Chapter 420: The True Profit

Wu Xiang settled his mind at Nanguan Harbor and waited with full confidence for someone to come fetch him. The next day no one came, and he could not wander around freely — a Dengzhou garrison soldier in a white helmet followed him at all times, so he could only stroll near the reception buildings by the port. Many vessels came over from Lüshun and Dengzhou; some flew the blue flags of the Dengzhou naval camp, but the soldiers aboard were sailors from the Wendeng naval camp. These ships unloaded large quantities of grain, then took on some wounded men and captives.

Construction continued nonstop on the docks, with many pulley rigs for loading and unloading set up. Nearby, some men who looked like bondservants were being guarded as they built warehouses. Wu Xiang was somewhat astonished by the efficiency of Dengzhou Garrison — the fighting had just ended, yet Chen Xin could already arrange so many things. What he did not know was that Chen Xin had not arranged any of it; he had merely set out some broad requirements, and each bureau carried out its own duties. The staff officers drew up detailed plans, and after Chen Xin approved them, they were handed to the Military Affairs Bureau for execution.

Wu Xiang ended up waiting three full days. Only on the third day did someone from the Foreign Affairs Bureau come to receive him. The two men rode horses and reached Jinzhou in just half a day. Wu Xiang had not been to Liaonan for many years. Back when he first attached himself to Liaozhen, the Jianzhou Bandits had not yet seized Liaodong, and he had visited Jinzhou before. At that time Liaonan's trade was flourishing; now it was a scene of devastation everywhere.

Along the road to Jinzhou after the great battle, traces of the fighting were still visible. Some useless cart frames and the like lay toppled by the roadside, along with plenty of tattered clothing and banners that no one bothered with. Wu Xiang quietly picked up a small triangular pennant — one used by the White Armor Soldiers of the Later Jin's Bordered Blue Banner. If he had found such a pennant in Liaozhen, it would have counted as a major merit; here it was practically discarded like trash.

When he reached the outskirts of Nanguan, military camps were everywhere, and groups of bondservants labored there. It looked as though they were building rammed-earth city walls. Wu Xiang had some knowledge of Nanguan. Nanguan lay thirty-five li deep along the isthmus. With Jinzhou serving as the front line, Nanguan was where the Dengzhou army massed its heavy troops — the true place of decisive battle.

Along the way he saw many troop movements, most of them coming over from Lüshun. These soldiers had ruddy, glowing faces and sang loudly as they marched, brimming with the high spirits of a victorious army.

Wu Xiang had spent time in Dengzhou, and the Dengzhou troops he saw there were all more or less like this — always high in morale, utterly unlike the deathly, listless atmosphere over in Liaozhen. After arriving at Jinzhou, Wu Xiang entered the city through the south gate. Jinzhou's walls were six li in circumference, far larger than Ningyuan. What Wu Xiang thought to himself was that it could store more grain and would not be so easily besieged to death.

Most of the buildings throughout the city were damaged. Large numbers of auxiliary soldiers were searching everywhere for usable materials, which they then loaded onto flatbed carts and hauled to the north side. On the roads, quite a few ox-carts and mule-carts carrying grain sacks entered the city through the east gate. Wu Xiang had no idea where Chen Xin had gotten the oxen and mules. If they had been captured from the Later Jin army, then the blow the Later Jin had suffered must have exceeded Wu Xiang's estimate. The Foreign Affairs Bureau secretary leading the way was a chatterbox who never stopped talking the whole journey, though everything he said about the battle was wildly exaggerated — one moment claiming twenty thousand heads taken, the next moment saying thirty thousand. Wu Xiang listened and found it not very reliable.

When they reached the place where the Regional Commander's great tent stood, Wu Xiang saw piles of human heads. All had already been cured and finished, bearing every kind of expression. The secretary told Wu Xiang that these were only the ones killed in the vicinity of Jinzhou.

The secretary went in to announce him, and Chen Xin came out in person to welcome him. Wu Xiang offered a round of fawning flattery, and the two exchanged a few pleasantries, far more cordial than before. Chen Xin politely invited him into the great tent. The interior was plainly furnished: in the middle stood an unfinished, simple sand table, with a screen behind it, and then a table and a few chairs at the place of honor.

After the guards served tea, Wu Xiang cupped his hands toward Chen Xin and said with admiration, "Lord Chen, this time you have dealt the Jianzhou Bandits a severe blow. My humble respect is beyond words. Some days ago in Ningyuan, when I heard the Jianzhou Bandits had gone to Liaonan, my heart burned with indignation and I submitted a memorial to the Ministry of War requesting to join the fight. But the Ministry never replied. Regional Commander Zu, in his urgency, defied orders and led troops straight toward Sanchahe. He also sent me hurrying to Dengzhou, saying that whatever Lord Chen needs, Liaozhen will give as much as it has."

