Chapter 1869: Chapter 6: Heroic Spirits and Magnificent Grandeur Across the Land
"At this time in the northwest region, and in the south as well, Grandmaster Jiang Su and Emperor Qin stand in confrontation."
"Are you trying to cut off the logistics around Zhenbei Pass?"
"Or are you trying to siphon off the manpower under Grandmaster Jiang Su?"
Those two sentences struck precisely at the sore spot in Jiang Yuan’s heart; his anger visibly diminished, yet he suddenly fell silent, then spoke again in a cold voice: "I understand. I will not touch the area of Zhenbei Pass, nor will I touch the Grandmaster."
Wei Yiwen secretly let out a breath.
He stood on Jiang Yuan’s side, yet still hoped Jiang Yuan would not go so far into madness. Then he heard Jiang Yuan’s voice, chilling in its indifference: "But among the people under heaven, are there not still many?"
Wei Yiwen suddenly raised his head.
!!!
Jiang Yuan said coolly, "An insult to the ruler is as an insult to the state."
"Let the commoners vent my anger for me."
A surge of inconceivable emotion exploded in Wei Yiwen’s chest; he could not help but say: "Toward Zhenbei City, and even at the Grandmaster’s side, the corvée is already exceedingly heavy. You are again building palaces, again digging canals—year upon year of suffering!"
He stepped forward a few paces. This aged Prime Minister cupped his hands and spoke in a loud voice:
"In recent years the labors have been many, the people are exhausted. I prostrate myself and beg you to take heed, and somewhat restrain and lessen it!"
Jiang Yuan stared fixedly at him, swept his sleeve, and spoke no more.
That day, when court was dismissed, Wei Yiwen’s chest heaved as he breathed; his face was white with rage. As an old minister of his sort, he knew the state’s strength, and knew that if things went on like this, a popular uprising would not long be in coming.
At once he was struck with horror.
So this is what that poison warrior truly wished to achieve?!
He had grasped Jiang Yuan’s mindset with precision. With a single sentence he pierced through the unwillingness and fear that this Emperor Ying had suppressed for several years, guiding Jiang Yuan to do things that would undermine the nation’s strength, and further sowing discord in the already wretched relationship between Jiang Yuan and Jiang Gao.
Now, even if Wei Yiwen were to lay all this out, Jiang Yuan would only feel that Wei Yiwen was deliberately exaggerating matters, merely trying to influence him further.
It was ruthless, yet aboveboard, bearing a kind of overwhelming momentum.
This was a strategist of the level that shapes the grand trend of the age.
Wei Yiwen fell silent, letting out a bitter sigh.
Under Emperor Qin’s command, what a wealth of talent there was!
He subconsciously looked toward the front ranks, saw those famous ministers depart, saw the familiar places where there was no longer Yuwen Lie, no Jiang Gao, and no Qin Yulong. At such a time, no one dared stand on his side to remonstrate with Emperor Ying.
Was it one misstep that left them with no way to extricate themselves?
Or is it that there is no suffering in this world that is not of one’s own making?
Wei Yiwen mocked himself. Knowing Jiang Yuan would not listen, he still wrote down his concerns and presented a memorial.
The imperial will was greatly displeased; afterward he sneered to the attending courtiers:
"Wei Yiwen claims that by his own hand he has kept the civil officials in check, thereby allowing me to sit the world."
"And now he uses Jiang Su to press down on me."
"Taking credit and growing arrogant, a powerful minister bringing calamity to the realm—what is his intention, what is his intention!"
"Is it only that Wei Yiwen cares for the state at heart, and I am but a straw-bellied rice bag?! Do I not value the realm and the state?"
In the fourth year of a Ye, second month, day jiwei, His Majesty ascended the Angling Terrace, faced the Yangzi Ford, and held a great banquet for all the officials. Jiang Yuan paid no heed to Wei Yiwen’s obstruction—or rather, after these three years, Jiang Yuan had gradually come to hold firm control over court power.
When spring was warm and flowers were in bloom, he still went to inspect the waterway, the dragon boat gliding slowly along.
The dragon boat was in four tiers, forty-five to fifty chi high, and two hundred zhang long.
On the upper tier were the main hall, inner hall, and the east and west audience halls, all complete in every respect. On the middle two tiers were one hundred and twenty rooms, all adorned with gold and jade; the lowest tier housed the palace maids.
The empress rode the Xiangchi Boat; its scale was somewhat smaller, but its ornamentation was the same.
There were also nine Scenic Floats, each with a three-layered Water Palace.
There were further several thousand vessels such as the Yang Cai, Vermilion Bird, blue dragon, and White Tiger. The harem, the hundred officials, monks, nuns, and Taoists rode upon them, and within they also carried offerings from all the inner and outer offices. These great ships required men on both banks, baring their bodies, to pull thick ropes and drag the boats slowly forward.
They were called ship pullers.
For this excursion, over eighty thousand ship pullers were used.
Among them, for boats of the Yang Cai grade and above, there were more than nine thousand ship pullers. Jiang Yuan could not bear the sight of these shabby boatmen naked before his eyes, so he gave them brocade robes to wear.
The brocade robes were slick and slippery, ill-suited for exerting strength; with the slightest misstep they would fall to the ground, smashing themselves bloody. But the emperor liked to watch.
Looking out over the open world before him, with the wind blowing in, those brocade robes billowed and soared, as if a great hall were striding between heaven and earth, light and airy, on the verge of flying up.
Jiang Yuan jokingly called them "Hall Feet."
From afar, the sight was exceedingly grand; his mood grew considerably more joyful, and he wrote down lines of verse:
"Dragon leaps amid clouds, proclaiming its might; banners stream in the wind, displaying their awe."
"Mountains and rivers enter the painting, a thousand autumns grand; heaven and earth fill my bosom, the Four Seas at peace."
These vessels, head to tail, stretched for more than two hundred li; the Imperial Army marched along both banks, banners blotting out the fields. In every prefecture and county they passed, all households within five hundred li were ordered to offer food; yet with so much food, it could not possibly all be eaten.
The fine rice, the good meats that were left over had already gone somewhat off by the time they were lifted for a second meal, so they were all thrown outside and buried.
This was precisely the season of spring plowing. Many of those forced to bring offerings were bringing the rice seed meant for sowing; it was easily tossed away by these beauties. At the same time, taking advantage of Wei Yiwen’s absence, an edict summoned troops from the Four Seas to go beyond the Northern Domain Pass to suppress the Taiping Army.
They requisitioned grain and armor, loaded them on carts and hauled them northward.
But the location of the Northern Domain Pass was truly too far from the Central Plains, so they had to mobilize a great many conscripted laborers. In the springtime, farming was delayed; many fields lay fallow. Added to this, famine arose; the price of grain gradually rose, and in the most expensive places, a dou of rice cost several hundred coins.
Yet Jiang Yuan only continued transporting grain so long as it did not affect Jiang Su.
The two of them together dispatched three dan of rice. The journey was perilous and long; on the road, people consumed a large portion of the grain, and by the time they neared the Northern Domain Pass, there was little grain left, leaving many commoners panic-stricken.
