Chapter 634: The Return Journey

If Sun Chuanting had witnessed this scene back then, he surely wouldn't have been able to maintain his usual composed demeanor. A jinshi scholar and an Investigating Censor of the pure stream, behaving so unreservedly before a junior — and a martial junior of no real status at that — treating him entirely as an equal.

Wang Youshan's words, both spoken and unspoken, were tinged with desolation. When he had resigned and returned home years ago, his state of mind had been far more composed than it was now. Zhao Jin had a private suspicion: Wang Youshan himself knew that this time, leaving officialdom, there was probably little chance or possibility of ever being reinstated. All those years a scholar toiled in bitter study — for what? Now it had all become drifting smoke and clouds. No wonder his spirits were low.

"…Don't set your sights too high. Xuzhou is but a corner of the realm, a poor and remote backwater, nothing compared to the outside world… Right now the court is waging war in Liaodong, and it won't end in a year or two. It looks like a good time for martial men to win merit and establish themselves. With your skills and such solid capital, if you win a marquisate, it's wealth and rank for generations…" Wang Youshan's words were very direct.

Zhao Jin listened, and his reply was very cautious. He only said, "Your nephew will give careful thought to Uncle's advice," without giving a clear answer.

On the eighteenth day of the second month, the metropolitan examinations ended, and Wang Zhaojing returned to the Wang residence. Contrary to what Zhao Jin had expected, Wang Zhaojing's expression and mood were both quite good. As soon as he arrived home, he said with a smile, "I put my studies aside for a few years, but my hand isn't rusty when it comes to writing essays. I feel it went rather well, and I'm not at all anxious about it."

Everyone felt a sense of relief. Wang Youshan put it bluntly: "Since the exams are over, we leave tomorrow. In the future, such affairs should be kept to a minimum. Do you not know the weight of responsibility Xiao Jin carries? Have you not heard the tale of the white dragon in fish's garb?"

This had been Zhao Jin and Wang Zhaojing's plan all along, so they immediately sent people to make preparations. Between Wang Youshan and Wang Zhaojing, father and son, there were no private instructions given behind closed doors. Wang Youshan simply said in front of Zhao Jin: "Your father is well in every way and knows how to look after himself. You must also be prudent and careful at home, and do not let down these brothers of yours."

However, the next day, Wang Youshan left early for the Censorate, leaving only Uncle He to escort Zhao Jin and the others out of the capital. They were very quiet along the way. By mid-second month, the capital no longer had much of a New Year's atmosphere, but it was still very cold, which made one's mood even more oppressive.

By the time the group was escorted to Tongzhou and reunited with the main party, it was already afternoon. Uncle He gave a few words of advice, but just before parting, he couldn't help saying: "Young master, the master did not sleep a wink last night. He didn't want you to see him looking haggard, so he left for the office early. Young master, when you return to Xuzhou, you must take good care of yourself."

Hearing these words, Wang Zhaojing shut himself in his room for a long time, only emerging before nightfall. By then, no trace of anything unusual could be seen in him.

Although the guard servants had been rotating shifts, they had been cooped up in Tongzhou for far too long. Zhao Jin simply sent someone to book several private rooms at a restaurant and arranged for everyone to go and have some good food, as a sort of reward.

Tongzhou was right beside the capital, home to many wealthy and noble figures, scholars, and literati. The tea house and restaurant business was always good. When Zhao Jin and his group arrived, the scattered seats downstairs were nearly full.

"…I heard that when Yang Hao held the oath-taking ceremony at Liaoyang, he executed deserting generals and made offerings to the gods. But when it came time to slaughter the ox before the battle lines, the butcher's knife actually broke. They switched to another knife, and it broke again…"

Several scholars in long gowns were chatting idly there. When they got to this part, the whole group burst into uproarious laughter, finding it immensely amusing.

"…They say the ox-slaughterer was Du the Bold, and others say it was the nephew of Liu Big Blade. The faces of those coarse fellows went green on the spot — truly hilarious…"

Du the Bold presumably referred to Du Song, and Liu Big Blade referred to the veteran general Liu Ting. Slaughtering livestock as a sacrifice to the gods during an oath-taking ceremony was a matter of great importance, a privilege reserved only for the commanding generals leading the troops. And yet such an incident had occurred.

