The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

After Jia Chen and Sun Tiechong left Lin's Grain Shop, they went to the military commander's residence. By this time, Liu Tianwang had probably returned.

Jia Chen did not immediately decide how much grain to buy, because he needed to see how much grain and salary he could get from Liu Tianwang.

However, Lin Heqing giving him grain at half price made Jia Chen feel much more at ease.

This gave them more confidence in building Qianshanbao.

Jia Chen already knew from Lin Heqing that Liu Tianwang had recently purchased a batch of grain from the Sun family.

Although the imperial court allocated grain and salaries, after layers of deductions, not much ended up in Liu Tianwang's hands.

Liu Tianwang needs to stabilize morale, so he is quite proactive in distributing rations and pay.

He clearly intended to pay his subordinates their full salaries; at least he needed to make a show of it.

He promised even better conditions, especially to the soldiers who had just been selected from the Beijing garrison.

Jia Chen believed that Liu Tianwang would treat this group of people well, as they were his trusted inner circle.

Every military general has some capable retainers by his side; these are the elite of the elite.

Of course, Liu Tianwang couldn't possibly maintain thousands of personal guards, but he would definitely treat these men from the Beijing Garrison as his elite elite troops.

The compensation and benefits naturally cannot be too bad.

As for why they bought grain from the Sun family, Jia Chen felt it was because the Sun family had considerable influence in the area.

Even Liu Tianwang couldn't afford to offend these local bullies too much.

Especially for newcomers, it is necessary to stabilize these local forces in order to avoid some unnecessary trouble.

Liu Tianwang did indeed return, and Jia Chen soon met him.

After explaining his purpose, Liu Tianwang readily gave Jia Chen a month's worth of food for 300 men.

But when he learned that Jia Chen now had more than 400 people, he didn't say anything and increased the amount of food to 400 people's monthly supply.

Generally speaking, the standard in the military is that one person needs 2 catties of grain per day, so 400 people would need 24000 catties of grain per month, which is about 200 shi.

The price of rice is now more than 2 liang per shi.

Of course, Liu Tianwang didn't give him only rice; there were also some other grains. In short, he was satisfied with 200 shi of grain.

After all, Liu Tianwang had to consider other people, so it was already very kind of him to be able to allocate a month's worth of time to him.

However, Jia Chen wanted to try to get some more.

"My lord, construction on Qianshan Fortress has begun, and money is needed everywhere," Jia Chen said. "You mentioned before that the construction cost would be one thousand taels, is that right?"

The construction cost of Qianshan Fort was said to be one thousand taels, but that wasn't given to Jia Chen all at once.

"Here's what we'll do. I'll give you five hundred taels first," Liu Tianwang said after thinking for a moment. "You must promise to finish the job as soon as possible."

"My lord, rest assured, I will use all this silver for the construction of Qianshan Fortress," Jia Chen said immediately. "But what about the firearms craftsmen you promised me?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Tianwang paused for a moment, then smiled wryly and said, "I've been so busy these past few days that I almost forgot about this. But don't worry, I'll send the man to you in a few days. Right now, your priority should be building the fortified village."

"I dare not neglect the construction of Qian Shan Fort, and I must also consider how to defend the city in the future," Jia Chen said.

"Okay, very good." Liu Tianwang nodded.

Having a sense of crisis is a good thing.

"Sir, could you please equip the front hill beacon with a few cannons?" Jia Chen asked again.

These words left Liu Tianwang silent for a long while.

"How many do you want? Hongyi cannons are impossible, and there aren't many General cannons on the Northeast Road either. You only have Qianshan Fortress~~" Liu Tianwang shook his head.

Previously, only large fortresses like Deshengbao and Zhenqiangbao were equipped with a small number of defensive cannons.

In Liu Tianwang's plan, it was impossible for Qianshanbao to be equipped with cannons.

However, since Jia Chen had brought it up, he couldn't very well refuse outright.

"I was thinking, if we don't have large cannons, then some smaller ones should do, right?" Jia Chen said. "Franklin cannons will also work."

