Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 34 The Wind Rises

"You are such a nasty person. I have already treated your wounds, why are you still trying to frame me? Everyone knows that your emperor has no prince."

Zhang Xuchang saw that the man stopped what he was doing. He was worried about his own injuries and was also angry about being misunderstood, so he quickly explained: "The tyrant king ran away early."

The man's eyes immediately lit up when he heard this, but Zhang Xuchang also suddenly reacted.

"Ran?"

The man asked again, and although he didn't hear any answer, he didn't get angry. He just treated the wound and asked other questions as if chatting with family.

Afterwards, the two of them asked and answered each other, and it was really like a reunion of good friends. However, Zhang Xuchang had grown more cautious now. He evaded the question about the defense of Yingtian with lies, but answered the other unimportant questions truthfully.

But he didn't know that the man had been a scout for more than ten years and had already obtained the information he wanted from just a few words.

Just when Zhang Xuchang was still thinking about how to fool the other party, he suddenly felt his neck tighten, and then his mouth and nose were covered tightly by a rough big hand.

At this moment he finally understood that the man had never intended to let him go from the beginning, and treating his injuries was just a means to extract information.

But now it seems that there is no point in understanding it.

After a while, the man reappeared on the road leading two horses. After a moment's thought, he mounted his horse and headed back in the direction he came from.

He had planned to rush to Danyang to rest in the dark, but he unexpectedly had an unexpected surprise here.

The information would have been fine, as it still needed his superiors to sort it out, and he wouldn't get any benefit for a while, but this horse really solved his urgent problem.

He walked and stopped along the way, and when it was about to dawn, a camp stretching for several miles finally appeared in his sight.

Then he looked around from a distance, picked one with several white flags hanging on it, and ran straight towards it.

"Ustu, why are you back so early?"

Before the man reached the camp gate, the soldiers guarding outside started asking him from a distance.

Normally, scouts form a team of three or four people, and they have to come back to rest after leaving the camp for a day or two.

But now the army has penetrated deep into enemy territory, and the prince has strictly ordered the scouts to expand their patrol range. In addition, Ustu did not see his teammates, so the soldier asked.

Hearing this question, Ustu stopped his horse several feet away.

He knew very well that although this sentence seemed like a polite greeting, if he did not stop to explain, he might be shot to pieces.

"I met a young man on the way," Wusitu pointed to the empty horse beside him, and then continued: "They were ahead of me, so I came back to report the news."

"Go quickly, those surrendered soldiers are useless, your father is really angry."

Upon hearing this, Wusitu bowed, then jumped off his horse and entered the camp.

At this time, in front of a military tent on the right side of the camp, more than a dozen soldiers with whip marks all over their bodies were hanging on a row of wooden racks like pigs waiting to be slaughtered.

The soldiers seemed to have been knocked unconscious, but a burst of scolding still came from the military tent with the curtain hanging high: "You barbarians, don't think you can fool them as easily as before."

After the words fell, the person who spoke slowed down his tone: "Cao Hu, your men are really not good enough. They are cowards in fighting, but they are good at deceiving their superiors!"

"You're right. It's all my fault for not disciplining my children properly."

The one called Cao Hu was the deputy general under Guangchang Earl Liu Liangzuo. Although he had not yet been given a position after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, he had thousands of soldiers under his command, so he was considered a prominent figure.

Now, not only did he not even get a seat, but he was also scolded like a child by a little guy, which really made him feel embarrassed.

But the situation was stronger than the person. Not to mention that his own subordinates had done something wrong, even if they were beheaded by the Tartars for no reason, Ezhen would at most receive some reprimands.

"Then just behead them all." Cao Hu hated these people very much. If they hadn't used the same method as before to fool the civil officials by wandering around outside and then coming back to the camp to talk nonsense, he would never have endured this humiliation. But when he heard that the Tartar really wanted to behead them all, he was still shocked.

Seeing Cao Hu's expression, Nazhen said with a half-smile: "Why? Are you reluctant?"

As the saying goes: Soldiers rely on their generals’ courage.

This is even more true in these troubled times. Without the support of his soldiers, how could Cao Hu achieve success and preserve his life?

But now it was clear that this Tartar wanted to use the lives of those people as a warning to him, and Cao Hu really didn't have the courage to stand in front of them.

"Ustu is back."

Just at this moment, a voice was heard outside the tent. Cao Hu looked outside in the direction of the voice and couldn't help feeling happy.

Wusitu is his true confidant. When scouts were sent out the day before yesterday, he clearly saw him going out with them.

Now he returned after only a short while, probably just for a stroll.

In this case, how could the Tartar have the nerve to kill those idiots?

"Master, I have something to report."

After reporting this, Ustu saw that Ezhen said nothing and just sat there with a sullen face, so he thought that Ezhen was angry because of these barbarians, so he walked straight into the tent and bowed to him.

"explain."

Ezhen's expression eased a little, but when he saw Wusitu's eyes constantly glancing at Cao Hu, he knew that this guy had really found out something.

"Go out first, I have something to say."

Wustu watched the surrendered barbarian general leave the tent before he told him in detail the intelligence he had obtained on this trip.

After a while, Na'ezhen was still considering it carefully. Wusitu was anxious but had no other choice but to say tentatively, "Master, we just report it. The prince will judge the truth. But if we miss the opportunity..."

Hearing this, Na'ezhen no longer hesitated. He said hello and walked straight out of the tent.

"Come with me."

The escape of the false emperor was a matter of great importance, and he had to treat it with caution, but what Wusitu said was right, so after hesitating for a while, Na'ezhen finally decided to take him to the central army.

Logically speaking, it would be extremely difficult for a person to directly meet a prince who commands hundreds of thousands of troops.

But this time, Duoduo, the leader of the Bordered White Banner, and the two of them were people of the Bordered White Banner, so after some notification, they finally appeared in the central army tent.

"The servant greets the master."

As soon as they entered the tent, they knelt on the ground and dared not look up. After waiting for a while, they heard a question: "Are you giving birth to a Jurchen?"

"My master has a keen eye. He joined the banner during the time of the old Khan." Ustu did not dare to speak without permission, so the question was answered by Ezhen instead.

The so-called Shengnuzhen was a primitive tribe living in the Baishan Black Water. Although Nurhaci rarely suffered defeat after he started his rebellion, he did not have many people in his family, and after repeated battles, he suffered serious casualties. That's why he thought of capturing those savages to fill the population.

"Looked up."

The voice spoke again, and Ustu raised his head in response, only to see a young man in bright yellow armor standing not far from him.

I don't know if it was because of his identity as a female or some other reason, but the prince did not question him any further. Instead, he turned around and sat down on the chair in the middle of the tent before saying, "Well, he looks like a man. Tell me more about him."

(End of this chapter)