Chapter 28: Throwing Caution to the Wind

The Wang residence, home of the Chancellor.

Visitors coming and going were filled with trepidation. Word had it that Chancellor Wang’s temper had been terrifyingly foul of late, casting a stifling gloom over the entire household.

The reforms had reached a critical juncture when that bastard Lü Huiqing suddenly defected, shattering the pledge that "the people shall not be taxed further, yet the state shall have sufficient resources."

The Chancellor’s reputation was now thoroughly dragged through the dirt.

Wang Pang and his father occupied separate studies; he handled the less important guests on his father's behalf. Having just seen one visitor out and returned from a quick trip to the latrine, he had barely sat down when another entered.

The man was middle-aged, perhaps in his late thirties, of average height and a slightly stocky build, carrying a document scroll in his hand.

"Young Master, my name is Lü Yinping, from Danyang. I placed twenty-second in the provincial examinations in the second year of the Zhiping era. I have sat for the imperial examinations twice, but alas, I failed to make the cut..."

Wang Pang couldn't be bothered with small talk. If name-dropping worked, one had to actually have connections.

"You're here to present your scholarly works? Let me see."

He pulled the documents out and gave them a cursory glance: policy essays at the front, poetry at the back. The essays were conventional, bordering on clichés. As for the poetry, no matter how good, it was useless; his father didn't value such things.

"I’ll pose a question. Answer it correctly, and I’ll put in a word for you."

"Please, Young Master, speak!"

Wang Pang tossed the scrolls back. "You’ve read Scholar Su’s recent articles, haven't you? With sixty-seven million Song subjects, we can support at most seven million non-productive citizens. Currently, the imperial court maintains seven hundred thousand in the regular army and six hundred thousand in the garrison forces, costing seventy-two million strings of cash a year. Tell me, if you were to cut the military, where would you start?"

This was the very reason the Chancellor’s residence felt so oppressive.

Government bonds were not selling well, and Wang Anshi had begun to consider military cutbacks, turning him into a bitter, irreconcilable enemy of the Privy Councilor, Wen Yanbo.

Upon hearing the question, the man did not look panicked like the other scholars who came seeking recommendations. Instead, he appeared composed and confident.

"To answer you, Young Master, this is not a difficult decision to make.

"The garrison forces are mostly stationed in Hedong, the Capital Circuit, and Hebei, primarily focused on defending cities and maintaining roads and river defenses. The silver spent on them is essentially wages for laborers. The bulk of the court’s expenditure lies in the Northwest, where four hundred thousand regular troops consume vast resources in food and fodder, transported over thousands of miles.

"Add to that the construction of fortifications and the protection of trade routes, and it likely accounts for seventy percent of the total cost."

Before he could finish, Wang Pang’s gaze, sharp as a blade, cut into the man’s face.

Among all those who had come, this was the first who dared to suggest cutting the regular army and shrinking the defense of the Northwest.

Wang Pang picked up the man’s scrolls again, flipping to the first few pages to review his background over the past few years.

A scholar from Danyang who had spent his entire career in Hebei and the Northwest. It was a pity, though; he hadn't even managed to secure a minor military post.

"In your view, using Qingzhou as the boundary, how many troops are needed to hold the existing territory in the Northwest?"

The man’s body stiffened for a moment, then relaxed completely. He bowed deeply.

"Sixty or seventy thousand would suffice! During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, twenty thousand were enough to drive the barbarians back beyond the northern desert. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, twenty-seven thousand were enough to establish the Western Regions Protectorate. The Northwest cannot be pacified not because we have too few men, but because we have too many!"

...

"Someone, bring fresh tea!"

***

In another study, Wang Anshi was seething with rage, having torn the documents prepared by his staff to shreds.

He had thought that having a stumbling block like Sima Guang was bad enough, but now there was a traitor like Lü Huiqing.

Lü had taken full responsibility for the issuance of government bonds, becoming the Vice Commissioner of the Finance Commission under the Three Financial Offices.

What enraged the Chancellor was that Lü truly intended to turn these bonds into a tax.

