Chapter 504: A Night in Yangzhou

On the tenth day of the fifth month, Feng Jinde — the paternal uncle of the current Feng family head Feng Shaoxian — arrived in Xuzhou City. With him came thirty boatloads of salt goods and dozens of cartloads of wealth and merchandise, instantly overshadowing every other house.

The thirty boatloads of salt goods were unloaded at the He Family Dock north of He Family Village and brought to the salt market. That very day, market prices dropped by twenty percent. Many sellers immediately sought out the Feng family, while everyone else ground their teeth in fury.

Beyond the salt goods, three-quarters of the wealth hauled in by those dozens of carts consisted of merchandise from the Feng family's various trading firms. The Fengs, too, saw bright prospects in the Xuzhou salt market.

The remaining quarter was a gift from the Feng family to Zhao Jin: Jiangnan brocades and satins, ginseng and deer antler from beyond the passes, gold and silver, jade and precious vessels — everything one could wish for. There were also four fourteen-year-old girls, handpicked from Yangzhou and the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, each a peerless beauty. Anyone who saw the gift list clicked their tongues in astonishment; all told, it was likely worth more than fifteen thousand taels of silver.

This was a genuine attitude of seeking peace. With such a lavish gift presented, Master Jin would surely be satisfied, and relations between the two houses would quickly grow close. The other salt merchants and salt brigands who had come here had also sent gifts, and they had thought their offerings were quite presentable — but compared to the Feng family's, theirs counted for nothing at all.

Master Jin was in the prime of his youth and hot-blooded. Gold, silver, and treasures he might resist, but how could he possibly hold back before such peerless beauties? That young lady of the Xu family was getting on in years, and with her unbound feet, she was sure to lose his favor. With this move, the Feng family had once again pushed everyone else aside.

Zhao Jin's treatment of the Fengs only confirmed everyone's speculation. Not only did the Zhao Battalion give the Feng family the best shopfront in the salt market, but word had it that Zhao Jin had moved those girls into his own residence that very day.

"Keep a close watch on these girls. If they can help you with things, let them help. If they can't, pen them up inside and we'll deal with them later. But the news must be kept absolutely secret. If word gets out that I haven't taken them into my bed, then there will be a strict investigation and severe punishment!" Zhao Jin made himself very clear to Xu Zhenzhen.

This attitude of Zhao Jin's left Xu Zhenzhen's trusted maids utterly dumbfounded. Earlier, when they had been out and caught wind of the news, they had rushed back in great anxiety to report it. Xu Zhenzhen, however, took the matter calmly, saying that since she couldn't control it, why let it trouble her heart.

But when Zhao Jin dumped these peerless beauties in the inner residence and ignored them, those trusted maids felt, vaguely, a touch of disappointment. If even such beauty could not move their master, then they themselves had even less chance.

Xu Zhenzhen handled matters very properly as well. She declared the inner residence a critical area, tightened gate discipline, and forbade the women from going out. All food, water, and daily necessities were to be passed in over the walls. Outsiders learned of this and assumed that Lady Xu was throwing a fit of jealousy over those four beauties. But as for what was really happening inside the inner residence, no one else could find out.

Even Zhao Zhentang and his wife got word of this and made a point of sending a message from inside the city, telling Zhao Jin to take care of his health and not to overindulge. Yet He Cuihua also said that it would be good to have a child soon, and if Xu Zhenzhen was too old, he should try with someone else.

This message left Zhao Jin not knowing whether to laugh or cry, though he did not let Xu Zhenzhen know of it. He still had a very clear grasp of such boundaries.

Liu Yong went to Xuzhou City on official business, and Chen Sheng returned to Xuzhou to visit his family — all routine matters. The Zhao Battalion carried on its sealed training as usual, and there were also movements of men toward Pi County and the Kong Family Village — also routine matters.

That Feng Jinde of the Feng family, having come here, did not leave either. He sent men to enclose and purchase land near Little Stone Village, preparing to build a mansion and residence. He also bought a reasonably clean courtyard and moved in, looking as though he meant to stay for a long while.

In Xuzhou, Feng Jinde's manner was courteous and humble to the utmost. Every day he came to pay his respects at the door, and every few days he sent gifts and hosted banquets. There was no cook in Xuzhou that the Feng family thought worthy, so they had brought their own cook from Yangzhou — one who prepared superb cuisine.

This Feng Jinde held very high status in the Feng family, and his pomp was considerable. He had brought his own retinue of attendants and servants. The Zhao Battalion had wanted to plant people in that residence but could not get a single one in, and gathering information was extremely difficult. Still, bits and pieces came through — for instance, that Feng Jinde found Xuzhou a rather agreeable place.

"Though it's a bit poor and bitter, at least it's a foothold. In Yangzhou, the main branch keeps too tight a grip and won't let outsiders get involved. If I can manage this salt market well, it can become a family inheritance."

Feng Jinde lived quite comfortably in Xuzhou, but the Feng family's main house in Yangzhou was in deep trouble. The Feng servants all walked on eggshells. That was the trouble with working for a great house: normally you could bully others under the master's authority, but once the master's anger flared, you'd be dragged down along with him.

Old Master Feng had already invoked family law to punish several managers of standing. The Feng family master dared not go out and called for private theatricals all day long. Famous courtesans from the boats and the shore streamed in and out, and the various courtyards even quarreled over this — to be summoned into the Feng house was the highest glory. And, naturally, this was accompanied by no small amount of weeping and tantrums from the Feng family's inner chambers.

