Chapter 351: Out of Taihang

"Brother Liu, happy New Year! Come out and greet your guest!"

Chen Xin brought his whole family to the front gate of Liu Minyou's house and bellowed inside.

Zhao Xiang swatted his hand; Chen Xin gave a cheeky grin. The simple monk creaked the door open and said to Chen Xin with a silly smile, "My lord Chen, you're so early — the sky's barely bright."

This was Liu Minyou's residence, also beside the parade ground, wedged between the Civil Affairs Department and the military camp. Both the north and south ends of this alley had patrol posts; at night, the first three experimental military dogs were deployed. Together with the guard unit near the residence, this was probably the safest place in Dengzhou.

Chen Xin swaggered in and casually handed the simple monk a red envelope. The simple monk accepted it with delight, but when he opened it, there was only one mace of silver.

Liu Minyou was still eating in the dining hall. Holding a bowl of dumplings, he walked to the doorway, his whole body wrapped in a thick padded jacket and a melon-shaped hat with ear flaps on his head. Chen Xin took one look and burst out laughing: "Brother Liu, you're clearly tall, rich, and handsome, yet you dress yourself up like this."

Li Ranzhu, who was eating inside, along with the gate boy and the maids, all came out to greet them. Liu Minyou's household was the least concerned with rules — even the maids, serving women, and cook ate at the same table as the master's family. Chen Xin cheerfully handed out red envelopes to all of them, each containing one or two mace of silver. After they were distributed, everyone was in high spirits.

Liu Minyou also gave red envelopes to Chen Xin's family. At their current status, there were not many people they needed to pay New Year visits to. Chen Xin had set up a table and white paper at the gate, with a steward keeping watch. Later he planned to go pay New Year respects to Lu Zhi and Wang Tingshi; when he returned, he could just check the name list at the gate.

His courtyard was quite spacious, and the snow inside had been swept clean. The family members of both households were playing in the yard, and some maids were setting off firecrackers. Shrieks of surprise rang out from time to time.

The two men entered the study. Chen Xin sat down and felt very cold. He couldn't help cursing, "Your maids are far too negligent. Today is the first day of the new year, and there's no fire lit in the study. Don't they know that Lord Liu is going to receive gifts here?"

"I forgot to remind them as well. The other two maids have gone home; only one is left. She still has to help in the kitchen in the morning."

"No wonder there are so few people — I've even saved on red envelopes." Chen Xin clutched his clothes and lay down on the bearskin recliner. Liu Minyou went out to instruct a maid to bring in a charcoal brazier. When he came back and saw Chen Xin's state, he gave him a light kick on the leg and scolded, "You've had practically nothing to do lately, so why are you dozing off first thing in the morning?"

"What do you mean nothing to do?" Chen Xin pulled his leg back a little and said indignantly, "After the New Year's Eve dinner, I played mahjong with them until the middle of the night before going to sleep. The baby wouldn't stop crying either — I barely slept at all. I'll rest in your study for a while. Later I still have to go see Wang Tingshi and the others."

Liu Minyou said, somewhat amused, "Here I can't even gather enough people for mahjong. Last night I went to the North Gate night market and spent half the night guessing lantern riddles."

Chen Xin narrowed his eyes and asked, "Li Ranzhu's family, for all that they were feudal officials, doesn't she have a single relative?"

"I don't know. She's also been asking around everywhere. All I know is that her family was originally in the south; her father once served as an official in Wuchuan County. After he got into trouble, the Guangdong Regional Inspector demanded his family produce fifty thousand taels. Naturally, they couldn't pay. Her grandmother and mother back home were both driven to hang themselves by the government office runners of the Provincial Surveillance Commission. It seems only a younger brother survived. After the household was confiscated, she lost contact with her family. With the communication conditions as they are now, once contact is lost, it's extremely hard to find them again."

After hearing this, Chen Xin said with a smile, "She's lucky to have met you. Otherwise, who knows what would have become of that young lady."

Liu Minyou suddenly asked Chen Xin mysteriously, "That young master of your family was born into the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Whose surname is he taking? Has it been decided?"

"He's named Chen Jihua."

