Chapter 1378 - Rice from Changying Granary

Procuring fifty thousand shi of rice in Southern Zhili was beyond the capacity of any ordinary merchant. Shen Tingyang volunteered to work his own channels—Wuhu on the Yangtze was a major grain distribution hub, and perhaps a considerable quantity could be raised there. He aimed to gather it within a month. Zhao Yingong returned to the Qiwei Shanghai Branch and summoned Mao Sansheng to discuss the matter.

Since arriving in Shanghai, Qiwei had focused primarily on logistics, but Mao Sansheng had handled enough varied cargo to accumulate considerable market knowledge.

"I'm afraid bulk rice purchases aren't possible right now," Mao Sansheng said. "We do business with merchants at several rice markets. Bulk prices have shot up recently, and everyone's holding back stock. They're only releasing amounts in the tens or one or two hundred shi. Buying even a thousand or two thousand shi at once is difficult."

Qiwei Warehouse dealt most frequently with bulk goods merchants like rice dealers, so Mao Sansheng's assessment was reliable.

"I need to raise fifty thousand shi of rice. Within a month."

Mao Sansheng drew a sharp breath. "Master, that's going to be extraordinarily difficult."

"If you put real effort into purchasing, how much can you realistically gather?"

"Running from household to household, leaning on past relationships and personal favors, we might scrape together ten thousand shi or so. But the price..." Mao Sansheng indicated the final average might exceed three taels of silver.

"That expensive!" Zhao Yingong was displeased.

"If we manage to buy rice at that price, we should count ourselves blessed."

"Very well. Send people to handle it. Buy what you can and transport everything to Shanghai."

Ten thousand shi still left a vast gap. Though the difficulties seemed daunting, Zhao Yingong could only steel himself and remain in Shanghai to coordinate the purchasing effort.

Despite Southern Zhili's persistent natural disasters, it remained one of the few regions under Ming rule that could still be called "stable." Social order functioned more or less normally, and grain supply was adequate—if expensive. Though rice prices climbed and merchants hoarded their stocks, rice could still be bought if one was willing to pay.

This was a season of steadily rising prices to begin with. The large-scale purchasing campaign by Shen Tingyang and Zhao Yingong sent them climbing continuously. Previously, rice prices in Southern Zhili and Anhui had been low enough for surplus grain to flow into Zhejiang—which had suffered severe shortfalls this year—to supplement the shortage. But as purchase volumes increased, vast quantities of grain and rice began converging on Shanghai, where transportation was most convenient.

In the Hang-Jia-Hu region, which had endured floods and droughts the previous year, rice prices had actually declined for a time, thanks to relief grain distributed by the Famine Relief Bureau and price-stabilizing sales. Now they began to rise again, quietly breaching three mace per dou. For fifteen consecutive days they climbed, until by mid-June, Hangzhou's rice price reached three mace six candareens—approaching the famine threshold of four mace.

Far away in Shanghai, Zhao Yingong was wholly unaware of this shift. Though weekly intelligence reports covering social and financial developments reached his desk, he was consumed with purchasing grain and negotiating commercial contracts with Liaohai Trading House. He had no attention to spare.

Despite the combined efforts of Zhao Yingong and Shen Tingyang, they managed to purchase barely twenty thousand shi in two weeks. At this pace, gathering fifty thousand shi by the latest July departure seemed unlikely.

Zhao Yingong worried over this daily, constantly weighing whether to send a distress telegram to Lingao. Under current circumstances, Lingao could probably manage to ship twenty thousand shi of husked rice—but requesting such a bailout would seriously damage his image.

Just as he wrestled with this dilemma, things took an unexpected turn. Wu Zhixiang suddenly came to visit.

After arriving in Jiangnan, Wu Zhixiang had successfully joined the Fushe Society by ingratiating himself with Zhang Dai and several other key members in Hangzhou. Through enthusiastic participation in society affairs, he quickly rose to modest prominence among Hangzhou Prefecture's Fushe circles. Knowing that advancing through the imperial examinations was essentially hopeless—even Fushe wouldn't arrange for an unlearned wastrel like himself to pass the provincial exam—he had purchased the title of Imperial Academy student. Now he waited for an opportunity: a recommendation from Fushe and an official posting through connections with Donglin grandees.

Wu Zhixiang had connected with Zhao Yingong early on through Zhang Dai and others. His experience dealing with Great Master Guo in Guangzhou had left him thoroughly convinced of Zhao Yingong's identity as a "bandit"—he simply chose not to expose this particular layer. Zhao Yingong, aware of Wu's background, intended to cultivate him as an asset. Both sides proceeded with tacit understanding.

Fushe had long known about Shen Tingyang's undertaking of the Liaodong grain transport—indeed, the endeavor had succeeded only with Fushe and Donglin support. The Merchants Bureau's involvement was therefore no secret. In Fushe's view, though Zhao Yingong wasn't a member and carried the suspicious taint of "banditry," he was a fellow traveler on the issue of replacing canal transport with sea transport. His Catholic faith had also built relationships with Xu Guangqi and others, making him an important ally for the Donglin-Fushe faction, which desperately needed support from cabinet grandees.

