Hardcore: Qi Worlds Chapter 19: Vaugend Trial 1

 It was mid morning by the time Benzhi and Gisael found the sawmill. Tracking it down was not difficult, a team of oxen left a trail that a blind accountant could follow. And the team, formerly from the camp, had made the trip once with a load of logs. Benzhi estimated the trip took him and Gisael three hours which was probably six hours for men from the camp. The city should be another three to five hours east and at least six hours for men, unless they had horses, Benzhi calculated.

 The location of the sawmill was selected for the river it sat on. A bustling healthy river that had made its way down from the mountains. It was too windy and bendy to carry logs itself, thankfully, Benzhi thought as it ran through the forest also. The water was used to move the logs around and out of the mill. A watermill was also constructed, that Benzhi could see, although he couldn't see its use from this vantage. Benzhi and Gisael lay in some bushes on a small hill overlooking the sawmill, they only spied the odd worker, there did not seem to be a lot of men present

 Benzhi grabbed the wrapped bundle and wiggled into the clothing in the bushes. If he went to talk to the men virtually naked it would be a much more difficult conversation, he thought. Once dressed he spun for Gisael who made a disgusted face at him. Benzhi didn't know what she was on about, the clothes were almost regal. Benzhi's main concern was shunpo and tree-running with the shoes on. Although the shoes offered the barest amount material between his feet and the ground they could interfere with his qi abilities. Benzhi tested shunpo in a minute fashion back towards the north, it did work, but it was severely diminished. Tweaking and practice would need to take place before he could wear the shoes. Benzhi took off the shoes and strapped his pant legs down around the upper ankles.

 Benzhi nodded to Gisael, she would ascertain the best position to monitor him and come to his aid without being seen, he would leave that to her judgment. She nodded back and waved her hand at him in a motion that conveyed, get on with it. Benzhi bent down, Gisael was lying prone in the bushes, and patted her head, she scowled at him and blushed at the same time. It was all he could do not to laugh. Benzhi took off before he got into real trouble.

 Benzhi immediately made a beeline to the roof of the sawmill. The watermill made a lot of noise, Benzhi could stomp across the roof and the occupants wouldn't be the wiser. Tree-running was an amazing ability and running up the wall of the mill was a cakewalk, Benzhi did his best to minimise the noise, just in case someone was on the other side of the wall. It only took a second for him to reach the top where he slowed and crouch walked across the length of the roof. Benzhi was looking for a vantage to spy on the occupants and found one after a few moments. There was a split level, designed to let light in, but keep most of the rain out. It ran down the length of the roof and gave him visibility of almost half the inside of the mill. If they looked up they could possibly see him, so he took care not to be too obvious.

 One thing Benzhi had to hand it to the men, they were smart builders. The structure was sound and well engineered. The watermill was used to run a conveyor to bring the logs up and past the different stations stripping bark, sawing and so on. Then the logs were gravity feed out the other side into a large man made pool designed to store cut planks until they were moved. When in operation the place was presumably extremely noisy, however only the watermill was making noise at the moment, everything else had stopped.

 Benzhi could see at least five men, one of which was in charge. There did not seem to be any guards, although all the men wore hand axes at their belt. The man in charge was large in height and weight. He didn't look like he could run very far but it was still possible for him to be dangerous. Benzhi would not prejudge anyone, waiting to see them in action. He had been around enough not to judge a book by its cover. From what seemed like a couple of previous lives ago, when Ben was in the defence force on earth, it was sometimes the fattest, most unfit, bloke who was the most dangerous in a scrap. The big man had two axes at his sides, short cropped hair and leathery skin. His clothes weren't dressy, they were functional, consisting of pants and shirt made of a heavy canvas material with a short sturdy leather apron which held chisels and small hammers. Benzhi presumed he was in charge by his manner.

 There wasn't much else to do, Benzhi did not want to spy for days to pick up more information on their operations and reaction to the stolen axes and oxen. He would circle the sawmill, check for all possible threats and then enter to have a little chat with the fat man in charge.

 After a quick reconnoitre, where Benzhi still went unnoticed, there were only two more men at the sawmill. They were constructing two outbuildings for the operation, possibly a couple of cabins.

 Benzhi approached the large entrance to the sawmill, ducked his head inside and called, "Hello, anyone home?"

After a few glances between the men, the big man took a couple of steps towards Benzhi. "And who might you be?" He questioned.

"Uh, I am Benzhi," he answered politely. Benzhi did not enter the sawmill and kept his wits about him for anyone approaching from behind.

"And what might you want?" The big man continued questioning.

"I want to help of course," Benzhi answered as if helping people was his entire life's work.

The big man sighed, "And how might you be helping us?" He started to sound bored with the conversation as if he was talking to an idiot.

"Well," Benzhi continued, "I could supply you with logs and you would not need to risk men and oxen at the forest to the north."

The big man suddenly looked very interested. "Oh..." he said. "Did the missing axes and oxen have something to do with you?" he asked in a threatening manner. Taking a few steps forward as he spoke.

"Yes," Benzhi tried to calm the situation, "your crew invaded the forest, we found a peaceful means to stop the damage. I am here to talk to resolve the issue. Before anyone gets hurt."

