Chapter 378: Heaven's Due Virtue

The Shajing'er Horse Post on the north bank of the Yellow River buzzed with noise and bustle.

Zhao Shikui tucked the hem of his Sichuan brocade robe into his belt, carrying the boots that had gotten soaked when he crossed the Yellow River on a cowhide raft. He stepped barefoot onto the north bank, the gravel on the shore a bit sharp underfoot.

Before he could even glance around at the grain sacks piled like mountains at the water-and-land wharf, the weapons of the two hired guards behind him were confiscated, and the three of them were shoved forward by soldiers of the Marshal's headquarters.

The leader escorting them was Song Shouzhen. This famine refugee leader, whose history of rebellion was even older than Liu Chengzong's, had been studying at the academy ever since arriving in Xining, and still had no proper official post.

But Song Shouzhen never panicked, because he knew the Marshal's headquarters had a huge shortage of educated talent. As long as he kept refining his learning, the Marshal would remember him one day.

Just as this time — when Chengzong needed men, he thought of Song Shouzhen. Once the landmines at the Henan ferry crossing were all cleared, he appointed Song Shouzhen as Grain Transport Officer for Henan, responsible for recording the money and grain sent back by every unit, tallying the amounts, and loading them onto boats for shipment to the north bank.

Chengzong, meanwhile, received the money and grain below Shajing Post City on the north bank, inspecting the fineness of the silver delivered and the quality of the rice and grain, then crating and bagging the most important money and grain for transport westward.

This work was repetitive and tedious, keeping Chengzong as busy as a little donkey foaming at the mouth, yet he delighted in it, tirelessly inspecting cartload after cartload of grain and silver.

Though he was only a young man, the money and grain that passed through his hands was almost more than anyone in the world would handle in a lifetime. He could tell the fineness of silver and gold at a glance, and he only needed a sniff to know the storage age of different kinds of grain.

Years of managing military supplies had made the complex mathematics tied to military affairs simple and clear for Chengzong. How many men, how much grain, how to transport it, how much would be consumed — it had all become instinct.

Chengzong was inspecting rice and grain in a makeshift grain shed piled high as a mountain when he saw Song Shouzhen bringing someone over. Puzzled, he said, "Brother Song, didn't I tell you I already have enough craftsmen on my side?"

Before this, Chengzong had told Song Shouzhen to have the grain-carrying teams on the south side recruit some artisans from among the commoners of Xigu Pingcheng — first, to build a fort at the river mouth, and second, to construct new grain-transport carts.

Ever since the Marshal's headquarters was still the Lion Camp, their supply transport vehicles had been small two-wheeled carts carrying four or five dan of grain. Those little carts carried little grain but never had to worry about getting stuck on the road, and most crucially, they were fast, able to keep up with the unit's normal marching speed.

But now that they occupied Hehuang, the six-hundred-li road from the river mouth to the Naval Office was completely safe, and transport time was no longer a concern. So Chengzong wanted to build larger vehicles, to move supplies with fewer men and less wastage on the road.

He had men build three types of new carts that the imperial court used for grain transport, all with higher load capacities. The large four-wheeled cart could carry thirty dan of rice and grain, the large two-wheeled cart fifteen dan, and the small cart five dan. All three types could meet the need of traveling thirty li a day.

But if they wanted to move faster, they could only use the small carts.

Song Shouzhen shook his head with a smile. "Third General, they aren't craftsmen — they're merchants. He says he's a merchant of the Marshal's headquarters, so I brought him over."

"A merchant of the Marshal's headquarters?"

Chengzong turned, jotted a line in the account book, and laid his personal handgun on top of the grain sack he had just inspected. Only then did he turn around, look at the merchant and the two guards behind him, and ask, "Which Marshal's headquarters merchant are you?"

Zhao Shikui discerned Chengzong's status from the way Song Shouzhen addressed him. He quickly set down his boots and saluted with the utmost deference. "Replying to the General, this humble one is the Shaanxi merchant Zhao Shikui. At Dajianlu, I made an agreement with Master Cai. The Grand Marshal invested one thousand two hundred taels to form a partnership with this humble one, establishing the Tianyingde Trading Company."

Chengzong turned his face toward Song Shouzhen, his look asking: Is there such a thing?

