Chapter 2: The Path of the Tiger Guards

The following day, the two brothers carried the cured meat and valuable vessels stored in the wooden hut down the mountain.

They followed the ridge into the ravine, then took the path worn by the river’s wash and headed east.

After more than forty li of mountain road, they returned at midday to the district where the Zhao household lived.

Back when a band of White Wave bandits had passed through the region, nine of every ten homes in the district had been emptied, and that was how the Zhao family came to possess their dwelling and fields.

The two concubines taken in by Zhao’s father had both been widows from neighboring households. Now the district held more than fifty people, and the Zhao family alone made up twenty-four.

Zhao Ji’s return drew no crowd.

Forty-odd li of mountain road was not so far, after all, and the original owner of this body often went down the mountain to deliver meat and herbs, or to fetch arrows, clothing, salt, and the like.

When he came back that day, his father, Zhao Lian, and his eldest brother, Zhao Jian, were roasting charcoal in the courtyard. The kiln mouth had already been sealed, and they only had to let it smolder until the charcoal was formed.

It was early March, and the five apricot trees in the courtyard, each decades old, were in full bloom.

Several younger brothers and sisters were crouched on the ground picking up fallen apricot blossoms; they were not particularly close to Zhao Ji.

In the shade beneath the trees, Zhao Ji washed himself at the well, then stood refreshed and took in the courtyard.

In several corners he noticed hidden light crossbows, a kind of small hand crossbow for self-defense. They were quick to string and relatively cheap, but could only wound the unarmored.

Before long, Zhao Lian also came out of the house, followed by the eldest brother. The second brother came out carrying a jar of rice wine, while two half-grown younger siblings carried a low table with dishes of food and millet rice upon it.

As for their mother, the two concubines, the two sisters-in-law, and the two half-sisters who were about to come of age, those seven had gone to the fields early in the morning.

The four children belonging to the eldest and second brothers were playing with the children born to the two concubines.

If nothing unexpected happened, he too ought to marry a wife, work around the blacksmith’s shop, and let his wife assist their mother in managing the land.

When children were born in the future, they would play with his younger siblings and the nephews and nieces of the elder brothers.

If the family’s savings were sufficient, then once the elder brothers took concubines in years to come, he could do the same.

A clan’s growth—by the time a generation of sons had come of age, some twenty years hence—would leave the Zhao family with more than two hundred people. Though still not as flourishing as the Pei line, they would at least be able to hold what they had.

As Zhao Ji pondered this future, the low table was set and Zhao Lian took his seat.

Zhao Lian was a fallen scholar of humble gentry status, and that was how everyone around him, including his own family, saw him.

After the second brother finished pouring the wine, Zhao Lian asked, “I heard the Xiongnu rode down the Fen River with the coming of spring and sent more than a hundred men into Jishan for a hunt. Did the mountain folk and the Xiongnu come to blows?”

Zhao Ji listened in confusion. The original owner of this body had truly lived in isolation, and he shook his head. “I have not heard of it.”

“There are two reasons I would not have you living alone in the mountains,” Zhao Lian said patiently and without reproach. “First, the hunting grounds of the Xiongnu are stretching farther and farther. If you live by yourself in the mountains and are taken by them, we would have no way of knowing, let alone rescuing or ransoming you.

“Second, there are the Pei family. Some among them have been spreading rumors that your retreat into the mountains is a lie and that you are really going out to rob people. It may also be that the Xiongnu have grown bolder. Half a month ago, someone lost a cow. The cow may simply have wandered off, or it may have been stolen. Such things are impossible to say.”

Zhao Ji listened patiently and, drawing on the original owner’s memories, understood that the father before him—handsome in his own way as well—only seemed gentle. In truth his temper was fierce. When the three Zhao brothers were young, they had often been beaten.

Once a willow switch as thick as a thumb snapped, another would be taken up. Old Zhao never used fists or feet to beat children; he always used willow switches, with spare switches on hand as well.

Only after the eldest brother had a son, and after the original owner reached sixteen and grew broad and strong, did Old Zhao’s manner begin to seem gentle.

So much so that the original owner had once envied the younger siblings born of concubines. Those children had never gone hungry, nor had they ever tasted the willow switch from Old Zhao’s hand.

Seeing that the third son had become much steadier in temperament, Zhao Lian was also comforted. The third son had often opposed things simply for the sake of opposing them.

This change in him would spare him many future losses; naturally, it was a good thing.

Zhao Lian signaled for everyone to drink together, then drank first himself. After downing a bowl of yellow millet wine, he said, “A lost cow is neither here nor there, and in truth it has nothing to do with us. But over the years our household has grown larger and larger, and that has already stirred dissatisfaction among many of the older Pei men.”

