The matter of pulling out the tree root did not keep Prefect Xie waiting for long.
In the third month, the newly built warships from Taicang Prefecture arrived south at the Jiahe Guard, and within a few days Pei Shaohuai led two thousand-liao great ships into Quanzhou’s port.
The spring river ran green as wine; the towering ship decks rose tall as towers. Black lacquer gleamed in the sunlight, all the more somber and weighty for it, and the thousand-liao great ships pressed upriver from Quanzhou’s port against the current into the Luoyang River, drawing the people of Quanzhou to the riverbank to gather and watch in competition.
“My lord, the Shuang’an Prefecture Prefect has brought two thousand-liao ships into Quanzhou’s port.” A runner came rushing back to report.
Xie Jia’s expression sharpened, and before he could ask for details, Pei Shaohuai’s calling card arrived at the Quanzhou Prefecture yamen, inviting him to a meeting at Wangjiang Tower.
At Wangjiang Tower, in the same private room as before.
“Today Pei presumes somewhat, daring to play host in Prefect Xie’s territory. I ask the Prefect’s broad pardon.” Pei Shaohuai stepped forward to greet him with a beaming face, and laughed: “I would not dare delay on what I promised the Prefect. Last night I finally thought of a method, and today I have brought the ships expressly to give it a try… If there is anything improper about it, I trust the Prefect will not hold it against me.”
An outer fourth-rank official daring to speak of “holding it against” a member of the imperial family’s inner circle — these courteous words grated most unpleasantly in Prefect Xie’s ears. He naturally had no good expression to show.
Wangjiang Tower was not far from the river, and through the window, one could clearly observe every movement on the river and the ships.
From below the tower on the riverbank came a gasp of alarm — one of the thousand-liao great ships had kept to the north bank and, just as it neared the tree root, its hull had suddenly swung broadside and run aground on the sandbar, blocking the swift-flowing current.
The people thought the ship had been struck by some impact, and were given a fright for nothing.
The great ship blocked the water, and the sandbar where the banyan tree had grown was gradually exposed. Half of the tree root, coiling and twisting around itself, lay embedded here, as thick as ten men’s arms linked together.
The spring river water was still cold. Several relays of sailors took turns leaping into the river, found several points where they could apply force, and used iron chains to bind this section of tree root. The sailors turned the gear wheels on the ship, drawing the iron chains taut, several chains locked between the root and the two massive ships, pulled as taut as a bowstring. Yet with human strength alone turning the gear wheels, the force was still not enough to pull the tree root up.
The iron chains could not be drawn one inch tighter.
At that moment, the sailors were seen shouldering burlap sacks one after another, and pouring the river sand from inside them into the water, letting the current carry it away. It became clear — the two thousand-liao great ships had come “fully loaded,” which explained why they had sailed so steadily and sat so deep in the water.
Seeing this, the watching crowd largely understood the intent — to use the lifting force of the great ships, as they rose, to pull out the banyan tree’s remaining roots.
In the upper floor, Pei Shaohuai explained to Prefect Xie: “The reason the vessels cannot pass freely is that the ships are burdened with excess cargo. Now, one need only cast the surplus… ” He paused deliberately before continuing: “…cast the surplus refuse into the river, the vessels will ride higher in the water, the iron chains will draw taut, and the tree root can be pulled free.”
He deliberately called the sand “refuse.”
Prefect Xie’s face turned to iron. He had not expected Pei Shaohuai to insult him so bluntly, and said: “Pei Prefect has quite the talent for analogies.”
“You flatter me — I learned from you.”
On the river surface, things were still proceeding. Prefect Xie could no longer go on “speaking in riddles,” and seated himself squarely, speaking plainly: “Why must Pei Prefect and I play dumb with each other here? We both know perfectly well — this tree root is not that tree root. You may pull out the root in the river, but can you pull out the tangled web of Fujian? Are Pei Prefect’s ships truly large enough?”
“By nature I am arrogant — I feel I can try.”
“Pei Prefect — heir of a noble family, a young laureate from the examinations, a trusted confidant of the Son of Heaven, a student of a Grand Secretary. The whole court sent you south in state to open up the seas. What glory! To you, this journey south is an achievement whether you succeed or fail — either way there is something to show for it, and either way you return to the capital in glory to receive the Son of Heaven’s reward. Pei Prefect has had his glory and his fill of excitement — but having stirred up all this muddy water, who will clean it up? Will it not ultimately be the local people who suffer?” Prefect Xie pressed question after question.
