Chapter 678: A Few Gentlemen

Once night fell, they were able to set their minds at ease. As the head of the household guards put it, if this were a bandits' inn, all the furnishings inside and out would have cost an unknowable amount of silver.

"I must say, this road is quite good. Is it newly built? Why was it built?" After supper, the inn was mostly empty. Three of the household guards stayed behind while the other three went out for a stroll to walk off their meal. Sun Chuanting and Mr. Tian pulled a waiter aside for a chat. The waiter they spoke to was the same one who had solicited customers on the cart—lively, talkative, and ready with an answer for every question.

"Esteemed guests, this must be your first visit to Xuzhou, right? You see this road and call it good, but if you saw the main roads from Xuzhou to Dangshan, to Xiao County, or to Pizhou, then you'd really call them good. They're twice as wide as this one, perfectly smooth, and repaired every few days... Of course it's newly built. Two years ago, Lord Jin gave the word to build roads, and only then did they get built... Why build them? For the convenience of guests like yourselves, for the ease of carts and horses. Sir, you haven't been to the market at He Village—tsk, tsk—the great carts, oxen, horses, and camels going in and out every day are beyond counting! Without good roads, it simply wouldn't work."

"Such a long road, such a massive project—how many laborers must it have taken? The common folk of Xuzhou must have suffered bitterly. Surely many fled, didn't they?"

"Esteemed guest, there you've guessed wrong. Building the road provided grain. The common folk were desperate to go and work. A day's labor meant a day's full belly, saving the household two meals. On top of that, they could use it to get corvée labor reduced. Who wouldn't be willing to do it? Some even cracked heads fighting over the chance."

"Who provided the grain?"

"Lord Jin. His venerable self is merciful. A share of the grain collected in Xuzhou belongs to him, but he doesn't want it for himself. Not only did he put it out when the roads were being built, he even added his own subsidy. Countless households that couldn't have made it through the winter pulled through thanks to this."

"This shop must be operating at a loss, isn't it?"

"Isn't it just..."

When the conversation reached this topic, the manager behind the counter came out and cut him off, shouting, "Go check the lanterns hanging outside the door—the wind's strong, don't let them blow out. All you do is stand there babbling nonsense."

The waiter gave an awkward laugh, stood up, and scurried out. Sun Chuanting and Mr. Tian exchanged a glance, understanding that this line of questioning might have been somewhat taboo, which was why the manager had shooed him away. Seeing that the sky had grown dark and it was getting late, it was also time to return to their rooms and rest.

Sun Chuanting and Mr. Tian shared a room. An inn in this location, no matter how neat and clean, could hardly have furnishings of any great quality. The two of them paid this no mind, each sitting there in silence. They had only just entered Xuzhou's borders, yet what they had seen and heard already differed greatly from other places. Sun Chuanting was the first to speak: "Squandering the people's labor, using state taxes to curry favor with the common folk—this Zhao Jin's ambitions are far from small..."

Just then, someone knocked at the door from outside. It was the head of the household guards, returning from his stroll. Once inside, the guard captain reported, "Young master, this inn likely isn't a bandits' den. However, there are a few things out of the ordinary. Over by the stables, ten horses are being kept that don't appear to belong to guests. Apart from that, at least five of the waiters seem to be former military elites, and they're not very old either."

These two points only deepened their curiosity. Before Sun Chuanting could discuss them, Mr. Tian simply waved his hand and said, "Let's all turn in early. Don't sleep too soundly tonight. Save the talk for tomorrow. After all, this isn't our own territory—better to be cautious."

The next day, everyone rose very early. The inn had considerately prepared breakfast, and the horses had been fully fed with fodder. After a night's rest, they were in excellent condition. Upon leaving, Sun Chuanting made a point of tipping a full string of cash as gratuity. The manager and waiters all accepted it with beaming smiles. The talkative waiter even added, "Esteemed guests, these days, it's our Xuzhou that's thriving above all under heaven. Whatever you do here, you'll make a fortune. You gentlemen have come to the right place."

Sun Chuanting's party did not have much reaction to these words. Only as they were heading out the door did he remark with feeling, "If every inn under heaven were like this, then where could one not go? Where would be off-limits?"

Perhaps because the Yunshan Inn near the border stone had left them with a favorable impression, Sun Chuanting's party unconsciously slowed their pace. If even the borderlands were like this, the interior could hardly be worse. There was no need to hurry their journey; it was best to stop for the night and take their time looking around as they went.

Yet the further they traveled, the slower they went. An ordinary merchant would only notice the well-ordered fields on either side of the road and the tidy villages along the way, nothing too remarkable. But Sun Chuanting had delved deeply into civil administration. Before passing the imperial examinations, he had already followed the elders of his family to gain practical experience and had traveled to many places. His knowledge and experience far exceeded those of his peers, and even surpassed that of most people.

Several times, Sun Chuanting left the official road to inspect the fields on either side and to question the villagers. The household guards played along, simply explaining that their young master was of a curious nature. As for Mr. Tian, who had seemed indifferent at first, later on he not only stopped urging Sun Chuanting onward but instead followed him to look and ask questions, occasionally raising his own points.

