Chapter 283: The Office

Awang Depa's line of work rarely sees repeat customers.

In Béri territory, everyone knew that Monk Awang's medical skill was battlefield-honed surgery; for a headache or a fever no one came to him — they went straight to the shaman.

Who would have thought — in Nangqên, Awang met his most loyal repeat customer.

He'd just cured Yang Dingrui's altitude sickness when, a few days later, Yang came back covered in welts — two visits in five days. A major breakthrough in Awang's career; he was so delighted he just wanted to talk.

Liu Chengzong looked at the welts across Yang Dingrui's back and thought to himself that the Baisa headman did know how to be flexible.

These welts were clearly just for show. If they'd really hit him the way they beat slaves, Master Yang would already be gone — he certainly wouldn't have had the strength to flee ninety li through the night to come report this.

He rather admired the Baisa headman's wisdom: firmly carrying out orders while bending the rules only where he could control the outcome.

Though his teacher had suffered some flesh wounds, this was no bad thing — he had truly observed the living conditions of slaves. He sought benevolence and got it; you could say he was treated like an honored guest.

Yang Dingrui's back was plastered all over with Awang's medicinal powder. Liu Chengzong had examined Awang's formula: dried and ground Lamiophlomis, bistort, dandelion, and locoweed, mixed with highland barley wine into a ready-to-use paste — all locally sourced, and very effective at stopping bleeding from external injuries.

Yang Dingrui lay prone on the couch, sunk deep in thought, grown silent and withdrawn.

Knowing is easy, doing is hard. What Liu Chengzong had meant by "slaves" he had taken as the bondservants of the Han heartland, but in the space of two days his own status had undergone two extreme shifts, dealing a massive shock to his inner world.

On his first day at the Baisa salt flats, he was an honored guest of high status — at that moment he felt he resembled everything except a human being.

On his second day at the Baisa salt flats, he was a slave of the lowest status — at that moment he also felt he resembled everything except a human being.

Between these two ways of not resembling a human being, the difference was heaven and earth.

Yang Dingrui was not from a wealthy family either; even after passing the county exam and becoming a Xiucai, he often still worked the fields. By then he already wore the fine-material robes the county school issued to its stipend students, and to keep the clothes clean it was not unusual for him to labor in the fields wearing only a pair of shorts.

When the older married women and young girls in the village spotted him from afar, whether they tossed out a few teasing words or covered their mouths and giggled, he had experienced it all in his youth — it was nothing.

But this time the feeling was different.

In Liu Chengzong's considerations, he did not wish Yang Dingrui to suffer like this, but on the other hand he needed someone to serve as Prefect.

Of the two prefectural offices now being planned, Xining's affairs were important, but its main responsibilities lay in only three directions: first, the market; second, the army; third, resettlement. To put it plainly, Xining Prefecture around Qinghai Lake was his headquarters and his base.

That place mattered more than anywhere else, but everyone there was one of his own, and the affairs were not complicated.

His father, Liu Xiangyu, had sufficient talent and personal connections to serve as Prefect.

Compared to Xining, Kangning was far more complex. He had many men under him with the ability to govern a region — whether it was Yang Dingrui, who had served as a Subprefect; Zhou Riqiang, a Department Magistrate; Xu Zongxian, the County Magistrate of Zhenyuan; or Cui Cong, the Supervisor of Qingping Ranch — all were men with experience in local governance.

But none of them understood Kangning.

A county official needed the cooperation of local clerks and runners to govern effectively, and the language barrier severely limited their ability to do their jobs.

After talking it over with Liu Chengzong, his teacher decided to re-enter the Baisa salt flats.

Yang Dingrui admitted he had overestimated himself; he truly could not eat and live alongside the slaves.

Yet he had not given up either — he simply stopped dreaming that beautiful dream of eating and living with the slaves. He only wanted to stay at the Baisa salt flats for seven or eight days and observe the living conditions of the nobles, monks, shamans, warriors, commoners, and slaves.

Liu Chengzong felt that his teacher's thinking this time was far more grounded, and he was no longer inviting suffering upon himself.

After seeing Yang Dingrui off, Liu Chengzong turned his attention in Nangqên to the problems of salt and money.

