LFHYB -Chapter 84 The Beginning of an Age of Chaos

When they headed south along the Grand Canal, Li Shimin and Li Xuanba passed by Luoyang, but they did not go ashore.

Joking with his younger brother, Li Shimin said they were like people who passed right by their own home without entering.

Whenever their ship docked, the brothers often chatted with others on the wharves.

Around Luoyang, what people talked about most was the great spectacle from the first month of the year.

The emperor had returned from beyond the frontier with envoys from the Western Regions. To show them the prosperity of Great Sui, even the trees lining the streets had been wrapped in silk. More than ten thousand musicians performed a hundred kinds of entertainments on Duanmen Avenue for over half a month—the music could be heard dozens of li away.

“Back then, all those foreigners ate and bought things in the city without paying a single coin—just took them. The emperor wouldn’t let us charge them.”

“At least you could go into the city to see the fun. If you weren’t wearing silk, you weren’t even allowed into the East or West Markets to sell anything.”

“I heard the honey candles on Duanmen Avenue burned for half a month straight—is that true?”

“It is. The whole place was bright as day.”

The traveling merchants gathered together, clicking their tongues in amazement, drawing over many wandering scholars who had come to listen.

Someone asked, “That must have cost a fortune, right?”

The speaker laughed. “More than digging this canal?”

Another asked curiously, “If you couldn’t charge for what you sold, did the government compensate you?”

The speaker gave a bitter smile and said nothing.

Someone sighed. “Why put on such a farce? Do they think people from the Western Regions are fools, that they’d believe this nonsense and really think China has no poor?”

The speaker sighed as well. “Of course not. A Western Regions merchant even mocked me to my face: ‘China also has the poor, whose clothes don’t cover their bodies. Why not give these things to them instead? Why wrap them around trees?’”

Everyone who heard this sighed along with him.

Li Shimin quietly left the crowd. Li Xuanba stood up and followed.

The two brothers sat on the riverbank, hugging their knees, staring at the moon’s reflection in the water for a long while.

Li Shimin stood up, brushed off his clothes, and said, “A-Xuan, let’s go back to the boat and sleep.”

“Mm.”

They continued south along the Grand Canal.

As they neared Jiangdu, they saw a village by the canal. They stopped and went ashore, planning to exchange something for fresh vegetables and fruit to break the monotony of their diet.

When they had just reached the entrance of a village, they saw that the villagers were already engaged in a violent brawl—blood had been drawn.

The two brothers immediately sent people to report it to the authorities, while also asking the onlookers why the fight had broken out.

This clash, carried out with the clear intent to kill, stemmed from a new policy introduced the previous year.

After several consecutive years of heavy corvée labor, common people, just to survive, had begun to fake their household status—young and able-bodied men claimed to be old or infirm, and some simply avoided household registration altogether.

In response, the court issued a new regulation: people were to inform on one another. Whoever reported a single able-bodied man would have the accused household forced to pay the reporter’s taxes and perform labor service in their stead. Overnight, neighbors became enemies and fellow villagers turned into mortal foes. Such violent conflicts became common.

The government troops soon arrived. By an extraordinary coincidence, their leader was none other than Fang Qiao, who was on his way south to take up a post as a county magistrate.

Fang Qiao exclaimed in surprise, “Second Young Master Li, Third Young Master Li? What are you doing here?”

Li Shimin replied, “Delivering a rotting head to Jiangdu.”

The constables beside Fang Qiao turned pale in terror.

Fang Qiao laughed. “The Tuyuhun khan’s head? I’ve already heard about the great merit you earned this time since I came south.”

The yamen runners couldn’t help but stare at the two youths. Aside from being especially handsome, they looked no different from ordinary rich young gentlemen.

Li Shimin said, “Exactly. Would you like to take a look?”

Fang Qiao brightened. “Of course.”

He was invited aboard their boat, where he first admired the thoroughly pickled head of the Tuyuhun khan, then sat down with Li Shimin and Li Xuanba to brew tea and chat.

The brothers asked him about the new policy.

Fang Qiao sighed. “That was Pei Yun’s handiwork. Corvée is too heavy, so people try every way they can to escape it—I understand his desire to recheck household registrations. But he doesn’t dare investigate hidden households among officials and great clans; he only squeezes ordinary farmers. He says it’s about reporting able-bodied men, but in practice the reporting is chaotic. Officials, eager for money and merit, accept any report—whether old, weak, women, or children, they’re all counted as ‘able-bodied men’ who evaded registration…”

He slammed the table in anger. “He boasts of having uncovered six hundred and forty thousand new adult males, but in reality he’s driven countless families who could have performed labor into ruin—forcing them to sell themselves or their land. Just wait. Next year the registered population will drop sharply!”

