Chapter 493: The Waterway Is Right Beside Your Bed

Cai De clenched his teeth and stared at the people in the room, his hand gripping the short saber hilt as he shrank into a corner without making a sound.

The rumbling of hoofbeats drew closer and closer. Inside this estate near the river in Xin'an Town, chaos had already erupted. Cai Kui bellowed, "Tell the brothers not to panic! If they see us losing our heads, we'll never be able to demand a good price again."

Before any of them could go out, the hoofbeats had already ceased, and the commotion outside had vanished as well. Someone in the room cursed under his breath, "These damn brats have no guts at all."

"We make our living on the water — who wouldn't be scared seeing so many riders!"

The men involved were probably all terrified. Even the guards at the courtyard gate and the door didn't make a sound. All anyone heard were footsteps entering the courtyard and drawing near.

The door was violently shoved open. A dozen or so young, sturdy men charged in first, wielding fine steel paddle sabers. Behind them came several young men in iron armor, vaguely resembling leaders.

This was certainly not the attire of the Smelling Incense Sect. Cai Kui already sensed something was wrong. The young man in the lead swept his gaze across the room and asked in a cold voice, "Who is Cai Kui?"

Cai Kui and his men instinctively knew they shouldn't answer, yet just as instinctively, they all looked toward Cai Kui.

The young man nodded and asked again, "Who is Cai De?"

This time, no one hesitated at all. They all pointed at Cai De. Though they shared the surname Cai, the two sides were only distantly related. Most of the men Cai De led were fishermen by origin, and they had come from the north bank. They had no ties to Cai Kui and the rest, didn't operate the same way, and often couldn't stand each other.

The young man beckoned to Cai De, signaling him to come over. Cai De hesitated briefly, then strode quickly forward. Once Cai De was there, the young man spoke: "I am Zhao Jin, Zhao Jin of Xuzhou. Cai Kui, your crimes on the Yellow River have been exposed. The witnesses and material evidence are all here. Come with us."

"What?" Cai Kui and his several lieutenants were all dumbfounded. It wasn't the Smelling Incense Sect who had come — it was Zhao Jin! And this Zhao Jin was actually talking about crimes being exposed, with witnesses and material evidence all present?

"This isn't right!" After the shock, someone immediately reacted, reaching for his blade. The weapon was right beside his stool. But the moment he moved, two paddle sabers hacked toward him. He dodged the first, but couldn't avoid the second. It thrust straight into his chest. Blood shot out from his back, splattering all over Cai Kui's face behind him.

"Master... Master Jin... spare me!" Cai Kui finally understood what was happening. Looking at his subordinate's corpse slumped before him, he felt his heart and gall shatter with terror, his entire body ice-cold. Not a shred of will to resist remained. His knees simply buckled, and he collapsed to the ground, only managing to stammer out pleas for mercy.

The other men all knelt as well. As one man knelt, his hand slipped toward his trouser leg. Before he could make another move, a single blade hacked off his shoulder. The arm clutching a dagger fell to the ground, and then came another slash — this time taking his head.

The second death made everyone cease any movement. They knelt obediently in place. What puzzled them was that Cai De stood bowing beside Zhao Jin and had never knelt at all.

Everyone understood at once. Some glared with fury, while others showed pleading expressions. Cai De said nothing. Zhao Jin spoke again: "Last year, you helped those refugees cross the river. That was truly a great deed of merit. I've never had the chance to thank you for it. I can't miss this opportunity!"

Hearing this, Cai Kui nearly collapsed entirely. Zhao Jin actually knew about that matter — then it was all over. It had to be that Cai De who told him, that treacherous, backstabbing bastard animal. He never should have taken him in. Cai Kui's face twisted, but the moment he opened his mouth, it turned into begging: "Xiao De, for the sake of us being of the same clan and family, for the sake of your Second Uncle taking you in, plead with Master Jin for your Second Uncle! Your Second Uncle's entire fortune, all these boats — I'll give them all to you, all to Master Jin. Xiao De, you owe your Second Uncle, you can't—"

Zhao Jin and the others looked at Cai De. Cai De's face flushed red, and he said in a muffled voice, "Second Uncle, we share the same clan, but when have you ever treated me as clan? Every single bloody clash, on water or on shore — which time wasn't it me leading my men in the vanguard? And afterward, when we divided the spoils, which time wasn't it my side that got the least? When you tormented the common folk, just because my men wouldn't join in, you made things difficult for us at every turn. Little Loach couldn't stand watching you torment people and spoke a word of fairness, and then he died on the river without any clear reason — a knife wound in his back. Last year, I told you too: don't provoke Master Jin, don't get mixed up with those bandit refugees. If Xuzhou gets ravaged, we won't fare any better. And what did you say!"

As he spoke, his voice went hoarse, clearly overcome with emotion. Zhao Jin didn't let him continue airing his grievances. He simply waved his hand and said, "Later, you'll go out and pick out the men. Keep those under you and those without serious offenses. The rest are all to be taken away."

"Master Jin, spare my life! In the back bedroom, under the bed, this lowly one has hidden a chest — there's fifty taels of gold inside! Spare this lowly one's wretched dog's life!" Cai Kui knelt there, kowtowing with loud thuds.

"Save those words for the authorities," Zhao Jin replied curtly, then strode out of the room.

Inside, men moved to bind and subdue them. Outside, in the courtyard and beyond, torches blazed brightly. The cavalry of Zhao's Camp and the mounted troops gathered from Xuzhou had already detained all the men concentrated in this area.

Cai De again bowed respectfully to Zhao Jin, then was led away by others to identify people. Chen Sheng had not gone inside at all; he had been outside overseeing the overall operation. Chen Sheng's hand never left his saber hilt. Standing beside him were two men, both dressed as traveling merchants, their faces full of polite deference.

