“Brother Zhuzi, there seems to be something tied to that arrow.”
An escort master pointed at the shaft.
Guan Zhuzi looked closely. Sure enough, a strip of white silk was bound to the end.
“There really is something. Go fetch it, but stay behind the shield in case more arrows come.”
“Got it.”
The escort raised a shield, trotted over, and pulled the arrow free.
Qin’er’s aim had been excellent. The only dry spot on deck was beneath a wooden crate that kept off the rain, and the arrow had struck exactly there.
The escort brought the arrow back and handed it to Guan Zhuzi.
Guan Zhuzi untied the silk. A circle of men stared at the neat rows of characters, blinking blankly.
None of them could read.
“Stay alert up here. I’m going below to find Sister Tongtong and see what it says.”
Guan Zhuzi was illiterate, so Jin Feng had assigned him a female accountant who could read and calculate, to prevent him from being cheated.
In this era, the literate looked down on everyone else. Guan Zhuzi treated the accountant with great respect. Instead of summoning her to the deck, he ran below himself, carrying the silk, and knocked on her door.
“Brother Zhuzi, what is it?” The accountant opened the door.
“Sister Tongtong, someone just shot an arrow onto our ship with this cloth tied to it. Can you read what it says?”
He handed her the silk.
“Shot onto the ship?”
The accountant had noticed the big passenger vessel and the bandits opposite, but whenever trouble arose she always hid at the rear so as not to hinder the escorts.
She hurriedly took the silk.
The next instant her face changed. “Brother Zhuzi, save them at once! The lady on that ship is Miss Mulan’s cousin, the Marquis of Qing’s younger female cousin. She is coming to Jinchuan to visit the master at West River Bay!”
“What?!”
Guan Zhuzi jumped in shock and bolted back outside.
As he ran he bellowed, “Old Zhou, rescue them! The passenger is Miss Mulan’s cousin, here to visit our brother-in-law!”
On deck, the escorts had already set up their heavy crossbows the moment they spotted bandits, ready for defence.
At Guan Zhuzi’s shout they instantly trained the weapons on the bandit boats.
This escort detail included a full platoon and nine heavy crossbows. Wiping out these river bandits would be child’s play.
Yet even after Guan Zhuzi reached them, no one fired.
“Old Zhou, what are you waiting for?”
Guan Zhuzi shoved the platoon leader. “Hurry and shoot!”
“We can’t, Brother Zhuzi!” Old Zhou said. “If I fire from this angle, the bolts will punch straight through the passenger ship as well!”
Guan Zhuzi looked up. It was true.
Heavy crossbow bolts were far too powerful. Fired from here they would pierce the big ship along with the bandits.
That would make them accomplices to murder, not rescuers.
“Then what do we do? Old Zhou, think of something!”
Guan Zhuzi rubbed his hands in desperation.
Their cargo ship was laden with mineral salt and far too heavy to gain speed.
The passenger vessel was now almost level with them. In a little while it would drift past, and they would be too late to help.
“I’ll try shouting first, see if I can scare the bandits off!”
Old Zhou stepped to the rail and roared, “Which blind river-rat cubs dare rob guests of the Zhenyuan Escort Agency? Scram now, or I’ll smash you to pieces!”
Several escorts pushed heavy crossbows right to the edge of the deck.
In the past, such a threat would have sent bandits fleeing at once, but this lot acted as if they neither heard nor saw. They kept hacking at the hull.
The two ships were now abreast. From the cargo ship it was plain to see several small holes already pierced in the passenger vessel’s lower hull.
The passenger ship looked grand and luxurious, but its construction was simple.
Breach the side and you opened straight into the hold.
Had the crew not been frantically plugging the leaks, the ship would already have foundered.
“This won’t last much longer!”
When Old Zhou saw the bandits ignore him, he slammed a fist against the rail. “First squad, lower the boats! Take them out!”
“Yes, sir! First squad, with me!”
The squad leader acknowledged and led his men to the far side of the cargo ship.
Two small boats were tied there.
Before Jin Feng’s suggestion, no merchant or passenger ship in Great Kang ever carried such boats. Guan Zhuzi had added these two “lifeboats” to the cargo ship.
None of them had expected to need them so soon.
“Old Zhou, the current is ferocious. Will the small boats be safe?”
Guan Zhuzi asked worriedly.
The lifeboats were ordinary wooden craft, ill-suited to heavy waves.
“Safe or not, we have no choice. If we let these river bandits escape today, word will spread and all the reputation Zhenyuan built with blood and lives will be washed away! That reputation was earned by our brothers’ lives; we cannot let it be ruined on our watch!”
Old Zhou continued, “Besides, the passenger ship has too many holes. Even if we drive the bandits off, she will sink. Our ship is too slow. We must rescue Miss Mulan’s cousin before she drifts out of reach.”
“You’re right.” Guan Zhuzi nodded firmly. “Old Zhou, you always think further ahead.”
While they spoke, the first squad leader had already led his men into the boats and been lowered to the water.
The lifeboats had been modified by the escorts. A heavy crossbow was mounted at the prow of each, with a crate of bolts stowed beneath the deck boards.
Along the gunwales hung a row of inflated pig bladdons. If the boat capsized, they would serve as life preservers.
Including the squad leader, the squad had ten men, five to each boat.
Three manned the crossbow; the other two handled the oars.
The current was fierce. The moment the boats touched water they were swept downstream.
Once they had manoeuvred into position, the squad leader wasted no time. He fired straight at one of the bandit boats.
Whoosh!
The heavy bolt screamed through the air and struck the stern of a bandit craft.
Splinters flew. The entire stern was shattered by the huge bolt, and every bandit aboard was flung into the raging river.
Heavy crossbow bolts could be reused. At the salt mine the escorts had nothing to do but practise, and now their teamwork was flawless.
The moment the squad leader fired, the man beside him was already cranking the windlass.
The loader had the next bolt in place.
In mere seconds another spear-like shaft flew.
This time, however, a wave struck just as he fired, and the bolt plunged harmlessly into the water.
The power and firing speed of the heavy crossbows clearly terrified the bandits. They finally abandoned their axes, released the grappling hooks, and let the current carry them away.
Before fleeing, one burly bandit leader raised a huge iron hammer and smashed it against the hull.
The surrounding planks were already riddled with small holes. The hammer blow opened a breach larger than a washbasin.
No crew could plug a hole that size. River water surged in like a flood.
The passenger ship immediately began sinking at a visible speed.
