Chapter 903
Another Ship Sinks
The drill ground gates were wide open, and the ranks were already formed inside. Zhao Sanhuai stood at the very front, his cotton-padded coat over iron armor. Although his broken leg had healed, he still habitually leaned to the left. He carried an ironwood cudgel, its head wrapped in red cloth, resembling a small flag. Behind him were eighty veteran guards, their armor gleaming, their spears pointing diagonally to the sky, their tips forming a silver line in the sunlight. On either side of the ranks, newly recruited young men stood crookedly, some trembling with nervousness, others secretly glancing around.
When Zheng Yi entered through the side door, he carried no ceremonial guards, nor did he ride a horse. He wore only a dark gray cotton robe, and the scabbard of his purple-gold longsword was simply wrapped with a strip of cloth. He looked like an ordinary scholar who had just come out of his study. His steps were slow but steady, each step firm and deliberate, the soles of his boots making a soft "tap-tap" sound on the bluestone. The crowd fell silent upon seeing him, then erupted into an even louder uproar.
"The gentleman has arrived!"
"The gentleman himself has come to recruit new employees!"
"Look! The gentleman isn't carrying a sword... wait, he's wrapped in cloth!"
Several children broke free from their parents and tried to push forward, but were stopped by the city guards. They could only stand on tiptoe and wave, calling out, "Sir! Sir!" Zheng Yi glanced in their direction, his lips curving slightly, and raised his hand to gesture for quiet.
He walked to the front of the formation, and Zhao Sanhuai immediately knelt on one knee, his voice booming:
"Your subordinate, Zhao Sanhuai, leading both new and veteran guards, respectfully welcomes you, sir!"
Eighty veteran guards knelt down in unison, their spears striking the ground with a sharp clang, causing the earth to tremble slightly.
Zheng Yi raised his hand:
"stand up."
Zhao Sanhuai stood up and shouted:
"Recruits, line up! Right—face!"
The newly recruited young men hurriedly adjusted their formation. Some stood too straight, their shoulders trembling, while others lowered their heads, afraid to look at Zheng Yi. The line was barely aligned, yet it was crooked and lopsided, like a row of scarecrows blown askew by the wind.
Zheng Yi didn't laugh.
He slowly walked through the queue.
He would stop and glance at each person he passed.
The gaze was light, yet it seemed to carry weight.
As he walked to the middle of the line, a boy of about seventeen or eighteen suddenly collapsed to his knees, knelt down with a thud, kowtowed to the ground, and his voice trembled:
“Sir… I… my name is Er Gou… I’m not very capable… but I’m strong… My dad froze to death last winter… My mom took my sister to an orphanage… I… I want to join the army… I want to make my mom proud…”
Zheng Yi stopped.
Squat down to look him in the eye.
The boy's face was covered in dust, his eyes were red, and snot was running down his face, but he clenched his teeth tightly to keep it from falling.
Zheng Yi reached out and gently wiped away his snot, then patted his shoulder:
"stand up."
"Joining the army is not about winning honors."
"It's to... protect the people I want to protect."
The boy froze, tears falling onto the bluestone slab, creating two small water droplets.
Zheng Yi got up and continued walking forward.
Gradually, some people in the group straightened their backs.
Someone was quietly wiping away tears.
Someone clenched their fist.
As they reached the back of the line, a thin boy suddenly spoke, his voice soft yet clear:
"Sir...I...I stole something...in the narrow alley in the west of the city...I'm afraid...afraid you won't want me..."
The entire room fell silent.
Everyone looked at Zheng Yi.
Zheng Yi stopped.
She turned around and looked at the boy.
The boy had his head down, and his shoulders were shaking violently.
Zheng Yi's voice was very soft:
"What did you steal?"
The boy trembled:
"...half a steamed bun...I'm hungry...I haven't eaten for three days..."
Zheng Yi remained silent for a moment.
Suddenly he spoke:
"Stealing steamed buns... is not a crime."
