The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 553 Ambush
It was not clear.

An elderly night watchman, carrying an oil-paper lantern, yawned as he walked through the streets, banging the wooden fish he was holding so loudly that a few dazed roosters started crowing in response.

Li Dingguo was suddenly awakened by the noise. The bluestone slabs under his cloak were icy cold. He turned around hurriedly and saw the blood-stained package still safely beside him. He then breathed a sigh of relief.

It took a long time for him to return to reality from his dream.

Reality is more than just cruel!

Li Dingguo's ancestral home is Yulin, Shaanxi Province, where he grew up. He is a native of the Three Qin provinces. Before joining the cavalry regiment, he had been active in the north and had only been to Shaanxi and Liaodong, further north.

Unexpectedly, one day, he would end up in the south by mistake, and watch his fellow brothers being killed one by one, leaving him alone to return.

The southern soldier who followed Li Dingguo and acted as an interpreter to bargain with Zheng Chenggong in Fuzhou was beheaded more than ten days ago.

Now, the Southern soldier's head is packed in this black package, and his only companion who can speak vernacular is forever silent.

The package also contained the heads of five other people. Except for one civil servant, the others were Li Dingguo's brothers in the Seventh Corps. They all lost their lives while demanding ransom from Zheng Chenggong.

I didn't expect that the local gangs had no rules at all. They were discussing the ransom just now, and suddenly killed people the next moment.

Li Dingguo was shocked. After all, Zheng Chenggong's father was still alive and well, and the emperor was even planning to give him a fiefdom in the northern border (Ningguta) so that he could enjoy his old age. He never expected the Zheng family to be so cruel, forcing Emperor Wu Ding to kill him.

The brothers left their bodies in Fujian and followed Captain Li with their heads, traveling through mountains and rivers to return to Da Qi.

"If I don't avenge this, I, Li Dingguo, will cease to be a human being!"

Li Dingguo clenched his fists and swore in his heart.

After daybreak, he would go to the alleys on the west street of Raozhou Prefecture. According to the clues provided by the負衣卫, there was a secret stake left by Shen Lian somewhere on the west street of Raozhou Prefecture.

Zhang Dong, Liu Xingzuo and others have not been in contact with the secret agent for many years, because only Shen Lian knows the secret code for both sides and the specific address of the secret agent.

Fortunately, not long ago, the Suoyi Guards were sorting out intelligence files and accidentally discovered information about this secret agent.

This time when they went south to meet Zheng, they did not take the initiative to search for this secret agent. Considering that the two sides had not been in contact for many years, anything could happen. It was necessary to be cautious when in enemy country.

However, Li Dingguo is now in a desperate situation. It would not be easy for him to escape back to Da Qi on his own. Therefore, he decided to go to find the undercover agent named Yu at dawn, hoping to get his help.

Just as Li Dingguo was thinking hard, he suddenly heard the sound of a woman crying from the depths of the alley about ten steps ahead, mixed with the lewd laughter of several men.

Li Dingguo lived among refugees when he was a child and traveled to many places with the refugee army. He saw many things like this.

He thought about it for a while and decided not to interfere in this matter. After all, there were more important things to do now.

Suddenly, the woman's crying became more shrill. Li Dingguo hesitated for a while, carefully pushed the package out, bit his sword, crawled out from under the carriage, gently put the package full of his subordinates' heads aside, and groped towards the direction of the crying in the light of the fire on the city wall.

The morning light had not yet appeared in the eastern sky. On the big trees on both sides of the street, every leaf tip was covered with dewdrops, and the other leaves were hidden in the shadows.

In front of me were a few ragged beggars, hunched over like shrimps, surrounding a woman and openly engaging in sexual activity in the shadows of the alley.

The woman's clothes were pulled off, and she struggled helplessly in the dark. Her hands and feet were held down by Huazi, and her mouth was blocked by something. Li Dingguo stood behind Huazi and could vaguely hear some Hakka dialect.

A beggar who was standing on the periphery watching the excitement suddenly trembled as if he had the hiccups. His originally hunched body bent into a bow shape, his hands twitched, and then hung down limply. His companions in front were still having fun. Two cold lights flashed in the dark night. The two men covered their necks at the same time and looked behind them in horror. Before they could see the murderer clearly, they fell in a pool of blood.

At this time, the last Huazi finally reacted and pushed the woman away. He was the leader of the four, and was obviously more sturdy. He threw out several hidden darts from his sleeves, shouted at the alley entrance, pulled up his pants, and groped for a fire starter on the ground.

The torch was finally lit, and the disheveled woman curled up and squatted with her knees hugged against the wall.

"Come out! Damn it!"

The torches illuminated the alley entrance, revealing the face of a stern young man.

Boss Hanako swung the wooden stick and hit the boy. As the stick left his hand, there was a whooshing sound and a sharp pain in his heart. When he looked down, he saw a short arrow more than five inches long had penetrated his heart. His body softened and he fell down.

The young man immediately stabbed Hanako again and searched for small change and women's jewelry on the bodies of several people. In the firelight, the jewelry was stained with blood.

He collected the silver, put it in his arms, wiped the jewelry on the corpse, and threw it to the frightened woman in the corner. Then he extinguished the torch and just as he turned around, he heard someone behind him say:
"My benefactor, please stay. Thank you for saving my life."

He spoke the official language of the Ming Dynasty in a clear and passionate voice. He was about fifteen or sixteen years old.

