After the Xixian County rebellion, he sent people to widely publicize Zhao Hanzhang’s handling of the rebel leaders of Xixian, and brought out the “Letter to the People” to have the village heads in each county walk the streets banging gongs and reading it repeatedly for half a month, making the people remember Zhao Hanzhang’s loving and benevolent heart toward the people. He also explained the court’s plans for post-disaster reconstruction.
At the same time, he had village heads extensively preach about the fate of the Wang clan of Xixian County, telling each family to properly restrain their clan’s young people and prevent any more rebels from appearing.
Then he began sending troops to vigorously suppress bandits throughout Jizhou. All the bandits captured were registered, given farmland, organized to work the land and clear waterways. The particularly vicious ones were thrown into the army to serve as military slaves. The confiscated treasures and grain were placed in storehouses to provide relief to the people. Therefore, before Yuzhou’s relief grain arrived, Jizhou already had grain to provide relief to disaster victims and had begun work-for-relief programs.
When Yuzhou’s relief grain was delivered, it gave Zu Ti even more freedom to act, and he immediately launched more in-depth work-for-relief activities.
More than half of Jizhou could plant winter wheat. Combined with the fact that the drought situation wasn’t as severe as in Youzhou, Zu Ti found ways to buy wheat seeds. Together with the wheat seeds Zhao Hanzhang sent, the people who had been registered basically all received farmland and seeds. Plowing fields, sowing seeds, digging irrigation channels, watering… all the people of Jizhou became busy.
Even troops without bandit suppression duties joined in the planting.
Zhao Hanzhang ordered that all armies throughout the realm, except for elite forces, would have garrison farming duties. They would be soldiers in wartime and farmers in peacetime. During slack farming seasons, they would train, striving for self-sufficiency.
Zu Ti thought this policy of hers was excellent. When they were in Youzhou, the two of them had held in-depth discussions on this matter. In the present age, there was no better method than having soldiers engage in garrison farming.
Once the realm was pacified, they would need to reduce the number of soldiers, releasing more people to farm while keeping only a portion of the military.
Acting as swiftly as Zu Ti was Zhao Ju of Yanzhou.
Yanzhou was the province most severely damaged by warfare in this conflict. The entire territory had become a battlefield. Every county had been fought over. The people… were displaced, and countless houses had been burned down.
Yanzhou’s drought wasn’t very severe, but the tragic situation surpassed even that of Youzhou.
Zhao Ming knew Yanzhou’s situation was very bad. Moreover, since Zhao Ju came from Zhao Hanzhang’s personal troops, Zhao Ming trusted and relied on him more. While Zhao Hanzhang was still in the north, Zhao Ming began sending relief grain to Yanzhou and dispatching large numbers of officials to Yanzhou to assist Zhao Ju in managing the province.
With such great support, Zhao Ju’s speed in bringing order to Yanzhou improved considerably.
When one person is grieving, make them busy so they have no time to dwell on their grief. The same principle applies to a province in pain—make it busy and full of vitality, and then the pain won’t just be suffering but also motivation.
Therefore, he also pushed at maximum speed to have Yanzhou begin planting winter wheat and actively worked to restore commerce within the province.
The poll tax made the wealthy gentry within the province reluctant to make money, or rather, to make money openly. He had no choice but to write to Zhao Hanzhang for a solution.
Zhao Hanzhang directly gave him an idea: “Just reduce or exempt commercial taxes.”
Zhao Ju found this very troubling and asked Zhao Hanzhang: “Since the Governor has issued the poll tax decree, it’s clear we lack money. Reducing or exempting commercial taxes at this time—isn’t that contradictory?”
Zhao Hanzhang wrote back to him: “The poll tax is quick money, meant to solve the current predicament of an empty treasury. Commercial tax is a continuous major policy, but given that the people are currently impoverished, it can be appropriately reduced or exempted to restore commerce.”
Zhao Ju understood and immediately reduced or exempted some commercial taxes within Yanzhou. For example, he completely exempted commercial taxes on grain transactions. For other industries’ commercial taxes, he also lowered the tax rate.
This was a small privilege Zhao Hanzhang gave to provincial governors.
