Chapter 238: The Old Cavalryman

The group walked forward in silence for a while before Zhao Jin spoke: "Your assignment for this period is to gather information. Every time we've suffered losses, it's been because our information was cut off and we had no preparation. Whatever money you need, whatever men you need, just ask directly."

The word "we" nearly made Yan Heilian drop to his knees and kowtow. He hastily agreed. Zhao Jin glanced at him — being cooped up in the compound lately had actually lightened his complexion quite a bit. After a few more steps, Zhao Jin said with a smile: "If you have any sons or nephews of suitable age in your family, send them to serve under me. They won't be treated poorly."

Yan Heilian trembled all over and quickly said: "Master Jin honors me too highly. I do have a nephew whose age is sufficient..."

Halfway through, he felt the answer wasn't quite right. Gritting his teeth, he hurriedly added: "Master Jin, my own son and daughter are still young, but they can do household chores and help out in the compound. If Master Jin doesn't mind the trouble, I'll send them over to serve as attendants."

"Send your nephew over. Your whole family is right under my nose anyway, so I won't help you look after your children," Zhao Jin replied with a laugh.

Only then did Yan Heilian breathe a sigh of relief, but immediately felt something was off — as if he'd missed some great opportunity.

Yan Heilian hurriedly departed midway. The matter of gathering information could not be delayed.

Back at the goods yard, Zhao Jin summoned Dong Bingfeng. When he arrived, his clothes were disheveled and he looked drowsy — he'd clearly just been woken from sleep.

"Go back home today. Tell them we need men who can ride and deliver messages. We're willing to pay five taels of silver per man each month, and we'll cover all provisions for both rider and horse. Have those household guards your family supports come and help," Zhao Jin said.

Hearing this, Dong Bingfeng shook his head, finally somewhat awake, and asked sullenly: "Big Brother, we already have over twenty riders on our side now. Why not use them?"

"I don't trust them..." Zhao Jin's answer was very simple.

Among the newly recruited men, over twenty had brought their own mounts, but Zhao Jin dared not use them. The reason was simple — they'd known each other too short a time, and there was no way yet to prove their loyalty.

Hearing this, Dong Bingfeng thought for a moment and understood. He quickly nodded in agreement.

After lunch, Shi Manqiang's father came by. He'd come to ask Zhao Jin whether they should continue forging that armor that looked like iron barrels. His workshop had completed eight sets in total, each with different modifications, and they were now finished.

"Of course we keep forging them!" Zhao Jin's answer was very simple.

"... Each suit of this armor costs fifteen taels of silver. This old man wouldn't dare profit off Young Master Jin, but the things Young Master Jin needs now are too many — weapons, tools, and whatnot. The smiths in the shop can't keep up. This armor is hard to forge. It takes one man swinging the hammer and another holding the piece, hammering away nonstop. We have to hire master smiths separately just for this. When you add up all the odds and ends, it comes out to this frightening price..."

No wonder he'd come to report in person. Fifteen taels of silver was indeed far too high. A middling family of four wouldn't even spend ten taels in an entire year. If not for the distillery business bringing in mountains of gold and silver, even Zhao Jin couldn't have afforded such a price.

"... The price of iron is climbing day by day, and Young Master Jin, this armor of yours requires refining good steel — the cost is enormous..." Zhao Jin's slight hesitation made Shi Manqiang's father anxious, thinking Zhao Jin suspected him of padding the price.

But that wasn't what puzzled Zhao Jin. What baffled him was that Xuzhou produced both coal and iron — so why was the price of iron climbing day by day? When he voiced this question, Shi Manqiang's father also scratched his head and said, quite bewildered: "The price of iron never used to go up. It's only started rising these last two years, and these past few months it's climbed especially fast."

"Uncle Shi, just keep making them. Are we short of silver now?" Zhao Jin said with a smile. Shi Manqiang's father laughed along with him.

After seeing off Shi Manqiang's father, Zhao Jin's expression turned serious. The price of iron was soaring. In this era, iron had only a few uses. Farm tools — but in famine years like these, with disaster everywhere, who would be buying farm tools? The other use was weapons and armor — that was the major consumer of iron and steel. The official government workshops certainly wouldn't be purchasing in such massive quantities. So who was buying? Who was forging weapons? And what were they preparing for?

Zhao Jin had a rough understanding of Xuzhou's coal and iron output — it was enormous. For such output to be bought up to the point of price hikes... using that kind of force against him would be overkill.

