Chapter 21: White Mountain and Black Water (2)

We travel thirty miles every day, and all of these thirty miles are explored by the scouts. The night before, the route and camping location are determined, and the scouts set out in the early morning, search for thirty miles forward, and determine the safest marching route. If we need to pave the road and build a bridge, we will draw the engineers in the baggage camp behind us to work.

Usually, we set out at Si (9:00 am), and we will set off for thirty miles, and we will arrive almost two hours later. The baggage camp will set up camp and start resting again.

The busiest one is the scout. He sent out to follow the Jurchens and the scouts who served as guards to fight with the Jurchens almost every day.

In a wide range of areas, both sides confront each other and oppress each other, not allowing each other to approach their own army. However, they were all small conflicts of several or dozens of people, and did not cause much casualties.

This happened for three days, and the Ming army was like walking in the garden and traveling in spring. I came to report this day and the Jurchen army retreated into Fangzhou City. Zhu Zhi and Tie Xuan did not care about this, but still followed a progress of 30 miles a day and slowly advanced towards Fangzhou.

Zhu Shi remembers that when he was a child, he learned a text called "Little Xing'anling" about the beautiful natural scenery in the mountains of Northeast China. This relaxed march was like an outing, and every day he either walked through dense forests or waded through mountain streams.

Every day, Zhu Zhi ordered the soldiers from the personal guard camp to go out to get wild game, such as roe deer, rabbit, wild boar, pheasant, and sika deer. These wild game seem to be endless!

The generals and guards around Zhu Shi have been having fun these days. Zhu Shi especially likes Taotie. The chefs of that era were not so particular, so Zhu Shi did it himself.

There were some wild beehives in the forest, so he ordered the guard to take out the honey from the beehive. He marinated the deer legs with natural honey and sea salt from Liaodong, put them on the fire and roasted them. Zhu Shi ordered the chef to apply honey while roasting them.

Zhu Shi stewed the delicious white fish and pheasants caught from the stream in a pot, sliced ​​the salted pork brought by the maid camp, and put it up the mountain to pick hazel mushrooms and fungus.

Then I asked some Huaishan, wolfberry, Beiqi, etc. from the medical camp, and stewed it for an hour. When the pot is boiled, the entire camp is full of a strong fragrance.

Zhu Zhi ordered the guard to bring a pot of delicious chicken soup and come to the medical camp with him. Bai Zhu was training the doctors, and the guard wanted to go in and inform him, but Zhu Zhi held him and told him not to disturb him. He looked through the window.

The tiring work in the military camp made Atractylodes still so small, with a savory face, and Zhu Shi suddenly felt a feeling of distress.

After Atractylodes finally finished the training, I saw that Zhu Zhi had been waiting for a long time. Atractylodes quickly saluted Zhu Zhi. Zhu Zhi said gently: "Doctor Bai is not eligible. You are exhausted these days. Today, the personal soldiers took some wild game, and I personally stewed a bowl of chicken soup.

You drink it to replenish your body.”

Bai Zhu blushed and said, "Thank you for your grace."

"Can you stop calling me Your Highness?" Zhu Shi's face turned red. When he was at a loss, he hurriedly greeted the guards, "Hurry up. Take the chicken soup, you, drink it while it's hot."

Atractylodes took the chicken soup and tasted it, and smiled and said, "I can't tell. Your Highness actually has such skills. I heard that Your Highness has roasted a deer leg, so I wonder if Bei Zhi has a good taste."

When Zhu Zhi heard this, he felt embarrassed and laughed: "I forgot about this, and I asked the Bai Medical Officer to move Yu Zhu to the Central Military Commission to taste it."

Since Zhu Zhi took action against wild game, the wild animals in the forest have suffered. This way, it has really destroyed the ecological balance of the western foothills of Changbai Mountain.

However, Zhu Zhi didn't think there was any problem. The mountains and rivers here have not been taken care of for thousands of years. It has always been few people and many beasts. After a few hundred years of killing, it has not been finished yet.

Moreover, talking about ecological balance with these ancients is like playing the piano against a cow. It is better to satisfy your desire to be satisfied first.

It was originally expected that the Jurchens would rely on Fangzhou City to resist, but five days later, when the Liaodong army arrived outside Fangzhou, they actually ushered in an empty city. The Jurchens withdrew one day early and handed over the small city to Zhu Zhi.

The scout guard followed the Jurchens to the mountains fifty miles away before stopping. Everyone felt that the Jurchens' thinking was different from that of the Han people. The Han people were good at defending the city. The Jurchens were good at fighting in the field, so it was not surprising that they gave up the city.

Zhu Zhi and his team walked freely in this small town outside the border. This is not a city. A circle of earth is built around them. If the horse is more vigorous, it can jump up with a few steps.

Most of the houses in the city are low-rise earthen houses, and there are places where there are land to set up tents. However, the original residents were in a hurry to leave, and many of the tents have not been demolished.

Tie Xuan and Qu Neng discussed it and thought that so many troops could not be stationed in the city, so they divided the entire army into two parts to station them into horns. Yulin Right Guard, Shiwei Battalion, Scout Guard were stationed outside the city; Tieling Guard, Shenyang Zhongwei, Dingliao Zhongwei, and the various guards and supplies camps were stationed in the city.

