Chapter 760

"Everyone in Yutai County is terrified. These people originally hoped to ride the momentum of the Liao conscription levies to swallow up land and population to fatten themselves. They never imagined that once no more coin or grain could be squeezed from the common folk, the officials would turn on them instead. The places neighboring Yutai County have all suffered terribly — they can see those outcomes clearly enough. The only reason they've held on this long is by borrowing our Xuzhou's might, like foxes strutting in a tiger's shadow."

"No wonder. The county has no truly powerful magnates. In front of the officials, these people are nothing but scattered sand — no surprise they can't hold out."

After a brief exchange, everyone understood how things stood. Ji Xiang brooded in silence for a moment, then spoke up: "Big Brother, why not send the various Xuzhou contingents to kill again? The time we gave them today was too short. If they'd had enough time, those pursuers would certainly have been wiped out clean. Then Yanzhou Prefecture's strength would be even weaker, and we could seize the opportunity to take it."

Zhao Jin smiled and shook his head. He glanced at the expressions on Chen Sheng, Ji Xiang, and Liu Yong, then lowered his voice and added: "Not letting them kill everyone is the same reasoning as me sparing Xu Hongru. It's getting late — go get some rest."

The three companions all paused, then looked thoughtful. It didn't take long before Chen Sheng stood up first and said in a muffled voice, "What's there to think about? Just follow and do as he says. I'm going to walk through the camp."

Liu Yong and Ji Xiang exchanged a glance, both shook their heads, then rose as well and followed him toward the encampment.

Early the next morning, Zhao Jin led the main force onto the return journey. Every contingent that had come to reinforce them had now witnessed Zhao Jin's lavish generosity. According to the number of men each had brought, every unit received a share of horses — some more, some less — and all the horses came with complete saddles and tack. A fully equipped warhorse was no small expense, and among all the reinforcing contingents, no more than sixty men could put together a full set of tack on their own. Such a distribution naturally made them feel the weight of his largesse. And that didn't even count what they'd seized and captured in the fighting — those came with additional rewards, and the spoils of battle belonged to the individual. Every contingent felt thoroughly satisfied, all agreeing the trip had been well worth it.

"An operation like this burns through far too much. From now on, we must be cautious — doubly cautious." While the various contingents thought Zhao Jin was being generous, Zhao Jin and his companions felt the expense had been enormous.

"That's exactly why infantry retainers are best. One horse costs as much as feeding six men — ten men. This time, with our rapid advance and retreat, we practically threw away a full regiment's annual expenses in one go. Even a great house with a great estate can't keep spending like that." Liu Yong had worked out the accounts in meticulous detail.

Only after saying this did Liu Yong realize something was off. He coughed dryly a few times and stole a glance at Mu Shulan. Mu Shulan merely smiled and shook her head, signaling he needn't dwell on it.

Zhao Jin smiled. He rode on for a while before speaking: "This time, rescuing Xiaolan was the primary reason. Making the various powers in Yanzhou Prefecture understand how formidable we are was another. All these years, we've kept to the rules and never crossed the provincial border, which made a lot of people over here forget themselves. One killing, one flash of the blade, and they won't dare act recklessly — and it gives us a pretext for entering Shandong."

Once the column entered Xuzhou, things relaxed considerably. The cavalrymen and horses that were exhausted or in poor condition were left directly at the First Regiment and militia garrison posts and estates to rest and recover. The hundred-odd riders Zhao Jin kept at his side were more than enough. The road ahead was still somewhat rushed, because they could not cross the river at the ferry near the He Family Village. The Yellow River was about to freeze over, but downstream the ice had not yet set solid, so Zhao Jin's party could only cross where Xuzhou bordered Guide Prefecture in Henan.

In any case, on the return journey they had to stop at the Xu family estate at Jingshan. After all, this was Zhao Jin's wife's family — he had to show some closeness. It was just that bringing Mu Shulan along this time made things a little awkward.

But the source of the awkwardness was not Mu Shulan. Xu Zhenzhen's father, Xu Benrong, fancied himself a gentleman of letters and loved nothing more than poetry, books, romance, and pleasure-seeking. He could never find common ground with a military man like Zhao Jin. As for Xu Housheng, he was far too timid — having heard accounts of his brother-in-law's exploits, he was always trembling with fear in Zhao Jin's presence, too scared to even lift his head. Mu Shulan, on the other hand, drew no one's notice at all.

"The son-in-law can see for himself — a Xu family this vast, if not for my ill-fated niece holding it together, would either have been ruined by those greedy, insatiable Xu clansmen within, or devoured by the wolves and tigers outside." The one currently managing Xu family affairs was Xu Bende. Though Xu Zhenzhen's uncle was also quite mediocre, at least he was still applying himself diligently to the work.

However, Xu Bende had not come to Zhao Jin merely to lament. He had another grievance to air: "Son-in-law, could the requirements for crafting these bird guns be relaxed a little? Even if a bird gun is crafted with full diligence, two master craftsmen working twenty days is enough. Yet your requirement is that every single one must fire properly, and if there's any defect, the ones who forged it and inspected it are to be held accountable. They're all terrified of losing their heads — no one dares take on the work no matter who we ask. If this goes on, I fear it will delay the son-in-law's urgent matters."

Zhao Jin smiled and shook his head. His words conceded not an inch: "If a bird gun fails to fire or bursts its barrel at a critical moment, it may well cost one of my retainers his life. The one who forged that bird gun then becomes the killer. Should I not settle accounts with that killer?"

