Chapter 17 Snowy Night
On this day, the sun was shining brightly. At Shuishiyu Kou, 40 li east of Zhangjiakou, Zhai Zhe led a group of over ten people from Che Feng to sit on the ground. The midday sun dispersed the chill in the air, making it not so cold here.
A cavalryman rushed in from outside the mountain forest and shouted loudly on horseback: "He's here!"
Di Zhe immediately turned over and mounted his horse, with the people around him moving quickly to follow closely behind. Since killing those two disobedient horse thieves, the attitude of the mountain stronghold towards Di Zhe had become much more respectful. Everyone understood that there was no better place for a horse thief than Doyan Grassland.
Along the mountain forest, a knight was cautiously running towards this side from afar.
Di Zhe led more than twenty horsemen to welcome them.
"Ge Feng!" Chai Zhe stretched out his arms from afar.
"Second Master, I didn't expect to meet you here!" Ge Feng dismounted his horse and respectfully bowed.
Di Zhe jumped off his horse and helped him up, saying: "Fan Dongjia asked me to bring you a message. The matter has been settled, you can return to the village now."
"After doing this, I won't be able to stand on the prairie anymore!" Ge Feng stood up and sighed, and couldn't help but curse: "That old thing Lu Fuyou is vicious at heart, he will definitely not die a good death!"
It wasn't until he had spent several months drifting from place to place, staying in the dens of bandits on the grasslands, that he realized how happy he used to be. He had wine and meat, and occasionally he could even go to the brothel to hold a woman in his arms; at least among the guards, he was considered one of the top-ranking ones, with more than twenty trusted followers under him.
After fleeing to the grasslands, everything was gone. Because of his previous relationships, some horse thieves were willing to take him in, but after a month had passed, they saw that he no longer had any value and slowly stopped taking him seriously.
"After receiving the news, I was secretly preparing. When Feng Shanzi heard that I could return to the sect, he became polite to me again, despite my having previously passed on so many messages for him."
"Have you remembered the location of the old camp of the Mountain Hawk?"
Ge Feng nodded repeatedly: "Remember clearly, I also drew a route map. The翻山鹞子 is more than 300 people, and it's one of the top two horse thieves on the Doyan grassland!" His tone was tinged with doubt, unable to understand why the Zhang family business would take action against the grassland horse thieves, which didn't seem like the behavior of businessmen.
The target of the attack was not Di Zhexuan, but simply by contacting him, he had already felt the ambition of the Jurchen people towards the Duo Yan grassland. He had been in Zhangjiakou for so many years and was familiar with the situation in Liaodong and the grasslands. This place abandoned by the Chahar people would become the starting point for a major shift in the world's trend.
This summer, the governor of Jiayuguan, Yuan Chonghuan, in order to retain the Chahar tribe, privately sold grain to the Chahar people despite the imperial court's ban, but ultimately failed to entice Lin Danhan.
The situation in Liaodong is very delicate, the Jurchen people are very powerful, and since Yuan Chonghuan took office as the Governor-General of Jiayin, he has been implementing a strategy of jointly resisting the Jurchens with the Mongolian Lindan Khan. Although Lindan Khan has always been arrogant, he has been very firm in resisting the Jurchens. Yuan Chonghuan repaid kindness with kindness, opening mutual markets in Guangning City, where the Chahar people could exchange war horses for the weapons and grain they needed, secretly supporting Lindan Khan without reservation.
But the two sides were not of one mind, and Lin Danhan did not exert himself fully when the Jurchen people took Guangning City last year, resulting in the fall of Guangning City, and the direct connection between Liaodong Town and Chahar Tribe was cut off.
Di Zhe now somewhat understood that no matter how unreliable and arrogant the Mongolian Lin Dan Khan was in the eyes of the Ming people, General Yuan Chonghuan still had to choose to cooperate with him.
As long as the Chahar people stay on the Duo Yuan grassland, the Jurchen people can only choose to attack the Great Ming along the Ningjin defense line, and they will also face the threat of Mongolian cavalry in the rear. But when the Chahar people left, the Duo Yuan grassland became a blank space, and the Ji Liao town of the Great Ming not only had to face the cruel Jurchen people alone, but more importantly, the Jurchen people could choose to bypass the solid Ningjin defense line and invade the capital city along the Great Wall from the grasslands.
On the way back to the old camp, Ge Feng kept talking incessantly, but Di Zhe hardly heard a word. The situation on Duo Yan grassland was very clear, and the Chahar people who stayed behind would definitely be unable to withstand the neighboring Jurchen people. This would be within the sphere of influence of the Eastern Barbarians, and all he could do was to strengthen himself and wait for an opportunity to act.
