Chapter 451: Under the Fierce Wind and Torrential Rain

As he spoke, he frantically signaled with his eyes. The man already poised to strike was baffled — how could the boss be so cautious on their own turf? But the usually bold and fearless Boss Guo acting this way already said something was wrong.

Guo Laoliu sat back down, his face dark. After a moment's hesitation, he spoke: "We've heard of Lord Jin's fearsome reputation here too. But Lord Jin's might is mighty in Xuzhou — it doesn't reach us in Pizhou. We've known each other's names before, so there's a bit of history between us. Why press so hard?"

You Zhenrong glanced back. Behind him stood only a small, young-looking fellow. You Zhenrong turned around and said with a smile, "It is rather pressing."

Guo Laoliu's expression relaxed, but inwardly he was turning it over: this You Zhenrong did things like a madman — did he really think Pizhou had no one?

"Give me your answer before noon tomorrow. Otherwise, I'll take it as a refusal." You Zhenrong added, and the faces of Guo Laoliu and his men changed drastically again. With that, he stood up and walked straight out. There was no need to say where he was staying — Guo Laoliu could certainly find out.

The moment You Zhenrong and that small fellow left, the man who had slapped his saber hilt moved to follow them out. Before he reached the door, Guo Laoliu called him back: "Don't send anyone to tail them, or we'll give deep offense!"

"Sixth Brother, those Xuzhou savages are bullying us right to our faces — we can't swallow this!" one man said through gritted teeth.

Guo Laoliu slammed the table and roared, "You can't swallow it? What can you do about it? If that tiger from Xuzhou comes charging over, who among us can stop him?"

"Sixth Brother, the Feng family's already torn their faces off with them. No matter how fierce those Xuzhou savages are, they'll be wiped out sooner or later. Why should we care about them?"

Guo Laoliu's expression flickered through several changes. In the end, he let out a long sigh, slumped down dejectedly, and said helplessly, "Curry favor with the Feng family, and an old, powerful house like that looks down on us. Now Xuzhou's bearing down on us too. Why does it have to be so hard…"

Before his words faded, someone came running in frantically from outside. At the doorway, the man already started shouting, "Sixth Brother! Someone found the bodies of Big-Mouth Pi and his crew down by the river — the wolves have gnawed them beyond recognition."

Guo Laoliu froze for a moment, then muttered offhandedly, "That's a fitting end for him. That kid did things with no fear at all, too greedy by half."

After saying this, Guo Laoliu waved a hand and said, "Let's go check on the gambling den."

"What about those Xuzhou people?"

"Ignore them. I refuse to believe it — the territory we brothers bled and fought to carve out, why should we hand it over just because he says so? We'll wait and see. Once the Feng family makes a move, he'll have to back off!" Guo Laoliu raised his voice, sounding as if he was trying to psych himself up.

As Guo Laoliu and his crew walked the streets, plenty of people greeted them warmly. A few unfamiliar faces brushed past, but they paid them no mind. Ever since the canal had been rerouted, the number of merchants coming and going through Pizhou had increased — who could possibly recognize every single one?

Turning the corner ahead, they saw a man in a runner's uniform sprinting toward them. Spotting Guo Laoliu, he hurried closer — clearly here to find him.

"Sixth Brother, that estate of the Lai family is on fire. No one inside made it out. The gentlemen at the yamen are planning to bury this one — too many unsolved cases tied to that place, not worth digging deep. What do you think…"

Guo Laoliu himself held a runner's post at the yamen, so he kept a close eye on these cases. They often involved movements in the rivers-and-lakes underworld.

What sort of people the Lai family were, Guo Laoliu knew perfectly well. He frowned and said, "The Lai family's been acting far too recklessly — meddling in the salt route, even going after passing merchants…"

After muttering a few lines, Guo Laoliu's face suddenly went pale. As if seeking confirmation from someone, or as if talking to himself, he said, "Big-Mouth Pi and the Lai family — didn't they both join the chase after Zhao Jin?"

"The Cheng family went after him too…" someone added.

Guo Laoliu's face turned even paler. He turned and said in a low voice, "Didn't someone see Cheng Qiangqi heading to Xuzhou overnight?"

"Could it be—!" The men with Guo Laoliu were no fools; they caught on instantly.

Guo Laoliu was already roaring, "Go find out where Old You — no, You Zhenrong — no, Boss You is staying, now!"

Finding out where You Zhenrong was staying wasn't hard. Guo Laoliu soon learned that the men from Xuzhou were lodged outside the city — a cautious move, since inside the city it was far too easy to be set up.

Guo Laoliu hurried toward the outskirts at a fast walk. Along the way, bits and pieces of news kept trickling in — nothing more than so-and-so dead, so-and-so dying suddenly. By now, Guo Laoliu understood: the other side had likely struck just in these past two days, timed the news to arrive, and then come to name their price.

As the news came in, it wasn't just Guo Laoliu who figured it out — even the men following him now understood what had happened. The fierce, savage attitude from the eatery earlier vanished like smoke. They just ran and grumbled as they went: "These Xuzhou people have no sense of the rules, throwing their weight around so tyrannically."

Human lives were at stake. After so many people had died, Guo Laoliu understood what he had to do.

One thing that made Guo Laoliu and his men feel slightly better was that You Zhenrong's attitude was decent. He didn't lord it over them just because Guo Laoliu had changed his tune after being intimidated. They settled matters in a civil, agreeable manner.

You Zhenrong even put it this way: the thirty percent wasn't something Xuzhou would take for nothing — if effort was needed, they'd put in the effort. For Guo Laoliu's several establishments inside and outside the city — gambling dens, brothels, plus shops and warehouses — Xuzhou would send men to help guard them.

