Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 588: Jiucheng Town Jiang
The distance between the outer forts, which Mr. Qiu was responsible for, and the eastern starting point of the Great Wall, the Hushan Great Wall in Zhenjiang, was over thirty miles. The forts and watchtowers along the way formed a nearly continuous line. If they had passed normally, they would have been questioned along the way. Fortunately, Mr. Qiu not only lent Bai Zaiyun three horses but also gave her a Flying Tiger flag, symbolizing "fierce military intelligence."

With the flag flying, they could travel unhindered. With the Flying Tiger flag, they covered the thirty miles in less than half an hour.

"Who's down there? Why are you entering the city?" As Bai Zaiyun and his group passed the last three-mile pier, the guard on duty from the second-floor balcony of the Great Wall gate tower saw the dust kicked up by the galloping horses. By then, the guard had already descended from the gate tower and was leaning against the parapet, looking down at Bai Zaiyun and the other four.

Bai Zaiyun didn't understand what the doorman said, and she also knew that the defense officer couldn't understand her. So this time she simply kept silent, pulled out the Flying Tiger flag tied to her back, and waved it at the defense officer.

However, the gate beneath the defense officer's feet was a permanently closed border gate, and this flag alone wasn't enough to open it. Even more suspicious was the fact that when the group approached from below, none of the outer city towers along their route raised the alarm. A situation like the Flying Tiger without a warning was something the defense officer had never encountered before.

"I saw it. I'm asking you why you are raising this flag?" the defense officer shouted.

Bai Zaiyun shook even more vigorously.

"Don't you understand what I'm saying?" The defense officer rolled his eyes. "I asked you why you're flying this flag, and you just said something!"

Bai Zaiyun really didn't understand, but she could hear the questioning and impatience in the other person's tone.

Bai Zaiyun turned around and looked towards the Mangku sitting in front of Yang Sange. Their eyes met, and Bai Zaiyun first pointed at the Mangku, then at the defense officer on the city gate.

Mangku was stunned for a moment, then he raised his head and shouted, "Sir! Can you understand what I'm saying?"

Hearing the Tartar's words, the guard officer's hair immediately stood on end. "What's going on?" the guard officer asked in his unsound Jurchen dialect.

Mangku smiled and said, "I am the messenger of Hada Beile Wuergudai! I have a letter from the Beile to Gao Bangzuo. I hope the master will let me pass!"

Upon hearing this, the defense officer's first reaction wasn't that it was some major military intelligence, but rather that the enemy had set up a trap. But he looked around and saw no sign of a large enemy army. He stared at the tower ahead, and after a long moment, he pointed at Bai Zaiyun and asked, "Why isn't he talking?"

"She and the other two are southern soldiers of the Celestial Empire!" Mangku felt it was a little strange that the Ming army had to rely on him, an "enemy countryman", to act as an intermediary in order to communicate with each other.

"Southern soldiers?" The defense officer frowned, instinctively unconvinced. He was also worried this was some critical intelligence, some dire military situation. After some thought, the defense officer decided to escalate the situation and raise the issue.

"Fire the cannons, light the cigarettes, and impose martial law!" the defense officer shouted at the top of his voice.

"Yes!" The soldiers who were responsible for serving the signal cannon and beacon fire took action after hearing the order.

"Wait, wait! Don't fire, don't fire!" Another defense officer who stayed on the gate tower ran over, shouting as he ran to stop the signal soldiers and bugle gunners who were about to light cigarettes and fire cannons.

The soldiers stopped obediently and looked at the first defense officer. If the higher-level defense officer insisted on the order, they would continue to carry it out.

"Tong Beiyu, it's not a good idea for us to just fire cannons and light incense sticks like this." The deputy defense officer pointed ahead along the river. "No one on the outer city walls along this road has lit any cannons or incense sticks, but we're the first to do so. If the higher-ups ask about this, how will we explain it? Are we playing tricks on the princes by lighting beacons?"

"What are you afraid of? Isn't that idiot holding the Flying Tiger flag?" Tong Beiyu pointed at Bai Zaiyun, who was still waving the flag. "If it's really some blazing military intelligence, there's nothing wrong with us lighting a cigarette, right?" His implication was that if anything went wrong, the other party would be fully responsible.

"You're right, but..." The deputy defense officer suddenly stopped talking and whispered into Tong Beiyu's ear, "But Yuan, the new councilor, has just taken office and is stirring up trouble everywhere. If he keeps making a big deal out of this matter and finding fault with us in public, how can we argue with him? I think that until he calms down completely, we should keep our heads down and not get involved."

