Chapter 304 : Difficult Journey (3)

As luck would have it, the group passed by a small village just as the sun was setting, so they stayed in a farmhouse.

There was no need for Yuxi to worry about buying food and cooking. At that moment, she asked Chief Huang to come and ask him about the horse thieves and the bandits from Menghu Mountain.

Chief Huang froze for a moment and asked, “Who told you this?” He had instructed his subordinates, Luo Shuigui and the others, not to tell Yuxi about these things because he feared that Yuxi would be afraid if she knew about it. Once that happened, something could easily go wrong.

Yuxi stated, “It doesn’t matter who told me. I just want to know if Chief Huang already has a countermeasure?”

Seeing that Yuxi was not alarmed, Chief Huang nodded and said, “There is no need to worry about the bandits from Menghu Mountain. The only thing we have to watch out for is the horse thieves, but there are so many of us that there is no need for us to be afraid of them.” As to why they didn’t have to worry about the horse thieves, Chief Huang did not elaborate.

Yuxi asked, “How many horse thieves are there in general?” Of the twenty or so people who came from the State Residence, apart from a few people like Tian Yang, who was relatively young, all the others had martial arts background. Even if they could not kill the enemy, they could at least hold them back. As for the women, they were automatically ignored by Yuxi.

Chief Huang answered, “The most are over a hundred, but so many people will not go out unless it is a big business. The average horse thief is like 30 or 40 people. But these horse thieves are very fierce. They kill people without even blinking their eyes, so we have to be careful and watch out for them.” Looking at the group of people escorting Yuxi, he knew that these people had seen blood. Thus, Chief Huang didn’t worry too much.

When they returned, Yuxi muttered to Zijin, asking, “Why do you think this Chief Huang said he didn’t have to worry about the group of bandits from Menghu Mountain? Do they know each other?”

Zijin shook her head and said, “I’m not sure about that. But people who have always travelled on escorting trips know a lot of people from all over the world, and it’s not unusual for them to have friendships with bandits.”

Yuxi was silent.

Master Yang’s words had caused Yuxi to be on high alert. After dinner, Yuxi called both Chief Huang and Han Ji, and of course, Luo Shuigui.

Yuxi asked Chief Huang, asking, “If we run into horse thieves, what should we do then?”

Han Ji was the one who would do whatever Yuxi said. Luo Shuigui and Chief Huang looked at each other, and in the end, it was Luo Shuigui who said, “There is no harm in saying what Miss has to say.”

Chief Huang didn’t hesitate and nodded along.

Yuxi did not have a particular plan, but she felt that she should be alerted to this matter. “Look, there are seventy-six of us. Excluding the nine women and the four younger ones, there are still sixty-three of us. If you encounter horse thieves and others who are not easy to deal with, can the sixty-three of you work closely together?”

Luo Shuigui stated, “Miss, I am mainly here to protect you.”

Yuxi waved her hand and said, “You don’t have to worry about my safety. The main thing to consider now is how to deal with horse thieves if we encounter them.” With Master Yang and Yu Zhi, plus Zijin, Yuxi was not worried about her safety. So, what should be considered right now was how to preserve their belongings. Other things were fine, but the herbs and jewellery had to be kept.

Luo Shuigui was not a fool and knew what Yuxi meant. One should not be fooled by Master Yang, who has been drinking and humming a little tune all the way here. This person had deeply hidden his actual skill! With these two people protecting Yuxi, there was no need for Luo Shuigui to worry. Thinking of this, Luo Shuigui also stopped hesitating and said, “We are not afraid of the small group of horse thieves. We just have to be wary when it is a group of fifty to sixty or more thieves.” There were more than forty of them who could fight, and if twenty or thirty horse thieves dared to come, those thieves would have no chance to return.

Chief Huang also had this worry.

Yuxi said, “Uncle Luo, you are the one who killed the Donghu people in Liaodong with Second Lord Lu. I think that killing Donghu people is similar to killing horse thieves. If we come across a large group of horse thieves, what should we do when that time comes?”

As soon as Chief Huang heard that Luo Shuigui had killed the Donghu people, he looked at Luo Shuigui. The horse thieves had one thing in common with the Donghu people. They both fought on horseback. The only thing was that the Donghu were all very good at riding, shooting and fierce in battle, several times better than the horse thieves.

Afterwards, the only voices heard in the room belonged to Luo Shuigui and Chief Huang. Luo Shuigui would talk about the plan to fight the horse bandits, and Chief Huang would add something in between that Luo Shuigui had overlooked. There was still a difference between the horse thieves and the Donghu people, and Chief Huang had experienced in fighting the horse thieves. The two men kept discussing their plans and making amendments.

Yuxi listened with great relish, having read books on warfare previously, which were merely military tactics on paper. Now that she had heard the real battle plan, she realised the gap between reading and the real thing.

