Chapter 147: The Foshan Trip, Part Thirteen

As Saoye withdrew, Li Luoyou began to calculate. He had a thousand catties of red ginseng and several hundred catties of deer antler, recently shipped from Liaodong, stored safely in Dengzhou. This was worth over ten thousand taels of silver. The Yang Run Kai Tang had the means to purchase it all, but flooding the Foshan market with so much red ginseng at once would likely attract unwanted attention.

Suddenly, he remembered something. He pulled a key from his waist and unlocked a cabinet, from which he took out an “account book.” The blue cloth cover bore only the words “Foshan Town” and, below it, the reign year: “Revised in the first year of Chongzhen.”

This was a “social connections” ledger, detailing all the public and private figures in Foshan who required his attention. It included family members, addresses, personal preferences, and other intimate details. For particularly important individuals, even the death anniversaries of their deceased elders were clearly recorded, along with a meticulous record of every gift ever given. He turned to the entry for “Lin Ming.” Lin Ming’s entire family was listed, with each member’s birthday noted below. Mrs. Lin’s birthday was in three days.

The local Jinyiwei Baihu was easy to deal with, and they had a comfortable working relationship. As long as he feigned ignorance, no one in Foshan would dare make trouble for him.

“Perfect timing,” Li Luoyou nodded to himself and closed the book.

His relationship with Lin Ming was not particularly close. Aside from the customary gifts for the three major festivals, giving a lavish present out of the blue would be too conspicuous. Mrs. Lin’s birthday, however, was an excellent opportunity for an extra gesture of goodwill.

The gift had to be both valuable and pleasing to Mrs. Lin; otherwise, he could just send a few hundred taels of silver. But silver, while nice, held little meaning for her. A woman who felt unappreciated could be a powerful influence in the bedroom, and he had heard that this Mrs. Lin was especially doted on, making her potential for “pillow talk” even more potent. Thus, choosing the right gift was a delicate matter.

He opened a hidden lock on a large cabinet in his study. Inside were layers of boxes of all kinds—brocade, mother-of-pearl, carved red lacquer—filled with precious gifts for important people.

The most coveted item for women at the moment was an oval “Australian” mirror from the Zizhenzhai in Guangzhou.

He had visited the Zizhenzhai once and had been stunned by the enormous full-length glass mirror at the entrance. Li Luoyou had seen glass mirrors in Macao before, but one so large and flawless was a marvel even to the Portuguese there, who claimed that manufacturing such a large piece of glass was impossible.

It wasn’t just the mirrors. The Zizhenzhai sold many novel items, things never before seen locally. And it wasn’t just that they were new to the area; even Li Luoyou, a merchant who frequented Macao and was well-acquainted with the red-haired foreigners, had never seen many of them.

For the convenience of gift-giving, Li Luoyou had purchased many novelties from the Zizhenzhai and stored them in various locations for easy access.

He selected an oval mirror from the Zizhenzhai, a box of twelve glass bottles of distilled floral perfume, a box of silver-cased lipsticks, and finally, a box of pearls. These were not from the Zizhenzhai but were genuine “Eastern pearls.” The pearls from Liaodong were famous for being large and round, far superior to the nearly depleted “Hepu pearls” of Guangdong. They were another of his regular trade goods.

The gift for the Baihu was much simpler: a two-hundred-tael sight draft from the Delong Bank. These drafts were incredibly convenient, at least for bribery, as one no longer had to openly carry chests of silver.

Li Luoyou knew this was not Delong’s invention. “Flying money” had existed since the Tang dynasty, and he had seen Brahmin and Portuguese merchants in Macao use bills of exchange. This was essentially the same thing. He had just never thought of introducing such a system to the Ming dynasty. He was surprised that Delong had actually done it and made it work in this region. Of course, this was largely due to the strong support of Guo Yi, the manager of the Zizhenzhai, and the Gao family of Guangzhou. He suspected that these two were the real backers of the so-called Delong.

After dinner, Li Luoyou invited the two foreigners to his study for a private meeting.

“Come, let’s have a small drink and talk,” he said, taking three glasses and a black bottle from a cabinet. It was wine, transported all the way from Europe. Li Luoyou didn’t particularly care for its sour, astringent taste, nor did he enjoy drinking without snacks, but he kept it on hand to entertain his foreign guests.

“Thank you. You always have something surprisingly good here,” Quark said with a grin. The English merchant’s fortunes were often in flux, and when he was down on his luck, he frequently ate at Li Luoyou’s residence in Macao.

“Thank you.” Johann Adam Schall von Bell’s eyes lit up at the sight of the wine. He had been in Macao for over three years and spoke Mandarin well, and he was also acquainted with Li Luoyou. However, he had once been a figure to be avoided at the Jesuit mission in Macao. The man always reeked of a beastly odor, which even his colleagues couldn’t stand. It was said that the German was extremely reluctant to bathe and drank without restraint, causing the mission’s leader a great deal of trouble.