What Wu Zhixiang brought was precisely what Shen Tingyang and Zhao Yingong dreamed of: rice—plentiful rice. Not only enough to fill the thirty-thousand-shi shortfall, but more if needed.

The rice wasn't in Jiangnan, but the distance was manageable. Transport to Shanghai presented no difficulty. Once both sides agreed on terms, delivery could proceed swiftly.

The price was reasonable too. Delivered to Shanghai: just two taels of silver per shi. Even without shipping it to Liaodong, selling locally would turn a profit.

Though elated, Zhao Yingong harbored deep suspicions. Pies didn't fall from the sky. He genuinely could not fathom where in all the Ming realm one could casually produce tens of thousands of shi of cheap rice.

If he hadn't known Wu Zhixiang's family background and witnessed his "performance" in Guangzhou so thoroughly, he might have dismissed him as a swindler on the spot.

"Where is this rice?" Zhao Yingong pressed.

"Qingjiangpu."

Zhao Yingong cursed himself inwardly—how had he forgotten this place?

Qingjiangpu belonged to Shanyang County in Huai'an Prefecture. Though merely a town, since Chen Xuan had opened the port in the early Ming and canal transport replaced sea transport, it had evolved into a critical hub for north-south land and water traffic.

When Chen Xuan managed canal administration in the early Ming, he created the "branch transport" system for tribute grain. Transit granaries were built at key towns along the canal—Huai'an, Xuzhou, Linqing—each receiving tribute grain delivered by civilian boats from designated regions. The Changying Granary stood at Qingjiangpu. Some 1.5 million shi of grain from Jiangxi, Huguang, and Zhejiang were transferred and stored there. Perennial reserves exceeded a million shi.

Where a great granary existed, swarms of rats inevitably gathered. Everyone connected to this massive warehouse—canal transport workers, warehouse managers, Ministry of Revenue directors at the top, warehouse clerks hauling grain at the bottom, canal soldiers on the boats—countless categories of people fed off the canal. Of the four million shi of tribute grain transported to the capital each year, transport costs and "losses" along the way consumed a staggering additional eight million shi. Qingjiangpu was the largest of these blood-sucking conduits on the entire route. That significant quantities of granary rice accumulated here for private sale was hardly surprising.

Wu Zhixiang himself couldn't be counted among the "rats"—but his father currently served in the Ministry of Revenue and drew his share of benefits from Changying Granary.

These "benefits" accumulated at Qingjiangpu had to be converted to silver before they could be spent. From the Minister down to bureau clerks, anyone who profited from Changying Granary faced this realization problem.

In the past, such modest benefits were nothing—specialized handlers dealt with them. But this time, the volume of grain requiring conversion was substantial. This wasn't just Wu Zhixiang's father's share but the accumulated savings of numerous Ministry of Revenue officials. Ordinary merchants lacked the capacity to handle such quantity, so Wu Zhixiang thought of this Master Zhao with his bandit connections. During his time in Guangzhou, he had observed the bandits' robust, seemingly bottomless demand for grain—they imported constantly and never exported. Master Zhao couldn't possibly be uninterested in this.

Both sides quickly reached agreement: Wu Zhixiang would transport thirty thousand shi of husked rice to Shanghai by mid-July at the latest. Surplus would be accepted. The Merchants Bureau would purchase at a CIF price of two taels of silver per shi.

"Is there any risk of failing to deliver thirty thousand shi on schedule?" Zhao Yingong asked, somewhat uneasy. In an era of backward transportation and communication, long-distance bulk shipments were calculated in months. Moving this much rice from Qingjiangpu to Shanghai in under a month would be no simple feat.

"Rest assured, Master Zhao. This happens to be the season when canal boats wintering in the north return south. Qingjiangpu is full of empty vessels. The transport soldiers are eager to carry cargo on the return trip for extra income."

"Very well. I await good news." Zhao Yingong nodded. "It's a deal."

"It's a deal." Wu Zhixiang's face flushed with excitement. This was his first major business transaction! Imagining how his father and brothers would view him, he felt almost giddy. For years he had borne the stigma of wastrel. Though his family hadn't restricted him much—letting him idle in Guangzhou—he had always been looked down upon. And frankly, he had looked down on himself.

Zhao Yingong reminded him that if any mishap occurred during transport, he must notify him immediately; Qiwei Warehouse would serve as relay.

"No problem. I can definitely handle this," Wu Zhixiang promised emphatically.

"Excellent. Then I rely entirely on you, brother." Though Zhao Yingong felt lingering unease, the arrangement was payment upon delivery. Even if this young master bungled something during transport, consequences were limited—at worst, the cheap grain wouldn't arrive, and profits would be smaller. If the transported rice sold at a CIF price of six taels per shi, the profit of 120,000 taels would be sufficient to hand over Guan-Ning's military pay and cover all miscellaneous fees along the route. The transport fee paid by the court would become pure profit for the Merchants Bureau.

This Young Master Wu had been close to Guangzhou Station in the past, one of those youths deeply steeped in "Australian decadent culture." Moreover, his family were Guangxi natives, always listed as potential cooperation targets for the Council of Elders. Now was an ideal opportunity to assess Young Master Wu's capabilities—and whether he qualified to become a future "collaborator."

(End of this chapter)