Chapter 17: Kill One in Ten Steps
Chapter 17: Kill One in Ten Steps
The river pirates immediately retreated in panic.
They were just a bunch of robbers, not some death-defying warriors. Bullying the weak was fine, but they wouldn’t stubbornly fight a tough opponent.
“There’s a survivor here!”
A sailor said, looking at the river below.
“Haul him up!”
Huang Zhen said with a dark face.
Huang Ying was still hurriedly bandaging his wound. He had taken a grapeshot to his shoulder. While not fatal, it was still a serious injury. Also, one of the six sailors on the boat had been hit directly in the chest by a matchlock gun bullet and had already died. Of the remaining men, two were hit by grapeshot. One of them had it lodged in his lung—with the current level of medical care, that man was as good as dead or crippled. Another was hit by an arrow. The only completely unharmed ones were Huang Ying and two sailors.
Yang Xin had also taken a grapeshot.
But the thing had limited power, and it happened to strike his sternum. The result was just letting some blood out.
Yang Xin hooked the survivor.
Although called a survivor, he was almost gone.
“I, Huang, have always been on peaceful terms with Zhang the Lame. Every year, I’ve never failed in courtesy to you all. Why did you suddenly attack me today?”
Huang Zhen said.
Clearly, he knew this gang of river pirates.
But this was normal. Someone like him, who ran this route year after year, couldn’t possibly have no connections with the river pirates. They had probably even cooperated before. Because of this, Huang Zhen had suffered such a big loss; he simply never imagined the river pirates would rob him.
The river pirate mumbled something incoherently.
A sailor bent down to listen, then immediately showed an angry expression…
“It’s Liu Qi! Liu Qi told them we made a big fortune in the Capital City, that there were at least five hundred taels of silver on the ship!”
He said.
Yang Xin looked at Huang Ying with a questioning gaze.
“That’s the scoundrel from yesterday!”
Huang Ying said.
Yang Xin understood. That scoundrel had gone back and found these river pirates, deliberately telling them they had five hundred taels. A person like him definitely had more than one job—extortion, fraud, scamming, acting as a spy for the officials—he basically did everything. That certainly included acting as a secret informant for the river pirates, helping them identify robbery targets. Otherwise, how would the river pirates know which ship was most valuable? Since he said there were five hundred taels, the river pirates definitely believed him.
“Damn it, I’m going to kill him!”
Yang Xin said angrily.
“Go find Miao Er. Give him five taels of silver. He’ll guide you. We’ll wait for you in Tianjin!”
Huang Zhen said.
Then he signaled to a sailor.
The sailor unceremoniously slit the river pirate’s throat and kicked him into the Hai River. Because the tide was rising, all the bodies were pushed to the edge of the reed marshes, trapped there like floating garbage. There were eight dead bodies in the water, plus the dead sailor on the boat. A false rumor of five hundred taels of silver had cost nine lives. It was then that Yang Xin truly felt what it meant for human life to be as cheap as grass.
He looked at Huang Zhen with a questioning gaze.
“They’re all people with no official registration. No one cares how many of them die!”
Huang Zhen said.
Yang Xin nodded. This meant there was no need to clean up the mess. Then he looked at Huang Ying. Neither of them was the sentimental type. The latter just handed him a Goose-Quill Saber, much like a Spartan queen sending her man off to war. Yang Xin took the saber, pushed off in the sampan, and left immediately. Huang Zhen’s boat headed straight for Tianjin. They needed to find a doctor to treat their wounds first. As for the illicit salt on the boat, they could just dump it. They couldn’t risk the lives of four injured men for a cargo worth sixty taels of silver. They would treat the wounds first, then come back later and load another boat.
Salt wasn’t valuable here anyway.
Thanks to his exceptional memory, Yang Xin quickly found Miao Er’s broken shack. The latter was salting fish. Upon hearing Yang Xin’s story, he immediately became indignant.
“Brother Yang, I’ve been wanting to kill that damned guy for a long time!”
He said.
Of course, the main reason for his indignation was that there was money to be made.
“Two taels for guiding me, three more when it’s done!”
Yang Xin said.
“Between us brothers, say no more!”
Miao Er said with a beaming smile.
He wasn’t afraid Yang Xin would renege later; Huang Zhen’s illicit salt trade meant he would be back.
“Is this your daughter?”
Yang Xin said, looking at the little girl.
She wasn’t scared; instead, she looked at him curiously.
“Found her. Three years ago, during a big tidal surge, countless families were washed away. Who knows whose family she’s from? She was washed up here by the tide. Even my woman was found around that time. Raising her now is just a money drain. I’ve been thinking of finding a family to sell her to as a child bride!”
Miao Er said.
Yang Xin didn’t ask further. The two set off immediately.
“Where do these river pirates come from?”
He asked.
“Mostly fishermen. Also some rootless drifters. They fish most days, sometimes trade salt. When a suitable opportunity comes, they pull a job. After robbing, they scatter and go home separately. The officials don’t care. The inspection officials take gifts from Zhang the Lame too. This kind of place is near the sea. If you die, you feed the fish. No one cares much.”
Miao Er said while poling the boat.
“Where are we going?”
Yang Xin asked.
“Fengcai Salt Works. Not far. We’ll be there in half an hour. Our salt area here is under Fengcai Salt Works’ jurisdiction. Liu Qi’s home is in Fengcai. His older brother even works under Vice-Envoy Hu.”
Miao Er said.
“How many salt works are here?”
Yang Xin asked.
