Chapter 39: Picking Up a Pier

At 1:20 AM, the operations of Wang Shumen and Zhang Da'an concluded successfully. They had scavenged the village of Futou for gold, silver, jewelry, iron, grain, cotton cloth, and other valuables worth over one hundred thousand taels of silver. With grain prices in the Deng-Lai region soaring, the stocks of grain were particularly prized.

Commandeering all available horse, donkey, and ox carts in Futou village, Wang and Zhang mobilized over two hundred vehicles to transport the spoils back to Zhangzhuang throughout the night. Following Zhang Chen’s orders, they escorted the caravan back to their home base.

Fifteen minutes after the people of Zhangzhuang departed, and before the residents of Futou could recover from the shock of having their valuables seized, opportunists arrived. Five hundred men from the Futou Wharf Guard stormed the village, engaging in murder, arson, and rape. These guards were former displaced refugees hired by the village. Futou was notorious as a pirate village; its residents were aggressive and frequently abused their own guards, treating them with suspicion and forbidding them from entering the village proper near the wharf.

Earlier that evening, Fu Xiaotian had led nine hundred able-bodied men from Futou to launch a surprise attack on Zhangzhuang, leaving the village largely defenseless. Following Fu Xiaotian’s crushing defeat and the subsequent looting of his village by the Zhangzhuang militia, the wharf guards seized their chance. By 3:30 AM, they had rounded up over a hundred young women from Futou and set the village ablaze before departing. Planning to become bandits, they headed for Mount Ci, some twenty miles away, leaving the abandoned wharf behind. Scouts from Zhangzhuang’s intelligence unit had been monitoring the situation and immediately reported these developments to Zhang Chen.

Aware that Futou was now devastated and its wharf ownerless, Zhang Chen claimed the site and renamed it the Zhangzhuang Wharf, deciding he would have to manage it himself. By 9:30 AM, Zhang Chen’s fleet arrived at the newly claimed wharf. Having sailed along the coast in coordination with horse-mounted scouts, his arrival was expected, and a transport team organized by Qi Guoshu was already waiting.

Zhang Chen disembarked and rode back to Zhangzhuang to rest, leaving the militia to oversee the unloading of the captured wealth—including the iron, grain, and cloth—onto the waiting carts. Thus, the defense of Zhangzhuang concluded in total victory. The battle cost Zhangzhuang over one hundred lives, including nine from the death squad. In return, they killed over 1,300 Japanese pirates and over 700 other pirates, while seizing goods worth nearly 400,000 taels of silver, alongside six large 200-ton Fuchuan or Dasha ships, over thirty smaller vessels, and a vast cache of steel blades.

Wang Shumen and his team were dispatched to recruit skilled laborers—sailors, blacksmiths, and gunpowder experts—from outside Dengzhou city, while Qi Guoshu sent teams to Muping and Qixia counties for the same purpose. Meanwhile, the Fushan County militia, having suffered only five casualties, had killed or captured over three hundred pirates and recovered over a thousand steel blades during their mop-up operations. Tian Xuewen was delighted by these results, and his opinion of Zhang Chen improved slightly.

The Zhangzhuang (Futou) Wharf was substantial, featuring a commercial district with two streets and over twenty shops. The wharf guards had spared this area, eager to reach Mount Ci. Zhang Chen ordered the first and second companies of the Zhangzhuang militia to occupy the wharf’s stone-built barracks and serve as the new wharf guards, appointing Liu Pu as their captain. Zhang Chen also planned to expand his militia to 2,500 men to ensure the security of the wharf.

Upon returning to the Zhang family estate, Zhang Chen was surprised to find Tian Yachun in the backyard.

"Miss Tian, why are you here?" he asked.

"Our young lady has been here since 9:30 PM last night," Dongmei interrupted, stepping forward. "Master Zhang, you should send someone to the Tian family to propose marriage. Our lady will marry you as your primary wife with a generous dowry, and you won't need to be a matrilocal son-in-law."

"How generous is this dowry? Can it reach 100,000 taels?" Zhang Chen asked, suddenly remembering his haul of over 300,000 taels. With an air of feigned righteousness, he added, "As my comrades know, I view money as dirt. My feelings for Miss Tian are water that has been spilled—no dowry could change that." He then looked troubled. "Besides, the Magistrate hates me. I saw him at the village entrance earlier, and he looked like he wanted to bite me. How could he possibly let me marry his daughter?"

"My father biting you? Zhang Chen, you are the dog!" Tian Yachun scolded. "Qishan Thousand-Household-Officer Qi Dazhi did not die. Once he learned you had seized all the wealth of the Qishan post, he went to Dengzhou to report you. His father-in-law is a regional commander; you will certainly have to return what you took."

Dongmei added with a gloating expression, "And the esteemed elder Shi Keren, who grew up in Futou, has also gone to Dengzhou to report you for the same reason."