"Being so hungry that you have to steal... that's a crime in the city."
He looked across the entire room.
The sound wasn't loud, but it penetrated everyone's ears:
"Starting today."
"In the city... no one is so hungry that they have to steal steamed buns anymore."
"The orphanage... has food."
"There's work on the construction site..."
"There are seats available in the drill ground."
"Those who want to join the army... stay."
"Those who want to work... go to the construction site."
"Those who want to study... go to school."
"Come if you want to."
The boy looked up.
Tears fell down.
But he laughed.
He nodded vigorously:
"I...I'll stay!"
"I want to join the army!"
"Protect Mr. Hu!"
"Protect this city!"
A low murmur arose from the ranks.
The calls are growing louder.
It's getting neater and neater.
"Protect Mr. Hu!"
"Protect good fortune!"
Zheng Yi looked at them.
Looking at those reddened eyes.
Look at those clenched fists.
He suddenly laughed.
Extremely pale.
Yet it is extremely real.
"it is good."
"Starting today."
“You… are the Hongyun Guards.”
Zhao Sanhuai suddenly raised his ironwood whistle:
"All - salute!"
The eighty-year-old veterans and the new recruits raised their hands at the same time.
A fist slammed into his chest.
"Boom!"
In unison.
The tremor caused snowflakes to fall in a flurry.
Zheng Yi returned the gift.
A fist slammed into his chest.
"Boom!"
Then he turned around.
They walked toward the high platform of the training ground.
Behind them. The group followed.
Their steps were in unison.
Stepping on the bluestone slabs.
It made a muffled "thump thump thump" sound.
Like a heartbeat.
It also resembles... a war drum.
Outside the training ground.
The crowd erupted in a deafening roar.
"gentlemen!"
"gentlemen!"
"Hongyun Guard!"
"Hongyunwei!!!"
The shouts reached the heavens.
The snowflakes were shaken and scattered.
It landed on everyone's shoulders.
It landed on the blade.
It landed on the sword.
It landed on...every inch of this city.
Zheng Yi stood on the high platform.
Look below.
Look at those raised hands.
Looking at those reddened eyes.
Looking at...this city.
He suddenly spoke, his voice not loud.
But the entire audience heard it:
"From today onwards."
"Hongyun Guard... is established."
"Protect the city."
"Protect people."
"Protect...the home."
The entire room fell silent.
immediately.
The shouts grew louder.
"Defend the city!"
"Protect them!"
"Protect our home!"
The shouts were deafening.
The side room in the lord's mansion's backyard was exceptionally quiet on a late winter afternoon. The window paper, slightly yellowed by the sunlight, let in light that shone like a thin layer of beeswax, casting a warm glow on the desk and the open pages of intelligence papers. Only a small clump of white ash remained in the bronze crane incense burner at the corner of the desk, the ash still bearing the scorched marks of yesterday's sandalwood. A faint, lingering fragrance floated in the air, mingling with the fishy smell of the river drifting in from outside and the distant sounds of hammering from the construction site. The flames in the charcoal brazier were now very small, just a few dim red dots, like eyes blinking in the darkness.
Zheng Yi sat at his desk, the cuffs of his grey-blue cloth shirt rolled up, revealing a pale gold old scar on the back of his hand. His left hand pressed down on a page of intelligence, while his right thumb and forefinger pinched the lower right corner of another page, making the paper slightly wrinkled and the edges curled up in a small strip. He read very slowly, pausing for a moment after each page turn, his fingertips lightly tracing the key lines of text, as if tracing the thickness of the ink marks.
The intelligence was delivered by Zhao Sanhuai before dawn. There were seven copies in total, with varying paper thicknesses. The top copy was written on coarse hemp paper used by the city guards, with hasty but forceful handwriting and ink splattered everywhere, as if the writer was in a hurry. Zheng Yi looked at this copy first.
