Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 192 The Gentry of Fujian
When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. Although Cui Qiu was a direct descendant of the Cui clan of Qinghe and had served as the governor of Zhejiang East, he was now just a captured and surrendered general in the bandit army.

Zhu Wen said he wanted to massacre the gentry in Fujian, and Cui Qiu naturally had no choice but to agree.

But Cui Qiu still had to tell the truth: "General Zhu, Fujian is a remote and isolated place with few gentry families for you to exploit..."

"It doesn't matter." Zhu Wen waved his hand and said, "Whether they are truly aristocratic or not is not important, as long as the people think they are aristocratic."

During the Tang Dynasty, a significant phenomenon emerged among aristocratic families: the relocation of burial sites to the two capitals. In order to better control political resources, they moved from the provinces to the central government, leading to a separation between their ancestral home and their place of origin. Those who remained in their ancestral home were often simply less successful branches of the family.

However, one thing must be noted: even a poor family can have a door!

During the Cao Wei period, Chen Qun established the "Nine-Rank System," which resulted in a situation where "the upper ranks had no commoners and the lower ranks had no nobles." In other words, people from humble backgrounds could still enter officialdom, but they would be classified as lower-ranking officials.

The clan system of the Tang Dynasty was also deeply influenced by this, and a poor family was defined as one whose family had not produced a fifth-rank official for more than three generations.

People like Huang Chao, whose families had been salt merchants for generations and whose members had never held official positions, were, by a precise definition, "poor and humble," no matter how wealthy or talented they were. This was the group that was almost completely excluded from the Tang Dynasty's imperial examinations.

Political resources are limited. Branches of aristocratic families that have not produced high-ranking officials for generations are automatically relegated to the status of commoners. However, they still outwardly refer to themselves as aristocratic families.

In addition, in isolated places like Fujian, local tycoons also liked to unilaterally call themselves "gentry" to enhance their prestige.

These intricacies are beyond the comprehension of a peasant who barely knows any characters—he simply can't understand them!

That said, the slaughter of the aristocratic class had been done many times before, but it had not shaken the foundation of the system in the slightest.

The difference between Huang Chao and those people was that those people, along with their families and a group of commoners, wanted to eliminate the aristocratic families so that their own families could rise to the aristocratic ranks; Huang Chao, however, regarded this system of classifying people as worthless and wanted to eliminate aristocratic politics from its very roots!

This problem cannot be solved simply by killing people. Yet, it is necessary to kill some people to show our stance to the common folk. As to how many of those killed were truly members of the gentry, it is not that important.

The system of recommendation and selection cannot be restored, and the aristocratic class cannot be completely eliminated.

Zhu Wen then comforted Cui Qiu, saying, "Eliminating aristocratic politics is not something that can be accomplished overnight. Even if this system is truly eliminated, a person of Cui Gong's talent and learning will still be able to have a place in the new era."

In other words, some collaborators within the aristocratic class were still able to maintain their individual status within the new system.

Zhu Wen had discussed this issue with Huang Chao on several occasions.

Now, Zhu Wen's words can also represent Huang Chao's meaning.

This made Cui Qiu breathe a sigh of relief: "Whatever General Huang and General Zhu need me to do, I will do without hesitation."

Zhu Wen sent a group of storytellers to infiltrate the populace and tell the story of how the mythical beast Di Ting was born as the Great General Huang Chao, who eliminated eight million evil spirits for the sake of the people. This quickly reversed public opinion.

Many fortified villages opened their gates, providing food to the bandit army as a gesture of cooperation. Naturally, the bandit army often reciprocated by helping them annihilate rival villages as retribution.

These mountain people were incredibly cruel when seeking revenge, slaughtering every last one of their rival villages, and drowning infants in latrines. They would even slit open the chests of their enemies, roast and eat their hearts, and drink their blood.

Such cruelty was too much for many of the soldiers, who were used to seeing bloodshed, to bear.

“Fujian is mostly mountainous, with only a small portion being water and a small portion being farmland. There is very little arable land available for cultivation. In addition, the Han and non-Han people live together, leading to extremely intense conflicts between villages.” Wang Shenzhi explained to his generals, “Only through bloody village battles can the excess population be eliminated and the local ecosystem be able to continue.”

In such places, the imperial court feared that sending officials directly to collect taxes would result in them being devoured alive by the unruly people. In Fujian, the method of tax collection was to delegate the positions of tax collectors to local tyrants and tribal chiefs; as for the issue of embezzlement, the imperial court could only pretend not to know.

There's a saying from later generations: "The money of the gentry is returned in full, while the money of the common people is split three-seven."

