Chapter 777: A Bigger-Sized Local Magnate

Seeing their leader act, the salt-troop militia behind him surged forward as well, swinging wooden clubs in a wild, head-cracking flurry. These men had training and formation, and had fought together for a long time — how could the tenant farmers of Gu Family Village possibly beat them? In fact, before they even clashed, the men from Gu Family Village turned and fled, but where could they run? Clubs struck and crossed, and soon the ground was full of rolling bodies.

"No iron tools, don't take any lives!" Yan Blackface shouted at the top of his lungs. In truth, he didn't need to say it — the salt-troop militia were already holding back on their own. Plenty of people on the ground had split scalps and bleeding faces, but all were flesh wounds.

The salt was quickly dug out. The salt-troop militia simply commandeered a broken-down cart right there in the village and loaded it up. But Yan Blackface's business wasn't finished yet. He directly dragged out the people of Gu Family Village and questioned them. Gu Family Village had already been on the verge of collapse under the Liao tax levies; all the village's land had been mortgaged to the big household in the village. But that big household had no scholarly rank, and wasn't a fierce and ruthless enough local magnate, so they couldn't hold out under the Liao taxes either. Yet this village was close to Weishan Lake, and its fields and property were all quite good, so naturally someone had their eye on buying it. This time, it was people from the Lu Prince Estate who stepped in.

Because the current Prefect of Yanzhou was close to the Duke Yansheng Estate and didn't get along with the Lu Prince Estate, these few men from the Lu Prince Estate hadn't gone all the way. They gave that big household some money at a discounted price and swallowed the entire village.

During the year-end period around the twelfth and first months, many people couldn't make it through this juncture. The Liao taxes had scraped away flesh and blood, and the last bit of savings was exhausted at this time. The truly great houses all chose this moment to annex land in every direction. These three men from the Lu Prince Estate had also come out at this time. After buying the village and making some minor arrangements, they would return to the Lu Prince Estate in the second month to settle accounts and write off expenses — this was also the Lu Prince Estate's regular practice.

The Inner Guard's informants had combed through Yutai County before the eleventh month, and a small farmstead like Gu Family Village naturally wouldn't receive special attention. These several stewards had holed up in Gu Family Village to do business. Coming from the Lu Prince Estate, there was no one in Shandong they needed to care about, so naturally they had no idea who "Master Jin" was. When they saw those several hundred jin of smuggled salt passing through, and a salt peddler traveling all alone, they casually robbed him — it was just a bit of drinking money, and a way to win over the hearts of the villagers. The tenants of Gu Family Village were naturally happy to take advantage of this, and now that the village had become estate farmland, everyone more or less had a way to survive, so their spirits were a bit higher. They were just looking to show off in front of those stewards.

As for that Third Brother Zhang's behavior, Yan Blackface could figure it out too. Hearing the heaven-shaking name "Prince of Lu," his legs had gone weak with fright — how would he dare to fight? All he could do was beg and act pitiful, hoping to see if he could scrounge something back from his own side.

Yan Blackface's face truly darkened this time. These several incidents couldn't really be called coincidence; he had just run into them himself. The men had been beaten, and that was that — if he hadn't beaten them, he'd be the one getting dealt with when he got back. Now it all depended on how Master Jin would handle him, and what the Lu Prince Estate would do next.

He looked at the three Lu Prince Estate stewards wailing and groaning in pain on the ground. Yan Blackface placed his hand on the scabbard of his podao. If he silenced them here, could it be settled once and for all? He looked at the Gu Family Village tenants covering the ground, then turned back to look at his salt-troop militia. Yan Blackface gritted his teeth and still dismissed the thought of killing.

The moment they'd heard the name "Prince of Lu" just now, even the salt-troop militia had hesitated. If they really made a move and killed men from the Lu Prince Estate, would all these Gu Family Village tenants also have to be silenced? Could his own salt-troop militia truly be relied upon? Yan Blackface had no confidence in his heart. Even he had been startled upon hearing the Lu Prince Estate's name, considering all the consequences — let alone the salt-troop militia. And this salt-troop militia wasn't just drifters with no ties; they also included former salt-smuggling young men from Xuzhou and Pizhou. These men had families, and far more scruples in their actions.

Who could have imagined that just casually going out to fight once, they'd end up provoking people from the Lu Prince Estate? Yan Blackface's expression was calm, but inside he was cursing. Just as he was about to call the main force to leave, he couldn't hold back any longer. He stepped forward and gave those three Lu Prince Estate stewards a few kicks, cursing viciously: "Act senselessly again, and I'll start using my blade."

Those few kicks held nothing back. The three men on the ground were kicked into curling up, their mouths gaping wide, making rasping sounds but unable to speak a complete sentence.

Yan Blackface led the main force away, leaving behind the ground full of Gu Family Village's people curled up and crying in pain. By all rights it should have been a triumphant return, but Yan Blackface's unit showed none of the elation of victory. Everyone felt somewhat stifled.

Watching Yan Blackface and his men leave with the salt, once they had walked about two hundred paces away, these people from Gu Family Village crawled up. Although the fight just now had been lively, with howls of pain and miserable shrieks, since everyone had held back their strength, the beating hadn't been too severe. It hurt, sure, but nothing involving broken bones or torn sinews.

"What do we do?"

"What else can we do? We go back and report this. A mere local thug, actually daring to lay hands on us who come from the Lu Prince Estate — truly doesn't know how the word 'death' is written. This time we'll have them flayed and their tendons ripped out." The middle-aged man in the brocade-padded robe wiped the blood from his mouth and nose and spoke viciously.

