Chapter 431: Zhao Jin of Xuzhou Is Here

By this hour, traveling the roads already required lanterns and torches; without them, one could easily stumble. But for Zhao Jin and his group, riding with torches blazing was tantamount to telling their pursuers exactly where to follow.

Yet they could not afford to care. Without torchlight in the pitch-black night, the entire column would slow to a crawl, and the main body of pursuers had already appeared within sight.

The Feng family riders whom Zhao Jin had ambushed, if they listened even a little carefully during the fight, could pick out the Xuzhou accent of Zhao Jin's men and deduce that Zhao Jin's group, having come out, would head toward Xuzhou. Other possibilities existed, but this one was the most certain.

Returning to Xuzhou, they could only take the route from Suqian to Pizhou, then Pizhou to Xuzhou. Lying in wait to intercept them at the Pizhou junction was the best option.

Of course, they had not anticipated that someone in Pizhou would provide Zhao Jin with fresh horses and resupply, nor that the Pizhou garrison commander would change his mind at the last moment and even help guide the way.

But Zhao Jin's party was carrying women and children and could not possibly move at full speed, whereas the pursuers could gallop at full tilt without restraint. Moreover, they could muster men from around Pizhou city and set out in very little time.

Not long after Zhao Jin passed Xin'an Town, over three hundred riders caught up from behind. While changing horses, Zhao Jin's group felt the tremor. Qi San led two men to scout and then came racing back like a madman: a large force of cavalry was closing in from three li away.

From then on, they did not stop once. Their luck was decent enough — because they had swapped for fresh mounts in Pizhou, the horses, weary as they were, still held up.

Past Xin'an Town, there were two choices: one was to follow the river straight into Xuzhou; the other was to head for **** Town, three li from the river. But barely half a shichen after leaving Xin'an Town, they could already see the pursuers' torches behind them, the distance closed to two li.

Zhao Jin, riding at the very front, made a swift decision: head for **** Town. In the breakneck gallop, no one had the presence of mind to question it; they simply followed the man at the head.

It was now deep into the night, and **** Town had already sunk into slumber. Like Yutou Town, it had no enclosing wall or earthen rampart for cover. Zhao Jin led the column charging straight in. The enemy behind was now less than one li away; they could even hear the men shouting and cursing.

The moment Zhao Jin's troop burst into **** Town, the town was thrown into turmoil, but hearing their hoofbeats, no one dared stir. Who could afford to offend a several-hundred-strong mounted force?

The roads inside **** Town were narrow, and Zhao Jin's column became badly congested, their speed dropping at once. Zhao Jin pressed grimly inward; he remembered there were several sizable residences in the heart of the town.

"Dismount! Dismount! Get the women and children off, quickly!" Zhao Jin reined in his horse, and the men behind him halted as well. Zhao Jin bellowed at the top of his lungs.

The entire column moved on instinct. Zhao Jin ran to Jixiang's horse, pulled several silver ingots from a saddlebag, and hurled them straight into the nearest courtyard. He could hear a startled commotion inside — with such a racket, the household had long been on alert.

"Look carefully — what I threw in is silver! Open the gate, now!" Zhao Jin roared from outside. Without waiting for a response from within, he directly picked out several nimble men.

"You, you, and you — climb the wall and open the gate!"

The ordered family soldiers immediately formed a human ladder and scaled the wall. They moved with great caution, ducking their heads the instant they peered over, but they had already seen the people in the courtyard staring dumbly at the silver. Robbers who, instead of taking money, gave it away — it was indeed baffling.

"No one gets hurt — hurry!" At Zhao Jin's urging, the family soldiers scrambled over. The people in the courtyard cried out in alarm and scrambled backward, but these fierce, brawny men ignored them entirely and went straight to open the gate.

The bar was lifted, the courtyard gate swung open, and Zhao Jin shouted at Ding Jun: "Take the women and children and hide inside! Shut the gate, and no matter what happens, do not come out. They won't kill you — at worst, they'll capture and sell you. Go, now!"

Ding Jun did not dare delay and hurriedly led the people rushing into the courtyard.

"Armor on — fast!"

Zhao Jin roared, his voice already somewhat hoarse. The troublesome part of donning armor was their steel plate harness. Mail could simply be thrown on over the body. The hoofbeats outside drew nearer and nearer. Zhao Jin's side barely managed to strap on vambraces and the like; fortunately, they had never taken off their breastplates.

"Everyone, douse your torches! When the enemy comes in, they'll definitely be carrying torches. Kill anyone you see with a torch! Squads of fifteen — each man find his squad and stick with them. Forget the horses and baggage. Drop your torches here. Scatter — scatter!" Zhao Jin barked.

In such a moment of dire urgency, everyone obeyed Zhao Jin's orders by instinct. Torches were tossed to the ground one after another; horses and baggage were left where they stood. The men swiftly divided into squads and ran off in all directions.

Zhao Jin walked toward the direction the enemy would come from. Jixiang hesitated a moment, then hurried after him. Amid the rumbling hoofbeats, Jixiang said in a low voice, "Big Brother, we never should have brought those women and children. They've weighed us down this time."

"Nonsense. If we hadn't brought them, the future trouble would be even greater. How many men would have a knot in their hearts? What would Xiaoyong think?" Zhao Jin rebuked him coldly.

