Chapter 207: Xuanchuan

In the night, Xuanchuan County in Korea lay in deep slumber, a dark and silent city. Under the faint starlight, a night watchman carrying a dim yellow lantern walked down the main street, beating his clappers. The places he passed were immediately swallowed by darkness again.

After the watchman had gone far off, ten dark figures slipped across the main street in several groups, one after another entering an alleyway and creeping toward a large residence. They all wore short black outfits, carried packs on their backs, and held weapons of varying lengths. On their feet were cloth shoes with thick, soft soles, making not a single sound.

The leader reached the base of the courtyard wall, and all ten crouched down simultaneously, holding their breath and stilling their energy as if they had become part of the darkness. From within the courtyard came the rustling sound of an animal stepping on plants, along with heavy, rapid sniffing. One dark figure quietly took a piece of dried meat from a leg pouch and tossed it over the wall.

The dog inside let out a low whine but did not bark loudly. Instead, it moved closer to where the meat had landed, and the sound of chewing followed. The dozen or so people outside waited a moment, and then a soft thud of a body collapsing came from within.

The leader beckoned over a burly man, stood on his shoulders, and revealed his face above the wall. It was Li Tao, the groom who had helped capture a Jianzhou spy outside Guanxian back then. Because of his outstanding performance, he had been noticed by Pu Zhuang, passed the grueling training, and was now a squad leader in the Special Service Unit.

Currently, the Special Service Unit had four squads in total. The First Squad had been transferred to Fujian. They were the Second Squad, with an authorized strength of twelve men. They had followed the main army to Korea, operating directly under the Central Army Staff, and were ordered to infiltrate Xuanchuan to capture Inggūldai and, along the way, scout Later Jin military intelligence. The interpreter Chen Xin had found was a Korean Han, but Chen Xin did not intend to use him only as an interpreter — he was to be an informant. This man's family was all on Pi Island. Zhang Dong had tricked him into going to Dahedao, then used a mix of threats and inducements to force him into becoming an informant. The Second Squad was staying at his relatives' home.

They had come ashore at Xuanchuanpu the day before yesterday, and yesterday they disguised themselves as merchants and hurried to Xuanchuan. Because of the chaos on Pi Island, the various Korean officials had recently tightened their guard. However, the corruption in the Korean army was even worse than in the Great Ming. The Second Squad hid their weapons in a hired ox cart and easily entered the city for just a few taels of silver.

Most of the population in places like Xuanchuan and Tieshan were Han people. The interpreter, who had long been engaged in trade, was very familiar with the area and quickly identified Inggūldai's station. It was a large residence in the north of Xuanchuan city, formerly the home of Kim Siyang, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Pyeongan Province, now used by Inggūldai as his base.

Li Tao carefully surveyed the scene inside the courtyard. This was Inggūldai's station in Xuanchuan, effectively the Later Jin office in this area. His position at the outer wall was the western garden of the large residence. The courtyard was utterly silent. When they had cased the place during the day, they had paced out its dimensions. Based on the residential layouts they had been trained on, they estimated it faced south with eastern and western gardens, the official hall and main living quarters likely situated between them. Two Korean soldiers stood guard at the main gate, and it was not far from a barracks, so they proceeded with extreme caution, choosing to infiltrate through the western garden.

In the pitch darkness, Li Tao barely made out the situation in the courtyard. He dropped a rope and slowly slid to the ground. The others followed, climbing over one by one. Leaving one man at the rope drop point, the group groped their way to the garden gate of the western garden. They dared not open the main gate, as the sound of turning door leaves would be very noticeable at night.

The main courtyard was very quiet, with no sound of dogs. A team member made some faint noises behind the door and slipped a few pieces of poisoned dried meat through the crack. After a long while, there was still no movement. Having confirmed there were no dogs, Li Tao led the group over the courtyard wall. Inside were two rows of side rooms, with the official hall to the south and the main living quarters to the north. One of the side rooms still had a light on.

Li Tao approached two team members and said in a mosquito-like whisper, "You two stand guard at the western garden gate. If anything unexpected happens, open the garden gate and cover the retreat."...

The two men took out powerful crossbows. These crossbows were much more compact than ordinary foot-drawn ones, with high accuracy and lethality within thirty paces. They each chose a position and aimed their crossbows in the direction of the official hall.

Li Tao led the remaining six team members, half-crouching and moving silently along the side rooms toward the main house. Three of them took out powerful crossbows, forming a crossfire watch on the front. Li Tao and the other three drew their daggers and short swords. One man guarded the room with the light on, while the others crept up to the outside of the main house. They knew how to identify the room where the master should be sleeping. They crouched beneath the window and heard snoring from inside. Li Tao nodded slightly. A team member went to the door, inserted a dagger through the crack, and gently worked the inside latch, slowly pushing it back bit by bit.

