[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-95":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},1220712,1614,"Chapter 95: Section Three","stealing-ming-chapter-95",95,"\u003Cp>\"I followed Army Supervisor Mao out to sea, but unfortunately did not take part in the battle of Zhenjiang.\" Bao Jiusun had a distant maternal cousin surnamed Wang in Liaodong; when that cousin followed Mao Wenlong out to sea, Bao Jiusun went along too. Although Bao Jiusun had no particular merit to his name, as one of the old hands he rose with the tide and became a Squad Commander.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Now that the realm is in peril, this is truly a chance for men like us to win merit and make our mark. Joining the army doesn't mean your whole life is ruined.\" Huang Shi consoled Bao Jiusun, and even tossed in a casual joke: \"Don't let your name go to waste — Jiusun, heh heh, it shows real ambition.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Manxiong and Jin Qiude hurriedly chimed in with obliging laughter, and Bao Jiusun laughed too: \"My name hardly counts as ambition. That cousin of mine is even called Baisun.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Baisun. Wang Baisun.\" Huang Shi idly repeated the name, and in his heart he felt an odd sense of familiarity: \"A fine name. Where is he now?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That cousin of mine served under my lord Zhang Yuanzhi. After the battle of Zhenjiang, he stayed behind as a combat soldier to hold the city. He must have died a heroic death.\" As Bao Jiusun spoke, his face was filled with pride...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conversation soon turned back to agriculture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The whole of Dongshan is a rocky mountain; there is no way to carve terraced fields out of it. By my estimate, the arable land on this island amounts to roughly sixty thousand to one hundred thousand mu.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The highlands of Changsheng Island are limestone formations. In the republican era, this place produced top-quality cement that was sold all across Asia.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi was not aware of this geographical fact, but he did know that rocky mountains were mostly useless. His heart grew agitated and his expression turned very grim. He rapidly did a rough calculation in his head — even planting corn did not seem able to feed tens of thousands of people — and he could not help feeling somewhat disappointed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bao Jiusun continued: \"The yield from fishing and hunting is unreliable. If we rely solely on the island's farmland, fish, and wild game, I believe this island can support ten thousand military households, each with a wife, along with five thousand elderly and twenty thousand children. Any more than that, I fear, would be impossible. During the slack farming season, we could field ten thousand farmer-soldiers; in normal times, we could maintain two thousand combat soldiers.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Farmer-soldiers can only be used for defense, or to strike at nearby areas during the slack season, and their daily training time is also very limited. By this point, Huang Shi was thoroughly disappointed and began pacing back and forth with furrowed brows.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord is wise to have ordered that the soldiers on this island must take wives with unbound feet...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Spare me these words,\" Huang Shi impatiently cut off Bao Jiusun's flattery. \"I ask you: is ten thousand military households the absolute limit?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I answer my lord.\" Bao Jiusun bowed, as if he had not even noticed Huang Shi's restless pacing, and reported loudly while facing straight ahead: \"Although the soldiers currently on this island are all single and have no family dependents, in the future, when our island gathers refugees, there will inevitably be elderly and children. Moreover, the current soldiers will also start families. Therefore, relying on farmland alone, ten thousand military households is indeed the upper limit.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi immediately pointed out: \"I do not intend to let everyone eat their fill.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord is perceptive. I also do not intend to let the elderly, children, or women eat their fill. Even the able-bodied men will eat solid food only during busy periods and drink gruel on idle days — just two meals a day.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elderly and children were already of little use; if large numbers of infants were born, they would be even more mouths to feed for nothing. The more Huang Shi thought about it, the more agitated he became. He loudly gave the order: \"Re-examine the land. See if there are any mountain slopes that can be opened up for cultivation.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bao Jiusun fell silent for a moment. After a while, he finally mustered his courage and did not acknowledge the order. Instead, he quietly objected: \"I beg to be so bold — over seventy percent of Changsheng Island is coastal mudflats and mountain terrain. I have already surveyed the entire area. The arable land absolutely cannot exceed one hundred thousand mu.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Already deeply displeased, Huang Shi's anger flared up at once. Seeing this, Bao Jiusun hurriedly added: \"I believe that if our army wishes to obtain more grain, we must think of other methods.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What methods?\" Huang Shi forced down his irritation and asked icily. His understanding of agriculture was limited to farmland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I have discovered that the trees on this island's mountain land are mainly black locust and wild jujube. Although the rocky mountain terrain cannot possibly be opened into farmland, there is soil in nearly every crevice between the rocks, and so wild jujubes grow in most of those crevices. If our army organizes manpower to collect them, many small amounts will add up to a considerable food source. Moreover, this work does not require able-bodied men or women; the elderly and children are fully capable of doing it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wild jujubes as food — Huang Shi had never considered that. Still, it sounded like it could at least offset grain consumption, and it would also give the elderly and children some work. Huang Shi pondered for a moment and decided it was better to trust the agricultural experience of a man of this era: \"That sounds reasonable. Go on, go on.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As you command.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bao Jiusun was fundamentally opposed to clearing mountain forests for farmland. He believed that rather than planting radishes on the mountain, it was better to make use of the existing wild resources. He had clearly not been idle these past few dozen days, and Huang Shi listened as he introduced a whole array of wild greens.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The island also had sowthistle, dandelion, violet, scorzonera, oleaster, endive, field sowthistle, and so on. In Bao Jiusun's words, the yield of these wild greens was not low either. Most importantly, growing vegetables on mountain land required the labor of able-bodied workers, whereas gathering wild greens made fuller use of human resources. After all, able-bodied men would inevitably have dependents attached to them. This way, even if the output was somewhat lower, precious grain would not be wasted on feeding them, and on the whole it would actually be a net gain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Bao Jiusun had also found cogongrass root on the sandy land that could not be farmed. Both the flowers and the fibrous roots of this plant were edible, and its rich sap could be used to stave off hunger for the children, though it was subject to seasonal effects. This plant was also said to have medicinal uses, which meant it could be sold for silver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next, Bao Jiusun rattled off a list as if counting his family treasures: milkwort, agrimony, cranesbill, plantain, cassia seed, Chinese silk vine, bush cherry kernel, kudzu root, isatis root, codonopsis, adenophora, balloon flower... Huang Shi's head was spinning, and he failed to register many of them at all. It sounded like the mountain land had quite a variety of medicinal herbs, which could meet the army's medicinal needs and also be sold for some money — all tasks that could be assigned to non-able-bodied labor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Bao Jiusun claimed the yield of wild greens was not low, Huang Shi did not believe it. The very reason wild greens remained wild was mainly because their yield was low; otherwise, they would have been widely cultivated long ago. He sensed a note of rhetorical glossing-over in this claim: \"So we must not burn the forests to open fields, but should instead protect the woodlands — is that what you are saying?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord is wise.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not starving to death was already good enough. Didn't modern people still take vitamin tablets? After all, wild greens did not compete with grain for land, nor did they require assigning able-bodied men to cultivate them. Huang Shi understood that his own moods could decide the fate of his subordinates, so it was unavoidable that others would try to gauge his thoughts and force themselves to speak pleasing words — that was not incomprehensible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In any case, this was a man who handled matters very diligently and spoke with a certain amount of courage. Huang Shi forced a smile: \"You have done very well.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord overpraises me. It is merely the humble insight of a single mind.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1477,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","2f2629c73100719df0e2e4036b2e3935641a9bb1b585bd12daf456ca3eb6876c","stealing-ming-chapter-96","stealing-ming-chapter-94",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]