"Last night my grandfather and my father discussed it. They said Erhong is still young and it's safer for him to stay in the city," Chen Sheng said, coming in during a training break.

This was only to be expected. Zhao Jin nodded. Just as Chen Sheng went out, another runner from the yamen arrived, delivering an invitation from Clerk Li of the Punishments Office, asking Zhao Jin to a banquet at Fatty Zhang's that evening.

Seeing the invitation, Zhao Jin was a bit puzzled. With everything so busy right now, what was this about? But on second thought, given Clerk Li's usual way of doing things, he wouldn't have sent this invitation unless it was something important.

After dark, Zhao Jin called Chen Sheng along and headed to Fatty Zhang's. Because Zhao Jin had chosen Fatty Zhang's for several banquets and gatherings, business there was booming. The moment these two young masters appeared, the manager and waiters all rushed over to fawn on them.

Clerk Li had long since reserved a private courtyard. Originally, Fatty Zhang's only had private rooms, no courtyards, but now they'd bought up and expanded into the surrounding residential properties.

As soon as Zhao Jin and Chen Sheng took their seats, the waiters began serving dishes. Zhao Jin found this strange — it was far too improper. He was about to stop them when the waiters said this was on Clerk Li's instructions.

Once all the dishes were served, Zhao Jin and Chen Sheng looked at each other in astonishment. Before they could react, the door opened and a person dressed as a servant walked in. He entered and bowed, saying: "My Master Li says he won't be coming."

Zhao Jin and Chen Sheng didn't bother to respond, because they recognized this "servant." This man was Ruhui, the guest receptionist of Cloud Mountain Temple — the same Ruhui who had already formed an offensive and defensive alliance with Zhao Jin.

The two sides hadn't been in contact for some time. Zhao Jin hadn't placed his hopes on this monk, yet here Monk Ruhui had appeared.

Beside him, Chen Sheng's hand went straight to his saber hilt. Monk Ruhui gestured for them to be silent, closed the door behind him, and said in a pinched, raised voice: "My master says this round of drinks is on his tab, to apologize to you two young masters!"

Those words were for anyone outside listening. Monk Ruhui immediately lowered his voice and said with a bitter smile: "Things are off everywhere now. I have to be careful. Cloud Mountain Temple's monk-soldiers are no longer in the temple, and this humble monk can't find out where they've gone. The abbots at the branch temples down the mountain are being replaced constantly. Many of the old connections are useless now. Besides the monk-soldiers, several bands of mounted bandits operating under Cloud Mountain Temple's banner have also gone quiet."

Ruhui spoke in a low, urgent voice. Zhao Jin and Chen Sheng were both solemn — they understood perfectly well what this signified.

"The monk-soldiers plus these mounted bandits — how many men could that be?"

"Around fifteen hundred, give or take. The temple has been spending huge sums of silver and grain lately. Several elders were about to raise a fuss, but the abbot and Runan and the others suppressed it," Monk Ruhui added.

"You two, that's all the information I have. You're planning to move outside the city — I assume it's connected to this. You must be extremely careful. Here is my personal seal. There are only two — one for me, one for you. From now on, I'll send messengers with letters. If a letter doesn't bear this seal, it's a fake." Monk Ruhui produced a thumb-sized stamp. The stamp bore a pattern common to temples, but on closer inspection, there were slight differences.

After Zhao Jin accepted the seal, Monk Ruhui nodded and said loudly: "My master will host a banquet another day to make amends. This humble servant takes his leave."

With that, Monk Ruhui opened the door and hurried away.

Even after Monk Ruhui had left, Chen Sheng's hand remained on his saber hilt, and Zhao Jin maintained a posture ready to move at any moment. Chen Sheng asked in a lowered voice: "Could Clerk Li leak this? Cloud Mountain Temple has too many people in the yamen."

Zhao Jin slowly shook his head and said quietly: "Ruhui and Clerk Li are like you and me — he won't betray us."

Chen Sheng stuck his head out to look around, then came back and shut the door. Zhao Jin stood, took a few steps, exhaled, and said: "I'll go back and grab a few sets of clothes. Starting tonight, I'm staying at the goods yard."

"I'll come stay there too," Chen Sheng nodded in agreement.

"These next few days, you need to stay at home. Erhong needs someone escorting him back and forth. With you at home at night, things will be more secure on that side too," Zhao Jin said gravely.