"...In the seven fishing villages upstream of the Blackwater River, the fish catch has plummeted by 80% in the past ten days. Fishermen say that there are rumbling sounds like thunder at the bottom of the river, and that a purplish-red halo appears on the surface of the water at night, lasting for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn." On the third day, three fishing boats went missing, and no one has returned alive...
He turned to the second page, which contained the oral record of the scouts from the east of the city. The handwriting was neater, but the pen strokes trembled.
"...Thirty miles outside Broken Sword Valley on the southern slope of the Qingyun Mountains, three rogue cultivators went into the valley to gather herbs yesterday but did not return by nightfall. This morning, someone found three severed limbs at the valley entrance, the cuts charred black, as if burned by a raging fire. The fog in the valley is three times thicker than usual, and faint roars of beasts can be heard, not from ordinary wild animals..."
The third document was handwritten by Guo Tianyou himself, with neat handwriting, each stroke as if measured with a ruler:
"Sir, on the edge of the Black Pine Forest thirty miles south of the city, three third-tier Fireback Wolves came south together last night. They have crossed the tributary of the moat and entered the farmland. They have damaged the sheepfolds of three households and killed seventeen sheep. The wolves did not harm anyone, but their behavior was abnormal. It did not seem like they were foraging for food, but rather like... migration."
Zheng Yi's fingertip hovered over the word "migration" when he saw this.
He turned the page to the back, which was blank, but had drawn a very simple map in charcoal: seven small circles marked the upper reaches of the Blackwater River, a triangle was drawn for Broken Sword Valley, and the Black Pine Forest was represented by several curved lines. The triangle and the curves were connected by dotted lines, the ends of which pointed to Hongyun City, with a small arrow indicating the direction.
Below the map, Zhao Sanhuai wrote a line of text in thick ink:
"A sign of an impending beast tide?"
Zheng Yi's gaze lingered on the map for a long time.
Suddenly, children's laughter came from outside the window. It was the children from the orphanage chasing and playing in the yard. A childish voice shouted, "Gotcha!" and another childish voice screamed, "Sir, help me!" The laughter was scattered by the wind and drifted into the side room in bits and pieces.
Zheng Yi closed the intelligence report and placed it under a copper paperweight. The paperweight was made of black iron with a line of small characters engraved on it: "Protect".
He got up and walked to the window.
The window paper was translucent in the morning light, revealing the outline of the dormitory building in the east of the city. The ten-story building stood like a silent giant tower in the mist. The rain-collecting array on the roof had just been activated, and water vapor slowly rose from the array's openings, refracting into a rainbow of colors in the sunlight. In the square below, several children were chasing a kite. The kite was made of red paper, with a tail braided from hemp rope. It flew crookedly but refused to come down.
Zheng Yi looked at the kite.
He suddenly spoke, his voice very soft:
"The beast tide... is coming."
Guo Tianyou was standing at the doorway, holding a bowl of freshly brewed ginger soup with three slices of ginger floating on the surface, still steaming. Hearing this, his hand trembled, and the soup almost spilled.
"Sir...you mean...once a year?"
Zheng Yi didn't turn around:
"Ah."
"It's half a month earlier than in previous years."
Guo Tianyou placed the ginger soup on the table, his voice tense:
“In previous years, it was half a month after the Awakening of Insects, but this year… it hasn’t even been over since the Beginning of Spring.”
Zheng Yi turned around, his gaze falling on the intelligence report:
“The southward migration of fish in the upper reaches of the Blackwater River, the unusual fog in Broken Sword Valley, and the early southward movement of wolf packs in the Black Pine Forest... these are all omens.”
"Moreover... the scale is larger than in previous years."
Guo Tianyou's Adam's apple bobbed:
"Then... what do we do?"
Zheng Yi walked to the desk, reopened the hand-drawn map, and gently traced the dotted lines with his fingertips:
"First, stabilize the city."
"The city walls will be reinforced, the black stone will continue to be transported, and two more dormitory buildings will be built in the east of the city to accommodate more refugees."