A thoughtful look flashed across Tong Beiyu's eyes. "But you saw it too, that bastard down there was dumb, just waving his flag without saying a word. The last person to speak was a Tartar." Tong Beiyu pointed at the horse carrying both Mangku and his uncle. "If we were unprepared and rashly opened the door and let the wolf in, it would be a big deal," Tong Beiyu patted his helmet. "It would cost us our lives."

"Didn't the Tartar say these three were from the south? They really can't understand us. Look," the deputy defense officer pointed at Mangku's hands holding the reins, "that Tartar has a rope around his hands, and the man behind him isn't carrying any weapons. It's obvious they're on guard."

"There are many different ways to cheat. Those southerners who went to North Korea just left our place three days ago. Where did they go? How could they come back?" Tong Beiyu looked deeply at Uncle Thirteen and Brother Yang. "And I remember the faces of those fourteen people, but I can't match any of the three below."

The Youyang Tusi soldiers were notified in advance of which exit and entrance they would use, as well as their final destination before leaving the controlled area. Bai Zaiyun and his group had originally chosen not to take this route. If they hadn't changed their route after seeing the bonfire, they would have taken the Wulong Mountain route back to their base.

"We can lower a basket down and pull up that flag-waving idiot," the deputy defense officer whispered. "If they're really other southerners who've temporarily changed their route, they should have official credentials. On the other hand, if these are Tartars trying to defraud us, they certainly wouldn't dare come up alone. Isn't this much better than a cigarette-lit martial law?"

"Great, let's do it." Tong Beiyu nodded and turned around and shouted, "Don't light a cigarette yet. Hang a basket down for me and pull that idiot up!"

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The main camp of the Youyang Tusi reinforcement army's Zhenjiang branch was located south of Zhenjiang City, near the confluence of the Yihe River and the Yalu River. This meant that after Bai Zaiyun and his party entered Zhenjiang from the Hushan Great Wall, they had to ride horses for another ten miles.

Bai Zaiyun and his companions had eaten some fatty pork on horseback, which gave them plenty of energy, so a ten-mile gallop was no problem. However, riding horses tires the horses, and their horses were exhausted after galloping for thirty miles. If they continued, they would lose weight, so Bai Zaiyun asked Tong Beiyu to replace their horses with three more.

Tong Beiyu was also a sensible and cheerful man. After dispelling his doubts, he immediately replaced the horses for them with three fat and strong ones.

Arriving at the Youyang South Barracks, the accent issue finally ceased to be a problem. They were not even stopped for questioning and rode their horses straight to the open space in the center of the camp.

Bai Zaiyun jumped off her horse in a very elegant manner and immediately rushed towards the central army tent. She trotted while shouting, "Sister, sister! I'm back!"

Behind Bai Zaiyun, Third Brother Yang and Thirteenth Uncle, who were still on their horses, looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

"There's no eldest sister here, only the second sister." Bai Zaiying, the second sister who always helped Bai Zaixiang with paperwork, stood under the curtain. She crossed her arms, a smile on her face, and looked up at Bai Zaiyun.

"I'm looking for my elder sister," Bai Zaiyun walked past Bai Zaiying and quickly entered the central military tent. "Where did she go?"

"Hey!" Bai Zaiying's smile turned into anger, "So in your eyes, I, your second sister, don't matter?" "No." Bai Zaiyun turned around and held Bai Zaiying's arms affectionately. "Of course, your second sister is also good, but..."

"Don't touch me, you're all sweaty and smelly." Bai Zaiying took a small step back and snorted. "Disgusted."

"Oh," Bai Zaiyun's face flushed with embarrassment, "Now is not the time to talk about this. Tell me where my elder sister is. I have something important to tell you."

"What's so big?" Bai Zaiying hadn't finished speaking when he suddenly saw Yang Sange and Uncle Thirteen escorting a bound Tartar through the gap in the wooden fence. "Not bad! Capturing a live Tartar on your first trip!"

"No, no, no! What Tartar? This is nothing." Bai Zaiyun's nose was almost up in the air. "And this isn't a Tartar, it's a messenger."

"Messenger? Whose messenger?" Third Brother Yang and Thirteenth Uncle waved and greeted Bai Zaiying, and Bai Zaiying smiled and nodded.

"A man named Wang Dutang." Bai Zaiyun felt that the "Wang Dutang" in the letter header should be the Chinese name of "Wuerhutai" written by Yu Youyu, but she was not sure.

"Who is this person?" Bai Zaiying had never heard of this name.

"This person claims to be Minister Hada, and it's in the letter." Bai Zaiyun took out the envelope from his arms, which had many wrinkles from being handled so many times.

Bai Zaiying took the letter. "I only know about the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue. What is the Hada tribe?"

