Lady Wang fell ill with anger and lay bedridden for half a month before recovering. At first, Zhao Changyu tried to console her: “Why be like this over a plum tree?”
Seeing that she burst into tears at the mere mention of the plum tree, he changed his approach: “The tree has already been cut down. If you really love eating them, the stump is still there. I’ll think of a way to see if it can be salvaged. If we can keep it alive, in a few years we’ll have plums to eat again.”
Lady Wang cried even more sorrowfully.
She knew how much her husband loved that plum tree. He was such a penny-pinching, money-loving person. Throughout the entire garden—spring had peonies and peach blossoms, summer had Chinese roses, wild roses, and lotus flowers, autumn had chrysanthemums and various fruits, winter had plum blossoms, plus lotus roots—even her mother-in-law’s beloved orchids weren’t spared. Everything that could be sold had to be sold at least once. Only this plum tree—he never sold its fruit.
They ate it themselves, the family ate it, and any surplus was made into dried fruit to eat in winter.
Such a fine tree had been cut down by her own younger brother.
Lady Wang felt not only guilty but also deeply distressed, feeling she had wronged her husband terribly.
Seeing he couldn’t console her, Zhao Changyu could only engage renowned physicians for her and prescribe medicine to treat her illness. At the same time, he told her about outside matters to cheer her up.
Sigh, who could understand? Not only was the plum tree cut down, but engaging renowned physicians and procuring medicine for his wife’s treatment cost an unknown amount of money.
He added this entire expense to his brother-in-law’s account. Although he said nothing outwardly, he gave the steward strict orders that his brother-in-law was never to be allowed through the gates again.
As long as he came, the main gates would remain tightly shut, blocking danger outside.
At the same time, he also realized there were too few servants in the household—they couldn’t block danger at all.
This time it was his brother-in-law who came, and his objective was just a plum tree. What if next time it was some treasonous villain or political enemy?
If they came to the door with knives, could these old, weak, women, and children in the household stop them?
Therefore, the law-abiding, self-disciplined Zhao Changyu reached out his tentacles for the first time and began seeking to cultivate a retinue.
Retinue—private soldiers.
This was illegal but something all the great aristocratic families currently possessed.
The Zhao family didn’t have any.
Because before Zhao Changyu, the Zhao family had been very poor. Forget private soldiers—they could barely afford to keep servants. Zhao Changyu’s mother and grandmother did housework themselves. The household only had one or two old servants who helped with washing clothes and doing rough work.
But now Zhao Changyu had money, and he had several merchant convoys under his control that already had the foundation of guard units—they just hadn’t been developed into retinues.
After this incident, Zhao Changyu began having ideas. To protect his family and clan, he still needed some military strength.
So he began seeking to cultivate a retinue belonging to the Zhao clan.
He was a very methodical and extremely intelligent person. He contemplated what kind of retinue he needed, and after determining this, planned to cultivate them toward that goal.
Because the Emperor refused to change the Crown Prince, two days ago, the Crown Prince’s tutor Wei Guan got drunk and was shooting arrows at the training ground when an arrow whooshed past the Crown Prince’s neck, nearly killing him. Wei Guan was consequently suspended from office and confined to home for reflection.
Wei Guan claimed he was drunk and mistook the target with blurry vision, but those with discernment knew Wei Guan truly wanted to shoot the Crown Prince dead.
If the Crown Prince really ascended the throne, this country would be finished.
Never mind the many imperial princes and kings of the Sima family—how many aristocratic officials at court would submit to an imbecile?
With an imbecile on the throne, would everyone try to deceive him for benefits?
And an imbecile had no ability to discern right from wrong. Zhao Changyu could already imagine what the country would become.
Fortunately, Crown Princess Jia was intelligent.
However, she could bring both success and ruin.
Although he had only met her a few times and the Crown Princess concealed herself well, Zhao Changyu still detected her ambition and narrow-mindedness. If the country fell into her hands, even if it could be stabilized for a period, it would merely be accumulating contradictions.
At that time, it would depend on whether she or the court officials and imperial family proved superior in their power struggle.
For now, he could only hope the Crown Prince’s grandson would grow up quickly while the Emperor lived longer. If the Crown Prince’s grandson could then supervise the state, perhaps this calamity could be avoided.
This was his plan, but Zhao Changyu also had to prepare for another scenario, and his retinue would be prepared for this.
Thinking of the Xiongnu and various tribes currently recuperating in the north, Zhao Changyu decided his retinue should combine mobility and defense—having both infantry defensive capabilities and cavalry mobility.
If the second scenario truly occurred, they could leave Luoyang more quickly and return to their hometown.
In the end, Xiping was his true homeland, his base. Returning there would be safe.
Since he was making Xiping his base, Xiping also needed to be developed.
With this thought, during the half month his wife was recuperating, Zhao Changyu created an enormous plan and produced a thick stack of proposals for the Zhao clan’s future development—the “Ten Strategic Treatises.”
After some thought, he roughly summarized this plan and copied it into two letters—one for Zhao Zhongyu who was away in another region, and one for his clan brother Zhao Song in Xiping.
Among the many clan brothers, Zhao Song was the one Zhao Changyu valued most. Although he wasn’t very clever, like Zhao Zhongyu, he was relatively intelligent among the Zhao clan members.
Most importantly, he valued relationships and had executive ability.
Zhao Changyu had to remain in Luoyang, and Zhao Zhongyu was assigned elsewhere, so Xiping could only be entrusted to him.
Zhao Changyu decided to begin construction of the Zhao clan fortress from now on.
He would gradually build high walls around Zhao Family Village, encompassing most of the farmland within, and also build watchtowers, transforming Zhao Family Village into an impregnable fortress.
If the country truly fell into chaos one day, when they returned to Xiping, they could defend the fortress together with their clansmen and preserve themselves.
This required enormous manpower and resources.
Zhao Changyu’s current funds weren’t sufficient, so he still needed to make more money.
At the same time, cultivation of the retinue would also be divided into two parts. One part would be placed in Xiping, dedicated to protecting the Zhao clan fortress. The other part would remain in Luoyang, loyal only to Zhao Changyu and the Zhao family’s direct line. If an emergency occurred, their mission would be to protect the direct Zhao line and escort them back to Xiping.
Zhao Changyu began paying attention to the knights-errant in Luoyang and the surrounding areas, as well as the refugees flowing into Luoyang and the orphans and street children visible everywhere.
He decided to cultivate his retinue in three stages, gradually培养ing them into the most loyal guards.
He was still young. He felt he had abundant time to prepare.
He figured he could live another thirty or forty years. With forty years’ time, the retinue could be replaced three generations. The second generation could be called loyal family retainers—what about the third?
So he was full of confidence. He hoped the Emperor could also live another twenty or thirty years.
But who knew the Emperor would die so quickly, so suddenly? He was only fifty-five years old when he suddenly died of illness.
Zhao Changyu later seriously contemplated this and believed that the martial Emperor Wu’s death was because he had been too debauched in his later years.
Indeed, self-discipline and propriety, paying attention to health preservation—that was how to live long.
Alas.
His death was his death, but before dying he also enfeoffed the various princes, dividing the Crown Prince’s authority and territory among those imperial sons and princes. Wasn’t this encouraging their ambitions?
He might as well have directly changed the Crown Prince! Indeed, elderly people easily became muddled. Zhao Changyu recorded this conclusion in his heart, constantly reminding himself to avoid following the late Emperor’s footsteps.