1636: The China Venture Read online

  Table of Contents

  Maps

  Part One Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Part Two Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Part Three Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Part Four Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Epilogue

  Cast of Characters

  Acknowledgments

  Afterword

  1636

  the China

  Venture

  Eric Flint

  Iver P. Cooper

  1636: The China Venture

  Eric Flint and Iver P. Cooper

  The Ring of Fire Series Continues! The United States of Europe finds itself embroiled in international intrigue, as the uptimers attempt to establish an embassy in Ming Dynasty era China.

  The newly formed United States of Europe, created by an alliance between the time-displaced Americans from the town of Grantville and the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus, decides to send an embassy to the Chinese empire. One of the main purposes of the embassy is to establish trade in order to gain access to critical resources. The mission is a gamble—some might say, a long shot. The Ming dynasty is on the verge of collapse and China’s rulers are suspicious of foreigners.

  The mission experiences one setback after another, but presses on. And they gain an important ally along the way: Zheng Zhilong, a former pirate now an admiral for the Ming navy and the head of an extremely wealthy Fujian province trading family. He knows through his Jesuit missionary connections that according to Grantville's history books, the Ming dynasty is in danger, from famines, bandit armies and barbarian invaders. And he is determined that, one way or another, he and his family will survive and even prosper.

  The embassy is joined as well by a young scholar, who helps them make inroads into China’s complex and often dangerous society. Can the up-timers and their friends persuade the imperial dynasty and its mandarins to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the USE? They have one great asset: their knowledge may be the key to saving China from decades of mass suffering and civil war.

  THE RING OF FIRE SERIES

  1632 by Eric Flint

  1633 by Eric Flint & David Weber

  1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint & David Weber

  1634: The Galileo Affair by Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis

  1634: The Bavarian Crisis by Eric Flint & Virginia DeMarce

  1634: The Ram Rebellion by Eric Flint & Virginia DeMarce et al.

  1635: The Cannon Law by Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis

  1635: The Dreeson Incident by Eric Flint & Virginia DeMarce

  1635: The Eastern Front by Eric Flint

  1635: The Papal Stakes by Eric Flint & Charles E. Gannon

  1636: The Saxon Uprising by Eric Flint

  1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett

  1636: The Devil’s Opera by Eric Flint & David Carrico

  1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies by Eric Flint & Charles E. Gannon

  1636: The Viennese Waltz by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett

  1636: The Cardinal Virtues by Eric Flint & Walter Hunt

  1635: A Parcel of Rogues by Eric Flint & Andrew Dennis

  1636: The Ottoman Onslaught by Eric Flint

  1636: Mission to the Mughals by Eric Flint & Griffin Barber

  1636: The Vatican Sanction by Eric Flint & Charles E. Gannon

  1637: The Volga Rules by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett

  1637: The Polish Maelstrom by Eric Flint

  1636: The China Venture by Eric Flint & Iver P. Cooper

  1635: The Tangled Web by Virginia DeMarce

  1635: The Wars for the Rhine by Anette Pedersen

  1636: Seas of Fortune by Iver P. Cooper

  1636: The Chronicles of Dr. Gribbleflotz by Kerryn Offord & Rick Boatright

  Time Spike by Eric Flint & Marilyn Kosmatka

  The Alexander Inheritance by Eric Flint, Gorg Huff & Paula Goodlett

  Grantville Gazette volumes I-V, ed. by Eric Flint

  Grantville Gazette VI-VII, ed. by Eric Flint & Paula Goodlett

  Grantville Gazette VIII, ed. by Eric Flint & Walt Boyes

  Ring of Fire I-IV, ed. by Eric Flint

  1636: The China Venture

  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Eric Flint & Iver P. Cooper

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

  A Baen Books Original

  Baen Publishing Enterprises

  P.O. Box 1403

  Riverdale, NY 10471

  www.baen.com

  ISBN: 978-1-4814-8423-7

  eISBN: 978-1-62579-734-6

  Cover art by Tom Kidd

  Maps by Michael Knopp

  First printing, September 2019

  Distributed by Simon & Schuster

  1230 Avenue of the Americas

  New York, NY 10020

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Flint, Eric, author. | Cooper, Iver P., author.

  Title: 1636 : the China venture / Eric Flint and Iver P. Cooper.

