Chapter 1126: A Change Where Neither Side Gains at the Other's Expense

So a tacit understanding quickly formed throughout Haizhou: in exchange for port trade, the inland fields west of Haizhou could all serve as farming estates for the Zhao Camp to reclaim, where the Liaodong refugees could be resettled. Even the long-abandoned salt pans could be used as places to settle them, so long as the salt produced was shared as profit.

The Zhao Camp agreed to these terms at once. Outsiders could never figure it out; they always thought the Zhao Camp was out to make a fortune and grab money, never realizing that the Zhao Camp's fundamental goal was to absorb and digest more people. The Haizhou local authorities and salt administration doing this played right into the Zhao Camp's hands.

The Li Clan's Great Gang could take the ironware and cloth they got from the Zhao Camp and flip it at sea for an excellent price. And the timber they brought back from Liaodong, along with the salt cargo loaded at Haizhou, had a significance far beyond mere profit. It made the sea lords of Fujian and Guangdong regard their Li Clan's Great Gang with much greater esteem. Not to mention the special privileges at Haizhou Port and Clam Port — this effectively put them in an unbeatable first-mover position in the sea trade north of the Yangtze.

Seeing the Li Clan rake in so much, the Yu Clan knew they themselves had already earned a great deal. Unwilling to be cast aside and wanting even more, everyone in the Yu Clan, from top to bottom, felt a sense of crisis. Yu Zhiyuan seized on this pretext to expel several dozen clansmen, finally getting the Yu Clan to pull in one direction. The fleet the Yu Clan committed grew larger and larger.

"On this trip, just hauling back the timber means they won't take a loss. Factor in the mountain goods and local specialties, and they've made quite a tidy profit. The only reason they were unwilling before was simply that they felt it didn't pay as well as other routes!" Zhou Xuezhi's assessment of the Yu Clan was harsh, but it was also the truth.

The Li and Yu fleets ceaselessly used supplies to trade for people at Pi Island, to the point that Pi Island was becoming overwhelmed. The refugees originally stranded around Pi Island, Lüshun, and Jinzhou were being shipped away in a steady stream, and in a few foreseeable months, these people would be completely emptied out. Then what would they use to trade for supplies with that strange, wealthy merchant from Xuzhou?

Mao Wenlong tried many methods. He tried appealing to the two fleets' sense of righteousness, but no one paid him any heed. He tried selling privately, but he couldn't produce any bargaining chips valuable or advantageous enough. Mao Wenlong even considered seizing the ships. Through all these repeated trades, he could also see the enormous profits in this maritime commerce, and when he chatted with them, the men on the ships didn't bother to hide anything.

But Mao Wenlong never dared to act recklessly. Not only was every ship extremely vigilant, but each vessel also carried a fully armed contingent. They looked like elite government troops, yet their methods were completely different. Besides, the sailors and such in the fleet were hardly good and honest men themselves.

What to do when they could no longer produce people? What to do when they could no longer produce supplies? Mao Wenlong racked his brains for solutions. He had already sent men to infiltrate the territory controlled by the Jianzhou Jurchens to incite the Liaodong commoners to leave. He even secretly rounded up nearby Korean populations to pass them off as Liaodong refugees. He was truly giving it his all.

Yet this difficulty was a fortunate difficulty. Supported by shipload after shipload of supplies, the strength of Dongjiang Garrison began to recover and steadily grow. He had ample provisions and materiel, no longer burdened by those dependent refugees. All that remained were able-bodied young soldiers with full equipment. Those ships that arrived from time to time were, in a sense, their line of retreat, and this filled them with immense confidence.

Somewhere on the western bank of the Yalu River, a Jianzhou Jurchen patrol encountered over a hundred Dongjiang Garrison soldiers who had come raiding there. The difference in numbers was fivefold, and each side had only a dozen or so mounted men. Yet the Jianzhou Jurchen patrol showed not the slightest fear; instead, they were wildly excited.

