Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 678 The Two Armies Make Contact
They rode swiftly, kicking up dust along the way. In less than a quarter of an hour, General Zhou Wenbing, accompanied by Li Shu and his personal guards, returned to the Changtuan Prefecture from the left flank of the Ninth Battalion of the Divine Pivot.

"Greetings, General!" Before Zhou Wenbing could even dismount, the guards on duty came forward to greet him.

"Where is that messenger?" Zhou Wenbing lightly dismounted and casually tossed aside the reins.

"We're waiting for you at the gatehouse," said a servant on duty.

"Has he finished his dinner?" Zhou Wenbing asked as he walked.

"We've finished eating." The servants opened the door for Zhou Wenbing.

"Let him come to the signing room to talk." Zhou Wenbing stepped over the threshold and headed towards the second hall without looking back. "And have someone prepare tea."

"Yes!"

The lights were on in the signing room, which surprised Zhou Wenbing. He pushed the door open and saw that there were still people sitting in the two seats below the main seat.

“Mr. Hu, Mr. Jiang,” Zhou Wenbing exchanged glances with the two clerks. “You haven’t left yet?”

"Just before we left, a new list of invoices and receipts arrived, so we kept them," explained Hu, the clerk sitting to the left of the head of the table, as he lightly patted the receipts stacked in the paper basket.

"You two have really worked hard." Li Shu nodded and asked with a smile, "Have you eaten? Dinner?"

"I've already eaten. Thank you for your concern." Secretary Hu pointed to the plates and bowls beside him.

"Why is Zhou Zuoji here at the signing room?" Jiang, the clerk sitting to the right of the head of the table, asked. "Is there something you're looking for?"

“Admiral Shen sent someone over,” Zhou Wenbing said. “I can’t possibly meet with someone at the gatehouse.”

"Admiral Shen has arrived in Hanyang?" Hu and Jiang, the clerks, exchanged a glance simultaneously. They both saw a glimmer of hope in each other's eyes.

"We'll have to ask to find out." Zhou Wenbing sat down behind the main table and casually pointed to a guest seat for Li Shu, who had followed him. "Please sit down, Prefect Li."

Li Shu was curious to know what they were talking about, but he was too embarrassed to ask. If it was just a casual chat, it would seem like he was being nosy and tactless to pry.

After some hesitation, Li Shu decided to bow and express his gratitude, then obediently sat down in the seat Zhou Wenbing had indicated. "Thank you," Li Shu thought to himself, "I really need to learn Chinese, I need to learn it as soon as possible!"
"No need to be so polite." Zhou Wenbing waved his hand, turned his head and glanced in the direction of the door. Seeing that the messenger had not yet arrived, he casually asked about the booklet: "Where is the list of supplies from?"

“It’s those villages on the upper reaches of the Imjin River, near Majeon County,” Hu Shuban said.

“That is, three Lijia Villages, two Jinjia Villages, two Pujia Villages, one Yinjia Village, and one Cuijia Village,” Jiang Shuban added. “A total of nine villages.”

"How many households and how many people are in these villages?" Zhou Wenbing subconsciously reached for the spot on the table where the teacups were placed. But at that moment, that spot was still empty.

"Go and urge them quickly." Zhou Wenbing withdrew his hand and shouted to his son Zhou Kaixun, who had just sat down.

"Is he not coming?" Zhou Kaixun pointed towards the door. The messenger sent by Shen Yourong was already standing there.

"What are you talking about?" Zhou Wenbing glared at Zhou Kaixun. "Tea, I want tea!"

"Tch," Zhou Kaixun scoffed, muttering under his breath, "You didn't explain yourself clearly."

"What scriptures are you chanting over there?" Zhou Wenbing stared wide-eyed and raised his eyebrows.

"I said I'll go and urge them right away! You can just wait here peacefully." Zhou Wenbing rolled his eyes slightly and left without looking back.

“Come here. Have a seat,” Zhou Wenbing beckoned to the messenger and pointed to a seat. “Wait a moment.”

"Yes." The messenger knew these gentlemen were discussing serious matters, so he didn't even bother with formalities and went straight to sit down.

“My son is foolish and clumsy, gentlemen, please continue.” Zhou Wenbing looked around and picked up where he left off.

Jiang Shuban opened the booklet in front of him and got straight to the point: "I'm in charge of the three Li Family Villages and the two Jin Family Villages. Does Zhou Zuoji want to hear the details, or just the general outline?"

“It’s getting late. You two can just briefly tell me the total number of households and the total number of people in these five villages,” Zhou Wenbing said.

"The three Li Family Villages and the two Jin Family Villages combined..." Jiang Shuban said, turning the pages while calculating on his abacus, and quickly arrived at the result. "There are a total of 427 households and 614 men. The number of people is countless."

