A special thank you to my patrons:
—Cain, Jacob Mooe, kevin Williams, ZaberZ, Jose Sierra, Acedia, kurtis newman, Fredrik Dahlman, Nithin Samuel, Little Sand, Dradin Hebrhal, Andrew Bryant, Luca August.
You can read 50 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
————————————————————
Fei Qian watched as Wang Yi led the black-robed elder of the Wei clan away. Jia Qu slowly walked up behind him. Fei Qian tilted his head slightly and spoke in a low voice, "Shuliang, this matter must be handled quickly. Delay may bring unforeseen changes."
He truly lacked the manpower to do everything himself. Otherwise, who knew whether that old fox Wang Yi would try to skim some private benefits on the side…
Damn it.
Manpower was the real issue.
It wasn't that he lacked soldiers in number, but rather that he was desperately short of clerks, administrators, and middle-level officials of all kinds.
Even though this was currently the place where Fei Qian had the largest concentration of troops, it was also where the most grain was being consumed. The supplies that should have lasted three months were now projected to run out in less than one month at the current rate of consumption.
After accounting for travel time, potential negotiation failures, and other variables, he had at most seven days of comfortable leeway for talks. Five days would be ideal to keep things relatively relaxed.
"My lord's intention is clear to me," Jia Qu replied softly from slightly behind Fei Qian's right side, raising his clasped hands a little. "I will keep close watch over the matter."
Fei Qian nodded, then turned his gaze toward the Xiongnu camp. After a brief pause, he continued, "Yesterday the Xiongnu sent a messenger saying they wish to move south for pasture…"
Jia Qu was momentarily stunned, then said, "We can select one or two Hu and let a few words slip. Such a small task, allow me to handle it."
A little later, Jia Qu asked, "My lord, what exactly was the agreement you reached with the Xiongnu?"
He wasn't asking whether an agreement existed, but what its specific terms were.
Jia Qu had begun to have faint suspicions ever since Ma Yue raided the Baibo rear camp. When he later witnessed the Xiongnu's behavior from the city walls, he finally confirmed that Fei Qian must have reached some understanding with them. However, with so many things happening in the intervening days, he had never found the right moment to ask.
The Xiongnu were warriors born on horseback. How could they possibly be so slow to react to the sound of hooves that they allowed an enemy cavalry force to strike the Baibo camp almost unchallenged, without even organizing a proper response or issuing any warning?
Of course, one could explain it away by saying the Xiongnu and Baibo had no cooperation or contact. But later, when Fei Qian led his troops south to break the Baibo, the Xiongnu's probing actions became quite obvious.
Warhorses required space to build up momentum in order to display their full combat power. At the time, the distance between Fei Qian's forces and the Southern Xiongnu troops had been shorter than the ideal charging distance. After the Southern Xiongnu filed out of their camp, they neither attempted to maneuver around nor launched an immediate charge. That inevitably brought the two sides closer and closer—yet for cavalry, speed and impact were everything.
Naturally, it was also possible the Xiongnu had simply had their heads stuffed with sheep bones for a moment, or arrogantly assumed they were the strongest and everyone else was worthless…
Fei Qian nodded and explained the contents of his agreement with the Xiongnu to Jia Qu. To his surprise, Jia Qu fell silent for a while before saying gravely, "My lord, do you intend to integrate the Xiongnu into the common people?"
"Mm… is there something wrong with that?" Fei Qian thought for a moment and openly admitted it.
Jia Qu remained silent a little longer, then spoke with great seriousness: "My lord must be extremely cautious with this matter…"
In the Han era, many people had considered the idea of assimilating the Hu, but no one had ever succeeded smoothly. The main obstacle was the Han policy of "registering households and equalizing the people."
Jia Qu, being closer to the northern frontier, understood the court's policies and regulations regarding barbarians and Hu far better than gentry from other regions.
Under Jia Qu's explanation, Fei Qian finally gained a relatively complete picture.
Governing barbarians and Hu was generally divided into two stages.
The first stage was "herding the Yi and Di with loose reins"—in other words, allowing the barbarians and Hu to govern themselves. Their tribal leaders only needed to nominally submit, pay tribute at fixed intervals like during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, and handle all internal affairs within their territories themselves. The Han dynasty generally did not interfere.
Examples included the earlier Qiuci, Dayuezhi, and the Dongyi—the ancestors of later Koreans…
To gain merit in this first stage, one could only claim credit for newly subjugated groups.
That meant if Fei Qian now wanted to have someone like Yufuluo offer tribute and acknowledge Han rule in exchange for…
Well, something like merit points in a game…
It was completely impossible. The Han court did not allow farming such points.
Only entirely new ethnic groups—such as the newly rising Dingling or Tiele—could provide such credit. The man who first brought their submission would receive the honor and reward.
Of course, groups that had already reached the first stage could still be "cooked" a second time.
That was "registering households and equalizing the people."
Reaching this stage meant conditions were quite mature. The Han dynasty would dispatch officials to administer the area, reorganize the barbarians and Hu according to Han methods, create household registers, and collect taxes and labor service according to Han standards.
If one could achieve this, it would be recorded as a major civil achievement, almost equivalent to expanding territory…
Naturally, the reason why, despite being widely known and highly tempting, no one had dared to attempt it was that the risk was extremely high.
Registering households and equalizing the people was an extremely delicate task. Once it was reported to the court, the court would begin collecting taxes and conscripting labor based on those registers…
If, due to poor communication or execution errors, the barbarians and Hu felt they had been cheated and fled back into the mountains or grasslands, they would be recorded as runaway households…
Falsifying reports and deceiving superiors was something many people mastered without being taught. To protect themselves during their term of office, the tax and labor burdens of these runaway Hu households would be forcibly shifted onto other Hu or even Han people living in the border regions.
And so…
Western Liang…
Bingzhou…
Ended up in their current sorry state.
Although Jia Qu did not spell out the final implication, Fei Qian understood what he left unsaid.
This was a pit. No wonder, back in Luoyang, none of the great ministers thought they were giving him a good deal. Instead, they all felt his attitude in accepting punishment had been quite good…
No one had been willing to follow him here, except that silly fawn Du Yuan, Du Wenzheng.
Cough, cough…
Du Wenzheng was a good man. He shouldn't speak of him that way.
"If we do not persist with reform and opening up, if we do not develop the economy, if we do not improve the people's livelihood, there is only one road—death." Fei Qian suddenly felt enlightened and softly murmured a classic later-world saying to himself. What a correct principle, how well put, and how perfectly it fit his current situation…
"Huh? What?" Jia Qu beside him wore an expression of pure confusion, written large across his face…