After hearing Chamberlain's request, Atai blinked his little eyes and said with a smile: "You are infatuated. I really respect love the most. Tell the truth, have you two been in love before?"
Chamberlain called out to Tianqu and said, "What did you say? I've only been to Gule City once, and I haven't slept here for a whole night. How can I get along with the third sister? I saw you last time when I came here." , I will never forget it from now on - alas, it is also an injustice."
Seeing his excitement, Atai patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Well, don't be upset, I'm just asking. You want to redeem her, it's not impossible, she's not worth a hundred catties of iron. . But I want to ask Mafa about the woman Mafa has slept with. You stay here tonight, I will arrange for the third sister to accompany you, and I will give you the confirmation early tomorrow morning. "
After hearing this, Chamberlain's face turned red and he said, "Thank you, sir! I'm not planning to marry a real matchmaker, I'm just going to be a plaything. If it's very difficult, sir, you don't have to force me."
While talking, the two entered Gule City. The layout of the city is similar to that of the Han city, but the houses are made of all kinds of materials. There are thatched houses with mud walls, and there are also those with log walls and wooden roofs. There are very few houses built with stones. Although the houses have all kinds of strange shapes, they are neatly arranged and do not look messy.
The two of them walked along the loess road to the center of the city. When they passed a wooden house, Atai turned to the right and said, "I'm waiting here, little slave."
Chamberlain's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. When he looked carefully, he saw two windows made of wooden sticks and leather ropes on the house, which were supported by wooden poles. From the street, he could not see whether there was anyone inside.
Because of the hot weather, there wasn't even a curtain on the door, it was just left open. There was an old prisoner sitting at the door, leaning on an iron knife and taking a nap. Chamberlain felt that this door was like a beast's cave he had seen in the old forest, and he shuddered on a hot day.
Under the doorway, there was a large wooden basin filled with blood-colored water. Atai said from the side: "This guy brought the meat. He was afraid it would stink, so he threw it into the basin to attract some flies."
After saying that, while waving his hands to shoo away the flies, he walked up to the wooden platform in front of the house and kicked the old man up. Asked in Jurchen dialect: "How many people did Third Sister pick up today?"
Lao Lu shook his head and said he didn't know. He was just collecting things here and the things inside were not his responsibility. After hearing this, Atai pointed at Chamberlain and shouted: "Tell the person in charge inside that the third sister will accompany my brother tonight. Clean her up and send her to my house."
After hearing this, the old man asked Atai: "Uncle, who will give me the meat?" Atai laughed and scolded: "I just hunted a wild boar yesterday, you bitch, don't you know?" The old man nodded. Yes.
Chamberlain watched from the side, secretly shocked. Although this Gule City is like the abode of wild beasts, it is not as clean and prosperous as any larger Han Chinese town.
But as the son of the city lord, Atai still had to obey Wang Gao's orders even if he invited a prostitute to come to his house, and he did not dare to use his power to suppress others. Seeing the big from the small, it is no wonder that it can become a serious problem in Liaodong.
Chamberlain thanked Atai again, and Atai smiled and said: "You Han people are very polite. You gave me such a good thing. Have I ever said thank you? Come on, come to my house for dinner."
...
The sheepskin bag in Chamberlain's arms contained three and a half kilograms of spirits. Atai called two familiar generals to share the wine with Chamberlain behind the others' backs.
There was a shortage of food in Gule City, and these people had not smelled the smell of alcohol for several months. While praising Chamberlain, they pushed wild boar meat in front of him, for fear that he would drink too much and stuff his mouth with meat.
A meal was eaten from Shen time to You time, and it was getting dusk. Several people drank all the wine in the courtyard of Atai's house. Not only were they not drunk, but they were in an anxious mood as if they were greedy. Atai and the two generals talked about the war in the spring, and their faces turned red.
Atai's wife and Nurhaci's cousin heard them yelling and screaming in the yard, so they came out of the main room with a full stomach to make tea for them, put it in a big bowl, and drank it to satisfy their appetite.
At this moment, a gust of wind came and everyone shouted for coolness. The sky quickly became dark, and a black cloud rolled in from the north, covering most of the sky in a short time.
Chamberlain looked at the sky and said, "It will definitely rain tonight." Atai nodded in agreement and said, "As soon as this rain comes, autumn will come." After saying that, he stopped talking and just sighed.
Chamberlain knew what he was worried about, but since he was a businessman and housekeeper, he didn't answer. Atai's mood became more and more bleak, and he waved the meal away.
