Chapter 380: Worrying

Yang He found Liu Chengzong's request astonishing.

This man lived out by the Western Sea, yet he actually knew about sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Yang He knew where to find sweet potatoes and potatoes — the imperial estates in Northern Zhili.

In recent decades, more than a few officials had vigorously advocated promoting these two crops, but promotion had not gone smoothly; their advantages were not great, so the places where they were most planted could only be the imperial estates.

As newly introduced crops, people's acceptance of them was far less than that of maize. Maize was a good thing, able to serve as a substitute for wheat.

The yields of both potatoes and sweet potatoes were quite high — getting two to three hundred jin per mu was no great problem — but the yield of these two was very hollow, because the water content was high. A person eating eight liang of white flour could last a day, but eating half a jin of sweet potato, they'd be hungry again after a piss; you could choke yourself to death and still not eat your fill.

At the same time, because of the high water content, they were not easy to store. The most critical obstacle was still the social structure... landlords did not recognize this stuff.

When it was time to hand over the grain, the landlord would set the official measure out in the great courtyard. The tenant would push a small cart bringing twenty-five dan of wheat, and also present two live chickens. Very simply, this could make the landlord's wife fully content — truly sensible, the land will be leased to you again next year.

If someone set that official measure out and the tenant clattered twenty-five dan of sweet potatoes into it — never mind whether the landlord would beat him to death, he could certainly directly complete the class transition from tenant to landless refugee.

The dan is a unit of volume. One official measure can hold seventeen or eighteen jin of millet, but at most eleven or twelve jin of sweet potatoes. They also do not stave off hunger and are hard to store; left sitting, they spoil. Made into flour, one jin of raw grain yields less than five liang.

Nutritional balance and eating whatever you want whenever you want is a matter for high officials and nobles. As early as the Longqing reign, the Goose Ash Pond in the Forbidden City had charcoal-heated vegetable greenhouses, but what a tenant had to consider was whether a year's harvest could feed them for a year.

To make this stuff serve as a staple grain, on poor land that can yield eighty jin of wheat, sweet potatoes and potatoes would have to yield three hundred and twenty jin to be worthwhile; on fertile land yielding two hundred jin of wheat, sweet potatoes and potatoes would have to yield eight hundred jin to be worthwhile.

Even the land of the imperial estates of the Chongzhen Emperor's own family could not produce eight hundred jin of potatoes.

Unless you planted two seasons on extremely fertile land like that around Lake Tai, it was not impossible to get one or two thousand jin, but over there, intensive rice cultivation could yield six hundred jin.

In peaceful years, the greatest value of potatoes and sweet potatoes was to rest the land.

Continuously planting staple grains or cash crops exhausts the soil's fertility. If you want to let the land rest, you plant beans — beans can nourish the land. But if you do not want to let the land rest, you plant potatoes, because potatoes cannot nourish the land but also do not deplete its fertility.

Of course, the advantages of these two things were also obvious. In places where living standards were extremely poor, hungry as one might be, thin as eating them might make one, they could keep a person alive.

Ultimately, it was still that the drought had come too urgently and too fast. In places unaffected by drought and roving bandits, planting traditional crops was more worthwhile; in places affected by drought and refugees, it was already too late to plant anything.

Yang He weighed the matter in his mind. To be fair, Liu the Lion's three demands — trade in Shaanxi, not building a fortress at Lanzhou, and finding some sweet potatoes and potatoes — were all proposals beneficial to the realm.

Thinking of "the realm" rather than "the Great Ming" showed that Liu Chengzong's theory that the Great Ming was done for had penetrated deeply into the heart.

Three years ago, no one would have believed this, but now, in the sixth year of Chongzhen, the worst moment for the Great Ming's situation, Yang He vaguely believed it.

However, this matter had little impact on Yang He. Done for or not, he was a man of advanced age. Even if the court was bound to be finished, it would not happen so quickly. Since the court still existed now and he was still a high official of the court, he must be brave in undertaking his duties.

The Great Ming's most important enemies at present — the Later Jin, the roving bandits, the Dengzhou rebel army — none could be negotiated with. Only in the northwest, with Liu Chengzong, could a great war be avoided. With the example of Liaodong laid out before their eyes, the Great Ming truly could not afford a protracted great decisive battle in the northwest.