"Eh? Wasn't the first son supposed to take his mother's surname?"

Chen Xin said smugly, "My mother-in-law hasn't brought that matter up again at all."

Liu Minyou laughed. "When she set those conditions for you back then, she probably never imagined you'd rise to Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent so quickly. That's a rank even civil officials struggle to reach. I reckon she doesn't have the nerve to bring it up now. A grand official of the Three Junior Guardians — if your eldest son didn't take your surname, wouldn't you be laughed to death by your colleagues and subordinates? And the hereditary office granted in the future wouldn't be easy to come by either."

"Since she doesn't bring it up, I'll just pretend I've forgotten."

Just then, a maid brought in a fire pan, and the icy room immediately filled with warmth. After she left, Chen Xin sat up and said, "You'll take the post of Militia Regional Commander."

Liu Minyou asked in surprise, "This... aren't I in charge of civil affairs? Why give a military post to me?"

"It's a military post from the imperial court. In our Dengzhou garrison, it doesn't count as a military post. You just need to hold the title. The training of the reserve troops will naturally be handled by Zhu Daichun and the others."

Liu Minyou still hesitated. "There are so many battalion officers in the army, all eyeing that second-in-command position. If you toss it to me, the head of the Civil Affairs Department, they're bound to feel uncomfortable."

Chen Xin gave a dismissive snort and said nonchalantly, "Brother Liu, the army doesn't need a second-in-command. It only needs subordinates each performing their own duties. If there were a second-in-command, I'd be the one who's uncomfortable — and that second-in-command wouldn't be comfortable either."

Liu Minyou shook his head. "I don't want to be Regional Commander, not even in name. It's better to keep military and civil affairs somewhat separate."

"Then let Huang Side take it."

Liu Minyou hurriedly said, "Then I'll take it."

Chen Xin, as if he had known this would happen all along, shrugged his shoulders, and the matter was settled.

Liu Minyou finished the dumplings in a few bites, comfortably lit a cigarette. The Spring Festival each year was supposed to be the time when his mood was most relaxed. The whole realm was on holiday — even the Later Jin in Liaodong celebrated the New Year. From top to bottom in the Great Ming, no one was working.

After returning to the Ming dynasty, Liu Minyou had also discovered one advantage of ancient times: there were no telephones. Those technological tools brought both convenience and trouble. In this era, at least he didn't have to worry about being suddenly woken by a phone call in the middle of the night and told to go to the office to work overtime on a bid proposal.

In fact, after arriving in Weihai, only the first and second years of Chongzhen were free of interruptions. The Spring Festival of Chongzhen's third year was spent on campaign in Beizhili, and the Spring Festival of Chongzhen's fourth year was spent fighting Kong Youde — the whole of Wendeng was on alert. This year, at last, he could spend it at home.

"Tell me," Liu Minyou exhaled a puff of smoke and suddenly asked, "Where exactly counts as our home? Now that I think about it, we've lived in Tianjin, Weihai, Wendeng, and Dengzhou. These past two years on business trips, I've traveled all over Denglai. I've never stayed anywhere for long; it seems I have no particularly deep impression of any place."

"Why dwell on that? Your home ought to be that mortgaged three-bedroom apartment in Tianjin. But that thing doesn't really count as yours — not until you finish paying off the loan in thirty years. As for me, that home in my last life isn't worth mentioning."

Liu Minyou stared absently at the ceiling. Outside, firecrackers were going off everywhere, their sound drifting faintly into the study. After a long while, Chen Xin finally said, "You know my goal — I'm destined to be constantly on the move. There's no year without war. Next year, I reckon we'll have to fight in Liaonan, and we'll have to fight the roving bandits too. By now, the roving bandits have pretty much ravaged Shanxi. Sooner or later they'll break into the Central Plains. The army has to fight, and the trading company and banks have to expand alongside it. Wherever the army goes, the trading company must expand to. I'm afraid you'll have to make quite a few business trips too."

"The roving bandits and the Jianzhou Bandits. Which do you plan to deal with primarily?"

