Chapter 167: Silver Smelting, Income, and Expenditure

Before long, a dense expanse of towering mountains and great forests appeared before their eyes. At the entrance of a mountain path, two squads of soldiers from the Second Company of the Wu Battalion stood guard; beside the path entrance, several rows of simple barracks had been built for these soldiers guarding the pass to live in.

Following this small path all the way in led to the silver mine at Shangjinggou.

Seeing the soldiers of the First Company of the Wu Battalion merrily hauling back large quantities of game, among them a huge wild boar, the soldiers of the two squads of the Second Company all stared wide-eyed: "What a catch, such a big mountain boar — tonight we can really feast on meat."

They shouted loudly: "Brothers, you have it good, hunting every day, so free and easy. Not like us, sitting here idle all day, nearly bored sick."

The soldiers of the First Company of the Wu Battalion laughed: "Brothers, I'd say you're complaining after getting the better deal — loafing here every day, not like us, climbing mountains and crawling through forests all day, tired as anything."

Laughing and joking, they entered the mountain path, climbing over ridges on the rugged trail. The mountain road stretched long, a rough and winding wilderness track; after traveling for about half a shichen, their view suddenly opened up. Below lay a small flat basin, a river winding northward. Beside the river stood a large cluster of barracks and dwellings, just like a village. Several hundred miners and their families lived and mined here, along with over three hundred soldiers of the Wu Battalion stationed to guard the place, turning the once-desolate Shangjinggou into a bustling spot.

The closer they got to those barracks, the louder the clamor of voices became. Seeing the soldiers of the First Company of the Wu Battalion hauling back large quantities of game, the miners' families and children busy outside the barracks all rushed up joyfully, especially the children, who all shouted gleefully: "Wonderful, there's meat to eat, there's meat to eat!"

They crowded around the First Company soldiers as they approached. Zhong Diaoyang, hearing the noise, came out from the barracks. Seeing his subordinates' haul, he too was quite delighted: "Excellent, tonight we'll slaughter these game animals and give the brothers a good nourishment boost. Those miner brothers can also eat their fill and enjoy themselves."

He stretched a long, lazy stretch. In the blink of an eye, he had been at Shangjinggou for several months. At the start of the year, this place was still barren and uninhabited, all for the sake of building this silver mine. He and the old craftsman Wu Shihuan together had put in an unimaginable amount of grueling labor. But since his cousin had entrusted him with the heavy responsibility of guarding the silver mine, Zhong Diaoyang would persevere no matter how hard it got.

Once on track, everything at the silver mine went fairly well, and supplies were ample. The miners at Shangjinggou ate the best — they could eat their fill of white-flour mantou every day, only the meat supply lagged somewhat behind. Mining was arduous work; without meat, they would have no physical strength.

Seeing that his soldiers were idle anyway, Zhong Diaoyang had them hunt in all directions, and sure enough, the lack of meat was swiftly remedied.

He just didn't know how long he would have to guard this silver mine. Zhong Diaoyang sighed, walked out of the barracks, and strolled about aimlessly.

A few dozen li north from Shangjinggou, following the rugged valley, the river flowed all the way to Luanzhuang. Looking out, all before his eyes was the flat plain between two mountains. At the later Xiajinggou site, a small squad of soldiers was stationed there guarding the pass. Apart from that, most of the Wu Battalion's soldiers lived not far from the miners' barracks.

Zhong Diaoyang waded across the shallow river to its western side. Here stood a large area of silver furnaces and mine shafts, noisy with voices and blazing with furnace fires. Not far from the silver furnaces were also small black mounds — that was the silver slag left from smelting.

After just a few months of mining, the mountain on the west bank of the river was already covered with large and small shafts and wells of varying depths. The silver ore veins twisted and slanted, so the tunnels inside the mine shafts also rose and fell unpredictably. If dug for years on end, these places could very likely be hollowed out into enormous cavities.

Silver smelting involved many divided tasks. After the able-bodied miners extracted the ore, it first had to be pounded extremely fine in a mill, then placed in large tubs and stirred in water hundreds of times to select the essence ore pulp. This process, requiring little technical skill, was generally done by the miners' male and female family members. Then it was thrown into the silver furnace for smelting, using the cupellation method to extract pure silver — this process required those veteran mining craftsmen.

At the Shangjinggou silver mine, roughly eight dan of ore yielded seven liang of silver. Wanting ten or twenty thousand liang of silver a year was not so easily achieved.

Seeing Zhong Diaoyang approach, some miners and mining masters busy at work all respectfully saluted and greeted him. This Squad Commander Zhong, they had heard, was the Biao Commander's older cousin, yet he put on no airs, was amiable, never beat or scolded anyone, and while guarding the silver mine often had his soldiers pitch in with the labor — truly rare.

Coming here, everyone could eat their fill every day. As long as they stayed for five years, those willing to leave at that time would be given a handsome sum in wages. Selling this hard labor was worth it.

