Chapter 1141: Who Is the Leek?

At last, the troops can be dispatched!

Xu Zhengjing let out a huge sigh of relief. Seventy thousand penniless warriors! All crammed onto the little island of Kyushu — no wonder the court at Edo was afraid, and Xu Zhengzhi and Xu Zhengjing were afraid too! Who knew when a gekokujō might break out and do in both father and son.

But after that sigh of relief, Xu Zhengjing's brow furrowed again: "Your Majesty, for a host of seventy thousand to march out from Kyushu, a large sum of settling-in pay will also be needed, because many of the warriors have wives and children in tow. To make them willing to set out, they must be given at least a year's stipend as settling-in pay. Even if it is issued uniformly at twenty-six taels of silver per man, that means a one-time outlay of 1.82 million taels."

"In addition, the troops going on campaign will need a batch of equipment, banners, and robes. That is another large expense — no matter what, it will run to several hundred thousand taels of silver."

The army has not yet moved, and the bills have already arrived.

And the account Xu Zhengjing reported was only part of it!

Seventy thousand men must cross the sea and be garrisoned somewhere on the New Continent or the Southern Ocean front, which will inevitably require another large outlay.

First, the shipping costs. Because the Ming navy's transport capacity is limited, and its own transport duties are already heavy, it has no spare capacity to carry these Japanese warriors, so large numbers of civilian ships must be hired. A single warrior's "passage ticket" costs at least twenty-odd taels, so "passage tickets" for seventy thousand men come to at least 1.5 million taels!

Next comes settling them in once they arrive. The America Bay side is easy to handle — it is a fine place for keeping men alive, with a comfortable climate, no messy diseases, plenty to eat and drink, and timber for building houses available everywhere. But the sixty thousand men going to the territory of the Western Ocean Governor's Office will have to be properly settled; otherwise it won't just be half of them dying of disease. So this is another large outlay!

Besides these Japanese warrior troops, Emperor Zhu must also dispatch other forces to the Southern Ocean and the New Continent — for the work in the Southern Ocean cannot all be left to the Japanese devils, or else once the job is done, wouldn't all those islands and peninsulas in the Southern Ocean become Japanese colonies?

So while mobilizing the Japanese warrior army, Zhu Cilang also issued orders to march to the Kingdom of Annam, the Western Ocean Army, the Jin'ou Army, and the Dongning Army.

Of these, the Kingdom of Annam is to send 6,000 men — the southern Nguyễn and northern Trịnh each contributing 2,000, and the Mạc and Vũ houses each contributing 1,000. The Western Ocean Army is to send 5,000 men, the Jin'ou Army 3,000, and the Dongning Army is to provide the fleet.

Among these vassal states and vassal garrisons that received marching orders, only the Dongning Army, under Zheng Sen's management, is rolling in wealth and needs no military subsidy from the Ming court. The remaining three — Annam, the Western Ocean, and Jin'ou — all need the Ming court to put up money.

In addition, there is the Kingdom of Ryukyu, which is to relocate the entire country. The Kingdom of Ryukyu is in fact a city-state founded on trade, which rose entirely because the Ming and Japan practiced seclusion.

Now that both the Ming and Japan have opened up, Ryukyu no longer has much of a "money future." Moreover, the Ryukyu islands are extremely important to the Ming's southeastern coastal defense, so leaving the Kingdom of Ryukyu there is no longer appropriate.

So after much deliberation, Zhu Cilang decided to move this kingdom to Krabi and Phuket Island, and establish a new Kingdom of Ryukyu there, still following the trade-city-state route.

Though Ryukyu is small, moving the entire country out is still a rather massive undertaking, and the expense is certain to be considerable. The Ming is certain to invest in it — of course, this investment is sure to be recovered with profit in the future, but the initial outlay is still very substantial!

Besides the above expenditures, the Ming must also recently "increase its position" in America Bay — the embassy in Europe has sent back more accurate news: the bankers of Amsterdam have already provided the Kingdom of New Spain with a huge loan of at least 35 million Dutch guilders (equivalent to 10 million taels of silver) to support the Kingdom of New Spain's war preparations.

And the Kingdom of New Spain, having obtained this huge loan, has begun recruiting mercenaries in Germany, and has also begun training new armies in the Kingdom of New Spain.

If even the Spanish deadbeats have borrowed money and are preparing to throw it at America, can the great Emperor Zhu not follow suit?

Right now the America venture is all about burning money to seize the market — it just depends on whose ability to find money and burn money is greater!

Zhu Cihuan, Prince of Chongqing, has been looking more and more triumphant lately. Among the Chongzhen Retired Emperor's several older sons, he had always been the most aggrieved.

