Chapter 547: Shifting the Contradiction

Liu Shizi was the type who could be sitting at home and still have a wok fall from the sky onto his head.

If not for the imperial letter of rebuke the Chongzhen Emperor had sent specifically regarding the Marshal's Office's expansion, Liu Chengzong would never have known the Marshal's Office had already expanded into Jingning Prefecture.

As it was, he had to write to Wang Wenxiu to ask about the situation, because by the time the imperial letter arrived, Liu Shizi was already in Nangqian County, Kangning Prefecture.

Ever since Yang Qi led his troops to the southern Gobi and Wang Wenxiu stationed his forces at Lintao to guard against Gongchang, Liu Chengzong had poured all his energy into the critical task of exterminating the locusts. It had begun in Lanzhou, where he formulated the regulations for confronting the locust plague, and at that time he could still summon the township officials of Hehuang to Lanzhou to oversee the locust extermination work in Lintao Prefecture.

In just over ten days, two hundred thousand soldiers and civilians across Lintao Prefecture were mobilized. The common folk turned over nearly every piece of land; the soldiers trampled the fields solid with their horses' hooves; all stony mountain plots were spread with lime and sprayed with chemicals. They also seized the opportunity to clear over twenty thousand mu of wasteland. The authorities collected one hundred and eighty thousand jin of dried locusts from the people. The locust extermination was a resounding success!

Yet just when Liu Chengzong finally thought he could rest easy, reality dealt him a stinging slap across the face.

First, Feng Rang, stationed at the Gulang Guard Thousand-Household Station, sent word that the grain they had planted on the Wuwei oasis had been utterly ravaged by the sweeping locust plague. Feng Rang's main camp of over five thousand troops had only managed to protect less than a thousand mu of farmland near the Gulang Station.

Immediately after, the locusts flared back to life. A sky-darkening swarm struck Hehuang once more. This time the locusts were ravenous; they were even devouring the beans.

Most critically, according to the Marshal's Office dispatches, this wave of locusts had not come from the east, but from the west — specifically the southwest, from the direction of Qinghai.

All of Hehuang scrambled frantically to catch locusts. It was only then that the garrison herding camps from Golmud and the Greater and Lesser Chaidan, along with the chieftain troops from Ulan and Dulan, arrived belatedly to report that a devastating, sky-blanketing locust plague was spreading through Qinghai.

Liu Chengzong, who for years since raising his army had never known defeat in battle, was left utterly dumbfounded by the locust plague. For the first time, he clenched a plain porcelain pipe between his teeth, sat down on the tall stone steps of the Marshal's Office yamen, and stared up at the sky, as if all the strength had been drained from his body.

No matter how he thought about it, he could never have imagined that the greatest crisis since his uprising would come not from those immensely powerful enemies and rivals, but from insignificant little locusts.

When the locust plague struck Hexi, he could exterminate the locusts cleanly, because Hexi under his rule had a population of nearly a million. Even if tens of millions of locusts came, it simply meant each person catching and killing a few dozen locusts, and the terrifying plague would be gone.

But in the vast, sprawling lands of Qinghai, he truly lacked the capacity to fight the locusts.

What's more, from the very start, it had never occurred to him that the locusts would go there, because there was no one there. No people and no farmland — what would the locusts even eat if they went there?

He had forgotten one thing: if humans can resort to cannibalism, locusts can naturally do the same.

As long as the base population is large enough, a locust swarm can sweep across vast tracts of barren land and lay eggs wherever conditions are suitable.

The moment he grasped this, Liu Chengzong smashed his plain porcelain pipe, his fighting spirit rekindled. He ordered the Feathered Forest Cavalry to ready the horses and set out on the road to Kangning Prefecture to take charge of the locust extermination.

While he was still en route, the requests for aid from Kangning's seven counties arrived. Faced with the sudden locust plague, the scholar-turned-official Cuancuan displayed extraordinary talent, single-handedly stabilizing the situation in Kangning Prefecture and formulating a very sound locust preparedness strategy. Yet even so, Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi remained deeply pessimistic about the following year's harvest.

