Looking north towards the rivers and mountains

Chapter 321 Retreat!

The process of moving the goods was lengthy. During this time, two more groups of defeated soldiers arrived, but they dispersed after being hit by a hail of arrows. Gradually, the defeated soldiers who had been looting in the city also realized that there was a group of people who were not to be trifled with, so they all subconsciously avoided Juqian Street.

Around midnight, all the vehicles were fully loaded.

Bian Yuanheng, Li Fu, and Jiang Sanbao even seized eight more oxcarts from Huimin Pharmacy, Miscellaneous Goods Bureau, and Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, kidnapping the drivers along with them to help transport goods.

"Let's go!" Liang Tai ordered, standing under the eaves of a shop.

This time, two teams took the lead.

Bian Yuanheng and Jiang Sanbao each led thirteen soldiers, arranged in four columns, to lead the way.

The city was filled with chaotic footsteps, shouts, curses, and even cries, but this place was eerily quiet.

Apart from the rustling footsteps and the clanging of machinery, there was nothing else, demonstrating absolute order.

After they had walked twenty paces, the first batch of oxcarts set off.

The medicinal herbs brought out by Huimin Pharmacy filled three large trucks.

Astragalus, angelica, codonopsis, and licorice were bundled together, exuding a rich herbal aroma.

There were also more than a dozen jars of medicinal wine, their mouths sealed with yellow mud, making a gurgling sound when moved.

The iron millstone, copper mortar, and sieve used for making medicine were also packed into two baskets, clattering together.

Huimin Pharmacy certainly had more than just this much stuff, but much of it had been discarded, and there simply wasn't enough room. If it weren't for the absolute necessity of taking some medicinal herbs, there wouldn't even be these three cartloads.

Dozens of men, women, and children followed behind, their faces filled with fear, mechanically taking steps.

They were all artisans and their families working at Huimin Pharmacy, living in the nearby alleys for easy control. Now, they were being taken away one by one, their doors being kicked down. They were all artisans, not doctors. Huimin Pharmacy mainly purchased medicinal materials, manufactured medicines, and sold them based on prescriptions issued by the Imperial Hospital. They did not treat patients.

"Where are you going? Behave yourselves!" Several porters followed on both sides of the line, their sharp wooden spears pointed at them, and shouted.

A commotion arose in the crowd, but it quickly subsided. No one pushed or shoved anymore, trying to escape—actually, it wouldn't be easy to escape. It was dark, and there were fleeing soldiers everywhere. If they tried to escape, they might get into trouble. Besides, their whole family was there; how could they escape?

"Be careful, be careful." The second convoy set off, with the lead driver carefully controlling the speed and reminding the Huimin Pharmacy family members at the back.

This is the largest convoy, loaded with goods from the Miscellaneous Works Bureau, consisting of fifteen vehicles.

They have all kinds of products.

The semi-finished steel, which had not yet been forged, filled three whole trucks.

The Zhou family, an old acquaintance, were given special treatment, and their apprentices were allowed to travel together by car.

These bottles were ones he specifically asked me to bring.

It's not certain that many outsiders would actually fight, because the best blacksmiths in the Yuan Dynasty were basically registered as artisans, a tradition passed down through generations.

The biggest problem with forging iron armor using horses before was the scarcity of suitable iron on the market. Even in the vast Jiangyin Prefecture, very little could be found, greatly hindering the armor-making process. This time, they'll just bring it along to save trouble.

Besides the steel core, parts like armor plates and sinews were also loaded onto the vehicle and taken away, so that they might be able to assemble a few pieces of iron armor back home.

As for the finished iron armor, there were only six or seven pieces, all of which were in a damaged state. Some were rusty, some were covered in dust, and some were missing parts of the armor plates. According to Master Zhou, this was all a mess. They were supposed to be sent to Dadu (Beijing), but somehow they were left behind. However, no one repaired them, so they just sat there. When other iron armor needed to be repaired, in order to meet the deadline, they often used pieces from these old armors.

There are also five sets of semi-finished iron armor.

