Chapter 891: Swords Drawn

Xin Qitao's body bowed slightly, his right forearm lifting the sword as he calmly surveyed his surroundings. Seeing the six fully armed household guards, he exhaled, straightened up, and said sullenly, "Damn it all. After all this time laying the groundwork, it's all come to nothing at the final step."

Wang Zhaojing raised a hand to signal the guards to halt. Staring at Xin Qitao, he said, "Brother Xin, you've been dragged down by factional strife; your path to official rank is blocked forever. I'll ask you one more time: are you willing to serve our Xuzhou? If so, you and I remain the closest of friends!"

"A joke. I, Xin, come from an upright family — how could I ever serve a rebel scum like you? I only regret that today I cannot emulate Jing Ke or Yao Li and slay a villain as monstrous as you!" Xin Qitao spat on the ground and spoke bitterly.

Wang Zhaojing smiled, but the smile was tinged with bleakness. He spoke: "I wrote to my old classmates and peers, inviting them to come see Xuzhou, telling them there was a different world unfolding here. Sixteen letters, and only two replied. Both letters were nothing but furious denunciations of me. I had my doubts even then, wondering how Brother Xin could be so different. Now I see — Brother Xin is just the same."

"And you still have the face to speak of this? You've read the Four Books and Five Classics, you know the great principles of the sages. The state has supported scholars all these years — how could it produce a treacherous wretch like you, who knows nothing of loyalty to sovereign and country, yet commits such heinous treason?"

As Xin Qitao's abuse grew uglier, flashes of anger appeared on the guards' faces. They glanced repeatedly at Wang Zhaojing, awaiting his order to act.

Wang Zhaojing merely shook his head. He took a step forward and said, "Brother Xin does not know the supreme talent and grand vision of my elder brother. Can you not see the world today…"

"Wang Zhaojing, do you think everyone under heaven is blind? Do you think I, Xin, am so ignorant I can't see that this wretched Zhao Camp in Xuzhou is led by you?" Xin Qitao cut him off.

Wang Zhaojing looked stunned. Xin Qitao clenched his teeth and continued: "A fine scheme you have — push some ignorant brute of a warrior out front. If it succeeds, you reap the glory; if it fails, you claim you were coerced. Either way, you stay clean. Do you think a mere crude warrior could possess such vision? Who do you think you're fooling with such a clumsy cover-up?"

The guards exchanged bewildered glances. Wang Zhaojing was speechless. Even as the juren Xin spoke, his nerves remained taut. Seizing the moment, he suddenly lunged forward two steps — but the distance between them was too great, and the guards' daze lasted only an instant before they recovered. The bowman loosed an arrow that thudded into the ground right in front of Xin Qitao, instantly halting his charge.

In this age, the civil was exalted and the martial despised; people believed only scholars could accomplish great things. That Zhao Jin had built such a situation struck everyone as inconceivable, unbelievable. Since such a situation could not have been Zhao Jin's doing, then whose was it? The young prodigy Wang Zhaojing became the explanation.

Such rumors had circulated before, but he had never imagined Xin Qitao thought the same. Wang Zhaojing stood stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. The more he laughed, the louder it grew, until tears streamed down his face.

"I never thought Brother Xin believed that too." At that, Wang Zhaojing wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, smeared a hand roughly across his face, then his expression turned solemn. Staring at Xin Qitao, he said, "Brother Xin, we have known each other a while. These days of conversation and drinking together — I have enjoyed them greatly. For the sake of that bond, I will grant Brother Xin a fair contest. If you can best this sword of mine, Brother Xin may leave freely. If not, then it is Heaven's will."

"Truly?" Xin Qitao's eyes lit up at once.

"Truly. Brother Xin schemed for so long, only to fail at the final moment. To deny you a chance would be a pity. The courtyard is spacious enough — let us go outside!" Wang Zhaojing said.

The guards moved to dissuade him, but Wang Zhaojing's stern glare drove them back. They could only go outside to light the lamps and make ready. In that moment, anyone could hear the clamor and battle cries outside growing louder and louder. Set against the deathly silence blanketing the rest of He Village, it made everyone all the more restless.

Wang Zhaojing made a gesture of invitation. The guards at the gate stepped aside. Xin Qitao swept his gaze around, then strode out. Wang Zhaojing, walking behind, suddenly let out a cold laugh. Xin Qitao turned back in surprise, only to hear Wang Zhaojing say, "Did you think planting one or two inside men, stirring up a racket in the middle of the night, could harm my elder brother?"

"My elder brother bears the Mandate of Heaven. How could such petty tricks harm him?" Wang Zhaojing answered his own question. Xin Qitao merely gave a cold snort.

The courtyard lamps had been lit. The guards ringed the perimeter. Xin Qitao walked to a corner not far away and took his stance. Wang Zhaojing also entered the field. The two men drew their swords and faced each other.

"One band of raiders ran into a militia patrol that blocked them temporarily. They left one band to tie them down; the other two are still moving fast this way. The two bands together don't exceed a hundred men." Reports streamed in continuously. The walls throughout He Village had become watchtowers; by the glow of the lamps, everything below was clearly visible.

Bowstrings thrummed; arrows tore through the air with shrieks, sounding ceaselessly all around. Screams of agony rang out just as ceaselessly. Not far away, the shouted orders of the personal guard unit could be heard — reinforcements were about to arrive.

Yet even in these circumstances, the raiders kept closing in, putting on the appearance of a desperate, all-or-nothing assault.

