Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 587: North and South Join Forces
"Huh?" Mr. Qiu raised his eyebrows and smiled. "If she didn't understand what you said, why didn't she kill you before she saw the letter?"

"When I came out, I brought a Han Chinese with me. That Han Chinese not only speaks our language, but can also write Chinese characters. I and the female official relied on him to mediate the conversation," Mangku explained.

"Wow. Come prepared." Mr. Qiu nodded slightly. "Where's that Han Chinese?"

"The Han man was too weak to run, so he just followed the others and walked behind," Mangku explained.

The place where Bai Zaiyun and his entourage stopped Mangku and his men was more than ten miles away from the fort where Master Qiu was stationed. If they were to carry the bound captives with them, the distance would take nearly an hour. If one included Erjigen, the wounded soldier with a barbed arrow still lodged in his body, the marching time would have to be increased even further.

In order to deliver the letter to the Zhenjiang authorities as quickly as possible, the chieftain soldiers decided to split into two groups: Si Po led the majority of seven people to escort Sangguli, Erjigen and Yu Youyu to march at a normal speed; while Bai Zaiyun took the letter and ran along the river with his uncle Thirteen, Yang Sange and the "Tartar messenger" Mangku.

Bai Zaiyun and his companions had originally brought along Yu Youyu, the "interpreter," but Yu Youyu, after two years of being a slave in the Jin Empire, eating less than cattle and working harder, was completely exhausted. He was panting after only a short distance. With no other options, Bai Zaiyun and his companions had to leave him behind and continue their journey towards the Ming army's base with Mangku alone.

"Who are those other people you are talking about?" asked Mr. Qiu.

"Of course they are the companions of the other heavenly soldiers and servants." Mangku thought for a moment and added, "There are still ten people on the way. Eight of them and three of us. The leader is an old woman."

Mr. Qiu was already 90% convinced. This was not only because Mangku's words were so convincing, but also because Bai Zaiyun and the others had all looked bewildered when he and Mangku spoke in Jurchen. However, he still wanted to make a final confirmation.

Just as Master Qiu was racking his brains over how to get these southern barbarians to produce their official credentials, Bai Zaiyun took action first. She unloaded her weapons one by one and threw them far away, where even Mang Ku couldn't reach them.

Bai Zaiyun certainly didn't know what Mr. Qiu and Mangku were talking about, but she could sense their concerns. Bai Zaiyun herself had no concerns.

She knew that many Ming troops from Liaodong, especially the older military officers, spoke Jurchen. More importantly, she had witnessed Mr. Qiu and his entourage riding towards her from Duntai. So, despite Mr. Qiu's ability to communicate fluently with the Tartars, she had no doubts about his identity. Unless Duntai had already fallen, these men must be Ming troops. On the other hand, if they were disguised Ming troops with malicious intent, she, Third Brother Yang, Uncle Thirteen, and the others would have been ripped apart by the three muskets behind them.

"Look at that Tartar," Bai Zaiyun threw his last weapon, then raised his hands high and walked towards the Ming military officer in front of him with his eyes fixed on him. "I'll go over and show him my official credentials."

"Okay." Brother Yang San and Uncle Thirteen responded softly.

Kindness is relative. Seeing Bai Zaiyun let down his guard, Mr. Qiu also made a gesture behind him.

When the cavalrymen saw the signal from their commander, they immediately pointed their guns towards the sky and held their muskets at an angle. However, the cavalrymen did not extinguish the fuse. If the enemy suddenly showed hostility, such as suddenly pulling out a dagger to charge, they could still aim and shoot at the first opportunity.

Bai Zaiyun slowly walked to within five steps of the horse's head. Then, she pulled out a cloth official certificate from her bosom and offered it to Mr. Qiu on horseback. "Official certificate!" Bai Zaiyun said it with her carefully practiced northern accent, trying her best to speak it.

"Heh." Combining Bai Zaiyun's actions with the words, Mr. Qiu immediately understood the meaning of those two syllables. However, to him, the girl's strained northern accent sounded like a donkey's bray, even more unpleasant than the completely incomprehensible bird calls of the south.

After all, Master Qiu was still a military officer with a small flag, so he knew a little bit of etiquette. He bit back a smile, dismounted, walked quickly to Bai Zaiyun, and took the official certificate with both hands.

Mr. Qiu did not hold the reins, but his horse took the initiative to take steps and followed behind Mr. Qiu, even looking curiously at the official certificate in his hand.

"You can read too?" Mr. Qiu smiled gently.

"Hmm?" Bai Zaiyun thought the person in front of him was talking to him.