“Fengcai Salt Works is here. Nearby, there are also Houcai, Xingguo, and Fuguo Salt Works. Further north and south, along this entire coast, there are twenty of them. They stretch from the Changli area in the north all the way to Cangzhou. The Salt Censor is stationed in the Capital City. The Changlu Salt Transport Commission office is stationed in Cangzhou. The ones around Tianjin belong to the Northern Bureau. The branch office is in Tianjin, managing eleven salt works. The Southern Bureau is in Jinghai, managing nine salt works. Each salt works is overseen by a Salt Tax Office Commissioner. In the past, they managed the official salt granaries. Now, they just collect the salt tax silver. The Fengcai Salt Works Commissioner is stationed in Gegu.”
Miao Er said.
When he said Gegu, Yang Xin understood.
Gegu.
“This place is actually a land of rice and fish!”
Yang Xin said, surprised.
Unlike the areas he had seen before, which were either salt fields or reed marshes, Gegu had already begun large-scale rice cultivation. One must know that due to the influence of tidal surges here, even drinking water wasn’t that easy. The groundwater here had high fluoride content—the stuff that causes brittle bone disease. To get drinking water, they had to fetch it from the river. Although the Hai River became a vast expanse during high tide, after the tide receded, it was just a muddy pit. So, fetching water had to be done during high tide when the denser saltwater pushed the lighter freshwater to the surface. They would walk on something like a gangplank to skim freshwater from the tidal surface to drink. That was the better situation. In some coastal areas not near the Hai River, they even had to store sea ice in winter. In summer, when it melted, it would flow into dug-out mud pits nearby…
And they drank that water.
Sea ice was actually salty too, just slightly better than seawater. As for rainwater, that was a premium item reserved for guests.
Being able to grow rice here was truly not easy.
“The court organized Military Households here multiple times to cultivate farmland. None of the attempts lasted. What you see now was started a few years ago by a high-ranking official named Xu, who did it privately. He bought several thousand mu of wasteland here to experiment with growing rice. All these belong to the Xu family, but they teach others how to farm too.”
Miao Er said.
“Xu Guangqi?”
Yang Xin said.
“I only know his surname is Xu. That’s his nephew, over there!”
Miao Er said.
As he spoke, he pointed into the rice fields.
A young man in a blue gown and a large black hat was walking along the ridges, inspecting the rice paddies.
It was definitely Xu Guangqi.
Yang Xin remembered he had indeed successfully experimented with rice cultivation around Gegu, even developing it into the later local specialty, Xiaozhan rice. One had to admit, the Great Ming Dynasty wasn’t devoid of talent. Although Xu Guangqi worshipped Yahweh, his achievements in science and agriculture were enough to make him immortal in history. However, Xu Guangqi couldn’t solve the late Ming crisis either. He couldn’t collect taxes. What the Great Ming Dynasty needed most right now wasn’t new-style armies or new science and technology. What the Great Ming Dynasty needed was a pack of wolf-like tax collectors, capable of collecting all kinds of taxes…
Er… then there would be no way to trade illicit salt!
Speaking of which, Yang Xin only remembered now that his current identity was also one of the worms hollowing out the Great Ming Dynasty.
Of course, just a small worm.
Not even a fly.
“Liu Qi!”
Suddenly, Miao Er said.
Yang Xin looked up in the direction he pointed.
Liu Qi was being helped by two underlings, getting off a small boat. Clearly, he had just returned from seeing a doctor. As he walked, he was still talking to someone passing by on the road. He sounded quite vigorous. That fall yesterday hadn’t caused him too much harm. If they had known, killing him then would have avoided all this trouble.
Regretfully, Yang Xin casually drew his saber.
“What are you going to do?”
Miao Er beside him asked with a horrified look.
“Chop someone!”
Yang Xin said with a matter-of-fact expression.
“This is a public place! You can’t just act like this. You need to plan first. There are thousands of troops from the Coastal Defense Garrison here!”
Miao Er said, sounding almost panicked.
“Er, no need for such trouble!”
Yang Xin said.
Having said that, he casually pushed Miao Er aside.
Seeing the situation turning bad, the latter fled the scene at top speed to avoid being implicated.
At that moment, Liu Qi over there also saw Yang Xin. He stood there somewhat dumbfounded. Yang Xin then flashed him a bright smile. Liu Qi snapped awake instantly, shoved his two underlings aside, and forgetting he was actually injured, turned and fled for his life. The two underlings were still confused. Yang Xin, sprinting at full speed, reached them in an instant. The two men, terrified, split left and right, screaming as they covered their heads and threw themselves to the ground. Yang Xin charged straight through the middle of them.
Liu Qi instinctively looked back. Yang Xin was now less than twenty meters from him.
The guy let out a frightened scream.
Without hesitation, he turned and dashed into the rice paddy, running wildly through the muddy water…
“Young Master Chen, save me!”
He screamed as he rushed toward Xu Guangqi’s nephew.
The latter looked at them, stunned. Before he could react, Liu Qi threw himself at his feet. Immediately after, Yang Xin arrived. Young Master Chen instinctively drew his sword. Yang Xin stepped on Liu Qi’s back, grabbed his hair, and pulled his head up. As Liu Qi’s head tilted back, Yang Xin shoved the Goose-Quill Saber under his neck…
“Young Master, this scoundrel colluded with river pirates and just robbed our boat. We lost one brother and five were wounded. I am here to avenge my brothers.”
Yang Xin said, looking up.
Young Master Chen certainly knew what kind of person Liu Qi was. He looked at the bloodstains on Yang Xin’s chest and the hole torn by the grapeshot, then made a “go ahead” gesture with his right hand.
Yang Xin nodded.
He gave the Goose-Quill Saber in his hand a fierce pull. Blood suddenly gushed from Liu Qi’s neck.
Young Master Chen was quite brave. Even splattered with blood, he still watched Yang Xin with interest.
Yang Xin, holding Liu Qi’s hair, stepping on the man’s back, draining his blood, looked at Young Master Chen with a smile on his face.
The two stood there, silently looking at each other.