[{"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-352":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},1205641,1561,"Chapter 352: Observing Wang Dou","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-352",352,"\u003Cp>A few days after that meeting, the General’s residence made the first move, subcontracting the manufacture of waterwheels for the various garrison villages to over a dozen merchant houses on the Eastern Route.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the great expansion of the garrison villages, the waterwheels and other items to be built in the future might exceed ten thousand units. This was an enormous demand, and the woodworking factory run by Wu Shihuan and others simply could not keep up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After subcontracting to the various merchants of the Eastern Route, the production of waterwheels greatly accelerated. Building waterwheels, lining wells, and the like required large quantities of timber, stone, and other raw materials, causing related lumber mills and quarries to spring up like bamboo shoots after rain throughout the Eastern Route.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not only that, but apart from a few critical workshops like the armor factory, the firelock factory, and the gunpowder factory, Wang Dou’s military factories—such as the uniform factory and the bedding factory—were all transferred out and granted to several merchants for production. In the end, Wang Dou would see which factory offered the best price and the highest quality and place his key orders there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just for Wang Dou to train his new army here, he needed a vast quantity of military uniforms and bedding, along with many miscellaneous pieces of equipment, all requiring large amounts of cotton, cloth, and other materials, which in turn spurred a whole host of related industries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Apart from gold and silver mines, many of the iron and coal mines on the Eastern Route that had been seized from the powerful families were priced by auction and gradually contracted out to certain merchants. An annual mining tax was levied on them, and Wang Dou enjoyed preferential pricing and the right of first refusal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each mine was subject to the management of the trading houses and the commerce section. Whether they could sell outside in the future, and how such sales would be conducted, were all governed by a series of regulations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many merchants, seeing the successful experience of the Shunxiang Fort chicken and duck farm, also began trying to raise chickens and ducks in fields and woodlands, and many people started livestock farms as well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the months that followed, the Eastern Route became a hive of activity. And whether it was mining, making waterwheels, or doing anything else, a great number of craftsmen and livestock veterinarians were needed. For a time, in the lands of the Eastern Route, the status of craftsmen rose rapidly, and veterinary talent became especially precious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Horse grooms, cattle herders, swineherds, and the like became sought-after commodities, with people everywhere hiring them at high prices.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this time, the Civil Affairs Commissioner Zhang Gui also put forward a multi-year governance plan for the Eastern Route. Wang Dou deemed it feasible and approved its implementation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In mid-August, the Shogunate issued a proclamation establishing an official grain storehouse specifically to purchase surplus grain from the common people at market price. In the event of a grain shortage, it would sell at a stabilized price to relieve high commodity costs. The proclamation also specifically stipulated that the grain reserves of each military household were forbidden from exceeding one year’s supply, and violators would be punished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To prevent people from maliciously buying up grain from the official store, the Civil Affairs Division intended to promote a type of coupon, which would be required for purchase. Wang Dou named it “grain coupon.” How the grain coupons would be issued and distributed was still under deliberation by the Civil Affairs Division.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Gui’s inspiration actually came from the State-Founding General Wang Dou. After Wang Dou mentioned this type of coupon, he seemed to feel that this method could prevent merchants from hoarding and driving up prices. If this method proved effective, he could later promote various types of coupons: cloth coupons, bean coupons, meat coupons, sugar coupons, and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, this would be established in the event of domestic inflation, unscrupulous merchant hoarding, or a situation of severe grain shortage caused by natural disasters and calamities. For example, a few days earlier, when those merchants collectively shut their shops, if the Eastern Route had had an official store and the military households and common people had held grain coupons, they would not have feared the shop closures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As far as the situation on the Eastern Route was concerned, Bao’an Department did not suffer from a grain shortage. The relatively high local commodity prices were actually caused by the local military households rushing to buy grain and being unwilling to sell their stored grain. If they were willing to sell their grain, commodity prices in Bao’an Department would drop considerably.