Section Ninety: The Noble Daughter Meets Empress Wu

On the first day of the third month in the third year of the Zongzhang era of the Great Tang, corresponding to 670 CE, a general amnesty was proclaimed because of the catastrophic drought, and the reign title was changed to Xianheng.

That year, Princess Qianjin was doing fairly well. With drought and locusts ravaging the Luoyang and Chang'an regions, the irrigation channels on her estate, together with locust eradication efforts, kept her losses within an acceptable range. Her manor was one of the few in the Luoyang countryside able to pay the full imperial grain levy.

What was more, her tenant farmers had also been left with enough grain to survive. Compared with the misery of the surrounding estates, they knelt before her and bowed again and again in gratitude.

Though the grain she herself received was now down to almost nothing, her soap works, together with the business of her maternity and infant clinic, were booming. She no longer needed grain as the foundation of her path to wealth; indeed, Feng Xiaobao had long since told her that there was no need to scrape a living from the soil.

She thought matters were more or less acceptable. But her close friend, Empress Wu Zetian, was sunk in endless vexation, for changing the era name had done nothing at all. No matter what the reign title was changed to, Heaven still refused to show any mercy.

Across the realm the drought was severe, the harvest poor, and the people went hungry. Grain prices soared above one hundred cash per dou, and in some places rose to three or four hundred cash a dou. In earlier times, the cheapest grain had cost only a dozen or so cash.

How, then, could ordinary people hope to live? They could not afford grain, and in some places they could not even buy it. The common people placed their hopes in the court, but all they received were edicts telling them to seek food in the various prefectures and provinces. In other words, the court could do nothing; they were left to wander in exile and find their own sustenance.

Soon travelers were collapsing by the roadside, and there were even cases of cannibalism. When these horrifying reports reached the censorate and were presented to the throne, the court finally saw that it was no solution. In the tenth month an edict was issued allowing the adoption of boys and girls. In the poor households of Yong, Tong, and Hua prefectures, children under the age of fifteen who could not survive were permitted to be taken in and raised as sons or daughters, to serve the adoptive household, though they were not to be treated as slaves.

It was an expedient born of helplessness. Though the edict expressly forbade slavery, the truth was that families were being torn apart and people were barely clinging to life.

Where had the court’s money and grain gone?

First, disaster had sharply reduced tax grain. Second, the court was fighting two major wars: one against Tibet, and the other against Goguryeo.

Tibet was the regime founded by the ancient Tibetan people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The man who had married the Great Tang princess Wen Cheng, Songtsen Gampo, was in fact the true founder of that state. In the end, in-laws became enemies, and the two sides came to blows with the Tang in earnest.

On the ninth day of the fourth month that year, the Great Tang sent out its famed right-protecting grand general Xue Rengui, together with the assistant grand general of the left guard Ashina Daozhen and the left guard general Guo Daifeng, to campaign against Tibet. The result was a crushing defeat at Dafei River. One hundred thousand elite Tang soldiers suffered grievous casualties, and only a handful, including Rengui, Ashina Daozhen, and Guo Daifeng, escaped with their lives.

The defeat at Dafei River was total. A hundred thousand elite troops were lost, and with them everything. On top of that, Tibet had earlier attacked the Western Regions, forcing the court to abolish the Four Garrisons of Anxi. Tang rule in the Western Regions began to falter, and the lands of Tuyuhun, Shanshan, and Qiemo all fell into Tibetan hands. The situation of the Great Tang became dire indeed.

After occupying Dafei River, the Tibetans held the high ground and could threaten Shanzhou, Hezhou, Liangzhou, and other places of the Tang. Those regions were the empire’s principal source of warhorses and military supplies; they could not be lost.

In the ninth month, the Tang court appointed the left chancellor Jiang Ke as the Grand Commander of the Liangzhou Circuit expeditionary forces, preparing another campaign against Tibet. This expansion of armies and preparations for war devoured the court’s silver and gold in great quantities, like a bottomless pit.

