Chapter 204: Yao Capital Military Coup
In the second year of the Tong Zheng Calendar, in Yuhuazhou, Zhao Cheng examined a ceramic bottle with a pure white texture. This was a bottle of Herb Restoration Liquid, obtained by his advisor at a great expense.
It must be said that in recent years, the Chong Lord’s (Xuan Chong) governance of local areas has reached a level that makes the world envious.
Chong Land is rich in resources and its people live in abundance. Ironware and grain prices are lower than in other areas of Da Yao, to the point that many scholars who hate Xuan Chong’s tyranny have given him the slogan of “womanly benevolence.”
Chong Land is in a state of reform, and Xuan Chong shows no favor to local noble families, failing to win over the scholars. “In short, it’s just not right!” Although governance under Xuan Chong is very good, many noble family disciples still come to join Zhao Cheng. As a result, Zhao Cheng here can deeply understand the reforms in Chong Land from the perspective of the noble families.
But it is limited to this. When Zhao Cheng wants to exchange gold, silver, and jewels for precious strategic materials, Chong Land has implemented strategic materials control.
The sparrow does not let a single bit of food fall, just like in the Battle of Gu Shou Pass back then.
This is a terrifying problem for Zhao Cheng upon careful thought. The noble families under Wu Yuanchang all harbor disloyal thoughts, but the strategic materials control is watertight! Xuan Chong has created a phenomenon that Zhao Cheng finds hard to understand.
In Zhao Cheng’s cognition, merchants are profit-seeking and untrustworthy by nature, naturally exchanging goods for interests.
In Xuan Chong’s governed area, grain and ironware prices are extremely low, benefiting the people, and the people are grateful to Xuan Chong. But merchants want more returns, so they secretly connect with external forces. Moreover, there are local scholars under Xuan Chong pulling strings.
Note: The Great Ming dynasty could not prevent stable areas like this side’s Jin land from supplying ironware and food and grass to external plundering groups. The Qing also could not cut off the exchange of goods between the southeast area and the Zheng clan. Thus, they directly implemented a harsh measure: migration and sea ban.
Anyone who can achieve “complete blockade of border trade” has control at the level of a modern nation-state.
In these months, Zhao Cheng’s advisors below have been contacting the noble families under Xuan Chong. When discussing businesses like food and grass and ironware, the noble families all shook their heads, indicating they dare not do it.
Because Wu Xiao Que is too tyrannical. Grain acquisition is assigned to specific district merchants for acquisition and monopoly, and ironware is the same.
These district merchants can develop channels only after their own families guarantee them, then the Chong Land commerce department grants the channels.
If a large shipment of materials from a district merchant flows out of the district, other district merchants can report this district’s share.
Moreover, one family can only guarantee one merchant, not multiple. This makes the influence of district merchants in local areas clearly divided!
Of course, just this is not enough! Because the Ming dynasty also had road pass policies, but still could not escape collusion between officials and merchants. However, Wu Xiao Que is very violent in enforcement!
…On par with the intensity of the American Empire’s tax inspections…
With a loud bang, the Liu family gate was kicked open.
After the harsh official arrived at the door, he shouted: “Your family is done for, prepare, prepare, pack your luggage and hit the road.”
The Liu family elder panicked: “Sir, my family is innocent, innocent.”
Harsh official: “Your family servant was caught smuggling grain red-handed, and the army side is demanding the person.”
Liu family elder: “That wretch is not my family member, I already expelled him from the family three days ago!”
The harsh official laughed: “Elder, you didn’t tell us when you expelled the family servant!”
The Liu family eldest son immediately came over and stuffed money into the harsh official’s sleeve. He smiled obsequiously: “Please be flexible.”
The harsh official smiled, then threw the money back at him. Coldly: “Elder! It’s not that I won’t help you, but the ones catching the smugglers are the army people. They have quotas. If they don’t take away a hundred males aged fifteen to sixty-five, our own brothers will have to go to the southern border. You’d better be honest; going to the southern border isn’t bad, there’s land to farm.”
Then the harsh official looked at the retainers holding clubs: “Come on, hit Grandpa on the head, Grandpa will yield to you, but let me tell you, resisting the law means the whole family becomes slaves. Slave status is easy to attach, but hard to remove.”
This punchable appearance made the Liu family young master, who knew guns and clubs, furious like the Blue Faced Beast, while the servants beside him pulled him back, not letting him act impulsively.
