Chapter 944: What

After the first batch of armored horses was distributed, word spread rapidly in all directions. Martial artists came to join from Xuzhou, Pizhou, Huai'an Prefecture, Fengyang Prefecture, and even from Henan and Shandong.

Originally, Zhao Jin would meet with every martial artist who came to join, as long as they passed the selection, and offer a few words of encouragement. But after crossing the river, the numbers simply grew too large, and he could only have Cai Huajun's side handle the screening and enlistment directly.

"Master, Wang Ziyang requests an audience." A household guard brought the message.

"Let him wait over there," Zhao Jin said. The last time Wang Ziyang had requested an audience, it had coincided with the urgent report from Shandong, and after taking that report, Zhao Jin had not seen him.

In the days that followed, everyone in the Zhao Character Camp was busy at a furious pace, and Wang Ziyang's requests for an audience were pushed back again and again. The coldness toward Wang Ziyang was not a momentary impulse, but a deliberate display of the Zhao Character Camp's attitude: those who did not follow the camp wholeheartedly would be kept at a distance.

What no one expected, however, was that Wang Ziyang was truly persistent — he had actually followed them all the way to the northern bank of the Yellow River. It should have been his turn for a meeting by now, but Liu Yong had just rushed back from Shandong, so naturally he had to be seen first.

"... The message relay along the canal line is more or less unobstructed now. Although both banks of the canal are unsettled, if you travel along the river or take a boat, no one really stops or attacks you. Only the thirty li north and south of Jining requires a detour, but if you go west of the canal, there's no trouble either..."

It was precisely because of this convenient communication that news from the capital had reached this place. At the same time, the eyes and ears the Zhao Character Camp had placed in Jining and in Ziyang, the seat of Yanzhou Prefecture, began sending back reports.

"... Big Brother, on the third day of the siege, Jining city began negotiating with those outside the walls, sending out grain and provisions, begging them not to attack..."

East of Jining city, the Smelling Incense Sect drove vast hordes of refugees to fill in the moat and assault the walls, utterly indifferent to casualties. When the front ranks fell, the rear ranks became the front; the fallen dead were simply buried under the earth. Arrows rained down from the walls of Jining, and the twenty-some stone catapults inside the city fired without pause. The refugees died in droves.

But the arrows eventually ran out, and the stone catapults began to break down from overuse. Gazing at the dark mass of people below the walls, watching them throw themselves forward with no regard for life or death, watching the earthen ramps rise steadily higher — the city of Jining grew tense and fearful. Once again, they conscripted a great number of able-bodied civilians to man the walls, preparing for a desperate, death-defying defense, while at the same time trying every means to make the refugees outside withdraw.

It was at this juncture that those canal overseers and canal-affiliated sect leaders who had been under surveillance proposed: could they be allowed to go out and talk? If this fight continued to mutual destruction, the slaughter of the refugees, grievous as it was, might not matter much, but the flourishing prosperity of Jining city would be ruined in a single day.

In such a moment, one clutches at any straw. A canal-affiliated sect leader was promptly sent out of the city. To the surprise of everyone inside, the refugee bandit host outside, which had seemed bent on taking the city, proved amenable to reason. They agreed to negotiate, on the condition that the city provide grain, fodder, and supplies.

Jining city might lack for other things, but grain, fodder, wealth, and goods it had in abundance. Even if they could not produce it from their own hands, the warehouses at the canal docks held enormous stores.

What delighted the various factions inside the city even more was that once those supplies were thrown down from the walls and the agreed amount was reached, the refugee host truly did withdraw. Watching the tide-like retreat below the walls, many on the battlements felt they had survived a calamity. Yet, looking at the corpses and the foul, stinking refuse littering the ground outside, the people on the walls were again filled with dread. The weather was about to turn hot; if this scene outside was left unattended, it could easily spark an epidemic — yet another catastrophe!

Left with no choice, the officials once again had to levy contributions from the gentry. Once the refugees outside had withdrawn, they would still need to muster civilian labor to burn the corpses and bury the refuse.

But what no one in Jining city expected was that the refugee bandits did not withdraw completely. Instead, they left over ten thousand men at a manor about twenty li from the city, while the main refugee host moved off to the southeast, advancing very slowly.

Could the refugee bandits have other designs? Still, things being as they were, this was far better than being tightly besieged. Under these circumstances, they could now send out messages calling for help and open the city gates to send people out to burn the corpses. At the very least, they had to deal with the corpses near the canal and the moat; otherwise, even the well water would be undrinkable.

Messengers were dispatched to the provincial capital to seek aid. The various parties who had endured the grueling defense these past days still dared not relax, but from the city walls, they all glared fiercely at the distant refugee encampment, vowing that once the main government army arrived, they would slaughter every last one of you, venting their pent-up fury.

Some even gloated, thinking: Jining is in trouble, yet the government troops stationed in Ziyang, the seat of Yanzhou Prefecture, show no intention of coming to the rescue. This time, let them taste some hardship too. Once the prefectural seat, where the Prince of Lu's estate is located, is in danger, surely the court's armies from all directions will converge. Then we can both give those bastards in Ziyang a good scare and sweep away this detestable rabble of refugees in one stroke.