As for Han Ji, he was listening with starry-eyed. He didn’t understand a single word about the vanguard, bringing up the rear and attack by ambushing. He was a layman when it came to warfare.

After Luo Shuigui finished his discussion with Chief Huang, he saw Yuxi’s eyes shining brightly and asked, “Does Miss understand our words?”

Yuxi smiled and shook her head, “I don’t understand much.” Where couldn’t she understand it? It couldn’t even be any clearer. It was just that Yuxi did not want to show off too much.

Luo Shuigui’s heart was relieved. This was only normal. It would be too scary if she even knew the art of war, and it was not something a young girl should know.

What Yuxi didn’t expect was that Luo Shuigui would take the group for a drill next! According to his intention, if they rehearsed, they wouldn’t be too flustered when the horse thieves appeared.

Because it was sunny for most of the month, it went a lot faster than Chief Huang had planned for. Unfortunately, before they could be happy for too long, raindrops started to fall from the sky.

When Yuxi saw that it was raining, she called Chief Huang and asked, “How long will it be before the next town?” The roads were not easy for the horses to walk on when it rained, and their journey would be slow and unsafe.

Chief Huang said, “Originally, we are supposed to reach Baiqiao Town tomorrow afternoon, but now that it’s raining, I estimate we’ll be there the day after tomorrow.” If it rained, the road would not be good, and it would be hard for people to walk fast.

The more it rained, the heavier it got. If it had been in the capital, Yuxi would have said that spring rain was as expensive as oil when she saw the rain. But now, Yuxi was worried about the rain. If it continued to rain, it would affect their journey. And they would have to travel in the rain all day tomorrow.

Zijin spoke with relief, “Miss, we’ve been fortunate. We’ve been out for twenty days before it starts to rain.” Everyone else said that her Miss was unlucky, but Zijin thought her Miss could not be any luckier.

Yuxi shook her head and said, “I hope it will stop raining tomorrow.”

A night without rain was already hard enough, but with rain pouring down was even harder. Before it got dark, Chief Huang stopped the caravan. Once it stopped, the men had a tough time building the shed in the rain.

You couldn’t cook outside in the rain. Chief Huang let the pots be placed under the shed and let Mama Bai prepare the food there. Yuxi was very surprised. “How will you sleep later if we cook here?” There would be ashes all over the place, so how could they sleep?

Chief Huang replied, “Just lay the planks on top, and it will be fine.” There was no need to be so fussy when one was away from home.

Yuxi was silent for a moment and let Mama Bai go and wash the pot while she ran to the carriage and rummaged through a packet of herbs. Because it was too slow to cook using only one pot, she bought another one from the town they had stopped by before. This would free up a pot to boil the medicine. Yuxi didn’t do it herself. She let Mama Qu do it while she watched. It wasn’t that Yuxi didn’t want to do it herself, but the people next to her wouldn’t let her.

Chief Huang looked at the big pot of black stuff and asked, “What is this?” She must not have made it for them to drink. Even the smell already made him want to vomit.

Yuxi explained, “This is the medicine I boiled. Each of you should drink a bowl. It will prevent you from catching a cold.” These were the herbs she had specially prepared just for use on rainy days.

Chief Huang looked at Yuxi with suspicion in his eyes. “You know how to heal others?” No one who did not know the art of healing would dare to boil medicine for other people to drink.

Yuxi shook her head and said, “I have studied pharmacology with my momo for a while.” She did not dare to treat major illnesses, but she could still know how to prevent others from catching a cold.

Chief Huang asked, “Then what did you put in this?”

Ginger Syrup made with ginger and brown sugar

Image Credit | 橘子香味 via Xiangha

Yuxi smiled and said, “Huoxiang, with a few herbs added on top of that. The smell is rather unpleasant and hard to drink, but it can prevent cold and is very effective.” The conditions here were rustic. If they were at home, they would have used ginger syrup.

Zisu said grumpily, “If you don’t want to drink it, then just forget about it.” After saying that, she went to call Tian Ju, Shiliu and the others came over to drink the medicine. T

/C

Chief Huang was a bit embarrassed as he said, “Okay, I’ll have them come over to drink it later.” Yuxi had never interacted with the other armed escorts. She always looked for Chief Huang if something happened.

Luo Shuigui did not squirm like Chief Huang. he simply made each of his men drink a bowl of the bitter medicine with him. This kind of medicine, if you drank it, would not have any side effects, but you would only suffer the bitterness for a while. If it worked, you would benefit from it.

Originally, one pot of medicine was not enough, but the armed escort people could not trust Yuxi and half of them were unwilling to drink it. Those who were willing to drink it were just trying it out. Seeing this outcome, Yuxi did not force the issue. She also did it just in case, as these people were in good health and might not catch a cold even if they got wet.

Unfortunately, two of the armed escorts came down with fever during the night. The most fearful thing about escorting was getting sick halfway through the journey, but usually, the customers got ill more often than their own people.

