Chapter 1217: The Monkeys Scatter

"These seagoing ships always made people uneasy before. Either there were too many of the Cai family, or too many of the Yu family. Though both families were serving loyally, letting any one group dominate carries risk. If these Li family men can be put to use, assigning each ship becomes much simpler — they'll check and balance each other, and we'll have far fewer worries." Cheng Dahu looked rough and bold on the outside, but serving as both patrolman and internal guard, his mind was very meticulous.

Geng Mancang had dark circles under his eyes. He was now the busiest man in the Zhao Battalion trade office, rushing between Yutou Town and Qingjiangpu, even traveling as far as Jining — all to buy and stockpile grain, his old trade. His former colleagues all treated him with the utmost deference; his high spirits went without saying, but the toil was inescapable. With this major fleet turnover, taking in the ship crews was the top priority, so he had come along as well.

"Over in Qingjiangpu I heard that the ships off Guangdong and Fujian never go further north than Zhejiang. They all run the Southern Ocean and the Wa country routes — one shipload of cargo out, one shipload of silver back. For the stretch from Zhejiang to Liaodong, aside from each province's own seagoing vessels, it's the sand-ship merchant fleets from Songjiang Prefecture. What I'm getting at is, if that Zheng family fleet can't earn much silver at this port, they'll be willing to tear off all pretense and raid and harass us. Even if they can't fight their way in, just blockading us from outside would be more than we could bear. But if we let that Zheng fleet earn outrageous profits here, they won't recklessly resort to arms — they are businessmen, after all."

Geng Mancang's analysis had everyone nodding. When he finished, Geng Mancang pulled out a list and said with a smile, "This is a cargo manifest I've worked out where both the port and the fleet can make money. These goods are also urgently needed in Xuzhou. Everyone take a look. If you think it's suitable, we'll jointly submit it to Qingjiangpu and Xuzhou."

The manifest listed copper ingots, saltpeter, furs, various specialty goods from Fujian, Guangdong, and the Southern Ocean, and Western trade goods. What the Zhao Battalion would sell in return ranged from salt goods to cannon — a complete inventory — and they could supply Jiangnan silk in bulk, which had always brought outrageous profits in Wa and the Southern Ocean. The Fujian and Guangdong sea lords could not source goods nearly as conveniently as Qingjiangpu. Shi Manqiang, now roughly literate, skimmed through it and offered, "Why not add foreign ships? I can see our eldest brother is extremely fond of those big Western vessels. Add that."

Geng Mancang nodded with a smile and took up his brush to add a few items to the manifest. Cheng Dahu cleared his throat and spoke: "Master Jin also sent word for the Second Brigade and the Huaian North District. It hasn't been formalized in writing yet, but this is roughly how it will be done."

Everyone immediately focused their full attention. Cheng Dahu and Geng Mancang had both rushed over from Pi Prefecture, which was close to the Xuzhou center, so it was no surprise they carried news from there. Cheng Dahu deliberately lowered his voice and said, "With the situation quiet this time, Master Jin will proclaim himself General and establish a General's Residence. Our Zhao Battalion will be renamed the Zhao Army. Household retainers will become soldiers, local militia will become army troops, and the firearms brigade will become a regiment. If there are no major battles after the second month this year, the current system will remain in place outside the various cities — agricultural settlement districts and estate tracts. Inside the cities, the Cloud Mountain Firm and the patrol squads will gradually take control."

Everyone listened with rapt attention. Cheng Dahu continued, "After this, outside of Shandong's Yanzhou Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture, the Southern Metropolitan Region's Xuzhou, Huaian Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture, and Fengyang Prefecture outside the Central Capital, and Henan's Guide Prefecture — no garrison troops may be stationed in these areas, and any remnant government forces may not move freely. All taxes, corvée, and levies in these places will be handled by the Agriculture and Trade Offices..."

As they listened to Cheng Dahu's account, delight spread across everyone's faces. This was tantamount to formally establishing a system. At a moment like this, the future felt more boundless than ever. Cheng Dahu added, "Master Jin also gave special instructions: at a time like this, the sea is more important to us than ever. So Fourth Master has done well here. Our Second Brigade and Huaian North District have rendered great service."

At these words, everyone beamed with joy — this was heavy praise for their side. Shi Manqiang, however, paid no mind to that and only pressed, "Isn't Wei Zhongxian in Hejian Prefecture assembling troops from the whole realm, preparing for a decisive battle with us? What's the situation now? Will the Second Brigade be needed there again?"

This topic drew equal concern from everyone. Cheng Dahu smiled and said, "This is internal guard intelligence. Right now, the border troops from Shanxi and Shaanxi are all holding fast, and the Xuanfu border troops have already withdrawn. That Wei Zhongxian's grand ritual is about to fall apart!"

Hejian Prefecture's seat, Hejian City, had always been a strategic military location, guarding the southern gateway to the capital and protecting the flank of the Northern Metropolitan Region's canal. It housed two guard battalions — the Shenyang Central Garrison and the Datong Central Garrison. The reason they bore the names Shenyang and Datong was that both battalions had been redeployed here roughly a hundred years ago. They could not be counted on in a fight now, but on paper they still amounted to some ten thousand men.

Apart from the guard battalions, the local garrison numbered over five thousand, now concentrated in the villages and towns between Hejian City and Xian County. Around Hejian City itself, a full forty thousand troops had already massed. Besides the capital training corps and local forces, there was also the contingent of Commander Yang Zhaoji, who had been defeated in Daming and Henan, and the contingent of Shandong Commander Yang Guodong. Those who could be rallied and brought out were all elite troops and backbone officers — their fighting strength was still considerable.