When Li Fu and his men rushed in, they immediately spotted the several suits of iron armor laid out in a row on the table, the plates already half-connected with leather straps and sinews. Without needing any orders, everyone could tell they were valuable items, and they simply took them.

Besides these, they also took as many knives, guns, bows, and shields as they could.

There aren't many finished products, after all, the Miscellaneous Works Bureau is not a professional military equipment manufacturing institution. They would rush to make a batch, and once it was done, they would ship it away. Nowadays, most of the products are raw materials and semi-finished products, which are loaded onto ships and shipped out at once after they are finished.

Examples include spearheads that have been quenched but not yet sharpened, ring knives with forged blades but not yet sharpened or fitted with handles, and jujube wood sticks that have been polished smooth and straight but sealed at both ends with wax (to prevent cracking) as materials for spear shafts, and so on.

As for military items such as leather armor, arrowheads, bowstrings, bow tips, sword hilts, scabbards, whips, battle coats, drums, horns, and gongs, it is too numerous to list them all.

They even took the manufacturing tools with them: sledgehammers, hammers, anvils, whetstones, files, chisels, planes, saws, ink lines, bowstrings, washboards, etc. Except for the particularly heavy ones—such as furnaces—they took as much as they could carry, filling fifteen large carts. It was as if they had moved the Changzhou Miscellaneous Manufacturing Bureau.

Actually, didn't Yi Yi just move?

The Changzhou Miscellaneous Workshop had nearly two hundred people. Excluding officials and apprentices, there were about forty craftsmen of various kinds. Nearly thirty were abducted, essentially a complete wipeout. The original crew went to Matuosha to open a new workshop, following established procedures. For workshops with over five hundred craftsmen (including apprentices and apprentices), there were supervisors, deputy supervisors, and assistant supervisors; for three hundred to five hundred, there were directors, supervisors, and supervisors; and for one hundred to three hundred, there were ambassadors and deputy ambassadors. Minor officials such as managers, foremen, heads, clerks, scribes, clerks, and supervisors could be filled by craftsmen, but this was difficult if the craftsmen were illiterate. In the darkness, nearly two-thirds of the craftsmen and apprentices of the Changzhou Miscellaneous Workshop, along with their families, remained, some sighing, some weeping, some silent, staggering forward.

It wasn't that they didn't want to escape. Just now, one family escaped under the cover of night, and the guards hesitated for a moment and didn't shoot them with arrows. As a result, several other families followed suit and fled with them.

The soldier was immediately whipped mercilessly, leaving him in a terrible state.

When someone tried to escape, no one showed mercy; they shot them dead, no matter who they were.

As a result, the remaining people resigned themselves to their fate. Since they wouldn't die anyway, they decided to wait and see how things went.

Thus, the Changzhou Miscellaneous Manufacturing Bureau, an institution that had been established for over sixty years, was severely weakened. The soldiers of the Changzhou Ten Thousand Households Prefecture would likely have nowhere to repair their broken swords unless they paid for repairs themselves.

The last vehicle was the convoy of the Textile and Dyeing Bureau, consisting of five cars.

More than two hundred bolts of silk, brocade, spun silk, gauze, gauze, cotton, and other fabrics were produced.

There weren't many, but the colors were beautiful—bright red, pale yellow, turquoise, and so on—stacked on the truck like a colorful mountain.

There were also dozens of jars of dyes, including indigo, safflower, and gallnut, some of which spilled out and spread into a purple blotch on the cart.

In the end, some people from the textile and dyeing bureau were taken away, but not many, only about twenty people, mostly dyers, embroiderers and their families, who walked slowly behind the vehicles.

Behind them was one last cart, filled with the collected paper money, gold and silver utensils, jade products, precious furs, and some exquisitely crafted clothing, hats, and other items.

Liang Tai led a group of soldiers, standing on the left and right, his expression calm.

Of course, perhaps it was only a facade of calm. After all, he was a young man, and there were still some turmoil within him.

The significance of successfully bringing people to Matuosa and settling them down cannot be underestimated.

