Chapter 2689: The Capital (Part 45)

Zhou Lezhi saw the Teacher's face had gone pale, filled with disappointment and disbelief. Fearing he might lose his composure and succumb to madness, he called softly by his ear: "Teacher! Teacher!"

Only then did the Teacher recover his senses, whispering: "I feel unwell; I won't listen for now. Whatever this Mr. Gou says, write it down and bring it to me tonight."

Zhou Lezhi grew suspicious, wondering what was troubling the Teacher. Wang Yehao, meanwhile, was secretly pleased, knowing Gou Chengxuan's words had shaken Hearthstone Immortal.

This gang of Kun are all rough stock—not a good person among them!

It seemed his scheme to sow discord had taken effect; for the time being, this Hearthstone Immortal wouldn't be thinking about defecting to his accomplices.

Wang Yehao immediately gave orders to take Mr. Gou to bathe and change clothes, and to arrange his lodgings.

"He is in your hands now." Master Wang instructed Liu Sha. "Watch him closely! Don't let him escape!"

"Yes."

"There is another matter—he said his father and two servants are still out there somewhere. You must find a way to locate and retrieve them."

"This lowly one has connections with the men at Guandi Temple; I can entrust them with the task. As long as they're anywhere on Guangzhou's ground, they can be found."

"You must be careful in this matter. Before coming to Guangzhou, I estimated there must be many Kun spies in the city; probably the Three Judicial Offices and the Governor-General's Yamen have their planted informants as well. That's why I plan to stay permanently in Zhaoqing. You will remain in Guangzhou, specifically responsible for investigating Kun activities—but you must act in secret. Go recruit some of your former brothers; I will give them a share of money and grain from the Governor's Standard."

"This lowly one understands! Many thanks for the Lord's grace!"

"Mr. Jin..." Wang Yehao turned to Jin Wenchi. "Speak with that Gou Chengxuan daily. Record everything he knows about the Kun situation, including this Qiongzhou Campaign."

That night, Zhou Lezhi attended to the Teacher before he retired, then slept in the outer room himself. Waking during the night, he vaguely heard tossing and turning from the inner room. Rising early the next morning, he saw the Teacher's face was dark and his eyelids swollen.

"Teacher, did you not sleep well last night?"

"Mm."

"Let me help you wash first, have some dim sum, and then you can take a nap..."

"No need, I cannot sleep." The Teacher's expression was cold and stern. "Where is that Mr. Gou now?"

"Master Wang has already settled him properly. I heard he knows much about Australian matters; the Master wants him to write everything out from beginning to end..."

Hearing this, the Teacher nodded and asked: "Where is Master Wang?"

"I heard he is going to the Five Rams Courier Station construction site in the Southern City today."

"Five Rams Station?"

"It's where we disembarked when we arrived in Guangzhou—that huge expanse of ruins..."

"That is Five Rams Station?!"

"Yes. I heard Big Brother Liu say that when the Australians besieged Guangzhou, they fired rockets and burned Five Rams Station to the ground. After the Master took office, he began rebuilding it."

"Rockets? Good heavens!" Mr. Zhou made a strange sound. "Unthinkable, unthinkable—Katyusha?"

"What sha?" Zhou Lezhi didn't understand and asked.

"Nothing," Mr. Zhou, who had been listless, suddenly found new energy. "Quickly bring breakfast; after eating, we shall also go to Five Rams Station for a look!"

Zhou Lezhi didn't understand why the Teacher had suddenly become interested in Five Rams Station. When they had arrived at the Li Family's wharf, it had been nightfall; they had only seen a vast expanse of pitch-black ruins, nothing remarkable.

After eating breakfast, Zhou Lezhi, Liu Zhao, and their group accompanied Hearthstone Daoist along Chengxuan Street, heading all the way south until they reached Guangzhou's Southern City. From a distance, they could see the city gate tower had also been burned, leaving only a few carbonized wooden structures standing upright.

Not far from the city gate lay a massive area of fire-blackened ruins. Many shacks had already been erected among the wreckage, with refugees living inside. Between broken walls and crumbling ramparts, low and dirty sheds had been built in haphazard disorder, and several patches of vegetable plots had even been cleared.

Such a scene no longer had much emotional impact on Hearthstone Immortal, but the sight of such extensive ruins even before leaving the city surprised him greatly.

"This is Five Rams Station? Isn't it supposed to be outside the city?"

"This area was originally residential homes inside the city. I heard the Kun also fired many rockets here, burning quite a few houses."

Mr. Zhou's face grew grave. He ordered the sedan chair to stop and stepped out to survey the entire expanse of ruins. After standing in silence for a long while, he noticed a shed not far away where quite a few people had gathered, and asked: "What is that shed for?"

Liu Zhao hurried over to inquire, returning shortly to report: "Teacher, it is a porridge distribution shed. Several wealthy households give out porridge here daily to aid the refugees."

Mr. Zhou acknowledged this with an "Oh" and strolled toward the porridge shed. Liu Zhao and Zhou Lezhi didn't understand his purpose—wasn't he going to Five Rams Station? They hurriedly brought the family servants to follow.

Many refugees had already gathered around the porridge shed. Upon inquiry, they learned that porridge was distributed once daily here; only common folk who had originally lived in this area and suffered from the warfare could receive it. To collect tokens, one had to go through the Paijia.

"Where is the Paijia?"

"Old Daddy Jia was just here maintaining order, but the Liang Residence steward came and called him away to talk."

"Liang Residence?"

"That would be the Liang Cunhou family of this city."

Liu Zhao had specially studied the "Record of Guangdong Gentry" before coming to Guangzhou and knew the Liang family was a prominent local household. He whispered: "The Liang family is local gentry."

