Late Ming Dynasty: From the Defeated Soldiers at Daling River to Ascending the Throne

Gultai's eyes suddenly widened.

The pungent smoke from that "spiked" cigarette rolled into my lungs, and I instantly felt a warm current rush to my head, blurring the fatigue of the patrol and the anger from before.

The slight dizziness after a heavy smoking session and the burning sensation of the liquor in his throat made him involuntarily let out a short "Ugh... good" through his nose.

The "okay" was very soft, but it was caught by Chen Feng's ears. His drunken eyes cleared for a moment, but were immediately covered by drunkenness again.

Gultai shook his head to dispel the dizziness in his mind.

He composed himself, remembering his duty, pulled the pipe from his mouth and handed it back to Chen Feng, then turned to leave this filthy place. "Young Master Liang, please enjoy yourself. I really still need..."

Before he could finish speaking, his hand suddenly felt heavy as a roasted lamb leg was shoved into his hand.

He looked at the leg of lamb in his hand, then at the person who had handed it to him—the bondservant servant beside Liang Siye.

Meng Changgeng said with a fawning smile, "Master! Eat meat!"

Chen Feng grabbed his forearm and, without a word, dragged him into the tent, shouting enthusiastically incoherently, "Why are you leaving! Master Ezhen... Master Ezhen... you've drunk the wine, smoked the tobacco, and you have to eat the meat... you have to eat the meat! We, the warriors of the Great Jin, how... how can we leave on an empty stomach? Sit down! Have a couple more bites with your brother!"

Gultai was pulled so hard he stumbled, and the words "we still need to patrol the camp" got stuck in his throat.

As the saying goes, once there is a first day of the month, there will be a fifteenth.

Having already broken military regulations by drinking that sip of alcohol, he could no longer save face by feigning remorse, and his inner resistance gradually weakened.

"That's enough!" He said in a hoarse voice, seemingly helpless yet also indulgent, as he sat down and took a big bite of the lamb leg from the wine bowl Chen Feng handed him.

The oil mixed with the liquor slid down my throat, providing immense satisfaction to both my taste buds and my body.

The atmosphere inside the tent changed instantly. The guards who had been kneeling and begging for mercy, as well as the four Bayaras brought by Gultai, relaxed completely when they saw their leader sitting down to eat and drink. They even felt a sense of relief and smugness at being able to do something bad with their leader.

It's unclear who made the first move, but the remaining wine sacks were passed around, and the tobacco pouches were lit again.

The group sat together, not daring to make a loud noise, but the low sounds of Manchu conversation, chewing, and swallowing quickly blended together.

Chen Feng and Gultai sat with their arms around each other's shoulders, his gaze occasionally passing over Gultai's nape to meet Wang Jie and Meng Changgeng.

He nodded, indicating that the time had come.

Meng Changgeng and Wang Jie nodded in understanding, and the two began to make their own little gestures.

"You dog slave! Pour the wine! Fill...fill the cup for Lord Ezhen!" Chen Feng hiccuped as he kicked Meng Changgeng, who was huddled in the corner.

Meng Changgeng quickly got up, his face plastered with a fawning and fearful smile, picked up the small leather bag containing the liquor and moved closer to Gultai.

Gultai was boasting excitedly, saying that last year he followed the Great Khan into the pass and cleaved the head of a Ming army officer in Zunhua City. In that battle, he personally killed five Ming dogs.

He spoke with great enthusiasm, and casually handed the empty earthenware bowl to Meng Changgeng.

Meng Changgeng poured wine for him. Just as the wine was about to be full, Meng Changgeng seemed to be unaware that his thumb had been dipped into the flowing wine. The grayish-white powder on his thumb flowed into the bowl with the wine and quickly dissolved and disappeared.

"Master...you have a great capacity for alcohol! Please!" Meng Changgeng raised his wine bowl high.

Gultai took it without hesitation, tilted his head back, and drank it all in one gulp.

As the strong liquor went down his throat, he smacked his lips, seemingly finding this bowl of liquor to be more "mellow" than before, with a slightly numbing sensation that was barely perceptible. However, his attention was quickly drawn away by the burning sensation and his boastful words.

