Chapter 1044: Killing the Chicken to Warn the Monkey

"Tian Zhu..." Tian Long called out through gritted teeth. Tian Zhu merely raised his head and glanced over, and Tian Long immediately fell silent, only clenching his jaw as tears streamed down his face.

"Why would I let your older brother go? The Great Ming values the imperial examination and official honors above all else. A Provincial Graduate in a place can quickly rise and flourish. If a Provincial Graduate is capable, he can already stir up enormous trouble. You wanted your brother to revive the family fortune, and perhaps even seek revenge against us later, didn't you?" Zhao Jin said with a cold sneer.

Tian Zhu's face was already filled with utter despair. He stared at Zhao Jin for a moment, then gritted his teeth and kowtowed again. Blood was already visible on his forehead. Tian Zhu's voice was now completely hoarse as he pressed his forehead to the ground and said, "Master Jin, Master Jin, the children are innocent. Please, Master Jin, spare the children."

"When cutting weeds, you must pull up the roots. I'm barely past twenty. By the time your children are grown, I won't even be forty. Am I supposed to make trouble for myself?" Zhao Jin asked back with a cold sneer, then added, "Or perhaps once we leave, your Tian family children will go to the Tian family estate and be raised by the Tian women left behind there? Or if these few children are gone, can those few children on the estate still carry on your Tian family line?"

Tian Zhu jerked his head up, staring at Zhao Jin with utter terror, as if looking at a ghost or a god. After staring for a few moments, his body began to tremble. This time he was truly afraid. Tian Long's face was covered in tears, yet he could not utter a single word. The atmosphere was oppressively grim. Tian Zhu remained stunned like this for a while before reacting, then began kowtowing ceaselessly again, his mouth repeating over and over, "Master Jin, be merciful! Master Jin, spare our lives!"

"Yizhou is still part of Shandong. What made you think your actions could deceive heaven and earth?" Zhao Jin asked with a smile, then turned to Ma Chonghao and Ji Xiang and said, "This man has plenty of schemes. He negotiated with us step by step — first his own life, then the adults' lives, then the whole family's lives. Clearly holding no capital, yet acting as if these were all his gambling stakes, placing bets again and again. With every step he retreated, he made it seem as if we were gaining an advantage."

Ma Chonghao and Ji Xiang both nodded with a smile. Ma Chonghao hesitated a moment, then leaned close to Zhao Jin's ear and whispered, "Master Jin, the life or death of a Provincial Graduate is indeed troublesome, and this man's talent is rare. Your subordinate dares to make a request — Master Jin, why not..."

After hearing Ma Chonghao out, Zhao Jin said with an ambiguous smile, "Old Ma, when you're with me, you should use fewer of those bureaucratic tricks. You already guessed what I intended to do long ago. Why put on this act?"

Having been exposed by Zhao Jin, Ma Chonghao showed not the slightest shame. He merely smiled and said, "As expected, nothing escapes Master Jin. Master Jin's insight is truly piercing."

After saying this, Zhao Jin turned to Tian Zhu and said, "You are a man of talent. It would be a pity to kill you."

Just moments before, the air had been thick with murderous intent, and then suddenly these words were spoken. Tian Zhu's entire body jolted violently as if struck by heavenly thunder. He forgot to kowtow, his eyes wide as he stared at Zhao Jin, his face full of utter disbelief. The wound on his forehead had already begun to bleed, but he paid it no mind at all.

"Someone told me privately that when you're trying to win over an enemy, you can't be too direct. If you don't frighten them, don't whet their appetite, then even if they surrender, they won't submit wholeheartedly. They might even harbor resentment and overvalue themselves. But I can't do that. I ask you — are you willing to surrender?" Zhao Jin said with a smile.

This turn was far too sudden. Tian Zhu, who had been reacting with lightning speed and adapting to every change from start to finish, actually froze in place. It was Tian Long, still kneeling to the side, who barked out in a muffled voice, "Tian Zhu!" Only then did he snap out of it. Ignoring the blood streaming down his forehead, Tian Zhu kowtowed again. His voice now carried a sobbing tone as he answered hoarsely, "This humble one submits wholeheartedly and is willing to surrender to Master Jin."

When Tian Zhu raised his head again, tears and blood had mingled together, smearing his entire face. He spoke, "Master Jin, having witnessed Master Jin's methods, if this humble one still harbored any other thoughts, that would be sheer madness. Before Master Jin's strength like this, this humble one only regrets his former foolish delusions, which brought great calamity upon the Tian family!"

"It is precisely because of those foolish delusions that you've been blessed. I am in need of capable people right now. If you work hard, it will be far better than your play-acting and conjuring tricks with that White Lotus nonsense!" Zhao Jin declared in a ringing voice.

Every time Zhao Jin spoke a sentence, Tian Zhu kowtowed once, his mouth repeating ceaselessly, "This is Master Jin's gracious favor. This humble one's entire family will remember it firmly." On the other side, although Tian Long's expression was rather unsightly, he too kowtowed without stopping.

"Wipe the blood from his face and apply medicine to that wound," Zhao Jin instructed. Immediately, a household guard stepped forward to treat him, using a clean cloth to wipe away the blood, then dousing it with strong liquor. Tian Zhu grimaced in pain, but his face was entirely filled with relief. Being willing to treat his injury made it even clearer that his life was spared.