The Hada tribe was simply a self-designation popular among the Jurchens. In various official Ming documents, the Hada tribe was consistently referred to as the "South Pass," just as the Yehe tribe was referred to as the "North Pass." Therefore, Bai Zaiying only knew of the "South Pass" and not the Hada tribe.

"The letter didn't say it, but judging by its contents, this Wang Dutang must be an important figure who can contact the bandit chieftain, Amin." Bai Zaiyun shook his head. "Second sister, you'll know after reading it."

Bai Zaiying took out the letter and opened it, and was immediately shocked.

"Come on, come on, follow me into the city and go to the government office!" After reading the letter, Bai Zaiying took a step forward.

"Let's find my elder sister first. If we go directly to the yamen, how can we talk to people?" Bai Zaiyun stood there without moving.

"My eldest sister is at the government office. She's been summoned for a meeting." Bai Zaiying pulled Bai Zaiyun up, "Thirteenth Uncle, Third Brother Yang, take that man with you!"

"it is good!"

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The core of Zhenjiang City was a brick city less than two miles in circumference. Outside the brick city, two rammed earth enclosures faced the river. The outer enclosure was over four miles in circumference, while the inner enclosure was nearly three miles in circumference. Within the area enclosed by these two rammed earth enclosures, more than ten smaller enclosures, smaller than the brick city, were scattered from northeast to southwest.

This fortress, with a brick city as its core and a rammed earth enclosure as its outer perimeter, was first built during the Liao Dynasty. Originally called Laiyuan City, it served as a stronghold during the Liao Emperor Shengzong, Yelü Longxu,'s campaigns against the Silla Kingdom. Later, it became the seat of the Posu Prefecture during the Jin and Yuan dynasties.

In the Ming Dynasty, because there were many connected ancient city sites in the area, it was changed to "Jiuliancheng" or "Jiuliancheng".

In September of the 24th year of the Wanli reign, on the eve of the second campaign to aid Korea against the Japanese invaders, the Emperor, following the Ministry of War's instructions, ordered the construction of a new city on the site of Jiulian City, named Zhenjiang, to prepare for the Japanese invasion. In October of the same year, the Changdian Guard was renamed the Zhenjiang Guerrilla Army, and the troops were stationed in the city.

In September of the 48th year of the Wanli reign, the emperor ordered the consolidation of Zhenjiang and ordered the newly appointed censor Yang Lian to supervise it.

In March of the first year of Taichang, the project was completed, the entire city was covered with bricks, and two new artillery batteries were built along the river.

With the Youyang Tusi's pass token and the Flying Tiger flag, Bai Zaiying and his entourage successfully passed through three lines of defense and rode into Zhenjiang City. Normally, once inside Zhenjiang City, passage was almost unimpeded, but today, the intersection where the Zhenjiang Guerrilla Office was located was blocked.

"Stop!" Seeing someone coming straight towards him, the officer guarding the street entrance immediately ordered his soldiers to form a formation to stop him and made a gesture of refusal.

"We are..." Bai Zaiying reined in his horse, but before he could even take out his pass, he was stopped by the officer guarding the gate. "Dismount and talk!"

Bai Zaiying couldn't quite understand the northern accent, but she understood the finger-flipping gesture. She dismounted, quickly walked over to the officer, and handed over her badge and Flying Tiger flag. "I'm a personal military officer under Madam Bai of Youyang. I have an important matter to report. Please allow me to pass."

The guarded officer didn't understand a single word, but judging by the appearance of the people before him, he could roughly guess their identities. He took the badge, glanced at it quickly, and then looked behind Bai Zaiying. "Is there anyone who can understand Northern dialect?"

“.” No one responded.

"What a hassle." The officer sighed, then without asking any questions, clutching the sign and flag, he turned and left. "Watch them. I'll go ask them." The officer took two steps and threw this sentence behind him.

"Yes." A burly man who was a whole head taller than Bai Zaiying strode over and stood in front of Bai Zaiying.

"Second sister, what's going on?" Bai Zaiyun walked to Bai Zaiying's side. Behind her, Third Brother Yang and Thirteenth Uncle also helped Mangku off the horse again.

"I don't know either," Bai Zaiying said, taking a half-step to the side and glancing over. She noticed there were even people patrolling the street. "They must be discussing something important."

Bai Zaiying suddenly felt a gaze sweep across her face. She looked up and saw that it was indeed the tall and strong northern soldier who was secretly looking at her. Bai Zaiying was not shy about the gaze and even smiled gently at the northern soldier.

The northern soldier was stunned, turned his head away with a red face, and suddenly blew an unpleasant melody with no rhythm at all.

(End of this chapter)