Northern Dynasties

Chapter 1313: Southern Chen Dilemma

After several years of recuperation, the Jiankang City of the Southern Chen Dynasty has completely emerged from the shadow of war and has become prosperous and lively again.

Many luxurious mansions were built on both sides of Qingxi River in the east of the city. South of Daheng, Changganli was lined with residential houses. The shops along the Huai River were bustling with people, and there was an endless stream of carriages, horses, and boats coming and going.

The recovery of Jiankang City was certainly due to the restoration of order and production after the war, but it was also closely related to the exchanges and interactions between the north and south of the Yangtze River. Otherwise, the personnel foundation of Jiangdong after the turmoil would be far from enough to restore its vitality.

In particular, the abundant commodities transported down the river from the Jingxiang area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River greatly satisfied the daily needs of the people of Jiankang. Even the commodities obtained through the north-south trade could be exported to the Three Wu areas.

It should be noted that Jiankang suffered severe damage during the Hou Jing Rebellion and experienced repeated turmoil afterwards. The production order and scale were even destroyed at one point. However, the Three Wu regions suffered relatively less damage, especially some large manors that were protected by many local men. The impact was even less severe.

Therefore, in the early days of the Southern Chen Dynasty, although the Jiankang area was still the political center, it had almost no ability to be self-sufficient in production. A considerable part of its daily needs required material supplies from the Three Wu areas. Whether the water transport to the Three Wu areas was smooth directly affected the price of grain in Jiankang city.

As the political center of the Southern Chen Dynasty, Jiankang was in an absolutely weak position in its internal economic activities, which also limited Jiankang's control over the surrounding areas. After all, only by attracting more people and materials can more resources be controlled.

After Chen Chang, the Lord of Chen, succeeded to the throne, he was no longer a strong monarch. He did not have the support of the royal family and the elders, and he had to rely on the support of the northern regime. His situation was even more awkward than that of a puppet. After all, as long as the puppet obeyed the law, he could temporarily maintain his stability. Chen Chang faced various internal and external variables and challenges, but he had to bite the bullet and face them himself, but he did not have enough power to solve the problems.

When King Linchuan Chen Qian was exiled from the capital, many court officials and generals would rather give up their official positions and follow Chen Qian to Wuxing. This shows how much the Chen Chang court lacked deterrence and appeal over the Southern Dynasties.

However, this situation has been gradually reversed in recent years. In particular, the people's livelihood economy of Jiankang City has continued to improve in the process of trade and commerce with Jiangbei, which has reversed its disadvantaged position in the domestic economic environment.

Previously, the tax rice from the Three Wus did not arrive, and the people in the capital had to face the dilemma of having no rice to cook. But now, the rice from upstream is not only enough to feed the people, but also cheaper than the price from the Three Wus.

In addition to the basic necessities of food and clothing, other commodities from Shannan, Jingxiang and other places are far higher in quantity and quality than those in the Three Wu regions, and the methods of obtaining them are also more convenient.

This is naturally a great convenience for the people living in Jiankang City. Not only can their life needs be fully met, the cost of living is also greatly reduced, and they can even gain profits by relying on this commercial convenience.

However, for the people in the Three Wu regions, close trade relations with Jiangbei were not so pleasant, and even made them feel annoyed and resentful.

This is because there are many large estates covering vast areas in the Three Wu regions, and these estates carry out various high-economic production, such as planting fruits, tea, ginger, cinnamon, medicinal materials and other crops, as well as various manual production. The proportion of these products that can be consumed by themselves is not high, and they often need to be sold in Jiankang area for cash.

But now there are a large number of new products with good quality and low price continuously pouring in from the upper reaches of the river, and a considerable number of these products are difficult to produce in the large estates in the Three Wu regions.

The products of the Three Wu regions no longer occupy a dominant position in the Jiankang market, but the demand for them has increased significantly, which has caused them to lose the pricing power of various products. Not only can they no longer gain considerable wealth from the Jiankang market, but their own wealth resources are also constantly flowing out. This naturally makes many powerful people in the Three Wu regions unhappy.

The Southern Chen regime was established relatively recently and did not accumulate much political cohesion. The reason why it was able to maintain its rule mainly came from the personnel inertia of the Southern Dynasty regime in dividing Jiangdong for many years, and the same interests. Especially the latter, in a group, has an eternal significance that transcends various other factors.

Therefore, a new order has been formed within the Southern Chen Dynasty due to different interests. On one side is the pro-Tang faction in Jiankang with Chen Chang, the Lord of Chen, as its core. On the other side is the local faction in Jiangdong, composed of the local warlords of the Three Wus, who still hope to maintain the rule of the Southern Dynasty. This faction is centered around Chen Qian, the King of Linchuan, and some other founding fathers.

