Chapter 274: Zheng Quan Visits

The singing and the hawking both broke off, and a strange, oddly-accented voice rang out: "Don't you worry, master, we'll stop the racket."

It was Chinese, but the accent was exceedingly peculiar. Zhao Jin, who had been about to leave, suddenly grew interested and said to Wang Ziyang, "Take me over to have a look."

"They're just a bunch of Tartars who don't know the rules. What if they offend you, Master Jin..." Wang Ziyang's face showed a troubled expression.

"Let's go have a look." Zhao Jin said with a smile. At this, Wang Ziyang immediately dared not refuse and hurriedly led the way.

Though he smiled, Zhao Jin was inwardly muttering to himself. In the information Liu Yong had gathered, there had been no mention of Wang Ziyang having Tartar workers.

The two men circled around the livestock pens and saw several workers sitting on the ground. From their clothing and appearance, they looked exactly like caravan hands, which explained why no one knew they were Tartars. Aside from their faces being a bit more weather-beaten, these men were no different from anyone else. Then again, who among those hard-laboring men constantly traveling north and south didn't look like that?

When those men saw Zhao Jin and Wang Ziyang approaching, they all hurriedly scrambled up from the ground, though their bodies swayed a little — they had clearly drunk quite a bit. Their features were no different from Han Chinese, Zhao Jin noted to himself.

Having Mongols among the workers was no taboo. The court and the provinces had officials of Mongol origin, the army had Mongol officers, and many Mongol commoners had settled in the border garrison regions. Such workers were nothing rare. Besides, Wang Ziyang's caravan needed to go into the grasslands to buy livestock and sell goods, so having a few Mongols familiar with the local grasslands was perfectly normal.

The smell of alcohol was thick. Zhao Jin casually glanced at the wine jar and his brow furrowed. It was a jar specifically used for Hanjing Famous Liquor. These livestock merchants were willing to trade cattle and horses for Hanjing Famous Liquor, yet they gave such fine wine to their lowly Mongol workers to drink — that was truly peculiar.

"Cover it up, quick, cover it up, don't let the bouquet escape!" Someone noticed the jar's mouth was open and hurriedly shouted. One man picked up the lid to cover it, but stumbled and sat down hard on the ground. The workers burst into a bout of mindless, cackling laughter. Wang Ziyang shot a glance at Zhao Jin and scolded them crossly: "In front of Master Jin, mind your manners!"

"... Master Jin... uh..." One man started to ask something, but was tugged back by the companion behind him. The several drunken workers all fell into line at once.

Zhao Jin nodded and turned to leave. Wang Ziyang hurriedly followed, smiling obsequiously. "These Tartars don't know the rules — made a laughingstock of me in front of Master Jin. But that night they all saw Master Jin in battle. The moment they heard you were coming, they all behaved. Such is Master Jin's tiger-like majesty!"

"Boss Wang is certainly generous with his own men, opening a whole jar of fine wine for them," Zhao Jin said with a smile, but his eyes held not the slightest trace of mirth.

Transporting Hanjing Famous Liquor to the grasslands yielded enormous profits — one catty of the liquor was worth one tael of silver. Yet a profit-driven merchant was willing to give this wine to his workers to drink, and these workers were Mongols at that. It was truly strange.

Wang Ziyang seemed oblivious to the implication in Zhao Jin's words and merely replied with a smile, "These Tartars may be blockheads, but they've saved my life before. They've been craving the liquor from Master Jin's distillery for ages, so since I'm close to the source, I got them a jar to try."

"Saved your life?"

"In my line of work, dealing in livestock, the capital is heavy and I carry a lot of gold and silver on my person. I've run into horse bandits on the grasslands and mounted brigands and highwaymen inland. Once, when I was still thirty li from Shahukou in Shanxi, horse bandits surrounded us. It was only because these Tartars shot and killed eight of them with their bows that the bandits were scared off and we returned safely." Wang Ziyang spoke simply, but his tone carried a hint of wistful emotion, clearly stirred by the memory.

Zhao Jin listened very attentively. Wang Ziyang continued, "These Tartars have no families and no property. They follow me with absolute loyalty. Aside from their fondness for drink, they have no other vices. Letting them have a little now and then is fine."

"They all look to be in their thirties or forties. Do they have no wives, children, or parents?" Zhao Jin's earlier suspicion had now faded, replaced by curiosity.

Wang Ziyang sighed and said, "These years beyond the passes have been brutal. The weather's getting colder, the snow heavier. When the white disaster hits in winter, entire tribes have been frozen to death. The tribes prey on each other like big fish eating little fish — the large tribes frantically swallow up the small ones. Some just seize the young women and livestock and slaughter everyone else. Of these men, two fled to me, barely clinging to life when they arrived. Two others I bought over in Tumed — they cost less than a single head of cattle..."