The Chen family had a large estate, and Chen Wu, with his authority as Chief Constable, could directly assign runners to guard the compound — over thirty men in all, far safer than the Zhao household. But Zhao Jin had other considerations. The Zhao, Wang, and Chen homes were all close together. With himself at the goods yard and Chen Sheng here, if anything happened, Chen Sheng would be the pillar holding this side together.

After returning home, Zhao Jin informed his parents, gathered his weapons and luggage, and set out for the goods yard. Perhaps his parents had known early enough that he would strike out on his own, perhaps they'd done enough mental preparation during this time, or perhaps his father Zhao Zhentang and mother He Cuihua didn't want their son to worry — when he left home, everyone's mood was very calm.

Arriving at the goods yard, Zhao Jin first revised the night watch shifts. The old household retainers rotated as normal, but since the new recruits had been brought in, there would be no privilege of sleeping soundly. Each shift of old retainers was now accompanied by twice their number in new recruits. Arranging the new recruits took Zhao Jin some effort — recruits on the same shift couldn't be from the same clique, and ideally they'd check and balance each other. It took considerable work.

The city walls of Xuzhou were indeed a protective umbrella. No matter how many forces Cloud Mountain Temple mobilized outside the city, they wouldn't dare brazenly attack inside the city. If they dared try, the Southern Metropolitan Region would immediately and unhesitatingly deploy troops to suppress them. And if they tried to sneak men into the city in secret, those men would have virtually no combat effectiveness.

Inside the city, there was actually no need to worry about large-scale attacks. The reason Zhao Jin maintained such strict defenses and entered a state of combat readiness was to keep the household retainers and new recruits on edge, so they wouldn't be caught scrambling when the time came.

The night passed. It was peaceful and uneventful. Zhao Jin's watch during the first half of the night went smoothly enough, but trouble broke out during the second half. Six new recruits, seeing the sudden tension and recalling all the rumors about Zhao Jin — especially the bloody battles and killings — grew more and more frightened the more they thought about it. Unwilling to stay, they took advantage of gaps during the night watch to flee.

These six didn't run together but scattered individually. The new recruits were indifferent to this, but the old household retainers were furious. Fed, paid, and then you try to run during night watch? There was no such cheap deal in this world. They immediately gave chase.

Even if the new recruits ran fast, they didn't know the surrounding roads as well as the household retainers, and there were hidden sentries besides. Not a single one escaped — all were caught and brought back.

"Forty lashes each. Tie them to the posts at the edge of the goods yard as a public example. Next time, it's beheading," Zhao Jin gave the order simply. At times like this, discipline had to be enforced all the more strictly, so they would learn fear and obedience.

Ji Xiang immediately went to carry out the punishment. Chen Sheng and Chen Hong arrived over half a shichen earlier than the day before. Chen Hong went to audit the accounts, while Chen Sheng had already taken the new recruits out for training — just in time to witness the punishment of the deserters.

"Forty lashes for each deserter! If it happens again, beheading without mercy!" Ji Xiang shouted.

As soon as the words left his mouth, the household retainers dragged the six new recruits forward, stripped off their upper garments and trousers, and swung the whips down hard. The weather had turned warm, but early morning was still very cold. Each lash left a bloody welt. Those new recruits, unaccustomed to hardship, screamed like slaughtered pigs.

The screams echoed in the ears of the training new recruits. Their already unskilled movements kept losing form. Chen Sheng carried on as usual — whoever's movement was wrong, his long pole immediately lashed down. Screams and cries of pain rang out in chorus, quite the lively scene.

Zhao Jin stood to the side, sweeping his gaze across the scene. Most people, when caught by his eyes, instinctively turned away to avoid meeting them.

There were a few exceptions, though. Men from the jianghu like Qian Yong and Tao Gui acted as usual, even spitting contemptuously toward the six new recruits and cursing "cowards." Some other new recruits also wore looks of contempt — no one respects a coward.

Yesterday, the four people from the Zhao and He families silently joined the ranks of the household guards. Now they are also training obediently among the crowd. Although they were not to receive special treatment, Zhao Jin still paid some attention to them.

The two brothers Zhao Wan and Zhao Song wore expressions of scorn on their faces. Judging by their looks, they were not exactly mocking the six new recruits for being timid, but rather for being too stupid and foolish. He Zheng, on the other hand, had a completely wooden face, as if he felt nothing at all about this. Li Can's face initially still carried a trace of fear, but later he seemed to have completely forgotten it and trained as usual alongside everyone else.