The second brother, still pouring from the wine jar, grumbled, “We don’t eat a single grain of millet from their house. On what grounds are they dissatisfied?”

Zhao Lian merely smiled. To the third son, Zhao Ji, who was rolling up his sleeves to wipe the corners of his mouth, he said, “In another ten years, these old men will be gone. The others in the Pei family have some acquaintance with me—at the very least they know my face. As our household grows stronger, they will have little to say against us. But not now. The mountains are uneasy as well, so you, Ah Ji, can only go out.”

Zhao Ji remained silent. Looking at his second brother as he poured more wine for him, he said, “I have heard of the contest of a snail’s horns, and I never imagined that for such a reason, I would have to leave this place.”

“A snail’s horns as Ah Ji speaks of them are by no means small,” the eldest brother, Zhao Jian, said with a laugh. Raising a hand, he gestured to the circle around them. “Just around this ravine mouth there are two hundred mu of irrigated fields, and more than three thousand mu of other land. There is abundant timber in the ravine too. All of it is money.”

As he spoke, he looked to Zhao Lian, who said as well, “Our family knows ironworking and charcoal burning. Once there are a few more hands at home, we can mine iron from Jishan and smelt it with charcoal made on Jishan itself. Before, when your father was alone and you brothers were still young, if we had rashly tried to expand our holdings, outsiders would surely have seized them.”

He then lifted his cup and drank again, saying with evident pride, “I have established myself here for more than twenty years. I began with nothing and built this from the ground up. Among my contemporaries in the county, how many can compare with me? Once I outlast the old men of the Pei family, my household will truly have a footing here. If this succeeds, then even a hundred years from now, I shall have no regrets.”

Then he looked toward Zhao Ji. “The calamity of today may not be a bad thing after all.”

Zhao Jian also said, “As Father says, if not for Ah Ji’s matter, the Pei family might have schemed against us in some other way.”

The second brother, Zhao Yuan, remained silent the whole time, merely casting sidelong glances at Zhao Ji from time to time.

“Yes. Father built this from hardship; I have been raised by his kindness and have no way to repay it. I certainly cannot ruin his foundation.”

Zhao Ji lifted his cup and drank as well. Like the threat Zhao Yuan had made yesterday, if he could not hold on to the wooden hut in the mountains and truly angered Old Zhao, the old man could simply set fire to it from above the mountain. What then could he do?

In summer that would still leave time to rebuild. But if it were winter and the place were burned down, there would truly be no way back.

The original owner of this body had been able to immerse himself in the life of hunting in the wilderness, and though Zhao Ji now possessed those hunting skills, he still lacked the endurance and tenacity that such a solitary life required.

Seeing that Zhao Ji was willing to yield, Zhao Lian also let out a breath.

Unless absolutely necessary, he did not wish to burn down the third son’s hut in the mountains either.

At once his expression relaxed considerably, and he said, “Then go out and keep out of sight for two years. When you return, your share of the family property will naturally be waiting for you.”

Seeing that Zhao Ji did not answer, Zhao Lian changed the subject. “A Lan and A Xi are about to come of age. Your mother and I have discussed it as well. There is no point in marrying them off to outsiders, and marrying them into the Pei family would hardly deepen the bond between our two houses.”

Zhao Ji looked at him in surprise. The eldest and second brothers also glanced sideways, while the second brother swallowed nervously.

Zhao Lian asked Zhao Ji, “If there is anyone you fancy, then when you return, she can be promised to you. If you do not fancy either of them, then I would have them become secondary wives or side chambers for your eldest and second brothers. In that case, when you return, I will find you a daughter of the Pei family, and after some years I can take another concubine for you.”

Zhao Ji looked to the eldest and second brothers. The eldest brother wore an indifferent expression; whichever way it went, he would gain an additional secondary wife. The second brother, by contrast, looked at him pleadingly, almost ready to beg aloud.

From the standpoint of blood ties, there was nothing wrong with this arrangement.

But Zhao Ji felt somewhat uneasy. He looked at Zhao Lian. “And you are not afraid the old men of the Pei family will say again that my Zhao household’s customs are much like those of the Hu?”

Zhao Lian did not think this strange. “In ancient times, people observed that those of the same surname should not marry, but after Shun, the Yao, Yu, Chen, and Tian lines all sprang from the same root, and yet marriages have been made among them throughout the ages. The rites and statutes do not forbid it. Compared to that, what is the issue?”

Zhao Ji finally understood. Old Zhao was determined to unleash the full breeding potential of the clan.

As long as he could raise more than a dozen or two dozen sons and grandsons before he died, he would be satisfied.