Zhao Jin was not one for excessive sentimentality. He stopped walking and frowned. "If the grasslands are so cold and life there is so hard, doesn't that mean they raid the border every winter?"

His second uncle, Zhao Zhenxing, had once been stationed in the border garrisons and had described the situation there to Zhao Jin. The grassland winters were bitterly cold, killing off great numbers of livestock. The Mongol tribes, who depended on their herds for survival, would often sweep south in force to raid the border, plundering soldiers and civilians alike. Countless battles, large and small, would erupt, and the casualties were beyond number.

One might say the Mongol herders of the grasslands were pitiful, that they raided south just to stay alive. But for them to live, vast numbers of Han commoners died or were wounded — was that not pitiful as well? When Zhao Jin spoke of this, his voice turned somewhat cold.

Wang Ziyang, now warmed to his subject, answered Zhao Jin's question with a laugh: "Raiding the border was something that happened thirty years ago. After Altan rose to power, they had several decades of peace and have long since grown soft. Coming to the Great Ming gains them no advantage at all. These years, they just fight and kill among themselves. When they come to our Great Ming, it's to do business."

This perspective surprised Zhao Jin. He turned his head to glance at the Mongols who had reopened the wine jar and asked with a smile, "With all this mutual annexation, raiding, and slaughter on the grasslands, there must be no shortage of able-bodied young men with no one to rely on, right?"

Wang Ziyang nodded. Zhao Jin continued, "I'm short on manpower here. If there are sturdy young fellows who can shoot a bow and ride a horse, and if they're poor and alone, I could take in a few here."

Wang Ziyang paused for a moment, then understood at once. He smiled and said, "Master Jin has a fine scheme. Not to mention your place here, even the capital's Imperial Guard and Capital Garrison are recruiting such men. When I go beyond the passes this year, I'll certainly keep an eye out for Master Jin. It'll just be a bit troublesome getting them through the pass checkpoints, but please rest assured, Master Jin."

Zhao Jin smiled and nodded, took the reins of that horse, and left the mule and horse market.

With this fine horse, Zhao Jin found practicing his riding skills much easier. However, Luan Song, who was teaching him horsemanship, raised a different point: "This horse is too easy to ride. What will you do if you encounter a difficult horse later? Better to start training on an inferior mount."

Zhao Jin took this advice to heart. He arranged for someone to send the fine horse back to the stables and continued training with his previous horse — and nearly fell off it.

Everyone else could focus single-mindedly on practicing riding. Only Zhao Jin could not; he would ride for a stretch, then have to stop to arrange and handle various matters.

The people from Little Stone Village had gone and returned. They were quite clear about their own position — in less than a single morning, they had already come to regard themselves as Zhao Jin's dependents and retainers. They had come to report a peculiar matter. After delivering their gifts and returning home, a group of people had arrived in their village. This group appeared to consist of two men who looked like account managers or clerks, along with several sturdy guards. They were offering three times the market price to buy land, and paying in ready silver.

The land around Sanxiantai and He Village was all quite good. Being not far from the Yellow River, there was no worry about irrigation — it was rare, well-irrigated prime farmland in the Xuzhou region. Buying land there was not unusual, but to try and buy up an entire village in one go was unheard of. The scale of the operation was simply too grand.

Land is the lifeblood of farmers and landlords, and they are generally unwilling to sell. Unexpectedly, this group of land buyers had an additional condition: after buying the land, they required the original owners to tend it for ten years, helping with the labor and acting as caretakers, with wages to be paid.

The terms were so generous they bordered on bizarre. There was income from selling the land, and wages to be earned on top of that. Add the two together, and no matter how you calculated it, there was no loss. What's more, they paid in ready silver. At first, everyone had been watching and waiting. But after the first household took the silver, the others, fearing they would be left behind, all rushed to sell. By the time the gift-bearing delegation returned, half the farmland in Little Stone Village had already been sold.

Little Stone Village was not large; its village head and prominent households were merely small landlords at best. The current headman only held sway because his family had many brothers who liked to practice with spears and staves. Hearing of this matter, he too was sorely tempted. Yet he also realized that even if the land changed owners, his own family would still be living there long-term. With the allied village mutual defense pact now in effect, he absolutely had to inform Zhao Jin of this.

Zhao Jin also found it strange. He looked over the contract documents brought from Little Stone Village. The land buyers were from Pei County, a shop with a name he had never heard of, and neither the owner nor the manager were people he recognized.

