Chapter 509: Year of Calamity

Wealth poured in steadily, and the household troops no longer had to spend every day cooped up training in camp, growing stifled and bored. Everything in Xuzhou was on track. With Xuzhou itself stabilized, everywhere in Huaibei in the Southern Metropolitan Region — except for the relatively closed-off Fengyang Prefecture — breathed a sigh of relief. That lord in Xuzhou had taken everything he was supposed to take, so the world could be a bit more peaceful and stable. There was no need to worry about swords and blades suddenly clashing somewhere, much less about "river-and-sea bandits" bursting into one's home at night.

As for the major case of the Feng family of Yangzhou, Feng Jinde, who had become the family head, naturally wanted to handle it with a low profile. When the aggrieved party itself made no fuss, the officials certainly wouldn't go out of their way to investigate. If such a matter reached the capital, it would only bring trouble upon themselves.

Under such tacit understanding, the case was silently suppressed just like that. Only, the grand mansions along both banks of the Baoyang River were rather desolate for quite some time, as everyone moved back into the city to live. Feng Jinde, however, didn't mind a haunted house being unlucky and continued to live in the same place, only now with a few more guards from Xuzhou at his side.

Moreover, to prevent the guards around him from growing slack over time, this new Old Master Feng had these Xuzhou guards rotated once every twenty days.

That day, the Zhao Camp detachment led by Chen Sheng had brought out nearly two thousand taels of gold from the Feng household. Although only a dozen or so people had handled the packing, most of them, carrying the heavy bundles, would still guess what might be inside.

When they left the Feng residence, these bundles were placed on the boats. That night, one of the Inner Guard's men of the jianghu, unable to restrain his greed, took a bundle and tried to flee, but was caught by the household troops who had long been on guard against such things. They took him directly to a secluded spot and dealt with him.

After returning to Xuzhou, everyone who had participated in this operation received fifty taels of silver, while those few who had done the packing received one hundred taels. After receiving the silver, they were ordered to keep their mouths tightly shut.

For Zhao Jin and his companions, everything in Xuzhou now was trivial, petty matters; everything just needed to proceed step by step. As Zhao Jin often reminded them, they absolutely had to keep a close watch and must not relax under any circumstances. It was precisely at times like this that they could least afford to let anyone exploit a loophole.

Xuzhou, Huai'an Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture, Yangzhou Prefecture — whether in whole or in part — had all been drawn, to a greater or lesser degree, into events related to Zhao Jin over these two years. Some had profited, some had died suddenly. These two years had been a time of undercurrents surging in the dark and the glint of blades crossing.

By the seventh month, these places had finally settled down. Whether they were used to it or not, everyone would have to conduct their affairs and business under the new order Zhao Jin had laid down.

Compared to the peace in the northern part of the Southern Metropolitan Region, the disaster in Shandong, as everyone had expected, had worsened considerably.

Last year in Shandong, people had been guided by those with ulterior motives to Yuncheng County in Yanzhou Prefecture, and then directed toward Xuzhou, where they either died or drifted away. This had undoubtedly alleviated the disaster conditions across Shandong to some extent. This year, there was no such diversion to relieve the pressure.

Desperate commoners everywhere banded together, began attacking local strongmen and landlords, then laid siege to cities, and then started rampaging in frenzied rebellion.

In the twelfth month of the forty-fourth year of the Wanli reign, a man named Zhang Guozhu had already gathered a crowd and risen in revolt in Shandong, but he was promptly wiped out by government troops and local militia. At that time, many were still hoping the forty-fifth year of Wanli would be a good harvest year, and not many were willing to risk their lives and families to follow him.

But by this year, all hope, all illusions, had been utterly shattered. One man raised the call, and ten thousand answered.

