Di Ming

Chapter 31 Han Nu
"go!"

Longdun and Ahana roared in utter resentment and turned to flee.

But where is the time?
Eidu's large force, clad in armor, advanced, and blood splattered everywhere beneath the blades.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!" Nurhaci stood up and shouted. "You are all warriors of the Giorcha family! Stop killing yourselves!"

"You have done your duty as warriors!"

"Lay down your weapons and be loyal to me, and you will still be a true man of Jianzhou Left Guard!"

Nurhaci pounded his chest and said, "I, Nurhaci, swear to Cuohazhanye and Fuduo Mama! As long as you sincerely surrender, I will not retaliate against you!"

The remaining dozens of enemy soldiers, upon seeing the imposing and righteous Nurhaci, hesitated for a moment before throwing down their weapons and kneeling on the ground.

They were very fierce when they killed Nurhaci, and now they are surrendering to Nurhaci just as readily.

Only a handful of people, including Long Dun, looked around with grim faces, swords drawn, gritting their teeth.

"Very well!" Nurhaci waved his hand. "You are innocent! I will forgive and forget! The guilty ones are Longdun and Ahana!"

"Hahaha!" Longdun laughed wildly, looking up at the sky.

"Son-in-law! You won! It was Yale who blessed you, not Cuoha Zhanye, not Fuduo Mama!"

He pointed at Lancha, "If this Soren man hadn't suddenly appeared, you wouldn't have won! I would have chopped your head off long ago!"

"You've won now! Your uncle is waiting for you to come and kill me!"

"Ahana! Don't be a coward, don't beg him! Let this son-in-law kill his two uncles!"

Nurhaci and his brothers stared coldly at their two uncles, as if they were looking at two dead men.

When they were young, these two uncles took care of them and taught them riding, archery, and hunting.

Later, they raised an army with thirteen sets of ancestral armor to avenge their fathers and grandfathers. With the support of Li Chengliang, they inherited the hereditary position of commander and became the lords of the Jianzhou Left Guard.

From that time on, these uncles became enemies with their brothers.

In their struggle for hereditary titles and power, they have finally reached this point.

Nurhaci, recalling the plots and schemes against him by Longdun and others over the years, waved his hand expressionlessly.

A short, sharp pain is worse than a long, drawn-out one; it's time to end this.

Eidu and the others rushed forward, disarmed Longdun and the others, stripped them of their armor, grabbed their braids, and brought them before Nurhaci and his brothers.

"Your Majesty!"

Nurhaci looked down at them and said, "If you only want to kill me, I can spare you for the sake of our ancestors and the god Niman."

"But tonight you killed so many of my guards and caused the deaths of so many precious warriors, so I cannot forgive you!"

"Only by killing you can we give them an explanation!"

Nurhaci threw out a bow, "Men! Take them where they belong!"

"Yes, sir!" Several guards stepped forward, put a bowstring around Longdun's neck, and twisted it sharply.

Ahana and the others were all strangled on the spot, one by one, with no noose around their necks!

Immediately afterwards, Shurhaci led several hundred armored men and set off overnight, heading straight for the undefended city of Hetu Ala!

Bao Shi and his clansmen were also destined to be caught up in it.

After Shurhaci led his troops away, Eidu immediately knelt on the ground and removed his helmet:
"Ejen! It is this servant's fault for being incompetent! I returned too late, please punish me, Ejen!"

"Upon receiving the order to return as reinforcements, I immediately led my troops back, but when we reached the river, there wasn't a single boat! The ice was almost melted, and we couldn't cross..."

Nurhaci waved his hand and helped his beloved general up, saying, "The ships must have been moved away by them beforehand. It was arranged long ago, so it's not your fault!"

"You were able to fly back like an eagle; there's no fault in that, only merit! How could I bear to blame you?"

“My dear Eidu, haven’t I often told you about Zhao Yun, the Han Chinese warrior? You are my Zhao Yun.”

"You are my wings and my limbs, how could I possibly offend you?"

Nurhaci spoke with great concern, while stroking Eidu's bald head.

“Ezhen…” Eyidu’s eyes were filled with tears, his voice choked with emotion, and his little braids trembled.

Zhu Yin watched this scene and secretly curled his lip.

Nurhaci pointed at Zhu Yin: "If it weren't for the little tiger's reminder, we would have been finished! It was he who discovered the evil nature that prompted me to send someone to inform him."

“If he hadn’t called Lancha to join the battle tonight, you wouldn’t have made it in time either.”

"My little tiger brother is our benefactor and good fortune!"

Nurhaci and others were genuinely grateful to Zhu Yin.

If this auspicious person hadn't appeared, there would have been far too many disasters these past few days.

Eidu and the others bowed to Zhu Yin with immense gratitude.

Zhu Yin raised his hand to help, "Don't thank me! This is a blessing from Master Cuohazhan and Mother Foduo. I just happened to be there. It shows that Brother Wild Boar Skin is lucky."

Nurhaci laughed heartily: "Little Tiger, you are truly my benefactor! From now on, I will always listen to your advice, and I can't go wrong."

"We're like brothers, so I won't stand on ceremony and thank you."