During this time of reconstruction from devastation, to better adapt policies to each province, she allowed them a certain degree of autonomy within limits. However, these matters still needed to be reported to the court.
Fu Zhi of Yongzhou was writing to Zhao Hanzhang, hoping she would allow Yongzhou to be exempted from the poll tax and some other taxes.
In Yongzhou, especially around Jingzhao Prefecture, after several consecutive years of famine, not only had the common people suffered tremendous losses, even the local aristocratic families and wealthy people had suffered tremendously—they were the type who wanted to flee but couldn’t.
When Zhao Hanzhang’s poll tax decree reached Yongzhou, Fu Zhi knew this money couldn’t be collected in Yongzhou. If they forced collection, Yongzhou would certainly fall into great chaos.
So he took no action and consoled the provincial officials, telling them to wait a bit longer—he would plead with the court on their behalf.
However, just as he finished writing his letter and sent it out, the Prince of Nanyang in Chang’an had already ordered the collection of the poll tax. Knowing the poll tax would be difficult to collect, he directly sent troops to accompany officials and runners in the collection, mainly targeting wealthy merchants and some gentry without power.
As for the officials and gentry whom Zhao Hanzhang had specifically named for increased taxation, he didn’t touch them at all.
However, this action still threw Chang’an into great chaos. By the time Fu Zhi received the news and rushed back to Chang’an from Yongzhou, the Prince of Nanyang had already been jostled by the rioting Chang’an populace. Reportedly, he was startled while on horseback and fell off. After being carried back to his residence, he died of illness within a few days.
Chang’an was still in chaos. The Prince of Nanyang’s confidants both wanted to forcefully suppress the rebellion to avenge him and feared they couldn’t control the situation. If that happened, not only would Zhao Hanzhang hold them accountable, but Chang’an would also be overrun by the rioters. While they hesitated, Fu Zhi rushed back. At the same time, Zhao Hanzhang’s letter of appointment arrived. She directly removed the Prince of Nanyang from the position of governor and appointed Fu Zhi as Governor of Yongzhou.
The Prince of Nanyang’s confidants were overjoyed and immediately dumped this chaotic mess onto Fu Zhi.
Fu Zhi was mentally and physically exhausted. He could only come forward to pacify the people of Chang’an. This time, he also used Zhao Hanzhang’s reputation for benevolence, promising he would petition upward to request that Zhao Hanzhang exempt Yongzhou from the poll tax, as well as… some other taxes.
Under Fu Zhi’s efforts, the chaotic situation in Chang’an was brought under control, but emotions still fluctuated between grief and anger. The slightest spark could ignite them.
Therefore, Fu Zhi didn’t dare relax in the slightest. He could only write another letter to Zhao Hanzhang—first to inform her that the Prince of Nanyang had died, and second to mention again the matter of the poll tax and other taxes.
In Yongzhou, especially around Chang’an in Jingzhao Prefecture, the famine had always been very severe.
To defend the Jin passes, the taxes collected here had always been very heavy. Whatever grain there was went first to the army. Even so, many soldiers in the army often went hungry—the kind of hungry where they were close to death.
Just look at Beigong Chun. When he was a general in Chang’an, the soldiers in his army often went hungry.
The root cause was that Chang’an’s civil administration was poorly managed. Every year there were some disasters—mostly small droughts, with a few instances of marauding soldiers. The common people couldn’t farm with peace of mind.
Without income but with continuous expenses, plus the Prince of Nanyang had no administrative talent and only knew how to endlessly collect taxes, this led Chang’an to fall into a vicious cycle.
By the time Fu Zhi was sent by the late emperor, Chang’an was already critically ill. Despite his various measures, he could only slightly ease Chang’an’s situation. But with the Prince of Nanyang there, many of his policies couldn’t be implemented, or were canceled halfway through implementation. His hands were truly tied.
Although the Prince of Nanyang had “died of illness” this time, which was unexpected, Fu Zhi wasn’t saddened. He even felt relieved. He was only worried about Chang’an’s future.
Though it was thick-skinned of him, Fu Zhi still couldn’t help mentioning a third point: he hoped the court could provide Chang’an with some relief funds and grain to help them get through this crisis.
Chang’an was too tragic.