Chapter 486: Devious

As night first fell over Shenyang, the sound of watch-clappers rose from every quarter. On the main street east of the city, lanterns swayed as a column of White Armor Soldiers escorted Yoto to a halt before a large residence.

"Master, we have arrived," the Goshiha beside him said in a low voice.

Only then did Yoto rouse from his deep thoughts. He turned his head to glance at the gate, nodded, and dismounted. The Plain Red Banner Goshiha guarding the gate ushered Yoto inside, while another man went to inform Daišan.

After passing through courtyard after courtyard, Yoto reached the quarters where Daišan lived. The courtyard was arrayed with bows, arrows, and weapons, and horses were tethered there just the same. Daišan had not bothered with a study; he received Yoto in a room furnished with a heated brick bed.

Daišan, a man of few words at the best of times, was drinking smuggled spirits and chewing on soybeans. Yoto sat by the edge of the kang for a moment before he spoke: "Ama, you should give up this position of Grand Beile."

Daišan gave a noncommittal grunt and went on drinking. Yoto stared somewhat vacantly at the lantern hanging on the wall and said: "Jirgalang came to see me before noon. Between his words he hinted at the matter of the Great Khan sitting alone facing south. His attitude speaks for itself. The two Yellow Banners plus the two Blue Banners — now four of the Eight Banners stand with the Great Khan. After the battle at Lushun last year, Dorgon was demoted to Duoluo Beile. Dodo is a man with no mind of his own. Ajige may even be siding with the Great Khan..."

Daišan suddenly spoke up: "Which side are you on?"

Yoto froze for a moment and said: "I, I..."

Daišan tossed the remaining soybeans in his hand back into the small bowl on the table, raised his head, and sighed: "I told you long ago not to be blinded by Old Eighth's twisted reasoning, but you insisted he had grand vision and great strategy, when all you saw were petty gains. Your Ama here knew his true character many years ago. That business with Abahai back then — originally it was just sending a little food. I thought it would be ungracious to refuse, so I accepted. He insisted on dragging people in and twisting it, claiming I had something going on with Abahai. In the end, the Old Khan was greatly displeased with me. That was how he got the title of Khan of the Great Jin right out from under us. Originally the four Grand Beiles sat together, and for a time he could do nothing to us. But you, Šoto, and Sahaliyan were all beguiled by him. He gave you the post of Deliberative Minister, and you thought you were on equal footing with the Banner Lord Beiles. Little did you realize that the Eight Prince Deliberation was the true foundation. In the end it was turned into a Deliberative Assembly — thirty or forty men. It was plainly using the many to control the few, and you all thought it was only us three Grand Beiles being controlled. How could you know that in the end it would control you yourselves."

Yoto kept his head down and said nothing. Daišan continued: "Back when the Six Ministries were set up, you spoke only of how good the Six Ministries were, completely unaware of Old Eighth's selfish motives. Now Amin and Manggūltai are both dead. Everyone can see with their own eyes what became of the Plain Blue Banner. Dorgon and Dodo have always been fence-sitters, never to be relied upon at any time. Apart from these four Manchu banners, the Mongol Left and Right Wings, the Ujen Cooha, the Tianyou Army, and the Outer Vassal Mongols all obey Old Eighth. Even if I refuse, it is no longer possible."

Yoto said quietly: "Even if you yield the Grand Beile position, the Great Khan cannot do anything to our two Red Banners. If we help him now, in the future he will have to remember this goodwill."

Daišan picked up his wine and took a drink himself. Seeing that Yoto had no bowl, he found one from behind him and handed it to Yoto. As he watched Yoto pour the wine, he said: "Ama is somewhat worried about you. That daughter of Mangguji — if she's killed, she's killed. One less makes no difference. But since you want him to sit alone, it would still be best if you did not keep that Fujin."

Yoto drank his wine and was silent for a while before he said: "Ama, I cannot bring myself to do such a thing. A woman who marries me is one I ought to protect. If I cannot even do this, how will the bondservants below me regard me?"

Daišan shook his head and did not press the matter further. Yoto sighed and said: "Those Han curs, Fan Wencheng and Bao Chengxian, have already submitted memorials to build momentum. Ama, since you intend to yield the Grand Beile position, bring it up on your own initiative at the Deliberative Assembly — that would be more fitting. Also, the Great Khan intends to expand the Ujen Cooha on the model of Dengzhou. The Ujen Cooha and the Tianyou Army are to be brought up to ten thousand men. Each banner must contribute household retainers, and the public stores of iron, grain, and funds are all to be used to train this army."

