Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 202 Harvest
In the third year of the Qianfu era, the grass grew and the orioles flew in the second month of spring.

Yang Fuguang's relief army has been stationed in Yuanju for half a month. Apart from wasting the grain transported from the rear, the army has not made any progress and has not achieved any results.

Meanwhile, Zhao Huai'an began to digest the results of the battle in the first month of the lunar calendar during this half-month period.

Since ancient times, the bigger the storm, the more expensive the fish.

When Zhao Huai'an withstood the siege of Cao Cao and Pu Cao's army and subsequently defeated them, what awaited him was a great harvest for the Baoyi Army.

In this battle, 3,621 enemy soldiers were killed and 20,216 were captured.

These are truly corrupt and treacherous soldiers; most of them were killed at the start of the war.

Those captured later were mostly people who had been coerced or were refugees who had joined the bandits in order to get food.

In addition, there was another group of people that Zhao Huai'an had arranged to go to the other side of the river before the war.

Initially, the Baoyi Army planned to maintain order on the south bank, but when the battle broke out, they couldn't manage these people at all.

Due to food shortages and the inability to tolerate the chaos in the refugee camps, many refugees simply left.

However, many refugees still chose to take a gamble, believing that the militia had gone to great lengths to get them to the other side and wouldn't abandon them.

Of course, some people may truly have nowhere else to go and can only die here.

As the sounds of battle filled the air on the opposite bank, the refugees who remained on the south bank lived in fear, terrified that the government troops would lose.

But fortunately, they made the right bet.

Soon after defeating the bandit army outside the city, Zhao Huai'an sent a boat to pick them up.

Clearly, Zhao Da is still reluctant to give up these human resources.

These people, along with the refugees Zhao Huai'an had previously gathered and the prisoners of war from the bandit army, totaled forty to fifty thousand.

In other words, Zhao Huai'an had already gained the population of almost an entire county in just one month after entering Caozhou.

Such a large human resource naturally needs to be placed.

Zhao Huai'an had already decided on this: he would swallow all these people whole.

Before the war, Zhao Huai'an had already written to Wang Duo, who was in charge of the affairs in Guangzhou, asking him to prepare to receive refugees from the Central Plains.

Later, after Yang Fuguang arrived, he privately discussed the current situation with Zhao Huai'an. Knowing that there might be no war for a long time to come, Zhao Huai'an immediately started the work of transporting refugees back to Guangzhou.

At this time, the legal system of Caozhou's prefecture, counties, and townships was under pressure, and the only people who could make decisions here were Zhao Huai'an and Yang Fuguang.

Zhao Huai'an only gave Yang Fuguang one reason: even if these disaster victims received more relief in the Central Plains, the rebel army would still come and rob them of their food, and could still coerce them into joining the rebels.

Therefore, in order to prevent the rebel army from receiving further reinforcements, his suggestion was to relocate these refugees to the south where order was still maintained. As the governor of Guang Prefecture, he was willing to share the burden of the court and take in these disaster victims.

Yang Fuguang was very moved, because this was indeed a thankless task.

When a region receives a large influx of refugees, it is inevitable that conflicts will arise between the local population and the migrant population. For example, there will be huge conflicts over land, food, daily necessities, and even customs.

During this period, the production and consumption of goods in a place are roughly balanced. Once tens of thousands of refugees move here, it will inevitably cause the prices of all goods in the market to soar, creating a huge burden on the local people.

Furthermore, at this time, the countryside was generally very ignorant. The appearance of any outsider would be regarded as a disaster by the locals. If a child went missing or was possessed by an evil spirit, they would think that it was the work of an outsider.

This kind of thing involves almost every aspect of life, and if the local government doesn't handle it well, it can cause huge social unrest.

Therefore, in Yang Fuguang's eyes, Zhao Huai'an was truly loyal to the country and shared the burdens of the court.

However, Yang Fuguang still asked Zhao Da how to settle these people, because if they were not handled properly and caused trouble in Guang Prefecture, it would be a serious crime.

Zhao Huai'an calmly presented his solution.

In reality, it was the same system he implemented in the Dabie Mountains, which involved organizing the 40,000 to 50,000 disaster victims from Caozhou into military settlements.

In the early stages of the Gwangju Shogunate's crackdown on powerful clans, not only did they reclaim the military farmland that these clans had previously seized, but they also incorporated these clans' lands into the military government.

Therefore, at this time, Guangzhou actually had enough land but few people, which was just right to accommodate these refugees from Caozhou.