Victory after victory had filled the Jurchen Eight Banners, from top to bottom, with confidence — confidence so great it had turned to arrogance. "The Jurchen are tigers, the Nikan are sheep" was a saying that had recently spread. "Nikan" was what the Jurchens called the Han people of the Great Ming. In their eyes, the hundred-odd men before them were a hundred-odd severed heads, each one a path of advancement, a path that could lift a man from slave to Beile.

The only thing that puzzled them was this: the Ming remnants who normally fled at the sight of them had this time formed ranks and prepared for battle. How did they have the nerve to fight? Those Ming remnants hiding in Korea were like rats, only good for scurrying around and being a nuisance, never daring to show themselves and fight. Had they realized today that they couldn't run, and so decided to fight to the death?

A fight to the death was perfect. Charge them in formation, cut down the few who could fight best, and the rest would naturally scatter. It wasn't as if they hadn't fought battles like this before.

But just as they charged forward, they saw the opposing side draw bows and nock arrows. The Jianzhou Jurchens didn't take it too seriously. What bows and arrows could those Ming remnants of Dongjiang Garrison still have? Many of them went into battle wielding nothing but sharpened, fire-hardened wooden sticks. Yet the moment the arrows whistled through the air, they all sensed something was wrong. That was unmistakably the sound of powerful bows and long arrows.

But at this charging distance, dodging was nearly impossible. Seven men were immediately struck by arrows, dead or wounded. The dozen or so who remained were suddenly far less brave. A hundred-odd opponents were charging at them, blades raised and spears leveled, roaring battle cries. How could they possibly win? Without a second word, the dozen or so turned tail and fled.

"Get moving! The Nikan are tough — since when did they have so many bows!"

Along the eastern Liaodong coastline from Lüshun to Pi Island, the Jianzhou Jurchens were beginning to find things troublesome. The Ming troops at Lüshun and Jinzhou were defending with increasing resolve, and Dongjiang Garrison's harassing raids across the river were growing more frequent. What was even more vexing was that the various forts, villages, and stockades that had previously been pacified were starting to become unstable.

In the estate forts and manors that had once been kept in check by one or two Jianzhou Jurchen village heads and a dozen or so surrendered soldiers, disturbances were breaking out frequently. Those Liaodong Han people, meek as lambs, would suddenly rise up and kill the village heads. Even those surrendered soldiers from the Liaodong Garrison would rebel again. And after the uprisings, they did not march toward the Liaodong heartland or fortify in place; instead, they withdrew across the Yalu River.

Right now, the main force of the Jianzhou Jurchens was locked in a standoff with the Ming army on the Guangning front. Liaodong and southern Liaodong were, for the moment, somewhat beyond the Jianzhou Jurchens' reach. This was truly causing them immense headaches.

However, for the Jianzhou Jurchens, the situation here was merely a headache, nothing more. In early September, four thousand Jurchen troops reached Phoenix City — the very garrison city where the Dingliao Right Guard was originally stationed. After successively crushing three detachments sent out by Dongjiang Garrison to gather up the population, the situation was stabilized once again.

Once Mao Wenlong learned the details of these newly arrived four thousand Jurchen troops, he immediately halted operations. Anyone familiar with the Jianzhou Jurchens knew one thing: they were short on manpower and bore a grudge against the Haixi Jurchens. Thus, they had two avenues for replenishing their strength. One was Ming prisoners of war, but Ming prisoners could not be trusted. The other was the Wild Jurchens.

Whether the Wild Jurchens were even truly Jurchen was debatable. They were fishing and hunting tribes living deep in the White Mountains and Black Waters. The Jianzhou Jurchens would scour the mountains and seas to capture these Wild Jurchen tribes, then put them through simple training and form them into military units. These Wild Jurchens were untamed and utterly ferocious, even more formidable on the battlefield than the Jianzhou Jurchens' own main troops. Dongjiang Garrison had suffered several setbacks at their hands. Hearing that such troops had arrived, they immediately dared not make any rash moves.

