Chapter 1158: Not Here for the Grand Event

Seeing so many important figures, could it be that this Zhao Jin doesn't even dismount? That's far too arrogant and ignorant of his place. The man standing in the third row of the merchant procession — even my family head has to perform a grand salute when meeting him. On ordinary days, if he sends a steward to our estate, we have to receive him as an honored guest. This Zhao Jin is merely a local strongman of a slightly larger scale, so why does he put on such airs?

But everyone then noticed that Zhao Jin's expression was perfectly normal. He wasn't deliberately putting on any arrogance or oppressive pressure, and the great merchants also acted very naturally, as if they thought it was only right and proper that Zhao Jin did not dismount. Seeing this scene, the martial artists below made a fresh assessment of just how much weight Zhao Jin carried.

Zhao Jin nodded, flicked the reins, and the horse column began moving again. As the large troop of mounted household guards passed by the greeters, each of the great merchants looked relieved, and quite a few were muttering among themselves: "It's only been a short while since we last saw him, yet the authority in his bearing has grown so much heavier — no less than the Grand Coordinator himself." "More than that — no less than the dukes in Nanjing."

There was discussion in the martial artist ranks as well. One of them, with biting self-mockery, said: "We're supposed to be men of some reputation, yet here we don't even rate an introduction!"

"That Zhao Jin just got lucky..." someone else began, trying to talk big to keep up appearances, but halfway through his words, the person beside him tugged at him. He turned to look and was directed by the man pointing into the distance.

The mounted household guards on the riverbank were still continuously coming ashore. Once they formed a full company, they would fall into formation and follow. Watching these ironclad cavalry troops pass by in column after column, all the martial artists were left speechless. Before such strength, there was nothing to do but feel awe. With such strength, one could indeed look down upon the crowd with pride.

The ironclad cavalry needed very broad space to march in formation. Although several of Qingjiangpu's main streets were wide, they still could not accommodate such a column. If the column were too narrow, it would be detrimental to Zhao Jin's protection. Therefore, Zhao Jin and the mounted household guards did not go through Qingjiangpu. Instead, they made a detour along the outskirts and went directly to the former Third Brigade barracks to station themselves. The household guards there had all already gone to the new encampment, leaving behind one patrol squad to maintain watch.

In truth, when Zhao Jin returned the salutes from horseback, he had looked very carefully at the martial artist contingent. But after looking, he was somewhat disappointed — there was none of the pleasant surprise he had anticipated. Some even looked rather familiar. This was normal enough; Zhao Jin had far too many such men around him already.

At the encampment where he was staying this time, there was likewise a welcoming party. These people were all his own. Dong Bingfeng, Zhou Xuezhi, Li Dajin, Wei Mugen, and all the others qualified to be here — Li Ziyou of the Chenbei Firm had also been invited here, his face full of excitement. By etiquette, the people of Zhao Camp should have gone to the dock to welcome him, but this time Zhao Jin had sent word in advance not to let outsiders see all the local principals gathered in one place, so they could only welcome him inside the camp.

"Greetings, Big Brother." Dong Bingfeng paid his respects first. Having not seen him for a long time, Dong Bingfeng was very happy, but his nature was restrained, and showing it to this degree was already his limit.

Zhao Jin stepped forward and thumped Dong Bingfeng's chest with his fist, then turned around laughing and said: "Look, all of you — this is what a famed general looks like. I hear that in Qingjiangpu and Yangzhou, they even paint you into pictures."

Dong Bingfeng lowered his head, somewhat embarrassed and blushing. Everyone roared with laughter. Wang Zhaojing and Liu Yong had both come here this time as well. Dong Bingfeng went up to greet them one by one, and the others all came forward in turn to pay their respects to Zhao Jin. Among Zhao Jin's brothers, the one with the finest looks and bearing was Wang Zhaojing, but Wang Zhaojing had the air of a scholar, whereas Dong Bingfeng was tall and slender, with an ape's arms and a wasp's waist, born of a wealthy family, handsome in features, and well-groomed. There were quite a few legends about him in Qingjiangpu and Yangzhou.

According to what the Cloud Mountain Firm and the Internal Guard had found out, in Qingjiangpu and Yangzhou there were master painters of the meticulous brushwork school who would specifically go to observe Dong Bingfeng's appearance, then return and copy the image from memory onto paintings. The looks of handsome famed generals like Lü Bu, Zhao Yun, and Li Jing were all modeled after him. And as soon as such a painting appeared, connoisseurs would call it a perfect capture of both form and spirit. There were even rumors that in the boudoirs of great households, such paintings were in high demand...

"This time the Master has come escorted by a thousand cavalry — it truly swells the prestige of our Zhao Camp. The people here are ridiculous; only when you put on a show of force will they respect and submit. On ordinary days, when we strictly abide by the rules, these people speculate recklessly without any restraint. Yet a common flood gets exaggerated by them as if it could destroy heaven and earth," Zhou Xuezhi said with a smile, though one could hear the deep feeling in his words.

"We are not the same as before. In the past, it was enough to focus single-mindedly on getting things done. Now we must also put on a show for the outside world. Big Brother must also come out and move about more often to keep up appearances," Wang Zhaojing added with a smile.

Zhao Jin just shook his head and said, very resigned: "This is truly tedious."

Everyone entered the council hall. After the household guards served tea, Li Dajin and Wei Mugen began to introduce the arrangements for the martial arts tournament in detail.

