Chapter 136: The Servants

The Mongol trade was the most profitable trade for the Ming and Qing dynasties, apart from maritime trade. Countless Shanxi merchants made their fortunes from it. The Yuanlao Senate had also long coveted it. However, in the Ming Dynasty, because the Mongols were a border threat, trade was strictly controlled, and not many merchants could get their hands on this trade. For the Yuanlao Senate, which was far away overseas, it was even more of something they could only watch.

To do business with the Mongols, one either had to set up a workstation and conduct this business as a Ming merchant, or one could only conduct second-hand trade through the Ming border generals and the Manchu Qing. The latter was obviously easier to operate, and although the profit would be lower, it had great advantages in terms of ensuring personnel safety and timely payment.

The trade with the Later Jin was naturally related to the Mongol trade. The Later Jin’s demand for tea was not large, but the Mongols’ demand for tea was very large. The areas controlled by the Yuanlao Senate were adjacent to several of China’s largest tea-producing provinces. Both Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi produced a large amount of tea. If they could open up sales channels through this, it would be of great benefit to expanding their trade share.

At the end of the talks, after all the rough details were finalized, Huang Hua put forward another three requests:

To be allocated land to open a commercial guild in Shengjing; to ensure the personal and property safety of the Da Ao merchants and their entourage; and for Da Ao ships to have freedom of navigation on the Yalu River.

These three requests, after being reported by the Ministry of Revenue, were all approved by Huang Taiji, but with a prerequisite: all three conditions could only be established after the first mutual trade was concluded.

Opening a commercial guild in Shengjing was equivalent to setting up eyes and ears in Shenyang. Although the commercial guild itself would inevitably be under the strict surveillance of the Later Jin, it was enough to transmit intelligence with radios and invisible ink.

Since the agreement had been signed, the Later Jin settled them in a temple in the city, in a separate residence with two courtyards. They also sent him four maids, ten male servants, two grooms, and four female servants for rough work. The zhangjing who had specially sent the people said that the Great Khan had heard that the Da Ao people were most fond of “live mouths” and had specially selected these live mouths from the imperial manors of the upper three banners.

Huang Hua was at a loss for words. With so many people given to him at once, where was he supposed to let them sleep? And the expense of feeding them: now his mission was allocated salt, rice, meat, wine, and so on by the Ministry of Rites on a per-person, per-day basis. Now that there were more than a dozen extra mouths, he couldn’t just say the master wouldn’t provide food.

“Please rest assured, my lord. The masters have said that since these live mouths have been bestowed upon you, all their expenses in Shengjing will be covered by the Ministry of Rites. You don’t have to worry about it…” The zhangjing said with a beaming smile and a deep bow.

With a call, he brought a group of “gifts” to kowtow. Huang Hua saw that these men and women were all dressed in fine clothes, but except for the four young maids and the leading male servant who looked slightly better, they were all sallow and emaciated, with a timid and shrinking demeanor. The men’s scalps were all green, as if they had been newly shaved—it was clear that they had been hastily cleaned up before being sent over.

“Get up, all of you. No need to kowtow,” Huang Hua said, waving his hand, unaccustomed to seeing such a large group of people kowtowing to him. He then asked, “Hmm, where will they sleep?”

Although the house allocated to them had two courtyards, the entire mission had already filled it up. A few of the guards could only take turns sleeping on the veranda, doubling as guards.

“Let them stay on the two long verandas for now. It’s a great honor to serve under you, my lord.”

Huang Hua was speechless. He had already seen plenty of how slaves had no human rights in this era. The Later Jin regime was poor and its people were impoverished. Even the ordinary Eight Banners officials and soldiers had a hard time, let alone the “live mouths” who were like slaves.

The second gift was the Mongolian steed he had ridden. In addition to this Mongolian steed, another ten fine horses were also given. This was also a return gift for their own gifts. According to the traditional Chinese court’s idea of “winning over distant people with gentleness,” the return gifts received by foreign envoys always exceeded, or even greatly exceeded, the value of the gifts they gave. However, the Later Jin was really too poor at this time, and their generosity was far from the later “measuring the material resources of China” attitude. They had to make do with live mouths and horses.

Huang Hua immediately had someone give the zhangjing four taels of silver as a gift and saw him out. He looked at the dozen or so wooden-faced, helpless servants in the courtyard.

Although these people were all wearing new clothes, except for a few who had small bags of clothes with them, the others had no luggage at all. It was not hard to imagine what kind of life they had lived before.

Seeing that their new master was looking at them, the group of people knelt down again with a whoosh. Huang Hua had been in the business world for a long time and was a first-rate judge of character. With a slight glance, he could see the deep fear in their eyes, the kind of fear that people who have been oppressed and abused for a long time show when facing their superiors.

One of the older male servants, seeing that the new master was looking at them, quickly stood up, trotted over, and made another deep bow:

“Your servant, Lan Bian, pays his respects to the master! May the master live for ten thousand generations!”

Huang Hua nodded, “Get up.” Then he made a slight gesture with his hand, “All of you, get up.”

