Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 582 Youyang Tusi Soldiers

At this point, even a fool would have understood what was going on: if what Mangku said was true, then the current situation was that Second Prince Amin had already decided to abandon the Great Jin Dynasty and betray Nurhaci, the Mandate of Heaven Khan. And Mangku and the Erjigen brothers before him were the messengers acting as liaison.

"Mangku," Sangguli said, a thin layer of cold sweat already seeping out of his forehead. "Can you let me see the letter?"

"No." Mangku patted the place where the letter was placed on his chest. "This letter is sewn into my robe. It cannot be taken out before meeting that Han official. Moreover, this letter is written in Chinese. Even if I show it to you, you won't understand it."

"Then how can I be sure that you are not lying?" Sangguli squatted down slightly.

"I wouldn't joke about something like this." Mangku's eyes were fixed on Sangguli. Seeing him move to take out his knife, he immediately pulled out half of his sword. "Sangguli! I beg you not to do anything stupid. Holding the knife won't do you any good. I have my hand on the hilt. No matter how slow I am, I'm still faster than you."

"Haha, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to grab a knife. I'm just scared to death." Sangguli simply raised his hands. "That should be fine."

Mangku nodded and put the half-drawn knife back into the sheath. "Beile Amin has decided to establish himself. Sangguli, you are also an old man of the Bordered Blue Banner. You should know the choice."

Mangku seemed to have guessed Sangguli's concerns, so he added, "Although I can't prove anything to you right now, you should believe what I say is true. If it were just the two of us brothers who wanted to defect, I wouldn't have woken you up to explain. Wouldn't it be better if I just cut your neck while you were asleep and gave it to the Han people as proof?"

"Hiss." These sinister words made Sangguli feel a chill on his neck. But on second thought, it seemed to make sense. "Mangku. I don't seem to have a choice, do I?"

"Of course you have a choice," Mangku said, undeterred by Sangguli's raised hands. His right hand still rested on the hilt of his sword. "You can choose death. Or you can choose to join us and enjoy wealth and glory together after our success. In the long run, you and I will undoubtedly be given official positions when Amin Beile becomes the new Khan. In the short run, since we've brought this important letter to the Han officials, they'll undoubtedly entertain us and give us some cloth, gold, and silver."

"Could things really go so smoothly?" Sangguli's heart was stirred. He had only been given some of those Han goods, which were only available to the nobility, when Kaiyuan City fell, and even then it wasn't much. If he could really become an official, receive a reward, and return home in glory, what a dignified thing that would be.

"This is not something you and I should consider. We just need to do what Beile Amin ordered us to do." Mangku said.

"That's not what I meant. I'm afraid the Ming army will just cut off our heads and claim the reward." Sangguli raised his index finger and tapped his head. "You know, a good head like yours and mine is worth fifty taels of silver." By this point in the war, the imperial court's bounty for the heads of both Jurchen women and men was common knowledge.

"Aren't we still carrying that guy?" Mangku raised his head towards Sangguli's feet, "'Yu'! Don't fucking lie there on the ground. I know you're awake. Get up!"

The man Mangku called "Yu" was a Han Chinese slave he had requested from Ezhen Shabindar, the Niulu garrisoned in Sudian. Mangku's excuse for requesting him was that he needed a local familiar with the local terrain to provide information on the various locations along the way. In reality, however, he simply wanted a bilingual Han Chinese to serve as his translator. As for Mangku himself, he had learned some Chinese on his own and knew a few characters, but due to his limited interaction with Han Chinese and the inability to afford a Chinese teacher, he was far from being able to communicate fluently.

"Yes" Hearing the call, Yu shuddered immediately.

He struggled several times on the ground before finally rolling over and kneeling. It wasn't that Yu didn't want to stand up, but it was difficult for him to do so on his own. Every night, Mangku and his men would tie Yu's hands and feet to prevent him from escaping.

"After listening for so long," Mangku said, although he was talking to Yu, part of his attention was still on Sangguli. "You probably know what we are going to do."

