Chapter 261: Mahjong

Although differences exist among the Yao people — their languages may even be mutually unintelligible — if Zhao Han takes a Yao woman as a concubine, it will certainly bring him closer to all Yao people. At the very least, it adds one more bond to draw the ethnic groups together!

In the Ming dynasty, Guangdong province had 857 Yao mountains and a further 26 Yao villages.

This figure does not yet count the 43 Yao mountains in Huaiji County, because Huaiji County belonged to Guangxi during the Ming.

If we wish to consolidate our rule over Guangdong, the Yao people must be pacified, and marriage alliance is the swiftest means.

Moreover, those "cooked" Yao who are willing to be registered as common households should be given normal treatment; they must not be ordered about and casually discriminated against.

The productivity of the cooked Yao is hardly low. Not only do they command terrace-farming techniques, but historical records say they "make their living chiefly by farming and weaving," and they are especially skilled at weaving "Yao brocade." During the Zhengde reign, when they rose in revolt, they even built their own Lügong siege carts to attack city walls — a contraption many Han artisans could not produce.

Sailing south by boat, Zhao Han spent the entire journey chatting idly with the Yao envoys.

Then he discovered, to his surprise, that Guangdong actually still had Yao villages, and within those Yao villages there were also great landlords.

These Yao villages would of course be the first to be put to the knife. Apart from preserving their customs, they had already been largely sinicized, and most of the Yao villagers could even speak Cantonese. Strike the landlords and divide the land directly, then establish schools — and the hearts of the lower Yao people could be won at once!

"Elder Brother," Pan Maiwei suggested, "from now on, do not let military officers serve as Yao officials again, nor let men who bought their posts serve. They are all rotten to the core. Every time the Yao people rise in revolt, it is these wicked officials who drove them to it."

Zhao Han smiled. "I understand all that."

"Yao official" was a common term for those subordinate to department and county yamens; their posts were mostly Clerk or Registrar and the like. They had no other authority — their sole duty was to govern the Yao people.

They came chiefly from three sources:

First, individual Yao who had attached themselves to the government.

Second, Han Chinese who had been summoned to pacify or had quelled a Yao uprising.

Third, local Han who had bought their posts with money.

No matter which sort, once they became a Yao official, they would all plunder the Yao common folk with insane rapacity.

This phenomenon existed among other minority peoples as well; they had long been in a position of oppression.

After careful thought, Zhao Han decided to appoint "Tianzhang Gong" as Yao Chief.

A Yao Chief with strong power would be akin to a town chief; one with weak power would be akin to a village head.

At the same time, a "Yao Liaison Officer" would be specially established in the department and county yamens. Once schools were set up and everything was on the right track, teachers from Yao-area schools would be given priority for promotion to Yao Liaison Officer.

After disembarking in Ganzhou, Zhao Han crossed the Meiling Pass and arrived at Nanxiong Prefecture in northern Guangdong, where Chen Maosheng had long been waiting.

They continued journeying south by boat.

Inside the cabin, Zhao Han discussed the Yao question with Chen Maosheng for a while, and then they turned to the subject of the vast numbers of Hakka people.

Chen Maosheng said: "The Hakka people are devout believers in feng shui. Any well-to-do family, if they cannot find an auspicious site, would rather leave the coffin unburied than inter it. Furthermore, there are phenomena like selling graves and stealing burials, fighting over mountains and dragon veins, and repeated reburials. Some time ago, Liu Zhu led three thousand men to attack Xingning, and the Xingning garrison was also only three thousand — a great battle of merely six thousand men. At the very same time, the Hakka people of Xingning were also fighting a battle: over a single grave site, the two sides mustered more than five thousand people in total."

Zhao Han did not know whether to laugh or cry at this.

Two battles, fought simultaneously, each on a scale of about six thousand men. One battle was for control of a county seat; the other battle was for a grave site.

Chen Maosheng continued: "It is not only in Guangdong. The Hakka have also carried this vile feng shui custom into Jiangxi, and corrupted the Jiangxi natives with it. The Ganzhou Prefectural School, which teaches the books of the sages, moved three times in a hundred years — all out of feng shui considerations. Whenever Ganzhou produced no jinshi for many years, the local gentry would collude to relocate the prefectural school."

