[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-80":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220697,1614,"Chapter 80: Section Eight","stealing-ming-chapter-80",80,"\u003Cp>We need to clear forests, level the land, plant crops, recruit refugees, and train soldiers. The suggestions everyone put forward were the standard \"farming and warfare\" approach, but every one of them understood clearly that grain is everything. With grain you have manpower, and then you can forge weapons, open up farmland, train troops, and finally launch a northern expedition into Liaodong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Opening up land is the most urgent task, then we must seize the time to sow and store up more grain for winter,\" said Yang Zhiyuan, who came from a military household and felt the farming season had already been delayed, making him extremely anxious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Marshal Mao has allocated five thousand shi of grain, enough to feed us for half a year. Let us hope we have a harvest by then,\" He Baodao chimed in agreement. He had no particular insight into farming and had long since resolved to be a hands-off manager.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Manxiong advocated hunting. He reported discovering deer, bears, and jackals. If they could supplement with meat, the grain would last longer, and they should be able to hold out until the harvest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This year is also very cold. Farming likely won't yield a good harvest,\" Huang Shi said flatly, laying out his plan: \"We will focus on fishing and hunting, fell trees to boil salt, and preserve the wild game and fish, or simply string the fish up to dry in the sun, to serve as military rations.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, you must not,\" Yang Zhiyuan grew anxious. \"If all the hands go fishing, we won't have time to open up the land. Grain is the foundation; fishing and hunting cannot solve the big problem. This year is indeed cold, but who can know the will of Heaven? We must still do our utmost to farm.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi thought to himself, \"I do know the will of Heaven. Online it says that from 1580 to 1650, solar sunspot activity vanished for seventy years. This period is called the 'Little Ice Age.' With insufficient manpower, farming will most likely yield nothing at all. When that happens, it'll be too late for tears.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, think it over carefully.\" Seeing Huang Shi silent, Yang Zhiyuan pleaded again: \"The Mandate of Heaven rests with our Great Ming. Heaven will surely bless our army and grant us a bountiful harvest. Since it blessed us to overcome every obstacle and arrive here, it certainly won't let the soldiers go hungry.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi remained silent for a long time, weighing Yang Zhiyuan's words…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Ming dynasty set aside one hundred million mu of arable land as military farms, with the output used to fund military supplies. Starting from the Wanli reign, with the arrival of the \"Little Ice Age,\" grain production in northern China fell drastically. Military households had to fight battles and also engage in various labor services like weapons production. With insufficient numbers, the grain harvested from the military farms was less than what had been sown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For this reason, the Wanli Emperor frantically extracted mining taxes, commercial taxes, and porcelain kiln taxes, relying on these funds to maintain the fighting strength of the frontier armies, but this also drove large numbers of craftsmen to ruin and death. Thus, although the Wanli Emperor won the illustrious military achievements of the \"Three Great Campaigns,\" he could not avoid leaving behind in history the reputation of \"Wanli's Tyrannical Rule.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The breadth of a modern person's knowledge made Huang Shi feel very capable, but he absolutely did not believe he was capable enough to alter the laws governing the sun's movement. By the Tianqi reign, the military households of the Nine Frontier Garrisons sowed their seeds full of hope time and again, toiling diligently, but year after year, these labors yielded no return. The Xuan-Da Garrison once went thirty-six consecutive months without a single dou of grain being issued.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The soldiers of Datong could still sell their sons and send their wives and daughters out to receive clients in exchange for food, and in the end they even begged along the streets and managed to get quite a bit of food. But Huang Shi's thousand-odd soldiers had nowhere even to beg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The troublesome thing at the moment was that Yang Zhiyuan's words were sincere and direct remonstrance. Huang Shi was full of historical knowledge but could not state it openly, which gave him a real headache.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Assemble the entire army. Yang Zhiyuan, you go pick out those with farming experience. Tonight, I will discuss cultivation matters with you all.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord is wise and discerning.\" Yang Zhiyuan was very pleased that Huang Shi had accepted his loyal counsel and immediately trotted off to assemble the military households.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That evening, Huang Shi carefully questioned these experienced military households and described various American crops he knew of.