Chapter 121: The Rise of the Bandit-Suppression Army.

Five days later.

“Tianjin?”

Fang Congzhe sneered coldly.

“Righteous Yang, you have your plans well figured out. Rice has been planted along the banks of the Hai River in Tianjin for many years. Everyone knows those are fertile fields. You want to reclaim wasteland and farm there? The court would like to reclaim land and plant rice there too! You can forget about that.”

He continued immediately.

The war was already over by then. Just as Yang Xin had said, when the White Lotus followers from Zou County lined up at the foot of Yi Mountain and called out to the defenders, the followers stationed there soon killed their leaders, including Xu Heyu, and surrendered. They had already begun to starve due to the lack of food, and their morale was low to begin with. As for Shen Zhi in Tengxian, he did not surrender. He attempted to break through the siege with his troops but was defeated again by the Sichuan-Zhejiang Army outside the city. Shen Zhi was killed by the White Pole Soldiers under Qin Bangping’s command. A small remnant of his forces fled into the mountains around Baodu Mountain.

After learning of the surrender of the followers in Zou County, the vast majority elsewhere also surrendered, one after another.

Thus, the rebellion in Shandong erupted abruptly and was just as swiftly quelled in less than three months.

Then, Yang Xin rushed to the Capital City in three days to see the Emperor directly.

He wanted land to reclaim—the land that Wanli had promised but still not delivered.

Wanli looked at Yang Xin.

His Majesty the Emperor’s health was deteriorating daily.

Though he was only in his fifties, except for Zhu Yuanzhang and his son, it seemed the later members of the Zhu Family were not very robust. His health had been declining since last year.

Fortunately, the Great Ming had been relatively stable during this period.

In Liaodong, because Wild Boar Skin had shifted his strategy, there had been no major battles. Moreover, judging by the situation, Wild Boar Skin was unlikely to harass Liaodong in the first half of the year at least. As for the sporadic fights between the two sides along the border wall, they were insignificant.

This was not only the case with Wild Boar Skin but also with the Mongols.

Although Chahua, having seized large amounts of grain in Kaiyuan, was relatively quiet that winter, Chahua did not represent all Mongols. He only represented the Inner Khalkha Five Tribes. The rest, whether Ligdan Khan—whom the Great Ming called Khotochin Khan—or the Tumed, were not quiet. Fortunately, none of them posed a real threat to the Great Ming. It was mainly just friction among themselves outside the passes, with occasional gatherings of Mongol herders demonstrating outside the border wall, to which the Ming Army stationed along the line would also demonstrate in response.

Then there were scattered skirmishes involving around a hundred men each.

The Southwest was similar, with frequent minor battles against the mountain people.

Xu Hongru’s sudden rebellion could have posed a real threat. However, thanks to Yang Xin’s participation and the impressive performance of the Sichuan-Zhejiang Army, it was quickly resolved. The latter indeed surprised Wanli somewhat, especially the Zhejiang Army. Even if he did not admit it verbally, he knew that Qi Jiguang, whom he had detested back in the day, had indeed left him a valuable legacy.

In short, for this imperial emperor now in the forty-eighth year of his reign, his empire, which had lasted two hundred and fifty years, remained as solid as a rock. The Wanli era of prosperity continued, with at least no signs of collapse visible.

“In that case, this Tianjin location does indeed seem unsuitable,” he said slowly.

The court did indeed want to reclaim land in Tianjin.

After all, from Wang Yingjiao in the past to Xu Guangqi more recently, it had been proven that the entire area could be turned into fertile fields. Moreover, Zuo Guangdou was currently touring that area as a Censorate Official, inspecting whether large-scale land reclamation could be undertaken there. So, that land could not be given to Yang Xin.

“Your Majesty, this humble subject does not want the areas suitable for rice planting like Gegu either. As I said before, I only want the unwanted saline-alkali flats. Of course, the Gegu area cannot be considered saline-alkali flats.

What I want is the land further east and south from there—the area between Gegu and Dagukou, continuing south from there. That area can neither be farmed nor used for salt evaporation. It’s completely desolate, virtually barren land. That’s the place I want. My idea is to take these surrendered treasonous faction members and have them reclaim this wasteland as a way to atone to Your Majesty. Your Majesty, in your benevolence, spared them the death penalty for participating in the rebellion, but they cannot escape punishment entirely. I intend for them to accept punishment in this manner.

My plan is to take them and, starting from Tangguantun in Qing County, dig a Relief Canal to reduce flooding on the Grain Transport System.

Tianjin is known as the confluence of nine rivers.

Most rivers from Northern Zhili converge there, causing constant annual floods that threaten the Grain Transport System and Tianjin City. There is not a year when Tianjin does not face flood encirclement. Therefore, I want to dig such a Relief Canal, diverting some of the floodwaters from upstream to the northeast, bypassing Tianjin and the Sancha River, and discharging directly into the sea near Dagukou. This would allow the use of fresh water to irrigate these saline-alkali lands while ensuring the safety of Tianjin and the Sancha River’s Grain Transport System.

And these people would be perfect for digging the canal.

After digging, they would stay in the area to reclaim land and maintain this Relief Canal.”

Yang Xin explained.

What he wanted was to dig the Machang Jian River.

