Chapter 625: Step-by-Step Development

For the Yu family, gaining a small seaport and the ability to trade directly in Qingjiangpu brought truly countless benefits.

The Second Young Master Yu sent his steward over, and had given instructions in advance: if the Zhao Camp was unwilling to lease Clam Cove to them, Second Young Master Yu would come in person and offer even more generous terms.

But what the Yu family hadn't expected was that the Zhao Camp agreed very readily. The Songjiang Yu family had originally been thinking of leasing it, but the Zhao Camp simply gave it to them outright. The conditions were also very simple: have the Yu family help open a shop in Nanjing.

Although the Yu family, father and son, had offended many people because of the shift from canal transport to sea transport, they were after all a great clan of Jiangnan, an official-gentry household with connections in every quarter. No matter how you looked at it, with a presented scholar in his early thirties and a provincial graduate just past twenty in the family, their future prospects seemed boundless. No one would burn bridges completely; they even had to maintain the social courtesies.

With the help of a wealthy and noble house like the Yu family, opening a wine shop near the Embroidered Uniform Guard office became far more secure. The Yu family would also provide people to run it and would step forward to smooth over relationships. The Prefectural Judge of Yingtian Prefecture oversaw criminal cases in Nanjing. Though his rank was not high, he was still a major figure in the locality. Without the connection of the eldest Yu brother's same-year examination ties, even if you tried to curry favor with silver, you wouldn't find the right door to knock on.

What was truly interesting was that this wine shop was very profitable. The area near the Embroidered Uniform Guard office had been lacking just such a place for idle chat and light drinking. No one thought it was a coincidence, either. The Second Young Master Yu was a child prodigy, known to many for his Midas touch in business. That Prefectural Judge and other figures in official and scholarly circles all put in a word or two, to varying degrees.

Because of the importance placed on this, Lei Cai personally led his men there. This time he didn't use many people from the jianghu. Apart from a few seasoned veterans, the rest were all the Zhao Camp's own direct-line men: trainees from the Student Soldier Company, and young men selected from the refugee new stockade. The key was that they were loyal and reliable.

The method of scouting and intelligence gathering was very simple. They didn't try to infiltrate the Embroidered Uniform Guard or resort to bribery and connections. They simply listened in the wine shop every day. At first, the guard officers who came to drink only talked of romance and idle pleasures. Once the Yu family behind the wine shop gradually surfaced, and that Prefectural Judge of Yingtian Prefecture came to visit, everyone slowly loosened up, and the conversation began to touch on official business.

Sometimes an entire day would pass without a single useful word, but most of the time, there would always be one or two useful lines. The "waiters" in the shop would memorize them, then pass them on to Lei Cai. Lei Cai would judge whether they were useful or not, record them, and then send urgent dispatches to Xuzhou.

For now, this was all they could do. In fact, this was all they could do. Lei Cai had received instructions from Zhao Jin beforehand: the key was to put down roots here and not expose themselves. Everything else could be taken slowly.

This method of "waiting for rabbits by the stump" was not without its merits. Since the capital had moved to the Northern Capital, the Nanjing Embroidered Uniform Guard here had been idle for nearly two hundred years. Once this Ma Chonghao arrived, everyone from top to bottom was thrown into turmoil. There was a chorus of curses, and a few words of praise as well. But no matter what, everyone was talking about this Assistant Commander who liked to be addressed as "Dutang," and naturally, the corresponding intelligence grew more plentiful.

Half a month after the wine shop opened, they learned that this Assistant Commander would cross the river to the north bank whenever he had the chance or not. Sometimes he was in Yangzhou Prefecture, sometimes in Qingjiangpu. Whether he traveled even farther, no one knew.

Lei Cai would not stay here for long. Once everything was in order, he would return to Xuzhou. In the future, coming once a year would be considered good. Li Dajin, however, would be stationed here regularly for a few months at a time.

Although this Li Dajin had a lazy and indolent attitude, he was not the least bit sloppy when it came to getting things done. The security inside and outside the wine shop was all arranged by him. These matters of spying and eavesdropping were also all guided by Li Dajin. An old jianghu hand who had muddled along for years, his experience was rich. Often, when Lei Cai and the others thought their arrangements were thorough enough, Li Dajin would find the flaws. Lei Cai felt no shame or anger; he accepted the corrections very sincerely, which only made the operation here increasingly watertight.

Because of the existence of this wine shop, although Second Young Master Yu did not appear in person, the relationship between the Yu family and the Zhao Camp grew considerably closer. Not only did the Yu family get a shopfront in the Qingjiang Great Market, but along his entire route from Clam Cove into Qingjiangpu, the Zhao Camp also provided every convenience. At the very least, the carts of the transport company would cooperate fully.

In fact, during this period, all of the Yu family's various affairs were handled by the stewards and managers below. The Second Young Master was nowhere to be seen. Upon closer inquiry, it turned out that as soon as Clam Cove was secured, Second Young Master Yu had set out northward. Whether he himself was willing to take the exams or not, he had to go sit for them once for the sake of his family.

Everyone, whether in Xuzhou or Qingjiangpu, had grown accustomed to not seeing Zhao Jin. Although the Zhao Camp had controlled the Qingjiangpu area for less than a year, this place was the hub of the empire's canal transport, a place where wealth and goods converged. The mountains of gold and seas of silver at the Qingjiang Great Market went without saying. After opening a liquor distribution business in Qingjiangpu, sales volume quickly approached that of Xuzhou itself. If it weren't for the canal grain-for-liquor trade still sustaining things over there, it would soon have been surpassed by this location.

