Chapter 23: Ouyang Xiu

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A middle-aged scholar stood outside the door, looking to be somewhere in his thirties.

He wore coarse cloth robes, with stains still visible on the sleeves, and carried two wine gourds in his hands.

His eyes were bright, and he sported the goatee fashionable among men of the Song. At a glance, he seemed no ordinary man.

When the scholar saw Su Ze, a smile touched the corners of his mouth. Raising one of the wine gourds, he said, “I have heard of your reputation for learning, Young Master Su. I have come in haste to pay you a visit and seek your instruction.”

Was this one of the original owner's disreputable friends?

Su Ze had no recollection of any such person.

Still, the man's manner was modest and courteous, and he possessed an air of uncommon refinement. Su Ze opened the door and ushered him inside.

Once indoors, the scholar showed no disdain for Su Ze's impoverished circumstances. Instead, he said, “The skies are clear and the air is crisp today. Shall we have a little drink in the courtyard?”

Su Ze thought for a moment, then carried the table and chairs out into the small courtyard. He said to the scholar, “Before the Ministry of Rites examination, I promised someone that I would abstain from wine. If you wish to drink, I am afraid I cannot keep you company.”

The scholar did not take offense. Rather, he laughed and said, “The Ministry of Rites examination is the most important matter in a man's life. Naturally, you should prepare for it with all due diligence. I was presumptuous today. I merely heard of your great talent and could not restrain myself from coming to see you.”

From the way the man spoke, he genuinely believed Su Ze was talented. Could he be a friend of Wang Anshi?

The scholar lifted the wine gourd and began drinking by himself, paying no attention to Su Ze.

Although Su Ze found his visitor somewhat abrupt, the prevailing scholarly climate was open and unrestrained. Bianjing was home to quite a few eccentric scholars who sought to attract the attention of the chief ministers through their unconventional behavior.

The original owner had been much the same. After drinking too much at banquets, he would often begin criticizing the government and expounding on how the realm ought to be governed.

Sure enough, after a few mouthfuls of wine, the middle-aged scholar began doing precisely that.

“I have heard,” he said, “that at a banquet you once declared that the unrest in the northwest was entirely the result of the ministers at court being incompetent. You even said that, if given ten thousand troops, Young Master Su could capture the rebel Li Yuanhao alive?”

Su Ze could not help pressing a hand to his forehead. The original owner had often let loose with wild boasts after drinking, and apparently someone had remembered every word.

Such remarks were deeply offensive to many. If Su Ze later entered government service, they might even become ammunition for the remonstrance officials to use against him.

Su Ze said, “They were merely drunken ravings. They should not be taken seriously.”

The scholar instead looked disappointed. “I had thought Young Master Su possessed some brilliant strategy for pacifying the northwest.”

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By this point, Su Ze was growing displeased as well.

An eccentric middle-aged scholar had barged into his home uninvited, and now he was complaining that Su Ze was not eccentric enough?

After a moment's thought, Su Ze said, “The troubles in the northwest were not created in a single day. How could a chronic illness be cured overnight?”

The scholar's interest was piqued. He looked at Su Ze and listened as he continued.

“When our dynasty was founded, the intention was to entrust the defense of the realm to the sons of military families. In the early years of the dynasty, we had fierce generals such as Yang Ye, who devoted his life to the state.”

The scholar nodded. Yang Ye was the historical model for the later tales of the Yang Family Generals. He had once defended Yanmen Pass, and after exhausting both his arrows and his provisions, had died in battle. He was one of the few military commanders of the early Song who could still be praised with confidence.

“But during the reigns of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Zhenzong, the court exalted civil officials and suppressed the military. The military families declined with each passing day, and the northwest was left without commanders capable of taking the field.”

The scholar asked, “But Li Yuanhao's rebels are gathering strength with terrifying momentum. How should the court respond?”

Su Ze answered decisively, “Build fortresses.”

“Build fortresses?”

