Chapter 1050: Patrol Corps Everywhere

Take, for example, the nightly watchmen and their civilian militia escorts — the government runners were hardly willing to do such grueling work, yet they couldn't not do it. Once trouble broke out at night, it could very easily snowball into a major disaster. So the local gentry would pool funds and levy contributions, arranging for the local commoners to take on this watchman patrol duty.

Likewise, when brawls and disputes broke out on the streets, the parties involved would usually ask a locally prominent figure to mediate. If things escalated to the point where official runners were called in, it generally meant serious injuries or a death had occurred, or that both sides were determined to fight to the bitter end. If you didn't have that intent but still got the authorities involved, then you could only wait to spend your way out of calamity — they'd definitely skin you alive.

Even the water brigades organized for firefighting and the cleaning crews organized to sweep the streets — these too were all funded by the gentry and cobbled together by the commoners. In all these myriad undertakings, regardless of whether the original intent was good or bad, the people who ran them naturally came to possess a sphere of influence, cultivated prestige, commanded a pool of hands they could call upon at any time, and built up relationships both official and private. All of this was a form of power.

There's no need to debate cause and effect here. It's simply that throughout the Ming dynasty, the authorities grew ever more reliant on these gentry magnates. Tax collection required negotiating the amounts with them; catching criminals required their assistance. Gradually, without the gentry magnates' consent, it became impossible to collect taxes or catch criminals.

The Zhao Camp established the Patrol Corps precisely to reclaim all these civil powers. The Zhao Camp must indeed be attentive to the hearts and minds of the people, but whatever the Zhao Camp sets out to do must be carried through. The government offices lack the manpower and must rely on local self-governance, but the Zhao Camp will not do this. In Qingjiangpu, the Zhao Camp directly stationed twelve large patrol corps, complete with mounted patrols and boat patrols, numbering over three thousand men in total, with Li Dajin as Corps Commander overseeing them all. These patrolmen are the manpower that will enforce the Zhao Camp's will.

In the past, beyond the city walls of Qingjiangpu, neither the Huai'an Prefect's yamen nor the Shanyang County Magistrate's yamen could really exercise much control. The two yamens combined had no more than three hundred official runners, nowhere near enough to manage, and had always relied on a large number of unofficial runners to get things done. These unofficial runners couldn't accomplish much either — they were only there to collect money and skim off the top, provoking widespread public fury and resentment. What truly maintained order in the locality was the power of the wealthy merchants themselves, their own household servants and guards. Step by step, the official runners and everything associated with them were gradually squeezed out.

The Zhao Camp has carried out large-scale killing and purging here in Qingjiangpu, with several rounds of cleansing and suppression, and naturally will not allow such a process to repeat itself. Yet with a population of several hundred thousand and as the pivotal hub of the empire's canal transport, these three thousand-plus men might not necessarily be able to manage it all. In this, the Cloud Mountain Firm, the Sun Family Trading Company, the Zhao Family Martial Hall, the Cloud Mountain Martial Hall, the Cloud Mountain Carting Service, and every other facet must all provide assistance.

This patrol corps is called the Qingjiangpu Patrol Corps. And in the refugee villages and stockades on the eastern shore of Luoma Lake — the area now called Huai'an North District — there is the Huai'an North District Patrol Corps. The commander of this corps is Cheng Dahu. Although this area has a population of no more than two hundred thousand in total, the number of patrolmen here even exceeds that of Qingjiangpu, because every single village and stockade here must be equipped with a patrol squadron. This area is already the Zhao Camp's core territory; everyone here has benefited from the Zhao Camp and settled down contentedly to build their lives. So there is no need for the saber-rattling tension of places like the Yanzhou Reclamation Zone in Shandong. Some of the former local militia have been promoted to household troops, some are awaiting promotion, and the rest now serve as patrolmen.

With so many villages and stockades in this area, there naturally must be this many patrolmen. Their task is to maintain public order in their respective villages. Unlike Qingjiangpu, the patrolmen here also retain a militia training function. Should any major enemy invade, the patrolmen of Huai'an North District must be ready to fight at any moment.

For the whole of Xuzhou, including Suzhou, the Xuzhou Patrol Corps has been established. The commander of this corps is Zhao Shiyilang. This corps has over thirty large patrol squadrons. Inside and outside the cities of Xuzhou's one prefecture and four counties, at every critical location, and over at the Kong Family Estate, patrol squadrons are stationed everywhere. At the He Family Estate, there are three large patrol squadrons, but these three squadrons are directly subordinate to Wang Zhaojing and deployed by him, responsible for all matters around the He Family Estate.

In addition, a patrol corps has been established in Jining, with Ma Chonghao as Corps Commander. The Jining Patrol Corps has a full four hundred mounted patrolmen, plus eight large squadrons of patrolmen responsible for various areas.

Once the organizational structure of these patrol corps was announced, many people were extremely surprised. They had assumed the next step would be the expansion and reorganization of the Second Regiment and Third Regiment, never expecting it to be these patrolmen, who had always gone unnoticed. Even now, with all this solemn fanfare, everyone still felt they were no different from the old local militia — just slightly reinforced civilian braves.

Moreover, when people tallied up the number of patrolmen, the total came to over ten thousand. All these men needed to be paid and provisioned. Such a huge expense, and for such a seemingly useless function — if anything really happened, just send out the household troops and militia with their long spears and it would all be settled. Why go to all this wasteful trouble? Only an outfit like the Zhao Camp, with money flowing in like mountains of gold and seas of silver every day, could sustain this. One could only say that young men with money don't care about squandering the family fortune.

