Chapter 153: The Imperial Court’s Thirst For Talent
Tian You Calendar Year One. Just as Gu Shou Pass was taken by Wu Fei and Wu Hengyu joining forces, while the courier soldiers reporting victory were still relaying on the road.
Within Da Yao, after Emperor Ling issued the “Summoning Talents Order” requiring vassal lords from all directions to send hostages to the capital. Prefects and generals in various places, knowing this Summoning Talents Order was not mainly targeting them, did not openly resist, and sent the unimportant sons born to their concubines to the capital city to complete the task.
So who exactly was this Summoning Talents Order targeting?
It was the idols promoted by the strongest noble families in various places, the virtuous and talented ones with fame from youth within great clans. After Su Wang heard of these people, he named them specifically and demanded they enter the capital.
In thatched cottages everywhere where no commoners passed and great scholars conversed in laughter, constables from the imperial court, just like netizens seeking URLs in later generations, came to various places to probe the private gathering spots of local talented persons.
And these noble families and great clans, facing imperial envoys repeatedly coming to local areas to invite the virtuous, avoided them as much as possible.
Local officials did not give up either, hiring meddlers to keep watch, constantly monitoring the talented persons. As soon as the talented persons went out, they swarmed forward immediately, demanding the talented persons respond to the imperial court’s conscription.
Xuan Chong: If not for being in this era himself, in later generations reading history as an outsider, seeing this “imperial court sending officials, virtuous and talented fleeing and declining” always felt those talented persons were pretentious, but now he understood—”virtuous and talented” did not mean high moral character, and the imperial court was not truly eager for talent.
The thirst for talent in the imperial court was so urgent. Da Yao’s fast horses carrying imperial court orders galloped on the official road, as if going to inform filial sons outside to return for mourning.
If the imperial court’s conscription of the virtuous and talented was truly “to entrust with heavy responsibility,” making room in the court for talented persons to achieve something, the talented persons would still be eager to render service; but the “Summoning Talents Order” issued by Emperor Ling was more to eliminate signs of rebellion in local areas.
…Notebook…
Xuan Chong explained: Cannot view Da Yao’s conscription of talented persons from a modern perspective; even the Song and Ming versions had not reached that level.
Due to low literacy rates, government offices’ tax collection and labor conscription in various places severely relied on noble families and clans. In local areas, even a minor clerk managing a relay station was a branch of a great clan. The favors he received from the family far exceeded the imperial court’s grace and might, after all, only the clan school provided by the family allowed this clerk to read from childhood.
By Song times, printing had spread widely. Books and literacy were no longer monopolized by the top noble families; youths from villages with decent family conditions could also read and become low-level clerks. In other words, control of the bottom layer could no longer be completely monopolized by the great families of the area.
So in Tang times, the connections that permeated a prefecture like the old Wang and Xie families’ swallows before the hall had by Song times flown into ordinary folk homes.
By Ming times it was even more obvious; even county magistrates in economically developed Jiangnan areas could no longer be monopolized by noble families. Competent bureaucrats could be cultivated entirely from poor families, and imperial power could shout at court ministers to beat or kill them. At this point, ministers no longer had the qualification to stand before imperial power but were slaves.
Figures like Yan Song and Xu Jie, actually ministers at the “Three Dukes” level, once toppled, had local county magistrates settle accounts with them, something unimaginable in the “Eastern Han, Wei-Jin” era.
Similarly, Xuan Chong’s previous life “knowledge monopoly” and “what can you do about us academic cliques” were the same.
Knowledge monopoly means doing whatever one wants, because the governance system cannot find a replaceable structure.
…Noble families fundamentally control the paths of knowledge dissemination…
Cannot use Ming and Qing officialdom values to understand the upper-class values of the Wei-Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties period. Ming and Qing bureaucrats were civil servants with staffing quotas within the system, while compared to them, Eastern Han, Wei-Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties bureaucrats were like “private enterprises.” Private enterprises seem to offer good pay and benefits, but the pressure is high, superiors can irregularly assign various tasks, and work targets change arbitrarily.
The imperial court now controlled by Su Wang was just like this. “High-spirited young talented persons” falling into his hands would become “social animals” squeezed dry of use, taking on all the dirty, tiring, and scapegoat work. Not getting any benefits, finally at thirty-five being squeezed dry and kicked away.
The reputation of those conscripted talented persons would be gone, stained with filth in the imperial court, returning to their hometowns to die in depression.
The so-called “when times come, heaven and earth share the fortune; when fortune goes, heroes have no freedom”—those local noble families all studied feng shui and metaphysics, able to calculate that going to Yao Capital brought no good fortune, while staying home allowed steady long-term flow.
Xuan Chong’s social science understanding: The “fortune” here refers to the “force one can borrow” when doing things.
Those talented persons had been famous far and wide locally since youth. Were they really born exceptionally talented? It was just their families crafting personas and credibility for them, and teaching them how to handle rural interpersonal relations.
This is “fortune.” With such “fortune” added, talented persons from childhood handled matters, judging neighborhood disputes on who was good or evil. Deciding the quotas for villages’ use of public lakes and mountain ridges. Praised by mouth of local folk, thus virtuous.
