The bearded man gave Wu Tiezhu one cold look and said, low, “Fall back… All of you, back into the shaft!”

Wu Tiezhu was fumbling in a panic to load another bolt. He could use a crossbow, but not well.

Ning Chen came over and put a hand on his wrist.

“First squad! Muskets up!”

Ning Chen had divided the thousand men into ten squads back on the boat.

Dozens of men came forward fast. The rest fell back.

The men in front formed two ranks, the first crouched down on one knee, the men behind them standing.

Every one of them brought up a black iron thing in his hands.

“Second squad ready! First squad, fire!”

At Ning Chen’s word.

Bang! Bang! Bang!!!

The sound was like a thunderclap, and fire and black smoke spread out from it.

Blood sprayed, and scream after scream went up.

More than half the men falling back toward the shaft went down in an instant… The rest were struck stupid by the thunderclap of the muskets, staring in terror at the things in the soldiers’ hands.

They had never in their lives seen anything so terrible.

“Second squad, up!”

The first squad pulled straight back and the second filled the gap. A hundred muskets and more came to bear on the dozen or so men left.

“Put down your weapons and surrender now. Any man who refuses — the bodies at your feet are what comes next for you… I promise you not one of you lives!”

They looked at the bodies at their feet, and every face among them went a dreadful paper white.

At last one of them broke and threw down the blade in his hand.

Seeing it, the others threw down their blades one after another.

But the bearded man spun around and ran for the shaft behind him.

Ning Chen made a cold sound in his nose, snatched a musket out of a soldier’s hands, brought it up and fired.

Bang!!!

When the deafening noise of it had passed, blood burst out of the bearded man’s calf and he pitched forward on his face.

Ning Chen blew across the muzzle and said sharply, “Take all of them!”

Wu Tiezhu’s eyes were ready to split. He came at the bearded man with the crossbow in his fist.

Ning Chen’s eye and hand were quicker, and he caught hold of him.

“He’ll die. But not now… I still have things to ask him.”

Wu Tiezhu howled in his agony, “Little Chen, he killed Pa. He killed Chuntao…”

“I know!” Ning Chen clapped his shoulder to steady him. “I promise you. He will die.”

Wu Tiezhu nodded.

Every one of them was taken.

Ning Chen came and stood in front of them, drew his blade and laid it against one man’s neck. “What men are you?”

The man said nothing.

Ning Chen smiled coldly, put his weight behind the blade and opened the man’s throat.

The blade moved along and pointed at the next man. “Same question. Answer me.”

Terror filled the man’s face, and he looked back at the bearded man.

“Don’t want to talk? Never mind, then.”

Ning Chen’s blade went up and came down, and that was the end of him.

The long blade, dripping blood, moved along again and pointed at the third man. “Still the same question. Answer me.”

This one was frightened out of his mind. He shrieked in terror, “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me—”

“I told you to answer my question. I didn’t tell you to beg.”

Ning Chen brought the blade down and the blood flew.

He shook the blood off it and pointed at the fourth man.

“My name is Miao San. I’m from Lingzhou and I live by gambling. I owed Boss Jin a lot of silver, so I came out here to work the debt off… Spare me, my lord! Spare me!”

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes a little. “Who is Boss Jin?”

Miao San stole a look at the bearded man.

Ning Chen kicked him aside and said sharply, “Yuan Long. Take them away and question them separately… I want to know how many times each of them wet the bed as a child.”

“Sir!”

Yuan Long took the rest of them away and left only the bearded man.

Ning Chen tipped his chin up with the bloody blade. “Boss Jin? What’s the whole name?”

A savage light came into the bearded man’s eyes, and he said, hard, “Kill me, carve me, please yourself… If you’ve got it in you, make it quick!”

Instead of angering Ning Chen, it made him smile.

“There’s a man. Hold it in. Don’t scream.”

Ning Chen flicked the blade up and took one of the bearded man’s ears clean off.

“Aah—”

The bearded man screamed like a pig on the block. He clapped a hand over the ear, and the blood came welling out between his fingers, and the pain had the veins standing out on him and the cold sweat pouring off him.

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “That’s it? And I thought you had hard bones in you. It seems I rated you too high.”

“Kill me if you’ve got the nerve. Don’t think a cheap trick like that is going to frighten me.”

The bearded man roared it.

Ning Chen drew his dagger and dropped it in front of him.

“I’ll give you a chance to kill yourself. Go ahead… One light draw across the throat and you’ve said goodbye to this world for good.”

The bearded man looked at the sharp dagger on the ground, and his fingers would not stop shaking.

Ning Chen smiled coldly and said, “Do you have a wife? Children? Once you’re dead I’ll have your woman put into the courtesans’ quarter, where a thousand men will ride her and ten thousand will sleep with her… Your son will be sent off to some bitter cold place. Though you won’t be seeing any of it.”

The bearded man’s eyes fixed on Ning Chen and would not leave him. He roared, “The trouble doesn’t reach a man’s family!”

Ning Chen smiled coldly. “I am an officer of the Great Xuan. I carry the emperor’s favor, I eat my sovereign’s salary, and what I hold to is the law of the Great Xuan… The rules of the jianghu are nothing to me.”

“And even if I let your wife and son go, your wife will marry again in time. Another man will sleep with your wife, spend the silver you earned and beat your son… And say she doesn’t marry again, say we grant you that much — will the men behind you kill her to close her mouth?”

The bearded man roared, “She doesn’t know anything! She’s done nothing!”

Ning Chen said mildly, “You say she’s done nothing, and I believe she’s done nothing… But will the man who put you up to this believe it?”

“Enough. Why am I telling all this to a man who’s set on dying? Kill yourself and be quick about it, and I’ll carry your head back and collect the reward, and everybody goes home happy.”

The bearded man’s eyes stayed fixed on Ning Chen. “Just who are you?”

“Ning Chen. Silver coat of the Inspectorate.”

The bearded man’s eyes narrowed to points. “The Ning Chen who cut down the Empress’s brother?”

Ning Chen said, smiling, “So you’ve heard of me.”

“Ning the Silver Coat. If I talk, can you keep my family safe?”

Ning Chen said mildly, “That depends on whether what you say is worth anything.”

The bearded man set his teeth and said, “This small man is called Jin Wu. I’ve trained in fists and feet since I was a boy and I’ve made my living in the escort trade… Once I ran a shipment for Lord Zhang, the Prefect of Lingzhou, and we met robbers on the road, and I fought to the death to keep the goods.”

“After that Lord Zhang took a liking to me and I became one of his guards… And after that I came to be trusted, and I did things for him that don’t bear the light. Running gambling houses. Running brothels.”

Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You mean Zhang Yuancang, the Prefect of Lingzhou?”

“Yes.”

“So he’s the one who set you to stealing gold out of this mountain?”

Jin Wu nodded. “Half a year ago Lord Zhang gave me my orders. I was to gather up a lot of men like Miao San… rotten gamblers, every one of them, men and ghosts alike sick of the sight of them. Nobody would care if they vanished.”

“Once I had enough hands I brought them out here and we started digging.”

Ning Chen said, low, “How long have you been digging?”

“Three months.”

It gave Ning Chen a jolt. That long… There’s no telling how much ore these little shits have moved out of here.

Ning Chen asked mildly, “How did Zhang Yuancang find out about the mine?”

(End of Chapter 145)