Hejian Prefecture was not considered a good place in the Northern Metropolitan Region; it had more saline-alkaline wasteland than anywhere else. All its revenue and income came from the canal transport trade, which had already suffered severe disruptions over the past two years. This year, just as they had barely endured until early spring, it looked like another major battle was about to erupt. Hejian City and the entire canal transport corridor were seething with soldiers and horses. The common people were, of course, full of bitter complaints and ceaseless curses.

If war broke out, Hejian Prefecture stood to gain not a single benefit. Yet now the supply of provisions and fodder for these tens of thousands of troops, along with the corvée laborers, all fell on the Hejian Prefecture locality. How could the gentry and commoners of Hejian Prefecture endure this? Officials from Hejian Prefecture serving in the capital had all received letters from their hometown elders, urging them to petition for the troops' withdrawal. Hejian Prefecture bordered Shandong and was highly sensitive to any stirrings there. Those so-called Xuzhou rebels were nowhere to be seen in Jinan Prefecture or Dongchang Prefecture — the merchants there had already resumed normal business. Why should Hejian Prefecture be ravaged?

Yet everyone only dared to work behind the scenes; no one dared to say anything to Eunuch Wei's face. At present, the ones whose word carried weight in Hejian Prefecture were not the local officials of the prefecture, subprefectures, and counties, but Eunuch Wei and the Depot Guard men he had brought with him. The agents of the Eastern Depot and the Brocade Guard did not bother with reason — they arrested people outright, and killing people outright was commonplace too.

Inside Hejian City, everyone was even more on edge. From the Prefect of Hejian down to the officers of every rank in the capital training corps, and the commanders of the two defeated forces that had retreated from Shandong and Daming — every man was in a state of dread. Everyone knew that Wei Zhongxian, the Supervising Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, was in an extremely volatile mood; the slightest misstep could mean a beating or death.

In the command center where Wei Zhongxian now resided, there were two matters of utmost urgency: one was the progress of mobilizing the various government forces, and the other was the movements of the Xuzhou rebels. In truth, by this point, everyone was privately having their doubts. They all said there were rebels and traitors in Xuzhou, and the government troops had indeed suffered grievous losses, yet no local official had ever sent any urgent appeal for help. Could this involve powerful local magnates, which was why everything was being so covered up and glossed over?

If it were impoverished commoners or heretical cult monsters rebelling, then once the great army arrived, even if there were minor setbacks, they would certainly be exterminated in the end. To beat the government troops this badly, it had to be the private soldiers of local strongmen, and very likely there were countless ties to the local officials as well. Some even speculated whether some powerful court figure hostile to Wei Zhongxian had set up the situation in Xuzhou, which was why things had spiraled to this point.

One had to realize, tens of thousands of government troops had been captured or annihilated, and this had happened in the very heartland of the Great Ming. If these were truly rebels, the whole realm would surely be in turmoil, with beacon fires everywhere. Yet from the look of things, the situation seemed very stable. Shandong was normal, Henan was normal, even Xuzhou in the Southern Metropolitan Region was normal. It seemed as if only the government troops had suffered a catastrophic defeat.

Even if they had doubts, they could only bury these questions in their hearts. The current Army Superintendent, Minister of War Zhao Yan, was dead drunk every day and had actually taken two new concubines right here in Hejian Prefecture — completely lost in wine and lust, utterly indifferent to everything. Wei Zhongxian, for his part, was in a state of furious rage, ceaselessly issuing demands. Those with sharp ears had even noticed that some of the inner-court eunuchs around Wei Zhongxian had actually fled back to the capital. The wind was blowing in the wrong direction!

"What did you say? Little Song has already marched off back to the capital with his five thousand capital training troops? Where did he get such nerve, daring to move troops without an imperial decree or military order? That's a crime punishable by execution and the extermination of his entire clan! Go after him at once — arrest him on the spot!" In the study of Wei Zhongxian's field headquarters, Wei Zhongxian raged in thunderous fury. Those kneeling below did not dare raise their heads.

Seeing the men kneeling motionless, Wei Zhongxian grew even more violent. He seized the teacup at his hand and hurled it down hard. A eunuch kneeling at the front failed to dodge in time and was struck square on the head. The teacup shattered, tea splashing over his head. The eunuch bowed his head even lower but did not dare rise. This outburst did startle the several Brocade Guard agents behind the eunuch into looking up. Trembling with fear, they reported, "Eunuch Wei, we only have a little over two hundred men in total. Chasing after them likely won't do any good. We'd need to mobilize more troops to have any chance!"

The agent's voice was trembling, but Wei Zhongxian did not continue his rampage. He merely took several deep, ragged breaths, because he knew the agent was speaking the plain truth. To arrest civil officials or ennobled nobles, a single decree and a few Depot Guard men sent to their doors would suffice. But when it came to taking action against military officers — never mind the usual talk of "civil exalted, military base," and how even grand commanders and vice generals had to kneel and kowtow before Wei Zhongxian — at a time like this, a few hundred Depot Guard men entering a military camp would be utterly outmatched. One word from the commanding officer over there, and they would simply be hacked to pieces.

Wei Zhongxian drew several deep breaths, then suddenly waved his hand and bellowed, "All of you, get out of my sight! Right now, assign men to watch every military officer above the rank of brigade commander. Whoever makes a suspicious move, seize them first, and the rest won't dare act recklessly. Go!"

The men kneeling on the ground answered in trembling voices and, as if granted a great reprieve, scrambled to their feet and withdrew from the room. Wei Zhongxian sat brooding for a moment, then reached for the teacup only to grasp empty air. He could not help but roar again, "Where have the Shaanxi and Shanxi border troops reached? I want information! Has everyone in the capital been raised to be useless? Go find Minister Zhao — if he's still drunk, douse him with cold water to wake him up..."

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