White Yi troops, they numbered only a little over ten thousand and were still besieging Yuzi City.

So from this one can see the problem: Dali was also a great state with a population of a million, yet the troops the Zhang Zhou dynasty had mobilized for the attack — the true elite — consisted only of the Right Leopard Guard of the personal army under Guo Rong, the Nanxi Garrison of the imperial guard, and the Wuping and Wude Garrisons of the imperial guard under Liu Zaisheng.

This one guard and three garrisons together amounted to no more than fourteen thousand men. Only by adding the other thirty thousand-plus garrison troops and the Tibetan and Western Hills Qiang conscripts did they barely scrape together fifty thousand.

One could say that the force responsible for attacking Dali was in reality just a single province, Sichuan.

It was not even the whole of Sichuan Province. At least the forces of the Fuling and Kuizhou prefectures in eastern Sichuan, garrisoned by Zhe Deyuan, were cooperating with Guo Wei in winning over and chastising the Zangke barbarians, in a military operation aimed at recovering the Qianzhong Circuit.

So where had the court's strength been transferred? Naturally, to support Murong Xinzhang's eastern campaign!

While Murong Xinzhang was campaigning against Japan, the Zhang Zhou court transferred the elite Left and Right Jinwu Guards of the personal army to the peninsula, mainly to take part in military operations to wipe out the remnants of Goryeo.

Because Murong Xinzhang's rule in Korea was not stable, and there were quite a few rising up in resistance below.

Since Murong Xinzhang's campaign against Japan, there had been at least several hundred incidents of vassals being attacked, of which more than twenty had caused death or injury, and three Patrol Commissioners had even died in the line of duty.

One could say that the reason Murong Xinzhang could campaign against Japan without worry was that Zhang Zhao, his father, would clean up his mess behind him.

And besides the Left and Right Jinwu Guards entering Korea, in order to stabilize the situation in Andong after Murong Xinzhang's departure, Yan Jin had also taken away two guards and four garrisons — tens of thousands of elite troops.

At the same time, to secure Murong Xinzhang's supplies in Japan, from the sixth year of Shaoming (951) onward, the Great Zhou court had dispatched more than two thousand transport ship sorties, large and small, to Korea and Japan, carrying nearly five hundred thousand shi of grain and tens of thousands of tons of supplies.

For this logistical mission alone, more than forty transport ships had capsized in wind and waves, costing the lives of several hundred sailors and marines, and nearly the entire waterborne strength of the Jiangnan and Jiaodong provinces had been mobilized.

The manpower and resources consumed behind transporting so much material to Korea and Japan were even harder to count, and were far from as simple as the several hundred thousand shi of grain and tens of thousands of tons of supplies visible on the surface.

This could also be considered the wheel of heaven turning. Back then, Zhang Zhao had campaigned north and south across Anxi, nearly draining all the wealth that Li Shengtian's family had accumulated over four generations.

Now it was Zhang Zhao's turn, and for Murong Xinzhang he too had mobilized the strength of nearly half the realm.

Of course, the return Li Shengtian and the Khotan Golden Kingdom ultimately received was at least ten times what he had provided. Their territory alone had more than doubled, and they had also gained the Fergana Valley, that heaven-blessed land.

Zhang Zhao believed that this investment of his would, in the years to come, also bring Chinese civilization returns tenfold or a hundredfold beyond the investment.

However, all of this meant very little to Zhang Xiancun. On the contrary, because Murong Xinzhang had occupied most of the nation's strength, his dream of entering Yangjume City to become King of Dian had never been realized.

The situation now was that to break the Duan clan of Dali, these ten thousand-plus elite troops plus thirty thousand-plus second-line troops were certainly not enough, and the armaments were also somewhat insufficient.

But if the elite troops could be brought up to around fifty thousand, supported by seventy or eighty thousand second-line troops and over a hundred thousand laborers, the Kingdom of Dali would certainly not be able to hold out.

So Zhang Xiancun was even happier than Zhang Zhao. Once Murong Xinzhang's campaign ended successfully, it would be his turn to launch the southwestern expedition.

In the Divine Capital Luoyang, within the Purple Tenuity Palace, the vast majority of Zhang Zhou's government offices had already relocated to Luoyang.

But Zhang Zhou's Luoyang did not reach the scale of the Tang era. The inner and outer cities combined were a full third smaller than in Tang times.

Therefore for Zhang Zhou, the Divine Capital Luoyang served primarily a political function. Beyond that, it was a fortress complex with tight defenses, and its population was not large.

So to experience urban commerce, one still had to look east to the Eastern Capital, Kaifeng Prefecture.

Lady Sanniang was forty-eight this year, and Zhang Zhao had also turned forty this year.

The Lady Sanniang who once had a trace of baby softness and chubby cheeks had gradually transformed into a kind of opulent splendor. Dressed in formal pheasant-patterned ceremonial robes, she looked like Guanyin Bodhisattva in a temple.

