Chapter 123: Those Who Repay Kindness Are Always Few

West of Shule city lay a true field of broken rock — a sixty- or seventy-degree slope covered entirely in weathered rubble. It looked solid, but the moment you touched it, it crumbled into powder with a clatter and slid downward.

With the mountain path so narrow that a large army could not deploy, Itihad had felt safe leaving only a few hundred men here.

By the time Zhang Zhao arrived, the armored soldiers of the Hanshan Unit were trading crossbow fire with the Karakhanid troops on the wall, and as they shot, foul curses rang out all around.

But when it came to cursing, Zhang Zhao had Ma Yaozi, a seasoned old hand at it. The Heavenly Square faith had many taboos, and Ma Yaozi seized on those sore points and cursed with gusto. Before long, the men on the battlements were howling in helpless rage and pouring down even more arrows.

While the two sides traded curses and crossbow bolts, Shi Chongmin had already led the Fenjin Unit in digging a tunnel more than thirty meters long.

However, for fear of being discovered, they could not dig close to the wall. By Shi Chongmin's estimate, after these thirty-odd meters, there were still at least eighty meters to go.

This was somewhat troublesome, because this was not the pressure-free digging they had done at Yaotou Ridge.

The geology here was unstable, the miners digging were under great mental strain, and sending air into the tunnel was nowhere near as convenient as at Yaotou Ridge. Eighty meters would take at least ten days or more at the fastest.

"Duke, the worst problem now isn't the digging itself — it's ventilation. A strong man can't last even a quarter hour inside before he has to come back out, and the next man in can hold out for a quarter hour at most.

Every day, the time spent just going in and out takes several hours at the least. And the closer we get to the wall, the less we dare use tools."

As soon as Zhang Zhao arrived, Shi Chongmin began pouring out his grievances. After all, he was a miner by origin, and after Zhang Zhao recruited them, there had been no time for more detailed training or winning them over. So although these miners' bodies were in better shape than they had been at the coal works, they were actually not working as desperately as they had there.

That was obvious enough. At the coal works, if you didn't dig out coal, you went hungry and took the whip.

But here with Zhang Zhao, although their food was far worse than what the Hanshan Unit and the Youyi Army got, it was still much better than at the coal works, and they could eat their fill every day. Without the constant dread of starving to death, their will to labor had actually dropped.

Watching Shi Chongmin, who also looked somewhat uneasy, Zhang Zhao understood a truth: in this world, whether rich or poor, noble or base, those who can put themselves in another's place and repay kindness with gratitude are still a very small minority. Most people will first choose to make themselves comfortable.

Zhang Zhao had originally assumed that he was these miners' great benefactor — feeding them for free, leading them out of that slaughterhouse of a coal works — and that they ought to be overflowing with gratitude and put out a hundred and twenty percent of their effort to do everything well. Now it seemed he had been thinking a bit too much.

At that thought, Zhang Zhao looked over at Li Qilang beside him. Li Qilang understood Zhang Zhao's meaning and cupped his hands.

"Duke, rest assured. The one in charge inside the city is my senior brother Huitong. He said he would dig outward from the west side of the city, and he will certainly dig outward!

But Duke, you truly must speed up the progress, because we agreed to stop twenty days after I left the city, and the time is almost up."

Stopping after twenty days — that was agreed so the people inside the city would not be caught in the gunpowder explosion. Because Zhang Zhao had no way to communicate with the city now, when he had sent Fan Shun in, he had given a twenty-day deadline. Once that deadline passed, the people inside would dig no more.

After questioning Li Qilang, Zhang Zhao slowly walked over to Shi Chongmin.

"Captain Shi, tell me — how has this Zhang Erlang treated you?"

Shi Chongmin keenly sensed something was wrong, and he dropped to his knees with a thud.

"Duke, your treatment of me is a kindness higher than heaven. Since I followed you, I have eaten my fill every day, and I no longer face the daily uncertainty of life and death down in the mines. All of it is your grace."