  Other titles: Sixteen hundred thirty-six | Sixteen thirty-six | China venture

  Description: Riverdale, NY : Baen, 2019. | Series: Ring of fire series

  Identifiers: LCCN 2019017544 | ISBN 9781481484237 (hardcover)

  Subjects: LCSH: Time travel—Fiction. | China—History—Ming dynasty,

  1368–1644—Fiction. | GSAFD: Alternative histories (Fiction) | Science

  fiction

  Classification: LCC PS3556.L548 A6186666 2019 | DDC 813/.54—dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019017544

  Pages by Joy Freeman (www.pagesbyjoy.com)

  Printed in the United States of America

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Electronic Version by Baen Books

  www.baen.com

  For my family: my wife Lee,

  my daughter Louise, and my son Jason,

  and in memory of my parents Morris and Lillie

  who encouraged my reading and writing.

  Once again, I thank Eric Flint for giving me

  the opportunity to participate in the

 
development of the 1632 universe.

  —Iver P. Cooper

  To Prof. David Farquhar

  —Eric Flint

  Part One

  1633

  Ship me somewhere’s east of Suez,

  where the best is like the worst,

  Where there aren’t no Ten Commandments

  an’ a man can raise a thirst.…

  —Rudyard Kipling, Mandalay

  Prologue

  September 1633

  Grantville

  “Okay,” said Mike Stearns, “we’ve thrashed out what can and can’t be done right now in terms of trade with the Ottomans, the Mughals, and even the Venetians.” The President of the New United States leaned back in his chair, and sighed. “Are we done for today?”

  “I must beg your indulgence a little longer, before you run off to wrestle bear, or whatever other hillbilly pastime you had in mind,” said Don Francisco Nasi, his advisor and spymaster. “We should talk briefly about Ming China.”

  “China?” Mike’s eyebrows did a quick pull up and release. “I know that there are a lot of Chinese in the world—”

  “Our best guess is about one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty million people in China proper,” Don Francisco interjected. “And there are also Chinese in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, although we don’t know how many.”

  “As I said, a lot,” Mike continued, “but how are they relevant to us right now? It’s not as though they share a border with any of our enemies, so the ‘enemy of our enemy is our friend’ principle doesn’t come into play. And the NUS is not exactly a nation of tea drinkers.”

  “Even the British aren’t tea drinkers yet,” said Don Francisco. “And it’s just as well, because about the only goods the Chinese wanted from the British in return for tea was opium, and tea sales not offset by opium had to be paid for in silver. And after the British expanded opium production in India to pay for more tea, Chinese opium use increased to the point that the Chinese realized that it had to be banned.”

  Nasi sighed. “Leading to the Opium Wars, in which the British literally forced the opium down their throats.

  “But in answer to your question, I have had Eric Garlow research the issue. He is a smart fellow—”

  “I know,” said Mike, “he’s one of Tom and Rita’s friends from their college days.”

  “And he is my liaison to the Army so he was easy to impose upon. He did the library research, and talked to Lolly Aossey and Greg Ferrara, and he indicates that the Chinese might be useful sources for zinc, graphite, mercury, antimony and tungsten. Some of those they produce already, and others we’d have to help them find the ore and extract it.”

  “We can’t get those closer at hand?”

  “The closer deposits are much smaller, subject to interdiction by our enemies, or both.”

  “Humph,” said Mike, stroking his chin. “If I recall correctly, Eric has a degree in Chinese. Are you sure this isn’t a case of a hammer deciding that every problem is a nail?”

  “After reading Eric’s report, I checked with Lolly and Greg myself,” said Don Francisco. “Besides, there are other reasons to send a mission to China.”

  Mike snapped his fingers. “You know, what about silk? After the Croat Raid, Harry Lefferts gave me an earful about observation balloons. We’re still trying to find a good source for rubber, and I remember one of the Civil War buffs telling me that the Confederates made a balloon out of silk dresses.”

  “Dress silk,” said Don Francisco, “not actual dresses. The balloon was inflated with coal gas. No doubt, someone, somewhere, is working on a balloon. Perhaps several someones.”

  Don Francisco paused for a sip of coffee. “But even without balloons, there’s plenty of profit to be made on silk from China. In fact, it’s the main export from China to Europe in the here and now.

  “The China trade is pretty important to the Spanish, the Portuguese and the Dutch, so we do need to keep tabs on it. And the further we get away from the Ring of Fire, the less reliable your up-time histories are as a guide to what’s happening in the world. We should have eyes and ears in China.”

  “So have a couple of down-time merchants pay the Chinese a visit,” said Mike.

  “I will. I can get people into Portuguese Macao, Spanish Manila, and Dutch Batavia easily enough. Over the course of a year or so. However…merchants won’t have access to the imperial court. The best chance of getting that, anytime soon, is to play the ‘people of the future’ card. The Ming emperors, by all accounts, are obsessed with predicting the future. The Jesuits have priests in Beijing because western astronomy is better at predicting astronomical events—which the Chinese consider to be divine portents—than Chinese or Muslim astronomy is.”