This third son of his had been rebellious since childhood and never very obedient; in the future he would be even less likely to obey the eldest brother. Old Zhao probably had long since given up on him.

What sounded like a question about whether he would marry those two half-sisters without blood ties was, in truth, a test of whether he was willing to bow his head.

Once he married one of them, he would be irrevocably bound to this family.

After a brief silence, Zhao Ji thought it over and still decided to refuse.

Marrying a wife would indeed mean someone cared for his daily needs and made his life easier and more comfortable.

But a wife obtained in such a way would cost him far more freedom.

Unless he one day cut down his eldest brother, there would be no easy escape.

For other young men coming of age, getting married sooner meant enjoying life sooner.

For him, in his former world, many people had marriages arranged by their parents, and even if their spouse was not entirely to their liking, they would lower their heads for the time being and enjoy what they could first.

Some were even deceived by their parents into agreeing to marry in exchange for promises of this and that.

Then, once they had grown strong enough and mature enough, and after meeting their true love or soulmate, they would begin to quarrel with their spouses.

Men were like this, and women were sometimes like this too.

But in times such as these, when life and death turned on the next breath, marrying early and producing children was the most reliable way to preserve the family line.

Zhao Ji did not want to bind himself here because of one woman.

“Father, the world is vast, and I want to go out and see it. As for A Lan and A Xi, I will not hold them back.”

Having made his decision, Zhao Ji noticed that the second brother let out a long breath, and he then asked, “Father, what is this call for recruits about?”

At present, because of the protection and hospitality Wang Yi had provided when the Son of Heaven moved east, Wang Yi, the governor of Hedong, had been appointed General Suppressing the North.

Under Wang Yi’s rule, Hedong had seen no major unrest since the White Wave armies.

It was only that the Xiongnu continued migrating southward, occupying the wild lands near Pingyang. Their nomadic range had widened further, and to the south they had only advanced as far as the Jishan and Baibi areas, with no sign of pushing farther.

“Since the Son of Heaven went east, the generals from Guanzhong have pursued him relentlessly, and many of the accompanying tiger guards have suffered losses.”

As Zhao Lian recounted what he had heard, Zhao Ji finally realized roughly what year it was and could not help but start.

“Now that the Son of Heaven is returning to Luoyang, General Suppressing the North Wang is recruiting troops to present local tribute. If he sends his old soldiers to Henei and they are absorbed by the generals, would he not suffer a loss? So he wants to recruit five hundred new soldiers to escort the tribute.”

After a pause, Zhao Lian lowered his voice. “I hear that the new recruits Wang Suppressing the North is gathering are meant to fill the vacancies among the Son of Heaven’s tiger guards. If you can be selected into the tiger guards, that would not be a bad road to office.”

Serving as a guard at the emperor’s gate was also an excellent job for a ruined family of scholar-officials.

Zhao Ji asked in confusion, “Would the accompanying generals really allow the Son of Heaven to enlarge his tiger guard and palace guards?”

“Would those men dare do what Dong Zhuo and Li Jue did?”

Zhao Lian retorted with perfect confidence. The generals escorting the Son of Heaven east had once held great power when they ruled their own territories.

But now they had lost their lands, suffered heavy losses at the hands of Li Jue and the others, and many soldiers could not endure such catastrophic casualties and had gradually fled.

Moreover, with General Suppressing the North Wang Yi, governor of Hedong, and Grand Marshal Zhang Yang, governor of Henei, pressing down upon them from above, the accompanying generals checked and constrained one another, making it impossible for any one of them to dominate. Who among them could repeat what Dong Zhuo and Li Jue had done?

Zhao Ji no longer objected. He only felt that this guard duty would not be easy.

But staying in the mountains was devoid of enjoyment, and there was no clue there to raise his hidden advantage.

Perhaps going out, killing a few bandits in self-defense, and farming some experience from wild mobs would allow him to break through the limit.

The bandits and thieves in the hills near Jishan were all local people, tied by kinship or old acquaintances, and difficult to strike at.

Having made up his mind, Zhao Ji nodded and no longer argued over a matter that did not concern them. “All right, I’ll go.”

He agreed aloud, yet in his heart he was already thinking of lying low in Jishan for ten years before making a dazzling debut as a sword god.

Pity he could not lie low. Cao Cao had not yet ushered in the Son of Heaven, and taking refuge with the Son of Heaven might yet prove a good path into office.

Still, remaining in Jishan as a sword god would probably be very pleasant.

With that faint regret in mind, Zhao Ji lifted his brows and glanced at the clouds in the sky, growing a little impatient to see these heroic figures of the age of chaos.