Chapter 169: Officials and Gentry

To compensate for the lack of soldiers and cannons, Li Xijue suggested at the meeting that besides ordering Foshan and other places to “work day and night,” other nearby blacksmith shops could also be put to work casting cannons. In addition, they could borrow cannons from the Portuguese. As for troops, they could recruit Chaozhou braves, known for their fierceness and fighting spirit. He estimated that they could recruit at least ten thousand men in half a month.

But Li Fengjie was not interested in his proposal. Although hiring braves was slightly cheaper than recruiting regular soldiers, hiring ten thousand men at once was still a considerable expense. Moreover, hiring braves from Chaozhou, waiting for them to be fully recruited and then marching them to Guangzhou, would inevitably incur a large travel expense. Li Fengjie was not willing to pay this sum—Wang Zunde’s campaign against Lingao had already spent a lot of money from the provincial treasury.

Li Fengjie was not opposed to hiring braves—on the contrary, he was very enthusiastic about it. Hiring braves was a very profitable business. Braves were temporary employees and were disbanded after their service. Therefore, there were many loopholes in how many braves were actually in the camp, and how much salary and provisions each man actually received. Many people made a fortune from a single hiring of braves.

He insisted on hiring braves locally, specifically the Tanka boat people along the Pearl River. They were all water-dwellers, living off the water, either as boatmen or fishermen—very familiar with the Pearl River water system. Li Fengjie believed that hiring them as water braves had the advantage of “right time, right place.”

His other high-sounding reason was: “When the defense against the Kun is tight, I fear they will be enticed by them to become collaborators, or to transport goods for profit, and will flock to them. It is better to recruit and use them. For every water brave the government has, there is one less bandit on the sea.”

“This is a plan to pull the rug out from under them!” Li Fengjie said proudly. “Let the treacherous people and the Kun thieves kill each other. Use the treacherous to control the treacherous, fight poison with poison.”

Li Fengjie’s words were a mix of selfish and public motives, not entirely for personal gain. A few days ago, a dispatch had reported that the Kun thieves were “recruiting treacherous people from the water” on the islands outside the Pearl River Estuary. The Tanka, who had no fixed abode, were skilled in the water, and were very familiar with the Pearl River water system, became a major concern for him.

The government had never had an accurate count of the Tanka and boat people who lived on their boats on the Pearl River. There were probably tens of thousands of them. If these people were enticed by the Kun thieves to “act as collaborators,” the consequences would be very serious.

Li Xijue could not refute his reasoning. The hat of “saving expenses” was the most effective reason in any dynasty. But he still muttered, “The Kun thieves are extremely strong in battle. A motley crew can hardly be a match for them.”

He Chengzong then came out and questioned: were the Chaozhou braves, recruited on a temporary basis, not a motley crew?

Li Xijue was speechless. Not to mention such temporarily hired braves, even the regular troops of the government army were useless against the Kun thieves. Thinking of this, he sighed inwardly and said no more.

Li Fengjie decided to first hire five thousand braves, and then another five thousand depending on the situation. This way, there would be ten thousand water braves available at any time. Water braves were skilled in boating and swimming. They might not be good at naval battles with the Kun thieves, but they could be used for harassment such as arson and sinking ships. Anyway, water braves were temporary workers without official establishment, so the cost was very low, and a few more casualties would not cause a major financial burden on the Guangdong provincial treasury.

According to the current market rate, each water brave would receive two taels of silver per month for salary and provisions, plus a one-time settlement allowance of two taels. Before a battle, there would be an additional reward.

This sum of money, of course, would not be paid from the Guangdong provincial treasury. According to the government’s traditional thinking, it was time for the people to “contribute money if they have money, and contribute labor if they have labor.” The poor would serve as water braves, and the cost of their salaries would fall on the powerless but wealthy—specifically, the merchants.

According to the advisors’ proposal, the expenses for hiring the braves, including three months’ salary, provisions, settlement fees, and various public expenses and miscellaneous items, would amount to one hundred and twenty thousand taels of silver, to be shared by the three major merchant groups in Guangzhou: the foreign merchants, the salt merchants, and the Chaozhou merchants. The cost of casting cannons would be “donated” by the smelter merchants of Foshan, for a total of ten thousand taels.

As for the boats needed by the water braves and the warships urgently needed by the navy, Li Fengjie, following the same line of thinking, ordered the seizure of boats on the Pearl River for use.

In this way, the various policies for the defense of Guangzhou were implemented according to the principle of “spending less and doing more.” No one objected, and each went to handle their respective tasks.

After everyone had left, Li Fengjie asked He Chengzong to stay behind and specifically handle the matter of “soliciting donations.”

The targets of the solicitation, of course, were not the “three merchants”—since they were already contributing a large sum to hire the braves, things had to be done in moderation. The new targets were other industries and the wealthy landlords near Guangzhou. According to Li Fengjie, they also had to contribute something. Protecting Guangzhou was protecting everyone’s lives and property. Otherwise, if the Kun thieves came, everyone would be destroyed, and nothing would be left.

