Chapter 185: New Products

The hundred-plus li from Weihai to Wendeng had always been a zone where the Wendeng Battalion rigorously suppressed banditry. Any bandits who showed themselves were certain to be wiped out. After the campaign to relieve the capital, the Wendeng Battalion's fame shook the realm. The surrounding bandits all got word and left the Wendeng area entirely; even most of the bandits east of Laiyang fled. Thus the whole of Wendeng was very peaceful.

Because people traveled frequently between the two places, locals spotted the business opportunity and built inns and eating houses along the route. The Wendeng Battalion also set up a post station at Wenquan Town, garrisoned with a ju of troops. It mainly provided food and lodging for personnel within the Wendeng Battalion system, and also sold some commercial goods on the side. As more silver money flowed in from the Wendeng Battalion, spontaneous commerce began to appear along this route, making it somewhat more prosperous than places like Laiyang.

Chen Xin's party stayed one night at the Wenquan Town post station and reached Weihai the next day. Chen Xin hurried home briefly to greet his family, then went to the harbor to inspect the progress of the naval force's establishment.

A batch of ships that Liang Tingdong had promised had arrived, ten in total. Among them were two No. 2 Fujian junks; the rest were wave-cutting ships, bird ships, and sand ships. No one knew where they had been drawn from, and their maintenance was in very poor condition. The naval force was currently repairing them.

Together with Chen Xin's original two large ships and several merchant vessels, they could deliver over six hundred troops in a single lift, but that was without carrying large amounts of heavy baggage. This was still far from what he required, so Chen Xin hoped all the more that Xu Xinsu could quickly help buy more Fujian junks, and ideally send shipwrights over as well. Not only seagoing ships, he also needed some inland river grain barges for running business on the Grand Canal. This type of vessel was generally bought at the Qingjiang Shipyard and the price was not expensive; Zhou Laifu was personally responsible for procuring them.

The naval Mobile Corps Commander, Ba Zi, had already returned from Japan. He brought back one hundred twenty thousand jin of copper, plus some lead and sulfur. The first batch of copper cash was still supplied to Tian Hongyu's money shop. Because the copper price was lower than in the Great Ming, Chen Xin's profit was close to three times the cost. If, after his own money shop was established, he issued the coins himself, the profit could reach six or seven times or more. Just the copper material from Japan could earn thirty thousand taels.

Apart from the naval force, what he cared about most was artillery. The current iron cannons generally used the clay mold method and the lost-wax method. The lost-wax method required specific wax solidification temperatures and could usually only be used when the air temperature was on the low side. Although the clay mold method had no seasonal requirement, its demands were also very strict. After the clay mold was made, it had to be ensured completely dry; otherwise, when the hot iron was added, the moisture would evaporate and form air bubbles, making the pass rate very low. Therefore, they generally had to be dried for more than four months.

So at present Chen Xin had not a single iron naval gun. However, four bronze cannons had been made — two three-pounders and two four-pounders. The firing range was set up below Diaowo Mountain. When Chen Xin hurried over, Tang Kun was leading several artillerymen in testing their effect on wooden shield carts.

Chen Xin listened to their report. The artillerymen believed the four-pounder was more suitable: its weight was not much different, but its power was stronger. Chen Xin did not understand artillery and merely instructed them to continue testing. Then he took out the "Military Record — Discourse on Western Fire Attack Divine Weapons" that he had bought, showed it to Laglov and Tang Kun, and intended to give it to them for reference.

After reading it, Laglov said, "My lord, I have not read this book, but looking at the illustrations inside, it is mostly taken from the 'Practical Artillery Manual.' This book was once translated by two Great Ming superior officers. Perhaps this military record used the documents translated by those two superior officers."

Chen Xin asked, somewhat surprised, "Is the Practical Artillery Manual a Western military book?"

Laglov nodded and said, "Yes, my lord. The 'Practical Artillery Manual' was written by the Spaniard Luis Collado. He was an artisan who made cannons. Our Macau cannon foundry also refers to this book in many places."