"In the four counties of Shandong, we've run into people from both the Lu Prince Estate and the Duke Yansheng Estate. In some places we fought, in some places we were reasonably polite to each other, and in some places we came out on the losing end. But everyone's thinking was the same: those who got the upper hand were afraid of bringing trouble on me, those who were polite were also afraid of bringing trouble on me, and those who lost out were still afraid of bringing trouble on me." Inside the council hall, Zhao Jin spoke in a clear voice.

Chen Sheng, Wang Zhaojing, Ji Xiang, Liu Yong, and Ruhui were all seated, while Li Dajin stood to one side. Everyone's expressions were quite grave. When the various Xuzhou forces had first entered the four counties of Shandong, they hadn't yet gone deep, and the local magnates and gentry had all bowed their heads — everything had seemed to be going smoothly. But once they dug in and got into the details, they began colliding with other powers.

In these four places there were properties belonging to a local Assistant Regional Commander, and estates belonging to a Vice Minister in the capital, but these actually posed no obstacle. They had basically no involvement in the underworld's business, and had never paid taxes to the authorities, so naturally they wouldn't come into conflict with the forces sent out by the Zhao Camp. However, the estates of the Lu Prince Estate and the Duke Yansheng Kong Estate were very troublesome.

Liu Yong, feeling he had been derelict in his duty, dispatched more men to the four counties of Shandong, even mobilizing the Smelling Incense Sect followers under Zheng Quan. More detailed information also came back. The earlier overt and covert investigations by the Inner Guard informants couldn't be called negligent, because in these four counties, apart from the two estates in Tancheng that openly declared themselves princely estates, none of the others had made it known to outsiders — even the locals were unclear.

The reason was simple. From the founding of the dynasty and the Jingnan Campaign until now, Shandong had seen constant peasant revolts and constant famines. Whenever trouble arose, the reason that the Lu princely line had annexed too much land would be brought up by the ministers, especially the ministers from Shandong, who attacked this point with particular vehemence. The Duke Yansheng Estate was the source of the civil tradition, and truly had to be treated with taboo reverence, but the imperial relatives had no such protection. If you annexed too much, we had nowhere to buy property, so naturally we'd use it to make a case against you.

Over all this long time, the Lu Prince Estate had to be somewhat low-key in annexing land in Shandong. They still annexed, but had to keep up appearances. After buying a farmstead, they often wouldn't make it public. The estate stewards who bought the farmsteads often had other identities — identities sufficient to avoid taxes, which the local authorities had no way to deal with. Only when truly forced into a corner would they reveal the princely estate's identity.

It was a good method, but the estate had sent out far too many estate-head stewards to the various manors; they simply couldn't all be kept in check. Normally, inside the estate, they had to bow and scrape, speaking in hushed, soft tones. Having finally been let out, how could they not throw their weight around?

Once these people were out, they also knew they were men of the Lu Prince Estate — that the local authorities couldn't control them and didn't dare to, and that everyone else had to treat them with awe and deference. Their arrogance naturally grew more and more rampant. Not to mention matters within their own estates, if there were benefits outside the estate, they'd grab for those too, reaching their hands into everything from harboring stolen goods to dealing in smuggled salt.

However, the princely estate's manors couldn't reach too far, and they also knew that Shandong was full of mounted bandits and outlaws, especially in these no-man's-land border zones between provinces. So the princely estate manors in the four counties of Shandong were still relatively restrained. The Duke Yansheng Kong Estate's manors followed the same principle. This was also why, when the various Xuzhou forces first entered, there had been no trouble, and why the conflicts only "tacitly" erupted after the first month. Now everyone had come into contact, and interests had begun to clash.

"Xiaoyong, send the Inner Guard's core members to these four counties. Push them to do the job. Don't be afraid of causing trouble — fight when you should fight, kill when you should kill. If anyone doesn't dare to make a move, replace them." Zhao Jin's solution was as simple and direct as ever.

In the past, no one had ever objected to this method of using overwhelming force to overcome all tricks, but this time the first to speak was Chen Sheng. He put it very directly: "Zhao Jin, this is a princely estate. Have we reached the point where we can just let go and tear our faces off?"

"Brother, anything involving a princely estate is a major matter. Imperial bloodline — the local authorities will often treat it as a case of rebellion or something similar. It's far too easy to blow things up." Wang Zhaojing also offered his advice very cautiously.

Zhao Jin laughed and said: "The Lu Prince Estate is in Ziyang City, not here in these four counties of Shandong. Just treat them as ordinary farmsteads. Right now, we can't retreat a single step. If we retreat, we'll be stepped on."

"Brother, who would dare step on us?" Ji Xiang cut in, his face showing a rather defiant expression.

"The Lu Prince Estate, the Duke Yansheng Estate — these two are big enough. Now that clashes have started below, it will soon escalate upward. In their eyes, we're nothing more than local magnates from the Xuzhou countryside. Do you think they'll step on us or not?" Zhao Jin asked in return. Ji Xiang thought for a moment and said nothing.

Seeing that no one had objections, Liu Yong stood up to acknowledge Zhao Jin's order and said: "Brother, rest assured, the message will be sent out today. But with the Yellow River thawing right now, it might arrive a day late."

At that moment, Sun Dalin had already brought in an outer robe. It was a modified Daoist robe with fine, dense stitching — the hem didn't drag on the ground, and the sleeves had been changed to arrow sleeves, not too baggy and relatively close-fitting. This was Zhao Jin's everyday attire. Several guards helped Zhao Jin put it on. While donning the robe, Zhao Jin said: "Don't get panicky just because it's a princely estate. Think of it as a bigger-sized local magnate. So what if it's the Lu Prince Estate? Even in our salt market, salt shops from various princely estates come to buy goods, and we still deal with them the same way."

Thanks to old friends "123*, Changed Away, Yuan Heng Li Zhen" for the tips, and thank you all for your subscriptions and monthly tickets. It's the end of the year — cast your monthly tickets.