The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Chapter 903 Stalemate
When Jia Lian's other army crossed Shanhaiguan, the court no longer deliberately concealed the news that Jia Lian was leading an army to conquer the Jurchens.

Of course, it couldn't be kept secret any longer.

At first, Jia Zheng, his mother, and others were the first to know the news.

However, in their shock, they could do nothing but invite Sister Feng over for a questioning.

The sisters in the Grand View Garden generally learned of the news several days later.

At the Rongguo Mansion, in the main hall of the Three Lives Stone Residence, the sisters came together to see Sister Feng.

Sister Feng was not yet showing any signs of pregnancy, and in fact, all her actions were no different from usual.

When Yingchun and the others arrived, she warmly welcomed them.

"Sister Feng, has Second Brother Lian really gone to war?"

After everyone sat down and exchanged pleasantries, the youngest, Xichun, walked up to Fengjie and asked a question on behalf of her older sisters.

The smile on Sister Feng's face suddenly slowed down.

She glanced at the three sisters and Baochai, then feigned ignorance and asked, "Didn't you all go to see him off the day he left? Why didn't he tell you?"

As Sister Feng spoke, she glanced at Baochai, seemingly unintentionally.

Unfortunately, Baochai remained calm, making it impossible to tell whether she was unaware of the situation like her sisters, or whether she already knew but deliberately kept quiet.

Xichun glanced at everyone and said somewhat angrily, "No. We all thought he was going to Tianjin like before."

Upon hearing this, Sister Feng patted Xi Chun's hair and comforted her with a smile, "He probably didn't tell you because he was afraid you would worry."

Feng Jie's words confirmed the rumors that Jia Lian had gone to Liaodong.

Some of the sisters remained silent, while others looked worried.

But they didn't know what to say.

What Lian Ergege did were all major events that stabilized the country and brought peace to the nation; they had no right to comment on them.

They could only silently pray that Jia Lian would have a peaceful and successful life.

Seeing that all the Jia family sisters and their relatives' daughters looked gloomy, clearly worried about their husbands, Feng Jie was not very moved.

Even now, how can she not understand why Jia Lian strived so hard to rise in rank?
Putting aside fame and fortune, isn't it all about maintaining his dominant, masculine position and securing his absolute authority at home?

This would prevent her, as a woman, from having the confidence to interfere in his affairs and would only be able to obediently play the role of a pampered wife.

Of course, even though she realized this, Sister Feng had no complaints or dissatisfaction.

On the contrary, she admired and respected Jia Lian's thoughts.

At least Jia Lian used power and fame to suppress her, rather than the traditional Confucian virtues of obedience and submission.

Incompetent men use traditional etiquette and the "Rules for Women" to demand obedience from women.

Only someone as capable as Jia Lian would dare to use such a blatant scheme.

Looking at the faces before her, each more beautiful than the last, Sister Feng secretly curled her lip inwardly.

As his bedmate, he knew Jia Lian's little thoughts all too well.

He has already picked the two most outstanding flowers in the garden. Who knows who will be next!

She had almost no doubt whether Jia Lian had considered this point.

Otherwise, why would he be so nice to them for no reason?

He was so busy, yet he still held a banquet before leaving that day, inviting them over for a tea party.

Why doesn't he call himself Baoyu? Well, that boy Baoyu is currently stuck on the bed and can't get up.

Sigh, otherwise, when that heartless guy comes back, I'll just tell him directly whichever one he's taken a fancy to, and I'll personally help him arrange it and bring her into the family.

This would also prevent him from risking his life for such trivial matters.

It must be admitted that Jia Lian's insistence on going to Liaodong despite her advice really frightened Feng Jie.

Jia Lian is already extremely wealthy, and she is absolutely unwilling for him to take any more risks.

Therefore, if having more younger sisters in the house would make Jia Lian feel at ease staying at home, she would have no objections whatsoever.

As these thoughts crossed her mind, Sister Feng suddenly realized that an important person was missing and couldn't help but ask, "You all came to see me, but why didn't Lin come?"

Sister Feng's tone was somewhat mocking, which made the other shrewd people think a lot.