This was equivalent to the work done by local judges and media in later generations. The key to this work was doing things “with no controversy from all sides” to be called virtuous. If it was an official forcibly assigned by the court stirring up boiling resentment locally in this regard, that would be tyranny.
For the talented persons, being conscripted to the capital meant losing all local accumulation, becoming no different from ordinary people; the interpersonal capital carried from the hometown would be rapidly consumed by the court, used to conscript local resources.
On this, Xuan Chong subtly self-mocked: Unless one has a self-brought system cheat, one can confidently think oneself gold that shines wherever gone. Otherwise, heh, in his previous life when young, how many capable older brothers at first thought themselves gold, started independent ventures, plunged headfirst into unfamiliar fields, ended up dirt-covered and mocked as “no vision.”
Da Yao’s Summoning Talents Order became for a time the hottest topic across all Da Yao, even overshadowing border warfare.
For most people in those noble families, the “talented persons” entering the capital had no impact on them; even the family propagated resource vacancies locally, allowing collateral branches to rise.
In the capital, during Su Wang’s control of talent selection, he also recruited some poor family disciples leaning toward him. These local poor family members were very willing to respond to the call.
While those unwilling to respond, talented persons with great reputation in their townships.
Da Yao began questioning the talented persons “not responding to conscription.” In the Heluo area, a talented scholar was cornered by the governor and questioned: “Other talented persons all responded to conscription, why not you?”
Just like in elementary school, teachers leading the rhythm to suppress kids with backbone but no social experience: “Other classes can do it, why can’t we?”
…Mental bullying can only be used against the weak…
In Bo Prefecture, Wu Fei had just received the conscription order from the imperial court. Wu Fei was in full military attire, standing under the catapult at Gu Shou Pass, meeting this envoy.
This imperial envoy had come north all the way, originally thinking to meet Wu Fei in Huangyu City, but was told Wu Fei was already at the frontline. On the way north, he encountered village baojia and local village soldiers coming to “inquire”; without travel documents, he could not have come.
However, upon arriving in the North, seeing the ruined Gu Shou Pass and the Hao Army corpses buried in the great pit, the imperial envoy lacked the courage to voice many prepared questions. He could only hastily report the imperial edict, then state the order to summon Wu Fei back to the capital, with the court sending another general.
Just after this imperial envoy spoke, the many officers and soldiers coming to receive the decree rioted on the spot; those right beside Wu Fei happened to be soldiers who experienced the “Palace Fall Incident.”
Hearing the court wanted to summon the general again, they became extremely agitated, shouting loudly: “There are treacherous people in the court. Do not deceive us!” “General, you cannot go back, they want to harm you!”
After all, everyone remembered Mu Xingyu was summoned back by the court, then mysteriously disappeared without explanation, instead smeared by Su Wang as the palace coup mastermind.
The soldiers very simply feared Wu Fei being deceived; um, though they knew Wu Fei was much smarter than them, “Prince Zhou such a dog thing now sitting on the throne, and to this day no rewards for us officers and soldiers who bathed in blood and fought hard, shows evil treachery in the court bewitching the sage’s heart.”
In the camp, the officers and soldiers’ indignation grew stronger. The imperial envoy was locked by killing intent, trembling in fear.
Someone said: “General, you cannot leave the camp; we are striving forward, how can you abandon us?”
This was relatively mild.
Someone held a knife directly at the envoy: “This man must be a spy sent by False Hao to disrupt our military morale!” Then moved to swing the knife and chop.
Also thanks to this envoy showing Gong Qian’s token, Wu Fei pulled him into the tent, saving him. Wu Hengyu outside the camp also arrived just in time, using his divine valor to suppress.
…Resentment is not accumulated in a day…
Wu Hengyu’s personal soldiers controlled the scene outside the tent, shouting “quiet.”
But these personal soldiers were also fanning the flames: “Everyone rest assured, the general will absolutely not abandon you.”
In the military tent, the issue was not resolved; Wu Fei also wanted to figure out the current state of the court.
Envoy: “His Majesty wishes to see the general; the general is busy with military affairs and cannot go—may he send a son in his place?”
Wu Fei said: “I currently have only one son, just learning to walk, and far in the Southern Border—how can he face the monarch?”
After the envoy was silent, he asked if Wu Fei had a wife in Bo Prefecture over three years.
Wu Fei paused slightly, touched his head: “Many comrades in the army have perished, leaving orphans; I could not bear it, took them as adopted sons—what is the envoy’s meaning?”
The envoy immediately shook his head. What were a general’s “adopted sons”? Everyone in the court knew.
At this point, the envoy himself smiled bitterly; the court sent such a talented individual as Wu Fei to lead troops in the North—how did they not arrange an imperial clan woman to match? And Wu Fei himself was quite absurd, achieving such feats yet unmarried without a proper wife.
Of course, tracing causes were coincidences; the late emperor originally planned to arrange an imperial clan daughter, but died suddenly, ending the matter. As for the Li family daughter Wu Fei originally was to marry, the betrothal was canceled. And right now in Emperor Ling’s rear palace.
