The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

"Wait, what are you doing here?" Hu Youcai suddenly asked, a thought suddenly striking him.

Those from the Beijing garrison were assigned to various fortified cities. They weren't even assigned to the fire-receiving towers inside the Great Wall, let alone the fire-receiving towers outside the Great Wall.

Jia Chen's appearance here is highly unusual.

Upon hearing this, Jia Chen sighed, shook his head, and remained silent.

"What? Is there something you can't say?" Hu Youcai could easily see Jia Chen's troubled expression. "Is it the Datong Border Army's idea, or is your superior making things difficult for you?"

"I must have offended the Sun family of Datong, and that's why I was exiled here," Jia Chen said.

"The Sun family?" Hu Youcai murmured, about to say that it didn't matter whether it was the Sun family or the Wang family, with him around, it didn't matter.

However, he quickly came to his senses.

Wasn't it Jia Chen who led his men to stop the Sun family's convoy back then?

I happened to be passing by and seized the convoy's goods.

In other words, Jia Chen's presence here has a significant connection to him.

Hu Youcai looked slightly embarrassed.

He could understand the reasoning behind it after a moment's thought.

The Sun family wouldn't dare cause trouble for me, but dealing with a nobody like Jia Chen would be easy.

They don't even need to lift a finger; they can easily use connections to kill someone else.

"With our family here, this will never happen again," Hu Youcai said.

It's enough that he keeps this in mind.

The Sun family is a prominent family in the area, and even he would find it difficult to do anything to them.

Besides, he'll only be in Datong Town for a few months and will soon return to Beijing, so there's no need for him to get involved with the local bigwigs.

After all, it's their territory.

Now that Jia Chen has bestowed such a great honor upon me, as long as I step in, I doubt the Sun family will dare to target Jia Chen again.

By this time, Sun Tiechong had already prepared the meal and cooked a large pot of mutton soup.

The aroma made Hu Youcai's stomach rumble.

Although he was already being treated specially by the Northern barbarians and received some preferential treatment, he still didn't get enough to eat.

The women's fates were even more tragic.

They fell into the hands of the northern barbarians and were brutally violated; many women were tortured to death.

Their treatment was far inferior to that of Hu Youcai, after all, Hu Youcai had a social status.

If the Great Hong Dynasty wants to bring the person back, it will have to pay an even greater price.

While Hu Youcai was eating with the women, Jia Chen and the others kept their eyes on the escorting team ahead.

The Northern Barbarians increased their cavalry presence between their ranks and watchtowers; these cavalrymen were drawn from the rearguard.

They were pacing around here, clearly not wanting to give themselves another chance, and were on guard.

However, even if Jia Chen wanted to save someone again, he no longer had the ability.

That was a surprise attack. Once the Northern barbarians were on guard, we could only hide in the front hill.

As for the other people of the Great Hong Dynasty, Jia Chen and the others were powerless to help them.

If the border troops behind them do nothing, they will all be taken to the Chahar tribe and enslaved.

……

Abunai's face turned ashen when he learned that the soldiers at Qianshandun had dared to take the initiative to rescue people.

He suffered a lot of setbacks here.

Even when facing thousands or tens of thousands of troops, we have never been this disheveled, nor have we suffered such heavy losses.

How dare a small platform provoke us again and again?

"Taiji, calm down." Faced with Abunai's impending outburst, his subordinates repeatedly tried to persuade him.

"Crush the front mountain stronghold, at any cost!" Abunai's gaze was almost murderous, as if he wanted to tear people to shreds. "Especially that stronghold commander, that kid, he must be alive. I want to cut him into a thousand pieces..."

Abunai now hates Jia Chen to the core.

After all, Jia Chen was the one who caused all of this.

After these encounters, they naturally knew that Jia Chen was the leader.

"Taiji, if you really want those soldiers dead, you don't need to go through all this trouble, nor do you need to let the tribe's warriors shed blood in vain. I have a better way," one of his men said.

