Chapter 963 - Sweet Sorghum and Sea Blight

Zhao Yingong smiled. "If Your Excellency has such intentions, this humble scholar could lend a hand."

Sun Yuanhua stroked his beard in silence. When Zhao Yingong had mentioned "land reclamation," he had already begun to grasp the other man's meaning. True enough, land prices for reclamation in Dengzhou were indeed cheap—but managing wasteland development was enormously complex and demanded substantial investment. The person in charge would need to be tough enough to endure hardship, yet sufficiently clever and capable besides—it was by no means an easy path to wealth. Why would this man abandon the comfortable life in Hangzhou and Guangdong to come here for land reclamation? What was his true purpose? He couldn't help growing suspicious of Zhao Yingong's motives.

Were it not that Zhao Yingong came with strong recommendations from the Hangzhou church and the Jesuits, Sun Yuanhua would at this very moment have offered vague pleasantries and shown the guest to the door. But since this person had been recommended by the Jesuits and had won the trust of the Hangzhou church, it meant he was "reliable"—particularly telling was the Jesuits' attitude. Though the Jesuits were "not of our race," at least they had nothing to do with the terrifying factional struggles within the court. What Sun Yuanhua feared most were neither the foreign outlanders nor the Later Jin barbarians, but rather the powerful officials in the court and palace.

He probed: "The Dengzhou-Laizhou-Qingzhou area has no fertile fields—the land is mostly saline-alkaline. Does Master have any special methods for reclamation?"

Zhao Yingong knew his reclamation suggestion had been somewhat abrupt—propositions without clear benefit always aroused suspicion. He was prepared for this and ordered Jiying to present a small box.

Sun Yuanhua opened the box. Inside were some crop seeds, several dried stalks, and a gray dried vegetable. With his agricultural knowledge, Sun Yuanhua immediately recognized the seeds as lushu, commonly seen in Jiangnan. In villages along rivers and the coast, it was occasionally planted; it was actually a variety of sorghum.

Sorghum was a common crop in the north, familiar to Sun Yuanhua. Though lushu possessed many advantages—it wasn't particular about soil or climate and was well suited to the Eastern Three Prefectures' poor soils—its yield at best reached only about three hundred jin per mu, offering no advantage over the millet and soybeans commonly planted here. Moreover, it was coarse to eat and unpopular as a food grain.

"This is lushu, a type of sorghum," Sun Yuanhua said dismissively. "What's so special about it?"

Zhao Yingong thought that Old Sun was indeed the disciple and son-in-law of an agronomist—he even recognized lushu at a glance. This certainly wasn't someone who couldn't tell one grain from another. He said: "Since Your Excellency knows this is lushu, you must know the special quality of its stalks?"

"When young, the stalks are quite sweet. Country children often treat them as candy."

"Exactly. Because the stalks are sweet, they can be used to make sugar and wine..."

"Make sugar and wine?" Sun Yuanhua was startled. Wine was made from grains or fruit—he had never heard of stalks being used for wine. What kind of taste could that possibly produce? As for making sugar from stalks, that was even more implausible. Sun Yuanhua knew that malt syrup could be made from various grains like millet and sorghum. Stalks were first used as fodder for livestock, second to return to the fields as fertilizer. Now someone was telling him they could make sugar and wine from them—naturally it was difficult to believe. He shook his head in disbelief.

"This is a secret method I obtained from the Australians," Zhao Yingong said quietly. "Your Excellency knows that the Australians possess secret techniques in both farming and industry that can make people wealthy?"

Sun Yuanhua nodded. He had heard such claims before. Take the Guoshi Wushuang liquor the Australians sold in Guangzhou—he had sent people to purchase quite a bit for use as gifts. After some research, he had concluded that so-called Guoshi Wushuang was nothing more than especially well-distilled grain spirits.

Though it was merely grain spirits, he figured he himself lacked the ability to construct such refined distillery equipment to produce such quality liquor. If the Australians truly had a method to make sugar and wine from lushu stalks, it wouldn't be entirely surprising.

Somewhat skeptical, he picked up the dried vegetable and examined it. Its color was grayish-black, nothing remarkable. There was some salt frost on the leaves.

"This is sea blight," Zhao Yingong introduced. "It tolerates salt and alkaline soil and drought. In famine years, it can save countless lives."

Sun Yuanhua nodded approvingly. In the late Ming with its frequent natural disasters, agricultural scholars paid close attention to the study of famine survival. One thing they often did was seek out and test various edible wild vegetables. Many books had been written specifically introducing wild vegetables' appearances, origins, and preparation methods, such as Yecaipu [Wild Vegetable Manual].

"This is truly beneficial for country and people," Sun Yuanhua said. "Could this also be an Australian product?"

Zhao Yingong replied: "This plant grows abundantly along the Southern Zhili coast—it can be found everywhere. But few know of it; only coastal salt workers and fishermen eat it. I believe it could also be introduced along the Eastern Three Prefectures coast. It requires no cultivation or care. Though not a major resource, it can relieve urgent need."

This argument greatly moved Sun Yuanhua. It also piqued his interest in the reclamation enterprise. They then engaged in an extended discussion on local agriculture. The Eastern Three Prefectures were first of all hilly and mountainous, and secondly possessed extensive coastal tidal flats and saline-alkaline land. Even an agronomist of Sun Yuanhua's stature found it challenging to improve agriculture there.