Bad news did not come singly. After the Tang conquered Goguryeo, the Goguryeo people rose in rebellion. The Tang sent troops to suppress them, and the war dragged on for a long time, consuming endless amounts of grain and money, until the rebellion was finally quelled several years later.

Defeats kept coming. Someone had to bear responsibility, and Wu Zetian was the empress who held the reins of government; if not her, then whom?

However well she did, the officials did not dare criticize her to her face, but behind her back they all called her a hen crowing at dawn, a bad omen for the realm.

They said all sorts of things, and they said them with relish. Wu Zetian was deeply vexed. Later, when she truly took full control of the state and employed cruel officials, it was to some extent a form of revenge.

...

With a sharp slap, Wu Zetian flung a report onto the desk. Fury still unspent, she paced back and forth through the hall, the gold ornaments in her hair trembling wildly.

"Your Majesty, Princess Qianjin requests an audience!"

"Let her in."

The empress was rather courteous to Princess Qianjin, since their status was close and the princess had always sought to flatter her. She was one of the earliest to side with her, and she was obedient, never causing the empress any trouble.

Princess Qianjin entered the hall, paid her respects, and then Wu Zetian forced a smile. "Your estate has paid the full imperial grain levy. It is the most outstanding estate in the Luoyang district when it comes to tax grain."

"After such a great calamity, it is only right that we do our part for the court," Princess Qianjin said with a faint smile.

"From what I know, the grain you submitted is the real thing, while some estates are turning in grain they bought with money."

So-called robbing Peter to pay Paul was the trick used by some estate owners eager to stand out: they used cash to buy grain, then presented it to the court as tribute. Naturally, that made them look impressive, and they used it to curry favor with the throne.

Outwardly, the empress would praise them. In private, however, she asked Princess Qianjin what methods she had used to deliver the full amount in genuine grain.

The first method was to build irrigation channels.

A good method indeed. Though many commoners said such works disturbed the earth dragon, there were also plenty of supporters. Some local officials were even fanatical believers in irrigation and devoted themselves to major hydraulic works whenever they served in local posts. What the court mainly sought were men who knew how to build waterworks and did not steal.

The second method was locust eradication.

"Did you really wipe out the locusts?" Wu Zetian asked in surprise.

"Yes!" Princess Qianjin said firmly, then explained, "I used three methods."

"Do tell."

They were livestock control, manual beating, and burning them with fire at night. No one knew how many pounds of locusts had been destroyed.

Wu Zetian stared at her in astonishment. "Aren't locusts supposed to be disasters sent down from Heaven? Weren't you afraid to interfere with them?"

Superstitious herself, Princess Qianjin replied, "I was afraid too, but... Xiaobao was the one who took charge of it!"

"Your darling Feng Xiaobao?" Wu Zetian asked with amused interest.

The empress had heard something of Princess Qianjin’s relationship with Feng Xiaobao, and the princess admitted it openly. "Exactly!"

"He was the chief advocate of locust eradication. Locusts can be killed. We destroyed large numbers of them, and nothing troublesome came of it."

Hearing this, Wu Zetian let out a long sigh.

Locust eradication was an alluring idea, but Wu Zetian knew it was not feasible.

Many scholars and officials had been frightening her, saying that locusts were disasters sent by Heaven and that opposing them would bring bad fortune.

As for Wu Zetian herself, she was also superstitious. She was torn. A part of her wanted to imitate Princess Qianjin, but she knew that once she issued such an edict, she would likely end up locked in a furious struggle with the scholars and officials. By the time winter came and the locusts had frozen to death, there still might be no result.

She sighed again and gave up on the tempting thought, able only to let matters take their course.

Seeing how unhappy she was, Princess Qianjin changed the subject and began speaking of business.

"Oh? Your soap works has doubled its profits, and your maternity and infant clinic has also brought in considerable returns, reaching ten thousand strings in just three months?" Wu Zetian said, happy for her.

Wu Zetian knew something about the soap works, but she knew little about the maternity and infant clinic, so Princess Qianjin explained the situation to her.