Because Kangning was not Hexi. Sparsely populated and vast, Kangning Prefecture lacked the capacity to launch a large-scale annihilation campaign against locust eggs the way Hexi had. A huge number of eggs remained underground. Even if they could survive this autumn's wave of locusts, they would not escape the plague that would come next spring.

In particular, Kangning Prefecture's regional environment meant that the variety of food crops its land could support was far too limited — generally just three: wheat, highland barley, and peas. The first two need no explanation; locusts adore them. And even the last, the peas, were devoured just the same by a locust swarm driven mad with hunger.

By the time Liu Chengzong reached Nangqian County in Kangning Prefecture, Kangning had already endured the first wave of the locust plague. The county magistrates of the seven counties and the local headmen had submitted their reports to the Kangning Prefectural Office. The documents painted a picture of utter devastation. In many places, even the seeds and stalks had been completely eaten. Most fatal of all were the pastures — the backbone of Kangning Prefecture's livestock industry — which had been gnawed clean, patch by patch.

As Liu Chengzong reviewed the files in the prefectural office, Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi stood at his side, too ashamed to lift their heads — from top to bottom, Kangning Prefecture was utterly helpless against this situation.

It had nothing to do with their personal abilities. This land's capacity to resist such a disaster was essentially zero. The locust extermination measures Liu Guoneng had proposed would, if applied in Hexi, largely wipe out the locusts within the territory without triggering major social upheaval. But that same set of measures, here in Kangning Prefecture, was about as effective as the common folk burning incense before a portrait of Liu Chengzong at home: useless.

If the eggs could not be wiped out completely, the locusts would crawl out of the river valley flats next April. After two or three repeated waves, the harvest would be completely finished.

"Why the long faces? The locust plague certainly can't be wiped out." Liu Chengzong let out a sigh, flipped through the documents, and gestured for the two to sit down and relax. Only then did he look up and ask, "Kangning Prefecture has seven counties. If we waive the grain tax next year, how much grain can the authorities still produce to relieve the people?"

The scientific methods of locust extermination were no longer of any use. What remained were the political methods of disaster relief.

"Waive the grain?"

Liu Guoneng was so agitated he wanted to bite his nails. It was not that he had not considered waiving the grain.

Although Kangning Prefecture, due to transportation costs, had never delivered grain to the Marshal's Office, right up until Liu Chengzong captured most of Gansu and established the Gansu Governor's Office, Kangning's seven counties had borne the heaviest tax burden in the Marshal's domain.

Kangning's grain tax was thirty percent, and because there was little reclaimed farmland, a large population, and low per-mu yields, the burden on the common people had always been heavy.

Liu Guoneng thought it over again and again, but still shook his head with difficulty. "Marshal, I'm afraid waiving the grain is very difficult..."

"The difficulty is the military grain, isn't it?"

Liu Chengzong flipped through the official files and records, already fully aware of Kangning Prefecture's sticking points.

The harsh environment of Kangning Prefecture was an objective reality. The land was vast and sparsely populated, with only two hundred thousand people spread across its immense territory, surviving along a network of crisscrossing river valleys. Transportation between regions was poor, the people generally had little education, and they remained keen on sending children who could grow into able-bodied laborers to the monasteries.

Building bridges and roads, digging wells and constructing dams, establishing community schools, eradicating superstition, spreading medical knowledge, improving seed selection, distributing farming tools — all these things meant the authorities had higher administrative expenses in this land.

On the other hand, the long history of feudal rule over small, isolated populations meant the old aristocracy still held powerful sway over local regions. Restorationist sentiment was ever-present. After the locust plague struck alone, across the seven counties, fourteen old aristocrats who had been demoted to commoners were championed by supporters, and two subordinated minor chieftains rose in revolt — the largest uprising mustering a staggering three hundred men, the smallest restorationist clique numbering just thirteen, generally described in official dispatches as 'highway-robbing fools.'

There was naturally an element of the old aristocracy's greed and discontent with the current state of affairs in this, but Liu Chengzong also had to admit that the aristocracy was deeply entrenched in this land and possessed a certain base of popular support.

On another front, blockading and guarding against Ü-Tsang was also one of Kangning Prefecture's military responsibilities.

Therefore, Kangning Prefecture was required to maintain a large garrison force. There was a Kangning Battalion stationed in Nangqian County, and Thousand-Household Stations established at five border points in the six counties beyond Nangqian, totaling eight thousand six hundred troops.

