Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 185 Hegemony
In the end, everything boils down to money.

Since the Taiping Army was already in dire straits, Cao Hui, a mid-level bureaucrat within the system, had no need to hide anything. When Zhao Huai'an asked, he revealed the Taiping Army's hidden problems.

He told Zhao Huai'an that when talking about the Taiping Army, one must mention Ziqing Town, the largest military region that once dominated the East.

Ziqing Town was established by the imperial court after the Northeast Pinglu Army marched south to Qingzhou following the An Lushan Rebellion. Initially, it only encompassed the five prefectures of Qing, Zi, Qi, Yi, Mi, and Hai.

Later, during the reign of Li Zhengyi, this naturalized Goryeo man expelled the then-governor and volunteered to become the governor himself. For the next fifty years, the governorship of Ziqing Town was passed down within the Li family, and the power transfer was completed smoothly, successfully realizing the succession of governorship from father to son and from brother to brother.

How large was Ziqing Town at its peak? In addition to the five prefectures of Qing, Zi, Qi, Yi, Mi and Hai within the town itself, there were also ten prefectures of Cao, Pu, Xu, Yan, Yun, Deng, Lai, De, Di and Mi, totaling fifteen prefectures, making it the largest vassal state in the land.

If we use the division of major provinces during the Former Han Dynasty, Ziqing Town encompassed the lands of three provinces: Qing, Yan, and Xu, truly making it a first-class province in the east.

With such power, Fu Wei naturally became arrogant and overconfident, even going so far as to brutally murder Prime Minister Wu Yuanheng in the street, displaying an unparalleled arrogance.

But soon, seventy years ago, the imperial court successfully quelled Huaixi, and then used its victorious troops to besiege Ziqing Town in five routes, finally succeeding in quelling this largest vassal state in the east.

After that, Ziqing Town, like Huaixi Town, was divided into three parts.

Among them, Yun, Cao, and Pu prefectures were under the jurisdiction of the Tianping Military Governor; Zi, Qing, Qi, Deng, and Lai prefectures remained under the jurisdiction of the Ziqing Pinglu Military Governor; and Yi, Hai, Yan, and Mi prefectures were under the jurisdiction of the Taining Military Governor.

Furthermore, the Three Feudatories became directly controlled by the imperial court. Not only were the military governors of the Three Feudatories basically appointed by the court, but the positions of the prefectures and counties under them were also selected by the court in Chang'an.

It can be said that since the Yuanhe era, the once arrogant and domineering Ziqing Town has become the exclusive domain of the imperial court.

The Taiping Army's unspeakable secrets began at that time.

During the reign of the Li family, the three prefectures of Yun, Cao, and Pu under the jurisdiction of the Tianping Army did not have to pay a single penny or a single grain of millet to the Tang court. They had complete control over official titles, armor and soldiers, taxes, and executions.

However, this situation came to a complete end with the destruction of the separatist forces in Ziqing Town led by Li Shidao.

Initially, in order to stabilize the newly annexed Three Feudatories, the imperial court provided economic benefits to the Taiping Army, allowing them to waive taxes from the central government for fifteen years.

Previously, even during the Lee family's era, the Tenpyo Army had to hand over one-third of its tax revenue to the shogunate, but now they don't have to pay that at all. They can use the money earned in their own prefecture and don't have to hand it over a single cent.

This approach directly promoted the development of the Taiping Army, but in reality, it was merely a means for the imperial court to cultivate its resources.

During the fifteen years of laissez-faire, the successive military governors and prefects of the imperial court basically mastered the household registration and land records of the areas where the Taiping Army was located.

Therefore, the Two-Tax System was fully implemented, and the profits from salt and iron production of the Taiping Army were returned to the central government. Each year, the Taiping Army had to pay approximately 150,000 strings of cash and 50,000 shi of grain, which was a heavy tax burden for the Taiping Army, which only had three prefectures.

This sum of money did not exist during the Li family's time. Now that this expenditure has been made, the tax burden on the people under the rule of the Taiping Army has suddenly increased.

In addition, the Taiping Army's income was much less than before because the most profitable commodities, salt and iron, had been taken away by the imperial court.

Moreover, there is another situation: the various vassal states in the Central Plains, as controllable and defensive vassal states, generally do not pay taxes. Since there are fewer taxes here, why don't they just do it here with the Taiping Army?
Who made Ziqing Town, which once boasted a vast territory, ranked among the top in the hundred counties, and dominated the region, lose?
If you lose, you must be prepared to accept it.

Therefore, the Taiping Army was burdened with heavy taxes most of the time, which severely weakened its economic strength. Although the court did not need to worry that the Taiping Army would become as unruly as before, it was inevitable that the Taiping Army would be very dependent on the court's financial support. Once a disaster occurred, the Taiping Army would be unable to solve it.