Everything was interlinked like a chain. To collect indirect taxes from the common people through official salt, he first needed the common people to have their own property and grow prosperous. To make the common people prosperous, he needed to replace native chieftains with regular officials.

After all, only free men needed to pay taxes; the government could not levy taxes on slaves, and slaves had no need for salt.

But prosperous people needed far more salt than the poor — they had more meat, requiring dozens or even over a hundred jin of salt to cure food and keep it from spoiling.

Before the invention of the electric refrigerator, salt would forever be the government's best means of amassing wealth.

And thanks to Kangning Prefecture's past political structure, every mountain and river, every mine and herd animal, even every person walking upon this land, belonged to Liu Chengzong.

Every single right he granted to the people was a concession of his own profit.

Huang Shengxiao, stationed at the Nangsoi Kyimmo Palace, sent Liu Chengzong a little trinket — a silver coin, to be precise.

This silver coin came from Tibet, acquired through trade between Ü-Tsang and Nepal, and circulated as one of the currencies in the Ü-Tsang market.

Ü-Tsang was short of silver to begin with; its largest silver inflow had come from the Yuan dynasty's "sell-head" aid. Silver was precious, and to prevent alkaline corrosion it was alloyed into other metals, forming a distinctive craft.

This silver-copper alloy coin was called a tangka. It bore neither a king's name nor a regnal year, making it impossible to tell which state it came from. The minting technique was crude — crooked and misshapen, not even round — and the silver purity was very low.

In large-scale trade, people accepted these Nepalese tangka coins, and they accepted silver taels, but in daily life barter was far more common.

Because there were few owner-farmers and the slaveholders were self-sufficient, people's need for trade was very low. Usually they just carried some highland barley to the temple to donate a bit of grain, borrow a bit of grain, or exchange for some tools.

This silver coin reminded Liu Chengzong that, beneath the prefectural government, he needed to establish a money house and begin minting copper coins.

The reason for minting copper coins rather than silver or gold coins was that there was no need for them… until inflation reached the point where a soldier's monthly pay was four taels, minting silver coins held little meaning.

Silver taels could be cut with silver shears and weighed with a small steelyard; silver coins were somewhat less convenient.

Even minting a half-tael silver coin would make the denomination too large for this era, impractical in daily life.

His idea was to mint copper cash and issue copper coinage of the Qinghai Grand Marshal's Headquarters, using the copper coins to set an official exchange rate for government silver, and then regulating grain prices on the market through the quantity of copper coins issued, ultimately achieving the goal of stabilizing the market.

Establishing a money house would, on the one hand, fill the gap left by the absence of temples in Kangning Prefecture and provide loan services to the common people; on the other hand, it would facilitate the payment of salaries to garrison troops and officials, reducing the number of small-scale silver shipments between the two prefectures.

The two prefectures were far apart, lacking post stations and road infrastructure, making transport difficult. Shipping silver and supplies back and forth required tying up troops — too many soldiers was a hassle, too few might not guarantee the safety of the government silver.

The native soldiers controlled by the noble chieftains along the route, though they lacked the strength to rebel, had the potential to become highland mounted bandits.

A vast land sparsely populated with high mountains and deep valleys was practically a breeding ground for mounted bandits and robbers.

The only method Liu Chengzong could think of for the moment was to reduce the frequency of silver shipments and combine the escort of silver with long-distance march training for the soldiers.

However, the money house matter absolutely required someone to take charge. Liu Chengzong felt the best candidate was his brother, Liu Chengyun.

But at present Chengyun was managing the market at Küriwan and could not be in two places at once. So Liu Chengzong wrote a letter telling Chengyun to hand the Küriwan market over to his father-in-law, Litigator Wang, who had followed him a thousand li west, and come discuss this matter with him first.

Every time he needed capable people, Liu Chengzong felt how few talents he had around him, and could not help regretting that back when he was on the run in Shaanxi he had not stormed Xi'an Prefecture and bundled up all the officials of the Six Ministries stationed in Shaanxi.

To tie up all the Six Ministry officials of an entire province — just thinking about it was exhilarating.

But no matter; there would be chances in the future. His Luhuo County was already very close to Chengdu in Sichuan.