Tang Kun took it, flipped through it, and said, "That should be correct. The ranges written inside are the same as in the Practical Artillery Manual. For a ten-jin cannonball fired from a demi-culverin, level firing is five hundred fifty, elevated firing is five thousand five hundred — exactly the same as the artillery manual. However, the units seem to be wrong. The artillery manual uses chi; here it is written as bu, so the difference is huge. The weight is also wrong. A ten-pound cannonball is written as ten jin, and a five-pound powder charge is written as five jin, which is thirty percent more and extremely prone to bursting the barrel." …

Chen Xin felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over him. Naturally, he had never heard of this book. In fact, this book was a guidebook for many European artillery foundries at the time, and also the source of knowledge for many late Ming firearm books, including Sun Yuanhua's yet-to-appear "Western Method Divine Mechanism," which adopted it to varying degrees.

"Hmm, it doesn't matter." Chen Xin pondered for a moment and said, "The content may have some errors, but this military record expresses things very clearly. You will correct the errors inside, add the things you have tested and summarized yourselves, and divide it into two books: one on gunnery and one on cannon-making, to be used by the artillerymen and the workshops respectively."

"From July to September, the number of people coming to Wendeng to seek refuge reached thirty thousand. Over fifty percent of them are Liaodong refugees. The farthest have come from Shanxi and Henan. A considerable portion are household slaves who fled from the homes of various officials and gentry in Dengzhou and Laizhou — all Liaodong refugees who were sold to those people by Yang Guodong back then. After September the weather turned cold, making migration difficult. I estimate the number of people coming to seek refuge will drop. But how these thirty thousand people get through the winter is enough to give us a hard time. I hear the trees near the Wendeng Battalion have already been completely chopped down by them." Liu Minyou looked at the compiled documents in his hand and said with some worry. He had just returned three days ago, had inspected all the civil administration and workshops, and had come to Chen Xin's home to meet with him.

"Are there many among them who have skills?"

Liu Minyou flipped through the booklet in his hand and said, "This report doesn't write that, but Xu Yuanhua mentioned in his oral report that over a thousand people know some crafts. Most of those Liaodong refugees are young men and women, only their physical condition is somewhat poor. In addition, people have continued to come from Dongjiang to seek refuge. This batch numbers over four thousand and is currently settled in Weihai. Because there are many refugees and grain is tight, exchanging grain for people has already been stopped."

Chen Xin said, "Naturally. Those with poorer physical condition died at sea back then. Those who have endured until now and are still alive are all the strongest people."

"Feeding so many people is not so easy. The grain price in Dengzhou has now risen to one tael five qian per shi. Buying from grain merchants we are familiar with, we can still get it for one tael two or three qian. Those among them with skills should be assigned to the various workshops first, so they can do some work at least."

Chen Xin was not too worried about how to feed them. Ba Zi had already returned from Japan. This year's silk and cotton cloth had all been seized from Luanzhou. The return-trip profit combined amounted to one hundred eighty thousand taels. In addition, what was looted during the campaign to relieve the capital brought the total income to around three hundred thousand taels. Adding last year's surplus of eighty thousand taels, this year's military and civil administration expenditures were roughly one hundred twenty to one hundred thirty thousand taels. Thus he had over two hundred thousand taels of disposable funds on hand. Moreover, the imperial court still had to issue him this year's military pay. Although not as much as Guanning's, the combat troops plus the naval force still amounted to over fifty thousand taels of silver. Given his current financial situation, if he gritted his teeth, he could still support the current forty thousand-plus people.

Chen Xin said to Liu Minyou, "We must support the people, but we can't support them for nothing. How is the construction of that large factory zone going?"

"The one in Weihai is almost finished. The one in Jinghai is not ready yet. I plan to use work-relief, drawing two thousand people from the refugees to go to Jinghai, aiming to finish construction by year's end. We can start preparing materials for the two new products. But these two factories still cannot absorb such a large population. The allocated farmland is insufficient. Chengshan and Jinghai have only released ten thousand mu of abandoned land. Now, at ten mu per household, that's only enough for one Battalion Commander. The Wendeng Battalion area here occupies twenty thousand mu of land, with four tunbao built in total, housing two Battalion Commander — only a bit over seven thousand people. Twenty thousand mu of civilian fields in Wendeng have been cleared out, but local people have already come to dispute it. Many have produced land deeds. Although it is wasteland, it still has owners. They want us to pay money to buy it."