This matter was one of the topics the many young nobles in Yao Capital laughed at Wu Fei about back then; meddlers drew pictures, depicting Wu Fei as a grasshopper leaping from the fields toward a white jade cicada on a high branch.
But the past is the past; back then Yao Capital was still singing and dancing in peace. But now, with great chaos under heaven, none of it was funny anymore.
An army so close to Yao Capital, from top to bottom beginning to sever ties with Yao Capital. Many Eastern Market Army generals had already married local magnates’ daughters in Bo Prefecture. The original rope-pullers and able-bodied men among Eastern Market soldiers, the lower-level soldiers, after the city breach experienced the phase of getting women, also had families.
Goods and women were key resources to bind a troop to dare battle, while official positions and rewards involved loyalty; Bo region’s various offices, Wu Fei had now placed his people in all.
This troop had been bribed by Wu Fei. However, this imperial envoy had not realized that not only the Eastern Market Army was bought— the entire Bo Prefecture did not want Wu Fei to leave.
…Imperial court does not understand public opinion…
The envoy brought Wu Fei’s return gifts back to the imperial court.
Su Wang threw away the inscription in the gift box personally penned by Wu Fei—”Da Yao good, good good good”—cursing: “Even several golden tally summons cannot bring him back; this child has wolf’s ambition!”
Earlier he suggested to Emperor Ling to regain control of the Eastern Market Army; his own plan was to use the talent summons to call Wu Fei into Yao Capital, then soft-imprison him.
Then dispatch his people to control this army. Slowly bring this army under his command; as for transferring the Eastern Market Army back to the capital, whether Bo Prefecture would due to weakened military strength become Hao State’s plundered wasteland again?
Su Wang did not care at all. Da Yao had Nine Provinces and Ten Thousand Directions, not lacking this one place; between Yao Capital and Hao State, were there not Zhu Liqiang and three fiefdoms blocking? The sky would not fall.
However, his selfish scheming was calculated by Wu Fei, also good at summarizing experience, foiled from the first step.
After a “poor family” disciple like Su Wang gained power, the personality gap with great family disciples emerged—the so-called difference between Former Han local strongmen often doing evil and Later Han noble families often having reputations for benevolence.
Using later generations’ understanding to analogize, New York police supervisors described such a rule: they were not afraid of formed gangs, but vigilant of newly emerging small gangs.
Because formed gangs had stabilized their interest spheres, had boundaries in actions, considered the stability of their overall system; small gangs in rapid expansion phase grabbed immediate interests as much as possible, not considering damage to the entire system’s stability.
The current behavior of various court factions and cliques. Small factions for rapid expansion could shamelessly do all short-sighted, selfish interest behaviors, not caring about damage to the entire system.
The White Eagle’s external control strategy followed this, constantly supporting non-mainstream forces in various countries’ parliaments, creating systemic instability for a series of forces including allies.
Sure enough, after petty people gained power, the massive, decade-long North Stream mega-project costing huge funds and time was cut off just like that. The big picture? Petty people: What is the big picture, can it be eaten?
Xuan Chong’s extremely disgusted and contemptuous description: Now Da Yao’s Su Wang and other eunuchs were just this type; once in power, recklessly expanding, only caring about immediate interests, not about damage to the system, extremely selfish, shameless, no bottom line.
Under dynastic system, holding governance power meant suppressing great families to death, but doubly vigilant against the scheming of minor gentry scholars from small families.
Poor families were also part of feudal dross; cannot because their scale relative to great families is too insignificant, ignore their extremely evil reactionary nature.
Wu Fei used his control over military and local affairs to hammer back the malice from Yao Capital! But had Wu Fei really guarded against all domains?
In some feudal superstitious domains, Wu Fei had always been blocked by his “teacher,” with little contact.
…System: All guidance is under control; to cope with the situation, partial countermeasures have been authorized and opened…
In Yao Capital, in the repaired central palace, a Daoist priest Wu Long under Su Wang joined Da Yao’s alchemist team.
Wu Long was now in the imperial family’s name, inviting disciples from major sects to jointly participate in alchemy technique exchange; as many disciples entered, an immortal crane on the palace gate lintel unfurled the couplet “Yellow sprouts white snow immortal abode, wondrous grasses rare flowers feathered scholar home.”
This was a grand assembly, but in this immortal gathering, Su Wang set the theme as “Plague-warding Pills.” He required each house to consider the common people under heaven, besides slaying demons and removing evil, also to ward off evil and dispel disasters for the populace.
Each immortal sect showed their means.
Among them, Qinghua Sect disciples showed a Dan Ding Art technique, proudly saying: My medicine pill thrown into water, passing merchants and travelers fearless of miasma and plagues.
Qingyuan Sect disciples released a swimming dragon: “This thing of mine is upper clear water spirit; let it swim in the river, people bathing in it, all diseases and evils dispelled.”
Just as disciples from various sects were in magic battle.
Wu Long: “Fellow immortals all have remarkable talents, but talk without proof—please find some examples in the world to test, only then can determine the superiority of each sect and school.”