Months later, this whole family set off on the road, and their houses and land deeds were all sold to the Wu Family Army.
And the ones who got into trouble were not just the Liu family; five out of fifteen major households in the county were relocated.
…The sparrow’s calculation…
The southern border lacks people! If smuggling is not thoroughly investigated, Xuan Chong would relocate all personnel to the southern border with the posture of “demarcate ten li of land”!
Even meritorious people find it hard to escape. They are given “merit pardon” and then assigned places to maintain their ranks, with the whole family migrating to the reclamation area south of Ling River to bolster the local population.
While Zhao Cheng is gathering his own speculators here, Xuan Chong takes advantage of the momentum! The purpose is a great purge.
During the time Xuan Chong spent in the southern border, his various harsh official groups under him have been arresting people, making the noble families and clans in Chong Land live in fear.
Of course, Xuan Chong still left a path for the noble families: send literate youths from the clan to serve as officials, and they can divide the family. Moreover, these officials must be bound to twenty mu of clan land.
Both people and land must be recorded. If the clan commits a collective crime like colluding with foreign powers due to certain people, ten officials can guarantee temporary non-pursuit (this stimulates all great clans to offer up all their youths).
Of course, if the officials are unwilling to protect the main family, the officials will not be held collectively responsible (this ensures that what the great clans hand over are the capable core members of the family).
Large numbers of noble families, to avoid being “purged,” passively participate in cooperation. They begin sending their family disciples to local government offices to serve as officials.
In the past, these noble family disciples looked down on these officials who served the imperial court and prefects. They coordinated locally and promoted their reputation for virtue under their own family names.
As for the imperial court being dissatisfied? Can the imperial court go to the countryside for authority and brutally kill off local noble families everywhere?
Xuan Chong: I won’t randomly chop off heads, I just hope you all contribute to the great cause of the southern border.
Thus, these local strongmen all feel the water is too cold and need to get close to the sun to warm up. — Emperor Wu of Han did exactly this, relocating local strongmen from the traditional essence areas of the Six States to savage lands.
Of course, what Xuan Chong does is even more refined than Emperor Wu of Han. While placing the punishment wine of frontier filling in front of them, he also gave them a broad path to send their disciples to be civil servants.
But civil servants don’t serve for free. Every disciple sent must bring twenty mu of land from the clan to become capitalized land of the county yamen. This capitalized land is the salary for every civil servant of the county yamen.
Parachuted county magistrates, and recruited clerks without staffing quota cannot receive it. Even each person’s share is directly tied to the amount of land they bring; county magistrates cannot irregularly divert it. And for land brought exceeding twenty mu but less than forty mu, the prefecture side will supplement thirty percent remuneration at year-end in a provident fund mode.
Capitalized land only records the total amount of land each person brings, but which specific plot is theirs cannot be determined until retirement. Every year, the prefecture uniformly measures the public fields once to ensure absolute accuracy of plots before issuing provident fund.
That is to say, every extra mu of land deposited into public fields must have absolutely accurate accounts, and one cannot cheat the provident fund without bringing land. The purpose of Xuan Chong issuing provident fund is to let the upper-level prefecture always grasp the quantity of public fields.
Note: This system of capitalized land to ensure grassroots civil servant welfare references Fan Zhongyan’s local clan fields to support scholars from the family; Xuan Chong uses it to conjure something from nothing, shifting it to the civil servant system, turning it into local administrative finances to support people.
Wu Juwang remembers the teachings of Xuan Chong in Bo Prefecture back then. He began the work of dismantling the strongmen. Xuan Chong: Every hero has a flaw that can be defeated by a single coin; don’t let local strongmen fill that gap.
Noble family disciples everywhere can no longer idle in thatched cottages in local areas engaging in empty talk, but are busy clocking in for work. They begin earnestly carrying out the tasks issued by their leaders!
But what comforts them greatly is that their civil servant land, after forcibly exchanging and consolidating with various great clans into standardized large plots, is tax-exempt, and annual pay stubs are uniformly printed and evenly divided.
The public land plots for civil servants are ultimately decided after overall discussion by local civil servants; they won’t let themselves suffer losses. Wu Xiao Que’s army has just arrested some noble families, and the deterrent force is there!
As for the land of those local strongmen adjacent to the civil servants’ public land! Adjacent land means facing water grabbing and changes in irrigation channel boundaries! These are major matters involving “employee welfare,” and civil servants must pay attention to them.
