All the interactions with the Asu family had gone fairly smoothly, and this kind of trade could continue — that was good news for Zhù Ying. If the dealings continued, at the very least the Qixia clan and the Asu family were very likely to become her political achievement. If she were allowed to serve here for several more years, establishing connections with the entire “mountain peoples” population was not out of the question.
Zhù Ying felt a twinge of regret.
On reflection, she’d made a good start on this, at least. She let that thought settle her, and her steps lightened as she walked to the inner quarters. Before she even stepped through the door, she heard women’s laughter. Inside she found Zhang Xiangu in cheerful conversation with Qi Xiaoniangzi, Xiao Jiang, the little dark-skinned maidservant, and others.
When she walked in, Zhang Xiangu said, “She’s gone?”
Zhù Ying crouched down beside her. “Yes, gone.”
Zhang Xiangu reached out and felt her forehead, then used a handkerchief to wipe her face, saying, “Maybe now you can rest for a few days.”
Zhù Ying said with surprise, “When have I not been resting?”
“In and out of the house every other day, and even when you’re home you hardly eat a meal with the family — and you call that resting?”
Zhù Ying said, “Being out and about isn’t exhausting—” She wisely stopped herself there and changed the subject. “Where’s Elder Sister?”
“Preparing medicine.”
“What? Someone’s ill? I hadn’t heard anything.”
Zhang Xiangu said, “Who says medicine is only for when you’re ill? It’s a medicinal tea — she’s testing a recipe. She says drinking it in the hot weather clears heat, detoxifies, and dispels dampness — it should be even more effective by midsummer.”
“That’s a good idea. You all got sick last year when you went out.”
Zhang Xiangu said, “Even if I weren’t sick, I wouldn’t want to go out in the height of summer. And don’t you go out either.”
Zhù Ying said, “That I can’t promise — I have to go and see the circuit intendant in midsummer, so I’m bound to be going out in the heat.”
Everyone chatted idly. Older Sister Du came in from the kitchen carrying a large platter of freshly washed fruit. After coming to Fulü County, eating fruit was far more convenient than it had been in the capital region, and the variety was much greater too. At this time of year, late spring edging into early summer, the lychees weren’t ready yet, but various other fruits were coming in one after another. There were loquats, cherries, and other sweet, delicious things. Older Sister Du also brought a big bamboo tray of mulberries, rinsed clean, with water still dripping off the sides.
Zhù Ying picked up a pear and said in surprise, “Pears are already in season?”
Zhang Xiangu said, “Of course they are — we could get pears at this time of year in the capital too, just more expensive.” At that point she’d been too frugal to buy any, but once Zhù Ying started managing the Court of Judicial Review’s household affairs, there had always been unusual things at home.
Pears were an autumn fruit, and it was already the end of spring with the weather warming up… Zhù Ying had a thought. What didn’t they have in the capital? What she was thinking about was Fulü County.
Zhù Ying said, “Isn’t Elder Sister coming out to eat?”
Huajie came out of her room with a smile. “Here I am, here I am.”
She pushed a small stool over to Zhù Ying, and Zhù Ying scooped it up and tucked it under herself. Zhang Xiangu popped a mulberry into her mouth. “Don’t use your hands — you’ll get stained and people will notice.”
She fed Zhù Ying one, and Zhù Ying ate it, gesturing for the others to help themselves. “Eat, all of you. Xiao Jiang?”
Zhang Xiangu laughed. “She’s already fuming — what more could she eat?”
Zhù Ying thought: You’ve always been a little fonder of Xiao Ya. How is it that you’re on joking terms with Xiao Jiang now? She asked, “I heard you all laughing just now. What is she fuming about?”
Zhang Xiangu laughed. “The students are so hopeless.”
They all laughed again for a while, and then Xiao Jiang said with a grumble, “I was teaching little Yame and the others. They learned quickly enough, but when they sang it back to me it came out different from how I’d taught them. I don’t mind if the melody is off and they go up and down and change key on their own. But they’re also adding filler words and repeating lines — that means the words no longer match what’s written on the stele. My idea was that if they sang the songs following the official dialect pronunciation, they’d not only learn to recognize the characters, but their accents would improve too. You spent such effort on the county school students’ official dialect speech — but now…”
A Xiao Jiang who was perfectly on key and spoke standard official dialect had been defeated by the local dialect of the women’s cell. She was vexed.
