[{"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-337":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},1205626,1561,"Chapter 337: Surrender and Revolt Again","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-337",337,"\u003Cp>On the tenth day of the fifth month of the twelfth year of the Chongzhen reign.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng, nephew of Xu Zucheng the Garrison Commander of Baoan Guard and proprietor of the Qingtianfu Trading House in Shunxiang Fort, came to Yongning City and paid a visit to State-Founding General Wang Dou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Several years had passed, yet Lai Mancheng remained just as dashing as ever — the same powdered and pomaded face, still waving that signature gold-flecked fan in his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Grinning broadly, he kowtowed to Wang Dou and presented a gift list. Wang Dou now forbade his subordinates from accepting gifts of gold, silver, or other valuables; anything exceeding a certain amount was treated as corruption. With Chi Dacheng of the Pacification Office watching, and with Wang Dou setting the example himself, none of the officials dared to overstep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Lai Mancheng's gifts were merely some ordinary local specialty products.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou instructed Xie Yike to accept the gift list, then looked at Lai Mancheng and smiled. \"Shopkeeper Lai, it seems these past few years have treated you well. You're still as radiant as ever.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng beamed. \"Thanks to the General's good fortune, this humble one is doing all right.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou bade him sit. Lai Mancheng put on an expression of overwhelmed flattery, sat down respectfully, and then inquired about the purpose for which Wang Dou had summoned him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou told him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng said in astonishment, \"The General wishes to sell horses?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He mused, \"I wouldn't venture to say much else, but if horses are put up for sale, everyone will surely scramble to buy them.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He counted off on his fingers. \"Wealthy households everywhere, every military chief, and merchants from all over — they all need large numbers of horses. However many you sell, they'll buy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He secretly guessed the purpose for which Wang Dou had summoned him, and an excited gleam could not help but show in his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou asked, \"By your estimate, how much silver can one horse fetch?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lai Mancheng said, \"If sold to the civilian market, a rough estimate would be no less than twenty-five taels of silver per horse.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou nodded. The figure Lai Mancheng gave was close to his own estimate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to relevant historical records, in the early Ming, horse prices were divided into five grades — top-top horse, top horse, middle horse, lower horse, and foal — and traded in rice and silk. A top-top horse was worth five shi of rice and five bolts each of cloth and silk. A top horse was worth four shi of rice and four bolts each. A middle horse was worth three shi of rice and three bolts each. A lower horse was worth two shi of rice and two bolts each. A foal was worth one shi of rice and two bolts of cloth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the mid-Ming, transactions were in silver. By the official frontier market prices, a top-grade Mongol horse cost just over eight taels of silver, a middle-grade one just over seven taels, and a lower-grade one just over six taels. Of course, those were only the official frontier market prices. On the civilian market, the average price of a horse was twenty-four taels of silver. Sold south of the Yangtze, horse prices were even higher.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Well-connected merchants and magnates could buy horses from official sources more cheaply. In the fifth year of the Longqing reign, the three frontier markets at Zhangjiakou officially acquired over four thousand horses at an average price of 7.07 taels of silver. Of these, 859 horses of slightly inferior quality were resold to merchants at an average price of 9.35 taels per horse, yielding a resale profit of 2.28 taels per horse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These merchants all had powerful backers. Ordinary merchants received no such treatment and could not buy horses for less than twenty-some taels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Buying a Mongol horse could yield a profit of fifteen or sixteen taels of silver. For this reason, the Court of the Imperial Stud, which administered the horse administration, was quite wealthy. Historical records note that at the time, the old treasury of the Court of the Imperial Stud had accumulated silver \"nearly ten million taels,\" of which \"the Ministry of Revenue had borrowed from this Court\" alone over seven million taels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou planned to sell over ten thousand horses, which could bring in more than two hundred thousand taels of silver. However, he did not want silver — only grain and goods.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thinking of this, he smiled and said, \"Shopkeeper Lai, your chance to make a fortune has arrived. This general has resolved to sell horses in large quantities, with you handling the trade.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He glanced at Zhong Rong, the Commissioner of Finance, who sat quietly to one side; at Zhang Gui, the Commissioner of Civil Affairs, whose face was full of excitement; and at Tian Chang, the head of the Commerce Section, and said, \"For every horse sold, you may draw a certain commission. These staff officers of mine will assist you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In last year's campaign, Wang Dou had seized over twenty-two thousand horses and mules. After these animals were sent back to Baoan Department, they were pastured in the various grasslands of the department, imposing an extremely heavy burden of grain and fodder on Wang Dou. Selling off a portion was for the best.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou had made it known beforehand that horses and mules would be sold first to the soldiers and civilians of Baoan Department, and at a preferential price — only ten taels. However, the quota was set at three thousand head, and payment had to be in grain and goods of equivalent value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The soldiers and civilians of Baoan Department had now passed the stage of mere subsistence and needed some things to display their status. Unfortunately, the State-Founding General kept very tight control over land, and for households of modest means, there was no need to build extravagant mansions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Extravagance and waste were forbidden by the State-Founding General. Buying a horse, however, was a fine thing — it could display one's status, much like car ownership in later ages. A horse, once bought, could be ridden, could plow fields, could haul goods; its uses were many.