Chapter 1073: Dengzhou Prefectural City

"There are so many poor, suffering people here in Shandong, all honest and willing to work. Wouldn't it be wonderful to spend our silver here? We might even earn some good karma from it," someone mused.

But another person, considering the current situation, said, "There are indeed many poor and suffering people, but they are being recruited everywhere. Over the years, there's been turmoil here and upheaval there, and famine keeps tormenting people. Too many have died. Now there's plenty of land but few people. As long as you don't have to pay those Liao taxes and levies, you can still earn quite a bit."

"The common folk of Shandong dwindle year by year—great famines, great rebellions, mountains of corpses and seas of blood. We took advantage of the chaos to swallow up quite a few, but once peace returns, we can only recruit slowly. If we want to acquire them in bulk, first, we'll clash with the local powers; second, it will alarm many in the capital and Shandong. If we don't want to tear off all pretense and fight a big battle, our gains in population from Shandong won't be too great. Yet we can't start a big fight for the time being. These Liao refugees are truly a heaven-sent opportunity for us." The guides from Qingzhou had not expected that their assessment would be so close to Zhao Jin's own.

After they arrived at Dengzhou Prefecture, the stewards of Cloud Mountain Trading who had come earlier arranged their reception and also briefed them on the situation in Dengzhou Prefectural City. They hardly needed the briefing—Zhao's Camp's squad had already seen plenty along the way. The weather was growing cold, snow already lay on the ground, and along both sides of the official road and near the city walls, there were many crude shacks, and some people were even sleeping out in the open.

Nighttime was tolerable, but when they passed through in the early morning, they often heard weeping. Many could not withstand the bitter cold and had frozen to death in the night. Quite a few Liao refugees, upon seeing outside merchants, would offer their own children and even wives to them—sell them if they could; if not, earning a little something to supplement their income was still good. Thus, along the road, one could see many human traffickers at work, picking out the best goods among the children and women and then reselling them elsewhere.

"These traffickers really aren't afraid of hardship. I followed the Master early on and have been through several large-scale human markets. To think I'd see familiar faces here—they actually came all the way from Jiangnan..." a steward from Cloud Mountain Trading remarked with emotion.

The men of the Internal Guard were direct in their methods. They went straight to those guides from Qingzhou and asked if they could simply drive these human traffickers away, adding that Zhao's Camp would show generous gratitude. But the guides, who normally took everything in stride, now looked troubled. The head of the guides put it bluntly: they would certainly help with whatever they could, but the backers behind these traffickers were no mere jianghu folk. The Circuit Intendant of Dengzhou and Laizhou, the officials of the prefecture and counties, and the entire headquarters of the Dengzhou-Laizhou Regional Commander all took a share of the profits from this business. They could not afford to offend these people.

The men of Zhao's Camp were not in a hurry. The Shandong civil authorities and government troops dared not provoke a major conflict with Xuzhou. Besides, they had not come to take people for free this time—they were recruiting with genuine silver. There was no fear of trouble. Compared to the calm of Zhao's Camp, the Liao refugees who had come to tell their own stories were deeply shaken. Many grown men wept openly, and the Li brothers' eyes were rimmed red all day long.

They too were refugees fleeing disaster, but they had been fortunate. With Li Ziyou to look after them and take them in, they had not truly suffered much hardship. Yet the vast majority of the Liao common folk had endured countless hardships to reach Shandong, believing they had escaped death, only to find they still had to suffer countless hardships here.

"When the weather was warm, the Liao refugees could still find odd jobs and gather wild greens to get by. Once the cold sets in, the locals can barely look after themselves, so the refugees have even less to fall back on. Right now, you can buy a maiden for just a few dozen catties of grain—and that's the lucky ones. Many people want to sell themselves into servitude and can't even find a way out," explained the Cloud Mountain Trading man who had arrived earlier.

"Before you came, I already sent out an urgent letter. Word is now spreading all over Dengzhou Prefecture that the imperial court, to provide relief for the refugees, has decided to recruit soldiers from among the able-bodied men, and that the Shandong forces are also expanding their ranks. If we're going to act, we must hurry. If we delay a few more days, we'll likely end up competing with the authorities for people."

"Become a soldier for the imperial court? That doesn't guarantee a full belly either, and you'll still have to endure hardship. It's nothing compared to working on our estates, where you'll have security in the future."

Hearing the briefing from the man who had arrived earlier, the later squad was quite surprised. They could all clearly tell good from bad. When they asked in return, the steward who had come first only gave a bitter smile and said, "I can't figure out the minds of these Liao refugees either. They've already fallen to such a state, yet they still hold great faith in that imperial court in the capital. Who knows who it was that reduced them to what they are today."

Nowadays, when the people of Zhao's Camp spoke, especially in private, they always prefaced any mention of the capital's imperial court with "that," as if there were some other imperial court under Heaven.

The Cloud Mountain Trading steward who had arrived earlier also mentioned another matter: there was no human market here in Dengzhou Prefectural City. As it happened, when the first few squads had just reached Dengzhou, there had still been a human market here, but it was soon ordered shut down, supposedly because it offended the dignity of the imperial court.

Wherever famine struck under Heaven, the trade in human beings flourished. Why, then, was dignity suddenly a concern here in Dengzhou Prefecture? The reason was easy to find out. Among those who had come to Shandong from Liaodong, there were not only common civilians but also military officers and powerful gentry of esteemed status. These people had countless connections and backgrounds in the court and elsewhere. They could not bear the sight of such human markets, and the local authorities naturally had to give them some face.