"I can try to get you some small and medium-sized breech-loading cannons," Liu Tianwang nodded.

Jia Chen's request was reasonable, and he was willing to support it.

"Thank you, sir."

"What else do you want?" Liu Tianwang asked.

He still thinks highly of Jia Chen.

Once the Qianshan Fort is completed, it will greatly enhance the defense capabilities of the entire Northeast Route.

"We need another batch of iron, and more gunpowder," Jia Chen said.

"What do you need iron for? If you want firearms, I will provide them for you," Liu Tianwang said.

Liu Tianwang knew that Jia Chen liked firearms, and had previously asked for some three-barreled guns and gunpowder.

So he wasn't surprised that they needed gunpowder.

"To cast cannons," Jia Chen replied.

"Don't joke around." Liu Tianwang said with a grim face, "Even if I find you some firearms craftsmen, how can you possibly forge those cannons?"

Leaving aside whether there are enough manpower, the cost of these cannons alone is beyond what Qianshanbao can afford.

"My lord, you misunderstand. I only want to build some small cannons, such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon," Jia Chen explained with a smile. "It's mainly for better defense of the city."

Upon hearing this, Liu Tianwang's expression returned to normal, and he nodded, saying, "In that case, among the firearms craftsmen you need, there must be some who know how to make cannons."

"We can only ask for your help in this matter, sir," Jia Chen said respectfully.

Liu Tianwang laughed heartily, "I probably can't find the craftsmen who can build the Great General Cannon and the Red Barbarian Cannon for you, but I believe that should be no problem for smaller cannons like the Tiger Crouching Cannon. Alright, it's all for the purpose of better improving the defense of Qianshan Fortress, and I will satisfy you. When the time comes, you can directly report to me how much iron you need for casting the cannons."

Jia Chen got what he wanted from Liu Tianwang.

Food is one aspect, but actually, it's mostly iron.

When the craftsmen arrived, Jia Chen planned to make some guns and cannons himself, and iron was the most crucial material.

Iron is a commodity controlled by the imperial court, and now the only way to obtain a large quantity is through Liu Tianwang.

Of the 500 taels of silver, Jia Chen took out 300 taels to buy grain.

The main expenses at Qianshanbao now are actually labor costs.

Given the current situation, those laborers won't receive any wages; they only need to be provided with meals.

The real expense lies in the construction of supporting facilities in the city, such as housing.

These require wood, which means we need to buy it.

There aren't many trees in Datong. Even if there were, they were all cut down long ago. In addition, due to the climate, tall trees don't grow very well here.

The cost of timber for building houses in the future will be considerable.

However, Jia Chen already had a plan in mind: to spend the money wisely.

In the future, houses will be made of earth, so not much timber will be needed.

More silver had to be spent on the casting of firearms and other equipment.

The firearms currently used by the Da Hong Army are of extremely poor quality, so Jia Chen needs to personally oversee the production of high-quality firearms.

When the craftsmen arrive, perhaps I can share some of my improvement methods with them to enhance the power of firearms.

These are the most important things; the front fort cannot be lost.

At Lin Heqing's place, Jia Chen didn't only buy rice; he also bought other grains.

They had to be very frugal; eating only rice was too extravagant for Qianshanbao at the moment, so they had to mix it with other grains.

In total, the average price per stone is about 0.5 taels.

The 300 taels bought 600 shi of grain, and with the 200 shi allocated by Liu Tianwang, it could feed more than 400 people for about four months.

With grain in hand, don't panic in my heart.

When Jia Chen returned to Qianshan Fort, he saw hundreds of people gathered together, shouting that they weren't working.

"No, we can't let them stay!"

"Exactly, what good would they do if they stayed? They'd be a nuisance!"

……

Jia Chen frowned.

He had already seen dozens of women in the crowd, who were dressed in rags and had unkempt hair.

However, he still recognized them; they were the women he had rescued from the Northern barbarians.

How did they get here?