Chapter 172: Sanliangshi's Preparations

The stewards were all dumbfounded. Perhaps due to the Luo family’s thuggish origins, even after becoming gentry, the head of the family often acted ruthlessly. Luo Tianqiu was no different from his ancestors. When competing for land in the past, he had secretly ordered people to beat his opponents to death on more than one occasion. As for setting up a private court and torturing and detaining a few peasants, it was nothing. For dozens of li around, everyone knew that the Luo family’s Interrogation Office was a “Hall of Yama” and a “second yamen.”

“Master! This… isn’t this letting them off too easily!” the steward of the west side courtyard, Fan Jin, stammered. “This… won’t this damage our Luo family’s prestige…”

“I told you to release them, so release them. Are you the master, or am I?”

“I wouldn’t dare, I wouldn’t dare,” Luo Jin, seeing Luo Tianqiu’s expressionless face, knew that the calmer he spoke, the more likely he was to explode at any moment. He quickly scrambled to release the people.

In a short while, over a hundred people were released from the Interrogation Office—the number was indeed a bit large. Luo Tianqiu remained silent. He knew that many of them had been privately arrested by his subordinates. His capable stewards and attendants were all lawless in this area, some privately lending money, some organizing gambling, and some handling lawsuits… none were good people. Luo Tianqiu had always followed the principle of “I eat the meat, my subordinates drink the soup.” As long as they didn’t cause any deaths, he let them be. Sometimes, when matters went to the government, he would even personally send a note and a guarantee to protect his servants. In the past, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with this: what trouble could a few peasants cause? He could handle the officials, and the peasants had no money or power. They could sue for a hundred years and still not win. Even in times of famine and riots, he wasn’t afraid. He had over a hundred retainers alone, plus the militia of Sanliangshi. He could suppress small-scale riots himself. In a large-scale one, he could just close the town gates, and the peasants couldn’t break in at all. They would be wiped out by the government troops before long.

But now, these Aussies had come. He had heard many things about the Aussies in the county. He knew they were impervious to both hard and soft tactics, that they could take cities and fortresses with ease, and that they were particularly good at “inciting treacherous people.” The Luo family had made countless enemies, big and small, in the surrounding area over the years. If a few reckless, treacherous people were to incite the Aussies to attack Sanliangshi, it would be a problem.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but show a displeased expression. He even had a feeling that the foundation under his feet was shaking. But at this moment, he could neither vent his anger nor was it convenient to do so. After all, his family had been doing this for a hundred years. Like master, like servant. Luo Tianqiu was very clear on this point.

Thinking of this, he hated the Kun thieves even more. The Kun thieves were like a fierce hurricane, making the tall building his family had built over several generations tremble. And the people in this building were probably having second thoughts, ready to flee at the slightest tremor.

Seeing that most of the people had left, a few retainers were cleaning up. Suddenly, there was a noisy commotion of cursing and shouting from outside. Everyone was puzzled. They could hear the roar of the head retainer, Luo Baiwei, mixed in, along with a woman’s voice:

“…On what grounds are you arresting people…”

Just as Luo Tianqiu was about to send someone to inquire, the gate of the west side courtyard suddenly opened, and a large group of people rushed in. Twenty or so retainers and militia members, all armed with swords, spears, and clubs, looked on menacingly. Some were leading horses and carrying loads on poles. In the middle, four or five people were being pushed along, their clothes torn, some with blood on their faces.

The leader of this group was an old man in his fifties. He was not tall or strong, but he looked capable. Although he was being pushed and shoved, his stance was extremely steady. He was clearly a martial artist. His face was sallow, and he was panting, as if he were ill.

Supporting him was a young woman, quite pretty. She wore a tight-fitting short jacket and a narrow skirt, which was unusual for ordinary women. Her clothes had been torn in several places, revealing the close-fitting inner jacket underneath, which was densely stitched. Luo Tianqiu knew that women who traveled long distances often sewed their inner garments shut to prevent being raped on the road. The other men and women were also dressed in short, practical clothes and looked capable. Seeing that they had horses and many weapons, Luo Tianqiu understood—this was a group of traveling performers.