He planned that once Kangning Prefecture's structure stabilized, he would send someone to set up an office in Chengdu Prefecture — a two-pronged approach: on one side recruiting Sichuan commoners who had lost their land, and on the other funding and recruiting failed Xiucai and frustrated Juren.

The educated and the strong are the pillars of an empire, but the moment these men fail to obtain their rightful social status, they become the greatest danger to an empire.

In minting copper coins, Liu Chengzong had a very large advantage… because the war had just ended, every county in Kangning Prefecture had a huge stockpile of bronze Buddhas awaiting disposal.

These things, like all manner of ritual implements, could be found by the half-dozen in every noble estate.

Unlike everything else, most of the usually superstitious noble lords were remarkably clear-headed when fleeing — they remembered to sweep up all the gold, silver, and jewels, yet deliberately left the heavy Buddha statues behind.

Some nobles didn't even bother to grab their gold and treasures, much less remember to take the Buddha statues.

Yet, whether it was the herdsmen-soldiers of Bai Yan, Dai Qing, and Xie Erhu, or Liu Chengzong's Lion Troops, they all knew a good thing when they saw it — they would take the gold, silver, and treasures the nobles hadn't managed to carry off; but the Buddha statues the nobles had all left behind, these soldiers wouldn't take either.

So these things still lay in the ruins of estates and temples everywhere, and some had already been burned into solidified pools of copper sludge on the ground.

War had rendered this land unrecognizable, but the large-scale disappearance of the rentier class also meant everything here was waiting to be rebuilt.

At present, apart from Makang County, the remaining six counties were all like Nangqian — troops garrisoned at the most critical positions. On the surface, the localities remained as orderly as before, people's lives continuing as usual, but inside, everyone's hearts were in chaos.

Nobles without slaves, slaves without masters — no one knew what to do next. They urgently needed someone to give them an order, to let them know what they ought to be doing.

This order was soon issued. The troops stationed in various places fanned out in all directions, mobilizing corvée labor, ordering people to gather all the copper and iron from the various battlefield remnants and bring it to the garrison camps, where personnel would then be selected to transport it to Nangqian.

In a mere fifteen days, over two hundred thousand jin of copper material was delivered to Nangqian. Nangqian alone provided over ninety thousand jin of copper material, and more was still on the way.

This was far more than Liu Chengzong had imagined. He had originally planned to discuss with Chengyun and then transport the copper to Xining Prefecture for casting. Now, it would take over a hundred carts to move — transporting it there would be far too troublesome.

Just then, Chengyun arrived.

Riding a piebald horse clad in barding embroidered with coiled-dragon patterns, wearing chain mail, a helmet on his head, four hand cannons tucked into his saddle, leading a hundred-man squad armed to the teeth — he came to Nangqian in a grand, imposing procession.

Liu Chengzong rubbed his face, wondering — the wording in his letter hadn't said anything about his little brother coming to fight a war, had it?

Chengyun's face was flushed bright red from being stifled by his armor. He looked about ready to collapse from altitude sickness. Still on the bridge over the Zhaqu River, he had already dismounted, taken off his helmet, shed his armor, and was running over quickly.

By the time he arrived, all he had on was a sleeveless, earth-yellow soldier's short tunic, lined with a deerskin archer's jacket underneath.

Liu Chengzong asked, "Why are you dressed like this, man and horse both fully armored?"

"I thought it was still chaotic here — how was I to know the whole journey would be so peaceful?" Chengyun said between gasps, waving his hand in a mix of amusement and exasperation. "The whole way, I didn't dare take off my armor even to sleep. I'm exhausted."

Liu Chengzong laughed. "I came here to fight a war. You've been up north — haven't you been training? Still can't handle wearing armor? That won't do."

Chengyun nodded repeatedly, grinning. "I have been training. I've been running to the drill camp plenty. That's how I managed to wear it the whole way here. But going into battle like Lion Brother — that's definitely still beyond me..."

Saying this, he thumped his chest, full of pride. "Self-defense, no problem now!"

"Hahaha!"

Liu Chengzong laughed heartily. The moment Chengyun said that, it reminded him of the day they attacked the county office, fighting the bailiffs and militia, while Chengyun sat in a shop ten paces away, gnawing on a sheep's trotter for half the day.

