Chapter 517: Supplies

Not far south from the Temple of the Goddess lies the mouth of the Little Ling River at Jinzhou Bay, which the locals call the East Sea Mouth.

Since the Song dynasty, the Goddess Temple sea area has been a bustling port. By the Ming dynasty, it was a scene of a thousand sails racing, with vast quantities of commercial goods transported directly into Jinzhou city via the Little Ling River.

When Wang Dou stood here, he saw patches of suaeda salsa scattered on both banks of the Little Ling River's mouth, glowing with a captivating red light. He could clearly see that on the opposite shore of the Goddess Temple dock, there was also a rather large dock. However, at this time, those ferry boats had either been destroyed by the Qing troops or gathered up and taken away.

"This river is very important; it can transport supplies directly to the walls of Jinzhou."

Wang Dou thought to himself.

Unlike later generations when the Little Ling River had already silted up, at this time, the section of the Little Ling River below Jinzhou was navigable by boat, making its geographical advantage very obvious.

Moving down along the mouth of the Little Ling River, on both banks of the river, there were also many salt fields, stretching all the way to the mouth of the Daling River. In the past, these salt fields were an important source of income for the local officers and generals, but once the war started, these salt fields were abandoned, and those salt households also lost their livelihoods one after another.

Fortunately, a few days ago, they found work again, which was fishing for the Jingbian Army and others.

A very important reason why Wang Dou's Jingbian Army had such formidable combat power was that they often had meat to eat. In terms of the generosity of their provisions, they ranked first among all the armies of the Great Ming. Even the retainers under the various officers and generals could not possibly have rations like the Jingbian Army's.

However, traveling a thousand miles to fight in Liaodong, logistics and supply transport was a very difficult problem. In this era, even the best smoked meat, in the great heat of summer, could only be preserved for about seven or eight days at most.

And as for meat ceramic jars, even with the participation of the Eastern Route merchants in transporting them over a thousand miles, they still could not meet the needs of the vast Jingbian Army soldiers. So Wang Dou turned his attention to sea fish.

The ocean is the largest treasure trove of resources in this world, but in this era, the efficiency of its utilization was far too low.

Take sea fish, for example. No matter how many fish the fishermen caught, because they lacked the preservation methods of later generations, especially in summer, the fish would often go bad and stink after just a day or two, making them completely unusable for trade or sale. They could not be eaten as food either, so fishermen were all poor, one could say they guarded a mountain of gold but returned empty-handed.

Meanwhile, in inland areas, fresh fish was expensive. One expensive, one cheap, forming a stark contrast.

In view of this, Wang Dou had a flash of inspiration, recalling some information about dried fish he had seen in later generations, and proposed a method of preparation.

It involved cleaning the internal organs and scales from the fresh fish, then boiling them in a large pot until soft and drying them in the sun. Dried fish preserved after this treatment, even in the scorching summer days, could be kept for at least one or two months. It was somewhat similar to the processing method for later-generation cans or the current meat ceramic jars.

Once this method was revealed, it immediately caused a sensation.

It must be known that although dried fish was produced in coastal areas at this time, it was only made by drying the freshly caught fish on the fishing boats. Generally, there were no large-scale fish-drying sites. Moreover, dried fish made this way could not be preserved for long in summer either, and also had problems like poor color and being prone to insects.

To preserve dried fish for a long time required the use of a large amount of salt. In this era, salt was expensive; how could impoverished and destitute fishermen bear to use it on a large scale?

Even if some merchants had the financial resources for this, dried fish with salt meant that the common people buying it were consuming salt along with the meat. This not only conflicted with the government's salt administration but also violated the interests of a massive interest group, and they wouldn't even know how they died.

Therefore, for thousands of years, fishermen guarded a mountain of treasure yet remained poor, and the vast marine resources went unutilized.

Wang Dou's method was simple to describe, but if it were popularized, allowing large-scale aquatic products to enter the inland areas, not only would countless fishermen gain a livelihood and become wealthy, but it could also save countless lives. At the very least, for the coastal common people in years of famine, eating fish was always better than eating tree bark and grass roots, right?

Of course, this kind of immense and great historical significance was not something many people could think of at the time. However, merchants are always sensitive to profit. Wang Dou's original intention was merely to supply the meat needs of the Jingbian Army, but many merchants immediately spied the enormous business opportunity within.

In the Great Ming, raising pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, cattle, and the like was difficult, but the sea fish resources of this era could be said to be inexhaustible. Although there were fishing seasons, the vast and abundant fish resources were clearly not going to be lacking.

