Chapter 81: Section Nine

A half-joking remark left Yang Zhiyuan so furious he couldn't speak. Huang Shi felt a little sorry for him and quickly soothed the old minister, then they began discussing the grand plan for reclaiming farmland.

As for population, the more the better, of course. Changsheng Island had about sixty thousand mu of flatland and over two hundred thousand mu of mountainous terrain — though no one knew exactly how much farmland could be reclaimed from it.

"The flatland can be turned into paddy fields. The mountain land is plentiful, and it can be made into terraced fields. Slopes are actually better than flat ground — with a slope, the surface area is greater." Yang Zhiyuan had the spirit of man conquering nature: "We can set fire to the forests, carefully channel water to the mountain land, and we will surely reclaim two hundred thousand mu of farmland."

Setting fire to hundreds of thousands of mu of forest — in the twenty-first century, Huang Shi reckoned he'd be shot for that. But right now, feeding people came first; environmental protection could be left to future generations. "Two hundred thousand mu can support roughly fifteen Battalion Commander — that's fifteen thousand able-bodied men, plus an equal number of women. It can supply about five thousand farmer-soldiers, or if we're talking field troops, over two thousand men."

"Eat your fill when busy, drink gruel when idle. No need to feed everyone to the full — just don't let them starve." Jin Qiude interjected with a rational suggestion. By that calculation, fifteen thousand mu would be enough to support fifteen hundred military households. The anti-environmental, anti-humanitarian work didn't seem so urgent after all.

Huang Shi delivered his final summary: "The most pressing task right now is felling trees to build boats. Then three hundred men go fishing, one hundred handle the daily catch, fifty go hunting, and the rest reclaim wasteland. With deer and fish, opening up a few thousand mu of land will be enough."

Though severely short-handed, Yang Zhiyuan didn't dare keep complaining: "Your subordinate will do his utmost and hopes to make it in time. On the newly reclaimed raw land, we'll plant sesame first to choke out the weeds. In autumn, plant mixed grains. Next year, once the land is matured, we can count on a millet harvest."

With the Little Ice Age shifting the rain belt southward, nine out of ten wheat crops would freeze to death from the lack of winter snow. Huang Shi had no intention of wasting grain, but there was no rush to mention that. Next year's farmland would certainly have to be planted with corn, but that was even less urgent to bring up — he could convince that blockhead Yang Zhiyuan when the time came.

He Baodao, who hadn't been able to get a word in, finally got his moment: "My lord, there's also weapons, cloth, and tools — these don't grow out of the ground."

Supplies like pig iron and cloth were theoretically allocated by higher authorities, but at present they couldn't count on much from the Dongjiang headquarters. These goods could be purchased from merchants in Shandong — but that required silver.

"I don't know if Changsheng Island has iron ore, but cloth certainly can't be self-produced. Our land must be used to grow grain." Yang Zhiyuan was still obsessing over his grain.

Jin Qiude picked up the thread: "Whether there's iron ore, your subordinate doesn't know. But there is salt here — we can boil salt."

He Baodao, the hands-off boss, called out: "Selling salt requires a salt certificate, which we don't have."

"No need. We can sell it." Jin Qiude seemed to have it all figured out.

"Explain." Huang Shi's eyes lit up. If they could sell salt, that would be a real source of wealth.

By Ming regulation, the output of the salt fields in Shandong and Lianghuai all required salt certificates for sale. But Liaodong had never established salt fields; each guard battalion could produce and sell salt on its own, with the proceeds used for military expenses. Since the Later Jin imposed their sea ban, the salt pans of Fuzhou Guard and Jinzhou Guard had been abandoned. The Later Jin's salt needs were sufficiently met by the output from Haizhou alone.

"Fuzhou Guard and Jinzhou Guard — in the past, over a thousand soldiers were usually engaged in salt production. It's said they produced four to five hundred thousand catties. It's only because the weather has been deadly cold these years that the salt-drying pans were all abandoned. Otherwise, several million catties wouldn't have been impossible."

