[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army":3,"chapter-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-170":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","A Little Soldier of the Late Ming Border Army",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1205459,1561,"Chapter 170: Livestock Farms, the Bandit-Suppression Army Returns","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-170",170,"\u003Cp>Yang Zhichang rubbed his knees, sore from kneeling. His heart was full of bitterness — just moments ago, Wang Dou had railed at him furiously, and he had been forced to listen respectfully and accept the reprimand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighed inwardly: there was simply no way to get by in Baoanzhou anymore. Just encroaching on a few mu of farmland, such a trivial matter, and Wang Dou had berated him mercilessly without the slightest leniency. In the old days, when Wang Dou was still a mere Squad Leader, how had he behaved before him? And how was it now?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But a single rank higher crushed a man to death. No matter how harshly Wang Dou rebuked him, he could not let the slightest trace of discontent show on his face, or the charges would only grow heavier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rose dejectedly. Wang Dou gave him a long, meaningful look and barked, \"Get out!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Zhichang was even more startled and hastily withdrew.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stepping out of the council hall, Yang Zhichang heaved a long sigh. Baoanzhou was now Wang Dou's domain; he would have to find a way to transfer out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Yang Zhichang's retreating figure, Wang Dou was silent for a moment. In this farmland census, Zhangjiabao and Wubao had the most problems, but the Zhangjiabao Garrison Commander Shi Min could still be salvaged — his entire fort had concealed only a little over three hundred mu of land, and with a single sharp rebuke he had been so frightened he blurted everything out. Against the backdrop of the Great Ming, that was only a minor flaw. Only this Yang Zhichang was too deeply steeped in bad habits; sooner or later Wang Dou would replace him. Wubao was a fine place, and it was not his turn to seize the magpie's nest like a turtledove.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Swiftly, on the matter of the farmland census, Wang Dou issued a strict order: any military officer who encroached upon or embezzled funds and grain, or concealed landholdings, regardless of whether they were military or civilian officials, would all be subject to the same severe reprimand and punishment. In the days that followed, the Personnel Office rigorously verified the registers, and many officers had already been disciplined. The entire prefectural seat was awed into submission.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this fourth month, Lai Mancheng's one thousand head of plow oxen finally arrived, drawing the entire city's soldiers and civilians out beyond the walls to watch. Gazing at the dense mass of plow oxen, soldiers and civilians alike marveled endlessly — they had never imagined the Garrison Commander would truly do as he said and purchase a full thousand oxen in one go. With these sturdy oxen, plus those irrigation wells and waterwheels, everyone's farming and planting would be secure. At this moment, the last trace of worry in their hearts vanished entirely, and every person was filled with boundless admiration for Wang Dou's capabilities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside and outside the prefectural seat, joy reigned. Department Magistrate Li Zhenxing also took his subordinate clerks to secretly observe; upon returning to his residence, he marveled endlessly, simply repeating, \"Where on earth did Wang Dou get the silver?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng had been out on the road and had grown somewhat dark and thin. Originally sleek and powdered, now when Wang Dou looked at him, his face bore a distinct weather-beaten look. By Lai Mancheng's own account, to assemble this thousand head of plow oxen, he had traveled to many places and had at last, without disgracing his mission, gathered the goods Wang Dou required.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of the thousand plow oxen Wang Dou purchased from Lai Mancheng, aside from thirteen that died in accidents en route, the remainder were mostly sturdy and intact — all fine animals. Lai Mancheng also told Wang Dou that he, Old Lai, would bear responsibility for compensating the loss of those dozen-odd dead oxen. This made Wang Dou regard him in a new light; despite his playboy image, the fellow's character was not bad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou instructed the land management officer Zhang Gui to temporarily settle these plow oxen outside the city, then summoned Lai Mancheng back to the Garrison Commander's residence. Smiling slightly, he said, \"Brother Lai is indeed a man of sincerity — nearly a thousand plow oxen delivered to this official. I will give you a handwritten letter, and have my trusted officer Xie Yike escort you to Shunxiangbao to seek out its Garrison Commander Lin Daofu. He will give you the five thousand taels of silver for the oxen.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng was overjoyed and said repeatedly, \"My thanks to you, my lord.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had not expected Wang Dou to hand over five thousand taels of silver just like that, which made Lai Mancheng reassess Wang Dou's strength. In truth, after deducting all manner of costs, he had earned quite a bit on this deal — it was the largest single transaction of his mercantile career.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou did a rough calculation: at present, he had five hundred thirty-seven plow oxen at Shunxiangbao, six hundred ninety-six at the prefectural seat, and adding these nearly one thousand newly purchased oxen, he now possessed over two thousand two hundred twenty head in total. In addition, Wubao and Zhangjiabao each had over a hundred plow oxen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, in Wang Dou's view, it would be better to purchase some more plow oxen. Hearing Wang Dou's words, Lai Mancheng waved his gold-sprinkled fan and pondered for a long moment. \"My lord,\" he said, \"there is something this humble one does not know whether he should say.