"The world is vast. If some powerful figure in the capital wanted to move against me, scraping together death-sworn men like these wouldn't be too hard," Zhao Jin said, his expression dark.

For the moment, too few household guards and militia could be assembled in one place. Though they still held the advantage over the raiders who had struck by surprise, if they dispersed to search and root them out, they might suffer locally — the raiders could easily find an opening or a direction to break through. But here within the He Village area, the raiders' target could only be the core leaders of the Zhao Camp. The only one with weak defenses was Wang Zhaojing. The most worthwhile target was Zhao Jin. Standing firm here, awaiting battle, and drawing the enemy to converge on this spot — that was the safest course.

"Fan Jinbang, eyes front! Stop looking around!" someone in the forward ranks barked.

"The raiders are here!" someone on the wall shouted. Every archer standing on the wall drew and loosed downward.

"They've got crossbows — careful!" another voice shouted. An archer toppled from the wall.

The raiders actually carried crossbows. The spear-wielding household guards defending the street immediately fastened their face guards and half-lowered their heads. Zhao Jin's expression grew even darker. They had charged all the way here from the outer perimeter, and only now did they learn of the crossbows. The raiders had endured arrow fire the entire way, saving the crossbows for this moment.

"Spears level! Ready for battle! Prepare to advance!" The orders began at the front. Zhao Jin stood behind the formation and could not see what lay ahead, but he knew the enemy had charged close and battle was about to be joined.

"Fan Jinbang!" someone shouted. Zhao Jin frowned — this was the second time tonight he had heard that name. The next instant, he realized: it was not someone in his own unit shouting; it came from the enemy ranks.

The moment that name was shouted, one of the household guards in the formation seemed to snap, instantly going berserk. First he rammed into the men beside him, throwing his comrades off balance, then he drew his saber and began hacking wildly at those around him, all the while shouting at the top of his lungs, "The court slays rebels! Loyal subjects slay rebels!"

The household guards protecting Zhao Jin's residence that night were equipped as if for the battlefield, their armor fully donned. If a man beside you stabbed at the gaps in your armor with a blade, it could wound — but wild slashing like this could hardly cause injury. The problem was the proximity. One guard was cut across the neck; blood sprayed, and the formation instantly fell into chaos.

Shouts of alarm and furious curses erupted from the guard formation, but their reaction was not slow. No one paid the slightest heed to any talk of "court loyalists." The formation was tight; the guards in the rear could not bring their weapons to bear, so they simply dropped their spears, lunged forward, and grappled the man. The men beside him recovered their wits, struck the saber from his hand, then dealt several hard blows. Matters having reached this point, there was naturally no holding back — they beat him unconscious on the spot.

But this disruption within the formation left them unable to stop the several dozen raiders charging from the front. These enemies fought with excellent discipline, roaring battle cries, ignoring the arrows raining from above, thrusting with crossbow bolts and short blades. Some threw away their lives to parry aside the spears before them. The rear ranks were already in disarray, and the formation in this street was relatively thin. Once the forward spears were knocked aside, gaps opened behind — and the raiders smashed straight through.

They broke through the guard formation and at last saw Zhao Jin. In the lamplight, he was starkly visible.

"Zhao Jin is right here!" someone screamed hoarsely. The moment he shouted, a hand-axe split his face. Another man raised his crossbow, but before he could loose, an arrow had already buried itself in his throat.

"Here I am!" Zhao Jin did not dodge. With a roar, he strode forward, wielding his long halberd like a spear, thrusting straight ahead!

"A man as clear-headed as Brother Xin wouldn't have come here out of righteous fury alone, would he?" Wang Zhaojing held his sword horizontally before his chest, pacing slowly.

An assassination plot like this — sudden chaos erupting inside He Village, coordinated at several points, the rhythm and timing perfectly judged — if a single family had attempted it, bankrupting themselves might not have sufficed. Manpower was indeed cheap, but lives were not. Especially the kind of martial death-sworn men capable of pulling this off — even an ordinary wealthy house, bankrupted, likely could not afford them.

"I, Xin, have the will to slay traitors, but how could I accomplish such a great undertaking alone? It was Eunuch Wei who found me," Xin Qitao said in a deep voice.

"Eunuch Wei? Wei Zhongxian?" Wang Zhaojing started, his steps halting. Then he laughed. "No doubt he promised you a splendid future. For someone as lofty and pure as Brother Xin to collude with the eunuch faction — that truly is unexpected."

"The eunuch faction is still the Great Ming's eunuch faction!" Xin Qitao said coldly, then continued: "Do you know what terms Eunuch Wei offered? Your name on the golden roster in the capital, a prefectship within three years, and a grand coordinator post within ten."

The terms were laid out so plainly, so precisely. Wang Zhaojing's brow furrowed. A jinshi degree, governing a prefecture, then an entire province — the promise was staggeringly generous. The reason no capital post was offered, he supposed, was that doing so would inevitably stir a colossal uproar among the civil officials and the purist faction.

The more he pondered, the more his mind wandered; inevitably, his movements slowed for an instant. Xin Qitao's motion suddenly accelerated, his long sword thrusting straight at Wang Zhaojing's chest.

The watching guards all jolted. The attack had come so suddenly, so fast — it was already too late to intervene.

Thanks to the two old friends from Chuangshi, "Yuan Heng Li Zhen" and "Light in the Darkness, User," for their tips. Thanks to all friends on Chuangshi and Qidian for your subscriptions, monthly tickets, and tips. Please continue your support — thank you, everyone.