Chapter 1192: The Shang Family Patriarch

Daming Garrison Commander Yang Zhaoji had already charged out with his guard cavalry, and the Xuanfu cavalry had also mostly fled. The Shanxi border troops, seasoned veterans who had seen real battle, were different — the moment the cannons roared, they began fighting their way toward the north gate. They forcibly drove back the two columns from Henan and Shandong, carving out an escape route for themselves. By the time they broke through, the Xuzhou trained militia had not yet arrived. Still, only a few dozen riders escaped. The remaining infantry, seeing the Xuzhou volunteers closing in, promptly knelt and surrendered. There was no fighting at all, and no one died in combat.

The unluckiest were the trained militia from Weihui Prefecture. Their morale was far stronger than that of ordinary government troops, but the name of Prince Lu's estate could not intimidate those garrison commanders, vice commanders, and colonels at all. Considered a capable force, they were deliberately deployed to the eastern estate wall, ordered to clash head-on with the Xuzhou troops. If they had actually met in battle, it might have been one thing, but instead they were shattered directly by cannon fire. Only a hundred or so escaped, surrendering in complete physical and mental collapse. Several had already been driven mad with terror.

The government troops could flee, but the people of Shang Family Estate could not. Their roots were here in this estate, along with the fields and properties surrounding it. Without these, Shang Family Estate would hold no meaning whatsoever. So the three who left were all those who held official examination degrees — they might still have prospects for advancement in officialdom in the future. The ones who stayed were the majority, not because they were unwilling to leave, but because they realized they had no way to leave. The government troops had already collapsed so utterly — where could they flee to even if they tried? They would only be captured by others and brought here as offerings for reward.

"Master Jin, the Shang Family Patriarch requests an audience. He says he has a few urgent matters to report." A household servant came to ask for instructions.

Zhao Jin was riding on horseback, inspecting the battlefield and issuing orders as needed. Hearing the servant's words, he nodded, dismounted on the spot, and waited. When the fighting began, everything had felt very fast, but once the intense battle was over, he realized that Shang Family Estate was actually quite large — a fortified earthen stronghold capable of holding twenty thousand people, with ample provisions stored inside. Of course it would not be small.

Yucheng County, near Shang Family Estate, had a population of only a little over twenty thousand. The neighboring counties of Xiayi and Yongcheng were the same. Even Shangqiu, the prefectural seat, had only forty-some thousand people. Yet the fortified estate of a single powerful clan could reach a comparable scale. Within Guide Prefecture, there were over twenty such fortified estates, large and small. On the surface, they looked like mere gentry manors, but in truth, these were the real local governments. The lives and deaths of the common people in the surrounding areas were decided by these estates, and these estates were the true masters of the territories they controlled.

In times of peace, these powerful clans governed the localities jointly with the officials dispatched by the imperial court, exploiting and dividing the spoils. Once chaos descended, these clans would rely on their manors and fortified estates to carve out territory, either seeking self-preservation or devouring and maneuvering against others, their ambitions growing ever larger. They were the true scourge of the localities. As long as they existed, no one could reach down to the level of the common people, no one could thoroughly mobilize manpower and resources. One could only negotiate with them and set quotas.

Regardless of their current relationship with the Zhao Character Camp, in the long run, the Zhao Character Camp would never tolerate their existence — even though, at present, the Zhao Character Camp shared certain commonalities with them.

Zhao Jin was deep in thought when the Shang Family Patriarch was brought over. He could see two people accompanying the patriarch, who appeared to be women of the inner quarters, likely young ladies of the household. The Shang Family Patriarch was seventy-five years old this year. Zhao Jin knew his background very well — there was actually no need for the Internal Guard to investigate; the rumors alone were more than enough.

The Shang Family Patriarch held the hereditary post of Assistant Commander of the Suiyang Guard. However, for several generations, his ancestors had failed to secure any actual administrative positions. Living off dwindling resources, the family had declined generation by generation. By the patriarch's generation, the household was left with only a hundred mu of farmland, and he and his younger brother struggled to scrape by. Even that hundred mu of land was forcibly seized as private property by a battalion commander in the guard.

At the time, the patriarch's younger brother was pursuing his studies. Seeing the family's hardship, he had already resolved to abandon his education and return home to work as a tenant farmer alongside his brother. But the patriarch beat him and told him to focus on his studies with peace of mind, while he himself went out to make a living. Some said he went into the illegal salt trade, others said he became a bandit. Whatever the truth, he supported his brother all the way until he passed the examination to become a Xiucai. The rank of Xiucai still meant nothing in the eyes of the battalion commander and the guard commander, but the rent on that hundred mu of land was reduced by thirty percent. A deputy battalion commander even wanted to take the patriarch's younger brother as a son-in-law.

But the patriarch instead arranged for his brother to marry the only daughter of a certain Xiucai in Yucheng County. This Xiucai's family was well-off, counted among the notable wealthy households of Yucheng County. Half a year after the wedding, the younger brother went away on a study tour. He had been gone only a month when his wife returned to her parents' home to visit. That very night, bandits broke in. The entire family was slaughtered by the bandits, and all movable valuables were looted clean. By custom, all of this family property passed to the patriarch's younger brother by inheritance.

This Xiucai had a cousin's son who also came forward to contest the inheritance. Two days later, while walking on the road, the man was ambushed, his head covered, and both his legs were broken. A dead dog was also thrown into his house. He immediately dared not continue contesting the inheritance. When the patriarch's younger brother returned, he took full possession of this substantial legacy. With money in the household, pursuing scholarly studies became far more comfortable. Perhaps it was the Shang family's destiny — the patriarch's younger brother then passed the provincial examination and became a Juren.