These relatives of mine are really not ordinary at all, Zhao Jin muttered inwardly. Yesterday morning before leaving, Zhao Jin had said some very simple words to them: In the household guard ranks, you must watch and listen more, and speak little. When there is a need, I will come and ask you. As my own relatives, I will not treat you poorly. But if you tell anyone in the ranks that you are my relatives, I will dismiss you immediately.

Zhao Wan, Zhao Song, He Zheng, and Li Can were four people of different ages and different experiences, but they had one thing in common. They had followed Zhao Zhentang back, all wanting to change, wanting to strive for a better change. Because of this goal, they obeyed everything Zhao Jin said unconditionally.

Over there, the forty lashes had finished. The six men's backs were a bloody mess of torn flesh, breathing in faintly and out weakly. But it was not over yet; they were then tied to the wooden posts.

"Untie them before lunch, then call a physician to treat their wounds. Their wages for this entire year are to be docked entirely." Zhao Jin gave another order.

Yesterday, Chen Sheng used victory and defeat to teach the new recruits to train hard. Today, Zhao Jin used these six blood-soaked examples to make the new recruits understand that the rules cannot be violated. From recruitment until now, it had been less than three days, yet the new recruits' enthusiasm for training had soared greatly. That defiant, unyielding, and aggrieved attitude had all disappeared.

Zhao Jin watched these changes with satisfaction. He had no time to observe here much longer. Today, he had to inspect the storehouse together with Chen Hong. Tens of thousands of taels of silver worth of goods and property were piled inside the storehouse. Gold, silver, silks, and all sorts of valuables all had to be inventoried and then taken away. This was also one of the foundations of Zhao Jin's confidence. With this sum of money, he could leisurely set up the distillery, train the household guards, expand his own power, and continuously improve his own equipment.

Just as he took a step, he heard the booming thunder of hoofbeats outside, as if a mounted troop was heading this way. Not only did Zhao Jin hear this sound, but the new recruits and household guards on the training ground also heard it. The crowd instantly became somewhat panicked.

"What are you panicking for! As long as you train well, even cavalry won't be able to break through your formation. Train hard!" Chen Sheng roared loudly, though his own confidence was not entirely solid either.

When Zhao Jin taught this method, he had once said that if trained well, the formation would be like a mountain, unshakable even by an iron cavalry charge. Everyone listened in amazement, but truly could not believe it. In everyone's mind, cavalry were the strongest branch of the military. On open plains in field battles, spurring horses into a charge, they were unstoppable. Foot soldiers, on the other hand, were the most worthless profession. How could a foot soldier formation withstand the impact of an iron cavalry charge? If that were so, why were the household guards and personal retainers of military officers and nobles all cavalry nowadays, while the foot soldiers below went hungry and cold, looking like beggars? Everyone under heaven was like this; what made Zhao Jin's method so special?

However, this training method of Zhao Jin's was indeed effective. A group of commoners' sons had actually developed a bit of an invincible bearing. But when facing cavalry, they had no experience even facing men on horseback.

Zhao Jin and Chen Sheng, of course, knew who was coming. They had spoken with Dong Bingfeng yesterday, and today he had truly brought the men over. Zhao Jin nodded to Chen Sheng, signaling that he would go out to receive them, and then left the courtyard together with Ji Xiang, who had run out.

Led by Dong Bingfeng, there were fifteen cavalrymen in total. They varied in height, but their common traits were their stocky builds and bow legs. At a single glance, one could tell they had spent many years in the saddle. The sabers, axes, short spears, longbows, and sharp arrows on their horses were all complete. They could truly be called first-rate elite troops of the Great Ming.

However, upon closer inspection, Zhao Jin felt something was a bit off. The reason was simple: these cavalrymen were all too old. One could say that being in one's forties was the prime of life, but in reality, in this era, people in their forties already looked old. Moreover, among the cavalrymen Dong Bingfeng brought, those in their forties were in the minority, while those in their fifties were more numerous. The white hair went without saying; there were even a few whose eyebrows had gone white.

"Young master, you looking at us like that—could it be you think we're too old?" As Zhao Jin looked for a while longer, a white-haired cavalryman spoke up and asked. This man was around fifty-some years of age.