The army only stayed in Fuzhou for a short half day.
The generals divided the spoils of war and sent some damaged ships to the shipyard for repairs, such as the "Destroy Wo Pirates ship" from Jian Mountain Camp.
The "Destroy Wo Pirates ship" was rammed by a suicidal Wo pirate ship, leaving a hole more than 1 meter in diameter. This pained the commander of Jian Mountain so much.
As a result, all the way back, this gentleman cursed Turtle Saburo's ancestors for eighteen generations all over again: "Damn you, bastard, I'll fuck your ancestors..." and so on without repeating himself.
Jiang Yuqing suddenly remembered an anecdote from his previous life, saying that when Chinese people curse, it is "centered on the mother, with the father as the radius, and the ancestors for eighteen generations around in a circle".
As the saying goes, if you win then both parents are healthy, if you lose then the whole ancestry ascends to heaven!
He cursed all the way, and Jiang Yuqing listened all the way, and he actually listened quite happily, probably because he was cursing the enemy.
Also because of this, Turtle Saburo was forcibly taken to Jian Mountain Camp for temporary detention. After reporting to the imperial court, he would be dealt with according to the instructions from above.
The commander of Zhongshan Camp and Feng Zhan were afraid that he would lose his temper and kill people, which would be hard to explain. So they exhorted him again and again to take it easy.
This guy verbally agreed readily, but with toes one could guess that Turtle Saburo would not have a good time.
Finally it was Jiang Yuqing who stepped forward and said, "Take good care of this guy. When the time comes, we'll sell his meat by the catty. One catty per ship, and we'll definitely make a fortune."
As soon as this gentleman heard it, his eyes lit up instantly like lanterns, and he nodded again and again, "Hey, great idea!" After that, he personally took the man away happily.
This finally fooled him!
Seeing this, the other two commanders gave Jiang Yuqing a big thumbs up: "Brilliant!"
Then they looked at each other, and actually thought it was a great idea.
Alright, that's what we'll do from now on!
At night, the fleet was still on its way back to camp.
Jiang Yuqing returned to his own cabin and hung up a "Do Not Disturb" sign. He patted an invisibility talisman on himself and flew straight to the sea area where the previous battle took place.
In the hazy moonlight, Jiang Yuqing saw that there were not many corpses left on the sea. They must have been mostly eaten by various fish in the sea.
The remaining garbage and debris would also disappear without a trace soon, carried away by ocean currents within a few days.
Jiang Yuqing chose a clean place and put a small boat on the sea surface. Then he tore off the invisibility talisman to reveal his figure.
The pure and rich breath of the wood spirit spread out on the sea. Soon the dolphins from before found him.
Jiang Yuqing fulfilled his promise and fished many spiritual fish from the Lingquan River for them to eat, as a reward for their help this time. The lovely little guys were overjoyed.
Jiang Yuqing played with them for about an hour and a half until late at night before saying goodbye and returning to his cabin.
After returning to Yashan Camp and settling the wounded, Feng Zhan sent people to the nearby mountainside martyrs' cemetery to dig graves, while also sending people to the county seat to purchase funeral supplies.
The weather was warm, and the remains of the fallen brothers needed to be buried as soon as possible.
This time, a total of 2,783 people were killed in Jian Mountain Camp. It was not easy to buy so many coffins.
Feng Zhan was also unwilling to let the warriors who died in battle be buried hastily. Just as he was at his wit's end, he suddenly heard the guard report that many locals were pulling carts full of coffins toward Baiying with livestock.
It turned out that long before the typhoon came, Jiang Yuqing had heard the words of the old fisherman and started preparing.
He had sent people to the coffin shops in Yashan County and surrounding counties to place large orders, asking them to work overtime to hurry up and make coffins.
This sounded a bit ominous. But Jiang Yuqing, who had been baptized by the flames of war in the northwest, knew very clearly that there would always be casualties in war. Making preparations in advance was the best policy.
When Feng Zhan heard the reason, he immediately knelt down and kowtowed to Jiang Yuqing three times, unable to stop him.
Ever since this little princess came to Fuzhou, whether it was treating the wounded or teaching military doctors, she had tried her best without any complaints.
And now she had even thought ahead about something like coffins for him. How could he not be moved?
The Princess Guardian, she deserved the name.
September 13th, the day the fallen heroes were buried, the scene was filled with white mourning clothes.
This was also the third time in Jiang Yuqing's life that she had participated in such a large-scale collective funeral.
The first time was seven years ago at Yumen Pass, the second time was in the small village in Cisi Prefecture when the pneumonic plague broke out, and this was the third time.
In addition to the officers and soldiers of Yashan Camp who came to bury them, there were also ordinary people from Yashan County, even her brother Jiang Yujiang came with his subordinates.
The Taoist priests from nearby temples also came.
They spontaneously performed elaborate and solemn rituals for the deceased heroes, praying to Heaven and Underworld that their souls would have a good reincarnation.
When the rites were over and the Taoist priests announced that the auspicious time for burial had arrived, the crying people below suddenly wailed loudly. For a time the whole cemetery was filled with weeping and grief to heaven and earth.
Jiang Yuqing looked up trying to blink away the wetness in her eyes, but no matter how hard she tried, the tears kept flowing.
Doctor Qiu knew that his young disciple was upset, so he pressed her head into his arms with a long sigh, gently patting her back in silent comfort.
His young disciple had a heart that was too kind. She couldn't bear the suffering in the human world, yet such things happened again and again.
The world only knew about the prestigious title "Princess Guardian", but how many people knew how much she had done for the people and this country, and what price she had paid?
