Chapter 108: On the Love of the Lotus

A casual remark: in the author’s opinion, the cultural quality of an average time-traveler is certainly not superior to that of an ancient scholar. This is not absolute, of course, but it holds true for the vast majority. Unless you are a top-tier humanities student, you are not necessarily better than the ancients; just consider that the ancients used brush pens from birth, while later generations use hard pens daily. People from later times simply possess more information and a broader understanding of historical trends, but how many of them are true historians? Take a moment to think about major historical events and figures—how many ancient people or historical incidents do you truly understand? Furthermore, was the historical environment and social situation of the time really as described in history textbooks?

History is a little girl who can be dressed up as one pleases; it also serves politics. The evaluation of history depends on the narrative, making it difficult for later generations to truly grasp the historical truth!

...Enough of that, the following is the main text...

Zhen Qian did not covet the position of Household Registrar that Feng Wannian had bestowed upon him; what he truly valued was the authority to manage the refugees.

At present, the influx of refugees had only just begun and had not yet spread across the vast lands of the Great Tang. They were still ignorant regarding violence—in other words, their hearts had not yet gone wild. Once the pleasure derived from plundering wealth outweighed the rewards of arduous farming, social norms would vanish, and the refugees would ravage the land like a broken levee.

The logic of wealth circulation dictates that the empire seizes the wealth of the rich, and the rich, to preserve their assets, use their currency to purchase vast amounts of land. Feudal official-merchants then leverage their power to squeeze out the wealthy, and the strongest among the rich conspire with these officials to become powerful local gentry. In the end, the small farmers are the ones who suffer.

"My Lord, managing the refugees requires both civil and martial strategies!"

"Let’s hear them."

Feng Wannian had not expected Zhen Qian to come up with a dual strategy. He looked at Zhen Qian with interest and finally remembered to offer him a cup of tea.

Clever men have been considered monsters since ancient times, and monsters are prone to disaster. This was not the outcome Zhen Qian desired, so he naturally had no intention of offering his "black technology" to Feng Wannian.

"The martial strategy: select the strong and fit among the refugees to form local militia units. This would, firstly, stabilize the public heart and prevent unrest; secondly, they could serve as free labor for building bridges and roads. In this way, the scourge of the refugees would be dissolved into nothingness."

Feng Wannian shook his head. While the method seemed sound, the cost was too high. Establishing a militia required throwing away large amounts of silver; it was not noticeable for a few dozen refugees, but for thousands, it was a significant figure. Just thinking about it made his heart ache.

"And the civil strategy?"

Zhen Qian knew that Feng Wannian would not choose the martial route. This approach became very popular during the Song Dynasty; whenever a disaster year struck, the Song court would organize refugees into the "Xiang" armies. Combat effectiveness was not the point, as that was not the primary concern; they served as engineers, rescue workers, and reclamation groups during peacetime, effectively preventing large-scale refugee uprisings. This was one of the reasons for the relative stability of the Song Dynasty.

Of course, the reason for the eventual fall of the Song Dynasty is often attributed to the "three redundancies": redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses. In the end, it was a failure of the balance of payments—money was spent recklessly.

The local militia, also known as the "Unity Army," appeared on a large scale after the An Lushan Rebellion in the High Tang. They were armed groups composed of locals. Zhen Qian was merely using the suggestion to test Feng Wannian.

During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras of Emperor Xuanzong, these units were generally led by the provincial governor or his top assistants. However, after the An Lushan Rebellion, with the widespread appointment of "Commissioners of Tuanlian," the jurisdiction shifted entirely to the governors who concurrently held these titles. The militia thus became local forces controlled by the provincial and regional commanders.

"The so-called civil strategy is to provide the refugees with a way to survive. The reason they are called refugees is that they have no ties and wander aimlessly. As long as you give them a meal and something to do, they are no longer refugees. If implemented correctly, this can turn a hundred harms into a hundred benefits: not only will it prosper the local economy and increase the population, but it will also ensure social stability, peace, and increased tax revenue. How does that sound, My Lord?"

"Continue. How exactly is this a benevolent policy?"

"Exploit the resources of mountains, rivers, and marshes; provide basic living guarantees; and clearly state the pros and cons. The government, the local gentry, and the refugees are essentially a community of shared interests. The government wants stability and taxes; the gentry provides capital to recruit refugees for land reclamation, mining, and expanding production; and the refugees, having work and food, will settle down..."

