"Your Majesty, I fear a great calamity awaits the strongholds of the Nine Frontiers!"
At Wei Nisheng's words, the officials all sighed.
Emperor Jing of Zhou sat upon the Imperial Throne and suddenly spoke.
"The military farmland Minister Wei has petitioned about was one of the four proposals the Crown Prince presented in court on the twenty-fifth day of the fifth month.
Today, I shall ask this question.
Can this land be put in order, or can it not?"
"Your Majesty." Shen Duan stepped out from the ranks once more.
"As for putting the military farmland in order, I dare not call His Highness the Crown Prince's proposal wrong.
Yet Ningxia has just suffered defeat, the Tangut lurk nearby, and Lanzhou and Shaanxi are in peril.
This is precisely when we need our soldiers, yet we discuss a policy of seizing their land.
The old soldiers defend our cities at the front, while the court sorts out their land behind them?
This... if the soldiers' hearts turn cold, who will defend the cities?
I ask that the matter of military farmland be deferred.
Once the frontier has settled somewhat, it will not be too late to proceed."
[Do not change the rules on the eve of battle]
With this move, Shen Duan used "military morale" as his shield. Everyone in the hall found his argument reasonable.
"Chancellor Shen says to wait until the frontier has settled somewhat." Wang Kan stepped out, holding his Court Tablet horizontally.
"But when will the frontier ever settle?
The defeat at Peng Ding came from weak troops.
Weak troops came from having neither land nor pay.
Having neither land nor pay came from land registers existing only on paper and troop quotas filled with old men and phantom soldiers!
Waiting until the frontier settles before