Chapter 301: Longyan Battle Record (Twenty-Four)

Just as the Tulou's main gate was blasted open, Lin Sanmen pushed open the secret door of the escape tunnel.

The Lin Family had thrived here for a hundred years — of course there were escape tunnels, and he happened to be one of the few people qualified to know their locations. Gasping for breath, he crawled into the tunnel, groped his way through the dark, cramped narrow path for a while, then pushed open the cover board above his head.

The tunnel's exit was in the woods behind the Tulou. After Lin Sanmen, covered in dust, crawled out of the tunnel, he first looked back at the Tulou where gunfire could faintly be heard, then couldn't help but let out a sigh.

The next moment, he turned his head and walked deeper into the woods.

After walking through the woods for nearly an hour, just when Lin Sanmen felt he couldn't hold on any longer, he finally spotted the horse cart at the edge of the forest.

"Hah... thank heaven and earth." After letting out a long breath, Lin Sanmen used the last bit of his strength to prop up his plump body and walk toward the cart.

The driver sitting on the cart smoking a dry pipe raised his head at the sound: Guan Gong.

Spotting his master from far off, Guan Gong hurriedly jumped off the cart and rushed over to support Lin Sanmen. "Master, you've come."

"Yeah, yeah, quickly help me onto the cart — ai-yo, I'm dead tired."

"Alright, alright!" Guan Gong diligently supported his master while asking, "Master, is everything alright in the fortress? I've been waiting at the edge of this broken forest all morning."

"All fine, all fine." After taking two steps, Lin Sanmen pulled a silver ingot from his bosom. "Urgent matter — quickly take me to the Seventh Master at Ansha. Take this silver ingot, and later find yourself a wife."

"Many thanks, Master!" Guan Gong beamingly put the silver away, then supported his master to the cart. With a heave of both arms, he hoisted Lin Sanmen onto the cart.

Horse carts in the mountains were very simple in design. Because the roads were narrow, they were all the stripped-down type — single horse, two wheels, with a curved cloth canopy on the frame. In this kind of cart, a person sat cramped inside; if you wanted to stretch your legs, you had to stick your feet out of the cart.

After Lin Sanmen sat on the cart frame, he reached out to lift the curtain, intending to crawl into the canopy... but the next moment he froze. "Who are you?"

Inside the canopy sat a person with a thin frame, dark skin, and a headscarf wrapped around their head.

As soon as Lin Sanmen finished asking, a soft laugh rang out: "Master, do you not recognize your servant anymore?"

The moment this voice sounded, Lin Sanmen knew who it was. "Biyu? Why is it you?"

At this, thoughts raced through his mind like lightning, and he turned his head to shout at Guan Gong. But before he could open his mouth, he felt a push at his lower back, and then his legs were lifted — Lin Sanmen was promptly "inserted" into the canopy.

At the same time, the thin Biyu jumped down from the back, then leaned over, grabbed Lin Sanmen by the neck, and cooperated to lay the master flat on his stomach inside the cart.

After being pushed down, Master Lin was both shocked and furious. Although he hadn't yet figured out the situation, that didn't stop him from roaring: "Insolence! Do you two not want to live?"

At the words "you two," Master Lin had a sudden flash of inspiration and understood everything. "You cur, you slut! Daring to fornicate — aren't you afraid of the drowning cage?"

... Diabetes, in ancient times, was called "wasting-thirst disease." Emperor Wu of Han and Emperor Yang of Sui both suffered from this rich man's illness. Diabetics have one classic symptom: the whole body is weak and strengthless.

The principle is easy to understand: all the patient's sugar is excreted unchanged in the urine; the body can't break down blood sugar, so where would strength come from?

Lin Sanmen was exactly such a person. Despite his shouting, his seemingly fat body was at this moment pressed into the cart by Guan Gong and Biyu without the slightest effort — he couldn't even struggle. Then a hemp rope prepared long ago was put to use, and Master Lin was tied up amid his curses.

"Master, save your breath. At a time like this, you're still thinking about that drowning cage in the Ancestral Hall?" After the adulterous pair swiftly and deftly finished tying up the master, Biyu finally had the leisure to snap back at her master.

"Wretches! Release me at once! The Lin Family won't spare you two adulterers!"

"Fine, fine, then let's go back to the Lin Family and receive the family law."

At this, Biyu directed Guan Gong to turn the horse around and start heading toward the Lin Family Fortress.

Seeing that the cart was indeed heading toward the Lin Family, Lin Sanmen suddenly fell silent. After a moment, he abruptly opened his mouth and asked, "You both know?"

"Look at you, looking like a stray dog. Hmph — the fortress has been broken by the Official Army, hasn't it?"

Lin Sanmen was now completely calm. "Biyu, let me off the cart. We'll wipe the slate clean, and from now on have nothing to do with each other."

"Let you off the cart — wouldn't that mean no reward silver?" Biyu let out a giggle. "General Wei would be hard to answer to!"

"General Wei? Reward silver?" Lin Sanmen now understood completely. "You slut — you're the one who sold out the Lin Family? Ah... I'll carve you to pieces!"

Then Master Lin's mouth was stuffed shut with a rag.