Li Tao closed his eyes and listened to the sounds inside. The breathing was very even; the sleeper had not been awakened. He felt a slight tension in his heart. Although most of these team members had been on the battlefield or were highly skilled in martial arts, and their very selection proved their psychological fortitude was extremely strong, this was, after all, their first official mission. It would determine how the officers of the Wendeng Battalion evaluated the Special Service Unit. The unit's pay exceeded that of ordinary combat soldiers, and many officers thought the Special Service Unit was useless, often making sarcastic remarks, which had left them all simmering with pent-up frustration.

That team member continued to work the latch with extreme care, his movements so gentle that the latch retreated only a small section each time. After about a quarter of an hour, he nodded at Li Tao. Li Tao closed his eyes and prayed to all the gods and Buddhas in heaven, then gently pushed the door.

The door leaves creaked, a sound that was piercingly loud in the night. Li Tao lifted the door slightly, and the noise lessened. He continued pushing until the opening was wide enough for one person, then slipped inside. Two team members followed him in, and they crept to the bedside.

There were two people in the bed. The one on the outside smelled of rouge and powder, likely a woman; the man was on the inside. Li Tao whispered something to one team member, then gently climbed onto the bed. In a sudden move, he twisted the man's right hand behind him, pressed him face-down into the bed, and clamped a hand over his mouth. The other team member directly twisted the neck of the woman on the outside, killing her.

The man in the bed woke up. Being suddenly pinned down in the middle of the night naturally terrified him. He struggled continuously, making muffled sounds, but under Li Tao's iron-pincer grip, it was utterly useless. The team member beside him reached over and felt him, then whispered, "It's a Tatar."

Li Tao sensed that this man's strength was not great and knew he was probably not an armored soldier. He whispered to him, "If you want to live, don't make a sound. We only want silver, not to kill."

The man nodded hurriedly and stopped struggling. Seeing this, Li Tao knew the man understood Chinese. He listened again to the courtyard outside — still no movement. Only then did he continue, "Where is your silver?" As he spoke, he slightly loosened the hand covering the man's mouth.

"Good... good heroes, this slave's silver is all in the chest under the bed." The Chinese was perfectly pronounced, but his whole body trembled uncontrollably from fear.

Seeing his demeanor, Li Tao figured he was not someone in charge. He chuckled coldly, "Your bit of silver isn't even enough to fob off beggars. We want your master's silver."

The man trembled as he said, "Good heroes... the master has no silver here. His silver is sent back to Shenyang every so often."

"Trying to fool us? Then which room is your master in? If you don't tell, I'll chop off both your hands. Let's see how you follow your master and do your work then."

"The master has already gone to Yizhou, good heroes, it's true."

Li Tao clamped his hand over the man's mouth again and with a sudden, violent twist of his right hand, broke the man's arm. The man's whole body shook like chaff in a sieve, and cold sweat streamed down his face.

"Now I ask you again, which room is your master in?"

"Good heroes, sirs..." the man said with a sobbing tone, begging for mercy in broken gasps, "The master really went to Yizhou. How many lives would this slave have to dare deceive you, sirs."

Li Tao cursed his bad luck inwardly. To have infiltrated so painstakingly only to find the main target absent. He immediately dropped the pretense of being a robber and asked directly, "What is your name? What banner do you serve in, and what is your duty? What is your master's name?"...

The man was in so much pain he wished he were dead. Without pausing to think, he replied, "This slave is Damuse, of the Plain White Banner. This slave's master is Lord Inggūldai. This slave cannot draw a bow, but can speak Han and Korean, so I followed my master to Korea."

Li Tao felt smug inwardly. Not all Tatars were wild boar skins; there were cowards like this too. He sneered and asked, "What did he go to Yizhou for?"

That Damuse finally sensed something was amiss. He hesitated and said nothing. Li Tao squeezed his broken bone. Damuse let out another series of muffled, miserable groans. When he had calmed down slightly, Li Tao released his mouth again.

"Speak quickly. If I believe you, I'll spare your life. Otherwise, your other hand will be gone too."

Damuse replied weakly, "Sirs, spare my life. The master went to receive Lord Leng'eli."

"Leng'eli?" Li Tao searched his memory. They had been memorizing the names of Later Jin generals on the ship. This Leng'eli was a First Class Regional Commander of a certain banner in the Right Wing.

"What is Leng'eli coming for?"

"They are coming to attack Pi Island."

Li Tao smiled faintly in the darkness. At last, he had obtained something of value; the trip was not in vain. "How many troops did he bring? Will Korea send troops?"

Damuse no longer cared who these people were. "Sirs, this slave truly does not know. It was Lord Mandarhan who sent word for the master to go to Yizhou. This slave only overheard the master mutter something, it seemed they want Korea to provide troop ships."

