Chapter 1185 - Progress

In the letter, Fenghua reported on the seed production work being conducted by Wang Siniang and her daughter at the villa under guidance from Agricultural Committee technicians. Starting in the twelfth lunar month, a female agricultural technician of naturalized citizen origin had been dispatched from Lingao specifically to train them in seed production. According to Zhao Yingong's plan, 1632 would focus solely on seed production without silkworm rearing. Spring and autumn seed production would yield approximately 3,000 sheets of silkworm eggs. Starting in 1633, they would promote large-scale silkworm rearing—this gave him half a year to acquire enough mulberry gardens, preparing the material conditions for scaled production.

Spring seed production was proceeding smoothly, and the cold storage facility for storing silkworm eggs had been completed. The greater problem was that since March and April this year, Hangzhou had received no rain at all. Irrigation for the newly planted hillside mulberry gardens depended entirely on windmill water pumps built the previous winter, drawing water from the Qiantang River below. But Hangzhou's wind resources were not reliable, and they frequently had to use oxen to power the pumps—a heavy burden on their livestock. The handful of available oxen simply could not manage. In the letter, Fenghua asked whether he could submit a report to the Senate requesting a steam engine for pumping.

This would not be difficult. Steam-powered pump kits had become quite mature, systematic products at Lingao's General Machinery Factory, widely used in agriculture and mining. Applying for one would probably get approved. The challenge was finding coal—or perhaps they could simply burn wood?

Zhao Yingong pondered this and continued reading. The second part of the letter concerned construction progress on new land purchased at the foot of Phoenix Mountain Villa for what was euphemistically called a "charity hall"—actually a quarantine camp. The year 1632 saw a major drought across Zhejiang Province. No rain had fallen since March—a devastating blow to agriculture. Without timely spring rice planting, the year's harvest was lost. With time now well into summer, this year's major drought was a foregone conclusion. Masses of commoners were beginning to flee as refugees, and the roads were full of displaced people.

Agricultural disaster triggered economic collapse, particularly visible in commerce and industry.

The Senate's demand for population was endless. Zhao Yingong had come to Jiangnan partly to collect Zhejiang refugees as a planned agenda item. Since the end of 1631, he had already batch-collected several thousand people and shipped them out through Shanghai port.

Quietly moving small numbers of people drew no attention, but collecting and moving large numbers of refugees during a major disaster year would inevitably attract official notice. Zhao Yingong therefore followed the successful model of the Guangzhou Station—establishing a charity hall.

The charity hall was named "Cixin Hall." Zhao Yingong introduced a charitable foundation model, recruiting a group of gentry to join. His first step was recruiting Jiangnan gentry as charity board members.

The primary target was naturally the Xu family. Elder Xu's grand banner as Grand Secretary had to be utilized. Xu Guangqi was not only himself a Grand Secretary, but his only son Xu Ji had married the daughter of Shanghai's wealthiest man, Gu Changzuo. This Gu Changzuo was nicknamed "Gu Half-the-City"—a man of immense wealth and influence in Shanghai County.

To secure sufficient support from the Xu family, with Father Jin Lige's backing, Zhao Yingong had conducted a major cultivation effort targeting the Xus, doing everything possible to draw the two sides closer. Currently, their friendship level was quite high. Running a charity hall would also objectively help spread Catholicism, so the Xus had agreed to assist—not only providing a protective umbrella but also promising to contribute funding. Even Xu Guangqi's in-laws, the Gu Changzuo family, had agreed to contribute several hundred taels.

Second were the Catholic gentry under the Hangzhou church system—through the Jesuits, several had also been recruited as board members. With this, Cixin Hall's operations in at least South Zhili and Zhejiang had some security.

Cixin Hall was located on newly purchased wasteland at the foot of Phoenix Mountain Villa. It contained an "Inspection Station," "Men's and Women's Bathhouses," "Men's Hall," "Women's Hall," and "Orphan Hall," plus a specially designated "Chaste Widows Hall"—for collecting destitute widows—as a front. Naturally there was also an "Artisan Workshop" for extracting surplus value from refugees. In fact, the first factory Zhao Yingong planned to open would be disguised as a charity workshop.

The Qiantang riverbank offered open land, abundant water supply, and convenient fast water transport—it could be developed as an industrial zone in the future. Large-scale farming was also feasible.

Housing refugees by the Qiantang River meant isolation from urban areas during normal times for concealment, and at night they could be loaded directly onto boats and shipped out to sea. Such was Zhao Yingong's calculation.

The letter reported that construction progress on the charity hall had reached ninety percent—the abundant refugee labor had provided ample workforce, and the Elder architect from Lingao's Construction General Corporation estimated completion on schedule.

Zhao Yingong was quite satisfied. As long as completion remained on schedule, the Zhejiang portion of Operation Engine could be counted half-successful.

Though Operation Engine's main purpose was transporting Shandong refugees, the Elders also harbored great interest in Jiangsu-Zhejiang population. Zhao Yingong knew that, setting aside all the high-minded reasons about industrial population and decisive victory, many Elders were actually looking forward to a steady stream of Shandong girls and Jiangnan beauties. Zhejiang had an ancient reputation for producing beauties, which was why the Deputy Commander had originally targeted the Zhejiang region for his "bride selection."

Starting large-scale refugee collection now meant that by autumn they could begin transfers. Zhao Yingong knew very well that Jiangsu-Zhejiang refugees actually matched the Elders' preferences better. The transferred refugees were not merely farmers or fishermen—many were handicraft artisans. They were better suited than farmers to long, tedious, monotonous work—Jiangnan weavers often worked at their looms for over ten hours a day.

