Chapter 276: Money Shop Headquarters

The Dengzhou naval port was empty and quiet, but the surrounding area grew busy with activity as a batch of twin-masted and triple-masted ships entered the harbor. The thawing Liaodong Sea had restored vitality to this most important military port on that coast. Liu Minyou received Chen Xin's urgent letter and arrived back in Dengzhou only two days later than Chen Xin.

In the original course of history, the rebel forces under Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde captured the naval port the next day, seizing a large number of vessels. Afterwards, using the ruse of agreeing to accept amnesty, Geng Zhongming tricked Sun Yinglong and his two thousand men — old acquaintances from the Tianjin navy — into coming over, then beheaded Sun Yinglong while they were drinking, capturing another batch of large ships and sailors. Their strength then surpassed that of Huang Long's Lüshun naval camp. When the rebels set sail, they carried over thirteen thousand eight hundred people, including more than three thousand regular soldiers and over ten of the best-condition Hongyi cannons, causing a shift in the balance of naval power in the Liaodong Sea.

Now, however, Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng were fleeing in disarray. Not only were their numbers far smaller than in the original history, they had also failed to seize any Hongyi cannons or large numbers of sailors from the Dengzhou and Tianjin navies. Chen Xin was not overly worried about the change in power dynamics they represented.

Dengzhou was in complete chaos. The Ministry of War's orders had already arrived: Lu Zhi was to command the naval camp, and Wang Tingshi was to temporarily serve as the Deng-Lai Provincial Governor to clean up this mess. Two days earlier, they had received reports that Kong Youde's forces had put to sea and might defect to the Later Jin. Both men broke out in a cold sweat and dispatched the entire Dengzhou navy, part of it searching westward and part blockading along the Miaodao Archipelago. To this day, no trace of the rebels had been found.

Before Chen Xin returned to Dengzhou, he first sent relay riders with letters to Lu Zhi and Wang Tingshi, showing them the letters of accusation from Geng Zhongming and Wang Bingzhong. Lu Zhi had been in Dengzhou for over two years, and Wang Tingshi had once served as de facto Provincial Governor of Deng-Lai for half a year. Both understood the importance of Lüshun. If Lüshun fell into the hands of the Jianzhou Bandits, Dengzhou would never know a moment's peace; they would have to worry about Tatar raids even while sleeping at night. Moreover, they feared the imperial court would hold them accountable. The Emperor was surely extremely displeased with Deng-Lai right now; if his anger flared, the two of them might well suffer collateral damage.

While urgently reporting to the Jingshi, the two men also ordered the Wendeng Battalion to draw troops as quickly as possible and prepare to take over the defense of Lüshun. The fact that no rebel traces had been found at sea indicated that the rebels had abandoned fleeing east toward Pi Island, which at least ensured that Dongjiang Town would not fall into chaos. As for Kong Youde defecting to the Later Jin, the two planned to pin the blame on Sun Yuanhua.

Chen Xin had reaped considerable benefits in Deng-Lai. Wang Tingshi and Lu Zhi both knew this, but they were unclear on the exact amounts. Chen Xin had no intention of keeping it all for himself and planned to give each of them thirty thousand taels as hush money. However, the original money shop in Dengzhou had been looted clean, making it impossible even to produce a silver certificate. It was then that Chen Xin remembered he should seize the financial market. Taking advantage of the idle time before the Wendeng and Dengzhou naval forces arrived, he urgently summoned Liu Minyou back to Dengzhou.

Liu Minyou rode hard all the way, reaching Dengzhou in two days. At this time, except for the Second Battalion Headquarters of the Wendeng Battalion stationed outside the north gate, the rest of the troops were at the parade ground east of the naval port. This parade ground far exceeded those of ordinary guard battalions, with a perimeter of roughly three li and containing many buildings. It had previously housed the families of the personal battalion, but now it was completely empty, making it a perfect barracks for the Wendeng Battalion.

Liu Minyou dismounted at the camp gate. The guards conducted a routine inspection of his waist token and registered him. Liu Minyou looked around. Many refugees were building camp walls. Liu Minyou casually asked a guard, "Were these people conscripted or hired?"

"Replying to Mr. Liu, these are all commoners working in exchange for rations, mostly Dengzhou locals who suffered in the mutiny."

Liu Minyou nodded. "Have the settler households from Wendeng arrived?"

