Chapter 693

The gentry and commoners of Xuzhou had already forgotten that Xuzhou was still under Ming rule, that it was perfectly natural for officials of the Ming court to walk the streets and alleys of Xuzhou city, and that they had committed no illegal acts, merely attending to their own duties—everything was entirely reasonable and lawful. Anywhere else, this would be the most normal thing in the world; some might even say these spies had decent discipline and knew restraint. But in Xuzhou, everyone found it awkward.

Everyone had grown accustomed to the fact that everything, from the heavens to the earth, from the water to the land, was all under Lord Jin's control. On Xuzhou soil, no one dared speak ill of Lord Jin. Now, Lord Jin knew every household's private details—how many men, women, old, and young, how many mu of land they farmed, even how many large livestock they owned. Who would still dare defy him?

So the conduct and speech of this group from the Nanjing Embroidered Uniform Guard made everyone uncomfortable, and the fact that Zhao Jin and the Zhao Character Battalion made no move struck everyone as even stranger.

Most people felt that when immortals fight, mortals suffer. What looked calm on the surface was actually thunder and lightning underneath, and they should keep their distance to avoid getting caught in it. Just because Lord Jin hadn't reacted now didn't mean he wouldn't strike later. Everyone had seen what happened to those earlier batches of spies—don't be foolish and get mixed up in this.

Yet some people were well-informed and quick-witted. They knew that all along the route through Yangzhou, Qingjiangpu, and Pizhou, Embroidered Uniform Guard spies were everywhere investigating evidence of Zhao Jin's crimes, and that the Zhao Character Battalion had shown no major reaction. So people began to wonder: could it really be that the sky was about to change?

Although the Zhao Character Battalion's usual actions already showed no regard for imperial law or established order, that was merely a case of the people not reporting and the officials not pursuing. Now that the authorities were truly investigating with great fanfare, what could the Zhao Character Battalion do? Could they really rebel? It looked like they were about to fall...

Thoughts aside, business over at Hejiazhuang continued as usual. The market remained as bustling as ever, though there was one difference from Qingjiangpu: the salt market now held only pure smuggled salt.

Originally, every Yangzhou salt merchant had their own shopfront in the salt market. Their salt, to put it bluntly, was official salt sold privately—cheap and abundant. But now, none of the salt shops from Yangzhou had opened for business; only the stalls of the salt lords from the Xuzhou-Pizhou region remained.

"Yangzhou and Haizhou are, after all, far from us. They're counting on the fact that we don't dare make any big moves right now, and that we can't do anything to them." Zhao Jin gave his assessment.

"Without the salt trade, Xuzhou's ties to the surrounding areas will weaken. Other goods are all transported and traded by merchants—only salt is tied to the local strongmen and gentry, who rely on it for buying and selling locally and elsewhere. This is also a way of isolating us." It was all open strategy, and the logic was easy enough to analyze. But when the moves came openly and aboveboard, the Zhao Character Battalion, with its hands tied, found it rather difficult to deal with.

"They think that whatever we do requires a mass response, but they never imagined that with the situation as it is now, we can already do a great many things. But this salt market must be maintained—not for some grand scheme, but for business. The salt market will continue to operate in the future, and it will only grow bigger and bigger!" Zhao Jin said to his comrades.

His word was command. Yan Heilain and Qi Erkui were both recalled from Qingjiangpu. These two had originally been stout fellows on the smuggled-salt routes, and now was precisely the time to use them. Their task was to intercept all salt goods passing through or around Xuzhou and bring them all to the salt market for sale.

The Yangzhou salt merchants were boycotting the salt market, but they still needed to sell salt to the regions the market originally covered. Without open and aboveboard trading, they could only fall back on the old smuggling routes. Yet they dared not move through Xuzhou openly as they had before; instead, they split into small batches to skirt around Xuzhou, or took the waterways upstream against the current.

But the usable routes were only those few. The jianghu folk everywhere might have known about the spies' arrival and the Zhao Character Battalion's lack of response, yet to them, the Zhao Character Battalion was still a terrifying colossus. As long as the word was given, they would obediently comply. What's more, the Zhao Character Battalion's terms were generous: whoever seized and intercepted the salt goods could keep them and bring them directly to the salt market to sell. This was a path to making a fortune on the spot.

As soon as these terms were announced, a dozen or so of the boldest groups struck it rich. These people weren't outlaws of the jianghu, either—they were local strongmen and den masters. They simply seized the smuggled salt carts passing through, drove them to Xuzhou to sell, and made an instant fortune. They also secured a position in the salt market; the future benefits went without saying.

The Yangzhou salt merchants did not come at the end of the first month, but by the end of the second month they could no longer hold out. In business, you can't afford to be thin-skinned. They came and found all sorts of excuses, wanting to reopen their shops. No one dared come in person; even the respectable managers and head clerks from each firm dared not come, for fear that Zhao Jin might turn murderous.

However, Zhao Jin and the Zhao Character Battalion's response was utterly calm and indifferent. They allowed them to return and resume business, but Zhao Jin was to hold a thirty-percent silent partnership in every shop. There was still profit to be made, and they wouldn't lose their outside territories, so everyone swallowed their pride and accepted it. Yet privately, they were also pondering: given this young lord's usual style, the fact that he hadn't shed blood this time meant the Embroidered Uniform Guard's investigation into rebellion truly had made him wary, and he no longer dared act as recklessly as before.