The harshness of the local environment in Fujian is evident in how the mountain people dealt with the aftermath of the massacres. They often showed little interest in occupying enemy villages, instead opting to fill in their irrigation ditches, breach dikes, and divert more river water to their own. The enemy villages, wiped out and deprived of their water supply, became utterly desolate and abandoned wastelands.

The struggle for water resources is also the most common reason for feuds between villages! The intervention of the bandit army in these feuds between villages also brought about a result.

The villagers not only learned that General Huang was the divine beast Di Ting who had descended to earth to subdue the eight million evil spirits who had committed wicked deeds, but they also learned that the identities of these evil spirits were determined by a group of divine generals under General Huang's command.

Those who welcome the rebel army first will live, those who welcome it later will die!

As a result, the people of Fujian eagerly welcomed the rebel army, creating a vibrant and thriving scene.

These villagers enthusiastically provided the bandit army with provisions and direction, leading them to capture local tyrants who claimed to be aristocratic families. During the siege, craftsmen actively forged siege weapons, and militiamen swarmed the city walls, allowing Zhu Wen to easily capture Zhang and Ting prefectures.

Tragic news came from the direction of Jianzhou.

After capturing Fuzhou, Huang Chao planned to advance into Lingnan and had no intention of staying long in the barren and mountainous Fujian. Therefore, he did not leave many troops to garrison Jianzhou.

A fellow named Chen Yan organized a local militia, gathering several thousand men and calling himself the "Nine Dragons Army." He colluded with the gentry in the city and attacked Jianzhou. He not only wiped out the two hundred garrison soldiers left behind, but also massacred more than a thousand wounded soldiers and the families of the rebels in the city.

Upon receiving the news, the generals were filled with rage and demanded to send troops to avenge their defeat.

Zhu Wen pointed out that these local tyrants were quite slippery; they went directly to retake Jianzhou, but the other side simply abandoned Jianzhou and ran away.

"What, are we just going to let the evil leader who killed so many brothers go unpunished?" Huo Cun said unwillingly.

"Don't panic. Among the new recruits we've gathered in Jianzhou, there are some of the elders and fellow villagers of this Chen Yan." Zhu Wen's lips curled up slightly: "Little Huo, I'll have Zhu Zhen and you take the cavalry over there. You know what to do."

Guided by the villagers of Chenyan, Chenjiabao was soon engulfed in flames.

"We really aren't from the Chen family of Yingchuan!"

Chen Yan's eldest son, bound to the wooden donkey, cried out, "Five generations ago, our family still toiled in the fields for a living. It's just that our ancestors worked harder and bought more land. We were no different from the other villagers!"

"Nonsense!" A hunched farmer brandished his hoe and shouted angrily, "When you Chen family members used to be so arrogant and domineering in the village, why didn't you say that?"

Chen Yan's wife, with tears in her eyes, said to one of the Chen family's tenants, "Our Chen family really comes from a farming background. We've always known that we don't charge tenants much rent..."

The tenant coldly replied, "All I know is that in my grandfather's generation, because I fell seriously ill and had no money for treatment, your Chen family took over the land nine times and returned it thirteen times, increasing the interest tenfold in just two years. We had no choice but to sell the land to you at a low price, losing the land passed down from our ancestors and becoming your tenant. Don't you remember?"

Madam Chen burst into tears: "Those were all things my father-in-law did when he was alive. I hadn't even married into the family yet, how would I know?"

Zhu Zhen and Huo Cun exchanged a glance, knowing that the fate of the Chen family was no longer in doubt.

Zhu Wen issued a proclamation declaring that any member of the gentry in Fujian who was captured by his rebel army would have their entire family executed. This order had already been publicly endorsed by Huang Chao.

Moreover, the Chen family has a deep-seated blood feud with the Cao army.

When you're in this business, you have to keep your word. If I say I'll kill your whole family, I mean I'll kill your whole family!
Amidst the villagers' scorn and insults, the Chen family mansion was engulfed in flames, and the cries of agony were drowned out by the crackling sound of the burning.

Chen Yan and his brother-in-law Fan Hui had just led the so-called "Nine Dragons Army" into Jianzhou City and were happily writing to the government to claim credit. However, he soon discovered that his entire family had died and that even if he managed to become the Fujian Inspector in the future, he would have no children to inherit the family business!

In fact, Zhu Wen learned from Wang Shenzhi that this Chen Yan was a very good old friend of Wang Shenzhi's elder brother, Wang Chao. If the Chen family actively cooperated with the rebel army, even though they had long claimed to be the Chen family of Yingchuan, they could still be given leniency out of respect for Wang Shenzhi.

Unfortunately, Chen Yan was determined to oppose the Grass Army and even injured many Grass Army brothers, so there was really nothing that could be done.

(End of this chapter)