Chapter 389

"Ah!!!"

"Gently! Gently!"

"Physician Yu! Elder Brother Yu! Master Yu! I—I won't be treated anymore!"

Another voice came: "Whether you are treated or not is not up to you!"

"Ah! It hurts!"

"Damn you! Ah!"

Xu Zaijing stood outside the military physician's tent with Qingyun and Alan, who were holding a wooden box.

Everyone listened to the wailing and cries of pain from inside the tent, looking at a tall, burly man with his arm in a sling, supported by a comrade.

"How about we change military physicians? This sounds a bit gruesome," the burly man said.

Hearing this, the guard at the tent entrance smiled.

The comrade supporting the burly man shook his head: "Physician Yu is recognized as the number one in medical skill in the main camp. Although his methods are a bit harsh, he really can cure people! Previously, someone in our battalion suffered a bone injury, and it was Physician Yu who cured him!"

Xu Zaijing nodded from the side: "This person is right! Physician Yu's medical skills are superb!"

The injured burly man looked at Xu Zaijing and his group, especially Qingyun and Alan holding the wooden box, and hesitated: "Could it be that the Young Master has come to thank Physician Yu?"

Xu Zaijing pursed his lips and smiled: "You could say that."

As he spoke, Xu Zaijing was about to walk forward.

Suddenly,

The guard at the tent entrance stretched out his arm and said, "Young Master, please wait a moment. Wait until Physician Yu has finished treating the wounded before you go in!"

Xu Zaijing nodded and stopped his steps.

During the half-quarter of an hour of waiting,

Listening to the wailing, cries of pain, and pleas for mercy that came from the tent from time to time, the burly man's expression became increasingly ugly.

At this moment, the cloth curtain at the tent entrance moved, and an officer with a pale face and vacant eyes was carried out.

Seeing this scene, perhaps because of the pain, the burly man broke into a slight sweat on his forehead.

"Alright, let the next one in!"

Before the words had faded,

A figure lifted the cloth curtain at the tent entrance and looked out. This action made the injured burly man shiver and say, "Young Master, please go first!"

"Eh? Fifth Young Master? Why have you come! Fifth Young Master, please wait a moment. You, burly man, come in!"

"I—this—alright then."

As he spoke, the man, supported by his comrade, nodded at Xu Zaijing and walked into the tent.

"Ah!!"

After the cries of pain and wailing in the tent stopped for a while,

The tent curtain was lifted, and the man from before wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes with his uninjured arm and walked out, supported by his comrade who was carrying the medicine bag.

The two nodded and left.

"Fifth Young Master, wait a moment! Let me tidy up, and then you can come in!"

"Understood, Elder Brother Yu."

A moment later,

Yu Huguang lifted the tent curtain: "Come, come in!"

Looking at Qingyun and Alan behind Xu Zaijing, he added: "Fifth Young Master, you came, so you came; why bring things?"

"Elder Brother Yu, this was given to me by the Elder of the Yu family to bring to you. He said it's a newly formulated prescription, and there are also a few good medicinal herbs."

As he spoke, Xu Zaijing walked into the tent, which was full of the smell of herbs, found a folding stool, and sat down.

The attendant helping out in the tent hurriedly handed Xu Zaijing a cup of tea, which looked like Yu Huguang's personal tea set.

Yu Huguang took the wooden box from Qingyun's hand, opened it, and looked at the old ginseng inside. He nodded very satisfied: "My old man still understands me!"

After finishing, he carefully examined the prescriptions in the other wooden boxes: "Tsk, there are experts in the Bureau of People's Welfare! I hadn't even thought of this usage for the golden sore medicine!"

Xu Zaijing nodded while looking around at the environment in the tent.

After Yu Huguang handed the medicinal herbs and prescriptions to the attendant to put away, he sat beside Xu Zaijing and said: "Fifth Young Master, I heard that several noble families in the capital have bought shares in that southern golden sore medicine business?"

Xu Zaijing nodded.

Yu Huguang: "Cough, Fifth Young Master, when you came, did Grandfather tell you... that my family wants to buy some with a heavy price?"

"He did, but I didn't agree!"

After Xu Zaijing finished speaking, he lowered his head and focused on drinking tea, hiding the teasing look in his eyes.

