Wanli Xinming

Chapter 89
After listening to Chamberlain's request, Atai blinked his small eyes and said with a smile: "You are infatuated. My Jurchen respects love the most. Tell the truth, did the two of you date each other before?"

Chamberlain screamed and said: "What did the uncle say! I went to Gule City once, and I haven't slept here all night. How can I get along with the third sister? I saw it last time I came here. , I will never forget it from now on - alas, it is also an injustice."

Seeing his excitement, Atai patted him on the shoulder and reassured him: "Well, don't be upset, I'm just asking. You want to redeem her, it's not impossible, she's not worth [-] catties of iron. But it is the woman Marfa has slept with. I want to ask Marfa. If you stay here tonight, I will arrange the third sister to accompany you, and I will give you a letter in the morning tomorrow. "

When Chamberlain heard this, his face flushed, and he said, "Thank you, uncle! I don't plan to marry the matchmaker. I'm just a plaything. If it's very embarrassing, the uncle doesn't have to force it."

While talking, the two entered Gule City.The layout of the city is similar to that of the Han Chinese city, but the houses have all kinds of materials.There are thatched houses with mud brick walls, as well as log walls and wooden tops, and there are very few houses built with stones.Although the houses look strange, they are neatly arranged and do not appear cluttered.

The two walked along the loess road to the center of the city, and when they passed a wooden house, Atai turned to the right Nunu and said, "The little slave is here."

Chamberlain's heart jumped when he heard it, and when he looked closely, he saw two windows made of wooden sticks and leather cords on the house.

Due to the heat, the door was left open without a curtain.An old prisoner sat at the door, dozing off with an iron knife.Chamberlain felt that this door was like the cave of the beast he had seen in the old woods, and it was a cold war on a hot day.

Under the door, there was a large wooden basin filled with blood-colored water.Atai said from the side: "This one came with the meat. I was afraid that it would stink, so I threw it in the basin and tried to attract some flies."

After he finished speaking, he waved his hands to chase away flies, walked up to the wooden platform in front of the house, and kicked the old prisoner up.In Nuzhen's words, she asked, "How many people did the third sister pick up today?"

The old man shook his head and said that he didn't know, he was just collecting things here, and the things inside were not under his control.Atai listened, pointed to Chamberlain and called, "Tell the steward inside, the third sister is going to accompany my brother tonight, wash her clean and send her to my house."

When the old prisoner heard it, he first asked Atai, "Master, who will give you the meat?" Atai laughed and scolded, "I only hunted a wild boar yesterday, you don't know about it?" The old prisoner nodded. Yes.

Chamberlain watched from the side, secretly startled.Although this ancient city is like a beast's dwelling, it is not as clean and prosperous as the larger towns of the Han people.

But Atai, as the son of the city lord, had to obey Wang Gao's orders when he called a prostitute to his house, and did not dare to use his power to oppress others.Seeing the big from the small, it is no wonder that it can become a big problem in Liaodong.

Chamberlain thanked Atai again, Atai smiled and said, "You Han people have a lot of etiquette. You gave me such a good thing. I have said thank you. Let's go and have dinner at my house."

The sheepskin bag in Chamberlain's arms contained three and a half catties of spirits. Atai called two familiar captive generals, carrying the others and sharing it with Chamberlain.

There was a shortage of food in Gule City, and these few people had not smelled alcohol for months. While praising Chamberlain, they handed the wild boar to him, lest he drank too much and blocked his mouth with meat.

A meal is eaten from Shen Shi to You Shi, and it is getting dusk.Several people drank all the wine in the yard of Atai's house.Atai and the two prisoners talked about the war in the spring, and they were blushing.

Atai's wife and Nurhaci's cousin heard them yelling in the yard, so they came out of the main room with their stomachs stretched out to make tea for them, put them in a big bowl, and drank the meat.

At this time, a gust of wind came, and when everyone shouted that it was cool, the sky quickly became dark, and a black cloud rolled from the north, covering most of the sky for a while.

Chamberlain looked at the sky and said, "It must be raining tonight." Atai nodded and said yes, and said, "When this rain falls, autumn will come." After speaking, he stopped talking and just sighed.

Chamberlain knew what he was worried about, but his character was a foot merchant and a housekeeper of Zhuangzi, so he didn't answer.Atai Yixing became more and more desolate, and waved his hands to disperse the dinner.