With the Machang Jian River, the Xiaozhan rice would become possible. At that time, rice planting in Tianjin was only done around Gegu. The area from Xincheng to Xiaozhan was completely worthless. But with the Machang Jian River, it would be different. Under the continuous scouring of diverted fresh water from the Grand Canal, the salinity of the saline-alkali flats would be diluted and carried away, leaving behind fertile soil made of millennia of deposited humus.

“How much silver would the court have to spend?”

Fang Congzhe angrily asked.

Clearly, Grand Secretary Fang had come to loathe Yang Xin intensely. The matter of this scoundrel and his niece had become a joke in the Capital City, and the Fang family had become a laughingstock. It was still a topic of ridicule among Capital City residents during their leisure time. The sight of Yang Xin’s face made Grand Secretary Fang unable to suppress his anger; he wished he could step forward and hit him on the head with the ceremonial tablet.

“Not a single tael of silver from the court!”

Yang Xin declared.

“Then how would you dig this canal?”

Wanli instantly became interested.

No need for silver was good news. His Majesty the Emperor hated spending silver. Anyone who could get things done without him spending silver was a good comrade in his eyes.

Yang Xin was a good comrade.

He never asked for a single tael of silver but always got things done perfectly.

However, digging a canal over a hundred miles long without a single tael of silver was still too incredible. Even if the surrendered Incense-Smelling Sect members didn’t need wages, they would at least need to be fed to work. Even if he couldn’t have all of them, such a project would require at least ten thousand people. Given the current price of rice at one tael per unit, feeding them would cost tens of thousands of taels annually.

That didn’t even include tools and the like.

“Your Majesty, you previously said that all the land I reclaim would count as a reward to me. But I cannot just take it from Your Majesty for nothing. I do not want a single tael of silver from the court to dig this canal and to reclaim land with them. The land reclaimed along the canal will also count as mine. That way, I can accept it with a clear conscience. As for their food, I will handle it myself. However, Your Majesty must permit me to have them engage in other activities, because I truly have no money. I can only try to earn money while digging this canal.”

Yang Xin said.

The silver in his pocket was enough to sustain them this year.

Likewise, this year he could start trawling fishing. In fact, this existed in Guangdong already—vessels called Qianfeng boats that trawled the upper layers of seawater. What he needed to do was simply make large trawling nets and build paddle boats to trawl bottom-feeding fish in the near sea, then use these fish to feed the people. Additionally, in areas within this region where the terrain was higher and the salinity lower, he could plant crops like sweet potatoes first, so they could harvest a batch of grain reserves this year. In short, he could manage through this year.

And the Machang Jian River wouldn’t take long.

In the original history, the Sheng Army, with less than twenty thousand men, took just a little over a year.

The terrain here was flat, with soft soil—it was essentially just handing out shovels and having people dig.

“No salt boiling!”

Fang Congzhe immediately said.

“I will not boil salt—never in this life will I boil salt. My ideas are: first, having them fish to supplement food; second, as mentioned before, the Kaiyuan military supply transport; third, engaging in some trade. Basically, I want to try anything that’s not illegal with them. Many of these activities have household registration restrictions, so I need Your Majesty’s permission.”

Yang Xin explained.

“Granted!”

Wanli said promptly.

All of these were insignificant as long as he didn’t have to provide silver.

Moreover, Yang Xin’s plan to dig this Relief Canal was indeed useful. The Tianjin section of the Grand Canal didn’t worry about lack of water; the fear was flooding that could breach the dikes or even inundate Tianjin City, which was quite common.

Having this canal to divert water would at least reduce flooding.

“But you cannot take all of those people. If they all go to you, it would drain the able-bodied men from these few counties, and no one would farm their land afterward. You can only select up to ten thousand from among them. There is no time limit for digging the canal; you can finish whenever you can. They will be your Volunteer Army. I shall bestow a name upon this Volunteer Army: since your rallying cry is ‘Suppress the rebels, kill the barbarians,’ let it be called the Bandit-Suppression Army. It will not belong to the Five Military Commissions or the Capital Garrison. I will send a person from the Directorate of Ceremonial to serve as Army Supervisor, meaning it will be under my direct command.

And you still need a military position; you cannot keep running around like this.

You have rendered meritorious service in suppressing the Incense-Smelling Sect, especially protecting the Confucian Temple and the Duke Yansheng’s family—a great achievement. I appoint you as Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and as Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, you shall be the Commander of the Bandit-Suppression Army.”

He added immediately.

“I thank Your Majesty for his immense grace!”

Yang Xin said hurriedly.

This was Wanli’s good intention. Simply put, Wanli knew about his relationship with the civil officials. This way, he would be directly under Wanli from then on, similar to the imperial guard units, and his position as Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was intimidating enough. In the future, he could freely go to Tianjin. He would also be on standby there.

Whenever and wherever a situation arose requiring a ‘first responder,’ Wanli’s Imperial Edict would send him rushing to solve the problem. The significance of this Bandit-Suppression Army lay in Wanli not having to pay to support him; his reclamation efforts would be his own, and the ten thousand soldiers were essentially his serfs, similar in nature to the Military Households under hereditary military commanders of that time. Additionally, it tied him to that place; otherwise, his constant wandering was undesirable. Wanli did not want another incident like the one at Nishan Mountain. Such a powerful weapon like him needed to be kept in a secure storage.

Beside him, Fang Congzhe looked at Yang Xin with complex emotions.

Yang Xin turned his head and flashed him a bright smile.