Every circuit, every prefecture, every county—all were being assigned quotas.

Those who met them were rewarded with a promotion; those who fell short faced an extra year of performance review and the dispatch of inspectors to audit their books.

His staff had compiled the reactions of court officials and the nobility in the capital; they were all pointing fingers at Wang Anshi, calling him a devious villain disguised as a loyalist, a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The state had only so many sources of revenue: land tax, salt tax, commercial tax, monopoly taxes, and the Maritime Trade Office.

When he proposed the Green Sprouts Law, no one supported it, claiming it was "competing with the people for profit."

When he tried to sell government bonds, offering two percent interest, few responded.

They were all parasites of the state, leeches, mosquitoes, rats in the granary.

Was this Great Song dynasty solely his, Wang Anshi’s?

He was reforming for their sake, ultimately to preserve the wealth and status of these gluttonous fools, yet they had the audacity to curse the cook preparing their meal.

He was also furious about Ouyang Xiu.

A Minister of War who had requested to retire, yet instead of waiting quietly for His Majesty to grant him a glorious return home, he had groomed a student to challenge him.

They were all hypocrites. At the beginning, they had spoken so eloquently about working together to restore the glory of the Song.

But now that he was actually doing the work, there was no help to be found—only those pulling on his coattails.

If not for the heavy trust placed in him by the late Emperor, he would have thrown in the towel long ago.

"Knock, knock, knock..." Wang Pang entered through the back door, nodding to the staff.

He leaned over to whisper to Wang Anshi, "Father, I have met a very interesting man. He spent the last few years as an attendant traveling the entire defensive line of Hebei and the Northwest..."

Wang Anshi glanced at the water clock and then at the light outside.

"Bring him in. Let’s see what he’s made of."

Wang Pang turned to open the door and gestured, bringing in the short, stocky man. His appearance led everyone in the room to assume he was a Northerner.

Yet, the moment he spoke, he used the refined tones of the South.

"I, Lü Yinping, pay my respects to the Chancellor and all you learned gentlemen!"

Wang Anshi studied him for a moment and then asked, "Explain yourself. What did you mean by saying it’s not that we have too few men, but that we have too many?"

The man composed himself. "Two years ago, while I was managing a salt field in the Henghai Circuit, I met two extraordinary men. They were in need of a scribe to accompany them as they traveled the northern borders of the Song to draft a map for defensive strategy. I suspected they were spies from the North, so I played along, intending to bring them to justice.

"From the Yanshan Mountains in the east, to Datong in the center, to Xiazhou in the west, we covered over three thousand li. We not only scouted the military and civilian deployments of the Liao, but also delved deep into Western Xia to understand their views on the war between the two nations following the Battle of Haoshuichuan. Only then did I realize that one of them was Cao Rixiu, a scion of the Duke’s household.

"For a year and a half in the Northwest, we posed as horse traders, repeatedly venturing deep into Western Xia territory to gather intelligence.

"We discovered a secret: the total strength of Western Xia’s army is no more than one hundred thousand, and they must keep thirty thousand to defend against the Qingtang Tibetans. They face our Song forces with only seventy thousand.

"If we defend everywhere—the current strategy left by Master Fan—we need at least two hundred thousand men to protect our cities. If we want to achieve something and prevent them from breaching our borders, we would need another two hundred thousand. But we calculated that if we adopted the strategies of the Han and Tang, striking at their leadership and subduing their tribes, only forty thousand elite troops would suffice..."

Wang Pang wanted to throttle him. Just a moment ago, he had told him seventy thousand, why had it dropped by thirty thousand now?

The man reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out a worn-out booklet.

"Chancellor, this is the military strategy we discussed. The original copy was given to Master Cao, who is currently serving in the army under Zhong E."

Wang Anshi took it and was stunned.

The state’s military secrets had been laid bare by three men without rank or power?

The locations of the blockade lines, supply routes, encampments, timing of attacks...

Cao Rixiu?

The Cao family, imperial relatives, wanted to meddle in the affairs of the Northwest? Their audacity was truly boundless.