"... This irrigation channel was first dug by Lord Jin's estate. Anyone who wants to use it has to dig their own branch, but it must follow Lord Jin's specifications. They have to deliver grain on a set schedule, and people are sent over regularly to inspect. Those who don't meet the standards are fined. It's a good thing—everyone's willing to hand over the grain. The crops only grow well with water..."

"... Lord Jin's barely twenty, but his rules are strict as can be. He even manages everyone's toilet habits. Outside every village there's a pit. No one's allowed to relieve themselves just anywhere in the village, and every household's outhouse has to be cleaned out. It all gets sent to that pit to rot, mixed with plant ash, and then used to fertilize the fields. It's a hassle, all right, but the fertilizer's potent, the crops grow well, and the village is cleaner. Lord Jin comes from a great house, after all—he can't stand filth..."

"... Lord Jin is merciful. He got the Liao tax waived for us. I hear that once that levy is collected, you can't hold on to anything. A cousin of my family's over in Cao County, Shandong, just fled here. He says his household couldn't go on any longer—even their house was seized..."

After chatting in a few places, Sun Chuanting even worried he was being deceived and made a point of going to several different spots to ask, only to receive answers that were much the same. He even left the official road and rode in one direction for over half a shichen, just to make sure the areas along the official road weren't merely for show.

After a casual lunch, Sun Chuanting lost the desire to ask any further, for the further ahead they went, the more obviously better things became. As the sun dipped west, the official road they were traveling on merged into a wider one. Upon asking, they learned this was the main road from He Village to Xiao County. They had thought the inn waiter's description the day before was an exaggeration, but it turned out to be exactly as he had said—a smooth, broad highway bustling with traveling merchants and common folk coming and going, a scene of extraordinary liveliness that looked every bit like an age of peace and prosperity.

"This Zhao Jin does so many money-losing enterprises—what in the world is it all for?" Sun Chuanting asked doubtfully from horseback. Mr. Tian merely furrowed his brow in thought and said nothing.

Sun Chuanting then muttered to himself, "Farming, civil affairs—what do these have to do with him? Even if the court and the local officials won't do it, what gives him the right?"

"Young master, look ahead!" one of the household guards warned in a low voice.

Casting his gaze forward, he saw a slight commotion and disorder on the road ahead. The cause was plain to see at a glance. Although the road ahead was filled with a stream of people, carts, and horses, above the heads of the crowd and the horses, several dozen spearpoints could be seen advancing in orderly rows. Before long, over eighty robust young men, spears shouldered, came marching in a neat formation along the side of the official road. As they passed by, the formation marched in perfect order; every young man was healthy, full of vigor, and staring straight ahead.

Such orderliness, such spirit and morale, was something one almost never saw elsewhere. Soldiers were universally sallow, emaciated, and listless. The occasional sturdy ones were invariably arrogant, domineering brutes. Yet these men before them were not throwing their weight around; they simply marched on their own way. But anyone who saw them could feel their strength. If it truly came to a fight, this unit would absolutely be formidable.

"Young master, those few we saw at the inn last night are just like these before us—the same bearing and manner," the guard captain said quietly.

Sun Chuanting slowly shook his head, his face betraying a look of disbelief. Shaking his head from horseback, he said, "I never imagined there could be such elite troops in an inland region of the Great Ming. Whose soldiers could they be?"

As he was marveling, Mr. Tian said in a deep voice, "Their clothes are fairly uniform. Why aren't they wearing regulation livery?"

Someone ignorant, seeing this unit, would only notice they marched neatly. But Sun Chuanting had grown up in a military prefecture adjacent to a border garrison; he practiced martial arts and understood military matters, so he could naturally discern some of the subtleties.

The official road was too crowded. When that unit of young men passed by just now, even though they did not step onto the official road, everyone still instinctively shrank inward to make way. The inevitable jostling brought people closer together, and the conversation between Sun Chuanting and Mr. Tian was overheard by a bystander, who promptly laughed scornfully and said, "This must be your first visit, gentlemen?"

Showing off to ignorant outsiders is its own amusement. Before Sun Chuanting or Mr. Tian could even open their mouths, the man went on, chuckling to himself, "What just passed by is called the Tuanlian—they're something like the local militia levies here in Xuzhou. Don't let their sturdy look now fool you; a few years back they were all poor wretches on the verge of starving to death. Lucky for them they fell into Lord Jin's hands, and he trained them into this state. But in Xuzhou, they only count as second or third rate. The first-rate elite are Lord Jin's own household guards—even regular troops might not be their match."

If before he had merely been surprised, Sun Chuanting was now utterly shocked. In his eyes, this so-called "Tuanlian" was already far more elite than the border troops of Datong Garrison and Taiyuan Prefecture. How could they not even be considered first-rate elites here in Xuzhou? Even Mr. Tian couldn't help but ask, "How many of these Tuanlian are there in Xuzhou?"

The man, seeing his showing-off had succeeded, was quite pleased with himself and naturally answered every question: "Who could know that? Every larger village and town has some, and so do the crossroads. A hundred here, two hundred there—two or three thousand at least. Could be more, hard to say for sure!"

After being shocked too many times, one grows somewhat numb. They traveled on for another stretch before Mr. Tian finally shook his head and sighed, "If this is no empty boast, with two thousand such men, one could rampage across an entire prefecture—no, rampage across several prefectures with ease."

Sun Chuanting seemed about to speak but held back. In the end, he only said, "It's just that the numbers are a bit small..."

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