Chen Feng, his eyes blurry with drunkenness, steered the conversation away from the act of killing to a wide range of food from all corners of the country: "My lord, you are truly brave! I... admire you! But when it comes to enjoyment, nothing beats the Central Plains! I've traveled all over the country..."

This "Young Master Liang" began to recount his experiences traveling all over the country with caravans since he was ten years old. He not only fooled Gultai, but also Hao Dadao and the other two were stunned.

"The roujiamo (meat sandwich) in Tongguan is incredibly fragrant! A perfect balance of lean and fatty meat, the bun is crispy and the meat is tender… The boat snacks in Suzhou and Hangzhou are especially exquisite, my lord… do you believe it?… You wouldn't want to eat them even if you saw them…"

"The vast and beautiful land within the Great Wall awaits our Great Khan to lead the Eight Banners warriors... to... to take it back!"

Gultai listened with great interest, as he had never even heard of many of the places mentioned, let alone understood them.

After another bowl of "spiked" wine, he felt that as a warrior of the Great Jin Dynasty, he couldn't lose to this Nikan in terms of verbal skills.

So he began to boast about his wrestling skills, saying that just a few hours earlier he had overpowered the renowned warrior Orosechen on the buk field and was now recognized as the best baturu in the camp.

He became more and more excited as he spoke, completely unaware that his four personal guards and the four armored soldiers he had brought with him had somehow collapsed sprawled on the ground.

Besides Chen Feng and his three companions, only Gultai remained seated inside the tent.

Thinking this, he downed another bowl of wine, but then Gultai suddenly felt something was wrong.

He felt that the alcohol was unusually strong tonight; normally he could drink three catties of liquor without getting drunk.

But now, after drinking only a pound and a half, I feel dizzy and my tongue is not quite under my control.

He tried to shake his head to stay awake, but the scene before him began to sway and gradually became doubled.

He looked at Chen Feng, whose drunken face was split into several shadows in the smoke.

"Uh..." He uttered a meaningless syllable, trying to stand up while bracing himself against the ground. "No... no... this liquor... is strong... really..."

A bad feeling suddenly welled up inside him. This feeling wasn't right; it wasn't like being drunk... it was like...

My mind grew increasingly empty, and my consciousness sank into boundless darkness.

His massive body swayed, then fell straight forward, landing with a thud on the felt blanket, and remained silent.

There was a moment of deathly silence inside the tent.

The smile on Chen Feng's face quickly faded, and his eyes became incredibly clear. He slowly stood up, his movements as steady as a mountain, showing no trace of drunkenness.

He walked up to Gultai's massive body and gently kicked it with his toe.

There was no response; only heavy, slow breathing indicated that he was still alive, but he had fallen into a deep paralysis and coma.

"Damn Tartars, they drank so much before collapsing!" Wang Jie cursed under his breath.

The powder they used was a "sleep-inducing drug" that they smuggled into the camp from their water pouches and pipes. Originally, this drug had no name and was a sleeping drug that circulated within the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) and spread throughout the army.

It is a mixture of processed datura flowers and aconite, which can cause fainting and paralysis. Later, when the novel "Water Margin" became popular among the people, the medicine was given this name.

"Check it out, quick!" Chen Feng's voice was extremely low.

Wang Jie and Hao Dadao had already silently stood up, quickly checked the eight Later Jin soldiers who were lying on the ground, and then nodded to Chen Feng.

"Be clean! Don't use a knife!" Chen Feng ordered in a low voice.

Meng Changgeng was already straddling Shen Qinghe, his hands gripping the latter's neck tightly.

Shen Qinghe also showed signs of waking up under these circumstances, struggling weakly with his limbs, but soon lost consciousness.

Hao Dadao and Wang Jie also sprang into action. Hao Dadao was strong and grabbed the Tartar's neck, twisting it sharply with a "crack." He continued his movements, and several short, chilling cracking sounds of bones breaking echoed in the tent.

Chen Feng squatted down, his gaze falling on Gultai's thick neck. He found a sturdy linen belt and wrapped it around Gultai's neck.

He stepped on Gultai's shoulder with one foot and was about to pull his belt up when Gultai opened his eyes!