At the turn of summer and autumn, the climate in the south is no different from summer, while autumn is already evident in the northern grasslands. The aquatic plants near the fishing sea gradually faded their fresh and oily green color, and from a distance they looked yellow, and the pasture grass began to bear seeds.

The Tatar tribes that moved away due to the Northern Expedition of the Ming Army a few years ago have long since returned to their respective pastures, and the Asut tribe, where Arutai is located, has returned to this rich place near the fishing sea. The eunuch Huang Yan is naturally among them.

He was boredom on the shore of the fisherman's shore, sometimes sitting cross-legged, sometimes lying on the sand where no grass grows.

The Tatars often eat meat and milk, and Huang Yan not only did not gain weight, but became thinner. The cloth he wore was so dirty that he could not see its true color, and the hides hung on his body like a beggar, and his face was tanned and seemed to be mixed with the color of the earth, and he could not wash it cleanly.

Huang Yan sat up, staring blankly at the fishing sea. In the autumn breeze, the lake is sparkling, the scenery is good, and there is a quiet and pure beauty between heaven and earth.

At first, Huang Yan also thought that the lake and grassland looked very good; But after a long time, these views became boring, and all that remained was mosquitoes in the grass, and the smell of cow dung in any food and drink.

He had been struggling to make ends meet, and if it weren't for the help of the Tatars, who helped him to trade with the Uliangha, he would have starved to death. It was only this year that the situation changed, and the Tatar nobleman Arutai suddenly found him through the Tatar who knew Huang Yan. Arutai asked Huang Yan to write a letter to the palace of the Ming Dynasty, and in return, Arutai casually ordered that the Five Tentary Tatars be responsible for supporting Huang Yan.

So he had a more reliable source of food and clothing.

However, Huang Yan did not live a comfortable life because of this, and he didn't eat mutton all summer, let alone rice noodles and the like. He mainly eats mare's milk, goat's milk, a short-tailed rat meat, and everything he can eat. In addition, he also feels very bored, and the daily fun is to recall the life in the first half of his life in Daming.

At this moment, he heard someone calling: "Huang Gonggong, Huang Gonggong!" ”

Huang Yan turned his head and saw the Wuliangha flower girl, running towards this side. Huang Yan's heart was filled with joy, the flower girl not only spoke Chinese, but also the Mongolians closest to Huang Yan; Of course, Huang Yan also knew the reason, this Wuliangha man thought that he had an inexhaustible supply of gold and silver in the Daming bank.

But the flower boy was a big sturdy and swarthy man, with a very thick chest, and a beggar-like hide, and a familiar smell like urine being sunburned. I don't know who gave him the Chinese name, but he was actually called Flower Girl, probably because the transliteration was inaccurate.

"Why are you back so soon?" Huang Yan asked.

The flower boy said in Chinese: "I rode a horse, and I helped Arutai deliver a letter and came back to receive the reward." ”

Huang Yan patted the sand on his body and said, "Go to my tent and invite you to tea." ”

The flower girl nodded happily. In the steppe, tea was a rarity, and after the mutual market between the Tatars and the Han was cut off, it could only be obtained through underground trading such as the Uliangha, and the price was very high. Ordinary herdsmen would rather chew grass to relieve their greasyness, and Huang Yan has also chewed that kind of grass, which is as bitter as medicine.

"After passing through the pastures of the Uliangha people, it is the place of the Horqin people. There was a leader of the Horqin tribe named Adai, who was a relative of Arutai. There were Tatars in our group, so we were not stopped and walked very fast. The flower boy talked eloquently, and his Chinese language was getting better and better.

The two of them said as they walked outside the tent where Huang Yan lived not far away.

At the door of the tent sat a Tatar herdsman, who looked up at Huang Yan but ignored it, still gnawing on his bare bones. Almost all Tatars do this kind of thing, like the regurgitation of cattle; After they eat meat such as rabbits, foxes, wolves, etc., they do not throw the bones away, but put them in their pockets, and when they are empty, they take them out and gnaw them carefully and repeatedly.

Huang Yan looked next to the mud stove and saw that the fire had not been extinguished, so he took a few pieces of cow dung. Then he found mare's milk and flakes of tea, and was busy making milk tea and entertaining the flower girls who had come from afar.

Thin slice tea is a black pressed fermented tea, and Huang Yan knows that this tea is produced by the Sichuan Provincial Envoy, and is mainly supplied to Tibetans through the Tea Horse Post Road. Because of poor storage, this tea has a musty smell, and it is not very good anyway, but the Tatars love it.

Huang Yan sniffed the black film, and thought to himself: When I was in Jingshi and Beiping, who drank this kind of tea?

The flower girl's voice said: "The Korqin people have always been friendly with Arutai, but recently they have been more enthusiastic about the Tatars of the Asut tribe than before. I heard someone whisper to me that Arutai wanted to support the Korqin native Adai as the Great Khan of all Mongolia. ”

The movement in Huang Yan's hand immediately stopped, and he blurted out, "Why are you from Horqin?" ”

The flower girl said: "The leader of the Korqin people, Adai, is a relative of Arutai and a descendant of Genghis Khan. ”

Huang Yan whispered: "I have heard that the Mongols on the Horqin side are not in the line of Kublai Khan. Aren't all the Great Khans over the years descendants of Kublai Khan? ”

The flower girl was not interested, so she said absentmindedly, "There must be a great sweat." Now the Great Khan of the Tabari on the side of the Varspurs claims to be the younger brother of Benyali Khan, but many people doubt his identity, and his bloodline may be fake. When Ardai of Korqin became the Great Khan, the Great Khan of the Tabari of the Waspur did not count. ”

Huang Yan silently listened to the flower girl talking, and threw the black flakes into the pot. The news of the flower girl made Huang Yan keenly smell some kind of opportunity. Huang Yan hadn't figured out what was going on for a while, he was thinking.

