Chapter 681: Two Hundred and Fifty

In the first month of the ninth year of the Chongzhen reign.

As the new year began, the heavy atmosphere that had hung over Xi'an Prefecture through last year's baptism of war was at last scattered by the firecrackers bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.

The people of the prefectural city, too, finally showed happy faces during the New Year visits and well-wishing.

Of course, this was not the pleasant surprise of people discovering that the Marshal's headquarters was repairing the Altar of Heaven and Earth and planning to hold a ceremony, suddenly realizing they were about to become citizens of the Western Capital.

It was mainly because Liu Chengzong had announced before the new year that the government would continue the tradition of sealing the official seals from New Year's Eve to the third day of the new year, and that officials and commoners alike would have a full fifteen-day holiday stretching through the Lantern Festival.

The term "sealing the seals" originally meant the government going on holiday — locking up the official seals and security tallies with paper strips.

On last year's New Year's Eve, the commanders of the Marshal's headquarters still followed the six-year tradition of gathering around Liu Chengzong to see in the new year.

Only this year there was a welcome change: most of them were able to spend the new year together with their families.

In the past, because of the campaigns, there was always a front line and a rear area, so the generals were always with Liu Chengzong, while their families always spent the new year with the Old Master and Old Madam.

This year they finally gathered all under one roof, feasting and celebrating in the Qin Prince's palace in Xi'an.

Only, the latest news that had come out before the new year — that the Grand Marshal intended to campaign north against Ningxia and Yansui — left every commander's face tinged with a martial, killing air, each of them rubbing their fists and wiping their palms in anticipation.

Though Liu Chengzong repeatedly said that the new year had come at last and everyone should gather to drink, dine, and watch the fireworks, in the end the conversation inevitably drifted to armor, weapons, warhorses, and pack mules.

Someone even said that since the eastern Tartar slaves had proclaimed an emperor, the Grand Marshal ought to proclaim himself emperor too.

The fool who said that was none other than Chukhur, who had come from far away on the northern route of the Tianshan Mountains.

Zhou Riqiang and Chukhur had fought a brilliant battle north of the Tianshan range and taken Taimeng Garrison; word had been sent earlier, but as soon as Liu Chengzong's message arrived, Chukhur had set off.

He didn't really have any other motive — he simply had nowhere else to go.

Chukhur's territory was in the Altai; Zhou Riqiang had built it halfway for him there before running off to fight at Tomsk.

After capturing it, he renamed it Taimeng Garrison. Zhou Riqiang threw himself into the work there, building forts, putting up houses, and planting rye.

He even set up a military school and an arms bureau, teaching the newly recruited Kirghiz Banner troops' children to read and manufacturing three-eyed guns.

A hive of activity.

But Chukhur couldn't stand it — that cursed place was too cold, and after autumn there were no battles to fight.

Zhou Riqiang at least had work to keep him occupied there, but Chukhur could only hang an Eastern European bandit on the wall to freeze to death and play with ice blocks one day, and throw another into the river to freeze to death and admire ice sculptures the next.

The key problem was that during the fighting he hadn't kept enough prisoners of war to last him the whole winter, so staying there was pointless.

Over by the Tianshan range, everyone detested him — even Liu Chengzu didn't like him.

There was no helping it: Liu Chengzu truly regarded the Oirat lands as his own territory, and this fellow Chukhur was the single greatest source of instability among the Oirat.

Baatur Khong Tayiji detested this younger brother of his even more thoroughly; as soon as he heard that Chukhur had finished fighting in the north and wanted to come to the Tianshan range, he thought, if you, you bastard, come over here, I won't even be able to enjoy the new year in peace.

He hurriedly sought Liu Chengzu's advice. Liu Chengzu thought, what's so hard about this? Send Chukhur to Gansu to find Cao Yao — put one bastard together with another, and they're bound to get along.

Chukhur thought, why should I go looking for some Cao Yao? I don't even know him.

But Liu Chengzu's suggestion did give Chukhur a good idea.

The fiend of the Oirat remembered that there was still someone in this world who loved him.

Chukhur thought, I'll pick a lucky khan at random from Yarkand, rob — oh no, extort — some warhorses, cattle, and sheep, and head to Lanzhou to spend the new year with the Grand Marshal!

And so Chukhur came, leading fifteen hundred cavalry, charging into Turpan to plunder, occupying two towns for a dozen or so days, extorting two hundred head of cattle and three hundred sheep from the beg, and seizing over three hundred horses before letting them ransom the towns back.