Li Shimin didn’t really understand household registration.

As Fang Qiao vented his anger, Li Xuanba silently explained to his lopsidedly educated second brother how population and land annexation worked.

The foundation of a dynasty’s taxes and corvée labor is the self-sufficient peasantry. Officials, aristocratic clans, and temples all have ways to evade taxes.

Since slaves and bonded servants pay no taxes and owe no labor, when taxes and corvée become too heavy, free peasants sell their land and even themselves, becoming “hidden households,” which accelerates land annexation.

What Pei Yun was doing was killing the chicken to get the eggs—drinking poison to quench thirst—driving what little remained of the free peasantry into a dead end.

After Fang Qiao finished venting, Li Xuanba said, “Most of the people doing the reporting probably aren’t ordinary villagers. If common people report others, they also fear being reported in retaliation—either way they’d be ruined. Reporting requires dealing with the authorities, and those who can work that channel are mostly local officials and powerful clans.”

Fang Qiao said bitterly, “They have no idea how much wealth, land, and manpower they’ve already scooped up. In my view, great chaos is right around the corner.”

Li Xuanba agreed.

Indeed, that was exactly the case.

The fall of the Sui wasn’t caused by the Three Campaigns against Goguryeo alone.

The Sui had just emerged from the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Even at its height, the registered population was under sixty million. Yet every time Yang Guang levied corvée, he mobilized over a million people. The collapse of this enormous empire had begun long ago.

Under this kill-the-chicken policy, free peasants had no way to live. They could only flee to the mountains or sell themselves.

When the Tang dynasty was founded, the registered population had dropped to under twenty million. Of the missing forty million, aside from those killed by Emperor Yang’s disasters, the rest either fled to become rebels in the hills or sold themselves to become soldiers for rebellious warlords.

There were still eight years until the Sui would fall.

But in truth, the fall of the Sui began this very year.

When later generations speak of the late Sui, aside from the Tang Duke’s family, they usually remember only Xue Ju, Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong, and the Wagang Army.

In reality, there were many rebel kings at the end of the Sui. Even in the small region of Jiangnan alone there were Du Fuwei, Li Zitong, Fu Gongshi, Shen Faxing, and many other warlords. In later novels they were summarized as “the Eighteen Rebel Kings and Sixty-Four Roads of Smoke and Dust.”

That the Tang unified China so “easily” was only because they had the cheat code called “Prince of Qin, Li Shimin.” If you look at a map of all the late-Sui warlords, you’d see that countless men held armies of their own—fighting for the empire was never a simple task.

After their brief meeting with Fang Qiao, Li Shimin and Li Xuanba continued toward Jiangdu.

They were already very close.

When they parted from Fang Qiao, Li Shimin noticed that Li Xuanba was frowning and asked what was troubling him.

Li Xuanba said, “I’m wondering how many able-bodied men our family managed to acquire thanks to this new policy.”

Li Shimin snapped angrily, “You just heard how this policy is ruining the country, and that’s all you can think about?!”

Li Xuanba replied, “Then what should I think about?”

Li Shimin was so furious he cursed his brother for being heartless and stormed off.

They remained in a cold war for several days. Only when they were about to disembark did Li Shimin grudgingly speak again.

“A-Xuan, it’s true that our family should take advantage of this policy to buy up more able-bodied men, but what you said was too cold-blooded,” Li Shimin said gloomily. “Even though I shouldn’t have lost my temper and I was wrong… but look how angry I was. Did you really have to wait for me to apologize first? If I didn’t apologize, you just wouldn’t talk to me at all?”

Li Xuanba stared at him. “You were the one who ignored me first, and now you’re blaming me for ignoring you?”

Li Shimin said, “You’re the younger brother. Younger brothers are supposed to give in to their older brothers.”

Li Xuanba: “???”

What kind of shameless logic was that?

Li Shimin added, “And what you said really was too cold!”

Li Xuanba replied, “But that’s what I was honestly thinking. Do you want me to lie to you instead?”

Li Shimin drooped. “Fine, then just tell the truth. I’ll endure it—next time I won’t get mad.”

Seeing his second brother like this, the anger in Li Xuanba’s heart faded a great deal.

He hadn’t wanted to say much more, but since his brother had (in his own strange way) apologized, he decided to explain.

