Chapter 193: On the Road to Dengzhou

The gravel-paved official road ahead became a hazy blur, almost indistinguishable. The dawn wind, blowing from the open country, sent a chill through Zhao Yingong, even though he was wearing a windbreaker and a hood.

The journey from Hangzhou to Dengzhou was both arduous and perilous. Within the Southern Directly-Administered Region, they traveled north along the Grand Canal in boats provided by Xu Guangqi’s family. Attended by the Xu family’s servants, the journey was not only comfortable but also remarkably convenient at customs and locks. The diligence and attentiveness of local officials and the efficiency in conscripting laborers along the way once again gave Zhao Yingong a profound understanding of the gentry’s power.

No wonder so many people sought an official’s cap. Even those who had made fortunes in business would not forget to hire famous tutors for their children and bribe examiners, trying every means to get them “within the system.” The difference between an official and a commoner was truly like that between the clouds and the mud.

However, his lament on the distinction between officials and commoners vanished into thin air once he crossed the Yellow River.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River flowed into the sea via the Huai River, with the estuary near Xuzhou. After crossing the Yellow River near Xuzhou, they left the Southern Directly-Administered Region and entered Shandong.

The Grand Canal was also navigable within Shandong, but it did not reach Dengzhou. The group disembarked in Xuzhou and switched to land travel. Zhao Tong, who had previously escorted caravans on the northern routes, reminded everyone to be careful along the way.

If the lands north of the Yangtze River within the Southern Directly-Administered Region had seemed desolate and impoverished, it was only after crossing the Yellow River and entering Shandong that Zhao Yingong truly felt the harshness of the environment.

Although it was the height of summer, there were no crops in the fields. Large tracts of land lay barren. Trees along the road were dead in large swathes; a closer look revealed their bark had been stripped clean. Scattered bones could occasionally be seen among the grass and trees.

The villages they passed were either overgrown with weeds, with houses collapsed, or fortified with high walls and deep ditches, guarded by vigilant local militias. Zhao Yingong inquired and learned that less than ten years ago, in 1622, a major White Lotus rebellion led by Xu Hongru had erupted in southern Shandong. Centered in Jining, the rebellion had spread east to Rizhao, west to Heze, and south to the Xuzhou area. The entire region had suffered the ravages of war. In recent years, it had been hit by successive floods, and the government’s land tax surcharges grew heavier by the day. Bandits were rampant, and the people had either died or fled, leaving behind a devastated landscape. Even in broad daylight, small bands of bandits operated openly, and desperate people were everywhere. For this reason, in addition to the bodyguards from his own escort agency, the Xu family had also dispatched more than a dozen strong family retainers to protect them.

Thus, they traveled north in constant fear and without stopping. In Yizhou, they encountered a torrential downpour, and the Shu River flooded. The water on the plains was six or seven feet deep, and they had great difficulty finding boats. Seeing the land full of refugees, young and old, and the corpses of those who had perished along the way, Zhao Yingong’s heart ached, and he secretly cursed, “I’ve come too late!”

But he was currently powerless to take in refugees. Without official support, one could not move an inch in the Ming Dynasty. He could only urge his entourage to hurry on to Dengzhou to meet Sun Yuanhua and gain his trust and support.

The group traveled over mountains and rivers, eating in the wind and sleeping in the open. They finally reached Dengzhou after an indescribably arduous journey.

Dengzhou was now a major frontline fortress for the Ming’s war against Liaodong, and it was also a key center where Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua, and others were training new armies. Even before they saw the city walls of Dengzhou, they frequently saw troops on the move and encampments along the road. There were also cavalry patrols on the roads, and they were often stopped for questioning.

Although the route seemed heavily guarded, they still heard news of bandits and salt smugglers. There were even horrific incidents of entire villages being massacred. As if to confirm this, just as they entered the Dengzhou region, they heard the sounds of fighting and screams near the official road. The group immediately halted their horses and drew their weapons. The head bodyguard, Zhao Tong, ordered the dogs to be released from the carts, ready to attack, while he turned his horse back towards the middle of the procession.

Zhao Yingong, surrounded by his servants, slowly approached. After hearing the report from the front, he turned to ask the local post-station runner who was guiding them if he knew what was happening. The old runner said, “This must be the local salt smugglers fighting among themselves.”

“Not bandits?”

“Bandits don’t dare to operate on the main roads in broad daylight. There are too many soldiers here,” the runner said. “The salt smugglers are mostly local military households. Don’t look down on them for being poor enough to smuggle salt; many of them still hold minor military titles like Squad Leader, Platoon Commander, or Company Commander. The government usually doesn’t bother them—they can’t manage them.”

Hearing that it was just a clash between salt smugglers, Zhao Yingong ordered the group to continue forward. Zhao Tong advised against it: “Master, we can’t see what the situation is like up ahead. If we go over and they see us, someone might think we’re here to help one side, and that would be troublesome. A fight would be hard to stop.”

Zhao Yingong thought this was reasonable. He was, after all, a guest in this land, and getting involved in a local conflict would be very troublesome to resolve later. Although he had strong official connections, the salt smugglers were local snakes. Causing casualties would only create unnecessary enmity.