Zhong Diaoyang saw the old craftsman Wu Shihuan directing nonstop nearby. Several months of toil had turned his hair even whiter, yet he was still full of vigor and energy. Seeing Zhong Diaoyang, he hurried over. The two chatted for a while, and speaking of the results of these past months, Wu Shihuan was satisfied. He said: "Sir Zhong, the Shangjinggou silver mine has been operating for three months and has already produced three thousand six hundred fifty-five liang of pure silver. Given time, the monthly silver yield can increase further, estimated to reach one thousand five hundred liang…"

Zhong Diaoyang nodded, thinking to himself: "Three months yielding three thousand six hundred fifty-five liang of silver — I wonder if my cousin will be satisfied."

…

At the end of the third month of the tenth year of Chongzhen, inside the Biao Commander's residence in Baoanzhou City, Wang Dou was carefully calculating his inventory.

He looked over the ledgers, tallied up his household's consumption, and his brow furrowed. The situation did not permit optimism.

In the seventh month of last year, from what Wang Dou had seized from the Qing soldiers, his stores at Shunxiangbao totaled over three thousand eight hundred dan of grain and rice, plus over seven thousand seven hundred liang of silver, and also over three hundred fifty liang of gold. Gold was relatively expensive in the Great Ming, convertible to over three thousand five hundred liang of silver, so Wang Dou had roughly over ten thousand liang of silver on hand.

Additionally, at Shunxiangbao, Wang Dou had five hundred thirty-seven head of plow oxen. The prefectural city originally had three hundred eighty-six head of plow oxen; after Wang Dou obtained three hundred ten head of plow oxen from the garrison city and the route city, the prefectural city now had six hundred ninety-six head of plow oxen. Furthermore, Wang Dou had over a thousand pigs and sheep at Shunxiangbao, and over five hundred mules and horses.

Wang Dou's principle was to retain as much grain and rice in the storehouses as possible, and to buy with silver whatever could be bought with silver. The fields at Shunxiangbao still produced little, and the majority of the soldiers and civilians had to be supported by Wang Dou. In particular, the nearly two thousand troops, all able-bodied young men, ate a great deal. In fact, the soldiers and civilians at Shunxiangbao now very much looked forward to the fort organizing work for them. Normally, when there was no work, Wang Dou let these military households fend for themselves, or gave them a small ration of rice porridge. Only during collective labor were they fed their fill of rice and mantou, and often they even had meat to eat.

Nevertheless, all told, each month still cost Wang Dou one thousand dan of grain and rice and one hundred pigs and sheep. These past months, Wang Dou had used silver to buy grain and rice from various grain shops in the prefectural city. By the end of this third month, most of the silver in Wang Dou's hands was already gone, and not many pigs and sheep remained either.

Moreover, in the latter half of this year, Baoanzhou needed to collect tax grain. Wang Dou and Department Magistrate Li Zhen had exempted the soldiers and civilians of Baoanzhou from this year's tax grain levy. The entire burden would fall on Wang Dou's sturdy shoulders. The combined grain levy for the military and civilian households of Baoanzhou totaled over four thousand dan. The Great Ming collected commuted silver taxes, with one dan of grain converted to eight qian of silver — this commutation came to over three thousand liang of silver. In the twelfth month of last year, Baoanzhou had also imposed an additional tax of two hundred seventy-four liang of silver, all of which Wang Dou had to bear.

Wang Dou had also promised Department Magistrate Li Zhen five hundred liang of silver as retained surplus. Then there were the grain and pay provisions for the soldiers of the prefectural city, the Five Forts, and Zhangjiabao in the latter half of the year. Most pressing of all, the irrigation wells were currently being dug and waterwheels built, and he estimated that the one thousand head of plow oxen he had purchased from Lai Mancheng would soon arrive — this would immediately require an outlay of five thousand liang of silver…

Wang Dou shook his head. Guarding the territory of an entire department — to outsiders it looked glorious, but in truth the pressure was considerable.

Then Wang Dou looked over the silver mine ledgers submitted by Zhong Diaoyang, and only then did he nod with satisfaction. Three months yielding three thousand six hundred fifty-five liang of silver, averaging over one thousand two hundred liang a month in income, which came to over fourteen thousand liang of silver annually — not bad at all. At last he had a stable income.

Looking further at the bandit-suppression ledgers from this period, Wang Dou was even more satisfied. Starting from the eleventh of this month, Wen Fangliang and Gao Shiyin had led troops to Weizhou and other places to suppress bandits, already sweeping away multiple bandit strongholds. The seized goods, transported back in succession, had yielded over six thousand three hundred liang of silver and over one thousand dan of grain and rice. To have such income in less than a month — it seemed suppressing bandits was a fine assignment indeed.

Reckoning it up, there was nearly ten thousand liang of silver coming in. To outsiders this was an enormous sum, but soon most of it would be spent; he was still strapped for cash.

Wang Dou abruptly stood up. Continue suppressing the bandits — toward those bandits who preyed on the common people, there must be no mercy!

…

At the beginning of the fourth month of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Wen Fangliang and Gao Shiyin led their troops back to Baoanzhou, while Han Chao, Han Zhong, and Sun Sanjie, by Wang Dou's order, led nearly a thousand soldiers of the First, Second, and Fourth Battalions, pouncing like fierce tigers toward Weizhou and other places to continue the great enterprise of bandit suppression.

At the same time, Wang Dou also organized the soldiers and civilians of Baoanzhou to begin digging irrigation wells on a large scale.