The most important disagreement between the two parties is how to interact with the Tang Dynasty. One side is naturally close and dependent, while the other side wants to seek more independence and autonomy.

If the demands of the localists were vague or unrealistic before, after all, the Southern Chen Dynasty had inherent deficiencies since its founding. The huge gap in national strength and the severe situation on the border made it difficult for them to maintain an independent and dignified attitude in front of the Guanzhong regime. Then their demands are now clearer, that is, to close the mutual trade, or at least to limit the scale of dumping of goods in Jiangbei, otherwise the wealth of the people in Jiangdong will be taken away!

There is no doubt that this kind of conflict based on different interests is more intense, and both sides are trying their best to find ways to achieve their own intentions. For example, Wuxing in Zhenzhou, where Chen Qian is now in charge, basically refuses to obey the orders of the Jiankang court, and Wuxing's attitude directly affects other areas of the Three Wus, which are also relatively cold to the Jiankang court.

Such a situation will naturally produce great internal friction and constraints, especially when encountering some unexpected changes and emergencies, which will make it more difficult to exert one's own strength.

"There's still no response from Wuxing?"

In the Jiankang court, Chen Chang, the Lord of Chen, asked anxiously, while the officials in the hall shook their heads helplessly.

Shangshu Zuo Pushe Wang Tong sighed and said, "The King of Linchuan may have been resentful because he was in a remote town, which is understandable. But now he has ignored the difficulties of the country and brazenly intercepted the people and goods of Wu in his capital. He has ulterior motives and makes people uneasy! If we don't investigate it now and continue to condone it, I am afraid that not only will Nanchuan change, but there will be unrest day and night." The situation in Nanchuan has taken a new turn. In addition to sending envoys to Chang'an for emergency assistance, Chen Chang is also trying to solve the problem with Southern Chen's own strength. He promoted Wuzhou Governor Hou Zhen as General Zhennan, hoping that he could lead his troops south to attack Wang Lin and other rebel forces. Hou Zhen took the opportunity to ask the court for men, horses, money and food, saying that his soldiers were few and his generals were few, and that money and food were scarce. Once he received subsidies from the court, he would immediately go south to quell the rebellion and kill Wang Lin.

Chen Chang was not an ignorant boy, so he naturally knew what Hou Zhen was up to. But for him, if he could resolve this incident on his own, it would undoubtedly greatly strengthen the Southern Chen's control over Jiangzhou and other places, and would also allow him to take a certain initiative in his dealings with the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, he wanted to satisfy Hou Zhen's request as much as possible so that he could send troops smoothly. As the autumn came, the taxes and rice from various states and counties would be paid to the court, including the dikes and commercial taxes in various places, as well as the salt taxes in Kuaiji and other places.

Although the court officials in Jiankang City were also waiting for the rice to be cooked, the national affairs had changed and it was time to tighten the belt. However, just as Chen Chang was calculating how much military funds he could allocate to Hou Zhen, unexpected events occurred one after another. First, Kuaiji and other places reported that the weather was not good this year and the salt field tax revenue was poor. Then, the Qiantang shipping market had ships stranded, and the taxes that were supposed to be paid to the capital had to be delayed.

The Jiankang court sent envoys to urge the matter and even sent a team of boats and carriages to transport the money that should be paid to the court to the capital. However, all the people, horses, carriages and boats were detained when they arrived in Wuxing. Chen Qian, the governor of Zhenzhou, said that there was a serious bandit problem in the territory and all passenger and cargo teams coming and going must be strictly checked.

The banditry in Wuxing did not break out at this time. As early as the middle of the year, bandits were rampant and rampant, causing great trouble to external exchanges. Of course, the root cause was the fact that the Tang Dynasty sent people to the south to hold them accountable for colluding with the remnants of the Northern Qi Dynasty. Everyone also knew that this was just a trick of the King of Linchuan to raise bandits for his own benefit. Those so-called bandits might be the soldiers of Zhenzhou.

As a result, Chen Qian has become addicted to it. He is even taking advantage of the changes in the country to openly use it as an excuse to withhold taxes that should have been sent to the court. This is really audacious.

Wang Tong was born into the Wang family of Langya, and now as a minister in power, he has always advocated severe punishment for the King of Linchuan. As early as when the Tang envoys came to the court to ask for accountability, he proposed to capture the King of Linchuan and send him to Chang'an for the Tang Dynasty to personally question him. In addition to worrying that the Tang Dynasty would use this as an excuse to pursue the matter, he also had some old grudges with the King of Linchuan.

But the reason why Chen Qian was so arrogant was that he had his own support. In addition to the Three Wu heartlands where he was in charge, he also had many supporters in the court.