Chen Xin rubbed his forehead and said, "Let's put these gentry aside for a moment. I won't pay money. I'll think of how to deal with them later. Apart from our own factories and tunbao, are there no other industries that can provide employment?"

"Other industries include construction and service trades. The consumer base is mainly the families of the army and the workshops. After this combat reward was distributed, many soldiers began building their own housing. The original residential area is insufficient in size. I am currently planning new areas, but we cannot occupy arable land. Besides construction, many other restaurants, tea houses, and small shops have also appeared, which can absorb some labor to a degree. This year's autumn harvest has already ended. I plan to first distribute the twenty thousand mu over in Wendeng, but it's only enough for ten mu per household. This includes over a hundred disabled soldiers. Every ten farming households will be responsible for helping one such family. These soldiers are currently studying in literacy classes. Later they will be assigned to the primary schools in each tunbao, where they can teach the children to read, conduct some training, and also help the farming-soldier instructors. To guarantee the wounded soldiers' interests, the plow oxen and large plows will all be controlled by them. Those farming households must first finish the work for them before they can use these things." …

Chen Xin did a mental calculation and said, "Ten mu is enough. Each mu pays us two dou, leaving one shi. They can harvest another season in the spring. For a family of four, averaging one jin per person per day, that's only one shi per month. They can still have a surplus of several shi each year. The interplanted cash crops and vegetables can also provide some supplementary income. Don't let them divide too much land either. If farming alone gave them a worry-free life, who would be willing to become a soldier and fight, and who would be willing to enter the workshops to work."

Liu Minyou wrote as he spoke, "I think ten mu is enough. This way they at least have food, and the farm work is not too heavy. They will have time to train. During the agricultural off-season, they can go do construction work or take temporary jobs in the workshops."

Chen Xin blinked and said, "This labor force cannot be allowed to move freely. They are all old hands of our Wendeng Battalion and more or less have some connections. Since they now have land, those labor positions should first be guaranteed for the newly arrived refugees, so these refugees can support themselves. Those tun households who have been allocated land can engage in animal husbandry and the like themselves. Don't let them snatch up all the jobs. This way the refugees can settle down as quickly as possible."

Liu Minyou glanced at him and said irritably, "How do we restrict that?"

"That's very simple. Issue internal household registrations to the newly arrived refugees. All our tunbao have the baojia system. By month, restrict which tunbao can take temporary work. Also, those refugees certainly hope fewer people will compete with them. Let them report violations. If verified, impose a fine."

"Isn't that just like Zhu Yuanzhang's system, where you need a travel permit just to walk on the road? Such restrictions probably cannot last. Besides, construction also requires skills. How would those refugees who just arrived know these things?"

Chen Xin scratched his head and said, "Then how about this: those with skills are not restricted, but pure physical labor must use refugees. Since the consumer base is mainly people from the army and workshops, we each manage our own departments. Ordinary physical labor can only use new residents. Once it's verified that this rule is violated, fine the wages of the person building the house. That way they will naturally check and verify themselves."

"Fine. I reckon quite a few people will resent you."

"Don't worry, I'll definitely have Huang Side issue the order, signed in the name of the Chief Indoctrination Officer. If they want to blame someone, they can blame Huang Side. Besides, don't I still have the farming-soldier system? The original farming-soldier plan was five qian of silver per month. I'll split this five qian into ten portions. Each training session earns five fen of silver. This way they have silver to earn, and their resentment will be much less. Training ten times a month, they won't have much time left to work outside."

Liu Minyou laughed, "That's a good method. Then why not just organize all the refugees and train them?"

"Organizing them is necessary, but with so many people, how can we give out silver like that? Right now there are only five or six tunbao, with just over a thousand organized farming-soldiers. If we had ten thousand farming-soldiers, that would be five thousand taels of silver a month. Better wait until our new products are making money."