Zhou Yaode, Zhang Laixu, Zhang Wenming, and others gathered crowds to rebel, setting up chieftains in places like Mount Tai, Licheng, Zhangqiu, and Laiwu. Zhou Yaode proclaimed himself the "Red Pole Great King," later changing his title to "King Who Pacifies the Army," and led the commoners in attacking cities, looting the gentry and powerful families, and battling the government troops sent to suppress them.

These men proclaimed themselves kings and established regimes, appearing to possess great momentum and claiming a hundred thousand soldiers. Yet apart from breaching some rural stockades and strongholds, they failed to capture even the most dilapidated county seat. Once Shandong Grand Coordinator Li Changgeng dispatched government troops to encircle and suppress them, they were immediately scattered like ashes and smoke.

The large bands were annihilated, and the rebel leaders were sent to the execution ground. But small groups, scattered throughout the countryside, continued to wreak havoc and cause harm. Before, when they gathered in large bands, they could still break through and sweep clean the estates and villages of the powerful and the gentry. Now, without that much strength, they could only prey upon the small and middling households struggling desperately to survive amid the famine.

Famine, chaos, bandits running rampant — how could the common people dare to stay in their homes any longer? They all fled in droves, fleeing toward the Grand Canal, where there might still be a path to survival.

From Linqing Subprefecture to Jining Subprefecture, every town and city along the Shandong section of the Grand Canal was packed to bursting with refugees and disaster victims. Such places naturally became a feast for the sects and the human traffickers. The sects absorbed believers, and only wanted able-bodied young men and women; the traffickers selected women and children. Each took what they needed.

In such years, however, there were no elderly or sick who could survive; most had already died at home or along the road.

Unlike previous years, this year, the canal transport soldiers and laborers had also joined in buying and taking in people along the canal line. As long as they weren't old, sick, or crippled, they took anyone — men, women, and children. They either let them board the boats or had them follow along the riverbank. The grain transport boats weren't particularly short on provisions; saving a little was enough.

The reason for such charity was that Zhao Jin had set a price in Xuzhou: three hundred wen per person, regardless of whether they were man, woman, or child. As long as they brought the people to Yutou Town, boats would transport the refugees to the Grass Den, where proper arrangements would be made.

Three hundred wen per person — just give them something to eat and they'd follow. As long as they survived the journey to Yutou Town, it was a small fortune. Why not do it?

However, bringing them all the way from Shandong like this didn't earn much money, so one couldn't expect too many people to come. Since Zhao Jin had set the price, fewer than two thousand people a month had been able to come over from Shandong.

Fortunately, there was only a single patrol inspector at Yutou Town, and the Grass Den had always been a place no one paid attention to. The officials were extremely sensitive to any movement of refugees gathering in the south, but since, firstly, the numbers coming here were small, and secondly, they didn't appear near any cities, the authorities simply turned a blind eye.

The harvest along the canal line was meager, but Kong Family Village had already taken in nearly five thousand disaster victims. Bordering Shandong directly, with no obstacles on the land route, and with a deliberate willingness to take them in, the victims naturally gathered there.

Besides this, on the southern bank of the Yellow River, a large number of refugees from Henan had also come over from Guide Prefecture. These people were all taken into that farmstead at the border between Xuzhou and Suzhou in Fengyang Prefecture. Large stockpiles of grain and supplies were allocated, but the Zhao Camp was not particularly strained. Not too many refugees came, the stockpiled supplies were sufficient, and the harvest from the farming of the batch of refugees taken in last year was not far off.

Compared to the other places, Xuzhou was like a paradise on earth. Here, one could eat their fill and live a stable life. Many disaster victims who arrived here simply couldn't believe it was real — not that they doubted such a good place existed, but they found it strange that someone would actually want to take them in.

