My Portable Ming Dynasty

Chapter 414 The Pigeons Are Very Busy
Jiangzuo Yabao was a new newspaper that replaced Xin Junzi Bao after Xin Junzi Bao failed in its public opinion campaign in Jiangnan.

Since the betrayal of the "New Gentleman's Daily", the gentry of Jiangnan were heartbroken and eventually concluded that the reason was that the editor-in-chief of the "New Gentleman's Daily", Chen Yubi, was from Sichuan!
He wasn't even a member of the Jiangnan gentry, so how could his newspaper speak for them?

Having determined this, the gentry of Jiangnan decided to start their own newspaper!

The Jiangzuo Yabao was born in response to this need.

The editor-in-chief of this newspaper was Zhou Lüjing, a native of Jiaxing. He did not take the imperial examination, but he was very famous in the literary circles of Jiangnan and had once associated with Wang Shizhen, the leading figure in the literary world at that time.

Zhou Lüjing was skilled in calligraphy and painting, a master of poetry, a bibliophile, and a publisher.

His background meant that after he founded the Jiangzuo Yabao newspaper, he immediately received a positive response from the gentry in Jiangnan.

The editorial office is located in Suzhou, and the editorial staff consists of well-known talents from the Jiangnan region.

Zhou Lüjing then brought out his own collection of books, and the newspaper, taking "elegance" as its starting point and adhering to a high-end approach, frequently invited scholars from Jiangnan to write articles, which quickly boosted sales in the Jiangnan cultural circle.

Many people from Jiangnan also lived and worked in the north, and Jiangnan had always led the literary scene of the Ming Dynasty, wielding great influence among scholars in the north.

The Jiangzuo Yabao newspaper also moved north from Songjiang and set up a branch office in Zhigu for distribution.

Su Ze wasn't particularly interested in the Jiangzuo Yabao, but Luo Wanhua, who was in charge of the Yuefu Xinbao, also had to keep an eye on potential competitors, so he subscribed to the newspaper as well.

Luo Wanhua, holding the latest issue of the "Jiangzuo Yabao" newspaper, said:
“Brother Zilin, this Jiangzuo Yabao does have some novel ideas.”

Why do you say that, Brother Yifu?

Luo Wanhua said:
"The Jiangzuo Yabao newspaper was divided into northern and southern branches, with each branch publishing its own articles and exchanging them. If the southern newspaper had a novel article, it would be sent to the northern newspaper and published there as well. And if the northern newspaper had political news that was published faster, the southern newspaper would reprint it."

"With two newspapers published simultaneously, one from the North and one from the South, and a subscription to the North newspaper would include a free copy of the South newspaper, it's no wonder that it was able to stand out and become the fifth largest newspaper in terms of circulation."

After listening, Su Ze also felt that the "Jiangzuo Yabao" had some clever ideas. It was able to stand out from the crowd of small and medium-sized newspapers when the pattern of the four major newspapers had been established. It was indeed quite capable.

Gu Xiancheng's article was also published in the same way; it was adopted by the Beijing Daily and appeared on page two of this issue.

The manuscript would then be sent to Jiangnan by fast ship and published in the Southern Daily.

Luo Wanhua opened the second page, read Gu Xiancheng's article, and quickly handed the newspaper to Su Ze, saying:

"Brother Zilin, your plan has worked!"

Su Ze took the newspaper, read Gu Xiancheng's article, and after seeing Gu Xiancheng's signature, he couldn't help but say:

"If I were a resident of Changzhou Prefecture, upon reading this article, I would also support the imposition of commercial taxes."

Luo Wanhua also laughed.

Seeing the memorial laid out before Su Ze, Luo Wanhua asked curiously:

"Brother Zilin, are you going to submit a memorial to the throne?"

Su Ze nodded and said:

“A few days ago, Minister Zhang sent someone with a letter from the navy. Over the years, excessive logging has made the tribute timber in Kuwu increasingly scarce.”

"Now is the time when the imperial court urgently needs timber, and civilian shipbuilding companies are vying for high-quality timber. Minister Zhang sent this letter, hoping I can help find a solution."

Luo Wanhua asked:
"Has all the timber in Kuwu been cut down?"

Su Ze shook his head and said:

"That's not the case. The forests over there are dense, but logging isn't the problem. The difficulty lies in transportation."

"As Brother Yifu knows, when the late emperor rebuilt the three main halls, the cost of transporting beams from Yunnan and Guizhou was as high as several thousand taels of silver for a single beam. The main reason for the high cost was the transportation fee."

"The reason why Kuwu timber is cheap is because Kuwu is an island. Once it is felled, it can be directly loaded into timber ships and then transported to the port for shipbuilding, saving a lot of transportation costs."

"But now the forests along the coast and ports have all been cut down, and the population of Kuwu is unable to organize people to cut down forests further away, so the amount of tribute timber has decreased."

Upon hearing Su Ze's explanation, Luo Wanhua immediately understood.