However, within the Zhao Camp itself, no one found it particularly burdensome. The cost of maintaining the Qingjiangpu patrols was entirely supplied by the locality. The local powers were willing to pay this customary fee. By now, the people of Qingjiangpu, high and low, no longer harbored any resentment. Instead, they were pondering how to regularize these customary fees and such, lest Xuzhou arbitrarily collect one thing today and levy another tomorrow. Although no such situation had occurred yet, it was always best to nip trouble in the bud.

This money was to be collected by the patrolmen themselves. Zhao Jin had originally not wanted the patrolmen below to handle it, feeling it would breed corruption. But Wang Zhaojing made it very clear: "Keep a close watch and set fixed amounts, and the abuses can be avoided. But having the patrolmen personally go door to door to collect the customary fees is precisely what demonstrates our Zhao Camp's reach. Otherwise, with our Zhao Camp's strict military discipline, never disturbing the localities in daily life, they handle everything on their own and would soon forget we even exist. As the days stretch into years, I fear they might again forget their place."

Hearing Wang Zhaojing's view, Zhao Jin pondered for a moment, then couldn't help but laugh. In the memories of his former life, peasant farmers had once been exempted from paying grain taxes. At the time, it was hailed as an benevolent policy unseen in millennia, yet there were also dissenting voices. They said that if peasant farmers no longer had to pay imperial grain taxes, the state's presence would grow ever weaker. The common people would only know the village magnates and rich men, paying no heed to the court's decrees. This argument had indeed been borne out to some extent. Originally, orders from the central government could reach directly down to the common people, but gradually they could no longer penetrate below the township level. The reasons were many, but the abolition of this tax was one of them.

Having the patrolmen directly collect the customary fees — the pros and cons of this are hard to weigh. But embezzlement and graft can be prevented through a rigorous system. An act like collecting customary fees, however, can constantly assert our presence, making every person in the locality realize that the Zhao Camp has already penetrated deep into the lives of each and every one of them, making them more aware of awe and obedience. Control over the locality will also become more effective.

A Qingjiangpu of several hundred thousand people, coupled with its incomparably prosperous commercial revenues, can easily support these few thousand patrolmen. In fact, people had long been hoping for such a force to appear. The killing aura of the Zhao Camp's household troops and militia was too heavy. For trifling, petty matters, it was never quite right to have these armored, spear-wielding warriors handle them.

The situation of the Jining Patrol Corps and the Qingjiangpu Patrol Corps is roughly similar. As a flourishing commercial port and a crucial canal transit hub, Jining can support such a force with ease. As for the Huai'an North District Patrol Corps, which has the largest number of personnel, its upkeep comes directly from the transformation of the militia system. Each squadron is supported by its village and stockade, and the men even participate in labor themselves. This one doesn't require much worry either.

The Xuzhou Patrol Corps is naturally supplied by the Zhao Camp's central authority. Nowadays, the wealth and prosperity of Xuzhou is no laughing matter, so supplying this expense is also very easy.

As for the expansion and reorganization related to these patrolmen, what outsiders could see was limited to this. Many people were also quite looking forward to the changes in the Internal Guard. To them, seeing what this organization — somewhat akin to the Eastern Depot and the Brocade Guard — would become was quite intriguing. However, how the Internal Guard would change was not announced to the outside at all. Given the Internal Guard's operational style, even if outsiders tried to observe, they wouldn't be able to discern anything.

In reality, the reorganization of the Internal Guard had already begun. Zhao Jin's original intention was to rename it the Internal Guard Hall, but Liu Yong advised against making any change. A name is merely a name. For a clandestine operation like the Internal Guard that shuns the light, there's no need to let people deduce anything from its name. The corps commanders of the newly established patrol corps all hold positions within the Internal Guard. The deputy corps commanders are directly the local Internal Guard chiefs. Within each patrol corps, one squadron is directly subordinate to the Internal Guard, and Internal Guard household troops are also embedded in the other squadrons.

The patrol corps have the function of gathering information and keeping an eye on any stirrings. The intelligence they collect must be shared with the Internal Guard. The patrol corps commanders are all men from the Internal Guard system stepping onto the front stage, while even more men sink down into the shadows. Lei Cai has several squadrons under his command, but apart from Zhao Jin, no one knows where these squadrons are or how many men they have. These squadrons are responsible for planting agents in areas outside the Zhao Camp's control, collecting all kinds of intelligence and information. The capitals of Beijing and Nanjing, and the various military garrisons and key figures surrounding the Zhao Camp's territory — all must be watched.

And under Liu Yong's command, there are even more such shadowy, covert squads. Nie Hei is the leader of one of them. His squad is responsible for secretly guarding Zhao Jin, and for assassinations, espionage, and all manner of covert operations. Ma Chonghao's operation runs parallel to Lei Cai's. In the Internal Guard hierarchy, Ma Chonghao is half a rank lower than Lei Cai, but both Ma Chonghao and Lei Cai report directly to Zhao Jin.

As for the expenditures of the Internal Guard, only four people can see the general ledger: Zhao Jin, Wang Zhaojing, Liu Yong, and Chen Hong. The funds are directly disbursed from the treasury. This is something neither outsiders nor even their own people can see.

The emergence of the patrol corps structure did answer a question on many people's minds. Originally, when Zhao Jin dispatched Chen Sheng to Shandong and entrusted him with such a large force, even with the depth of their brotherhood, problems could easily arise in the face of real profit and the prevailing tide. This expansion and reorganization looked like the Zhao Camp's growth, but if handled poorly, it could very easily sow hidden dangers and lead to a major collapse. With the patrol corps in place, the household troop regiments cannot meddle in local affairs. With the patrol corps in place, there is at least some force to serve as a check and balance.