When Shen Yang entered the capital and was appointed Prime Minister, Emperor Yanyou bestowed the well-preserved Wen family residence upon Shen Yang as the Prime Minister’s residence.
Since the previous dynasty, “Opening Office with Ceremonial Equivalent to the Three Excellencies” as the highest rank among civil scattered officials was more a symbol of honor and status. In reality, aside from Princes of First Rank and Princes of Second Rank, neither royal kinsmen nor great ministers had the authority to establish their own offices and personally appoint subordinate officials.
However, as Prime Minister of Great Chu, it was impossible for Shen Yang to remain completely alone.
Too many military and political affairs sprouted like bamboo shoots after spring rain from the Six Ministries, various court bureaus, prefectures and counties, converging at his location. After he and the other ministers in the Political Affairs Hall deliberated and decided, they would memorialize His Majesty to establish measures.
Without a large staff or secretarial team, relying only on Shen Yang and the Political Affairs Hall’s limited number of ranked assistant officials, those numerous memorial documents could drown them.
The slaves and servants Shen Yang had been rewarded with before and after totaled over a hundred households, but most were arranged to work on the bestowed estates. Only a few old servants had always attended to his daily needs.
This time, the dozen or so staff members he invited were all impoverished scholars from Ezhou or Yueyang. Shen Yang directly allocated more than ten sets of residences from the Prime Minister’s residence, having them move in with their families. This made the enormous Prime Minister’s residence packed full and extraordinarily lively.
The rear courtyard of the Prime Minister’s residence had originally been a garden of more than ten acres. At this time, aside from more than ten large trees, all other rare flowers and exotic plants had been removed. Now it had all been converted into vegetable gardens.
“Shen Yang, it’s bad enough you’re using fine things carelessly, but aren’t you afraid people will say you’re doing this to fish for fame and reputation?” Every time Yang En came to Shen Yang’s residence and saw how Shen Yang had ruined the rear garden, he couldn’t help but scold him painfully a few times.
“You’re also a participating minister. You keep running over to my side—aren’t you afraid of being accused of privately forming factions?” Shen Yang said.
“Everyone in Jinling City knows what kind of temperament and character I, Yang En, have—or at least it’s heard in the market streets and lanes. If someone wants to impeach me, just let them go ahead,” Yang En said with a scornful laugh. “It’s fortunate you didn’t have people dig up these few trees, or else when coming to the Prime Minister’s residence to talk, there wouldn’t be a single shady place.”
The staff and guests at this time all tactfully walked away, not interfering with Yang En and Shen Yang’s discussion of confidential matters.
Yang En had previously still maintained a joking demeanor, but the next moment he couldn’t help but heave a long sigh and ask Shen Yang, “The Sizhou civil unrest—if we say Han Qian didn’t secretly manipulate things at all, neither you nor I would believe it, right?”
Some matters were understood by all, just not to be openly stated in the Political Affairs Hall. After all, everything discussed by the officials in the Political Affairs Hall would be recorded and would become primary material for compiling history in later generations.
Some words could only be discussed privately.
The Political Affairs Hall had discussed for half the day with everyone’s opinions quite divergent, yet at this time Shen Yang disregarded the Sizhou civil unrest and advocated first determining the candidate for Guangde Magistrate.
Yang En could guess the common point between Sizhou and Guangde Prefecture—both were related to Han Qian. But some words couldn’t be spoken fully in the Political Affairs Hall or before His Majesty. He could only chase after Shen Yang to the Prime Minister’s residence, thinking to speak plainly in private, which was better than everyone speculating back and forth behind the scenes.
Of course, Yang En only acted this way with Shen Yang.
Shen Yang took out an opened letter from his bosom, handed it to Yang En, and said, “Yesterday at dawn, someone threw this letter into the courtyard. You should take a look…”
Yang En doubtfully took the letter and lowered his head to read. The more he read, the more shocked his expression became. “This letter—you’re certain it was written by Han Qian?”
“Han Qian naturally wouldn’t leave evidence by personally writing this letter, but this letter being sent by someone he dispatched to throw into the courtyard should be certain. Otherwise, no one would know so many internal details,” Shen Yang said.
“Why didn’t you present this letter to His Majesty?” Yang En asked subconsciously, but then he thought it through first. “If you present this letter to His Majesty, Han Qian would flatly deny it and would also stir things up to be even more complicated—”
Shen Yang nodded, acknowledging that he hadn’t brought out the letter because he didn’t want things to become more complicated.
Yang En sighed in his heart. Having experienced too many hardships in his life, his understanding of human nature had long been thorough. How could there possibly be completely unreserved trust between ruler and minister?