Luo Baiwei probably didn’t expect to see the master in the west side courtyard and was taken aback for a moment. He quickly knelt down to greet him.

“What’s the matter with these people?”

“To answer you, Master!” Luo Baiwei stood up and said. “This group is a bunch of traveling performers who came to town! They were staying at the inn. Two months ago, they fell ill and spent all their money. They pawned their horses and luggage and borrowed four taels of silver from the money shop, promising to pay it back in two months. They haven’t paid back a single coin…”

“You’re lying!” the young woman said angrily. “We’ve already paid back the principal. As for the interest, you calculate it one way today and another way tomorrow. We give you all the money we earn from our performances every day, but you always say it’s not enough, and it just keeps rolling over and getting bigger…”

“You still dare to talk back!” Luo Baiwei roared, his forehead bruised, probably from a fight. “Just you wait, I’ll strip you naked and question you carefully!”

Perhaps frightened by the words “strip you naked and question you,” the woman’s tone softened, but she was still defiant. “In broad daylight, under the clear sky, you insult my innocence! Even if the government tolerates you, heaven will not!”

Because the master was present, Luo Baiwei couldn’t curse and scold. He just told Luo Tianqiu that since they couldn’t pay back the interest, he was going to confiscate their horses and luggage as collateral. Unexpectedly, the performers firmly refused and even tried to sneak away this morning. They were discovered by the militia guarding the town gate, and after a fight, they were all captured.

“…They didn’t pay their debt and tried to run away. When they failed, they even fought back! That’s why I had them all arrested and brought here, to teach them some manners!” Luo Baiwei said, trying to take credit.

Luo Tianqiu knew that the truth was nothing more than the money shop playing tricks and bullying outsiders. Not to mention anything else, just the Mongolian horse, although not a divine steed, was worth sixty or seventy taels of silver in Guangdong. This kind of predatory lending and extortion was not uncommon, and he never bothered with it. But today he had already shown great mercy, so it wouldn’t hurt to show it again.

“Release them,” Luo Tianqiu said with an expressionless face.

“Master—” Luo Baiwei glanced at Luo Tianqiu, knew the master didn’t want to say it a second time, and quickly gestured for his men to untie the captured people.

Luo Baiwei was not willing to let it go so easily. “The horse has to stay.”

“The horse is their livelihood. Give it back to them,” Luo Tianqiu said. “Since the principal has been paid back, let the interest go!”

The servants were all dumbfounded, wondering if the master had taken some wrong medicine to be so merciful today. In the past, he had personally gone to seize land and seal houses, and had taken the entire families of several tenants who resisted paying rent to the Interrogation Office, where he had them tortured with all kinds of cruel punishments, beating several to death or crippling them. Why the sudden change of heart today?

While they were still in shock, the woman suddenly let out a sharp cry. The old man, who had been tied up, fainted as soon as his bonds were loosened and his blood circulation returned.

“Father—”, “Master—”

The men and women all rushed to the fainted old man, crying and shouting.

“Bastard!” Luo Baiwei was furious and was about to hit them again.

“Wait!” Luo Tianqiu stopped him. He looked at these people thoughtfully.

After leaving the west side courtyard, Luo Tianqiu went to the town’s militia bureau to inspect the weapons and training of the militia. If there were a “Grassroots Militia Construction Evaluation Special Event” in the Ming Dynasty, Sanliangshi would definitely win the title of first place in Dongguan County.

According to the “Notice on Strengthening Militia Construction throughout the Province” issued by the Governor-General’s office in Zhaoqing, the “Several Guiding Opinions on Provincial Militia Construction” issued by the provincial governor’s yamen, and the “Outline of Our County’s Militia Construction” issued by the county yamen, the militia construction in Sanliangshi could be said to be at the forefront of the entire county.

