Chapter 1146: Rampaging Through

Once the two sides were separated, Ji Xiang raised a hand and chopped it downward. The household troops immediately moved into action. In this situation, spears and fire lances were unnecessary — they simply drew their personal sabers to stab or slit throats. Some tried to struggle, but disarmed and already forced to their knees, facing fully armed household troops, what power did they have to resist? In an instant, corpses littered the ground, the earth a sheet of crimson. Over three hundred people were slaughtered to the last.

It was early morning in peacetime, and no one had even eaten breakfast yet. Who could have imagined that several hundred riders would suddenly charge in, killing and burning, and with such bloody, brutal slaughter? On the Lü family side, many women fainted directly from shock, and some men collapsed paralyzed, trembling and losing control of their bladders.

The great fire blazed fiercely over there. Fortunately, the wind direction was favorable, and the thick smoke did not blow toward the drill ground. Once the killing here was finished, the household troops over there had already forced out which one was Lü Xuefeng and brought him directly before Zhao Jin. In these times, commoners aged early — it was not rare to see thirty-somethings who looked fifty. But this Lü Xuefeng, though in his forties or fifties, looked like he was in his thirties, showing that his family circumstances and upkeep were quite excellent. At this moment, however, his face was deathly pale and his whole body trembled.

"Who told you to strike the estates over in Xuzhou? Explain in detail," Zhao Jin asked.

"It was that bastard Old Dog Shu. He said he could guarantee my family two hereditary patrol inspector posts, and said our Lü family would get a share of the farmland estates here in Mengyin. Good sir, the Lü family was truly pig-headed and blinded by greed this time. All the deaths and losses in Xuzhou this time will—"

"That Squire Shu from Shu Family Village told you to do this? No one else came directly to you?" Zhao Jin cut him off without the slightest courtesy.

Kneeling there, Lü Xuefeng hung his head dejectedly and nodded. In a muffled voice, he said, "That Old Dog Shu carries weight in all the surrounding county seats and the prefectural city. Who doesn't know his family has a relative in the capital? He knew the inside details of our Lü family's outer estate and threatened us, saying if we didn't obey, he'd have the officials come arrest people. Around here, my family's word doesn't carry as well as the Shu family's."

Zhao Jin's brow had already furrowed. He asked again, "Who led the attack? With trash like you lot going to strike an estate in Xuzhou, could you even bite through it?"

Lü Xuefeng raised his head and stole a glance at Zhao Jin. Zhao Jin's face was streaked with blood and smoke-blackened grime at the moment, making his age hard to discern. Lü Xuefeng continued dejectedly, "At the time, they told us the estate was full of scattered civilian braves, and that there were inside agents everywhere. Once chaos broke out, we could make our move."

"And those inside agents — the Liaodong refugees?"

"Quite a few died at the time. Those who didn't die formed up into a group right here and headed north."

Upon hearing this answer, Zhao Jin's expression darkened considerably. He waved a hand, and the household troops dragged Lü Xuefeng back. Zhao Jin raised his voice and declared, "Spare the women. Spare the infants. Leave no one else!"

A thunderous acknowledgment rose from below. Lü Xuefeng, held under the arms by two men, shuddered violently and began struggling with desperate fury. He turned his head back and shouted hoarsely, "Great lord, this lowly one deserves death ten thousand times over — the few who gave the orders are not wronged — but the others are all innocent and blameless! They did nothing to the Xuzhou farmland estate!"

"Were the common folk in that farmland estate guilty of something, then? Were they not innocent?" Zhao Jin retorted coldly.

Lü Xuefeng abandoned all restraint, struggling madly and screaming curses. One of the household troops holding him glanced back, drew a short knife, and plunged it straight into his chest. Meanwhile, the killing began on the other side. Ji Xiang watched with utter indifference and said with a cold laugh, "If they don't see blood, they won't learn the lesson."

"Same goes for us," Zhao Jin said in a low voice, then lowered his head in thought. Ji Xiang, thinking he had said something wrong, fell silent for a moment.

After a while, the screams and curses over there gradually subsided. Zhao Jin looked up and said, "It seems this Shu family was the intermediary. Whoever is pulling the strings behind this first approached the Shu family, and then the Shu family either made introductions or directly took the lead in rallying everyone before moving against our farmland estate. But from start to finish, the one pulling the strings barely showed his face. The Liaodong refugee traitors who should have been in direct contact with him didn't show themselves. That capital-official relative of the Shu family didn't show himself either. And now the Shu family has no one left alive."

Ji Xiang scratched his head and said with an awkward laugh, "A pity we struck too fast and too hard back then — we didn't leave anyone alive in the Shu family..."

"That's not on you. I was full of fury at the time too. And that Shu family was far too arrogant — they actually dared to capture our estate laborers and make them slaves. But killing them all doesn't matter much. We wouldn't have gotten anything more out of the Shu family anyway," Zhao Jin said.

The women and infants of this Lü Family Village were herded onto an empty patch of ground off to the side to wait. They had all been frightened out of their wits; it would not be surprising if some went mad afterward. But the men of the Zhao Camp could not be bothered to care. While the killing went on here, others over there were feeding the horses and sorting equipment. Once the killing was done, everyone mounted up. After all, this place was close to the county seat. With arson and slaughter happening right under the county's nose, the authorities could not possibly sit idle.

Opening up this village and killing everyone who needed killing — though the process was swift, it had still taken considerable time. The city gates would likely be opening by now. The contingent Zhao Jin led had no wish to get entangled, so their only option was to move fast. They had just ridden out the main gate of Lü Family Village when the light cavalry scouting outside came galloping back with a report: after the city gates opened, a dozen or so riders had rushed out first. The villages outside the city had each mustered their civilian braves and stalwart youths, and now over a thousand men had been assembled and were hurrying this way.