On the road, he first stirred up trouble in Hami; because Bābā Khan's hospitality was lacking, he beat Bābā Khan up, but there really wasn't anything good left there, so in the end he seized five suits of armor and ten horses, which so infuriated Chukhur that he beat Bābā Khan up again.

Later, outside Jiayu Pass, he clashed with the commander of Chijin Garrison, Kang Liangfu. This time he didn't beat the commander up, but he robbed one hundred and twelve catties of gold and thirty-two crates of kerosene, then set fire to the house Kang Liangfu had just finished building in Dunhuang.

Then, bringing all the spoils extorted along the way, he knocked on Jiayu Pass, claiming he had come to pay tribute to Grand Marshal Liu.

It wasn't until word reached Xi'an and Liu Chengzong sent a letter back that Chukhur finally settled down, refraining from stirring up trouble inside the pass, and patiently made his way all the way to Xi'an.

He presented Liu Chengzong with a gift list: one hundred flintlock pistols, five Eastern European bandits, one hundred and fifty head of cattle, two hundred and twenty sheep, three hundred and sixty horses, one suit of armor, one hundred catties of gold, and thirty crates of kerosene.

Liu Chengzong didn't know whether to laugh or cry at this gift list, thinking, damn it, that little bit of gold Chijin Garrison painstakingly panned out — you've gone and delivered it all to me.

With skills like that, why be a general? Go work as a courier!

As for the twelve-catty shortfall, Liu Chengzong knew that Chukhur had rewarded it all to the Gansu soldiers who escorted him along the way, slicing off a bit whenever he felt pleased.

This fellow was a wild man who followed his whims and had no regard for law.

The key thing was, this sort of creature was actually quite useful in the northwest, so Liu the Lion had no way to deal with him either.

The day Chukhur entered Xi'an, Liu Chengzong deliberately practiced with weapons in the palace city; as soon as Chukhur was led in by the guards, he tossed him a staff and told him to step up and spar.

After beating him three rounds in a row, Liu the Lion's pent-up anger finally smoothed out. Only then did he pull Chukhur, exhausted and steaming from the head, up from the ground, clap him on the shoulder, and say, "I'll keep a residence for you in Xi'an. Come here every winter from now on — it's warm."

Yet although Chukhur got a beating the moment he arrived in Xi'an, he felt wonderful.

In the Marshal's headquarters, it wasn't just Liu Chengzong who liked him — Gansu Grand Governor Cao Yao, Minister of Rites Zhang Xianzhong, Grand Commander of the Guannei Circuit Zhang Tianlin, Grand Commander of the Haixi Circuit Xie Erhu, and General Luo Rucai were all men whose minds galloped across the heavens. Not only could they talk together for hours, they were utterly fascinated by each other's experiences.

The six brothers sat down together.

Cao Yao put on an air of dignified attentiveness, listening with tilted head; Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Tianlin, and Luo Rucai chattered away in high spirits; Chukhur beamed with animated delight but stuttered and stammered; Xie Erhu would say a couple of lines about what he'd seen in Chamdo and then translate in rapid bursts.

They just bragged — they could talk about anything: mountains and rivers, troop tactics, plundering methods, siege techniques, horse quality, taste in clothing.

And of course the main topic: how each of them, before meeting Liu Chengzong, had turned this world upside down.

It gave Chukhur a long-lost feeling of home.

As they talked on, the conversation turned to Hong Taiji of the Later Jin proclaiming himself emperor. Chukhur slammed the table and shot to his feet, bellowing in the Oirat dialect of Han Chinese taught by Teacher Zhou of the Tianshan range: "If a taiji like him can proclaim himself emperor, why doesn't the Great Khan proclaim himself an emperor!"

This so alarmed Xie Erhu and Luo Rucai that they each grabbed one of Chukhur's arms and forced him back into his seat.

If they talked about this, would they still get to eat their New Year's Eve dinner or not, damn it?

Fortunately, Chukhur's Han Chinese was truly a genuine dialect; even without an interpreter, Liu Chengzong had to ask him to slow down.

When this fellow slammed the table and shot up, his speech was so rapid that no one could understand him at all — everyone thought he was quarreling with someone.

Liu the Lion rolled up the sleeves of his leather yesa robe, ready to beat him up again.

Later, after Xie Erhu ran up and quietly translated, he lowered his sleeves, smiled, and pretended he hadn't heard.

He was not, after all, like Hong Taiji, born of feudal nobility, whose father Nurhaci had already pushed everything a feudal tribe could do to its absolute limit.

All the wars after his succession — the campaigns against the Ming, against the Mongols, against Joseon — were invasions and plunder; the Eight Banner lords and nobles were the vested beneficiaries of the Later Jin.

