The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

After everyone disembarked, Yang Zhen instructed them to pull the centipede boats all onto the beach, eventually dragging them to a high sandbar and hiding them in a large patch of dry reeds.

Because the other naval vessel, the centipede ship, which had been ordered to scout ahead, had not yet appeared, Yang Zhen dared not let his guard down.

"My lord! Please allow me to lead the left wing directly to the old fortress at the highest point to scout it out! Please lead the right wing and wait here, making preparations for battle. If it is safe there, I will send someone to inform you! This way, everything will be perfectly safe!"

Seeing Yang Zhen's unusually cautious demeanor, Zhang Chen dared not be careless. Yang Zhen was originally a night scout in the Ming Dynasty's border army in the Yizhou direction, and his best skill was to get close to the enemy camp to gather intelligence, or even to go around and infiltrate behind enemy lines to conduct reconnaissance.

Yang Zhen was well aware of this, knowing that this was Zhang Chen's forte, and therefore immediately agreed.

Zhang Chen gave a shout to his men, then, with a musket on his back and a shovel in his hand, he crouched low and led the way, quickly making his way into the distance through the tall, dry reeds.

About fifteen minutes later, a short, skinny musketeer who had left with Zhang Chen suddenly sprang out from the dry reeds and said to Yang Zhen, "Sir! Lieutenant Zhang sent me to report that the old village in the distance is abandoned and deserted! Lieutenant Zhang instructed me to assure you and the Right Wing brothers that you can proceed without worry!"

At this point, Yang Zhen finally felt relieved, straightened up, and said to the people beside him, "Let's go! Let's go ahead and take a look!"

The group walked through patches of dry reeds, heading deeper into the sandbar.

This sandbar is quite large, with a beach at its outermost edge, covered with dried reeds and some ponds.

Further in, and also upwards, lies a dry, sandy area covered with dry thatch and interspersed with some stones.

Next, after passing through a sandy area, and continuing further in or uphill, there was a continuous stretch of low shrubs.

It was March in Liaodong. Although the weather had warmed up a bit, it was still a bit cold. The withered shrubs on the sandbar had no leaves and were almost the same color as the coarse sand and gravel on the ground.

Yang Zhen led the musketeers behind him through a patch of low bushes and continued walking silently forward. Looking up, they could see patches of low and sparse groves of trees.

The dilapidated old camp was now just a low wall made of layers of stacked stones, barely two feet high, and hidden among a sparse grove of low trees when viewed from below.

Through the grove of trees, Yang Zhen saw Zhang Chen standing on the low stone wall, waving at him.

When Yang Zhen approached the grove of low trees, he found that the highest point on this sandbar was similar to the terrain he had seen on the road, consisting of sand and stone.

In the very center or at the highest point of the sandbar, growing vigorously in large swathes are very common dwarf elm trees.

Yang Zhen arrived at the broken stone wall and met Zhang Chen. Looking down at the ground, he discovered that there used to be a moat outside the low wall.

However, it is now overgrown with dry grass and filled with rocks and sand. Only the traces of what used to be a trench can be vaguely seen.

Yang Zhen reached out and asked Zhang Chen for help, who pulled him up onto a section of broken wall. From there, one could see almost the entire topography of the sandbar.

Yang Zhen first looked west, where the coastline of western Liaoning stretched out in the distance. He could only see vast stretches of reeds, with the grayish-white dry reeds undulating and swaying in the wind.

Beyond the endless reed marshes along the coast, further west, stretches of dark, continuous forests come into view.

Yang Zhen shaded his eyes with his hand and looked westward into the distance, where the dark, undulating mountains stretched out in the far west.

He had thought he might be able to see Songshan City, but he couldn't. Songshan City was located between a dark forest and a distant, undulating dark mountain range.

Based on his knowledge of the terrain of western Liaoning from his previous life, he knew that Songshan City was probably behind that dark forest in the distance.

Songshan City is located eighteen li southeast of Jinzhou City, and only eight or nine li from the sea, which is also the mouth of the Xiaoling River.

