Chapter 421: Hurrying Back

"How can you be so sure it's Ding Family Enclosure? Stop your wailing and making things worse. Seeing is believing."

Some scolded him, others tried to console him — all to steady the emotions of this man from the Ding squad.

They had set out from Ding Family Enclosure yesterday morning. The carts did not move fast on the road, and after turning onto the side paths they were even slower. Zhao Jin and his group had not traveled very far. Riding back at full gallop, they returned to Ding Family Enclosure by the time the sun was setting in the west — and that was even with constant rests and halts along the way, to preserve as much of the mounts' stamina as possible. If a horse collapsed from exhaustion during battle or a desperate gallop, it would be a huge problem.

Qi San and the advance scouts had already swept the area around Ding Family Enclosure once. No danger, and no one alive.

The entire Ding Family Enclosure had become a charred, blackened dead zone. The only things still standing were the adobe walls, and even many of those had collapsed from the fire.

The air carried the smell of roasted meat, even tinged with a hint of fragrance — but everyone knew what that fragrance came from. Crows had gathered here in great numbers. As Zhao Jin and his men rode in, the startled birds flew up in chaotic swarms.

By now, no one paid any attention to Ding Jun. When Ding Jun dismounted, his foot caught in the stirrup and he fell flat on his face, covering himself in mud. Yet no one laughed at him. They watched him stumble and lurch his way into Ding Family Enclosure. Before long, a wretched howl rang out, followed by uncontrollable, heartbroken sobbing.

"They must have struck around dusk yesterday. By nightfall, the killing was mostly done. Then they set the fires and left — roughly two hundred riders. They came from the west, and left the same way." The hoofprints in the snow revealed a great deal of information.

Zhao Jin listened with a dark expression and entered Ding Family Enclosure together with the others.

Bodies lay both inside and outside the houses, but it was clear that the people of Ding Family Enclosure had not managed to close the main gate of the earthen enclosure before the attackers charged in. The road was strewn with corpses. Inside the thatched houses, now burned down to nothing but walls, charred black bodies could be seen. The village had been thoroughly swept.

"They must have led their horses on foot to get close, then mounted up and charged in. The people of Ding Family Enclosure never managed to organize any real resistance. Many were killed before they could even run back home." Studying the traces on the ground, Liu Yong quietly voiced his assessment.

Chen Sheng bent over to look, then raised his head and said, "All along the way, it's blade and axe blows. The wounds are clean — mostly single, fatal strikes. Whoever came here was no amateur."

Though they had not entered Ding Family Enclosure the day before yesterday, they had seen the residents peeking out curiously, and as they left, the people inside the enclosure had helped them pack and organize. It had been a village brimming with life. Who could have imagined that after just one day away, this place would be a land of the dead?

Liu Yong, walking at the very edge, had been taking deep breaths the whole time. The others' faces were grim as well. When tens of thousands of refugees had come to Xuzhou, they had all witnessed scenes of hell on earth — but those were enemies, and the two sides had fought until corpses piled like mountains and blood flowed like rivers. Ding Family Enclosure, at the very least, had given Zhao Jin and his group temporary shelter. They had dealt with these people on friendly, well-meaning terms. But now, they were all dead.

Ding Jun was right there on the road, clutching a corpse and weeping bitterly. His voice had already gone hoarse. Though the body was charred black by smoke, everyone could tell it was Ding Hong.

As Zhao Jin walked past Ding Jun, he only said coldly, "Stop crying. Crying is useless."

Ding Jun seemed not to hear him. He still held his father, sobbing with his ruined voice. Zhao Jin turned around and kicked him, sending Ding Jun sprawling to the ground. "How long are you going to keep up this funeral wailing? Can your crying bring the dead back to life, or avenge them? Get up and follow me!"

Zhao Jin's sudden outburst startled everyone around him. Ding Jun had been kicked head over heels. He lay on the ground in a daze for a moment, then flipped over and scrambled to his feet. In a hoarse voice, he said, "Master Jin, I beg you — avenge my father! Avenge everyone in Ding Family Enclosure!"

"Shut up!" Zhao Jin cursed again and simply forged ahead, head down.

A dozen or so men followed behind Zhao Jin, while the others spread out through Ding Family Enclosure to search, reporting back at intervals.

"... The large livestock have all been taken..."

"A few houses have been ransacked..."

"The straw storage where the salt was kept has been fouled with excrement and black earth. It's completely ruined now."

"No survivors anywhere..."

As Zhao Jin listened to each piece of news, his expression grew darker and darker, but he never stopped walking. He seemed intent on visiting nearly every household in the enclosure. At first, the others could not figure out what he was doing, but later they settled down and followed along, observing carefully. Only Ding Jun clenched his teeth and fists, his mind entirely elsewhere.

"Ding Jun, how many men, how many women, and how many children were in your Ding Family Enclosure?" Zhao Jin suddenly asked.

Ding Jun froze, unable to react for a moment. Zhao Jin turned and delivered a harsh slap across his face, sending him staggering. Then he said, "Count every person in this village. Don't stand there in a stupor!"

After saying this, he assigned a few men to take Ding Jun to tally the bodies. Zhao Jin stood there and said to his companions, "What have you noticed?"

