Lu Yuan confidently said, “I will persuade him to stand on our side. He’s always been tolerant and gentle—he’ll surely understand us. Moreover, with Wang Dun’s rebellion, the Wang clan is now in turmoil. He urgently needs to establish merit. The Wang clan has good relations with our southern clans, so we can bind ourselves together.”
Gu Rong shook his head. “Wang clan descendants have been crossing the river in succession, either going to Luoyang to study or returning to Langye. Less than one-fifth remain in the south. Would he choose you for that small number?”
Lu Yuan wanted to speak further, but Gu Rong cut him off. “Besides, Xuanpei won’t agree.”
Xuanpei was Zhou Zhi’s courtesy name. Now the Zhou clan was the undisputed leader in the south. Without his agreement, Lu Yuan’s plan couldn’t succeed.
Upon hearing Zhou Zhi’s name, Lu Yuan became angry. “He’s now made a name for himself with Zhao Hanzhang and secured futures for Zhou clan descendants. Of course, he doesn’t care whether we live or die.”
He Xun was on good terms with Zhou Zhi. Hearing this, he immediately stood up and left without a word, his sleeves fluttering. Gu Rong couldn’t even hold him back.
Seeing He Xun leave without saying a word, Lu Yuan became annoyed and turned to blame Jiang Feng, who had invited He Xun. “He was stubborn when young and is an old stubborn fool now. Why did you invite him?”
Jiang Feng said helplessly, “The cleverest people in the south, besides Zhou Zhi, are those two. Xue Jian is serving as an official in Danyang and couldn’t be invited. I couldn’t get Ji Zhan or Min Hong either. Besides inviting those two, who else could I invite?”
Someone nearby quickly consoled him, “Duke Jiang speaks truly. This matter is significant—we should indeed invite a few people to discuss. We don’t know Zhao Hanzhang’s temperament. What if she has no such intention and we create an auspicious omen, wouldn’t that backfire? Then…”
Lu Yuan sneered coldly. “Now that she holds great power, even if she didn’t have such thoughts before, she has them now. Besides, the arrow is already on the string—it’s not something she can simply choose not to release.”
“If she doesn’t advance further, would the Zhao clan agree? Would the strategists under her be willing to let their achievements be handed over to others?”
Only if Zhao Hanzhang advanced further could their achievements be confirmed and benefit their descendants.
When she entered Luoyang, she only conferred official positions. But with the merits of Ji Yuan, Beigong Chun, and others, who couldn’t be enfeoffed as marquis?
It was only because they all served Zhao Hanzhang—not an emperor—that their enfeoffment as marquises and the bestowal of benefits upon their descendants would be more natural only if she advanced further.
Lu Yuan’s heart surged with emotion, his heart boiling like water with excitement. This was his opportunity! Zhao Hanzhang wasn’t like the Jin court officials who discriminated against southern clans. If he could establish merit in this matter, surely he could secure a grand path for himself and the Lu clan?
Because of Lu Jing’s execution, the Lu clan’s reputation in the south had suffered greatly. The most direct impact was that even before he had sold the land to the authorities, large numbers of tenant farmers had left, and even bondservants had redeemed themselves.
Oh, Zhao Hanzhang had issued a new decree that arrived in the south almost simultaneously with them: throughout the realm, when bondservants redeem themselves, their masters must not obstruct them, and the redemption price must not exceed three times the original sale price.
Moreover, after redemption, bondservants could freely choose whether to return to their families or establish independent household registration. Regardless of which they chose, except for the person themselves, their parents, siblings, and in-laws had no right to sell their service contracts again.
In the north, needless to say—every time a decree was issued, county offices and schools spread it everywhere, making the decree widely known. It was impossible to conceal such information.
In the south, Wang Dao executed this decree thoroughly. He not only ordered all commanderies and counties to publicize it but personally met with them, instructing them to have neighborhood chiefs notify every household.
Don’t look at Wang Dao as merely the Inspector of Yangzhou—in the south, one still had to defer to the southern aristocratic clans, because the clerks in county offices, the chiefs of various villages, and the heads of various neighborhoods were mostly their people.
After all, they were aristocratic clans and prominent families. The so-called village chiefs and neighborhood heads—weren’t they selected from people with influence in their localities?
And China had a clan system. How many people dared disobey the clan head’s orders? Even if there were those few, could they completely ignore the clan head’s commands?
Therefore, whether court decrees were effectively implemented still depended on the local aristocratic clans. This was one of the reasons Lu Yuan and others had always been proud.
As long as they disagreed, Zhao Hanzhang’s governance in the south could only remain superficial. After all, her current control could only reach the county magistrates.
However, Zhao Hanzhang always refused to play by conventional rules. This was what Lu Yuan and others most disliked about her, yet also most admired.
