Chapter 614: I Know What to Do Now

The mounted squad that charged out of the village — except for the three riders at the very front and rear who fled in panic — none of the other riders tried to escape. Some were hooked straight off their horses by long halberds, some were cut down right in the saddle, and most had their horses suffer first: the horses' legs were hacked, and then the riders were finished off by the student soldiers who swarmed in and stabbed them into sieves.

Earlier it had been said that these student soldiers needed to learn the rules and gain some blooding experience, and that they shouldn't be reined in too strictly. So when the situation was secure, Ji Xiang didn't shout orders the way he had before. But this leniency came with a minor problem — the student soldiers got carried away and didn't leave a single survivor.

The fight with the mounted squad didn't last long. By the time Zhao Jin led his men forward, it was already over. He had started out thinking the student soldier unit was in danger, but once he saw how they responded, he was in no hurry to reinforce them. Joining a formation that was already set would not only fail to help — it might very well throw the situation into chaos.

By the time Zhao Jin arrived, the student soldiers were only just coming back to their senses. Over thirty of them were spattered with blood. They had been quite excited at first, but now a dozen or so had gone deathly pale, a few of them covering their mouths like they were about to throw up. The rest were either expressionless or still just as excited.

Zhao Jin gestured for those who couldn't hold it in to go ahead and vomit. His face was all smiles as he looked over the student soldiers with satisfaction. These people had turned out even better than he'd imagined. Some of the student soldiers were two years younger than him, some four years younger — in terms of age, they could have called each other brothers. In reality, the relationship was closer to master and disciple. Zhao Jin and his companions taught them martial skills. The student soldier unit mostly used long halberds, and Zhao Jin personally instructed them in the long halberd. Marching and formations, clerical skills — all of it was arranged and planned by Zhao Jin.

Seeing the student soldiers perform so brilliantly filled Zhao Jin with pride. He had carved rough stone into fine jade!

"Big Brother, the dozen or so whose faces didn't go pale and who didn't throw up — those are promising seedlings. They'll definitely be of great use in the future." Ji Xiang stepped forward and said. The student soldiers' reactions had surprised him too.

"Back in our day, didn't we also have trouble keeping our stomachs down? Those dozen who stayed composed might come from families with a tradition in this — they've probably seen killing before." Zhao Jin said with a smile.

The manor put up no real resistance. After more than half of the dozen-odd riders were cut down, the manor's guards either fled or surrendered. Zhao Jin had no interest in exterminating them all. Letting a few escape to spread the word, so the Smelling Incense Sect would know as quickly as possible that it was the Zhao Character Battalion's doing — that suited Zhao Jin's needs better.

The whole point of this operation was to teach the Smelling Incense Sect a lesson, to make them understand the consequences of breaking their tacit agreement. If they'd wiped out the manor and then simply left, letting the Smelling Incense Sect investigate for a while before figuring out who did it, that would only be a hassle.

Under these circumstances, the people in the manor naturally held nothing back. It was simply that the Smelling Incense Sect had set up manors like this all along the borders between Yanzhou Prefecture, the Northern and Southern Metropolitan Regions, and Henan — to block the refugees fleeing disaster toward various places, and to recruit the outlaws and bandits who lived on the run.

Outlaws willing to find a path forward were all sent to the estates near Yuncheng, where people on that side naturally took them in. As for the refugees, they were coerced and enticed into staying at the estates. After that, they were sorted by category and reported to the main headquarters, as well as to Jining Prefecture and the prefectural seat of Ziyang. There were dedicated people at those places handling the sales — whoever had a need would come and pick up the goods.

This had blatantly become a business route. The estates were warehouses, the goods were these men, women, old and young — ready for sale at any time. And it was a business with no capital cost. As for the expense of feeding this population, the refugees themselves earned it through their own labor. It could be counted as a business that turned one penny into a hundred.

Men, women, and children could all be sold for money. The elderly were worth nothing. Those in decent health were kept to work in the manor; the frail were simply dispatched with a single slash of a blade and buried behind the manor. The refugees had thought of resisting, but every attempt had been crushed by the manor's guards.

When they learned all this, Zhao Jin and Ji Xiang took it in stride. The student soldiers, however, were utterly enraged. If the household troops and militia hadn't been there to keep order, those captured guards would likely have been killed on the spot.

"From here on, Ji Xiang, you'll take command. The student soldier unit will be the main force. Use Jiang Mutou's men and the Xuzhou Guard's men, plus the Xuzhou militia. Sweep all the manors in this area. Send the refugees to Suzhou, and send the guards to Cloud Mountain Temple to do hard labor. From now on, the student soldier unit must never fight alone. They must always be paired with a roughly equal number of household troops and militia. Bring mounted squads and archers too. Everything must be done with absolute thoroughness." Zhao Jin instructed Ji Xiang.

"Big Brother isn't leading us from here on?"

"Knowing what kind of goods are in these manors is enough. Counting the days, it's about time. I need to go to Qingjiangpu. Time to wrap things up." Zhao Jin said it lightly.

Once they entered Xuzhou territory, the Zhao Character Battalion had long since prepared a mount for Zhao Jin. He raced all the way to the Yellow River, crossed back to He Family Village, regrouped with the mounted squad, and set out for Qingjiangpu.

The autumn wind had risen, and the weather was already quite cool. Compared to before, Zhao Jin had undergone a subtle change — one that only those close to him could see.

"... In the past, my husband was always a little impatient, and then he'd hide it from everyone. I don't know why, but now he's become steady and composed..." This was what his wife, Xu Zhenzhen, said.

"... Figured out what you want to do, have you? That's good. Given the situation you're in now, do you really think you can turn back? Don't worry about me and your mother. Go do what you need to do..." These were the words of his father, Zhao Zhentang.