After Zhao Jin had built such a vast enterprise, whatever he did, everyone simply bowed and obeyed; no one would ever scrutinize so many details. But now things were different. After the Embroidered Uniform Guard had made their stance so clear, what course would the Zhao Character Battalion take next, and what impact would it ultimately have? Though no one could see any more clearly than before, everyone now had their own speculations and judgments, and sought answers in the subtlest behavior of Zhao Jin and the Zhao Character Battalion system.

Every minor incident was chewed over and interpreted again and again by the various powers in Xuzhou and the surrounding regions, producing all manner of judgments and guesses. But for now, the Zhao Character Battalion as a whole remained silent. It was inconvenient for them to ask, and so naturally, no answers were forthcoming...

After the spies from the Nanjing Embroidered Uniform Guard had stirred up trouble in Xuzhou for half a month—never once venturing onto the side roads, never once leaving the city—the people of Xuzhou went from initial shock to acceptance, and by now had moved on to contempt. This was no way to investigate a case; it was clearly a monkey show, a disgraceful display. No one took it seriously anymore.

But those with a discerning eye saw something different. What they saw was that the Embroidered Uniform Guard spies had been causing a ruckus here for a full half month, and the Zhao Character Battalion had yet to mount any forceful response. True, there were people tailing the guards during their activities; true, there were people stationed outside the spies' lodgings, keeping everyone from approaching. But that was all. Though these spies themselves knew enough to behave, in the past they would have long since been beaten bloody. How could they have been left alone until now?

Thoughts aside, those who dared to act remained extremely few. The Department Magistrate Tong Huaizu spent his days behind closed doors, reading and practicing calligraphy. Over these past few years, Tong Huaizu's calligraphy had advanced greatly; it was said that when someone took his writing to Jiangnan, many marveled, declaring it had the spirit of a master.

During this period, however, the Tong family's inner quarters were not at peace. Several members of the Tong clan had been subjected to family discipline, and Magistrate Tong himself had overseen the beatings in person. The underlings wielding the planks dared not slack off, and the beaten Tong kinsmen were left unable to recover for months. Inside the yamen, people could more or less guess what had happened. In private, they remarked that it was fortunate His Excellency Tong understood the stakes; had he listened to those insatiably greedy relatives of his, he wouldn't even know how he died.

Such was the general state of affairs across all circles in Xuzhou. No one had lost their head and tried to do anything; everyone was waiting to see how the Zhao Character Battalion would move.

Still, the Xuzhou of the forty-eighth year of Wanli was, in the end, a little different from previous years. Outside the city walls, near the larger villages and towns—and naturally including places like Hejiazhuang—a people's market had sprung up everywhere. There were no human traffickers buying and selling people there; instead, it was disaster victims and refugees from various places selling themselves.

From last year to the beginning of this year, three successive rounds of additional levies had not only scraped the common people's households clean but left them utterly unable to hold on. Just as in the great drought years before, they had to flee and see if there was any way to survive beyond their homes.

This time, the Smelling Incense Sect was not at work behind the scenes. Not knowing where to go, people simply moved on instinct. Many were intercepted and detained halfway; others starved to death on the road. The fortunate ones made it to various parts of Xuzhou.

But Xuzhou was no paradise on earth. It wasn't as if you could survive just by arriving. At the people's markets everywhere, corpses had to be burned every day. Without someone to take them in and buy them, the old, the weak, the women, and the children could not survive on the thin gruel from the relief kitchens.

Fortunately, Cloud Mountain Temple and the various manors still had demand for labor and were continuously absorbing people. It was always said that Xuzhou's land was barren, but after digging canals and channeling water for irrigation, the yield from watered fields couldn't be too poor. Countless refugees from various places were digging ditches and hauling earth just to fill their bellies, mining coal in the coal pits north of the river and forging iron at the ironworks. Only this kept Xuzhou from looking utterly wretched.

Seeing such scenes, who didn't think fondly of Zhao Jin's goodness? Had he not blocked those heaven-cursed Liao levies, the ones standing at the markets with straw markers in their hair, selling themselves, would likely be the people of Xuzhou. This debt of kindness was simply too immense.

Other than that, there was nothing particularly different. People worked and ate, and in their leisure time they still wanted a few cups of wine. Business at the several Hanjing Famous Liquor shops in the city had always been good.

Ever since Hejiazhuang began to flourish, most of the wealthy people in Xuzhou city had moved there. It was prosperous, safe, and convenient, and being not far from the Zhao Character Battalion made it easy to curry favor or gauge the winds of change. Those who remained in the city were simply those who could not leave—for instance, the Department Magistrate's yamen, or the garrison assistant regional commander. These two establishments were also major buyers of liquor.

This was especially true for the Xuzhou Assistant Regional Commander Zhou Baolu's side. Military men love strong liquor, and their consumption had always been considerable. If the price of Hanjing Famous Liquor hadn't remained so high, their volume would have been even greater.

"Third Brother Chu, here to buy liquor today?" At the wine shop in the west of Xuzhou city, the shopkeeper greeted him with a face full of smiles.

Among the several wine shops in the city, those in the know and long-time residents all preferred to buy from this one in the west of the city, because this shop sold wine from the old distillery. Though the difference was slight, everyone felt the wine here was more authentic and mellow.

A sturdy, muscular man in a short informal robe walked in, followed by four figures dressed the same way. The one addressed as "Third Brother Chu" merely nodded at the shopkeeper's eager courtesy, swept his gaze around, and said in a muffled voice, "Two jars of Hanjing Famous Liquor, thirty jin each. Ten jin of dried tofu braised in meat broth. Wrap it up—we've brought our own cart."

Thank you, everyone.