Chapter 172: Fire Arrows

Zhao Jin wasn't actually all that nervous, because there were household guards posted outside, and anyone bold enough to knock loudly on the door was nine times out of ten an acquaintance.

Sure enough, as soon as he stepped out and asked, he heard Sun Dalei's voice from beyond the courtyard gate: "Big Brother, something's come up at the distillery. Big Brother, come take a look."

Zhao Jin and Dong Bingfeng said a quick word to their elders and hurried out the door.

Watching them leave, Zhao Zhentang and Dong Jike were both a bit stunned. After a moment of silence, Dong Jike finally spoke: "That boy of yours has got some serious ability. Mine won't even listen to me anymore — it's always 'Big Brother' this and 'Big Brother' that."

"When Zhenxing left, he even told me that little Jin is a child with ideas of his own, and that I should listen to him more!" Zhao Zhentang murmured a few words.

The Dong father and son had come on horseback, and Sun Dalei had also ridden over to deliver the message, so once they were out the door, Zhao Jin had no choice but to share a horse with Dong Bingfeng.

"Big Brother, wait till I get you a fine horse!" Sun Dalei habitually started with a bit of flattery before he began talking about what had happened at the distillery.

It had been fully dark for about an hour. The area around the distillery was already very quiet. Most of the residents in the south part of the city were poor commoners — once it got dark, everyone just holed up at home and didn't come out. The weather was cold now too; plenty of households didn't even have a set of thick clothes, and going outside was just asking for misery. Those ne'er-do-wells were all gathered in gambling dens and such places, fooling around. At this hour, you generally wouldn't see anyone on the streets.

Zhao Jin had already bought up a lot of the land around the distillery, so that area was even more deserted. Any movement there was easily noticed. One of the household guards on patrol and lookout duty heard a whistling sound in the air, and then something landed inside the distillery.

The guard thought it was strange and promptly reported it to Ji Xiang, who was on duty. Ji Xiang was a meticulous man. Upon hearing this, he immediately led the workers in the distillery to the spot where the whistling object had landed. When they got there and looked, they found it was the grain storehouse where the sorghum was piled. The distillery was expanding, and there were too many things that needed building. Xuzhou was dry in this season, so the sorghum was simply piled high on raised ground and covered with reed mats — heap after heap, quite a sight to behold.

Seeing that something had landed here, Ji Xiang dared not be negligent. He called over twenty workers and ten household guards, and they carried ladders over, searching inside and out, top to bottom. Because they searched so meticulously, they found it on top of one of the sorghum piles.

The object that had been thrown in was an oilpaper packet. It felt very hot to the touch. When they opened it, they found it was full of oil-soaked wood powder, with several sticks of burning incense stuck in every which way. Everyone was a bit baffled as to what this thing was for.

As it happened, Liu Yong had nothing to do that evening and came over from the freight yard. He knew what this thing was — it was a fire-starting device.

Once lit, incense sticks are not easily extinguished and burn extremely slowly. Oil-soaked wood powder doesn't catch fire easily, but if it's heated by the burning incense tips for long enough, it will eventually ignite. But once this oil-soaked wood powder catches fire, it burns with terrifying speed. Not to mention, the reed mats and the sorghum underneath were all dry and highly flammable. Once it caught, the entire distillery would be destroyed.

After Liu Yong finished explaining, everyone realized the gravity of the situation. Liu Yong stayed behind to hold the fort, Ji Xiang went to the freight yard to bring over more household guards, and Sun Dalei went to notify Zhao Jin.

"Big Brother, wouldn't it have been better for these people to set the fire late at night? It would've been even harder for us to detect then. Why did they make their move at this hour?" Once Zhao Jin arrived, Ji Xiang voiced his question.

Zhao Jin pondered for a moment, then pointed to the street outside the wall and said, "Late at night, everything is quiet, and even footsteps are jarringly loud. If they tried to approach then, the dogs would notice them first, and then our brothers would go check it out. Not only would they have no chance to throw the thing in, they might even get caught. At this hour, though it's quiet, there are still pedestrians on the street, so our brothers aren't paying as close attention."

At this point, Zhao Jin gave a cold laugh and continued, "And besides, if they'd thrown this thing in during the second half of the night, it might not have caught fire until daylight. At that time, the distillery would be full of people, and it'd be put out in no time. What's more, they never imagined our brothers would be this alert."

If Zhao Jin's household guards hadn't been strictly trained and hadn't obeyed orders without reservation, they would likely have already slacked off by this hour. If they'd been drowsy and dozing in the second half of the night, a fire could have started over there without anyone even noticing.

Liu Yong also came running over with a few men. He walked up and shook his head, saying, "No one's around. They must have run off long ago. But judging by the spot where they threw it in, they probably used a rope sling."

"I'll come keep watch tonight as well. Now that our distillery is making money, the number of people who can't stand to see it is growing!" Zhao Jin said in a stern voice.

After going home to let them know, Zhao Jin and Dong Bingfeng came straight to the distillery. He didn't demand that everyone stay on night duty. Instead, he arranged for everyone to rest in shifts. The household guards on night duty had already slept during the day, so they were full of energy. The reason Zhao Jin arranged for his companions to sleep in shifts was so that at every moment, someone would be maintaining sharp focus. Having everyone stay up all night was obviously impossible, and there was no point to it anyway.

Whether the arsonist noticed that the distillery's security had been strengthened, or whether there had only been that one attack planned for the night, the night passed just like that, and nothing else happened.

