Chapter 120: Adding Incense

In early October, Wendeng Camp granted two days of leave. All soldiers underwent rest and refit, but were forbidden from leaving the bounds of Wendeng Camp's old and new stockades and forts. Soldiers flocked to the old Wendeng Camp fort to spend. Everyone had more or less heard rumors that this year they might fight the Jianzhou Bandits, so most bachelors chose to use up their silver.

Wendeng Camp's new encampment and watchtower-forts had brought in several thousand people. With the relocation of the cold-weapon workshops, demand for labor also began to rise. Although many settlement households still had little income, they still needed to spend on basic daily necessities. The old fort was growing livelier by the day. Zhou Hongmo himself had opened a wine shop, an eating house, and a brothel. Magistrate Yu had a salt shop. Jail Warden Zheng, the Registrar, and others had also successively sent relatives to open shops. As soon as Wendeng Camp went on leave, the eating houses, brothels, and such places were packed to bursting. Zhou Shifa led the provosts on patrols everywhere every day to prevent soldiers from causing trouble.

Only half of the cavalry battalion was on leave. One banner unit was surveying terrain on the various roads between Wendeng and Laiyang. Nie Hong, stationed in Laiyang, sent back a steady stream of intelligence. They had already identified Yu Dacheng's main activity sites. Yu Dacheng was secretly forging weapons, preparing to rise up around the New Year.

Chen Xin himself, bringing a few personal guards including Hai Gouzi, returned to Mazi Second Watchtower to go over the recent accounts with Liu Minyou. Liu Minyou looked at the account books and let out a long breath. "We've finally scraped together all your iron armor."

Chen Xin curled his lip and said, "Only a bit over five hundred suits. Tang Zuoxiang's place already has hydraulic barrel-drilling now. How come Wang Huzi hasn't made any progress?"

"They did build a water-powered trip-hammer. I plan to have them install it at Wendeng Camp. The Baolong River has a stronger flow there."

Chen Xin's equipment for this year was already complete, so he left these problems for Liu Minyou to solve slowly. He spotted the firearm on Liu Minyou's table and asked, "Is this the flintlock that Tang Zuoxiang and his people came up with?"

Liu Minyou continued looking at Chen Xin's spending plan for next month and said without raising his head, "That's the gun. There was originally another type with a steel wheel ignition, but its firing rate wasn't high either. This is the newly made one."

Chen Xin picked up a firearm from Liu Minyou's desk, cocked the hammer — the internal mechanism gave a soft click — and casually pulled the trigger hook. It wouldn't budge. He gradually increased the pressure with his finger until the flint on the hammer finally struck the frizzen with a snap, producing a shower of sparks.

Chen Xin stroked the gun body with some delight and asked, "Has this gun been tested yet? Any other problems?"

"The training unit sent people to test it. The firing rate is still a bit low, only fifty percent. If you use granulated powder as the priming charge, it's even lower."

Chen Xin examined the hammer, then turned the barrel over and looked at it, shaking his head. "The striking force isn't enough. The spring leaf still needs to be made thicker. That Tang Zuoxiang only got the bore diameter consistent — the barrel walls are still uneven. He'll have to keep improving it. The training of young craftsmen needs to speed up. Is the second round of your crash-course teacher training class finished? If it is, send some to teach those craftsmen, and assign a few to me as well."

As soon as Liu Minyou heard him mention teachers, he grew displeased and said irritably, "Don't even think about it this time. I'd rather keep them at Mazi Watchtower teaching workers and children to read."

Chen Xin chuckled. Last time, he had poached ten of the fifteen teachers and turned them into army indoctrination officers. "They're also teaching soldiers to read. Once these soldiers are discharged, they can become teachers in your schools. Isn't it the same thing?"

"It's not about the teaching. Last time I went to Wendeng Camp, Huang Side was lecturing the soldiers — all about your heroic exploits. The sentry you killed in Liaodong is no longer just one; now it's three, and they were Bayara. You debated a crowd of scholars at the Ministry of War — at least twenty or thirty of them. Xiao Jiahua was rescued from a pile of corpses. Tongtian Liang fought you for dozens of rounds and was cut down from his horse by you."

Without a trace of shame, Chen Xin laughed and said, "This is just a method of controlling the army."

Liu Minyou stopped his brush and said to Chen Xin, "So what worries me isn't that the schools lack teachers. I'm just worried that one day Huang Side will produce a Little Red Book."

Chen Xin stood up to pour water and said as he did so, "This has gone a bit far, but it won't come to a Little Red Book. I'll go talk to Huang Side. Propaganda can't be too exaggerated, or it'll be the same as having none at all."

