On his way, Wei Yuan briefly observed the conditions of the common folk across the commandery seats, counties, and villages before flying into the Southern Military Camp.
The Southern Military Camp had originally been established on the border between Huangping and Xiangrong Commanderies. After Wei Yuan thoroughly disciplined the gentry clans of the five commanderies and subsequently repelled the Zhao forces, he relocated the camp into the heart of Xiangrong Commandery, eight hundred li from its commandery seat.
When setting up camp, Wei Yuan favored straddling the main thoroughfare with mountains flanking both flanks, governed by the guiding principle that no one was going to have an easy time. The camp's position choked off transit arteries in multiple directions. Whether from east, west, south, or north, any large detachment from the surrounding commanderies seeking to pass through Xiangrong Commandery could not bypass it.
At present, only twenty thousand troops were garrisoned in the Southern Military Camp, yet the stockpiled supplies could support ten times that number. Stationed in the camp were General Pacifying the East and four vice generals. General Pacifying the East was one of the sixteen young lords and ladies from back then, while the four vice generals were all graduates cultivated by the Qingming Military Academy itself.
Upon entering the camp, Wei Yuan called for reports on the current military situation and the execution status of his earlier arrangements. He read through them in detail while listening to the generals' debriefings.
Wei Yuan was now the Grand Minister of Southern Military Affairs. The addition of "Grand" effectively concentrated both civil and military authority in his hands, while the territory under his jurisdiction had expanded from five commanderies to eight. Of the three newly added commanderies, two lay on the fringes of the Lu clan's sphere of influence, and one on the fringes of the Xu family's.
The initiatives Wei Yuan had implemented across the eight commanderies comprised five programs: relief of the destitute, land reclamation, land distribution, universal literacy, and redressing wrongful cases. Specifically, relief of the destitute provided food to the poorest who had nowhere to take shelter, preventing them from freezing or starving to death, after which they worked for Wei Yuan in repayment. Their labor primarily consisted of reclaiming land; once cleared, they were allocated a small plot to farm for themselves, owing only annual land rent.
Land reclamation entailed opening up untilled wilderness, overseen by the Universe Earth-Movers under Chuhe's command. This effort was of paramount importance, as the newly cleared fields would be distributed to landless folk for farming. Land distribution, combined with redressing wrongful cases, returned the fields that prominent families had swindled and seized from the poor over the years under various pretexts.
Universal literacy went without saying.
Combined, these five initiatives were far more aggressive than those in Zhao. The grain and funds poured into destitute relief alone nearly matched those of the entire State of Zhao. As for land distribution and redressing wrongful cases, Zhao had not implemented them at all. These two measures were primarily aimed at the gentry clans who held vast swathes of land and were ruthlessly buying up more to annex estates in the midst of war.
Wei Yuan's initial concept had been to reclaim the lands annexed across the eight commanderies since the outbreak of the Jin–Zhao War and redistribute them to the poorest of the poor. He had calculated that coughing up this sliver of profit would on average cost the gentry clans only a tenth of their overall wealth, yet that small portion would settle nearly all the destitute folk. In turn, these commoners would undoubtedly contribute karmic luck.
Redressing wrongful cases would also harvest considerable popular acclaim, though the exact amount remained uncertain. Thus, what Wei Yuan valued most was land distribution.
Wei Yuan had projected that by running all five initiatives in parallel for a month, he could put an end to all deaths from cold and starvation across the eight commanderies in one fell swoop. Though he could not ensure that every tiller owned their field, he could at least guarantee that anyone willing to farm had land to till.
Distributing land inevitably required auditing acreage. Once the fields were tallied, previously uncollected taxes could also be gathered and funneled into the destitute relief system and academy construction, eradicating starvation and cold while enlightening the minds of the people.
The eight commanderies held ninety-seven million people in total. Wei Yuan had originally estimated that after a full month of implementing the reforms, he would harvest twenty million points of mortal karmic luck. Yet with only seven days left before the month ended, only four million had materialized.
