Chapter 643: Qing Builds a Fence, Ming Opens Military Farms

"He withdrew?" Zhu Cilang pressed at once. "Where did he withdraw to?"

Yan Yingyuan was baffled by Zhu Cilang's question — where else could a withdrawal go? Qufu's east, south, and north were all under Ming army control, so of course Dorgon could only withdraw west.

"He withdrew west!" Yan Yingyuan said. "Taking the goods and valuables looted from Qufu, and he also seized quite a few Kong family sons and Qufu army dependents, all of them hauled off west. Your Majesty, should we pursue?"

Pursue? With what?

Zhu Cilang thought to himself: the reorganization of the Shandong armies isn't even finished yet! And to reorganize the Shandong forces, he had broken up the eight model infantry regiments he had on hand — the eight regiments were split into thirty-two parts, each part serving as the foundation for a newly formed infantry regiment, used to absorb the officers and men of the Shandong armies.

Once the reorganization was complete, Zhu Cilang would have thirty-two infantry regiments under the Grand Marshal's Office available here in Shandong — those regiments alone would number eighty thousand men! Add to that the forces of Huang Degong and Li Chengdong (the reorganization of Huang Degong's, Gao Jie's, and Li Chengdong's units would have to wait a while longer) plus the cavalry and artillery regiments Zhu Cilang had brought to Shandong, and it would be well over ninety thousand.

But the reorganization wasn't finished yet, was it?

Reorganization wasn't just breaking units up and re-forming them — it also required consolidation and training, and re-equipping. It would take until summer no matter what. If Dorgon still hadn't cleared out by then, Zhu Cilang could launch the Zhili campaign or the Liaoxi campaign.

But right now, he didn't have that kind of nerve!

"Let him go!" Zhu Cilang let out a breath. "Send word to Huang Degong — have his men move first to seize territory."

"Yes."

Zhu Cilang's purpose in leaving Huang Degong's, Gao Jie's, and Li Chengdong's forces unreorganized was to keep them for emergencies — troops mid-reorganization had weaker combat strength, and if Dorgon went mad and attacked, someone had to hold the critical positions!

Now that Dorgon had fled, Zhu Cilang could use them to recover lost territory.

Watching Yan Yingyuan leave, Chen Rui said to Zhu Cilang with a relaxed expression, "Your Majesty, this time there's no need to worry about rice prices in the southeast."

Zhu Cilang smiled bitterly. "This time Dorgon miscalculated. Who knows about next time? This is no solution!"

"Your Majesty," Chen Rui said, "this subject believes that to stabilize southeastern rice prices, we must find new sources of grain. If we could produce ten million shi more each year, then we could gradually build up some grain reserves."

Zhu Cilang's territory now held roughly 125 million people. At three and a half shi per person, that meant 437.5 million shi of rice and flour; with a margin, 450 million shi. But in the southeast, it wasn't only these people who needed feeding — there were also large numbers of livestock and poultry that needed to eat. The southeast had a wide rich-poor gap: bones of the frozen dead lay by the road, while wine and meat rotted behind vermilion gates. Consumption of meat, poultry, and eggs was considerable, and a great deal of wine was brewed as well.

In addition, many water buffalo, donkeys, mules, and horses were kept (there weren't many good horses) and had to be fed.

So grain consumption could not possibly be less than 700 million shi!

At the same time, the southeast, Fujian, and Guangdong had planted many cash crops, which also occupied a great deal of good farmland and thereby reduced the grain supply.

Although sweet potatoes had begun to be planted, the sown area was not very large — they were mostly seen in the mountainous regions of the southeast. Promotion would take time, and it wasn't as if a few imperial edicts from Zhu Cilang would make farmers weep and clamor to plant sweet potatoes. Historically, even by 1957, the combined planted area of sweet potatoes and corn still accounted for less than twenty percent of the nation's total grain acreage.

And during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing dynasty, the output of these two crops amounted to only a few percentage points of the nation's total grain production.

"Does Master Chen mean to use troops against Annam?" Zhu Cilang didn't know why, but hearing Chen Rui's words made him think of launching a war of aggression!

"Annam?" Chen Rui was taken aback. "Your Majesty... even if we obtained ten million shi in Annam, we don't have enough ships to transport it!"

In fact, Annamese rice, Siamese rice, Champa rice, and even Javanese rice had already begun arriving in Shanghai!