Shortly after the decree reached the south, Wang Dun committed suicide, the southern campaign ended, leaving only cleanup work. Perhaps seeing that Wang Dao’s promotion efforts were being obstructed, she simply ordered Yuan Li and Zu Ti to help Wang Dao.
Zu Ti obediently dispatched soldiers carrying gongs, going everywhere banging them and publicizing this decree.
These soldiers had just experienced major battles. Their bodies were full of bloodthirsty energy and pent-up frustration with nowhere to vent. Banging the gongs, they discovered that the stifling feelings in their hearts were also released. Most importantly, the common people of the south were quite interesting—they were smaller in stature than northerners. In some places, they spoke in soft, delicate tones; even their quarrels sounded like flirtation.
In other places, speech came out like tumbling stones—staccato, fast, and hard. Their flirtation sounded like quarreling. So entertaining!
The local customs here also differed from the north. When entertaining guests or celebrating festivals, they would eat a delicious rice cake—snow white, with a red date or other dried fruit or meat dotted in the center. When steamed, hot and fragrant with rice aroma, taking a bite revealed soft, glutinous, sweet fragrance. One could hardly help swallowing one’s tongue along with it.
They had never eaten such refined food. When swallowing it, it felt like when their mothers stroked their hair in childhood—both heart and stomach felt incredibly soothed.
Having just experienced comrades dying in battle, with eyes full of bloodstains, these soldiers burst into tears, holding the rice cakes and sobbing.
Fearing these soldiers would plunder their wealth, the southerners had spent much white rice making rice cakes to treat them. Now seeing this, they were stunned, their fear vanished, replaced by sympathy.
The village’s women, old and young, were all confined to the kitchen, while young men stood at a distance. The ones bringing them food were old men and women—this was wisdom passed down orally through generations of warfare.
One soldier began to cry, and the other soldiers also silently shed tears, all bowing their heads and eating quietly.
An old woman sighed, reached out to pat a soldier’s head, looking at his tender face. “You look younger than my grandson. How old are you?”
The young soldier grinned. “I’m fifteen now. I’ve been a soldier for six years.”
The old woman’s mouth fell open. “You became a soldier at nine?”
The young soldier nodded proudly.
A slightly older soldier nearby exposed him. “Don’t listen to him, ma’am. At nine, he wasn’t a soldier—he was clearly a military slave.”
Then he told the old woman this kid’s legendary history. “At nine, he went out fleeing disaster with his family and got separated. Then he was captured by the Prince of Donghai’s men, who were going to sell him for military provisions. But before they could sell him, war broke out, so he was kept in the army as a military slave. Within two years, the Prince of Donghai died, the army scattered, and he luckily followed the remaining soldiers to serve under the General.”
“He was under fourteen—by rights he should have been discharged, but he stubbornly refused to leave, insisting on staying in the army. And so he’s remained until now.”
The young soldier was very proud. “I have six years of military service.”
“Yet still just a common soldier, ha ha ha ha…”
The young soldier said angrily, “That’s because I was in logistics before! Now I’m on the front lines. This time I even claimed two heads—when I return, I’ll be promoted.”
The old woman looked at them with a smile, asking gently, “Is the General good to people?”
“Yes!” the young soldier said. “I’ve never seen a general treat soldiers better than our General.”
“Not only good to us, but also good to the common people.” Thinking of something, the young soldier pulled out half a string of coins from his pouch, very embarrassed. “This is our meal allowance for today. We didn’t expect you to make such delicious rice cakes. I don’t know if this money is enough?”
The villagers hadn’t expected them to offer payment and quickly declined, but the soldiers insisted on giving it. “This is iron military discipline. If the General knew we ate from common people without paying, she would punish us.”
He said, “The General said that no one’s money comes from the wind. Common people’s lives are also hard. If today we pass through and ask you to provide a meal, tomorrow another army passes through and asks you to provide a meal—within a year, passing armies could eat through a common family’s entire foundation. In the whole army, who hasn’t come from among the common people?”
“So military discipline must be strict. We observe discipline so that others will observe it. In the future, when other armies pass through our hometowns, they’ll treat our parents and relatives the same way. This is called ‘respect the elderly as if they were your own elderly, respect the young as if they were your own young.'” The young soldier smiled embarrassedly. “Although my parents and family are no longer in my hometown, I think it’s the same wherever they are. If I maintain strict discipline, other comrades in other armies will do the same, and they won’t be harassed by armies in other places.”
These words brought tears to the old woman’s eyes. She hugged the young soldier and kept praising him: “Good child, good child…”
Then she and the old men returned to the village and brought more dishes to treat them.
The soldiers dared not eat such lavish food. They declined, then quickly ran off. Before leaving, they turned back and shouted to them, “If you have family members serving as bondservants, you can pool money to redeem them! The redemption price must not exceed three times the sale price. Remember this and tell your neighbors—spread the word…”
Even without their special instructions, people would pass this word mouth-to-mouth to their neighbors, and they encouraged them to redeem people while Zhao’s army was still in the south.