However, under the careful guidance of the Italians, the boorish German priest had become much more civilized, at least learning to bathe and change his clothes regularly. He had once had a large beard, but for the sake of his missionary work, he had shaved it clean, making him look much younger.

“Li, do you have any ‘Great Tang Princess’ here?”

“No, that’s an export item from the Zichengji. I don’t have any here,” Li Luoyou said with a small laugh. He couldn’t stand the bitter taste of rhubarb in the “Great Tang Princess.”

“Come, a toast.”

The three men drank their wine. Li Luoyou refilled their glasses and then got down to business.

He had brought the two foreigners to Foshan for two reasons. First, to see if they could establish a mission here. Li Luoyou was a Catholic; his father had been baptized while doing business in Macao. Li Luoyou had lived with his father in Macao until he came of age, studying with the priests in the church. He had little interest in theology, but he was fascinated by European natural science and mathematics. He had a good grasp of algebra, plane geometry, and solid geometry, making him one of the few people in this era to have mastered Western mathematics.

As one of the few Catholics in the Ming dynasty, Li Luoyou felt it was his duty to spread the gospel. He frequently traveled between Macao and Guangzhou, escorting missionaries, transporting religious books, and even converting some of his own servants. Of course, his activities were not entirely driven by religious fervor; the Jesuit order also played a crucial role in his business.

Second, he was preparing to open a foundry in Foshan to manufacture Western-style cannons and firearms. After the great victory at Ningyuan, the court’s interest in Western firearms had surged. In the first month of that year, the court had accepted Xu Guangqi’s proposal and ordered the governor of Guangdong, Li Fengjie, and the viceroy of Liangguang, Wang Zunde, to purchase Western cannons through Portuguese merchants. The Portuguese had immediately offered ten cannons and a number of matchlocks, escorted by Portuguese officers and a missionary leading several gunners. This was the second large-scale purchase and transport of Western firearms to the capital since the time of Zhang Tao and Sun Xueshi in the Tianqi era.

Li Luoyou had read Xu Guangqi’s memorial in the official gazette. He did not know Xu Guangqi personally, but as a fellow Catholic, he shared a keen interest in Western military science and technology. He wholeheartedly supported Xu Guangqi’s proposal to imitate Western cannons and “train elite soldiers with superior weapons.” Having done business in Liaodong for many years and witnessed the retreat from Guangning firsthand, Li Luoyou knew exactly what state the “border army,” the supposed Great Wall of the dynasty, was in. These weak, poorly trained, and demoralized troops were no match for the Later Jin soldiers.

The court’s increased demand for Western firearms was a huge business opportunity for Li Luoyou. But beyond the commercial prospects, he also harbored a sense of loyalty and patriotism, hoping to modernize the court’s arsenal and enhance its military strength. Many officials now saw firearms as a stepping stone to career advancement, and all sorts of articles, memorials, and proposals on gunpowder formulas, firearms, and gunnery were flying around. To Li Luoyou, who knew little about firearms but had some knowledge of Western technology, the number of errors in these documents was distressing. This would be disastrous for the country. He decided that it was better for him to take charge than to let ignorant people use firearms as a means to get promoted.

Li Luoyou estimated that the court would not purchase many cannons from Macao and would soon turn to imitation. He knew that the production capacity of the Portuguese foundries in Macao was limited, and they severely lacked skilled craftsmen. He also knew that the Macao Municipal Council had passed a resolution to lure Chinese foundry workers to Macao to cast iron cannons. The thirty so-called “red barbarian” cannons purchased during the Tianqi era were actually naval guns salvaged from a grounded English East India Company ship. The court might not know this, but Li Luoyou did.

From a cost perspective, domestic production was cheaper, and the court would feel that entrusting such “vital military equipment” to its own subjects was more reliable than giving it to the high-nosed, deep-eyed foreigners.

There were many workshops in Foshan casting cannons for the court, but none of them understood Western cannon technology. Li Luoyou didn’t either, but he had the support of the Jesuits and could recruit specialized craftsmen from Macao or even Goa. Furthermore, he had Quark, the Englishman, and could use him to tap into the East India Company’s channels if necessary.

“I certainly support the proposal to open a foundry in Foshan,” said Schall von Bell. The German, dressed in Ming attire with a turban, continued, “The Father-General has instructed me that firearms are of the utmost importance to the Ming. As long as we satisfy the needs of the emperor and the officials in this regard, our mission to spread the gospel will proceed much more smoothly.”

“The Father is right,” Li Luoyou said. “That is how Father Longobardi and Father Terrenz entered the capital.”