He set down the letter and picked up the next one. This was more urgent—a telegram from Lingao regarding progress on Operation Engine's Shandong front.

Since Elder Lü Zeyang's great victory over the rebels at Laizhou, the entire Dengzhou-Laizhou theater had, as expected, descended into endless back-and-forth fighting. The entire three eastern prefectures were ablaze with warfare, the roads packed with refugees.

Shortly after Lü Zeyang's great victory, on the fifteenth day of the second lunar month, Shenbu Left Battalion Staff Officer Peng Youmo, originally defending Lüshun, had led five hundred Sichuan soldiers by sea to reinforce Laizhou. On the fifth day of the third month, Regional Commander Liu Guozhu dispatched six hundred cavalry led by Staff Officer Li Jing and Guerrilla Zhang Ruxing, but most deserted en route—only 275 actually arrived.

Since the Qimu Island forces only collected refugees and did not intercept rebel transport, the rebels—to maintain sufficient pressure on the Ming court—received explicit assurances from the Qimu Island side: as long as they did not fire on the South Gate District, there would be no interference with the rebels taking the city through any other gates. The rebels then openly transported heavy artillery and ammunition to Laizhou city, continuously bombarding the walls.

Though Sun Yuanhua had been marginalized by the city's officials and generals following the fall of Dengzhou, the arriving Shenbu Left Battalion Staff Officer Peng Youmo and Lü Zeyang, who had won the South Gate victory, were both his subordinates. So the defenders had no choice but to continue relying on him. And once the Laizhou victory memorial went up, he gradually became the central figure in Laizhou and even Shandong military affairs once more.

During fierce attack and defense, a number of defending officials, generals, and gentry "died for their country" in succession. These included people who historically had fought to the death, like Laizhou Guard Commander Li Mengguo and Centurion Bai Zhongren. But also Laizhou gentleman-scholar Zhang Xin, who would originally have become a Qing Dynasty Tianjin Circuit Intendant—he too had "died from stray arrows." In short, deaths among local Laizhou gentry and military officers were quite heavy, and quite a few students had also fallen in battle. For a time, Laizhou City seemed on the verge of collapse.

By the twenty-seventh day of the third lunar month this year, Ministry of War Vice Minister Liu Yulie had set out with a ceremony of oath-taking toward Laizhou as Supervisor. He assembled reinforcements from Jimen, Miyun, and other places, plus volunteer militia—a total of 25,000 infantry and cavalry from three garrisons. On the second day of the fourth month, the Chongzhen Emperor had even specially dispatched eunuchs to deliver six Red Barbarian cannons to the Sha River for handover to the relief army.

However, commanders like Liu Yulie knew nothing of military affairs. The various forces advanced as a jumbled mass with chaotic discipline. During their plodding advance, over 800 wagons of grain and supplies escorted by Wang Wensheng were ambushed by rebel cavalry and completely destroyed by fire. This not only created supply difficulties but also severed their route.

Kong Youde ordered Wang Wensheng's soldiers absorbed and sent agents into Changyi County town, where the headquarters camp was located, to spread rumors that the three garrison forces had been completely annihilated. Then he had the surrendered soldiers attack Changyi County town. Liu Yulie panicked and fled directly to Qingzhou. A few days later, when Liu Yulie learned the three garrison forces were still intact but their supplies had all been burned and they could not continue fighting, he ordered withdrawal. The rebels seized the opportunity to ambush, and the government forces suffered a complete rout at Sha River—countless captured, large quantities of firearms seized by the rebels.

Next, the Ming army produced an even greater farce. Former Tianjin General Sun Yinglong claimed to be sworn brothers with Geng Zhongming and boasted he could get Geng Zhongming to tie up Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng and surrender. Tianjin Circuit Intendant Zheng Zongzhou believed him and gave him sixty ships and two thousand men.

Sun Yinglong sent people to persuade Geng Zhongming to defect, but Geng Zhongming used feigned surrender to lure Sun Yinglong and the Tianjin naval forces' two thousand men and ships right to the water fortress below Dengzhou. Geng Zhongming then beheaded Sun Yinglong. Having captured this naval force, the rebels' maritime power grew even stronger. They could now conveniently communicate with various Eastern Jiangnan outposts, and Eastern Jiangnan veterans began flooding into the Dengzhou-Laizhou region by sea.

The government forces' successive defeats threw the three eastern prefectures into ever greater chaos. Large numbers of routed soldiers became bandits or directly joined the rebels, driving masses of commoners to swarm toward Qimu Island seeking refuge. At one point, the entire Qimu Island refugee camp was overflowing—transfers could not keep pace. Lu Wenyuan had to establish temporary shelters on the mainland to accommodate more refugees.

The Ming army's bizarrely incompetent failures caused the Qimu Island Front Committee Elders to completely lose whatever awe they had once held for the Great Ming.

"Grab territory! Grab people!" Lu Wenyuan issued the order from the Qimu Island Front Committee. Subsequently, under the command of returning Zhu Mingxia, the Shandong Detachment began aggressive territorial expansion. Taking advantage of the local chaos, the Shandong Detachment rapidly expanded on the spot, mass-recruiting young refugees to train as militia. Led by detachment veterans, starting from Qimu Island, they pushed out over ten li to establish multiple strongpoints and fortified villages, garrisoning them with militia. In the end, they effectively occupied territory tens of li around Qimu Island, and amid the chaos, seized the Zhaoyuan region.

(End of Chapter)