Thus, as Wei Yuan reviewed the situation and listened to the debriefings, his mood remained as still as water.
General Pacifying the East was named Li Zheng, a peripheral member of the Southern Qi Li family's direct line who had now been in Qingming for over a decade. After multiple rounds of karmic luck empowerment from Wei Yuan, he had finally broken through to the dharma idol realm and was now a key talent.
Li Zheng delivered his report point by point, occasionally supplemented by the vice generals.
"Relief of the destitute has progressed fairly smoothly; the money, grain, oil, and rice could all be distributed. However, once handed out, local thugs and hooligans rob the recipients. I sent men to make arrests, capturing multiple batches totaling over three thousand thugs. But the moment they were handed over to the local yamens, they were released right behind our backs. Some thugs have already been arrested by me four times.
"Since keeping the starving fed was the first priority, I was ultimately forced to withdraw the valuable oil and rice, handing out only coarse grain steamed buns mixed with sand, gravel, and wheat bran, which couldn't be sold anywhere. Only then did the food truly reach the bellies of the starving. I have investigated thoroughly: most of these thugs are acting under the instigation of the local gentry and officials."
"Universal literacy has faced numerous obstacles. Only a dozen or so academies managed to open in time, and the total number of enrolled students is under a hundred—fewer than the number of teachers."
Wei Yuan's expression did not waver. "Are our academies not free of charge? How could no one come?"
A vice general presented an image recording.
In the projection was an academy whose main gate was surrounded by a mob led by scholars, barring every student from entering. Several schoolteachers inside had been drenched in filth, forced to kneel on the ground and endure berating. One scholar declared: "My teacher is the closed-door disciple of Qian Shiqian himself! You lot are trash unfit to step into my teacher's classroom! Who gave you permission to open an academy here? Prince Wei? What kind of thing is Prince Wei? An arch-villain of the ages!"
When the projection ended, Wei Yuan offered neither approval nor criticism.
Land distribution and redressing wrongful cases were the primary focus, and Li Zheng reported on them personally. Because this encroached upon the interests of the gentry clans, Wei Yuan naturally understood it would be fraught with difficulty; thus, he had taken heavy-handed measures early on, granting Li Zheng sweeping authority.
Li Zheng had executed his duties with vigor and dispatch. In less than twenty days, over three hundred clashes had erupted between his forces and the retainers, guards, and private armies of the gentry clans. The Qingming soldiers had suffered a few casualties, whereas the gentry clans had suffered nearly a thousand killed and wounded.
Because Wei Yuan had set a strict deadline, Li Zheng used force to carve a path through whenever the gentry clans mounted resistance. He had managed to clarify the acreage annexation across many areas, interviewed numerous poor tenant farmers, gathered evidence of extortion and coercion, and largely finished the work of tallying the acreage.
"However, changing deeds and returning fields thereafter has run into wall after wall. First, the yamens drag their feet. Then, commoners who had land returned to them were beaten to death in their own fields in the dead of night. Many poor folk no longer dare to accept returned plots."
"Nine million mu were audited and marked for return. How many mu have actually been returned so far?" Wei Yuan had not seen that figure.
Li Zheng replied, "It cannot be precisely tallied, but this subordinate estimates... roughly two thousand mu."
Wei Yuan suddenly laughed.
These gentry scholars and literati truly opposed him at every turn. For every measure he enacted, they had targeted countermeasures with zero blind spots; their years of reading books had truly not gone to waste.
In touching the silver in their pockets, he had truly committed a crime where death was too light a punishment, deserving to stink in infamy for ten thousand years.
Even with his measures sabotaged to this extent, with scarcely any benefit reaching the hands of the destitute, and with the curse of 'arch-villain of the ages' pinned on his head everywhere, Wei Yuan had still reaped four million points of mortal karmic luck. This showed that justice lived in the hearts of the people, and it showed how desperately impoverished the folk of Western Jin were—a single bite of food was enough to earn their heartfelt devotion.