Of course, in this timeline, there were no documents with these names, but there were similar official announcements and notices. The notice from the provincial governor’s yamen detailed how each village and town should organize its militia: all male ding (able-bodied men) between the ages of 16 and 60 in each household were to be registered, and one in three ding were to participate in regular military training. Families with fewer male ding could jointly select one. The jia chiefs were to act as “vanguard models,” meaning each jia chief was to serve as a “training leader” and personally lead the braves in battle. All villages and towns were to establish a public office, with the local gentry serving as the head. The militia members were to drill every day, patrol during the day, and stand guard at night, closely monitoring the surrounding rivers and roads. It also stipulated the communication signals between villages: one cannon shot was a warning of suspicious activity, two meant the Kun thieves were approaching, and three meant the enemy had arrived.

All coastal and riverside villages were to build fortifications. The plans and standards for the fortifications were also sent to each public office. Generally, they required deep moats and high dikes. The moat had to be 12 chi deep and 20 chi wide. The dike had to be 30 chi high. Wherever possible, bamboo fences were to be installed on the dikes. The bamboo fences had to be at least 6 chi high, with the tops sharpened. For any walls to be built, the height could not be less than 12 chi, and the thickness could not be less than 12 cun. Drawbridges were to be built over the moats for the people to enter and exit. For bamboo fences or walls, gates for guards to enter and exit were to be built, and so on. All the details were provided.

The militia bureau of Sanliangshi had three hundred trained militia members. Including the retainers and servants of the various prominent families in the town, there were over five hundred men who could fight at any time. These men drilled every day and received a monthly settlement fee of one tael of silver. Although they had never seen battle, their morale was high.

Besides this group, if necessary, all the male ding between 16 and 60 in the entire town could be armed, adding several hundred more men to defend the town. The public office had a large stock of weapons such as swords, spears, and bows and arrows, and the blacksmith shop could continue to forge more.

Sanliangshi had bought several large cannons from the county. Later, Luo Tianqiu, thinking the county’s cannons were of poor quality and expensive, simply bought iron and had the local blacksmiths cast their own cannons. They had made forty or fifty large and small cannons in total, which were placed on the various stockade walls. They had also made many single-barreled and three-barreled muskets. Since they were close to Macau, Luo Tianqiu had even obtained several Portuguese matchlocks from Guangzhou.

The only thing they lacked was armor—this was a prohibited item, and even the Luo family did not dare to privately possess it. As for padded cotton armor, it was mostly unusable in the climate of Guangdong. But Luo Tianqiu didn’t care about armor. The terrain here was complex, with many bodies of water, and wearing armor in battle would be inconvenient.

As for the moats, fences, and walls, Sanliangshi had long been prepared, constantly repairing and reinforcing them. They had also collected silver from the whole town to build four sturdy watchtowers. The foundations of these watchtowers were all made of stone to prevent tunneling, and the upper layers were made of green bricks. Except for a little wood on the top, they were all made of stone and brick. The watchtowers had wells and were stocked with grain, weapons, and gunpowder. Not only could they provide a high vantage point for observation and firing on attacking pirates and bandits, but if the town were breached, people could take refuge inside and continue to hold out.

Luo Tianqiu had also formed a mutual defense pact with several neighboring villages, agreeing that if one place raised an alarm, the others would all come to its aid. Because Sanliangshi was strong in arms, the nearby villages were all willing to ally with him. So a dozen or so surrounding villages had a “mutual defense” pact with Sanliangshi. In case of trouble, the villages could gather several thousand men.

Although this arrangement could not be called impregnable, it was one of the best in Dongguan County. He talked with the gentry who served as committee members in the public office, met with the leaders of the militia and the sons and nephews of the various families, and said some encouraging words. Finally, he met with Luo Heying alone and told him to go to the county tomorrow to lead the militia. Luo Heying was overjoyed to hear of such a good opportunity and repeatedly thanked his clan uncle, showering him with a basketful of compliments.

Although it seemed that there was nothing to worry about in Sanliangshi, the only thing that worried Luo Tianqiu was the lack of people who could lead the militia in battle. The public office had hired a militia instructor, but he had died of a sudden illness last month, and no one had replaced him yet. Among the sons of the gentry families, there were a few who were skilled with weapons and brave enough to fight, but they had no real battle experience—being able to fight was not enough to lead the militia. As for the leaders of the militia, they were mostly retainers from the various families, who did not necessarily have much real skill. Without an experienced martial artist with practical combat experience to lead, he was not at ease.

