Chapter 1060: Who Is Fan Yongdou? (Please Subscribe)

East of Yizhou lies Mount Yiwulü, and beyond Mount Yiwulü stretches the boundless Liao River plain!

It is now the height of harvest season, and between Mount Yiwulü and the Liao River, a golden sea of wheat can be seen everywhere. The reaping has already begun, but because so many able-bodied young men have been conscripted to fight for the threefold rise of the Great Qing, the harvest is not proceeding quickly — only a small portion of the wheat fields has been cut.

Yet near the site of the old Guangning Guard city, one great unbroken stretch of wheat fields has already been almost entirely harvested. This vast expanse of wheat land, perhaps a hundred or two hundred thousand mu, is all laid out around a single enormous manor. The manor was built on the foundation of a former Ming fortress, greatly expanded and rebuilt into a fortified estate; its walls are high and thick, and two rings of moats have been dug outside. At first glance, it truly deserves to be called impregnable!

Living inside this golden fortress is a large group of Shanxi people who migrated from Xuanfu, most of them surnamed Fan. The manor lord is also surnamed Fan, and his name is Fan Yongdou!

Yes — that Fan Yongdou, the foremost of the Nine Great Imperial Merchants.

That mission to India nearly cost him his old life, but after returning to Beijing to recuperate for a time, his health recovered. His family's business, however, had collapsed utterly during the time he was away on the mission and then convalescing, and could no longer sustain the facade of the foremost imperial merchant.

In truth, the Fan family was not the only imperial merchant house in decline. The so-called imperial merchants were, by definition, tied to the imperial house. When the imperial house prospered, the imperial merchants did not necessarily prosper — only their odds were somewhat better. But when the imperial house was headed for ruin, for these imperial merchants to still prosper would truly have been a miracle. Among the Nine Great Imperial Merchants, the only one to work such a miracle was the Jiale Market of Jia Busi. The other eight great imperial merchant houses all became meat on the plates of Shunzhi, Jirgalang, Chang'adai, and Dodo and his sons.

Otherwise, how could Shunzhi have lost his empire and still have money beyond spending?

Because Fan Yongdou was the foremost of the imperial merchants and the "purveyor by appointment" of Dorgon's Plain White Banner, he was not completely devoured — a little face was left him. Worst off were the Wang Dengku and Jin Liangyu families, who served the two Yellow Banners. Because the two Yellow Banners had fallen on hard times during the years when Dorgon was Imperial Ama, their imperial merchants had little fat on them either.

And after Shunzhi took power, he kept on striving tirelessly for good governance. When he had no money, he sent Sonin to squeeze those two imperial merchant houses for reimbursement, until both were laden with debt. In the end, to raise funds for his post-abdication retirement, Shunzhi ordered Suksaha to arrest Wang Dengku and Jin Liangyu, had them tortured to extract the last of their family wealth, and then had them silenced. Afterward, the Wang and Jin imperial merchant houses went bankrupt, unable to repay their enormous debts (mostly owed to the nobles of the two Yellow Banners); they were also raided and confiscated, and their entire families, old and young, were sold into slavery to settle the debts.

Compared with Wang Dengku and Jin Liangyu, the fate of Fan Yongdou's family was far better. Dorgon's fat pig was not Shunzhi's to slaughter, and Ajige and Dodo could not easily put the knife in either — after all, there was still Duo'erbo around!

But Fan Yongdou's business still could not go on. It was wrecked by the combined efforts of the Jiale Market and the Great Ming navy.

In the years since Dorgon's death, ginseng, furs, and eastern pearls from beyond the passes had flowed into the Great Ming through the Jiale Market without the slightest problem — even while the two sides were at war, the Jiale Market's merchant ships could smuggle goods through layer upon layer of the Great Ming navy's blockade. But no matter where the Fan family's merchant ships set sail from, the Great Ming navy was sure to seize them, crew and cargo alike.

After a dozen or more smuggling runs in which he lost both men and ships, Fan Yongdou lost heart. He submitted a memorial to Dodo, asking to abandon commerce and take up farming.

Dodo was easier to talk to than Shunzhi, and did not devour the Fan family completely. He even allocated 130,000 mu of land near Guangning Guard city for the Fan family to work — the ownership of the land, of course, remained Dodo's; it was merely given to the Fan family to manage, and the Fan family had to pay Dodo rent: 50,000 shi of flour every year.