Not knowing when the Jianzhou Jurchens would invade, not knowing when the earth-shattering dynastic change would come — this uncertainty had put Zhao Jin under immense pressure and made him unconsciously impatient. When Fushun fell, Zhao Jin's heart settled. What was coming had come. What he needed to do was not to be lost and wait, but to prepare and respond. Knowing what to do, his heart naturally became calm and at ease.

Zhao Jin had always thought he'd hidden his emotions rather well. He hadn't expected that the people around him had seen it all very clearly, and had also grasped this subtle shift with great accuracy.

"I know what to do now!" Zhao Jin very much wanted to answer that way, but no one had actually asked.

When they set out from He Family Village, a new figure had joined Zhao Jin's retinue. Meng Zhiqi was now riding along as a household trooper. Those familiar with the Zhao household knew that for the past few years, aside from serving as a household servant, Meng Zhiqi had been learning martial arts from Zhao Zhentang. But the Zhao household had never been one for strict rules anyway. Aside from delivering messages, Meng Zhiqi didn't have much to keep him busy, so he poured most of his mind and energy into martial training. Conditions at the Zhao household were good — not only was there meat at every meal, but there were also the means for riding and archery. On top of that, Meng Zhiqi had good comprehension and was willing to endure hardship in his studies, so he had truly learned a fair amount of skill.

This time, Meng Zhiqi following Zhao Jin to the south surprised not only outsiders — even He Cuihua grumbled a few words at Zhao Zhentang, saying that Zhao Shiyi had been bustling about at his stirrups and bridle, his skills weren't bad, and he was one of their own, yet you didn't arrange for him, but arranged for an outsider first.

"What do you mean, one of our own? Little Meng is one of our own. He's the most trustworthy!" Zhao Zhentang had his own ideas.

A brother and sister, orphaned and alone, taken in by Zhao Jin when they were on the brink of death — they had been given a life of warmth and full bellies, and had learned real skills. And the sister was serving in the inner quarters. They were indeed the most reliable people.

Meng Zhiqi, who had just passed his fourteenth birthday, lacked the flighty, restless energy of his peers. He was very quiet and steady, which earned him high marks from everyone who saw him.

As Zhao Jin set out for Qingjiangpu, Wang Zhaojing led a group of people to Feng County and Pei County on the north bank of the Yellow River. He brought the estate managers from under Cloud Mountain Temple, the lineage elders from various places, and even clerks from the Revenue Office of the prefectural government. They came to survey and measure the farmland.

All those households that had invited the wolf into the house by colluding with the Smelling Incense Sect had been arrested and their property confiscated for violating the king's law. Their homes and fields were all seized and sold off, and without any suspense, they fell into the hands of the Zhao Character Battalion. Thirty percent of the produce from these lands went to the governments of Feng County, Pei County, and Xuzhou. The reason for giving the clerks and runners a share of the spoils was to make this case ironclad — so it could never be overturned.

Given the Zhao Character Battalion's power in Xuzhou, who would dare hope for an overturn? Yet the Zhao Character Battalion insisted on dragging the officials into it. Once the clerks and runners had taken their cut, even if the Zhao Character Battalion were gone, they would never let this case be reversed. The reason for doing this was to show everyone: those who collude with the Smelling Incense Sect will meet a fate of utter ruin from which there is no recovery.

Moreover, the Zhao Character Battalion openly declared that anyone who secretly reported or informed on the Smelling Incense Sect — if the report proved true, half of what was seized would go to the informant. These measures turned the north bank of the Yellow River upside down. Countless families were ruined, and the prisons were packed to overflowing. But this time, the Zhao Character Battalion showed no regard for hometown ties. If the prisons couldn't hold them, there was always the refugee stockade to lock them up. The refugees there were more than happy to have newcomers to bully.

Clam Harbor was a small fishing port in Miaowan Town, Andong County, Huai'an Prefecture. It didn't exist in any of the government's official records, but the officials and runners all knew it very well, because they received benefits from it every month and every year. Everyone knew that quite a few seagoing ships unloaded their cargo there, which was then transported by water and land to Qingjiangpu for sale. Some people had even seen Japanese there, but no one made a sound. What good would it do to report the capital crime of colluding with the Japanese? Besides, those Japanese came off the Fujianese people's Fu-boats anyway.

Since it was a small fishing port, its scale was limited. Moreover, in recent years, the coastal areas north of the Yangtze in the Southern Metropolitan Region had been silting up. "Silting up" meant that because of the Yellow River's estuary, massive amounts of sediment entered the sea every year. Sand, stone, and mud accumulated on the seabed, gradually forming hidden sandbars and even causing some islands to appear. This made the sea routes in the area very difficult to navigate, and the little fishing port grew desolate as a result.

One had to understand that in seafaring at this time, ships had to travel along the coastline, using islands and such as markers, and could not venture too far from shore. The hidden sandbars along this coast made it very easy for ships to run aground. For safety's sake, any ship that wasn't absolutely required to pass through would avoid this place as much as possible.

Those that had no choice but to go through had to hire local old sailors familiar with the sea routes and sand conditions as guides. Sometimes, before passing through, they even had to send men in small boats to inch their way forward and feel out the path, because the amount of sediment entering the sea was so enormous that conditions changed every year. One could not afford to be careless.

Outsider ships had a hard time navigating, so local ships had the advantage of knowing the sea routes. Some people even made a point of robbing ships near the hidden sandbars. In any case, large outsider ships moved very slowly threading between the sandbars — it was the perfect time to strike.

Thanks to old friend "Sweet Sugarcane" for the tip, and thank you all for your subscriptions and monthly tickets.