Martial Cultivator

In the north, Great Liang and the demon race had already once again begun slaughtering each other. But south of the Northern Frontier Great Wall, it was still peaceful, with no sign of war.

When Great Liang was first founded, the common people had still been somewhat uneasy. After all, they had lived through the demon calamity of the Great Qi Dynasty; something they never wished to recall again. But with the construction of the Northern Frontier Great Wall, and with Great Liang sending more than half its annual taxes to the north each year, the people felt much more at ease. Though battles broke out from time to time beyond the Great Wall, and their own able-bodied young men occasionally marched off to the battlefield, those ferocious demons had, after all, never managed to cross the Great Wall, had they?

There was a small town called White Tree Town; only a few hundred miles from the Northern Frontier Great Wall. Over the years its population had dwindled, and few townsfolk remained.

The town’s schoolteacher was a man surnamed Su, still quite young.

This Tutor Su had originally intended to travel across Great Liang and write a travelogue, but after passing through White Tree Town, he never managed to leave again. Having stayed on to become the town’s teacher, though his life was poor, he found joy in it.

In recent days, war in the desolate north had flared up again. Though the General’s Office had not yet posted another recruitment notice, he had already seen nearly half of the town’s few able-bodied men march north. Before leaving, many came personally to the school to speak with Tutor Su.

They said things like: from now on, their children would be entrusted to Tutor Su’s care, to be taught well. If they disobeyed, he was free to scold or beat them. But when they grew up and had their own thoughts, if they still wished to take up arms and march to war rather than become scholars, then they begged Tutor Su not to stop them.

Faced with so many such requests, Tutor Su’s feelings were mixed, but in the end he could only agree one by one. Yet deep down, he could not understand why they thought this way. Did they really have no thought at all for themselves?

So in recent days, apart from his regular teaching, what Tutor Su spent the most time reading were the official gazettes the county office had stored up over the years.

But the more he read, the more muddled he felt, unable to make sense of it.

Today, on a day of rest, Tutor Su felt a bit of interest. Under the eaves, he brought out a small clay stove to warm wine while enjoying the snow. Beside him sat that mad scholar, who always quietly kept him company, calmly watching the heavy snowfall, never minding the snowflakes settling on his head.

Tutor Su rose and handed him a jug of wine, but the man still made no move, not even raising his hand to take it.

Tutor Su was no stranger to dealing with people by now, so he was not surprised, nor did he dwell on the rebuff. Instead, he happily turned back, sat in front of the stove, took a sip of warmed wine, and let out a comfortable sigh.

Then, once again turning to the gazettes, Tutor Su frowned deeply as he read.

At this moment, a cold wind rose, and a stack of court gazettes at his side was blown toward the deranged scholar.

The deranged scholar, who had been motionless before, suddenly reached out and caught one of the gazettes. After glancing at it a few times, the bewilderment in his eyes briefly cleared.

”What are you thinking about?”

The deranged scholar looked at the gazette in his hand, then of his own accord rose to his feet, walked over to the clay stove, sat down, and helped himself to a drink of wine.

Tutor Su was first startled, then somewhat delighted. He had already witnessed countless times how this deranged scholar drifted between clarity and madness. He knew the scholar was highly learned, but also knew that his moments of clarity were unpredictable in length. So he hurried to raise his doubts, speaking rapidly, fearing that this rare opportunity might vanish at any moment.

The deranged scholar glanced at Tutor Su and said calmly, ”It is simple enough.”

Having said this, the deranged scholar began to mutter on and on, starting from the very beginning and analyzing the current state of Xinliu Prefecture.

These past years, Xinliu Prefecture had always been spoken of as trading the life of one prefecture for half the treasury of the Great Liang Dynasty. Whenever people mentioned this matter, they could not help but grumble, saying it made no sense. Each year, new soldiers were conscripted; it would have been enough for the nine prefectures of Great Liang each to provide some young men. That way, the court would not have to pour half the treasury each year into Xinliu Prefecture.

Yet discerning people all understood: once the youths of Xinliu Prefecture went to the battlefield, they would certainly fight harder than those of the other eight prefectures. After all, for the others, going to war was for the defense of the nation but not necessarily for the defense of their own homes. Only the youths of Xinliu Prefecture truly knew that defending the nation and defending their homes were one and the same.

After all, once the Northern Frontier Great Wall was broken, it would be Xinliu Prefecture that suffered the first calamity.

Even if Great Liang later managed to recover and gradually reclaim the lost territory, Xinliu Prefecture was destined to be left in ruins. For more chapters visit NoveIＦire.net

By then, the nation would still exist, but the homes would already be gone.

Most matters in the world are settled so long as the majority are satisfied. But must the small portion who are sacrificed, the small portion who are neglected, simply accept it as such?

How others may think is uncertain, but at least in today’s Great Liang, it was not so.