Chen Xin certainly did not believe the Liaozhen crowd would be so eager. This Wu Xiang was a man who sized up the situation before committing; now that he saw the Later Jin troops had withdrawn, he immediately produced this set of words. Chen Xin smiled at him and said, "The Ministry of War is always slow. It is rare for Lord Zu and General Wu to be so concerned. Since it is Lord Zu's kind intention, this official needs one thousand warhorses."

"Leave it to me," Wu Xiang said, slapping his chest with an expression of utter resolve. Inwardly, he was full of regret — he had spoken a bit too expansively just now and had not expected Chen Xin to be so shameless as to actually dare open his mouth at a polite remark.

Chen Xin was inwardly amused. He said to Wu Xiang, "The old rule still applies: this official will pay silver to buy them. We certainly cannot let Lord Wu bear the expense. This time Lord Zu sent troops to Sanchahe, which fully shows that Liaozhen is also a critical link in dealing with the Jianzhou Bandits and complements Dengzhou Garrison perfectly. In the future we should keep in closer contact. The Ministry of War is truly a bit too slow."

After hearing this, Wu Xiang felt he had a clear picture. Before Zu Dashou departed, he had specifically instructed him: first, ascertain the real outcome of the battle on both sides. If Dengzhou Garrison had actually managed to hold its ground, that meant Dengzhou Garrison's strength was already approaching that of the Later Jin, and the situation in Liaodong now involved four forces — namely the Later Jin, Dengzhou, Liaozhen, and Dongjiang.

Among these forces, Dongjiang was the weakest, but Dongjiang clearly leaned toward Dengzhou Garrison and could basically be counted as a branch of Dengzhou. Liaozhen was then the weakest of the three remaining sides. Zu Dashou needed to sound out Chen Xin's attitude toward Liaozhen before he could decide on Liaoxi's future strategy. From what Chen Xin had just said, he regarded Liaozhen as an equal party, not one to be suppressed, and he hinted that the two sides could bypass the Ministry of War and privately divide up the benefits in Liaodong.

With this understanding, Wu Xiang felt he now grasped Chen Xin's stance. He immediately cupped his hands toward Chen Xin and said, "Lord Zu is of the same mind. Military circumstances shift in an instant. Under the court's new Three-Pronged Strategy, head, waist, and tail advance and retreat in turn. Grand Coordinator Xiong is permanently stationed at Shanhai Pass, and as messages are passed back and forth, leaks are all too easy. Direct communication between Ningyuan and Lüshun would be more secure."

Chen Xin nodded repeatedly. The two men quickly set the imperial court aside. What Zu Dashou feared most was Chen Xin truly siding with the court. That the court relied on Deng–Lai to restrain Liaozhen was obvious, but as long as Chen Xin did not get serious about it, Liaozhen had nothing to fear. The two sides could put on a show on the surface while each privately took what they needed.

Chen Xin, for his part, needed to keep Liaozhen stable. Striking the Later Jin with full force was Chen Xin's established strategy. The moment the Later Jin was destroyed would be the moment Liaozhen lost its value. Given Zu Dashou's record of openly defying orders multiple times, the court would certainly move against him, and the force the court could most rely on was Dengzhou's strong army. So what reaction Liaozhen might have during this process was hard to say. For now, the thing to do was first build some trust with Liaozhen and tie together a portion of their interests.

With Zu Dashou's insight, he would know that Chen Xin had ambitions, but just how great those ambitions were was not something he could judge. Chen Xin hoped Zu Dashou would regard him as a latter-day Li Chengliang. Zu Dashou was very clear on Li Chengliang's system: Li Chengliang had eight thousand retainers and, apart from the Qi Family Army, no rivals. He was in effect the local emperor of Liaodong, yet in the end he never made any rebellious move. In the eyes of a military man like Zu Dashou, rebellion carried enormous risk and almost no chance of success.

"Then when Lord Wu returns, you may inform Marshal Zu that next month this official will send some capable men to Jinzhou. They will be able to make decisions on certain matters, which will also make it convenient for our two garrisons to exchange what we have. Nominally they will still be people from the trading company, so it will look better in the court's eyes."

After hearing this, Wu Xiang immediately asked, "Then I also intend to send a few capable men here. That way some matters won't require sending back and forth to ask, and business will be more convenient. Would Your Lordship think it better to station them in Lüshun or in Jinzhou?"

"Lüshun," Chen Xin said with a smile. "Right at Shuangdao Bay. A section there will be opened up as a commercial port. Anyone may come to do business. South of Jinzhou there will be many garrison farms in the future, and the goods and materials they need will be considerable. As long as one manages it properly, Lord Wu can both coordinate with my Dengzhou Garrison to fight the Jianzhou Bandits and, along the way, do some larger-scale business."

