Chapter 1150: How Did He Turn Into a Warlord?

In the midsummer of the fifteenth year of Hongxing of the Great Ming, the expeditionary officers and soldiers in their red-and-black uniforms had finally arrived at Peninsula City in Peanut Tun County. Boatload after boatload of soldiers disembarked from the Pacific sailing ships that had carried them, and before they could recover from the discomfort of their long time at sea, officers sent by the America Army Commandant's Office on the docks were already calling them to fall in and march out, passing through the increasingly bustling streets of Peninsula City and heading toward the newly built military camp outside the America Prefecture fortress.

The first batch of Chinese immigrants had arrived at Peanut Tun in the ninth year of Hongxing — a full six years ago now — though that first group of Chinese arrivals had not been large. Immigration on a real scale only began in the eleventh year of Hongxing, and in the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth years, more than ten thousand but fewer than twenty thousand people crossed the ocean each year for four years running.

Just when the people here in America Prefecture thought twenty thousand a year was a ceiling that could not be broken, Peninsula City's harbor suddenly became extraordinarily busy in the first half of the fifteenth year of Hongxing, with fleets arriving from the far shore of the ocean almost every ten-day period.

There were not only Pacific sailing ships from the Celestial Court, but also the great Western ocean-going ships of the Dutch East India Company. In less than half a year, they brought more than forty thousand people to America Prefecture. If this trend held to the end of the year, America Prefecture's population would grow by more than eighty thousand within the fifteenth year of Hongxing — nearly doubling!

And the composition and places of origin of the forty thousand people who reached America Prefecture in the first half of the fifteenth year of Hongxing were also very different from those of previous years.

In earlier years, apart from those of the upper strata, the people who came to America Prefecture were mainly of three kinds. First were the lower-ranking Qing soldiers captured in the Ming-Qing War — all of them bachelors, most of them "New Manchu farmer-soldiers." They were no great shakes at fighting, but when it came to clearing land and farming, they were first-rate hands!

Second were the northern migrants, chiefly from Shandong — most of them brought their families, and all had been sweet-talked into coming by the big shareholders of the United States. The reason so many came from Shandong was that Shandong had not entirely fallen during the Ming-Qing War, so among the northern provinces it had a relatively large population; it was also a coastal province and not so closed off.

Moreover, Shandong's climate was close to that of America Bay, and the crops that could be grown in Shandong could also be grown in America Bay, so it was the most suitable place for people to come and open up America Bay.

Third were the young girls from the country of Japan.

Through the joint efforts of these three kinds of people, the wild and primitive America Bay at last took on a little of the look of the civilized world. The scale of agricultural production also grew larger and larger, driven by the orders provided by the America Prefecture government offices, and by the spring planting of the fifteenth year of Hongxing, the reclaimed farmland already exceeded 800,000 mu!

If the weather proved favorable, by this autumn's harvest more than a million shi of flour and soybeans would be delivered into the storehouses of every part of America Prefecture — enough grain to feed 200,000 able-bodied laborers for an entire year!

Adding in the accumulation of the previous years, by this autumn America Prefecture would have enough grain to sustain a war against the Spanish.

And the smell of gunpowder here in America Prefecture was indeed growing stronger and stronger.

The footsteps of war were drawing near!

Contact between the two sides on land had begun in the summer of the fourteenth year of Hongxing. The garrison of Riverside Fort, the Ming army's forward stronghold in America Prefecture, reported a succession of "contact incidents" in the fifth and sixth months of the fourteenth year.

According to the reports, Ming troops patrolling and exploring southward from the Riverside Fort outpost had encountered the Spanish forces' Japanese mercenary troops at least five times in the mountain forests and river valleys south of Riverside Fort!

Although both sides had exercised restraint and not opened fire, the hostile attitude was still very evident.

By the beginning of the fifteenth year, through reports from Indians who had escaped the slaughter of the Japanese mercenaries under the Spanish and fled into America Prefecture's territory (of course there were Indians in the America Prefecture area), in a very large valley about thirty days' march from Riverside Fort, a great many "little men" were now building fortresses and opening up farmland.

And these little men were also thoroughly unreasonable. Toward the nearby Indian tribes, they invariably burned, killed, and plundered first, then drove them out of the territory — truly too brutal!

