Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 285: The Enemy's Traces

January 15th, the fourteenth year of Jiazhao.

The capital, Rongguo Mansion.

Today is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the Lantern Festival. Grandmother Jia set up several banquets in the Grand Flower Hall, called in a troupe of small plays, and hung all over the hall colorful lanterns, creating a festive atmosphere.

Mrs. Wang, Li Gongcai, Daiyu, Baoyu, Sanchun and other sisters sat at the same table with Lady Jia, chatting and joking with each other, making it very lively.

This year is different from previous years. In addition to Rongguo’s own female relatives, Aunt Xue and Xue Baochai have joined the family.

Aunt Xue is worldly-wise and knows how to follow Lady Jia's wishes and say festive words that are pleasing to the ear and heart.

Therefore, since Aunt Xue entered the Jia Mansion, she has been the closest to Grandmother Jia. She is always invited to come over for daily chats and card games.

Among all the girls in the mansion, Daiyu was Jia's most beloved, so she always disagreed with the talk of golden and jade matches circulating in the mansion.

However, Baochai is gentle and generous, and her appearance is also very good-looking, so Grandmother Jia still likes her, but that's all, and she doesn't think much about other things.

This made Aunt Xue a little disappointed for a while, but since no one pointed it out, it was likely that things would change in the future.

Jia She, Jia Zheng and other male concubines held a banquet in the outer porch, but this year, as the Ningguo Mansion was conducting an inspection of all titles, there were fewer people at the male concubines' table.

Not only was the dead Jia Zhen missing, the exiled Jia Rong, but also the Ningguo young men such as Jia Qiang and Jia Jun who would appear at the Lantern Festival banquet in previous years were nowhere to be seen.

Ever since the Ningguo lineage was stripped of its title, the Ning and Rong lines, being of different ranks, naturally began to have a distant relationship. If they waited a few more years, the Ningguo lineage would surely have declined completely.

Meanwhile, Lady Jia, who was sitting at the main seat at the banquet in the Grand Flower Hall, was surrounded by her grandchildren in gorgeous clothes. She was still laughing happily, and seemed not to notice anything unusual at the banquet.

Nor would they realize that the Ningrong Jia family has already declined by half, and how many more years of such luxury and wealth can be maintained.

Of course, she would not realize that the descendants of Rongguo Mansion could not be truly gathered together today. She still had a grandson who was braving the wind and snow in the freezing cold land of the Nine Borders.

No matter how capable this grandson was, she began to use some worldly tricks on him.

But in her heart, this grandson is still not worth it, even if he is thousands of miles away, she is unaware of it.

Tanchun still remembered that during the Spring Festival, she asked the lady to allow her third brother to sit in the big flower hall.

It would be great if he were at home right now, so that the sisters could chat and laugh together.

I don’t know how my third brother is doing in the north. It must be very boring for him to spend the New Year alone.

Tanchun was lost in thought when she suddenly noticed that one person was missing from the table. Sister Lin had disappeared.

She saw the old lady hugging Baoyu and talking to Aunt Xue, and she didn't notice that there was one less person at the table, so she quietly stood up.

……

In Daiyu's room, she was holding the map, looking at it and pacing back and forth in the room. This was the maintenance method that Jia Cong taught her before he left.

Although there was no immediate effect, after Daiyu developed the habit of pacing in the room, after a month, she felt lighter on her feet.

Maybe she is just a daughter in the boudoir and is too lazy to work hard...

Daiyu was having a banquet in the Grand Hall just now, but she felt it was a bit boring, so she quietly went back to her room.

Around the fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the coldest time in the capital.

She wore a light pink satin jacket with a stand-up collar, a double-breasted jacket embroidered with peony branches, and a light pink horse-faced skirt, exuding a charming and ethereal charm.

At this moment, she was holding the map in her hand, thinking about the places that Jia Cong had pointed out to her. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice Tanchun coming in.

"Sister Lin, why did you leave halfway through the meal?"

"It's my third sister. I was a little tired, so I came back early."

"Sister Lin, what are you looking at?"

"It's a map. I want to see where my third brother is now."

Tanchun's eyes sparkled when she heard this, and she shouted, "I didn't know there was such a thing. Can you show it to me?"

Daiyu saw Tanchun's rapt look and said with a smile, "I've never seen a sister so close to her brother. Look at you, your eyes light up when you hear people mention 'Third Brother'."

Tanchun blushed: "Stop teasing me. Don't you miss your third brother all day long? Tell me where he is now."

Daiyu listened to what she said all day long and her face became rosy.

But now there are only two sisters, Tanchun and Jia Cong have always gotten along best, and Daiyu and Tanchun are also closer than the other sisters. Since no outsiders will hear this, it is naturally not a big deal.

The two sisters spread out the map on the desk. Daiyu had looked at that map countless times. Every time she looked at it, she would think of Jia Cong's majestic appearance in the map.

"Look, my third brother said that this border patrol would most likely be in Liaodong, Jizhou, and Xuanfu. Now it's only been over a month since my third brother went there, so he's most likely in Liaodong.

The border inspectors will definitely check the border passes. There are three major passes in Liaodong, Yunding Pass, Yonglan Pass, and another one is... Yafu Pass."

