Chapter 272: Swallowed in One Gulp (Congratulations on the Third Update)

Zhao Jin nodded, and Tian Ying continued, "Before, when that Manager He... no... when that old thief He Weiyuan was here, he harbored ill intentions and never looked after the neighboring villagers. Bandits often crossed the border; they didn't dare touch He Family Manor, but they came to plague the rest of us. Our few places here all suffered heavy losses."

The others all chimed in agreement. Tian Ying glanced at Zhao Jin's reaction, saw he was listening very attentively, and then went on, "Now that Security Chief Zhao is stationed here, such evils naturally won't happen again. We've come to pay our respects to Security Chief Zhao for two reasons: first, to congratulate you on moving here, and second, to finalize the matter of a joint village defense pact. Should any bandits, roving thieves, or unruly mobs appear, any one of us alone is too weak, but if we all join forces, we'll have nothing to worry about."

Zhao Jin turned his head to glance at Chen Sheng and said with a smile, "They didn't come earlier, didn't come later — they wait until the cavalry and the warrior monks have been smashed, and now they come talking about a joint defense pact."

Chen Sheng gave a disdainful smirk. Zhao Jin had spoken neither too loudly nor too softly, and it was clearly not meant for Chen Sheng's ears alone. Everyone in the room heard it clearly, and each wore an awkward expression; some couldn't help but lower their heads.

That night, several hundred cavalry had launched a surprise attack, and over a thousand warrior monks had marched through the night holding torches. At least half the surrounding villages could have seen it. The firelight blazed bright, and the killing cries shook the heavens — in such a quiet night, how could the neighbors possibly not have heard? Yet not only did no one come to the rescue, the next day not a single person even came to help. And so it went until today, when nine families finally came together. This was clearly a decision made only after the dust had completely settled. And now they had the nerve to talk about "sharing the same breath and branches."

Tian Ying coughed twice. That steward, Liu Zhu, let out a dry laugh and spoke, "Security Chief Zhao, each of our places is just a small hamlet or village. If we really encountered a large bandit gang, we wouldn't dare stick our necks out, afraid of retaliation. So isn't that exactly why we've come to you, Security Chief Zhao? Once we all form a joint defense pact and unite as one, who would dare provoke us then?"

"From now on, we'll all discuss matters together, protect the territory and keep the people safe," Lin Erneng said in a gruff voice.

After he finished speaking, he swept his gaze over the others who hadn't yet had a chance to speak, and those few immediately chimed in agreement.

Zhao Jin laughed again, turning his head once more to look at Chen Sheng, and found Chen Sheng was also shaking his head with a smile. Zhao Jin's laughter grew louder. The expressions of the people in the room varied — the four families who hadn't knelt all showed displeasure, while the five groups who had knelt looked somewhat fearful. Some faces were bewildered, unable to figure out what was happening.

Yet whether displeased, fearful, bewildered, or feeling any other emotion, no one dared interrupt Zhao Jin's laughter.

Fortunately, Zhao Jin didn't drag it out with deliberate mystification. When he stopped laughing, he spoke, "Discuss matters together — does that mean each place sends one person, and whoever has the most people gets the final say?"

Tian Ying and the others looked awkward but did not refute him. Zhao Jin continued, "So I have one person here, and you have nine. Wouldn't that mean I'd have to follow your lead in everything? There's no such cheap deal in this world."

He said it outright. The ones who hadn't knelt wanted to argue, but the ones who had knelt grew fearful. Zhao Jin waved his hand and simply continued on his own, "A joint village defense pact is a good idea. If bandits go to your territory and entrench themselves there, not only will they harm the common folk, it will also be trouble for me here."

Hearing this stance, no joy appeared on anyone's face. They all knew there was more to come.

"You don't need to rack your brains trying to take advantage of me. Those petty tricks are useless. Even if you hadn't brought it up, I was going to do this anyway — just a bit later."

Ignoring their sour expressions, Zhao Jin went on, "Each of your places has some strength — a few dozen men at the smallest, over a hundred at the largest. That coal mine could even muster several hundred. All of these will be placed under my unified command. I will guarantee your safety, but you must also submit to my command and obey my orders!"

The words had barely landed when Tian Ying sprang up as if his backside were on fire, his face full of fury. "Security Chief Zhao, are you planning to swallow all of our territories? This is our first meeting — how can you be so utterly unrestrained!"

The moment Tian Ying jumped up, Chen Sheng's eyes narrowed. Everyone heard a "click" — a sound all martial men knew well: the snap of a scabbard's catch being released. So while Tian Ying had jumped to his feet, he stood there not daring to make any reckless moves.

"Utterly unrestrained? How many men do you have in your hands, and how many do I have in mine?" Zhao Jin asked with a smile.

"Our several places, united in heart and strength, have over a thousand able-bodied men," Tian Ying said, stiffening his neck.

The smile on Zhao Jin's face grew thicker as he said leisurely, "If you pool all your places together, scraping together a thousand or so able-bodied men might be possible. If you went all out, even more wouldn't be impossible. But don't those men still need to farm and work? Can you equip them all with proper weapons?"

