Chapter 237: Catching a Wolf with Empty Hands

Three thousand Lion soldiers marched into Xining City.

No matter what, having rightfully taken over the city's defenses, after fighting their way across three thousand li, they finally had a safe haven where they could rest for a long time.

Though for now this safe haven was shared with others, and Xining City was not a place they could do with as they pleased.

But it had a mature town and enough common folk — a good place for the bachelors following him to start families.

Yet deciding who would garrison inside the city was a tough choice for the two brothers.

Their army was far too bloated and chaotic, with total troop strength reaching seventeen thousand; the Lion Battalion alone had swelled beyond establishment to seven thousand, and that was not even counting Gao Xian, who was recovering from wounds in Pingliang.

In actual combat, they could only be used as three or four thousand men, and even then, they were hard to employ flexibly.

Liu Chengzong had noticed this problem when fighting Cao Wenzhao — his unit structure was huge but lacked enough officers, so committing the same number of troops could not accomplish the combat tasks a battalion was supposed to handle.

To the point that in that battle, he had not even dared order the infantry formation to attack while advancing, relying entirely on the squad-level initiative and battle-hardened tenacity of his men to secure victory.

It was also a great stroke of luck that they ran into a general like Cao Wenzhao, who charged blindly and ran out of provisions; otherwise, the Lion Battalion would have suffered badly in that fight.

In truth, the current Lion Battalion, and indeed the entire army, was a foolish structure that used several thousand of its best warriors as baggage handlers.

After exceeding their authorized strength, they should have reorganized long ago.

But on the question of how to reorganize, they had discussed it many times on the road without ever reaching a conclusion.

An army is created with a purpose. Before reaching Xining, they had not known what they would face; after reaching Xining, they found they would be facing three completely different kinds of opponents.

Sea bandits, tusi, Ming troops — of these three types of armies, they understood the structure of neither of the first two, and on top of that they still had to consider farming, herding, and garrison troops.

An army of seventeen thousand could not be permanently stationed in Xining City. Other issues were manageable, but over twenty thousand warhorses would eat everything around them bare.

So for the time being, Lion Liu's idea was to split off a garrison battalion, led by Liu Chengzu, to be stationed in Xining City.

This garrison battalion could not rely entirely on second-rate or even bottom-tier troops; it needed a certain number of elite soldiers to overawe any tusi in the city who might harbor disloyal thoughts.

The final decision was to take two thousand men from the Yu Battalion and one thousand from the Lion Battalion, merging them into the Xining Battalion of three thousand households, stationed in the city and directly commanded by Liu Chengzu.

The Xining Battalion's commander was naturally Liu Chengzu, with three chiliarchs under him: Feng Rang, Li Wanqing, and Liu Guoneng.

The six sentry commanders were: former Lion Battalion right sentry commander Lian Daqi, former Lion Battalion engineering sentry deputy commander Hu Sanhuai, Ningzhou local bandit He Zijie, Qingyang leader Han Chaozai, Lion Commander's groom Guo Zhashi, and old officer Tian Shoujing from Yuhe Fort.

In selecting officers, military competence was not the sole criterion; each had their own strengths.

Some had fought through every tough battle since the rebellion, some could coordinate relations among officers, some had extremely deep seniority, and some could reach the heavens with their words.

This army of diverse talents completed its reorganization east of Xining City. The soldiers assigned to the battalion were all in a daze, and after Lion Liu addressed them, they marched into Xining City and moved into the barracks that the Xining Guard had vacated for them.

In any case, Liu Chengzong trusted his elder brother's ability to train troops.

His expectations for this army were not high; it would be enough if they could form combat effectiveness through autumn and winter.

As for before that, Liu Chengzong had already found a good station for the army.

North of Xining City, in the river valley on both banks of the Beichuan River — the east side was Chief Chen's territory, and heading north one could pass through the Great Wall and reach the area around the Heilin River and Datong River.

This region had once seen large tracts of land reclaimed, but later, during the Jiajing reign, it was frequently plundered by Mongol nobles, and afterward, during the Longqing reign, the Great Wall was built.

Chief Chen's lands lay on the east side of the river valley, among crisscrossing ravines.

By the riverbank, a young woman in colorful close-fitting attire rode on horseback, herding horses along the river as they grazed. Spotting Chen Shiwen from afar, she dismounted to salute, then remounted and continued herding.

A youth, seeing a large force appear in the valley, ran back toward the tusi residence, shouting as he went.

Before long, over ten mounted soldiers carrying sabers, bows, and arquebuses galloped out and formed up at the mountain pass. The man at their front, carrying a long matchlock on horseback, rode forward to question them — until he saw Chen Shiwen, at which point he hurriedly ordered his men to put away their weapons, and every one of them dismounted to salute.

Chen Shiwen said that man was his steward.

Walking into the valley, Chen Shiwen gradually straightened his back like a tusi. Pointing at a fortress built into the mountainside, he said, "Grand Commander, that is my tusi office."