Once these migrants arrive in Caozhou, they will be set up as military settlements, with the military government providing them with the necessary supplies and seeds. They will not have any contact with the locals, which will greatly reduce conflicts between the locals and the migrants.

However, Zhao Huai'an could not possibly assign all of the more than 40,000 refugees and bandits to farming. These people came from diverse backgrounds, and assigning them all to farming would be a waste of human resources, and many of them simply did not know how to farm.

For more than half a month, Pei Desheng and Dong Guangdi, who were accompanying the army, led a team of more than 50 calligraphers, working from morning to night to conduct preliminary personnel screening.

These 40,000-plus people were basically divided into five categories: farmers, officials, artisans, soldiers, and merchants.

All those of peasant origin were to be transported to Gwangju for land reclamation, and they constituted the majority of the displaced population.

Then those who could write, those who had done accounting before, and those who had worked in the county government were all listed separately, and these people would be registered and incorporated into the civil service of the shogunate.

At this time, the Gwangju Shogunate had expanded over the past two years, and the staff, scribes, and attendants of the three departments of military command, administration, and finance had grown to a force of five or six hundred people.

This time, when heading north to the Central Plains, the various officers of the Commander's Office, who were originally military staff, naturally accompanied the army. The three departments of Finance also assigned their own capable officials and staff. Only the Department of Administration remained in Guangzhou to be responsible for matters such as civilian settlements, the Dabie Mountain Commandery, and tea trade.

Those who can read and write are now being selected from the refugee groups and assigned to these three departments. Most of those selected have had similar experiences before, and after being forced to join the bandits, they dare not return to their hometowns. Only the Righteous Army can take them in.

The commander added twenty-six scribes to the army. These were former officers in the Taiping Army and the Yicheng Army, who had been captured after their defeat and became members of the rebel army.

Now that Zhao Huai'an has given them a chance to change their ways, how could they not be grateful?
However, Zhao Huai'an still assigned them to the lowest level, basically only allowing them to do tasks, but not to participate in any confidential matters.

There's no other way; what if there are core members of the rebel army among them?
While these are not concerns for expanding your team, after all, as long as you develop well, what does it matter if you're a true bandit army? Aren't they all eager to follow you?

No one wants to live a life of worry and fear if they can live a good life.

However, we still need to be cautious. How can we trust loyalty without it being tested by time and events?
The same principle applies to the expenditure side as well.

This time, the Ministry of Finance sent more people, more than eighty.

Although Caozhou, as a branch of the canal transport network, was not as commercially prosperous as Bianzhou, it still had a strong commercial atmosphere.

Those who had previously worked as accountants for caravans or as clerks for prefectures and counties were basically absorbed into the Ministry of Revenue and became great bricklayers, burning the midnight oil to do accounting in countless dark nights.

The rest were refugees and prisoners who had been merchants. They were all arranged to return to Gwangju by boat, and then officials from the government would come to assess them to see who was worth adding to the ranks.

As Zhao Huai'an's maritime trade expanded, his demand for business experience became very high. This included not only the formation of caravans, but also local commerce and trading posts, all of which required a large number of business talents.

So generally speaking, these merchants would definitely be given a position after they were sent back to Gwangju.

At that time, Gwangju was truly thriving, with jobs everywhere. As long as you had the courage and ability, you would have the opportunity!
Then there were the craftsmen, including those skilled in armor making, knife forging, and armor weaving—all related to military skills. They were even organized into a separate battalion among the bandits, and these people were mostly under Zhao Huai'an's control.

There were about sixty of them. They were all sword, armor and bow makers who were directly under the military command of Cao and Pu prefectures. After the city fell, they were captured by the Cao army and then worked for the Cao army to forge armor and weapons.

Zhao Huai'an placed these people under the command of the military headquarters, assigning them to the four departments under the commander's office, specifically responsible for the maintenance and forging of the army's weapons.

Then there were some medical craftsmen, doctors, veterinarians, and so on, totaling only twenty-three people.

There's no way around it; that's the medical situation at the time. Often, only one in two or three people has the skills to treat patients. If there are twenty-three people, it's because the army itself has already screened them out.

All these medical professionals and veterinarians were assigned to Pei Min's side, which slightly expanded the medical team in the army.

Zhao Huai'an has always valued doctors.

After recruiting skilled doctors like Pei Min, they began selecting bright and clever young men as their apprentices, learning by doing and passing on their knowledge to build a sizable medical team.

