After leaving Lian Qi, Jiang Wenyuan successively went to Chesha, Dongchen City, Xichen City, and finally arrived at Jinma County.
Jinma County was originally named Jingma County, just because there was a Jingma Mountain within its territory. Later, people disliked its unpleasant name, so it was changed to Jinma County.
When the group entered Jinma County, it was already noon. As usual, they found a household to eat and asked about the situation in Jinma County at the same time.
Today's host family was an old hunter. Hearing that they were going to Jinma County Town, he immediately suggested that they take a detour and take a boat from Qingyuan Ferry Crossing.
Jiang Wenyuan was very puzzled. Instead of taking the good official road, why did he have to take a detour, so he asked the host for the reason.
The old man sighed deeply and said, "In the past, the official road was indeed good to walk on. Since a group of bandits came to Jingma Mountain a few years ago, except for the coming and going troops that they did not dare to rob, none of the merchants and travelers could escape.
If you know what's good for you and give up your belongings in time, you can still keep your life. If you are reluctant to give up money and valuables, women are taken directly up the mountain, and men are hacked to death on the spot.
Over time, except for outsiders who were unaware, basically no one dared to go there anymore. All detoured to the ferry crossing below and took a boat across."
Jiang Wenyuan said, "Doesn't the county magistrate here manage it?"
The old man said, "He does. Two years ago, he did lead people to suppress bandits once. Those few people he brought were useless. As soon as they met, three of them were hacked by the bandits. I heard that the county magistrate peed on the spot at that time.
After escaping back, reporting to the superiors, the superiors treated it as if nothing had happened. After that, no one has managed it."
The old man sighed deeply again: "Life is difficult!"
Jiang Wenyuan frowned and said, "Does Old Man know what kind of people those gangsters on the mountain are?"
The old man took a sip of water and said, "How could I not know clearly? That leader is called Wang Dabala. He was originally a rogue and rogue in XiaChen City who ate, drank, whored, and gambled.
His father-in-law who had agreed to the engagement saw that he was really useless, afraid that his daughter would suffer after marrying him, so he took the initiative to break off the engagement.
Who would have thought that this boy was so angry that he took a butcher knife that night and killed all 13 members of his father-in-law's family cleanly, and then set fire to the house after finishing it.
The government was hunting for him everywhere. He had no way to survive outside, so he gathered a group of desperate men like him and ran to Jingma Mountain to become bandits and did all evil.
Over the years, no one knows how many innocent lives have been harmed. It's really sinful."
"Does Old Man know the situation on Jingma Mountain?"
The old man said, "How could I not know it clearly? I was born on this mountain and grew up on the mountain. Except for the Jingma Gorge which is impassable, the rest is just like my backyard."
Jiang Wenyuan roughly had a number in his heart, and tentatively asked, "If the superiors send troops to suppress bandits, is Old Man willing to lead the way?"
"Willing, why not? My old man dreams of getting rid of these villains to avenge my poor granddaughter."
It turned out that the old man's granddaughter was also victimized by bandits a few years ago when she came to see him. She was hot-tempered and refused to be humiliated, so she hit the wall and died on the spot.
After talking about some other things with the old man, they left and went to the county office of Jinma County by ferry.
As soon as Jiang Wenyu arrived, he asked about the bandits on Jingma Mountain.
Jinma county magistrate Wu Yunshan did not dare to conceal it, and told the story of that year in every detail. Jiang Wenyu also asked about the current number of those bandits.
Wu Yunshan said, "When I led people to suppress bandits two years ago, there were about 130 people on the mountain.
In the past two years, I'm afraid there are not a few more. It is estimated that it has at least doubled."
So many bandits, just relying on these yamen runners from the county government was far from enough to serve dishes.
Jiang Wenyuan didn't bother to talk nonsense, and immediately wrote a letter on the spot, took the imperial sword bestowed by the emperor, and went to a big camp more than 100 miles away to recruit troops.
At the same time, someone was sent to the small village to invite the old hunter.