"No problem, keep it." The text on the official certificate was mostly formatted articles. Mr. Qiu didn't look at it too carefully. After making sure that all the official seals were there and the date of issuance had not been altered and was no more than a month ago, he nodded deeply and handed the official certificate back with a smile.

"Thank you." Bai Zaiyun smelled a faint aroma of rice wine. However, she didn't say anything, but quietly put away the official certificate, and then took out the letter written by Wu Ergudai to Gao Bangzuo.

Seeing the envelope, Mr. Qiu realized that this must be the important letter the Tartar had mentioned. Mr. Qiu took the envelope and carefully removed the letter inside. As soon as Mr. Qiu unfolded the letter, he immediately noticed the dark red bloodstains printed on the edge of the letter paper. Mr. Qiu instinctively had many more questions in his mind, but he soon had no time to think about these trivial matters.

As Mr. Qiu read the letter, Bai Zaiyun observed his expression. She noticed the middle-aged military officer's demeanor shift several times: first a flash of doubt, then a sustained look of shock. Finally, Bai Zaiyun even felt a look of regret and contemplation on his face.

Mr. Qiu silently put the letter back into its envelope, but didn't immediately hand it back. "Hey!" He turned his head to look at Mangku and asked loudly in Jurchen, "I want to ask you, who is the 'Wang Dutang' on this letter?"

Bai Zaiyun turned around and saw Mangku looking bewildered. "What, what 'Wang Dutang'?"

"Didn't you just say the letter was written by Prince Wuerhutai?" Mr. Qiu held up the letter and shook it. "But why is the letter addressed to someone named Wang Dutang?"

"I don't know what 'Wang Dutang' is. This letter was written by Wuergudai Beile!" Mangku's heart began to beat uncomfortably. He was afraid that the Ming army officer would think the letter was fake, so he hurriedly explained, "This was told to me by Beile Amin himself. I was the one who moved the table there! At that time, there were only Beile Amin and Beile Wuergudai Beile in the salt depot."

Bai Zaiyun considerately made way.

"What table? What salt warehouse?" Mr. Qiu straightened his head, but rolled his eyes. "What the hell are you talking about!?"

Mangku was silent for a moment, then reorganized his words. "What I mean is that I was present when Wuergudai Beile wrote the letter. Besides me, the only people present in the entire salt depot, where the two Beiles met, were Amin Beile and Wuergudai Beile. There was no fourth person. Furthermore, Amin Beile personally told me that the letter was written by Wuergudai Beile."

Mr. Qiu pondered for a moment and roughly understood: this so-called Wang Dutang was most likely the Chinese name of "Wuerhutai".

Mr. Qiu was silent for a moment. Then he returned the letter to Bai Zaiyun. "Madam Bai, take it and keep it."

Bai Zaiyun felt a surge of remorse. When she'd seen the officer's expression of regret and contemplation, she'd suspected he was trying to steal the credit from her. She lowered her head, blushing slightly. "Thank you."

Master Qiu didn't notice the woman's strange behavior at all. He leaned on the saddle and mounted his horse. "It's friendly troops." Master Qiu turned his horse and said to the three riders who had followed him, "Put out the fire. Return to camp."

"Yes." The three riders who followed out extinguished the fuse, pulled the reins and turned around.

"Mr. Bai." Mr. Qiu wanted to invite Bai Zaiyun to ride on his horse. However, considering that she was a woman, one of the two men behind her might be her husband. So Mr. Qiu put away his good intentions and simply pointed in the direction of the pier and said, "Come on! Let's talk on paper."

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Seeing Mr. Qiu bringing his men back, the soldiers guarding the entrance to Dunying immediately removed the barricades and carried away the gun carriage.

"Shut down, empty the tank, and raise the guard!" Master Qiu's voice preceded everyone else's, breaking through the wooden fence and entering the camp. He wasn't riding fast, so Bai Zaiyun and his companions trotted behind them, their horses kicking up dust. "Master Qiu, where did these friendly troops come from? And what about that Tartar?" A groom, or rather the soldier who had previously described Hu Lanyan as "a crane standing out from the crowd," came forward to help Master Qiu with his horse.

"Who should I ask if you ask me? I only know these are soldiers from the south." Master Qiu waved away the groom and then pulled over two soldiers who were removing their armor. "Go get the table and chairs from my room, along with the writing brush, inkstone, and paper." Within the camp were several barracks, the smallest of which belonged solely to Master Qiu. It contained a table, chairs, and a set of four study items.

"Ah?" The two soldiers were stunned.

"Bullshit," Master Qiu gently pushed the two soldiers on the back, "You two don't understand what I'm saying, do you?"