It was under these tight fiscal conditions that the Taiping Army had to find ways to generate revenue on its own.

Unlike the Zhongwu Army, which was ruthless enough to cooperate with river bandits and mountain bandits to rob the Huai River, the Taiping Army did not have the guts to do so. However, they still had a group of partners who could be considered as easy targets: the salt smuggling families under their rule.

After the imperial court established its own salt and iron industry, in order to obtain higher fiscal revenue, the price of salt was often set very high. Merchants who sold salt to the imperial court set the selling price even higher, sometimes exceeding the official price by more than double. Often, several bushels of grain could not even be exchanged for a liter of salt.

Against this backdrop, every prefecture in the country was involved in the smuggling of salt. The coastal areas of the Yangtze and Huai Rivers were the most important salt-producing regions, while the three prefectures of Yun, Cao, and Pu, where the Taiping Army was located, were densely populated, did not produce salt, and were situated along the Grand Canal with a dense network of waterways, making them important areas for smuggling activities.

Families like the Wang and Huang families have been selling smuggled salt in Puyang and Caozhou for generations.

How could local governments not know about these bandits? They simply take advantage of these people to make money.

Because these salt smugglers were taking money from the imperial court, not from the Taiping Army. The more money they took, the more the Taiping Army could take.

Therefore, over several generations, the Taiping Army developed serious local black market activities, all of which were deeply connected with the three prefectures and counties.

However, starting in the eleventh year of the Xiantong era, the Taiping Army realized something was wrong, because from that year onwards, floods and droughts had plagued the region for several years in a row. By the fourteenth year, the disasters had become even more severe, with the wheat harvest less than half of what it had been in previous years, and the autumn grain harvest failing altogether.

Despite this, the imperial court still did not exempt the Taiping Army from the two taxes. Under these circumstances, Puzhou could no longer hold on, because they discovered that a large number of disaster victims were being taken in by the local powerful Wang Xianzhi.

So Puyang wanted to strike first and kill Wang Xianzhi, the golden goose that laid the eggs.

But the state government was always like a sieve; before one side could even make up its mind, Wang Xianzhi would rebel.

Then, starting from the winter of the first year of Qianfu, and continuing until now in the third year of Qianfu, the entire Tianping Army has completely collapsed, and Pu and Cao prefectures have been completely out of control. At that time, the military governor Xue Chong concentrated his troops back in Yunzhou, which barely managed to maintain the situation in Yunzhou.

After Cao finished speaking, Zhao Huai'an and his staff finally understood the situation of the Taiping Army.

His mouth was dry; he knew it was a stupid question, but he asked anyway:
"Since your Taiping Army has suffered from disasters for so many years, why doesn't the imperial court provide disaster relief?"

Cao Hui smiled awkwardly and said resentfully to Zhao Huai'an:
"The imperial court? The imperial court only wants rice from the Taiping Army. As for the lives of the people under the Taiping Army's rule, they don't even know what's going on. Last June, the locust plague that blotted out the sky swept through one prefecture after another, eating everything edible. Our military governor is just a dog of the imperial court. He concealed the disasters every year for the past few years, but he knew he couldn't hide it anymore last year, so he asked the imperial court to reduce the autumn grain tax for last year."

"But at that time, Yang Zhizhi, the Prefect of the Capital of the dog court, first submitted a memorial saying something outrageous: 'Locusts have entered the capital region, they do not eat crops, and they all die clinging to thorns.' Then his subordinates celebrated, and the whole disaster was covered up."

"In the end, we didn't have to pay the autumn grain, but there was no more disaster relief grain. Damn it, we people of Caozhou have supported the imperial court for sixty years, and in the end, the imperial court won't even give us a year's worth of rice."

Cao Hui got so excited that he even dragged the imperial court into the discussion, which was quite treasonous, but Zhao Huai'an's advisors didn't react much.

He's cursing the imperial court? What does that have to do with them? Besides, he wasn't even swearing.

Does the imperial court have enough grain? They just came from Bianzhou, how could they not know?

After the hardships, the imperial court reformed the grain transport system, establishing Yangzhou, Bianzhou, and Weikou as three key granary hubs. There was a saying that "riverboats did not enter Bianzhou, Bianzhou boats did not enter the Yellow River, and riverboats did not enter the Wei River."

So, places like Bianzhou always had millions of shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain stored in their granaries. You might ask, did the imperial court lack grain? Not only did it have grain, but it was right under the noses of the Taiping Army.

Unfortunately, these supplies were meant for the people of Chang'an and the 100,000 Xuanwu soldiers in Bianzhou, not for the disaster victims.