Chen Xin let out a long breath. "Even if I wanted to deal with the roving bandits, I'd have to be able to keep up. From the reports coming in from various places, the roving bandits' tactics have already developed a style of their own. Their core elite troops have extremely high mobility, while the large masses of refugees traveling with them handle logistics. Relying on these elite troops banding together to plunder, defeating them isn't hard, but capturing their elite is very difficult. We might end up wearing out our own forces without wiping them out. These next two years, the battlefields will probably be in the border regions of Beizhili, Henan, and Shanxi. The trading company needs to establish footholds in several major cities in Henan to serve as supply depots. Once our army enters the Central Plains, we'll be complete guest troops. Given the Great Ming's abysmal local mobilization capacity, plus the way these local officials behave, the army will have a hard time finding food without looting. And once collective looting begins, military discipline will vanish completely — no amount of instruction can restore it. I'd rather spend more silver to preserve this army's consistent character."

Liu Minyou naturally had no objection to this. What made him proudest of the Dengzhou army was precisely its professional military bearing and sense of honor. Their current financial resources could also sustain such professionalization. This year, the Dengzhou army's pay had reached five hundred twenty thousand taels, and other income totaled over seven hundred thousand taels — and this was despite Dengzhou having suffered a great upheaval, with trade unstable for half a year. The military pay appeared to have increased, but the additional portion was all offset against retirement pensions, so it didn't need to be disbursed for now. The profit dividends were also not paid out; only a dividend statement was issued to the Logistics Department. The Logistics Department calculated each soldier's share based on their respective unit's ratio and recorded it in each soldier's service book.

Last year, the Four Seas Trading Company's earnings were affected by the local turmoil in Dengzhou, and coupled with the tobacco competition in Linqing, the profit margin was about fifty percent — but even that greatly surprised the soldiers of every unit. Last year's retirement-pension shares weren't that large yet, and the Logistics Department had advanced a year's worth. But this year, with many new soldiers added, if they wanted to maintain earnings, they would have to keep developing new products and expanding commercial profits.

These dividends were firmly controlled by Dengzhou's civil administration system, linking the military and civil administration even more tightly. The military code also included provisions for handling dividends: for serious disciplinary violations such as looting, disobeying orders, or desertion, all dividends would be completely forfeited. Combined with the fixed assets and family members in the fortified villages, this formed a rigorous system of control. Once a soldier deserted, it meant his entire family would lose their property and chance of survival. Soldiers had virtually no way out and could only fight to the death.

The organizational efficiency of Dengzhou's structure far exceeded that of the Great Ming's military guard system and also far exceeded the Later Jin's Eight Banners tribal system. The configuration of various functional institutions could generate far greater mobilization capacity. As long as Chen Xin's finances permitted, every able-bodied person in Dengzhou could contribute some strength in wartime. Even if the Dengzhou army lacked rigorous training, the binding force produced by this organizational system alone could give its soldiers a will to fight that surpassed most garrison troops.

After doing some calculations, Liu Minyou said to Chen Xin, "In the first half of the year, you can convert one battalion to full strength. In the second half, you should be able to convert two more. But that depends on my new products. If they do well, you can convert another two battalions to full strength next year."

"New products alone aren't enough. We can't be soft-hearted in business. Wang Erya has done a fine job in Linqing. When those gentry refuse to be reasonable, we have to be even less reasonable. Wu Jianzhong's security bureau has already set up branches in both Jinan and Linqing. From now on, shopkeepers in various places don't need to send reports back to Dengzhou — they can mobilize the security bureau's personnel locally. Only truly thorny cases need to call in Dengzhou's action teams."

Liu Minyou listened but said nothing. Wang Erya had gone somewhat overboard in Linqing; the dead and wounded innocents numbered over a hundred. Later, she had forcibly seized the workshop of the Dongyue Tobacco Factory and become the head of the Linqing Tobacco Trade Guild. Through this guild, she subcontracted to small workshops to produce Dongyue-brand cigarettes, using geographical advantages to reduce costs, mainly making low-priced cigarettes that no longer competed directly with Wendeng-brand cigarettes.

