Jinghong Tower

Chapter 392 Messenger

In June, the weather was hot, and the Military Medical Department dispatched dozens of military doctors and more than 200 medical engineers to the northwest in two groups. The official documents of the Military Medical Department were delivered to various troops ten days in advance.

Soldiers are strictly forbidden to drink raw water or eat leftover meals. Additional inspectors are appointed to be stationed in the kitchen camp to conduct inspections after every meal.

After receiving the official document, He Dali and Fu Yansheng immediately passed it on.

At the same time, an uninvited guest came to the Chang'an Palace in Xi'an.

It was midsummer weather, but the person who came was wrapped up tightly and had a veil on his head. He came with He Jiang's wife.

Ladies of noble families often wear veils when they go out, but not many of them still insist on wearing them in such hot weather.

Mrs. He was He Shuting's adoptive mother. She often came in and out of the palace on weekdays. The doorman did not ask any questions, but welcomed them in with a smile and respectfully.

Mrs. He brought the man directly to the back house. When He Shuting heard that Mrs. He had arrived, she was already waiting in the flower hall.

Seeing that Mrs. He was with someone, He Shuting looked puzzled. Mrs. He gave a look and He Shuting dismissed the servants around her. There were only the mother and daughter and the person wearing the veil in the flower hall.

The man slowly took off the veil on his head, revealing a man's face.

Moreover, this man has a high nose and deep eyes, and does not have the appearance of a Han Chinese.

He Shuting was surprised. Why did Mrs. He bring such a man to see her?

The man bowed to He Shuting and said in unfluent Chinese: "I am a Tartar merchant Huerha, nice to meet the noble princess."

He Shuting paused for a moment. Tartar merchant?

She looked at Madam He with a cold expression: "Mother, what's going on?"

Mrs. He smiled and said, "I heard that the most powerful thing about the Ran army is not their people, but their artillery. Yulin was impregnable, but it was still blown open by artillery. Alas, your father and I were so worried that we couldn't sleep. We asked around where we could get firearms. Look, someone handed me a pillow just when I wanted to sleep. This Huerha, he can get artillery. I heard from your father that the Tartars' artillery is more powerful than the red-haired people's artillery."

He Shuting didn't know anything about artillery. She only learned from Wu Ji that the Ran army had artillery, and it was very powerful artillery at that.

Yulin also has artillery, but it is from the reign of Emperor Taizu and has long been unusable. But Xi'an has nothing.

She looked at Huerha and asked, "Can you really get the artillery?"

Huerha said: "The red-haired people's artillery is improved from the Dala artillery. The Dala has a history of manufacturing artillery for decades. We Tartars have been friends with the Dala for generations. Our empress dowager is the Dala princess. It is easy for us to get the Dala artillery."

He Shuting asked: "But the Tartars have a long way to go to Xi'an. Even if we buy artillery from you, it will not quench our thirst."

Huerha said: "Princess, besides artillery, we have other things that may interest you."

"What is it?" He Shuting asked.

Huerha took out a letter from his bag and presented it to He Shuting with both hands.

He Shuting looked at the letter and did not take it. Instead, she said, "Read it!"

Huerha knew that she was worried that there was poison in the letter, so he opened the letter and began to read it.

This letter was written by the Tartar Empress Dowager Man to Princess Chang'an He Shuting.

The Queen Mother Man was 28 years old. Her first husband was the former Khan Borchi. After Borchi's death, his son Akdu inherited everything from his father, including his father's women. Akdu doted on the young and beautiful Man and made her the queen.

Unfortunately, this love did not last long. Five years later, Akdu died of illness. Man supported her three-year-old son Choro to ascend the throne of Khan and has been ruling the country from behind the scenes ever since. It has been two years now.

In her letter, Queen Dowager Man expressed her longing for Princess Chang'an. She called Princess Chang'an one of the most powerful women in the world. She told Princess Chang'an that her only brother died at the hands of a general under He Ran's command, and her family lost its most heroic son and fell into decline. She and He Ran had an irreconcilable feud.

Therefore, she and Princess Chang'an have a common enemy, which is He Ran.

If Princess Chang'an did not mind the rudeness of Tartar women, she would be willing to form an alliance with her, and Huerha would be the envoy sent by her.

Huerha's Chinese was not fluent, but it was enough for the other two people in the room to understand the content of the letter.