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, once word spread, people everywhere in Baoan Department were immediately stirred and flocked to Lai Mancheng's trading house to look. Many intended to buy a horse, especially under such exceptionally favorable terms. Because so many wanted to buy and the number of horses was limited, they had to resort to drawing lots.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This also aroused intense envy in all other places, whose people secretly resented not being natives of Baoan Department. This made the soldiers and civilians of Baoan Department all the more swaggering and proud, congratulating themselves on having followed the State-Founding General early. Because the price difference was so great, to prevent resale, Wang Dou set a rule forbidding the soldiers and civilians of Baoan Department from reselling their horses within three years. Violators would be heavily fined twenty shi of rice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The horse-selling campaign proceeded with great fanfare. Many of the gentry and wealthy households of the Eastern Circuit bought horses from Wang Dou, as did various magnates, mine owners, merchant houses, and trade caravans. Lai Mancheng also organized sales beyond the Eastern Circuit. Wang Dou would not accept silver, so while the buyers cursed in astonishment, they had no choice but to trade goods with Wang Dou — grain, cloth, coal, iron, and a great variety of other items.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mine owners from all over the Eastern Circuit, in particular, mostly paid in coal and iron. Most of these mine owners possessed fortunes of tens of thousands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Great Ming, due to enormous market demand, the sale of iron goods was perpetually unable to meet supply. Trading in iron goods was an industry that yielded extremely rich profits, and the number of commoner tycoons it produced was beyond counting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the early Ming, iron goods were a state monopoly, but due to backward management, by the late Hongwu period, privately operated mining had already taken a dominant position. For the management of iron mines, the Great Ming adopted a system of fixed-tax licenses and levying an iron tax. The imperial court purchased its iron from the civilian market.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, from the mid-Ming onward, mines everywhere had already been completely seized by powerful magnates. Most of them paid no taxes, and their backers were mostly local officials, ennobled nobles, princely estates, eunuchs, and the like — extremely difficult to provoke. Because their influence was so great, they had also seized all the mineable mountains in every region, which was why Wang Dou, back then, had been forced to mine and smelt iron only in the remote mountains within Huiyao Fort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One day, Wang Dou was determined to collect taxes from these mine owners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou's horse-selling affair was the talk of the town. Where these horses came from was something most people knew perfectly well in their hearts. The staff officers of the Military Defense Circuit and the Grain Administration Assistant Prefect Guo Shitong complained to Ma Guoxi, saying that Wang Dou had sold the horses on his own without consulting them — truly overbearing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In their view, Wang Dou ought to have shared a portion of his gains with them, yet he had swallowed it all himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ma Guoxi gave a genial laugh and said, stroking his beard, \"General Wang is raising funds for military farms. This is a good thing, and it is for the sake of the common people.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Ma Guoxi's view, Wang Dou was using most of the proceeds from the horse sales on the military farms. When the military farms produced results in the future, a large part of the credit would go to him. Why not be happy about it? The various officials at court all remained silent about Wang Dou's actions — why should he stir up trouble?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Yang Guozhu at the garrison city heard of it, he shook his head in disbelief and said, \"General Wang is actually willing to sell off his horses.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within the Palace of Heavenly Purity, after hearing the report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Chongzhen Emperor paced back and forth for a long while and sighed, \"General Wang's heart, loyal and devoted to the state, is truly rare.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Wang Dou kept tight control over Baoan Department, when Wang Dou first arrived in the Eastern Circuit, the place leaked like a sieve, and obtaining intelligence was not difficult. Hearing that in order to raise funds for the military farms, Wang Dou did not hesitate to sell off the horses under his command, the Chongzhen Emperor was quite surprised and also somewhat moved.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The events of last year's campaign had become increasingly clear. Yang Guozhu, Hu Dawei, Wang Dou, and the others had reaped rich spoils, and the Chongzhen Emperor had tacitly accepted their gains. But unlike Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei, who kept their silver and horses tightly hidden, Wang Dou was willing to bring them out and contribute to the court's efforts. Such devotion...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Starting this year, those several hundred thousand mu of military fields in Baoan Department could already be taxed. In the coming year, when the military farms of the Eastern Circuit flourished and those several hundred thousand new military households were settled, how much more tax revenue could be collected? The Chongzhen Emperor grew happy just thinking about it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, to deny this general — who was quite outstanding in drilling troops, fighting battles, and governing — any opportunity to develop disloyal thoughts, the Chongzhen Emperor decided to have the local officials keep a closer watch. The name of Ma Guoxi, the Military Defense Circuit Intendant of the Eastern Circuit of Xuanfu Garrison, entered his sight for the first time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The horses Wang Dou had seized were steadily sold off, and the various grains and goods exchanged for them gradually filled the storehouses. At the same time, large-scale military farm reclamation was underway throughout the Eastern Circuit, in hopes of establishing some new farming forts before the autumn sowing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the fifteenth day of the month, Military Defense Circuit Intendant Ma Guoxi hurried to Yongning City to hold a new farming fort construction ceremony together with Wang Dou. He and Wang Dou swung hoes together, and in one burst he hoed half a mu of land. Although he was left gasping for breath, his old face flushed red, he persevered to the end, which raised Wang Dou's estimation of this old bureaucrat another notch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Zhang Gui's Civil Affairs Office was busy with the military farms, it also collected various agricultural manuals and studied how to increase cropland yields.