Atai's house has two entrances. There is a stable on the east side of the front yard and a row of wing rooms on the west side. Since there were not many bricks, the upper half of the house's foundation was made of stone, and only bricks were used up from the window sill. There is no white ash, it is all yellow mud and it looks shabby. There are even fewer tiles on the roof. Except for the main house which uses tiles, the roofs of the wing rooms are all paved with straw.
Atai pointed to a house in the west wing of the front yard and said to Chamberlain: "You will stay here tonight." He then asked a slave next to him to ask the third sister why she hadn't been sent yet.
After Chamberlain thanked him, Atai entered the main room and presented a treasure to his wife. Chamberlain entered the west wing on his own and saw a kang bed inside. The bedding on it had all been freshly washed and exuded the unique fragrance of flour.
He sat by the kang, making calculations in his mind, thinking about the path forward and backward to complete the task, and thinking about what he would say when he saw the third sister.
After waiting for about half an hour, it was almost dark. Chamberlain heard someone shouting outside the door, opened the door and saw the third sister standing next to a prisoner.
Compared with when he first met his third sister as a child years ago, her appearance has changed greatly. Although the girl from years ago was Wang Gao's slave girl, she was wearing the satin dress that Wang Gao had given her. Her face was rosy and seemed to be shining, and her big eyes were always covered with mist, hiding a mystery. Chamberlain took one look at it and almost fell in.
Today, the third sister is wearing a cotton robe with layers of patches on it. Her face was as pale as if she had just crawled out of a grave, and the redness, swelling and bruises at the corners of her mouth and cheeks had not yet dissipated. The big eyes that were once full of mist were dry, and there was no trace of energy in them. When he looked at Chamberlain, he was like a wooden man, without any reaction.
Chamberlain took out another bag of coarse salt and gave it to the soldier who sent her. He took the third sister's hand and led her into the house.
The third sister followed in blankly. Seeing that the bedding on the kang was all spread out, she untied her robe. She was naked without any clothes and wanted to lie down on the kang.
Tears flowed down Chamberlain's face. He held her in his arms, touched her hair, and said in a very low voice: "Third sister, do you still remember me? I am Zhang who came here last year. Not return."
The third sister then raised her head and looked at him carefully in the dim yellow oil light. It took her a long time to recognize him, and she hugged Chamberlain tightly with her backhand.
Chamberlain whispered: "Third sister, I came late and you suffered."
I heard the third sister in my arms reply in a low voice: "Finally you are here. I have wanted to die for a long time, but the old beast is not dead yet. I want to wait and see him die first..." "
Chamberlain put the robe on her, touched her hair with his hand and whispered: "Do you know that Wang Gao's army was defeated? Only a few of the seven or eight thousand Tatars ran away, and the rest were killed by General Li. , these are all your credit."
It turned out that last year, when Chamberlain accepted a secret mission to infiltrate the Jurchens and prepare to spy on the military situation, he actually got close to Lang Maozi smoothly.
Before the end of last year, Lang Maozi asked him to prepare something and follow him to Gule City to deliver New Year's gifts. Chamberlain made an emergency appointment with Qianhu Liu Shou, who was in charge of intelligence in Jiliao Bureau. Liu Shouyou gave him a jade pendant to wear around his waist, and told him not to take it off or give it away after entering Gule City.
Chamberlain's mission went smoothly. At that time, he and other manor stewards of the generals were drinking tea and resting in the room next to Wang Gao's generals. By chance - now known to be intentional, four or five stewards went out to relieve themselves or had something to do, and for a short period of time, he was the only one left in the room.
At that time, Chamberlain held a teacup on the wall and clearly heard that the place where troops were sent to break the border was Panshan Station, a border town in Liaohe Tao.
Later, during the banquet at night, the stewards were not allowed to enter the room and ate in the next room. As Wang Gao's slave girl, the third sister served food and wine back and forth between multiple rooms to serve people. When serving wine to Chamberlain's table, he secretly gave him a small piece of cotton cloth - this small piece of cotton cloth changed the outcome of the Liaodong Battle in the second year of Wanli.
At this moment, when Chamberlain heard that Wang Gao's soldiers had all been killed, the third sister's shoulders trembled slightly in his arms. Chamberlain did not hear her cry, but only felt that his shoulders were wet.
He heard her say in her ear in a very low voice: "Let's get on the kang. The slave family has been suspected for a long time. If you come to me, you will probably be suspected too."
When Chamberlain was horrified, there was a loud crackle and a flash of lightning illuminated the inside and outside of the house. He clearly saw a figure on the window paper!
Chamberlain was so shocked that he couldn't speak, and the figure disappeared as the lightning faded. The crackling raindrops followed, shrouding Gule City in heavy rain.