Li Zheng had indeed pushed himself to the limit, with hundreds of lives on his hands, but while the gentry clans yielded in frontal confrontation, they applied leverage from the flanks and rear in secret. Li Zheng had had no counter; he could hardly slaughter whole households indiscriminately.
Wei Yuan then asked, "Did they not carry corpses to the entrance of the camp?"
Li Zheng replied, "They did. Then this subordinate shot and killed the leading dharma idol with a single arrow, and they never came again. However, corpses are laid out everywhere across the gates and bustling markets of major commandery seats. Someone even composed storytelling scripts and spread them far and wide."
"The stories must be reviling me?"
Li Zheng did not speak, taking silence as affirmation. The stories were not just viciously abusive, but lewd and vulgar, implicating many of the people around Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan asked no further about execution details. He tapped lightly on the table. After a moment of thought, he said, "Draft a decree to all implicated gentry clans and yamens of every level across the eight commanderies, ordering them to fully implement all five initiatives within a single day."
Li Zheng hesitated. In Qingming's tradition, before a final decision was reached, one could voice doubts regarding Wei Yuan's decrees. But once the final order was handed down, whether one agreed or not, it had to be executed without compromise.
Li Zheng said, "Pardon this subordinate speaking bluntly, but this will likely be of no use."
Wei Yuan said indifferently, "I know it is useless. I merely want to confirm one last time who ought to be killed. This time, let them write the list themselves."
The generals felt a chill run through their hearts, knowing Wei Yuan was genuinely enraged. They had only caught vague wind that the Realm Lord attached extreme importance to this operation—prepared to defy immortals if immortals stood in the way, and slay Buddhas if Buddhas blocked the path—yet none knew the underlying reason.
Wei Yuan asked again, "Which of the great scholars reviled me most fiercely?"
Li Zheng was well prepared: "Chiefly Qian Shiqian, Fang Chengru, and Wang Xian. The other scholars are mostly their disciples or old associates."
These three were celebrated great scholars of the south of Western Jin, renowned for their literary standing. Two of them were directors of prestigious academies, with pupils scattered across the world.
Wei Yuan asked, "How much land do they actually possess?"
"Qian Shiqian holds three hundred and seventy thousand mu, two hundred thousand of which were acquired over the past two years. Fang Chengru holds one hundred and fifty thousand mu, eighty thousand acquired over the past two years. Wang Xian's clan holds nine hundred and seventy thousand mu, of which five hundred and fifty thousand mu were bought recently at a mere twenty percent of normal market price, though it appears to actually belong to the Left Prime Minister."
This figure far exceeded Wei Yuan's expectations. No wonder they opposed his return of lands acquired during the wartime chaos with such ferocity. These people who babbled about loyalty to the monarch and love for the country were in truth leeches gorging on Western Jin, sucking it dry with utter ruthlessness. No wonder Western Jin's state fortune had shown no notable recovery despite Wei Yuan's repeated interventions, even dragging down the pace of his cultivation.
Wei Yuan had initially assumed that the immortals of the Lu and Xu clans were scheming behind the scenes, but looking at it now, bloodsucking mosquitoes of every size could not be underestimated either.
Wei Yuan quietly calculated the time. Even if he forcefully pushed all measures through to the end this instant, it would still be too late.
Wei Yuan had anticipated that reform would be difficult, yet he had never imagined the reality would be so absurdly exaggerated. These gentry clans were unwilling to spit out even the crumbs stuck to their lips, dragging down his grand scheme to harvest karmic luck!
"I was still too soft-handed..." Wei Yuan took out a square handkerchief, gently wiped his hands, and tossed it into the waste bin.
On the snow-white cloth, a speck of crimson gradually surfaced and spread rapidly.
...
The commandery seat of Huangping Commandery, Chunman Tower.
The top floor was brightly lit. It offered an exquisite view, occupied by only a single grand hall. A banquet was currently underway, with a snow-haired elder scholar presiding at the head—none other than Qian Shiqian, hailed as the leader of the southern Jin literary world. Seated at the banquet were a dozen-odd scholars accompanied by over thirty courtesans, allowing each man to hold beauties in both arms.