His words calmed Abunai down a little: "Aren't you going to tell me?"

"The soldiers stationed at the outer beacon towers are all disliked in the Great Hong Dynasty and have no status or position," the subordinate continued. "We can easily find some connections with the border troops and have the Great Hong Dynasty's border troops deal with them directly."

"Hmm?" Abunai's expression shifted slightly.

"Many caravans secretly cross the border in Datong Town. Most of them are very powerful in Datong Town. Taiji might as well tell them that as long as they find some connections to kill this group of soldiers, they can be guaranteed safety when they pass through the territory of the Chahar tribe next time."

"Hmm!" Abna nodded slightly. "That's an idea. But ensuring their safety means missing out on a lot of benefits, doesn't it?"

These caravans usually paid tribute to the grassland tribes they passed through, and they would definitely have to give gifts to the Chahar tribe.

Even if they were bribed, the Chahar tribe wouldn't necessarily refrain from taking action against them.

Money can tempt people.

Sometimes they might impersonate bandits and rob caravans, and even if the caravan knew, they couldn't say anything.

"Taiji, what happens then is entirely up to us. Even if we rob their caravan, what can they do about it?"

Abunai laughed heartily, "That's true."

However, after laughing for a while, his face darkened again: "Letting the Da Hong Dynasty's border troops take action is a good idea, but I would rather kill these soldiers with my own hands, especially that young leader. I won't be able to vent my hatred until I torture him for three days and three nights."

"This?" The subordinate pondered for a moment and said, "This is simple. Just have those caravans use their connections to keep this group of people in the watchtower outside the Great Wall. After they bring back the wealth and people this time, Taiji can bring his men to raze this place to the ground at any time."

"Okay, very good." Abna nodded.

He thought the idea was sound.

These soldiers have no background, so what good are their merits?

With the connections of those caravans, it shouldn't be too difficult to keep these soldiers stationed at the front of the mountain.

My main task now is to bring back the looted goods and people; everything else has to be put aside.

Once this matter is over and everything is ready, what use will this small beacon tower be, even with a moat?

The reason I suffered such a great loss at Qianshandun was precisely because it happened so suddenly and I wasn't prepared at all.

There wasn't even a decent siege weapon.

Otherwise, how could they not defeat a few dozen soldiers?

Half a day later, the escorting team had already gone far away, and the rearguard cavalry of the Northern Barbarians also began to return north.

Jia Chen saw that Abunai stopped for a moment when he passed by Qianshandun.

The defeat at Qianshandun left Abunai deeply resentful.

Even if he found a way to deal with this group of soldiers, he would have to wait a while, which inevitably made him feel a little depressed.

Seeing this, Omubu had a "friendly" greeting and exchange with him, which made Abunai so angry that he almost lost his temper again.

As Abunai and the others continued to travel further away and finally disappeared into the vast desert grasslands, Jia Chen and the others finally felt truly at ease.

Hu Youcai already knew Emubu's identity.

He hadn't expected Jia Chen to save so many people.

Omubu has a special status. Although he doesn't particularly like the people on the grasslands, he is, after all, the nephew of the Prince of Shunyi.

Even though his father had a tense relationship with the Prince of Shunyi, the imperial court still valued its relationship with the Tumed tribe.

In other words, Jia Chen's contribution should be added to the list.

With the retreat of the northern barbarians, the border troops finally moved, continuing their northward advance as if in pursuit.

"A bunch of good-for-nothings," Hu Youcai couldn't help but curse.

They only moved after the Northern barbarians had all left, and Hu Youcai felt ashamed for the Datong border army as he watched them depart.

After cursing for a while, Hu Youcai turned to Jia Chen beside him and asked, "Jia Chen, is the head hidden well?"

"Father-in-law, rest assured, everything has been taken care of," Jia Chen replied.

Hu Youcai nodded and said, "We don't trust the people in Datong Town."

His gaze turned towards the direction of the border troops, where some people were heading towards Qianshandun.