In fact, the main base of the canal transport powers was also here in Qingjiangpu. When the liquor was shipped here, many of the buyers were also people from the canal transport circles. Someone had already proposed settling the grain deliveries here to avoid the trouble at Yutou Town.

With Qingjiangpu bringing such enormous benefits to the Zhao Camp, it rapidly attained a status no less important than Xuzhou. Zhao Jin inevitably had to shuttle back and forth between the two.

Because of this need, in addition to the canal water route, a post road dedicated for the use of Zhao Jin and his people was also taking shape between Xuzhou and Qingjiangpu. The Sun Trading House and the Cloud Mountain Trading House set up inns at regular intervals, specifically to provide remounts, food, and lodging for the Zhao Camp's couriers and mounted escorts traveling back and forth, and incidentally to serve other merchants who had the need.

Seeing Zhao Jin rush about like this, many wealthy and noble people thought it wasn't worth it. When Zhao Jin heard these assessments, he found them very odd. For example: "So restless and rash, he's surely incapable of achieving great things." For example: "He doesn't know how to enjoy himself, lacks composure. As quickly as he's grown this big, he'll collapse just as fast!" For example: "Not taking a few more wives, not having a few more children—sooner or later, this vast family business will just end up benefiting someone else."

Some people even rephrased these sentiments to advise Zhao Jin directly, which was both laughable and exasperating. Zhao Jin naturally paid no attention to such nonsense. His current domain was spread across several locations. If he didn't show up in person and relied solely on rules and trusted men to manage things, problems would arise sooner or later. In places that took days to reach even by fast horse, a single rumor could ruin everything.

He had to travel frequently between Xuzhou and Qingjiangpu. Suzhou and Guide Prefecture were practically within Xuzhou's territory, so he could look after them in passing. But there was one more place he absolutely had to visit: the refugee new stockade east of Lake Luoma at Yutou Town. Zhao Jin had stockpiled a large number of people there. By now, the settlement there was already self-sufficient and even had grain to supply the outside.

In the twelfth month, as everyone was preparing for the New Year, in Xuzhou some rejoiced while others grieved. Those who had closely followed Zhao Jin had not only not been bled dry, but had instead reaped rich rewards. With such a vast enterprise in Qingjiangpu, even the crumbs that casually fell were more than one could exhaust. And those who thought themselves clever, who had played petty tricks behind the scenes, had all suffered heavy losses this time. Even the New Year passed for them under a cloud of gloom and misery.

Those who suffered losses could only blame their own bad luck. Zhao Jin had pointed out a bright and broad road for them, and not only had they not walked it, they had secretly schemed instead. They had no leg to stand on. In the current situation in Xuzhou, they didn't dare say much or speak recklessly. Losing money was one thing; they had to be careful not to lose their lives as well.

The ones these losers truly ground their teeth in hatred for, however, were not Zhao Jin, but the Xuzhou Guard. They had all been playing the same petty games together, so why did those military louts of the Xuzhou Guard get off scot-free afterward? Sometimes people can't stand seeing their own kind do better, especially companions who were supposed to suffer together.

Zhao Jin paid no mind to these petty undercurrents. He brought six hundred young male laborers from the Xuzhou Guard to the refugee new stockade. These were all so-called surplus sons of military households. They had no skill for fighting and killing, no ability for study and examinations, and were a bit older. These several hundred men were all following Zhao Jin to go reclaim wasteland.

In the Xuzhou Guard, they worked as long-term laborers and tenant farmers for others, living a life of hardship, with few days in a year when they could eat their fill. Going there, though the work would be just as hard, at the very least they could eat their fill. Moreover, the terms the Zhao Camp offered them were very generous: after ten full years of farming, the wasteland they reclaimed would become their personal property. They would pay thirty percent of the harvest annually, fixed forever, and this could even be offset by performing other labor services and duties.

Given Zhao Jin's reputation for keeping his word, everyone naturally believed him. They had also seen the vast scale of the Zhao Camp's enterprise; it wouldn't cheat them out of such a small benefit.

If these six hundred male laborers could put down roots at the refugee new stockade this time, many more would follow. Besides the surplus sons of the Xuzhou Guard, there were also plenty of hard-laboring men in the Xuzhou Left Guard and Pizhou Guard who had no land or property.

For these people going to farm, the seeds, tools, food, and lodging for the first year would all be arranged and supplied by the Zhao Camp. With sufficient reserves and labor already available everywhere in the refugee new stockade, accomplishing this was indeed very simple.

The reason for doing this was to insert non-refugee personnel into the refugee new stockade. That stretch of grassy marshland was nearly isolated on all sides, and the Grass Nest Bandits had been completely wiped out. It was purely a refugee settlement. A population of tens of thousands rivaled a small county. Over time, it could easily become a self-contained entity, especially since the Zhao Camp had been continuously giving them military training. There was always the danger of this force slipping out of control.

To guard against this, Zhang Hubin had several companies under his command, along with a roughly equal number of jianghu men at his disposal. But Zhang Hubin himself, stationed here, also had the potential to set himself up independently. Control had to be maintained.

Bringing in residents who belonged to the Xuzhou area was also a form of balance. To put it bluntly, it was mixing sand into the soil.

More than two years had passed, and the grassy marshland on the eastern shore of Lake Luoma had long since changed its appearance completely. When they had first arrived, the eye had met a boundless, desolate scene: lush vegetation in summer, a vast expanse of white snow in winter.

But arriving now, one could see smooth, level roads, neatly arranged houses, and tracts of reclaimed farmland. It looked no different from the farming estates anywhere else.

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