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another five days passed, and Wang Dou suddenly recalled that Xu Guangqi's Complete Treatise on Agricultural Administration should have been published at the beginning of the month. The work comprised sixty juan, divided into twelve sections: Fundamentals of Agriculture, the Field System, Agricultural Affairs, Water Conservancy, Agricultural Implements, Arboriculture, Sericulture, Sericulture Expanded, Planting, Animal Husbandry, Manufacturing, and Famine Administration. It summarized and preserved the essence of ancient Chinese agricultural techniques. This book was of the utmost importance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So after Wen Daxing, the Commissioner of the Intelligence Office, was summoned by Wang Dou for a talk, he soon dispatched a clever night scout to the Jiangnan region to obtain a copy of that text. At the same time, the scout was also to bring back copies of the Complete Book of Water Conservancy in Wu and the Complete Book of Jingyue, both of which had likewise been completed in the fifth month.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Complete Book of Water Conservancy in Wu was compiled by Zhang Guowei, the Provincial Governor of Yingtian. It contained general water conservancy maps for the prefectures of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, and Zhenjiang, as well as fifty-three water system maps for the departments and counties under each prefecture. It was an important resource for studying water conservancy construction in the Jiangnan region during the Ming dynasty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Complete Book of Jingyue was even more extraordinary. Compiled by Zhang Jiebin, the complete work comprised sixty-four juan and could be called a comprehensive medical magnum opus. It brought together complete treatments for pestilence, malaria, cough, cholera, and more, with a great number of both new and ancient prescriptions. Once this book was copied and brought back, even if a plague broke out within the territory in the future, there would be proven and effective methods of treatment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During this period, Wang Dou was simultaneously keeping an eye on the matter of the bandits' surrender, on the military farm reclamation, and on the road repair work. One could say he was extremely busy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The land within the Eastern Circuit's borders probably would not be enough to settle all those people. Although Wang Dou had his eye on the lands beyond the frontier such as the Mantaoer region, for the time being, there were still many places throughout the Eastern Circuit that required manpower — for instance, the repair of the roads within the territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To get rich, first build roads. The benefits of road building were endless. Although the Great Ming's official postal relay stations had fallen into disrepair, the related private postal and courier system was flourishing — such as the private letter offices.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First established during the Yongle reign of the Great Ming by merchants of the Ningbo clique, these private, for-profit enterprises had been thriving and expanding throughout the Great Ming since the mid-dynasty. Their business — delivering letters and goods, handling remittances, and so on — was extremely brisk and did not diminish because of the chaotic times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou planned, once the roads were repaired, to develop related industries in the Eastern Circuit as well. Moreover, road building required a great deal of labor, which could provide a livelihood for the common people of the Eastern Circuit. It would also reduce and divert the population flowing into Baoan Department. Although Wang Dou exerted great effort to control it, he feared that if a plague were ever introduced into Baoan Department, the losses would be enormous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While Wang Dou was busy with his affairs, time swiftly entered late May. That day, Military Defense Circuit Intendant Ma Guoxi suddenly invited Wang Dou to discuss matters.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When Wang Dou arrived at Huailai City, Ma Guoxi brought out a court gazette and said to Wang Dou with deep worry, \"Zhang Xianzhong has rebelled again. This traitor surrenders and then rebels again, utterly ignorant of what loyalty and righteousness mean.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou silently took the gazette. It was written very clearly: on the ninth day of the fifth month, Zhang Xianzhong, who had accepted amnesty, raised the rebel banner again in Gucheng, killed the county magistrate Ruan Zhidian, and set fire to the government offices. At the same time, Luo Rucai led four battalions to rise in Fang County; the two joined forces to capture the county, killed the magistrate Hao Jingchun, and successively took Yunxi, Baokang, and other places. Soon after, the five battalions of Hui Dengxiang stationed at Junzhou also revolted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black words on white paper in the gazette were shocking to behold. In truth, Wang Dou had already read the gazette in Yongning City and knew these events from history. He had already forgotten whether Zhang Xianzhong and the others had surrendered and rebelled eight times or nine times. Perhaps, for them, rebelling, surrendering, rebelling again, and surrendering again was a kind of pleasure, and also a profession.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Ma Guoxi sighing deeply, Wang Dou did not know what he was thinking in his heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the very day he returned to Yongning City, Wang Dou dispatched another night scout to Jiangnan to search for some talents skilled in grinding lenses, to be used in the future for cannon sights and telescopes. At the same time, some other night scouts were ordered to go to the capital to see if they could bring back some gunpowder paper and cannon-casting craftsmen.\u003C\u002Fp>",3007,"2026-06-03T14:05:36.780Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","2c331fc722a7a02ed348220f2846ad7f494a5a8ee518d05978e810f26a2190f2","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-338","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-336",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]