Chapter 5 Dorgon (2)
In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, more than 50 Later Jin cavalrymen with shiny armor appeared before Zhu Yinglong and his men. The war horses, swift as lightning, stopped suddenly, and the riders sat stably on their backs, observing them. Only by maintaining a certain speed could they stay on horseback without falling off. As for horsemanship, it was like comparing a minor sorcerer to a great one. Among the crowd, only Xiong Tingbi's riding skills were barely comparable to theirs. No wonder they had the bold saying "A thousand Manchu warriors are not to be feared, but ten thousand cannot be defeated." Now it seemed that they indeed had real skills. Zhu Yinglong thought to himself: if the Later Jin mastered firearms, the quality of the current Ming army might not be a match for them. He couldn't help but worry about the future.
"Who are you and why are you blocking our way?" A man rushed out from the Golden Cavalry, pointing at Zhu Yinglong and his companions, questioning loudly.
Under Zhu Yinglong's indication, Shen Xi nervously rode his horse forward and stopped ten zhang away from the residence, with a smile all over his face: "We are merchants from the Central Plains, we came here to do business, not intentionally blocking General's way."
Although the Later Jin was incompatible with the Ming Dynasty, they were short of materials and were relatively polite to the merchants who came from the Ming Dynasty, because these people could bring them scarce materials such as silk fabrics, salt, tea leaves and luxury goods. The Later Jin cavalry looked at the horse-drawn vehicles behind Shenxi Creek and saw that there were quite a few goods. Looking at the other's attitude, which was not bad, he said: "What are you loading on these horse-drawn vehicles?"
Shen Creek looked at Zhu Yinglong, who nodded to him. Shen Creek understood and said: "It's a bit of salt, tea bricks, and the fur and wool blankets we bought."
As soon as he heard that the merchants were still carrying salt and tea, the cavalryman asked excitedly: "Salt, tea bricks, are you selling?"
Shen Xi didn't know what the other party wanted to do, and he couldn't make decisions on his own either. Sweat had already broken out on his forehead. He secretly glanced back, only to find that Zhu Yinglong hadn't given any instructions, nor did he look in his direction. He could only force himself to say: "General, I'm afraid I can't make a decision about this. These goods all belong to my family's young master."
That cavalryman immediately rode back and whispered a few words in the ear of a young man who was not very old, with fine clothes and armor. Before long, the young general who seemed to be the leader of this group of Houjin cavalrymen came to Shen Xi's side on horseback and said: "I am Dorhon, the Heshuo Ertu of Tianming Khan's tent, I have something to discuss with your family's young master, would you please inform him?"
Zhu Yinglong was indeed listening in the back, he couldn't have imagined that he would meet Dorgon here, in that time and space of history. Dorgon had conquered half of the Qing dynasty's territory for the great Qing, it can be said that without Dorgon there wouldn't be the later Qing dynasty. Unfortunately, such a peerless hero died prematurely before the age of 40. Zhu Yinglong suddenly felt a strong desire, he wanted to meet this Dorgon.
After hearing Shen Xi's report, Zhu Yinglong ignored the obstruction of Xiong Tingyi and others, and rushed out on horseback.
"In the lower dragon shadow, I didn't expect to meet Nurhaci Khan's 14th son and Shuo Ertu Dolon here, it's really a blessing of three lives!" Zhu Yinglong racked his brains and finally came up with these few words, sitting on horseback, he loudly clasped his fists in greeting to Dolon.
Dorgon took a closer look at the young man, who was about his own age. The soldiers following behind him were not ordinary footmen, but the most elite troops assigned to him by his brother Ajige, each with over ten battles under their belt. They were the most ferocious warriors, yet the opponent dared to approach them and still looked so calm. Dorgon couldn't help but reevaluate Zhu Yinglong in his mind, and also cupped his fists in respect: "I am indeed Dorgon. I heard that Lord Zhu has a batch of food salt tea bricks?"
"Yes, but there's not much left, only a small half is left." Zhu Yinglong replied honestly.
"How about selling it to me?" said Dolgun.
"No problem." Zhu Yinglong smiled and responded.
Dorgon glanced at the row of people behind Zhu Yinglong and said: "Brother Long's men are not bad!"
"You can't compare with your cavalry!" Zhu Yinglong responded calmly.
"They are not my Mongolian cavalry!" Dolon's expression suddenly turned gloomy.
Zhu Yinglong suddenly remembered that although Dorgon had fifteen cows, he was not the flag owner and had no actual power. Among Nurhaci's sons, he was excluded everywhere and was depressed and frustrated, which is why he had such an expression. It's actually similar to his own situation.
"They will be your cavalry sooner or later!" Zhu Yinglong said with a smile, very affirmative.
Dorgon's eyes lit up instantly and regained their luster: "Brother Long is right, they will eventually become my Dorgon cavalry!"
"Our deal?" Zhu Yinglong asked with a smile.
"Whatever Brother Long says goes!" The two exchanged a smile, and Dorgon fixed Zhu Yinglong with a piercing stare: "Brother Long is no ordinary private salt merchant!"
Zhu Yinglong didn't show any weakness and countered with a smile: "Next time we meet, should I address you as Lord Beile?"
"That's for sure!" Dolgun said with a resolute expression, gazing out at the distant sky.
Later historians couldn't figure out this strange encounter, as if they had known each other for over a decade, and even made a strange deal. The buyer and seller didn't mention the price of the goods at all. The seller sold nearly 4,000 catties of salt and several hundred catties of tea bricks, while the buyer only gave one ring, which was worth only one-tenth of the value of the goods he bought.