"I thank Your Lordship for your generous hospitality. I have the same intention and plan to set up a few private shops, trading in furs from the Mongols. From Your Lordship's meaning, will Liaonan also be opened up for people to do business?"

"Naturally," Chen Xin said, fixing his eyes on Wu Xiang. "If commerce does not flow, the area south of Nanguan will all be military farmland. We are doing business with the door wide open. General Wu can be considered a man of business himself. We both know that merchants have it hard — to earn some silver they have to beg and scheme everywhere. So when merchants come to Deng–Lai, I will give them whatever consideration is within my power. If they purchase property and settle their families in Deng–Lai, then all their lawful income will be protected by Dengzhou Garrison. No one will be able to confiscate it. This official can give Lord Wu that guarantee right here."

Wu Xiang narrowed his eyes. "The lawful income Your Lordship speaks of is…"

"Any income not gained through committing crimes in Dengzhou is lawful income."

Chen Xin studied Wu Xiang's expression. In these chaotic times, even a local kingpin like Wu Xiang would often feel a sense of insecurity. Large amounts of silver hidden at home could be looted if the Jianzhou Bandits took the city, or could become the object of division among confiscators during a court-ordered seizure of property. Wu Xiang had been very interested in interest-bearing savings the last time and had already deposited tens of thousands of taels of silver in the Four Seas Money Shop. He was currently collecting interest on it, and together with the funds from the transactions between the two sides, he had over a hundred thousand taels in the Four Seas Money Shop. His usage habit had already been cultivated.

Overwhelming military force was Dengzhou Garrison's credit guarantee. Chen Xin needed to attract capital to Dengzhou, channeling it through the money shop or shares into Dengzhou's industries, scaling up his several large enterprises to gain an advantage in scale, which would then drive other trades among the common people. All these industries required large amounts of capital; relying solely on Dengzhou Garrison's own capital was far from enough.

The greater benefit lay in currency. The stronger Dengzhou's military force, the stronger the credit of the Four Seas Money Shop. At present, the money shop still basically issued a slightly larger amount of pay notes based on the quantity of silver on hand. Apart from the circulating funds in Linqing, the pay notes issued locally in Dengzhou amounted to no more than two hundred thousand taels. When expanding outward, silver or gold coins with intrinsic value were needed, and the seigniorage from them was a huge sum of money.

Wu Xiang was not about to move his entire family fortune to Deng–Lai anytime soon. Chen Xin was merely telling him that private property in Deng–Lai would receive the protection of Dengzhou Garrison and that even the imperial court could not take it away — this point moved Wu Xiang the most. Chen Xin's difficulty lay in being unable to directly enact a law or constitution to proclaim to the world; he could only rely on the money shop to accumulate credit bit by bit and spread this message among the people…

After Wu Xiang left, Liu Minyou came out from behind the screen at the back. Chen Xin shook his head and said, "We'll still have to give Wu Xiang a lot of heads. But if they can be exchanged for silver, it's worth it."

"If you want to weaken the impression that Dengzhou Garrison dominates alone, sharing heads with Liaozhen and Dongjiang is unavoidable. Within Dengzhou Garrison itself, we also have to give some to Wang Tingshi's and Lü Zhi's people."

Chen Xin gave a sly chuckle. "What are heads? The greatest profit always lies beyond the battlefield. What this battle won is reputation, and in chaotic times reputation is silver. As soon as the Qingzhou Regional Commander post is secured, the Four Seas Money Shop will start advertising in the military gazettes, letting everyone know that this money shop is the most reliable under heaven. Wherever the money shop reaches, it can absorb local gold and silver, turn them around into gold, silver, and copper coins, and everyone under heaven will be paying me taxes."

"The seigniorage alone is already considerable enough."

"Seigniorage alone is of course not enough. If the realm descends into further chaos, a great deal of capital will flee to safe Deng–Lai. These hard currencies will be transformed through the money shop and become Dengzhou's currency. Such a creditworthy currency is bound to circulate everywhere under heaven. By then we can directly use military force as collateral, and the currency won't even need to be tied to the gold and silver we hold. Simply by over-issuing currency, we can quietly plunder the wealth of the entire realm. In this era, we won't even need to go to the trouble of fabricating all the supposed benefits of inflation to deceive the common people — hardly anyone understands what is going on."

Liu Minyou sighed and said, "Having won the Battle of Lüshun, your credit is already more than half established. The rest will rely on military gazettes and propaganda. I keep feeling that this plan of ours is… covertly plundering the people's wealth?"

Chen Xin nodded slightly. "An expedient measure. Plunder is everywhere. The nature of the power to print money is always like this. As long as it is kept within certain bounds, it's acceptable. At least… this wealth does not go into my personal pocket; it is still used to do things for the people. There's no need to dwell on the rest. Now it all depends on when the Qingzhou Regional Commander post is taken."