 The big man guffawed. "Did you hear that," he said to the workers. "Before any one gets hurt he says." The big man turned back to Benzhi, taking a couple more steps forward. "You are wise to talk before anyone gets hurt cos it be you who will get the hurting." The big man seemed used to bullying. He punctuated his words with his now drawn hand axe. "Lind, go get the deed from my desk top draw."

 "Listen here welp," the big man continued he was within a few meters of Benzhi now and stopped. "Lind there is getting the deed from the Duke of Vaugend giving us rights to do whatever we wish too that there forest." Lind passed over the scroll which the big man now brandished.

 "I see, my apologies," Benzhi said condescendingly towards the big man. Benzhi paused for a second, lowering his head before lifting it and adding. "I am talking to the wrong person."

 With that statement, Benzhi shunpo'd within arms reach of the big man and qi punched him directly in the nose pushing it up into the big man's head. The big man went flying, his feet lifting off the ground and flew back five meters away from Benzhi, such was the force of the blow. The big man did not move an inch when Benzhi struck he didn't have time. He did not move after either. He lay motionless on the ground blood gushing from the hole where his nose had been. Benzhi calmly walked over to the big man, warily watching the workers with his peripheral vision. He bent down to retrieve the document.

 "I will be needing this," he announced as he grabbed the document. The workers looked on in shock. They dared not move. Benzhi walked calmly back to the entrance where the two builders stood, he was sure Gisael had them targeted as they stood just outside the sawmill. He turned his back and asked

 He turned his back to the builders and asked, "Who is in charge now?" Benzhi had two builders ten meters behind him and four workers spread with the closest being just less than ten meters. He was effectively surrounded by six men wielding hand axes and hammers. Yet it was the men who were worried. None spoke fearing it could be a death sentence.

 "Well, then, um..." Benzhi did some quick strategising in his head. He wanted to stop any further damage to the forest yet did not want the men calling on man-at-arms or setting fire to the forest. They were capable of much destruction if angered or in fear. He decided on a little speech to stall for time. Killing all these men was not a solution either that would surely strike fear into the city of Vaugend and anger the powers that be.

 "This was, uh..a little misunderstanding," Benzhi started, "we, the forest people, will make reparations. I will go now to conduct discussions with the, erm, Duke." Benzhi paused, looking at the men trying to gauge their thoughts. The just shifted, like they didn't know what to think.

  "In the meantime, in goodwill, you good workers will make no move towards the forest until the issue is solved. If you do this I can guarantee your safety." Benzhi was proud of himself, he made a threat to kill them if they went towards the forest sound like a favour. Showing goodwill, he held out his hands, palms outwards.

Benzhi backed out of the sawmill slowly. The builders quickly shuffled aside giving him a wide berth. Benzhi smiled at them hoping to seem less threatening. Once outside of the sawmill, Benzhi shunpo'd over a short distance of one hundred meters, he wanted the workers to be afraid of the unknown, in awe of their powers. Benzhi knew Gisael would be tracking to his position and he waited when he was well and truly out of sight of the sawmill.

 Gisael approached Benzhi, "I knew," she said while shaking her head slightly. "You had to kill at least one, you are not eager to talk. Smashing is more like you," Gisael pointed at his chest when she said like you. She made it sound like she was all knowing when it came to Benzhi.

 Benzhi sighed. He truly did not think much before qi punching the big man. All he wanted to do was retrieve the deed and talk it to talk to the Duke. He just couldn't bring himself to steal it and run off, which he could have quite easily. If he left the big man in place furious at the stolen deed there was no telling what he would have done. His impulsiveness ss or gut feel may be working for them. Enough navel gazing, "What is done is done," Benzhi replied sweeping his hand back and forth

  "I am going to the city," Benzhi announced to Gisael. "Alone."

Gisael looked angry but quickly overcame it and nodded, "Very well, tell me," she said.

"I will go and try to talk to the Duke and make an offer. I am worried if we just kill men who invade the forest it will escalate out of control. I know men, I have lived with them from my previous world. If afraid they will attack our of fear. If they can see wealth or power that is easy to take they will. I will try to make an offer that is good for men and protects the forest. If unsuccessful I will try and think of some way to stop them attacking the forest. If we cannot achieve this, we will have to find a way to defeat them with as little damage to the forest and the people as possible. This worries me, there could be ten thousand men, there is only fifty of us and only six guardians. At least I have bought time, the loggers will probably stay away until they regroup under a new leader. If they don't. just kill them, I made that clear. If they remove all their belongings and leave the forest border, we have guaranteed their safety."

"I want to offer, the Duke, plantings in this area surrounding the sawmill. Thousands of trees, we can do this can't we?" Benzhi asked.

Gisael nodded. "We can, but it will take time to grow, perhaps two years at least," She informed Benzhi.

"We can try and do some fast growing trees like bamboo and supply some from our forest for the first year. This is a compromise they may accept, a trade of sorts." Benzhi discussed his ideas with Gisael.

Gisael listened intently, Benzhi was unsure how much she understood. She finally nodded and said, "I approve, you have done well for such an idiot who only knows how to hit things."

"I will come back to the southeast border as soon as I can, but, I have no idea when that will be. Wish me luck."

"I wish you luck Benzhi," Gisael said earnestly.

Benzhi nodded and smiled at Gisael, "you too," he replied. Taking his clothes and hopefully, five days of rations, Benzhi set off to the east to the City of Vaugend.

Chapter end