Daming Yinghua

Chapter 460 Don’t be surprised by changes

When Abahai heard the words "tastes the same", she suddenly felt a little disappointed.

But as someone who knew the Khan's intentions, she still did not give up.

"Grand Prince, let me see your pipe." Abahai gestured to Daishan.

Daishan understood.

The father and the young stepmother were suspecting that what Mu Zaohua herself inhaled was different from the magic crow paste given to them, the Jurchens.

Daishan walked to the kang with his pipe in hand, and the floral scent that was somehow on Abahai's body wafted into his nose.

His father was so close to him, so Daishan had his eyelids drooped and his face expressionless when he handed him the pipe.

But he was moved. The Jurchen custom of levirate marriage had not changed with the establishment of the Jin Dynasty. His father was old, but his stepmother was just over 30 years old. In a few years, the beautiful Abahai would be the one in Daishan's bed.

When Abahai took the pipe, a little of her mind was focused on her disgust for Daishan.

As a daughter of the Ula tribe caught in the whirlpool of a political marriage, Abahai developed a keen ability to observe people's minds, especially men, in the dangerous situation.

Daishan was ten years older than her. In recent years, at family dinners, he had been secretly paying attention to her, and Abahai had noticed it.

To further confirm this, Abahai reported to Nurhaci during the Jurchen festival and sent cakes made by herself to the four great beiles. Sure enough, during a subsequent hunting ceremony, when Daishan presented the leopard he had shot to the queen, he briefly but clearly said, "The cakes are delicious. I ate them all."

The other three beiles, Amin, Manggurtai and Huang Taiji, did not make any statement.

Daishan's behavior made Abahai feel extremely disgusted.

If she could choose one of her stepson to be her second husband, Abahai only liked Huang Taiji, the Fourth Prince who was of the same age, wise and talented.

The beauty of the Ula tribe, whose heart was as rippling as a thawed spring river, prayed that Huang Taiji would become the next Khan. So when Huang Taiji came to Nurhaci and expressed his suspicion about Mu Zaohua, Abahai also added fuel to the fire and instigated Nurhaci to think of a way to test Mu Zaohua by surprise attack.

At this moment, Abahai glared at Mu Zaohua, suppressed her nausea, pulled out the cigarette holder stained with Daishan's saliva, replaced it with her own, and then took a few deep puffs.

It was indeed the same as the cigarette burning in my own pipe. The mellow and sweet aroma was like a hot spring, flowing to every part of my body, bringing me an indescribable sense of comfort.

"Khan, let's break it open and see." Abahai suggested desperately.

She and Mu Zaohua did not have any deep hatred. She just simply wanted to prove that the Fourth Prince Huang Taiji was right.

"Call a servant to break this place open." Nurhaci pointed to the place where the pipe and the tobacco stem were connected.

A moment later, a guard, holding the broken copper rod and the smashed pipe, knelt down in front of the Khan and the Queen Mother.

The old Khan was already dazzled, so he motioned to Abahai to check. Abahai looked at the two pieces of copper rods in the sunlight for a while, and finally reported helplessly: "Great Khan, there is nothing unusual."

From beginning to end, Mu Zaohua stared at what was happening in front of her without moving.

His eyebrows were slightly furrowed and his eyes were dark, but it was not a trembling of humility, but an expression of incredible surprise.

Finally, when Nurhaci said arrogantly and coldly like a hawk hawking a rabbit, "Yuetuo is right, you also smoked the magic crow paste", Mu Zaohua no longer concealed the bitter smile on her lips.

She spoke word by word, "Khan, when I was forced to become a homeless dog, it was the Third Prince who pulled me out of the hard times. It was the Khan who showed mercy and compassion, allowing me to stay in the Jin Dynasty and serve, and giving me an official position where I could hold my head high. How could I harm the Prince of the Jin Dynasty? If I wanted to poison the God Crow Cream, why would I not let the Khan whip it, and only use opium shells to make soup to regulate the Khan's stomach?"

Nurhaci smiled faintly and did not respond to Mu Zaohua. Instead, he said to his attendants: "Go and take the dogs and feed them what they should eat."

The servants withdrew. Soon, the deafening barking of dogs was heard in the courtyard.

Nurhaci got off the kang and led everyone to the courtyard.

Mu Zaohua saw a man tied up with a cloth stuffed in his mouth, lying on the ground. Three big dogs, which the burly guards had to hold with great effort, were growling at the man.

Abahai's eyes showed fear. She didn't know that the old Khan had arranged this, but she was too familiar with the three vicious dogs. The Jurchens loved to eat dog blood mixed with grains, so most of the dogs in the tribe were just food for the people.

But a few years ago, the Mongolian Horqin gave Nurhaci a few puppies, saying that they were from U-Tsang, extremely ferocious, and could bite a leopard to death when they grew up. Nurhaci regarded them as treasures, and trained them with all kinds of raw meat like training a gyrfalcon. Even now, after they have grown into a much larger body than a wild wolf, Nurhaci will throw the slaves he wants to punish to them to bite.