Quanzhou Prefecture had made very thorough inquiries into Pei Shaohuai’s background.
And so Xie Jia had adopted a stance of testing the waters step by step. This veteran was very skilled at seizing the high ground first — with those few words, he had already placed himself on elevated moral footing, taking on something of the posture of a caring father-official who loved his people.
Faced with Xie Jia’s preemptive accusations, Pei Shaohuai was unmoved. He turned the questions back: “Prefect Xie, as a minister of Da Qing — what role have you been playing in this place, what part have you been acting? How can you be so certain that I am stirring up a pool of muddy water, rather than leaving behind a clear pool?”
He pressed further: “Prefect Xie worries that the people will suffer hardship in the future — does he not know that the people are suffering hardship right now?”
“Would I harm the people here!” Prefect Xie swept his sleeve violently, and said with indignation.
His clouded eyes fixed on Pei Shaohuai, and he began to speak of his past — decades compressed into a few brief words: “Though I am not a native of Fujian, I have served as an official for decades, moving through various parts of the Fujian Provincial Administration, rising from a small deputy governor and county magistrate, waiting years for each vacancy, three years at a time, five years at a stretch, step by step, until I reached my position today. I married here, raised my children here — by any measure I count as half a local man… If Pei Prefect returns to the capital, you may look up my record. Can you find a single evaluation period where I performed poorly? Can you find a single instance where I was a negligent official?”
“Look outside, Pei Prefect.” Prefect Xie gestured toward the high window. Looking out, one could see tiles of red and green in dense rows, and could dimly make out the entire flourishing expanse of Quanzhou’s prefectural city. He said: “Are the people suffering? Has there been any hardship? This is an insult and a slander against me.”
And then: “Not to be immodest, but Pei Prefect may go and ask around — among all the people of this city, who would not say a good word for the Prefect?”
Pei Shaohuai was not going to be taken in by this “one-tree-for-a-forest” argument.
Every word of Xie Jia’s sentimental self-praise, rather than moving Pei Shaohuai in the slightest, only deepened his contempt.
Sometimes, evaluation after evaluation of flawless performance only made things more suspect.
“Even a primer for children says ‘one flower blooming alone is not spring’ — and yet Prefect Xie would hide the people’s suffering behind this single city’s prosperity?” Pei Shaohuai tore away Xie Jia’s pretense and asked: “Quanzhou has seven counties, stretching several hundred li from west to east, tens of thousands of households — are only the people of the prefectural city Prefect Xie’s people? Is Prefect Xie the father-official only of the prefectural city?”
Sitting atop such a prosperous Quanzhou port, and having enriched only one prefectural city — and still daring to claim credit for it.
The great households lived in this prefectural city. They loosened their fingers just enough to feed the city’s dignity.
Pei Shaohuai pressed further: “Prefect Xie says he counts as half a Fujian man… Setting aside the rest of Da Qing, are the people of other prefectural cities, counties, and provinces of Fujian not also people?”
These sea lanes belonged to no single prefectural city, and were not any one person’s private possession.
“The tea workshops of Wuyi, the porcelain kilns of Dehua, the Western Township paper of northern Fujian… so many workshops and artisans — which one of them is not sustained by Quanzhou’s port?” Xie Jia continued to argue. He said: “Now Pei Prefect wants to shatter the balance of this place, knock the bowl from their hands and leave them with nothing to eat. Pei Prefect — do you truly know how many people’s livelihoods depend on the Maritime Trade Bureau? Knocking the bowl from people’s hands is not something that ought to be done.”
“That is laughable — truly laughable.” Pei Shaohuai said with contempt. “They are owed ten measures of rice, and have been given only one — and yet they must thank you for it, and you count this as an achievement… This is not trade. This is plunder and charity.”
Fujian had few paddy fields, and many of its people could only earn their living by their skills and crafts.
Fine porcelain that sold overseas for tens or even a hundred taels, transported after many hands to Quanzhou Prefecture and sold to official merchants, would fetch only a few copper coins a cup.