Although on the surface, Feng Jie and Daiyu and Baochai had a harmonious relationship and there was no jealousy or rivalry between them.

However, this cannot conceal the fact that they are in a competitive relationship.

The girls had secretly speculated whether Lian Er Gege liked Feng Jie Jie more or Lin Jie Jie more.

Of course, now we also need to add Bao Jie.

Worried that Sister Feng would make things difficult for Daiyu, Tanchun quickly replied, "We originally wanted to invite Sister Lin to come along, but when I got there, I found that Sister Lin was sleeping, so we didn't wake her."

Sister Feng laughed and said, "What? It's almost noon, and she's still sleeping?"

Everyone smiled without saying a word. Daiyu's irregular sleep schedule was well-known in the Grand View Garden.

Indeed, if others do things that do not conform to the standards of a well-bred young lady, there will be a supervising matron to talk to them.

But what about Daiyu? Who dares to say anything about her?

Not to mention that she had two powerful backers, Grandmother Jia and Jia Lian, she also held a noble title.

Who dares to say that she wasn't insubordination?
Therefore, Zijuan and Xiangyun are the ones who frequently disobey their superiors.

However, despite her bickering with Daiyu, Xiangyun, with her strong sense of justice, disdained to use it as an excuse for revenge.

She stood up for Daiyu out of loyalty.

"Sister Feng, you've misunderstood Sister Lin. She didn't sleep in."

I was bored early this morning, so after visiting Brother Bao, I went to Longcui Mountain on the way. And guess what happened?

Sister Feng asked curiously, "Oh, could it be that Lin girl is on top?"

"That's right. When I went to check on her, she was offering incense and praying before the Buddha, looking quite serious."

I even laughed at her, saying that she didn't believe in these things, but she ignored me.

Everyone laughed along with Xiangyun because they found her words amusing.

However, everyone knows that Daiyu was probably worried about Jia Lian, which is why she went to Longcui Nunnery early in the morning to pray to Buddha for Jia Lian's protection.

That's true. I suppose Sister Lin is worried about Brother Lian, but like everyone else, there's nothing she can do. She can only comfort herself in this way.

Otherwise, we can go and pray to Buddha for Lian Er Gege (Second Brother Lian).

What if it works?
……

Liaodong.

Prince Bei Jing was overjoyed to receive news of Jia Lian's arrival to aid him.

However, because a large number of Jurchen cavalry were hiding near Liaocheng, eyeing him covetously, he dared not mobilize his troops at will.

He could only repeatedly send people to contact Jia Lian's army to ensure that if the Jurchens attacked Jia Lian, he could send troops to his aid or cooperate in annihilating the enemy. However, the Jurchens also seemed to be very cautious.

After Jia Lian's army passed through Shanhaiguan, it marched north towards Liaocheng.

However, the Jurchens never took any large-scale action.

Aside from occasionally harassing the flanks with small groups of cavalry, and using the same tactics employed against Huo Zhao, they repeatedly feigned defeat and fled on foot.

After discovering that "Jia Lian" was no longer fooled and was even too lazy to pursue him, they gave up.

As Jia Lian's army drew ever closer to Liaocheng, Prince Bei Jing gradually felt relieved.

However, just as Prince Bei Jing thought that the Jurchens would not attack Jia Lian and had other plans,

Just a few kilometers north of Jia Yu's army, on a hilltop, several Jurchen leaders had gathered.

One of them even had a Western telescope in his hand, secretly observing the movements of Jia Yu's army.

A moment later, he put down his monocular telescope and angrily cursed in Jurchen:
"These damned Wei people are utterly cowardly, clinging to their iron-barreled cannons and refusing to let go. How can we possibly complete the mission entrusted to us by the Grand Prince like this!"

The others were also at a loss.

"Yes, those cannons of the Wei people are really powerful."

Although our sons are all fearless warriors, they too must die on the battlefield fighting the enemy head-on.

This Wei army is too cunning; they dare not fight us at all.

As soon as our cavalry gets close to them, they will fire a volley of their cannons at us.