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, the residents of Bao’an Department had simply been starved before and were afraid. They stockpiled a bit more grain, and when they had silver on hand, they bought a bit more grain—it was merely a subconscious psychological reaction. After the State-Founding General’s proclamation, they generally supported it. Storing too much grain only made it go stale, moldy, and spoiled, which was not really a good thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the State-Founding General establishing an official store and issuing grain coupons, even if a famine came in the future, no one would need to fear; the State-Founding General would not let everyone go hungry. Therefore, after the notice was issued, commodity prices in Bao’an Department steadily fell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the high commodity prices in other parts of the Eastern Route, that was due to a lack of grain supplies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The entire northern region of the Great Ming suffered successive severe droughts, with disasters running rampant, and grain production decreased every year. The Jiangnan region, known as the granary, had become so overly commercialized that the common people would rather plant silk, hemp, cotton, or tobacco than grain. In the end, they did not even have enough grain to feed themselves, so how could they talk about supporting the north?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the situation throughout the Eastern Route. Grain harvests in the north failed year after year, and the emergence of large bands of refugees further impacted grain production. It was understandable that grain supplies dwindled year by year and commodity prices rose year by year. Places like Huailai and Yanqing Department on the Eastern Route were merely a microcosm of this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Solving this problem on the Eastern Route might have to wait until agriculture and animal husbandry flourished within the territory a few years later. For the time being, aside from Wang Dou’s vigorous efforts to buy grain from outside the territory, he could only rely on the reserves in his own granaries for support. Fortunately, Wang Dou had plenty of silver, and those who understood that grain was more useful than silver were not yet widespread, so the silver in Wang Dou’s hands could still be put to use for now.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, Wang Dou’s official store had the priority right to purchase grain from military households and commoners, and its existence to stabilize grain prices and reduce the people’s losses inevitably conflicted with the interests of some grain merchants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this time, the practice of many merchants was to set the autumn grain purchase price very low, and then, during the lean season when the new crop was not yet in, set the selling price of their grain very high. Their tactics toward soldiers and military households were the same: when soldiers were paid in silver and went to buy grain from merchants, they had to pay a high price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When they needed silver to pay taxes to the imperial court, the grain in their hands became worthless again. In any case, the merchants always had their own set of manipulative tricks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In particular, the great grain merchants of the late Ming were often also great landlords who controlled vast resources. In famine years, they hoarded goods, bought up disaster relief grain, then sold it at inflated market prices, and afterward bought up land at low prices. Often, after a single famine passed, most of the land in many places had been cunningly seized by them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Generally speaking, the imperial court could not outmaneuver these merchant consortiums. In Wang Dou’s view, the positive role played by ancient merchants in society at that time was far outweighed by their negative role. This was also the reason for the ancient policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and the low status of merchants. Any clear-headed sovereign could not possibly elevate the status of merchants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, the great merchants of the Eastern Route had been swept clean by Wang Dou this time. Moreover, the Eastern Route was not currently a source of grain but a “devourer of goods.” Only merchants transported grain in from other regions; very few transported grain out. Such intense conflicts of interest might only arise years later, when agriculture and animal husbandry flourished under Wang Dou’s rule.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou still had time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In mid-August, a bank was also established on the Eastern Route, controlled by the Shogunate’s Finance Division, in conjunction with several domestic money shops. It primarily provided loans to domestic merchants and gentry at favorable interest rates, encouraging them to invest in industry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past, this would certainly have provoked fierce conflict with the domestic usurers, who were often also the local powerful families, great merchants, great landlords, and great warlords of various regions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past, when Wang Dou lived in Xingzhuang, the Li family of Provincial Graduate status within the village was simultaneously the largest landlord and the largest usurer in the village.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once one borrowed from them, with compound interest piling up, an ordinary independent farmer would quickly go bankrupt and become a tenant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, with this suppression, Wang Dou had almost wiped out the powerful families within the territory. Coupled with the lingering awe from his thunderous measures, who dared to criticize the emergence of this bank?