Monopoly allowed the Maritime Trade Bureau officials and merchants to profit from both ends. The immense stakes involved then drew official merchants, great clans, and pirates into alliance, forming a unified body that had gradually hardened into a deep-rooted old sickness — one that could not be cured without powerful medicine.
Seeing that manipulation would not work, Xie Jia changed his approach and turned to persuasion.
He put on the manner of someone speaking from the heart, and tried to advise Pei Shaohuai: “Pei Prefect is still young. It would not hurt to think about why you came south to this posting. Think it over, and it comes down to no more than three things: to serve the people, to gain merit for yourself, or to pursue long-term benefit for the country… Whichever it is, we can help Pei Prefect. Why not consider it?”
Xie Jia paused, then added: “The former Provincial Administration Commissioner died by his own hand nearly three years ago. The court’s newly appointed Commissioner has now been in office for over two years, yet the rules of Fujian remain as they ever were. Even a second-rank commissioner proceeds with quiet caution — why, then, should Pei Prefect make things difficult for himself?”
The implication was: even an official of the second rank, carefully selected by the court, could not change things — how much less could Pei Shaohuai, a young man?
This showed how deep the entanglement ran.
There was more than one clever person in the world besides Pei Shaohuai.
Seeing that Pei Shaohuai had gone quiet, Prefect Xie laid out his terms, attempting to draw Pei Shaohuai into this vast hidden web. He said: “If Pei Prefect is for the people — let us open the sea together in Shuang’an Prefecture, recreate a small Yangzhou within Tong’an City; in three to five years the people will certainly be grateful to Pei Prefect and carve a stele in his memory. If Pei Prefect is for merit — whether it is fighting the pirates, destroying the bandits, or winning submission from foreign vassal states, say it plainly and we will discuss and arrange things together. If Pei Prefect is for the Son of Heaven, for Da Qing — then establish a new Maritime Trade Bureau in Shuang’an Prefecture: one in Quanzhou to the north, one in Shuang’an to the south, with ship taxes of more than a million taels submitted each year to honor the ruler and enrich the treasury — what would be wrong with that?”
And finally, as a parting remark, he added: “Seize what can be grasped, and then grow it from there.” Rather than aiming for the impossible from the very start.
Xie Jia was putting on a show, and Pei Shaohuai played along. He feigned interest and asked: “Such advantages — what would Pei need to do?”
“Opening the sea is a new policy, and how it is opened ultimately depends on the people implementing it.” Prefect Xie said. “Pei Prefect need do nothing, need not change his own character — only truthfully report the difficulties to the court.”
In other words: do nothing at all.
And let the Quanzhou Maritime Trade Bureau continue to devour the profits of the sea merchants.
Pei Shaohuai could feign no longer. He laughed coldly: “And this is what Prefect Xie calls never having been negligent in office?”
Then: “I carry the imperial sword granted by the Son of Heaven — to cut corrupt ministers, to execute treacherous officials. Does Prefect Xie have no fear of it?”
Xie Jia saw he had been played for a fool, and the pretense drained from his face, leaving it cold.
He said: “I ask — fighting the pirates, benefiting the people, enriching the treasury — which of these things I said was wrong? The method may be debated, but the loyalty is genuine. Pei Prefect holds an imperial sword, yet he cannot wrong an innocent man.”
Xie Jia stepped forward a few paces and leaned close to Pei Shaohuai’s ear, and said: “This realm ultimately belongs to the House of Yan. Each ruler brings his own court, and Pei Prefect’s loyalty will not be worth much for long.”
If everything said before had been maneuvering and posturing, what he said now was full-blown arrogance — it seemed that being far from the Son of Heaven for so long had made him forget what the imperial authority meant.
Or perhaps these words, while spoken by Xie Jia’s mouth, were not Xie Jia’s own.
“Pei Prefect, if you wish to try — by all means, do as you please.”
At that very moment, from outside Wangjiang Tower came the rushing of water and the clash of iron chains. Once the sand had been emptied from the ships, a great tangled mass of tree root was wrenched free, suspended between the two ships, hanging across the iron chains.
The crowd of onlookers broke into cheers.
Pei Shaohuai said: “The merit of a single city and the desire of a single self — what is the difference between them? But within the span of a single dynasty, one may establish merit for ten thousand households, and leave a name that endures for ten thousand generations.”