The county magistrates sent by Wu Juwang all rely on the brand-new official administration operating system to vigorously ignite three fires.
County magistrate: “Investigate, investigate hard for me, don’t let kin investigate kin, have civil servants cross-investigate!”
In this way, Xuan Chong has obtained an unprecedented high-quality official talent pool in local areas, and the finances for supporting officials have also detached from the traditional extorting, taking, and obstructing of smallfolk.
Ultimately, the military side needing arrests is satisfied, the sent governance bureaucrats are satisfied, and even the civil servants are satisfied. After all, after understanding the staffing quota rules and systems, they find their received goods cannot be deducted at all, and they themselves cannot be casually kicked out; this is much easier than looking at uncles and elders’ faces at home to receive rice stipends.
It’s just that the noble families suffer.
Xuan Chong: Why don’t the noble families complain? Why only shout outside that every family is clean, why don’t they rise up and resist tyranny? So strange.
…Cleaned to the bone, unprecedented in history…
Perspective back to Zhao Cheng. Before the second year of Tong Zheng Calendar, he could occasionally smuggle grain from Xuan Chong’s side, all in small batches. Without large-scale caravan transport, the grain Zhao Cheng bought was not much cheaper than his local grain prices.
But after the second year of Tong Zheng Calendar, with the powerful official system built by Xuan Chong, Zhao Cheng can only see noble family disciples running over, but cannot get a batch of grain from Xuan Chong’s territory.
And in the second half of year 2, another batch of merchants willing to “risk selling grain” appeared, but these merchants were obviously abnormal. Zhao Cheng could tell they were deliberately sent by Xuan Chong.
Moreover, they were all damn profiteers; the grain sent was mixed with water and sand, this rice made the soldiers under Zhao Cheng grit their teeth eating it. Zhao Cheng also shared weal and woe with the soldiers, chewed this rice, and tasted “Wu Xiao Que’s” malice in one bite (Xuan Chong was disposing of old grain, sent over).
And these smugglers all tend not to want gold, silver, or treasures, but directly want people.
The smugglers explain the policy: The Chong Lord encourages people to go to the southern border; the government offices here all have quotas for introducing new households. To meet the quotas to households, they can overlook these small peddlers carrying grain sacks.
Zhao Cheng here does not lack gold, silver, or goods; after the army sieges and captures cities, there are plenty of seizures, and there are some people too, which can be used to exchange for grain.
But Zhao Cheng feels that Chong Land’s current trade tendency is deliberately done by Wu Xiao Que! Hiding malice he hasn’t discovered yet.
Wu Xiao Que has priors, for example, last year Zhao Cheng found that the people in his military reclamation area were raising rabbits, calling it rabbit skin can be exchanged for grain and cotton cloth.
This “Guan Zhong hegemony” strategy, how could Zhao Cheng not see through it? He had to use heavy codes to punish all farmers selling rabbit skins, but the crooked winds and evil practices are still spreading, because the food and grass reclaimed by serfs must be handed over to the army, but rabbit skins can be exchanged for real money. For these serfs, saving enough money to run west is fine.
…Wu Xiao Que never loses…
Back to the present, this bottle of Grass Returning Pill was exchanged for more than a hundred able-bodied men. It made Zhao Cheng bitterly smile: “Although the two sides have never met, both have guessed each other’s intentions many times. Wu Xiao Que, although avoiding battle in confrontation, the sparrow has always been preparing for war. Thus, beyond military combat, all dealings pursue not taking losses.”
He sent the Herb Restoration Liquid back to the public treasury, paused: It seems, in this game of chess, he has no move again.
Zhao Cheng confirmed Xuan Chong was still in the south, then continued advancing toward other directions of Da Yao with relief. In these two years, he successively captured Xiang Prefecture and Ma Prefecture. Making the vassal lords under heaven take notice.
Meanwhile, after Wu Hengyu took Dai Commandery, he began advancing toward the southeast lake marsh area, where there were displaced people he had resettled from Yongzhou back then.
In these years, after these newcomers recuperated, they cooperated with Wu Hengyu’s army arrival and rose up to join.
While Xuan Chong was in the south these two years, the north had already gone through the first stage of the heroes’ contention, with more than ten large and small campaigns erupting. Unable to detail them all.