Still, a sense of rising pride filled Pi Island from top to bottom. Dongjiang Garrison had actually forced Old Slave to use Wild Jurchens to suppress them. It seemed Dongjiang Garrison was indeed much stronger than before. At the same time, everyone felt relatively relieved. The supplies for this winter were already more or less fully stockpiled. There was no need to risk life and limb raiding into Liaodong territory for forage. This "forage raiding" was ostensibly about plundering supplies to bring back, but in reality, it was a death sentence, a way to reduce the number of mouths Dongjiang Garrison had to feed. This year, at least, they would be spared that cruelty.

By September along the Liaodong coast, the wind was gradually picking up, and the season was becoming unsuitable for sailing. After the fleet delivered its final shipment of supplies, it did not trade for enough people, merely taking away a good deal of timber. Once the Liaodong coast froze over, the ships would have no way of coming. Mao Wenlong had an agreement with both fleets: they would return when spring came the following year, and by then there would surely be enough people, great timber, and mountain goods. Both sides would certainly be satisfied.

For the fleets, this was nothing more than business. If they didn't sail to Liaodong, they could load up more sought-after goods at Haizhou Port and earn even more. Nor did they pay attention to Mao Wenlong's movements. For instance, as soon as the fleet left, Dongjiang Garrison's own vessels, laden with real and fake Jurchen heads, crossed the sea to Penglai, the seat of Dengzhou Prefecture in Shandong, to report their achievements. They declared that Dongjiang Garrison had fought dozens of battles with the Tatar slaves that year, inflicting tens of thousands of casualties on the enemy, including hundreds of Niru and Jalan ejen and several Beile, with over a thousand heads taken.

Such monumental merit truly caused a sensation at court and among the public. Ever since the Great Ming had gone to war with the Jianzhou Jurchens, it had been one defeat after another. Yet now, here was a great victory. Moreover, according to the inspection by the Deng-Lai Circuit, nearly a thousand of these heads were genuine Jurchen heads. This made it an even more dazzling, unparalleled triumph. Although the relevant offices in both the inner court and outer court knew there had to be some padding in the headcount, for them to dare report such merit, there must be at least five hundred genuine Jurchen heads. That was indeed a great achievement.

For such meritorious service, the court promptly issued rewards. Mao Wenlong was granted the title of Commander-in-Chief. Zhang Pan's position as Regional Commander became a substantive appointment. Dongjiang Garrison gained several more Vice-Generals. At the same time, the Ministry of War and Shandong were ordered to increase the transport of military supplies to Dongjiang Garrison and to replenish its troops. This being the case, no matter how much was skimmed off the top, the tangible benefits Dongjiang Garrison received would increase. During this replenishment, Mao Wenlong specifically mentioned to Yuan Keli, the Grand Coordinator of Deng-Lai, requesting that Pi Island's naval forces be strengthened, ideally with large ships.

Five days after the envoys sent by Mao Wenlong landed in Shandong, Xuzhou received the news. Regarding Mao Wenlong's actions, no one could really say much. He had his own choices to make. This hedging of bets was to strengthen Dongjiang Garrison's power. It could be justified both in terms of self-interest and the greater cause. However, everyone could also deduce one thing: the influx of Liaodong refugees next year would probably not come so easily.

Over the past half-year of recruiting Liaodong refugees, they had gathered a total of just over forty thousand people in all — over seventeen thousand from Dengzhou Prefecture and more than twenty thousand from the sea. But even these forty-thousand-plus people, distributed among the various farming estates across Yanzhou Prefecture, were nowhere near enough. The Zhao Camp needed still more.

At this moment, however, Zhao Jin and his companions' attention was not on Liaodong. That coastline would freeze over anyway, and any further dealings would have to wait until after next spring. In those intervening months, changes were bound to occur, and they could deal with them then.

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