"You stirred up so much chaos and caused so much trouble for Xuzhou. Surrendering doesn't mean it's all settled and done with. Whether you can be trusted, whether you can be used — that can't be guaranteed just by crying and kowtowing a few times. Your entire family, along with all your people, will go to Xuzhou. First, as hostages. Second, to learn things," Zhao Jin expounded. He paid no attention to the changing expressions on the Tian brothers' faces. He was giving orders, not seeking their opinions.

"Tian Long, you may remain in Yizhou. Your status as a Provincial Graduate is very useful. But your wife, children, and entire family must all go to Xuzhou. I will continue to send people here to Yizhou, to develop this place the same way we did the western part of Yanzhou. As for the remnants of the White Lotus Sect, if they stir up trouble again, it will be none of your brothers' concern — but you brothers must help us exterminate these people."

Hearing Zhao Jin speak to this point, Tian Long sighed with a bleak expression, yet he was helpless. Tian Zhu, however, spoke up, "Master Jin, this humble one's family has been passed down for several generations. Among these White Lotus followers, we have trained quite a few capable individuals. Killing them all would be a pity. Master Jin just said this is a time for employing people. Why not let us two brothers help Master Jin win over these people, so they can serve Master Jin well?"

Zhao Jin glanced at Tian Zhu, then nodded with a smile and said, "You do have some loyalty to those beneath you. No wonder you were able to use them to get things done."

Everyone, of course, understood Tian Zhu's intent — it was nothing more than seeking a way out for the White Lotus Sect's people in Yanzhou Prefecture. But he had phrased it in high-sounding terms. Considered with deeper suspicion, Tian Zhu was preserving strength for his own future development within the Zhao camp. Still, to take the initiative and make this request at such a moment — that courage and that mind were worthy of praise.

"Next, we go to your Tian family estate. Your family members, guards, and the like on the estate must all follow us back to Xuzhou. You'd best understand this yourselves. If they don't come back with us, I will also cleanse this estate and leave no future troubles behind." Zhao Jin's words were very clear.

"Please rest assured, Master Jin," Tian Zhu answered with equal resolve.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard who had seized the Tian family members left Yizhou City at noon. The Tian family members who had fled the city with their entire household returned to Yizhou City before the city gates closed. However, only Tian Long and two old servants by his side came back. The brothers' family members, servants, and attendants were all gone. No one found this particularly strange. They figured the elder brother, protected by his official rank, returned first, while the younger brother hid on the estate below — a classic case of a cunning rabbit having three burrows. This Tian Long was considered to have some nerve.

But by the next day, more news came back. Some said the Tian family members on the estate had been swept away completely. Others said the Tian family had been surrounded on the road yesterday by a mounted troop of over a thousand. The Tian family had sought help everywhere. Even more people had seen it — a large force of iron-armored cavalry escorting the Tian family procession, heading south all the way. That iron-armored cavalry was Xuzhou's force.

News like this truly shook Yizhou. Everyone was puzzled — if that was the case, then how had Tian Long returned? Just as this news was spreading back, Tian Long invited over twenty constables and runners from the yamen to his home to stand guard and provide protection. Inviting official constables to guard one's home was not about valuing their martial skills, but about borrowing their official authority. For a family of the Tian's standing to actually need official constables for protection — just what kind of person had they offended?

Then, the news leaked from the mouths of those constables. It turned out that Zhao Jin of Xuzhou had led over a thousand iron cavalry on a rapid advance into Yizhou, surrounded the Tian family procession on the road, released this Tian Long, and seized all several hundred members of the Tian household, taking them back to Xuzhou. After this news spread, even the Yizhou Department Magistrate sent his private secretary over to inquire, and then that secretary confirmed the reports.

Yizhou was shaken once again, and then fell into dead silence. Everyone was awed by Xuzhou's strength. Many people had heard something of how this Tian family had been stirring up trouble over in Jining. Their judgment had been much the same as the Tian Long and Tian Zhu brothers' — Yizhou was deep in the heartland of Shandong, separated from Xuzhou by a provincial border. No matter how much they stirred things up, what could come of it? Who could have imagined that Xuzhou would directly dispatch over a thousand iron cavalry to seize them? The Tian family, with several hundred desperate men at their disposal, had been captured just like that. Provincial Graduate Tian's wife, children, brothers, and servants had all been taken away.

This was over a thousand cavalry, mobilized at a moment's notice, disregarding provincial and prefectural borders, simply driving straight in. Just how powerful had Xuzhou become? Could even the imperial court's official army produce over a thousand cavalry just like that? As for the claim that these cavalrymen all wore iron armor, practically no one believed it. How much silver would have to be sunk into that much iron? Don't make people laugh.

However, the powerful families who had harbored some ideas along with the Tian family were now all silent as winter cicadas. Only now did they realize they had been frogs at the bottom of a well. Those Xuzhou people no longer had any regard for the law or convention, and they were powerful to this degree. Whoever dared offend them would be swatted dead with a single slap. Better to live honestly and not get wiped out just like that.

But as for things beyond Yizhou, no one dared to hope. Yet the Tian family had already collapsed. That Zhao Jin of Xuzhou was too ruthless, too thorough. In Yizhou now, not even many members of the Tian clan's own lineage remained. All of the Tian family's numerous properties and lands were now fat meat in everyone's eyes. Sure, you, Tian Long, are a Provincial Graduate — but your family's assets and lands far exceed what a Provincial Graduate ought to have. And Yizhou isn't just home to your one Provincial Graduate family; there are several families here with Presented Scholars!

Old Bai used to pride himself on having very few typos, but writing up to this point, I feel I've been letting myself slip a bit, and the typos are increasing. Please help point them out, everyone, and please be forgiving. I bow here in apology.

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