"丁" and "口" are two different concepts. Generally speaking, "丁" refers to adult males who bear the burden of taxes and corvée labor, and is the basic unit for the imperial court to levy taxes and assign labor. "口" refers to the total number of actual family members. This census only requires checking the number of households and "丁" in each village. Zhou Wenbing's question about "丁口" was simply due to habit of reading them together.

“In other words,” Zhou Wenbing did a quick mental calculation, “on average, two households don’t even have three men?”

“That’s right,” Jiang said. “But as you know, these lists and supply slips are all submitted by the villages themselves. We still need to send someone to verify whether there has been any concealment or misrepresentation.”

Zhou Wenbing nodded and said, "Let's write it down in the draft first. We'll discuss the rest after Supervisor Yuan enters Hanyang."

Controlling the city's defenses, sealing off warehouses, investigating local accounts, and conducting a simple census of the number of households and people in each village and hamlet under the jurisdiction were all things that had been decided before the army set off.

The booklet that Jiang had just flipped through was a draft, but he still replied, "Yes."

"What about Mr. Hu?" Zhou Wenbing turned to look at Hu, the clerk.

"I have two Pujia villages, one Yinjia village, and one Cuijia village. The four villages together have a total of 432 households and 627 people." While Jiang was reporting, Hu had already made his plans.

"Your four villages have more people than his five villages?" Zhou Wenbing asked.

“There are indeed more. But this is mainly because of Cui Family Village and Yin Family Village.” Hu Shuban looked down at the booklet and explained, “These two villages are relatively large, especially Cui Family Village, which has 162 households, 13 more than the two Pu Family Villages combined. I think these villages with the same surname may have been divided up by a large clan, while Cui Family Village has not been divided yet, so there are more households.”

“It’s also possible that it’s from different villages of the same clan, all mixed together,” Jiang Shuban interjected. “One hundred and sixty-two households—even in Southern Zhili, that would be considered a large and powerful clan.”

Zhou Wenbing suddenly thought of something and looked at Jiang Shuban, asking, "Isn't the head of Changtuan Prefecture surnamed Cui?"

"That's right. What was that person's name again?" Jiang Shuban's mind went blank for a moment, and he suddenly couldn't remember.

“Choi Jung-seok,” Hu, the clerk, reminded him. “That person’s name is Choi Jung-seok.”

"Yes, yes, yes! It's Choi Jung-seok." Secretary Jiang patted his head lightly. "Look at my memory, I saw him this morning."

"Mr. Hu, please make a note of this," Zhou Wenbing ordered Hu, the clerk. "Summon Cui Dingxi over tomorrow. I have some questions for him."

"Okay." Hu, the clerk, took a memo and wrote down the instruction.

“If you want to verify this now, you should send one of our own people to investigate,” Jiang Shuban suggested. “Their clan’s interests are at stake here; we can’t expect them to tell the truth.”

"Hehe." Zhou Wenbing chuckled softly. "There are advantages to telling the truth, and there are advantages to not telling the truth. Gentlemen, is there anything else?"

Hu and Zhou exchanged a glance and shook their heads simultaneously. "Come here," Zhou Wenbing said, beckoning to the messenger while instinctively reaching for his teacup. But unsurprisingly, he couldn't find anything.

"Yes." The messenger rose and approached Zhou Wenbing's desk. Just as he was about to greet him, he heard a soft complaint: "Tsk! Why isn't he here yet?"

"Zhou Zuoji, what did you say?" the messenger asked. "I didn't hear you clearly."

"I'm fine," Zhou Wenbing said with a smile, waving his hand.

Just then, Zhou Kaixun arrived at the signing room with several servants who were there to deliver tea.

"Slow down, you idiot! I'm dying of thirst!" Zhou Wenbing's smile vanished, and he glared at Zhou Kaixun and snapped at him.

“Even if you’re thirsty, you’ll have to wait a bit. The tea is freshly brewed and still piping hot.” ​​Zhou Kaixun carried the tea tray to Zhou Wenbing’s desk. The other servants set off the tea tray while clearing away the dinner plates from the two clerks, Hu and Jiang.

There were no yamen runners in the yamen. Apart from the kitchen, all the errands were handled by Zhou Kaixun's servants. These soldiers were very sloppy in their work, and they would only do one thing after giving an order. They had no initiative to serve others.

"You're not going to bring it to me cold, are you?" Zhou Wenbing said with a pout.

“If I let it cool down before bringing it here, I can’t even imagine how grumpy your face would be.” Zhou Kaixun slammed the tea tray down. “Let it cool down slowly here.”

"Hey! You got a beating, huh?" Zhou Wenbing glared angrily at Zhou Kaixun. "Who are you talking to!"

"Let's get down to business. There are so many people watching." Zhou Kaixun looked around and made eye contact with everyone present. "You're not embarrassed, but I am."

Zhou Wenbing looked around and saw that everyone had awkwardly lowered their heads. "Get out."

