Chapter 589: The Prince Who Pacifies the West Has Ended Up Running at a Loss

What gave Wu Sangui the biggest headache now was neither Dorgon, nor Li Zicheng, nor Zhu Cilang, who was taking his ease far off in the southeast — it was the penniless soldiers scattered all across Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia.

Gansu, Shaanxi, and Ningxia had always been a vital military region of the Great Ming, dotted everywhere with guard-station military towns. The prefectures under civil administration numbered only eight: Xi'an, Yan'an, Qingyang, Pingliang, Fengxiang, Gongchang, Hanzhong, and Lintao — and even within those eight prefectures there were plenty of guard stations. Worse still, of the eight, the four relatively wealthy prefectures of Xi'an, Yan'an, Fengxiang, and Hanzhong were controlled by the Shun army (the Xi army).

The land that originally belonged to the guard-station military towns was something Wu Sangui simply could not touch — those Gansu-Shaanxi soldiers depended on that bit of land for their very livelihood! If he really tried to move against that land, wouldn't they fight him to the death?

And the land of the four prefectures of Qingyang, Pingliang, Gongchang, and Lintao had been distributed among the Guanning Army households that had followed Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui himself was left with only the salt fields at Huamachi and the few walled cities of Ningxia Garrison City, Lanzhou, and Pingliang Prefectural City. Relying on that scrap of territory to keep a huge Western Prince's establishment barely afloat — it simply wasn't enough. Over the past two years Wu Sangui had been dipping into his own savings bit by bit to shore it up. This Prince Who Pacifies the West, who was also a banner lord of the Qing's Bordered Green Banner, had actually ended up running at a loss!

And what was even more terrifying was that Wu Sangui's cash flow was on the verge of drying up completely! His princely treasury was so empty that rats could soon go racing through it. What on earth was he to do!

"My Prince, Assistant Regional Commander Liu and Shopkeeper Jia have arrived together."

Wu Sangui was in the Western Prince's mansion (the former Prince of Qing's mansion) inside Ningxia Garrison City, fretting over how being Prince Who Pacifies the West had become a money-losing proposition, when his trusted man Liu Sheng arrived together with Jia Busi, one of the Nine Imperial Merchants.

Liu Sheng had previously risen to Regional Commander, but had been demoted because of "an error in receiving guests," and had then been assigned a bitter errand: escorting Sonin and Zu Zehu into Qinghai-Tibet, and along the way selling silk, porcelain, tea, and salt. Wu Sangui had fallen on hard times now — there was no longer a dupe like Chongzhen to lavish silver on his Guanning Army, and he didn't have enough land to collect rent and taxes from, so he had to scrape for every possible source of revenue. Trading with the Khoshut Khanate in Qinghai-Tibet and the Yarkent Khanate in the Western Regions had become one of Wu Sangui's sources of income. It didn't bring in much, but it was better than nothing.

And of the four main commodities Wu Sangui used in trading with the Khoshut Khanate and the Yarkent Khanate — silk, porcelain, tea, and salt (Ningxia had green salt) — the silk, porcelain, and tea had to be purchased through Jia Busi, the great shopkeeper, one of the Nine Imperial Merchants. It was called purchasing, but Wu Sangui couldn't come up with any capital, so he could only buy on credit. Among the Nine Imperial Merchants, only Jia Busi was willing to extend credit to Wu Sangui, so Jia Busi had set up quite a few trading houses in Wu Sangui's territory. He had also established a "Northwest Head Office" inside Ningxia Garrison City. The previous autumn he had escorted silk, porcelain, and tea shipped in by sea to Ningxia, extended the goods to Wu Sangui on credit, and then waited for spring to settle accounts before transporting specialties from Tibet and the Western Regions to Beijing to sell.

Liu Sheng had only returned the day before, and this Jia Busi must have gotten word of it — he'd been pressing for payment since early morning, afraid that Wu Sangui had no silver to settle with. Wu Sangui felt like weeping just thinking about it. He had originally been a perfectly good Duke of the Great Ming and imperial brother-in-law. Down in Nanjing he'd have been dripping with wealth! Even a bribe would have started at a hundred thousand or eighty thousand. A profiteer of Jia Busi's level — not only would he not have dared come to collect a debt, he wouldn't even have been qualified to come offer a bribe!

But now Wu Sangui was so poor he'd hit rock bottom, and he didn't dare offend this moneybags, Shopkeeper Jia. Besides, Wu Sangui knew perfectly well what sort of relationship Shopkeeper Jia had with the Southern Ming side. He absolutely could not afford to offend him. So he had no choice but to stand at the entrance of the great hall in person to welcome the great shopkeeper Jia Busi.

Jia Busi arrived arm in arm with Liu Sheng, whose face looked terrible. At the sight of Liu Sheng's expression, Wu Sangui's heart sank — how could this be? Could the business have lost money?

