Chinese New Year

Chapter 1473 Before and After the New Year (Part 2)

The New Year is coming soon.

Because Zhao Wangshi and You Ji, a great Confucian scholar from Guangping, were unwell and stayed at the mansion to recuperate, the scholar Li Zhao took the initiative to go out and attend all kinds of banquets.

It wasn't that he was greedy, nor that he coveted other people's concubines; rather, he wanted to gather information.

There's no doubt that banquets are the easiest places for gossip to leak out. Especially after a few drinks, people might reveal things they wouldn't normally say, which can be quite revealing.

This lifestyle of eating and drinking continued until the latter half of the first month of the second year of Longhua (343) before it came to an end.

The results are remarkable.

The Crown Prince returned to the capital before the New Year, looking travel-worn. The Emperor ordered him to rest in the Eastern Palace for several months and then travel to Pengcheng again in March or April of the following year to supervise the land survey and household registration in Xuzhou, Qingzhou, and Sizhou.

Li Zhao heard from Wang Hui, the chief clerk of the Dali Temple, that he had been temporarily transferred to Huangsha Prison and found that there were not enough cells. So he brought hundreds of prisoners into the Dali Temple prison and interrogated them day and night. Wang Hui was the son of Wang Cheng. He had served as the chief clerk of the Dali Temple for many years. He resigned due to his father's death. After the mourning period, he was idle for a while and was later appointed as the chief clerk of the Dali Temple.

Cai Ya, the Commandant of the Revenue Department of Xiapi, echoed this sentiment. Before October of last year, he had been the Registrar of the Left Valiant Cavalry Guard. He had been ordered to mobilize troops several times to go to Yuzhou to arrest criminals. In particular, he had endured two months of hardship in the Mangdang Mountains and captured Wang Dai, making a great contribution.

Li Zhao listened to these matters but offered no opinion.

He discovered an interesting phenomenon: just like the first land survey years ago, those who jumped out to oppose it were mostly minor gentry or local tyrants, with not a single aristocratic family among them.

These people lacked strong support in the court and were unable to gain the upper hand, so they were naturally defeated one by one. Many people were arrested, and it is said that if you include the three clans implicated, there were at least ten thousand people. If you include the servants and retainers they coerced, the number would be even greater, and they couldn't be contained even if they were imprisoned.

Li Zhao also heard that there was a scholar named Xie An in the staff of the Commissioner for Encouraging Agriculture and Farming who had been promoted to Attendant Gentleman and was highly favored by the Crown Prince.

Sima Feng, son of Sima Que, the governor of Qingzhou, fell seriously ill while checking household registrations in Xuzhou. Despite his illness, he persevered and meticulously organized the land registers and yellow books. It is said that he even escaped poisoning once, and as a result, he was promoted to the position of military advisor.

There are many such people, most of whom started their fortunes by surveying and registering land, becoming favorites of the crown prince, with unlimited potential.

Besides the banquet, Li Zhao also attended the funeral.

In the latter half of last year, Chen Zhen died at his private residence in Chengdu. His coffin was transported back to Luoyang by his family and buried on the eighteenth day of the first lunar month. Li Zhao represented the Prince of Zhao at the funeral.

By chance, he overheard the Left Divine Guard Commander Jingmu (son of the late Imperial Censor Jing Chan) mentioning that all the sons of the Chen family in Xuchang had been dismissed from their posts and returned home to mourn, and that the Crown Prince had been unable to help them.

In his words, Jing Mu felt a pang of regret, yet also a hint of schadenfreude—the Jing family was a prominent clan in Ji County, discovered during the time of Yu Chen, and had always been considered the direct descendants of Yu Chen and his son Yu Liang, but not the direct descendants of Yingchuan.

From this, Li Zhao gleaned a lot of useful information, realizing that the Crown Prince's faction was in a very murky place and that the factions were not very harmonious.

On the 25th day of the first month, Jin Zhun, the instructor of the Imperial Guards, celebrated his birthday. Li Zhao visited him and learned that Gong Zhen of Liangcheng County had chosen a woman from the Xun family of Yingchuan as his wife, and the wedding would probably take place in the second half of the year.

Upon hearing this news, Li Zhao was somewhat dazed.

He had seen the Duke of Liangcheng more than once, and in his memory, he was still a child. How could he suddenly be eighteen or nineteen years old? Time really flies.

