Xing Honglang led her forty-two subordinates off the ship to tend the wounded on the dock, but the hundred sailors remained aboard. Before they'd set sail, Li Daoxuan had issued strict orders through Bai Yuan: this was a shakedown cruise, not a raid. For safety's sake, they were not to disembark unless absolutely necessary.
The sailors naturally obeyed Dao Xuan Tianzun's decree to the letter, staying obediently put on the ship. To prevent anyone from the shore suddenly rushing aboard, they even maneuvered the vessel a zhang or so out from the bank, watching from a safe distance as the dock presented a scene of complete misery.
Corpses littered the wharf—members of the local militia who'd died fighting off bandits, and bandits who'd been cut down trying to storm the dock. One man lay draped over the fence with a spear through his body. Another floated face-down in the river, several arrows still protruding from his back.
The sailors recruited from Bai Fortress had spent recent years guarding Horseshoe Lake in comfortable peace, barely seeing anything of the outside world. Now, confronted with the carnage on this dock, they suddenly realized how brutal and mad that outside world remained.
They couldn't help thinking: Thank heavens Dao Xuan Tianzun protects our home. This good life didn't come easy—we must guard it with everything we have.
Full marks for elementary school essay comprehension, that.
Xing Honglang handed a bottle of medicine bestowed by Dao Xuan Tianzun to Tie Niaofei. He examined the bottle. "What's this?"
"Yunnan Baiyao. Remarkably effective for blade wounds."
Tie Niaofei: "Miracle medicine? How much per bottle? Name your price."
Xing Honglang bristled: "Your men are rolling on the ground in agony and you're thinking about cost?"
Tie Niaofei looked embarrassed: "Force of habit—commercial habit, you understand."
Xing Honglang: "I'm not charging you. Just get your people treated."
Tie Niaofei: "Oh, but how could I accept without paying? Even brothers settle accounts clearly. You have to name a price before I dare use it."
Xing Honglang snatched the medicine back, shoved him aside, and began treating Tie Niaofei's men herself. Her forty-two subordinates spread out across the dock, applying medicine and bandaging wounds.
Quite a few people here recognized Xing Honglang. Several called out greetings: "Many thanks, Chief Xing."
"Long time no see—Chief Xing is as forthright as ever."
"Where've you been these past years? Why haven't you come to Puzhou for salt?"
Xing Honglang's people offered no explanations. Salt smugglers knew better than anyone the value of keeping their mouths shut—no sense revealing their current hideout. They said not a word about Gaojia Village, keeping their heads down as they applied medicine and treated the wounded.
The dock gradually quieted. Those uninjured began silently clearing bodies. The usual procedure: strip them first, then bury them.
Xing Honglang beckoned Tie Niaofei aside and asked in a low voice: "What the hell is going on in Shanxi? I come back and find this scene? The bandits are running this wild?"
Tie Niaofei nodded heavily: "Wild as they come."
Xing Honglang: "Tell me everything."
Tie Niaofei: "That's valuable intelligence. Name your—"
Xing Honglang raised a fist the size of a rice bowl.
Tie Niaofei hastily continued: "This intelligence you could learn from anyone, so it's worthless, really. Ahem... The situation in Shanxi, well, it starts with Wang Jiayin. Ah..."
Xing Honglang heard Wang Jiayin's name and couldn't help cursing inwardly: That bastard really knows how to stir up trouble.
Tie Niaofei: "After Wang Jiayin broke through Hequ County and entered Shanxi, his forces grew formidable. His direct followers alone now exceed thirty thousand. And the bandit chieftains who followed him from Shaanxi into Shanxi number over a hundred. If they all answered his commands, he could muster three hundred and fifty thousand men."
Xing Honglang: "Fuck."
Tie Niaofei: "Seeing such numbers, the man got ideas. He declared himself king in Hequ County, styling himself the Hengtian King. Set up a proper government and everything—appointed Zijin Liang, also known as Wang Ziyong, as Left Chancellor and Military Strategist, Bai Yuzhu as Right Chancellor, Wang Guozhong as Commander of the Personal Guard... Then dispatched the hundred-odd bandit armies at his disposal to rampage throughout Shanxi, especially along the Yellow River. They've hit the river settlements hardest."
Xing Honglang frowned: "Declared himself king? Ha. The man's got a death wish. If he hadn't proclaimed himself king, the court might've turned a blind eye. But now he's done this, how can he not die quickly?"
Tie Niaofei: "Exactly. My contacts in legitimate circles are all saying the court's preparing to send major forces against him. The fool still doesn't know his days are numbered—just drinks and feasts in Hequ County every day."
Xing Honglang: "He's finished. Forget him. What's the current situation in Shanxi?"
Tie Niaofei: "It's a disaster. Oh—I've got a memorial I intercepted from an imperial courier station. Want to see it?"
Xing Honglang reached out, then suddenly remembered Tie Niaofei's nature. She snorted: "You wouldn't intercept an imperial memorial for no reason. You got it planning to sell it, didn't you? Name your price."
Tie Niaofei smiled awkwardly: "Well, since you're asking—let's say one bottle of that wound medicine."
Xing Honglang paused, then laughed: "Smart boy."
She took the memorial and opened it: "Since the early Tianqi reign, Jin Province has suffered disaster every year, with last year the worst. Moreover, the Yellow River regions face urgency as severe as wildfire, transport desperately difficult. Though the court calculates the cost at two hundred twenty thousand taels, what the people have actually spent exceeds a million. Officials think only of their performance reviews, demanding old and new levies together. The people sell their children and wives, scraping out their very hearts—their flesh and bone are exhausted. This spring the court has offered not a drop of relief, while daily wind and dust storms continue. Hearts are turbulent, unsure if they'll see tomorrow. The weak die in ditches; the strong glare with resentment on their tongues. That uprisings erupt everywhere is inevitable."
"South of Qinyang and east and west of Yangcheng County, bandits raising flags and standards are beyond counting—some numbering ten thousand, others several thousand. Once they raise their poles, those coerced to follow reach five or six in ten. In Shangdang and along the Fen River, the numbers are no less."
"To eliminate Jin Province's bandits, one must first relieve Jin Province's poor."
Xing Honglang finished reading rapidly, shocked: "Five or six in ten of Shanxi's people have joined the bandits?"
Tie Niaofei nodded: "Aside from the major cities and towns, half the peasants in the villages have been swept away by bandit forces... They can't survive without joining. When the bandits arrive with blades at their necks, if they don't join they have to fight like we did at Ancient Ford Dock..."
Xing Honglang sighed deeply: "Whoever wrote this memorial has some insight. He understands that 'to eliminate Jin Province's bandits, one must first relieve Jin Province's poor'—that's the key to everything. But you intercepted this memorial, so it won't reach the emperor now, will it? How can the court provide disaster relief then? You fool!"
Some intelligence is only valuable until someone else needs to act on it.