Chapter 733: Commotion

The heads of each department also serve five-year terms, counting from the establishment of the shogunate in the twelfth year of Chongzhen, with a maximum of two terms.

After a department head completes their term, if reassigned, they generally take a nominal post in the Education Department, the Staff Department, or the Oversight Department to serve in a supervisory or advisory capacity, or they take up a position in the military or civil affairs academies to contribute their remaining expertise.

Wang Dou newly established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — with foreign diplomatic matters set to increase in the future, establishing this ministry was highly necessary. Xie Youcheng, the Central Army Pacification Officer, was transferred to serve as its minister, and the Naturalization Department and the Information Department were placed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with a Colonization Department also added under the ministry.

Now all internal and external propaganda matters in the prefecture are managed by the Information Department. The former ambassador Liu Benshen was transferred to the Oversight Department — this former Embroidered Uniform Guard Company Commander has been shuffled around repeatedly, and in the end he has returned to his old line of work, also completely severing his ties with Wen Daxing.

His personality is gloomy and his ambition wild — whether he will engage in a power struggle with Chi Dacheng is hard to say.

Of course, the personnel appointments of the Central Army Department are only published in the military gazette, and the details of the Military Administration Department personnel are likewise glossed over in the Times, unlike the Civil Affairs Department and the Oversight Department, where each person's resume and post description are introduced to some extent.

In particular, the details concerning Li Zhifen and others are kept under an even higher degree of secrecy.

…

Beyond this, the Xuanfu Times also carried large-scale propaganda about the open recruitment of Protectorate clerical officers from the entire populace, the clerical officer examination system, the establishment of a bank, the development of Monan, and other detailed policies.

"…Applicants for clerical officer shall give priority to those of Han registry; however, regardless of whether one is a scholar, farmer, artisan, or merchant, and without restriction to Xuanfu Garrison, all who possess a heart devoted to serving the nation may apply… If accepted, they shall enter the Xuanfu Garrison Civil Affairs Academy for three months of intensive training, study various civil administration affairs, and be sent to local posts for half a year of practical training, after which they may be converted to formal section officers."

Reading the explanation in the newspaper, Ji Shiwei slowly paced his room, and finally made up his mind to give his son-in-law his full support, ordering all members of the Ji clan to go and take the examination.

Seeing the newspaper, Zhu Zhifeng and Wei Jingyuan spoke to each other — Wang Dou had not violated regulations, had not held imperial examinations, yet this was even more frightening than the imperial examinations. They feared that the scholars and talents of Shanxi would be swept away entirely by Wang Dou in one stroke.

Wei Jingyuan sneered: "Using talent without sticking to one mold — what a Wang Dou!"

Zhu Zhifeng said bitterly: "A motley mix of fish and dragons, a rabble of riffraff!"

Seeing the newspaper, Wu Zhi, the Department Magistrate of Yanqing, hurried to Guanshan Academy. To the many students below who were preparing to go apply, he wailed mournfully: "As sons of men, you should think of loyalty and righteousness, and take serving the imperial court as the highest duty — how can you be used by a local warlord? Gentlemen, you must think thrice."

The people below only remained silent. The path of the imperial examinations was like a thousand troops and ten thousand horses crossing a single bridge — those who passed were but a scant few. In the entire academy, how many in the end would pass the provincial exam, let alone become Metropolitan Graduates?

Even if one became a Metropolitan Graduate, how exceedingly difficult was it to secure an actual post? In the Great Ming, there were several hundred thousand Licentiates and Licentiates alone — how many of them ultimately became officials, and in the end did they not still have to fend for themselves?

With natural disasters and man-made calamities plaguing the Great Ming, where was there stability like that under the Eternal Peace Marquis's governance? Better to seek a stable livelihood. Moreover, applying for clerical officer was far easier than competing in the imperial examinations — to become an official so easily, this was the first time in the dynasty, even in several thousand years. How could one not be stirred?

…

In a teahouse in the garrison city, Lai Mancheng of the Sanjin Commercial Association and Zheng Jinglun sat facing each other. Old Fourth Zheng, who had become the association head, was even more portly now; over his silk garments he wore a luxurious fur coat. Looking at the newspaper, he murmured: "Our Zheng family ought to produce a few officials as well."

Although his two nieces had married Gao Shiyin and Han Chao respectively, Zheng Jinglun felt it would be best if their own Zheng family produced a few who served as officials or clerks.

