Chapter 70: Trade Routes

These were matters for later. Reform could not be accomplished overnight; it required a long process and time, and even more so a stable political environment, a group of like-minded supporters, and a secure situation for survival. All these conditions were indispensable. Take it step by step — Chongzhen understood well the principle that haste makes waste.

The operation at Zhangjiakou Fort had been planned for over half a year. The Embroidered Uniform Guard's secret agents had investigated the circumstances of all concerned parties in great detail. This time the harvest should be considerable — not only the wealth of Fan Yongdou and the other eight families, but also the large number of military officers, soldiers, officials, and clerks implicated, whose accumulated money should be no small sum. According to later historical records, the silver should amount to no less than several million taels. Whether the eight families were in the midst of trading or had grain, medicine, and other important goods stored in warehouses, the quantities would be quite astonishing. There were also the various family shops, along with their managers, clerks, cart drivers, and porters — all ready to be taken over and put to use immediately. This was an additional intangible wealth. With this great windfall, at least for the next few years their days would be quite comfortable.

But although this harvest was substantial, it could not serve as a long-term solution. Only by broadly opening up sources of wealth and walking on several legs could one go farther and more steadily. The trade routes left behind by Fan Yongdou and the other eight families were one such path. The Mongols beyond the passes no longer posed much of a threat to the Great Ming, and their products were precisely what the Great Ming needed. Horses could supply the army — whether war horses or pack horses, both were needed by the Great Ming.

Cattle were even more urgently needed by the Great Ming. Years of drought, famine, disease, and warfare had caused massive loss of life; in Shaanxi, Henan, and elsewhere, ownerless land was everywhere. The next step, after exterminating the roving bandits and stabilizing the regions, was to have the disaster-area authorities carry out the work of settling the famine victims. The primary task was opening up wasteland for cultivation, and plow oxen were one of the indispensable means of production. One ox could plow more efficiently than at least five able-bodied laborers. As long as there was a large supply of plow oxen, the area under cultivation would grow rapidly. Supplemented by water conservancy projects such as digging wells and opening irrigation channels, the newly cultivated fields would yield harvests the following year. With grain in hand, there was no panic in the heart; with harvests, the people's hearts would be stabilized. As long as common folk had a bite to eat, they would never follow the roving bandits into rebellion and death.

Every part of a sheep was a treasure. The meat could be eaten; the hides, after tanning, could be made into various fur garments, shoes, and hats, and could even be used in medicine. The wool could be felted into felt, woven into blankets, or spun on looms into warm clothing fabric. Lamb in particular — if the quantity were sufficient, it would be an excellent supplement of high-protein food for the people of the Great Ming who lacked grain. Goat's milk was also rich in nutritional value; for children lacking nutrition, goat's milk was enough to make their bodies strong.

As for the goods to be traded with the Mongols, besides tea, cloth, porcelain, and prepared medicines, after ascertaining the number of Mongols involved in the trade and making calculations, grain could also be supplied in measured quantities per person per day, ensuring they had grain supplements in addition to meat — but the quantity must not be large, just enough to keep them from going hungry. The purpose of this was to keep the Mongols from raiding the Great Ming because of famine.

In Chongzhen's plans, besides the border trade beyond the passes, there was also maritime trade — an even broader and more profitable commercial route. Since he had no suitable candidates of his own for maritime trade, he would need to employ the strength of the Embroidered Uniform Guard to go to Jiangnan, Fujian, and Guangdong to seek out merchants who had ambition, experience, and boldness, as well as shrewd minds and foresight, but whose capital was too small. These would act as spokesmen, survey the routes, and recruit personnel, while the imperial house, as investor, would provide the funds to purchase merchant ships and goods, with profits split thirty-seventy. This method of joint investment should attract many small merchants willing to participate.

Inside Zhaoren Hall of the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen was receiving Marquis Yangwu Xue Lian and Count Xuancheng Wei Shichun. In history, both men had committed suicide in loyalty after Chongzhen hanged himself — they were loyal ministers worthy of trust, and naturally deserved to be given important positions and a share of the benefits.

Xue Lian's ancestral home was Hancheng in Shaanxi; his ancestors had moved to Xuejia Island in Zhanhua. The title of Marquis Yangwu had been earned by Xue Lu, who, during the Jingnan Campaign of that year, had followed the Yongle Emperor in fighting from north to south, rendering meritorious service in helping Zhu Di seize power.