Lady Sanniang held the battle report sent back by Xinchang, along with the private family letter he had written to her and Zhang Zhao. Pride and joy showed on her face even as tears streamed down in strings.

After a long while, Lady Sanniang personally took Zhang Zhao by the hand and had him sit properly on the folding couch. Then she straightened her robes and headdress and performed a full prostration before Zhang Zhao, touching her forehead to the ground.

Zhang Zhao did not stop her. Though he did not know why Lady Sanniang was doing this, she surely had her reasons.

After a moment, Lady Sanniang raised her head from the floor, crawled forward on her knees to Zhang Zhao, rested her head on his knee, and said softly:

"Even five years ago, when Your Majesty sent Xinchang off to Goryeo and the land of Wa, this slave was most unwilling in her heart.

I have only this one son, who had won peerless merit, yet he was to be sent off to the wilds.

But only today do I understand that these two lands are not wilds at all. On the contrary, they are indeed, as Your Majesty said, critical territories that must be brought into the fold of Huaxia as soon as possible. It has even put the thought in this slave's mind to go see them.

Since ancient times, for a stepfather to treat an adopted son better than his own flesh and blood, and in an imperial house no less — Your Majesty is the first. This grand rite of three kneelings and nine kowtows is this consort kowtowing to Your Majesty on behalf of Murong Yandao. That Your Majesty has poured such heart and blood into raising Xinchang is his fortune of three lifetimes."

Zhang Zhao looked at Lady Cao Sanniang, not knowing for a moment whether to nod or shake his head. What she meant was that she wanted to go see the land of Wa, but feared Zhang Zhao would not permit it, so she used the opportunity of performing the grand kowtow on behalf of Murong Xinchang's birth father, Murong Yandao, to say it.

"The sea winds are fierce and the waves high. Even seasoned sailors cannot guarantee no mishap. This is no joking matter."

After thinking it over, this was the only reason Zhang Zhao could find to stop her. Of course, he could have flatly refused with a single hard word, but that was not Zhang Zhao's temperament, and it would have been unworthy of the bond he and Lady Sanniang had shared since their humble beginnings and through hardship.

"This consort naturally will not go to Mingzhou to take ship for the land of Wa. I will first travel by land to Joseon, then take ship from Busan Port to the land of Wa. Though it will take several more months, safety will still be assured."

Lady Sanniang had naturally thought out her response long ago. To this, Zhang Zhao could only heave a long sigh.

For Lady Sanniang Yannai, who was every bit a man's equal, Murong Xinchang was not simply her only son. He was also the vessel for her wish that she had not been born a man.

Every deed of this son she had carefully cultivated since childhood — accomplished in both letters and arms and of fine moral character — was a great undertaking that Lady Sanniang had wanted to do but could not.

Now that Xinchang had carved out a vast domain, how could Lady Sanniang not want to go see it?

Thoughts turning over and over in his mind, Zhang Zhao considered it again and again. Though he was reluctant in his heart, putting himself in Lady Sanniang's position, he could understand.

In the quiet silence, only the candle flame flickered gently with an occasional crackle. After a long while, Zhang Zhao stroked Lady Sanniang's fine hair and nodded lightly.

"Take Yingguo and Hutou and the others with you. Yingniang is still young, so leave her in the Divine Capital to keep Lingniang company. When she is older, she can go to the land of Wa to see her father."

Murong Xinchang's principal wife, Princess Yingguo, and eldest son Hutou, along with the concubines Lady Kang and Lady Pugu, were all still in Luoyang. Since Lady Sanniang was going, they might as well all go together.

Yingniang was Murong Xinchang's youngest daughter, now only six years old. In an age when young children died easily — and Zhang Zhao had just lost a three-month-old daughter — she truly should not be made to cross mountains and rivers and seas.

Lingniang was the fourth imperial daughter born to Lady Sanniang and Zhang Zhao, Princess Chen of Chen, Zhang Qiling. Lady Sanniang could go to the land of Wa, but Zhang Qiling certainly could not, which was why Zhang Zhao said this.

When Lady Sanniang heard Zhang Zhao agree, she lifted her head from his knee, shuffled backward several paces on her rear, and then performed another grand salute to Zhang Zhao.

"This consort truly has grown spoiled by Your Majesty's favor. In any past dynasty, allowing an imperial consort to leave the palace merely to visit her family within the imperial city was already an enormous grace. Yet this consort has actually asked to be ten thousand li from Your Majesty. Fortunately, Your Majesty is magnanimous."

Zhang Zhao had been about to wave his hand to show how magnanimous he was, but suddenly found himself unable to speak.

Lady Sanniang was already forty-eight. Though she had kept herself well and looked roughly like a woman of forty-two or forty-three in later ages.