Early the next morning, Zhao Jin sent word summoning all his companions to the distillery and assigned each of them tasks. The merchants who came to buy liquor were surprised to see that Fragrance Distillery had bought several dozen large vats that morning. Seeing this, they all assumed Fragrance Distillery was increasing production and came asking one after another.

But they soon discovered that wasn't the case. The several dozen large vats were placed at various spots both inside and outside the distillery, with water ladles and buckets set beside them.

Moreover, aside from the household guards on duty, the distillery workers also came out in batches that morning to drill on how to fetch water and fight a fire, and how to move away unburned firewood and grain piles if a fire broke out.

Everyone watching thought it was ridiculous. Even the workers undergoing the training thought it was ridiculous. But Zhao Jin went about these matters with great seriousness. Fire drills always feel pointless when you're doing them, but if something really happens, the skills you practiced will come in handy.

But on this matter, Zhao Jin himself became the butt of a joke. He had originally planned to fill all the water vats to the brim, but someone reminded him that in this freezing weather, pouring water in would just cause it to freeze solid in no time, and might even crack the vats from expansion. Liu Yong, however, had an idea: after it snowed, don't clear the snow piles right away — just leave them in a shady spot. If something really happened, they could just use the snow to put out the fire. The effect certainly wouldn't be any worse.

Beyond these arrangements, Liu Yong also assigned his men to keep watch in shifts around the clock. They rented a few rooms in the residential houses around the distillery to serve as outposts. Someone would be keeping an eye out even at night, and would go investigate any sign of movement.

Outwardly relaxed but inwardly on alert, Zhao Jin and his men busied themselves with preparations. The distillery continued producing and selling liquor as usual. At night, Zhao Jin stayed directly at the distillery. The freight yard, by comparison, was no longer a pressing concern.

Around the third watch of the night, Zhao Jin was woken from his sleep. Liu Yong, who was also staying there on duty, had a grim expression as he said, "Big Brother, someone's shooting fire arrows in!"

Hearing this, Zhao Jin sat bolt upright. Only after he'd come to his senses a bit did he realize that the "fire arrows" Liu Yong was talking about were probably not what had first sprung to his mind.

When he hurried outside, he found Chen Sheng loudly shouting orders and directing movements. The household guards were spreading out in all directions in groups of five.

"Keep your eyes peeled, all of you! In the dead of night like this, I don't believe he could've gotten far. If you spot anyone, raise a shout — reinforcements will be there in no time."

Seeing Zhao Jin approach, Chen Sheng said in a deep voice, "If the guards hadn't reacted so fast, the firewood pile would've gone up."

After saying this, Chen Sheng lowered his voice a little and added, "We need to be prepared too. There are at least three archers over there. The guards who first spot them are bound to take casualties. But once they make a move, in this silent night, there's no way for them to escape."

Zhao Jin froze for a moment, then slowly nodded. He simply said, "First, take me to see where the fire started."

Distilling liquor and steaming the mash, including heating the grain — all of this required a huge amount of fuel. This fuel was also piled up inside the distillery. Moreover, in the rush to get the distillery built quickly, the structures were mainly timber-framed. If a fire really took hold, the flames from the firewood pile could very well burn down the distillery and the granary together, destroying everything in one go.

Zhao Jin, Chen Sheng, Shi Manqiang, and Liu Yong were on duty that night. None of them looked pleased. When they reached the firewood pile, they saw Shi Manqiang leading men with ladders, checking everywhere, occasionally setting up a ladder and climbing up.

And in the open ground, there was a pile of charred, blackened firewood and straw. It looked like it had caught fire and been raked down, covered with sand and dirt.

After what had happened the previous night, the household guards were all exceptionally alert. They would go investigate the slightest rustle of wind or stir of grass. They hadn't expected that this night's attack wouldn't be tossing paper packets to start a slow fire. Instead, in the dead silence of the deep night, several points of light suddenly came whistling through the air in arcs, landing directly inside the distillery.

Fortunately, they had made preparations during the day. The household guards on alert immediately struck the bronze gong. Everyone inside and out sprang into action at once. Shi Manqiang led men to use steel pitchforks to pull down the firewood and straw that had just begun to burn, swiftly extinguishing the fire.

Three feathered arrows, with oilcloth tied to the arrowheads, had already mostly burned away. The household guard who had spotted the arrows being shot in reported somewhat nervously, "... The arrows weren't flying too fast. At first, this humble one thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. It was only when they landed that I realized something was wrong..."

"Zhang Hubin, you've done meritorious service. Go to the accounts office tomorrow and collect one tael of silver. You're granted a day's leave!" Zhao Jin stepped forward with a smile and patted him on the shoulder. The household guard, who had been somewhat nervous, first froze, then straightened up, his face full of excitement.

The household guards nearby looked at Zhang Hubin with faces full of envy. Zhao Jin bent down, picked up the three feathered arrows, and walked back to the living quarters at the distillery. The lamplight there was very bright, allowing him to see more details.

Not long after, Chen Sheng and Liu Yong came into the room, somewhat dejected. Chen Sheng set down his long saber and shook his head, saying, "The men must have run off long ago. No one spotted anything."

The look of disappointment on Liu Yong's face was even heavier. He also spoke: "The scouts I posted didn't find anything."

The moment these words left his mouth, Liu Yong immediately realized his slip. He was in charge of the hidden scouts and informants — his companions could all sense it to some degree. But Liu Yong had never stated it openly, and the others never asked.