Li Dingguo was surprised. This was in Raozhou. How could ordinary people speak Mandarin?
But he was busy now and didn't have time to think about it. Without even turning around, he said to the woman:

"I'm an outsider passing through here, so I can't take care of too many things. If you want to report to the police, go as soon as possible."

"Why should I report to the authorities? I've never been treated so frivolously..."

By this time, the sky was already getting light. The soldiers' shouts and curses could be heard from the west gate. The drawbridge over the moat was slowly lowered, and the city gate was about to open.

The creak of a shop door opening could be heard from the street. Not far away, a vendor selling wontons hummed a little tune as he approached the two of them. The wontons in his bucket were still steaming. Li Dingguo glanced back and saw the woman, surprisingly, neatly dressed, with her head lowered.

He quickly turned his head.

"My benefactor, could you please look back? I didn't see your true face just now."

Li Dingguo was anxious to get away and asked impatiently, "Is it so clear that I can let you go to the government to claim your reward?"

After saying that, he walked towards the city gate without looking back.

~~~~
Li Dingguo's eyes were slightly red and swollen, but fortunately, as a teenager of sixteen or seventeen, he was full of energy and was still full of energy even after not sleeping for half a night.

He changed into clean clothes, carried the head on his back, slung a sword over his waist, and left the city from the west gate. He circled Raozhou City twice, spent a penny to eat a bowl of soup noodles at a restaurant outside the city. At the beginning of the morning hour, he sneaked into the city from the north gate with the onion and vegetable sellers, and even swindled the one penny he had to pay to enter the city.

By this time, the streets were already bustling with activity. Rows of people stood in a daze, and occasionally a woman would poke her head out of a door. Most of them had swollen eyes, disheveled hair, and sallow faces, barely even painted.

The killing of several beggars did not seem to cause any ripples, at least there was no scene of a city-wide hunt for the murderer.

Before he came here, he heard from people in the civil affairs and commerce department that the taxes in Jiangxi Province had been collected by Emperor Hongguang for seventy years. The people had to work for the Ming Dynasty for seventy years, and the end could be seen at a glance. No wonder the people had empty eyes, as if they had lost their souls.

He walked north along the North-South Street, passing several intersections without stopping. At noon, he had tea at a teahouse in Niugu Lane in the north of the city.

At this time, some of the tea drinkers sitting in the teahouse had already started talking about the murder that happened last night. As soon as they started talking, the room was filled with the thick Gan dialect. Li Dingguo listened for a long time before he could barely hear the words "Green Gang", "Picking Flowers", and "The Prefect's Daughter".

But this is enough.

"Damn it, that woman is the prefect's daughter? How can she be with a bunch of beggars?"

Just as he was daydreaming, the Tea Master came up and asked if he wanted more tea. Li Dingguo nodded at him.

Since entering the city, Li Dingguo has spoken little. His pure and authentic Yulin dialect suddenly appeared in the heart of Jiangxi, which might cause him some trouble.

"Don't you know? The daughter of the Dai Zhizhou family went to Longhua Temple to worship Buddha yesterday, and was abused by a villain on her way back! The villain also killed four beggars. How cruel!"

A fat tea drinker moved the chair under his buttocks with difficulty and spoke to the people around him in a low voice.

Another thin tea drinker came over and corrected him: "Nonsense, it was Huazi who flirted with the prefect's daughter first, and was rescued by someone else."

"In Raozhou, people leave their doors unlocked at night and don't pick up things on the streets. The people are honest and simple, yet there are such vicious and cruel people!"

The most informed tea drinker said mysteriously:
"Who do you think they are? They are just a few barbarians from the north who came to Fujian and tried to assassinate the general (Zheng Chenggong). In the end, they were killed by the general. Only this barbarian is left. He can't escape. The acting prefect has searched the whole city for him."

An ominous premonition came to his mind. Just as he was about to pay the bill and leave, he ran into some arrogant palace guards.

"You fool, you have no eyes, can't you see me? Get out of here!"

~~~~~~
With his amazing memory, he finally found the house with the pear tree planted in front of the door.

He looked around, made sure no one was following him, breathed a sigh of relief, and prepared to knock on the door.

Emperor Hongguang and Emperor Daqi signed a peace treaty, and the two countries formed an alliance, agreeing to be uncle-nephew countries. However, there were many cases of nephews being unfilial.

After the fall of the capital, the Jinyiwei fled to Nanzhili, and a small number of them fled to other provinces.

Could it be that these people have already set their sights on me?

Li Dingguo stood at the door, took a deep breath, and regained his consciousness.

A fat middle-aged man's face stuck out from the crack of the door. He looked around and saw that there was no one at the door. Just as he was about to close the door, Li Dingguo jumped out from the alley and said in code:

"The country is destroyed but the mountains and rivers remain. I can return to Jiangling a thousand miles away in one day."

The middle-aged man was slightly stunned, looked at the newcomer in disbelief, and said to Li Dingguo:
"In spring, the grass and trees are thick in the city, and I want to dream of Wu and Yue."

There was no problem with the code. The middle-aged man looked around and walked in with Li Dingguo.

As soon as Li Dingguo entered the courtyard, he looked around. It was a small three-story house with some pear trees planted in the front yard. The pear blossoms were in full bloom, and their snow-white flowers looked like the soul-calling banners of an army going to war.

"Yu Chengze?"

"Call me Lao Yu." Lao Yu walked in front, his eyes narrowed into lines.

Suddenly, a chaotic sound of footsteps came from deep in the yard.

Li Dingguo realized that something was wrong. He clenched his sword and looked around vigilantly.

(End of this chapter)