Zhù Ying was laughing when Zhù Da came in humming a tune from outside. Xiao Jiang, Huajie, and the others all stood up. Zhù Ying heard that the tune he was humming sounded familiar, and she went over and asked, “Father, that tune you’re humming—”
Zhù Da cleared his throat and looked a little embarrassed, though not entirely. “Hmm — your old father’s not allowed to learn his characters now, is he?”
Zhù Ying said, “Of course you are, it’s just — the tune you’re singing sounds a bit off, doesn’t it?”
“Nonsense! This is how I sing it.”
Zhù Ying turned to Xiao Jiang. “Is it actually right?”
Xiao Jiang looked caught between laughter and tears, though slightly rueful too. “The characters are all correct.”
Zhù Ying laughed even harder. She asked Zhù Da, “Father, where did you learn this song?”
Zhù Da gave a huff. “And you think you can ask that of me? Your mother and I both learned it at the yamen from Jiang Niangzi! Don’t talk to me about it — I’m going to practice my characters!”
Liu Songnian’s caliber was simply something else — he had been far more skilled than Huajie, and neither of the old couple had to hum or haw their way through it, or struggle to remember.
When Xiao Jiang had first been teaching the women cell’s wardens to sing the songs, the wardens had been half idle and half doing it as a favor to her, and had all learned a bit. During the period when Zhù Ying was busy with things outside and frequently away from home, Zhang Xiangu and Zhù Da had nothing much to do at home. Hearing Xiao Ya mention the character-learning songs, they’d become interested themselves.
Xiao Ya went back to tell Xiao Jiang, and with a little mutual nudging, Xiao Jiang had come to teach Zhang Xiangu and Zhù Da the songs as well. She also had a copy of the stele draft — words and music together — and the old couple’s learning of characters had grown much faster as a result.
This had originally been Huajie’s idea to begin with, and she took no offense, bore no grievance. She focused her attention on studying her medicinal formulas.
Seeing her parents occupied with something, Zhù Ying was pleased. “Has Mother learned them all?”
Zhang Xiangu said, not very confidently, “I’ve learned a few panels — I haven’t gotten through all of them.” The old woman had always sung in her spirit-medium performances using only one single tune; learning sixteen panels in full would take her quite some time.
She added, “It’s not getting in the way of your real business, is it?”
Xiao Jiang quickly said, “Elder Madam, please don’t worry — it’s not getting in the way at all. Little Yame and the others pick up the tunes quickly enough, but the words give them more trouble, and on top of that they improvise their own lines in…”
Local folk songs and mountain songs in this area had something in common with Zhang Xiangu’s “spirit-medium chants” — a single tune with whatever words you felt like stuffing in. That was also slow going.
Qi Xiaoniangzi said, “Couldn’t you find some people who learn faster and teach them in a group?”
Zhù Ying said, “Where would you find so many fast learners?”
Xiao Jiang’s heart stirred, but she said nothing for the moment. Before long it was time for the midday meal, and she would have left, but Zhang Xiangu kept her to eat together. Anyone who helped her daughter was well-treated by Zhang Xiangu. Xiao Jiang had eaten with Zhang Xiangu a few times before, but Zhù Ying had been busy with outside matters then, and had been away in the western township — she hadn’t been present.
After the meal, Zhù Ying headed back to the front yamen to handle business — the literacy steles in the various townships had been going up one by one, and she needed to assess the situation and consider how to continue erecting stone steles in the larger villages. Also, the exile encampment had been under construction for some days, and she needed to go and inspect it.
Xiao Jiang also came out with her. She had an “assignment” in hand, so Zhang Xiangu didn’t pay her any attention and sat on her own working through the copied song-and-lyrics sheet.
After passing through the inner gate and walking a few steps, Xiao Jiang, seeing they were about to reach the main road where people could see them, suddenly said, “My lord, I have an idea.”
“Mm?”
Xiao Jiang said, “I want to make a trip to the entertainment quarter.”
“What for?”
