Chapter 592: Our Chance Has Come

Well, Jabusi really has managed to lose money — even as a Provost of the Embroidered Uniform Guard he's running at a loss. In the whole of the Great Ming, he's the first of his kind!

But even at a loss, this deal has to be carried through!

Otherwise, what's to be done with a thousand fine Western horses? Never mind how much they'd fetch if shipped to Beijing — the tax posts along the road alone would be enough to give Jabusi a bellyful of trouble.

Shipping them to Xi'an is gambling with his head.

As for shipping them southeast, they could indeed fetch a good price, but the Qing troops are searching very strictly down south — one slip and he'd lose both men and horses! Jabusi naturally has connections to pull himself out — his status as one of the Nine Great Imperial Merchants was obtained for him by Dodo. But the question is, would asking Dodo to step in and fish him out cost anything less than two or three hundred thousand taels?

So Jabusi could only leave these thousand fine Western horses in the Lüliang Mountains. Then he begged and pleaded with Fat Chen for half a day, and finally got another thousand taels added — five thousand taels in cash in all, and thirty-five thousand in promissory notes.

The cash could be collected right in Qikou Town. Qikou Town is now a commercial center; many Shanxi and Shaanxi merchants who had left their homes have gathered here, and a great number of large and small trading firms have opened, including some dealing in money and banking. Sums of tens or hundreds of thousands can be settled without ever leaving Qikou Town.

But the promissory notes could only be collected in Yongning Prefecture City, because the princely mansion of His Highness the "Loan King" was inside Yongning Prefecture City. This prefectural city is more than seventy li from Qikou Town, the whole way one mountain range after another, extremely rugged and strategic. This area is the heart of the Lüliang Mountains, ringed by high peaks and dense forests, with quite a few reasonably prosperous valleys — a fine place for gathering a band in the hills and taking to the greenwood.

When Prince Dai, Zhu Cijiong, first came up into the Lüliang Mountains, he did not choose this place, but instead "set himself up as king of the mountain" within Kelan Prefecture. At that time the situation in the Lüliang Mountains was not good at all; only a group of White Lotus sectarians led by Zhang Xixian was willing to support him.

So Zhu Cijiong could only hole up in the northern Lüliang Mountains, scraping by on the White Lotus sectarians and the princely mansion guards Luo Xiushen had brought, living through a stretch of days when he could not tell morning from evening. But once he held out until Hooge's death, and Dorgon completely cast aside the scholar-officials and carried out land distribution by headcount, this prince's days finally began to improve.

The Shanxi gentry, who woke up one day to find that Dorgon was about to turn into "Duo Zicheng," finally rediscovered their consciences and flocked into the gullies of the Lüliang Mountains to follow Prince Dai in resisting the Qing — they had no choice but to go up the mountain! The moment "Duo Zicheng" announced land equalization, the poor and lower-middle peasants below began to rise up!

They didn't care whether it was Li Zicheng or Duo Zicheng — whoever led them in dividing up the land was a "good Zicheng"!

And at the same time as "dividing the land," a wave of feasting on the rich and abolishing the King of Hell's debts also surged up!

Since the Han Banners and Green Standard officials sent down by "Duo Zicheng" were all going to divide the land, could anyone still expect them to stand up for usury? Besides, this wasn't something that could be settled by sending silver — the purpose of "Duo Zicheng's" headcount land equalization was to collect taxes. How could he allow local rich men to use usury to squeeze the peasants dry?

Once the peasants were squeezed dry, from whom would the Great Qing collect its tax of four sheng of flour per mu? If the taxes couldn't be collected, "Duo Zicheng" would be taking heads!

Moreover, once the officials sent down by "Duo Zicheng" stopped sitting on the gentry's side, the gentry became fat sheep. Eating peasants was never as comfortable as eating gentry. Rather than take the gentry's small change to suppress the peasants, it was better to let the peasants stir things up, and then swallow up the gentry's movable wealth along with their young wives and grown daughters!

So all sorts of charges were fabricated and piled onto the heads of the Shanxi gentry and unscrupulous merchants, and in a short time countless families were ruined!

The Shanxi gentry and unscrupulous merchants who went up into the Lüliang Mountains could at least live a bit of a carefree life; those who stayed in their hometowns could just wait to be finished!

From the autumn of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, the stock of the Lüliang Mountains suddenly soared, and landlords and rich men came flocking in!

Seeing this situation, the minds of Zhu Cijiong, Li Jiantai, Wang Yongji, Luo Xiushen, Zhang Xixian and the rest began to stir.

First they launched a business of selling offices and titles — in order to create a few more posts to sell, Prince Dai Zhu Cijiong even took it upon himself to establish a Chancellery and a Generals' Office, and also assumed the title of Deputy Grand Marshal of All Armies Under Heaven, and opened up such high-grade offices as the Shanxi Governor's yamen and the Governor-General of the Three Frontiers' yamen. Then he sold off the local offices of Shanxi Province one after another.