But this was, after all, ancient times — an era when, even without natural disasters or man-made calamities, people basically lived only into their fifties. At Lady Sanniang's age, she still had to cross rivers and seas to reach the land of Wa, and by the time she arrived, it would be five or six months later.

Having gone to the land of Wa and seen her son, she could not possibly turn around and start back immediately. She would have to stay for a few years.

Zhang Zhao was once again confronted with how inconvenient travel was in this age. If anything went wrong, the next time Zhang Zhao saw Lady Sanniang would be her ashes. To say "one parting, an eternity" would be no exaggeration.

"Sanniang, if you go, will we ever meet again?" Zhang Zhao drew a breath and asked.

Lady Sanniang had also been feeling melancholy, but seeing how reluctant Zhang Zhao was to part, she immediately brightened.

"Your Majesty, rest assured. This slave will take good care of her health and will return alive from the land of Wa to see Your Majesty again."

The two shared a tender moment, and then their conversation turned to the handling of the land of Wa.

In his family letter, Murong Xinchang had asked Zhang Zhao's opinion on how to deal with the land of Wa, and also requested that Zhang Zhao bestow a new name upon it.

Zhang Zhao had actually considered this question long ago. Just as he had done with Wang's Goryeo, the land of Wa would certainly have its name changed.

And Zhang Zhao was also thinking of the future. For instance, Murong Xinchang's Kingdom of Yan could not endure forever. After all, the very purpose of this Kingdom of Yan was Xia rulers over Yi subjects.

But when, a few centuries hence, things like the telegraph and the steamship began to appear, the Kingdom of Yan would have fulfilled its historical mission, and Joseon and the land of Wa would naturally become provinces rather than enfeoffed kingdoms.

So Zhang Zhao's current plan was to divide Joseon and the land of Wa into four provinces.

The northern part of the peninsula would be Lelang Province, the southern part Joseon Province, the island of Honshu in the land of Wa would be Asahi Province, and the islands of Kyushu and Shikoku would form Penglai Province.

These four provinces would not yet have officials appointed. Lelang Province would in the future be governed by a vassal state established by the son of Yelu Abuli.

Joseon Province, as Murong Xinchang had requested, would after his passing be garrisoned by the son born to him by Lady Qian, and in the future would very likely become an independent Kingdom of Yue.

This was the dividend owed to Lady Qian and the entire former state of Wuyue for contributing troops, grain, and ships amounting to fifty percent of the court's total in this campaign against the land of Wa.

After explaining all this to Lady Sanniang, she held up the family letter and asked, "Xinchang wants to give you, his father, something in return. He wishes to offer you the land of Settsu Province."

Zhang Zhao smiled and shook his head. "Xinchang is thoughtful. Settsu is near Osaka and prosperous, but I do not need it.

When you go to the land of Wa, tell Xinchang that I do not want Settsu Province, but I do want him to present the island of Iwami Province's Shimane County."

Lady Sanniang blinked twice. She knew Zhang Zhao never spoke without purpose, and his deliberately bringing up Shimane County in Iwami Province at this moment surely had a reason.

Zhang Zhao chuckled. "Stop guessing. I'll tell you — this place has silver ore. A very large silver deposit.

When the time comes, tell Xinchang not to enfeoff this place to anyone. He should send his own people there, and once the vein is found, most of it is to be escorted to the court. He may keep a small portion."

When Lady Sanniang heard "silver ore," and that Zhang Zhao himself had said it was a very large silver deposit, her eyes lit up. Because Zhang Zhou at present was desperately short of silver. She helped Zhang Zhao manage part of the inner treasury's accounts, so she knew this very well.

Zhang Zhou at present did not lack goods. Because the weather in recent years had not been as erratic as before, and the realm was at peace, the economy and population were recovering rapidly. A single province could often pay taxes of several hundred thousand to a million strings of cash.

But these several hundred thousand to a million strings did not refer to silver coin, but to all manner of goods in kind.

Grain, cloth, and the like were beyond counting, but the copper and silver needed for circulation were extremely scarce, and the market had been in a state of coin shortage the entire time.

Even the imperial court's money houses no longer dared to issue silver notes or restricted-use military scrip, because there were far too many goods of equivalent value on the market, while reserves of precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper were utterly insufficient.

The gold and silver Zhang Zhao had brought back years ago from India and Samanid Persia had long since been unable to back the face value of the silver notes. Had Pei Yuan not converted to Buddhism and confiscated a great quantity of gold and silver from the Buddhist establishment, they could never have held out until now.

If this Iwami Province, Shimane County, of which the Sage spoke truly possessed extraordinarily rich silver deposits, then Lady Cao, who already faintly grasped a few principles of finance, knew that the economy of the entire realm was truly about to begin developing at a far faster pace.

And the land of Wa, too, would become all the more tightly bound to the Central Plains because of this silver mine.

(End of Chapter)

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