Zhang Zhao nodded. "So you do still remember my kindness. Good!

Now go and tell the men below: whether they were picked by me the first time from the coal works, or taken away the second time under the Son of Heaven's edict, I will not keep everyone. I will still keep only three hundred men.

Who gets to stay and win merit and wealth, and who goes back to the coal works to live worse than a pig or a dog — that will depend on how they perform." As he spoke, Zhang Zhao patted Shi Chongmin on the shoulder.

"The same goes for you!"

Every time Zhang Zhao patted him, Shi Chongmin could not help but tremble slightly.

Heh! If they wanted to coast through their days, then this bowl of rice would not be so easy to eat.

"Wu Yuan'er!" Zhang Zhao shouted.

"Young lord, Wu Yuan'er is here!"

"Take ten men from Old Zhu and go over there. Divide the seven hundred-odd miners still here into ten groups, and assign each group its task.

Those who finish get meat and wine. Those who don't can go hungry. Those who distinguish themselves will be promoted into the Hanshan Unit as men of rank. And anyone who dares to slack off or cheat — I'll sell his whole family to the Tibetans on the mountain as slaves!"

Zhang Zhao's face was grim. No wonder the famous generals and marshals in history who won great victories were almost all ruthless men. If you wanted the men below you to fight to the death, then before the generous rewards and the bestowing of favors, you first had to be ruthless and set the rules firmly in place.

Shi Chongmin scrambled down swiftly to pass on the order, and Wu Yuan'er followed to prepare the detailed division of tasks.

Zhang Zhao continued on into the camp with Li Qilang. The senior brother Huitong that Li Qilang had just mentioned made Zhang Zhao think of someone — an old monk whom Wu Yuan'er and Ma Yaozi had brought out of the prison in Shule city, said to be called Huixing.

Ever since the old monk Huixing had arrived at Zhang Zhao's camp, he neither spoke nor moved about. Apart from having a very good appetite at mealtimes, he did nothing at all.

He would not answer when questioned, and Zhang Zhao had never even seen him chant a sutra. He was almost like a mute — but Zhang Zhao knew he was not.

Zhang Zhao, who had originally hoped to learn something of the situation from the old monk, had in the end run out of ideas. He could only keep the old monk like a pampered elder. After all, he did not eat much.

Huitong, Huixing — the names sounded like senior and junior fellow disciples! Could they both be connected to the Great Cloud Temple of Shule?

"Senior brother Huixing? Duke, you mean that last time, that Hu barbarian Itihad had you take senior brother Huixing out of the Governor's Office prison?"

The moment Li Qilang heard the name Huixing, he grew agitated. It seemed this person had deep ties to him.

"That's right. Itihad at the time seemed to be coveting my three thousand strings of cash, so he had Wu Yuan'er and the others bring back an old monk, saying he was the only one left of all the monks of the Great Cloud Temple." Zhang Zhao nodded in confirmation.

"No! Impossible! Master Daozhen would not simply pass away like that! Young lord, do you know...!"

Li Qilang, utterly thrown into confusion, was about to say something, but at the last moment he suddenly caught himself and stopped.

Zhang Zhao drew a soft breath, then put on an expression of complete nonchalance — though inwardly his mind was churning with speculation.

These people must be descendants of the old Anxi Tang soldiers. But what exactly had they been through? What had made them so deeply guarded?

"Duke! I beg you to have senior brother Huixing brought here! Senior brother Huixing and I have not seen each other for years!"

Li Qilang dropped to one knee and looked at Zhang Zhao pitifully, as if he too felt his request was excessive — saying nothing, revealing nothing, yet still asking for this and that.

"Get up, quickly!" Zhang Zhao reached out and helped Li Qilang to his feet, then sighed.

"In years past, Duke Guo Xin of the commandery guarded Anxi alone with his lone army for decades — a hero of the first order under heaven. I do not know why you are so deeply guarded, but I believe that one day you will see the sincerity of my heart!"

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