Xiao Jiang said, “As we all know, when it comes to spreading songs and verses, the fastest route is through the mouths of courtesans. You didn’t bring it up out of consideration for me, but I want to see this job done properly. They learn quickly and they sing beautifully — it won’t be long before the songs are spread far and wide. The first time you put so much effort into fixing the county school students’ official dialect — but now…”
Zhù Ying said, “That’s not necessarily certain.”
“It can work,” Xiao Jiang said. “There’s no need to trade on Master Liu’s name — some of them will be willing to learn for their own reasons. They’re in the lowly register; being able to read a couple of characters earns them a few more coins, doesn’t it? This isn’t the capital — there’s no one here who takes particular care to educate them. If I tell them they can learn characters by following the stele, they’ll learn fast.”
Zhù Ying said, “All right then. Since you want to go, I’ll have someone go with you. And there’s something I’d like you to look into while you’re at it.”
“What?”
Zhù Ying said, “Official courtesans and garrison courtesans — the government takes a cut. I’ve looked at the county yamen’s accounts, and it’s not a small amount. I don’t have a clear understanding of how that business operates, and I have too many things on my plate right now to look into it properly. Help me take a look: how is it being run here in Fulü County? What are the different categories? Who is managing it? What are the ages and general state of health of the women there? If someone stops selling her body, what skills does she have, what could she do for a livelihood?”
Xiao Jiang asked, “What are you planning?”
“I have some ideas. What to do and how to do it depends on how much information you manage to gather. Once you’ve found out all of this, I’ll tell you what the next step is.”
Xiao Jiang agreed right away. “Fine.”
She set out from the county yamen and got to work. She didn’t go plunging straight into the entertainment quarter — instead she wandered around the entrance to the alley for a bit. Then she went to the market and “happened to run into” a courtesan who’d come out to buy vegetables, and standing at the same vendor’s stall, they struck up a conversation. The literacy stele was right outside the market entrance, and as the two of them walked past it, baskets on their arms, Xiao Jiang casually mentioned the literacy stele.
The courtesan said, “Everyone talks about the literacy stele, the literacy stele — you have to be literate to read it, and I’ve stood in front of it long enough to be friends with it and I still can’t make out a word.”
Xiao Jiang said, “There’s a song that goes with it. Once you’ve learned the song, you match each character to the words of the song, and you can recognize them.” She hummed a line as she spoke, then pointed to the stele. “The first character is ‘huang’ — brilliant — and so is the second, and the third is ‘sheng’ — sage-. Just the first panel has the hard characters; the characters on the panels after that are all easier to remember and write.”
The courtesan was skeptical. “It’s really that easy?”
Xiao Jiang said, “Yes.”
The first day passed. The second day, when they went to buy vegetables again, the two chatted some more. Within a few days, this courtesan had arranged to meet Xiao Jiang by the riverbank so Xiao Jiang could teach her — no need for Xiao Jiang to come to the entertainment quarter.
The songs spread slowly. But the news that “you can learn characters by matching the song to the stele” spread like wildfire.
Xiao Jiang came back delighted to report this, and Zhù Ying said, “This news spreading is actually more valuable than those people all learning to sing the song. Otherwise, the stele stands there and the song lives in people’s mouths, and with no one matching the two together, both are wasted. How is the investigation going?”
Xiao Jiang grew serious and said slowly, “There are quite a few people in the entertainment quarter…” The clothing compared to the capital was unbelievably plain, but the suffering was the same. Those officially registered with the government numbered several dozen, and every morning they woke up owing varying amounts to the government. Most were not in good health; a few were more gravely ill.
Xiao Jiang cursed Administrator Guan under her breath. “He only cares about collecting money, and doesn’t look after the people inside at all. Women of forty or fifty still not being let go — at their line of work, surviving that long is no small thing.”
“Hmm. First pass word quietly to the older ones — not many, four or five people. We’ll try it out. They petition, I have them removed from the official register.”
Xiao Jiang’s eyes went wide.
“Fulü County is poor, and the county yamen is always desperately short of money. Am I supposed to rush them for money from selling themselves?”
“You… you’re actually going to release them?”
“What else? Give them medical treatment so they can live a little longer and keep selling themselves properly?”
“But won’t this cause you trouble? This is money! Every month, every festival, money goes to the official coffers — if that drops, how will you manage?”