The other guests seated at that table were also laughing. Only Zhao Jin and his companions wore very grim expressions. The commanding generals were all scions of military households and martial families. No matter what else, they had trained in martial arts since childhood and built up their strength. Du Song and Liu Ting were both fierce and renowned generals — slaughtering an ox should have been easy. Yet the knife broke twice. That meant there was a serious problem with military equipment.

The weapons used by commanding generals were naturally top-quality goods, carefully selected. If even their gear was like this, one could well imagine what the common soldiers below had…

Zhao Jin, Wang Zhaojing, and their party rested in Tongzhou for one night before setting off. Tongzhou in Shuntian Prefecture could be considered a place where goods and wealth converged, making it easy to replenish supplies there. Both men and horses had rested long enough.

With the experience from the journey there, the return trip was also very smooth. This time, Zhao Jin and his group knew where trouble lurked and where they could resupply, so they lost no time.

The return journey took three days less than the trip there. After arriving back in Xuzhou, Zhao Jin and Wang Zhaojing returned one after the other, and no one even knew they had gone to the capital together.

Having always been in Xuzhou, everyone had thought of it as a bitterly cold northern place. But traveling all the way back from the capital, they immediately felt it was practically the south here. The weather was warm and even a bit humid, which felt very comfortable.

After Zhao Jin returned home, Xu Zhenzhen came out holding their daughter to see him. The daughter pointed at him and giggled, giving Zhao Jin a rare sense of ease. After a brief chat, he fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke, it was time for dinner, and he inevitably chatted a bit with the family. While Zhao Jin was away, Zhao Zhentang and He Cuihua had gotten used to coming over to this side. As for coordination with the Xuzhou magistrate and the like, having Zhao Shiyi was more than enough to keep an eye on things.

After dinner, Zhao Jin's personal guard servants began heading out on foot and horseback in all directions. The people in charge at various locations, except for Qingjiangpu, all had to come to Zhao Jin to report. Having been away from Xuzhou for nearly two months, there were bound to be many matters to attend to.

That night, Zhao Jin rested. Wang Zhaojing, however, did not fall asleep until very late. It wasn't that he had anything on his mind, but rather that there were some documents that had just arrived that needed processing. Among them were several letters from the capital — letters from Wang Youshan. Judging by the timing, they might have been sent right on the heels of their departure. They weren't about anything major, merely giving them a detailed understanding of the great army under Yang Hao's command.

On the twenty-first day of the second month this year — just a few days after the exams ended — Yang Hao seized the moment when Nurhaci was about to lead troops to attack the Yehe tribe, one of the four Hulun tribes of the Haixi Jurchens. He held an oath-taking ceremony at Liaoyang and launched a full-scale offensive against the Later Jin with troops divided into four routes. He ordered Kaiyuan Regional Commander Ma Lin to command forty thousand troops, setting out from Kaiyuan to rendezvous with twenty thousand Yehe tribal troops, taking the northern route. He ordered Shanhai Pass Regional Commander Du Song to command sixty thousand troops, setting out from Fushun on the western route to attack the Later Jin capital, Xingjing (present-day Xinbin West Old City, Liaoning) directly. He ordered Liaodong Regional Commander Li Rubai to lead sixty thousand troops, taking the southern route. He ordered Liaoyang Regional Commander Liu Ting to command forty thousand troops, taking the eastern route, to rendezvous with twenty thousand Korean troops and enter through the Kuandian pass. Each route was assigned army supervisors and assistants, with the total force proclaimed to be a grand army of four hundred seventy thousand men.

Never mind that the troops from these routes didn't add up to four hundred seventy thousand no matter how you counted them — the actual strength hadn't even reached the over two hundred thousand stated in the official dispatches. The old hands at the Ministry of War knew the true situation below quite well, and Wang Youshan was also able to get specific information.

Ma Lin had just over twenty thousand men in hand. Adding the Yehe and Mongol troops, the total was about thirty thousand. Du Song had thirty thousand men. Li Rubai had thirty thousand men. Liu Ting had a bit over twenty thousand. The Koreans could provide twenty thousand troops. Altogether, that came to a little over one hundred ten or twenty thousand.