The advantage of maritime transport is its low cost, so shipbuilding is naturally a matter of economics.

"Does Brother Zilin have any ideas?"

Su Ze said, "Actually, there is a way."

Luo Wanhua was also surprised. Su Ze had a solution to such a difficult problem?

Su Ze unfolded a map and said:
"Actually, there is a lot of timber in Liaodong. Along the Liao River, especially in the area north of Liaoyang, there are large areas of forest."

"With a simple dredging, the Liao River can also be used to transport giant timber. So, we just need to build forest farms along the Liao River to the north, and the felled timber can be directly loaded onto ships and transported to the mouth of the Liao River."

Luo Wanhua frowned and said, "The Liao River freezes over in winter, right?"

Su Ze nodded and said, "Half a season of logging a year is enough; there is no shortage of timber in the deep mountains of the north."

Luo Wanhua then said:

"Is that Jurchen territory?"

Su Ze nodded and said:

"That's right. I've already written to General Li of Liaoyang to inquire about the situation north of Liaoyang. Let's see if our Great Ming can control these areas."
-
The fat pigeon had just flown back from the tropical rainforest of Guangxi and was now flying towards Liaoyang with a letter.

Fortunately, it's July now, and the weather in Liaoyang is still quite nice.

Li Chengliang found the fat pigeon on the drill ground.

At first, seeing its round and plump appearance, Li Chengliang mistook it for a snowy owl. After realizing it was a fat pigeon, Li Chengliang immediately took out the rice he had carefully collected.

Fat Pigeon was most satisfied with Li Chengliang's attitude.

This military man was much more generous than those civil officials. Li Chengliang would even go out of his way to collect some local specialty rice varieties, and the grains from Northeast China were also much tastier.

After the fat pigeon finished eating, it stretched out its foot. Li Chengliang carefully opened the letter cage and saw Su Ze's letter.

So Su Hanlin was asking about the situation north of Liaoyang.

When asked about this, Li Chengliang became confident!

In recent years, as the threat from the Mongols has lessened, the imperial court has gradually begun to pay more attention to Liaodong.

This can be seen from the scale of development in Liaodong. Starting this year, three thousand immigrants have already poured into Liaoyang alone, and these people have been settled under the arrangement of the government.

Li Chengliang thought of Duan Hui, the military commissioner of Liaoyang.

Logically speaking, the Military Commissioner should have been in charge of Li Chengliang, and Duan Hui was a fifth-rank official transferred from the Six Ministries.

However, it is unknown which important figure Duan Hui offended, as the imperial decree did not grant Duan Hui the power to control the Liaoyang General.

Li Chengliang was also a shrewd man. Since the imperial court did not support him, then in Liaodong, it would be a matter of who had the bigger fist.

As a result, Duan Hui, the military commissioner of Liaoyang, was reduced to a logistics and civil affairs official in Liaoyang, and Li Chengliang pushed all the civil affairs he was unwilling to do onto him.

It must be said that Duan Hui is indeed adept at handling these political affairs.

The Han Chinese settlers in Liaoyang were forcibly organized into farms by Duan Hui, who required them to engage in collective farming and to undergo military training during the off-season.

Li Chengliang quickly understood why Duan Hui had done this.

Liaodong is bitterly cold, and it is difficult to survive without sticking together. The first step is to gather the population together through collective farms in order to survive.

Duan Hui then organized the people to plant soybeans and other quick-harvesting grains, alleviating the predicament of transporting food rations from the rear. This time, the Han settlers truly took root in Liaodong. Many of these settlers were refugees from densely populated areas such as Jiaodong.

Shandong has always been a populous province. In the past, the imperial court had to intercept these refugees in the capital region. Now, these refugees are being taken on ships and transported directly to Liaodong for development.

Immigration is a cruel process; many immigrants don't survive the first year. But if these migrants had stayed in the Central Plains, their lives would have been even more miserable.

During the reign of the previous emperor, one of the important tasks of the army in the capital region was to drive away displaced people, as the court had never treated these displaced people as human beings.

Local officials who could properly resettle displaced people were one in ten, and any official who could comfort displaced people would receive a high evaluation in historical records.

There are always displaced people, but good officials who can provide them with relief are rare.

In this respect, Duan Hui was indeed a good official.

Although he was a good official, Li Chengliang still disliked him.

This military commissioner was always full of resentment and often secretly criticized the ministers in the court!
Is this something you can just say?
Although Li Chengliang was a military man, he became much more cautious in his words and actions after being flogged in court in the capital!

Li Chengliang seemed to understand why Duan Hui had been demoted. He guessed that if this Lord Duan couldn't control his tongue, he probably wouldn't have a chance to be transferred back to the capital in his lifetime.

As to how many people Liaoyang could organize for outward colonization, that was a question for Duan Hui, since this was not something Li Chengliang was good at.

After a while, Duan Hui arrived at Li Chengliang's general's office.

Li Chengliang disliked Duan Hui, and Duan Hui disliked Li Chengliang in return.

