Tiger Guards

Chapter 488 Hammer and Iron Pot
Outside the eastern city walls, on the west bank of the Fen River, lies the Cai family garden.

When Zhao Ji arrived, a curfew had already been imposed, and the nearby military posts had mobilized their soldiers to clear the roads.

This place is located outside the eastern city wall of Jinyang, and there is also an expanded Fen River wharf.

Therefore, the Jinyang East Market developed, mainly selling daily necessities such as vegetables, fruits, and firewood; the east bank of the Fen River was the largest Jinyang Sheep and Horse Market.

Although the weather is cold now, there are still caravans from various Xiongnu tribes lingering there.

They pitched their tents, making Yangmashi on the east bank look like a Hunnic camp from afar.

In front of the Cai family garden, Guan Shang, who had arrived a step ahead, had already set up sentries. He quickly jumped down from the steps in front of the gate, and when Zhao Ji got out of the carriage, Guan Shang said, "Grand Marshal, Lady Cai originally wanted to come out to greet you, but I persuaded her to stay in the garden."

“Ah Shang did the right thing. Tonight, all the guards will retreat into the garden and rest in the houses.”

Zhao Ji gave a word of advice: if we had to set up a tight night watch here, it would be quite a hassle.

That being said, I'll just relax tonight.

Driven by an inexplicable sense of vigilance, Zhao Ji felt that he should live separately from the old man.

Both sides have the ability to rally their remaining forces to launch a retaliation, which can deter some people from taking risks easily.

As for Lao Zhao, forget about him. Although he is brave and ruthless, he can be an executor, but not a qualified organizer.

Thinking about these things, Zhao Ji quickly stepped into the courtyard.

The guards either followed them in or led the horses and carts around to the side gate of the garden.

At the central gate, Cai Zhaoji, wearing a white fox fur cloak, was waiting with several maids. When she saw Zhao Ji striding in, she stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Husband."

"The wind is strong tonight, come with me back to the house quickly."

Zhao Ji urged her on, finding her pace too slow, and then took the opportunity to put his arm around Cai Zhaoji's shoulder and carry her to the backyard.

Two maids, carrying lanterns, followed quickly. Cai Zhaoji couldn't help but laugh: "Would my husband like to eat?"

“I don’t need that. Provide the guards with firewood and charcoal; they need to eat at night.”

Zhao Ji's guards will not eat the meals provided here; they will cook their own food using ingredients they bring.

Not to mention Cai Zhaoji, they wouldn't even eat the food provided by the Marquis of Jinyang's residence.

Cai Zhaoji immediately waved to her personal maid, who was now the steward, and the maid quickly left.

The maid's status rose higher and higher. After giving birth to a baby boy, Liu Qubei sent her maids, guards, carriages, horses, and supplies.

She is also Zhao Tiechui's wet nurse... As for the child's nickname, Zhao Ji chose Tiechui, which symbolizes strength and health.

In the future, children's nicknames can simply include the character for "iron" (铁). There's no need to fuss over their formal names. Otherwise, we'd have to force the creation of new characters and end up developing the periodic table a thousand years ahead of time.

Before the Song and Ming dynasties, there weren't many rules about names. Not only would fathers and sons, or grandfathers and grandsons, use synonyms, but several generations of grandfathers and grandsons would even use the same homophone, such as Xun Yu.

Inside the warm dormitory, Zhao Ji changed his clothes and went to check on the sleeping Little Iron Hammer.

He glanced at it a few times and then quietly moved back; he had no interest in comforting a crying baby.

He clenched and unclenched his fists several times before retreating to the inner hall and asking in a low voice, "Is the crying and fussing bad?"

"With a wet nurse to take care of her, things are peaceful, but when it's windy at night, she often wakes up and can't fall back asleep, needing someone to soothe her."

Cai Zhaoji also answered in a low voice that she did not need to take care of the children herself.

Zhao Ji nodded, then sat down in the chair and asked, "How have you been lately?"