"The last incident is hereby written off in one stroke. I won't interfere in Luoma Lake or the canal transport. And you will not reach your hands into this stretch of the Yellow River in Xuzhou. Whether moving goods or boats, there are rules to follow," Zhao Jin said, looking at the two men.

The two men kept smiles on their faces. One of them bowed and said, "Master Jin speaks truly. We understand the rules. Last year, we truly had no choice. Their headquarters sent men to keep watch, and Xu Lao'er pressured us day and night. That's the only reason we used this Cai Kui. And even then, Cai Kui came volunteering to help on his own. We weren't willing at the time either."

Zhao Jin didn't say much more. He simply pointed at the prisoners already herded together and said, "Go pick out your own people. Some things need to be said once more: don't scheme around anything connected to Zhao's Camp. If I dig it up, don't blame me for showing no mercy."

"Please rest assured, Master Jin. We know what's what. Without Master Jin's liquor, the brothers' lives wouldn't be nearly so good. We all understand how to act!" The two men babbled flattering, ingratiating words as they headed over.

Watching the two leave, Chen Sheng finally let his hand drop from the saber hilt. With considerable surprise, he said, "I thought the cult followers were all die-hard fanatics. I never expected businessmen like these."

"Trading tribute grain for liquor, plus shipping supplies to the stronghold — the Smelling Incense Sect's canal transport crews have skimmed who knows how much profit. With such huge gains in front of them, of course they're businessmen. It's also thanks to our blades being swift, killing them until they're afraid. Otherwise, they'd have long been scheming to swallow us whole," Zhao Jin said coldly.

Chen Sheng nodded, then chuckled grimly. "Their shamelessness actually saves us a lot of trouble."

It wasn't only Zhao Jin's forces that rushed to Xin'an Town that night. The Pizhou yamen also dispatched its own constables and runners. The two sides politely divided up the prisoners and the stolen goods, then each returned to their own quarters.

Pizhou took thirty percent of the illicit silver and goods. Zhao Jin's side took sixty percent. The remaining ten percent was split evenly between the two yamens to serve as evidence.

Zhao Jin had come to Xin'an Town in Pizhou this time bearing an official document issued by the Xuzhou Department yamen, ordering the arrest of the notorious river bandit Cai Kui and his accomplices. With so many boats crossing the Yellow River, finding victims willing to file complaints was all too easy. Then documents were exchanged, and a joint operation was mounted.

In Pizhou, the head constable Guo Laoliu was a local power broker who knew all the ins and outs of Cai Kui's gang. When it came to the men handling things on the ground, his knowledge was even more thorough.

That Cai Kui's subordinate Cai De had turned against him, that Cai Kui was a Incense Head of the Smelling Incense Sect, even the exact place where Cai Kui had been hiding — Guo Laoliu had ferreted it all out without expending much effort.

Zhao Jin directly sent men to find the Smelling Incense Sect leader in Yutou Town. Although the relationship between the two sides was lukewarm and ambiguous, when it came to such an insignificant minor figure, the Smelling Incense Sect simply abandoned him without a second thought. They even took the opportunity to inquire about the salt market. The Smelling Incense Sect had infiltrated every aspect of the canal transport system extremely deeply and had plenty of their own private salt routes.

The Smelling Incense Sect stepped forward, claiming they wanted to take in Cai Kui's gang, and told him to gather his men at that estate. Then Guo Laoliu sent someone to meet with Cai De, and it was very easy to persuade this young man who had long wanted to break away and turn against them.

With all preparations complete, Zhao Jin led his mounted troops in a sudden strike. With Cai De's men acting as inside collaborators, everything was much easier.

In mid-April, one major case after another on the Yellow River was exposed. Cai Kui and his entire crew were sentenced to beheading, their properties confiscated. Some among them bankrupted themselves trying to buy their lives, but the officials dared not relent in the slightest, because Zhao Jin had stationed men on both sides to watch closely, allowing not a single loophole to be exploited.

Once this case broke, the two River Inspectors on the Yellow River in Pizhou and Xuzhou were naturally dismissed and prosecuted. A family friend of Dong Bingfeng's made a round of visits to the Dong and Zhao households, then, with sharp eyes and quick hands, secured one of the inspector posts. As for the Pizhou position, Zhao Jin directly gifted it to Commander Huang as a favor. Since it was Zhao Jin who had installed him, naturally all sorts of conveniences would follow.

Cai De defected and came under the banner of Zhao's Camp. He had over seventy men under him, but astonishingly, nearly one hundred and fifty boats, large and small — all, of course, originally belonging to Cai Kui's gang.

In less than a fortnight, everyone suddenly realized that the stretch of the Yellow River from Xuzhou to Pizhou was already firmly in Zhao Jin's grasp. Thinking it over carefully, they all clicked their tongues in astonishment — this lord's moves were simply too fast.

For Zhao Jin, moving against Cai Kui was more of a spur-of-the-moment decision. The moment the salt market plan was proposed, the Yellow River waterway had to be brought under control. Building boats and training sailors on short notice was obviously impossible, so an alternative had to be found. Originally, Liu Yong had been assigned to investigate around Yutou Town and Luoma Lake to see if there were any usable boatmen and sailors, and in the process, they happened to learn about the Cai family's band of river pirates.

Zhao Jin had known of this force before but had simply never bothered with them. He even knew about their transporting the bandit refugees across the river. But at the time, he simply couldn't spare the attention. Zhao's Camp swept back and forth across the two regions, and these river pirates didn't dare provoke them, so naturally they posed no hindrance. They could be wiped out later, once he had a free hand.