Even now, she would still wake up with a start from nightmares. Only he knew that those old nightmares had never left her!
After the funeral, Jiang Yuqing declined her elder brother's invitation and returned to camp with Doctor Qiu again. There were still many severely wounded people in the camp who had just had surgery, and she was very worried about them. It would take several days before she could go back to the county government.
Jiang Yuqing stayed at Yashan Camp until mid October before returning to the county government. By then the child in her brother’s wife was already over eight months.
Counting the time, there was about a month left before birth. After her brother’s wife gave birth, maybe she could go back to her hometown of Qingzhou with Master to spend New Year.
Ever since she returned from camp, her aunt had been nagging her for losing weight, and kept asking the chef to make delicious food for her, while feeding her sister-in-law as well.
Jiang Yuqing was afraid that Yan Deyin would gain too much weight and have difficulties in birth with a too big baby, so she started strictly controlling her diet.
Fortunately, Yan Deyin was obedient. As long as Jiang Yuqing said she should not or eat less, she would not touch it again no matter how tempted, even if her mouth was watering.
The days passed one by one. When Yashan's weather turned cold enough to wear cotton-padded jackets, the child in Yan Deyin's belly finally ripened.
On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, she gave birth to a son smoothly, upgrading to become a mother. Jiang Yuqing also became an aunt again.
Jiang Yujiang named the child "Jiang Linyuan". "Lin" was the generation's character, "Yuan" was the given name, meaning to have lofty ambitions.
As he had been amply nourished in his mother’s belly, the little guy grew very sturdily. His little arms and legs were so strong that when he cried, his loud voice was enough to make people’s heads throb painfully.
When Jiang Yuhe returned to see his little nephew three days after his birth, the first thing he said was: “Hey, long arms and legs, he must become great military talent when he grows up. Little Yuan, you should also become a general when you grow up, ok?”
His brother then gave him a slap there: “Go away, don’t spoil my son. He’s going to be a top scholar when he grows up.”
Jiang Yuhe asked puzzledly: “Why do you insist on him being a top scholar? Being a general is more majestic!” Then he sidled up and grinned at his brother: “Brother, I've got promoted again!”
Jiang Yujiang was stunned: “Promoted again?”
Jiang Yuhe nodded: “Yeah, the merits I earned this time were not small. I got promoted to Brevet Captain, 3 levels in a row.”
He didn’t know why, but during this naval battle, the enemies’ swords seemed to go crazy. Several times they went straight for his head.
He had already prepared himself for death, but the sword actually veered off inexplicably, as if there was some invisible thing helping to fend it off.
After realizing this, he directly turned into a human-shaped killing machine.
Jiang Yujiang charged forward, beheading enemies like chopping melons and vegetables. His steel knife was blunt from all the hacking so he had to grab another to keep cutting.
In the chaos, he accidentally hacked off the most important deputy of Commander Ban as well.
When the fighting was over, he looked as if he'd just been fished out of a pool of blood, exhausted and sitting on the ground unable to get up for a good while.
His comrade Baoze saw him like this and thought he was gravely injured and dying, so he hurriedly took him to the military doctor to save his life.
After an examination, the doctor found that he didn't even have a single hair injured and all the blood on him belonged to the Japanese pirates.
The reason he couldn't get up was purely because he was tired out.
From then on, he gained fame in the camp. People nicknamed him "Iron Head Jiang".
Jiang Yujiang laughed heartily and patted his younger brother's broad shoulder, "Good job, kid. You've got potential!"
Jiang Yuhe crooked his finger at his brother. Jiang Yujiang came over unsuspectingly, "What's up?"
Jiang Yuhe shamelessly said, "Bro, my rank is higher than yours now. Shouldn't you greet me properly?"
Jiang Yujiang was the county magistrate of Yashan, a 7th rank civil servant. Jiang Yuhe was previously a Fruits Captain, a 7th rank military officer.
Now he got promoted three ranks in a row to Major General, a 6th rank position. His rank was two levels higher than Jiang Yujiang's.
Jiang Yujiang looked at his idiot brother disdainfully. Annoyed beyond words, he picked up a shuttlecock beside him and whacked him hard over the head.
As he hit him, he scolded, "Jiang Er, no matter if you're two or twenty ranks higher than me, I can still beat you if I want to. How dare you ask me to greet you. You must be out of your mind..."
As Jiang Yuhe dodged, he wailed, "You're assaulting a superior officer. I can charge you with disrespect of court. Don't think you can do as you wish just because you're the eldest brother."
He had just finished speaking when another flurry of shuttlecocks rained down on him even more furiously.
"Go on, charge me. I'd love to see which commander dares interfere in our family business. Let me tell you, it's only natural for an elder brother to beat his younger brother..."
Jiang Yuqing and Lin watched the show gleefully, not an ounce of sympathy at all. That's what you get for gloating. No matter how high your rank, once you get home you've got to meekly get beaten if you act arrogantly. This is the bloodline suppression from elder brother to younger brother!
The day after the baby's Man, Woman and Child ceremony, which was the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, Jiang Yuqing put a protective jade talisman, scaled down in size, around the baby's neck.
Then, bidding eldest brother's family a reluctant farewell under their equally reluctant gazes, he left Yashan with his wife Lin and a carriage full of local specialties, returning home to Qingzhou for New Year.
The last time he went home was three years ago for third brother's wedding. Unbelievably, five years had flown by since then. How time flies!
He suddenly looked forward to seeing the expressions on his family's faces when he showed up unexpectedly!