As soon as Wang Tong finished speaking, Du Ling, the prefect of Danyang, spoke up: "The Linchuan Wang clan is the backbone of the family. When the late emperor was alive, he relied on him as an arm and made him live in this city for a long time. The peace of Zhejiang and Fujian now is all due to his efforts. If he occasionally fails to handle things, he should also try his best to communicate and coordinate. If you criticize him too much, it will make his confidants uneasy and the Three Wus will be in disarray!"

"Du Yin's words are absurd. It is precisely because the Prince of Linchuan is the backbone of the clan that he should be more cautious and self-protective, and put state affairs first! In the past, when the evil thief Hou Jing was in chaos in the capital, the princes of the Liang family led the crowd to watch and wait for the disaster to happen. They were laughed at by the world and were sinners of the country! Now that Nanchuan has changed, we need to rely on the money and food from the Three Wu to quell the chaos, but the Prince of Linchuan actually withheld a lot of it. His crime is even worse than that of the Xiao family!"

General Cheng Lingxi started his career during the Hou Jing Rebellion. When he talked about the old story of the Xiao clan kings watching their father being humiliated by Hou Jing in the capital, he was also disgusted. When he heard Du Ling's evasive excuse, he immediately said bluntly: "Who is the King of Linchuan? If he had not been born in this family and enjoyed the merits of my late emperor's salvation, he would be just a vagrant from Wu. Now the court treats him very well, but he is so arrogant that the court and the public are silent and dare not criticize him! I am the only one who is not intimidated by this. I just need the king's order to march to Wuzhong immediately!"

This made the words even more serious, and all the ministers in the palace immediately said that it was not possible. They did not want the civil war in Wuzhong to break out before the Nanchuan turmoil was settled. After such a quarrel, naturally no effective consensus could be reached, and Chen Chang's face turned pale with anger.

  Similar situations have occurred several times in recent days, and this is undoubtedly the worst case scenario, which means that the current Southern Chen not only has no ability to quell the unrest within the country, but is even unable to make a basic response!

Something even more outrageous happened next. After accepting the official position from the court, Hou Zhen not only did not send troops to attack Wang Lin, but instead sent his son to lead a part of the troops to Wuxing to serve as the aide of King Linchuan. He did not take the court's expectations of him seriously at all. Perhaps he had already reached some conspiracy with Chen Qian in private!

After Chen Chang learned about this, he was furious and even began to consider whether to use troops in Wuzhong to completely get rid of his cousin Chen Qian. In order to strengthen the deterrence against the Three Wu regions, he also sent people to contact Xu Du in Jingkou, hoping that Xu Du would stand on the side of the court.

Since Jingkou became an important military town in the Southern Dynasty, it was responsible for the defense of the Yangtze River and the control and influence over Huainan, and also for deterring the Three Wus. Emperor Wu of Song, Liu Yu, rose to power by suppressing the Tianshi Dao rebellion that swept across the Three Wus, and eventually became the founding ruler of the Southern Dynasty.

Although Xu Du was also a founding minister and had no experience of staying in Chang'an and following Chen Chang back to Jiangdong, and he had a certain friendship with Chen Qian, he was one of the people who could still be won over.

Xu Du himself was a native of the capital, not a powerful person in the Three Wus. His family had been engaged in merchandising and commerce for generations. Judging from the factions divided by interests within the Southern Chen Dynasty, he should belong to the faction that was close to the Tang Dynasty.

This is indeed the case. Although Xu Du was stationed in Jingkou, he had close interactions with Guangling in the north of the Yangtze River and Liyang in the upper reaches. The business he did was very large. Among the boats traveling back and forth across the Hengjiang River, two or three out of ten were related to Xu Du.

However, because Xu Du had an ambiguous attitude when Chen Qian was in power in Jiankang, and there was some secret collusion between them, Chen Chang did not dare to trust him too much. Moreover, since Xu Du had been stationed in Jingkou for a long time since his father's time, Chen Chang could not intervene in the military and political affairs of Jingkou, so he was naturally more reserved in his attitude towards Xu Du.

However, Chen Qian has become more and more excessive, making Emperor Chen Chang almost a laughing stock in the country. In order to effectively strike Chen Qian, Chen Chang began to actively win over Xu Du, constantly sending envoys to Jingkou and giving Xu Du various generous rewards.

Although Xu Du also reacted enthusiastically to this, and expressed his gratitude in succession with respectful and sincere words, he refused to touch on any substantive issues and avoided talking about Chen Chang's various temptations. It can be seen that he probably did not think that Chen Chang had the ability to completely resolve Chen Qian, so he was unwilling to stand clearly on the opposite side of Chen Qian before the situation became clear. As a result, the situation in the Southern Chen Dynasty remained like a stagnant pool of water with almost no ripples or changes.

However, after the Tang envoys crossed the river and arrived in Jiankang and conveyed the intentions of the Tang Emperor to the rulers and ministers of the Southern Chen Dynasty, the originally stagnant situation suddenly changed dramatically.

(End of this chapter)