Otherwise, the Great Liang Emperor would not have immediately issued several decrees directed at Xinliu Prefecture after ascending the throne. Among them was that the stipends for the teachers in Xinliu Prefecture would all be paid by the imperial court. The children of common families in Xinliu Prefecture only needed to attend the nearest school to study, without worrying about anything else.

Beyond this, starting from the first year of the Great Liang Emperor’s reign, the taxes in Xinliu Prefecture had been continually reduced. By about the tenth year of Tianjian, the taxes Xinliu Prefecture was required to pay were already less than half of those of the other eight prefectures of Great Liang.

Apart from these, there were many other measures to benefit the livelihood of the people, nearly all of them settled during the reign of the Great Liang Emperor.

A dynasty, no matter what it sought to do, no matter what measures it wished to enact, always required lengthy deliberation, repeated consultations with the court officials. But when the Great Liang Emperor first set the tone, it was a method the Nation Teacher had already prepared in advance. The Great Liang Emperor merely glanced at it and agreed to all of it, then promptly issued an imperial decree to finalize the matter, leaving no room for the court officials to voice their opinions.

At that time, it was roughly among the first few occasions of abdication coercion after the Great Liang Emperor’s ascension. Yet even so, though those court officials knelt themselves to death outside the palace gates, they still never gained an audience with the Great Liang Emperor.

Of course, after this, the standard of His Majesty the Emperor in the eyes of the court officials was firmly set.

Over the two hundred years of the Great Liang Dynasty, many benevolent rulers had appeared, many wise sovereigns as well, but such a majestic ruler - he was the first since the founding emperor and after the founding emperor.

There was even a sense of surpassing his predecessors.

In the eyes of ordinary people, His Majesty’s methods were but ways of winning the people’s hearts, though at too great a cost, exchanging the loyalty of one prefecture’s people with half the empire’s treasury. But only a very few understood that in doing these things, His Majesty was telling the people of Great Liang: whatever you have done for Great Liang, Great Liang has seen it. Do not lose hope.

At this point, the deranged scholar cast a glance at the still-contemplative Tutor Su and said softly, “When a ruler treats people with sincerity, the common folk will naturally be grateful and think of repaying it.”

“Mighty rulers are not absent from the annals of history. But to be both a mighty ruler and at the same time a benevolent ruler who shows such compassion to the common folk, there is but this one. From this alone, I do not believe Emperor Lingzong’s decision to name Crown Prince Yiwen as heir was any better than today’s His Majesty the Emperor.”

Tutor Su came back to his senses and asked softly, “Then in your view, Sir, can an emperor truly cause both the people and the court officials to be grateful?”

The deranged scholar laughed. “Yes, but what is needed are officials who are all upright and honest, without self-interest.”

Tutor Su sighed. “That does not seem easy. Perhaps only at the founding of a dynasty could such a state exist.”

The deranged scholar nodded, took a sip of hot wine, and smiled. “The Confucians say the world should be shared with the scholars. In Great Liang in years past, it was indeed so. But when it came to His Majesty the Emperor, it became sharing the world with the common folk.”

Tutor Su asked, “Which is better, which worse?”

The deranged scholar shook his head. “Hard to say.”

Tutor Su gave a quiet ‘oh,’ then also took a sip of wine.

The deranged scholar smiled. “But so long as whoever sits upon the throne chooses either of these paths, it will be very hard for the dynasty to perish. That much, I believe, is certain.”

Tutor Su moved his lips, about to speak, but the deranged scholar once more continued on his own, “Yet in this age, sharing the world with the common folk is probably best.”

As a fellow scholar, Tutor Su furrowed his brow slightly. Though somewhat displeased, he never voiced it, remaining silent.

The deranged scholar said, “If the people are not treated thus, then the north cannot be held. Civil officials of this dynasty constantly complain that His Majesty the Emperor values the martial over the civil. But in this age, there is no other way. The demons in the north glare like tigers watching their prey. Even if one wished for peace and to live well with neither side interfering with the other, it would still depend on the other side’s willingness. And in truth, even if some agreement were signed, it would mean little. Nothing beneath Heaven remains unchanging. To prepare for a rainy day, that is what those in high position must do.”

A sword may rest in its sheath, but when the time comes to draw it, it must be able to be drawn.

Tutor Su said with heartfelt admiration, “Sir’s learning is beyond compare, far beyond anything I could ever attain. To dwell beneath the same roof as sir is the fortune of three lifetimes for this Su!”

The deranged scholar said nothing, only tilted his head back and drank. One jug of wine was quickly emptied.

The wine was not some fine wine; compared with the wines the deranged scholar had drunk in earlier years, the difference was like heaven and earth. Yet as he drank this wine, the deranged scholar instead grew calm.

A brief peace of mind - casual, unrestrained.

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