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou calculated that in a few more years, when grain and livestock were sufficient within the territory, using the strongest hard currency—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—grain as collateral, he could attempt to issue currency, appearing, of course, in the form of military scrip.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also in August, Wang Dou, in conjunction with the Military Defense Circuit Intendant Ma Guoxi, mobilized the entire Eastern Route for a massive and vigorous public sanitation campaign. Bao’an Department was already renowned for its cleanliness. In Yongning City, where Wang Dou was garrisoned, with a single order from him, the soldiers and civilians naturally followed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, considering that in places like Huailai City, Yanqing, and Bao’an Guard City, the enthusiasm of the soldiers and civilians might not be high, Wang Dou devised a method. As long as soldiers and civilians transported a cartload of garbage out, they would be paid a certain amount. Depending on their needs, payment could be made in silver or grain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sure enough, this policy aroused tremendous enthusiasm among the common people of the Eastern Route, and the sanitation campaign proceeded with thunderous vigor. But Wang Dou suddenly received news that the garbage transported outside the city was being stolen in the middle of the night, and then this garbage was brought back to be sold again, sometimes even multiple times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To prevent people from stealing garbage to resell it, Wang Dou dispatched some Shunxiang Army soldiers to guard it and hired people to incinerate and deeply bury the garbage transported outside the city. Only gradually did this situation disappear. Since paying for garbage transport gradually became a system, a new industry quickly emerged on the Eastern Route: people specifically went door-to-door buying garbage, then transported it to the dump to sell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In any case, after this sanitation campaign, the Eastern Route took on a completely new look. Each city became as clean as Bao’an Department. Even the refugees and beggars in each city were conveniently collected and sent to the newly built shelters of the Shunxiang Army in each city, where they would later be arranged to farm garrison lands, mine, and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also in August, the upheaval on the Eastern Route from the previous month reached its conclusion. After the joint trial by the three judicial offices, with Wang Dou providing a large amount of evidence, Zhang Wanshan, Chen Enchong, Song Renxuan, Chen Qinluan, Ding Fangming, Guo Cairong, and others, depending on the severity of their crimes, were either dismissed from office or beheaded. Their family properties were confiscated, and their family members were exiled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zeng Fuyang and a group of Qing state spies were executed by slow slicing. Ceng Youxian, the Dean of Guanshan Academy in Yanqing Department, committed suicide out of shame and was exempted from further prosecution. Huang Changyi was fined one year’s salary but retained his original post. The Eastern Route Grain Transport Assistant Prefect Guo Shitong was transferred to Datong Garrison. The Xuanfu Garrison Regional Military Commissioner and Vice Regional Commander Zhang Guowei, despite his utmost efforts to save his uncle Zhang Wanshan, could not prevent his uncle from being beheaded and exposed in the marketplace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Guowei endured countless hardships to avoid being implicated, but he was still rebuked by imperial decree. After this series of upheavals, he naturally hated Wang Dou to the bone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu Zhi, the Department Magistrate of Yanqing, was fined one year’s salary and given a demerit but remained in office for the time being. However, his son Wu Lue was stripped of his scholarly rank, and his official career was thus finished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou, the Eastern Route Defense Assistant Regional Commander of Xuanfu, and Ma Guoxi, the Military Defense Circuit Intendant, were commended by imperial decree for capturing Qing spies and pacifying the region, shattering the expectations of the onlookers. Wang Dou had so brazenly suppressed the merchants and gentry, yet he received commendation from the imperial court. It seemed this military man held a very unusual position in His Majesty’s mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How to deal with this newly risen, powerful local hegemon of the Eastern Route was a question many interested parties needed to consider.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After this trial, Wang Dou also received a piece of news from the Intelligence Division. Among those who had participated in the shop closures the previous month, the mastermind behind the scenes was a very famous merchant and powerful family from Zhangjiakou: the Fan family. The one who came to the Eastern Route was Fan Sanba, the eldest son of the Fan family head Fan Yongdou, and the shop-closure strategy was his proposal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing the name of the Fan family, especially Fan Yongdou, Wang Dou felt it was somewhat familiar. He thought carefully for a moment, then laughed and said, “So it’s him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to some historical records, the Eight Great Imperial Merchants enfeoffed by the later Qing state had to transport vast amounts of grain, fodder, and cloth from beyond the frontier to the northeast every year, sometimes amounting to tens of thousands of shi, even over a hundred thousand shi of grain at a time. Their route beyond the frontier naturally passed outside the Eastern Route, seemingly only a few hundred li from Yongning City.