Two years have passed, and the team has grown to over sixty people, but that's already the limit, as the pool of skilled doctors capable of training apprentices is full. Now, with the addition of these two skilled doctors from the two states, the military medical team can expand its apprenticeship pool once again.

All of these were those who remained in the military.

Then the remaining skills related to production, such as blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, and potters, were all transported back to Gwangju, but they were also directly under the command of the military government.

As Zhao Huai'an continued to seize large numbers of people, these people would be directly under the command of the military government, making the Guang Prefecture military government increasingly large.

But this is also the norm during wartime. During this period, the public sector must account for a larger share than the private sector in order to cope with the increasingly brutal war.

This group of craftsmen was the largest, numbering 932.

Like the Righteous Army, the Grass Army also had a strong need for craftsmen, so whenever they conquered a place or village, they would first recruit craftsmen into their main camp.

Then there are the sergeants with military skills.

The old traitors in the bandit army were basically singled out and beheaded by Zhao Huai'an, which was considered a military achievement.

These people were Wang Xianzhi's core followers, some of whom had even worked with Wang Xianzhi in the salt trade, and they were not loyal to him at all.

Therefore, Zhao Huai'an mainly took in the state troops of Cao and Pu prefectures, the county soldiers under them, the local militias, the rural warriors in the manors of wealthy families, and the prisoners of the Tianping and Ganhuai armies.

These people numbered over six hundred in total, and Zhao Huai'an added them all to the husband's entourage, having them carry armor for the young master's soldiers.

Besides expanding military strength, another reason for doing so was that these people were powerful figures in the refugee groups and also unstable factors. By removing them and placing them in the army, it would be easier to manage the refugees after they were transported back to Gwangju.

That's pretty much it. It's a huge human resource; if Zhao Huai'an can effectively utilize it, the Baoyi Army's strength will reach a new level.

However, this time Zhao Huai'an gathered and captured nearly 50,000 people, of whom only about 1,000 had professional skills, which can be considered as one out of fifty.

These were all numbers that Zhao Huai'an knew in his heart, and he knew that he had really eaten too much at this meal. But in front of Yang Fuguang, he still put on the face of a loyal minister who was sharing the burden of the country.

In fact, Zhao Huai'an even made some demands on Yang Fuguang's side in order to make the performance more convincing.

He and Yang Fuguang stated that Gwangju could accept so many refugees, but such a large-scale population transport required necessary support, including ensuring unobstructed waterways in the prefectures and counties along the route, as well as providing necessary food rations.

What could Yang Fuguang say? One word: Give!

Thus, throughout the entire first month of the lunar calendar after welcoming Yang Fuguang, Zhao Huai'an was busy coordinating personnel and ships.

The task involved transporting people back to Gwangju, as well as some wounded officials and soldiers back to recuperate, and a large amount of wealth captured in the battle.

How much of this batch of goods is there?

To put it simply, this number is known only to Zhao Huai'an and Du Zongqi, who is in charge of the overall accounting.

Cao and Pu prefectures were originally wealthy prefectures. When disaster struck, they might lack food, but they would not lose any gold, silver, copper coins, or cloth.

The rebel army, which had been fighting in Cao and Pu prefectures for nearly two years, had almost destroyed all the prefectures, counties, and manors within their territory. While looting all the grain, they also amassed mountains of wealth.

These bandits almost all carried silver ingots with them. On the one hand, they could become wealthy if they ever decided to leave the banditry, and on the other hand, they could throw them behind them when they needed to escape, so the pursuers would stop chasing them.

Therefore, these silver ingots were also called "life-saving money" by the bandits!
When the rebel army suffered a major defeat, those who managed to escape were mostly mounted soldiers. After the rebel army launched a three-pronged attack, they began to retreat northeastward. Later, they joined Huang Cun's troops in the east and finally managed to withdraw from the battlefield.

Therefore, in this battle, the Baoyi Army did not capture many warhorses, only 323. However, the large animals such as mules and donkeys that were used for pulling carts were all captured by the Baoyi Army because they were left in the camp. In the end, they captured 4,700 mules and donkeys.

With these large animals pulling the carts, the mules and donkeys were just extras. Hundreds of carts filled with gold and silver made Zhao Huai'an rich overnight.

Fortunately, Zhao Huai'an had transported all the captured supplies to the three villages in the southwest, intending to load them onto a nearby ship and transport them back to Guangzhou.

Fortunately, Yang Fuguang arrived with his army the next day and entered Yuanju City.

