We hurried back to the Dragon Well monastery for supper and a place to sleep for the night. While we ate, we discussed our next move and decided to search for Denny while hoping Dr Zhang could find us at Jiangling.
Long before dawn, the clanging of gongs announced the start of the daily routine at the monastery but the down filled duvets in the guest room were so warm and comfortable none of us wanted to get up. Kongming had to drag us out of bed. Soon, we were shivering in the unheated refectory sipping scalding hot tea and eating rice and freshly made soft tofu with the monks.
It was still dark when we helped Kongming to squeeze more bags of rice and soy beans into our carriage. He explained that we might be on the road for a few days. With the scrolls, rice and beans and Dr Zhang's leather bags, there was barely room for the four of us. Licia and Miguel sat on the front seat with Kongming so I was left perched on top of the rice sacks, again.
The road to Jiangling was jammed with refugees heading south so Kongming took an alternative route. He drove as quickly as the rough road would permit and, mercifully, the countryside was mostly flat farmland, so we didn't have to get off and push. Late in the day we met up with some of Zhang Fei's scouts who told us where to find Xuande. We found him sitting in front of a large tent with Lord Guan and Zhang Fei but they all jumped up as soon as they saw us, waving their beer mugs and bowing as they expressed relief that we had escaped from the dragon's mouth.
Zhang Fei produced folding stools and called for more food and drink. Licia, Miguel and I got our wooden bowls and chopsticks from the carriage and we ladled food from the steaming pot. I recognized noodles, pork, chicken, fish, nuts, tofu, ginger and garlic floating in a soup.
It was amazing that Zhang Fei's cook could produce such delicious food in a cast iron pot over a camp fire. I suggested Zhang Fei should open a restaurant and there was considerable laughter when Licia translated. She explained that Lord Guan, Zhang Fei and Xuande wanted to retire but they had been fighting to restore the Han emperor for the past 25 years and didn't know what else they could do.
'Xuande is worried,' Licia explained. 'Cho Cho has taken control of Jingzhou province, adding two hundred thousand soldiers, seven thousand war boats and about a year's supply of cash and grain to his empire. Meanwhile Xuande has only three thousand soldiers, not even enough to protect one hundred thousand refugees from bandits and Cho Cho's soldiers.
Lord Guan wants Xuande to seize the cash and grain stored at Jiangling but Xuande will not abandon the refugees. So Kongming will go to Xiacou with Lord Guan to get help from Lui Qi, who is Lui Bei's oldest son and the rightful ruler of Jingzhou province. Xiacou is at the junction of the Han and Yangste rivers. I think the modern city is called Wuhan.'
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Undercover - In China - Book 7
AdventureTime Agent Triple Oh plans to trap Murga in Hong Kong without telling me I'm the bait. When Murga's thugs kidnap me with a helicopter, Triple Oh is forced to rescue me and he does not know how to fly. Yonnie and Treeka, daughter programs of Dr Zhang...