Just think of the vast amount of dried fish produced each year—how much profit would that be? Not to mention anything else, just in Liaodong alone, the dried fish needed by these hundreds of thousands of Ming troops was an astronomical figure.

Very quickly, Zheng Jinglun, the president of the Zhendong Trading Company who was currently accompanying the army, along with a large number of Eastern Route merchants, visited Wang Dou. They proposed sharing the profits with the Loyal and Brave Count. Besides supplying dried fish to the Jingbian Army, they also planned to transport this dried fish for sale throughout the Great Ming.

They had even thought of a name for the dried fish: "Wang Gong Fish." This involved Zheng Jinglun and others currying favor with Wang Dou, as well as the behind-the-scenes promotion by the Jingbian Army's Intelligence Service.

It was not only the Eastern Route merchants who were stirred; Ji-Liao Viceroy Hong Chengchou, Army Supervisor Wang Chengen, Army Supervisor Zhang Ruoqi, and others were also moved, as were the various Regional Commanders in Liaodong, and even the numerous merchants gathered at Xingshan and Songshan at this time were tempted.

For this great battle, besides the officially organized transport teams, a large number of Great Ming merchants were transporting or providing grain and fodder for the army. One could say that Shanxi merchants, capital merchants, Zhejiang merchants, and Huizhou merchants all came out in force.

High officials like Hong Chengchou saw the significance of dried fish replacing a portion of the grain supply. After all, the Great Ming's supply of grain and fodder to the front lines was currently extremely urgent. Letting the soldiers eat large amounts of dried fish would not only supplement their meat intake but also save a great deal of grain and fodder.

After all, fishing right there in Liaodong was far cheaper than transporting grain over a thousand miles. In the past, fresh fish was difficult to preserve, but now that there was such an excellent method, how could they not use it?

The various merchants were covetous of the profits within. If Wang Dou were merely a lowly nobody, they would have copied this excellent method, plagiarized it, and stolen it—so what?

But at this moment, they did not dare.

The Loyal and Brave Count's might awed the world. If he were angered, what if he let them encounter Tartar bandits on the road? Although each person had deep backing, and many had close relationships with Hong Chengchou, Qiu Minyang, Wang Chengen, and others, it was not certain that their backers would fall out with Wang Dou to protect them.

Therefore, cooperating and sharing profits with Wang Dou was inevitable.

Behind the various Regional Commanders stood dense networks of merchants. They were the protectors or partners of the many merchant forces within their jurisdictions. In many industries within their territories, they held silent shares. Just like the successive Regional Commanders of Datong, who were, in fact, among the spokespersons for the Shanxi merchants.

The frontier armies' illicit trade with the lands beyond the passes had a long history. Before the Manchus rose, the Mongols were powerful. Back then, the officers and generals of the various frontier garrisons were already smuggling and transporting all sorts of scarce and prohibited commercial goods, making huge fortunes. They certainly could not do this openly, so the various merchants, large and small, were their partners.

These Regional Commanders, of course, had to speak for the merchants behind them and, incidentally, make some money for themselves. For a time, the stream of people saying they were visiting Wang Dou was endless.

Wang Dou had not expected that his flash of inspiration would create such a huge impact. In the end, he instructed Sun Sanjie, the officer of the Supply Battalion, to negotiate with each party. A series of agreements were reached, and a giant fishing industry trading company was formed.

Within this, the Loyal and Brave Count Wang Dou, Ji-Liao Viceroy Hong Chengchou, Army Supervisor Zhang Ruoqi, Army Supervisor Wang Chengen, Liaodong Provincial Governor Qiu Minyang, the various military defense circuit intendants of Liaodong, and also the many Regional Commanders currently in Liaodong all took shares, along with great merchants from various provinces and regions.

In their agreement, the dried fish produced was to be called "Wang Gong Fish," and the Eastern Route trademark was to be used uniformly. This was something everyone unanimously approved.

The Eastern Route was now famous far and wide. It seemed that commercial goods produced there were synonymous with excellent and fine quality. The Eastern Route's meat ceramic jars, products of the Shunxiang Fort brand, had actually already spread to other places, becoming objects sought after by many wealthy households of the Great Ming, not to mention the fine weapons.

Affixing the Eastern Route's commercial brand seemed to elevate the product's grade, making it more trusted by purchasers. It was just like some goods in later generations that were clearly domestically produced but insisted on adding a "joint venture" label or masquerading as foreign-made.

