Chapter 33: Relieving Worries

Ge Wu and the others certainly could not understand the concept of sustainable development, but they did grasp the simple logic that the more soldiers and horses one had, the more territory one could seize, and the more territory one held, the more troops one could recruit.

Once their own forces were strong and their horses sturdy, they would not need to worry about the Qing army snatching back the silver they had robbed.

In the end, with Boss Hu making the final call once more, everyone unanimously agreed to use half the silver for recruiting soldiers and buying horses, while the rest would be kept in Song Xianggong's custody for the time being and distributed once the situation stabilized.

Zhou Shixiang was naturally satisfied with this outcome. He could not possibly preach national righteousness to these bandits, most of whom were illiterate, or call on them to throw away their heads and shed their blood in a grand and stirring struggle for national salvation.

Only by turning the anti-Qing cause into a simple matter of getting rich or not, how to get rich, and how to get rich without others coveting what you had — talk of robbing money, robbing grain, and robbing women, the kind of words bandits loved to hear and understood — could he make them throw themselves into it willingly.

Otherwise, things would most likely turn out contrary to his wishes.

Zhou Shixiang had originally wanted to handle the recruitment personally, but since the grain supply was still unresolved, he put Zhao Sihai and Peng Dazhu in charge instead, instructing them to recruit more able-bodied young men from disaster-stricken families.

The silver was to be laid out openly: anyone willing to become a soldier would immediately receive two taels of settling-in silver. At the same time, he stressed repeatedly that they must take only men of good family, and absolutely must not admit anyone of bad character.

Those who worked as shop assistants in the city's stores were also firmly rejected — such men were too slick.

The benefits of recruiting good-family men as soldiers were naturally clear to Zhao Sihai and Peng Dazhu. Back when the two of them served in the Ming army, they had seen the difference between good-family men and seasoned shirkers.

In battle, it was the good-family men, especially country folk, who were the most dependable and obedient, while the city crowd truly could not be relied on — the moment the cannons sounded they ran, and you could not catch them even if you chased.

After a battle, the ones who died in greatest numbers were also the good-family men, for no other reason than that they were honest.

Ge Wu had been clamoring to go recruiting too, but Zhou Shixiang feared that the two brothers, with their fierce, fleshy faces and bandit air, would frighten the common folk and produce the opposite effect, so he firmly refused and instead told the two of them to follow him to handle another matter.

To make the recruitment look more official and win the people's trust, Zhou Shixiang had someone fetch several military uniforms that the women had washed and mended that afternoon, and had Zhao Sihai and the others put them on. That way, they truly looked like the Ming army.

Zhou Shixiang also had a clerk, in Song Xianggong's name, invite all the gentry and wealthy households of the city to the yamen, intending to discuss with them the matter of donating money and grain.

This sort of business was something Boss Hu could not help with and had no interest in, so as before, he let Zhou Shixiang and Song Xianggong handle it, while he himself took the remaining men to keep guarding the Qing prisoners.

Every wealthy household necessarily had gentry, and by gentry was meant men who held examination degrees.

Whether under the Ming or the Qing, degree-holding scholars were granted preferential treatment and exempted from taxes, and among the common people there was even the practice of donating large tracts of land to them to evade taxes.

Thus, once a man passed the examinations, a poor man became rich, and over time his family naturally became a wealthy household.

By the same logic, if a wealthy household produced no degree-holder among its sons, over time it would most likely decline, which was why families that had become wealthy took their sons' studies with particular seriousness.

Although Luoding was a directly administered department of Guangdong, it lay in the west of the province, bordering Guangxi, and its culture and scholarship could not compare with places like Guangzhou in the east.

Therefore, there were few degree-holding scholars in the department, and the surviving wealthy households were pitifully few. After several years of war, only six families in the city could now be called wealthy.

Of these six, three held degrees and had served in office: the Qi family of Qi Yuantai, who had been a secretary in the Nanjing Ministry of Works under the Ming; the Wu family of Wu Qingde, who had served in the Court of State Ceremonial under the short-lived Hongguang reign; and the Zhang family of Zhang Changquan, who had been an assistant prefect of Huai'an.

All three were Guangdong men, yet without exception they had held office in other provinces, for the simple reason that Ming regulations forbade a man from serving as an official in his home province.

The other three wealthy households differed from these three, having become wealthy not through examination degrees. One was the Lin family, which ran the Datong Rice Shop and had been in the grain trade for nearly thirty years.

Its owner was none other than the shopkeeper Lin who had voluntarily offered grain last night to settle the refugees — his full name was Lin Wanfu, which sounded most auspicious.

Another was the Yang family, which dealt in cloth. In terms of family wealth they could not compare with the Lins, but their household was large, with nearly a hundred members young and old, making them beyond dispute the largest family in Luoding.

The remaining one, the Zhao family, had produced a vice minister of one of the Six Ministries generations ago.

Although the family had since declined, that vice-minister ancestor had purchased large amounts of land in his hometown while alive, with the result that the Zhaos became Luoding's biggest landlords — nearly half the good farmland outside the city belonged to their family.

Apart from these people, the highest office anyone from Luoding had attained in the past dozen or so years was Wang Long, who had been a vice magistrate of Linchang Department in Shandong.

After the Jiashen Incident, unwilling to shave his head and surrender to the Qing, he burned himself and his entire family to death after the Qing army breached the city — a man worthy of being called loyal and heroic.

There was also Guo Xueqing, who had been county magistrate of Ji'an in Jiangxi under the Ming, but he had surrendered to the Qing without any backbone and had now been promoted to prefect of Jiujiang; most of his family in Luoding had gone with him to his post.

Beyond these, the city had seven xiucai, including Lu Changyuan and the others who worked in the department yamen.

By the time they arrived it was already dark, but Song Xianggong received them in the main hall of the yamen all the same.

Zhou Shixiang had earlier made it clear through Lu Changyuan that if a single person failed to appear, he would be held accountable, so all six families were present, with not one missing.

When the group entered the hall, they saw that besides "His Excellency Song" and that somewhat scholarly-looking General Zhou, there were also two fierce-looking dark-faced men standing by the side of the hall with their hands on their swords.

Seeing everyone staring at him, Ge Wu immediately glared, which at once made the timid Lin Wanfu shudder and not dare steal another glance.

"We pay our respects to His Excellency Song (General Zhou)!"

The group came forward and bowed together to Song Xianggong, then saluted Zhou Shixiang as well, after which they stood waiting for Song Xianggong to speak.

Song Xianggong put on the airs he had used as county magistrate of Yancheng under the Qing, waved his hand lazily, then gestured for everyone to sit on the stools that had long been prepared.

He then swept his gaze over them and said, "Luoding has now been recovered by our Ming army. From this day forward, you are subjects of the Great Ming.

You may cut off those queues on your heads when you return home."

Before Qi Yuantai, Wu Qingde, and the others could speak, Lin Wanfu had already rushed to cry out, "This queue — this humble subject has long wanted to cut it off! Rest assured, Your Excellency, the moment this humble subject returns home, he will certainly cut it off!"

Lin Wanfu wore a fawning smile all over his face as he said this. Qi Yuantai and the others inwardly despised him, but with their mouths they all said they would respectfully obey His Excellency's command.

"This official is of meager talent, yet has been appointed by the court as prefect of Luoding.

As the father-and-mother official of this place, upon taking office this official ought to protect the region and bring peace to the people. However, there is one matter before us that urgently requires your assistance.

Might I ask whether you gentlemen can relieve this official's worries?"