After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he lavishly rewarded the loyal ministers and generals who had followed him. Xue Lu, for his outstanding military achievements — having never lost a battle in a lifetime of campaigning and remaining utterly loyal to Zhu Di — was granted the hereditary title of Marquis Yangwu. It had now passed down thirteen generations to Xue Lian, yet the Xue family's loyalty to the imperial house had never changed.

Although Wei Shichun's ancestors had also held official positions for generations, no exceptionally brilliant figure had emerged in the family until the Jingtai era, when his ancestor Wei Ying, then serving as Vice Commissioner-in-Chief of the Five Armies Commissioner-in-Chief's Office, rendered great service in the Seizing-the-Gate Incident and was enfeoffed by Emperor Yingzong as a hereditary count. It had now been seven generations.

Chongzhen smiled and said, "My minister Xue, I have heard the talk circulating among the people, all saying that you are exceptionally brave and resourceful, that you enjoy reading military texts daily, and that you quite have the bearing of your ancestor during the Jingnan era. The current situation is turbulent, and the government troops grow increasingly feeble in suppressing the bandits. I now intend to reorganize the Capital Camps. Once they are formed, I will send a portion to the Central Plains to suppress the bandits. Do you have any suggestions you wish to share with me?"

Xue and Wei were both startled inwardly at these words. Although neither had ever commanded troops, because their ancestors had both been of military background, they had countless connections with the army, and trusted men of theirs held positions in the Capital Camps. Thus their understanding of the Capital Camps was fairly detailed.

The Capital Camps had always been held in the hands of the Duke of Ying's Zhang family and the Duke of Cheng's Zhu family. Because the Duke of Ying, Zhang Weixian, was old and infirm and could no longer attend to affairs, the man now commanding the three hundred thousand troops of the Capital Camps was the Duke of Cheng, Zhu Chunchen. Relying on the two hundred years of intricate relations between the Duke of Cheng's line and the military, the generals of the Duke of Cheng's faction firmly controlled all levels of substantive power in the Capital Camps. The imperial Capital Camps had in fact become the private army of the Zhu and Zhang families.

Chongzhen naturally knew that in history, after Li Zicheng fought his way into the capital and the Emperor hanged himself, the Duke of Cheng, Zhu Chunchen, and Li Guozhen, the Count of Xiangcheng who commanded the Capital Camps, had opened the inner city gates and knelt in surrender to the roving bandits, leaving a shameful mark in the historical records. Toward these two nobles — who would serve anyone who fed them, who had enjoyed the glory and wealth of the Great Ming for generations yet ultimately switched allegiances without hesitation — Chongzhen's aversion was quite strong.

The Capital Camps claimed to have three hundred thousand troops on paper, but according to investigations conducted by the Embroidered Uniform Guard through various means, the actual number of soldiers was only a little over thirty percent. In other words, military pay and provisions for as many as two hundred thousand men were being pocketed by the Zhu and Zhang families and their subordinates. Calculated at the court's monthly allotment of seven qian of silver per person, the phantom payroll for these two hundred thousand men alone came to nearly one hundred thousand taels per month, or over one and a half million taels per year. Of course, given the court's fiscal difficulties, it was not paid in full monthly amounts. If other military supplies were counted — such as swords, spears, muskets, and cannons; shot and gunpowder; armor and tents; banners and uniforms; salt, vegetables, soy sauce, and vinegar — all were allocated to the army according to headcount. After these supplies arrived, many were resold on the side. When Lu Xiangsheng had organized the Tianxiong Army in Hebei back then, the weapons had been purchased from the Capital Camps and the Ministry of War's warehouses with silver raised by the local gentry.

Of the remaining roughly one hundred thousand actual soldiers, the old and weak made up a considerable portion, and many native residents of the capital had mixed in among them. These slippery types, relying on their families having lived in the capital for generations — though not among the rich and noble — were on familiar terms with officials and officers of all middle and lower ranks. Idle and lazy in daily life, they had pulled strings through several layers of connections to slip into the army and draw their monthly pay while passing the days. What fighting ability could such soldiers have? When faced with real swords and real guns in battle, the only outcome was to scatter and flee. The Capital Camps soldiers who escorted Wang Bing to Fengyang to pay homage at the imperial tombs in the eighth year of Chongzhen were the best example.