This was a golden opportunity before them. How difficult it was to become an official through the imperial examinations — even for clerical posts, in the localities they were mostly monopolized by clerical families, and ordinary people could forget about squeezing through the door.

Being inside the garrison city, Lai Mancheng of course was not carrying that Green Dragon Crescent Blade; he still waved his trademark gold-dusted fan and curled his lip: "Being an official or a clerk is nothing interesting — better to pursue commerce. Now under the Grand General's governance, we can all make money lawfully, haha…"

He pointed to a few passages in the newspaper: "For instance, this trade route to Monan and Mobei — I, your humble servant, am extremely interested… Look, it says here that by the North Sea, where Su Wu herded sheep, the tribes around the lakes have furs and pelts in abundance. A mere iron pot can be traded for a huge pile — though there are some red-haired devils entrenched there…"

He muttered to himself: "Strange — didn't the red-haired barbarians come from the sea? How are they also on the northwestern side of the grasslands? …But no matter — assemble some escort companies, and exterminate any who dare obstruct us…"

After the last campaign beyond the frontier, Lai Mancheng was brimming with enthusiasm for plunder trade beyond the border — a few red-haired devils were nothing he took seriously. Their merchant association's armed force was no pushover, not to mention they could also pull in a band of Mongols as path-clearing vanguard when the time came.

With the gold mine precedent before them, Lai Mancheng and others also had full confidence in Wang Dou's credibility, and like many merchants, their fervor for opening up the frontier was extremely high.

Lai Mancheng was planning to assemble a merchant association expedition team, and he had even thought of a name for it: "North Sea Trading Company."

Confucius said: "Gong means the wealth of several people; si means the idea of operation and circulation."

Zhuangzi said: "Accumulating the small to make the high, combining the small to make the great, merging and uniting as the way of the public — this is called a company."

Taking the name of the merchant association from the words of the sages also lent it an air of grandeur. Lai Mancheng had heard that many commercial associations in Guangdong also called themselves companies, implying the pooling of many people's wealth and joint operation — it seemed he was not the first to choose such a name.

…

In Shanxi Garrison, this newspaper also quickly spread among the clans of the Zhang family, the Shen family, the Yang family, and the Li family, stirring fierce disputes within their clans.

Wang Dou had sent troops throughout Xuan-Da to raid and seize the family fortunes of Shanxi merchants. These renowned Shanxi official-gentry great families all had countless ties to those merchants. Though forced by circumstances they had ultimately abandoned those people, to say they bore any goodwill toward Wang Dou was absolutely impossible — hating him to the bone was simply the norm.

Yet when news came of Wang Dou's large-scale recruitment of clerical officers for the Anbei Protectorate, it stirred divided opinions within these families. Some still insisted on an irreconcilable stance against Wang Dou and flatly refused to let clan members participate in Wang Dou's power structure, but others believed that Wang Dou's ascendancy was already a fait accompli, and sending some family members to participate might not be inadvisable.

They even quoted words they themselves did not fully understand, but which Wang Dou had spoken: "In this world there are no eternal friends, no eternal enemies, only eternal interests!"

They held that water flows downward and people climb upward — with Wang Dou's power ascendant, one might as well go with the current; this was the way to maintain the family's interests in good condition. Disputes born of emotion were merely a path to inviting disaster.

Amid the fierce quarrels, the various families had no choice but to gather together and deliberate.

"Elder Zhang, we still need you to produce a set of guidelines."

Inside a magnificent great hall, they gathered in a dense crowd, whispering in consultation.

That aged voice which had once appeared in the garrison city said: "Hmph, that traitor Wang is indeed a wolf cub with wild ambitions. What he schemes is great indeed… However, for the sake of the family's wealth, rank, and future prospects, letting some sons and younger brothers go apply for clerical officer — why not? Don't put all your eggs in one basket. On this point, the Zu family of Liaodong once did very well."

The people below all looked at this elder with admiration. Back in the garrison city, they had deeply understood this old man's hatred for Wang Dou — he was even willing to quietly bide his time, waiting five years, ten years, all the way until the day opportunity came.

Yet now, without the slightest hesitation, he had clan sons and younger brothers participate — truly a man of both strategy and decisiveness. A family needed such a figure.

But one person hesitated: "Only, when applying for clerical officer, one must ultimately pass some sort of political… yes, a political vetting checkpoint. I fear the clan's sons and younger brothers will be weeded out in the end."