The commandery's past and present courtesan queens sat on either side of Qian Shiqian; the former had accompanied him for twenty years.
Yet the atmosphere at the feast was somewhat solemn. A scholar spoke with a look of worry: "Prince Wei acts with ferocity. Why do we not yield a step and cede some fields to him?"
Qian Shiqian replied, "Nephew, you are still young. In matters like this, either give everything or give nothing. Otherwise, give a little today, give a little tomorrow, and before long we will have nothing left in our hands! Can wolves like this ever be sated? As the saying goes, 'an ant hole can collapse a thousand-li dike.' This opening must never be made!"
The scholars echoed in agreement one after another, yet sneered in their hearts. Across the entire literary circle, who did not know that Qian Shiqian only took and never gave, stingy to the bone?
Just then, a loud bang echoed as the doors were kicked open with immense force, and a swarm of black-clad masked men surged in!
A scholar at the peak of Dao Foundation attempted to resist, but his head flew off in an instant!
Though Qian Shiqian was a dharma idol cultivator, he had not fought in years. His qi had barely stirred when two black-clad men shattered his sea of consciousness, depriving him of any power to retaliate. Only then did the scholars realize that nearly half of this group of black-clad men were at the dharma idol realm, and their combat prowess was terrifyingly ferocious!
Moments later, the commandery seat of Huangping Commandery boiled over with excitement. Countless people flooded the main thoroughfare. Upon arriving, they saw Qian Shiqian tied together with the two courtesan queens, paraded through the streets without a stitch of clothing on any of them!
In such a rare spectacle, the crowd had initially looked at the courtesan queens' bodies, but their attention was quickly stolen entirely by Qian Shiqian, prompting an explosion of chatter.
"What an intricate pose!"
"Unexpected, truly unexpected!"
"That thing is far too tiny—I almost couldn't spot it!"
"With that, how could his concubines at home not cuckold him? I certainly couldn't endure it!"
"Mm, his backside is quite fair though, and the skin is smooth..."
Qian Shiqian was overwhelmed with mortification and rage, unable to understand why the bailiffs were taking so long to rescue him. What he did not know was that the commandery governor was seated in the government hall, drenched in sweat and frozen in panic. Facing Li Zheng, who sat quietly beside him watching with cold detachment, the governor did not dare cast the command token to dispatch his constables.
The hall was dead silent. Although many bailiffs stood in place, none dared breathe loudly. Lining the walls stood dozens of fierce Qingming axe-and-saber executioners, hot blood still dripping from the tips of their blades.
In the blink of an eye, half an hour passed. Qian Shiqian had sunk into despair as cold as ash, knowing his lifelong reputation was thoroughly destroyed.
Seeing the ceremonial gateway of Huangping Commandery right ahead, he suddenly gathered his strength, screamed, "This old man would rather die than be disgraced!" and threw his head against a stone pillar. Blood immediately burst forth, and he lost consciousness.
Yet immediately afterward, someone hoisted his head up by the hair. The excruciating agony forced a groan from his throat, leaving him unable to play dead any longer.
The black-clad man said softly, "Old man, if your head is itching, bash it for real! That's how you leave your name in the annals of history!"
Gripping Qian Shiqian's head, he slammed it violently against the stone pillar with a resounding thud. The skull shattered in an instant, brains splattering everywhere.
That same day, Fang Chengru leapt into the river with his two daughters-in-law in a supposed love suicide, while Wang Xian died beneath his adopted son.
When Wei Yuan received the report, he merely cast a casual glance at it before tossing it into the waste bin. He then resumed making marks across the roster of officials, striking out the vast majority of names with a single stroke of the brush.
Since these people refused to take their seats at the table and wouldn't let Wei Yuan enjoy his meal in peace, Wei Yuan was prepared to occupy the dining table of southern Jin entirely by himself.
Chapter 998