“Your Excellency!” He Chengzong said, puzzled. “Although there is not much money in the provincial treasury, the cost of hiring braves and casting cannons is already being raised by the various merchants. Is it necessary to solicit more donations…” The implication was, don’t be too greedy, master.

“Old sir, this sum of money is for the last resort,” Li Fengjie said softly. “What we are doing now is preparing for war. But what if we are defeated…”

The words were spoken softly, but the meaning was clear. He Chengzong suddenly understood. If they were defeated, the Kun thieves would be at the gates of Guangzhou. To make them retreat quickly, they would have to negotiate—and how could they negotiate without a large sum of silver?

He Chengzong bowed. “I understand.”

Li Fengjie nodded slightly. “Go and handle it. The details of this matter are not for outsiders.”

“Yes, yes.”

A single-masted sailboat, with its patched sail, slowly sailed into a river bay. On the bow stood a middle-aged man who looked like a scholar-gentry. Although he tried to appear calm, anxiety occasionally flickered in his eyes.

The river bay was full of reeds, but along the banks grew many orange trees, laden with green oranges. Between the orange trees were dense bamboo fences, as tall as a man, with sharpened tips.

The boat continued inward, turning into a narrow channel. Amidst the lush green orange groves, a tall watchtower emerged from the treetops. The watchtower was built of brick, three stories high, with a peculiar decoration on top—a suspended balcony, something not found in traditional Chinese architecture.

On the balcony were several militia members armed with wooden spears and horns, and a bronze gong was also hung there.

The middle-aged man did not look at this rare sight, but instead paid attention to the topography of the riverbanks. The banks here were covered with orange trees. When the boat reached the end of the channel, a stone bridge spanned the two banks. Under the bridge was a wooden sluice gate, now open, but a thick iron chain hung across the river, blocking the passage of boats.

The bridge was made of stone and was very sturdy. On the bridge was a gatehouse, originally open on all four sides, but now the side facing the river was blocked with bricks, stones, and wooden planks, with small observation and firing ports left open.

The sailboat lowered its sail, and several boatmen worked together to lower the mast, preparing to pass under the bridge.

Several militia members were on guard at the bridgehead, either standing or squatting. Seeing the sailboat arrive, someone stood up, patting the dust and grass from his clothes.

When they saw the two white gauze lanterns hanging on the bow, one with the Song-style characters “Juren of the Guangdong Provincial Examination in the Jiwei Year of the Wanli Era” and the other with “Luo Residence,” everyone immediately stood up straight respectfully. This was the return of the local Master Luo.

A militia leader looked over, about to ask a question. Seeing Master Luo himself standing on the bow, he quickly shouted to the people on the other side to loosen the ropes and lower the iron chain to let the boat pass.

With a few poles from the boatmen, the boat quietly passed under the bridge and entered a stone-revetted pond. Along the banks were layers of houses and streets, with only the north side still being a dense orange grove, with bamboo fences faintly visible. A river flowed through the streets into the pond, and at the river mouth was a rice-husking workshop, making a rumbling sound.

This was Sanliangshi, an ordinary market town in Dongguan County, in the Pearl River Delta. It had over six hundred households, most of whom grew rice. But like most villages and towns in the Pearl River Delta, it had been affected by the tide of the new commodity economy. Besides growing rice, Sanliangshi also used more and more land to grow indigo and tobacco. The large orange groves surrounding the town also brought considerable income to the villagers. During the harvest season, the boats going to the county seat and the market were full of agricultural products every day, bringing back rice, salt, and various daily necessities.

Although the waters had been restless recently, this place was not far from the provincial capital, and pirates rarely ventured so far into the Pearl River to plunder. There were only some small bands of water bandits. The people of Sanliangshi, organized by the local gentry, had set up a militia, cast cannons, and built bamboo fences. Although they had encountered several intrusions by water bandits, there had been no damage.

The pond was filled with boats of all sizes. Like most villages and towns, there were almost no land routes here. People and goods mostly relied on water transport. Surrounded by water, with river branches, harbors, and paddy fields everywhere, it was like a small island. The houses in the market town were irregularly adjacent, and the streets were somewhat winding. There were three east-west streets and four north-south streets, with many small alleys connecting them. To the south of the street was a threshing ground, which also served as a market. Next to the threshing ground was a large pond, which was like the harbor of Sanliangshi.

On the street were two rice shops, three mat shops, a pawnshop, a fish market, a distillery, and a brokerage house. There were also large and small taverns, restaurants, small inns, teahouses, butcher shops, tofu shops, pharmacies, grocery stores, blacksmith shops, as well as silk and satin shops, tailor shops, and dyeing workshops. By the threshing ground were a timber shop and a boat repair workshop…

There were storytellers, singers, opera performers, and acrobats. Although there were no brothels, there were a dozen or so “private houses”… On market days, the cries of vendors, the sound of singing, and the noise of arguments were like a large beehive, converging into a buzzing din.