"... The merchant guilds here originally wanted to invite Master Jin to attend the opening and closing ceremonies, but after your subordinates discussed it with Master Yong, we felt it would be better for Master Jin to make an appearance only at the last few matches. Nearly five hundred are participating in this martial arts tournament, and even more are coming to watch the excitement. At the opening, the crowd is simply too mixed, and the risk is too great. The last few matches, on the other hand, will have fewer people, and it will be easier for us to control..."

"... Your subordinate has been remiss. Qingjiangpu still cannot be brought fully under our control. Only the several docks along the canal can be closely watched, but many people traveling north and south do not all use the docks. For the sake of absolute security, Master Jin's movements in Qingjiangpu this time will not be so free. If you wish to go somewhere, please inform us in advance. Or there is no need to inform us in advance — we can make arrangements at the last moment..."

Li Dajin and Wei Mugen spoke very frankly. Advance notice would allow them to make arrangements, and last-moment action would leave outsiders no way to prepare countermeasures, so these two were the safest approaches. Zhao Jin understood their meaning very well and merely nodded, saying: "You only have so many men in hand, while there are several hundred thousand people here, with such a huge flow of comings and goings every day. Total control is impossible. It's enough to control the key points."

After saying this, Zhao Jin turned to Dong Bingfeng and asked: "How are things on your side?"

"Everything has been prepared according to Big Brother's instructions. Please set your mind at ease, Big Brother," Dong Bingfeng answered in a deep voice.

Zhao Jin nodded. As soon as he finished, Zhou Xuezhi spoke up from below: "Master, the Qingjiangpu merchant guild and the Yangzhou merchants are now all fixed on two matters. One is the trade at Haizhou Harbor, the other is the Xuzhou cloth business. Influential figures on the Yangzhou side have said that if they can get a share of the profits from Haizhou Harbor and Xuzhou cloth, they are willing to put up the money to repair the Salt Transport Canal. The Qingjiangpu side is mainly seeking the qualification to enter and do business — regular taxes and levies, whatever we set, they'll accept. Master, their saying this actually works out perfectly. It can save us quite a lot of silver. If this canal can be repaired and put to use, Haizhou Harbor will truly come alive!"

The so-called "Salt Transport Canal" was a canal running from the Haizhou salt fields to the Yangzhou area. Its purpose was to transport salt goods from Haizhou to Yangzhou. This canal was actually formed by connecting many rivers, with only a few artificially excavated sections. But these artificially excavated sections were the bottlenecks of the Salt Transport Canal, plagued with many problems — collapsing banks, silted-up channels, and water being diverted by encroachers, among others.

Although this Salt Transport Canal was very important to the salt merchants, because it was not their private property, no one bothered to repair and maintain it. As long as it was usable, they just made do. As for the government offices and bureaus related to salt administration, they paid even less attention. The public funds for canal repair had long since been divided up and pocketed clean — not a single coin was ever actually spent on it. This might sound astonishing, but it was in fact the norm. The salt fields were tied to everyone's fortunes, yet the Haizhou salt fields were equally dilapidated and ruinously inefficient.

Originally, Zhao Camp had not paid much attention to this canal, but after Haizhou Harbor was built, this canal became critical. The seaport docks could handle the arrival and departure of seaborne goods and personnel, but once goods and people arrived, how would they enter the interior? If only overland transport was available, relying solely on ox- and horse-drawn carts and human labor, the costs would be far too high, and the reach would be limited. At present, the goods from Haizhou Harbor only served the prefectures and counties near Haizhou and the estates radiating into the northern part of Huai'an. Although Xuzhou and Pizhou were much closer to Haizhou Harbor than Qingjiangpu was, because Qingjiangpu was connected by water routes, goods from Qingjiangpu had the advantage in both price and time.

This was precisely why Clam Harbor was currently more valuable than Haizhou Harbor — water transport was far more convenient. But if there were a river that could connect to the Grand Canal and the Yellow River, goods brought by seagoing ships could be transported via this river into the Grand Canal and the Yellow River, and then travel north and south by water routes to Xuzhou and Pizhou, to every corner of the realm. Likewise, outgoing goods would follow the same path. Goods from north and south of the Great River could travel by water to Haizhou Harbor and then be shipped overseas. If this could be achieved, the entire Haizhou Harbor would come alive, its value surpassing that of Clam Harbor, and because its harbor conditions were even better, it might even far exceed it.

The men of Zhao Camp had long had their eyes on this Salt Transport Canal and were prepared to invest sufficient manpower and financial resources. However, ever since building the Yellow River dam and excavating ditches and channels in Xuzhou and Pizhou for water conservancy projects, the Zhao Camp leadership knew all too well what kind of expense such projects entailed...

It was not that Zhao Camp lacked the silver, but there were too many places requiring expenditure at present. Investing too heavily in one area alone would affect other fronts. Now that the salt merchants were willing to put up this silver, that was naturally for the best. Moreover, the participation of the Yangzhou salt merchants brought other benefits. The line from Haizhou to Yangzhou was largely outside Zhao Camp's sphere of control. Dredging the canal there would inevitably involve dealing with officials and local strongmen, and doing so outside one's own territory was no easy task.

Yet the entire coastal eastern strip of the Southern Metropolitan Region north of the Great River, from Haizhou to Yangzhou, was territory controlled by the salt merchants. Whatever they wanted to do, everyone from top to bottom would grant them convenience. With the Yangzhou merchants participating, both manpower and material resources could save Zhao Camp a great deal.

Thanks to old friend Yuanheng Lizhen for the reward, and thank you all for your subscriptions and monthly tickets. Thank you, everyone.