The lid has been lifted! He knows the final mystery, but he wants to stand on the opposite side of the trend.
In the second year of Chongzhen's reign, perhaps due to drought, the snow that came in winter on the grasslands was a bit late, but it finally arrived.
By the end of November, the north wind danced with snowflakes and turned the grassland into silver. The heavy snow fell continuously for a whole day until it finally stopped in the evening. After this snowfall, merchant teams would not be able to set out for some time. Fan Yongdou maintained great patience.
In the late afternoon, Zhai Zhe arranged for a messenger to be brought to the guard post at the entrance of Suishi Valley.
Half an hour later, almost all the horse bandits in the old camp of the mountain valley moved out, preparing their war horses and weapons to head towards the road covered with accumulated snow.
The snowy night didn't need torches to illuminate, the mountain road was not easy to walk, but this time on the way there were no horse thieves to complain about, and for a month Di Zhe had prepared warm winter clothes for them.
Ge Feng breathed out hot air and muttered: "It's so cold today."
On such a cold day, it's indeed a convenient day for a sneak attack! The horse thieves definitely wouldn't think that on a day like this someone would leave their warm home to disturb their winter.
At midnight, the 200 troops finally left the mountain, and although there was accumulated snow on the grasslands, it could not stop the horses' hooves.
Ge Feng and the messenger walked at the forefront, heading east. Under the cover of heavy snow, many landscapes had changed their original appearance. The two carefully identified them along the way, and the team's pace was very slow. It was also unknown when the snow started falling again, and a layer of white snow covered everyone's body during the journey.
The silent troops had been marching for more than an hour, and some people were already dozing off on horseback. The messenger stopped in his tracks, pointing to a nearby grove of trees: "Our men are just ahead."
Di Zhe ordered Meng Kang and Che Feng to lead a large contingent to wait in place, while Xiao Zhīyán and Ge Feng accompanied the messenger on his way.
Outside the forest, under the cover of wind and snow, Di Zhe could barely hear a low voice, and vaguely saw some firelight.
The outer edge of the forest was very dense, and the four men dismounted their horses and walked in, their boots crunching on the ground.
"What kind of person!" A shout came from inside.
The messenger raised his hand and stopped in his tracks, replying: "Snowy night, let's go!" This must be the password!
Two people jumped down from under a tree about twenty or thirty steps away and complained: "How come you're back so late, the master of the house has been waiting anxiously!"
"The road is slippery on snowy days, it's really hard to walk!"
The two of them glanced at Zhai Zhe and his two companions behind them, then beckoned: "Come in!"
A hundred steps into the forest, the trees inside are more lush, and the snow on the ground is not thick. A dozen bonfires were lit in a circle, and four or five tents were set up around the edges. About two hundred people were hiding here to warm themselves by the fire.
"The Wild Dog is back!" The two sentries shouted loudly towards the inside.
A man with a scar on his right cheek stood up in the crowd.
Di Zhe walked straight in from the front, and the horse thieves who were sitting on the ground stood up to make way for him.
"Prince Di!" Er Zhuo's voice was hoarse and mixed with heavy breathing, making it hard to hear clearly. He didn't speak Mandarin very fluently.
"Big shot!" Zhai Zhe didn't address the other person by name, this was their second meeting. The connection between Fan Yongdou and the Jurchen people was very tight, many of Zhai Zhe's messages had to wait for his transmission, and the Jurchen people trusted Fan Yongdou a bit more.
Eryuan Zhuo raised his hand to signal the people around him to prepare to leave and said to Di Zhe: "You're too late!"
"Beware of slippery roads on snowy days!"
"At this time, set out and arrive at the old camp of Fan Shanzi, it's almost dawn!" Eru Zhuo was very unhappy.
"Everything goes according to the host's arrangement!" Di Zhe kicked the ball back.
"Let's go!" Eruo Zhuo led the way, his thick-backed knife hanging from his waist swaying with his body.
The horse thieves in the forest led the horses and put out the bonfire with snow water, following behind, going outwards.
Two groups of horse bandits set out again, they were not familiar with each other and kept a distance of about 100 steps between them. Ge Feng led the way, followed by Di Zhe and others. Just now, in that brief moment, Di Zhe carefully observed Eru Zhuo's subordinates, there were Mongolians, Hans, and should also be Jurchens among them.
The wind was strong, and no one spoke along the way. The two cavalry units walked in a southeast direction for about half an hour before turning into the mountains.
The snow gradually stopped, and Ge Feng walked all the way to identify the road, both hard and anxious. In such cold weather, a layer of sweat also appeared on his forehead.
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