Now the officers of each battalion know to make do with the central tent as soon as the meal is up. When the military situation is not urgent, the prince doesn't know what kind of gluttony things will be produced.

The main dish for dinner today was "beghua chicken". Zhu Shi taught the chef to chop and mix various seasonings such as ginger, green onion, cinnamon, hazel mushroom, honey, star anise, etc., mix them with oil into a paste, apply them on the skin, stuff them into the stomach, marinate for half an hour, wrap them in oil paper, then wrap the whole chicken with mud, throw them into a big pit, roast them with firewood.

Because there are many people who eat free meals, Zhu Zhi ordered to make more than 30 pheasants at once. Looking at Qu Neng and his son, Zhu De, Zhang Lun and others squatted by the pit and stared at the smoke in the pit. Zhu Zhi covered his stomach and wanted to laugh.

They are all powerful generals on the battlefield, but before they are delicious, they have become "greedy cats".

After about half an hour, Zhu Shi directed the chef to remove the ashes inside, took out the chicken with an iron clip, and pulled the mud open, and then removed the paper outside.

"Wow... it smells so good." The personal guards below were greedy and couldn't help but scream.

Zhu Zhi ordered a few to be picked out and sent to the city for Xiao Mawang and his commanders to taste. Zhu Zhi picked out three of them himself, which were used to pick up girls, and the others were snatched by the guard camp and all the generals were snatched away.

The guards all know that these days, Zhu Zhi likes to join the medical camp. Everyone doesn't say it, but they can't help but wink in private. Tie Xuan saw it and frowned, but he couldn't say anything.

When they arrived at the medical camp, Zhu Zhi ordered the guards to call Atractylodes. The two ran to a small hill in the camp and sat on the grass for a picnic. Bai Zhu seemed to be used to Zhu Zhi's attentiveness, and they ate with wine and meat happily.

In that era, he was not a person who was good at chasing girls. In the Ming Dynasty, he had a good wife as soon as he came. In addition, he had constant palace struggles. After he arrived in Liaodong, he had a lot of work, so he had no time to consider personal issues.

However, since the emergence of the passionate Nima, the feeling in her heart gradually sprouted; and then to the emergence of Atractylodes, her gentle temperament and profound medical skills gave Zhu Xi a modern woman's illusion, and her long-term military career further enhanced the affection between the two.

Zhu Zhi knew that as a prince, he would have to have a side room sooner or later, and this was the final decision of the court etiquette. Instead of being imposed by the emperor, he would rather choose by himself.

As the sun sets, the golden sunshine spreads over the earth. After eating the delicious roasted chicken, Zhu Shi half-lying on the grass and admiring the thin back of Atractylodes under the sunset.

Atractylodes stared at the sunset among the mountains and solidified into a beautiful statue. The breeze lifted the ends of her hair, and turned into the most beautiful style in the world in Zhu Shi's eyes.

Bai Zhu turned around and saw Zhu Shi's crazy eyes, her face turned red. She squirmed with her lips: "What are your highness looking at?"

Zhu Shi said unknowingly: "You are so beautiful!"

Bai Zhu's face turned redder and she quickly changed her gaze and said, "Do your highness like to appreciate the sunset?"

Zhu Shi looked at the sunset in the distant mountains and felt very moved: "It's been a long time since I watched the sunset casually, and there are still beauties with me."

Bai Shu said: "Yes, Bei Zhi feels that the best moment in life is to enjoy the sunset carefreely."

Zhu Zhi sighed and said, "But there are almost 10 unsatisfactory things in life. People say how comfortable it is to have a prince's clothes and food, but do you know how heavy the burden the prince carries?"

Bai Shu said: "I am so happy to see the prince every day. I thought your highness was very happy, but it turned out that he was not that happy either."

Zhu Shi smiled slightly: "Yes, it's such a distant thing for me to be an ordinary person, and it's out of reach.

There are hundreds of thousands of people in this land of Liaodong and so many soldiers who need me to fight. Sometimes I feel tired from the bottom of my heart. Do you know that the happiest time of every day during these days is to chat with you and taste the delicious food.

If you can live like this every day, what if this prince doesn’t do it?”

When Atractylodes saw Zhu Zhi speak with deep affection, she felt uncomfortable and lowered her head with a lonely expression.

In her heart, wasn't she secretly in love with this tall, handsome, knowledgeable prince? But she also knew that the status of the two was too great, and he already had a concubine, so she had a chance to be together, so she kept her feelings deeply in her heart and was unwilling to reveal them.

But the girl's heart is beyond her control. Every day, Zhu Zhi would make delicious food and deliver it to the medical camp. The two would eat and chat together, which was very satisfying for her.

Zhu Zhi knew that Bai Zhu was feeling a little awkward, so he quickly looked for other topics: "Does our Bai Medical Officer have any lovers?" But as soon as he said that, he knew that he had lost his words. How could a dignified prince say such frivolous words?

The last ray of sunshine disappeared on the peaks of the mountains, and Bai Zhu said quietly: "A man in the heart of Beizhi may not necessarily have power and power, but he must be a man with affection and responsibility."

Feeling affectionate and responsible... Zhu Zhi recalled the meaning of the words and was speechless for a long time. The dark blue sky was dotted with stars and the mighty wind blew. Zhu Zhi closed his eyes drowsyly.
Chapter completed!