Chapter 33: Enough to Poison Hundreds

On the road down from Green Ram Mountain, Lin Chuan repeatedly weighed several possible courses of action.

The safest, naturally, would be to report the matter to General Chen.

But the border garrison lay nearly a hundred li away.

By the time the documents had made the round trip, Magistrate Qin and Landowner Zhang would have cleaned up every trace. What move came next would be entirely beyond his control.

The second option was to kill the Tartars who came to receive the shipment and take their heads in exchange for military merit.

That way, both Magistrate Qin and Landowner Zhang would suffer a silent defeat.

But…

The Tartars sent to receive the goods would certainly not be figures of any importance.

Killing a few errand-running soldiers would neither cut off the root of the treason nor accomplish anything beyond alerting the enemy. The masterminds on both sides were hidden behind the scenes. The returns would be poor, while the corrupt officials would gain an excuse to bicker and shift the blame.

The third option was far bolder.

Lin Chuan decided to impersonate the men of Green Ram Stronghold and conduct the trade with the Tartars as usual.

The goods being traded were government grain.

The Tartars would certainly use it to feed their army.

What he intended to do was secretly poison the grain.

Thousands upon thousands of soldiers would cook it over their fires, and unlike people in later ages, they would not wash it several times before cooking.

As long as he used enough rat poison, killing or injuring eighty or a hundred men would be no problem.

This plan offered the greatest returns.

The moment someone was poisoned, the Tartars would never touch the remaining grain again, even at sword point.

Better still, the silver would fall into his own pocket.

Landowner Zhang would receive nothing—and would earn the Tartars’ hatred in the bargain.

When the time came, if the Tartars turned on one another, Landowner Zhang would face nothing less than their endless fury.

The only problem was ensuring that nothing went wrong during the transaction.

…

Village Headman Wang departed on his mission, crawling and rolling in his haste.

Lin Chuan had sent men to keep watch over him, so he was not worried about any tricks.

Two hours later, several men hurried back.

One of the soldiers carried a cloth sack containing more than twenty packets of poison.

“Captain, we’ve gathered all the rat poison from the three nearby villages!”

“Good.”

Lin Chuan squatted in the courtyard and inspected the packets one by one.

“Captain.” Hu Dayong came over. “This much is enough to poison more than a hundred people.”

“Not enough.”

Lin Chuan shook his head and turned toward Village Headman Wang.

“Is there a physician in the village?”

“There… there’s a barefoot doctor…”

“Lead the way!”

The barefoot doctor’s thatched hut was piled high with dried herbs.

Hu Dayong kicked the door open. The old man’s hand trembled as he pounded medicine, and the pestle clattered to the floor.

“All… all the arsenic I have is here…”

The old man shakily took a cloth bundle down from the rafters.

“Spare me, sir!”

Lin Chuan weighed it in his hand. There seemed to be a little more than half a pound.

He gave a cold laugh and scanned the herbs drying nearby.

“Do you have aconite? Nux vomica?”

The old man’s legs gave way, and he fell to his knees.

“Sir! Those are deadly poisons!”

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“Enough nonsense!”

Hu Dayong seized the old man by the collar.

“Bring them out!”

That night, a large pot was set up in the courtyard of Village Headman Wang’s home.

The rat poison, arsenic, and various poisonous herbs were all dumped into the pot, mixed with water, and brought to a boil.

Anything with too strong a smell was thrown aside.

Lin Chuan did not want the Tartars to smell the poison before they had even eaten it.

Once the poisonous liquid had been reduced, the men carefully ladled it over the sacks of grain.

Millet was dark in color to begin with. After being soaked in the poison, there was no way to tell anything was amiss.

“Captain.” Hu Dayong swallowed hard. “Isn’t this… isn’t this too cruel?”

Lin Chuan did not even look up as he continued mixing the poison into the grain.

“When the Tartars massacre a village, do you ever see them show mercy?”

“There are thirty carts of government grain. Why don’t we keep a few and haul them home?”

Lin Chuan’s eyes passed over the grain sacks piled up like a small mountain. He hesitated, then shook his head.

“The Tartars must already have received word and will be watching the handover. If even one cart is missing, they’ll grow suspicious.”

Hearing this, the others nodded and went back to work.

Before long, Hu Dayong came running back again.

“Captain, two carts are carrying white rice.”

“White rice?”

Lin Chuan’s eyes lit up.

“Come on. Let’s have a look!”

In the courtyard, several men stood around two large carts.

The mouths of the burlap sacks were open, revealing polished white rice that gleamed coldly.

Lin Chuan crouched down and scooped up a handful. Each grain was plump, and as it slipped through his palm, it made a delicate rustling sound.

The soldiers around him swallowed unconsciously.

Most of these men had never tasted rice so fine in their entire lives.

“Excellent. Simply excellent!”

A dangerous light flickered in Lin Chuan’s eyes.

This polished rice could only be destined for the nobles. Ordinary soldiers would never have the chance to taste it.

“Bring me two large ladles of the poison!”