  “So you want a few up-timers. Preferably including at least one astronomer, or physicist, or mathematician.”

  “Yes, with enough futuristic goodies to give some credence to their story.”

  Mike laughed. “Well, if Eric Garlow is angling to visit Ming China, he may get his wish. Not that he’d be the right person to head the mission. But I think the mission will formally be on behalf of Confederated Principalities of Europe, not the New United States.” The CPE was a confederation of sovereign states, notably including both the New United States and Sweden, with Gustavus Adolphus as its head of state. “I think that might be a nice plum to throw Gustav Adolf’s way; let him pick the ambassador.”

  Mike jotted down something on a pad of paper. “I just added that to the agenda for my next meeting with Gustav Adolf. Give me a detailed proposal covering what we might want from the Chinese that we can’t get easily somewhere closer at hand, and what we can sell to them. See if you can line up some private investors so the diplomatic mission can piggyback on a regular trading venture. And think about who would be suitable to go on this mission. Then report back to me.

  “Oh, one more thing.” Mike shook his finger at Don Francisco. “Don’t turn your proposal into a PowerPoint presentation.”

  Don Francisco shrugged. “You sound like King Canute, commanding the tide to recede.”

  Chapter 1

  Year of the Rooster, Eighth Month (September 3–October 2, 1633)

  First Day (September 3)

  Southern Capital (Nanjing)

  “Hurry!” cried Fang Yizhi. “I want to get to the government reception station before it closes!”

  “I am hurrying,” said his servant, Xudong. “My legs are shorter than yours. How much further?”

  Fang Yizhi, unlike his servant, had spent a couple of years in Nanjing previously, and therefore knew the way. “Four more blocks. Straight ahead.”

  Fang Yizhi was something of a prodigy. By age fourteen, he had memorized the Four Books and the Five Classics, all 431,286 characters of them. He had sailed through the district, prefectural and qualifying examinations; it was time, everyone he knew said, for him to attempt the provincial examination.

  He wore the uniform of a sheng-yuan, a dark blue robe with a black border, and a “sparrow top” cap with a “gold flower,” a gold foil ornament attached to a piece of red paper. While he held no actual office, any sheng-yuan was considered, for purpose of social precedence, to belong to the ninth and lowest rank of the civil service.

  They had put off leaving Yizhi’s family until the last possible moment, as his first son, Zhongde, had been born in the fourth month of the year before. Finally, his father, his wife and his aunt had combined forces and shooed him out the door and down the road from Tongcheng to the nearest port, Zongyang.

  Fortunately, by imperial edict, they had the right to fly a banner reading “Applicant for the Imperially Decreed Provincial Examination of Nan-Zhili Province.” Consequently, they were waved through all the customs stations and thus made good time down the Yangtze River to Nanjing.

  Xudong, some years older than Fang Yizhi, had served Fang Yizhi’s father, going with him to Beijing in 1628 when the father had been appointed Director of the Bureau of Ope
rations. Fang Yizhi, in the meantime, had traveled to Nanjing, Hangzhou, and elsewhere. When Fang Yizhi’s grandfather died in 1631, the father resigned his office, returned to their hometown of Tongcheng, and observed the twenty-seven months of mourning dictated by the Code for the death of a father.

  When the time came for Fang Yizhi to journey to Nanjing to take the provincial examinations, his father had insisted that Yizhi take old Xudong with him. Even now, Yizhi wasn’t sure whether this was for Yizhi’s benefit or Xudong’s.

  “You run ahead if you wish, young master. I’ll be there in my own time.”

  Fang Yizhi quickened his pace. Arriving at the station, there was a candidate ahead of him in line. By the time the clerk in charge was ready to interview Yizhi, his breathing had slowed back to normal.

  The clerk looked tired. “Credentials, please.”

  Fang Yizhi handed them over. First, there was the declaration, signed by a magistrate of Tongcheng as guarantor, listing Yizhi’s lineage and attesting that for the past three generations, Yizhi’s family had not engaged in a base occupation, and that he was not in mourning for a parent or grandparent. Yizhi had been lucky that it had been his grandfather, not his father, who had died in 1631. That would have barred Yizhi from taking this sitting of the provincial examination, and it was given only once every three years. For the death of a grandfather, the required mourning period was only twelve months.

  Next, Yizhi produced the certificate from his county, signed by the provincial director of studies and countersigned by the chief instructor at the county school, verifying that his score on the qualifying examination had been high enough that he was within the quota of candidates that his county was allowed to send on to the provincial level.