Because they farmed Duoni's land (after Dodo's death it was of course Duoni's), the tenants of Fan Manor were not on the conscription rolls. With sufficient labor, and with Fan Yongdou and his son Fan Sanba managing things well, those 130,000 mu of wheat fields had now been completely harvested. A full 400,000 shi of wheat had been brought into Fan Manor, stuffing every granary to bursting, and even in the courtyard of the Fan family's great house, grain bins had been piled up one after another.

Sitting under the eaves of his own house, looking at one grain bin after another, a long-absent smile appeared on Fan Yongdou's old face.

The black soil along the Liao River was simply too fertile. This 400,000 shi here was already the figure after deducting the wages of the booi bondservants.

If 400,000 shi of wheat were milled into flour, it would come to at least 270,000 or 280,000 shi. Give Duoni 80,000 shi, set aside another 50,000 shi for bribes and gratuities, and the Fan family would still net 150,000 shi!

The old man had already worked out the accounts. Smiling, he said to his son, who was attending at his side: "Sanba, this year hasn't been wasted after all! Good thing I didn't listen to you and move the whole family, old and young, to the shores of Lake Xingkai to break new ground."

Fan Sanba, in his twenties this year and looking sharp and capable, had his brows knitted: "Father, once all the wheat here has been milled into flour, we can finally move east, can't we? The land here is fertile, but—"

He had barely gotten halfway through his words when the Fan family steward, Fan Fu, suddenly burst through the courtyard gate, scrambling and crawling as he rushed in, then staggered and stumbled up to Fan Yongdou and Fan Sanba, giving the father and son — who were just then mulling over moving to the shores of Lake Xingkai — a terrible fright.

Fan Fu was a steady, solid man by nature, and getting on in years besides. Back when he and Fan Yongdou had gathered intelligence on the Ming armies at Datong and Xuanfu to present to the Great Qing, they had encountered plenty of danger, and never once had he been seen in such a state!

"Uncle Fu, what is—" Fan Sanba asked.

"Young master, the royal army has come!" Fan Fu said in a trembling voice. "The royal army is already here..."

"Royal army? What royal army?" The somewhat befuddled old Fan Yongdou did not react for a moment.

"Ming troops! The Ming troops are here!" Fan Sanba shrieked in terror.

"Ming troops?" Fan Yongdou, who had seen great scenes after all, kept his composure. "Where have they gotten to?"

"They're already outside the manor..."

"How many are there?" Fan Yongdou asked.

"I don't know," Fan Fu said. "A great column of cavalry, stretching along the official road as far as the eye can see — you can't see the tail of the column at all!"

"Cavalry..." Fan Yongdou still forced himself to stay calm. "No need to fear, no need to fear. The manor is strong. No need to fear."

"Boom—boom—boom—"

No sooner had Fan Yongdou finished speaking than the "thunder" sounded!

Old Fan hastily looked up at the sky — which was, of course, a clear, cloudless blue...

"Boom—boom—boom—"

Three more thunderous reports!

That was the royal army opening fire with cannon!

Only now did Fan Yongdou feel a sense of impending doom. His Fan Manor might have moats outside and high walls within, but moats cannot stop elite troops, and high walls cannot withstand cannon!

Fan Yongdou gritted his teeth. "Quick, quick — have food and drink prepared, and prepare several generous gifts. We go out to welcome the royal army!"

At this moment Fan Yongdou still clung to a sliver of hope: the royal army was just passing through. The royal army could not possibly know that Fan Yongdou of Jiexiu was living here at Guangning Guard, so he could still bluff his way through.

As long as he could bluff his way through, he would flee at once... Even if it meant going to India, or to Spain, it would be better than staying in Liaodong!

Unfortunately, Fan Yongdou's hope did not last long. For when he and Fan Sanba led the manor folk out with baskets of food and pots of drink to welcome the royal army, a high officer of the royal army with a Tianjin accent came straight up and demanded: "Who is Fan Yongdou? Who is Fan Sanba?"

"G-General," Fan Yongdou's steward Fan Fu forced himself to answer, "we have no Fan Yongdou or Fan Sanba here..."

"No?" The questioner was Tian Yiqing, and he knew perfectly well that Fan Fu was lying. He raised his voice on the spot: "Listen up, all you Fan-family clients! The Embroidered Uniform Guard has long since ascertained that this is the residence of the two traitors and collaborators Fan Yongdou and Fan Sanba, and the Son of Heaven has ordered this official to come and arrest them. If you do not hand over Fan Yongdou and Fan Sanba, then this official will have every last one of you arrested and exiled to the Bay of America, tens of thousands of li away!"

(End of Chapter)