Xu Bende naturally could not stand firm before Zhao Jin. He merely kept a forced smile and continued, "The son-in-law isn't wrong. But the ones who can work on forging bird guns are all master craftsmen from our Xu family workshops. Digging coal and smelting iron only takes brute strength, but crafting weapons and ironware depends entirely on these old masters leading apprentices and hired hands. It wouldn't do to push things too far."

In Zhao Jin's memories from before, these men were what you'd call the technical backbone. Though they too were hired laborers, their status was far higher, and you couldn't be too hard on them. Zhao Jin pondered for a moment, then spoke: "Have them engrave their names. For every gun completed, I'll pay one tael of silver by name. They come with their name to collect the silver — I'll assign dedicated men to handle the payouts."

These words startled Xu Bende, who waved his hands repeatedly: "Why would the son-in-law go to such lengths? Forging bird guns for you is family business. Giving them a little extra wages would be enough — how can you give so much? This, this… for a fast worker, his yearly wages would more than triple…"

Zhao Jin shook his head. Xu Bende was thinking on behalf of the Zhao Camp, but he couldn't see the key point. What Zhao Jin wanted was weapons of superior quality, while Xu Bende was focused on saving money. He never considered that this one tael of silver, measured against the improvement these bird guns would bring to the Zhao Camp, was utterly trivial. Zhao Jin smiled and asked another question: "By my method, the blacksmiths won't object to writing their names on them now, will they?"

"Of course they'll be willing to write them. If the son-in-law is willing to pay more, they'll probably even add the names of their hired hands and apprentices. It's just… it's still far too costly." No wonder Xu Zhenzhen used Xu Bende as steward and manager — his mind for pinching pennies and keeping accounts was truly remarkable.

"This silver will be distributed by dedicated personnel from Cloud Mountain Trading. The Xu family is not to interfere." Zhao Jin ignored Xu Bende's lament and made the arrangement on his own. Xu Bende naturally had no objection to this.

Give the craftsmen incentive — make them feel there's profit in this. Set up a mechanism of reward and punishment: do well and there's silver to be earned; do poorly and you'll be held to account. Only then would these Xu family craftsmen put their hearts and full effort into forging bird guns. From Dong Bingfeng, Zhao Jin had heard countless stories about official troops using firearms — how they wouldn't shoot far or fire at all, how they'd burst their barrels when the enemy got close, and so on and so forth. The reason for all that was simply that the artisan households forging firearms were treated like slaves, doing bitter labor with no real compensation. Good work brought no reward; shoddy work brought no consequences. The supervising officials, meanwhile, kept skimming materials and ordering the craftsmen to do private jobs on the side. Under such conditions, it was only natural that no decent weapons would ever be produced.

The Xu family paying wages to its craftsmen did avoid many of the abuses of the official workshops. But since the blacksmiths earned the same wages whether they forged other items or bird guns, they naturally had no reason to put in extra care, nor any wish to shoulder responsibility. Yet if every bird gun earned them one tael of silver, that extra reward became enormously attractive. A master blacksmith earned only about ten taels of silver in coin and grain a year. One tael for a single bird gun was a full tenth of his annual income. Forging twenty guns in a year was hardly difficult — that would double his yearly earnings. Lured by such generous income, they would naturally work with care and precision, and naturally would not fear engraving their names on the bird guns and being held accountable.

But what Xu Bende did not know was that Zhao Jin was reluctant to spend this silver too. The sum was not large, but the bird gun was not the firearm Zhao Jin truly wanted. Yet the Yu family of Songjiang had been having no luck sourcing standard Western firearms, so he had no choice but to make do with bird guns for the time being. Zhao Jin also knew the Yu family was not dragging their feet or making excuses. The seas these days were in constant turmoil — several great fleetmasters and dragon heads were forming alliances and warring against one another, attacking without pause. As a result, the prices of foreign goods from Japan and the Franks had all soared. Western firearms were genuinely hard to come by.

Zhao Jin had also toyed with the idea of studying and modifying that short musket, but after carefully disassembling it, he discovered that its mechanism seemed quite different from that of a long musket. He abandoned the notion, to avoid going far down the wrong path and ending up wasting effort and money.

The Xu family was exceedingly attentive to Zhao Jin's arrival. This raid into Shandong had left the armor and weapons of Zhao Camp's contingent heavily damaged. Xu Bende urged Zhao Jin to leave the damaged arms and armor behind, so they could be sent to the He Family Village after repairs. Zhao Jin had originally intended to do just that, but after his talk with Xu Bende about the bird guns, he changed his mind.

"The weapons can stay here. The armor is to be repaired at the He Family Village. You will submit a list of the craftsmen who worked on this armor to Xiaoyong — all of them are to go to the He Family Village. The patterns and diagrams for this armor are not to be kept either." Zhao Jin spoke in great detail, and Xu Bende hastily agreed to everything.

The suit of armor Zhao Jin had designed and commissioned, compared to the brigandine, chainmail, and cotton armor of this era, was superior in both protection and lightness. If such a critical piece of military equipment were learned by others, it would surely become a major problem. The Xu family's coal mines and ironworks could hardly be described as tightly run — they were merely somewhat larger workshops. For the moment, Zhao Jin did not want to arrange for Cloud Mountain Trading to take them over entirely. Cloud Mountain Trading was already straining its utmost just opening branches in various places, and the Xu family's sprawling operation was far too large — taking it over would certainly be an ordeal. It was better to keep things as they were for now.

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