“You read it yourself.”
Jin Feng sighed and handed the slip of paper to Yuan Caiwei.
Yuan Caiwei quickly took it.
As she read, her brows furrowed.
The note said that the escort fleet had pursued the river bandits all the way to the sea outlet but failed to catch them.
However, inquiries along the route confirmed that the bandits had indeed gone out to sea.
The escort company commander then decided to search at sea.
But the ocean was vast, and there were few people on it. They searched for days without any trace.
The bandits seemed to have been swallowed by the sea, vanishing without a sign.
Just when the escort commander was at a loss, the bandits reappeared of their own accord, launching a surprise attack on the escort fleet in the dead of night.
Most of the escorts were from Sichuan and Shu, skilled in land combat but with little experience on boats.
Even when they took ships for missions, they could disembark daily to move about.
Out on the rough open sea, more and more escorts began to suffer from seasickness.
The bandits deliberately chose a night of fierce winds and high waves for their ambush, catching the escorts, unaccustomed to naval fighting, completely off guard.
The pursuing force was a full company of over a hundred escorts.
The bandits numbered more than a thousand, with their large and small vessels combined outnumbering the escorts’ by dozens of times. They surrounded the escort fleet from all directions.
If this had been on the Yangtze or another inland river, the escorts, with their trebuchets and heavy crossbows, would have had little to fear.
But on the turbulent sea, the cargo ships pitched wildly up and down, making aiming impossible.
Seeing the dire situation, the escort commander immediately summoned four escorts who had grown up by the water and were strong swimmers. He ordered them to take carrier pigeons and inflated pig bladders, dive into the sea, and escape under cover of darkness to reach shore and deliver the news.
Only one of the four made it to land. The message came from him.
According to this escort, that night more than thirty chamber boatmen and over twenty escorts were captured, while the rest of the escorts all perished in battle.
The captured escorts and chamber employees were hung by the bandits on a solitary island in the East Sea, exposed to wind and rain.
The bandits also spread provocative words at coastal docks: “The Zhenyuan Escort Agency is nothing special” and “If you have the guts, come out to sea and rescue them.”
“Husband, what do we do now?”
Tang Xiaobei asked with a frown.
Yuan Caiwei, the escorts, and the chamber employees all looked up at Jin Feng.
“They want us to go rescue them, do they not? Then we shall go and rescue them!”
Jin Feng replied without hesitation.
“But… but husband, this is obviously a trap!”
Tang Xiaobei grew anxious at once.
“I know it is a trap, but even if it is, we must spring it!”
Jin Feng said, “I will personally go to rescue them and see what tricks these bandits have!”
Tang Xiaobei wanted to say more but ultimately held her tongue.
To save her, Jin Feng had mobilised troops on a grand scale and personally travelled from Xichuan to Jiangnan.
She, Tang Xiaobei, was a person. The captured escorts and employees were people too.
Moreover, with so many escorts and chamber staff watching, she could not possibly persuade Jin Feng not to rescue them.
Tang Xiaobei could not speak up, but Yuan Caiwei could.
“Sir, I know you are anxious, but you are the cornerstone of the escort agency and the chamber. You must not act impulsively.”
Yuan Caiwei said, “If you rashly go to the East Sea and… and fall into the bandits’ trap, what will become of the escort agency and the chamber? What about the thousands of employees and female workers who depend on you for their livelihoods?”
Tang Xiaobei could not help glancing at Yuan Caiwei with approval, then added, “Husband, Caiwei is right. We can rescue them, but you must not go!”
“Yes, sir, you must not go!”
Da Liu, Han Feng, Monkey, and others all spoke up to dissuade him.
“Rest assured. When I reach the coast, I will not go out to sea. I will stay in the shore camp.”
Jin Feng said, “That way, if anything happens, I can make decisions on the spot and avoid delays from back-and-forth reporting that might miss opportunities.”
In truth, Jin Feng knew this was not the time to take risks.
But this incident was clearly targeted at the escort agency and the chamber. Sending someone else, Jin Feng truly felt uneasy.
Battlefield situations changed rapidly. Among his subordinates, apart from Zhang Liang, there were no outstanding commanders.
This was why he was working hard to train people like Da Zhuang and Monkey.
There simply were no capable people available.
Zhang Liang had to hold the fort in Xichuan and could not come. In the end, only Jin Feng himself could take the field.
“Husband, are you really going?” Tang Xiaobei looked up and asked.
“I must go!”
Jin Feng said firmly, “When the escort agency was first established, I told Brother Liang that our agency would never abandon or give up on any comrade! Now is the time to honour that promise!”
Hearing this, all the surrounding escorts and chamber employees showed expressions of gratification.
Regardless of whether Jin Feng went in the end, at least he had not treated the captured escorts and employees as burdens or forgotten them.
Nor had he forgotten the promise made when founding the agency.
“Very well. I will try to muster as many men and ships as possible.”
Seeing Jin Feng’s resolve, Tang Xiaobei knew she could not dissuade him. She stopped trying and instead began to help actively.
To search for Tang Xiaobei, Yuan Caiwei had already mobilised nearly everyone available in Jiangnan.
Now that Tang Xiaobei was found, Yuan Caiwei ordered the troops recalled to follow Jin Feng to the East Sea.
By noon the next day, more than twenty vessels of various sizes had gathered on the river at the ferry crossing.
The black flags of the Zhenyuan Escort Agency snapped fiercely in the cold wind.
On the open ground by the shore stood hundreds of black-clad male and female escorts.
Among them were three hundred escorts in black armour.
Jin Feng, holding a tin megaphone, climbed onto a large boulder under the watchful eyes of the escorts.
“Brothers, the river bandits not only attacked our fleet here but also captured our brothers in the East Sea. They have hung them on a solitary island to suffer wind and rain, and they taunt us to come out to sea and rescue them if we dare!”
Jin Feng raised the megaphone and shouted, “Tell me, shall we go rescue them?”
“Rescue them!”
All the escorts raised their arms and roared in anger.
“River bandits grow up immersed in water. On land they may be nothing, but at sea it is their domain. We may not be their match out there. Many of you could die on the ocean!
Even if we go, we may not succeed in bringing our brothers back. The enemy might very well kill them just as we are about to reach them!”
Jin Feng continued, “Think carefully. It is not too late to regret now. No one will mock you!”
“Sir, you need not test us further. There are no cowards in the Zhenyuan Escort Agency!”
Monkey said with a laugh, “Besides, our agency’s promise is never to abandon or give up. This time it is Old Liang and the others who were captured. What if next time it is us?
As for whether we can rescue them, we will do our utmost and leave the rest to fate. Being stripped and hung on poles is worse than death. Even if I cannot save Old Liang, I want to give them a quick end!”
“Never abandon! Never give up!”
All the escorts raised their arms and shouted in unison.
