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[In truth, the question of food had always been a lingering ache in the hearts of Tang emperors.
Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi traveled to Luoyang seven times. Even in his own era, commoners joked that whenever the imperial carriage went east to the Eastern Capital, it was not a royal tour but a journey "to find food."
Strictly speaking, this was not slander.
Li Zhi's final trip to Luoyang took place in the year 682. That year, the Guanzhong region first suffered devastating winds, then floods. Grain prices skyrocketed to four hundred cash per dou, and even at that price, there was no grain to buy.
For comparison, in the fifteenth year of Zhenguan, rice in Chang'an sold for twenty cash per dou. Throughout the entire Zhenguan era, the highest price never exceeded forty cash.
Another historical low point came during Emperor Xuanzong's reign. In the thirteenth year of Kaiyuan, a dou of rice cost only thirteen cash.
But in the same period as Li Zhi's journey east, Guanzhong had already descended into horrors where people exchanged children for food.
Under such conditions, when the Son of Heaven personally "visited" the Eastern Capital of Luoyang, who would believe it was anything other than fleeing famine to eat?
During Emperor Zhongzong's reign, Guanzhong suffered famine yet again. Court officials proposed following Emperor Gaozong's precedent and advised Zhongzong to go to Luoyang to seek grain.
Zhongzong flew into a rage and rebuked them sharply.
"How can there be a grain-chasing Son of Heaven!"
After the An Lushan Rebellion, the situation grew even worse.
During Emperor Dezong's reign, Chang'an ran out of grain entirely, causing unrest among the Imperial Guards. Later, when news arrived that grain ships from Jiangnan had passed Sanmen Gorge, the emperor was so overjoyed that he hugged the crown prince and shouted:
"The rice has reached Shaanxi. My son and I shall live!"
So the question arose.
Could the Qin Plain, famed as eight hundred li of fertile land, truly not sustain a flourishing Tang?
The answer was not so simple.
Changes in Guanzhong's farmland could already be glimpsed through historical records.
According to the Yuanhe Maps and Gazetteer of Prefectures and Counties, in the sixth year of Yonghui, the Chief Administrator of Yongzhou, Changsun Xiang, submitted a memorial stating that the Zhengguo Canal, which once irrigated over forty thousand qing of fertile land, had been repeatedly diverted and seized by wealthy monks and powerful merchants. As a result, it now irrigated less than ten thousand qing.
Li Zhi ordered a full investigation and the canal dredged anew.
Yet within a year, everything reverted to its former state.
The Complete Prose of the Tang records that Emperor Xizong, who later fled to Chengdu and practically obtained a permanent residence permit there, once sighed openly:
"The Zheng and Bai Canals of Guanzhong have benefited past and present alike. Forty thousand qing of fertile fields, the source of clothing and food for hundreds of millions, are now being seized and occupied by powerful elites."
The Song dynasty's Collected Statutes of the Song, Section on Food and Goods provided even clearer figures.
In the second year of Zhidao, 996 AD, Emperor Taizong of Song ordered officials from the Court of Judicial Review and the Court of Imperial Supplies to survey the land. After on-site inspections, the officials reported:
"The Zheng Canal extends over three hundred li and irrigates forty thousand qing. The Bai Canal extends over two hundred li and irrigates four thousand five hundred qing. Together they total forty-four thousand five hundred qing. Of this, less than two thousand qing remain today, merely one-twenty-second of the original."
In stark contrast to the rapid shrinkage of irrigated land was the extreme intensity of cultivation in Tang Guanzhong.
"High mountains and sheer ravines, yet even there the plow is everywhere" was how scholars of the Kaiyuan era described the region.
During the Tang, registered population in Guanzhong alone exceeded three million. Such a massive population drove the land to a point where fields ran out, then plains ran out, and finally even the mountains were exhausted.
And yet, it was useless.
Unchecked cultivation led only to soil erosion, salinization, and declining fertility.
During the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, Chang'an still required at least two million shi of grain transferred annually from Luoyang just to feed the capital.