It was then that Liu Chengzong noticed the sleeveless soldier's tunic on Chengyun was vastly different from the ones made back in Yan'an Prefecture. The stitching was much finer, with inch-wide black trim at the shoulders and armholes. The front hem, which reached halfway down the thigh, was decorated with black cloud motifs, and the back was reinforced with thick fabric densely stitched with multiple strands of thread.

And Chengyun hadn't come alone. Behind him, Liu Chengzong's maternal uncle, Cai Zhongpan, rode up on horseback, smiling broadly.

"Uncle!"

After greetings were exchanged, Cai Zhongpan dismounted and said, "Your father said you needed people here. Your uncle couldn't be of much help up north, so I came along with Chengyun to see if there's anything I can lend a hand with."

Liu Chengzong could clearly sense that, after the first victorious battle upon entering Qinghai and seizing vast swaths of territory, the mentality and bearing of his family had undergone a significant change.

No longer like back in northern Shaanxi — urgent, helpless, and despairing. Now, everyone was full of hope for the future.

Liu Chengzong laughed and spread his arms to embrace Cai Zhongpan and Chengyun, waved to greet the Lion Troops who had escorted them, then pulled the two of them along as he walked toward the Nangqian estate. As they walked, he said, "As expected, Father really does understand me. We're desperately short of people here. Uncle and Chengyun coming — you'll be a tremendous help to me."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong called for a guard to go to the estate and announce their arrival, and told Fan Sanniang to prepare some wine and food to entertain the soldiers who had come. Only then did he say to the two of them, "Right now, everything else is easy to handle. It's just two matters that truly require none other than you two."

Cai Zhongpan was very pleased to hear this and asked, "Oh? What matters?"

His uncle had a strong sense of urgency. Ever since Liu Chengzong had risen in revolt, the main forces had been out battling various government troops, while Cai Zhongpan had always stayed by Liu Xiangyu's side, guarding the family dependents.

He had neither battle honors nor much to speak of in terms of hardship endured.

Comfortable as it was, by now, anyone even remotely connected to Little Lion was a high-ranking commander. Never mind the people around Liu the Lion himself — just take his nephew Chen Ruji. Sent years ago to Liu Chengzong's friend Yang Yanchang's side, he'd sent a letter not long ago, and now he was a damn battalion commander of the Great Ming Dynasty.

When news of the war's victory reached Ju'erwan, the entire Lion Army was elated, and the family was even more so.

But amidst the elation, people couldn't help but begin to daydream. They had a foundation now. In the small sense, it was a foothold; in the grand sense, it could be the basis for a royal enterprise.

No matter what, Liu Chengzong had become the de facto ruler of this land. All that remained was the mere formality of whether or not to declare himself king.

It was precisely for this reason that Cai Zhongpan had expressed his anxiety to Liu Xiangyu. He felt he absolutely had to do something.

"I want to cast copper coins and establish an official bank. This matter absolutely requires Chengyun to oversee it. And as for Uncle — to the east, there's a county called Luhuo, adjacent to Yazhou in Sichuan. It's a passage into Sichuan. I want to send Uncle there."

Liu Chengzong spoke with a hint of apology, saying to Cai Zhongpan, "The army has its own system of promotion through battle merits. If I give Uncle a military rank, it won't convince the men. Besides, blades are blind on the battlefield. I plan to select some soldiers and assign them to Uncle, set up a separate camp in Luhuo, pick seventy or eighty men, buy over a few merchants, and learn the Sichuan dialect."

Cai Zhongpan fully understood the matter of not being able to grant a military rank, and he felt this mission would be extremely important in the future. Surprised and delighted, he asked, "Lion plans to enter Sichuan?"

Liu Chengzong quickly shook his head, rattling off a string of denials. "Can't enter, can't enter. The terrain there is treacherous. A single checkpoint held by Sichuan government troops can block thousands of soldiers. Besides, once an army enters Sichuan, it can't come back. I'm not planning to fight a war."

Liu Chengzong stroked his chin and smiled. "I want Uncle to try bribing the defending officers. In the future, under the pretext of going into Sichuan for trade, go over and bribe and recruit those frustrated scholars who never passed the civil exams."