"I won't give them," Daišan said indifferently. "The position can be yielded. Men and households — not a one."

"His meaning is to have Sahaliyan command the Ujen Cooha, with the men and households still under the control of their respective banners."

Daišan looked up at Yoto with a trace of surprise. Yoto nodded to Daišan. Sahaliyan was also Daišan's son. It seemed Hong Taiji again intended to use conditions to barter with him. If he did not agree, Sahaliyan would once more be displeased with Daišan.

Daišan stared at the tabletop and pondered for a moment. "If the men and households remain with the banners, then what exactly is Sahaliyan managing? It's just like when you were Minister of War — managing nothing worth a fart."

Yoto said quietly: "Of these ten thousand, three thousand are the Tianyou Army and seven thousand are the Ujen Cooha. They will be divided into eight Jalan and four Gūsa. On campaign they will march with the banners; when deployed independently, they will be under Sahaliyan's command."

Daišan narrowed his eyes and said: "Does Old Eighth truly mean to imitate that Dengzhou Garrison?"

Yoto nodded and urged: "Ama, on this matter I am in agreement. Whatever one says of the Great Khan, Dengzhou is the mortal enemy of our Great Jin. I have also read the Dengzhou military reports. On the front page, written personally by Chen Xin, they style themselves a land of civilization and call our Great Jin Tungusic savages. They say the fighting will never cease until they have exterminated our Great Jin to the last man. Everything the others write is the same. Now Chen Xin is entrenched at Jinzhou and Lushun, buying horses from Guanning and Shanxi. His cavalry grows stronger by the day. Between Fuzhou and Gaizhou alone they already exceed two thousand. Given time, relying solely on the Jušen will surely be no match for them. The largest population our Great Jin has is the Han people. This is a measure born of necessity."

Daišan gave a cold laugh and said: "Even if you learn from Dengzhou to the last detail, you still cannot compete with Chen Xin's population, let alone the fact that those Aha will never serve us with true hearts. When the time comes and they defect on the battlefield, better not to have them at all."

"The Great Khan intends to raise them all into the banners and grant them land, giving priority to those with families. That way they will be obedient and docile. I hear even the military code is modeled on the Dengzhou Garrison."

Daišan shook his head slightly. "Where would Old Eighth get that much money and grain to train this army? I have also listened to He Changjiu and the others explain. You must understand that Dengzhou is strong in infantry and weak in cavalry. Their infantry formations are ferocious beyond compare, but they must drill day after day, mastering them by heart before they can be wielded like one's own arm. It is not like our Jušen warriors, who can train simply by practicing archery and hunting. Look at the price of grain now — who is willing to hand over money and grain to Old Eighth?"

Yoto's face also showed worry. "This year, for some reason, grain at Guanning is twenty taels of silver per shi, and even with silver there is nowhere to buy it. Zu Kefa sent a letter to ask Zu Dashou, and he said that everywhere in the Ming realm is suffering a grain famine. It is not Guanning alone — even Jingshi has nowhere to buy. From the look of things this year, the Dengzhou Garrison sends cavalry to harass Gaizhou every few days. Never mind their cavalry formations — their methods of scattered riders and roving patrols are growing more adept by the day. If we do not take Fuzhou before the autumn harvest and let the Dengzhou Garrison entrench themselves there, then this winter we can forget about going anywhere. We will just have to wait and grind it out with Dengzhou."

"Take Fuzhou?" Daišan snorted. "At the earliest, we must wait until the autumn grain is harvested. And we would need at least five thousand mounted armored men. The Dengzhou scouts are not weak. By the time we have assembled our forces, they will have slipped away from Fuzhou in a flash. What are we to do then? It would only secure one winter. Every spring they will just come again. When we withdrew this year, I said we should tear Fuzhou down. No one listened."

Yoto sighed and said: "What's done is done. There's no use talking about it now. Anyway, grain is short everywhere. I don't believe Dengzhou is not short. Let's see how long they can hold out."

"Our grain reserves along the Grand Canal, in Jingshi, and at Guanning and other places have already exceeded one million three hundred thousand shi. The average purchase price was two taels and one qian. There is still one month before the Jianzhou bandits' autumn harvest. We can begin releasing grain from the lower reaches of the Grand Canal. In Jingshi and along the Canal we will release grain slowly, together with the other major merchant houses, ensuring everyone earns silver and avoiding a vicious price war. Only at Guanning will we suppress the grain price. I hear Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou could not hold back and just bought a hundred thousand shi of grain at a high price from the Tianjin branch. This time we will let them lose to death. Next year, the grain price at Guanning will be entirely ours to dictate."