Killing ordinary Tartar soldiers would be no more than a minor nuisance.

But if he could poison the nobles in the enemy camp, that would be like hitting the grand prize.

“What?”

Everyone let out a collective cry of dismay.

“Captain…”

Wang Tiezhu could not help speaking up. He stared longingly at the snow-white grains.

“Couldn’t we… save a little?”

“Exactly. It’s polished rice…”

Several recruits nodded along, unable to conceal the desire in their eyes.

“You want to eat polished rice?”

Lin Chuan gave a cold laugh.

“Finish this job, and I’ll buy you all some when we get back!”

…

At midnight, red lanterns were hung before the main courtyard gate.

They were the signal agreed upon with the Tartars.

Hu Dayong and the other veterans remained relatively calm, but the recruits could not stop trembling.

Lin Chuan looked over them, then suddenly grinned.

“Being afraid is exactly right! When you see the Tartars later, tremble if you need to tremble, and let your legs go weak if they want to! The more cowardly you look, the less suspicious they’ll be!”

He deliberately selected several recruits with youthful faces.

“You lot hide in the back when the time comes. Pretend you’ve only just joined the bandits.”

From the distance came the dull sound of hoofbeats, approaching steadily.

Lin Chuan straightened the wolfskin coat he had stripped from the bandit chief. The smile on his face slowly twisted.

The heavy hoofbeats stopped outside the courtyard. A troop of cavalry dismounted and entered.

Every one of them wore a broad-brimmed conical hat and had his face covered by black gauze, revealing only pairs of eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.

Lin Chuan hurried forward with a fawning smile, his waist bending unconsciously lower.

He looked exactly like a bandit with money in his eyes.

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The Tartar leader suddenly stopped. His gaze beneath the black gauze sharpened.

“Where is Old Third Yuan?”

His words were delivered in flawless, perfectly pronounced speech of Great Qian, making everyone’s heart jolt.

“Re-Reporting to you, sir…”

Lin Chuan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he deliberately made his voice tremble.

“Today the border troops came up the mountain. We surrounded them and killed twenty men… Third Brother and several others also died beneath the border soldiers’ blades.”

He turned and gave a meaningful glance.

Hu Dayong immediately led several soldiers forward and dragged out a few burlap sacks soaked in blood. With a wet crash, they dumped out a pile of mangled heads.

The most horrifying one still had half a bloodstained scrap of cloth clenched between its teeth.

They were the real bandits they had killed.

The Tartar leader snorted and casually lifted one of the heads with the tip of his saber.

Under the moonlight, Lin Chuan noticed a savage scar on the inside of his wrist.

“Hmph. More than twenty border soldiers? I’d say you killed civilians and brought their heads here to make up the numbers.”

Disdain sounded from beneath the conical hat.

“Where are the armor and weapons?”

“Your Excellency is perceptive!”

Lin Chuan gave an ingratiating chuckle.

“We wanted to keep the armor and weapons to trade for something to eat…”

He waved his hand. The soldiers pushed open the woodshed, revealing more than twenty sets of battered border armor.

“If Your Excellency wants them, we’ll give them all to you…”

The Tartar leader bent down to inspect the cuts on the armor. Only then did his tense shoulders finally relax.

“Worthless junk. Keep it.”

The Tartars inspected the large carts one by one.

A small, thin attendant suddenly grabbed a handful of rice and rolled the grains between his fingertips.

Lin Chuan’s back instantly went rigid.

That was one of the poisoned sacks.

“Hurry up!” the leader barked impatiently. “We have to cross Eagle Beak Gorge before dawn!”

The thin attendant reluctantly let the grains fall.

“The goods have been checked. Until we meet again.”

The Tartar leader tossed over a leather pouch.

Lin Chuan caught it in one hand. It was heavy, but it could not contain more than a few hundred taels.

Seeing his confusion, the Tartar leader gave a cold laugh.

“Two hundred taels of gold for all this grain and twenty heads? Your landowner will wake up laughing from his dreams!”

At those words, the group of border soldiers was stunned.

One man’s legs went weak, and he collapsed directly onto the ground.

Lin Chuan acted on instinct and dropped to his knees with a thud.

“This humble one thanks Your Excellency on behalf of the landowner!”

Hu Dayong behind him froze, then hurriedly knelt as well.

Thud, thud, thud!

A whole group of soldiers dropped to their knees.

One recruit was so frightened that his legs truly gave way, and he lay on the ground trembling uncontrollably.

That, instead, caused the Tartars to let down their guard completely. Laughing loudly, they departed without looking back.

Only after the hoofbeats had vanished entirely did Hu Dayong slump to the ground.

“Damn it… When that fellow grabbed the rice just now, I nearly pissed myself!”

Zhang Xiaonian remained kneeling on the ground, staring blankly for a long while.

“Gold… gold… gold, gold, gold…”

Wang Tiezhu smacked him on the back of the head.

“I’ll ask for you!”

The next instant, he darted over to Lin Chuan.

“Captain, what does gold look like?”

“Yeah, what does gold look like?”

Everyone crowded around him.

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