The number did not sound like much.

But Liu Chengzong had built his army from the ground up, and on the matter of the relationship between the military and civilian sectors and the ratio of full-time soldiers to the population, he was one of the realm's few true experts. Although the Marshal's Office had long studied the issue and set regulations — though they had never been fully achieved — he knew in his heart that in peacetime, the number of official troops must not exceed three percent of the total population, and even in wartime, it must not exceed five percent.

Throughout the dynasties, apart from the Great Qin which had dragged itself to ruin, the number of standing troops had almost always been around one percent of the total population.

Out of two hundred thousand commoners, half were women. Of the remaining one hundred thousand men, once you accounted for the elderly, children, and the disabled, the population that met the standards for a standing army was only thirty to fifty thousand. These same men were also the able-bodied laborers supporting their families, the pillars of their households. One more man as a soldier meant one fewer man looking after his home.

On this basis, for Kangning Prefecture to maintain a standing army of eight thousand six hundred men — even if the garrison troops were issued only half-rations — was still an extremely heavy burden of military service.

What's more, Kangning Prefecture's troop strength at this moment was not eight thousand six hundred. There were also three thousand auxiliary troops under Li Laochai and three thousand new troops under Feng Shuangli stationed in Chamdo.

For military grain alone, Liu Guoneng had to come up with seventy thousand dan of grain a year. Where was he supposed to find seventy thousand dan of grain?

He and his predecessor as prefect, Yang Dingrui, had frantically reclaimed wasteland, yet to this day Kangning Prefecture had only six hundred and seventy thousand mu of mature grain land. With a thirty percent grain tax, and twenty-five jin harvested per mu, the math showed a deficit year after year. Kangning's military grain had always relied on earnings from government-run trade.

Not commercial taxes — it was the local authorities collecting taxes in kind and directly reselling the goods. Salt from the salt flats, butter from livestock, and various goods hauled over from Küerwan were resold to the west of the Long River, traded with the Muya chieftain for grain and tea. The tea was then hauled to Chamdo and sold into Ü-Tsang in exchange for livestock, which were then driven west of the Long River to be sold.

Swapping from left hand to right, right hand to left, back and forth — only by doing this all year long could they finally balance the books.

In theory, had there been no locust plague, after the autumn harvest next year, Kangning Prefecture would have been self-sufficient for the first time. Moreover, the water conservancy projects Yang Dingrui had overseen as prefect and the wasteland he had reclaimed were in the process of slow, cumulative fruition. Next year, one hundred and twenty thousand mu of raw land would become mature farmland; the year after, another one hundred and sixty thousand mu. They could already see the dawn of a normal livelihood.

Even with the locust plague, for Liu Guoneng, life could still have gone on.

But Liu Chengzong was saying to waive the taxes.

With a military grain shortfall that massive, even if he, Liu Guoneng, could leap up to the heavens, he could not conjure it out of thin air.

He said, "Marshal, we could collect the grain tax next year first, and then use the collected grain to relieve the disaster-stricken people..."

Kangning Prefecture was too poor. The environment was poor, the people were poor, the authorities were poor. No matter how great one's talents, no one standing in the position of prefect could divorce themselves from reality. And the reality was that he, as the leader of Kangning's government, needed to compromise for the sake of development.

In these impoverished mountain valleys, old aristocrats were everywhere, hiding in caves and waiting to restore their rule. The military grain could not be cut off; cutting it off would give the enemy an opening. The authorities had to have grain. Without grain, water conservancy, road-building, and bridge construction were all just illusions in a mirror. If the trade routes were severed, the situation could only worsen.

Liu Chengzong understood his meaning: collect the grain first, then distribute relief grain — in other words, fulfill the obligation.

But Liu Shizi was not the Prefect of Kangning. He possessed powers others did not, and naturally, he had solutions others did not. "Waive the grain. Start a war."

Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi were stunned. In a place like Kangning Prefecture, all the neighbors were poorer than the last — who were you supposed to start a war with? Besides, the problem itself stemmed from a lack of grain. If you started a war and mobilized troops, wouldn't that require even more grain?