"They arrived yesterday. Over ten thousand people, all living in the old rebel camps at Mishen Shan and Wolonggang."

The guard finished speaking, returned the waist token to Liu Minyou, saluted, and allowed him to enter the camp.

The Company Commander on duty personally led the way, escorting Liu Minyou to the former Assistant Regional Commander's residence of the personal battalion. Kong Youde and others had previously been stationed here, until they were transferred to reinforce Liaodong. Now, both the main army camp and the personal battalion had largely scattered. Lu Zhi had only a small number of southern troops left in the naval port. After the situation stabilized, he had rounded up some scattered deserters, who would be stationed in the naval camp from now on.

At the main gate, his waist token was checked again. The men of the central army guard unit knew Liu Minyou and merely went through the motions before letting him in. Liu Minyou arrived at the door of Chen Xin's office. Only Hai Gouzi was standing guard. Amidst Hai Gouzi's loud announcement, he entered directly.

Hearing the call, Chen Xin hurriedly stuffed a stack of documents under the desk, looked up, and smiled. "Minyou, you're so quick. Sit down and rest. I'll finish writing this bit."

"What are you writing that's so secret, even having Hai Gouzi tip you off?" Liu Minyou found a teacup himself and lifted the kettle to brew tea.

"Organizational planning. I didn't have Hai Gouzi tip me off; his voice is just naturally loud."

Liu Minyou brewed his tea and leaned over for a look. It really was an organizational chart. Curious, he asked, "What position has Lord Chen assigned to this humble one this time?"

Chen Xin chuckled. "Advisor and Assistant Regional Commander. We'll try to get your nominal post up to Regional Military Commissioner of the Shandong Regional Military Commission. As far as the court is concerned, it's an empty title, but the rank of Assistant Regional Commander will at least not be lower than anyone else in our system. That way, they won't keep calling you 'Mr. Liu, Mr. Liu' — people who don't know better might think you're a private tutor."

Liu Minyou pursed his lips, though he saw some sense in it. The name "Mr. Liu" had started back in Weihai, when he held no official post but taught the craftsmen and students to read. It had stuck ever since.

Looking again at Chen Xin's paper, he saw a string of institutional names written: "Central Army Department, Civil Affairs Division — Settlement Security, Finance Division, Industry and Commerce Division, Foreign Affairs Division, Military Orders Division, Military Affairs Division, Military Supply Division, Mobilization Division, Intelligence Bureau, Propaganda and Education Bureau." Other sheets each detailed the responsibilities of one of these institutions.

"So many separate institutions?"

"Right. Before, with so few people, you handled all civil affairs alone. You had no formal post, so people under you — Xu Yuanhua, Wen Xianming, Mo Huaiwen, Wang Erya — had no proper standing either. Now we have nearly a hundred thousand people. Once the land in Dengzhou and Pingdu is allocated, that's at least five hundred thousand mu, which means a hundred settlements. The organizational structure needs adjusting. I'm drafting a rough plan. I have to leave for Lüshun soon, so take some time to revise this while I'm gone."

Liu Minyou's mind was not on this matter at the moment. Ever since arriving in Dengzhou, he had been constantly busy tallying captured goods and land, surrounded by cold military camps or barbicans, his eyes filled with the devastation and slaughter left by war. He was already mentally exhausted to the extreme.

Now, in this heavily guarded room, he suddenly felt very relaxed. Seeing a reclining chair in the room, he went over and sat down of his own accord, pulled over another chair to prop his feet up, and closed his eyes to rest.

Chen Xin shook his head with a smile and continued writing his institutional plan. After resting for a moment, Liu Minyou rubbed his forehead, looked up at the still-busy Chen Xin, and finally spoke quietly: "This time in Dengzhou..."

"Oh, right. Just the thing to ask — how much silver did we seize in Dengzhou this time? I'm planning to set up the money shop headquarters in Dengzhou, with branches in Linqing, Jinghai, and Yangzhou. We need to store some silver in each location and get the remittance certificate business going."

Liu Minyou had his question cut off, but reporting the seizures was indeed something he should do. He immediately recalled: "Seventy-nine thousand taels of gold. Silver totals over two million eight hundred thirty-four thousand taels — I forget whether the last digits were three hundred or five hundred. There are over twenty different grades of silver fineness. Even an old hand like Lao Cai gets a headache from it; the actual silver value should be reduced by one hundred to two hundred thousand. Cloth and textiles total six to seven hundred thousand taels. The jewelry classification is done, but the valuation isn't out yet."