Zhao Han asked: "How do you think we should strike at this vile custom?"

Chen Maosheng replied: "First, by legislation; second, by moral instruction."

Many outsiders, Chen Maosheng among them, could not understand why the common people of southern Jiangxi, western Fujian, and northeastern Guangdong would leave coffins unburied and rebury their dead repeatedly.

When some people's parents died, if they could not find an auspicious site, they would leave the coffin sitting for as long as ten years. Others, upon finding a better grave site, would dig up their parents and rebury them — some doing so five or six times. These practices gravely violated traditional moral principles, for it was universally held that one should "rest in peace once laid in the earth."

"Selling graves and stealing burials" was even more repulsive: digging out the bones from another family's grave and secretly burying one's own kin's bones there, thus seizing that auspicious site — and, rumor had it, stealing away the original grave-owner family's fortune.

Zhao Han handed over the Great Unity Community Compact. "Add a few articles yourself, specifically for the failure to bury and for reburial."

Chen Maosheng leafed through a few pages and promptly smiled. "This is a very fine thing."

Zhao Han added: "We must also bring the Buddhists and Daoists into line, and strike at the feng shui masters. All feng shui masters must register with the authorities and receive a license within a set time. Give them three months. Anyone practicing feng shui for profit without a license will be seized and sent to dig in the mountains! When issuing the licenses, warn the feng shui masters that they are forbidden to incite the common people to rebury or to leave their dead unburied. Any violation, and they will be seized and sent to dig in the mountains! Under our rule, there are mines everywhere now — we can stuff in as many miners as we catch!"

"And if the feng shui master advises against it, but a great household insists on leaving the dead unburied or reburying them?" Chen Maosheng asked.

Zhao Han answered: "The feng shui master may report them. If he fails to report them and is caught, he goes to the mines all the same." He added, "Also, starting this year, anyone who leaves a body unburied or reburies one — their sons and grandsons shall be barred from holding office, and any who already hold office shall be dismissed at once. If there are special circumstances that truly require reburial, they must apply to the authorities and file a record."

"Barred from office — that strikes at the vital point," said Chen Maosheng. "We could add one more article: any violator shall be barred from engaging in any monopoly trade."

Salt, iron, tea, alum, grain... these were all monopoly commodities, requiring a license issued by the authorities, and Zhao Han had decreed that monopoly licenses must be renewed once every ten years.

Alum came in many varieties — potash alum, chalcanthite, green vitriol, yellow vitriol, white alum, and so on — and was used in pickling, cooking, cosmetics, washing products, medicinals, papermaking, ink-making, dyeing, fireworks, smelting, military affairs, and many other fields.

For this reason, alum had been a monopoly commodity since the Song dynasty.

The Patent Law that Zhao Han was about to promulgate would be printed and distributed in large numbers to alum workshops, to encourage artisans to improve the alum-making process. This stuff belonged to the chemical arts, and he hoped that chemical talents might emerge from it.

Moreover, regarding the application of alum, Song Yingxing had pored over ancient texts and produced a new contraption — one that could well be called a sharp weapon for riverine warfare.

Wrap gunpowder in gelatin-alum paper to make underwater explosive packs, mixing in lime, chili powder, and the like. Coat the outer layer with sulfur mixed with quicklime; when the quicklime meets water, it releases heat and ignites the sulfur, and the sulfur in turn ignites the explosive pack. Use an on-board trebuchet to hurl this object onto the water's surface, and it will explode on contact with water — and it will leap up as it explodes, causing the battlefield to be filled everywhere with drifting lime and chili powder.

Once you hold the upwind position, you can make the enemy wish they were dead.

Among these components, the gelatin-alum paper was extremely important, for it ensured the gunpowder was not soaked through by water.

In the Battle of Caishiji during the Song-Jin wars, the Southern Song used this very device, achieving an unexpected effect.