Zhao Yingong then showed off bits he had absorbed in the old timeline, combined with knowledge he had gained at the Nanhai Estate. Though these were minor details, many of the concepts and approaches were quite novel. Particularly his views on developing the Eastern Three Prefectures' hills and mountains gave Sun Yuanhua a sense of encountering a kindred spirit.

Zhao Yingong then proposed that he intended to recruit refugees throughout Shandong to reclaim land in the Dengzhou-Laizhou area. He hoped to be granted a formal title to avoid harassment from local officials.

"For recruiting refugees in the Eastern Three Prefectures, you first register with the Governor's Yamen, and I'll issue official notices to the prefectures and counties authorizing you to act at your discretion. But the Western Three Prefectures are difficult to handle." Sun Yuanhua expressed this difficulty—the Western Three Prefectures fell under the Shandong Governor's jurisdiction, which he couldn't interfere with.

"However, refugees have feet..."

"This humble scholar understands." Zhao Yingong said quickly.

"Good that you understand." Sun Yuanhua smiled. The two then discussed the Yizhou flood and current affairs, gradually touching on the court's difficulties. He suddenly asked Zhao Yingong: "Master Zhao, in your view, what is the court's most urgent priority right now?"

Zhao Yingong was taken aback—this seemed like an examination of sorts. He was neither Sun's staff member nor his subordinate; suddenly asking about such weighty policy matters felt strange.

He considered that this must be Sun Yuanhua's way of testing him. He steadied himself and said: "The court's most urgent priority is neither bandit suppression nor barbarian defense, but raising funds."

"Raising funds?" Sun Yuanhua said. "Master Zhao truly has unique insights." He nodded. "There's reason in this. Whether the court is training troops, suppressing bandits, or defending against barbarians, the crucial matter ultimately boils down to the word 'provision'!"

"Your Excellency is absolutely right. Provisions are the source of troops—with sufficient provisions, how could one lack elite soldiers and brave generals? How could one fail to defeat the enemy?" This speech followed contemporary thinking, but it wasn't wrong. The entire late Ming situation had been ruined almost entirely by the court's disastrous fiscal policies.

Sun Yuanhua, Zhang Tao, and others, training troops and planning coastal defense in Shandong, faced their greatest difficulty in the shortage of pay and provisions. The intermittent supply of provisions made the army restless, and incidents of troops rioting over pay occurred repeatedly. Just maintaining stability in such an army was already exhausting—how could one speak of going out to fight?

Just a few months earlier, the Dongjiang garrison had experienced the Pidao Mutiny over military pay issues. Though the matter was eventually resolved, it had triggered fierce attacks on Sun Yuanhua at court. Without Xu Guangqi and Zhou Yanru intervening on his behalf, he would have had great difficulty surviving that episode.

"Yet the sources of provisions are depleted. Not only can they not reduce expenditures, but it's also hard to open new revenue sources." Sun Yuanhua sighed.

Zhao Yingong said: "Actually, provisions were originally just barely sufficient. Unfortunately, there's too much wastage..." As he spoke, he carefully observed Sun Yuanhua's expression.

Sun Yuanhua of course understood his meaning: provisions were originally insufficient, and with civil and military officials at every level skimming their share, if three or four parts out of ten actually reached the soldiers it was considered good. The Pidao Mutiny had also been related to commanding officers withholding military pay. But this matter was too large and too complex—not something to discuss deeply with a new acquaintance. He asked instead: "In Master's view, where might new revenue sources be found?"

This was Zhao Yingong's forte. He immediately gathered his energy and began discoursing on the taxation of commerce and industry and overseas trade revenue's contributions to state finances. Of course, he used his beloved Great Song as an example. He expounded at length on the argument that "the Southern Song, holding only half the realm, was able to resist first Jin and then the Mongols for over one hundred fifty years—all due to revenue from commerce, industry, and overseas trade." He incorporated extensive thesis materials and data specifically provided by the Grand Library. The result was quite well-argued.

"An elevated discourse, Master." Sun Yuanhua listened to his lengthy exposition, nodding noncommittally.

Zhao Yingong suddenly grew alert. At a first meeting with Sun Yuanhua, speaking so grandly—whether right or wrong—would inevitably make one seem shallow and arrogant. He immediately felt some regret and stopped going deeper, saying only: "This humble scholar has spoken presumptuously."

Sun Yuanhua smiled. "Not at all—I shall draw on Master's great talents in the future." He added: "Regarding your matters, come to the yamen in a few days to present your card, and I will make arrangements."

"Yes!" Zhao Yingong bowed his head in reply. "I shall rely entirely on Your Excellency's cultivation."

"Think nothing of it, think nothing of it!" As he spoke, he had already picked up his teacup.

Seeing this, Zhao Yingong hastily stood. Sun Yuanhua saw him out. At the steps of the main hall, Zhao Yingong asked him to stay. The host refused, accompanying him all the way to the flower hall entrance, where Zhao Yingong's repeated entreaties finally persuaded Sun Yuanhua to turn back.

By the time Zhao Yingong left the Governor's Yamen, he had already obtained most of what he wanted. Most importantly, he had secured Sun Yuanhua's calling card. With this, while not exactly enjoying free passage throughout the Eastern Three Prefectures, he could at least travel in general safety. Of course, Sun Yuanhua had also warned Zhao Yingong that troop movements were frequent near Dengzhou, with guest armies often passing through—most of which were lawless, often stealing and robbing. He should try to avoid them. If he was going to reclaim land, he absolutely must build fortifications. As for his proposal to establish a shipping company, Sun Yuanhua also expressed support, saying he would have people issue licenses for smooth maritime navigation.

(End of Chapter)