Jin Se

Chapter 62

The northwest was vast and sparsely populated. It was mountainous and arid, and there truly weren't many settlements.

Unlike in the middle plains where there was a village very mile and a single water source could support a few hundred households, the northwest only had a handful of cities and a smattering of small villages scattered in the mountains. The mountain roads weren't easily traversable. Sometimes all a village consisted of was three or five families squeezed onto a narrow strip of level ground.

It was difficult to enter and exit, but the people there were bold and fearless. They were old hands at murder and troublemaking.

Every man, woman, elder, and child, whether they were a basket-weaver or farmer, when it came time to rebel, would put down their professions and take up metal weapons - kitchen knives, woodcutting axes, iron pans and spoons all counted - and fight a battle or two. Sometimes they were defeated by imperial forces, yet the imperial court wasn't able to do anything about them. On the contrary, they'd politely try to reason with them and send them off with some food and coins.

The local officials and troops all knew that the people here all lived in far-flung places, were uncivilized, lived like animals, and thanks to the years of drought, were howling with hunger. Of course they'd start raising hell. If they were managed well, they were fine citizens, but if they weren't, well - these five-family villages, with generations of marriage alliances with other villages, who knew who they were relatives with, who their third aunt or second granduncle was?

If one of them really died, the rest of them would riot and wouldn't rest until they were dead. The moment one wave was quelled, another would arise - that was the bloody lesson learned from repeated skirmishes between the court and the local people.

That was exactly what "those who don't fear death by a thousand cuts can drag the emperor off his horse" meant. Between the choices of starving to death or fighting to death, the valiant people of the northwest chose the latter. And so "the barefooted, unafraid of those wearing shoes," forced the court to open its coffers. Afflicted by hunger and cold, they often played the part of debt-collecting ghouls.

The court's six ministries and nine ministers all put their heads together to try to deal with them. Thus, the Minister of Rites submitted a memorial decked with classic quotes, suggesting that the problem was caused by the disintegration of rites and manners. To amend that situation, the court must establish schools and academies in the area to transmit the sages' teachings and restore education and propriety.

The new Puqing Emperor, also quite the bookworm, thought it made a lot of sense, so he declared that he would open academies all across the northwest and build shrines to the sages.

In the emperor's eyes, learning literature and martial arts were glorious, honorable things. Shouldn't his people want to uphold society, repel invaders, and pay their dues to the country?

Apparently, the people of the northwest didn't agree.

They thought: fucking hell, we haven't even got any food to eat. We're all starving so bad we're floating belly up, who's got time to fucking read.

Left with no other choice, the Minister of Rites submitted another memorial, adding a new law stating that any family who sent a son to school would be able to collect a few more handfuls of grain every day - one side hands people over, one side hands food over.