Chapter 47: Return Voyage

Song Wenxian's home was in Dengzhou city proper, but clearly the ten-thousand-plus taels of silver outside the city mattered far more to him. He left the city together with Chen Xin, hired a horse cart outside the Chunsheng Gate on the east side, and headed for the bay where the Red Seal ship was moored. Chen Xin expressed his admiration for Song Wenxian's spirit of passing his own door without entering, single-mindedly focused on dividing the spoils.

Because the silver on the Red Seal ship could not see the light of day, Song Wenxian had no intention of depositing such conspicuous illicit funds in a Dengzhou money shop. Moreover, the others were right there on the ship, under everyone's watchful eyes, so he could not get his hands on the silver anyway. He therefore decided to follow the original plan and travel with Chen Xin to Tianjin, and along the way help Chen Xin open up connections there.

The others, like Han Bin, all lived near Dengzhou, and the Fujian junk normally berthed at Dengzhou as well. After coming ashore the day before, Song Wenxian had dismissed them. Han Bin, seeing Chen Xin accompany Song Wenxian to call on the Coastal Defense Circuit, knew at once that his own ambitions had come to nothing. He would not necessarily follow Chen Xin in the sea trade in the future, and he left full of resentment. Hei Pao, Ba Zi, and Lao Wang, because they needed to return to Tianjin to help handle Proprietor Zhao's funeral affairs, had transferred over to the Red Seal ship.

After the horse cart had traveled for a little over half a shichen, Song Wenxian led Chen Xin off the cart. They walked along a mountain path for roughly another two ke, arriving at a bay. The Red Seal ship lay quietly at anchor there; from its mast hung the official banner of the Dengzhou Coastal Defense Circuit. On the hill, a few herd boys were studying the large ship with curiosity.

On the deck, Zhu Guobin and Lu Lvzi were waiting anxiously. Seeing the two men arrive, they hurriedly lowered the foot boat and pulled them aboard.

"Mr. Song, Mr. Chen, did everything go smoothly?" Ba Zi, who knew the situation, asked the moment they arrived.

Chen Xin nodded and said, "Smoothly. Mr. Song is now a private secretary to Grand Coordinator Sun. From now on, everyone can look to Mr. Song for their livelihood."

Song Wenxian also narrowed his eyes and said, "What use is an unranked private secretary? Let me tell everyone, Brother Chen is already a Company Commander of Weihai Guard. In a few days his commission will be issued. Everyone must remember to address him as My Lord Company Commander from now on. And it may not be long before we have to call him My Lord Battalion Commander."

"Congratulations, Mr. Chen!" "Congratulations, congratulations."

Everyone had formed a very good impression of Chen Xin along the journey, and now they were genuinely happy for him — especially Lu Lvzi and Qin Lufang, whose faces flushed red with delight. Lu Lvzi even clapped his hands the way those three little followers did. Although a Company Commander in the military registers was not a figure of real power, he was still an official, after all.

Chen Xin cupped his hands and bowed all around. "Thank you, everyone. When we reach Tianjin, this brother will play host. I hope you will all do me the honor — we'll drink until we're thoroughly drunk."

"Of course, of course." Everyone was in high spirits. After the setbacks they had encountered on the journey, everyone had been uneasy. Now at last there was a good outcome, and the earnings were very decent. Several people on the ship were thinking of following Chen Xin; now that he had an official post, they too would have a way forward.

Wang Zugui said to Chen Xin, "Brother Chen, I'll go ashore first. I need to take my fellow villager's ashes back, and the silver too. Next time you go to sea, just give a shout. Brother Hei Pao and Brother Ba Zi both know the place."

Chen Xin clasped his fist to him and said, "Brother Wang, do as you need. Is your home far? With this much silver, let me escort you back before I go."

A troubled expression crossed Wang Zugui's face. His home was that of a fisherman near Dengzhou, not far from here, but the silver was indeed rather a lot. Between him and that fellow villager, it came to over two thousand taels — eighty or ninety jin — and he also had to carry his brother's ashes.

Song Wenxian, seeing that Chen Xin wanted to play the good man again, advised from the side, "Brother Chen, we should not linger here. There was a village on the road just now. Have someone accompany Brother Wang to the village to hire two porters, and that will do."

Chen Xin thought it over and agreed. There was a large sum of silver on the ship, and now fewer than ten people — truly not a place to linger. He said to Lu Lvzi and Zhu Guobin, "Brother Zhu, Brother Lu, may I trouble you two to accompany Brother Wang to hire some men? I'll cover the cost of hiring. Brother Wang, do not reveal your wealth along the way. If anyone asks, just say it's Japanese dried seafood or the like." …

"Right!"

"Many thanks, Brother Chen."

The two helped Wang Zugui carry the silver ashore, climbed all the way up the hill, and disappeared beyond the ridge.