"That's true, such an effective medicine cannot easily have its shares given away."

Yu Huguang squeezed out a smile and finished speaking, then also lowered his head to drink tea to cover up his discomfort.

When he looked up, Yu Huguang happened to see Xu Zaijing looking at him with a smile on his lips.

"Hmm? Fifth Young Master, what do you mean by looking at me like that?"

"Elder Brother Yu, I won't tease you anymore..."

Xu Zaijing finished explaining the matter of cultivating this item in a few sentences. Yu Huguang nodded with some emotion: "Good thing! If such a good medicine can be cultivated, it can be considered a benefit to the world."

After the two talked a bit more about Xu Zaijing's imperial examinations, Yu Huguang said: "By the way, Fifth Young Master, has Xu Hou told you about the scouts of the two armies desperately slaughtering each other these past few days?"

"He has."

"Hmm, good that he has! Looking at the two great armies, who knows which day they will start fighting. What about you? What duty are you prepared to take in the army?"

"Vanguard scout."

"Ah? Vanguard—no, Xu Hou, he?"

Seeing that Xu Zaijing didn't seem to be joking, Yu Huguang nodded: "Xu Hou really can be ruthless."

As he spoke, Yu Huguang beckoned to the attendant: "Go, take the wound medicine I prepared—"

"Military physician!"

"Military Physician Yu!! Come quickly to save someone!!"

A hoarse shout came from outside the tent.

Xu Zaijing and Yu Huguang hurriedly stood up. Before they had even reached the entrance, a group of people dressed as cavalrymen surged in.

They saw four people carrying a simple stretcher, on which lay a Great Zhou soldier wearing cavalry armor. His face could not be seen clearly; one could only see two white-feathered eagle-plumed arrows stuck between his chest and abdomen.

A soldier shouted:

"Military Physician Yu, you must save him!"

"I beg you!"

"Physician! Hurry and save the Squad Leader!"

Yu Huguang nodded and said: "Carry him to the bed! Everyone else get out!"

A moment later,

Looking at the cavalryman kneeling on the ground, covered in sweat, dust, and bloodstains, still wanting to shout.

Yu Huguang, amidst the noisy sounds, looked at the wounded man on the bed with eyes full of anxiety and roared angrily: "You want him to live??? Then all of you, damn it, get out!"

Xu Zaijing lifted his chin, and Qingyun and Alan hurriedly stepped forward to persuade them.

Some of the cavalrymen gathered nearby heard the persuasion, while others were pulled away by their comrades, and they left the side of the bed where the wounded man was placed one after another.

The wounded man on the bed was still conscious, and fresh blood was gushing from the corners of his mouth.

His somewhat unfocused eyes were looking around.

Seeing Xu Zaijing standing to one side, the wounded man's eyes brightened slightly. After looking at Xu Zaijing with some confusion and surprise, he saw Xu Zaijing looking over, and he smiled.

Xu Zaijing looked at the wounded man, whose mouth was full of blood and who was still smiling at him. He looked carefully and vaguely identified that this person seemed to be a personal guard who had previously been by his father's side, seemingly surnamed Ye...

Xu Zaijing gave him a thumbs-up: "When you get better, I will treat you to Uncle Shu's stir-fried chicken and rabbit."

The wounded man smiled, and another mouthful of blood gushed from his mouth.

"Damn it, the hundred-year-old mountain ginseng my grandfather just sent is going to be used on you!"

Before Xu Zaijing lifted the curtain to go out, he heard Yu Huguang's grumbling, which was full of resentment.

Looking back, the wounded man who heard this smiled again.

Walking out of the tent,

Looking at the cavalrymen gathered at the entrance, Xu Zaijing exhaled and said: "Don't block the entrance; go sit to one side."

"Not even grown a hair—"

That tough-looking cavalryman, who was a stranger and had bloodstains and wounds on his face, looked unfriendly, but before he could finish his words, his mouth was covered by a comrade beside him, who whispered a few words in his ear.

It was vaguely like talking about Xu Zaijing's identity.

After the tough cavalryman took a rough breath, he dispersed from the tent entrance with his comrades.

After this group of people dispersed, they revealed more than a dozen figures lying on horseback not far from the tent.