“That’s my business. Keep your lips sealed,” Zhù Ying said. “This is not something that can be openly announced. If it gets out, I’ll deny everything.”
Xiao Jiang smiled. “This is already wonderful! I’ll go!”
Zhù Ying’s plan was to proceed slowly, starting with the oldest women — any who felt they had somewhere to go and wanted to leave could petition on their own, and she would release them. Then she wouldn’t add new names to the official courtesan register; pull out the fuel from beneath the pot one stick at a time, and once it all burned down, the whole thing would be finished.
She couldn’t do it all at once — the disturbance would be too large. Once Fulü County could fill in that gap from other revenue sources, she could shut down the entire government-run operation.
Fulü County was originally a poor county, and this was one of its largest revenue streams. But the beauty of the situation was precisely that it was a poor county — so “one of its largest revenue streams” was not an enormous figure in absolute terms. If Zhù Ying’s plans for the tangerine sales and increased cultivation went smoothly, she could more than cover that gap, and there would be no consequences.
That should not be too much of a problem. As for matters of the future — those could wait until later.
Zhù Ying was the sort of person who dove straight into whatever needed doing. She stopped fretting about the future and went first to inspect the progress of the literacy stele. Looking at everything, she suddenly thought: Why make Xiao Jiang do all this roundabout work? Why all the sneaking around? Since the courtesans were useful, use them directly.
It was a truthful admission that she hadn’t known this was one of the ways such things spread — because she had genuinely not followed the path of any “man of letters.”
All thirteen township steles had now been erected. She gave orders for Xiao Jiang to stop going to the entertainment quarter. Instead, the county yamen issued a directive, assembling the county seat’s official courtesans to learn the songs, then dispatching them to travel through all thirteen townships, singing their way through villages and hamlets for about half a month. Spring plowing was over and the countryside was relatively idle — people had time to listen to songs.
The county yamen posted a public notice explaining that “by matching the song to the literacy stele, you can learn to read.”
Done.
With all of that dispatched, Zhù Ying went to inspect the exile encampment. The encampment was nearly as large as a village or small settlement. But if the only requirement was something that could keep out wind and rain — not any particular quality of construction — the work went very quickly.
A dozen or so work sheds had already been completed. The other buildings were also roughly at the level of the work sheds, except that they had proper doors and windows and didn’t leak in the rain. Zhù Ying walked a circuit around the exile encampment. She had helped build her own family’s house once, and while she didn’t need the encampment to be as good as a private home, she did need it to be solid and not likely to collapse. She pointed out one spot where the foundation was problematic and ordered it torn down and rebuilt; pointed out another where the roof beams weren’t right and had it corrected; and found a few minor flaws elsewhere — a window that was crooked, a door that wouldn’t close properly.
Zhù Ying re-estimated the remaining construction time and figured it would be done in about twenty more days.
She was fairly satisfied with that progress. With the literacy stele and the exile encampment both under control, Zhù Ying decided to call the gentry together again to continue the discussion about tangerines.
Returning from the construction site to the county yamen, she found a visiting card being presented to her at the gate.
Zhù Ying kept walking as she asked, “What is this?”
Tong Li said, “It’s from Elder Zhao, marking his birthday celebration — and also a send-off feast for his grandnephew. Two occasions in one. He’s asked most earnestly for you to come and raise a cup.”
“Ah! The grand-nephew by clan.” Zhù Ying remembered. The student who had completely not expected to get into the prefectural academy was also surnamed Zhao — by clan reckoning he was a generation younger than Elder Zhao. They weren’t close — probably five degrees of kinship removed. But being the same surname and all living in the same county where they could see each other regularly, Elder Zhao was holding a birthday celebration and had pulled him in alongside.
Zhù Ying said, “Fine, let’s go. Take my card over and let them know.”
“Yes.”
Zhù Ying also had the household prepare three sets of gifts. One was a birthday gift for Elder Zhao — just ordinary celebratory items would do, usually things like longevity peaches, roasted goose, and plump chickens. The other two were for the students — the kind of thing one gives a scholar, writing implements and the like. Zhù Ying didn’t generally attend the gentry’s family banquets. If every household in the county held a birthday banquet and she attended them all, she wouldn’t have a free day all year.