Song Shouzhen nodded. "Yes, a letter was sent to the Grand Marshal. It's true. But the Grand Marshal forgot about it after returning from Nangqian, so he told me to bring the man here and have the Third General discuss it with him."

Getting confirmation, Chengzong raised his eyebrows. His second brother was fighting a war down south and had opened a trading company on the side?

He nodded with a smile and said to Song Shouzhen, "Alright, I understand."

Chengzong first had his guards escort Zhao Shikui into the post city. His second brother had told Chengzong to build a fortress here, and Liu Chengzong had taken a liking to this very post city.

The post city lay at the eastern end of the Hehuang Valley, situated on a large mountain terrace on the north bank of the Huang River. The site consisted of three mountain terraces — one large and two small, two high and one low — perfectly suited for building an impregnable city following the mountain contours.

The plan Chengzong had painstakingly designed was to build half of a large city on the high terrace, sitting atop the city on the low terrace, the two cities stacked one above the other, employing sharp-angled bastion structures and placing the entrance on a separate bastion.

The day it was sent to the front lines, Liu Shizi changed his mind and sent back two designs. One turned the stacked mountain city into bastions as well, simply following the mountain contours to build several interconnected, mutually covering sharp-angled bastions. The other was to complete the large city in full and likewise build sharp-angled bastions on the western side.

The reason was simple. Chengzong's design was excellent, but the construction volume was rather large — it would take about three years to finish building the stacked city. Liu Shizi believed that in three years, they would no longer need to resist government troops in Hehuang.

If they absolutely had to build such a city, then they might as well build it even larger, to serve as the western screen for Lanzhou City when they took it in the future.

Meanwhile, small bastions with a perimeter of one li could be built at a rate of three in two months. Building eight or nine small eastward-facing bastions across Hehuang according to the mountain contours and waterways could be completed within half a year, even including the moats and artillery-deflecting slopes.

There was no need to think it over — Chengzong chose the latter.

After finishing the tasks at hand, Chengzong ascended Shajing Post City and had Zhao Shikui, who was resting in the official quarters, invited to the post-master's yamen. Once they were seated, he smiled and said, "With so many affairs to manage these days, I hope Shopkeeper Zhao will not take offense."

Zhao Shikui smiled apologetically. "This humble one wouldn't dare."

"I heard Shopkeeper Zhao say earlier that you formed the partnership with the Grand Marshal at Dajianlu." Chengzong asked, "Why didn't you come via Nangqian?"

"To be honest, this humble one originally intended to take the Xikang route. But Kangning Prefecture rose in rebellion last year, and as it happened, the trading company also had properties in Hanzhong, so I came along the trade route. I never expected that when I reached the north, war had broken out again."

As Zhao Shikui spoke, lingering fear showed on his face. "Thankfully, this humble one didn't enter Lanzhou City. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'd still be shut inside the city even now."

Chengzong smiled at this, then immediately asked, "When Shopkeeper Zhao encountered the troops, they didn't give you any trouble, did they?"

"Not at all!"

Hearing Chengzong ask this, Zhao Shikui promptly shook his head and clicked his tongue in wonder. "The Grand Marshal's elite troops are truly an army of kings — they did not infringe on the common people in the slightest."

Chengzong paid no mind to Zhao Shikui's praise of the army. He knew his own household's affairs. Under the Marshal's headquarters' current reward and punishment regulations, it was perfectly normal for the officers and soldiers of every unit to leave the common people untouched.

They didn't even need to be veterans. Even a new recruit, so long as he knew the reward and punishment regulations, would carry out any looting mission assigned by his officers with tremendous enthusiasm. They would do whatever they were told to do and refrain from whatever they were told not to do — they would absolutely never go off on their own to loot the common people.

Because looting was the simplest and most lucrative task among all the Marshal's headquarters army's combat missions. When sacking high-value targets, the goods and wealth each squad brought back would be distributed to individuals proportionally after the battle.

From what Chengzong knew of the results so far, Lanzhou, untouched by drought, was far wealthier than northern Shaanxi. Even the company with the lowest merits had hauled back over two thousand three hundred dan of rice and grain and over four thousand two hundred taels of goods and wealth.

Calculated at this amount, after the rice, grain, goods, and wealth were converted via battle merits, each soldier in that company who participated in the looting would receive a reward of a little over twelve taels of silver.