"Brother Chen is meticulous in his thinking. He will surely achieve something on the official path in the future."

Chen Xin gave a faint smile. He understood what Song Wenxian meant. The two men he had chosen to accompany Wang Zugui both had a heavy murderous air about them. As long as these two went along, it signaled that someone knew where the village was, and the hired villagers would not dare entertain any designs on Wang Zugui along the road.

Song Wenxian continued, "What I do not understand, brother, is why you chose Weihai Guard. There is also Dengzhou Guard right here in the city, closer to the lords, with more opportunities for promotion."

"Mr. Song, from Tianjin to Weihai Guard is five or six days at the fastest, eight or nine if slow. If one had a small private harbor near Weihai Guard, one could replenish fresh water and provisions for the ships, and thus carry more cargo when leaving Tianjin. On the return voyage, one could again rest and resupply there, and it is only two days' sea journey from Dengzhou, making it convenient to call on the various lords. That is why I chose this place."

Song Wenxian listened to Chen Xin's words and, on reflection, saw that it was indeed so. Carrying less water and food meant being able to earn more.

Chen Xin did not tell Song Wenxian his real thinking. He wanted to be farther from those lords, free from daily constraints. The former Proprietor Zhao's model had been to disperse in normal times and gather when putting to sea. That not only made it easy for news to leak, but also scattered their manpower. If someone truly wanted to move against him, he would have only a few men to help in Tianjin, and once people made money, some might not come back. If he had a place of his own and concentrated his manpower, he would have his own power base. Furthermore, Weihai lay at the eastern tip of Shandong, where overland communications were inconvenient; quietly developing strength there would not attract attention. Even if he was just muddling along, when the Tatars came someday, it would also be easier to run.

"Brother Chen has thought it through. As expected, far more thorough than I."

Chen Xin then asked Song Wenxian about the situation at Weihai Guard. Song Wenxian was not too clear on it either, only saying that Weihai Guard seemed smaller than ordinary guard battalions, and did not have the usual five battalion-level units. Nowadays, guard battalion posts were worthless; as long as the Provincial Governor looked after him, the officers inside those guard battalions would not dare make trouble.

As the two were talking, Lu Lvzi and Zhu Guobin had already returned. Once they climbed aboard the deck, everyone hauled on the sails together. The eleven people on the ship strained with all their might and finally managed to raise the two stiff sails. This was only possible because the Japanese ship's stiff sails were small; had it been a Fujian junk, they would probably have been left staring helplessly.

"We're going home!!" Chen Xin shouted loudly from the prow. The storms and bloodshed of the journey were at last behind them. Before their eyes lay the road home. Ning Cheng, Lu Lvzi, and the others all let out loud, strange howls, venting the excitement in their hearts. The Red Seal ship sailed out of the bay and, riding the wind, set course for Tianjin.

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"Gouzi, you two don't train today. Just help your Brother Zhou cut cloth in the shop."

"Oh, but Brother Chen said we have to train every day."

"The clothing shop is too busy right now. You'll stop for a few days."

"Then after work tonight I'll practice on my own, alright?"

"Fine, alright."

Under the night sky on Erdaojie, several torches had been lit in the courtyard, and a number of lanterns hung up as well, making it brightly illuminated. Liu Minyou wiped the sweat from his forehead. A long platform had been set up in the courtyard using wooden planks. Hai Gouzi and Zhang Erhui were using a paper pattern to trace marks onto a length of cloth. Wang Daixi and Zhou Laifu were cutting with shears. Zhou Laifu and Jiang Wang's wife were both sewing sleeves. Dai Zhenggang stood at another small wooden platform, clumsily pressing clothes with a flatiron (Note 1). The ground was strewn with scraps of material, and the originally rather spacious courtyard seemed cramped and clamorous.

The neighboring hat and kerchief shops were also ablaze with lamplight, all working overtime. Liu Minyou had outsourced most of the garments to them, while also making some in his own shop. Business had been so good these past few days that everyone was utterly exhausted. …

At that moment, Zhou Laifu was staring with a pair of panda eyes. He had been working nights all this time at Liu Minyou's Orchid Clothing Shop, and during the day he still had to go to work on Dongmen Street — working around the clock every day. Still, considering the piece-rate of five fen per garment, he was straining with all his might. Making a few pieces a night brought in several qian of silver. Over twenty days, his income had already reached five or six taels, and with his wife also doing odd jobs here, together they had over seven taels. He still felt it was well worth it.

Deng Keshan came rushing in through the wide-open gate, also drenched in sweat. He greeted everyone and ran straight to Liu Minyou's side to ask, "Brother Liu, are the three pieces for Old Tian's wife, ordered three days ago, finished yet?"

