Chapter 495: Blood-Spilled Peace Offering

They had originally thought that if anything happened they could flee into the city, where it was safe. They never imagined such danger within the city itself, and for a time they dared not return. They had no choice but to hire more men from the city's gangs and escort agencies, layering guards upon guards around them.

The Feng family estate had excellent feng shui and a prime location. The rear courtyard gate bordered a street, and the street ran along the river, where weeping willows and green banks made for a beautiful scene. Here too, several skilled hands led a group of men standing watch.

Unlike the relaxed mood of the previous days, after this murder everyone grew tense. Even Feng Bao, who had always just swaggered around angling for perks, became much more diligent. After being summoned and given a harsh scolding, he hurried through his patrols every day.

"These rich big shots are just cowards. Even if bandits wanted to make a move, how would they dare come to this estate? There are several hundred men front and back, plus official runners from the yamen. Coming here is just walking into a trap!"

"The one making the moves is a big shot too. That Zhao Jin from Xuzhou has no shortage of desperadoes under his command."

"That's exactly what I mean. Think about it — Zhao Jin has built up such a massive operation, so he must be well-versed in these tactics. How could he be so reckless..."

The words stopped halfway. It was deep night, and boats were moored on the river, only two lanterns hanging at bow and stern. But one boat on the river seemed to catch fire in the middle. Staring closely, they realized it was a brazier. Then several points of flame rose from that brazier, drifting upward as if by sleight of hand. More and more people turned to watch.

At that moment, those drifting flames suddenly shot into the air. Only then did someone finally figure out what was happening — because they heard the sound: the shrieking whistle of arrows tearing through the air.

"Someone's shooting arrows! Someone's shooting fire arrows!" Those who caught on screamed at the top of their lungs. Another volley of arrows shot out from the boat.

Some men cursed and charged toward the riverbank, where other boats were moored. They had barely gotten halfway when arrows came shrieking in. Though accuracy was out of the question in the pitch-black night, with so many people and lanterns and torches lit on the shore, hitting someone wasn't hard. One man screamed as an arrow struck him; the rest scattered in a panic.

The boat on the river didn't linger. After three volleys, the brazier was tipped directly into the river, and in an instant everything went pitch black again, nothing visible at all.

The Feng family's rear courtyard had woodsheds and storehouses, along with some sundry goods stacked in the open. But the manpower there was equally ample, and according to the standards of a wealthy, grand estate, every courtyard had large vats filled with water precisely for fire prevention. A dozen or so fire arrows couldn't start any real blaze at all. Only one unlucky wooden rack caught fire and burned with no one bothering about it.

The other flames either died out on their own or were extinguished when the fire-fighters came out. No real damage was done to the Feng family.

Though there was no loss of property, the entire Feng household, from top to bottom, was thrown into panic. That night, from the old matriarch down to the servant girls, nearly everyone was weeping. The men all dressed in fearful trepidation and waited, ready to flee at the first sign of trouble. Some even left the estate in the middle of the night, unwilling to stay in that great mansion. In ordinary times, serving within those walls made one far more prestigious than those outside; now, no one cared about any of that.

It wasn't until the next day, when both the prefectural and county yamens dispatched large numbers of men, that the entire household's terror finally settled somewhat. When they asked about the boat that had fired the arrows the night before, whether their own guards or the official runners, everyone plainly told them: finding it was impossible.

Yangzhou's waterways crisscrossed both inside and outside the city, with who knew how many boats upon them. As long as that boat moored somewhere along the bank, there was simply no way to search for it. Besides, in the pitch-black chaos of the previous night, it had been over two shichen before anyone even thought to look for the boat.

The Feng family patriarch, Feng Jinfa, fell ill the very next day, throwing the household into yet another panic. But the old patriarch remained lucid throughout. Aside from physicians, the Feng family also invited several colleagues in the trade over for discussions.

In the Yangzhou salt trade, the Feng family had reigned supreme for nearly forty years. They had never regarded the other salt merchants with any respect, devoted themselves solely to currying favor with officialdom, and had little dealings with anyone else. This time, however, they broke completely with past practice, which greatly surprised everyone. Moreover, those with a keen eye noticed that the few trade colleagues invited over were all ones who had gone to Xuzhou days earlier. At the time, everyone had worried those few would face suppression from the Feng family; no one expected them to become honored guests.

After these colleagues emerged from the Feng estate, before anyone could even approach them to ask questions, they hurriedly took their men and headed north.

Connecting the Feng family's recent misfortunes with all these events, everyone could more or less guess what was about to happen. The Feng family wanted to sue for peace.

The Feng family had vast wealth and a great enterprise. Why should they stake their pride against the warriors and desperadoes of Xuzhou? Preserving their business empire in Yangzhou meant decades of inexhaustible glory, wealth, and rank. Why draw blades and wield spears, throwing the lives of their own sons and kin into the bargain? Everyone felt the Feng family was right to do this.

By the time the peace envoys set out on the road, Li Dajin and the men he had brought to Yangzhou were already on a boat. The boat traveled north along the Grand Canal, switching at Qingjiangpu. Li Dajin and his men's horses were stabled at an inn in Qingjiangpu.

When they had all first headed south together, the Xuzhou jianghu men assigned to Li Dajin had all treated him with poor attitude. Li Dajin had led the Feng family's armed forces in several fights against the Xuzhou side, with considerable casualties on both sides. Fresh grudges and old enmities were inevitable.

But after everything they had accomplished in Yangzhou — Li Dajin's schemes, Li Dajin's martial skill, and his ruthless viciousness — all of it sat very well with this band of jianghu men. And the results had been good too: they had cut down the Feng family's bastard son and set fires right at the Feng family's great estate. These were all meritorious deeds.

