Daming Yinghua

Chapter 463 Miss Mu, Let’s Escape

When Zhang Da approached, the strong odor of a male animal emanating from his body seemed to suddenly open a mechanism deep in Mu Zaohua's mind.

The gloomy night, the cold river water, the evil heavy breathing, all of these added to the stinking black shadow, and in an instant Mu Zaohua felt as if she was standing by the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal many years ago.

During her career as a boat puller, she suffered provocations, insults, and expulsions because of her body. She was even suddenly attacked in the dark night for sexual gratification. This was more like being in hell than being addicted to drugs.

But there are always female meadows that will not succumb to the storm. Muzaohua is such a meadow.

During the hard days of towing the canal, she was always the first to resist without showing any weakness, cursing and beating the men who were at the same bottom of society as her.

The question, "Can you be a beast just because you are poor?", was the firewood that ignited her courage to fight.

This piece of charcoal, at this moment, just like at that moment, burst into flames.

The flames devoured the drug-induced dementia and awakened the woman's fighting spirit.

Mu Zaohua pulled her right hand out from the pebbles, touched the dagger in her arms, and stabbed it at Zhang Da without hesitation.

But she was in the grip of a drug addiction after all, her wrist was shaking uncontrollably, and the blade deviated from the enemy's chest and pierced into his shoulder.

Zhang Da didn't expect that this determined prey would still fight to the death. After he screamed, he quickly retreated out of the instinct to save himself.

The dagger on his shoulder shook a few times and fell on the rocky beach, making a clanging sound.

Zhang Da came back to his senses from the pain and realized that Mu Zaohua was not strong enough and the knife did not penetrate deeply into the flesh.

But my judgment was correct. There must be something wrong with this woman, otherwise why would she be unwilling to go home and take medicine.

Zhang Da stepped forward with pain and kicked the dagger away before Mu Zaohua could crawl over and take it back.

Then, he quickly untied the hemp rope that served as his belt, jumped into the water, rode on Mu Zaohua's back, and with the vicious scolding of a man taming a wild horse, he pressed the opponent's spine with his knees and tried to twist the two arms that were unwilling to be bound.

Mu Zaohua's sharp curses were met with Zhang Da's increasingly complacent sarcasm: "Master Ezhen, please shout louder. It would be best if we could call the servants who are traveling nearby to escort you to the Fourth Prince and help the Khan to have another thorough trial!"

The verbal exchange and physical scuffle masked the movements of another dark shadow in the nearby grass.

Suddenly, Zhang Da, who lowered his head and wanted to bite the woman's neck, felt another sharp pain on his back.

It was much more violent than Mu Zaohua's attack a moment ago.

At the same time, a deep but angry male voice sounded.

"brute!"

Xia Wenming drew out a dagger while angrily scolding.

When he was about to stab the enemy for the second time, Zhang Da, who had received combat training like most of the young men, had already bent over and pushed the enemy away, then rolled down and retreated to the grass using his hands and feet.

He was so excited when he turned back from the city gate that he left his sword on the mule cart carrying the armor. Mu Zaohua's dagger, which could have been his trophy, now became the weapon of the newly joined enemy.

Zhang Da tried his best to run towards Mu Zaohua's horse, but the tall and long-legged Xia Wenming caught up with him, kicked him down, and swung a dagger to stab him in the chest. The fighting skills of the two were far less sophisticated than those of the Eight Banners soldiers.

Zhang Da could only desperately grasp Xia Wenming's wrist and shouted, "Mr. Xia, look carefully, it's me! I'm Zhang Da, I'm Zhang Da from the Third Prince's Mansion. I'm not trying to covet Mu Zaohua's body, I'm, I want..."

Xia Wenming continued to resist and said sternly, "What do you want? Since you work for the Prince's Mansion, why did you follow Lord Ezhen and beat her up in the middle of the night? Are you going to rebel like the Han bannermen in Emao City?"

Zhang Da heard this, his mind raced, and he thought he might as well tell everyone the truth and take a gamble. Even if the man in front of him was Mu Zaohua's subordinate, he only wanted to seek a better future in the Great Jin Dynasty than serving the Ming Dynasty court. Then, he would most likely turn to the Fourth Prince who could truly bring him wealth and glory.