The group waited on the road for a while. Hearing the sounds of fighting in front of them gradually subside, Zhao Tong told everyone to wait while he went ahead to scout. He dismounted and slowly crept forward along the shoulder of the road. After the time it takes to eat a meal, he returned, running to Zhao Yingong’s horse to report, “Master, they’ve dispersed up ahead. But there are many bodies and weapons on the road, so please be careful when passing.”

Led by Zhao Tong, the group proceeded cautiously. As expected, they saw thirty or forty bodies scattered by the side of the official road in the distance, covered in blood. There were also many broken weapons on the ground. Zhao Yingong noticed that the ground was littered with sharpened bamboo spears and more than a dozen damaged bows and arrows. There were also scattered cloth bags, from which a lot of sea salt had spilled.

“They were robbing smuggled salt,” the runner said. “This happens often on this official road. Look, the wheel tracks have gone off the road—the robbers succeeded.” He looked again and muttered, “That’s not right…” Having said this, he seemed to regret his slip of the tongue and quickly shut his mouth.

“What’s not right?”

After Zhao Yingong pressed him repeatedly, the runner reluctantly said that there were many hoof prints on the road, and the arrows left in the bodies were not the kind of military equipment used by ordinary bandits or salt smugglers.

“It was government troops?”

The runner did not speak, but his expression confirmed it.

“Doesn’t Governor Sun do anything about this?” Zhao Yingong already had doubts about Sun Yuanhua’s ability to command his troops, and now he felt his assessment was even more accurate.

The runner whispered, “How can Governor Sun control them? The soldiers’ pay is often one or two years in arrears, and most of the troops in Dengzhou are guest armies—they are the most lawless. The fact that they haven’t openly robbed merchants and massacred villages to raise funds is already a testament to Governor Sun and Commander Zhang’s effective suppression.”

In other words, secretly engaging in such black-on-black activities was considered nothing. Zhao Yingong had some knowledge of the bottomless depravity of which government soldiers were capable. Judging from the discarded bodies and wheel tracks, the salt smugglers were transporting a load of about twenty wheelbarrows of salt, worth only a few dozen taels of silver. That it could provoke such a bloody conflict was a telling sign of how chaotic the world had become.

“Let’s go quickly. This is a place of trouble,” the runner urged the group to hurry on.

Just as they were about to set off, they suddenly heard someone among the corpses crying for help. Zhao Yingong instructed his men to search, and they pulled a young man out from under several bodies. He was covered in blood, and it was impossible to tell the extent of his injuries.

“Can he be saved?” Zhao Yingong asked.

Zhao Tong nodded. “He has flesh wounds. With some styptic powder, he should be able to survive.”

“Then take him with us. Put him in a cart. Whether he lives or dies is up to his own fortune,” Zhao Yingong said.

The group finally arrived safely in Dengzhou city. Dengzhou was now a military city, filled with soldiers speaking various accents, both inside and outside the walls. Zhao Yingong noticed that many spoke with a Liaodong accent—clearly, these were men from the former Dongjiang Garrison, the very force that would soon be the main instigator of the Dengzhou Mutiny.

With letters from Xu Guangqi and others, Zhao Yingong passed through the city gates without obstruction. As this was the frontline of the war in Liaodong and a critical military area, the inspection at the city gates was very strict.

After entering the city, Zhao Tong found that the large inns were all full, and the smaller ones would not satisfy his master. He took the initiative to find a large local temple, made a donation of six taels of silver, and under the warm welcome of the abbot, they settled into a courtyard within the temple. Zhao Yingong instructed everyone to rest for three days, to bathe, change clothes, and wash off the dust of the road. He also ordered the luggage to be unpacked and the gifts for Sun Yuanhua and others to be checked. The gifts were carefully selected, many of them specially transported from Macau and Lingao.

For his meeting with Sun Yuanhua, besides the letters from the Xu family and the Hangzhou church, he had also brought along the missionary Jin Lige to fully prove that he was a “seeker of the Way.”

To get the maximum help from Sun Yuanhua, he had to present himself as a devout prospective convert. This way, Sun Yuanhua would treat his requests from the perspective of a fellow believer, rather than that of a common schemer.

He knew very little about Sun Yuanhua. The materials from the Grand Library only provided his basic biography and some of his political views. They could not speculate on what kind of person Sun Yuanhua actually was. However, the fact that Xu Guangqi was willing to arrange a marriage between their children suggested that the man’s character was not bad. Becoming a governor in his early fifties also indicated that he was quite skilled as an official. He was also a Catholic, enthusiastic about using “Western methods” to reform the Ming’s military technology and system. All things considered, Sun Yuanhua should be a man of good character, a capable official, and someone open to new ideas. Such a person should not be too difficult to deal with. Zhao Yingong’s greatest fear was encountering someone unwilling to get things done—then nothing could be accomplished.

Zhao Yingong instructed his servants to first gather information and confirm that Sun Yuanhua was recently in his yamen. Then, he chose a day to formally go to the yamen and request an audience.