Because of the grain tax levied at the maritime customs, Chinese and foreign merchants in the import trade all brought half a shipload of rice; small amounts added up, and in a year it could reach two to three million shi.

But to increase it substantially further — to ten million shi, for example — was beyond what current maritime shipping capacity could accomplish.

Ten million shi was roughly equal to six hundred thousand tons; it would take six hundred large sailing ships of a thousand tons' burden to move it all at once!

Zhu Cilang looked at Chen Rui. "Then what does Master Chen mean?"

"Naturally, to develop Shandong!" Chen Rui said. "During the Wanli reign, Shandong had about 61.75 million mu of farmland, and in a normal year it could harvest at least sixty million shi of wheat. Although the weather has been dry these years, the sweet potatoes introduced by Governor Gao are extremely drought-resistant. Once planted in Shandong, their yield is not low — even on sloping land, the yield per mu can reach several shi!"

In later ages, sweet potato yields of several tons were common and certainly eye-catching. But in the Ming dynasty it was very hard to achieve such yields — first, because the sweet potato varieties had not yet been improved; second, because the temperatures were too cold.

Sweet potatoes are warmth-loving, cold-fearing, frost-intolerant crops, with an optimal growing temperature of 22–30°C. In later times such temperatures were nothing special, but in northern China during the Little Ice Age, how many days a year reached them?

So Shandong's sweet potato yield was only five to seven shi per mu, and only one crop could be grown per year — but even that was quite considerable.

If planted in Jiangnan, yields of over ten shi could be achieved, but Jiangnan's rice fields easily produced three or four shi per mu, and rice sold for far more than sweet potatoes, so farmers were naturally unwilling to switch crops.

Chen Rui continued, "Right now, east of the canal and west of the Taiyi Mountains, vast tracts of land lie abandoned with no one to farm them. The court might as well use the military-farm method: station troops, recruit civilians, provide plow oxen, and plant sweet potatoes exclusively. If three million mu could be planted with sweet potatoes at six shi per mu, that would be eighteen million shi of sweet potatoes a year. For the court to purchase ten million shi a year should present no great difficulty! This subject has heard that some southeastern farmers plant small amounts of sweet potatoes and store them in cellars against famine years. We could do the same — open military farms in Shandong to grow sweet potatoes, then store them in cellars. Ten million shi cellared each year, over several years that is tens of millions of shi, enough to sustain a great army on the northern expedition. And should a grain shortage strike the southeast, we could also draw on Shandong's sweet potatoes for emergency relief."

"Good!" Zhu Cilang clapped his hands. "Master Chen's proposal is excellent! We'll discuss it with Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi later and see whether it can be carried out."

Shandong, Liaocheng.

The Great Qing's Imperial Father, Dorgon, had no idea how much harm this retreat of his would cause — had he not retreated and still held all that land east of the canal, Zhu Cilang would have had no place to open military farms and grow sweet potatoes.

In that case the southeast's grain supply would have remained perpetually tight, and he could never have fought a war with ease!

Of course, Dorgon's retreat had its own calculations behind it. He was returning to court in triumph, quitting while he was ahead.

Having taken Qufu, everyone high and low could count themselves fully laden with spoils. Although on the books everyone reported losses, Dorgon could tell from the faces of the old Eight Banners men that they had all profited personally — what was lost was the banner's money; what was gained was their own. The only ones truly suffering catastrophic losses were probably the Plain Green Banner alone.

So it was best to withdraw early, and avoid any more victories they could not afford to win.

Furthermore, his withdrawal west was also meant to open up a buffer and buy time for building the canal defense line.

He now stood atop the damaged walls of Liaocheng, watching the Plain Green Banner men below busily "putting up the fence."

This so-called "fence" was a palisade fortification running along the Daqing River — the Grand Canal — all the way to Shangqiu city. It could be seen as a thousand-li long wall (about 1,300 li in length). But a proper wall could not be built in a short time.

The Great Qing was poor — and had also taken losses...

So for now they would build a wooden fence, and every thirty-odd li construct a company castle (existing castles could also be converted), forty company castles in all. That meant deploying forty Plain Green Banner companies along this thousand-li great fence to farm and garrison — the Plain Green Banner originally had forty companies commanding two hundred platoons; now each company had one platoon drawn off and sent beyond the passes, leaving one hundred sixty platoons, all of them assigned along this long fence to serve as cannon fodder!

(End of Chapter)