Late Han Zhao Tang

Not long after arranging matters in Jiaozhou, a new report arrived from Yangzhou, which Du Ji personally presented to the emperor.

"Your Majesty, the memorial submitted by the Governor of Yangzhou, Duke Zhao, has arrived!" Du Ji reported.

Zhang Yu shifted his attention from the document in the Southern Library and asked, "What is it about?"

"The Duke of Zhao believes that Yangzhou is vast, and the powerful local magistrates in the prefectures and counties are too numerous to thoroughly investigate. Therefore, he requests Your Majesty to divide Yangzhou and order the prefects of the various counties to carefully verify the household registrations," Du Ji said.

Zhang Yu shook his head and laughed, saying, "You command 30,000 elite troops, yet you are so timid and hesitant. Send an order to Li Song to send troops to the villages and towns to search the household registers one by one and compare the land holdings of each family. Anyone who has concealed ten households or more than one qing of land shall be relocated to the Hehuang region."

Compared to Annam, which needed spiritual unification, Liaodong and the Hehuang region needed the migration of Han people to strengthen the border areas.

“Sending troops to search may incite civil unrest!” Du Ji said worriedly.

Zhang Yu sneered and said, "The powerful families of Jiangnan have thousands of servants and hundreds of acres of land. The population of a single clan is comparable to that of a prefecture or county. How can I tolerate this? If there is any unrest, then I will send troops to quell it. And those who rebel will all be exiled to Lelang."

Now that the war is over, Zhang Yu will show no mercy. The more he yields to local powerful families, the more they will take advantage. For Zhang Yu, the main political focus for the next year or two will be on scouting the populace and registering households. The southeast can be seen as a testing ground; let's see what kind of reaction this extensive household registration and land survey will elicit!
"What about dividing Yangzhou?" Du Ji asked.

"What are your thoughts?" Zhang Yu asked.

"I believe that Yangzhou and Jingzhou have a large population and vast territory. It would be better to take counties and cities from each of these two prefectures to establish a new prefecture." Du Ji pondered for a moment and said, "In my opinion, it would be better to take the three counties of Yuzhang, Poyang and Luling from Yangzhou and the two counties of Xiujiangxia and Changsha from Jingzhou, making a total of five counties to establish a new prefecture."

"At that time, each of the three prefectures in Jiangdong had five or six counties, while Xinzhou occupied Xiakou, which was the head of Wu and the tail of Chu, thus eliminating the threat of separatism!"

The new prefecture established by Du Ji was roughly cut in half between the two prefectures, separating Chaisang and Xiakou. From a military and geographical perspective, it was indeed able to curb the separatism in the southeast.

Zhang Yu pondered for a moment and said, "It is too little for a prefecture to govern five or six counties. Let's first prepare for the establishment of Jiangzhou, and let Yangzhou and Jingzhou be divided into seven counties. Let's see if Jiangzhou can also be divided into seven counties."

It would be acceptable for a province in the Central Plains to govern five commanderies, but for a province in the South to govern five commanderies is rather few. After all, the South is a vast land, and to govern it in depth, the jurisdiction of the commanderies and counties must be refined.

"May I ask Your Majesty, what is the name of Xinzhou?" Du Ji asked.

“Since we are on the border between Wu and Chu, let us call it Ezhou,” Zhang Yu said. “You can first select a suitable governor and explain to the two prefectures the matter of setting up Ezhou.”

"As ordered!"

Du Ji responded and said, "Zhuge Liang, the governor of Jingzhou, reported that after Xiangyang County recruited the mountain barbarians, more than 4,000 families of the Tushan barbarians moved to Zuzhong, totaling more than 30,000 men and women. Now we request the court to exempt them from taxes for five years and abolish corvée labor for ten years. If the Jingman barbarians subsequently submit, we hope Your Majesty will grant them this favor."

Zhang Yu laughed and said, "It is a great blessing for the country that the barbarians wish to surrender to our dynasty. Now, we have established the new county of Zhaozhong, and Zhuge Liang will appoint virtuous men. As for the matter of reducing or exempting taxes, it should be approved so that the barbarians will rush to surrender. Moreover, this edict can not only be implemented in Jingzhou, but also in Ezhou, Yangzhou, Yingzhou, Jiaozhou and other prefectures."

Given the limited Han population, if prefectures and counties wanted to increase their population, they could probably only rely on the submission of the "Shu Man" (a term referring to the Man people from the Jing region). In fact, there were quite a few Shu Man in Jingzhou. For example, during the Yonghe era of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a local governor submitted a memorial arguing that some Jing Man were no different from Han people and that taxes on the Jing Man could be increased.

Suddenly remembering the matter in Nanzhong, Zhang Yu asked, "What are your and the Prime Minister's considerations regarding the matters of Yizhou and Nanzhong?"

Previously, Sun Zi served as the governor of Yizhou during the eastern expedition, and due to his meritorious service, he was retained by the court to succeed Lü Fan as the Commandant of the Capital Region. Currently, Yizhou is without a governor, and Zhang Yu intends to dismantle the prefecture.

"Your Majesty," Du Ji said, "Yizhou is like Yangzhou. Apart from the prosperous Shu region, the southern regions and Bazhong are mostly mountainous and sparsely populated. Ba and Shu can be a province, but the southern regions are a mix of Han and Yi peoples, and there are frequent rebellions by the Yi people. Therefore, in my opinion, the southern regions could perhaps be established as a separate province, such as Yingzhou, which would be dedicated to handling the affairs of the southwestern Yi peoples."

