Chapter 811: The Greedy Know No Fear

Seeing how solemn Zhao Jin was, Ma Chonghao hurriedly stood up, respectfully accepted the order, and quickly turned to leave. Once the door closed, Zhao Jin turned to Meng Zhiqi and said, "Xiao Meng, starting today, you no longer need to follow me. Go to the Academic Ding Company and strictly oversee firearms training. New-style firelocks will keep arriving. When you see anyone who trains well, recruit them into the firearms company. If you run into any trouble you can't handle, come find me!"

No one expected this sudden interjection. Meng Zhiqi didn't react for a moment, merely kneeling by instinct to accept the order. When he stood up, a reluctant expression crossed his face. A squad commander by the Regional Commander's side outranked any commander or garrison officer in the field. Serving at Zhao Jin's side to relay orders gave him a status nearly equal to a battalion commander. Now he was being sent to be just a firearms company commander—how could he bear to part with that?

But Meng Zhiqi wasn't slow to react. At a moment like this, it was no time to be picky. He simply stood at attention, offering no polite formalities whatsoever.

Zhao Jin directly handed the bronze seal and tally to Ruhui, who swiftly wrote out a document, stamped it with the seal and signed it. Then Zhao Jin passed the waist token to Meng Zhiqi. Meng Zhiqi took it in a daze and strode quickly out of the room.

Watching Meng Zhiqi's retreating figure, Ruhui said with a smile, "I imagine Xiao Meng is reluctant to leave. But with the master assigning him to be this company commander, there will certainly be no shortage of people who aren't convinced."

"The company and squad commanders in every regiment and unit have all grown rigid in their thinking," Zhao Jin explained with a smile. "They believe that with the ten-foot pikes in their hands and their square formations, they can sweep across the world. They only want to grind away at pikes and formations. Firelocks, bows, cavalry, warships—they see all of it as unorthodox tricks. The Academic Ding Company is one of the few places where that mindset isn't too entrenched, so they can still be trained properly."

"Mister Cao, send a team to the Lu Prince Estate. Whether or not they're spies, they must absolutely be genuine merchants. Draw up the contract documents for our salt market and distillery, and go to the Lu Prince Estate to hand them over. Make sure to emphasize one point: tell them it's best to come to the salt market and distillery in person to take inventory. Otherwise, without seeing the actual goods, it's very easy for discrepancies to arise—very easy for us to tamper with things." Zhao Jin spoke.

Ruhui instinctively picked up his brush to take notes. After writing a few characters, his hand trembled, and ink dripped onto the paper. Ruhui stared at Zhao Jin in shock and said, "Master, are we really giving it to them?"

Zhao Jin nodded. Ruhui hesitated for a moment, glanced outside the door, then stood up and leaned close to Zhao Jin, lowering his voice. "Master, if we give in this once, there will be a second time. If you take the threats from the Shandong princely estates seriously, they're a major problem. If you don't, they're no bigger than that business with Ma Chonghao."

After saying this, Ruhui glanced outside the door again, shot a look at Niu Jinbao and Sun Dalin not far away, and lowered his voice even further, speaking through gritted teeth. "Master Jin, cut the knot when it's time to cut it!"

Zhao Jin turned his head to look at Ruhui, his expression indifferent. That look made Ruhui's heart lurch—he wondered if he had overstepped with those words.

"If something like this happened to you, what do you think the others would say?" Zhao Jin asked.

Ruhui pondered briefly, then broke into a smile. Still keeping his voice low, he said, "Master Jin here might look after me. The other gentlemen would probably think the same as your subordinate."

Zhao Jin was stunned by this answer. After a moment's thought, he shook his head with a rueful laugh and said, "Just go make the arrangements. Now that our operations have grown and we're coming into contact with the surrounding powers, the Lu Prince Estate covets our wealth and properties—do you think the Lu Prince Estate is any different? If the Prince of Zhou, Prince of Fu, Prince of Tang, and the rest learned of this, wouldn't they do the same? We've already had that affair with Ma Chonghao here in the Southern Metropolitan Region. There's a garrison eunuch in Nanjing, a Duke of Wei, another garrison eunuch in Fengyang, two grand coordinators, and all those ministers in Nanjing. With the way we're thriving in Xuzhou and Qingjiangpu, do you think they aren't envious? Even if they aren't, our fortune inevitably means their losses. Cut off a man's livelihood, and sooner or later it's kill or be killed. Today they use Wang Zhaojing's father to threaten us with rebellion. Tomorrow, will they accuse us of actually rebelling? With this endless harassment, can we still get anything real done? So we need a method that settles it once and for all."

Once and for all... Hearing those words, Ruhui's expression changed. In a voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz, he asked, "Is the master planning something grand?"

At this, Zhao Jin shook his head and laughed despite himself. "Don't you start learning from Daxiang. What grand thing or not? What's the rush for us!"

At this moment, Ruhui was somewhat bewildered. He stared at Zhao Jin for a few glances, then laughed ruefully and said, "True enough. Whatever is to be done, the master will decide. Your subordinate will carry it out—there's certainly no going wrong that way."

With that, he bowed with clasped hands, turned, and strode out the door. From the way he moved, it seemed as if he had set aside the knot in his heart.

Zhao Jin smiled, leaned back in his chair, and half-closed his eyes, as if falling asleep. He hadn't slept all night, having racked his brains to the point of exhaustion. He truly was very tired.

"Dalin, call over Chen Sheng, Ji Xiang, and Liu Yong. Just the three of them. No one else is allowed in." Just as Sun Dalin was about to close the door and windows, Zhao Jin spoke with his eyes shut.

