Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 313: The Vagrants

Nurhaci's planned march for the Fengji attack was to depart from Sarhu City, march through the mountains, and first move south to Wendehen for a temporary stop. Then, the army would split into two wings, stopping at Dongzhou Fort and Magendan Fort respectively, before finally marching eastward together towards Fengji.

Because Dongzhou Fort and Magendan had long been Ming military bases, there were numerous villages nearby, housing both military and civilians. However, these villages were now deserted. To make it more difficult for the Jurchens to obtain supplies through looting, Xiong Tingbi opened up the Liaoning-Shenyang region and absorbed many border residents. Furthermore, the Jurchens' looting and pillaging practices were themselves forcing Han people to migrate westward or southward.

By the time Nurhaci attacked Fengji, there were no Han people living in groups in the area from Fushun to Qinghe. Only vagrants who were forced to go into the mountains to hunt and gather for a living and who had to compete with the Jurchens for food were left.

Normally, these nomads could still make a living in the mountains. However, once Nurhaci decided to invade the Ming Dynasty, he would first dispatch a large number of spies to search the mountains to prevent the Ming army from spying on the Jin Dynasty's military movements. During the search, those nomads who failed to escape would be captured as trophies or simply shot as Ming spies.

In Dongzhou Fort, one of the four flags on the right wing, Guo Xin Niulu's headquarters was holding such a vagrant, or a trophy.

This vagrant was captured by the Eight Banners soldiers as they were moving towards Wendehen. He was spotted by a small group of cavalry scouts belonging to Guo Xin's Niulu. He offered no resistance and simply dropped his hunting bow.

Seeing that he was so sensible and had a strange braid, Ma Tan did not mistake him for a Ming army night guard and shot him.

At midnight, all the tents were darkened, and Guo Xin Yiming'a, who was in charge of patrol and defense, tiptoed to the place where the prisoners were held.

The vagrant was very perceptive. As soon as Yiming'a entered, he opened his eyes and looked at her. In the bright moonlight, the vagrant's eyes seemed to gleam with the unruly fierceness of a hawk.

Yiming'a was startled by the sudden gaze, but he did not give up his lustful thoughts. Breathing heavily, Yiming'a came to the vagrant and said in Jurchen: "I know you can understand what we are saying. Now I want you to listen carefully."

"Of course I understand. What are you doing?" The homeless man knelt on the ground, looking up at Yiming'a with raised eyes. "You have taken my bow and arrows, my prey, and everything valuable I had."

"What I want to touch is not your things, but you." Yiming'a said with a lewd smile.

The homeless man's pupils shrank, and he laughed instead of getting angry. "You want to fuck my ass?"

"Yes! I'm going to fuck your ass." Yiming'a licked his dry lips. He loved patrolling the camp when there were new prisoners. That way he could release his pent-up desires. As for gender, he didn't care much.

"Don't you find it too hard?"

"No problem. I've fucked any ass, no matter how hard it is." Yiming'a patted the homeless man's cheeks, which were not as rosy as his. "As long as I can fuck you, that's fine."

"Then aren't you afraid that my shouting will attract the night watchman?" The homeless man did not struggle. He had already tried. The rope that tied him to the log was of good quality and the knot was tied firmly. Even if he had all his strength, he could not break free.

Yiming'a pulled out a sharp knife and pressed it against the homeless man's neck. "I'm the night watchman. If you dare to scream, I'll slit your throat and then play with your ass." The knife was sharp enough that a single poke would sever a blood vessel.

"What good is that? Selling your ass earns you money." The homeless man seemed quite sensible. "Can you let me go after this?"

Yiming'a nodded with satisfaction and replied, "I don't have any money, so I can't let you go. But I can give you something to eat." Yiming'a fished out a small piece of steamed bun, still warm from his body, from his arms. "I suppose you haven't eaten a single bite since you were captured?"

In order to prevent the prisoners from escaping, the Jin army would not give the prisoners anything to eat in the first few days after capturing them, and would only feed them water to sustain their lives.

"Okay. Then you go ahead and do it." There seemed to be some helplessness in the vagrant's tone, as if he accepted his fate.

"Be smart." Yiming'a was pleased with himself for having pulled off another trick. He put away the knife and patted the homeless man's face again.