"I know, I know." The Han Chinese surnamed Yu didn't even dare to raise his head, looking like a completely submissive coward. But in reality, he was still happy, even ecstatic. He had long since grown tired of being a slave to the Jurchen Tartars. If he hadn't been watched during the day and tied up at night, he would have run away.

"Do you want to go home?" Mangku asked the Han man named Yu.

"Your servant," the Han Chinese surnamed Yu said, deliberately suppressing the joy that surged in his heart, and replied in the calmest tone possible, "Your servant will obey your master's orders. If your master wants you to go home, you will go home. If your master doesn't want you to go home, you won't go home."

"Very good." Mangku nodded with satisfaction and said to Sanguli, "Sangguli, you see, I asked Shabindar Ezhen to give me this Han slave just for this purpose."

Sangguli's eyes flickered. "Shabindar Ezhen also knows about this?"

"What do you think?" Mangku responded with a rhetorical question.

Out of caution, Mangku didn't explicitly confirm anything with Shabindar during their brief meeting, and Shabindar didn't express any particular interest. However, Mangku was inclined to believe that Shabindar already knew. After all, Sudian was a frontier fortress in the war against Mingjin, and Shabindar had long been Amin's most loyal retainer.

Sangguli nodded slightly, but said, "But I still have concerns."

"What else can we worry about?" Mangku frowned. "Why don't we find the Ming army and have Yu come forward to negotiate?"

"Have you forgotten what I told you yesterday?" Sangguli explained, "Most of those roaming along the Yalu River are Tusi barbarians from the southwest, thousands of miles away. Only those fixed strongholds are inhabited by Han Chinese from Liaodong. Even the Han Chinese from Liaodong can barely understand what those southern barbarians say, and the same goes for us. If you send Yu out to negotiate with them, they'll probably mistake him for one of us and kill him."

Sangguli leaned over and ripped off the Han man surnamed Yu's hat. "You've probably heard about what happened in those villages. Those brutal southern barbarians don't care about that much. They chop off anyone with a hairstyle like ours for money."

"Why don't we shave our heads? If we keep our heads bald, they won't chop off our heads." Erqigen, who was still standing in the shadows, suggested.

"Are you stupid?" Mangku retorted without even turning around. "We have to go back and report. How are we going to explain to others that I shaved my braid?"

"Anyway, I have to report to the Second Prince." Erjigen said unconvinced.

"That's still not going to work," Mangku said, shaking his head. "We still have to go through places like Changdian and Yongdian on our way back. We can't just keep wearing the hat and disappear."

"Then shave his head." Sangguli grabbed the rat-tail braid stuck on the back of the Han man's head.

"Sangguli," Mangku said with a slight smile, his eyes moving, "It seems you have made your decision."

"Hmph, I don't want to die at the hands of the Bordered Blue Bannermen." Sangguli smiled softly and leaned over to pick up his sword. Mangku took a step back cautiously, but did not say anything to stop him, let alone draw his sword.

Sangguli drew his knife, discarding the sheath. Then, with a twist, a twist, and a tug, he severed the man's pigtail. Sangguli's movements were swift, without a moment's hesitation. Before the man could react, he felt a release on his head. Then, a cold sweat washed over him.

"I thought," Sangguli leaned over to pick up the scabbard and slipped the blade into it smoothly. "Tomorrow we should try to avoid the main roads and avoid any contact with the Ming troops operating in the wild. Let 'Yu' talk to the Liaodong Han people stationed in the fortresses."

"But if we do that, he'll be out of our control," Mangku said, releasing his grip on the knife handle and pointing at the Han Chinese surnamed Yu. "What if this guy gets into the Ming army's fortress and doesn't speak up for us, or even speaks ill of us? I think we have to make sure he acts under our noses. With a sharp arrow pointed at his back, he won't say anything."

"This..." Sangguli frowned and looked at the Han man named Yu.

The Han Chinese surnamed Yu lowered his head, unaware that Sangguli and Mangku were watching him. However, this conversation was enough to send a chill down his spine.