Other units' hauls would only be greater. What commoner would be carrying a jin of silver on their person, making a soldier risk losing his reward or even his life to rob them? Even if they ran into a rich person, as long as it wasn't part of the combat mission, they couldn't be bothered to pay attention.

Chengzong thought to himself, this "leaving the common people untouched" didn't rely entirely on high discipline. Anyone with a not-too-low level of intelligence would know what they ought to do.

He smiled, then asked Zhao Shikui, "Shopkeeper Zhao has come to Lanzhou — is there a matter to discuss with the Grand Marshal?"

"I wouldn't dare say discuss." Zhao Shikui hastily shook his head. "This humble one has come to report to the Grand Marshal. The shops anchoring both ends and stationed in the middle are all ready. I wanted to ask the Grand Marshal how the trading company's dividends should be delivered in the future — Lanzhou to Xining, Chengdu to Luhuo, or all sent to one place? Beyond that, I also ask the Grand Marshal to assign me a few clerks for the account books."

Chengzong thought, it's already turning a profit? Progress was fast.

He asked, "Shopkeeper Zhao, just a moment. What exactly does this Tianyingde Trading Company deal in, and how did you and the Grand Marshal arrange the equity shares?"

"The equity is the Grand Marshal putting in one thousand two hundred taels, and this humble one putting in eight hundred taels, with profits split six to one, and thirty percent retained for operations."

As soon as Zhao Shikui finished speaking, Chengzong furrowed his brow. This ratio was somewhat unfair — if you wanted someone to work, you had to let them earn money. He asked, "You don't find it too little?"

But to his surprise, Zhao Shikui shook his head like a rattle-drum. "Not too little, not too little. To be honest, this humble one has not only recouped my investment but also earned one thousand eight hundred taels... That's already more than enough. If the General is dissatisfied with this, we can split it even more in your favor."

Chengzong was dumbstruck. The look he gave Zhao Shikui was intensely eager, and he blurted out, "You earned eighteen thousand taels in two years?"

"Thanks to the Grand Marshal's good fortune, this humble one has not failed in his mission."

Zhao Shikui truly felt no particular pride in his heart. This business of his could have been done by anyone — it was practically like robbing money.

He said, "Tianyingde deals in Sichuan salt, Sichuan tea, and Sichuan brocade — things this humble one was originally well-versed in. Later we added medicinal herbs from the western tribes, pelts, and farming tools. In the future, I also plan to deal in Lanzhou pelts, tobacco, and liquor. The profits are considerable."

The profits he had earned were all fool's money with small margins — anyone who could enter Kangning Prefecture could do it, but no one else could enter Kangning Prefecture.

Buying farming tools from Yazhou — one thousand iron spade heads for forty-eight taels, two thousand copper tea scoops for nine taels and eight mace — the total cost was less than sixty taels. Five carters would make one trip into Kangning Prefecture, and half a month later they would come out carrying over eight hundred taels' worth of processed fritillary bulbs and caterpillar fungus.

Chengyun asked, "No one stopped your goods?"

"There were, but later there weren't." Zhao Shikui turned and pointed to the two guards standing outside the yamen gate, introducing them to Chengyun: "General, one of these two is called Desheng and the other Guilai. They came this time also to seek some official post here. Down south, they blew up a Chiliarch."

Desheng and Guilai were formerly banner soldiers of Songpan Guard.

The year before last, the eunuch Zhang Yuanheng returned to the guard in glory, and the fanzi in his retinue let slip that a Han army in the southwest had proclaimed a marshal and was recruiting military households to go to Dajianlu with the promise of land. The two brothers, having no ties or attachments, spent half a year preparing enough rations to last over half a month, and left the Songpan Guard where they had spent their entire lives.

Crossing through the Man tribal territories where war had only just subsided, they reached Luhuo County as they had wished. Each received an ox, six sheep, and two hundred mu of land, and they also received rations from the Changhexi Tusi, needing only to wait for the coming spring to begin plowing and sowing.

But before spring arrived, first the Grand Marshal led the army on a northern campaign, and right after that, unknown Mongols surged down from the north. They were recruited by Cai Zhongpan as civilian auxiliaries to prepare the army for war, and their fields could only be farmed by hired hands.

In the end, no battle was fought. The leader of those Mongol soldiers was called Little Razun by General Cai, and they even helped Kangning Prefecture suppress a rebellion. Once the fighting was done, they headed straight for Changdu.