"Many relatives and friends from the village have asked me to help them, which is very troublesome, but I can't just ignore it."

Cai Zhaoji also took her seat. The Cai clan of Yu County lived together as a clan, and they were basically relocated by Zhao Ji, whether by choice or by force.

Except for a few who actively cooperated and became registered residents of Jinyang, the rest were demolished and became government tenants.

Zhao Ji then asked, "How did you handle it?"

“Some money, grain, and cloth were sent, but I couldn’t do much else. However, the counties took pity on me and gave me preferential treatment when allocating government land. I think it won’t be difficult to make a living, which is better than the unstable livelihood in my hometown.”

Cai Zhaoji answered patiently, and after hesitating for a moment, she said, "It was Yuanming Gong who made the decision to make Tiechui the eldest son."

"It's alright, Alan won't mind."

Zhao Ji responded with a sound of exhaustion, then said, "I'm tired. We can talk about other things tomorrow."

Alan's status was too low; no one would help him deliver the letters he wrote through others, so several letters were piled up and sent to the front lines together.

The eldest son, even if he is the eldest son born out of wedlock, is still the eldest son.

Alan's child was born three days earlier, and Zhao Ji named him Iron Can.

We'll see how things go later. We'll decide on a formal name based on tradition after the child turns seven, since there's too much chance of the child dying young.

Just like Zhao Ji's generation, he had older brothers and sisters who died young, and only their nicknames were left behind, not their full names.

Zhao Ji's original self was disliked by his mother because of a difficult childbirth that angered Pei Shi; as a result, he was unruly and was disliked even more.

Alan's background was too humble, and Zhao Ji didn't want her and her son to get involved in too many disputes.

By relinquishing his status as the eldest son, he can avoid attracting unwanted attention.

Cai Zhaoji is no longer alone. After forcing Chen Gong to his death, the people of Yanzhou will form a new group around her. Han Rong was able to lower himself and decisively come to serve the old man; other scholars are not lacking in such opportunistic decisiveness.

By having Little Hammer inherit the title of Marquis of Jinyang, he would naturally have no further connection with the future Marquis of Pingyang.

Who will inherit the family business in the future? This will take time to assess... Zhao Ji even prefers inheritance by fewer sons or by skipping generations.

An inheritance is something you can't take with you when you die.

At this point, he was just over twenty years old, and considering this matter was far too advanced for him.

He might be in his sixties or seventies, reaching the age of maturity, and he'll pass on his inheritance to whoever pleases him.

Cai Zhaoji had a lot to say, but seeing that Zhao Ji's excitement after seeing the child had subsided and he was showing signs of fatigue, she immediately got up to light the lamp in another bedroom.

Having not seen each other for so long, Zhao Ji had no interest whatsoever. Before he could even take off his outer robe, he lay down on the warm kang (heated brick bed) and was immediately overcome by sleep, falling into a deep slumber.

In the middle of the night, he vaguely heard a child crying. He shook Cai Zhaoji beside him, but she did not move.

Then they heard footsteps, and the child quickly stopped crying.

Zhao Ji then stopped opening his eyes. When he opened them after he had slept enough, he saw that the room was brightly lit, indicating that he had slept until about ten or eleven o'clock.

He could still hear the little girl's laughter. He got up, straightened his clothes, and walked out of the dormitory in his bearskin slippers. He saw two wet nurses feeding two babies. He recognized Little Hammer at a glance. The baby next to him was bigger and could already turn his eyes to look at him.

The little girl peeked at him from behind the cabinet, grinning with no front teeth. Zhao Ji smiled back, and the girl turned and ran away.

He soon followed Cai Zhaoji in, who was holding a newly sewn winter coat: "Husband, shall you wash up first?"

"Well, just prepare some light food for me. I need to go to Mr. Wenhe's place to discuss matters later, and then I will be inspecting the garrison in the city with General Gongming."

Zhao Ji took the clothes and added, "I'm going to the West City tonight, and I'll come back early tomorrow morning."