This matter must be reported to the Prince of Zhao, because Li Zhao knows that his lord likes this younger brother very much. Yes, the Duke of Liangcheng is surnamed Yuan, not Shao, and his name is not listed in the Imperial Clan Court. However, the whole Liang Dynasty knows that Yuan is the son of the emperor. He has the status of a prince but not the title. Otherwise, he would not have been able to marry a woman from the Xun family.

On the last day of the first month, Li Zhao finally returned to the Prince of Zhao's residence and began writing letters to send to Gaochang.

******
On the second day of the second lunar month, Li Zhao, who had not rested for more than a few days, arrived at a manor outside Guangmo Gate in the north of the city and met Xianyu Qu, the Left Attendant of the Prince's Palace and Cavalry Commander.

To be honest, Li Zhao was not familiar with Xianyu Qu and even despised him, because Xianyu Qu was originally an official under the King of Chu, who came to surrender with a hundred armored cavalry and changed allegiance.

King Zhao may have been willing to spend a fortune to acquire a horse's bones, so he gave the position to the Left Attendant of the King's Palace and appointed Xianyu Qu as the Cavalry Commander, still with those hundred armored cavalrymen. But this did not mean that Li Zhao would change his opinion of him.

Therefore, upon meeting, he merely exchanged a few perfunctory pleasantries: "General Xianyu, you must be spending years on the road, right? You must be exhausted."

"I spent the New Year in Handan." Xianyu Qu cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty has taken up your fief, and your fief will only last until last year. So I went there to finish up, sold off the goods, grain, and livestock, and moved the machinery and craftsmen westward."

Li Zhao glanced at the troops Xianyu Qu had brought, a total of five hundred soldiers, more than three hundred of whom were wearing chainmail and Persian-style iron helmets.

This Persian helmet, with its tall iron needle on top—which the emperor called a "lightning rod," though the meaning of which was unknown—and its nose-protecting function, had been ridiculed countless times by the Imperial Guards, especially the movable iron nose-protecting piece, which made people laugh so hard they almost fell over.

Xianyu Qu seemed to notice Li Zhao's expression and explained, "The returning army handed over a large amount of armor and weapons to the Prince's Palace, and His Highness ordered them to be distributed to the soldiers."

Li Zhao dared not laugh anymore, and solemnly cupped his hands, saying, "Your Majesty is truly diligent and thrifty in managing your household."

After clearing his throat, he said, "The people that Mr. Shen bought are all here, a total of 1,720 people, half men and half women, and almost none of them are over thirty years old."

“I had already counted them before you came.” Xianyu Qu nodded and said, “I’ll take them with me.”

Li Zhao had someone bring the roster and completed the handover procedures.

Of course, Xianyu Qu was accompanied by more than just this few people on his westward journey. In fact, there were over eight hundred artisans and their families from Handan, and they might also have taken some family members and servants from the royal court's officials, bringing the total number of people in the group to over four thousand. After the handover was completed, Li Zhao glanced at the slaves being bought and sold.

Their expressions were complex, a mixture of anticipation and joy, but also a lot of trepidation and unease.

Perhaps this is the normal thing.

For servants, the greatest wish might be to be freed from their social status and restored to their status as free people; this was their deepest obsession.

King Zhao promised to release them from slavery and integrate them into the free people of Gaochang. This was a liberation for them, and also a liberation for their descendants. Even if they were slaves for generations, and their lives were indeed much better than those of farmhands, the resentment in their hearts would always remain.

However, they had reservations about moving to Gaochang.

Perhaps they had heard some rumors, perhaps they were unwilling to leave their hometown, or perhaps they felt it was dangerous there; in any case, they were very uneasy. However, they had no choice but to follow the group westward, hoping that life would not be so hard.

"After General Xianyu arrives in Gaochang, he can personally petition the King to send gold and silver to Luoyang to purchase slaves." Li Zhao added, "Previously, when Lord Shen tried to buy slaves with silk, many people were unwilling to accept them. If there had been enough gold and silver at that time, we could have bought far more than just this few people."

"Okay." Xianyu Qu didn't say much, nodded, and then turned around to give a few instructions.

Soon soldiers went down to the group of servants, ordering the strong to line up, while the women and children sat on mule carts, ready to depart.

Li Zhao watched quietly, a sense of satisfaction rising in his heart.