"Fifty taels for each guide. Dump them in some out-of-the-way place that has nothing to do with this!" Zhao Jin gave the order first. Both guides had already been scared out of their wits. They had imagined many things beforehand, but never dreamed these several hundred riders would be so ferocious and ruthless to this degree. They no longer dared think about collecting any reward money, terrified that the other side would kill them to silence them. When they heard Zhao Jin's arrangement, the bachelor actually burst into tears, convinced they were about to be silenced.

Once the guides were dealt with, Zhao Jin spoke to Ji Xiang: "We'll scatter these village braves before we leave. Otherwise, with our men and horses worn out, having them pursue us the whole way will be trouble."

Ji Xiang nodded, his face brimming with excitement. Seeing that expression, Zhao Jin could only shake his head in resignation. He gave a shout from horseback, and once the order was passed down, guided by the light cavalry scouts, they charged straight toward where the village braves were assembling.

Compared to government troops and bailiffs, local village braves and militia had somewhat greater fighting strength and courage, because they were defending their own homeland. With the fight tied to the safety of their own families, they were bound to advance more fiercely.

Seeing the nearby village engulfed in roaring flames and hearing the unending screams, even though Lü Family Village had an utterly vile reputation, everyone was still willing to lend a hand. What if the disaster spread to their own homes? And if they shrank back in fear this time, the next time they beat the alarm gongs, no one would be willing to come — then what? And so, very quickly, the able-bodied men from every village and hamlet had all assembled.

The constable leading them was somewhat frantic with frustration. Who could have imagined something like this would suddenly happen? The Lü family themselves were holed up inside the city, too scared to come out, yet they made the constabulary draw lots to send someone out to lead the force. And he had drawn the short straw. Thinking of that widow he had just managed to get involved with, the more he thought, the less he wanted to be out here.

"The great lords in the yamen have all said — if everyone advances bravely, the authorities will pay compensation for any deaths or injuries, and everyone will be rewarded afterward..." But since he was already out here, he still had to do his duty. Just as he was working up their morale, he noticed the village braves and stalwart youths below were all glancing around nervously, their expressions panicked. If they were in this state, how could they fight? The constable was about to curse them out when he himself sensed something was wrong.

His mount was fidgeting restlessly and whinnying. Then he understood why something was wrong. The ground seemed to be trembling. A rumbling sound was drawing closer in this direction. And what was with that dust cloud? Surely that wasn't just black smoke from the fire at Lü Family Village.

"It's cavalry! Several thousand cavalry!" someone screamed at the top of his lungs. The Zhao Camp's mounted column had already appeared within everyone's field of view. A tiny place like Mengyin County, and a county seat in a backwater region at that — where had they ever seen a mounted force of such scale? Though it was only a few hundred, to their eyes it looked like several thousand. Moreover, the Zhao Camp household troops had uniform armor and weapons, and their formation had discipline and order. To the people of Mengyin County, this made the oppressive weight of their presence even heavier.

The local militia braves indeed possessed the courage to defend their homeland, but that courage also depended on what kind of enemy they faced. A mounted column this grim and formidable — one look told them it was impossible to defeat. Never mind trading life for life; to advance was to face certain death. No one was willing to fight a battle like that, and no one dared to. Someone shouted "Mother!" first, and the thousand-odd local braves who had looked somewhat passable just moments ago scattered in a complete rout. And before they even broke, the dozen or so riders who had come out from the city had long since wheeled around in panic and were lashing their mounts frantically to flee. No one was willing to throw their life away.

The mounted column Zhao Jin led advanced at no great speed, arriving just like that at the place where the able-bodied men had mustered. This threshing ground was now littered with discarded spears, clubs, and weapons — even quite a few shoes. In their desperate flight, no one cared whether they were barefoot or not. Inside the village near this threshing ground, not a sound could be heard; it seemed as though nothing living remained within.

Naturally, the Zhao Camp's mounted column had no intention of getting tangled up with the local commoners here. Having achieved their goal of making a demonstration, they turned and departed. They did not move quickly, however, remaining ready to wheel around and meet an attack at any moment. After traveling a few li, the light cavalry screening the rear caught up to report that the gates of Mengyin County's city wall had been shut once more. This went without saying — the city must have been scared out of its wits. Shandong was the interior heartland of the Great Ming, and Mengyin was a remote corner even within that heartland. The ravages of war and bandit chaos rarely reached here. To suddenly have "several thousand mounted troops" appear — how could they not be terrified?

After traveling slowly like this for one double-hour, Zhao Jin's contingent once again approached a village by the roadside. The distant rolling dust clouds were visible from here as well. At the sight of these several hundred armored riders, no one could muster the will to fight. Left with no choice, they could only open the village gates, bracing themselves to be looted and ravaged. To their surprise, the Zhao Camp brought out a considerable amount of silver and asked them to provide fodder and grain. This left the entire village bewildered and uneasy, and it was only after the Zhao Camp had truly left that they realized they had actually come out ahead this time.

For the rest of the journey, they would stop to rest for the time it takes one incense stick to burn roughly every half double-hour, then mount up and push on, allowing the exhausted men and horses as much recovery as possible. But while on the move, they rode as fast as they could. Just like that, they made their way back to the camp from which they had set out. Compared to Zhao Jin and the others, who were utterly worn out, the several hundred riders who had stayed in camp were already well rested. The light cavalry sent out to gather intelligence had also returned. The three nearby local villages had each taken in several dozen or even over a hundred outsiders — outsiders who did not look like decent, law-abiding folk.

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