Therefore, in the letter submitted to the Emperor, Yang He unreservedly set forth Liu Chengzong's three demands, and attributed this campaign, which had cost five commanders their armies and painfully lost Hehuang, to Shaanxi's deliberate provocation in blockading the border under unfavorable provisions and pay conditions. He emphatically mentioned that Liu Chengzong could choose not to be an enemy of the court — do not provoke him.

However, the matter of Liu Chengzong having plundered five hundred thousand dan of grain from one hundred and seventy-eight households in the vicinity of Lanzhou was something Yang He did not dare mention to Chongzhen.

It was not that he feared the Chongzhen Emperor would, in desperation, follow the example of Liu the Lion and also go confiscate the homes of the wealthy.

The key was the fear that the Chongzhen Emperor would not be able to confiscate this much grain and would be disappointed. Disappointment was one thing, but the adverse effects caused by the confiscations after the disappointment would surely bring regret later.

Once the Chongzhen Emperor regretted it, Yang He, who had proposed the matter, would more or less have to offer up an old, vintage head to liven up the mood.

Best to simply not mention it. Whoever wanted to bring it up could bring it up.

The letter traveled swiftly along the Great Wall and was delivered to the capital on the eighth day of the fourth month. Chongzhen was dumbfounded reading the letter. Three Garrison Commanders captured, thirty thousand troops utterly lost — and this was the result?

Chongzhen was very angry, because the trade blockade had not been a private action by Shaanxi but had received the court's tacit approval. What was the meaning of this — bringing humiliation upon oneself?

But on the other hand, setting aside for the moment the matter of whether to repair the Lanzhou fortifications, Liu Chengzong demanded mutual trade and sought war reparations of two sacks of potatoes?

Chongzhen felt that since this war was already such a loss, losing a bit more on potatoes and sweet potatoes was nothing. With a wave of his hand, he sent Cao Huachun to the Goose Ash Pond to dig up potatoes.

This scared Eunuch Cao so badly he trembled like a sieve, thinking to himself: Your Majesty, please don't send this old servant to Xining again. For the rest of his life, he never wanted to see Liu Chengzong a second time.

Fortunately, Chongzhen felt this battle had been fought in utter disgrace and was also unwilling to dispatch an imperial envoy again. He picked out several chests of the larger ones and sent them via the Brocade Guard, instructing Yang He to swear an oath with Liu Chengzong as soon as possible and achieve a withdrawal of his army.

Even Liu Chengzong had not expected that the Chongzhen Emperor, whom he considered to have a very contrary temperament, could be so straightforward this time. In a mere nine days, the things were delivered, and several chests at that.

He felt it was very straightforward, but Yang He in Lanzhou City found each day like a year. Just two days before the potatoes arrived, a vast, dark mass of at least ten thousand people driving donkeys and mules and pushing small carts appeared southeast of Lanzhou. Under the escort of two hundred elite cavalry, they skirted the southern foothills of the city and headed toward Xigu.

The assembled military officers on the city wall gnashed their teeth in fury. Two hundred men dared to escort a herd of livestock and a wagon train of ten thousand people — just how arrogant had Liu Chengzong become?

Yang He counted from atop the wall: over a thousand carts large and small, nearly ten thousand donkeys, mules, oxen, and horses. Some of the people pushing the carts were still wearing banner army battle jackets, which made him burn with anxiety... Where had been raided this time!

In truth, Liu the Lion's initial reaction was exactly the same as Yang He's: Where had been raided this time?

According to plan, his plundering of the one hundred and seventy-eight powerful and wealthy households — in Xigu City, Jin County City, and the many forts around Lanzhou City; in Didao in Lintao Prefecture; in Hezhou Garrison City and the surrounding countryside — was already finished, and the troops he had sent out had returned to base in full as ordered.

Where had these people come from?

The strangest part was that those two hundred cavalrymen, after escorting the commoners to deliver the money and grain to Xigu, turned around and fled into the mountains, without even meeting him once.

"Commander, they are not our people."

Fan Sanlang had questioned the commoners and entered the tent to report: "I asked the people delivering the grain. Those men called themselves generals of the Marshal's Mansion, but they acted with faces covered. They plundered twenty-two great households in Weiyuan County, distributed the grain entirely on a whim, and exterminated every single one, leaving none alive... Should we inform Lanzhou City?"

Liu Chengzong gently shook his head and merely asked, "How much money and grain was transported here?"