Before he came to Liaoyang, he had heard that Li Chengliang had connections in the capital and was arrogant and domineering.

Upon arrival, Duan Hui discovered that Li Chengliang was even more domineering than rumored!
He had just arrived in Liaoyang when he was literally "hit hard" (a literal translation of the Chinese idiom). He wanted to report it to the authorities, but found out that he was the military commissioner of Liaoyang!
The fact that the dignified military commissioner was attacked was simply dropped, and Duan Hui never tried to seize military power in Liaoyang again after that.

After becoming more compliant, Duan Hui focused on civil affairs, and his rapport with Li Chengliang grew even stronger.

Despite their tacit understanding, every time the two met, it ended badly.

Duan Hui despised Li Chengliang's arrogance and disrespect for him as a civil official who had passed the imperial examination.

But in this harsh and cold land, the scholar and the warrior must support each other.

After Duan Hui entered the General's Mansion and listened to Li Chengliang's explanation, he said:

"The imperial court wants to develop the Liao River?"

"That's not necessarily a bad thing."

Li Chengliang quickly asked:
"Does Lord Duan have a solution?"

Duan Hui nodded and said:

"Isn't General Li troubled by those Jurchens who have submitted to him? He can't kill them, and he can't afford to support them."

"Then why not establish a forest farm along the Liaoyang coast and let these Jurchens cut down and transport timber?"

"All we need to do in Liaoyang is send people to manage the situation and require them to hand over enough timber."

Li Chengliang immediately said:

"Wonderful!"

Since the last great victory against the Jianzhou Jurchens and the killing of their leader Wang Gao, the Jurchens have been scattered and returned to the era of tribal rivalry.

However, this also led to a growing number of Jurchen refugees fleeing to Liaoyang.

These refugees came to seek refuge with the Ming Dynasty. If they were killed indiscriminately, Li Chengliang would be punished by the court.

In the past, Li Chengliang would include them in his "household servants," but last time he was flogged in the capital, it was because of the trouble caused by the Jurchen household servants. Since then, Li Chengliang has never dared to keep these Jurchen adopted sons again.

In the end, Li Chengliang could only let them make a living near Liaoyang, and provide them with some relief when disaster struck.

However, as Duan Hui said, allowing these Jurchen refugees to roam around Liaoyang was indeed a dangerous thing.

Organizing them and sending them to log in the mountains north of Liaoyang would indeed be a good option.

Li Chengliang then asked:

Would the imperial court agree to this?

Duan Hui hesitated for a moment and said:
"It's not difficult to get the Jurchens to cut down trees, but if they band together and cause more trouble because of it, then we'll be in trouble."

"To get the court's approval, we must appoint capable officials to manage them, and ideally, we should also have policies to assimilate these Jurchens, at least giving them something to look forward to in name."

"Only by combining kindness and severity, and employing both suppression and appeasement, can we ensure that these Jurchens are both useful and do not cause chaos."

Li Chengliang nodded repeatedly.

Localization is a meticulous task.

The history of the expansion of Chinese civilization is a history of Sinicization.

Conditions in border regions are harsh, and organizing their development requires painstaking effort and the work of one or even several generations.

Therefore, powerful dynasties in the Central Plains often pursued both border expansion and assimilation.

But not everyone can play it well.

For example, Li Chengliang had previously adopted strong Jurchen people as his sons and made them his personal guards to help the Ming Dynasty fight.

These Jurchen people retained their Jurchen lifestyle and were loyal only to Li Chengliang, not to the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, by following Li Chengliang, they learned advanced military and organizational techniques from the Han people. In the original timeline, once Li Chengliang died, these people immediately became the most unstable factor in Liaodong.

After being punished in the capital last time, Li Chengliang realized that these things were not something a military man like him could do. He gradually sent away these Jurchen troops through several major battles, and began to recruit soldiers from Han Chinese immigrants. He trained these Han Chinese soldiers according to the training methods sent back by his son, Li Rusong.

The task of Sinicization should be left to these shrewd civil officials!
Li Chengliang looked at Duan Hui, who was startled and then regretted saying so much to Li Chengliang!
It's obvious that I don't get along with him!

Duan Hui firmly stated, "I'm not going!"

Then Duan Hui added, "At worst, I'll just resign!"

After saying this, Duan Hui turned and left.

Li Chengliang began to think.

Although he was a military general, it doesn't mean he was brainless.

He's so brainless; he couldn't possibly have won consecutive victories in Liaodong.

As a border general, Li Chengliang also attached great importance to the collection of intelligence in the capital.

He recalled that there were also tabloids in the capital saying that Duan Hui was demoted because he talked about Yang Sizhong, the Minister of Personnel, behind his back.

The tabloids also portrayed Yang Sizhong as a petty and vindictive person.

This idea was met with disdain in the capital.

But in Li Chengliang's view, it might not be entirely untrue.

Civil officials are all petty-minded!

How can we get Duan Hui to comply? How can we get him to do things willingly?

(End of this chapter)