“I’ve always been furious and disgusted by what Emperor Yang of Sui has done. That’s why we should gather in as many of the people he has ruined as possible, then lead them to strike the Sui hard. We must make Emperor Yang—and all the lofty emperors of later ages—understand one truth: ‘The resentment need not be vast; it is the people who are to be feared. The people carry the boat, and the people can overturn it—this must never be forgotten.’”

Li Shimin grinned. “I knew it—you were angry too. If you’d just told me that earlier, I wouldn’t have been mad. A-Xuan, why is your personality so twisted? You really need to change it—hey? Why are you running away?”

Li Xuanba covered his ears. Once they made up, his second brother started nagging again. Honestly, the cold war had been better.

Li Shimin jogged a few steps to catch up and grabbed his brother by the shoulders. “That line you said just now—wasn’t it from Xunzi? ‘The ruler is the boat; the common people are the water. Water can carry the boat, and water can also overturn it.’”

Li Xuanba thought: [That line I used was actually from Wei Zheng’s Memorial on the Ten Things to Think About When Remonstrating Taizong. And that ‘Taizong’ refers to Tang Taizong.]

Li Shimin’s face fell. “He remonstrated that much? How annoying. I hope I don’t meet him too soon.”

The corners of Li Xuanba’s always-downturned mouth finally lifted.

Seeing his second brother unhappy made him happy.

…

They left Zhangye in the second month. By the time it was almost May, Li Shimin and Li Xuanba finally reached Luoyang and presented the head of the Tuyuhun Khan to the Sui emperor.

Yang Guang was startled. “Why is there only a head left?”

Li Shimin scratched his head. “It’s all my fault, Your Majesty. I shot so many holes through him. The journey was bumpy, and he couldn’t hold on. Your Majesty, even though I admit my mistake, please don’t punish me—I really did my best!”

Yang Guang laughed. “Why would I punish you? He just didn’t have enough luck. Sigh, I originally wanted to pardon him. Where did you bury his body? You didn’t just leave it in the wilderness, did you?”

Li Shimin said solemnly, “The Tuyuhun Khan was a hero of his age—how could we disgrace him like that? The weather was getting hot and the road was long, so transporting the corpse was difficult. When A-Xuan and I went to pay respects to our elder cousin on the way, we buried him at the place where offerings for our elder cousin were laid.”

Li Xuanba added, “The feng shui of the Sui Crown Prince’s tomb is very good. We didn’t mistreat him, the Khan of Tuyuhun.”

Yang Guang pressed his forehead. “He really died of his wounds, not because you two killed him?”

Li Shimin said aggrievedly, “If I had wanted to kill him, would he have lived long enough to reach the Sui? I would’ve chopped off his head right on the battlefield.”

Li Xuanba said, “Lord Pei can testify. We already discussed it with him—we planned to bind the living Tuyuhun Khan and bring him back to the Sui, so he could kneel before Your Majesty and admit his guilt.”

He muttered quietly, “Bringing back a living Khan would’ve been a much greater merit than just bringing back a head.”

Li Shimin nodded. “Exactly, exactly.”

Yang Guang laughed. “Alright, I know you did your best. A head or a living captive—it’s all the same merit. I won’t treat you unfairly. Tell me, what reward do you want?”

Li Shimin shouted, “To do nothing and go home to play for a whole year!”

Li Xuanba said, “Me too.”

Yang Guang: “……Huh?”

The ministers in attendance all burst into amused laughter.

Yuwen Shu smiled and explained to the emperor, “These two lazy young lads think this expedition beyond the frontier was too exhausting, so they’re asking for leave.”

Yu Shiji glanced at Li Shimin and Li Xuanba and guessed their intention to avoid the spotlight. Out of consideration for his younger brother Yu Shinan, he spoke up for them. “Li Erlang and Li Sanlang are still young. This is the time for them to study more, not to be forced to grow too fast. And Your Majesty has already rewarded the Duke of Tang, so there is no need to bestow repeated rewards.”

Su Wei, remembering his old friend Xue Daoheng and feeling indebted, also said, “Why not simply reward Li Erlang and Li Sanlang with more money and goods, Your Majesty?”

Pei Yun didn’t know Li Shimin and Li Xuanba, but since all the emperor’s close ministers were saying this, he hurriedly added, “I agree. Li Erlang and Li Sanlang are too young. Your Majesty should indeed let them rest well.”

Yang Guang said helplessly, “Now even I can’t give them rewards?”

Li Xuanba said honestly, “Your Majesty, my second brother and I just want to play. At our age, we’re supposed to be carefree and playing. The frontier was really exhausting.”

Yang Guang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.