A few questions fired off, and Tian Ying stammered, unable to reply. Every household had one or several able-bodied young men who could take up arms with whatever tools were at hand. But these young men's primary occupation was farming; they had to work daily to earn a living. They might get into plenty of fights, but they were useless in a real battle. And weapons cost money — even the cheapest spear had to be forged at a blacksmith's shop. The wealthy households and local strongmen of each village and hamlet would never spend that kind of money. They all used sharpened bamboo or wooden poles. Swords and spears were only issued to their personal servants and trusted henchmen. And, to be frank, if you really armed the farming men with spears, how would you suppress them if they started a revolt? Everyone understood this perfectly well.

If they weren't full-time soldiers or military retainers, they couldn't be assembled at a moment's notice. Even if assembled, their morale and will to fight would be low because their farm work and household duties were unfinished. Not to mention that without training, they had no combat effectiveness. The lack of proper weapons made their fighting strength even lower. Zhao Jin had struck right at the crux of the matter.

"The Zhao Character Camp has five hundred village braves, training daily without pause, fully equipped with blades and spears," Zhao Jin declared in a ringing voice. The room fell silent. Tian Ying's expression shifted several times before he slumped back into his seat in defeat.

Zhao Jin stood up, swept his gaze around the room, and spoke again with a smile, "Your thinking is truly naive and laughable. You actually thought you could take advantage of me. Once I've established a firm foothold here, my next step is to annex you. Instead of taking the initiative to submit, you thought you could stand against me as equals, even use your superior numbers to commandeer my strength. How utterly overconfident. What a joke."

Tian Ying and Liu Zhu's faces were both extremely grim. But Lin Erneng suddenly shot to his feet and bellowed hoarsely, "Security Chief Zhao, even that old thief He back in the day didn't swallow us up! What gives you the right to say this?"

The smile on Zhao Jin's face turned cold. He looked at Lin Erneng and said, "If you weren't a blockhead, you'd be cut down right now."

Lin Erneng froze for a moment, then flew into a rage. But before he could make any move, Chen Sheng behind Zhao Jin took a step forward, his shoulders sinking. Lin Erneng instinctively stepped back, the crook of his knee hitting the chair, and he sat back down. In that instant, everyone in the room shuddered. It was only then that they finally realized: Zhao Jin and his men had killed before — and they had killed many, many people.

The cavalry raid, the arrival of the large force of warrior monks, a whole night of earth-shaking slaughter, and the cavalry reinforcements arriving the next day — the people in the prefectural city might not know the truth, but they did. Zhao Jin had truly killed several hundred men, thoroughly crushing that cavalry and that large force.

Thinking of this, many were already filled with regret. They cursed themselves for being blinded by greed, thinking they could take advantage. This Zhao Jin might be young, but he came from the city and had seen the world — how could he be fooled by their words? Many faces had already turned somewhat pale. Lin Erneng, in particular, kept his head down, not even daring to meet Zhao Jin's eyes.

"You've come at just the right time. Come out and take a look with me," Zhao Jin said.

The atmosphere in the room was on the verge of freezing solid. Hearing Zhao Jin's words, everyone seized the chance to climb down gracefully. They all stood up, but each one kept their head bowed and back bent. A few sharper individuals had already realized: despite all the prior discussions, once they arrived, Tian Ying and Liu Zhu, the leaders, had been just as extremely deferential, cautious and not daring to step out of line. And in that very state, they had still schemed to gain an advantage — it was utterly absurd and laughable, bringing humiliation upon themselves.

They followed behind Zhao Jin out of the courtyard and arrived at the open ground to the east. None of them knew what Zhao Jin intended to do.

The open ground was bustling with activity. Besides the gift-bearing processions from each family, there were also merchants and carts that had come to load and transport wine, all parked over there. The two recruit squads were also there, standing in formation and awaiting orders.

After taking his position, Zhao Jin turned around and gave the order to the two recruit squads, "All members of the Zhao Character Camp, assemble here. Sixth Squad, clear the field. Eighth Squad, relay the order."

Both recruit squads acknowledged the order with solemnity. One squad immediately dispersed to drive away the idlers on the open ground, while the other squad ran toward the main compound.

"Tian Ying, I didn't know in advance that you were coming this time, did I?" Zhao Jin suddenly asked.

The question was so abrupt that Tian Ying couldn't make heads or tails of it. The sturdy man leading the procession from Little Stone Village, however, quickly answered, "It was only yesterday afternoon that Manor Head Tian called everyone together to discuss coming today to offer gifts and congratulations. How could Master Jin possibly have known?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Tian Ying and Liu Zhu both shot him vicious glares, but the sturdy man simply lowered his head and ignored them. After asking this question, Zhao Jin fell silent.

A flurry of chaos erupted on the eastern open ground. The idlers had no idea what was happening, but being driven away by household guards carrying spears, they dared not utter a word of protest and could only scramble to pack up in a fluster.

Before long, the sound of orderly footsteps rang out in waves. The veteran squads and recruit squads arrived one after another to form ranks. They all advanced at a jog, maintaining neat formations even while running. In truth, the recruit squads were still not quite up to standard — their ranks inevitably loosened and skewed while running. But this was the impression of Zhao Jin, his companions, and the veterans. To everyone else watching, it was more than orderly enough.

Neat formations, uniforms and weapons of a unified standard, solemn-faced young men — these village and rural wealthy households and local strongmen had never seen such a spectacle. On their few trips to the city, merely seeing the imperial troops march in formation had already filled them with the utmost awe. What was before their eyes now was beyond even their common understanding.