"Go now!"

"Master Qiu," the cook, Old Ding, came up with a three-barreled gun in his arms, "Do they want to eat?"

Mr. Qiu was stunned for a moment. "It should be in the middle of the day..." Mr. Qiu spoke more and more slowly, and stopped before he finished speaking. "Oh, my," he waved his hand impatiently, "Why are you talking about this now? Go away."

Old Ding didn't leave immediately. He simply handed the three-barreled gun in his arms to a passing soldier. "The bullet and gunpowder are still inside. Please help me clean it out."

"Okay, Uncle Ding." The soldier took the three-barreled gun and left.

"Uncle Qiu," Old Ding continued, "you know. We always cook as much as we can, and now the pot is empty. If we want to provide them with hot meals, we have to cook them on the stove. But we still have plenty of roast pork."

Mr. Qiu continued, "Then go ahead and make it. Let them have a hot meal."

"Okay." Old Ding then walked towards the kitchen.

"Prepare for fifteen people!" Grandpa Qiu shouted towards Lao Ding's back.

"Ah?" Old Ding turned around and looked at the three soldiers escorting the Tartar in confusion.

"These people are just the vanguard, there will be more to come."

"understand!"

Soon, a wisp of smoke rose, and a set of tables, chairs, benches, and study utensils were placed on the open space under the pier. The soldiers, whose dining area had been robbed, came closer, bowls in hand, obviously wanting to watch the fun.

"Get out of my way! You idiots are blocking my sun." Mr. Qiu looked around with his eyes wide open, but the soldiers also took a small step back.

Under the sun, Mr. Qiu first wrote a conversation on a piece of white paper. Then he pulled out a new piece of white paper and placed it on top: Your last name is Bai, and your commander's last name is also Bai. What is your relationship?
After writing this sentence, Mr. Qiu slid the paper in front of Bai Zaiyun.

Bai Zaiyun's handwriting is very beautiful: sister.

Mr. Qiu wrote again: How many of you are there?

Bai Zaiyun wrote: Including me, there are eleven in total.

Mr. Qiu nodded: Where are the others?

Bai Zaiyun wrote: I am still on the way and will pass by your department.

Mr. Qiu narrowed his eyes slightly: Why are you going first?
Bai Zaiyun wrote: There are wounded people, we will go ahead.

Mr. Qiu got to the point: "Why did you come to me? I haven't received any notice from above."

Bai Zaiyun reminisced as he wrote: "Originally, I wasn't coming. We were walking in the wilderness when we saw a bonfire in the woods. We went over to investigate and found that it was indeed the Tartars. We followed their tracks all the way to the river. After rescuing one person and capturing three, we suddenly realized the situation was urgent, so we trekked here, hoping for your assistance."

Mr. Qiu wrote: What do you need?
Bai Zaiyun wrote: Three horses. I want to deliver the letter you read to Zhenjiang City today.

Mr. Qiu wrote: OK. Anything else?

Bai Zaiyun wrote: Does your unit have a military doctor?

Mr. Qiu wrote: I am. I can treat knife wounds, arrow wounds, and gunshot wounds. I can't treat other ailments.

Bai Zaiyun was quite surprised: You have this skill.

Mr. Qiu smiled and said: Long illness makes one a doctor.

Bai Zaiyun glanced at Mangku and said, "I'd like to ask for your help in treating the wounded." It was Dazi. He had been wounded by an arrow, the arrowhead still in his body, a swallowtail arrowhead.

Qiu Ye's suspicions had almost completely disappeared, but he still wrote to ask: "Okay, but why is Da Zi injured? Isn't he a messenger?"
Bai Zaiyun wrote: "We later learned they were messengers. They brought Han Chinese with them. We thought they were captives. I wanted to rescue the captives, so I ordered my archers to preemptively strike. As a result, they wounded him."

Mr. Qiu didn't write often, so his hand felt a little sore. He moved his wrist, and when the soreness eased a little, he continued writing: "Do you want to eat?"
These three seemed to possess some kind of sorcery. The moment Bai Zaiyun saw them, she felt instantly hungry. Her sense of smell also sharpened, and she soon detected the aroma of meat that already lingered in the camp. She swallowed and wrote with some difficulty: "Don't bother. I brought some dry food, so we can eat it on the way."

Mr. Qiu smiled knowingly. He saw the girl's expression clearly. "Old Ding!"

"Here!" Old Ding rushed out, sweating profusely.

"Cut four pieces of roast meat, string them together with ropes, and have them carry them along so they can eat on the way."

"Okay." Old Ding turned around and went back to the kitchen.

(End of this chapter)