"…The Korean troops have no provisions and still need the Great Ming to supply them, yet Yang Hao himself doesn't even have enough provisions for his own forces…"

"…The only ones who can really fight are probably Du Song's and Liu Ting's two routes. That group of Jurchens and Mongols can also fight, but unfortunately, they can't be trusted…"

The letters had no literary embellishments; they directly relayed conversations back and forth, which made for more straightforward reading.

What the letters said happened to match what Sun Chuanting had spoken of that day. Thinking further about the ratio of household servants to regular soldiers, and then about that appallingly bad military equipment and weaponry, it was truly hard to see any chance of victory.

In addition, the letters also vaguely alluded to rumors that the Wanli Emperor was in poor health. It seemed that after so many years of not holding court, his health had been able to hold up, but now, with the urgent situation in Liaodong, the moment he took personal charge of governance, it immediately became unsustainable.

After Zhao Jin finished reading the letters, he simply tossed them aside. This was early the next morning, his second day back in Xuzhou. After breakfast, Zhao Jin couldn't spare time to be with his family and headed straight for the council hall, prompting a few grumbles of displeasure from He Cuihua.

Among his companions, the hardest-working at present was Liu Yong. The wine shop in Nanjing now required Lei Cai to personally oversee it, but the affairs related to the Internal Guard were extremely critical and couldn't be entrusted to anyone else. When Zhao Jin was present, he could manage it directly, but now, with both Zhao Jin and Wang Zhaojing away, Liu Yong had no choice but to travel back and forth between the two places. Fortunately, at this moment, Liu Yong was in Xuzhou.

Ji Xiang was thoroughly frustrated, but there was nothing he could do about it. Around Zhao Jin, he could still vent his grievances, and Zhao Jin would offer a few words of consolation. But in front of Chen Sheng, he didn't dare make a single peep. One extra word and he'd get a beating.

In Qingjiangpu, everything was going splendidly — truly, everything was going splendidly. Because of the existence of the Great Market, the New Year holiday, which originally would have lasted a month, was only a dozen or so days this time. Merchants from all over arrived with their goods before the fifteenth of the first month to wait near the Great Market, just waiting for it to open so they could sell. After Zhou Xuezhi and Ru Hui discussed it, the opening, originally set for the second day of the second month, was moved up to the twentieth of the first month. This truly delighted everyone.

To put it plainly, this Great Market allowed people to choose their buyers and sellers, making asymmetric information transparent. A few people lost their exorbitant profits, but everyone's business became much easier to conduct. As soon as the Great Market was first built, those merchants already knew what potential Qingjiangpu held, and just how many goods there were that they hadn't known about — goods that would turn a profit the moment they were bought back. The established local magnates of Qingjiangpu also realized just how big a business they could do.

The two sides hit it off immediately, so naturally, no one cared about celebrating the New Year. Making a fortune was the most important thing; no one could afford to delay.

When Ru Hui, who was currently in Xuzhou, spoke of Qingjiangpu's revenues, his face simply beamed with delight. Not to mention the rent from the Great Market itself, or the income from the shops inside it — just the various food, drink, and entertainment businesses around the Great Market were earning a fortune daily. Hanjing Famous Liquor had sold out yet again, not because more people loved to drink it, but because even more people were coming to buy it.

Thanks to "Goodbye Someone, 123*" — two old friends — for the tips. Please check again to see if you have any monthly tickets. Thank you.

Old readers who've followed me from before all know my updating habits — I almost never take breaks. But this time I have to apologize to everyone. Allow me some time to adjust. From the second half of September until now, I've been constantly busy, and most of the matters were handled by my wife's side. I didn't even do much legwork, but even so, I'm utterly exhausted. The first few days of the October long holiday were the tail end of the wedding affairs, the straw that broke the camel's back. After we got back from that, the two of us were both a bit overwhelmed and wanted to rest. Yet even so, there are still some urgent matters that can't be avoided and need attending to.

Right now, standalone non-content chapters on Chuangshi are hard for everyone to see, so I can only ramble a bit more at the end of the chapter. Allow me to stubbornly insist that this isn't a leave request. Once I settle down, I'll also try doing three updates a day or something.

By all rights, I should be able to manage that from now on. Let me cheer myself on. A few rambling words — I hope everyone can read this far. Just one update today. That's all.