Moreover, these cannons are different from the Wei cannons we have seen before, and even different from the Western cannons that the Grand Prince showed us.

What it produces isn't those dark, heavy lumps of iron, but something that explodes like fireworks.

Once these things fall into the hands of our iron cavalry, they can immediately overturn several of our horses.

Even those who are far away can be inexplicably injured or killed.

That's fine for now.

Even if we manage to reach their formation, they won't charge out to fight us. Instead, they'll pull out rows of muskets and fire wildly at our warriors and horses.

Unfortunately, these muskets were not only incredibly powerful, capable of piercing our leather armor, but their range was also comparable to our bows and arrows.

This resulted in many of our warriors falling from their horses and dying before they could even fight back.

In short, after several battles, we've accomplished nothing except killing a few Wei scouts. On the contrary, we've lost one or two hundred warriors!

The other leaders or generals all looked distressed upon hearing this.

This defeat served as a wake-up call for them, a reminder of their previous great victory.

They began to realize that not all Wei people were sheep to be slaughtered at will.

Suddenly one of them said angrily, "Damn Luo Jue Anchang! He originally swore that he would bring us here to intercept and kill this army and intimidate the Wei Kingdom."

However, seeing that the Wei army was difficult to defeat, he fled on his own.

He's both insidious and incompetent; what right does he have to be our Grand Prince?

The others remained silent upon hearing this.

Luo Jue Anchang was not "running away." He was told that he needed to go back to monitor the enemy forces in Liaocheng, and that his Wanyan army was stationed around Liaocheng, so staying there would be useless.

They even "kindly" said that if the situation changed, they would send reinforcements.

It is reasonable.

Therefore, even if they were unhappy, they couldn't say anything.

After all, among the nomadic tribes of the grasslands, strength reigns supreme.

Most of their groups consist of only a few hundred or a thousand people.

With over three thousand people, it was already a large tribe among the Jurchen people.

Therefore, each of their leaders did not have many soldiers.

Many entire tribes have only a few hundred warriors capable of fighting.

Under such circumstances, how dare they challenge Luo Jue Anchang, whose cavalry force alone numbered over five thousand?

"How about we launch a night raid?" someone suddenly suggested.

"it's useless.

Putting aside the fact that our warriors would have difficulty utilizing the advantages of cavalry charges at night, this Wei army was also very vigilant.

They would not only send out a large number of scouts to patrol, but also light bonfires and torches around the area at night.

If we get close, it will alert them.

Unless we have enough brave warriors willing to risk heavy casualties, we cannot charge in and fight them head-on.

The last sentence is nonsense.

If they had enough warriors, why would they have given up so easily and taken the initiative to negotiate peace with Wei?
Apart from two or three large tribes like the Wanyan tribe, for other tribes, if even a few hundred warriors were killed or wounded, their tribe would essentially cease to exist.

They will either be eliminated or absorbed; there is no third outcome.

"If that's the case, how can we destroy this large Wei army?"

When confronted with such a profound question, everyone could only remain silent, as always.

There's a saying: "Either erupt in silence or perish in silence."

One of them stood up and said, "Eliminate my ass. With only a few thousand men in our hands, even if we wipe out this Wei army, at least half of them will be killed or wounded."

How will we establish ourselves on the grasslands then?

Even if you don't consider yourselves, don't you consider your own people?

"To hell with Luo Jue Anchang, I'm not putting up with him anymore."

Having said that, he ignored the reactions of the other leaders, mounted his horse, and rode away in a cloud of dust.

The others watched silently, knowing that the other side was definitely about to lead their troops away.

"Or should we retreat first?"

This place is not far from Liaocheng, the capital of Wei.

We haven't found a way to defeat the enemy after so long, so I'm afraid we're powerless to do anything about it.

It should be noted that tens of thousands of Wei troops were gathered in Liaocheng.

If they coordinate with us from within, we, these thousands of warriors, will likely perish here.

"It would be better if we all evacuated first, reunited with the Grand Prince and the others, and then devised a plan!"

"That's all we have to do."

……

(End of this chapter)