Chen Xin laughed. "Quite a lot, isn't it? Collected all this without even firing the cannons. Now you don't have to come crying poverty to me anymore. That few hundred taels you can't remember — consider it yours. Pick out the best jewelry; we'll use that stuff for gifts to our superiors."

Liu Minyou said irritably, "What a generous leader you are. I haven't even billed you for overtime, and you're not offering any emeralds. If you really wanted to give me silver, it wouldn't be just a few hundred taels. All of this has been inventoried, registered, and sealed in chests. If I took a few hundred taels, everyone in civil affairs would feel entitled to take a few hundred. Do the math on how much that would be."

"You probably can't rest yet. Xu Yuanhua has arrived with over ten thousand settler households. We need to distribute land to them as quickly as possible. Although we have the title deeds now, we still need those clerks to lead them and point out the boundaries. Give all the ordinary weapons seized in Dengzhou to those new settlers."

Liu Minyou asked in surprise, "Why distribute weapons?"

"There will be disputes over that land. If the settlers have blades..."

"Are you afraid there isn't enough civil conflict already? Once you issue weapons to settlers, violent clashes will spiral out of control. I heard you're going to be the Deng-Lai Regional Commander this time. If you want to manage this territory well, you need to resolve the conflicts that have built up over many years. Before, it was intense clashes between the Liaodong refugees and the Dengzhou locals. Now we're bringing many people from Wendeng — in fact, we are playing the role the Liaodong refugees used to play."

Chen Xin looked up at him and smiled. "Fine. But the land distribution to settlers will still require establishing farmer-soldier companies. I'll have Zhu Daichun handle this as quickly as possible. Even just for defending against bandits, they'll be needed."

"When I came just now, I saw local commoners repairing the camp walls. Is that work-relief?"

"Yes. Most of them are city residents who suffered in the mutiny. Normally, they survive by working in various shops. You know city people only buy a few days' worth of grain. Now commerce is withered, and they have no income. Just supporting them idly isn't good, so they were assigned to do this. Their livelihoods will be problematic for at least half a year. See what you can arrange for them to do."

Liu Minyou scratched his head. The "captured" women hadn't even been settled yet, and now there were all these additional Dengzhou city residents. They certainly couldn't be left to starve. He rubbed his face in frustration and said, "Road building. First, build the road from Dengzhou to Laiyang, and widen it a bit. The official roads to Fushan and Ninghaizhou are relatively flat; they can wait for now."

Chen Xin put down his brush. "Then we might as well expand the road to Laizhou. In the future, the center of our military farming will be in Pingdu."

"Then let's first expand the official road to Pingdu Prefecture."

"If we can secure five hundred thousand mu, at ten mu per household, that's fifty Battalion Commander — a source of over a hundred thousand soldiers. The two of us would be lords of ten Battalion Commander."

"The Great Leader regards you as dung." Liu Minyou casually retorted, then squinted his eyes and lay back in the chair.

After another long pause, he finally couldn't resist asking, "After Dengzhou was retaken, Wang Bingzhong looted the city. Why did you..."

Chen Xin seemed not to have heard clearly. He stood up, interrupting, "The military council is about to start. We need to discuss the Lüshun operation and the disposition of the prisoners of war this time. We'll talk about this when I get back."

"... Fine." Liu Minyou stood up. "When are you leaving for Lüshun?"

"Ba Zi's naval camp has already arrived. The large troop transports that the Dengzhou navy dispatched will also return tomorrow. I'll take the infantry units to Lüshun tomorrow. I'll leave the post-war recovery in Dengzhou to you. Also, adjust the civil affairs section of this institutional plan."

Chen Xin pulled open the door and was about to leave when Liu Minyou suddenly remembered something and asked him, "Sun Yuanhua has been escorted to Dengzhou. Will he and Wang Zheng be beheaded?"

Chen Xin stopped at the doorway, silent for a moment before saying, "The Embroidered Uniform Guard will take them away soon. Whether they'll be beheaded is not up to me; it depends on the outcome of the PK among the various Grand Secretaries in the court."

Liu Minyou hesitated, then still asked him, "Have you gone to see him?"

Chen Xin still did not turn around. He shook his head slightly. "No, I won't see him." Then he gently closed the door and headed toward the main hall.

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