When Liu Minyou heard the mention of new products, he reminded him, "General Chen, the purchasing of hemp, cloth, paper, and tobacco has all been ordered. With such a large investment, the market for these two new products is still an unknown."

Chen Xin said with a grin, "Sir Liu, rest assured, absolutely no problem. One is a travel bag, the other is a cigarette. The travel bag will definitely sell well in Jiangnan and along the Grand Canal where population movement is frequent. Cigarettes will sell well everywhere. Once these two products are made, we'll be able to support so many people. Besides the factories, there's the upstream planting, the downstream transport, packaging, and sales — it can absorb a lot of labor. Then they consume, which in turn drives the service industry. Enough of that. Has that manual cigarette-rolling machine been made yet?"

"It's done. I went to see it today. The top part looks like a round fan. It's operated by two people. I'll have the woodworking workshop start mass production immediately. I've already arranged the process steps on the road, starting from purchasing tobacco leaves, then the subsequent cutting, adding ingredients, cutting paper, rolling, packaging, storage, and transport. The specifics still need to be slowly adjusted. Trial production starts the day after tomorrow. Here are the samples." …

Liu Minyou tossed over a few white cigarettes. Chen Xin caught them and squeezed them in his hand. The paper was suitably firm yet soft, and the length was slightly longer than the original. He took out a flint, lit one, took a drag, and narrowed his eyes. "A bit better than ordinary tobacco leaf. What did you add?"

"Added some liquor."

"Hmm, if we add one more thing, the flavor will be much better than it is now."

"Cloves?"

"Right. Too bad they don't bloom until May or June next year. We'll have to collect them everywhere and stockpile as much as we can. We also have to grow them ourselves. Adding this stuff makes the flavor even better, producing a slight numbing sensation in the mouth and lungs. With this little thing, it becomes valuable. But this must be kept secret. The addition of cloves must be done in a separate workshop, and let those wounded soldiers who can still work do it." A look of longing appeared on Chen Xin's face. "Then there are ladies' cigarettes, with mint added inside. The packaging must be made prettier, with flowers and plants printed on the paper shell. How much silver will we earn? This time we must operate it well. Start trial-smoking within the army now. After spring begins, put them on the shelves simultaneously at several shops along the northern section of the Grand Canal. At the same time, supply Xu Xinsu's southern network. Then start a blitz of overwhelming advertising. We must make this cigarette brand deeply rooted in people's hearts."

Liu Minyou shook his head and said, "Women's money is easy to earn. Pricing it higher is fine. But it's just that this thing is ultimately bad for the body."

"There are plenty of things bad for the body. Women's cosmetics nowadays are full of lead. We can't change that either. Better that we earn the money than let it benefit those tax-exempt gentry."

"Mint can be identified just by smelling it. Only cloves can be kept somewhat secret. But later on, just like the dresses, it's bound to be imitated sooner or later. What will we do then?"

Chen Xin leaned back in his chair and said, "We'll talk about this slowly later."

Liu Minyou paused and did not think much more about it. But Chen Xin himself had long had a plan. He was no longer an accountant in Tianjin. He had to maintain a dominant position in the cigarette business. If someone really did imitate it, small-scale enterprises could not compete with their costs and had limited competitiveness. If it were a major merchant from Jiangnan who affected his profits, Chen Xin certainly would not be polite to them either. Capital accumulation was always dripping with blood. Even in nineteenth-century America, competition was disorderly, and competitors settling things with bullets was not uncommon. For Chen Xin now, violence was also his most advantageous form of capital. He would not be so foolish as to pursue so-called fair competition.

Just then, Xiao Jiahua's laughter came from outside. Chen Xin went to push open the window and looked. In the courtyard, swirling snowflakes were drifting down. Xiao Jiahua was happily catching them in the courtyard. Liu Minyou was not the least bit happy. He sighed and said, "What number snowfall is this? This year's snow is earlier and heavier than last year's. Next year will be another severe drought. Year after year, how is there no end to this?"