"Over ten thousand head of large livestock, over twenty thousand dan of grain..." Fan Sanlang said, "No valuables or money."

Liu Chengzong gave a light laugh. "Quite clever. Alright, the person who did this is in Lintao Garrison. No need to tell Lanzhou. Just consider it my doing."

He had never imagined that in such a short time, copycat crimes would already appear.

Liu Chengzong's experience in plundering was so rich — the moment he heard of this matter, he immediately figured out the whole sequence of events.

The person was certainly in Lintao Garrison, and it was very likely that he had previously led banner troops to join Liu Chengzu in the plundering of Didao and Lintao Garrison, at least participating in the transport operations for the money and grain.

Because apart from the men of Lintao Garrison, it was very difficult for others to gather over a hundred mounted men in a short time, and also very difficult to breach the estates of great households. And if they had not participated in Liu Chengzu's plundering, it would have been very hard to find the key to inciting the commoners in such a short time.

After all, in this line of work, experience was still very important.

As for the reason for transporting the grain to Xigu, Liu Chengzong estimated that on one hand it was to clear suspicion by framing him, and on the other hand it was likely the same as when the Tiger General seized the princely estate to aid the commoners of Yan'an... the plundered money and grain were too much, impossible to hide and impossible to transport completely.

So the bulk of the grain and livestock were transported here, while they kept the money and a small amount of grain for themselves.

Liu the Lion estimated that this person was a mid-ranking officer of Lintao Garrison. Perhaps before long, he would be exposed because his subordinates spent money lavishly. If he was not exposed for that, then soon Liu Chengzong would also come to know this clever little devil from the list of promoted officers.

In any case, ten thousand head of large livestock and twenty thousand dan of grain as hush money — Liu Chengzong felt this price was sufficient to keep him silent.

Fortunately, these things were not too much and were very easy to transport. Just as the last batch of money, grain, and livestock was crossing the Yellow River, Lanzhou City also sent a messenger, saying that Yang He wished to invite him to swear an oath in the middle of the battlefield, and that the potatoes and sweet potatoes sent by the Emperor's man had arrived.

"Tell Yang He that he is to come into my camp again to swear the oath. Also, the Brocade Guard and government troops are not permitted to enter the camp — have them wait outside."

Liu Chengzong was in fact very attentive to his own safety. It was just that sometimes on the battlefield, he was the army's morale itself; to boost morale and achieve victory, he needed to take some risks.

But under the present circumstances — Yang He was an old man, there was no chance he'd try to assassinate him. But what if some Embroidered-Uniform Guard agent with nothing left to live for pulled out a firelock pistol and shot him dead? There was absolutely no need to take that risk.

Yang He inside Lanzhou city had no choice either. He could only have men carry the chests toward the main camp. At the camp gate, soldiers of the Marshal's Residence took over and carried the large wooden chests inside.

Liu Chengzong counted from a distance. Seven lacquered wooden chests — six were identical, while one chest looked rather plain by comparison.

"Old Master Yang, are these the potatoes and sweet potatoes sent by the Emperor?"

Though no one had accompanied him, Liu Chengzong still treated Yang He with excellent courtesy. He reined in his own excitement and first invited Yang He to sit in a chair prepared outside the tent — after all, the man was advanced in years, and all this running back and forth was exhausting.

Just then, the guards had already stepped forward to inspect the seven wooden chests, opening them carefully in case any were rigged with tripwires tied to steel-wheel landmines. Once opened, they found six chests contained sweet potatoes and potatoes, soil still clinging to their leaves — three chests of each.

The sight filled Liu Chengzong with immense delight. He clapped his hands and said, "That this has come to pass is entirely thanks to the old Supreme Commander's devoted efforts. In the future, every person in the northwest whose life is saved by these two crops ought to be grateful for the old Supreme Commander's benevolence."

These things meant the boundless tracts of worthless land in his hands had finally found their purpose.

What Liu Chengzong valued about these two crops was not their high yield per mu — what he cared about was that they yielded anything at all.

The He-Huang river valley was narrow in land and dense in population — the lowest elevations and the contiguous good farmland were all concentrated along the river valley. But the He-Huang mountain lands were vast in territory and sparse in people, with scattered plots growing horse grass and alfalfa across the hillsides as far as the eye could see.