This time she was going because Elder Zhao had used his grand-nephew as the reason, and Zhù Ying was going to make a show of her support. And since she was going to send a gift to the departing student, it had to be prepared. The other gift she’d send along conveniently to Zhen Qi — demonstrating she wasn’t showing favoritism.
The occasion was three days away. A fair number of people at the yamen had received invitations; Zhù Ying allowed everyone to leave half an hour earlier that day to go home and prepare. The people who hadn’t received invitations cheered along with the rest.
Before the cheering had even stopped, Elder Zhao sent a messenger with additional news: “Turning sixty this year, making it a grand celebration. Flowing feast tables will be set up along the street outside — anyone passing by will have a seat.”
Zhù Ying also changed into casual clothes and went to Elder Zhao’s home. At his home were some yamen officials, a number of familiar faces from the gentry, and the street outside the house had a dozen or so tables set up with dishes, the food constantly being cleared away and replaced with fresh.
Zhù Ying was the guest of honor. Everyone else had arrived by the time she got there; Elder Zhao led his household members out to receive her. Beside Elder Zhao stood his grand-nephew by clan, Zhao Zhen, a young man who wore a thoroughly bewildered look — you were never this nice to me before.
But when Zhù Ying presented him with the writing implements, he accepted happily. “I will certainly study hard and not bring shame to my lord!”
Elder Zhao didn’t care how valuable her gift was — face was what mattered.
Zhù Ying saw that the banquet included not only gentry but also a number of county school students, and she smiled. “Is everyone here? Where is Zhen Qi?”
Zhao Zhen said, “He was sent an invitation — his family said he’s already headed for the prefectural capital.”
Zhù Ying dropped the subject and turned instead to congratulate Elder Zhao and Zhao Zhen’s parents. To Zhao Su she said, “You must work hard too.”
Zhao Su knew this was a polite formality and played along accordingly. “Yes. My studies still have much room to improve — I’d like to spend another year or two learning from my foster father before I can say I’m ready.”
The county school students nudged and winked at each other. Their parents and elders who had come were happy. Zhen Qi was gone — wonderful!
They watched Zhù Ying speaking with Elder Zhao and whispered among themselves: “Now my lord will have more time to look after us.”
Whether students or their families, they all felt Zhù Ying had a certain partiality for students from humble backgrounds. Without Zhù Ying’s open selection process, Zhao Su the “mountain-peoples son” aside, Zhen Qi — not a mountain-peoples son, just a poor lad — would never have had a chance at the county school. You had to remember that the county school at the time had practically fallen apart, stuffed full of wealthy sons all seeking to hold a respectable title. And the many subsidies Zhù Ying had provided to the county school were claimed most fully by Zhen Qi. For the wealthy boys those subsidies were merely a bonus; but for a poor child, they eliminated all worries about making ends meet. Who benefited more — they knew. They just didn’t dare say so.
A county magistrate’s attention and energy were limited. If there was already an “adopted son” to be put first and looked after, then there was a Zhen Qi taking up another share — less was left for anyone else. This was also why some others had wanted to try the prefectural academy: the county magistrate had so many people filling her heart already, there was no room. Of course it was also because Zhù Ying had cracked down hard on the county school, and everyone’s learning had genuinely improved. They now dared try the prefectural academy. They were no longer like before, just attending county school for the respectable title of “county school student,” useful when seeking a marriage match, dropping out at the end of their allotted years and going home.
“If the county magistrate is willing to take care of things, there’s a real future. Study a couple more years, put down solid roots — that’s how you get results. Even without the prefecture recommending you, having the county recommend you is possible too. At the prefectural level, who would even know us? But at the county level, our matters are still handled here.” They whispered among themselves.
Zhù Ying didn’t stay long at Elder Zhao’s. She sat for a brief while and then left.
The next day, under the pretense of “returning the favor,” she invited the gentry to come together once more — this time purely for county affairs.
Zhù Ying sat at the head of the room, looked out at the entire assembly of gentry crowding the hall, and said, “We’ve put off our business long enough. Time to begin. First, please take a look at this.”
The attendants brought out a tray of pears. The gentry all recognized pears, and Elder Gu asked, “My lord, why bring out pears? Pears suggest parting — that can’t be good!”