"Brother Li, the Feng estate is huge, but the ones guarding it are all a bunch of worthless fools. Couldn't we have waited a bit longer, found an opening, and fought our way in? If we could've taken the heads of that old dog Feng and his pups, that would've been a great deed!" Bored on the boat, the group gathered in the cabin to chat idly. Many of these jianghu men had been sent out on assignment by Zhao Jin for the first time and felt the trip had ended too soon.

Li Dajin sat in the center of the cabin, his face expressionless. He merely said in a deep voice: "The ones guarding outside were all thugs from the gangs, but inside there were quite a few skilled hands. There were guards who had served in the noble households of Nanjing, men who had once worked as assistants to the imperial secret police, and also house guards trained by the Feng family themselves. If there had been escort agents from the agencies as well, we wouldn't have been able to slip in!"

Everyone fell silent. Thugs and the like were just a rabble, but add in those other men and it became a huge problem. Even in sheer numbers, the men Li Dajin led were at a disadvantage.

"... Brother Li, the higher the position of the person you kill in the Feng family, the more reliable your pledge of loyalty becomes..." someone couldn't help but remind him.

Li Dajin leaned back against the cabin wall and smiled faintly. He said slowly: "I see Lord Jin's intent. He doesn't want an all-out, irreconcilable feud. He likely still wants to negotiate. After all, right now Lord Jin can't wipe out the Feng family either. If we really killed someone from their main-line, legitimate bloodline, I'm afraid there'd be no more room for talks."

"Then will the Feng family keep seeking revenge?"

"They will, but not anytime soon. They've tried just about every method they could. And when it comes down to it, the Feng family are just businessmen. They're in it for profit; they won't keep wasting themselves on this life-and-death struggle. Since they can't beat Lord Jin, they have no choice but to sue for peace."

These words caught the jianghu men off guard. Thinking it over carefully, it did make sense. They all fell silent. Li Dajin merely glanced aside. Among this group that had come with him, three were definitely spies planted by Zhao Jin. He just didn't know whether what he had done would satisfy Zhao Jin.

Perhaps sensing the worry and uncertainty on Li Dajin's face, someone smiled and reassured him: "Brother Li, coming to our Xuzhou was the right move for you. You eat your fill, dress warm, and merit is always rewarded. And men like us who live by the blade and spear — only here with Lord Jin are we truly treated as human beings. Everywhere else, they treat us like dogs!"

"And there's good wine to drink!" someone added cheekily from the side, and everyone in the cabin burst into laughter.

The boat reached Qingjiangpu, where they switched to horses, and from there the pace quickened. They hurried all the way back to Xuzhou. However, traveling by boat on the canal was slow, and though they had set out earlier than those Yangzhou salt merchants, they arrived in Xuzhou later than them. That was because those few merchants, accustomed to comfort, had ridden north directly on horseback, seeking nothing but speed. The matter Feng Jinfa and Feng Shaoxian had entrusted to them was far too urgent. If handled well, they could earn a favor from Zhao Jin and also gain benefits from the Feng family.

When they met Zhao Jin again, the salt merchants' attitude was even more deferential than the last time, and carried a bit more genuine sincerity. Zhao Jin had already proven his strength before them. Now he had proven he could reach his hand into Yangzhou, could kill and set fires directly within the Feng household. Showing deference to a man like this could never hurt.

"The old patriarch Feng asks Lord Jin to name his terms. The old patriarch says the Feng family has a great household to feed and countless old ties, both official and private, to maintain. He asks Lord Jin to be lenient and not strike a killing blow all at once." The messenger was named Wang Wanmu, whose wealth ranked within the top twenty in the Yangzhou salt trade.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Jin's face showed a faint smile — not from smugness, but from appreciation of the old patriarch Feng's masterful sense of proportion. "Old ties, both official and private" — those words were not meant as a plea of hardship, but as a threat, a reminder that the Feng family was not entirely without the means to strike back.

Still, the old patriarch Feng's breadth of vision was considerable. He set no constraints on the terms, merely asking Zhao Jin to name them within reasonable bounds.

"Of the Feng family's salt on the market, I will take a sixty percent cut. Henceforth, my several strongholds in Huai'an Prefecture are not to suffer any harassment. Should anything occur, I will hold the Feng family responsible, and everything we've negotiated will be null and void. Furthermore, the Feng family is to withdraw entirely from Pi Prefecture and Suining County in Huai'an Prefecture. Their shops, trading firms, and the like there will be sold to me at thirty percent off."

Hearing Zhao Jin's terms, Wang Wanmu nodded repeatedly. Taking sixty percent off the salt market still left the Feng family with profit. Those strongholds — just not touching them was simple enough. And for those shops and trading firms, Zhao Jin was offering seventy percent of their value; deducting what the Feng family had earned over so many years, it wasn't a loss.

"Easily done. I will send a fast rider back with the message at once. A reply should come within days." Wang Wanmu was merely acting on another's behalf, with no personal stakes involved, so he agreed crisply and without hesitation.

Wang Wanmu had originally been a nobody in the Yangzhou salt trade, but as an adult, by a twist of fate, he had married the only daughter of the Grand Coordinator of Guangdong, inheriting her family's vast fortune. That was how he had risen to his current status. With those connections, he understood officialdom far better than his peers.

"... This Lord Jin has chosen his timing well. It's a critical moment in the factional struggles at court. The patron he relies on has been promoted, while the two patrons the Feng family relies on are teetering on the edge, too busy saving themselves to dare make another external enemy..."