But this anomaly gave Zhao Jin no cause for worry. A change of ownership in Little Stone Village had no impact on him. No matter who came here, they would have to submit to Zhao Jin's arrangements and integrate into Zhao Jin's system. Trying to use Little Stone Village as some kind of base to plot against He Village was also impossible — the two were too close together. Standing on the watchtower, one could see the general movements over there. The patrol range of those few cavalrymen also encompassed Little Stone Village. At the slightest stir, he would know.

"As long as it's a voluntary transaction, I have nothing to say. If the person in charge of your village changes, remember to have him come see me." Zhao Jin's response was equally simple.

Only after receiving his permission did those people leave, bowing and scraping. The moment they were gone, Zhao Jin summoned Liu Yong and instructed him to make some covert arrangements. But the response would go no further than that — they couldn't go on full alert at every rustle of the wind.

Near nightfall, as training was ending, a household guard from the outer perimeter came to report: "The lord in the city has sent someone to deliver something to the master, and he says it must be handed over in person."

Zhao Jin found this somewhat odd. Liu Yong, at his side, was also puzzled. "If Uncle was sending something, he wouldn't arrange it this way. I'll go take a look."

Liu Yong led a few men over, while Zhao Jin returned to his quarters. Not long after, Liu Yong arrived as well, accompanied by a middle-aged man. Could it really be someone from home delivering something? The moment he saw the middle-aged man's face, Zhao Jin understood immediately.

"Work out a method with Xiaoyong. I don't like people using my family as a pretext," Zhao Jin said, coming straight to the point.

The middle-aged man had dropped to his knees the instant he entered the room. Liu Yong closed the door and stood right behind him. The man hurriedly kowtowed and said, "This lowly one will certainly remember. I left in a rush this time and feared the guards here would be too strict for me to see Young Master Jin, so I fabricated that excuse."

Zhao Jin chuckled. "Now that you're the Xuzhou Assembly Master, you're naturally too busy to pay attention to things on my end."

The visitor was none other than Zheng Quan. After the Mu family's Second Uncle had paid a visit, this previously unlucky evangelist had immediately become Assembly Master — his status transformed overnight.

But upon hearing Zhao Jin's words, Zheng Quan's face instantly went pale. He kowtowed several more times on the floor and said, "Young Master Jin, when a Whispering Incense Sect evangelist is promoted to Assembly Master, he must burn incense, bathe, and go into seclusion, followed by several troublesome rituals. This lowly one has been unable to get away all this time. Today is the first moment I've had free."

Zhao Jin waved his hand to stop the man's groveling and said, "Your two children are at the goods yard inside the city. If you want to take them back, go ahead."

Zheng Quan froze for a second, then kowtowed again and said earnestly, "With Young Master Jin looking after them, this lowly one can be at ease. Taking them back would only leave me constantly on edge. I must still trouble you, Master Jin."

When they had moved from the city to He Village, Ji Xiang had wanted to bring Zheng Quan's children along, saying it was better to keep them close for control. Zhao Jin had vetoed the idea. His thinking went a layer deeper: by leaving them at the goods yard in the city, if Zheng Quan tried to take the children back or use some other method, it would reveal his true attitude, and Zhao's Camp could respond accordingly. Leaving them there served as a weather vane.

"... Master Jin possesses great ability. If Master Jin is willing to keep this lowly one's two children by his side, it would be their immense good fortune..."

"We're all on the same side here. Don't keep kneeling — sit down!" Zhao Jin cut him off with a smile. Zheng Quan hastily thanked him and stood up, his face full of relief. He knew that not coming from the city for so long was a grave discourtesy, especially with such a major incident having occurred at He Village. Mere discourtesy would have been one thing, but if Zhao Jin suspected the Whispering Incense Sect had been involved, that would be a calamity that would grind him to dust.

Only after Zheng Quan had stood up did Liu Yong reopen the door and instruct someone outside to bring tea in.

"... First, let me tell Master Jin one thing. When this lowly one left the city to come here today, I had to pay three times the usual price to hire a cart. They say all the ox-carts and horse-carts in Xuzhou city have been hired out. There's something fishy going on here..." Zheng Quan shared what he had observed.

An ox-cart or horse-cart could carry at least several hundred catties at minimum, and over a thousand at maximum. There were two to three hundred such carts in and around Xuzhou city. What exactly needed to be transported to require hiring so many?

Zhao Jin nodded. Given the speed at which information traveled between the city and the outskirts, there should be definite news from inside the city by tomorrow morning — no need to rush an investigation now. He smiled and asked, "Has the Whispering Incense Sect made any moves lately?"