“Thank you for your grace, master!” Lan Bian immediately stood up, his movements clean and neat. His mannerisms made Huang Hua involuntarily think of a soldier.

“You are…”

“Your servant, Lan Bian, originally served in the imperial manor of the Plain Yellow Banner. This time, the Beile specially ordered me to bring them to serve under you, my lord.”

Huang Hua saw that he was of medium height, strong, and his movements were powerful. He was completely different from the thin and timid appearance of the other male servants. He knew that he was probably a small leader among the slaves, maybe even a bondservant who had fought with his master.

This person has come to serve me, probably as a spy for the Eight Banners, Huang Hua was already on his guard. But when he was wary of someone, he would be particularly friendly in his speech and conversation:

“Since you are with me, as long as you serve me faithfully, I will surely promote you.”

“Thank you for your grace, master!” Lan Bian quickly bowed again. “If you have any orders, my lord, please let me know!”

“Let’s first solve your food and lodging problems…”

Although Huang Hua did not fully trust this Lan Bian, he was obviously the small leader of the servants and should be familiar with the local situation, which could be a source of basic information. So he had to win him over a little. He immediately instructed someone to arrange accommodation for these servants separately.

“There are no more empty rooms,” the sergeant leading the team said with a frown. “How about I have the brothers squeeze together and free up a few more rooms?”

“You are already three to a room. How can you squeeze any more?”

Liaodong was a cold and bitter land. Warmth was entirely dependent on the heated kang or brazier in the room, so the rooms were not large. The main rooms were slightly better, but the side rooms were quite cramped. Two soldiers in a room were already not spacious. Now there were three people. If more people were squeezed in, they would not be able to sleep on the kang.

“If not, we can just have one more person sleep on the floor—there’s a heated kang in the room, they won’t freeze.”

“The charcoal gas is heavy on the ground, and the air is even worse with more people,” Huang Hua shook his head. “You move a few people to the main room to sleep.”

The main building had three rooms. The middle one had no heated kang and was uninhabitable. They could only live in the warm pavilions on both sides. Now, one side was occupied by Huang Hua, and the other by his two orderlies.

“I’ll sleep in the same room with the orderlies. You move two more people in. We can also set up a few beds in the main room and light a few more braziers. It’s warmer than outside.”

But there were more than twenty new servants, and they were of different genders and could not live together. No matter how Huang Hua and the sergeant arranged it, they still could not accommodate everyone.

Lan Bian, seeing that “Master Huang” had no “instructions” but was instead arranging accommodation for them, quickly stepped forward and said, “My lord, don’t worry. Except for the few young ladies who are delicate, if you could trouble the housekeeper to arrange for them, the rest of us will be fine living on the veranda with a brazier…”

Huang Hua shook his head, “Liaodong is a cold and bitter land. You’ll freeze to death living on the veranda.”

“The weather is already warm now. A brazier will be enough…”

“How can that be? Look at you all, you’re not very strong. What if you get sick?” Huang Hua said naturally. “Let me think of another way.”

Lan Bian wanted to say more, but seeing that Huang Hua was speaking sincerely and not just making empty words, he stepped aside and said no more.

Huang Hua instructed someone to negotiate with the Later Jin officials who were receiving them. With great difficulty, they managed to get another dilapidated hall that was used for storing miscellaneous items, which was barely enough to accommodate everyone. Huang Hua instructed the soldiers to vacate two rooms with heated kangs specifically for the female servants. The others helped to clean up, clear out the clutter, patch up the broken windows, and get a few braziers from the temple, and bought some charcoal to light a fire. The room was cold and empty, and the braziers did little to warm it up. Huang Hua stood in the empty and tall hall for a long time without feeling warm. He looked at the servants, who were all shrinking their necks, stamping their feet, and blowing on their hands.

Huang Hua found it strange. They were all wearing newly made cotton clothes that looked quite thick. They shouldn’t be so cold. He walked up to a servant and grabbed his lapel.

The man was startled, not knowing what the new master meant. He quickly knelt down in panic.

“Don’t kneel. I’m just looking at the clothes you’re wearing,” Huang Hua said.

Upon closer inspection, he found that although these people were all wearing new clothes, they were actually sewn together from scraps of old cloth and then re-dyed.

At first glance, they looked neat and bright, but in reality, the stitching was rough and simple. The filling was just cattail fluff. Only a small leader like Lan Bian had a worn-out sheepskin coat. It was fine when they were working, but as soon as they stopped, they were all shivering with cold. Huang Hua looked carefully and saw that everyone’s hands were swollen with chilblains, and some were already ulcerated.

“This Manchu Qing is really poor beyond words,” Huang Hua said, ordering the sergeant, “Have everyone take out their spare training uniforms and cotton vests and give them to these new brothers to wear!”

“Yes!”

In addition to their uniforms and overcoats, the guards also had a spare set of thin cotton-padded uniforms and cotton vests. The sergeant went over and soon returned with the clothes, distributing them to the new servants one by one.