Yang En couldn’t help but carefully read the letter again, yet he also couldn’t help but purse his lips and say, “He really has no qualms, directly stating in the letter that he’s stirring up trouble in Sizhou—this is beating the grass to startle the snake, letting the Political Affairs Hall officials know that Guangde Prefecture cannot fall into chaos. Is he certain the Political Affairs Hall officials will let him lead them by the nose?”
“With the Sizhou civil unrest, Prince Yang, Marquis Li, Minister Zheng and the others will inevitably have deeper considerations, but they won’t necessarily let him lead them by the nose,” Shen Yang said. “That’s why he threw this letter into my courtyard—to ensure that I would be led by the nose…”
“Do you trust Han Qian? After all, he’s not his father Han Daoxun,” Yang En said with furrowed brows.
Before the relationship between His Majesty and Han Qian had deteriorated, Yang En believed Han Qian could become a pillar minister of Great Chu. But now that His Majesty and Han Qian were unified in appearance but divided in spirit, a broken relationship was very difficult to repair to its original state.
Yang En didn’t consider Han Qian a great traitor or great deceiver, but he also didn’t think Han Qian was the type who would completely disregard his own life for the Great Chu’s imperial foundation and the common people.
The current various whirlpools and undercurrents surrounding Guangde Prefecture were, plainly speaking, too many people targeting Han Qian. For Han Qian to play some tricks for self-preservation was entirely normal.
Hadn’t Han Qian calculated Shen Yang into his schemes in order to escape from Fanchang City back then?
“Look at this head full of white hair—he’s the one who tormented me into this. Even now people still say behind my back that Wang Lin was killed by assassins I secretly sent. How can you tell me to completely trust his words?”
Shen Yang smiled bitterly.
“But one point is certain—the Liang Kingdom has already quelled the Rebellion of Prince Bo. The intelligence detected by the Bureau of Operations is consistent with what Han Qian stated in his letter. The Liang Emperor has indeed dispatched Ministry of Works Vice Minister Zhou Daoyuan to serve as Governor of Luozhou, constructing hydraulic machinery on a large scale where water resources are abundant, mining coal and iron to promote craftsmanship. This shows that the Liang Kingdom spy who had infiltrated beside Han Daoxun must have secretly transmitted the manufacturing secrets mastered by Han Qian and his father Han Daoxun to the Liang Kingdom. Now it’s not a question of trusting or not trusting Han Qian’s words, but rather if Guangde Prefecture falls into chaos and Jinling becomes unstable, there can be no progress in the campaign against Shouzhou, and the Chuzhou problem cannot be resolved either. When three to five years later the Liang army attacks south on a large scale again, Han Qian may still be able to live freely in the dangerous terrain of Xuzhou, but how will the officials in the hall turn the tide?”
“Yes, whether to trust Han Qian’s words or not, even if we must be very cautious, we must still act honorably. Ultimately, as long as Great Chu’s foundation is solid and subjects and people live in peace, Han Qian and other deeply calculating individuals, even if they have ambitions, will become without ambitions,” Yang En couldn’t help but sigh. “Otherwise, we can’t out-scheme Han Qian in conspiracies, and instead lose even more face.”
“It’s just a pity that not everyone can think through this reasoning!” Shen Yang said with a sigh.
“This is also simple. I’ll go see Prince Yang and Zheng Chang, and ask them—if turmoil breaks out in Guangde Prefecture, Jinling’s situation becomes unstable, Han Qian obtains Sizhou but his appetite is still not satisfied and he wants to take advantage to invade Chenzhou and Yezhou, how will they respond?” Yang En said.
“…Since they’re already wary of Xuzhou, then speak plainly about what they’re wary of. Prince Yang and Zheng Chang should be able to think through clearly what the consequences would be,” Shen Yang nodded, approving of Yang En first going to persuade Yang Zhitang and Zheng Chang. He continued, “However, even if Prince Yang and Vice Censor-in-Chief Zheng support determining the candidate for Guangde Magistrate early, whether they’ll agree to use Xue Ruogu, or if they have a more favored candidate, is also unknown. And since the Sizhou civil unrest has already erupted, we can’t really just stand by and watch with folded arms!”
“Using Xue Ruogu to serve as Guangde Magistrate at this time might harm him, and the assassination case caused such a huge stir that it’s impossible to truly abandon pursuing it. However, as long as Prince Yang and Vice Censor-in-Chief Zheng can consider the consequences thoroughly, they might recommend a more reliable candidate,” Yang En said. “As for the Sizhou civil unrest, it only erupted seven days ago, yet Yang Xingfeng already sent his son to Jinling. I think most officials have the intention to observe the situation. Delaying ten days to half a month, the situation won’t deteriorate too much. Waiting for further news before deliberating might be more appropriate.”