Liu Chengzong was different from them. The moment he said the word "war," the stifled gloom pressing on his heart vanished, and he felt completely at ease.

"Our immediate problem is that next year, Kangning Prefecture — even if not a total crop failure — will see yields drop by thirty percent or more. If we still insist on collecting grain levies, the common people will be left with only thirty jin per mu or even less, absolutely not enough to fill their bellies."

"But if we don't collect grain, we can't supply the over eight thousand garrison troops in Kangning. So my thinking is to increase revenue and cut expenditure — send the army out to feed off the enemy, and eliminate Kangning Prefecture's biggest expense for next year. That way, even if the locust plague surges, we can minimize harm to the common people."

Even Liu Shizi himself didn't believe what he'd just said. He simply shook his head, skipped past it, and dropped the subject.

Given Kangning Prefecture's conditions, it was impossible to prevent the locust plague before it struck. Not harming the common people was out of the question — it was only a matter of how severe the losses would be.

But the locust plague's destructive power was, at most, equivalent to one or two Liu Chengzongs. The common people's health bar could only withstand the attack power of three Liu Chengzongs. So as long as he was willing to waive the grain levy, the people could still hang on to half their lives.

However, waiving the grain levy was only a stopgap measure. If the locust problem still couldn't be solved next year, and the plague returned the year after, Kangning Prefecture's days would still be hard.

The situation had already grown this dire. For Liu Shizi, it was simply a matter of taking it one step at a time.

Although Liu Guoneng had long since withdrawn from the front lines, as the Marshal's Manor's weapon of mass destruction, he wasn't one to shy from trouble. After pondering a moment, he asked, "Then who does the Grand Marshal intend to declare war on?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head with an inscrutable air and said, "No, it's not us declaring war on others. It's making others declare war on others. We're only responsible for helping them fight."

The truth was, he'd been burned by unprofitable wars and had grown afraid of them. A few unprofitable battles in normal times weren't so frightening — even in a place like Kangning, after pouring in massive manpower, he'd managed to recruit and train soldiers and train officials, recouping quite a bit of the cost.

But the petty local tyrants around Kangning Prefecture were a different story — every one of them a little hedgehog. Conquer them and there was no meat to eat, yet he'd still have to invest enormous manpower and resources himself. Now that the Marshal's Manor had taken Gansu in the north and established the two commanderies of Gansu and Monan, it no longer had the spare capacity to invest more manpower.

"First, the old tusi still remaining within our borders. The Kangning Prefecture yamen has estimates of how much grain and wealth they hold. Summon them, and in the Marshal's Manor's name, borrow grain and money from them to get through this crisis together. Borrow ten, repay thirteen. The debts of grain and money will be repaid in installments over ten years. Leave enough for their clans' daily needs, and hand over everything else to me."

"For those willing to lend, have their clan prepare a list of young men and send it to Lanzhou. Regardless of the family's size or the amount lent, all will be treated equally. In the future, when Kangning Prefecture and beyond needs circulating officials or tusi, they will be given priority in appointments. The outstanding talents and good ministers among them will stay and serve in my Plumed Forest Cavalry."

"As for those who won't part with a single feather — next summer, we implement gaitu guiliu, demote them to commoners, and use their family assets to settle accounts for me. That's the first matter."

"The second: the Muya of western Changhe have a blood feud with the tusi of Shenbian and Lengbian. It's time for him to take revenge. My army will help him fight across the Dadu River. If he wants, he can even declare war on the Mu Heavenly King of Lijiang and the tusi of Jinchuan. During the campaign, he'll supply part of the grain for the eight thousand troops. The wealth of the nobles in the lands we conquer will be my spoils of war, and the surrounding lands we take will be given to him as tusi territory in western Changhe."

"Third: the noble estates in Ü-Tsang. The three brothers of the Huoluochi family will let my army enter Tibet to help them attack fortresses, and we'll level those estates along the way. Spoils to me, land to them."

Having said this, Liu Chengzong looked at Liu Guoneng and Liu Jiusi. "The locust plague is overwhelming — we can only do our best as men. But these opponents are not particularly difficult to deal with. With your two men's talents and Kangning Prefecture's heavy troops, fighting your way to well-equipped troops and ample provisions should be well within your capabilities, no?"

Good evening!