But "could not bear the sight" was as far as it went. These face-conscious individuals did not contribute money or grain to relieve or assist their fellow countrymen. As long as it was kept off the public stage, they turned a blind eye to it, and some even stepped forward themselves to buy a few suitable people to take home.

Without a human market, large-scale buying and selling became very troublesome. The first step of Zhao's Camp's plan to gather and recruit Liao refugees had never placed great hope in the personal testimonies of the Liao people. The most effective approach was still to buy a batch and bring them back. Through these people, they could explore the routes of travel, set up supply stations along the way, and cultivate more reliable personnel. After all, a pool of just over eighty people offered too little to choose from, and the Li family's imprint on them was too deep.

Hearing there was no human market, everyone got a headache. But since they were already here, they had to adapt as circumstances arose. They split into two groups: one to buy, one to recruit. The task assigned by Master Jin had to be completed. Opportunities to earn merit were far too scarce these days. After this expansion, who knew when the next chance for promotion would come? They could only accumulate as much merit as possible to prepare for the future.

They settled down within the city of Dengzhou Prefecture. After resting that night, the next day everyone was sent out, roaming the streets and alleys, inside and outside the city. The Liao refugees they had brought along were no exception—there was no fear of them running off anyway. If they could contact any acquaintances, friends, or old family connections inside or outside the prefectural city, they could simply bring them back, and through them, draw in even more people from further afield.

The two hundred-plus men of Zhao's Camp had rented out an entire inn. Although everyone was supposed to be sent out, the men of Zhao's Camp were divided into several squads that took turns going into the streets and out of the city. As they made trip after trip and all kinds of reports came back, they discovered that Dengzhou Prefectural City was truly not peaceful. Besides the local Shandong troops, there were also formed units of Liaodong soldiers stationed here. The local Shandong government troops were already tyrannical, but the soldiers who had come from Liaodong were utterly unrestrained. Everyone witnessed clashes between the Liaodong soldiers and the Shandong government troops, between the Liaodong soldiers and the local populace, and these men even bullied and oppressed the Liaodong refugees.

Although the local Shandong government troops were hardly any better, the behavior of the Liaodong men was truly unexpected. "They can't beat the Tartars, so they flee their homes and come here. They must be holding in a bellyful of resentment. With no roots or origins, and this not being their native soil, they naturally act without any scruples. The only question is whether these people will help us or hinder us." The squad from Zhao's Camp that had come to Dengzhou was growing more and more pessimistic.

By the afternoon, some of the Liao refugees had already returned. Some wore expressions of utter dejection and sorrow, having seen the miserable state of their fellow countrymen. Others were brimming with excitement, having found and met their comrades and fellow villagers, and some had even followed clues to locate their own relatives. It must be remembered that when they boarded the ships to flee south, many had been unable to look after their parents or children, let alone those more distantly related.

Those refugees who had found people all came to ask if they could bring them along and take everyone away together. They were very uneasy when asking this. Every extra mouth, even eating just one meal a day, still cost money. Why would these Xuzhou men be so generous? It would be the same for them to just take these people when they themselves left. To their surprise and delight, these Xuzhou men really were that generous. They agreed readily and wholeheartedly, saying the more people who came, the better.

In this situation, there was no need to worry about the elderly or children. The elderly could not compete for spots anyway and had no way to cross the sea. As for children, they were valuable to Zhao's Camp—naturally, the more the better. This attitude of Zhao's Camp moved the Liao refugees to tears of gratitude, but it made the innkeeper quite nervous. Arranging food and shelter was the inn's responsibility, and the daily expenses would surely be enormous. What if these people couldn't pay? But Zhao's Camp was not short of silver and simply paid a sum in advance, leaving everyone satisfied.

Compared to Xuzhou, the days here were short and the nights long; darkness fell very early. As the time for Dengzhou Prefectural City to seal its gates approached, Zhao's Camp began their headcount. The prefectural city was not safe. Moving about outside after dark made one an easy target for robbery and murder. Moreover, Zhao's Camp's reach here was limited, and other troubles could easily arise.

The headcount revealed that one person was missing: Old Xiong, the former miner, had not returned. Asking the Liao refugees, no one knew where he had gone. The refugees and this squad of Zhao's Camp were different; each had their own personal concerns and wanted to search as many places as possible, so they never moved as a group. Someone remembered that Old Xiong had disappeared on a certain street and had probably gone somewhere specific.

Old Xiong was a miner from Liaodong, said to have even been a gang boss. He was bold, generous, and loyal, and many miners listened to him. Zhao's Camp valued these miners even more than the deserting soldiers, because they were more useful and easier to train. They had specifically sent Old Xiong on this trip to bring back more miners and their dependents. Yet this man they valued so highly had vanished—truly bad luck.

"Whether he's dead or alive, we'll know by tomorrow. No need to worry too much," the steward who had arrived first consoled them. Dengzhou Prefectural City was under curfew. If Old Xiong had left the city, he was certainly gone for good—they might as well consider him dead. If he was still inside the city, he had either been arrested by the authorities during the night or murdered. Someone would dispose of the body, and a quick inquiry at the yamen would tell them.

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