If you're a disaster victim, are you still human? You might as well eat dirt.

Moreover, the wise men in the imperial court also knew that with the disaster reaching this extent, the local areas had lost the ability to provide disaster relief, and at this point, no matter how much grain was transported, it would not reach the disaster victims.

Therefore, they pragmatically mobilized troops from various vassal states to Bianzhou to prepare for a siege, because at this time, killing people was easier than saving them.

This was the Tang Dynasty court. At first, they reported confidently, saying there was no problem; later, they reported that there was no need to panic, as the problems were minor; and when they could no longer hide the truth, they would say, "I'm sorry, the problem is beyond repair."

The more Zhao Huai'an and his companions understood this, the more they felt a sense of shared sorrow, realizing how truly miserable the civilians of the Taiping Army were.

But amidst his sorrow, Zhao Huai'an placed even greater emphasis on the current strength of Huang Chao and Wang Xianzhi, and how much strength the Taiping Army still possessed.

This concerns the lives of nearly ten thousand of his men.

So he asked Cao Hui:

"How many men does your Taiping Army have left? Are they capable of fighting? How many troops do Wang and Huang Cao's armies have? Do you know how many are still stationed in Caozhou?"

Cao Hui shook his head and said to Zhao Huai'an:

"General, do you know how many soldiers my Taiping Army has? It has as many as 30,000." "Back then, Ziqing Town had 100,000 soldiers. After the division into three, each family had 30,000 soldiers. This is also the reason why my Taiping Army is under great pressure. We have to support the imperial court and these 30,000 soldiers."

Then Cao Hui stretched out his dark hand and said with a wry smile:
"But does the general know how many of my Taiping Army soldiers are left? I don't know if there are still 10,000 left."

Then Cao Hui explained to Zhao Huai'an that the Tianping Army really suffered. Whenever the imperial court had trouble, it would conscript the Tianping Army to fight outside the border, including suppressing rebellious towns, quelling internal strife, and defending the border.

Especially in border defense, every year when they were defending against the autumn invasion of Nanzhao or when Annam was in trouble, the Taiping Army was always there to provide relief. Every year, there were two or three thousand of them outside, and there were also two or three thousand troops stationed in Lingnan all year round.

Later, when Gao Pian was the military governor of the Tianping Army, he went to rescue Xichuan and took away 6,000 of the Tianping Army soldiers under his command. Thus, when Wang and Huang rebelled, the actual strength of the Tianping Army was less than 20,000.

But with such a small force, it's uncertain whether they even have any left.

Cao Hui said he was wandering around Baigou, so he didn't know what the situation was like in Yunzhou. When the military governor Xue Chong sent troops, he led his men to join him, but halfway there he learned that the military governor had suffered a great defeat and that even the Yunzhou cavalry had lost a thousand riders.

Zhao Huai'an astutely grasped the key point and asked:

"Oh? How many cavalry do you have in the Taiping Army?"

Cao Hui told Zhao Huai'an a number: "Two thousand cavalry."

This startled Zhao Huai'an, who quickly asked:

"Your Taiping army has so many warhorses?"

Zhao Huai'an was from another state, so it was not surprising that he did not know about the Taiping Army. Therefore, Cao Hui explained it to him.

Since the time of Ziqing Town, these states had been trading warhorses with Bohai every year, so Ziqing Town had always maintained a strong cavalry force.

Then, during the Three Towns period, Pinglu still took the lead, and the Three Towns continued to trade with Bohai as before, with the warhorses obtained being shared among the three families.

Therefore, the Taiping Army not only had thousands of warhorses and three thousand cavalry, but also more than a dozen small horse farms, which were distributed in the lush pastures near the Yellow River and Juye Marsh.

But it was precisely these dozen or so horse farms that made Wang Xianzhi who he was. These bandits broke into these horse farms, gathered the horse breeders into an army, and formed their own cavalry force. After conquering several counties and acquiring armor and weapons, they were already able to win in open battle against the Taiping Army.

Now the Taiping cavalry has suffered further losses and is short of food; it is estimated that they are no longer able to fight.

Upon hearing this intelligence, Zhao Huai'an secretly rejoiced that he hadn't foolishly headed straight for Caozhou City. That old Song's uncle, Old Song, was truly unreliable, saying that the Yunzhou troops would also launch an attack from the northeast.

But now, listening to what Cao Hui is saying, it's impossible for the Yunzhou troops to come out of Yunzhou. They don't have the strength, you know?

Zhao Huai'an felt a sudden, sharp pain in his head.

What to do? Under the current circumstances, it is impossible for his 10,000 men to obtain supplies from Caozhou. In other words, the Baigou waterway next to him is now the lifeline of his army.