“They’re definitely afraid of the army. If you redeem people now, they won’t dare say anything. Miss this village and there won’t be this shop.”
“If you lack money, borrow some from relatives. Back then, you sold your children to survive hard times. Now that the family is somewhat better off and there’s an opportunity, you must redeem them. You can’t let them truly be bondservants for life, can you?”
This was propaganda for bondservants’ families. Yuan Li, on the other hand, directly led people to visit some households, requiring them to gather lower-class bondservants and tenant farmers to conduct propaganda in person.
If Zu Ti had done this, the major families could have driven Zu Ti out on the spot. But facing Yuan Li, they didn’t dare.
Yuan Li still bore marks from torture. When he stared at people, he seemed sinister. Combined with the rumored terrible methods he employed, when facing him, Lu Yuan and others lacked courage.
Indeed, gentlemen are easy to offend, but villains are best endured.
Yuan Li thus openly propagandized Zhao Hanzhang’s decree among the various prominent clans. This was far more effective than Wang Dao going to meet with family heads and neighborhood chiefs.
Many bondservants with thoughts began finding ways to redeem themselves or sent letters to their families, asking them to come redeem them.
The largest scale of redemption was from the Lu household.
Most bondservants in other households were still waiting and watching. Although their days as bondservants were difficult, commoners’ lives were also quite ordinary—they were comparing.
If after gaining commoner status they had no land to cultivate and found no means of survival, they might as well remain as bondservants in the great mansions.
Only the Lu clan—because Lu Jing was executed and everyone knew of Lu Jing’s evil deeds—suffered from association. People’s impression of the Lu clan was also extremely poor.
Those with children or siblings serving as bondservants in the Lu household pooled money to redeem them. The Lu clan’s bondservants also grew fearful, always feeling their masters would harm them next, so they all sought ways to redeem themselves.
If bondservants were like this, tenant farmers need not be mentioned.
Large numbers of bondservants and tenant farmers left. Lu Yuan couldn’t strongly obstruct them—he could only subtly threaten and entice them, but the effect wasn’t good.
The major families secretly mocked the Lu clan endlessly. Lu Yuan couldn’t even sell his land to the authorities yet. Every time he thought of it, he grew angry and resentful. He didn’t dare hate Zhao Hanzhang, so he could only be angry at himself and hate Lu Jing.
Finally, all his anger and resentment went to Yuan Li.
That’s right—he was very good at self-healing. He quickly found excuses for himself. And Lu Jing was already dead; even if he hated him, he was family after all. Thinking it over, he found excuses for him too.
If neither he nor his family were wrong, it could only be outsiders’ fault.
Zhao Hanzhang was too powerful—naturally, it couldn’t be her fault. That left Zu Ti and Yuan Li.
Zu Ti aside for now—the most detestable was Yuan Li.
But he currently lacked the ability to deal with Yuan Li. With Zhao Hanzhang, he was still nothing. However, this situation would soon change.
Lu Yuan was ambitious, determined to create an auspicious omen that would amaze the entire realm and please Zhao Hanzhang.
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t know his thoughts. She had already ordered the army to leave the south in batches and left garrison forces in various southern commanderies.
Jingzhou wasn’t yet stable, so Lady Wang Four couldn’t leave for now. Therefore, Wang Xuan led people to escort Wang Dun’s coffin and his close attendants back to the capital.
Zhao Shen led the Luoyang Zhao Family Army to escort the captured treasures back to the capital. Zhao Ju went directly back to Yanzhou. Zu Ti also sent Zuo Min to lead the army back to Jizhou, while he took Zhao Shi to Luoyang.
Yuan Li had long since disappeared. He didn’t answer to Zu Ti, so Zu Ti didn’t know his whereabouts—whether he remained in the south working with his intelligence network or had returned to Luoyang.
In any case, the army gradually withdrew, and the south returned to tranquility. The New Year also arrived, and the streets gradually became lively.
Luoyang was more prosperous than previous years—the most festive New Year celebration in years.
When Zu Ti rode his horse to the capital outskirts, he was momentarily stunned. This was different from the Luoyang he had left last time. Several buildings had been constructed near the capital outskirts, including a post station specially for receiving officials from other regions and for earning money from merchants and travelers.
As an external official, Zu Ti dared not bring the entire army to Luoyang even upon victorious return. So he only brought one hundred personal guards. Zhao Shen had arrived just one day earlier than him. He had the treasures sent into the capital ahead of time while he remained here awaiting orders to enter.
And also, to wait for Zu Ti.
“The General said she would personally come to the city gate to receive us.”
Hearing this, Zu Ti’s eyes brightened slightly. This was an enormous honor.