Chapter 416: Settling In and Vicious Spats

Later generations often say: there's nothing money can't solve. This saying held just as true in the seventeenth century: once Commander Cao indicated he was willing to pay rent, everything ceased to be a problem.

Several intermediate officials with deep ties to the canal immediately expressed their stance: as long as the money was forthcoming, a warehouse district not far from the Old Parade Ground could be fully allocated. This warehouse district had complete facilities, with docks and enclosing walls already in place, and would certainly meet Commander Cao's needs.

Governor Qu, seated at the head, nodded with satisfaction upon seeing the problem resolved perfectly and announced that the warehouse district would be temporarily assigned to Commander Cao for his use.

One can't blame His Excellency the Governor for lacking clout. A circulating official like him typically didn't meddle in canal affairs, which were deeply entrenched and had all sorts of connections behind the scenes. These canal "rules," polished over a hundred years, had long since taken root like metal and stone; they weren't something a governor primarily responsible for military matters could easily alter.

Besides, there was no need for him to offend those several intermediate officials for the sake of a southern regional commander he'd never met before — behind these people were the major power bases that made their living on the river. The words salt, canal grain alone gave even the Emperor a headache; His Old Man truly couldn't bring this to the table.

Now that this fellow surnamed Cao was willing to pay silver, the problem was essentially resolved perfectly, conflict avoided — why not be happy about it?

So Governor Qu cheerfully announced they would proceed to the next agenda item: grain and fodder supply.

As it turned out, the next agenda item immediately devolved into a vicious spat.

The reason for the spat was that when Commander Cao requested the allocation of some provisions, Kong Peng, the Military Defense Circuit Assistant Surveillance Commissioner responsible for Tianjin's military affairs and the regulation of troops, funds, and grain, immediately declared: "Jinwei will allocate only five days' worth of provisions. After five days, if your esteemed unit has not yet finished its rest and reorganization, you may feel free to purchase grain on the market yourselves... Commander Cao has silver, after all."

Kong Peng had disliked this reckless southern regional commander from the very start.

The reason was simple: when other King's Rescue troops passed through Tianjin, they all looked like they were rushing to Beijing to join the grand battle. This Commander Cao, on the other hand, had actually set himself up upon dismounting as if he meant to settle down and make a home in Jinwei — this Kong the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner could not tolerate.

What was involved here was the principle of who foots the bill.

Kong Peng's implication was: this Cao Clan force planned to stay in Tianjin far too long, already exceeding reasonable bounds, and the expenses should not be advanced by this side. Because in theory, Cao Chuan's guest army was essentially invited by the Ministry of War to come to Beijing as reinforcements. Therefore, all expenses should be reimbursed by the host, i. e., the Ministry of War.

Since they were a guest army, a few days of rest and reorganization should suffice before heading to Beijing. Jinwei's side, at most, would provide a bit of passing grain and fodder according to regulations, as with the other King's Rescue armies, and that would fulfill their duty.

And when Commander Cao heard Kong Peng's words, his expression couldn't help but darken.

In the Transmigrators' plan, the early phase of this northern expedition was to linger in Tianjin and refuse to leave, observing the situation while waiting to bottom-fish. Precisely because of this, Zhang Dongdong and the others had never expected Tianjin to provide much in the way of supplies.

However, the blatant "only five days' provisions, Commander Cao has silver anyway" attitude of fleecing the fat sheep was still a bit too much.

It was like a rich person going to work at a company. The rich person could take out their wages and treat everyone — that's a personal favor. But just because someone is rich, you can't simply not pay their wages, right?

So Zhang Dongdong was furious. Probably because the Monitor had been kind enough not to request provisions earlier, giving these parasites the wrong impression.

"Having silver doesn't mean it's for subsidizing your yamen's deficits." Zhang Dongdong's face darkened, and he turned hostile on the spot: "Five days' provisions? A joke! Which King's Rescue army would you dare allocate only five days' provisions to? Do you think us Southern Soldiers easy to bully?"

Kong the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner was a fourth-rank civil official and naturally didn't give a damn about this whatever Deputy Regional Commander from out of town, so he immediately retorted upon hearing this: "Southern Soldiers? Plenty of Southern Soldiers have gone to Beijing recently, and I haven't seen any of them cowering and needing to hide in the rear for rest and reorganization. Hmph, so afraid of the slave-builders, you might as well go back to Fujian. Jinwei can't afford to support Great Lords."

"Daring to withhold military supplies and aid the Tartar Captives — if I submit this impeachment memorial, can you bear the consequences?"

"Heh heh, what a heavy accusation. Commander Cao, feel free to submit your memorial; this humble official here will receive it."

"Oh ho, a piece of rolling knife meat, are you. Then when this general runs short of grain, I'll simply let the troops take it themselves. Let's see how you receive that."

... Zhang Dongdong, this man of culture, though initially forced by the Organization into the role of impersonating the Cao Emperor, had over these two years been dealing with government officials and commanding troops. As the saying goes, one's bearing changes with one's position and one's body is nourished by one's circumstances — Factory Manager Zhang now naturally radiated an aura of dominance. Once he started throwing his weight around, he was every inch the coarse soldier.

"Insolence! Both of you, hold your tongues!"

At the critical moment, Governor Qu finally reacted and promptly stopped the two from spewing criticism at each other.

To be honest, everyone in the hall, civil and military officials alike, was utterly dumbfounded: no one had imagined these two would start spewing at each other so rapidly, and no one had imagined this Commander Cao had such a temper and such a loose tongue, daring to be so disrespectful to a fourth-rank civil official.

"Now, in a time of national calamity, you are all colleagues, men the court relies upon as its shields and walls. How can you be so utterly disgraceful? Look at the things you're saying!"

