Chapter 17: Meeting Commander Saadan

  Chongzhen 8th year, April 6th

  A small green sedan chair was carried into the city gate of Qingzhou Prefecture, surrounded by more than a dozen soldiers wearing Ming army red uniforms and feathered hats, with waist knives at their waists, long spears in their hands, and fur caps on their heads. Several soldiers also had strong crossbows on their backs. They were the ones who were ordered to escort the young concubine of Wei Tongnian, the prefect of Qingzhou, back to Qingzhou and report the good news along the way.

  This time, the Ling Shan Wei's garrison was almost completely annihilated, and even the thousand households and deputy thousand households were killed in battle. It is a shame for all the military officers of Ling Shan Wei. Therefore, the remaining few hundred officials of Ling Shan Wei almost fought to get the beautiful job of escorting the young concubine of Qingzhou Prefecture back to Qingzhou to report the good news.

  None of them are fools, each with a small abacus in their minds calculating meticulously. At present, the thousand households and deputy thousand households of Ling Shan Wei have all died in battle, although they are guilty and cannot escape responsibility, it also means that two positions have become vacant. Although the vice-thousand households above the position in the Ming Dynasty's Wei Suo are generally hereditary, but our deceased He Qian Hu had no children, and Zhao Da Xian, the deputy thousand household, died without an heir, so the problem arises as to who will take over these vacant positions? It is clear that it is up to the Commander-in-Chief of Qingzhou to decide. Although the appointment of military officers above the rank of thousand households is made by the Ministry of War, the recommendation of the Qingzhou Prefect and the Commander-in-Chief, as the direct superiors of Ling Shan Wei Suo, is also very important. Therefore, in order to compete for the task of sending the Qingzhou Prefect's concubine back to invite merit, several hundred households have become fiercely competitive.

  Because there was no superior to preside over everyone, nobody obeyed anyone else, and they almost came to blows. In the end, everyone reluctantly asked the person involved, that is, the young woman who had been rescued, to make her own choice. Unexpectedly, the result surprised everyone - this delicate little woman chose Pang Gang, the one who had rescued her from the tiger's jaws, as her escort.

  The result left all the officers of Wei stunned, although the result was unexpected, but after the officers turned it over in their minds for a moment, they found that it was not unacceptable. This young man who had just joined the army had made great achievements, but he was new to the army and did not pose any threat to them in competing for the position of Qianhu, so the officers also reluctantly accepted this result and sent this lucky young man to escort the people to Qingzhou.

  Pang Gang, who was hit by this unexpected pie, specially borrowed a brand new mandarin duck battle robe from Bin Shiqian, and also handled the waist card and other items. He also asked for more than a dozen troops including Da Zhuang and Gou Sheng as his escort. Since he owed Pang Gang a favor, Bin Shiqian did not make things difficult for him and readily agreed.

  After entering the magnificent city wall of Qingzhou City, Gou Lian and others were all shocked by the prosperity of Qingzhou Prefecture. As one of the nine ancient states of Huaxia and an important metropolis in Shandong Province, Qingzhou has a rich cultural heritage, with provincial government offices, prefectural and county academies, examination institutes, inner and outer city temples, martial arts temples and other official institutions all located here, with a population of over 500,000 people.

  Watching the people coming and going on the bluestone-paved streets, and the constant flow of merchants, Dazhuang, a country bumpkin who had never been to the city before, felt that his eyes were not enough. Even Pang Gang couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the achievements of the ancients 400 years ago. In later generations, Pang Gang also came to Qingzhou, but in later generations, this ancient city of Qingzhou had undergone many wars and its original architecture was no longer visible. Now, suddenly seeing this ancient and fragrant city, Pang Gang couldn't help but feel as if he were dreaming.

  "Pang Zhuang Shi...Pang Zhuang Shi..." A soft and weak voice came from the sedan chair beside him.

  "Madam, what are your orders?"

  The young concubine of the prefecture governor was very amiable to Pang Gang, this lifesaver: "Please instruct the sedan chair bearer to turn right after crossing the main street and enter through the back door of the prefecture government office. Hand over this waist token to the doorman, they will naturally let you in." After finishing speaking, a delicate white small hand stretched out from the sedan, with a waist token carved from green jade held in her palm.