But what no one anticipated was that the refugees who had withdrawn from beneath Jining's walls did not go to besiege the seat of Yanzhou Prefecture — the second most prosperous and grand city in Yanzhou after Jining. Instead, they captured the county seat of Zou County...

Among the territories under Yanzhou Prefecture, Zou County could not compare to Jining or Ziyang, nor to Qufu. It could only be said to be somewhat more prosperous and wealthy than other places. The descendants of Mencius, the Second Sage, resided in Zou County and held court-conferred titles and positions, but they could not compare to the thousand-year wealth and eminence of the Kong family of the Duke for Fulfilling the Sage. Yet this county seat was more intact than others; it had not been damaged by the earthquake. Exorbitant taxes, levies, and the Liaodong surtax had not affected it much. It could muster more local militia and trained braves than other places, and its stores of defensive supplies were far more ample than elsewhere. In other words, Zou County was the toughest nut to crack. That vast horde of refugees, constantly needing to search for food and supplies, would not linger long beneath such a tough nut, or might not even touch it at all.

No one expected that the refugee host's target was Zou County seat. Everyone had assumed the refugee bandits would keep besieging Jining city, but within just a few days, the elite forces of the Smelling Incense Sect had already rushed toward Zou County. Even more unexpected to the people inside and outside Zou County was that among the refugees and commoners who had fled into the city in recent days, there were so many followers of the Smelling Incense Sect.

When a force of several thousand appeared below the walls, the defenders of Zou County all breathed a sigh of relief. But the battle that erupted next inside the city was even more savage than the one outside. Just like that, the refugees were able to raise their scaling ladders against the walls, climb over, and send the soldiers and militia on the battlements scattering in all directions.

The magistrate of Zou County died in battle. The current head of the Meng family and his legitimate sons died in battle. Zou city fell, and the main force of the Smelling Incense Sect poured into the county seat. Unlike what this refugee host had done along its entire path, the refugees did not sack Zou County. They did not, as before, devour every last grain of food and sweep up the common people of Zou County into their refugee horde. Instead, they showed signs of intending to put down roots.

The refugees who had followed them began to be divided up. The able-bodied, devout believers selected through layer after layer of screening were settled within Zou County city and in the manors outside the county. The bulk of the remaining refugees were split into several waves: some continued to halt between Jining and Zou County, and one group headed to

Teng County to the south. The remaining refugees were led off in all directions by others, to harass and plunder, to find a mouthful of food for themselves,

to find a path to survival.

"... Big Brother, I fear that Xu Hongru's target from the very beginning was Zou County. Jining is a great city and a canal hub; Ziyang has the estate of the Prince of Lu. Both places have strong walls and heavy garrisons — very hard for refugees to take. But Zou County is relatively easy, and it's very close to both Jining and Ziyang. With this solid base, he can then strike out and advance..."

Liu Yong recounted this from horseback. His complexion looked very poor, utterly exhausted. One look told you he had been toiling for many days without any decent sleep.

"What can't be taken still can't be taken. Watching them beneath the walls of Jining, they were no different from back then beneath the walls of Xuzhou. If that's still the extent of their strength, then even if they've lucked into occupying Zou County, they can't do anything about those two critical locations," Zhao Jin commented coldly.

Liu Yong nodded in agreement and continued along Zhao Jin's line of thought: "Big Brother is right. Xu Hongru should know that too. If he can't take the key points around Zou County, if he can't seize their grain, fodder, and supplies, then Zou County is worthless. If he just sits there holding it, he's sitting and waiting to die. His grain and fodder can't sustain that many people, and Zou County is a place of convenient, crossroads access. It wouldn't take long for government troops from all directions to converge on Zou County — that would be a death trap."

"Watching Xu Hongru's actions, do you think he hasn't thought of this?" Zhao Jin asked.

"He can think of it. If he couldn't, he wouldn't have been able to create this situation," Liu Yong replied in a deep voice. This sort of analysis required no brilliant strategy; it could be reached simply by understanding the common principles of military affairs.

"Since he can think of it, then by staying in Zou County, he must be confident he can take either Jining city or Ziyang. What I'm wondering now is, what exactly is he confident in? Relying on those fanatics of the Smelling Incense Sect, whose numbers don't even match the government troops — how does he dare to entrench himself there without moving?" Zhao Jin fired off several questions in succession.

"Your younger brother is ashamed; I haven't been able to find out clearly yet," Liu Yong first offered an apology.

"What's there to be ashamed of? In this chaotic situation, a human life isn't worth a single coin — gone in a flash. Those sect followers, those refugees, can hardly even be called human anymore. How could you possibly infiltrate them?" Zhao Jin shook his head.

After saying this, Zhao Jin emphasized his words, instructing: "You and your people must remember this: at a time like this, it's enough to report the movements of the Smelling Incense Sect and the refugees to me as quickly as possible. We don't need to know, nor do we have to know, exactly what's going on inside them. No matter what, in the end, it will all be decided on the battlefield. Both you and Lei Cai must remember — you absolutely must not take risks."

Liu Yong coughed from horseback and said in a muffled voice, "Big Brother, Xu Hongru and the Smelling Incense Sect have too many underhanded methods. If we're not clear on them, what if something goes wrong?"

"Nothing will go wrong. Since he's settled on Zou County, he's going to have to face the government troops. Whatever tricks he has, he'll have to use them. We just need to watch."

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