There are all sorts of people: pharmacists, blacksmiths, nail makers, carpenters, leatherworkers, stonemasons, dyers, embroiderers, printers... even those who paint Buddhist images, those who paint and decorate high-quality furs or objects, and even those who work in niche crafts like processing agate and jade, carving ivory, and drawing gold wire. They are all talented people!

Just get them out of here, just get them out of here...

Lost in thought, the convoy turned from Juqian Street into a narrow alley. The alley was dark and the walls on both sides were only wide enough for one car to pass through.

Jiang Sanbao walked at the front, holding a torch, the firelight making half of his face turn red.

The people behind followed closely, the wheels crunching over the broken bricks and tiles.

"Hurry up," Bian Yuanheng said in a low voice as he walked over.

It took the entire convoy of several hundred people a great deal of effort to navigate through the narrow alley and turn onto the main north-south street.

During the incident, a scream was heard. It turned out that two apprentice servants had tried to escape by climbing over the wall, but were killed by spears.

Such a bloody scene naturally horrified the group of craftsmen, and the women and children even started crying again.

There were more people on the north and south streets.

The caravan hadn't gone far when they encountered a group of fleeing soldiers. About twenty of them, carrying torches, were kicking at the door of a house. Upon seeing the caravan, they paused, then someone shouted, "What fat sheep!"

Bian Yuanheng didn't speak, but raised his hand and gestured.

A dozen soldiers emerged from behind, knelt on one knee, lined up in a row, and simultaneously drew the strings of a dozen bows.

"put."

Arrows shot out, and the first few fleeing soldiers fell to the ground. The rest of the fleeing soldiers turned and ran, leaving torches scattered on the ground, crackling and burning on the bluestone slabs.

"Don't chase, let's go," Bian Yuanheng said.

The convoy continued onward. After passing two blocks, they heard cries again.

Looking into the distance, flames shot into the sky from the direction of Tianjing Lane, and the official granary was ablaze, with black smoke and sparks billowing upwards, turning half the sky red. People were running around in the firelight, their shadowy figures like ants carrying food.

There was also commotion in the direction of Sanbao Street. Shouts of battle came in waves, mixed with screams of agony. It was unclear whether the Prince's guards were still fighting the fleeing soldiers, or if the fleeing soldiers themselves were fighting each other in a frenzy. Occasionally, there was the sound of arrows piercing the air, followed by curses.

Everyone just glanced around casually, showing no interest in interfering.

As the convoy passed through Lingpu Lane, several corpses lay by the roadside. A woman lay face down on the ground, her clothes torn open on her back, a blood-soaked short jacket covering her body. The wheels rolled over her, the convoy lurched, and continued onward.

Stepping out of the alley, there was an empty space. It was a vegetable market during the day, but deserted at night. Scattered vegetable leaves, broken bowls, and trampled cloth shoes lay on the ground, along with a child's tiger-head hat, lying forlornly in the mud.

The convoy stopped to count the number of people.

Of the hundreds of artisans and their families, some are gone, but the vast majority remain.

Of the twenty-four vehicles, not one was broken.

Liang Tai counted them himself, nodded, and said, "We'll be out of the city after walking two more streets."

The convoy moved in a steady, orderly fashion, and after dispersing another group of fleeing soldiers, the city walls came into view.

There were no guards at the city gate. Several dark figures crouched at the foot of the city wall, running whenever they heard the sound of vehicles, glancing back every few steps before continuing on their way. Once the city gate was opened, the convoy filed out, one vehicle after another, until everyone was out of the city.

Liang Tai was not flustered at all. He even had the goods re-tied up because the roads outside the city were not in good condition, and he made preparations in advance for the safety of the journey.

After everything was in place, he glanced back at Changzhou City and ordered, "Go to Zaogang."

The caravan slowly traveled north along the official road, the wheels creaking and groaning, mingled with the snorting of cattle and horses, the sobs of craftsmen, and the occasional cough of children. After traveling about a mile, the surroundings grew increasingly quiet, and Liang Tai looked back one last time.

The flames of Changzhou City grew farther and farther away, but the sounds continued to be carried by the night wind, intermittent, like the sounds of another world.

He turned back and stopped looking.