After entering the house in the dark, Mu Zaohua just called out "Miss Zheng" when Zheng Haizhu grabbed her shoulders and pressed her on the kang. Trying to suppress his anger, he pressed her head against her frozen ears and whispered. He said: "If you want to see Mr. Wu alive, shut up from now on!"
The two stood motionless on the kang, only hearing each other's breathing. After a while, the snow outside the house made a subtle "rustling" sound, and soon fell silent again.
Zheng Haizhu said angrily to Mu Zaohua: "He's gone, go to sleep!"
Mu Zaohua obediently took off her coat and shrank deep into the fire pit.
Zheng Haizhu also fell on the kang.
Her chest was hurting sharply, and the pent-up anger that could not be released seemed to burst her heart and lungs. It was far more painful than the half of her face that was swollen by Mang Gurtai.
"Master Wu and I were both blind, and we actually fell in love with you!"
Three days later, when he finally left Hetuala safely and returned to the inn outside Crow Falcon Pass to meet with Kong Youde and other Ming troops, Zheng Haizhu took Mu Zaohua by the hand to the forest in the back mountain and uttered these words burning with anger. .
Mu Zaohua knelt in front of Zheng Haizhu, kowtowed and said: "I am stupid, I am stupider than a donkey."
Zheng Haizhu stared at her: "In those days, when I was at the Zhenghuang Banner Yamen and not with you, was it that Mang Gurtai who wanted to occupy you, so you had murderous intentions?"
Mu Zaohua said: "I can't hide anything from the girl. Mang Gurtai and Yi Lanzhu were talking about the Jurchen truth. Aya told me that Mang Gurtai thought I was like one of his maids who died in Fujin, and wanted me to stay. Hetuala, fortunately Yilanzhu was probably afraid of offending you, girl, so she made up an excuse to send Mang Gurtai away. But that stinky Tatar touched my hand and slapped my face."
Mu Zaohua took a breath and continued: "Mang Gurtai took Yilanzhu and another brother to hunt. During the barbecue, they chatted and said that the Ming people who came to Jianzhou were very treacherous and hid food from them. When serving as military rations, we simply ordered each household to pay grain per head, pay less, and kill one person. Just kill all the disobedient ones, and grab some obedient ones like animals to plant in the land left by the dead. Two Tatars The prince was talking so cheerfully that even Yilanzhu couldn't stand listening. Miss Zheng, the Jianzhou Tatars are really not human beings. Mang Gurtai and the others should drink arsenic!"
As Mu Zaohua spoke, the sadness in her eyes turned into hatred.
Zheng Haizhu squatted down, twisted her shoulders, and said slowly: "Zaohua, let me not talk about the rules set by Mr. Wu for you, which prohibit you from taking any actions without authorization. Let me just talk about your dislike of the Tatars. , can a pack of arsenic really relieve hatred? You have also seen with your own eyes how many children and grandchildren Nurhaci has, and how many bannermen and generals his children and grandchildren have. Mang Gurtai's family is dead, but Nurhaci still has Amin, some Daishan and Huang Taiji can conquer the Ming Dynasty, rob our land, and massacre or kidnap our people! Do you really think you are watching a theater troupe singing? You can poison the whole drama In the end, by the way, I was also implicated and died together with you. Are you worthy of me bailing you out of the miserable days by the canal?"
Mu Zaohua raised her eyes and pursed her lips, her hatred turning into shame.
Zheng Haizhu calmed down for a few moments and asked: "In those few days, you followed them everywhere, did you see any firearms?"
"Girl, no. But I saw a lot of idle Tatar soldiers competing in martial arts. They were holding big bows as tall as one man and shooting at the iron armor tied to the tree."
"How far away were they to draw their bows?"
"Most of them were fifty or sixty paces, and some were further back. Sometimes they could draw an arrow faster than anyone else and shoot a bow faster, and sometimes they could shoot farther through armor than anyone else."
Zheng Haizhu nodded and said to Mu Zaohua: "You go back to the inn first, I will be alone here quietly."