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No potatoes. It seems they haven't been introduced to China yet,\" Huang Shi muttered to himself. There was nothing left to hesitate about — the land absolutely could not be farmed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sweet potatoes seemed to be available, though Huang Shi considered their nutritional value relatively low. That didn't matter; at the very least they could be used to make porridge and sweet potato flour. Carrots had been around since the Tang dynasty and were very helpful for night blindness. While not an instant cure, long-term consumption could effectively alleviate the symptoms. More than half of Huang Shi's subordinates suffered from night blindness to varying degrees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There are two kinds of corn: tall-stalk and short-stalk. Tall-stalk resists drought; short-stalk resists lodging.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What is lodging?\" Huang Shi knew nothing about agriculture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It's… it's the wind. The wind won't damage the crops. It's slang from my hometown. I have caused my lord confusion; please forgive my offense.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I simply don't understand… I'm not joking… I truly, genuinely don't understand… Alright, no need to apologize further.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn't that Huang Shi disregarded face, but at present he commanded only a hundred-odd soldiers and a thousand able-bodied men, and was opening up a broken-down island. If at a time like this he still cared about appearances, he would have no sense of propriety whatsoever.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"An island is bound to have strong winds, so we'll plant the short-stalk corn.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Huang Shi finalized the crop choice, he saw Yang Zhiyuan's expression turn very grim again. But in front of the large number of able-bodied men, Yang Zhiyuan could not openly object and could only fidget anxiously at the side. Huang Shi chuckled inwardly. The Chinese tradition of shielding one's superiors from embarrassment did have its occasional advantages — at least he didn't have to waste words with Yang Zhiyuan in front of everyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, think it over carefully. I have inquired, and one mu planted with corn yields only one shi of grain,\" Yang Zhiyuan, who had been unable to find a chance to speak, immediately voiced his objection during the small-scale meeting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmm, so supporting one soldier requires fifteen mu of land, an able-bodied man requires ten mu, and even a laborer requires six mu. In the future they will also need to marry and have children. Calculated on the basis of fifteen Company Commander, our army will need roughly twenty thousand mu of land.\" This figure startled even Huang Shi — it was actually that much land.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Therefore we cannot plant corn. The yield is far too low.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A little is still better than nothing at all. Huang Shi said decisively, \"It's settled. I can see this year's weather won't be good.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your subordinate obeys,\" Yang Zhiyuan agreed reluctantly and half-heartedly. \"Then we must open up more land.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Manxiong also offered a suggestion: \"My lord, we can hunt. There are many deer on this island, and we can also fish.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fish was high-quality protein, and it wouldn't take up farmland. \"How many deer and how much fish can we catch in a year?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Wild game is hard to say, but if we have three or four hundred skilled fishing households, your subordinate believes we can catch a million jin in a year.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A million jin of fish — that sounded like a very impressive figure. Huang Shi happily picked up a tree branch and scratched some calculations on the ground. That could feed quite a few more mouths. \"Suppose one person eats three jin of fish a day, that's a thousand jin a year. We'd still have a net surplus of over five hundred thousand jin of fish. Company Commander Zhao, if we had a thousand people fishing, could we catch three million jin of fish?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fish cannot be eaten as a staple food,\" Yang Zhiyuan could bear to listen no longer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Why not? Grilled fish is quite tasty.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, grilled fish is indeed tasty, but after eating it for two days you simply can't stomach any more. We still need to grow grain.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If you can't stomach it, we can change the preparation method — boiled fish, for instance.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, your subordinate dares to ask, what if they can't stomach boiled fish either?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then fried fish.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Reporting to my lord, fried fish requires oil — a great deal of oil.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then go back to eating grilled fish.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1531,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","94dc2eead48df2a9667f897736969b6833817b998bd57164732327be04b0a082","stealing-ming-chapter-81","stealing-ming-chapter-79",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]