"This humble official acknowledges his error..."

Seeing the big boss angry, Commander Cao and Kong the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner knew they couldn't keep quarreling and had to salute and admit fault.

After exchanging a glance with Regional Commander Wang Hong, Governor Qu couldn't help but shake his head: this Commander Cao from Fujian was full of oddities and difficult to deal with; it seemed he would have to step in and settle the dispute himself.

Thinking this, His Excellency the Governor turned his head and asked amiably: "Pokong, how many troops do you have under your command, and how much grain and pay do you require?"

Commander Cao thought for a moment and replied: "This trip, your subordinate has brought four hundred main soldiers. I intend to recruit six hundred auxiliary soldiers locally, and also need to purchase a full two thousand horses."

At this point, Commander Cao extended three fingers: "Very well, I'll take a bit of a loss. Counting everything as two battalions of troops, I request three thousand taels of silver, settled in one lump sum. The rest I'll cover from my own purse."

The standard Zhang Dongdong proposed was very simple: all men and horses combined counted as only one thousand troop slots, so at a monthly wage of three taels of silver per man, that came to three thousand taels.

Regarding the grain and pay of Ming Dynasty soldiers, the specifics varied with each emperor, so no further elaboration here.

In short, in the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, due to mass desertion from military households and a sharp decline in quality, the court began converting the field army to a mercenary recruitment system.

Under the mercenary recruitment system, soldiers were issued settlement silver upon recruitment, "monthly grain" — i. e., base wages — while in garrison, and when on campaign, they additionally received "marching grain," i. e., a battle allowance.

What Cao Chuan was now demanding from the Tianjin officials was one month's monthly salary for two battalions: three taels per soldier.

Three taels of silver was, in theory, the standard field monthly wage for a soldier in the Chongzhen reign.

The monthly salary of the Chongzhen reign followed that of the Tianqi reign. During this period, for the Guanning Iron Cavalry stationed on the front lines, not counting the cost of military horses, a soldier's monthly wage converted to two taels of silver.

As for those King's Rescue armies that had traveled a thousand li from Yunnan-Guizhou or Shaan-Gan, the monthly pay standard was three taels of silver.

Of course, the above figures were merely the court's publicly declared standards. As for how much the soldiers actually received, that was hard to say and varied from place to place.

The Guanning Army, for instance, could basically receive the full amount, but in other rear areas... with the late Ming financial crisis, actual military pay was extremely low. Pay arrears in the Ming Dynasty had begun in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli and were simply impossible to tally.

This was also one of the reasons the Ming Army failed to exterminate Li Zicheng and the Later Jin: defeat and collapse began first with finances.

And the wage amount Commander Cao was demanding this time was based on the normal standard for King's Rescue armies — theoretically unproblematic, and seemingly even to his own disadvantage: if there really were two thousand horses, their cost would be far greater than that of the soldiers.

"Such shameless boasting!" Kong the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner laughed in anger after hearing this: "Two thousand horses — truly, truly absurd boasting!"

Kong Peng had by now finished assessing this Commander Cao: a swindler who talked big, a trash military officer who'd brought only a few hundred troops to scrounge for handouts.

Commander Cao, for his part, no longer paid any attention to Master Kong and simply fixed his gaze on His Excellency the Governor.

"Emmm..."

Unlike Kong the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner, Old Qu had just read Xiong Wencan's personally written letter, so he did not think this fellow surnamed Cao was here to scrounge.

However, he also didn't believe that everything the man surnamed Cao had just said was true — you must be joking. Six hundred auxiliary soldiers, fine, but two thousand horses — how much silver was that, and he just blurted it out? Could these Southern Soldiers even ride horses?

So His Excellency the Governor ultimately muddled through with a compromise: "Converted to grain at two thousand taels of silver, allocated in one lump sum — what does Pokong think?"

Upon hearing this conclusion, Commander Cao immediately agreed — the quarrel had originally been about "establishing authority"; as for that bit of silver, the Tianjin officials might care a great deal, but the Transmigrators didn't take it seriously at all.

After a rather unpleasant introductory meeting concluded, everyone present hurriedly scrambled to leave. Kong the Assistant Surveillance Commissioner was especially displeased; after glaring fiercely at Commander Cao, he flicked his sleeves and departed.

Zhang Dongdong, meanwhile, stayed behind to exchange a few more pleasantries with the two big bosses. After arranging that once they were settled in a couple of days, he would invite the big bosses aboard the ships for a look, he then took his leave.

What followed was simple: the Fleet of the North set sail once more, rounded the garrison city, and followed the Hai River westward. Not far along, they turned into the Ziya River, and then several combat vessels moored along the riverbank beside the wooden dock outside the Old Parade Ground.

The other ten transport ships went to the warehouse on the other side of the river fork to unload.

At the same time, the Hundred-Household Officer sent by the Guard Post Experience Office to handle the handover was standing in front of the Old Parade Ground gate, staring dumbfounded as a group of "beggars" disembarked from the strange ships.

These men wore gray-black, colorful, bizarre clothing — at first glance they looked like beggars. But once they drew near, the Hundred-Household Officer realized these strange figures were true elite soldiers: every one of them broad-waisted and round-bellied, gripping black-gleaming strange arquebuses, their bearing fierce and sharp — absolutely not ordinary troops.

Only after this group of "Flower-shirt Soldiers" had entered the Old Parade Ground and made a circuit of inspection did men begin disembarking from the ships in succession — short-haired Southern Soldiers wearing green greatcoats and carrying long muskets, and after them, the Water Army in blue greatcoats.

In short, within the Hundred-Household Officer's understanding, not a single soldier wearing a Ming Fat Coat came off those ships — every man who disembarked was a strange figure.