Yes, how could we not be satisfied with the growing strength of the Gaochang Kingdom?
******
By mid-February, spring plowing had begun in full swing around Luoyang, but Li Zhao was still busy.

On the 17th, he went to a residence in the south of the city and met his old acquaintance, the Sogdian merchant Kangwei.

Luo Kang, a retainer of the Prince of Zhao, had been waiting there for quite some time. As soon as they met, he explained most of the matter.

It turned out that Kang Wei had brought a large amount of goods and gold and silver to Luoyang, intending to participate in the market trading in April. Before that, he planned to exchange all his Persian silver coins for another legal tender of the Great Liang Dynasty: the Dragon Coin.

In fact, very few physical dragon coins circulate in the market. The Luoyang merchant he agreed to exchange them with was actually a privately minted one of very poor quality. However, before the transaction could be completed, the man was arrested by the Luoyang County government and then subjected to torture and interrogation, which led to the discovery of Kang Wei.

"Actually, it's nothing serious," Luo Kang explained. "Kang Gong hasn't gone to exchange the money yet, so it's not illegal. Luoyang County just thinks he's easy to bully and wants to extort some money from him. However, Li Gong would be better off finding someone to make those corrupt officials in Luoyang County give up their extortion scheme."

Li Zhao nodded helplessly, then gave Conway a look of exasperation.

Luo Kang was a cousin of Lady Luo, the wife of the King of Zhao, and a native of Bazhou. Being unfamiliar with Luoyang, he truly had no choice but to seek help from him.

"I received a letter a few days ago. Someone will be coming to Luoyang in early April?" Li Zhao asked Luo Kang.

"Yes, they say they need to recruit people," Luo Kang said. "Actually, if Your Majesty is willing to send people to Shu to recruit the strong men of the Banshun barbarians, it won't cost much."

Li Zhao remained noncommittal.

Luo Kang would be happy if he recruited a large number of Bantun barbarians to Gaochang, but others might not be.

But this is indeed a line of thought; it's not just the Bantun barbarians, the Liao people in Shu might be even cheaper.

Li Zhao had learned that the Liao people were not all ignorant. Contrary to your expectations, they were actually a society where men farmed and women wove, but they were discriminated against by the Shu people and had to hide in the mountains.

The Liao people are also very good at learning. The cloth they wove a hundred years ago was a mess, but now it is quite good and the quality is excellent. By the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Liao cloth had become one of the tributes from Sichuan, and it was known for its excellent quality.

According to the letter, the caravan brought various kinds of silver worth 150,000 tortoise coins to the east, which is truly astonishing!

This amount of money could only buy 200,000 bushels of millet in Gaochang—of course, whether there is that much millet available on the market is another matter—but in Luoyang, according to the latest market prices, it could probably buy more than 700,000 bushels.

There was no other secret; it was simply that silver was extremely valuable in the Central Plains. Historically, the later the dynasties in the Central Plains went, the more copper was mined than silver. While ancient China was indeed short of copper, it was even more short of silver. In the early Tang Dynasty, it was stipulated that one tael of silver could be exchanged for one thousand copper coins, and in reality, it could be exchanged for about one thousand five hundred. However, by the Northern Song Dynasty, it had become more than two thousand copper coins. In Gaochang during the early Tang Dynasty, a Persian silver coin worth one tael of silver could only be exchanged for at most three hundred copper coins, resulting in a five-fold difference in the silver-copper exchange rate.

King Zhao sent so much silver; buying anything else wouldn't be worthwhile, so buying people would be the most suitable option.

But if Gaochang and Daliang are two different countries, it's obviously impossible for them to let you buy people like that.

From this perspective, it's fortunate that King Zhao was favored by the emperor; the fact that the emperor didn't restrict his ability to buy people was a huge help.

Furthermore, the term "buying people" sounds too offensive.

After the Shen family's massive purchases last year, it's hard to say how many slaves are still left on the market. King Zhao's move should be called "recruitment," and the cost is actually higher than simply buying slaves, because slaves have no choice, but commoners can choose not to go to the Western Regions unless you spend a fortune.

Thinking about this, Li Zhaodu was already looking forward to April.

"Let Kang Gong bring out some novel gifts. When someone commits a crime, they always have to spend money to get rid of it." Li Zhao then said to Luo Kang, "I will go to see Lu Sili (Lu Rong, the Commandant of the Capital Region) today, and there will be no trouble."

(End of this chapter)