[{"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-601":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},1205890,1561,"Chapter 601: White-Hot Intensity","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-601",601,"\u003Cp>Old White Ox: Power outage tomorrow — I’ll see if I can write another chapter and post it then.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Eastern Route Intelligence Division’s rescue teams, arrest squads, traitor-elimination units, assassination teams, and the like — though to outsiders they all seem shrouded in fog — do have their distinctions. The arrest squads operate somewhat in the open, while the rest stay more in the shadows; the assassination teams in particular are so secretive that even ordinary Intelligence Division personnel could never learn their identities.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thanks to Wang Dou’s vigorous support, the Shogunate Intelligence Division’s agents had long since extended their coverage across the three garrisons of Xuan-Da and throughout Shanxi. By mid-to-late October, when rumors began spreading through the capital and across Shanxi, counterfeit grain tickets appeared, a boycott movement arose in outer garrisons and circuits, and grain tickets everywhere faced a run, the Intelligence Division had already fixed its attention on certain hidden masterminds behind the scenes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Eastern Route’s remaining Shogunate personnel also responded urgently. After Wang Dou marched out on campaign, the highest-ranking figures on the Eastern Route were his mother, Lady Zhong, the Countess Dowager of Taibo, and his principal wife, Countess Xie Xiuniang. The various officers gathered at the Grand General’s residence for emergency discussions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After seeking instructions from the two ladies, Liu Benshen, the Intelligence Division’s chief of internal affairs, traveled personally to the capital to report to Grand General Wang Dou, who was returning to court with his army. Following Wang Dou’s five-step plan and his directive to first hold the line, wait for the main army to come home, and then wipe them all out in one sweep, they responded vigorously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the Eastern Route was largely self-sufficient, resembling a closed little kingdom, goods such as tea, cloth, salt, tobacco, dyestuffs, medicinal herbs, silks, and satins still mostly had to be imported from outside. To strengthen external ties, they also purchased large quantities of coal, iron, and other materials from outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Grain and fodder went without saying — they bought as much as they could.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the great merchant houses united to boycott the export of Eastern Route commercial goods and simultaneously cut off the import of various trade goods, the Shogunate officers dispatched large numbers of personnel to maneuver and split them apart, while also putting out word that those who opposed the Grand General and the Eastern Route should think twice before acting!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The language carried a heavy implication of settling scores after the autumn harvest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Events proved that interest groups fear only might, not virtue. Wang Dou’s prestige was awe-inspiring; contemplating the consequences of opposing him, some merchants hesitated — especially many merchants in the remaining circuits of Xuanfu Garrison. The Loyal and Brave Count would soon take up residence in the garrison city, placing them under his direct jurisdiction, and the man was ruthless. Was opposing him wise?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, after the Shogunate put out its warning, the encirclement began to crack open slightly in a few places.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the Eight Great Families had deep-rooted influence throughout Shanxi and Xuan-Da, with countless officials, merchants, and military officers shielding them. The encirclement grew ever tighter. They raised the slogan: not a single grain of rice, a pinch of salt, or a ladle of water would be allowed into the Eastern Route’s territory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nor would a single Eastern Route meat-jar or leather coat be permitted to enter any place outside the Eastern Route — to make these bloodsuckers lose every last copper of their capital.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They also mobilized forces to ambush and slaughter merchant caravans transporting goods into the Eastern Route. A merchant house close to Ji Shiwei, the Viceroy of Xuan-Da, was escorting salt and tea from Yanghe; just after entering the Tiancheng Guard zone, before even nearing Xuanfu Garrison, its caravan personnel were massacred to the last man.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That merchant himself was stuffed into a sack and trampled to death under horse hooves — a death too gruesome to behold. Afterward, all parties declared that this was the work of northern barbarians from beyond the frontier, and moreover a vicious reprisal brought on by the Loyal and Brave Count’s unauthorized forays beyond the passes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because raiding horsemen had entered the passes and slaughtered soldiers and civilians, the Assistant Regional Commander of Tiancheng Guard and the Garrison Commander of Baiyangkou, both on good terms with Ji Shiwei, came under heavy censure and were very likely to lose their posts. Even Viceroy Ji Shiwei himself was placed in an extremely passive position; a circuit inspector had already submitted an impeachment, and the capital’s censors were stirring at the rumor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among the prohibited imports, salt carried the greatest weight, with tea second. Salt especially — Xuanfu Garrison’s various districts produced no salt. The Great Ming’s salt ponds and saltworks were concentrated mainly in southern Shanxi, Sichuan, the northwest, and coastal sea-salt areas such as Shandong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Salt is a daily necessity