After a good while, the Paijia finally returned. This Paijia's circumstances were no better than anyone else's—his face was covered in ash and grime, his clothes tattered. Hearing that a Master was looking for him, he hurried over to answer.

Liu Zhao called the Paijia over and flashed his waist tag. The Paijia trembled all over, nearly dropping to his knees. Liu Zhao said: "No need for excessive courtesy! My Master has a few questions for you; answer honestly!"

The Paijia couldn't speak Mandarin well; fortunately, Zhou Lezhi was a local native and translated between them.

"Why did this place suffer from the warfare? Didn't the Kun fail to breach the city?"

"The Master doesn't know—the Kun fired rockets, and quite a few fell inside the Southern City as well. This area was struck by rockets, and the flames spread into a disaster. Several other places in the Southern City were also hit by rockets, though the burned areas weren't as large as this..."

Speaking at length, he described that night when the rockets struck like meteors falling to earth, instantly igniting many houses. Although the Dragon Society worked to extinguish fires as they spread, there were simply too many impact points to attend to them all. Fortunately, the weather had been humid at the time; only that had prevented the entire city from going up in flames.

"But the burned areas were still numerous, with this being the largest. Sigh, in one night more than five hundred people were burned to death. Who knows what was packed inside those Kun rockets—whatever it touched, it burned. People were reduced to charcoal! Ai ai ai, too miserable..." The Paijia spoke with lingering fear in his voice.

Mr. Zhou's expression had already darkened; as the Paijia continued, it grew uglier still. He whispered: "Enough!"

Zhou Lezhi hastily scolded: "Stop talking!"

Zhou Lezhi and Liu Zhao saw that Hearthstone Daoist's face had turned ashen, though they didn't know what taboo had been violated, and dared not speak further. The Paijia was so frightened he didn't dare make a sound.

After a long silence, Hearthstone Daoist finally exhaled a long breath and said: "What is the arrangement with the Liang family's porridge distribution?"

The Paijia explained that this porridge shed had been set up by Runshitang. Ever since this area had suffered from the warfare, they had maintained a shed here to distribute porridge.

"Although Runshitang has more than ten Directors, nowadays it is the Liang family managing affairs. Their steward has to come over every day."

Hearthstone Daoist listened without further reaction. The group passed through the ruins and arrived at the wharf outside the city. Looking upon the ruins of Five Rams Station, the Teacher stood by the riverbank for a long time, grief and indignation visible on his face.

After a long while, Zhou Lezhi heard the Teacher say softly: "Let us go back."

The following day, Zhou Lezhi came to ask the Teacher for leave.

"...I want to go home for a visit. I heard Second Brother Liu say the Kun killed and looted extensively in the countryside; I worry about our clan members..."

"Go then." Mr. Zhou waved his hand weakly. "Go early and return early!"

"As long as the clan is safe, this student will return in two or three days." Saying this, he was about to withdraw when Mr. Zhou suddenly called out: "I will go with you."

The next day, under the protection of the Liu family brothers and their men, they took a boat to Hetou Village.

Hetou Village was only a dozen or so li from Guangzhou, yet it had escaped the warfare. The Clan Leader said that when the Kun grand army had passed through, they had indeed sent people to the village, levying grain and fodder along with the "Reasonable Burden."

"When soldiers march through, being able to avoid robbery and burning is already our ancestors' blessing." The Clan Leader said.

"Did they do any other wicked things?"

"They left after levying the grain and fodder; they didn't actually do any other wicked things." The Clan Leader said, "On the contrary, it was the local troublemakers who seized the opportunity to rise up and loot quite a bit. Later they were all suppressed by the Kun."

Hearing this, Mr. Zhou's expression improved somewhat. He asked again: "What about the nearby villages?"

"I heard that some villages organized militias to resist because they refused to pay the burden; all of them were massacred. Terrible, ah!" The Clan Leader spoke with lingering fear, and also a hint of relief.

"Massacred?! Is that really true?" The Teacher's eyebrows shot up.

"This small person also only heard others say it, heard others say it..." The Clan Leader, seeing his fierce expression, spoke shrinkingly.

"Which villages? Tell us." Mr. Zhou pressed.

The Clan Leader had originally been reluctant to speak, until Liu Sha said, "Since the Master is asking you, it won't implicate you anyway! Just speak!" Only then did he shrinkingly name several villages.

"Teacher, do you wish to go see for yourself?" Liu Sha asked.

"Go! Let's go!"

After resting one night in Hetou Village, the group continued their journey the next day, traveling all the way to Sanshan. After staying locally for half a day, they sailed along the route the Kun fleet had taken during their invasion, visiting villages along the way.

As the journey progressed, the Teacher's expression grew increasingly grim: burned houses, fresh graves of the dead, the weeping of bereaved families... each sight, each scene hammered upon his heart.

In Zhou Lezhi's view, the Kun could be considered "Benevolent and Righteous." Whether killing or looting, they had exercised considerable restraint. As long as one surrendered promptly and paid the required money and grain, they essentially committed no crimes against the common people. Except for those who managed affairs, they did not implicate innocent commoners. The talk of massacres was really somewhat exaggerated.

The Teacher obviously did not see it this way. It was clear that his anger was building continuously.

On this day, they cruised to Sanliang in Dongguan. Following their usual practice, they sought out local elders to interview about the events when the Kun had passed through. After hearing of Qingxia's deeds, everyone sighed in turn, saying she was truly a remarkable woman of deep feeling and righteousness. The group visited the graves of Qingxia, Luo Tianqiu, and the others to pour wine and offer sacrifices.

Returning to their boat that night, Zhou Lezhi heard the Teacher muttering to himself: "Beasts!" followed by grinding teeth and saying: "Scum!"

(End of Chapter)