Mrs. He was shocked. She thought Huerha was just an ordinary businessman and never expected that this man was an envoy sent by the Tartar Queen Mother.

As the wife of a former border guard general, Mrs. He naturally knew the pros and cons of this.

People generally refer to the foreigners in the north as Tatars, but they are divided into three countries, and Tatars are one of them.

These three countries intermarried with each other, and it was impossible to distinguish them by appearance alone. Among them, the Tartar Kingdom had surrendered as early as the time of Taizu and paid tribute to the court every year. The Tartars and the court opened their markets to each other and traded between the two places.

Since the royal family moved the capital, the Tartars stopped paying tribute. After all, at that time, the country was divided into many factions, and their tribute could no longer be sent to Nanjing smoothly. The trade fairs were closed, and for safety reasons, the two places no longer sent caravans to each other.

However, in the northwest, you can still occasionally see Tartar merchants. They are protected by the government in Xi'an, but they do business normally.

Therefore, when a Tartar merchant said that he could get some cannons, Mrs. He immediately introduced him to He Shuting.

It's just that there is a difference between men and women, so Mrs. He asked Huerha to dress up as a woman.

Now that she knew the person before her was not a real Tartar merchant, it was impossible for Mrs. He to not be afraid.

She was worried that if Wu Ji knew about this, he would definitely blame her.

She looked at He Shuting nervously, hoping that He Shuting would not blame her, but she was met with a pair of calm eyes.

He Shuting was not as shocked and angry as she had imagined. Instead, she accepted the matter in the shortest time possible.

He Shuting asked, "Your Queen Mother is Princess Dala, and her brother died at the hands of Fu Yansheng?"

Although the Dala often invaded, He Ran was always busy with the civil war, and the only person He Shuting could think of was Fu Yansheng who was stationed in Datong.

Huerha shook his head: "No, when Prince Ajin died, the one guarding Datong was not Fu Yansheng, but He Xiulong. She was the first general under He Ran."

He Shuting didn't know any of this and didn't know that Datong was actually conquered by He Xiulong.

At that time, Dala wanted to take advantage of the chaos to get a piece of the pie, so Ajin led his army to Datong. Unexpectedly, he met He Xiulong in the first battle and died under He Xiulong's spear.

However, the Dala people at that time disguised themselves as Han people. Therefore, until now, He Xiulong did not know that she had killed a Dala prince.

Huerha told He Shuting that Queen Mother Man lost her mother at a young age and was not favored by her father. If she had not been protected by her brother Ajin, she would have been thrown into a corner to fend for herself. Later, she married the Khan of Tartar as a princess, and her brother Ajin became the prince most likely to inherit the Khan's throne. However, Ajin died at the hands of the Ran army. Her father was already old, but there was no successor, so he could only pass the Khan's throne to his uncle's son.

Although He Shuting did not understand or have any interest in the affairs of the Tartars, Empress Dowager Man's words touched her heart.

She and Queen Dowager Man had a common enemy, He Ran.

He Shuting remained calm and said to Huerha, "Put on your veil and leave the palace."

Hu Erha was stunned and didn't understand what He Shuting meant.

He Shuting looked at Mrs. He: "Keep an eye on him and don't let him leave Xi'an."

Mrs. He agreed and left the palace trembling with fear with Huerha.

She didn't dare let Huerha leave her sight, so she placed Huerha in an empty house of the He family and sent her confidant to guard him there.

Huerha smiled and said, "Madam, you are worrying too much. Since Princess Chang'an has allowed me to leave the palace alive, she will not kill me. Since there is no danger, why should I leave Xi'an?"

Mrs. He thought so too, but she felt even more uneasy. She didn't know what to do for a moment, but she didn't dare to tell her husband about it.

If her husband knew that she not only brought a Tartar man to see the princess, but that man was also a Tartar envoy, he would definitely blame her and might even beat her up.

But that night, He Jiang still noticed that something was wrong with her, and when asked, Mrs. He had no choice but to tell the truth.

She bravely told him what happened today, with her head lowered, not daring to look at her husband's expression.

The room was unusually quiet, but she did not hear her husband's angry rebuke. She could not help but look up, only to see her husband looking at the palace lantern on the table, as if thinking about something.

She held her breath and dared not speak.