of life. The Eastern Route now had a population of nearly six hundred thousand, consuming at least twenty thousand catties of salt per month. A prolonged salt shortage would cause hair to turn white, bodies to swell, all manner of strange illnesses, and even loss of life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the soldiers — if they could not get salt replenishment, their physical condition would certainly decline markedly, severely weakening the army’s combat effectiveness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tea was likewise a daily necessity; for the common people of the Central Plains, drinking tea every day had become a habit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If things like soy sauce and vinegar were lacking, that would also bring no small vexation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Great Ming, after the implementation of the Kaizhong Law, merchants everywhere had been transporting grain and fodder to the frontier garrisons in exchange for salt certificates. For a hundred years, the transport and sale of grain and fodder for the various frontier armies — especially the Xuan-Da frontier armies — had been essentially controlled by merchants, and in particular by Shanxi merchants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over many years, their hands had reached in every direction, and many of the frontier garrisons’ supplies depended on their deliveries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If their deliveries were not timely, the frontier armies of the various garrisons faced the threat of freezing and starvation, and provoking mutiny was a minor matter. Thus in the Great Ming dynasty, the power of the merchants could not be underestimated; they already bore a strong resemblance to the trusts of later ages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the consequences were too grave for them to dare halt grain and fodder supplies to the three garrisons of Xuan-Da, they had already stopped supplying grain to the Eastern Route — especially salt and tea. This move could be called sinister in the extreme…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, because of the spreading rumors, the power of the gentry and merchants at this time, and the backwardness of information, many soldiers and civilians outside the Eastern Route had already developed ill feelings toward Wang Dou. Eastern Route merchants traveling abroad, once warmly welcomed, now found themselves treated like rats crossing the street.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In late October, outside the Eastern Route, even in the remaining circuits of Xuanfu Garrison, counterfeit grain tickets suddenly flooded in like a disaster. With certain people secretly fanning the flames, local military households and civilians mobbed and overwhelmed some of the redemption points set up in outlying areas. Eastern Route official shops rushed grain to support them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But because the routes were long and had to pass through region after region saturated with hostility, the grain convoys were frequently intercepted and ambushed. In the end, these redemption points all had to be withdrawn back into the Eastern Route, with only a few strongholds retained within several circuits of Xuanfu Garrison itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because of this upheaval, the grain tickets circulating outside — originally rock-solid and steadily rising in purchasing power — saw their face value drop layer by layer. In some places they eventually became little more than waste paper; merchants and commoners refused to accept them. Restoring everyone’s confidence in using grain tickets would likely be no easy matter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for the merchants outside the garrison and circuit who had been friendly and cooperative with the Eastern Route, being suppressed, even surrounded and cursed at, was merely routine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this point, based on intelligence gathered by the Intelligence Division, the Eastern Route began its counterattack — rescuing friendly merchants and smashing one counterfeit-ticket den after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They also struck back tit for tat, targeting Shanxi and the Xuan-Da garrisons. Those within their borders who sheltered or participated in printing counterfeit tickets, or who ambushed merchant caravans and grain convoys — whether civil officials or military officers — were subjected to large-scale execution, assassination, and covert elimination!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With ample funding, from late October to mid-November, the Intelligence Division smashed nearly a hundred counterfeit-ticket dens across Xuan-Da, Shanxi, even other provinces, and the capital itself. They executed those who sheltered counterfeit-ticket printers and those who participated in ambushing or intercepting merchant caravans entering or leaving the circuit — the minor hidden accomplices — numbering as many as several dozen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among the dead, the highest-ranking was a Vice Regional Commander of Shanxi Garrison, who, while passing through a certain place, was blasted to pieces directly by a cannon’s grapeshot!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Eastern Route’s response shocked every region. The several great families and their interest groups, though their rhetoric grew even more vehement and they displayed even more furious indignation, desperately spreading propaganda in their spheres of influence and turning black into white, were inwardly uneasy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They no longer dared to ambush merchant caravans entering or leaving the Eastern Route. Nor did they dare print counterfeit tickets again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the merchants within the alliance were panicked; many began to hesitate and watch from the sidelines. Their encirclement of the Eastern Route was on the verge of collapse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, merchants are cowards at heart, and a merchant bloc can never compare with a cohesive agrarian bloc.