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou said, \"Speak.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng said, \"This humble one estimates that my lord already possesses no small number of plow oxen, likely no fewer than fifteen hundred head. Looking at such a quantity of plow oxen, even among the inland prefectures and counties of the Great Ming, it is a considerable figure. In truth, there is no longer any need to purchase plow oxen again.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This humble one has heard privately that my lord intends to allot one ox to each military household under his governance. This humble one believes that, reckoning fifty mu of farmland per household, if each household keeps one plow ox, the burden would in fact be difficult. Plow oxen, like horses, are not easy to raise. This humble one suggests that one ox for every three or four households would be entirely sufficient.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou said curiously, \"Plow oxen are not easy to raise?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng laughed. \"That depends on whether my lord wishes to raise them well or raise them poorly.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He continued, \"Speaking of raising oxen, there is a great deal of learning involved. Take the ox shed first: it must be swept regularly on schedule, the dung diligently removed, the bedding straw frequently changed — and that is not even mentioning the need to regularly brush and wipe the ox's body, twice a day, morning and evening, without omission. Especially in the sweltering summer heat, ventilation and coolness in the ox pen are absolutely essential. In winter, the ox must be led outdoors to a sheltered spot facing away from the wind and toward the sun, so that it may graze while basking in the sunlight. Only thus will the plow ox grow sturdy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In feeding, aside from the usual dry hay and straw, when the plow ox is put to work, bean bran cakes and the like are even more indispensable. Drinking water also requires attention — at minimum five waterings a day, and it must be clean water, preferably with an appropriate amount of salt added. If plow oxen drink water in winter, they must be provided warm water, with salt and bean powder added…\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He spoke in an endless torrent. Wang Dou listened, dumbfounded. Was this raising oxen or waiting upon ancestors? He frowned. \"Is it really that troublesome?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng laughed. \"That is why this humble one asked whether my lord wishes to raise them well or raise them poorly. If you want sturdy plow oxen, this is what is required. Country folk and ignorant women have no such knowledge. The plow oxen they raise are thin and weak precisely because of improper feeding. Some commoners understand the principles but lack the means — raising oxen requires considerable resources, and ordinary households simply cannot afford it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou fell into thought. According to what Lai Mancheng said, if he distributed the plow oxen to the military households, they might well be guilty of inadequate care, and it would also increase their burden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng said, \"Not only that, but with over a thousand head of plow oxen in hand, my lord is effectively sitting on a great treasure trove.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, consider this: of those over a thousand head of plow oxen, nearly half are cows. They will give birth to calves, and my lord will gain at least five hundred head a year. Plow oxen do not need to plow for the greater part of the year and can be bred once annually. A calf takes only five years to grow into a sturdy ox. Over several years, my lord may well have several thousand head of plow oxen in stock. By then, this humble one will have to inquire whether my lord has any plow oxen for sale.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this, Lai Mancheng chuckled merrily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Reminded thus by Lai Mancheng, Wang Dou recalled that the plow oxen at Shunxiangbao seemed to have borne some calves over the past two years, but he had been so busy with affairs that he had entirely forgotten the principle that cows would reproduce. His subordinate officers were mostly military men who knew nothing but fighting and killing — who among them would bother about whether cows bore calves? He glanced at Lai Mancheng. This man was decent; he had not, for the sake of earning more money, egged him on to buy more oxen. Wang Dou's estimation of Lai Mancheng rose another notch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, Wang Dou also recalled the pigs, sheep, mules, and horses at Shunxiangbao. Pigs and sheep could breed twice a year — pigs could produce nearly ten per litter, sheep six per litter. He originally had over a thousand head of pigs and sheep; he had eaten quite a few of the grown ones, but it seemed that over these two years they had also bred quite a number of piglets and lambs. Once they matured, that would be a considerable number. And the mules and horses — he had over five hundred at Shunxiangbao. The growth period for horses was likewise five years; after five years, his mules and horses would also increase considerably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this thought, the idea of establishing livestock farms to collectively raise cattle, sheep, and horses had already taken root in his mind. The Baoanzhou region had superior forestry resources, and to the southwest lay many high mountain meadows. At present, places the locals of Baoanzhou called Wufu Mountain, Xiling Mountain, Dongling Mountain, and the like possessed many fine pastures — he could well set up livestock farms and grazing grounds in those areas.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou looked at Lai Mancheng. \"Brother Lai is so knowledgeable in animal husbandry — why not come and manage my livestock and cattle farms?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng waved both hands frantically. \"No, no.