In the forty-fourth year of Wanli, hardly any snow fell anywhere. In the spring, the whole realm saw little rain — the great drought in Shandong goes without saying. In truth, even here in Xuzhou, if the Zhao Camp hadn't mobilized refugees to build extensive waterworks, a disaster would likely have struck too. In the third month, Jiangxi suffered floods. In the sixth month, several prefectures and subprefectures in the Northern Metropolitan Region bordering Shandong were struck by famine. Then, Chengtian Prefecture in Huguang was devastated by great floods. Around Kaifeng in Henan, besides drought, a locust plague broke out. Meanwhile, Fuzhou and Quanzhou in Fujian endured days of torrential rain, and after the floods came pestilence.

Truly a time of many calamities. In the third month, Jiangxi had floods; by the seventh month, the entire province of Jiangxi was in drought. And the great drought in Shandong, by the seventh month, had also given rise to a locust plague. In fact, even Xuzhou was affected to some extent. It was at this time that the enormous manpower Zhao Jin commanded came into play again — the locust plague caused only minor damage and did not become a major disaster.

Because Zhao Jin sent people to combat the plague, the Xuzhou gentry were all extremely grateful. With Zhao Jin also constructing waterworks and establishing marketplaces, from which they had all profited, they were full of praise for him. Even the Department Magistrate's yamen wanted to apply for official commendation and honors for Zhao Jin.

Time thus arrived at the ninth month. The matriarch of the Zhao family, Xu Zhenzhen — who by custom should be called Zhao Zhenzhen, yet Zhao Jin, so particular about rules and systems in other matters, didn't much care about this, and Xu Zhenzhen was in no hurry to change it, so it just continued on like that —

Madam Zhao, Xu Zhenzhen, suddenly felt unwell. The maidservants thought the mistress had caught a chill and hurriedly called for a physician to diagnose her. Then the news quickly spread. Zhao Zhentang and He Cuihua, who lived in the city, rushed over. The entire Zhao Camp system was stirred: Xu Zhenzhen was with child. The Zhao family had an heir.

By rights, given that Zhao Jin was not even twenty, there was no need for such urgency. But the Zhao Camp's scope was too vast. Besides the fierce warriors under his command, there were also these industries like mountains of gold and seas of silver — and now one could truly call them mountains of gold and seas of silver. The vast tracts of farmland and estates in Xuzhou, Suzhou in Fengyang Prefecture, and Pizhou in Huai'an Prefecture; the distillery that earned a dipper of gold each day; the salt market and trade that rolled in wealth — even describing them as mountains of gold and seas of silver seemed somewhat insufficient.

Adding it all up, the people Zhao Jin could mobilize numbered in the tens of thousands. Among the gentry and powerful families everywhere, and in the jianghu and the greenwood, he commanded immense respect and influence. These things were not much less than those mountains of gold and seas of silver.

With so much wealth and such a vast enterprise, naturally, no mishap could be tolerated. Although Zhao Jin was young, the stakes he carried were not small. Moreover, Zhao Jin was a military man, engaged in the deadly, violent business of blades and spears. No one said it aloud, but everyone worried about that one-in-ten-thousand chance. Now that there was a child, it was different.

"Big Brother's happy news has settled the hearts of everyone in the Zhao Camp, from top to bottom. From now on, their loyalty will be even deeper," Wang Zhaojing said with a smile.

In the ninth month, Xuzhou was already a bit cold, but within the Zhao Camp's estate, it was bustling with fervent activity. After several months of construction, this place had completely taken on the appearance of a military camp, with every area clearly demarcated.

Beside the training ground of the Student Troop — commonly known by everyone as the "Youth Camp" — there stood a tall, stilted pavilion. Zhao Jin, Chen Sheng, and Wang Zhaojing were inside the pavilion. Liu Yong was walking briskly up to them. Hearing Wang Zhaojing's words, Liu Yong also chimed in with a smile.

Back when the Student Troop was first established, Zhao Jin was so busy he couldn't spare any attention for it. Those who had sent their own sons into the Student Troop all felt some regret, thinking that going there like this would just mean being a hostage and learning nothing at all.

Thank you, everyone.