His eldest brother is the sage Son of Heaven who restored the Ming. His third brother is a famed prince of his generation, first among the Nine Border Garrisons. His fourth brother, though holding the same Commandery Prince title as him, is the overlord of the southern sky, an absolute master in his own Western Ocean Army territory, and rich to boot! That these three have done better than him, he can accept — they are his elder brothers, and their present glory was won through hard struggle.

But what he found somewhat unbearable was that his sixth brother, Zhu Cixuan, was also more glorious than him — and not just by a little!

First, he is a Commandery Prince, while Zhu Cixuan, his younger brother, is actually a Prince!

Zhu Cixuan had been adopted by Prince Fu, Zhu Yousong, and after Zhu Yousong died, he should have been demoted one rank to Commandery Prince. But Empress Wu Sanmei spoke on his behalf, and on the grounds of commending his admission to the Imperial Academy, raised him one rank, so he continued as a Prince.

Second, this Prince Zhu Cixuan is also rich!

Because Prince Fu, Zhu Yousong, was a prince who knew how to save money, and had long served as Grand Master of the Imperial Clan, managing clan affairs for Zhu Cilang, he received Zhu Cilang's favor. First he obtained a large residence in the inner city of Nanjing — prime location! Zhu Yousong himself could not bear to live in it, so he had it demolished and rebuilt as multi-story buildings, opened many shops, and rented them all out.

Later he developed a whole street in Shanghai, all built up with large buildings, sold off half, and slowly collected rent on the remaining properties!

Still later he bought up many land certificates at low prices, originally intending to exchange them for land in Luoyang, Henan (that being Prince Fu's home region), but he died before the exchange went through, and the land certificates were all left to Zhu Cixuan. Zhu Cixuan was still young then and did not know how to handle them, so Zhu Cilang took charge and sold them off, then used the money to develop two streets and a wharf in Tianjin Prefecture.

So what Zhu Cixuan inherited was not merely a princely title, but also dozens of large buildings and a wharf — worth, at a conservative estimate, more than two million taels! And it appreciates every day and collects rent every year! He can gain one or two thousand taels just by sleeping in bed overnight!

But Zhu Cihuan, the Fifth Prince, has it hard — he has only 5,000 mu of poor fields and a residence in the eastern part of Nanjing. The 5,000 mu is not even paddy land, and the annual rent he can collect is only 2,000 shi of flour. Because he is not a merit official of the Overcoming Difficulties, he is not entitled to tax refunds, so what he actually receives is only some 1,300 to 1,400 shi of flour — this "pay first, refund later" scheme Zhu Cilang came up with really screws people over; there is truly no room to maneuver at all!

All land, including land personally owned by Zhu Cilang, must pay taxes, and those who meet the refund standards may apply to the Ministry of Revenue.

Therefore this Prince Zhu Cihuan can only get by on some 1,300 to 1,400 shi of flour. This income is actually not small — converted to silver it is over 1,500 taels, and if spent frugally it is enough.

But Zhu Cihuan has one small hobby: women! His princess consort was found for him by the Chongzhen Retired Emperor — the daughter of a has-been noble house (not one of the Overcoming Difficulties merit nobles), whose looks can only be called plain, and cannot compare at all with the beauties in the Retired Emperor's rear palace. So through the Kou family of Chaoku Street he acquired two concubines. And that expense was enormous!

Later still, he and his wife and concubines produced a brood of children, and household expenses suddenly shot up. If the Chongzhen Retired Emperor had not taken pity on him and given him rewards every few days, this prince would long since have been up to his ears in debt.

But Zhu Cihuan is not resigned to this!

He is a great prince — how can he not accomplish something?

Ming princes nowadays are not raised like pigs; those with some brains and some capital are each showing their talents. Zhu Cihuan feels he is no worse than anyone else — he just has no opportunity, no capital, and no love of study.

Fortunately, Heaven never bars all paths, still less the path of a Ming Commandery Prince. Just when Zhu Cihuan was at something of a dead end, the matter of subscribing to United States stock let Zhu Cihuan see a bright road by which he could realize his life's value.

Right after the birthday celebrations for the Chongzhen Retired Emperor were over, the stirred-up Zhu Cihuan immediately asked Zhu Cizhao for the Shanghai address of the stock broker Yao Daqiao, and as soon as the New Year passed he went straight to Shanghai Bund, the center of Ming capitalism, sought out the equally high-spirited Boss Yao, and then began to start a business, began to succeed, and began to hold his head high!

(End of Chapter)