Xu Zaijing walked slowly toward those dozen or so horses.

Walking closer,

Xu Zaijing saw clearly the dozen or so cavalrymen lying on the horses' backs.

On the bodies of these dozen or so people,

Either in their eyes, their necks, or their thighs, were stuck the white eagle-plumed arrows he had just seen in the tent.

These dozen or so people who were hit were all in vital areas; before they arrived here at Yu Huguang's, they had already died in battle.

Xu Zaijing looked carefully at the details of the eagle-plumed arrows.

The tough cavalryman who had been at odds with him just now came over.

First, he glanced at Qingyun, who was staring non-stop at his vital areas, and then he hesitated and said:

"Are you the Fifth Young Master of the Marquis's Mansion that Squad Leader Ye mentioned?"

Xu Zaijing nodded.

"Fifth Young Master! Are you really as formidable as Squad Leader Ye and Squad Leader Feng said?"

Xu Zaijing turned his head to look at him and said: "What is the name of the Squad Leader Ye you mentioned?"

"Ye Fang... and Feng Dabao; the two of them are very close with the two Commanders, Zhu Qinghu and Di Jing..."

Xu Zaijing turned his head back and continued to look at the details of the eagle-plumed arrows: "I remember now."

Without answering the cavalryman's question, Xu Zaijing added: "What is going on here?"

The cavalryman's face was full of resentment, and he gritted his teeth and said: "We were ambushed by the scouts of the Bai Gao Kingdom on the opposite side. There is a very formidable archer among them; we... we couldn't beat him!"

Xu Zaijing nodded, then turned his head to look at the tough cavalryman and said: "I am going to pull the arrows out."

The tough cavalry soldier couldn't bear to look at his comrade's body and turned his head, nodding forcefully.

Xu Zaijing looked at the others again, and the eyes of the others also held expressions of agreement.

Xu Zaijing patted the shoulder of this fallen cavalryman twice, as if he were still alive.

Only then did he pull the eagle-plumed arrow from the body of the cavalryman who had died from bleeding after being shot in the thigh, holding it horizontally before his eyes to examine it carefully.

Looking at the line of Bai Gao Kingdom characters on it, Xu Zaijing said: "Is there anyone who recognizes Bai Gao characters?"

The cavalrymen in front of the main tent shook their heads one after another.

As he spoke, Xu Zaijing, Qingyun, and Alan had already pulled out all the eagle-plumed arrows.

Xu Zaijing inserted these dozen or so arrows neatly into the ground, arranging them in a row.

He looked again; all the feathered arrows had the same Bai Gao Kingdom characters, and the places where they were engraved were also similar.

Just as he was about to find someone in the army who recognized Bai Gao Kingdom characters, another group of people came riding to the outside of the tent.

The leader hadn't even dismounted before shouting: "What happened to Ye Fang?"

Looking at the burly man, the tough cavalryman who had just spoken to Xu Zaijing said: "Reporting to Commander Feng, Squad Leader, he..."

Feng Dabao dismounted and walked toward the tent.

Only after walking these few steps did he see Xu Zaijing, who was squatting on the ground looking at the eagle-plumed arrows: "Fifth Young Master?!"

Xu Zaijing looked up and nodded at Feng Dabao in greeting, saying: "Do you recognize Bai Gao characters?"

Feng Dabao shook his head: "Fifth Young Master, Ye Fang, he..."

Xu Zaijing: "The situation is still unclear; Elder Brother Yu is doing his best to save him."

Feng Dabao looked at the remains of his comrades on the nearby horses and gripped the horse whip in his hand extremely tightly.

Looking at the eagle-plumed arrows that Xu Zaijing had inserted into the soil in front of him, Feng Dabao turned back and said to his subordinates: "Go, find Wang Yan; I heard he understands Bai Gao script."

The subordinate cavalryman received the order and left.

After another while,

A group of cavalrymen, even more numerous than Feng Dabao's group just now, arrived nearby.

The leader did not ask questions as anxiously as Feng Dabao, but dismounted and walked to Xu Zaijing's side.

After hugging Xu Zaijing very forcefully, Zhu Qinghu sighed: "What does Old Yu say?"