If people could grow sturdy just by eating hay, then he wouldn't need to worry about grain at all. The farmland suitable for growing crops under his rule — even counting the unregistered mountain fields in Xining Prefecture — likely amounted to less than three million mu, while the pastureland under his rule… Liu Chengzong didn't even want to mention it.

He didn't know how many tens of millions the Great Ming's total population was, but what he could say for certain was: if you stood one person on each mu of pastureland, you'd absolutely never fill it.

In just the two counties of Haixi and Haibei alone, he had over ten million mu of pastureland.

All that fodder was utterly useless to him. Farming, on the other hand — even if only half of He-Huang's two million mu of mountain land were planted with potatoes, and each mu yielded him just a hundred jin of potatoes, that would still let every person in He-Huang eat for two more months.

Spread those two extra months of rations across an entire year, and it was tantamount to a bumper harvest.

Watching Liu Chengzong, giddy with joy and practically dancing over a few chests of potatoes and sweet potatoes, Yang He sighed.

He asked, "Great Marshal, was it for the common people of He-Huang that you came to Lanzhou to seize grain?"

Liu Chengzong's eyelid twitched. From General Liu to Great Marshal — this old man was up to something. He suppressed his inner suspicion, raised a hand to point at the soldiers in the camp, and said with a smile, "Old Supreme Commander, take a look at my soldiers. Which one of them looks like they're starving? What do you think I'm fighting this war for?"

"The common people of He-Huang go hungry because of the troops I maintain — of course I must provide for them… Though they may not live terribly well. I have too many soldiers."

Liu Chengzong shook his head with a bitter smile, then his gaze hardened. "But I will not let anyone starve to death because of me."

Yang He looked at Liu Chengzong and nodded slowly. This young rebel commander before him — it seemed he truly meant to provide for even more common people.

In this world, those who wished to provide for more people were few. And in the northwest, among those who would actually attempt it and might even succeed, Yang He knew only one man: Liu Chengzong.

He himself had once very much wanted to provide for the common people of Shaanxi's three border regions. He had tried pacification, tried persuading the people, tried averting war — tried everything within his power. All of it had failed.

Yang He let out a quick, soft sigh, raised a hand to point at the slightly plainer wooden chest, and said, "This old man knows Marshal Liu is fond of reading. That chest contains books from Prince Su's collection — all on teaching the people how to farm."

"Hm?"

Liu Chengzong drew closer to examine that wooden chest. Inside were all collected books — Wang Zhen's Agricultural Treatise, Xu Guangqi's manuscripts, and a great variety of other volumes. This was something he had not expected.

He turned his head and asked Yang He, "Old Supreme Commander, why have you sought out these books for me?"

"This old man also wished to…" Yang He started, then stopped. He let out another quick, soft sigh, and his tone turned light as he continued, "His Highness Prince Su said, since Marshal Liu means to grow potatoes in He-Huang to save lives, then please grow them well, and don't keep eyeing his princely estates. Over thirty thousand mu of land in Gansu yields only a little over seven thousand dan in rent — if that land were in your hands, the harvest would surely be greater than his."

Liu Chengzong let out a short laugh and did not refute it.

There was no way to refute it — the rent on Prince Su's estates was indeed not high.

Just then, he spotted a messenger waiting not far from the command tent. Fan Sanlang went over, took a letter, and walked back. Liu Chengzong excused himself from Yang He and went over, and heard Sanlang say, "It's a letter from home."

Liu Chengzong unfolded the letter, and his brow immediately furrowed. Another envoy.

Only this time, it was an envoy from the Later Jin.

Liu Chengzong put the letter away, turned, and said to Yang He, "The old Supreme Commander and Prince Su have given me farming books — I acknowledge the kindness. However, please return to the capital and tell the Emperor this: the five garrisons could not defeat me, but that is not the fault of the five garrisons. It is truly a matter of national strength in decline — the problem lies not in military affairs but in governance. To wage war against me is merely to waste the lives of good men for nothing… I suppose Lanzhou will have additional garrison troops stationed here in the future — that is also of no consequence."

"If all under Heaven were at peace, the people content, and the six domestic animals flourishing, then a man like Liu, who rises to chastise tyranny on behalf of the suffering, would be beneath notice. Encourage the Emperor to govern with diligence, to practice more benevolent and lenient policies, to prioritize the eastern affairs — in the west, he has nothing to worry about."