But offices were always limited, and they couldn't fetch too good a price — after all, Zhu Cijiong was not the Emperor, so the offices he sold were always somewhat hollow.

And his ambitions were great; he always felt he ought to make a grand show of it, at least recovering all of Datong Prefecture, where the Prince Dai's mansion was located. To accomplish that, he could not avoid recruiting troops, buying horses, and forging weapons — silver would be poured out like water!

So seeing that offices were hard to sell, Zhu Cijiong began borrowing at usurious interest.

Alas, usury ruins princes!

This year Zhu Cijiong is only sixteen — in later ages he wouldn't even be an adult yet — and already he owes three or four million in usurious loans!

One must remember that the Retired Emperor Chongzhen's annual income is only one million taels of silver; he would have to go three or four years without eating or drinking just to repay the principal for his son, and as for the interest, who knows what to do? Thirty-six percent a year in usury! It really would force Chongzhen and Empress Zhou to sell their house to repay their son's debts — except to whom would they sell the palace where the Retired Emperor spends his retirement?

What is more frightening is that the three or four million in usurious loans Zhu Cijiong borrowed was not spent on extravagance, but on recruiting troops, buying horses, forging weapons, building fortresses, and stockpiling military grain. This is preparation for war!

By the time Jabusi, the great creditor, was brought by Fat Chen to Yongning Prefecture, the elite troops under Zhu Cijiong's command already exceeded thirty thousand. Yongning Prefecture City, where the princely mansion was located, had been built into a fortress of metal and a moat of boiling water — no longer a single isolated walled city, but a three-dimensional defense system centered on the main city of Yongning Prefecture, ringed by eight stockades.

"Your Highness, Chief Merchant Chen has brought a big horse trader who wants you to sign a promissory note for thirty-five thousand taels."

When Yu Chenglong, the Princely Instructor, strode quickly into the great hall to report the arrival of a new creditor to Zhu Cijiong, the Great Ming's Loan King and the princely mansion's General Luo Xiushen were together, frowning as they listened to the brave general Wang Fuchen, who had fought his way out of Datong Prefecture City, report on the situation in Datong — the situation was very bad; Datong Prefecture was on the verge of running out of grain!

Regional Commander Jiang Xiang was at the end of his rope and already preparing to eat human flesh!

Now everything rested on the thirty thousand elite troops the "Loan King" had raised with usurious loans to lift the siege of Datong.

"Thirty-five thousand taels?" Zhu Cijiong, who was almost cast from the same mold as Zhu Cilang, raised his head and looked at the handsome, dashing Yu Chenglong, the Princely Instructor, about thirty years of age. "Why so much?"

This Yu Chenglong was a native of Yongning Prefecture, with a xiucai degree. In the twelfth year of Chongzhen he had taken the civil examination once, but did not pass — it was said he failed because the examiner took bribes and practiced favoritism. But historically, he later attended cram schools for more than ten years, and when he went to take the exam again in the eighth year of Shunzhi he still failed. It was not until the age of forty-four that he managed to get into the Imperial Academy to study, and in the end he never even graduated from the Imperial Academy, but pulled strings to get appointed magistrate of some poor, remote county. Judging by this, he didn't look much like a star scholar either!

But in this timeline, he got lucky — he didn't need to take the civil examinations, because there were no more civil examinations for him to take in Shanxi. To become an official of the Great Qing, he would first have to join a banner. First become a banner slave, let his wife and daughters go serve the masters of the Nine Banners, and only then would he have a chance to climb up step by step.

But to become an official of the Great Ming's "Loan King" was much simpler — just spend money and buy one!

So his father, Yu Shihuang, who hoped his son would become a dragon, simply sold some of the family's houses and land, scraped together some money, and let Yu Chenglong buy an office. At first he bought the post of magistrate of Wutai County, but Wutai County had not been recovered, so in early twentieth year of Chongzhen, Father Yu again spent money to buy his son the post of Princely Instructor — that is, Zhu Cijiong's attendant. If the "Loan King" prospered in the future, he would have made a profit.

"Your Highness," Yu Chenglong said with a face full of delight, "Chief Merchant Chen has bought a thousand fine Western horses!"

"A thousand?" Luo Xiushen, standing nearby, also brightened. "Now our cavalry won't lack for horses!"

Zhu Cijiong nodded: "With cavalry, lifting the siege of Datong will be all the more certain!"

"Your Highness, are we really sending troops?" Luo Xiushen was a little afraid again, looking at the young prince and waiting for him to make the decision.

"Let's gamble!" Zhu Cijiong said. "We'll relieve the siege by attacking the enemy's base — come down from the Lüliang Mountains and strike at Taiyuan Prefecture City!"

His words had barely faded when from outside the great hall of the princely mansion came the voice of Wang Yongji, Governor-General of the Three Frontiers: "Your Highness, great joy, great joy! The Tartar Prince Regent has agreed to give the soldiers and civilians of Datong a way out! On the fifth day of the sixth month he will let them come south to the Lüliang Mountains!"

Zhu Cijiong slapped the table: "Good! Our chance has come!"

(End of Chapter)