Mu Zaohua refused to leave: "Miss Zheng, the innkeeper said that there are often wild boars here, which can attack people and are more dangerous than bears. If the girl thinks I am an eyesore, I will go behind the tree so that the girl cannot see me." But, but I have to accompany the girl."
Facing that serious face, Zheng Haizhu was silent for a moment and sighed softly: "Okay, I won't be quiet anymore. Let's go back together."
She now understands the difficulties of employing people in leadership studies.
Some people, just like some writers, have flaws one after another, even fatal.
But when this person is qualified or even excellent at performing other tasks at the same time, just like the article still has bright spots, it is a pity to abandon it.
In the birch forest on the border in the 46th year of Wanli's reign, Zheng Haizhu stared at Mu Zaohua's footprints on the snow.
At this time, she still didn't know that Mu Zaohua, who had almost caused a big trouble now, would be of great help to her one day in the future because she was not regarded as an abandoned son.
…
After safely entering Crow Falcon Pass and being in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Haizhu asked Mu Zaohua to follow Kong Youde and escort Yilanzhu back to Liaoyang. He took Aya and another soldier of Mao Wenlong and turned north to Fushun. Went to find Wu Bondang, exchanged information with him, planned various arguments, and surveyed Fushun's terrain.
In this way, after the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Quan and Mao Wenlong finally welcomed back Zheng Haizhu and others who were tired of their travels in Liaoyang.
"Shilang Zhang, Uncle Mao, and Nurhaci will definitely attack Ming Dynasty this spring, and they will attack Fushun."
After Zheng Haizhu made his point clear, he first took out the crumpled mulberry paper: "The day before I was ordered by the old chief to draw a map of the Western Taipei Sea Territory, Nurhachi was looking for a pen-note style Chinese translation in his Zhenghuang Banner Yamen. He suddenly became angry, and then calmed down, but Some of the discarded paper balls were left in the basket. I hid this piece, traced out the words in it individually, and found them with different Mongolian businessmen in Fushun. They translated them into Chinese characters, including seven, hate, and killing the father. , Fa, Ming, I still don’t know a bit.”
Zhang Quan took the mulberry paper and frowned: "Is this a Mongolian character?"
He had previously visited Jizhen and Xuanda and knew the Mongolian language.
Zheng Haizhu said: "In the past few years, the Jianzhou Jurchens created their own Manchu script, but the roots were borrowed from Mongolian script, so Mongolian businessmen can recognize some of it."
Mao Wenlong said: "These few words are enough. But how do we know that we should hit Fushun first? Because we speculated on the horse market last year?"
Zheng Haizhu nodded: "Master Wu squatted in Fushun for more than half a month, and passed the New Year. Every horse and carriage shop said that the relatives of guard Li Yongfang who were doing business told them that the horse market on April 15th would be on time. Open, let them build more sheds, and there will be many Jurchens selling horses and iron tools. And..."
When Zheng Haizhu said this, he stopped, walked over, opened the door, called Aya in, pointed at her and said to Zhang Quan: "Secretary Zhang, her mother is from Kaiyuan, her father is a horse breeder from the Ye He tribe, her family is They were all killed by the Jianzhou people. When she escaped, the old chief had not yet invented Manchu. She could not read Manchu, but she could understand the words of the Jianzhou people."
"Aya, tell the two superiors what the women of the Nurhachi family said?" Zheng Haizhu pushed Aya forward.
Aya lowered his head, but spoke clearly: "Back to the two gentlemen, they said that the old chief wants to recruit a whisker to give him a daughter or granddaughter to the general of the Ming Dynasty. The whisker that the Manchu people call is Fushun of the Ming Dynasty. , um, it means brother-in-law."
Zhang Quan narrowed his eyes and waved his hand: "Okay, you can go out."
Then he said to Mao Wenlong: "Let the soldiers at your door go further away."
After the door closed again, Zhang Quan looked at Mao Wenlong, Zheng Haizhu and Wu Bondang, but did not express his position immediately.
Mao Wenlong knew that he should speak first and not be slick and pretentious.
"Sir, Mao doesn't know how to beat around the bush, he only talks from the bottom of his heart. Mao wants to win this military honor!"