Guo Laoliu was about to politely decline, but You Zhenrong said with a smile that several dozen men had already arrived and just needed food and lodging arranged.

At those words, Guo Laoliu broke out in a cold sweat again. So the other side had already moved several dozen men here. Even though Guo Laoliu counted as a dragon-head figure in Pizhou, if he wanted to muster a hundred men for a gang fight, it would still take him days. If these several dozen Xuzhou men launched a sudden attack, he simply couldn't withstand it.

After all this had been said, the small fellow beside You Zhenrong — the one who hadn't spoken a word the whole time — finally spoke up. In normal times, Guo Laoliu would certainly have scolded him for not knowing his place, but now he didn't have the spirit to open his mouth.

"…There's one thing, Old Brother Guo, that you'll need to do quickly. Secure a residence near the city gate without delay, to be used as a storehouse. From now on, the Hanjing Famous Liquor for Pizhou city and within ten li outside the walls will be distributed by Old Brother Guo. The salt goods and such — Old Brother Guo can help out with those as well…"

The small fellow spoke just a few simple lines. As he listened, Guo Laoliu's eyes went wide, and the gloom on his men's faces was swept clean away. But their first reaction wasn't joy — they looked toward You Zhenrong. Could the words of some young, short nobody, out of nowhere, actually be taken seriously?

When they saw You Zhenrong nod in confirmation, Guo Laoliu and his men were instantly elated. Over in Yutou Town, Hanjing Famous Liquor was sold in bulk, but inside Pizhou city it was still scarce. This liquor sold itself, and at high prices — as long as they could get stock and distribute it, the profits would be substantial. As for helping with the salt, that meant letting him share in the salt trade's earnings.

In Huai'an Prefecture, everything else was fake — salt was the only business that truly brought in money. But the whole system, top to bottom, had long since carved up the spoils. A mere gang boss like him couldn't even get a finger in. The tiny bit he could get was only because of his runner's post at the yamen.

It wasn't that he didn't covet the money in salt — that was impossible. But Guo Laoliu knew where the line was and understood the stakes. The Huai'an Prefecture salt administration, the inspectors, the salt merchants, all the way down to the prefectural, departmental, and county yamens — they had long since woven a vast web around the hugely profitable Huai salt. Whoever reached out a hand would be crushed to powder. Several of Guo Laoliu's predecessors and colleagues at the yamen had died gruesomely for exactly that reason.

Guo Laoliu had always known his limits. The occasional times his underlings got ideas, he'd strictly reined them in — because he had no wish to repeat those fates. But now, Guo Laoliu realized his chance had come. With Zhao Jin's overbearing force and momentum, and the killing intent he'd felt today, that system could be smashed. At the very least, he could gamble on it this once.

Thinking of this, Guo Laoliu suddenly recalled some rumors from before: Lord Jin kept his word. Lord Jin never shortchanged his own people.

An agreement was an agreement, but there was still plenty of follow-up to handle. As the group headed back into the city, they weren't entirely willing at heart. When disaster loomed, they'd feared agreeing too late; now that they'd agreed, they felt they could have gotten more. Such was human nature.

But by nightfall, more news came in — for instance, that "One-Horned Serpent" had died in his mistress's courtyard; that many places outside Pizhou were erupting in gang fights. The first month of the year wasn't even over yet. No one had imagined the Xuzhou men would strike so suddenly, or commit so much force all at once.

Ordinary households north of the Huai River relied on braziers to get through winter. A wealthy household like Guo Laoliu's used heated walls, keeping the rooms toasty warm. Yet Guo Laoliu felt cold all over. Thank heaven I agreed, he thought — otherwise I'd have ended up just like those "heroes."

How had there been not the slightest sign beforehand? Guo Laoliu couldn't figure it out. In the twelfth month, the Feng family had hunted Zhao Jin. The two sides had fought a bitter battle at **** Town, then each pulled back. By Guo Laoliu's judgment, what should have followed was everyone pulling strings, finding backers, and laying out terms to talk.

Both sides were major powers. Once they tore off all pretense and started fighting, it would be a crippling, bone-deep affair — neither would move rashly. So how could this Zhao Jin just start killing at the drop of a hat? Reckoning the death toll across Pizhou, it practically amounted to a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. It could only be said that the young man couldn't keep his cool.

By the third day after Guo Laoliu agreed to the terms, everyone within Pizhou, Huai'an Prefecture, was bowing their heads, silent as cicadas in winter. Over a dozen factions had already been completely erased. Many bands of mounted brigands and the like, who'd never had official protection to begin with, had been slaughtered outright. Several estates had been wiped out entirely. A few who reacted quickly had hastily sent people to Xuzhou to beg for mercy and, by the narrowest of margins, managed to save their own skins.

But while these people were spared the death penalty, they couldn't escape the living punishment. Some deeply entrenched local strongmen were suddenly told they'd be "moving house" — their entire families relocating to Xuzhou, leaving their lands and properties here in the care of "friends."

In just a few short days, all of Pizhou seemed to have been battered by a fierce gale and torrential rain. Everyone bowed their heads and kept silent, not daring to make a sound. Many of those who had joined the pursuit of Zhao Jin back then had treated it as capital to show off, bragging about it constantly throughout the first month.

But now, those who hadn't taken part were all secretly congratulating themselves — thank goodness they'd missed out, or they'd have been swept away in this purge.

Not to mention the villages outside the city — even inside Pizhou itself, the deaths were numerous. Murder cases suddenly cropped up in the streets and alleys, and the victims were all figures who normally strutted around throwing their weight.