It was now midsummer. The Grand Canal was open, and news had come back from the capital. After the capital evaluation, few men of the Southern Metropolitan Region remained among the court officials and capital officers. Of the Feng family's two backers at court, one had been dismissed and the other dared not make a move. According to rumors in the Feng inner residence, the Fengs' letters seeking help had been returned unopened. Father and son had flown into a towering rage.

But the Feng family had been in business for so many years; it was not as though, without those two men, they had no official connections at all. They could even pull strings in the inner court offices. Yet, inexplicably, that local ruffian from a poor, bitter place like Xuzhou also had connections in the inner court. It was said that his backer was a rising favorite about to enter the Directorate of Ceremonial. With no one in the outer court daring to step forward, and a tough customer in the inner court, the Feng family found itself utterly helpless in official circles.

Although the head of the family refused to let the matter drop, everyone else in the Feng family felt they should not press on. That day, Feng Shaoliang, along with his personal guards and those in his outer residence — more than a dozen lives in all. The men the Fengs sent to clean up and investigate often woke in terror from nightmares in the middle of the night. Everyone had always thought Yangzhou City was utterly peaceful for ten thousand years, that there would never be any killing or fighting. Who could have imagined that the enemy would come straight to their door? And now, by extension, everyone felt that the great Feng residence was no longer safe either.

As for returning to the city, no one really considered it. Feng Shaoliang had met his end inside the city. The city was no safer.

As the saying goes, a leaking boat meets a headwind. Just when the Feng family was in such chaos, the head of their guards, Feng Bao, was caught in an affair. Someone saw him carrying on intimately with a maid from the inner residence — and this maid was one Feng Shaoxian had already taken to bed. After several dozen lashes, Feng Bao was packed off to Haizhou, and the Feng family's guards were placed under the watch of the steward, Feng Da.

It was said that after Feng Jinde went to Xuzhou to sue for peace, the wife of the family head Feng Shaoxian had remarked, "Since peace has been made, why go on being so fearful?" For this, Feng Shaoxian gave her several harsh slaps across the face.

Having suffered such a great loss and yet taken no real action to this day, the Feng family was now regarded as a paper tiger. The Pan family, the second-ranking salt merchants in Yangzhou, said in private, without the least courtesy, that if their family had met with such a thing, they would long since have scattered their wealth, either mustering government troops or rallying men of the greenwood, and would fight Zhao Jin to the death without rest. The Fengs were nothing but cowards who had lived too long in times of peace.

In the Yangzhou salt trade, everyone began to act on their own. The quotas and prices that the Feng family had once set were now ignored by all, and some even began eyeing the Fengs' buyers.

By the twenty-fifth of the fifth month, Yangzhou had already grown hot. Painted pleasure boats drifted on the Baoyang River, and the scene of so-called "misty-flower Yangzhou" began to unfold. Yet the season of greatest splendor and revelry had not yet arrived, so the wild drinking and sleepless nights were still not so many.

The Feng household, however, had no such scenes of splendor. If there was any indulgence inside the compound, it was done behind closed doors, never exposed to the public eye. The days when guests thronged at their gate were, naturally, gone — no one wanted to court such ill fortune. The surrounding streets were all cold and deserted.

By the hour of Zi, both the river and the streets had fallen silent. No one could be seen passing by. A few horse-drawn carriages came ambling slowly along. Even if there had been people on the street, no one would have paid them any mind — who knew which family's wastrel was coming home late from another night of drunken debauchery?

One carriage stopped, blocking the intersection, while the others continued forward. One by one, carriages sealed off each street entrance. Men leaped down from the carriages. Some ran swiftly toward the Baoyang River behind the Feng family compound. Reaching the riverbank, they gave a few whistles. Unconvincing bird calls answered from the river. Not long after, boats came to shore, and a group of men stepped lightly and silently onto the bank.

In the Feng residence at night, large lanterns hung at the main gate, and four guards kept night watch before it. But their real usefulness was negligible — at most, it was a matter of style. The hour of Zi was nearly past; none of them could stay awake, and all were nodding off ceaselessly.

Hearing footsteps approach from ahead, the guards hastily opened their eyes, only to see two night watchmen and the sturdy fellows accompanying them walking over not far away. When watchmen made their rounds sounding the night watches, they were required to have several able-bodied men with them — that was the rule.

"We've walked all this way and we're parched. We've come to beg a drink of water!" one watchman said with a grin.

"Get lost, get lost. You think there's water here for the likes of you?" one of the roused guards said impatiently.

What standing did the Feng family hold in Yangzhou? How could they even notice a petty night watchman? Though the steward Feng Da had repeatedly warned and admonished them, telling everyone to be polite to those on official duty, the Feng household, from top to bottom, had always held their noses in the air.

The watchman, rebuffed, did not grow angry. The three men behind him kept their heads lowered. The watchman took a step up onto the steps and pleaded, "The sky's pitch-black, and it's so late. There's no water anywhere else. Kind sirs, please..."

The guard frowned. He'd been trying to catch a decent nap, and here was someone so blind. What's more, this watchman and his three companions had no sense of propriety, coming straight up like that.

"Down, get down. Do you know whose house gate this is? Are you new here?" the guard said rudely.

"Wait — your accent's a bit strange. You're not..." Someone finally noticed something wrong, but he only managed to get half the words out. The watchman and his three companions were already standing before them, one to a man. They shoved the guards violently, and in that opening, short blades stabbed into their chests.

There was no time even to cry out. With their other hands, the four attackers had already pulled out cloths and clamped them over the guards' mouths.

Thanks to the four old friends Kongse Liangnan, Budong Rushan, Super White Great God, and Feiran Ge for their tips. Old friend Budong Rushan is now a Sect Leader of this book. Thank you, everyone.

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