Chapter 821: Liu Xiaoke

821. Chapter 821: Liu Xiaoke

Hearing Inspector Guo Shangyou's words, the two Company Commanders below looked even more miserable. Company Commander Chu, sent by Vice General Zhou, muttered something under his breath, then put on a righteous expression and said, "Your Excellency, my general says Xuzhou is that bandit Zhao's old lair. His followers and the court's troops are all mixed together. If the government troops make any unusual move, the bandits will surely notice. So we cannot move—one move and we might ruin the great cause of suppressing the bandits!"

"Since you're all mixed together with the bandits, why hasn't Vice General Zhou simply wiped them out?" Inspector Guo Shangyou pressed relentlessly.

Company Commander Chu hesitated for a long moment. Kneeling there, he looked up and found the Inspector's gaze cold and severe. Gritting his teeth, he switched to a mournful expression and said helplessly, "Your Excellency, the bandits are many and we are few—we cannot act rashly. My general is only waiting for the court's grand army to arrive, so we can strike from within and without and smash the bandits in one blow."

The aides behind the Inspector couldn't help laughing, though they covered their mouths and made no sound. The anger on Inspector Guo Shangyou's face turned into exasperated amusement. He pointed at Company Commander Chu, opened his mouth, then closed it again, and simply turned to the other side. There stood Company Commander Lu, the personal soldier of Wolf Mountain Vice Regional Commander Lu Quanyou. "What does your side have to say?"

Company Commander Lu coughed several times, then said, "The weather is sweltering, and our Wolf Mountain has suffered several outbreaks of plague. My general fears that if we march, the troops will catch the plague and collapse without a fight, which would end up ruining the great cause of suppressing the bandits."

Inspector Guo, seated above, had his mouth hanging open. Who could have imagined these crude military men would start spouting bureaucratic cant, every bit the equal of old foxes steeped in officialdom for years? And what was rare was how utterly high-sounding it all was.

Company Commander Lu stole a glance around. His expression looked somewhat better than before. Since they'd already thrown away all shame, he could be even more brazen. "Your Excellency, my commander also says that rashly resorting to arms creates too much killing, which is never a good thing. Perhaps those Xuzhou commoners truly have some grievance. It would be better to focus on persuasion and pacification."

"Ha!" Inspector Guo let out a laugh despite himself. The dignified Wolf Mountain Vice Regional Commander, facing a local strongman's militia, was actually talking about focusing on pacification—a great general saying one should not create too much killing.

The Mobile Corps Commander of the standard garrison sitting there only kept his head lowered. As a military officer, he had heard rumors of many things stirred up in South Zhili. At the time, they had sounded too shocking to fully believe. But now, looking at the situation, it didn't seem so false. This commander led troops into battle and could naturally gauge certain things, but no matter how he gauged Zhao Jin's side, he felt a chill in his heart.

Only at this moment did Company Commander Chu and Company Commander Lu exchange a glance. Each saw the difficulty and helplessness in the other's eyes. Their explanations had not only failed to explain anything, but had instead enraged the Inspector. What came next would likely be hard to answer for.

Everyone expected that after being torn between tears and laughter, the Inspector would surely erupt in fury next, and they all braced themselves. What no one expected was that Inspector Guo Shangyou, sitting there, suddenly calmed down. His face completely impassive, he tapped the table lightly with his fingers and said, "Since that's the case, then it's true that Vice General Zhou's horses in Xuzhou were all taken by Zhao Jin?"

Company Commander Chu shuddered violently, knelt lower, and dared not make a sound. Fengyang Inspector Guo Shangyou then asked leisurely, "It's also true that General Lu lost over a thousand men north of Huai'an Prefecture."

Both Company Commanders knelt there, not daring to raise their heads. Some matters were tolerable when kept vague, but once exposed, they became calamities warranting execution and the confiscation of one's household—grave crimes, all of them.

"Stand up. What this official says next, you will relay back word for word without missing a single character. This official will say this upfront: whichever side fails to comply, this official will report these matters in full detail to the throne. This official will certainly bear responsibility, but your two sides can look forward to execution, confiscation of your households, and exile to the frontier. Do you understand?" Inspector Guo Shangyou's voice was icy. The two Company Commanders, who had come thinking they could bluster and muddle their way through, felt a chill run through their entire bodies. Yet, inexplicably, both also felt a certain relief. This assignment suddenly seemed not so impossible to answer for after all.

Even rural farmers knew to store grain for winter and famine. Of course, in these years when the Liao tax cut like a knife, whether one could store any grain at all was hard to say. As for those living in market towns, they were either wealthy households with no worry of food and warmth, or common folk who would go hungry the very day they didn't work.

The Grand Canal at Qingjiangpu was blocked. Not to mention the boatmen and sailors on the river who were frantic with anxiety, the various people ashore who depended on the canal for their livelihoods were also suffering unbearably.

The canal was blocked for dozens of li both north and south, and the length grew day by day. The court and local authorities showed not the slightest sign of action. Heaven only knew how long it would remain blocked. The first few days had been tolerable, but later on, all work on the canal came to a complete halt, and everyone's livelihood became a problem.

Fortunately, Cloud Mountain Trading was undertaking massive construction, building several large warehouses on the outskirts of Qingjiangpu. These warehouses were built with great care, modeled entirely on the structure of the Ever-Full Granary, using little wood and much stone. It was fortunate they were in Qingjiangpu, for the most common cargo carried by tribute grain boats returning from the north was granite blocks.