Local vassal lords changed from ambitious “I can do it too” to “Damn! Why are you (Zhao Cheng or Wu Hengyu) chasing me to fight!” “I have many advisors, why have my strategies failed?”
…The situation is like cesspool soup…
In the second year of Tong Zheng Calendar, a major event also occurred in Yao Capital, accurately speaking, Yao Capital in the second year of Heming.
The cause was Zhao Cheng’s continuous strategic pressure, forcing Yu Prefecture troops to leave the capital to coordinate the western route vassal lords.
Among the troops defeated by Wu Hengyu in the northeast of Da Yao, there was one called the E Family Army. This troops was summoned by a certain faction in the court and stationed near the capital.
Obviously, Ji Yan’s practice of introducing foreign troops to control the court gave other ministers ideas.
Thus, some ministers in the court prepared to station the E Family Army in the court to achieve balance, and this was also secretly instructed by Emperor Heming.
But Ji Yan discovered this behavior. However, after learning Emperor Heming was involved, he could not act out. He could only secretly obstruct. Thus, under Ji Yan’s interference, there was no proper arrangement for this retreating troops. This practice caused a heaven-reaching disaster.
Long-term peace made the ministers in Yao Capital have wrong cognition of the “soldiers'” danger level: defeated corps = weak corps, but weak corps ≠ corps that can be bullied. Because this “weak” is relative to enemy armies on the battlefield. Once in the rear, this “weak army” is dynamite that can lose control at any time.
Ji Yan is adept at political infighting, but in the long-term peace of Emperor Shu’s era, he does not understand the perils of military affairs.
Even Wu Fei, such a monarch who holds life and death over southern border armies, immediately handles problems upon facing possible “spoiled” dissatisfaction in the army, ensuring no out-of-line actions.
Xuan Chong: Once the army steps out of line, no matter how weak this troop is, handle it at the maximum level: directly disband and discard, then trace back responsible persons, and immediately inspect other troops for issues.
Someone wants to use troop movements to strike opponents? Heh, responsible parties naturally die directly. Even non-responsible parties who stand by while bastards err must sit on the cold bench for life!
Taking Xuan Chong’s previous life young view of “Chicken Country coup” as example, the unreliable elements to be purged from the civilian system are absolutely more than those who defected militarily.
Even the cultural circle will undergo a pursuit and cleanup. Any novels or dramas that dare casually incite “military coups” for protagonists to benefit in narrating high-level power struggles must be sent to the border for good lessons.
Because the subtle influence of cultural works will make some stupid second- and third-generation trash raised by women really believe it.
Is something as dangerous as a military coup a game for high-level play house?
Xuan Chong: No need for ancient history, just modern history, World War, when great powers were exhausted, the most dangerous situation was no longer enemy corps hitting the capital, as trench warfare had stabilized. But rear accumulated failure and dissatisfaction erupting in the army; Sand Russia exploded first, then German Navy side exploded. If the opponent hadn’t collapsed first, France would explode too.
Defeated armies are still armed, obediently going to fight under central command. If they don’t win, full of wounds, they need soothing. If unsothable, quietly transfer to controllable areas far from cities to reduce destructiveness.
In the Heming court, the head of ministers Ji Yan did an absolutely stupid thing: facing this non-his-faction troop, he delayed disbursing grain pay to E Family with various procedures, but cart after cart of food and grass went west to ally with other route armies in the Yu Family Army headquarters area.
And those minister factions secretly opposing Ji Yan were even more stupid.
When Ji Yan cut off supplies, they conspired with E Family Army, informing these officers and soldiers, increasing their animosity toward Ji Yan. These big-headed soldiers, unaware of court factions, attributed the increased animosity to Yao Capital.
These desperate opposition factions originally wanted to make these foreign troops obey them by notifying of the dire situation. — Right, born in Yao Capital, they felt foreign troops obeying them was natural.
E Family Army was defeated under Wu Hengyu’s strike from the east side, already unstable black powder; officers and soldiers in the army were already worried that Emperor Heming would shift blame for border loss.
Thus, on this night, in the dimly lit E Family Army military tent where even lamps couldn’t be lit, a bearded man with hawk-like gaze used a sword to sketch a map, marking city gates, armory, and other key points with pebbles.
Due to Heming court superiors’ neglect, and lower petty officials without overall perspective naturally squeezing this defeated army to death: not only stationed near chaotic burial mounds away from official roads, but thousands stationed without even a well, and necessary military pay also deducted.