  Pang Gang hastily took it over, feeling the residual warmth on the jade card, and thought to himself, "This little hand is quite realistic, unfortunately this good cabbage was dug up by Wang Damazi, I'm afraid the hat on our Lord's head is a bit green."

  With evil intentions, our comrade Pang Gang quickly arrived at the gate of the Qingzhou Prefecture Government Office. When Pang Gang presented his waist card and explained his purpose to the two door guards with stern faces, the expression on their faces immediately changed. One of them immediately rushed inside. Before long, a string of servants and maids came out to welcome the sedan chair, and Pang Gang and others were led to a side hall for tea.

  After sitting down in the side hall, several maids came forward to serve tea. Everyone originally thought they would be treated to a good meal, but Pang Gang and others waited for more than an hour without seeing anyone come again. Time quickly passed noon, everyone's stomachs were already growling with hunger, but no one came to attend to them.

  Li Yuan, who had a quick temper, couldn't help but scold in the side hall, "These officials are just ungrateful and disloyal. We worked hard to bring people for him, but he can't even spare us a meal. If I had known it would be like this, I might as well have..."

  "Shut up!" Pang Gang glared at this reckless young man and warned: "Don't be presumptuous, don't forget our identity."

  He couldn't say that Pang Jian didn't get angry with such treatment, but he knew his current identity was just a small soldier, and he didn't have the qualifications to scold others. Moreover, if someone else had heard what he said earlier, it would only bring unpredictable consequences for himself. Therefore, Pang Jian severely reprimanded Li Yuan earlier. Since being beaten by Pang Jian, Li Yuan had developed a fearful heart towards him and did not dare to disobey his words along the way. At this time, after being scolded by Pang Jian, he could only honestly come down and obediently drink his tea water.

  After a while, a commotion finally came from outside, and a group of people walked in. The leader was a middle-aged man around 40 years old, wearing a red official uniform with cloud and wild goose embroidery on his chest, and a long beard. Beside him was a military general, wearing a bright red official uniform with the flying leopard pattern of a third-rank military officer, and a beautiful qilin copper plate at his waist, with a calm and gentle gaze. Behind them were four guards.

  Pang suddenly realized that someone wearing such attire in Qingzhou must be Wei Tongnian, the Magistrate of Qingzhou Prefecture, and his direct superior's direct superior, Song Xinghe, the Commander-in-Chief of Qingzhou Prefecture.

  Pang Gang didn't dare to be slow, and hastily stood up to salute the officials with a military ceremony. Da Zhuang and several others were also extremely excited, closely following behind Pang Gang to pay their respects.

  Song Xing said in a soft voice: "All of you get up!"

  Having said that, he raised his hand slightly, and Pang Gang and others naturally stood up with the momentum.

  After Song Xing and others stood up, he carefully looked at Pang Gang and saw that although his face was white and clean, his expression was bold and daring, with a strong and sturdy figure, and couldn't help but say: "He is indeed the brave warrior who can defeat the enemy, truly a hero."

  Song Xing and Su are martial generals, with elegant demeanor. However, having been in high positions for a long time, their voices naturally carried an air of majesty, accompanied by an aura of awe-inspiring power, which left Dazhuang, Li Yuan, and others speechless.

  But Pang Gang felt a familiar taste, somewhat like the feeling of seeing leaders in later generations. He secretly bit his tongue and tried to calm himself down, silently encouraging himself, "What's there to be afraid of? These people have only been officials for a few years, and in the future, I won't be worse than them."

  After calming down, Pang Gang bowed his fist and said loudly: "Your Excellency is overpraising me. At this time when the country is plagued by many disasters, as a Ming official and soldier, I can only repay my debt to the country with my death. Even if I die on the battlefield, it's just a matter of wrapping my corpse in horsehide!"

  "Huh?"

  As soon as Pang Gang finished speaking, someone on the opposite side couldn't help but let out a soft gasp of surprise...