Liu Minyou naturally did not believe that Chen Xin was unaware of this, but there was no way to verify it here. He simply said, "Huang Side is a bit too eager for personal gain, and he trims his sails to the wind. When he was in my class, every day he talked about the people's livelihood being hard and the settlement households' toil. Now every time we meet, he talks about the soldiers' hardships — a classic case of one's position determining one's thinking. You still shouldn't give him too free a hand."

Chen Xin picked up the gun on the table again, examined it for a while, and then said, "In wartime, it's understandable that soldiers' status rises somewhat. Didn't Prussia also go through a phase like that — what they called a state with an army?"

Liu Minyou asked, displeased, "And what was Germany's eventual fate? I think balanced development is better. If the peasants lose all hope, won't they end up like the guard-battalion military households? Right now, refugees fleeing from Dongjiang number nearly six thousand. Wendeng Camp's settlement forts originally had just over three thousand people. We now have close to ten thousand people under us, with only a bit over twenty thousand mu of land. If we still prioritize the army, I worry they'll lose motivation. Besides, most of your soldiers are bachelors. If you give them land, who will farm it?"

He paused briefly and then continued, "And there's another point. If soldiers all have farmland, they'll have a fallback. They won't be relying solely on their monthly pay to live. Once on the battlefield, might their willingness to fight to the death diminish somewhat?"

Chen Xin shook his head. "Their land is also under our control — same principle as the monthly pay." He pondered for a moment and said, "Since land is so scarce, it should still mainly be distributed to settlement households. But you must set aside at least five thousand mu. If any soldiers are wounded and discharged, there'll be a place to settle them. In the future, those among the settlement households who receive land must help the wounded soldiers without labor capacity with heavy physical work. Make this one of the conditions for granting them land. Every five or ten households assist one such person. That way, I can pay out a bit less in monthly disability pensions and save some ready silver. What does Brother Liu think of this?"

Liu Minyou held the account book, leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then agreed, "That's acceptable, but only for the wounded. What about other normal discharges?"

"Normal discharges are still a long way off. At least there won't be any in the next few years. The troops I've trained with such difficulty — it's not so easy to let them be discharged. We'll plan that carefully later."

Liu Minyou did not ask about Chen Xin's plans. He sighed and said, "We're supporting too many people, and we have too little land. Even at one jin per person per day, that's ten thousand jin of grain — nearly one hundred shi. Over a year, that's more than thirty thousand shi. Weihai and Wendeng together have twenty-three thousand mu. At one shi two or three dou per mu, we'll still have to spend several thousand taels of silver on grain this year just to have enough."

"We're not short of silver this year. Just go ahead and buy. Keep supporting the people. Human labor is the resource with the longest production cycle — always more precious than anything else."

Just then, there were a few knocks at the door. Liu Minyou called out, "Please come in."

The door swung open, and a woman in a white padded jacket walked in. Chen Xin looked closely — it was actually Wang Daixi.

"Lord Chen is here too." Seeing Chen Xin, Wang Daixi greeted him cheerfully.

Chen Xin had not seen Wang Daixi for some time. That girl who had once looked like a scrawny yellow-haired child was now a pretty young woman, and she was also Mazi Watchtower's female accountant, quite capable of helping out.

Chen Xin immediately had Wang Daixi sit down and chatted with her about family matters for a while. Wang Daixi was actually just a little over fifteen. Having worked as an accountant these past two years, handling many tasks and meeting many people, her bearing had grown much more composed, and she seemed very precocious.

After talking for a bit, Wang Daixi stood up to take her leave. She had a great deal of accounting work. She placed an account book in front of Liu Minyou and said, "Brother Liu, these are the material costs and expenses for the copper-cash workshop last month. Take a look when you can."

Liu Minyou looked up and replied, "Alright. I have time today, so I'll look it over first."

"Mm, no rush. Don't overwork yourself. I've already reviewed it several times — just take your time looking. Lord Chen, I'll be going now."

After Wang Daixi left, Chen Xin pointed at the door and said mysteriously to Liu Minyou, "She calls me 'Lord' — that's her drawing a clear line with me. She calls you 'Brother' — that means she wants to…"

Liu Minyou said impatiently, "Get out, get out. If you're back with nothing to do, go see your concubine Xiao Jiahua. Spare me your loose tongue here. Even such a young girl you have to tease — she's barely a second-year junior high student, alright."

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Inside the main room of the three-courtyard compound, Chen Xin was studying a simplified map. It marked out the main mountain ranges, rivers, and post roads of Laiyang. Beside him, wisps of light smoke curled up from an incense burner and swiftly dissolved into the air. The room was filled with the fragrance of aloeswood, as if one were in a garden blooming with fresh flowers.