But the Yellow River, used for grain transport, was equally overburdened.
Records from the mid-Tang through the Song show that the river's water volume steadily declined. The navigable period for transport each year grew shorter and shorter.
By the late Tang, in parts of Shandong, the Yellow River had already become a "suspended river on land." Contemporary records stated that the river stood over a zhang higher than civilian homes.
Thus, in a sense, the Tang dynasty's collapse was inevitable.
Environmental degradation had already made sustaining Guanzhong a near impossibility.
The more famine struck, the more land was reclaimed. The more land was reclaimed, the worse the famine became.
In the end, the Tang dynasty severed the very lifeline that sustained Guanzhong.
This was the true portrait of three hundred years of Tang cultivation.
It was also one of the reasons behind the saying that the imperial capital fell six times and the Son of Heaven fled nine.]
Inside Ganlu Hall, Ma Zhou and Liu Rengui widened their eyes, almost involuntarily turning to look at Li Shimin.
The light screen had mentioned him twice, and both times pointed directly at the Tang emperors. Ignoring it was impossible.
Chang'an fell again and again. Emperors fled again and again.
Was this truly the Tang they served?
Li Shimin's face was as cold as iron, forbidding approach. Ma Zhou and Liu Rengui immediately abandoned any thought of asking questions.
Just last year, Great Tang had annihilated Illig Qaghan. General Li Jing presented the captives at Shuntian Gate, a sight still vivid in memory. The entire city of Chang'an had shared in that glory, Ma Zhou included.
It was difficult to imagine how, with such martial might, later generations could fall into such a state.
Liu Rengui felt even worse.
He knew more. Baekgang River, where Japan was crushed in flames. Goguryeo, destroyed after more than a decade of preparation. Tang martial virtue unmatched under heaven.
And yet, this was the outcome.
Li Shimin said nothing.
He simply memorized these matters carefully, memorized this most basic issue that drove Tang emperors to lose composure.
If the Son of Heaven suffered thus, what of the common people?
At last, Li Shimin let out a quiet sigh.
"A flourishing Tang lasted a hundred years. Yet not every year was flourishing, nor was every place flourishing."
The title of Peerless Emperor drifted away.
Charging across a thousand li with raised saber. A general's failure burying three armies.
Baekgang River blazing red, Japanese troops trembling. Baekje rebelling against Tang, desperate for survival.
Interwoven among these were Changsun Wuji forced to hang himself, and the Lady Wu who advanced step by step, entwined by emotion and calculation, ultimately replacing Tang.
All of it unfolded before Li Shimin like a vast, magnificent scroll.
And beneath that grandeur lay the corpses of countless commoners.
He shifted his gaze from the light screen back to the map of Great Tang.
A thought surfaced, impossible to suppress.
Was a dual-capital system viable?
…
In a heated chamber in Bianjing, Zhao Pu sat with eyes lowered, nose aligned, gaze fixed firmly on the light screen, expression rigid. Yet his ears were fully alert.
To his disappointment, the room was silent.
The two Zhao brothers, both of exalted status, spoke not a word.
Only the crackle of the brazier could be heard, along with the occasional howl of cold wind outside.
Zhao Kuangyin remained silent, quietly calculating his own lifespan.
If Song Taizong truly became the second emperor, then when the new emperor ascended, the old one was likely gone.
He did not believe his sons could pull off something like the Xuanwu Gate Incident. They lacked both the ability and the need.
His learning was not shallow.
From the light screen, he could roughly discern that later generations possessed a unified chronological system spanning over two thousand years.
By matching Tang dates to later reckoning, it was possible to deduce what year Song Taizong's Zhidao era corresponded to.
Across from him, Zhao Guangyi finished his own calculations and dared to glance at his tightly furrowed elder brother.
A trace of regret surfaced in his heart.
He wondered which numbered reign this Zhidao era was.
If it was the first, then it meant his brother would live quite a long time.
And that would be very bad news for him.
The data verification took longer than expected.