Except for the Song Dynasty, which lacked restrictions on land annexation and commerce, every other dynasty prioritized agriculture over commerce and suppressed trade. The East and West Markets of Chang’an were, in fact, a strict monitoring of commerce; the scope and time of market activities were limited, stifling innovation and making it difficult to form a large-scale market economy.

Many people, when talking about Tang Dynasty commerce, speak of the bustling Chang’an, the 360 trades in the markets, the Silk Road with its endless stream of merchants, the international metropolis, and the city population exceeding a million. In fact, those people have never looked at the entire Great Tang. In today’s terms, one person being rich doesn't mean the whole is rich; the strength of a nation depends on the prosperity of all. Is it possible for a Great Tang to exist without a few prosperous cities?

"When Hubei and Hunan are harvested, the world is fed." It was only during the Song Dynasty that the Hubei-Hunan region was truly developed, but by the mid-Tang, the economic center had already begun to shift southward. After the An Lushan Rebellion, the lingering Great Tang relied entirely on the Jiangnan region to survive for another hundred years.

The reason why the feudal dynasty’s powerful gentry did not produce an emerging capitalist class, besides national policy restrictions, was that the large-scale recruitment of free men (those without fixed property) was an untouchable red line under the bureaucratic system. If the government gathered thousands of laborers to build bridges or water conservancy projects, they would send troops to supervise them. If a local powerful family had thousands of strong men under their command, how would the government feel?

Compared to large-scale capitalist production, the small-scale peasant economy of individual households is much easier to control.

The hidden households, personal retainers, and slaves already gave the government a headache. Now, to allow unlimited recruitment of refugees for production—while it would solve the problem of refugees disturbing the locality—if it were to cause trouble... Feng Wannian felt a headache coming on.

The powerful gentry were ten times more terrifying than the refugees, and the Feng family was itself a prominent local clan; how could he not know the pros and cons?

The appearance of thousands of refugees had caught Feng Wannian off guard, but there was always a turning point. Once spring arrived and the vegetation recovered, some refugees would forage in the wild. Combined with the gentry buying off some of them, the number of refugees should not pose a threat to the county seat.

Feng Wannian’s judgment was correct. At least before the An Lushan Rebellion, large-scale refugee uprisings did not erupt. This was not because the refugees found new places to go, but because they had not yet reached the point where quantitative change leads to qualitative change before being swept into the historical torrent of the An Lushan Rebellion. After the rebellion, the north was desolate for hundreds of miles, and the refugees who lost their land naturally lacked land to farm. One cannot attribute the fall of the Great Tang entirely to the refugees.

In the end, Feng Wannian did not adopt Zhen Qian’s suggestion, but he did not rescind the appointment to the Household Registrar. It remained a position in the county office, still focused on coordinating refugee matters, with power limited to helping the refugees survive the winter.

Just as Zhen Qian and Hao Ren left, a woman emerged from behind a screen. She was a middle-aged beauty with a certain charm, possessing the bearing of a wealthy family. She was Feng Wannian’s wife, Lady Du.

"My Lord, why didn't you adopt Young Master Zhen’s suggestion? I thought it sounded quite good!"

"What does a woman know? Are the affairs of the state something you can understand?" Although Feng Wannian scolded Lady Du, there was no anger on his face. "You and Jinniang were eavesdropping behind the screen; do you think Young Master Zhen didn't know?"

Zhen Qian, of course, knew there was someone behind the screen; he had even smelled the faint scent of rouge, though he didn't know the intent.

"This young man is indifferent to fame and wealth. As a member of a prominent Hengzhou family, passing the Ming-Suan and Ming-Jing exams and having relatives in the court, obtaining an official career should be easy for him. Yet, he pushes away even the position you assigned him. How can we let Jinniang marry such a man?"

Zhen Qian did not know that Feng Wannian intended to betroth his daughter, Jinniang, to him, nor did he know that his plagiarized work, "Ode to the Lotus," had left Jinniang infatuated, insisting that Zhen Qian had written it for her, causing her to become obsessed with lotuses ever since.

Feng Wannian did indeed want to form a marital alliance with the Zhen family, but Zhen Qian, like his third uncle, insisted on being some kind of hermit. How could he marry his daughter to a hermit?