The companions looked at one another. Dong Bingfeng spoke first. "There don't seem to be many women. And hardly any children."

The vast majority of the people in Ding Family Enclosure had been killed by weapons. The attackers had set the fires only after clearing out the entire enclosure. Many had died in the streets and courtyards, so relatively few were burned black. Most of the bodies' genders could still be identified. Hardly any women were seen.

Even for those burned black, the size of the bodies was still discernible. Most were adult-sized. Very few small children were visible.

"Could they have been captured and taken away to be sold?" Liu Yong asked, a hint of surprised hope on his face.

Young women and children were commodities, and very easy to sell. If they had been captured and taken away to be sold, that meant they were still alive. That would be a tremendous piece of good news. Everyone knew Liu Yong could not let go of his concern for those three children.

Just then, someone shouted from one end of the village: "Survivors! There are survivors!"

At that shout, everyone jolted and immediately ran in that direction.

"There's a cellar in the house. A few children are hiding inside," a household guard called out. Zhao Jin and the others had just entered the courtyard when Ding Jun came running in right behind them.

The cellar cover had already been opened, but the household guards had not rashly entered. They were just calling down into it. There was no response from inside the cellar.

Ding Jun was beside himself with agitation. From far off, he yelled, "Who's in there? It's me, Ding Jun! It's Dajun!"

At his shout, crying and wailing suddenly erupted from the cellar. Hearing a familiar voice, the children finally dared to make a sound.

"Just now, I heard coughing from inside and realized something was off. I found the cellar cover, but the children inside were huddled in the corner and wouldn't move. We were worried it might be trouble if we went down..." The household guard hurried over to explain.

Zhao Jin nodded, then grabbed Ding Jun, who was about to rush forward, and said, "There must be many cellars in this village. There must be people hiding in them!"

At these words, a look of utter misery crossed Ding Jun's face. His voice tinged with tears, he said, "We've already opened the cellars of over twenty households. No one was inside. No one had the time. Everyone forgot."

Ding Family Enclosure had existed for so many years, living in relative peace. Everyone had probably long forgotten to stay on guard.

The crying children over there had already been carried out by the household guards. Earlier, the children had not moved, and the men, unsure of the situation, had not dared to move either, afraid that if they went down, the tense people inside might suddenly attack and injure them. Only after they identified themselves and the children began to cry did they dare to act.

"Goudan, Caogun, Xiaoyao!" Ding Jun cried out in surprise and delight.

As he shouted in joyful surprise over here, Liu Yong's face also lit up with joy. There were three children in total, and all three were the orphans who had come over that day to scrounge food and drink.

Before Zhao Jin could speak, Liu Yong also strode quickly forward. Zhao Jin took a deep breath, yanked Ding Jun, who was about to run over, back again, and said fiercely, "Get moving and take people to search every single house!"

Only then did Ding Jun snap out of it. He hurried off with the men. Over on the other side, a few of the more steady ones were constantly soothing the children.

Frightened as they were, the three children had no clear idea of what had actually happened in the village. All they knew was that the sound of hoofbeats had suddenly erupted in the village, followed by people crying and screaming in agony. The three orphans lived together and had always treated the cellar of their home as a hide-and-seek spot. The adults had also warned them that if anything ever happened, they should hide in the cellar. So they had immediately hidden inside.

What happened next made them too afraid to come out. They could only hide in the cellar, trembling with fear, and then drifted off into a dazed sleep.

The reason the adults had given them those instructions was simply that everyone figured their own children had someone to look after them, while these three orphans would know how to handle things themselves, so no one needed to worry about them.

Whether by coincidence or luck, the discovery of these three children made everyone begin searching meticulously again, this time going through every single house and every single room, one by one.

But in the end, only one young woman holding a child was found. According to the person who found her, this woman had probably come out once, but must have been terrified by the scene outside and hidden herself away again.

By the time they dragged her out, she was already hysterical, though she regained a bit of lucidity after seeing Ding Wu. The information this woman provided was far more than what the three children could offer.

Because they had received ready silver from Zhao Jin's side, Ding Hong had spent that entire day selecting people, saying he wanted to make a trip to Suqian before the New Year to buy more goods so everyone could have a good holiday. The whole of Ding Family Enclosure had been bustling with joy.

This woman had been at home watching her child. Just before dusk, she suddenly heard a chaotic uproar from the entrance of the enclosure — the sound of hoofbeats, the sound of shouting and killing. Her husband was at home at the time. Hearing the noise, he first told her to hide in the cellar, then pushed the pile of dry straw they used as a bed over the cellar cover. After that, the woman heard someone enter the house, and then smelled smoke and fire. When she crept out trembling during the daytime, she saw that everything had already become like this.

After she finished speaking, the woman broke down into hysterical weeping. The child in her arms also began to wail. Ding Jun's face was a mask of grief and ferocity as he beat his chest, stamped his feet, and howled.

Zhao Jin ordered someone to bring them some food, then walked off to the side with a few of his companions.

"A mounted troop of roughly two hundred riders. Judging by the speed of their charge and their killing technique, I wouldn't call them elite, but they were seasoned hands at the very least. It looks like they came for that salt," Zhao Jin said in a deep voice.