Da Mao said, “Chief, doesn’t that Han girl know how to heal? It’s better to let her take a look rather than to let Qiangzi and the others endure it with all their will.” Da Mao was also a bit annoyed. He should have persuaded them to drink the bitter medicine last night, and they wouldn’t be in this current condition right now.

Although Chief Huang felt ashamed, he still toughened his scalp and went to look for Yuxi to ask for her help.

When Yuxi heard someone had a fever, she hurriedly put on her coat and climbed down from her carriage. Even though it was the end of the second lunar month, it was still cold. Zijin put on the satin and green overcoat she had left in the carriage to use as a blanket. Zisu was left in the carriage by Yuxi. Zisu could not help much even if she came with her.

When Luo Shuigui heard the commotion, he also got up. Knowing that someone from the armed escorts was sick, he didn’t say much and just followed Yuxi.

When Yuxi looked at the two men’s symptoms, she knew that the rain had triggered the fever. She went back to the carriage and rummaged around for a bit, then took two pills from it and asked Mama Qu, who had followed them, to boil them.

A thin armed escort saw this and questioned, “How can you prescribe medicine when you don’t even check Qiangzi’s pulse? What if it’s not right for him?”

Yuxi glanced at the man, then said to Chief Huang, “Both of them have high fever triggered by the cold. These medicines had been prepared before I started my journey, in case it rained and I had fevers because of the cold. If the Chief doesn’t trust me, you may not let them use the medicine.”

A little embarrassed, Chief Huang said, “Thank you very much, Miss.”

When Yuxi had gone away, Da Mao slapped the man who had just spoken on the head, “I say, Houzi, are you out of your mind? How dare you say such things?”

Houzi felt very wrong and argued, “I didn’t say anything wrong.”

Chief Huang looked at Houzi helplessly and said, “You are right, but Miss Han is not a physician. She is just here to help. A rich family like hers pay particular attention to the teaching that men and women should not touch hands when they give or receive things. How could you even ask her to take Qiangzi’s pulse?” Taking a pulse required physical contact, which people from Yuxi’s kind of background were definitely unwilling to do.

After drinking the medicine, the fever of the two armed escorts, with one of them called Qiangzi, went down that night. The following day they got up and drank the medicine again, and with a little more rest, they recovered as they were before. Of course, the fact that the treatment worked so quickly was part of the reason, and another part was that all these men had excellent health in the first place.

Yuxi said to Chief Huang, “The two of them are not fully recovered yet, and it is still raining outside. I have already asked someone to vacate a carriage. You can let them take it. It is also a good time for them to rest so that they can get better faster.”

Chief Huang wasn’t an unreasonable person either. The two sick men were just getting better, and they had just told him that they were still weak and had little energy. If they could rest in the carriage, it would naturally be good. At that moment, he clasped his hands together and thanked her sincerely, “Thank you, Miss Han.”

Yuxi smiled and said, “There are many inconveniences when we are away from home, so we can only rely on and take care of each other.” Although she had paid them for their services, it would be troublesome if some did not do their best.

Master Yang took it all in and couldn’t help but comment, “This girl truly has a talent.” It’s just a pity that she was born with the wrong gender. If she had been a boy, she would have made a career out of it, but unfortunately, she was a girl.

Yu Zhi disagreed with this and said, “Master, what’s wrong with her being a girl? As long as she has the will, she can still make a career out of it.”

Master Yang snorted coldly and said, “What do you know? If you are a girl, you have to get married, and when you get married, you have to give birth to children and take care of the household. So what else can you do?” Like Han Yuxi, no matter how powerful she was when she married Yun Qing, she would have to stay in her piece of 1.3 mu land in the backyard; even later when Yun Qing would have a young concubine and she had to fight with that concubine all day long. These kinds of things were what she had to take care of a lot.

Yu Zhi smiled cheerfully. “Didn’t Master say back then that Master wouldn’t take Zijin Meimei as Master’s disciple, but hasn’t Master changed Master’s mind right now too?” So what Master said was not always correct.

Master Yang was nearly choked to death. He murmured to himself, what kind of apprentice have you taken? He was angry with himself for accepting such an apprentice. He wouldn’t have received half of the disciples that year if he had known.

It was a good thing it wasn’t raining heavily that day, as it was only light rain. But eating dry food and drinking cold water in the cold wind was a real torment. By this time, Yuxi could not help but mutter, “Fortunately, the people selected that day were all in good health.” Otherwise, they probably wouldn’t have been able to carry the burden.

Zijin laughed, but the most crucial thing for was Miss herself. Everyone else was secondary.

By the time the night was over, the rain had stopped. But that wasn’t all, as Chief Huang took the initiative to ask Yuxi to boil them medicine to drink. Drinking the medication would be more reassuring, and he didn’t want two more sick people.

Yuxi smiled and nodded her head in agreement.