Zhù Ying smiled. “Nothing of the sort. Pears are an autumn thing, yet I ate one just the other day. That reminded me of something: storage.”
She then laid out for the gentry two potential revenue streams. The first was the “Fulü tangerine.” She’d already set that in motion — at the prefectural academy examination hall, she’d given each student going in a small iron tangerine. Once Zhao Zhen arrived at the prefectural academy, she would have him keep the tangerine with him and gradually spread the story. By the time autumn and winter came and tangerines were in season, some reputation would already be established.
That was the sale of “good luck.”
The second was “out-of-season produce.” She said, “In the capital, fresh fruit is available in all four seasons — though some is more expensive, and some is so rare it can’t be had even with money, reserved only for the imperial household and a handful of other families. Just the other day, seeing those pears made me think of this. They also command very high prices. The capital has heated rooms that can grow some fruit and vegetables — but in small quantities. But I wonder — could certain fruits be cellared for storage? Then we could sell them not just at the new year but beyond.”
Elder Gu and the others all said, “Very true — there are methods for storage.”
Zhù Ying said, “I’ll need the guidance of you village elders on that.”
All of this about farming, tangerines, and agriculture she was learning as she went. Growing fruit and vegetables in heated rooms in winter was something the gentry didn’t understand much either — they didn’t have such extravagances, and didn’t particularly need them. Fulü County’s climate meant there was nearly always something growing in every season. Winter brought less, of course, so a bit of storage sufficed. Their cellars were mostly used for grain and vegetables; not many stored a large quantity of fruit. Just as the county magistrate didn’t want fruit trees encroaching on farmland, the gentry wouldn’t sacrifice grain storage to store fruit.
But they did have the capacity to store some.
Normally they used underground cellars. Not too warm, not too cold. Too warm and fruit spoiled; too cold and it froze and was ruined. The cellar also couldn’t be too dry — if it was, the fruit would go hollow inside, and when bitten into it was like chewing dry floss with no juice. During the storage period, someone had to go in now and then to sort through and remove any fruit that had gone bad — otherwise one bad piece would corrupt everything around it. With careful tending, pears and citrus like mandarin oranges could be kept until the third month of the following year.
The more the gentry thought about it, the more they felt this was workable. But just as with the tangerine sale, it would need a little advance “publicity.”
Zhù Ying said, “There are other difficulties — let me explain. First, I cannot engage in commerce directly. Second, the storage warehouses are probably insufficient. Third, our surrounding areas also sell fruit — what do we do if competitors see us taking their trade and try to sabotage us? Fourth, the sales channels. Fifth, quality and flavor must be good before anything can sell. Sixth, there are also the questions of venue and labor costs, and so on.”
The gentry all nodded.
Elder Gu said, “The tangerine crop hasn’t ripened yet this year, so we can start building the warehouses now. After the autumn harvest, there will be idle workers in plenty — if the volume is large, rotating and sorting fruit alone will need several hundred hands.”
Elder Zhao said, “My lord, it’s not appropriate for you to appear directly — simply remain behind the scenes, and just name someone to run things. Everyone here would have no objection.”
Even Lei Bao spoke up: “We’ll personally escort the shipments and handle whatever comes up on the road.”
Zhù Ying said, “Everyone acting independently from the start won’t work. The county yamen should take the lead, and you gentlemen do the actual work.”
Everyone said, “We gladly follow your orders.”
Zhù Ying then asked them first to compile an approximate count of the tangerine trees — including the scattered individual farmers’ totals, put together as one figure. Then she went through the storage calculations with them. Starting from now, each household was to begin preparing its warehouses. Zhù Ying said, “The grain must not be compromised.” With that, the storage capacity fell short — because previously, once tangerines were harvested, the vast majority were sold immediately at low seasonal prices. The new plan was to store them and sell them gradually at higher prices.
Zhù Ying said, “The county can build storage facilities and rent them at market rates.” This was a legitimate way for the county yamen to take a share. The gentry found this acceptable. And if Zhù Ying oversaw the construction, the warehouses would likely be of better quality than anything they’d build themselves.
As for sales channels, Zhù Ying said, “Fulü County’s population may be small, but there are some of our people in the prefecture and in other areas, aren’t there? Start with the places where our county’s people are concentrated, and reach out to them — fellow locals help each other. Set up a fellow-locals liaison point, form a group.”
