Taicang is both the name of a granary and a geographic location.
Since the King of Wu first constructed a granary here during the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE), figures such as Lord Chunshen of Chu, Liu Bi the Prince of Wu in the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), Sun Quan of Eastern Wu, and Qian Liu of Wuyue have all established facilities here to store grain, passing the tradition down through generations.
This location was not chosen by coincidence. Taicang borders the great sea to the east; its coastal harbor is wide and deep, capable of berthing giant ships. Within its borders, waterways such as the Lou River and the Yantietang (a major waterway) crisscross, creating a network that easily connects to the hinterlands of Jiangnan.
After the rise of maritime transport, Taicang gained the reputation of being the "Wharf of Six Nations," though in reality, merchants from far more than six nations came to trade. During the peak of the Yuan Dynasty’s maritime grain transport, over one thousand six hundred ships would set sail from Taicang in a single day, accounting for one-third of the nation’s maritime transport capacity; it was truly a hub of ocean shipping.
Precisely because of this, in the first year of the Yanyou reign of Renzong (Ayurbarwada, 1314), the administrative seat of Kunshan Prefecture was moved here, and Taicang became even more prosperous.
Tai means "Great." The largest granary within the Taicang boundary at this time was undoubtedly the Sea Transport Granary at Zhangjing in the south of the city. It could store over a million shi of grain and was still undergoing intermittent expansion, promising an even more impressive scale in the future.
[TN: Shi — A grain volume unit, roughly 100 liters.]
Located on the north bank of the Lou River and the east side of Yantietang, the Sea Transport Granary suddenly became extremely busy today, in the third year of Zhizheng (1343). Thousands of maritime boat households and bondservants from the Huai region moved in and out of the granary like ants, loading bags of grain into ships’ holds to await shipment. Shao Shuyi was one of them.
[Bondservants — Servants or captives in the Yuan class system, legally treated as property.]
After working in a daze for the entire morning, he was already struggling to hold on, but he dared not slack off because he needed money—he needed to fill his belly. As a modern person who had grown up in the twenty-first century and inexplicably arrived in this spacetime, he had become a hereditary maritime boatman. His social status and economic situation were both destitute; if he didn’t work as a hired laborer, he truly wouldn’t survive."Careful." Just as his steps staggered and he nearly fell to the ground, a pair of large hands reached over from the side and steadied him.
"Understood," Shao Shuyi responded, continuing forward.
He recognized the person supporting him as Zheng Song, a clan cousin of Zheng Guozhen, the Record Keeper in charge of documents at the Maritime Grain Transport Myriad-Household Commandery. Zheng Song acted as a steward; he was cautious and reticent, his emotions invisible, making him impossible to read.
Of course, as a common boatman, Shao Shuyi was not qualified to interact with Zheng Song, so it was normal not to know him well. Zheng Song looked Shao Shuyi up and down, then quickly withdrew his gaze and left.
When the sun reached its zenith, the crisp sound of a gong finally rang out from the distance. Shao Shuyi felt as if he had been granted a great amnesty. He collapsed on the riverbank, gasping for breath.
Physical exhaustion left him with no mind to care about anything else. The whole world seemed to have turned gray, and he didn't even bother to distinguish the quarrel happening close at hand—
"When I left, I warned you a thousand times, yet you refused to listen. What is the meaning of this?"
"Brother, this is what they gave us."
"The amount isn't wrong—four fen of freight money is correct—but it is entirely 'diminished banknotes.' How can we possibly spend this?" The speaker grew increasingly angry, followed by the crisp sound of a slap and curses mixed with slang and local dialect.
The person who was hit wept bitterly. Perhaps out of guilt, he looked ready to throw himself into the river, but was stopped by the clumsy efforts of onlookers. The commotion was so great that even Shao Shuyi recovered his senses and turned to look.
The man who tried to jump into the river had no will to die after being stopped; he only sat kneeling on the ship's deck, weeping. A group of people surrounded him, hesitating to speak. The most striking among them was a middle-aged man with messy hair.
This man was not tall, but extremely stocky and thickset, with broad shoulders and a thick back, looking like a solid wall of meat. His head was massive, and his neck was thick and short, almost merged with his shoulders. Most eye-catching was his hair, which resembled seaweed churned by the sea breeze—oily, matted, and growing wildly. It seemed the owner never groomed it and took pride in that fact.
His exposed skin had been eroded to a dark purple by the sea breeze and scorching sun, so rough it looked like it could snag silk—eh, he was actually wearing silk clothes? It seemed he was no ordinary person.
"Stop looking. That is Cai Luantou, a famous fierce man of the sea. Let's go." A low shout came from beside his ear, followed by a strong force pulling Shao Shuyi up, dragging him stumbling into the distance.
As they moved away, angry curses could be faintly heard from the river surface: "I, Cai Luantou, have always been the one swallowing other people's wealth; no one has ever dared to short me on money. Dog officials! Thieving officials! Don't force me to rebel!"
As he spoke, a crash was heard; Cai Luantou had smashed a porcelain vase onto the deck, absolutely furious.
Shao Shuyi gently broke free from the grip. After walking dozens of steps, he stopped and looked at the person who had pulled him. "Baijianu, why is Cai Luantou furious?"
