Chapter 454: Delivering the Message

The first group to set out from Yongping was the 200-strong agricultural transport team. This unit was a "reverse transport team" sent back to Tianjin to prevent excessive baggage from hampering combat operations.

After yesterday's continuous fighting, all territory within Ming borders has now been recovered except for Zunhua, where some Tartars still remain. So this team will cut straight across the Hebei Plain heading southwest, returning to the Tianjin Old Parade Ground without obstruction.

These two hundred men in the transport team will bring back over two thousand warhorses to Tianjin, and of course, the off-season watermelons loaded on their backs as well.

Honestly, fighting a battle while simultaneously shipping this much captured warhorse back to the rear — that's probably something only the Transmigrators, few in number but overwhelming in firepower, could pull off.

Covering two hundred li of flatland, the transport team is expected to reach the Tianjin old nest by tomorrow morning. By then, the people of Tianjin will get to see a new watermelon variety produced in the White Mountains and Black Waters.

After the transport team left, the second wave to set out was a squad of Official Army troops. Not many — exactly ten men.

That's right, Official Army.

All of them wore brand-new bright red Ming Army regulation padded jackets and copper basin hats, one man to two horses — the most standard-issue Ming soldiers you could imagine.

After exiting Yongping's West Gate, this squad of Official Army troops headed due west. Four hundred Hua-li due west of Yongping lies Beijing.

After those two groups departed, it dragged on until afternoon before the Intervention Army's main force could finally leave the city as the third wave, their destination Santunying.

With two hundred fewer Flying Tiger Battalion troops, the main force had now shrunk to 450 men. The unit still rode one man to two horses, with some logistics personnel equipped with three or four horses.

The reason they were delayed until afternoon was an unexpected event: the legendary "entire city's elders seeing them off."

Upon learning the Transmigrators were leaving, the several thousand Ming people still in Yongping City turned out almost in full force, staging every moving routine of reluctant farewell imaginable. This truly qualified as army-civilian fish-and-water affection.

No wonder the city's natives were so enthusiastic. In just a single day and night, the Ming people had discovered what made this Green Jacket Army different.

This unit had iron discipline. After breaching the city, not only did the soldiers refrain from the customary looting spree (something the Official Army often did), they even helped the natives put out fires and rescue the wounded.

As for the Tartars' property, the Transmigrators took not a cent, distributing those blood-stained valuables back to the common people. Top it off with opening granaries to hand out grain and treating everyone to barbecue — in this race-to-the-bottom era, this was a righteous army, a moral army through and through!

The natives' gratitude toward the Green Jacket Army instantly exploded. In just a single day and night, the relationship between both sides reached the level of fish-and-water affection.

The next day, discovering their beloved soldiers were leaving, the natives spontaneously organized a send-off procession — a sea of people, all kinds of pleading to stay, all kinds of reluctance. Elders took off boots, maidens offered wine, routine after routine, leaving the Transmigrators utterly overwhelmed. In the end, they actually exited Yongping in a somewhat bedraggled state and were delayed for quite some time.

Outside the city, Zhang Zhongqi, mounted on his horse, turned his head to glance back at the city as the drawbridge slowly rose, then said with lingering fear, "The masses being too enthusiastic isn't good either! Look, they even snatched my battle boots right off my feet."

"Oh, give it a rest. Don't play the victim while secretly pleased," Yao Jianshe beside him said with a sly grin. "Didn't you hear? They want to build a living shrine with you as the model. Old Zhang, from now on you're a man who feeds on incense and has attained the Dao — you've drawn a clear line between yourself and us ordinary mortals. Bound to ascend sooner or later. Incredible!"

"Ascend my ass. Can't you speak like a human?" Zhang Zhongqi's face went bright red at these words. "That's a living shrine they're building for Regional Commander Cao. They just mistook me for the Regional Commander. If anyone's ascending, it should be Zhang Dongdong!"

"Hey, don't dismiss it — the relationships here are pretty complicated." Qian Tieshan, bringing up the very rear of the column, also got worked up. "The living shrine worships Cao Zong, right? So can the high-quality knockoff Zhang Dongdong get a share of the incense? Furthermore, since the clay statue is molded from Old Zhang's likeness, can't you, Old Zhang, just freeload a couple of puffs too?"

"A couple of puffs… more like a couple of drags." Zhang Zhongqi looked at the two cackling jerks and was utterly speechless.

Just as the group was bantering and laughing, Du Dewei, who was up ahead in the column, came riding over with a signal soldier carrying a radio on his back: "Firefight's broken out over at Santunying."

"With who? Ming Army or Jin troops?"

"Shuoting."

Time rewinds to yesterday morning.

After seeing the wolf-smoke rising from the direction of Qian'an, Amin in Yongping City immediately dispatched messengers to raise the alarm everywhere, ordering all garrison forces to retreat in time.

The messenger heading west rode two horses with six mounts in total. These two men were responsible for delivering the Grand Beile's orders to Santunying and Zunhua.

Spurring their horses hard and switching mounts on the fly, the messengers covered over a hundred li before evening and arrived near Santunying.

At this point, the two dared not be careless: the enemy coming from the north earlier had already caused Qian'an to light its wolf-smoke, so there was a high probability something had gone wrong at Santunying.

Even though a messenger from Zunhua had reported the road clear just the day before, these two still maintained a skeptical mindset. They didn't charge straight into Santunying but instead stopped their horses in a distant mountain col, climbed a hillock, and peered out from beneath the trees.

You wouldn't know unless you looked, but once you did — truly marvelous.

On the mountain road in front of Santunying, people were coming and going at that moment. About a hundred or so laborers dressed like Ming people were doing construction work on the road surface. They were too far away to make out exactly what these people were busy with.

At the same time, atop the city walls of Santunying, the Bordered Blue Banner's flags were still planted, and figures dressed in Banner Troop uniforms could be faintly seen patrolling the ramparts.

The two messengers exchanged a glance, each seeing deep bewilderment in the other's eyes.

There were now two possibilities.

One: Santunying had already been taken by a Ming Army sneak attack.

The other: Santunying was still in their own people's hands, and those laborers at the gate were all captured nearby by the Banner Troops and put to work.

Yet this explanation seemed far-fetched no matter how you looked at it: the garrison at Santunying was tasked solely with holding the city. If they were leaving, heading north out of the city would take them into the mountains — there was absolutely no need to build a road at their doorstep. Besides, the previous messenger hadn't reported this matter either.

After a brief discussion, the two messengers ultimately decided it was best to be cautious and probe first. Then they divided the work: one would go forward to inquire, while the other would stay hidden in the rear and not show his face.

Not long after, a single fast horse came swaggering down the mountain road and docked at a position a full seventy or eighty meters from the city wall.

The guards on the wall, upon spotting the newcomer, hastily shouted out, demanding his purpose.

After identifying himself, the man immediately requested to see the Niru in charge of defending the city, stating he had urgent military intelligence from the Grand Beile to report.

A reply came from the wall: the two Niru had gone to the north side of the city to inspect the road, and this messenger was asked to enter the city, rest, and wait a while.

Hearing this, the messenger said not another word — he wheeled his horse around and turned to leave.

The next moment, a gunshot rang out from the city wall, and the knight eighty meters away toppled in response.

The Ming laborers repairing the road at the gate, upon hearing the gunshot, very proficiently detached two men, who hauled the dead messenger, man and horse, back into the city.

All of this fell into the eyes of the messenger lying hidden in the shadows. After witnessing this bizarre scene, the bastard was so terrified he nearly pissed himself.