"Yes, get out of here," Zhou Wenbing said with a sneer, turning around and leaving with his servants.

Zhou Wenbing, supporting the bottom of his cup, picked up the tea, gently blew on it, and put it down again. "Tell me, lad. Where have Admiral Shen and the others gone?"

"Greetings, Zhou Zuoji." The messenger added a military salute.

"No need for formalities, just tell me."

“Reporting to Zhou Zuoji,” the messenger said, straightening up. “My troops have already reached Incheon.”

"Incheon." Zhou Wenbing reached out and took a map, unfolded it, and immediately located Incheon. "So, you've only just landed?"

“Pretty much,” the messenger said, raising his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his brow. “We landed yesterday morning and entered Incheon this morning.”

“Why wait another day?” Zhou Wenbing asked. “Incheon City isn’t far from the shore, is it?”

"I don't know about that," the messenger shook his head.

"Have you encountered any obstacles?" Zhou Wenbing asked.

"We didn't encounter any obstacles," the messenger explained, forcing a response. "Perhaps Admiral Shen wanted to rest a bit. Many of our brothers were crossing the sea on a ship for the first time in their lives. After I disembarked, it took me quite a while to recover from that dizzying state."

"Indeed." Zhou Wenbing nodded in agreement. "Are you continuing your march today? When does Admiral Shen plan to enter Hanyang?"

"According to the plan, our army will arrive at the south bank of the Han River this evening and cross the river into the city tomorrow morning," the messenger replied.

"This evening?" Zhou Wenbing glanced subconsciously at the sky outside the window. "So, Admiral Shen has already drunk his horse at the Han River?"

"I think so," the messenger nodded.

"I understand." Zhou Wenbing reached out and gently touched the inside of the cup. The cup was still hot; it was clearly not a temperature that would make one feel pleasantly thirsty.

Zhou Wenbing could only withdraw his hand and swallow a mouthful of sticky saliva. "Is there anything our army can assist us with?"

"Admiral Shen only sent me to inform you. He didn't make any requests," the messenger said. "The only thing he wanted to know was where Supervisor Yuan is now."

“Unfortunately,” Zhou Wenbing spread his hands and shrugged. “I don’t know where Guardian Yuan is now.”

The messenger paused, taken aback. "You didn't know?"

“I really don’t know.” Zhou Wenbing thought for a moment and explained to the messenger, “We encountered strong southerly winds on the sea route, so we had to deviate from our original course. On the eighth day, our fleet landed at a place called Ongjin in the Yellow Sea.”

"After landing, General Li decided to divide his forces. He ordered Vice General Yang and me to head south directly to Kaesong, according to the plan drawn up before the voyage. He himself led his troops north to control Pyongyang. In other words, Vice General Yang and I went directly to Hwanghae Province, without entering Pyongan Province, and we did not encounter Supervisor Yuan."

"Judging by the time, General Li and his men should have already received Supervisor Yuan. However, he didn't specifically send anyone to inform us. If Admiral Shen asks why, please tell him this."

The messenger was silent for a moment before nodding: "Alright, I'll remember that."

"Speaking of which," Zhou Wenbing picked up the teacup and tested the temperature of the rim with the tip of his lips. The cup was still warm, but not too hot. Zhou Wenbing blew on the surface of the liquid a few times, then eagerly took two small sips. "...Same sea, same wind, you must have encountered strong winds too, right?"

“You’re right.” The messenger licked his slightly dry lips. “So after the fleet approached the shore, it sailed north for a few more days before landing.”

"Where did you drift to at first?" Zhou Wenbing took a few more sips of tea to slightly relieve his irritating thirst.

"I don't know either." This messenger was just an ordinary courier. No one would tell him anything special except when he was delivering the order, so he knew very little.

“Alright.” Zhou Wenbing put down his teacup and picked up the teapot. “I have no more questions. Is there anything else you want to say?”

"That's all. I summoned Admiral Shen to find our allies, inform them of our situation, and inquire about the whereabouts of Guardian Yuan." The messenger counted on his fingers, then thought silently for a while. "That's right, everything that needed to be said has been said."

"Did Admiral Shen say he would report back tonight?" Zhou Wenbing asked while pouring tea.

"He didn't say." The messenger shook his head.

"Then you can stay here for the night before going back." Zhou Wenbing smiled at the messenger. "Changtuan is only about 180 li from Hanyang. If you go there early tomorrow morning, you should be able to catch up with Admiral Shen as he enters the city."

"Alright. Thank you very much, Zhou Zuoji." The messenger immediately agreed, as he didn't want to travel at night.

"No need to be so polite." Zhou Wenbing nodded and called out towards the door, "Someone come here!"

"General!" A servant entered the room to await orders.

"Take the messenger to the guest room." Zhou Wenbing yawned as well.

(End of this chapter)