The secret letter written to Zhao Wangfu was from the hand of Huang Yan; Of course he knew the contents of the letter. In the letter, the people from the Zhao Palace, after the Tatar envoys negotiated peace with the Ming Dynasty, tried to find someone to meet the Tatar remnants of the Hami Kingdom.

After such trouble, Huang Yan thought that there were some particularly important people in the Tatar remnants of the Hami Kingdom, such as Benyari's relatives who lost their sweats. Now Arutai is not waiting for the return of Benyari's Khan people, and is going to support the leader of the Korqin tribe again?

Huang Yan has been in Daming's Vanity Fair for a long time, and he feels a little strange sensitively, but he can't figure it out for a while.

"Your information is reliable?" Huang Yan asked in a low voice.

The flower girl thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say. The person who told me the news was a powerful person of the Horqin tribe, and I used to pass by to buy and sell and often pay tribute to him. ”

"Do you want to make a fortune by making another deal?" Huang Yan asked.

The flower girl immediately came over: "What business?" ”

Huang Yan pondered for a long time, a little hesitant.

He wanted to send the news back to the Zhao Palace, so as to curry favor with the Ming court.

However, Wang Jinghong, Hou Xian and other Zheng He's old party hated Huang Yan to the core, and they should not let Huang Yan go, no matter how they flattered him, it was probably useless. And he has to take a lot of risks, Huang Yan has been in the Tatar Asut tribe for several years, and it is not easy to gain a foothold, once the Tatars know that he eats inside and out, I am afraid that the end will be worrying.

However, Huang Yan still couldn't help but want to try, in the countless days and nights here, it was really difficult to live a boring life, and sometimes he felt that it was better to die in King Zhao's mansion.

What's more, there is still a glimmer of hope for maneuvering. If the Ming monarch really wanted Huang Yan to die, and a wanted warrant with a reward was sent to the grassland, Huang Yan would have been sold for money a long time ago. In order to make a living, it is impossible for Huang Yan to let the Wuliangha people go back to get money.

The flower girl was very interested and asked, "What is the matter?" ”

Huang Yan took a deep breath, bowed his head and whispered in the flower boy's ear: "You bring a secret letter to Daming and give it to the officials you know." It must be kept secret and not let others know. Do this well, and you'll get a lot of money. ”

The flower girl asked, "Which money bank to get it?" ”

Huang Yan shook his head and said: "Ask the person who took the letter to give it, such as Guo Ang in Beiping, fifty taels of gold." Our family wrote in the letter, and when he saw the secret letter, he would give you gold. ”

The flower girl looked at Huang Yan with an unbelievable look: "What if he doesn't give it?" ”

Huang Yan said: "I will give it." How many times did our family ask you to run, which time made you run in vain? Han people will also break their promises and disobey the rules, but Xinyi is still worth a little money, only fifty taels of gold, and the public can afford it. ”

The flower girl asked in a low voice, "A letter from the enemy?" ”

Huang Yan glanced at him, shook his head and said, "It's not a collaborator, but it's a bit dangerous." We have a saying, wealth and danger are sought. ”

The flower girl quickly nodded and said, "Cheng." ”

Huang Yan immediately went to find pen and ink and wrote a letter. After the flower girl hid the secret letter in the tattered skin, the milk tea was almost ready. Huang Yan scooped two bowls and drank milk tea with the flower girl.

It wasn't long before the flower girl was about to say goodbye and set off. Before he came to meet him, he had already gone to the camp in Arutai to receive his reward, and now he was about to leave the place and return to the Uliangha tribe.

Sending the flower girl away, Huang Yan stood outside the tent, looking at the back of this Wuliangha man for a long time, and felt a little melancholy in his heart.

Think about it at the beginning, let Zheng He's old party turn over and attach himself to the new emperor Zhu Gaoxu, Huang Yan has already failed, and sooner or later he will be plotted by Wang Jinghong's gang. When Huang Yan was involved in the rebellion case of the previous king, he was completely finished.

Originally, he could have died, but when it came to the end, Huang Yan still ran away, and so far he has been stealing life in this place where birds don't lay eggs, and it's really not easy to find death. When he first escaped, he thought he would be wanted, but after a few years, almost no one paid attention to him, and Daming regarded him as an insignificant person, as if he had forgotten about it. Sometimes Huang Yan even hoped that he was wanted and was arrested and returned to the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Yan believes that his biggest mistake is that he failed to calm down, and began to divide the relationship between Zheng He's party and the royal family in the Hong Xi Dynasty. If you don't do this, wait until Wu Dechao thinks of a way, maybe there will be some chances.

Now that life and death are in a dilemma, Huang Yan misses the days of Daming more and more. He was a eunuch and had no descendants, but he still had an inexplicable panic when he died on the grassland. Huang Yanxin said: It would be nice if I could return to Daming again.