Chapter 23: The Thunder of Jingkang

Yue Fei parted the ranks of the imperial guards and strode away with his soldiers.

On the empty field, Tong Guan’s corpse lay solitary, blood flowing from his neck, staining a vast patch of earth crimson.

When Tong Guan was inciting the generals, Zhao Ji had remained silent, tacitly consenting to the act. But now, faced with this scene, his voice was weary as he said, "Let’s go back to the palace."

Thus, the imperial carriage set out once more. Yet the mood of the procession had undergone a profound transformation. Especially among Cai Jing and his peers, who had been awakened from their joy at returning to Kaifeng—perhaps, they thought, they truly should not have come back.

Yue Fei led his men to ransack Tong Guan’s residence. Over a hundred of Tong Guan’s followers were thrown into the death cells, and they would suffer punishments commensurate with their crimes. But this band, who had followed Tong Guan, could be said to have committed every conceivable evil—oppressing men, abusing women, and exploiting the common folk. Killing them ten times over would not be unjust.

From Tong Guan’s home, Yue Fei confiscated fifty million taels of silver and ten million taels of gold, not to mention countless rare treasures. When these riches were sent to the national treasury, Zhao Huan suddenly felt immensely wealthy. To put it in perspective, during Emperor Huizong’s reign, the Song dynasty’s annual revenue was only twenty million taels of silver. Now, seizing Tong Guan’s estate equaled two years of tax income for the entire dynasty. How could Zhao Huan not be pleased?

Historical records note that after the Song’s defeat by the Jin, some generals hired a dozen large ships to flee with their fortunes. Zhao Huan had always doubted the veracity of these stories, but seeing Tong Guan’s wealth firsthand, he understood at last.

"No wonder Emperor Qianlong, knowing He Shen was corrupt, still kept him around. Qianlong must have thought, let him steal—the money ultimately stays under my control, stored in his house for safekeeping. After all, in feudal society, there’s no way for officials to flee abroad," Zhao Huan mused. It seemed he should find an opportunity to deal with the other four officials as well; that way, he would truly be rich.

With grain in hand, there is no fear in the heart. Backed by Tong Guan’s fifty million taels, Zhao Huan felt much more at ease; at least, he need not worry about raising funds for a while.

The military reforms proceeded in an orderly fashion. The Song army, once boasting an eighty-thousand-strong imperial guard, had been trimmed down to three hundred thousand soldiers. Yet these remaining troops were all genuine warriors.

Three hundred thousand men, plus the Flying Feather Army—ten thousand strong, independent of the five main military districts—constituted the entirety of Song’s martial might.

At that moment, in the training grounds of the Flying Feather Army, Zhao Huan watched the soldiers drilling below, feeling a surge of pride.

The training regimen for the Flying Feather Army was modeled on modern special forces: a five-kilometer march every morning, conventional physical training following modern military standards in the morning, specialized skills in the afternoon, and cultural classes at night. Each of these ten thousand men could take on ten opponents.

Whenever new weapons were developed, Zhao Huan would personally lecture the troops, earning them the moniker “Students of the Emperor.” Many would later rise to command their own armies.

Because the entire force dressed oddly and specialized in night combat, the Flying Feather Army would later earn a nickname: the Phantom Army. But that was another story.

This day, Zhao Huan intended to demonstrate a new piece of equipment devised by the Ordnance Department—the Hidden Fire Thunder.

In essence, it was a grenade of sorts, though limited by the crude explosive technology of the era. The Hidden Fire Thunder was not as powerful as modern grenades, but could easily kill one or two people.

“Watch closely! This thing in my hand, which looks like a ball, I’ve named the Jingkang Thunder. Be extremely careful with it—it’s very dangerous. See this fuse? When you use it, just pull out the fuse and throw it toward the enemy,” Zhao Huan instructed. “Now, I’ll show you how it’s done.”

With a resounding boom, a crater wide enough for a man appeared on the training ground, smoke billowing from the blast. Although Zhao Huan had explained its power beforehand, seeing it firsthand left the men awed. What a terr