The main force of the Lion Battalion made camp in the river valley and at the mountain pass, while Liu Chengzong took Cao Huachun and his bodyguards and followed Chen Shiwen toward the tusi office.

He very much liked bringing Cao Huachun along — the man was the ultimate protective talisman for him when traveling under Ming rule.

Although Cao Huachun was perpetually uneasy at his side, he brought Liu Chengzong an immense sense of security.

But Cao Huachun had already done him a great favor, so he would not take Cao Huachun into Qinghai. In a few days, once his supplies could be safely stored in Xining City, he planned to release Cao Huachun and send him back.

Chen Shiwen's tusi residence, aside from the outer high walls and arrow towers that served a military purpose, was indeed just a government office inside, so Lion Liu was very familiar with the layout.

He did not need Chen Shiwen or Chen Shifo to guide him at all; after entering the office, Liu Chengzong went straight to the west office on his own.

It dumbfounded Chen Shiwen — it felt as though the two brothers had walked into Liu Chengzong's own home.

However, the tusi residence had no warden's office. The west office was a large courtyard, where a few native folk were chopping hay to feed horses and pushing millstones to grind grain, while inside the house, several others were practicing sleight-of-hand tricks.

Chen Shiwen shooed them away, told his second brother to show Cao Huachun around the tusi residence, and invited Liu Chengzong inside.

He said this had once been the tusi residence's jail, but their family had never imposed corporal punishment on the native folk. Usually, when neighborhood disputes arose, the tusi would mediate in the office; if the tusi could not mediate or a law had been broken, they would simply be sent to the Xining Guard.

So the jail had fallen into disuse and was later converted into a side room, specifically to house old swindlers brought in from outside.

Liu Chengzong said, "Gambling is no good thing. You have that vice?"

"I don't play, but a tusi must do what a tusi does. The family's land keeps shrinking, yet the court won't let me pay less grain."

Chen Shiwen shook his head and explained to Liu Chengzong, "A tusi's land has to pay the court over three dou of grain. Tenant farmers who work the land can only eat for half the year from a full year's harvest; they still have to go to Xining City and work as day laborers to earn enough money to eat their fill."

"It's the same here. I have long-term and short-term laborers, people who need work, but I have no money to pay them wages. So what can I do?"

Chen Shiwen said, "When rain or wind stops work, set up a table and win their wages back."

"You're ruining people."

"If I don't ruin them, I ruin myself. All fourteen tusi families are like this — some poor, some wicked. We'd like to go fight for the court, but the custom here is to marry a wife at thirteen or fourteen, and marry one twenty or older. The men don't engage in productive labor, just train in riding and archery, and marry an older wife to manage the household."

Chen Shiwen spread his hands and sighed slowly. "But the court won't use us in war. If going to war meant I could go out and become a circulating official, I'd rather be a circulating official."

"Forget it — you talk as if being a circulating official is easy." Liu Chengzong shook his head. He had seen far too many helpless circulating officials. "In Shaanxi, I've hardly seen anyone who could live comfortably."

"But you said — all fourteen tusi families are barely scraping by like this?"

Chen Shiwen nodded. "Even the Eastern and Western Li families, the Eastern and Western Qi families — it's the same. They govern more people and look impressive, but in truth their domains are just as chaotic. They're simply larger, so they have a few more options."

Chen Shiwen invited Liu Chengzong onto the kang, sat himself on the other side of the kang table, and asked, "Grand Commander, when do you plan to enter Qinghai?"

"Soon. I sent men into Qinghai earlier; I've already dispatched someone to find them... Fourteen tusi families."

Liu Chengzong pondered for a moment, then asked, "What do they all think of us?"

"They're hoping the Grand Marshal will march into Qinghai. The minor tusi are all right, but the major tusi are quite afraid. They control every trade in Xining. If the Grand Marshal stays in Xining, they'll certainly have to cough up what they've taken."

Chen Shiwen shook his head. "No one wants to cough up what's already in their mouth."

Liu Chengzong smiled. He was very satisfied with this situation.

The tusi system is a backward mode of production, akin to feudal lords — local emperors on their own turf, yet also vassals of the emperor. The native people must pay grain not only to the tusi, but also to the emperor.

It adds an extra middleman for nothing.

But at certain times, the tusi can also become an advanced mode of production — like in the Great Ming right now.

The tusi hold the power of life and death over the native people, but when the circulating officials and the gentry turn bad, they're no better.

In tusi territory, there's only one middleman — the tusi. But on land governed by circulating officials, there is more than one middleman.

Chen Shiwen saw Liu Chengzong was lost in thought. He paused a moment, then asked carefully, "Is the Grand Marshal planning to move against the tusi?"

Liu Chengzong laughed. "What, scared?"

Chen Shiwen shook his head. "Replacing tusi with circulating officials is inevitable sooner or later. I've nothing to be scared of. In the future, once the Grand Marshal has a firm foothold in Qinghai and carves out some remote mountain wilderness, moving my entire clan there would be fine. Tusi, after all, can't stay in one place forever. Isn't their whole business opening up new territory?"