So whether Hong Taiji calls himself emperor or not, the ones truly at the top holding power and running things are still the Eight Banner lords. Even if they later conquer the Mongols, conquer Joseon, conquer the Great Ming, the ones squeezing out the benefits will still be these same people.

Liu Chengzong is different.

Founding a state, declaring kingship, declaring emperorship — these are for distributing benefits, not a moment's impulse or fooling around.

And as for Chokur causing trouble at the Marshal's Manor, so long as no major problem arises, Liu Chengzong also feels there is no need to discipline him.

It doesn't matter if this man is a fool, as long as he has his own talents and enough room to use them.

In Liu the Lion's mind, Chokur is simply the feudal lord meant to push westward from the Taimeng Garrison. His moral character is unimportant.

As long as he can fight, and doesn't wreak havoc in the traditional Han or Mongol lands, it doesn't matter how much of a bastard he is north of the Tianshan Mountains. Against the enemy, in fact, the more of a bastard the better.

You can't exactly send a bunch of devout believers into a bitter, frozen land to open up territory and expect them to get the job done, can you?

Although Liu Chengzong had granted the soldiers and civilians under the Marshal's Manor a fifteen-day holiday, by the second day he was already busy again.

On the first day of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Liu Chengzong first received New Year congratulations from his subordinate generals and officials at the Prince of Qin's mansion, then led the officers and officials on a tour of twelve encampments, distributing reward silver to the troops and wishing them a happy new year.

On the second day of the new year, he took Shi Chengwo to the Shaanxi Armory General Bureau within the city.

This name was changed by Liu Chengzong; it was previously just called the Armory Bureau, but its responsibilities and authority are the same.

This Armory Bureau was first established in the third year of the Jiajing era, set up and built upon the recommendation of the Army-Inspecting Censor Yang Qin, the Garrison Grand Eunuch Yan Hong, and the Shaanxi Grand Coordinator Wang Xu.

Its specifications were very high.

Liu Chengzong knew this because a stele had been erected outside the Armory Bureau, which recounted the era's background and the reasons for its establishment.

In the early Ming, the Armory and Miscellaneous Works Bureaus of the local guards were responsible for repairing weapons and armor. They only manufactured traditional cold weapons when a task was assigned from above.

Normal bows, sabers, spears, crossbows, armor, and battle tunics were handled internally by the Imperial Workshops, Armory, Needlework, and Saddlery Bureaus, all of which belonged to the Inner Storehouse and were managed by eunuch officials.

Externally, there was the Armor Factory under the Ministry of War, managed by court gentlemen.

Firearm production was cast only within the inner court by the Inner Storehouse's Imperial Workshops and Armory Bureaus, its importance on par with tallies and seals — this was the so-called "sharp tools must not be shown to others."

It was not until the Zhengtong era, when military pressure on the frontiers increased and the inner court's production could no longer meet daily needs, that the court authorized the frontier garrisons and guard armories to self-manufacture firearms like bronze cannons and hand cannons.

By the early Jiajing years, the guard armories of the Shaanxi region, besides conventional cold weapons, had already begun manufacturing fire arrows, fire lances, cannons, and other firearms. But this was still a phase of wild growth — each made their own, with neither unified management nor top-down supervision.

To change this situation, unify Shaanxi's firearm manufacturing processes, and guarantee the quality of military equipment produced, Shaanxi's Army-Inspecting Censor, Garrison Grand Eunuch, and Grand Coordinator proposed to the court the establishment of this Armory Bureau.

It was not until the sixth year of Jiajing that this Armory Bureau, located within Xi'an city, was completed.

The core idea behind its establishment was: the governance of all under heaven lies in law, and the law of all under heaven lies in people.

Therefore, particular attention was paid to the division of responsibilities and supervisory procedures.

The main officials of the Armory Bureau were the Commissioner, Vice Commissioner, Procurement Officer, and Works Officer.

Among them, the Commissioner held the rank of junior ninth grade; the other three were all unranked.

But it oversaw the Armory Bureaus of the four guards of Xi'an, each of which had one Warden, filled by a Chiliarch.

At the same time, there was one Overseer, concurrently held by the Circuit Intendant of Patrol or Military Defense.

These officials formed a structure of mutual checks and supervision.

If the Armory Office failed to perform its duties diligently, the responsibility lay with the Office Warden. If there were problems with materials, the responsibility lay with the Procurement Officer. If there were quality issues with the equipment, the responsibility lay with the Works Officer.

And if a problem occurred in any of these work stages, the Overseer could not evade blame.