"I see." Unless there was a technical breakthrough, salt-drying would remain impossible in the near term. Huang Shi racked his brains but couldn't recall any relevant knowledge about salt-drying. He did some mental arithmetic for a moment: "If we could produce three hundred thousand catties of salt, roughly how much silver would that be worth?"

Five thousand taels of silver — everyone agreed that was a fairly reasonable figure. Boiling salt required timber, which was easy enough — at worst they'd just slash and burn recklessly and let future generations worry about the vegetation problem. But the manpower issue was more troublesome. Every problem was ultimately a grain problem. Huang Shi decided not to agonize over this one — the cart would find its way to the pass when the time came.

"Deerskin can be sold too. One good deerskin can fetch seven or eight taels of silver." Zhao Manxiong proposed another clever money-making scheme.

"Right — send men to scout the coastal waters, see if there's sea cucumber or abalone. Those can be sold too... What, no one eats them? Don't worry — sea cucumber boosts yang, abalone nourishes yin... Yes, exactly, they replenish the kidneys and generate vital essence... Look, sea cucumbers are shaped just like that thing, aren't they? As for abalone, any man who's tasted a woman knows what I'm talking about... Especially our Changsheng Island sea cucumbers — 'Changsheng,' long life — it's clearly in harmony with the Dao of the Seven Losses and Eight Gains... Ah, and deer antler — that has the miraculous effect of an ever-erect golden spear!"

Huang Shi's words were extremely persuasive. His subordinates' faces all showed expressions of sudden enlightenment, and they let out lewd laughter together, looking rather eager to give it a try.

Medical and health knowledge in this era was still very rudimentary, basically stuck at the stage of "eat what you want to supplement, and if it looks like something, it must have that function." For example, in the *Compendium of Materia Medica*, the specific remedy for marital infertility was spring rain, because the ancients believed spring rain possessed the magical power to bring all things to life. Naturally, this cure-all spring rain for infertility had to be rain that hadn't yet touched the ground, and if it was the very first rain, the curative effect was even more perfect.

Huang Shi was convinced that in this era, virility pills would sell far better. Those who could afford sea cucumber and abalone were certainly not the poor, and he felt not the slightest embarrassment about fleecing money from them. Huang Shi mulled it over — widely publicizing "Changsheng Sea Cucumber" went without saying. Perhaps he could also find some shills and hype it up with slogans like "Genuine Changsheng Sea Cucumber, Authentic Changsheng Sea Cucumber, the Genuine and Authentic Changsheng Sea Cucumber" — that would be even better.

"But we mustn't give it to the soldiers, or we'll have trouble." Yang Zhiyuan said with a smirk, alluding to the problem of homosexuality. This was a widespread issue, especially now with over a thousand bachelors on the island.

"Women we do indeed need, but this problem will have to wait for now. At the very least, we can't solve it before the end of the year. Furthermore, until fifty percent of the soldiers have their family dependents settled, no officer is permitted to consider marriage. Do you all understand?"

"Understood, my lord." The men roared their assent. Whether it was his imagination or not, Huang Shi felt that Yang Zhiyuan's voice was the loudest.

"There's one more issue..."

In the late Ming, the bound-foot problem was not yet severe. Only daughters of the imperial house and powerful clans had bound feet. Daughters of Licentiates and Provincial Graduates mostly still had natural feet, and maidservants went without saying. Over ninety percent of women at this time still had normal bodies. The dynasty that would truly carry this national essence forward and make it flourish had not yet arrived — its achievements in promoting the national essence were destined to be strangled in the cradle by Huang Shi.

Abusing his authority for personal ends, Huang Shi loudly decreed: "No one is permitted to marry a woman with bound feet. We cannot support women who eat without working! Starting with me, all officers shall lead by example."

In these extraordinary times, the officers could all understand this. The first to loudly endorse it was Jin Qiude, who felt Yang Zhiyuan had stolen his thunder when answering the previous question: "Any man without a wife who marries a bound-foot woman — execute immediately without pardon! Anyone who dares bind his wife's or daughter's feet — flay him and stuff his skin with straw!"