Shen Yang knew that even Yang En didn’t advocate using Xue Ruogu to serve as Guangde Magistrate, probably also considering that Xue Ruogu might not necessarily have His Majesty’s trust. If he insisted on his opinion, it might give interested parties an opportunity to seize on His Majesty’s mindset and firmly oppose it.
Sometimes, compromise might be the only unavoidable method.
Sitting in this position and being called the first among court officials, Shen Yang had come to understand compromise more thoroughly. He waved his hand, deciding not to mention this matter further, and said, “The Sizhou civil unrest may truly require observing for some more days before reaching a conclusion.”
Having reached consensus on the Guangde Magistrate matter and the Sizhou civil unrest, Yang En asked again, “By the way, what does Prime Minister Shen think about relocating disaster victims to be incorporated into the Shuzhou military prefecture? Hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on the roads. If this drags on further, perhaps hundreds or thousands of people will die daily from starvation…”
Not counting the capital region’s auxiliary counties, just within Jinling City itself, at its peak population there were five to six hundred thousand people.
Imperial clan members, royal kinsmen, great ministers and officials from various ministries and court bureaus, family members of Forbidden Army and Imperial Guard commanders and military officers, attached relatives, aristocratic family descendants and wealthy households who had moved to Jinling to enjoy contemporary prosperity, as well as numerous commoners of good registration making their living in Jinling, plus palace attendants and palace maids numbering over ten thousand, as well as slaves and servants dependent on or serving the powerful totaling over two hundred thousand people.
The Jinling Incident was a great chaos. Even though it had been four months since the recapture of Jinling, there were still a large number of unresolved legacy problems.
Those commoners who originally lived in the city but had their homes burned down and property completely looted during the chaos of war numbered thirty to forty thousand. At this time, they could no longer maintain their livelihoods in the city—how should they be provided relief?
Over ten thousand palace attendants and palace maids expelled from the palace mainly came from Shouzhou, Chuzhou, Guangling and other places. To say they were dismissed to return home—but could these people really be delivered to the Anning Palace rebels and Prince Xin?
This still wasn’t the main issue.
After the Jinling Incident, the vast majority of court officials and meritorious nobles within Jinling City chose to pledge allegiance to Anning Palace.
After the recapture of Jinling, among these nobles and court officials, aside from people like Yang En and Shang Wensheng, only a minority received pardons.
More people either fled north across the river with Anning Palace, or had already been severely punished—either beheaded, exiled, or directly demoted to official slaves and servants, assigned to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices or the Directorate of Construction for use as laborers.
The slaves and servants originally dependent on these turncoat court officials and nobles numbered as many as one to two hundred thousand. The vast majority remained behind after the recapture of Jinling City, or rather, their old masters were like clay idols crossing the river—unable to save themselves—and could only abandon them in Jinling.
Theoretically, all these people should be incorporated as official slaves and servants, assigned to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Court of the Imperial Stud, or the palace to serve as laborers and palace slaves.
The problem was that the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and other bureaus had incorporated the previously remaining official slaves and servants, as well as captured soldiers and their families, plus turncoat court officials and nobles demoted to slave status—already totaling one hundred twenty thousand people. To incorporate more wasn’t impossible, but could the court bear such enormous expenses?
The estates and residences of turncoat court officials and nobles had already been confiscated, either used to reward merit or to expand the garrison fields of the Forbidden Army and Imperial Guard. The remaining fields, even though they all had owners, had become largely barren due to population losses caused by the warfare.
Shen Yang hadn’t yet boldly and directly advocated confiscating these barren fields. He only hoped Emperor Yanyou would conduct a great amnesty, granting freedom to the lowly, allowing these slaves and servants to restore their commoner status and rent these barren fields from the aristocratic families to cultivate them, so that agricultural production in the capital region’s counties could be rapidly restored.
However, Zheng Yu, Huang Hua and others stubbornly insisted that the barrier between commoners and the lowly could not be lightly opened. They strongly demanded following old practices and incorporating all these people as official slaves and servants.
On one hand, they worried that the negative influence of Guangde Prefecture would thereby expand in the capital region’s auxiliary areas. On the other hand, it was simply that some clever people wanted the court to ultimately be unable to accommodate too many official slaves and servants, so they could obtain large numbers of slaves and servants at extremely cheap prices, rather than renting out the barren fields.
Emperor Yanyou was also conflicted.
Having ascended to the throne, he naturally didn’t want the desires and power of the aristocratic families to continue expanding, didn’t want to see the capital region’s auxiliary counties completely become the world of the aristocratic families.
However, at this time he had no choice but to rely on the aristocratic families to rule the Great Chu realm.
Shen Yang and officers of humble origins currently occupied only a very small minority in the court and in the command system of the Forbidden Army and Imperial Guard generals.