Though his expression was unreadable in the darkness, Jixiang was so frightened he dared not make another sound. He had never seen Zhao Jin so stern.

Zhao Jin's face was grim as he ducked into a narrow alley. They had indeed been slowed down by these women and children. But if he had not gone to rescue them, the men's hearts would have scattered. The core family soldiers would have turned into cynical mercenaries who only worked for pay, and the jianghu men would have brought all their bad habits with them.

If it was all just about grabbing money, then everyone would simply work for pay. He had to give them a purpose, a sense of pride. For now, he could only rally them with chivalry and the duty to protect the land and its people. If he unveiled a grander goal, it would scare many away outright — that was still too early.

This rescue might cost them casualties, but it would give everyone a sense of nobility. With that kind of conviction, they would rally together, they would strive harder, and morale would soar.

Only, he could not spell out all these subtleties. His brothers would follow him no matter what, so they could casually voice their calculations of pros and cons in front of him. But the others were not the same.

Zhao Jin's position was at the eastern edge of the town, exactly the direction the enemy was coming from. He could hear someone shouting orders, and the hoofbeats gradually quieted — the group had reached the outskirts of the town.

Peering out from the alley entrance, in the torchlight, he could clearly see the several men at the lead. Among them were the armored men they had clashed with during the ambush at the reed marsh camp, but the leader, Li Dajin, was not among them.

"Master Li's calculations are indeed divine. Every move these bastard scum make is just as he predicted," a large man said with a laugh, and those around him all laughed along.

Another man, equally smug, pointed at **** Town and said, "These fools, running into this town — they're like turtles in a jar. No escape now. We'll just go in and drag them out one by one!"

Having said this, the man raised his voice and shouted: "Brothers, if you do the Feng family this favor, the Feng family will not treat you poorly! These men have money, people, and horses. We'll split the take eighty-twenty — the Feng family only wants twenty percent, and the rest is yours to divide!"

At this, the crowd roared its approval. Given the Feng family's power in Huai'an Prefecture, even a fifty-fifty split would have been accepted without complaint. This ratio was a windfall by any reckoning. That group had over a hundred horses — that alone was a huge sum. Not to mention, the Feng family's men had said they were carrying women and children and a large amount of silver. They were fat sheep.

"Ride in and sweep through! We want the people, and while we're at it, let's have some fun in this **** Town!"

"If they don't behave, we'll wash this **** Town clean along with them!" someone shouted, and everyone burst into raucous laughter.

Mounted brigands, bandits, and militia had little discipline. They were held together by the lure of money and the indulgence of unrestrained slaughter and plunder. With a great fortune to be made, every man's heart was stirred; the mood was already turning frenzied.

The several armored Feng family men who had been shouting exchanged glances. One of them yelled: "The Cheng family takes one squad, Pi Dazui takes one squad, the Lai brothers take one squad — each of you pick a spot and guard it well! The rest of you, follow us brothers! We'll charge in together! When the Feng family does business, no one goes unrewarded!"

The crowd roared its assent, but before anyone could move, a shout rang out from within **** Town: "Gentlemen — Zhao Jin of Xuzhou is conducting business here! Anyone unwilling to make an enemy and start a feud, leave now! We may meet again in the future! Otherwise, it's a fight to the death, no rest until one side is finished!"

"... Right over there! Everyone, follow me!" one of the Feng men shouted excitedly, spurring his horse forward. But after only a few paces, he sensed something wrong — behind him, almost no one had followed.

The expressions of the Pizhou men were now all deeply solemn, their earlier excitement gone. They exchanged glances. After a moment, a large man in the front row said darkly, "You gentlemen have done us a dirty turn, leading us to clash with Zhao Jin of Xuzhou. Whether this thing succeeds or not, how are we supposed to answer for it afterward? You can leave — but what about us who are based in Pizhou?"

"What kind of thing is this Zhao Jin of Xuzhou, to scare you all like this?" one of the Feng men said disdainfully.

"... Those few lads killed over a hundred men at Gao Family Village — all of them well-known riders from the reed marshes..."

"Ever heard of He Weiyuan? A huge estate, slaughtered overnight!"

"... This year, when a hundred thousand refugees besieged Xuzhou, it was this Zhao Jin who led his men and scattered them..."

"... You must have heard of Kong Tiger — he was wiped out by Zhao Jin..."

Pizhou bordered Xuzhou; news from Xuzhou always traveled here. They naturally knew Zhao Jin's deeds in clear detail, and they now recounted them in a jumbled chorus.

The more the Feng men heard, the uglier their expressions became. They might not have known the details of the Gao Family Village affair, but they had vaguely heard the name He Weiyuan. The great event of a hundred thousand refugees besieging Xuzhou had shaken the entire region north of the Yangtze — the Feng family had even made preparations for it, so they certainly knew of it. As for Kong Jiuying, who dominated the junction of three provinces, he was a major power across Huaibei and the north bank, and the Feng family naturally knew of him as well.

To think that each and every one of them had died at Zhao Jin's hands — and that this very Zhao Jin was now hiding right here in **** Town before their eyes.

"I've heard of this man..." one of the Feng men murmured.

"It's just that the name didn't click — to think it was his men!" The crowd's spirits plummeted all at once.