Su Ze nodded. “Our Great Song is powerful, while the western rebels are weak. Our realm is rich in resources, while theirs is poor. If we use the wealth of Great Song to drain the resources of the western rebels, they will be the first to run out of strength.”

“Pastoral peoples must rely on plunder when founding a state. The Liao established itself in precisely this way. So long as they can seize sufficient wealth, they can sustain war through war, build their prestige, and ultimately complete the transformation from tribal power into a dragonlike empire—establishing their own state and claiming imperial authority.”

“If we diligently construct fortresses and allow the western rebels to raid without gaining anything, the prestige of their leader will suffer greatly. Every military expedition also consumes resources. In the long run, even if the western rebels win from time to time, they can only move from victory toward defeat. The more often they fight, the faster they will fail.”

The scholar spoke with some excitement. “Then are you saying that the court need do nothing at all, and the western rebels will be pacified of their own accord?”

Su Ze shook his head. “Of course not. Since ancient times, no one has ever won a war simply by waiting for the enemy to collapse on his own.”

The scholar asked again, “Then what do you mean?”

“Fortresses are not merely meant to wear down the western rebels. They also serve as places to train soldiers.”

“Our generals are weak and our troops exhausted. This is not a problem that arose overnight. To the north, we still face the great threat of the Liao. The northwest is precisely the place where we can temper our armies.”

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The scholar's eyes shone as he asked, “Then once the army has been properly trained, could we not eliminate both the western rebels and the Liao?”

Su Ze shook his head. “How could it be so easy? As I said, our generals are weak and our troops exhausted. This is an old affliction left to us by our ancestors. It cannot be changed by one or two brave commanders, nor by a handful of armies capable of fighting.”

“When I speak of training troops, I do not mean merely sharpening soldiers in battle on the frontier. The court must also reform the military system and correct the defects inherited from the previous system. Only then can we truly forge a strong army.”

Su Ze rose and said to the middle-aged scholar, “Master Ouyang, I have already recognized you.”

Su Ze had already concluded that the man before him was Ouyang Xiu, the author of the Record of the Old Drunkard's Pavilion.

Ouyang Xiu was startled. Then he set down his wine gourd and burst into laughter. Looking at Su Ze, he said, “Young Master Su is indeed a man of extraordinary talent. Anyone capable of writing that line—‘Worrying before all under Heaven worry, and rejoicing only after all under Heaven rejoice’—is no ordinary person! Your strategy for the northwest today is remarkably similar to Fan Xiren's policy for defending the northwest.”

“I was foolish and slow to understand it. I even wrote to him, condemning his construction of fortresses in the northwest as wasteful and ruinous to the people. But Fan Xiren is a gentleman and never argued with me. Only now do I understand that his policy was the prudent course of a mature statesman.”

“If you were ever to meet Fan Xiren, I am certain the two of you would have much to discuss!”

Fan Xiren was, of course, the renowned Fan Zhongyan.

In truth, Su Ze's entire strategy for the northwest had been summarized and carried forward by later generations from Fan Zhongyan's own policies for administering the region.

He had first borrowed the immortal words of the man, and now he had even borrowed his statecraft—only to present it to Ouyang Xiu, who was close to Fan Zhongyan.

Even Su Ze, for all his shamelessness, could not help feeling his face grow warm.

Ouyang Xiu asked curiously, “How did you guess my identity?”

Su Ze replied, “You use Old Drunkard as your literary sobriquet, and your accent has not changed. It was not difficult to guess.”

Ouyang Xiu's Hubei accent, combined with his bearing, had allowed Su Ze to identify him fairly quickly.

Most likely, after Su Ze's memorial had reached the palace, Emperor Renzong, who cherished talent, had shown the essay to Ouyang Xiu, who was equally devoted to recognizing gifted young men.

During Emperor Renzong's reign, Ouyang Xiu was famous for promoting promising newcomers. He was also renowned for his eagerness to support talent. Many brilliant young men whom Emperor Renzong could not conveniently promote himself had risen to fame through Ouyang Xiu's patronage.