Chapter 906: A Nest of Fire

In the various places in Shandong struck by the earthquake, a few locations stood apart from the rest. Shan County and Yutai, both near Xuzhou, received sufficient relief. This relief was not a simple handout of grain and silver, but rather the recruitment of laborers to dig irrigation ditches and build manors, with wages calculated and paid out accordingly. This gave most people in both counties work to do, sparing them from freezing or starving to death.

In particular, near the canal at Guting Town, docks were being rebuilt and warehouses renovated. Those in the know who went to look said it seemed a new distillery was about to be built. This was a double gain: Guting Town was already a point of influx for tribute grain and a small market hub for trade with canal barges, so building a distillery here offered excellent geographical advantage.

Because of the construction of these projects, which hired large numbers of local workers and farmers, post-disaster Yutai and Shan County did not wither into desolation; instead, they showed a few signs of burgeoning prosperity. Moreover, everyone from top to bottom in these two counties knew that this year's Liao tax no longer had to be paid, which lifted their spirits considerably.

Yet in this season of great disaster, with transportation cut off everywhere, how could anyone know what things were like outside? Besides, Shan County and Yutai had not been hit hard by the disaster in the first place. On top of that, rumors suddenly began to spread, saying these two counties were infested with violent thugs who treated disaster victims and refugees like cattle and horses, capturing and selling them, even eating human flesh and drinking blood. With such tales stirring things up, even those who caught a bit of real news were scared off. Naturally, these rumors all came from the mouths of the Burning Incense Sect followers.

After the great Shandong earthquake in the second month, Xuzhou did not take in many refugees from Shandong; instead, quite a few came over from Henan. For disaster victims to move about, they needed grain. In a catastrophe like this, leaving home on an empty stomach meant only one outcome: starving to death on the road.

The Liao tax, combined with harsh levies and miscellaneous taxes, had already scraped the people's grain stores nearly clean. After a winter of consumption, the start of the second month was precisely when supplies were about to run out and meals could no longer be secured. Then the earthquake struck, burying whatever meager reserves remained beneath the rubble—adding frost on top of snow. The roads along the way were also part of the quake-stricken disaster zone, making it extremely difficult to obtain supplies en route, to say nothing of the wolf-like, tiger-fierce, utterly inhuman mounted bandits roaming the paths.

The only chance of survival lay locally: either scavenging the leftover stores of the dead, plundering fellow villagers, or banding together to attack government offices and local wealthy households to see if anything could be seized. Horrific tragedies, like parents exchanging and eating their own children, had already begun to appear…

Over in Henan, meanwhile, it was the standard Liao tax bearing down on them. Unable to pay the imperial grain levy, people could only sell their land. The princely and commandery princely estates seized the opportunity to swallow it all up. Those who could be kept on as tenant farmers or serfs were considered to have burned incense in a previous life; those who could not be kept had no choice but to come to Xuzhou to seek a way to survive.

During the second month, Cloud Mountain Trading was buying up land on a massive scale in Henan, Shandong, and the prefectures of Fengyang and Huai'an in South Zhili. Henan was relatively fine, but in Shandong, Fengyang, and Huai'an, land prices were dirt cheap. Unless you were some noble or scholar-gentry, a single mu of land was not property but a death warrant. Without the status and power to avoid taxes, the government clerks and runners would squeeze countless sums of money out of that one mu of land. Who could bear such a burden? Everyone knew this scheme, so who dared buy? The price was naturally dirt cheap. Many commoners even abandoned their ancestral fields and went out begging or fleeing famine, not even wanting to sell anymore.

Relying on these cheap lands, the Zhao Camp established one manor after another. These farming estates were all settled with refugees coming from various places. Neither in official circles nor among the common folk was anyone so blind as to dare levy taxes or corvée labor on the Zhao family's manors. For the common people, farmland was a rope tightening ever more around their necks; for Zhao Jin, it was fertile, productive land that generated growth.

By the latter half of the second month, the chaos in Shandong had intensified. The local authorities and powerful gentry households were on the verge of losing control. The disaster victims were gathering in ever larger, more violent mobs, and the fighting against government troops and local militias was growing increasingly brutal, with the victims showing no regard at all for their own lives.

The reason was simple: aside from the despair caused by famine and hunger, the imperial court issued an edict on the fourteenth day of the second month, stating that North Zhili, having been burdened for years on end, was to be exempted from additional levies; the relevant authorities were to organize local militias; and Liaodong refugees coming into the interior should be issued grain relief and made to reclaim wasteland.

North Zhili, which had suffered no disaster, was exempted from all additional levies and the Liao tax. Yet Shandong, which had been struck by a great catastrophe and had always borne a crushing burden, could not even get its taxes reduced. If the court did not care whether we lived or died, then why should we care about ourselves? Let it all burn!

"This approach cannot exactly be called wrong. North Zhili guards the capital. If the prefectures of North Zhili become unstable, disaster will naturally befall the capital as well. Pacifying the hearts of the people in North Zhili is greatly beneficial to the capital. Moreover, with the complete collapse of the Liao garrison, large numbers of its people are flooding into the passes, and their first choice is to settle in North Zhili. All sorts of trouble are bound to arise; if the Liao tax were used to hound them further, they would certainly erupt in a major uprising. As for Shandong—it's far away, separated by heaven and earth. Who would care?"

When he spoke these words, Zhao Jin was inside the Zhao Camp's weapons workshop. The newly arrived gambler, Old Mac, might not have possessed particularly high skill, but he had spurred Louis, his servant, and the blacksmiths to work even harder.