Hauling earth, stone, and timber, digging ditches, and every other task on the construction site required large numbers of hands. Most of the men who sold their labor were recruited here. The work was certainly harder than at the canal, but as long as one could eat their fill, there was no need to be too picky.

However, those who understood construction found the warehouse sites a bit strange. The key points for granaries were building on high ground to prevent damp, maximizing storage capacity, having open space for large carts to stop, and convenient access roads. Yet here they were also paying attention to what lay underground, digging deep trenches all around, and even building high walls. No one knew what they were thinking.

Besides this, if one was willing to go to Clam Port to build docks and ships, the wages were even higher.

Moreover, there were many extra jobs around Qingjiangpu. For instance, Cloud Mountain Carting hired several times more laborers than before, needing men to load cargo from boats onto large carts. Geng Mancang was purchasing grain in vast quantities, which also required people to do the work.

In addition, Zhao's Camp was still recruiting young, brave, and able-bodied men for militia training. Those who were sturdy enough, of clean background, and willing to work for Zhao's Camp would be recruited. After training, they would be assigned to the docks and the Qingjiang Grand Market.

Through these and various other measures, much of the idle labor in Qingjiangpu was absorbed. But nothing in this world can satisfy everyone—there were still those who were discontent, still those whose anger grew day by day.

Liu Xiaoke was a native of Qingjiangpu, in his thirties, with no honest trade. He loafed around the docks all day, swindling out-of-town merchants new to Qingjiangpu. Petty thievery was routine for him, and when the opportunity was right, he had even trafficked people a few times. Yet not a single coin ever stayed in his hand—it was all squandered on drinking, whoring, gambling, and smoking.

He normally never worried. Qingjiangpu was so prosperous, with so many people coming and going from north to south—there was always an opportunity for him. But ever since Zhao's Camp arrived, these things had become hard to do. Government runners could be bribed, but Zhao's Camp patrolmen were not so easy to deal with. First, they rotated frequently. Second, there were informants watching from the shadows. Anyone who dared take money was often beaten crippled and dumped in the street. After a few such incidents, no one dared court that disaster. Since they couldn't be bought, city foxes and shrine rats like Liu Xiaoke, who lived off the docks, were in trouble. Life grew harder by the day, and his hatred for Zhao's Camp grew heavier by the day.

There were many in a similar plight to Liu Xiaoke—those who staged bump-and-switch scams on the docks, those who ran confidence tricks, those who acted as pimps and middlemen—none had much business anymore. Beyond these, there were also the bullies who exploited the laborers for money, the gangs who stole from tribute boats, and the bandit crews who drugged and robbed people. They all gnashed their teeth in hatred.

When honest folk lost their work on the canal docks, they usually went and found another way to support their families. But this lot, long accustomed to easy money, naturally had no interest in hard labor.

And this hatred hadn't started just now. When the Qingjiang Grand Market opened, everyone in the rivers and lakes and marketplaces could see it was a treasure bowl. Everyone wanted to reach in, but Zhao's Camp had established strict rules: one could only operate and earn money within designated areas. Crossing the line meant severe punishment. Only those with real standing could get a share of the pie. Swindling, cheating, stealing, and robbing—such harmful schemes were barred outright. It's not scarcity but inequality that men resent. To have wealth and not let everyone profit from it—that truly made their hatred surge to the heavens.

But hatred aside, there was nothing they could do. Zhao's Camp was a power unlike anything they had seen before—strictly organized, immensely strong, and swift and decisive in action. They dared not offend or provoke it. The slightest carelessness and they could easily be crushed to pieces.

Fortunately, the Qingjiangpu canal docks were so vast and bustling, and Zhao's Camp had few men here. The docks were not their main focus either, so there were always gaps to exploit. Everyone could still scrape by.

But then, suddenly, the entire canal was blocked. Qingjiangpu, originally the hub linking north and south and the crossroads of all directions, became a dead end overnight. For people like Liu Xiaoke, life became hard.

Accustomed to laziness and easy living, this crew of cunning idlers would rather endure hardship than exert themselves to earn a living. Every day, a few acquaintances would gather, drink some watered-down swill, nibble on pickled vegetables, curse a bit, and then huddle together gambling recklessly. Day after day, their accumulated resentment grew greater and greater.

Without a single coin to his name, nearly caught and beaten senseless when he tried to steal from a local household, Liu Xiaoke felt he had reached a dead end. When a man is truly desperate, there's nothing he won't do. He looked down on honest labor, but with his next meal nowhere in sight, he could only think about honestly selling his strength.

Just at that moment, an old acquaintance from the marketplace came knocking. This man had once been a street performer on the docks, later became a hired thug thanks to decent boxing skills, and then disappeared from the streets altogether. Word was some wealthy household had taken a liking to him and hired him as a household guard—he'd made something of himself.

At first, everyone had chatted about it enviously, but soon the talk died down. From then on, they were on different paths, never to cross again—why bother paying attention? Who could have guessed the man would come looking for him now, and with silver money in hand!

"…These barbarians from Xuzhou have cut off the lifeline of our Qingjiangpu. Who knows how many people can't stand it, how many have a fire smoldering in their bellies…"

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