When the old hunter learned that the young man who had sat cross-legged on his kang and ate pickles and steamed buns with him a few days ago turned out to be the famous Jiangzhou Marquis, he cried. This was the first time he learned that there were really such easy-going and approachable good officials in the world without airs.
The soldiers came very quickly and arrived in the evening of the third day. The one leading them was Zu Di, the former battalion commander of the Forward Camp whom Jiang Wenyuan had saved in Yumen County.
Zu Di paid his respects to Jiang Wenyuan and said, "As soon as our general received the letter, he immediately ordered 500 soldiers to come." While presenting the imperial sword bestowed by the emperor, he said, "The gift from the emperor is hereby returned in its original form."
Jiang Wenyuan said, "Thank you! Commander Zu, please come inside to talk!"
After entering the room, Jiang Wenyuan gave Zu Di a detailed explanation of the situation related to Jingma Mountain he had learned over the past few days, and Wu Yunshan and the old hunter made supplements.
At the end of the meeting, Jiang Wenyuan stood up and bowed deeply to Zu Di, "I know nothing about fighting, so I won't interfere too much. For this nest of bandits, I will fully rely on Commander to handle it."
Zu Di held his fists and said, "I will definitely not fail my mission and restore peace for the people of Jinma."
Afterwards, the army set off overnight. Jiang Wenyuan personally led people to follow the army to do logistical work.
Jiang Yuqing rode Little White next to him without compromise. How could there be no doctor in the war that would inevitably bleed and sacrifice?
The bandits never dreamed that someone would come to raid their nests on such a cold day.
And because they had been invincible in this region for many years, their arrogance had grown, and these bandits didn't even put out sentries.
Therefore, under the leadership of the old hunter, the 500 soldiers successfully sneaked to the stockades built by the bandits.
For the 500 well-trained regular troops who had experienced countless baptisms of blood and fire, facing a group of mobs was simply crushing defeat.
The battle ended within an hour, killing 231 bandits, including the bandit leader Wang Dabala.
The old hunter hated him to the bone, used a firewood axe to chop his body into dozens of pieces. If it weren’t for the court still needing his head to hang on the city gate, the old hunter could even smash his head.
Follow-up work after the war was carried out intensively.
Jiang Yuqing took two civilian doctors and two military doctors, and nimbly treated the injured soldiers.
In this battle, 3 soldiers were killed, 11 seriously injured, and 35 lightly injured among the 500 soldiers.
For those who had already sacrificed, Jiang Yuqing had no way. But she didn’t want to give up on any of the seriously injured.
She took out a bundle of strips and asked the two doctors and two military doctors to quickly tie them to the wrists of the wounded according to the severity of their injuries.
Tie red ones to the seriously injured, orange ones to the severely injured, and green ones to the lightly injured.
First save the seriously injured who were tied red. After stopping the bleeding at the fastest speed, Jiang Yuqing also transfused a wisp of vitality to each of them to ensure that they could wait for her to come and treat them.
Then let the two military doctors assist her, racing against time to perform surgery on the critically injured, while performing surgery, she kept inputting vitality to the patients to ensure that they could live long enough to get off the operating table.
The skilled techniques made the two military doctors stare with wide eyes, almost forgetting their duties.
After bandaging one, move on to the next one. She was busy all night, and finally pulled back from the gate of hell all eleven severely injured people they originally thought could only wait to die.
After doing surgery all night without stopping and constantly inputting vitality into the wounded, even Jiang Yuqing couldn’t stand it.
After bandaging the last wounded, she slumped against the wall, her face pale, without even the strength to move her fingers.
Although the doctors were also tired, when they saw this, they felt distressed. They hurried to carry her onto a warm big bed and let her rest. Then they went to find some sugar, brewed her hot sugared water to drink.
Whether it was the military doctors or the two doctors, they all admired this little girl wholeheartedly.
When they went up the mountain earlier, they were still slandering privately in their hearts that the prefect didn't distinguish between public and private matters, and even brought his daughter to the mountain to suppress bandits. Was this showing off, or dragging them down?