Standing at the highest point of this sandbar, looking north, you can see the Xiaoling River in the distance, like a thin white line winding its way into the sea.

The terrain around the mouth of the Xiaoling River is indeed very complex, with countless small sandbars and reed beds surrounded by narrow waterways, resembling a vast maze.

Yang Zhen looked around and saw that on this huge oval sandbar, there was a depression in the southeast corner that seemed to be lower than the surrounding area.

"Perhaps we can dig a water source out of that depression! But we don't know if the water we find on this sandbar is drinkable. If it's not, then we'll have to risk going to the Xiaoling River to fetch water!"

Yang Zhen stood on the stone wall, observing the topography of the sandbar while pondering where he could set up camp, where he could dig a trench, and where he could fetch water.

Just then, Zhang Chen, who had been standing beside him, suddenly whispered, "My lord, look! There looks like a boat in the reeds at the mouth of the Xiaoling River!"

Zhang Chen spoke quickly and urgently, and his voice revealed a hint of tension and panic, which made Yang Zhen's heart clench instantly, and he was quite taken aback.

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhen quickly turned to look north again. Sure enough, a small boat emerged from the depths of the reeds, and the person on board seemed to be shading their eyes with their hand, looking up at the high sandbar.

Seeing this, Yang Zhen immediately pulled Zhang Chen down from the stone wall. But just then, one of the oarsmen of Yuan Jin's centipede boats hesitated and said, "Commander! That's a centipede boat! It should be one of our naval forces!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhen's mind raced as he recalled the fact that the other centipede ship had never been seen, and his anxiety immediately subsided.

Climbing back up the stone wall and looking north, they saw someone on the small boat waving vigorously in their direction—it seemed that their figures had been spotted.

However, at this point, Yang Zhen was quite certain that the small boat those people were riding in was exactly the same as the small boat he was riding in; it was Yuan Jin's naval camp's centipede boat.

To avoid any accidents, Yang Zhen sent Guo Xiaowu, the sharp-eyed oarsman from the naval camp, to follow several musketeers under Zhang Guogan and quickly head towards the centipede-shaped ship.

Fortunately, there were no surprises. Guo Xiaowu recognized all six oarsmen on the centipede boat, and they all arrived in front of Yang Zhen after about fifteen minutes.

Guo Xiaowu led several men to Yang Zhen, pointed to one of the leading men, and said first, "Commander! This is Brother Yan, one of the personal guards of Commander Yuan of our naval camp, and he is the most trusted by our Commander—"

Before Guo Xiaowu could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a man named Yan San, who said, "Commander! I am Yan San! I was ordered by our garrison commander to scout out at Xiaoling River Estuary! I sent a message back this morning, and now I've unexpectedly met you here!"

Yang Zhen looked at Yan San and saw that he was broad-shouldered, tall and long-armed, with dark skin and a shrewd expression. After thinking about it carefully, he vaguely remembered that he had seen this person with Yuan Jin.

Therefore, after listening to him finish speaking, he immediately asked, "Brother Yan! Is there any enemy activity around the mouth of the Xiaoling River?"

Upon hearing this, Yan San immediately clasped his hands and said, "You're too kind, sir! Just call me by my name! -- There's no enemy activity around the Xiaoling River estuary! The estuary is all salt marshland, and the ice has melted, so the Tartars can't set up camp there!"

"But—going deeper into the Xiaoling River estuary, about six or seven miles away, there is a large camp in the Niangniang Palace area! It must be heavily guarded by Tartar troops!"

"We hid our boat at the river mouth and explored along the reeds on the banks of the Xiaoling River. When we reached the Niangniang Palace area, we couldn't go any further! Both banks of the river were lined with Tartar camps! While we were hiding in the reeds, we heard people coming to fetch water, but they were speaking Chinese!"

At this point, Yan San glanced at Yang Zhen, who was staring intently at him, and immediately added, "Based on my limited experience, I would guess that the Tartars stationed around the Niangniang Palace are Han Chinese soldiers within the Manchu Tartar ranks!"