Chen Xin, lounging in his drunken-chair, said leisurely: "And cotton cloth?"

Liu Minyou held his own ledger, calculating as he spoke: "Cotton cloth has already begun to be released in various places, a little ahead of the grain, because the season for purchasing raw cotton arrives in the eighth and ninth months. If the price of cotton cloth remains high, the raw material, cotton, will also skyrocket, which would be detrimental to our cotton spinning strategy for next year. So we must suppress the cotton price in advance. The cotton cloth we have stockpiled in various places amounts to about five million bolts — some produced by us, some cloth from Jiangnan. Releasing it all in this concentrated period can drive the Canal region cloth price to its lowest. This will have no effect on the farming households in Jiangnan, but those cotton merchants will suffer terribly and are bound to take a huge loss."

Chen Xin sat up and scratched his head. "Then according to my last calculation, we haven't made much either, and these cotton merchants have lost money. So who has profited?"

Liu Minyou smiled and said: "We have the low-cost portion from our own production to subsidize us, so we still make a profit. These merchants' silver has already been used for high-price purchasing, and the money has been dispersed among the weaving households of Jiangnan. After they take this loss here, the silver in those farming households cannot be concentrated again for a time, and they will no longer pose a competitive threat to us."

Chen Xin pointed at Liu Minyou. "Devious. But I think..." Chen Xin stroked his chin. "In the south there are not only weaving farming households, but also many weaving workshops large and small. Quite a few weaving workshops have made a killing in silver this year. We have to make them cough it up too, lest they pose competition to us next year."

Liu Minyou asked: "What do you plan to do?"

Chen Xin earnestly counted on his fingers. "The effect of this year's economic warfare has exceeded all expectations. The Great Ming's free economy has far too little resistance. We must make good use of it. This time, with the price of cotton cloth soaring, the purchase price of raw cotton in the south will also rise. We should wait until those southern weaving workshops have purchased their raw materials at high prices, and then suppress the price of cotton cloth."

Liu Minyou spread his hands. "Then what do we do? We also need to purchase cotton from Eastern Depot Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, and Qingzhou Prefecture. With the market so good this year, raw materials will certainly be snapped up. The flowering season in the south is earlier than in Shandong. If we wait until they finish purchasing and then suppress the price, we can only wait until the ninth month. By then all the cotton in Shandong will have been bought up by others. What will our workers do next year?"

Chen Xin waved his hand to cut him off. "What do you mean 'too late and it's gone'? When cotton reaches the flowering season and matures, it still has to be picked. After picking, it has to be transported to places like Linqing and Liaocheng for sale. In between there is at least half a month's time. The flowering season in Jiangnan is about a month later than in Shandong, and there is also the time it takes for news to travel. We can make good use of this time lag. Starting around mid-eighth month, we will fiercely suppress the price of cotton cloth in the northern section of the Grand Canal. That will be exactly when cotton is being purchased in Linqing and Liaocheng, and we can just happen to buy this year's new cotton at low prices. By the time this price fluctuation reaches Jiangnan, their purchasing will be nearly complete. The silver from those workshops will have fallen into the hands of the cotton farmers, and it will be equally difficult to concentrate again."

Liu Minyou said quietly: "Then the workshops of any scale in Jiangnan will all have to operate at a loss next year."

Chen Xin laughed heartily. "Isn't a loss perfect? Next year we'll sell at suppressed prices. The Jiangnan industry of centralized cotton cloth production will be finished. From then on, dealing only with those farming households will be far too easy. Here in Shandong, those who made early purchases also bought at high prices — they've already taken a loss. Once we suppress prices further, will they dare invest money to weave the cloth? In the end they'll have no choice but to sell off the raw material."

Liu Minyou pointed at Chen Xin. "Devious!"

Chen Xin smugly leaned back into his drunken-chair. "This isn't called deviousness. This is called strength. We were lucky that Zhong Lao Si robbed Zhangjiakou and got over a million taels of silver, plus no small amount of goods — that was an unexpected windfall. But the main force is still the bank, plus the army's wages are all held in the bank. Most of the time they don't withdraw them. Who can compare with the funds we can mobilize on short notice? And we act simultaneously through our networks in every location. This is what we call organizational power. Once we earn this silver this year, early next year we will expand the army again. Let's see how many more years the Jianzhou bandits can keep hopping."

ps:

My health has improved somewhat; I will make up the missed updates as quickly as possible.