A pair of soft hands gently rested on Chen Xin's shoulders. Without turning his head, Chen Xin smiled and lightly patted the other's left hand.

Zhao Xiang's voice rang out: "Still staring at this damn ghost-drawing talisman — who knows what it's even supposed to be."

Chen Xin set down the map in his hands and leaned back comfortably against the fox-fur cushion on the chair back. Zhao Xiang gently massaged his forehead and said with concern, "I hear your soldiers at Wendeng Camp are being drilled like mad. Never seen anyone run roughshod over common soldiers the way you do. Don't you go wearing yourself out along with them."

"This is the army — of course it needs to be run hard. You don't need to worry about me. Has everything been going smoothly at home lately?"

Zhao Xiang pouted. "Everything else is fine. It's just that Xiao Jiahua — she was caught stealing food in the kitchen. The kitchen hand saw her, grabbed her, and gave her a beating."

Chen Xin had almost forgotten about Xiao Jiahua. Hearing this, he said, "If she's really too hard to manage, don't keep her as a maidservant. Find a reliable family and marry her off. That'll save you all the annoyance of seeing her."

Zhao Xiang gave a snort. "Now everyone in the whole fort thinks she was your concubine. Although some of the old fort households know what really happened, the newcomers just hear hearsay, and the more it spreads, the more outrageous it gets. Who would dare marry her now?"

"Wasn't it said that she was a maidservant? What else is there to gossip about?"

Zhao Xiang said, displeased, "It's all because of that dog of a son of Song Wenxian. He goes everywhere bragging about when he was detained at the Provincial Governor's government office, and he dragged Xiao Jiahua into the story too. A lot of people think she was a concubine."

Chen Xin, hearing it was Song Wenxian's eldest son, asked casually, "What's he bragging about?"

"Sun Guozhen wasn't entirely confident in his subordinates' judgment at the time, so he went to see Xiao Jiahua once himself. That dog son of Song Wenxian quietly said one line to Xiao Jiahua, and afterward it made Sun Guozhen leave in anger. And Lord Sun also believed Xiao Jiahua."

Chen Xin's interest was piqued. He turned his head to look at Zhao Xiang and asked, "What did he say?"

"He told Xiao Jiahua in advance that Sun Guozhen was a newly hired steward. Xiao Jiahua drove Sun Guozhen off in a huff with just a few words. Tell me, just how insufferable must Xiao Jiahua be to pull that off?"

Chen Xin burst out laughing. "This eldest son of Mr. Song is not bad. Truly, a tiger father has no…"

Zhao Xiang gave him a light smack on the forehead. Chen Xin hastily corrected himself: "…a rat's son knows how to dig a hole."

Zhao Xiang was thoroughly displeased with Song Wenxian's son and grew angry just talking about it. She stopped massaging Chen Xin. Seeing that the incense smoke had grown very faint, she went over and lifted the burner lid. After observing it for a moment, she picked up a small pair of tweezers from the table, removed the small piece of aloeswood, tossed it into a small pottery jar, and then took out the mica plate. Beneath it were some charcoal pieces still carrying glowing embers.

Chen Xin smiled and said, "No need to change it. I'll stop looking soon anyway."

Zhao Xiang switched to a small spatula and replied softly, "If you stop looking, we'll just put it out then. This incense can refresh the mind. You're always in the military camp — don't overwork yourself. Come back more often when you have time. What at home isn't better than that nest of common soldiers? Besides… besides, we should also try sooner to, to have a child."

Zhao Xiang's face flushed again. They had been married for nearly a year, and there was still no sign of pregnancy. She hurriedly lowered her head and used the spatula to replace the original charcoal fire, fetching a few new pieces from the stove, and then placed the mica sheet back on top.

Now that Chen Xin's power was gradually growing, there were many people around who wanted to form marriage ties with him. She had heard that people at the Guard Commander level in Chengshan wanted to offer their daughters to him as concubines. That was why she was anxious to have a child. She was the principal wife. If the eldest son was also hers, her position would be extremely secure, and then she would not have to fear him taking concubines.

She paused and then said, "Otherwise, after some time, take Juxiang as a concubine. She was originally my dowry maidservant — sooner or later it would come to this anyway. If you're willing, it could also be sooner."

Chen Xin looked at Zhao Xiang with some surprise, not expecting such a good thing. After thinking it over briefly, he understood Zhao Xiang's intention — this young woman was seizing the initiative in the power struggle within the inner household. Juxiang was certainly on the same side as her, and they were securing the top positions among the concubines first.

Zhao Xiang finally replaced the aloeswood and put the lid back on. She turned and asked, "Little household, what do you think?"

"Mm, no problem."