"These are what my third brother told me..."

Daiyu and Tanchun huddled together, looking at the mark on the map, their eyes filled with longing and yearning. …

More than ten miles outside Yafu Pass.

On the boundless Liaobei wasteland, with withered grass and biting cold wind, a team of knights were galloping on their horses.

The two horses running in the front left the others behind them a distance away.

One of them rode a tall and majestic black horse, and his whole body was wrapped tightly in fur.

The knight following closely beside him was also wearing a fur coat, but his slim figure could still be seen.

She was riding an ordinary gray military horse, but her riding skills were superb, and she was able to run neck and neck with her companion's BMW.

High in the sky above their heads, a snow-white Saker Falcon with black spots was circling in the air.

When the two riders rushed up a small hill, the rider on the gray horse reined in his horse.

"We can't run any further. We are already 20 miles away from Yafu Pass. If we go any further, we might run into Jurchen cavalry scouts."

The knight on the black horse also stopped his horse, untied his thick mask, and asked, "Aili, your eagle slave really discovered the movements of the Jurchens."

Ellie replied, "Yesterday the falcon went out hunting. Many wild animals hibernate in winter, and the Saker Falcon will fly at least fifty miles to find prey, or even further."

"After the eagle slave flew back yesterday, it seemed that he discovered something. It must be correct."

Early this morning, Ai Li told Jia Cong that her falconer went out hunting and seemed to have discovered the movements of the Jurchens.

Although Jia Cong was somewhat skeptical, he hired Ali with a large sum of money because he valued her outstanding ability in training eagles, which would be of great use to him, so he naturally knew that she would not talk nonsense.

So early this morning, Jia Cong informed Lieutenant General Liu Yongzheng, and he and Ai Li went out of the city twenty miles to check. Liu Yongzheng also sent twenty cavalrymen to accompany them for guarding.

Today, all the major forward guard forts have been abandoned, cutting off the Jurchens' routes to plunder food and grass. The passes in Liaodong are within 30 miles, and there are very few Jurchen cavalry activities.

Therefore, Jia Cong and others went out of the city twenty miles to check, which was basically within a safe range even if they encountered Jurchen cavalry.

With the skills of Jia Cong and Ai Li, as well as the twenty cavalry guards, there will be no problem returning to the city safely.

……

Jia Cong settled the horses and asked the cavalry guards to be on guard around them. Then he asked, "Aili, can your eagle really detect the enemy?"

In fact, Jia Cong had heard that when the Mongols conquered the world, they would use tamed eagles to scout the enemy, but that was just a legend and he himself had never seen it.

Ellie seemed a little dissatisfied with his question and said, "Of course it's true. My father is the most famous falconer of the Cossacks. The eagles he trained can detect the enemy.

Twenty years ago, his people were fighting against the wild Jurchens. He lost his left hand when he was captured and never returned to his homeland. My swordsmanship and eagle training skills were all taught to me by my father.

This hill is just in the right place for the wind, let the eagle take off from here, and we will wait here to see what it finds. "

Jia Cong saw her take off her mask and whistle at the Saker Falcon in the sky. The sound was sometimes short and sometimes long, full of a strange rhythm, and the eagle slave in the sky seemed to respond with its calls.

It was like Ellie and Eagle Slave were communicating in some strange way.

After a while, the eagle circled in the air, soared into the sky in the direction that Ellie pointed, and soon disappeared.

……

In the cold wilderness, Jia Cong did not dare to light a fire, but simply dug a pit and used the red-hot charcoal to keep warm.

Although Ai Li is a woman who makes a living on the edge of a knife, she is still in her prime, lively and straightforward, and has become close to Jia Cong these days.

While waiting for the eagle slave to return, the two chatted a lot.

Jia Cong also learned that Ai Li's mother was Han Chinese and was born in the south of the Yangtze River.

Although Ai Li did not mention her mother's background, it is surprising that a woman from the south of the Yangtze River would end up in Liaobei and marry a person from a different ethnic group.

She must have had a tragic past, most likely her family was convicted of a crime, or she was exiled to the frontier as a slave. Although this was just Jia Cong's guess, it was probably not far from the truth.

Ellie said his father died last year and her mother's wish was to return to her hometown before she died.

That's why Ellie works as a guard in the town to earn gold. I heard that the Southern Dynasty is wealthy and it would be difficult to live without gold.

Jia Cong finally understood why Ai Li, whose appearance and complexion were different from those of people from the Central Plains, could speak fluent Chinese with a southern accent.

The two men waited until the red-hot charcoal turned to ashes before they heard a clear eagle cry coming from the sky.

Two hours had passed since the eagle slave flew out to scout the enemy situation.

Jia Cong saw the eagle slave circling in the air, sometimes diving, sometimes climbing, making greatly varying flying postures, and making sharp whistles from its mouth, as if it was full of some kind of warning.

Ai Li looked solemn and said, "The eagle slave spotted a large group of people in a long distance, and then flew back to report the news. It flew back and forth for two hours, and should have flown a distance of 400 miles.

That is to say, it discovered the enemy two hundred miles away. The distance difference is not very large. It is very likely that the Jurchens are gathering. It only takes one day to travel two hundred miles to reach Yafu Pass!"

(End of this chapter)