Chapter 1047: War Is Coming! Time to Get Rich! (Seeking Subscriptions)

A grand strategy to send out one hundred fifty thousand troops and pacify all of Liaodong within three years was now laid before the assembled high officials of the two courts.

It was only a rough outline — there was no five-route advance plan that, no matter how you looked at it, seemed copied from the Ming dispositions at the Battle of Sarhu. Otherwise the assembled Ministers and Vice Ministers of the Grand Secretariat would surely have exploded.

Nor was today's joint session of the two courts meant to discuss concrete operational plans. What the Grand Secretariat needed to settle was how much military expenditure this war — expected to last three years and pacify all of Liaodong (meaning the entire jurisdiction of the Andong Protectorate) — would cost, and how the fertile land seized through the Liaodong campaign should be distributed.

"Your Majesty," said the aged and decrepit Chief Grand Secretary Lu Zhenfei after reading the one-page Liaodong pacification outline. He removed his spectacles and said with a furrowed brow, "For a hundred fifty thousand troops campaigning for three years, the additional personnel costs alone will likely run to twenty-five million taels. And if we add the expenses of hiring civilian laborers, purchasing mules and horses, buying grain and fodder, chartering ships, and building fortresses and roads, a hundred million taels could well be spent."

The four northern provinces of Shandong (west), Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi are still recovering; their revenues are negligible while their expenditures are heavy. The frontier commands of Anbei, Daning, Beiping, Shuofang, Hexi, and Anxi still depend on court subsidies.

In the southwest, our war against the roving bandits in Siam is also extremely costly — the number of troops now deployed there exceeds thirty thousand. Monthly expenditures run above five hundred thousand taels. Truly we are scattering gold like dirt!

And at sea, our struggle with the Spanish continues. Spanish warships still appear in the waters around Japan, and we must still garrison large forces at the Goto Islands, Tanegashima, Nagasaki, the Ryukyu Kingdom, and Chenggong Bay on Luzon. The various additional monthly expenses run between seven and eight hundred thousand taels!

The military costs for Siam and the sea alone amount to no less than fifteen million taels a year!

If we add the six great frontier commands of the north, the Sichuan army in the southwest, the Sichuan Border Army stationed in Qinghai (the Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun units), and the expenses of the three feudatories of Dzungar (the Beiting feudatory), Tumed, and Chahar — thirty million taels of silver a year could be spent!

Fortunately the expenses of opening up America Bay need not be borne by the court, otherwise this old minister truly would not know how to manage this household."

Listening to the muddle-headed old Lu Zhenfei pour out his grievances, Zhu Cilang inwardly found it amusing: the household of the Great Ming court had all along been managed by We, Zheng Zhilong, and Shen Tingyang! You, old sir, merely pretend to look over the budget and final accounts — though you certainly cannot understand them!

Otherwise you would not think the court has no money!

Lu Zhenfei's brow furrowed deeper and deeper. "Now the three-year Liaodong campaign is another hundred million taels in expenditure — spread over each year that is over thirty-three million. The separately budgeted military funds alone come to over sixty million! Your Majesty, all the court's various annual revenues added together, converted into silver, amount to only one hundred ten or twenty million taels!"

At this point his words suddenly stopped, and he gazed at Zhu Cilang with old, expectant eyes — he was thinking of the silver of Zhu Cilang's Royal Trading Company!

Zhu Cilang naturally understood what the old gentleman was thinking. The old man had more than once raised the matter of regulating the Royal Trading Company in private audiences, but Zhu Cilang had always feigned ignorance and paid no attention.

Today the old man was again setting his sights on the Royal Trading Company! Zhu Cilang thought to himself: Wei Zaode is still the better one! A bit greedy, perhaps, but he knows how to look out for Us, the Emperor. Better have him come back soon and serve as Chief Grand Secretary again!

"Duke of Quan!" Zhu Cilang cut off Lu Zhenfei's words and called Zheng Zhilong by name.

"This subject is here!" Zheng Zhilong immediately rose.

"Tell the Chief Grand Secretary where the funds for the three-year Liaodong campaign will come from!"

"This subject obeys the decree." Zheng Zhilong gave old Lu a slight nod. "Chief Grand Secretary, the expenses of the three-year Liaodong campaign will all come from the farmland of Liaodong and Liaoxi!"

"What?" Lu Zhenfei was taken aback. "How can they come from there? That land is still in the hands of the eastern barbarians!"

"We can first issue land certificates!" Zheng Zhilong said. "The farmland of Liaodong and Liaoxi can be reckoned at fifty million mu. Issue one land certificate per mu, each certificate worth three taels of silver — that is one hundred fifty million taels. More than enough to cover the costs of the Liaodong campaign!"

Just like that?