“We offered a price of eighteen taels of silver a month, and many people came,” Yuan Kaibang, a militia committee member and a local gentry, sighed. “But when we tested their archery skills, none of them were any good. They were all useless freeloaders.”

Yuan Kaibang was also a military Xiucai—but the military examinations in the late Ming were a mere formality, largely for show. Even a military Juren was not highly regarded. It was not difficult for the sons of powerful gentry families who were strong and skilled in martial arts to obtain a title like military Xiucai or military Juren with a little money.

He was not just a title-holder. At least his broadsword skills had been taught by a famous master since he was a child, and he wielded it with considerable skill. He also had a brave and fearless spirit. A few years ago, he had gained fame after killing three men with his own hands in a clash with a small band of water bandits. As a result, Yuan Kaibang was quite proud of himself and considered himself the “Great Wall” of Sanliangshi. He was domineering in the town, and even the Luo family had to be polite to him.

Luo Heying often had friction with this blockhead in the militia bureau. Luo Tianqiu’s recommendation of him to the county militia bureau was both a promotion for him and a way to separate these two rivals, to prevent the friction from escalating.

A militia instructor not only had to be able to lead the militia in battle, but also had to be highly skilled in martial arts and proficient in various weapons, with a primary emphasis on broadsword skills and archery. The militia generally did not need to fight in formations; the most important skills were small group combat and defending the stockade. Among these, defending the stockade was the most important, and bows and arrows were the primary weapons of the militia.

But ordinary martial artists from the jianghu, while they could handle swords and spears, were not skilled in archery. Even experienced escort guards, due to the nature of their work, mostly used small bows and arrows and slingshots with low killing power. Few were proficient in the powerful infantry bow. The public office had been recruiting for several months but still hadn’t found a suitable candidate.

“Are the people still here?”

“They are all waiting at the inn for your decision, old sir,” Yuan Kaibang said, blinking his small eyes. “You said that now is a time of need, and even if they are not suitable, we can keep them for now.”

Luo Tianqiu said, “As long as they have real skills, we will hire a few. Eight taels per person per month, with food and lodging provided by the public office.”

“Alright, it’s settled.”

“Good, good,” the other militia bureau committee members echoed. The committee members of the militia bureau were all local gentry and prominent families. They had long followed the Luo family’s lead. Whatever Luo Tianqiu said, they agreed to, especially now that the Kun thieves’ invasion was imminent. Everyone was counting on Luo Tianqiu to be the “mainstay,” so they agreed to all his requests.

Luo Tianqiu then discussed the expenses of the public office with several committee members. Now that they were supporting many militia members, manufacturing and purchasing weapons and gunpowder, and building various fortifications, the expenses were enormous. The militia silver collected by the county did not leave much for the local town. For this reason, Luo Tianqiu proposed an additional levy for the militia.

The committee members looked at each other. The county’s levy of three fen of silver per mu was already a heavy burden. To levy more money and grain, everyone felt the pain. But no one dared to object to Luo Tianqiu’s proposal.

Seeing the pained expressions on everyone’s faces, Luo Tianqiu sneered. “Who do you think this money is being collected for? And whose is this Sanliangshi? If you want the militia to risk their lives, if you want to fight, how can you do it without feeding them enough silver?”

“One tael a month is not a small amount.”

“Would you be willing to go to battle with a sword for one tael a month?” Luo Tianq-iu said. “In times of peace, one tael a month is fine. But when the Kun thieves really come, you might not be able to get people to fight even for ten taels of silver. The peasants only have one worthless life. You gentlemen all have families and property. If the stockade is breached, everything will turn to ashes. Which is more cost-effective?”

No one dared to speak. What he said was, of course, correct. But since last year, the prominent families had been “solicited for donations” again and again. Several of the prominent families were pained by the silver and had become more and more tight-fisted. This was why Luo Tianqiu did not mention “soliciting donations” at all and directly demanded a levy on the land.

In the end, the prominent families agreed: for every mu of land in the entire Sanliangshi, a militia tax would be levied at the rate of eighty wen for top-grade land, forty wen for medium-grade land, and twenty wen for low-grade land.