It was precisely the establishment of this Armory Bureau that enabled Liu Tianhe, the Supreme Commander of the Three Frontiers in the northwest during the Jiajing era, to provide the three frontiers with four thousand eight hundred war wagons and nine thousand three hundred wrought-iron breech-loading swivel guns, completing the re-equipment and tactical reform of the northwestern border army in an extremely short time.

Liu Chengzong's inspection of the Armory General Bureau this time, taking advantage of the artisans' holiday, was in fact for the same original purpose that the Shaanxi officials had when they proposed establishing this Armory Bureau.

The time had come again when Shaanxi's arms manufacturing industry needed to be re-unified.

The Marshal's Manor's military industry was very weak compared to the scale of the territory it now controlled, which was half the realm.

But that was not because their military industry had problems; otherwise, it would have shown in their military performance during the eastern campaign.

Quite the opposite — it was precisely because the Marshal's Manor's military industry had developed so terrifyingly fast relative to the small corner of Hehuang that they were able to successfully conquer the two provinces of Gansu and Shaanxi.

It was just that after this, the rapidly expanding territory and army left the Marshal's Manor's Works Department scrambling. Raw materials, production capacity, and supply — none of them could keep up.

There was no helping it. The standardized equipment models of the Marshal's Army were different from those of the Ming army.

The Xining Prefecture, which Liu Chengzong had managed the longest, could engage in full-scale mass production.

The Kangning Prefecture, overseen by Liu Guoneng, could mass-produce components, but because of the immense difficulty of transport, they had never planned on mass-producing finished products there.

Meanwhile, in Gansu, where Huang Shengxiao was stationed, they could produce firearms and cannons in small quantities.

At the same time, the Lintao Prefecture, overseen by Shi Chengwo, had great ambitions, surpassing Xining Prefecture in both resources and planning.

They were just hampered by insufficient management time. They had the manufacturing models for all kinds of equipment, but in the short term, their production capacity could not match Xining.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong's current military supplies mainly relied on captured equipment to make do and muddle through.

But fortunately, the quality of what they made do and muddled through with was quite good. They had captured far too much Ming army equipment. Where they lacked thousand-catty cannons, they used great general cannons. Where they lacked enough heavy muskets and heavy arquebuses, they supplemented with small breech-loading swivel guns and bird guns.

And they could even pick the best ones to use.

Even so, however, the pressure on Shi Chengwo was immense.

Therefore, as soon as the new year was over, he could not wait to present Liu Chengzong with a proposal for the unified management of the Marshal's Manor's Armory Bureau, and even specifically brought Liu Chengzong to the Armory General Bureau to see the management methods here.

"Great Marshal, the Marshal's Manor should also establish Armory Sub-Bureaus in each prefecture, each with a Commissioner, Vice Commissioner, Procurement Officer, and Works Officer. Each Sub-Bureau should have a Warden position, filled by a Feathered Forest Guard officer, and additionally an Overseer, concurrently held by an officer from the Military Office."

As he spoke, Shi Chengwo raised his hand and gestured toward the ground beneath them. "Let the Armory General Bureau oversee the Sub-Bureaus, subordinate to the Works Office, with three-party supervision."

"All shall be granted the regulations and models of the Xining Prefecture Armory Bureau. In this way, after two years, the Marshal's Manor's armaments will be sufficient to support the Great Marshal's bid for the realm."

The Xining Prefecture Armory Bureau referred to the Xining Guard Armory Bureau and the Gülwan Arsenal.

Over there, the full set of workshops and factory buildings for the Hundred Crafts and armory processes had already been developed to a very complete state, basically reaching the pinnacle of what that area could currently develop.

But if the plan Shi Chengwo described could be implemented, then places like Lintao, Gongchang, Xi'an, and Hanzhong would soon surpass the Xining Armory Bureau by leveraging their advantages in artisans and resources.

It was just that some places, limited by population, might find it difficult to reach the planned production capacity on schedule, just as the plan envisioned.

After all, the damage these years of war had inflicted on Shaanxi was immeasurable.

Liu Chengzong surveyed the architectural layout of the Armory Bureau and Miscellaneous Works Bureau complex, nodded, and approved Shi Chengwo's proposal, saying, "Let's proceed as you've said for now. First, send people to tour each prefecture and county, assess the locations for setting up Armory Sub-Bureaus, and then submit a budget proposal to the Revenue Office."

After he finished speaking, he looked up and noticed Shi Chengwo seemed to want to say something but hesitated, so he asked, "What is it?"

"I also wish to request that the Grand Marshal permit the Works Office to recruit one man."

"Who?"

Shi Chengwo said, "Wang Zheng of Sanyuan."