Zhang Da said more and more anxiously, "Mr. Xia, this woman is deceitful. The Fourth Prince suspects that her magic crow cream can cause evil spirits to be possessed. Look, she is no longer human. If we interrogate her now, she will definitely tell the truth. Mr. Xia, you are not in the same group with her, right? Let go quickly and follow me to take him to the Fourth Prince. Then we can both raise our flags and no longer have to be bondservants who are worse than cattle and horses!"

After Zhang Da finished speaking, he saw the face close to him in the moonlight. It was a face of the same race and gender, and the ferocious look seemed to turn into hesitation.

"Are you telling the truth? Are you really the confidant of the Fourth Prince?"

"Why would I lie to you? Now let's tie her up and take her to the Fourth Prince's residence, and you'll know, right?"

"it is good."

As soon as Xia Wenming uttered the word "OK", Zhang Da felt the body pressing against him lift up noticeably.

Just when he thought he had saved his life and his wrist was slightly loosened, Xia Wenming suddenly exerted force, broke free from Zhang Da's resistance with his right wrist, and stabbed the dagger deeply into Zhang Da's left chest.

……

In the distant woods, crows flew up from time to time, flying over the treetops with hoarse caws.

The nearby owl crouched on a branch, overlooking the man and woman under the tree who had just experienced a massacre.

Xia Wenming found the robe that Mu Zaohua had left on the grass and wrapped her in it.

She was still shaking, but she had gotten through the most difficult period of the drug addiction, and her breathing had become steadier.

"Why are you here?" Mu Zaohua asked weakly.

Xia Wenming glanced at Zhang Da's body in the bushes and said slowly, "At noon today, I saw Degelei and Yuetuo quarreling in the government office. Degelei insisted that Huang Taiji wanted to harm you. At that time, I had an even stronger idea, that is, I wanted to convince you that we should go back to Daming together. The Jin people here are not worthy of us Han people who have surrendered. I came to find you in the evening and saw you riding towards the city gate. When I arrived near the city gate, I saw Zhang Da talking to the guards. After he mentioned that you went to the crossbow field, he went out of the city again. I felt something was wrong, so I came out too."

"Don't the guards find it strange at this hour?"

"Erdene Bakshi lives outside the city. I have brought wine to drink with him after sunset and told him Chinese poems. So, if I say I'm going to see Erdeni today, the guards won't be suspicious."

Bakshi means "doctor" in Manchu. Doctor Erdeni mentioned by Xia Wenming was the civil servant who created the Manchu script for Nurhaci. He was highly regarded by the old chief and had a good relationship with the Han Chinese scribe in Hetuala.

After Xia Wenming, who had the title of scholar, came to Hetuala, Erdeni, who yearned for Han culture, began to regard this foreign surrenderer as a teacher and did not shy away from his friendship with him in public.

After hearing the whole story, Mu Zaohua was silent for a moment before she spoke again: "Mr. Xia, do you want to return to the Ming Dynasty because you feel insulted when Nurhachi used you to deceive me that day?"

"Yes, and no," Xia Wenming raised his head, looked at the moon hidden in the clouds, and sighed, "When I was in Emao City, the atrocities committed by the people in the city against the general made me sigh. How could the evildoers distinguish between the Chinese and the Manchus? In addition, Yuetuo and you also properly buried the Ming soldiers who died in the battle. I was indeed willing to come to Hetuala with you. But in the past two years, I have seen clearly that from the Khan to his big and small Beile, they don't even have the basic human ethics of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness, let alone the way of governing the country and the people. Their brains are very simple. When they look at people internally, they are masters and servants. When they conquer externally, they are just robbing things and dividing the spoils. Miss Mu, they are really a group of barbarians. This place is not like a country or a state, it is clearly just a beast's den. Whether it is Yuetuo or Erdeni, the former likes you and the latter respects me, it's useless. They can't change the minds of the Jin people. Miss Mu, we will become more and more aggrieved. Let's go!"