The reason Zhao Jin had been invited to the workshop this time was that progress had been made in manufacturing cannons, and they wanted to report this achievement to him.

To everyone within the Zhao Camp system, the Zhao Jin they knew was calm at all times, advancing steadily at his own pace, unmoved by external things. There was, however, one exception: firearms. Anything related to firelocks or cannons always piqued Zhao Jin's interest.

Many people thought they had found a ladder to advancement and sent in all sorts of bizarre and inexplicable designs. In these times, even literati and scholars liked to discuss military matters and firearms, so there was no shortage of texts and diagrams. Many things were clearly nonsense at a glance—for example, a weapon that could fire lead and iron pellets, spew flames, had an iron umbrella shield in front, and could finally be swung around as an iron staff. But how such a heavy contraption was to be carried or loaded—no one ever mentioned that.

There was also a design resembling a pipa lute, which was said to fire in rapid succession simply by plucking. It was touted as magical, but in truth it was laughable. Such a structure was far too delicate; the moment the first shot was fired, the gunpowder ignition would destroy all the mechanisms, making a second shot utterly impossible.

These two were actually among the more plausible ones. The rest were even more bizarre and outlandish. In other matters, Zhao Jin would never have paid such things any attention, yet for these he personally reviewed them and even called in craftsmen to discuss them.

Not everyone was a fraud. One man received a reward from Zhao Jin: a full five hundred taels of silver, a fortune large enough for a family to live a good life for an entire generation.

The recipient of this windfall was a blacksmith from the Xu family. His method was quite simple: he built an iron frame, fixed multiple firelocks onto the frame, loaded them with ammunition beforehand, and then ignited them all at once when firing. This device could fire multiple lead balls simultaneously, and its lethality was certainly not small.

Such an iron frame was obviously impossible for a man to move by hand. The blacksmith who designed it had thought things through thoroughly: he modified and reinforced a cart, placed the iron frame on top of it, and used oxen or horses to pull it, making it much more convenient.

Moreover, since a cart could carry heavier loads, the iron frame holding the multiple firelocks could even have extra tiers added, making its firepower even greater when discharged.

In everyone else's eyes, such a firearm was nothing special, and this sort of modification was utterly commonplace—nothing more than bundling a dozen or a few dozen firelocks together, utterly childish. Showing such an invention to Lord Jin, even if Lord Jin didn't laugh at you, you'd still feel embarrassed yourself. When this blacksmith asked a steward to submit it, the steward even mocked him with a couple of remarks, saying, "We are servants and slaves of the Young Miss's household. Don't bring shame upon our own people."

No one expected that after this contraption was submitted, Lord Jin would actually put it to use, and even directly reward it with silver. That wasn't all; he was also summoned for a face-to-face discussion. He truly gained both face and substance.

This blacksmith was an orphan the Xu family had taken in and raised from childhood. He took the Xu surname and was a first-rank household-born servant of the Xu family. With such a meritorious achievement, he was directly allowed to revert to his original surname, Yu, and was named Yu Shan.

Everyone was stunned by rewards like this, but what followed left them utterly flabbergasted: Lord Jin actually made this Yu Shan the deputy head of the workshop. What was this? In one leap, he had gone from a household-born servant to a man above others.

Those who knew of this matter all assumed Zhao Jin was "buying horse bones with a thousand gold pieces" to attract talent. But when the things Yu Shan designed next began to be manufactured, everyone finally understood that Zhao Jin truly valued the worth of this item.

Several types were ultimately produced. One was what this blacksmith had designed: there were single-tiered versions and multi-tiered versions. The single-tiered ones could be moved by manpower alone, while the multi-tiered ones required oxen or horses. These were all assembled from multiple firelocks. There was also another single-tiered type, which fixed larger-caliber firearms in place, six to eight guns per tier, firing iron balls weighing around four taels. This thing was already akin to a small cannon.

The blacksmith Yu Shan was also assigned to work with the several foreigners on manufacturing cannons. His improvements and reinforcement of the cart this time proved highly meaningful for the construction of cannon carriages.

As for the blacksmith Yu Shan joining the research and development, the foreigner Louis didn't feel much about it. But regarding that reward given to Yu Shan, both he and that Old Mac beat their chests and stamped their feet in regret.

"Honorable sir, we could have built this organ gun too! If you had mentioned it earlier, that reward money should have been ours!"

"Him building it is not the same as you building it," Zhao Jin replied very curtly.

In the contemporary West, similar things did indeed exist—bundling multiple firelocks together and firing them simultaneously to create a momentary dense volley of fire. But its application was not widespread, first because it was cumbersome, and second because its range was limited. Such an "organ gun" was not much stronger than an equal number of soldiers firing firelocks, and was inferior to a cannon.

The thing the blacksmith Yu Shan had created actually had a counterpart in the Great Ming, but that one used a wooden box grid to launch rockets, rather than assembling firelocks to fire. That was called a "Nest of Bees." Everyone simply took to calling this one a "Nest of Fire," which was quite apt.

However, the breakthrough in cannon manufacturing this time also came about because of the cart Yu Shan had improved and reinforced. After several people put their heads together, they directly adopted the cart's structure and used it as the gun carriage for the cannon.

The Zhao Camp's firearms workshop was located inside a farming estate. This place had originally been a property of Cloud Mountain Temple, and it was very far from the He Family Village.

Thanks to the old friend "Wu Liulang" for the tip. At the start of the month, please support us with subscriptions, monthly tickets, and tips. Thank you, everyone.