Biyu stared at Master Lin, who was constantly struggling and writhing, and said fiercely, "Old thing, if it weren't for you meddling back then, I wouldn't have fallen to this state, suffering your abuse day and night... Heh, now let's see who carves whom!"

After making a large loop, the cart returned to the vicinity of the Lin Family Fortress.

Biyu, wearing a bamboo hat and utterly inconspicuous, first blended into the crowd of idle onlookers on the periphery to secretly observe the situation, then directed Guan Gong to begin acting according to plan.

And so the people witnessed that day's finale: Master Lin, who had already fled, was brought back with great fanfare by his own family driver.

After receiving the news, Ding Liqiu soon received this somewhat remarkable impromptu couple in the Lin Family Ancestral Hall — in truth, a concubine like Biyu and a driver like Guan Gong theoretically had no right to enter the Lin Family Ancestral Hall even in death.

Looking at the thin, dark Biyu sitting quietly there, Ding Liqiu couldn't help but give a mental thumbs-up to this girl he had long wanted to meet — when the Lin Family members were being sorted and screened earlier, Ding Liqiu had learned about Biyu without much effort.

Just as he had judged before: Biyu was the only woman in the Lin Family with the ability to write.

In the eyes of him, a man of later generations, a woman like Biyu — unwilling to accept her fate, fighting back with all her might, unafraid to oppose powerful clan forces for her own ideals and happiness — was exceedingly rare and precious in this era.

Next, Ding Liqiu said amiably, "The General's Mansion possesses the four seas and governs a million subjects. The small matters promised to you will certainly not be reneged on."

At this, Ding Liqiu smiled and nodded at the girl. "So there is no need to make this matter known to everyone."

Biyu, who possessed the temperament of a strong woman of later generations, understood upon hearing this that the hidden intent behind her directing Guan Gong to "deliver the captive" with great fanfare had been seen through.

But there was no helping it: the government's reputation had never been good. People like them who "betrayed their master for glory" — if they didn't make a big scene, they might well be quietly screwed over by the Official Army in the aftermath.

"This woman thanks Adviser Ding for his consideration!" Biyu hurriedly knelt and kowtowed.

"Rise, rise." Ding Liqiu was growing more and more appreciative of this girl. "You two can go collect your reward shortly. Hmm, may I ask what plans you two have going forward?"

"Having sold out the Lin Family, we can't stay in this place anymore." At this, Biyu glanced at Guan Gong, then continued, "We want to return to my parents' home in Zhangzhou to lay low for a while."

Ding Liqiu chuckled at this. "You were sold into the mountains by your own parents back then. Now, the two of you, fugitives, returning with over a thousand taels of silver — isn't that like lambs entering a tiger's den?"

"Go to Dayuan. The General's Mansion will guarantee your safety." Ding Liqiu now spoke with earnest gravity to the girl. "Biyu, you can read, you have insight, you have ambition — you are exactly the talent the General's Mansion urgently needs!"

"I am but a woman, a servant — what kind of talent could I be?" Biyu now seemed a bit shy.

"Heh, you probably don't know, but the General has female officials under his command." Ding Liqiu now launched into an all-out effort, vigorously talking up Dayuan... including schools, female students, female civil servants — the path most suited for Biyu — Ding Liqiu explained each one in detail.

After listening to Adviser Ding's wholehearted pitch, Biyu now felt a curiosity toward Dayuan. Her face smeared with pot ash, a pair of shiny eyes blinked, wondering about something.

"Well then, I might as well see this kindness through to the end — who told me to think highly of you?" Ding Liqiu now picked up the brush on the table. "I'll write a letter right now. Take my letter, and in two days depart together with the main troops — that will make things easier on the road. Once you arrive in Dayuan, someone will naturally receive you."

By this point, it was obvious the two had no choice left. So Biyu secretly tugged Guan Gong again, and the two knelt once more. "Many thanks for your help, Adviser!"

The matter of suppressing bandits in Longyan came to a close here.

In the future, as the local security situation gradually improved, the pace at which a certain power developed the mineral deposits in this mountain region would grow faster and faster. Moreover, for the Transmigrators, a poor mountain region like Longyan actually held another kind of resource — "people."

The hardy and hardworking mountain folk — whether sent to open plantations in South Asia or to herd livestock in Brazil — were the best manpower available. Why let them stay and rot in these impoverished mountain gullies?

The Transmigrators would surely lead the people of this land out of the mountains and wilderness to develop the vast world.

As for the warriors of One Company... after taking the Lin Family Fortress, their mission this time could be considered a complete success.

The timing also happened to land right at the end of October.

So after resting and reorganizing at the Lin Family for one day, One Company formally handed over the follow-up work to the reinforcing troops, then the entire unit packed up and set out, carrying their unique original red Rifles and bringing along special figures like Biyu, returning to Longyan County.

After departing from Longyan County, since the waterways along the route were still being heavily diverted, dug open, and dredged, the troops could only first travel a section of the Mountain Path on foot.

Only after reaching Jinshan County downstream did everyone board boats and travel along the river all the way toward Zhangzhou Prefecture.

After stopping for one night at Zhangzhou Prefecture, on the morning of the second day, the troops finally returned to their own Territory: Xiamen.