After Nurhaci finished speaking, he bent down and touched Zhu Yin's forehead with his own.

This is called a "touching greeting." It's only used between very close people.

For a time, Zhu Yin became the benefactor of Nurhaci's faction, and everyone was extremely grateful.

Even the Jurchen warriors who had previously looked down on him because of his youth were now filled with gratitude and felt ashamed of their previous contempt. Lancha, covered in blood, walked to Zhu Yin, knelt down, and bowed:
"Master, as you wished, Lancha, whom you saved, has broken in."

The Solon people have a deep-seated fear of being captured and buried alive with the dead, believing that their souls will be imprisoned in a hellish prison forever.

Zhu Yin saved him from being buried alive, and that didn't just mean he saved his life.

After tonight's events, how could Zhu Yin not know that Lancha was reliable?

The young man, imitating Nurhaci, patted Lancha's head and said in Jurchen:
“My Lancha, your bravery is like a tiger in the mountains, your integrity is like a pigeon in a fence, and your loyalty is like my black dog.”

“If I refuse to accept you, even a roe deer will laugh at my foolishness. Master Cuohazhan will be angry about it, and Mother Foduo will be heartbroken.”

"Get up, Lancha, from now on you are my Goshha."

Lancha was overjoyed upon hearing this, "Master! I am the shadow of a sunny day, always by your side. Only when you need me to disappear do I become the shadow of a cloudy day!"

Nurhaci also took the opportunity to instruct his subordinates:

"There is a saying in Han Chinese books that crows know to feed their parents and lambs know to kneel to suckle. Lancha is such a person."

The subordinates removed their helmets together and said, "What the prince said makes sense. It's like a divine revelation from the shaman's wife. We'll all keep it in mind."

……

Zhu Yin returned to the small yurt late at night.

Ning Qingchen slept soundly, carefree. Ning Caiwei, however, waited anxiously.

"Are you alright?" She was relieved to see Zhu Yin, and her heart finally settled down.

Zhu Yin shook his head and said, "Tonight was really dangerous. The plan went wrong a bit, and the reinforcements returned late."

"If I hadn't called Lancha to join the battle at the last minute, the consequences would have been unimaginable."

Zhu Yin recounted the battle that had taken place that night.

Ning Caiwei was a little scared.

"There's nothing we can do about it," Ning Caiwei said. "You only discovered the anomaly at dusk, and sending a message to mobilize troops at that time was indeed very rushed."

"It's my fault. I was practicing archery at home during the day and didn't notice anything unusual. I only found out when you came back from hunting."

Zhu Yin smiled and said, "You can't blame yourself for that. I dare say that if it weren't for my professional habits, no one would have noticed these changes, and even if they did, they wouldn't have taken them to heart."

"You didn't notice it not because you were careless, but because you don't have the mindset of a spy."

"Well, I'll accept Lancha. He's a reliable person."

Ning Caiwei said, "Then there will be four people following us, which means four more mouths to feed. However, manpower is also a very important resource."

She looked at Zhu Yin, who seemed exhausted, and felt a pang of sympathy.

"You've been working hard all night, go to sleep. We're all still growing, we can't overwork ourselves."

"Let me take off your shoes."

For the first time ever, they actually wanted to take off Zhu Yin's shoes.

……

The next morning, Shurhaci returned with his troops.

The fate of Long Shi and the others is self-evident.

Overnight, the hostile forces within the Jueercha clan were wiped out by the Wild Boar Skin Brothers.

Nurhaci unified his family and resolved his worries about the future more than half a year earlier than historically.

Early in the morning, Nurhaci announced that he would concurrently serve as the Mukunda of the Giorcha clan and that a shaman would be invited to perform a sacrifice to the Sologanzi in the West Hall.

Bao Shi and his followers, treasury, servants, and property were all taken over by Nurhaci.

Shurhaci also brought back more than two hundred Han slaves and presented them to Nurhaci.

Nurhaci angrily said, "I warned them long ago to hand over the Han slaves as soon as possible and send them back, so that Grand Tutor Li would know our loyalty."

"But they handed over part of it, yet they still kept some for themselves. Isn't that just inviting trouble? They deserve to die!"

He then said to Zhu Yin, "Little Tiger Brother, I didn't do this. I'll send them back to Grand Tutor Li immediately."

Zhu Yin thought to himself, "You may not do it now, but you will slaughter Han people in your old age."

He said, "Of course it has nothing to do with Brother Wild Boar Skin. As long as he is sent back, everything will be fine. We Han people are reasonable too."

As the two were discussing, a young Han Chinese man suddenly spoke up from the crowd:

"I don't want to go back! Young master, I don't want to go back!"

Zhu Yin took a look and saw that the boy was fourteen or fifteen years old, with red lips, white teeth, and delicate skin.

Even in the simple clothes of a slave, he could not hide the air of a rich young master.

The boy had been quietly observing Zhu Yin and discovered that although Zhu Yin was young, he was precocious and highly regarded by the chieftain.

Zhu Yin couldn't help but ask, "Why? What's your name?"

The young man stepped forward from the crowd, cupped his hands in greeting, and said:

"In reply to your question, young master, my surname is Xu, Xu Xiaobai."

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(End of this chapter)