"The city guard has been expanded to three thousand people, and the training intensity has doubled."
"The alchemy room is urgently producing antidote pills, rejuvenation pills, and mind-calming pills... with 30,000 of each type."
Guo Tianyou clasped his hands in a fist salute:
"Yes!"
He paused, then asked:
"The beast tide... in previous years it always came down from the upper reaches of the Blackwater River, numbering between 30,000 and 50,000, mostly Tier 3, with Tier 4 as a secondary force, and very few Tier 5. This year... could there be Tier 6 beasts?"
Zheng Yi remained silent for a moment.
"possible."
"So...we need to prepare for the worst."
Guo Tianyou's face turned pale, but he nodded vigorously:
"I'll take care of it right away!"
He turned and went out, his steps hurried.
Zheng Yi stood by the window, his fingers still resting on the windowpane. The paper windowpane billowed and deflated gently in the wind, like a breathing lung. The children's laughter outside gradually faded into the distance, leaving only the faint hum of kite strings in the air. Guo Tianyou stood in the doorway, the steam from the ginger soup still rising, making the stubble on his face appear reddish. He pushed the bowl towards the corner of the table and rubbed his hands together.
"Sir, I'll go check the stone materials over at the city wall first. The black rock was transported from the North Mountain, so I need to keep an eye on it to make sure the driver doesn't cheat on the weight."
Zheng Yi nodded without turning around: "Go ahead. Also, have Zhao Sanhuai bring over last night's patrol log; I need to see the details from the Blackwater River area."
Guo Tianyou responded, turned and left, his boots making a dull thud on the bluestone slabs as he walked away. The side room fell silent again, save for the occasional soft pop from the charcoal brazier. Zheng Yi sat back down at his desk, unfolded the hand-drawn map, and weighed down the corners with a paperweight. The dotted lines on the map were particularly glaring in the morning light. He lightly drew a small cross at the location of the black pine forest with a charcoal pencil, and added two wavy lines next to Broken Sword Valley to represent fog.
Footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door, light and hurried. It was Zhao Sanhuai. He pushed the door open and came in, carrying a scroll wrapped in oilcloth. He paused instinctively when his broken leg landed.
"Sir, I've copied down everything the scouts said last night. There are also two fishermen who just came back from upstream. I told them to wait outside. Would you like to call them in?"
Zheng Yi raised his hand: "Let them in. And close the door tightly, it's windy."
Zhao Sanhuai turned and went out, returning shortly with two men reeking of fish. One was short and stout, the other tall and thin, both wearing patched cotton-padded jackets with their trousers rolled up to their knees, their feet covered in black mud. The short, stout one was called Lao Zhang, and the tall, thin one was called Xiao Liuzi. They knelt down as soon as they entered, their foreheads almost touching the ground.
“Sir…we are fishermen from Liujia Village on the upper reaches of the Blackwater River.” Old Zhang’s voice trembled. “Last night, another boat sank in our village, and the three strong men on board did not return.”
Zheng Yi gestured for them to stand up: "Sit down and talk. Zhao Sanhuai, pour them a bowl of hot water."
Zhao Sanhuai quickly picked up the copper kettle from the charcoal brazier, poured two bowls of hot water, and handed them over. The two men held the bowls, their hands trembling so much that the rims clinked softly. Xiao Liuzi spoke first, his voice hoarse as if it had been soaked in river water:
"Sir, the noises from the riverbed are getting increasingly eerie. For the first few days, it was just a gurgling sound at night, like someone drumming underwater. Last night… we were casting our nets from the boat when suddenly we heard a 'boom' from underwater, the boat jolted violently, and the net rope almost snapped my arm. I looked down and saw a purplish-red light on the water's surface, illuminating the bottom of the boat. In that light… it seemed like something was swimming, its shadow terrifyingly long, easily three zhang (approximately 10 meters)." (End of Chapter)