Wang Dou was happy to see this happen. Among these merchants, many were sea merchants from Tianjin, Shandong, Shanhai Pass, and Liaoxi. The Eastern Route Trading Company's alliance with them helped expand the power of the Eastern Route merchants. Dried fish could likewise become one of the Eastern Route's flagship commercial goods.

After the dried fish trading company was established, the fishermen along the Liaoxi coast immediately became hot commodities. Also, the sailors of the Longwu Naval Force on Juehua Island scrambled to go fishing.

This Longwu Naval Force was once the collective name for the five naval camps established by Sun Chengzong back then. However, during the great battle of Ningyuan, Wunage led the Later Jin cavalry to capture Juehua Island, and the various camps were destroyed. Although they were reorganized afterward, they were no longer as strong as before. Apart from transporting grain and fodder, this naval force had no other function.

Now, with the naval force going to sea to fish, their role was finally enhanced by another layer.

Besides the fishermen, numerous local military households familiar with the water, as well as the civilian laborers transporting grain, also scrambled to go to sea. For a time, the sea off Liaoxi was a scene of a thousand sails racing, bustling with extraordinary activity.

Especially since this was precisely the peak fishing season, in just a few short days, a large quantity of various sea fish was caught. Among the various workshops, dense rows of large cauldrons were set up. The sea fish, after having their scales scraped and entrails removed, were boiled until soft, then poured and spread flat on stone slabs to be sun-dried under the blazing sun. Afterward, they were rolled and pressed with stone rollers, and large sheets of long-preservable dried fish were produced.

Of course, this was only the lowest grade of dried fish. The fish ceramic jars consumed by the Jingbian Army involved cutting the fish into chunks, cooking them, and then adding appropriate amounts of seasonings like soy sauce, sugar, yeast wine, and oyster sauce. If vegetables were available, they were also added appropriately to supplement the nutrients needed by the human body. They were then sealed. In this way, the fish ceramic jars were delicious and could be stored for several months.

This kind of fish ceramic jar was mainly produced by the newly established workshops of the Eastern Route Trading Company near Songshan Fort. Besides supplying the Jingbian Army, they were also provided to the officers of the various Liaodong armies, or sold throughout the Great Ming to meet the needs of wealthy households.

Because the fish ceramic jars required a large amount of ceramics, it also spurred the prosperity of the ceramic trade in Liaodong. Moreover, the amount of dried fish to be supplied was too great, and every step of the process required a large workforce. Therefore, besides the fishermen, the numerous Liaodong military households and civilian grain transporters also obtained work.

The common people nowadays had become shrewd; they wanted grain, not silver. However, for their wages, at the very least, they could be paid using dried fish. In the eyes of many Liaodong soldiers and civilians, "Wang Gong Fish" had quickly become a second substitute grain.

For many soldiers and civilians, as long as they had meat to eat, they were satisfied and did not demand much more.

With his guard unit, and Jingbian Army officers like Han Chao, Zhong Xiancai, and Zhong Diaoyang, Wang Dou traveled along the Goddess Temple area, heading southeast along the coast.

The great sea surged, and the air was filled with the smell of the sea. Because the Huangtuling area was garrisoned by tens of thousands of troops, including Yang Guozhu's, Wang Pu's, and the Jingbian Army, their main camps stretched all the way to the banks of the Little Ling River, effectively blocking the Qing cavalry's infiltration into this area.

Therefore, from the southeast of the Goddess Temple down to the various coastal areas, the fish-drying yards and processing plants of the merchants were densely packed. The busy crowds were like ants, and the sounds of all kinds of work and production rose like the tide. Unceasingly, countless sails unloaded mountain-like piles of seafood from the various docks, a busy scene that drew the eye.

Perhaps because they had seen the sea so much these days, that feeling of fear and insignificance had lessened considerably. People like Zhong Xiancai no longer feared it as they did when they first saw the sea, but seeing this bustling scene, everyone still sighed with emotion.

Zhong Xiancai looked at Wang Dou with admiration and said, "The Grand General's gift of the dried fish technique, this one item alone, has saved countless lives. Truly a living Buddha to ten thousand families."

Everyone laughed, and Wang Dou also smiled and said, "Xiancai, you are becoming more and more eloquent."

He looked at the sea, feeling relaxed and joyful, and said, "Since I, Wang Dou, came to the Great Ming, what I am most proud of is changing the fates of so many people."