The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 555: The Border of the Empire

Li Dingguo put the silver in his arms and went into the secret passage, which led from the backyard to the outside of the wall.

A sturdy servant was driving a carriage and had been waiting for a long time.

"Sir, let's go, the soldiers are coming."

From a distance came the sound of soldiers knocking on the door, mixed with shouting and cursing, and a group of Ming soldiers in mandarin duck jackets surrounded them.

Li Dingguo began to worry about Lao Yu, imagining the scene of this fat man who had smoked the longevity cream being tied up and thrown into the Zhenfu Division Prison.

"My master has connections, so you don't have to worry."

The servants waved their whips, and the wheels of the horse rolled over the bluestone road, making an unsettling squeaking sound.

After leaving the alley, the carriage did not stop and sped away towards the Raozhou city gate.

The streets outside were bustling with hawkers shouting their wares and pedestrians greeting each other. Li Dingguo looked out the window and saw the hustle and bustle of people and vehicles, a bustling scene.

He was still killing people a few days ago, and was rescued today. He also has a way to go back. Li Dingguo was speechless for a moment, as if he was in another world.

According to the Qi Dynasty's land system, any private property must be resolutely banned, and the wealthy and powerful families in the empire are the main targets of the crackdown. They are all enemies of the Great Qi and must be killed decisively and mercilessly. Their property belongs to the Great Qi...

The instructors rewrote these doctrines into easy-to-understand and catchy words, and sent people to preach them repeatedly in various military corps, states and counties;

In addition, in schools across Da Qi, teachers did not forget to brainwash the children. Every three sentences would be about robbing the rich to help the poor or telling stories about Emperor Wu Ding's invincible heroic past, expressing that the retired emperor cared about everyone and kept everyone warm.

"Killing so many people without distinguishing between good and evil? Where is Da Qi's bottom line?"

Li Dingguo had been to several cities in Liaodong, but he had never felt the prosperity in front of him. In comparison, the empire gave people a feeling of decadence. Although it also had beautiful streets and magnificent cities, the lives of ordinary people left an unforgettable impression on the world and made many people yearn for it.

Li Dingguo questioned himself in his heart.

Questions like these are too profound for a sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy to answer.

"Raozhou is well governed. It seems the Ming Dynasty has no shortage of capable officials."

Li Dingguo praised sincerely.

The driver smiled and agreed, "Zhizhou Yin loves the people like his own children. It's a blessing for the people to work in Raozhou. Last year, he was transferred to Nanzhili, and the people wrote a petition to keep him."

"Zhizhou Yin governs well, and the people have a sense of shame. Last year, several heroic women emerged in our Raozhou, and the emperor even awarded them plaques."

"Oh," Li Dingguo was speechless.

When the two men arrived at the dock, the driver hurried ashore to negotiate with a boat captain, asking him to take the injured young man with him.

The captain of the ship obviously knew the private salt dealer and quickly agreed.

Li Dingguo was overjoyed and hurriedly boarded the boat.

The ship slowly weighed anchor, and the sailors climbed up the mast and flipped over the soft sails.

"When the army marches south, we must protect your master's life!"

The driver chuckled and said without turning his head, "General, please take care of your own life first. It's still hundreds of miles to Wuchang. You will walk the rest of the way alone."

Li Dingguo found the driver quite interesting and asked him his name.

"This humble family is not worth worrying about. See you later!"

After saying this, he raised the whip and the carriage squeaked as it rolled across the road.

Li Dingguo stood at the bow and stared blankly for a while until the carriage disappeared behind the distant hills.

Just as he was about to return to the cabin, he suddenly heard a woman crying from the dock behind him. Li Dingguo felt that the voice was very familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before.

When I looked back, I saw five or six burly men carrying a red cage tied to a three-foot-long water tank.

The cage was made of bamboo strips and painted red. Li Dingguo, who grew up in the north, was curious when he first saw it, thinking it was an ordinary bamboo cage. He used it to hold chickens, ducks, livestock, and pigs.

Next, Li Dingguo saw a woman in a bamboo cage, also dressed in red. He looked carefully for a while and found that the woman in the bamboo cage was also looking outside, her eyes like a drowning person trying to grab a life-saving straw.

Li Dingguo was only a few steps away from the bamboo cage, and the sailors and merchants on the boat also joined in the commotion.

"What Old Yu said is true. I really want to be thrown into a pig cage. What kind of a hell of a place is this?"

The two looked at each other.

A group of tribesmen raised their arms high and shouted excitedly.

"Sink the river!"

"The Yin family's innocence cannot be tarnished!"

“Pig cage, pig cage…!”

The boat gradually left the shore and the bamboo cage slowly sank. Li Dingguo walked straight to the bow and jumped down.

~~~~~~
Over the next few months, they fled north overland, enduring dusty and muddy roads, soft sand and sharp rocks, several biting frosts and two heavy snowfalls.

They survived only because they didn't want to die. She was tanned, like a branch pulled out of the fire before it turned to ashes, and her skin was full of cracks like cracked fruit; the villagers thought they were ghosts, and they caused panic in small places or remote villages.

After walking hundreds of miles, the soles of their feet were covered with calluses as if they had grown a layer of cork. The whole of Jiangxi was under their feet.

There were several times when they approached the border of Da Qi, but did not cross it immediately because Li Dingguo was not a map genius like Li Sanguang, so he could not see that there was a line separating Da Qi and Daming.

They walked and walked until one day they came to the bank of the Yangtze River. In the dark waters, Yin Zhizhou's daughter saw fish swimming in the deep, crystal and silver fish, with long backs, some smooth and some covered with scales.

The lights of the fishing boats on the river illuminate the way ahead, like a lighthouse in the fog.

"Okay, we are almost home." Li Dingguo said that they needed to enter Wuchang City first, which was the northernmost city of the Southern Ming Dynasty and one of the most prosperous cities under the rule of Emperor Hongguang.

It was a hot summer day, and the night breeze from the river carried the smell of blood.

A large group of people gathered in the open space in front of the Jiangxia General's Mansion, with torches flashing, black smoke billowing, and a bonfire blazing.

Li Dingguo led the woman through the crowd and came to the front row. They were wearing ordinary people's clothes and did not look conspicuous at all.

"Who are these people? Why did the general want to execute them?"

Li Dingguo asked an old man who was watching the fun.

"All those traitors who secretly communicated with Qi and believed in the God of Zhenwu will be executed by slow slicing."

Eleven people were executed. They had been cut so many times that only their bloody skeletons remained on the execution ground, making it difficult to distinguish their faces.

Li Dingguo then used the dim light to carefully identify the prisoners. He looked for a long time and finally recognized the salt merchant who had helped him escape from Raozhou two months ago among a group of bloody prisoners.

"Old Yu, do you want to go back to Liaodong?"

Yu Chengze nodded.

Li Dingguo took advantage of the executioner's inattention and cut off Yan's dying head with a knife. He put it in the black package with only five holes in it, shouting that the Qi army was coming. Then he took the woman's hand in the chaos, left Jiangxia, and arrived at the border of the empire.

(End of this chapter)