20demayo Chapter 66 Transportation Demand
Chapter 66 Transportation Demand
In early June of the second year of the Tianqi reign, the rainy season arrived early in Jinan.
The continuous drizzle did not wash away the anxiety in the air; instead, it made the stench of decay even thicker. This putrid smell came not only from the still-floating corpses in the moat, but also from the Guangchu Granary, the largest official granary in Jinan Prefecture.
"It's rotten... completely rotten..."
The ambassador of the Guangchu Granary (a low-ranking official of the ninth grade) slumped on the muddy ground, clutching a handful of moldy, blackened rice, on the verge of tears.
Behind him, several thousand bushels of military rations, which should have been transported to the front lines in Yanzhou, were emitting a nauseating, sour stench due to dampness and heat. What made him even more desperate was that the dozens of large carts parked at the warehouse entrance remained empty.
There were no coachmen, no mules, and no soldiers escorting them.
"Why hasn't it been moved yet?!"
A roar shattered the silence. Zhang, the Shandong Provincial Administration Commissioner (responsible for the Jinan Circuit), strode in, his face dark, surrounded by a group of bailiffs. His official boots splashed through the mud, raising a cloud of filth.
"My lord! I'm innocent!" The ambassador crawled a few steps on his knees, grabbing Zhang's legs. "It's not that I'm unwilling to transport them, it's that no one dares to! The post station workers have all deserted, and the conscripted laborers, upon hearing they were going south to their deaths, would rather cut off their own limbs than come. Yesterday, we finally managed to gather a team, but they were robbed by bandits just thirty miles outside the city, their heads hanging from trees!"
Lord Zhang kicked the ambassador aside, looked at the warehouse full of moldy grain, and felt a wave of dizziness.
This is the current state of the Ming Dynasty's dilapidated machine: although it possesses vast resources (there is still grain in the treasury), the arteries in the final link of "logistics and distribution" have become completely hardened and blocked.
At the front lines, General Yang Zhaoji's headquarters sent three urgent messages a day urging for grain supplies, saying that the soldiers had begun killing horses for food and that a mutiny would break out if supplies were not delivered soon. Meanwhile, back home, the grain was rotting in the warehouses.
This absurd situation is enough to cost any local official their head.
"What about the canal gang?" Lord Zhang asked the magistrate behind him through gritted teeth. "They usually run rampant on the canal. Now is the time to use their manpower. Send them!"
"Your Honor," the prefect said with a bitter face, "Ever since the Weishui Gang was... wiped out by that person, the remaining small gangs have been terrified. In addition, Xu Hongru cut off the canal, and now there isn't even a bird on the dock. Those boat captains have long since taken their boats and fled into Weishan Lake."
"Useless! All of you are useless!"
Lord Zhang was trembling with rage. "The capital of Shandong province can't even transport three thousand shi of military rations? Am I supposed to carry them out myself?"
The rain poured down harder and harder, as if mocking these incompetent bureaucrats.
Just then, Prefect Wang of Jinan, who had been silent all along, coughed and stepped forward.
"Ahem... Your Excellency, actually... there's a carriage company in the city that might be able to do this job. Besides, only they would dare to do it."
Lord Zhang turned his head sharply: "Who?"
"Lu Ji," Lord Wang said, his expression complex. "It's run by that scholar Lu who guarded the south gate a few days ago. I heard he has a... well-equipped guard force."
Lord Zhang's brows furrowed into a deep frown.
As a traditional civil official, he instinctively felt disgust and vigilance towards local powerful figures like Lu Yan who "privately amassed armor and weapons." In his eyes, this was only a hair's breadth away from being a bandit.
"That scholar who used sorcery to kill people on the city wall?" Lord Zhang sneered. "Use him? Wouldn't that be inviting a wolf into the house?"
"My lord, wolves eat meat, but they can also kill dogs," Prefect Wang said in a low voice. "Moreover, I heard that the Fan family's two carts of smuggled goods were being sent to Dezhou the day before yesterday, and they used Lu's company. The convoy had a 'Lu' flag flying everywhere, and they had no trouble getting through; even the bandits didn't dare to look them in the eye. Now, at a time like this, we can only fight fire with fire."
Lord Zhang fell silent.
Looking at the warehouse full of moldy grain and thinking of the army on the front lines that could mutini at any moment, his will to survive ultimately triumphed over his political fastidiousness.
"Go and invite them."
Lord Zhang waved his hand dejectedly, "No, I will write the letter myself. Just say... it's a matter of great importance to the military and the country, and I request that Scholar Lu come to the government office for a discussion."
……
Meanwhile, Lu's Carriage and Horse Shop.
Compared to the gloomy atmosphere of the government office, this place was like a perfectly functioning machine.
Inside the huge transit warehouse, workers were chanting as they moved goods. The pulley system and wooden tracks designed by Lu Yan made the loading and unloading efficiency more than three times higher than that of ordinary docks.
In the "General Office" on the second floor, Lu Yan was standing in front of a huge map of Shandong.
"Boss, this is this week's market research report."
Fan Fu knocked softly and entered, placing a booklet on the table. "Our 'safe zone' business is already fully booked. Wealthy families in the city are even willing to pay five times the price to send their families in. In addition, several estates outside the city have also sent people to try and register under our 'Lu's' name."
"Hanging the flag is allowed, but a 'flag borrowing fee' will be charged."
Lu Yan didn't even turn his head. He drew a circle on the map with a red and blue pencil. "Each flag costs five hundred taels of silver, and they have to sign a waiver: if they mess up and provoke Xu Hongru's main force, we will not be responsible."
"Five hundred taels for a flag?!" Fan Fu exclaimed in astonishment. "That's practically robbery!"
"This is selling credit," Lu Yan said calmly. "In this chaotic world, credit is more valuable than gold. Because our credit is built on human lives—whether from bandits or our own."
He turned around, pointed to the map, and said, "Fan Fu, look here."
Fan Fu leaned closer and saw that Lu Yan had marked more than a dozen points densely along the official road from Jinan to Yanzhou; those were his planned "armed logistics nodes."
"The government's postal system is finished." Lu Yan's voice was as calm as if he were analyzing an autopsy report. "But the food, water, and sanitation needs of these hundreds of thousands of troops still need to continue. This creates a huge market vacuum."
"But boss, that's military rations! The risk is too great."
"The greater the risk, the higher the premium."
Lu Yan walked to the window and looked down at the "Special Operations Brigade" undergoing training. After the battle at the South Gate, the team's demeanor had completely changed. If they were fierce servants before, they were now cold-blooded war machines.
"For others, this is a job that could cost them their lives. But for us, it's our only chance to get an 'armed pass'."
Lu Yan's eyes sharpened. "With this authority, we can legally expand our force to five hundred, or even a thousand men. We can openly possess firearms and even forge cannons. This is more important than how much silver we earn."
Just then, Zhao Changying hurried upstairs.
"Master, someone from the government office has arrived. It's a letter from the Provincial Administration Commission, requesting your presence for a meeting."
A slight smile appeared on Lu Yan's lips.
"I finally couldn't take it anymore."
He straightened his collar and picked up the "Wartime Logistics Service and Disclaimer Agreement" that had been prepared beforehand on the table.
"Let's go to the government office. This time, we need to have a serious talk with these officials about the price beyond the 'transportation fee.' Remember, even if we wanted the moon, they'd have to find a way to pluck it down from the sky."