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou gazed in that direction, lost in thought for a long time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou’s brazen suppression of the merchants and gentry naturally made many of his kind feel grief for their fellow creatures. Moreover, his blatant imposition of commercial taxes afterward confirmed his notion of “contending for profit with the people.” Many censors had already begun to impeach him, but soon after, their firepower was drawn away by another matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to this matter, Wang Dou’s affair was already considered “minor.” It was the current Senior Grand Secretary, Minister of Personnel, and Grand Secretary of the Wuying Hall, Xue Guoguan, proposing to “borrow aid” from the hundred officials. As soon as the news spread, a tide of memorials impeaching Xue Guoguan surged onto the Chongzhen Emperor’s desk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon hearing this, the Military Defense Circuit Intendant Ma Guoxi also stamped his foot and privately said to his advisors, “Lord Xue is muddled! This move will certainly make him the great enemy of the hundred officials and the imperial relatives. One misstep, and he will be reduced to ashes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He even let slip a remark: “Lord Xue, alas, wise for a lifetime, muddled for a moment. Does he think he\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>is Wang Dou?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point, Ma Guoxi stopped abruptly, stunned, and thought to himself, “Why do I think it’s only natural for Wang Dou to do this, but when it’s Lord Xue, there will be trouble?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing about Xue Guoguan’s matter, Wang Dou paced for a long time and also secretly shook his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the joint trial by the three judicial offices, matters on the Eastern Route settled down, and Wang Dou decided to devote his main energy to organizing and training the new army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, he would organize and train five thousand new troops. Combined with Wang Dou’s original eight thousand five hundred troops, the army Wang Dou would possess in the future would total over thirteen thousand regular soldiers. In his consideration, his future army would be divided into three tiers: Class-A troops, Class-B troops, and reserve forces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The original eight thousand nine hundred veterans were designated as Class-A troops, and even many infantrymen possessed horses. The newly trained five thousand men were Class-B troops; if their numbers fell short, they would be gradually replenished in the future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, after each fort established military farms, they would either set up dedicated drill instructors or use retired and disabled soldiers as instructors, assembling the military able-bodied from each fort to drill in idle times and farm in busy seasons. Reckoning one Battalion Commander per fort, it was estimated that each fort could assemble five hundred to one thousand military able-bodied. Wang Dou intended to newly establish over fifty garrison forts, which would yield tens of thousands of military able-bodied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These military able-bodied would serve as a reserve force. If soldiers were needed in the future, they would be selected from among them. They would already possess a certain foundation of training, and after entering the recruit camp for a few months, they would certainly emerge as qualified soldiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just as Wang Dou was preparing to launch a grand endeavor, he suddenly received an urgent consultation request from Ma Guoxi, the Military Defense Circuit Intendant. Ma produced several official documents and, with a peculiar expression, said to Wang Dou, \"I hear that General Dingguo is training new troops. Various garrison commanders and officers all intend to come observe. Also coming are Grand Secretary Yang and Grand Secretary Xue from the Grand Secretariat.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou took the documents and was secretly startled. The crowd coming to observe could be described as vast and mighty: there was Hu Daxian, Regional Commander of Shanxi Garrison; Wang Pu, Regional Commander of Datong Garrison; and from Xuanfu Garrison, Regional Commander Yang Guozhu and Vice Regional Commander Zhang Guowei, among others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, Ji-Liao Viceroy Hong Chengchou was coming, accompanied by Yutian Regional Commander Cao Bianjiao, Qiantun Guard Regional Commander Wang Tingchen, Ningyuan Tuanlian Regional Commander Jin Guofeng, Ningyuan Regional Commander Wu Sangui, and others. Accompanying Hong Chengchou was also Sun Chuanting, who had been idling in the capital with nothing to do.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Sichang and Xue Guoguan would also stay a few days on the Eastern Circuit under the pretext of an inspection tour. At that time, Xuan-Da Viceroy Chen Xinjia and Xuanfu Garrison Provincial Governor Ji Shiwei would all accompany them. (To be continued, if you wish to know what happens next\u003C\u002Fp>",3250,"2026-06-03T14:05:36.780Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","c020c5d678338987ea44112c97e0b23c3bb9544c5117faf3ffe1560eadae126a","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-353","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-351",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]