However, Wang Erya had also suffered two assassination attempts — one from a relative of the Dongyue proprietor, and one from another gentry member. Wang Erya was even wounded. Qin Rong and the others retaliated in turn, using equally brutal methods. The Internal Security Action Team left five men behind specifically to protect Wang Erya. Wang Erya insisted on continuing to work in Linqing, and her business quickly surpassed its Chongzhen fourth-year levels.

Sometimes Liu Minyou reflected that if he were in Wang Erya's situation, he might not have been able to go as far as she did. Although he still strongly disapproved of such methods, everyone in the trading company was full of praise, and those in the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Military Staff who knew some of the inside story also praised her, calling Wang Erya a heroine among women. In the end, Liu Minyou only wrote a letter and had Zhou Laifu pass it to Wang Erya, hoping she would not continue to widen the scope of her attacks and would try her best not to harm the innocent.

"Wang Erya's approach is still too extreme. We should also exert more effort in the Shandong official circles. Relying entirely on violence is ultimately not proper."

Chen Xin knew Liu Minyou was soft-hearted. He thought for a moment and said, "After the new year begins, I'll send someone to Jinan to pay a visit to Xu Congzhi. With the Linqing example, the Shandong official circles will at least show us some face. It's best if we don't have to use force. Alright, today is New Year's — let's stop talking about work. When the sixth day comes, we'll put our heads together and further refine this year's goals."

Chen Xin wiped his face and stood up. "I'm off to pay New Year respects to Lord Wang and Lord Lu. Tonight our two families will have the reunion dinner together. Let's enjoy the New Year in high spirits."

Walking into the courtyard, Chen Xin called for his guards and prepared to head out, but then he saw Wang Mafu waiting at the entrance to the second courtyard. From Wang Mafu's expression, Chen Xin could tell there was no good news.

Sure enough, Wang Mafu came over and handed him an intelligence report, saying, "My lord, urgent report from the Linqing station. A portion of the roving bandits' Thirty-Six Camps — the two bands of Shang Tianlong and Heixin Hu — have crossed the Shanxi border via Wuer Valley and entered Shexian, intending to raid Wu'an. Additionally, scattered bandit cavalry have appeared in Pingdingzhou, Huaiqing, Weihui, and other places. The Zhili troops are all on alert near Zhending and Baoding. However, the Henan Mao troops are few in number and weak in strength; I fear they'll be hard-pressed to resist. Currently, Zuo Liangyu of Changping, Regional Commander Deng Qi of the Jizhen Sichuan troops, and the Shizhu native chieftain officers Ma Xianglin and Zhang Fengyi, among others, are being sent to reinforce Henan. The Sichuan troops are the Shizhu soldiers being transferred back to Sichuan via Shanhai Pass."

Chen Xin took it and glanced at it, then asked curiously, "Why are the Shizhu troops leaving?"

Like a human search engine, Wang Mafu immediately replied, "There was news from the Jingshi station. The Shizhu troops have been away from home for a long time and are homesick. Right after the Later Jin troops withdrew from Dalinghe, the Sichuan troops began clamoring to return home. The first batch, led by Qin Yiming, has already returned to their garrison. About six or seven thousand Sichuan troops remain, led respectively by Deng Qi, Ma Xianglin, and Zhang Fengyi. Deng Qi is an officer from the Liaodong garrison; Ma Xianglin and Zhang Fengyi are Qin Liangyu's son and daughter-in-law."

Chen Xin recalled the terrain and muttered to himself, "From Gu Pass in the north, to Shexian in the middle, and Huaiqing and Weihai in the south — these fellows have really made progress. They even know how to create diversions. They've stretched the battle line nearly a thousand li along the Taihang Mountains. Scatter a few thousand government troops across that, and you won't see a single shadow. The entire southeastern border of Shanxi must be jittery and panicked."

Wang Mafu asked in a low voice, "My lord, should we make preparations? The imperial court will sooner or later transfer us."

Chen Xin casually tossed the intelligence report back to Wang Mafu. "No need to prepare. We'll continue celebrating the New Year. Send an urgent letter to Song Wenxian. Have him pay a visit to Minister Wen and Liang Tingdong. Do your best to emphasize all the difficulties we face in Dengzhou. In short, make the court cough up more resources." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to Qidian to cast recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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