That aged voice said: "No matter — cast the net wide, and some fish will always be caught…"

In the end, the several families finally agreed to let a portion of their clan sons and younger brothers go apply. Setting aside each family's ulterior motives, the various families had branched out and spread over these many years, and there were no few impoverished sons within the clans — if they could pass the clerical officer exam, it would also count as a way to make a living.

After all, although the imperial court frequently cut off grain and pay, they had never yet heard of Wang Dou's clerical officers having their monthly grain cut off; add to that the merit value rewards, and it was even more stirring.

However, how exactly to apply still required careful deliberation.

Because their analysis showed that once one entered Wang Dou's various departmental systems, once a path was chosen, one could only follow that road all the way to the end in the future — just like the Civil Affairs Academy, with its engineering, agriculture, commerce, and other disciplines, which were already dividing ever more finely.

Different trades are worlds apart — which ministry, which discipline to apply for required prudent decision.

…

After the tenth day, as the news spread ever more widely, it seemed the whole of Shanxi was stirred into commotion.

Especially as the newspapers spread to various places, not only in Shanxi but even among the scholars and commoners of the remaining provinces, there were quite a few whose hearts were stirred. Naturally, those in the garrison villages under Wang Dou's governance were the most enthusiastic, and one after another people packed their bags, preparing to participate in the clerical officer examinations.

Apart from this, the news in the newspapers about immigration and land reclamation was also extremely eye-catching.

According to what was stated, the Monan land reclamation would be divided into several forms.

One form was commercial land reclamation, just as the imperial court had done in the mid-Ming period — encouraging and safeguarding commercial land reclamation.

During the time of the Kaizhong system, commercial land reclamation had once flourished greatly in the Nine Frontier Garrisons. Historical records state that many wealthy Shanxi merchants "used their own wealth, recruited their own migrants, reclaimed their own frontier lands, cultivated their own grains, built their own watchtowers, and established their own fortified settlements," forming village after village. When commercial land reclamation prospered, the frontier lands were fully cultivated, and grain below the frontier piled up and overflowed from storage, surpassing the central plains in abundance.

When frontier grain was plentiful, it even reached the point where a peck of millet was worth only three fen of silver. In Yansui, Liaodong, Ningxia, and the three passes of northern Shanxi, it was common that one tael of silver could buy five shi of rice; generally one tael of silver could buy four or five shi of rice, and the frontier grain market was quite prosperous.

But because of Ye Qi's reform — arguing that since grain had been expensive and silver cheap in the past, grain was collected, but now that silver was expensive and grain cheap, silver should be collected — the Kaizhong system was abolished and a commuted silver tax system was implemented. Although the state profited considerably for a time, increasing revenue by over a million taels of silver annually, it also completely destroyed the foundation of commercial land reclamation, trading short-term gain for long-term calamity — truly an act of government faithlessness, shortsighted to the extreme.

Commercial land reclamation was in truth a great aid to the state, and Wang Dou naturally would not abandon it. For him, the more grain the better — not to mention that the Great Ming was short of grain everywhere at present, even if the grain were more than the Chinese people could finish eating, were there not foreign countries? He who controls the grain controls the lifeline.

Then there were the civilian colonies, which fell into several categories — one being people with the means to purchase land.

For example, many Han-registered households in Xuanfu Garrison, or wealthy gentry and merchants from various parts of Shanxi: if a family of five, after paying the land purchase fee, could own a total of no more than one hundred fifty mu or less of pasture and farmland, with partial fallowing permitted; and after residing and cultivating it for a full five years, they would obtain permanent ownership of that land.

In terms of price, Han-registered households generally received the most favorable rates — perhaps several mu for a single tael of silver — and after residing and cultivating it for a full three years, they could obtain permanent ownership of that land.

Of course, those lacking sufficient means could pool together several families to purchase; any resulting property disputes were handled by a specialized department already established by the Civil Affairs Ministry.

For the even poorer refugee-type populace, the Protectorate was specifically set up to gather them, establishing large farm-like garrison colonies, providing rations and collective labor; those who distinguished themselves could become Han-registered and then be allocated land — just like Wang Dou’s current garrison colony system, which in Wang Dou’s plan would also serve as the main force for land reclamation.

However, these plans were still too slow to meet urgent needs — no one knew how long it would take before grain was truly abundant. To speed up grain production and quickly acquire the needed grain capital, Wang Dou would temporarily establish military colonies, with the Jingbian Army’s officers and soldiers doing the farming.

After the reclamation plan was announced in the newspapers, it drew the interest of many; among the common people, the topic was being discussed everywhere with great excitement.