The weight carried by a Juren was something else entirely. Coupled with those vague, half-hidden rumors swirling behind the Shang family, once the examination degree was obtained, that hundred mu of land was immediately returned. But the two Shang brothers refused to let the matter rest. They filed a lawsuit all the way to the Guide Prefectural seat and threatened to take it to the provincial capital. The battalion commander had no choice but to admit defeat and was forced to carve out half his land to give them. In truth, the commander had considered using ruthless measures, but he never expected that the Shang Family Patriarch could muster over a hundred able-bodied men to resist. He had no choice but to concede.

By this time, the Shang family had already begun seizing property by cunning and force in both Yucheng and Xiayi counties. They also used relatively favorable terms to win over a group of guard military households, mutually reinforcing each other and becoming a local power. For most people in such a position, this would have been the time to prey upon the countryside and throw their weight around. But the Shang Family Patriarch constantly urged his younger brother to advance his studies and pursue higher examination degrees. After two attempts, the brother passed the highest imperial examination and became a Jinshi. He was first appointed as a county magistrate in an outside posting, then returned to the capital to serve in the Ministry of Revenue, and finally retired from office at the fourth rank.

After attaining Jinshi, the Shang family could run rampant throughout Guide Prefecture. The two brothers aided each other — the patriarch secured an actual administrative post in the guard, while the younger brother, supplied with silver from the family, made connections in all directions in the capital, further expanding the family's local power. By the time the patriarch's younger brother became a capital official of the remonstrance faction, even the Prefect of Guide had to treat him with courtesy, let alone anyone else. Two guard commanders of Suiyang Guard died under mysterious circumstances, and that commander who had forcibly seized the Shang family's land also died in unclear circumstances.

Year after year, this was how the Shang family built its current scale. The Shang family had an ancestral precept: no brother in the household could rest in peaceful comfort. One was to study martial arts and prepare to inherit the hereditary guard post, while the other was to pursue civil scholarship and examination degrees to provide protection for the family. With this combination of civil and martial strength — official protection from above, and men and land on the ground — the family naturally swelled ever larger.

Now the Shang Family Patriarch had already reached the generation of great-grandfather. Among his grandsons, two had become Juren. Among his sons and nephews, there were three Juren and one Jinshi. The actual administrative post in Suiyang Guard remained firmly in the Shang family's grasp. Two-thirds of the farmland in Yucheng County and one-third of the farmland in Xiayi County were under Shang family control. They were the foremost powerful clan in the region.

But the Shang family could not claim sole dominance in Guide Prefecture. Even within Suiyang Guard, they had to share the actual administrative posts with several other families. This was because in Guide Prefecture — or rather, throughout all of Henan — the local hegemons were mostly of this type: hereditary officers from the guard system whose sons and younger brothers pursued civil examination degrees, mutually supporting and shielding one another, growing the family enterprise ever larger.

This was also a peculiarity of the Henan region. Without local strength and official backing, one would easily be swallowed up and annexed by the princely estates. The princely estates of the Great Ming were an even more ferocious and colossal breed of monster. Any family not a local hegemon like the Shang family would have long since been devoured, not even scraps remaining. Guide Prefecture was thus ruled by just over twenty such hegemonic families, large and small.

"The officials peel off one layer, and they peel off another. If you count the clerks and runners, that's yet another layer. In some parts of Henan, you also have to count the princely estates — that makes a fourth layer. Peeled away layer by layer like this, the common people are left with nothing at all. They either toil like beasts of burden or flee as refugees. Under such conditions, no real fighting strength can be mobilized, and they have no way to resist us." Zhang Hubin had also come to Zhao Jin's side, and Zhao Jin explained in detail.

"In the territories under Xuzhou's control, there is only our single layer. We dig down deep, go in deep, and do everything possible to avoid extra layers in between. On top of that, we vigorously promote industry and commerce — opening up new sources of wealth beyond just scraping the earth, and these sources of wealth far exceed what farmland can yield. This is where our Zhao Character Camp's strength lies. From the same hundred peasant households, we can mobilize dozens of able-bodied men at any time. They cannot. They cannot afford to miss the farming season, or they lose everything."

The chaos just now had left everyone covered in bloodstains and dust, but the Shang Family Patriarch was somehow barely soiled. The two women he brought with him were also very clean — one could even tell they had dressed up specially before coming. They were actually a pair of strikingly beautiful twin sisters, both appearing to be sixteen or seventeen years old, a truly eye-catching sight.

"Young ladies of a distinguished family, raised with care from childhood, never wanting for food or clothing, and knowing how to adorn themselves — naturally they look quite fine. Hubin, do you remember those villages we passed through? What were the girls there like?" Zhao Jin remarked with a sigh, then asked Zhang Hubin.

"Sallow and emaciated, you couldn't tell male from female. Only the tenant families on our own farmsteads look halfway presentable." Zhang Hubin answered in a proper and dutiful manner.

Zhao Jin and Zhang Hubin did not lower their voices during this exchange. The Shang Family Patriarch, his face full of terror, showed a flicker of relief upon hearing it. The twin sisters, however, were extremely frightened, yet they kept stealing glances at Zhao Jin. The three who had come did share one common trait — they were all quite astonished by Zhao Jin's age.

"If you have something to say, then say it," Zhao Jin said to the Shang Family Patriarch.

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