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He gave a rueful laugh. \"My lord, this humble one buys and sells oxen and horses for a living, so I can speak eloquently on the principles. But if you asked this humble one to tend them personally, you might as well kill me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought for a long while, then said, \"I do have a few capable fellows under me who could come and serve as oxherds and horse wranglers for my lord.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Very soon, Wang Dou summoned the prefectural land management officer Zhang Gui and the Shunxiangbao Garrison Commander Lin Daofu to discuss with them the matter of establishing numerous livestock farms and grazing grounds in the southwest of Baoanzhou…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the fourth month of the tenth year of Chongzhen, Qing generals Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi, and others attacked Pidao on Iron Mountain. Vice Regional Commander Jin Riguan led his officers and troops in fierce battle with the Qing soldiers for seven days and nights. In the end, Pidao fell, and Jin Riguan and the others all died in battle. In the intercalary fourth month, a great drought came; prayers for rain went long unanswered. The Chongzhen Emperor issued an edict rebuking his ministers and blaming himself. In the early fifth month, the Qing enfeoffed the surrendered generals Kong Youde as the Obedient and Submissive Prince, Geng Zhongming as the Cherishing and Submissive Prince, and Shang Kexi as the Loyal and Submissive Prince — these were the Three Submissive Princes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the sixth day of the fifth month, in view of the increasingly severe drought across various parts of the Great Ming, which had also greatly affected Baoanzhou, Wang Dou worried that pestilence would follow the disaster — especially the plague, which was an exceedingly terrifying thing. Since the Wanli years, plague had erupted repeatedly across the Great Ming, and particularly during the Chongzhen reign, Shanxi had seen multiple waves of plague, leaving many places utterly devoid of human life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That plague struck with terrifying speed — there was a saying that one could fall ill at dawn and be dead by dusk. Especially the great pestilence in the capital in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen: nine out of ten houses in Beijing stood empty, and the several hundred thousand men of the capital garrison were likewise swept away. Wang Dou was certain that if plague broke out in Baoanzhou, the prefectural seat could become a ghost town overnight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The outbreak of plague was closely tied to environmental sanitation. Take the Great Ming capital as an example. In the early and mid-Ming, the dynasty's finances were relatively ample, and the management of the capital's gutters and sanitation was fairly proper — people said the capital's streets and alleys were the cleanest and broadest. But from the late Wanli period onward, the capital's gutters became entirely clogged, for there was no money to dredge and clear them, nor funds to repair the transport canals. By the Chongzhen years, the street conditions in Beijing were even worse: dust swirled in dry weather, mud made travel impossible in the rain, and the gutters along the streets had all become repositories of filth, their stench assaulting the nostrils.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beyond the dust and mud, the streets were covered in excrement and urine. The capital had once decreed that carts and oxen were not permitted inside the city, but by the late Ming, this rule had become an empty letter. The failure of official administration was reflected in the city's appearance: the late Ming capital could be said to be littered with garbage everywhere. Every summer, flies and mosquitoes never ceased, and dysentery and pestilence ran rampant. This was why, in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the plague spread throughout the entire city — whole families died out with none left to encoffin them, and at the nine gates, the daily dead reached ten thousand coffins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Filthy and chaotic environmental sanitation was a major root cause of pestilence outbreaks. Therefore, on the sixth day of the fifth month — the very day Song Yingxing completed his work \"The Exploitation of the Works of Nature\" — Wang Dou joined with Department Magistrate Li Zhenxing to mobilize the entire city's soldiers and civilians to clean up sanitation, with special emphasis on exterminating every last rat. They also forcibly took in all the refugees and beggars on the streets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After several days of thorough cleaning, the entire Baoanzhou prefectural seat was spotless, clean everywhere. The nearly one hundred cartloads of filth swept out were all transported outside the city, burned, and deeply buried. Not only that, Wang Dou also put up funds and grain, planning to sink many deep wells in the prefectural seat and construct numerous public bathhouses and public latrines.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Wang Dou's plan, the public bathhouses would charge extremely low fees so that all soldiers and civilians in the city could afford to bathe. In particular, several women's bathhouses were to be established in the prefectural seat under Xie Yike's name, serving only female patrons. In the northern regions of the Great Ming, water was inconvenient to access, especially with drought and water shortages everywhere, making bathing naturally difficult. With these bathhouses, while promoting cleanliness and hygiene, they would also reduce the spread of various diseases.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the construction of women's bathhouses drew some comment, under Wang Dou's strict order in the name of epidemic prevention, they were swiftly built.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few days later, while Wang Dou was busy constructing bathhouses throughout the prefectural seat, Han Chao, Han Zhong, and Sun Sanjie returned in triumph from bandit suppression, leading the troops of the First, Second, and Fourth Regiments, their harvest rich.\u003C\u002Fp>",2821,"2026-06-03T14:05:19.908Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","4ee21b90e58221c3873c769b60275c7405958b97e451a506c4d51353dac35695","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-171","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-169",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]