Not to mention, there are now rioters everywhere in Caozhou. They have penetrated deep into the countryside of Caozhou. Won't the army's logistics and supplies be robbed by those refugees? At that time, Zhao Da will be plunged into a sea of ​​refugee war.

However, lingering in Baigou would only waste money and supplies and would not contribute to the suppression of the rebellion. How could they then fulfill their promise to Yang Fuguang?
These Taiping Army officials deserve to die, as do those from Chang'an. They should all be executed without wrongdoing. A once prosperous vassal state with a million inhabitants has been turned into a hellish place.

With a sigh, Zhao Huai'an reminded himself to play it safe. He only had this much to offer, and he couldn't afford to be reckless.

Back in the late Ming Dynasty, the two Cao generals were quite formidable, right? They killed or forced to flee the bandits. But the better you fought, the more the court would send you to fight.

As long as you can fight, there will be endless battles!

Zhao Huai'an didn't think he could get reinforcements from the imperial court. In this world, you ultimately have to rely on yourself.

Thinking of this, Zhao Huai'an looked at Cao Hui.

The identity of this wronged county magistrate should be genuine, since he is not a person within the system and would not know about the Taiping Army's hidden problems over the years. Moreover, this person seems to harbor resentment towards the imperial court, making him a good helper.

So Zhao Huai'an smiled, and then said to Cao Hui:

"Old Cao, what are your plans for the future?"

Just as Cao was about to speak, Zhao Huai'an continued with a laugh:
"Why don't you stay with our Baoyi Army for now? I, Zhao Da, you know? I came back from Xichuan..."

Before Zhao Huai'an could finish speaking, Cao Hui bowed and said:

"So it was Hu Baoyi who killed the chieftain in battle. No wonder I felt like you were a tiger when I saw you, General. I was wandering aimlessly in Baigou. I am so grateful to you for taking me in, and I will never forget it."

Zhao Huai'an smiled and said to Cao Hui:
"Alright, that's settled then. Go and make a list of your men later. Those who want to stay can be retained as appropriate, and those who don't should be fine, right? Now go and rest, take a bath, have a meal, and get a good night's sleep. In short, once you're at our Baoyi Army, it's just like being home."

Moved to tears, Cao bowed three times to Zhao Huai'an and then left the tent under Lao Mo's guidance.

……

As soon as Cao Hui left, Zhao Huai'an turned directly to Zhang Guinian, who had remained silent, and asked:

"Old Zhang, what should we do?"

Zhang Guinian had been thinking for a while, and only when Zhao Huai'an asked him did he slowly say:

"My lord, our army is currently isolated deep in Caozhou. The safest course of action is to remain here and wait for reinforcements from Xuanwu and Zhongwu to arrive before launching a joint attack."

"But this situation is too passive. It's like throwing all 700,000 disaster victims in Caozhou to the bandits. If the bandits manage to absorb even 100,000 of them, they could overwhelm us."

"Moreover, this is not in our interest to send troops. If we absorb even a small portion of these 700,000 disaster victims, it will greatly enhance the strength of our army. This is a greater opportunity than the Nanzhao War."

"Therefore, I believe that we must take the initiative to attack, so as to demonstrate our army's prestige in the Central Plains; we must take the initiative to attack, so as to absorb the essence of Caozhou into our army; we must take the initiative to attack, so as to gain Yang Gong's trust and respect, and ensure that supplies from the rear will be delivered continuously."

The three points that needed to be stated directly made Zhao Huai'an even more conflicted. He stroked his beard and thought carefully for a long time before finally saying:

"So, how should we launch our attack?"

Zhang Guinian stood up from his stool, walked to the screen, pointed to the inscription of injustice beside the white ditch, and sighed:

"My lord, if our army can capture this city, we can use it as a base to recruit refugees from Yuanju. The Baigou River beside the city can serve as our supply route and retreat route. Furthermore, Cao Hui is the county magistrate of Yuanju and knows the city's strengths and weaknesses perfectly. This is a foundation bestowed upon you by Heaven!"

Finally, Zhang Guinian said one more thing:

"In the past, Cao Cao defeated a million Yellow Turban rebels in Qingzhou and gained 300,000 troops, thus establishing his hegemony. Today, if our lord can resolve this injustice and gain 300,000 troops, hegemony can be achieved!"

But Zhao Huai'an was not infected. Instead, he kept thinking and repeatedly put his hand into a small rice jar on the table to relieve the pressure.

After a long pause, Zhao Huai'an looked up and gave an order to Pei Desheng, the registrar:

"Order: In three days, send troops to Yuanju!"

All the staff members stood up, clasped their hands in greeting, and bowed.

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(End of this chapter)