And these Son of Heaven capital region officials, five li away inside city gates drinking small wine, looking at E Family Army stationed on barren hills. Righteously laughing: defeated soldiers should starve to death.
Time slowly passed.
On the yellow earth road, white lanterns hung at the city gate, a small table in front of the gate with small wine and fried tofu. Biting one by one “tasty,” opening mouth “authentic,” the gate officer looked at the weary E Family Army station: so what, repeatedly defeated incompetents, dare they rebel!
On the asphalt road side, under cameras aligned with street lamps, arrogant white-collar: you this forty-fifty year old bottom laborer doing manual work, you gonna stab me with a knife or what!
…Xian Daoren murmured: Stab, stab quickly…
Heming Calendar 2nd year, 2nd month, 12th day, the military coup erupted at the core of Da Yao. Yao Capital bureaucrats had been at peace for several hundred years, with no experience handling military coups. At first hearing of the coup, they handled it with civilian rebellion attitude: dispatching yamen runners and Demon Suppressing Division enforcement to suppress and capture noisy officers.
These ministers naively believed that once the decree is announced, the rebels would recognize failure and leaders obediently submit to law.
Military coups and civilian rebellions are completely different. Civilian rebels’ action purpose is mainly to obtain essential survival materials. Even if they destroy, revenge concentrates on rice shops oppressing them and restaurant owners unwilling to give leftovers. Their vent targets are daily contact levels, not impacting higher levels.
In civilian rebellion process, the group near checkpoints has the strongest organization. Once breaking through checkpoints, they go zero-yuan purchase at grain stores, and after eating their fill, the energized ones besiege government offices. At this time, government suppression troops of a few hundred can handle it.
However, military coup situation is orders of magnitude higher than civilian rebellion.
After E Family Army coup initiated, the northern guard city of Yao Capital was breached. Yao Capital gates wide open. Further in is Yao Capital city wall, feng shui nodes below Nine Palaces area, most citizens of Yao Capital without city wall protection.
Armory, grain depot, government office in northern guard city taken almost simultaneously; the idle corpse-occupying soldiers of Zhanlu Camp were collectively beheaded; E Family Army rioting soldiers quickly gathered resources in the city. At this time, the suppression troops scraped together by the court in the city had just set off.
Half a shichen later, these Yao Capital government soldiers wearing double armor suddenly faced black gun muzzles and ballistae on the way. The capital officers’ leader saw the setup, barely squeezed a smile, stepped forward: “Brothers, this is?”
But before he could use his eloquence, “bang” a gunshot rang out, this officers’ leader showed incredulous expression on his face: “These barbarians.”
Minutes later, the sent suppression officers all became headless corpses, and the bloodied armor was all worn by E Family Army officers.
And the coup E Family in the capital manors captured the noble family disciple responsible for liaising with them.
This noble family disciple’s elders originally wanted to oppose Ji Yan.
At this moment, before the ferocious coup soldiers like wild beasts, this noble family disciple who eloquently persuaded soldiers to obey in E Family Army camp days ago pissed himself.
The pants-wetting scholar recalled his days-ago solemn promise “my family guarantees E Family Army can enter the capital.” He tremblingly said: “Marshal, why summon me, my father is working for you all.”
However, the pockmarked, weather-beaten E Family Army general revealed a creepy smile: “This old man and brothers can’t wait any longer.”
Joking, E Family Army’s highest general knows what the forces behind this noble family disciple want to use them for. Nothing more than balancing Yu Family Army, but why hard clash with Yu Family Army? This E Family Army was ordered by the court to contain the former Eastern Market Army’s Bo Prefecture troops. What was Eastern Market Army’s signature move against Hao Army in past years? Seizing cities when off guard.
And they are homeless dogs, seize city then grab and run!
…Tonight Yao Capital moon is red, blue intersection mixed with some purple…
At night, under blue Evil Moon shining on Yao Capital battlements, Yao Capital east side city gate unmanned due to gate officer drunkenness, after E Family Army passed the gate, moonlight turned red.
Disordered armored E Family Army directly charged into Yao Capital. This Son of Heaven capital began experiencing chaos unseen for a millennium.
In an instant, prince and noble family gates were breached, those arrogant servants beheaded, those young ladies brutally ravaged, gold and silver treasuries looted, large numbers of pavilions burned down. Once prosperous riverside civilian residences, flames reflected in canal pools, exceptionally beautiful.