Instead, the two of them ate army rations for five months and got their bodies into pretty good shape.

Originally, after the fighting, they were supposed to go home and farm, but Cai Zhongpan handed the two men two guns, saying that in Yazhou there was a Chiliarch who had blocked their goods, and told them to go kill the Chiliarch. Once done, they were to find Zhao Shikui directly and go north to seek an official post from the Grand Marshal.

The two had already wanted to find the Grand Marshal. They mulled it over for a night, and at daybreak, without another word, took the guns and went.

Cai Zhongpan chose the two of them as assassins not because of exceptional skill or any other reason — the banner soldiers of Songpan Guard all had about the same ability. They knew how to use weapons and were handy with farm tools; they understood everything a soldier ought to know, and could do everything a farmer should be able to do.

The key was their appearance. The two brothers looked exactly like banner soldiers who'd been pushed around their whole lives. Dressed in rags, they didn't even need to try to blend in — dejected and downcast, they were seamlessly one with the guard station.

The two didn't even need to change clothes. Carrying a filthy little bundle through the checkpoint, the native soldiers of the Lengbian Tusi didn't bother stopping them, just assuming they were more poor military households sneaking off to Dajianlu to steal things.

They even walked into the Yazhou Chiliarch Guard Station without anyone stopping them. The brothers tossed their purple-flower cloth bundle onto the ground and, chatting with the banner soldiers, walked right into the guard station.

It just so happened that squad of banner soldiers was working too slowly and got caught by the Chiliarch. He had an uncommissioned Centurion give every man in the squad two lashes.

This infuriated Desheng and Guilai. That son of a bitch didn't even know whether the men he was beating were his own soldiers or not.

In their fury, the brothers slipped into the armory, ran into a banner soldier who was stealing military equipment to resell, and with that soldier's directions to the storage location, stole several jin of gunpowder, made a water mine, and buried it in the latrine.

That very night, amid groans of relief, the Chiliarch was sent skyward by shit and piss to report on his work to the Hongwu Emperor.

The brothers ran to the yamen shouting that the Chiliarch had been blown to death. The Centurion who had lashed them during the day rushed out upon hearing the news, found them familiar-looking, and ordered them to put on armor. Once they were armored, he even got them a knife and a spear, and with them attending him closely, rode out of the city to hunt down the murderers.

The lead balls prepared for the Chiliarch naturally found their mark on the Guard Judge's body out in the wilderness.

Listening to the brothers' story, Chengyun was thoroughly amused. Something as serious as assassinating a Chiliarch had been made by these two to seem like a joke. They really did look the part — the best thing about these brothers was that they were ugly as sin and utterly lacking in heroic bearing.

These two demolition prodigies shouldn't be called Desheng and Guilai — they should be called Downcast and Dejected.

He thought to himself, if his own eldest and second brothers had looked like this, maybe their family still wouldn't have rebelled to this day. They'd have just quietly knocked off Chiliarch Zhang without a word.

He said, "My name is Liu Chengyun. Are you two willing to follow me?"

Desheng and Guilai hastily prostrated themselves. Then Liu Chengyun turned to Zhao Shikui and said, "Since Shopkeeper Zhao has come to do business, that's easy. Settle your family in Xining, and the He-Huang trade will be yours."

Zhao Shikui drew a deep breath and nodded slowly twice.

Chengyun was very pleased and said, "I currently have spoils worth one hundred thirty thousand taels of silver. Since Shopkeeper Zhao has shops in both Hanzhong and Chengdu, take them and sell them."

Zhao Shikui asked uncertainly, "One hundred thirty thousand taels?"

"Right. There are quite a few calligraphy works, paintings, and antiques whose value I don't know — those count as your profit. What I can calculate comes to one hundred thirty thousand taels. Exchange them for steel, iron, and copper ingots if you can — the Marshal's headquarters no longer lacks silver. If you can't, exchange for gold. How about it?"

Zhao Shikui first nodded, then his face showed difficulty. "Selling is no problem, but in times like these, how do I transport it to Xining?"

"That's your problem. If you can't get it here… Desheng and Guilai will come find you." Chengyun finished speaking, then laughed. "I'm teasing you. As long as you can get the goods to Lanzhou, my second brother can get them across the Yellow River."