In reality, Yimin'a didn't dare to kill the captives without authorization, as all captives were considered property to be distributed. Killing a bound captive would be tantamount to unwarranted damage to the wealth of his own Niulu. Given his status, if he did so, he might be reduced from a free man to a slave.

"Stand up and turn around." Yiming'a untied the knot, held the rope end, loosened the rope slightly, and signaled the vagrant to turn around and face the wooden stake.

Tying a kneeling captive to a log stake driven into the ground, and keeping the knot away from his hands, would prevent him from escaping to the greatest extent possible. However, this method of tying him up was not conducive to Yiming Axing's sexual intercourse.

"Loosen it a little, it won't turn." The homeless man stood up and twisted his shoulders.

Yiminga hesitated for a moment, but still did as he was told. At this moment, his little head had already controlled his big head.

The moment he felt his shoulders relax, the homeless man immediately mobilized all his strength, pushed his legs against the wooden stakes, and fell directly to the ground.

Yiminga was surprised at the vagrant's extraordinary strength. The big head became the master of the small head again. He tried to grab the rope that slipped away from his hand, but it was too late.

The homeless man fell heavily to the ground, his face making direct contact with the ground. He felt a warm sensation in his nose, probably a nosebleed. He ignored these minor details and quickly got up from the ground. After getting up, he did not run away, but turned around and pounced on Yiming'a, pinning him to the ground.

The vagrant tried to pull Yiming'a's hair, but he only grabbed a piece of rat tail. So he simply twisted his wrist and wrapped the rat tail around his wrist.

Yiming'a wanted to break free, but just as he stabilized his hands and before he could exert any strength, he was hit in the face to the ground.

One, two, three hits. The youman's strength was so great that in just a moment, Yiming'a's nose was completely collapsed. After knocking Yiming'a down, the youman untied the bow and quiver he carried and tied them to himself.

Then, the homeless man reached out and touched the steamed bun in Yiming'a's arms. Yiming'a, who hadn't completely fainted yet, was still moving. So the homeless man grabbed a wooden stick from the corner of the room, the same one the Jin soldiers had used to beat him, and smashed it against Yiming'a's head.

"Damn it. You're such a loser and you still want to mess with me. Bah!" Before leaving, the homeless man spat a mouthful of bloody phlegm at the back of Yiming'a's head.

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The next morning, when the right wing army was about to move camp, Yiming'a, who was still unconscious, was carried all the way to the presence of Tianming Khan Nurhaci.

"Dead?" Nurhaci sat on his horse, looking down at Yiming'a who was held by two armored soldiers.

"I'm still breathing." Guo Xin Abutai, the Niulu Ezhen of Guo Xin Niulu, knelt on the ground, not daring to look up at the Khan.

"So you want me to wait for him to wake up?" Nurhaci's voice was already filled with displeasure. "No!" Before Abutai could move, Nurhaci's left and right guards stepped forward and slapped Yiming'a.

Yiming'a felt pain and slowly opened his eyes. Seeing that he was waking up, the guards held his chin and turned his head towards the Khan.

Nurhaci looked at the blood-scab-covered face and felt even more annoyed. "Who knocked you out?"

"Who are you?" Yiming'a's mind was confused and his vision was swaying. He couldn't see the person in front of him at all.

Snap! The guard slapped Yiming'a again.

"The Khan is right in front of us! Open your dog eyes." Guo Xin Abutai scolded.

"Great Khan?" Yiming'a reacted for a moment. "Great Khan!" Yiming'a's knees buckled, and he instinctively tried to kneel down. But two people were holding him up, so he couldn't kneel down.

"Who knocked you unconscious?" Guo Xin Abutai repeated Nurhaci's question in a hoarse voice.

"That prisoner." Yiming'a's thoughts gradually became clear. "He was the one who knocked me out."

"How did he knock you out?" Nurhaci was incredulous. "Could he have broken the rope?" Nurhaci had originally thought that a Ming army scout had sneaked in at night to gather intelligence, not only knocking out the night watchman but also saving his companions. If that was the case, the matter was very serious.

"I..." Yiming'a paused, then quickly came up with a lie. "My clothes had a big hole in them. I saw that the prisoner's clothes looked good, so I wanted to take them and wear them myself, so I untied him. Who would have thought that the prisoner, after nearly two days of starvation, still had incredible strength. I was careless for a moment, and he captured me."

Nurhaci was stunned for a moment, then sneered: "You mean, you took a fancy to the Ming Dynasty's clothes, so you untied him, and then he knocked you out!"