Liu Minyou stared with reddened eyes and took out a goods register. He had drawn it into a table format he was familiar with, and flipped to the order from three days ago. The status was still "ordered" — not even the materials had been prepared yet.

"Not done yet. How could we possibly keep up right now? The eighty pieces for that merchant from Linqing aren't finished, and yesterday you ran off to the dock and took an order from a Jingshi merchant — another fifty pieces at once. And you said the merchant couldn't wait, that his boat has to leave by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. Aren't we rushing entirely for these two deals of yours?"

Deng Keshan took Liu Minyou's goods register. After a few days of learning, he could now read the two-dimensional table. Scratching his head, he said, "I forgot, but it really is difficult. The ones from the old matchmaker three days ago still aren't done, and in the last two days she's brought back over thirty more. Can't we find more people to do the work? For cutting like this, we could find some older women and aunties to help. Someone like Brother Zhou could just focus on making the paper patterns."

Because everyone's measurements differed, clothing shops in this era all made garments to measure. Since materials like silk and satin were very expensive, to avoid mistakes and waste, one first had to cut a paper pattern according to the measurements, and then cut the cloth against that paper pattern. Liu Minyou had no experience in garment-making and had not, beforehand, set up production in a few standard sizes the way later generations would. So every garment required a new paper pattern, and making paper patterns was something only a professional tailor like Zhou Shifa could do. Thus they were bottlenecked by the number of tailors, making it hard to increase output.

Liu Minyou now regretted it deeply. Had he known business would be this good, he would have set small, medium, and large sizes. Then they would not be so frantically busy. He was in the process of changing this now, and the two batches for Linqing and Jingshi had already begun using fixed sizes.

Hearing Deng Keshan's words, he said impatiently, "You make it sound easy. We've already found everyone in this neighborhood who can be found. Every hat and kerchief shop is now making our clothes. Haven't you noticed that several tailors from Liye Fang have come to work nights? Where else are we supposed to find people? Not every old woman or auntie is willing to work nights either. And that Carpenter Yuan has worked himself sick. I just went to his house — he can't do any woodwork for the next couple of days. I still don't know what to do about the clothes racks."

After saying this, Liu Minyou glared at Deng Keshan a few times, then noticed a dark bruise on his forehead. Puzzled, he asked, "Brother Deng, what happened to your forehead? Did you get beaten again running a honey trap?"

Deng Keshan's face filled with indignation. "It's that Shen Lou again. You know the Zhang hat shop next door to me also set up a wooden platform and hired Tailor Li from Liye Fang to work nights. The noise was just a little loud, and Shen Lou started cursing every night, making all kinds of snide remarks…"

"You got into a fight with him?" As soon as Liu Minyou heard Shen Lou's name, he thought of that Shen family wife, Shen Lishi. He had been so busy every day that he had not seen her for a long time.

"I was about to give him a beating, but didn't get the chance. His wife tried to persuade him, and he gave her a terrible beating inside the house. I couldn't stand listening to it and went to the door to intervene, and just then he hurled a bowl out — it hit me and raised this huge lump. If it weren't for Brother Liu telling me not to stoop to his level, I'd have dragged him out and beaten him half to death long ago."

Liu Minyou hurriedly tried to smooth things over. "Brother Deng, don't take it to heart. He didn't do it on purpose. Their family has no income now, so things are hard for them. And we do work this late every night — it really disturbs their rest."

Deng Keshan suddenly slapped his forehead. "Ah, how could I forget the two women of Shen Lou's household? They have no income — wouldn't they be perfect to call in as odd-job workers? …"

Liu Minyou stared at Deng Keshan in astonishment. "Call his wife out to work? The day she brought over that bowl of meat she got beaten black and blue. And you want her working odd jobs all day? Brother Deng, do you think she's lived too long?"

"Look at what you're saying, Brother Liu. No matter what, people have to eat, don't they? His mother is a good person. Last time, as she was talking to me, she started crying, saying they were running out of money. Shen Lou can't do anything anyway, and she's afraid of just eating through their savings. If she doesn't come out to work, is Shen Lou going to magically produce silver?"

"Is that so." Liu Minyou hesitated again. "Then you must talk it over properly with Shen Lou first. Don't bring suffering on Lady Shen."

"Brother Liu can rest assured when I, Deng Daode, handle a matter. These next few days I'll go look around the other nearby wards, and bring back anyone willing to come work. Honestly, every day I go to the docks to do that thing you talked about, what's it called — a display fair — and I also have to look everywhere for workers. Tell me, Brother Liu, when business is good, it's a hardship too." Deng Keshan wore a blissful smile.

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Note 1: The flatiron has a long history in China, recorded as early as the Jin dynasty, and its name was "flatiron." Generally, heated stones, charcoal briquettes, or the like were placed inside a bronze flatiron, and it could then be used to press clothes.