"You're right."

Liu Chengzong nodded. In truth, the tusi were also military agricultural colonies — just using native people born locally to farm the land. But for a family like the Chens, people from Shanyin who came to Xining, it really was military agricultural colonization.

Only, when a state loses its drive to expand outward, military colonies lose their meaning and turn into endless internal attrition.

He shook his head. "I've no plans to touch the tusi for the time being. As long as no one blocks my path, I won't block anyone else's road either."

With Cao Huachun around, he no longer needed to worry about bribing Li Tianyu. However, building the storehouse-yard next would also be a difficult matter. That site was enormous — practically building a small town — and the materials needed couldn't be bought in sufficient quantities on Xining's current market streets.

"Eunuch Cao secured the two streets in the middle of Xining city for me. Chieftain Li said nothing. But building the storehouse-yard will cost a fortune. I see you have timber here — are all fourteen tusi situated in remote mountain wilderness?"

"Near remote mountain wilderness, yes. Timber and stone are both very easy to obtain."

Chen Shiwen answered, then asked, "I know the plot the Grand Marshal mentioned. For a storehouse-yard, it's split by Hongxue Street — the west side is large, the east side small. The main gate would open onto Hongxue Street. On East Street to the south and North Street to the west, there'd be about two hundred shopfronts."

"Has the Grand Marshal ever considered simply having the tusi build the storehouse-yard?"

Liu Chengzong looked at Chen Shiwen. "How would that work?"

"What the Grand Marshal wants is the empty land inside the block for the storehouse-yard. What the tusi wanted that land for before was the street frontage for shops. Use the shops in exchange for the tusi building the storehouse-yard."

Chen Shiwen tilted his head and thought. "Those two streets should have nearly one hundred and eighty shopfronts. If the Grand Marshal can offer some of those shops to the tusi, I think everyone would be willing to help the Grand Marshal build the storehouse-yard."

At first, Liu the Lion thought this was a terrible idea.

Lin Wei had already calculated the cost of building the storehouse-yard for him. The required bricks, stone, and timber would cost roughly three thousand taels — and that was counting the Lion Camp's craftsmen, with no need to pay labor and meal silver.

Were the tusi fools?

For a hundred or so taels of annual rent, each family would shell out three or four hundred taels to build him a storehouse-yard.

But after a moment's consideration, Liu Chengzong realized Chen Shiwen's plan could actually work — because the tusi had their own craftsmen too, and as a group, the tusi were not like him.

He was a desperado. Deep in his bones, he was averse to anything that took three to five years just to break even.

But the tusi were different. Those people firmly believed in value investing.

Especially for this kind of steady, long-term profit — everyone was quite happy to use an investment that wouldn't break even for years in exchange for rent on this piece of land for generations to come.

Take the pawnshop Chen Shiwen's family ran in the city — that shop had been operating from the early Ming right up to the present, over two hundred years.

Still, he had his doubts. "Would the tusi be willing?"

"Grand Marshal, I am a tusi too." Chen Shiwen spread his hand. "If the Grand Marshal gives me five shopfronts, I'd be willing to do everything in my power to build twenty storehouses."

"Then what if I gave you ten?"

Liu Chengzong smiled easily. "I could give every tusi ten."

"Ten each?" A troubled look crossed Chen Shiwen's face. "Wouldn't that upset the major tusi?"

"I don't care whether they're happy or not. I'm only asking you — I need granaries each holding two thousand five hundred shi, protected against damp, rats, mold, and insects. Can you build forty of them?"

At two thousand four hundred shi of grain per granary, Liu Chengzong needed one hundred and thirty to store grain, plus another one hundred and thirty to store gunpowder, military equipment, supplies, and money.

On top of that, there were the barracks for the soldiers stationed there to live and patrol.

This way, when he advanced into Qinghai, Xining would be his logistics base; and when he swept back east, Xining would be his frontline fortress.

Chen Shiwen calculated rapidly in his head. Ten street-front shops could be rented out as five large shops, bringing in sixty taels a year. In twenty years, that was one thousand two hundred taels; in two hundred years, twelve thousand taels.

And all he had to give in return was having his native people cut trees, dig into hills, fire kilns, and make bricks... plus a tiny bit of negligible effort.

"I can!"

He answered crisply and decisively, then added, "Though I'll need to borrow two hundred taels of silver from the Grand Marshal. Very quickly — I can pay it back very quickly."

Liu Chengzong smiled and shook his head. The world was full of experts at catching wolves with bare hands.

He was certain this minor tusi before him had already made up his mind: pay the native people their wages, then wait for a rainy, windy day and have his old hands win all the wages back.

"How about this — send men to ask. Same terms, one hundred and forty shopfronts in total, ask all fourteen tusi. Who's willing, who's not. If any refuse, then the rest do more and get more shopfronts."

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