"Your humble servant Liu Sheng greets Your Highness."

"This commoner Jia Busi greets Your Highness."

When Liu Sheng and Jia Busi saw Wu Sangui standing outside the great hall to welcome them, they hurriedly knelt and kowtowed — not in the Manchu Qing style, but in the Great Ming manner of kowtowing.

"Quick, get up, get up. Master Jia, you are this prince's god of wealth — what are you kneeling for! This prince still owes you money! Where's the sense in a creditor kneeling to a debtor?"

Wu Sangui ignored Liu Sheng and hurried to help Jia Busi up — the man was now his creditor! Wu Sangui didn't even know whether he had the money to repay him. And he didn't dare put a knife through this creditor either, because Jia Busi was now his only source of income. Without Jia Busi, he couldn't even be a debt slave!

Wu Sangui invited Jia Busi into the great hall, and Liu Sheng followed them in, still clutching a ledger in his hands. Only when he saw Wu Sangui and Jia Busi take their seats did he put on a broad smile and present the ledger.

"My Prince, this is the ledger from this subordinate's journey to Qinghai-Tibet to sell silk, tea, porcelain, and salt. Please look it over."

"No need to look it over. This prince gets a headache at the very sight of a ledger now. Just give me the figure!" Wu Sangui was in no mood for it. He waved his hand. "Did we lose money, or make money?"

"In answer to Your Highness," Liu Sheng said with an apologetic smile, "this subordinate truly is not cut out for trade, and business in Qinghai-Tibet is genuinely hard to do."

"So we lost money!" Beads of sweat broke out on Wu Sangui's broad forehead.

"No loss, no loss." Liu Sheng stammered. He really was no merchant. He had originally been a juren from Shaanxi — a man who read books and collected rent, not one who knew how to do business.

"Made money? How much?"

"It's not exactly that we made money — it's that the accounts aren't settled yet," Liu Sheng said, shaking his head. "This subordinate brought back a thousand fine Western Barbarian horses, two thousand yak hides, two thousand Tibetan sheep hides, and a thousand chiru hides."

So Liu Sheng's trip had been conducted entirely by barter — silk, porcelain, tea, and salt exchanged for horses and animal hides. Whether he had actually made money, he himself had no idea.

This was truly a way of doing business like no other!

Wu Sangui's head ached just listening to it. He could only look at Jia Busi. "Master Jia, you're a man of trade. What would you say these goods are worth?"

Jia Busi didn't understand either. He was a fake merchant — he was actually Lin Yihu, a Chiliarch of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Northern Provost Office. A damned secret agent. How could he really know how to do business?

But Jia Busi was a smooth talker — otherwise they'd never have made him the "Ninth Imperial Merchant." After all, he had served as an attaché on a mission after the Battle of Shanhai Pass and had shown his face before Dorgon. He'd also had a hand in the affair that had done Hong Chengchou in! Although quite a few Qing officials had seen him, with his glib tongue and a bit of skill at makeup and disguise, he still hadn't been recognized by anyone!

"My Prince, I don't know what they're worth either," said Jia Busi. After more than a year of playing a Shanxi merchant, his Shanxi dialect had grown more and more authentic, and it had more and more of the flavor of an old Shanxi hand. "Ain't this my first time doing the Qinghai-Tibet trade too? But no matter — I can't let Your Highness lose money on this. Assistant Regional Commander Liu has worked hard on this trip, so I'll take the goods he brought back from Qinghai-Tibet and give five thousand taels of silver besides. I won't let him have worked for nothing."

Wu Sangui let out a breath. This time, at last, he had made money.

Jia Busi went on: "Once I haul the goods Assistant Regional Commander Liu brought back to Beijing and Tianjin and sell them off, if there's a profit, I'll share a cut with Your Highness. What do you think, Your Highness?"

At that, Wu Sangui broke into a grin. "Master Jia is far too kind. This prince thanks you."

As he spoke, Jia Busi pulled a book out of his sleeve and handed it over with a smile. "Your Highness, here is a remarkable book that a friend of this commoner brought from Jiangnan. This commoner read it and thought it might be of use to Your Highness, so I brought it to Ningxia."

"Is that so?" Wu Sangui quickly shot Liu Sheng a look, and Liu Sheng stepped forward to take the book, then respectfully handed it to Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui took the book and looked at it. On the cover were three large characters: "On Feudalism." Beside them was a line of smaller characters: "By Ji Kun of Yangzhou."

"Ji Kun?" Wu Sangui said. "Who is he?"

Liu Sheng said, "He is a military-register juren from the Yangzhou Guard. He now holds the post of Investigating Censor of the Left."

Wu Sangui said, "A Censor, is he? Then what is this book of his about?"

Jia Busi said with a smile, "It teaches people how to do feudalism."

(End of Chapter)