I didn't expect that this little girl was not afraid of cold or freezing. Carrying a small medicine box on her back and riding a small deer, she ran faster than they, these big men.
That little deer was also amazing. In the pitch dark night, it ran on the mountain road as if walking on flat ground, making everyone jealous.
Hearing from the military doctor that all the severely wounded were saved without any loss, Zu Di was overjoyed, even happier than if he had won a battle: "Not surprisingly from Master Qiu the miracle doctor's closed disciple, she is really amazing!"
When the two military doctors heard this, they were very surprised: "Commander Zu, did you say this young lady is Master Qiu the Divine Doctor's closed-door disciple?"
Zu Di said, "How could it be fake!" He looked around and hooked his finger at the two military doctors, signaling them to come closer to speak.
He said in a low voice: "I heard that this young county master has extraordinary talents. When she was just over one year old, she was taken in as a disciple by Master Qiu the Divine Doctor.
Don't look down on her because she's young. Her medical skills are no worse than her master's, Master Qiu the Divine Doctor.
I happened to meet her in Jade Gate a few days ago. She told Guard Captain Wei personally that if she has time, she will come to the military camp to treat the brothers' illnesses."
If you two are clever, as long as you can learn a trick or two from following her, you won't have to worry for the rest of your lives."
The two military doctors looked at each other and bowed with clasped hands to Zu Di in unison: "Thank you, Commander Zu, for your guidance. We will definitely invite you to drink another day."
"Well said, well said!"
Of course, he couldn't possibly mention how embarrassing it was to get a lamb bone stuck in his throat that day.
When fighting, Jiang Wenyuan didn't have time to think about his daughter. He knew that given her abilities, her personal safety wouldn't be an issue. He became even busier after the fight.
Taking inventory of the goods and people taken up the mountain by the bandits, and recording the relevant information. The trickiest were the seventeen women.
They had all been taken up the mountain by the bandits. After hearing that all the bandits were killed, they cried and laughed.
Jiang Wenyuan had originally planned to send them all back home, but none of them were willing to leave.
One girl cried and said, "With our reputation like this, which family would take us back? It'd be better to just die here on this mountain than go back to that. It would be death all the same." The other women unanimously agreed.
For this, Jiang Wenyuan was also helpless. The world is always harsh on women.
On the other side, Jiang Yuqing woke up from her sleep and took the chance while going to the bathroom to enter the spiritual realm and restore her spiritual power.
When she came out, she heard about this and went to find her father: "Dad, they are all pitiful people. Let's take them back with us to the prefecture city.
When we get back, I plan to open a medical hall in the city. I can train them all to become doctors and nurses. That way, they'll have somewhere to go in the future too."
Jiang Wenyuan stroked his daughter's little head and said approvingly: "Good!"
Jiang Wenyuan brought his daughter to meet with the women again.
When they heard that they could follow the divine doctor's top disciple to study medicine, they were overjoyed and wept, unanimously expressing their willingness.
After settling things here, everyone started down the mountain.
Jiang Yuqing saw the thin layer of ice on the soldiers' shoes soaked in snow water, and a flash of distress flashed through her eyes. Her determination to do what she needed to do grew firmer.
With this matter settled, the troops naturally had to return to camp immediately.
Jiang Wenyuan took out his own money pouch and gave Zu Di one hundred and fifty taels of silver to give to the parents and families of the soldiers who sacrificed themselves, as a token of goodwill.
He also took out another hundred taels of silver, saying it was to provide supplemental nutrition to the injured soldiers.
When the people of Jinma County heard that the bandits on Mount Jinma had been completely wiped out, they were instantly overjoyed and ran around telling each other the good news, even setting off firecrackers to celebrate.
They thanked the Prefect from the bottom of their hearts for eliminating this major threat to them.
From then on, they no longer had to worry about bandits and could focus on defending against the Xiongnu and other foreigners outside Jade Gate.
Two days later, Jiang Wenyuan finally finished this inspection tour and left Jinma County to return to the prefecture city. By the time he got home, it was already late November.