There was another reason—if they truly sold off the large surplus of official slaves and servants, they could raise a large sum of money and grain in a short time, alleviating current treasury pressures.
There was also another opinion, which was to relocate these slaves and servants to Shuzhou, establish another military prefecture in Shuzhou, and incorporate these slaves and servants as military households.
Li Zhigao was currently in Shuzhou, commanding the elite forces of the Left Vermillion Bird Army and Left Martial Guard Army, but his total forces numbered only over forty thousand. Combined with the Five-Tusk Navy, this was still insufficient to form a military advantage over the Anning Palace rebels who had withdrawn to Chao and Shou.
Not to mention that Prince Xin, enfeoffed as the Kingdom of Huaidong, still harbored sinister intentions and covetously watched from the side.
If these slaves and servants were relocated to Shuzhou or to soon-to-be-recaptured Chaozhou and incorporated as Forbidden Army military households, the troops Li Zhigao could command in Shuzhou would increase to over seventy thousand.
Yang En was more inclined toward the third plan.
Since Prince Xin had already been enfeoffed as the Kingdom of Huaidong, he thought that if they could recapture Chaozhou and Shouzhou in the shortest time, Prince Xin would become law-abiding and well-behaved.
This was the same as his attitude toward Xuzhou. Regardless of whether Han Qian or Prince Xin had ambitions, as long as the court’s foundation was solid and could control the situation, even if Han Qian and Prince Xin had ambitions, they would become law-abiding and well-behaved.
However, opposition to Shen Yang’s proposal was too strong.
If this problem was solved and the aristocratic families had no other hopes, they would also hire commoners who couldn’t maintain their livelihoods in the city to cultivate those barren fields—even if doing so meant agricultural production in the capital region’s counties would recover much more slowly, it was still better than remaining deadlocked.
Additionally, the various prefectures of Chao and Shou were Jinling’s true northern gate. Previously, due to warfare, the population had become sparse. It could also be predicted that in the coming battles, population would be further lost. Large numbers of people needed to be relocated from outside so that the foundation of this most critical gateway location would become solid.
Of course, some people opposed this plan too.
That person was Marquis of Xinchang, Li Pu.
When Li Zhigao was posted to govern Shuzhou, Li Pu had also strongly opposed it, but the Political Affairs Hall officials consistently believed Li Zhigao was part of the Marquis of Xinchang’s faction.
At this time, with Li Zhigao and Chai Jian serving as commanders outside, no matter how much Emperor Yanyou trusted the Marquis of Xinchang’s generals, there should be a limit.
Now, not to mention that Li Pu had previously organized warfare in Shaozhou centered on Chai Jian and recovered Yongzhou—Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, Du Chongtao and others even advocated replacing Chai Jian and having someone else preside over Shaozhou’s southern Wuzhi Ridge defense line.
Li Pu, withstanding the pressure, firmly disagreed with replacing Chai Jian, which meant he could only more strongly oppose strengthening Li Zhigao’s authority.
As long as Chai Jian wasn’t replaced, Yang Zhitang, Zheng Yu and others also didn’t support urgently relocating so many slaves and servants to Shuzhou and placing them under Li Zhigao’s command. They more strongly advocated handling the excessive official slaves and servants according to the second plan, while the troops lacking for the campaign against Shouzhou would be transferred from other several Forbidden Army units.
This was the court!
This was the court in complete disarray—everyone was clever, everyone had their own interests to uphold.
From the perspective of checks and balances, Shen Yang, Yang En, and even Yang Yuanpu couldn’t say that Yang Zhitang and Zheng Yu’s proposals were wrong.
Additionally, there was another more realistic difficulty.
Relocating so many slaves and servants north to incorporate them as military prefecture households would still require the court to provide large amounts of money and grain for resettlement.
Even to conscript and train able-bodied men from these slaves and servants and equip them with armor and weapons would cost several times what resettling them as official slaves and servants would cost.
When Yang En raised this issue, the numerous disputes and deadlocks circulated through Shen Yang’s mind, and his brows furrowed even more deeply. He smiled bitterly and asked Yang En, “Look at my head—have several more white hairs appeared in an instant?”
Yang En also smiled bitterly. No matter what he advocated, he was extremely clear about the deeply intertwined interests involved. He said, “Then let’s just drag it out. First resolve the Guangde Prefecture and Sizhou civil unrest matters before discussing…”
Of course, the difficulty in deciding various matters, aside from the entangled interests in the court, had another reason that even before Shen Yang, Yang En found inconvenient to state directly.
That was that His Majesty lacked his own opinions on these military and state affairs, was too indecisive, and was always too easily swayed by what others said.
It was just that His Majesty had not yet passed the age of twenty. Yang En knew in his heart that he couldn’t have too many harsh demands of His Majesty. He thought perhaps matters truly couldn’t be rushed.