"Baijianu" was a childhood name. Like Shao Shuyi, he was from a boatman household, of similar age, and a neighbor; their relationship was naturally close. In fact, he had a formal name: surnamed Kong, named Tie. Because his family was in difficulty after he was born and relied heavily on the assistance of neighbors, he was given the childhood name "Slave of a Hundred Families" (Baijianu) to ward off misfortune.
Hearing Shao Shuyi ask, he first looked back at the crowd causing a ruckus on the Lou River before speaking. "I only heard others say it, so it might not be accurate. The Imperial Court conscripted boat households from Wentai to come to Liu Family Port to transport grain. Because they came with empty ships, which is considered easier, the freight money was already low. When they arrived, what was issued was entirely diminished banknotes. It is only natural for Cai Luantou to be angry."
Shao Shuyi understood. "Diminished banknotes" were Precious Banknotes that were severely worn; their value was often greatly discounted in actual use, or they couldn't be spent at all.
As for the conscription of Wentai boat households to transport grain at Liu Family Port, Shao Shuyi was not surprised. Although the Maritime Grain Transport Myriad-Household Commandery had jurisdiction over seven regional Thousand Commander offices—Songjiang Jiading, Kunshan Chongming, Changshu Jiangyin, Hangzhou Jiaxing, Wentai, Qingshao, and Xiangsha Nuomi—and one grain transport Thousand Commander office (formerly the Pacification Office), with tens of thousands of boat households and thousands of ships of various sizes, they knew their own reality. These things only existed on the registers; it was hard to say how many people and ships truly existed.
Therefore, starting more than ten years ago, the task of the annual Spring and Summer Transport—sometimes starting in autumn, called "Autumn Transport"—was jointly undertaken by the Myriad-Household Commandery and coastal "powerful commoners." The Imperial Court tacitly approved this, even directly issuing freight money to private boatmen outside the official establishment.
Cai Luantou was a "powerful commoner" from Wentai. That he could bring dozens of ships to answer the call showed his influence.
"Let's go, let's eat." After saying this, Kong Tie shut his mouth and walked straight ahead. Shao Shuyi also had no mind to pry further into Cai Luantou's affairs and quickly followed.
One following the other, they soon arrived at the temporary camp located on the east bank of the Yantietang. They were hired by the Zheng clan, so meals were naturally provided by the employer. Zheng family servants were driving several donkey carts from a distance, unloading buckets of steamed rice and distributing them.
Because they had to do physical labor, the crowd rarely got to eat three meals a day—and solid food at that. Eating it with salted vegetables, they were incredibly happy.
Shao Shuyi observed carefully while he ate. To cope with the spring transport, Zheng Guozhen, as the Record Keeper of the Myriad-Household Commandery, had sent out all his family servants and bondservants, responsible for transporting grain from the Sea Transport Granary onto the ships. This was not all; the Zheng clan also took out extra grain and money to hire idle men from boat households to assist their own bondservants in moving grain.
Rumors circulated that the Zheng family might have to contribute some people and ships to share part of the grain transport task. After all, Zheng Guozhen's father, Zheng Yonghe, was the Vice Myriad Commander of the Myriad-Household Commandery and could not shirk the responsibility. If the grain transport task was not completed, the Imperial Court would punish the officials of the Myriad-Household Commandery, large and small. If the task was completed, the Court would not ask any questions about how they managed it.
This was the national condition of the Great Yuan: administrative outsourcing!
Zheng Guozhen had also personally arrived at the scene and was conversing in a low voice with Zheng Song in the distance. Shao Shuyi had seen Zheng Guozhen from afar a few times.
This man had studied since childhood and held a civil post in the Myriad-Household Commandery, but observing his behavior, he did not resemble an ordinary scholar; instead, he had an air of the jianghu about him. On ordinary days, he was accustomed to wearing dark-patterned brocade casual clothes. He often practiced with spears and clubs or rode horses and shot arrows with others. His voice was like a great bell, and his eyes were incredibly sharp, giving people the impression that he was not easy to get along with.
Of course, sometimes he would also wear a tall hat and wide sash to socialize with the gentry—he was from a scholarly family, after all.
Most importantly, rumors in the Transport Office said that Zheng Guozhen had twice gone to sea as a Transport Supervision Official's attaché, traveling back and forth between Liu Family Port and Zhigu. According to the system, for every grain transport, the Myriad-Household Commandery had to send personnel to accompany the ships to sea, called "Transport Supervision Officials." Sometimes the Myriad Commander himself would go, sometimes the Vice Myriad Commander or a Thousand Commander; at the very least, it had to be an Associate Fifth Rank Vice Thousand Commander.
To have gone to sea, and more than once—this was not simple...
After wolfing down his rice in a few bites, Shao Shuyi rested for a moment. Soon, he saw Zheng Song wave his hand, signaling several armed guards to go over and urge everyone to start work.
Zheng Guozhen stood still in his original spot. One moment, he looked up at the sky; the next, he sighed deeply, as if facing a difficult problem.
Shao Shuyi sighed inwardly, struggled to stand up, and headed toward the Sea Transport Granary.
This money was hard to earn!