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In response, the Fan family once again contacted the great families to confer, desperately trying to bolster everyone’s morale. Just then, word arrived from the capital: Wang Dou, in league with the frontier armies of various garrisons, was clamoring and coercing the court, refusing to enter the capital to receive his rewards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Heaven helps me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was the thought in every participant’s mind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though secretly alarmed at how immense Wang Dou’s power had become, they also saw his action as further proof of the earlier rumors. As Fan Sanba put it: “Wang Dou is so overbearing — what will His Majesty think? What will the various lords at court think? If his heart harbored no treacherous designs, would he commit such an act, devoid of sovereign and father?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They rallied once more, waiting for the court’s reaction on one hand while waging a trade war against the Eastern Route on the other.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Events had proven that methods like counterfeit tickets and ambushing merchant caravans only provoked the Eastern Route bloc into more violent responses — truly a case of killing ten thousand enemies while losing eight thousand of one’s own. Conventional trade-war tactics better suited their tastes, and could also demonstrate to the world the solidity of their strength and a posture of winning people over by virtue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seizing this opportunity, the Eastern Route Shogunate stepped up its lobbying of merchants in the outer circuits, striving to restore trade and supply lines, while also receiving directives from Wang Dou, who was in the capital closely monitoring the situation’s development.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although treacherous merchants harmed the nation and shamelessly printed counterfeit tickets to victimize the common people, once the dust settled, the Eastern Route pledged that all counterfeit tickets held by soldiers and civilians would not only be redeemable at full value like genuine tickets, but the victims would also receive a certain compensation — the face value would be increased by about thirty percent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, a counterfeit grain ticket with a face value of one dou could be redeemed for one dou and three sheng of top-grade rice or flour.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the Intelligence Division distributed over a thousand catties of handbills across Xuan-Da and Shanxi with this news, although the great families desperately tried to denounce it, wherever the handbills reached, wave after wave of sensation followed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countless victims of the counterfeit tickets hurriedly retrieved the tickets they had angrily thrown into the trash, quietly put them away, and harbored hope in their hearts. If that black-hearted — no, kind-hearted, country-and-people-serving, loyal, brave, and fearless Loyal and Brave Count Wang Dou was telling the truth, then that paper ticket in their hands, in this year of great disaster, would be a treasure that could keep a whole family alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though many were half-doubting, nearly everyone who received the news carefully kept their counterfeit tickets. There were even black-hearted merchants who began buying up counterfeit grain tickets at high prices. After word spread, people from every household hid their counterfeit grain tickets even more tightly, and on the black market, the value of counterfeit grain tickets actually rose steadily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In response to the great families’ blockade of grain and salt against the Eastern Route, the Eastern Route also reacted. Under the cover of armed force, they dispatched merchant caravans to purchase salt and tea vigorously from the capital region, Baoding, Zhending, and other places, even as far as Shandong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon learning of the Eastern Route’s plight, Xu Yue’e, Hu Dawei, and others close to Wang Dou also gathered salt and tea within their territories and transported them in force to Laishui, then transshipped them to the Eastern Route. Many, many others also extended a helping hand. Wang Dou’s habitual generosity in building ties and his open-handed boldness now brought him great returns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, within the circuit, the Shogunate began implementing a rationing system, ensuring that stockpiles of salt and tea everywhere would last at least three months to half a year. Wang Dou’s wife and mother led by example, both adhering to the minimum salt ration standard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through close reconnaissance, and investigations dating far back, by this time the Intelligence Division had amassed mountains of evidence of the great families’ treasonous dealings with the enemy. The records in the ledgers of the civil officials and military officers everywhere who colluded with them had also exceeded two hundred names.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Following Wang Dou’s directive, they made no move for now. Once the trade war ended and the main army returned, they would wipe them all out in one sweep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Entering November, the trade war between the Eastern Route and the great families raged like wildfire, reaching a white-hot intensity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To calm the people’s hearts within the circuit, in early November, the Countess, Wang Dou’s principal wife Xie Xiuniang, began a tour of inspection of the Eastern Route’s cities and fortresses.\u003C\u002Fp>",2459,"2026-06-03T14:06:10.567Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","50e61e6ac4bc4f9fd86aa6e6cb02b2516193340e206fa993ac72f4dda6a29b28","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-602","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-600",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]