Xu Zaijing looked at his cousin, whom he hadn't seen for a year and whose eyes seemed to have aged ten years, and gave the same explanation as before: the situation is unclear.

After Zhu Qinghu nodded, he also squatted down to look at the eagle-plumed arrows Xu Zaijing had arranged in a row.

After looking for a while, Zhu Qinghu said: "It's this bastard again."

Zhu Qinghu turned his head to look at Xu Zaijing's eyes and said: "Looking at these eagle-plumed arrows, it's an old opponent. Two old brothers from the Marquis's Mansion also died at this person's hands."

Xu Zaijing pulled out an eagle-plumed arrow and looked at the sharp arrowhead: "In a few days, I'll find an opportunity to return these to their original owner."

Zhu Qinghu nodded, patted Xu Zaijing's shoulder, stood up, and ordered all the cavalrymen around the tent to return to the camp.

At this moment,

The cavalryman who had just been sent by Feng Dabao to call for someone arrived with the person.

After dismounting and seeing Xu Zaijing, who had recommended everyone to come here, Wang Yan also felt extremely emotional in his heart.

After saying a few words of catching up and talking about the matter of accompanying the Li family's Chimei to recruit surrender before, Wang Yan looked at the eagle-plumed arrows inserted into the ground.

A moment later, Wang Yan said: "Fifth Young Master, looking at the characters on it, it should be a person's name, called Mele Amai..."

Looking at the confusion in Xu Zaijing's eyes, Wang Yan wrote these four characters on the ground.

Xu Zaijing listened to Wang Yan read it a few more times according to the Bai Gao Kingdom accent and kept it in his heart.

Two hours later,

Two eagle-plumed arrows stained with blood were sent out by Yu Huguang's attendant.

Along the way, they brought news to Xu Zaijing, Zhu Qinghu, and others: Ye Fang is not dead yet; he has done everything he could, and whether he can live depends on Ye Fang himself.

After knowing this,

Zhu Qinghu and Xu Zaijing did not disturb Ye Fang,

But only let their subordinates tell this news to Feng Dabao and their group of comrades.

Afterward,

Xu Zaijing took Qingyun and others to follow behind Zhu Qinghu, preparing to go to the camp of the vanguard scouts.

Just as they were walking on the road in the main camp,

Someone on the opposite side of the road beckoned to the two of them,

Xu Zaijing looked closely and saw that it was the Bai Gao Kingdom cavalry general General Mi Mu Tuoxia, with whom he had previously had a conflict at Pan Tower and whom he had dealt with somewhat heavily.

Now General Mi Mu Tuoxia, having successively served as a cavalry "consultant" under Marquis Tuoxi and Marquis Yongyi, had already relied on military merit to become a general of Great Zhou again.

Previously, General Mi Mu Tuoxia had also heard from the Li brothers about the matter of the Bai Gao Kingdom's Chuichuan Division sending people to the Xu family to assassinate the Li brothers.

General Mi Mu Tuoxia still had some understanding of the strength of the group of experts who besieged Empress General Mi Mu.

If they had really succeeded, the Li brothers would not have survived, and his few relatives living in the Xu family would have had no way to live.

After the two said a few words, General Mi Mu Tuoxia took his leave and departed.

After arriving at the camp of the vanguard scouts,

Zhu Qinghu personally arranged the tent for Xu Zaijing and He Guan and the others.

In the evening, the two went to Marquis Yongyi's main tent to have dinner.

Alan went to find Ma Shi, who had arrived more than half a year earlier than him, his "Northern Liao fellow villager," to look for books.

Early the next morning,

Xu Zaijing took Qingyun, He Guan, and Alan to follow Zhu Qinghu out of the main camp,

And began to familiarize himself with some of the scout skills he had previously learned in the Xu family.

Time passed quickly,

It was already the ninth day of the ninth month,

The Double Ninth Festival.

On this day outside Bianjing City,

It was full of commoners climbing high and playing.

Madam Wu's polo field was once again decorated with various types of flowers,

And the various madams and noble young ladies who had received Madam Wu's invitations also arrived at the polo field one after another.

And thousands of miles away,

Xu Zaijing was riding his little chestnut horse, looking not far away,

Where there was a Bai Gao Kingdom scout who was drawing his bow and aiming an arrow at him.

(End of chapter)