Like the time Chen Xianggong’s son had taken her to meet the capital’s “fellow locals,” the friends of the eldest Chen son had been a bit foolish, but the Chancellor himself had introduced her to people who were genuinely useful.
To avoid having competitors disrupt their operations, they should form a collective of their own people. In a convenient and not-too-remote location, set up a compound that all local people living away from home could use as a gathering point. She was simply offering this idea — in the first year, it shouldn’t be done on too large a scale. From now until New Year’s there was still well over half a year to build up things.
Elder Gu and the others’ eyes lit up. They understood very well how “fellow local” networks worked. Even though locals betraying and cheating one another was common enough, if all they wanted was to borrow each other’s presence and influence, it was very cost-effective.
Zhù Ying said, “Let’s start with this prefecture. We’ll set up a few locations and choose sharp and capable young men to run them. When they go, they are merely ‘staying as guests’ or ‘traveling to broaden their horizons’ — not going to do business. If local merchants from our county need to use the place, they are being looked after by fellow locals.”
There it was.
The gentry stirred with excitement.
Zhù Ying had thought it through. Many things couldn’t be done without the gentry. In Fulü County, even literate people were scarce, and quite a few who couldn’t even properly count ten tangerines for a coin were common. It was only among the gentry families that there were enough capable people. Even with a good teacher, it took several years to produce someone useful; and Fulü County didn’t have many teachers capable of genuinely instructing anyone. Just a literacy stele? That would need ten or twenty years to yield results. The gentry’s capable young men were available right now.
They settled on five initial locations. For example, for the Southern Prefecture, Elder Zhao’s son would go; for the neighboring county, Lei Bao’s brother; for the neighboring prefecture, Elder Gu’s son. None of them were merchants — they were going to serve as host of the fellow-locals gathering at their respective locations. Behind them stood the county yamen, but the county yamen would not appear directly. Within this arrangement, there was room for a great deal of maneuvering on their part, and profit to be had. And at their locations, they could first spread the story of the tangerine, so that by the time Fulü County’s merchants arrived to “seek their assistance,” the ground would already be prepared.
Elder Zhao’s son, once he was in the prefectural capital, could connect with the clan-cousin Zhao Zhen — and tell the story of a student who brought a tangerine into the examination hall and passed.
By the time that story had made the rounds, the warehouses would be ready, and the tangerine harvest season would have arrived.
Zhù Ying said, “Don’t be daunted or afraid. We’re only trying it out — if we lose money, it’s my responsibility.”
Elder Gu and the others all said, “My lord has thought so much on our behalf — how could we have no stake in this?” They all agreed to shoulder a portion of the risk.
Zhù Ying said, “This is me meddling. You all could have lived quite comfortably collecting rents.”
Lei Bao, though he’d been on the wrong end of her rod, hadn’t been left out of subsequent good things, and had worked out for himself that he’d simply walked straight into the barrel of a gun. The matter was past, and it wouldn’t be held against him again. And so he stood up and said, “People always want to move upward! The county being this poor isn’t something anyone wants. We just didn’t think of a way out ourselves, and at business we can’t beat people from other places. But now my lord has come — things are different.”
The terms were set: Zhù Ying supervised from behind the scenes. The county yamen collected warehouse rent and commercial taxes; all other profit went to the gentry. But the gentry had to organize themselves, also purchase tangerines from ordinary farmers, not depress the price — it had to be fair trade, with a set price each year. Furthermore, all planting, harvesting, transporting, and warehouse management for the tangerine business had to use workers from the county.
And no encroachment on farmland.
The gentry agreed in a single voice.
Zhù Ying said, “One more matter. Tangerine storage runs from autumn into winter. After the autumn harvest, it will once again be time to levy labor conscription for water control works, and this year with that on top of everything else, the roads also need some work. You don’t need to worry about that — the county will provide the conscript labor. So for the storage work, you’ll need some female workers. The county won’t be levying conscript labor for that — you’ll have to hire them yourselves. For one thing, women are more careful and thorough. For another, this is precisely the idle season for them. I know you have tenant farmers you can use, but your tenant farmers may not be enough.”