Although they had been busy late into the night, before Chen Sheng and the others had arrived, Wang Zhaojing had already come over, his face utterly haggard, dark circles ringing his eyes.

"Couldn't sleep?" Zhao Jin asked with a smile.

"Hasn't Big Brother also been up all night?" Wang Zhaojing countered. Zhao Jin's condition wasn't much better than Wang Zhaojing's.

Zhao Jin smiled again. Wang Zhaojing's face remained expressionless. He went to the table in the corner, took out paper and brush, and prepared to start working. Zhao Jin watched him in silence for a while before slowly speaking. "This is something I shouldn't have to ask. But it involves grave matters, and it concerns your father. I still need to ask you this: do you trust me?"

The strange question made Wang Zhaojing pause. Then, nodding solemnly, he said, "Of course your younger brother trusts Big Brother. If I didn't, how could I have followed Big Brother through life and death?"

"Good. Then whatever you do next, follow my arrangements in everything. I already have a method to rescue your father. I can't say this method is absolutely foolproof, but it's the one with the greatest certainty."

After hearing Zhao Jin's words, Wang Zhaojing let out a long breath. He clasped his hands toward Zhao Jin and bowed deeply, saying solemnly, "Then I will follow Big Brother's arrangements entirely."

"Second Master and the others have arrived." The voice of a household guard announcing them came from outside the door.

By the time early June arrived, even the dullest person could sense that something was off. But what exactly was off, no one could quite put their finger on.

The movements of the various units of the Zhao Character Battalion couldn't be hidden, but every regiment and battalion was moving within their own assigned defense zones—nothing out of the ordinary there.

Besides, it had been less than two years since the Zhao Character Battalion began dispatching troops to garrison outposts. There were no established protocols to follow anyway. Perhaps Zhao Jin had simply found more suitable areas for stationing them.

Another thing: near the encampment of the Zhao Character Battalion's Academic Ding Company, one could always hear crackling and popping sounds, like firecrackers going off. Everyone knew they were discharging firearms there—this couldn't be hidden either, because the merchants at the market all knew that Xuzhou had raised the purchase price of gunpowder ingredients by thirty percent, and for large quantities, the price was even more negotiable.

Manufacturing firelocks wasn't anything unusual either. All across the land, even cannons weren't rare among the common folk, let alone a few birding guns. The Zhao Character Battalion doing this wasn't strange—what people found strange was that they'd started so late.

People from the capital and from Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong were placed under especially close scrutiny. Even merchants with no experience in the underworld could feel they were being watched very tightly, and there were always people asking them this or that question.

No one found this odd either. Zhao Jin and his comrades were all young men, naturally curious about the outside world. Traveling merchants from north and south had all received similar treatment.

There were, however, a few individuals with exceptionally good information networks who had vaguely heard that the Zhao Character Battalion had made no progress in the four counties of Shandong. After clashing with the manor properties of the Lu Prince Estate, there had been no follow-up whatsoever. It seemed they were cowed by the power of the imperial prince.

But the Lu Prince Estate's manors were also quiet. They hadn't sought to avenge the beatings they'd suffered, nor had there been any further clashes with the underworld forces the Zhao Character Battalion had sent over. It seemed they too had been intimidated by the ferocity of the Xuzhou warriors.

What people could see and notice amounted to just that. As for everything else, they either couldn't see it, or saw it but paid no attention, finding no significance in it at all.

For instance, at the Cloud Mountain Temple on Cloud Dragon Mountain, a major construction project was underway: deep trenches were being dug, high walls built, mountain paths repaired and widened, warehouses expanded. Then cart after cart of grain and supplies were being hauled up the mountain. The warehouses at various manors were also being expanded and inventoried, and grain stored in different locations was being concentrated toward a few key points.

Even the locals of Xuzhou had no sense of any of this, because all these places were Zhao Jin's private property—impossible to approach or enter. And all the mobilized laborers were tenant farmers from within Zhao Jin's own manors. When it came down to it, these people were all Zhao Jin's long-term hired hands and tenant farmers, completely unconnected to the outside world.

Furthermore, the activities of Xuzhou's underworld and marketplace followed their own rhythms. Honest merchants and common folk naturally couldn't see them. They might sense a subtle shift in the atmosphere, but they had no idea what it meant.

Fast horses racing to the capital, carts laden with gold and silver heading to Linqing City—to outsiders, these were simply the normal state of affairs at the He Family Estate, things long since grown commonplace.

In truth, even the household guards and militia of the Zhao Character Battalion didn't know what was about to happen. All they knew was that training had intensified, the food had improved, and discipline had grown even stricter.

"Sir Qiao, this salt market is a golden hen that lays golden eggs. Raise it well, and you'll have golden eggs every year. If you're too hasty and kill the hen for its eggs, or if the hen flies away and the eggs break, then you'll only eat for one year, or maybe just a few months."

"What you say is true enough. But with business so thriving, there's no justification for not a single coin being sent up. I've heard the merchants at this salt market can't wait to pay several years' rent in advance. With everyone so enthusiastic, we can't very well refuse. Let's collect three years first. As for the customary shares, there's no rush—we can collect those at year's end."

The envoy from the Zhao Character Battalion quickly arrived at Ziyang City in Yanzhou Prefecture, Shandong, where the Lu Prince Estate was located. The Lu Prince Estate's response was equally swift, and they soon sent their own people over. The arrivals were no strangers—the one leading the group was none other than that Qiao Shan, Battalion Commander Qiao, who had been beaten up in Pizhou.

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