Cai Zhaoji looked disappointed, so she arranged for a maid to deliver a message, while she helped Zhao Ji wash up and change into brand new clothes.

Wearing the new clothes, which might have carried Cai Zhaoji's scent, he noticed that the little iron hammer was fast asleep when he approached it again.

Zhao Ji reached out and touched the tip of his nose, then stopped touching it.

He doesn't consider himself immune to all poisons or a germ-free person.

His body temperature is higher than normal, and diseases that cause symptoms in others do not have any effect on him.

Therefore, he really didn't want to get too close to children with weak immune systems.

Several wet nurses returned to the bedroom with two infants. Cai Zhaoji asked, "I heard that we will be attacking the Lushui Hu and the Beidi Hu in winter?"

"Yes, we'll wait for the snowfall before sending out the troops."

Zhao Ji returned to the table, sat down, grabbed a sesame cake, took a bite, and then drank a sip of the mutton bone soup: "This soup is good, and the mutton is good too."

“These are people sent by the Right Wise King. The sheep were also sent by the Right Wise King. He also wants to bring Aqing back.”

Aqing was the six-month-old child whose birth mother was Cai Zhaoji's personal maid, so his status could be considered to have risen because of his mother.

“If he were really allowed to welcome him back, he wouldn’t have put in this much effort.”

Zhao Ji continued drinking his soup and asked, "What does Aqing's mother think?"

She wanted to ask her husband to give Aqing a surname, because she didn't want Aqing to have any dealings with the Xiongnu in the future.

"Let him stay here for now. When he gets older and needs to start school, we'll decide on his name together."

Zhao Ji took a bite of the pancake, pondered the matter, and smiled: "With Aqing here, Qu Bei is also feeling uneasy."

This is one of the future successors of the Right Wise King; how can we easily return him to Qubi?
A person like Liu Qubei doesn't really care who will succeed the Right Wise King in the future; what Liu Qubei cares about is the development and growth of his own Dugu tribe.

The title of Right Wise King was a rotating one. Even among the Xiongnu nobles, there was no fixed tradition of hereditary succession from father to son, so Qu Bei would certainly not have had such an idea.

After a quick meal, Zhao Ji, just before leaving, remembered something and said to Cai Zhaoji, "After the spring planting next year, Longshan University will officially begin teaching. I have already ordered rubbings of the Luoyang Xiping Stone Classics, which have been somewhat damaged by the war. After the rubbings arrive, Madam, please complete the missing parts. I will have the stone tablets re-engraved within Longshan University so that students and visitors can make rubbings and copy them."

"Here."

Cai Zhaoji agreed softly. She had important things to do, and that was how her influence could continue to grow.

Before seeing Zhao Ji off, Cai Zhaoji said, "This time, my husband led troops to protect the country and fight against Yuan, but the General sent troops to coerce him. After hearing this news, his daughter was very worried and could not eat or sleep. I could not persuade her, and now she looks very thin. When you have time, my husband, you can go and visit her."

"Ah."

Zhao Ji nodded; he naturally understood Lü Qi's fragile state of mind.

Having witnessed the sudden death of the once-glorious boss Dong Bai, coupled with the pressure exerted by Zhen Mi, it's inevitable that she would scare herself.

Zhen Mi was different. After the more than two thousand servants she brought were settled as government tenants, Zhen Mi's personal income was enormous.

As for Lü Bu, it's impossible for him to send more men to Lü Qi.

However, Zhang Liao's arrival did bolster Lü Qi's confidence to some extent.

However, Zhang Liao has not sent anyone to support Lü Qi so far. While Zhao Ji is relieved, he also has some reservations about Zhang Liao.

However, these opinions are not important. Zhang Liao's foundation lies in the army and his merits. Having just left Lü Bu, Zhang Liao dares not rashly get close to Lü Qi.

As long as Zhang Liao is a skilled and courageous general, the fewer interpersonal disputes the better.

(End of this chapter)