After a long while, He Jiang asked, "Did anyone else see that Huerha in the palace today?"

Madam He thought about it and shook her head with certainty: "Huerha is only of medium build. He wears a veil whenever he goes out. He looks like a woman with a slightly stout build. His identity will definitely not be discovered."

He Jiang nodded: "That's good, let's do this, I'll go meet that Huerha tomorrow."

Madam He hurriedly asked, "You're going to see him? Are you going to tell the prince about this?"

The prince that Mrs. He mentioned was Wu Ji.

He Jiang snorted coldly: "Tell him? Do you really think he is a man without temper? He was taught by the general himself. If he knew that Queen Mother Man sent an envoy, he would kill that Huerha immediately."

Mrs. He gasped and said, "Will he blame us?"

He Jiang looked at her with contempt: "You are really short-sighted. How could you let him know about this? And you, you must guard against it and make sure that this matter cannot be spread."

"Of course I won't spread it, but we can't keep this matter secret from the prince forever. After all, he is the lord of the city. Besides, the reason why Queen Mother Man sent people to see the princess is because the princess is his wife." Mrs. He was still nervous.

"Why do you think Queen Mother Man's letter was written to the princess instead of the prince?" He Jiang asked.

Madam He shook her head. She also felt strange. Could it be because the princess was also a woman, and it was easier for women to communicate with each other?
He Jiang said: "That's because of the princess's identity. She was first a daughter of the He family, and then a wife of the Wu family."

Madam He was stunned: "He's daughter? Are you talking about He Ran's sister?"

He Jiang: "Of course she is He Ran's sister. It can't be because she is our daughter."

Madam He still didn't understand: "But He Ran doesn't recognize her. Besides, she is a princess now. Isn't the status of a princess noble?"

He Jiang sneered: "How long do you think she can remain the princess without external help?"

Mrs. He was shocked: "Are you saying that we will lose?"

He Jiang looked at her like a fool and said slowly, "Do you know that the general has let Wu Ju escape? Do you know that the princess not only sent people to hunt down Wu Ju, but she also sent a team of people to transport all the treasures in the private treasury of the palace?"

Madam He thought she had misheard, and it took her a long time to come to her senses. She said hesitantly, "The princess wants to escape? What about us? What should we do?"

Mrs. He suddenly thought of her children, and she immediately understood: "Where did you send Ah Biao?"

A Biao is their eldest son.

"Where should I send him? Of course, I want him to leave this troubled place. Oh, and I exchanged half of our wealth for gold, and I gave it all to him."

He Jiang's voice was cold, and Mrs. He felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave.

She hasn't even gotten comfortable in her position as the princess's mother, so why is she fleeing?
He Jiang was too lazy to explain to her. How could a woman in the backyard understand these things?
The next morning, He Jiang arrived at the house and met Huerha.

After leaving the house, He Jiang went to the palace. As the princess's father, he could see his daughter openly.

Only then did he realize that Wu Ji had not returned for two days and one night.

Wu Ji was in the army at this time. Many soldiers in the army fell ill, suffering from diarrhea and severe high fever. Moreover, more and more soldiers were falling ill. The scouts had just sent intelligence that He Dali's army had made a comeback and was heading towards Xianyang.

Wu Ji ordered all the doctors in Xi'an and Xianyang to be brought to the military camp, but even so, the condition did not improve.

This morning, a soldier died.

Wu Ji was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He recalled what he had seen and heard in Jinyang. One year when he went to Jinyang, He Ran happened to be recruiting military doctors and medical workers.

At that time, he was still curious and didn't know what the difference was between a military doctor and a medical worker. It was Xiaoli, the girl beside He Ran, who explained to him that a military doctor is a doctor and a medical worker assists the doctor.

At that time, there happened to be a midwife who came to apply for the job. He found it interesting and thought He Ran was quite interesting, even wanting to recruit gossipy women.

But, he just thought it was interesting and didn't take it seriously.

Why didn't he take it to heart?
This happened several years ago and he had even forgotten about it.

And now, he remembered, why did he not remember it until now?
Wu Ji said to the deputy general, "Keep all those doctors in the barracks and don't let them go home. Oh, send people to find midwives. Find as many as you can find and bring them all here. In addition to midwives, there are also shop assistants. Anyone who knows a little bit of medical skills, bring them all here!"

(End of this chapter)