Atai lives in a house with two entrances, a stable on the east side of the front yard, and a row of wing rooms on the west side.Because there are not many bricks, the upper half of the foundation of the house is made of stone, and bricks are used to build up against the windowsill.There is no white ash either, just yellow mud smearing the seams, looking shabby.There are even fewer tiles on the roof. Except for the main room, the roofs of the wing rooms are all paved with grass.

Atai pointed to a house in the west wing of the front yard and said to Chamberlain, "You will live here tonight." Then he asked a little slave beside him to ask why the third sister hadn't brought it.

After Chamberlain thanked him, Atai entered the main room and presented a treasure to his wife.Chamberlain entered the west wing by himself, and saw that there was a kang in it, and the bedding on it was freshly washed, exuding the unique fragrance of flour.

He sat by the kang, thinking for a while, thinking about the path before and after completing the task, and thinking about what to say when he met the third sister.

After waiting for half an hour, it was getting dark.Hearing someone shouting outside the door, Chamberlain pushed open the door and saw the third sister standing beside a captive soldier.

Compared with the first time she saw the third sister as a child years ago, her appearance has changed too much.The girl from a few years ago, although she was Wang Gao's slave girl, was wearing the silk and satin clothes that Wang Gao rewarded her.Chamberlain glanced at it at the time and almost fell into it.

Today's third sister is wearing a cotton robe with patches on top of it.Her face was pale as if she had just crawled out of the grave, and the red, swollen and bruised blood on the corners of her mouth and cheeks had not yet dissipated.The big eyes that used to be full of fog dried up, and there was no trace of expression in them. When he looked at Chamberlain, he looked like a wooden man without any reaction at all.

Chamberlain took out another packet of coarse salt and gave it to the captive soldiers who brought her.He took the third sister's hand and led her into the house.

The third sister followed in a daze. Seeing that the bedding on the kang was covered, she untied the robe on her body, and she was naked without any clothes inside, so she had to lie down on the kang.

Chamberlain's face was covered with tears, he hugged her in his arms, touched her hair, and said in a very low voice, "Third sister, do you remember me? I was Zhang who came here last year. Not return."

Only then did the third sister raise her head and carefully scrutinized him in the dim yellow oil light.

Chamberlain whispered: "Third sister, I am late, you are suffering."

The third sister in her arms also replied in a low voice: "You guys are finally here, this slave wants to die a long time ago, but the old beast hasn't died yet, I want to watch him die first."

Chamberlain put the robe on her, touched her hair with his hand and said in a low voice: "Do you know that Wang Gao was defeated? Only a few out of the 8000 Tartars ran out, and the rest were killed by Zongbing Li. These are all thanks to you."

It turned out that when Chamberlain took a secret mission last year and penetrated into the Jurchen, when he was about to spy on the military situation, he approached Lang Mangzi very smoothly.

Before the end of last year, Lang Mangzi asked him to prepare something and went with him to Gule City to send New Year gifts. Chamberlain made an urgent appointment to meet Liu Shouyi, who was in charge of intelligence in Jiliao Bureau.Liu Shouyou gave him a jade pendant and asked him to wear it on his waist, and asked him not to take it off after entering Gule City, nor to give it away.

Chamberlain's mission went very smoothly. At that time, he and the manor managers of other captive generals were drinking tea and resting in the room next to Wang Gao's generals.By chance - now it is known that it was intentional, four or five stewards either went out to relieve themselves, or went out for something, and for a short period of time, he was the only one left in the house.

At that time, Chamberlain used a tea bowl to buckle on the wall, and clearly heard the location where the troops were dispatched to break the border, which was Panshan Station, a border town within the Liaohetao.

Afterwards, during the night banquet, the stewards were not allowed to enter the room, and ate in the adjacent room.As Wang Gao's slave girl, the third sister served food and wine to and from multiple rooms.When delivering wine to Chamberlain's table, he secretly stuffed him a small cotton cloth - this small cotton cloth changed the outcome of the Battle of Liaodong in the second year of Wanli.

At this time, I heard Chamberlain say that Wang Gao's soldiers were all killed, and the third sister's shoulders in his arms trembled slightly. Chamberlain didn't hear her cry, only felt that his shoulders were wet.

Listening to her speaking in a very low voice in her ear: "Let's go to the kang, the slave family has been suspected for a long time. You came to me, it is estimated that you will also be suspected."

When Chamberlain was startled, Huo Cha made a sound, and a flash of lightning illuminated the inside and outside of the house. He clearly saw a figure on the window paper!
Chamberlain was too shocked to speak, and the figure disappeared as the lightning subsided.The crackling raindrops fell along with it, shrouding Gule City in heavy rain.

(End of this chapter)