One hundred fifty million taels, just like that?

"That won't work, will it?" Lu Zhenfei shook his head. "Will soldiers even accept land certificates? Don't go provoking a mutiny!"

Zheng Zhilong chuckled. "Chief Grand Secretary, this is not the first time we have issued land certificates! A portion of the last batch of land certificates issued has still not been redeemed for land — they are listed and traded on the exchanges in Nanjing, Shanghai, and Hankou! One mu of Henan, Shandong, or Shanxi land is worth more than four taels on the three major exchanges. The land of Liaodong and Liaoxi is far better than the land of Henan, Shandong, and Shanxi. Three taels per mu is simply too cheap. Even if the soldiers don't want them, reselling them won't be hard!"

Zhu Cilang said, "When the time comes, the Royal Trading Company will offer a guaranteed floor price of three taels to buy them up!"

Zheng Zhilong shook his head. "You won't be able to buy any. Liaodong and Liaoxi may be cold, but the land is fertile, all of it already under cultivation, and it lies close to the Liao River and the Bohai Sea, so water transport is convenient. There will also be a three-to-five-year tax exemption. How could it possibly sell for only three taels of silver? If such a bargain truly existed, this old man would buy as much as he could get!"

Well now, the joint session of the two courts had turned into an investment promotion conference for Liaodong and Liaoxi land.

If Duoni in Jianzhou City found out, he would surely weep with rage!

This was bullying beyond all reason — the land hadn't even been conquered yet, and already they were using it as the underlying asset to issue land certificates, and issuing one hundred fifty million taels' worth at that!

Did they know how much one hundred fifty million taels was?

If the Chongzhen Emperor of those years had been given that sum, the five-year pacification of Liaodong might well have succeeded!

Whether Duoni wept or not, few around Emperor Zhu cared. To them, this was simply a dazzling revelation!

Not only were the hundred-million-tael-plus military funds for the Liaodong campaign now secured, but everyone had also discovered a superb investment opportunity.

Land certificates that both the richest institution in the Great Ming and the richest man in the Great Ming wanted to buy up were surely excellent assets — a sure-profit venture. They must buy as many as possible!

Zhu Cilang thought for a moment, then added, "For the standing troops among the various armies campaigning in Liaodong, their regular pay shall be issued in silver as before; supplementary pay and rewards shall be issued in land certificates. For recruited volunteers, their regular pay, supplementary pay, and rewards shall all be issued in land certificates. Military procurement may also be paid in land certificates, provided the suppliers are willing to accept them."

Hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Chief Grand Secretary Lu Zhenfei still had some doubts. Issuing land certificates to standing troops as supplementary pay and rewards was one thing, but having recruited volunteers take all land certificates did not seem appropriate. Would anyone still be willing to enlist? Was that not too great a loss for them?

War is coming! Recruitment is open! Time to get rich!

The moment the news was publicly announced that the Great Ming court would launch a punitive expedition against the Andong rebels and was openly recruiting able-bodied volunteers (mainly to serve as baggage troops and replacement troops), righteous braves (mainly veteran soldiers with outstanding marksmanship), cavalrymen, and sailors, the whole of Pukou and the eastern quarter of Nanjing's outer city erupted in excitement at once.

On the tenth day of the fifth month of the eleventh year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, outside the Xiaoling Guard camp in the eastern quarter of Nanjing, sweltering under the midsummer heat, a place that should have been quiet and deserted was suddenly packed with veterans who had rushed over at the news, sons of veterans, and able-bodied young men from the northern migrant families settled there.

Everyone was pressing toward the row of notice boards outside the guard camp gate, all wanting to see the imperial recruitment proclamation with their own eyes.

This was the eastern quarter of Nanjing, where the families of the northern army and northern migrants gathered in droves! Just like Pukou and Laoshan across the Yangtze, the streets were full of men dreaming of winning a fortune on the battlefield, and their hunger for military merit even exceeded that of the second-generation, Nth-generation, and military academy students of Pukou and Laoshan.

For the people here had little inherited wealth, nor any top scholars admitted to the military academies and universities. Apart from the sons of a few silk-reeling merchant families, the only way for anyone else to change their fate was to join the army.

Unfortunately, opportunities to enlist were scarce! The Great Ming's new-model army currently numbered less than five hundred thousand, and it operated under a long-term service system. In peacetime, fewer than thirty thousand recruits were needed each year, and from that had to be deducted the slots taken by newly graduated officer cadets. Those twenty-some thousand enlistment slots were open to the whole country, and although the army favored northerners (just as the navy favored southerners), the quota that fell to the northern loyalist households of Nanjing's eastern quarter was only two or three thousand a year — nowhere near enough to go around!

But now, at last, the opportunity had come!

(End of Chapter)