From the reign of Emperor Wu of Han onwards, the southern regions were incorporated into the rule of the Central Plains dynasties. Because of their proximity to Sichuan and Chongqing, they were incorporated into Yizhou. Furthermore, due to their proximity to Sichuan and Chongqing, the southern barbarians were constantly plundered and enslaved. Chengdu was the largest slave trading market in the country at that time, and almost every upper-class family in Sichuan and Chongqing owned slaves.

During the Western Han Dynasty, there were still Yi tribes in Jianwei Commandery. However, by the Eastern Han Dynasty, due to continuous enslavement, the Yi tribes in the commandery either disappeared or voluntarily migrated south. During the Shu Han Dynasty, Jianwei State was renamed Zhuti Commandery. During the large-scale rebellion in Nanzhong, Zhuti Commandery became the seat of the Nanzhong Governor-General.

Jiaozhou and Nanzhong were ruled by the Central Plains around the same time. Following a normal extrapolation, by the Tang Dynasty, Jiaozhou and Nanzhong should have been similarly inhabited, with at least a million Han Chinese. However, their fates diverged during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. After the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Nanzhong was dominated by the powerful Han Chinese clan, the Cuan clan. To avoid conquest by the Southern Dynasties, the Cuan clan actively assimilated into the local non-Han tribes through intermarriage. This resulted in a large number of these originally assimilated non-Han people being assimilated into the local Han population, who were then referred to as the Cuan people.

During the Tang Dynasty, the Cuan people, who were half Han and half Yi, were replaced by the Zhao Man. Two hundred thousand Cuan households were relocated to western Yunnan, which led to the cessation of the Sinicization of Yunnan and Guizhou. They remained independent until the end of the Song Dynasty, and were eventually destroyed by the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. In order to Sinicize Yunnan and Guizhou, the Ming Dynasty had to relocate people to populate the border areas again.

The independence of the Jinghai Army Governor in Annam and the Cuan regime in southern China actually reflected the same problem.

Central Plains dynasties relied on powerful Han Chinese clans to govern their regions, but their excessive power could easily lead to separatism. Furthermore, the lack of recognition of local elites by the Central Plains exacerbated these separatist tendencies. Without the support of these powerful clans, the government would need to rely on their strength to suppress any rebellions by barbarians.

Therefore, Zhang Yu's intention to establish a separate prefecture in Nanzhong was very clear, so that the prefectural governor could better win over and suppress the powerful Han people, as well as quell the rebellious Yi tribes in Nanzhong.

As for the troops stationed in Nanzhong and Jiaozhou, Zhang Yu already had a plan in mind: he would either draw on nearby troops to garrison the area or conscript barbarian soldiers for distant expeditions. For example, Nanzhong could be garrisoned by troops from Yizhou or the Wuxi barbarians, while Jiaoling could be garrisoned by troops from Nanzhong or Jingzhou.

Zhang Yu said, “In the past, Sun Ce led his troops to conquer the south, defeated the powerful and killed the barbarian tribes, and governed several counties. Now, let’s call the seven counties of Zangke, Yuexi, Zhuti, Jianning, Yongchang, Yunnan, and Xinggu Guizhou, meaning a province of precious treasures, hoping that it can produce gold, silver, and copper to be transported to China.”

"Governor Zhang Fengyuan was transferred back to the capital, and Wang Ling was appointed as the prefect of the state, concurrently in charge of all military affairs and managing the military and political affairs of the southern region. He was ordered to investigate the households, recruit the local people and barbarians, and recommend the virtuous people of the southern region to the court."

"promise!"

After discussing some issues concerning the governance of the southern prefectures, Du Ji excused himself due to important matters. Not long after Du Ji left, Wang Chen was summoned to meet with Zhang Yu.

"Greetings to Your Majesty!"

"No gift!"

Zhang Yu helped Wang Chen up as he was about to bow, and said with a smile, "Since the Tang Code was implemented, many officials in the prefectures and counties have praised it. The code you revised far surpasses the Han Code."

"This is not the work of one person alone!"

Wang Chen humbly replied, "Moreover, according to reports from subordinate officials, the law still has shortcomings and needs to be improved and revised."

Zhang Yu invited Wang Chen to sit down and said, "I have heard that you have a daughter under your command who is sixteen years old. I wonder if she is married?"

"I am not married!" Wang Chen replied.

Zhang Yu sat on the couch and said, "I wish to marry your daughter to the Third Prince. What do you think?"

"Third Prince!"

Wang Chen was taken aback. The Third Prince, Zhang Zhang, was favored by Zhang Yu because of his intelligence, and his younger sister feared Zhang Zhang might threaten her son's position, thus she was quite wary of him. Now, His Majesty had betrothed his daughter to Zhang Zhang; what did this mean?
Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Brother, are you perhaps unwilling to strengthen our kinship through marriage?"

Worried that his younger sister would be angry, Wang Chen didn't know how to answer Zhang Yu, and stammered as if he had something difficult to say.

“My three sons are intelligent, are they perhaps not worthy of your daughter?” Zhang Yu asked in a deliberately serious tone.

Under the oppressive power of the emperor, Wang Chen felt uneasy. He thought to himself that Zhang Yu had no intention of changing the crown prince, so it might not be a problem to agree to the marriage now.

"Since Your Majesty cherishes my Wang family, how could I dare not comply!"

"Excellent!" (End of Chapter)