"Yes." Yiming'a suddenly felt a chill on his back.

"I'd rather kill this idiot than let him be killed by the Ming people. Kill him." Nurhaci waved his hand. The two men holding Yiming'a immediately pulled him aside and forced his body into a bow position.

"Khan! Spare me." Before Yiming'a could finish his plea for mercy, the guard who followed him drew his sword and chopped off Yiming'a's head.

"Great Khan." Another guard grabbed Yiming'a's braid and presented his head to Nurhaci. "Marching is also a war. Before, some people left the team to hunt pigs, some left to plunder, and now there are such losers who wanted to steal the clothes of the Ming people, but were subdued by the Ming people instead. Send the head to each flag so that the servants will know the Khan's military law!"

"Yes!" The guard took the order and left.

"You." Nurhaci had more than two hundred Niulu under his command, so naturally he had no way of remembering the real names of all of them.

"Here!" Guo Xin Abutai kowtowed.

"Do you have brothers or adult sons?" Nurhaci asked.

"Reporting to the Khan, I have an adult younger brother." Abutai replied tremblingly.

"Since you don't control your subordinates strictly, then don't control them. Hand over your Niulu to your younger brother. Let him learn from your mistakes." Nurhaci said.

"Thank you, Great Khan, for your mercy." Guo Xin Abutai was obviously relieved.

Nurhaci withdrew his gaze and said to the flag owners and generals gathered before him: "The army is marching! We will arrive at the city of Fengji today!"

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After the vagrant was freed from his restraints, he did not leave the camp immediately. Instead, he found a nearby tree that was six or seven feet tall and climbed up. After the Jin army had broken camp and left, he came down from the tree and fled from this dangerous place.

A day later, the Eight Banners troops launched an attack on Fengji according to Nurhaci's plan. The nomads also followed the wild paths in the mountains and went south to Magenshanbao.

Elsewhere, after agreeing to capture Han Chinese as a "justification," the hunting party, separated from the main army, fell silent again, leaving only the rustling of the wind in the dense forest. Three men hunched over, their eyes constantly darting back and forth between the ground and the tree trunks, searching for signs of prey.

Previously, they relied on observing tree trunks to find snowshoe hares. While snowshoe hares prefer to feed on the tender branches and leaves of juicy herbs and shrubs, they also nibble on tree bark during the bleak winter and spring. Fresh scars on trees indicate the presence of snowshoe hares. With luck, they might even encounter their natural predators, such as lynx, weasels, or martens, while pursuing the hares.

The hunting team was obviously lucky. Not long after, the three of them followed the trail and found a snow rabbit and a lynx that was chasing the snow rabbit. Without any hesitation, they fired three arrows almost simultaneously, flying towards the snow rabbit and lynx respectively.

As a hunter, the lynx could never have imagined that it, who was the prey the moment before, would become the prey of a higher-level hunter the next moment. Together with its own prey, it was nailed to death by cold feather arrows on the earth that was gradually warming up.

"Hit!" Erbihe ran over quickly. He ignored the snow rabbit, pinned to the ground and thrashing futilely. Instead, he pulled out his sharp knife, aimed it at the lynx's throat, and with one strike, he finished it off, even though it was still struggling. A quick, painless death—the greatest mercy a hunter can offer his prey.

The snow rabbit didn't receive this cheap mercy and was still suffering, but Erbihe ignored it. Instead, he picked up the lynx and weighed it with his arms. "Brother! This beast must weigh at least 40 kilograms!"

Forty kilograms meant that even after skinning and deboning the fish, there would still be over twenty kilograms of edible meat left. In any case, the three of them were finally guaranteed meat for the next few days.

"Who shot it?" Hushubu walked to the side of the rabbit and squatted down, using his own knife to free it.

Erbihe glanced at the special mark on the feather arrow and said, "Brother, your arrow hit the heart, while mine only hit the buttocks." After saying that, he did not forget to compliment, "You are worthy of being called the eldest brother!"

"Haha." Hushubu smiled complacently and said, "I remember there's an empty Han village nearby. Let's go there and deal with these prey."

"Okay." The joy of harvest temporarily dispelled Erbihe's worries about punishment. At least now, all he wanted was to have a good meal.

　The last few chapters introduce a grassroots perspective and add an important character.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)