"I wouldn't!" The Han Chinese surnamed Yu kowtowed repeatedly and said, "Master Mangku just said that you gentlemen are surrendering to the court under the order of the Second Prince. The court knows that the Second Prince is willing to surrender and will surely reward you with silk and silver. Although I am humble, if I can act as a liaison, I will definitely get some wealth and honor. Since this is the truth, how could I, a servant, cut off my own financial resources and speak ill of you gentlemen?"

"Haha, you little dog slave. You have a pretty quick mind." Sangguli tapped the Han man named Yu lightly on the head with his sheathed sword.

The Han Chinese surnamed Yu was startled and kowtowed again.

"Mangku," Sangguli said to Mangku, "those southern barbarians are really hard to talk to. If we can't convince them after a long time of talking, they'll get desperate and kill Yu first, then us, and this great mission will be ruined. If we let Yu go to the watchtower to contact the garrison, and we watch from afar, even if these damned guys give up their wealth and insist on making trouble, we can hide in the woods and make plans later."

Mangku pondered for a moment, then nodded. "Let's do it."

Then, Mangku pulled out a piece of off-white linen from his bosom and threw it in front of the Han Chinese surnamed Yu. "You said yesterday that you knew Chinese characters. Now I want you to write the words 'willing to surrender' on this piece of cloth."

"It's so dark, we can't see clearly." said the Han Chinese surnamed Yu.

"Then let's wait until dawn to write." said Mangku.

"What do you write it in?"

"Your blood." Mangku pulled out another knife and threw it onto the gray-white linen cloth. "Cut your hand and write with your blood."

Yu was frightened and trembled, but he could only kowtow and agree.

--------

Daybreak arrived. The gentle sunlight shone on the Yalu River, reflecting a golden shimmer. The golden light shone obliquely, illuminating the blood-stained gray-white flag.

More than half an hour after Mangku and others left the temporary camp, a group of Youyang Tusi soldiers moved from west to east and came to the campfire that had completely lost its heat.

The young chieftain leading the group squatted on the ground, first testing the campfire's temperature with the back of his hand. Then, he gently dug into the ashes with a nearby branch. "It looks like this must be the source of that pillar of fire we saw last night," the chieftain's voice unexpectedly soft.

Many of the elder chieftain's followers nodded in agreement, their eyes unexpectedly catching sight of a few dark brown stains not far away. "That looks like blood."

"Bloodstains? Where are they?" The chieftain looked in the direction indicated, but saw only a patch of mud.

"Here." The attendant walked around and pointed at the dark brown stains that almost merged with the soil.

The chieftain crouched on the ground, propped up his knees, and took two crab-like steps. "It really is blood. Judging by the color, it seems to have been left here not long ago?" The chieftain tilted his head, his tone inquiring.

"Well, at least it's closer than when the fire went out. It should be within these few hours." The attendant nodded and said, "But with this amount of blood, it's either from a punch in the face and a nosebleed, or a cut on the finger while cutting meat for breakfast."

"That means the people who were stationed here haven't gone far." The chieftain threw away the branch and stood up. He looked around and asked, "Has anyone found the rope?"

"Not yet." Three Tusi scouts, who were observing and searching for details of the activity, responded almost simultaneously. Outside them, six Tusi soldiers, armed and on guard, stood guard.

The rope that the chieftain was looking for was actually a signal to identify friend or foe.

Even though each team reported their route before leaving camp, multiple teams operating simultaneously inevitably encountered each other for various reasons. To prevent misunderstandings between friendly forces and minimize identification costs, the Youyang Tusi and the local garrison agreed on a knotted rope system to identify friend and foe. By finding a knotted rope woven in a specific pattern, a later arrival could not only confirm that the camp was set up by friendly forces but also deduce when the friendly forces set out. If the knot was randomly tied, or if no knot could be found at all, it was likely an enemy camp.

"Miss!" An equally young scout suddenly turned around and looked at the chieftain who was circling the camp.

"Hmm?" Everyone else went about their business, only the chieftain and his attendant turned around at the same time. "What did you find?"

"Footprints! I found the footprints of these people leaving the camp!" said the young scout as if seeking credit.

(End of this chapter)