Chen Maosheng spoke again: "Western Fujian, southern Jiangxi, and northeastern Guangdong — these are where the Hakka people chiefly dwell. All three regions have barren land. The Hakka of southern Jiangxi have a shorter history of development, while in western Fujian and northeastern Guangdong, commerce is extremely flourishing. In these places, land redistribution is actually very easy to carry out, for they do not rely on farming for their livelihood in the first place. What is truly difficult is forcing them to divide their households."

Zhao Han said: "It will be like with many great clans — after dividing the household, they need not live apart. It is enough that their household registrations are divided; the houses and property can be regarded as held in common. How could a Hakka roundhouse possibly house only one family?"

"These measures are sufficient to pacify the Hakka people," Chen Maosheng said with a smile.

Zhao Han emerged from the cabin and gazed at the scenery on both banks of the Zhen River. His thoughts turning to the smooth progress of the western campaign and the southern advance, he was moved to recite: "When the hour comes, Heaven and Earth join their strength; when fortune departs, even a hero is not free. For us, Heaven and Earth are joining their strength — but can that Chongzhen fellow be counted a hero?"

Hu Mengtai, who had accompanied Zhao Han south, could not help sighing: "That Majesty in Beijing, I fear, can only be counted a wretched victim."

Zhang Bingwen said: "If that Emperor were not so headstrong, self-righteous, suspicious, and inconsistent, then given his diligence in governance and frugality, he too could be called one for whom 'fortune departs and even a hero is not free.'"

Abruptly, Zhao Han asked Hu Mengtai: "I hear you brought mahjong?"

Hu Mengtai's expression turned awkward. "An occasional itch in the fingers. I did not invite anyone to gamble — we only played a little on the boat."

"I'm not reproaching you," said Zhao Han, rubbing his hands together. "The whole journey by boat is dreary and dull, and I haven't played mahjong in quite a few years myself. Today, let's all have a bit of fun together."

He called Chen Maosheng and Zhang Bingwen over as well, and the four sat around together to play.

The backs of the mahjong tiles were made of bamboo, and the faces were carved from ox horn, the patterns painted in two colors — they looked extremely exquisite.

After all these years, mahjong had spread across half of Jiangxi, and was also quite popular in western Zhejiang and western Fujian; elsewhere, it was beginning to catch on through traveling merchants. Because it had spread out from Yanshan, it was also called "Yanshan tile-play," and in another few decades it would likely have spread across the entire realm.

"Four people playing cards doesn't count as a gambling party. Today, a small wager just for amusement," Zhao Han said with a laugh.

"Fine by me!" Zhang Bingwen had already been taught how to play by Hu Mengtai.

Both of these private secretaries came from well-off families. Zhao Han and Chen Maosheng, on the other hand, were dirt poor, living entirely on their meager fixed salaries.

Chen Maosheng was especially poor. Holding up his chips, he said, "One chip for one wen. Any more and I can't afford to play."

"Fine, one wen it is," Zhao Han said with a laugh.

Zhang Bingwen and Hu Mengtai exchanged a glance, both sighing with deep emotion.

If they should seize the realm, Zhao Han would be the Emperor, and Chen Maosheng would be the Minister of the Ministry of Rites. Yet here these two were playing cards, their stakes calculated in individual wen. Since ancient times, among all who rose in rebellion, who had ever been so incorruptible and frugal?

And those northwestern roving bandits — back when they captured Fengyang, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng had actually fallen out with each other over plundering eunuchs and ritual music paraphernalia.

Comparing the two, one could see that Zhao Han was a man fit to sit upon the realm.

"Pong! Eight of bamboos."

"Hold on, I've won! Hahahaha!"

Bursts of laughter rang out from the deck. The fleet sailed on toward Shaozhou Prefecture; those Yao envoys were all on the boat behind.

The weather was overcast today, the sun nowhere to be seen, and the heat was stifling and oppressive.

Even Zhao Han's undershirt was soaked through with sweat, yet his mood was exceptionally cheerful. He was looking forward to reaching Guangzhou to deal with the merchants, and incidentally to personally win over Zheng Zhilong.

As for the Eight Rows Yao, their tens of thousands of insurgents had already dispersed. Each row and each valley was now holding beauty contests to select the prettiest sa-yao maidens.

(End of chapter)