"Slave Zaohua, look at the man on the ground, who is he?" Nurhaci ordered leisurely.

Mu Zaohua could see the man's face clearly. It was Xia Wenming, whom she brought from Emao City to Hetuala.

She knelt down and asked, "Khan, what crime did Mr. Xia commit?"

"Sir? You are really brave, my slave Zaohua, calling a slave "sir". I heard that you also call those Han craftsmen who made cannons for me, "sir"?"

"Great Khan, they may be talented in literature or in craftsmanship. I am just a servant who still retains the habit of seeing these people when I was a child in the Ming Kingdom."

"Oh?" Nurhaci smiled, "Then you should not be called a slave. You are more courageous than them. Mu Zaohua, you are actually a spy planted by the Ming Dynasty!"

Nurhaci's last sentence suddenly raised his tone, like a thunderclap, which was even more frightening than the barking of those vicious dogs.

Mu Zaohua's shoulders trembled, but that was just a subconscious reaction to the thunderous wrath. Then, she raised her head suddenly, opened her eyes wide, and said loudly: "I am innocent! Great Khan, is there a villain who came to the Khan's throne to falsely accuse me? Yes, after I came to Hetuala, I have offended many people, from the Tong family to some disobedient bondservants. Whoever falsely accused me, I beg the Khan to order them to confront me!"

"It was not someone else who reported it, but Mr. Xia, whom you respect. Servant Zaohua, if you confess honestly today and tell me who else you are in contact with, I will not kill you. As the ruler of the Great Jin, your words are not joking. But if you don't confess, my beloved dog has been hungry for two days."

Abahai, who was standing behind Nurhaci, shuddered with fear again. It turned out that this vicious dog was not prepared for the Han clerk named Xia.

Daishan could not hide his shock. He did not expect that Mu Zaohua, who had been listening to Nurhaci's discussion on military affairs with him in a warm atmosphere just a moment ago, had become a prisoner whose life was at stake in the blink of an eye.

Mu Zaohua raised her upper body more upright and said loudly: "Great Khan, yes is yes, no is no. I am not a Ming spy. I really suffered enough in Ming and defected to Jin. I tried my best to do good things for you, and I hope that Jin will win a great victory over Ming. Even if I am torn to pieces by your pet dog, I will not tarnish my original intention. If you don't believe me, just let the dog go."

After Mu Zaohua finished speaking, she made up her mind, stood up, and walked to Xia Wenming, just a few steps away from the vicious dog.

She heard Xia Wenming's whimpering sound in her ears. She pretended to be furious and kicked him. However, taking advantage of the close proximity, she could clearly see that there was no intention of dodging in Xia Wenming's eyes.

Instead, he was burning with rage, just like when he had to protect the captain who was bravely defending the city in Emao City.

Mu Zaohua angrily shouted, "Xia Wenming, if I hadn't asked Prince Yuetuo to bring you out of Emao City, you would have been stoned to death by those Ming people. Why did you falsely accuse me? Did you take Tong Yangxing's money? It must be! That bastard Tong Yangxing wants to seek revenge for his sister and son."

"Okay, Zaohua Ezhen." Nurhaci's voice sounded again.

Following the Khan's gesture, a guard stepped forward and dug out the strip of cloth from Xia Wenming's mouth.

"Miss Mu, I didn't sue you!" Xia Wenming said firmly in Chinese.

He used the same name he had used for Mu Zaohua when they first met.

After saying this, the overwhelming sense of humiliation almost made him turn to Nurhaci and curse him.

But his mind was still clear, and he tried to tell himself that he could not do anything reckless and ignore Mu Zaohua's life.

Therefore, when he was able to speak to Nurhaci again, he still said: "I have never seen Zaohua Ezhen secretly communicating with any Ming people."

The devil dog from hell stopped barking at the bloody mutton thrown by the guards, and instead lowered its head to swallow it with a wheezing sound.

In the courtyard that suddenly became quiet, Nurhaci walked up to Mu Zaohua, who seemed to have not yet recovered from her slumber, and said in a gentle voice: "Don't feel wronged. This Khan is stricter to the Tong family than to you, right? Zaohua, the steel that can be made into a good knife must be tempered several times. Well, this Khan believes in you now. You are a good piece of steel. Follow this Khan to open up Yuanhe and Tieling."

Mu Zaohua's lips, which she had bitten stubbornly, finally loosened, and her eye sockets were immediately filled with tears, and two tears fell out.

She wiped the tears from her chin and knelt down to express her gratitude.

Huang Taiji, Tong Yangxing, no matter which of you gave the idea to the chief, or the old chief himself wanted to test me before going to the war, your good days will not last long.