Chapter Ninety-One: Peace and Prosperity

Although Zhao Pusheng’s words were somewhat exaggerated, all the naval commanders present took it as only natural.

The fleets of Barbarian Sea Tooth and Kang Mao could already be counted among their defeated foes. Over the past few months, though the Chaohu navy had fought with great restraint, it had already uncovered the true strength of the Yuan fleet and had long since worked out how to break through its blockade on the water. So long as no major mishap occurred, the Chaohu navy could advance the front line all the way to the walls of Jiqing with ease.

But what everyone feared most now was precisely that kind of major mishap. Li Pusheng immediately spoke for the commanders and raised the gravest concern: “The greatest enemy is not in Jiqing Province, but in Yangzhou, in the Huainan Provincial Administration. If Huainan were to lead a great army south, the consequences would be unimaginable!”

Whether the Huainan government in Yangzhou attacked the Red Turban forces holding Chuzhou and Hezhou north of the river, crossed the Yangtze to strike at Taiping by surprise, or even ferried an entire army directly into Jiqing City, any of these would be a disastrous accident the Chaohu navy could not accept.

The reason Zhu Yuanzhang had been willing to relinquish Zhenjiang Prefecture was precisely because of Huainan’s presence. Yet Liu Yi now seemed suddenly confident. “There is no need to worry about Yangzhou, and even less need to worry about Taiping. Though he bears a Mongol name, he is still, after all, a Han man. In the end, he is only He Weiyi, not Taiping.”

Yangzhou.

After He Weiyi arrived in Yangzhou, he had remained in the great camp, handling all military affairs. Although many provincial officials advised him to take up residence in the provincial offices, He Weiyi firmly refused: “The Great Yuan won the realm on horseback. Now that Taiping has been ordered to oversee Huainan, how could I dare lie back and enjoy the pleasures of the southern land? I must reclaim the Huai and Yang from horseback!”

Taiping was a standard Mongol name. Though many addressed him respectfully as Lord He Taiping, the upper ranks of the Yuan court knew perfectly well that Taiping was Taiping, and He Weiyi was He Weiyi. The two were entirely different identities.

He Weiyi came from the renowned He clan of Jingzhao. When the Mongols conquered North China, the He clan of Jingzhao brought troops to submit, but at the time they were merely a typical minor military noble house, not even commanders of a thousand in the Han army, and hardly a family of deep standing. They could not compare with the oldest of the old aristocracies, the “Three Myriads of Han Lands” and the “Seven Myriads of Han Lands.”

Yet the story of the He clan of Jingzhao that followed was almost legendary. When He’s ancestor was building a house, he dug up five thousand taels of white gold and presented them to Kublai Khan, who had only just been enfeoffed as prince; at the same time he recommended his own son, He Renjie, to serve as a personal bodyguard. He Renjie became one of Kublai Khan’s most trusted intimates, a guard he could not bear to be without for even a moment, and the He clan in turn became the very essence of an established and powerful house.

There were far too many implausible things in this story. Others built houses and found nothing at all; how could the He clan have dug up five thousand taels of white gold? Yet from that day on, the He clan of Jingzhao became the greatest of great houses, born to a life of inexhaustible splendor and wealth.

He Weiyi was no exception. The reason he bore the Mongol name Taiping was that, by Yuan custom, such a title could not be granted to anyone not of the imperial clan. Only a Mongol was qualified to serve as Grand Censor, so the Zheng emperor specially bestowed upon He Weiyi the imperial surname and the Mongol name Taiping.

He Weiyi had not only once headed the Censorate in Dadu; he had served in nearly every important post of the Great Yuan. Among the Mongol nobility, his reputation was excellent. Several Mongol chancellors, upon taking office, explicitly said, “Now that we hold the office of chancellor, if it is not Taiping, then there is no one with whom we can work.” They insisted on serving in tandem with Taiping; the prerequisite for any one of them to serve as chief right chancellor was that Taiping must hold the position of left chancellor as the indispensable second-in-command.

But after arriving in Yangzhou, he was no longer the famed agreeable gentleman of legend. He became a standard Mongol great house figure, every gesture revealing an overbearing prairie arrogance, as though he might overturn the entire city of Yangzhou and the whole Huainan administration at any moment.

To the civil and military officials of Huainan, however, this was perfectly normal. Though He Weiyi had Han blood, the He clan of Jingzhao, being a great house, had long since been thoroughly Mongolized.

He Renjie, Kublai Khan’s trusted guard, had a young sister-in-law. “Since the clan wishes to follow the national custom,” they suggested that He Renjie take her as his wife. Though He Renjie refused, the incident showed that within the Yuan-era He clan, quite a few younger members had accepted the Mongol custom of levirate marriage.

With several generations of such change, the clan’s Mongolization only grew deeper. That was why the Mongol nobles regarded He Weiyi as one of their own, and why his appointment to Yangzhou as left chancellor of Huainan was naturally expected to serve as the hand that would turn the tide. He could not possibly conduct affairs with Han habits of ceremonial greeting and formal courtesy.

Accordingly, hopes were high for him from all quarters. Yu Que, the vice commissioner for military affairs of Huai West, stationed in Anqing Route, even sent a messenger in person to request aid: “Now that the chancellor has arrived in Yangzhou, the situation in the southeast has naturally taken on a wholly new aspect. Though Jiangzhe Province is now beset on all sides by rebels, since the chancellor is left chancellor of Huainan Province, please send more troops, funds, and grain to relieve Anqing!”

What a pity, then, that the man seated in Yangzhou was not the Han official He Weiyi whom everyone praised in unison, but the Mongol left chancellor Taiping.

“I know Anqing Route is more difficult than Jiqing Route and Hangzhou Route,” he said, “but I am not only left chancellor of Huainan Province. I am also the commissioner of the Yangzhou Branch Secretariat of the Privy Council!”

The Yuan court stationed Taiping in Yangzhou not merely to clean up the mess around Yangzhou, but to reconstruct the entire southeastern war situation. Thus, besides being left chancellor of Huainan Province, Taiping also held a more important post: commissioner of the Yangzhou Branch Privy Council.

He was now the true commander-in-chief of the southeastern battlefield. Both the Jiangnan Censorate in Jiqing Route and Jiangzhe Province in Hangzhou Route were his subordinates, so he could only consider Anqing’s request from the standpoint of the overall situation.

The Jiqing Route Censorate also sent an envoy: “Right now the bandits of Chuzhou and the bandits of Gaoyou are attacking Jiqing from both sides. The regional administration is already in dire peril. Minister Fu Shou begs the chancellor to make an early decision. If Jiqing falls, then the whole of Jiangzhe Province may be lost!”

But Taiping answered with a different turn of phrase: “Though I am commissioner of the Yangzhou Branch Privy Council, I am also left chancellor of Huainan Province!”