The gentry were hesitant. “We don’t really need that many hands for this — why use women? So many women gathered in one place doesn’t look good. Men are more reliable for this kind of work.”
Zhù Ying said, “You are all men of some years, and certainly you’ve seen more of life than I have. I’ll just say one thing: a man who takes his pay, buys wine with it, goes to the pleasure quarters, gambles it away, or keeps another woman — and spends every coin he earns, leaving wife and children half-starved at home — there’s been more than one or two like that, hasn’t there? Spending it all is the best case. Some spend themselves into debt, and in the end sell their wife and children to pay for it. The family is ruined.”
Elder Gu sighed. “It does happen — quite a few have drunk themselves to death too.”
Zhù Ying said, “If something like that occurs, it would actually be counterproductive. Honest and hardworking men are certainly usable — but men like that I’ll be conscripting first for the construction works. I can’t spare them for you.”
Elder Gu was still a little hesitant.
Zhù Ying said, “I’m just putting out the idea. We can try it. My sense is that women are better at managing the household. If you want to use men instead, you must first hand half their wages directly to their families. The money earned in this county cannot lead to people starving.”
The gentry finally nodded. “My lord is right.”
Zhù Ying said, “We haven’t even started doing things yet — we can settle the specifics as we go. Once the procedures are established, I’ll step back entirely and hand everything over to you local village elders to manage. But while it’s in my hands, there must be no errors.”
The gentry were inwardly delighted, though their mouths were full of protests, urging her to stay involved. Zhù Ying said, “Officials are not permitted to engage in commerce. I am only involved for the sake of this county’s people.”
The gentry cheered Zhù Ying at length as a true guardian of the people, and said that since she’d arrived the whole atmosphere had improved. Elder Gu took the lead in bringing up the literacy stele, calling it “a truly benevolent policy that opens the people’s minds.” He said, “Ordinary farmers are all good people — it’s just that when talking to them, everything gets mixed up and unclear. They also don’t understand the law, and only understand their own fixed notions. And sometimes they don’t even know basic arithmetic — when we collect rent from them, they think we’re exploiting them…”
He went on at some length.
Elder Zhang said, “In the past, you never saw the yamen providing draft animals for the farmers. My lord is truly a parent to the people. What’s especially impressive is managing to actually get things done. Compared to those people full of flowery talk but impractical — so much better.”
Lei Bao said, “My lord’s magnanimous generosity — not holding a petty person’s transgressions against him, judging the act not the person, giving me the chance to reform myself — I am profoundly moved in the depths of my heart.”
Zhù Ying thought: Wait until you actually have the profit from this venture in your hands before saying any of that. If it goes bad, you’ll have plenty of harsh words for me then.
But outwardly she was the picture of gracious modesty, saying, “You’re too kind. When all is done, we’ll celebrate together. For now, the fellow-locals gathering points are few — there will be more in time, and there will be other opportunities too. There’s no hurry; there will be chances.”
Everyone agreed it sounded fine.
With the plan settled, all parties were reasonably satisfied. The gentry who hadn’t landed a spot in the fellow-locals gathering were a little restless, but with Zhù Ying’s assurances, they also settled into watchful patience.
Each household went home with their own calculations. Some were planning expansions to their warehouses; others were assigning more workers to tend and protect the fruit trees; others were packing up luggage for family members about to depart.
Zhù Ying also provided actual funding from the start rather than just a verbal directive — she gave each departing representative twenty strings of cash to go and secure a foothold first. The subsequent expenses were covered, and if any official business gave them trouble, the county would send word on their behalf. She’d already thought through the pretext: “Residents of our county have encountered a dispute in your honored jurisdiction — we respectfully request your investigation.”
And so on.
Zhù Ying personally saw off the people being sent to establish the fellow-locals gatherings. The ones she’d selected were all people she’d observed over time and found to be relatively capable, unlikely to be easily deceived or to skim off too large a cut for themselves. These people all came from different townships, and a structure immediately emerged: within the fellow-locals gathering, there were still closer fellow-locals — and everyone tended to turn to those geographically nearest.
These were patterns Zhù Ying could not control.
She now had on hand the welcome news of another matter — Zhao Su came to report that Su Yuan had returned.