Zhao Jin had never relaxed his vigilance toward such underground cults. From the time of the move until now, Liu Yong's men had kept a close watch on all the Whispering Incense Sect locations throughout Xuzhou. Contingency plans were also in place to deal with them. If there were any suspicious activity, Zhao Jin would mobilize the authorities and government troops through his father and elders to suppress it. Fortunately, the Whispering Incense Sect had remained very quiet during this period. The Mu family's Second Uncle had not engaged in any underhanded schemes behind the scenes, and after shaking off his tail, he had not been spotted again — no one knew when he had left.

But as Assembly Master, Zheng Quan held far greater significance for Zhao Jin. He presided over all Whispering Incense Sect affairs across the entire Xuzhou region. He was certain to know all news, whether internal or external, great or small.

Leaking secrets and exposing one's identity are grave crimes for any lowly sect, punishable by severe penalties. But Zheng Quan knew full well how he'd come by his position, and understood even better the relationship between his family and Zhao Jin. As soon as the question was asked, he immediately spoke up: "Young Master Jin, regarding He Weiyuan's affair, word is it caused a huge stir at the sect's main headquarters. Some even wanted to demand an accounting, but later there was no further sound. The Mu family's Second Master also said that He Weiyuan's case was a messy debt — pursuing it too deeply would instead bring big trouble within the sect itself. So no one made a peep."

"Oh? Second Uncle Mu really is cultivating you, telling you so many confidential matters!" He Weiyuan was already in the past as far as Zhao Jin was concerned. What he paid more attention to was Mu Wuzhen's care for Zheng Quan, and the secrets Mu Wuzhen had spoken of.

Hearing Zhao Jin's words, Zheng Quan's face showed a bitter smile as he said: "The Second Master said that under the Mu family's banner there is now only one Assembly Master in Xuzhou, so we must put real effort into managing it. He also said that if not for you, Young Master Jin, having eliminated He Weiyuan, we wouldn't even have this one."

A puzzled look appeared on Zhao Jin's face. Judging by Second Uncle Mu's manner and bearing, and his authority to appoint Assembly Masters, his position within the Smelling Incense Sect ought to be very high. How could there be only one Assembly Master under his banner? Zhao Jin had a rough understanding of the Smelling Incense Sect's structure. The sect's followers were organized under Lesser Propagators and Greater Propagators; above the Propagators were the Assembly Masters. An Assembly Master was responsible for a territory. If one likened the Smelling Incense Sect to the Great Ming realm, then these Assembly Masters were figures on par with the various Grand Coordinators and Administration Commissioners of the provinces.

The number of Assembly Masters under one's banner presumably represented one's strength and standing within the upper echelons of the sect. Could it be that he had overestimated the Mu family?

Seeing the expression on Zhao Jin's face, Zheng Quan could guess what he was thinking. He immediately spoke up to explain: "Nowadays, Assembly Masters come from only two families. One is the Wang family, the other is the Xu family. The Wang family is the line of the Sect Hierarch himself. The Xu family has risen to prominence over these past twenty years. The Hierarch trusts them extremely — it's said the Xu family received the true transmission of Maitreya and assists the Hierarch in managing sect affairs."

The Wang family, the Xu family. This Xu family was presumably not the powerful Xu clan within Xuzhou's borders that dealt in coal and iron. Zhao Jin pondered for a while before recalling some clues. Zhou Xuezhi had once mentioned that the bulk of He Weiyuan's business was trading tribute grain for wine, and that he had heavily curried favor with a burly man surnamed Xu. It was also apparent that this man's status was very high. Perhaps this burly Xu fellow had ties to the Smelling Incense Sect's Xu family.

Zhao Jin did not voice his own speculation, merely saying with a teasing smile: "The Smelling Incense Sect treats everything as top secret, yet what needs to be known still gets known. I'd thought the Hierarch's very name was an absolute secret!"

"Young Master Jin jests. It's only after this humble one became an Assembly Master that I learned these things — and that was thanks entirely to the Second Master's instruction," Zheng Quan said with an ingratiating smile.

"Your seat won't be comfortable from now on. Since you're the Mu family's sole seedling, you're surely a thorn in others' eyes. Openly or covertly, all sorts of schemes will be aimed at you. With me here in He Village, distant water can't quench your nearby thirst. You must be careful yourself," Zhao Jin admonished.

Hearing Zhao Jin speak thus, a grateful look came over Zheng Quan's face. He was about to kneel and kowtow again, but Zhao Jin stopped him with a smile. Just then, the tea was delivered from outside. Liu Yong took it and poured a cup for each of them.