If this batch of goods had been kept in the city at the time, and the Xuanwu Army had seen it, there is no doubt that they would have drawn their swords and seized it.

At that time, even if Yang Fuguang and Zhao Huai'an are sworn brothers, or even if they are father and son, they will still rob them without hesitation.

This is the Xuanwu Army, and it has always been like this throughout history.

Therefore, Zhao Huai'an also kept a low profile.

That's how you should be: be humble when you're eating meat, but don't hesitate to shout louder when you're being beaten.

How much wealth did Zhao Da seize?

After more than ten days of inventory, a total of 200,000 strings of copper coins, 100,000 strings of cloth, gold and silver, and approximately 30,000 strings of various bronzes, jewelry and ornaments were found, totaling 330,000 strings of valuables.

At that time, the annual tax surplus of Cao and Pu provinces was only 20,000 to 30,000 strings of cash. In other words, the wealth that these soldiers kept in the camp was almost the savings of the two provinces over ten years.

Most of the valuables here belonged to the powerful and wealthy families of the two states.

Since both states were agricultural states, the wealthy people accumulated most of their wealth in the form of land, grain, and cloth, and the amount of gold and silver was actually not much.

Even so, their combined wealth was more than ten times greater than the reserves of local governments, demonstrating that as the world has developed to this point, most of the wealth has actually been transferred to these people.

For Zhao Huai'an, the 330,000 strings of cash seized was also a large sum of money.

Before he set off, the state treasury of Guangzhou had about 80,000 strings of cash, the military treasury had about 300,000 strings of cash, and his private treasury had about 200,000 strings of cash, for a total wealth of about 580,000 strings of cash.

Zhao Huai'an won 330,000 strings of cash in one battle, which was more than half of his wealth.

This is war! It's either lose everything or rise to the top in one fell swoop.

In addition to the loss of goods and personnel, Zhao Huai'an also seized nearly 30,000 shi of grain from the rebel army camp.

Yes, those bandits used the slogan "Fight the wronged village, eat your fill" to incite the refugees to attack the wronged village. Ironically, those bandit camps actually had a large amount of grain.

Zhao Huai'an could understand this approach. After all, the lives of the common soldiers were what mattered. Once they were well-fed, these common soldiers' electoral leaders were the real electoral leaders.

But when he thought of that banner that read "Mending the Sky and Ensuring Equality," Zhao Huai'an couldn't help but shake his head. Was this what equality was?
Zhao Huai'an kept all the grain, and he also left 100,000 strings of copper coins from his wealth to be used as rewards in the army. The rest were basically transported back to Guangzhou with the fleet of ships carrying refugees.

This money was earned by Zhao Huai'an at great personal risk; he had no intention of sharing it with anyone else.

These goods looked plentiful, but each ship was quietly crammed with a dozen or so crates as ballast.

And so, Zhao Huai'an secretly ate the biggest piece of meat, his mouth full of oil, but he still pretended to have suffered a great loss.

He even shamelessly asked Yang Fuguang for reinforcements, specifically for Li Shitai's troops.

During the previous battle, Li Shitai was still unwell, so Zhao Huai'an placed him in the city to oversee the various wards. Later, when the remnants of the bandit army in the wards suddenly rose up and set fires, it was he who led the suppression.

This time, six thousand soldiers from the Zhongwu Army came to Yuanju with Yang Fuguang. Among them were three hundred former soldiers from Xuzhou under Li Shitai. He had left Chenzhou in haste with Zhao Huai'an before, and these men were not taken with him.

This time, Zhao Huai'an used the excuse that there were many casualties in the battle and that Yang Fuguang needed to allocate a skilled fighting force so that the Baoyi Army could form a new fighting force to ask for this Xuzhou army.

He knew Yang Fuguang wouldn't refuse, and indeed, after Zhao Huai'an asked for Li Shitai's three hundred former subordinates, Yang Fuguang nodded and handed over the military register of those three hundred men to Zhao Da.

Zhao Da was delighted again, having effortlessly gained another elite force!
But he didn't know that Yang Fuguang was so generous because he also had something to ask for.

So on February 3rd, Yang Fuguang suddenly invited Zhao Huai'an to go hunting.

Upon receiving the notification, Zhao Da was stunned for a long time before asking Zhao Liu:

"In this year of great disaster, when people are starving to death, how can we possibly have prey to hunt?"

Zhao Liu and the others were also bewildered, but they still participated in the hunt as agreed.

(End of this chapter)