The Great Ming's America Prefecture had never done anything so unreasonable! Because America Prefecture had existed since antiquity, there had always been only a very small number of Indians here.

After receiving the report sent by America Prefecture concerning the arrival in California of "tens of thousands of Japanese mercenaries," the Great Ming court no longer dared treat the matter lightly.

Beginning at the end of the fourteenth year, large numbers of the Young Guard Army, the Black Cavalry Army (both dressed in black), and the Japanese Red Arquebus Army (dressed in red) began boarding Pacific sailing ships and pouring toward the New World by the thousands and tens of thousands.

And before these fully armed soldiers, there had also been many "stock refugees" from the wealthy Jiangnan region, arriving one after another. Most of these people did not know how to farm. Originally they had been small merchants or handicraft workers, and some were landlord-scholars living off land rents (no longer scholar-officials now) — all of them had come running to America Prefecture with their entire families.

Although most of these people held United States stock that could be exchanged for land in America Prefecture, most of them did not know how to farm, so after arriving in America Prefecture they did not immediately exchange their stock for land, but instead settled down in Peninsula City.

Some of them made a living by their crafts, some went into small trade, some opened schools, and some simply took the examinations for minor official posts in America Prefecture — America Prefecture had too few educated men, and so it also lacked qualified officials.

So the arrival of these "stock refugees" actually livened up Peninsula City's market considerably, and also made the America Prefecture government offices look more like the real thing.

But Zhu Cihuan, Commandery Prince of Chongqing of the Great Ming, and his followers were a very special existence — they were a combination of stock refugees and expeditionary army!

Zhu Cihuan had not only speculated in stocks until he was ruined and became an American, he had also turned into an American warlord. This was truly too bizarre. When he left Shanghai he was still a refugee, but by the time he reached the docks of Peninsula City he was already a warlord prince with 2,000 troops under his command!

"What's going on? What's going on? Wasn't he supposed to have lost everything in stock speculation and fled to America Prefecture as a refugee? How is he bringing an army of 2,000 with him? This — this... there's no mistake, is there?"

Inside the America Prefecture fortress, Wei Zhongcheng, who had just received his subordinate's report, was startled into a shudder.

He had long since learned from the family letters sent by Wei Zaode that that foolish prince Zhu Cihuan had speculated in stocks until he was ruined, lost all of the Retired Emperor's retirement money, and had no choice but to flee to America.

In his thinking, a person ruined by stock speculation ought to be quite down and out — there were plenty of such people struggling bitterly in Peninsula City. Although Zhu Cihuan was a Commandery Prince, he had never been much in favor, and this time he had lost all of the Retired Emperor's retirement money and seemed to be deep in debt as well. His circumstances could be imagined.

But today someone had told him that this prince had come ashore with 2,000 troops. What in the world was going on? Was the one arriving really Zhu Cihuan? Could it be that "tycoon prince" of America, Zhu Hehao, who had come instead?

"Prefect Wei, Prefect Wei! The Commandery Prince of Chongqing has come to our place! We must go and welcome him at once!"

While Wei Zhongcheng was still in a daze, Qi Yuanbi, Commandant of the America Army, had already come into the main hall of the America Prefecture office, shouting as he entered.

"Is it really the Commandery Prince of Chongqing who has come?" Wei Zhongcheng asked.

The America Army was not simply a field army, but an army of a whole theater, with overall command of all Ming forces in America, including the America Bay Fleet. And the merchant ships docked at the Peninsula piers had all been stopped at the South Bay mouth (the entrance to America Bay) by the fast boats of the America Bay Fleet, inspected, and then led to Peninsula Harbor by the fast boats.

So the news received by the Commandant of the America Army was certain to be the most accurate.

"No mistake! And he brought 2,000 Japanese guards with him," Qi Yuanbi said with a laugh. "All of them swindled from Lord Kokura and several Japanese domain lords when he passed through Kyushu in Japan. I hear he also conveniently made off with a niece of Lord Kokura's."

"Wait a moment — is it the Fifth Prince or the Third Prince who has come? The way this sounds, it's more like something the Third Prince would do."

"They're all the same..." Qi Yuanbi laughed heartily. "They're blood brothers, after all! Did you think the Fifth Prince was honest? If he were truly honest, would he have swindled the Retired Emperor out of his retirement money and speculated in stocks until he was ruined?"

(End of Chapter)