Li Tao asked a few more questions. Damuse spilled everything he knew like beans pouring from a bamboo tube. Groaning constantly from the pain and still wanting to live, he begged Li Tao, "Sirs, this lowly one has told you everything he knows. The silver is under the bed, the key is under the pillow. I beg you, sirs... ugh—"

At that moment, a door sounded in the main courtyard, followed by two footsteps, then silence returned.

Li Tao delayed no longer. He suddenly crushed Damuse's throat with a pinch and then twisted his neck. He dragged the chest out from under the bed, opened it, and saw several hundred taels of silver inside. He had two team members take a black bag from their packs and load it in. He needed to stage it as a robbery to prevent the Later Jin side from realizing that information had been leaked.

With everything done, Li Tao and the others returned to the courtyard. They saw the door of the lit room was open and there were some bloodstains on the ground, realizing that someone inside had come out and been taken care of by the covering team member. He waved his hand gently, and the group, providing mutual cover, retreated along their original route out of the courtyard.

。。。。。

Two days later, on a small, lushly wooded hill south of Yizhou, Li Tao was observing a Later Jin column on the official road through a telescope. Around him were five other team members. They lay prone in the dense grass and bushes, covered by a piece of green camouflage cloth, with tree branches and leaves stuck into the hats on their heads.

"Fifteen hundred cavalry, of which one hundred fifty to two hundred are White Armor Soldiers. Around five hundred armored infantry on foot. Around four thousand bondservant auxiliaries. Total strength approximately six thousand, all under the banners of the Manchu Eight Banners. No Mongol Left or Right Wings sighted. No Korean troops seen in the column either."

As Li Tao spoke, one team member continuously recorded with a charcoal pencil in a booklet. They all used symbols, drawing similar shapes — a code exclusive to the Special Service Unit. Six members of their squad had already returned to Dahedao, bringing back the intelligence obtained in Xuanchuan. Li Tao had led the others to infiltrate toward Yizhou to scout the Later Jin troop strength. They traveled the mountain paths beside the official road by day and the main road by night, sleeping only four hours in two days. Finally, they saw the Later Jin army at Yizhou, confirming that what Damuse had said that day was true. As expected, the Later Jin could not resist the opportunity presented by the internal strife on Pi Island to eliminate this thorn in their side.

On the official road, the Later Jin cavalry rumbled forward in a strict and orderly column, with no one talking or laughing loudly, exuding the arrogance of a battle-hardened army. Li Tao spat on the ground. He had fought in the Battle of Luanzhou and knew what a sorry state those Jianzhou bandits were in when surrounded.

A sallow-faced team member with buck teeth beside him grinned and said, "Squad Leader, when I was in the Shanxi Garrison, I heard one Tatar could fight five Han soldiers. I've always been itching to find one and test that. How about we grab one and take him back?"...

Li Tao said disdainfully, "You believe that talk? I've even heard one Tatar can fight a hundred Han soldiers. Damn it, these Jianzhou bandits march without sending out scouts or leaving a rearguard, completely disregarding the Dongjiang Garrison and the Korean troops. They probably think they're divine soldiers themselves. One day they'll pay for it."

Bucktooth had originally been a Night Scout in the Shanxi Garrison, having gone beyond the passes many times on reconnaissance. Fierce and tenacious by nature, he was originally qualified to be a squad leader during Special Service Unit training, but because of a private brawl with another teammate, he was transferred to Li Tao's squad as a squad leader.

Bucktooth felt the two hand cannons at his waist, then drew his sharp dagger and repeatedly licked it with his tongue, looking thoroughly itching for action. He licked his lips and said unwillingly, "Squad Leader, we draw the highest pay in the whole army. If we don't go back with a few heads, who knows how people will mock us. Even if no one laughs, we'd be ashamed of ourselves, right? Back in the Shanxi Garrison, I couldn't even get enough to eat, yet I still had to go beyond the passes once or twice a year and come back with some Western Barbarian heads. Now I have everything, but I haven't taken a single head. How can I face Lord Chen?"

Li Tao hesitated for a moment, but finally shook his head and said, "The most important thing right now is to get the Jianzhou troop strength back to Lord Chen. Fighting still depends on the combat troops. We must not alert them."

The surrounding team members all showed disappointed expressions. Unlike ordinary soldiers, most of them were fierce by nature. The brutal, inhuman training had long since ground away their original morals and personalities. Internal competitions and confrontations were far from enough to fully vent their impulses. Now that they had an opportunity, they all wanted to get some action.

Li Tao looked around at them and finally said, "We'll wait until dark to see if there's a rear column. Then we'll send two men back with the message. The rest will follow behind the Jianzhou bandits, but you'll obey my orders. Anyone who dares to act on his own, I'll geld him."